memoirs of madame la marquise de montespan written by herself being the historic memoirs of the court of louis xiv. list of illustrations madame de montespan----etching by mercier hortense mancini----drawing in the louvre madame de la valliere----painting by francois moliere----original etching by lalauze boileau----etching by lalauze a french courtier----photogravure from a painting madame de maintenon----etching by mercier from painting by hule charles ii.----original etching by ben damman bosseut----etching by lalauze louis xiv. knighting a subject----photogravure from a rare print a french actress----painting by leon comerre racine----etching by lalauze book 1. translator's preface. historians have, on the whole, dealt somewhat harshly with the fascinating madame de montespan, perhaps taking their impressions from the judgments, often narrow and malicious, of her contemporaries. to help us to get a fairer estimate, her own "memoirs," written by herself, and now first given to readers in an english dress, should surely serve. avowedly compiled in a vague, desultory way, with no particular regard to chronological sequence, these random recollections should interest us, in the first place, as a piece of unconscious self-portraiture. the cynical court lady, whose beauty bewitched a great king, and whose ruthless sarcasm made duchesses quail, is here drawn for us in vivid fashion by her own hand, and while concerned with depicting other figures she really portrays her own. certainly, in these memoirs she is generally content to keep herself in the background, while giving us a faithful picture of the brilliant court at which she was for long the most lustrous ornament. it is only by stray touches, a casual remark, a chance phrase, that we, as it were, gauge her temperament in all its wiliness, its egoism, its love of supremacy, and its shallow worldly wisdom. yet it could have been no ordinary woman that held the handsome louis so long her captive. the fair marquise was more than a mere leader of wit and fashion. if she set the mode in the shape of a petticoat, or devised the sumptuous splendours of a garden fete, her talent was not merely devoted to things frivolous and trivial. she had the proverbial 'esprit des mortemart'. armed with beauty and sarcasm, she won a leading place for herself at court, and held it in the teeth of all detractors. her beauty was for the king, her sarcasm for his courtiers. perhaps little of this latter quality appears in the pages bequeathed to us, written, as they are, in a somewhat cold, formal style, and we may assume that her much-dreaded irony resided in her tongue rather than in her pen. yet we are glad to possess these pages, if only as a reliable record of court life during the brightest period of the reign of louis quatorze. as we have hinted, they are more, indeed, than this. for if we look closer we shall perceive, as in a glass, darkly, the contour of a subtle, even a perplexing, personality. p. e. p. historic court memoirs. madame de montespan. chapter i. the reason for writing these memoirs.--gabrielle d'estrees. the reign of the king who now so happily and so gloriously rules over france will one day exercise the talent of the most skilful historians. but these men of genius, deprived of the advantage of seeing the great monarch whose portrait they fain would draw, will search everywhere among the souvenirs of contemporaries and base their judgments upon our testimony. it is this great consideration which has made me determined to devote some of my hours of leisure to narrating, in these accurate and truthful memoirs, the events of which i myself am witness. naturally enough, the position which i fill at the great theatre of the court has made me the object of much false admiration, and much real satire. many men who owed to me their elevation or their success have defamed me; many women have belittled my position after vain efforts to secure the king's regard. in what i now write, scant notice will be taken of all such ingratitude. before my establishment at court i had met with hypocrisy of this sort in the world; and a man must, indeed, be reckless of expense who daily entertains at his board a score of insolent detractors. i have too much wit to be blind to the fact that i am not precisely in my proper place. but, all things considered, i flatter myself that posterity will let certain weighty circumstances tell in my favour. an accomplished monarch, to greet whom the queen of sheba would have come from the uttermost ends of the earth, has deemed me worthy of his entertainment, and has found amusement in my society. he has told me of the esteem which the french have for gabrielle d'estrees, and, like that of gabrielle, my heart has let itself be captured, not by a great king, but by the most honest man of his realm. to france, gabrielle gave the vendome, to-day our support. the princes, my sons, give promise of virtues as excellent, and will be worthy to aspire to destinies as noble. it is my desire and my duty to give no thought to my private griefs begotten of an ill-assorted marriage. may the king ever be adored by his people; may my children ever be beloved and cherished by the king; i am happy, and i desire to be so. chapter ii. that which often it is best to ignore.--a marriage such as one constantly sees.--it is too late. my sisters thought it of extreme importance to possess positive knowledge as to their future condition and the events which fate held in store for them. they managed to be secretly taken to a woman famed for her talent in casting the horoscope. but on seeing how overwhelmed by chagrin they both were after consulting the oracle, i felt fearful as regarded myself, and determined to let my star take its own course, heedless of its existence, and allowing it complete liberty. my mother occasionally took me out into society after the marriage of my sister, de thianges; and i was not slow to perceive that there was in my person something slightly superior to the average intelligence,--certain qualities of distinction which drew upon me the attention and the sympathy of men of taste. had any liberty been granted to it, my heart would have made a choice worthy alike of my family and of myself. they were eager to impose the marquis de montespan upon me as a husband; and albeit he was far from possessing those mental perfections and that cultured charm which alone make an indefinite period of companionship endurable, i was not slow to reconcile myself to a temperament which, fortunately, was very variable, and which thus served to console me on the morrow for what had troubled me to-day. hardly had my marriage been arranged and celebrated than a score of the most brilliant suitors expressed, in prose and in verse, their regret at having lost beyond recall mademoiselle de tonnai-charente. such elegiac effusions seemed to me unspeakably ridiculous; they should have explained matters earlier, while the lists were still open. for persons of this sort i conceived aversion, who were actually so clumsy as to dare to tell me that they had forgotten to ask my hand in marriage! chapter iii. madame de montespan at the palace.--m. de montespan.--his indiscreet language.--his absence.--specimen of his way of writing.--a refractory cousin.--the king interferes.--m. de montespan a widower.--amusement of the king.--clemency of madame de montespan. the duc and duchesse de navailles had long been friends of my father's and of my family. when the queen-mother proceeded to form the new household of her niece and daughter-in-law, the infanta, the duchesse de navailles, chief of the ladies-in-waiting, bethought herself of me, and soon the court and paris learnt that i was one of the six ladies in attendance on the young queen. this princess, who while yet at the escurial had been made familiar with the notable names of the french monarchy, honoured me during the journey by alluding in terms of regard to the mortemarts and rochechouarts,--kinsmen of mine. she was even careful to quote matters of history concerning my ancestors. by such marks of good sense and good will i perceived that she would not be out of place at a court where politeness of spirit and politeness of heart ever go side by side, or, to put it better, where these qualities are fused and united. m. le marquis de montespan, scion of the old house of pardaillan de gondrin, had preferred what he styled "my grace and beauty" to the most wealthy partis of france. he was himself possessed of wealth, and his fortune gave him every facility for maintaining at court a position of advantage and distinction. at first the honour which both queens were graciously pleased to confer upon me gave my husband intense satisfaction. he affectionately thanked the duc and duchesse de navailles, and expressed his most humble gratitude to the two queens and to the king. but it was not long before i perceived that he had altered his opinion. the love-affair between mademoiselle de la valliere and the king having now become public, m. de montespan condemned this attachment in terms of such vehemence that i perforce felt afraid of the consequences of such censure. he talked openly about the matter in society, airing his views thereanent. impetuously and with positive hardihood, he expressed his disapproval in unstinted terms, criticising and condemning the prince's conduct. once, at the ballet, when within two feet of the queen, it was with the utmost difficulty that he could be prevented from discussing so obviously unfitting a question, or from sententiously moralising upon the subject. all at once the news of an inheritance in the country served to occupy his attention. he did all that he could to make me accompany him on this journey. he pointed out to me that it behoved no young wife to be anywhere without her husband. i, for my part, represented to him all that in my official capacity i owed to the queen. and as at that time i still loved him heartily (m. de montespan, i mean), and was sincerely attached to him, i advised him to sell off the whole of the newly inherited estate to some worthy member of his own family, so that he might remain with us in the vast arena wherein i desired and hoped to achieve his rapid advance. never was there man more obstinate or more selfwilled than the marquis. despite all my friendly persuasion, he was determined to go. and when once settled at the other end of france, he launched out into all sorts of agricultural schemes and enterprises, without even knowing why he did so. he constructed roads, built windmills, bridged over a large torrent, completed the pavilions of his castle, replanted coppices and vineyards, and, besides all this, hunted the chamois, bears, and boars of the nebouzan and the pyrenees. four or five months after his departure i received a letter from him of so singular a kind that i kept it in spite of myself, and in the memoirs it will not prove out of place. far better than any words of mine, it will depict the sort of mind, the logic, and the curious character of the man who was my husband. montespan,--may 15, 1667. i count more than ever, madame, upon your journey to the pyrenees. if you love me, as all your letters assure me, you should promptly take a good coach and come. we are possessed of considerable property here, which of late years my family have much neglected. these domains require my presence, and my presence requires yours. enough is yours of wit or of good sense to understand that. the court is, no doubt, a fine country,--finer than ever under the present reign. the more magnificent the court is, the more uneasy do i become. wealth and opulence are needed there; and to your family i never figured as a croesus. by dint of order and thrift, we shall ere long have satisfactorily settled our affairs; and i promise you that our stay in the provinces shall last no longer than is necessary to achieve that desirable result. three, four, five,--let us say, six years. well, that is not an eternity! by the time we come back we shall both of us still be young. come, then, my dearest athenais, come, and make closer acquaintance with these imposing pyrenees, every ravine of which is a landscape and every valley an eden. to all these beauties, yours is missing; you shall be here, like dian, the goddess of these noble forests. all our gentlefolk await you, admiring your picture on the sweetmeat-box. they are minded to hold many pleasant festivals in your honour; you may count upon having a veritable court. here it is that you will meet the old warnais nobility that followed henri iv. and placed the sceptre in his hand. messieurs de grammont and de biron are our neighbours; their grim castles dominate the whole district, so that they seem like kings. our chateau de montespan will offer you something less severe; the additions made for my mother twenty years ago are infinitely better than anything that you will leave behind you in paris. we have here the finest fruits that ever grew in any earthly paradise. our huge, luscious peaches are composed of sugar, violets, carnations, amber, and jessamine; strawberries and raspberries grow everywhere; and naught may vie with the excellence of the water, the vegetables, and the milk. you are fond of scenery and of sketching from nature; there are half a dozen landscapes here for you that leave claude lorrain far behind. i mean to take you to see a waterfall, twelve hundred and seventy feet in height, neither more nor less. what are your fountains at saint germain and chambord compared with such marvellous things as these? now, madame, i am really tired of coaxing and flattering you, as i have done in this letter and in preceding ones. do you want me, or do you not? your position as court lady, so you say, keeps you near the monarch; ask, then, or let me ask, for leave of absence. after having been for four consecutive years lady of the palace, consent to become lady of the castle, since your duties towards your spouse require it. the young king, favourite as he is with the ladies, will soon find ten others to replace you. and i, dearest athenais, find it hard even to think of replacing you, in spite of your cruel absence, which at once annoys and grieves me. i am--no, i shall be--always and ever yours, when you are always and ever mine. montespan. i hastened to tell my husband in reply that his impatience and ill-humour made me most unhappy; that as, through sickness or leave of absence, five or six of the court ladies were away, i could not possibly absent myself just then; that i believed that i sufficiently merited his confidence to let me count upon his attachment and esteem, whether far or near. and i gave him my word of honour that i would join him after the court moved to fontainebleau, that is to say, in the autumn. my answer, far from soothing or calming him, produced quite a contrary effect. i received the following letter, which greatly alarmed and agitated me: your allegations are only vain pretexts, your pretexts mask your falsehoods, your falsehoods confirm all my suspicions; you are deceiving me, madame, and it is your intention to dishonour me. my cousin, who saw through you better than i did before my wretched marriage,--my cousin, whom you dislike and who is no whit afraid of you,--informs me that, under the pretext of going to keep madame de la valliere company, you never stir from her apartments during the time allotted to her by the king, that is to say, three whole hours every evening. there you pose as sovereign arbiter; as oracle, uttering a thousand divers decisions; as supreme purveyor of news and gossip; the scourge of all who are absent; the complacent promoter of scandal; the soul and the leader of sparkling conversation. one only of these ladies became ill, owing to an extremely favourable confinement, from which she recovered a week ago. at the outset, the king fought shy of your raillery, but in a thousand discreditable ways you set your cap at him and forced him to pay you attention. if all the letters written to me (all of them in the same strain) are not preconcerted, if your misconduct is such as i am told it is, if you have dishonoured and disgraced your husband, then, madame, expect all that your excessive imprudence deserves. at this distance of two hundred and fifty leagues i shall not trouble you with complaints and vain reproaches; i shall collect all necessary information and documentary evidence at headquarters; and, cost me what it may, i shall bring action against you, before your parents, before a court of law, in the face of public opinion, and before your protector, the king. i charge you instantly to deliver up to me my child. my unfortunate son comes of a race which never yet has had cause to blush for disgrace such as this. what would he gain, except bad example, by staying with a mother who has no virtue and no husband? give him up to me, and at once let dupre, my valet, have charge of him until my return. this latter will occur sooner than you think; and i shall shut you up in a convent, unless you shut me up in the bastille. your unfortunate husband, montespan. the officious cousin to whom he alluded in this threatening letter had been so bold as to sue for my hand, although possessed of no property. ever since that time he remained, as i knew, my enemy, though i did not know, nor ever suspected, that such a man would find pleasure in spying upon my actions and in effecting the irrevocable estrangement of a husband and a wife, who until then had been mutually attached to each other. the king, whose glance, though very sweet, is very searching, said to me that evening, "something troubles you; what is it?" he felt my pulse, and perceived my great agitation. i showed him the letter just transcribed, and his majesty changed colour. "it is a matter requiring caution and tact," added the prince after brief meditation. "at any rate we can prevent his showing you any disrespect. give up the marquis d'antin to him," continued the king, after another pause. "he is useless, perhaps an inconvenience, to you; and if deprived of his child he might be driven to commit some desperate act." "i would rather die!" i exclaimed, bursting into tears. the king affectionately took hold of both my hands, and gently said: "very well, then, keep him yourself, and don't give him up." as god is my witness, m. de montespan had already neglected me for some time before he left for the pyrenees; and to me this sudden access of fervour seemed singularly strange. but i am not easily hoodwinked; i understood him far better and far quicker than he expected. the marquis is one of those vulgar-minded men who do not look upon a woman as a friend, a companion, a frank, free associate, but as a piece of property or of furniture, useful to his house, and which he has procured for that purpose only. i am told that in england a man is the absolute proprietor of his wife, and that if he took her to the public market with a cord round her neck and exhibited her for sale, such sale is perfectly valid in the eyes of the law. laws such as these inspire horror. yet they should hardly surprise one among a semibarbarous nation, which does nothing like other peoples, and which deems itself authorised to place the censer in the hands of its monarch, and its monarch in the hands of the headsman. m. de montespan came to paris and instituted proceedings against me before the chatelet authorities. to the king he sent a letter full of provocations and insults. to the pope he sent a formal complaint, accompanied by a most carefully prepared list of opinions which no lawyer was willing to sign. for three whole months he tormented the pope, in order to induce him to annul our marriage. of a truth, our sovereign pontiff could have done nothing better, but in rome justice and religion always rank second to politics. the cardinals feared to offend a great prince, and so they suffered me to remain the wife of my husband. when he saw that on every side his voice was lost in the desert, and that the king, being calmer and more prudent than he, did not deign to pick up the glove, his folly reached its utmost limit. he went into the deepest mourning ever seen. he draped his horses and carriages with black. he gave orders for a funeral service to be held in his parish, which the whole town and its suburbs were invited to attend. he declared, verbally and in writing, that he no longer possessed a wife; that madame de montespan had died of an attack of coquetry and ambition; and he talked of marrying again when the year of mourning and of widowhood should be over. his first outbursts of wrath were the source of much amusement to the king, who naturally was on the side of decorum and averse to hostile opinion. pranks such as these seemed to him more a matter for mirth than fear, and, on hearing the story of the catafalque, he laughingly said to me, "now that he has buried you, it is to be hoped that he will let you repose in peace." but hearing each day of fresh absurdities, his majesty grew at last impatient. luckily, m. de montespan, perceiving that every house had closed its doors to him, decided to close his own altogether and travel abroad. not being of a vindictive disposition, i never would allow m. de louvois to shut him up in the bastille. on the contrary i privately paid more than fifty thousand crowns to defray his debts, being glad to render him some good service in exchange for all the evil that he spoke of me. i reflected that he had been my husband, my confidant, my friend; that his only faults were bad temper, love of sport, and love of wine; that he belonged to one of the very first families of france; and that, despite all that was said, my son d'antin certainly was nothing to the king, and that the marquis was his father. chapter iv. mademoiselle de la valliere jealous.--the king wishes all to enjoy themselves.--the futility of fighting against fate.--what is dead is dead. mademoiselle de la valliere was tall, shapely, and extremely pretty, with as sweet and even a temper as one could possibly imagine, which eminently fitted her for dreamy, contemplative love-making, such as one reads of in idyls and romances. she would willingly have spent her life in. contemplating the king,--in loving and adoring him without ever opening her mouth; and to her, the sweet silence of a tete-a-tete seemed preferable to any conversation enlivened by wit. the king's character was totally different. his imagination was vivid, and mere love-making, however pleasant, bored him at last if the charm of ready speech and ready wit were wanting. i do not profess to be a prodigy, but those who know me do me the justice to admit that where i am it is very difficult for boredom to find ever so small a footing. mademoiselle de la valliere, after having begged me, and begged me often, to come and help her to entertain the king, grew suddenly suspicious and uneasy. she is candour itself, and one day, bursting into tears, she said to me, in that voice peculiar to her alone, "for heaven's sake, my good friend, do not steal away the king's heart from me!" when mademoiselle said this to me, i vow and declare in all honesty that her fears were unfounded, and that (for my part at least) i had only just a natural desire to gain the good-will of a great prince. my friendship for la valliere was so sincere, so thorough, that i often used to superintend little details of her toilet and give her various little hints as to attentive conduct of the sort which cements and revives attachments. i even furnished her with news and gossip, composing for her a little repertoire, of which, when needful, she made use. but her star had set, and she had to show the world the touching spectacle of love as true, as tender, and as disinterested as any that has ever been in this world, followed by a repentance and an expiation far superior to the sin, if sin it was. moreover, mademoiselle de la valliere never broke with me. she shed tears in abundance, and wounded my heart a thousand times by the sight of her grief and her distress. for her sake i was often fain to bid farewell to her fickle lover, proud monarch though he was. but by breaking with him i should not have reestablished la valliere. the prince's violent passion had changed to mere friendship, blended with esteem. to try and resuscitate attachments of this sort is as if one should try to open the grave and give life to the dead. god alone can work miracles such as these. chapter v. the marquis de bragelonne, officer of the guards.--his baleful love.--his journey.--his death. the marquis de bragelonne was born for mademoiselle de la valliere. it was this young officer, endowed with all perfections imaginable, whom heaven had designed for her, to complete her happiness. despite his sincere, incomparable attachment for her, she disdained him, preferring a king, who soon afterwards wearied of her. the marquis de bragelonne conceived a passion for the little la valliere as soon as he saw her at the tuileries with madame henrietta of england, whose maid of honour at first she was. having made proof and declaration of his tender love, bragelonne was so bold as to ask her hand of the princess. madame caused her relatives to be apprised of this, and the marquise de saint-remy, her stepmother, after all necessary inquiries had been made, replied that the fortune of this young man was as yet too slender to permit him to think of having an establishment. grieved at this answer, but nothing daunted, bragelonne conferred privately with his lady-love, and told her of his hazardous project. this project instantly to realise all property coming to him from his father, and furnished with this capital, to go out, and seek his fortune in india [west indies. d.w.] "you will wait for me, dearest one, will you not?" quoth he. "heaven, that is witness how ardently i long to make you happy, will protect me on my journey and guard my ship. promise me to keep off all suitors, the number of whom will increase with your beauty. this promise, for which i desire no other guarantee but your candour, shall sustain me in exile, and make me count as nought my privations and my hardships." mademoiselle de la beaume-le-blanc allowed the marquis to hope all that he wished from her beautiful soul, and he departed, never imagining that one could forget or set at nought so tender a love which had prompted so hazardous an enterprise. his journey proved thoroughly successful. he brought back with him treasures from the new world; but of all his treasures the most precious had disappeared. restored once more to family and friends, he hastened to the capital. madame d'orleans no longer resided at the tuileries, which was being enlarged by the king. bragelonne, in his impatience, asks everywhere for la valliere. they tell him that she has a charming house between saint germain, lucienne, and versailles. he goes thither, laden with coral and pearls from the indies. he asks to have sight of his love. a tall swiss repulses him, saying that, in order to speak with madame la duchesse, it was absolutely necessary to make an appointment. at the same moment one of his friends rides past the gateway. they greet each other, and in reply to his questioning, this friend informs him that mademoiselle de la valliere is a duchess, that she is a mother, that she is lapped in grandeur and luxury, and that she has as lover a king. at this news, bragelonne finds nothing further for him to do in this world. he grasps his friend's hand, retires to a neighbouring wood, and there, drawing his sword, plunges it into his heart,--a sad requital for love so noble! chapter vi. m. fouquet.--his mistake.--a woman's indiscretion may cause the loss of a great minister.--the castle of vaux.--fairy-land.--a fearful awakening.--clemency of the king. on going out into society, i heard everybody talking everywhere about m. fouquet. they praised his good-nature, his affability, his talents, his magnificence, his wit. his post as surintendant-general, envied by a thousand, provoked indeed a certain amount of spite; yet all such vain efforts on the part of mediocrity to slander him troubled him but little. my lord the cardinal (mazarin. d.w.) was his support, and so long as the main column stood firm, m. fouquet, lavish of gifts to his protector, had really nothing to fear. this minister also largely profited by the species of fame to be derived from men of letters. he knew their venality and their needs. his sumptuous, well-appointed table was placed in grandiose fashion at their disposal. moreover, he made sure of their attachment and esteem by fees and enormous pensions. the worthy la fontaine nibbled like others at the bait, and at any rate paid his share of the reckoning by the most profuse gratitude. m. fouquet had one great defect: he took it into his head that every woman is devoid of will-power and of resistance if only one dazzle her eyes with gold. another prejudice of his was to believe, as an article of faith, that, if possessed of gold and jewels, the most ordinary of men can inspire affection. making this twofold error his starting-point as a principle that was incontestable, he was wont to look upon every beautiful woman who happened to appear on the horizon as his property acquired in advance. at madame's, he saw mademoiselle de la valliere, and instantly sent her his vows of homage and his proposals. to his extreme astonishment, this young beauty declined to understand such language. couched in other terms, he renewed his suit, yet apparently was no whit less obscure than on the first occasion. such a scandal as this well-nigh put him to the blush, and he was obliged to admit that this modest maiden either affected to be, or really was, utterly extraordinary. perhaps mademoiselle de la valliere ought to have had the generosity not to divulge the proposals made to her; but she spoke about them, so everybody said, and the king took a dislike to his minister. whatever the cause or the real motives for fouquet's disgrace, it was never considered unjust, and this leads me to tell the tale of his mad folly at vaux. the two palaces built by cardinal mazarin and the castles built by cardinal richelieu served as fine examples for m. fouquet. he knew that handsome edifices embellished the country, and that maecenas has always been held in high renown, because maecenas built a good deal in his day. he had just built, at great expense, in the neighbourhood of melun, a castle of such superb and elegant proportions that the fame of it had even reached foreign parts. all that fouquet lived for was show and pomp. to have a fine edifice and not show it off was as if one only possessed a kennel. he spoke of the castle of vaux in the queen's large drawing-room, and begged their majesties to honour by their presence a grand fete that he was preparing for them. to invite the royal family was but a trifling matter,--he required spectators proportionate to the scale of decorations and on a par with the whole spectacle; so he took upon himself to invite the entire court to vaux. on reaching vaux-le-vicomte, how great and general was our amazement! it was not the well-appointed residence of a minister, it was not a human habitation that presented itself to our view,--it was a veritable fairy palace. all in this brilliant dwelling was stamped with the mark of opulence and of exquisite taste in art. marbles, balustrades, vast staircases, columns, statues, groups, bas-reliefs, vases, and pictures were scattered here and there in rich profusion, besides cascades and fountains innumerable. the large salon, octagonal in shape, had a high, vaulted ceiling, and its flooring of mosaic looked like a rich carpet embellished with birds, butterflies, arabesques, fruits, and flowers. on either side of the main edifice, and somewhat in the rear, the architect had placed smaller buildings, yet all of them ornamented in the same sumptuous fashion; and these served to throw the chateau itself into relief. in these adjoining pavilions there were baths, a theatre, a 'paume' ground, swings, a chapel, billiard-rooms, and other salons. one noticed magnificent gilt roulette tables and sedan-chairs of the very best make. there were elegant stalls at which trinkets were distributed to the guests,--note-books, pocket-mirrors, gloves, knives, scissors, purses, fans, sweetmeats, scents, pastilles, and perfumes of all kinds. it was as if some evil fairy had prompted the imprudent minister to act in this way, who, eager and impatient for his own ruin, had summoned his king to witness his appalling system of plunder in its entirety, and had invited chastisement. when the king went out on to the balcony of his apartment to make a general survey of the gardens and the perspective, he found everything well arranged and most alluring; but a certain vista seemed to him spoiled by whitish-looking clearings that gave too barren an aspect to the general coup d'oeil. his host readily shared this opinion. he at once gave the requisite instructions, which that very night were executed by torchlight with the utmost secrecy by all the workmen of the locality whose services at such an hour it was possible to secure. when next day the monarch stepped out on to his balcony, he saw a beautiful green wood in place of the clearings with which on the previous evening he had found fault. service more prompt or tasteful than this it was surely impossible to have; but kings only desire to be obeyed when they command. fouquet, with airy presumption, expected thanks and praise. this, however, was what he had to hear: "i am shocked at such expense!" soon afterwards the court moved to nantes; the ministers followed; m. fouquet was arrested. his trial at the paris arsenal lasted several months. proofs of his defalcations were numberless. his family and proteges made frantic yet futile efforts to save so great a culprit. the commission sentenced him to death, and ordered the confiscation of all his property. the king, content to have made this memorable and salutary example, commuted the death penalty, and m. fouquet learned with gratitude that he would have to end his days in prison. nor did the king insist upon the confiscation of his property, which went to the culprit's widow and children, all that was retained being the enormous sums which he had embezzled. chapter vii. close of the queen-mother's illness.--the archbishop of auch.--the patient's resignation.--the sacrament.--court ceremony for its reception.--sage distinction of mademoiselle de montpensier.--her prudence at the funeral. as the queen-mother's malady grew worse, the court left saint germain to be nearer the experts and the val-de-grace, where the princess frequently practised her devotions with members of the religious sisterhood that she had founded. suddenly the cancer dried up, and the head physician declared that the queen was lost. the archbishop of auch said to the king, "sire, there is not an instant to be lost; the queen may die at any moment; she should be informed of her condition, so that she may prepare herself to receive the sacrament." the king was troubled, for he dearly loved his mother. "monsieur," he replied, with emotion, "it is impossible for me to sanction your request. my mother is resting calmly, and perhaps thinks that she is out of danger. we might give her her death-blow." the prelate, a man of firm, religious character, insisted, albeit reverently, while the prince continued to object. then the archbishop retorted, "it is not with nature or the world that we have here to deal. we have to save a soul. i have done my duty, and filial tenderness will at any rate bear the blame." the king thereupon acceded to the churchman's wishes, who lost no time in acquainting the patient with her doom. anne of austria was grievously shocked at so terrible an announcement, but she soon recovered her resignation and her courage; and m. d' auch made noble use of his eloquence when exhorting her to prepare for the change that she dreaded. a portable altar was put up in the room, and the archbishop, assisted by other clerics, went to fetch the holy sacrament from the church of saint germain de l'auxerrois in the louvre parish. the princes and princesses hereupon began to argue in the little closet as to the proper ceremony to be observed on such occasions. madame de motteville, lady-in-waiting to the queen, being asked to give an opinion, replied that, for the late king, the nobles had gone out to meet the holy sacrament as far as the outer gate of the palace, and that it would be wise to do this on the present occasion. mademoiselle de montpensier interrupted the lady-in-waiting and those who shared her opinion. "i cannot bring myself to establish such a precedent," she said, in her usual haughty tone. "it is i who have to walk first, and i shall only go half-way across the courtyard of the louvre. it's quite far enough for the holy wafer-box; what's the use of walking any further for the holy sacrament?" the princes and princesses were of her way of thinking, and the procession advanced only to the limits aforesaid. when the time came for taking the sacred heart to val-de-grace with the funeral procession, mademoiselle, in a long mourning cloak, said to the archbishop before everybody, "pray, monsieur, put the sacred heart in the best place, and sit you close beside it. i yield my rank up to you on the present occasion." and, as the prelate protested, she added, "i shall be very willing to ride in front on account of the malady from which she died." and, without altering her resolution, she actually took her seat in front. chapter viii. cardinal mazarin.--regency of anne of austria.--her perseverance in retaining her minister.--mazarin gives his nieces in marriage.--m. de la meilleraye.--the cardinal's festivities.--madame de montespan's luck at a lottery. before taking holy orders, cardinal mazarin had served as an officer in the spanish army, where he had even won distinction. coming to france in the train of a roman cardinal, he took service with richelieu, who, remarking in him all the qualities of a supple, insinuating, artificial nature,--that is to say, the nature of a good politician,--appointed him his private secretary, and entrusted him with all his secrets, as if he had singled him out as his successor. upon the death of richelieu, mazarin did not scruple to avow that the great armand's sceptre had been a tyrant's sceptre and of bronze. by such an admission he crept into the good graces of louis xiii., who, himself almost moribund, had shown how pleased he was to see his chief minister go before him to the grave. louis xiii. being dead, his widow, anne of austria, in open parliament cancelled the monarch's testamentary depositions and constituted herself regent with absolute authority. mazarin was her richelieu. in france, where men affect to be so gallant and so courteous, how is it that when women rule their reign is always stormy and troublous? anne of austria--comely, amiable, and gracious as she was--met with the same brutal discourtesy which her sister-in-law, marie de medici, had been obliged to bear. but gifted with greater force of intellect than that queen, she never yielded aught of her just rights; and it was her strong will which more than once astounded her enemies and saved the crown for the young king. they lampooned her, hissed her, and burlesqued her publicly at the theatres, cruelly defaming her intentions and her private life. strong in the knowledge of her own rectitude, she faced the tempest without flinching; yet inwardly her soul was torn to pieces. the barricading of paris, the insolence of m. le prince, the bravado and treachery of cardinal de retz, burnt up the very blood in her veins, and brought on her fatal malady, which took the form of a hideous cancer. our nobility (who are only too glad to go and reign in naples, portugal, or poland) openly declared that no foreigner ought to hold the post of minister in paris. despite his roman purple, mazarin was condemned to be hanged. the motive for this was some trifling tax which he had ordered to be collected before this had been ratified by the magistrates and registered in the usual way. but the queen knew how to win over the nobles. her cardinal was recalled, and the apathy of the parisians put an end to these dissensions, from which, one must admit, the people and the bourgeoisie got all the ills and the nobility all the profits. as comptroller of the list of benefices, m. le cardinal allotted the wealthiest abbeys of the realm to himself. having made himself an absolute master of finance, like m. fouquet, he amassed great wealth. he built a magnificent palace in rome, and an equally brilliant one in paris, conferring upon himself the wealthy governorships of various towns or provinces. he had a guard of honour attached to his person, and a captain of the guard in attendance, just as richelieu had. he married one of his nieces to the prince of mantua, another to the prince de conti, a third to the comte de soissons, a fourth to the constable colonna (an italian prince), a fifth to the duc de mercoeur (a blood relation of henri iv.), and a sixth to the duc de bouillon. as to hortense, the youngest, loveliest of them all,--hortense, the beauteous-eyed, his charming favourite,--he appointed her his sole heiress, and having given her jewelry and innumerable other presents, he married her to the agreeable duc de la meilleraye, son of the marshal of that name. society was much astonished when it came out that m. le cardinal had disinherited his own nephew, a man of merit, handing over his name, his fortune, and his arms to a stranger. this was an error; in taking the name and arms of mazarin, young de la meilleraye was giving up those which he ought to have given up, and assuming those which it behove him to assume. [de mancini, duc de nevers, a relative of the last duc de nivernois. he married, soon after, madame de montespan's niece.--editor's note] nor did he retain the great possessions of the la meilleraye family. herein, certainly, he did not consult his devotion; since the secret and fatherly avowal of m. le cardinal he had no right whatever to the estates of this family. beneath the waving folds of his large scarlet robe, the cardinal showed such ease and certainty of address, that he never put one in mind of a cardinal and a bishop. to such manners, however, one was accustomed; in a leading statesman they were not unpleasant. he often gave magnificent balls, at which he displayed all the accomplishments of his nieces and the sumptuous splendour of his furniture. at such entertainments, always followed by a grand banquet, he was wont to show a liberality worthy of crowned heads. one day, after the feast, he announced that a lottery would be held in his palace. accordingly, all the guests repaired to his superb gallery, which had just been brilliantly decorated with paintings by romanelli, and here, spread out upon countless tables, we saw pieces of rare porcelain, scent-bottles of foreign make, watches of every size and shape, chains of pearls or of coral, diamond buckles and rings, gold boxes adorned by portraits set in pearls or in emeralds, fans of matchless elegance,--in a word, all the rarest and most costly things that luxury and fashion could invent. the queens distributed the tickets with every appearance of honesty and good faith. but i had reason to remark, by what happened to myself, that the tickets had been registered beforehand. the young queen, who felt her garter slipping off, came to me in order to tighten it. she handed me her ticket to hold for a moment, and when she had fastened her garter, i gave her back my ticket instead of her own. when the cardinal from his dais read out the numbers in succession, my number won a portrait of the king set in brilliants, much to the surprise of the queen-mother and his eminence; they could not get over it. to me this lottery of the rue neuve-des-petits-changes [the gallery to which the marquise alludes is to-day called the manuscript gallery. it belongs to the royal library in the rue de richelieu. mazarin's house is now the treasury.] i brought good luck, and we often talked about it afterwards with the king, regarding it as a sort of prediction or horoscope. chapter ix. marriage of monsieur, the king's brother.--his hope of mounting a throne.--his high-heeled shoes.--his dead child.--saint denis. monsieur would seem to have been created in order to set off his brother, the king, and to give him the advantage of such relief. he is small in stature and in character, being ceaselessly busied about trifles, details, nothings. to his toilet and his mirror, he devotes far more time than a pretty woman; he covers himself with scents, with laces, with diamonds. he is passionately fond of fetes, large assemblies, and spectacular displays. it was in order to figure as the hero of some such entertainment that he suddenly resolved to get married. mademoiselle--the grande mademoiselle--mademoiselle d'eu, mademoiselle de dombes, mademoiselle de montpensier, mademoiselle de saint-fargeau, mademoiselle de la roche-sur-yon, mademoiselle d'orleans--had come into the world twelve or thirteen years before he had, and they could not abide each other. despite such trifling differences, however, he proposed marriage to her. the princess, than whom no one more determined exists, answered, "you ought to have some respect for me; i refused two crowned husbands the very day you were born." so the prince begged the queen of england to give him her charming daughter henrietta, who, having come to france during her unfortunate father's captivity, had been educated in paris. the princess possessed an admirable admixture of grace and beauty, wit being allied to great affability and good-nature; to all these natural gifts she added a capacity and intelligence such as one might desire sovereigns to possess. her coquetry was mere amiability; of that i am convinced. being naturally vain, the prince, her husband, made great use at first of his consort's royal coat-of-arms. it was displayed on his equipages and stamped all over his furniture. "do you know, madame," quoth he gallantly, one day, "what made me absolutely desire to marry you? it was because you are a daughter and a sister of the kings of england. in your country women succeed to the throne, and if charles the second and my cousin york were to die without children (which is very likely), you would be queen and i should be king." "oh, sire, how wrong of you to imagine such a thing!" replied his wife; "it brings tears to my eyes. i love my brothers more than i do myself. i trust that they may have issue, as they desire, and that i may not have to go back and live with those cruel english who slew my father-in-law." the prince sought to persuade her that a sceptre and a crown are always nice things to have. "yes," replied henrietta slyly, "but one must know how to wear them." soon after this, he again talked of his expectations, saying every minute, "if ever i am king, i shall do so; if ever i am king, i shall order this; if ever i am king," etc., etc. "let us hope, my good friend," replied the princess, "that you won't be king in england, where your gewgaws would make people call out after you; nor yet in france, where they would think you too little, after the king." at this last snub, monsieur was much mortified. the very next day he summoned his old bootmaker, lambertin, and ordered him to put extra heels two inches high to his shoes. madame having told this piece of childish folly to the king, he was greatly amused, and with a view to perplex his brother, he had his own shoe-heels heightened, so that, beside his majesty, monsieur still looked quite a little man. the princess gave premature birth to a child that was scarcely recognisable; it had been dead in its mother's womb for at least ten days, so the doctors averred. monsieur le duc d'orleans, however, insisted upon having this species of monstrosity baptised. my sister, de thianges, who is raillery personified, seeing how embarrassed was the cure of saint cloud by the prince's repeated requests for baptism, gravely said to the cleric in an irresistibly comic fashion, "do you know, sir, that your refusal is contrary to all good sense and good breeding, and that to infants of such quality baptism is never denied?" when this species of miscarriage had to be buried, as there was urgent need to get rid of it, monsieur uttered loud cries, and said that he had written to his brother so that there might be a grand funeral service at saint denis. of so absurd a proposal as this no notice was taken, which served to amaze monsieur for one whole month. chapter x. m. colbert.--his origin.--he unveils and displays mazarin's wealth.--the monarch's liberality.--resentment of the cardinal's heirs. a few moments before he died, cardinal mazarin, through strategy, not through repentance, besought the king to accept a deed of gift whereby he was appointed his universal legatee. touched by so noble a resolve, the king gave back the deed to his eminence, who shed tears of emotion. "sire, i owe all to you," said the dying man to the young prince, "but i believe that i shall pay off my debt by giving colbert, my secretary, to your majesty. faithful as he has been to me, so will he be to you; and while he keeps watch, you may sleep. he comes from the noble family of coodber, of scottish origin, and his sentiments are worthy of his ancestors." a few moments later the death-agony began, and m. colbert begged the king to listen to him in an embrasure. there, taking a pencil, he made out a list of all the millions which the cardinal had hidden away in various places. the monarch bewailed his minister, his tutor, his friend, but so astounding a revelation dried his tears. he affectionately thanked m. colbert, and from that day forward gave him his entire consideration and esteem. m. colbert was diligent enough to seize upon the millions hidden at vincennes, the millions secreted in the old louvre, at courbevoie and the other country seats. but the millions in gold, hidden in the bastions of la fere, fell into the hands of heirs, who, a few moments after the commencement of the cardinal's death-agony, sent off a valet post-haste. the cardinal's family pretended to know nothing of this affair; but they could never bear m. colbert nor any of his kinsfolk. the king, being of a generous nature, distributed all this wealth in the best and most liberal manner possible. m. colbert told him to what use mazarin meant to put all these riches; he hoped to have prevailed upon the conclave to elect him pope, with the concurrence of spain, france, and the holy ghost. chapter xi. the young queen.--her portrait.--her whims.--her love for the king.--her chagrin. maria theresa, the king's new consort, was the daughter of the king of spain and elizabeth of france, daughter of henri iv. at the time of her marriage she had lost her mother, and it was king philip, anne of austria's brother, who himself presented her to us at saint jean de luz, where he signed the peace-contract. the spanish monarch admired his nephew, the king, whose stalwart figure, comely face, and polished manners, were, indeed, well calculated to excite surprise. anne of austria had said to him, "my brother, my one fear during your journey was lest your ailments and the hardships of travel should hinder you from getting back here again." "was such your thought, sister?" replied the good man. "i would willingly have come on foot, so as to behold with my own eyes the superb cavalier that you and i are going to give to my daughter." after the oath of peace had been sworn upon the gospels, there was a general presentation before the two kings. cantocarrero, the castilian secretary of state, presented the spanish notabilities, while cardinal mazarin, in his pontifical robes, presented the french. as he announced m. de turenne, the old king looked at him repeatedly. "there's one," quoth he, "who has given me many a sleepless night." m. de turenne bowed respectfully, and both courts could perceive in his simple bearing his unaffected modesty. on leaving spain and the king, young princess was moved to tears. next day she thought nothing of it at all. she was wholly engrossed by the possession of such a king, nor was she at any pains to hide her glee from us. of all her court ladies i was the most youthful and, perhaps, the most conspicuous. at the outset the queen showed a wish to take me into her confidence but it was the lady-in-waiting who would never consent to this. when, at that lottery of the cardinal's, i won the king's portrait, the queen-mother called me into her closet and desired to know how such a thing could possibly have happened. i replied that, during the garter-incident, the two tickets had got mixed. "ah, in that case," said the princess, "the occurrence was quite a natural one. so keep this portrait, since it has fallen into your hands; but, for god's sake, don't try and make yourself pleasant to my son; for you're only too fascinating as it is. look at that little la valliere, what a mess she has got into, and what chagrin she has caused my poor maria theresa!" i replied to her majesty that i would rather let myself be buried alive than ever imitate la valliere, and i said so then because that was really what i thought. the queen-mother softened, and gave me her hand to kiss, now addressing me as "madame," and anon as "my daughter." a few days afterwards she wished to walk in the gallery with me, and said to me, "if god suffers me to live, i will make you lady-in-waiting; be sure of that." anne of austria was a tall, fine, dark woman, with brown eyes, like those of the king. the infanta, her niece, is a very pretty blonde, blue-eyed, but short in stature. to her slightest words the queen-mother gives sense and wit; her daughter-in-law's speeches and actions are of the simplest, most commonplace kind. were it not for the king, she would pass her life in a dressing-gown, night-cap, and slippers. at court ceremonies and on gala-days, she never appears to be in a good humour; everything seems to weigh her down, notably her diamonds. however, she has no remarkable defect, and one may say that she is devoid of goodness, just as she is devoid of badness. when coming among us, she contrived to bring with her molina, the daughter of her nurse, a sort of comedy confidante, who soon gave herself court airs, and who managed to form a regular little court of her own. without her sanction nothing can be obtained of the queen. my lady molina is the great, the small, and the unique counsellor of the princess, and the king, like the others, remains submissive to her decisions and her inspection. french cookery, by common consent, is held to be well-nigh perfect in its excellence; yet the infanta could never get used to our dishes. the senora molina, well furnished with silver kitchen utensils, has a sort of private kitchen or scullery reserved for her own use, and there it is that the manufacture takes place of clove-scented chocolate, brown soups and gravies, stews redolent with garlic, capsicums, and nutmeg, and all that nauseous pastry in which the young infanta revels. ever since la valliere's lasting triumph, the queen seems to have got it into her head that she is despised; and at table i have often heard her say, "they will help themselves to everything, and won't leave me anything." i am not unjust, and i admit that a husband's public attachments are not exactly calculated to fill his legitimate consort with joy. but, fortunately for the infanta, the king abounds in rectitude and good-nature. this very good-nature it is which prompts him to use all the consideration of which a noble nature is capable, and the more his amours give the queen just cause for anxiety, the more does he redouble his kindness and consideration towards her. of this she is sensible. thus she acquiesces, and, as much through tenderness as social tact, she never reproaches or upbraids him with anything. nor does the king scruple to admit that, to secure so good-natured a partner, it is well worth the trouble of going to fetch her from the other end of the world. chapter xii. madame de la valliere becomes duchess.--her family is resigned.--her children recognised by the king.--madame colbert their governess.--the king's passion grows more serious.--love and friendship. out of affection and respect for the queen-mother, the king had until then sought to conceal the ardour of his attachment for mademoiselle de la valliere. it was after the six months of mourning that he shook off all restraint, showing that, like any private person, he felt himself master of his actions and his inclinations. he gave the vaujours estate to his mistress, after formally constituting it a duchy, and, owing to the two children of his duchy, mademoiselle de la valliere assumed the title of duchess. what a fuss she made at this time! all that was styled disinterestedness, modesty. not a bit of it. it was pusillanimity and a sense of servile fear. la valliere would have liked to enjoy her handsome lover in the shade and security of mystery, without exposing herself to the satire of courtiers and of the public, and, above all, to the reproaches of her family and relatives, who nearly all were very devout. on this head, however, she soon saw that such fears were exaggerated. the marquise de saint-remy was but slightly scandalised at what was going on. she and the marquis de saint-remy, her second husband, strictly proper though they were, came to greet their daughter when proclaimed duchess. and when, a few days afterwards, the king declared the rank of the two children to the whole of assembled parliament, the two families of saint-remy and la valliere offered congratulations to the duchess, and received those of all paris. m. colbert, who owed everything to the king, entrusted madame colbert with the education of the new prince and princess; they were brought up under the eyes of this statesman, who for everything found time and obligingness. the girl, lovely as love itself, took the name of mademoiselle de blois, while to her little brother was given the title of comte de vermandois. it was just about this time that i noticed the beginning of the monarch's serious attachment for me. till then it had been only playful badinage, good-humoured teasing, a sort of society play, in which the king was rehearsing his part as a lover. i was at length bound to admit that chaff of this sort might end in something serious, and his majesty begged me to let him have la valliere for some time longer. i have already said that, while becoming her rival, i still remained her friend. of this she had countless proofs, and when, at long intervals, i saw her again in her dismal retreat, her good-nature, unchanging as this was, caused her to receive and welcome me as one welcomes those one loves. chapter xiii. first vocation of mademoiselle de la valliere.--the king surprises his mistress.--she is forced to retire to a convent.--the king hastens to take her back.--she was not made for court life.--her farewell to the king.--sacrifice.--the abbe de bossuet. what i am now about to relate, i have from her own lips, nor am i the only one to whom she made such recitals and avowals. her father died when she was quite young, and, when dying, foresaw that his widow, being without fortune or constancy, would ere long marry again. to little louise he was devotedly attached. ardently embracing her, he addressed her thus: "in losing me, my poor little louise, you lose all. what little there is of my inheritance ought, undoubtedly, to belong to you; but i know your mother; she will dispose of it. if my relatives do not show the interest in you which your fatherless state should inspire, renounce this world soon, where, separated from your father, there exists for you but danger and misfortune. two of my ancestors left their property to the nuns of saint bernard at gomer-fontaines, as they are perfectly well aware. go to them in all confidence; they will receive you without a dowry even; it is their duty to do so. if, disregarding my last counsel, you go astray in the world, from the eternal abodes on high i will watch over you; i will appear to you, if god empower me to do so; and, at any rate, from time to time i will knock at the door of your heart to rouse you from your baleful slumber and draw your attention to the sweet paths of light that lead to god." this speech of a dying father was graven upon the heart of a young girl both timid and sensitive. she never forgot it; and it needed the fierce, inexplicable passion which took possession of her soul to captivate her and carry her away so far. before becoming attached to the king, she opened out her heart to me with natural candour; and whenever in the country she observed the turrets or the spire of a monastery, she sighed, and i saw her beautiful blue eyes fill with tears. she was maid of honour to the princess henrietta of england, and i filled a like office. our two companions, being the most quick-witted, durst not talk about their love-affairs before louise, so convinced were we of her modesty, and almost of her piety. in spite of that, as she was gentle, intelligent, and well-bred, the princess plainly preferred her to the other three. in temperament they suited each other to perfection. the king frequently came to the palais royal, where the bright, pleasant conversation of his sister-in-law made amends for the inevitable boredom which one suffered when with the queen. being brought in such close contact with the king, who in private life is irresistibly attractive, mademoiselle de la valliere conceived a violent passion for him; yet, owing to modesty or natural timidity, it was plain that she carefully sought to hide her secret. one fine night she and two young persons of her own age were seated under a large oak-tree in the grounds of saint germain. the marquis de wringhen, seeing them in the moonlight, said to the king, who was walking with him, "let us turn aside, sire, in this direction; yonder there are three solitary nymphs, who seem waiting for fairies or lovers." then they noiselessly approached the tree that i have mentioned, and lost not a word of all the talk in which the fair ladies were engaged. they were discussing the last ball at the chateau. one extolled the charms of the marquis d'alincour, son of villeroi; the second mentioned another young nobleman; while the third frankly expressed herself in these terms: "the marquis d'alincour and the prince de marcillac are most charming, no doubt, but, in all conscience, who could be interested in their merits when once the king appeared in their midst? "oh, oh!" cried the two others, laughing, "it's strange to hear you talk like that; so, one has to be a king in order to merit your attention?" "his rank as king," replied mademoiselle de la valliere, "is not the astonishing part about him; i should have recognised it even in the simple dress of a herdsman." the three chatterers then rose and went back to the chateau. next day, the king, wholly occupied with what he had overheard on the previous evening, sat musing on a sofa at his sister-in-law's, when all at once the voice of mademoiselle de la beaume-le-blanc smote his ear and brought trouble to his heart. he saw her, noticed her melancholy look, thought her lovelier than the loveliest, and at once fell passionately in love. they soon got to understand one another, yet for a long while merely communicated by means of notes at fetes, or during the performance of allegorical ballets and operettas, the airs in which sufficiently expressed the nature of such missives. in order to put the queen-mother off the scent and screen la valliere, the king pretended to be in love with mademoiselle de la mothe-houdancour, one of the queen's maids of honour. he used to talk across to her out of one of the top-story windows, and even wished her to accept a present of diamonds. but madame de navailles, who took charge of the maids of honour, had gratings put over the top-story windows, and la mothe-houdancour was so chagrined by the queen's icy manner towards her that she withdrew to a convent. as to the duchesse de navailles and her husband, they got rid of their charges and retired to their estates, where great wealth and freedom were their recompense after such pompous court slavery. the queen-mother was still living; unlike her niece, she was not blindfold. the adventure of mademoiselle de la mothe-houdancour seemed to her just what it actually was,--a subterfuge; as she surmised, it could only be la valliere. having discovered the name of her confessor, the queen herself went in disguise to the theatin church, flung herself into the confessional where this man officiated, and promised him the sum of thirty thousand francs for their new church if he would help her to save the king. the theatin promised to do what the queen thus earnestly desired, and when his fair penitent came to confess, he ordered her at once to break off her connection with the court as with the world, and to shut herself up in a convent. mademoiselle de la valliere shed tears, and sought to make certain remarks, but the confessor, a man of inflexible character, threatened her with eternal damnation, and he was obeyed. beside herself with grief, la valliere left by another door, so as to avoid her servants and her coach. she recollected seeing a little convent of hospitalieres at saint cloud; she went thither on foot, and was cordially welcomed by these dames. next day it was noised abroad in the chateau that she had been carried off by order of the queen-mother. during vespers the king seemed greatly agitated, and no sooner had the preacher ascended the pulpit than he rose and disappeared. the confusion of the two queens was manifest; no one paid any heed to the preacher; he scarcely knew where he was. meanwhile the conquering king had started upon his quest. followed by a page and a carriage and pair, he first went to chaillot, and then to saint cloud, where he rang at the entrance of the modest abode which harboured his friend. the nun at the turnstile answered him harshly, and denied him an audience. it is true, he only told her he was a cousin or a relative. seeing that this nun was devoid of sense and of humanity, he bethought himself of endeavouring to persuade the gardener, who lived close to the monastery. he slipped several gold pieces into his hand, and most politely requested him to go and tell the lady superior that he had come thither on behalf of the king. the lady superior came down into the parlour, and recognising the king from a superb miniature, besought him of his grandeur to interest himself in this young lady of quality, devoid of means and fatherless, and consented, moreover, to give her up to him, since as king he so commanded. louise de la beaume-le-blanc obeyed the king, or in other words, the dictates of her own heart, imprudently embarking upon a career of passion, for which a temperament wholly different from hers was needed. it is not simple-minded maidens that one wants at court to share the confidence of princes. no doubt natures of that sort--simple, disinterested souls are pleasant and agreeable to them, as therein they find contentment such as they greedily prize; but for these unsullied, romantic natures, disillusion, trickery alone is in store. and if mademoiselle de la beaumele-blanc had listened to me, she might have turned matters to far better account; nor, after yielding up her youth to a monarch, would she have been obliged to end, her days in a prison. the king no longer visited her as his mistress, but trusted and esteemed her as a friend and as the mother of his two pretty children. one day, in the month of april, 1674, his majesty, while in the gardens, received the following letter, which one of la valliere's pages proffered him on bended knee: sire:--to-day i am leaving forever this palace, whither the cruellest of fatalities summoned my youth and inexperience. had i not met you, my heart would have loved seclusion, a laborious life, and my kinsfolk. an imperious inclination, which i could not conquer, gave me to you, and, simple, docile as i was by nature, i believed that my passion would always prove to me delicious, and that your love would never die. in this world nothing endures. my fond attachment has ceased to have any charm for you, and my heart is filled with dismay. this trial has come from god; of this my reason and my faith are convinced. god has felt compassion for my unspeakable grief. that which for long past i have suffered is greater than human force can bear; he is going to receive me into his home of mercy. he promises me both healing and peace. in this theatre of pomp and perfidy i have only stayed until such a moment as my daughter and her youthful brother might more easily do without me. you will cherish them both; of that i have no doubt. guide them, i beseech you, for the sake of your own glory and their well-being. may your watchful care sustain them, while their mother, humbled and prostrate in a cloister, shall commend them to him who pardons all. after my departure, show some kindness to those who were my servants and faithful domestics, and deign to take back the estates and residences which served to support me in my frivolous grandeur, and maintain the celebrity that i deplore. adieu, sire! think no more about me, lest such a feeling, to which my imagination might but all too readily lend itself, only beget links of sympathy in my heart which conscience and repentance would fain destroy. if god call me to himself, young though yet i am, he will have granted my prayers; if he ordain me to live for a while longer in this desert of penitence, it will never compensate for the duration of my error, nor for the scandal of which i have been the cause. your subject from this time forth, louise de la valliere. the king had not been expecting so desperate a resolve as this, nor did he feel inclined to hinder her from making it. he left the portuguese ambassador, who witnessed his agitation, and hastened to madame de la valliere's, who had left her apartments in the castle at daybreak. he shed tears, being kind of heart and convinced that a body so graceful and so delicate would never be able to resist the rigours and hardships of so terrible a life. the carmelite nuns of the rue saint jacques loudly proclaimed this conversion, and in their vanity gladly received into their midst so modest and distinguished a victim, driven thither through sheer despair. the ceremony which these dames call "taking the dress" attracted the entire court to their church. the queen herself desired to be present at so harrowing a spectacle, and by a curious contradiction, of which her capricious nature is capable, she shed floods of tears. la valliere seemed gentler, lovelier, more modest and more seductive than ever. in the midst of the grief and tears which her courageous sacrifice provoked, she never uttered a single sigh, nor did she change colour once. hers was a nature made for extremes; like caesar, she said to herself, "either rome or nothing!" the abbe de bossuet, who had been charged to preach the sermon of investiture, showed a good deal of wit by exhibiting none at all. the king must have felt indebted to him for such reserve. into his discourse he had put mere vague commonplaces, which neither touch nor wound any one; honeyed anathemas such as these may even pass for compliments. this prelate has won for himself a great name and great wealth by words. a proof of his cleverness exists in his having lived in grandeur, opulence, and worldly happiness, while making people believe that he condemned such things. chapter xiv. story of the queen-mother's marriage with cardinal mazarin published in holland. despite the endeavours made by the ministers concerning the pamphlet or volume about which i am going to speak, neither they nor the king succeeded in quashing a sinister rumour and an opinion which had taken deep root among the people. ever since this calumny it believes--and will always believe--in the twin brother of louis xiv., suppressed, one knows not why, by his mother, just as one believes in fairy-tales and novels. this false rumour, invented by far-seeing folk, is that which has most affected the king. i will recount the manner in which it reached him. since the disorder and insolence of the fronde, this prince did not like to reside in the capital; he soon invented pretexts for getting away from it. the chateau of the tuileries, built by catherine de medici at some distance from the louvre, was, really speaking, only a little country-house and trianon. the king conceived the plan of uniting this structure with his palace at the louvre, extending it on the saint roch side and also on the side of the river, and this being settled, the louvre gallery would be carried on as far as the southern angle of the new building, so as to form one whole edifice, as it now appears. while these alterations were in progress, the court quitted the louvre and the capital, and took up its permanent residence at saint germain. though ceasing to make a royal residence and home of paris, his majesty did not omit to pay occasional visits to the centre of the capital. he came incognito, sometimes on horseback, sometimes in a coach, and usually went about the streets on foot. on these occasions he was dressed carelessly, like any ordinary young man, and the better to ensure a complete disguise, he kept continually changing either the colour of his moustache or the colour and cut of his clothes. one evening, on leaving the opera, just as he was about to open his carriage door, a man approached him with a great air of mystery, and tendering a pamphlet, begged him to buy it. to get rid of the importunate fellow, his majesty purchased the book, and never glanced at its contents until the following day. imagine his surprise and indignation! the following was the title of his purchase: "secret and circumstantial account of the marriage of anne of austria, queen of france, with the abbe jules simon mazarin, cardinal of the holy roman church. a new edition, carefully revised. amsterdam." grave and phlegmatic by nature, the king was always master of his feelings, a sign, this, of the noble-minded. he shut himself up in his apartment, so as to be quite alone, and hastily perused the libellous pamphlet. according to the author of it, king louis xiii., being weak and languid, and sapped moreover by secret poison, had not been able to beget any heirs. the queen, who secretly was mazarin's mistress, had had twins by the abbe, only the prettier of the two being declared legitimate. the other twin had been entrusted to obscure teachers, who, when it was time, would give him up. the princess, so the writer added, stung by qualms of conscience, had insisted upon having her guilty intimacy purified by the sacrament of marriage, to which the prime minister agreed. then, mentioning the names of such and such persons as witnesses, the book stated that "this marriage was solemnised on a night in february, 1643, by cardinal de sainte-suzanne, a brother and servile creature of mazarin's." "this explains," added the vile print, "the zeal, perseverance, and foolish ardour of the queen regent in defending her italian against the just opposition of the nobles, against the formal charges of the magistrates, against the clamorous outcry, not only of parisians, but of all france. this explains the indifference, or rather the firm resolve, on mazarin's part; never to take orders, but to remain simply 'tonsure' or 'minore',--he who controls at least forty abbeys, as well as a bishopric. "look at the young monarch," it continued, "and consider how closely he resembles his eminence, the same haughty glance; the same uncontrolled passion for pompous buildings, luxurious dress and equipages; the same deference and devotion to the queen-mother; the same independent customs, precepts, and laws; the same aversion for the parisians; the same resentment against the honest folk of the fronde." this final phrase easily disclosed its origin; nor upon this point had his majesty the slightest shadow of a doubt. the same evening he sent full instructions to the lieutenant-general of police, and two days afterwards the nocturnal vendor of pamphlets found himself caught in a trap. the king wished him to be brought to saint germain, so that he might identify him personally; and, as he pretended to be half-witted or an idiot, he was thrown half naked into a dungeon. his allowance of dry bread diminished day by day, at which he complained, and it was decided to make him undergo this grim ordeal. under the pressure of hunger and thirst, the prisoner at length made a confession, and mentioned a bookseller of the quartier latin, who, under the fronde, had made his shop a meeting-place for rebels. the bookseller, having been put in the bastille, and upon the same diet as his salesman, stated the name of the dutch printer who had published the pamphlet. they sought to extract more from him, and reduced his diet with such severity that he disclosed the entire secret. this bookseller, used to a good square meal at home, found it impossible to tolerate the bastille fare much longer. bound hand and foot, at his final cross-examination he confessed that the work had emanated from the cardinal de retz, or certain of his party. he was condemned to three years' imprisonment, and was obliged to sell his shop and retire to the provinces. i once heard m. de louvois tell this tale, and use it as a means of silencing those who regretted the absence of the exiled cardinal-archbishop. as to the libellous pamphlet itself, the clumsy nature of it was only too plain, for the king is no more like mazarin than he is like the king of ethiopia. on the contrary, one can easily distinguish in the general effect of his features a very close resemblance to king louis xiii. the libellous pamphlet stated that, on the occasion of the infanta's first confinement, twins were born, and that the prettier of the two had been adopted, another blunder, this, of the grossest kind. a book of this sort could deceive only the working class and the parisian lower orders, for folk about the court, and even the bourgeoisie, know that it is impossible for a queen to be brought to bed in secret. unfortunately for her, she has to comply with the most embarrassing rules of etiquette. she has to bear her final birth-pangs under an open canopy, surrounded at no great distance by all the princes of the blood; they are summoned thither, and they have this right so as to prevent all frauds, subterfuges, or impositions. when the king found the seditious book in question, the queen, his mother, was ill and in pain; every possible precaution was taken to prevent her from hearing the news, and the lieutenant-general of police, having informed the king that two-thirds of the edition had been seized close to the archbishop's palace, orders were given to burn all these horrible books by night, in the presence of the marquis de beringhen, appointed commissioner on this occasion. chapter xv. monsieur le duc d'orleans wishes to be governor of a province.--the king's reply.--he requires a fauteuil for his wife.--another excellent answer of the king's. in marrying monsieur, the king consulted only his well-known generosity, and the richly equipped household which he granted to this prince should assuredly have made him satisfied and content. the chevalier de lorraine and the chevalier de remecourt, two pleasant and baneful vampires whom monsieur could refuse nothing, put it into his head that he should make himself feared, so as to lead his majesty on to greater concessions, which they were perfectly able to turn to their own enjoyment and profit. monsieur began by asking for the governorship of a province; in reply he was told that this could not be, seeing that such appointments were never given to french princes, brothers of the king. monsieur le duc d'orleans hastened to point out that gaston, son of henri iv., had had such a post, and that the duc de verneuil, natural son of the same henri, had one at the present time. "that is true," replied the king, "but from my youth upward you have always heard me condemn such innovations, and you cannot expect me to do the very thing that i have blamed others for doing. if ever you were minded, brother, to rebel against my authority, your first care would, undoubtedly, be to withdraw to your province, where, like gaston, your uncle, you would have to raise troops and money. pray do not weary me with indiscretions of this sort; and tell those people who influence you to give you better advice for the future." somewhat abashed, the duc d'orleans affirmed that what he had said and done was entirely of his own accord. "did you speak of your own accord," said the king, "when insisting upon being admitted to the privy council? such a thing can no longer be allowed. you inconsiderately expressed two different opinions, and since you cannot control your tongue, which is most undoubtedly your own, i have no power over it,--i, to whom it does not want to belong." then monsieur le duc d'orleans added that these two refusals would seem less harsh, less painful to him, if the king would grant a seat in his own apartments, and in those of the queen, to the princess, his wife, who was a king's daughter. "no, that cannot be," replied his majesty, "and pray do not insist upon it. it is not i who have established the present customs; they existed long before you or me. it is in your interest, brother, that the majesty of the throne should not be weakened or altered; and if, from duc d'orleans, you one day become king of france, i know you well enough to believe that you would never be lax in this matter. before god, you and i are exactly the same as other creatures that live and breathe; before men we are seemingly extraordinary beings, greater, more refined, more perfect. the day that people, abandoning this respect and veneration which is the support and mainstay of monarchies,--the day that they regard us as their equals,--all the prestige of our position will be destroyed. bereft of beings superior to the mass, who act as their leaders and supports, the laws will only be as so many black lines on white paper, and your armless chair and my fauteuil will be two pieces of furniture of the selfsame importance. personally, i should like to gratify you in every respect, for the same blood flows in our veins, and we have loved each other from the cradle upwards. ask of me things that are practicable, and you shall see that i will forestall your wishes. personally, i daresay i care less about honorary distinctions than you do, and in cabinet matters i am always considered to be simpler and more easy to deal with than such and such a one. one word more, and i have done. i will nominate you to the governorship of any province you choose, if you will now consent in writing to let proceedings be taken against you, just as against any ordinary gentleman, in case there should be sedition in your province, or any kind of disorder during your administration." hereupon young philippe began to smile, and he begged the king to embrace him. chapter xvi. arms and livery of madame de montespan.--duchess or princess.--fresh scandal caused by the marquis.--the rue saint honore affair.--m. de ronancour.--separation of body and estate. when leaving, despite himself, for the provinces, m. de montespan wrote me a letter full of bitter insults, in which he ordered me to give up his coat-of-arms, his livery, and even his name. this letter i showed to the king. for a while he was lost in thought, as usual on such occasions, and then he said to me: "there's nothing extraordinary about the fellow's livery. put your servants into pale orange with silver lace. assume your old crest of mortemart, and as regards name, i will buy you an estate with a pretty title." "but i don't like pale orange," i instantly replied; "if i may, i should like to choose dark blue, and gold lace, and as regards crest, i cannot adopt my father's crest, except in lozenge form, which could not seriously be done. as it is your gracious intention to give me the name of an estate, give me (for to you everything is easy) a duchy like la valliere, or, better still, a principality." the king smiled, and answered, "it shall be done, madame, as you wish." the very, next day i went into paris to acquaint my lawyer with my intentions. several magnificent estates were just then in the market, but only marquisates, counties, or baronies! nothing illustrious, nothing remarkable! duhamel assured me that the estate of chabrillant, belonging to a spendthrift, was up for sale. "that," said he, "is a sonorous name, the brilliant renown of which would only be enhanced by the title of princess." duhamel promised to see all his colleagues in this matter, and to find me what i wanted without delay. i quitted paris without having met or recognised anybody, when, about twenty paces at the most beyond the porte saint honor, certain sergeants or officials of some sort roughly stopped my carriage and seized my horses' bridles "in the king's name." "in the king's name?" i cried, showing myself at the coach door. "insolent fellows! how dare you thus take the king's name in vain?" at the same time i told my coachman to whip up his horses with the reins and to drive over these vagabonds. at a word from me the three footmen jumped down and did their duty by dealing out lusty thwacks to the sergeants. a crowd collected, and townsfolk and passers-by joined in the fray. a tall, fine-looking man, wrapped in a dressing-gown, surveyed the tumult like a philosopher from his balcony overhead. i bowed graciously to him and besought him to come down. he came, and in sonorous accents exclaimed: "ho, there! serving-men of my lady, stop fighting, will you? and pray, sergeants, what is your business?" "it is a disgrace," cried they all, as with one breath. "madame lets her scoundrelly footmen murder us, despite the name of his majesty, which we were careful to utter at the outset of things. madame is a person (as everybody in france now knows) who is in open revolt against her husband; she has deserted him in order to cohabit publicly with some one else. her husband claims his coach, with his own crest and armorial bearings thereon, and we are here for the purpose of carrying out the order of one of the judges of the high court." "if that be so," replied the man in the dressing-gown, "i have no objection to offer, and though madame is loveliness itself, she must suffer me to pity her, and i have the honour of saluting her." so saying, he made me a bow and left me, without help of any sort, in the midst of this crazy rabble. i was inconsolable. my coachman, the best fellow in the world, called out to him from the top of his bog, "monsieur, pray procure help for my mistress,--for madame la marquise de montespan." no sooner had he uttered these words than the gentleman came back again, while, among the lookers-on, some hissing was heard. he raised both hands with an air of authority, and speaking with quite incredible vehemence and fire, he successfully harangued the crowd. "madame does not refuse to comply with the requirements of justice," he added firmly; "but madame, a member of the queen's household, is returning to versailles, and cannot go thither on foot, or in some tumbledown vehicle. so i must beg these constables or sergeants (no matter which) to defer their arrest until to-morrow, and to accept me as surety. the french people is the friend of fair ladies; and true parisians are incapable of harming or of persecuting aught that is gracious and beautiful." all those present, who at first had hissed, replied to this speech by cries of "bravo!" one of my men, who had been wounded in the scuffle, had his hand all bloody. a young woman brought some lavender-water, and bound up the wound with her white handkerchief, amid loud applause from the crowd, while i bowed my acknowledgments and thanks. the king listened with interest to the account of the adventure that i have just described, and wished to know the name of the worthy man who had acted as my support and protector. his name was de tarcy-ronancour. the king granted him a pension of six thousand francs, and gave the abbey of bauvoir to his daughter. as for me, i kept insisting with might and main for a separation of body and estate, which alone could put an end to all my anxiety. when a decree for such separation was pronounced at the chatelet, and registered according to the rules, i set about arranging an appanage which, from the very first day, had seemed to me absolutely necessary for my position. as ill-luck would have it, the judges left me the name of montespan, which to my husband was so irksome, and to myself also; and the king, despite repeated promises, never relieved me of a name that it was very difficult to bear. etext editor's bookmarks: armed with beauty and sarcasm conduct of the sort which cements and revives attachments console me on the morrow for what had troubled me to-day depicting other figures she really portrays her own in england a man is the absolute proprietor of his wife in rome justice and religion always rank second to politics kings only desire to be obeyed when they command laws will only be as so many black lines on white paper love-affair between mademoiselle de la valliere and the king madame de montespan had died of an attack of coquetry not show it off was as if one only possessed a kennel that which often it is best to ignore violent passion had changed to mere friendship when women rule their reign is always stormy and troublous wife: property or of furniture, useful to his house won for himself a great name and great wealth by words memoirs of madame la marquise de montespan written by herself being the historic memoirs of the court of louis xiv. book 3. chapter xxxv. m. de lauzun and mademoiselle de montpensier.--marriage of the one and passion of the other.--the king settles a match.--a secret union.--the king sends m. de lauzun to pignerol.--the life he leads there.--mademoiselle's liberality.--strange way of acknowledging it. they are forever talking about the coquetry of women; men also have their coquetry, but as they show less grace and finesse than we do, they do not get half as much attention. the marquis de lauzun, having one day, noticed a certain kindly feeling for him in the glances of mademoiselle, endeavoured to seem to her every day more fascinating and agreeable. the foolish princess completely fell into the snare, and suddenly giving up her air of noble indifference, which till then had made her life happy, she fell madly in love with a schemer who despised and detested her. held back for some months by her pride, as also by the exigencies of etiquette, she only disclosed her sentimental passion by glances and a mutual exchange of signs of approval; but at last she was tired of self-restraint and martyrdom, and, detaining m. de lauzun one day in a recess, she placed her written offer of marriage in his hand. the cunning marquis feigned astonishment, pretending humbly to renounce such honour, while increasing his wiles and fascinations; he even went so far as to shed tears, his most difficult feat of all. mademoiselle de montpensier, older than he by twelve or fourteen years, never suspected that such a disparity of years was visible in her face. when one has been pretty, one imagines that one is still so, and will forever remain so. plastered up and powdered, consumed by passion, and above all, blinded by vanity, she fancied that nature had to obey princes, and that, to favour her, time would stay his flight. though tired and bored with everything, lauzun, the better to excite her passion, put on timid, languid airs, like those of some lad fresh from school. quitting the embraces of some other woman, he played the lonely, pensive, melancholy bachelor, the man absorbed by this sweet, new mystery of love. having made mutual avowal of their passion, which was fill of esteem, lauzun inquired, merely from motives of caution, as to the princess's fortune; and she did not fail to tell him everything, even about her plate and jewels. lauzun's love grew even more ardent now, for she had at least forty millions, not counting her palace. he asked if, by the marriage, he would become a prince, and she replied that she, herself, had not sufficient power to do this; that she was most anxious to arrange this, if she could; but anyhow, that she could make him duc de montpensier, with a private uncontrolled income of five hundred thousand livres. he asked if, on the family coat-of-arms, the husband's coronet was to figure, or the wife's; but, as she would not change her name, her arms, she decided, could remain as heretofore,--the crown, the fleur-de-lis, and so forth. he inquired if the children of the marriage would rank as princes, and she said that she saw nothing to prevent this. he also asked if he would be raised higher in the peerage, and might look to being made a prince at last, and styled highness as soon as the contract had been signed. this caused some doubt and reflection. "the king, my cousin," said mademoiselle, "is somewhat strict in matters of this sort. he seems to think that the royal family is a new arch-saint, at whom one may look only when prostrate in adoration; all contract therewith is absolutely forbidden. i begin to feel uneasy about this; yes, lauzun, i have fears for our love and marriage." "are you, then, afraid?" asked lauzun, quite crestfallen. "i knew how to point the bastille cannon at the troops of the king," she replied; "but he was very young then. no matter, i will go and see him; if he is my king, i am his cousin; if he has his crotchets, i have my love and my will. he can't do anything, my dear lauzun; i love you as once he loved la valliere, as to-day he loves montespan; i am not afraid of him. as for the permission, i know our history by heart, and i will prove to him by a hundred examples that, from the time of charlemagne up to the present time, widows and daughters of kings have married mere noblemen. these nobleman may have been most meritorious,--i only know them from history,--but not one of them was as worthy as you." so saying, she asked for her fan, her gloves, and her horses, and attended by her grooms-in-waiting, she went to the king in person. the king listened to her from beginning to end, and then remarked, "you refused the kings of denmark, portugal, spain, and england, and you wish to marry my captain of the guard, the marquis de lauzun?" "yes, sire, for i place him above all monarchs,--yourself alone excepted." "do you love him immensely?" "more than i can possibly say; a thousand, a hundred thousand times more than myself." "do you think he is equally devoted to you?"--"that would be impossible," she tranquilly answered; "but his love for me is delicate, tender; and such friendship suffices me." "my cousin, in all that there is self-interest. i entreat you to reflect. the world, as you know, is a mocking world; you want to excite universal derision and injure the respect which is due to the place that i fill." "ah, sire, do not wound me! i fling myself at your feet. have compassion upon m. de lauzun, and pity my tears. do not exercise your power; let him be the consolation of my life; let me marry him." the king, no longer able to hide his disgust and impatience, said, "cousin, you are now a good forty-four years old; at that age you ought to be able to take care of yourself. spare me all your grievances, and do what pleases you." on leaving mademoiselle, he came to my apartment and told me about all this nonsense. i then informed him of what i had heard by letter the day before. lauzun, while still carrying on with the fastest ladies of the court and the town, had just wheedled the princess into making him a present of twenty millions,--a most extravagant gift. "this is too much!" exclaimed the king; and he at once caused a letter to be despatched to mademoiselle and her lover, telling them that their intimacy must cease, and that things must go no farther. but the audacious lauzun found means to suborn a well-meaning simpleton of a priest, who married them secretly the very same day. the king's indignation and resentment may well be imagined. he had his captain of the guard arrested and sent as a prisoner to pignerol. on this occasion, m. de lauzun complained bitterly of me; he invented the most absurd tales about me, even saying that he had struck me in my own apartments, after taunting me to my face with "our old intimacy." that is false; he reproached me with nothing, for there was nothing to reproach. shortly after the princess's grand scene, he came and begged me to intercede on his behalf. i only made a sort of vague promise, and he knew well enough that, in the great world, a vague promise is the same as a refusal. for more than six months i had to stanch the tears and assuage the grief of mademoiselle. so tiresome to me did this prove, that she alone well-nigh sufficed to make me quit the court. such sorrowing and chagrin made her lose the little beauty that still remained to her; nothing seemed more incongruous and ridiculous than to hear this elderly grand lady talking perpetually about "her dearest darling, the prisoner." at the time i write he is at pignerol; his bad disposition is forever getting him into trouble. she sends him lots of money unknown to the king, who generally knows everything. all this money he squanders or gambles away, and when funds are low, says, "the old lady will send us some." chapter xxxvi. hyde, the chancellor.--misfortune not always misfortune.--prince comnenus.--the king at petit-bourg.--his incognito.--who m. de vivonne really was. the castle of petit-bourg, of which the king made me a present, is situate on a height overlooking the seine, whence one may get the loveliest of views. so pleasant did i find this charming abode, that i repaired thither as often as possible, and stayed for five or six days. one balmy summer night, i sat in my dressing-gown at the central balcony, watching the stars, as was my wont, asking myself whether i should not be a thousand times happier if i should pass my life in a retreat like this, and so have time to contemplate the glorious works of nature, and to prepare myself for that separation which sooner or later awaited me. reason bade me encourage such thoughts, yet my heart offered opposition thereto, urging that there was something terrifying in solitude, most of all here, amid vast fields and meadows, and that, away from the court and all my friends, i should grow old, and death would take me before my time. while plunged in such thoughts, i suddenly heard the sound of a tocsin, and scanning the horizon, i saw flames and smoke rising from some hamlet or country-house. i rang for my servants, and told them instantly to despatch horsemen to the scene of the catastrophe, and bring back news. the messengers started off, and soon came back to say that the fire had broken out at the residence of my lord hyde, chancellor of england, who was but lately convalescent. they had seen him lying upon a rug on the grass, some little distance from the burning mansion. i forthwith ordered my carriage to be sent for him, and charged my surgeon and secretary to invite him to take shelter at my castle. my lord gratefully accepted the invitation; he entered my room as the clock struck twelve. as yet he could not tell the cause of the disaster, and in a calm, patriarchal manner observed, "i am a man marked out for great misfortune. god forbid, madame, that the mischance which dogs my footsteps touch you also!" "i cannot bear to see a fire," said i, in reply to the english nobleman, "for some dreadful accident always results therefrom. yet, on the whole, they are of good augury, and i am sure, my lord, that your health or your affairs will benefit by this accident." hearing me talk thus, my lord smiled. he only took some slight refreshment,--a little soup,--and heard me give orders for all my available servants to be sent to the scene of disaster, in order to save all his furniture, and protect it as well. after repeated expressions of his gratitude, he desired to withdraw, and retired to rest. next day we learnt that the fire had been got under about one o'clock in the morning; one wing only of the chateau had been destroyed, and the library, together with all the linen and plate, was well-nigh intact. lord hyde was very glad to hear the news. they told him that all the labourers living near had gladly come to the help of his servants and mine. as his private cashbox had been saved, owing to their vigilance and honesty, he promised to distribute its contents among them when he returned. hardly had he got the words out, when they came to tell me that, on the highroad, just in front of my gates, a carriage, bound for paris, had the traces broken, and the travellers persons of distinction begged the favour of my hospitality for a short while. i consented with pleasure, and they went back to take the travellers my answer. "you see, madame," said the chancellor, "my bad luck is contagious; no sooner have i set foot in this enchanting abode than its atmosphere deteriorates. a travelling-carriage passes rapidly by in front of the gates, when lo! some invisible hand breaks it to pieces, and stops it from proceeding any further." then i replied, "but how do you know, monsieur, that this mishap may not prove a most agreeable adventure for the travellers to whom we are about to give shelter? to begin with, they will have the honour of making your acquaintance, and to meet with an illustrious person is no common or frivolous event." the servants announced the princes comnenus, who immediately entered the salon. though dressed in travelling-costume, with embroidered gaiters, in the greek fashion, it was easy to see what they were. the son, a lad of fourteen, was presented to me by his father, and when both were seated, i introduced them to the chancellor. "the name is well known," observed the prince, "even in greece. my lord married his daughter to the heir-presumptive to the english throne, and england, being by nature ungrateful, has distressed this worthy parent, while robbing him of all his possessions." at these words lord hyde became greatly affected; he could not restrain his tears, and fearing at first to compromise himself, he told us that his exile was voluntary and self-imposed, or very nearly so. after complimenting the chancellor of a great kingdom, prince comnenus thought that he ought to say something courteous and flattering to myself. "madame," quoth he, "it is only now, after asking for hospitality and generously obtaining it, that i and my son have learnt the name of the lady who has so graciously granted us admission to this most lovely place. for a moment we hesitated in awe. but now our eyes behold her whom all europe admires, whom a great king favours with his friendship and confidence. what strange chances befall one in life! could i ever have foreseen so fortunate a mishap!" i briefly replied to this amiable speech, and invited the travellers to spend, at least, one day with us. they gladly accepted, and each retired to his apartment until the time came for driving out. dinner was laid, and on the point of being served, when the king, who was on his way from fontainebleau, suddenly entered my room. he had heard something about a fire, and came to see what had happened. i at once informed him, telling him, moreover, that i had the duke of york's father-in-law staying with me at the moment. "lord hyde, the chancellor?" exclaimed the king. "i have never seen him, and have always been desirous to make his acquaintance. the opportunity is an easy and favourable one." "but that is not all, sire; i have other guests to meet you," said i. "and who may they be?" inquired the king, smiling. "just because i have come in rough-and-ready plight, your house is full of people." "but they are in rough-and-ready plight as well," i answered; "so your majesties must mutually excuse each other." "are you in fun or in earnest?" asked his majesty. "have you really got some king stowed away in one of your rooms?" "not a king, sire, but an emperor,--the emperor of constantinople and trebizond, accompanied by the prince imperial, his son. you shall see two greek profiles of the best sort, two finely cut noses, albeit hooked, and almond-shaped eyes, like those of achilles and agamemnon." then the king said, "send for your groom of the chambers at once, and tell him to give orders that my incognito be strictly observed. you must introduce me to these dignitaries as your brother, m. de vivonne. under these conditions, i will join your party at table; otherwise, i should be obliged to leave the castle immediately." the king's wishes were promptly complied with; the footmen were let into the secret, and i introduced "monsieur de vivonne" to my guests. the talk, without being sparkling, was pleasant enough until dessert. when the men-servants left us, it assumed a very different character. the king induced the chancellor to converse, and asked him if his exile were owing to the english monarch personally, or to some parliamentary intrigue. "king charles," replied his lordship, "is a prince to gauge whose character requires long study. apparently, he is the very soul of candour, but no one is more deceitful than he. he fawns and smiles upon you when in his heart of hearts he despises and loathe you. when the duke of york, unfortunately, became violently enamoured of my daughter, he did not conceal his attachment from his brother, the king, and at last asked for his approval to join his fortunes to my daughter's, when the king, without offering opposition, contented himself by pointing out the relative distance between their rank and position; to which the duke replied, 'but at one time you did everything you possibly could to get olympia mancini, who was merely mazarin's niece!' and king charles, who could not deny this, left his brother complete liberty of action. "as my daughter was far dearer and more precious to me than social grandeur, i begged the duke of york to find for himself a partner of exalted rank. he gave way to despair, and spoke of putting an end to his existence; in fact, he behaved as all lovers do whom passion touches to madness; so this baleful marriage took place. god is my witness that i opposed it, urged thereto by wisdom, by modesty, and by foresight. now, as you see, from that cruel moment i have been exiled to alien lands, robbed of the sight of my beloved child, who has been raised to the rank of a princess, and whom i shall never see again. why did my sovereign not say to me frankly, i do not like this marriage; you must oppose it, chancellor, to please me? "how different was his conduct from that of his cousin, the french king! mademoiselle d'orleans wanted to make an unsuitable match; the king opposed it, as he had a right to do, and the marriage did not take place." my "brother," the king, smiled as he told his lordship he was right. prince comnenus was of the same opinion, and, being expressly invited to do so, he briefly recounted his adventures, and stated the object of his journey to paris. "the whole world," said he, "is aware of the great misfortunes of my family. the emperors andronicus and michael comnenus, driven from the throne of constantinople, left their names within the heart and memory of greece; they had ruled the west with a gentle sceptre, and in a people's grateful remembrance they had their reward. my ancestors, their descendants, held sway in trebizond, a quicksand which gave way beneath their tread. from adversity to adversity, from country to country, we were finally driven to seclusion in the isle of candia, part of the quondam minos territory. venice had allowed candia to fall before mahomet's bloody sword. europe lost her bulwark, the cross of the saviour was thrown down, and the candian christians have been massacred or forced to flee. i have left in the hands of the conqueror my fields and forests, my summer palace, my winter palace, and my gardens filled with the produce of america, asia, and europe. from this overwhelming disaster i managed to save my son; and as my sole fortune i brought away with me the large jewels of andronicus, his ivory and sapphire sceptre, his scimitar of lemnos, and his ancient gold crown, which once encircled theseus's brow. "these noble relics i shall present to the king of france. they say that he is humane, generous, fond of glory, and zealous in the cause of justice. when before his now immovable throne he sees laid down these last relics of an ancient race, perhaps he will be touched by so lamentable a downfall, and will not suffer distress to trouble my last days, and darken the early years of this my child." during this speech i kept watching the king's face. i saw that he was interested, then touched, and at last was on the point of forgetting his incognito and of appearing in his true character. "prince," said he to the greek traveller, "my duties and my devotion make it easy for me to approach the king of france's person very closely. in four or five days he will be leaving fontainebleau for his palace at saint germain. i will tell him without modification all that i have just heard from you. without being either prophet or seer, i can guarantee that you will be well received and cordially welcomed, receiving such benefits as kings are bound to yield to kings. "madame, who respects and is interested in you, is desirous, i feel certain, for me to persuade you to stay here until her departure; she enjoys royal favour, and it is my sister herself who shall present you at court. you shall show her, you shall show us all, the golden crown of theseus, the sceptre of adronicus, and this brow which i gaze upon and revere, for it deserves a kingly diamond. "as for you, my lord," said his majesty to the english nobleman, "if the misfortune of last night prove disastrous in more ways than one, pray wait for a while before you go back to the smouldering ashes of a half-extinguished fire. my sister takes pleasure in your company; indeed, the marquise is charmed to be able to entertain three such distinguished guests, and begs to place her chateau at your disposal until such time as your own shall be restored. we shall speak of you to the king, and he will certainly endeavour to induce king charles, his cousin, to recall you to your native country." then, after saying one or two words to me in private, he bowed to the gentlemen and withdrew. we went out on to the balcony to see him get into his coach, when, to the surprise and astonishment of my guests, as the carriage passed along the avenue, about a hundred peasants, grouped near the gateway, threw off their hats and cried, "long live the king!" prince comnenus and his son were inconsolable; i excused myself by saying that it was at the express desire of our royal visitor, and my lord admitted that at last he recollected his features, and recognised him by his grand and courtly address. before i end my tale, do not let me forget to say that the king strongly recommended prince comnenus to the republic of genoa, and obtained for him considerable property in corsica and a handsome residence at ajaccio. he accepted five or six beautiful jewels that had belonged to andronicus, and caused the sum of twelve hundred thousand francs to be paid to the young comnenus from his treasury. chapter xxxvii the universal jubilee.--court preachers.--king david.--madame de montespan is obliged to go to clagny.--bossuet's mission.--mademoiselle de mauleon.--an enemy's good faith. i do not desire to hold up to ridicule the rites of that religion in which i was born and bred. neither would i disparage its ancient usages, nor its far more modern laws. all religions, as i know, have their peculiarities, all nations their contradictions, but i must be suffered to complain of the abuse sometimes made in our country of clerical and priestly authority. a general jubilee was held soon after the birth of my second son, and among christian nations like ours, a jubilee is as if one said, "now all statutes, divine and earthly, are repealed; by means of certain formula recited, certain visits paid to the temples, certain acts of abstinence practised here and there, all sins, misdemeanours, and crimes are forgiven, and their punishment cancelled." it is generally on the occasion of the proclamation of a new pontificate at rome that such great papal absolutions are extended over the whole universe. the jubilee having been proclaimed in paris, the court preachers worked miracles. they denounced all social irregularities and friendships of which the church disapproved. the opening sermon showed plainly that the orator's eloquence was pointed at myself. the second preacher showed even less restraint; he almost mentioned me by name. the third ecclesiastic went beyond all bounds, actually uttering the following words: "sire, when king david was still but a shepherd, a heifer was stolen from his flocks; david made complaint to the patriarch of the land, when his heifer was restored to him, and the thief was punished. "when david came to the throne, he carried off his servant's wife, and as an excuse for such an odious deed, he pleaded the young woman's extreme beauty. the wretched servant besought him to obey the voice, not of passion, but of justice, and the servant was disgraced and perished miserably. oh, david, unhappy david!" the king, who had found it hard to sit quiet and hear such insults, said to me that evening: "go to clagny. let this stormy weather pass by. when it is fine again, you must come back." having never run counter to the wishes of the father of my children, i acquiesced, and without further delay gladly departed. next day, madame de montausier came to see me at my country-house; she told me of the general rumour that was afloat at court. the news, said she, of my retirement had begun to get about; three bishops had gone to congratulate the king, and these gentlemen had despatched couriers to paris to inform the heads of the various parishes, inviting them to write to the prince sympathising references touching an event which god and all christendom viewed with complete satisfaction. madame de montausier assured me that the king's bearing was fairly calm on the whole, and she also added that he had granted an interview of half an hour at least to the abbe bossuet, who had discoursed to him about me in a strain similar to that of the other clerics. she was my sincere friend; she promised to come to clagny every evening, driving thither incognito. she had hardly been gone an hour, when my footman announced "monsieur bossuet, bishop of condom." at the mention of this name, i felt momentarily inclined to refuse to see its owner; but i conquered my disgust, and i did well. the prelate, with his semi-clerical, semi-courtly air, made me a low bow. i calmly waited, so as to give him time to deliver his message. the famous rhetorician proceeded as follows: "you know, madame, with what health-giving sacrifices the church is now engaged. the merits of our lord doubtless protect christians at all times, but the church has appointed times more efficacious, ceremonies more useful, springs yet more abounding. thus it is that we now celebrate the grand nine days of the jubilee. "to this mystic pool herdsman and monarchs alike receive summons and admission. the most christian king must, for his own sake, accomplish his own sanctification; his sanctification provides for that of his subjects. "chosen by god to this royal priesthood, he comprehends the duties imposed upon him by such noble office. the passions of the heart are maladies from which man may recover, just as he recovers from physical disease. the physicians of the soul have lifted up their voice, have taken sage counsel together; and i come to inform you of the monarch's miraculous recovery, and at his request, i bring you this important and welcome news. "for convalescents, greater care is required than for others; the king, and the whole of france, beseech you, with my voice, to have respect and care for the convalescence of our monarch, and i beg you, madame, to leave at once for fontevrault." "for fontevrault?" i cried, without betraying my emotion. "fontevrault is near poitiers; it is too far away. no, i would rather go to petit-bourg, near the forest of fontainebleau." "fontainebleau is but eighteen leagues from the capital," he answered; "such proximity would be dangerous. i must insist upon fontevrault, madame." "but i cannot take my children to fontevrault," i retorted; "the nuns, and the abbess herself, would never admit them. you know better than i do that it is a nunnery." "your children," said he, "are not necessary to you; madame de la valliere managed to leave here for good and all." "yes; and in forsaking them she committed a crime," i answered; "only ferocious-hearted persons could have counselled her or commanded her to do so." and saying this, i rose, and gave him a glance of disdain. he grew somewhat gentler in manner as he slowly went on, "his majesty will take care of your children; it behoves you to save their mother. and, in order to prove to you that i have not come here of my own accord, but that, on the contrary, i am executing a formal command, here is a letter of farewell addressed to you by the king." i took the letter, which was couched in the following terms: it is but right, madame, that on so solemn an occasion i should set an example myself. i must ask you henceforth to consider our intimacy entirely at an end. you must retire to fontevrault, where madame de montemart will take care of you and afford you distraction by her charming society. your children are in good hands; do not be in the least uneasy about them. farewell. i wish you all the firmness and well-being possible. louison. in the first flush of my indignation i was about to trample under foot so offensive a communication. but the final phrase shocked me less than the others. i read it over again, and understood that if the king recommended me to be firm, it was because he needed to be firm himself. i soon mastered my emotion, and looked at things in their real light. it was easy to see that sanctimonious fanatics had forced the king to act. bossuet was not sanctimonious, but, to serve his own ends, proffered himself as spokesman and emissary, being anxious to prove to his old colleagues that he was on the side of what they styled moral conduct and good example. for a while i walked up and down my salon; but the least exertion fatigues me. i resumed my armchair or my settee, leaving the man there like a sort of messenger, whom it was not necessary to treat with any respect. he was bold, and asked me for a definite answer which he could take back to his majesty. i stared hard at him for about a minute, and then said: "my lord bishop of condom, the clerics who have been advising the king are very pleased that he should set an example to his people of self-sacrifice. i am of their opinion; i think as they do, as you do, as the pope does; but feeling convinced that to us, the innocent sheep, the shepherds ought first to show an example, i will consent to break off my relationship with his majesty when you, m. de condom, shall have broken off your intimacy with mademoiselle de mauleon des vieux!" by a retort of this kind i admit that i hoped greatly to embarrass the bishop, and enjoy seeing his face redden with confusion. but he was nowise disconcerted, and i confess to-day that this circumstance proved to me that there was but little truth in the rumours that were current with regard to this subject. "mademoiselle de mauleon!" said he, smiling half-bitterly, half-pityingly. "surely, madame, your grief makes you forget what you say. everybody knows that she is an acquaintance of my youth, and that, since that time, having confidence in my doctrines and my counsel, she wished to have me as spiritual monitor and guide. how can you institute a comparison between such a relationship and your own?" then, after walking up and down for a moment, as if endeavouring to regain his self-possession, he continued: "however, i shall not insist further; it was signally foolish of me to speak in the name of an earthly king, when i should have invoked that of the king of heaven. i have received an insulting answer. so be it. "farewell, madame. i leave you to your own conscience, which, seemingly, is so tranquil that i blame myself for having sought to disturb it." with these words he departed, leaving me much amazed at the patience with which a man, known to be so arrogant and haughty, had received such an onslaught upon his private life and reputation. i need scarcely say that, next day, the species of pastoral letter which my lords the bishops of aleth, orleans, soissons, and condom had dictated to the king was succeeded by another letter, which he had dictated himself, and by which my love for him was solaced and assured. he begged me to wait patiently for a few days, and this arrangement served my purpose very well. i thought it most amusing that the king should have commissioned m. de bossuet to deliver this second missive, and i believe i said as much to certain persons, which perhaps gave rise to a rumour that he actually brought me love-letters from the king. but the purveyors of such gossip could surely know nothing of bossuet's inflexible principles, and of the subtlety of his policy. he was well aware that by lending himself to such amenities he would lose caste morally with the king, and that if by his loyalty he had won royal attachment and regard, all this would have been irretrievably lost. thus m. de bossuet was of those who say, "hate me, but fear me," rather than of those who strive to be loved. such people know that friendships are generally frail and transient, and that esteem lasts longer and leads further. he never interfered again with my affairs, nor did i with his; i got my way, and he is still where he was. chapter xxxviii. madame de montespan back at court.--her friends.--her enemies.--edifying conversions.--the archbishop of paris. eight days after the conclusion of the jubilee i returned to versailles. the king received me with every mark of sincere friendship; my friends came in crowds to my apartments; my enemies left their names with my swiss servant, and in chapel they put back my seat, chairs, and footstools in their usual place. madame de maintenon had twice sent my children to clagny with the undergoverness; but she did not come herself, which greatly inconvenienced me. i complained to her about this, and she assured me the king had dissuaded her from visiting me, "so as to put curious folk off the scent;" and when i told her of my interview with m. de bossuet, she neatly avoided being mixed up in the matter by omitting to blame anybody. the most licentious women, so she told me, had distinguished themselves by pious exercises during the observance of the jubilee. she informed me that the comtesse de soissons, the princesse de monaco, madame de soubise, and five or six virtuous dames of this type, had given gold, silver, and enamelled lamps to the most notable churches of the capital. the notorious duchesse de longueville talked of having her own tomb constructed in a carmelite chapel. six leaders of fashion had forsworn rouge, and madame d'humieres had given up gambling. as for my lord the archbishop of paris, he had not changed his way of life a jot, either for the better or for the worse. [the splendid chateau de clagny (since demolished) was situated on the beautiful country surrounding versailles, near the wood of millers d'avrai.--editor's note.] chapter xxxix. attempted abduction.--the marquise procures a bodyguard.--her reasons for so doing.--geography and morals. the youthful marquis d'antin--my son--was growing up; the king showed him the most flattering signs of his attachment, and as the child had lived only with me, he dreaded his father's violent temper, of which he had often heard me speak. in order to have the custody of his son, the marquis de montespan had appealed to parliament; but partisans of the king had shelved the matter, which, though ever in abeyance, was still pending. i had my son educated under my care, being sure of the tender attachment that would spring up between himself and the princes, his brothers. at the montespan chateau, i admit, he would have learned to ride an unbroken horse, as well as to shoot hares, partridges, and big game; he would also have learned to talk loud, to use bad language, to babble about his pedigree, while ignorant of its history or its crest; in fine, he would have learned to despise his mother, and probably to hate her. educated under my eyes, almost on the king's lap, he soon learned the customs of the court and all that a well-born gentleman should know. he will be made duc d'antin, i have the king's word for it,--and his mien and address, which fortunately sort well with that which fate holds in store for him, entitle him to rank with all that is most exalted at court. the procureur-general caused a man from barn to be arrested, who had come to abduct my son. this individual, half-spanish and half-french, was detained in the paris prisons, and i was left in ignorance of the matter. it was imprudent not to tell me, and almost occasioned a serious mishap. one day i was returning from the neighbourhood of etampes with only my son, his tutor, and my physician in the carriage. on reaching a steep incline, where the brake should be put on, my servants imprudently neglected to do this, and i felt that we were burning the roadway in our descent. such recklessness made me uneasy, when suddenly twelve horsemen rode headlong at us, and sought to stop the postilions. my six horses were new ones and very fresh; they galloped along at breakneck speed. our pursuers fired at the coachman, but missed him, and the report of a pistol terrified the horses yet further. they redoubled their speed. we gave ourselves up for lost, as an accident of some sort seemed bound to ensue, when suddenly my carriage reached the courtyard of an inn, where we obtained help. baulked of their prey, the horsemen turned about and rode away. they had been noticed the day before, hanging about and asking for madame de montespan. we stayed that night at the inn, and next day, provided with a stout escort, we reached saint germain. the king regretted not having provided against similar attempts. he rewarded my postilions for their neglect to use the brake (a neglect which, at first, i was going to punish), saying to me, "if they had put the brake on, you would have been captured and whisked off to the pyrenees. your husband is never going to give in!" "such a disagreeable surprise," added he, "shall not occur again. henceforth you shall not travel without an adequate escort. in future, you shall have a guard of honour, like the queen and myself." i had long wished for this privilege, and i warmly thanked his majesty. nevertheless, people chose to put a completely false construction upon so simple an innovation, and my sentiments in the matter were wholly misunderstood. it was thought that vanity had prompted me to endeavour to put myself on a level with the queen, and this worthy princess was herself somewhat nettled thereat. god is my witness that, from mere motives of prudence, this unusual arrangement had to be made, and i entirely agreed to it. after all, if the infanta of spain gave birth to the dauphin, athenais de mortemart is the mother of several princes. in france, a catholic realm, for the king to have a second wife is considered superfluous by the timorous and shrivelled-brained. in constantinople, alexandria, and ispahan, i should have met with only homage, veneration, respect. errors of a purely geographical nature are not those which cause me alarm; to have brought into the world so perfect a being as the duc du maine will never, as i take it, incur blame at the tribunal of almighty god. mademoiselle de nantes, his charming sister, has from her cradle been destined to belong to one of the royal branches. mademoiselle de blois will also become the mother of several bourbon princes; i have good grounds for cherishing such flattering hopes. the little comte de toulouse already bids fair to be a worthy successor to m. du maine. he has the same grace of manner, and frank, distinguished mien. when all these princes possess their several escorts, it will seem passing strange that their mother alone should not have any. that is my opinion, and it is shared by all people of sense. chapter xl. osmin, the little moor.--he sets the fashion.--the queen has a black baby.--osmin is dismissed. i have already told how the envoys of the king of arda, an african prince, gave to the queen a nice little blackamoor, as a toy and pet. this moor, aged about ten or twelve years, was only twenty-seven inches in height, and the king of arda declared that, being quite unique, the boy would never grow to be taller than three feet. the queen instantly took a great fancy to this black creature. sometimes he gambolled about and turned somersaults on her carpet like a kitten, or frolicked about on the bureau, the sofa, and even on the queen's lap. as she passed from one room to another, he used to hold up her train, and delighted to catch hold of it and so make the queen stop short suddenly, or else to cover his head and face with it, for mischief, to make the courtiers laugh. he was arrayed in regular african costume, wearing handsome bracelets, armlets, a necklace ablaze with jewels, and a splendid turban. wishing to show myself agreeable, i gave him a superb aigrette of rubies and diamonds; i was always sorry afterwards that i did so. the king could never put up with this little dwarf, albeit his features were comely enough. to begin with, he thought him too familiar, and never even answered him when the dwarf dared to address him. following the fashion set by her majesty, all the court ladies wanted to have little blackamoors to follow them about, set off their white complexions, and hold up their cloaks or their trains. thus it came that mignard, le bourdon, and other painters of the aristocracy, used to introduce negro boys into all their large portraits. it was a mode, a mania; but so absurd a fashion soon had to disappear after the mishap of which i am about to tell. the queen being pregnant, public prayers were offered up for her according to custom, and her majesty was forever saying: "my pregnancy this time is different from preceding ones. i am a prey to nausea and strange whims; i have never felt like this before. if, for propriety's sake, i did not restrain myself, i should now dearly like to be turning somersaults on the carpet, like little osmin. he eats green fruit and raw game; that is what i should like to do, too. i should like to--" "oh, madame, you frighten us!" exclaimed the king. "don't let all those whimsies trouble you further, or you will give birth to some monstrosity, some freak of nature." his majesty was a true prophet. the queen was delivered of a fine little girl, black as ink from head to foot. they did not tell her this at once, fearing a catastrophe, but persuaded her to go to sleep, saying that the child had been taken away to be christened. the physicians met in one room, the bishops and chaplains in another. one prelate was opposed to baptising the infant; another only agreed to this upon certain conditions. the majority decided that it should be baptised without the name of father or mother, and such suppression was unanimously advocated. the little thing, despite its swarthy hue, was most beautifully made; its features bore none of those marks peculiar to people of colour. it was sent away to the gisors district to be suckled as a negro's daughter, and the gazette de france contained an announcement to the effect that the royal infant had died, after having been baptised by the chaplains. [this daughter of the queen lived, and was obliged to enter a benedictine nunnery at moret. her portrait is to be seen in the sainte genevieve library of henri iv.'s college, where it hangs in the winter saloon.--editor's note.] the little african was sent away, as may well be imagined; and the queen admitted that, one day soon after she was pregnant, he had hidden himself behind a piece of furniture and suddenly jumped out upon her to give her a fright. in this he was but too successful. the court ladies no longer dared come near the queen attended by their little blackamoors. these, however, they kept for a while longer, as if they were mere nick-hacks or ornaments; in paris they were still to be seen in public. but the ladies' husbands at last got wind of the tale, when all the little negroes disappeared. chapter xli. monsieur's second marriage.--princess palatine.--the court turnspit.--a woman's hatred.--the king's mistress on a par with the first prince of the blood.--she gives his wife a lesson. in order to keep up appearances at his palais royal, monsieur besought the king to consent to his remarriage after the usual term of mourning was at an end. "whom have you in view?" asked his brother. he replied that he proposed to wed mademoiselle--the grande mademoiselle de montpensier--on account of her enormous wealth! just then mademoiselle was head over ears in love with lauzun. she sent the prince about his business, as i believe i have already stated. moreover, she remarked: "you had the loveliest wife in all europe,--young, charming, a veritable picture. you might have seen to it that she was not poisoned; in that case you would not now be a widower. as it is not likely that i should ever come to terms with your favourites, i shall never be anything else to you but a cousin, and i shall endeavour not to die until the proper time; that is, when it shall please god to take me. you can repeat this speech, word for word, to your precious marquis d'effiat and messieurs de remecourt and de lorraine. they have no access to my kitchens; i am not afraid of them." this answer amused the king not a little, and he said to me: "i was told that the palatine of bavaria's daughter is extremely ugly and ill-bred; consequently, she is capable of keeping monsieur in check. through one of my rhenish allies, i will make proposals to her father for her hand. as soon as a reply comes, i will show my brother a portrait of some sort; it will be all the same to him; he will accept her." soon afterwards this marriage took place. charlotte elizabeth of bavaria, though aware of the sort of death that her predecessor died, agreed to marry monsieur. had she not been lucky enough to make this grand match, her extreme ugliness would assuredly have doomed her to celibacy, even in bavaria and in germany. it is surely not allowable to come into the world with such a face and form, such a voice, such eyes, such hands, and such feet, as this singular princess displayed. the court, still mindful of the sweetness, grace, and charm of henrietta of england, could not contemplate without horror and disgust the fearful caricature i have just described. young pregnant women--after the queen's unfortunate experience--were afraid to look at the princess palatine, and wished to be confined before they reappeared at court. as for herself, armed with robust, philosophical notions, and a complete set of northern nerves, she was in no way disconcerted at the effect her presence produced. she even had the good sense to appear indifferent to all the raillery she provoked, and said to the king: "sire, to my mind you are one of the handsomest men in the world, and with few exceptions, your court appears to me perfectly fitted for you. i have come but scantily equipped to such an assemblage. fortunately, i am neither jealous nor a coquette, and i shall win pardon for my plainness, i myself being the first to make merry at it." "you put us completely at our ease," replied the king, who had not even the courage to be gallant. "i must thank you on behalf of these ladies for your candour and wit." ten or twelve of us began to titter at this speech of hers. the robust lady never forgave those who laughed. directly she arrived, she singled me out as the object of her ponderous palatine sarcasms. she exaggerated my style of dress, my ways and habits. she thought to make fun of my little spaniels by causing herself to be followed, even into the king's presence-chamber, by a large turnspit, which in mockery she called by the name of my favourite dog. when i had had my hair dressed, ornamented with quantities of little curls, diamonds, and jewelled pins, she had the impertinence to appear at court wearing a huge wig, a grotesque travesty of my coiffure. i was told of it. i entered the king's apartment without deigning to salute madame, or even to look at her. i had also been told that, in society, she referred to me as "the montespan woman." i met her one day in company with a good many other people, and said to her: "madame, you managed to give up your religion in order to marry a french prince; you might just as well have left behind your gross palatine vulgarity also. i have the honour to inform you that, in the exalted society to which you have been admitted, one can no more say 'the montespan woman,' than one can say 'the orleans woman.' i have never offended you in the slightest degree, and i fail to see why i should have been chosen as the favoured object of your vulgar insults." she blushed, and ventured to inform me that this way of expressing herself was a turn of speech taken from her own native language, and that by saying "the," as a matter of course "marquise" was understood. "no, madame," i said, without appearing irritated; "in paris, such an excuse as that is quite inadmissible, and since you associate with turnspits, pray ask your cooks, and they will tell you." fearing to quarrel with the king, she was obliged to be more careful, but to change one's disposition is impossible, and she has loathed and insulted me ever since. her husband, who himself probably taught her to do so, one day tried to make apologies for what he ruefully termed her reprehensible conduct. "there, there, it doesn't matter," i said to him; "it is easier to offend me than to deceive me. allow me to quote to you the speech of mademoiselle de montpensier, 'you had a charming and accomplished wife, you ought to have prevented her from being poisoned, and then we should not have had this hag at court.'" chapter xlii. madame de montespan's father-confessor.--he alters his opinion.--madame de maintenon is consulted.--a general on theology.--a country priest.--the marquise postpones her repentance and her absolution. my father-confessor, who since my arrival at court had never vexed or thwarted me, suddenly altered his whole manner towards me, from which i readily concluded that the queen had got hold of him. this priest, of gentle, easy-going, kindly nature, never spoke to me except in a tone of discontent and reproach. he sought to induce me to leave the king there and then, and retire to some remote chateau. seeing that he was intriguing, and had, so to speak, taken up his position, like a woman of experience i took up mine as well, and politely dismissed him, at which he was somewhat surprised. in matters of religion, madame de maintenon, who understands such things, was my usual mentor. i told her that i was disheartened, and should not go to confession again for ever so long. she was shocked at my resolve, and strove all she could to make me change my mind and endeavour to lead me back into the right way. she forever kept repeating her favourite argument, saying, "good gracious! suppose you should die in that state!" i replied that it was not my fault, as i had never ceased to obey the precepts of the holy church. "it was my old father-confessor," said i, "the canon of saint thomas du louvre, who had harshly refused to confess me." "what he does," replied she, "is solely for your own good." "but if he has only my well-being in view," i quickly retorted, "why did not he think of this at first? it would have been far better to have stopped me at the outset, instead of letting me calmly proceed upon my career. he is obeying the queen's orders, or else those of that abbe bossuet de mauleon, who no longer dares attack me to my face." as we thus talked, the duc de vivonne came into my room. learning the topic of our discussion, he spoke as follows: "i should not be general of the king's galleys and a soldier at heart and by profession if my opinion in this matter were other than it is. i have attentively read controversies on this point, and have seen it conclusively proved that our kings never kept a confessor at court. among these kings, too, there were most holy, most saintly people, and--" "then, what do you conclude from that, duke?" asked madame de maintenon. "why, that madame will do well to respect his majesty the king as her father-confessor." "oh, duke, you shock me! what dreadful advice, to be sure!" cried the governess. "i have not the least wish to shock you, madame; but my veneration for d'aubigne--your illustrious grandfather--is too great to let me think that he is among the damned, and he never attended confession at all." [theodore agrippa, baron d'aubigne, lieutenant-general in the army of henri iv. he persevered in calvinism after the recantation of the king.--editor's note.] "eternity hides that secret from us," replied madame de maintenon. "each day i pray to god to have mercy upon my poor grandfather; if i thought he were among the saved, i should never be at pains to do this." "bah, madame! let's talk like sensible, straightforward people," quoth the general. "the reverend pere de la chaise--one of the jesuit oracles--gives the king absolution every year, and authorises him to receive the holy sacrament at easter. if the king's confessor--thorough priest as he is--pardons his intimacy with madame, here, how comes it that the other cleric won't tolerate madame's intimacy with the king? on a point of such importance as this, the two confessors ought really to come to some agreement, or else, as the jesuits have such a tremendous reputation, the marquise is entitled to side with them." hemmed in thus, madame de maintenon remarked "that the morals of jesuits and lax casuists had never been hers," and she advised me to choose a confessor far removed from the court and its intrigues. the next day she mentioned a certain village priest to me, uninfluenced by anybody, and whose primitive simplicity caused him to be looked upon as a saint. i submitted, and ingenuously went to confess myself to this wonderful man; his great goodness did not prevent him from rallying me about the elegance of my costume, and the perfume of my gloves, and my hair. he insisted upon knowing my name, and on learning it, flew into a passion. i suppress the details of his disagreeable propositions. seated sideways in his confessional, he stamped on the floor, abused me, and spoke disrespectfully of the king. i could not stand such scandalous behaviour for long; and, wearing my veil down, i got into my coach, being thoroughly determined that i would take a good long holiday. m. de vivonne soundly rated me for such cowardice, as he called it, while madame de maintenon offered me her curate-in-chief, or else the abbe gobelin. but, for the time being, i determined to keep to my plan of not going to confession, strengthened in such resolve by my brother vivonne's good sense, and the attitude of the king's jesuit confessor, who had a great reputation and knew what he was about. chapter xliii. the comte de guiche.--his violent passion for madame.--his despair.--he flees to la trappe.--and comes out again.--a man's heart.--cured of his passion, he takes a wife. the comte de guiche, son of the marechal de grammont, was undoubtedly one of the handsomest men in france. the grandeur and wealth of his family had, at an early age, inspired him with courage and self-conceit, so that in his blind, frivolous presumption, the only person, as he thought, who exceeded his own fascination was possibly the king, but nobody else. perceiving the wonderful charm of monsieur's first wife, he conceived so violent a passion for her that no counsel nor restraint could prevent him from going to the most extravagant lengths in obedience to this rash, this boundless passion. henrietta of england, much neglected by her husband, and naturally of a romantic disposition, allowed the young count to declare his love for her, either by singing pretty romances under her balcony, or by wearing ribbons, bunched together in the form of a hieroglyphic, next his heart. elegantly dressed, he never failed to attend all the assemblies to which she lent lustre by her presence. he followed her to saint germain, to versailles, to chambord, to saint cloud; he only lived and had his being in the enjoyment of contemplating her charms. one day, being desirous of walking alongside her sedan-chair, without being recognised, he had a complete suit made for him of the la valliere livery, and thus, seeming to be one of the duchess's pages, he was able to converse with madame for a short time. another time he disguised himself as a pretty gipsy, and came to tell the princess her fortune. at first she did not recognise him, but when the secret was out, and all the ladies were in fits of laughter, a page came running in to announce the arrival of monsieur. young de guiche slipped out by a back staircase, and in order to facilitate his exit, one of the footmen, worthy of moliere, caught hold of the prince as if he were one of his comrades, and holding a handkerchief over his face, nearly poked his eye out. the count's indiscretions were retailed in due course to monsieur by his favourites, and he was incensed beyond measure. he complained to marechal de grammont; he complained to the king. hereupon, m. de guiche received orders to travel for two or three years. war with the turks had just been declared, and together with other officers, his friends, he set out for candia and took part in the siege. all did him the justice to affirm that while there he behaved like a hero. when the fortress had to capitulate, and candia was lost to the christians forever, our officers returned to france. madame was still alive when the young count rejoined his family. he met the princess once or twice in society, without being able to approach her person, or say a single word to her. soon afterwards, she gave birth to a daughter. a few days later, certain monsters took her life by giving her poison. this dreadful event made such an impression upon the poor comte de guiche, that for a long while he lost his gaiety, youth, good looks, and to a certain extent, his reason. after yielding to violent despair, he was possessed with rash ideas of vengeance. the marechal de grammont had to send him away to one of his estates, for the count talked of attacking and of killing, without further ado, the marquis d'effiat, m. de remecourt, the prince's intendant, named morel, and even the duc d'orleans himself. [morel subsequently admitted his guilt in the matter of madame's death, as well as the commission of other corresponding crimes. see the letters of charlotte, the princess palatine.--editor's note.] his intense agitation was succeeded by profound melancholy, stupor closely allied to insanity or death. one evening, the comte de guiche went to the abbey church of saint denis. he hid himself here, to avoid being watched, and when the huge nave was closed, and all the attendants had left, he rushed forward and flung himself at full length upon the tombstone which covers the vast royal vault. by the flickering light of the lamps, he mourned the passing hence of so accomplished a woman, murdered in the flower of her youth. he called her by name, telling her once more of his deep and fervent love. next day, he wandered about in great pain, gloomy and inconsolable. one day he came to see me at clagny, and talked in a hopeless, desolate way about our dear one. he told me that neither glory nor ambition nor voluptuous pleasures could ever allure him or prove soothing to his soul. he assured me that life was a burden to him,--a burden that religion alone prevented him from relinquishing, and that he was determined to shut himself up in la trappe or in some such wild, deserted place. i sought to dissuade him from such a project, which could only be the cause of grief and consternation to his relatives. he pretended to yield to my entreaties, but the next night he left home and disappeared. at length he came back. luckily, the trappist abbe de ranch wished to take away from him the portrait on enamel of henrietta of england, so as to break it in pieces before his eyes. so indignant was the count that he was upon the point of giving the hermit a thrashing. he fled in disgust from the monastery, and this fresh annoyance served, in some degree, to assuage his grief. life's daily occupations, the excitements of society, the continual care shown towards him by his relatives, youth, above all, and time, the irresistible healer, at last served to soothe a sorrow which, had it lasted longer, would have been more disastrous in its results. the comte de guiche consented to marry a wife to whom he was but slightly attached, and who is quite content with him, praising his good qualities and all his actions. chapter xliv. mexica.--philippa.--molina.--the queen's jester. in marrying maria theresa, infanta of spain, the king had made an advantageous match from a political point of view. for through the infanta he had rights with regard to flanders; she also provided him with eventual claims upon spain itself, together with mexico and peru. but from a personal and social point of view, the king could not have contracted a more miserable alliance. the infanta, almost wholly uneducated, had not even such intellectual resources as a position such as hers certainly required, where personal risk was perpetual, where authority had to be maintained by charming manners, and respect for power ensured by elevation of tone and sentiment, which checks the indiscreet, and imbues everybody with the spirit of consideration and reverence. maria theresa, though a king's daughter, made no more effect at court than if she had been a mere middle-class person. the king, in fact, by his considerateness, splendour, and glory, served to support her dignity. he hoped and even desired that she should be held in honour, partly for her own sake, in a great measure for his. but as soon as she started upon some argument or narration where force of intellect was needed, she always seemed bewildered, and he soon interrupted her either by finishing the tale himself, or by changing the conversation. this he did good-naturedly and with much tact, so that the queen, instead of taking offence, was pleased to be under such an obligation to him. from such a wife this prince could not look to have sons of remarkable talent or intellect, for that would have been nothing short of a miracle. and thus the little dauphin showed none of those signs of intelligence which the most ordinary commonplace children usually display. when the queen heard courtiers repeat some of the droll, witty sayings of the comte de vegin, or the duc du maine, she reddened with jealousy, and remarked, "everybody goes into ecstasies about those children, while monsieur le dauphin is never even mentioned." she had brought with her from spain that donna silvia molina, of whom i have already spoken, and who had got complete control over her character. instead of tranquillising her, and so making her happy, donna silvia thought to become more entertaining, and above all, more necessary to her, by gossiping to her about the king's amours. she ferreted out all the secret details, all the petty circumstances, and with such dangerous material troubled the mind and destroyed the repose of her mistress, who wept unceasingly, and became visibly changed. la molina, enriched and almost wealthy, was sent back to spain, much to the grief of maria theresa, who for several days after her departure could neither eat nor sleep. at the same time, the king got rid of that little she-dwarf, named mexica, in whose insufferable talk and insufferable presence the queen took delight. but the sly little wretch escaped during the journey, and managed to get back to the princess again, hidden in some box or basket. the queen was highly delighted to see her again; she pampered her secretly in her private cabinet with the utmost mystery, giving up every moment that she could spare. one day, by way of a short cut, the king was passing through the queen's closet, when he heard the sound of coughing in one of the cupboards. turning back, he flung it open, where, huddled up in great confusion, he found mexica. "what!" cried his majesty; "so you are back again? when and how did you come?" in a feeble voice mexica answered, "sire, please don't send me away from the queen any more, and she will never complain again about madame de montespan." the king laughed at this speech, and then came and repeated it to me. i laughed heartily, too, and such a treaty of peace seemed to contain queer compensation clauses: madame de montespan and mexica were mutually bound over to support each other; the spectacle was vastly droll, i vow. besides her little dwarf, the queen had a fool named tricominy. this quaint person was permitted to utter everywhere and to everybody in incoherent fashion the pseudo home-truths that passed through his head. one day he went up to the grande mademoiselle de montpensier, and said to her before everybody, "since you are so anxious to get married, marry me; then that will be a man-fool and a woman-fool." the princess tried to hit him, and he took refuge behind the queen's chair. another time, to m. letellier, louvois's brother and archbishop of rheims, he said, "monseigneur, do let me ascend the pulpit in your cathedral, and i will preach modesty and humanity to you." when the little duc d'anjou, that pretty, charming child, died of suppressed measles, the queen was inconsolable, and the king, good father that he is, was weeping for the little fellow, for he promised much. says tricominy, "they're weeping just as if princes had not got to die like anybody else. m. d'anjou was no better made than i am, nor of better stuff." tricominy was dismissed, because it was plain that his madness took a somewhat eccentric turn; that, in fact, he was not fool enough for his place. the queen had still a spanish girl named philippa, to whom she was much attached, and who deserved such flattering attachment. born in the escurial palace, philippa had been found one night in a pretty cradle at the base of one of the pillars. the palace guards informed king philip, who adopted the child and brought it up, since it had been foisted upon him as his daughter. he grew fond of the girl, and on coming to saint jean de luz to marry the infanta to his nephew the king, he made them a present of philippa, and begged them both to be very good to her. in this amiable spanish girl, the infanta recognised a sister. she knew she was an illegitimate daughter of king philip and one of the palace ladies. when molina left the court, she did everything on earth to induce philippa to return with her to spain, but the girl was sincerely attached to the queen, who, holding her in a long embrace, promised to find her a wealthy husband if she would stay. however, the queen only gave her as husband the chevalier de huze, her cloak-bearer, so as to keep the girl about her person and to be intimate with her daily. philippa played the mandolin and the guitar to perfection; she, also sang and danced with consummate grace. chapter xlv. le bouthilier de ranch, abbe de la trappe. the abbe le bouthilier de rance,--son of the secretary of state, le bouthilier de chavigny,--after having scandalised court and town by his public gallantries, lost his mistress, a lady possessed of a very great name and of no less great beauty. his grief bordered upon despair; he forsook the world, gave away or sold his belongings, and went and shut himself up in his abbey of la trappe, the only benefice which he had retained. this most ancient monastery was of the saint bernard order, with white clothing. the edifice spacious, yet somewhat dilapidated was situated on the borders of normandy, in a wild, gloomy valley exposed to fog and frost. the abbe found in this a place exactly suitable to his plan, which was to effect reforms of austere character and contrary to nature. he convened his monks, who were amazed at his arrival and residence; he soundly rated them for the scandalous laxity of their conduct, and having reminded them of all the obligations of their office, he informed them of his new regulations, the nature of which made them tremble. he proposed nothing less than to condemn them to daily manual labour, the tillage of the soil, the performance of menial household duties; and to this he added the practices of immoderate fasting, perpetual silence, downcast glances, veiled countenances, the renouncement of all social ties, and all instructive or entertaining literature. in short, he advocated sleeping all together on the bare floor of an ice-cold dormitory, the continual contemplation of death, the dreadful obligation of digging, while alive, one's own grave every day with one's own hands, and thus, in imagination, burying oneself therein before being at rest there for ever. as laws so foolish and so tyrannical were read out to them, the worthy monks--all of them of different character and age openly expressed their discontent. the abbe de rance allowed them to go and get pleasure in other monasteries, and contrived to collect around him youths whom it was easy to delude, and a few elderly misanthropes; with these he formed his doleful wailing flock. as he loved notoriety in everything, he had various views of his monastery engraved, and pictures representing the daily pursuits of his laborious community. such pictures, hawked about everywhere by itinerant vendors of relics and rosaries, served to create for this barbarous reformer a reputation saintly and angelic. in towns, villages, even in royal palaces, he formed the one topic of conversation. several gentlemen, disgusted either with vice or with society, retired of their own accord to his monastery, where they remained in order that they might the sooner die. desirous of enjoying his ridiculous celebrity, the abbe de rance came to paris, under what pretext i do not remember, firmly resolved to show himself off in all the churches, and solicit abundant alms for his phantoms who never touched food. from all sides oblations were forthcoming; soon he had got money enough to build a palace, if he had liked. it being impossible for him to take the august mademoiselle de montpensier to his colony of monks, he desired at any rate to induce her to withdraw from the world, and counselled her to enter a carmelite convent. mademoiselle's ardent passion for m. de lauzun seemed to the trappist abbe a scandal; in fact, his sour spirit could brook no scandal of any sort. "i attended her father as he lay dying," said he, "and to me belongs the task of training, enlightening, and sanctifying his daughter. i would have her keep silence; she has spoken too much." the moment was ill chosen; just then mademoiselle de montpensier was striving to break the fetters of her dear de lauzun; she certainly did not wish to get him out of one prison, and then put herself into another. every one blamed this reformer's foolish presumption, and mademoiselle, thoroughly exasperated, forbade her servants to admit him. it was said that he had worked two or three miracles, and brought certain dead people back to life. "i will rebuild his monastery for him in marble if he will give us back poor little vegin, and the duc d'anjou," said the king to me. the remark almost brought tears to my eyes, just as i was about to joke with his majesty about the fellow and his miracles. well satisfied with his parisian harvest, the abbe le bouthilier de rance went straight to his convent, where the inmates were persevering enough to be silent, fast, dig, catch their death of cold, and beat themselves for him. madame cormeil, wishing to have a good look at the man, sent to inform him of her illness. would-be saints are much afraid of words with a double meaning. in no whit disconcerted, he replied that he had devoted his entire zeal to the poor in spirit, and that madame cormeil was not of their number. chapter xlvi. the court goes to flanders.--nancy.--ravon.--sainte marie aux mines.--dancing and death.--a german sovereign's respectful visit.--the young strasburg priests.--the good bailiff of chatenoi.--the bridge at brisach.--the capucin monk presented to the queen. before relating that which i have to say about the queen and her precautions against myself, i would not omit certain curious incidents during the journey that the king caused us to take in alsatia and flanders, when he captured maestricht and courtrai. the king having left us behind at nancy, a splendid town where a large proportion of the nobility grieved for the loss of messieurs de lorraine, their legitimate sovereigns, the queen soon saw that here she was more honoured than beloved. it was this position which suggested to her the idea of going to spa, close by, and of taking the waters for some days. if the infanta was anxious to escape from the frigid courtesies of the lorraine aristocracy, i also longed to have a short holiday, and to keep away from the queen, as well for the sake of her peace of mind as for my own. my doctor forbade me to take the spa waters, as they were too sulphurous; he ordered me those of pont-a-mousson. hardly had i moved there, when orders came for us all to meet at luneville, and thence we set out to rejoin the king. horrible was the first night of our journey spent at ravon, in the vosges mountains. the house in which mademoiselle de montpensier and i lodged was a dilapidated cottage, full of holes, and propped up in several places. lying in bed, we heard the creaking of the beams and rafters. two days afterwards the house, so they told us, collapsed. from that place we went on to sainte marie aux mines, a mean sort of town, placed like a long corridor between two lofty, well-wooded mountains, which even at noonday deprive it of sun. close by there is a shallow, rock-bound streamlet which divides lorraine from alsace. sainte marie aux mines belonged to the prince palatine of birkenfeld. this prince offered us his castle of reif auvilliers, an uncommonly beautiful residence, which he had inherited from the comtesse de ribaupierre, his wife. this lady's father was just dead, and as, in accordance with german etiquette, the count's funeral obsequies could not take place for a month, in the presence of all his relatives and friends, who came from a great distance, the corpse, embalmed and placed in a leaden coffin, lay in state under a canopy in the mortuary chapel. our equerries, seeing that the king's chamber looked on to the mortuary chapel, took upon themselves to blow out all the candles, and for the time being stowed away the corpse in a cupboard. we knew nothing about this; and as the castle contained splendid rooms, the ladies amused themselves by dancing and music to make them forget the boredom of their journey. the king looked in upon us every now and then, saying, in a low voice, "ah! if you only knew what i know!" and then he would go off, laughing in his sleeve. we did not get to know about this corpse until five or six days afterwards, when we were a long way off, and the discovery greatly shocked us. the day we left sainte marie aux mines, a little german sovereign came to present his homage to the king. it was the prince de mont-beliard, of wurtemberg, whom i had previously met in paris, on the occasion of his marriage with marechal de chatillon's charming daughter. the luxurious splendour of saint germain and versailles had certainly not yet succeeded in turning the heads of these german sovereigns. this particular one wore a large buff doublet with big copper-gilt buttons. his cravat was without either ribbons or lace. his rather short hair was roughly combed over his forehead; he carried no sword, and instead of gold buckles or clasps, he had little bows of red leather on his black velvet shoes. his coach, entirely black, was still of old-fashioned make; that is to say, studded with quantities of gilt nails. wearing mourning for the empress, his six horses were richly, caparisoned, his four lackeys wearing yellow liveries faced with red. an escort of twenty guardsmen, dressed similarly, was in attendance; they seemed to be well mounted, and were handsome fellows. a second carriage of prodigious size followed the ducal conveyance; in this were twelve ladies and gentlemen, who got out and made their obeisance to the king and queen. the prince de mont-beliard did not get into his coach again until ours were in motion. he spoke french fairly well, and the little he said was said with much grace. he looked very hard at me, which shocked the queen greatly, but not the king. a little further on, their majesties were greeted by the delegates of the noble chapter of strasburg. these comprised the count of manderhall and two canons. what canons, too! and how astonished we were! the old count was dressed in a black cassock, and his hair looked somewhat like a cleric's, but his cravat was tied with a large flame-coloured bow, and he wore ill-fitting hose of the same hue. as for the two canons, they were pleasant young men, good-looking and well-made. their light gray dress was edged with black and gold; they wore their hair long in wavy curls, and in their little black velvet caps they had yellow and black feathers, and their silver-mounted swords were like those worn by our young courtiers. their equipment was far superior to that of the deputation of the prince de mont-beliard. it is true, they were churchmen, and churchmen have only themselves and their personal satisfaction to consider. these gentlemen accompanied us as far as chatenoi, a little town in their neighbourhood, and here they introduced the bailiff of the town to the king, who was to remain constantly in attendance and act as interpreter. the bailiff spoke french with surprising ease. he had been formerly tutor at president tambonneaux's, an extremely wealthy man, who entertained the court, the town, and all the cleverest men of the day. the king soon became friends with the bailiff, and kept him the whole time close to his carriage. when travelling, the king is quite another man. he puts off his gravity of demeanour, and likes to amuse his companions, or else make his companions amuse him. believing him to be like henri iv. in temper, the bailiff was for asking a thousand questions. some of these the king answered; to others he gave no reply. "sire," said he to his majesty, "your town of paris has a greater reputation than it actually deserves. they say you are fond of building; then paris ought to have occasion to remember your reign. allow me to express a hope that her principal streets will be widened, that her temples, most of them of real beauty, may be isolated. you should add to the number of her bridges, quays, public baths, almshouses and infirmaries." the king smiled. "come and see us in four or five years," he rejoined, "or before that, if you like, and if your affairs permit you to do so. you will be pleased to see what i have already done." then the bailiff, approaching my carriage window, addressed a few complimentary remarks to myself. "i have often met your father, m. de mortemart," said he, "at president tambonneaux's. one day the little de bouillons were there, quarrelling about his sword, and to the younger he said, 'you, sir, shall go into the church, because you squint. let my sword alone; here's my rosary.'" "well," quoth the king, "m. de mortemart was a true prophet, for that little bouillon fellow is to-day cardinal de bouillon." "sire," continued the worthy german, "i am rejoiced to hear such news. and little peguilain de lauzun, of whom you used to be so fond when you were both boys,--where is he? what rank does he now hold?" hereupon the king looked at mademoiselle, who, greatly confused, shed tears. "well, m. bailiff," said his majesty, "did you easily recognise me at first sight?" "sire," replied the german, "your physiognomy is precisely the same; when a boy, you looked more serious. the day you entered parliament in hunting-dress i saw you get into your coach; and that evening the president said to his wife, 'madame, we are going to have a king. i wish you could have been there, in one of the domes, just to hear the little he said to us.'" whereupon the king laughingly inquired what reply the president's wife made. but the bailiff, smiling in his turn, seemed afraid to repeat it, and so his majesty said: "i was told of her answer at the time, so i can let you know what it was. 'your young king will turn out a despot.' that is what madame la presidente said to her husband." the bailiff, somewhat confused, admitted that this was exactly the case. the huge bridge at brisach, across the rhine, had no railing; the planks were in a rickety condition, and through fissures one caught sight of the impetuous rush of waters below. we all got out of our coaches and crossed over with our eyes half shut, so dangerous did it seem; while the king rode across this wretched bridge,--one of the narrowest and loftiest that there is, and which is always in motion. next day the bishop of bale came to pay his respects to the queen, and was accompanied by delegates from the swiss cantons, and other notabilities. after this i heard the "general of the capucins" announced, who had just been to pay a visit of greeting to the german court. he was said to be by birth a roman. strange to say, for that capucin the same ceremony and fuss was made as for a sovereign prince, and i heard that this was a time-honoured privilege enjoyed by his order. the monk himself was a fine man, wearing several decorations; his carriage, livery, and train seemed splendid, nor did he lack ease of manner nor readiness of conversation. he told us that, at the imperial palace in vienna, he had seen the princesse d'inspruck,--a relative of the french queen, and that the emperor was bringing her up as if destined one day to be his seventh bride, according to a prediction. he also stated that the emperor had made the young princess sing to him,--a capucin monk; and added genially that she was comely and graceful, and that he had been very pleased to see her. the king was very merry at this priest's expense. not so the queen, who was spanish, and particularly devoted to capucin friars of all nationalities. chapter xlvii. moliere.--racine.--their mutual esteem.--racine in mourning. the king had not much leisure, yet occasionally he gave up half an hour or an hour to the society of a chosen few,--men famous for their wit and brilliant talents. one day he was so kind as to bring to my room the celebrated moliere, to whom he was particularly attached and showed special favour. "madame," said the king, "here you see the one man in all france who has most wit, most talent, and most modesty and good sense combined. i thank god for letting him be born during my reign, and i pray that he may preserve him to us for a long while yet." as i hastened to add my own complimentary remarks to those of the king, i certainly perceived that about this illustrious person there was an air of modesty and simplicity such as one does not commonly find in apollo's favourites who aspire to fame. moreover, he was most comely. moliere told the king that he had just sketched out the plot of his "malade imaginaire," and assured us that hypochondriacs themselves would find something to laugh at when it was played. he spoke very little about himself, but at great length, and with evident admiration, about the young poet racine. the king asked if he thought that racine had strength sufficient to make him the equal of corneille. "sire," said the comic poet, "racine has already surpassed corneille by the harmonious elegance of his versification, and by the natural, true sensibility of his dialogue; his situations are never fictitious; all his words, his phrases, come from the heart. racine alone is a true poet, for he alone is inspired." the king, continuing, said: "i cannot witness his tragedy of 'berenice' without shedding tears. how comes it that madame deshoulieres and madame de sevigne, who have so much mind, refuse to recognise beauties which strike a genius such as yours?" "sire," replied moliere, "my opinion is nothing compared to that which your majesty has just expressed, such is your sureness of judgment and your tact. i know by experience that those scenes of my comedies which, at a first reading, are applauded by your majesty, always win most applause from the public afterwards." "is racine in easy circumstances?" asked the king. "he is not well off," replied moliere, "but the tragedies which he has in his portfolio will make a rich man of him some day; of that i have not the least doubt." "meanwhile," said the king, "take him this draft of six thousand livres from me, nor shall this be the limit of my esteem and affection." five or six months after this interview, poor moliere broke a blood-vessel in his chest, while playing with too great fervour the title part in his "malade imaginaire." when they brought the news to the king, he turned pale, and clasping his hands together, well-nigh burst into tears. "france has lost her greatest genius," he said before all the nobles present. "we shall never have any one like him again; our loss is irreparable!" when they came to tell us that the paris clergy had refused burial to "the author of 'tartuffe,'" his majesty graciously sent special orders to the archbishop, and with a royal wish of that sort they were obliged to comply, or else give good reasons for not doing so. racine went into mourning for moliere. the king heard this, and publicly commended such an act of good feeling and grateful sympathy. chapter xlviii. madame de montausier and the phantom.--what she exacts from the marquise.--her reproaches to the duke.--bossuet's complacency. those spiteful persons who told the queen how obliging the duchesse de montausier had shown herself towards me were also so extremely kind as to write an account of the whole affair to the marquis de montespan. at that time he was still in paris, and one day he went to the duchess just as she was getting out of bed. in a loud voice he proceeded to scold her, daring to threaten her as if she were some common woman; in fact, he caught hold of her and endeavoured to strike her. the king would not allow m. de montausier to obtain redress from the marquis for such an insult as this. he granted a large pension to the duchess, and appointed her husband preceptor to the dauphin. such honours and emoluments partly recompensed the duchess, yet they scarcely consoled her. she considered that her good name was all but lost, and what afflicted her still more was that she never recovered her health. she used to visit me, as our duties brought us together, but it was easy to see that confidence and friendship no longer existed. one day, when passing along one of the castle corridors, which, being so gloomy, need lamplight at all hours, she perceived a tall white phantom, which glared hideously at her, and then approaching, vanished. she was utterly prostrated, and on returning to her apartments was seized with fever and shivering. the doctors perceived that her brain was affected; they ordered palliatives, but we soon saw that there was no counting upon their remedies. she was gradually sinking. half an hour before she died the duchess sent for me, having given instructions that we should be left alone, and that there should be no witnesses. her intense emaciation was pitiful, and yet her face kept something of its pleasant expression. "it is because of you, and through you," she exclaimed in a feeble, broken voice, "that i quit this world while yet in the prime of life. god calls me; i must die. "kings are so horribly exacting. everything that ministers to their passions seems feasible to them, and righteous folk must consent to do their pleasure, or suffer the penalty of being disgraced and neglected, and of seeing their long years of service lost and forgotten. "during that unlucky journey in brabant, you sought by redoubling your coquetry and fascinations to allure la valliere's lover. you managed to succeed; he became fond of you. knowing my husband's ambitious nature, he easily got him to make me favour this intrigue, and lend my apartments as a meeting-place. "at court nothing long remains a secret. the queen was warned, and for a while would not believe her informants. but your husband, with brutal impetuousness, burst in upon me. he insulted me in outrageous fashion. he tried to drag me out of bed and throw me out of the window. hearing me scream, my servants rushed in and rescued me, in a fainting state, from his clutches. and you it is who have brought upon me such scandalous insults. "ready to appear before my god, who has already summoned me by a spectre, i have a boon to ask of you, madame la marquise. i beg it of you, as i clasp these strengthless, trembling hands. do not deny me this favour, or i will cherish implacable resentment, and implore my master and my judge to visit you with grievous punishment. "leave the king," she continued, after drying her tears. "leave so sensual a being; the slave of his passions, the ravisher of others' good. the pomp and grandeur which surround you and intoxicate you would seem but a little thing did you but look at them as now i do, upon my bed of death. "the queen hates me; she is right. she despises me, and justly, too. i shall elude her hatred and disdain, which weigh thus heavily upon my heart. perhaps she may deign to pardon me when my lawyer shall have delivered to her a document, signed by myself, containing my confession and excuses." as she uttered these words, madame de montausier began to vomit blood, and i had to summon her attendants. with a last movement of the head she bade me farewell, and i heard that she called for her husband. next day she was dead. her waiting-maid came to tell me that the duchess, conscious to the last, had made her husband promise to resign his appointment as governor to the dauphin, and withdraw to his estates, where he was to do penance. m. de meaux, a friend of the family, read the prayers for the dying, to which the duchess made response, and three minutes before the final death-throe, she consented to let him preach a funeral sermon in eulogy of herself and her husband. when printed and published, this discourse was thought to be a fine piece of eloquence. over certain things the bishop passed lightly, while exaggerating others. some things, again, were entirely of his own invention; and if from the depths of her tomb the duchess could have heard all that m. de meaux said about her, she never would have borne me such malice, nor would her grief at leaving life and fortune have troubled her so keenly. the king thought this funeral oration excellently well composed. of one expression and of one whole passage, however, he disapproved, though which these were he did not do me the honour to say. etext editor's bookmarks: and then he would go off, laughing in his sleeve hate me, but fear me he was not fool enough for his place i myself being the first to make merry at it (my plainness) in the great world, a vague promise is the same as a refusal it is easier to offend me than to deceive me knew how to point the bastille cannon at the troops of the king madame de sevigne time, the irresistible healer weeping just as if princes had not got to die like anybody else went so far as to shed tears, his most difficult feat of all when one has been pretty, one imagines that one is still so memoirs of madame la marquise de montespan written by herself being the historic memoirs of the court of louis xiv. book 2. chapter xvii. monsieur's jealousy.--diplomacy.--discretion.--the chevalier de lorraine's revenge.--the king's suspicions.--his indignation.--public version of the matter.--the funeral sermon. after six months of wedlock, henrietta of england had become so beautiful that the king drew every one's attention to this change, as if he were not unmindful of the fact that he had given this charming person to his brother instead of reserving her for himself by marrying her. between cousins german attentions are permissible. the court, however, was not slow to notice the attentions paid by the king to this young english princess, and monsieur, wholly indifferent though he was as regarded his wife, deemed it a point of honour to appear offended thereat. ever a slave to the laws of good breeding, the king showed much self-sacrifice in curbing this violent infatuation of his. (i was madame's maid of honour at the time.) as he contemplated a dutch expedition, in which the help of england would have counted for much, he resolved to send a negotiator to king charles. the young princess was her brother's pet; it was upon her that the king's choice fell. she crossed the channel under the pretext of paying a flying visit to her native country and her brother, but, in reality, it was to treat of matters of the utmost importance. upon her return, monsieur, the most curious and inquisitive of mortals, importuned her in a thousand ways, seeking to discover her secret; but she was a person both faithful and discreet. of her interview and journey he got only such news as was already published on the housetops. at such reticence he took umbrage; he grumbled, sulked, and would not speak to his wife. the chevalier de lorraine, who in that illustrious and luckless household was omnipotent, insulted the princess in the most outrageous manner. finding such daily slights and affronts unbearable, madame complained to the kings of france and england, who both exiled the chevalier. monsieur de lorraine d'armagnac, before leaving, gave instructions to morel, one of monsieur's kitchen officials, to poison the princess, and this monster promptly executed the order by rubbing poison on her silver goblet. i no longer belonged to madame's household,--my marriage had caused a change in my duties; but ever feeling deep attachment for this adorable princess, i hastened to saint cloud directly news reached me of her illness. to my horror, i saw the sudden change which had come over her countenance; her horrible agony drew tears from the most callous, and approaching her i kissed her hand, in spite of her confessor, who sought to constrain her to be silent. she then repeatedly told me that she was dying from the effects of poison. this she also told the king, whom she perceived shed tears of consternation and distress. that evening, at versailles, the king said to me, "if this crime is my brother's handiwork, his head shall fall on the scaffold." when the body was opened, proof of poison was obtained, and poison of the most corrosive sort, for the stomach was eaten into in three places, and there was general inflammation. the king summoned his brother, in order to force him to explain so heinous a crime. on perceiving his mien, monsieur became pale and confused. rushing upon him sword in hand, the king was for demolishing him on the spot. the captain of the guard hastened thither, and monsieur swore by the holy ghost that he was guiltless of the death of his dear wife. leaving him a prey to remorse, if guilty he were, the king commanded him to withdraw, and then shut himself up in his closet to prepare a consolatory message to the english court. according to the written statement, which was also published in the newspapers, madame had been carried off by an attack of bilious colic. five or six bribed physicians certified to that effect, and a lying set of depositions, made for mere form's sake, bore out their statements in due course. the abbe de bossuet, charged to preach the funeral sermon, was apparently desirous of being as obliging as the doctors. his homily led off with such fulsome praise of monsieur, that, from that day forward, he lost all his credit, and sensible people thereafter only looked upon him as a vile sycophant, a mere dealer in flattery and fairy-tales. chapter xviii. madame scarron.--her petition.--the king's aversion to her.--she is presented to madame de montespan.--the queen of portugal thinks of engaging her.--madame de montespan keeps her back.--the pension continued.--the king's graciousness.--rage of mademoiselle d'aumale. as all the pensions granted by the queen-mother had ceased at her demise, the pensioners began to solicit the ministers anew, and all the petitions, as is customary, were sent direct to the king. one day his majesty said to me, "have you ever met in society a young widow, said to be very pretty, but, at the same time, extremely affected? it is to madame scarron that i allude, who, both before and after widowhood, has resided at the marais." i replied that madame scarron was an extremely pleasant person, and not at all affected. i had met her at the richelieus' or the albrets', where her charm of manner and agreeable wit had made her in universal request. i added a few words of recommendation concerning her petition, which, unfortunately, had just been torn up, and the king curtly rejoined, "you surprise me, madame; the portrait i had given to me of her was a totally different one." that same evening, when the young marquis d'alincour spoke to me about this petition which had never obtained any answer, i requested him to go and see madame scarron as soon as possible, and tell her that, in her own interest, i should be pleased to receive her. she lost no time in paying me a visit. her black attire served only to heighten the astounding whiteness of her complexion. effusively thanking me for interesting myself in her most painful case, she added: "there is, apparently, some obstacle against me. i have presented two petitions and two memoranda; being unsupported, both have been left unanswered, and i have now just made the following resolve, madame, of which you will not disapprove. m. scarron, apparently well off, had only a life interest in his property. upon his death, his debts proved in excess of his capital, and i, deeming it my duty to respect his intentions and his memory, paid off everybody, and left myself nothing. to-day, madame la princesse de nemours wishes me to accompany her to lisbon as her secretary, or rather as her friend. "being about to acquire supreme power as a sovereign, she intends, by some grand marriage, to keep me there, and then appoint me her lady-in-waiting." "and you submit without a murmur to such appalling exile?" i said to madame scarron. "is such a pretty, charming person as yourself fitted for a court of that kind, and for such an odd sort of climate?" "madame, i have sought to shut my eyes to many things, being solely conscious of the horribly forlorn condition in which i find myself in my native country." "have you reckoned the distance? did the princess confess that she was going to carry you off to the other end of the world? for her city of lisbon, surrounded by precipices, is more than three hundred leagues from paris." "at the age of three i voyaged to america, returning hither when i was eleven." "i am vexed with mademoiselle d'aumale for wanting to rob us of so charming a treasure. but has she any right to act in this way? do you think her capable of contributing to your pleasure or your happiness? this young queen of portugal, under the guise of good-humour, hides a violent and irascible temperament. i believe her to be thoroughly selfish; suppose that she neglects and despises you, after having profited by your company to while away the tedium of her journey? take my word for it, madame, you had better stay here with us; for there is no real society but in france, no wit but in our great world, no real happiness but in paris. draw up another petition as quickly as possible, and send it to me. i will present it myself, and to tell you this is tantamount to a promise that your plea shall succeed." [mademoiselle d'aumale, daughter of the duc de nemours, of the house of savoy. she was a blonde, pleasant-mannered enough, but short of stature. her head was too big for her body; and this head of hers was full of conspiracies and coups d'etat. she dethroned her husband in order to marry his brother.--editor's note.] mademoiselle d'aubigne, all flushed with emotion, assured me of her gratitude with the ingenuous eloquence peculiar to herself. we embraced as two friends of the albret set should do, and three days later, the king received a new petition, not signed with the name of scarron, but with that of d'aubigne. the pension of two thousand francs, granted three years before her death by the queen-mother, was renewed. madame scarron had the honour of making her courtesy to the king, who thought her handsome, but grave in demeanour, and in a loud, clear voice, he said to her, "madame, i kept you waiting; i was jealous of your friends." the queen of portugal knew that i had deprived her of her secretary, fellow-gossip, reader, spanish teacher, stewardess, confidante, and lady-in-waiting. she wrote to me complaining about this, and on taking leave of the king to go and reign in portugal, she said, with rather a forced air of raillery: "i shall hate you as long as i live, and if ever you do me the honour of paying me a visit some day at lisbon, i'll have you burned for your pains." then she wanted to embrace me, as if we were equals, but this i deprecated as much from aversion as from respect. chapter xix. la fontaine.--boileau.--moliere.--corneille.--louis xiv.'s opinion of each of them. the king's studies with his preceptor, perefixe, had been of only a superficial sort, as, in accordance with the express order of the queen-mother, this prelate had been mainly concerned about the health of his pupil, the queen being, above all, desirous that he should have a good constitution. "the rest comes easily enough, if a prince have but nobility of soul and a sense of duty," as the queen often used to say. her words came true. i came across several spanish and italian books in the library of the little apartments. the "pastor fido," "aminta," and the "gerusalemme," seemed to me, at first, to be the favourite works. then came voiture's letters, the writings of malherbe and de balzac, the fables of la fontaine, the satires of boileau, and the delightful comedies of moliere. corneille's tragedies had been read, but not often. until i came to court, i had always looked upon corneille as the greatest tragic dramatist in the world, and as the foremost of our poets and men of letters. the king saved me from this error. book in hand, he pointed out to me numberless faults of style, incoherent and fantastic imagery, sentiment alike exaggerated and a thousand leagues removed from nature. he considered, and still considers, pierre corneille to be a blind enthusiast of the ancients, whom we deem great since we do not know them. in his eyes, this declamatory poet was a republican more by virtue of his head than his heart or his intention,--one of those men more capricious than morose, who cannot reconcile themselves to what exists, and prefer to fall back upon bygone generations, not knowing how to live like friendly folk among their contemporaries. he liked la fontaine better, by reason of his extreme naturalness, but his unbecoming conduct at the time of the fouquet trial proved painful to his majesty, who considered the following verses passing strange: ". . . . trust not in kings their favour is but slippery; worse than that, it costs one dear, and errors such as these full oft bring shame and scandal in their wake." "long live moliere!" added his majesty; "there you have talent without artifice, poetry without rhapsody, satire without bitterness, pleasantry that is always apt, great knowledge of the human heart, and perpetual raillery that yet is not devoid of delicacy and compassion. moliere is a most charming man in every respect; i gave him a few hints for his 'tartuffe,' and such is his gratitude that he wants to make out that, without me, he would never have written that masterpiece." "you helped him, sire, to produce it, and above all things, to carry out his main idea; and moliere is right in thinking that, without a mind free from error, such as is yours, his masterpiece would never have been created." "it struck me," continued the king, "that some such thing was indispensable as a counterbalance in the vast machinery of my government, and i shall ever be the friend and supporter, not of tartuffes, but of the 'tartuffe,' as long as i live." "and boileau, sire?" i continued; "what place among your favourites does he fill?" "i like boileau," replied the prince, "as a necessary scourge, which one can pit against the bad taste of second-rate authors. his satires, of too personal, a nature, and consequently iniquitous, do not please me. he knows it, and, despite himself, he will amend this. he is at work upon an 'ars poetica,' after the manner of horace. the little that he has read to me of this poem leads me to expect that it will be an important work. the french language will continue to perfect itself by the help of literature like this, and boileau, cruel though he be, is going to confer a great benefit upon all those who have to do with letters." chapter xx. birth of the comte de vegin.--madame scarron as governess.--the king's continued dislike of her.--birth of the duc du maine.--marriage of the nun. the king became ever more attached to me personally, as also to the peculiarities of my temperament. he had witnessed with satisfaction the birth of madame de la valliere's two children, and i thought that he would have the same affection for mine. but i was wrong. it was with feelings of trepidation and alarm that he contemplated my approaching confinement. had i given birth to a daughter, i am perfectly certain that, in his eyes, i should have been done for. i gave birth to the first comte de vegin, and, grasping my hand affectionately, the king said to me, "be of good courage, madame; present princes to the crown, and let those be scandalised who will!" a few moments later he came back, and gave me a million for my expenses. it was, however, mutually arranged that the newborn infant should be recognised later on, and that, for the time being, i was to have him brought up in secrecy and mystery. when dissuading madame scarron from undertaking a journey to lisbon, i had my own private ends in view. i considered her peculiarly fitted to superintend the education of the king's children, and to maintain with success the air of mysterious reserve which for a while was indispensable to me. i deputed my brother, m. de vivonne, to acquaint her with my proposals,--proposals which came from the king as well,--nor did i doubt for one moment as regarded her consent and complacency, being, as she was, alone in paris. "madame," said m. de vivonne to her, "the marquise is overjoyed at being able to offer you an important position of trust, which will change your life once for all." "the gentle, quiet life which, thanks to the kindness of the king, i now lead, is all that my ambition can desire," replied the widow, concealing her trouble from my brother; "but since the king wishes and commands it, i will renounce the liberty so dear to me, and will not hesitate to obey." accordingly she came. the king had a few moments' parley with her, in order to explain to her all his intentions relative to the new life upon which she was about to enter, and m. bontems--[first groom of the chamber, and keeper of the privy purse.]--furnished her with the necessary funds for establishing her household in suitable style. a month afterwards, i went incognito to her lonely residence, situate amid vast kitchen-gardens between vaugirard and the luxembourg. the house was clean, commodious, thoroughly well appointed, and, not being overlooked by neighbours, the secret could but be safely kept. madame scarron's domestics included two nurses, a waiting-maid, a physician, a courier, two footmen, a coachman, a postilion, and two cooks. being provided with an excellent coach, she came to saint germain every week, to bring me my son, or else news of his welfare. her habitually sad expression somewhat pained the king. as i soon noticed their mutual embarrassment, i used to let madame scarron stay in an inner room all the time that his majesty remained with me. in the following year, i gave birth to the duc du maine. mademoiselle d'aubigne, who was waiting in the drawing-room, wrapped the child up carefully, and took it away from paris with all speed. on her way she met with an adventure, comic in itself, and which mortified her much. when told of it, i laughed not a little; and, in spite of all my excuses and expressions of regret, she always felt somewhat sore about this; in fact, she never quite got over it. between marly and ruel, two mounted police officers, in pursuit of a nun who had escaped from a convent, bethought themselves of looking inside madame scarron's carriage. such inquisitiveness surprised her, and she put on her mask, and drew down the blinds. observing that she was closely followed by these soldiers, she gave a signal to her coachman, who instantly whipped up his horses, and drove at a furious rate. at nanterre the gendarmes, being reinforced, cried out to the coachman to stop, and obliged madame scarron to get out. she was taken to a tavern close by, where they asked her to remove her mask. she made various excuses for not doing so, but at the mention of the lieutenant-general of police, she had to give in. "madame," inquired the brigadier, "have you not been in a nunnery?" "pray, monsieur, why do you ask?" "be good enough to answer me, madame; repeat my question, and i insist upon a reply. i have received instructions that i shall not hesitate to carry out." "i have lived with nuns, but that, monsieur, was a long while ago." "it is not a question of time. what was your motive for leaving these ladies, and who enabled you to do so?" "i left the convent after my first communion. i left it openly, and of my own free will. pray be good enough to allow me to continue my journey." "on leaving the convent, where did you go?" "first to one of my relatives, then to another, and at last to paris, where i got married." "married? what, madame, are you married? oh, young lady, what behaviour is this? your simple, modest mien plainly shows what you were before this marriage. but why did you want to get married?" as he said this, the little duc du maine, suffering, perhaps, from a twinge of colic, began to cry. the brigadier, more amazed than ever, ordered the infant to be shown as well. seeing that she could make no defence, madame scarron began to shed tears, and the officer, touched to pity, said: "madame, i am sorry for your fault, for, as i see, you are a good mother. my orders are to take you to prison, and thence to the convent specified by the archbishop, but i warn you that if we catch the father of your child, he will hang. as for you, who have been seduced, and who belong to a good family, tell me one of your relatives with whom you are on friendly terms, and i will undertake to inform them of your predicament." madame scarron, busy in soothing the duc du maine, durst not explain for fear of aggravating matters, but begged the brigadier to take her back to saint germain. at this juncture my brother arrived on his way back to paris. he recognised the carriage, which stood before the inn, with a crowd of peasants round it, and hastened to rescue the governess, for he soon succeeded in persuading these worthy police officers that the sobbing dame was not a runaway nun, and that the new-born infant came of a good stock. chapter xxi. the saint denis view.--superstitions, apparitions.--projected enlargement of versailles.--fresh victims for saint denis. one evening i was walking at the far end of the long terrace of saint germain. the king soon came thither, and pointing to saint denis, said, "that, madame, is a gloomy, funereal view, which makes me displeased and disgusted with this residence, fine though it be." "sire," i replied, "in no other spot could a more magnificent view be found. yonder river winding afar through the vast plain, that noble forest divided by hunting roads into squares, that calvary poised high in air, those bridges placed here and there to add to the attractiveness of the landscape, those flowery meadows set in the foreground as a rest to the eye, the broad stream of the seine, which seemingly is fain to flow at a slower rate below your palace windows,--i do not think that any more charming combination of objects could be met with elsewhere, unless one went a long way from the capital." "the chateau of saint germain no longer pleases me," replied the king. "i shall enlarge versailles and withdraw thither. what i am going to say may astonish you, perhaps, as it comes from me, who am neither a whimsical female nor a prey to superstition. a few days before the queen, my mother, had her final seizure, i was walking here alone in this very spot. a reddish light appeared above the monastery of saint denis, and a cloud which rose out of the ruddy glare assumed the shape of a hearse bearing the arms of austria. a few days afterwards my poor mother was removed to saint denis. four or five days before the horrible death of our adorable henrietta, the arrows of saint denis appeared to me in a dream covered in dusky flames, and amid them i saw the spectre of death, holding in his hand the necklaces and bracelets of a young lady. the appalling death of my cousin followed close upon this presage. henceforth, the view of saint denis spoils all these pleasant landscapes for me. at versailles fewer objects confront the eye; a park of that sort has its own wealth of natural beauty, which suffices. i shall make versailles a delightful resort, for which france will be grateful to me, and which my successors can neither neglect nor destroy without bringing to themselves dishonour." i sympathised with the reasons which made saint germain disagreeable to his majesty. next summer the causes for such aversion became more numerous, as the king had the misfortune to lose the daughters which the queen bore him, and they were carried to saint denis. chapter xxii. m. de lauzun.--his pretensions.--erroneous ideas of the public.--the war in candia.--m. de lauzun thinks he will secure a throne for himself.--the king does not wish this. the marquis de guilain de lauzun was, and still is, one of the handsomest men at court. before my marriage, vanity prompted him to belong to the list of my suitors, but as his reputation in paris was that of a man who had great success with the ladies, my family requested him either to come to the point or to retire, and he withdrew, though unwilling to break matters off altogether. when he saw me in the bonds of matrimony, and enjoying its liberty, he recommenced his somewhat equivocal pursuit of me, and managed to get himself talked about at my expense. society was unjust; m. de lauzun only dared to pay me homage of an insipid sort. he had success enough in other quarters, and i knew what i owed to some one as well as what i owed to myself. ambition is the marquis's ruling passion. the simple role of a fine gentleman is, in his eyes, but a secondary one; his magnificency requires a far more exalted platform than that. when he knew that war in candia had broken out, and which side the kings of christendom would necessarily take, his ideas became more exalted still. he bethought himself of the strange fortunes of certain valiant warriors in the time of the crusades. he saw that the lorraines, the bouillons, and the lusignans had won sceptres and crowns, and he flattered himself that the name of lauzun might in this vast adventurous career gain glory too. he begged me to get him a command in this army of candia, wherein the king had just permitted his own kinsmen to go and win laurels for themselves. he was already a full colonel of dragoons, and one of the captains of the guard. the king, who till then liked him well enough, considered such a proposition indecent, and, gauging or not gauging his intentions, he postponed until a later period these aspirations of lauzun to the post of prince or sovereign. chapter xxiii. the abbe d'estrees.--singular offers of service.--madame de montespan declines his offer of intercession at the vatican.--he revenges himself upon the king of portugal.--difference between a fair man and a dark. since the reign of gabrielle d'estrees, who died just as she was about to espouse her king, the d'estrees family were treated at court more with conventional favour than with esteem. the first of that name was lieutenant-general, destined to wield the baton of a french marshal, on account of his ancestry as well as his own personal merit. the abbe d'estrees passed for being in the church what m. de lauzun was in society,--a man who always met with success, and who also was madly ambitious. while still very young, he had been appointed to the bishopric of laon, which, in conjunction with two splendid abbeys, brought him in a handsome revenue. the duc and duchesse de vendome were as fond of him as one of their own kin, doing nothing without first consulting him, everywhere praising and extolling his abilities, which were worthy of a ministry. this prelate desired above all things to be made a cardinal. under henri iv. he could easily have had his wish, but at that time he was not yet born. he imagined that on the strength of my credit he could procure the biretta for himself. as soon as he saw me recognised as a mistress, he paid assiduous court to me, never losing an opportunity of everywhere sounding my praise. one day he said to me: "madame, every one pities you on account of the vexation and grief which the marquis de montespan has caused you. if you will confide in me,--that is, if you will let me represent your interests with the cardinals and the holy father,--i heartily offer you my services as mediator and advocate with regard to the question of nullity. at an early age i studied theology and ecclesiastical law. your marriage may be considered null and void, according to this or that point of view. you know that upon the death of the princesse de nemours, mademoiselle de nemours and mademoiselle d'aumale, her two daughters, came to reside with madame de vendome, my cousin, a relative and a friend of their mother. the eldest i first of all married to duc charles de lorraine, heir to the present duc de lorraine. his majesty did not approve of this marriage, which was contrary to his politics. his majesty deigned to explain himself and open out to me upon the subject. i at once consulted my books, and found all the means necessary for dissolving such a marriage. so true, indeed is this, that i forthwith remarried mademoiselle de nemours to the duc de savoie. this took place under your very eyes. soon afterwards i married her younger sister to the king of portugal, and accompanied her to lisbon, where the portuguese gave her a fairly warm reception. her young husband is tall and fair, with a pleasant, distinguished face; he loves his wife, and is only moderately beloved in return. is she wrong or is she right? now, i will tell you. the monarch is well-made, but a childish infirmity has left one whole side of him somewhat weak, and he limps. mademoiselle d'aumale, or to speak more correctly, the queen of portugal, writes letter upon letter to me, describing her situation. she believed herself pregnant, and had even announced the news to madame de vendome, as well as to madame de savoie, her sister. now it appears that this is not the case. she is vexed and disgusted. i am about to join her at lisbon. she is inclined to place the crown upon the young brother of the king, requesting the latter to seek the seclusion of a monastery. i can see that this new idea of the youthful queen's will necessitate my visiting the vatican. allow me, madame, to have charge of your interests. do not have the slightest fear but that i shall protect them zealously and intelligently, killing thus two birds with one stone." "pray accept my humble thanks," i replied to the bishop. "the reigning sovereign pontiff has never shown me any favour whatever, and is in nowise one of my friends. what you desire to do for me at rome deserves some signal mark of gratitude in return, but i cannot get you a cardinal's hat, for a thousand reasons. "mademoiselle de nemours, when leaving us, promised to hate me as long as she lived, and to have me burnt at an 'auto da fe' whenever she got the chance. do not let her know that you have any regard for me, or you might lose her affection. "i hope that the weak side of her husband, the king, may get stronger, and that you will not help to put the young monarch in a convent of monks. "in any case, my lord bishop, do not breathe it to a living soul that you have told me of such strange resolutions as these; for my own part, i will safely keep your secret, and pray god to have you in his holy keeping." the bishop of laon was not a man to be rebuffed by pleasantry such as this. he declared the king of portugal to be impotent, after what the queen had expressly stated. the pope annulled the marriage, and the queen courageously wedded her husband's brother, who had no congenital weakness of any sort, and who was, as every one knew, of dark complexion. at the request of the queen, the bishop of laon was afterwards presented with the hat, and is, today, my lord cardinal d'estrees. chapter xxiv. mademoiselle de valois.--mademoiselle d'orleans.--mademoiselle d'alencon.--m. de savoie.--his love-letters.--his marriage with mademoiselle de valois.--m. de guise and mademoiselle d'alencon.--their marriage ceremony.--madame de montespan's dog.--mademoiselle d'orleans.--her marriage with the duke of tuscany.--the bishop de bonzy. by his second wife, marguerite de lorraine, gaston de france had three daughters, and being devoid of energy, ability, or greatness of character, they did not object when the king married them to sovereigns of the third-rate order. upon these three marriages i should like to make some remarks, on account of certain singular details connected therewith, and because of the joking to which they gave rise. mademoiselle de montpensier had flatly refused the duc de savoie, because madame de savoie, daughter of henri iv., was still living, ruling her estate like a woman of authority; and therefore, to this stepmother, a king's daughter, mademoiselle had to give way, she being but the daughter of a french prince who died in disgrace and was forgotten. being refused by the elder princess, m. de savoie, still quite young, sought the hand of her sister, mademoiselle de valois. he wrote her a letter which, unfortunately, was somewhat singular in style, and which, unfortunately too, fell into the hands of mademoiselle de montpensier. like her late father, gaston, she plumed herself upon her wit and eloquence; she caused several copies of the effusion to be printed and circulated at court. i will include it in these memoirs, as it cannot but prove entertaining. the heroes of greece, and even of troy, possibly delivered their compliments in somewhat better fashion, if we may judge by the version preserved for us by homer. from his royal highness the duc de savoie to his most honoured cousin, mademoiselle de valois. my dear cousin:--as the pen must needs perform the office of the tongue, and as it expresses the feelings of my heart, i doubt not but that i am at great disadvantage, since the depth of these feelings it cannot express, nor rightly convince you that, having given all myself to you, nothing remains either to give or to desire, save to find such affection pleasantly reciprocated. thus, in these lines, i earnestly beseech you to return my love,--lines which give you the first hints of that fire which your many lovely qualities have lighted in my soul. they create in me an inconceivable impatience closely to contemplate that which now i admire at a distance, and to convince you by various proofs that, with matchless loyalty and passion, i am, dear cousin, your most humble slave and servant, emmanuel. gentle as an angel, mademoiselle de valois desired just what everybody else did. the youngest of the three princesses was named mademoiselle d'alencon. with a trifle more wit and dash, she could have maintained her position at court, where so charming a face as hers was fitted to make its mark; but her fine dark eyes did but express indifference and vacuity, seemingly unconscious of the pleasure to be got in this world when one is young, good-looking, shapely, a princess of the blood, and cousin german of the king besides. marguerite de lorraine, her mother, married her to the duc de guise, their near relative, who, without ambition or pretension, seemed almost astonished to see that the king gave, not a dowry, but a most lovely verdure--[drawing-room tapestry, much in vogue at that time]--, and an enamelled dinner-service. the marriage was celebrated at the chateau, without any special ceremonies or preparations; so much so that two cushions, which had been forgotten, had to be hastily fetched. i saw what was the matter, and motioning the two attendants of the royal sacristy, i whispered to them to fetch what was wanted from my own apartment. not knowing to what use these cushions were to be put, my 'valet de chambre' brought the flowered velvet ones, on which my dogs were wont to lie. i noticed this just as their highnesses were about to kneel down, and i felt so irresistibly inclined to laugh that i was obliged to retire to my room to avoid bursting out laughing before everybody. fortunately the guises did not get to know of this little detail until long after, or they might have imagined that it was a planned piece of malicious mockery. however, it is only fair to admit that the marriage was treated in a very off-hand way, and it is that which always happens to people whose modesty and candour hinder them from posing and talking big when they get the chance. a strange delusion, truly! mademoiselle d'orleans, the eldest child of the second marriage, is considered one of the prettiest and most graceful of blondes. her endowments were surely all that a princess could need, if one except reserve in speaking, and a general dignity of deportment. when it was a question of giving her to prince de medici, grand duke of tuscany, she was all the while sincerely attached to handsome prince charles de lorraine, her maternal cousin. but the king, who, in his heart of hearts, wanted to get hold of lorraine for himself, could not sanction this union; nay, he did more: he opposed it. accordingly the princess, being urged to do so by her mother, consented to go to italy, and as we say at court, expatriate herself. the bishop of nziers, named de bonzy, the tuscan charge d'afaires, came, on behalf of the medici family, to make formal demand of her hand, and had undertaken to bring her to her husband with all despatch. he had undertaken an all too difficult task. "monsieur de bonzy," said she to the prelate, "as it is you who here play the part of interpreter and cavalier of honour as it is you, moreover, who have to drag me away from my native country, i have to inform you that it is my intention to leave it as slowly as possible, and to contemplate it at my leisure before quitting it forever." and, indeed, the princess desired to make a stay more or less long in every town en route. if, on the way, she noticed a convent of any importance, she at once asked to be taken thither, and, in default of other pastime or pretext, she requested them to say complines with full choral accompaniment. if she saw some castle or other, she inquired the name of its owner, and, though she hardly knew the inmates, was wont to invite herself to dinner and supper. the bishop of beziers grew disconsolate. he wrote letters to the court, which he sent by special courier, and i said to the king, "pray, sire, let her do as she likes; she will surely have time enough to look at her husband later on." near saint fargeau, when the princess heard that this estate was her sister's, mademoiselle sent a gentleman with her compliments, to ask if she would give her shelter for twenty-four hours. instead of twenty-four hours' stay, she proceeded to take up her abode there; and, provided with a gun and dogs, she wandered all over the fields, always accompanied by the worthy bishop, at whose utter exhaustion she was highly amused. at length she left her native land, and joined her husband, who seemed somewhat sulky at all this delay. "i cannot love you just yet," quoth she, weeping; "my heart is still another's, and it is impossible to break off such attachments without much time and much pain. pray treat me with gentleness, for if you are severe, i shall not do you any harm, but i shall go back to the luxembourg to my mother." chapter xxv. random recollections.--madame de montespan withdraws from politics.--the queen's dowry.--first campaign in flanders.--the queen meets the king.--some one else sees him first.--the queen's anger at la valliere. in compiling these memoirs, i have never pretended to keep a strictly regular diary, where events are set down chronologically and in their proper order. i write as i recollect; some of my recollections are chronicled sooner, and others later. thus it happens that the king's first conquests are only now mentioned in the present chapter, although they occurred in the year 1667, at the beginning of my credit and my favour. i was naturally inclined for politics, and should have liked the hazard of the game; but i suppose that the king considered me more frivolous and giddy than i really was, for, despite the strong friendship with which he has honoured me, he has never been gracious enough to initiate me into the secrets of the cabinet and the state. if this sort of exclusion or ostracism served to wound my self-respect, it nevertheless had its special advantage for me, for in epochs less glorious or less brilliant (that is to say, in times of failure), they could never cavil at advice or counsel which i had given, nor blame me for the shortcomings of my proteges or creatures. the king was born ambitious. this prince will not admit it; he gives a thousand reasons in justification of his conquests. but the desire for conquest proves him to be a conqueror, and one is not a conqueror without being ambitious. i think i can explain myself by mentioning the treaty drawn up at the time of his marriage. it was stipulated that the infanta should have rights over the netherlands, then possessed by don balthazar, prince of spain. but it was agreed to give the princess maria theresa a handsome dowry, in lieu of which she signed a paper renouncing her rights. her father, king philip iv., died at the close of the year 1665, and the queen-mother besought our king not to take advantage of the minority of the young charles ii., his brother-in-law, by troubling spain afresh with his pretensions. hardly had anne of austria been interred, when the king informed the spanish court of his claims. in the spring of the following year, he himself led an army into spanish flanders, where his appearance was not expected. these fine provinces, badly provisioned and badly fortified, made but a merely formal resistance to conde, turenne, crequi, and all our illustrious generals, who, led by the king in person, wrought the troops to a wild pitch of enthusiasm. the king had left the infanta, his wife, at compiegne, and it was there that we awaited either news of the army or orders to advance. from compiegne we went to la fere, where we heard that the king was coming to receive us. suddenly it was rumoured that the duchesse de la valliere had just arrived, and that she was acting in accordance with orders received. the queen began to weep, and, sobbing, bewailed her destiny. she was seized by convulsions and violent retching, much to the alarm of her ladies and the physicians. next day, after mass, the duchesse and the marquise de la valliere came to make their courtesy to the queen, who, staring at them, said not a word. when dinner-time came, she gave orders that no food should be served to them, but the officials supplied this to them in secret, fearing to be compromised. in the coach, the queen complained greatly of mademoiselle de la valliere, and the princesse de bade, one of the ladies-in-waiting, said to me, "could you have believed that, with such gentleness, one could also display such impudence?" the duchesse de montausier, i know not why, expressed herself to me in the same terms of amazement. i replied that, "were i in that fair lady's place, i should dare to show myself least of all to the queen, for fear of grieving her majesty." i was often rebuked afterwards for this speech, which, i admit, i delivered somewhat thoughtlessly. on leaving la fere, the queen gave particular orders to let the duchess have no relays, so that she could not follow; but the master of the horse had caused these to be brought to her from versailles, so nothing was wanting. on putting my head out of window, when we turned a corner of the road, i saw that la valliere's coach, with six horses, was following quite close behind; but i took care not to tell the queen, who believed those ladies were a long way off. all at once, on a height, we saw a body of horsemen approaching. the king could be plainly distinguished, riding at their head. la valliere's coach immediately left the main road, and drove across country, while the queen called out to have it stopped; but the king embraced its occupants, and then it drove off at a gallop to a chateau already fixed upon for its reception. i like to be just, and it is my duty to be so. this mark of irreverence towards the queen is the only one for which mademoiselle de la valliere can be blamed; but she would never have done such a thing of her own accord; it was all the fault of the marquise, blinded as she was by ambition. chapter xxvi. the king contemplates the conquest of holland.--the grand seignior's embassy.--madame de montespan's chance of becoming first lady of the harem.--anxiety to conclude negotiations with so passionate an ambassador.--help sent to candia.--with disastrous results.--death of the duc de beaufort.--why it is good to carry about the picture of one's lady-love. having gained possession of the netherlands in the name of the infanta, his consort, the king seriously contemplated the subjugation of the dutch, and possibly also the invasion of these rich countries. meanwhile, he privately intimated as much to the princes of europe, promising to each of them some personal and particular advantage in exchange for a guarantee of assistance or neutrality in this matter. the grand seignior, hearing that the pope and the venetians were urging our cabinet to come to the help of candia, lost no time in sending a splendid embassy to paris, to congratulate the young king upon his conquest of flanders, and to predict for him all success in the paths along which ambition might lead him. [this important island of candia, the last powerful bulwark of christendom against the turk, belonged at that time to venice. editor's note.] being naturally fond of show and display, the king left nothing undone which might give brilliance to the reception of so renowned an embassy. the court wore an air of such splendour and magnificence that these mussulmans, used though they were to asiatic pomp, seemed surprised and amazed at so brilliant a reception, at which nothing, indeed, had been forgotten. the ambassador-in-chief was a pleasant young man, tall, shapely, and almost as good-looking as the king. this turk had splendidly shaped hands, and eyes that shone with extraordinary brilliance. he conceived an ardent passion for me, a passion that went to such lengths that he sacrificed thereto all his gravity, all his stately ottoman demeanour. when i passed by, he saluted me, placing his hand to his heart, stopping to gaze at me intently, and watch me as long as possible. being introduced (either by chance or design) to my paris jeweller, he seized a gold box upon which he saw my portrait, and, giving the jeweller a considerable sum, refused to part with the picture, however much they begged him to do so. one fine morning, in spite of his turban, he got into the large chapel of the chateau during mass, and while the court of france was adoring the true god, ibrahim knelt down in front of me, which made every one laugh, including the king. all such absurdities caused the ministers to give him the required reply with all speed, and they were not backward in granting him a farewell audience. when the time came for him to go, ibrahim burst into tears, exclaiming that, in his country, i should be in the first rank, whereas at saint germain i was only in the second; and he charged his interpreter to tell the king of france that the unhappy ibrahim would never get over this visit to his court. the king replied, with a smile, that he had "better become a christian, and stay with us." at these words the ambassador turned pale, and glancing downwards, withdrew, forgetting to salute his majesty. then he returned, and made all his bows quite nicely; nor would he quit the capital before he had sent me his portrait, some pretty verses in italian, which he had caused to be composed, and besides this, a set of amber ornaments, the most beautiful of any worn by ladies of the harem. despite this imposing and costly embassy, despite the ambassador's compliment, who referred to the king as "eldest son of the sun," this same son of the sun despatched seven thousand picked troops to help venice against the turks. to this detachment the venetian republic sent fourteen vessels laden with their own soldiers, under the leadership of our duc de beaufort, grand admiral of france, and lieutenant-general duc de navailles. had these troops arrived in the nick of time, they would have saved candia, but by a sudden accident all was lost, and after so terrible a reverse, the isle of candia, wrested from the potentates of europe and christendom, fell a prey to the infidels. a pistol-shot fired at a turk blew up several barrels of gunpowder belonging to a large magazine captured from the enemy. our troops, thinking that a mine had been sprung, fled in headlong confusion, never even caring to save their muskets. the turks butchered them in the most frightful manner. in this huge massacre, some of our most promising officers perished, and the duc de beaufort was never found either among the wounded or the slain. the young comte de guiche, of whom i shall presently speak, had his hand smashed, and if on his breast he had not worn a portrait of madame,--[the ill-fated duchesse d'orleans.]--the sword of a turk would have struck him to the heart. the king felt sorry that he had only despatched seven thousand men thither. but when m. de louvois informed him that the whole detachment had been almost annihilated, he regretted having sent so many. chapter xxvii. danger of harbouring a malcontent.--the king's policy with regard to lorraine.--advice of madame de thianges.--conquest of lorraine.--the lorraines surrender to the emperor. the petty princes placed too near a great potentate are just like the shrubs that grow beside an old oak tree, whose broad shade blights them, while its roots undermine and sap them, till at last they are weakened and destroyed. when young gaston, son of henri iv., seeking to get free from richelieu's insolent despotism, withdrew to the duc de lorraine, the cardinal uttered a cry of joy, and remarked to louis xiii., that vindictive, jealous prince, "oh, what a good turn the duc d'orleans has just done you to-day! by going to stay with m. de lorraine, he will oust him!" the court soon got to know that m. de lorraine had given monsieur a most cordial reception, and that the latter, who, like his father, was very susceptible, had proposed for the hand of the princesse marguerite, a charming person, and sister to the reigning duke. king louis xiii. openly opposed this marriage, which nevertheless was arranged for, and celebrated partly at nancy and partly at luneville. such complacence earned for m. de lorraine the indignation of the king and his minister, the cardinal. they waged against him a war of revenge, or rather of spoliation, and as the prince, being unable then to offer any serious resistance, was sensible enough to surrender, he got off with the sacrifice of certain portions of his territory. he also had to witness the demolition by france of the fine fortifications of nancy. things were at this juncture when our young king assumed the management of affairs. the policy pursued by louis xiii. and his cardinal seemed to him an advantageous one, also; he lured to his capital m. de lorraine, who was still young and a widower, and by every conceivable pretext he was prevented from marrying again. lorraine had a nephew,--[prince charles.]--a young man of great promise, to whom the uncle there and then offered to make over all his property and rights, if the king would honour him with his protection and marry him to whomsoever he fancied. the king would not consent to a marriage of any kind, having a firm, persistent desire in this way to make the line of these two princes extinct. i was talking about this one day in the king's chamber, when my sister de thianges had the hardihood to say: "i hear that the messieurs de lorraine are about to take their departure, and that, having lost all hope of making themselves beloved, they have resolved to make themselves feared." the king looked impassively at my sister, showing not a sign of emotion, and he said to her: "do you visit there?" "sire," replied madame de thianges, unabashed, "augment the number, not of your enemies, but of your friends; of all policies that is the best." the king never said a word. soon afterwards, the lorraines appealed secretly to the empire and the emperor. the king was only waiting for such an opportunity; he forthwith sent marshal de crequi at the head of twenty thousand men, who invaded lorraine, which had already been ravaged, and the duchy of bar, which had not. the manifesto stated the motives for such complaint, alleging that the duke had not been at the pains to observe the treaty of metz with regard to the surrender of harsal, and, as a punishment, his entire sovereignty would be confiscated. a large army then marched upon peronne; it had been formed at saint germain, and was divided into two columns. the first went to join the duc de crequi, who occupied lorraine; the other took up its position near sedan, to keep the flemish and dutch in check in case of any attempted rebellion. the lorraines, in despair, gave themselves up to the emperor, who, aware of their fine soldierly qualities, bestowed upon both high posts of command. they caused great losses to france and keen anxiety to her king. chapter xxviii. embassy of the king of arda.--political influence exercised by the good looks of madame de montespan.--gifts of the envoys.--what the comte de vegin takes for a horse.--madame de montespan entertains them in her own house.--three missionaries recommend her to them. from the wilds of africa, the king of arda sent an embassy no less brilliant and far more singular than that of the turks. this african prince, hearing of the french king's noble character and of his recent conquests, proposed to form with him a political and commercial alliance, and sought his support against the english and the dutch, his near neighbours. the king said to me; "madame, i believe ibrahim has proclaimed your charms even to the africans; you bring embassies to me from the other end of the globe. for heaven's sake, don't show yourself, or these new envoys will utterly lose their heads, too." the envoys referred to were notable for their rich, semibarbaric dress, but not one of them was like ibrahim. they brought the king a present, in the shape of a tiger, a panther, and two splendid lions. to the queen they gave a sort of pheasant covered with gold and blue feathers, which burst out laughing while looking intensely grave, to the great diversion of every one. they also brought to the princess a little blackamoor, extremely well-made, who could never grow any bigger, and of which she, unfortunately, grew very fond.--[later on the writer explains herself more fully.--editor's note.] these africans also came in ceremonious fashion to present their respects to me. they greeted me as the "second spouse of the king" (which greatly offended the queen), and in the name of the king of arda, they presented me with a necklace of large pearls, and two bracelets of priceless value,--splendid oriental sapphires, the finest in the world. i gave orders for my children to be brought to them. on seeing these, they prostrated themselves. the little comte de vein, profiting by their attitude, began to ride pick-a-back on one of them, who did not seem offended at this, but carried the child about for a little while. the ceremony of their presentation will, doubtless, have been described in various other books; but i cannot forbear mentioning one incident. as soon as the curtains of the throne were drawn aside, and they saw the king wearing all his decorations and ablaze with jewels, they put their hands up to their eyes, pretending to be dazzled by the splendour of his presence, and then they flung themselves down at full length upon the ground, the better to express their adoration. i invited them to visit me at the chateau de clagny, my favourite country-seat, and there i caused a sumptuous collation to be served to them in accordance with their tastes. plain roast meat they ate with avidity; other dishes seemed to inspire them with distrust,--they looked closely at them, and then went off to something else. i do not interfere in affairs of state, but i wanted to know from what source in so remote a country they could have obtained any positive information as to the secrets of the court of france. through the interpreter, they replied that three travellers--missionaries--had stayed for a couple of months with their master, the king of arda, and the good fathers had told them "that madame de montespan was the second spouse of the great king." these same missionaries had chosen the sort of presents which they were to give me. chapter xxix. comte de vegin, abbe of saint germain des pres.--revenues required, but not the cowl.--discussion between the king and the marquise.--madame scarron chosen as arbiter.--an unanswerable argument. the wealthy abbey of saint germain des pres--[yielding a revenue of five hundred thousand livres.]--was vacant; the king appointed thereto his son, the comte de vegin, and as the benedictine monks secretly complained that they should have given to them as chief a child almost still in its cradle, the king instructed the grand almoner to remind them that they had had as abbes in preceding reigns princes who were married and of warlike tastes. "such abuses," said the prelate, "were more than reprehensible; his majesty is incapable of wishing to renew them. as to the prince's extreme youth, that is in no way prejudicial to you, my brethren, as monseigneur will be suitably represented by his vicar-general until such time as he is able to assume the governorship himself." "is it your intention to condemn my son to be an ecclesiastic?" i asked the king, in amazement. "madame, these are my views," he answered: "if the comte de vegin as he grows up should continue to show pluck and a taste for things military, as by birth he is bound to do, we will relieve him of the abbey on the eve of his marriage, while he will have profited thereby up to that time. if, on the contrary, my son should show but inferior mental capacity, and a pusillanimous character, there will be no harm in his remaining among the church folk; he will be far better off there than elsewhere. the essential thing for a parent is to study carefully and in good time the proper vocation for his children; the essential thing for the ruler of an empire is to employ the right people to do the work in hand." "will my son, on receiving this abbey, have to wear the dress of his office?" i asked. "imagine the comte de vegin an abbe!" "do not feel the slightest repugnance on that score," added the king. "the electors of the german empire are nearly all of them ecclesiastics; our own history of france will show you that the sons of kings were bishops or mere abbes; the grandson of the duc de savoie is a cardinal and an archbishop, and king charles x., my grandfather's paternal uncle, nearly became king of france and cardinal at one and the same time." at this moment madame scarron came in. "madame, we will make you our judge in the argument that we are now having," said his majesty. "do you think there is any objection to our giving to little vegin the dress of an abbe?" "on the contrary, sire," replied the governess, smiling, "such a dress will inspire him betimes with reserve and modesty, strengthening his principles, and making far more profitable to him the excellent education which he is now receiving." "i am obliged to you for your opinion," said the king, "and i flatter myself, madame, that you see things in the same light that i do." when the king had gone, madame scarron asked me why i disapproved of this abbey. "i do not wish to deny so rich a benefice to my son," i replied, "but it seems to me that he might enjoy the revenues therefrom, without being obliged to wear the livery. is not the king powerful enough to effect this?" "you are hardly just, madame," replied the governess, in a serious tone. "if our religion be a true one, god himself is at the head of it, and for so supreme a chief the sons of kings are but of small account." with an argument such as this she closed my mouth, leaving me quite amazed, and next day she smiled with delight when she presented the little comte de vegin dressed as a little abbe. she was careful to see that the crozier, mitre, and cross were painted on the panels of his carriage, and let the post of vicar-general be given to one of her pious friends who was presented to me. chapter xxx. once a queen, always a queen.--an anonymous letter.--the queen's confidence.--she has a sermon preached against madame de montespan.--who the preacher was.--one scandal may avert another. i related how, near la fere, at the time of the flanders campaign, madame de la valliere's coach, at the risk of offending the queen, left the main road and took a short cut across country, so as to get on ahead, and arrive before anybody else. by this the duchess thought to give her royal friend a great mark of her attachment. on the contrary, it was the first cause for that coolness which the king afterwards displayed. "fain would he be beloved, yet loved with tact." the very next day his majesty, prevailed upon la valliere to say that such a style of travelling was too fatiguing for her. she had the honour of dining with the queen, and then she returned to the little chateau of versailles, so as to be near her children. the king arranged with madame de montausier, lady-in-waiting to the queen, that i should use her rooms to dress and write in, and that his majesty should be free to come there when he liked, and have a quiet chat with me about matters of interest. the queen, whom i had managed to please by my amusing talk, always kept me close to her side, both when taking long walks or playing cards. at a given signal, a knock overhead, i used to leave the queen, excusing myself on the score of a headache, or arrears of correspondence; in short, i managed to get away as best i could. the king left us in order to capture douai, then tournay, and finally the whole of flanders; while the queen continued to show me every sign of her sincere and trustful friendship. in august, on the day of our lady, while the king was besieging lille, a letter came to the queen, informing her that her husband had forsaken madame de la valliere for her majesty's lady-in-waiting, the marquise de montespan. moreover, the anonymous missive named "the prudent duchesse de montausier" as confidante and accomplice. "it is horrible--it is infamous!" cried the queen, as she flung aside the letter. "i shall never be persuaded that such is the case. my dear little montespan enjoys my friendship and my esteem; others are jealous of her, but they shall not succeed. perhaps the king may know the handwriting; he shall see it at once!" and that same evening she forwarded the letter to him. the comte de vegin had been born, and the queen was absolutely ignorant of his existence. my pregnancy with the duc du maine had likewise escaped her notice, owing to the large paniers which i took to wearing, and thus made the fashion. but the court is a place where the best of friends are traitors. the queen was at length convinced, after long refusing to be so, and from that day forward she cordially detested me. while the king was conquering holland, she instructed her chief almoner to have a sermon of a scandalous sort to be preached, which, delivered with all due solemnity in her presence, should grieve and wound me as much as possible. on the day appointed, a preacher, totally unknown to us, gets into the pulpit, makes a long prayer for the guidance of the holy ghost, and then, rising gracefully, bows low to the queen. raising his eyes to heaven, he makes the sign of the cross and gives out the following text: "woman, arise and sin no more. go hence; i forgive thee." as he uttered these words, he looked hard at my pew, and soon made me understand by his egordium how interesting his discourse would be to me. written with rare grace of style, it was merely a piece of satire from beginning to end,--of satire so audacious that it was constantly levelled at the king. the orator brought before us in succession lifelike portraits of the queen, of her august spouse, of my children, of m. de montespan, and of myself. upon some he lavished praise; others he vehemently rebuked; while to others he gave tender pity. anon he caused the lips of his hearers to curl in irony, and again, roused their indignation or touched them to tears. any one else would have been bored by such a rigmarole; it rather amused me. that evening, and for a week afterwards, nothing else but this sermon was talked of at versailles. the queen had received complete satisfaction. before me she was at pains not to laugh, and i was pleased to see that her resentment had almost disappeared. upon his return, the king was for punishing such an offence as this. things are not easily hidden from him; his majesty desired to know the name and rank of the ecclesiastic. the entire court replied that he was a good-looking young franciscan. the chief almoner, being forced to state the monastery from which the preacher came, mentioned the cordeliers of paris. there it transpired that the monk told off by the prior for this enterprise had been too frightened to execute it, and had sent, as his deputy, a young actor from orleans,--a brother of his, who thus could not say no. so, as it happened, queen maria theresa and her chief almoner (an exemplary person) had caused virtue to be preached to me by a young play-actor! the king dared not take further proceedings in so strange a matter, for fear lest one scandal might beget a far greater one. it was this that caused madame cornuel to remark, "the pulpit is in want of comedians; they work wonders there!" chapter xxxi. the king alters his opinion about madame scarron.--he wants her to assume another name.--he gives her the maintenon estates.--she and madame de montespan visit these.--a strange story. at first the king used to feel afraid of madame scarron, and seemingly laughed at me when i endeavoured to persuade him that there was nothing affected or singular about her. the marquis de beringhen, for some reason or other, had prejudiced his majesty against her, so that very often, when the king heard that she was visiting me, he never got beyond the vestibule, but at once withdrew. one day she was telling me, in her pleasant, original way, a funny tale about the famous brancas, and i laughed till i cried again,--in fact, until i nearly made myself quite ill. the king, who was listening at the door, was greatly tickled by the story. he came in smiling and thoroughly self-possessed. then, addressing the governess, he said, "madame, allow me to compliment you and to thank you at the same time. i thought you were of a serious, melancholy disposition, but as i listened to you through the keyhole, i am no longer surprised that you have such long talks with the marquise. will you do me the favour of being as amusing some other time, if i venture to make one of the party?" the governess, courtesying, blushed somewhat; and the king continued, "madame, i am aware of your affection for my children; that is a great recommendation to me; banish all restraint; i take the greatest pleasure in your company." she replied, "it was the fear of displeasing you which, despite myself, caused me to incur your displeasure." the king continued, "madame, i know that the late m. de scarron was a man of much wit and also of agreeable manners. my cousin, de beaufort, used to rave about him, but on account of his somewhat free poems, his name lacks weight and dignity. in fact, his name in no way fits so charming a personality as yours; would it grieve you to change it?" the governess cleverly replied that all that she owed to the memory of her defunct husband was gratitude and esteem. "allow me, then, to arrange matters," added the king. "i am fond of sonorous names; in this i agree with boileau." a few days afterwards we heard that the splendid maintenon estates were for sale. the king himself came to inform the widow of this, and, giving her in advance the fee for education, he counted out a hundred thousand crowns wherewith instantly to purchase the property. forthwith the king compelled her to discard this truly ridiculous author's name, and styled her before everybody madame de maintenon. i must do her the justice to state that her gratitude for the king's liberality was well-nigh exaggerated, while no change was perceptible in her manners and bearing. she had, naturally, a grand, dignified air, which was in strange contrast to the grotesque buffoonery of her poet-husband. now she is exactly in her proper place, representing to perfection the governess of a king's children. spiteful persons were wont to say that i appeared jealous on seeing her made a marquise like myself. good gracious, no! on the contrary, i was delighted; her parentage was well known to me. the duchesse de navailles, my protectress, was a near relative of hers, and m. d'aubigne, her grandfather, was one of king henri's two chief gentlemen of the chamber. madame de maintenon's father was, in many respects, greatly to blame. without being actually dishonest, he squandered a good deal of his fortune, the greater part being pounced upon by his family; and had the king forced these harpies to disgorge, madame de maintenon could have lived in opulence, eclipsing several of the personages at court. i am glad to be able to do her justice in these memoirs, to the satisfaction of my own self-respect. i look upon her as my own handiwork, and everything assures me that this is her conviction also, and that she will always bear it in mind. the king said to us, "go and see the chateau de maintenon, and then you can tell me all about it. according to an old book, i find that it was built in the reign of henri ii. by nicolas de cointerot, the king's minister of finance; a 'surintendant's' castle ought to form a noteworthy feature of the landscape." madame de maintenon hereupon told us a most extraordinary story. the lady who sold this marquisate had retired two years previously to the island of martinique, where she, at the present moment, owned the residence of constant d'aubigne, the same house where the new marquise de maintenon had spent her childhood with her parents, so that while one of these ladies had quitted the chateau de maintenon in order to live in martinique, the other had come from martinique in order to reside at the chateau de maintenon. truly, the destinies of some are strange in this world. the chateau appeared to be large, of solid proportions, and built in a grandly simple style, befitting a minister of dignity and position. the governess shed tears of emotion when setting foot there for the first time. the six priests, whom the surintendant had appointed, officiated in the large chapel or little church attached to the castle. they approached us in regular procession, presenting holy water, baskets of flowers and fruit, an old man, a child, and two little lambs to the marquise. the villagers, dressed out with flowers and ribbons, also came to pay, their respects to her. they danced in the castle courtyard, under our balcony, to the sound of hautbois and bagpipes. we gave them money, said pleasant things to everybody, and invited all the six clerics to sup with us. these gentry spoke with great respect of the other madame de maintenon, who had become disgusted with her property, and with france generally, because, for two winters running, her orange-groves and fig-trees had been frost-bitten. she herself, being a most chilly, person, never left off her furs until august, and in order to avoid looking at or walking upon snow and ice, she fled to the other end of the world. "the other extreme will bring her back to us," observed madame de maintenon to the priests. "though his majesty were to give me martinique or saint domingo, i certainly would never go and live there myself." when we returned, all these little details greatly amused the king. he, too, wanted to go and see the castle of another fouquet, but, as we complained of the bad roads, he ordered these to be mended along the entire route. chapter xxxii. the second comte de vexin.--he is made abbe of saint denis.--priests or devils?--the coronation diadem.--royalty jokes with the monks. my poor little comte de vegin died. we all mourned for him as he deserved; his pretty face would have made every one love him; his extreme gentleness had nothing of the savage warrior about it, but at any rate, he was the best-looking cardinal in christendom. he made such funny speeches that one could not help recollecting them. he was more of a mortemart than a bourbon, but that did not prevent the king from idolising him. the king thought of conferring the abbey of saint germain des pres upon his younger brother; to this i was opposed, imagining, perhaps without reason, that such succession would bring bad luck. so the king presented him to the abbey of saint denis, the revenue of which was equally considerable, and he conferred upon him the title of comte de vexin, caring nothing for the remarks i made concerning the similarities of such names and distinctions. the second comte de vegin bid fair to be a man of reflection and of genius. he obviously disliked his little abbe's dress, and we always kept saying, "it's only for the time being, my little fellow." when, after his nomination, the monks of saint denis came to make their obeisance to him, he asked if they were devils, and continually covered his face so as not to see them. the king arrived, and with a few flattering words managed to soothe the priests' outraged dignity, and when they asked the little prince if he would honour them by a visit of inspection to suger's room, which had just been restored, he replied with a sulky smile, "i'll come and see you, but with my eyes shut." [suger was abbe of saint denis, and a famous minister of queen blanche. editor's note.] then the priests mildly remonstrated because the coronation diadem had not been brought back to their store of treasures, but was still missing. "so, in your treasure-house at saint denis you keep all the crowns of all the reigns?" asked the prince. "yes, sire, and where could they be better guarded than with us? who has most may have least." "with all their rubies, diamonds, sapphires, and emeralds?" "yes, sire; and hence the name treasure." the king replied, "if this be the case, i will send you my coronation crown. at that time my brow was not so big; you will find the crown small, i tell you." then one of the monks, in the most serious manner, said, "it's not as small as it was; your majesty has enlarged it a good deal." madame de maintenon burst out laughing, and i was not slow to follow her example; we saw that the king could hardly maintain his gravity. he said to the priest, "my father, you turn a pretty compliment in a most praiseworthy manner; you ought to have belonged to the jesuits, not to the benedictines." we burst out laughing anew, and this convent-deputation, the gloomiest-looking, most funereal one in the world, managed to cause us some diversion, after all. to make amends for our apparent frivolity, his majesty himself took them to see his splendid cabinet of medals and coins, and sent them back to their abbey in court carriages. chapter xxxiii. m. de lauzun proposes for the hand of mademoiselle de thianges.--letter from the duc de lorraine.--madame de thianges thinks that her daughter has married a reigning prince.--the king disposes otherwise.--the duc de nevers. the brilliant marquis de lauzun, after paying court to myself, suddenly, turned his attention to mademoiselle de thianges,--my sister's child. if a fine figure and a handsome face, as well as the polished manners of a great gentleman, constitute a good match, m. de lauzun was, in all respects, worthy of my niece. but this presumptuous nobleman had but a slender fortune. extravagant, without the means to be so, his debts grew daily greater, and in society one talked of nothing but his lavish expenditure and his creditors. i know that the purses of forty women were at his disposal. i know, moreover, that he used to gamble like a prince, and i would never marry my waiting-maid to a gambler and a rake. both madame de thianges and myself rejected his proposals, and though resolved to let him have continued proofs of our good-will, we were equally determined never to accept such a man as son-in-law and nephew. hereupon the letter which i am about to transcribe was sent to me by a messenger: prince charles de lorraine to madame la marquise de montespan. madame:--my unfortunate uncle and i have always loved france, but france has forced us both to break off all relations with her and to become exiles!!! despite the kindness and generosity wherewith the imperial court seeks to comfort us in our misfortune, the perpetual cry of our hearts calls us back to our fatherland,--to that matchless land where my ancestors have ever been beloved. my uncle is guilty of no crime but that of having formerly received in his palace a son of good king henri iv., after his humiliation by a shameless minister. my dear uncle proposed to resign all his property in my favour, and to meet the wishes of his majesty as to the wife that should be mine. when my uncle asked for the hand of mademoiselle de montpensier, on my behalf, my cousin replied that a ruined and dismantled throne did not augur well for a dowry, and she further remarked that we were not on good terms with the king. when i begged cardinal mazarin to grant me the hand of the present madame de mazarin, his eminence replied, "would you like to be a cardinal? i can manage that; but as regards my niece, the queen is going to get her married immediately." when, before god and man, i wedded mademoiselle de nemours, whose worthy mother led her to the altar, his majesty refused to sign the marriage contract, and told madame de nemours that it would never be considered valid. soon afterwards the bishop of laon, who has complete influence over madame de vendome, declared as null and void--a marriage negotiated and consecrated by himself, and thus a bond made in heaven has been broken on earth. such treatment as this, i confess, seemed to us to exceed the bounds of humanity and of justice. my uncle and i quitted france,--the france that persecutes and harasses us, that desires the destruction of our family and the forcible union of our territory with her own. the late queen, of illustrious and glorious memory, disapproved of richelieu's injustice towards us. under the ministry of the cardinal, his successor, she often, in noble fashion, held out to us a helping hand. how comes it that the king, who in face is her living image, does not desire to be like her in heart? i address myself to you, madame, who by your beauty and spiritual charm hold such imperious sway over his decisions, and i implore you to undertake our defence. my uncle and i, his rightful and duteous heir, offer the king devoted homage and unswerving fealty. we offer to forget the past, to put our hearts and our swords at his service. let him withdraw his troops and those standards of his that have brought terror and grief to our unhappy lorraine. i offer to marry mademoiselle de thianges, your beautiful and charming niece, and to make her happy, and to surrender all any estates to the king of france, if i die without male issue or heirs of any sort. i know your kind-heartedness, madame, by a niece who is your picture. in your hands i place her interests and my fate. i await your message with impatience, and i shall receive it with courage if you fail to obtain that which you ought to obtain. be assured, madame, of my unbounded admiration and respect. charles i at once went to my house at clagny, whither i privately summoned madame de thianges. on reading this letter, my sister was moved to tears, for she had always deeply felt how unjustly this family had been treated. she was also personally attached to this same prince charles, whom to see was to love. we read this letter through thrice, and each time we found it more admirable; the embarrassing thing was how to dare to let his majesty know its contents. however temperate the allusions to himself, there was still the reproach of injustice and barbarity, set against the clemency of anne of austria, and her generous compassion. my sister said to me, "go boldly to work in the matter. despite your three children, the king leaves you merely a marquise; and for my own part, if my daughter becomes duchesse do lorraine, i promise you the principality of vaudemont." "it is quite true," i replied; "his conduct is inexplicable. to madame scarron, who was only the governess of his children, he gives one of the first marquisates of france, while to me, who have borne these three children (with infinite pain), i admit he has only given some jewelry, some money, and this pretty castle of clagny." "you are as clever as can be, my dear athenais," said madame de thianges, "but, as a matter of fact, your cleverness is not of a business kind. you don't look after yourself, but let yourself be neglected; you don't push yourself forward enough, nor stand upon your dignity as you ought to do. "the little lame woman had hardly been brought to bed of mademoiselle de blois, when she was made duchesse de vaujours and de la valliere. "gabrielle d'estrees, directly she appeared, was proclaimed duchesse de beaufort. "diane de poitiers was duchesse de valentinois and a princess. it's only you who are nobody, and your relations also are about the same! make the most of this grand opportunity; help the prince of lorraine, and the prince of lorraine will help you." on our return from the chateau, while our resolution was yet firm, we went laughing to the king. he asked the reason of our gaiety. my sister said with her wonted ease, "sire, i have come to invite you to my daughter's wedding." "your daughter? don't you think i am able to get her properly married?" cried the king. "sire, you cannot do it better than i can myself. i am giving her a sovereign as husband, a sovereign in every sense of the term." it seemed to me the king flushed slightly as he rejoined, "a sovereign on his feet, or a sovereign overthrown?" "how do you mean, sire?" said my sister. "madame de thianges," replied the king, "pray, let us be friends. i was informed two days ago of the proposals of the messieurs de lorraine; it is not, yet time to give them a definite reply. it behoves, me to give your daughter in marriage, and i have destined her for the duc de nevers, who is wealthy, and my friend." "the duc de nevers!" cried my sister; "why, he's cracked for six months in the year." "those who are cracked for a whole twelvemonth deserve far more pity," replied the king. then, turning to me, he observed, "you make no remark, madame? does your niece's coronation provide you also with illusions?" i easily perceived that we had been cherishing an utterly fantastic scheme, and i counselled madame de thianges to prefer to please the king; and, as she was never able to control her feelings, she sharply replied, "madame la marquise, good day or good night!" the king, however, did not relax his persistence in giving us the duc de nevers as son-in-law and nephew; and as this young gentleman's one fault is to require perpetual amusement, partly derived from poetry and partly from incessant travelling, my niece is as happy with him as a woman who takes her husband's place well can be. as soon as he gets to paris, he wants to return to rome, and hardly has he reached rome, when he has the horses put to for paris. chapter xxxiv. mademoiselle de mortemart, abbess of fontevrault.--she comes to court.--the cloister.--her success at court.--her opinion respecting madame de montespan's intimacy with the king. my second sister, mademoiselle de mortemart, was so unfortunate as to fall in love with a young knight of malta, doomed from his birth and by his family to celibacy. having set out upon his caravans,--[sea-fights against the turks and the pirates of the mediterranean.]--he was killed in combat by the algerians. such was mademoiselle de mortemart's grief that life became unbearable to her. beautiful, witty, and accomplished, she quitted the world where she was beloved, and, at the age of seventeen, took the veil at fontevrault. so severely had she blamed the conduct of mademoiselle de la valliere, while often vehemently denouncing that which she termed the disorder at court, that, since the birth of the duc du maine, i had not gone to the convent to see her. we were like unto persons both most anxious to break off an intimacy and yet who had not done so. the duc de lorraine was known to her. he wrote to her, begging her to make it up with me, so as to further his own ends. to gratify him, and mainly because of her attachment to prince charles, my sister actually wrote to me, asking for my intervention and what she termed my support. nuns always profess to be, and think that they are, cut off from the world. but the fact is, they care far more for mundane grandeur than we do. madame de thianges and her sister would have given their very heart's blood to see my niece the bride of a royal prince. one day the king said to me, "the marquise de thianges complains that i have as yet done nothing for your family; there is a wealthy abbey that has just become vacant; i am going to give it to your sister, the nun; since last night she is the abbess of fontevrault." i thanked the king, as it behoved me to do, and he added, "your brother shall be made a duke at once. i am going to appoint him general of royal galleys, and after one or two campaigns he will have a marshal's baton." "and what about me, sire?" said i. "what, may it please your majesty, shall i get from the distribution of all these favours and emoluments?" i laughingly asked the question. "you, madame?" he replied. "to you i made a present of my heart, which is not altogether worthless; yet, as it is possible that, when this heart shall have ceased to beat, you may have to maintain your rank, i will give you the charming retreat of petit-bourg, near fontainebleau." saying this, his face wore a sad look, and i was sorry that i asked him for anything. he is fond of giving, and of giving generously, but of his own accord, without the least prompting. had i refrained from committing this indiscretion, he might, possibly, have made me a duchess there and then, renaming petit-bourg royal-bourg. the new abbess of fontevrault, caring less now for claustral seclusion, equipped her new residence in very sumptuous style. in a splendid carriage she came to thank the king and kiss hands. with much tact and dignity she encountered the scrutiny of the royal family and of the court. her manners showed her to have been a person brought up in the great world, and possessed of all the tact and delicacy which her position as well as mine required. as she embraced me, she sighed; yet, instantly recovering herself, she made the excuse that so many ceremonious greetings and compliments had fatigued her. it was not long before the king joined us, who said, "madame, i never thought that there was much amusement to be got by wearing the veil. now, you must admit that days in a convent seem very long to any one who has wit and intelligence." "sire," replied my sister, "the first fifteen or twenty months are wearisome, i readily confess. then comes discouragement; after that, habit; and then one grows resigned to one's fetters from the mere pleasure of existence." "did you meet with any good friends among your associates?" "in such assemblies," rejoined the abbess, "one can form no attachment or durable friendship. the reason for this is simple. if the companion you choose is religious in all sincerity, she is perforce a slave to every little rule and regulation, and to her it would seem like defrauding the deity to give affection to any one but to him. if, by mischance, you meet with some one of sensitive temperament, with a bright intellect that matches your own, you lay yourself open to be the mournful sharer of her griefs, doubts, and regrets, and her depression reacts upon you; her sorrow makes your melancholy return. privation conjures up countless illusions and every chimera imaginable, so that the peaceful retreat of virgins of the lord becomes a veritable hell, peopled by phantoms that groan in torture!" "oh, madame!" exclaimed the king. "what a picture is this! what a spectacle you present to our view!" "fortunately," continued mademoiselle de mortemart, "in convents girls of intelligence are all too rare. the greater number of them are colourless persons, devoid of imagination or fire. to exiles like these, any country, any climate would seem good; to flaccid, crushed natures of this type, every belief would seem authoritative, every religion holy and divine. fifteen hundred years ago these nuns would have made excellent vestal virgins, watchful and resigned. what they need is abstinence, prohibitions, thwartings, things contrary to nature. by conforming to most rigorous rules, they consider themselves suffering beings who deserve heavy recompense; and the carmelite or trappist sister, who macerates herself by the hair-shirt or the cilex, would look upon god as a false or wicked being, if, after such cruel torment, he did not promptly open to her the gates of paradise. "sire," added the abbess de fontevrault, "i have three nuns in my convent who take the holy communion every other day, and whom my predecessor could never bring herself to absolve for some old piece of nonsense of twenty years back." "do you think you will be able to manage them, madame?" asked the king, laughing. "i am afraid not," replied my sister. "those are three whom one could never manage, and your majesty on the throne may possibly have fewer difficulties to deal with than the abbess or the prior of a convent." the king was obliged to quit us to go and see one of the ministers, but he honoured the abbess by telling her that she was excellent company, of which he could never have too much. my sister wished to see madame de maintenon and the duc du maine; so we visited that lady, who took a great liking to the abbess, which was reciprocated. when my sister saw the young duc du maine, she exclaimed, "how handsome he is! oh, sister, how fond i shall be of such a nephew!" "then," said i, "you will forgive me, won't you, for having given birth to him?" "when i reproached you," she answered, "i had not yet seen the king. when one has seen him, everything is excusable and everything is right. embrace me, my dear sister, and do not let us forget that i owe my abbey to you, as well as my independence, fortune, and liberty." etext editor's bookmarks: cannot reconcile themselves to what exists domestics included two nurses, a waiting-maid, a physician extravagant, without the means to be so happy with him as a woman who takes her husband's place can be poetry without rhapsody present princes and let those be scandalised who will! satire without bitterness talent without artifice the pulpit is in want of comedians; they work wonders there then comes discouragement; after that, habit trust not in kings what they need is abstinence, prohibitions, thwartings when one has seen him, everything is excusable would you like to be a cardinal? i can manage that memoirs of the court of louis xiv. and of the regency being the secret memoirs of the mother of the regent, madame elizabeth-charlotte of bavaria, duchesse d'orleans. book 3. henrietta of england, monsieur's first consort the due de berri the duchesse de berri mademoiselle d'orleans, louise-adelaide de chartres mademoiselle de valois, consort of the prince of modena the illegitimate children of the regent, duc d'orleans the chevalier de lorraine philip v., king of spain the duchess, consort of the duc de bourbon the younger duchess duc louis de bourbon francois-louis, prince de conti la grande princesse de conti the princess palatine, consort of prince francois-louis de conti the princesse de conti, louise-elizabeth, consort of louis-armand louis-armand, prince de conti the abbe dubois mr. law section xvii.--henrietta of england, the first wife of monsieur, brother of louis xiv. it is true that the late madame was extremely unhappy; she confided too much in people who betrayed her: she was more to be pitied than blamed, being connected with very wicked persons, about whom i could give some particulars. young, pretty and gay, she was surrounded by some of the greatest coquettes in the world, the mistresses of her bitterest foes, and who sought only to thrust her into some unfortunate situation and to embroil her with monsieur. madame de coetquen was the chevalier de lorraine's mistress, although madame did not know it; and she contrived that the marechal de turenne should become attached to her. madame having told the marshal all her secrets respecting the negotiations with england, he repeated them to his mistress, madame de coetquen, whom he believed to be devoted to his mistress. this woman went every night to the chevalier de lorraine and betrayed them all. the chevalier used this opportunity to stir up monsieur's indignation against madame, telling him that he passed with the king for a simpleton, who could not hold his tongue; that he would lose all confidence, and that his wife would have everything in her own hand. monsieur wished to know all the particulars from madame; but she refused to tell him her brother's secrets, and this widened the breach between them. she became enraged, and had the chevalier de lorraine and his brother driven away, which in the end cost her own life; she, however, died with the consciousness of never having done her husband any harm. she was the confidante of the king, to whom it had been hinted that it might be expedient to give some employment to monsieur, who might otherwise make himself beloved in the court and in the city. for this reason the king assisted madame in her affairs of gallantry, in order to occupy his brother. i have this from the king himself. madame was besides in great credit with her brother, charles ii. (of england). louis xiv. wished to gain him over through his sister, wherefore it was necessary to take part with her, and she was always better treated than i have been. the late monsieur never suspected his wife of infidelity with the king, her brother-in-law, he told me, all her life, and would not have been silent with respect to this intrigue if he had believed it. i think that with respect to this great injustice is done to madame. it would have been too much to deceive at once the brother and the nephew, the father and the son. the late monsieur was very much disturbed at his wife's coquetry; but he dared not behave ill to her, because she was protected by the king. the queen-mother of england had not brought up her children well: she at first left them in the society of femmes de chambre, who gratified all their caprices; and having afterwards married them at a very early age, they followed the bad example of their mother. both of them met with unhappy deaths; the one was poisoned, and the other died in child-birth. monsieur was himself the cause of madame's intrigue with the comte de guiche. he was one of the favourites of the late monsieur, and was said to have been handsome once. monsieur earnestly requested madame to shew some favour to the comte de guiche, and to permit him to wait upon her at all times. the count, who was brutal to every one else, but full of vanity, took great pains to be agreeable to madame, and to make her love him. in fact, he succeeded, being seconded by his aunt, madame de chaumont, who was the gouvernante of madame's children. one day madame went to this lady's chamber, under the pretence of seeing her children, but in fact to meet de guiche, with whom she had an assignation. she had a valet de chambre named launois, whom i have since seen in the service of monsieur; he had orders to stand sentinel on the staircase, to give notice in case monsieur should approach. this launois suddenly ran into the room, saying, "monsieur is coming downstairs." the lovers were terrified to death. the count could not escape by the antechamber on account of monsieur's people who were there. launois said, "i know a way, which i will put into practice immediately; hide yourself," he said to the count, "behind the door." he then ran his head against monsieur's nose as he was entering, and struck him so violently that he began to bleed. at the same moment he cried out, "i beg your pardon, monsieur, i did not think you were so near, and i ran to open you the door." madame and madame de chaumont ran in great alarm to monsieur, and covered his face with their handkerchiefs, so that the comte de guiche had time to get out of the room, and escape by the staircase. monsieur saw some one run away, but he thought it was launois, who was escaping through fear. he never learnt the truth. what convinces me of the late madame's innocence is that, after having received the last sacraments, she begged pardon of monsieur for all disquiets she had occasioned, and said that she hoped to reach heaven because she had committed no crime against her husband. i think m. de monmouth was much worse than the comte de guiche; because, although a bastard, he was the son of madame's own brother; and this incest doubled the crime. madame de thiange, sister of madame de montespan, conducted the intrigue between the duke of monmouth and madame. it is said here that madame was not a beauty, but that she had so graceful a manner as to make all she did very agreeable. she never forgave. she would have the chevalier de lorraine dismissed; he was so, but he was amply revenged of her. he sent the poison by which she was destroyed from italy by a nobleman of provence, named morel: this man was afterwards given to me as chief maitre d'hotel, and after he had sufficiently robbed me they made him sell his place at a high price. this morel was very clever, but he was a man totally void of moral or religious principle; he confessed to me that he did not believe in anything. at the point of death he would not hear talk of god. he said, speaking of himself, "let this carcass alone, it is now good for nothing." he would steal, lie and swear; he was an atheist and..... ........................ it is too true that the late madame was poisoned, but without the knowledge of monsieur. while the villains were arranging the plan of poisoning the poor lady, they deliberated whether they should acquaint monsieur with it or not. the chevalier de lorraine said "no, don't tell him, for he cannot hold his tongue. if he does not tell it the first year he may have us hanged ten years afterwards;" and it is well known that the wretches said, "let us not tell monsieur, for he would tell the king, who would certainly hang us all." they therefore made monsieur believe that madame had taken poison in holland, which did not act until she arrived here. [it is said that the king sent for the maitre d'hotel, and that, being satisfied that monsieur had not been a party to the crime, he said, "then i am relieved; you may retire." the memoirs of the day state also that the king employed the chevalier de lorraine to persuade monsieur to obey his brother's wishes.] it appears, therefore, that the wicked gourdon took no part in this affair; but she certainly accused madame to monsieur, and calumniated and disparaged her to everybody. it was not madame's endive-water that d'effial had poisoned; that report must have been a mere invention, for other persons might have tasted it had madame alone drank from her own glass. a valet de chambre who was with madame, and who afterwards was in my service (he is dead now), told me that in the morning, while monsieur and madame were at mass, d'effial went to the sideboard and, taking the queen's cup, rubbed the inside of it with a paper. the valet said to him, "monsieur, what do you do in this room, and why do you touch madame's cup?" he answered, "i am dying with thirst; i wanted something to drink, and the cup being dirty, i was wiping it with some paper." in the afternoon madame asked for some endive-water; but no sooner had she swallowed it than she exclaimed she was poisoned. the persons present drank some of the same water, but not the same that was in the cup, for which reason they were not inconvenienced by it. it was found necessary to carry madame to bed. she grew worse, and at two o'clock in the morning she died in great pain. when the cup was sought for it had disappeared, and was not found until long after. it seems it had been necessary to pass it through the fire before it could be cleaned. a report prevailed at st. cloud for several years that the ghost of the late madame appeared near a fountain where she had been accustomed to sit during the great heats, for it was a very cool spot. one evening a servant of the marquis de clerambault, having gone thither to draw water from the fountain, saw something white sitting there without a head. the phantom immediately arose to double its height. the poor servant fled in great terror, and said when he entered the house that he had seen madame. he fell sick and died. then the captain of the chateau, thinking there was something hidden beneath this affair, went to the fountain some days afterwards, and, seeing the phantom, he threatened it with a sound drubbing if it did not declare what it was. the phantom immediately said, "ah, m. de lastera, do me no harm; i am poor old philipinette." this was an old woman in the village, seventy-seven years old, who had lost her teeth, had blear eyes, a great mouth and large nose; in short, was a very hideous figure. they were going to take her to prison, but i interceded for her. when she came to thank me i asked her what fancy it was that had induced her to go about playing the ghost instead of sleeping. she laughed and said, "i cannot much repent what i have done. at my time of life one sleeps little; but one wants something to amuse one's mind. in all the sports of my youth nothing diverted me so much as to play the ghost. i was very sure that if i could not frighten folks with my white dress i could do so with my ugly face. the cowards made so many grimaces when they saw it that i was ready to die with laughing. this nightly amusement repaid me for the trouble of carrying a pannier by day." if the late madame was better treated than i was it was for the purpose of pleasing the king of england, who was very fond of his sister. ........................... madame de la fayette, who has written the life of the late madame, was her intimate friend; but she was still more intimately the friend of m. de la rochefoucauld, who remained with her to the day of his death. it is said that these two friends wrote together the romance of the princesse de cloves. section xviii.--the duc de berri. it is not surprising that the manners of the duc de berri were not very elegant, since he was educated by madame de maintenon and the dauphine as a valet de chambre. he was obliged to wait upon the old woman at table, and at all other times upon the dauphine's ladies, with whom he was by day and night. they made a mere servant of him, and used to talk to him in a tone of very improper familiarity, saying, "berri, go and fetch me my work; bring me that table; give me my scissors." their manner of behaving to him was perfectly shameful. this had the effect of degrading his disposition, and of giving him base propensities; so that it is not surprising he should have been violently in love with an ugly femme de chambre. his good father was naturally of rather a coarse disposition. but for that old maintenon, the duc de berri would have been humpbacked, like the rest who had been made to carry iron crosses. the duc de berri's character seemed to undergo a total change; it is said to be the ordinary lot of the children in paris that, if they display any sense in their youth, they become stupid as they grow older. it was in compliance with the king's will that he married. at first he was passionately fond of his wife; but at the end of three months he fell in love with a little, ugly, black femme de chambre. the duchess, who had sufficient penetration, was not slow in discovering this, and told her husband immediately that, if he continued to live upon good terms with her, as he had done at first, she would say nothing about it, and act as if she were not acquainted with it; but if he behaved ill, she would tell the whole affair to the king, and have the femme de chambre sent away, so that he should never hear of her again. by this threat she held the duke, who was a very simple man, so completely in check, that he lived very well with her up to his death, leaving her to do as she pleased, and dying himself as fond as ever of the femme de chambre. a year before his death he had her married, but upon condition that the husband should not exercise his marital rights. he left her pregnant as well as his wife, both of whom lay-in after his decease. madame de berri, who was not jealous, retained this woman, and took care of her and her child. the duke abridged his life by his extreme intemperance in eating and drinking. he had concealed, besides, that in falling from his horse he had burst a blood-vessel. he threatened to dismiss any of his servants who should say that he had lost blood. a number of plates were found in the ruelle of his bed after his death. when he disclosed the accident it was too late to remedy it. as far as could be judged his illness proceeded from gluttony, in consequence of which emetics were so frequently administered to him that they hastened his death. he himself said to his confessor, the pere de la rue, "ah, father, i am myself the cause of my death!" he repented of it, but not until too late. section xix.--the duchesse de berri. my son loves his eldest daughter better than all the rest of his children, because he has had the care of her since she was seven years old. she was at that time seized with an illness which the physicians did not know how to cure. my son resolved to treat her in his own way. he succeeded in restoring her to health, and from that moment his love seemed to increase with her years. she was very badly educated, having been always left with femmes de chambre. she is not very capricious, but she is haughty and absolute in all her wishes. [her pride led her into all sorts of follies. she once went through paris preceded by trumpets and drama; and on another occasion she appeared at the theatre under a canopy. she received the venetian ambassador sitting in a chair elevated upon a sort of a platform. this haughtiness, however, did not prevent her from keeping very bad company, and she would sometimes lay aside her singularities and break up her orgies to pass some holy days at the carmelites.] from the age of eight years she has had entirely her own way, so that it is not surprising she should be like a headstrong horse. if she had been well brought up, she would have been a worthy character, for she has very good sense and a good natural disposition, and is not at all like her mother, to whom, although she was very severely treated, she always did her duty. during her mother's last illness, she watched her like a hired nurse. if madame de berri had been surrounded by honest people, who thought more of her honour than of their own interest, she would have been a very admirable person. she had excellent feelings; but as that old woman (maintenon) once said, "bad company spoils good manners." to be pleasing she had only to speak, for she possessed natural eloquence, and could express herself very well. her complexion is very florid, for which she often lets blood, but without effect; she uses a great quantity of paint, i believe for the purpose of hiding the marks of the small-pox. she cannot dance, and hates it; but she is well-grounded in music. her voice is neither strong nor agreeable, and yet she sings very correctly. she takes as much diversion as possible; one day she hunts, another day she goes out in a carriage, on a third she will go to a fair; at other times she frequents the rope-dancers, the plays, and the operas, and she goes everywhere 'en echarpe', and without stays. i often rally her, and say that she fancies she is fond of the chase, but in fact she only likes changing her place. she cares little about the result of the chase, but she likes boar-hunting better than stag-hunting, because the former furnishes her table with black puddings and boars' heads. i do not reckon the duchesse de berri among my grandchildren. she is separated from me, we live like strangers to each other, she does not disturb herself about me, nor i about her. (7th january, 1716.) madame de maintenon was so dreadfully afraid lest the king should take a fancy to the duchesse de berri while the dauphine was expected, that she did her all sorts of ill offices. after the dauphine's death she repaired the wrong; but then, to tell the truth, the king's inclination was not so strong. if the duchesse de berri was not my daughter-in-law, i should have no reason to be dissatisfied with her; she behaves politely to me, which is all that i can say. (25th sept., 1716.) she often laughs at her own figure and shape. she has certainly good sense, and is not very punctilious. her flesh is firm and healthy, her cheeks are as hard as stone. i should be ungrateful not to love her, for she does all sorts of civil things towards me, and displays so great a regard for me that i am often quite amazed at it. (12th april, 1718.) she is magnificent in her expenditure; to be sure she can afford to be so, for her income amounts to 600,000 livres. amboise was her jointure, but she preferred meudon. she fell sick on the 28th march, 1719. i went to see her last sunday, the 23rd may, and found her in a sad state, suffering from pains in her toes and the soles of her feet until the tears came into her eyes. i went away because i saw that she refrained from crying out on my account. i thought she was in a bad way. a consultation was held by her three physicians, the result of which was that they determined to bleed her in the feet. they had some difficulty in persuading her to submit to it, because the pain in her feet was so great that she uttered the most piercing screams if the bedclothes only rubbed against them. the bleeding, however, succeeded, and she was in some degree relieved. it was the gout in both feet. the feet are now covered with swellings filled with water, which cause her as much pain as if they were ulcers; she suffers day and night. whatever they may say, there has been no other swelling of the feet since those blisters appeared. (13th june.) the swelling has now entirely disappeared, but the pain is greater than before. all the toes are covered with transparent blisters; she cries out so that she may be heard three rooms off. the doctors now confess they do not know what the disorder is. (20th june.) the king's surgeon says it is rheumatic gout. (11th july.) i believe that frequent and excessive bathing and gluttony have undermined her health. she has two fits of fever daily, and the disease does not abate. she is not impatient nor peevish; the emetic given to her the day before yesterday causes her much pain; it seems that from time to time rheumatic pains have affected her shoulders without her taking much notice of them. from being very fat, as she was, she has become thin and meagre. yesterday she confessed, and received the communion. (18th july.) she was bled thrice before she took the emetic. (tuesday, 18th july.) she received the last sacrament with a firmness which deeply affected her attendants. between two and three o'clock this night (19th july) she died. her end was a very easy one; they say she died as if she had gone to sleep. my son remained with her until she lost all consciousness, which was about an hour before her death. she was his favourite daughter. the poor duchesse de berri was as much the cause of her own death as if she had blown her brains out, for she secretly ate melons, figs and milk; she herself confessed, and her doctor told me, that she had closed her room to him and to the other medical attendants for a fortnight that she might indulge in this way. immediately after the storm she began to die. yesterday evening she said to me: "oh, madame! that clap of thunder has done me great harm;" and it was evident that it had made her worse. my son has not been able to sleep. the poor duchesse de berri could not have been saved; her brain was filled with water; she had an ulcer in the stomach and another in the groin; her liver was affected, and her spleen full of disease. she was taken by night to st. denis, whither all her household accompanied her corse. they were so much embarrassed about her funeral oration that it was resolved ultimately not to pronounce one. with all her wealth she has left my son 400,000 livres of debt to pay. this poor princess was horribly robbed and pillaged. you may imagine what a race these favourites are; mouchi, who enjoyed the greatest favour, did not grieve for her mistress a single moment; she was playing the flute at her window on the very day that the princess was borne to st. denis, and went to a large dinner party in paris, where she ate and drank as if nothing had happened, at the same time talking in so impertinent a manner as disgusted all the guests. my son desired her and her husband to quit paris. my son's affliction is so much the greater since he perceives that, if he had been less complying with his beloved daughter, and if he had exercised somewhat more of a parent's authority, she would have been alive and well at this time. that mouchi and her lover riom have been playing fine tricks; they had duplicate keys, and left the poor duchess without a sou. i cannot conceive what there is to love in this riom; he has neither face nor figure; he looks, with his green-and-yellow complexion, like a water fiend; his mouth, nose and eyes are like those of a chinese. he is more like a baboon than a gascon, which he is. he is a very dull person, without the least pretensions to wit; he has a large head, which is sunk between a pair of very broad shoulders, and his appearance is that of a low-minded person; in short, he is a very ugly rogue. and yet the toad does not come of bad blood; he is related to some of the best families. the duc de lauzun is his uncle, and biron his nephew. he is, nevertheless, unworthy of the honour which was conferred on him; for he was only a captain in the king's guard. the women all ran after him; but, for my part, i find him extremely disagreeable; he has an unhealthy air and looks like one of the indian figures upon a screen. he was not here when madame de berri died, but was with the army, in the regiment which had been bought for him. when the news of the duchess's death reached him the prince de conti went to seek riom, and sang a ridiculous song, my son was a little vexed at this, but he did not take any notice of it. there can be no doubt that the duchess was secretly married to riom; this has consoled me in some degree for her loss. i had heard it said before, and i made a representation upon the subject to my granddaughter. she laughed, and replied: "ah, madame, i thought i had the honour of being so well known to you that you could not believe me guilty of so great a folly; i who am so much blamed for my pride." this answer lulled my suspicions, and i no longer believed the story. the father and mother would never have consented to this marriage; and even if they had sanctioned such an impertinence i never would! [the duchess, with her usual violence, teased her father to have her marriage made public; this was also riom's most ardent desire, who had married her solely from ambitious motives. the regent had despatched riom to the army for the purpose of gaining time. one daughter was the result of the connection between riom and the duchesse de berri, who was afterwards sent into a convent at pontoisse.] the toad had made the princess believe that he was a prince of the house of aragon, and that the king of spain unjustly withheld from him his kingdom; but that if she would marry him he could sue for his claim through the treaties of peace. mouchi used to talk about this to the duchess from morning to night; and it was for this reason that she was so greatly in favour. that mouchi is the granddaughter of monsieur's late surgeon. her mother, la forcade, had been appointed by my son the gouvernante of his daughter and son, and thus the young forcade was brought up with the duchesse de berri, who married her to monsieur mouchi, master of the wardrobe to the duke, and gave her a large marriage-portion. while the king lived the princess could not visit her much; and it was not until after his death that she became the favourite, and was appointed by the duchess second dame d'atour. section xx.--mademoiselle d'orleans, louise-adelaide de chartres. mademoiselle de chartres, madame d'orleans' second daughter, is well made, and is the handsomest of my granddaughters. she has a fine skin, a superb complexion, very white teeth, good eyes, and a faultless shape, but she stammers a little; her hands are extremely delicate, the red and white are beautifully and naturally mingled in her skin. i never saw finer teeth; they are like a row of pearls; and her gums are no less beautiful. a prince of auhalt who is here is very much in love with her; but the good gentleman is ugly enough, so that there is no danger. she dances well, and sings better; reads music at sight, and understands the accompaniment perfectly; and she sings without any grimace. she persists in her project of becoming a nun; but i think she would be better in the world, and do all in my power to change her determination: it seems, however, to be a folly which there is no eradicating. her tastes are all masculine; she loves dogs, horses, and riding; all day long she is playing with gunpowder, making fusees and other artificial fireworks. she has a pair of pistols, which she is incessantly firing; she fears nothing in the world, and likes nothing which women in general like; she cares little about her person, and for this reason i think she will make a good nun. she does not become a nun through jealousy of her sister, but from the fear of being tormented by her mother and sister, whom she loves very much, and in this she is right. she and her sister are not fond of their mother's favourites, and cannot endure to flatter them. they have no very reverent notions, either, of their mother's brother, and this is the cause of dissensions. i never saw my granddaughter in better spirits than on sunday last; she was with her sister, on horseback, laughing, and apparently in great glee. at eight o'clock in the evening her mother arrived; we played until supper; i thought we were afterwards going to play again, but madame d'orleans begged me to go into the cabinet with her and mademoiselle d'orleans; the child there fell on her knees, and begged my permission, and her mother's, to go to chelles to perform her devotions. i said she might do that anywhere, that the place mattered not, but that all depended upon her own heart, and the preparation which she made. she, however, persisted in her desire to go to chelles. i said to her mother: "you must decide whether your daughter shall go to chelles or not." she replied, "we cannot hinder her performing her devotions." [in the memoirs of the time it is said that mademoiselle de chartres, being at the opera with her mother, exclaimed, while caucherau was singing a very tender air, "ah! my dear caucherau!" and that her mother, thinking this rather too expressive, resolved to send her to a convent.] so yesterday morning at seven o'clock she set off in a coach; she afterwards sent back the carriage, with a letter to her father, her mother, and myself, declaring that she will never more quit that accursed cloister. her mother, who has a liking for convents, is not very deeply afflicted; she looks upon it as a great blessing to be a nun, but, for my part, i think it is one of the greatest misfortunes. my son went yesterday to chelles, and took with him the cardinal de noailles, to try for the last time to bring his daughter away from the convent. (20th july, 1718.) my heart is full when i think that our poor mademoiselle d'orleans has made the profession of her vows. i said to her all i could, in the hope of diverting her from this diabolical project, but all has been useless. (23rd august, 1718.) i should not have restrained my tears if i had been present at the ceremony of her profession. my son dreaded it also. i cannot tell for what reason mademoiselle d'orleans resolved to become a nun. mademoiselle de valois wanted to do the same thing, but she could not prevail upon her mother. in the convent they assume the names of saints. my granddaughter has taken that of sister bathilde; she is of the benedictine order. madame d'orleans has long wished her daughter to take this step, and it was on her account that the former abbess, villars' sister, was prevailed upon to quit the convent. he is in the interest of the duc du maine. i do not see, however, that his sister has much to complain of, for they gave her a pension of 12,000 livres until the first abbey should become vacant. madame d'orleans is, however, vexed at the idea of villars' sister being obliged to yield to my son's daughter, which is, nevertheless, as it should be. our abbess is upon worse terms than ever with her mother. she complains that the latter never comes but to scold her. she does not envy her sister her marriage, for she finds herself very happy, and in this she displays great good sense. section xxi.--mademoiselle de valois, charlotte-aglae, consort of the prince of modena. mademoiselle de valois is not, in my opinion, pretty, and yet occasionally she does not look ugly. she has something like charms, for her eyes, her colour and her skin are good. she has white teeth, a large, ill-looking nose, and one prominent tooth, which when she laughs has a bad effect. her figure is drawn up, her head is sunk between her shoulders, and what, in my opinion, is the worst part of her appearance, is the ill grace with which she does everything. she walks like an old woman of eighty. if she were a person not very anxious to please, i should not be surprised at the negligence of her gait; but she likes to be thought pretty. she is fond of dress, and yet she does not understand that a good mien and graceful manners are the most becoming dress, and that where these are wanting all the ornaments in the world are good for nothing. she has a good deal of the mortemart family in her, and is as much like the duchess of sforza, the sister of montespan, as if she were her daughter; the falsehood of the mortemarts displays itself in her eyes. madame d'orleans would be the most indolent woman in the world but for madame de valois, her daughter, who is worse than she. to me nothing is more disgusting than a young person so indolent. she cares little for me, or rather cannot bear me, and, for my part, i care as little for a person so educated. she is not upon good terms with her mother, because she wanted to marry her to the prince de dombes, the duc du maine's eldest son. the mother says now reproachfully to her daughter that, if she had married her nephew, neither his father's nor his own misfortunes would have taken place. she cannot bear to have her daughter in her sight, and has begged me to keep her with me. my son has agreed to give his daughter to the prince of modem, at which i very sincerely rejoice. on the day before yesterday (28th november, 1719) she came hither with her mother to tell me that the courier had arrived. her eyes were swollen and red, and she looked very miserable. the duchess of hanover tells me that the intended husband fell in love with mademoiselle de valois at the mere sight of her portrait. i think her rather pretty than agreeable. her hawk nose spoils all, in my opinion. her legs are long, her body stout and short, and her gait shows that she has not learnt to dance; in fact, she never would learn. still, if the interior was as good as the exterior, all might pass; but she has as much of the father as of the mother in her, and this it is that i dislike. our bride-elect is putting, as we say here, as good a face as she can upon a bad bargain; although her language is gay her eyes are swollen, and it is suspected that she has been weeping all night. the grand prior, who is also general of the galleys, will escort his sister into italy. the grand duchess of tuscany says that she will not see mademoiselle de valois nor speak to her, knowing very well what italy is, and believing that mademoiselle de valois will not be able to reconcile herself to it. she is afraid that if her niece should ever return to france they will say, "there is the second edition of the grand duchess;" and that for every folly she may commit towards her father-in-law and husband they will add, "such are the instructions which her aunt, the grand duchess, has given her." for this reason she said she would not go to see her. the present has come from modena; it does not consist of many pieces; there is a large jewel for the bride, with some very fine diamonds, in the midst of which is the portrait of the prince of modena, but it is badly executed. this present is to be given on the day of the marriage and at the signature of the contract in the king's presence; this ceremony will take place on the 11th (of february, 1720). the nuptial benediction will be pronounced on monday, and on thursday she will set off. i never in my life saw a bride more sorrowful; for the last three days she has neither eaten nor drunk, and her eyes are filled with tears. i have been the prophetess of evil, but i have prophesied too truly. when our princess of modena told me that she wished to go to chelles to bid her sister farewell, i told her that the measles had been in the convent a short time before, that the abbess herself had been attacked by this disease, which was contagious. she replied that she would seek it. i said such things are more easily found than anything good; you run a risk of your life, and i recommend you to take care. notwithstanding my advice, she went on sunday morning to chelles, and passed the whole of the day with her sister. soon afterwards she found herself unwell, and was laid up with the measles. her consolation is that this illness retards her journey. on the 12th of march (1720) my son brought his daughter to bid me farewell. she could not articulate a word. she took my hands, kissed and pressed them, and then clasped her own. my son was much affected when he brought her. they thought at first of marrying her to the prince of piedmont. her father had given her some reason to hope for this union, but he afterwards retracted. [according to duclos it was madame herself who prevented this marriage by writing to the queen of sicily that she was too much her friend to make her so worthless a present as mademoiselle de valois. duclos adds that the regent only laughed at this german blunder of his mother's.] she would have preferred marrying the duke or the comte de charolois, because then she would have remained with her friends. her father has given her several jewels. the king's present is superb. it consists of fourteen very large and fine diamonds, to each of which are fastened round pearls of the first water, and together they form a necklace. the grand duchess advised her niece well in telling her not to follow her example, but to endeavour to please her husband and father-in-law. [the same author (duclos) says, on the contrary, that the duchess had given her niece the following advice: "my dear, do as i have done. have one or two children and try to get back to france; there is nothing good for us out of that country."] the prince of modena will repair to genoa incognito, because the republic has declared that they will pay due honours to his bride as a princess of the blood, but not as princess of modena. they have already begun to laugh here at the amusements of modena. she has sent to her father from lyons an harangue which was addressed to her by a curate. in spite of her father, she will visit the whole of provence. she will go to toulon, la ste. beaume, and i know not what. i believe she wishes to see everything or anything except her husband. [she performed her journey so slowly that the prince complained of it, and the regent was obliged to order his daughter to go directly to the husband, who was expecting her.] it may truly be said of this princess that she has eaten her white bread first. all goes well at modena at present, but the too charming brother-in-law is not permitted to be at the petite soupers of his sister. the husband, it is said, is delighted with his wife; but she has told him that he must not be too fond of her, for that is not the fashion in france, and would seem ridiculous. this declaration has not, as might be guessed, given very great satisfaction in this country. the grand duchess says, in the time of the queen-mother's regency, when the prince and his brother, the prince de conti, were taken to the bastille, they were asked what books they would have to amuse themselves with? the prince de conti said he should like to have "the imitation of jesus christ;" and the prince de condo said he would rather like "the imitation of the duc de beaufort," who had then just left the bastille. "i think," added the duchess, "that the princess of modena will soon be inclined to ask for 'the imitation of the grand duchess.'" [the princess of modena did, in fact, go back to france, and remained there for the rest of her life.] our princess of modena has found her husband handsomer and likes him better than she thought she should; she has even become so fond of him, that she has twice kissed his hands; a great condescension for a person so proud as she is, and who fancies that, there is not her equal on the earth. the duke of modena is a very strange person in all matters. his son and his son's wife have requested him to get rid of salvatico, who has been here in the quality of envoy. this silly person made on the journey a declaration in form of his love for the princess, and threatened her with all sorts of misfortune if she did not accept his love. he began his declaration with, "ah! ah! ah! madame, ah! ah! ah! madame." the princess interrupted him: "what do you mean with your ah's?" he replied, "ah! the prince of modena is under great obligations; i have made him happy." he had begun the same follies here, and was in the habit of entering the princess's chamber at all times, and he even had the impudence to be jealous. the princess complained of him to her husband, and he told his father of it, begging him to send the rogue away; but the father was so far from complying that he wanted to make salvatico his major-domo. upon the whole, i think that salvatico's love for our princess of modena is fortunate for her; for, having learnt all that had passed here, [mademoiselle de valois had an amorous intrigue with the duc de richelieu; and it is said that she only consented to marry the prince of modena upon condition that her father, the regent, would set her husband at liberty. madame had intimated to the duc de richelieu that, if he approached the places where her granddaughter was with her, his life would be in great peril.] he might have made inconvenient reports: he would, however, perhaps have done it in vain, for the prince would not have believed him. salvatico is quite crazy. he is the declared favourite of the duke of modena, which verifies the german proverb, "like will to like, as the devil said to the collier." the prince and princess are very fond of each other; but it is said they join in ridiculing the old father (2nd august, 1720). the princess goes about all day from room to room, crying, "how tired i am, how tiresome everything is here!" she, however, lives a little better with her husband than at the beginning. section xxii.--the illegitimate children of the regent, duc d'orleans. my son has three illegitimate children, two boys and a girl; but only one of them is legitimated, that is, his son by mademoiselle de seri, a lady of noble family, and who was my maid of honour. the younger margrave of anspach was also in love with her. this son is called the chevalier d'orleans. the other, who is now (1716) about eighteen years old, is an abbe; he is the son of la florence, a dancer at the opera house. the daughter is by desmarets, the actress. my son says that the chevalier d'orleans is more unquestionably his than any of the others; but, to tell the truth, i think the abbe has a stronger family likeness to my son than the chevalier, who is like none of them. i do not know where my son found him; he is a good sort of person, but he has neither elegance nor beauty. it is a great pity that the abbe is illegitimate: he is well made; his features are not bad; he has very good talents, and has studied much.--[duclos says that this 'eleve' of the jesuits was, nevertheless, the most zealous ignoramus that ever their school produced.]--he is a good deal like the portraits of the late monsieur in his youth, only that he is bigger. when he stands near mademoiselle de valois it is easy to see that they belong to the same father. my son purchased for the chevalier d'orleans the office of general of the galleys from the marechal de tasse. he intends to make him a knight of malta, so that he may live unmarried, for my son does not wish to have the illegitimate branches of his family extended. the chevalier does not want wit; but he is a little satirical, a habit which he takes from his mother. my son will not recognize the abbe saint-albin, on account of the irregular life which his mother, la florence, has led. he fears being laughed at for acknowledging children so different. the abbe dubois was a chief cause, too, why my son would not acknowledge this son. it was because the abbe, aspiring to the cardinal's hat, was jealous of every one who might be a competitor with him. i love this abbe saint-albin, in the first place, because he is attached to me, and, in the second, because he is really very clever; he has wit and sense, with none of the mummery of priests. my son does not esteem him half so much as he deserves, for he is one of the best persons in the world; he is pious and virtuous, learned in every point, and not vain. it is in vain for my son to deny him; any one may see of what race he comes, and i am sorry that he is not legitimated. my son is much more fond of seri's son. the poor abbe de saint-albin is grieved to death at not being acknowledged; while fortune smiles upon his elder brother, he is forgotten, despised, and has no rank; he seeks only to be legitimated. i console him as well as i can; but why should i tease my son about the business? [the abbe de saint-albin was appointed bishop of laon, and, after dubois' death, archbishop of cambrai. when he wished to become a member of the parliament he could not give the names either of his father or mother; he had been baptized in the name of cauche, the regent's valet de chambre and purveyor.] it would only put him in the way of greater inconveniences, for, as he has also several children by parabere, she would be no less desirous that he should legitimate hers. this consideration ties my tongue. the daughter of the actress desmarets is somewhat like her mother, but she is like no one else. she was educated in a convent at saint denis, but had no liking for a nun's life. when my son had her first brought to him she did not know who she was. when my son told her he was her father, she was transported with joy, fancying that she was the daughter of seri and sister to the chevalier; she thought, too, that she would be legitimated immediately. when my son told her that could not be done, and that she was desmarets' daughter, she wept excessively. her mother had never been permitted to see her in the convent; the nuns would not have allowed it, and her presence would have been injurious to the child. from the time she was born, her mother had not seen her until the present year (1719), when she saw her in a box at the theatre, and wept for joy. my son married this girl to the marquis de segur. an actress at the opera house, called mdlle. d'usg, who is since dead, was in great favour with my son, but that did not last long. at her death it appeared that, although she had had several children, neither she nor her mother nor her grandmother had ever been married. section xxiii.--the chevalier de lorraine. the chevalier de lorraine looked very ill, but it was in consequence of his excessive debauchery, for he had once been a handsome man. he had a well-made person, and if the interior had answered to the exterior i should have had nothing to say against him. he was, however, a very bad man, and his friends were no better than he. three or four years before my husband's death, and for his satisfaction, i was reconciled with the chevalier, and from that time he did me no mischief. he was always before so much afraid of being sent away that he used to tell monsieur he ought to know what i was saying and doing, that he might be apprised of any attempt that should be made against the chevalier or his creatures. he died so poor that his friends were obliged to bury him; yet he had 100,000 crowns of revenue, but he was so bad a manager that his people always robbed him. provided they would supply him when he wanted them with a thousand pistoles for his pleasures or his play, he let them dispose of his property as they thought fit. that grancey drew large sums from him. he met with a shocking death. he was standing near madame de mare, grancey's sister, and telling her that he had been sitting up at some of his extravagant pleasures all night, and was uttering the most horrible expressions, when suddenly he was stricken with apoplexy, lost the power of speech, and shortly afterwards expired. [he died suddenly in his own house, playing at ombre, as many of his family had done, and was regretted by no person except mdlle. de lillebonne, to whom he was believed to have been privately married. --note to dangeau's journal. this man, who was suspected of having poisoned the king's sister-in-law, was nevertheless in possession of four abbeys, the revenues of which defrayed the expenses of his debaucheries.] section xxiv.--philip v., king of spain. louis xiv. wept much when his grandson set out for spain. i could not help weeping, too. the king accompanied him as far as sceaux. the tears and lamentations in the drawing-room were irresistible. the dauphin was also deeply affected. the king of spain is very hunchbacked, and is not in other respects well made; but he is bigger than his brothers. he has the best mien, good features, and fine hair. what is somewhat singular, although his hair is very light, his eyes are quite black; his complexion is clear red and white; he has an austrian mouth; his voice is deep, and he is singularly slow in speaking. he is a good and peaceable sort of a person, but a little obstinate when he takes it in his head. he loves his wife above all things, leaves all affairs to her, and never interferes in anything. he is very pious, and believes he should be damned if he committed any matrimonial infidelity. but for his devotion he would be a libertine, for he is addicted to women, and it is for this reason he is so fond of his wife. he has a very humble opinion of his own merit. he is very easily led, and for this reason the queen will not lose sight of him. he receives as current truths whatever is told him by persons to whom he is accustomed, and never thinks of doubting. the good gentleman ought to be surrounded by competent persons, for his own wit would not carry him far; but he is of a good disposition, and is one of the quietest men in the world. he is a little melancholy, and there is nothing in spain to make him gay. he must know people before he will speak to them at all. if you desire him to talk you must tease him and rally him a little, or he will not open his mouth. i have seen monsieur very impatient at his talking to me while he could not get a word from him. monsieur did not take the trouble to talk to him before he was a king, and then he wished him to speak afterwards; that did not suit the king. he was not the same with me. in the apartment, at table, or at the play, he used to sit beside me. he was very fond of hearing tales, and i used to tell them to him for whole evenings: this made him well accustomed to me, and he had always something to ask me. i have often laughed at the answer he made me when i said to him, "come, monsieur, why do not you talk to your uncle, who is quite distressed that you never speak to him." "what shall i say to him?" he replied, "i scarcely know him." it is quite true that the queen of spain was at first very fond of the princesse des ursins, and that she grieved much when that princess was dismissed for the first time. the story that is told of the confessor is also very true; only one circumstance is wanting in it, that is, that the duc de grammont, then ambassador, played the part of the confessor, and it was for this reason he was recalled. the queen had one certain means of making the king do whatever she wished. the good gentleman was exceedingly fond of her, and this fondness she turned to good account. she had a small truckle-bed in her room, and when the king would not comply with any of her requests she used to make him sleep in this bed; but when she was pleased with him he was admitted to her own bed; which was the very summit of happiness to the poor king. after the princesse des ursins had departed, the king recalled the confessor from rome, and kept him near his own person (1718). the king of spain can never forgive, and madame des ursins has told him so many lies to my son's disadvantage that the king can never, while he lives, be reconciled to him. rebenac's--[francois de feuquieres, called the comte de rebenac, extraordinary ambassador to spain.]--passion for the late queen of spain was of no disadvantage to her; she only laughed at it, and did not care for him. it was the comte de mansfeld, the man with the pointed nose, who poisoned her. he bought over two of her french femmes de chambre to give her poison in raw oysters; and they afterwards withheld from her the antidote which had been entrusted to their care. the queen of spain, daughter of the first madame,--[henrietta of england.]--died in precisely the same manner as she did, and at the same age, but in a much more painful manner, for the violence of the poison was such as to make her nails fall off. section xxv.--the duchesse louise-francisque, consort of louis iii., duc de bourbon. i knew a german gentleman who has now been dead a long time (1718), who has sworn to me positively that the duchess is not the daughter of the king, but of marechal de noailles. he noted the time at which he saw the marshal go into montespan's apartment, and it was precisely nine months from that time that the duchess came into the world. this german, whose name was bettendorf, was a brigadier in the body guard; and he was on guard at montespan's when the captain of the first company paid this visit to the king's mistress. the duchess is not prettier than her daughters, but she has more grace; her manners are more fascinating and agreeable; her wit shines in her eyes, but there is some malignity in them also. i always say she is like a very pretty cat, which, while you play with it, lets you feel it has claws. no person has a better carriage of the head. it is impossible to dance better than the duchess and her daughters can; but the mother dances the best. i do not know how it is, but even her lameness is becoming to her. the duchess has the talent of saying things in so pleasant a manner that one cannot help laughing. she is very amusing and uncommonly good company; her notions are so very comical. when she wishes to make herself agreeable to any one she is very insinuating, and can take all shapes; if she were not also treacherous, one might say truly that nobody is more amiable than the duchess; she understands so well how to accommodate herself to people's peculiar habits that one would believe she takes a real interest in them; but there is nothing certain about her. although her sense is good, her heart is not. notwithstanding her ambition, she seems at first as if she thought only of amusing and diverting herself and others; and she can feign so skilfully that one would think she had been very agreeably entertained in the society of persons, whom immediately upon her return home she will ridicule in all possible ways. la mailly complained to her aunt, old maintenon, that her husband was in love with the duchess; but this husband, having afterwards been captivated by an actress named bancour, gave up to her all the duchess's letters, for which he was an impertinent rascal. the duchess wrote a song upon mailly, in which she reproached her, notwithstanding her airs of prudery, with an infidelity with villeroi, a sergeant of the guard. in the duchess's house malice passes for wit, and therefore they are under no restraint. the three sisters--the duchess, the princesse de conti, and madame d'orleans--behave to each other as if they were not sisters. the princess is a very virtuous person, and is much displeased at her daughter-in-law's manner of life, for lasso is with her by day and by night; at the play, at the opera, in visits, everywhere lasso is seen with her. section xxvi.--the younger duchess. the duke's wife is not an ill-looking person: she has good eyes, and would be very well if she had not a habit of stretching and poking out her neck. her shape is horrible; she is quite crooked; her back is curved into the form of an s. i observed her one day, through curiosity, when the dauphine was helping her to dress. she is a wicked devil; treacherous in every way, and of a very dangerous temper. upon the whole, she is not good for much. her falsehood was the means of preventing the duke from marrying one of my granddaughters. being the intimate friend of madame de berri, who was very desirous that one of her sisters should marry the duke and the other the prince de conti, she promised to bring about the marriage, provided madame de berri would say nothing of it to the king or to me. after having imposed this condition, she told the king that madame de berri and my son were planning a marriage without his sanction; in order to punish them she begged the king to marry the duke to herself, which was actually done. thanks to her good sense, she lives upon tolerable terms with her husband, although he has not much affection for her. they follow each their own inclinations; they are not at all jealous of each other, and it is said they have separate beds. she causes a great many troubles and embarrassments to her relation, the young princesse de conti, and perfectly understands tormenting folks. the young duchess died yesterday evening (22nd march, 1720). the duke's joy at the death of his wife will be greatly diminished when he learns that she has bequeathed to her sister, mademoiselle de la roche-sur-yon, all her property; and as the husband and wife lived according to the custom of paris, 'en communaute', the duke will be obliged to refund the half of all he gained by law's bank. after the death of the younger duchess, the princesse de conti, her mother, wrote to a chevalier named du challar, who was the lover of the deceased, to beg him to come and see her, as he was the only object left connected with her daughter, and assuring him that he might reckon upon her services in everything that depended upon her. it was the younger duchess who was so fond of lasse, and who had been so familiar with him at a masked ball. i recognized only two good qualities in her: her respect and affection for her grandmother, the princess, and the skill with which she concealed her faults. beside this, she was good for nothing, in whatever way her character is regarded. that she was treacherous is quite certain; and she shortened her life by her improper conduct. she neither loved nor hated her husband, and they lived together more like brother and sister than husband and wife. the elector of bavaria, during his stay at paris, instead of visiting his nephews and nieces, passed all his time, by day and by night, with the duchess and her daughters. as to me, he fled me as he would fly the plague, and never spoke to me but in the company of m. de torcy. the duchess had three of the handsomest daughters in the world: the one called mademoiselle de clermont is extremely beautiful; but i think her sister, the princesse de conti, more amiable. the duchess can drink very copiously without being affected; her daughters would fain imitate her, but they soon get tipsy, and cannot control themselves as their mother can. section xxvii.--louis iii., duc de bourbon. it is said that the duke has solid parts; he does everything with a certain nobility; he has a good person, but the loss of that eye, which the duc de berri struck out, disfigures him much. he is certainly very politic, and this quality he has from his mother. he is polite and well-bred; his mind is not very comprehensive, and he has been badly instructed. they say he is unfit for business for three reasons: first, on account of his ignorance; secondly, for his want of application; and, thirdly, for his impatience. i can see that in examining him narrowly one would find many defects in him; but he has also many praiseworthy qualities, and he possesses many friends. he has a greatness and nobility of soul, and a good deportment. the prince is in love with madame de polignac; but she is fond of the duke, who cannot yet forget madame de nesle, although she has dismissed him to make room for that great calf, the prince of soubise. the latter person is reported to have said, "why does the duke complain? have i not consented to share madame de nesle's favours with him whenever he chooses?" such is the delicacy which prevails here in affairs of love. the duke is very passionate. when madame de nesle dismissed him he almost died of vexation; he looked as if he was about to give up the ghost, and for six months he did not know what to do. the marquis de villequier, the duc d'aumont's son, one day visited the marquise de nesle. she took it into her head to ask him if he was very fond of his wife. villequier replied, "i am not in love with her; i see her very little; our humours differ greatly. she is serious, and for my part i like pleasure and gaiety. i feel for her a friendship founded on esteem, for she is one of the most virtuous women in france." madame de nesle, of whom no man could say so much, took this for an insult, and complained of it to the duke, who promised to avenge her. some days afterwards he invited young villequier to dine with him at the marquis de nesle's; there were, besides madame de nesle, the marquis de gevres, madame de coligny, and others. during dinner the duke began thus: "a great many men fancy they are sure of the fidelity of their wives, but it is a mistake. i thought to protect myself from this common fate by marrying a monster, but it served me nought; for a villain named du challar, who was more ugly than i am, played me false. as to the marquis de gevres, as he will never marry * * * , he will be exempt; but you, monsieur de nesle, you are so and so." nesle, who did not believe it, although it was very true, only laughed. then addressing himself to villequier, he said, "and you, villequier, don't you think you are so?" he was silent. the duke continued, "yes, you are befooled by the chevalier de pesay." villequier blushed, but at last said, "i confess that up to this moment i had no reason to believe it; but since you put me into such good company i have no right to complain." i do not think madame de nesle was well revenged. i remember that the duke, who was terribly ill-made, said one day to the late monsieur, who was a straight, well-formed person, that a mask had taken him for monsieur. the latter, somewhat mortified at such a mistake, replied, "i lay that, with all other wrongs done to me, at the foot of the cross." ever since the duchess espoused the party of her son against her brother and his nephews, the duke has displayed a great fondness for his mother, about whom he never disturbed himself before. mdlle. de polignac made the duke believe she was very fond of him. he entertained great suspicions of her, and had her watched, and learnt that she was carrying on a secret intrigue with the chevalier of bavaria. he reproached her with it, and she denied the accusation. the duke cautioned her not to think that she could deceive him. she protested that he had been imposed upon. as soon, however, as she had quitted him she went to the chevalier's house; and the duke, who had her dogged, knew whither she had gone. the next day he appointed her to visit him; she went directly to the bedroom, believing that his suspicions were entirely lulled. the duke then opened the door wide, so that she might be seen from the cabinet, which was full of men; and calling the chevalier of bavaria, he said to him: "here, sir chevalier, come and see your mistress, who will now have no occasion to go so far to find you." although the duke and the prince de conti are brothers-in-law in two ways, they cannot bear each other. the duke is at this moment (1718) very strongly attached to madame de prie. she has already received a good beating on his account from her husband, but this does not deter her. she is said to have a good deal of sense; she entirely governs the duke, who is solely occupied with making her unfaithful to m. de prie. she has consoled the duke for his dismissal from madame de nesle; but it is said that she is unfaithful to him, and that she has two other lovers. one is the prince of carignan, and the other lior, the king's first maitre d'hotel, which latter is the handsomest of the three. it is impossible that the duke can now inspire any woman with affection for him. he is tall, thin as a lath; his legs are like those of a crane; his body is bent and short, and he has no calves to his legs; his eyes are so red that it is impossible to distinguish the bad eye from the good one; his cheeks are hollow; his chin so long that one would not suppose it belonged to the face; his lips uncommonly large: in short, i hardly ever saw a man before so ugly. it is said that the inconstancy of his mistress, madame de prie, afflicts him profoundly. the marchioness was extremely beautiful, and her whole person was very captivating. possessing as many mental as personal charms, she concealed beneath an apparent simplicity the most dangerous treachery. without the least conception of virtue, which, according to her ideas, was a word void of sense, she affected innocence in vice, was violent under an appearance of meekness, and libertine by constitution. she deceived her lover with perfect impunity, who would believe what she said even against the evidence of his own eyes. i could mention several instances of this, if they were not too indecent. it is, however, sufficient to say that she had one day to persuade him that he was the cause of a libertinism of which he was really the victim.--memoires de duclos, tome ii. it is well known that, after the duke assumed the regency, upon the death of the regent, the marchioness du prie governed in his name; and that she was exiled, and died two years afterwards of ennui and vexation. the princess of modena takes nothing by the death of the duchess; the duke has said that he never would have married that princess, and that now he will not marry at all. in order that mademoiselle de la roche-sur-yon may enjoy the millions that belong to her of right, in consequence of her sister's death, it is necessary first for her to receive them; but the duke, it is reported, as the good duc de crequi used to say, "holds back as tight as the trigger of the cognac cross-bow;" and in fact he has not only refused to give up to his sister what she should take under her sister's will, but he disputes her right to the bank-notes which she had given to the duchess to take care of for her, when she herself was dangerously ill. the duke and his mother are said to have gained each two hundred and fifty millions. the duke, who is looked upon as law's very good friend, has been ill-treated by the people, who have passed all kinds of insults upon him, calling him even a dog. his brother, the marquis de clermont, too, has fared little better; for they cried after him at the port royal, "go along, dog! you are not much better than your brother." his tutor alighted for the purpose of haranguing the mob; but they picked up some stones, and he soon found it expedient to get into the carriage again, and make off with all speed. section xxviii.--francois-louis, prince de conti. the prince de conti, who died lately (in 1709), had good sense, courage, and so many agreeable qualities as to make himself generally beloved. but he had also some bad points in his character, for he was false, and loved no person but himself. it is said that he caused his own death by taking stimulating medicines, which destroyed a constitution naturally feeble. there had been some talk of making him king of poland.--[in 1696, after the death of john sobiesky.] section xxix.--the great princesse de conti, daughter of la valliere. this is of all the king's illegitimate daughters the one he most loves. she is by far the most polite and well-bred, but she is now totally absorbed by devotion. section xxx.--the princess palatine, marie-therese de bourbon, wife of francois-louis, prince de conti. this princess is the only one of the house of conde who is good for anything. i think she must have some german blood in her veins. she is little, and somewhat on one side, but she is not hunchbacked. she has fine eyes, like her father; with this exception, she has no pretensions to beauty, but she is virtuous and pious. what she has suffered on account of her husband has excited general compassion; he was as jealous as a fiend, though without the slightest cause. she never knew where she was to pass the night. when she had made arrangements to sleep at versailles, he would take her from paris to chantilly, where she supposed she was going to stay; then she was obliged to set out for versailles. he tormented her incessantly in all possible ways, and he looked, moreover, like a little ape. the late queen had two paroquets, one of which was the very picture of the prince, while the other was as much like the marechal de luxembourg as one drop of water is like another. notwithstanding all that the princess has suffered, she daily regrets the loss of her husband. i am often quite angry to see her bewailing her widowhood instead of enjoying the repose which it affords her; she wishes that her husband were alive again, even although he should torment her again as much as before. she was desirous that mademoiselle de conde should marry the late margrave; this lady was incomparably more handsome than her sister; but i think he had a greater inclination for mademoiselle de vendome, because she seemed to be more modest and quiet. the princess, who has been born and educated here, had not the same dislike that i felt to her son's marrying an illegitimate child, and yet she has repented it no less. she is exceedingly unhappy with respect to her children. the princesse de conti, mother of the prince de conti, who is rather virtuous than otherwise, is nevertheless a little simpleton, and is something like the comtesse pimbeche orbeche, for she is always wishing to be engaged in lawsuits against her mother; who, on her part, has used all possible means, but without success, to be reconciled to her. on thursday last (10th march, 1720) she lost her cause, and i am very glad of it, for it was an unjust suit. the younger princess wished the affair to be referred to arbitration; but the son would have the business carried through, and made his counsel accuse his mother of falsehood. the advocate of the princess replied as follows: "the sincerity of the princesse de conti and of the princess her daughter are so well known that all the world can judge of them." this has amused the whole palace. section xxxi.--louise-elizabeth, princesse de conti, consort of louiearmand de conti. [illustration: princesse de conti--276] she is a person full of charms, and a striking proof that grace is preferable to beauty. when she chooses to make herself agreeable, it is impossible to resist her. her manners are most fascinating; she is full of gentleness, never displaying the least ill-humour, and always saying something kind and obliging. it is greatly to be regretted that she is not in the society of more virtuous persons, for she is herself naturally very good; but she is spoiled by bad company. she has an ugly fool for her husband, who has been badly brought up; and the examples which are constantly before her eyes are so pernicious that they have corrupted her and made her careless of her reputation. her amiable, unaffected manners are highly delightful to foreigners. among others, some bavarians have fallen in love with her, as well as the prince ragotzky; but she disgusted him with her coquetry. she does not love her husband, and cannot do so, no less on account of his ugly person than for his bad temper. it is not only his face that is hideous, but his whole person is frightful and deformed. she terrified him by placing some muskets and swords near her bed, and assuring him that if he came there again with his pistols charged, she would take the gun and fire upon him, and if she missed, she would fall upon him with the sword. since this time he has left off carrying his pistols. her husband teased her, and made her weep so much that she has lost her child, and her health is again injured. section xxxii.--louie-armand, prince de conti. it cannot be denied that his whole appearance is extremely repulsive. he is a horribly ill-made little man, and is always absent-minded, which gives him a distracted air, as if he were really crazy. when it could be the least expected, too, he will fall over his own walking-stick. the folks in the palace were so much accustomed to this in the late king's time, that they used always to say, when they heard anything fall, "it's nothing; only the prince de conti tumbling down." he has sense, but he has been brought up like a scullion boy; he has strange whimsies, of which he is quite aware himself, but which he cannot control. his wife is a charming woman, and is much to be pitied for being in fear of her life from this madman, who often threatens her with loaded pistols. fortunately, she has plenty of courage and does not fear him. notwithstanding this, he is very fond of her; and this is the more surprising, because his love for the sex is not very strong; and although he visits improper places occasionally, it is only for the purpose of tormenting the poor wretches who are to be found there. before he was married he felt no, affection for any woman but his mother, who also loved him very tenderly. she is now vexed at having no longer the same ascendency over her son, and is jealous of her daughter-in-law because the prince loves her alone. this occasions frequent disturbances in the house. the mother has had a house: built at some distance from her son. when they are good friends, she dismisses the workmen; but when they quarrel, she doubles the number and hastens the work, so that one may always tell, upon a mere inspection of the building, upon what terms the princesse de conti and her son are living. the mother wished to have her grandson to educate; her daughter-in-law opposed it because she preferred taking care of him herself; and then ensued a dog-and-cat quarrel. the wife, who is cunning enough, governs her husband entirely, and has gained over his favourites to be her creatures. she is the idol of the-whole house. in order to prevent the prince de conti from going to hungary, the government of poitou has been bought for him, and a place in the council of the regency allotted to him; by this means they have retained the wild beast. our young princess says her husband has a rheum in his eyes. to amuse her, he reads aloud ovid in the original; and although she does not understand one word of latin, she is obliged to listen and to remain silent, even though any one should come in; for if anybody interrupts him he is angry, and scolds all who are in the apartment. at the last masked ball (4th march, 1718) some one who had dressed himself like the prince de conti, and wore a hump on his back, went and sat beside him. "who are you, mask?" asked the prince. the other replied, "i am the prince de conti." without the least ill-temper, the prince took off his mask, and, laughing, said, "see how a man may be deceived. i have been fancying for the last twenty years that i was the prince de conti." to keep one's temper on such an occasion is really an uncommon thing. the prince thought himself quite cured, but he has had a relapse in spain, and, although he is a general of cavalry, he cannot mount his horse. i said on tuesday last (17th july, 1719) to the young princesse de conti that i heard her husband was not entirely recovered. she laughed and whispered to me,-"oh, yes, he is quite well; but he pretends not to be so that he may avoid going to the siege, where he may be killed, for he is as cowardly as an ape." i think if i had as little inclination for war as he has, i would not engage in the campaign at all; there is nothing to oblige him to do so-it is to reap glory, not to encounter shame, that men go into the army. his best friends, lanoue and cleremont, for example, have remonstrated with him on this subject, and he has quarrelled with them in consequence. it is an unfortunate thing for a man not to know himself. the prince is terribly afflicted with a dysentery. they wanted to carry him to bayonne, but he has so violent a fever that he would not be able to support the journey. he is therefore obliged to stay with the army (25th august, 1719). he has been back nine or ten days, but i have heard nothing of him yet; he is constantly engaged in the rue de quincampoix, trying to gain money among the stock-jobbers (19th september, 1719). at length he has been to see me. perhaps there was this morning less stock-jobbing than usual in the rue de quincampoix, for there he has been ever since his return. his cousin, the duke, is engaged in the same pursuit. the prince de conti has not brought back much honour from the campaign; he is too much addicted to debauchery of all kinds. although he can be polite when he chooses, no one can behave more brutally than he does occasionally, and he becomes more and more mad daily. at one of the last opera balls he seized a poor little girl just come from the country, took her from her mother's side, and, placing her between his own legs, amused himself by slapping and filliping her until he made her nose and mouth bleed. the young girl, who had done nothing to offend him, and who did not even know him, wept bitterly; but he only laughed, and said, "cannot i give nice fillips?" all who were witnesses of this brutal scene pitied her; but no one dared come to the poor child's assistance, for they were afraid of having anything to do with this violent madman. he makes the most frightful grimaces, and i, who am extremely frightened at crazy people, tremble whenever i happen to be alone with him. his wicked pranks remind me of my own. when i was a child i used to take touchwood, and, placing pieces of it over my eyes and in my mouth, i hid myself upon the staircase for the purpose of terrifying the people; but i was then much afraid of ghosts, so that i was always the first to be frightened. it is in the same way that the prince de conti does; he wishes to make himself feared, and he is the most timid person in the world. the duke and his mother, as well as lasse, the friend of the latter, have gained several millions. the prince has gained less, and yet his winnings, they say, amount to millions. [he had four wagons loaded with silver carried from law's bank, in exchange for his paper money; and this it was that accelerated law's disgrace, and created a kind of popularity for the prince de conti.] the two cousins do not stir from the rue de quincampoix, which has given rise to the following epigram: prince dites nous vos exploits que faites vous pour votre gloire? taisez-vous sots!--lisez l'histoire de la rue de quincampoix. but the person who had gained most by this affair is dantin, who is horridly avaricious. the princesse de conti told me that she had had her son examined in his infancy by clement, for the purpose of ascertaining whether he was in every respect well made; and that he, having found the child perfectly well made, went to the prince de conti, and said to him: "monseigneur, i have examined the shape of the young prince who is just born: he is at all points well formed, let him sleep without a bolster that he may remain so; and only imagine what grief it would occasion to the princesse de conti, who has brought him into the world straight, if you should make him crooked." the prince de conti wished to speak of something else, but clement still returned to the same topic, saying, "remember, monseigneur, he is straight as a wand, and do not make him crooked and hunchbacked." the prince de conti, not being able to endure this, ran away. section xxxiii.--the abbe dubois. my son had a sub-governor, and he it was who appointed the abbe, a very learned person, to be his tutor. the sub-governor's intention was to have dismissed the abbe as soon as he should have taught my son sufficiently, and, excepting during the time occupied by the lessons, he never suffered him to remain with his pupil. but this good gentleman could not accomplish his design; for being seized with a violent colic, he died, unhappily for me, in a few hours. the abbe then proposed himself to supply his place. there was no other preceptor near at hand, so the abbe remained with my son, and assumed so adroitly the language of an honest man that i took him for one until my son's marriage; then it was that i discovered all his knavery. i had a strong regard for him, because i thought he was tenderly attached to my son, and only desired to promote his advantage; but when i found that he was a treacherous person, who thought only of his own interest, and that, instead of carefully trying to preserve my son's honour, he plunged him into ruin by permitting him to give himself up to debauchery without seeming to perceive it, then my esteem for this artful priest was changed into disgust. i know, from my son himself, that the abbe, having one day met him in the street, just as he was about to enter a house of ill-fame, did nothing but laugh at him, instead of taking him by the arm and leading him home again. by this culpable indulgence, and by the part he took in my son's marriage, he has proved that there is neither faith nor honesty in him. i know that i do him no wrong in suspecting him to have contributed to my son's marriage; what i say i have from my son himself, and from people who were living with that old maintenon at the time, when the abbe used to go nightly for the purpose of arranging that intrigue with her, the object of which was to sell and betray his master. he deceives himself if he fancies that i do not know all this. at first he had declared in my favour, but after the old woman had sent for him two or three times he suddenly changed his conduct. it was not, however, on this that the king afterwards took a dislike to him, but for a nefarious scheme in which he was engaged with the pere la chaise. monsieur was as much vexed as i. the king and the old woman threatened to dismiss all his favourites, which made him consent to everything; he repented afterwards, but it was then too late. i would to god that the abbe dubois had as much religion as he has talent! but he believes in nothing--he is treacherous and wicked--his falsehood may be seen in his very eyes. he has the look of a fox; and his device is an animal of this sort, creeping out of his hole and watching a fowl. he is unquestionably a good scholar, talks well, and has instructed my son well; but i wish he had ceased to visit his pupil after his tuition was terminated. i should not then have to regret this unfortunate marriage, to which i can never reconcile myself. excepting the abbe dubois there is no priest in my son's favour. he has a sort of indistinctness in his speech, which makes it sometimes necessary for him to repeat his words; and this often annoys me. if there is anything which detracts from the abbe's good sense it is his extreme pride; it is a weak side upon which he may always be successfully attacked. i wish my son had as little confidence in him as i have; but what astonishes me most is that, knowing him as he does, better than i do, he will still trust him. my son is like the rest of his family; he cannot get rid of persons to whom he is accustomed, and as the abbe has been his tutor, he has acquired a habit of suffering him to say anything he chooses. by his amusing wit, too, he always contrives to restore himself to my son's good graces, even when the latter has been displeased with him. if the abbe had been choked with his first lie he had been dead long ago. lying is an art in which he excels, and the more eminently where his own interest is concerned; if i were to enumerate all the lies i have known him to utter i should have a long list to write. he it was who suggested to the king all that was necessary to be said to him respecting my son's marriage, and for this purpose he had secret interviews with madame de maintenon. he affects to think we are upon good terms, and whatever i say to him, however disagreeable, he takes it all with a smile. my son has most amply recompensed the abbe dubois; he has given him the place of secretary of the king's cabinet, which m. calieres formerly held, and which is worth 22,000 livres; he has also given him a seat in the council of regency for the foreign affairs. my son assures me that it is not his intention to make the abbe dubois a cardinal, and that the abbe himself does not think about it (17th august, 1717). on the 6th of march, this disagreeable priest came to me and said, "monseigneur has just nominated me archbishop of cambrai." i replied, "i congratulate you upon it; but has this taken place today? i heard of it a week ago; and, since you were seen to take the oaths on your appointment, no one has doubted it." it is said that the duc de mazarin said, on the abbe's first mass, "the abbe dubois is gone to his first communion;" meaning that he had never before taken the communion in all his life. i embarrassed my son by remarking to him that he had changed his opinion since he told me the abbe should never become bishop or archbishop, and that he did not think of being cardinal. my son blushed and answered, "it is very true; but i had good reason for changing my intention." "heaven grant it may be so," i said, "for it must be by god's mercy, and not from the exercise of your own reason." the archbishop of cambrai is the declared enemy of our abbe saint-albin. the word arch is applicable to all his qualities; he is an arch-cheat, an arch-hypocrite, an arch-flatterer, and, above all, an arch-knave. it is reported that a servant of the archbishop of rheims said to a servant of the archbishop of cambrai, "although my master is not a cardinal, he is still a greater lord than yours, for he consecrates the kings." "yes," replied the abbe dubois' servant, "but my master consecrates the real god, who is still greater than all kings." section xxxiv.--mr. law. mr. law is a very honest and a very sensible man; he is extremely polite to everybody, and very well bred. he does not speak french ill--at least, he speaks it much better than englishmen in general. it is said that when his brother arrived in paris, mr. law made him a present of three millions (of livres); he has good talents, and has put the affairs of the state in such good order that all the king's debts have been paid. he is admirably skilled in all that relates to finance. the late king would have been glad to employ him, but, as mr. law was not a catholic, he said he ought not to confide in him (19th sept., 1719). he (law) says that, of all the persons to whom he has explained his system, there have been only two who have properly comprehended it, and these are the king of sicily and my son; he was quite astonished at their having so readily understood it. he is so much run after, that he has no repose by day or by night. a duchess even kissed his hand publicly. if a duchess can do this, what will not other ladies do? another lady, who pursued him everywhere, heard that he was at madame de simiane's, and immediately begged the latter to permit her to dine with her. madame de simiane went to her and said she must be excused for that day, as mr. law was to dine with her. madame de bouchu replied that it was for this reason expressly she wished to be invited. madame de simiane only repeated that she did not choose to have mr. law troubled, and so quitted her. having, however, ascertained the dinner-hour, madame de bouchu passed before the house in her coach, and made her coachman and footman call out "fire!" immediately all the company quitted the table to know where the fire was, and among them mr. law appeared. as soon as madame de bouchu saw him, she jumped out of her carriage to speak to him; but he, guessing the trick, instantly disappeared. another lady ordered her carriage to be driven opposite to mr. law's hotel and then to be overturned. addressing herself to the coachman, she said, "overturn here, you blockhead--overturn!" mr. law ran out to her assistance, when she confessed to him that she had done this for the sole purpose of having an interview with him. [illustration: overturn here, you blockhead--290] a servant had gained so much in the rue de quincampoix, that he was enabled to set up his equipage. when his coach was brought home, he forgot who he was, and mounted behind. his servant cried out, "ah, sir! what are you doing? this is your own carriage." "that is true," said the quondam servant; "i had forgotten." mr. law's coachman having also made a very considerable sum, demanded permission to retire from his service. his master gave it him, on condition of his procuring him another good coachman. on the next day, the wealthy coachman made his appearance with two persons, both of whom were, he said, good coachmen; and that mr. law had only to choose which of them he liked, while he, the coachman, would take the other. people of all nations in europe are daily coming to paris; and it has been remarked that the number of souls in the capital has been increased by 250,000 more than usual. it has been necessary to make granaries into bedrooms; there is such a profusion of carriages that the streets are choked up with them, and many persons run great danger. some ladies of quality seeing a well-dressed woman covered with diamonds, and whom nobody knew, alight from a very handsome carriage, were curious to know who it was, and sent to enquire of the lackey. he replied, with a sneer, "it is a lady who has recently tumbled from a garret into this carriage." this lady was probably of the same sort as madame bejon's cook. that lady, being at the opera, some days back, saw a person in a costly dress, and decorated with a great quantity of jewels, but very ugly, enter the theatre. the daughter said, "mamma, unless i am very much deceived, that lady so dressed out is mary, our cook-maid." "hold your tongue, my dear," said the mother, "and don't talk such nonsense." some of the young people, who were in the amphitheatre, began to cry out, "mary, the cook-maid! mary, the cook-maid!" the lady in the fine dress rose and said, "yes, madam, i am mary, the cook-maid; i have gained some money in the rue de quincampoix; i like to be well-dressed; i have bought some fine gowns, and i have paid for them. can you say so much for your own?" mr. law is not the only person who has bought magnificent jewels and extensive estates. the duke, too, has become immensely rich, as well as all those who have held stock. mr. law has made his abjuration at melun; he has embraced the catholic religion, with his children, and his wife is in utter despair at it. [the abjuration did not take place at paris, because the jokes of the parisians were to be dreaded. the abbe tencin was so fortunate as to have the office of converting mr. law. "he gained by this pious labour," says duclos, "a large sum in bank-notes and stock."] it is amusing enough to see how the people run after him in crowds only to be looked at by him or his son. he has had a terrible quarrel with the prince de conti, who wished mr. law to do at the bank a thing which my son had forbidden. the prince de conti said to mr. law, "do you know who i am?" "yes, prince," replied law, "or i should not treat you as i have done." "then," said the prince, "you ought to obey me." "i will obey you," replied law, "when you shall be regent;" and he withdrew. the princesse de leon would be taken to the bank, and made her footmen cry out, "room for the princesse de lion." at the same time she, who is very little, slipped into the place where the bankers and their clerks were sitting. "i want some stock," said she. the clerk replied, "you must have patience, madame, the certificates are delivered in rotation, and you must wait until those who applied before you are served." at the same time he opened the drawer where the stock-papers were kept; the princess snatched at them; the clerk tried to prevent her, and a fight ensued. the clerk was now alarmed at having beaten a lady of quality, and ran out to ask the servants who the princesse de leon was. one of the footmen-said, "she is a lady of high rank, young and beautiful." "well, then," said the clerk, "it cannot be she." another footman said, "the princesse de leon is a little woman with a hunch before and another behind, and with arms so long that they nearly reach the ground." "then," replied the clerk, "that is she." mr. law is not avaricious; he gives away large soma in charity, and assists many indigent people. when my son wanted some duchess to accompany my daughter to geneva, some one, who heard him speaking about it, said, "if, monsieur, you would like to select from a number of duchesses, send to mr. law's; you will find them all there." lord stair cannot conceal his hatred of mr. law, and yet he has gained at least three millions by him. mr. law's son was to have danced in the king's ballet, but he has been attacked by the small-pox (9th feb., 1720). ......................... my son has been obliged to displace mr. law. this person, who was formerly worshipped like a god, is now not sure of his life; it is astonishing how greatly terrified he is. he is no longer comptroller-general, but continues to hold the place of director-general of the bank and of the east india company; certain members of the parliamentary council have, however, been joined with him to watch over the business of the bank. [in the council of the regency, the duc d'orleans was obliged to: admit that law issued papers to the amount of 1,200 millions above the legal sum; and that he (the regent) had protected him from all responsibility by decrees of the council which had been ante-dated. the total, amount of bank-notes in circulation was 2,700,000,000 livres.] his friend, the duc d'antin wanted to get the place of director. the duke at first spoke strongly against law; but it is said that a sum of four millions, three of which went to him and one to madame de prie, has engaged him to undertake law's defence. my son is not timid, although he is threatened on all sides, and is very much amused with law's terrors (25th june, 1720). at length the latter is somewhat recovered, and continues to be great friends with the duke: this is very pleasant to the duc de conti, and makes him behave so strangely that his infirmity is observed by the people. it is fortunate for us that law is so great a coward, otherwise he would be very troublesome to my son, who, learning that he was joining in a cabal against him, told his wife of it. "well, monsieur," said she, "what would you have him do? he likes to be talked of, and he has no other way of accomplishing it. what would people have to say of him if he did not?" on the 17th of june, while i was at the carmelites, madame de chateau-thiers came to me in my chamber, and said, "m. de simiane is just come in from the palais royal, and he thinks it fit you should know that upon your return you will find the court of the palais royal filled with people, who, though they do not say anything, will not disperse." at six o'clock this morning they brought in three dead bodies, which m. le blanc ordered to be carried away immediately. mr. law has taken refuge in the palais royal. the populace have done him no harm, but his coachman has been pelted on his return, and the carriage broken to pieces. it was the coachman's own fault, who said aloud that the people were rabble, and ought to be all hanged. i saw immediately that it would not do to display any fear, and i set off. there was such a stoppage of the carriages that i was obliged to wait half an hour before i could get into the palais royal. during this time i heard the people talking; they said nothing against my son, and bestowed benedictions upon me, but they all wished law to be hanged. when i reached the palais royal all was calm again; my son came to me immediately, and, notwithstanding the alarm i had felt, he made me laugh; as for himself, he had not the least fear. he told me that the first president had made a good impromptu upon this affair. having occasion to go down into the court, he heard what the people had done with law's carriage, and, upon returning to the salon, he said with great gravity: "messieurs, bonne nouvelle, le carrosse de law est en canelle." is not this a becoming jest for such serious personages? m. le blanc went into the midst of the people with great firmness, and made a speech to them; he afterwards had law escorted home and all became tranquil. it is almost impossible that law should escape, for the same soldiers who protect him from the fury of the people will not permit him to go out of their hands. he is by no means at his ease, and yet i think the people do not now intend to pursue him any farther, for they have begun to make all kinds of songs about him. law is said to be in such an agony of fear that he has not been able to venture to my son's at saint cloud, although he sent a carriage to fetch him. he is a dead man; he is as pale as a sheet, and it is said can never get over his last panic. the people's hatred of the duke arises from his being the friend of law, whose children he carried to saint maur, where they are to remain. m. boursel, passing through the rue saint antoine in his way from the jesuits' college, had his carriage stopped by a hackney coachman, who would neither come on nor go back. m. boursel's footman, enraged at his obstinacy, struck the coachman, and, m. boursel getting out of his coach to restrain his servant's rage, the coachman resolved to be avenged of both master and man, and so began to cry out, "here is law going to kill me; fall upon him." the people immediately ran with staves and stones, and attacked boursel, who took refuge in the church of the jesuits. he was pursued even to the altar, where he found a little door opened which led into the convent. he rushed through and shut it after him, by which means he saved his life. m. de chiverni, the tutor of the duc de chartres, was going into the palais royal in a chair, when a child about eight years old cried out, "there goes law!" and the people immediately assembled. m. chiverni, who is a little, meagre-faced, ugly old man, said pleasantly enough, "i knew very well i had nothing to fear when i should show them my face and figure." as soon as they saw him they suffered him to get quietly into his chair and to enter the gates of the palace. on the 10th of december (1720), law withdrew; he is now at one of his estates about six miles from paris. the duke, who wished to visit him, thought proper to take mdlle. de prie's post-chaise, and put his footman into a grey livery, otherwise the people would have known and have maltreated him. law is gone to brussels; madame de prie lent him her chaise. when he returned it, he wrote thanking her, and at the same time sent her a ring worth 100,000 livres. the duke provided him with relays, and made four of his own people accompany him. when he took leave of my son, law said to him, "monsieur, i have committed several great faults, but they are merely such as are incident to humanity; you will find neither malice nor dishonesty in my conduct." his wife would not go away until she had paid all their debts; he owed to his rotisseur alone 10,000 livres. [mr. law retired to venice, and there ended his days. some memoirs state that he was not married to the englishwoman who passed for his wife.] etext editor's bookmarks: bad company spoils good manners duc de grammont, then ambassador, played the confessor frequent and excessive bathing have undermined her health it is an unfortunate thing for a man not to know himself like will to like memoirs of madame la marquise de montespan written by herself being the historic memoirs of the court of louis xiv. book 4. chapter xlix. president de nesmond.--melladoro.--a complacent husband and his love-sick wife.--tragic sequel. president de nesmond--upright, clear-headed magistrate as he was--was of very great service to me at the courts of justice. he always managed to oblige me and look after my interests and my rights in any legal dispute of mine, or when i had reason to fear annoyance on the part of my husband. i will here relate the grief that his young wife caused him, and it will be seen that, by the side of this poor president, m. de montespan might count himself lucky. having long been a widower, he was in some measure accustomed to this state, until love laid a snare for him just at the age of sixty-five. in the garden that lay below his windows--a garden owned by his neighbour, a farmer--he saw clorinde. she was this yeoman's only daughter. he at once fell passionately in love with her, as david once loved bathsheba. the president married clorinde, who was very pleased to have a fine name and a title. but her husband soon saw--if not with surprise, at least with pain--that his wife did not love him. a young and handsome spaniard, belonging to the spanish legation, danced one day with clorinde; to her he seemed as radiant as the god of melody and song. she lost her heart, and without further delay confessed to him this loss. on returning home, the president said to his youthful consort, "madame, every one is noticing and censuring your imprudent conduct; even the young spaniard himself finds it compromising." "nothing you say can please me more," she replied, "for this proves that he is aware of my love. as he knows this, and finds my looks to his liking, i hope that he will wish to see me again." soon afterwards there was a grand ball given at the spanish embassy. madame de nesmond managed to secure an invitation, and went with one of her cousins. the young spaniard did the honours of the evening, and showed them every attention. as the president was obliged to attend an all-night sitting at the tourelle,--[the parliamentary criminal court.]--and as these young ladies did not like going home alone,--for their residence was some way off,--the young spaniard had the privilege of conducting them to their coach and of driving back with them. after cards and a little music, they had supper about daybreak; and when the president returned, at five o'clock, he saw melladoro, to whom he was formally introduced by madame. the president's welcome was a blend of surprise, anger, forced condescension, and diplomatic politeness. all these shades of feeling were easily perceived by the spaniard, who showed not a trace of astonishment. this was because clorinde's absolute sway over her husband was as patent as the fact that, in his own house, the president was powerless to do as he liked. melladoro, who was only twenty years old, thought he had made a charming conquest. he asked to be allowed to present his respects occasionally, when clorinde promptly invited him to do so, in her husband's name as well as in her own. it was now morning, and he took leave of the ladies. two days after this he reappeared; then he came five or six times a week, until at last it was settled that a place should be laid for him every day at the president's table. that year it was m. de nesmond's turn to preside at the courts during vacation-time. he pleaded urgent motives of health, which made it imperative for him to have country air and complete rest. another judge consented to forego his vacation and take his place on the bench for four months; so m. de nesmond was able to leave paris. when the time came to set out by coach, madame went off into violent hysterics; but the magistrate, backed up by his father-in-law, showed firmness, and they set out for the chateau de nesmond, about thirty leagues from paris. m. de nesmond found the country far from enjoyable. his wife, who always sat by herself in her dressing-gown and seldom consented to see a soul, on more than one occasion left her guests at table in order to sulk and mope in her closet. she fell ill. during her periods of suffering and depression, she continually mentioned the spaniard's name. failing his person, she desired to have his portrait. alarmed at his wife's condition, the president agreed to write a letter himself to the author of all this trouble, who soon sent the lady a handsome sweetmeat-box ornamented with his crest and his portrait. at the sight of this, clorinde became like another woman. she had her hair dressed and put on a smart gown, to show the portrait how deeply enamoured she was of the original. "monsieur," she said to her husband, "i am the only daughter of a wealthy man, who, when he gave me to a magistrate older than himself, did not intend to sacrifice me. you have been young, no doubt, and you, therefore, ought to know how revolting to youth, all freshness and perfume, are the cuddlings and caresses of decrepitude. as yet i do not detest you, but it is absolutely impossible to love you. on the contrary, i am in love with melladoro; perhaps in your day you were as attractive as he is, and knew how to make the most of what you then possessed. now, will you please me by going back to paris? i shall be ever so grateful to you if you will. or must you spend the autumn in this gloomy abode of your ancestors? to show myself obedient, i will consent; only in this case you must send your secretary to the spanish legation, and your coach-and-six, to bring melladoro here without delay." at this speech m. de nesmond could no longer hide his disgust, but frankly refused to entertain such a proposal for one moment. whereupon, his wife gave way to violent grief. she could neither eat nor sleep, and being already in a weakly state, soon developed symptoms which frightened her doctors. m. de nesmond was frightened too, and at length sent his rival a polite and pressing invitation to come and stay at the chateau. this state of affairs went on for six whole years, during which time madame de nesmond lavished upon her comely paramour all the wealth amassed by her frugal, orderly spouse. at last the president could stand it no longer, but went and made a bitter complaint to the king. his majesty at once asked the spanish ambassador to have melladoro recalled. at this news, clorinde was seized with violent convulsions; so severe, indeed, was this attack, that her wretched husband at once sought to have the order rescinded. but as it transpired, the king's wish had been instantly complied with, and the unwelcome news had to be told to clorinde. "if you love me," quoth she to her husband, "then grant me this last favour, after which, i swear it, clorinde will never make further appeal to your kind-heartedness. however quick they have been, my young friend cannot yet have reached the coast. let me have sight of him once more; let me give him a lock of my hair, a few loving words of advice, and one last kiss before he is lost to me forever." so fervent was her pleading and so profuse her tears, that m. de nesmond consented to do all. his coach-and-six was got ready there and then. an hour before sunset the belfries of havre came in sight, and as it was high tide, they drove right up to the harbour wharf. the ship had just loosed her moorings, and was gliding out to sea. clorinde could recognise melladoro standing amid the passengers on deck. half fainting, she stretched out her arms and called him in a piteous voice. blushing, he sought to hide behind his companions, who all begged him to show himself. by means of a wherry clorinde soon reached the frigate, and the good-natured sailors helped her to climb up the side of the vessel. but in her agitation and bewilderment her foot slipped, and she fell into the sea, whence she was soon rescued by several of the pluckiest of the crew. as she was being removed to her carriage, the vessel sailed out of harbour. m. de nesmond took a large house at havre, in order to nurse her with greater convenience, and had to stop there for a whole month, his wife being at length brought back on a litter to paris. her convalescence was but an illusion after all. hardly had she reached home when fatal symptoms appeared; she felt that she must die, but showed little concern thereat. the portrait of the handsome spaniard lay close beside her on her couch. she smiled at it, besought it to have pity on her loneliness, or scolded it bitterly for indifference, and for going away. a short time before her death, she sent for her husband and her father, to whom she entrusted the care of her three children. "monsieur," said she to the president de nesmond, "be kind to my son; he has a right to your name and arms, and though he is my living image, dearest theodore is your son." then turning to her father, who was weeping, she said briefly, "all that to-day remains to you of clorinde are her two daughters. "pray love them as you loved me, and be more strict with them than you were with me. m. de nesmond owes these orphans nothing. all that melladoro owes them is affection. tell him, i pray you, of my constancy and of my death." such was the sad end of a young wife who committed no greater crime than to love a man who was agreeable and after her own heart. m. de nesmond was just enough to admit that, in ill-assorted unions, good sense or good nature must intervene, to ensure that the one most to be pitied receive indulgent treatment at the hands of the most culpable, if the latter be also the stronger of the two. chapter l. madame de montespan's children and those of la valliere.--monsieur le dauphin. i had successively lost the first and second comte de vegin; god also chose to take mademoiselle de tours from me, who (in what way i know not) was in features the very image of the queen. her majesty was told so, and desired to see my child, and when she perceived how striking was the resemblance, she took a fancy to the charming little girl, and requested that she might frequently be brought to see her. such friendliness proved unlucky, for the infanta, as is well known, has never been able to rear one of her children,--a great pity, certainly, for she has had five, all handsome, well-made, and of gracious, noble mien, like the king. in the case of mademoiselle de tours, the queen managed to conquer her dislike, and also sent for the duc du maine. despite her affection for m. le dauphin, she herself admitted that if monseigneur had the airs of a gentleman, m. le duc du maine looked the very type of a king's son. the duc du maine, madame de maintenon's special pupil, was so well trained to all the exigencies of his position and his rank, that such premature perfection caused him to pass for a prodigy. than his, no smile could be more winning and sweet; no one could carry himself with greater dignity and ease. he limps slightly, which is a great pity, especially as he has such good looks, and so graceful a figure; his lameness, indeed, was entirely the result of an accident,--a sad accident, due to teething. to please the king, his governess took him once to auvez, and twice to the pyrenees, but neither the waters nor the auvez quack doctors could effect a cure. at any rate, i was fortunate enough to bring up this handsome prince, who, if he treat me with ceremony, yet loves me none the less. brought up by the duc de montausier, a sort of monkish soldier, and by bossuet, a sort of military monk, monsieur le dauphin had no good examples from which to profit. crammed as he is with latin, greek, german, spanish, and church history, he knows all that they teach in colleges, being totally ignorant of all that can only be learnt at the court of a king. he has no distinction of manner, no polish or refinement of address; he laughs in loud guffaws, and even raises his voice in the presence of his father. having been born at court, his way of bowing is not altogether awkward; but what a difference between his salute and that of the king! "monseigneur looks just like a german prince." that speech exactly hits him off,--a portrait sketched by no other brush than that of his royal father. monseigneur, who does not like me, pays me court the same as any one else. being very jealous of the pretty comte de vermandois and his brother, the duc du maine, he tries to imitate their elegant manner, but is too stiff to succeed. the duc du maine shows him the respect inspired by his governess, but the comte de vermandois, long separated from his mother, has been less coached in this respect, and being thoroughly candid and sincere, shows little restraint. often, instead of styling him "monseigneur," he calls him merely "monsieur le dauphin," while the latter, as if such a title were common or of no account, looks at his brother and makes no reply. when i told the king about such petty fraternal tiffs, he said, "with age, all that will disappear; as a man grows taller, he gets a better, broader view of his belongings." m. le dauphin shows a singular preference for mademoiselle de nantes, but my daughter, brimful of wit and fun, often makes merry at the expense of her exalted admirer. mademoiselle de blois, the eldest daughter of madame de la valliere, is the handsomest, most charming person it is possible to imagine. her slim, graceful figure reminds one of the beautiful goddesses, with whom poets entertain us; she abounds in accomplishments and every sort of charm. her tender solicitude for her mother, and their constant close companionship, have doubtless served to quicken her intelligence and penetration. like the king, she is somewhat grave; she has the same large brown eyes, and just his austrian lip, his shapely hand and well-turned leg, almost his selfsame voice. madame de la valliere, who, in the intervals of pregnancy, had no bosom to speak of, has shown marked development in this respect since living at the convent. the princess, ever since she attained the age of puberty, has always seemed adequately furnished with physical charms. the king provided her with a husband in the person of the prince de conti, a nephew of the prince de conde. they are devotedly attached to each other, being both as handsome as can be. the princesse de conti enjoys the entire affection of the queen, who becomes quite uneasy if she does not see her for five or six days. certain foreign princes proposed for her hand, when the king replied that the presence of his daughter was as needful to him as daylight or the air he breathed. i have here surely drawn a most attractive portrait of this princess, and i ought certainly to be believed, for madame de conti is not fond of me at all. possibly she looks upon me as the author of her mother's disgrace; i shall never be at pains to undeceive her. until the moment of her departure, madame de la valliere used always to visit me. the evening before her going she took supper with me, and i certainly had no cause to read in her looks either annoyance or reproach. mademoiselle de montpensier, who happened to call, saw us at table, and stayed to have some dessert with us. she has often told me afterwards how calm and serene the duchess looked. one would never have thought she was about to quit a brilliant court for the hair shirt of the ascetic, and all the death-in-life of a convent. i grieved for her, i wept for her, and i got her a grand gentleman as a husband. [this statement is scarcely reconcilable with the fact that madame de la valliere remained in a convent until her death. this may refer to mademoiselle de blois, la valliere's daughter, who was given in marriage to the prince de conti.--editor's note.] chapter li. madame de maintenon's character.--the queen likes her.--she revisits her family.--her grandfather's papers restored to her. as madame de maintenon's character happened to please the king, as i have already stated, he allotted her handsome apartments at court while waiting until he could keep her there as a fixture, by conferring upon her some important appointment. she had the honour of being presented to the queen, who paid her a thousand compliments respecting the duc du maine's perfections, being so candid and so good natured as to say: "you would have been just the person to educate monseigneur." unwilling to appear as if she slighted the dauphin's actual tutors, madame de maintenon adroitly replied that, as it seemed to her, m. le dauphin had been brought up like an angel. it is said that i have special talent for sustaining and enlivening a conversation; there is something in that, i admit, but to do her justice, i must say that in this respect madame de maintenon is without a rival. she has quite a wealth of invention; the most arid subject in her hands becomes attractive; while for transitions, her skill is unequalled. far simpler than myself, she gauges her whole audience with a single glance. and as, since her misfortunes, her rule has been never to make an enemy, since these easily crop up along one's path, she is careful never to utter anything which could irritate the feelings or wound the pride of the most sensitive. her descriptions are so varied, so vivacious, that they fascinate a whole crowd. if now and again some little touch of irony escapes her, she knows how to temper and even instantly to neutralise this by terms of praise at once natural and simple. under the guise of an extremely pretty woman, she conceals the knowledge and tact of a statesman. i have, moreover, noticed that latterly the king likes to talk about matters of state when she is present. he rarely did this with me. i think she is at the outset of a successful career. the king made persistent inquiries with regard to her whole family. he has already conferred a petty governorship upon the comte d'aubigne, her brother, and the marquis de la gallerie, their cousin, has just received the command of a regiment, and a pension. madame de maintenon readily admits that she owes her actual good fortune to myself. i also saw one of her letters to madame de saint-geran, in which she refers to me in terms of gratitude. sometimes, indeed, she goes too far, even siding with my husband, and condemning what she dares to term my conduct; however, this is only to my face. i have always liked her, and in spite of her affronts, i like her still; but there are times when i am less tolerant, and then we are like two persons just about to fall out. the comte de toulouse and mademoiselle de blois were not entrusted to her at their birth as the others were. the king thought that the additional responsibility of their education would prove too great for the marquise. he preferred to enjoy her society and conversation, so my two youngest children were placed in the care of madame d'arbon, a friend or stewardess of m. de colbert. not a great compliment, as i take it. when, for the second time, madame de maintenon took the duc du maine to barege, she returned by way of the landes, guienne, and poitou. she wished to revisit her native place, and show her pupil to all her relations. perceiving that she was a marquise, the instructress of princes, and a personage in high favour, they were lavish of their compliments and their praise, yet forebore to give her back her property. knowing that she was a trifle vain about her noble birth, they made over to her the great family pedigree, as well as a most precious manuscript. these papers, found to be quite correct, included a most spirited history of the war of the league, written by baron agrippa d'aubigne, who might rank as an authority upon the subject, having fought against the leaguers for over fifteen years. among these documents the king found certain details that hitherto had been forgotten, or had never yet come to light. and as the baron was henri iv.'s favourite aide-decamp, every reference that he makes to that good king is of importance and interest. this manuscript, in the simplest manner possible, set forth the governess's ancestors. i am sure she was more concerned about this document than about her property. chapter lii. the young flemish lady.--the sainte-aldegonde family.--the sage of the sepulchres. just at the time of the conquest of tournai, a most amusing thing occurred, which deserves to be chronicled. another episode may be recorded also, of a gloomier nature. directly tournai had surrendered, and the new outposts were occupied, the king wished to make his entry into this important town, which he had long desired to see. the people and the burghers, although mute and silent, willingly watched the french army and its king march past, but the aristocracy scarcely showed themselves at any of the windows, and the few folk who appeared here and there on the balconies abstained from applauding the king. splendidly apparelled, and riding the loveliest of milk-white steeds, his majesty proceeded upon his triumphant way, surrounded by the flower of french nobility, and scattering money as he went. before the town hall the procession stopped, when the magistrates delivered an address, and gave up to his majesty the keys of the city in a large enamelled bowl. when the king, looking calmly contented, was about to reply, he observed a woman who had pushed her way through the french guardsmen, and staring hard at him, appeared anxious to get close up to him. in fact, she advanced a step or two, and the epithet that crossed her lips struck the conqueror as being coarsely offensive. "arrest that woman," cried the king. she was instantly seized and brought before him. "why do you insult me thus?" he asked quickly, but with dignity. "i have not insulted you," replied the flemish lady. "the word that escaped me was rather a term of flattery and of praise, at least if it has the meaning which it conveys to us here, in these semi-french parts." "say that word again," added the king; "for i want everybody to bear witness that i am just in punishing you for such an insult." "sire," answered this young woman, "your soldiers have destroyed my pasture-lands, my woods, and my crops. heart-broken, i came here to curse you, but your appearance at once made me change my mind. on looking closer at you, in spite of my grief, i could not help exclaiming, 'so that's the handsome b-----, is it!'" the grenadiers, being called as witnesses, declared that such was in fact her remark. then the king smiled, and said to the young flemish lady: "who are you? what is your name?" with readiness and dignity she replied, "sire, you see before you the comtesse de sainte-aldegonde." "pray, madame," quoth the king, "be so good as to finish your toilet; i invite you to dine with me to-day." madame de sainte-aldegonde accepted the honour, and did in fact dine with his majesty that day. she was clever, and made herself most agreeable, so that the king, whose policy it was to win hearts by all concessions possible, indemnified her for all losses sustained during the war, besides granting favours to all her relatives and friends. the sainte-aldegonde family appeared at court, being linked thereto by good services. it is already a training-ground for excellent officers and persons of merit. but for that somewhat neat remark of the countess's, all those gentlemen would have remained in poverty and obscurity within the walls or in the suburbs of tournai. some days after this, the king was informed of the arrest of a most dangerous individual, who had been caught digging below certain ancient aqueducts "with a view to preparing a mine of some sort." this person was brought in, tied and bound like a criminal; they hustled him and maltreated him. i noticed how he trembled and shed tears. he was a learned man--an antiquary. a few days before our invasion he had commenced certain excavations, which he had been forced to discontinue, and now so great was his impatience that he had been obliged to go on in spite of the surrounding troops. by means of an old manuscript, long kept by the druids, as also by monks, this man had been able to discover traces of an old roman highroad, and as in the days of the romans the tombs of the rich and the great were always placed alongside these broad roads, our good antiquary had been making certain researches there, which for him had proved to be a veritable gold-mine. having made confession of all this to the king, his majesty set him free, granting him, moreover, complete liberty as regarded the execution of his enterprise. a few days afterwards he begged to have the honour of presenting to his majesty some of the objects which he had collected during his researches. i was present, and the following are the funereal curiosities which he showed us: having broken open a tomb, he had extracted therefrom a large alabaster vase, which still contained the ashes of the deceased. next this urn, carefully sealed up, there was another vase, containing three gold rings adorned with precious stones, two gold spurs, the bit of a battle-horse, very slightly rusted, and chased with silver and gold, a sort of seal with rough coat-of-arms, a necklace of large and very choice pearls, a stylet or pencil for calligraphy, and a hundred gold and silver coins bearing the effigy of domitian, a very wicked emperor, who reigned over rome and over gaul in those days. when the king had amused himself with examining these trinkets, he turned to the antiquary and said, "is that all, sir? why, where is charon's flask of wine?" "here, your majesty," replied the old man, producing a small flask. "see, the wine has become quite clear." with great difficulty the flask was opened; the wine it contained was pale and odourless, but by those bold enough to taste it, was pronounced delicious. when overturning the urn in order to empty out the ashes and bury them, they noticed an inscription, which the king instantly translated. it ran thus: "may the gods who guard tombs punish him who breaks open this mausoleum. the troubles and misfortunes of aurelius silvius have been cruel enough during his lifetime; in this tomb at least let him have peace." the worthy antiquary offered me his pearl necklace and one of the antique rings, but i refused these with a look of horror. he sold the coins to the king, and informed us that his various excavations and researches had brought him in about one hundred thousand livres up to the present time. the king said to him playfully, "mind what you are about, monsieur; that sentence which i translated for you is not of a very, reassuring nature." "yet it will not serve to hinder me in my scientific researches," replied the savant. "charon, who by now must be quite a rich man, evidently disdains all such petty hidden treasures as these. to me they are most useful." next time we passed through tournai, i made inquiries as to this miser, and afterwards informed the king. it appears that he was surprised by robbers when despoiling one of these tombs. after robbing him of all that he possessed, they buried him alive in the very, grave where he was digging, so as to save expense. what a dismal sort of science! what a life, and what a death! chapter liii. the monks of sainte amandine.--the prince of orange entrapped.--the drugged wine.--the admirable judith. after the furious siege of conde, which lasted only four days, the king, who had been present, left for sebourg, whence he sent orders for the destruction of the principal forts of liege, and for the ravaging of the juliers district. he treated the neubourg estates in the same ruthless fashion, as the duke had abandoned his attitude of neutrality, and had joined the empire, holland and spain. all the cleves district, and those between the meuse and the vahal, were subjected to heavy taxation. everywhere one saw families in flight, castles sacked, homesteads and convents in flames. the duc de villa-hermosa, governor-general in flanders for the king of spain, and william of orange, the dutch leader, went hither and thither all over the country, endeavouring to rouse the people, and spur them on to offer all possible resistance to the king of france. these two noble generalissimi even found their way into monasteries and nunneries, and carried off their silver plate, actually, seizing the consecrated vessels used for the sacrament, saying that all such things would help the good cause. one day they entered a wealthy bernardine monastery, where the miraculous tomb of sainte amandine was on view. the great veneration shown for this saint in all the country thereabouts had served greatly to enrich the community and bring them in numerous costly offerings. the chapel wherein the saint's heart was said to repose was lighted by a huge gold lamp, and on the walls and in niches right up to the ceiling were thousands of votive offerings in enamel, silver, and gold. the duc de villa-hermosa (a good catholic) dared not give orders for the pillage of this holy chapel, but left that to the prince of orange (a good huguenot). one evening they came to ask the prior for shelter, who, seeing that he was at the mercy of both armies, had to show himself pleasant to each. during supper, when the two generals informed him of the object of their secret visit, he clearly perceived that the monastery was about to be sacked, and like a man of resource, at once made up his mind. when dessert came, he gave his guests wine that had been drugged. the generals, growing drowsy, soon fell asleep, and the prior at once caused them to be carried off to a cell and placed upon a comfortable bed. this done, he celebrated midnight mass as usual, and at its close he summoned the whole community, telling them of their peril and inviting counsel and advice. "my brethren," asked he, "ought we not to look upon our prisoners as profaners of holy places, and serve them in secret and before god as once the admirable judith served holofernes?" at this proposal there was a general murmur. the assembly grew agitated, but seeing how perilous was the situation, order was soon restored. the old monks were of opinion that the two generals ought not yet to be sacrificed, but should be shut up in a subterranean dungeon, a messenger being sent forthwith to the french king announcing their capture. the young monks protested loudly against such an act, declaring it to be treacherous, disgraceful, felonious. the prior endeavoured to make them listen to reason and be silent, but the young monks, though in a minority, got the upper hand. they deposed the prior, abused and assaulted him, and finally flung him into prison. one of them was appointed prior without ballot, and this new leader, followed by his adherents, roused the generals and officiously sent them away. the prior's nephew, a young bernardine, accompanied by a lay brother and two or three servants, set out across country that night, and brought information to the king of all this disorder, begging his majesty to save his worthy uncle's life. at the head of six hundred dragoons, the king hastened to the convent and at once rescued the prior, sending the good old monks of sainte amandine to citeaux, and dispersing the rebellious young ones among the carthusian and trappist monasteries. all the treasures contained in the chapel he had transferred to his camp, until a calmer, more propitious season. that priceless capture, the prince of orange, escaped him, however, and he was inconsolable thereat, adding, as he narrated the incident, "were it not that i feared to bring dishonour upon my name, and sully the history of my reign and my life, i would have massacred those young saint-bernard monks." "what a vile breed they all are!" i cried, losing all patience. "no, no, madame," he quickly rejoined, "you are apt to jump from one extreme to the other. it does not do to generalise thus. the young monks at sainte amandine showed themselves to be my enemies, i admit, and for this i shall punish them as they deserve, but the poor old monks merely desired my success and advantage. when peace is declared, i shall take care of them and of their monastery; the prior shall be made an abbot. i like the poor fellow; so will you, when you see him." i really cannot see why the king should have taken such a fancy to this old monk, who was minded to murder a couple of generals in his convent because, forsooth, judith once slew holofernes! judith might have been tempted to do that sort of thing; she was a jewess. but a christian monk! i cannot get over it! chapter liv. the chevalier de rohan.--he is born too late.--his debts.--messina ceded to the french.--the king of spain meditates revenge.--the comte de monterey.--madame de villars as conspirator.--the picpus schoolmaster.--the plot fails.--discovery and retribution.--madame de soubise's indifference to the chevalier's fate. had he been born fifty or sixty years earlier, the chevalier de rohan might have played a great part. he was one of those men, devoid of restraint and of principle, who love pleasure above all things, and who would sacrifice their honour, their peace of mind, aye, even the state itself, if such a sacrifice were really needed, in order to attain their own personal enjoyment and satisfaction. the year before, he once invited himself to dinner at my private residence at saint germain, and he then gave me the impression of being a madman, or a would-be conspirator. my sister de thianges noticed the same thing, too. the chevalier had squandered his fortune five or six years previously; his bills were innumerable. each day he sank deeper into debt, and the king remarked, "the chevalier de rohan will come to a bad end; it will never do to go on as he does." instead of keeping an eye upon him, and affectionately asking him to respect his family's honour, the prince and princesse de soubise made as if it were their duty to ignore him and blush for him. profligacy, debts, and despair drove this unfortunate nobleman to make a resolve such as might never be expected of any high-born gentleman. discontented with their governor, don diego de soria, the inhabitants of messina had just shaken off the spanish yoke, and had surrendered to the king of france, who proffered protection and help. such conduct on the part of the french government seemed to the king of spain most disloyal, and he desired nothing better than to revenge himself. this is how he set about it. on occasions of this kind it is always the crafty who are sought out for such work. comte de monterey was instructed to sound the chevalier de rohan upon the subject, offering him safety and a fortune as his reward. pressed into their service there was also the marquise de villars,--a frantic gambler, a creature bereft of all principle and all modesty,--to whom a sum of twenty thousand crowns in cash was paid over beforehand, with the promise of a million directly success was ensured. she undertook to manage rohan and tell him what to do. certain ciphers had to be used, and to these the marquise had the key. they needed a messenger both intelligent and trustworthy, and for this mission she gave the chevalier an ally in the person of an ex-teacher in the flemish school at picpus, on the faubourg saint antoine. this man and the chevalier went secretly to the comte de monterey in flanders, and by this trio it was settled that on a certain day, at high tide, admiral van tromp with his fleet should anchor off honfleur or quillebceuf in normandy, and that, at a given signal, la truaumont, the chevalier de preaux, and the chevalier de rohan were to surrender to him the town and port without ever striking a single blow, all this being for the benefit of his majesty the king of spain. but all was discovered. the five culprits were examined, when the marquise de villars stated that the inhabitants of messina had given them an example which the king of france had not condemned! the marquise and the two chevaliers were beheaded, while the ex-schoolmaster was hanged. as for young la truaumont, son of a councillor of the exchequer, he escaped the block by letting himself be throttled by his guards or gaolers, to whom he offered no resistance. despite her influence upon the king's feelings, the princess de soubise did not deign to take the least notice of the trial, and they say that she drove across the pont-neuf in her coach just as the chevalier de rohan, pinioned and barefooted, was marching to his doom. chapter lv. the prince of orange captures bonn.--the king captures orange.--the calvinists of orange offer resistance. since catiline's famous hatred for consul cicero, there has never been hatred so deep and envenomed as that of william of orange for the king. for this loathing, cherished by a petty prince for a great potentate, various reasons have been given. as for myself, i view things closely and in their true light, and i am convinced that prince william was actuated by sheer jealousy and envy. it was affirmed that the king, when intending to give him as bride mademoiselle de blois, his eldest daughter and great favourite, had offered to place him on the dutch throne as independent king, and that to such generous proposals the petty stadtholder replied, "i am not pious enough to marry the daughter of a carmelite nun." so absurd a proposal as this, however, was never made, for the simple reason that mademoiselle de blois has never yet been offered in marriage to any prince or noble man in this wide world. rather than to be parted from her, the king would prefer her to remain single. he has often said as much to me, and there is no reason to doubt his word. the little principality of orange, which once formed the estate of this now outlandish family, is situate close to the rhone, amid french territory. though decorated with the title of sovereignty, like its neighbour the principality of dombes, it is no less a fief-land of the crown. in this capacity it has to contribute to the crown revenues, and owes homage and fealty to the sovereign. such petty, formal restrictions are very galling to the arrogant young prince of orange, for he is one of those men who desire, at all cost, to make a noise in the world, and who would set fire to solomon's temple or to the delphian temple, it mattered not which, so long as they made people talk about them. after turenne's death, there was a good deal of rivalry among our generals. this proved harmful to the service. the goddess of victory discovered this, and at times forsook us. many possessions that were conquered had to be given up, and we had to bow before those whom erst we had humiliated. but orange was never restored.--[this was written in 1677.] when, in november, 1673, the prince of orange had the audacity to besiege bonn, the residence of our ally, the prince elector of cologne, and to reduce that prelate to the last extremity, the king promptly seized upon the principality of orange; and having planted the french flag upon every building, he published a general decree, strictly forbidding the inhabitants to hold any communication whatever with "their former petty sovereign," and ordering prayers to be said for him, louis, in all their churches. this is a positive fact. the roman catholics readily complied with this royal decree, which was in conformity with their sympathies and their interests; but the protestants waxed furious thereat. some of them even carried their devotion to such a pitch that they paid taxes to two masters; that is to say, to stadtholder william, as well as to his majesty the king. the huguenot "ministers," or priests, issued pastoral letters in praise of the calvinist prince and in abuse of the most christian king. they also preached against the new oath of fealty, and committed several most imprudent acts, which the jesuits were not slow to remark and report in court circles. such audacity, and the need for its repression, rankled deep in the king's heart; and i believe he is quite disposed to pass measures of such extreme severity as will soon deprive the protestants and lutherans of any privileges derived from the edict of nantes. from various sources i receive the assurance that he is preparing to deal a heavy blow anent this; but the king's character is impenetrable. time alone will show. chapter lvi the castle of bleink-elmeink.--romantic and extraordinary discovery.--an innocent and persecuted wife.--madame de bleink-elmeink at chaillot. after the siege and surrender of maestricht, when the king had no other end in view than the entire conquest of dutch brabant, he took us to this country, which had suffered greatly by the war. some districts were wholly devastated, and it became increasingly difficult to find lodging and shelter for the court. the grooms of the chambers one day found for us a large chateau, situated in a woody ravine, old-fashioned in structure, and surrounded by a moat. there was only one drawbridge, flanked by two tall towers, surmounted by turrets and culverins. its owner was in residence at the time. he came to the king and the queen, and greeting them in french, placed his entire property at their disposal. it had rained in torrents for two days without ceasing. despite the season, everybody was wet through and benumbed with cold. large fires were made in all the huge fireplaces; and when the castle's vast rooms were lighted up by candles, we agreed that the architect had not lacked grandeur of conception nor good taste when building such large corridors, massive staircases, lofty vestibules, and spacious, resounding rooms. that given to the queen was like an alcove, decorated by six large marble caryatides, joined by a handsome balustrade high enough to lean upon. the four-post bed was of azure blue velvet, with flowered work and rich gold and silver tasselling. over the chimneypiece was the huge bleink-elmeink coat-of-arms, supported by two tall templars. the king's apartment was an exact reproduction of a room existing at jerusalem in the time of saint louis; this was explained by inscriptions and devices in gothic or celtic. my room was supposed to be an exact copy of the famous pilate's chamber, and it was named so; and for three days my eyes were rejoiced by the detailed spectacle of our lord's passion, from his flagellation to his agony on calvary. the queen came to see me in this room, and did me the honour of being envious of so charming an apartment. the fourth day, when the weather became fine, we prepared to change our quarters and take to our carriages again, when an extraordinary event obliged us to send a messenger for the king, who had already left us, and had gone forward to join the army. an old peasant, still robust and in good health, performed in this gloomy castle the duties of a housekeeper. in this capacity she frequently visited our rooms to receive our orders and satisfy our needs. seeing that the queen's boxes were being closed, and that our departure was at hand, she came to me and said: "madame, the sovereign lord of heaven has willed it thus; that the officers of the french king should have discovered as the residence of his court this castle amid gloomy forests and precipices. the great prince has come hither and has stayed here for a brief while, and we have sought to welcome him as well as we could. he gave the comte de bleink-elmeink, lord of this place and my master, his portrait set in diamonds; he had far better have cut his throat." "good heavens, woman! what is this you tell me?" i exclaimed. "of what crime is your master guilty? he seems to me to be somewhat moody and unsociable; but his family is of good renown, and all sorts of good things have been, told concerning it to the king and queen." "madame," replied the old woman, drawing me aside into a window-recess, and lowering her voice, "do you see at the far end of yonder court an old dungeon of much narrower dimensions than the others? in that dungeon lies the good comtesse de bleink-elmeink; she has languished there for five years." then this woman informed me that her master, formerly page of honour to the empress eleanor, had wedded, on account of her great wealth, a young hungarian noblewoman, by whom he had two children, both of whom were living. such was his dislike of their mother, on account of a slight deformity, that for four or five years he shamefully maltreated her, and at last shut her up in this dungeon-keep, allowing her daily the most meagre diet possible. "when, some few days since, the royal stewards appeared in front of the moat, and claimed admittance, the count was much alarmed," added the peasant woman. "he thought that all was discovered, and that he was going to suffer for it. it was not until the king and queen came that he was reassured, and he has not been able to hide his embarrassment from any of us." "where are the two children of his marriage?" i asked the old woman, before deciding to act. "the young baron," she answered, "is at vienna or ohnutz, at an academy there. his sister, a graceful, pretty girl, has been in a convent from her childhood; the nuns have promised to keep her there, and as soon as she is fourteen, she will take the veil." my first impulse was to acquaint the queen with these astounding revelations, but it soon struck me that, to tackle a man of such importance as the count, we could not do without the king. i at once sent my secretary with a note, imploring his majesty to return, but giving no reason for my request. he came back immediately, post-haste, when the housekeeper repeated to him, word for word, all that i have set down here. the king could hardly believe his ears. when coming to a decision, his majesty never does so precipitately. he paced up and down the room twice or thrice, and then said to me, "the matter is of a rather singular nature; i am unacquainted with law, and what i propose to do may one day serve as an example. it is my duty to rescue our unfortunate hostess, and requite her nobly for her hospitality." so saying, he sent for the count, and assuming a careless, almost jocular air, thus addressed him: "you were formerly page to the empress eleanor, i believe, m. le bleink-elmeink?" "yes, sire." "she is dead, but the emperor would easily recognise you, would he not?" "i imagine so, sire." "i have thought of you as a likely person to be the bearer of a message, some one of your age and height being needed, and of grave, secretive temperament, such as i notice you to possess. get everything in readiness, as i intend to send you as courier to his imperial majesty. i am going to write to him from here, and you shall bring me back his reply to my proposals." to be sent off like this was most galling to the count, but his youth and perfect health allowed him not the shadow of a pretext. he was obliged to pack his valise and start. he pretended to look pleased and acquiescent, but in his eyes i could detect fury and despair. half an hour after his departure, the king had the drawbridge raised, and then went to inform the queen of everything. "madame," said he, "you have been sleeping in this unfortunate lady's nuptial bed. she is now about to be presented to you. i ask that you will receive her kindly, and afterwards act as her protector, should anything happen to me." tears filled the queen's eyes, and she trembled in amazement. the king instantly made for the dungeon, and in default of a key, broke open all the gates. in a few minutes madame de bleink-elmeink, supported by two guards, entered the queen's presence, and was about to fling herself at her feet; but the king prevented this. he himself placed her in an armchair, and we others at once formed a large semicircle round her. she seemed to breathe with difficulty, sighing and sobbing without being able to utter a word. at, length she said to the king in fairly good french, "may my creator and yours reward you for this, great and unexpected boon! do not forsake me, sire, now that you have broken my fetters, but let your might protect me against the unjust violence of my husband; and permit me to reside in france in whatever convent it please you to choose. my august liberator shall become my lawful king, and under his rule i desire to live and die." in spite of her sorrow, madame de bleink-elmeink did not appear to be more than twenty-eight or thirty years old. her large blue eyes, though she had wept, much, were still splendid, and her high-bred features denoted nobility and beauty of soul. to such a charming countenance her figure scarcely corresponded; one side of her was slightly deformed, yet. this did not interfere with the grace of her attitude when seated, nor her agreeable deportment. directly she saw her, the queen liked her. she looked half longingly at the countess, and then rising approached her and held out her hand to be kissed, saying, "i mean to love you as if you were one of my own family; you shall be placed at val-de-grace, and i will often come and see you." recovering herself somewhat, the countess sank on her knees and kissed the queen's hand in a transport of joy. we, led her to her room, where she took a little refreshment and afterwards slept until the following day. all her servants and gardeners came to express their gladness at her deliverance; and in order to keep her company, the queen decided to stay another week at the castle. the countess then set out for paris, and it was arranged that she should have the apartments at chaillot, once constructed by the queen of england. as for her dreadful husband, the king gave him plenty to do, and he did not see his wife again for a good long while. chapter lvii. the silver chandelier.--the king holds the ladder.--the young dutchman. one day the king was passing through some of the large rooms of the palace, at a time of the morning when the courtiers had not yet made their appearance, and when carpenters and workmen were about, each busy in getting his work done. the king noticed a workman of some sort standing tiptoe on a double ladder, and reaching up to unhook a large chandelier from the ceiling. the fellow seemed likely to break his neck. "be careful," cried the king; "don't you see that your ladder is a short one and is on castors? i have just come in time to help you by holding it." "monsieur," said the man, "a thousand pardons, but if you will do so, i shall be much obliged. on account of this ambassador who is coming today, all my companions have lost their heads and have left me alone." then he unhooked the large crystal and silver chandelier, stepped down carefully, leaning on the king's shoulder, who graciously allowed him to do so. after humbly thanking him, the fellow made off. that night in the chateau every one was talking about the hardihood of some thief who in sight of everybody had stolen a handsome chandelier; the lord high provost had already been apprised of the matter. the king began to smile as he said out loud before every one, "i must request the lord high provost to be good enough to hush the matter up, as in cases of theft accomplices are punished as well, and it was i who held the ladder for the thief." then his majesty told us of the occurrence, as already narrated, and every one was convinced that the thief could not be a novice or an apprentice at his craft. inquiries were instantly made, since so bold an attempt called for exemplary punishment. all the upholsterers of the castle wished to give themselves up as prisoners; their honour was compromised. it would be hard to describe their consternation, being in truth honest folk. when the provost respectfully asked the king if he had had time to notice the culprit's features, his majesty replied that the workman in question was a young fellow of about five-and-twenty, fair complexioned, with chestnut hair, and pleasant features of delicate, almost feminine cast. at this news, all the dark, plain men-servants were exultant; the good-looking ones, however, were filled with fear. among the feutiers, whose sole duty it is to attend to the fires and candles in the royal apartments, there was a nice-looking young dutchman, whom his companions pointed out to the provost. they entered his room while he was asleep, and found in his cupboard the following articles: two of the king's lace cravats, two shirts marked with a double l and the crown, a pair of pale blue velvet shoes embroidered with silver, a flowered waistcoat, a hat with white and scarlet plumes, other trifles, and splendid portrait of the king, evidently part of some bracelet. as regarded the chandelier, nothing was discovered. when this young foreigner was taken to prison, he refused to speak for twenty-four hours, and in all versailles there was but one cry,--"they've caught the thief!" next day matters appeared in a new light. the provost informed his majesty that the young servant arrested was not a dutchman, but a very pretty dutch woman. at the time of the invasion, she was so unlucky as to see the king close to her father's house, and conceived so violent a passion for him that she at once forgot country, family, friends,--everything. leaving the netherlands with the french army, she followed her conqueror back to his capital, and by dint of perseverance managed to secure employment in the royal palace. while there, her one delight was to see the king as often as possible, and to listen to praise of his many noble deeds. "the articles found in my possession," said she to the provost, "are most dear and precious to me; not for their worth, but because they have touched the king's person. i did not steal them from his majesty; i could not do such a thing. i bought them of the valets de chambre, who were by right entitled to such things, and who would have sold them indiscriminately to any one else. the portrait was not sold to me, i admit, but i got it from madame la marquise de montespan, and in this way: one day, in the parterres, madame dropped her bracelet. i had the good fortune to pick it up, and i kept it for three or four days in my room. then bills were posted up in the park, stating that whoever brought the bracelet to madame should receive a reward of ten louis. i took back the ornament, for its pearls and diamonds did not tempt me, but i kept the portrait instead of the ten louis offered." when the king asked me if i recollected the occurrence, i assured him that everything was perfectly true. hereupon the king sent for the girl, who was immediately brought to his chamber. such was her modesty, and confusion that she dared not raise her eyes from the ground. the king spoke kindly to her, and gave her two thousand crowns to take her back to her own home. the provost was instructed to restore all these different articles to her, and as regarded myself, i willingly let her have the portrait, though it was worth a good deal more than the ten louis mentioned. when she got back to her own country and the news of her safe arrival was confirmed, the king sent her twenty thousand livres as a dowry, which enabled her to make a marriage suitable to her good-natured disposition and blameless conduct. she made a marked impression upon his majesty, and he was often wont to speak about the chandelier on account of her, always alluding to her in kindly, terms. if ever he returns to holland, i am sure he will want to see her, either from motives of attachment or curiosity. her name, if i remember rightly, was flora. chapter lviii. the observatory.--the king visits the carthusians.--how a painter with his brush may save a convent.--the guilty monk.--strange revelations.--the king's kindness.--the curate of saint domingo. when it was proposed to construct in paris that handsome building called the observatory, the king himself chose the site for this. having a map of his capital before him, he wished this fine edifice to be in a direct line of perspective with the luxembourg, to which it should eventually be joined by the demolition of the carthusian monastery, which filled a large gap. the king was anxious that his idea should be carried out, but whenever he mentioned it to m. mansard and the other architects, they declared that it was a great pity to lose lesueur's admirable frescos in the cloisters, which would have to be destroyed if the king's vast scheme were executed. one day his majesty resolved to see for himself, and without the least announcement of his arrival, he went to the carthusian monastery in the rue d'enfer. the king has great knowledge of art; he admired the whole series of wall-paintings, in which the life of saint bruno is divinely set forth. [by a new process these frescos were subsequently transferred to canvas in 1800 or 1802, at which date the vast property of the carthusian monks became part of the luxembourg estates.--editor's note.] "father," said he to the prior who showed him round, "these simple, touching pictures are far beyond all that was ever told me. my intention, i admit, was to move your institution elsewhere, so as to connect your spacious property with my palace of the luxembourg, but the horrible outrage which would have to be committed deters me; to the marvellous art of lesueur you owe it that your convent remains intact." the monk, overjoyed, expressed his gratitude to the king, and promised him the love and guardianship of saint bruno in heaven. just then, service in the chapel was over, and the monks filed past two and two, never raising their eyes from the gloomy pavement bestrewn with tombstones. the prior, clapping his hands, signalled them to stop, and then addressed them: "my brethren, stay your progress a moment; lift up your heads, bowed down by penance, and behold with awe the descendant of saint louis, the august protector of this convent. yes, our noble sovereign himself has momentarily quitted his palace to visit this humble abode. on these quiet walls which hide our cells, he has sought to read the simple, touching story, of the life of our saintly founder. the august son of louis the just has taken our dwelling-place and community under his immediate protection. go to your cells and pray to god for this magnanimous prince, for his children and successors in perpetuity." as he said these flattering words, a monk, with flushed cheeks and mouth agape, flung himself down at the king's feet, beating his brow repeatedly upon the pavement, and exclaiming: "sire, forgive me, forgive me, guilty though i be. i crave your royal pardon and pity." the prior, somewhat confused, saw that some important confession was about to be made, so he dismissed the others, and sent them back to their devotions. the prostrate monk, however, never thought of moving from his position. perceiving that he was alone with the king, whose calm, gentle demeanour emboldened him, he begged anew for pardon with great energy, and fervour. the king clearly saw that the penitent was some great evil-doer, and he promised forgiveness in somewhat ambiguous fashion. then the monk rose and said: "your majesty reigns to-day, and reigns gloriously. that is an amazing miracle, for countless incredible dangers of the direst sort have beset your cradle and menaced your youth. a prince of your house, backed up by ambitious inferiors, resolved to wrest the crown from you, in order to get it for himself and his descendants. the queen, your mother, full of heroic resolution, herself had energy enough to resist the cabal; but more than once her feet touched the very brink of the precipice, and more than once she nearly fell over it with her children. "noble qualities did this great queen possess, but at times she had too overweening a contempt for her enemies. her disdain for my master, the young cardinal, was once too bitter, and begot in this presumptuous prelate's heart undying hatred. educated under the same roof as m. le cardinal, with the same teachers and the same doctrines, i saw, as it were, with his eyes when i went out into the world, and marched beneath his banner when civil war broke out. "dreading the punishment for his temerity, this prelate decided that the sceptre should pass into other hands, and that the elder branch should become extinct. with this end in view, he made me write a pamphlet showing that you and your brother, the prince, were not the king's sons; and subsequently he induced me to issue another, in which i affirmed on oath that the queen, your mother, was secretly married to cardinal mazarin. unfortunately, these books met with astounding success, nor, though my tears fall freely, can they ever efface such vile pages. "i am also guilty of another crime, sire, and this weighs more heavily upon my heart. when the queen-mother dexterously arranged for your removal to vincennes, she left in your bed at the louvre a large doll. the rebels were aware of this when it was too late. i was ordered to ride post-haste with an escort in pursuit of your carriage; and i had to swear by the holy gospels that, if i could not bring you back to paris, i would stab you to the heart. "the enormity of my offence weighed heavily upon my spirit and my conscience. i conceived a horror for the cardinal and withdrew to this convent. for many years i have undergone the most grievous penances, but i shall never make thorough expiation for my sins, and i hold myself to be as great a criminal as at first, so long as i have not obtained pardon from my king." "are you in holy orders?" asked the king gently. "no, sire; i feel unworthy to take them," replied the carthusian, in dejected tones. "let him be ordained as soon as possible," said his majesty to the prior. "the monk's keen repentance touches me; his brain is still excitable; it needs fresh air and change. i will appoint him to a curacy at saint domingo, and desire him to leave for that place at the earliest opportunity. do not forget this." the monk again prostrated himself before the king, overwhelming him with blessings, and these royal commands were in due course executed. so it came about that lesueur's frescos led to startling revelations, and enabled the carthusians to keep their splendid property intact, ungainly though this was and out of place. chapter lix. journey to poitou.--the mayor and the sheriffs of orleans.--the marquise's modesty.--the serenade.--the abbey of fontevrault.--family council.--duchomania.--a letter to the king.--the bishop of poitiers.--the young vicar.--rather give him a regiment.--the fete at the convent.--the presentation.--the revolt.--a grand example. the abbess of fontevrault, who, when a mere nun, could never bear her profession, now loved it with all her heart, doubtless because of the authority and freedom which she possessed, being at liberty to go or come at will, and as absolute mistress of her actions, accountable to no one for these. she sent me her confidential woman, one of the "travelling sisters" of the community, to tell me privately that the principality of talmont was going to be sold, and to offer me her help at this important juncture. her letter, duly tied up and sealed, begged me to be bold and use my authority, if necessary, in order to induce the king at last to give his approval and consent. "what!" she wrote, "my dear sister; you have given birth to eight children, the youngest of which is a marvel, and you have not yet got your reward. all your children enjoy the rank of prince, and you, their mother, are exempt from such distinction! what is the king thinking about? does it add to his dignity, honour, and glory that you should still be merely a petty marquise? i ask again, what is the king thinking of?" in conclusion my sister invited me to pay a visit to her charming abbey. "we have much to tell you," said she, and "such brief absence is needful to you, so as to test the king's affection. your sort of temperament suits him, your talk amuses him; in fact, your society is absolutely essential to him; the distance from versailles to saumur would seem to him as far off as the uttermost end of his kingdom. he will send courier upon courier to you; each of his letters will be a sort of entreaty, and you have only just got to express your firm intention and desire to be created a duchess or a princess, and, my dear sister, it will forthwith be done." for two days i trained the travelling nun from fontevrault in her part, and then i suddenly presented her to the king. she had the honour of explaining to his majesty that she had left the abbess sick and ailing, and informed him that my sister was most anxious to see me again, and that she hoped his majesty would not object to my paying her a short visit. for a moment the king hesitated; then he asked me if i thought such a change of urgent necessity. i replied that the news of madame de mortemart's ill-health had greatly affected me, and i promised not to be away more than a week. the king accordingly instructed the marquis de louvois--[minister of war, and inspector-general of posts and relays.]--to make all due arrangements for my journey, and two days afterwards, my sister de thianges, her daughter the duchesse de nevers, and myself, set out at night for poitiers. the royal relays took us as far as orleans, after which we had post-horses, but specially chosen and well harnessed. couriers in advance of us had given all necessary orders to the officials and governors, so that we were provided with an efficient military escort along the road, and were as safe as if driving through paris. at orleans, the mayor and sheriffs in full dress presented themselves at our carriage window, and were about to deliver an address "to please the king;" but i thought such a proceeding ill-timed, and my niece de nevers told these magnates that we were travelling incognito. crowds collected below our balcony. madame de thianges thought they were going to serenade me, but i distinctly heard sounds of hissing. my niece de nevers was greatly upset; she would eat no supper, but began to cry. "what are you worrying about?" quoth i to this excitable young person. "don't you see that we are stopping the night on the estates of the princess palatine,--[the boorish bavarian princess, the duc d'orleans's second wife. editor's note.]--and that it is to her exquisite breeding that we owe compliments of this kind?" next morning at daybreak we drove on, and the day after we reached fontevrault. the abbess, accompanied by her entire community, came to welcome us at the main gate, and her surpliced chaplains offered me holy water. after rest and refreshment, we made a detailed survey of her little empire, and everywhere observed traces of her good management and tact. rules had been made more lenient, while not relaxed; the revenues had increased; everywhere embellishments, contentment, and well-being were noticeable. after praising the abbess as she deserved, we talked a little about the talmont principality. my sister was inconsolable. the tremouilles had come into property which restored their shattered fortunes; the principality was no longer for sale; all thought of securing it must be given up. strange to say, i at once felt consoled by such news. rightly to explain this feeling, i ought, perhaps, to make an avowal. a grand and brilliant title had indeed ever been the object of my ambition; but i thought that i deserved such a distinction personally, for my own sake, and i was always wishing that my august friend would create a title specially in my favour. i had often hinted at such a thing in various ways, and full as he is of wit and penetration, he always listened to my covert suggestions, and was perfectly aware of my desire. and yet, magnificently generous as any mortal well could be, he never granted my wish. any one else but myself would have been tired, disheartened even; but at court one must never be discouraged nor give up the game. the atmosphere is rife with vicissitude and change. monotony would seem to have made there its home; yet no day is quite like another. what one hopes for is too long in coming; and what one never foresees on, a sudden comes to pass. we took counsel together as to the best thing to be done. madame de thianges said to me: "my dear athenais, you have the elegance of the mortemarts, the fine perception and ready wit that distinguishes them, but strangely enough you have not their energy, nor the firm will necessary for the conduct of weighty matters. the king does not treat you like a great friend, like a distinguished friend, like the mother of his son, the duc du maine; he treats you like a province that he has conquered, on which he levies tax after tax; that is all. pray recollect, my sister, that for ten years you have played a leading part on the grand stage. your beauty, to my surprise, has been preserved to you, notwithstanding your numerous confinements and the fatigues of your position. profit by the present juncture, and do not let the chance slip. you must write to the king, and on some pretext or other, ask for another week's leave. you must tell him plainly that you have been marquise long enough, and that the moment has come at last for you to have the 'imperiale', and sign your name in proper style." [the distinctive mark of duchesses was the 'imperiale'; that is, a rich and costly hammer-cloth of embroidered velvet, edged with gold, which covered the roofs of ducal equipages.--editor's note.] her advice was considered sound, but the abbess, taking into account the king's susceptibility, decided that it would not do for me to write myself about a matter so important as this. the marquise de thianges, in some way or other, had got the knack of plain speaking, so that a letter of hers would be more readily excused. thus it was settled that she should write; and write she did. i give her letter verbatim, as it will please my readers; and they will agree with me that i could never have touched this delicate subject so happily myself. sire:--madame de montespan had the honour of writing one or two notes to you during our journey, and now she rests all day long in this vast and pleasant abbey, where your majesty's name is held in as great veneration as elsewhere, being beloved as deeply as at versailles. madame de mortemart has caused one of the best portraits of your majesty, done by mignard, to be brought hither from paris, and this magnificent personage in royal robes is placed beneath an amaranth-coloured dais, richly embroidered with gold, at the extreme end of a vast hall, which bears the name of our illustrious and well-beloved monarch. your privileges are great, in truth, sire. here you are, installed in this pious and secluded retreat, where never mortal may set foot. before you, beside you daily, you may contemplate the multitude of modest virgins who look at you and admire you, becoming all of them attached to you without wishing it, perhaps without knowing it, even. surely, sire, your penetration is a most admirable thing. after your first interview with her, you considered our dear abbess to be a woman of capacity and talent. you rightly appreciated her, for nothing can be compared to the perfect order that prevails in her house. she is active and industrious without sacrificing her position and her dignity in the slightest. like yourself, she can judge of things in their entirety, and examine them in every little detail; like yourself, she knows how to command obedience and affection, desiring nothing but that which is just and reasonable. in a word, sire, madame de mortemart has the secret of convincing her subordinates that she is acting solely in their interests, a supreme mission, in sooth, among men; and my sister really has no other desire nor ambition,--to this we can testify. upon our return, which for our liking can never be too soon, we will acquaint your majesty with the slight authorised mortification which we had to put up with at orleans. we are in possession of certain information regarding this, and your majesty will have ample means of throwing a light upon the subject. as for the magistrates, they behaved most wonderfully; they had an address all ready for us, but madame de montespan would not listen to it, saying that "such honours are meet only for you and for your children." such modesty on my sister's part is in keeping with her great intelligence; i had almost said her genius. but in this matter i was not wholly of her opinion. it seemed to me, sire, that, in refusing the homage offered to her by these worthy magnates, she, so to speak, disowned the rank ensured to her by your favour. while the marquise enjoys your noble affection, she is no ordinary personage. she has her seat in your own chapel royal, so in travelling she has a right to special honour. by your choice of her, you have made her notable; in giving her your heart, you have made her a part of yourself. by giving birth to your children, she has acquired her rank at court, in society, and in history. your majesty intends her to be considered and respected; the escorts of cavalry along the highroads are sufficient proof of that. all france, sire, is aware of your munificence and of your princely generosity: shall i tell you of the amazement of the provincials at noticing that the ducal housings are absent from my sister's splendid coach? yes, i have taken upon myself to inform you of this surprise, and knowing how greatly athenais desires this omission to be repaired, i went so far as to promise that your majesty would cause this to be done forthwith. it must be done, sire; the marquise loves you as much as it is possible for you to be loved; of this, all that she has sacrificed is a proof. but while dearly loving you, she fears to appear importunate, and were it not for my respectful freedom of speech, perhaps you would still be ignorant of that which she most fervently desires. what we all three of us ask is but a slight thing for your majesty, who, with a single word, can create a thousand nobles and princes. the kings, your ancestors, used their glory in making their lovers illustrious. the valois built temples and palaces in their honour. you, greater than all the valois, should not let their example suffice. and i am sure that you will do for the mother of the duc du maine what the young prince himself would do for her if you should happen to forget. your majesty's most humble servant, "marquise de thianges." to the abbess and myself; this ending seemed rather too sarcastic, but madame de thianges was most anxious to let it stand. there was no way of softening or glossing it over; so the letter went off, just as she had written it. it so happened that the bishop of poitiers was in his diocese at the time. he came to pay me a visit, and ask me if i could get an abbey for his nephew, who, though extremely young, already acted as vicar-general for him. "i would willingly get him a whole regiment," i replied, "provided m. de louvois be of those that are my friends. as for the benefices, they depend, as you know, upon the pere de la chaise, and i don't think he would be willing to grant me a favour." "permit me to assure you, madame, that in this respect you are in error," replied the bishop. "pere de la chaise respects you and honours you, and only speaks of you in such terms. what distresses him is to see that you have an aversion for him. let me write to him, and say that my nephew has had the honour of being presented to you, and that you hoped he might have a wealthy abbey to enable him to bear the privations of his calling." the young vicar-general was good-looking, and of graceful presence. he had that distinction of manner which causes the priesthood to be held in honour, and that amenity of address which makes the law to be obeyed. my sisters began to take a fancy to him, and recommended him to me. i wrote to pere de la chaise myself, and instead of a mere abbey, we asked for a bishopric for him. it was my intention to organise a brilliant fete for the fontevrault ladies, and invite all the nobility of the neighbourhood. we talked of this to the young vicar, who highly approved of my plan, and albeit monsieur his uncle thought such a scheme somewhat contrary to rule and to what he termed the proprieties, we made use of his nephew, the young priest, as a lever; and m. de poitiers at last consented to everything. the fontevrault gardens are one of the most splendid sights in all the country round. we chose the large alley as our chief entertainment-hall, and the trees were all illuminated as in my park at clagny, or at versailles. there was no dancing, on account of the nuns, but during our repast there was music, and a concert and fireworks afterwards. the fete ended with a performance of "genevieve de brabant," a grand spectacular pantomime, played to perfection by certain gentry of the neighbourhood; it made a great impression upon all the nuns and novices. before going down into the gardens, the abbess wished to present me formally to all the nuns, as well as to those persons it had pleased her to invite. imagine her astonishment! three nuns were absent, and despite our entreaties and the commands of their superiors, they persisted in their rebellion and their refusal. they set up to keep rules before all things, and observe the duties of their religion, lying thus to their abbess and their conscience. it was all mere spite. of this there can be no doubt, for one of these refractory creatures, as it transpired, was a cousin of the marquis de lauzun, my so-called victim; while the other two were near relatives of mademoiselle de mauldon, an intimate friend of m. de meaux. in spite of these three silly absentees, we enjoyed ourselves greatly, and had much innocent amusement; while they, who could watch us from their windows, were probably mad with rage to think they were not of our number. my sister complained of them to the bishop of poitiers, who severely blamed them for such conduct; and seeing that he could not induce them to offer me an apology, sent them away to three different convents. chapter lx. the page-dauphin.--a billet from the king.--madame de maintenon's letter.--the king as avenger.--his sentence on the murderers. the great liberty which we enjoyed at fontevrault, compared with the interminable bondage of saint germain or versailles, made the abbey ever seem more agreeable to me; and madame de thianges asked me in sober earnest "if i no longer loved the king." "of course i do," was my answer; "but may one not love oneself just a little bit, too? to me, health is life; and i assure you, at fontevrault, my dear sister, i sleep most soundly, and have quite got rid of all my nervous attacks and headaches." we were just talking thus when madame de mortemart entered my room, and introduced young chamilly, the page-dauphin,--[the chief page-in-waiting bore the title of page-dauphin]--who brought with him a letter from the king. he also had one for me from madame de maintenon, rallying me upon my absence and giving me news of my children. the king's letter was quite short, but a king's note such as that is worth a whole pile of commonplace letters. i transcribe it here: i am jealous; an unusual thing for me. and i am much vexed, i confess, with madame de mortemart, who might have chosen a very different moment to be ill. i am ignorant as to the nature of her malady, but if it be serious, and of those which soon grow more dangerous, she has played me a very sorry trick in sending for you to act as her nurse or her physician. pray tell her, madame, that you are no good whatever as a nurse, being extremely hasty and impatient in everything; while as regards medical skill, you are still further from the mark, since you have never yet been able to understand your own ailments, nor even explain these with the least clearness. i must ask the abbess momentarily to suspend her sufferings and come to versailles, where all my physicians shall treat her with infinite skill; and, to oblige me, will cure her, as they know how much i esteem and like her. farewell, my ladies three, who in your friendship are but as one. i should like to be there to make a fourth. madame de maintenon, who loves you sincerely, will give you news of your little family and of saint germain. her letter and mine will be brought to you and delivered by the young comte de chamilly. send him back to me at once, and don't let him, see your novices or your nuns, else he will not want to return to me. louis. madame de maintenon's letter was not couched in the same playfully mocking tone; though a marquise, she felt the distance that there was between herself and me; besides, she always knows exactly what is the proper thing to do. the abbess, who is an excellent judge, thought this letter excellently written. she wanted to have a copy of it, which made me determine to preserve it. here it is, a somewhat more voluminous epistle than that of the king: i promised you, madame, that i would inform you as often as possible of all that interests you here, and now i keep my promise, being glad to say that i have only pleasant news to communicate. his majesty is wonderfully well, and though annoyed at your journey, he has hardly lost any of his gaiety, as seemingly he hopes to have you back again in a day or two. mademoiselle de nantes declares that she would have behaved very well in the coach, and that she is a nearer relation to you than the duchesse de nevers, and that it was very unfair not to take her with you this time. in order to comfort her, the duc du maine has discovered an expedient which greatly amuses us, and never fails of its effect. he tells her how absolutely necessary it is for her proper education that she should be placed in a convent, and then adds in a serious tone that if she had been taken to fontevrault she would never have come back! "oh, if that is the case," she answered, "why, i am not jealous of the duchesse de nevers." the day after your departure the court took up its quarters at saint germain, where we shall probably remain for another week. you know, madame, how fond his majesty is of the louis treize belvedere, and the telescope erected by this monarch,--one of the best ever made hitherto. as if by inspiration, the king turned this instrument to the left towards that distant bend which the seine makes round the verge of the chatou woods. his majesty, who observes every thing, noticed two bathers in the river, who apparently were trying to teach their much younger companion, a lad of fourteen or fifteen, to swim; doubtless, they had hurt him, for he got away from their grasp, and escaped to the river-bank, to reach his clothes and dress himself. they tried to coax him back into the water, but he did not relish such treatment; by his gestures it was plain that he desired no further lessons. then the two bathers jumped out of the river, and as he was putting on his shirt, dragged him back into the water, and forcibly held him under till he was drowned. when they had committed this crime, and their victim was murdered, they cast uneasy glances at either river-bank, and the heights of saint germain. believing that no one had knowledge of their deed, they put on their clothes, and with all a murderer's glee depicted on their evil countenances, they walked along the bank in the direction of the castle. the king instantly rode off in pursuit, accompanied by five or six musketeers; he got ahead of them, and soon turned back and met them. "messieurs," said he to them, "when you went away you were three in number; what have you done with your comrade?" this question, asked in a firm voice, disconcerted them somewhat at first, but they soon replied that their companion wanted to have a swim in the river, and that they had left him higher up the stream near the corner of the forest, close to where his clothes and linen made a white spot on the bank. on hearing this answer the king gave orders for them to be bound and brought back by the soldiery to the old chateau, where they were shut up in separate rooms. his majesty, filled with indignation, sent for the high provost, and recounting to him what took place before his eyes, requested him to try the culprits there and then. the marquis, however, is always scrupulous to excess; he begged the king to reflect that at such a great distance, and viewed through a telescope, things might have seemed somewhat different from what they actually were, and that, instead of forcibly holding their companion under the water, perhaps the two bathers were endeavouring to bring him to the surface. "no, monsieur, no," replied his majesty; "they dragged him into the river against his will, and i saw their struggles and his when they thrust him under the water." "but, sire," replied this punctilious personage, "our criminal law requires the testimony of two witnesses, and your majesty, all-powerful though you be, can only furnish that of one." "monsieur," replied the king gently, "i authorise you in passing sentence to state that you heard the joint testimony of the king of france and the king of navarre." seeing that this failed to convince the judge, his majesty grew impatient and said to the old marquis, "king louis ix., my ancestor, sometimes administered justice himself in the wood at vincennes; i will to-day follow his august example and administer justice at saint germain." the throne-room was at once got ready by his order. twenty notable burgesses of the town were summoned to the castle, and the lords and ladies sat with these upon the benches. the king, wearing his orders, took his seat when the two prisoners were placed in the dock. by their contradictory statements, ever-increasing embarrassment, and unveracious assertions, the jury were soon convinced of their guilt. the unhappy youth was their brother, and had inherited property from their mother, he being her child by a second husband. so these monsters murdered him for revenge and greed. the king sentenced them to be bound hand and foot, and flung into the river in the selfsame place "where they killed their young brother abel." when they saw his majesty leaving his throne, they threw themselves at his feet, implored his pardon, and confessed their hideous crime. the king, pausing a moment, thanked god that their conscience had forced such confession from them, and then remitted the sentence of confiscation only. they were executed before the setting of that sun which had witnessed their crime, and the next day, that is, yesterday evening, the three bodies, united once more by fate, were found floating about two leagues from saint germain, under the willows at the edge of the river near poisay. orders were instantly given for their separate interment. the youngest was brought back to saint germain, where the king wished him to have a funeral befitting his innocence and untimely fate. all the military attended it. forgive me, madams, for all these lengthy details; we have all been so much upset by this dreadful occurrence, and can talk of nothing else,--in fact, it will furnish matter for talk for a long while yet. i sincerely hope that by this time madame de mortsmart has completely recovered. i agree with his majesty that, in doctoring, you have not had much experience; still, friendship acts betimes as a most potent talisman, and the heart of the abbess is of those that in absence pines, but which in the presence of some loved one revives. she has deigned to grant me a little place in her esteem; pray tell her that this first favour has somewhat spoiled me, and that now i ask for more than this, for a place in her affections. madame de thianges and madame de nevers are aware of my respect and attachment for them, and they approve of this, for they have engraved their names and crests on my plantain-trees at maintenon. such inscriptions are a bond to bind us, and if no mischance befall, these trees, as i hope, will survive me. i am, madame, etc., maintenon. chapter lxi. mademoiselle d'amurande.--the married nun.--the letter to the superior.--monseigneur's discourse.--the abduction.--a letter from the king.--beware of the governess.--we leave fontevrault. amoung the novices at fontevrault there was a most interesting, charming young person, who gave madame de mortemart a good deal of anxiety, as she thought her still undecided as to the holy profession she was about to adopt. this interested me greatly, and evoked my deepest sympathy. the night of our concert and garden fete she sang to please the abbess, but there were tears in her voice. i was touched beyond expression, and going up to her at the bend of one of the quickset-hedges, i said, "you are unhappy, mademoiselle; i feel a deep interest for you. i will ask madame de mortemart to let you come and read to me; then we can talk as we like. i should like to help you if i can." she moved away at once, fearing to be observed, and the following day i met her in my sister's room. "your singing and articulation are wonderful, mademoiselle," said i, before the abbess; "would you be willing to come and read to me for an hour every day? i have left my secretary at versailles, and i am beginning to miss her much." madame de mortemart thanked me for my kindly intentions towards the young novice, who, from that time forward, was placed at my disposal. the reading had no other object than to gain her confidence, and as soon as we were alone i bade her tell me all. after brief hesitation, the poor child thus began: "in a week's time, a most awful ceremony takes place in this monastery. the term of my novitiate has already expired, and had it not been for the distractions caused by your visit, i should have already been obliged to take this awful oath and make my vows. "madame de mortemart is gentle and kind (no wonder! she is your sister), but she has decided that i am to be one of her nuns, and nothing on earth can induce her to change her mind. if this fatal decree be executed, i shall never live to see this year of desolation reach its close. perhaps i may fall dead at the feet of the bishop who ordains us. "they would have me give to god--who does not need it--my whole life as a sacrifice. but, madame, i cannot give my god this life of mine, as four years ago i surrendered it wholly to some one else. yes, madame," said she, bursting into tears, "i am the lawful wife of the vicomte d'olbruze, my cousin german. "of this union, planned and approved by my dear mother herself, a child was born, which my ruthless father refuses to recognise, and which kindly peasants are bringing up in the depths of the woods. "my dear, good mother was devotedly fond of my lover, who was her nephew. from our very cradles she had always destined us for each other. and she persisted in making this match, despite her husband, whose fortune she had immensely increased, and one day during his absence we were legally united by our family priest in the castle chapel. my father, who, was away at sea, came back soon afterwards: he was enraged at my mother's disobedience, and in his fury attempted to stab her with his own hand. he made several efforts to put an end to her existence, and the general opinion in my home is that he was really the author of her death. "devotedly attached to my husband by ties of love no less than of duty, i fled with him to his uncle's, an old knight-commander of malta, whose sole heir he was. my father, with others, pursued us thither, and scaled the walls of our retreat by night, resolved to kill his nephew first and me afterwards. roused by the noise of the ruffians, my husband seized his firearms. three of his assailants he shot from the balcony, and my father, disguised as a common man, received a volley in the face, which destroyed his eyesight. the parliament of rennes took up the matter. my husband thought it best not to put in an appearance, and after the evidence of sundry witnesses called at random, a warrant for his arrest as a defaulter was issued, a death penalty being attached thereto. "ever since that time my husband has been wandering about in disguise from province to province. doomed to solitude in our once lovely chateau, my father forced me to take the veil in this convent, promising that if i did so, he would not bring my husband to justice. "perhaps, madame, if the king were truly and faithfully informed of all these things, he would have compassion for my grief, and right the injustice meted out to my unlucky husband." after hearing this sad story, i clearly saw that, in some way or other, we should have to induce madame de mortemart to postpone the ceremony of taking the vow, and i afterwards determined to put these vagaries on the part of the law before my good friend president de nesmond, who was the very man to give us good advice, and suggest the right remedy. as for the king, i did not deem it fit that he should be consulted in the matter. of course i look upon him as a just and wise prince, but he is the slave of form. in great families, he does not like to hear of marriages to which the father has not given formal consent; moreover, i did not forget about the gun-shot which blinded the gentleman, and made him useless for the rest of his life. the king, who is devoted to his nobles, would never have pronounced in favour of the vicomte, unless he happened to be in a particularly good humour. altogether, it was a risky thing. i deeply sympathised with mademoiselle d'amurande in her trouble, and assured her of my good-will and protection, but i begged her to approve my course of action, though taken independently of the king. she willingly left her fate in my hands, and i bade her write my sister the following note: madame:--you know the vows that bind me; they are sacred, having been plighted at the foot of the altar. do not persist, i entreat you, do not persist in claiming the solemn declaration of my vows. you are here to command the virgins of the lord, but among these i have no right to a place. i am a mother, although so young, and the holy scriptures tell me every day that hagar, the kindly hearted, may not forsaken her darling ishmael. i happened to be with madame de mortemart when one of the aged sisters brought her this letter. on reading it she was much affected. i feigned ignorance, and asked her kindly what was the reason of her trouble. she wished to hide it; but i insisted, and at last persuaded her to let me see the note. i read it calmly and with reflection, and afterwards said to the abbess: "what! you, sister, whose distress and horror i witnessed when our stern parents shut you up in a cloister,--are you now going to impose like fetters upon a young and interesting person, who dreads them, and rejects them as once you rejected them?" madame de mortemart replied, "i was young then, and without experience, when i showed such childish repugnance as that of which you speak. at that age one knows nothing of religion nor of the eternal verities. only the world, with its frivolous pleasures, is then before one's eyes; and the spectacle blinds our view, even our view of heaven. later on i deplored such resistance, which so grieved my family; and when i saw you at court, brilliant and adored, i assure you, my dear marquise, that this convent and its solitude seemed to me a thousand times more desirable than the habitation of kings." "you speak thus philosophically," i replied, "only because your lot happens to have undergone such a change. from a slave, you have become an absolute and sovereign mistress. the book of rules is in your hands; you turn over its leaves wherever you like; you open it at whatever page suits you; and if the book should chance to give you a severe rebuke, you never let others know this. human nature was ever thus. no, no, madame; you can never make one believe that a religious life is in itself such an attractive one that you would gladly resume it if the dignities of your position as an abbess were suddenly wrested from you and given to some one else." "well, well, if that is so," said the abbess, reddening, "i am quite ready to send in my resignation, and so return you your liberality." "i don't ask you for an abbey which you got from the king," i rejoined, smiling; "but the favour, which i ask and solicit you can and ought to grant. mademoiselle d'amurande points out to you in formal and significant terms that she cannot enrol herself among the virgins of the lord, and that the gentle hagar of holy writ may not forsake ishmael. such a confession plainly hints at an attachment which religion cannot violate nor destroy, else our religion would be a barbarous one, and contrary to nature. "since god has brought me to this convent, and by chance i have got to know and appreciate this youthful victim, i shall give her my compassion and help,--i, who have no necessity to make conversions by force in order to add to the number of my community. if i have committed any grave offence in the eyes of god, i trust that he will pardon me in consideration of the good work that i desire to do. i shall write to the king, and mademoiselle d'amurande shall not make her vows until his majesty commands her to do so." this last speech checkmated my sister. she at once became gentle, sycophantic, almost caressing in manner, and assured me that the ceremony of taking the vow would be indefinitely postponed, although the bishop of lugon had already prepared his homily, and invitations had been issued to the nobility. madame de mortemart is the very embodiment of subtlety and cunning. i saw that she only wanted to gain time in order to carry out her scheme. i did not let myself be hoodwinked by her promises, but went straight to work, being determined to have my own way. hearing from mademoiselle d'amurande that her friend and ally, the old commander, was still living, i was glad to know that she had in him such a stanch supporter. "it is the worthy commander," said i, "who must be as a father to you, until i have got the sentence of the first parliament cancelled." then we arranged that i should get her away with me from the convent, as there seemed to be little or no difficulty about this. accordingly, three days afterwards i dressed her in a most elegant costume of my niece's. we went out in the morning for a drive, and the nuns at the gateway bowed low, as usual, when my carriage passed, never dreaming of such a thing as abduction. that evening the whole convent seemed in a state of uproar. madame de mortemart, with flaming visage, sought to stammer out her reproaches. but as there was no law to prevent my action, she had to hide her vexation, and behave as if nothing had happened. the following year i wrote and told her that the judgment of the rennes parliament had been cancelled by the grand council, as it was based on conflicting evidence. the blind comte d'amurande had died of rage, and the young couple, who came into all his property, were eternally grateful to me, and forever showered blessings upon my head. the abbess wrote back to say that she shared my satisfaction at so happy a conclusion, and that madame d'olbruse's disappearance from fontevrault had scarcely been noticed. the marquise de thianges, whose ideas regarding such matters were precisely the same as my own, confined herself to stating that i had not told her a word about it. she spoke the truth; for the enterprise was not of such difficulty that i needed any one to help me. on the twelfth day, as we were about to leave fontevrault, i received another letter from the king, which was as follows: as the pain in your knee continues, and the bourbonne waters have been recommended to you, i beg you, madame, to profit by being in their vicinity, and to go and try their effect. mademoiselle de nantes is in fairly good health, yet it looks as if a return of her fluxion were likely. five or six pimples have appeared on her face, and there is the same redness of the arms as last year. i shall send her to bourbonne; your maids and the governess will accompany her. the prince de conde, who is in office there, will show you every attention. i would rather see you a little later on in good health, than a little sooner, and ailing. my kindest messages to madame de thianges, the abbess, and all those who show you regard and sympathy. madame de nevers might invite you to stay with her; on her return i will not forget such obligation. louis. we left fontevrault after a stay of fifteen days; to the nuns and novices it seemed more like fifteen minutes, but to madame de mortemart, fifteen long years. yet that did not prevent her from tenderly embracing me, nor from having tears in her eyes when the time came for us to take coach and depart. etext editor's bookmarks: all the death-in-life of a convent cuddlings and caresses of decrepitude in ill-assorted unions, good sense or good nature must intervene memoirs of madame la marquise de montespan written by herself being the historic memoirs of the court of louis xiv. book 5. chapter i. the prince de mont-beliard.--he agrees to the propositions made him.--the king's note.--diplomacy of the chancellor of england.--letter from the marquis de montespan.--the duchy in the air.--the domain of navarre, belonging to the prince de bouillon, promised to the marquise. there was but a small company this year at the waters of bourbonne,--to begin with, at any rate; for afterwards there appeared to be many arrivals, to see me, probably, and mademoiselle de nantes. the chancellor hyde was already installed there, and his establishment was one of the most agreeable and convenient; he was kind enough to exchange it for mine. a few days afterwards he informed me of the arrival of the prince de mont-beliard, of wurtemberg, who was anxious to pay his respects to me, as though to the king's daughter. in effect, this royal prince came and paid me a visit; i thought him greatly changed for such a short lapse of years. we had seen each other--as, i believe, i have already told--at the time of the king's first journey in flanders. he recalled all the circumstances to me, and was amiable enough to tell me that, instead of waning, my beauty had increased. "it is you, prince, who embellish everything," i answered him. "i begin to grow like a dilapidated house; i am only here to repair myself." less than a year before, m. de mont-billiard had lost that amiable princess, his wife; he had a lively sense of this loss, and never spoke of it without tears in his eyes. "you know, madame," he told me, "my states are, at present, not entirely administered, but occupied throughout by the officers of the king of france. those persons who have my interests at heart, as well as those who delight at my fears, seem persuaded that this provisional occupation will shortly become permanent. i dare not question you on this subject, knowing how much discretion is required of you; but i confess that i should pass quieter and more tranquil nights if you could reassure me up to a certain point." "prince," i replied to him, "the king is never harsh except with those of whom he has had reason to complain. m. le duc de neubourg, and certain other of the rhine princes, have been thick-witted enough to be disloyal to him; he has punished them for it, as caesar did, and as all great princes after him will do. but you have never shown him either coldness, or aversion, or indifference. he has commanded the marechal de luxembourg to enter your territory to prevent the prince of orange from reaching there before us, and your authority has been put, not under the domination, but under the protection, of the king of france, who is desirous of being able to pass from there into the brisgau." madame de thianges, madame de nevers, and myself did all that lay in our power to distract or relieve the sorrows of the prince; but the loss of mademoiselle de chatillon, his charming spouse, was much more present with him than that of his states; the bitterness which he drew from it was out of the retch of all consolation possible. the marquise de thianges procured the chancellor of england to approach the prince, and find out from him, to a certain extent, whether he would consent to exchange the county of mont-beliard for some magnificent estates in france, to which some millions in money would be added. m. de wurtemberg asked for a few days in which to reflect, and imagining that these suggestions emanated from versailles, he replied that he could refuse nothing to the greatest of kings. my sister wrote on the day following to the marquis de louvois, instead of asking it of the king in person. m. de luvois, who, probably, wished to despoil m. de mont-beliard without undoing his purse-strings, put this overture before the king maliciously, and the king wrote me immediately the following letter: leave m. de mont-beliard alone, and do not speak to him again of his estates. if the matter which occupies madame de thianges could be arranged, it would be of the utmost propriety that a principality of such importance rested in the crown, at least as far as sovereignty. the case of the principality of orange is a good enough lesson to me; there must be one ruler only in an empire. as for you, my dear lady, feel no regret for all that. you shall be a duchess, and i am pleased to give you this title which you desire. let m. de montespan be informed that his marquisate is to be elevated into a duchy with a peerage, and that i will add to it the number of seigniories that is proper, as i do not wish to deviate from the usage which has become a law, etc. the prince's decision was definite, and as his character was, there was no wavering. i wrote to him immediately to express my lively gratitude, and we considered, the marquise and i, as to the intermediary to whom we could entrust the unsavoury commission of approaching the marquis de montespan. he hated all my family from his having obtained no satisfaction from it for his wrath. we begged the chancellor hyde, a personage of importance, to be good enough to accept this mission; he saw no reason to refuse it, and, after ten or eleven days, he received the following reply, with which he was moderately amused: chateau saint elix . . . . at the world's end. i am sensible, my lord, as i should be, of the honour which you have wished to do me, whilst, notwithstanding, permit me to consider it strange that a man of your importance has cared to meddle in such a negotiation. his majesty the king of france did not consult me when he wished to make my wife his mistress; it is somewhat remarkable that so great a prince expects my intervention today to recompense conduct that i have disapproved, that i disapprove, and shall disapprove to my last breath. his majesty has got eight or ten children from my wife without saying a word to me about it; this monarch can surely, therefore, make her a present of a duchy without summoning me to his assistance. according to all laws, human and divine, the king ought to punish madame de montespan, and, instead of censuring her, he wishes to make her a duchess! . . . let him make her a princess, even a highness, if he likes; he has all the power in his hands. i am only a twig; he is an oak. if madame is fostering ambition, mine has been satisfied for forty years; i was born a marquis; a marquis--apart from some unforeseen catastrophe--i will die; and madame la marquise, as long as she does not alter her conduct, has no need to alter her degree. i will, however, waive my severity, if m. le duc du maine will intervene for his mother, and call me his father, however it may be. i am none the less sensible, my lord, of the honour of your acquaintance, and since you form one of the society of madame la marquise, endeavour to release yourself from her charms, for she can be an enchantress when she likes.... it is true that, from what they tell me, you were not quite king in your england. i am, from out my exile (almost as voluntary as yours), the most obliged and grateful of your servants, de gondrin montespan. the marquise de thianges felt a certain irritation at the reading of this letter; she offered all our excuses for it to the english chancellor, and said to me: "i begin to fear that the king of versailles is not acting with good faith towards you, when he makes your advancement depend on the marquis de montespan; it is as though he were giving you a duchy in the moon." i sent word to the king that the marquis refused to assist his generous projects; he answered me: "very well, we must look somewhere else." happily, this domestic humiliation did not transpire at bourbonne; for m. de la bruyere had arrived there with monsieur le prince, and that model satirist would unfailingly have made merry over it at my expense. the best society lavished its attentions on me; coulanges, whose flatteries are so amusing, never left us for a moment. the prince, after the states were over, had come to relax himself at bourbonne, which was his property. after having done all in his power formerly to dethrone his master, he is his enthusiastic servitor now that he sees him so strong. he was fascinated with mademoiselle de nantes, and asked my permission to seek her hand for the duc de bourbon, his grandson; my reply was, that the alliance was desirable on both sides, but that these arrangements were settled only by the king. in spite of the insolent diatribe of m. de montespan, the waters proved good and favourable; my blood, little by little, grew calm; my pains, passing from one knee to the other, insensibly faded away in both; and, after having given a brilliant fete to the prince de mont-beliard, the english chancellor, and our most distinguished bathers, i went back to versailles, where the work seemed to me to have singularly advanced. the king went in advance of us to corbeil; madame de maintenon, her pretty nieces, and my children were in the carriage. the king received me with his ordinary kindness, and yet said no word to me of the harshness which i had suffered from my husband. two or three months afterwards he recollected his royal word, and gave me to understand that the prince de bourbon was shortly going to give up navarre, in normandy, and that this vast and magnificent estate would be raised to a duchy for me. it has not been yet, at the moment that i write. perhaps it is written above that i shall never be a duchess. in such a case, the king would not deserve the inward reproaches that my sensibility addresses him, since his good-will would be fettered by destiny. it is my kindness which makes me speak so. chapter ii. the venetian drummer.--the little olivier.--adriani's love.--his ingratitude.--his punishment.--his vengeance.--complaint on this account. at the great slaughter of candia, m. de vivonne had the pleasure of saving a young venetian drummer whom he noticed all covered with blood, and senseless, amongst the dead and dying, with whom the field was covered far and wide. he had his wounds dressed and cared for by the surgeons of the french navy, with the intention of giving him me, either as a valet de chambre or a page, so handsome and agreeable this young italian was. adriani was his name. he presented him to me after the return of the expedition to france, and i was sensible of this amiable attention of my brother, for truly the peer of this young drummer did not exist. adrien was admirable to see in my livery, and when my carriage went out, he attracted alone all the public attention. his figure was still not all that it might be; it developed suddenly, and then one was not wrong in comparing him with a perfect model for the academy. he took small time in losing the manners which he had brought with him from his original calling. i discovered the best 'ton' in him; he would have been far better seated in the interior than outside my equipage. unfortunately, this young impertinent gave himself airs of finding my person agreeable, and of cherishing a passion for me; my first valet de chambre told me of it at once. i gave him to the king, who had sometimes noticed him in passing. adrien was inconsolable at first at this change, for which he was not prepared, but his vanity soon came uppermost; he understood that it was an advancement, and took himself for a great personage, since he had the honour of approaching and serving the king. the little olivier--the first assistant in the shop of madame camille, my dressmaker--saw adrien, inspired him with love, and herself with much, and they had to be married. i was good-natured enough to be interested in this union, and as i had never any fault to find with the intelligent services and attentions of the little modiste, i gave her two hundred louis, that she might establish herself well and without any waiting. she had a daughter whom she was anxious to call athenais. i thought this request excessive; i granted my name of francoise only. the young couple would have succeeded amply with their business, since my confidence and favour were sufficient to give them vogue; but i was not slow in learning that cruel discord had already penetrated to their household, and that adrien, in spite of his adopted country, had remained at heart italian. jealous without motive, and almost without love, he tormented with his suspicions, his reproaches, and his harshness, an attentive and industrious young wife, who loved him with intense love, and was unable to succeed in persuading him of it. from her condition, a modiste cannot dispense with being amiable, gracious, engaging. the little olivier, as pretty as one can be, easily secured the homage of the cavaliers. for all thanks she smiled at the gentlemen, as a well brought up woman should do. adrien disapproved these manners,--too french, in his opinion. one day he dared to say to his wife, and that before witnesses: "because you have belonged to madame de montespan, do you think you have the same rights that she has?" and with that he administered a blow to her. this indecency was reported to me. i did not take long in discovering what it was right to do with adrien. i had him sent to clagny, where i happened to be at the time. "monsieur the venetian drummer," i said to him, with the hauteur which it was necessary to oppose to his audacity, "monsieur le marechal de vivonne, who is always too good, saved your life without knowing you. i gave you to the king, imagining that i knew you. now i am undeceived, and i know, without the least possibility of doubt, that beneath the appearance of a good heart you hide the ungrateful and insolent rogue. the king needs persons more discreet, less violent, and more polite. madame de montespan gave you up to the king; madame de montespan has taken you back this morning to her service. you depend for the future on nobody but madame de montespan, and it is her alone that you are bound to obey. your service in her house has commenced this morning; it will finish this evening, and, before midnight, you will leave her for good and all. i have known on all occasions how to pardon slight offences; there are some that a person of my rank could not excuse; yours is of that number. go; make no answer! obey, ingrate! disappear, i command you!" at these words he tried to throw himself at my feet. "go, wretched fellow!" i cried to him; and, at my voice, my lackeys ran up and drove him from the room and from the chateau. almost always these bad-natured folks have cowardly souls. adrien, his head in a whirl, presented himself to my suisse at versailles, who, finding his look somewhat sinister, refused to receive him. he retired to my hotel in paris, where the suisse, being less of a physiognomist, delivered him the key of his old room, and was willing to allow him to pass the night there. adrien, thinking of naught but how to harm me and give me a memorable proof of his vengeance, ran and set fire to my two storehouses, and, to put a crown on his rancour, went and hanged himself in an attic. about two o'clock in the morning, a sick-nurse, having perceived the flames, gave loud cries and succeeded in making herself heard. public help arrived; the fire was mastered. my suisse sought everywhere for the italian, whom he thought to be in danger; he stumbled against his corpse. what a scene! what an affliction! the commissary having had his room opened, on a small bureau a letter was found which he had been at the pains of writing, and in which he accused me of his despair and death. the people of paris have been at all times extravagance and credulity itself. they looked upon this young villain as a martyr, and at once dedicated an elegy to him, in which i was compared with medea, circe, and fredegonde. it is precisely on account of this elegy that i have cared to set down this cruel anecdote. my readers, to whom i have just narrated the facts with entire frankness, can see well that, instead of having merited reproaches, i should only have received praise for my restraint and moderation. it is, assuredly, most painful to have to suffer the abuse of those for whom we have never done aught; but the outrages of those whom we have succoured, maintained, and favoured are insupportable injuries. chapter iii. the equipage at full speed.--the poor vine-grower.--sensibility of madame de maintenon.--her popularity.--one has the right to crush a man who will not get out of the way.--what one sees.--what they tell you.--all ends at the opera.--one can be moved to tears and yet like chocolate. another event with a tragical issue, and one to which i contributed even less, served to feed and foster that hatred, mixed with envy, which the rabble populace guards always so persistently towards the favourites of kings or fortune. naturally quick and impatient, i cannot endure to move with calm and state along the roads. my postilions, my coachmen know it, driving in such fashion that no equipage is ever met which cleaves the air like mine. i was descending one day the declivity of the coeur-volant, between saint germain and marly. the marquises de maintenon and d'hudicourt were in my carriage with m. le duc du maine, so far as i can remember. we were going at the pace which i have just told, and my outriders, who rode in advance, were clearing the way, as is customary. a vine-grower, laden with sticks, chose this moment to cross the road, thinking himself, no doubt, agile enough to escape my six horses. the cries of my people were useless. the imprudent fellow took his own course, and my postilions, in spite of their efforts with the reins, could not prevent themselves from passing over his body; the wheels followed the horses; the poor man was cut in pieces. at the lamentations of the country folk and the horrified passers-by, we stopped. madame de maintenon wished to alight, and when she perceived the unfortunate vine-grower disfigured with his wounds, she clasped her hands and fell to weeping. the marquise d'hudicourt, who was always simplicity itself, followed her friend's example; there was nothing but groans and sorrowful exclamations. my coachman blamed the postilions, the postilions the man's obstinacy. madame de maintenon, speaking as though she were the mistress, bade them be silent, and dared to say to them before all the crowd: "if you belonged to me, i would soon settle you." at these words all the spectators applauded, and cried: "vive madame de maintenon!" irritated at what i had just heard, i put my head out of the door, and, turning to these sentimental women, i said to them: "be good enough to get in, mesdames; are you determined to have me stoned?" they mounted again, after having left my purse with the poor relations of the dead man; and as far as ruel, which was our destination, i was compelled to listen to their complaints and litanies. "admit, madame," i declared to madame de maintenon, "that any person except myself could and would detest you for the harm you have done me. your part was to blame the postilions lightly and the rustic very positively. my equipage did not come unexpectedly, and my two outriders had signalled from their horses." "madame," she replied, "you have not seen, as i did, those eyes of the unhappy man forced violently from their sockets, his poor crushed head, his palpitating heart, from which the blood soaked the pavement; such a sight has moved and broken my own heart. i was, as i am still, quite beside myself, and, in such a situation, it is permissible to forget discretion in one's speech and the proprieties. i had no intention of giving you pain; i am distressed at having done so. but as for your coachmen i loathe them, and, since you undertake their defence, i shall not for the future show myself in your equipage." [in one of her letters, madame de maintenon speaks of this accident, but she does not give quite the same account of it. it is natural that madame de montespan seeks to excuse her people and herself if she can.--editor's note.] at ruel, she dared take the same tone before the duchesse de richelieu, who rebuked her for officiousness, and out of spite, or some other reason, madame de maintenon refused to dine. she had two or three swooning fits; her tears started afresh four or five times, and the marquise d'hudicourt, who dined only by snatches, went into a corner to sob and weep along with her. "admit, madame," i said then to madame de maintenon, "your excessive grief for an unknown man is singular. he was, perhaps, actually a dishonest fellow. the accident which you come back to incessantly, and which distresses me also, is doubtless deplorable; but, after all, it is not a murder, an ambush, a premeditated assassination. i imagine that if such a catastrophe had happened elsewhere, and been reported to us in a gazette or a book, you would have read of it with interest and commiseration; but we should not have seen you clasp your hands over your head, turn red and pale, utter loud cries, shed tears, sob, and scold a coachman, postilions, perhaps even me. the event, would, nevertheless, be actually the same. admit, then, madame, and you, too, madame d'hudicourt, that there is an exaggeration in your sorrow, and that you would have made, both of you, two excellent comedians." madame de maintenon, piqued at these last words, sought to make us understand, and even make us admit, that there is a great difference between an event narrated to you by a third party, and an event which one has seen. madame de richelieu shut her mouth pleasantly with these words: "we know, madame la marquise, how much eloquence and wit is yours. we approve all your arguments, past and to be. let us speak no further of an accident which distresses you; and since you require to be diverted, let us go to the opera, which is only two leagues off." she consented to accompany us, for fear of proving herself entirely ridiculous; but to delay us as much as possible, she required a cup of chocolate, her favourite dish, her appetite having returned as soon as she had exhausted the possibilities of her grief. chapter iv. charles ii., king of england.--how interest can give memory.--his grievances against france.--the two daughters of the duke of york.--william of orange marries one, in spite of the opposition of the king.--great joy of the allies.--how the king of england understands peace.--saying of the king.--preparations for war. the king, charles stuart, who reigned in england since the death of the usurper, cromwell, was a grandson of henri iv., just as much as our king. charles ii. displayed the pronounced penchant of henri iv. for the ladies and for pleasure; but he had neither his energy, nor his genial temper, nor his amiable frankness. after the death of henrietta of england, his beloved sister, he remained for some time longer our ally, but only to take great advantage from our union and alliance. he had made use of it against the dutch, his naval and commercial rivals, and had compelled them, by the aid of the king of france (then his friend), to reimburse him a sum of twenty-six millions, and to pay him, further, an annual tribute of twelve or fifteen thousand livres for the right of fishing round his island domains. all these things being obtained, he seemed to recollect that cardinal de richelieu had not protected his father, stuart; that the cardinal mazarin had declared for cromwell in his triumph; that the court of france had indecently gone into mourning for that robber; that there had been granted neither guards, nor palace, nor homages of state to the queen, his mother, although daughter and sister of two french kings; that this queen, in a modest retirement--sometimes in a cell in the convent of chaillot, sometimes in her little pavilion at colombesl--had died, poisoned by her physician, without the orator, bossuet, having even frowned at it in the funeral oration; that the unfortunate henrietta daughter of this queen and first wife of monsieur had succumbed to the horrible tortures of a poisoning even more visible and manifest; whilst her poisoners, who were well known, had never been in the least blamed or disgraced. [mademoiselle de montpensier, in her memoirs, says that this queen, already languishing, had lost her sleep, and was given soporific pills, on account of which henrietta of france awoke no more; but it is probable that the servants, and not the doctors, committed this blunder.] on all these arguments, with more or less foundation, charles ii. managed to conclude that he ought to detach himself from france, who was not helpful enough; and, by deserting us, he excited universal joy amongst his subjects, who were constantly jealous of us. charles stuart had had children by his mistresses; he had had none by the queen, his wife. the presumptive heir to the crown was the duke of york, his majesty's only brother. the duke of york, son-in-law--as i have noticed already--of our good chancellor, lord hyde, had himself only two daughters, equally beautiful, who, according to the laws of those islanders, would bear the sceptre in turn. our king, who read in the future, was thinking of marrying these two princesses conformably with our interests, when the prince of orange crossed the sea, and went formally to ask the hand of the elder of his uncle. informed of this proceeding, the king at once sent m. de croissy-colbert to the duke of york, to induce him to interfere and refuse his daughter; but, in royal families, it is always the head who makes and decides marriages. william of orange obtained his charming cousin mary, and acquired that day the expectation of the protestant throne, which was his ambition. at the news of this marriage, the allies, that is to say, all the king's enemies, had an outburst of satisfaction, and gave themselves up to puerile jubilations. the king of great britain stood definitely on their side; he made common cause with them, and soon there appeared in the political world an audacious document signed by this prince, in which, from the retreat of his island, the empire of fogs, he dared to demand peace from louis of bourbon, his ancient ally and his cousin german, imposing on him the most revolting conditions. according to the english monarch, france ought to restore to the spaniards, first sicily, and, further, the towns of charleroi, ath, courtrai, condo, saint guilain, tournai, and valenciennes, as a condition of retaining franche-comte; moreover, france was compelled to give up lorraine to the duke charles, and places in german alsace to the emperor. the king replied that "too much was too much." he referred the decision of his difficulties to the fortune of war, and collected fresh soldiers. then, without further delay, england and the states general signed a particular treaty at la hague, to constrain france (or, rather, her ruler) to accept the propositions that his pride refused to hear. chapter v. the great mademoiselle buys choisy.--the president gonthier.--the indemnity.--the salmon.--the harangue as it is not done in the academy. the king had only caused against his own desire the extreme grief which mademoiselle felt at the imprisonment of lauzun. his majesty was sensible of the wisdom of the resolution which she had made not to break with the court, and to show herself at saint germain, or at versailles, from time to time, as her rank, her near kinship, her birth demanded. he said to me one day: "my cousin is beginning to look up. i see with pleasure that her complexion is clearing, that she laughs willingly at this and that, and that her good-will for me is restored. i am told that she is occupied in building a country-house above vitry. let us go to-day and surprise her, and see what this house of choisy is like." we arrived at a sufficiently early hour, and had time to see everything. the king found the situation most agreeable; those lovely gardens united high up above the seine, those woods full of broad walks, of light and air, those points of view happily chosen and arranged, gave a charming effect; the house of one story, raised on steps of sixteen stairs, appeared to us elegant from its novelty; but the king blamed his cousin for not having put a little architecture and ornament on the facade. "princes," said he, "have no right to be careless; since universal agreement has made us highnesses, we must know how to carry our burden, and to lay it down at no time, and in no place." mademoiselle excused herself on the ground of her remoteness from the world, and on the expense, which she wished to keep down. "from the sight of the country," said the king, "you must have a hundred to a hundred and twelve, acres here." "a hundred and nine," she answered. "have you paid dear for this property?" went on the king. "it is the president gonthier who has sold it?" "i paid for this site, and the old house which no longer exists, forty thousand livres," she said. "forty thousand livres!" cried the king. "oh, my cousin, there is no such thing as conscience! you have not paid for the ground. i was assured that poor president gonthier had only got rid of his house at choisy because his affairs were embarrassed; you must indemnify him, or rather i will indemnify him myself, by giving him a pension." mademoiselle bit her lip and added: "the president asked sixty thousand first; my men of business offered him forty, and he accepted it." mademoiselle has no generosity, although she is immensely rich; she pretended not to hear, and it was m. colbert who sent by order the twenty thousand livres to the president. mademoiselle, vain and petty, as though she were a bourgeoise of yesterday, showed us her gallery, where she had already collected the selected portraits of all her ancestors, relations, and kindred; she pointed out to us in her winter salon the portrait of the little comte de toulouse, painted, not as an admiral, but as god of the sea, floating on a pearl shell; and his brother, the duc du maine, as colonel-general of the swiss and grisons. the full-length portrait of the king was visible on three chimneypieces; she was at great pains to make a merit of it, and call for thanks. having followed her into her state chamber, where she had stolen in privately, i saw that she was taking away the portrait of lauzun. i went and told it to the king, who shrugged his shoulders and fell to laughing. "she is fifty-two years old," he said to me. a very pretty collation of confitures and fruits was served us, to which the king prayed her to add a ragout of peas and a roasted fowl. during the repast, he said to her: "for the rest, i have not noticed the portrait of gaston, your father; is it a distraction on my part, or an omission on yours?" "it will be put there later," she answered. "it is not time." "what! your father!" added the king. "you do not think that, cousin!" "all my actions," added the princess, "are weighed in the balance beforehand; if i were to exhibit the portrait of my father at the head of these various pictures, i should have to put my stepmother, his wife, there too, as a necessary pendant. the harm which she has done me does not permit of that complacence. one opens one's house only to one's friends." "your stepmother has never done you any other harm," replied the king, "than to reclaim for her children the funds or the furniture left by your father. the character of margaret of lorraine has always been sweetness itself; seeing your irritation, she begged me to arbitrate myself; and you know all that m. colbert and the chancellor did to satisfy you under the circumstances. but let us speak of something else, and cease these discussions. i have a service to ask of you: here is m. le duc du maine already big; everybody knows of your affection for him, and i have seen his portrait with pleasure, in one of your salons. i am going to establish him; would it be agreeable to you if i give him your livery?" "m. le duc du maine," said the princess, "is the type of what is gracious, and noble, and beautiful; he can only do honour to my livery; i grant it him with all my heart, since you do me the favour of desiring it. would i were in a position to do more for him!" the king perfectly understood these last words; he made no reply to them, but he understood all that he was meant to understand. we went down again into the gardens. the fishermen of choisy had just caught a salmon of enormous size, which they had been pursuing for four or five days; they had intended to offer it to mademoiselle; the presence of the king inspired them with another design. they wove with great diligence a large and pretty basket of reeds, garnished it with foliage, young grass, and flowers, and came and presented to the king their salmon, all leaping in the basket. the fisherman charged with the address only uttered a few words; they were quite evidently improvised, so that they gave more pleasure and effect than those of academicians, or persons of importance. the fisherman expressed himself thus: "you have brought us good fortune, sire, by your presence, as you bring fortune to your generals. you arrive on the monday; on the tuesday the town is taken. we come to offer to the greatest of kings the greatest salmon that can be caught." the king desired this speech to be instantly transcribed; and, after having bountifully rewarded the sailors, his majesty said to mademoiselle: "this man was born to be a wit; if he were younger, i would place him in a college. there is wit at choisy in every rank of life." chapter vi. departure of the king.--ghent reduced in five days.--taking of ypres.--peace signed.--the prince of orange is at pains not to know of it.--horrible cruelties. i have related in what manner charles ii., suddenly pronouncing in favour of his nephew, the prince of orange, had signed a league with his old enemies, the dutch, in order to counteract the success of the king of france and compel him to sign a humiliating and entirely inadmissible peace. the king left versailles suddenly on the 4th of february, 1678, taking, with his whole court, the road to lorraine, while waiting for the troops which had wintered on the frontiers, and were investing at once luxembourg, charlemont, namur, mons, and ypres, five of the strongest and best provisioned places in the low countries. by this march and manoeuvre, he wished to hoodwink the allied generals, who were very far from imagining that ghent was the point towards which the conqueror's intentions were directed. in effect, hardly had the king seen them occupied in preparing the defence of the above named places, when, leaving the queen and the ladies in the agreeable town of metz, he rapidly traversed sixty leagues of country, and laid siege to the town of ghent, which was scarcely expecting him. the spanish governor, don francisco de pardo, having but a weak garrison and little artillery, decided upon releasing the waters and inundating the country; but certain heights remained which could not be covered, and from here the french artillery started to storm the ramparts and the fort. the siege was commenced on the 4th of march; upon the 9th the town opened its gates, and two days later the citadel. ypres was carried at the end of a week, in spite of the most obstinate resistance. our grenadiers performed prodigies, and lost all their officers, without exception. i lost there one of my nephews, the one hope of his family; my compliments to the king, therefore, were soon made. he went to versailles to take back the queen, and returned to ghent with the speed and promptitude of lightning. the same evening he sent an order to a detachment of the garrison of maestricht to hasten and seize the town and citadel of leuwe, in brabant, which was executed on the instant. it was then that the dutch sent their deputation, charged to plead for a suspension of hostilities for six weeks. the king granted it, although these blunderers hardly merited it. they undertook that spain should join them in the peace, and finally, after some difficulties, settled more or less rightly, the treaty was signed on the 10th of august, just as the six weeks were about to expire. the prince of orange, naturally bellicose, and, above all things, passionately hostile to france, pretended to ignore the existence of this peace, which he disapproved. the marechal de luxembourg, informed of the treaty, gave himself up to the security of the moment; he was actually at table with his numerous officers when he was warned that the prince of orange was advancing against him. the alarm was quickly sounded; such troops and cavalry as could be were assembled, and a terrible action ensued. at first we were repulsed, but soon the marshal rallied his men; he excited their indignation by exposing to them the atrocity of m. d'orange, and after a terrible massacre, in which two thousand english bit the dust, the marechal de luxembourg remained master of the field. he was victorious, but in this unfortunate action we lost, ourselves, the entire regiment of guards, that of feuquieres, and several others besides, with an incredible quantity of officers, killed or wounded. the name of the prince of orange, since that day, was held in horror in both armies, and he would have fallen into disgrace with the states general themselves had it not been for the protection of the king of england, to whom the dutch were greatly bound. on the following day, this monster sent a parliamentary officer to the french generals to inform them that during the night official news of the peace had reached him. chapter vii. mission of madame de maintenon to choisy.--mademoiselle gives the principalities of eu and dombes in exchange for m. de lauzun.--he is set at liberty. the four or five words which had escaped mademoiselle de montpensier had remained in the king's recollection. he said to me: "if you had more patience, and a sweeter and more pliant temper, i would employ you to go and have a little talk with mademoiselle, in order to induce her to explain what intentions she may have relative to my son." "i admit, sire," i answered him, "that i am not the person required for affairs of that sort. your cousin is proud and cutting; i would not endure what she has made others endure. i cannot accept such a commission. but madame de maintenon, who is gentleness itself, is suitable--no one more so for this mission; she is at once insinuating and respectful; she is attached to the duc du maine. the interests of my son could not be in better hands." the king agreed with me, and both he and i begged the marquise to conduct m. du maine to choisy. mademoiselle de montpensier received him with rapture. he thanked her for what she had done for him, in granting him her colours, and upon that mademoiselle asked his permission to embrace him, and to tell him how amiable and worthy of belonging to the king she found him. she led him to the hall, in which he was to be seen represented as a colonel-general of swiss. "i have always loved the swiss," she said, "because of their great bravery, their fidelity, and their excellent discipline. the marechal de bassompierre made his corps the perfection which it is; it is for you, my cousin, to maintain it." she passed into another apartment, where she was to be seen represented as bellona. two loves were presenting her, one with his helm adorned with martial plumes, the other with his buckler of gold, with the orleans-montpensier arms. the laurel crown, with which triumphs were ornamenting her head, and the scaled cuirass of pallas completed her decoration. m. le duc du maine praised, without affectation, the intelligence of the artist; and as for the figure and the likeness, he said to the princess: "you are good, but you are better." the calm and the naivety of this compliment made mademoiselle shed tears. her emotion was visible; she embraced my son anew. "you have brought him up perfectly," she said to madame de maintenon. "his urbanity is of good origin; that is how a king's son ought to act and speak: "his majesty," said madame de maintenon, "has been enchanted with your country-house; he spoke of it all the evening. he even added that you had ordered it all yourself, without an architect, and that m. le notre would not have done better." "m. le notre," replied the princess, "came here for a little; he wanted to cut and destroy, and upset and disarrange, as with the king at versailles. but i am of a different mould to my cousin; i am not to be surprised with big words. i saw that le notre thought only of expenditure and tyranny; i thanked him for his good intentions, and prayed him not to put himself out for me. i found there thickets already made, of an indescribable charm; he wanted, on the instant, to clear them away, so that one could testify that all this new park was his. if you please, madame, tell his majesty that m. le notre is the sworn enemy of nature; that he sees only the pleasures of proprietorship in the future, and promises us cover and shade just at that epoch of our life when we shall only ask for sunshine in which to warm ourselves." she next led her guests towards the large apartments. when she had come to her bedroom, she showed the marquise the mysterious portrait, and asked if she recognised it. "ah, my god! 'tis himself!" said madame de maintenon at once. "he sees, he breathes, he regards us; one might believe one heard him speak. why do you give yourself this torture?" continued the ambassadress. "the continual presence of an unhappy and beloved being feeds your grief, and this grief insensibly undermines you. in your place, princess, i should put him elsewhere until a happier and more favourable hour." "that hour will never come," cried mademoiselle. "pardon me," resumed madame de maintenon; "the king is never inhuman and inexorable; you should know that better than any one. he punishes only against the protests of his heart, and, as soon as he can relent without impropriety or danger, he pardons. m. de lauzun, by refusing haughtily the marshal's baton, which was offered him in despite of his youth, deeply offended the king, and the disturbance he allowed himself to make at madame de montespan's depicted him as a dangerous and wrong-headed man. those are his sins. rest assured, princess, that i am well informed. but as i know, at the same time, that the king was much attached to him,--and is still so, to some extent, and that a captivity of ten years is a rough school, i have the assurance that your highness will not be thought importunate if you make today some slight attempt towards a clemency." "i will do everything they like," mademoiselle de montpensier said then; "but shall i have any one near his majesty to assist and support my undertaking? i have no more trust in madame de montespan; she has betrayed us, she will betray us again; the offence of m. de lauzun is always present in her memory, and she is a lady who does not easily forgive. as for you, madame, i know that the king considers you for the invaluable services of the education given to his children. deign to speak and act in favour of my unhappy husband, and i will make you a present of one of my fine titled territories." madame de maintenon was too acute to accept anything in such a case; she answered the princess that her generosities, to please the king, should be offered to m. le duc du maine, and that, by assuring a part of her succession to that young prince, she had a sure method of moving the monarch, and of turning his paternal gratitude to the most favourable concessions. the princess, enchanted, then said to the negotiatrix: "be good enough to inform his majesty, this evening, that i offer to give, at once, to his dear and amiable child the county of eu and my sovereignty of dombes, adding the revenues to them if it is necessary." madame de maintenon, who worships her pupil, kissed the hand of mademoiselle, and promised to return and see her immediately. that very evening she gave an account to the king of her embassy; she solicited the liberty of the marquis de lauzun, and the king commenced by granting "the authorisation of mineral waters." meanwhile, mademoiselle, presented by madame de maintenon, went to take counsel with the king. she made a formal donation of the two principalities which i have named. his majesty, out of courtesy, left her the revenues, and, in fine, she was permitted to marry her m. de lauzun, and to assure him, by contract, fifty thousand livres of income. chapter viii. m. de brisacier and king casimir.--one is never so well praised as by oneself.--he is sent to get himself made a duke elsewhere. the abbe de brisacier, the famous director of consciences, possessed enough friends and credit to advance young brisacier, his nephew, to the queen's household, to whom he had been made private secretary. slanderers or impostors had persuaded this young coxcomb that casimir, the king of poland, whilst dwelling in paris in the quality of a simple gentleman, had shown himself most assiduous to madame brisacier, and that he, brisacier of france, was born of these assiduities of the polish prince. when he saw the comte casimir raised to the elective throne of poland, he considered himself as the issue of royal blood, and it seemed to him that his position with the queen, maria theresa, was a great injustice of fortune; he thought, nevertheless, that he ought to remain some time longer in this post of inferiority, in order to use it as a ladder of ascent. the queen wrote quantities of letters to different countries, and especially to spain, but never, or hardly ever, in her own hand. one day, whilst handling all this correspondence for the princess's signature, the private secretary slipped one in, addressed to casimir, the polish king. in this letter, which from one end to the other sang the praises of the seigneur brisacier, the queen had the extreme kindness to remind the northern monarch of his old liaison with the respectable mother of the young man, and her majesty begged the prince to solicit from the king of france the title and rank of duke for so excellent a subject. king casimir was not, as one knows, distrust and prudence personified; he walked blindfold into the trap; he wrote with his royal hand to his brother, the king of france, and asked him a brevet as duke for young brisacier. our king, who did not throw duchies at people's heads, read and re-read the strange missive with astonishment and suspicion. he wrote in his turn to the suppliant king, and begged him to send him the why and the wherefore of this hieroglyphic adventure. the good prince, ignorant of ruses, sent the letter of the queen herself. had this princess ever given any reason to be talked about, there is no doubt that she would have been lost on this occasion; but there was nothing to excite suspicion. the king, no less, approached her with precaution, in order to observe the first results of her answers. "madame," he said, "are you still quite satisfied with young brisacier, your private secretary?" "more or less," replied the infanta; "a little light, a little absent; but, on the whole, a good enough young man." "why have you recommended him to the king of poland, instead of recommending him to me directly?" "to the king of poland!--i? i have not written to him since i congratulated him on his succession." "then, madame, you have been deceived in this matter, since i have your last letter in my hands. here it is; i return it to you." the princess read the letter with attention; her astonishment was immense. "my signature has been used without authority," she said. "brisacier alone can be guilty, being the only one interested." this new kind of ambitious man was summoned; he was easily confounded. the king ordered him to prison, wishing to frighten him for a punishment, and at the end of some days he was commanded to quit france and go and be made duke somewhere else. this event threw such ridicule upon pretenders to the ducal state, that i no longer dared speak further to the king of the hopes which he had held out to me; moreover, the things which supervened left me quite convinced of the small success which would attend my efforts. chapter ix. compliment from monsieur to the new prince de dombes.--roman history.--the emperors trajan, marcus aurelius, and verus.--the danger of erudition. monsieur, having learnt what his cousin of montpensier had just done for my duc du maine, felt all possible grief and envy at it. he had always looked to inherit from her, and the harshest enemy whom m. de lauzun met with at his wedding was, undoubtedly, monsieur. when m. le duc du maine received the congratulations of all the court on the ground of his new dignity of prince de dombes, his uncle was the last to appear; even so he could not refrain from making him hear these disobliging words,--who would believe it?--"if i, too, were to give you my congratulation, it would be scarcely sincere; what will be left for my children?" madame de maintenon, who is never at a loss, replied: "there will be left always, monseigneur, the remembrance of your virtues; that is a fair enough inheritance." we complained of it to the king; he reprimanded him in a fine fashion. "i gave you a condition so considerable," said he, "that the queen, our mother, herself thought it exaggerated and dangerous in your hands. you have no liking for my children, although you feign a passionate affection for their father; the result of your misbehaviour will be that i shall grow cool to your line, and that your daughter, however beautiful and amiable she may be, will not marry my dauphin." at this threat monsieur was quite overcome, and anxious to make his apologies to the king; he assured him of his tender affection for m. le duc du maine, and would give him to understand that madame de maintenon had misunderstood him. "it is not from her that your compliment came to us; it is from m. le duc du maine, who is uprightness itself, and whose mouth has never lied." monsieur then started playing at distraction and puerility; the medal-case was standing opened, his gaze was turned to it. then he came to me and said in a whisper: "i pray you, come and look at the coin of marcus aurelius; do you not find that the king resembles that emperor in every feature?" "you are joking," i answered him. "his majesty is as much like him as you are like me." he insisted, and his brother, who witnessed our argument, wished to know the reason. when he understood, he said to monsieur: "madame de montespan is right; i am not in the least like that roman prince in face. the one to whom i should wish to be like in merit is trajan." "trajan had fine qualities," replied monsieur; "that does not prevent me from preferring marcus aurelius." "on what grounds?" asked his majesty. "on the grounds that he shared his throne with verus," replied monsieur, unhesitatingly. the king flushed at this reply, and answered in few words: "marcus aurelius's action to his brother may, be called generous; it was none the less inconsiderate. by his own confession, the emperor verus proved, by his debauchery and his vices, unworthy, of the honour which had been done him. happily, he died from his excesses during the pannonian war, and marcus aurelius could only do well from that day on." monsieur, annoyed with his erudition and confused at his escapade, sought to change the conversation. the king, passing into his cabinet, left him entirely, in my charge. i scolded him for his inconsequences, and he dared to implore me to put his daughter "in the right way," to become one day queen of france by marrying monsieur le dauphin, whom she loved already with her whole heart. chapter x. the benedictines of fontevrault.--the head in the basin.--the unfortunate delivery.--the baptism of the monster.--the courageous marriage.--foundation of the royal abbey of fontevrault. two or three days after our arrival at fontevrault, the king, who loves to know all the geographical details of important places, asked me of the form and particulars of the celebrated abbey. i gave him a natural description of it. "they are two vast communities," i told him, "which the founder, for some inexplicable whim, united in one domain, of an extent which astonishes the imagination." the community of benedictine nuns is regarded as the first, because of the abbotorial dignity it possesses. the community of benedictine monks is only second,--a fact which surprises greatly strangers and visitors. both in the monastery and the convent the buildings are huge and magnificent, the courts spacious, the woods and streams well distributed and well kept. "every morning you may see a hundred and fifty to two hundred ploughs issue from both establishments; these spread over the plain and till an immense expanse of land. carts drawn by bullocks, big mules, or superb horses are ceaselessly exporting the products of the fields, the meadows, or the orchards. innumerable cows cover the pastures, and legions of women and herds are employed to look after these estates. "the aspect of fontevrault gives an exact idea of the ancient homes of the patriarchs, in their remote periods of early civilisation, which saw the great proprietors delighting in their natal hearth, and finding their glory, as well as their happiness, in fertilising or assisting nature. "the abbess rules like a sovereign over her companion nuns, and over the monks, her neighbours. she appoints their officers and their temporal prince. it is she who admits postulants, who fixes the dates of ordinations, pronounces interdictions, graces, and penances. they render her an account of their administration and the employment of their revenues, from which she subtracts carefully her third share, as the essential right of her crosier of authority." "have you invited the benedictine fathers to your fete in the wood?" the king asked me, smiling. "we had no power, sire," i answered. "there are many young ladies being educated with the nuns of fontevrault. the parents of these young ladies respectful as they are to these monks, would have looked askance at the innovation. the fathers never go in there. they are to be seen at the abbey church, where they sing and say their offices. only the three secular chaplains of the abbess penetrate into the house of the nuns; the youngest of the three cannot be less than fifty. "the night of the feast the monks draw near our cloister by means of a wooden theatre, which forms a terrace, and from this elevation they participate by the eye and ear in our amusements; that is enough." "has madame de mortemart ever related to you the origin of her abbey?" resumed the king. "perhaps she is ignorant of it. i am going to tell you of it, for it is extremely curious; it is not as it is related in the books, and i take the facts from good authority. you must hear of it, and you will see. "there was once a comtesse de poitiers, named honorinde, to whom fate had given for a husband the greatest hunter in the world. this man would have willingly passed his life in the woods, where he hunted, night and day, what we call, in hunter's parlance, 'big game.' having won the victory over a monstrous boar, he cut off the head himself, and this quivering and bleeding mask he went to offer to his lady in a basin. the young woman was in the first month of her pregnancy. she was filled with repugnance and fright at the sight of this still-threatening head; it troubled her to the prejudice of her fruit. "eight, or seven and a half, months afterwards, she brought into the world a girl who was human in her whole body, but above had the horrible head of a wild boar! imagine what cries, what grief, what despair! the cure of the place refused baptism, and the count, broken down and desolate, ordered the child to be drowned. "instead of throwing it into the water, his servant scrupulously went straight to the monastery where your sister rules. he laid down his closed packet in the church of the monks, and then returned to his lord, who never had any other child. "the religious benedictines, not knowing whence this monster came, believed there was some prodigy in it. they baptised in this little person all that was not boar, and left the surplus to providence. they brought up the singular creature in the greatest secrecy; it drank and lapped after the manner of its kind. as it grew up it walked on its feet, and that without the least imperfection; it could sit down, go on its knees, and even make a courtesy. but it never articulated any distinct words, and it had always a harsh and rough voice which howled and grunted. its intelligence never reached the knowledge of reading or writing; but it understood easily all that could be said to it, and the proof was that it replied by its actions. "the comte de poitiers having died whilst hunting, honorinde learnt of her old serving-man in what refuge, in what asylum, he had long ago deposited the little one. this good mother proceeded there, and the monks, after some hesitation, confessed what had become of it. she wished to see it; they showed it her. at its aspect she felt the same inward commotion which had, years before, perverted nature. she groaned, fainted, burst into tears, and never had the courage and firmness to embrace what she had seen. "her gratitude was not less lively and sincere; she handed a considerable sum to the benedictines of fontevrault, charging them to continue their good work and charity. "the reverend prior, reflecting that his hideous inmate came of a great family, and of a family of great property, resolved to procure it as a wife for his nephew. he sounded the young man, who looked fixedly at his future bride, and avowed that he was satisfied. "she is a good christian," he replied to his uncle, since you have baptised her here. she is of a good family, since honorinde has recognised her. there are many as ugly as she is to be seen who still find husbands. i will put a pretty mask on her, and the mask will give me sufficient illusion. benedicte, so far as she goes, is well-made; i hope to have fine children who will talk. "the prior commenced by marrying them; he then confided in honorinde, who, not daring to noise abroad this existence, was compelled to submit to what had been done. "the marriage of the young she-monster was not happy. she bit her husband from morning to night. she did not know how to sit at table, and would only eat out of a trough. she needed neither an armchair, a sofa, nor a couch; she stretched herself out on the sand or on the pavement. "her husband, in despair, demanded the nullification of his marriage; and as the courts did not proceed fast enough for his impatience, he killed his companion, benedicte, with a pistol-shot, at the moment when she was biting and tearing him before witnesses. "honorinde had her buried at fontevrault, and over her tomb, at the end of the year, she built a convent, to which her immense property was given, where she retired herself as a simple nun, and of which she was appointed first abbess by the pope who reigned at the time. "there, madame," added the king, "is the somewhat singular origin of the illustrious abbey which your sister rules with such eclat. you must have remarked the boar's head, perfectly imitated in sculpture, in the dome; that mask is the speaking history of the noble community of fontevrault, where more than a hundred benedictine monks obey an abbess." chapter xi. fine couples make fine children.--the dauphine of bavaria.--she displeases madame de montespan.--first debut relating to madame de maintenon, appointed lady-in-waiting.--conversation between the two marquises. the king, in his moments of effusion and abandonment (then so full of pleasantness), had said more than once: "if i have any physical beauty, i owe it to the queen, my mother; if my daughters have any beauty, they owe it to me: it is only fine couples who get fine children." when i saw him decided upon marrying monseigneur le dauphin, i reminded him of his maxim. he fell to smiling, and answered me: "chance, too, sometimes works its miracles. my choice for my son is a decided thing; my politics come before my taste, and i have asked for the daughter of the elector of bavaria, whose portrait i will show you. she is not beautiful, like you; she is prettier than benedicte, and i hope that she will not bite monseigneur le dauphin in her capricious transports." the portrait that the king showed me was a flattering one, as are, in general, all these preliminary samples. for all that, the princess seemed to me hideous, and even disagreeable, especially about her eyes, that portion of the face which confirms the physiognomy and decides everything. "monseigneur will never love that woman," i said to the king. "that constrained look in the pupil, those drooping eyes,--they make my heart ache." "my son, happily," his majesty answered, "is not so difficult as you and i. he has already seen this likeness, and at the second look he was taken; and as we have assured him that the young person is well made, he cries quits with her face, and proposes to love her as soon as he gets her." "god grant it!" i added; and the king told me, more or less in detail, of what important personages he was going to compose his household. the eternal abbe bossuet was to become first chaplain, as being the tutor-in-chief to the dauphin; the duchesse de richelieu, for her great name, was going to be lady of honour; and the two posts of ladies in waiting were destined for the marquise de rochefort, wife of the marshal, and for madame de maintenon, ex-governess of the duc du maine. the gesture of disapproval which escaped me gave his majesty pain. "why this air of contempt or aversion?" he said, changing colour. "is it to the marechale de rochefort or the marquise de maintenon that you object? i esteem both the one and the other, and i am sorry for you if you do not esteem them too." "the marechale de rochefort," i replied, without taking any fright, "is aged, and almost always sick; a lady of honour having her appearance will make a contrast with her office. as to the other, she still has beauty and elegance; but do you imagine, sire, that the court of bavaria and the court of france have forgotten, in so short a time, the pleasant and burlesque name of the poet scarron?" "every one ought to forget what i have forgotten," replied the king, "and what my gratitude will not, and cannot forget, i am surprised that you, madame, should take pleasure in forgetting." "she has taken care of my children since the cradle, i admit it with pleasure," said i to his majesty, without changing my tone; "you have given her a marquisate for recompense, and a superb hotel completely furnished at versailles. i do not see that she has any cause for complaint, nor that after such bounty there is more to add." "of eight children that you have brought into the world, madame, she has reared and attended perfectly to six," replied the king. "the estate of maintenon has, at the most, recompensed the education of the comtes de vegin, whose childhood was so onerous. and for the remainder of my little family, what have i yet done that deserves mention?" "give her a second estate and money," i cried, quite out of patience, "since it is money which pays all services of that nature; but what need have you to raise her to great office, and keep her at court? she dotes, she says, on her old chateau of maintenon; do not deprive her of this delight. by making her lady in waiting, you would be disobliging her." "she will accept out of courtesy," he said to me, putting on an air of mockery. and as the time for the council was noted by him on my clock, he went away without adding more. since m. le duc du maine had grown up, and mademoiselle de nantes had been confided to the marquise de montchevreuil, madame de maintenon continued to occupy her handsome apartment on the princes' court. there she received innumerable visits, she paid assiduous court to the queen, who had suddenly formed a taste for her, and took her on her walks and her visits to the communities; but this new marquise saw me rarely. since the affair of the vine-grower, killed on the road, she declared that i had insulted her before everybody, and that i had ordered her imperiously to return to my carriage, as though she had been a waiting-maid, or some other menial. her excessive sensibility readily afforded her this pretext, so that she neglected and visibly overlooked me. as she did not come to me, i betook myself to her at a tolerably early hour, before the flood of visitors, and started her on the history of the lady in waiting. "his majesty has spoken of it to me," she said, "as of a thing possible; but i do not think there is anything settled yet in the matter." "will you accept," i asked her, "supposing the king to insist?" "i should like a hundred times better," she replied, "to go and live in independence in my little kingdom of maintenon, and with my own hands gather on my walls those velvet, brilliant peaches, which grow so fine in those districts. but if the king commands me to remain at court, and form our young bavarian princess in the manners of this country, have i the right, in good conscience, to refuse?" "your long services have gained you the right to desire and take your retirement," i said to her; "in your place, i should insist upon the necessities of my health. and the court of france will not fall nor change its physiognomy, even if a german or iroquois dauphine should courtesy awry, or in bad taste." madame de maintenon began to laugh, and assured me that "her post as lady in waiting would be an actual burden, if the king had destined her for it in spite of herself, and there should be no means of withdrawing from it." at this speech i saw clearly that things were already fixed. not wishing to call upon me the reproaches of my lord, i carried the conversation no further. chapter xii. the "powder of inheritance."--the chambre ardente.--the comtesse de soissons's arrest decreed.--the marquise de montespan buys her superintendence of the queen's council.--madame de soubise.--madame de maintenon and the king. at the time of the poisonings committed by madame de brinvilliers, the government obtained evidence that a powder, called "the powder of inheritance," was being sold in paris, by means of which impatient heirs shortened the days of unfortunate holders, and entered into possession before their time. two obscure women, called la vigoureuse and la voisine, were arrested, having been caught redhanded. submitted to the question, they confessed their crime, and mentioned several persons, whom they qualified as "having bought and made use of the said powder of inheritance." we saw suddenly the arrest of the marechal de luxembourg, the princesse de tingry, and many others. the 'chambre ardente'--[the french star chamber.]--issued a warrant also to seize the person of the duchesse de bouillon and the comtesse de soissons, the celebrated nieces of the cardinal mazarin, sisters-in-law, both, of my niece de nevers, who was dutifully afflicted thereby. the comtesse de soissons had possessed hitherto an important office, whose functions suited me in every respect,--that of the superintendence of the queen's household and council. i bought this post at a considerable price. the queen, who had never cared for the countess, did me the honour of assuring me that she preferred me to the other, when i came to take my oath in her presence. madame la princesse de rohan-soubise had wished to supplant me at that time, and i was aware of her constant desire to obtain a fine post at court. she loved the king, who had shown her his favours in more than one circumstance; but, as she had a place neither in his esteem nor in his affection, i did not fear her. i despatched to her, very adroitly, a person of her acquaintance, who spoke to her of the new household of a dauphine, and gave her the idea of soliciting for herself the place of lady in waiting, destined for madame de maintenon. the princesse de soubise put herself immediately amongst the candidates. she wrote to the king, her friend, a pressing and affectionate letter, to which he did not even reply. she wrote one next in a more majestic and appropriate style. it was notified to her that she was forbidden to reappear at court. the prince had resolutely taken his course. he wished to put madame de maintenon in evidence, and what he has once decided he abandons never. i was soon aware that costumes of an unheard-of magnificence were being executed for the marquise. gold, silver, precious stones abounded. i was offered a secret view of her robe of ceremony, with a long mantle train. i saw this extraordinarily rich garment, and was sorry in advance for the young stranger, whose lady in waiting could not fail to eclipse her in everything. i then put some questions to myself,--asked myself severely if my disapproval sprang from natural haughtiness, which would have been possible, and even excusable, or whether, mingled with all that, was some little agitation of jealousy and emulation. i collected together a crowd of slight and scattered circumstances; and in this union of several small facts, at first neglected and almost unperceived, i distinguished on the part of the king a gradual and increasing attachment for the governess, and at the same time a negligence in regard to me,--a coldness, a cooling-down, at least, and that sort of familiarity, close parent of weariness, which comes to sight in the midst of courtesies and attentions the most satisfying and the most frequent. the king, in the old days, never glanced towards my clock till as late as possible, and always at the last moment, at the last extremity. now he cast his eyes on it a score of times in half an hour. he contradicted me about trifles. he explained to me ingeniously the faults, or alleged faults, of my temper and character. if it was a question of madame de maintenon, she was of a birth equal and almost superior to the rest of the court. he forgot himself so far as to quote before me the subtilty of her answers or the delight of her most intimate conversation. did he wish to describe a noble carriage, an attitude at once easy and distinguished, it was madame de maintenon's. she possessed this, she possessed that, she possessed everything. soon there was not the slightest doubt left to me; and i knew, as did the whole court, that he openly visited the marquise, and was glad to pass some moments there. these things, in truth, never lacked some plausible pretext, and he chose the time when madame de montchevreuil and mademoiselle de nantes were presenting their homages to madame de maintenon. chapter xiii. marie louise, daughter of henrietta of england, betrothed to the king of spain.--her affliction.--jealousy of the king, her husband. the unfortunate lady, henrietta of england, had left, at her death, two extremely young girls, one of them, indeed, being still in the cradle. the new madame was seized with good-will for these two orphans to such an extent as to complain to the king. they were brought up with the greatest care; they were, both of them, pretty and charming. the elder was named marie louise. it was this one whom monsieur destined in his own mind for monseigneur le dauphin; and the princess, accustomed early to this prospect, had insensibly adapted to it her mind and hope. young, beautiful, agreeable, and charming as her mother, she created already the keenest sensation at court, and the king felt an inclination to cherish her as much as he had loved madame. but the excessive freedom which this alliance would not have failed to give his brother, both with his son-in-law and nephew, and with the ministry, prevented his majesty from giving way to this penchunt for marie louise. on the contrary, he consented to her marriage with the king of spain, and the news of it was accordingly carried to monsieur le duc d'orleans. he and his wife felt much annoyance at it. but after communications of that kind there was scarcely any course open to be taken than that of acquiescence. monsieur conveyed the news to his beloved daughter, and, on hearing that she was to be made queen of spain, this amiable child uttered loud lamentations. when she went to versailles to thank the king, her uncle, her fine eyes were still suffused with tears. the few words which she uttered were mingled with sighing and weeping; and when she saw the indifference of her cousin, who felicitated her like the rest, she almost fainted with grief and regret. "my dear cousin," said this dull-witted young lord, "i shall count the hours until you go to spain. you will send me some 'touru', for i am very fond of it?" the king could not but find this reflection of his son very silly and out of place. but intelligence is neither to be given nor communicated by example. his majesty had to support to the end this son, legitimate as much as you like, but altogether in degree, and with a person which formed a perpetual contrast with the person of the king. it was my duc du maine who should have been in the eminent position of monseigneur. nature willed it so. she had proved it sufficiently by lavishing all her favours on him, all her graces; but the laws of convention and usage would not have it. his majesty has made this same reflection, groaning, more than once. marie louise, having been married by proxy, in the great chapel of saint germain, where the cardinal de bouillon blessed the ring in his quality of grand almoner of france, left for that spain which her young heart distrusted. her beauty and charms rendered her precious to the monarch, utterly melancholy and devout as he was. he did not delay subjecting her to the wretched, petty, tiresome, and absurd etiquette of that gothic court. mademoiselle submitted to all these nothings, seeing she had been able to submit to separation from france. she condemned herself to the most fastidious observances and the most sore privations, which did not much ameliorate her lot. a young castilian lord, almost mad himself, thought fit to find this queen pretty, and publicly testify his love for her. the jealousy of the religious king flared up like a funeral torch. he conceived a hatred of his wife, reserved and innocent though she was. she died cruelly by poison. and monseigneur le dauphin probably cried, after his manner: "what a great pity! she won't send me the touru!" chapter xiv. the dauphine of bavaria.--the confessor with spurs.--madame de maintenon disputes with bossuet.--he opposes to her past ages and history.--the military absolution. eight months after the wedding of marie louise, we witnessed the arrival of anne marie christine, princess of bavaria, daughter of the elector ferdinand. the king and monseigneur went to receive her at vitry-le-francais, and then escorted her to chalons, where the queen was awaiting her. the cardinal de bouillon celebrated the marriage in the cathedral church of this third-class town. the festivities and jubilations there lasted a week. the king had been very willing to charge me with the arrangement of the baskets of presents destined for the dauphine; i acquitted myself of this commission with french taste and a sentiment of what was proper. when the queen saw all these magnificent gifts placed and spread out in a gallery, she cried out, and said: "things were not done so nobly for me; and yet, i can say without vanity, i was of a better house than she." this remark paints the queen, maria theresa, better than anything which could be said. can one wonder, after that, that she should have brought into the world an hereditary prince who so keenly loves 'touru', and asks for it! madame de maintenon and m. bossuet had gone to receive the princess of schelestadt. when she was on her husband's territory, and it was necessary, to confess her for the sacrament of matrimony, she was strangely embarrassed. they had not remembered to bring a chaplain of her own nation for her; and she could not confess except in the german tongue. madame de maintenon, who is skilled in all matters of religion, said to the prelate: "i really think, monsieur, that, having educated monsieur le dauphin, you ought to know a little german,--you who have composed the treatise on universal history." the bishop of meaux excused himself, saying that he knew greek, syriac, and even hebrew; but that, through a fatality, he was ignorant of the german language. a trumpeter was then sent out to ask if there was not in the country a catholic priest who was a german, or acquainted with the german tongue. luckily one was found, and madame de maintenon, who is very, pedantic, even in the matter of toilet and ornaments, trembled with joy and thanked god for it. but what was her astonishment when they came to bring her the priest! he was in coloured clothes, a silk doublet, flowing peruke, and boots and spurs. the lady in waiting rated him severely, and was tempted to send him back. but bossuet--a far greater casuist than she--decided that in these urgent cases one need hold much less to forms. they were contented with taking away the spurs from this amphibious personage; they pushed him into a confessional,--the curtain of which he was careful to draw before himself,--and they brought the bavarian princess, who, not knowing the circumstances, confessed the sins of her whole life to this sort of soldier. madame de maintenon always had this general confession on her conscience; she scolded bossuet for it as a sort of sacrilege, and the latter, who was only difficult and particular with simple folk, quoted historical examples in which soldiers, on the eve of battle, had confessed to their general. "yes," said the king, on hearing these quotations from the imperturbable man; "that must have been to the bishop of puy or the bishop of orange, who, in effect, donned the shield and cuirass at the time of the crusades against the saracens; or perhaps, again, to the cardinal de la valette d'epernon, who commanded our armies under richelieu successfully." "no, sire," replied the bishop; "to generals who were simply soldiers." "but," said the king, "were the confessions, then, null?" "sire," added the bishop of meaux, "circumstances decide everything. of old, in the time of saint peter and saint paul, and much later still, confessions of christians were public,--made in a loud voice; sometimes a number together, and always in the open air. those of soldiers that i have quoted to madame were somewhat of the kind of these confessions of the primitive church; and to-day, still, at the moment when battle is announced, a military almoner gives the signal for confession. the regiments confess on their knees before the most high, who hears them; and the almoner, raised aloft on a pile of drums, holds the crucifix in one hand, and with the other gives the general absolution to eighty thousand soldiers at once." this clear and precise explanation somewhat calmed madame de maintenon, and madame la dauphine,--displeased at what she had done on arriving,--in order to be regular, learned to confess in french. chapter xv. pere de la chaise.--the jesuits.--the pavilion of belleville.--the handkerchief. pere de la chaise has never done me good or ill; i have no motives for conciliating him, no reason to slander him. i am ignorant if he were the least in the world concerned, at the epoch of the grand jubilee, with those ecclesiastical attempts of which bossuet had constituted himself spokesman. pere de la chaise has in his favour a great evenness of temper and character; an excellent tone, which comes to him from his birth; a conciliatory philosophy, which renders him always master of his condition and of his metier. he is, in a single individual, the happy combination of several men, that is to say, he is by turns, and as it may be needful, a man indulgent or severe in his preaching; a man of abstinence, or a good feeder; a man of the world, or a cenobite; a man of his breviary, or a courtier. he knows that the sins of woodcutters and the sins of kings are not of the same family, and that copper and gold are not weighed in the same scales. he is a jesuit by his garb; he is much more so than they are by his 'savoir-vivre'. his companions love the king because he is the king; he loves him, and pities him because he sees his weakness. he shows for his penitent the circumspection and tenderness of a father, and in the long run he has made of him a spoiled child. this pere de la chaise fell suddenly ill, and with symptoms so alarming that the cabals each wished to appropriate this essential post of confessor. the jansenists would have been quite willing to lay hold of it. the jesuits, and principally the cordons bleus, did not quit the pillow of the sick man for an instant. the king had himself informed of his condition every half-hour. there was a bulletin, as there is for potentates. one evening, when the doctors were grave on his account, i saw anxiety and affliction painted on the visage of his majesty. "where shall i find his like?" said he to me. "where shall i find such knowledge, such indulgence, such kindness? the pere de la chaise knew the bottom of my heart; he knew, as an intelligent man, how to reconcile religion with nature; and when duty brings me to the foot of his tribunal, as a humble christian, he never forgets that royalty, cannot be long on its knees, and he accompanies with his attentions and with deference the religious commands which he is bound to impose on me." "i hope that god will preserve him to you," i replied to his majesty; "but let us suppose the case in which this useful and precious man should see his career come to an end; will you grant still this mark of confidence and favour to the jesuits? all the french being your subjects, would it not be fitting to grant this distinction sometimes to the one and sometimes to the other? you would, perhaps, extinguish by this that hate or animosity by which the jesuits see themselves assailed, which your preference draws upon them." "i do not love the jesuits with that affection that you seem to suggest," replied the monarch. "i look upon them as men of instruction, as a learned and well-governed corporation; but as for their attachment for me, i know how to estimate it. this kind of people, strangers to the soft emotions of nature, have no affection or love for anything. before the triumph of the king my grandfather, they intrigued and exerted themselves to bring about his fall; he opened the gates of paris, and the jesuits, like the capuchins, at once recognised him and bowed down before him. king henri, who knew what men are, pretended to forget the past; he pronounced himself decidedly in favour of the jesuits because this body of teachers, numerous, rich, and of good credit, had just pronounced itself in favour of him. "it was, then, a reconciliation between power and power, and the politics of my grandfather were to survive him and become mine, since the same elements exist and i am encamped on the same ground. if god takes away from me my poor pere de la chaise, i shall feel this misfortune deeply, because i shall lose in him, not a jesuit, not a priest, but a good companion, a trusty and proved friend. if i lose him, i shall assuredly be inconsolable for him; but it will be very necessary for me to take his successor from the grand monastery of the rue saint antoine. this community knows me by heart, and i do not like innovations." the successor of the pere de la chaise was already settled with the jesuit fathers; but this man of the vanguard was spared marching and meeting danger. the court was not condemned to see and salute a new face; the old confessor recovered his health. his majesty experienced a veritable joy at it, a joy as real as if the prince of orange had died. wishing to prove to the good convalescent how dear his preservation was to him, the king released him from his function for the rest of the year, and begged him to watch over his health, the most important of his duties and his possessions. having learnt that they had neither terraces nor gardens at the grand monastery of the rue saint antoine, his majesty made a present to his confessor of a very agreeable house in the district of belleville, and caused to be transported thither all kinds of orange-trees, rare shrubs, and flowers from versailles. these tasteful attentions, these filial cares, diverted the capital somewhat; but paris is a rich soil, where the strangest things are easily received and naturalised without an effort. the pare de la chaise had his chariot with his arms on it, and his family livery; and as the income from his benefices remained to him, joined to his office of confessor, he continued to have every day a numerous court of young abbes, priests well on in years, barons, countesses, marquises, magistrates and colonels, who came to belleville in anxiety about his health, to congratulate themselves upon his convalescence, to ask of him, with submission and reverence, a bishopric, an archbishopric, a cardinal's hat, an important priory, a canonry, or an abbey. having myself to place the three daughters of one of my relatives, i went to see the noble confessor at his pavilion of belleville. he received me with the most marked distinction, and was lavish in acts of gratitude for all the benefits of the king. as he crossed his salon, in order to accompany me and escort me out, he let his white handkerchief fall; three bishops at once flung themselves upon it, and there was a struggle as to who should pick it up to give it back to him. i related to the king what i had seen. he said to me: "these prelates honour my confessor, looking upon him as a second me." in fact, the sins of the king could only throw his confessor into relief and add to his merit. chapter xvi. mademoiselle de fontanges.--the pavilions of the garden of flora.--rapid triumph of the favourite.--her retreat to val-de-grace.--her death. madame de maintenon was already forty-four years old, and appeared to be only thirty. this freshness, that she owed either to painstaking care or to her happy and quite peculiar constitution, gave her that air of youth which fascinated the eyes of the courtiers and those of the monarch himself. i wished one day to annoy her by bringing the conversation on this subject, which could not be diverting to her. i began by putting the question generally, and i then named several of our superannuated beauties who still fluttered in the smiling gardens of flora without having the youth of butterflies. "there are butterflies of every age and colour in the gardens of flora," said she, catching the ball on the rebound. "there are presumptuous ones, whom the first breath of the zephyr despoils of their plumage and discolours; others, more reserved and less frivolous, keep their glamour and prestige for a much longer time. for the rest, the latter seem to me to rejoice without being vain in their advantages. and at bottom, what should any insect gain by being proud?" "very little," i answered her, "since being dressed as a butterfly does not prevent one from being an insect, and the best sustained preservation lasts at most till the day after to-morrow." the king entered. i started speaking of a young person, extremely beautiful, who had just appeared at court, and would eclipse, in my opinion, all who had shone there before her. "what do you call her?" asked his majesty. "to what family does she belong?" "she comes from the provinces," i continued, "just like silk, silver, and gold. her parents desire to place her among the maids of honour of the queen. her name is fontanges, and god has never made anything so beautiful." as i said these words i watched the face of the marquise. she listened to this portrayal with attention, but without appearing moved by it, such is her power of suppressing her natural feeling. the king only added these words: "this young person needs be quite extraordinary, since madame de montespan praises her, and praises her with so much vivacity. however, we shall see." two days afterwards, mademoiselle de fontanges was seen in the salon of the grand table. the king, in spite of his composure, had looks and attentions for no one else. this excessive preoccupation struck the queen, who, marking the blandishments of the young coquette and the king's response, guessed the whole future of this encounter; and in her heart was almost glad at it, seeing that my turn had come. mademoiselle de fontanges, given to the king by her shameless family, feigned love and passion for the monarch, as though he had returned by enchantment to his twentieth year. as for him, he too appeared to us to forget all dates. i know that he was only now forty-one years old, and having been the finest man in the world, he could not but preserve agreeable vestiges of a once striking beauty. but his young conquest had hardly entered on her eighteenth year, and this difference could not fail to be plain to the most inattentive, or most indulgent eyes. the king, with a sort of anticipatory resignation, had for six or seven years greatly simplified his appearance. we had seen him, little by little, reform that spanish and chivalric costume with which he once embellished his first loves. the flowing plumes no longer floated over his forehead, which had become pensive and quite serious. the diagonal, scarf was suppressed, and the long boots, with gold and silver embroidery, were no longer seen. to please his new divinity, the monarch suddenly enough rejuvenated his attire. the most elegant stuffs became the substance of his garments; feathers reappeared. he joined to them emeralds and diamonds. allegorical comedies, concerts on the waters recommenced. triumphant horse-races set the whole court abob and in movement. there was a fresh carousal; there was all that resembles the enthusiasms of youthful affection, and the deliriums of youth. the youth alone was not there, at least in proportion, assortment, and similarity. all that i was soliciting for twelve years, mademoiselle de fontanges had only to desire for a week. she was created duchess at her debut; and the lozenge of her escutcheon was of a sudden adorned with a ducal coronet, and a peer's mantle. i did not deign to pay attention to this outrage; at least, i made a formal resolution never to say a single word on it. the king came no less from time to time, to pay me a visit, and to talk to me, as of old, of operas and his hunting. i endured his conversation with a philosophical phlegm. he scarcely suspected the change in me. at the chase, one day, his nymph, whom nothing could stop, had her knot of riband caught and held by a branch; the royal lover compelled the branch to restore the knot, and went and offered it to his amazon. singular and sparkling, although lacking in intelligence, she carried herself this knot of riband to the top of her hair, and fixed it there with a long pin. fortune willed it that this coiffure, without order or arrangement, suited her face, and suited it greatly. the king was the first to congratulate her on it; all the courtiers applauded it, and this coiffure of the chase became the fashion of the day. all the ladies, and the queen herself, found themselves obliged to adopt it. madame de maintenon submitted herself to it, like the others. i alone refused to sacrifice to the idol, and my knee, being once more painful, would not bend before baal. with the exception of the general duties of the sovereignty, the prince appeared to have forgotten everything for his flame. the pere de la chaise, who had returned to his post, regarded this fresh incident with his philosophic calm, and congratulated himself on seeing the monarch healed of at least one of his passions. i had always taken the greatest care to respect the queen; and since my star condemned me to stand in her shoes, i did not spare myself the general attentions which two well-born people owe one another, and which, at least, prove a lofty education. the duchesse de fontanges, doubtless, believed herself queen, because she had the public homage and the king. this imprudent and conceited schoolgirl had the face to pass before her sovereign without stopping, and without troubling to courtesy. the infanta reddened with disapproval, and persuaded herself, by way of consolation, that fontanges had lost her senses or was on the road to madness. beautiful and brilliant as the flowers, the duchess, like them, passed swiftly away. her pregnancy, by reason of toilsome rides, hunting parties, and other agitations, became complicated. from the eighth month she fell into a fever, into exhaustion and languor. the terror that took possession of her imagination caused her to desire a sojourn in a convent as a refuge of health, where god would see her nearer and, perhaps, come to her aid. she had herself transported during the night to the house of the ladies of val-de-grace, and desired that they should place in her chamber several relics from their altars. her confinement was not less laboured and sinister. when she saw that all the assistance of art could not stop the bleeding, with which her deep bed was flooded, she caused the king to be summoned, embraced him tenderly, in the midst of sobs and tears, and died in the night, pronouncing the name of god and the name of the king, the objects of her love and of fears. chapter xvii. madame de sevigne.--madame de grignan.--madame de montespan at the carmelites.--madame de la valliere.--these two great ruins console one another.--an angel of sweetness, goodness, and kindness. fifteen or twenty days before the death of mademoiselle de fontanges, my sister and i were taking a walk in the new woods of versailles. we met the marquise de sevigne near the canal; she was showing these marvellous constructions to her daughter, the comtesse de grignan. they greeted us with their charming amiability, and, after having spoken of several indifferent matters, the marquise said to me: "we saw, five or six days ago, a person, madame, of whom you were formerly very fond, and who charged us to recall her to the memory of her friends. you are still of that number,--i like to think so, and our commission holds good where you are concerned, if you will allow it." then she mentioned to me that poor duchesse de la valliere, to whom i was once compelled by my unhappy star to give umbrage, and whom, in my fatal thoughtlessness, i had afflicted without desiring it. tears came into my eyes; madame de sevigne saw them, and expressed her regret at having caused me pain. madame de thianges and i asked her if my old friend was much changed. she and madame de grignan assured us that she was fresh, in good health, and that her face appeared more beautiful. on the next day i wished absolutely to see her, and drove to the carmelites. on seeing my pretty cripple, who hobbled among us with so great a charm, i uttered a cry, which for a moment troubled her. she sank down to salute the crucifix, as custom demands, and, after her short prayer, she came to me. "i did not mention your name to mesdames de sevigne," said she; "but, however, i am obliged to them, since they have been able to procure me the pleasure of seeing you once more." "the general opinion of the court, and in the world, my dear duchess," answered i, "is that i brought about your disgrace myself; and the public, that loved you, has not ceased to reproach me with your misfortune." "the public is very kind still to occupy itself with me," she answered; "but it is wrong in that, as in so many other matters. my retirement from the world is not a misfortune, and i never suspected that the soul could find such peace and satisfaction in these silent solitudes. "the first days were painful to me, i admit it, owing to the inexpressible difference which struck me between what i found here and what i had left elsewhere. but just as the eye accustoms itself, little by little, to the feeble glimmer of a vault, in the same way my body has accustomed itself to the roughness of my new existence, and my heart to all its great privations. "if life had not to finish, in fulfilment of a solemn, universal, and inevitable decree, the constraint that i have put upon myself might at length become oppressive, and my yoke prove somewhat heavy. but all that will finish soon, for all undertakings come to an end. i left you young, beautiful, adored, and triumphant in the land of enchantments. but six years have passed, and they assure me that your own afflictions have come, and that you, yourself, have been forced to drink the bitter cup of deprivation." at these words, pronounced in a melancholy and celestial voice, i felt as though my heart were broken, and burst into tears. "i pity you, athenais," she resumed. "is, then, what i have been told lightly, and almost in haste, only too certain for you? how is it you did not expect it? how could you believe him constant and immutable, after what happened to me? "to-day, i make no secret to you of it, and i say it with the peaceful indifference which god has generously granted me, after such dolorous tribulations. i make no secret of it to you, athenais; a thousand times you plunged the sword and dagger into my heart, when, profiting by my confidence in you, by my sense of entire security, you permitted your own inclination to substitute itself for mine, and a young man seething with desires to be attracted by your charms. these unlimited sufferings exhausted, i must believe, all the sensibility of my soul. and when this corrosive flame had completely devoured my grief, a new existence grew up in me; i no longer saw in the father of my children other than a young prince, accustomed to see his dominating will fulfilled in everything. knowing how little in this matter he is master of himself, he who knows so well how to be master of himself in everything to do with his numerous inferiors, i deplored the facility he enjoys from his attractions, from his wealth, from his power to dazzle the hearts which he desires to move and subdue. "recognise these truths, my dear marquise," she added, "and gain, for it is time, a just idea of your position. after the unhappiness i felt at being loved no longer, i should have quitted the court that very instant, if i had been permitted to bring up and tend my poor children. they were too young to abandon! i stayed still in the midst of you, as the swallow hovers and flits among the smoke of the fire, in order to watch over and save her little ones. do not wait till disdain or authority mingles in the matter. do not come to the sad necessity of resisting a monarch, and of detesting to the point of scandal that which you have so publicly loved; pity him, but depart. this kind of intimacy, once broken, cannot be renewed. however skilfully it may be patched up, the rent always reappears." "my good louise," i replied to the amiable carmelite, "your wise counsels touch me, persuade me, and are nothing but the truth. but in listening to you i feel overwhelmed; and that strength which you knew how to gain, and show to the world, your former companion will never possess. "i see with astonished eyes the supernatural calm which reigns in your countenance; your health seems to me a prodigy, your beauty was never so ravishing; but this barbarous garb pierces me to the heart. "the king does not yet hate me; he shows me even a remnant of respect, with which he would colour his indifference. permit me to ask from him for you an abbey like that of fontevrault, where the felicities of sanctuary and of the world are all in the power of my sister. he will ask nothing better than to take you out, be assured." "speak to him of me," answered louise; "i do not oppose that; but leave me until the end the role of obedience and humility that his fault and mine impose on me. why should he wish that i should command others,--i who did not know how to command myself at an epoch when my innocence was so dear to me, and when i knew that, in losing that, one is lost?" as she said these words two nuns came to announce her serene highness, that is to say, her daughter, the princesse de conti. i prayed madame de la valliere to keep between ourselves the communications that had just taken place in the intimacy of confidence. she promised me with her usual candour. i made a profound reverence to the daughter, embraced the mother weeping, and regained my carriage, which the princess must have remarked on entering. chapter xviii. reflections.--the future.--the refuge of foresight.--community of saint joseph.--wicked saying of bossuet. i wept much during the journey; and to save the spectacle of my grief from the passers-by, i was at the pains to lower the curtains. i passed over in my mind all that the duchess had said to me. it was very easy for me to understand that the monarch's heart had escaped me, and that, owing to his character, all resistance, all contradiction would be vain. the figure, as it had been supernumerary and on sufferance, which the duchess had made in the midst of the court when she ceased to be loved, returned to my memory completely, and i felt i had not the courage to drink a similar cup of humiliation. i reminded myself of what the prince had told me several times in those days when his keen affection for me led him to wish for my happiness, even in the future,--even after his death, if i were destined to survive him. "you ought," he said to me, at those moments, "you ought to choose and assure yourself beforehand of an honourable retreat; for it is rarely that a king accords his respect or his good-will to the beloved confidante of his predecessor." not wishing to ask a refuge of any one, but, on the contrary, being greatly set upon ruling in my own house, i resolved to build myself, not a formal convent like val-de-grace or fontevrault, but a pretty little community, whose nuns, few in number, would owe me their entire existence, which would necessarily attach them to all my interests. i held to this idea. i charged my intendant to seek for me a site spacious enough for my enterprise; and when he had found it, had showed it to me, and had satisfied me with it, i had what rambling buildings there were pulled down, and began, with a sort of joy, the excavations and foundations. the first blow of the hammer was struck, by some inconceivable fortuity, at the moment when the duchesse de fontanges expired. her death did not weaken my resolutions nor slacken my ardour. i got away quite often to cast an eye over the work, and ordered my architect to second my impatience and spur on the numerous workmen. the rumour was current in paris that the example of "soeur louise" had touched me, and that i was going to take the veil in my convent. i took no notice of this fickle public, and persisted wisely in my plan. the unexpected and almost sudden decease of mademoiselle de fontanges had singularly moved the king. extraordinary and almost incredible to relate, he was for a whole week absent from the council. his eyes had shed so many tears that they were swollen and unrecognisable. he shunned the occasions when there was an assembly, buried himself in his private apartments or in his groves, and resembled, in every trait, orpheus weeping for his fair eurydice, and refusing to be consoled. i should be false to others and to myself if i were to say that his extreme grief excited my compassion; but i should equally belie the truth if i gave it to be understood that his "widowhood" gave me pleasure, and that i congratulated myself on his sorrow and bitterness. he came to see me when he found himself presentable, and, for the first few days, i abstained from all reprisal and any allusion. the innumerable labours of his state soon threw him, in spite of himself, into those manifold distractions which, in their nature, despise or absorb the sensibilities of the soul. he resumed, little by little, his accustomed serenity, and, at the end of the month, appeared to have got over it. "what," he asked me, "are those buildings with which you are busy in paris, opposite the ladies of belle-chasse? i hear of a convent; is it your intention to retire?" "it is a 'refuge of foresight,'" i answered him. "who can count upon the morrow? and after what has befallen mademoiselle de fontanges, we must consider ourselves as persons already numbered, who wait only for the call." he sighed, and soon spoke of something else. i reminded myself that, to speak correctly, i had in paris no habitation worthy of my children and of my quality. that little hotel in the rue saint andre-des-arcs i could count for no more than a little box. i sought amongst my papers for a design of a magnificent hotel which i had obtained from the famous blondel. i found it without difficulty, with full elevations and sections. the artist had adroitly imitated in it the beautiful architecture of the louvre; this fair palace would suit me in every respect. my architect, at a cursory glance, judged that the construction and completion of this edifice would easily cost as much as eighteen hundred thousand livres. this expense being no more than i could afford, i commissioned him to choose me a spacious site for the buildings and gardens over by roule and la pepiniere. not caring to superintend several undertakings at once, i desired, before everything, that my house in the faubourg saint germain should be complete and when the building and the chapel were in a condition to receive the little colony, i dedicated my "refuge of foresight" to saint joseph, the respectful spouse of the holy virgin and foster-father of the child jesus. this agreeable mansion lacked a large garden. i felt a sensible regret for this, especially for the sake of my inmates; but there was a little open space furnished with vines and fruit-walls, and one of the largest courtyards in the whole of the faubourg saint germain. having always loved society, i had multiplied in the two principal blocks of the sleeping-rooms and the entrance-hall complete apartments for the lady inmates. and a proof that i was neither detested by the world nor unconsidered is that all these apartments were sought after and occupied as soon as the windows were put in and the painting done. my own apartment was simple, but of a majestic dignity. it communicated with the chapel, where my tribune, closed with a handsome window, was in face of the altar. i decided, once for all, that the superior should be my nomination whilst god should leave me in this world, but that this right should not pass on to my heirs. the bell of honour rang for twenty minutes every time i paid a visit to these ladies; and i only had incense at high mass, and at the magnificat, in my quality of foundress. i went from time to time to make retreats, or, to be more accurate, vacations, in my house of saint joseph. m. bossuet solicited the favour of being allowed to preach there on the day of the solemn consecration. i begged him to preserve himself for my funeral oration. he answered cruelly that there was nothing he could refuse me. etext editor's bookmarks: grow like a dilapidated house; i am only here to repair myself he contradicted me about trifles intimacy, once broken, cannot be renewed jealous without motive, and almost without love the king replied that "too much was too much" the monarch suddenly enough rejuvenated his attire there is an exaggeration in your sorrow memoirs of madame la marquise de montespan written by herself being the historic memoirs of the court of louis xiv. book 7. chapter xxxvii the king takes luxembourg because it is his will.--devastation of the electorate of treves.--the marquis de louvois.--his portrait.--the marvels which he worked.--the le tellier and the mortemart.--the king destines de mortemart to a colbert.--how one manages not to bow.--the dragonades.--a necessary man.--money makes fat.--meudon.--the horoscope. this journey to flanders did not keep the king long away from his capital. and, withal, he made two fine and rich conquests, short as the space of time was. the important town of luxembourg was necessary to him. he wanted it. the marechal de crequi invested this place with an army of thirty thousand men, and made himself master of it at the end of a week. immediately after the king marched to the electorate of treves, which had belonged, he said, to the former kingdom of austrasia. he had no trouble in mastering it, almost all the imperial forces being in hungary, austria, and in those cantons where the ottomans had called for them. the town of treves humbly recognised the king of france as its lord and suzerain. its fine fortifications were levelled at once, and our victories were, unhappily, responsible for the firing, pillage, and devastation of almost the whole electorate. for the duke of crequi, faithful executor of the orders of louvois, imagined that a sovereign is only obeyed when he proves himself stern and inflexible. in the first years of my favour, the marquis de louvois enjoyed my entire confidence, and, i must admit, my highest esteem. independently of his manners, which are, when he wishes, those of the utmost amiability, i remarked in him an industrious and indefatigable minister, an intelligent man, as well instructed in the mass as in details; a mind fertile in resources, means, and expedients; an administrator, a jurist, a theologian, a man of letters and of affairs, an artist, an agriculturist, a soldier. loving pleasure, yet knowing how to despise it in favour of the needs of the state and the care of affairs, this minister concentrated in his own person all the other ministries, which moved only by his impulse and guiding hand. did the king, followed by his whole court, arrive in fearful weather by the side of some vast and swollen river, m. de louvois, alighting from his carriage, would sweep the horizon with a single glance. he would designate on the spot the farms, granaries, mills, and chateaux necessary to the passage of a fastidious king on his travels. a general repast, appropriate and sufficient, issued at his voice as it had been from the bowels of the earth. an abundance of mattresses received provisionally the more or less delicate forms, stretched out in slumber or fatigue. and in the depth of the night, by the light of a thousand flaring torches, a vast bridge, constructed hastily, in spite of wind and rain, permitted the royal carriage and the host of other vehicles to cross the stream, and find on the further bank succulent dishes and voluptuous apartments. this prodigious energy, which created results by pulverising obstacles, had rendered the minister not only agreeable but precious to a young sovereign, who, unable to tolerate delays and resistance, desired in all things to attain and succeed. the king, without looking too closely at the means, loved the results which were the consequences of such a genius, and he rewarded with a limitless confidence the intrepid and often culpable zeal of a minister who procured him hatred. when the passions of the conqueror, owing to success, grew calm, he studied more tranquilly both his own desires and his coadjutor's. the king by nature is neither inhuman nor savage, and he knew that louvois was like phalaris in these points. then he was at as much pains to repress this unpopular humour as he had shown indifference before in allowing it to act. the marquis de louvois (who did not like me) had lavished his incense upon me, in order that some fumes of it might float up to the prince. he saw me beloved and, as it were, almost omnipotent; he sought my alliance with ardour. the family of le tellier is good enough for a judicial and legal family; but what bonds are there between the louvois and the mortemart? no matter: ambition puts a thick bandage over the eyes of those whom it inspires; the marquis wished to marry his daughter to my nephew, de mortemart!!! i communicated this proposition to the king. his majesty said to me: "i am delighted that he has committed the grave fault of approaching any one else than me about this marriage. answer him, if you please, that it is my province alone to marry the daughters, and even the sons of my ministers. louvois has thus far helped me to spend enormous sums. m. colbert has assisted me to heap up treasure. it is for one of the colberts that i destine your nephew; for i have made up my mind that the three sisters shall be duchesses." in effect, his majesty caused this marriage; and the marquis de louvois had the jaundice over it for more than a fortnight. since that time his assiduities have been enlightened. he puts respect into his reverences; and when our two coachmen carried our equipages past each other on the same, road, he read some documents in order to avoid saluting me. in the affair of the protestants, he caused what was at first only anxiety, religious zeal, and distrust to turn into rebellion. in order to make himself necessary, he proposed his universal and permanent patrols and dragoons. he caused certain excesses to be committed in order to raise a cry of disorder; and a measure which could have been effective without ceasing to be paternal became, in his hands, an instrument of dire persecution. madame de maintenon, having learnt that louvois, to exonerate himself, was secretly designating her as the real author of these rigorous and lamentable counsels, made complaint of it to the king, and publicly censured his own brother, who, in order to make himself agreeable to the jesuits, to bossuet, and to louvois, had made himself a little hero in his provincial government. the great talents of m. de louvois, and the difficulty of replacing him, became his refuge and safeguard. but, from the moment that he no longer received the intimate confidence of the king, and the esteem of the lady in waiting who sits upon the steps of the throne, he can only look upon himself at versailles as a traveller with board and lodging. his revenues are incalculable. the people, seeing his enormous corpulence, maintain, or pretend, that he is stuffed with gold. his general administration of posts alone is worth a million. his other offices are in proportion. his chateau of meudon-fleury, a magical and quite ideal site, is the finest pleasure-house that ever yet the sun shone on. the park and the gardens are in the form of an amphitheatre, and are, in my opinion, sublime, in a far different way from those of vaux. m. fouquet, condemned to death, in punishment for his superb chateau, died slowly in prison; the marquis de louvois will not, perhaps, die in a stronghold; but his horoscope has already warned that minister to be prepared for some great adversity. he knows it; sometimes he is concerned about it; and everything leads one to believe that he will come to a bad end. he has done more harm than people believe. chapter xxxviii. the reformed religion and painting on enamel--petitot and heliogabalus.--theological discussion with the marquise.--the king's intervention.--louis xiv. renders his account to the christian and most christian painter.--the king's word is not to be resisted.--revocation of the edict of nantes. at the moment when the first edicts, were issued against the public exercise of the reformed religion, the famous and incomparable petitot, refusing all the supplications of france and of europe, executed for me, in my chateau of clagny, five infinitely precious portraits, upon which it was his caprice only to work alternately, and which still demanded from him a very great number of sittings. one of these five portraits was that of the king, copied from that great and magnificent picture of mignard, where he was represented at the age of twenty, in the costume of a greek hero, in all the lustre of his youth. his majesty had given me this little commission for more than a year, and i desired, with all my heart, to be able soon to fulfil his expectation. he destined this miniature for the emperor of china or the sultan. i went to see m. petitot at clagny. when he saw me he came to me with a wrathful air, and, presenting me his unfinished enamel, he said to me: "here, madame, is your greek hero; his new edicts finish us, but, as for me, i shall not finish him. with the best intentions in the world, and all the respect that is due to him, my just resentment would pass into my brush; i should give him the traits of heliogabalus, which would probably not delight him." "do you think so, monsieur?" said i to my artist. "is it thus you speak of the king, our master,--of a king who has affection for you, and has proved it to: you so many times?" "my memory, recalls to me all that his munificence: has done for my talent in a thousand instances," went on the painter; "but his edicts, his cruel decrees, have upset my heart, and the persecutor of the true christians no longer merits my consideration or good-will." i had been ignorant hitherto of the faith which this able man professed; he informed me that he worshipped god in another fashion than ours, and made common cause with the protestants. "well," said i to him then, "what have you to complain of in the new edicts and decrees? they only concern, so far, your ministers,--i should say, your priests; you are not one, and are never likely to be; what do these new orders of the council matter to you?" "madame," resumed petitot, "our ministers, by preaching the holy gospel, fulfil the first of their duties. the king forbids them to preach; then, he persecutes them and us. in the thousand and one religions which exist, the cause of the priests and the sanctuary becomes the cause of the faithful. our priests are not imbecile trappists and carthusians, to be reduced to inaction and silence. since their tongues are tied, they are resolved to depart; and their departure becomes an exile which it is our duty to share. if you will entrust me with your portraits which have been commenced, with the exception of that of heliogabalus, i will finish them in a hospitable land, and shall have the honour of sending them to you, already fired and in all their perfection." petitot, until this political crisis, had only exhibited himself to me beneath an appearance of simplicity and good-nature. now his whole face was convulsed and almost threatening; when i looked at him he made me afraid. i did not amuse myself by discussing with him matters upon which we were, both of us, more or less ignorant. i did all that could be done to introduce a little calm into his superstitious head, and to gain the necessary time for the completion of my five portraits. i was careful not to confide to the king this qualification of heliogabalus; but as his intervention was absolutely necessary to me, i persuaded him to come and spend half an hour at this chateau of clagny, which he had deserted for a long time past. "your presence," i said to him, "will perhaps take the edge off the theological irritation of your fanatical painter. a little royal amenity, a little conversation and blandishment, a la louis xiv., will seduce his artistic vanity. at the cost of that, your portrait, sire, will be terminated. it would not be without." the surprise of his majesty was extreme when he had to learn and comprehend that the prodigious talent of petitot was joined to a huguenot conscience, and this talent spoke of expatriating itself. "i will go to clagny to-morrow," replied the prince to me; and he went there, in fact, accompanied by the marquise de montchevreuil and madame la dauphine, in an elaborate neglige. "good-day, monsieur petitot," said the monarch to our artist, who rose on seeing him enter. "i come to contemplate your new masterpieces. is my little miniature near completion?" "sire," replied petitot, "it will not be for another six weeks. all these affairs and decrees have deprived me of many hours; my heart is heavy over it!" "and why do you busy yourself with these discussions, with which your great talent has no concern?" said the king to him, gently. "sire, it is my religion that is more concerned than ever. i am a christian, and my law is dear to me." "and i am most christian," answered his majesty, smiling. "i profess the religion, i keep the law that your ancestors and mine kept before the reformation." "sire, this reform has been adopted by a great number of monarchs,--a proof that the reformation is not the enemy of kings, as is said." "yes, in the case of wise and honest men like yourself, my good friend petitot; but just as all your brothers have not your talents, so they have not your rectitude and loyalty, which are known to me." "sire, your majesty overwhelms me; but i beg you to be persuaded that my brothers have been calumniated." "yes, if one is to accuse them in the mass, my dear petitot; but there are spoil-alls amongst your theologians; intercepted correspondences depose to it. the allied princes, having been unable to crush me by their invasions and artillery, have recourse to internal and clandestine manoeuvres. having failed to corrupt my soldiers, they have essayed to corrupt my clergy, as they did at montauban and la rochelle, in the days of cardinal richelieu." "sire, do not believe in any such manoeuvres; all your subjects love and admire you, whatever be their faith and communion." "petitot, you are an admirable painter and a most worthy man. do not answer me, i beg you. if i believed you had as much genius and aptitude for great affairs as for the wonders of the brush, i would make you a counsellor of state on the instant, and a half-hour spent with me and my documents and papers of importance would be sufficient to make you believe and think as i do touching what has been discussed between us. madame de montespan, in great alarm, has told me that you wished to leave me. you leave me, my good friend! where will you find a sky so pure and soft as the sky of france? where will you find a king more tenderly attached to men of merit, more particularly, to my dear and illustrious petitot?" at these words, pronounced with emotion, the artist felt the tears come into his eyes. he bent one knee to the ground, respectfully kissed the hand of the monarch, and promised to complete his portrait immediately. he kept his word to us. the king's miniature and my four portraits were finished without hesitation or postponement; and petitot also consented to copy, for his majesty, a superb christine of sweden, a full-length picture, painted by le bourdon. but at the final revocation of the edict of nantes, he thought his conscience, or rather his vanity, compromised, and quitted france, although the king offered to allow him a chaplain of his communion, and a dispensation from all the oaths, to petitot himself, to boyer, his brother-in-law, and the chaplain whom they had retained with them. chapter xxxiv. lovers' vows.--the body-guards.--racine's phedre.--the pit.--allusions.--the duel.--m. de monclar.--the cowled spy.--he escapes with a fright.--m. de monclar in jersey.--gratitude of the marquise.--happy memory. lovers, in the effervescence of their passion, exaggerate to themselves the strength and intensity of their sentiments. the momentary, pleasure that this agreeable weakness causes them to feel, brings them, in spite of themselves, to promise a long duration of it, so that they swear eternal fidelity, a constancy, proof against all, two days after that one which shone on their most recent infidelity. i had seen the king neglect and abandon the amiable la valliere, and i listened to him none the less credulously and confidently when he said to me: "athenais, we have been created for each other: if heaven were suddenly to deprive me of the queen, i would have your marriage dissolved, and, before the altar and the world, join your destiny, to mine." full of these fantastic ideas, in which my hope and desire and credulity were centred, i had accepted those body-guards of state who never left my carriage. the poor queen had murmured: i had disdained her murmurs. the public had manifested its disapproval: i had hardened myself and fought against the insolent opinion of that public. i could not renounce my chimera of royalty, based on innumerable probabilities, and i used my guards in anticipation, and as a preliminary. one of them, one day, almost lost his life in following my carriage, which went along like a whirlwind. his horse fell on the high road to versailles; his thigh was broken, and his body horribly bruised. i descended from my carriage to see after him. i confided him, with the most impressive recommendations, to the physician or surgeon of viroflai, who lavished on him his attentions, his skill and zeal, and who sent him back quite sound after a whole month of affectionate care. the young baron de monclar (such was the name of this guard) thought himself happy in having merited my favour by this accident, and he remained sincerely and finally attached to me. at the time of the temporary triumph of mademoiselle de fontanges, the spell which was over my eyes was dissipated. the illusions of my youth were lost, and i saw, at last, the real distance which divided me from the steps of the throne. the health of a still youthful queen seemed to me as firm and unalterable then as it appeared to me weak and uncertain before. the inconstancy of the monarch warned me of what might be still in store for me, and i resolved to withdraw myself, voluntarily and with prudence, within the just limits of my power. m. le prince de luxembourg was one of my friends, and in command; i begged him to send me his guards no longer, but to reserve them for the reigning divinity, who had already more than once obtained them. in these latter days, that is to say, since the eminent favour of the lady in waiting, having become the friend, and no longer the spouse of the prince, i frequently retired from this sight, so repugnant to me, and went and passed entire weeks at paris, where the works on my large hotel, that had been suspended for divers reasons, were being resumed. a debutante, as beautiful as she was clever, was drawing the entire capital to the comedie francaise. she obtained especial applause in the difficult part of phedre. my friends spoke marvels of it, and wished to take me there with them. their box was engaged. we arrived as the curtain was going up. as i took my seat i noticed a certain stir in the orchestra and pit. the majority of glances were directed at my box, in which my apparition had attracted curiosity. i carried my fan to my face, under the pretext of the excessive glow of the lights. immediately several voices were to be heard: "take away the fan, if you please." the young and foolish applauded this audacity; but all the better part disapproved. the actress mentioned came on the scene and brought the incident to an end. although deeply moved by what had occurred, i paid great attention to the magnificent part of phedre, which often excited my admiration and profound pity. at some passages, which every one knows by heart, two or three insolent persons abandoned themselves to a petty war of allusions, and accenting these aggressive phrases with their applause, succeeded in directing general attention to me. officers of the service noticed this beginning of disorder, and probably were concerned at my embarrassment. some gardes francais were called within the barrier of the parterre in order to restrain the disturbers. suddenly a very lively quarrel broke out in the centre. two young men with great excitement had come to blows, and soon we saw them sally forth with the openly expressed intention of settling their quarrel on the field. was it my name, or a contest as to the talent of the actress, which caused this commotion? my nephew, de mortemart, was concerned for me, and the comte de marcilly assured us that all these wrangles were solely with regard to the wife of theseus. between the two pieces our company learnt that a gentleman from the provinces had insulted my name, and a body-guard, out of uniform, had taken this insult for himself; they had gone out to have an explanation. the following day a religious minim of the house of chaillot came to inform me of the state of affairs. the baron de monclar, of the body-guards of the king, had taken sanctuary in their monastery, after having killed, in lawful duel, beneath the outer walls of the bois du boulogne, the imprudent young man who, the night before, at the play, had exposed me to the censure of the public. m. de monclar was quite prepared for the inflexible severity of the king, as well as for the uselessness of my efforts. he only begged me to procure him a disguise of a common sort, so that he might immediately embark from the neighbourhood of gainville or bordeaux, and make for england or spain; every moment was precious. the sad position in which m. de monclar had put himself in my behalf filled me with sorrow. i gave a long sigh, and dried my first tears. i racked my sick and agitated head for the reply i ought to make to the good monk, and, to my great astonishment, my mind, ordinarily so prompt and active, suggested and offered me no suitable plan. this indecision, perhaps, rendered the worthy ambassador impatient and humiliated me; when, to end it, i made up my mind to request that m. de monclar be secretly transferred from the house of chaillot to my dwelling, where i should have time and all possible facilities to take concert with him as to the best means of action. suddenly raising my eyes to the monk of chaillot, i surprised in his a ferocious look of expectation. this horrible discovery unnerved me,--i gave a cry of terror; all my lackeys rushed in. i ordered the traitor to be seized and precipitated from the height of my balcony into the gardens. his arms were already bound ruthlessly, and my people were lifting him to throw him down, when he eluded their grasp, threw himself at my feet, and confessed that his disguise was assumed with the intent to discover the sanctuary of the baron de monclar, the assassin of his beloved brother. "it is asserted, madame," added this man, rising, "that the baron is confided to the minim fathers of chaillot. i imagined that you were informed of it, and that by this means my family would succeed in reaching him." "if he has killed the nobody who yesterday insulted me so unjustly," i said then to this villain who was ready for death, "he has done a virtuous act, but one which i condemn. i condemn it because of the law of the prince, which is formal, and because of the dire peril into which he has run; for that my heart could almost praise and thank him. i was ignorant of his offence; i am ignorant of his place of refuge. whoever you may be,--the agent of a family in mourning, or of a magistrate who forgets what is due to me,--leave my house before my wrath is rekindled. depart, and never forget what one gains by putting on the livery of deceit in order to surprise and betray innocence." my people conducted this unworthy man to the outer gate, and refused to satisfy some prayers which he addressed to them to be released from his disagreeable bonds. the public, with its usual inconsequence, followed the monk with hooting, without troubling as to whether it were abusing a vile spy or a man of worth. we waited for a whole month without receiving any news of our guard. at last he wrote to me from the island of jersey, where he had been cast by a storm. i despatched the son of my intendant, who knew him perfectly; i sent him a letter of recommendation to his majesty the king of england, who had preserved me in his affections, and to those matters of pure obligation, which i could not refrain from without cruelty, i added a present of a hundred thousand livres, which was enough to furnish an honourable condition for my noble and generous cavalier in the land of exile. the humour of my heart is of the kind which finishes by forgetting an injury and almost an outrage; but a service loyally rendered is graven upon it in uneffaceable characters, and when (at the solicitation of the king of england) our monarch shall have pardoned m. de monclar, i will search all through paris to find him a rich and lovely heiress, and will dower him myself, as his noble conduct and my heart demand. i admire great souls as much as i loathe ingratitude and villainy. chapter xl. parallel between the diamond and the sun.--taste of the marquise for precious stones.--the king's collection of medals.--the crown of agrippina.--the duchess of york.--disappointment of the marquise.--to lend is not to give.--the crown well guarded.--fright of the marquise.--the thief recognised.--the marquise lets him hang.--the difference between cromwell and a trunkmaker.--delicate restitutions.--the bourbons of madame de montespan. the diamond is, beyond contradiction, the most beautiful creation of the hands of god, in the order of inanimate objects. this precious stone, as durable as the sun, and far more accessible than that, shines with the same fire, unites all its rays and colours in a single facet, and lavishes its charms, by night and day, in every clime, at all seasons; whilst the sun appears only when it so pleases; sometimes shining, sometimes misty, and shows itself off with innumerable pretensions. from my tenderest childhood, i was notable amongst all my brothers and sisters for my distinct fondness for precious stones and diamonds. i have made a collection of them worthy of the princes of asia; and if my whole fortune were to fail me to-day, my pearls and diamonds, being left to me, would still give me opulence. the king, by a strange accident, shares this taste with me. he has in his third closet two huge pedestals, veneered in rosewood, and divided within, like cabinets of coins, into several layers. it is there that he has conveyed, one by one, all the finest diamonds of the crown. he consecrates to their examination, their study, and their homage, the brief moments that his affairs leave him. and when, by his ambassadors, he comes to discover some new apparition of this kind in asia or europe, he does all that is possible to distance his competitors. when he loved me with a tender love, i had only to wish and i obtained instantly all that could please me, in rare pearls, in superfine brilliants, sapphires, emeralds, and rubies. one day, his majesty allowed me to carry home the famous crown of agrippina, executed with admirable art, and formed of eight sprays of large brilliants handsomely mounted. this precious object occupied me for several days in succession, and the more i examined the workmanship, the more i marvelled at its lightness and excellence, which was so great that our jewellers, compared with those of nero and agrippina, were as artisans and workmen. the king, having never spoken to me again of this ornament, i persuaded myself that he had made me a present of it,--a circumstance which confirmed me in the delusions of my hope. i thought then that i ought not to leave in its light case an article of such immense value, and ordered a strong and solid casket in which to enshrine my treasure. the imperial crown having been encased and its clasps well adjusted by as many little locks of steel, i shut the illustrious valuable in a cupboard in which i had a quantity of jewelry and precious stones. this beautiful crown was the constant object of my thoughts, my affections and my preference; but i only looked at it myself at long intervals, every six months, very briefly, for fear of exciting the cupidity of servants, and exposing the glory of agrippina to some danger. when the princess of mantua passed through france on her way to marry the duke of york, whose first wife had left him a widower, the king gave a brilliant reception to this young and lovely creature, daughter of a niece of cardinal mazarin. the conversation was uniformly most agreeable, for she spoke french with fluency, and employed it with wit. there was talk of open-work crowns and shut crowns. the marquis de dangeau, something of a savant and antiquary, happened to remark that, under nero, that magnificent prince, the imperial crown had first been wrought in the form of an arch, such as is seen now. the king said then: "i was ignorant of that fact; but the crown of the empress, his mother, was not closed at all. the one which belongs to me is authentic; madame la marquise will show it to us:" a gracious invitation in dumb show completed this species of summons, and i was obliged to execute it. i returned to the king in the space of a few minutes, bringing back in its new case the fugitive present, which a monarch asked back again so politely and with such a good grace. the crown of agrippina, being placed publicly on a small round table, excited general attention and admiration. the italian princess, madame de maintenon, the duc de saint aignan, and dangeau himself went into raptures over the rare perfection of these marvellously assorted brilliants. the king, drawing near, in his turn examined the masterpiece with pleasure. suddenly, looking me in the face, he cried: "but, madame, this is no longer my crown of agrippina; all the diamonds have been changed!" imagine my trouble, and, i must say, my confusion! approaching the wretched object, and casting my eyes over it with particular attention, i was not slow in verifying the king's assertion. the setting of this fine work had remained virtually the same; but some bold hand had removed the antique diamonds and substituted--false! i was pale and trembling, and on the verge of swooning. the ladies were sorry for me. the king did me the honour of declaring aloud that i had assuredly been duped, and i was constrained to explain this removal of the crown into a more solid and better case for its preservation. at this naive explanation the king fell to laughing, and said to the young princess: "madame, you will relate, if you please, this episode to the court of london, and you will tell the king, from me, that nothing is so difficult to preserve now as our crowns; guards and locks are no more of use." then, addressing me, his majesty said, playfully: "you should have entrusted it to me sooner; i should have saved it. it is said that i understand that well." my amour-propre, my actual honour, forbade me to put a veil over this domestic indignity. i assembled all my household, without excepting my intendant himself. i was aggrieved at the affront which i had met with at the king's, and i read grief and consternation on all faces. after some minutes' silence, my intendant proposed the immediate intervention of authority, and made me understand with ease that only the casket-maker could be the culprit. this man's house was visited; he had left paris nearly two years before. further information told us that, before disposing of his property, he had imprudently indulged in a certain ostentation of fortune, and had embarked for the new settlements of pondicherry. m. colbert, who is still living, charged our governor to discover the culprit for him; and he was sent back to us with his hands and feet bound. put to the question, he denied at first, then confessed his crime. one of my chamber--maids, to whom he had made feigned love, introduced him into my house while i was away, and by the aid of this imprudent woman he had penetrated into my closets. the crown of agrippina, which it had been necessary to show him because of the measures, had become almost as dear to him as to myself; and his ambition of another kind inspired him with his criminal and fatal temerity. he did no good by petitioning me, and having me solicited after the sentence; i let him hang, as he richly deserved. the king said on this occasion: "this casketmaker has, at least, left us the setting, but m. cromwell took all." the fortunate success of this affair restored me, not to cheerfulness, but to that honourable calm which had fled far away from me. i made a reflection this time on my extreme imprudence, and understood that all the generosities of love are often no more than loans. i noticed amongst my jewels a goblet of gold, wrought with diamonds and rubies, which came from the first of the medici princesses. i waited for the king's fete to return this magnificent ornament to him nobly. i had a lily executed, all of emeralds and fine pearls; i poured essence of roses into the cup, placed in it the stem of the lily, in the form of a bouquet for the prince, and that was my present for saint louis's day. i gave back to the king, by degrees, at least three millions' worth of important curiosities, which were like drops of water poured into the ocean. but i was anxious that, if god destined me to perish by a sudden death, objects of this nature should not be seen and discovered amid my treasure. as to my other diamonds, either changed in form or acquired and collected by myself, i destine them for my four children by the king. these pomps will have served to delight my eyes, which are pleased with them, and then they will go down to their first origin and source, belonging again to the bourbons whom i have made. chapter xli. the duchesse de lesdiguieres.--her jest.--"the chaise of convenience."--anger of the jesuits.--they ally themselves with the archbishop of paris.--the forty hours' prayers.--thanks of the marquise to the prelate.--his visit to saint joseph.--anger of the marquise.--her welcome to the prelate. the insult offered me at the comedie francaise by a handful of the thoughtless immediately spread through the capital, and became, as it is easy to imagine, the talk of all the salons. i was aware that the duchesse de lesdiguieres was keenly interested in this episode, and had embellished and, as it were, embroidered it with her commentaries and reflections. all these women who misconduct themselves are pitiless and severe. the more their scandalous conduct brands them on the forehead, the more they cry out against scandal. their whole life is bemired with vice, and their mouth articulates no other words than prudence and virtue, like those corrupt and infected doctors who have no indulgence for their patients. the duchesse de lesiguieres, for a long time associated with the archbishop of paris, and known to live with that prelate like a miller with his wife, dared to say, in her salon that my presence at racine's tragedy was, at the least, very useless, and the public having come there to see a debutante, certainly did not expect me. the phrase was repeated to me, word for word by my sister de thianges, who did not conceal her anger, and wished to avenge me, if i did not avenge myself. the marquise then informed me of another thing, which she had left me in ignorance of all along, from kind motives chiefly, and to prevent scandal. "you remember, my sister," said the marquise to me, "a sort of jest which escaped you when pere de la chaise made the king communicate, in spite of all the noise of his new love affair and the follies of mademoiselle de fontanges? you nicknamed that benevolent jesuit 'the chaise of convenience.' your epigram made all paris laugh except the hypocrites and the jesuits. those worthy men resolved to have full satisfaction for your insult by stirring up the whole of paris against you. the archbishop entered readily into their plot, for he thought you supplanted; and he granted them the forty hours' prayers, to obtain from god your expulsion from court. harlay, who is imprudent only in his debauches, preserved every external precaution, because of the king, whose temper he knows; he told the jesuits that they must not expect either his pastoral letter or his mandate, but he allowed them secret commentaries, the familiar explanations of the confessional; he charged them to let the other monks and priests into the secret, and the field of battle being decided, the skirmishes began. with the aid and assistance of king david, that trivial breastplate of every devotional insult, the preachers announced to their congregations that they must fast and mortify themselves for the cure of king david, who had fallen sick. the orators favoured with some wit embellished their invectives; the ignorant and coarse amongst the priests spoiled everything. the blessed sacrament was exposed for a whole week in the churches, and it ended by an announcement to israel, that their cry had reached the firmament, that david had grown cold to bathsheba (they did not add, nevertheless, that david preferred another to bathsheba with his whole heart). but the duchesse de fontanges gave offence neither to the archbishop of paris nor to the jesuits. her mind showed no hostility. the beauty was quite incapable of saying in the face of the world that a jesuit resembled a 'chaise of convenience.' "the duchesse de lesdiguieres, covered with rouge and crimes, has put herself at the head of all these intrigues," added my sister; "and without having yet been able to subdue herself to the external parade of devotion, she has allowed herself to use against you all the base tricks of the most devout hypocrites." "let me act," i said to my sister; "this lady's good offices call for a mark of my gratitude. the forty hours' prayer is an attention that is not paid to every one; i owe m. de paris my thanks." i went and sat down at my writing-table, and wrote this fine prelate the following honeyed missive: i have only just been informed, monseigneur, of the pains you have been at with god for the amelioration of the king and of myself. the gratitude which i feel for it cannot be expressed. i pray you to believe it to be as pure and sincere as your intention. a good bishop, as perfect and exemplary as yourself, is worthy of taking a passionate interest in the regularity of monarchs, and ours must owe you the highest rewards for this new mark of respect which it has pleased you to give him. i will find expressions capable of making him feel all that he owes to your forty hours' prayer, and to that christian and charitable emotion cast in the midst of a capital and a public. to all that only your mandate of accusation and allegorical sermons are lacking. cardinals' hats, they say, are made to the measure of strong heads; we will go seek, in the robing-rooms of rome, if there be one to meet the proportions of your ability. if ladies had as much honourable influence over the vicar of jesus christ as simple bishops allow them, i should solicit, this very day, your wished-for recompense and exaltation. but it is the monarch's affair; he will undertake it. i can only offer you, in my own person, m. archbishop of paris, my prayers for yours. my little church of saint joseph has not the same splendour as your cathedral; but the incense that we burn there is of better quality than yours, for i get it from the sultan of persia. i will instruct my little community to-morrow to hold our forty hours' prayer, that god may promptly cure you of your duchesse de lesdiguieres, who has been damning you for fourteen years. deign to accept these most sincere reprisals, and believe me, without reserve, monsieur the archbishop, the marquise de montespan. this letter cast the camp into alarm. there were goings and comings between the episcopal palace and the jesuits of the rue saint antoine, and from this professed house to their college of louis le grand. the matadores of the society were of opinion that i should be conciliated by every possible means, and it was arranged that the archbishop should pay me a visit at saint joseph's, on the earliest possible occasion, to exculpate his virtuous colleagues and make me accept his disclaimers. he came, in effect, the following week. i made him wait for half an hour in the chapel, for half an hour in my parlour, and i ascended into my carriage, almost in his presence, without deigning either to see or salute him. the mother of four legitimised princes was not made to support such outrages, nor to have interviews with their insolent authors. alarms, anxieties of consciences, weak but virtuous, have always found me gentle, and almost resigned; the false scruples of hypocrites and libertines will never receive from me aught but disdain and contempt. chapter xlii. the verse of berenice.--praises of boileau.--the king's aversion to satirical writers.--the painter le brun.--his bacchus.--the waterbottle.--the pyramid of jean chatel injurious to the jesuits.--they solicit its demolition.--madame de maintenon's opposition.--political views of henri iv. on this matter.--the jesuits of paris proclaim the dedication of their college to louis the great.--the gold pieces. whatever be the issue of a liaison which cannot probably be eternal, i have too much judgment and equity to deny the king the great talents which are his by nature, or to dispute the surname of great which has been given him in his lifetime, and which the ages to come must surely preserve. but here i am writing secret memoirs, where i set down, as in a mirror, the most minute traits of the personages whom i bring on the stage, and i wish to relate in what manner and with what aim this apotheosis affected the mind of those who flattered the prince in their own interest. the painters and sculptors, most artful of courtiers in their calling, had already represented the king, now with the attributes of apollo, now in the costume of the god mars, of jupiter tonans, neptune, lord of the waves; now with the formidable and vigorous appearance of the great hercules, who strangled serpents even in his cradle. his majesty saw all these ingenious allegories, examined them without vanity, with no enthusiasm, and seemed to regard them as accessories inherent to the composition, as conventional ornaments, the good and current small change of art. the adulations of racine, in his "berenice," having all a foundation of truth, please him, but chiefly for the grace of the poetry; and he sometimes recited them, when he wished to recall and quote some fine verse. the praises of boileau, although well versified, had not, however, the fortune to please him. he found those verses too methodical for poetry; and the poet, moreover, seemed to him somewhat a huckster, and in bad taste. the satirists might do what they liked, they never had his friendship. perhaps he feared them. when le brun started preparing the magnificent cradle of the great gallery, he composed for the ceiling rich designs or cartoons, which in their entirety should represent the victories and great military or legislative achievements of the prince. his work being finished, he came to present it to his majesty, who on that day was dining with me. in one of the compartments the painter had depicted his hero in the guise of bacchus; the king immediately took up a bottle of clear water and drank a big glass. i gave a great peal of laughter, and said to m. le brun, "you see, monsieur, his majesty's decision in that libation of pure water." m. le brun changed his design, seeing the king had no love for bacchus, but he left the thundering jove, and all the other mythological flatteries, in regard to which no opinion had been given. the jesuits for a long time past had groaned at seeing, exactly opposite the palace,--[in the midst of the semicircle in front of the palais de justice. ]--in the centre of paris, that humiliating pyramid which accused them of complicity with, or inciting, the famous regicide of the student, jean chatel, assassin of henri iv. pere de la chaise, many times and always in vain, had prayed his majesty to render justice to the virtues of his order, and to command the destruction of this slanderous monument. the king had constantly refused, alleging to-day one motive, to-morrow another. one day, when the professed house of paris came to hand him a respectful petition on the subject, his majesty begged madame de maintenon to read it to him, and engaged us to listen to it with intelligence, in order to be able to give an opinion. the jesuits said in this document that the parliament, with an excessive zeal, had formerly pushed things much too far in this matter. "for that jean chatel, student with the jesuit fathers, having been heard to say to his professor that the king of navarre, a true huguenot, ought not to reign over france, which was truly catholic, the magistrates were not, therefore, justified in concluding that that jesuit, and all the jesuits, had directed the dagger of jean chatel, a madman." the petition further pointed out that "the good king henri iv., who was better informed, had decided to recall the society of jesus, had reestablished it in all his colleges, and had even chosen a confessor from their ranks. "this fearful pyramid, surcharged with wrathful inscriptions," added the petition, "designates our society as a perpetual hotbed of regicidal conspiracy, and presents us to credulous people as an association of ambitious, thankless and corrupt assassins!" [this monument represented a sort of small square temple, built of arcueil stone and marble. corinthian fluted pillars formed its general decoration, and enshrined the four fulminatory inscriptions. independently of the obelisk, the cupola of this temple bore eight allegorical statues, of which the one was france in mourning; the second, justice raising her sword, and the others the principal virtues of the king. on the principal side these words occurred: "passer-by, whosoever thou be, abhor jean chatel, and the jesuits who beguiled his youth and destroyed his reason."--editor's note.] "in the name of god, sire, do away with this criminal and dangerous memento of old passions, unjust hatreds, and the spirit of impiety which, after having led astray magistrates devoid of light, serves to-day only to beguile new generations, whom excess of light blinds," etc., etc. when this letter was finished, the king said: "i have never seen, the famous pyramid; one of these days i will escape, so that i can see it without being observed." and then his majesty asked me what i thought of the petition. i answered that i did not understand the inconsistency of m. de sully, who, after consenting to the return of the jesuits, had left in its place the monument which accused and branded them. i put it on sully, the minister, because i dared not attack henri iv. himself. the king answered me: "there are faults of negligence such as that in every government and under the best administrations. king henri my grandfather was vivacity itself. he was easily irritated; he grew calm in the same way. for my part, i think that he pardoned the jesuits, as he had the leaguers, in the hope that his clemency would bring them all into peaceful disposition; in which he was certainly succeeding when a miscreant killed him." madame de maintenon, begged to give her opinion, expressed herself in these terms: "sire, this petition cannot be other than extremely well done, since a society of clever minds have taken the work in hand. we have not the trial of jean chatel before our eyes, with his interrogatories; it is impossible for us, then, to pronounce on the facts. in any case, there is one thing very certain: the jesuits who are living at present are innocent, and most innocent of the faults of their predecessors. "the sentences and anathemas which surcharge the pyramid, as they say, can in no way draw down upon them the anger of passers-by and the populace, for these inscriptions, which i have read, are in bad latin. this monument, which is very rich and even elegant in itself, is placed upon the site of the destroyed house of the assassin chatel. the most ignorant of your parisians knows this circumstance, which he has learnt from family traditions. it is good that the people see every day before their eyes this solitary pyramid, which teaches how king's assassins are punished and what is done with the houses in which they were born. "king henri iv., for all his gaiety, had wits enough for four; he left the pyramid standing, like those indulgent people who compromise a great lawsuit, but do not on that account destroy the evidence and documents. "this monument, besides, is the work of the parliament of paris; that illustrious assembly has raised it, and perhaps your majesty might seem to accuse justice by destroying what it has once done for a good cause." the king smiled at the conclusions of the lady in waiting, and said to both of us: "this is between us three, i pray you, ladies; i will keep pere de la chaise amused with promises some day." madame de maintenon, for a brief time in her first youth a calvinist, cherished always in the bottom of her heart a good share of those suspicions that calvin's doctrine is careful to inspire against the jesuits. on the other hand, she retained amongst the parliament a large number of friends whom she had known formerly at m. scarron's, the son of a counsellor of the chamber. i understood that in those circumstances she was well pleased to prove to the gentlemen of parliament that the interests of their house were kept in good hands, and that she would not abandon her friends of the place royale and the marais for all the jesuits and all the pyramids in the world. the parliament, which was informed of her conduct and fidelity, bore her infinite good-will for it. the first president, decorated with his blue riband, came; to express his formal thanks, and begged her to accept in perpetuity a key of honour to the high chamber. [in famous and unusual causes, princes, ambassadors, and keys of honour came and occupied the lanterns, that is to say, elegant and well furnished tribunes, from which all that passed in the grand hall of the parliament could be seen.] the jesuits, for perseverance and tenacity, can be compared with spiders who repair, or start again every instant at a damaged or broken thread. when these good fathers knew that their petition had not triumphed offhand, they struck out for some new road to reach the generous heart of the monarch. having learnt that an alderman, full of enthusiasm, had just proposed in full assembly at the hotel de ville to raise a triumphal monument to the peacemaker of europe, and to proclaim him louis the great at a most brilliant fete, the jesuit fathers cleverly took the initiative, and whilst the hotel de ville was deliberating to obtain his majesty's consent, the college of clermont, in the rue saint jacques, brought out its annual thesis, and dedicated it to the king,--louis the great (ludovico magno). on the following day the masons raised scaffolding before the great door of the college, erased the original inscription--which consisted of the words: "college of clermont"--to substitute for it, in letters of gold: "royal college of louis the great." these items of news reached versailles one after the other. the king received them with visible satisfaction, and if only pere de la chaise had known how to profit at the time by the emotion and sentiment of the prince, he would have carried off the tall pyramid as an eagle does a sparrow. the confessor, a man of great circumspection, dared not force his penitent's hand; he was tactful with him in all things, and the society had the trouble of its famous cajolery without gaining anything more at the game than compliments and gold pieces in sufficient plenty. some days afterwards the monarch, of his own accord and without any incentive, remembered the offensive and mortifying pyramid; but madame de maintenon reminded him that it was desirable to wait, for scoffers would not be wanting to say that this demolition was one of the essential conditions of the bargain. the king relished this advice. at the court one must make haste to obtain anything; but to be forgotten, a few minutes' delay is sufficient. [this pyramid was taken down two or three years before the revolution by the wish of louis xvi., after having stood for two hundred years.--editor's note.] chapter xliii. little opportune.--m. and madame bontems.--the young moor weaned.--the good cure.--the blessed virgin.--opportune at the augustinians of meaux.--bossuet director.--mademoiselle albanier and leontine.--flight of opportune.--her threats of suicide.--visit of the marquise.--prudence of the court. the poor queen had had several daughters, all divinely well made and pretty as little cupids. they kept in good health up to their third or fourth year; they went no further. it was as though a fate was over these charming creatures; so that the king and queen trembled whenever the accoucheurs announced a daughter instead of a son. my readers remember the little negress who was born to the queen in the early days,--she whom no one wanted, who was dismissed, relegated, disinherited, unacknowledged, deprived of her rank and name the very day of her birth; and who, by a freak of destiny, enjoyed the finest health in the world, and surmounted, without any precautions or care, all the difficulties, perils, and ailments of infancy. m. bontems, first valet de chambre of the cabinets, served as her guardian, or curator; even he acted only through the efforts and movements of an intermediary. it was wished that this young princess should be ignorant of her birth, and in this i agree that, in the midst of crying injustice, the king kept his natural humanity. this poor child not being meant, and not being able, to appear at court, it was better, indeed, to keep her from all knowledge of her rights, in order to deprive her, at one stroke, of the distress of her conformation, the hardship of her repudiation, and the despair of captivity. the king destined her for a convent when he saw her born, and m. bontems promised that it should be so. at the age of three, she was withdrawn from the hands of her nurse, and madame bontems put her to be weaned in her own part of the world. opportune,--[she was born on sainte opportune's day.]--clothed and nourished like the other children of the farmer, who was her new patron, played with them in the barns or amongst the snow; she followed them into the orchards and fields; she filled, like them, her little basket with acorns that had been left after the crop was over, or ears of corn that the gleaners had neglected, or withered branches and twigs left by the wood-cutters for the poor. her nude, or semi-nude, arms grew rough in the burning sun, and more so still in the frosts. her pretty feet, so long as the fine season lasted, did not worry about being shod, and when november arrived with its terrors, opportune took her little heeled sabots like the other country children. m. and madame bontems wrote every six months to inquire if she were dead, and each time the answer came that the little moor was in wonderful health. the pastor of the neighbouring hamlet felt pity for this poor child, who was sometimes tormented by her companions on account of her colour. the good cure even went so far as to declare, one day when there was a sermon, that the virgin mary, if one was to believe respectable books, was black from head to foot, which did not prevent her from being most beautiful in the sight of god and of men. this good cure taught the gentle little orphan to read and pray. he often came to her farm to visit her, and probably he knew her birth; he was in advanced age, and he died. then opportune was placed with the augustinian ladies of meaux, where bossuet charged himself with the task of instructing her well in religion and of making her take the veil. the lot of this young victim of pride and vain prejudices touched me in spite of myself, and often i made a firm resolution to take her away from her oppressors and adopt her in spite of everybody. the poor queen, forgetting our rivalry, had taken all my children into her affections. why should not i have shown a just recognition by protecting an innocent little creature animated with her breath, life, and blood,--a child whom she would have loved, i do not doubt, if she had been permitted to see and recognise her? this idea grew so fixed in my mind, that i resolved to see opportune and do her some good, if i were able. the interest of my position had led me once to assure myself of the neighbourhood of the king by certain little measures, not of curiosity but of surveillance. i had put with m. bontems a young man of intelligence and devotion, who, without passing due limits, kept me informed of many things which it is as well to know. when i knew, without any doubt, the new abiding-place of opportune, i secretly sent to the augustinians of meaux the young and intelligent sister of my woman of the bedchamber, who presented herself as an aspirant for the novitiate. they were ignorant in the house of the relations of mademoiselle albanier with her sister leontine osselin, so that they wrote to each other, but by means of a cipher, and under seal, addressing their missives to a relative. albanier lost no time in informing us that the little opportune had begun to give her her confidence, and that the nuns took it in very good part, believing them both equally called to take the veil in their convent. opportune knew, though in a somewhat vague way, to what great personage she owed her life, and it appeared that the good cure had informed her, out of compassion, before he left this world. albanier wrote to leontine: "tell madame la marquise that opportune is full of wit; she resembles m. le duc du maine as though she were his twin; her carriage is exactly that of the king; her body is built to perfection, and were it not for her colour, the black of which diminishes day by day, she would be one of the loveliest persons in france; she is sad and melancholy by temperament, but as i have succeeded in attracting her confidence, and diverting her as much as one can do in a purgatory like this, we dance sometimes in secret, and then you would think you saw mademoiselle de nantes dance and pirouette. "when any one pronounces the name of the king, she trembles. she asked me to-day whether i had seen the king, if he were handsome, if he were courteous and affable. it seemed to me as though she was already revolving some great project in her brain, and if i am not mistaken, she has quite decided to scale the fruit-trees against our garden wall and escape across country. "m. bossuet, in his quality of bishop of meaux, has the right of entry into this house; he has come here three times since my arrival; he has given me each time a little tap on my check in token of goodwill, and such as one gets at confirmation; he told me that he longs to see me take the veil of the ursulines, as well as my little scholar; it is by that name he likes to call her. "opportune answers him with a stately air which would astound you; she only calls him monsieur, and when told that she has made an error, and that she should say monseigneur, she replies with great seriousness, 'i had forgotten it.'" mademoiselle albanier, out of kindness to me, passed nearly two years in this house, which she always called her purgatory, but the endeavours of the superior and of m. bossuet becoming daily more pressing, and her health, which had suffered, being unable to support the seclusion longer, she made up her mind to retire. her departure was a terrible blow to the daughter of the queen. this young person, who was by nature affectionate, almost died of grief at the separation. we learnt that, after having been ill and then ailing for several weeks, she found the means of escaping from the convent, and of taking refuge with some lordly chatelaine. m. de meaux had her pursued, but as she threatened to kill herself if she were taken back to the abbey of notre dame, the prelate wrote to m. bontems, that is to say, to the real father, and poor opportune was taken to moret, a convent of benedictines, in the forest of fontainebleau. there they took the course of lavishing care, and kindness, and attentions on her. but as her destiny, written in her cradle, was an irrevocable sentence, she was finally made to take the veil, which suited her admirably, and which she wears with an infinite despair. i disguised myself one day as a lady suitor who sought a lodging in the house. i established myself there for a week, under the name of the comtesse de clagny, and i saw, with my own eyes, a king's daughter reduced to singing matins. her air of nobility and dignity struck me with admiration and moved me to tears. i thought of her four sisters, dead at such an early age, and deplored the cruelty of fate, which had spared her in her childhood to kill her slowly and by degrees. i would have accosted her in the gardens, and insinuated myself into her confidence, but the danger of these interviews, both for her and me, restrained what had been an ill-judged kindness. we should both have gone too far, and the monarch would have been able to think that i was opposing him out of revenge, and to give him pain. this consideration came and crushed all my projects of compassion and kindness. there are situations in life where we are condemned to see evil done in all liberty, without being able to call for succour or complain. chapter xliv. the aristocratic republic of genoa offends the king.--its punishment.--reception of the doge at paris and versailles. m. de louvois--by nature, as i have said, hard and despotic--was quite satisfied to gain the same reputation for the king, in order to cover his own violence and rigour beneath the authority of the monarch. the king, i admit, did not like to be contradicted or opposed. he became irritated if one was unfortunate enough to do so; but i know from long experience that he readily accepted a good excuse, and by inclination liked neither to punish nor blame. the marquis de louvois was unceasingly occupied in exciting him against one power and then another, and his policy was to keep the prince in constant alarm of distrust in order to perpetuate wars and dissensions. this order of things pleased that minister, who dreaded intervals of calm and peace, when the king came to examine expenses and to take account of the good or bad employment of millions. the republic of genoa, accustomed to build vessels for all nations, built some of them, unfortunately, for the king's enemies. these constructions were paid for in advance. m. de louvois, well-informed of what passed in genoa, waited till the last moment to oppose the departure of the four or five new ships. the genoese, promising to respect the king's will in the future, sent these vessels to their destination. on the report and conclusions of m. de louvois, his majesty commanded the senators of genoa to hand over to his minister of war the sums arising from the sale of these, and to send their doge and four of the most distinguished senators to beg the king's pardon in his palace at versailles. the senate having replied that, by a fundamental law, a doge could not leave the city without instantly losing his power and dignity, the king answered this message to the effect that the doge would obey as an extraordinary circumstance, that in this solitary case he would derogate from the laws of the genoese republic, and that, the king's will being explicit and unalterable, the doge would none the less maintain his authority. whilst waiting, his majesty sent a fleet into italian waters, and the city of genoa immediately sustained the most terrible bombardment. the flag of distress and submission having been flown from all the towers, our admirals ceased, and the doge set out for versailles, accompanied by the four oldest senators. at the news of their approach, all paris echoed the songs of triumph that m. de louvois had had composed. a spacious hotel was prepared to receive these representatives of a noble, aristocratic republic; and, to withdraw them from the insults of the populace, they were given guards and archers. although the chateau of versailles was in all the lustre of its novelty, since it had been inhabited for only two years, i perceived that they had even been adding to its magnificence, and that everywhere were new curtains, new candelabra, new carpets. the throne on which the monarch was to sit surpassed all that we had ever seen. on the eve of the solemn presentation the astonished ambassadors appeared incognito before the minister, who dictated to them their costumes, their reverences, and all the substance of their address. the influx of strangers and parisians to versailles, to be witnesses of such a spectacle, was so extraordinary and prodigious that the hostels and other public inns were insufficient, and they were obliged to light fires of yew in all the gardens. in the great apartments there were persons of the highest rank who sought permission to pass the night on benches, so that they might be all there and prepared on the following day. on the two sides of the great gallery they had raised tribunes in steps, draped in 'cramoisi' velvet. it was on these steps, which were entirely new, that all the ladies were placed. the lords stood upright below them, and formed a double hedge on each side. when his majesty appeared on his throne, the fire of the diamonds with which he was covered for a moment dazzled all eyes. the king seemed to me less animated than was his wont; but his fine appearance, which never quits him, rendered him sufficiently fit for such a representation and his part in it. the doge of the humiliated republic exhibited neither obsequiousness nor pride. we found his demeanour that of a philosopher prepared for all human events. his colleagues walked after him, but at a little distance. when the doge lescaro had asked for pardon, as he had submitted to do, two of his senators fell to weeping. the king, who noticed the general emotion, descended from his throne and spoke for some minutes with the five personages, and, smiling on them with his most seductive grace, he once more drew all hearts to him. i was placed at two paces from madame de maintenon. the doge,--who was never left by a master of ceremonies, who named the ladies to him,--in passing before me, made a profound reverence. he then drew near madame de maintenon, who heard all his compliments, said to him, in italian, all that could be said, and did him the honour to lean on his hand when descending from her tribune to return to the king's. on the next day the doge and senators came to present their homage to my children, and did not forget me in their visits of ceremony. chapter xlv. the comte de vermandois.--his entrance into the world.--quarrels with the dauphin.--duel.--siege of courtrai.--the cathedral of arras. when madame de la valliere (led by suggestions coming from the most high) left the court and the world to shut herself up in a cloister, she committed a great imprudence; i should not know how to repeat it: the carmelites in the rue saint jacques could easily do without her; her two poor little children could not. the king confided them, i am well aware, to governors and governesses who were prudent, attentive, and capable; but all the governors and preceptors in the world will never replace a mother,--above all, in a place of dissipation, tumult, and carelessness like the court. m. le comte de vermandois was only seven years old when exaggerated scruples and bad advice deprived him of his mother. this amiable child, who loved her, at first suffered much from her absence and departure. he had to be taken to the carmelites, where the sad metamorphosis of his mother, whom he had seen so brilliant and alluring, made him start back in fright. he loved her always as much as he was loved by her, and in virtue of the permission formally given by the pope, he went every week to pass an hour or two with her in the parlour. he regularly took there his singing and flute lessons; these were two amiable talents in which he excelled. about his twelfth year he was taken with the measles, and passed through them fairly well. the smallpox came afterwards, but respected his charming brown face. a severe shower of rain, which caught him in some forest, made him take rheumatism; the waters of vichy cured him; he returned beaming with health and grace. the king loved him tenderly, and everybody at court shared this predilection of the monarch. m. de vermandois, of a stature less than his father, was none the less one of the handsomest cavaliers at the court. to all the graces of his amiable mother he joined an ease of manner, a mixture of nobility and modesty, which made him noticeable in the midst of the most handsome and well made. i loved him with a mother's fondness, and, from all his ingenuous and gallant caresses, it was easy to see that he made me a sincere return. this poor comte de vermandois, about a year before the death of the queen, had a great and famous dispute with monsieur le dauphin, a jealous prince, which brought him his first troubles, and deprived him suddenly of the protecting favour of the infanta-queen. at a ball, at the duchesse de villeroi's, all the princes of the blood appeared. monseigneur, who from childhood had had a fancy for mademoiselle de blois, his legitimised sister, loved her far more definitely since her marriage with m. le prince de conti. monseigneur is lacking in tact. at this ball he thought he could parade his sentiments, which were visibly unpleasant, both to the young husband and to the princess herself. he danced, nevertheless, for some minutes with her; but, suddenly, she feigned to be seized with a sharp pain in the spleen, and was conducted to a sofa. the young comte de vermandois came and sat there near her. they were both exhibiting signs of gaiety; their chatter amused them, and they were seen to laugh with great freedom. although monsieur le dauphin was assuredly not in their thoughts, he thought they were making merry at his expense. he came and sat at the right of the princess and said to her: "your brother is very ill-bred!" "do you think so?" the princess answered immediately. "my brother is the most amiable boy in the world. he is laughing at my talking to myself. he assures me that my pain is in my knee instead of being in the spleen, and that is what we were amusing ourselves at, quite innocently." "your brother thinks himself my equal," added the prince; "in which he certainly makes a mistake. all his diamonds prove nothing; i shall have, when i like, those of the crown." "so much the worse, monsieur," replied the comte de vermandois, quickly. "those diamonds should never change hands,--at least, for a very long time." these words degenerating into an actual provocation, monseigneur dared to say to his young brother that, were it not for his affection for the princess, he would make him feel that he was---"my elder brother," resumed the comte de vermandois, "and nothing more, i assure you." before the ball was over, they met in an alcove and gave each other a rendezvous not far from marly. both of them were punctual; but monsieur le dauphin had given his orders, so that they were followed in order to be separated. the king was informed of this adventure; he immediately gave expression to his extreme dissatisfaction, and said: "what! is there hatred and discord already amongst my children?" i spoke next to elucidate the facts, for i had learnt everything, and i represented m. de vermandois as unjustly provoked by his brother. his majesty replied that monsieur le dauphin was the second personage in the empire, and that all his brothers owed him respect up to a certain point. "it was out of deference and respect that the count accepted the challenge," said i to the king; "and here the offending party made the double attack." "what a misfortune!" resumed the king. "i thought them as united amongst themselves as they are in my heart. vermandois is quick, and as explosive as saltpetre; but he has the best nature in the world. i will reconcile them; they will obey me." the scene took place in my apartment, owing to my duc du maine. "my son," said his majesty to the child of the carmelite, "i have learned with pain what has passed at madame de villeroi's and then in the bois de marly. you will be pardoned for this imprudence because of your age; but never forget that monsieur le dauphin is your superior in every respect, and must succeed me some day." "sire," replied the count, "i have never offended nor wished to offend monseigneur. unhappily for me, he detests me, as though you had not the right to love me." at these words monsieur le dauphin blushed, and the king hastened to declare that he loved all his children with a kindness perfectly alike; that rank and distinctions of honour had been regulated, many centuries ago, by the supreme law of the state; that he desired union and concord in the heart of the royal family; and he commanded the two brothers to sacrifice for him all their petty grievances, and to embrace in his presence. hearing these words, the comte de vermandois, with a bow to his father, ran in front of monseigneur, and, spreading out his arms, would have embraced him. monsieur le dauphin remained cold and dumb; he received this mark of good-will without returning it, and very obviously displeased his father thereby. these little family events were hushed up, and monseigneur was almost explicitly forbidden to entertain any other sentiments for madame de conti than those of due friendship and esteem. some time after that, messieurs de conti, great lovers of festivity, pleasure, and costly delights, which are suited only for people of their kind, dragged the comte de vermandois, as a young debutant, into one of those licentious parties where a young man is compelled to see things which excite horror. his first scruples overcome, m. de vermandois, naturally disposed to what is out of the common, wished to give guarantees of his loyalty and courage; from a simple spectator he became, it is said, an accomplice. there is always some false friend in these forbidden assemblies. the king heard the details of an orgy so unpardonable, and the precocious misconduct of his cherished son gave him so much pain, that i saw his tears fall. the assistant governor of the young criminal was dismissed; his valet de chambre was sent to prison; only three of his servants were retained, and he himself was subjected to a state of penitence which included general confessions and the most severe discipline. he resigned himself sincerely to all these heavy punishments. he promised to associate only with his mother, his new governor, his english horses, and his books; and this manner of life, carried out with a grandeur of soul, made of him in a few months a perfect gentleman, in the honourable and assured position to which his great heart destined him. the king, satisfied with this trial, allowed him to go and prove his valour at the sieges of digmude and courtrai. all the staff officers recognised soon in his conversation, his zeal, his methods, a worthy rival of the vendomes. they wrote charming things of him to the court. a few days afterwards we learned at versailles that m. de vermandois was dead, in consequence of an indisposition caught whilst bivouacking, which at first had not seemed dangerous. the king deplored this loss, as a statesman and a good father. i was a witness of his affliction; it seemed to me extreme. one knew not whom to approach to break the news to the poor carmelite. the bishop of meaux, sturdy personage, voluntarily undertook the mission, and went to it with a tranquil brow, for he loved such tasks. to his hoarse and funereal voice soeur louise only replied with groans and tears. she fell upon the floor without consciousness, and m. bossuet went on obstinately preaching christian resignation and stoicism to a senseless mother who heard him not. about a fortnight after the obsequies of the prince (which i, too, had celebrated in my church of saint joseph), the underprioress of that little community begged me to come to paris for a brief time and consecrate half an hour to her. i responded to her invitation. this is the important secret which the good nun had to confide to me: before expiring; the young prince had found time to interview his faithful valet de chambre behind his curtains. "after my death," said he, "you will repair, not to the king, my father, but to madame la marquise de montespan, who has given me a thousand proofs of kindness in my behalf. you will remit to her my casket, in which all my private papers are kept. she will be kind enough to destroy all which ought not to survive me, and to hand over the remainder, not to my good mother, who will have only too much sorrow, but to madame la princesse de conti, whose indulgence and kindness are known to me." sydney, this valet de chambre, informed me that the count was dead, not through excessive brandy, as the dauphin's people spread abroad, but from a cerebral fever, which a copious bleeding would have dissipated at once. all the soldiers wept for this young prince, whose generous affability had charmed them. sydney had just accompanied his body to arras, where, by royal command, it had been laid in a vault of the cathedral. i opened his pretty casket of citron wood, with locks of steel and silver. the first object which met my eyes was a fine and charming portrait of madame de la valliere. the face was smiling in the midst of this great tragedy, and that upset me entirely, and made my tears flow again. five or six tales of m. la fontaine had been imitated most elegantly by the young prince himself, and to these rather frivolous verses he had joined some songs and madrigals. all these little relics of a youth so eager to live betokened a mind that was agreeable, and not libertine. in any case the sacrifice was accomplished; reflections were in vain. i burned these papers, and all those which seemed to me without direct importance or striking interest. that was not the case with a correspondence, full of wit, tenderness, and fire, of whose origin the good sydney pretended ignorance, but which two or three anecdotes that were related sufficiently revealed to me. the handsome comte de vermandois, barely seventeen years old, had won the heart of a fair lady, of about his own age, who expressed her passion for him with an energy, a delicacy, and a talent far beyond all that we admire in books. i knew her; the king loved her. her husband, a most distinguished field-officer, cherished her and believed her to be faithful. i burned this dangerous correspondence, for m. de vermandois, barely adolescent, was already a father, and his mistress gloried in it. on receiving this casket, in which she saw once more the portraits of her mother, her brother, and her husband, madame la princesse de conti felt the most sorrowful emotion. i told her that i had acquitted myself, out of kindness and respect, of a commission almost beyond my strength, and i begged her never to mention it to the king, who, perhaps, would have liked to see and judge himself all that i had destroyed. m. le comte de vermandois left by his death the post of high admiral vacant. the king begged me to bring him my little comte de toulouse; and passing round his neck a fine chain of coral mixed with pearls, to which a diamond anchor was attached, he invested him with the dignity of high admiral of france. "be ever prudent and good, my amiable child," he said to him, raising his voice, which had grown weak; "be happier than your predecessor, and never give me the grief of mourning your loss." i thanked the king for my son, who looked at his decoration of brilliants and did not feel its importance. i hope that he will feel that later, and prove himself worthy of it. chapter xlvi. the house of saint cyr.--petition of the monks of saint denis to the king, against the plan of madame de maintenon.--madame de maintenon summons them and sends them away with small consolation. at the time when i founded my little community of saint joseph, madame de maintenon had already collected near her chateau at rueil a certain number of well-born but poor young persons, to whom she was giving a good education, proportioned to their present condition and their birth. she had charged herself with the maintenance of two former nuns, noble and well educated, who, at the fall of their community, had been recommended, or had procured a recommendation, to her. mesdames de brinon and du basque were these two vagrant nuns. madame de maintenon, instinctively attracted to this sort of persons, welcomed and protected them. the little pension or community of rueil, having soon become known, several families who had fallen into distress or difficulty solicited the kindness of the directress towards their daughters, and madame de maintenon admitted more inmates than the space allowed. a more roomy habitation was bought nearer versailles, which was still only temporary and the king, having been taken into confidence with regard to these little girls, who mostly belonged to his own impoverished officers, judged that the moment had come to found a fine and large educational establishment for the young ladies of his nobility. he bought, at the entrance to the village of saint cyr, in close proximity to versailles, a large old chateau, belonging to m. seguier; and on the site of this chateau, which he pulled down, the royal house of saint cyr was speedily erected. i will not go into the nature and aim of a foundation which is known nowadays through the whole of europe. i will content myself with observing that if madame de maintenon conceived the first idea of it, it is the great benefactions of the monarch and the profound recognition of the nobility which have given stability and renown to this house. madame de maintenon received much praise and incense as the foundress of this community. it has been quite easy for her to found so vast an establishment with the treasures of france, since she herself had remained poor, by her own confession, and had neither to sell nor encumber maintenon, her sole property. in founding my community of saint joseph, i was neither seconded nor aided by anybody. saint joseph springs entirely from myself, from good intentions, without noise or display. saint joseph is one of my good actions, and although it makes no great noise in the world, i would rather have founded it than saint cyr, where the most exalted houses procure admission for their children with false certificates of poverty. the buildings of saint cyr, in spite of all the sums they have absorbed, have no external nobility or grandeur. the foundress put upon it the seal of her parsimony, or, rather, of her general timidity. she is like moliere's harpagon, who would like to do great things for little money. [here madame de montespan forgets what she has just said, that saint-cyr cost "immense sums,"--an ordinary effect of passion.--ed. note] the only beauty about the house is in the laundry and gardens. all the rest reminds you of a convent of capuchins. the chapel has not even necessary and indispensable dignity; it is a long, narrow barn, without arches, pillars, or decorations. the king, having wished to know beforehand what revenue would be needed for a community of four hundred persons, consulted m. de louvois. that minister, accustomed to calculate open-handedly, put in an estimate of five hundred thousand livres a year. the foundress presented hers, which came to no more than twenty-five thousand crowns. his majesty adopted a middle course, and assigned a revenue of three hundred thousand livres to his royal house of saint cyr. the foundress, foreseeing the financial embarrassments which have supervened later, conceived the idea of making the clergy (who are childless) support the education of these three hundred and fifty young ladies. in consequence, she cast her eyes upon the rich abbey of saint denis, then vacant, and suggested it to the king, as being almost sufficient to provide for the new establishment. this idea astonished the prince. he found it, at first, audacious, not to say perilous; but, on further reflection, considering that the monks of saint denis live under the rule of a prior, and never see their abbot, who is almost always a great noble and a man of the world, his majesty consented to suppress the said abbey in order to provide for the children. the monks of saint denis, alarmed at such an innovation (which did not, however, affect their own goods and revenues), composed a petition in the form of the factum that our advocates draw up in a suit. they exclaimed in this document "on the disrepute which this innovation would bring upon their ancient, respectable, and illustrious community. in suppressing the title of abbot of saint denis," they said further, "your majesty, in reality, suppresses our abbey; and if our abbey is reduced to nothing, our basilica, where the kings, your ancestors, lie, will be no more than a royal church, and will cease to be abbatial." further on, this petition said: "sire, may it please your majesty, whose eyes can see so far, to appreciate this innovation in all its terrible consequences. by striking to-day dissolution and death into the first abbey of your kingdom, do you not fear to leave behind you a great and sinister precedent? . . . what louis the great has looked upon as possible will seem righteous and necessary to your successors; and it will happen, maybe, before long, that the thirst for conquests and the needs of the state (those constant and familiar pretexts of ministers) will authorise some political attila to extend your work, and wreak destruction upon the tabernacle by depriving it of the splendour which is its due, and which sustains it." madame de maintenon, to whom this affair was entrusted, summoned the administrative monks of saint denis to versailles. she received them with her agreeable and seductive courtesy, and, putting on her dulcet and fluted voice, said to them that their alarm was without foundation; that his majesty did not suppress their abbey; that he simply took it from the male sex to give it to the female, seeing that the salic law never included the dignities of the church nor her revenues. "the king leaves you," she added, "those immense and prodigious treasures of saint denis, more ancient, perhaps, than the oriflamme. that is your finest property, your true and illustrious glory. in general, your abbots have been, to this very day, unknown to you. do you find, gentlemen, that religion was more honoured and respected when men of battle, covered with murders and other crimes, were called abbots of saint denis? beneath the government of the king such nominations would never have affected the church; and after the present m. le chevalier de lorraine, we shall hear no more of nominating an abbot-commandant on the steps of the opera. "our little girls are cherubim and seraphim, occupied unceasingly with the praise of the lord. i recommend them to your holy prayers, and you can count on theirs." with this compliment she dismissed the monks, and what she had resolved on was carried out. the king, who all his life had loved children greatly, did not take long to contract an affection for this budding colony. he liked to assist sometimes at their recreations and exercises, and, as though versailles had been at the other end of the world, he had a magnificent apartment built at saint cyr. this fine armorial pavilion decorates the first long court in the centre. the mere buildings announce a king; the royal crown surmounts them. at first the education of saint cyr had been entrusted to canonesses; but a canoness only takes annual vows; that term expired, she is at liberty to retire and marry. several of these ladies having proved thus irresolute as to their estate, and the house being afraid that a greater number would follow, the abbe de fenelon, who cannot endure limited or temporary devotion, thought fit to introduce fixed and perpetual vows into saint cyr, and that willynilly. this elegant abbe says all that he means, and resolutely means all that he can say. by means of his lectures, a mixed and facile form of eloquence, which is his glory, he easily proved to these poor canonesses that streams and rivers flow ever since the world began, and never think of suspending their current or abandoning their direction. he reminded them that the sun, which is always in its place and always active, never dreams of abandoning its functions, either from inconstancy or caprice. he told them that wise kings are never seized with the idea or temptation of abdicating their crown, and that god, who serves them as a model and example, is ceaselessly occupied, with relation to the world, in preserving, reanimating, and maintaining it. starting from there, the ingenious man made them confess that they ought to remain at their post and bind themselves to it by a perpetual vow. the first effect of this fine oration having been a little dissipated, objections broke out. one young and lovely canoness dared to maintain the rights of her freedom, even in the face of her most amiable enemy. madame de maintenon rushed to the succour of the abbe of saint sulpice, and half by wheedling, half by tyranny, obtained the cloister and perpetual vows. i must render this justice to the king; he never would pronounce or intervene in this pathetic struggle. his royal hand profited, no doubt, by a submission which the abbe de fenelon imposed upon timidity, credulity, and obedience. the house of saint cyr profited thereby; but the king only regretted a new religious convent, for, as a rule, he liked them not. how many times has he unburdened himself before me on the subject. chapter xlvii. final rupture.--terrible scene.--madame de maintenon in the brocaded chair. to-day, when time and reflection, and, perhaps, that fund of contempt which is so useful, have finally revealed to me the insurmountable necessities of life, i can look with a certain amount of composure at the injury which the king did me. i had at first resolved to conclude, with the chapter which you have just read, my narrative of the more or less important things which have passed or been unfolded before my eyes. for long i did not feel myself strong enough to approach a narrative which might open up all my old wounds and make my blood boil again; but i finished by considering that our monarch's reign will be necessarily the subject of a multitude of commentaries, journals, and memoirs. all these confidential writings will speak of me to the generations to be; some will paint me as one paints an object whom one loves; others, as the object one detests. the latter, to render me more odious, will probably revile my character, and, perhaps, represent me as a cowardly and despairing mistress, who has descended even to supplications!! it is my part, therefore, to retrace with a firm and vigorous hand this important epoch of my life, where my destiny, at once kind and cruel, reduced me to treat the greatest of all kings both as my equal and as an inconstant friend, as a treacherous enemy, and as my inferior or subject. he had, at first, the intention of putting me to death,--of that i am persuaded,--but soon his natural gentleness got the better of his pride. he grasped the wounds in my heart from the deplorable commotion of my face. if his former friend was guilty in her speech, he was far more guilty by his actions. like an equitable judge he pardoned neither of us; he did not forgive himself and he dared not condemn me. since this sad time of desertion and sorrow, into which the new state of things had brought me, mm. de mortemart, de nevers, and de vivonne had been glad to avoid me. they found my humour altered, and i admit that a woman who sulks, scolds, or complains is not very attractive company. one day the poor marechal de vivonne came to see me; he opened my shutters to call my attention to the beauty of the sky, and, my health seeming to him a trifle poor, he suggested to me to embark at once in his carriage and to go and dine at clagny. i had no will left that day, so i accompanied my brother. being come to clagny, the marshal, having shut himself up with me in his closet, said to me the words which follow: "you know, my sister, how all along you have been dear to me; the grief which is wearing you out does me almost as much harm as you. to-day i wish to hurt you for your own good; and get you away from this locality in spite of yourself. kings are not to be opposed as we oppose our equals; our king, whom you know by heart, has never suffered contradiction. he has had you asked, two or three times already, to leave his palace and to go and live on your estates. why do you delay to satisfy him, and to withdraw from so many eyes which watch you with pity?" "the king, i am very sure, would like to see me away," i replied to the marshal, "but he has never formally expressed himself, and it is untrue that any such wish has been intimated or insinuated to me." "what! you did not receive two letters last year, which invited you to make up your mind and retire!" "i received two anonymous letters; nothing is more true. could those two letters have been sent to me by the king himself?" "the marquis de chamarante wrote them to you, but beneath the eyes, and at the dictation, of his majesty." "all, god! what is it you tell me? what! the marquis de chamarante, whom i thought one of my friends, has lent himself to such an embassy!" "the marquis is a good man, a man of honour; and his essential duty is to please his sovereign, his master. moreover, at the time when the letters were sent you, time remained to you for deliberation. to-day, all time for delay has expired; you must go away of your own free will, or receive the affront of a command, and a 'lettre de cachet' in form." "a 'lettre de cachet' for me! for the mother of the duc du maine and the comte de toulouse! we shall see that, my brother! we shall see!" "there is nothing to see or do but to summon here all your people, and leave to-morrow, either for my chateau of roissy, or for your palace at petit-bourg; things are pressing, and the day after to-morrow i will explain all without any secrecy." "explain it to me at once, my brother, and i promise to satisfy you." "do you give me your word?" "i give it you, my good and dear friend, with pleasure. inform me of what is in progress." "madame de maintenon, whom, having loved once greatly, you no longer love, had the kindness to have me summoned to her this morning." "the kindness!" "do not interrupt me--yes, the kindness. from the moment that she is in favour, all that comes from her requires consideration. she had me taken into her small salon, and there she charged me to tell you that she has always loved you, that she always will; that your rupture with her has displeased the king; that for a long time, and on a thousand occasions, she has excused you to his majesty, but that things are now hopeless; that your retreat is required at all costs, and that it will be joined with an annual pension of six hundred thousand livres." "and you advise me--?" i said to my brother. "i advise you, i implore you, i conjure you, to accept these propositions which save everything." my course was clear to me on the instant. wishing to be relieved of the importunities of the marshal (a courtier, if ever there was one), i embraced him with tears in my eyes. i assured him that, for the honour of the family and out of complacence, i accepted his propositions. i begged him to take me back to versailles, where i had to gather together my money, jewels, and papers. the duc de vivonne, well as he knew me, did not suspect my trickery; he applied a score of kisses to my "pretty little white hands," and his postilions, giving free play to their reins, speedily brought us back to the chateau. all beaming with joy and satisfaction, he went to convey his reply to madame de maintenon, who was probably expecting him. twenty minutes hardly elapsed. the king himself entered my apartment. he came towards me with a friendly air, and, hardly remarking my agitation, which i was suppressing, he dared to address the following words to me: "the shortest follies are the best, dear marquise; you see things at last as they should be seen. your determination, which the marechal de vivonne has just informed me of, gives me inexpressible pleasure; you are going to take the step of a clever woman, and everybody will applaud you for it. it will be eighteen years to-morrow since we took a fancy for each other. we were then in that period of life when one sees only that which flatters, and the satisfaction of the heart surpasses everything. our attachment, if it had been right and legitimate, might have begun with the same ardour, but it could not have endured so long; that is the property of all contested affections. "from our union amiable children have been born, for whom i have done, and will do, all that a father with good intentions can do. the act which acknowledged them in full parliament has not named you as their mother, because your bonds prevented it, but these respectful children know that they owe you their existence, and not one of them shall forget it while i live. "you have charmed by your wit and the liveliness of your character the busiest years of my life and reign. that pleasant memory will never leave me, and separated though we be, as good sense and propriety of every kind demands, we shall still belong to each other in thought. athenais will always be to me the mother of my dear children. i have been mindful up to this day, to increase at different moments the amount of your fortune: i believe it to be considerable, and wish, nevertheless, to add to it even more. if the pension that vivonne had just suggested to you appear insufficient, two lines from your pen will notify me that i must increase it. "your children being proclaimed princes of france, the court will be their customary residence, but you will see them frequently, and can count on my commands. here they are coming,--not to say good-bye to you, but, as of old, to embrace you on the eve of a journey. "if you are prudent, you will write first to the marquis de montespan, not to annul and revoke the judicial and legal separation which exists, but to inform him of your return to reasonable ideas, and of your resolve to be reconciled with the public." with these words the king ceased speaking. i looked at him with a fixed gaze; a long sigh escaped from my heaving breast, and i had with him, as nearly as i can remember, the following conversation: "i admire the sang-froid with which a prince who believes himself, and is believed by the whole universe, to be magnanimous, gives the word of dismissal to the tender friend of his youth,--to that friend who, by a misfortune which is too well known, knew how to leave all and love him alone. "from the day when the friendship which had united us cooled and was dissipated, you have resumed with regard to me that distance which your rank authorises you, and on my side, i have submitted to see in you only my king. this revolution has taken effect without any shock, or noise, or scandal. it has continued for two years already; why should it not continue in the same manner until the moment when my last two children no longer require my eyes, and presence, and care? what sudden cause, what urgent motive, can determine you to exclude me? does not, then, the humiliation which i have suffered for two years any longer satisfy your aversion?" "what!" cried the prince, in consternation, "is your resolution no longer the same? do you go back upon what you promised to your brother?" "i do not change my resolution," i resumed at once; "the places which you inhabit have neither charm nor attraction for my heart, which has always detested treachery and falseness. i consent to withdraw myself from your person, but on condition that the odious intriguer who has supplanted me shall follow the unhappy benefactress who once opened to her the doors of this palace. i took her from a state of misery, and she plunges daggers into my breast." "the kings of europe," said the prince, white with agitation and anger, "have not yet laid down the law to me in my palace; you shall not make me submit to yours, madame. the person whom, for far too long, you have been offending and humiliating before my eyes, has ancestors who yield in nothing to your forefathers, and if you have introduced her to this palace, you have introduced here goodness, sweetness, talent, and virtue itself. this enemy, whom you defame in every quarter, and who every day excuses and justifies you, will abide near this throne, which her fathers have defended and which her good counsel now defends. in sending you today from a court where your presence is without motive and pretext, i wished to keep from your knowledge, and in kindness withdraw from your eyes an event likely to irritate you, since everything irritates you. stay, madame, stay, since great catastrophes appeal to and amuse you; after to-morrow you will be more than ever a supernumerary in this chateau." at these words i realised that it was a question of the public triumph of my rival. all my firmness vanished; my heart was, as it were, distorted with the most rapid palpitations. i felt an icy coldness run through my veins, and i fell unconscious upon my carpet. my woman cameo to bring me help, and when my senses returned, i heard the king saying to my intendant: "all this wearies me beyond endurance; she must go this very day." "yes, i will go," i cried, seizing a dessert-knife which was on my bureau. i rushed forward with a mechanical movement upon my little comte de toulouse, whom i snatched from the hands of his father, and i was on the verge of sacrificing this child. i shudder every time i think of that terrible and desperate scene. but reason had left me; sorrow filled my soul; i was no longer myself. my reader must be penetrated by my misfortune and have compassion on me. madame de maintenon, informed probably of this storm, arrived and suddenly showed herself. to rush forward, snatch away the dagger and my child was but one movement for her. her tears coursed in abundance; and the king, leaning on the marble of my chimney-piece, shed tears and seemed to feel a sort of suffocation. my women had removed my children. my intendant alone had remained in the deep embrasure of a shutter; the poor man had affliction and terror painted on his face. madame de maintenon had slightly wounded herself in seizing my knife. i saw her tearing her handkerchief, putting on lavender water in order to moisten the bandage. as she left me she took my hand with an air of kindness, and her tears began again. the king, seeing her go out, retired without addressing me a word. i might call as much as i would; he did not return. until nightfall i seemed to be in a state of paralysis. my arms were like lead; my will could no longer stir them. i was distressed at first, and then i thanked god, who was delivering me from the torments of existence. all night my body and soul moved in the torrent and waves of a fever handed over to phantoms; i saw in turn the smiling plains of paradise and the dire domain of hell. my children, covered with wounds, asked me for pardon, kneeling before me; and madame de maintenon, one mass of blood, reproached me for having killed her. on the following day a copious blood-letting, prescribed by my doctor, relieved my head and heart. the following week madame de maintenon, entirely cured of her scratch, consented to the king's will, which she had opposed in order to excite it, and in the presence of the marquis and marquise de montchevreuil, the duc de noailles, the marquis de chamarante, m. bontems, and mademoiselle ninon, her permanent chambermaid, was married to the king of france and navarre in the chapel of the chateau. the abbe de harlay, archbishop of paris, assisted by the bishop of chartres and pere de la chaise, had the honour of blessing this marriage and presenting the rings of gold. after the ceremony, which took place at an early hour, and even by torchlight, there was a slight repast in the small apartments. the same persons, taking carriages, then repaired to maintenon, where the great ceremony, the mass, and all that is customary in such cases were celebrated. at her return, madame de maintenon took possession of an extremely sumptuous apartment that had been carefully arranged and furnished for her. her people continued to wear her livery, but she scarcely ever rode any more except in the great carriage of the king, where we saw her in the place which had been occupied by the queen. in her interior the title of majesty was given her; and the king, when he had to speak of her, only used the word madame, without adding maintenon, that having become too familiar and trivial. he was desirous of proclaiming her; she consistently opposed it, and this prudent and wise conduct regained for her, little by little, the opinions which had been shocked. a few days after the marriage, my health being somewhat reestablished, i went to petit-bourg; but the marechal de vivonne, his son louis de vivonne, all the mortemarts, all the rochehouarts, thianges, damas, seignelays, blainvilles, and colberts,--in a word, counts, marquises, barons, prelates, and duchesses, came to find me and attack me in my desert, in order to represent to me that, since madame de maintenon was the wife of the monarch, i owed her my homage and respectful compliments. the whole family has done so, said these cruel relations; you only have not yet fulfilled this duty. you must do it, in god's name. she has neither airs nor hauteur; you will be marvellously well received. your resistance would compromise us all. not desiring to harm or displease my family, and wishing, above all, to reinstate myself somewhat in the king's mind, i resolutely prepared for this distressing journey, and god gave me the necessary strength to execute it. i appeared in a long robe of gold and silver before the new spouse of the monarch. the king, who was sitting at a table, rose for a moment and encouraged me by his greeting. i made the three pauses and three reverences as i gradually approached madame de maintenon, who occupied a large and rich armchair of brocade. she did not rise; etiquette forbade it, and principally the presence of the all-powerful king of kings. her complexion, ordinarily pale, and with a very slight tone of pink, was animated suddenly, and took all the colours of the rose. she made me a sign to seat myself on a stool, and it seemed to me that her amiable gaze apologised to me. she spoke to me of petit-bourg, of the waters of bourbon, of her country-place, of my children, and said to me, smiling kindly: "i am going to confide in you. monsieur le prince has already asked mademoiselle de names for his grandson, m. le duc de bourbon, and his highness promises us his granddaughter for our duc du maine. two or three years more, and we shall see all that." after half an hour spent thus, i rose from this uncomfortable stool and made my farewell reverences. madame de maintenon, profiting by the king having leaned over to write, rose five or six inches in her chair, and said to me these words: "do not let us cease to love one another, i implore you." i went to rest myself in the poor apartment which was still mine, since the keys had not yet been returned, and i sent for m. le duc du maine, who said to me coldly: "i have much pleasure in seeing you again; we were going to write to you." i had come out from madame de maintenon by the door of mirrors, which leads to the great gallery. there was much company there at the moment; m. le prince de salm came to me and said: "go and put on your peignoir; you are flushed, and i can perfectly well understand why." he pressed my hand affectionately. in all the salons they were eager to see me pass. some courageous persons came even within touch of my fan; and all were more or less pleased with my mishap and downfall. i had seen all these figures at my feet, and almost all were under obligations to me. i left versailles again very early. when i was seated in my carriage i noticed the king, who, from the height of his balcony in the court of marble, watched me set off and disappear. i settled at paris, where my personal interest and my great fortune gave me an existence which many might have envied. i never returned to versailles, except for the weddings of my eldest daughter, and of my son, the serious;--[louis augusts de bourbon, duc du maine, a good man, somewhat devout and melancholy. (see the memoirs of dubois and richelieu.)--editor's note.]--i always loved him better than he did me. pere de latour, my director, obtained from me then, what i had refused hitherto to everybody, a letter of reconciliation to m. le marquis de montespan: i had foreseen the reply, which was that of an obstinate, ill-bred, and evil man. pere de latour, going further, wished to impose hard, not to say murderous, penances on me; i begged him to keep within bounds, and not to make me impatient. this oratorian and his admirers have stated that i wore a hair shirt and shroud. pious slanders, every word of them! i give many pensions and alms, that is to say, i do good to several families; the good that i bestow about me will be more agreeable to god than any harm i could do myself, and that i maintain. the marquis d'antin, my son, since my disgrace....... here end the memoirs of madame de montespan. etext editor's bookmarks: ambition puts a thick bandage over the eyes says all that he means, and resolutely means all that he can say situations in life where we are condemned to see evil done women who misconduct themselves are pitiless and severe memoirs of the court of louis xiv. and of the regency being the secret memoirs of the mother of the regent, madame elizabeth-charlotte of bavaria, duchesse d'orleans. complete [illustration: bookcover] [illustration: titlepage] book 1. preface. the duchesse d'orleans, commonly though incorrectly styled the princess of bavaria, was known to have maintained a very extensive correspondence with her relations and friends in different parts of europe. nearly eight hundred of her letters, written to the princess wilhelmina charlotte of wales and the duke antoine-ulric of brunswick, were found amongst the papers left by the duchess elizabeth of brunswick at her death, in 1767. these appeared to be so curious that the court of brunswick ordered de praun, a privy councillor, to make extracts of such parts as were most interesting. a copy of his extracts was sent to france, where it remained a long time without being published. in 1788, however, an edition appeared, but so mutilated and disfigured, either through the prudence of the editor or the scissors of the censor, that the more piquant traits of the correspondence had entirely disappeared. the bold, original expressions of the german were modified and enfeebled by the timid translator, and all the names of individuals and families were suppressed, except when they carried with them no sort of responsibility. a great many passages of the original correspondence were omitted, while, to make up for the deficiencies, the editor inserted a quantity of pedantic and useless notes. in spite of all these faults and the existence of more faithful editions, this translation was reprinted in 1807. the existence of any other edition being unknown to its editor, it differed in nothing from the preceding, except that the dates of some of the letters were suppressed, a part of the notes cut out, and some passages added from the memoirs of saint-simon, together with a life, or rather panegyric, of the princess, which bore no slight resemblance to a village homily. a copy of the extracts made by m. de praun fell by some chance into the hands of count de veltheim, under whose direction they were published at strasburg, in 1789, with no other alterations than the correction of the obsolete and vicious orthography of the princess. in 1789 a work was published at dantzick, in germany, entitled, confessions of the princess elizabeth-charlotte of orleans, extracted from her letters addressed, between the years 1702 and 1722, to her former governess, madame de harling, and her husband. the editor asserts that this correspondence amounted to nearly four hundred letters. a great part of these are only repetitions of what she had before written to the princess of wales and the duke of brunswick. since that period no new collections have appeared, although it is sufficiently well known that other manuscripts are in existence. in 1820 m. schutz published at leipsig the life and character of elizabeth-charlotte, duchesse d'orleans, with an extract of the more remarkable parts of her correspondence. this is made up of the two german editions of 1789 and 1791; but the editor adopted a new arrangement, and suppressed such of the dates and facts as he considered useless. his suppressions, however, were not very judicious; without dates one is at a loss to know to what epoch the facts related by the princess ought to be referred, and the french proper names are as incorrect as in the edition of strasburg. feeling much surprise that in france there should have been no more authentic edition of the correspondence of the regent-mother than the miserable translation of 1788 and 1807, we have set about rendering a service to the history of french manners by a new and more faithful edition. the present is a translation of the strasburg edition, arranged in a more appropriate order, with the addition of such other passages as were contained in the german collections. the dates have been inserted wherever they appeared necessary, and notes have been added wherever the text required explanation, or where we wished to compare the assertions of the princess with other testimonies. the princess, in the salons of the palais royal, wrote in a style not very unlike that which might be expected in the present day from the tenants of its garrets. a more complete biography than any which has hitherto been drawn up is likewise added to the present edition. in other respects we have faithfully followed the original strasburg edition. the style of the duchess will be sometimes found a little singular, and her chit-chat indiscreet and often audacious; but we cannot refuse our respect to the firmness and propriety with which she conducted herself in the midst of a hypocritical and corrupt court. the reader, however, must form his own judgment on the correspondence of this extraordinary woman; our business is, not to excite a prejudice in favour of or against her, but merely to present him with a faithful copy of her letters. some doubts were expressed about the authenticity of the correspondence when the mutilated edition of 1788 appeared; but these have long since subsided, and its genuineness is no longer questioned. table of contents book 1. preface elizabeth-charlotte, duchesse d'orleans louis xiv mademoiselle de fontange madame de la valliere madame de montespan madame de maintenon the queen-consort of louis xiv. book 2. philippe i., duc d'orleans philippe ii., duc d'orleans, regent of france the affairs of the regency the duchesse d'orleans, consort of the regent the dauphine, princess of bavaria. adelaide of savoy, the second dauphine the first dauphin the duke of burgundy, the second dauphin petite madame book 3. henrietta of england, monsieur's first consort the due de berri the duchesse de berri mademoiselle d'orleans, louise-adelaide de chartres mademoiselle de valois, consort of the prince of modena the illegitimate children of the regent, duc d'orleans the chevalier de lorraine philip v., king of spain the duchess, consort of the duc de bourbon the younger duchess duc louis de bourbon francois-louis, prince de conti la grande princesse de conti the princess palatine, consort of prince francois-louis de conti the princesse de conti, louise-elizabeth, consort of louis-armand louis-armand, prince de conti the abbe dubois mr. law book 4. victor amadeus ii. the grand duchess, consort of cosimo ii. of florence the duchesse de lorraine, elizabeth-charlotte d'orleans the duc du maine the duchesse du maine louvois louis xv. anecdotes and historical particulars of various persons explanatory notes secret court memoirs. madame elizabeth-charlotte of bavaria, duchesse d' orleans. [illustration: duchesse d'orleans and her children--116] section i. if my father had loved me as well as i loved him he would never have sent me into a country so dangerous as this, to which i came through pure obedience and against my own inclination. here duplicity passes for wit, and frankness is looked upon as folly. i am neither cunning nor mysterious. i am often told i lead too monotonous a life, and am asked why i do not take a part in certain affairs. this is frankly the reason: i am old; i stand more in need of repose than of agitation, and i will begin nothing that i cannot, easily finish. i have never learned to govern; i am not conversant with politics, nor with state affairs, and i am now too far advanced in years to learn things so difficult. my son, i thank god, has sense enough, and can direct these things without me; besides, i should excite too much the jealousy of his wife--[marie-francoise de bourbon, the legitimate daughter of louis xiv. and of madame de montespan, duchesse d'orleans.]--and his eldest daughter,--[marie-louise-elizabeth d'orleans, married on the 17th of july, 1710, to charles of france, duc de berri.]--whom he loves better than me; eternal quarrels would ensue, which would not at all suit my views. i have been tormented enough, but i have always forborne, and have endeavoured to set a proper example to my son's wife and his daughter; for this kingdom has long had the misfortune to be too much governed by women, young and old. it is high time that men should now assume the sway, and this is the reason which has determined me not to intermeddle. in england, perhaps, women may reign without inconvenience; in france, men alone should do so, in order that things may go on well. why should i torment myself by day and by night? i seek only peace and repose; all that were mine are dead. for whom should i care? my time is past. i must try to live smoothly that i may die tranquilly; and in great public affairs it is difficult, indeed, to preserve one's conscience spotless. i was born at heidelberg (1652), in the seventh month. i am unquestionably very ugly; i have no features; my eyes are small, my nose is short and thick, my lips long and flat. these do not constitute much of a physiognomy. i have great hanging cheeks and a large face; my stature is short and stout; my body and my thighs, too, are short, and, upon the whole, i am truly a very ugly little object. if i had not a good heart, no one could endure me. to know whether my eyes give tokens of my possessing wit, they must be examined with a microscope, or it will be difficult to judge. hands more ugly than mine are not perhaps to be found on the whole globe. the king has often told me so, and has made me laugh at it heartily; for, not being able to flatter even myself that i possessed any one thing which could be called pretty, i resolved to be the first to laugh at my own ugliness; this has succeeded as well as i could have wished, and i must confess that i have seldom been at a loss for something to laugh at. i am naturally somewhat melancholy; when anything happens to afflict me, my left side swells up as if it were filled with water. i am not good at lying in bed; as soon as i awake i must get up. i seldom breakfast, and then only on bread and butter. i take neither chocolate, nor coffee, nor tea, not being able to endure those foreign drugs. i am german in all my habits, and like nothing in eating or drinking which is not conformable to our old customs. i eat no soup but such as i can take with milk, wine, or beer. i cannot bear broth; whenever i eat anything of which it forms a part, i fall sick instantly, my body swells, and i am tormented with colics. when i take broth alone, i am compelled to vomit, even to blood, and nothing can restore the tone to my stomach but ham and sausages. i never had anything like french manners, and i never could assume them, because i always considered it an honour to be born a german, and always cherished the maxims of my own country, which are seldom in favor here. in my youth i loved swords and guns much better than toys. i wished to be a boy, and this desire nearly cost me my life; for, having heard that marie germain had become a boy by dint of jumping, i took such terrible jumps that it is a miracle i did not, on a hundred occasions, break my neck. i was very gay in my youth, for which reason i was called, in german, rauschenplatten-gnecht. the dauphins of bavaria used to say, "my poor dear mamma" (so she used always to address me), "where do you pick up all the funny things you know?" i remember the birth of the king of england [george louis, duke of brunswick hanover, born the 28th of may, 1660; proclaimed king of england the 12th of august, 1714, by the title of george i.] as well as if it were only yesterday (1720). i was curious and mischievous. they had put a doll in a rosemary bush for the purpose of making me believe it was the child of which my aunt [sophia of bavaria, married, in 1658, to the elector of hanover, was the paternal aunt of madame. she was the granddaughter of james i, and was thus declared the first in succession to the crown of england, by act of parliament, 23rd march, 1707.] had just lain in; at the same moment i heard the cries of the electress, who was then in the pains of childbirth. this did not agree with the story which i had been told of the baby in the rosemary bush; i pretended, however, to believe it, but crept to my aunt's chamber as if i was playing at hide-and-seek with little bulau and haxthausen, and concealed myself behind a screen which was placed before the door and near the chimney. when the newly born infant was brought to the fire i issued from my hiding-place. i deserved to be flogged, but in honour of the happy event i got quit for a scolding. the monks of the convent of ibourg, to revenge themselves for my having unintentionally betrayed them by telling their abbot that they had been fishing in a pond under my window, a thing expressly forbidden by the abbot, once poured out white wine for me instead of water. i said, "i do not know what is the matter with this water; the more of it i put into my wine the stronger it becomes." the monks replied that it was very good wine. when i got up from the table to go into the garden, i should have fallen into the pond if i had not been held up; i threw myself upon the ground and fell fast asleep immediately. i was then carried into my chamber and put to bed. i did not awake until nine o'clock in the evening, when i remembered all that had passed. it was on a holy thursday; i complained to the abbot of the trick which had been played me by the monks, and they were put into prison. i have often been laughed at about this holy thursday. my aunt, our dear electress (of hanover), being at the hague, did not visit the princess royal; [maria-henrietta stuart, daughter of charles i. of england, and of henriette-marie of france, married, in 1660, to william of nassau, prince of orange; she lost her husband in 1660, and was left pregnant with william-henry of nassau, prince of orange, and afterwards, by the revolution of 1688, king of england. this princess was then preceptress of her son, the stadtholder of holland.] but the queen of bohemia [elizabeth stuart, daughter of james i. of england, widow of frederic v., duke of bavaria, count palatine of the rhine, king of bohemia until the year 1621, mother of the duchess of hanover.] did, and took me with her. before i set out, my aunt said to me, "lizette, now take care not to behave as you do in general, and do not wander away so that you cannot be found; follow the queen step by step, so that she may not have to wait for you." i replied, "oh, aunt, you shall hear how well i will behave myself." when we arrived at the princess royal's, whom i did not know, i saw her son, whom i had often played with; after having gazed for a long time at his mother without knowing who she was, i went back to see if i could find any one to tell me what was this lady's name. seeing only the prince of orange, i accosted him thus,-"pray, tell me who is that woman with so tremendous a nose?" he laughed and answered, "that is the princess royal, my mother." i was quite stupefied. that i might compose myself, mademoiselle heyde took me with the prince into the princess's bedchamber, where we played at all sorts of games. i had told them to call me when the queen should be ready to go, and we were rolling upon a turkey carpet when i was summoned; i arose in great haste and ran into the hall; the queen was already in the antechamber. without losing a moment, i seized the robe of the princess royal, and, making her a low curtsey, at the same moment i placed myself directly before her, and followed the queen step by step to her carriage; everybody was laughing, but i had no notion of what it was at. when we returned home, the queen went to find my aunt, and, seating herself upon the bed, burst into a loud laugh. "lizette," said she, "has made a delightful visit." and then she told all that i had done, which made the electress laugh even more than the queen. she called me to her and said,-"lizette, you have done right; you have revenged us well for the haughtiness of the princess." my brother would have had me marry the margrave of dourlach, but i had no inclination towards him because he was affected, which i never could bear. he knew very well that i was not compelled to refuse him, for he was married long before they thought of marrying me to monsieur. still he thought fit to send to me a doctor of dourlach, for the purpose of asking me whether he ought to obey his father and marry the princess of holstein. i replied that he could not do better than to obey his father; that he had promised me nothing, nor had i pledged myself to him; but that, nevertheless, i was obliged to him for the conduct he had thought fit to adopt. this is all that passed between us. once they wanted to give me to the duke of courlande; it was my aunt d'hervod who wished to make that match. he was in love with marianne, the daughter of duke ulric of wurtemberg; but his father and mother would not allow him to marry her because they had fixed their eyes on me. when, however, he came back from france on his way home, i made such an impression on him that he would not hear of marriage, and requested permission to join the army. i once received a very sharp scolding in a short journey from mannheim to heidelberg. i was in the carriage with my late father, who had with him an envoy, from the emperor, the count of konigseck. at this time i was as thin and light as i am now fat and heavy. the jolting of the carriage threw me from my seat, and i fell upon the count; it was not my fault, but i was nevertheless severely rebuked for it, for my father was not a man to be trifled with, and it was always necessary to be very circumspect in his presence. when i think of conflagrations i am seized with a shivering fit, for i remember how the palatinate was ravaged for more than three months. whenever i went to sleep i used to think i saw heidelberg all in flames; then i used to wake with a start, and i very narrowly escaped an illness in consequence of those outrages. [the burning of the palatinate in 1674--a horrible devastation commanded by louis, and executed by turenne.] upon my arrival in france i was made to hold a conference with three bishops. they all differed in their creeds, and so, taking the quintessence of their opinions, i formed a religion of my own. it was purely from the affection i bore to her that i refused to take precedence of our late electress; but making always a wide distinction between her aid and the duchess of mecklenbourg, as well as our electress of hanover, i did not hesitate to do so with respect to both the latter. i also would not take precedence of my mother. in my childhood i wished to bear her train, but she would never permit me. i have been treated ill ever since my marriage this is in some degree the fault of the princess palatine,--[anne de gonzague, princess palatine, who took so active a part in the troubles of the fronde.]--who prepared my marriage contract; and it is by the contract that the inheritance is governed. all persons bearing the title of madame have pensions from the king; but as they have been of the same amount for a great many years past they are no longer sufficient. i would willingly have married the prince of orange, for by that union i might have hoped to remain near my dear electress (of hanover). upon my arrival at saint-germain i felt as if i had fallen from the clouds. the princess palatine went to paris and there fixed me. i put as good a face upon the affair as was possible; i saw very well that i did not please my husband much, and indeed that could not be wondered at, considering my ugliness; however, i resolved to conduct myself in such a manner towards monsieur that he should become accustomed to me by my attentions, and eventually should be enabled to endure me. immediately upon my arrival, the king came to see me at the chateau neuf, where monsieur and i lived; he brought with him the dauphin, who was then a child of about ten years old. as soon as i had finished my toilette the king returned to the old chateau, where he received me in the guards' hall, and led me to the queen, whispering at the same time,--"do not be frightened, madame; she will be more afraid of you than you of her." the king felt so much the embarrassment of my situation that he would not quit me; he sat by my side, and whenever it was necessary for me to rise, that is to say, whenever a duke or a prince entered the apartment, he gave me a gentle push in the side without being perceived. according to the custom of paris, when a marriage is made, all property is in common; but the husband has the entire control over it. that only which has been brought by way of dowry is taken into the account; for this reason i never knew how much my husband received with me. after his death, when i expected to gain my cause at rome and to receive some money, the disagreeable old maintenon asked me in the king's name to promise that if i gained the cause i would immediately cede the half of the property to my son; and in case of refusal i was menaced with the king's displeasure. i laughed at this, and replied that i did not know why they threatened me, for that my son was in the course of nature my heir, but that it was at least just that he should stay until my death before he took possession of my property, and that i knew the king was too equitable to require of me anything but what was consistent with justice. i soon afterwards received the news of the loss of my cause, and i was not sorry for it, on account of the circumstance i have just related. when the abby de tesse had convinced the pope that his people had decided without having read our papers, and that they had accepted 50,000 crowns from the grand duke to pronounce against me, he began weeping, and said, "am i not an unhappy man to be obliged to trust such persons?" this will show what sort of a character the pope was. when i arrived in france i had only an allowance of a hundred louis d'or for my pocket-money; and this money was always consumed in advance. after my mother's death, when my husband received money from the palatinate, he increased this allowance to two hundred louis; and once, when i was in his good graces, he gave me a thousand louis. besides this, the king had given me annually one thousand louis up to the year before the marriage of my son. that supported me, but as i would not consent to the marriage i was deprived of this sum, and it has never been restored to me. on my first journey to fontainebleau, the king would have given me 2,000 pistoles, but that monsieur begged him to keep half of them for madame, afterwards the queen of spain.--[marie-louise d'orleans, born in 1662, married, in 1679, to charles il, king of spain.] i cared very little about it, and, nevertheless, went to fontainebleau, where i lost all my money at hoca. monsieur told me, for the purpose of vexing me, of the good office he had done me with the king; i only laughed at it, and told him that, if madame had chosen to accept the thousand pistoles from my hands, i would very freely have given them to her. monsieur was quite confused at this, and, by way of repairing the offence he had committed, he took upon himself the payment of 600 louis d'or, which i had lost over and above the thousand pistoles. i receive now only 456,000 francs, which is exactly consumed within the year; if, they could have given me any less they would. i would not be thought to make claims to which i am not entitled, but it should be remembered that monsieur has had the money of my family. i was very glad when, after the birth of my daughter, [elizabeth-charlotte d'orleans, born in 1676, married, in 1697, to the duc de lorraine. philippe d'orleans, afterwards regent of france, was born in 1674; there were no other children by this marriage.] my husband proposed separate beds; for, to tell the truth, i was never very fond of having children. when he proposed it to me, i answered, "yes, monsieur, i shall be very well contented with the arrangement, provided you do not hate me, and that you will continue to behave with some kindness to me." he promised, and we were very well satisfied with each other. it was, besides, very disagreeable to sleep with monsieur; he could not bear any one to touch him when he was asleep, so that i was obliged to lie on the very edge of the bed; whence it sometimes happened that i fell out like a sack. i was therefore enchanted when monsieur proposed to me in friendly terms, and without any anger, to lie in separate rooms. i obeyed the late monsieur by not troubling him with my embraces, and always conducted myself towards him with respect and submission. he was a good sort of man, notwithstanding his weaknesses, which, indeed, oftener excited my pity than my anger. i must confess that i did occasionally express some impatience, but when he begged pardon, it was all forgotten. madame de fiennes had a considerable stock of wit, and was a great joker; her tongue spared no one but me. perceiving that she treated the king and monsieur with as little ceremony as any other persons, i took her by the hand one day, and, leading her apart, i said to her, "madame, you are very agreeable; you have a great deal of wit, and the manner in which you display it is pleasant to the king and monsieur, because they are accustomed to you; but to me, who am but just arrived, i cannot say that i like it. when any persons entertain themselves at my expense, i cannot help being very angry, and it is for this reason that i am going to give you a little advice. if you spare me we shall be mighty good friends; but if you treat me as i see you treat others, i shall say nothing to you; i shall, nevertheless, complain of you to your husband, and if he does not restrain you i shall dismiss him." he was my equerry-in-ordinary. she promised never to speak of me, and she kept her word. monsieur often said to me, "how does it happen that madame de fiennes never says anything severe of you?" i answered, "because she loves me." i would not tell him what i had done, for he would immediately have excited her to attack me. i was called sometimes 'soeur pacifique', because i did all in my power to maintain harmony between monsieur and his cousins, la grande mademoiselle, [anne-marie-louise d'orleans, duchesse de montpensier, and marguerite-louise d'orleans, duchess of tuscany, daughters of gaston, duc d'orleans, but by different wives.] and la grande duchesse: [charlotte-eleonore-maddleine de la motte houdancourt, duchesse de ventadour; she was gouvernante to louis xv.] they quarrelled very frequently, and always like children, for the slightest trifles. madame de ventadour was my maid of honour for at least sixteen years. she did not quit me until two years after the death of my husband, and then it was by a contrivance of old maintenon; she wished to annoy me because she knew i was attached to this lady, who was good and amiable, but not very cunning. old maintenon succeeded in depriving me of her by means of promises and threats, which were conveyed by soubise, whose son had married madame de ventadour's daughter, and who was an artful woman. by way of recompense she was made gouvernante. they tried, also, to deprive me of madame de chateau thiers; the old woman employed all her power there, too, but madame de chateau thiers remained faithful to me, without telling of these attempts, which i learnt from another source. madame de monaco might, perhaps, be fond of forming very close attachments of her own sex, and madame de maintenon would have put me on the same footing; but she did not succeed, and was so much vexed at her disappointment that she wept. afterwards she wanted to make me in love with the chevalier de vendome, and this project succeeded no better than the other. she often said she could not think of what disposition i must be, since i cared neither for men nor women, and that the german nation must be colder than any other. i like persons of that cool temperament. the poor dauphine of bavaria used to send all the young coxcombs of the court to me, knowing that i detested such persons, and would be nearly choked with laughter at seeing the discontented air with which i talked to them. falsehood and superstition were never to my taste. the king was in the habit of saying, "madame cannot endure unequal marriages; she always ridicules them." although there are some most delightful walks at versailles, no one went out either on foot or in carriages but myself; the king observed this, and said, "you are the only one who enjoys the beauties of versailles." all my life, even from my earliest years, i thought myself so ugly that i did not like to be looked at. i therefore cared little for dress, because jewels and decoration attract attention. as monsieur loved to be covered with diamonds, it was fortunate that i did not regard them, for, otherwise, we should have quarrelled about who was to wear them. on grand occasions monsieur used formerly to make me dress in red; i did so, but much against my inclination, for i always hated whatever was inconvenient to me. he always ordered my dresses, and even used to paint my cheeks himself. i made the countess of soissons laugh very heartily once. she said to me, "how is it, madame, that you never look in a mirror when you pass it, as everybody else does?" i answered, "because i have too great a regard for myself to be fond of seeing myself look as ugly as i really am." i was always attached to the king; and when he did anything disagreeable to me it was generally to please monsieur, whose favourites and my enemies did all they could to embroil me with him, and through his means with the king, that i might not be able to denounce them. it was natural enough that the king should be more inclined to please his brother than me; but when monsieur's conscience reproached him, he repented of having done me ill offices with the king, and he confessed this to the king; his majesty would then come to us again immediately, notwithstanding the malicious contrivances of old maintenon. i have always had my own household, although during monsieur's life i was not the mistress of it, because all his favourites derived a share of profit from it. thus no one could buy any employment in my establishment without a bribe to grancey, to the chevalier de lorraine, to cocard, or to m. spied. i troubled myself little about these persons; so long as they continued to behave with proper respect towards me, i let them alone; but when they presumed to ridicule me, or to give me any trouble, i set them to rights without hesitation and as they deserved. finding that madame la marechale de clerambault was attached to me, they removed her, and they placed my daughter under the care of madame la marechale de grancey, the creature of my, bitterest enemy, the chevalier de lorraine, whose mistress was the elder sister of this very, grancei. it may be imagined how fit an example such a woman was for my daughter; but all my prayers, all my remonstrances, were in vain. madame de montespan said to me one day that it was a shame i had no ambition, and would not take part in anything. i replied, "if a person should have intrigued assiduously to become madame, could not her son permit her to enjoy that rank peaceably? well, then, fancy that i have become so by such means, and leave me to repose." "you are obstinate," said she. "no, madame," i answered; "but i love quiet, and i look upon all your ambition to be pure vanity." i thought she would have burst with spite, so angry was she. she, however, continued,-"but make the attempt and we will assist you." "no," i replied, "madame, when i think that you, who have a hundred times more wit than i, have not been able to maintain your consequence in that court which you love so much, what hope can i, a poor foreigner, have of succeeding, who know nothing of intrigue, and like it as little?" she was quite mortified. "go along," she said, "you are good for nothing." old maintenon and her party had instilled into the dauphine a deep hatred against me; by their direction she often said very impertinent things to me. they hoped that i should resent them to the dauphine in such manner as to afford her reason to complain to the king of me, and thus draw his displeasure upon me. but as i knew the tricks of the old woman and her coterie, i resolved not to give them that satisfaction; i only laughed at the disobliging manner in which they treated me, and i gave them to understand that i thought the ill behaviour of the dauphine was but a trick of her childhood, which she would correct as she grew older. when i spoke to her she made me no reply, and laughed at me with the ladies attendant upon her. "ladies," she once said to them, "amuse me; i am tired;" and at the same time looked at me disdainfully. i only smiled at her, as if her behaviour had no effect upon me. i said, however, to old maintenon, in a careless tone, "madame la dauphine receives me ungraciously; i do not intend to quarrel with her, but if she should become too rude i shall ask the king if he approves of her behaviour." the old woman was alarmed, because she knew very well that the king had enjoined the dauphine always to behave politely to me; she begged me immediately not to say a word to the king, assuring me that i should soon see the dauphine's behaviour changed; and indeed, from that time, the dauphine altered her conduct, and lived upon much better terms with me. if i had complained to the king of the ill treatment i received from the dauphine he would have been very angry; but she would not have hated me the less, and she and her old aunt would have formed means to repay me double. ratzenhausen has the good fortune to be sprung from a very good family; the king was always glad to see her, because she made him laugh; she also diverted the dauphine, and madame de berri liked her much, and made her visit her frequently. it is not surprising that we should be good friends; we have been so since our infancy, for i was not nine years old when i first became acquainted with her. of all the old women i know, there is not one who keeps up her gaiety like linor. i often visited madame de maintenon, and did all in my power to gain her affections, but could never succeed. the queen of sicily asked me one day if i did not go out with the king in his carriage, as when she was with us. i replied to her by some verses (from racine's phedre). madame de torci told this again to old maintenon, as if it applied to her, which indeed it did, and the king was obliged to look coldly on me for some time. during the last three years of his life i had entirely gained my husband to myself, so that he laughed at his own weaknesses, and was no longer displeased at being joked with. i had suffered dreadfully before; but from this period he confided in me entirely, and, always took my part. by his death i saw the result of the care and pains of thirty years vanish. after monsieur's decease, the king sent to ask me whither i wished to retire, whether to a convent in paris, or to maubuisson, or elsewhere. i replied that as i had the honour to be of the royal house i could not live but where the king was, and that i intended to go directly to versailles. the king was pleased at this, and came to see me. he somewhat mortified me by saying that he sent to ask me whither i wished to go because he had not imagined that i should choose to stay where he was. i replied that i did not know who could have told his majesty anything so false and injurious, and that i had a much more sincere respect and attachment for his majesty than those who had thus falsely accused me. the king then dismissed all the persons present, and we had a long explanation, in the course of which the king told me i hated madame de maintenon. i confessed that i did hate her, but only through my attachment for him, and because she did me wrong to his majesty; nevertheless, i added that, if it were agreeable to him that i should be reconciled to her, i was ready to become so. the good lady was not prepared for this, or she would not have suffered the king to come to me; he was, however, so satisfied that he remained favourable to me up to his last hour. he made old maintenon come, and said to her, "madame is willing to make friends with you." he then caused us to embrace, and there the scene ended. he required her also to live upon good terms with me, which she did in appearance, but secretly played me all sorts of tricks. it was at this time a matter of indifference to me whether i went to live at montargis or not, but i would not have the appearance of doing so in consequence of any disgrace, and as if i had committed some offence for which i was driven from the court. i had reason to fear, besides, that at the end of two days' journey i might be left to die of hunger, and to avoid this risk i chose rather to be reconciled to the king. as to going into a convent, i never once thought of it, although it was that which old maintenon most desired. the castle of montargis is my jointure; at orleans there is no house. st. cloud is not a part of the hereditary property, but was bought by monsieur with his own money. therefore my jointure produces nothing; all that i have to live on comes from the king and my son. at the commencement of my widowhood i was left unpaid, and there was an arrear of 300,000 francs due to me, which were not paid until after the death of louis xiv. what, then, would have become of me if i had chosen to retire to montargis? my household expenses amounted annually to 298,758 livres. although monsieur received considerable wealth with me, i was obliged, after his death, to give up to my son the jewels, movables, pictures--in short, all that had come from my family; otherwise i should not have had enough to live according to my rank and to keep up my establishment, which is large. in my opinion, to do this is much better than to wear diamonds. my income is not more than 456,000 livres; and yet, if it please god, i will not leave a farthing of debt. my son has just made me more rich by adding 150,000 livres to my pension (1719). the cause of almost all the evil which prevails here is the passion of women for play. i have often been told to my face, "you are good for nothing; you do not like play." if by my influence i can serve any unfortunate persons with the different branches of the government, i always do so willingly; in case of success i rejoice; in a less fortunate event i console myself by the belief that it was not the will of god. after the king's death i repaired to st. cyr to pay a visit to madame de maintenon. on my entering the room she said to me, "madame, what do you come here for?" i replied, "i come to mingle my tears with those of her whom the king i so much deplore loved most.--that is yourself, madame." "yes, indeed," she said, "he loved me well; but he loved you, also." i replied, "he did me the honour to say that, he would always distinguish me by his friendship, although everything was done to make him hate me." i wished thus to let her understand that i was, quite aware of her conduct, but that, being a christian, i could pardon my enemies. if she possessed any sensibility she must have felt some pain at thus. receiving the forgiveness of one whom she had incessantly persecuted. the affair of loube is only a small part of what i have suffered here. i have now no circle, for ladies a tabouret--[ladies having the privilege of seats upon small stools in the presence.]--seldom come to me, not liking to appear but in full dress. i begged them to be present as usual at an audience, which i was to give to the ambassador of malta, but not one of them came. when the late monsieur and the king were alive, they were more assiduous; they were not then so much accustomed to full dresses, and when they did not come in sufficient numbers monsieur threatened to tell the king of it. but this is enough, as m. biermann said, after having preached four hours together. section ii.--louis xiv. [illustration: louis xiv.] when the king pleased he could be one of the most agreeable and amiable men in the world; but it was first necessary that he should be intimately acquainted with persons. he used to joke in a very comical and amusing manner. the king, though by no means perfect, possessed some great and many fine qualities; and by no means deserved to be defamed and despised by his subjects after his death. while he lived he was flattered, even to idolatry. he was so much tormented on my account that i could not have wondered if he had hated me most cordially. however, he did not; but, on the contrary, he discovered that all which was said against me sprang from malice and jealousy. if he had not been so unfortunate as to fall into the hands of two of the worst women in the world montespan, and that old maintenon, who was even worse than the other, he would have been one of the best kings that ever lived; for all the evil that he ever did proceeded from those two women, and not from himself. although i approved of many things he did, i could not agree with him when he maintained that it was vulgar to love one's relations. montespan had instilled this into him, in order that she might get rid of all his legitimate blood connections, and might suffer none about him but her bastards; she had even carried matters so far as to seek to confine the royal favour to her offspring or her creatures. our king loved the chase passionately; particularly hawking and stag hunting. one day all the world came to marly to offer their compliments of condolence; louis xiv., to get rid of the ceremony, ordered that no harangues should be made, but that all the court should enter without distinction and together at one door, and go out by the other. among them came the bishop of gap, in a sort of dancing step, weeping large, hot tears, and smiling at the same moment, which gave to his face the most grotesque appearance imaginable. madame, the dauphine, and i, were the first who could not restrain ourselves; then the dauphin and the duc de berri, and at last the king, and everybody who was in the chamber burst out into loud laughter. the king, it must be allowed, gave occasion to great scandal on account of his mistresses; but then he very sincerely repented of these offences. he had good natural wit, but was extremely ignorant; and was so much ashamed of it that it became the fashion for his courtiers to turn learned men into ridicule. louis xiv. could not endure to hear politics talked; he was what they call in this country, 'franc du collier'. at marly he did not wish the slightest ceremony to prevail. neither ambassadors nor other envoys were ever permitted to come here; he never gave audience; there was no etiquette, and the people went about 'pele-mele'. out of doors the king made all the men wear their hats; and in the drawing-room, everybody, even to the captains, lieutenants, and sublieutenants of the foot-guards, were permitted to be seated. this custom so disgusted me with the drawing-room that i never went to it. the king used to take off his hat to women of all descriptions, even, the common peasants. when he liked people he would tell them everything he had heard; and for this reason it was always dangerous to talk to him of that old maintenon. although he loved flattery, he was very often ready to ridicule it. montespan and the old woman had spoiled him and hardened his heart against his relations, for he was naturally of a very affectionate disposition. louis xiv., as well as all the rest of his family, with the exception of my son, hated reading. neither the king nor monsieur had been taught anything; they scarcely knew how to read and write. the king was the most polite man in his kingdom, but his son and his grandchildren were the most rude. in his youth he had played in the comedy of 'les visionnaires', which he knew by heart, and in which he acted better than the comedians. he did not know a note of music; but his ear was so correct that he could play in a masterly style on the guitar, and execute whatever he chose. it is not astonishing that the king and monsieur were brought up in ignorance. the cardinal (mazarin) wished to reign absolutely; if the princes had been better instructed, he would neither have been trusted nor employed, and this it was his object to prevent, hoping that he should live much longer than he did. the queen-mother found all that the cardinal did perfectly right; and, besides, it suited her purpose that he should be indispensable. it is almost a miracle that the king should have become what he afterwards was. i never saw the king beat but two men, and they both well deserved it. the first was a valet, who would not let him enter the garden during one of his own fetes. the other was a pickpocket, whom the king saw emptying the pocket of m. de villars. louis xiv., who was on horseback, rode towards the thief and struck him with his cane; the rascal cried out, "murder! i shall be killed!" which made us all laugh, and the king laughed, also. he had the thief taken, and made him give up the purse, but he did not have him hanged. the duchesse de schomberg was a good deal laughed at because she asked the king a hundred questions, which is not the fashion here. the king was not well pleased to be talked to; but he never laughed in any one's face. when louvois proposed to the king for the first time that he should appoint madame dufresnoy, his mistress, a lady of the queen's bedchamber, his majesty replied, "would you, then, have them laugh at both of us?" louvois, however, persisted so earnestly in his request that the king at length granted it. the court of france was extremely agreeable until the king had the misfortune to marry that old maintenon; she withdrew him from company, filled him with ridiculous scruples respecting plays, and told him that he ought not to see excommunicated persons. in consequence of this she had a small theatre erected in her own apartments, where plays were acted twice a week before the king. instead of the dismissed comedians, [these dismissed comedians had, as appears by the edition of 1788, renounced their profession, and had been admitted to the communion. after that, madame de maintenon no longer saw any sin in them.] she had the dauphine, my son, the duc de berri, and her own nieces, to play; in her opinion this was much better than the real comedians. the king, instead of occupying his usual place, was seated behind me in a corner, near madame de maintenon. this arrangement spoilt all, for the consequence was that few people saw him, and the court was almost deserted. maintenon told me that the king said to her, "now that i am old my children get tired of me and are delighted to find any opportunity of fixing me here and going elsewhere for their own amusement; madame alone stays, and i see that she is glad to be with me still." but she did not tell me that she had done all in her power to persuade him of the contrary, and that the king spoke thus by way of reproaching her for the lies she had invented about me. i learned that afterwards from others. if the king had been my father i could not have loved him more than i did; i was always pleased to be with him. he was fond of the german soldiers, and said that the german horsemen displayed more grace in the saddle than those of any other nation. when the king had a design to punish certain libertines, fagon--[guy crescent fagon, appointed the king's chief physician in 1693, died in 1718.]--had an amusing conversation with him. he said,-"folks made love long before you came into the world, and they will always continue to do so. you cannot prevent them; and when i hear preachers talking in the pulpit and railing against such as yield to the influence of passion, i think it is very much as if i should say to my phthisical patients, 'you must not cough; it is very wrong to spit.' young folks are full of humours, which must be dispersed by one way or another." the king could not refrain from laughing. he was only superstitious in religious matters; for example, with respect to the miracles of the virgin, etc. he had been taught to believe that to make friends with his brother was a great political stroke and a fine state device; that it made a part of what is called to reign well. since the time of this king it has not been the custom for ladies to talk of the affairs of the state. if the king heard that any one had spoken ill of him, he displayed a proud resentment towards the offender; otherwise it was impossible to be more polite and affable than he was. his conversation was pleasing in a high degree. he had the skill of giving an agreeable turn to everything. his manner of talking was natural, without the least affectation, amiable and obliging. although he had not so much courage as monsieur, he was still no coward. his brother said that he had always behaved well in occasions of danger; but his chief fault lay in being soon tired of war, and wishing to return home. from the time of his becoming so outrageously devout, all amusements were suspended for three weeks (at easter); and before, they were only discontinued a fortnight. the king had a peculiarity of disposition which led him easily to behave harshly to persons who were disagreeable to such as he loved. it was thus that la valliere was so ill-treated at the instigation of montespan. he was much amused with the comte de grammont,--[philibert, comte de grammont, st. evremond's hero, and so well known by means of the memoirs of count antoine hamilton, his brother-in-law.]--who was very pleasant. he loaded him with proofs of his kindness, and invited him to join in all the excursions to marly, a decided mark of great favour. the king frequently complained that in his youth he had not been allowed to converse with people generally, but it was the fault of his natural temper; for monsieur, who had been brought up with him, used to talk to everybody. louis xiv. used to say, laughingly, to monsieur that his eternal chattering had put him out of conceit with talking. "ah, mon dieu!" he would say, "must i, to please everybody, say as many silly things as my brother?" in general, they would not have been taken for brothers. the king was a large man, and my husband a small one: the latter had very effeminate inclinations; he loved dress, was very careful of his complexion, and took great interest in feminine employments and in ceremonies. the king, on the contrary, cared little about dress, loved the chase and shooting, was fond of talking of war, and had all manly tastes and habits. monsieur behaved well in battle, but never talked of it; he loved women as companions, and was pleased to be with them. the king loved to see them somewhat nearer, and not entirely en honneur, as monsieur did. [madame is not a good authority on this point. the memoirs of the time will show either that she cannot have known or must have wilfully concealed the intrigues of various kinds in which her husband was engaged.] they nevertheless loved one another much, and it was very interesting to see them together. they joked each other sensibly and pleasantly, and without ever quarrelling. i was never more amused than in a journey which i took with the king to flanders. the queen and the dauphine were then alive. as soon as we reached a city, each of us retired to our own quarters for a short time, and afterwards we went to the theatre, which was commonly so bad that we were ready to die with laughing. among others, i remember that at dunkirk we saw a company playing mithridates. in speaking to monimia, mithridates said something which i forget, but which was very absurd. he turned round immediately to the dauphine and said, "i very humbly beg pardon, madame, i assure you it was a slip of the tongue." the laugh which followed this apology may be imagined, but it became still greater when the prince of conti, [louis-armaud de bourbon, prince de conti, married in 1780 to marie-anne, commonly called mademoiselle de blois, one of the legitimated daughters of louis xiv. by madame de la valliere. she was called at court la grande princesse, on account of her beauty and her stature.] the husband of la grande princesse, who was sitting above the orchestra, in a fit of laughing, fell into it. he tried to save himself by the cord, and, in doing so, pulled down the curtain over the lamps, set it on fire, and burnt a great hole in it. the flames were soon extinguished, and the actors, as if they were perfectly indifferent, or unconscious of the accident, continued to play on, although we could only see them through the hole. when there was no play, we took airings and had collations; in short, every day brought something new. after the king's supper we went to see magnificent artificial fireworks given by the cities of flanders. everybody was gay; the court was in perfect unanimity, and no one thought of anything but to laugh and seek amusement. if the king had known the duchess of hanover, he would not have been displeased at her calling him "monsieur." as she was a sovereign princess, he thought it was through pride that she would not call him "sire," and this mortified him excessively, for he was very sensitive on such subjects. one day, before roquelaure was made a duke, he was out when it rained violently, and he ordered his coachman to drive to the louvre, where the entrance was permitted to none but ambassadors, princes and dukes. when his carriage arrived at the gate they asked who it was. "a duke," replied he. "what duke?" repeated the sentinel. "the duc d'epernon," said he. "which of them?" "the one who died last." and upon this they let him enter. fearing afterwards that he might get into a scrape about it, he went directly to the king. "sire," said he, "it rains so hard that i came in my coach even to the foot of your staircase." the king was displeased. "what fool let you enter?" he asked. "a greater fool than your majesty can imagine," replied roquelaure, "for he admitted me in the name of the duc d'epernon who died last." this ended the king's anger and made him laugh very heartily. so great a fear of hell had been instilled into the king that he not only thought everybody who did not profess the faith of the jesuits would be damned, but he even thought he was in some danger himself by speaking to such persons. if any one was to be ruined with the king, it was only necessary to say, "he is a huguenot or a jansenist," and his business was immediately settled. my son was about to take into his service a gentleman whose mother was a professed jansenist. the jesuits, by way of embroiling my son with the king, represented that he was about to engage a jansenist on his establishment. the king immediately sent for him and said "how is this, nephew? i understand you think of employing a jansenist in your service." "oh, no!" replied my son, laughing, "i can assure your majesty that he is not a jansenist, and i even doubt whether he believes in the existence of a god." "oh, well, then!" said the king, "if that be the case, and you are sure that he is no jansenist, you may take him." it is impossible for a man to be more ignorant of religion than the king was. i cannot understand how his mother, the queen, could have brought him up with so little knowledge on this subject. he believed all that the priests said to him, as if it came from god himself. that old maintenon and pere la chaise had persuaded him that all the sins he had committed with madame de montespan would be pardoned if he persecuted and extirpated the professors of the reformed religion, and that this was the only path to heaven. the poor king believed it fervently, for he had never seen a bible in his life; and immediately after this the persecution commenced. he knew no more of religion than what his confessors chose to tell him, and they had made him believe that it was not lawful to investigate in matters of religion, but that the reason should be prostrated in order to gain heaven. he was, however, earnest enough himself, and it was not his fault that hypocrisy reigned at court. the old maintenon had forced people to assume it. it was formerly the custom to swear horridly on all occasions; the king detested this practice, and soon abolished it. he was very capable of gratitude, but neither his children nor his grandchildren were. he could not bear to be made to wait for anything. he said that by means of chains of gold he could obtain anything he wished from the ministers at vienna. he could not forgive the french ladies for affecting english fashions. he used often to joke about it, and particularly in the conversation which he addressed to me, expecting that i would take it up and tease the princesses. to amuse him, i sometimes said whatever came into my head, without the least ceremony, and often made him laugh heartily. reversi was the only game at which the king played, and which he liked. when he did not like openly to reprove any person, he would address himself to me; for he knew that i never restrained myself in conversation, and that amused him infinitely. at table, he was almost obliged to talk to me, for the others scarcely said a word. in the cabinet, after supper, there were none but the duchess--[anne of bavaria, wife of henri-jules, duc de bourbon, son of the great conde; she bore the title of madame la princesse after his death.]--and i who spoke to him. i do not know whether the dauphine used to converse with the king in the cabinets, for while she was alive i was never permitted to enter them, thanks to madame de maintenon's interference; the dauphine objected to it; the king would willingly have had it so; but he dare not assert his will for fear of displeasing the dauphine and the old woman. i was not therefore suffered to enter until after the death of the dauphine, and then only because the king wished to have some one who would talk to him in the evening, to dissipate his melancholy thoughts, in which i did my best. he was dissatisfied with his daughters on both sides, who, instead of trying to console him in his grief, thought only of amusing themselves, and the good king might often have remained alone the whole evening if i had not visited his cabinet. he was very sensible of this, and said to maintenon, "madame is the only one who does not abandon me." louis xiv. spoiled the jesuits; he thought whatever came from them must be admirable, whether it was right or wrong. the king did not like living in town; he was convinced that the people did not love him, and that there was no security for him among them. maintenon had him, besides, more under her sway at versailles than at paris, where there was certainly no security for her. she was universally detested there; and whenever she went out in a carriage the populace shouted loud threats against her, so that at last she dared not appear in public. at first the king was in the habit of dining with madame de montespan and his children, and then no person went to visit him but the dauphin and monsieur. when montespan was dismissed, the king had all his illegitimate children in his cabinet: this continued until the arrival of the last dauphine; she intruded herself among the bastards to their great affliction. when the duchess- [louise-francoise, commonly called mademoiselle de nantes, the legitimated daughter of madame de montespan and the king, was married to the duc de bourbon in 1685.] became the favourite of the dauphin, she begged that no other persons of the royal house might have access to the cabinet; and therefore my request for admission, although not refused, was never granted until after the death of the dauphin and dauphine. the latter accompanied the king to places where i did not, and could not go, for she even, went with him upon occasions when decency ought to have forbidden her presence. maintenon did the same thing, for the purpose of having an opportunity of talking to the king in secret. louis xiv. loved the young dauphine so well that he dared refuse her nothing; and maintenon had so violent a hatred against me that she was ready to do me all the mischief in her power. what could the king do against the inclinations of his son and his granddaughter? they would have looked cross, and that would have grieved him. i had no inclination to cause him any vexation, and therefore preferred exercising my own patience. when i had anything to say to the king, i requested a private audience, which threw them all into despair, and furnished me with a good laugh in my sleeve. the king was so much devoted to the old usages of the royal palace that he would not for the world have departed from them. madame de fiennes was in the habit of saying that the royal family adhered so strictly to their habits and customs that the queen of england died with a toguet on her head; that is, a little cap which is put upon children when they go to bed. when the king denied anything it was not permitted to argue with him; what he commanded must be done quickly and without reply. he was too much accustomed to "such is our good pleasure," to endure any contradiction. he was always kind and generous when he acted from his own impulses. he never thought that his last will would be observed; and he said to several people, "they have made me sign a will and some other papers; i have done it for the sake of being quiet, but i know very well that it will not stand good." the good king was old; he stood in need of repose, and he could not enjoy it by any other means than by doing whatever that old maintenon wished; thus it was that this artful hussy always accomplished her ends. the king used always to call the duc de verneuil his uncle. it has been said and believed that louis xiv. retired from the war against holland through pure generosity; but i know, as well as i know my own name that he came back solely for the purpose of seeing madame de montespan, and to stay with her. i know also many examples of great events, which in history have been attributed to policy or ambition, but which have originated from the most insignificant trifles. it has been said it was our king's ambition that made him resolve to become the master of the world, and that it was for this he commenced the dutch war; but i know from an indisputable source that it was entered upon only because m. de lionne, then minister of state, was jealous of prince william of furstenberg, who had an intrigue with his wife, of which he had been apprised. it was this that caused him to engage in those quarrels which afterwards produced the war. it was not surprising that the king was insensible to the scarcity which prevailed, for in the first place he had seen nothing of it, and, in the second, he had been told that all the reports which had reached him were falsehoods, and that they were in no respect true. old maintenon invented this plan for getting money, for she had bought up all the corn, for the purpose of retailing it at a high price. [this does not sound like m. maintenon. d.w.] everybody had been requested to say nothing about it to the king, lest it should kill him with vexation. the king loved my son as well as his own, but he cared little for the girls. he was very fond of monsieur, and he had reason to be so; never did a child pay a more implicit obedience to its parents than did monsieur to the king; it was a real veneration; and the dauphin, too, had for him a veneration, affection and submission such as never son had for a father. the king was inconsolable for his death. he never had much regard for the duke of burgundy; the old sorceress (maintenon) had slandered him to the king, and made the latter believe that he was of an ambitious temper, and was impatient at the king's living so long. she did this in order that if the prince should one day open his eyes, and perceive the manner in which his wife had been educated, his complaints might have no effect with the king, which really took place. louis xiv. at last thought everything that the dauphine of burgundy did was quite charming; old maintenon made him believe that her only aim was to divert him. this old woman was to him both the law and the prophets; all that she approved was good, and what she condemned was bad, no matter how estimable it really was. the most innocent actions of the first dauphine were represented as crimes, and all the impertinences of the second were admired. a person who had been for many years in immediate attendance upon the king, who had been engaged with him every evening at maintenon's, and who must consequently have heard everything that was said, is one of my very good friends, and he has told me that although while the old lady was living he dare not say a word, yet, she being dead, he was at liberty to tell me that the king had always professed a real friendship for me. this person has often heard with his own ears maintenon teasing the king, and speaking ill of me for the purpose of rendering me hateful in his eyes, but the king always took my part. it was in reference to this, i have no doubt, that the king said to me on his death-bed: "they have done all they could to make me hate you, madame, but they have not succeeded." he added that he had always known me too well to believe their calumnies. while he spoke thus, the old woman stood by with so guilty an air that i could not doubt they had proceeded from her. monsieur often took a pleasure in diminishing or depriving me of the king's favour, and the king was not sorry for some little occasions to blame monsieur. he told me once that he had embroiled me with monsieur by policy. i was alarmed, and said immediately, "perhaps your majesty may do the same thing again." the king laughed, and said, "no, if i had intended to do so i should not have told you of it; and, to say the truth, i had some scruples about it, and have resolved never to do so again." upon the death of one of his children, the king asked of his old medical attendant, m. gueneau: "pray, how does it happen that my illegitimate children are healthy and live, while all the queen's children are so delicate and always die?" "sire," replied gueneau, "it is because the queen has only the rinsings of the glass." he always slept in the queen's bed, but did not always accommodate himself to the spanish temperament of that princess; so that the queen knew he had been elsewhere. the king, nevertheless, had always great consideration for her, and made his mistresses treat her with all becoming respect. he loved her for her virtue, and for the sincere affection she bore to him, notwithstanding his infidelity. he was much affected at her death; but four days afterwards, by the chattering of old maintenon, he was consoled. a few days afterwards we went to fontainebleau, and expected to find the king in an ill-humour, and that we should be scolded; but, on the contrary, he was very gay. when the king returned from a journey we were all obliged to be at the carriage as he got out, for the purpose of accompanying him to his apartments. while louis xiv. was young all the women were running after him; but he renounced this sort of life when he flattered himself that he had grown devout. his motive was, madame de maintenon watched him so narrowly that he could not, dare not, look at any one. she disgusted him with everybody else that she might have him to herself; and this, too, under the pretext of taking care of his soul. madame de colonne had a great share of wit, and our king was so much in love with her, that, if her uncle, the cardinal, had consented, he would certainly have married her. cardinal mazarin, although in every other respect a worthless person, deserved to be praised for having opposed this marriage. he sent his niece into italy. when she was setting out, the king wept violently. madame de colonne said to him, "you are a king; you weep, and yet i go." this was saying a great deal in a few words. as to the comtesse de soissons, the king had always more of friendship than of love for her. he made her very considerable presents, the least of which was to the amount of 2,000 louis. madame de ludres, the king's mistress, was an agreeable person; she had been maid of honour to monsieur's first wife,--[henrietta of england.]--and after her death she entered the queen's service, but when these places were afterwards abolished, monsieur took back ludres and dampierre, the two ladies of honour he had given to the queen. the former was called madame, because she was canoness of a chapter at lorraine. it is said that the king never observed her beauty while she was with the queen, and that it was not until she was with me that he fell in love with her. her reign lasted only two years. montespan told the king that ludres had certain ringworms upon her body, caused by a poison that had been given her in her youth by madame de cantecroix. at twelve or thirteen years of age, she had inspired the old duc de lorraine with so violent a passion that he resolved to marry her at all events. the poison caused eruptions, covered her with ringworms from head to foot, and prevented the marriage. she was cured so well as to preserve the beauty of her figure, but she was always subject to occasional eruptions. although now (1718) more than seventy years old, she is still beautiful; she has as fine features as can be seen, but a very disagreeable manner of speaking; she lisps horribly. she is, however, a good sort of person. since she has been converted she thinks of nothing but the education of her nieces, and limits her own expenses that she may give the more to her brother's children. she is in a convent at nancy, which she is at liberty to quit when she pleases. she, as well as her nieces, enjoy pensions from the king. i have seen beauvais, that femme de chambre of the queen-mother, a one-eyed creature, who is said to have first taught the king the art of intriguing. she was perfectly acquainted with all its mysteries, and had led a very profligate life; she lived several years after my arrival in france. louis xiv. carried his gallantries to debauchery. provided they were women, all were alike to him peasants, gardeners' girls, femmes de chambre, or ladies of quality. all that they had to do was to seem to be in love with him. for a long time before his death, however, he had ceased to run after women; he even exiled the duchesse de la ferte, because she pretended to be dying for him. when she could not see him, she had his portrait in her carriage to contemplate it. the king said that it made him ridiculous, and desired her to retire to her own estate. the duchesse de roquelaure, of the house of laval, was also suspected of wishing to captivate the king; but his majesty was not so severe with her as with la ferte. there was great talk in the scandalous circles about this intrigue; but i did not thrust my nose into the affair. i am convinced that the duchesse de la valliere always loved the king very much. montespan loved him for ambition, la soubise for interest, and maintenon for both. la fontange loved him also, but only like the heroine of a romance; she was a furiously romantic person. ludres was also very much attached to him, but the king soon got tired of her. as for madame de monaco, i would not take an oath that she never intrigued with the king. while the king was fond of her, lauzun, who had a regular though a secret arrangement with his cousin, fell into disgrace for the first time. he had forbidden his fair one to see the king; but finding her one day sitting on the ground, and talking with his majesty, lauzun, who, in his place as captain of the guard, was in the chamber, was so transported with jealousy that he could not restrain himself, and, pretending to pass, he trod so violently on the hand which madame de monaco had placed upon the ground, that he nearly crushed it. the king, who thus guessed at their intrigue, reprimanded him. lauzun replied insolently, and was sent for the first time to the bastille. madame de soubise was cunning, full of dissimulation, and very wicked. she deceived the good queen cruelly; but the latter rewarded her for this in exposing her falsehood and in unmasking her to the world. as soon as the king had undeceived her majesty with respect to this woman, her history became notorious, and the queen amused herself in relating her triumph, as she called it, to everybody. the king and monsieur had been accustomed from their childhood to great filthiness in the interior of their houses; so much so, that they did not know it ought to be otherwise, and yet, in their persons, they, were particularly neat. madame de la motte, who had been at chaillot, preferred the old marquis de richelieu to the king. she declared to his majesty that her heart was no longer disposable, but that it was at length fixed. i can never think, without anger, of the evil which has been spoken of the late king, and how little his majesty has been regretted by those to whom he had done so much good. i hardly dare repeat what the king said to me on his death-bed. all those who were usually in his cabinet were present, with the exception of the princess, his daughter, the princesse de conti, and madame de vendome, who, alone, did not see the king. the whole of the royal family was assembled. he recommended his legitimated daughters to live together in concord, and i was the innocent cause of his saying something disagreeable to them. when the king said, "i recommend you all to be united," i thought he alluded to me and my son's daughter; and i said, "yes, monsieur, you shall be obeyed." he turned towards me, and said in a stern voice, "madame, you thought i spoke of you. no, no; you are a sensible person, and i know you; it is to the princesses, who are not so, that i speak:" louis xiv. proved at his death that he was really a great man, for it would be impossible to die with more courage than he displayed. for eight days he had incessantly the approach of death before his eyes without betraying fear or apprehension; he arranged everything as if he had only been going to make a journey. eight or ten days before his death a disease had appeared in his leg; a gangrene ensued, and it was this which caused his death. but for three months preceding he had been afflicted with a slow fever, which had reduced him so much that he looked like a lath. that old rogue, fagon, had brought him to this condition, by administering purgatives and sudorifics of the most violent kind. at the instigation of pere letellier, he had been tormented to death by the cursed constitution,--[the affair of the bull unigenitus]--and had not been allowed to rest day or night. fagon was a wicked old scoundrel, much more attached to maintenon than to the king. when i perceived how much it was sought to exault the duc du maine, and that the old woman cared so little for the king's death, i could not help entertaining unfavourable notions of this old rascal. it cannot be denied that louis xiv. was the finest man in his kingdom. no person had a better appearance than he. his figure was agreeable, his legs well made, his feet small, his voice pleasant; he was lusty in proportion; and, in short, no fault could be found with his person. some folks thought he was too corpulent for his height, and that monsieur was too stout; so that it was said, by way of a joke at court, that there had been a mistake, and that one brother had received what had been intended for the other. the king was in the habit of keeping his mouth open in an awkward way. an english gentleman, mr. hammer, found him an expert fencer. he preserved his good looks up to his death, although some of my ladies, who saw him afterwards, told me that he could scarcely be recognized. before his death, his stature had been diminished by a head, and he perceived this himself. his pronunciation was very distinct, but all his children, from the dauphin to the comte de toulouse, lisped. they used to say, pahi, instead of paris. in general, the king would have no persons at his table but members of the royal family. as for the princesses of the blood, there were so many of them that the ordinary table would not have held them; and, indeed, when we were all there, it was quite full. the king used to sit in the middle, and had the dauphin and the duke of burgundy at his right, and the dauphine and the duchesse de berri on his left; on one of the sides monsieur and i sat; and on the other, my son and his wife; the other parts of the table were reserved for the noblemen in waiting, who did not take their places behind the king, but opposite to him. when the princesses of the blood or any other ladies were received at the king's table, we were waited on, not by noblemen, but by other officers of the king's household, who stood behind like pages. the king upon such occasions was waited on by his chief maitre d'hotel. the pages never waited at the king's table, but on journeys; and then upon no person but the king. the royal family had persons to attend them who were not noble. formerly all the king's officers, such as the butler, the cupbearer, etc., etc., were persons of rank; but afterwards, the nobility becoming poor could not afford to buy the high offices; and they fell, of necessity, into the hands of more wealthy citizens who could pay for them. the king, the late monsieur, the dauphin, and the duc de berri were great eaters. i have often seen the king eat four platefuls of different soups, a whole pheasant, a partridge, a plateful of salad, mutton hashed with garlic, two good-sized slices of ham, a dish of pastry, and afterwards fruit and sweetmeats. the king and monsieur were very fond of hard eggs. louis xiv. understood perfectly the art of satisfying people even while he reproved their requests. his manners were most affable, and he spoke with so much politeness as to win all hearts. section iii.--mademoiselle de fontange. i had a maid of honour whose name was beauvais; she was a very well-disposed person: the king fell in love with her, but she remained firm against all his attempts. he then turned his attention to her companion, fontange, who was also very pretty, but not very sensible. when he first saw her he said, "there is a wolf that will not eat me;" and yet he became very fond of her soon afterwards. before she came to me she had dreamt all that was to befall her, and a pious capuchin explained her dream to her. she told me of it herself long before she became the king's mistress. she dreamt that she had ascended a high mountain, and, having reached the summit, she was dazzled by an exceedingly bright cloud; then on a sudden she found herself in such profound darkness that her terror at this accident awoke her. when she told her confessor he said to her: "take care of yourself; that mountain is the court, where some distinction awaits you; it will, however, be but of short duration; if you abandon your god he will forsake you and you will fall into eternal darkness." there is no doubt that fontange died by poison; she accused montespan of being the cause of her death. a servant who had been bribed by that favourite destroyed her and some of her people by means of poison mixed with milk. two of them died with her, and said publicly that they had been poisoned. fontange was a stupid little creature, but she had a very good heart. she was very red-haired, but, beautiful as an angel from head to foot. section iv.-madame de la valliere. when one of madame de montespan's children died, the king was deeply affected; but he was not so at the death of the poor comte de vermandois (the son of la valliere). he could not bear him, because montespan and that old maintenon had made him believe the youth was not his but the duc de lauzun's child. it had been well if all the king's reputed children had been as surely his as this was. madame de la valliere was no light mistress, as her unwavering penitence sufficiently proved. she was an amiable, gentle, kind and tender woman. ambition formed no part of her love for the king; she had a real passion for him, and never loved any other person. it was at montespan's instigation that the king behaved so ill to her. the poor creature's heart was broken, but she imagined that she could not make a sacrifice more agreeable to god than that which had been the cause of her errors; and thought that her repentance ought to proceed from the same source as her crime. she therefore remained, by way of self-mortification, with montespan, who, having a great portion of wit, did not scruple to ridicule her publicly, behaved extremely ill to her, and obliged the king to do the same. he used to pass through la valliere's chamber to go to montespan's; and one day, at the instigation of the latter, he threw a little spaniel, which he had called malice, at the duchesse de la valliere, saying: "there, madam, is your companion; that's all." this was the more cruel, as he was then going direct to montespan's chamber. and yet la valliere bore everything patiently; she was as virtuous as montespan was vicious. her connection with the king might be pardoned, when it was remembered that everybody had not only advised her to it, but had even assisted to bring it about. the king was young, handsome and gallant; she was, besides, very young; she was naturally modest, and had a very good heart. she was very much grieved when she was made a duchess, and her children legitimated; before that she thought no one knew she had had children. there was an inexpressible charm in her countenance, her figure was elegant, her eyes were always in my opinion much finer than montespan's, and her whole deportment was unassuming. she was slightly lame, but not so much as to impair her appearance. when i first arrived in france she had not retired to the convent, but was still in the court. we became and continued very intimate until she took the veil. i was deeply affected when this charming person took that resolution; and, at the moment when the funeral pall was thrown over her, i shed so many tears that i could see no more. she visited me after the ceremony, and told me that i should rather congratulate than weep for her, for that from that moment her happiness was to begin: she added that she should never forget the kindness and friendship i had displayed towards her, and which was so much more than she deserved. a short time afterwards i went to see her. i was curious to know why she had remained so long in the character of an attendant to montespan. she told me that god had touched her heart, and made her sensible of her crimes; that she felt she ought to perform a penitence, and suffer that which would be most painful to her, which was to love the king, and to be despised by him; that for the three years after the king had ceased to love her she had suffered the torments of the damned, and that she offered her sorrows to heaven as the expiation of her sins; and as her sins had been public, so should be her repentance. she said she knew very well that she had been taken for a fool, who was not sensible of anything; but that at the very period she alluded to she suffered most, and continued to do so until god inspired her with the resolution to abandon everything, and to serve him alone, which she had since put into execution; but that now she considered herself unworthy, on account of her past life, to live in the society of persons as pure and pious as the carmelite sisters. all this evidently came from the heart. from the time she became professed, she was entirely devoted to heaven. i often told her that she had only transposed her love, and had given to god that which had formerly been the king's. she has said frequently that if the king should come into the convent she would refuse to see him, and would hide herself so that he could not find her. she was, however, spared this pain, for the king not only never went, but seemed to have forgotten her, as if he had never known her. to accuse la valliere of loving any one besides the king was wicked to the last degree, but falsehoods cost montespan but little. the comte de vermandois was a good sort of young man, and loved me as if i had been his mother. when his irregularities were first discovered,--[a more particular account of these will be found hereafter.]--i was very angry with him; and i had caused him to be told very seriously that if he had behaved ill i should cease to have any regard for him. this grieved him to the heart; he sent to me daily, and begged permission to say only a few words to me. i was firm during four weeks; at length i permitted him to come, when he threw himself at my feet, begged my pardon, promising to amend his conduct, and beseeching me to restore him my friendship (without which he said he could not exist), and to assist him again with my advice. he told me the whole history of his follies, and convinced me that he had been most grossly deluded. when the dauphine lay in of the duke of burgundy, i said to the king, "i hope your majesty will not upon this occasion refuse a humble request i have to make to you." he smiled and said, "what have you to ask, then?" i replied, "the pardon, monsieur, of the poor comte de vermandois." he smiled once more, and said, "you are a very good friend; but as for m. vermandois, he has not been sufficiently punished for his crimes." "the poor lad," i rejoined, "is so very penitent for his offence." the king replied, "i do not yet feel myself inclined to see him; i am too angry with him still." several months elapsed before the king would see him; but the young man was very grateful to me for having spoken in his behalf; and my own children could not be more attached to me than he was. he was well made, but his appearance, though not disagreeable, was not remarkably good; he squinted a little. section v.--madame de montespan the king at first could not bear madame de montespan,--[daughter of gabriel de roche chouart, first duc de mortemart.]--and blamed monsieur and even the queen for associating with her; yet, eventually, he fell deeply in love with her himself. she was more of an ambitious than a libertine woman, but as wicked as the devil himself. nothing could stand between her and the gratification of her ambition, to which she would have made any sacrifice. her figure was ugly and clumsy, but her eyes bespoke great intelligence, though they were somewhat too bright. her mouth was very pretty and her smile uncommonly agreeable. her complexion was fairer than la valliere's, her look was more bold, and her general appearance denoted her intriguing temper. she had very beautiful light hair, fine arms, and pretty hands, which la valliere had not. but the latter was always very neat, and montespan was filthy to the last degree. she was very amusing in conversation, and it was impossible to be tired in talking with her. the king did not regret montespan more than he did la fontange. the duc d'antin, her only legitimate child, was also the only one who wept at her death. when the king had the others legitimated, the mother's name was not mentioned, so that it might appear madame de montespan was not their mother. [madame de montespan had eight children by louis xiv. the duc du maine; comte vegin; mademoiselle de nantes, married to the duc de bourbon; mademoiselle de tours, married to the regent duc d'orleans; the comte de toulouse, and two other sons who died young.] she was once present at a review, and as she passed before the german soldiers they called out: "konigs hure! hure!" when the king asked her in the evening how she liked the review, she said: "very well, but only those german soldiers are so simple as not to call things by their proper names, for i had their shouts explained to me." madame de montespan and her eldest daughter could drink a large quantity of wine without being affected by it. i have seen them drink six bumpers of the strong turin rosa solis, besides the wine which they had taken before. i expected to see them fall under the table, but, on the contrary, it affected them no more than a draught of water. it was madame de montespan who invented the 'robes battantes' for the purpose of concealing her pregnancy, because it was impossible to discover the shape in those robes. but when she wore them, it was precisely as if she had publicly announced that which she affected to conceal, for everybody at the court used to say, "madame de montespan has put on her robe battante, therefore she must be pregnant." i believe she did it on purpose, hoping that it commanded more attention for her at court, as it really did. it is quite true that she always had a royal bodyguard, and it was fit that she should, because the king was always in her apartments by day and night. he transacted business there with his ministers, but, as there were several chambers, the lady was, nevertheless, quite at liberty to do as she pleased, and the marshal de noailles, though a devout person, was still a man. when she went out in a carriage, she had guards, lest her husband should, as he had threatened, offer her some insult. she caused the queen great vexation, and it is quite true that she used to ridicule her; but then she did the same to everybody besides. she, however, never ventured upon any direct or remarkable impertinence to her majesty, for the king would not have suffered it. she had married one of her cousins, m. de montpipeau, to mademoiselle aubry, the daughter of a private citizen who was exceedingly rich. to convince her that she had made a good match, madame de montespan had her brought into her own small private room. the young lady was not accustomed to very refined society, and the first time she went she seated herself upon the table, and, crossing her legs, sat swinging there as if she had been in her own chamber. the laugh which this excited cannot be conceived, nor the comical manner in which madame de montespan turned it to the king's amusement. the young lady thought that her new relation was inclined to be favourable to her, and loaded her with compliments. in general, montespan had the skill of representing things so humourously that it was impossible not to laugh at her. according to the law of the land, all her children were supposed to be monsieur de montespan's. when her husband was dangerously ill, madame de montespan, who in some degree affected devotion, sent to ask him if he would allow her to nurse him in his sickness. he replied that he would very willingly, provided she would bring all his children home with her, but if she left one behind he would not receive her. after this answer, she took care not to go, for her husband was a great brute, and would have said whatever he pleased as soon as she presented herself to him. with the exception of the comte de toulouse, all the children she had by the king are marked. the duc du maine is paralytic, madame d'orleans is crooked, and madame la duchesse is lame. m. de montespan was not a very estimable person; he did nothing but play. he was a very sordid man, and i believe if the king had chosen to give him a good round sum he would have been very quiet. it was amusing enough to see him and his son, d'antin, playing with madame d'orleans and madame la duchesse, and presenting the cards very politely, and kissing his hand to the princesses, who were called his own daughters. he thought it a joke himself, and always turned aside a little to laugh in his sleeve. section vi.--madame de maintenon. the marriage of louis xiv. with old maintenon proves how impossible it is to escape one's fate. the king said one day to the duc de crequi and to m. de la rochefoucauld, long before he knew mistress scarron, "i am convinced that astrology is false. i had my nativity cast in italy, and i was told that, after living to an advanced age, i should be in love with an old ----to the last moment of my existence. i do not think there is any great likelihood of that." he laughed most heartily as he said this; and yet the thing has taken place. the history of theodora, in procopius, bears a singular resemblance to that of maintenon. in the history of sweden, too, there is a similar character in the person of sigbritta, a dutch woman, who lived during the reign of christian il, king of denmark, sweden and norway, who bears so great a likeness to maintenon that i was struck with it as soon as i read it. i cannot imagine how they came to permit its publication. it is fortunate for the abbe vertot, who is the author, that the king does not love reading, otherwise he would certainly have been sent to the bastille. several persons thought that the abbe had invented it by way of a joke, but he swears by all that is good that he found it in the annals of sweden. the old woman cannot have read it either, for she is too much occupied in reading the letters written to her from paris, relating all that is going on there and at the court. sometimes the packets have consisted of twenty or thirty sheets; she kept them or showed them to the king, according as she liked or disliked the persons. she was not deficient in wit, and could talk very well whenever she chose. she did not like to be called la marquise, but preferred the simpler and shorter title of madame de maintenon. she did not scruple to display openly the hatred she had for me. for example, when the queen of england came to marly, and went out on foot or in the carriage with the king, on their return the queen, the dauphine, the princess of england, and all the princesses, went into the king's room; i alone was excluded. it was with great regret that i gave up my maids of honour. i had four, sometimes five of them, with their governess and sub-governess; they amused me very much, for they were all very gay. the old woman feared there might be some among them to whom the king might take a fancy, as he had done to ludre and fontange. i only kept my maids of honour a year after the death of monsieur.--[1702]--the king was always fond of the sex, and if the old woman had not watched him very narrowly he would have slipped through her fingers in spite of all his devotion. she hated the dauphine because the latter would not let her treat her like a child, but wished to keep a court and live as became her rank. this the old woman could not and would not endure. she loved to set all things in confusion, as she did afterwards with the second dauphine, in the hope of compelling the king to recognize and proclaim her as queen; but this the king never would do, notwithstanding all her artifices.-[other writers including madame de montespan put it just the opposite way that the king wished to proclaim maintenon queen and she refused. d.w.] nobody at court used perfumery except that old woman; her gloves were always scented with jessamine. the king could not bear scent on any other person, and only endured it in her because she made him believe that it was somebody else who was perfumed. if madame des ursins had not been protected by madame de maintenon, she would have been ruined at court long before the queen of spain dismissed her, for in his heart the king disliked her excessively; but all those who were supported by madame de maintenon were sure to triumph. the old woman took great pains to conceal from the king all that could give him pain; but she did not scruple to torment him incessantly about the constitution and those illegitimate children, whom she wished to raise higher than the king desired. she teased him also with her hatred of my son and myself, for he had no dislike to us. neither the queen nor the first dauphine nor myself ever received a farthing; but this old maintenon took money on all sides, and taught the second dauphine to do the same. her example was followed by all the others. in the time of the queen and the first dauphine, everything at court was conducted with modesty and dignity. those persons who indulged in secret debaucheries at least kept up a respect for appearances; but from the time that maintenon's reign began, and the king's illegitimate children were made a part of the royal family, all was turned topsy-turvy. when she once conceived a hatred against any person it was for life, and she never ceased secretly to persecute them, as i have personally experienced. she has laid many snares for me, which by the help of providence i have always avoided. she was terribly annoyed by her first husband, who kept her always shut up in his chamber. many people say, too, that she hastened the passage of poor mansart into the other world. it is quite certain that he was poisoned by means of green peas, and that he died within three hours of eating them. she had learnt that on the same day m. de torcy was going to show the king certain papers containing an account of the money which she had received from the post unknown to his majesty. the king never knew anything of this adventure nor of that of louvois, because, as people had no fancy for being poisoned, they held their tongues. before she got into power, the church of france was very reasonable; but she spoiled everything by encouraging such follies and superstitions as the rosaries and other things. when any reasonable men appeared, the old woman and the confessor had them banished or imprisoned. these two persons were the causes of all the persecutions which the lutherans and those of the reformed religion underwent in france. pere la chaise, with his long ears, began this worthy enterprise, and pere letellier completed it; france was thus ruined in every way. the duchesse de bourbon was taught by her mother and her aunt, mesdames de montespan and de thiange, to ridicule everybody, under the pretext of diverting the king. the children, who were always present, learnt nothing else; and this practice was the universal dread of all persons in the court; but not more so than that of the gouvernante of the children (madame de maintenon). her habit was to treat things very seriously, and without the least appearance of jesting. she used to speak ill of persons to the king through charity and piety, for the sole purpose of correcting the faults of her neighbours; and under this pretext she filled the king with a bad opinion of the whole court, solely that he might have no desire for any other company than that of herself and her creatures, who were alone perfect and without the slightest defect. what rendered her disclosures the more dangerous was that they were frequently followed by banishment, by 'lettres-de-cachet', and by imprisonment. when montespan was in power, at least there was nothing of this sort. provided she could amuse herself at the expense of all around her, she was content. i have often heard madame de maintenon say, jestingly, "i have always been either too far from, or too near to, greatness, to know exactly what it is." she could not forgive the king for not having proclaimed her queen. she put on such an appearance of humility and piety to the queen of england that she passed for a saint with her. the old woman knew very well that i was a right german, and that i never could endure unequal alliances. she fancied, therefore, that it was on my account the king was reluctant to acknowledge his marriage with her, and this it was that made her hate me so profoundly. from the time of the king's death and our departure from versailles my son has never once seen her. she would never allow me to meddle with anything, because she feared it would give me an opportunity of talking to the king. it was not that she was jealous lest he should be fond of me, but she feared that, in speaking according to my usual custom, freely and without restraint, i should open the king's eyes and point out to him the folly of the life he was leading. i had, however, no such intention. all the mistresses the king had did not tarnish his reputation so much as the old woman he married; from her proceeded all the calamities which have since befallen france. it was she who excited the persecution against the protestants, invented the heavy taxes which raised the price of grain so high, and caused the scarcity. she helped the ministers to rob the king; by means of the constitution she hastened his death; she brought about my son's marriage; she wanted to place bastards upon the throne; in short, she ruined and confused everything. formerly the court never went into mourning for children younger than six years of age; but the duc du maine having lost a daughter only one year old, the old woman persuaded the king to order a mourning, and since that time it has been always worn for children of a year old. the king always hated or loved as she chose to direct; it was not, therefore, surprising that he could not bear montespan, for all her failings were displayed to him by the old woman, who was materially assisted in this office by montespan's eldest son, the duc du maine. in her latter years she enjoyed a splendour which she could never have dreamed of before; the court looked upon her as a sort of divinity. the old lady never failed to manifest her hatred of my son on all occasions. she liked my husband no better than myself; and my son and my daughter and her husband were equally objects of her detestation. she told a lady once that her greatest fault was that of being attached to me. neither my son nor i had ever done her any injury. if monsieur thought fit to tell his niece, the duchess of burgundy, a part of maintenon's history, in the vexation he felt at her having estranged the princess from him, and not choosing that she should behave affectionately to her great-uncle, that was not our fault. she was as jealous of the dauphine as a lover is of his mistress. she was in the habit of saying, "i perceive there is a sort of vertigo at present affecting the whole world." when she perceived that the harvest had failed, she bought up all the corn she could get in the markets, and gained by this means an enormous sum of money, while the poor people were dying of famine. not having a sufficient number of granaries, a large quantity of this corn became rotten in the boats loaded with it, and it was necessary to throw it into the river. the people said this was a just judgment from heaven. my son made me laugh the other day. i asked him how madame de maintenon was. "wonderfully well," he replied. "that is surprising at her age," i said. "yes," he rejoined, "but do you not know that god has, by way, of punishing the devil, doomed him to exist a certain number of years in that ugly body?" montespan was the cause of the king's love for old maintenon. in the first place, when she wished to have her near her children, she shut her ears to the stories which were told of the irregular life which the hussy had been leading; she made everybody who spoke to the king about her, praise her; her virtue and piety were cried up until the king was made to think that all he had heard of her light conduct were lies, and in the end he most firmly believed it. in the second place, montespan was a creature full of caprice, who had no control over herself, was passionately fond of amusement, was tired whenever she was alone with the king, whom she loved only, for the purposes of her own interest or ambition, caring very little for him personally. to occupy him, and to prevent him from observing her fondness for play and dissipation, she brought maintenon. the king was fond of a retired life, and would willingly have passed his time alone with montespan; he often reproached her with not loving him sufficiently, and they quarrelled a great deal occasionally. goody scarron then appeared, restored peace between them, and consoled the king. she, however, made him remark more and more the bitter temper of montespan; and, affecting great devotion, she told the king that his affliction was sent him by heaven, as a punishment for the sins he had committed with montespan. she was eloquent, and had very fine eyes; by degrees the king became accustomed to her, and thought she would effect his salvation. he then made a proposal to her; but she remained firm, and gave him to understand that, although he was very agreeable to her, she would not for the whole world offend heaven. this excited in the king so great an admiration for her, and such a disgust to madame de montespan, that he began to think of being converted. the old woman then employed her creature, the duc du maine, to insinuate to his mother that, since the king had taken other mistresses, for example, ludres and fontange, she had lost her authority, and would become an object of contempt at court. this irritated her, and she was in a very bad humour when the king came. in the meantime, maintenon was incessantly censuring the king; she told him that he would be damned if he did not live on better terms with the queen. louis xiv. repeated this to his wife, who considered herself much obliged to madame de maintenon: she treated her with marks of distinction, and consented to her being appointed second dame d'atour to the dauphine of bavaria; so that she had now nothing to do with montespan. the latter became furious, and related to the king all the particulars of the life of dame scarron. but the king, knowing her to be an arrant fiend, who would spare no one in her passion, would not believe anything she said to him. the duc du maine persuaded his mother to retire from court for a short time in order that the king might recall her. being fond of her son, and believing him to be honest in the advice he gave her, she went to paris, and wrote to the king that she would never come back. the duc du maine immediately sent off all her packages after her without her knowledge; he even had her furniture thrown out of the window, so that she could not come back to versailles. she had treated the king so ill and so unkindly that he was delighted at being rid of her, and he did not care by what means. if she had remained longer, the king, teased as he was, would hardly have been secure against the transports of her passion. the queen was extremely grateful to maintenon for having been the means of driving away montespan and bringing back the king to the marriage-bed; an arrangement to which, like an honest spanish lady, she had no sort of objection. with that goodness of heart which was so remarkable in her, she thought she was bound to do something for madame de maintenon, and therefore consented to her being appointed dame d'atour. it was not until shortly before her death that she learnt she had been deceived by her. after the queen's death, louis xiv. thought he had gained a triumph over the very personification of virtue in overcoming the old lady's scruples; he used to visit her every afternoon, and she gained such an influence over him as to induce him to marry. madame la marechale de schomberg had a niece, mademoiselle d'aumale, whom her parents had placed at st. cyr during the king's life. she was ugly, but possessed great wit, and succeeded in amusing the king so well that the old maintenon became disturbed at it. she picked a quarrel with her, and wanted to send her again to the convent. but the king opposed this, and made the old lady bring her back. when the king died, mademoiselle d'aumale would not stay any longer with madame de maintenon. when the dauphine first arrived, she did not know a soul. her household was formed before she came. she did not know who maintenon was; and when monsieur explained it to her a year or two afterwards, it was too late to resist. the dauphin used at first to laugh at the old woman, but as he was amorous of one of the dauphine's maids of honour, and consequently was acquainted with the gouvernante of the maids of honour, montchevreuil, a creature of maintenon's, that old fool set her out in very fair colours. madame de maintenon did not scruple to estrange the dauphin from the dauphine, and very piously to sell him first rambure and afterwards la force. 18th april, 1719--to-day i will begin my letter with the story of madame de ponikau, in saxony. one day during her lying-in, as she was quite alone, a little woman dressed in the ancient french fashion came into the room and begged her to permit a party to celebrate a wedding, promising that they would take care it should be when she was alone. madame de ponikau having consented, one day a company of dwarfs of both sexes entered her chamber. they brought with them a little table, upon which a good dinner, consisting of a great number of dishes, was placed, and round which all the wedding guests took their seats. in the midst of the banquet, one of the little waiting-maids ran in, crying, "thank heaven, we have escaped great perplexity. the old ----is dead." it is the same here, the old is dead. she quitted this world at st. cyr, on saturday last, the 15th day of april, between four and five o'clock in the evening. the news of the duc du maine and his wife being arrested made her faint, and was probably the cause of her death, for from that time she had not a moment's repose or content. her rage, and the annihilation of her hopes of reigning with him, turned her blood. she fell sick of the measles, and was for twenty days in great fever. the disorder then took an unfavourable turn, and she died. she had concealed two years of her age, for she pretended to be only eighty-four, while she was really eighty-six years old. i believe that what grieved her most in dying was to quit the world, and leave me and my son behind her in good health. when her approaching death was announced to her, she said, "to die is the least event of my life." the sums which her nephew and niece de noailles inherited from her were immense; but the amount cannot be ascertained, because she had concealed a large part of her wealth. a cousin of hers, the archbishop of rouen, who created so much trouble with respect to the constitution, followed his dear cousin into the other world exactly a week afterwards, on the same day, and at the same hour. nobody, knows what the king said to maintenon on his death bed. she had retired to st. cyr before he died. they fetched her back, but she did not stay, to the end. i think the king repented of his folly in having married her, and, indeed, notwithstanding all her contrivances, she could not persuade him to declare their marriage. she wept for the king's death, but was not so deeply afflicted as she ought to have been. she always flattered herself with the hope of reigning together with the duc du maine. from the beginning to the end of their connection, the king's society was always irksome to her, and she did not scruple to say so to her own relations. she had before been much accustomed to the company of men, but afterwards dared see none but the king, whom she never loved, and his ministers. this made her ill-tempered, and she did not fail to make those persons who were within her power feel its effects. my son and i have had our share of it. she thought only of two things, her ambition and her amusement. the old sorceress never loved any one but her favourite, the duc du maine. perceiving that the dauphine was desirous of acting for herself and profiting by the king's favour, that she ridiculed her to her attendants, and seemed not disposed to yield to her domination, she withdrew her attention from her; and if the dauphine had not possessed great influence with the king, maintenon would have turned round upon her former favourite; she was therefore very soon consoled for this princess's death. she thought to have the king entirely at her disposal through the duc du maine, and it was for this reason that she relied so much upon him, and was so deeply afflicted at his imprisonment. she was not always so malicious, but her wickedness increased with her years. for us it had been well that she had died twenty years before, but for the honour of the late king that event ought to have taken place thirty-three years back, for, if i do not mistake, she was married to the king two years after the queen's death, which happened five-and-thirty years ago. if she had not been so outrageously inveterate against me, she could have done me much more injury with the king, but she set about it too violently; this caused the king to perceive that it was mere malice, and therefore it had no effect. there were three reasons why she hated me horribly. the first was, that the king treated me favourably. i was twenty-five years of age when she came into power; she saw that, instead of suffering myself to be governed by her, i would have my own way, and, as the king was kind to me, that i should undeceive him and counsel him not to suffer himself to be blindly led by so worthless a person. the second reason was that, knowing how much i must disapprove of her marriage with the king, she imagined i should always be an obstacle to her being proclaimed queen; and the third was, that i had always taken the dauphine's part whenever maintenon had mortified her. the poor dauphine did not know what to do with maintenon, who possessed the king's heart, and was acquainted with all his intentions. notwithstanding all the favour she enjoyed, the old lady was somewhat timid. if the dauphine could have summoned courage to threaten maintenon, as i advised her, to hint that her previous life was well known, and that unless she behaved better to the dauphine the latter would expose her to the king, but that if, on the contrary, she would live quietly and on good terms, silence should be kept, then maintenon would have pursued a very different conduct. that wicked bessola always prevented this, because then she would have had no more tales to tell. one day i found the dauphine in the greatest distress and drowned in tears, because the old woman had threatened to make her miserable, to have madame du maine preferred to her, to make her odious to the whole court and to the king besides. i laughed when she told me all this. "is it possible," i said, "with so much sense and courage as you possess that you will suffer this old hag to frighten you thus? you can have nothing to fear: you are the dauphine, the first person in the kingdom; no one can do you any mischief without the most serious cause. when, therefore, they threaten you, answer boldly: 'i do not fear pour menaces; madame de maintenon is too much beneath me, and the king is too just to condemn without hearing me. if you compel me i will speak to him myself, and we shall see whether he will protect me or not.'" the dauphine was not backward in repeating this word for word. the old woman immediately said, "this is not your own speech; this proceeds from madame's bad advice; you have not courage enough to think thus for yourself; however, we shall see whether madame's friendship will be profitable to you or not." but from that time forth she never threatened the princess. she had introduced the name of the duchesse du maine adroitly enough in her threats to the dauphine, because, having educated the duke, she thought her power at court unlimited, and wished to chew that she could prefer the last princess of the blood before the first person in france, and that therefore it was expedient to submit to her and obey her. but bessola, who was jealous of me, and could not bear that the dauphine should confide in me, had been bought over by the old woman, to whom she betrayed us, and told her all that i had said to console the princess; she was commissioned, besides, to torment and intimidate her mistress as much as possible, and acquitted herself to a miracle, terrifying her to death, and at the same time seeming to act only from attachment, and to be entirely devoted to her. the poor dauphine never distrusted this woman, who had been educated with her, and had accompanied her to france; she did not imagine that falsehood and perfidy existed to such an extent as this infernal creature carried them. i was perfectly amazed at it. i opposed bessola, and did all i could to console the dauphine and to alleviate her vexation. she told me when she was dying that i had prolonged her life by two years by inspiring her with courage. my exertions, however, procured for me maintenon's cordial hatred, which lasted to the end of her life. although the dauphine might have something to reproach herself with, she was not to be taken to task for it by that old woman, for who had ever led a less circumspect life than she? in public, or when we were together, she never said anything unpleasant to me, for she knew that i would not have failed to answer her properly, as i knew her whole life. villarceaux had told me more of her than i desired to know. when the king was talking to me on his death-bed she turned as red as fire. "go away, madame," said she; "the king is too much affected while he talks to you; it may do him harm. pray go away." as i went out she followed me and said, "do not think, madame, that i have ever done you an ill turn with the king." i answered her with tears, for i thought i should choke with grief: "madame, do not let us talk upon that subject," and so quitted her. that humpbacked old fagon, her favourite, used to say that he disliked christianity because it would not allow him to build a temple to maintenon and an altar to worship her. the only trait in her character that i can find to praise is her conduct to montchevreuil; although she was a wicked old devil, maintenon had reason to love her and be kind to her, for she had fed and clothed her when maintenon was in great want. i believe the old woman would not procure for madame de dangeau the privilege of the tabouret, only because she was a german and of good family. she once had two young girls from strasbourg brought to court, and made them pass for countesses palatine, placing them in the office of attendants upon her nieces. i did not know a word of it until the dauphine came to tell it me with tears in her eyes. i said to her, "do not disturb yourself, leave me alone to act; when i have a good reason for what i do, i despise the old witch." when i saw from my window the niece walking with these german girls, i went into the garden and met them. i called one of them, and asked her who she was. she told me, boldly, that she was a countess palatine of lutzelstein. "by the left hand?" i asked. "no," she replied, "i am not illegitimate; the young count palatine married my mother, who is of the house of gehlen." "in that case," i said, "you cannot be countess palatine; for we never allow such unequal marriages to hold good. i will tell you, moreover, that you lie when you say that the count palatine married your mother; she is a -----, and the count has married her no more than a hundred others have done; i know her lawful husband is a hautboy-player. if you presume, in future, to pass yourself off as a countess palatine i will have you stripped; let me never again hear anything of this; but if you will follow my advice, and take your proper name, i shall not reproach you. and now you see what you have to choose between." the girl took this so much to heart that she died some days afterwards. as for the second, she was sent to a boarding-house in paris, where she became as bad as her mother; but as she changed her name i did not trouble myself any further about her. i told the dauphine what i had done, who was very much obliged to me, and confessed she should not have had courage enough to do it herself. she feared that the king would be displeased with me; but he only said to me, jestingly, "one must not play tricks with you about your family, for it seems to be a matter of life or death with you." i replied, "i hate lies." there was a troop of italian players who had got up a comedy called "the pretended prude." when i learnt they were going to represent it, i sent for them and told them not to do so. it was in vain; they played it, and got a great deal of money by it; but they were afterwards sent away in consequence. they then came to me and wanted me to intercede for them; but i said, "why did you not take my advice?" it was said they hit off the character of maintenon with the most amusing fidelity. i should have liked to see it, but i would not go lest the old woman should have told the king that i had planned it out of ill-will to her. section vii.--the queen--consort of louis xiv. our queen was excessively ignorant, but the kindest and most virtuous woman in the world; she had a certain greatness in her manner, and knew how to hold a court extremely well. she believed everything the king told her, good or bad. her teeth were very ugly, being black and broken. it was said that this proceeded from her being in the constant habit of taking chocolate; she also frequently ate garlic. she was short and fat, and her skin was very white. when she was not walking or dancing she seemed much taller. she ate frequently and for a long time; but her food was always cut in pieces as small as if they were for a singing bird. she could not forget her country, and her manners were always remarkably spanish. she was very fond of play; she played basset, reversis, ombre, and sometimes a little primero; but she never won because she did not know how to play. she had such as affection for the king that she used to watch his eyes to do whatever might be agreeable to him; if he only looked at her kindly she was in good spirits for the rest of the day. she was very glad when the king quitted his mistresses for her, and displayed so much satisfaction that it was commonly remarked. she had no objection to being joked upon this subject, and upon such occasions used to laugh and wink and rub her little hands. one day the queen, after having conversed for half-an-hour with the prince egon de furstemberg,--[cardinal furstemberg, bishop of strasbourg.]--took me aside and said to me, "did you know what m. de strasbourg has been saying? i have not understood him at all." a few minutes afterwards the bishop said to me, "did your royal highness hear what the queen said to me? i have not comprehended a single word." "then," said i, "why did you answer her." "i thought," he replied, "that it would have been indecorous to have appeared not to understand her majesty." this made me laugh so much that i was obliged precipitately to quit the chamber. the queen died of an abscess under her arm. instead of making it burst, fagon, who was unfortunately then her physician, had her blooded; this drove in the abscess, the disorder attacked her internally, and an emetic, which was administered after her bleeding, had the effect of killing the queen. the surgeon who blooded her said, "have you considered this well, sir? it will be the death of my mistress!" fagon replied, "do as i bid you." gervais, the surgeon, wept, and said to fagon, "you have resolved, then, that my mistress shall die by my hand!" fagon had her blooded at eleven o'clock; at noon he gave her an emetic, and three hours afterwards she was dead. it may be truly said that with her died all the happiness of france. the king was deeply grieved by this event, which that old villain fagon brought about expressly for the purpose of confirming that mischievous old woman's fortune. after the queen's death i also happened to have an abscess. fagon did all he could to make the king recommend me to be blooded; but i said to him, in his majesty's presence, "no, i shall do no such thing. i shall treat myself according to my own method; and if you had done the same to the queen she would have been alive now. i shall suffer the abscess to gather, and then i shall have it opened." i did so, and soon got well. the king said very kindly to me, "madame, i am afraid you will kill yourself." i replied, laughing, "your majesty is too good to me, but i am quite satisfied with not having followed my physician's advice, and you will soon see that i shall do very well." after my convalescence i said at table, in presence of my two doctors, daguin, who was then first physician, and fagon, who succeeded him upon his being disgraced, "your majesty sees that i was right to have my own way; for i am quite well, notwithstanding all the wise sayings and arguments of these gentlemen." they were a little confused, but put it off with a laugh; and fagon said to me,-"when folks are as robust as you, madame, they may venture to risk somewhat." i replied, "if i am robust, it is because i never take medicine but on urgent occasions." etext editor's bookmarks: a pious capuchin explained her dream to her art of satisfying people even while he reproved their requests asked the king a hundred questions, which is not the fashion because the queen has only the rinsings of the glass duplicity passes for wit, and frankness is looked upon as folly even doubt whether he believes in the existence of a god follies and superstitions as the rosaries and other things formerly the custom to swear horridly on all occasions great filthiness in the interior of their houses great things originated from the most insignificant trifles he always slept in the queen's bed he had good natural wit, but was extremely ignorant he was a good sort of man, notwithstanding his weaknesses her teeth were very ugly, being black and broken (queen) i am unquestionably very ugly i formed a religion of my own i have seldom been at a loss for something to laugh at i never take medicine but on urgent occasions it was not permitted to argue with him jewels and decoration attract attention (to the ugly) louis xiv. scarcely knew how to read and write made his mistresses treat her with all becoming respect my husband proposed separate beds no man more ignorant of religion than the king was nobility becoming poor could not afford to buy the high offices not lawful to investigate in matters of religion robes battantes for the purpose of concealing her pregnancy seeing myself look as ugly as i really am (in a mirror) so great a fear of hell had been instilled into the king soon tired of war, and wishing to return home (louis xiv) the old woman (madame maintenon) to die is the least event of my life (maintenon) to tell the truth, i was never very fond of having children you are a king; you weep, and yet i go you never look in a mirror when you pass it memoirs of the court of louis xiv. and of the regency being the secret memoirs of the mother of the regent, madame elizabeth-charlotte of bavaria, duchesse d'orleans. book 4. victor amadeus ii. the grand duchess, consort of cosimo ii. of florence the duchesse de lorraine, elizabeth-charlotte d'orleans the duc du maine the duchesse du maine louvois louis xv. anecdotes and historical particulars of various persons explanatory notes section xxxv.--victor amadeus, king of sicily. it is said that the king of sicily is always in ill humour, and that he is always quarrelling with his mistresses. he and madame de verrue have quarrelled, they say, for whole days together. i wonder how the good queen can love him with such constancy; but she is a most virtuous person and patience itself. since the king had no mistresses he lives upon better terms with her. devotion has softened his heart and his temper. madame de verrue is, i dare say, forty-eight years of age (1718). i shared some of the profits of her theft by buying of her 160 medals of gold, the half of those which she stole from the king of sicily. she had also boxes filled with silver medals, but they were all sold in england. [the comtesse de verrue was married at the age of thirteen years. victor amadeus, then king of sardinia, fell in love with her. she would have resisted, and wrote to her mother and her husband, who were both absent. they only joked her about it. she then took that step which all the world knows. at the age of eighteen, being at a dinner with a relation of her husband's, she was poisoned. the person she suspected was the same that was dining with her; he did not quit her, and wanted to have her blooded. just at this time the spanish ambassador at piedmont sent her a counter-poison which had a happy effect: she recovered, but never would mention whom she suspected. she got tired of the king, and persuaded her brother, the chevalier de lugner, to come and carry her off, the king being then upon a journey. the rendezvous was in a chapel about four leagues distant from turin. she had a little parrot with her. her brother arrived, they set out together, and, after having proceeded four leagues on her journey, she remembered that she had forgotten her parrot in the chapel. without regarding the danger to which she exposed her brother, she insisted upon returning to look for her parrot, and did so. she died in paris in the beginning of the reign of louis xv. she was fond of literary persons, and collected about her some of the best company of that day, among whom her wit and grace enabled her to cut a brilliant figure. she was the intimate friend of the poet la faye, whom she advised in his compositions, and whose life she made delightful. her fondness for the arts and pleasure procured for her the appellation of 'dame de volupte', and she wrote this epitaph upon herself: "ci git, dans un pais profonde, cette dame de volupte, qui, pour plus grande surete, fit son paradis dans ce monde."] section xxxvi.--the grand duchess, wife of cosmo ii. of florence. the grand duchess has declared to me, that, from the day on which she set out for florence, she thought of nothing but her return, and the means of executing this design as soon as she should be able. no one could approve of her deserting her husband, and the more particularly as she speaks very well of him, and describes the manner of living at florence as like a terrestrial paradise. she does not think herself unfortunate for having travelled, and looks upon all the grandeur she enjoyed at florence as not to be compared with the unrestrained way of living in which she indulges here. she is very amusing when she relates her own history, in the course of which she by no means flatters herself. "indeed, cousin," i say to her often, "you do not flatter yourself, but you really tell things which make against you." "ah, no matter," she replies, "i care not, provided i never see the grand duke again." she cannot be accused of any amorous intrigue. her husband furnishes her with very little money; and at this moment (april, 1718) he owes her fifteen months of her pension. she is now really in want of money to enable her to take the waters of bourbon. the grand duke, who is very avaricious, thinks she will die soon, and therefore holds back the payments that he may take advantage of that event when it shall happen. section xxxvii.--the duchesse de lorraine, elizabeth-charlotte philippine d'orleans, consort of leopold joseph-charles de lorraine. my daughter is ugly; even more so than she was, for the fine complexion which she once had has become sun-burnt. this makes a great difference in the appearance, and causes a person to look old. she has an ugly round nose, and her eyes are sunken; but her shape is preserved, and, as she dances well, and her manners are easy and polished, any one may see that she is a person of breeding. i know many people who pique themselves upon their good manners, and who still have not so much reason as she has. at all events i am content with my child as she is; and i would rather see her ugly and virtuous than pretty and profligate like the rest. whenever the time of her accouchement approaches, she never fails to bid her friends adieu, in the notion that she will die. fortunately she has hitherto always escaped well. when jealousy is once suffered to take root, it is impossible to extirpate it--therefore it is better not to let it gain ground. my daughter pretends not to be affected by hers, but she often suffers great affliction from it. this is not astonishing, because she is very fond of her children; and the woman with whom the duke is infatuated, together with her husband, do not leave him a farthing; they completely ruin his household. craon is an accursed cuckold and a treacherous man. the duc de lorraine knows that my daughter is acquainted with everything, and i believe he likes her the better that she does not remonstrate with him, but endures all patiently. he is occasionally kind to her, and, provided that he only says tender things to her, she is content and cheerful. i should almost believe that the duke's mistress has given him a philtre, as neidschin did to the elector of saxony. when he does not see her, it is said he perspires copiously at the head, and, in order that the cuckold of a husband may say nothing about the affair, the duke suffers him to do whatever he pleases. he and his wife, who is gouvernante, rule everything, although neither the one nor the other has any feeling of honour. she is to come hither, it seems, with the duke and duchess. the duc de lorraine is here incog. [he came to paris for the purpose of soliciting an arrondissement in champagne and the title of royal highness. through the influence of his mother-in-law he obtained both the one and the other. by virtue of a treaty very disadvantageous for france, but which was nevertheless registered by the parliament, he increased his states by adding to them a great number of villages.] under the title of the comte de blamont. formerly the chase was his greatest passion; but now, it seems, the swain is wholly amorous. it is in vain for him to attempt to conceal it; for the more he tries, the more apparent it becomes. when you would suppose he is about to address you, his head will turn round, and his eyes wander in search of madame craon; it is quite diverting to see him. i cannot conceive how my daughter can love her husband so well, and not display more jealousy. it is impossible for a man to be more amorous than the duke is of craon (19th of april, 1718). it cannot be denied that she (madame de craon) is full of agreeable qualities. although she is not a beauty, she has a good shape, a fine skin, and a very white complexion; but her greatest charms are her mouth and teeth. when she laughs it is in a very pleasing and modest manner; she behaves properly and respectfully in my daughter's presence; if she did the same when she is not with her, one would have nothing to complain of. it is not surprising that such a woman should be beloved; she really deserves it. but she treats her lover with the utmost haughtiness, as if she were the duchesse de lorraine and he m. de luneville. i never saw a man more passionately attached than he appears to be; when she is not present, he fixes his eyes upon the door with an expression of anxiety; when she appears, he smiles and is calm; it is really very droll to observe him. she, on the contrary, wishes to prevent persons from perceiving it, and seems to care nothing about him. as the duke was crossing a hall here with her upon his arm, some of the people said aloud, "that is the duc de lorraine with his mistress." madame craon wept bitterly, and insisted upon the duke complaining of it to his brother. the duke did in fact complain; but my son laughed at him, and replied, "that the king himself could not prevent that; that he should despise such things, and seem not to hear them." madame craon was my daughter's fille d'honneur; she was then called mademoiselle de ligneville, and there it was that the duke fell in love with her. m. craon was in disgrace with the duke, who was about to dismiss him as a rascal, for having practised a sharping trick at play; but, as he is a cunning fellow, he perceived the duke's love for mademoiselle de ligneville, although he pretended to make a great mystery of it. about this time madame de lenoncourt, my daughter's dame d'atour, happened to die. the duke managed to have mademoiselle de ligneville appointed in her room; and craon, who is rich, offered to marry this poor lady. the duke was delighted with the plan of marrying her to one who would lend himself to the intrigue; and thus she became madame de craon, and dame d'atour. the old gouvernante dying soon afterwards, my daughter thought to gratify her husband, as well as madame de craon, by appointing her dame d'honneur; and this it is that has brought such disgrace upon her. my daughter is in despair. craon and his wife want to take a journey of ten days, for the purpose of buying a marquisate worth 800,000 livres. the duke will not remain during this time with his wife, but chooses it for an opportunity to visit all the strong places of alsatia. he will stay away until the return of his mistress and her husband; and this it is which makes my poor daughter so unhappy. the duke now neither sees nor hears anything but through craon, his wife, and their creatures. i do not think that my daughter's attachment to her husband is so strong as it used to be, and yet i think she loves him very much; for every proof of fondness which he gives her rejoices her so much that she sends me word of it immediately. he can make her believe whatever he chooses; and, although she cannot doubt the duke's passion for madame de craon, yet, when he says that he feels only friendship for her, that he is quite willing to give up seeing her, only that he fears by doing so he would dishonour her in the eyes of the public, and that there is nothing he is not ready to do for his wife's repose, she receives all he says literally, beseeches him to continue to see madame de craon as usual, and fancies that her husband is tenderly attached to her, while he is really laughing at her. if i were in my daughter's place, the duke's falsehood would disgust me more than his infidelity. what appears to me the most singular in this intrigue is that the duke is as fond of the husband as of the wife, and that he cannot live without him. this is very difficult to comprehend; but m. de craon understands it well, and makes the most of it; he has already bought an estate for 1,100,000 livres. [the marquis de craon was grand chamberlain and prime minister of the duc de lorraine; who, moreover, procured for him from the emperor of germany the title of prince. this favourite married one of his daughters to the prince de ligin, of the house of lorraine.] the burning of lundville was not the effect of an accident; it is well known that some of the people stopped a woman's mouth, who was crying out "fire!" a person was also heard to say, "it was not i who set it on fire." my daughter thinks that old maintenon would have them all burnt; for the person who cried out has been employed, it seems, in the house of the duc de noailles. for my part, i am rather disposed to believe it was the young mistress, madame de craon, who had a share in this matter; for luneville is my daughter's residence and dowry. section xxxviii.--the duc du maine, louis-augustus. the duc du maine flattered himself that he would marry my daughter. madame de maintenon and madame de montespan were arranging this project in presence of several merchants, to whom they paid no attention, but the latter, engaging in the conversation, said, "ladies, do not think of any such thing, for it will cost you your lives if you bring about that marriage." madame de maintenon was dreadfully frightened at this, and immediately went to the king to persuade him to relinquish the affair. the duc du maine possesses talent, which he displays particularly in his manner of relating anything. he knows very well who is his mother, but he has never had the least affection for any one but his gouvernante, against whom he never bore ill-will, although she displaced his mother and put herself in her room. my son will not believe that the duc du maine is the king's son. he has always been treacherous, and is feared and hated at court as an arch tale-bearer. he has done many persons very ill offices with the king; and those in particular to whom he promised most were those who have had the greatest reason to complain of him. his little wife is worse even than he, for the husband is sometimes restrained by fear; but she mingles the pathetic occasionally in her comedies. it is certain that there does not exist a more false and wicked couple in the whole world than they are. i can readily believe that the comte de toulouse is the king's son; but i have always thought that the duc du maine is the son of terme, who was a false knave, and the greatest tale-bearer in the court. that old maintenon had persuaded the king that the duc du maine was full of piety and virtue. when he reported evil tales of any persons, she pretended that it was for their good, and to induce the king to correct them. the king was, therefore, induced to fancy everything he did admirable, and to take him for a saint. the confessor, le pere letellier, contributed to keep up this good opinion in order to pay court to the old woman; and the late chancellor, m. voisin, by her orders continued to aid the king's delusion. the duc du maine fancied that, since he had succeeded in getting himself declared a prince of the blood, he should not find it difficult on that account to attain the royal dignity, and that he could easily arrange everything with respect to my son and the other princes of the blood. for this reason he and the old woman industriously circulated the report that my son had poisoned the dauphine and the duc de berri. the duc du maine was instigated by madame de montespan and madame de maintenon to report things secretly to the king; at first for the purpose of making him bark like a cur at all whom they disliked, and afterwards for the king's diversion, and to make themselves beloved by him. these bastards are of so bad a disposition that god knows who was their father. yesterday the parliament presented its remonstrance to my son. it is not difficult to guess whence this affair proceeds. they were closeted for four hours together with the duc and duchesse du maine, who had the councillors brought thither in their coach, and attended by their own livery servants (20th june, 1718). i believe that my son is only, restrained from acting rigorously against the duc du maine because he fears the tears and anger of his wife; and, in the second place, he, has an affection for his other brother-in-law, the comte de toulouse. that old woman must surely think herself immortal, for she still hopes to reign, though at the age of eighty-three years. the duc du maine's affair is a severe blow for her. she is, nevertheless, not without hope, and it is said not excessively grieved. this fills me with anxiety, for i know too well how expert the wicked old hussy is in the use of poison. the first president of mesmes ought to be friendly towards the duc du maine, to whom he is indebted for the office he holds. the duke keeps all his places; as to that of grand master of artillery, they could not take it away unless they had proceeded to extremities with him. the duke became so devout in his prison, and during passion week he fasted so rigorously, that he fell sick in consequence. he says that he is innocent and that he has gained heaven by the purity of his conduct; this renders him gay and contented. he is not, besides, of a sorrowful temper, but, on the contrary, is fond of jests and merry tales. he does not speak ill of persons publicly; it was only to the king he used to denounce them. yesterday my son was requested to permit the duc du maine to be reconciled with his wife. his answer was, "they might have been reconciled without speaking to me about it, for whether they become friends again or not, i know what to think of them." section xxxix.--the duchesse du maine, louise-benoite, daughter of henri-jules de conde. [illustration: duchesse du maine--314] madame du maine is not taller than a child ten years old, and is not well made. to appear tolerably well, it is necessary for her to keep her mouth shut; for when she opens it, she opens it very wide, and shows her irregular teeth. she is not very stout, uses a great quantity of paint, has fine eyes, a white skin, and fair hair. if she were well disposed, she might pass, but her wickedness is insupportable. she has good sense, is accomplished, and can talk agreeably on most subjects. this brings about her a host of learned men and wits. she flatters the discontented very adroitly, and says all ill things of my son. this is the secret by which she has made her party. her husband is fond of her, and she in turn piques herself upon her love for him; but i should be sorry to swear to her sincerity. this at least is certain, that she rules the duc du maine absolutely. as he holds several offices, he can provide for a great number of persons, either in the regiment of guards, of which he is general; or in the artillery, of which he is grand master; or in the carabineers, where he appoints all the officers; without reckoning his regiments, by which he attracts a great number of persons. madame du maine's present lover is the cardinal de polignac; but she has, besides, the first minister and some young men. the cardinal is accused of having assisted in the refutation of fitz-morris's letters, although he has had this very year (1718) a long interview with my son, and has sworn never to engage in anything against his interests, notwithstanding his attachment to the duchesse du maine. the comte d'albert, who was here last winter, took some pains to make himself agreeable to madame du maine, and succeeded so well as to make the cardinal de polignac very jealous. he followed them masked to a ball; but upon seeing the duchess and the count tete-a-tete, he could not contain his anger this betrayed him; and when the people learned that a cardinal had been seen at a masked ball it caused them great diversion. her being arrested threw madame du maine into such a transport of rage that she was near choking, and only recovered herself by slow degrees. [the marquis d'ancenis, captain of the guards, who came early in the morning to arrest the princess, had supped with her on the preceding evening, when he entered, the duchess cried out to him, "mon dieu! what have i done to you, that you should wake me so early?" the chief domestics of the household were taken to the bastille or to vincennes; the prince of dombes and the comte d'eu were carried to eu.] she is now said to be quite calm, and, it is added, she plays at cards all day long. when the play is over, she grows angry again, and falls upon her husband, his children, or her servants, who do not know how to appease her. she is dreadfully violent, and, it is said, has often beaten her husband. all the time of her residence at dijon she was playing the orlando furioso: sometimes she was not treated with the respect due to her rank; sometimes she complains of other things; she will not understand that she is a prisoner, and that she has deserved even a worse fate. she had flattered herself that when she should reach chalons-sur-saone she would enjoy more liberty, and have the whole city for her prison; but when she learnt that she was to be locked up in the citadel, as at dijon, she would not set out. far from repenting her treason, she fancies she has done something very praiseworthy. melancholy as i am, my son has made me laugh by telling me what has been found in madame du maine's letters, seized at the cardinal de polignac's. in one of her letters, this very discreet and virtuous personage writes, "we are going into the country tomorrow; and i shall so arrange the apartments that your chamber shall be next to mine. try to manage matters as well as you did the last time, and we shall be very happy." the princess knows very well that her daughter has had an intrigue with the cardinal, and has endeavoured to break it off. for this purpose she has convinced her by the cardinal's own letters that he is unfaithful to her, and prefers a certain montauban to her. this, however, has had no effect. the duc du maine has been informed of everything, and he writes to her sister, "i ought not to be put into prison, but into petticoats, for having suffered myself to be so led by the nose." he has resolved never to see his wife again, although he does not yet know of the duchess's letter to the cardinal, nor of the other measures she has taken for the purpose of decorating her husband's brows. madame du maine will eventually become really crazy, for she is dreadfully troubled with the vapours. her mother has entreated my son to let her daughter be brought to her house at anet, where she will be answerable for her conduct and suffer her to speak with no one. my son replied, "that if madame du maine had only conspired against his life, he would have pardoned her with all his heart; but that, as her offence had been committed against the state, he was obliged, in spite of himself, to keep her in prison." it is not true that the duc du maine has permission to hunt; he is only allowed to ride upon a hired horse round the citadel, to take the air, in the company of four persons. the abbe de maulevrier and mademoiselle de langeron persuaded the princess that madame du maine was at the point of death, and was only desirous of seeing her dear mother before she expired, to receive her last benediction, as she should die innocent. the princess immediately set out in great anxiety and with deep grief; but was strangely surprised, on arriving at her daughter's house, to see her come to meet her in very good health. mademoiselle de langeron said that the duchess concealed her illness that she might not make her mother unhappy. after the confession which madame du maine thought proper to make, which she has confirmed by writing, my son has set her at liberty, and has permitted her to come to sceaux. she is terribly mortified at her letter being read in the open council. as she has declared in her confession that she had done everything without her husband's knowledge, although in his name, he, too, has been permitted to return to his estate of chavigny, near versailles. madame du maine had written to my son that, in the event of her having omitted anything in her declaration, he would only have to ask mademoiselle de launay about it. he sent in consequence for that lady, to ask her some questions. mademoiselle de launay replied: "i do not know whether her imprisonment may have turned my mistress's brain, but it has not had the same effect upon me; i neither know, nor will i say anything." madame du maine had gained over certain gentlemen in all the provinces, and had tampered with them to induce them to revolt; but none of them would swallow the bait excepting in brittany. she has not been at the theatre yet; meaning, by this, to intimate that she is still afflicted at lying under her husband's displeasure. it is said that she has written to him, but that he has returned her letter unopened. she came some days ago to see my son, and to request him not to oppose a reconciliation between herself and her husband. my son laughed and said, "i will not interfere in it; for have i not learned from sganarelle that it is not wise to put one's finger between the bark and the tree?" the town says they will be reconciled. if this really should take place, i shall say as my father used: "agree together, bad ones!" my son tells me that the little duchess has again besought him to reconcile her with her husband. my son replied, "that it depended much more upon herself than upon him." i do not know whether she took this for a compliment, or what crotchet she got in her head, but she suddenly jumped up from the sofa, and clung about my son's neck, kissing him on both cheeks in spite of himself (18th june, 1720). the duc du maine is entirely reconciled to his dear moiety. i am not surprised, for i have been long expecting it. section xl.--louvois m. de louvois was a person of a very wicked disposition; he hated his father and brother, and, as they were my very good friends, this minister made me feel his dislike of them. his hatred was also increased, because he knew that i was acquainted with his ill-treatment of my father, and that i had no reason in the world to like him. he feared that i should seek to take vengeance upon him, and for this reason he was always exciting the king against me. upon this point alone did he agree with that old, maintenon. i believe that louvois had a share in the conspiracy by which langhans and winkler compassed my poor brother's death. when the king had taken the palatinate, i required him to arrest the culprits; the king gave orders for it, and they were in fact seized, but afterwards liberated by a counter-order of louvois. heaven, however, took care of their punishment for the crime which they had committed upon my poor brother; for langhans died in the most abject wretchedness, and winkler went mad and beat his own brains out. there is no doubt that the king spoke very harshly to louvois, but certainly he did not treat him as has been pretended, for the king was incapable of such an action. louvois was a brute and an insolent person; but he served the king faithfully, and much better than any other person. he did not, however, forget his own interest, and played his cards very well. he was horribly depraved, and by his impoliteness and the grossness of his replies made himself universally hated. he might, perhaps, believe in the devil; but he did not believe in god. he had faith in all manner of predictions, but he did not scruple to burn, poison, lie and cheat. if he did not love me very well, i was at least even with him; and, for the latter part of his time, he conducted himself somewhat better. i was one of the last persons to whom he spoke, and i was even shocked when it was announced that the man with whom i had been conversing a quarter of an hour before, and who did not look ill, was no more. they have not yet learnt, although i have resided so long in france, to respect my seal. m. de louvois used to have all my letters opened and read; and m. corey, following his noble example, has not been more courteous to me. formerly they used to open them for the purpose of finding something to my prejudice, and now (1718) they open them through mere habit. section xli.--louis xv. it is impossible for any child to be more agreeable than our young king; he has large, dark eyes and long, crisp eyelashes; a good complexion, a charming little mouth, long and thick dark-brown hair, little red cheeks, a stout and well-formed body, and very pretty hands and feet; his gait is noble and lofty, and he puts on his hat exactly like the late king. the shape of his face is neither too long nor too short; but the worst thing, and which he inherits from his mother, is, that he changes colour very frequently. sometimes he looks ill, but in half an hour his colour will have returned. his manners are easy, and it may be said, without flattery, that he dances very well. he is quick and clever in all that he attempts; he has already (1720) begun to shoot at pheasants and partridges, and has a great passion for shooting. he is as like his mother as one drop of water is to another; he has sense enough, and all that he seems to want is a little more affability. he is terribly haughty, and already knows what respect is. his look is what may be called agreeable, but his air is milder than his character, for his little head is rather an obstinate and wilful one. the young king was full of grief when madame de ventadour quitted him. she said to him, "sire, i shall come back this evening; mind that you behave very well during my absence." "my dear mamma," replied he, "if you leave me i cannot behave well." he does not care at all for any of the other women. the marechal de villeroi teases the young king sometimes about not speaking to me enough, and sometimes about not walking with me. this afflicts the poor child and makes him cry. his figure is neat, but he will speak only to persons he is accustomed to. on the 12th august (1717), the young king fell out of his bed in the morning; a valet de chambre, who saw him falling, threw himself adroitly on the ground, so that the child might tumble upon him and not hurt himself; the little rogue thrust himself under the bed and would not speak, that he might frighten his attendants. the king's brother died of the small-pox in consequence of being injudiciously blooded; this one, who is younger than his brother, was also attacked, but the femme de chambre concealed it, kept him warm, and continued to give him alicant wine, by which means they preserved his life. the king has invented an order which he bestows: upon the boys with whom he plays. it is a blue and white ribbon, to which is suspended an enamelled oval plate, representing a star and the tent or pavilion in which he plays on the terrace (1717). section xlii.--anecdotes and historical particulars relating to various persons. some horrible books had been written against cardinal mazarin, with which he pretended to be very much enraged, and had all the copies bought up to be burnt. when he had collected them all, he caused them to be sold in secret, and as if it were unknown to him, by which contrivance he gained 10,000 crowns. he used to laugh and say, "the french are delightful people; i let them sing and laugh, and they let me do what i will." in flanders it is the custom for the monks to assist at all fires. it appeared to me a very whimsical spectacle to see monks of all colours, white, black and brown, running hither and thither with their frocks tucked up and carrying pails. the chevalier de saint george is one of the best men in the world, and complaisance itself. he one day said to lord douglas, "what should i do to gain the good-will of my countrymen?" douglas replied, "only embark hence with twelve jesuits, and as soon as you land in england hang every one of them publicly; you can do nothing so likely to recommend you to the english people." it is said that at one of the masked balls at the opera, a mask entered the box in which were the marechals de villars and d'estrees. he said to the former, "why do you not go below and dance?" the marshal replied, "if i were younger i could, but not crippled as you see i am."--"oh, go down," rejoined the mask, "and the marechal d'estrees too; you will cut so brilliant a figure, having both of you such large horns." at the same time he put up his fingers in the shape of horns. the marechal d'estrees only laughed, but the other was in a great rage and said, "you are a most insolent mask, and i do not know what will restrain me from giving you a good beating."--"as to a good beating;" replied the mask, "i can do a trifle in that way myself when necessary; and as for the insolence of which you accuse me, it is sufficient for me to say that i am masked." he went away as he said this, and was not seen again. the king of denmark has the look of a simpleton; he made love to my daughter while he was here. when they were dancing he used to squeeze her hand, and turn up his eyes languishingly. he would begin his minuet in one corner of the hall and finish it in another. he stopped once in the middle of the hall and did not know what to do next. i was quite uneasy at seeing him, so i got up and, taking his hand, led him away, or the good gentleman might have strayed there until this time. he has no notion of what is becoming or otherwise. the cardinal de noailles is unquestionably a virtuous man; it would be a very good thing if all the others were like him. we have here four of them, and each is of a different character. three of them resemble each other in a certain particular--they are as false as counterfeit coin; in every other respect they are directly opposite. the cardinal de polignac is well made, sensible, and insinuating, and his voice is very agreeable; but he meddles too much with politics, and is too much occupied with seeking favour. the cardinal de rohan has a handsome face, as his mother had, but his figure is despicable. he is as vain as a peacock, and fancies that there is not his equal in the whole world. he is a tricking intriguer, the slave of the jesuits, and fancies he rules everything, while in fact he rules nothing. the cardinal de bissi is as ugly and clumsy as a peasant, proud, false and wicked, and yet a most fulsome flatterer; his falsehood may be seen in his very eyes; his talent he turns to mischievous purposes. in short, he has all the exterior of a tartuffe. these cardinals could, if they chose, sell the cardinal de noailles in a sack, for they are all much more cunning than he is. with respect to the pregnancy of the queen of england, the consort of james ii., whom we saw at saint-germain, it is well known that her daughter-in-law maintains that she was not with child; but it seems to me that the queen might easily have taken measures to prove the contrary. i spoke about it to her majesty myself. she replied "that she had begged the princess anne to satisfy herself by the evidence of her own senses, and to feel the motion of the child;" but the latter refused, and the queen added "that she never could have supposed that the persons who had been in the habit of seeing her daily during her pregnancy could doubt the fact of her having been delivered." [on the dethronement of james ii., the party of william, prince of orange, asserted that the prince of orange was a supposititious child, and accused james of having spirited away the persona who could have proved the birth of the queen's child, and of having made the midwife leave the kingdom precipitately, she being the only person who had actually seen the child born.] a song has been made upon lord bolingbroke on the subject of his passion for a young girl who escaped from her convent. some persons say that the girl was a professed nun. she ran after the duke regent a long time, but could not accomplish her intention. lady gordon, the grandaunt of lord huntley, was my dame d'atour for a considerable period. she was a singular person, and always plunged into reveries. once when she was in bed and going to seal a letter, she dropped the wax upon her own thigh and burnt herself dreadfully. at another time, when she was also in bed and engaged in play, she threw the dice upon the ground and spat in the bed. once, too, she spat in the mouth of my first femme de chambre, who happened to be passing at the moment. i think if i had not interposed they would have come to blows, so angry was the femme de chambre. one evening when i wanted my head-dress to go to court, she took off her gloves and threw them in my face, putting on my head-dress at the same time with great gravity. when she was speaking to a man she had a habit of playing with the buttons of his waistcoat. saving one day some occasion to talk to the chevalier buveon, a captain in the late monsieur's guard, and he being a very tall man, she could only reach his waistband, which she began to unbutton. the poor gentleman was quite horror-stricken, and started back, crying, "for heaven's sake, madame, what are you going to do?" this accident caused a great laugh in the salon of saint cloud. they say that lord peterborough, speaking of the two kings of spain, said, "what fools we are to cut each other's throats for two such apes." monteleon has good reason to be fond of the princesse des ursins, for she made his fortune: he was an insignificant officer in the troop, but he had talents and attached himself to this lady, who made of him what he now is (1716). the abbess of maubuisson, louise hollandine, daughter of frederic v., elector-palatine of the days of henri iv., had had so many illegitimate children, that she commonly swore by her body, which had borne fourteen children. cardinal mazarin could not bear to have unfortunate persons about him. when he was requested to take any one into his service, his first question was, "is he lucky?" my son has never assisted the pretender (prince edward stuart), either publicly or privately; and if my lord stair had chosen to contract a more close alliance, as my son wished, he would have prevented the pretender's staying in france and collecting adherents; but as that alliance was declined, he merely confined himself to the stipulations contained in the treaty of peace. he neither furnished the pretender with arms nor money. the pope and some others gave him money, but my son could not, for he was too much engaged in paying off the late king's debts, and he would not on account of that treaty. there can be no doubt that an attempt has been made to embroil my son with the king of england; for, at the same time that they were making the king believe my son was sustaining the pretender's cause, they told my son that lord stair had interviews with m. pentenriedez, the emperor's envoy, as well as with the sicilian ambassador, the object of which was to make a league with those powers to drive out the king of spain and to set up the king of france in his place, at the same time that sicily should be given up to the emperor--in short, to excite all europe against france. my son said himself, that, since he was to confine himself to the articles of the treaty of peace, he did not think he had any right to prevent the pretender's passage through his kingdom; and as the army had been reduced, he could not hinder the disbanded soldiers from taking service wherever they chose. my son had no intention whatever to break with england, although he has been told that there was a majority of two voices only in that nation against declaring it at war with france. he thinks lord stair is not his friend, and that he has not faithfully reported to his monarch the state of things here, but would rather be pleased to kindle the flames of a war. if that minister had honestly explained to the king my son's intentions, the king would not have refused to agree with them. it is said here that the present queen of spain (1716), although she is more beloved by her husband than was the last, has less influence over him. the abbe alberoni has them both in his power, and governs them like two children. the english gentlemen and ladies who are here tell horrible stories of queen anne. they say she gets quite drunk, and that besides but that she is inconstant in her affections, and changes often. lady sandwich has not told this to me, but she has to my son. i have seen her but seldom, on account of the repugnance i felt at learning she had confessed she had been present at such orgies. i do not know whether it is true that louvois was poisoned by that old maintenon, but it is quite certain that he was poisoned, as well as his physician who committed the crime, and who said when he was dying, "i die by poison, but i deserve it, for having poisoned my master, m. de louvois; and i did this in the hope of becoming the king's physician, as madame de maintenon had promised me." i ought to add that some persons pretend to think this story of doctor seron is a mere invention. old piety (maintenon) did not commit this crime without an object; but if she really did poison louvois, it was because he had opposed her designs and endeavoured to undeceive the king. louvois, the better to gain his object, had advised the king not to take her with him to the army. the king was weak enough to repeat this to her, and this it was that excited her against louvois. that the latter was a very bad man, who feared neither heaven nor hell, no man can deny; but it must be confessed that he served his king faithfully. the duke de noailles' grandfather was one of the ugliest men in the world. he had one glass eye, and his nose was like an owl's, his mouth large, his teeth ugly and decayed, his face and head very small, his body long and bent, and he was bitter and ill-tempered. his name was gluinel. madame de cornuel one day was reading his grandson's genealogy, and, when she came to his name, exclaimed, "i always suspected, when i saw the duc de noailles, that he came out of the book of the lamentations of jeremiah!" when james ii. took refuge in france from england, madame de cornuel went to saint-germain to see him. some time afterwards, she was told of the pains our king was taking to procure his restoration to the throne. madame de cornuel shook her head, and said, "i have seen this king james; our monarch's efforts are all in vain; he is good for nothing but to make poor man's sauce. (la sauce au pauvre homme.)" she went to versailles to see the court when m. de torcy and m. de seignelay, both very young, had just been appointed ministers. she saw them, as well as madame de maintenon, who had then grown old. when she returned to paris, some one asked her what remarkable things she had seen. "i have seen," she said, "what i never expected to see there; i have seen love in its tomb and the ministry in its cradle." the elder margrave of anspach was smitten with mademoiselle d'armagnac, but he would not marry her, and said afterwards that he had never intended to do so, because the familiarities which had passed between her and the marquis de villequier (1716) had disgusted him. the lady's mother would have liked nothing better than to surprise the margrave with her daughter in some critical situation: for this purpose he had sufficient opportunities given him, but he was prudent, and conducted himself with so much modesty, that he avoided the snare. to tell the truth, i had given him a hint on the subject, for i was too well acquainted with the mother, who is a very bad woman. the cardinal de richelieu, notwithstanding his wit, had often fits of distraction. sometimes he would fancy himself a horse, and run jumping about a billiard-table, neighing and snorting; this would last an hour, at the end of which his people would put him to bed and cover him up closely to induce perspiration; when he awoke the fit had passed and did not appear again. the archbishop of paris reprimanded the bishop of gap on the bad reputation which he had acquired in consequence of his intercourse with women. "ah, monseigneur," replied the bishop of gap, "if you knew what you talk of, you would not be astonished. i lived the first forty years of my life without experiencing it; i don't know what induced me to venture on it, but, having done so, it is impossible to refrain. only try it for once, monseigneur, and you will perceive the truth of what i tell you." [this bishop, whose name was herve, had lived in prudence and regularity up to the age of fifty, when he began, on a sudden, to lead a very debauched life. they compelled him to give up his bishopric, which he did on condition of being allowed to stay at paris as much as he chose. he continued to live in perpetual pleasure, but towards the close of his career he repented of his sins and engaged with the capuchin missionaries.] this bishop is now living in the village of boulogne, near paris: he is a little priest, very ugly, with a large head and fiery red face. our late king said, "i am, i confess, somewhat piqued to see that, with all the authority belonging to my station in this country, i have exclaimed so long against high head-dresses, while no one had the complaisance to lower them for me in the slightest degree. but now, when a mere strange english wench arrives with a little low head-dress, all the princesses think fit to go at once from one extremity to another." a frenchman who had taken refuge in holland informed me by letter of what was passing with respect to the prince of orange. thinking that i should do the king a service by communicating to him these news, i hastened to him, and he thanked me for them. in the evening, however, he said to me, smiling, "my ministers will have it that you have been misinformed, and that your correspondent has not written you one word of truth." i replied, "time will show which is better informed, your majesty's ministers or my correspondent. for my own part, sire, my intention at least was good." some time afterwards, when the report of the approaching accession of william to the throne of england became public, m. de torcy came to me to beg i would acquaint him with my news. i replied, "i receive none now; you told the king that what i formerly had was false, and upon this i desired my correspondents to send me no more, for i do not love to spread false reports." he laughed, as he always did, and said, "your news have turned out to be quite correct." i replied, "a great and able minister ought surely to have news more correct than i can obtain; and i have been angry with myself for having formerly acquainted the king with the reports which had reached me. i ought to have recollected that his clever ministers are acquainted with everything." the king therefore said to me, "you are making game of my ministers."--"sire," i replied, "i am only giving them back their own." m. de louvois was the only person who was well served by his spies; indeed, he never spared his money. all the frenchmen who went into germany or holland as dancing or fencing-masters, esquires, etc., were paid by him to give him information of whatever passed in the several courts. after his death this system was discontinued, and thus it is that the present ministers are so ignorant of the affairs of other nations. lauzun says the drollest things, and takes the most amusing, roundabout way of intimating whatever he does not care to say openly. for example, when he wished the king to understand that the count de marsan, brother of m. legrand, had attached himself to m. chamillard, the then minister, he took the following means: "sire," said he, with an air of the utmost simplicity, as if he had not the least notion of malice, "i wished to change my wigmaker, and employ the one who is now the most in fashion; but i could not find him, for m. de marsan has kept him shut up in his room for several days past, making wigs for his household, and for m. de chamillard's friends." the adventures of prince emmanuel of portugal are a perfect romance. his brother, the king, was desirous, it is said, at first, to have made a priest and a bishop of him; to this, however, he had an insuperable objection, for he was in love. the king sent for him, and asked him if it was true that he had really resolved not to enter the church. on the prince's replying in the affirmative, the king, his brother, struck him. the prince said, "you are my king and my brother, and therefore i cannot revenge myself as i ought upon you; but you have put an insult upon me which i cannot endure, and you shall never again see me in the whole course of your life." he is said to have set out on that very night. his brother wrote to him, commanding his return from paris to holland; as he made no reply to this command, his governor and the ambassador had no doubt that it was his intention to obey it. in the course of last week he expressed a desire to see versailles and marly. the ambassador made preparations for this excursion, and together with his wife accompanied the prince, whose governor and one of his gentlemen were of the party. upon their return from versailles, when they reached the courtyard, the prince called out to stop, and asked if there were any chaises ready: "yes, monseigneur," replied a voice, "there are four."--"that will be sufficient," replied the prince. then addressing the ambassador, he expressed his warmest thanks for the friendly attention he had shown him, and assured him that he desired nothing so much as an opportunity to testify his gratitude. "i am now going to set out," he added, "for vienna; the emperor is my cousin; i have no doubt he will receive me, and i shall learn in his army to become a soldier in the campaign against the turks." he then thanked the governor for the pains he had bestowed upon his education; and promised that, if any good fortune should befall him, his governor should share it with him. he also said something complimentary to his gentleman. he then alighted, called for the post-chaises, and took his seat in one of them; his favourite, a young man of little experience, but, as it is said, of considerable talent, placed himself in another, and his two valets de chambre into the third and fourth. that nothing may be wanting to the romantic turn of his adventures, it is said, besides, that madame de riveira was the object of his affection in portugal before she was married; that he even wished to make her his wife, but that his brother would not permit it. a short time before his departure, the husband, who is a very jealous man, found him at his wife's feet; and this hastened the prince's departure. henri iv. had been one day told of the infidelity of one of his mistresses. believing that the king had no intention of visiting her, she made an assignation with the duc de bellegarde in her own apartment. the king, having caused the time of his rival's coming to be watched, when he was informed of his being there, went to his mistress's room. he found her in bed, and she complained of a violent headache. the king said he was very hungry, and wanted some supper; she replied that she had not thought about supper, and believed she had only a couple of partridges. henri iv. desired they should be served up, and said he would eat them with her. the supper which she had prepared for bellegarde, and which consisted of much more than two partridges, was then served up; the king, taking up a small loaf, split it open, and, sticking a whole partridge into it, threw it under the bed. "sire," cried the lady, terrified to death, "what are you doing?"--"madame," replied the merry monarch, "everybody must live." he then took his departure, content with having frightened the lovers. i have again seen m. la mothe le vayer; who, with all his sense, dresses himself like a madman. he wears furred boots, and a cap which he never takes off, lined with the same material, a large band, and a black velvet coat. we have had few queens in france who have been really happy. marie de medicis died in exile. the mother of the king and of the late monsieur was unhappy as long as her husband was alive. our queen marie-therese said upon her death-bed, "that from the time of her becoming queen she had not had a day of real happiness." lauzun sometimes affects the simpleton that he may say disagreeable things with impunity, for he is very malicious. in order to hint to marechal de tesse that he did wrong in being so familiar with the common people, he called out to him one night in the salon at marly, "marshal, pray give me a pinch of snuff; but let it be good--that, for example, which i saw you taking this morning with daigremont the chairman." in the time of henri iv. an elector-palatine came to france; the king's household was sent to meet him. all his expenses were paid, as well as those of his suite; and when he arrived at the court he entered between the dauphin and monsieur and dined with the king. i learned these particulars from the late monsieur. the king, under the pretence of going to the chase, went about a league from paris, and, meeting the elector, conducted him in his carriage. at paris he was always attended by the king's servants. this treatment is somewhat different from that which, in my time, was bestowed upon maximilian maria, the elector of bavaria. this elector often enraged me with the foolish things that he did. for example, he went to play and to dine with m. d'antin, and never evinced the least desire to dine with his own nephews. a sovereign, whether he be elector or not, might with propriety dine either at the dauphin's table or mine; and, if the elector had chosen, he might have come to us; but he was contented to dine with m. d'antin or m. de torcy, and some ladies of the king's suite. i am angry to this day when i think of it. the king used often to laugh at my anger on this subject; and, whenever the elector committed some new absurdity, he used to call to me in the cabinet and ask me, "well, madame, what have you to say to that?" i would reply, "all that the elector does is alike ridiculous." this made the king laugh heartily. the elector had a marshal, the count d'arco, the brother of that person who had married in so singular a manner the prince's mistress, popel, which marriage had been contracted solely upon his promise never to be alone with his wife. the marshal, who was as honest as his brother was accommodating, was terribly annoyed at his master's conduct; he came at first to me to impart to me his chagrin whenever the elector committed some folly; and when he behaved better he used also to tell me of it. i rather think he must have been forbidden to visit me, for latterly i never saw him. none of the elector's suite have visited me, and i presume they have been prevented. this prince's amorous intrigues have been by no means agreeable to the king. the elector was so fond of grisettes that, when the king was giving names to each of the roads through the wood, he was exceedingly anxious that one of them should be called l'allee des grisettes; but the king would not consent to it. the elector has perpetuated his race in the villages; and two country girls have been pointed out to me who were pregnant by him at his departure. his marriage with a polish princess is a striking proof that a man cannot avoid his fate. this was not a suitable match for him, and was managed almost without his knowledge, as i have been told. his councillors, having been bought over, patched up the affair; and when the elector only caused it to be submitted for their deliberation, it was already decided on. this elector's brother must have been made a bishop of cologne and munster without the production of proof of his nobility being demanded; for it is well known that the king sobieski was a polish nobleman, who married the daughter of darquin, captain of our late monsieur's swiss guards. great suspicions are entertained respecting the children of the bavaria family, that is, the elector and his brothers, who are thought to have been the progeny of an italian doctor named simoni. it was said at court that the doctor had only given the elector and his wife a strong cordial, the effect of which had been to increase their family; but they are all most suspiciously like the doctor. i have heard it said that in england the people used to take my late uncle, rupert, for a sorcerer, and his large black dog for the devil; for this reason, when he joined the army and attacked the enemy, whole regiments fled before him. a knight of the palatinate, who had served many years in india, told me at court in that country the first minister and the keeper of the seals hated each other mortally. the latter having one day occasion for the seals, found they had been taken from the casket in which they were usually kept. he was of course greatly terrified, for his head depended upon their production. he went to one of his friends, and consulted with him what he should do. his friend asked him if he had any enemies at court. "yes," replied the keeper of the seals, "the chief minister is my mortal foe."--"so much the better," replied his friend; "go and set fire to your house directly; take out of it nothing but the casket in which the seals were kept, and take it directly to the chief minister, telling him you know no one with whom you can more safely deposit it; then go home again and save whatever you can. when the fire shall be extinguished, you must go to the king, and request him to order the chief minister to restore you the seals; and you must be sure to open the casket before the prince. if the seals are there, all will be explained; if the minister has not restored them, you must accuse him at once of having stolen them; and thus you will be sure to ruin your enemy and recover your seals." the keeper of the seals followed his friend's advice exactly, and the seals were found again in the casket. as soon as a royal child, which they call here un enfant de france, is born, and has been swaddled, they put on him a grand cordon; but they do not create him a knight of the order until he has communicated; the ceremony is then performed in the ordinary manner. the ladies of chancellors here have the privilege of the tabouret when they come to the toilette; but in the afternoon they are obliged to stand. this practice began in the days of marie de medicis, when a chancellor's wife happened to be in great favour. as she had a lame foot and could not stand up, the queen, who would have her come to visit her every morning, allowed her to sit down. from this time the custom of these ladies sitting in the morning has been continued. in the reign of henri iv. the king's illegitimate children took precedence of the princes of the house of lorraine. on the day after the king's death, the duc de verneuil was about to go before the duc de guise, when the latter, taking him by the arm, said, "that might have been yesterday, but to-day matters are altered." two young duchesses, not being able to see their lovers, invented the following stratagem to accomplish their wishes. these two sisters had been educated in a convent some leagues distant from paris. a nun of their acquaintance happening to die there, they pretended to be much afflicted at it, and requested permission to perform the last duties to her, and to be present at her funeral. they were believed to be sincere, and the permission they asked was readily granted them. in the funeral procession it was perceived that, besides the two ladies, there were two other persons whom no one knew. upon being asked who they were, they replied they were poor priests in need of protection; and that, having learnt two duchesses were to be present at the funeral, they had come to the convent for the purpose of imploring their good offices. when they were presented to them, the young ladies said they would interrogate them after the service in their chambers. the young priests waited upon them at the time appointed, and stayed there until the evening. the abbess, who began to think their audience was too long, sent to beg the priests would retire. one of them seemed very melancholy, but the other laughed as if he would burst his sides. this was the duc de richelieu; the other was the chevalier de guemene, the younger son of the duke of that name. the gentlemen themselves divulged the adventure. the king's illegitimate children, fearing that they should be treated in the same way as the princes of the blood, have for some months past been engaged in drawing a strong party of the nobility to their side, and have presented a very unjust petition against the dukes and peers. my son has refused to receive this petition, and has interdicted them from holding assemblies, the object of which he knows would tend to revolt. they have, nevertheless, continued them at the instigations of the duc du maine and his wife, and have even carried their insolence so far as to address a memorial to my son and another to the parliament, in which they assert that it is within the province of the nobility alone to decide between the princes of the blood and the legitimated princes. thirty of them have signed this memorial, of whom my son has had six arrested; three of them have been sent to the bastille, and the other three to vincennes; they are mm. de chatillon, de rieux, de beaufremont, de polignac, de clermont, and d'o. the last was the governor of the comte de toulouse, and remains with him. clermont's wife is one of the duchesse de berri's ladies. she is not the most discreet person in the world, and has been long in the habit of saying to any one who would listen to her, "whatever may come of it, my husband and i are willing to risk our lives for the comte de toulouse." it is therefore evident that all this proceeds from the bastards. but i must expose still further the ingratitude of these people. chatillon is a poor gentleman, whose father held a small employment under m. gaston, one of those offices which confer the privilege of the entree to the antechambers, and the holders of which do not sit in the carriage with their masters. the two descendants, as they call themselves, of the house of chatillon, insist that this chatillon, who married an attorney's daughter, is descended from the illegitimate branches of that family. his son was a subaltern in the body guard. in the summer time, when the young officers went to bathe, they used to take young chatillon with them to guard their clothes, and for this office they gave him a crown for his supper. monsieur having taken this poor person into his service, gave him a cordon bleu, and furnished him with money to commence a suit which he subsequently gained against the house of chatillon, and they were compelled to recognize him. he then made him a captain in the guards; gave him a considerable pension, which my son continued, and permitted him also to have apartments in the palais royal. in these very apartments did this ungrateful man hold those secret meetings, the end of which was proposed to be my son's ruin. rieux's grandfather had neglected to uphold the honour to which he was entitled, of being called the king's cousin. my son restored him to this honour, gave his brother a place in the gendarmerie, and rendered him many other services. chatillon tried particularly to excite the nobility against my son; and this is the recompense for all his kindness. my son's wife is gay and content, in the hope that all will go well with her brothers. that old maintenon has continued pretty tranquil until the termination of the process relating to the legitimation of the bastards. no one has heard her utter a single expression on the subject. this makes me believe that she has some project in her head, but i cannot tell what it is. a monk, who was journeying a few days ago to luzarche, met upon the road a stranger, who fell into conversation with him. he was an agreeable companion, and related various adventures very pleasantly. having learned from the monk that he was charged with the rents of the convent, to which some estates in the neighbourhood of luzarche belonged, the stranger told him that he belonged to that place, whither he was returning after a long journey; and then observing to the monk that the road they were pursuing was roundabout, he pointed out to him a nearer one through the forest. when they had reached the thickest part of the wood, the stranger alighted, and, seizing the bridle of the monk's horse, demanded his money. the monk replied that he thought he was travelling with an honest man, and that he was astonished at so singular a demand. the stranger replied that he had no time for trifling, and that the monk must either give up his money or his life. the monk replied, "i never carry money about me; but if you will let me alight and go to my servant, who carries my money, i will bring you 1,000 francs." the robber suffered the monk to alight, who went to his servant, and, taking from him the 1,000 francs which were in a purse, he at the same time furnished himself with a loaded pistol which he concealed in his sleeve. when he returned to the thief, he threw down the purse, and, as the robber stooped to pick it up, the monk fired and shot him dead; then, remounting his horse, he hastened to apply to the police, and related his adventure. a patrole was sent back with him to the wood, and, upon searching the robber, there were found in his pockets six whistles of different sizes; they blew the largest of the number, upon which ten other armed robbers soon afterwards appeared; they defended themselves, but eventually two of them were killed and the others taken. the chevalier schaub, who was employed in state affairs by stanhope, the english minister, brought with him a secretary, to whom the prince of wales had entrusted sixty guineas, to be paid to a m. d'isten, who had made a purchase of some lace to that amount for the princess of wales; the brother of m. d'isten, then living in london, had also given the same secretary 200 guineas, to be delivered to his brother at paris. when the secretary arrived he enquired at the ambassador's where m. d'isten lived, and, having procured his address, he went to the house and asked for the german gentleman. a person appeared, who said, "i am he." the secretary suspecting nothing, gave him the prince of wales' letter and the sixty guineas. the fictitious d'isten, perceiving that the secretary had a gold watch, and a purse containing fifty other guineas, detained him to supper; but no sooner had the secretary drank some wine than he was seized with an invincible desire to go to sleep. "my good friend," said his host, "your journey has fatigued you; you had better undress and lie down on my bed for a short time." the secretary, who could not keep his eyes open, consented; and no sooner had he lain down than he was asleep. some time after, his servant came to look for him, and awoke him; the bottles were still standing before the bed, but the poor secretary's pockets were emptied, and the sharper who had personated m. d'isten had disappeared with their valuable contents. the princesse maubuisson was astonishingly pleasant and amiable. i was always delighted to visit her, and never felt myself tired in her society. i soon found myself in much greater favour than any other of her nieces, because i could converse with her about almost everybody she had known in the whole course of her life, which the others could not. she used frequently to talk german with me, which she knew very well; and she told me all her adventures. i asked her how she could accustom herself to the monastic life. she laughed and said, "i never speak to the nuns but to give orders." she had a deaf nun with her in her own chamber, that she might not feel any desire to speak. she told me that she had always been fond of a country life, and that she still could fancy herself a country girl. "but," i asked her, "how do you like getting up and going to church in the middle of the night?" she replied that she did as the painters do, who increase the splendour of their light by the introduction of deep shadows. she had in general the faculty of giving to all things a turn which deprived them of their absurdity. i have often heard m. bernstorff spoken of by a person who was formerly very agreeable to him; i mean the duchess of mecklenbourg, the duc de luxembourg's sister. she praised his talents very highly, and assured me that it was she who gave him to the duke george william. the wife of the marechal de villars is running after the comte de toulouse. my son is also in her good graces, and is not a whit more discreet. marechal de villars came one day to see me; and, as he pretends to understand medals, he asked to see mine. baudelot, who is a very honest and clever man, and in whose keeping they are, was desired to show them; he is not the most cautious man in the world, and is very little acquainted with what is going on at court. he had written a dissertation upon one of my medals, in which he proved, against the opinion of other learned men, that the horned head which it displayed was that of pan and not of jupiter ammon. honest baudelot, to display his erudition, said to the marshal, "ah, monseigneur, this is one of the finest medals that madame possesses: it is the triumph of cornificius; he has, you see, all sorts of horns. he was like you, sir, a great general; he wears the horns of juno and faunus. cornificius was, as you probably well know, sir, a very able general." here i interrupted him. "let us pass on," i said, "to the other medal; if you stop in this manner at each, you will not have time to show the whole." but he, full of his subject, returned to it. "ah, madame," he went on, "this is worthy of more attention than perhaps any other; cornificius is, indeed, one of the most rare medals in the world. look at it, madame; i beg you to observe it narrowly; here, you see, is juno crowned, and she is also crowning this great general." all that i could say to him was not sufficient to prevent baudelot talking to the marshal of horns. "monseigneur," he said, "is well versed in all these matters, and i want him to see that i am right in insisting that these horns are those of faunus, not those of jupiter ammon." all the people who were in the chamber, with difficulty refrained from bursting into a loud laugh. if the plan had been laid for the purpose, it could not have succeeded better. when the marshal had gone, i, too, indulged myself by joining in the laugh. it was with great difficulty that i could make baudelot understand he had done wrong. the same baudelot, one day at a masked ball, had been saying a great many civil things to the dowager madame, who was there masked, and whom, therefore, he did not know. when he came and saw that it was madame, he was terrified with affright: the princess laughed beyond measure at it. our princes here have no particular costume. when they go to the parliament they wear only a cloak, which, in my opinion, has a very vulgar appearance; and the more so, as they wear the 'collet' without a cravat. those of the royal family have no privileges above the other dukes, excepting in their seats and the right of crossing over the carpet, which is allowed to none but them. the president, when he addresses them, is uncovered, but keeps his hat on when he speaks to everybody else. this is the cause of those great disputes which the princes of the blood have had with the bastards, as may be seen by their memorial. the presidents of the parliament wear flame-coloured robes trimmed with ermine at the neck and sleeves. the comtesse de soissons, angelique cunegonde, the daughter of francois-henri de luxembourg, has, it must be confessed, a considerable share of virtue and of wit; but she has also her faults, like the rest of the world. it may be said of her that she is truly a poor princess. her husband, louis-henri, chevalier de soissons, was very ugly, having a very long hooked nose, and eyes extremely close to it. he was as yellow as saffron; his mouth was extremely small for a man, and full of bad teeth of a most villanous odour; his legs were ugly and clumsy; his knees and feet turned inwards, which made him look when he was walking like a parrot; and his manner of making a bow was bad. he was rather short than otherwise; but he had fine hair and a large quantity of it. he was rather good-looking when a child. i have seen portraits of him painted at that period. if the comtesse de soissons' son had resembled his mother, he would have been very well, for her features are good, and nothing could be better than her, eyes, her mouth, and the turn of her face; only her nose was too large and thick, and her skin was not fine enough. whoever is like the prince eugene in person cannot be called a handsome man; he is shorter than his elder brother, but, with the exception of prince eugene, all the rest of them are good for nothing. the youngest, prince philippe, was a great madman, and died of the small-pox at paris. he was of a very fair complexion, had an ungraceful manner, and always looked distracted. he had a nose like a hawk, a large mouth, thick lips, and hollow cheeks; in all respects i thought he was like his elder brother. the third brother, who was called the chevalier de savoie, died in consequence of a fall from his horse. the prince eugene was a younger brother: he had two sisters, who were equally ugly; one of them is dead, and the other is still living (1717) in a convent in savoy. the elder was of a monstrous shape, but a mere dwarf. she led a very irregular life. she afterwards ran away with a rogue, the abbe de la bourlie, whom she obliged to marry her at geneva; they used to beat each other. she is now dead. prince eugene was not in his younger days so ugly as he has become since; but he never was good-looking, nor had he any nobility in his manner. his eyes were pretty good, but his nose, and two large teeth which he displayed whenever he opened his mouth, completely spoilt his face. he was besides always very filthy, and his coarse hair was never dressed. this prince is little addicted to women, and, during the whole time that he has been here, i never heard one mentioned who has pleased him, or whom he has distinguished or visited more than another. his mother took no care of him; she brought him up like a scullion, and liked better to stake her money at play than to expend it upon her youngest son. this is the ordinary practice of women in this country. they will not yet believe that the persian ambassador was an impostor; [this embassy was always equivocal, and even something more. from all that can be understood of it, it would seem that a minister of one of the persian provinces, a sort of intendant de languedoc, as we might say, had commissioned this pretended ambassador to manage for him some commercial affairs with certain merchants, and that for his own amusement the agent chose to represent the persian ambassador. it is said, too, that pontchartrain, under whose department this affair fell, would not expose the trick, that the king might be amused, and that he might recommend himself to his majesty's favour by making him believe that the sophy had sent him an ambassador.--notes to dangeau's journal.] it is quite certain that he was a clumsy fellow, although he had some sense. there was an air of magnificence about the way in which he gave audience. he prevailed upon a married woman, who was pregnant by him, to abjure christianity. it is true she was not a very respectable person, being the illegitimate daughter of my son's chief almoner, the abbe de grancey, who always kept a little seraglio. in order to carry her away with him, the ambassador had her fastened up in a box filled with holes, and then begged that no person might be allowed to touch it, being, as he said, filled with the sacred books written by mahomet himself, which would be polluted by the contact of christians. upon this pretence the permission was given, and by these means the woman was carried off. i cannot believe the story which is told of this ambassador having had 10,000 louis d'or given him. i had the misfortune to displease the margrave john frederic of anspach. he brought me a letter from my brother and his wife, both of whom begged i would assist him with my advice. i therefore thought that by counselling him as i should have counselled my own brother i should be rendering him the best service. when he arrived he was in deep mourning for his first wife, who had then not been dead three months. i asked him what he proposed to do in france? he replied "that he was on his way to england, but that before his departure he should wish to pay his respects to the king." i asked him if he had anything to solicit from the king or to arrange with him. he replied "he had not."--"then," i said, "i would advise you, if you will permit me, to send the principal person of your suite to the king to make your compliments, to inform him that you are going to england, and that you would not have failed to wait upon him, but that, being in mourning for your wife, your respect for him prevented your appearing before him in so melancholy a garb."--"but," he rejoined, "i am very fond of dancing, and i wish to go to the ball; now i cannot go thither until i have first visited the king."--"for god's sake," i said, "do not go to the ball; it is not the custom here. you will be laughed at, and the more particularly so because the marechal de grammont, who presented you to the king some years ago, said that you could find nothing to praise in the whole of france, with the exception of a little goldfinch in the king's cabinet which whistled airs. i recommend you not to go to see the king, nor to be present at the ball." he was angry, and said "he saw very well that i discountenanced german princes, and did not wish them to be presented to the king." i replied "that the advice i had given him sprang from the best intentions, and was such as i would have given to my own brother." he went away quite angry to marechal schomberg's, where he complained of my behaviour to him. the marshal asked him what i had said, which he repeated word for word. the marshal told him that i had advised him well, and that he was himself of my opinion. nevertheless, the margrave persisted on being presented to the king, whither he prevailed upon the marshal to accompany him, and went the next day to the ball. he was extremely well dressed in half-mourning, with white lace over the black, fine blue ribands, black and white laces, and rheingraves, which look well upon persons of a good figure; in short, he was magnificently dressed, but improperly, for a widower in the first stage of his mourning. he would have seated himself within the king's circle, where none but the members of the royal family and the king's grandchildren are allowed to sit; the princes of the blood even are not allowed to do so, and therefore foreign princes can of course have no right. the margrave then began to repent not having believed me, and early the next morning he set off. prince ragotzky is under great obligations to his wife, who saved his life and delivered him from prison. some person was repeating things to her disadvantage, but he interrupted them by saying, "she saved my head from the axe, and this prevents my having any right to reprove too strictly whatever she may choose to do; for this reason i shall not thank any person who speaks to me upon the subject." [louis xiv. gave to the prince ragotsky, who in france took the title of comte de saaross, 200,000 crowns upon the maison de ville, and a pension of 2,000 crowns per month besides.] beatrice eleanora, the queen of james ii., was always upon such good terms with maintenon that it is impossible to believe our late king was ever fond of her. i have seen a book, entitled "l'ancien ward protecteur du nouveau," in 12mo, in which is related a gallantry between the queen and the pere la chaise. the confessor was then eighty years of age, and not unlike an ass; his ears were very long, his mouth very wide, his head very large, and his body very long. it was an ill-chosen joke. this libel was even less credible than what was stated about the king himself. the monks of saint mihiel possess the original manuscripts of the memoirs of cardinal retz. they have had them printed and are selling them at nancy; but in this copy there are many omissions. a lady at paris, madame caumartin, has a copy in which there is not a word deficient; but she obstinately refused to lend it that the others may be made complete. when an ambassador would make his entry at paris he has himself announced some days before by the officers whose duty it is to introduce ambassadors, in order that the usual compliments may be paid him. to royal ambassadors a chevalier d'honneur is sent, to those from venice or holland the first equerry, and when he is absent or unwell the chief maitre d'hotel, who is also sent to the ambassador from malta. the english ladies are said to be much given to running away with their lovers. i knew a count von konigsmark, whom a young english lady followed in the dress of a page. he had her with him at chambord, and, as there was no room for her in the castle, he lodged her under a tent which he had put up in the forest. when we were at the chase one day he told me this adventure. as i had a great curiosity to see her, i rode towards the tent, and never in my life did i see anything prettier than this girl in the habit of a page. she had large and beautiful eyes, a charming little nose, and an elegant mouth and teeth. she smiled when she saw me, for she suspected that the count had told me the whole story. her hair was a beautiful chestnut colour, and hung about her neck in large curls. after their departure from chambord, while they were at an inn upon their way to italy, the innkeeper's wife ran to the count, crying, "sir, make haste upstairs, for your page is lying-in." she was delivered of a girl, and the mother and child were soon afterwards placed in a convent near paris. while the count lived he took great care of her, but he died in the morea, and his pretended page did not long survive him; she displayed great piety in the hour of death. a friend of the count's, and a nephew of madame de montespan, took care of the child, and after his death the king gave the little creature a pension. i believe she is still (1717) in the convent. the abbe perrault founded an annual funeral oration for the prince de conde in the jesuits' church, where his heart is deposited. i shall not upon this occasion call to mind his victories, his courage in war, or his timidity at court; these are things well known throughout france. a gentleman of my acquaintance at paris heard a learned abbe, who was in the confidence of descartes, say that the philosopher used often to laugh at his own system, and said, "i have cut them out some work: we shall see who will be fools enough to undertake it." that old beauvais, the queen-mother's first femme de chambre, was acquainted with the secret of her marriage, and this obliged the queen to put up with whatever the confidante chose to do. from this circumstance has arisen that custom which gives femmes de chambre so much authority in our apartments. the queen-mother, the widow of louis xiii., not contented with loving cardinal mazarin, went the absurd length of marrying him. he was not a priest, and therefore was not prevented by his orders from contracting matrimony. he soon, however, got very tired of the poor queen, and treated her dreadfully ill, which is the ordinary result in such marriages. but it is the vice of the times to contract clandestine marriages. the queen-mother of england, the widow of charles ii., made such an one in marrying her chevalier d'honneur, who behaved very ill to her; while the poor queen was in want of food and fuel, he had a good fire in his apartment, and was giving great dinners. he called himself lord germain, earl of st. albans; he never addressed a kind expression to the queen. as to the queen-mother's marriage, all the circumstances relating to it are now well enough known. the secret passage by which he went nightly to the palais royal may still be seen; when she used to visit him, he was in the habit of saying, "what does this woman want with me?" he was in love with a lady of the queen's suite, whom i knew very well: she had apartments in the palais royal, and was called madame de bregie. as she was very pretty, she excited a good deal of passion; but she was a very honest lady, who served the queen with great fidelity, and was the cause of the cardinal's living upon better terms with the queen than before. she had very good sense. monsieur loved her for her fidelity to the queen his mother. she has been dead now four-and-twenty years (1717). the princesse de deux ponts has recently furnished another instance of the misfortune which usually attends the secret marriages of ladies of high birth. she married her equerry, was very ill-treated by him, and led a very miserable life; but she deserved all she met with and i foresaw it. she was with me at the opera once, and insisted at all events that her equerry should sit behind her. "for god's sake," i said to her, "be quiet, and give yourself no trouble about this gerstorf; you do not know the manners of this country; when folks perceive you are so anxious about that man, they will think you are in love with him." i did not know then how near this was to the truth. she replied, "do people, then, in this country take no care of their servants?"--"oh, yes," i said, "they request some of their friends to carry them to the opera, but they do not go with them." m. pentenrieder is a perfect gentleman, extremely well-bred, totally divested of the vile austrian manners, and speaks good german instead of the jargon of austria. while he was staying here, the fair of saint-germain commenced; a giant, who came to paris for the purpose of exhibiting himself, having accidentally met m. pentenrieder, said as soon as he saw him, "it's all over with me: i shall not go into the fair; for who will give money to see me while this man shows himself for nothing?" and he really went away. m. pentenrieder pleased everybody. count zinzendorf, who succeeded him, did not resemble him at all, but was a perfect austrian in his manners and his language. i have heard that it was from the excitement of insulted honour that ravaillac was induced to murder henri iv.; for that the king had seduced his sister, and had abandoned her during her pregnancy: the brother then swore he would be avenged on the king. some persons even accuse the duc d'epernon, who was seated in the coach in such a manner that he might have warded off the blow, but he is said to have drawn back and given the assassin an opportunity to strike. when i first came to france i found in it such an assemblage of talent as occurs but in few ages. there was lulli in music; beauchamp in ballets; corneille and racine in tragedy; moliere in comedy; la chamelle and la beauval, actresses; and baron, lafleur, toriliere, and guerin, actors. each of these persons was excellent in his way. la ducloa and la raisin were also very good; the charms of the latter had even penetrated the thick heart of our dauphin, who loved her very tenderly: her husband was excellent in comic parts. there was also a very good harlequin, and as good a scaramouch. among the best performers at the opera were clediere, pomereuil, godenarche, dumenil, la rochechouard, maury, la saint christophe, la brigogne, la beaucreux. all that we see and hear now do not equal them. that which pleased me most in beauvernois' life is the answer he made to the prince of vaudemont. when he was fleeing, and had arrived at brussels, he gave himself out for a prince of lorraine. m. de vaudemont sent for him, and, upon seeing him, said,--"i know all the princes of lorraine, but i do not know you."--"i assure you, sir," replied beauvernois, "that i am as much a prince of lorraine as you are." i like that mercy who tricked his master, the duc de lorraine. when he reached nancy he requested the duke to recruit three regiments, which he said should be his own. the duke did recruit them, fully persuaded they were to be his; but when the companies were filled, mercy begged the emperor to give them to him, and he actually obtained them; so that the duke had not the appointment of a single officer. the poor duchess of mecklenbourg, the wife of christian louis, was a very good woman when one was thoroughly acquainted with her. she told me the whole history of her intrigue with bernstorff. she regulated her household very well, and had always two carriages. she did not affect the splendour of a sovereign; but she kept up her rank better than the other duchesses, and i liked her the better for this. the husband, christian louis of mecklenbourg, was a notable fool. he one day demanded an audience of the king, under the pretence of having something of importance to say to him. louis xiv. was then more than forty years old. when the duke found himself in the king's presence, he said to him, "sire, you seem to me to have grown." the king laughed, and said, "monsieur, i am past the age of growing."--"sire," rejoined the duke, "do you know everybody says i am very much like you, and quite as good-looking as you are?"--"that is very probable," said the king, still laughing. the audience was then finished, and the duke went away. this fool could never engage his brother-in-law's favour, for m. de luxembourg had no regard for him. when the queen had the government of the country, all the females of the court, even to the very servants, became intriguers. they say it was the most ridiculous thing in the world to see the eagerness with which women meddled with the queen-mother's regency. at the commencement she knew nothing at all. she made a present to her first femme de chambre of five large farms, upon which the whole court subsisted. when she went to the council to propose the affair, everybody laughed, and she was asked how she proposed to live. she was quite astonished when the thing was explained to her, for she thought she had only given away five ordinary farms. this anecdote is very true and was related to me by the old chancellor le tellier, who was present at the council. she is said often to have laughed as she confessed her ignorance. many other things of a similar nature happened during the regency. there is a bishop of a noble family, tolerably young but very ugly, who was at first so devout that he thought of entering la trappe; he wore his hair combed down straight, and dared not look a woman in the face. having learned that in the city where he held his see there was a frail fair one, whose gallantries had become notorious, he felt a great desire to convert her and to make her come to the confessional. she was, it is said, a very pretty woman, and had, moreover, a great deal of wit. no sooner had the bishop began to visit than he began to pay attention to his hair: first he powdered it, and then he had it dressed. at length he swallowed the bait so completely, that he neither quitted the fair siren by night nor by day. his clergy ventured to exhort him to put an end to this scandal, but he replied that, if they did not cease their remonstrances, he would find means of making them. at length he even rode through the city in his carriage with his fair penitent. the people became so enraged at this that they pelted him with stones. his relations repaired to his diocese for the purpose of exhorting him in their turn, but he would only receive his mother, and would not even follow her advice. his relations then applied to the regent to summon the lady to paris. she came, but her lover followed and recovered her; at length she was torn from him by a lettre-de-cachet, and taken from his arms to a house of correction. the bishop is in a great rage, and declares that he will never forgive his family for the affront which has been put upon him (1718). the queen-mother is said to have eaten four times a day in a frightful manner, and this practice is supposed to have brought on that cancer in the breast, which she sought to conceal by strong spanish perfumes, and of which she died. those female branches of the french royal family, who are called enfants de france, all bear the title of madame. for this reason it is that in the brevets they are called madame la duchesse de berri; madame la duchesse d'orleans; but in conversation they are called the duchesse de berri, the duchesse d'orleans; or, rather, one should say, madame de berri will have it so with respect to herself. the title of duchesse d'orleans belongs to madame la duchesse d'orleans, as granddaughter. such is the custom prevalent here. the brother and the sister-in-law of the king are called simply monsieur and madame, and these titles are also contained in my brevets; but i suffer myself to be called commonly madame la duchesse d'orleans. madame de berri will be called madame la duchess de berri, because, being only an enfant de france of the third descent, she has need of that title to set off her relationship. there is nothing to be said for this: if there were any unmarried daughters of the late king, each would be called madame, with the addition of their baptismal name. it seems that queen mary of england was something of a coquette in holland. comte d'avaux, the french ambassador, told me himself that he had had a secret interview with her at the apartments of one of the queen's maids of honour, madame treslane. the prince of orange, becoming acquainted with the affair, dismissed the young lady, but invented some other pretext that the real cause might not be known. three footmen had a quarrel together; two of them refused to admit the third to their table, saying, "as he and his master only serve a president's wife, he cannot presume to compare himself with us, who serve princesses and duchesses." the rejected footman called another fellow to his aid, and a violent squabble ensued. the commissaire was called: he found that they served three brothers, the sons of a rich merchant at rouen; two of them had bought companies in the french guards; one of the two had an intrigue with the wife of duc d'abret, and the other with the duchesse de luxembourg, while the third was only engaged with the wife of a president. the two former were called colande and maigremont; and, as at the same time the duc d'abret, the son of the duc de bouillon, was in love with the lady of the president savari. the envoy from holstein, m. dumont, was very much attached to madame de la rochefoucauld, one of madame de berri's 'dames du palais'. she was very pretty, but gifted with no other than personal charms. some one was joking her on this subject, and insinuated that she had treated her lover very favourably. "oh! no," she replied, "that is impossible, i assure you, entirely impossible." when she was urged to say what constituted the impossibility, she replied, "if i tell, you will immediately agree with me that it is quite impossible." being pressed still further, she said, with a very serious air, "because he is a protestant!" when the marriage of monsieur was declared, he said to saint-remi, "did you know that i was married to the princesse de lorraine?"-"no, monsieur," replied the latter; "i knew very well that you lived with her, but i did not think you would have married her." queen marie de medicis, the wife of henri iv., was one day walking at the tuileries with her son, the dauphin, when the king's mistress came into the garden, having also her son with her. the mistress said very, insolently, to the queen, "there are our two dauphins walking together, but mine is a fairer one than yours." the queen gave her a smart box on the ear, and said at the same time, "let this impertinent woman be taken away." the mistress ran instantly to henri iv. to complain, but the king, having heard her story, said, "this is your own fault; why did you not speak to the queen with the respect which you owe to her?" madame de fiennes, who in her youth had been about the queen-mother, used always to say to the late monsieur, "the queen, your mother, was a very silly woman; rest her soul!" my aunt, the abbess of maubuisson, told me that she saw at the queen's a man who was called "the repairer of the queen's face;" that princess, as well as all the ladies of the court, wore great quantities of paint. on account of the great services which the house of arpajon in france had rendered to the order of malta, a privilege was formerly granted that the second son of that family, should at his birth become a knight of the order without the necessity of any proof or any inquiry as to his mother. the czar peter i. is not mad; he has sense enough, and if he had not unfortunately been so brutally educated he would have made a good prince. the way in which he behaved to his czarowitz (alexis) is horrible. he gave his word that he would do him no injury, and afterwards poisoned him by means of the sacrament. this is so impious and abominable that i can never forgive him for it (1719). the last duc d'ossuna had, it is said, a very beautiful, but at the same time a passionate and jealous wife. having learnt that her husband had chosen a very fine stuff for the dress of his mistress, an actress, she went to the merchant and procured it of him. he, thinking it was intended for her, made no scruple of delivering it to her. after it was made up she put it on, and, showing it to her husband, said, "do not you think it is very beautiful?" the husband, angry at the trick, replied, "yes, the stuff is very beautiful, but it is put to an unworthy use." "that is what everybody says of me," retorted the duchess. at fontainebleau in the queen's cabinet may be seen the portrait of la belle terronniere, who was so much beloved by francois i., and who was the unwitting cause of his death. i have often walked at night in the gallery at fontainebleau where the king's ghost is said to appear, but the good francois i. never did me the honour to show himself. perhaps it was because he thought my prayers were not efficacious enough to draw him from purgatory, and in this i think he was quite right. king james ii. died with great firmness and resolution, and without any bigotry; that is to say, very differently from the manner in which he had lived. i saw and spoke to him four-and-twenty hours before his death. "i hope," i said, "soon to hear of your majesty's getting better." he smiled and said, "if i should die, shall i not have lived long enough?" i hardly know how to rejoice at the accession of our prince george to the throne of england, for i have no confidence in the english people. i remember still too well the fine speeches which were made here not long ago by lord peterborough. i would rather that our elector was emperor of germany, and i wish that the king who is here (james ii.) was again in possession of england, because the kingdom belongs to him. i fear that the inconstancy of the english will in the end produce some scheme which may be injurious to us. perhaps there was never in any nation a king who had been crowned with more eclat, or tumultuous joy than james ii.; and yet the same nation since persecuted him in the most pitiless manner, and has so tormented his innocent son that he can scarcely find an asylum after all his heavy misfortunes. [the duchesse d'orleans was, by the mother's side, granddaughter of james i, which explains the interest she took in the fate of the stuart family.] if the english were to be trusted i should say that it is fortunate the parliaments are in favour of george; but the more one reads the history of english revolutions, the more one is compelled to remark the eternal hatred which the people of that nation have had towards their kings, as well as their fickleness (1714). have i not reason to fear on george's account since he has been made king of england, and knowing as i do the desire he had to be king of another country? i know the accursed english too well to trust them. may god protect their majesties the princes, and all the family, but i confess i fear for them greatly (1715). the poor princess of wales [wilhelmina-dorothea-charlotte, daughter of john frederick, margrave of anspach, born in 1682, married to the prince of wales in 1706. the particulars of the quarrel between george i. and his son, the prince of wales, will be found in cose's "memoirs of sir robert walpole."] has caused me great uneasiness since her letter of the 3rd (15th) of february (1718). she has implored the king's pardon as one implores the pardon of god, but without success. i know nothing about it, but dread lest the prince should partake his mother's disgrace. i think, however, since the king has declared the prince to be his son, he should treat him as such, and not act so haughtily against the princess, who has never offended him, but has always treated him with the respect due to a father. nothing good can result from the present state of affairs; and the king had better put an end to a quarrel which gives occasion to a thousand impertinences, and revives awkward stories which were better forgotten. the king of england has returned to london in good health (1719). the prince of wales causes me great anxiety. he thought he should do well to send one of his gentlemen to his father, to assure him in most submissive terms of the joy he felt at his happy return. the king not only would not receive the letter, but he sent back the gentleman with a very harsh rebuke, revoking at the same time the permission, which before his journey he had given to the prince of wales, to see his daughter, whom the prince loves very tenderly; this really seems too severe. it may be said that the king is rather descended from the race of the czar than from that of brunswick and the palatinate. such conduct can do him no good. m. d'entremont, the last ambassador from sicily, was upon the point of departing, and had already had his farewell audience, when some circumstance happened which compelled him to stay some time longer. he found himself without a lodging, for his hotel had been already let. a lady seeing the embarrassment in which madame d'entremont was thus placed, said to her, "madame, i have pleasure in offering you my house, my own room, and my own bed." the ambassador's lady not knowing what to do, accepted the offer with great readiness. she went to the lady's house, and as she is old and in ill health, she went to bed immediately. towards midnight she heard a noise like that of some person opening a secret door. in fact, a door in the wall by the bedside was opened. some one entered, and began to undress. the lady called out, "who is there?" a voice replied, "it is i; be quiet." "who are you?" asked the lady. "what is the matter with you?" was the reply. "you were not wont to be so particular. i am undressing, and shall come to bed directly." at these words the lady cried out, "thieves!" with all her might, and the unknown person dressed himself quickly, and withdrew. when the electoral prince of saxony came hither, he addressed a pretty compliment to the king, which we all thought was his own, and we therefore conceived a very favourable notion of his parts. he did not, however, keep up that good opinion, and probably the compliment was made for him by the elector-palatine. the king desired the duchesse de berri to show him about marly. he walked with her for an hour without ever offering her his arm or saying one word to her. while they were ascending a small hill, the palatine, his governor, nodded to him; and as the prince did not understand what he meant, he was at length obliged to say to him, "offer your arm to the duchesse de berri." the prince obeyed, but without saying a word. when they reached the summit, "here," said the duchesse de berri, "is a nice place for blindman's buff." then, for the first time, he opened his mouth, and said, "oh, yes; i am very willing to play." madame de berri was too much fatigued to play; but the prince continued amusing himself the whole day without offering the least civility to the duchess, who had taken such pains for him. this will serve to show how puerile the prince is. .......................... we have had here several good repartees of duke bernard von weimar. one day a young frenchman asked him, "how happened it that you lost the battle?"--"i will tell you, sir," replied the duke, coolly; "i thought i should win it, and so i lost it. but," he said, turning himself slowly round, "who is the fool that asked me this question?" father joseph was in great favour with cardinal richelieu, and was consulted by him on all occasions. one day, when the cardinal had summoned duke bernard to the council, father joseph, running his finger over a map, said, "monsieur, you must first take this city; then that, and then that." the duke bernard listened to him for some time, and at length said, "but, monsieur joseph, you cannot take cities with your finger." this story always made the king laugh heartily. .......................... m. de brancas was very deeply in love with the lady whom he married. on his wedding-day he went to take a bath, and was afterwards going to bed at the bath-house. "why are you going to bed here, sir?" said his valet de chambre; "do you not mean to go to your wife?"--"i had quite forgotten," he replied. he was the queen-mother's chevalier d'honneur. one day, while she was at church, brancas forgot that the queen was kneeling before him, for as her back was very round, her head could hardly be seen when she hung it down. he took her for a prie-dieu, and knelt down upon her, putting his elbows upon her shoulders. the queen was of course not a little surprised to find her chevalier d'honneur upon her back, and all the bystanders were ready to die with laughing. dr. chirac was once called to see a lady, and, while he was in her bedchamber, he heard that the price of stock had considerably decreased. as he happened to be a large holder of the mississippi bonds, he was alarmed at the news; and being seated near the patient, whose pulse he was feeling, he said with a deep sigh, "ah, good god! they keep sinking, sinking, sinking!" the poor sick lady hearing this, uttered a loud shriek; the people ran to her immediately. "ah," said she, "i shall die; m. de chirac has just said three times, as he felt my pulse, 'they keep sinking!'" the doctor recovered himself soon, and said, "you dream; your pulse is very healthy, and you are very well. i was thinking of the mississippi stocks, upon which i lose my money, because their price sinks." this explanation satisfied the sick lady. the duc de sully was subject to frequent fits of abstraction. one day, having dressed himself to go to church, he forgot nothing but his breeches. this was in the winter; when he entered the church, he said, "mon dieu, it is very cold to-day." the persons present said, "not colder than usual!"--"then i am in a fever," he said. some one suggested that he had perhaps not dressed himself so warmly as usual, and, opening his coat, the cause of his being cold was very apparent. our late king told me the following anecdote of queen christina of sweden: that princess, instead of putting on a nightcap, wrapped her head up in a napkin. one night she could not sleep, and ordered the musicians to be brought into her bedroom; where, drawing the bed-curtains, she could not be seen by the musicians, but could hear them at her ease. at length, enchanted at a piece which they had just played, she abruptly thrust her head beyond the curtains, and cried out, "mort diable! but they sing delightfully!" at this grotesque sight, the italians, and particularly the castrati, who are not the bravest men in the world, were so frightened that they were obliged to stop short. in the great gallery at fontainebleau may still be seen the blood of the man whom she caused to be assassinated; it was to prevent his disclosing some secrets of which he was in possession that she deprived him of life. he had, in fact, begun to chatter through jealousy of another person who had gained the queen's favour. christina was very vindictive, and given up to all kinds of debauchery. duke frederick augustus of brunswick was delighted with christina; he said that he had never in his life met a woman who had so much wit, and whose conversation was so truly diverting; he added that it was impossible to be dull with her for a moment. i observed to him that the queen in her conversation frequently indulged in very filthy discussions. "that is true," replied he, "but she conceals such things in so artful a manner as to take from them all their disgusting features." she never could be agreeable to women, for she despised them altogether. saint francois de sales, who founded the order of the sisters of saint mary, had in his youth been extremely intimate with the marechal de villeroi, the father of the present marshal. the old gentleman could therefore never bring himself to call his old friend a saint. when any one spoke in his presence of saint francois de sales, he used to say, "i was delighted when i saw m. de sales become a saint; he used to delight in talking indecently, and always cheated at play; but in every other respect he was one of the best gentlemen in the world, and perhaps one of the most foolish." m. de cosnac, archbishop of aix, was at a very advanced age when he learnt that saint francois de sales had been canonized. "what!" cried he, "m. de geneve, my old friend? i am delighted at his good fortune; he was a gallant man, an amiable man, and an honest man, too, although he would sometimes cheat at piquet, at which we have often played together."--"but, sir," said some one present, "is it possible that a saint could be a sharper at play?"--"no," replied the archbishop, "he said, as a reason for it, that he gave all his winnings to the poor." [loisirs d'un homme d'etat, et dictionnaire historique, tom. vii. paris, 1810.] while frederick charles de wurtemberg, the administrateur of that duchy, was staying at paris, the princesse marianne de wurtemberg, duke ulric's daughter, was there also with her mother. expecting then to marry her cousin, [the learned journal of gottengin for the year 1789, no. 30, observes there must be some mistake here, because in 1689, when this circumstance is supposed to have occurred, the administrateur had been married seven years, and had children at stuttgard.] she had herself painted as andromeda and her cousin as perseus as the latter wore no helmet, everybody could of course recognize him. but when he went away without having married her, she had a casque painted, which concealed the face, and said she would not have another face inserted until she should be married. she was then about nineteen years old. her mother said once at court, "my daughter has not come with me to-day because she is gone to confess; but, poor child, what can she have to say to her confessor, except that she has dropped some stitches in her work." madame de fiennes, who was present, whispered, "the placid old fool! as if a stout, healthy girl of nineteen had no other sins to confess than having dropped some stitches." a village pastor was examining his parishioners in their catechism. the first question in the heidelberg catechism is this: "what is thy only consolation in life and in death?" a young girl, to whom the pastor put this question, laughed, and would not answer. the priest insisted. "well, then," said she at length, "if i must tell you, it is the young shoemaker who lives in the rue agneaux." the late madame de nemours had charitably brought up a poor child. when the child was about nine years old, she said to her benefactress, "madame, no one can be more grateful for your charity than i am, and i cannot acknowledge it better than by telling everybody i am your daughter; but do not be alarmed, i will not say that i am your lawful child, only your illegitimate daughter." the memoirs of queen margaret of navarre are merely a romance compared with those of mdlle. de la force. the authoress's own life was a romance. being extremely poor, although of an ancient and honourable family, she accepted the office of demoiselle d'honneur to the duchesse de guise. here the marquis de nesle, father of the present marquis (1720), became enamoured of her, after having received from her a small bag to wear about his neck, as a remedy against the vapours. he would have married her, but his relations opposed this intention on the score of mdlle. de la force's poverty, and because she had improperly quitted the duchesse de guise. the great conde, the marquis de nesle's nearest relation, took him to chattillon that he might forget his love for mdlle. de la force; all the marquis's relations were there assembled for the purpose of declaring to him that they would never consent to his marriage with mdlle. de la force; and he on his part told them that he would never while he lived marry any other person. in a moment of despair, he rushed out to the garden and would have thrown himself into the canal, but that the strings, with which mdlle. de la force had tied the bag about his neck, broke, and the bag fell at his feet. his thoughts appeared to undergo a sudden change, and mdlle. de la force seemed to him to be as ugly as she really is. he went instantly to the prince and his other relations who were there, and told them what had just happened. they searched about in the garden for the bag and the strings, and, opening it, they found it to contain two toads' feet holding a heart wrapped up in a bat's wing, and round the whole a paper inscribed with unintelligible cyphers. the marquis was seized with horror at the sight. he told me this story with his own mouth. mdlle. de la force after this fell in love with baron, but as he was not bewitched, the intrigue did not last long: he used to give a very amusing account of the declaration she made to him. then a m. briou, the son of a councillor of that name, became attached to her; his relations, who would by no means have consented to such a marriage, shut the young man up. la force, who has a very fertile wit, engaged an itinerant musician who led about dancing bears in the street, and intimated to her lover that, if he would express a wish to see the bears dance in the courtyard of his, own house, she would come to him disguised in a bear's skin. she procured a bear's skin to be made so as to fit her, and went to m. briou's house with the bears; the young man, under the pretence of playing with this bear, had an opportunity of conversing with her and of laying their future plans. he then promised his father that he would submit to his will, and thus having regained his liberty he immediately married mdlle. de la force, and went with her to versailles, where the king gave them apartments, and where madame de briou was every day with the dauphine of bavaria, who admired her wit and was delighted with her society. m. de briou was not then five-and-twenty years of age, a very good-looking and well-bred young man. his father, however, procured a dissolution of the marriage by the parliament, and made him marry another person. madame de briou thus became once more mdlle. de la force, and found herself without husband and money. i cannot tell how it was that the king and her parents, both of whom had consented to the marriage, did not oppose its dissolution. to gain a subsistence she set about composing romances, and as she was often staying with the princesse de conti, she dedicated to her that of queen margaret. we have had four dukes who have bought coffee, stuffs, and even candles for the purpose of selling them again at a profit. it was the duke de la force who bought the candles. one evening, very recently, as he was going out of the opera, the staircase was filled with young men, one of whom cried out, as he passed, "his purse!"--"no," said another, "there can be no money in it; he would not risk it; it must be candles that he has bought to sell again." they then sang the air of the fourth act of 'phaeton'. [the duke, together with certain other persons, made considerable purchases of spice, porcelain, and other merchandizes, for the purpose of realizing the hope of law's banks. as he was not held in estimation either by the public or by the parliament, the duke was accused of monopoly; and by a decree of the parliament, in concert with the peers, he was enjoined "to use more circumspection for the future, and to conduct himself irreproachably, in a manner as should be consistent with his birth and his dignity as a peer of france."] the queen catherine (de medicis) was a very wicked woman. her uncle, the pope, had good reason for saying that he had made a bad present to france. it is said that she poisoned her youngest son because he had discovered her in a common brothel whither she had gone privately. who can wonder that such a woman should drink out of a cup covered with designs from aretino. the pope had an object in sending her to france. her son was the duc d'alencon; and as they both remained incog. the world did not know that they were mother and son, which occasioned frequent mistakes. the young count horn, who has just been executed here (1720), was descended from a well-known flemish family; he was distinguished at first for the amiable qualities of his head and for his wit. at college he was a model for good conduct, application, and purity of morals; but the intimacy which he formed with some libertine young men during his stay at the academy of paris entirely changed him. he contracted an insatiable desire for play, and even his own father said to him, "you will die by the hands of the executioner." being destitute of money, the young count took up the trade of a pickpocket, which he carried on in the pit of the theatres, and by which he made considerable gains in silver-hilted swords and watches. at length, having lost a sum of five-and-twenty thousand crowns at the fair of saint-germain, he was led to commit that crime which he has just expiated on the scaffold. for the purpose of discharging the debt he had contracted, he sent for a banker's clerk to bring him certain bank bills, which he proposed to purchase. having connected himself with two other villains, he attacked the clerk as soon as he arrived, and stabbed him with poniards which he had bought three days before on the pont neuf. hoping to conceal the share which he had taken in this crime, he went immediately after its perpetration to the commissaire du quartier, and told him, with a cool and determined air, that he had been obliged, in his own defence, to kill the clerk, who had attacked him and put him in danger of his life. the commissaire looking at him steadfastly, said, "you are covered with blood, but you are not even wounded; i must retain you in custody until i can examine this affair more minutely." at this moment the accomplice entered the room. "here, sir," said the count to the commissaire, "is one who can bear testimony that the account i have given you of this business is perfectly true." the accomplice was quite terrified at hearing this; he thought that count horn had confessed his crime, and that there could be no advantage in continuing to deny it; he therefore confessed all that had taken place, and thus the murder was revealed. the count was not more than two-and-twenty years of age, and one of the handsomest men in paris. some of the first persons in france solicited in his favour, but the duke regent thought it necessary to make an example of him on account of the prevalent excess of crime. horn was publicly broken on the wheel with his second accomplice; the other died just before: they were both gentlemen and of noble families. when they arrived at the place of punishment, they begged the people to implore the pardon of heaven upon their sins. the spectators were affected to tears, but they nevertheless agreed in the just severity of their punishment. the people said aloud after the execution, "our regent has done justice." one lady was blaming another, her intimate friend, for loving a very ugly man. the latter said, "did he ever speak to you tenderly or passionately?"--"no," replied the former. "then you cannot judge," said her friend, "whether i ought to love him or not." madame de nemours used to say, "i have observed one thing in this country, 'honour grows again as well as hair.'" an officer, a gentleman of talent, whose name was hautmont, wrote the following verses upon cardinal mazarin, for which he was locked up in the bastille for eighteen months: creusons tous le tombeau a qui nous persecute; a ce jules nouveauu cherchons un nouveau brute. que le jour serait beau, si nous voyions sa chute! the queen-mother could not endure boisrobert on account of his impiety; she did not like him to visit her sons, the king and monsieur, in their youth, but they were very fond of him because he used to amuse them. when he was at the point of death, the queen-mother sent some priests to convert him and to prepare him for confession. boisrobert appeared inclined to confess. "yes, mon dieu," said he, devoutly joining his hands, "i sincerely implore thy pardon, and confess that i am a great sinner, but thou knowest that the abbe de villargeau is a much greater sinner than i am." cardinal mazarin sent him once to compliment the english ambassador on his arrival. when he reached the hotel, an englishman said to him, "milord, il est pret; my ladi, il n'est pas pret, friselire ses chevaux, prendre patience." the late king used to relate stories of this same boisrobert in a very whimsical manner. the life which folks lead at paris becomes daily more scandalous; i really tremble for the city every time it thunders. three ladies of quality have just committed a monstrous imprudence. they have been running after the turkish ambassador; they made his son drunk and kept him with them three days; if they go on in this way even the capuchins will not be safe from them. the turks must needs have a very becoming notion of the conduct of ladies of quality in a christian country. the young turk is said to have told madame de polignac, who was one of the three ladies, "madame, your reputation has reached constantinople, and i see that report has only done you justice." the ambassador, it is said, is very much enraged with his son, and has enjoined him to keep his adventure profoundly a secret, because he would risk the top of his head on his return to constantinople if it were known that he had associated with christian women. it is to be feared that the young man will get safely out of france. madame de polignac has fleeced all the young men of quality here. i do not know how her relations and those of her husband choose to suffer her to lead so libertine a life. but all shame is extinct in france, and everything is turned topsy-turvy. it is very unfortunate that noblemen like the elector-palatine john william should suffer themselves to be governed by the priesthood; nothing but evil can result from it. he would do much better if he would follow the advice of able statesmen, and throw his priest into the necker. i would advise him to do so, and i think i should advise him well. i cannot conceive why the duke maximilian (brother of george i. of england) [prince maximilian of hanover, the second brother of george i., had, after the death of his brother, frederick augustus, certain rights over the bishopric of osnaburgh; love and his monks caused him to embrace the catholic faith.] changed his religion, for he had very little faith in general; none of his relations solicited him to do so, and he was induced by no personal interest. i have heard a story of this prince, which does him little honour. i have been told that he complained to the emperor of his mother, who bred him tenderly, but who had not sent him eight thousand crowns which he had asked her for. this is abominable, and he can hope for happiness neither in this nor in the next world; i can never forgive him for it. the first idea of this must have originated with father wolff, who has also excited him against prince edward augustus.--[maximilian contested the bishopric of osnaburgh with his younger brother.]--what angers me most with this cursed monk is, that he will not suffer duke maximilian to have a single nobleman about him; he will only allow him to be approached by beggars like himself. etext editor's bookmarks: but all shame is extinct in france exclaimed so long against high head-dresses honour grows again as well as hair i thought i should win it, and so i lost it if i should die, shall i not have lived long enough? only your illegitimate daughter original manuscripts of the memoirs of cardinal retz she never could be agreeable to women since becoming queen she had not had a day of real happiness stout, healthy girl of nineteen had no other sins to confess subject to frequent fits of abstraction throw his priest into the necker memoirs of the court of louis xiv. and of the regency being the secret memoirs of the mother of the regent, madame elizabeth-charlotte of bavaria, duchesse d'orleans. book 2. philippe i., duc d'orleans philippe ii., duc d'orleans, regent of france the affairs of the regency the duchesse d'orleans, consort of the regent the dauphine, princess of bavaria. adelaide of savoy, the second dauphine the first dauphin the duke of burgundy, the second dauphin petite madame section viii.--philippe i., duc d'orleans. cardinal mazarin perceiving that the king had less readiness than his brother, was apprehensive lest the latter should become too learned; he therefore enjoined the preceptor to let him play, and not to suffer him to apply to his studies. "what can you be thinking of, m. la mothe le vayer," said the cardinal; "would you try to make the king's brother a clever man? if he should be more wise than his brother, he would not be qualified for implicit obedience." never were two brothers more totally different in their appearance than the king and monsieur. the king was tall, with light hair; his mien was good and his deportment manly. monsieur, without having a vulgar air, was very small; his hair and eye-brows were quite black, his eyes were dark, his face long and narrow, his nose large, his mouth small, and his teeth very bad; he was fond of play, of holding drawing-rooms, of eating, dancing and dress; in short, of all that women are fond of. the king loved the chase, music and the theatre; my husband rather affected large parties and masquerades: his brother was a man of great gallantry, and i do not believe my husband was ever in love during his life. he danced well, but in a feminine manner; he could not dance like a man because his shoes were too high-heeled. excepting when he was with the army, he would never get on horseback. the soldiers used to say that he was more afraid of being sun-burnt and of the blackness of the powder than of the musket-balls; and it was very true. he was very fond of building. before he had the palais royal completed, and particularly the grand apartment, the place was, in my opinion, perfectly horrible, although in the queen-mother's time it had been very much admired. he was so fond of the ringing of bells that he used to go to paris on all souls' day for the purpose of hearing the bells, which are rung during the whole of the vigils on that day he liked no other music, and was often laughed at for it by his friends. he would join in the joke, and confess that a peal of bells delighted him beyond all expression. he liked paris better than any other place, because his secretary was there, and he lived under less restraint than at versailles. he wrote so badly that he was often puzzled to read his own letters, and would bring them to me to decipher them. "here, madame," he used to say, laughing, "you are accustomed to my writing; be so good as to read me this, for i really cannot tell what i have been writing." we have often laughed at it. he was of a good disposition enough, and if he had not yielded so entirely to the bad advice of his favourites, he would have been the best master in the world. i loved him, although he had caused me a great deal of pain; but during the last three years of his life that was totally altered. i had brought him to laugh at his own weakness, and even to take jokes without caring for them. from the period that i had been calumniated and accused, he would suffer no one again to annoy me; he had the most perfect confidence in me, and took my part so decidedly, that his favourites dared not practise against me. but before that i had suffered terribly. i was just about to be happy, when providence thought fit to deprive me of my poor husband. for thirty years i had been labouring to gain him to myself, and, just as my design seemed to be accomplished, he died. he had been so much importuned upon the subject of my affection for him that he begged me for heaven's sake not to love him any longer, because it was so troublesome. i never suffered him to go alone anywhere without his express orders. the king often complained that he had not been allowed to converse sufficiently with people in his youth; but taciturnity was a part of his character, for monsieur, who was brought up with him, conversed with everybody. the king often laughed, and said that monsieur's chattering had put him out of conceit with talking. we used to joke monsieur upon his once asking questions of a person who came to see him. "i suppose, monsieur," said he, "you come from the army?" "no, monsieur," replied the visitor, "i have never joined it." "you arrive here, then, from your country house?" "monsieur, i have no country house." "in that case, i imagine you are living at paris with your family?" "monsieur, i am not married." everybody present at this burst into a laugh, and monsieur in some confusion had nothing more to say. it is true that monsieur was more generally liked at paris than the king, on account of his affability. when the king, however, wished to make himself agreeable to any person, his manners were the most engaging possible, and he won people's hearts much more readily than my husband; for the latter, as well as my son, was too generally civil. he did not distinguish people sufficiently, and behaved very well only to those who were attached to the chevalier de lorraine and his favourites. monsieur was not of a temper to feel any sorrow very deeply. he loved his children too well even to reprove them when they deserved it; and if he had occasion to make complaints of them, he used to come to me with them. "but, monsieur," i have said, "they are your children as well as mine, why do you not correct them?" he replied, "i do not know how to scold, and besides they would not care for me if i did; they fear no one but you." by always threatening the children with me, he kept them in constant fear of me. he estranged them from me as much as possible, but he left me to exercise more authority over my elder daughter and over the queen of sicily than over my son; he could not, however, prevent my occasionally telling them what i thought. my daughter never gave me any cause to complain of her. monsieur was always jealous of the children, and was afraid they would love me better than him: it was for this reason that he made them believe i disapproved of almost all they did. i generally pretended not to see this contrivance. without being really fond of any woman, monsieur used to amuse himself all day in the company of old and young ladies to please the king: in order not to be out of the court fashion, he even pretended to be amorous; but he could not keep up a deception so contrary to his natural inclination. madame de fiennes said to him one day, "you are in much more danger from the ladies you visit, than they are from you." it was even said that madame de monaco had attempted to give him some violent proofs of her affection. he pretended to be in love with madame de grancey; but if she had had no other lover than monsieur she might have preserved her reputation. nothing culpable ever passed between them; and he always endeavoured to avoid being alone with her. she herself said that whenever they happened to be alone he was in the greatest terror, and pretended to have the toothache or the headache. they told a story of the lady asking him to touch her, and that he put on his gloves before doing so. i have often heard him rallied about this anecdote, and have often laughed at it. madame de grancey was one of the most foolish women in the world. she was very handsome at the time of my arrival in france, and her figure was as good as her face; besides, she was not so much disregarded by others as by my husband; for, before the chevalier de lorraine became her lover, she had had a child. i knew well that nothing had passed between monsieur and grancey, and i was never jealous of them; but i could not endure that she should derive a profit from my household, and that no person could purchase an employment in it without paying a douceur to her. i was also often indignant at her insolence to me, and at her frequently embroiling me with monsieur. it was for these reasons, and not from jealousy, as was fancied by those who knew nothing about it, that i sometimes sharply reprimanded her. the chevalier de lorraine, upon his return from rome, became her declared lover. it was through his contrivances, and those of d'effiat, that she was brought into the house of monsieur, who really cared nothing about her. her continued solicitations and the behaviour of the chevalier de lorraine had so much disgusted monsieur, that if he had lived he would have got rid of them both. he had become tired of the chevalier de lorraine because he had found out that his attachment to him proceeded from interested motives. when monsieur, misled by his favourites, did something which was neither just nor expedient, i used to say to him, "out of complaisance to the chevalier de lorraine, you put your good sense into your pocket, and button it up so tight that it cannot be seen." after my husband's death i saw grancey only once; i met her in the garden. when she ceased to be handsome, she fell into utter despair; and so great a change took place in her appearance that no one would have known her. her nose, before so beautiful, grew long and large, and was covered with pimples, over each of which she put a patch; this had a very singular effect; the red and white paint, too, did not adhere to her face. her eyes were hollow and sunken, and the alteration which this had caused in her face cannot be imagined. in spain they, lock up all the ladies at night, even to the septuagenary femmes de chambre. when grancey followed our queen to spain as dame d'atour, she was locked up in the evening, and was in great grief about it. when she was dying, she cried, "ah, mon dieu, must i die, who have never once thought of death?" she had never done anything but sit at play with her lovers until five or six o'clock in the morning, feast, and smoke tobacco, and follow uncontrolled her natural inclinations. when she reached her climacteric, she said, in despair, "alas, i am growing old, i shall have no more children." this was exceedingly amusing; and her friends, as well as her enemies, laughed at it. she once had a high dispute with madame de bouillon. one evening, grancey chose to hide herself in one of the recesses formed by the windows in the chamber of the former lady, who, not thinking she was heard, conversed very freely with the marquise d'allure, respecting the libertine life of grancey; in the course of which she said several strange things respecting the treatment which her lovers had experienced from her. grancey at length rushed out, and fell to abusing madame de bouillon like a billingsgate. the latter was not silent, and some exceedingly elegant discourse passed between them. madame de bouillon made a complaint against grancey; in the first place, for having listened to her conversation; and in the second, for having insulted her in her own house. monsieur reproved grancey; told her that she had brought this inconvenience upon herself by her own indiscretion, and ordered her to be reconciled with her adversary. "how can i," said grancey, "be reconciled to madame de bouillon, after all the wicked things she has said about me?" but after a moment's reflection she added, "yes, i can, for she did not say i was ugly." they afterwards embraced, and made it up. ......................................... monsieur was taken ill at ten o'clock at night, but he did not die until the next day at noon. i can never think of this night without horror. i remained with him from ten at night until five the next morning, when he lost all consciousness.--[the duc d'orleans died of apoplexy on the 9th june, 1701] the electors of germany would not permit monsieur to write to them in the same style as the king did. section ix.--philippe ii., duc d' orleans, regent of france. from the age of fourteen to that of fifteen years, my son was not ugly; but after that time he became very much sun-burnt in italy and spain. now, however, he is too ruddy; he is fat, but not tall, and yet he does not seem disagreeable to me. the weakness of his eyes causes him sometimes to squint. when he dances or is on horseback he looks very well, but he walks horridly ill. in his childhood he was so delicate that he could not even kneel without falling, through weakness; by degrees, however, his strength improved. he loads his stomach too much at table; he has a notion that it is good to make only one meal; instead of dinner, he takes only one cup of chocolate, so that by supper he is extremely hungry and thirsty. in answer to whatever objections are made to this regimen, he says he cannot do business after eating. when he gets tipsy, it is not with strong potations, but with champagne or tokay. he is not very fond of the chase. the weakness of his sight arose from an accident which befell him at the age of four years, and which was something like an apoplexy. he sees well enough near, and can read the smallest writing; but at the distance of half the room he cannot distinguish persons without a glass. he had an application of a powder to that eye which is worst, and, although it had caused intolerable pain to every other person who had used it, it seemed to have no effect upon him, for he laughed and chatted as usual. he found some benefit from this; but w. gendron was too severe for him. that physician forbade the petits-soupers and the amusements which usually followed them; this was not agreeable to my son, and those who used to frequent them to their own advantage; they therefore persuaded him to adopt some other remedies which almost deprived him of sight. for the last forty years (1719), that is to say since the accident happened, the month of october has never elapsed without his health and eyesight being affected towards the 21st in some way or other. he was only seventeen years old when he was married. if he had not been threatened with imprisonment in the old castle of villers-cotterets, and if hopes had not been given him of seeing the duchesse de bourbon as he wished, they could not have induced him to form this accursed marriage. it is my son's unlucky destiny to have for a wife a woman who is desirous of ruling everything with her brothers. it is commonly said, that where one sins there one suffers; and thus it has happened to my son with respect to his wife and his brothers-in-law. if he had not inflicted upon me the deepest vexation by uniting himself with this low race, he might now speak to them boldly. i never quarrelled with my son; but he was angry with me about this marriage, which he had contracted against my inclination. as i sincerely love him, i have forgotten it; and i do not believe that we shall ever quarrel in future. when i have anything to say about his conduct, i say it openly, and there is an end of it. he behaves to me very respectfully. i did all in my power to prevent his marriage; but since it did take place, and with his consent, though without mine, i wish now only for his tranquillity. his wife fancies that she has done him an honour in marrying him, because he is only the son of the brother of a king, while she is the daughter of a king; but she will not perceive that she is also the daughter of a -----. he was obliged to put down all his feelings of nobility; and if i had a hundred crowns for as many times as he has since repented it, i could almost buy france for the king, and pay his debts. my son visits his wife every day, and when she is in good humour he stays with her a long time; but when she is ill-tempered, which, unfortunately, happens too often, he goes away without saying anything. i have every reason to be satisfied with him; he lives on very good terms with me, and i have no right to complain of his conduct; but i see that he does not repose much confidence in me, and i know many persons to whom he is more communicative. i love my son with all my heart; but i cannot see how any one else can, for his manners are little calculated to inspire love. in the first place, he is incapable of the passion, or of being attached to any one for a long time; in the second, he is not sufficiently polished and gallant to make love, but sets about it rudely and coarsely; in the third, he is very indiscreet, and tells plainly all that he has done. i have said to him a hundred times, "i wonder how any woman can run after you, whom they ought rather to fly from." he would reply, laughing, "ah! you do not know the libertine women of the present day; provided they are talked of, they are satisfied." there was an affair of gallantry, but a perfectly honourable one, between him and the queen of spain. i do not know whether he had the good fortune to be agreeable to her, but i know he was not at all in love with her. he thought her mien and figure good, but neither her manners nor her face were agreeable to him. he was not in any degree romantic, and, not knowing how to conduct himself in this affair, he said to the duc de grammont, "you understand the manner of spanish gallantry; pray tell me a little what i ought to say and do." he could not, however, suit the fancy of the queen, who was for pure gallantry; those who were less delicate he was better suited for, and for this reason it was said that libertine women used to run after him. ............................... he never denied that he was indiscreet and inconstant. being one day with me at the theatre, and hearing valere say he was tired of his mistress, "that has been my case often," he cried. i told him he never was in love in his life, and that what he called love was mere debauchery. he replied, "it is very true that i am not a hero of romance, and that i do not make love like a celadon, but i love in my way." "your way," i said, "is an extremely gross one." . . . this made him laugh. he likes the business of his gallantry to be conducted with beat of drum, without the least refinement. he reminds me of the old patriarchs, who were surrounded by women. ............................ all women do not please him alike. he does not like fine airs so well as profligate manners: the opera-house dancers are his favourites. the women run after him from mere interest, for he pays them well. a pleasant enough adventure happened last winter: a young and pretty woman visited my son in his cabinet; he presented her with a diamond of the value of 2,000 louis and a box worth 200. this woman had a jealous husband, but she had effrontery enough to shew him the jewels which she said had been offered to her a great bargain by persons who wanted the money, and she begged him not to let such an opportunity slip. the credulous husband gave her the money she asked for. she thanked him, put the box in her dressing-case and the diamond on her finger, and displayed it in the best company. when she was asked where she got the ring and the bog, "m. de parabere gave them to me," she said; and he, who happened to be present, added, "yes, i gave them to her; can one do less when one has for a wife a lady of quality who loves none but her husband?" this caused some mirth; for other people were not so simple as the husband, and knew very well where the presents came from. if my son has a queen-sultana, it is this madame de parabere. her mother, madame de la vieuville, was dame d'atour to the duchesse de berri.--[marie-madeline de la vieuville, comtesse de la parabere; it was she whom the regent used to call "his little black crow."]--it was there that my son first became acquainted with the daughter, who is now a widow: she is of a slight figure, dark complexion, and never paints; her eyes and mouth are pretty; she is not very sensible, but is a desirable little person. my son says he likes her because she thinks of nothing but amusing herself, and never interferes with other affairs. that would be very well if she were not a drunkard, and if she did not make my son eat and drink so much, and take him to a farm which she has at anieres, and where he sometimes sups with her and the country folks. it is said that he becomes a little jealous of parabere, in which case he must love her more than he has done yet. i often tell him that, if he really loved, he would not suffer his mistresses to run after others, and to commit such frequent infidelities. he replied that there was no such thing as love except in romances. he broke with seri, because, as he said, she wanted him to love her like an arcadian. he has often made me laugh at his complaining of this seriously, and with an air of great affliction. "why do you disturb yourself?" i have said to him; "if that is not agreeable to you, leave her alone. you are not obliged to feign a love which you do not feel." this convinces me, however, that my son is incapable of love. he willingly eats, drinks, sings, and amuses himself with his mistresses, but to love one of them more than another is not his way. he is not afraid of application; but when he has been actively engaged from morning till night he is glad to divert himself at supper with such persons. it is for this reason that parabere, who is said to be a great fool, is so agreeable to him. she eats and drinks astonishingly, and plays absurd tricks, which divert him and make him forget his labour. my son, it must be allowed, possesses some great qualities. he has good sense, understands several languages, is fond of reading, speaks well, has studied much, is learned and acquainted with most of the arts, however difficult. he is a musician, and does not compose badly; he paints well, he understands chemistry, is well versed in history, and is quick of comprehension. he soon, however, gets tired of everything. he has an excellent memory, is expert in war, and fears nothing in the world; his intentions are always just and fair, and if his actions are ever otherwise, it is the fault of others. his only faults are that he is too kind, not sufficiently reserved, and apt to believe people who have less sense than himself; he is, therefore, often deceived, for the knaves who know his easiness of temper will run all risks with him. all the misfortunes and inconveniences which befall him spring from that cause. his other fault is one not common to frenchmen, the easiness with which women can persuade him, and this often brings him into domestic quarrels. he can refuse them nothing, and even carries his complaisance so far as to give them marks of affection without really liking them. when i tell him that he is too good, he says, "is it not better to be good than bad?" he was always extremely weak, too, with respect to lovers, who chose to make him their confidant. the duc de saint simon was one day exceedingly annoyed at this weakness of my son, and said to him, angrily, "ah! there you are; since the days of louis le debonnaire there has been nobody so debonnaire as yourself." my son was much amused at it. when he is under the necessity of saying anything harsh, he is much more pained at it than the person who experiences the disgrace. he is not fond of the country, but prefers living in town. he is in this respect like madame de longueville, who was tired to death of being in normandy, where her husband was. [the duc de longueville was governor of normandy; and after the reduction of bordeaux, in 1652, the duchesse de longueville received an order from the court to repair to her husband.] those who were about her said, "mon dieu, madame, you are eaten up with ennui; will you not take some amusement? there are dogs and a beautiful forest; will you hunt?" "no," she replied, "i don't like hunting." "will you work?" "no, i don't like work." "will you take a walk, or play at some game?" "no, i like neither the one nor the other." "what will you do, then?" they asked. "what can i do?" she said; "i hate innocent pleasures." my son understands music well, as all the musicians agree. he has composed two or three operas, which are pretty. la fare, his captain of the guards, wrote the words. he had them played in his palace, but never would permit them to be represented on the public stage. when he had nothing to do he painted for one of the duchess's cabinets all the pastoral romance of "daphnis and chloe." [the designs for the romance of "daphnis and chloe" were composed by the regent, with the advice, and probably the assistance, of claude audran, a distinguished painter, whom lebrun often employed to help him with his large pictures. he painted a part of the battles of alexander. these designs were engraved by benoit audran; they embellish what is called "the regent's edition" of the pastoral of longus, which was printed under his inspection in the year 1718. it is somewhat surprising that madame should speak so disdainfully of so eminent an artist as benoit audran.] with the exception of the first, he invented and painted all the subjects. they have been engraved by one audran. the duchess thought them so pretty that she had them worked in a larger size in tapestry; and these, i think, are better than the engravings. my son's learning has not the least tinge of pedantry. he knows a quantity of facetious stories, which he learnt in italy and in spain. he does not tell them badly, but i like him better in his more serious moods, because they are more natural to him. when he talks upon learned topics it is easy to see that they are rather troublesome to him than otherwise. i often blamed him for this; but he used to reply that it was not his fault, that he was ready enough to learn anything, but that when he once knew it he no longer took pleasure in it. he is eloquent enough, and when he chooses he can talk with dignity. he has a jesuit for his confessor, but he does not suffer himself to be ruled by him. he pretends that his daughter has no influence over him. he was delighted when he obtained the command of the spanish army, and was pleased with everything in that country; this procured him the hatred of the princesse des ursins, who feared that my son would diminish her authority and gain more of the confidence of the spaniards than she possessed. he learned to cook during his stay with the army in spain. i cannot tell where he learned so much patience; i am sure it was neither from monsieur nor from me. when he acted from himself i always found him reasonable; but he too often confided in rogues, who had not half his sense, and then all went wrong. my son is like all the rest of his family; when they had become accustomed to a thing they suffered it to go its own way. it was for this reason he could not persuade himself to shake off the abbe dubois, although he knew him to be a rascal. this abbe had the impudence to try to persuade even me that the marriage he had brought about was an excellent one. "but the honour which is lost in it," said i, "how will you repair that?" old maintenon had made immense promises to him, as well as to my son; but, thank god, she kept neither the one nor the other. it is intolerable that my son will go about day and night with that wicked and impertinent noce i hate that noce as i hate the devil. he and brogue run all risks, because they are thus enabled to sponge upon my son. it is said that noce is jealous of parabere, who has fallen in love with some one else. this proves that my son is not jealous. the person with whom she has fallen in love has long been a sort of adventurer: it is clermont, a captain in my son's swiss guard; the same who preferred chouin to the great princesse de conti. it is said that noce utters whatever comes into his head, and about any persons; this makes my son laugh, and amuses him, for noce has wit and can do this pleasantly, enough. his father was under-governor to my son, who has thus been accustomed from his infancy to this wicked rascal, and who is very fond of him. i do not know for what reason, for he is a person who fears neither god nor man, and has not a single good point about him; he is green, black, and deep yellow; he is ten years older than my son; it is incredible how many, millions this mercenary rogue has drawn from him. madame de berri has told me that broglie's jokes consist only in saying openly, the most horrible things. the broglii are of italian extraction, but have been long settled in france. there were three brothers, the elder of whom died in the army; the second was an abbe, but he cast aside his gown, and he is the knave of whom i have been speaking. the third is still serving in the army, and, according to common report, is one of the best gentlemen in the world. my son does not like him so well as his good-for-nothing brother, because he is too serious, and would not become his buffoon. my son excuses himself by saying that when he quits business he wants something to make him laugh, and that young broglie is not old enough for this; that if he had a confidential business, or a warlike expedition to perform, he would prefer him; but that for laughing and dissipation of all sorts, his elder brother is more fit. my son has three natural children, two boys and a girl, of whom only one has been legitimated; that is his son by mademoiselle de seri, [n. de seri de la boissiere; the father had been ambassador in holland. mademoiselle de seri was the regent's first mistress; he gave her the title of comtesse d'argenton. her son, the chevalier d'orleans, was grand-prieur of france.] who was my maid of honour; she was genteel and gay, but not pretty nor of a good figure. this son was called the chevalier d'orleans. the other, who is now a lad of eighteen years, is the abbe de saint albin; he had this child by florence, an opera dancer, of a very neat figure, but a fool; although to look at her pretty face one would not have thought so. she is since dead. the third of my son's illegitimate children is a girl of fourteen years old, whom he had by desmarets, an actress, who is still on the stage. this child has been educated at a convent at saint denis, but has not much inclination for a monastic life. when my son sent for her she did not know who she was. desmarets wanted to lay another child to my son's account; but he replied, "no, that child is too much of a harlequin." when some one asked him what he meant, he said it was of so many different pieces, and therefore he renounced it. i do not know whether the mother did not afterwards give it to the elector of bavaria, who had some share in it, and who sacrificed to her the most beautiful snuff-box that ever was seen; it was covered with large diamonds. my first son was called the duc de valois; but as this name was one of evil omen, monsieur would not suffer my other son to be called so; he took, therefore, the title of duc de chartres. after monsieur's death my son took the name of orleans, and his son that of chartres. [alesandre-louis d'orleans, duc de valois, died an infant on the 16th of march, 1676; the regent was born on the 4th of august, 1674. it is unnecessary to mention the unhappy ends of henri iii. and of the three kings, his sons, who all died without issue.] my son is too much prejudiced in favour of his nation; and although he sees daily that his countrymen are false and treacherous, he believes there is no nation comparable to them. he is not very lavish of his praise; and when he does approve of anything his sincerity gives it an additional value. as he is now in his forty-second year the people of paris do not forgive him for running about at balls, like a young fool, for the amusement of women, when he has the cares of the kingdom upon his shoulders. when the late king ascended the throne he had reason to take his diversion; it is not so now. night and day it is necessary to labour in order to repair the mischief which the late king, or rather his ministers, did to the country. when my son gently reproached that old maintenon for having maligned him, and asked her to put her hand upon her heart, and say whether her calumnies were true, she replied, "i said it because i believed it." my son replied, "you could not believe it, because you knew the contrary." she said arrogantly, and yet my son kept his temper, "is not the dauphine dead?" "is it my fault," he rejoined, "that she is dead? was she immortal?" "well," she replied, "i was so much distressed at the loss that i could not help detesting him whom i was told was the cause of it." "but, madame," said my son, "you know, from the report which has been made to the king, that i was not the cause, and that the dauphine was not poisoned." "i do know it," she replied, "and i will say nothing more about it." section x.--the affairs of the regency. the old maintenon wished to have the duc du maine made regent; but my son's harangue to the parliament frustrated her intention. he was very angry with lord stair because he believed that he had done him an ill office with the king of england, and prevented the latter from entering into the alliance with france and holland. if that alliance had taken place my son could have prevented the pretender from beginning his journey; but as england refused to do so, the regent was obliged to do nothing but what was stipulated for by the treaty of peace: that is to say, not to succour the pretender with money nor arms, which he faithfully performed. he sent wherever lord stair requested. [the duc d'orleans ordered, in lord stair's presence, contades, major of the guard, to arrest the pretender on his passage through chateau-thierry; but, adds duclos, contades was an intelligent man, and well acquainted with the regent's secret intentions, and so he set out resolved not to find what he went in search of.] he believed that the english people would not be well pleased to see their king allied to the crown of france. 1717 the baron goertz thought to entrap my son, who, however, did not trust him; he would not permit him to purchase a single ship, and it was upon this that the baron had built all his hopes of success. that tall goertz, whom i have seen, has an unlucky physiognomy; i do not believe that he will die a fair death. the memoir of the thirty noblemen has so much angered my son that he will hasten to pronounce sentence. [goertz was the swedish minister, and had been sent into holland and france to favour the cause of the pretender. he was arrested in holland in 1717, and remained in prison for several months. he was a very cunning person, and a great political intriguer. on the death of charles xii. he was taken before an extraordinary tribunal, and condemned in an unjust and arbitrary manner to be beheaded, which sentence was executed in, may, 1719.] 1718 the whole of the parliament was influenced against him. he made a remonstrance against this, which was certainly effected at the instigation of the eldest bastard and his wife.--[the duc and duchesse du maine.]--if any one spoke ill of my son, and seemed dissatisfied, the duchesse du maine: invited them to sceaux, and pitied and caressed them to hear them abuse my son. i wondered at his patience. he has great courage, and went steadily on without disturbing himself about anything. although the parliament of paris sent to all the other parliaments in the kingdom to solicit them to unite with it, none of them did so, but all remained faithful to my son. the libels which were dispersed for the purpose of exciting the people against him had scarcely any effect. i believe the plot would have succeeded better if the bastard and his wife had not engaged in it, for they were extraordinarily hated at paris. my son told the parliament they had nothing to do with the coinage; that he would maintain the royal authority, and deliver it to the king when he should be of age in the same state as he had found it on his becoming regent. the marechale d'uxelles hated my son mortally, but after the king's death he played the fawning dog so completely that my son forgave him and took him into favour again. in the latter affair he was disposed once more to follow his natural inclination, but my son, having little value for whatever he could do, said, "well, if he will not sign he may let it alone." when the marshal saw my son was serious and did not care at all for his bravadoes, he became submissive and did what my son desired. the wife of the cripple, the duchesse du maine, resolved to have an explanation with my son. she made a sententious speech, just as if she had been on the stage; she asked how he could think that the answer to fitz-morris's book should have proceeded from her, or that a princess of the blood would degrade herself by composing libels? she told him, too, that the cardinal de polignac was engaged in affairs of too much importance to busy himself in trifles like this, and m. de malezieux was too much a philosopher to think of anything but the sciences. for her own part, she said she had sufficient employment in educating her children as became that royal dignity of which she had been wrongfully deprived. my son only replied to her thus:-"i have reason to believe that these libels have been got up at your house, and by you, because that fact has been attested by persons who have been in your service, and who have seen them in progress; beyond this no one makes me believe or disbelieve anything." he made no reply to her last observation, and so she went away. she afterwards boasted everywhere of the firmness with which she had spoken to my son. my son this day (26th of august) assembled the council of the regency. he had summoned the parliament by a 'lettre-de-cachet': they repaired to the tuileries in a procession on foot, dressed in scarlet robes, hoping by this display to excite the people in their favour; but the mob only called out, "where are these lobsters going?" the king had caused the keeper of the seals to make a remonstrance to the parliament for having infringed upon his authority in publishing decrees without his sanction. he commanded them to quash the decree, which was done; and to confirm the authority of the keeper of the seals, which they did also. he then ordered them with some sternness not to interfere with the affairs of the government beyond their province; and as the duc du maine had excited the parliament against the king, he was deprived of the care of his majesty's education, and he with his brothers were degraded from the rank of princes of the blood, which had been granted to them. they will in future have no other rank than that of their respective peerages; but the duc du maine alone, for the fidelity he has always manifested towards the king, will retain his rank for his life, although his issue, if he should have any, will not inherit it. [saint-simon reports that it was the comte de toulouse who was allowed to retain his rank.--see the memoirs of saint-simon, chapter xciii.--d.w.] madame d'orleans was in the greatest despair, and came to paris in such a condition as moved my pity for her. madame du maine is reported to have said, three weeks ago, at a grand dinner, "i am accused of having caused the parliament to revolt against the duc d'orleans, but i despise him too much to take so noble a vengeance; i will be revenged in another manner." the parliament had very notable projects in hand. if my son had delayed four-and-twenty hours longer in removing the duc du maine from the king it would have been decided to declare his majesty of full age; but my son frustrated this by dismissing the duke, and degrading him at the same time. the chief president is said to have been so frightened that he remained motionless, as if he had been petrified by a gaze at the head of medusa. that celebrated personage of antiquity could not have been more a fury than madame du maine; she threatened dreadfully, and did not scruple to say, in the presence of her household, that she would yet find means to give the regent such a blow as should make him bite the dust. that old maintenon and her pupil have also had a finger in the pie. the parliament asked pardon of my son, which proves that the duc and duchesse du maine were the mainsprings of the plot. there is reason to believe that the old woman and the former chancellor were also implicated in it. the chancellor, who would have betrayed my son in so shameful a manner, was under the heaviest obligations to him. what has happened is a great mortification to maintenon, and yet she has not given up all hopes. this makes me very anxious, for i know how expertly she can manage poison. my son, instead of being cautious, goes about the town at night in strange carriages, sometimes supping with one or another of his people, none of whom are worthy of being trusted, and who, excepting their wit, have not one good quality. different reports respecting the duchesse du maine are abroad; some say she has beaten her husband and broken the glasses and everything brittle in her room. others say she has not spoken a word, and has done nothing but weep. the duc de bourbon has undertaken the king's education. he said that, not being himself of age, he did not demand this office before, but that being so now he should solicit it, and it was immediately given to him. one president and two counsellors have been arrested. before the close of the session, the parliament implored my son to use his good offices with the king for the release of their members, and promised that they should, if found culpable, be punished by the parliament itself. my son replied that they could not doubt he should always advise the king to the most lenient measures; that his majesty would not only be gracious to them as a body, while they merited it, but also to each individual; that, as to the prisoners, they would in good time be released. that old maintenon has fallen sick of grief that her project for the duc du maine has miscarried. the duke and the parliament had resolved to have a bed of justice held, where my son should be dismissed, and the regency be committed to the duke, while at the same time the king's household should be under arms. the duke and the prince de conti had long been urging my son without knowing all the particulars. the duc du maine has not been banished to the country, but has permission to go with his family wherever he pleases; he will not, however, remain at paris, because he no longer enjoys his rank; he chooses rather to live at sceaux, where he has an elegant mansion and a fine park. the little dwarf (the duchesse du maine) says she has more courage than her husband, her son, and her brother-in-law put together; and that, like another jael, she would kill my son with her own hand, and would drive a nail into his head. when i implored my son to be on his guard against her, and told him this, he laughed at my fears and shook his head incredulously. i do not believe that the devil, in his own person, is more wicked than that old maintenon, the duc du maine, and the duchess. the latter said openly that her husband and her brother-in-law were no better than cowards; that, woman as she was, she was ready to demand an audience of my son and to plunge a dagger in his heart. let any one judge whether i have not reason to fear such persons, and particularly, when they, have so strong a party. their cabal is very considerable; there are a dozen persons of consideration, all great noblemen at court. the richest part of the people favour the spanish pretensions, as well as the duc and duchesse du maine; they wish to call in the king of spain. my brother has too much sense for them; they want a person who will suffer himself to be led as they, please; the king of spain is their man; and, for this reason, they are trying all means to induce him to come. it is for these reasons that i think my son is in so great danger. my son has not yet released the three rogues of the parliament, although their liberation has been twice petitioned for. the duc du maine and the cabal have made his sister believe that if my son should die they would make her regent, and would aid her with their counsel to enable her to become one of the greatest persons in the world. they say they mean no violence towards my son, who cannot live long on account of his irregularities; that he must soon die or lose his sight; and in the latter event he would consent to her becoming regent. i know a person to whom the duc du maine said so. this put an end to one's astonishment, that she should have wished to force her daughter to marry the duc du maine. all this gave me great anxiety. i foresaw it all and said to my son, "you are committing a folly, for which i shall have to suffer all my life." he has made great changes; instead of a great number of councils he has appointed secretaries of state. m. d'armenouville is secretary of state for the navy; m. le blanc, for the army; m. de la vrilliere, for the home department; the abbe dubois, for foreign affairs; m. de maurepas, for the royal household; and a bishop for the church benefices. malezieux and the cardinal de polignac had probably as great a share in the answer to fitz-morris as the duchesse du maine. the duc de bourbon and the prince de conti assisted very zealously in the disgrace of the duc du maine. my son could not bring himself to resolve upon it until the treachery had been clearly demonstrated to him, and he saw that he should lend himself to his own dishonour if he did not prevent the blow. my son is very fond of the comte de toulouse, whom he finds a sensible person on all occasions: if the latter had followed the advice of the duc du maine he would have shared his fate; but he despised his brother's advice and followed that of his wife. my son believes as firmly in predestination as if he had been, like me, a calvinist, for nineteen years. i do not know how he learnt the affair of the duc du maine; he has always kept it a great secret. but what appears the most singular to me is that he does not hate his brother-in-law, who has endeavoured to procure his death and dishonour. i do not believe his like was ever seen: he has no gall in his composition; i never knew him to hate any one. he says he will take as much care as he can; but that if god has ordained that he shall perish by the hands of his enemies he cannot change his destiny, and that therefore he shall go on tranquilly. he has earnestly requested lord stair to speak to the king of england on your account.--[this passage is addressed to the princess of wales.]--he says no one can be more desirous than he is that you should be reinstated in your father's affection, and that he will neglect no opportunity of bringing it about, being persuaded that it is to the advantage of the king of england, as well as of yourself, that you should be reconciled. m. law must be praised for his talent, but there is an astonishing number of persons who envy him in this country. my son is delighted with his cleverness in business. he has been compelled to arrest the spanish ambassador, the prince of cellamara, because letters were found upon his courier, the abbe porto carero, who was his nephew, and who has also been arrested, containing evidence of a plot against the king and against my son. the ambassador was arrested by two counsellors of state. it was time that this treachery should be made public. a valet of the abbe porto carero having a bad horse, and not being able to get on so quick as his master, stayed two relays behind, and met on his way the ordinary courier from poitiers. the valet asked him, "what news?" "i don't know any," replied the postilion, "except that they have arrested at poitiers an english bankrupt and a spanish abbe who was carrying a packet." when the valet heard this he instantly took a fresh horse, and, instead of following his master, he came back full gallop to paris. so great was his speed, that he fell sick upon his arrival in consequence of the exertion. he outstripped my son's courier by twelve hours, and so had time to apprise the prince of cellamara twelve hours before his arrest, which gave him time to burn his most important letters and papers. my son's enemies pretend to treat this affair as insignificant to the last degree; but i cannot see anything insignificant in an ambassador's attempting to cause a revolt in a whole kingdom, and among the parliament, against my son, and meditating his assassination as well as that of his son and daughter. i alone was to have been let live. that des ursins must have the devil in her to have stirred up pompadour against my son. he is not any very great personage; but his wife is a daughter of the duc de navailles, who was my son's governor. madame de pompadour was the governess of the young duc d'alencon, the son of madame de berri. as to the abbe brigaut, i know him very well. madame de ventadour was his godmother, and he was baptized at the same time with the first dauphin, when he received the name of tillio. he has talent, but he is an intriguer and a knave. he pretended at first to be very devout, and was appointed pere de l'oratoire; but, getting tired of this life, he took up the trade of catering for the vices of the court, and afterwards became the secretary and factotum of madame du maine, for whom he used to assist in all the libels and pasquinades which were written against my son. it would be difficult to say which prated most, he or pompadour. madame d'orleans has great influence over my son. he loves all his children, but particularly his eldest daughter. while still a child, she fell dangerously ill, and was given over by her physicians. my son was in deep affliction at this, and resolved to attempt her cure by treating her in his own way, which succeeded so well that he saved her life, and from that moment has loved her better than all his other children. ............................ the abbe dubois has an insinuating manner towards every one; but more particularly towards those of whom he had the care in their childhood. two germans were implicated in the conspiracy; but i am only surprised at one of them, the brigadier sandrazky, who was with me daily, and in whose behalf i have often spoken, because his father served my brother as commandant at frankendahl; he died in the present year. the other is the count schlieben, who has only one arm. i am not astonished at him; for, in the first place, i know how he lost his arm; and, in the second, he is a friend and servant of the princesse des ursins: they expect to take him at lyons. sandrazky was at my toilette the day before yesterday; as he looked melancholy, i asked him what was the matter? he replied, "i am ill with vexation: i love my wife, who is an englishwoman, very tenderly, and she is no less fond of me; but, as we have not the means of keeping up an establishment, she must go into a convent. this distresses me so much that i am really very unwell." i was grieved to hear this, and resolved to solicit my son for him. my son sometimes does as is said in atys,--[the opera of atys, act ii., scene 3.]--"vous pourriez aimer et descendre moins bas;" for when jolis was his rival, he became attached to one of his daughter's 'filles de chambre', who hoped to marry jolis because he was rich; for this reason she received him better than my son, who, however, at last gained her favour. he afterwards took her away from his daughter, and had her taught to sing, for she had a fine voice. the printed letters of cellamara disclose the whole of the conspiracy. the abbe brigaut, too, it is said, begins to chatter about it. this affair has given me so much anxiety that i only sleep through mere exhaustion. my heart beats incessantly; but my son has not the least care about it. i beseech him, for god's sake, not to go about in coaches at night, and he promises me he will not; but he will no more keep that promise than he did when he made it to me before. it is now eight days since the duc du maine and his wife were arrested (29th december). she was at paris, and her husband at sceaux in his chateau. one of the four captains of the king's guard arrested the duchess, the duke was arrested only by a lieutenant of the body guard. the duchess was immediately taken to dijon and her husband to the fortress of doullens. i found madame d'orleans much more calm than i had expected. she was much grieved, and wept bitterly; but she said that, since her brother was convicted, she must confess he had done wrong; that he was, with his wife, the cause of his own misfortune, but that it was no less painful to her to know that her own brother had thus been plotting against her husband. his guilt was proved upon three points: first, in a paper under the hand of the spanish ambassador, the prince of cellamara, in which he imparted to alberoni that the duchesse and the duc du maine were at the head of the conspiracy; he tells him how many times he has seen them, by whose means, and in what place; then he says that he has given money to the duc du maine to bribe certain persons, and he mentions the sum. there are already two men in the bastille who confess to have received money, and others who have voluntarily stated that they conducted the ambassador to the duke and duchess, and negotiated everything between the parties. the greater part of their servants have been sent to the bastille. the princess is deeply afflicted; and, although the clearest proofs are given of her children's crime, she throws all the blame upon the duke, her grandson, who, she says, has accused them falsely, because he hates them, and she has refused to see him. the duchess is more moderate in her grief. the little princesse de conti heartily pities her sister and weeps copiously, but the elder princess does not trouble herself about her uncle and aunt. the cardinals cannot be arrested, but they may be exiled; therefore the cardinal de polignac has been ordered to retire to one of his abbeys and to remain there. it was love that turned his head. he was formerly a great friend of my son's, and he did not change until he became attached to that little hussy. magni [foucault de magni, introducteur des ambassadeurs, and son of a counsellor of state. duclos says he was a silly fellow, who never did but, one wise thing, which was to run away.] has not yet been taken; he flies from one convent to another. he stayed with the jesuits a long time. 1719 they say that the duchesse du maine used all her persuasions to induce her husband to fly; but that he replied, as neither of them had written anything with their own hands, nothing could be proved against them; while, by flying, they would confess their guilt. they did not consider that m. de pompadour could say enough to cause their arrest. the duchess's fraternal affection is a much stronger passion than her love for her children. a letter of alberoni's to the lame bastard has been intercepted, in which is the following passage: "as soon as you declare war in france spring all your mines at once." what enrages me is that madame d'orleans and the princess would still make one believe that the duc and duchesse du maine are totally innocent, although proofs of their guilt are daily appearing. the duchess came to me to beg i would procure an order for her daughter's people, that is, her dames d'honneur, her femmes de chambre, and her hair-dresser, to be sent to her. i could not help laughing, and i said, "mademoiselle de launay is an intriguer and one of the persons by whom the whole affair was conducted." but she replied, "the princess is at the bastille."--"i know it," i said; "and well she has deserved it." this almost offended the princess. the duchesse du maine said openly that she should never be happy until she had made an end of my son. when her mother reproached her with it, she did not deny it, but only replied, "one says things in a passion which one does not mean to do." although the plot has been discovered, the conspirators have not yet been all taken. my son says, jokingly, "i have hold of the monster's head and tail, but i have not yet got his body." i can guess how it happened that the mercantile letters stated my son to have been arrested; it is because the conspirators intended to have done so, and two days later it would have taken place. it must have been persons of this party, therefore, who wrote to england. when schlieben was seized, he said, "if monsieur the regent does not take pity upon me, i am ruined." he was for a long time at the spanish court, where he was protected by the princesse des ursins. he has some wit, can chatter well, and is an excellent spy for such a lady. the persons who had arrested him took him to paris by the diligence, without saying a word. on reaching paris the diligence was ordered to the bastille; the poor travellers not knowing why, were in a great fright, and expected all to be locked up, but were not a little pleased at being set free. sandrazky is not very clever; he is a silesian. he married an englishwoman, whose fortune he soon dissipated, for he is a great gambler. the duchesse du maine has fallen sick with rage, and that old maintenon is said to be afflicted by the affair more than any other person. it was by her fault that they fell into this scrape, for she put it into their heads that it was unjust they should not reign, and that the kingdom belonged as much to them as king solomon's did to him. madame d'orleans weeps for her brother by day and night. they tried to arrest the duc de saint-aignan at pampeluna; but he effected his escape with his wife, and in disguise. when they carried away the duc du maine, he said, "i shall soon return, for my innocence will be speedily manifested; but i only speak for myself, my wife may not come back quite so soon." madame d'orleans cannot believe that her brother has been engaged in a conspiracy; she says it must have been his wife who acted in his name. the princess, on the other hand, believes that her daughter is innocent, and that the duc du maine alone has carried on the plot. the factum is not badly drawn up. our priest can write well enough when he likes; he drew it up, and my son corrected it. the more the affair is examined, the more clearly does the guilt of the duke and duchess appear; for three days ago, malezieux, who is in the bastille, gave up his writing-desk. the first thing that was found in it was a projet, which malezieux had written at the duchess's bedside, and which cardinal de polignac had corrected with his own hand. malezieux pretends that it is a spanish letter, addressed to the duchess, and that he had translated it for her, with the assistance of the cardinal de polignac; and yet the letters of alberoni to the prince de cellamara refer so directly to this projet that it is easy to see that they spring from the same source. the duchesse du maine has made the princess believe that the duke (of bourbon) was the cause of all this business, so that now he dare not appear before the latter, although he has always behaved with great respect and friendship towards her; while the duc and duchesse du maine, on the contrary, have been engaged in a law-suit against her for five years. it was not until after the princess had inherited the property of monsieur de vendome, that this worthy couple insinuated themselves into her good graces. the parliament is reconciled to my son, and has pronounced its decree, which is favourable to him, and which is another proof that the duc du maine had excited it against him. the jesuits have probably been also against my son; for all those who have declared against the constitution cannot be friendly to him; they have, however, kept so quiet that nothing can be brought against them. they are cunning old fellows. madame d'orleans begins to recover her spirits and to laugh again, particularly since i learn she has consulted the premier president and other persons, to know whether, upon my son's death, she would become the regent. they told her that could not be, but that the office would fall upon the duke. this answer is said to have been very unpalatable to her. if my son would have paid a price high enough to the cardinal de polignac, he would have betrayed them all. he is now consoling himself in his abbey with translating lucretius. the king of spain's manifesto, instead of injuring my son, has been useful to him, because it was too violent and partial. alberoni must needs be a brutal and an intemperate person. but how could a journeyman gardener know the language which ought to be addressed to crowned heads? several thousand copies of this manifesto have been transmitted to paris, addressed to all the persons in the court, to all the bishops, in short, to everybody; even to the parliament, which has taken the affair up very properly, from paris to bordeaux, as the decree shows. i thought it would have been better to burn this manifesto in the post-office instead of suffering it to be spread about; but my son said they should all be delivered, for the express purpose of discovering the feelings of the parties to whom they were addressed, and a register of them was kept at the post-office. those who were honest brought them of their own accord; the others kept them, and they are marked, without the public knowing anything about it. the manifesto is the work of malezieux and the cardinal de polignac. a pamphlet has been cried about the streets, entitled, "un arret contre les poules d'inde." upon looking at it, however, it seems to be a decree against the jesuits, who had lost a cause respecting a priory, of which they had taken possession. everybody bought it except the partisans of the constitution and of the spanish faction. my son is more fond of his daughters, legitimate and illegitimate, than his son. the duc and duchesse du maine rely upon nothing having been found in their writing; but mademoiselle de montauban and malezieux have written. in their name; and is not what pompadour has acknowledged voluntarily quite as satisfactory a proof as even their own writing? they have got the pieces of all the mischievous spanish letters written by the same hand, and corrected by that of the cardinal de polignac, so that there can be no doubt of his having composed them. a manifesto, too, has been found in malezieux's papers. it is well written, but not improved by the translation. malezieux pretends that he only translated it before it was sent hence to spain. mademoiselle de montauban and mademoiselle de launay, a person of some wit, who has kept up a correspondence with fontenelle, and who was 'femme de chambre' to the duchesse du maine, have both been sent to the bastille. the duc du maine now repents that he followed his wife's advice; but it seems that he only followed the worst part of it. the duchesse d'orleans has been for some days past persuading my son to go masked to a ball. she says that his daughter, the duchesse de berri, and i, make him pass for a coward by preventing him from going to balls and running about the town by night as he used to do before; and that he ought not to manifest the least symptom of fear. he replied that he knew he should give me great pain by doing so, and that the least he could do was to tranquillize my mind by living prudently. she then said that the duchesse de berri filled me with unfounded fears in order that she might have more frequent opportunities of being with him, and of governing him entirely. can the devil himself be worse than this bastard? it teaches me, however, that my son is not secure with her. i must do violence to myself that my suspicions may not be apparent. my son has not kept his word; he went to this ball, although he denies it. although it is well known that maintenon has had a hand in all these affairs, nothing can be said to her, for her name does not appear in any way. when my son is told of persons who hate him and who seek his life, he laughs and says, "they dare not; i am not so weak that i cannot defend myself." this makes me very angry. if the proofs against malezieux are not manifest, and if they do not put the rogue upon his trial, it will be because his crime is so closely connected with that of the duchesse du maine that, in order to convict him before the parliament, he must be confronted with her. besides, as the parliament is better disposed towards the duc and duchesse du maine than to my son, they might be acquitted and taken out of his hands, which would make them worse than they are now. for this reason it is that they are looking for proofs so clear that the parliament cannot refuse to pronounce upon them. the duc du maine writes thus to his sister: "they ought not to have put me in prison; but they ought to have stripped me and put me into petticoats for having been thus led by my wife;" and he wrote to madame de langeron that he enjoyed perfect repose, for which he thanked god; that he was glad to be no longer exposed to the contempt of his family; and that his sons ought to be happy to be no longer with him. the king of spain and alberoni have a personal hatred against my son, which is the work of the princesse des ursins. my son is naturally brave, and fears nothing: death is not at all terrible to him. on the 29th of march the young duc de richelieu was taken to the bastille: this caused a great number of tears to be shed, for he is universally loved. he had kept up a correspondence with alberoni, and had got his regiment placed at bayonne, together with that of his friend, m. de saillant, for the purpose of delivering the town to the spaniards. he went on wednesday last to the marquis de biron, and urged him to despatch him as promptly as possible to join his regiment at bayonne, and so prove the zeal which attached him to my son. his comrade, who passes for a coward and a sharper at play, has also been shut up in the bastille. [on the day that they were arrested, the regent said he had that in his pocket which would cut off four heads, if the duke had so many. --memoires de duclos.] the duc de richelieu had the portraits of his mistresses painted in all sorts of monastic habits: mademoiselle de charolais as a recollette nun, and it is said to be very like her. the marechales de villars and d'estrees are, it is said, painted as capuchin nuns. when the duc de richelieu was shown his letter to alberoni, he confessed all that concerned himself, but would not disclose his accomplices. nothing but billets-doux were found in his writing-case. alberoni in this affair trusted a man who had formerly been in his service, but who is now a spy of my son's. he brought alberoni's letter to the regent; who opened it, read it, had a copy made, resealed it, and sent it on to its destination. the young duc de richelieu answered it, but my son can make no use of this reply because the words in which it is written have a concealed sense. the princess has strongly urged my son to permit the duchesse du maine to quit dijon, under the pretext that the air was unwholesome for her. my son consented upon condition that she should be conducted in her own carriage, but under the escort of the king's guard, from dijon to chalons-sur-saone. here she thought she should enjoy comparative liberty, and that the town would be her prison: she was much astonished to find that she was as closely confined at chalons as at dijon. when she asked the reason for this rigour she was told that all was discovered, and that the prisoners had disclosed the particulars of the conspiracy. she was immediately struck with this; but recovering her self-possession, she said, "the duc de orleans thinks that i hate him; but if he would take my advice, i would counsel him better than any other person." my son's wife remains very tranquil. on the 17th of april a rascal was brought in who was near surprising my son in the bois de boulogne a year ago. he is a dismissed colonel; his name is la jonquiere. he had written to my son demanding enormous pensions and rewards; but meeting with a refusal, he went into spain, where he promised alberoni to carry off my son, and deliver him into his hands, dead or alive. he brought one hundred men with him, whom he put in ambuscade near paris. he missed my son only by a quarter of an hour in the bois de boulogne, which the latter had passed through in his way to la muette, where he went to dine with his daughter. la jonquiere having thus failed, retired in great vexation to the low countries, where he boasted that, although he had missed this once, he would take his measures so much better in future that people should soon hear of a great blow being struck. this was luckily repeated to my son, who had him arrested at liege. he sent a clever fellow to him, who caught him, and leading him out of the house where they were, he clapped a pistol to his throat, and threatened to shoot him on the spot if he did not go with him and without speaking a word. the rascal, overcome with terror, suffered himself to be taken to the boat, but when he saw that they were approaching the french territory he did not wish to go any further; he said he was ruined, and should be drawn and quartered. they bound him and carried him to the bastille. i have exhorted my son to take care of himself, and not to go out but in a carriage. he has promised that he will not, but i cannot trust him. the late monsieur was desirous that his son's wife should not be a coquette. this was not the particular which i so much disapproved of; but i wished the husband not to be informed of it, or that it should get abroad, which would have had no other effect than that of convincing my son that his wife had dishonoured him. i must never talk to my son about the conspiracy in the presence of madame d'orleans; it would be wounding her in the tenderest place; for all that concerns her brother is to her the law and the prophets. my son has so satisfactorily disproved the accusations of that old maintenon and the duc du maine, that the king has believed him, and, after a minute examination, has done my son justice. but madame d'orleans has not conducted herself well in this affair; she has spread by means of her creatures many calumnies against my son, and has even said that he wanted to poison her. by such means she has made her peace with old maintenon, who could not endure her before. i have often admired the patience with which my son suffers all this, when he knows it just as well as i do. if things had remained as madame de maintenon had arranged them at the death of the king, my son would only have been nominally regent, and the duc du maine would actually have enjoyed all the power. she thought because my son was in the habit of running after women a little that he would be afraid of the labour, and that he would be contented with the title and a large pension, leaving her and the duc du maine to have their own way. this was her plan, and she fancied that her calumnies had so far succeeded in making my son generally despised that no person would be found to espouse his cause. but my son was not so unwise as to suffer all this; he pleaded his cause so well to the parliament that the government was entrusted to him, and yet the old woman did not relinquish her hopes until my son had the duc du maine arrested; then she fainted. the pope's nuncio thrusts his nose into all the plots against my son; he may be a good priest, but he is nevertheless a wicked devil. on the 25th of april m. de laval, the duchesse de roquelaure's brother, was arrested. m. de pompadour has accused the duc de laval of acting in concert with the prince de cellamara, to whom, upon one occasion, he acted as coachman, and drove him to the duchesse du maine at the arsenal. this comte de laval is always sick and covered with wounds; he wears a plaster which reaches from ear to ear; he is lame, and often has his arm in a sling; nevertheless, he is full of intrigue, and is engaged night and day in writing against my son. madame de maintenon is said to have sent large sums of money into the provinces for the purpose of stirring up the people against my son; but, thank god, her plan has not succeeded. the old woman has spread about the report that my son poisoned all the members of the royal family who have died lately. she hired one of the king's physicians first to spread this report. if marechal, the king's surgeon, who was present at the opening of the bodies, had not stated that there was no appearance of poison, and confirmed that statement to the king, this infamous creature would have plunged my innocent son into a most deplorable situation. mademoiselle de charolais says that the affair of bayonne cannot be true, for that the duc de richelieu did not tell her of it, and he never concealed anything from her. she says, too, that she will not see my son, for his having put the duke into the bastille. the duke walks about on the top of the terrace at the bastille, with his hair dressed, and in an embroidered coat. all the ladies who pass stop their carriages to look at the pretty fellow. [this young man, says duclos, thought himself of some consequence when he was made a state prisoner, and endured his confinement with the same levity which he had always displayed in love, in business, or in war. the regent was much amused with him, and suffered him to have all he wanted-his valet de chambre, two footmen, music, cards, etc.; so that, although he was deprived of his liberty, he might be as licentious as ever.] madame d'orleans has been so little disposed to undertake her husband's defence in public, that she has pretended to believe the charges against him, although no person in the world knows better than she does that the whole is a lie. she sent to her brothers for a counter-poison, so that my son should not take her off by those means; and thus she reconciled maintenon, who was at enmity with her. i learnt this story during the year, and i do not know whether my son is aware of it. i would not say anything to him about it, for i did not wish to embroil man and wife. the abbe dubois--[madame probably means the duc du maine]--seems to think that we do not know how many times he went by night to madame de maintenon's, to help this fine affair. my son has been dissuaded from issuing the manifesto. madame d'orleans has at length quite regained her husband; and, following her advice, he goes about by night in a coach. on wednesday night he set off for anieres, where parabere has a house. he supped there, and, getting into his carriage again, after midnight, he put his foot into a hole and sprained it. i am very much afraid my son will be attacked by the small-pox. he eats heavy suppers; he is short and fat, and just one of those persons whom the disease generally attacks. the cardinal de noailles has been pestering my son in favour of the duc de richelieu; and as it cannot be positively proved that he addressed the letter to alberoni, they can do no more to him than banish him to conflans, after six months' imprisonment. mademoiselle de charolais procured some one to ask my son secretly by what means she could see the duc de richelieu, and speak with him, before he set off for conflans. [this must have been a joke of mademoiselle de charolais; for she had already, together with mademoiselle valois, paid the duke several visits in the bastille. when the duke was sent to conflans to the cardinal de noailles, he used to escape almost every night, and come to see his mistresses. it was this that determined the regent to send him to saint-germain en laye; but, soon afterwards, mademoiselle de valois obtained from her father a pardon for her lover.---memoirs de richelieu, tome iii., p. 171] my son replied, "that she had better speak to the cardinal de noailles; for as he was to conduct the duke to conflans, and keep him in his own house, he would know better than any other person how he might be spoken with." when she learnt that the duke had arrived at saint-germain, she hastened thither immediately. i never doubted for a moment that my son's marriage was in every respect unfortunate; but my advice was not listened to. if the union had been a good one, that old maintenon would not have insisted on it. nothing less than millions are talked of on all sides: my sun has made me also richer by adding 130,000 livres to my pension. by what we hear daily of the insurrection in bretagne, it seems that my son's enemies are more inveterate against him than ever. i do not know whether it is true, as has been said, that there was a conspiracy at rochelle, and that the governor intended to give up the place to the spaniards, but has fled; that ten officers were engaged in the plot, some of whom have been arrested, and the others have fled to spain. i always took the bishop of soissons for an honest man. i knew him when he was only an abbe, and the duchess of burgundy's almoner; but the desire to obtain a cardinal's hat drives most of the bishops mad. there is not one of them who does not believe that the more impertinently he behaves to my son about the constitution, the more he will improve his credit with the court of rome, and the sooner become a cardinal. my son, although he is regent, never comes to see me, and never quits me, without kissing my hand before he embraces me; and he will not even take a chair if i hand it to him. he is not, however, at all timid, but chats familiarly with me, and we laugh and talk together like good friends. [illustration: the regent and his mother--166] while the dauphin was alive la chouin behaved very ill to my son; she embroiled him with the dauphin, and would neither speak to nor see him; in short, she was constantly opposed to him. and yet, when he learnt that she had fallen into poverty, he sent her money, and secured her a pension sufficient to live upon. my son gave me actions to the amount of two millions, which i distributed among my household. the king also took several millions for his own, household; all the royal family have had them; all the enfans and petits enfans de france, and the princes of the blood. [this may be stock the m. law floated in the mississippi company. d.w.] the old court is doing its utmost to put people, out of conceit with law's bank. i do not think that lord stair praises my son so much as he used to do, for they do not seem to be very good friends. after having received all kinds of civilities from my son, who has made him richer than ever he expected to be in his life, he has turned his back upon him, caused him numerous little troubles, and annoys him so much that my son would gladly be rid of him. my son was obliged to make a speech at the bank, which was applauded. 1720 they have been obliged to adopt severe measures in bretagne; four persons of quality have been beheaded. one of them, who might have escaped by flying to spain, would not go. when he was asked why, he said it had been predicted that he should die by sea (de la mer). just before he was executed he asked the headsman what his name was. "my name is sea (la mer)," replied the man. "then," said the nobleman, "i am undone." all paris has been mourning at the cursed decree which law has persuaded my son to make. i have received anonymous letters, stating that i have nothing to fear on my own account, but that my son shall be pursued with fire and sword; that the plan is laid and the affair determined on. from another quarter i have learnt that knives are sharpening for my son's assassination. the most dreadful news is daily reaching me. nothing could appease the discontent until, the parliament having assembled, two of its members were deputed to wait upon my son, who received them graciously, and, following their advice, annulled the decree, and so restored things to their former condition. this proceeding has not only quieted all paris, but has reconciled my son (thank god) to the parliament. my son wished by sending an embassy to give a public proof how much he wished for a reconciliation between the members of the royal family of england, but it was declined. the goldsmiths will work no longer, for they charge their goods at three times more than they are worth, on account of the bank-notes. i have often wished those bank-notes were in the depths of the infernal regions; they have given my son much more trouble than relief. i know not how many inconveniences they have caused him. nobody in france has a penny; but, saving your presence, and to speak in plain palatine, there is plenty of paper. .......................... it is singular enough that my son should only become so firmly attached to his black parabere, when she had preferred another and had formally dismissed him. excepting the affair with parabere, my son lives upon very good terms with his wife, who for her part cares very little about it; nothing is so near to her heart as her brother, the duc du maine. in a recent quarrel which she had with my son on this subject, she said she would retire to rambouillet or montmartre. "wherever you please," he replied; "or wherever you think you will be most comfortable." this vexed her so mach that she wept day and night about it. on the 17th of june, while i was at the carmelites, madame de chateau-thiers came to see me, and said to me, "m. de simiane is come from the palais royal; and he thinks it fit you should know that on your return you will find all the courts filled with the people who, although they do not say anything, will not disperse. at six o'clock this morning they brought in three dead bodies which m. le blanc has had removed. m. law has taken refuge in the palais royal: they have done him no harm; but his coach man was stoned as he returned, and the carriage broken to pieces. it was the coachman's fault, who told them 'they were a rabble, and ought to be hanged.'" i saw at once that it would not do to seem to be intimidated, so i ordered the coach to be driven to the palais royal. there was such a press of carriages that i was obliged to wait a full hour before i reached the rue saint-honore; then i heard the people talking: they did not say anything against my son; they gave me several benedictions, and demanded that law should be hanged. when i reached the palais royal all was calm again. my son came to me, and in the midst of my anxiety he was perfectly tranquil, and even made me laugh. m. le blanc went with great boldness into the midst of the irritated populace and harangued them. he had the bodies of the men who had been crushed to death in the crowd brought away, and succeeded in quieting them. my son is incapable of being serious and acting like a father with his children; he lives with them more like a brother than a father. the parliament not only opposed the edict, and would not allow it to pass, but also refused to give any opinion, and rejected the affair altogether. for this reason my son had a company of the footguard placed on sunday morning at the entrance of the palace to prevent their assembling; and, at the same time, he addressed a letter to the premier-president, and to the parliament a 'lettre-de-cachet', ordering them to repair to pontoise to hold their sittings. the next day, when the musketeers had relieved the guards, the young fellows, not knowing what to do to amuse themselves, resolved to play at a parliament. they elected a chief and other presidents, the king's ministers, and the advocates. these things being settled, and having received a sausage and a pie for breakfast, they pronounced a sentence, in which they condemned the sausage to be cooked and the pie to be cut up. all these things make me tremble for my son. i receive frequently anonymous letters full of dreadful menaces against him, assuring me that two hundred bottles of wine have been poisoned for him, and, if this should fail, that they will make use of a new artificial fire to burn him alive in the palais royal. it is too true that madame d'orleans loves her brother better than her husband. the duc du maine says that if, by his assistance, the king should obtain the direction of his own affairs, he would govern him entirely, and would be more a monarch than the king, and that after my son's death he would reign with his sister. a week ago i received letters in which they threatened to burn my son at the palais royal and me at saint cloud. lampoons are circulated in paris. my son has already slept several times at the tuileries, but i fear that the king will not be able to accustom himself to his ways, for my son could never in his life play with children: he does not like them. he was once beloved, but since the arrival of that cursed law he is hated more and more. not a week passes without my receiving by the post letters filled with frightful threats, in which my son is spoken of as a bad man and a tyrant. i have just now received a letter in which he is threatened with poison. when i showed it to him he did nothing but laugh, and said the persian poison could not be given to him, and that all that was said about it was a fable. to-morrow the parliament will return to paris, which will delight the parisians as much as the departure of law. that old maintenon has sent the duc du maine about to tell the members of the royal family that my son poisoned the dauphin, the dauphine, and the duc de berri. the old woman has even done more she has hinted to the duchess that she is not secure in her husband's house, and that she should ask her brother for a counter-poison, as she herself was obliged to do during the latter days of the king's life. the old woman lives very retired. no one can say that any imprudent expressions have escaped her. this makes me believe that she has some plan in her head, but i cannot guess what it is. section xi.--the duchesse d'orleans, wife of the regent. if, by shedding my own blood, i could have prevented my son's marriage, i would willingly have done so; but since the thing was done, i have had no other wish than to preserve harmony. monsieur behaved to her with great attention during the first month, but as soon as he suspected that she looked with too favourable an eye upon the chevalier du roye, [bartholemi de la rochefoucauld, at first chevalier de roye, but afterwards better known by the title of marquis de la rochefoucauld. he was captain of the duchesse de berri's body-guards, and he died in 1721.] he hated her as the devil. to prevent an explosion, i was obliged daily to represent to him that he would dishonour himself, as well as his son, by exposing her conduct, and would infallibly bring upon himself the king's displeasure. as no person had been less favourable to this marriage than i, he could not suspect but that i was moved, not from any love for my daughter-in-law, but from the wish to avoid scandal and out of affection to my son and the whole family. while all eclat was avoided, the public were at least in doubt about the matter; by an opposite proceeding their suspicions would have been confirmed. madame d'orleans looks older than she is; for she paints beyond all measure, so that she is often quite red. we frequently joke her on this subject, and she even laughs at it herself. her nose and cheeks are somewhat pendant, and her head shakes like an old woman: this is in consequence of the small-pox. she is often ill, and always has a fictitious malady in reserve. she has a true and a false spleen; whenever she complains, my son and i frequently rally her about it. i believe that all the indispositions and weaknesses she has proceed from her always lying in bed or on a sofa; she eats and drinks reclining, through mere idleness; she has not worn stays since the king's death; she never could bring herself to eat with the late king, her own father, still less would she with me. it would then be necessary for her to sit upon a stool, and she likes better to loll upon a sofa or sit in an arm-chair at a small table with her favourite, the duchess of sforza. she admits her son, and sometimes mademoiselle d'orleans. she is so indolent that she will not stir; she would like larks ready roasted to drop into her mouth; she eats and walks slowly, but eats enormously. it is impossible to be more idle than she is: she admits this herself; but she does not attempt to correct it: she goes to bed early that she may lie the longer. she never reads herself, but when she has the spleen she makes her women read her to sleep. her complexion is good, but less so than her second daughter's. she walks a little on one side, which madame de ratzenhausen calls walking by ear. she does not think that there is her equal in the world for beauty, wit, and perfection of all kinds. i always compare her to narcissus, who died of self-admiration. she is so vain as to think she has more sense than her husband, who has a great deal; while her notions are not in the slightest degree elevated. she lives much in the femme-de-chambre style; and, indeed, loves this society better than that of persons of birth. the ladies are often a week together without seeing her; for without being summoned they cannot approach her. she does not know how to live as the wife of a prince should, having been educated like the daughter of a citizen. a long time had elapsed before she and her younger brother were legitimated by the king; i do not know for what reason. [this legitimation presented great difficulties during the life of the marquis de montespan. m. achille de harlai, procureur-general du parliament, helped to remove them by having the chevalier de longueville, son of the duke of that name and of the marechale de la feste, recognized without naming his mother. this once done, the children of the king and of madame de montespan were legitimated in the same manner.] when they arrived at court their conversation was exactly like that of the common people. in my opinion my son's wife has no charms at all; her physiognomy does not please me. i don't know whether my son loves her much, but i know she does what she pleases with him. the populace and the femmes de chambre are fond of her; but she is not liked elsewhere. she often goes to the salut at the quinze vingts; and her women are ordered to say that. she is a saint, who suffers my son to be surrounded by mistresses without complaining. this secures the pity of the populace and makes her pass for one of the best of wives, while, in fact; she is, like her elder brother, full of artifice. she is very superstitious. some years ago a nun of fontevrault, called madame de boitar, died. whenever madame d'orleans loses anything she promises to this nun prayers for the redemption of her soul from purgatory, and then does not doubt that she shall find what she has lost. she piques herself upon being extremely pious; but does not consider lying and deceit are the works of the devil and not of god. ambition, pride and selfishness have entirely spoilt her. i fear she will not make a good end. that i may live in peace i seem to shut my eyes to these things. my son often, in allusion to her pride, calls her madame lucifer. she is not backward in believing everything complimentary that is said to her. montespan, old maintenon, and all the femmes de chambre have made her believe that she did my son honour in marrying him; and she is so vain of her own birth and that of her brothers and sisters that she will not hear a word said against them; she will not see any difference between legitimate and illegitimate children. she wishes to reign; but she knows nothing of true grandeur, having been educated in too low a manner. she might live well as a simple duchess; but not as one of the royal family of france. it is too true that she has always been ambitious of possessing, not my son's heart, but his power; she is always in fear lest some one else should govern him. her establishment is well regulated; my son has always let her be mistress in this particular. as to her children, i let them go on in their own way; they were brought here without my consent, and it is for others to take care of them. sometimes she displays more affection for her brother than even for her children. an ambitious woman as she is, having it put into her head by her brother that she ought to be the regent, can love none but him. she would like to see him regent better than her husband, because he has persuaded her that she shall reign with him; she believes it firmly, although every one else knows that his own wife is too ambitious to permit any one but herself to reign. besides her ambition she has a great deal of ill-temper. she will never pardon either the nun of chelles or mademoiselle de valois, because they did not like her nephew with the long lips. her anger is extremely bitter, and she will never forgive. she loves only her relations on the maternal side. madame de sforza, her favourite, is the daughter of madame de thianges, madame de montespan's sister, and therefore a cousin of madame d'orleans, who hates her sister and her nephew worse than the devil. i could forgive her all if she were not so treacherous. she flatters me when i am present, but behind my back she does all in her power to set the duchesse de berri against me; she tells her not to believe that i love her, but that i wish to have her sister with me. madame d'orleans believes that her daughter, madame de berri, loves her less than her father. it is true that the daughter has not a very warm attachment to her mother, but she does her duty to her; and yet the more they are full of mutual civilities the more they quarrel. on the 4th of october, 1718, madame de berri having invited her father to go and sleep at la muette, to see the vintage feast and dance which were to be held on the next day. madame d'orleans wrote to madame de berri, and asked her if she thought it consistent with the piety of the carmelites that she should ask her father to sleep in her house. madame de berri replied that it had never been thought otherwise than pious that a parent should sleep in his daughter's house. the mother did this only to annoy her husband and daughter, and when she chooses she has a very cutting way. it may be imagined how this letter was received by the father and daughter. i arrived at la muette just as it had come. my son dare not complain to me, for as often as he does, i say to him, "george dandin, you would have it so:"--[moliere]--he therefore only laughed and said nothing. i did not wish to add to the bitterness which this had occasioned, for that would have been to blow a fire already too hot; i confined myself, therefore, to observing that when she wrote it she probably had the spleen. she is not very fond of her children, and, as i think, she carries her indifference too far; for the children see she does not love them, and this makes them fond of being with me. this angers the mother, and she reproaches them for it, which only makes them like her less. although she loves her son, she does not in general care so much for her children as for her brothers, and all who belong to the house of mortemart. i was the unintentional cause of making a quarrel between her and the nun of chelles. at the commencement of the affair of the duc du maine, i received a letter from my daughter addressed to madame d'orleans; and not thinking that it was for the abbess, who bears the same title with her mother, i sent it to the latter. this letter happened, unluckily, to be an answer to one of our nun's, in which she had very plainly said what she thought of the duc and duchesse du maine, and ended by pitying her father for being the duke's brother-in-law, and for having contracted an alliance so absurd and injurious. it may be guessed whether my daughter's answer was palatable to my daughter-in-law. i am very sorry that i made the mistake; but what right had she to read a letter which was not meant for her? the new abbess of chelles has had a great difference with her mother, who says she will never forgive her for having agreed with her father to embrace the religious profession without her knowledge. the daughter said that, as her mother had always taken the side of the former abbess against her, she had not confided this secret to her, from a conviction that she would oppose it to please the abbess. this threw the mother into a paroxysm of grief. she said she was very unhappy both in her husband and her children; that her husband was the most unjust person in the world, for that he kept her brother-in-law in prison, who was one of the best and most pious of men--in short, a perfect saint; and that god would punish such wickedness. the daughter replied it was respect for her mother that kept her silent; and the latter became quite furious. this shows that she hates us like the very devil, and that she loves none but her lame brother, and those who love him or are nearly connected with him. she thinks there never was so perfect a being in the world as her mother. she cannot quite persuade herself that she was ever queen, because she knew the queen too well, who always called her daughter, and treated her better than her sisters; i cannot tell why, because she was not the most amiable of them. it is quite true that there is little sympathy between my son's wife and me; but we live together as politely as possible. her singular conduct shall never prevent me from keeping that promise which i made to the late king in his last moments. he gave some good christian exhortations to madame d'orleans; but, as the proverb says, it is useless to preach to those who have no heart to act. in the spring of this year (1718) her brothers and relations said that but for the antidotes which had been administered to madame d'orleans, without the knowledge of me or my son, she must have perished. i had resolved not to interfere with anything respecting this affair; but had the satisfaction of speaking my mind a little to madame du maine. i said to her: "niece" (by which appellation i always addressed her), "i beg you will let me know who told you that madame d'orleans had taken a counterpoison unknown to us. it is the greatest falsehood that ever was uttered, and you may say so from me to whoever told it you." she looked red, and said, "i never said it was so." "i am very glad of it, niece," i replied; "for it would be very disgraceful to you to have said so, and you ought not to allow people to bring you such tales." when she heard this she went off very quickly. madame d'orleans is a little inconstant in her friendship. she is very fond of jewels, and once wept for four-and-twenty hours because my son gave a pair of beautiful pendants to madame de berri. my son has this year (1719) increased his wife's income by 160,000 livres, the arrears of which have been paid to her from 1716, so that she received at once the sum of 480,000 livres. i do not envy her this money, but i cannot bear the idea that she is thus paid for her infidelity. one must, however, be silent. section xii.--marie-anne christine victoire of bavaria, the first dauphine. she was ugly, but her extreme politeness made her very agreeable. she loved the dauphin more like a son than a husband. although he loved her very well, he wished to live with her in an unceremonious manner, and she agreed to it to please him. i used often to laugh at her superstitious devotion, and undeceived her upon many of her strange opinions. she spoke italian very well, but her german was that of the peasants of the country. at first, when she and bessola were talking together, i could not understand a word. she always manifested the greatest friendship and confidence in me to the end of her days. she was not haughty, but as it had become the custom to blame everything she did, she was somewhat disdainful. she had a favourite called bessola--a false creature, who had sold her to maintenon. but for the infatuated liking she had for this woman, the dauphine would have been much happier. through her, however, she was made one of the most wretched women in the world. this bessola could not bear that the dauphine should speak to any person but herself: she was mercenary and jealous, and feared that the friendship of the dauphine for any one else would discredit her with maintenon, and that her mistress's liberality to others would diminish that which she hoped to experience herself. i told this person the truth once, as she deserved to be told, in the presence of the dauphine; from which period she has neither done nor said anything troublesome to me. i told the dauphine in plain german that it was a shame that she should submit to be governed by bessola to such a degree that she could not speak to whom she chose. i said this was not friendship, but a slavery, which was the derision of the court. instead of being vexed at this, she laughed, and said, "has not everybody some weakness? bessola is mine." this wench often put me in an ill-humour: at last i lost all patience, and could no longer restrain myself. i would often have told her what i thought, but that i saw it would really distress the poor dauphine: i therefore restrained myself, and said to her, "out of complaisance to you, i will be silent; but give such orders that bessola may not again rouse me, otherwise i cannot promise but that i may say something she will not like." the dauphine thanked me affectionately, and thus more than ever engaged my silence. when the dauphine arrived from bavaria, the fine court of france was on the decline: it was at the commencement of maintenon's reign, which spoilt and degraded everything. it was not, therefore, surprising that the poor dauphine should regret her own country. maintenon annoyed her immediately after her marriage in such a manner as must have excited pity. the dauphine had made her own marriage; she had hoped to be uncontrolled, and to become her own mistress; but she was placed in that maintenon's hands, who wanted to govern her like a child of seven years old, although she was nineteen. that old maintenon, piqued at the dauphine for wishing to hold a court, as she should have done, turned the king against her. bessola finished this work by betraying and selling her; and thus was the dauphine's misery accomplished! by selecting me for her friend, she filled up the cup of maintenon's hatred, who was paying bessola; because she knew she was jealous of me, and that i had advised the dauphine not to keep her, for i was quite aware that she had secret interviews with maintenon. that lady had also another creature in the dauphine's household: this was madame de montchevreuil, the gouvernante of the dauphine's filles d'honneur. madame de maintenon had engaged her to place the dauphin upon good terms with the filles d'honneur, and she finished by estranging him altogether from his wife. during her pregnancy, which, as well as her lying-in, was extremely painful, the dauphine could not go out; and this montchevreuil took advantage of the opportunity thus afforded her to introduce the filles d'honneur to the dauphin to hunt and game with him. he became fond, in his way, of the sister of la force, who was afterwards compelled to marry young du roure. the attachment continued, notwithstanding this marriage; and she procured the dauphin's written promise to marry her in case of the death of the dauphine and her husband. i do not know how the late king became acquainted with this fact; but it is certain that he was seriously angered at it, and that he banished du roure to gascony, his native country. the dauphin had an affair of gallantry with another of his wife's filles d'honneur called rambures. he did not affect any dissimulation with his wife; a great uproar ensued; and that wicked bessola, following the directions of old maintenon, who planned everything, detached the dauphin from his wife more and more. the latter was not very fond of him; but what displeased her in his amours was that they exposed her to be openly and constantly ridiculed and insulted. montchevreuil made her pay attention to all that passed, and bessola kept up her anger against her husband. maintenon had caused it to be reported among the people by her agents that the dauphine hated france, and that she urged the imposition of new taxes. the dauphine was so ill-treated in her accouchement of the duc de berri that she became quite deformed, although previous to this her figure had been remarkably good. on the evening before she died, as the little duke was sitting on her bed, she said to him, "my dear berri, i love you very much, but i have paid dearly for you." the dauphin was not grieved at her death; old montchevreuil had told him so many lies of his wife that he could not love her. that old maintenon hoped, when this event happened, that she should be able to govern the duke by means of his mistresses, which could not have been if he had continued to be attached to his wife. this old woman had conceived so violent a hatred against the poor princess, that i do believe she prevailed on clement, the accoucheur, to treat her ill in her confinement; and what confirms me in this is that she almost killed her by visiting her at that time in perfumed gloves. she said it was i who wore them, which was untrue. i would not swear that the dauphine did not love bessola better than her husband; she deserved no such attachment. i often apprised her mistress of her perfidy, but she would not believe me. the dauphine used to say, "we are two unhappy persons, but there is this difference between us: you endeavoured, as much as you could, to avoid coming here; while i resolved to do so at all events. i have therefore deserved my misery more than you." they wanted to make her pass for crazy, because she was always complaining. some hours before her death she said to me, "i shall convince them to-day that i was not mad in complaining of my sufferings." she died calmly and easily; but she was as much put to death as if she had been killed by a pistol-shot. when her funeral service was performed i carried the taper (nota bene) and some pieces of gold to the bishop who performed the grand mass, and who was sitting in an arm-chair near the altar. the prelate intended to have given them to his assistants, the priests of the king's chapel; but the monks of saint denis ran to him with great eagerness, exclaiming that the taper and the gold belonged to them. they threw themselves upon the bishop, whose chair began to totter, and made his mitre fall from his head. if i had stayed there a moment longer the bishop, with all the monks, would have fallen upon me. i descended the four steps of the altar in great haste, for i was nimble enough at that time, and looked on the battle at a distance, which appeared so comical that i could not but laugh, and everybody present did the same. that wicked bessola, who had tormented the dauphine day and night, and had made her distrust every one who approached her, and thus separated her from all the world, returned home a year after her mistress's death. before her departure she played another trick by having a box made with a double bottom, in which she concealed jewels and ready money to the amount of 100,000 francs; and all this time she went about weeping and complaining that, after so many years of faithful service, she was dismissed as poor as a beggar. she did not know that her contrivance had been discovered at the customhouse and that the king had been apprised of it. he ordered her to be sent for, showed her the things which she had prepared to carry away, and said he thought she had little reason to complain of the dauphine's parsimony. it may be imagined how foolish she looked. the king added that, although he might withhold them from her, yet to show her that she had done wrong in acting clandestinely, and in complaining as she had done, he chose to restore her the whole. section xiii.--adelaide of savoy, the second dauphine. the queen of spain stayed longer with her mother than our dauphine, and therefore was better educated. maintenon, who understood nothing about education, permitted her to do whatever she pleased, that she might gain her affections and keep her to herself. this young lady had been well brought up by her virtuous mother; she was genteel and humorous, and could joke very pleasantly: when she had a colour she did not look ugly. no one can imagine what mad-headed people were about this princess, and among the number was the marechale d'estrees. maintenon was very properly recompensed for having given her these companions; for the consequence was that the dauphine no longer liked her society. maintenon was very desirous to know the reason of this, and teased the princess to tell her. at length she did; and said that the marechale d'estrees was continually asking her, "what are you always doing with that old woman? why do you not associate with folks who would amuse you more than that old skeleton?" and that she said many other uncivil things of her. maintenon told me this herself, since the death of the dauphine, to prove that it was only the marechale's fault that the dauphine had been on such bad terms with me. this may be partly true; but it is no less certain that maintenon had strongly prepossessed her against me. almost all the foolish people who were about her were relations or friends of the old woman; and it was by her order that they endeavoured to amuse her and employ her, so that she might want no other society. the young dauphine was full of pantomime tricks. * * * * she was fond, too, of collecting a quantity of young persons about her for the king's amusement, who liked to see their sports; they, however, took care never to display any but innocent diversions before him: he did not learn the rest until after her death. the dauphine used to call old maintenon her aunt, but only in jest; the fines d'honneur called her their gouvernante, and the marechale de la mothe, mamma; if the dauphine had also called the old woman her mamma, it would have been regarded as a declaration of the king's marriage; for this reason she only called her aunt. it is not surprising that the dauphine, even when she was duchess of burgundy, should have been a coquette. one of maintenon's maxims was that there was no harm in coquetry, but that a grande passion only was a sin. in the second place, she never took care that the duchess of burgundy behaved conformably to her rank; she was often left quite alone in her chateau with the exception of her people; she was permitted to run about arm-in-arm with one of her young ladies, without esquires, or dames d'honneur or d'atour. at marly and versailles she was obliged to go to chapel on foot and without her stays, and seat herself near the femmes de chambre. at madame de maintenon's there was no observance of ranks; every one sat down there promiscuously; she did this for the purpose of avoiding all discussion respecting her own rank. at marly the dauphine used to run about the garden at night with the young people until two or three o'clock in the morning. the king knew nothing of these nocturnal sports. maintenon had forbidden the duchesse de lude to tease the duchess of burgundy, or to put her out of temper, because then she would not be able to divert the king. maintenon had threatened, too, with her eternal vengeance whoever should be bold enough to complain of the dauphine to the king. it was for this reason that no one dared tell the king what the whole court and even strangers were perfectly well acquainted with. the dauphine liked to be dragged along the ground by valets, who held her feet. these servants were in the habit of saying to each other, "come, shall we go and play with the duchess of burgundy?" for so she was at this time. she was dreadfully nasty, ............................. she made the dauphin believe whatever she chose, and he was so fond of her that one of her glances would throw him into an ecstacy and make him forget everything. when the king intended to scold her she would put on an air of such deep dejection that he was obliged to console her instead; the aunt, too, used to affect similar sorrow, so that the king had enough to do with consoling them both. then, for quietness' sake, he used to lean upon the old aunt, and think nothing more about the matter. the dauphine never cared for the duc de richelieu, although he boasted of the contrary, and was sent to the bastille for it. she was a coquette, and chatted with all the young men; but if she loved any of them it was nangis, who commanded the king's regiment. she had commanded him to pretend to be in love with little la vrilliere, who, though not so pretty nor with so good a presence as the dauphine, had a better figure and was a great coquette. this badinage, it is said, afterwards became reality. the good dauphin was like the husbands of all frail wives, the last to perceive it. the duke of burgundy never imagined that his wife thought of nangis, although it was visible to all the world besides that she did. as he was very much attached to nangis, he believed firmly that his wife only behaved civilly to him on his account; and he was besides convinced that his favourite had at the same time an affair of gallantry with madame la vrilliere. the dauphin had good sense, but he suffered his wife to govern him; he loved only such persons as she loved, and he hated all who were disagreeable to her. it was for this reason that nangia enjoyed so much of his favour, that he, with all his sense, became so perfectly ridiculous. the dauphine of burgundy was the person whom the king loved above all others, and whom maintenon had taught to do whatever was agreeable to him. her natural wit made her soon learn and practise everything. the king was inconsolable for her death; and when la maintenon saw that all she could say had no effect upon his grief, it is said that she told the king all that she had before concealed with respect to the dauphine's life, and by this means dissipated his great affliction. [this young lady, so fascinating and so dear to the king, betrayed, nevertheless, the secrets of the state by informing her father, then duke of savoy, and our enemy, of all the military projects which she found means to read. the king had the proofs of this by the letters which were found in the princess's writing case after her death. "that little slut," said he to madame maintenon, "has deceived us." memoires de duclos, tome i.] three years before her death, however, the dauphine changed greatly for the better; she played no more foolish tricks, and left off drinking to excess. instead of that untameable manner which she had before, she became polite and sensible, kept up her dignity, and did not permit the younger ladies to be too familiar with her, by dipping their fingers into her dish, rolling upon the bed, and other similar elegancies. she used to converse with people, and could talk very well. it was the marriage of madame de berri that effected this surprising change in the dauphine. seeing that young lady did not make herself beloved, and began things in the wrong way, she was desirous to make herself more liked and esteemed than she was. she therefore changed her behaviour entirely; she became reserved and reasonable, and, having sense enough to discover her defects, she set about correcting them, in which she succeeded so as to excite general surprise. thus she continued until her death, and often expressed regret that she had led so irregular a life. she used to excuse herself by saying it was mere childishness, and that she had little to thank those young ladies for who had given her such bad advice and set her such bad examples. she publicly manifested her contempt for them, and prevailed on the king not to invite them to marly in future. by this conduct she gained everybody's affection. she was delicate and of rather a weak constitution. dr. chirac said in her last illness that she would recover; and so she probably would have done if they had not permitted her to get up when the measles had broken out upon her, and she was in a copious perspiration. had they not blooded her in the foot she might have been alive now (1716). immediately after the bleeding, her skin, before as red as fire, changed to the paleness of death, and she became very ill. when they were lifting her out of bed i told them it was better to let the perspiration subside before they blooded her. chirac and fagon, however, were obstinate and laughed at me. old maintenon said to me angrily, "do you think you know better than all these medical men?" "no, madame," i replied; "and one need not know much to be sure that the inclination of nature ought to be followed; and since that has displayed itself it would be better to let it have way, than to make a sick person get up in the midst of a perspiration to be blooded." she shrugged up her shoulders ironically. i went to the other side and said nothing. section xiv.--the first dauphin. all that was good in the first dauphin came from his preceptor; all that was bad from himself. he never either loved or hated any one much, and yet he was very wicked. his greatest pleasure was to do something to vex a person; and immediately afterwards, if he could do something very pleasing to the same person, he would set about it with great willingness. in every respect he was of the strangest temper possible: when one thought he was good-humoured, he was angry; and when one supposed him to be ill-humoured, he was in an amiable mood. no one could ever guess him rightly, and i do not believe that his like ever was or ever will be born. it cannot be said that he had much wit; but still less was he a fool. nobody was ever more prompt to seize the ridiculous points of anything in himself or in others; he told stories agreeably; he was a keen observer, and dreaded nothing so much as to be one day king: not so much from affection for his father, as from a dread of the trouble of reigning, for he was so extremely idle that he neglected all things; and he would have preferred his ease to all the kingdoms and empires of the earth. he could remain for a whole day, sitting on a sofa or in an arm-chair, beating his cane against his shoes, without saying a word; he never gave an opinion upon any subject; but when once, in the course of the year, he did speak, he could express himself in terms sufficiently noble. sometimes when he spoke one would say he was stupidity itself; at another time he would deliver himself with astonishing sense. at one time you would think he was the best prince in the world; at another he would do all he could to give people pain. nobody seemed to be so ill with him but he would take the trouble of making them laugh at the expense of those most dear to him. his maxim was, never to seem to like one man in the court better than another. he had a perfect horror of favourites, and yet he sought favour himself as much as the commonest courtier could do. he did not pride himself upon his politeness, and was enraged when any one penetrated his intentions. as i had known him from his infancy i could sometimes guess his meaning, which angered him excessively. he was not very fond of being treated respectfully; he liked better not to be put to any trouble. he was rather partial than just, as may be shown by the regulations he made as to the rank of my son's daughter. he never liked or hated any minister. he laughed often and heartily. he was a very obedient son, and never opposed the king's will in any way, and was more submissive to maintenon than any other person. those who say that he would have retired, if the king had declared his marriage with that old woman, did not know him; had he not an old mistress of his own, to whom he was believed to be privately married? what prevented maintenon from being declared queen was the wise reasons which the archbishop of cambray, m. de fenelon, urged to the king, and for which she persecuted that worthy man to the day of his death. if the dauphin had chosen, he might have enjoyed greater credit with his father. the king had offered him permission to go to the royal treasury to bestow what favours he chose upon the persons of his own court; and at the treasury orders were given that he should have whatever he asked for. the dauphin replied that it would give him so much trouble. he would never know anything about state affairs lest he should be obliged to attend the privy councils, and have no more time to hunt. some persons thought he did this from motives of policy and to make the king believe he had no ambition; but i am persuaded it was from nothing but indolence and laziness; he loved to live a slothful life, and to interfere with nothing. at the king of spain's departure our king wept a good deal; the dauphin also wept much, although he had never before manifested the least affection for his children. they were never seen in his apartment morning and evening. when he was not at the chase the dauphin passed his time with the great princesse de conti, and latterly with the duchess. one must have guessed that the children belonged to him, for he lived like a stranger among them. he never called them his sons, but the duke of burgundy, the duc d'anjou, the duc de berri; and they, in turn, always called him monseigneur. i lived upon a very good understanding with him for more than twenty years, and he had great confidence in me until the duchess got possession of him; then everything with regard to me was changed: and as, after my husband's death, i never went to the chase with the dauphin, i had no further relation with him, and he behaved as if he had never seen or known me. if he had been wise he would have preferred the society of the princesse de conti to that of the duchess, because the first, having a good heart, loved him for himself; while the other loved nothing in the world, and listened to nothing but her taste for pleasure, her interest, and her ambition. so that, provided she attained her ends, she cared little for the dauphin, who by his condescension for this princess gave a great proof of weakness. in general, his heart was not correct enough to discern what real friendship was; he loved only those who afforded him amusement, and despised all others. the duchess was very agreeable and had some pleasant notions; she was fond of eating, which was the very thing for the dauphin, because he found a good breakfast at her house every morning and a collation in the afternoon. the duchess's daughters were of the same character as their mother; so that the dauphin might be all the day in the company of gay people. he was strongly attached to his son's wife; but when she quarrelled with the duchess her father-in-law changed his opinion of her. what displeased him besides was that the duchess of burgundy married his younger son, the duc de berri, against his inclination. he was not wrong in that, because, although the marriage was to our advantage, i must confess that the dauphin was not even treated with decency in the business. neither of the two dauphins or the dauphines ever interested themselves much about their children. the king had them educated without consulting them, appointed all their servants, and was even displeased if they interfered with them in any way. the dauphin knows nothing of good breeding; he and his sons are perfect clowns. the women of la halle had a real passion for the first dauphin; they had been made to believe that he would take the part of the people of paris, in which there was not a word of truth. the people believed that he was better hearted than he was. he would not, in fact, have been wicked if the marechal d'uxelles, la chouin and montespan, with whom he was in his youth, as well as the duchess, had not spoiled him, and made him believe that malice was a proof of wit. he did not grieve more than a quarter of an hour at the death of his mother or of his wife; and when he wrapped himself up in his long mourning cloak he was ready to choke with laughter. he had followed his father's example in taking an ugly, nasty mistress, who had been fille d'honneur to the elder princess de conti: her name is mademoiselle de chouin, and she is still living at paris (1719). it was generally believed that he had married her clandestinely; but i would lay a wager he never did. she had the figure of a duenna; was of very small stature; had very short legs; large rolling eyes; a round face; a short turned-up nose; a large mouth filled with decayed teeth, which made her breath so bad that the room in which she sat could hardly be endured. ......................... and yet this short, fat woman had a great deal of wit; and i believe the dauphin accustomed himself to take snuff that he might not be annoyed by her bad teeth. he was very civil to the marechal d'uxelles, because he pretended to be the intimate with this lady; but as soon as the dauphin was caught, the marechal ceased to see her, and never once set foot in her house, although before that he had been in the habit of visiting her daily. the dauphin had a daughter by raisin the actress, but he would never acknowledge her, and after his death the princess conti took care of her, and married her to a gentleman of vaugourg. the dauphin was so tired of the duc du maine that he had sworn never to acknowledge any of his illegitimate children. this raisin must have had very peculiar charms to make an impression upon a heart so thick as that of the dauphin, who really loved her. one day he sent for her to choisy, and hid her in a mill without anything to eat or drink; for it was a fast day, and the dauphin thought there was no greater sin than to eat meat on a fast day. after the court had departed, all that he gave her for supper was some salad and toast with oil. raisin laughed at this very much herself, and told several persons of it. when i heard of it i asked the dauphin what he meant by making his mistress fast in this manner. "i had a mind," he said, "to commit one sin, but not two." i cannot bear that any one should touch me behind; it makes me so angry that i do not know what i do. i was very near giving the dauphin a blow one day, for he had a wicked trick of coming behind one for a joke, and putting his fist in the chair just where one was going to sit down. i begged him, for god's sake, to leave off this habit, which was so disagreeable to me that i would not answer for not one day giving him a sound blow, without thinking of what i was doing. from that time he left me alone. the dauphin was very much like the queen; he was not tall, but good-looking enough. our king was accustomed to say: "monseigneur (for so he always called him) has the look of a german prince." he had, indeed, something of a german air; but it was only the air; for he had nothing german besides. he did not dance well. the queen-dowager of spain flattered herself with the hope of marrying him. he thought he should recommend himself to the king by not appearing to care what became of his brothers. when the dauphin was lying sick of the small-pox, i went on the wednesday to the king. he said to me, sarcastically, "you have been frightening us with the great pain which monseigneur would have to endure when the suppuration commences; but i can tell you that he will not suffer at all, for the pustules have already begun to dry." i was alarmed at this, and said, "so much the worse; if he is not in pain his state is the more dangerous, and he soon will be." "what!" said the king, "do you know better than the doctors?" "i know," i replied, "what the small-pox is by my own experience, which is better than all the doctors; but i hope from my heart that i may be mistaken." on the same night, soon after midnight, the dauphin died. section xv.--the duke of burgundy, the second dauphin. he was quite humpbacked. i think this proceeded from his having been made to carry a bar of iron for the purpose of keeping himself upright, but the weight and inconvenience of which had had a contrary effect. i often said to the duke de beauvilliers he had very good parts, and was sincerely pious, but so weak as to let his wife rule him like a child. in spite of his good sense, she made him believe whatever she chose. she lived upon very good terms with him, but was not outrageously fond, and did not love him better than many other persons; for the good gentleman had a very disagreeable person, and his face was not the most beautiful. i believe, however, she was touched with his great affection for her; and indeed it would be impossible for a man to entertain a more fervent passion than he did for his wife. her wit was agreeable, and she could be very pleasant when she chose: her gaiety dissipated the melancholy which sometimes seized upon the devout dauphin. like almost all humpbacked men, he had a great passion for women; but at the same time was so pious that he feared he committed a grievous sin in looking at any other than his own wife; and he was truly in love with her. i saw him once, when a lady had told him that he had good eyes, squint immediately that he might appear ugly. this was really an unnecessary trouble; for the good man was already sufficiently plain, having a very ill-looking mouth, a sickly appearance, small stature, and a hump at his back. he had many good qualities: he was charitable, and had assisted several officers unknown to any one. he certainly died of grief for the loss of his wife, as he had predicted. a learned astrologer of turin, having cast the nativity of the dauphine, told her that she would die in her twenty-seventh year. she often spoke of it, and said one day to her husband, "the time is approaching when i shall die; you cannot remain without a wife as well on account of your rank as your piety; tell me, then, i beg of you, whom you will marry?" "i hope," he replied, "that god will not inflict so severe a punishment on me as to deprive me of you; but if this calamity should befall me, i shall not marry again, for i shall follow you to the grave in a week." this happened exactly as he said it would; for, on the seventh day after his wife's death, he died also. this is not a fiction, but perfectly true. while the dauphine was in good health and spirits she often said, "i must enjoy myself now. i shall not be able to do so long, for i shall die this year." i thought it was only a joke, but it turned out to be too true. when she fell sick she said she should never recover. section xvi.--petite madame. a cautery which had been improperly made in the nape of the neck had drawn her mouth all on one side, so that it was almost entirely in her left cheek. for this reason talking was very painful to her, and she said very little. it was necessary to be accustomed to her way of speaking to understand her. just when she was about to die her mouth resumed its proper place, and she did not seem at all ugly. i was present at her death. she did not say a word to her father, although a convulsion had restored her mouth. the king, who had a good heart and was very fond of his children, wept excessively and made me weep also. the queen was not present, for, being pregnant, they would not let her come. it is totally false that the queen was delivered of a black child. the late monsieur, who was present, said that the young princess was ugly, but not black. the people cannot be persuaded that the child is not still alive, and say that it is in a convent at moret, near fontainebleau. it is, however, quite certain that the ugly child is dead, for all the court saw it die. etext editor's bookmarks: always has a fictitious malady in reserve i had a mind, he said, to commit one sin, but not two i wished the husband not to be informed of it old maintenon provided they are talked of, they are satisfied that what he called love was mere debauchery memoirs of madame la marquise de montespan written by herself being the historic memoirs of the court of louis xiv. book 6. chapter xix. the court travels in picardy and flanders.--the boudoir navy.--madame de montespan is not invited.--the king relates to her the delights of the journey.--reflections of the marquise. the king, consoled as he was for the death of the duchesse de fontanges, did not, on that account, return to that sweet and agreeable intimacy which had united us for the space of eleven or twelve years. he approached me as one comes to see a person of one's acquaintance, and it was more than obvious that his only bond with me was his children. being a man who loved pomp and show, he resolved upon a journey in flanders,--a journey destined to furnish him, as well as his court, with numerous and agreeable distractions, and to give fresh alarm to his neighbours. those "chambers of reunion," as they were called, established at metz and at brisach, competed with each other in despoiling roundly a host of great proprietors, under the pretext that their possessions had formerly belonged to alsace, and that this alsace had been ceded to us by the last treaties. the prince palatine of the rhine saw himself stripped, on this occasion, of the greater part of the land which he had inherited from his ancestors, and when he would present a memoir on this subject to the ministers, m. de croissy-colbert answered politely that he was in despair at being unable to decide the matter himself; but that the chambers of metz and brisach having been instituted to take cognisance of it, it was before these solemn tribunals that he must proceed. the palatine lost, amongst other things, the entire county of veldentz, which was joined to the church of the chapter of verdun. the king, followed by the queen and all his court,--by monsieur le dauphin, madame la dauphine and the legitimate princes, whom their households accompanied as well,--set out for flanders in the month of july. madame de maintenon, as lady in waiting, went on this journey; and of me, superintendent of the queen's council, they did not even speak. the first town at which this considerable court stopped was at boulogne, in picardy, the fortifications of which were being repaired. on the next day the king went on horseback to visit the port of ambleteuse; thence he set out for calais, following the line of the coast, while the ladies took the same course more rapidly. he inspected the harbours and diverted himself by taking a sail in a wherry. he then betook himself to dunkirk, where the marquis de seignelay--son of colbert--had made ready a very fine man-of-war with which to regale their majesties. the chevalier de ury, who commanded her, showed them all the handling of it, which was for those ladies, and for the court, a spectacle as pleasant as it was novel. the whole crew was very smart, and the vessel magnificently equipped. there was a sham fight, and then the vessel was boarded. the king took as much pleasure in this sight as if fontanges had been the heroine of the fete, and our ladies, to please him, made their hands sore in applauding. this naval fight terminated in a great feast, which left nothing to be desired in the matter of sumptuousness and delicacy. on the following day, there was a more formal fight between two frigates, which had also been prepared for this amusement. the king was in a galley as spectator; the queen was in another. the chevalier de lery took the helm of that of the king; the capitaine de selingue steered that of the queen. the sea was calm, and there was just enough wind to set the two frigates in motion. they cannonaded one another briskly for an hour, getting the weather gauge in turn; after this, the combat came to an end, and they returned to the town to the sound of instruments and the noise of cannon. the king gave large bounties to the crew, as a token of his satisfaction. the prince was on board his first vessel, when the earl of oxford, and the colonel, afterwards the duke of marlborough, despatched by the king of england, came to pay him a visit of compliment on behalf of that sovereign. the duke of villa-hermosa, spanish governor of the low countries, paid him the same compliment in the name of his master. both parties were given audience on this magnificent vessel, where m. de seignelay had raised a sort of throne of immense height. (all this time mademoiselle de fontanges lay in her coffin, recovering from her confinement.) from dunkirk the court moved to ypres, visiting all the places on the way, and arrived at lille in flanders on the 1st of august. from lille, where the diversions lasted five or six days, they moved to valenciennes, thence to condo, meeting everywhere with the same honours, the same tokens of gladness. they returned to sedan by le quenoy, bouchain, cambrai; and the end of the month of august found the court once more at versailles. i profited by this absence to go and breathe a little at my chateau of petit-bourg, where i was accompanied by mademoiselle de blois, and the young comte de toulouse; after which i betook myself to the mineral waters of bourbonne, for which i have a predilection. on my return, the king related to me all these frivolous diversions of frigates and vessels that i have just mentioned; but with as much fire as if he had been but eighteen years old, and with the same cordiality as if i might have taken part in amusements from which he had excluded me. how is it that a clever man can forget the proprieties to such a degree, and expose himself to the secret judgments which must be formed of him, in spite of himself and however reluctantly? chapter xx. the duchesse d'orleans.--the duchesse de richelieu.--an epigram of madame de maintenon.--an epigram of the king to his brother. madame la dauphine brought into the world a son, christened louis at the font, to whom the king a few moments afterwards gave the title of the duke of burgundy. we had become accustomed, little by little, to the face of this dauphine, who (thanks to the counsels and instruction of her lady in waiting) adopted french manners promptly enough, succeeded in doing her hair in a satisfactory manner, and in making an appearance which met with general approval. madame de maintenon, for all her politeness and forethought, never succeeded in pleasing her; and these two women, obliged to see each other often from their relative positions, suffered martyrdom when they met. the king, who had noticed it, began by resenting it from his daughter-in-law. the latter, proud and haughty, like all these petty german royalties, thought herself too great a lady to give way. madame de maintenon had, near the person of the young bavarian, two intermediaries of importance, who did not sing her praises from morn till eve. the one was that charlotte elizabeth of bavaria, whom i have already described to the life, who, furious at her personal monstrousness, could not as a rule forgive pretty women. the other was the duchesse de richelieu, maid of honour to the princess of bavaria, once the protector of madame scarron, and now her antagonist, probably out of jealousy. these two acid tongues had taken possession of the dauphine,--a character naturally prone to jealousy,--and they permitted themselves against the lady in waiting all the mockery and all the depreciation that one can permit oneself against the absent. insinuations and abuse produced their effect so thoroughly that madame de maintenon grew disgusted with the duties of her office, and with the consent of the monarch she no longer appeared at the house of his daughter-in-law, except on state and gala occasions. madame de richelieu related to me one day the annoyance and mortification of the new marquise. "madame d'orleans came in one day," said she to me, "to madame la dauphine, where madame de maintenon was. the princess of the palais royal, who does not put herself about, as every one knows, greeted only the dauphine and me. she spoke of her health, which is neither good nor bad, and pretended that her gowns were growing too large for her, in proof that she was going thin. 'i do not know,' she added, brusquely, 'what madame scarron does; she is always the same.' "the lady in waiting answered on the spot: 'madame, no one finds you changed, either, and it is always the same thing.' "the half-polite, half-bantering tone of madame de maintenon nonplussed the palatine for the moment; she wished to demand an explanation from the lady in waiting. she took up her muff, without making a courtesy, and retired very swiftly." "i am scarcely, fond of madame de maintenon," said i to madame de richelieu, "but i like her answer exceedingly. madame is one of those great hermaphrodite bodies which the two sexes recognise and repulse at the same time. she is an aggressive personage, whom her hideous face makes one associate naturally, with mastiffs; she is surly, like them, and, like them, she exposes herself to the blows of a stick. it makes very little difference to me if she hears from you the portrait i have just made of her; you can tell her, and i shall certainly not give you the lie." monsieur, having come some days afterwards to the king, complained of madame de maintenon, who, he said, had given offence to his wife. "you have just made a great mistake," said the king; "you who pride yourself on speaking your tongue so well, and i am going to put you right. this is how you ought rather to have expressed yourself: 'i complain of madame de maintenon, who, by ambiguous words, has given offence, or wished to give offence to my wife.'" monsieur made up his mind to laugh, and said no more of it. chapter xxi. the marquis de lauzun at liberty.--his conduct to his wife.--recovery of mademoiselle. mademoiselle, having by means of her donations to the duc du maine obtained, at first, the release, and subsequently the entire liberty of lauzun, wished to go to meet him and to receive him in a superb carriage with six horses. the king had her informed secretly that she should manage matters with more moderation; and the king only spoke so because he was better informed than any one of the ungrateful aversion of lauzun to mademoiselle. no one wished to open her eyes, for she had refused to see; time itself had to instruct her, and time, which wears wings, arrived at that result quickly enough. m. de lauzun was, beyond gainsaying, a man of feeling and courage, but he nourished in his heart a limitless ambition, and his head, subject to whims and caprices, would not suffer him to follow methodically a fixed plan of conduct. the king had just pardoned him as a favour to his cousin; but, knowing him well, he was not at all fond of him. they had disposed of his office of captain of the guards and of the other command of the 'becs de corbins'. it was decided that lauzun should not return to his employment; but his majesty charged monsieur colbert to make good to him the amount and to add to it the arrears. these different sums, added together, formed a capital of nine hundred and eighty thousand francs, which was paid at once in notes on the treasury, which were equal in value to ready cash. on news of this, he broke into the most violent rage possible; he was tempted to throw these notes into the fire. it was his offices which he wanted, and not these sums, with which he could do nothing. the king received him with an easy, kind air; he, always a flatterer with his lips, cast himself ten times on his knees before the prince, and gained nothing by all these demonstrations. he went to rejoin mademoiselle on the following day at choisy, and dared to scold her for having constructed and even bought this pretty pleasure-house. "this must have cost treasures," said he. "had you not parks and chateaus enough? it would have been better to keep all these sums and give them to me now." after this exordium, he set himself to criticise the coiffure of the queen, on account of the coloured knots that he had remarked in it. "but you mean, then, to satirise me personally," said the princess to him, "since you see my hair dressed in the same fashion, and i am older than my cousin! "what became of you on leaving the king?" she asked him. "i waited for you till two hours after midnight." "i went," said he, "to visit m. de louvois, who is not my friend, and who requires humouring; then to visit m. colbert, who favours me." "you ought to have seen madame de maintenon, i gave you that advice before leaving you," she said; "it is to her, above all, that you owe your liberty." "but your madame de maintenon," he resumed, "is she, too, one of the powers? ah, my god! what a new geography since i left these regions ten years ago!" to avoid tete-a-tete, m. de lauzun was always in a surly humour; he put his left arm into a sling; he never ceased talking of his rheumatism and his pains. mademoiselle learned, now from one person, now from another, that he was dining to-day with one fair lady, to-morrow with another, and the next day with a third. she finally understood that she was despised and tricked; she showed one last generosity (out of pride) towards her former friend,--solicited for him the title of duke, and begged him, for the future, to arrange his life to please himself, and to let her alone. the marquis de lauzun took her at her word, and never forgave her for the cession of the principalities of dombes and eu to m. le duc du maine; he wanted them for himself. chapter xxii. progress of madame de maintenon.--the anonymous letter. since the birth of mademoiselle de blois, and the death of mademoiselle de fontanges, the king hardly ever saw me except a few minutes ceremoniously,--a few minutes before and after supper. he showed himself always assiduous with madame de maintenon, who, by her animated and unflagging talk, had the very profitable secret of keeping him amused. although equally clever, i venture to flatter myself, in the art of manipulating speech, i could not stoop to such condescensions. you cannot easily divert when you have a heart and are sincere--a man who deserts you, who does not even take the trouble to acknowledge it and excuse himself. the marquise sailed, then, on the open sea, with all sail set; whilst my little barque did little more than tack about near the shore. one day i received the following letter; it was in a pleasant and careful handwriting, and orthography was observed with complete regularity, which suggested that a man had been its writer, or its editor: the person who writes these lines, madame la marquise, sees you but rarely, but is none the less attached to you. the advice which he is going to give you in writing he would have made it a duty to come and give you himself; he has been deterred by the fear either of appearing to you indiscreet, or of finding you too deeply engrossed with occupations, or with visitors, as is so often the case, in your own apartments. these visitors, this former affluence of greedy and interested hearts, you will soon see revealed and diminishing; probably your eyes, which are so alert, have already remarked this diminution. the monarch no longer loves you; coolness and inconstancy are maladies of the human heart. in the midst of the most splendid health, our king has for some time past experienced this malady. in your place, i should not wait to see myself repudiated. by whatever outward respect such an injunction be accompanied, the bottom of the cup is always the same, and the honey at the edge is but a weak palliative. being no ordinary woman by birth, do not terminate like an ordinary actress your splendid and magnificent role on this great stage. know how to leave before the audience is weary; while they can say, when they miss you from the scene, "she was still fine in her role. it is a pity!" since a new taste or new caprice of the monarch has led his affections away, know how to endure a fantasy which you have not the power to remove. despatch yourself with a good grace; and let the world believe that sober reflections have come to you, and that you return, of your own free will, into the paths of independence, of true glory, and of honour. your position of superintendent with the queen has been from the very first almost a sinecure. give up to madame de maintenon, or to any one else, a dignity which is of no use to you, for which you will be paid now its full value; which, later, is likely to cause you a sensible disappointment; for that is always sold at a loss which must be sold at a given moment. nature, so prodigal to you, madame la marquise, has not yet deflowered, nor recalled in the least degree, those graces and attractions which were lavished on you. retire with the honours of war. annoyance, vexation, irritation, do not make your veins flow with milk and honey; you would lose upon the field of battle all those treasures which it is in your power to save. adieu, madame. this communication, though anonymous, is none the less benevolent. i desire your peace and your happiness. chapter xxiii. madame de maintenon at loggerheads with madame de thianges.--the mint of the d'aubigne family.--creme de negresse, the elixir of long life.--ninon's secret for beauty.--the king would remain young or become so.--good-will of madame de maintenon. this letter was not, in my eyes, a masterpiece, but neither was it from a vulgar hand. for a moment i suspected madame de maintenon. she was named in it, it is true, as though by the way, but her interest in it was easy to discover, since the writer dared to try to induce me to sell her, to give up to her, my superintendence. i communicated my suspicions to the marquise de thianges. she said to me: "we must see her,--her face expresses her emotions very clearly; she is not good at lying; we shall easily extract her secret, and make her blush for her stratagem." ibrahim, faithful to his old friendship for me, had recently sent me stuffs of asia and essences of the seraglio, under the pretence of politeness and as a remembrance. i wrote two lines to the marquise, engaging her to come and sacrifice half an hour to me to admire with me these curiosities. suspecting nothing, she came to my apartments, when she accepted some perfumes, and found all these stuffs divine. my sister, madame de thianges, said to her: "madame, i do not wish to be the last to congratulate you on that boundless confidence and friendship that our queen accords you. assuredly, no one deserves more than you this feeling of preference; it appears that the princess is developing, and that, at last, she is taking a liking for choice conversation and for wit." "madame," answered the lady in waiting, "her majesty does not prefer me to any one here. you are badly informed. she has the goodness to accord to me a little confidence; and since she finds in me some facility in the spanish tongue, of which she wishes to remain the idolater all her life, she loves to speak that tongue with me, catching me up when i go wrong either in the pronunciation or the grammar, as she desires to be corrected herself when she commits some offence against our french." "you were born," added madame de thianges, "to work at the education of kings. it is true that few governesses or tutors are as amiable. there is a sound in your voice which goes straight to the heart; and what others teach rudely or monotonously, you teach musically and almost singing. since the queen loves your french and your spanish, everything has been said; you are indispensable to her. things being so, i dare to propose to you, madame, a third occupation, which will suit you better than anything else in the world, and which will complete the happiness of her majesty. "here is madame de montespan, who is growing disgusted with grandeur, after having recognised its emptiness, who is enthusiastically desiring to go and enjoy her house of saint joseph, and wishes to get rid of her superintendence forthwith, at any cost." "what!" said madame de maintenon. then to me, "you wish to sell your office without having first assured yourself whether it be pleasing to the king? it appears to me that you are not acting on this occasion with the caution with which you are generally credited." "what need has she of so many preliminary cautions," added the marquise, "if it is to you that she desires to sell it? her choice guarantees the consent of the princess; your name will make everything easy." "i reason quite otherwise, madame la marquise," replied the former governess of the princes; "the queen may have her ideas. it is right and fitting to find out first her intention and wishes." "madame, madame," said my sister then, "everything has been sufficiently considered, and even approved of. you will be the purchaser; you desire to buy, it is to you that one desires to sell." madame de maintenon began to laugh, and besought the marquise to believe that she had neither the desire nor the money for that object. "money," answered my sister, "will cause you no trouble on this occasion. money has been coined in pour family." [constant d'aubigne, father of madame de maintenon, in his wild youth, was said to have taken refuge in a den of comers.--ed. note] madame de maintenon, profoundly moved, said to the marquise: "i thought, madame, that i had come to see madame de montespan, to look at her stuffs from the seraglio, and not to receive insults. all your teasing affects me, because up to to-day i believed in your kindly feeling. it has been made clear to me now that i must put up with this loss; but, whatever be your injustice towards me, i will not depart from my customs or from my element. the superintendence of the queen's council is for sale, or it is not; either way, it is all the same to me. i have never made any claim to this office, and i never shall." these words, of which i perceived the sincerity, touched me. i made some trifling excuses to the lady in waiting, and, tired of all these insignificant mysteries, i went and took the anonymous letter from my bureau and showed it to the governess. she read it thoughtfully. after having read it, she assured me that this script was a riddle to her. madame de maintenon, on leaving us, made quite a deep courtesy to my sister, which caused me pain, preserving an icy gravity and exaggerating her salutation and her courtesy. when we were alone, i confessed to the marquise de thianges that her words had passed all bounds, and that she could have reached her end by other means. "i cannot endure that woman," she answered. "she knows that you have made her, that without you she would be languishing still in her little apartment in the maree; and when for more than a year she sees you neglected by the king and almost deserted, she abandons you to your destiny, and does not condescend to offer you any consolation. i have mortified her; i do not repent of it in the least, and every time that i come across her i shall permit myself that gratification. "what is she thinking of at her age; with her pretensions to a fine figure, an ethereal carriage, and beauty? and yet it must be admitted that her complexion is not made up. she has the sheen of the lily mingled with that of the rose, and her eyes exhibit a smiling vivacity which leaves our great coquettes of the day far behind!" "she is nature unadorned as far as her complexion goes, believe me," said i to my sister. "during my constant journeys she has always slept at my side, and her face at waking has always been as at noon and all day long. she related to us once at the marechale d'albret's, where i knew her, that at martinique--that distant country which was her cradle--an ancient negress, well preserved and robust, had been kind enough to take her into her dwelling. this woman led her one day into the woods. she stripped of its bark some shrub, after having sought it a long time. she grated this bark and mixed it with the juice of chosen herbs. she wrapped up all this concoction in half a banana skin, and gave the specific to the little d'aubigne. "this mess having no nasty taste, the little girl consented to return fifteen or twenty times into the grove, where her negress carefully composed and served up to her the same feast. "'why do you care to give me this green paste?' the young creole asked her one day. "the old woman said: 'my dear child, i cannot wait till you have enough sense to learn to understand these plants, for i love you as if you were my own daughter, and i want to leave you a secret which will cause you to live a long time. though i look as i do, i am 138 years old already. i am the oldest person in the colony, and this paste that i make for you has preserved my strength and my freshness. it will produce the same effect on my dear little girl, and will keep her young and pretty too for a long time.' "this negress, unhappily, fell asleep one day under a wild pear-tree in the savannah, and a crocodile came out of the river hard by and devoured her." "i have heard tell," replied my sister, "that mademoiselle d'aubigne, after the death of her mother, or husband, was bound by the ties of a close friendship with ninon de l'enclos, whose beauty made such a sensation among the gallants, and still occupies them. "one was assured, you know, that ninon possesses a potion, and that in her generosity to her friend, the fair indian, she lent her her phial of elixir." "no, no," said i to the marquise, "that piece of gallantry of ninon is only a myth; it is the composition of martinique, or of the negress, which is the real recipe of madame de maintenon. she talked of it one day, when i was present, in the king's carriage. his majesty said to her: 'i am astonished that, with your natural intelligence, you have not kept in your mind the nature of this indian shrub and herbs; with such a secret you would be able to-day to make many happy, and there are some kings, who, to grow young again, would give you half their empire.' "'i am not a worshipper of riches,' said this mistress of talk; 'bad kings might offer me all the treasures and crowns they liked, and i would not make them young again.' "'and me, madame,' said the prince, 'would you consent to make me young again?' "'you will not need it for a long time,' she replied, cleverly, with a smile; 'but when the moment comes, or is near, i should set about it with zeal.' "the whole carriage applauded this reply, and the king took the hand of the marquise and insisted on kissing it." chapter xxiv. the casket of m. de lauzun.--his historical gallery.--he makes some nuns.--m. de lauzun in the lottery.--the loser wins.--queen out of pique.--letter from the queen of portugal.--the ingratitude of m. de lauzun. twice during the captivity of m. de lauzun the queen of portugal had charged her ambassador to carry to the king that young sovereign's solicitations in favour of the disgraced gentleman. each time the negotiators had been answered with vague and ambiguous words; with those promises which potentates are not chary of, even between themselves, and which we poor mortals of the second rank call court holy water. these exertions of the court of lisbon were speedily discovered, and it then became known how many women of high degree m. de peguilain had the honour of fluttering. the officer of d'artagnan, who had the task of seizing his papers when he was arrested to be taken to pignerol, was obliged, in the course of his duty, to open a rather large casket, where he found the portraits of more than sixty women, of whom the greater number lived almost in the odour of sanctity. there were descriptive or biographical notes upon all these heroines, and correspondence to match. his majesty had cognisance of it, and forbade the publication of the names. but the marquis d'artagnan and his subordinate officer committed some almost inevitable indiscretions, and all these ladies found their names public property. several of them, who were either widows or young ladies, retired into convents, not daring to show their faces in the light of day. the queen of portugal, before this scandal, had passionately loved the marquis de lauzun. she was then called mademoiselle d'aumale, and her sister who was soon afterwards duchess of savoy was called at paris mademoiselle de nemours. these two princesses, after having exchanged confidences and confessions, were astonished and grieved to find themselves antagonists and rivals. happily they had a saving wit, both of them, and made a treaty of peace, by which it was recognised and agreed that, since their patrimony was small, it should be neither divided nor drawn upon, in order that it might make of m. de lauzun, when he came to marry, a rich man and a great lord. the two rivals, in the excess of their love, stipulated that this indivisible inheritance should be drawn for by lot, that the victorious number should have m. de lauzun thrown in, and that the losing number should go and bury herself in a convent. mademoiselle d'aumale--that is to say, the pretty blonde--won m. de lauzun; but he, being bizarre in his tastes, and who only had a fancy for the brunette (the less charming of the two), went and besought the king to refuse his consent. mademoiselle d'aumale thought of dying of grief and pique, and, as a consequence of her despair, listened to the proposals of the king of portugal, and consented to take a crown. the disgrace and imprisonment of her old friend having reached her ear, this princess gave him the honour of her tears, although she had two husbands alive. twice she had solicited his liberty, which was certainly not granted in answer to her prayers. when she learned of the release of the prisoner, she showed her joy publicly at it, in the middle of her court; wrote her congratulations upon it to mademoiselle, apparently to annoy her, and, a few days afterwards, indited with her own hand the letter you are going to read, addressed to the king, which was variously criticised. to his majesty the king of france. brother:--kings owe one another no account of their motives of action, especially when their authority falls heavily upon the officers of their own palace, till then invested with their confidence and overwhelmed with the tokens of their kindness. the disgrace of the marquis de lauzun can only appear in my eyes an act of justice, coming as it does from the justest of sovereigns. so i confined myself in the past to soliciting for this lord--gifted with all the talents, with bravery and merit--your majesty's pity and indulgence. he owed later the end of his suffering, not to my instances, but to your magnanimity. i rejoice at the change in his destiny, and i have charged my ambassador at your court to express my sincere participation in it. to-day, sire, i beg you to accept my thanks. m. de lauzun, so they assure me, has not been restored to his offices, and though still young, does not obtain employment in his country, where men of feeling and of talent are innumerable. allow us, sire, to summon this exceptional gentleman to my state, where french officers win easily the kindly feelings of my nobles, accustomed as they are to cherish all that is born in your illustrious empire. i will give m. de lauzun a command worthy of him, worthy of me,--a command that will enable him to render lasting and essential services to my crown and to yours. do not refuse me this favour, which does not at all impoverish your armies, and which may be of use to a kingdom of which you are the protector and the friend. accept, sire, etc. i did not see the answer which was vouchsafed to this singular letter; the king did not judge me worthy to enjoy such confidence that he had made no difficulty in granting to me formerly; but he confided in madame de maintenon, and even charged her to obtain the opinion of mademoiselle touching this matter, and mademoiselle, who never hid aught from me, brought the details of it to my country-house. this princess, now enlightened as to the falseness of monsieur de lauzun, entreated the king to give up this gentleman to the blond queen, or to give him a command himself. the marquis de lauzun, having learnt the steps taken by the queen of portugal, whom he had never been able to endure, grew violently angry, and said in twenty houses that he had not come out of one prison to throw himself into another. these were all the thanks the queen got for her efforts; and, like mademoiselle de montpensier, she detested, with all her soul, the man she had loved with all her heart. the marquis de lauzun was one of the handsomest men in the world; but his character spoiled everything. chapter xxv. the nephews, the nieces, the cousins and the brother of madame de maintenon.--the king's debut.--the marshal's silver staff. the family of madame de maintenon had not only neglected but despised her when she was poor and living on her pension of two thousand francs. since my protection and favour had brought her into contact with the sun that gives life to all things, and this radiant star had shed on-her his own proper rays and light, all her relatives in the direct, oblique, and collateral line had remembered her, and one saw no one but them in her antechambers, in her chamber, and at court. some of them were not examples of deportment and good breeding; they were gentlemen who had spent all their lives in little castles in angoumois and poitou, a kind of noble ploughmen, who had only their silver swords to distinguish them from their vine-growers and herds. others, to be just, honoured the new position of the marquise; and amongst those i must place first the marquis de langallerie and the two sons of the marquis de villette, his cousin, german. the abbe d'aubigne, whom she had discovered obscurely hidden among the priests of saint sulpice, she had herself presented to the king, who had discovered in him the air of an apostle, and then to pere de la chaise, who had hastened to make him archbishop of rouen, reserving for him 'in petto' the cardinal's hat, if the favour of the lady in waiting was maintained. among her lady relatives who had come from the provinces at the rumour of this favour, the marquise distinguished and exhibited with satisfaction the three mademoiselles de sainte hermine, the daughters of a villette, if i am not mistaken, and pretty and graceful all three of them. she had also brought to her court, and more particularly attached to her person, a very pretty child, only daughter of the marquis de villette, and sister, consequently, of the comte and of the chevalier de villette, whom i have previously mentioned. this swarm of nephews, cousins, and nieces garnished the armchairs and sofas of her chamber. they served as comrades and playfellows to the legitimate princes and as pages of honour to my daughter; and when the carriage of the marquise came into the country for her drives, the whole of this pretty colony formed a train and court for her,--a proof of her credit. the marquise had a brother, her elder by four or five years, to whom she was greatly attached, judging from what we heard her say, and to promote whom we saw her work from the very first. this brother, who was called le comte d'aubigne, lacked neither charm nor grace. he even assumed, when he wished, an excellent manner; but this cavalier, his own master from his childhood, knew no other law but his own pleasures and desires. he had made people talk about him in his earliest youth; he awoke the same buzz of scandal now that he was fifty. madame de maintenon, hoping to reform him, and wishing to constrain him to beget them an heir, made him consent to the bonds of marriage. she had just discovered a very pretty heiress of very good family, when he married secretly the daughter of a mere 'procureur du roi'. the lady in waiting, being unable to undo what had been done, submitted to this unequal alliance; and as her sister-in-law, ennobled by her husband, was none the less a countess, she, too, was presented. the young person, aged fifteen at the most, was naturally very bashful. when she found herself in this vast hall, between a double row of persons of importance, whose fixed gaze never left her, she forgot all the bows, all the elaborate courtesies,--in fine, all the difficult procedure of a formal presentation, that her sister-in-law and dancing-masters had been making her rehearse for twenty days past. the child lost her head, and burst into tears. the king took compassion on her, and despatched the comtesse de merinville to go and act as her guide or mistress. supported by this guardian angel, madame d'aubigne gained heart; she went through her pausing, her interrupted courtesies, to the end, and came in fairly good countenance to the king's chair, who smiled encouragement upon her. while these things were taking place in the gallery, madame de maintenon, in despair, her eyes full of tears, had to make an effort not to weep. with that wit of which she is so proud, she should have been the first to laugh at this piece of childishness, which was not particularly new. the embarrassment, the torture in which i saw her, filled me with a strong desire to laugh. it was noticed; it was held a crime; and his majesty himself was kind enough to scold me for it. "i felt the same embarrassment," he said to us, "the first time monsieur le cardinal desired to put me forward. it was a question of receiving an ambassador, and of making a short reply to his ceremonial address. i knew my reply by heart; it was not more than eight or ten lines at the most. i was repeating it every minute while at play, for five or six days. when it was necessary to perform in person before this throng, my childish memory was confused. all my part was forgotten in my fear, and i could only utter these words: 'your address, monsieur ambassadeur,--monsieur l'ambassadeur, your address.' my mother, the queen, grew very red, and was as confused as i was. but my godfather, the cardinal, finished this reply for me, which he had composed himself, and was pleased to see me out of the difficulty." this anecdote, evidently related to console the marquise, filled her with gratitude. they spoke of nothing else at versailles for two days; after which, madame la comtesse d'aubigne became, in her turn, a woman of experience, who judged the new debutantes severely, perhaps, every time that the occasion arose. the comte d'aubigne passed from an inferior government to a government of some importance. he made himself beloved by endorsing a thousand petitions destined for his sister, the monarch's friend; but his immoderate expenditure caused him to contract debts that his sister would only pay five or six times. the duc de vivonne, my brother, laughed at him in society; he unceasingly outraged by his clumsiness his sister's sense of discretion. one day, in a gaming-house, seeing the table covered with gold, the marshal exclaimed at the door: "i will wager that d'aubigne is here, and makes all this display; it is a magnificence worthy of him." "yes, truly," said the brother of the favourite; "i have received my silver staff, you see!" that was an uncouth impertinence, for assuredly m. de vivonne had not owed this dignity to my favour. the siege of candia, and a thousand other distinguished actions, in which he had immortalised himself, called him to this exalted position, which i dare to say he has even rendered illustrious. the comte d'aubigne's saying was no less successful on that account, and his sister, who did not approve at all of this scandalous scene, had the good sense to condemn her most ridiculous gamester, and to make excuses for him to my brother and me. chapter xxvi. political intrigue in hungary.--dignity of the king of the romans.--the good appearance of a german prince.--the turks at vienna.--the duc de lorraine.--the king of rome. whatever the conduct of the king may have been towards me, i do not write out of resentment or to avenge myself. but in the midst of the peace which the leisure that he has given me leaves me, i feel some satisfaction in inditing the memoirs of my life, which was attached to his so closely, and wish to relate with sincerity the things i have seen. what would be the use of memoirs from which sincerity were absent? whom could they inspire with a desire of reading them? the king was born profoundly ambitious. all the actions of his public life bore witness to it. it would be useless for him to rebut the charge; all his aims, all his political work, all his sieges, all his battles, all his bloody exploits prove it. he had robbed the emperor of an immense quantity of towns and territories in succession. the greatness of the house of austria irritated him. he had begun by weakening it in order to dominate it; and, in bringing it under his sway, he hoped to draw to himself the respect and submission of the germanic electoral body, and cause the imperial crown to pass to his house, as soon as the occasion should present itself. we had often heard him say: "monseigneur has all the good appearance of a german prince." this singular compliment, this praise, was not without motive. the king wished that this opinion and this portrait should go straight into germany, and create there a kind of naturalisation and adoption for his son. he had resolved to have him elected and proclaimed king of the romans, a dignity which opens, as one knows, the road to the imperial greatness. to attain this result, his majesty, seconded perfectly by his minister, louvois, employed the following means. by his order m. de louvois sent the comte de nointel to vienna, at the moment when that power was working to extend the twenty years' truce concluded by hungary with the sultan. the french envoy promised secretly his adhesion to the turks; and the latter, delighted at the intervention of the french, became so overbearing towards the imperial crown that that power was reduced to refusing too severe conditions. sustained by the insinuations and the promises of france, the sultan demanded that hungary should be left in the state in which it was in 1655; that henceforward that kingdom should pay him an annual tribute of fifty thousand florins; that the fortifications of leopoldstadt and gratz should be destroyed; that the chief of the revolted towns--nitria, eckof, the island of schutt, and the fort of murann, at tekelai--should be ceded; that there should be a general amnesty and restitution of their estates, dignities, offices, and privileges without restriction. by this the infidels would have found themselves masters of the whole of hungary, and would have been able to come to the very gates of vienna, without fear of military commanders or of the emperor. it was obvious that they were only seeking a pretext for a quarrel, and that at the suggestion of france, which was quite disposed to profit by the occasion. the sultan knew very little of our king. the latter had his army ready; his plan was to enter, or rather to fall upon, the imperial territories, when the consternation and the danger in them should be at their height; and then he counted on turning to his advantage the good-will of the german princes, who, to be extricated from their difficulty, would not fail to offer to himself, as liberator, the imperial crown, or, at least, the dignity of king of the romans and vicar of the empire to his son, monseigneur le dauphin. in effect, hostilities had hardly commenced on the part of the turks, hardly had their first successes, struck terror into the heart of the german empire, when the king, the real political author of these disasters, proposed to the german emperor to intervene suddenly, as auxiliary, and even to restore lorraine to him, and his new conquests, on condition that the dignity of the king of the romans should be bestowed on his son. france, this election once proclaimed, engaged herself to bring an army of 60,000 men, nominally of the king of the romans, into hungary, to drive out utterly the common enemy. german officers would be admitted, like french, into this roman army; and more, the king of france and the new king of the romans engaged themselves to set back the imperial frontiers on that side as far as belgrade, or weissembourg in greece. a powerful fleet was to appear in the mediterranean to support these operations; and the king, wishing to crown his generosity, offered to renounce forever the ancient possessions, and all the rights of charlemagne, his acknowledged forefather or ancestor. whilst these dreams of ambition were being seriously presented to the unhappy imperial court of vienna, the turks, to the number of 300,000 men, had swept across hungary like a torrent. they arrived before the capital of the empire of germany just at the moment when the court had left it. they immediately invested this panic-stricken town, and the inhabitants of vienna believed themselves lost. but the young duc de lorraine, our king's implacable enemy, had left the capital in the best condition and pitched outside vienna, in a position from which he could severely harass the besieging turks. he tormented them, he raided them, while he waited for the saving reinforcements which were to be brought up by the king of poland, and the natural allies of the empire. this succour arrived at last, and after four or five combats, well directed and most bloody, they threw the ottomans into disorder. the duc de lorraine immortalised himself during this brilliant campaign, which he finished by annihilating the turks near barkan. france had remained in a state of inaction in the midst of all these great events. i saw the discomfiture of our ministers and the king when the success of the imperialists reached them. but the time had passed when my affections and those of my master were akin. free from henceforth to follow the impulses of my conscience and of my sense of justice, i rejoiced sincerely at the great qualities of the poor duc de lorraine, and at the humiliation of the cruel turks, who had been so misled. the elective princes of the germanic empire once more rallied round their august head, and disavowed almost all their secret communications with the cabinet of versailles. the emperor, having escaped from these great perils, addressed some noble and touching complaints to our monarch; and monseigneur was not elected king of the romans,--a disappointment which he hardly noticed, and by which he was very little disturbed. chapter xxvii. the prince of orange.--the orange coach.--the bowls of oranges.--the orange blossoms.--the town of orange.--jesuits of orange.--revocation of the edict of nantes. the king, by the last peace, signed at nimegue, had engaged to restore the principality of orange to william, stadtholder and generalissimo of the dutch. this article was one of those which he had found most repugnant to him, for nothing can be compared with the profound aversion which the mere name inspired in the monarch. he pushed this hatred so far that, having one day noticed from the heights of his balcony a superb new equipage, of which the body was painted with orange-coloured varnish, he sent and asked the name of the owner; and, on their reporting to him that this coach belonged to a provincial intendant, a relative of the chancellor, his majesty said, the same evening, to the magistrate-minister: "your relative ought to show more discretion in the choice of the colours he displays." this coach appeared no more, and the silk and cloth mercers had their stuffs redyed. another day, at the high table, the king, seeing four bowls of big oranges brought in, said aloud before the public: "take away that fruit, which has nothing in its favour but its look. there is nothing more dangerous or unhealthy." on the morrow these words spread through the capital, and the courtiers dared eat oranges only privately and in secret. as for me, with my love for the scent of orange blossoms, the monarch's petulance once more affected me extremely. i was obliged for some time to give it up, like the others, and take to amber, the favourite scent of my master, which my nerves could not endure. before surrendering the town of orange to the commissioners of the kinglet of the dutch, the king of france had the walls thrown down, all the fortifications razed, and the public buildings, certain convents, and the library of the town stripped of their works of art. these measures irritated prince william, who, on that account alone, wished to recommence the war; but the emperor and the allies heard his complaints with little attention. they even besought him to leave things as they were. m. d'orange is a real firebrand; he could not endure the severities of the king without reprisals, and no sooner was he once more in possession of his little isolated sovereignty than he annoyed the catholics in it, caused all possible alarms to the sisters of mercy and nuns, imposed enormous taxes on the monks, and drove out the jesuits with unheard-of insults. the king received hospitably all these humiliated or persecuted folk; and as he was given to understand that the orange protestants were secretly sowing discontent amongst his calvinists and french lutherans, he prepared the revocation of the edict of nantes, the famous political measure the abrogation of which took place a short time afterwards. i saw, in the hands of the king, a document of sixty pages, printed at orange, after its restitution, in which it was clearly specified that hugh capet had set himself on the throne irregularly, and in which the author went to the point of saying that the catholic religion was only an idolatry, and that the peoples would only be happy and free after the general introduction of the reformation. the marechal de vivonne came and told me, in strict confidence, that the jesuits, out of resentment, had forged this document, and printed the pamphlet themselves; but m. de louvois, who, through his father, the chancellor, and his brother, the archbishop of rheims, was associated with them, maintained that the incendiary libel was really the work of the protestants. my residence at the court having opened my eyes sufficiently to the wickedness of men, i will not give my opinion, amid these angry charges and recriminations. i confine myself to relating what i have seen. chapter xxviii. sickness.--death of the queen.--her last words.--the king's affliction.--his saying.--second anonymous letter.--conversation with la dauphine.--madame de maintenon intervenes. while the turks and the imperialists were fighting in the plains of hungary, the king, followed by all his court, had made his way towards the frontiers of alsace. he reviewed countless battalions, he made promotions, and gave brilliant repasts and fetes. the season was a little trying, and the queen, though born in spain, did not accommodate herself to the june heat. as soon as business permitted they took the road to the capital, and returned to versailles with some speed. scarcely had they arrived, when the queen fell ill; it did not deserve the name of sickness. it was only an indisposition, pure and simple,--an abscess in the armpit; that was all. fagon, the boldest and most audacious of all who ever exercised the art of aesculapius, decided that, to lessen the running, it was necessary to draw the blood to another quarter. in spite of the opinion of his colleagues, he ordered her to be bled, and all her blood rushed to her heart. in a short time the princess grew worse in an alarming fashion, and in a few moments we heard that she was in her death-agony; in a few moments more we heard of her death. the king wept bitterly at first, as we had seen him weep for marie de mancini, louise de la valliere, henrietta of england, and the duchesse de fontanges,--dead of his excesses. he set out at once for the chateau of saint cloud, which belonged to his brother; and monsieur, wishing to leave the field clear for him, went away to the palais royal with his disagreeable wife and their numerous children. his majesty returned two days afterwards to the chateau of versailles, where he, his son, and all the family sprinkled holy water over the deceased; and this little ceremony being finished, they regained in silence the chateau of saint cloud. the aspect of that gloomy salon of peace, converted into a catafalque; the sight of that small bier, on which a beautiful, good, and indulgent wife was reposing; those silent images, so full of speech, awoke the just remorse of the king. his tears began once more to flow abundantly, and he was heard to say these words: "dear, kind friend, this is the first grief you have caused me in twenty years!" the infanta, as i have already related, had granted in these latter days her entire confidence and affection to her daughter-in-law's lady in waiting. finding herself sick and in danger, she summoned madame de maintenon; and understanding soon that those famous court physicians did not know how ill she was, and that she was drawing near her last hour, she begged this woman, so ready in all things, to leave her no more, and to be good enough to prepare her for death. the marquise wept bitterly, and perhaps even sincerely; for being unable to foresee, at that period, all that was to befall her in the issue, she probably entertained the hope of attaching herself for good to this excellent princess. in losing her, she foresaw, or feared, if not adversity, at least a decline. the king was courting her, it is true, and favouring her already with marked respect; but francoise d'aubigne,--thoughtful and meditative as i knew her to be, could certainly not have failed to appreciate the voluptuous and inconstant character of the monarch. she had seen several notorious friendships collapse in succession; and it is not at the age of forty-six or forty-seven that one can build castles in spain to dwell in with young love. the queen, before the beginning of her death agony, herself drew a splendid ring from her finger, and would pass it over the finger of the marquise, to whom, some months before, she had already given her portrait. it was asserted that her last words were these: "adieu, my dearest marquise; to you i recommend and confide the king." in accordance with a recommendation so binding and so precise, madame de maintenon followed the monarch to saint cloud; and as great afflictions are fain to be understood and shared, these two desolate hearts shut themselves up in one room, in order to groan in concert. the queen having been taken to saint denis, the king, madame de maintenon, and the court returned to versailles, where the royal family went into mourning for the period prescribed by law and custom. the queen's large and small apartments, so handsome, new, splendid, and magnificent, became the habitation of madame la dauphine; so that the lady in waiting, in virtue of her office, returned in the most natural manner to those apartments where she had held authority. the queen, without having the genius of conversation and discussion, lacked neither aplomb nor a taste for the proprieties; she knew how to support, or, at least, to preside over a circle. the young dauphine had neither the desire, nor the patience, nor, the tact. the prince charged the lady in waiting to do these things for her. we repaired in full dress to the princess,--to present our homages to madame de maintenon. one must admit she threw her heart into it; that is to say, she drew out, as far as possible, the monarch's daughter-in-law, inspiring into her every moment amiable questions or answers, which she had taken pains to embellish and adorn in her best manner. the king arrived; i then had the pleasure of seeing him, not two paces from me, before my very eyes, saying witty and agreeable things to the marquise; while he talked to me only of the rain and the weather, always cursorily. it was then that i received a second anonymous letter, in the same handwriting, the same style, the same tone as that of which mention has been made. i transcribe it; it is curious. to madame la marquise de montespan. madame:--you have not followed my former advice. the opportunity has gone by; it is too late. your superintendence is left with you, and there are four or five hundred thousand livres lying idle; for you will not be able to sell the superintendence of a household, and of a council, which are in a tomb at saint denis! happily you are rich, and what would be a disaster to another fortune is scarcely more than a slight disappointment to you. i take the respectful liberty of talking once more with the prettiest and wittiest woman of her century, in order to submit to her certain ideas, and to offer her a fresh piece of advice, which i believe important. the queen, moved by a generosity seldom found in her peers, pardoned you to some degree your theft of her spouse; she pardoned you in order to be agreeable to him, and to prove to him that, being his most sincere friend, she could not bring herself to contest his affections and his pastimes. but this sublime philosophy is at an end; the excellent heart of this queen is at val-de-grace; it will beat no more, neither for her volatile husband, nor for any one whatsoever. madame la dauphine, brought up in german severity, and hardly accustomed to the atmosphere of her new country, neither likes nor respects you, nor has any indulgence for you. she barely suffers the presence of your children, although brothers of her husband. how should she tolerate yours? it appears, it is plain, madame la marquise, that your name has found no place or footing on her list, and that she would rather not meet you often in her salons. if one may even speak to you confidentially, she has thus expressed herself; it would be cruel for you to hear of it from any other being but me. believe me, believe a man as noted for his good qualities as for his weaknesses. he will never drive you away, for you are the mother of his beloved children, and he has loved you himself tenderly. however, his coldness is going to increase. will you be sufficiently light-hearted, or sufficiently imprudent, to await on a counterscarp the rigours of december and january? keep your wit always, madame la marquise, and with this wit, which is such a charming resource, do not divest yourself of your noble pride. i am, always, your respectful and devoted servant, the unknown of the chateau. at the time of the first letter, when i had hesitated some time, doubtful between madame de maintenon and the king, it occurred to me to suspect the queen for a moment; but there was no possibility now of imputing to this princess, dead and gone, the unbecoming annoyance that an unknown permitted himself to cause me. on this occasion i chose my part resolutely; and, not wishing to busy myself any longer with these pretended friendly counsels which my pride forbade me to follow, i took these two insolent letters and burned them. this last letter, after all, spoke very truly. i remarked distinctly, in the looks and manner of the dauphine, that ridiculous and clumsy animosity which she had taken a fancy to lavish on me. as she was not, in my eyes, so sublime a personage that a lady of quality might not enter into conversation with her, i approached her armchair with the intention of upsetting her haughtiness and pride by compelling her to speak to me before everybody. i complimented her on her coiffure, and even thanked her for the honour she did me in imitating me; she reddened, and i entreated her not to put herself about, assuring her that her face looked much better in its habitual pallor. these words redoubled her dissatisfaction, and her redness then became a veritable scarlet flame. passing forthwith to another subject, i pronounced in a few words a panegyric on the late queen; to which i skilfully added that, from the first day, she had been able to understand the french graces and assume them with intelligence and taste. "her spanish accent troubled her for a year or two longer," added i; "strictly speaking, this accent, derived from the italian, has nothing disagreeable in it; while the english, polish, russian, and german accent is inharmonious in itself, and is lost with great difficulty here." seeing that my reflections irritated her, i stopped short, and made my excuses by saying to her, "madame, these are only general reflections. your highness is an exception, and has struck us all, as you have nothing german left but memories, and, perhaps, regrets." she answered me, stammering, that she had not been destined in the first place for the throne of france, and that this want of forethought had injured her education; then, feeling a spark of courage in her heart, she said that the late queen had more than once confided to her that the court of france was disorderly in its fashions, because it was never the princesses who gave it its tone as elsewhere. madame de maintenon perceived quickly the consequences of this saying; for the peace of the princess, she retorted quickly: "in france, the princesses are so kind and obliging as to follow the fashions; but the good examples and good tone come to us from our princes, and our only merit is to imitate them with ingenuity." chapter xxix. judgment given by the chatelet.--the marquis d'antin restored to his father.--the judgment is not executed.--full mourning.--funeral service.--the notary of saint elig.--the lettre de cachet. the marquis d'antin, my son, with the consent of the king, had remained under my control, and had never consented to quit me to rejoin his father. m. de montespan, at the time of the suit for judicial separation before the chatelet, had caused his advocate to maintain this barbarous argument, that a son, though brought into the world by his mother, ought to side against her if domestic storms arise, and prefer to everybody and everything the man whose arms and name he bears. the tribunal of the chatelet, trampling upon maternal tenderness and humanity, granted his claim in full; and i was advised not to appeal, now that i had obtained the thing essential to me, a separation in body and estate. m. de montespan dared not come himself to paris in order to execute the sentence; he sent for that purpose two officers of artillery, his friends or relatives, who were authorised to see the young marquis at his college, but not to withdraw him before the close of his humanities and classes. these gentlemen, having sent word to the father that the young d'antin was my living image, he replied to them, that they were to insist no longer, to abandon their mission, and to abandon a child who would never enjoy his favour since he resembled myself. owing to this happy circumstance i was able to preserve my son. since these unhappy disputes, and the suit which made so much noise, i had heard no more talk of m. de montespan in society. i only learned from travellers that he was building, a short distance from the pyrenees, a chateau of a noble and royal appearance, where he had gathered together all that art, joined with good taste, could add to nature; that this chateau of saint elix, adorned with the finest orange grove in the world, was ascribed to the liberality of the king. the marquis, hurt by this mistake of his neighbours, which he called an accusation, published a solemn justification in these ingenuous provinces, and he proved, as a clerk might do to his master, that this enormous expenditure was exclusively his own. suddenly the report of his death spread through the capital, and the marquis d'antin received without delay an official letter with a great, black seal, which announced to him this most lamentable event. the notary of saint elix, in sending him this sad news, took the opportunity of enclosing a certified copy of the will. this testament, replete with malignity, having been freely published in the capital, i cannot refrain from reproducing it in these writings. here are its principal clauses; in the name of the most blessed trinity, etc. since i cannot congratulate myself on a wife, who, diverting herself as much as possible, has caused me to pass my youth and my life in celibacy, i content myself with leaving, her my life-sized portrait, by bourdon, begging her to place it in her bedchamber, when the king ceases to come there. although the marquis de pardailhan d'antin is prodigiously like his mother (a circumstance of which i have been lamentably sensible!), i do not hesitate to believe him my son. in this quality i give and bequeath to him all my goods, as my eldest son, imposing on him, nevertheless, the following legacies, liberalities and charges: i leave to their highnesses, m. le duc du maine, m. le comte de toulouse, mademoiselle de nantes, and mademoiselle de blois (born during my marriage with their mother, and consequently my presumptive children), their right of legitimacy on the charge and condition of their bearing in one of their quarterings the pardailhan-montespan arms. i take the respectful liberty of here thanking my king for the extreme kindness which he has shown to my wife, nee de mortemart, to my son d'antin, to his brothers and sisters, both dead and living, and also to myself, who have only been dismissed, and kept in exile: in recognition of which i give and bequeath to his majesty my vast chateau of montespan, begging him to create and institute there a community of repentant ladies, to wear the habit of carmelites or of the daughters of the conception, on the special charge and condition that he place my wife at the head of the said convent, and appoint her to be first abbess. i attach an annuity of sixty thousand livres to this noble institution, hoping that this will make up the deficiency, if there be any. de pardailhan de gondran montespan, separated, although inseparable spouse. a family council being held to decide what i must do on this occasion, madame de thianges, m. de vivonne, and m. de blanville-colbert decided that i must wear the same full mourning as my son d'antin. as for this odious will, it was agreed that it should not even be spoken of, and that the notary of saint elix should be written to at once, to place it in the hands of a third party, of whom he would be presently notified at the place. the marquis d'antin at once had my equipage and his own draped. we hastened to put all our household into mourning from top to toe, and the funeral service, with full ritual, was ordered to be performed at the parish church. the very same day, as the family procession was about to set out on its way to the church, a sort of sergeant, dressed in black, handed a fresh letter to the marquis d'antin. it contained these words: the notary of saint elix deserves a canonry in the chapter of charenton; it is not the marquis de montespan who is dead; they have played a trick on you. the only truth in all of it is the will, of which the notary of saint elix has been in too great a hurry to send a copy. a thousand excuses to m. le marquis d'antin and his mother, madame la marquise. it was necessary to send orders at once to the parish church to take away the catafalque and the drapings. the priests and the musicians were paid as if they had done what they ought to do; and my widowhood, which, at another time, might have been of such importance, was, i dare to say, indifferent to me. the king was informed of what had just taken place in my family. he spoke of it as an extremely disagreeable affair. i answered him that it was far more disagreeable for me than for any one else. his majesty added: "tell the marquis d'antin to go to saint elix and pay his respects to his father. this journey will also enable him to learn if such a ridiculous will really exists, and if your husband has reached such a pitch of independence. d'antin will beg him, on my behalf, to tear up that document, and to earn my favour by doing so." my son, after consulting with his majesty, started indeed for the pyrenees. his father at first gave him a cold welcome. the next day the marquis discovered the secret of pleasing him; and m. de montespan, at this full mourning, this family council, and at the catafalque in the middle of the church, promised to alter the will on condition that his 'lettre do cachet' should be revoked and quashed within the next fortnight. the king agreed to these demands, which did not any longer affect him. i was the only person sacrificed. chapter xxx. the duc du maine provided with the government of languedoc.--the young prince de conti.--his piety.--his apostasy.--the duc de la feuillade burlesqued.--the watch set with diamonds.--the false robber.--scene amongst the servants. the old duc de verneuil, natural son of king henri iv., died during these incidents, leaving the government of languedoc vacant. the king summoned m. le duc du maine at once, and, embracing him with his usual tenderness, he said to him: "my son, though you are very young, i make you governor of languedoc. this will make many jealous of you; do not worry about them, i am always here to defend you. go at once to mademoiselle's, who has just arrived at versailles, and tell her what i have done for her adopted child." i went to thank his majesty for this favour, which seemed to me very great, since my son was not twelve years old. the king said to me: "here comes the carriage of the prince de conti; you may be certain that he comes to ask me for this place." in fact, those were the first words of the prince de conti. "the government for which you ask," said the king, "has been for a long time promised to madame de maintenon for her duc du maine. i intend something else for you, my dear cousin. trust in me. in giving you my beloved daughter i charged myself with your fortunes; you are on my list, and in the first rank." the young prince changed colour. he entreated the king to believe him worthy of his confidence and esteem, to which he imprudently added these words: "my wife was born before m. du maine." "and you, too," replied his majesty; "are you any the more sober for that? there are some little youthful extravagances in your conduct which pain me. i leave my daughter in ignorance of them, because i wish her to be at peace. endeavour to prevent her being informed of them by yourself. govern yourself as a young man of your birth ought to govern himself; then i will hand a government over to you with pleasure." the prince de conti appeared to me very much affected by this homily and disappointment. he saluted me, however, with a smile of benevolence and the greatest amenity. we learnt a short time afterwards that his wife had shed many tears, and was somewhat set against my children and myself. this amiable princess then was not aware that the government of languedoc was not granted at my instance, but at the simple desire of madame de maintenon; the king had sufficiently explained it. just at this moment m. le prince de conti had made himself notable by his attachment or his deference towards matters of religion and piety. his superb chariot and his peach-coloured liveries were to be seen, on fete-days, at the doors of the great churches. he suddenly changed his manoeuvres, and refused to subject himself to restraints which led him no whither. he scoffed publicly at the jesuits, the sulpicians, and their formal lectures and confraternities; he refused to distribute the blessed bread at his parish church, and heard mass only from his chaplains and in his palace. this ill-advised behaviour did not improve his position. madame, his wife, continued to come to versailles on gala-days, or days of reunion, but he and his brother appeared there less and less frequently. they were exceedingly handsome, both of them; not through their father, whose huge nose had rendered him ridiculous, but through the princess, their mother, anna or felicia de martinozzi, niece of cardinal mazarin. god had surpassed himself in creating that graceful head, and those eyes will never have their match in sweetness and beauty. free now to follow his own tastes, which only policy had induced him to dissimulate and constrain, m. de conti allowed himself all that a young prince, rich and pleasure-loving, could possibly wish in this world. in the midst of these reunions, consecrated to pleasure, and even to debauchery, he loved to signalise his lordly liberality; nothing could stop him, nothing was too extravagant for him. his passion was to remove all obstacles and pay for everybody. his joyous companions cried out with admiration, and celebrated, in prose and verse, so noble a taste and virtues so rare. the young orphan inhaled this incense with delight; he contracted enormous debts, and soon did not know where to turn to pay them. the king, well informed of these excesses, commanded m. le duc de la feuillade to have the young man followed, and inform himself of all he did. one day, when m. de la feuillade himself had followed him too closely, and forced him, for the space of an hour, to scour over all le marais in useless and fatiguing zigzags, m. de conti, who recognised him perfectly, in spite of his disguise, pretended that his watch, set with diamonds, had been stolen. he pointed out this man as the thief to his ready servingmen, who fell upon m. de la feuillade, and, stripping him to find the watch, gave the prince time to escape and reach his place of rendezvous. the captain was ill for several days, and even in danger, in consequence of this adventure, which did not improve the credit of m. le prince de conti, much as it needed improvement. his young and beautiful wife excused him in everything, ignoring, and wishing to ignore, the extent of his guilt and frivolity. chapter xxxi. a funeral and diversions.--sinister dream.--funeral orations of the queen. it remains for me to relate certain rather curious circumstances in relation to the late queen, after which i shall speak of her no more in these memoirs. she was left for ten days, lying in state, in the mortuary chapel of versailles, where mass was being said by priests at four altars from morning till evening. she was finally removed from this magnificent palace of enchantment to saint denis. numerous carriages followed the funeral car, and in all these carriages were the high officials, as well as the ladies, who had belonged to her. but what barbarity! what ingratitude! what a scandal! in all these mournful carriages, people talked and laughed and made themselves agreeable; and the body-guards, as well as the gendarmes and musketeers, took turns to ride their horses into the open plain and shoot at the birds. monsieur le dauphin, after saint denis, went to lie at the tuileries, before betaking himself to the service on the following day at notre dame. in the evening, instead of remaining alone and in seclusion in his apartment, as a good son ought to have done, he went to the palais royal to see the princess palatine and her husband, whom he had had with him all the day; he must have distraction, amusement, and even merry conversations, such as simple bourgeois would not permit themselves on so solemn an occasion, were it only out of decorum. in the midst of these ridiculous and indefensible conversations, the news arrived that the king had broken his arm. the marquis de mosny had started on the instant in order to inform the young prince of it; and du saussoi, equerry of his majesty, arrived half an hour later, giving the same news with the details. the king (who was hunting during the obsequies of his wife) had fallen off his horse, which he had not been able to prevent from stumbling into a ditch full of tall grass and foliage. m. felix, a skilful and prudent surgeon, had just set the arm, which was only put out of joint. the king sent word to the dauphin not to leave the tuileries, and to attend the funeral ceremony on the morrow. the fair of saint laurence was being held at this moment, although the city of paris had manifested an intention of postponing it. they were exhibiting to the curious a little wise horse which bowed, calculated, guessed, answered questions, and performed marvels. the king had strictly forbidden his family and the people of the court to let themselves be seen at this fair. monsieur le dauphin, none the less, wished to contemplate, with his own eyes, this extraordinary and wonderful little horse. consequently, he had to be taken to the chateau des tuileries, where he took a puerile amusement in a spectacle in itself trivial, and, at such a time, scandalous. the poor queen would have died of grief if the death of her son had preceded hers, against the order of nature; but the hearts of our children are not disposed like ours, and who knows how i shall be treated myself by mine when i am gone? with regard to the king's arm, madame d'orleans, during the service for the queen, was pleased to relate to the grande mademoiselle that, three or four days before, she had seen, in a somewhat troublesome and painful dream, the king's horse run away, and throw him upon the rocks and brambles of a precipice, from which he was rescued with a broken arm. a lady observed that dreams are but vague and uncertain indications. "not mine," replied madame, with ardour; "they are not like others. five or six days before the queen fell ill, i told her, in the presence of madame la dauphine, that i had a most alarming dream. i had dreamt that i was in a large church all draped in black. i advanced to the sanctuary; a vault was opened at one side of the altar. some kind of priests went down, and these folk said aloud, as they came up again, that they had found no place at first; that the cavity having seemed to them too long and deep, they had arranged the biers, and had placed there the body of the lady. at that point i awoke, quite startled, and not myself." hardly had the princess finished her story, when the infanta, turning pale, said to her: "madame, you will see, the dream of the vault refers to me. at the funeral of the queen of england i noticed, and remember, that the same difficulty occurred at saint denis; they were obliged to push up all the coffins, one against the other." and, in truth, we knew, a few days afterwards, that for this poor queen, maria theresa, the monks of the abbey had found it necessary to break down a strong barrier of stones in their subterranean church, to remove the first wife of gaston, mother of mademoiselle, and find a place for the spanish queen who had arrived in those regions. there were several funeral orations on this occasion. not a single one of these official discourses deserved to survive the queen. there was very little to say about her, i admit; but these professional panegyrists, these liars in surplice, in black cassock, or in purple and mitre, are not too scrupulous to borrow facts and material in cases where the dead person has neglected to furnish or bequeath it them. in my own case i congratulated myself on this sort of indifference or literary penury; an indiscreet person, sustained by zeal or talent, might have wished to mortify me in a romance combined of satire and religion. chapter xxxii. jean baptiste colbert.--his death.--his great works.--his last advice to the marquise. m. colbert had been ailing for a long time past. his face bore visible testimony against his health, to which his accumulated and incessant labour had caused the greatest injury. we had just married his son blainville to my niece, mademoiselle de tonnay-charente, heiress of the house of rochchouart. since this union--the king's work--m. colbert had somewhat tended in my favour, and i had reason to count on his good offices and kindness. i said to him one day that my quarrel with him was that he did not look after himself, that he ignored all his own worth, treated himself with no more respect than a mere clerk; that he was the indispensable man, the right hand of the king, his eye of vigilance in everything, and the pillar of his business and his finance. without being precisely what one would call a modest man, m. colbert was calm of mind, and by nature without pose or presumption. he cared sincerely for the king's glory. he held his tongue on the subject of great enterprises, but employed much zeal and ability in promoting the success of good projects and ideas, such as, for instance, our indies and pondicherry. he had known how to procure, without oppressing any one, the incalculable sums that had been necessitated, not only by enormous and almost universal wars, but by all those canals, all those ports in the mediterranean or the ocean, that vast creation of vessels, arsenals, foundries, military houses and hospitals which we had seen springing up in all parts. he had procured by his application, his careful calculations, the wherewithal to build innumerable fortresses, aqueducts, fountains, bridges, the observatory of paris, the royal hospital of the invalides, the chateaus of the tuileries and of vincennes, the engine and chateau of marly, that prodigious chateau of versailles, with its trianon of marble, which by itself might have served as a habitation for the richest monarchs of the orient. he had founded the wonderful glass factories, and those of the gobelins; he had raised, as though by a magic ring, the royal library over the gardens and galleries of mazarin; and foreigners asked one another, in their surprise, what they must admire most in that monument, the interior pomp of the edifice or its rich collection of books, coins, and manuscripts. to all these works, more than sufficient to immortalise twenty ministers, m. colbert was adding at this moment the huge 'salpetriere' of paris and the colonnades of the louvre. ruthless death came to seize him in the midst of these occupations, so noble, useful, and glorious. the great colbert, worn out with fatigue, watching, and constraint, left the king, his wife, his children, his honours, his well-earned riches, and displayed no other anxiety than alarm as to his salvation,--as though so many services rendered to the nation and to his prince were no more, in his eyes, than vain works in relation to eternity. madame de maintenon, having become a great lady, could, not reasonably continue her office of governess to the king's children. m. colbert, that man of vigour, that mount atlas, capable of supporting all things without a plaint, had been charged with the care of the two new-born princes. because of the third mademoiselle de blois, and of the little comte de toulouse, i saw the minister frequently, and i was one of the first to remark the change in his face and his health. during his last illness, i visited him more often. one day, of his own accord, he said to me: "how do you get on with madame de maintenon? i have never heard her complain of you; but i make you this confidence out of friendship. his majesty complains of your attitude towards your former friend. if the frankness of your nature and the impatience of your humour have sometimes led you too far, i exhort you to moderate yourself, in your own interest and in that of your children. madame de maintenon is an amiable and witty person, whose society pleases the king. have this consideration for a hard-working prince, whom intellectual recreation relaxes and diverts, and make a third at those pleasant gatherings where you shone long before this lady, and where you would never be her inferior. go there, and frequently, instead of keeping at a distance in an attitude of resentment, which, do not doubt, is noticed and viewed unfavourably." "but, monsieur," i answered m. colbert, "you are not, then, aware that every time i am a third person at one of these interminable conversations, i always meet with some mark of disapproval, and sometimes with painful mortifications?" "i have been told so," the sick man replied; "but i have also been told that you imprudently call down on yourself these outbursts of the king. what need have you to quarrel with madame de maintenon over a look, a word, a movement or a gesture? you seem to me persuaded that love enters into the king's friendship for the marquise. well, suppose you have guessed aright his majesty's sentiments; will your dissatisfaction and your sarcasms prevent those sentiments from existing, and the prince from indulging them? "you know, madame, that he generally gets everything he wants, and m. de montespan experienced that when he wished to set himself against your joint wills. "i am nearer my end and my release than my doctors think. in leaving this whirlpool of disappointments, ambitions, errors, and mutual injustice, i should like to see you free, at peace, reconciled to your real interests, and out of reach, forever, of the vicissitudes of fortune. in my eyes, your position is that of a ship-owner whom the ocean has constantly favoured, and who has reaped great riches. with moderation and prudence, it depended on himself to profit by his astonishing success, and at last to enjoy his life; but ambition and vain desire drive him afresh upon this sea, so fruitful in shipwrecks, and his last venture destroys all his prosperity and all his many labours. "our excellent queen has gone to rest from her troubles and her journeys; and i, madame, am going to rest not long after her, having worn out my strength on great things that are as nothing." the marquis de seignelay, eldest son of this minister, counted on succeeding to the principal offices of his father. he made a mistake. the place of secretary of state and controller-general passed to the president pelletier, who had been chosen by m. colbert himself; and the superintendence of buildings, gardens, and works went to swell the numerous functions of the marquis de louvois, who wished for and counted on it. mm. de blainville and seignelay had good posts, proportioned to their capacity; the king never ceased to look upon them as the children of his dear m. colbert. [it mast be remembered that the young marquis de seignelay was already minister of marine, an office which remained with him.--ed.] before his death, this minister saw his three daughters become duchesses. the king, who had been pleased to make these marriages, had given each of them a dowry of a million in cash. as for the abbe colbert, already promoted to the bishopric of montpellier (to which three important abbeys were joined), he had the archbishopric of toulouse, with an immense revenue. it is true that he took a pleasure in rebuilding his archiepiscopal palace and cathedral out of a huge and ancient treasure, which he discovered whilst pulling down some old ruin to make a salon. one might say that there was some force of attraction attached to this family and name of colbert. treasures arose from the earth to give themselves up and obey them. chapter xxxiii. mesdemoiselles de mazarin.--the age of puberty.--madame de beauvais.--anger of the queen-mother.--the cardinal's policy.--first love.--louis de beauvais.--the abbe de rohan-soubise.--the emerald's lying-in.--the handsome musketeer.--the counterfeit of the king. at the time when the king, still very young, was submitting without impatience to the authority of the queen, his mother, and his godfather, the cardinal, his strength underwent a sudden development, and this lad became, all at once, a man. the numerous nieces of cardinal mazarin, who were particularly dear to the queen, were as much at the louvre as at their own home. anne of austria, naturally affable, gladly released them from the etiquette which was imposed upon every one else. these young ladies played and laughed, sang or frolicked, after the manner of their years, and the young king lived frankly and gaily in their midst, as one lives with agreeable sisters, when one is happy enough to have such. he lived fraternally with these pretty italian girls, but his intimacy stopped there, since the cardinal and the governess watched night and day over a young man who was greatly subject to surveillance. at the same time, there was amongst the queen's women a rather pretty waiting-maid, well brought up, who was called madame de beauvais. those brunettes, with black eyes, bright complexions, and graceful plumpness, are almost always wanton and alluring. madame de beauvais noticed the sudden development of the monarch, his impassioned reveries which betrayed themselves in his gaze. she thought she had detected intentions on his part, and an imperious need of explaining himself. a word, which was said to her in passing, authorised her, or seemed to authorise her, to make an almost intelligible reply. the young wooer showed himself less undecided, less enigmatic,--and the understanding was completed. madame de beauvais was the recipient of the prince's first emotions, and the clandestine connection lasted for three months. anne of austria, informed of what was passing, wished at first to punish her first maid in waiting; but the cardinal, more circumspect, represented to her that this connection, of which no one knew, was an occupation, not to say a safeguard, for the young king, whose fine constitution and health naturally drew him to the things of life. "although eighteen years of age," he added, "the prince abandons the whole authority to you; whereas another, in his place, would ardently dispute it. do not let us quarrel with him about trifles; leave him his beauvais lady, so that he may make no attempt on my pretty nieces nor on your authority, madame, nor on my important occupations, which are for the good of the state." anne of austria, who was more a christian and a mother than a diplomatic woman, found it very painful to appreciate these arguments of the cardinal; but after some reflection she recognised their importance, and things remained as they were. madame de beauvais had a son, whom the husband (whether overconfident or not) saw brought into the world with much delight, and whom, with a wealth of royalist respect, they baptised under the agreeable name of louis. this child, who had a fine figure and constitution, received a particularly careful education. he has something of the king about him, principally in his glance and smile. he presents, however, only the intellectual habit of his mother, and even a notable absence of grandeur and elevation. he is a very pretty waiting-woman, dressed out as a cavalier; in a word, he is that pliant and indefatigable courtier, whom we see everywhere, and whom town and court greet by the name of baron de beauvais. his sister is the duchesse de richelieu, true daughter of her father, as ugly, or rather as lacking in charm, as he is; but replete with subtilty and intelligence,--with that intelligence which perpetually suggests a humble origin, and which wearies or importunes, because of its ill-nature. at the age of seventeen, her freshness made her pass for being pretty. she accused the young duc de richelieu of having seduced her, and made her a mother; and he, in his fear of her indignation and intrigues, and of the reproaches of the queen, hastened to confess his fault, and to repair everything by marrying her. baron louis, her brother, to whom the king could hardly refuse anything, made her a lady of honour to the dauphine. madame de richelieu delighted to spread a report in the world that i had procured her this office; she was deceived, and wished to be deceived. i had asked this eminent position for the marquise de thianges, in whom i was interested very differently. his majesty decided that a marquise was inferior to a duchess, even when that duchess was born a de beauvais. another son of the monarch, well known at the court as such, is m. l'abbe de rohan-soubise, to whom the cardinal's hat is already promised. his figure, his carriage, his head, his attitude, his whole person infallibly reveal him; and the prince de soubise has so thoroughly recognised and understood the deceit, that he honours the young churchman with all his indifference and his respect. he acts with him as a sort of guardian; and that is the limitation of his role. the princesse de soubise, who had resolved to advance her careless husband, either to the government of brittany or to some ministry, persuaded herself that it is only by women that men can be advanced; and that in order to advance a husband, it is necessary to advance oneself. although a little thin, and lacking that of which the king is so fond, we saw in her a very pretty woman. she knew how to persuade his majesty that she cherished for him the tenderest love. that is, i believe, the one trap that it is possible to set for him. he is credulous on that head; he was speedily caught. and every time that m. de rohan was away, and there was freedom at the hotel soubise, the princess came in person to saint germain or to versailles, to show her necklace and pendant of emeralds to the king. such was the agreed signal. the abbe de rohan was born of these emeralds. the king displays conscience in all his actions, except in his wars and conquests. when the little soubise was grown up, his majesty signified to the mother that this young man must enter the church, not wishing to suffer the formation of a parasitical branch amongst the rohans, which would have participated, without any right, in the legitimate sap. it is asserted that the abbe de rohan only submitted with infinite regret to a sentence which neutralised him. the king has promised him all possible consideration; he has even embraced him tenderly, an action which is almost equivalent to a "declaration of degree" made to the parliament. the other child alleged to the king is that handsome musketeer, who is so like him. but, judging from the king's character, which respects, and in some fashion almost admires itself, in everything which proceeds from it, i do not venture to believe in this musketeer. the king wished one day to see him close by, and even accosted him by the orange-shrubbery; but this movement seemed to me one of pure curiosity. the resemblance, i must confess, is the most striking that i have yet seen; for it is complete, even to the tone of the voice. but a look might have operated this miracle. instance the little negress, the daughter of the poor queen, that queen so timid and entirely natural, who, to her happiness, as much as to her glory, has never looked at, approached, or distinguished any one except the king. for the rest, we shall see and know well if the king does anything for his musketeer. chapter xxxiv. the young nobility and the turks.--private correspondence.--the unlucky minister and the page of strasburg.--the king judged and described in all the documents.--the king humiliated in his affections.--scandal at court.--grief of fathers at having given life to such children.--why prince eugene was not a bishop.--why he was not a colonel of france.--death of the prince de conti. as france was at peace at the moment when the three hundred thousand turks swarmed over hungary and threatened vienna, our young princes, and a fairly large number of nobles of about the same age, took it into their heads to go and exhibit their bravery in germany; they asked permission of m. de louvois to join the imperialists. this permission was granted to some amongst them, but refused to others. those whom it was thought fit to restrain took no notice of the words of the minister, and departed as resolutely as though the king had fallen asleep. they were arrested on the road; but his majesty, having reflected on the matter, saw that these special prohibitions would do harm to the intentions which he had with regard to his deference for germany, and they were all allowed to go their own way. a little later, it was discovered that there was a regular and active correspondence between these young people in germany and others who had remained in paris or at the court. the first minister had a certain page, one of the most agile, pursued; he was caught up with at strasburg; his valise was seized. the marquis de louvois, desiring to give the king the pleasure of himself opening these mysterious letters, handed him the budget, the seals intact, and his majesty thanked him for this attention. these thanks were the last that that powerful minister was destined to receive from his master; his star waned from that hour, never again to recover its lustre; all his credit failed and crashed to the ground. this correspondence--spied on with so much zeal, surprised and carried off with such good fortune--informed the astonished monarch that, in the louvois family, in his house and circle, his royal character, his manners, his affections, his tastes, his person, his whole life, were derisively censured. the beloved son-in-law of the minister, speaking with an open heart to his friends, who were travelling, and absent, represented the king to them as a sort of country-gentleman, given up now to the domestic and uniform life of the manor-house, more than ever devoted to his dame bourgeoise, and making love ecstatically at the feet of this young nymph of fifty seasons. m. de la roche-guyon and m. de liancourt, sons of la rochefoucauld, who expressed themselves with the same boldness, went so far as to say of their ruler that he was but a stage and tinsel king. the son-in-law of louvois accused him of being most courageous in his gallery, but of turning pale on the eve, and at the moment, of an action; and d'alincourt, son of villeroi, carried his outrages further still. no one knows better than myself how unjust these accusations were, and are. i was sensible of the mortification such a reading must have caused to the most sensitive, the most irritable of princes; but i rejoiced at the humiliation that the lady in waiting felt for her share in this unpardonable correspondence. the annoyance that i read for some days on her handsome face consoled me, for the time being, for her great success at my expense. madame la princesse de conti, whom the king, up to this time, had not only cherished but adored, found also, in those documents, the term of excessive favour. a letter from her to her husband said: "i have just given myself a maid of honour, wishing to spare madame de maintenon the trouble, or the pleasure, of giving me one herself." she was summoned to versailles, as she may very well have expected. the king, paying no attention to her tears, said to her: "i believed in your affection; i have done everything to deserve it; it is lamentable to me to be unable to count on it longer. your cruel letter is in madame de maintenon's hands. she will let you read it again before committing it to the fire, and i beg you to inform her what is the harm she has done you." "madame," said madame de maintenon to her, when she saw her before her, "when your amiable mother left this court, where the slightest prosperity attracts envy, i promised her to take some care of your childhood, and i have kept my word. "i have always treated you with gentleness and consideration; whence proceeds your hate against me of to-day? is your young heart capable of it? i believed you to be a model of gratitude and goodness." "madame," replied the young princess, weeping, "deign to pardon this imprudence of mine and to reconcile me with the king, whom i love so much." "i have not the credit which you assume me to have," replied the lady in waiting, coldly. "except for the extreme kindness of the king you would not be where you are, and you take it ill that i should be where i am! i have neither desired nor solicited the arduous rank that i occupy; i need resignation and obedience to support such a burden." madame de maintenon resumed her work. the princess, not daring to interrupt her silence, made the bow that was expected of her and withdrew. the marquis de louvois, when he read what his own son-in-law dared to write of the monarch, grew pale and swooned away with grief. he cast himself several times before the feet of his master, asking now the punishment and now the pardon of a criminal and a madman. "i believed myself to be loved by your family," cried the king. "what must i do, then, to be loved? and, great god! with what a set i am surrounded!" all these things transpired. soon we saw the father of the audacious de liancourt arrive like a man bereft of his wits. he ran to precipitate himself at the feet of the king. "m. de la rochefoucauld," said the prince to him, "i was ignorant, until this day, that i was lacking in what is called martial prowess; but i shall at least have, on this occasion, the courage to despise the slanderous slights of these presumptuous youths. do not talk to me of the submissions and regrets of your two sons, who are unworthy of you; let them live as far away from me as possible; they do not deserve to approach an honest man, such as their king." the prince de turenne, son of the duc de bouillon, and prince eugene of savoy, third or fourth son of the comtesse de soissons (olympe mancini), had accompanied their cousins de conti on this knightly expedition; all these gentlemen returned at the conclusion of the war, except prince eugene, a violent enemy of the king. [the prince de turenne was in bad odour at court ever since he had separated monseigneur from his young wife by exaggerating that princess's small failings.--madame de montespan's note.] this young prince of the second branch, seeing his mother's disgrace since the great affair of the poison, hated me mortally. he carried his treachery so far as to attribute to me the misfortunes of olympe, saying, and publishing all over paris, that i had incited accusers in order to be able to deprive her forcibly of her superintendence. this post, which had been sold to me for four hundred thousand francs, had been paid for long since; that did not prevent eugene from everywhere affirming the contrary. since the flight or exile of his lady mother, he had taken it into his head to dream of the episcopate, and to solicit pere de la chaise on the subject. but the king, who does not like frivolous or absurd figures in high offices, decided that a little man with a deformity would repel rather than attract deference at a pinnacle of dignity of the priesthood. refused for the episcopate, m. de soissons thought he might offer himself as a colonel. his majesty, who did not know the military ways of this abbe, refused him anew, both as an abbe and as a hunchback, and as a public libertine already degraded by his irregularities. from all these refusals and mortifications there sprung his firm resolve to quit france. he had been born there; he left all his family there except his mother; he declared himself its undying enemy, and said publicly in germany that louis xiv. would shed tears of blood for the injury and the affront which he had offered him. mm. de conti, after the events in hungary and at vienna, returned to france covered with laurels. they came to salute the king at versailles. his majesty gave them neither a good nor a bad reception. the princes left the same day for chantilly, where m. de conde, their paternal uncle, tried to curb their too romantic imaginations and guaranteed their good behaviour in the future. this life, sedentary or spent in hunting, began to weary them, when overruling providence was pleased to send them a diversion of the highest importance. m. le prince de conti was seized suddenly with that burning fever which announces the smallpox. every imaginable care was useless; he died of it and bequeathed, in spite of himself, a most premature and afflicting widowhood to his young and charming spouse, who was not, till long afterwards, let into the secret of his scandalous excesses. m. de la roche-sur-yon, his only brother, was as distressed at his death as though he had nothing to gain by it; he took immediately the name of conti, and doffed the other, which he had hitherto borne as a borrowed title. the domain and county of la roche-sur-yon belongs to the grande mademoiselle. she had been asked to make this condescension when the young prince was born. she agreed with a good grace, for the child, born prematurely, did not seem likely to live. chapter xxxv. ninon at court.--the king behind the glass.--anxiety of the marquise on the subject of this interview.--visit to madame de maintenon.--her reply and her ambiguous promise. mademoiselle de l'enclos is universally known in the world for the agreeableness of her superior wit and her charms of face and person. when madame de maintenon, after the loss of her father, arrived from martinique, she had occasion to make her acquaintance; and it seems that it was ninon who, seeing her debating between the offers of m. scarron and the cloister, succeeded in persuading her to marry the rich poet, though he was a cripple, rather than to bury herself, so young, in a convent of ursulines or bernardines, even were the convent in paris. at the death of the poet scarron (who when he married, and when he died, possessed only a life annuity), mademoiselle d'aubigne, once more in poverty, found in mademoiselle de l'enclos a generous and persevering friend, who at once offered her her house and table. mademoiselle d'aubigne passed eight or ten months in the intimate society of this philosophical woman. but her conscience, or her prudery, not permitting her to tolerate longer a manner of life in which she seemed to detect license, she quitted ninon, advising her to renounce coquetry, whilst the other was advising her to abandon herself to it. there, where madame scarron found the tune of good society with wit, she looked upon herself as in her proper sphere, as long as no open scandal was brought to her notice. she consented still to remain her friend; but the fear of passing for an approver or an accomplice prevented her from remaining if there were any publicity. it was not exactly through her scruples, it was through her vanity. i have had proof of this on various occasions, and i have made no error. the pretended amours of mademoiselle d'aubigne and the marquis de villarceaux, ninon's friend, are an invention of malicious envy. i justified madame scarron on the matter before the king, when i asked her for the education of the princes; and having rendered her this justice, from conviction rather than necessity, i shall certainly not charge her with it to-day. madame de maintenon possesses a fund of philosophy which she does not reveal nor confess to everybody. she fears god in the manner of socrates and plato; and as i have seen her more than once make game, with infinite wit, of the abbe gobelin, her confessor, who is a pedant and avaricious, i am persuaded that she knows much more about it than all these proud doctors in theology, and that she would be thoroughly capable of confessing her confessor. she had remained, then, the friend of ninon, but at heart and in recollection, without sending her news or seeing her again. mademoiselle de l'enclos, rich, disinterested, and proud of her independent position, learned with pleasure the triumph of her former friend, but without writing to her or congratulating her. ninon, by the consent of all those who have come near her, is good-nature itself. one of her relations, or friends, was a candidate for a vacant post as farmer-general, and besought her to make some useful efforts for him. "i have no one but madame de maintenon," she replied to this relation. and the other said to her: "madame de maintenon? it is as though you had the king himself!" mademoiselle de l'enclos, trimming her pen with her trusty knife, wrote to the lady in waiting an agreeable and polished letter, one of those letters, careful without stiffness, that one writes, indulging oneself a little with the intention of getting oneself read. the letter of solicitation seemed so pretty to the lady in waiting that she made the king peruse it. "this is an excellent opportunity for me," said the prince at once, "to see with my own eyes this extraordinary, person, of whom i have so long heard talk. i saw her one day at the opera, but just when she was getting into her carriage; and my incognito did not permit me to approach her. she seemed to me small, but well made. her carriage drove off like a flash." to meet this curiosity which the king displayed, it was agreed that madame de maintenon, on the pretext of having a better consultation, should summon mademoiselle de l'enclos to versailles, and that in one of the alcoves of the chapel she should be given a place which should put her almost in front of his majesty. she arrived some minutes before mass. madame de maintenon received her with marked attention, mingled with reserve, promised her support with the ministers when the affair should be discussed, and made her promise to pass the entire day, at versailles, for the king was obliged to visit the new gardens at marly. the time for mass being come, madame de maintenon said to the fair epicurean, with a smile: "you are one of us, are you not? the music will be delicious in the chapel to-day; you will not have a moment of weariness." ninon, meeting this slight reproach with a smile of propriety, replied that she adored and respected everything which the monarch respected. during the service, the king, tranquilly, secluded in his golden box, could see and examine the lady at his leisure, without compromising himself or embarrassing her by his gaze. as for her, her decent and quite appropriate attitude merited for her the approval of her old friend, of the king, and of the most critical eyes. the monarch, in effect, departed, not for the chateau of marly, but for trianon; and hardly had he reached there before, in a little, very close carriage, he was brought back to versailles. he went up to madame de maintenon's apartments by the little staircase in the prince's court, and stole into the glass closet without being observed, except by a solitary lackey. the ladies, believing themselves to be alone and at liberty, talked without ceremony or constraint, as though they had been but twenty years old. the king was very much grieved at the things which were said, but he heard, without losing a word, the following dialogue or interview: ninon de l'enclos.--it is not my preservation which should surprise you, since from morning to night i breathe that voluptuous air of independence which refreshes the blood, and puts in play its circulation. i am morally the same person whom you came to see in the pretty little house in the rue de tournelles. my dressing-gown, as you well know, was my preferred and chosen garb. to-day, as then, madame la marquise, i should choose to place on my escutcheon the latin device of the towns of san marino and lucca,--libertas. you have complimented me on my beauty; i congratulate you upon yours, and i am surprised that you have so kept and preserved it in the midst of the constraints and servitude that grandeur and greatness involve. madame de maintenon.--at the commencement, i argued as you argue, and believed that i should never get to the year's end without disgust. little by little i imposed silence upon my emotions and my regrets. a life of great activity and occupation, by separating us, as it were, from ourselves, extinguishes those exacting niceties, both of our proper sensibility, and of our self-conceit. i remembered my sufferings, my fears, and my privations after the death of that poor man;--[it was so that she commonly spoke of her husband, scarron.]--and since labour has been the yoke imposed by god on every human being, i submitted with a good grace to the respectable labour of education. few teachers are attached to their pupils; i attached myself to mine with tenderness, with delight. it is true that it was my privilege to find the king's children amiable and pretty, as few children are. ninon de l'enclos.--from the most handsome and amiable man in the world there could not come mediocre offspring. m. du maine is your idol; the king has given him his noble bearing, with his intelligence; and you have inoculated him with your wit. is it true that madame de montespan is no longer your friend? that is a rumour which has credit in the capital; and if the thing is true i regret it, and am sorry for you. madame de maintenon.--madame de montespan, as all paris knows, obtained my pension for me after the death of the queen-mother. this service, comparable with a favour, will always remain in my heart and my memory. i have thanked her a thousand times for it, and i always shall thank her for it. at the time when the young queen of portugal charged herself with my fate and fortune, the marquise, who had known me at the hotel d'albret, desired to retain me in france, where she destined for me the children of the king. i did what she desired; i took charge of his numerous children out of respect for my benefactor, and attachment to herself. to-day, when their first education is completed, and his majesty has recompensed me with the gift of the maintenon estate, the marquise pretends that my role is finished, that i was wrong to let myself be made lady in waiting, and that the recognition due to her imposes an obligation on me to obey her in everything, and withdraw from this neighbourhood. ninon de l'enclos.--absolutely madame de maintenon.--yes, really, i assure you. ninon de l'enclos.--a departure? an absolute retreat? oh, it is too much! does she wish you, then, to resign your office? madame de maintinon.--i cannot but think so, mademoiselle. ninon de l'enclos.--speaking personally, and for my private satisfaction, i should be enchanted to see you quit the court and return to society. society is your element. you know it by heart; you have shone there, and there you would shine again. on reappearing, you would see yourself instantly surrounded by those delicate and (pardon the expression) sensuous minds who applauded with such delight your agreeable stories, your brilliant and solid conversation. those pleasant, idle hours were lost to us when you left us, and i shall always remember them. at the court, where etiquette selects our words, as it rules our attitudes, you cannot be yourself; i must confess that frankly. you do not paint your lovely face, and i am obliged to you for that, madame; but it is impossible for you to refrain from somewhat colouring your discourse, not with the king, perhaps, whose always calm gaze transparently reveals the man of honour, but with those eminences, those grandeurs, those royal and serene highnesses, whose artificial and factitious perfumes already filled your chapel before the incense of the sacrifice had wreathed its clouds round the high altar. the king, suddenly showing himself, somewhat to the surprise of the ladies, said: "i have long wished, mademoiselle, this unique and agreeable opportunity for which i am indebted to madame de maintenon. be seated, i pray you, and permit 'my highness', slightly perfumed though i be, to enjoy for a moment your witty conversation and society. what! the atmosphere does not meet with your approval, and, in order to have madame's society, you desire to disgust her with it herself, and deprive us of her?" "sire," answered ninon, "i have not enough power or authority to render my intentions formidable, and my long regrets will be excused, i hope, since, if madame left versailles, she would cause the same grief there that she has caused us." "one has one's detractors in every conceivable locality. if madame de maintenon has met with one at versailles she would not be exempt from them anywhere else. at paris, you would be without rampart or armour, i like to believe; but deign to grant me this preference,--i can very well protect my friends. i think the town is ill-informed, and that madame de montespan has no interest in separating madame from her children, who are also mine. "you will greatly oblige me, mademoiselle, if you will adopt this opinion and publish it in your society, which is always select, though it is so numerous." then the king, passing to other subjects, brought up, of his own accord, the place of farmer-general, which happened to be vacant; and he said to mademoiselle de l'enclos: "i promise you this favour with pleasure, the first which you have ever solicited of me, and i must beg you to address yourself to madame de maintenon on every occasion when your relations or yourself have something to ask from me. you must see clearly, mademoiselle, that it is well to leave madame in this place, as an agent with me for you, and your particular ambassadress." i learnt all these curious details five or six days later from a young colonel, related to me, to whom mademoiselle de l'enclos narrated her admission and interview at versailles. in reproducing the whole of this scene, i have not altered the sense of a word; i have only sought to make up for the charm which every conversation loses that is reported by a third party who was not actually an eyewitness. this confidence informed me that prejudices were springing up against me in the mind of the favourite. i went to see her, as though my visit were an ordinary one, and asked her what one was to think of ninon's interview with the king. "yes," she said, "his majesty has for a long time past had a great desire to see her, as a person of much wit, and of whom he has heard people speak since his youth. he imagined her to have larger eyes, and something a little more virile in her physiognomy. he was greatly, and, i must say, agreeably surprised, to find that he had been deceived. 'one can see eyes of far greater size,' his majesty told me, 'but not more brilliant, more animated or amiable. her mouth, admirably moulded, is almost as small as madame de montespan's. her pretty, almost round face has something georgian about it, unless i am mistaken. she says, and lets you understand, everything she likes; she awaits your replies without interruption; her contradictions preserve urbanity; she is respectful without servility; her pleasant voice, although not of silver, is none the less the voice of a nymph. in conclusion, i am charmed with her.'" "does she believe me hostile to your prosperity, my dear marquise?" i said at once to madame de maintenon, who seemed slightly confused, and answered: "mademoiselle de l'enclos is not personally of that opinion; she had heard certain remarks to that effect in the salons of the town; and i have given her my most explicit assurance that, if you should ever cease to care for me, my inclination and my gratitude would be none the less yours, madame, so long as i should live." "you owe me those sentiments," i resumed, with a trifle too much fire; "i have a right to count on them. but it is most painful to me, i confess, after having given all my youth to the king, to see him now cool down, even in his courtesy. the hours which he used to pass with me he gives to you, and it is impossible that this innovation should not seem startling here, since all paris is informed of it, and mademoiselle de l'enclos has discussed it with you." "i owe everything that i am to the goodness of the king," she answered me. "would you have me, when he comes to me, bid him go elsewhere, to you or somebody else, it matters not?" "no, but i should be glad if your countenance did not, at such a moment, expand like a sunflower; i should like you, at the risk of somewhat belying yourself, to have the strength to moderate and restrain that vein of talk and conversation of which you have given yourself the supremacy and monopoly; i wish you had the generosity to show, now and again, less wit. this sort of regime and abstinence would not destroy you off-hand, and the worst that could result to you from it would be to pass in his eyes for a woman of a variable and intermittent wit; what a great calamity!" "ah, madame, what is it you suggest!" the lady in waiting replied to me, almost taking offence. "i have never been eccentric or singular with any one in the world, and you want me to begin with my king! it cannot be, i assure you! suggest to me reasonable and possible things, and i will enter into all your views with all my heart and without hesitation." this reply shocked me to the point of irritation. "i believed you long to be a simple and disinterested soul," i said to her, "and it was in this belief that i gave you my cordial affection. now i read your heart, and all your projects are revealed to me. you are not only greedy of respect and consideration, you are ambitious to the point of madness. the king's widowhood has awakened all your wild dreams; you confided to me fifteen years ago that the soothsayer of the marechale d'albret had predicted for you a sceptre and a crown." at these words, the governess made me a sign to lower my voice, and said to me, with an accent of candour and good faith, which it is impossible for me to forget: "i confided to you at the time that puerility of society, just as the marechale and the marshal (without believing it) related it to all france. but this prognostication need not alarm you, madame," she added; "a king like ours is incapable of such an extravagance, and if he were to determine on it, it would not have my countenance nor approval. "i do not think that thus far i have passed due limits; the granddaughter of a great noble, of a first gentleman of the chamber, i have been able to become a lady in waiting without offending the eyes; but the lady in waiting will never be queen, and i give you my permission to insult me publicly when i am." such was this conversation, to which i have not added a word. we shall see soon how madame de maintenon kept her word to me, and if i am not right in owing her a grudge for this promise with a double meaning, with which it was her caprice to decoy me by her shuffling. chapter xxxvi. birth of the duc d'anjou.--the present to the mother.--the casket of patience.--departure of the king for the army.--the king turns a deaf ear.--how that concerns madame de maintenon.--the prisoner of the bastille.--the danger of caricatures.--the administrative thermometer.--actors who can neither be applauded nor hissed.--relapse of the prisoner.--scarron's will.--a fine subject for engraving.--madame de maintenon's opinion upon the jesuits.--the audience of the green salon.--portions from the refectory.--madame de maintenon's presence of mind.--i will make you schoolmaster. madame la dauphine, greatly pleased with her new position, in that she represented the person of the queen, had already given birth to m. le duc de bourgogne; she now brought into the world a second son, who was at once entitled duc d'anjou. the king, to thank her for this gift, made her a present of an oriental casket, which could only be opened by a secret spring, and that not before one had essayed it for half an hour. madame la dauphine found in it a superb set of pearls and four thousand new louis d'or. as she had no generosity in her heart, she bestowed no bounties on her entourage. the king this year made an expedition to flanders. before getting into his carriage he came and passed half an hour or forty minutes with me, and asked me if i should not go and pass the time of his absence at the petit-bourg. "at petit-bourg and at bourbon," i answered, "unless you allow me to accompany you." he feigned not to have heard me, and said: "lauzun, who, eleven or twelve years ago, refused the baton of a marshal of france, asks to accompany me into flanders as aide-de-camp. purge his mind of such ideas, and give him to understand that his part is played out with me." "what business is it of mine," i asked with vivacity, "to teach m. de lauzun how to behave? let madame de maintenon charge herself with these homilies; she is in office, and i am there no longer." these words troubled the king; he said to me: "you will do well to go to bourbon until my return from flanders." he left on the following day, and the same day i took my departure. i went to spend a week at my little convent of saint joseph, where the ladies, who thought i was still in favour, received me with marks of attention and their accustomed respect. on the third day, the prioress, announcing herself by my second waiting-woman, came to present me with a kind of petition or prayer, which, i confess, surprised me greatly, as i had never commissioned any one to practise severity in my name. a man, detained at the bastille for the last twelve years, implored me in this document to have compassion on his sufferings, and to give orders which would strike off his chains and irons. "my intention," he said, "was not, madame, to offend or harm you. artists are somewhat feather-headed, and i was then only twenty." this petition was signed "hathelin, prisoner of state." i had my horses put in my carriage at once, and betook myself to the chateau of the bastille, the governor of which i knew. when i set foot in this formidable fortress, in spite of myself i experienced a thrill of terror. the attentions of public men are a thermometer, which, instead of our own notions, is very capable of letting us know the just degree of our favour. the governor of the bastille, some months before, would have saluted me with his artillery; perhaps he still received me with a certain ceremony, but without putting any ardour into his politeness, or drawing too much upon himself. in such circumstances one must see without regarding these insults of meanness, and, by a contrivance of distraction, escape from vile affronts. the object of my expedition being explained, the governor found on his register that poor hathelin, aged thirty-two to thirty-four years, was an engraver by profession. the lieutenant-general of police had arrested him long ago for a comic or satirical engraving on the subject of m. le marquis de montespan and the king. i desired to see hathelin, quite determined to ask his pardon for all his sufferings, with which i was going to occupy myself exclusively until i was successful. the governor, a man all formality and pride, told me that he had not the necessary authority for this communication; i was obliged to return to my carriage without having tranquillised my poor captive. the same evening i called upon the lieutenant-general of police, and, after having eloquently pleaded the cause of this forgotten young man, i discovered that there was no 'lettre de cachet' to his prejudice, and procured his liberation. he came to pay his respects and thanks to me, in my parlour at saint joseph, on the very day of his liberation. he seemed to me much younger than his age, which astonished me greatly after his misfortunes. i gave him six thousand francs, in order to indemnify him slightly for that horrible bastille. at first he hesitated to take them. "let your captivity be a lesson to you," i said to him; "the affairs of kings do not concern us. when such actors occupy the scene, it is permissible neither to applaud nor to hiss." hathelin promised me to be good, and for the future to concern himself only with his graver and his private business. he wished me a thousand good wishes, with an expansion of heart which caused his tears and mine to flow. but artists are not made like other men; he, for all his good heart, was gifted with one of those ardent imaginations which make themselves critics and judges of notable personages, and, above all, of favourites of fortune. barely five or six months had elapsed when hathelin published a new satirical plate, in which madame de maintenon was represented as weeping, or pretending to weep, over the sick-bed of m. scarron. the dying man was holding an open will in his hand, in which one could read these words: "i leave you my permission to marry again--a rich and serious man--more so than i am." the print had already been widely distributed when the engraver and his plate were seized. this time hathelin had not the honour of the bastille; he was sent to some depot. and although his action was absolutely fresh and unknown to me, all paris was convinced that i had inspired his unfortunate talent. madame de maintenon was convinced of it, and believes it still. the king has done me the honour to assure me lately that he had banished the idea from his mind; but he was so persuaded of it at first that he could not pardon me for so black an intrigue, and, but for the fear of scandal, would have hanged the engraver, hathelin, in order to provide my gentlemen, the engravers, with a subject for a fine plate. about the same time, the jesuits caused madame de maintenon a much more acute pain than that of the ridiculous print. she endured this blow with her accustomed courage; nevertheless, she conceived such a profound aversion to the leaders of this ever-restless company, that she has never been seen in their churches, and was at the greatest pains to rob them of the interior of saint cyr. "they are men of intrigue," she said to madame de montchevreuil, her friend and confidante. "the name of jesus is always in their mouths, he is in their solemn device, they have taken him for their banner and namesake; but his candour, his humility are unknown to them. they would like to order everything that exists, and rule even in the palaces of kings. since they have the privilege and honour of confessing our monarch, they wish to impose the same bondage upon me. heaven preserve me from it! i do not want rectors of colleges and professors to direct my unimportant conscience. i like a confessor who lets you speak, and not those who put words into your mouth." with the intention of mortifying her and then of being able to publish the adventure, they charged one of their instruments to seek her out at versailles in order to ask an audience of her, not as a jesuit, but as a plain churchman fallen upon adversity. the petition of this man having been admitted, he received a printed form which authorised him to appear before madame at her time of good works, for she had her regular hours for everything. he was introduced into the great green salon, which was destined, as one knows, for this kind of audience. there were many people present, and before all this company this old fox thus unfolded himself: "madame, i bless the sovereign dispenser of all things for what he has done for you; you have merited his protection from your tenderest youth. when, after your return from martinique, you came to dwell in the little town of niort, with your lady mother, i saw you often in our jesuit church, which was at two paces from your house. your modesty, your youth, your respectful tenderness towards madame la baronne d'aubigne, your excellent mother, attracted the attention of our community, who saw you every day in the temple with a fresh pleasure, as you can well imagine. madame la baronne died; and we learnt that those tremendous lawsuits with the family not having been completed before her death, she left you, and m. charles, your brother, in the most frightful poverty. at that news, our fathers (who are so charitable, so compassionate) ordered me to reserve every day, for the two young orphans, two large portions from the refectory, and to bring them to you myself in your little lodging. "to-day, being no longer, owing to my health, in the congregation of the jesuit fathers, i should be glad to obtain a place conformable with my ancient occupations. my good angel has inspired me with the thought, madame, to come and solicit your powerful protection and your good graces." madame de maintenon, having sustained this attack with fortitude, and it was not without vigour, replied to the petitioner: "i have had the honour of relating to his majesty, not so very long ago, the painful and afflicting circumstance which you have just recalled to me. your companions, for one fortnight, were at the pains to send to my little brother and to me a portion of their food. our relations; who enjoyed all our property, had reduced us to indigence. but, as soon as my position was ameliorated, i sent fifteen hundred francs to the reverend father superior of the jesuits for his charities. that manner of reimbursement has not acquitted me, and i could not see an unfortunate man begging me for assistance without remembering what your house once did for me. i do not remember your face, monsieur, but i believe your simple assertion. if you are in holy orders i will recommend you to the archbishop of rouen, who will find you a place suitable for you. are you in holy orders?" "no, madame," replied the ex-jesuit; "i was merely a lay brother." "in that case," replied the marquise, "we can offer you a position as schoolmaster; and the jesuit fathers, if they have any esteem for you, should have rendered you this service, for they have the power to do that, and more." etext editor's bookmarks: always sold at a loss which must be sold at a given moment permissible neither to applaud nor to hiss respectful without servility she awaits your replies without interruption these liars in surplice, in black cassock, or in purple wish you had the generosity to show, now and again, less wit you know, madame, that he generally gets everything he wants makers of history louis xiv. by john s. c. abbott with engravings new york and london harper & brothers publishers 1904 entered according to act of congress, in the year 1870, by harper & brothers, in the office of the librarian of congress, at washington copyright, 1898, by laura a. buck. [illustration: louis xiv.] preface we all live a double life: the external life which the world sees, and the internal life of hopes and fears, joys and griefs, temptations and sins, which the world sees not, and of which it knows but little. none lead this double life more emphatically than those who are seated upon thrones. though this historic sketch contains allusions to all the most important events in the reign of louis xiv., it has been the main object of the writer to develop the inner life of the palace; to lead the reader into the interior of the louvre, the tuileries, versailles, and marly, and to exhibit the monarch as a man, in the details of domestic privacy. this can more easily be done in reference to louis xiv. than any other king. very many of the prominent members of his household left their autobiographies, filled with the minutest incidents of every-day life. it is impossible to give any correct idea of the life of this proud monarch without allusion to the corruption in the midst of which he spent his days. still, the writer, while faithful to fact, has endeavored so to describe these scenes that any father can safely read the narrative aloud to his family. there are few chapters in history more replete with horrors than that which records the "revocation of the edict of nantes." the facts given are beyond all possibility of contradiction. in the contemplation of these scenes the mind pauses, bewildered by the reflection forced upon it, that many of the actors in these fiend-like outrages were inspired by motives akin to sincerity and conscientiousness. the thoughtful reader will perceive that in this long and wicked reign louis xiv. was sowing the wind from which his descendants reaped the whirlwind. it was the despotism of louis xiv. and of louis xv. which ushered in that most sublime of all earthly dramas, the french revolution. john s. c. abbott. new haven, conn., 1870. contents. chapter page i. birth and childhood 13 ii. the boy-king 49 iii. matrimonial projects 86 iv. the marriage of the king 121 v. festivities of the court 159 vi. death in the palace 194 vii. the war in holland 234 viii. madame de maintenon 268 ix. the revocation of the edict of nantes 302 x. the secret marriage 330 xi. intrigues and wars 359 xii. last days of louis xiv. 384 engravings. page louis xiv. _frontispiece._ the castle of blois 18 palace of st. germain-en-laye 23 the palais royal 31 palace of the luxembourg 52 the tuileries 74 the castle of vincennes 79 palace of chantilly 98 view of fontainebleau 103 isle of pheasants 129 the louvre and the tuileries 139 palace of fontainebleau 145 chateau mazarin 157 chateau de vaux 176 convent of val de grace 198 the palace of st. cloud 201 interior of st. denis 208 st. denis 236 porte st. denis 254 madame de maintenon 273 palace of versailles 297 parterre of versailles 324 racine and boileau 339 the trianon 351 marly 354 louis xiv. directing the siege 362 front view of st. germain 376 announcement of the death of louis xiv. 409 louis xiv. chapter i. birth and childhood. 1615-1650 marriage of louis xiii.--character of louis xiii.--character of anne of austria.--cardinal richelieu.--the duke of buckingham.--his death.--estrangement of the king and queen.--joy of the nation.--birth of louis xiv.--gift of the pope.--condition of paris.--reconciliation of the king and queen.--orders of louis xiii. respecting the dauphin.--ill health of louis xiii.--the dauphin declared king louis xiv.--last hours of louis xiii.--death of louis xiii.--louis xiv. recognized king.--palais royal.--apartments of the queen regent.--educational arrangements for louis xiv.--speech of louis at five years old.--dislikes the change of teachers.--interest in history.--mazarin's wicked policy.--henrietta, queen of charles i.--figure and bearing of the king.--his first campaign.--the cardinal's nieces.--anecdote.--feud between mazarin and the parliament.--alarm of mazarin.--escape of the royal family from paris.--flight of the court.--discomfort of the court at st. germain.--excitement in paris.--issue of a parliamentary decree.--origin of the names fronde and mazarins.--two rival courts.--straw scarce.--character of mazarin.--termination of the war.--society reversed. louis xiii. of france married anne of austria on the 25th of november, 1615. the marriage ceremony was performed with great splendor in the cathedral of bordeaux. the bride was exceedingly beautiful, tall, and of exquisite proportions. she possessed the whitest and most delicate hand that ever made an imperious gesture. her eyes were of matchless beauty, easily dilated, and of extraordinary transparency. her small and ruddy mouth looked like an opening rose-bud. long and silky hair, of a lovely shade of auburn, gave to the face it surrounded the sparkling complexion of a blonde, and the animation of a brunette.[a] [footnote a: louis xiv. et son siècle.] the marriage was not a happy one. louis xiii. was not a man of any mental or physical attractions. he was cruel, petulant, and jealous. the king had a younger brother, gaston, duke of anjou. he was a young man of joyous spirits, social, frank, a universal favorite. his moody, taciturn brother did not love him. anne did. she could not but enjoy his society. wounded by the coldness and neglect of her husband, it is said that she was not unwilling, by rather a free exhibition of the fascinations of her person and her mind, to win the admiration of gaston. she hoped thus to inspire the king with a more just appreciation of her merits. louis xiii., at the time of his marriage, was a mere boy fourteen years of age. his father had died when he was nine years old. he was left under the care of his mother, mary de medicis, as regent. anne of austria was a maturely developed and precocious child of eleven years when she gave her hand to the boy-king of france. not much discretion could have been expected of two such children, exposed to the idleness, the splendors, and the corruption of a court. anne was vain of her beauty, naturally coquettish, and very romantic in her views of life. it is said that the queen dowager, wishing to prevent anne from gaining much influence over the mind of the king, did all she could to lure her into flirtations and gallantries, which alienated her from her husband. for this purpose she placed near her person madame chevreuse, an intriguing woman, alike renowned for wit, beauty, and unscrupulousness. quite a desperate flirtation arose between anne and little gaston, who was but nine years of age. gaston, whom the folly of the times entitled duke of anjou, hated louis, and delighted to excite his jealousy and anger by his open and secret manifestation of love for the beautiful anne. the king's health failed. he became increasingly languid, morose, emaciate. anne, young as she was, was physically a fully developed woman of voluptuous beauty. the undisguised alienation which existed between her and the king encouraged other courtiers of eminent rank to court her smiles. cardinal richelieu, notwithstanding his ecclesiastical vows, became not only the admirer, but the lover of the queen, addressing her in the most impassioned words of endearment. thus years of intrigue and domestic wretchedness passed away until 1624. the queen had then been married nine years, and was twenty years of age. she had no children. the reckless, hot-headed george villiers, duke of buckingham, visited the french court to arrange terms of marriage between henrietta maria, sister of louis xiii., and the prince of wales, son of james i. of england. he was what is called a splendid man, of noble bearing, and of chivalric devotion to the fair. the duke, boundlessly rich, displayed great magnificence in paris. he danced with the queen, fascinated her by his openly avowed admiration, and won such smiles in return as to induce the king and cardinal richelieu almost to gnash their teeth with rage. this flirtation, if we may not express it by a more emphatic phrase, created much heart-burning and wretchedness, criminations and recriminations, in the regal palace. in august, 1628, the duke of buckingham, then in england, terminated his wretched and guilty life. he fell beneath the dagger of an assassin. anne, disdaining all dissimulation, wept openly, and, secluding herself from the gayeties of the court, surrendered herself to grief. a mutual spirit of defiance existed between the king and queen. both were wretched. such are always the wages of sin. ten more joyless years passed away. the rupture between the royal pair was such that they could scarcely endure each other. louis himself was the first to inform the queen of the news so satisfactory to him, so heart-rending to her, that a dagger had pierced the heart of buckingham. after this they met only at unfrequent intervals. all confidence and sympathy were at an end. it was a bitter disappointment to the queen that she had no children. upon the death of the king, who was in very feeble health, her own position and influence would depend almost entirely upon her having a son to whom the crown would descend. louis resided generally at the castle of blois. anne held her court at the louvre. a married life of twenty-two years had passed away, and still the queen had no child. both she and her husband had relinquished all hope of offspring. on the evening of the 5th of december, 1637, the king, having made a visit to the convent of the visitation, being overtaken by a storm, drove to the louvre instead of blois. he immediately proceeded to the apartments of the queen. anne was astonished, and did not disguise her astonishment at seeing him. he, however, remained until the morrow. [illustration: the castle of blois.] soon after this, to the inexpressible joy of the queen, it appeared that she was to become a mother. the public announcement of the fact created surprise and joy throughout the nation. the king was equally astonished and delighted. he immediately hastened to the louvre to offer the queen his congratulations. the queen repaired to st. germain-en-laye, about six miles from versailles, to await the birth of her child. here she occupied, in the royal palace, the gorgeous apartments in which henry iv. had formerly dwelt. the king himself also took up his abode in the palace. the excitement was so great that st. germain was crowded with the nobility, who had flocked to the place in anxious expectancy of the great event. others, who could not be accommodated at st. germain, stationed couriers on the road to obtain the earliest intelligence of the result. on the 5th of september, 1638, the king was greeted with the joyful tidings of the birth of a son. a vast crowd had assembled in front of the palace. the king, in the exuberance of his delight, took the child from the nurse, and, stepping out upon a balcony, exhibited him to the crowd, exclaiming, "a son! gentlemen, a son!" the announcement was received with a universal shout of joy. the happy father then took the babe into an adjoining apartment, where the bishops were assembled to perform the ordinance of baptism. these dignitaries of the church had been kneeling around a temporary altar praying for the queen. the bishop of meaux performed the ceremony. a te deum was then chanted in the chapel of the castle. immediately after this, the king wrote an autograph letter to the corporation of paris, announcing the joyful tidings. a courier was dispatched with the document at his highest possible speed. the enthusiasm excited in the capital surpassed any thing which had ever before been witnessed. the common people, the nobles, the ecclesiastics, and the foreign embassadors, vied with each other in their demonstrations of joy. a few months after, in july, an extraordinary messenger arrived from the pope, to convey to the august mother and her child the blessing of the holy father. he also presented the queen, for her babe, swaddling-clothes which had been blessed by his holiness. these garments were exceedingly rich with gold and silver embroidery. they were inclosed in a couple of chests of red velvet, and elicited the admiration of the royal pair. the france of that day was very different from that magnificent empire which now stands in intellectual culture, arts, and arms, prominent among the nations of the globe. the country was split up into hostile factions, over which haughty nobles ruled. the roads in the rural districts were almost impassable. paris itself was a small and dirty city, with scarcely any police regulations, and infested with robbers. there were no lamps to light the city by night. the streets were narrow, ill paved, and choked with mud and refuse. immediately after nightfall these dark and crooked thoroughfares were thronged with robbers and assassins, whose depredations were of the most audacious kind. socially, morally, and intellectually, france was at the lowest ebb. the masses of the people were in a degraded condition of squalid poverty and debasement. still the king, by enormous taxation, succeeded in wresting from his wretched subjects an income to meet the expenses of his court, amounting to about four millions of our money. but the outlays were so enormous that even this income was quite unavailing, and innumerable measures of extortion were adopted to meet the deficit. the king was so much gratified by the birth of a dauphin that for a time he became quite reconciled to his beautiful and haughty queen. two years after the birth of the dauphin, on the 21st of september, 1640, anne gave birth to a second son, who took the title of philip, duke of anjou. the queen and her two children resided in the beautiful palace of saint germain-en-laye, where the princes were born. a company of french guards, commanded by captain montigni, protected the castle. madame de lausac was the governess of the two children. the title by which the king's brother was usually designated was simply monsieur. but for these children of the king, the crown, upon the death of the monarch, would descend immediately to monsieur, the king's brother. the morals of the times were such that the king was ever apprehensive that some harm might come to the children through the intrigues of his brother. monsieur lived in paris. the king left orders with madame de lausac that, should his brother visit the queen, the officers of the household should immediately surround the dauphin for his protection, and that monsieur should not be permitted to enter the palace should he be accompanied by more than three persons. [illustration: palace of saint germain-en-laye.] to montigni, the captain of the guard, the king gave half of a gold coin, of which he retained the other half. montigni was commanded to watch over the persons of the princes with the utmost vigilance. should he receive an order to remove them, or to transfer them to other hands, he was enjoined not to obey that order, even should it be in the handwriting of his majesty himself, unless he at the same time received the other half of the broken coin. the king, as we have mentioned, had been for some time in feeble health. early in the spring of 1643 he became seriously ill. the symptoms were so alarming as to lead the king, as well as his friends, to think that death could not be far distant. there are few men so hardened as to be able to contemplate without some degree of anxiety death and the final judgment. the king was alarmed. he betook himself to prayer and to the scrupulous discharge of his religious duties. in preparation for the great change, he repaired to saint germain to invest the queen with the regency when he should die. his brother, monsieur, who had taken the title of the duke of orleans, and all the leading nobles of the court, were present. the king, pale, emaciate, and with death staring him in the face, was bolstered in his bed. anne of austria stood weeping by his side. she did not love her husband--she did love power; but the scene was so solemn and so affecting as to force tears into all eyes. the dauphin was then four and a half years old. he was declared king, with the title of louis xiv., under the regency of his mother until he should attain his majority. the next day, april 21st, the christening of the dauphin with his new title took place with great state in the chapel of the palace. after the celebration of the rite, the dauphin was carried into the chamber of his dying father, and seated upon the bed by his side. the poor king, dying in the prime of life, was oppressed with the profoundest melancholy. there was nothing in the memory of the past to give him pleasure; nothing in the future to inspire him with well-grounded hope. turning to the little prince, who had just been christened with the royal title, he inquired, "what is your name, my child?" "louis xiv.," the dauphin promptly replied. "not yet," said the king, sadly, shaking his head; "but pray god that it may soon be so." a few more days of sickness and suffering passed away, during which it was almost hourly expected that the king would die. death often comes to the palace invested with terrors unknown in the cottage. beneath his sceptre all gradations and conditions of rank disappear. the sufferings of the king were such that he longed for release. on the 13th of may, as the shades of evening were gathering around his dying bed, he anxiously inquired of his physicians if it were possible that he could live until morning. they consulted together, and then informed him that they did not think it possible. "god be praised!" the king replied. "i think it is now time that i should take leave of all whom i love." the royal household was immediately assembled around the couch of the dying monarch. he had sufficient strength to throw his arms around the neck of the queen, and to press her tenderly to his heart. in such an hour past differences are forgotten. in low and broken tones of voice, the king addressed the queen in a few parting words of endearment. the dauphin was then placed in his arms. silently, but with tearful eyes, he pressed his thin and parched lips to both cheeks and to the brow of the child, who was too young to comprehend the solemn import of the scene. his brother, monsieur, the duke of orleans, the king had never loved. in these later years he had regarded him with implacable hostility. but, subdued by the influences of death, he bade that brother an eternal adieu, with even fond caresses. indeed, he had become so far reconciled to monsieur that he had appointed him lieutenant general of the kingdom, under the regency of anne of austria, during the minority of the dauphin. several of the higher ecclesiastics were present, who had assisted in preparing him to die. he affectionately embraced them all, and then requested the bishop of meaux to read the service for the dying. while it was being read he sank into a lethargy, and never spoke again. he died in the forty-second year of his age, after a reign of thirty-three years, having ascended the throne when but nine years old. immediately after the death of the king, anne of austria held a private interview with monsieur, in which they agreed to co-operate in the maintenance of each other's authority. the parliament promptly recognized the queen as regent, and the duke of orleans as lieutenant general, during the minority of the dauphin. the duke de grammont, one of the highest nobles of france, and a distinguished member of the court of louis xiii., had a son, the count de guiche, a few months older than the dauphin. this child was educated as the play-fellow and the companion in study of the young king. one of the first acts of anne of austria was to assemble the leading bodies of the realm to take the oath of allegiance to her son. the little fellow, four and a half years old, arrayed in imperial robes, was seated upon the throne. the count de guiche, a very sedate, thoughtful, precocious child, was placed upon the steps, that his undoubted propriety of behavior might be a pattern to the infant king. both of the children behaved remarkably well. soon after this, at the close of the year 1643, the queen, with her household, who had resided during the summer in the palace of the louvre, took up her residence in what was then called the cardinal palace. this magnificent building, which had been reared at an enormous expense, had been bequeathed by the cardinal richelieu to the young king. but it was suggested that it was not decorous that the king should inhabit a mansion which bore the name of the residence of a subject. therefore the inscription of _cardinal palace_ was effaced from above the doorway, and that of _palais royal_ placed in its stead. the palace had cost the cardinal a sum nearly equal to a million of dollars. this ungrateful disregard of the memory of the cardinal greatly displeased his surviving friends, and called forth earnest remonstrance. but all expostulations were in vain. from that day to this the renowned mansion has been known only as the "palais royal." the opposite engraving shows the palace as left by the cardinal. since his day the building has been greatly enlarged by extending the wings for shops around the whole inclosure of the garden. louis xiv. was at this time five years old. the apartments which had been occupied by richelieu were assigned to the dauphin. his mother, the queen regent, selected for herself rooms far more spacious and elegant. though they were furnished and embellished with apparently every appliance of luxury, anne, fond of power and display, expended enormous sums in adapting them to her taste. the cabinet of the regent, in the gorgeousness of its adornments, was considered the wonder of paris. [illustration: the palais royal.] cardinal mazarin had also a suite of rooms assigned him in the palace which looked out upon the rue des bons enfans. these households were quite distinct, and they were all surrounded with much of the pageantry of royalty. the superintendence of the education of the young prince was intrusted to the cardinal. he had also his governor, his sub-governor, his preceptor, and his valet de chambre, each of whom must have occupied posts of honor rather than of responsibility. the marchioness de senecey, and other ladies of high rank, were intrusted with the special care of the dauphin until he should attain the age of seven years. thus the court of the baby-king was quite imposing. from his earliest years he was accustomed to the profoundest homage, and was trained to the most rigid rules of etiquette. the dauphin early developed a fondness for military exercises. very eagerly he shouldered the musket, brandished the sword, and beat the drum. the temperament of his brother philip, the duke of anjou, was very different: he was remarkably gentle, quiet, and affectionate. gradually the baby-court of the dauphin was increased by the addition of other lads. the young king was the central luminary around whom they all revolved. by them all the dauphin was regarded with a certain kind of awe, as if he were a being of a superior, almost of a celestial race. these lads were termed "children of honor." they always addressed the king, and were addressed in return, with the formality of full-grown men. one day a little fellow named lomenie delighted the king with a gift. the king was amusing himself with a cross-bow, which for the time being happened to be in special favor. he loaned the bow for a few moments to lomenie. soon, however, anxious to regain the valued plaything, he held out his hand to take it back. his governess, the marchioness de senecey, said to him, aside, "sire, kings give what they lend." louis, immediately approaching his companion, said, calmly, "monsieur de lomenie, keep the cross-bow. i wish that it were something of more importance; but, such as it is, i give it to you with all my heart." this was a speech of a boy of five years old to a companion of the same age. when the dauphin reached his seventh birthday, a great change took place in his household. all his female attendants were withdrawn, and he was placed exclusively under the charge of men. it is said that this change was at first the occasion of much grief to him. he had become much attached to many of the ladies, who had devoted themselves to the promotion of his happiness. we are told that he was greatly chagrined to find that none of the gentlemen of his court could tell him any of those beautiful fairy tales with which the ladies had often lulled him to sleep. in conference with the queen upon the subject, it was decided that m. laporte, his first valet de chambre, should read to him every night a chapter of a very popular history of france. the dauphin soon became greatly interested in the narrative. he declared that he, when he grew up, would be a charlemagne, a st. louis, a francis first, and expressed great abhorrence of the tyrannical and slothful kings. the pleasure which the little king took in these historical readings daily increased. cardinal mazarin accidentally found out what was going on, and was greatly displeased. he was anxious that the intellectual powers of the king should not be developed, for the cardinal desired to grasp the reins of government with his own hands. to do this, it was necessary that the king should be kept ignorant, and should be incited only to enervating indulgence. scornfully the cardinal remarked, "i presume the governor of the king must put on his shoes and stockings, as i perceive his valet de chambre is teaching him history." the young king entertained an instinctive aversion to the proud cardinal, who assumed imperial airs, and who was living in splendor far surpassing that of the regent or of the child-king. those who surrounded the prince were equally inimical to the cardinal-minister, who, in that age of superstition and fanaticism, had attained such power that the regent herself stood in awe of him. henrietta, queen of england, wife of the unfortunate charles i., was a daughter of henry iv., and sister of louis xiii. she was consequently aunt to the dauphin. the troubles in england, which soon led to the beheading of the king her husband, rendered it necessary for her to escape to france. her brother, monsieur, duke of orleans, went to the coast to receive his unhappy and royal sister. as they approached paris, the queen regent and her son the king rode out to meet them. henrietta took a seat in the same carriage with their majesties, and returned with them to the louvre. the pallid cheeks and saddened features of the english queen proclaimed so loudly the woes with which she was stricken as to exert universal sympathy. the young king at seven years of age was tall, muscular, and excelled in all physical exercises; but the villainous cardinal had endeavored in every way to dwarf his intellect, so that his mind remained almost a blank. both the young king and his brother at this early age had acquired a very remarkable degree of courtly grace. a chronicler of the times, speaking of the bearing of louis at a court wedding, says, "the king, with the gracefulness which shines in all his actions, took the hand of the queen of poland, and conducted her to the platform, where his majesty opened the dance, and was followed by nearly all the princes, princesses, great nobles, and ladies of the court. at its termination, the king, with the same grace and majestic deportment, conducted the young queen to her place. the king then danced a second time, and led out the duke of anjou with such skill that every one was charmed with the polite bearing of these two young princes." early in the year 1646, the king, not yet quite eight years old, was conducted upon what was singularly called his first campaign. the queen and her son repaired to amiens, where they sojourned for a short time with the army, and established a very brilliant court. when the army left amiens for flanders, the regent and her son returned from their campaign. the infant court of the monarch was now established at paris. the ambitious cardinal had brought from italy several little children, his relatives, the eldest of whom had attained but her twelfth year. they were immediately introduced to the court of louis xiv. the wealth of the cardinal was such, and his influence so great, that, young as these his nieces were, they were instantly surrounded by admirers. the duke of orleans, who hated the cardinal and all that belonged to him, bitterly remarked, "there is such a throng about those little girls that i doubt if their lives are safe, and if they will not be suffocated." the boy-king, however, notwithstanding his dislike for the cardinal, received the little girls with that gallantry for which throughout life he was distinguished. very early he began to develop quite a positive character. on one occasion the courtiers were speaking in his presence of the absolute power exercised by the sultans of turkey. several very striking examples were given. the young prince, who had listened attentively, remarked, "that is as it should be; that is really reigning." "yes, sire," pertinently replied marshal d'estrées, "but two or three of those sultans have, within my memory, been strangled." the prince de condé inquired of laporte, the first valet of the king, respecting the character his young majesty was developing. upon being told that he was conscientious and intelligent, he replied, "so much the better. there would be no pleasure in obeying a fool, and no honor in being commanded by a bad man." cardinal mazarin, the prime minister, who looked with jealousy upon any development of superior intelligence in the dauphin, said to marshal de grammont, "ah! sir, you do not know his majesty. there is enough stuff in him to make four kings and an honest man." there had gradually sprung up a deadly feud between the court, headed by the tyrannical minister mazarin on the one side, and by the parliament on the other. the populace of paris were in sympathy with the parliament. many of the prominent nobles, some even of royal blood, detesting the haughty prime minister, espoused the parliamentary cause. there were riots in paris. affairs looked very threatening. mazarin was alarmed, and decided to escape from paris with the court to the palace of st. germain. there he could protect the court with an ample military force. he thought, also, that he should be able to cut off the supply of provisions from the capital, and thus starve the city into subjection. it was necessary to move with much caution, as the people were greatly agitated, were filling the streets with surging crowds, and would certainly prevent the removal of the king should they suspect the design. the night of the 5th of january was selected as a time in which to attempt the escape. the matter was kept profoundly secret from most of the members of the royal household. at three o'clock in the morning a carriage was drawn up in the gate of the royal garden. the queen regent, who, to avoid suspicion, had retired to bed at the usual hour, had in the mean time risen and was prepared for her flight. the young king and his brother were awoke from their sleep, hurriedly dressed, and conveyed to the carriage in waiting. the queen regent, with several other prominent members of the court, descended the back stairs which led from the queen's apartment and joined the children. immediately one or two other carriages drove up, and the whole party entered them, and by different routes, through the dark and narrow streets, left the city. it was a short ride of about twelve miles. other prominent members of the court, residing in different parts of the city, had been apprised of the movement, so that at five o'clock in the morning twenty carriages, containing one hundred and fifty persons, drove into the court-yard of the palace. one of the ladies who accompanied the expedition, mademoiselle montpensier, gives the following graphic description of the scene: "when we arrived at st. germain we went straight to the chapel to hear mass. all the rest of the day was spent in questioning those who arrived as to what they were doing in paris. the drums were beating all over the city, and the citizens had taken up arms. the countess de fiesque sent me a coach, and a mattress, and a little linen. as i was in so sorry a condition, i went to seek help at the chateau neuf, where _monsieur and madame_ were lodged; but madame had not her clothes any more than myself. nothing could be more laughable than this disorder. i lodged in a large room, well painted and gilded, with but little fire, which is not agreeable in the month of january. my mattress was laid upon the floor, and my sister, who had no bed, slept with me. judge if i were agreeably situated for a person who had slept but little the previous night, with sore throat and violent cold. "fortunately for me, the beds of monsieur and madame arrived. monsieur had the kindness to give me the room which he vacated. as i was in the apartment of monsieur, where no one knew that i was lodged, i was awoke by a noise. i drew back my curtain, and was much astonished to find my chamber quite filled by men in large buff skin collars, who appeared surprised to see me, and who knew me as little as i knew them. "i had no change of linen, and my day chemise was washed during the night. i had no women to arrange my hair and dress me, which is very inconvenient. i ate with monsieur, who keeps a very bad table. still i did not lose my gayety, and monsieur was in admiration at my making no complaint. it is true i am a creature who can make the best of every thing, and am greatly above trifles. i remained in this state ten days, at the end of which time my equipage arrived, and i was very glad to have all my comforts. i then went to lodge in the chateau vieux, where the queen was residing."[b] [footnote b: there were at that time two palaces at st. germain. the old palace, originally built by charles v., and in the alteration of which louis xiv. spent over a million of dollars, still remains. the new palace, constructed by henry iv. about a quarter of a mile from the other, is now in ruins.] at a very early hour in the morning the news was circulated through the streets of paris that the court had fled from the city, taking with it the young king. the excitement was terrible, creating universal shouts and tumults. all who were in any way connected with the court attempted to escape in various disguises to join the royal party. the populace, on the other hand, closed the gates, and barricaded the streets, to prevent their flight. in the midst of this confusion, a letter was received by the municipal magistrates, over the signature of the boy-king, stating that he had been compelled to leave the capital to prevent the seizure of his person by the parliament, and urging the magistrates to do all in their power for the preservation of order and for the protection of property. the king also ordered the parliament immediately to retire from the city to montargis. the parliament refused to recognize the order, declaring "that it did not emanate from the monarch himself, but from the evil counselors by whom he was held in captivity." upon the reception of this reply, the queen regent, who had surrounded her palace at st. germain with a thousand royal troops, acting under the guidance of mazarin, issued a decree forbidding the villages around paris sending into the capital either bread, wine, or cattle. troops were also stationed to cut off such supplies. this attempt to subdue the people by the terrors of famine excited intense exasperation. a decree was promptly issued by the parliament stating, "since cardinal mazarin is notoriously the author of the present troubles, the parliament declares him to be the disturber of the public peace, the enemy of the king and the state, and orders him to retire from the court in the course of this day, and in eight days more from the kingdom. should he neglect to do this, at the expiration of the appointed time all the subjects of the king are called upon to hunt him down." at the same time, men-at-arms were levied in sufficient numbers to escort safely into the city all those who would bring in provisions. the parliament, from the populace of paris, could bring sixty thousand bayonets upon any field of battle. thus very serious civil war was inaugurated. as we have mentioned, many of the nobles, some of whom were allied to the royal family, assuming that they were not contending against their legitimate sovereign, the young king, but against the detested mazarin, were in cordial co-operation with the parliament. the people in the rural districts were also in sympathy with the party in paris. the court party was now called "the _mazarins_," and those of the parliament "the _fronde_." the literal meaning of the word fronde is sling. it is a boy's plaything, and when skillfully used, an important weapon of war. it was with the sling that david slew goliath. during the middle ages this was the usual weapon of the foot soldiers. mazarin had contemptuously remarked that the parliament were like school boys, _fronding in the ditches_, and who ran away at the approach of a policeman. the parliament accepted the title, and adopted the _fronde_ or _sling_ as the emblem of their party. there were now two rival courts in france. the one at st. germain was in a state of great destitution. the palace was but partially furnished, and not at all capable of affording comfortable accommodations for the crowd which thronged its apartments. nothing could be obtained from paris. their purses were empty. the rural population was hostile, and, while eager to carry their products to paris, were unwilling to bring them to st. germain. madame de motteville states in her memoirs "that the king, queen, and cardinal were sleeping upon straw, which soon became so scarce that it could not be obtained for money." the court of the fronde was assembled at the hotel de ville in paris. there all was splendor, abundance, festive enjoyment. the high rank of the leaders and the beauty of the ladies gave éclat to the gathering. cardinal mazarin was not only extortionate, but miserly. he had accumulated an enormous property. all this was seized and appropriated by the fronde. though there were occasional skirmishes between the forces of the two factions, neither of them seemed disposed to plunge into the horrors of civil war. the king sent a herald, clad in complete armor and accompanied by two trumpeters, to the parliament. the fronde refused to receive the herald, but decided to send a deputation to the king to ascertain what overtures he was willing to make. after a lengthy conference a not very satisfactory compromise was agreed upon, and the royal fugitives returned to paris. it was the 5th of april, 1650. a te deum was chanted with great pomp at the cathedral of notre dame. "thus terminated the first act of the most singular, bootless, and, we are almost tempted to add, burlesque war which, in all probability, europe ever witnessed. throughout its whole duration society appeared to have been smitten with some moral hallucination. kings and cardinals slept on mattresses, princesses and duchesses on straw. market-women embraced princes, prelates governed armies, court ladies led the mob, and the mob, in its turn, ruled the city."[c] [footnote c: louis xiv. and the court of france, vol. i., p, 262.] chapter ii. the boy-king. 1650-1653 m. de retz.--fears of mazarin.--escape of the cardinal.--dangers of civil war.--alarm and energy of de retz.--the populace aroused.--palace of the luxembourg.--discovery of the attempted flight of the royal family.--haughty reply of anne of austria.--courage of the queen mother.--respectful conduct of the populace.--fortitude of the regent.--the queen regent dissembles.--vigilance of monsieur.--cardinal mazarin in exile.--majority of the dauphin attained.--imposing ceremony.--appearance of louis xiv.--address of louis.--address of the queen regent.--reply of louis.--power of the king of france.--gallantry of louis.--influence of anne and mazarin upon louis.--conflict between the court and parliament.--mazarin arrives in france.--civil war inaugurated.--mazarin's army defeated.--depression of the regent.--_monsieur._--ludicrous quarrel of louis and his brother.--embarrassment of the court.--conflict at etampes.--destitution of louis xiv.--scenes of the conflict at etampes.--retreat of condé.--battle at st. antoine.--cardinal mazarin forced to retire.--the king invited to return.--the duke of orleans retires to blois.--doom of the leaders of the fronde.--respectful refusal of de retz.--orders for his arrest.--treachery of anne of austria.--arrest of de retz.--return of mazarin.--first care of mazarin.--festivities at court.--approaching coronation.--paucity of notabilities at the coronation.--the king repairs to stenay.--louis in the trenches.--defeat of condé. the reconciliation between the court and the fronde was very superficial. the old antagonism soon reappeared, and daily grew more rancorous. to add to the embarrassment of the court, _monsieur_, the duke of orleans, became alienated from mazarin, and seemed inclined to join the fronde. the most formidable antagonist of the cardinal in the parliament was m. de retz. he was coadjutor of the archbishop of paris, a man of consummate address and great powers of eloquence. the struggle between de retz and mazarin soon became one of life and death. the coadjutor was at length imboldened to offer a decree in parliament urging the king to banish from his presence and his councils cardinal mazarin. this measure threw the court into consternation. the cardinal was apprehensive of arrest. some of his friends urged him to retire immediately to a fortress. others proposed to garrison the palais royal and its neighborhood with an efficient guard. from the saloons of the palace the shouts were heard of the excited populace swarming through the streets. no one could tell to what extremes of violence they might proceed. warned by these hostile demonstrations, the cardinal decided to escape from paris. at ten o'clock at night he took leave of the queen regent, hastened to his apartments, exchanged his ecclesiastical costume for a dress in which he was entirely disguised, and on foot threaded the dark streets to escape from the city. two of his friends accompanied him. at the richelieu gate they took horses, which were awaiting them there, and in two hours alighted at the palace of st. germain. m. de retz, through his spies, was immediately informed of the flight of the cardinal. he at once hastened to communicate the intelligence to _monsieur_. the duke at first could not credit the statement, as he felt assured that mazarin would not have left without taking the young king with him. should the cardinal, in his retreat, gain possession of the king, in whose name he would issue all his orders, it would be hardly possible to avoid the horrors of a desolating civil war. all minds in paris, from the highest to the lowest, were thrown into a state of the most intense excitement. on the night of the second day after the cardinal's flight, m. de retz was awakened by a messenger, who informed him that the duke of orleans was anxious to see him immediately at the palace of the luxembourg. the coadjutor rose, hastily dressed, and in great anxiety repaired to the palace. the duke, though lieutenant general of the kingdom, was a very timid man, and exceedingly inefficient in action. as they entered the chamber of the duke, he listlessly said to m. de retz, "it is just as you said. the king is about to leave paris; what shall we do? i do not see what can be done to prevent it." the resolute coadjutor replied, "we must immediately take possession of the city gates." but the inert and weak duke brought forward sundry silly excuses. he had not sufficient force of character or moral courage to commit himself to any decisive course of action. the only measure he could be induced to adopt was to send a message to the queen regent, imploring her to reflect upon the consequences which would inevitably result from the removal of the king from paris. in the mean time, the resolute and fearless coadjutor sent his emissaries in all directions. the populace were aroused with the cry that mazarin was about to carry off the king. the gates of the city were seized. mounted patrols traversed the streets urging the citizens to arms. an enormous crowd of excited men and women rushed toward the palais royal. [illustration: palace of the luxembourg.] the carriages were, in fact, at that hour, at the appointed rendezvous for the midnight flight of the king and his attendants. the young monarch was already in his traveling dress, just about to descend the stairs of the palace, when the queen was apprised, by the tumult in the streets, that the design was discovered, and that consequently its execution was impracticable. with the utmost precipitancy, the traveling dress of the king was removed, and he was robed in his night garments, replaced in bed, and urged to feign that he was asleep. scarcely was this accomplished ere one of the officers of the household entered and announced to the queen that the exasperated mob was threatening the palace, insisting upon seeing the king, that they might satisfy themselves that he had not been carried away. while he was speaking, another messenger entered with the announcement that the mob had already proceeded to violence, and were tearing down the palisades of the palace. while he was yet speaking, a messenger from the duke of orleans arrived, imploring the queen regent not to attempt the removal of the king, and assuring her that it was impossible to do so, since the citizens were resolved to prevent it. the queen, with dignity, listened to all. to the messenger of the duke of orleans she haughtily replied, "say to the duke that he, instigated by the coadjutor, has caused this tumult, and that he has power to allay it. that nothing can be more unfounded than the idea that there has been any design to remove the king. that both his majesty and his brother, the duke of anjou, are asleep in their beds, as i myself had been until the uproar in the streets had caused me to rise." to satisfy the messenger, m. de souches, she led him into the chamber of the king, and showed him his majesty apparently soundly asleep. as they were softly retiring from the room, the outcry of the populace filling the court-yard was heard shouting "the king! the king! we must see the king." the queen regent hesitated for a moment, and then, with wonderful presence of mind, and with moral and physical courage rarely equaled, turning to the envoy of _monsieur_, said, "say to the people that the doors of the palace shall be immediately thrown open, and that every one who wishes may enter the chamber of the king. but inform them that his majesty is asleep, and request them to be as quiet as is possible." m. souches obeyed. the doors were opened. the mob rushed in. nevertheless, contrary to all expectation, they had no sooner reached the royal apartment than their leaders, remembering that their king was sleeping, desired the untimely visitors to proceed in perfect quiet. as the human tide moved onward, their very breathing was suppressed. they trod the floor with softest footsteps. the same tumultuous multitude that had howled, and yelled, and threatened outside the gates, now, in the chamber of the sovereign, became calm, respectful, and silent. they approached the royal bed with a feeling of affectionate deference, which restrained every intruder from drawing back the curtains. the queen herself performed this office. she stood at the pillow of her son, beautiful in features, of queenly grace in form and stature. pale, calm, and dignified as though she were performing some ordinary court ceremonial, she gathered back the folds of the velvet drapery, and revealed to the gaze of the people their young sovereign in all the beauty of youth, and apparently in profound slumber. this living stream of men and women from the streets of paris continued to flow through the chamber until three o'clock in the morning, entering at one door and passing out at its opposite. through this trying scene the queen never faltered. "like a marble statue," writes miss pardoe, "she retained her position, firm and motionless, her majestic figure drawn haughtily to its full height, and her magnificent arm resting in broad relief upon the crimson draperies. and still the boy-king, emulating the example of his royal parent, remained immobile, with closed eyes and steady breathing, as though his rest had remained unbroken by the incursion of his rebellious subjects. it was a singular and marked passage in the life of both mother and son."[d] [footnote d: louis xiv. and the court of france, vol. i., page 351.] in those days and at that court falsehood was deemed an indispensable part of diplomacy. in the afternoon of the same day in which the scene we have described occurred, the queen assembled in her saloon in the palace the prominent magistrates of the city. with firm voice and undaunted eye, she assured them that she had never entertained the slightest idea of removing his majesty from the city. she enjoined it upon them vigilantly to continue to guard the gates, that the populace might be convinced that no design of escape was cherished. her words were not believed; her directions were obeyed. the gates were rigidly closed. thus the king was a prisoner. the apprehensions of the fronde, that by some stratagem the king might be removed, were so great that _monsieur_ dispatched a gentleman of his household every night to ascertain if the king were quietly in his bed. the messenger, m. desbuches, carried a nightly greeting to the queen, with orders not to leave the palais royal without seeing the young sovereign. the excuse for this intrusion was, that _monsieur_ could not, without this evidence, satisfy the excited citizens that the king was safe. this was a terrible humiliation to the queen regent. cardinal mazarin, having passed the night at st. germain, commenced traveling by slow stages toward havre. he was expecting every hour to be joined by the queen regent and other members of the royal household. he was, however, overtaken by a courier, who announced to him what had transpired in paris, and that the escape of the royal family was impossible. the cardinal thus found himself really in exile, and earnest endeavors were made by the fronde to induce the queen regent to secure a cardinal's hat for m. de retz, and make him her prime minister. the last act of the queen regent was the issuing of a decree that mazarin was banished forever from the kingdom. such was the posture of affairs when, on the 5th of september, 1651, the minority of the dauphin ceased. he now entered upon his fourteenth year, and, immature boy as he was, was declared to be the absolute monarch of france. it was immediately announced to the parliament by the grand master of ceremonies that on the seventh day of the month the king would hold his bed of justice. this name was given to the throne which the king took at extraordinary meetings of parliament. the bed, or couch, was furnished with five cushions, and stood under a gorgeous canopy. upon this couch the king extended himself, leaning upon the cushions. the ceremony was attended with all the pomp which the wealth and taste of the empire could create. as, in the morning, the court left the palais royal, a band of trumpeters led the van, causing the air to resound with their bugle peals. these were followed by a troop of light-horse, succeeded by two hundred of the highest nobility of france, splendidly mounted and in dazzling array. but it is vain to attempt to describe the gorgeous procession of dignitaries, mounted on tall war-horses, caparisoned with housings embroidered with silver and gold, and accompanied by numerous retainers. the attire of these attendants, from the most haughty man of arms to the humblest page, was as varied, picturesque, and glittering as human ingenuity could devise. the young king himself rode upon a magnificent cream-colored charger. he was a beautiful boy, well formed and tall for his age. apparently deeply impressed with the grandeur of the occasion, he appeared calm and dignified to a degree which attracted the admiration of every beholder. as he sat gracefully upon his horse, he appeared almost like a golden statue, for his dress was so elaborately embroidered with gold that neither its material or its color could be distinguished. his high-mettled charger became frightened by the shouts of "long live the king" which burst so enthusiastically from the lips of the crowd. but louis managed the animal with so much skill and self-possession as to increase the admiration with which all seemed to regard him. after attending mass, the young monarch took his seat in the parliament. here the boy of thirteen, covering his head, while all the notabilities of france stood before him with heads uncovered, repeated the following words: "gentlemen,--i have attended my parliament in order to inform you that, according to the law of my kingdom, i shall myself assume its government. i trust that, by the goodness of god, it will be with piety and justice. my chancellor will inform you more particularly of my intentions." the chancellor then made a long address. at its conclusion the queen mother rose and said to her son: "sire,--this is the ninth year in which, by the last will of the deceased king, my much honored lord, i have been intrusted with the care of your education and the government of the state. god having by his will blessed my endeavors, and preserved your person, which is so precious to your subjects, now that the law of the kingdom calls you to the rule of this monarchy, i transfer to you, with great satisfaction, the power which had been granted me to govern. i trust that god will aid you with his strength and wisdom, that your reign may be prosperous." to this the king replied, "i thank you, madame, for the care which it has pleased you to take of my education and the administration of my kingdom. i pray you to continue to me your good advice, and desire that, after myself, you should be the head of my council." the mother and the son embraced each other, and then resumed their conspicuous seats on the platform. the king's brother, philip, duke of anjou, next rose, and, sinking upon his knee, took the oath of allegiance to his royal brother. he was followed in this act by all the civil and ecclesiastical notabilities. the royal procession returned to the gates of the palais royal, greeted apparently by the unanimous acclamations of the people. thus a stripling, who had just completed his thirteenth year, was accepted by the nobles and by the populace as the absolute and untrammeled sovereign of france. he held in his hands, virtually unrestrained by constitution or court, their liberties, their fortunes, and their lives. it is often said that every nation has as good a government as it deserves. in republican america, it seems incredible that a nation of twenty millions of people could have been guilty of the folly of surrendering themselves to the sway of a pert, weak, immature boy of thirteen years. the young king, in those early years, was celebrated for his gallantry. a bevy of young beauties, from the most illustrious families in the realm, crowded his court. the matter of the marriage of the king was deemed of very great moment. according to the etiquette of the times, it was thought necessary that he should marry a lady of royal blood. it would have been esteemed a degradation for him to select the daughter of the highest noble, unless that noble were of the royal family. but these pretty girls were not unconscious of the power of their charms. the haughty anne of austria was constantly harassed by the flirtations in which the young king was continually engaging with these lovely maidens of the court. louis by nature, and still more by education, was egotistical, haughty, and overbearing. his brother philip, on the contrary, was gentle, retiring, and effeminate. the young king wished to be the handsomest man of his court, the most brilliant in wit, and the most fascinating in the graces of social life. he was very jealous of any one of his companions who might be regarded as his rival in personal beauty, or in any intellectual or courtly accomplishment. his mother encouraged this feeling. she desired that her son should stand in his court without a peer. still anne of austria, in conjunction with cardinal mazarin, had done what she could to check the intellectual growth of her son. wishing to retain power as long as possible, they had manifested no disposition to withdraw young louis from the frivolities of childhood. his education had been grossly neglected. though entirely familiar with the routine of his devotional exercises, and all the punctilios of court etiquette, he was in mental culture and general intelligence far below ordinary school-boys of his age. though the king was nominally the absolute ruler of france, still there were outside influences which exerted over him a great control. there is no such thing as independent power. all are creatures of circumstances. there were two antagonistic forces brought to bear upon the young king. anne of austria for nine years had been regent. with the aid of her prime minister, cardinal mazarin, she had governed the realm. this power could not at once and entirely pass from their hands to the ignorant boy who was dallying with the little beauties in the saloons of the palais royal. though mazarin was in exile--an exile to which the queen regent had been compelled to assent--still he retained her confidence, and an influence over her mind. on the other hand, there was the parliament, composed mainly of proud, haughty, powerful nobles, the highest dignitaries of church and state. this body was under the leadership of the coadjutor, m. de retz. the antagonism between the parliament and the court was by no means appeased. the great conflict now rose, which continued through months and years, between them, as to which should obtain the control of the king. impelled by the action of the parliament, the king had applied to the pope for a cardinal's hat to be conferred upon m. de retz. this dignity attained would immeasurably increase the power of the coadjutor. in the mean time, cardinal mazarin, who had fled to spain, had re-entered france with an army of six thousand men. paris was thrown into a state of great agitation. parliament was immediately assembled. the king sent them a message requesting the parliament not to regard the movements of the cardinal with any anxiety, "since the intentions of his eminence were well known by the court." this, of course, increased rather than diminished the fears of the nobles. notwithstanding the message of the king, a decree was immediately passed declaring the cardinal and his adherents disturbers of the public peace. the cardinal was outlawed. a sum equal to thirty thousand dollars, the proceeds of the sale of some property of the cardinal, was offered to any one who should deliver him either dead or alive. unintimidated, mazarin continued his march toward paris, arriving at poictiers at the end of january, one month after having re-entered france. the king, the queen regent, and the whole court advanced there to meet him. they received him with the greatest demonstrations of joy. when the news reached the capital that mazarin had thus triumphantly returned, parliament and the populace were thrown into a state of great excitement. the duke of orleans was roused as never before. the hostile demonstrations in paris became so alarming, that the royal family adopted the bold resolve to return immediately to the capital. the king commenced his march at the head of the troops of the cardinal. when he reached blois, he tarried there for a couple of days to concentrate his forces. civil war was now inaugurated, though on rather a petty scale, between the hostile forces in various parts of the kingdom. the prince of condé was the prominent leader of the parliamentary troops. the city of blois is situated on the right bank of the river loire, about forty-five miles below the city of orleans, which is also on the northern side of the same stream. at blois, the court learned to its consternation that the mazarin army had been attacked at orleans by the prince de condé and utterly routed, with the loss of many prisoners, nearly three thousand horses, and a large part of its ordnance stores. the royal party, which was at this time in a state of great destitution, was quite overwhelmed by the disaster. the queen ordered all the equipages and baggage to be transported to the south side of the loire, and the bridge to be broken down. at midnight, in the midst of a scene of great terror and confusion, this movement was accomplished. as the morning dawned, the carriages, crowded with the ladies of the court, were seen on the left bank of the stream, ready for flight. the queen was, for the only time in her life, so dejected as to seem utterly in despair. she feared that the triumph of the fronde at orleans would induce every city in the kingdom to close its gates against the court. the royal fugitives retreated to montereau. in the disorder of the flight they were exposed to great privation. even the young king lost several of his best horses. thence they proceeded to corbeil, on the right bank of the seine, about twelve leagues from versailles. here a scene occurred which is graphically described by m. laporte, an eye-witness, who was a prominent attendant of his majesty. "the king," writes laporte, "insisted that _monsieur_[e] should sleep in his room, which was so small that but one person could pass at a time. in the morning, as they lay awake, the king inadvertently spat upon the bed of _monsieur_, who immediately spat upon the king's bed in return. thereupon louis, getting angry, spat in his brother's face. when they could spit no longer, they proceeded to drag each other's sheets upon the floor, after which they prepared to fight. during this quarrel i did what i could to restrain the king. as i could not succeed, i sent for m. de villeroi, who re-established peace. _monsieur_ lost his temper sooner than the king, but the king was much more difficult to appease." [footnote e: as louis xiv. was now king, his brother philip, eleven years of age, according to usage, took the title of _monsieur_. the title for a time adhered still to the duke of orleans, brother of louis xiii.] it is very evident that aristocratic titles, and all the formalities of court etiquette, do not change the nature of boyhood. though one of these little belligerents bore the title of louis xiv., king of france, and the other was called monsieur, the duke of anjou, they were in character like all other ungoverned and ungovernable boys. the court, not venturing to enter paris, pursued its way by a circuitous route to st. germain, leaving the city on the left. here an additional gloom was cast over their spirits by the intelligence of very decided acts of hostility manifested against them by the inhabitants of the metropolis. the court was in a state of great embarrassment, without any money, and without possibility of obtaining stores from the capital. it was supposed that cardinal mazarin, noted for his selfishness, had taken good care of himself. but he declared that he was as poor as the meanest soldier in the ranks. while at st. germain, there was another petty conflict between the parliamentary forces and those of the court in the vicinity of etampes, about forty miles from versailles. the fronde was routed with loss. the glad tidings was brought by a courier at night to st. germain. the news was too good to be kept till morning. m. villeroi, to whom it was at first communicated, hastened to the chamber of the king and the duke of anjou, to awake them from sleep and inform them of the victory. they both, laporte informs us, sprang from their beds, and rushed, in their slippers, night caps, and dressing-gowns, to the chamber of the cardinal, whom they awakened with the joyful tidings. he hurried in his turn with them, and in the same unsophisticated costume, to the chamber of the queen, to announce the intelligence to her. the destitution of louis xiv. while at st. germain was such that he borrowed one hundred and ten francs from moreau, one of his valets, for some replenishment of his wardrobe. subsequently the valet, learning that the king had obtained possession of one hundred _louis d'or_, applied for payment of the debt; but the king had already expended the coin. the routed troops of condé took refuge within the walls of etampes. the court, in its elation, immediately proceeded from st. germain to the scene of conflict, to take part in the siege. this was the first serious campaign of the young king. as, attended by his suite, he examined the works, he was at one time under fire, and several bullets passed near him. still young as he was, he had sufficient regard for his reputation and control over himself not to manifest the slightest fear. the scenes of war which here presented themselves to the young monarch were painful in the extreme. he was every where surrounded by sick and dying soldiers. but he had no money with which to relieve their misery, and when finally the city of etampes was taken, the spectacle of starvation, woe, and death was more awful than words can express. as the king was entering the city, he passed a group lying upon the ground, consisting or a mother and three children, huddled closely together. the mother had died of starvation. two of the skeleton children were also dead by her side, and the third, a babe, was straining at the exhausted breast, which could no longer afford it any nourishment. the prince de condé retreated to paris with about three thousand men. the royal troops, eight thousand in number, pursued. each party gathered re-enforcements, so that the prince de condé, with about five thousand men, held at bay the royal troops, then numbering about ten thousand. the citizens, as we have mentioned, were in sympathy with the parliament. they hated cardinal mazarin, and with good reason regarded the king as a prisoner in his hands. the king also detested mazarin personally, while the force of circumstances compelled him to regard the cardinal as the advocate of the royal cause. a very severe battle was fought between the two parties in the faubourg st. antoine. the ranks of the fronde, shattered by overpowering numbers, were, in a disordered retreat, hotly pursued by their foes under marshal turenne. the carnage was dreadful. suddenly the cannon of the bastile flamed out in rapid succession, hurling their deadly shot through the compact masses of the royalists. they recoiled and fled in confusion. paris was in the hands of the fronde. the populace surged through the streets, shouting "long live the king! death to mazarin!" the cardinal, taking the king with him, retired to st. denis. turenne re-collected his scattered forces at pontoise, about twenty miles north from versailles. the cardinal, with the king, took refuge at that place in the centre of turenne's army. here the king issued an ordinance, transferring the parliament from paris to pontoise; but the parliament replied "that they could not obey the royal command so long as cardinal mazarin, whom they had outlawed, remained in france." they also issued an ordinance of their own, forbidding any member of the parliament to leave paris. the king, we know not under what influences, acquiesced in both of these decrees. this led the cardinal immediately to tender his resignation and retire. this important step changed the whole aspect of affairs. after the removal of the cardinal, all opposition to the court became rebellion against the king, to whom the fronde professed entire allegiance. [illustration: the tuileries.] parliament immediately issued a decree, thanking the king for banishing the cardinal, and imploring him to return to his good city of paris. after some negotiation the king acceded to their wishes, and on the 17th of october arrived at st. germain. here a numerous civic guard and deputation hastened to greet him, and to conduct him to the metropolis. on the 20th he proceeded to ruel, where he passed the night. the king decided to enter the city at the head of his army. in order to render the scene more imposing, it was to take place at night, by the light of thousands of torches. the spectacle was such as paris had rarely witnessed. the fickle people, ever ready to vibrate between the cry of hosanna and crucify, pealed forth their most enthusiastic rejoicings. the triumphant boy-king took possession of the tuileries. cardinal de retz, who had now gained his long-coveted ecclesiastical distinction, hastened to congratulate the king and his mother upon their return to the city, from which they had so long been banished. the duke of orleans, chagrined and humiliated, retired to blois. the king soon held what was called a bed of justice, in which, instead of granting a general amnesty, he denounced the princes condé and conti, and other of the prominent leaders of the fronde, as traitors to their king, to be punished by death. these doomed ones were nobles of high rank, vast wealth, with thousands of retainers. many throughout the kingdom were in sympathy with them. they would not die without a struggle. hence the war, which had hitherto raged between mazarin and the fronde, was renewed between the king and the fronde. all over the provinces the hostile forces were rallying themselves for the conflict. it was necessary that the parliament should register this decree of the king. it did so, but cardinal de retz refused to give his vote. he very respectfully declared to the king that he, having been on friendly terms and in co-operation with the prince de condé, it would be neither courteous nor just for him to vote his condemnation. this enraged both the king and his mother. they said it proved that he was in sympathy with their enemies. the court did not venture at once to strike down one so formidable. a mission was assigned the cardinal at rome, to remove him from the country. he refused to accept it. the boy-king was growing reckless, passionate, self-willed. he began to feel the power that was in his hand. the cardinal was warned of his danger. he smiled, and said "that, sustained by his ecclesiastical rank, he had nothing to fear." the court issued an order for the arrest of the cardinal. it was placed in the hands of pradelle for execution. but the king was told that the cardinal would never suffer himself to be arrested without resistance; that, to secure his seizure, it might be necessary to take his life. the king seized a pen and wrote at the bottom of the order, "i have commanded pradelle to execute the present order on the person of de retz, and even to arrest him, dead or alive, in the event of resistance on his part. "louis." it was deemed very important to arrest the cardinal, if possible, without exciting a popular tumult. the palace of the cardinal was well guarded. he never went out without a numerous retinue. should the populace of paris see him endangered, they would spring to his rescue. at length de retz was earnestly invited to visit the queen at the louvre, in token that he was not hostile to the court. it was one of the most dishonorable of stratagems. the cardinal was caught in the trap. as he was entering the antechamber of the queen upon this visit of friendship, all unsuspicious of treachery, the captain of the guard, who had been stationed there for the purpose with several gendarmes, seized him, hurried him through the great gallery of the louvre, and down the stairs to the door. here a royal carriage was awaiting him. he was thrust into the carriage, and five or six officers took seats by his side. to guard against any possibility of rescue, a numerous military escort was at hand. the horses were driven rapidly through the streets, and out through the porte st. antoine. at nine o'clock the cardinal found himself a prisoner at the castle of vincennes. the apartment assigned him was cold and dreary, without furniture and without a bed. here the prisoner remained a fortnight, in the middle of december, with no fire. the arrest of the cardinal created a great sensation throughout paris. but the chateau was too strong, and too vigilantly guarded by the royal troops, to encourage any attempt at a rescue. [illustration: the castle of vincennes.] in the mean time, mazarin had placed himself at the head of the royal troops in one of the provinces, where he gained several unimportant victories over the bands of the fronde. these successes were trumpeted abroad as great achievements, so as to invest the cardinal with the renown of a great conqueror. mazarin was well aware of the influence of military glory upon the populace in paris. the king also began to feel the need of his dominant mind. he was invited to return to paris. louis himself rode out six miles beyond the walls to receive him. the cardinal entered the city in triumph, in the same carriage with his sovereign, and seated by his side. all the old idols were forgotten, and the once detested mazarin was received as though he were an angel from heaven. bonfires and illuminations blazed through the streets; the whole city resounded with demonstrations of rejoicing. thus terminated the year 1652. the first care of cardinal mazarin, after his return to paris, was to restore the finances, which were in a deplorable condition. louis was fond of pleasure. it was one great object of the cardinal to gratify him in this respect, in every possible way. notwithstanding the penury of the court, the cardinal contrived to supply the king with money. thus, during the winter, the royal palaces resounded with festivity and dissipation. the young king became very fond of private theatricals, in which he, his brother philip, and the young ladies of the court took prominent parts. louis often appeared upon the stage in the character of a ballet-dancer. he was proud of the grace with which he could perform the most difficult pirouettes. he had plays written, with parts expressly composed for his aristocratic troop. the scene of these masqueradings was the theatre of the hotel du petit bourbon, which was contiguous to the louvre. when royalty plays and courtiers fill pit and gallery, applause is without stint. the boy-king was much elated with his theatric triumphs. the queen and cardinal mazarin were well pleased to see the king expending his energies in that direction. these entertainments cost money, which mazarin was greatly embarrassed in obtaining. the hour was approaching for the coronation of louis. the pageant would require large sums of money to invest the occasion with the desirable splendor. but gold was not all that was wanted. rank, brilliance, beauty were requisite suitably to impress the masses of the people. but the civil war had robbed the court of many of its most attractive ornaments. monsieur, the duke of orleans, was sullenly residing at blois. here he held a somewhat rival court to the king. he refused to attend the coronation unless certain concessions were granted, to which mazarin could not give his consent. mademoiselle, the duchess of montpensier, daughter of monsieur by his first wife, a young lady of wonderful heroism and attractions, who possessed an enormous property in her own right, and who was surrounded by a brilliant court of her own, could not consistently share in festivities at which her father refused to appear. the prince of condé, one of the highest nobles of the realm, and who had many adherents of the most illustrious rank, was in arms against his king at the head of the spanish forces, and sentence of death had been pronounced upon him. cardinal de retz was a prisoner at vincennes. his numerous followers in church and state refused to sanction by their presence any movements of a court thus persecuting their beloved cardinal. it was thus impossible to invest the coronation with the splendor which the occasion seemed to demand. the coronation took place, however, at rheims. cardinal mazarin exerted all his ingenuity to render the pageant imposing; but the absence of so many of the most illustrious of the realm cast an atmosphere of gloom around the ceremonies. france was at the time at war with spain. the fronde co-operated with the spanish troops in the civil war. immediately after the coronation, the king, then sixteen years of age, left rheims to place himself at the head of the army. he repaired to stenay, on the meuse, in the extreme northeastern frontier of france. this ancient city, protected by strong fortifications, was held by condé. the royal troops were besieging it. the poverty of the treasury was such that mazarin could not furnish louis even with the luxury of a carriage. he traveled on horseback. he had no table of his own, but shared in that of the marquis de fabert, the general in command. it seems difficult to account for the fact that the young king was permitted to enter the trenches, and to engage in skirmishes, where he was so exposed to the fire of the enemy that the wounded and the dead were continually falling around him. he displayed much courage on these occasions. the prince of condé left a garrison in one of the strong fortresses, and marched with the main body of his troops to arras. the movements of the two petty armies, their skirmishes and battles, are no longer of any interest. the battles were fought and the victories gained by the direction of the generals turenne and fabert. though the boy-king displayed intrepidity which secured for him the respect of the soldiers, he could exert but little influence either in council or on the field. both stenay and arras were soon taken. the army of the prince of condé was driven from all its positions. the king returned to paris to enjoy the gratulation of the populace, and to offer public thanksgiving in the cathedral of notre dame. chapter iii. matrimonial projects. 1653-1656 gayeties in paris.--poverty of the court.--death of the archbishop of paris.--murmurings.--escape of cardinal de retz.--manoeuvres of anne of austria.--olympia de mancini.--henrietta of england.--embarrassment of henrietta.--rudeness of louis xiv.--royal quarrel.--independence of the king.--order of the king.--audacity of louis.--submission of parliament.--a tournament.--christina of sweden.--reception of christina.--her eccentric character.--astonishment of anne of austria.--varied information of christina.--rudeness of the ex-queen.--she visits mademoiselle.--christina returns to sweden.--outbreak of christina.--letter to cardinal mazarin.--count de soissons.--marriage of olympia mancini.--mademoiselle d'argencourt.--the pope's choir.--mary mancini.--description of mary mancini.--mary mancini becomes a member of the court.--her influence over louis.--ambitious views of mazarin.--projects for the marriage of louis xiv.--diplomatic efforts with spain.--the princess of orange.--power of mary mancini.--the princess marguerite.--anger of the queen regent.--decision of the cabinet.--new negotiations.--the two courts arrange to meet at lyons.--fickleness of louis.--the royal parties meet.--the princess marguerite.--sorrows of mary. "there is nothing so successful as success." the young king returned to paris from his coronation and his brief campaign a hero and a conqueror. the courage he had displayed won universal admiration. the excitable populace were half frenzied with enthusiasm. the city resounded with shouts of gladness, and the streets were resplendent with the display of gorgeous pageants. the few nobles who still rallied around the court endeavored to compensate by the magnificence of their equipages, the elegance of their attire, and the splendor of their festivities, for their diminished numbers. there were balls and tournaments, where the dress and customs of the by-gone ages of chivalry were revived. ladies of illustrious birth, glittering in jewels, and proud in conscious beauty, contributed to the gorgeousness of the spectacle. still, in the midst of all this splendor, the impoverished court was greatly embarrassed by straitened circumstances. cardinal mazarin, eager to retain his hold upon the king, did everything he could to gratify the love of pleasure which his royal master developed, and strove to multiply seductive amusements to engross his time and thoughts. but a few days after cardinal de retz had been conducted a prisoner to vincennes, his uncle, the archbishop of paris, died. the cardinal could legally claim the succession. the metropolitan clergy, who had been almost roused to rebellion by his arrest, were now still more deeply moved, since he had become their archbishop. they regarded his captivity as political martyrdom, and their murmurs were deep and prolonged. the pope also addressed several letters to the court, soliciting the liberation of his cardinal. the excitement daily increased. nearly all the pulpits more or less openly denounced his captivity. at length a pamphlet appeared urging the clergy to close all their churches till their archbishop should be released. mazarin was frightened. he sent an envoy to the captive cardinal presenting terms of compromise. we have not space to describe the diplomacy which ensued, but the conference was unavailing. the cardinal was soon after removed, under an escort of dragoons, to the fortress of nantes. from this place he almost miraculously escaped to his own territory of retz, where he was regarded as sovereign, and where he was surrounded by retainers who, in impregnable castles, would fight to the death for their lord. these scenes took place early in the summer of 1653. in the mean time, the young king was amusing himself in his various palaces with the many beautiful young ladies who embellished his court. like other lads of fifteen, he was in the habit of falling in love with one and another, though the transient passion did not seem very deeply to affect his heart. some of these maidens were exceedingly beautiful. in others, vivacity and intellectual brilliance quite eclipsed the charms of the highest physical loveliness. anne of austria, forgetting that the all-dominant passion of love had led her to regret that she was the wife of the king, that she might marry the duke of buckingham, did not deem it possible that her son could stoop so low as to marry any one who was not of royal blood. she therefore regarded without much uneasiness his desperate flirtations, while she was scanning the courts of europe in search of an alliance which would add to the power and the renown of her son. one of the nieces of cardinal mazarin, an italian girl by the name of olympia mancini, was among the first to whom the boy-king of fifteen became specially attached. olympia was very beautiful, and her personal fascinations were rivaled by her mental brilliance, wit, and tact. she was by nature and education a thorough coquette, amiable and endearing to an unusual degree. she had a sister a little older than herself, who was also extremely beautiful, who had recently become the duchess of mercoeur. etiquette required that in the balls which the king attended every evening he should recognize the rank of the duchess by leading her out first in the dance. after this, he devoted himself exclusively, for the remainder of the evening, to olympia. it will be remembered that henrietta, the widowed queen of charles ii., who was daughter of henry iv. and sister of louis xiii., was then residing in france. she had no pecuniary means of her own, and, chagrined and humiliated, was a pensioner upon the bounty of the impoverished french court. henrietta had with her a very pretty daughter, eleven years of age. being the granddaughter of henry iv. and daughter of charles ii., she was entitled, through the purity of her royal blood, to the highest consideration in the etiquette of the court. but the mother and the daughter, from their poverty and their misfortunes, were precluded from any general participation in the festivities of the palace. the queen, anne of austria, on one occasion, gave a private ball in honor of these unfortunate guests in her own apartments. none were invited but a few of her most intimate friends. henrietta attended with her daughter, who bore her mother's name. there are few situations more painful than that of poor relatives visiting their more prosperous friends, who in charity condescend to pay them some little attention. the young henrietta was a fragile and timid girl, who keenly felt the embarrassment of her situation. as, with her face suffused with blushes, and her eyes moistened with the conflicting emotions of joyousness and fear, she entered the brilliant saloon of anne of austria, crowded with those below her in rank, but above her in prosperity and all worldly aggrandizement, she was received coldly, with no marks of sympathy or attention. as the music summoned the dancers to the floor, the king, neglecting his young and royal cousin, advanced, according to his custom, to the duchess of mercoeur, to lead her out. the queen, shocked at so gross a breach of etiquette, and even of kindly feeling, rose from her seat, and, advancing, withdrew the hand of the duchess from her son, and said to him, in a low voice, "you should dance first with the english princess." the boy-king sulkily replied, "i am not fond of little girls." both henrietta and her daughter overheard this uncourteous and cruel remark. henrietta, the mother, hastened to the queen, and entreated her not to attempt to constrain the wishes of his majesty. it was an exceedingly awkward position for all the parties. the spirit of anne of austria was aroused. resuming her maternal authority, she declared that if her niece, the princess of england, were to remain a spectator at the ball, her son should do the same. thus constrained, louis very ungraciously led out henrietta upon the floor. the young princess, tender in years, sensitive through sorrow, wounded and heart-crushed, danced with tears streaming down her cheeks. upon the departure of the guests, the mother and the son had their first serious quarrel. anne rebuked louis severely for his shameful conduct. the king rebelled. haughtily facing his mother, he said, "i have long enough been guided by your leading-strings. i shall submit to it no longer." it was a final declaration of independence. though there were tears shed on both sides, and the queen made strenuous efforts at conciliation, she felt, and justly felt, that the control of her son had passed from her forever. it was a crisis in the life of the king. from that hour he seemed disposed on all occasions to assert his manhood. a remarkable indication of this soon occurred. it was customary, when the king, through his ministers, issued any decrees, that they should be registered by the parliament, to give them full authority. some very oppressive decrees had been issued to raise funds for the court. it was deemed very important that they should be registered. the king in person attended parliament, that the influence of his presence might carry the measure. no one dared to oppose in the presence of the king. louis had now established his summer residence at the castle of vincennes. arrangements had been made for a magnificent hunt in the forest the next day, to be attended by all the ladies and gentlemen of the court. the king, after leaving the parliament, returned to vincennes, which is about three miles from paris. he had scarcely arrived at the castle when he received information that, immediately upon his leaving the parliament, a motion had been made to reconsider the approval of the decrees. the king dispatched a courier ordering the chamber to reassemble the next morning. the pleasure-loving courtiers were dismayed by this order, as they thought it would interfere with the hunt. but the king assured them that business should not be allowed to interfere with his pleasures. at half past nine o'clock the next morning the king entered the chamber of deputies in his hunting-dress. it consisted of a scarlet coat, a gray beaver hat, and high military boots. he was followed by a large retinue of the nobles of his court in a similar costume. "in this unusual attire," writes the marquis de montglat, "the king heard mass, took his place with the accustomed ceremonies, and, with a whip in his hand, declared to the parliament that in future it was his will that his edicts should be registered, and not discussed. he threatened them that, should the contrary occur, he would return and enforce obedience." how potent must have been the circumstances which the feudalism of ages had created. these assembled nobles yielded without a murmur to this insolence from a boy of eighteen. parliament had ventured to try its strength against cardinal mazarin, but did not dare to disobey its king. soon after this, louis, having learned that turenne had gained some important victories over the fronde, decided to join the army to witness the siege of the city of condé and of st. quilain. both of these places soon fell into the hands of the royalist troops. the king had looked on. rapidly he returned to paris to enjoy almost a roman triumph for his great achievement. as one of the festivities of the city, the king arranged a tournament in honor of his avowed lady-love, olympia mancini. she occupied a conspicuous seat among the ladies of the court, her lovely person decorated with a dress of exquisite taste and beauty. the king was prominent in his attire among all the knights assembled to contest the palm of chivalry. he was dressed in robes of brilliant scarlet. a white scarf encircled his waist, and snow-white plumes waved gracefully from his hat. the scene was as gorgeous as the wealth and decorative art of the court could create. there were retainers surrounding the high lords, and heralds, and pages, and trumpeters, all arrayed in the most picturesque costume. no one could be so discourteous or impolitic as to vanquish the king. he consequently bore away all the laurels. this magnificent tournament gave the name of "the carousal" to the space where it was held, between the louvre and the tuileries. early in the summer the court removed to compiègne, to spend the season in rural amusements there. christina, the young queen of sweden, who had just abdicated the throne, and whose eccentricities had attracted the attention of europe, came to the frontiers of france with an imposing retinue, and, announcing her arrival, awaited the invitation of the king to visit his court. she was one of the most extraordinary personages of that or any age. good looking, "strong minded" to the highest degree, masculine in dress and address, always self-possessed, absolutely fearing nothing, proud, haughty, speaking fluently eight languages, familiar with art, and a consummate _intriguante_, she excited astonishment and a certain degree of admiration wherever she appeared. the curiosity of louis was so greatly excited and so freely expressed to see this extraordinary personage as to arouse the jealousy of olympia. the king perceived this. it is one of the most detestable traits in our fallen nature that one can take pleasure in making another unhappy. the unamiable king amused himself in torturing the feelings of olympia. [illustration: palace of chantilly.] christina proceeded at first to paris. here she was received with the greatest honor. for a distance of nearly six miles from the louvre the streets were lined with armed citizens, who greeted her with almost unintermitted applause. the crowd was so great that, though she reached the suburbs of paris at two o'clock in the afternoon, she did not alight at the louvre until nine o'clock in the evening. this eccentric princess was then thirty years of age, and, though youthful in appearance, in dress and manners she affected the amazon. she had great powers of pleasing, and her wit, her entire self-reliance, and extensive information, enabled her to render herself very attractive whenever she wished to do so. after spending a few days in paris, she proceeded to compiègne to visit the king and queen. louis and his brother, with mazarin and a crowd of courtiers, rode out as far as chantilly, a distance of nearly twenty miles, to meet her. christina also traveled in state, accompanied by an imposing retinue. here there was, at that time, one of the largest and finest structures in france. the castle belonged to the family of condé. the opposite cut presents it to the reader as it then appeared. the king and his brother, from some freak, presented themselves to her at first _incognito_. they were introduced by mazarin as two of the most nobly born gentlemen in france. christina smiled, and promptly replied, "yes, i have no doubt of it, since their birthright is a crown." she had seen their portraits in the louvre the day before, and immediately recognized them. christina was to be honored with quite a triumphal entrance to compiègne. the king accordingly returned to compiègne, and the next day, with the whole court in carriages, rode out a few leagues to a very splendid mansion belonging to one of the nobles at fayet. it was a lovely day, warm and cloudless. anne of austria decided to receive her illustrious guest upon the spacious terrace. there she assembled her numerous court, resplendent with gorgeous dresses, and blazing with diamonds. soon the carriage of the swedish queen drove up, with the loud clatter of outriders and the flourish of trumpets. cardinal mazarin and the duke de guise assisted her to alight. as she ascended the terrace the queen advanced to meet her. though anne was at first struck with amazement at the ludicrous appearance of the attire of christina, she was immediately fascinated by her conversational tact and brilliance. some allusion having been made to the portrait of the king in the louvre, the queen held out her arm to show a still more faithful miniature in the clasp of her bracelet. anne of austria had a very beautiful arm, and was very proud of it. christina, instead of looking at the bracelet, surveyed the undraped arm and hand with admiration. "how beautiful! how beautiful!" she exclaimed. "never did i see an arm and hand of such lovely hue and such exquisite symmetry. i would willingly have made the journey from rome to paris to see this arm." the queen's heart was won, christina knew it. the next achievement was to win the king. christina was apparently as familiar with the french court, and all the intrigues there, from the information which she had obtained, as if she had always been a resident at that court. she immediately turned with very marked attention to olympia mancini, and seemed dazzled by her beauty. the heart of the boy-king was won in seeing his own good taste thus highly appreciated and sanctioned. having thus secured the queen and the king, christina was well aware that she had captivated the whole court. an elegant collation was prepared. the plump little queen ate like a hungry dragoon. the royal cortège, enveloping the swedish princess, returned to the palace of compiègne. several days were spent at compiègne, during which she astonished every one by the remarkable self-poise of her character, her varied information, and the versatility of her talents. she conversed upon theology with the ecclesiastics, upon politics with the ministers, upon all branches of science and art with philosophers and the _virtuosi_, and eclipsed the most brilliant of the courtiers in the small-talk of gallantry. she attended the theatre with the queen. during the tragedy she wept like a child, heartily and unaffectedly. during the farce, which was one of those coarse and pungent compositions by the poet scarron, which would now be scarcely tolerated, her shouts of laughter echoed through the theatre. she astonished the court by clapping her hands and throwing her feet upon the top of the royal box, like a rowdy in a smoking-room. [illustration: view of fontainebleau.] from compiègne, christina, by invitation, went to fontainebleau to visit mademoiselle de montpensier. the piquant pen of mademoiselle has described this interview. some allowance must perhaps be made for the vein of satire which pervaded nearly all the utterances of this haughty princess. the dress of christina consisted of a skirt of gray silk, trimmed with gold and silver lace, with a bodice of gold-colored camlet trimmed like the skirt. she wore a kerchief of genoa point about her neck, fastened with a knot of white ribbon. a light wig concealed her natural hair. her hat was profusely decorated with white plumes. she looked, upon the whole, mademoiselle thought, like a handsome boy. mademoiselle, accustomed to the rigid propriety of the french court, was not a little surprised to hear christina, during the comedy, interlard her conversation with hearty oaths, with all the volubility of an old guardsman. she flung about her legs in the most astonishing manner, throwing them over the arms of her chair, and placing herself in attitudes quite unprecedented in parisian circles. soon after this, this amazonian princess returned by a circuitous route to her northern home. before taking leave of her, it may be well to remark that subsequently christina made a second visit to france uninvited--not only uninvited, but very unwelcome. she took possession of the palace of fontainebleau with her attendants, where with cold courtesy she was tolerated. in a freak of passion, she accused her grand equerry, m. monaldeschi, of high treason, and actually put him to death. so high-handed an outrage, even in those days of feudal barbarism, excited throughout france a universal feeling of disgust and indignation. the sentiment was so strong and general that the king deemed it necessary to send her a letter through his minister, mazarin, expressive of his extreme displeasure. christina, much exasperated, sent a reply containing the following expressions: "mr. mazarin,--those who acquainted you with the details regarding monaldeschi, my equerry, were very ill informed. your proceeding ought not, however, to astonish me, silly as it is. but i should never have believed that either you or your haughty young master would have dared to exhibit the least resentment toward me. learn all of you, valets and masters, little and great, that it was my pleasure to act as i did; that i need not, and i will not account for my actions to any one in the world, and particularly to bullies of your description. i wish you to know, and to say to all who will hear it, that christina cares very little about your court, and still less about yourself; and that, in order to revenge my wrongs, i do not require to have recourse to your formidable power. believe me, therefore, jules,[f] you had better conduct yourself in a manner to deserve my favor, which you can not study too much to secure. god preserve you from ever risking the least indiscreet remark upon my person. although at the end of the earth, i shall be informed of your plots. i have friends and courtiers in my service who are as clever and far-sighted as yours, although they are not so well paid. "christina." [footnote f: jules, the christian name of mazarin.] soon after this her swedish majesty disappeared from france, to the great relief of the court, and was seen there no more. olympia mancini had ever increasing evidence that the love of the king for her was but a frivolous and heartless passion. the count de soissons, of savoy, a young prince who had just become the head of his house, visited the court of louis xiv. the marvelous beauty of olympia, at first glance, won his heart. he was young, handsome, chivalric, high-born, and was just entering upon a magnificent inheritance. olympia had recently lost by death a mother whom she greatly revered, and a beloved sister. she was overwhelmed with grief. the entire want of sympathy manifested by the king shocked her. he thought of nothing but his own personal pleasure. regardless of the grief of olympia, he exhibited himself, evening after evening, in court theatricals, emulating the agility of an opera-dancer, and attired in spangled robes. wounded and irritated by such conduct, olympia accepted the proffered hand of the count de soissons, who was grandson of charles v. the marriage was attended with great splendor at the palace of the louvre. all the court was present. the king himself seemed not at all discomposed that another should marry the beautiful maiden whom he had professed so ardently to love. indeed, he was already beginning to transfer his attentions to mademoiselle d'argencourt, a queenly beauty of the high family of conti. her figure was perfect, her manners were courtly in the highest degree, and all who approached her were charmed with her conversational vivacity and tact. but mademoiselle's affections were already engaged, and, being fully aware that the king flitted from beauty to beauty, like the butterfly from flower to flower, she very frankly intimated to the king that she could not receive his attentions. louis was heart-broken; for such fragile hearts are easily broken and as easily repaired. he hastened to his mother, and told her that he must leave paris to conquer his passion. the love-sick monarch retired to vincennes, spent ten days there, and returned quite cured. the marriage of olympia, as we have mentioned, was celebrated with very great brilliance. the ambitious cardinal, in heart disappointed that he had not been able to confer the hand of olympia on the king, was increasingly desirous of investing the members of his family with all possible éclat. he had imported for the occasion the principal members of the pope's choir. these wonderful vocalists from the sistine chapel astonished the french court with melody and harmony such as had never been heard in the louvre before. olympia had a younger sister, mary, fifteen years of age. she had come from her school in a convent to witness the marriage festivities. the music and the impressive scene affected the artless child deeply, and her tears flowed freely. the king, surrounded by the brilliant beauties of his court, accidentally caught sight of this child. though not beautiful, there was something in her unaffected attitude, her tears, her entire absorption in the scene, which arrested his attention. mary had early developed so bold, independent, and self-reliant a spirit as to induce her father, on his death-bed, to entreat madame de mancini to compel her to take the veil. in compliance with this injunction, mary had been placed in a convent until she should attain the fitting age to assume the irrevocable vows. thus trained in seclusion, and with no ambitious aspirations, she had acquired a character of perfect simplicity, and her countenance bore an expression of intelligence and sensibility far more attractive than ordinary beauty. a contemporaneous writer says, "her movements, her manners, and all the bearing of her person were the result of a nature guided by grace. her look was tender, the accents of her voice were enchanting. her genius was great, substantial, and extensive, and capable of the grandest conceptions. she wrote both good prose and pleasing poetry; and mary mancini, who shone in a courtly letter, was equally capable of producing a political or state dispatch. she would not have been unworthy of the throne if among us great merit had been entitled to obtain it." the king inquired her name. upon learning that she was a niece of the cardinal, and a sister of olympia, he desired that she might be presented to him. mary was an enthusiast. the young king was very handsome, very courtly, and a perfect master of all the phrases of gallantry. mary fell in love with him, without knowing it, at first sight. it was not the _monarch_ which had won her, but the _man_, of exquisitely symmetrical proportions, so princely in his bearing, so fascinating in his address. the young schoolgirl returned to her convent with the image of the king indelibly engraven on her heart. the few words which passed between them interested the king, for every word she said bore the impress of her genius. ere long she was added to the ladies of the queen's household. the king, having closed his flirtation with mademoiselle d'argencourt, found himself almost insensibly drawn to mary mancini. though there were many in his court more beautiful in person, there were none who could rival her in intellect and wit. though naturally timid, her reserve disappeared when in his presence. though ever approaching him with the utmost possible deference and respect, she conversed with him with a frankness to which he was entirely unaccustomed, and which, at the same time, surprised and charmed him. his vanity was gratified with the almost religious devotion with which she unaffectedly regarded her sovereign, while at the same time she addressed him with a bold simplicity of utterance which astounded the courtiers and enthralled the king. he was amazed and bewildered by the grandeur of a character such as he had never encountered before. she reproved him for his faults, instructed him in his ignorance, conversed with him upon themes beyond the ordinary range of his intellect, and endeavored to enkindle within him noble impulses and a lofty ambition. the king found himself quite unable to compete with her strength of intellect. his weaker nature became more and more subject to one endowed with gifts far superior to his own. in every hour of perplexity, in every serious moment, when the better nature of the king gained a transient ascendency, he turned from the frivolity of the gay and thoughtless beings fluttering around him to mary mancini for guidance and strength. the ambition of cardinal mazarin was again excited with the hope that he might yet place a niece upon the throne of france. but there was no end to the intrigues of ambitious aspirants, directly or indirectly, for the hand of the young king. mademoiselle de montpensier had enormous wealth, was of high birth, and was endowed with marvelous force of character. she had long aspired to share the throne with her young cousin. when it was evident that this plan had failed, the duke of orleans brought forward a younger daughter by a second wife. but mazarin succeeded in thwarting this arrangement. the princess henrietta of england, whom the young king had treated so cruelly at the ball, was urged upon him. she was lovely in person, amiable in character, but in poverty and exile. cromwell was in the plenitude of his power. there was no probability that her family would be restored to the throne. the king turned coldly from her. portugal was then one of the most wealthy and powerful courts of europe. the queen of portugal was exceedingly anxious to unite her daughter with the king of france. through her embassadors she endeavored to effect an alliance. a portrait of the princess was sent to louis. it was very beautiful. the king made private inquiries. she was very plain. this settled the question. the portuguese princess was thought of no more. the king of spain had a very beautiful daughter, maria theresa. the spanish monarchy then, perhaps, stood second to none other on the globe. spain and france were engaged in petty and vexatious hostilities. a matrimonial alliance would secure friendship. the matter was much talked of. the proud queen-mother, anne of austria, was very solicitous to secure that alliance, as it would gratify her highest ambition. mazarin professed warmly to favor it. he probably saw insuperable obstacles in the way, but hoped, by co-operating cordially with the wishes of the queen, to be able finally to secure the marriage of the king with mary mancini. maria theresa was heiress to the throne of spain. should she marry louis xiv., it would be necessary for her to leave spain and reside in paris. thus the queen of france would be the queen of spain. in fact, spain would be annexed to france as a sort of tributary nation, the court being at paris, and all the offices being at the disposal of the queen of france, residing there. the pride of the spaniards revolted from this, and still the diplomatists were conferring upon the matter. henrietta, the unfortunate widow of charles i. of england, had an elder daughter, who had married the prince of orange, the head of the illustrious house of nassau. this princess of orange was very beautiful, young, in the enjoyment of vast possessions, and a widow. she aspired to the hand, and to share the crown of the king of france. surrounded by great magnificence and blazing with jewels, she visited the court of louis xiv. her mission was signally unsuccessful. the king took a strong dislike to her, and repelled her advances with marked discourtesy. while matters were in this state, charles ii. offered his hand to mary mancini. but the proud cardinal would not allow his niece to marry a crownless and impoverished king. in the mean time, mary mancini, by her increasing beauty and her mental superiority, was gaining daily more influence over the mind of the king. with a voice of singular melody, a brilliant eye, a figure as graceful and elastic as that of a fairy, and with words of wonderful wisdom flowing, as it were, instinctively from her lips, she seemed effectually and almost unconsciously to have enthralled the king. all his previous passions were boyish and ephemeral. but mary was very different from any other lady of the court. her depth of feeling, her pensive yet cheerful temperament, and her full-souled sympathy in all that was truly noble in conduct and character, astonished and engrossed the susceptible monarch. the duchess of savoy had a daughter, marguerite, whom she wished to have become the wife of the french king. the princess was by birth of the highest rank, being a descendant of henry iv. the duchess sent as an envoy a young piedmontese count to treat secretly with the cardinal for the marriage of the king with the princess marguerite. the count was unsuccessful. it was quite evident that mazarin was intending to secure the marriage of the king with his niece. the proud queen, anne of austria, became greatly alarmed. she mortally offended the cardinal by declaring to him that nothing should induce her to consent to such a degradation of her son as to permit his marriage with the niece of the cardinal. she declared that in such an event she herself would head an insurrection against the king, and that the whole of france would revolt both against him and his minister. these bitter words ever after rankled in the bosom of the cardinal. the queen summoned a secret assembly of the cabinet, and put to them the question whether the marriage of her son without her consent would be a valid one. the unanimous decision was in the negative. she then had this decision carefully drawn up, and made effectual arrangements to have it registered by the parliament, should the king secretly marry mary mancini. the cardinal now found himself compelled to abandon his ambitious hopes for his niece, and opened again negotiations with spain for the hand of the infanta maria theresa, and with the court of savoy for the princess marguerite. the spanish marriage would terminate the war. the union with savoy would invest france with new powers for its vigorous prosecution. every day the attachment of the king to mary mancini became more undisguised. she guided his reading; she taught him the italian language; she introduced to him the names of great men in the works of literature and art, and labored heroically to elevate his tastes, and to inspire him with the ambition of performing glorious deeds. the queen, in her anxiety, made arrangements for the king to meet the princess marguerite at lyons, that they might be betrothed. she greatly preferred the alliance with spain; but as there seemed to be insuperable objections to that, she turned her attention to savoy. the king continued his marked and almost exclusive attentions to mary, and she loved him with the full flow of her ardent affections. the whole court was to proceed in great magnificence to lyons, to meet the court of savoy. mary was compelled to accompany the court. she knew full well the errand upon which louis was bound. though her heart was heavy, and tears dimmed her eyes, she was obliged to appear cheerful. she had made an earnest effort to avoid the journey, but anne of austria was obdurate and cruel. she assured mary that she could not spare her presence when she wished to impress the princess marguerite with the magnificence and beauty of the french court. the court of savoy left turin at the same time that the french court left paris. the pledge had been given that, should the king be pleased with the appearance of marguerite, the marriage should take place without delay. during the journey, the heartless and fickle king, ever charmed by novelty, was in buoyant spirits. though he still clung to the side of mary, giving her a seat in his own carriage, and, when the weather was fine, riding by her side on horseback, he tortured her heart by the joyousness with which he spoke of the anticipated charms of marguerite and of his approaching marriage. at lyons the royal party was received with great magnificence. the next day it was announced that the court of savoy was approaching. the queen-mother and her son, with two ladies in the royal coach, preceded, and, followed by a considerable retinue, advanced to meet their guests. the king mounted his horse and galloped forward to get a sight of marguerite without being known by her. she was riding in an open barouche. he soon returned in great glee, and, springing from the saddle, re-entered the carriage, and informed his mother that the princess marguerite was very beautiful. scarcely had he said this ere the two royal coaches met. both parties alighted. the princess was introduced to louis. then the queen-mother and her son, the duchess of savoy and the princess marguerite, and an elder daughter, who was a widow, entered the royal coach and returned to lyons. the king was in exuberant spirits. he at once entered into the most animated and familiar conversation with the princess. the princess marguerite fully appreciated the embarrassment of her own situation. she was going to lyons to present herself to louis xiv. to see if he would take her for his wife. the humiliation of being rejected would be dreadful. in vain she implored her mother to spare her from such a possibility. but the question seemed to be at once settled favorably. the king was manifestly much pleased with marguerite, and the princess could see nothing but attractions in the young, handsome, and courtly sovereign of france. poor mary, who was informed of every thing that transpired, was suffering martyrdom. she was immediately forsaken and forgotten. in public, all her force of character was called into requisition to dress her face in smiles. in her secret apartment she wept bitterly. chapter iv. the marriage of the king. 1658-1661 marguerite of savoy.--sudden change of prospects.--an heir to the spanish throne.--rejection of marguerite.--mazarin communicates with the duchess of savoy.--private interview of mazarin and the duchess of savoy.--conduct of the king.--movements of mazarin.--power of the cardinal.--mary exiled from the court.--mary's parting with the king.--the isle of pheasants.--interview of louis with mary.--negotiations with spain.--marriage preparations according to spanish etiquette.--appearance of the infanta.--interview of anne of austria and her brother.--meeting of louis xiv. and his bride.--tedious ceremonies.--gorgeous entrance into the capital.--cruelty of the queen-mother.--the prince colonna.--mary is presented to the young queen of france.--misery of mary mancini.--mary concludes to accept the hand of prince colonna.--marriage of mary mancini.--character of louis xiv. and maria theresa.--magnificent ceremonies.--festivities continued.--revolting state of society.--mazarin guilty of great extortion.--fatal accident.--sufferings of the cardinal.--oppressive measures of the cardinal.--confession of mazarin.--advice of m. colbert.--suspense of the cardinal.--his property restored.--death of mazarin.--his immense wealth.--legacies of mazarin.--views of louis xiv. the princess marguerite of savoy was very beautiful. she was a brunette, with large, lustrous eyes, fairy-like proportions, queenly bearing, and so graceful in every movement that she scarcely seemed to touch the ground as she walked. her reception by the king, the queen, and the whole court was every thing that could be desired. the duchess and her daughter that night placed their heads upon their pillows with the undoubting conviction that marguerite was to be the queen of france. the king ordered his suite to be ready, in their gala dresses, to attend him on the morrow to the apartments of the princess. the morning came. to the surprise and bewilderment of the court, every thing was changed. the king was thoughtful, distant, reserved. with great formality of etiquette, he called upon the princess. his countenance and manner indicated an entire change of feeling. with the coldest phrases of court etiquette he addressed her. he was civil, and civil only. the warmth of the lover had disappeared entirely. the duchess of savoy was astounded. even the french court seemed stupefied by so unexpected and decisive an alteration in the aspect of affairs. the explanation which gradually came to light was very simple. during the night a courier had arrived, in breathless haste, with the announcement that the queen of spain had given birth to a son. maria theresa was no longer heir to the throne. the way was consequently open to the spanish marriage. this alliance would secure peace with spain, and was altogether a more powerful and wealthy connection than that with the court of savoy. the cardinal immediately communicated the intelligence to the queen-mother and the king. they alone knew it. marguerite was to be rejected, and the hand of maria theresa to be claimed. mary mancini was utterly bewildered by the change, so inexplicable to her, in the posture of affairs. the face of the queen was radiant with joy. the king seemed a little embarrassed, but very triumphant. the duchess of savoy betrayed alternately surprise, indignation, and despair. the eagle eye and painful experience of mary taught her that the princess marguerite was struggling to retain her self-possession, and to maintain a cheerful spirit, while some terrible blow had fallen upon her. the news from spain was such that mazarin, upon receiving it after midnight, hastened to the bedchamber of the queen with the announcement. as he entered, the queen rose upon her pillow, and the cardinal said: "i have come to tell you, madame, a piece of news which your majesty never anticipated." "is peace proclaimed?" inquired the queen, earnestly. "more than peace," the cardinal exultantly replied; "for the infanta brings peace in her hand as but a portion of her dower." this extraordinary scene took place on the night of the 29th of november, 1658. it was the task of the wily cardinal to break the humiliating intelligence to the duchess of savoy. he assured her that he felt bound to seek, above all things else, the interests of france; that an opportunity had unexpectedly occurred for an alliance with spain; that this alliance was far more desirable than any other; but that, should any thing occur to interrupt these negotiations, he would do every thing in his power to promote the marriage of the king with the princess marguerite. notwithstanding the intense irritation which this communication excited, there was too much self-respect and too much good breeding in the court of savoy to allow of a sudden rupture, which would provoke the sarcastic remarks of the world. still the duchess, in a private interview with mazarin, could not restrain her feelings, but broke out into passionate upbraidings. the thought that she had been lured to expose herself and her daughter to the derision of all europe stung her to the quick. the princess marguerite, however, by her graceful composure, by her courtesy to all around her, and by the skill with which she concealed her wounded feelings, won the admiration of all in both courts. for several days the two courts remained together, engaged in a round of festivities. this seemed necessary to avoid the appearance of an open rupture. the fickle king, in these assemblies, treated marguerite with his customary courtesy; but he immediately turned to mary mancini with his marked attentions and devotion, dancing with her repeatedly on the same evening, and keeping her constantly by his side. indeed, his attentions were so very marked as to lead the courtiers to think that the king rejoiced at his escape from his marriage with marguerite from the hope that it might yet lead to his securing mary for his bride. but it is more probable that the king, utterly selfish, reckless of the feelings of others, and devoted to his own enjoyment, sought the society of mary because it so happened that she was the one, more than any other then within his reach, who, by her personal beauty and her mental attractions, could best beguile his weary hours. he was ready at any moment, without a pang, to lay her aside for another who could better minister to his pleasure or to the aspirings of his ambition. the king, with his court, returned to paris. the secret communicated by the mysterious visitor from spain was still undivulged. the mystery was so great, and its apparent bearing upon the destiny of mary so direct, that she resolved to interrogate one of the most influential ministers of the court upon the subject. he, thinking in some degree to evade the question, replied that the courier had come simply to inform anne of austria that the queen of spain had given birth to a son. this revealed the whole to mary. in the mean time, arrangements were made for cardinal mazarin to meet the spanish minister on the frontiers of the two kingdoms to negotiate for the spanish marriage. the cardinal, fully convinced that now it would be impossible to secure the hand of the king for his niece mary, and anxious to convince the queen that he was heartily engaged in promoting the spanish alliance, ordered mary immediately to withdraw from the court, and retire to brouage. this was a fortified town on the sea-coast many leagues from paris. the king heard of the arrangement, and, forbidding the departure of mary from the court, hastened to the cardinal demanding an explanation. mazarin informed him that the infanta of spain would be very indignant should she learn that, while he was making application for her hand, he was retaining near him one whom he had long treated with the most devoted and affectionate attentions; that her father, philip iv., would be disgusted; that there would be a probable rupture of the negotiations; and that the desolating war between france and spain would continue. louis declared that he should not allow his pleasure to be disturbed by such considerations. roused by opposition, he went so far as to say that he was quite ready to carry on the war with spain if that power so wished; that the war would afford him an opportunity to acquire glory in the eyes of his countrymen, and in that case he would marry mary mancini. but the cardinal was fully conscious that neither the queen nor france would now submit to such an arrangement. he had with great skill retained his attitude of command over the young monarch, holding his purse and governing the realm, while the boy-king amused himself as a ballet-dancer and a play-actor. the cardinal remained inexorable. it is said that the king wept in the excess of his chagrin as he felt compelled to yield to the representations of his domineering minister. as he unfolded to him the miseries which would be inflicted, not only upon the kingdom, but upon the court, should the desolating and expensive war be protracted, the king threw himself upon a sofa, and buried his face in his hands in silent despair. it was decided that mary should be exiled from the court. the king, thwarted, vexed, wretched, repaired to the cabinet of his mother. they conversed for an hour together. as they retired from the cabinet, madame de motteville says, "the eyes of both were red with weeping. the orders were immediately issued for mary's departure. she was to go with an elder sister and her governess. the morrow came; the carriage was at the door. mary, having taken leave of the queen, repaired to the apartment of louis to bid him adieu. she found him deluged in tears. summoning all her resolution to maintain self-control, she held out her trembling hand, and said to him reproachfully, 'sire, you are a king; you weep; and yet i go.'" the king uttered not a word, but, burying his face in his hands upon the table, sobbed aloud. mary saw that it was all over with her; that there was no longer any hope. without speaking a word, she descended the stairs to her carriage. the king silently followed her, and stood by the coach door. she took her seat with her companions, and, without the interchange of a word or a sign, the carriage drove away. louis remained upon the spot until it disappeared from sight. [illustration: isle of pheasants.] the isle of pheasants, a small spanish island in the bidassoa, a boundary river between france and spain, was fixed upon as the rendezvous for the contracting parties for the royal marriage. four days after the exile of mary, the king and court, with a magnificent civil and ecclesiastical retinue, set out for the island. the king insisted, notwithstanding the vehement remonstrances of the queen, upon visiting mary mancini on the journey. as the splendid cortège passed through the streets of paris, the whole population was on the pavement, shouting a thousand blessings on the head of their young king. mary mancini had received orders from the queen to proceed with her sister to saint jean d'angély, where, upon the passage of the court, she was to have an interview with the king. "her interview," writes miss pardoe, "was, however, a bitter one. divided between vanity and affection, louis was at once less firm and less self-possessed than mary. he wept bitterly, and bewailed the fetters by which he was shackled. but as he remarked the change which nights of watching and of tears had made in her appearance, he felt half consoled. the only result of this meeting was to harrow the heart of the poor victim of political expediency, and to prove to her upon how unstable a foundation she had built her superstructure of hope."[g] [footnote g: louis xiv. and the court of france, vol. ii., p. 23, 24.] from saint jean d'angély the court proceeded, by way of bordeaux, to toulouse. here they awaited the conclusion of the treaty. the negotiation was tedious, as each party was anxious to gain all that was possible from the other. many questions of national moment and pride were involved. at length the conference was amicably concluded. the king agreed to pardon the prince of condé, and restore to him all his honors; and the infanta maria theresa renounced for herself and her descendants all claim to the inheritance of her parents. she was to receive as a dowry five hundred thousand golden crowns. there were several other articles included in the treaty which have now ceased to be of any interest. much surprise was soon excited in the court of louis xiv. by the intimation that the marriage ceremony must be postponed until the spring. philip iv. stated that his infirm health would not allow him to take so long a journey in the inclement weather of winter. louis xiv. had never yet seen his affianced bride. we do not learn that he was at all annoyed by the delay. the intervening weeks were passed in journeyings and a round of amusements. early in may, 1660, the king returned to the vicinity of the isle of pheasants, where he was to meet the king of spain and maria theresa. the most magnificent preparations had been made at the isle of pheasants for the interview between the two courts and the royal nuptials. bridges were constructed to the island from both the french and spanish sides of the river. these bridges were covered, and so decorated as to present the aspect of beautiful galleries. upon the island a palace was erected, consisting of one immense and gorgeous apartment, with lateral chambers and dressing-rooms. this apartment was carpeted, and furnished with all the splendor which the combined monarchies of france and spain could command. two doors, directly opposite each other, enabled the two courts to enter simultaneously. a straight line across the centre of the room divided it into two portions, one half of which was regarded as french, and the other as spanish territory. the spanish court took up its residence at fontarabia, on the eastern or spanish bank of the river. louis and his court occupied saint jean de luz, on the french or western side of the stream. there are many exactions of court etiquette which to republican eyes seem extremely irrational and foolish. louis could not cross the river to take his spanish bride, neither could maria theresa cross the stream to be married on french soil; therefore don luis de haro, as the proxy of louis xiv., having the french bishop of frejus as his witness, was married to maria theresa in the church at fontarabia. the ceremony was conducted with the most punctilious observance of the stately forms of spanish etiquette. madame de motteville gives the following account of the appearance of the bride: "the infanta is short, but well made. we admired the extreme fairness of her complexion. the blue eyes appeared to us to be fine, and charmed us by their softness and brilliancy. we celebrated the beauty of her mouth, and of her somewhat full and roseate lips. the outline of her face is long, but, being rounded at the chin, pleased us. her cheeks, rather large, but handsome, had their share of our praise. her hair, of a very light auburn, accorded admirably with her fine complexion." the infanta was dressed in white satin, ornamented with small bows of silver serge. she wore a large number of brilliant gems, and her head was decorated with a mass of false hair. the first lady of her household bore her train. during the ceremony philip iv. stood between his daughter and the proxy of louis. the princess did not present her hand to don luis, nor did he present to her the nuptial ring. at the close of the ceremony the father embraced his child, and silently the gorgeous train swept from the church. the next day anne of austria, accompanied by her second son, then duke of orleans, repaired to the isle of pheasants to meet her brother, philip iv., and the royal bride. court etiquette did not yet allow louis xiv. to have an interview with the lady to whom he was already married by proxy. he, however, sent to his young queen, by one of his nobles, a present of some very fine jewels. though philip iv. was the brother of anne of austria, and though they had not met for many years, spanish etiquette would not allow any demonstrations of tenderness. the interview was chillingly stately and dignified. anne, for a moment forgetting the icy restraints of the court, in sisterly love endeavored to salute her brother on the cheek. the spanish king held back his head, rejecting the proffered fondness. the young bride threw herself upon her knees, requesting permission to kiss the hand of anne of austria. the queen-mother lifted her from the floor, and tenderly embraced her. after some time had elapsed, cardinal mazarin entered, of course from the french side, and, advancing to their majesties, informed them that there was a distinguished stranger at the door who begged permission to enter. anne and philip affected to hold a brief conference upon the subject, when they gave their consent for his admission. louis xiv. entered in regal attire to see for the first time, and to be seen for the first time by, his bride. as he approached, maria theresa fixed her eyes upon him, and blushed deeply. philip iv. smiled graciously, and said audibly to anne of austria, "i have a very handsome son-in-law." as we have mentioned, there was a line separating the spanish half of the room from the french half. louis advanced to the centre of the apartment, and kneeled upon a cushion which had been provided for him there. the king of spain kneeled also upon a similar cushion. cardinal mazarin then brought in a bible, with a cross upon the volume. one of the high spanish church officials did the same on his side. the treaty of peace was then read simultaneously to philip iv. in spanish, to louis xiv. in french. at its conclusion, they each placed their hands upon the bible, and took a solemn oath to observe its stipulations. during this scene one sovereign was ceremonially in france, and the other in spain. having taken the oath, they rose, and in stately strides advanced to the frontier line. here they cordially embraced each other. at the conclusion of sundry other ceremonies, some tedious, some imposing, the two courts returned each to its own side of the river. maria theresa accompanied her father. the next morning the queen-mother, with a suitable retinue, returned to the island palace, where she met again the bride of her son, and conducted her to her own apartments at saint jean de luz. two days elapsed, while preparations were made again to solemnize the marriage beneath the skies of france. a platform was constructed, richly carpeted, from the residence of anne of austria to the church. the young maiden-queen was robed in french attire for this repetition of the nuptial ceremony. she wore a royal mantle of violet-colored velvet, sprinkled with fleur de lis, over a white dress. a queenly crown was upon her brow. her gorgeous train was borne by three of the most distinguished ladies of france. at the conclusion of this ceremony louis xiv. received his bride. the king was then in the twenty-second year of his age. until within a week of the royal marriage, the king wrote frequently to mary mancini. then the correspondence was suddenly dropped. the king never after seemed to manifest any interest in her fate. after a few days of festivity, the court commenced, on the 15th of june, its leisurely return toward paris. having reached vincennes, the illustrious cortège tarried for several days in the royal chateau there, until preparations could be completed for a magnificent entrance into the capital. the gorgeous spectacle took place on the 26th of august, 1660. for many weeks the saloons of the louvre and the tuileries resounded with unintermitted revelry. [illustration: the louvre and the tuileries.] very cruelly the queen-mother sent a message to mary mancini, expressing her regret that she could not be present at the royal nuptials, and requiring her to come immediately to be present at the entrée of the king and queen into the metropolis, and to share in the festivities of the palace. the order came to the crushed and bleeding heart of mary like a death-summons. accompanied by her two sisters, and with suitable attendants, she set forth on her sad journey. all france was rejoicing over the royal marriage, and as her carriage rapidly approached paris, every hour pierced her heart with a new pang. with all the fortitude she could summon, she could not retain the roseate glow of health and happiness. her cheeks were pale and emaciate, and her forced smile only proclaimed more loudly the grief which was consuming her heart. she alighted at the new palace of her uncle, cardinal mazarin, and hastily retired to her apartment. she had scarcely entered her room ere a letter from the cardinal was presented to her, soliciting her hand for prince colonna, one of the most illustrious nobles in wealth and rank in europe. this marriage would give her position scarcely second to that of any lady not seated on a throne. the ambitious cardinal, not fully understanding the delicate mechanism of a young lady's heart, had negotiated this matter, hoping thus to rescue his niece from the humiliating sympathy of the courtiers. but the noble nature of mary recoiled from such a rescue. she had instinctively resolved that in her own person, and by her own individual force of character, however great might be her sufferings, she would maintain her womanly dignity. consequently, to the surprise of the cardinal, she returned a cold and positive refusal to the proposition. soon after this she received a communication to repair to the palace of fontainebleau, there to be presented to the young queen, with her two sisters, and many others of the notabilities of the realm. the presentation was to take place on the ensuing sunday, immediately after high mass. her elder sister, the countess de soissons, assisted by the princess de conti, was to preside at the ceremony. mary had just entered the audience-hall, and was approaching the queen to be presented, when louis xiv. entered the apartment to invite maria theresa to accompany him in a walk in the park. just at that moment madame de soissons was presenting mademoiselle _mancini_. the king heard the name which had once been apparently so dear to him. without the slightest emotion or the least sign of recognition, he bowed, as if in the presence of a perfect stranger, and inquired of mary respecting her uncle the cardinal. he then exchanged a few courteous words with the other ladies in the room with the same assumed or real indifference, and invited all the ladies of the circle to attend the queen in a hunt in which she was about to engage. it seemed as if the fates had combined to expose poor mary to every species of mental torture. her brain reeled, and, scarcely able to retain her footing, she withdrew a little apart to rally her disordered senses. unable any longer to endure these sufferings, she begged to be excused from attending the hunt, alleging that the feeble health of her uncle the cardinal rendered it necessary for her to return to paris. her carriage was ordered for her departure, but, at a short distance from the chateau, she encountered the whole hunting-party, filling the road with its splendor. her carriage was compelled to stop, that the king and queen and royal train might pass. "and thus again she saw louis, who preceded the cavalcade on horseback, surrounded by the nobles of his court. the heart of mary throbbed almost to bursting. it was impossible that the king should not recognize the livery of her uncle--the carriage in which he had so often been seated by her side; he would not, he _could_ not pass her by without one word. she deceived herself. his majesty was laughing at some merry tale, by which he was so much engrossed that he rode on without even bestowing a look upon the gilded coach and its heart-broken occupant."[h] [footnote h: louis xiv. and the court of france, vol. ii., p. 48.] mary returned to paris pondering deeply her awful destiny. she saw that she was fated to meet continually the king and queen in their festivities; that with a broken heart she must feign gayety and smiles; that by lingering torture she must sink into the grave. there was no refuge for her but to escape from paris and from the court. apparently the only way to accomplish this was to accept the proffered hand of the prince colonna, who would remove her from paris to rome. [illustration: palace of fontainebleau.] the next morning, pale and tearless, mary drove to vincennes, where cardinal mazarin then was, and informed him that she was ready to marry prince colonna, provided the marriage could take place immediately, and that the cardinal would, without an hour's delay, write to the king to obtain his consent. the cardinal was rejoiced, and proceeded with energy. the king, without one kind word, gave his cold and indifferent consent. in accordance with the claims of etiquette, he sent her some valuable gifts, which she did not dare to decline. "mary walked to the altar," says miss pardoe, to whom we are indebted for many of these details, "as she would have walked to the scaffold, carrying with her an annual dower of one hundred thousand livres, and perjuring herself by vows which she could not fulfill. her after career we dare not trace. suffice it that the ardent and enthusiastic spirit which would, had she been fated to happiness, have made her memory a triumph for her sex, embittered by falsehood, wrong, and treachery, involved her in errors over which both charity and propriety oblige us to draw a veil; and if all europe rang with the enormity of her excesses, much of their origin may safely be traced to those who, after wringing her heart, trampled it in the dust beneath their feet." a few days after the scenes of presentation at fontainebleau, the royal pair made their triumphal entry into paris. in those days of feudal oppression and ignorance, the masses looked up to kings and queens with a degree of superstitious reverence which, in our enlightened land, seems almost inconceivable. louis xiv. was a heartless, selfish, pleasure-loving young man of twenty-one, who had never in his life done any thing to merit the especial esteem of any one. maria theresa was an amiable and pretty girl, who never dreamed that she had any other function than to indulge in luxuries at the expense of others. millions were to be impoverished that she and her husband might pass through life reveling in luxury and charioted in splendor. one can not contemplate such a state of things without being agitated by the conflicting emotions of pity for such folly and indignation for such outrages. louis and maria theresa were received by the populace of paris with as much reverence and enthusiasm as if they had been angels descending from heaven, fraught with every blessing. scarcely had the morning dawned ere the whole city was in commotion. the streets were thronged with countless thousands in the most brilliant gala dresses. triumphal arches spanned the thoroughfares through which the royal procession was to pass. garlands of flowers and hangings of brilliantly colored tapestry concealed the fronts of the houses from view. the pavements were strewn with flowers and sweet-scented herbs, over which the wheels of the carriages and the hoofs of the horses would pass without noise. at the barrier a gorgeous throne was erected. here the young queen was seated in royal state, to receive the homage of the several distinguished officers of the city and of the realm. at the close of these ceremonies, which were rendered as imposing as civil and ecclesiastical pomp could create, the apparently interminable procession of carriages, and horsemen, and footmen, with the most dazzling adornments of caparisons, and uniforms, and banners, with resounding music, and shouts of acclaim which seemed to rend the skies, commenced its entrance into the city. an antique car had been constructed, of massive and picturesque proportions, emblazoned with gold. upon this car the young queen was seated. she was, in reality, very beautiful, but in this hour of triumph, with flushed cheek and sparkling eye, robed in the richest attire, brilliant with gems, and so conspicuously enthroned as to be visible to every eye, she presented an aspect of almost celestial loveliness. the young king rode by her side, magnificently mounted. his garments of velvet, richly embroidered with gold and jewels, had been prepared for the occasion at an expense of considerably more than a million of dollars. the splendors of this gala-day were never forgotten by those who witnessed them. for succeeding weeks and months the court luxuriated in one continued round of gayety and extravagance. night after night the magnificent saloons of the louvre and the tuileries resounded with music, while proud lords and high-born dames trod the floors in the mazy dance, and inflamed their passions with the most costly wines. it can not be denied that a man who is trained from infancy amidst such scenes could acquire elegance of manner which those engrossed in the useful and ennobling employments of life rarely attain. neither can it be denied that this is as poor a school as can possibly be imagined to prepare one wisely to administer the affairs of a nation of twenty millions of people. in fact, louis xiv. never dreamed of consulting the interests of the people. it was his sole object to aggrandize himself by promoting the splendor, the power, and the glory of the monarchy. one does well to be angry when he reflects that, to maintain this reckless and utterly useless extravagance of the king and the court, the millions of the peasantry of france were compelled to live in mud hovels, to wear the coarsest garb, to eat the plainest food, while their wives and their daughters toiled barefooted in the fields. one would think that guilty consciences would often be appalled by the announcement, "know thou that for all these things god will bring thee into judgment?" though this revolting state of society was the slow growth of time, and though no one there could have regarded this aristocratic oppression as it is now estimated in the clearer light of the present day, still these outrages, inflicted by the strong upon the weak, by the rich upon the poor, merit the unmitigated condemnation of men, as they have ever incurred the denunciations of god. cardinal mazarin, more than any other man in france, was accountable for the enormous luxury of the court, and the squalid misery of the people. he knew better. he was professedly a disciple of jesus christ, and yet a more thorough worldling could hardly have been in christian or in pagan lands. he was one of the most gigantic robbers of the poor of which history gives any mention. in the midst of these festivities, mazarin decided to invite the court to a grand ballet, which should transcend in splendor every thing which paris had witnessed before. to decorate the saloons, a large amount of costly draperies were manufactured at milan. in arranging these tapestries, by some accident they took fire. the flames spread rapidly, utterly destroying the room, with its paintings and its magnificently frescoed roof. the fire was eventually extinguished, but the shock was a death-blow to the cardinal. he was then in feeble health. his attendants conveyed him from the blazing room to the chateau mazarin. the terror of the scene so aggravated the maladies from which the cardinal had for a long time suffered, that he was prostrated upon his bed, and it soon became evident that his dying hour was near at hand. there are many indications that the haughty cardinal was tortured by the pangs of remorse. he was generally silent, though extremely dejected. his body was subjected to the most extraordinary convulsions, while inaudible murmurs escaped his lips. count de brienne, in his memoirs, states that, on one occasion, he entered the chamber of the cardinal on tiptoe, his valet informing him that his eminence was asleep. he found mazarin bolstered in an arm-chair before the fire, apparently in a profound slumber, "and yet," writes the count, "his body rocked to and fro with the greatest rapidity, from the back of his chair to his knees, now swinging to the right, and again to the left. these movements of the sufferer were as regular and rapid as the vibrations of the pendulum of a clock. at the same time inarticulate murmurs escaped his lips." the count, much moved by the wretched spectacle, summoned the attendant, and awoke the cardinal. mazarin, in awaking, betrayed that troubled state of soul which had thus agitated his body. in most melancholy tones, he said, "my physician, m. guénaud, has informed me that i can live but a few days." count de brienne, wishing to console him, said, "but m. guénaud is not omniscient. he may be deceived." the cardinal, uttering a heavy sigh, exclaimed, "ah! m. guénaud well understands his trade." mazarin, as we have mentioned, had acquired enormous wealth. the resources of the kingdom had been in his hands. the poor had been oppressed by as terrible a system of taxation as human nature could endure and live. with the sums thus extorted, he had not only maintained the army, and supported the voluptuousness of the court, but he had also appropriated vast sums, without the slightest right to do so, to his own private enrichment. he was now dying. the thought of going to the bar of god with his hands full of this stolen gold tortured him. constrained by the anguish of a death-bed, he sent for a theatine monk to act as his confessor, and to administer, in his last hours, the services of the church. the virtuous monk was quite startled when the cardinal, with pale and trembling lips, informed him that he had accumulated a fortune of over forty millions of francs--$8,000,000. mazarin allowed that he considered it a sin that he had by such means accumulated such vast wealth. his pious confessor boldly declared that the cardinal would peril his eternal salvation if he did not, before his death, make restitution of all his ill-gotten gains, reserving only that for which he was indebted to the bounty of the king. the dying sinner, trembling in view of the judgment, replied in faltering accents, "in that case i must relinquish all. i have received nothing from the king. my family must be left in utter beggary." the confessor was deeply moved by the aspect of despair presented by the cardinal. embarrassed by the difficulties of the position, he sent for a distinguished member of the court, m. colbert, to confer with upon the situation. the shrewd courtier, after a little deliberation, suggested that, as it would be manifestly impossible to restore the money to the different individuals, scattered all over the realm, from whom it had been gathered in the ordinary collection of the taxes, the cardinal should make a transfer of it, as a donation, to the sovereign. "the king," added m. colbert, "will, without any question, annul so generous an act, and restore the property to you. it will then be yours by royal grant." the cardinal, who had lived, and moved, and had his being in the midst of trickery and intrigue, highly approved of the suggestion. the papers were immediately made out, transferring the property to the king. it was the 3d of march, 1661. three days passed, and there was no response of rejection--no recognition of the gift. the cardinal was terror-stricken. as he sat bolstered in his chair, he wrung his hands in agony, often exclaiming, "my poor family! my poor family! they will be left without bread." at the close of the third day m. colbert entered the dying chamber with a document in his hand, announcing that the king had restored to the cardinal all his property, authorizing him to dispose of it as he judged to be best. it is scarcely possible that this trickery could have satisfied the conscience of the cardinal. his confessor professed to be satisfied, and granted the dying man that absolution which he had previously withheld. still mazarin was extremely reluctant to die. he dressed with the utmost care; painted his wrinkled brow and emaciate cheeks, and resorted to all the appliances of art to maintain the aspect of youth and vigor. but death could not thus be deceived. the destroying angel on the 9th of march bore his spirit away to the judgment seat of christ. he died in the chateau mazarin, at the age of fifty-two, having been virtually monarch of france for eighteen years. [illustration: chateau mazarin.] it appeared by the will of mazarin that his property was vastly greater even than the enormous sum which he had reluctantly admitted. that portion of it which might be included under the term real estate, consisting of houses, lands, etc., amounted to over fifty millions of francs, while his personal effects, embracing the most costly furniture, diamonds, and other jewels, of which he strictly forbade any inventory to be taken, amounted to many millions more. the legacies to his nieces and to other aristocratic friends were truly princely. to the _poor_ he left a miserable pittance amounting to about twelve hundred dollars. the cardinal was a heartless, avaricious man, of but little ability, and yet endowed with a very considerable degree of that cunning which sometimes proves to be temporarily so successful in diplomatic intrigues. the king was probably glad to be rid of him, for he could not easily throw off a yoke to which he had been habituated from childhood. during most of the cardinal's illness louis continued his usual round of feasting and dancing. upon his death he manifested no grief. it seems that he had previously made up his mind no longer to be troubled by a prime minister, but to rule absolutely by his own will. two days before the death of mazarin, when he was no longer capable of transacting any business, the president of the ecclesiastical assembly inquired of the king "to whom he must hereafter address himself on questions of public business." the emphatic and laconic response was, "_to myself_." chapter v. festivities of the court. 1661-1664 influence and reputation of mazarin.--character of m. fouquet.--information given by m. colbert.--appearance of louis xiv.--charles ii., king of england, and family.--the princess henrietta.--marriage of philip.--fascinations of henrietta.--grief of maria theresa.--the queen-mother appealed to.--mademoiselle de la vallière.--visit to the palace of blois.--fascination of louis.--louise captivated.--festivities at fontainebleau.--discussion of the court ladies.--vexation of louise.--discovery by louis.--louis and mademoiselle de vallière.--sudden interruption of festivities.--attentions of louis.--anecdote.--the lottery and the bracelets.--the palace of vaux.--splendor of the palace.--rebuke of louis.--magnificent scenes.--continued festivities.--significant motto.--fouquet in danger.--intervention of louise.--m. fouquet imprisoned.--continued gayety at court.--important dispatches.--the king's orders.--relationship of the french and spanish courts.--the apology of philip iv.--conduct of m. créqui.--the pope humbled.--remorse of de la vallière.--illness of anne of austria.--trials of mademoiselle de la vallière.--disappointment.--flight of mademoiselle de la vallière.--seeks admission to the convent, and is denied.--reproaches of the queen-mother.--fury of louis.--power of louis over mademoiselle de la vallière.--return of mademoiselle de la vallière to the court.--reinstated.--resolve of louis.--versailles.--extravagance of the king.--magnificent fêtes. cardinal mazarin was exceedingly unpopular both with the court and the masses of the people. haughty, domineering, avaricious, there was nothing in his character to win the kindly regards of any one. his death gave occasion to almost universal rejoicing. indeed, it was with some difficulty that the king repressed the unseemly exhibition of this joy on the part of the court. the cardinal, as we have mentioned, had been for many years virtually monarch of france. he, in the name of the king, imposed the taxes, appointed the ministry, issued all orders, and received all reports. the accountability was so entire to him that the monarch, immersed in pleasure, had but little to do with reference to the affairs of the realm. immediately upon the death of mazarin, the king summoned to his presence tellier, minister of war, lionne, minister of state, and fouquet, minister of the treasury. he informed them that he should continue them in office, but that henceforth he should dispense with the services of a prime minister, and that they would be responsible to him alone. the young king was then twenty-two years of age. he was very poorly educated, had hitherto developed no force of character, and appeared to all to be simply a frivolous, pompous, self-conceited young man of pleasure. fouquet had held the keys of the treasury. when the king needed money he applied to him for a supply. the almost invariable reply he received was, "sire, the treasury is empty, but his eminence will undoubtedly advance to your majesty a loan." the money came, the king little cared where from while reveling in luxury, and dancing and flirting with the beauties who crowded his court. fouquet was an able but thoroughly unprincipled man. he had grown enormously rich by robbing the treasury. the king disliked him. but fouquet knew that the king could not dispense with his services. he was a marvelously efficient financier, and well knew how to wrench gold from the hands of the starving millions. the property he had acquired by fraud was so great that he often outvied the king in the splendor of his establishments. conscious of his power, he doubted not that he should still be able to hold the king, in a measure, subject to his control. scarcely had louis returned from his brief conference with his ministers to his cabinet at the louvre, ere the secretary of the deceased cardinal, m. colbert, entered, and requested a private audience. he informed the king, to his astonishment and inexpressible delight, that the cardinal had concealed fifteen millions of money (three millions of dollars) in addition to the sums mentioned in his will; that it was doubtless his intention that this money should immediately replenish the utterly exhausted treasury of his majesty. the king was overjoyed. he could scarcely believe the intelligence. concealing the tidings from fouquet, he speedily and secretly recovered the money from the several places in which it had been deposited. fifteen millions of francs would be a large sum at any time, but two hundred years ago it was worth three or four times as much as now. fouquet was utterly bewildered in attempting to imagine where the king had obtained the sums he was so lavishly expending. louis xiv. by nature and by education was excessively fond of the pomp and the punctilios of court etiquette. as this new era of independence dawned upon him, it was his first and most anxious object to regulate even to the minutest details the ceremonies of the court. he was of middling stature. high-heeled shoes added between two and three inches to his height. his hair was very fine and abundant, and he wore it long, in masses of ringlets upon his shoulders. deep blue eyes, a fair complexion, and well moulded features formed an unusually handsome countenance. he was stately in his movements, pompous in his utterance, and every word of every sentence was pronounced slowly and with distinct enunciation, as if an oracle were giving out its responses. there was no resemblance morally, intellectually, or physically between the king and his only brother philip. they did not love each other. during their whole lives there had been one perpetual struggle on the part of the king to domineer over his brother, and on the part of philip to resist that domination. philip was gentle in disposition, effeminate in manners, and, though a voluptuary in his tastes, a man of chivalric courage. as duke of orleans he had large wealth, many retainers, and feudal privileges, which invested him with power which even the king was compelled to respect. charles ii. was now king of england. the whole nation had apparently received him with exultation. suddenly, from being a penniless and crownless wanderer, he had become a sovereign, second in rank and power to no other sovereign in europe. his mother henrietta, his widowed sister the princess of orange, and his younger sister henrietta, of course, shared in the prosperity and elevation of charles. they were no longer pensioners upon the charity of their french relatives, but composed the royal family of the british court. it will be remembered how cruelly louis treated his young cousin in the ball-room in the days of her adversity. charles in those days had solicited of mazarin the hand of his niece, mary mancini. but the proud cardinal promptly rejected the offer of a wandering prince, without purse or crown. very soon after charles ii. ascended the throne of england, mazarin hastened to inform him that he was ready to confer upon him his niece. charles, a profligate fellow, declined the proffered alliance, to the great chagrin of the haughty cardinal. prosperity is sometimes a great beautifier. the young princess henrietta, upon whom the sun of prosperity was now shining in all its effulgence, seemed like a new being, radiantly lovely and self reliant. philip fell desperately in love with her. with a form of exquisite symmetry, with the fairest complexion and lovely features, she suddenly found herself the sister of a monarch, transformed into the principal ornament, almost the central attraction, of the court. she went to england to attend the coronation of her brother. she then returned to paris. on the 31st of march, 1661, she was married to philip in the palais royal, in the presence of the royal family and the prominent members of the court. a few weeks after this the whole court removed to fontainebleau. here a month was spent in an incessant round of festivities. the fickle king, as soon as his brother had married henrietta, saw in her new personal beauty and mental charms. it is not improbable that she almost unconsciously, in order to avenge the past neglect of the king, had studied all courtly graces, all endearments of manner, all conversational charms, that she might compel the king to do justice to the fascinations of person and character with which she was conscious of being richly endowed. unhappily, she was triumphantly successful; perhaps far more so than she had intended. the changeful and susceptible king became completely entranced. he was continually by her side, exasperating philip by his gallantry, and keenly wounding the feelings of his young queen. the marriage of the king with maria theresa had been merely a matter of state policy. the connection had not been inspired by any ardent affection on either side. though the king treated her with great politeness as the queen of france, her enthusiastic nature claimed a warmer sentiment from her young husband. when she saw the attentions to which she was entitled lavished upon henrietta, the wife of his brother, her affectionate heart was chilled. she became reserved, wept, sought retirement, withdrawing from all those gayeties in which her husband attracted the attention of the whole court by his undisguised admiration for henrietta. at last her secret anguish so far overcame her that she threw herself, trembling and in tears, at the feet of anne of austria, and confided to her the grief of her heart. the queen-mother could not have been surprised at this avowal. her eyes were open to that which all the court beheld; and, besides, philip had already complained to his mother that louis was endeavoring to rob him of the love of his bride. the remonstrances of the queen-mother were of no avail. the selfish king, ever seeking only his own pleasure, cared little for the wreck of the happiness of others. he devoted himself with increasing assiduity to the society of henrietta, frequently held his court in her apartments, and instituted a series of magnificent fêtes in her honor. philip, then duke of orleans, and in the enjoyment of magnificent revenues and of much independent feudal power as brother of the king, was designated in the court as _monsieur_. there was at that time in the court a young lady, one of henrietta's maids of honor, mademoiselle de la vallière. her romantic career, which subsequently rendered her famous throughout europe, merits a brief digression. louise françoise, daughter of the marquis de la vallière, was born at tours in the year 1644. she was, consequently, seventeen years of age at the time of which we write. her father died in her infancy. her mother, left with an illustrious name and a small income, took for a second husband a member of the court, gaston, duke of orleans, to whom we have previously alluded, who was brother of louis xiii. and uncle of the king. he resided at blois. as the king and court were on their way to the frontiers of spain for the marriage of louis with maria theresa, it will be remembered that he stopped for a short visit to his uncle at his magnificent palace of blois. this grand castle, with its gorgeous architectural magnificence, its shaded parks and blooming gardens, was to louise and her many companions an earthly paradise. here, in an incessant round of pleasures, she had passed her girlhood. the sight of the young monarch, so graceful in figure, so handsome in features, so marvelously courteous in bearing, aroused all the enthusiasm of the susceptible young maiden of sixteen. he was her sovereign, as well as to her eyes the most fascinating specimen of a man. she felt as though she were gazing upon a superior, almost a celestial being. she dreamed not of having fallen in love with him. the feeling of admiration, and almost of adoration, was altogether too elevated for earthly passion. in the presence of the king she was but an obscure child. in the crowded assemblage of wealth, and rank, and beauty which greeted the king at blois, louise was unnoticed. the king went on his way, leaving an impression on the heart of the young girl which could never be effaced. she thought it would be heaven to live in his presence, to watch his movements, to listen to his words, even though no word were addressed to her. soon after this the duke of orleans died. his court was broken up. louise was appointed to a place as one of the maids of honor of the princess henrietta. she joined the court of _madame_ in paris just before their departure for fontainebleau, to which place, of course, she accompanied them. here, in the midst of scenes of most brilliant festivities, louise feasted her eyes with the sight of the king. louis was exceedingly fond of exhibiting his grace as a dancer. among these entertainments, the king took part in a ballet with henrietta, he, in very picturesque dress, representing the goddess ceres. at the close of the ballet, louise, bewildered by the scene, and oppressed by inexplicable emotions, proposed to three of her lady companions that they should take a short walk into the dim recesses of the forest. it was a brilliant night, and the cool breeze fanned their fevered cheeks. as the four young ladies retired, one of the companions of the king laughingly suggested to him that they should follow them, and learn the secret of their hearts. the ladies seated themselves at the foot of a large tree, where they began to discuss the scenes and actors of the evening. the king and his companion, concealed at a short distance, heard every word they uttered. louise was for a time silent, but, being appealed to upon some subject, with very emphatic utterance remarked that she wondered that they could see any body, or think of any body but the king, when he was present. upon her companions rallying her for being so much carried away by the splendors of royalty, she declared "that it was not the king, as a _king_, who excited her admiration, but it was louis, as the most perfect of men; that his crown added nothing to his splendor of person or mind." the king could not see the speaker; he could only hear her enthusiastic and impassioned voice. the parties returned to the chateau. louise was very much chagrined that she should have allowed herself so imprudently to express her feelings. she knew that the conversation would be repeated, and feared that she should become a subject of ridicule for the whole court. in the interesting account which she gives of these events in her autobiography, she says that she retired to her room and wept bitterly. the next morning louise repaired to the apartments of henrietta. she was surrounded by her suite of ladies. the king was already there. as, with his accustomed gallantry, he passed down the room addressing a few words to each, he approached louise. her heart throbbed violently. he had never spoken to her before. in response to his question, "and what did you think of the ballet last night?" she, greatly agitated, attempted an answer. the king observed her confusion, and instantly recognized her voice. it was the same which he had heard the evening before in the forest expressing such enthusiastic admiration for his person. the king started, and fixed his eyes so intently upon her as to increase her embarrassment and attract the observation of all around. with a profound bow the king passed on, but again and again was seen to turn his eyes to the blushing girl. from that time mademoiselle de la vallière became the object of the marked and flattering attention of the king. the unaffected timidity and modesty of her demeanor, her brilliant complexion, large and languishing blue eyes, and profusion of flaxen hair, were enough of themselves to excite the admiration of one so enamored of beauty as was louis xiv. but, in addition to this, the self-love of louis was gratified by the assurance that louise admired him for his personal qualities, and not merely for his kingly crown. as the king was well aware of the gossip with which the court was filled in view of his devotion to madame henrietta, he perhaps deemed it expedient, by special attention to louise, to divert the current of thought and conversation. a few days after this a great hunt took place in the park. it was a hot summer's day. at the close of the hunt a table was spread loaded with delicacies. as the king and the courtiers, in the keenest enjoyment of the merry scene, were partaking of the sumptuous repast, almost unobserved a thunder-cloud arose, and there descended upon them a flood of rain so deluging that the company scattered in all directions for shelter. louise running, she knew not where, soon found the king by her side. politely taking her by the hand, he hurried her to a large tree, whose dense canopy of leaves promised some protection from the shower. there they stood, the young and handsome king, the beautiful maiden, the rain falling upon them in floods. it is interesting to record that the homage which rank paid to beauty was such that the king stood bareheaded, with his plumed hat in his hand, engaged during the hour the rain descended in animated conversation. after this it was observed that in the evening drives in the park he would ride on horseback for a short time by the carriage of the queen, or of the princess henrietta, and would then gallop to the coach of louise. he soon commenced a daily correspondence with her. louis was by no means a well-educated man. in fact, he might be almost regarded as illiterate; but his letters were written with so much delicacy of sentiment and elegance of expression, that louise was embarrassed in knowing how to return suitable replies. she was mortified at the thought of having her awkward letters compared with the elegant epistles which she received. in her embarrassment, she applied to the marquis of dangeau, a man of superior talents and culture, to write her responses for her. louise was a very noble girl, frank, sincere, confiding. on one occasion, when the king was complimenting her upon the rare beauty of her letters, the artless child confessed that she was not the author of them, but that they were written by the marquis of dangeau. the king smiled, and had the grace to admit that his letters to her were written by the same individual! it had become a common entertainment of the court to put up in a lottery some beautiful article of jewelry. on one occasion the king drew a very costly pair of bracelets. all were looking with some curiosity to see to whom he would present them. pausing for a moment, the king admiringly contemplated the sparkling gems, and then, threading his way through the throng of ladies, advanced to mademoiselle de la vallière, who stood a little apart, and placed them in her hands. henrietta turned pale, and bit her lip with vexation. the queen, maria theresa, looked on with a marble smile, which revealed nothing of her feelings. louise was embarrassed, but with admirable tact she assumed that the king had merely presented them to her for inspection. after carefully examining them, she handed them back to him, saying, with a courtesy, "they are indeed very beautiful." louis, instead of receiving them, said, with a stately bow, "in that case, mademoiselle, they are in hands too fair to resign them," and returned to his seat. as we have mentioned, the minister of the treasury was rolling in ill-gotten wealth. his palace of vaux,[i] upon which he had expended fifteen millions of francs, eclipsed in splendor the royal palaces of fontainebleau and saint germain. the king disliked him as a man. he knew very well that he was robbing the treasury, and it was annoying to have a subject live in state surpassing that of the sovereign. m. fouquet very imprudently invited louis and all his court to a magnificent fête at his chateau. all the notabilities of france were bidden to this princely festival, which the minister resolved should surpass, in splendor, any thing that france had hitherto witnessed. [footnote i: the chateau of vaux was a spacious and magnificent palace in the small village of maincy, about three miles from melun. m. fouquet purchased it, and expended enormous sums in enlarging the buildings, ornamenting the gardens, and decorating the walls with paintings. his expenditures were so lavish that the chateau exceeded in magnificence any of the royal palaces.] the king, with an imposing escort, reached the gates of the chateau. fouquet met him there, and conducted him and all the court, first, to the park. here a spectacle of splendor presented itself which astonished the king. notwithstanding all he had heard of the gorgeousness of his minister's palace, he was still not prepared for such a scene of luxury and enchantment. instead of being gratified, he turned to fouquet, and said to him bitterly, "i shall never again, sir, venture to invite you to visit me. you would find yourself inconvenienced." fouquet felt the keen rebuke. for a moment he turned pale. he soon, however, rallied, and did all in his power to gratify his guests by the gorgeous spectacles and sumptuous entertainments of his more than regal home. the king, led by his host, passed through all the apartments of the chateau, and acknowledged that in its interior adornings there was not probably another edifice in europe which could equal it in magnificence. [illustration: chateau de vaux.] in the evening there was a ball in the grand saloon of the castle. the king having danced several times with louise, she became fatigued, and expressed the desire to leave, for a short time, the heated room. louis drew her arm through his own, and, conducting her through the magnificent suite of apartments, which had already excited his displeasure, pointed out to her the armorial bearings of the proud minister, which were conspicuous in every room. the shield represented a squirrel ascending the topmost branches of a tree, with the motto "_quo non ascendam_." neither the king nor his fair companion understood latin. just then the king's secretary, m. colbert, entered. he hated fouquet. he had already detected the minister in many falsifications of the treasury accounts, and had explained the robbery to the king. louis had been for some time contemplating the arrest of fouquet, but hardly dared, as yet, to strike one so powerful. as m. colbert entered, louise inquired of him the significance of the motto. "it signifies," he replied, "_to what height may i not attain_, and this significance is well understood by those who know the boldness of the squirrel or that of his master." just at that moment another courtier came up, who remarked, "your majesty has probably not observed that in every instance the squirrel is pursued by a serpent." the king turned pale with anger, and ordered the captain of his musketeers to attend him. louise understood full well what this meant. she threw herself at his feet, and entreated him not to sully his reputation by arresting a man whose guest he was, and who was entertaining him and his court with the highest honors. with the greatest difficulty, the king was dissuaded from immediate action. for a time he smothered his vengeance, and the court returned to fontainebleau. the king's displeasure not only remained unabated, but increased with added evidence of the pride, display, and fraudulent transactions of his minister. at length he ordered him to be secretly arrested, conveyed in close confinement to angers, while a seal was placed on all his property. but for the interposition of the kind-hearted louise, the degraded minister would have lost his life. it was easy for the king, immersed in pleasure, to forget the miserable. m. fouquet was left in his imprisonment, almost as entirely lost to the world as if he had been consigned to the _oubliettes_ of the bastile. soon after this, the 1st of november, 1661, maria theresa gave birth to a dauphin. louis was greatly elated. still, the pride which he took in the child as the heir to the throne did not secure for his neglected wife any more tenderness of regard. he treated her with great courtesy, while his affections were vibrating between henrietta and louise. every thing seemed to combine to magnify the power of the king. still, the pleasure-loving monarch, while apparently wholly resigning himself to the career of a voluptuary, was with instinctive sagacity striving to undermine the resources of the haughty nobility, and to render his own court the most magnificent in europe. for several months the court continued immersed in gayety. dancing, in all variety of costumes, was the great amusement of the king. there were balls every evening. mademoiselle de la vallière became more and more the object of the marked attentions of louis. all his energies seemed absorbed in the small-talk of gallantry; still there were occasional indications that there were latent forces in the mind of the king which events might yet develop. one evening the king was attending a brilliant ball in the apartments of henrietta. as he was earnestly engaged in conversation with the beautiful louise, some important dispatches were placed in his hands. he seated himself at a table to examine them. many eyes watched his countenance as he silently perused the documents. it was observed at one moment that he turned deadly pale, and bit his lip with vexation. having read the dispatches to the end, he angrily crushed them in his hand, and said to several of the officers of the court who were around him, "our embassador in london has been publicly insulted by the spanish embassador." then turning to m. tellier, the minister of war, he said, "let my embassador at madrid leave that city immediately. order the spanish envoy to quit paris within twenty-four hours. the conferences at flanders are at an end. unless spain publicly recognizes the superiority of our crown, she may prepare for a renewal of the war." these orders of the king created general consternation. it was virtually inaugurating another war, with all its untold horrors. m. tellier seemed thunderstruck. the king, perceiving his hesitation, said to him imperiously, "do you not understand my orders? i wish you immediately to assemble the council. i will meet them in an hour." the king then returned to the ladies, and entered into trifling small-talk with them, as if nothing of moment had occurred. it seems that a dispute had arisen in london between the french and spanish embassadors upon the point of precedence. this had led to a bloody encounter in the streets between the retinues of the two ministers. the french were worsted. the spaniards gained the contested point. the king of spain was the brother of anne of austria. his first wife, the mother of maria theresa, was sister of louis xiii., and consequently aunt of louis xiv. thus there was a peculiar bond of relationship between the french and spanish courts. still louis was unrelenting in the vigorous action upon which he had entered. in addition to the hostile measures already adopted, a special messenger was sent to philip iv. to inform him that, unless he immediately recognized the supremacy of the french court, and made a formal apology for the insult offered the french minister, war would ensue. the spanish king, unwilling, for so trivial a cause, to involve the two nations in a bloody conflict, very magnanimously yielded to the requirements demanded by the hot blood and wounded pride of his son-in-law. in the presence of all the foreign ministers and the assembled court at fontainebleau, the spanish embassador made a humble apology, and declared that never again should the precedence of the embassador of france be denied. a very similar difficulty occurred a short time after at rome. the french embassador there, the duke of créqui, an old feudal noble, accompanied by troops of retainers armed to the teeth, had, by his haughty bearing, become extremely unpopular both with the court and the people of rome. the myrmidons of the duke were continually engaged in night-brawls with the police. on one occasion they even attacked, sword in hand, the pope's guard, and put them to flight. the brother of pope alexander vii., who hated créqui, instigated the guard to take revenge. in an infuriated mob, they surrounded the palace of the embassador, and fired upon his carriage as it entered his court-yard. a page was killed, and several other attendants wounded. créqui immediately left the city, accusing the pope of instigating the outrage. louis xiv. demanded reparation, and the most humble apology. the proud pope was not disposed to yield to his insolent demands. affairs assumed so threatening an aspect, that the pope ordered two of the guard, one an officer, to be hung, and the mayor of rome, who was accused of having instigated the outrage, to be banished. this concession, however, by no means satisfied the irascible louis. he commenced landing troops in italy, threatening to besiege rome. the pope appealed to the roman catholic princes of germany for aid. they could not come to his rescue, for they were threatened with war by the turks. the unhappy pope was thus brought upon his knees. he was compelled to banish from rome his own brother, don mario chigi, and to send an embassador to paris with the most humble apology. these events were but slight episodes in the gay life of the pleasure-loving king. he was still reveling in an incessant round of feasting and dancing, flitting with his gay court from one to another of his metropolitan and rural palaces. there are few so stern as not to feel emotions of sympathy rather than of condemnation for louise de la vallière. she was a child of seventeen, exposed to all the fascinations and temptations of the most luxurious court then upon the globe. but god has implanted in every bosom a sense of right and wrong. she wept bitterly over her fall. her remorse was so great that she withdrew as far as possible from society, and the anguish of her repentance greatly embarrassed her royal lover. henrietta was greatly annoyed at the preference which the king had shown for louise over herself. she determined to drive the unfortunate favorite from the court. anne of austria, with increasing years, was growing oblivious of her own youthful indiscretions, and was daily becoming more stern in her judgments. a cancer had commenced its secret ravages upon her person. its progress no medical skill could arrest. she tried to conceal the terrible secret which was threatening her with the most loathsome and distressing of deaths. in this mood of mind the haughty queen sent for the weeping louise to her room. trembling in every nerve, the affrighted child attended the summons. she found anne of austria with henrietta by her side. the queen, without assigning any cause, sternly informed her that she was banished from the court of france, and that suitable attendants would immediately convey her to a distant castle. upon louise attempting to make some inquiry why she was thus punished, the haughty queen sternly interrupted her with the reply "that france could not have two queens." louise staggered back to her room overwhelmed with despair. both god and man will declare that, whatever fault there might have been in the relations then existing between the king and this unprotected girl, the censure should have rested a thousand fold more heavily upon the king than upon his victim. and yet louise was to be driven in ignominy from the court, to enter into a desolated world utterly ruined. through the remainder of the day no one entered her apartment. she spent the hours in tears and in the fever of despair. in the evening louis himself came to her room and found her exhausted with weeping. he endeavored to ascertain the cause of her overwhelming distress. she, unwilling to be the occasion of an irreconcilable feud between the mother and the son, evaded all his inquiries. he resorted to entreaties, reproaches, threats, but in vain. irritated by her pertinacious refusal, he suddenly left her without speaking a word of adieu. louise seemed now truly to be alone in the world, without a single friend left her. but she then recalled to mind that she had formerly entered into an agreement with the king that, in case of any misunderstanding arising between them, a night should not pass without an attempt at reconciliation. a new hope arose in her mind that the king would either return, or send her a note to inform her that his anger no longer continued. "and so she waited and watched, and counted every hour as it was proclaimed from the belfry of the palace. but she waited and watched in vain. when at length, after this long and weary night, the daylight streamed through the silken curtains of her chamber, she threw herself upon her knees, and praying that god would not cast away the victim who was thus rejected by the world, she hastened, with a burning cheek and a tearless eye, to collect a few necessary articles of clothing, and throwing on her veil and mantle, rushed down a private staircase and escaped into the street. in this distracted state of mind she pursued her way to chaillot,[j] and reached the convent of the sisters of st. mary, where she was detained some time in the parlor. at length the grating was opened and a portress appeared. on her request to be admitted to the abbess, she informed her that the community were all at their devotions, and could not see any one. [footnote j: chaillot was a village on the banks of the seine, about a mile and a half from the tuileries, near the present bridge of jena. the nuns of the order of st. mary had a celebrated convent here, where persecuted grandeur often sought an asylum. within the walls of this convent the widowed queen of charles i. and daughter of henry iv. died in the year 1669.] "it was in vain that the poor fugitive entreated and asserted her intention of taking the vows. she could extort no other answer, and the portress withdrew, leaving her sitting on a wooden bench desolate, heart-sick. for two hours she remained motionless, with her eyes fixed upon the grating, but it continued closed. even the dreary refuge of this poor and obscure convent was denied her. even the house of religion had barred its doors against her. she could bear up no longer. from the previous evening she had not tasted food, and the fatigue of body and anguish of mind which she had undergone, combined with this unaccustomed fast, had exhausted her slight remains of strength. a sullen torpor gradually overcame her faculties, and eventually she fell upon the paved floor cold and insensible."[k] [footnote k: louis xiv. and the court of france, vol. ii., p. 125.] the king had probably passed a very uncomfortable night. early in the morning he learned that louise had disappeared. much alarmed, he hastened to the apartments of madame henrietta in the tuileries. she unfeelingly expressed entire ignorance of the movements of mademoiselle de la vallière. he immediately repaired to the rooms of his mother. she was unable to give him any information respecting the lost favorite. bitterly, however, she reproached her son with his want of self-control in allowing himself to cherish so strong an attachment to mademoiselle de la vallière. she accused him of having no mastery over himself. the king's eyes flashed with indignation. he was fully convinced that his mother was in some way the cause of the departure of louise. angrily he replied, "it may be so that i do not know how to control myself, but i will at least prove that i know how to control those who offend me." turning upon his heel, he left the apartment. by some means he obtained a clew to the retreat of louise. mounting his horse, accompanied by a single page, he galloped to the convent of chaillot. as there had been no warning of his approach, the grating still remained closed. he arrived just after the poor girl had fallen from the wooden bench upon the tesselated floor of the cold and cheerless anteroom. her beautiful form lay apparently lifeless before him. tears fell profusely from his eyes. he chafed her hands and temples. in endearing terms he entreated her to awake. gradually she revived. frankly she related the cause of her departure, and entreated him to permit her to spend the remainder of her saddened life buried in the cloisters of the convent. the king insisted, with all his authority as a monarch, and with all his persuasive influence as a man, that louise should return with him to the louvre. he was inspired with the double passion of love for her, and anger against those who had driven her from his court. louise, saddened in heart and crushed in spirit, with great reluctance at last yielded to his pleadings. the page was dispatched for a carriage. seated by the side of the king, mademoiselle de la vallière returned to the palace, from which she supposed a few hours before she had departed forever. louis immediately repaired to the apartment of madame henrietta, and so imperiously insisted that louise should be restored to her place as one of her maids of honor, that his sister-in-law dared not refuse. the influence of anne of austria was now nearly at an end. she was dying of slow disease, and, notwithstanding all her efforts to conceal the loathsome malady which was devouring her, she was compelled to spend most of her time in the seclusion of her own chamber. louis xiv., in the exercise of absolute power, with all the court bowing before him in the most abject homage, had gradually begun to regard himself almost as a god. he had never recovered from the mortification which he had experienced at the palace of vaux, in finding a subject living in splendor which outvied that of the crown. he determined to rear a palace of such extraordinary magnificence that no subject, whatever might be his resources, could equal it. for some time he had been looking around for the site of the building, which he had resolved should, like the pyramids, be a monument of his reign, and excite the wonder and admiration of future ages. about twelve miles from paris there was a little village of versailles, surrounded by an immense forest, whose solemn depths frequently resounded with the baying of the hounds of hunting-parties, as the gayly dressed court swept through the glades. on one occasion, louis xiv., in the eagerness of the chase, became separated from most of the rest of the party. night coming on, he was compelled, and the few companions with him, to take refuge in a windmill, where they remained till morning. the mill was erected upon the highest point of ground. the king caused a small pavilion to be erected there for his accommodation, should he again chance to be overtaken by night or a storm. pleased with the position, the king ere long removed the pavilion, and ordered his architect, lemercier, to erect upon the spot an elegant chateau according to his own taste. a landscape gardener was also employed to ornament the grounds. the region soon was embellished with such loveliness as to charm every beholder. it became the favorite rural resort of the king. the chateau and its grounds soon witnessed a series of festivities, the fame of which resounded through all europe. republican america will ponder the fact, which the aristocratic courts of europe ignored, that these entertainments of boundless extravagance were at the expense of the overtaxed and starving people. that king and courtiers might riot in luxury, the wives and daughters of peasants were harnessed by the side of donkeys to drag the plow. early in the spring of 1664, the king, accompanied by his court of six hundred individuals, gentlemen and ladies, with a throng of servants, repaired to versailles. the personal expenses of all the guests were defrayed by the king with the money which he wrested from the people. with almost magical rapidity, the artificers reared cottages, stages, porticoes, for the exhibition of games, and the display of splendor scarcely equaled in the visions of oriental romances. the first entertainment was a tournament. the cavaliers were gorgeously dressed in the most glittering garb of the palmiest days of feudalism, magnificently mounted with wondrous trappings, with their shields and devices, with their attendant pages, equerries, heralds at arms. among them all the king shone pre-eminent. his dress, and the housings of his charger, embellished with the crown jewels, glittered with a profusion of costly gems which no one else could equal. the queen, with three hundred ladies of the court, brilliant in beauty, and in the most attractive dress, sat upon a platform, beneath triumphal arches, to view the procession as it passed. the gleaming armor of the cavaliers, their prancing steeds, the waving of silken banners, and the flourish of trumpets, presented a spectacle such as no one present had ever conceived of before. the tilting did not cease till evening. suddenly the blaze of four thousand torches illumined the scene with new brilliance. tables were spread for a banquet, loaded with every delicacy. "the tables were served by two hundred attendants, habited as dryads, wood deities, and fawns. behind the tables, which were in the form of a vast crescent, an orchestra arose as if by magic. the tables were illuminated by five hundred girandoles. a gilt balustrade inclosed the whole of the immense area." chapter vi. death in the palace. 1664-1670 continued festivities.--molière.--cost of versailles.--lenôtre.--mansard.--large sum squandered.--magnificent room at versailles.--ill feeling toward la vallière.--anne of austria becomes more ill.--illness of maria theresa.--the king sick.--abode of madame henrietta.--sufferings of the queen-mother.--death of philip iv. of spain.--increasing ambition of louis xiv.--festivities at st. cloud.--dying scene.--death of the queen-mother.--funeral ceremonies.--the abbey of st. denis.--duchess of vaujours.--madame de montespan.--daily developments.--duke de mazarin--his cynicism.--he is silenced by the king.--sale of dunkirk.--inconsistencies in the character of louis.--treachery of montespan.--sorrows of louise.--letters of the marquis de montespan.--alarm of the marchioness.--cowardice of the pope.--sorrow of the marquis.--vexation of louis.--petty jealousies.--employments of the king.--remarks of louis upon court etiquette.--they are unanswerable.--conquest of holland determined on.--henrietta embassadress to england.--louise rénée.--the bribe.--constant bickerings.--alliance between france and england.--festivities thereon.--maria theresa.--vivacity of henrietta.--henrietta poisoned.--intense suffering.--arrival of the king.--death scene of henrietta.--suspicion of louis.--development of facts.--statements of m. pernon.--testimony of m. pernon.--return of chevalier de lorraine.--marriage of monsieur.--portrait of charlotte elizabeth.--her power of sarcasm.--sharp reproof of madame de fienne. the festivities to which we have alluded in the last chapter, the expenses of which were sufficient almost to exhaust the revenues of a kingdom, lasted seven days. the prizes awarded to the victors in the lists were very costly and magnificent. the renowned dramatist molière accompanied the court on this occasion, to contribute to its amusement by the exhibition of his mirth-moving farces on the stage. it was during these scenes that louis xiv. selected versailles as the site of the stupendous pile of buildings which was to eclipse all other palaces that had ever been reared on this globe. this magnificent structure, alike the monument of munificence in its appointments, and of infamy in the distress it imposed upon the overtaxed people, eventually swallowed up the sum of one hundred and sixty-six million of francs--thirty-three million dollars. it is to be remembered that at that day money was far more valuable, and far more difficult of acquisition than at the present time. for seven years an army of workmen was employed on the palace, parks, and gardens. no expense was spared to carry into effect the king's designs. the park and gardens were laid out by the celebrated landscape gardener lenôtre. the plans for the palace were furnished by the distinguished architect mansard. over thirty thousand soldiers were called from their garrisons to assist the swarms of ordinary workmen in digging the vast excavations and constructing the immense terraces. "it is estimated that not less than forty millions sterling--two hundred million dollars--were exhausted upon the laying out of these vast domains and the erection of this superb chateau. such was the extraordinary vigor with which the works were pushed, that in 1685, hardly twenty-five years after its commencement, the whole was in readiness to receive its royal occupants. here the royal family and the court resided until the revolution of 1789. every part of the interior as well as the exterior was ornamented with the works of the most eminent masters of the times."[l] [footnote l: bradshaw's guide through paris and its environs.] the most magnificent room in the palace, called the grand gallery of louis xiv., was two hundred and forty-two feet long, thirty-five feet broad, and forty-three feet high. the splendors of the court of louis xiv. may be inferred from the fact that this vast apartment was daily crowded with courtiers. the characteristic vanity of the king is conspicuously developed in that he instituted an order of nobility as a reward for personal services. the one great and only privilege of its members was that they were permitted to wear a blue coat embroidered with gold and silver precisely like that worn by the king, and to follow the king in his hunting-parties and drives. the position of mademoiselle de la vallière was a very painful one. though the austere queen-mother was so ill in her chamber that she could do but little to harass louise, madame henrietta, who had been constrained to receive her as one of her maids of honor, did every thing in her power to keep her in a state of perpetual anxiety. the courtiers generally were hostile to her, from the partiality with which she was openly regarded by the king. the poor child was alone and desolate in the court, and scarcely knew an hour of joy. [illustration: convent of val de grace.] the queen-mother was rapidly sinking, devoured by a malady which not only caused her extreme bodily suffering, but, from its loathsome character, affected her sensitive nature with the most acute mental pangs. she retired to the convent of val de grace, where, with ever-increasing devotion as death drew near, she consecrated herself to works of piety and prayer. this vast structure is situated upon the left bank of the seine, and is now in the limits of the city of paris. "anne of austria had enjoyed the rare privilege, so seldom accorded to her sex, of growing old without in any very eminent degree losing her personal advantages. her hands and arms, which had always been singularly beautiful, remained smooth and round, and delicately white. not a wrinkle marred the dignity of her noble forehead. her eyes, which were remarkably fine, lost neither their brightness nor their expression; and yet for years she had been suffering physical pangs only the more poignant from the resolution with which she concealed them."[m] [footnote m: louis xiv. and the court of france, vol. ii., p. 145.] the queen-mother had made the most heroic exertions to assume in public the appearance of health and gayety. none but her physicians were made acquainted with the nature of her malady. the young queen, maria theresa, who appears to have been an amiable, pensive woman, endowed with many quiet virtues, was devotedly attached to the queen-mother. she clung to her and followed her, while virtually abandoned by her royal spouse. she had no heart for those courtly festivities where she saw others with higher fascinations command the admiration and devotion of her husband. the queen was taken very ill with the measles. it speaks well for louis xiv., and should be recorded to his honor, that he devoted himself to his sick wife, by day and by night, with the most unremitting attention. the disease was malignant in its form, and the king himself was soon stricken down by it. for several days it was feared that he would not live. as he began to recover, he was removed to the palace of st. cloud. the annexed view represents the rear of the palace. the magnificent saloons in front open upon the city, and from the elevated site of the palace command a splendid view of the region for many leagues around. [illustration: the palace of st. cloud.] this truly splendid chateau, but a few miles from the tuileries, had been assigned to madame henrietta. here she resided with her court, and here the king again found himself under the same roof with mademoiselle de la vallière. in the mean time the health of the queen-mother rapidly declined. she was fast sinking into the arms of death. the young queen, maria theresa, having recovered, was unwilling to leave her suffering mother-in-law even for an hour. "the sufferings of anne of austria," writes miss pardoe, "must indeed have been extreme, when, superadded to the physical agony of which she was so long the victim, her peculiar fastidiousness of scent and touch are remembered. throughout the whole of her illness she had adopted every measure to conceal, even from herself, the effects of her infirmity. she constantly held in her hand a large fan of spanish leather, and saturated her linen with the most powerful perfumes. her sense of contact was so acute and irritable that it was with the utmost difficulty that cambric could be found sufficiently fine for her use. upon one occasion, when cardinal mazarin was jesting with her upon this defect, he told her 'that if she were damned, her eternal punishment would be sleeping in linen sheets.'" louis xiv. was too much engrossed with his private pleasures, his buildings, and rapidly multiplying diplomatic intrigues to pay much attention to his dying mother. it was not pleasant to him to contemplate the scenes of suffering in a sick-chamber. the gloom which was gathering around anne of austria was somewhat deepened by the intelligence she received of the death of her brother, philip iv. of spain. it was another admonition to her that she too must die. though philip iv. was a reserved and stately man, allowing himself in but few expressions of tenderness toward his family, maria theresa, in her isolation, wept bitterly over her father's death. the ties of relationship are feeble in courts. louis xiv. was growing increasingly ambitious of enlarging his domains and aggrandizing his power. the news of the death of the king of spain was but a source of exultation to him. though scrupulous in the discharge of the ceremonies of the church, he was a stranger to any high sense of integrity or honor. in the treaty upon his marriage with maria theresa he had agreed to resign every claim to any portion of the spanish kingdom. the death of philip iv. left spain in the hands of a feeble woman. louis xiv., upon the plea that the five hundred thousand crowns promised as the dower of his wife had not yet been paid, resolved immediately to seize upon the provinces of flanders and franche-comté, which then belonged to the spanish crown. notwithstanding the queen-mother had become so exhausted, from long-continued and agonizing bodily sufferings, that she could not be moved from one bed to another without fainting, still the festivities of the palace continued unintermitted. the moans of the dying queen in the darkened chamber could not be heard amidst the music and the revelry of the louvre and the tuileries. on the 5th of january, 1666, philip, the duke of orleans, gave a magnificent ball in the palace of st. cloud. louis xiv. was then in deep mourning for his father-in-law. decorously he wore the mourning dress of violet-colored velvet adopted by the court; he, however, took care so effectually to cover his mourning garments with glittering and costly gems that the color of the material could not be discerned. while her children were engaged in these revels, the queen-mother passed a sleepless night of terrible suffering. it was apparent to her that her dying hour was near at hand. she was informed by her physician that her life could be continued but a few hours longer. she called for her confessor, and requested every one else to leave the room. what sins she confessed of heart or life are known only to him and to god. having obtained such absolution as the priest could give, she prepared to partake of the sacrament of the lord's supper. her son philip, with madame his wife, were admitted to her chamber, where the king soon joined them. the archbishop of auch, accompanied by quite a retinue of ecclesiastics, approached with the holy viaticum. the most scrupulous regard was paid to all the punctilious ceremonials of courtly etiquette. when the bishop was about to administer the oil of extreme unction, the dying queen requested an attendant very carefully to raise the borders of her cap, lest the oil should touch them, and give them an unpleasant odor. it was one of the most melancholy and impressive of earthly scenes. the king, young, sensitive, and easily overcome by momentary emotion, could not refrain from seeing in that sad spectacle, as in a mirror, his own inevitable lot. he fainted entirely away, and was borne senseless from the apartment. on the morning of the 7th or 8th of january, 1666, anne of austria died. her will was immediately brought from the cabinet and read. she bequeathed her _heart_ to the convent of val de grace. it was taken from her body, cased in a costly urn, and conveyed to the convent in a carriage. the archbishop of auch seated himself beside the senseless relic, while the duchess of montpensier occupied another seat in the coach. at 7 o'clock of the next evening the remains of the queen left the louvre for the royal sepulchre at st. denis. it was a gloomy winter's night. many torches illumined the path of the procession, exhibiting to the thousands of spectators the solemn pageant of the burial. the ecclesiastics and the monks, in their gorgeous or picturesque robes, the royal sarcophagus, the sombre light of the torches, the royal coaches in funereal drapery, and the wailing requiems, now swelling upon the breeze, and now dying away, blending with the voices of tolling bells, presented one of the most mournful and instructive of earthly spectacles. the queen had passed to that tribunal where no aristocratic privileges are recognized, and where all earthly wealth and rank are disregarded. the funeral services were prolonged and imposing. it was not until two hours after midnight that the remains were deposited in the vaults of the venerable abbey, the oldest christian church in france. [illustration: interior of st. denis.] the death of the queen-mother does not seem to have produced much effect upon the conduct of her ambitious and pleasure-loving son. he had cruelly betrayed the young and guileless mademoiselle de la vallière, and she never ceased to weep over her sad fate. the king, however, conferred upon her the duchy of vaujours, and the title of madame. her beauty began to fade. younger and happier faces attracted the king. he became more and more arrogant and domineering. there was at that time rising into notice in this voluptuous court a young lady who was not only magnificently beautiful, but extremely brilliant in her intellectual endowments. she was of illustrious birth, and was lady of the palace to the young queen. she deliberately fixed her affections upon louis, and resolved to employ all the arts of personal loveliness and the fascinations of wit to win his exclusive favor. she had given her hand, constrained by her family, to the young marquis de montespan. she had, however, stated at the time that with her hand she did not give her heart. the young marquis seems to have been a very worthy man. disgusted with the folly and the dissipation of the court, he was anxious to withdraw with his beautiful bride to his ample estates in provence. she, however, entirely devoted to pleasure, and absorbed in her ambitious designs, refused to accompany him, pleading the duty she owed her royal mistress. he went alone. madame de montespan was thus relieved of the embarrassment of his presence. louis xiv., while apparently immersed in frivolous and guilty pleasures, was developing very considerable ability as a sovereign. it daily became more clearly manifest that he was not a man of pleasure merely; that he had an imperial will, and that he was endowed with unusual administrative energies. the duke de mazarin, a relative and rich heir of the deceased cardinal, and who assumed an austere and cynical character, ventured on one occasion, when displeased with some act of the king, to approach him in the presence of several persons and say, "sire, saint genéviève appeared to me last night. she is much offended by the conduct of your majesty, and has foretold to me that if you do not reform your morals the greatest misfortunes will fall upon your kingdom." the whole circle stood aghast at his effrontery. but the king, without exhibiting the slightest emotion, in slow and measured accents, replied, "and i, monsieur de mazarin, have recently had several visions, by which i have been warned that the late cardinal, your uncle, plundered my people, and that it is time to make his heirs disgorge the booty. remember this, and be persuaded that the very next time you permit yourself to offer me unsolicited advice, i shall act upon the mysterious information i have received." the duke attempted no reply. such developments of character effectually warded off all approaches of familiarity. the fugitive and needy charles ii. had sold to louis xiv., for about one million of dollars, the important commercial town of dunkirk, in french flanders. the king, well aware of the importance of the position, had employed thirty thousand men to fortify the place. louis now sent an army of thirty-five thousand men, in the highest state of military discipline, to seize the coveted spanish provinces of flanders and franche-comté. at the same time, he sent a reserve of eight thousand troops to dunkirk. the widowed queen of spain, acting as regent for her infant son, could make no effectual resistance. she had but eight thousand troops, in small garrisons, scattered over those provinces. the march of the french army was but as a holiday excursion. fortress after fortress fell into their hands. soon the banners of louis floated proudly over the whole territory. the king displayed his sagacity by granting promotion for services rendered rather than to birth. this inspired the army with great ardor. he also boldly entered the trenches under fire, and exposed himself to the most imminent peril. the opposite side of the king's character is displayed in the fact that he accompanied the camp with all the ladies of his court, eighteen in number. in each captured city, the king and court, in magnificent banqueting-halls and gorgeous saloons, indulged in the gayest revelry. amidst the turmoil of the camp, these haughty men and high-born dames surrounded themselves with the magnificence of the louvre and the tuileries, and were served with every delicacy from gold and silver plate. the king, by the advice of his renowned minister of war, marshal louvois, placed strong garrisons in the cities he had captured, while the celebrated engineer, m. vauban, was intrusted with enlarging and strengthening the fortifications. from this victorious campaign louis xiv. returned to paris, receiving adulation from the courtiers as if he were more than mortal. madame de montespan accompanied the court on this military pleasure tour. she availed herself of every opportunity to attract the attention of the king and ingratiate herself in his favor. she so far succeeded in exciting the jealousy of the queen against madame de la vallière, upon whom she was at the same time lavishing her most tender caresses, that her majesty treated the sensitive and desponding favorite with such rudeness that, with a crushed spirit, she decided to leave the court and retire to versailles, there to await the conclusion of the campaign. the king, however, interposed to prevent her departure, while at the same time he was daily treating her with more marked neglect, as he turned his attention to the rival, now rapidly gaining the ascendency. the unfortunate louise was doomed to daily martyrdom. she could not be blind to the fact that the king's love was fast waning. conscience tortured her, and she wept bitterly. before her there was opened only the vista of weary years of neglect and remorse. but the marchioness of montespan was mingling for herself a cup of bitterness which she, in her turn, was to drain to its dregs. her noble husband wrote most imploring letters, beseeching her to return to him with their infant child. "come," he wrote in one of his letters, "and take a near view, my dear athenaïs, of these stupendous pyrenees, whose every ravine is a landscape, and every valley an eden. to all these beauties yours alone is wanting. you will be here like diana, the divinity of these noble forests." the excuses which the marchioness offered did by no means satisfy her husband. his heart was wounded and his suspicions aroused. at last he was apprised of her manifest endeavors to attract the attention of the king. he wrote severely; informed her of the extent of his knowledge. he threatened to expose her conduct to her own family, and to shut her up in a convent. at the same time, he commanded her to send to him, by the messenger who bore his letter, their little son, that he might not be contaminated by association with so unworthy a mother. it was too late. the marchioness was involved in such guilty relations with the king that she could not easily be extricated. still she was much alarmed by the angry letter of her husband. the king perceived her anxiety, and inquired the cause. she placed the letter in his hands. he read it, changing color as he read. he then coolly remarked, "our position is a difficult one. it requires much precaution. i will, however, take care that no violence shall be offered you. you had better, however, send him your son. the child is useless here, and perhaps inconvenient. the marquis, deprived of the child, may be driven to acts of severity." a mother's love was strong in the bosom of the marchioness. she wept aloud, and declared that she would sooner die than part with her son. her husband soon after came to paris. he addressed the king in a very firm and reproachful letter, and for three months made earnest applications to the pope for a divorce. but the pope, afraid of offending louis xiv., turned a deaf ear to his supplications. it was in vain for a noble, however exalted his rank, to contend against the king. the injured marquis, finding all his efforts vain, returned wifeless and childless to his chateau. announcing that to him his wife was dead, he assumed the deepest mourning, draped his house and the liveries of his servants in crape, and ordered a funeral service to take place in the parish church. a numerous concourse attended, and all the sad ceremonies of burial were solemnized. the king was greatly annoyed. the scandal, which spread throughout the kingdom, placed him in a very unenviable position. the marquis would probably have passed the rest of his life in one of the _oubliettes_ of the bastile had he not escaped from france. madame de montespan, in her wonderfully frank memoirs, records all these facts without any apparent consciousness of the infamy to which they consign her memory. she even claims the merit of protecting her injured husband from the dungeon, saying, "not being naturally of a bad disposition, i never would allow of his being sent to the bastile." there were continual antagonisms arising between madame de la vallière and madame de montespan. they were both ladies of honor in the household of the queen, who, silent and sad, and ever seeking retirement, endeavored to close her eyes to the guilty scenes transpiring around her. sin invariably brings sorrow. the king, supremely selfish as he was, must have been a stranger to any peace of mind. he professed full faith in christianity. even lost spirits may believe and tremble. the precepts of jesus were often faithfully proclaimed from the pulpit in his hearing. remorse must have frequently tortured his soul. from these domestic tribulations he sought relief in the vigorous prosecution of his plans for national aggrandizement. he plunged into diplomatic intrigues, marshaled armies, built ships, multiplied and enlarged his sea-ports, established colonies, reared magnificent edifices, encouraged letters, and with great sagacity pushed all enterprises which could add to the glory and power of france. the king had never been on good terms with his brother philip. louis was arrogant and domineering. philip was jealous, and not disposed obsequiously to bow the knee to his imperious brother. the king was unrelenting in the exactions of etiquette. there were three seats used in the presence of royalty: the arm-chair, for members of the royal family; the folded chair, something like a camp-stool, for the highest of the nobility; and the bench, for other dignitaries who were honored with a residence at court. philip demanded of his brother that his wife, henrietta, the daughter of charles i. of england, and the sister of louis xiii., being of royal blood, should be allowed the privilege of taking an arm-chair in the saloons of the queen. the king made the following remarkable reply: "that can not be permitted. i beg of you not to persist in such a request. it was not i who established these distinctions. they existed long before you and i were born. it is for your interest that the dignity of the crown should neither be weakened or encroached upon. if from duke of orleans you should one day become king of france, i know you well enough to believe that this is a point on which you would be inexorable. "in the presence of god, you and i are two beings precisely similar to our fellow-men; but in the eyes of men we appear as something extraordinary, superior, greater, and more perfect than others. the day on which the people cast off this respect and this voluntary veneration, by which alone monarchy is upheld, they will see us only their equals, suffering from the same evils, and subject to the same weaknesses as themselves. this once accomplished, all illusion will be over. the laws, no longer sustained by a controlling power, will become black lines upon white paper. your chair without arms and my arm-chair will be simply two pieces of furniture of equal importance." to these forcible remarks, indicating deep reflection, the duke of orleans, a nobleman rioting in boundless wealth, and enjoying amazing feudal privileges, could make no reply. the coronet of the noble and the crown of the absolute king would both fall to the ground so soon as the masses of the people should escape from the thrall of ignorance and deception. philip left his brother silenced, yet exasperated. a petty warfare was carried on between them, by which they daily became more alienated from each other. the king, elated by his easy conquest of flanders, resolved to seize upon holland, and then proceed to annex to france the whole of the low countries. the dutch, a maritime people, though powerful at sea, had but a feeble land force. holland was in alliance with england. the first object of louis was to dissolve this alliance. there were two influences, money and beauty, which were omnipotent with the contemptible charles ii. henrietta, the wife of philip, was sent as embassadress to the court of her brother. the whole french court escorted her to the coast. the pomp displayed on this occasion surpassed any thing which had heretofore been witnessed in france. the escort consisted of thirty thousand men in the van and the rear of the royal cortège. the most beautiful women of the court accompanied the queen. maria theresa, the queen, and henrietta, occupied the same coach. the ladies of their households followed in their carriages. the king's two favorites--madame de la vallière, whose beauty and power were on the wane, and madame de montespan, who was then in the zenith of her triumph--were often invited by the king to take a seat in the royal carriage by the side of the queen and madame. the most beautiful woman then in the french court was louise rénée, subsequently known in english annals as the duchess of portsmouth. she was to accompany her royal mistress to the court of charles ii., and had received secret instructions from the king in reference to the influence she was to exert. louise rénée was to be the bribe and the motive power to control the king. brilliant as was this royal cortège, the journey, to its prominent actors, was a very sad one. the queen, pliant and submissive as she usually was, could not refrain from some expressions of bitterness in being forced to such intimate companionship with her rivals in the king's favor. there were also constant heart-burnings and bickerings, which etiquette could not restrain, between philip and his spouse henrietta. _madame_ was going to london as the confidential messenger of the king, and she refused to divulge to her husband the purpose of her visit. louis xiv. was embarrassed by three ladies, each of whom claimed his exclusive attention, and each of whom was angry if he smiled upon either of the others. in such a party there could be no happiness. as this gorgeous procession, crowding leagues of the road, swept along, few of the amazed peasants who gazed upon the glittering spectacle could have suspected the misery which was gnawing at the heart of these high-born men and proud dames. upon arriving at the coast, henrietta, with her magnificent suite, embarked for england. the negotiation was perfectly successful. the fascinating louise rénée immediately made the entire conquest of the king. her consent to remain a member of his court, and the offer of several millions of money to charles ii., secured his assent to whatever the french king desired. it is said that he the more readily abandoned his alliance with holland, since he hated the protestants there, whose religion so severely condemned his worthless character and wretched life. a treaty of alliance was speedily drawn up between charles ii. and louis xiv. his britannic majesty then, with a splendid retinue, accompanied his sister henrietta to the coast, where she embarked for calais. the french court met her there with all honors. the return to paris was slow. at every important town the court tarried for a season of festivities. henrietta, or _madame_, as the french invariably entitled her, established her court at st. cloud. her husband, monsieur, was very much irritated against her. neither of them took any pains to conceal from others their alienation. madame was in the ripeness of her rare beauty, and enjoyed great influence in the court. the poor queen, maria theresa, was but a cipher. she was heart-crushed, and devoted herself to the education of her children, and to the society of a few spanish ladies whom she had assembled around her. the king, grateful for the services which henrietta had rendered him in england, and alike fascinated by her loveliness and her vivacity, was lavishing upon her his constant and most marked attentions, not a little to the chagrin of her irritated and jealous husband. on the 27th of june, 1669, henrietta rose at an early hour, and, after some conversation with madame de lafayette, to whom she declared she was in admirable health, she attended mass, and then went to the room of her daughter, mademoiselle d'orleans. she was in glowing spirits, and enlivened the whole company by her vivacious conversation. after calling for a glass of succory water, which she drank, she dined. the party then repaired to the saloon of _monsieur_. he was sitting for his portrait. henrietta, reclining upon a lounge, apparently fell into a doze. her friends were struck with the haggard and deathly expression which her countenance suddenly assumed, when she sprang up with cries of agony. all were greatly alarmed. her husband appeared as much so as the rest. she called for another draught of succory water. it was brought to her in an enameled cup from which she was accustomed to drink. she took the cup in one hand, and then, pressing her hand to her side in a spasm of pain, exclaimed, "i can scarcely breathe. take me away--take me away! i can support myself no longer." with much difficulty she was led to her chamber by her terrified attendants. there she threw herself upon her bed in convulsions of agony, crying out that she was dying, and praying that her confessor might immediately be sent for. three physicians were speedily in attendance. her husband entered her chamber and kneeled at her bedside. she threw her arms around his neck, exclaiming, "alas! you have long ceased to love me; but you are unjust, for i have never wronged you." suddenly she raised herself upon her elbow, and said to those weeping around her, "i have been poisoned by the succory water which i have drank. probably there has been some mistake. i am sure, however, that i have been poisoned. unless you wish to see me die, you must immediately administer some antidote." her husband did not seem at all agitated by this statement, but directed that some of the succory water should be given to a dog to ascertain its effects. madame desbordes, the first _femme de chambre_, who had prepared the beverage, declared that the experiment should be made upon herself. she immediately poured out a glass, and drank it. various antidotes for poisons were administered. they created the most deadly sickness, without changing the symptoms or alleviating the pain. it soon became evident that the princess was dying. the livid complexion, glassy eyes, and shrunken nose and lips, showed that some agent of terrific power was consuming her life. a chill perspiration oozed from her forehead, her pulse was imperceptible, and her extremities icy cold. the king soon arrived, accompanied by the queen. louis xiv. was greatly affected by the changed appearance and manifestly dying condition of henrietta. he sat upon one side of the bed and _monsieur_ upon the other, both weeping bitterly. the agony of the princess was dreadful. in most imploring tones she begged that something might be done to mitigate her sufferings. the attendant physicians announced that she was dying. extreme unction was administered, the crucifix fell from her hand, a convulsive shuddering shook her frame, and henrietta was dead. "only nine hours previously, henrietta of england had been full of life, and loveliness, and hope, the idol of a court, and the centre of the most brilliant circle in europe. and now, as the tearful priest arose from his knees, the costly curtains of embroidered velvet were drawn around a cold, pale, motionless, and livid corpse." a post-mortem examination revealed the presence of poison so virulent in its action that a portion of the stomach was destroyed. dreadful suspicion rested upon her husband. the king, in a state of intense agitation, summoned his brother to his presence, and demanded that he should confess his share in the murder. monsieur clasped in his hand the insignia of the holy ghost, which he wore about his neck, and took the most solemn oath that he was both directly and indirectly innocent of the death of his wife. still the circumstantial evidence was so strong against him that he could not escape the terrible suspicion. notwithstanding the absolute proof that the death of the princess was caused by poison, still an official statement was soon made out, addressed to the british court, and widely promulgated, in which it was declared that the princess died of a malignant attack of bilious fever. several physicians were bribed to sign this declaration. notwithstanding this statement, the king made vigorous exertions to discover the perpetrators of the crime. the following facts were soon brought to light. the king, some time before, much displeased with the chevalier de lorraine, a favorite and adviser of monsieur, angrily arrested him, and imprisoned him in the chateau d'if, a strong and renowned fortress on marguerite island, opposite cannes. here he was treated with great rigor. he was not allowed to correspond, or even to speak with any persons but those on duty within the fortress. _monsieur_ was exceedingly irritated by this despotic act. he ventured loudly to upbraid his brother, and bitterly accused _madame_ of having caused the arrest of his bosom friend, the chevalier. circumstances directed the very strong suspicions of the king to m. pernon, controller of the household of the princess, as being implicated in the murder. the king ordered him to be secretly arrested, and brought by a back staircase to the royal cabinet. every attendant was dismissed, and his majesty remained alone with the prisoner. fixing his eyes sternly upon the countenance of m. pernon, louis said, "if you reveal every circumstance relative to the death of _madame_, i promise you full pardon. if you are guilty of the slightest concealment or prevarication, your life shall be the forfeit." the controller then confessed that the chevalier de lorraine had, through the hands of a country gentleman, m. morel, who was not at all conscious of the nature of the commission he was fulfilling, sent the poison to two confederates at st. cloud. this package was delivered to the marquis d'effiat and count de beuvron, intimate friends of the chevalier, and who had no hope that he would be permitted to return to paris so long as _madame_ lived. the marquis d'effiat contrived to enter the closet of the princess, and rubbed the poison on the inside of the enameled cup from which henrietta was invariably accustomed to drink her favorite beverage. the king listened intently to this statement, pressed his forehead with his hand, and then inquired, in tones which indicated that he was almost afraid to put the question, "and _monsieur_--was he aware of this foul plot?" "no, sire," was the prompt reply. "_monsieur_ can not keep a secret; we did not venture to confide in him." louis appeared much relieved. after a moment's pause, he asked, with evident anxiety, "will you swear to this?" "on my soul, sire," was the reply. the king asked no more. summoning an officer of the household, he said, "conduct m. pernon to the gate of the palace, and set him at liberty." such events were so common in the courts of feudal despotism in those days of crime, that this atrocious murder seems to have produced but a momentary impression. poor henrietta was soon forgotten. the tides of gayety and fashion ebbed and flowed as ever through the saloons of the royal palaces. no one was punished. it would hardly have been decorous for the king to hang men for the murder of the princess, when he had solemnly announced that she had died of a bilious fever. the chevalier de lorraine was ere long recalled to court. there he lived in unbridled profligacy, enjoying an annual income of one hundred thousand crowns, till death summoned him to a tribunal where neither wealth nor rank can purchase exemption from crime. henrietta, who was but twenty-six years of age at the time of her death, left two daughters, but no son. _monsieur_ soon dried his tears. he sought a new marriage with his rich, renowned cousin, the duchess of montpensier. but she declined his offered hand. with inconceivable caprice, she was fixing her affections upon a worthless adventurer, a miserable coxcomb, the duke de lauzun, who was then disgracing by his presence the court of the louvre. this singular freak, an additional evidence that there is no accounting for the vagaries of love, astonished all the courts of europe. _monsieur_ then turned to the princess charlotte elizabeth of bavaria. the alliance was one dictated by state policy. _monsieur_ reluctantly assented to it under the moral compulsion of the king. the advent of this most eccentric of women at the french court created general astonishment and almost consternation. she despised etiquette, and dressed in the most _outré_ fashion, while she displayed energies of mind and sharpness of tongue which brought all in awe of her. the following is the portrait which this princess, eighteen years of age, has drawn of herself: "i was born in heidelberg in 1652. i must necessarily be ugly, for i have no features, small eyes, a short, thick nose, and long, flat lips. such a combination as this can not produce a physiognomy. i have heavy hanging cheeks and a large face, and nevertheless am short and thick. to sum up all, i am an ugly little object. if i had not a good heart, i should not be bearable any where. to ascertain if my eyes have any expression, it would be necessary to examine them with a microscope. there could not probably be found on earth hands more hideous than mine. the king has often remarked it to me, and made me laugh heartily. not being able with any conscience to flatter myself that i possessed any thing good looking, i have made up my mind to laugh at my own ugliness. i have found the plan very successful, and frequently discover plenty to laugh at." notwithstanding the princess was ready to speak of herself in these terms of ridicule, she was by no means disposed to grant the same privilege to others. she was a woman of keen observation, and was ever ready to resent any offense with the most sarcastic retaliation. she perceived very clearly the sensation which her presence, and the manners which she had very deliberately chosen to adopt, had excited. madame de fienne was one of the most brilliant wits of the court. she ventured to make herself and others merry over the oddities of the newly-arrived duchess of orleans, in whose court both herself and her husband were pensioners. the duchess took her by the hand, led her aside, and, riveting upon her her unquailing eye, said, in slow and emphatic tones, "madame, you are very amiable and very witty. you possess a style of conversation which is endured by the king and by _monsieur_ because they are accustomed to it; but i, who am only a recent arrival at the court, am less familiar with its spirit. i forewarn you that i become incensed when i am made a subject of ridicule. for this reason, i was anxious to give you a slight warning. if you spare me, we shall get on very well together; but if, on the contrary, you treat me as you do others, i shall say nothing to yourself, but i shall complain to your husband, and if he does not correct you, i shall dismiss him." the hint was sufficient. neither madame de fienne nor any other lady of the court ventured after this to utter a word of witticism on the subject of the duchess of orleans. chapter vii the war in holland. 1670-1679 louis's fondness for jewels.--anecdote.--superstitions of louis.--his dread of the towers of st. denis.--ambition of louis.--he abandons st. germain.--severity of louis to madame de la vallière.--a second flitting to chaillot.--night in the convent.--disappointment.--return of louise to the palace.--madame de montespan.--louis reproved by the clergy.--power of france.--alarm in holland.--humble inquiry of the dutch.--haughty reply of louis.--body-guard of the king.--reply of the dutch merchant.--forces of william, prince of orange.--louis's march unresisted.--the french cross the rhine.--death of the duke of longueville.--passage of the rhine.--louis a bigoted catholic.--consternation.--reception of the dutch deputies.--terms of louis xiv.--heroic conduct of the dutch.--the dikes pierced.--naval battle.--efforts of the prince of orange.--louis returns to paris.--his extraordinary energy.--arch of triumph.--skill and strategy of turenne.--barbarities of turenne.--opinion of voltaire.--death of turenne.--peace of nimeguen.--penitence and anguish of louise de la vallière.--takes leave of her children and the queen.--again at the convent.--faithfulness to duty.--marriage of the duchess of orleans with the king of spain.--the countess de soissons.--character of the dauphin.--monseigneur's indifference.--françoise d'aubigné.--her apparent death and recovery.--françoise a protestant.--persecutions in consequence.--sufferings of françoise.--death of her mother. madame de montespan was now the reigning favorite. the conscience-stricken king could not endure to think of death. he studiedly excluded from observation every thing which could remind him of that doom of mortals. all the badges of mourning were speedily laid aside, and efforts were made to banish from the court the memory of the young and beautiful princess henrietta, whose poisoned body was mouldering to dust in the tomb. the king had a childish fondness for brilliant gems. in his cabinet he had a massive and costly secretary of elaborately carved rosewood. upon its shelves he had arrayed the crown jewels, which he often handled and examined with the same delight with which a miser counts his gold. mademoiselle de montpensier, in her interesting memoirs, relates the following anecdote, which throws interesting light upon the character of the king at this time. it will be remembered that louis xiv. was born in one of the palaces at st. germain, about fifteen miles from paris. the magnificent terrace on the left bank of the winding seine commands perhaps as enchanting a view as can be found any where in this world. the domes and towers of paris appear far away in the north. the wide, luxuriant valley of the seine, studded with villages and imposing castles, lies spread out in beautiful panorama before the eye. the king had expended between one and two millions of dollars in embellishing the royal residences here. but as the conscience of the king became more sensitive, and repeated deaths forced upon him the conviction that he too must eventually die, st. germain not only lost all its charms, but became a place obnoxious to him. from the terrace there could be distinctly seen, a few leagues to the east, the tower and spire of st. denis, the burial-place of the kings of france. to louis it suddenly became as torturing a sight as to have had his coffin ostentatiously displayed in his banqueting-hall. when anne of austria was lying on her bed of suffering, the king was one day pacing alone the terrace of st. germain. dark clouds were drifting through the sky. one of these clouds seemed to gather over the towers of st. denis. to the excited imagination of the king, the vapor wreathed itself into the form of a hearse, surmounted by the arms of austria. in a few days the king followed the remains of his mother to the dark vaults of this their last resting-place. just before the death of the hapless henrietta, the same gloomy towers appeared to the king in a dream enveloped in flames, and in the midst of the fire there was a skeleton holding in his hand a lady's rich jewelry. but a few days after this the king was constrained to follow the remains of the beautiful henrietta to this sepulchre. god seems to have sent warning upon warning upon this wicked king. absorbed in ambitious plans and guilty passions, louis had but little time or thought to give to his neglected wife or her children. in the same year his two daughters died, and with all the pageantry of royal woe they were also entombed at st. denis. [illustration: st. denis.] it is not strange that, under these circumstances, the king, to whom the gospel of christ was often faithfully preached, and who was living in the most gross violation of the principles of the religion of jesus, should have recoiled from a view of those towers, which were ever a reminder to him of death and the grave. he could no longer endure the palace at st. germain. the magnificent panorama of the city, the winding seine, the flowery meadows, the forest, the villages, and the battlemented chateaux lost all their charms, since the towers of st. denis would resistlessly arrest his eye, forcing upon his soul reflections from which he instinctively recoiled. he therefore abandoned st. germain entirely, and determined that the palace he was constructing at versailles should be so magnificent as to throw every other abode of royalty into the shade. madame de la vallière was daily becoming more wretched. fully conscious of her sin and shame, deserted by the king, supplanted by a new favorite, and still passionately attached to her royal betrayer, she could not restrain that grief which rapidly marred her beauty. the waning of her charms, and the reproaches of her silent woe, increasingly repelled the king from seeking her society. one day louis entered the apartment of louise, and found her weeping bitterly. in cold, reproachful tones, he demanded the cause of her uncontrollable grief. the poor victim, upon the impulse of the moment, gave vent to all the gushing anguish of her soul--her sense of guilt in the sight of god--her misery in view of her ignominious position, and her brokenness of heart in the consciousness that she had lost the love of one for whom she had periled her very soul. the king listened impatiently, and then haughtily replied, "let there be an end to this. i love you, and you know it. but i am not to be constrained." he reproached her for her obstinacy in refusing the friendship of her rival, madame de montespan, and added the cutting words, "you have needed, as well as madame de montespan, the forbearance and countenance of your sex." poor louise was utterly crushed. she had long been thinking of retiring to a convent. her decision was now formed. she devoted a few sad days to the necessary arrangements, took an agonizing leave, as she supposed forever, of her children, to whom she was tenderly attached, and for whom the king had made ample provision, and, addressing a parting letter to him, entered her carriage, to seek, for a second time, a final retreat in the convent of chaillot. it was late in the evening when she entered those gloomy cells where broken hearts find a living burial. to the abbess she said, "i have no longer a home in the palace; may i hope to find one in the cloister?" the abbess received her with true christian sympathy. after listening with a tearful eye to the recital of her sorrows, she conducted her to the cell in which she was to pass the night. "she could not pray, although she cast herself upon her knees beside the narrow pallet, and strove to rejoice that she had at length escaped from the trials of a world which had wearied her, and of which she herself was weary. there was no peace, no joy in her rebel heart. she thought of the first days of her happiness; of her children, who on the morrow would ask for her in vain; and then, as memory swept over her throbbing brain, she remembered her former flight to chaillot, and that it was the king himself who had led her back again into the world. her brow burned as the question forced itself upon her, would he do so a second time? would he once more hasten, as he had then done, to rescue her from the living death to which she had consigned herself as an atonement for her past errors? "but hour after hour went by, and all was silent. hope died within her. daylight streamed dimly into the narrow casement of her cell. soon the measured step of the abbess fell upon her ear as she advanced up the long gallery, striking upon the door of each cell as she approached, and uttering in a solemn voice, 'let us bless the lord.' to which appeal each of the sisters replied in turn, 'i give him thanks.'" the deceptive heart of louise led her to hope, notwithstanding she had voluntarily sought the cloister, that the king, yearning for her presence, would come himself, as soon as he heard of her departure, and affectionately force her back to the louvre. early in the morning she heard the sound of carriage-wheels entering the court-yard of the convent. her heart throbbed with excitement. soon she was summoned from her cell to the parlor. much to her disappointment, the king was not there, but his minister, m. colbert, presented to her a very affectionate letter from his majesty urging her return. as she hesitated, m. colbert pleaded earnestly in behalf of his sovereign. the feeble will of louise yielded, while yet she blushed at her own weakness. tears filled her eyes as she took leave of the abbess, grasping her hand, and saying, "this is not a farewell; i shall assuredly return, and perhaps very soon." the king was much moved in receiving her, and, with great apparent cordiality, thanked her for having complied with his entreaties. even the heart of madame de montespan was touched. she received with words of love and sympathy the returned fugitive, whose rivalry she no longer feared, and in whose sad career she perhaps saw mirrored her own future doom. madame de montespan was then in the zenith of her power. the king had assigned her the beautiful chateau of clagny, but a short distance from versailles. here she lived in great splendor, entertaining foreign embassadors, receiving from them costly gifts, and introducing them to her children as if they were really princes of the blood. notwithstanding the corruptions of the papal church, there were in that church many faithful ministers of jesus christ. some of them, in their preaching, inveighed very severely against the sinful practices in the court. not only madame de montespan, but the king, often knew that they were directly referred to. but the guilty yet sagacious monarch carefully avoided any appropriation of the denunciations to himself. still, he was so much annoyed that he seriously contemplated urging madame de montespan to retire to a convent. he even authorized the venerable bossuet, then bishop of condom, to call upon madame de montespan, and suggest in his name that she should withdraw from the court and retire to the seclusion of the cloister. but the haughty favorite, conscious of the power of her charms, and knowing full well that the king had only submitted to the suggestion, peremptorily refused. she judged correctly. the king was well pleased to have her remain. the preparations which the king was making for the invasion of holland greatly alarmed the dutch government. france had become powerful far beyond any other continental kingdom. the king had the finest army in europe. turenne, condé, vauban, ranked among the ablest generals and engineers of any age. while louis xiv. was apparently absorbed in his pleasures, europe was surprised to see vast trains of artillery and ammunition wagons crowding the roads of his northern provinces. in his previous campaign, louis had taken flanders in three months, and franche-comté in three weeks. these rapid conquests had alarmed neighboring nations, and holland, switzerland, and england had entered into an alliance to resist farther encroachments, should they be attempted. louis affected to be very angry that such a feeble state as holland should have the impudence to think of limiting his conquests. having, as we have mentioned, detached england from the alliance by bribing with gold and female charms the miserable charles ii., louis was ready, without any declaration of war, even without any _openly avowed_ cause of grievance, to invade holland, and annex the territory to his realms. the states-general, alarmed in view of the magnitude of the military operations which were being made upon their borders, sent embassadors to the french court humbly to inquire if these preparations were designed against holland, the ancient and faithful ally of france, and, if so, in what respect holland had offended. louis xiv. haughtily and insolently replied, "i shall make use of my troops as my own dignity renders advisable. i am not responsible for my conduct to any power whatever." the real ability of the king was shown in the effectual measures he adopted to secure, without the chance of failure, the triumphant execution of his plans. twenty millions of people had been robbed of their hard earnings to fill his army chests with gold. an army of a hundred and thirty thousand men, in the highest state of discipline, and abundantly supplied with all the munitions of war, were on the march for the northern frontiers of france. these troops were supported by a combined english and french fleet of one hundred and thirty vessels of war. it was the most resistless force, all things considered, europe had then ever witnessed. we shall not enter into the details of this campaign, which are interesting only to military men. twelve hundred of the sons of the nobles were organized into a body-guard, ever to surround the king. they were decorated with the most brilliant uniforms, glittering with embroideries of gold and silver, and were magnificently mounted. the terrible bayonet was then, for the first time, attached to the musket. light pontoons of brass for crossing the rivers were carried on wagons. a celebrated writer, m. pelisson, accompanied the king, to give a glowing narrative of his achievements. as there had been no declaration of war and no commencement of hostilities, the king purchased a large amount of military stores even in the states of holland, which, no one could doubt, he was preparing to invade. a dutch merchant, being censured by prince maurice for entering into a traffic so unpatriotic, replied, "my lord, if there could be opened to me by sea any advantageous commerce with the infernal regions, i should certainly go there, even at the risk of burning my sails." louis made arrangements that money should be liberally expended to bribe the commandants of the dutch fortresses. to oppose all these moral and physical forces, holland had but twenty-five thousand soldiers, poorly armed and disciplined. they were under the command of the prince of orange, who was in feeble health, and but twenty-two years of age. but this young prince proved to be one of the most extraordinary men of whom history gives any account; yet it was manifestly impossible for him now to arrest the torrent about to invade his courts. louis rapidly pushed his troops forward into the unprotected states of holland which bordered the left banks of the rhine. his march was unresisted. liberally he paid for whatever he took, distributed presents to the nobles, and, preparing to cross the river, placed his troops in strong detachments in villages scattered along the banks of the stream. the king himself was at the head of a choice body of thirty thousand troops. marshal turenne commanded under him. the whole country on the left bank of the rhine was soon in possession of the french, as village after village fell into their hands. the main object of the prince of orange was to prevent the french from crossing the river. louis intended to have crossed by his pontoons, suddenly moving upon some unexpected point. but there came just then a very severe drouth. the water fell so low that there was a portion of the stream which could be nearly forded. it would be necessary to swim the horses but about twenty feet. the current was slow, and the passage could be easily effected. by moving rapidly, the prince of orange would not be able to collect at that point sufficient troops seriously to embarrass the operation. fifteen thousand horsemen were here sent across, defended by artillery on the banks, and aided by boats of brass. but one man in the french army, the young duke de longueville, was killed. he lost his life through inebriation, and its consequent folly and crime. half crazed with wine, he refused quarter to a dutch officer who had thrown down his arms and surrendered. reeling in his saddle, he shot down the officer, exclaiming, "no quarter for these rascals." some of the dutch infantry, who were just surrendering, in despair opened fire, and the drunken duke received the death-blow he merited. this passage of the rhine was considered a very brilliant achievement, and added much to the military reputation of louis xiv., though it appears to have been exclusively the feat of the prince of condé. the cities of holland fell in such rapid succession into the power of the french, that scarcely an hour of the day passed in which the king did not receive the news of some conquest. an officer named mazel sent an aid to marshal turenne to say, "if you will be kind enough to send me fifty horsemen, i shall with them be able to take two or three places." it was on the 12th of june, 1672, that the passage of the rhine was effected. on the 20th the french king made his triumphal entrance into the city of utrecht. the king was a catholic--a bigoted catholic. corrupt as he was in life, regardless as he was in his private conduct of the precepts of jesus, he was extremely zealous to invest the catholic church with power and splendor. it was with him a prominent object to give the catholic religion the supremacy. amsterdam was the capital of the republic. the capture of that city would complete the conquest. not only the republic would perish, but holland would, as it were, disappear from the earth, her territory being absorbed in that of france. the consternation in the metropolis was great. the most noble and wealthy families were preparing for a rapid flight to the north. amsterdam was then the most opulent and influential commercial town in europe. it contained a population of two hundred thousand sagacious, energetic, thrifty people. as is invariably the case in days of disaster, there were discordant counsels and angry divisions among the bewildered defenders of the imperiled realm. some were for fiercely pressing the war, others for humbly imploring peace. at length four deputies were sent to the french camp to intercede for the clemency of the conqueror. they were received with raillery and insult. after contemptuously compelling the deputation several times to come and go without any result, the king at last condescended to present the following as his terms: he demanded that the states of holland should surrender to him the whole of the territory on the left bank of the rhine; that they should place in his hands, to be garrisoned by french troops, the most important forts and fortified towns of the republic; that they should pay him twenty millions of francs, a sum equal to several times that amount at the present day; that the french should be placed in command of all the important entrances to holland, both by sea and land, and should be exempted from paying any duty upon the goods they should enter; that the catholic religion should be established every where through the realm; and that every year the republic should send to louis xiv. an embassador, with a golden medal, upon which there should be impressed the declaration that the republic held all its privileges through the favor of louis xiv. to these conditions were to be added such as the states-general should be compelled to make with the other allies engaged in the war. the nations of europe have been guilty of many outrages, but perhaps it would be difficult to find one more atrocious than this. in reference to the cause of the war, voltaire very truly remarks, "it is a singular fact, and worthy of record, that of all the enemies, there was not one that could allege any pretext whatever for the war." it was an enterprise very similar to that of the coalition of louis xii., the emperor maximilian, and spain, who conspired for the overthrow of the venetian republic simply because that republic was rich and prosperous. these terms, dictated by the insolence of the conqueror, were quite intolerable. they inspired the courage of despair. the resolution was at once formed to perish, if perish they must, with their arms in their hands. the prince of orange had always urged the vigorous prosecution of the war. guided by his energetic counsel, they pierced the dikes, which alone protected their country from the waters of the sea. the flood rushed in through the opened barriers, converting hundreds of leagues of fertile fields into an ocean. the inundation flooded the houses, swept away the roads, destroyed the harvest, drowned the flocks; and yet no one uttered a murmur. louis xiv., by his infamous demands, had united all hearts in the most determined resistance. amsterdam appeared like a large fortress rising in the midst of the ocean, surrounded by ships of war, which found depth of water to float where ships had never floated before. the distress was dreadful. it was the briny ocean whose waves were now sweeping over the land. it was so difficult to obtain any fresh water that it was sold for six cents a pint. maritime holland, though weak upon the land, was still powerful on the sea. the united fleet of the allies did not exceed that of the republic. the dutch admiral ruyter, with a hundred vessels of war and fifty fire-ships, repaired to the coasts of england in search of his foes. he met the allied fleet on the 7th of june, 1672, and in the heroic naval battle of solbaie disabled and dispersed it. this gave holland the entire supremacy on the sea. thus suddenly louis xiv. found himself checked, and no farther progress was possible. the prince of orange gave all his private revenues to the state, and entered into negotiations with other powers, who were already alarmed by the encroachments of the french king. the emperor of germany, the spanish court, and flanders, entered into an alliance with the heroic prince. he even compelled charles ii. to withdraw from that union with louis xiv. which was opposed to the interests of england, and into which his court had been reluctantly dragged. troops from all quarters were hurrying forward for the protection of holland. the villainy of louis xiv. was thwarted. chagrined at seeing his conquest at an end, but probably with no compunctions of conscience for the vast amount of misery his crime had caused, he left his discomfited army under the command of turenne and the other generals, and returned to his palaces in france. the troops which remained in holland committed outrages which rendered the very name of the french detested. louis, from the midst of the pomp and pleasure of his palaces, still displayed extraordinary energies. agents were dispatched to all the courts of europe with large sums of money for purposes of bribery. by his diplomatic cunning, hungary was roused against austria. gold was lavished upon the king of england to induce him, notwithstanding the opposition of the british parliament, to continue in alliance with france. several of the petty states of germany were bought over. louis greatly increased his naval force. he soon had forty ships of war afloat, besides a large number of fire-ships. but europe had been so alarmed by his encroachments and his menaces that, notwithstanding his efforts at diplomacy and intrigue, he was compelled to abandon his enterprise, and withdraw his troops from the provinces he had overrun. [illustration: porte st. denis.] in the early part of his campaign, louis, flushed with victory and assured of entire success, had commenced building, as a monument of his great achievement, the arch of triumph at the gate of st. denis. the structure was scarcely completed ere he was compelled to withdraw his troops from holland, to meet the foes who were crowding upon him from all directions. louis xiv. now found nearly all europe against him. he sent twenty thousand men, under marshal turenne, to encounter the forces of the emperor of germany. the prince de condé was sent with forty thousand troops to assail the redoubtable prince of orange. another strong detachment was dispatched to the frontiers of spain, to arrest the advance of the spanish troops. a fleet was also sent, conveying a large land force, to make a diversion by attacking the spanish sea-ports. turenne, in defending the frontiers of the rhine, acquired reputation which has made his name one of the most renowned in military annals. the emperor sent seventy thousand men against him. turenne had but twenty thousand to meet them. by wonderful combinations, he defeated and dispersed the whole imperial army. it added not a little to the celebrity of turenne that he had achieved his victory by following his own judgment, in direct opposition to reiterated orders from the minister of war, given in the name of the king. turenne, a merciless warrior, allowed no considerations of humanity to interfere with his military operations. the palatinate, a country on both sides the rhine, embracing a territory of about sixteen hundred square miles, and a population of over three hundred thousand, was laid in ashes by his command. it was a beautiful region, very fertile, and covered with villages and opulent cities. the elector palatine saw from the towers of his castle at manheim two cities and twenty-five villages at the same time in flames. this awful destruction was perpetrated upon the defenseless inhabitants, that the armies of the emperor, encountering entire desolation, might be deprived of subsistence. it was nothing to turenne that thousands of women and children should be cast houseless into the fields to starve. alsace, with nearly a million of inhabitants, encountered the same doom. another province, lorraine, which covered an area of about ten thousand square miles, and contained a population of one and a half millions, was swept of all its provisions by the cavalry of the french commander. in reference to these military operations, voltaire writes, "all the injuries he inflicted seemed to be necessary. besides, the army of seventy thousand germans, whom he thus prevented from entering france, would have inflicted much more injury than turenne inflicted upon lorraine, alsace, and the palatinate." on the 27th of june, 1675, a cannon ball struck turenne, and closed in an instant his earthly career. his renown filled europe. he was a successful warrior, a dissolute man; and few who have ever lived have caused more wide-spread misery than could be charged to his account. such is not the character which best prepares one to stand before the judgment seat of christ. the war continued for two years with somewhat varying fortune, but with unvarying blood and misery. at last peace was made on the 14th of august, 1678--the peace of nimeguen, as it is styled. louis xiv. dictated the terms. he was now at the height of his grandeur. he had enlarged his domains by the addition of franche-comté, dunkirk, and half of flanders. his courtiers worshiped him as a demigod. the french court conferred upon him, with imposing solemnities, the title of _louis le grand_. the ambition of louis was by no means satiated. he availed himself of the short peace which ensued to form plans and gather resources for new conquests. let us now return from fields of blood to life in the palace. madame de la vallière, upon her return from the convent, soon found herself utterly miserable. she had hoped that reviving affection had been the inducement which led louis to recall her. instead of this, his attentions daily diminished. madame de montespan had accompanied the king in his brief trip to holland, and returned with him to paris. she was all-powerful at court, and seemed to delight, by word and deed, to add to the anguish of her vanquished rival. after a dreary year of wretchedness, louise could endure no longer a residence in the palace. her mother, who had been exceedingly distressed in view of the ignominious position occupied by her daughter, entreated her to retire to the duchy of vaujours with her children. her mother promised to accompany her to that quiet yet beautiful retreat. but the spirit of louise was broken. she longed only to sever herself entirely from the world, and to seek a living burial in the glooms of the cloister. in those days of sorrow, penitence and the spirit of devotion sprang up in her weary heart. louise was still young and beautiful. her passionate love for the king still held strong dominion over her. grief brought on a long and dangerous illness. for many days her life was in danger. in view of the approaching judgment, where she felt that she soon must stand, the greatness of her transgression harrowed her soul, and increased her desire to spend the rest of her life in works of piety and in prayer. when convalescent, the king consented to her retirement to the carmelite convent. like one in a dream, she took leave of her children without a tear. then, entering the apartment of the queen, she threw herself upon her knees, and with the sobbings of a remorseful and despairing heart implored her pardon for all the sorrow she had caused her. the generous maria theresa raised her up, embraced her, and declared her entirely forgiven. the morning of her departure arrived. the king, who was that day to leave paris to visit the army in flanders, attended high mass. louise also attended. absorbed in prayer, she did not raise her eyes during the service. she then, pale as death, and leaning upon the arm of her mother, but for whose support she must have fallen, advanced to take leave of the king. the selfish monarch, with a dry eye and a firm voice, bade her adieu, coldly expressing the hope that she would be happy in her retreat. without the slightest apparent emotion, he saw louise, with her earthly happiness utterly wrecked, enter her carriage and drive away, to pass the remainder of her joyless years in the gloomy cell of the convent. he then turned and conversed with his companions with as much composure as if nothing unusual had happened. louise, upon her arrival at the convent, cast herself upon her knees before the abbess, saying that hitherto she had made so ill a use of her free will that she came to resign it to the abbess forever. for thirty-six years the heart-broken penitent endured the hardships of her convent life--its narrow pallet, its hard fare, its prolonged devotions, its silence, and its rigid fastings. under the name of louisa of mercy she with the most exemplary fidelity performed all her dreary duties, until, in her sixty-sixth year, she fell asleep, and passed away, we trust, to the bosom of that savior who is ever ready to receive the returning penitent. the hapless henrietta, duchess of orleans, left a very beautiful daughter, maria louisa. her charms of countenance, person, and manners attracted the admiration of the whole court, where she was a universal favorite. she was compelled by the king, as a matter of state policy, to marry charles ii., the young king of spain, for whom she felt no affection. bitterly she wept in view of the terrible sacrifice she was compelled to make. but the will of the king was inexorable. her melancholy marriage was solemnized with much splendor in the great chapel at st. germain. she then left, with undisguised reluctance, for madrid. the king of spain, feeble in body, more feeble in mind, moody and melancholy, was charmed by her youth and beauty. her mental endowments were such that she soon acquired entire ascendency over him. he became pliant as wax in her hands. the cabinet at vienna were alarmed lest maria louisa should influence her husband to unite with france against germany. the countess de soissons was sent as a secret agent to the spanish court. beautiful and fascinating, she soon became exceedingly intimate with the queen. one day maria louisa, oppressed by the heat, expressed regret at the scarcity of milk in madrid, saying how much she should enjoy a good draught. the countess assured her that she knew where to obtain some of excellent quality, and that, with her majesty's permission, she would have it iced and present it with her own hands. the queen received the cup with a smile, and drank it at once. in half an hour she was taken ill. after a few hours of horrible agony, such as her unhappy mother had previously endured from the same cause, she died. in the confusion, the countess escaped from the capital. she was pursued, but her arrangements for escape had been so skillfully made that she could not be overtaken. maria theresa, the neglected queen of france, had borne six children; but of these, at this period, there was but one surviving son, the dauphin. in his character there appeared a combination of most singular anomalies and contradictions. though exceedingly impulsive and obstinate in obeying every freak of his fancy, he seemed incapable of any affection, and alike incapable of any hostility, except that which flashed up for the moment. "the example of his guardians had inspired him with a few amiable qualities, but his natural vices defied eradication. his constitutional tendencies were all evil. his greatest pleasure consisted in annoying those about him. those who were most conversant with his humor could never guess the temper of his mind. he laughed the loudest and affected the greatest amiability when he was most exasperated, and scowled defiance when he was perfectly unruffled. his only talent was a keen sense of the ridiculous. nothing escaped him that could be tortured into sarcasm, although no one could have guessed, from his abstracted and careless demeanor, that he was conscious of any thing that was taking place in his presence. his indolence was extreme, and his favorite amusement was lying stretched upon a sofa tapping the points of his shoes with a cane. never, to the day of his death, had even his most intimate associates heard him express an opinion upon any subject relating to art, literature, or politics."[n] [footnote n: louis xiv. and the court of france, vol. ii., p. 268.] such was the imbecile young man who, by the absurd law of hereditary descent, was the destined heir to the throne of more than twenty millions of people. the king was anxious to obtain for his son a bride whose alliance would strengthen him against his enemies. with that policy alone influencing him, he applied for the hand of the princess mary ann of bavaria. it so chanced that she was in personal appearance exceedingly unattractive. the king said that, "though she was not handsome, he still hoped that monseigneur would be able to live happily with her." the dauphin, or monseigneur as he was called, seemed to be perfectly indifferent to the whole matter. he at one time inquired if the princess were free from any deformity. upon being told that she was, he seemed quite contented, and asked no farther questions. in anticipation of the marriage, a lady, madame de maintenon, whose name henceforth became inseparably connected with that of louis xiv., was appointed to the distinguished post of "mistress of the robes" to the dauphiness. we must now introduce this distinguished lady to our readers. the marchioness françoise d'aubigné was born of a noble protestant family, in the year 1635, in the prison of niort. her mother, with her little boy, had been permitted to join her imprisoned husband in his captivity. here françoise was born, amidst scenes of the most extreme poverty and misery. the emaciate mother was unable to afford sustenance to her infant. a sister of baron d'aubigné, madame de vilette, took françoise to her home at the chateau de marcey, where she passed her infancy. after an imprisonment of four years, the baron was released; but, as he refused to abjure calvinism, cardinal richelieu would not permit him to remain in france. he consequently, with his family, embarked for martinique. during the passage, françoise was taken ill and apparently died. as one of the crew was about to consign the body to its ocean burial, the grief-stricken mother implored the privilege of one parting embrace. as she pressed the child to her heart, she perceived indications of life. the babe recovered, to occupy a position which filled the world with her renown. upon the island of martinique prosperity smiled upon them. madame d'aubigné was a catholic, though her husband was a protestant. she at length took ship for france, hoping to save some portion of her husband's sequestered estates, but was unsuccessful. upon her return to martinique, she found that baron d'aubigné, during her absence, deprived of her restraining influence, had utterly ruined himself by gambling. overwhelmed by regret and misery, he almost immediately sank into the grave. madame d'aubigné and her two children, in the extreme of poverty, returned to france. madame de vilette again took the little françoise to the chateau of marcey. as her mother was a catholic, françoise had been baptized by a romish priest, and reared in the faith of her mother. the countess de neuillant, who was attached to the household of anne of austria, was her godmother, and a very intense catholic; but madame de vilette, the sister of the child's father, was a protestant. the susceptible child was soon led to adopt the faith of her protectress. catholic zeal was such in those days that madame de neuillant obtained an order from the court to remove the little girl from the protestant family, and to place her under her own guardianship. here every effort was made to induce françoise to return to the catholic faith, but neither threats nor entreaties were of any avail. she remained firm in her protestant principles. the persecution she endured amounted almost to martyrdom. madame de neuillant, in her rage, imposed upon her the most humiliating and onerous domestic services. she was the servant of the servants. she fed the horses. she suffered from cold and hunger. thus she, who subsequently caused the revocation of the edict of nantes, and thus exposed the protestants to the most dreadful sufferings, was a martyr of the religion of which she later became so terrible a scourge. the mother, witnessing the distress of her child, succeeded in withdrawing her from madame de neuillant, and placing her in a convent. here the ursuline nuns won her over to the catholic faith. proud of their convert, who was remarkably intelligent and attractive, they kept her for a year. but as neither madame de neuillant, from whom she had been removed, nor madame de vilette, who dreaded her return to romanism, would pay her board, they refused to give her any longer a shelter. françoise left the convent, and joined her mother only in time to see her sink in sorrow to the grave. she was thus left, at fourteen years of age, in utter destitution, dependent upon charity for support. chapter viii. madame de maintenon. 1649-1685 beauty and intelligence of françoise--françoise d'aubigné and the poet scarron.--scarron's proposal of marriage.--marriage of françoise d'aubigné.--becomes a governess.--elevation of madame scarron.--personal appearance of madame de maintenon.--portrait of ann of austria.--the princess of tuscany.--unhappiness of the dauphiness.--louis's providence for his children.--mademoiselle de blois.--marriage of mademoiselle de blois.--the man with the iron mask.--measures adopted to prevent discovery.--madame de montespan and her son.--mary angelica roussille.--intrigue of madame de montespan.--display of the duchess de fontanges.--a quarrel.--virtuous endeavors of madame de maintenon.--madame de maintenon's efforts unsuccessful.--sickness and distress of the duchess de fontanges.--death of the duchess de fontanges.--madame de montespan rejoices.--supremacy of madame de maintenon.--père la chaise.--remorse of louis.--degradation of the people.--birth of the duke of burgoyne.--louis taken ill.--dismissal of madame de montespan.--resolves to build a convent.--her great wealth.--the convent of st. joseph completed.--the king recovers, and goes to flanders.--return to versailles.--political ambition of louis xiv.--sickness and death of the queen, maria theresa.--tribute to her worth.--masses.--versailles.--heartlessness of the king and of the courtiers.--accident.--death of the minister of finance.--ingratitude.--remarkable condescension on the part of louis.--genoa assailed.--capture.--the doge humbled. the extreme distress and destitution of françoise touched the heart of madame de neuillant. she again took the orphan child under her charge and returned her to school in the convent. françoise gradually developed remarkable beauty and intelligence. her quiet, unobtrusive, instinctive tact gave her fascinating power over most who approached her. she often visited the countess, where she attracted much admiration from the fashionable guests who were ever assembled in her saloons. the dissolute courtiers were lavish in their attentions to the highly-endowed child. established principles of virtue alone saved her from ruin. misfortune and sorrow had rendered her precocious beyond her years. it was her only and her earnest desire to take the veil, and join the sisters in the convent. but money was needed for that purpose, and she had none. there was residing very near madame de neuillant, a very remarkable man, paul scarron. he was born of a good family, and had traveled extensively. having run through the disgraceful round of fashionable dissipation, he had become crippled by the paralysis of his lower limbs, and was living a literary life in the enjoyment of a competence. he was still young. imperturbable gayety, wonderful conversational powers, and celebrity as a poet, caused his saloons to be crowded with distinguished and admiring friends. some one mentioned to him the situation of françoise d'aubigné, and her desire to enter the convent. his kindly heart was touched, and, heading a subscription-list, he soon obtained sufficient funds from among his friends to enable her to secure the retreat she desired. quite overjoyed, the maiden hastened to the apartments of the poet to express her gratitude. scarron was astonished when the apparition of a beautiful girl of fifteen, full of life, and with a figure whose symmetric grace the sculptor could with difficulty rival, appeared before him. her heart was glowing with gratitude which her lips could hardly express, that he was furnishing her with means for a life-long burial in the glooms of the cloister. the poet gazed upon her for a moment quite bewildered, and then said, with one of those beaming smiles which irradiated his pale, intellectual face with rare beauty, "i must recall my promise; i can not procure you admission into a religious community. you are not fitted for a nun. you can not understand the nature of the sacrifice which you are so eager to make. will you become my wife? my servants anger and neglect me. i am unable to enforce obedience. were they under the control of a mistress, they would do their duty. my friends neglect me; i can not pursue them to reproach them for their abandonment. if they saw a pretty woman at the head of my household, they would make my home cheerful. i give you a week to decide." françoise returned to the convent bewildered, almost stunned. she was alone in the world, living upon reluctant charity. there was no one to whom she could confidingly look for advice. the future was all dark before her. scarron, though crippled, was still young, witty, and distinguished as one of the most popular poets of the day. his saloon was the intellectual centre of the capital, where the most distinguished men were wont to meet. at the close of the week françoise returned an affirmative answer. they were soon married. she found apparently a happy home with her crippled but amiable husband. the brilliant circle in the midst of which she moved strengthened her intellect, enlarged her intelligence, and added to that wonderful ease and gracefulness of manner with which she was by nature endowed. in the year 1660 monsieur scarron died. he had lived expensively, and, as his income was derived from a life annuity which ceased at his death, his wife found herself again in utter destitution. she was then forty-five years of age. madame de montespan, who had frequently met her in those brilliant circles, which had been rendered additionally attractive by her personal loveliness and mental charms, persuaded the king to appoint madame scarron governess for her children. a residence was accordingly assigned her near the palace of the luxembourg, where she was installed in her responsible office. she enjoyed a princely residence, horses, a carriage, and a suite of servants. the many attractions of madame scarron were not lost upon the king. he often visited her, loved to converse with her, and soon the jealousy of madame de montespan was intensely excited by the manifest fondness with which he was regarding the new favorite. greatly to the disgust of madame de montespan, whose influence was rapidly waning, the king appointed madame scarron to the responsible office of _mistress of the robes_ to the dauphiness, mary ann of bavaria, who was soon to arrive. he also conferred upon her the fine estate of maintenon, with the title of marchioness of maintenon. it was now the turn of madame de montespan to experience the same neglect and humiliation through which she had seen, almost exultingly, the unhappy madame de la valliére pass. [illustration: madame de maintenon.] the haughty favorite had reached her thirty-ninth year. the charms of youth were fast leaving her. louis had attained his forty-second year. bitter reproaches often rose between them. the king was weary of her exactions. he made several efforts, but in vain, to induce her to retire to one of the estates which he had conferred upon her. the daily increasing alienation led the king more frequently to seek the soothing society of the calm, gentle, serious madame de maintenon. her fascinations of person and mind won his admiration, while her virtues commanded his respect. such was the posture of affairs when preparations were made for the reception of the dauphiness with the utmost magnificence. the costumes of madame de maintenon were particularly remarked for their splendor, being covered with jewels and embroidered with gold. "madame de maintenon, although in her forty-fifth year, had lost no charm save that of youth, which had been replaced by a stately grace, and a dignified self-possession that rendered it almost impossible to regret the lighter and less finished attractions of buoyancy and display. her hands and arms were singularly beautiful; her eyes had lost nothing of their fire; her voice was harmoniously modulated, and there was in the whole of her demeanor unstudied ease, which was as far removed from presumption as from servility."[o] [footnote o: louis xiv. and the court of france, vol. ii., p. 274.] madame de montespan was so annoyed by the honors conferred upon madame de maintenon that she was betrayed into saying, "i pity the young foreigner, who can not fail to be eclipsed in every way by her _mistress of the robes_." early in the year 1680 madame de maintenon and m. bossuet, bishop of meaux, who had educated the dauphin, accompanied by a suitable retinue, proceeded to schelestadt to receive the dauphiness. here the ceremony of marriage by proxy was to be solemnized. the king and the dauphin proceeded as far as vitry le français to receive the bride. she was not beautiful, "but she was," writes madame de sévigné, "very graceful; her hands and arms were exquisitely moulded. she had so fine a figure, so admirable a carriage, such handsome teeth, such magnificent hair, and so much amiability of manner, that she was courteous without being insipid, familiar without losing her dignity, and had so charming a deportment that she might be pardoned for not pleasing at first sight." louis seemed quite delighted with his new daughter-in-law, and devoted himself much to her entertainment. she was accompanied by her sister, the princess of tuscany, who was extremely beautiful. the king, in conversation with mary ann, remarked, "you never mentioned to me the fact that the princess of tuscany was so singularly lovely." with tact which gave evidence of her self-possession and ready wit, the dauphiness replied, "how can i remember, sire, that my sister monopolized all the beauty of the family, when i, on my part, have monopolized all its happiness." the young dauphiness had sufficient penetration soon to perceive that the attentions which the king was apparently devoting to her were due mainly to his desire to enjoy the society of the beautiful and agreeable _mistress of the robes_. the dauphiness was annoyed. naturally of a retiring disposition, very fond of books and of music, she soon wearied of the perpetual whirl of fashion and frivolity, and gradually withdrew as much as possible from the society of the court. she imbibed a strong dislike to madame de maintenon, which dislike madame de montespan did every thing in her power to increase. the dauphiness became very unhappy. she soon found that her husband was a mere cipher, whom she could neither regard with respect nor affection. louis xiv. allowed the dauphiness to pursue her own course. while ever treating her with the most punctilious politeness, he continued, much to her chagrin, and especially to that of madame de montespan, to manifest his admiration for madame de maintenon, and constantly to seek her society. thus the clouds of discontent, jealousy, and bitter hostility shed their gloom throughout the court. there was splendor there, but no happiness. it was a good trait in the character of the king that he was affectionately attached to _all_ of his children. he provided for them sumptuously, and did every thing in his power to provide abundantly for those of dishonorable birth. royal decrees pronounced them legitimate, and they were honored and courted as princes of the blood. mademoiselle de blois, a daughter of madame de la vallière, was one of the most beautiful and highly accomplished women ever seen at the french court. her mother had transmitted to her all her many virtues and none of her frailties. tall and slender, her figure was the perfection of grace. a slightly pensive air enhanced the charms of a countenance remarkably lovely, and of a bearing in which were combined the highest attractions of self-respect and courtly breeding. her voice was music. her hands and feet were finely modeled. several foreign princes had solicited her hand. but the king, her father, had invariably declined these offers. he declared that the presence of his daughter was essential to his happiness--that he could not be separated from her. in 1680 mademoiselle de blois was married to the prince de conti, nephew of the great condé. it was as brilliant a marriage as exalted rank, gorgeous dresses, superb diamonds, and courtly etiquette could create. the king could not have honored the nuptials more had he been giving a daughter of the queen to the proudest monarch in europe. her princely dowry was the same as would have been conferred on such an occasion. it amounted to five hundred thousand golden crowns. this was the same sum which the spanish monarchy assigned maria theresa upon her marriage with the king of france. it is difficult to imagine what must have been the emotions of madame de la vallière when she heard, in her narrow cell, the details of the brilliant nuptials of her child. her loving heart must have experienced conflicting sensations of joy and of anguish. madame de la vallière had also a son, count vermandois. he became exceedingly dissipated, so much so as to excite the severe displeasure of the king. rumor says that on one occasion he had the audacity to strike the dauphin. the council condemned him to death. louis xiv., through paternal affection, commuted the punishment to imprisonment for life. the report was spread that he had died of a contagious disease, while he was privately conveyed to the prison of st. marguerite, and subsequently to the bastile, his face being ever concealed under an iron mask. here he died, it is said, on the 19th of november, 1703, after an imprisonment of between thirty and forty years. the true explanation of this great historical mystery will probably now never be ascertained. the story of the "man with the iron mask" is one of the most remarkable in the annals of the past. probably no information will ever be obtained upon this subject more full than that which voltaire has given. he says that a prisoner was sent in great secrecy to the chateau in the island of st. marguerite; that he was young, tall, and of remarkably graceful figure. his face was concealed by an iron mask, with coils of steel so arranged that he could eat without its removal. orders were given to kill him instantly if he should announce who he was. he remained at the chateau many years in close imprisonment. in 1690, m. st. mars, governor of the prison at st. marguerite, was transferred to the charge of the bastile in paris. the prisoner, ever masked, was taken with him, and was treated on the journey with the highest respect. a well-furnished chamber was provided for him in that immense chateau. the governor himself brought him his food, and stood respectfully like a servile attendant while he ate. the captive was extremely fond of fine linen and lace, and was very attentive to his personal appearance. upon his death the walls of his chamber were rubbed down and whitewashed. even the tiles of the floor were removed, lest he might have concealed a note beneath them. it is very remarkable that, while it can not be doubted that the prisoner was a person of some great importance, no such personage disappeared from europe at that time. it is a plausible supposition that the king, unwilling to consign his own son to death, sent him to life-long imprisonment; and that the report of his death by a contagious disease was circulated that the mother might be saved the anguish of knowing the dreadful fate of her child. still there are many difficulties connected with this explanation, and there is none other which has ever satisfied public curiosity. madame de montespan had eight children, who were placed under the care of madame de maintenon. her eldest son, count de vixen, died in his eleventh year. her second son, the duke de maine, was a lad of remarkable character and attainments. he loved madame de maintenon. he did not love his mother. unfeelingly he reproached her with his ignoble birth. madame de montespan, though still a fine-looking woman, brilliant, witty, and always conspicuous for the splendor of her equipage and her attire, felt every hour embittered by the consciousness that her power over the king had passed away. she regarded the serious, thoughtful madame de maintenon as her successful rival, though her social relations with the king were entirely above reproach. the character of the discarded favorite is developed by the measure she adopted to lure the susceptible and unprincipled monarch from the very agreeable society of madame de maintenon. in the department of provence there was a young lady but eighteen years of age, mary angelica roussille. she was of such wonderful beauty that its fame had reached paris. her parents had educated her with the one sole object of rendering her as fascinating as possible. they wished to secure for her the position of a maid of honor to the queen, hoping that by so doing she would attract the favor of the king. madame de montespan heard of her. she plotted to bring this young and extraordinary beauty to the court, that, by her personal charms, she might outrival the mental and social attractions of madame de maintenon. she described her intended protegé to the king in such enthusiastic strains that his curiosity was roused. she was brought to court. the monarch, satiated by indulgence, oppressed by ennui, ever seeking some new excitement, was at once won by the charms of the beautiful mary angelica. she became an acknowledged favorite. he lavished upon her gifts of jewels and of gold, and dignified her with the title of the _duchesse de fontanges_. the court blazed again with splendor to greet the new favorite; and, let it not be forgotten, to meet this royal splendor, millions of peasants were consigned to hovels, and life-long penury and want. there was a constant succession of theatric shows, ballets, and concerts. mary angelica was a gay, frivolous, conceited, heartless girl, who recklessly squandered the gold so profusely poured into her lap. the insolent favorite even ventured to treat the queen with disdain, assuming the priority. in the streets she made a truly regal display in a gorgeous carriage drawn by eight cream-colored horses, while the clustering ringlets, the floating plumes, and the truly radiant beauty of the _parvenue_ duchess attracted all eyes. if she had ever heard, she refused to heed the warning voice of the prophet, saying, "know thou that for all these things god will bring thee into judgment." the scheme of madame de montespan had succeeded far more fully than she had expected or desired. the absorption of the king in the new-comer was so entire that the discarded favorite was tortured with new pangs of jealousy and remorse. implacably she hated the duchess of fontanges. with her sharp tongue she mercilessly cut the luxurious beauty, who had intelligence enough to feel the sarcasms keenly, but had no ability to retort. a disgraceful quarrel ensued, in which the most vulgar epithets and the grossest witticisms were bandied between them. the king himself at length found it necessary to interpose. he applied to madame de maintenon for counsel and aid. she had quietly attended to her duties, observing all that was passing, but taking no part in these shameful intrigues. conscious that any attempt to influence madame de montespan, hardened as she was in her career, would be futile, she ventured to address herself to the young and inexperienced duchess de fontanges. gently she endeavored to lead her to some conception of the enormity of the life she was leading, and of the indecency of compromising the king and the court by undignified brawls. the vain and heartless beauty received her counsels with bitter derision and passionate insult, and attributed every annoyance to which, as she averred, she was continually subjected, to the jealous envy of those with whose ambitious views she had interfered; more than hinting that madame de maintenon herself was among the number. she was, however, only answered by a placid smile, and instructed to remember that those who sought to share her triumphs and her splendor must be content at the same time to partake her sin. it was a price too heavy to pay even for the smiles of a monarch. in vain did the flushed and furious beauty plead the example of others, higher born and more noble than herself. the calm and unmoved monitress instantly availed herself of this hollow argument to bid her, in her turn, to set an example which the noblest and the best-born might be proud to follow. "and how can i do this?" was the sullen inquiry. "by renouncing the society of the king," firmly replied madame de maintenon. "either you love him, or you love him not. if you love him, you should make an effort to save both his honor and your own. if you do not love him, it will cost you no effort to withdraw from the court. in either case you will act wisely and nobly." "would not any one believe who heard you," passionately exclaimed the duchess, "that it was as easy to leave a king as to throw off a glove?"[p] [footnote p: louis xiv and the court of france.] this was the only reply. the mission of madame de maintenon had entirely failed. the proud, unblushing beauty, whose effrontery passed all bounds, was greatly enraged against madame de maintenon; and when she perceived that the king was again beginning to take refuge in her virtuous society and conversation, she vowed the most signal vengeance. but the day of retribution soon came--far sooner than could have been expected. the guilty and pampered duchess was taken ill--hopelessly so, with a sickness that destroyed all her beauty. she became sallow, pallid, gaunt, emaciate, haggard. the selfish, heartless king wished to see her no more. he did not conceal his repugnance, and quite forsook her. the humiliation, distress, and abandonment of the guilty duchess was more than she could bear. she begged permission, either sincerely or insincerely, to retire to the convent of port royal. louis, whose crime was far greater than that of his wrecked and ruined victim, was glad to be rid of her. but she was too far gone, in her rapid illness, to be removed. it was soon manifest that her life was drawing near to its close. she begged to see the king once more before she died. louis xiv. dreaded every thing which could remind him of that tomb toward which all are hastening, and especially did he recoil from every death-bed scene. the wretched man would not have listened to the plea of the dying girl had not the remonstrances of his confessor constrained him. thus, reluctantly, he entered the dying chamber. he found mary angelica faded, withered, and ghastly--all unlike the radiant beauty whom for a few brief months he had almost worshiped. egotist as he was, he could not restrain his tears. her glassy eyes were riveted upon his countenance. her clammy hand almost convulsively clasped his own. her livid lips quivered in their last effort as she besought him to pay her debts, and sometimes to remember her. louis promised all she asked. as she sank back upon her pillow, she gasped out the declaration that she should die happy, as she saw that the king could weep for her. immediately after she fell into a swoon and died. the exultation of madame de montespan at her death was so indecent and undisguised as to excite the disgust of the king. her very name became hateful to him. wicked man as he was, louis xiv. believed in christianity, and in its revelations of responsibility at the bar of god. he was shocked, and experienced much remorse in view of this death-bed without repentance. he could not conceal from himself that he was in no inconsiderable degree responsible for the guilt which burdened the soul of the departed. his aversion to madame de montespan was increased by the report, then generally circulated, that the duchess had died from poison, administered through her agency. the poor victim of sin and shame was soon forgotten in the grave. the court whirled on in its usual round of frivolous and guilty pleasures, such as babylon could scarcely have rivaled. the supremacy of madame de maintenon over louis xiv. was that of a strong mind over a feeble one. the king had many very weak points in his character. he was utterly selfish, and the slave of his vices. madame de maintenon, with much address, strove to recall him to a better life. in these efforts she was much aided by the king's confessor, père la chaise. this truly good man reminded the king that he had already passed the fortieth year of his age, that his youth had gone forever, that he would soon enter upon the evening of his days, and that, as yet, he had done nothing to secure his eternal salvation. he had already received many warnings as he had followed one after another to the grave. the king was naturally thoughtful, and perhaps even religiously inclined. not a few events had already occurred calculated to harrow his soul with remorse. he had seen his mother die, one of the saddest of deaths. he had seen his sister henrietta, his brother's bride, whom he had loved with more than a brother's love, writhing in death's agonies, the victim of poison. he had followed several of his children to the grave. madame de la vallière, whom he had loved as ardently as he was capable of loving any one, now a ruined, heart-broken victim of his selfishness and sin, was consigned to living burial in the glooms of the cloister. he could not banish from his mind the dreadful scenes of the death of the duchess of fontanges. just at this time the dauphiness gave birth to a son. this advent of an heir to the throne caused universal rejoicing throughout the court and the nation. it is melancholy to reflect that the people, crushed and impoverished as they were by the most atrocious despotism, were so unintelligent that they regarded their oppressors with something of the idolatrous homage with which the heathen bow before their hideous gods. the king himself, at times, manifested a kind of tender interest in the people, who were so mercilessly robbed to maintain the splendor of his court and the grandeur of his armies. upon the birth of the young prince, who received the title of the duke of burgoyne, the populace of paris crowded to versailles with their rude congratulations. every avenue was thronged with the immense multitude. they even flooded the palace and poured into the saloons. the king, whose heart was softened by the birth of a grandson to whom the crown might be transmitted, received all very graciously. the birth of an heir to the crown added much to the personal importance of the dauphiness. but, neglected by her husband and annoyed by the scenes transpiring around her, she was a very unhappy woman. no efforts on the part of the court could draw her from the silence and gloom of her retirement. madame de maintenon and the king's confessor, père la chaise, were co-operating in the endeavor to lure the king from his life of guilty indulgence into the paths of virtue. fortunately, at this time the monarch was attacked by severe and painful illness. death was to him truly the king of terrors. he was easily influenced to withdraw from his criminal relations with one whom he had for some time been regarding with repugnance. madame de maintenon was deputed to inform madame de montespan of the king's determination never again to regard her in any other light than that of a friend. it was a very painful and embarrassing commission for madame de maintenon to fulfill. but the will of the king was law. she discharged the duty with great delicacy and kindness. deeply mortified as was the discarded favorite, she was not entirely unprepared for the announcement. she had for some time been painfully aware of her waning influence, and had been preparing for herself a retreat where she could still enjoy opulence, rank, and power. in pursuit of this object, she had determined to erect and endow a convent. the sisterhood, appointed by her and entirely dependent upon her liberality, would treat her with the deference due to a queen. the king had lavished such enormous sums upon her that she had large wealth at her disposal. she had already selected a spot for the convent in the faubourg st. germain, and had commenced rearing the edifice. it so happened that the corner-stone was laid at the very moment in which the unhappy duchess de fontanges was breathing her last. madame de montespan had no idea of taking the veil herself. the glooms of the cloister had for her no attractions. her only object was to rear a miniature kingdom, where she, having lost the potent charms of youth and beauty, could still enjoy an undisputed reign. the marchioness already owned a dwelling, luxuriously furnished, which the king had presented her, in the rue st. andre des arcs. her wealth was so great that, in addition to the convent, she also planned erecting for herself a magnificent hotel, in imitation of the palace of the tuileries. the estimated expense was equal to the sum of one million five hundred thousand dollars at the present day. the workmen upon the convent were urged to the most energetic labor, and the building was soon completed. the marchioness gave it the name of st. joseph. one room was sumptuously furnished for her private accommodation. she appointed the abbess. the great bell of the convent was to ring twenty minutes whenever she visited the sisterhood. as the founder of the community, she was to receive the honors of the incense at high mass and vespers. the marchioness richly enjoyed this adulation, and was a frequent visitor at the convent. the king, having recovered from his illness, decided upon a journey to flanders. oppressed with ennui, he sought amusement for himself and his court. he wished also to impress his neighbors by an exhibition of his splendor and power. the queen, with the dauphin and dauphiness, attended by their several suites, accompanied him on this expedition. madame de montespan was excessively chagrined in finding her name omitted in the list of those who were to make up the party. but the name of madame de maintenon headed the list of the attendants of the princess. the gorgeous procession, charioted in the highest appliances of regal splendor, swept along through cities and villages, every where received with triumphal arches, the ringing of bells, the explosions of artillery, and the blaze of illuminations till the sea-port of dunkirk was reached. here there was a sham-fight between two frigates. it was a serene and lovely day. the members of the royal suite, from the deck of a bark sumptuously prepared for their accommodation, witnessed with much delight the novel spectacle. at the close, the king repaired to one of the men-of-war, upon whose deck a lofty throne was erected, draped with a costly awning. here the splendor-loving monarch, surrounded by that ceremonial and pageantry which were so dear to him, received the congratulations of the dignitaries of his own and other lands upon his recent recovery from illness. at the end of a month the party returned to versailles. devoted as louis xiv. was to his own selfish gratification, he was fully aware of the dependence of that gratification upon the aggrandizement of the realm, which he regarded as his private property. upon this tour of pleasure he invested the city of luxembourg with an army of thirty thousand men, and took it after a siege of eight days. he then overrun the electorate of treves, demolished all its fine fortifications, and by the energies of pillage, fire, and ruin, rendered it impossible for the territory hereafter to render any opposition to his arms. the destructive genius of louvois had suggested that these unnecessary spoliations would tend to increase the authority of his royal master by inspiring a greater terror of his power. soon after this, the queen, maria theresa, was suddenly taken sick. her indisposition, at first slight, rapidly increased in severity, and an abscess developed itself under her arm. the pain became excruciating. her physician opened a vein and administered an emetic at 11 o'clock in the morning. it was a fatal prescription. at 3 o'clock in the afternoon she died. as this unhappy queen, so gentle, so loving, so forgiving, was sinking away in death, she still, with woman's deathless love, cherished tenderly in her heart the memory of the king. just as she was breathing her last, she drew from her finger a superb ring, which she presented to madame de maintenon saying, "adieu, my very dear marchioness. to you i confide the happiness of the king." maria theresa was one of the most lovely of women. her conduct was ever irreproachable. amiable, unselfish, warm-hearted, from the time of her marriage she devoted herself to the promotion of the happiness of her husband. his neglect and unfaithfulness caused her, in secret, to shed many tears. naturally diffident, and rendered timid by his undisguised indifference, she trembled whenever the king approached her. a casual smile from him filled her with delight. the king could not be insensible to her many virtues. perhaps remorse was mingled with the emotions which compelled him to weep bitterly over her death. as he gazed upon her lifeless remains, he exclaimed, "kind and forbearing friend, this is the first sorrow that you have caused me throughout twenty years." [illustration: palace of versailles.] the royal corpse lay in state at versailles for ten days. during this time perpetual masses were performed for the soul of the departed from 7 o'clock in the morning until dark. the king had reared the gorgeous palace of versailles that he might not be annoyed, in his babylonian revelry, by the sight of the towers of st. denis. but god did not allow the guilty monarch to forget that kings as well as peasants were doomed to die. the king was compelled to accompany the remains of maria theresa from the sumptuous palace, where she had found so splendid and so unhappy a home, to the gloomy vaults of the abbey, where, in darkness and silence, those remains were to moulder to dust. the queen was forgotten even before she was buried. the gay courtiers, anxious to banish as speedily as possible from their minds all thoughts of death and judgment, sought, in songs, and mirth, and wine, to bury even the grave in oblivion. the funeral car was decorated with the most imposing emblems of mourning. a numerous train of carriages followed, filled with the great officers of the crown and with the ladies of the royal household. the procession was escorted by a brilliant and numerous body of mounted troops. "but nothing could exceed the indecency with which the journey was performed. from all the carriages issued the sounds of heartless jest and still more heartless laughter. the troops had no sooner reached the plain of st. denis than they dispersed in every direction, some galloping right and left, and others firing at the birds that were flying over their heads."[q] [footnote q: memoirs of mademoiselle de montpensier.] the king, on the day of the funeral, in the insane endeavor to obliterate from his mind thoughts of death and burial, ordered out the hounds and plunged into the excitement of the chase. his horse pitched the monarch over his head into a ditch of stagnant water, dislocating one of his shoulders. about this time, jean baptiste colbert, the king's minister of finance, and probably the most extraordinary man of the age, died, worn out with toil, anxiety, and grief. few men have ever passed through this world leaving behind them such solid results of their labors. as minister of finance, he furnished the king with all the money he needed for his expensive wars and luxurious indulgence. as superintendent of buildings, arts, and manufactures, he enlarged the tuileries, completed the gorgeous palace of versailles, reared the magnificent edifices of the invalides, vincennes, and marly, and founded the gobelins. these and many other works of a similar nature he performed, though constantly struggling against the jealousy and intrigues of powerful opponents. the king seldom, if ever, manifested any gratitude to those who served him. colbert, in the 64th year of his age, exhausted by incessant labor, and harassed by innumerable annoyances, was on a dying bed. sad reflections seemed to overwhelm him. not a gleam of joy lighted up his fading eye. the heavy taxes he had imposed upon the people rendered him unpopular. he could not be insensible to imprecations which threatened to break up his funeral and to drag his remains ignominiously through the streets. the king condescended, as his only act of courtesy, to send a messenger to ask tidings of the condition of his minister. as the messenger approached the bed, the dying sufferer turned away his face, saying, "i will not hear that man spoken of again. if i had done for god what i have done for him, i should have been saved ten times over. now i know not what may be my fate." the day after his death, without any marks of honor, his remains were conveyed, in an ordinary hearse, to the church of st. eustache. a few of the police alone followed the coffin. genoa had offended the king by selling powder to the algerines, and some ships to spain. louis seized, by secret warrant, _lettre de cachet_, the genoese embassador, and plunged him into one of the dungeons of the bastile. he then sent a fleet of over fifty vessels of war to chastise, with terrible severity, those who had offended him. the ships sailed from toulon on the 6th of may, 1684, and entered the harbor of genoa on the 19th. immediately there was opened upon the city a terrific fire. in a few hours fourteen thousand bombs were hurled into its dwellings and its streets. a large portion of those marble edifices, which had given the city the name of _genoa the superb_, were crumbled to powder. fourteen thousand soldiers were then disembarked. they advanced through the suburbs, burning the buildings before them. the whole city was threatened with total destruction. the authorities, in terror, sent to the conqueror imploring his clemency. the haughty king of france demanded that the doge of genoa, with four of his principal ministers, should repair to the palace of versailles and humbly implore his pardon. the doge, utterly powerless, was compelled to submit to the humiliating terms. chapter ix. the revocation of the edict of nantes. 1680-1686 character of madame de maintenon.--depression of the dauphiness.--père la chaise.--the edict of nantes.--the catholic clergy indignant.--ravaillac.--confirmation of the edict of nantes.--la rochelle.--sufferings of the huguenots.--policy of louis.--influence of madame de maintenon.--religious zeal of the king.--false-hearted.--persecution of the protestants.--severe measures to force proselytism.--the _dragonnades_.--moral suasion of the dragoons.--brutality of the soldiery.--enactments of intolerance.--zeal of the king.--the revocation of the edict of nantes.--severe enactments against the protestants.--flight of the protestants.--numbers of the emigrants.--scenes of suffering.--louis alarmed.--historical accounts of the emigration.--multiplied outrages.--reactions.--secret assemblies.--rage of the jesuits.--new measures of the court.--remonstrances of honorable catholics.--intrigues of the king.--madame de montespan to be removed.--banishment of madame de montespan.--parterre of versailles.--a successful mission.--egotism and heartlessness of the king.--singular interview.--the king defends madame de maintenon's character.--scene of frenzy and despair.--madame de maintenon and madame de montespan. it is the undisputed testimony of all the contemporaries of madame de maintenon that she possessed a character of rare excellence. her personal attractions, sound judgment, instinctive delicacy of perception, and conversational brilliance, gave her a certain supremacy wherever she appeared. the fidelity with which she fulfilled her duties, her high religious principles, and the bold, yet tender remonstrances with which she endeavored to reclaim the king from his unworthy life, excited first his astonishment, and then his profound admiration. every day the king, at three o'clock, proceeded to the apartments of madame de maintenon, and, taking a seat in an arm-chair, sat in a reclining posture, sometimes silently watching the progress of her tapestry-work, and again engaged in quiet conversation. occasionally some of racine's tragedies were read. the king took a listless pleasure in drawing out madame de maintenon to remark upon the merits or defects of the production. "in truth, a weariness of existence was rapidly growing upon louis xiv. he had outlived his loves, his griefs, and almost his ambition. all he wanted was repose. and this he found in the society of an accomplished, judicious, and unassuming woman, who, although he occasionally transacted business in her presence with louvois, never presumed to proffer an opinion save when he appealed to her judgment, and even then tendered it with reluctance and reserve."[r] [footnote r: louis xiv. and the court of france, by miss pardoe, vol. ii., p. 339.] upon the death of the queen the dauphiness was raised to the first rank at court. still she was gloomy and reserved. no allurements could draw her from her retirement. madame de maintenon was a very decided roman catholic, and was very much influenced by the king's confessor, père la chaise, who seems to have been a man of integrity and of conscientiousness, though fanatically devoted to what he deemed to be the interests of the church. in former reigns the protestants had endured from the catholics the most dreadful persecutions. after scenes of woe, the recital of which causes the blood to curdle in one's veins, henry iv., the grandfather of louis xiv., feeling the need of the support of the protestants to protect the kingdom from the perils by which it was surrounded, and having himself been educated a protestant, granted the protestants the world-renowned edict of nantes. by this edict, which took its name from the place in which it was published, and which was issued in april, 1598, certain privileges were granted to the protestants, which, in that dark age, were regarded as extraordinarily liberal. protestants were allowed liberty of conscience; that is, they were not to be punished for their religious faith. in certain designated places they were permitted to hold public worship. the highest lords of the protestant faith could celebrate divine service in their castles. nobles of the second rank could have private worship, provided but thirty persons attended. protestants were declared to be eligible to offices of state, their children were to be admitted to the public schools, their sick to the hospitals, and their poor to the public charities. in certain places they could publish books; they were allowed four academies for scientific and theological instruction, and were permitted to convoke synods for church discipline. the catholic clergy were very indignant in view of these concessions. pope clement viii. declared that the ordinance which permitted liberty of conscience to every one was the most execrable which was ever made.[s] [footnote s: history of the protestants of france, by professor g. de félice, p. 275.] there were then seven hundred and sixty churches in france of the protestant communion. no such church was allowed in paris. protestants from the city, rich and poor, were compelled to repair, for public worship, to the little village of ablon, fifteen miles from the city. the edict of nantes probably cost henry iv. his life. the assassin ravaillac, who plunged his dagger twice into the bosom of the king, said, in his examination, "i killed the king because, in making war upon the pope, he made war upon god, since the pope is god." the protestants were thrown into the utmost consternation by the death of henry iv. they apprehended the immediate repeal of the edict, and a renewal of the massacre of st. bartholomew's day. but the regent, mary de medici, and the court immediately issued a decree confirming the ordinance. louis xiii. was then a child but eight and a half years of age. as he came into power, he was urged by the jesuits to exterminate the protestants. but they were too powerful to be wantonly assailed. they held two hundred fortified places. many of the highest lords were among their leaders. their soldiers were renowned for valor, and their churches numbered four hundred thousand men capable of bearing arms. it was not deemed safe to rouse such a people to the energies of despair. still, during the reign of louis xiii., there were many bloody conflicts between the royal troops and the protestants. in this religious war, the protestants, or huguenots, as they were then called, defended themselves so valiantly, that the king felt constrained, in october, 1622, to relinquish his attempt to subjugate the protestants by force of arms, and to confirm the edict of nantes. the sword was scarcely sheathed ere it was drawn again. all over france the catholics and protestants faced each other upon fields of blood. the battle raged for seven years with every conceivable concomitant of cruelty and horror. the eyes of all europe were directed to the siege of la rochelle, in 1627, where the huguenots made their most decisive stand. all that human nature could suffer was endured. when two thirds of the population of the city had perished, and the streets and dwellings were encumbered with the unburied dead, and the remaining soldiers, reduced to skeletons, could no longer lift their weapons, the city surrendered on the 28th of october, 1628. by this war and the fall of la rochelle, the protestants were hopelessly weakened. though they were deprived of many of their privileges, and were greatly diminished in numbers and influence, still the general provisions of the edict of nantes were not repealed. in the year 1662, louis xiv., then upon the throne, in recognition of some support which he had received from the protestants, issued a decree in which he said, "inasmuch as our subjects of the pretended reformed religion have given us proofs of their affection and fidelity, be it known that, for these reasons, they shall be supported and guarded, as in fact we do support and guard them, in the full enjoyment of the edict of nantes." the king had even appointed, the year before, two commissaries, the one a catholic, the other a protestant, to visit every province, and see that the requisitions of the edict of nantes were faithfully observed. this seemed very fair. but, in appointing these commissioners, a catholic was always appointed who was a high dignitary of the state, a man of wealth and rank, distinguished for his devotion to the interests of the catholic church. on the other hand, the protestant was always some poor country gentleman, timid and irresolute, and often one who had been secretly sold to the court to betray his duties. the protestants had hoped much from the influence of madame de maintenon over the king, as she was the granddaughter of agrippa d'aubigné, one of the most illustrious defenders of the calvinistic faith, and as she herself had been a protestant until she had attained the age of sixteen years. but the king was fanatically catholic, hoping, in some measure, to atone for his sins by his supreme devotion to the interests of the church. madame de maintenon found it necessary, in promotion of her ambitious plans, to do all in her power to conceal her protestant origin. she was fully aware of the king's great dislike to the protestants, and of the necessity of cordially co-operating with him in these views. still she could not refrain from manifesting some compassion at times for the sufferings of the friends of her earlier years. louis xiv., while assuring the protestant powers of europe that he would continue to respect the edict of nantes, commenced issuing a series of ordinances in direct opposition to that contract. first he excluded protestants from all public offices whatever. a protestant could not be employed as a physician, lawyer, apothecary, bookseller, printer, or even as a nurse. this decree was issued in 1680. in some portions of the kingdom the protestants composed nearly the entire population. here it was impossible to enforce the atrocious decree. in other places it led to riots and bloodshed. this ordinance was followed by one forbidding marriages between catholics and protestants. catholic servants were forbidden to serve in protestant families, and protestant servants could not be employed by catholics. rapidly blow followed blow. on the 17th of june, 1680, the king issued the following ordinance: "we wish that our subjects of the pretended reformed religion, both male and female, having attained the age of seven years, may, and it is hereby made lawful for them to embrace the catholic apostolic and roman religion, and that to this effect they be allowed to abjure the pretended reformed religion, without their fathers and mothers and other kinsmen being allowed to offer them the least hinderance, under any pretext whatever." the effect of this law was terrible. any malignant person, even a servant, could go into a court of justice and testify that a certain child had made the sign of the cross, or kissed an image of the virgin, or had expressed a desire to enter the catholic church, and that child was immediately taken from its parents, shut up in a convent, and the parents were compelled to pay the expenses of its education. even madame de maintenon availed herself of this law in wresting from her relative, the marquis de vilette, his children. a decree was then issued that all protestants who should become catholics might defer the payment of their debts for three years, and for two years be exempt from taxation, and from the burden of having soldiers quartered upon them. to save the treasury from loss, a double burden of taxation and a double quartering of soldiers was imposed upon those protestants who refused to abjure their faith. if any protestant was sick, officers were appointed whose duty it was to visit the sick-bed, and strive to convert the sufferer to the catholic faith. any physician who should neglect to give notice of such sickness was punished by a severe fine. the pastors were forbidden to make any allusions whatever in their sermons to these decrees of the court. following this decree came the announcement that if any convert from catholicism should be received into a protestant church, his property should be confiscated, he should be banished, and the privilege of public worship should no longer be enjoyed by that church. under this law several church edifices were utterly demolished. one of the severest measures adopted against the protestants was quartering brutal and ferocious soldiers in their families. in march, 1681, louvois wrote to the governor of poitou that he intended to send a regiment of cavalry into that province. "his majesty," he said, "has learned with much satisfaction the great number of persons who are becoming converts in your province. he desires that you continue to give great care to this matter. he thinks it best that the chief part of the cavalry and officers should be lodged in the houses of the protestants. if, after a just distribution, the calvinists would have to provide for ten soldiers, you can make them take twenty." the governor, marillac, lodged from four to ten dragoons in the house of every protestant. the soldiers were directed not to kill the people with whom they lodged, but to do every thing in their power to constrain them to abjure protestantism. thus originated that system of _dragonnades_ which has left an indelible stain upon the character of louis xiv., and the recital of which has inspired every reader with horror. "the cavalry attached crosses to the muzzles of their muskets to force the protestants to kiss them. when any one resisted, they thrust these crosses against the face and breasts of the unfortunate people. they spared children no more than persons advanced in years. without compassion for their age, they fell upon them with blows, and beat them with the flat side of their swords and the butt of their muskets. they did this so cruelly that some were crippled for life."[t] [footnote t: histoire de l'edit de nantes, t. iv., p. 479.] it does not reflect credit upon madame de maintenon that she was eager to enrich her friends from the spoils of these persecuted christians. her brother was to receive a present of one hundred and eight thousand francs ($21,600). this sum was then three or four times as much as the same amount of money now. a law was now passed prohibiting the protestants from leaving the kingdom, and condemning to perpetual imprisonment in the galleys all who should attempt to escape. france was ransacked to find every book written in support of protestantism, that it might be burned. a representation having been made to the king of the sufferings of more than two millions of protestant frenchmen, he sternly replied, "to bring back all my subjects to catholic unity, i would readily, with one hand, cut off the other." in some places the protestants were goaded to an appeal to arms. with the most merciless butchery they were cut down, their houses razed, while some were put to death by lingering torture. in september, 1685, louvois wrote, "sixty thousand conversions have taken place in the district of bordeaux, and twenty thousand in that of montauban. the rapidity with which they go on is such that, before the end of the month, there will not remain ten thousand protestants in all the district of bordeaux, where there were one hundred and fifty thousand the 15th of last month." the duke of noailles wrote to louvois, "the number of protestants in the district of nismes is about one hundred and forty thousand. i believe that at the end of the month there will be none left." on the 18th of october, 1685, the king, acceding to the wishes of his confessor and other high dignitaries of the church, signed the _revocation of the edict of nantes_. in the preamble to this fatal act, it was stated, "we see now, with the just acknowledgment we owe to god, that our measures have secured the end which we ourselves proposed, since the better and greater part of our subjects of the pretended reformed religion have embraced the catholic faith, and the maintenance of the edict of nantes remains therefore superfluous." in this act of revocation it was declared that the exercise of the protestant worship should nowhere be tolerated in the realm of france. all protestant pastors were ordered to leave the kingdom within fifteen days, under pain of being sent to the galleys. those protestant ministers who would abjure their faith and return to catholicism were promised a salary one third more than they had previously enjoyed. parents were forbidden to instruct their children in the protestant religion. every child in the kingdom was to be baptized and educated by a catholic priest. all protestants who had left france were ordered to return within four months, under penalty of the confiscation of their possessions. any protestant layman, man or woman, who should attempt to emigrate, incurred the penalty of imprisonment for life. this infamous ordinance caused an amount of misery which can never be gauged, and inflicted upon the prosperity of france the most terrible blow it had ever received. hundreds of thousands persevered in their faith, notwithstanding all the menaces of poverty, of the dungeon, and of utter temporal ruin. only one year after the revocation, marshal vauban wrote, "france has lost one hundred thousand inhabitants, sixty millions of coined money, nine thousand sailors, twelve thousand disciplined soldiers, six hundred officers, and her most nourishing manufactures." from this hour the fortunes of louis xiv. began manifestly to decline. the protestant population of france at that time was between two and three millions. the edict of revocation was enforced with the utmost severity. many noble-hearted catholics sympathized with the protestants in their dreadful sufferings, and aided them to escape. the tide of emigration flowed steadily from all the provinces. the arrival of the pastors and their flocks upon foreign soil created an indescribable sensation. from all the courts in protestant christendom a cry of indignation rose against such cruelty. though royal guards were posted at the gates of the towns, on the bridges, at the fords of the rivers, and upon all the by-ways which led to the frontiers, and though many thousands were arrested, still many thousands escaped. some heroic bands fought their way to the frontiers with drawn swords. some obtained passports from kind-hearted catholic governors. some bribed their guards. some traveled by night, from cavern to cavern, in the garb of merchants, pilgrims, venders of rosaries and chaplets, servants, mendicants. thousands perished of cold, hunger, and exhaustion. thousands were shot by the soldiers. thousands were seized and condemned to the dungeon or the galleys. the galleys of marseilles were crowded with these victims of fanatical despotism. among them were many of the most illustrious men in france, magistrates, nobles, scholars of the highest name and note. the agitation and emigration were so immense that louis xiv. became alarmed. protestant england, switzerland, holland, prussia, denmark, sweden, hospitably received the sufferers and contributed generously to the supply of their wants. "charity," it is said, "draws from an exhaustless fountain. the more it gives the more it has to give." it is now not possible to estimate the precise number who emigrated. voltaire says that nearly fifty thousand families left the kingdom, and that they were followed by a great many others. one of the protestant pastors, antoine court, placed the number as high as eight hundred thousand. a catholic writer, inimical to the protestants, after carefully consulting the records, states the emigration at two hundred and thirty thousand souls. of these, 1580 were pastors, 2300 elders, and 15,000 nobles. it is also equally difficult to estimate the numbers who perished in the attempt to escape. m. de sismondi thinks that as many died as emigrated. he places the number at between three and four hundred thousand. as we have mentioned, the protestants were compelled to place their children in catholic schools, to be taught the catechism by the priests. a new ordinance was soon issued, which required that the children, between five and sixteen, of all _suspected_ of protestantism, should be taken from their parents and placed in catholic families. a general search was made throughout the kingdom for all books which could be deemed favorable to the protestant faith. these were destroyed to the last copy. thus perished many very valuable works. "the bible itself, the bible above all, was confiscated and burned with persevering animosity."[u] [footnote u: history of the protestants of france, by prof. g. de félice.] but there is no power of persecution which can utterly crush out two or three millions of people. there were occasional reactions. louis xiv. himself became, at times, appalled by the atrocities his dragoons were perpetrating, and he commanded more moderation. in some of the provinces where the protestants had been greatly in the majority, the king found it very difficult to enforce his despotic and sanguinary code. the persecuted people who could not fly from the kingdom, some having given a compulsory and nominal assent to catholicism, held secret assemblies in forests, on mountain summits, and in wild ravines. some of the pastors ventured to return to france, and to assist in these scenes of perilous worship. "on hearing this, the king, his ministers, and the jesuits were transported with uncontrollable rage. sentence of death was pronounced in the month of july, 1686, against the pastors who had returned to france. those who lent them an asylum, or any assistance whatever, were condemned to the galleys for life. a reward of five thousand five hundred livres was promised to any one who seized or secured the seizure of a minister. the sentence of death was pronounced against all who should be taken in any of these religious assemblies."[v] [footnote v: m. g. de félice.] soldiers were sent in all directions to hunt the protestants. "it was," writes voltaire, "a chase in a grand cover." if the voice of prayer or of a psalm were heard in any wild retreat, the soldiers opened fire upon the assembly of men, women, and children, and hewed them down without mercy with their blood-stained swords. in several of these encounters, three or four hundred men, women, and young children were left dead and unburied upon the spot. if any sick persons, apparently near death, refused to receive the sacraments of the catholic church from the hands of a catholic priest, should they recover, they were punished with confiscation of property and consignment to the galleys for life. if they did not recover, their bodies were refused respectful burial, and were dragged on a hurdle and thrown into a ditch, to be devoured by carrion crows. many honorable catholics cried out with horror against these enormities. all humane hearts revolted against such cruelty. the voice of indignant remonstrance rose from every protestant nation. the french court became embarrassed. two millions of people could not be put to death. the prisons were filled to suffocation. the galleys were crowded, and could receive no more. many were transported to america. the jansenists remonstrated. the good catholic bishops of grenoble and st. poins boldly addressed the curates of their dioceses, directing them not to force communion upon the protestants, and forbidding all violence. many pious curates refused to act the part of accusers, or to torment the dying with their importunities. but the jesuits and the great mass of the clergy urged on the persecution. madame de maintenon became greatly troubled by these atrocities, against which she did not dare to remonstrate. louis xiv. was somewhat alarmed by the outcry which these measures aroused from protestant europe, but his pride revolted against making the admission, before his subjects and foreign courts, that he could have been guilty of a mistake. he could not endure the thought of humbling himself by a retraction, thus confessing that he had failed in an enterprise upon which he had entered with such determination. thus influenced, the king, on the 13th of april, 1662, issued a decree solemnly confirming the revocation of the edict of nantes. "not one law of torture and blood was abolished." the king, meanwhile, urged by his growing passion for madame de maintenon, determined to remove from court madame de montespan, whom he had come to thoroughly dislike. but he had not the courage to announce his determination in person. he therefore commissioned madame de maintenon to make the painful communication. she, shrinking from so unwelcome a task, persuaded the marquis de vivonne, brother of the marchioness, to break the tidings to his sister. he invited her to take a ride with him in his carriage, gradually introduced the subject, and at last plainly informed her that she must either, of her own accord, immediately and forever retire from versailles, or submit to the indignity of being arrested by the police and removed by them. madame de montespan was in a fearful rage. though fully aware of her waning power over the king, the menace of arrest and banishment was an indignity the thought of which had never entered her mind. but the calm firmness of her brother soon convinced her of the impotence of all exhibitions of indignation. the splendor-loving marchioness was, as we have mentioned already, wealthy. she was, however, informed that the king had decided to settle upon her an annual pension of six hundred thousand livres. when we consider the comparative value of money then and now, it is estimated that this amount was equivalent to about four hundred and eighty thousand dollars at the present day. "madame de montespan," writes miss pardoe, "buried her face in her hands, and remained for a considerable time lost in thought. when, at length, she looked up, her lips were pale and her voice trembled. she had not shed a tear, but her breast heaved, and she had evidently come to a decision. folding her shawl about her, she requested the marquis immediately to drive her to versailles, it being necessary, as she asserted, that she should collect her money, her jewels, and her papers, after which she declared that she was ready, for the sake of her family, to follow his advice." [illustration: parterre of versailles.] they returned to the palace. madame de maintenon hastened to her apartments. the marquis de vivonne informed her of the success of his mission, and she communicated the intelligence to the king. the marchioness had been in her apartments but about twenty minutes, when, to her surprise, the door opened, and the king entered unannounced. the marchioness, with her own graphic pen, has given an account of the singular and characteristic interview which ensued. the king came forward smiling very complacently at the thought that with so little embarrassment he was to get rid of a companion whose presence had become an annoyance to him--that he could discard her as easily as he could lay aside a pair of soiled gloves. he congratulated the marchioness upon the great good sense she had shown in thus readily sundering ties which, after existing for eighteen years, had become embarrassing. he spoke of their children as his property, and assured her that he should do all in his power to promote their welfare; that he had already, by act of parliament, conferred upon them statute legitimacy, and had thus effaced the dishonor of their birth. he apologized for not having her name mentioned in parliament as their mother, this being impracticable, since she was the wife of another man. with smiling complacency, as if he were communicating very gratifying intelligence, he informed this crushed and discarded mother that, since her children were now princes, they would, of course, reside at court, and that she, their dishonored mother, might occasionally be permitted to visit them--that he would issue an order to that effect. and, finally, he coolly advised her to write to her husband, whom she had abandoned eighteen years ago, soliciting a renewal of their relationship, with the assurance that it was her intention to return to the paths of virtue. almost gasping with indignation, the haughty marchioness succeeded in restraining herself until the king had finished his harangue. she then burst forth in a reply which astonished and even alarmed the king. "i am amazed," said she, "at the indifference with which a monarch, who boasts of his magnanimity, can throw from him a woman who has sacrificed every thing to his pleasure. for two years your majesty, in devotion to others, has been estranged from me, and yet never have i publicly offered one word of expostulation. why is it, then, that i am now, after silently submitting for two years to this estrangement, to be ignominiously banished from the court? still, my position here has become so hateful, through the perfidy and treachery of those by whom i am compelled to associate, that i will willingly consent never again to approach the person of the king upon condition that the odious woman who has supplanted me[w] shall also be exiled." [footnote w: madame de maintenon.] the proud monarch was enraged. pale with anger, he replied, "the kings of europe have never yet ventured to dictate laws in my palace, nor shall you, madame, subject me to yours. the lady whom i have too long suffered you to offend is as nobly born as yourself. if you were instrumental in opening the gates of the palace to her, you thus introduced there gentleness, talent, and virtue. this lady, whom you have upon every occasion slandered, has lost no opportunity to excuse and justify you. she will remain near the court which her fathers defended, and which her wise councils now strengthen. in seeking to remove you from the court, where your presence and pretensions have long since been misplaced, i wished to spare you the evidence of an _event_ calculated to irritate your already exasperated nature. but stay you here, madame," he added, sarcastically, "stay you here, since you love great catastrophes and are amused by them. day after to-morrow you will be more than ever a _supernumerary_ in the palace." this heartless announcement, that madame de maintenon was to take the place of madame de montespan in the affections of the king, and probably as his wedded wife, pierced, as with a dagger's point, the heart of the discarded favorite. she fell senseless to the floor. the king, without the slightest exhibition of sympathy, looked on impatiently, while her women, who were immediately summoned, endeavored to restore consciousness. as the unhappy marchioness revived, the first words which fell upon her ears were from the king, as he said, "all this wearies me beyond endurance. she must leave the palace this very day." in a frenzy of rage and despair, the marchioness seized a dessert-knife which chanced to lay upon the table, and, springing from the arms of her attendants, rushed upon her youngest child, the little count de toulouse, whom the king held by the hand, and from whom she was to be cruelly severed, and endeavored to plunge the knife into his bosom, exclaiming, "yes, i will leave this palace, but first--" at that moment, before the sentence was finished, the door opened, and madame de maintenon, who had probably anticipated some tragic scene, sprang upon the wretched woman, seizing the knife with one hand, and with the other thrusting the child away. the maniacal marchioness was seized by her attendants. the king tottered to the chimney-piece, buried his face in his hands, and, from a complicity of emotions not easily disentangled, wept convulsively. madame de maintenon's hand was cut by the knife. as she was binding up the bleeding wound with her handkerchief, the half-delirious marchioness said to her, referring to the fact that the king had at first been unwilling to receive her as the guardian of the children, "ah! madame, had i believed what the king told me fourteen years ago, my life would not have been in your power to-day." madame de maintenon, her eyes suffused with tears, looked sadly upon her, then taking her hand, pressed it feelingly, and, without uttering a word, left the apartment. the king followed her. the heart-broken marchioness, in most imploring tones, entreated the king not thus to leave her. he paid no heed to her supplications. the agitation of this scene threw madame de montespan into such a burning fever that for several days she could not be removed from her bed of pain and woe. chapter x. the secret marriage. 1685-1689 temptation resisted.--rumors of marriage.--preparations for the marriage.--the archbishop summoned.--an extraordinary scene.--ceremonies.--the _widow scarron_.--etiquette.--humiliation of madame de montespan.--routine of a day at versailles.--the _first entrée_.--the ceremony of dressing.--the _grand entrée_.--dressing the king.--the royal breakfast.--formalities.--the dressing completed.--the king prays.--the king attends mass.--etiquette at the royal dinner.--visits the kennel.--the morning drive.--the royal supper.--tasting and trying.--"drink for the king!"--he feeds his dogs at midnight.--madame de maintenon's apartments.--her tact.--sickness of the king.--a surgical operation necessary.--world-weariness of the king.--dissatisfied with versailles.--the royal palaces unsatisfactory.--the "hermitage" at marly.--war with germany.--the dauphin in command.--devastation of the palatinate.--designs upon england.--civil war in france.--complications of the royal family. the king exerted all his powers of persuasion to induce madame de maintenon to enter into the same relations with him which madame de montespan had occupied. at last she declared, in reply to some passionate reproaches on his part, that she should be under the necessity of withdrawing from the court and retiring to the cloister, rather than continue to expose herself to a temptation which was destroying her peace of mind and undermining her health. under these circumstances the king had been led to think of a private marriage. at first his pride revolted from the thought. but in no other way could he secure madame de maintenon. rumors of the approaching marriage were circulated through the court. the dauphin expostulated with his father most earnestly against it, and succeeded in inducing the king to consult the abbé fenelon and louvois. they both protested against the measure as compromising the dignity of the monarch and the interests of the nation. bossuet, however, urged the marriage. boldly he warned the king against entering again into such connections as those which had hitherto sullied his life, wounded his reputation, and endangered his eternal welfare. pure as madame de maintenon was, the devotion of the king to her was so marked that her reputation began to suffer. she felt the unjust imputations cast upon her very keenly. the king at last resolved that it should be so no longer. having come to a decision, he acted very promptly. it was a cold night in january, 1686. a smothering snow-storm swept the streets of paris. at half past ten o'clock a court messenger entered the archiepiscopal palace with a sealed packet, requesting the archbishop to repair immediately to versailles to perform the marriage ceremony. the great clock of the cathedral was tolling the hour of eleven as the prelate entered his carriage in the darkness and the storm. at half past twelve he reached the gate of the chateau. here bontems, the first valet de chambre of the king, conducted the archbishop to the private closet of his majesty. madame de maintenon was there in full dress. louis xiv. stood by her side. in the same apartment were the marquis de montechevreuil and the king's confessor, père la chaise. miss pardoe thus describes the scene that ensued: "as the eye of the king rested upon the archbishop, he exclaimed, 'let us go.' taking the hand of the lady, he led her forward through the long suite of rooms, followed by the other actors in this extraordinary scene, who moved on in profound silence, thrown for an instant into broad light by the torch carried by bontems, and then suddenly lost in the deep darkness beyond its influence. nothing was to be heard as the bridal party proceeded save the muffled sound of their footsteps, deadened by the costly carpets over which they trod. but it was remarked that as the light flashed for an instant across the portraits of his family which clothed the walls, louis xiv. glanced eagerly and somewhat nervously upon them, as though he dreaded the rebuke of some stern eye or haughty lip for the weakness of which he was about to become guilty." the marriage ceremony was performed by the archbishop of paris. there were eight persons present as witnesses, most of them of high distinction. the king was in the forty-eighth year of his age, and madame de maintenon in her fifty-second. the marriage was celebrated with all the established ceremonies of the church, the solemnization of the mass, the exchange of marriage rings, and the pronouncing of the benediction by the archbishop. a magnificent suite of apartments was prepared for madame de maintenon at versailles. she retained her own liveries, but thenceforward appeared in public only in the carriage of the king. though by her own private attendants she was addressed as "your majesty," she was never publicly recognized as the queen. the king addressed her simply as _madame_. though the morning after the nuptials the astounding rumor spread through the court that the king had actually married the _widow scarron_, still there were no positive vouchers found for the fact. as she was never recognized as the queen, for a long time many doubts rested upon the reality of the marriage. it was a matter of necessity that madame de montespan should call upon madame de maintenon, and pay her respects to her as the real though unrecognized wife of the monarch. dressed in her richest robes, and glittering with jewels, the discarded favorite entered the apartment of her hated rival. the king was seated by her side. his majesty rose, bowed formally, and took his seat. madame de maintenon did not rise, but, with a slight flush upon her cheek, motioned to madame de montespan to take a seat upon a _tabouret_ which stood near by. the king scarcely noticed her. madame de maintenon addressed her in a few words of condescension. the unhappy visitor, after a short struggle to regain her composure, rose from the humble stool upon which she had been seated, and, repeating the stately reverences which etiquette required, withdrew from the room. with crushed heart she retired to her apartment, and, weeping bitterly, threw herself upon a sofa. she soon sent for her son, the duke du maine, hoping to hear, from his lips at least, words of sympathy. but the duke, who had reproached his mother with his dishonorable birth, and who, by a royal decree, had been recognized as a prince, was not at all disposed to cultivate intimate relations with that mother, now that the memory of disgrace only would be perpetuated by that recognition. without the exhibition of the slightest emotion, the duke addressed his mother in a few cold, formal words, and left her. the marchioness summoned her carriage, and left versailles and the court forever. as she cast a last look upon the palace, she saw the king standing at the balcony of a window watching her departure. the reader will be interested in learning the routine of a day as passed by this most sumptuous of earthly kings amidst the splendors of versailles. at eight o'clock in the morning the under valets carefully entered the bedchamber, opened the shutters, replenished the wood fire, if cold, and removed the ample refreshments which were always placed by the royal bedside in case the king should need food during the night. the first valet then entered, carefully dressed, and took his stand respectfully by the side of the bed-curtains. at half past eight precisely he drew the curtains and awoke the king, assuming always that he was asleep. the valet then immediately retired to an adjoining room, where several distinguished members of the court were in waiting, and communicated to them the important intelligence that the king no longer slept. the folding doors were thrown open, and the dauphin, attended by his two sons, the eldest of whom was entitled _monsieur_, and the youngest the duke of chartres, entered, and inquired of the king how he had passed the night. they were immediately followed by the duke du maine and the count de toulouse, sons of madame de montespan, and by the first lord of the bedchamber and the grand master of the robes. they were succeeded by the first valet of the wardrobe, and by several officers, each bearing a portion of the royal vestments. the two medical attendants of the king, the physician and surgeon, also entered at the same time. the king, still remaining pillowed in his gorgeous bed, held out his hands, and his first valet de chambre poured upon them a few drops of spirits of wine, holding beneath them a basin of silver. the first lord of the bedchamber presented a vase of holy water, with which the king made the sign of the cross upon his brow and breast. his majesty then repeated a short prayer. a collection of wigs was presented to him. he selected the one which he wished to wear. as the king rose from his couch, the first lord of the bedchamber drew upon him his dressing-gown, which was always a richly embroidered and costly robe. the king then sat down, and, holding out one sacred foot after the other, his valet, bontems, drew on his stockings and his slippers of embroidered velvet. the monarch condescended to place upon his head, with his own hand, the wig which he had selected. again the devout monarch crossed himself with holy water, and, emerging from the balustrade which inclosed the bed, seated himself in a large arm-chair. he was now prepared for what was called _the first entrée_. the chief lord of the bedchamber, with a loud voice, announced _the first entrée_. a number of courtiers, who were peculiarly favored, were then admitted to the distinguished honor of seeing his majesty washed and shaved. the barber of the king removed his beard and gently washed his face with a sponge saturated with spirits of wine and water. the king himself wiped his face with a soft towel, while bontems held the glass before him. and now the master of the robes approached to dress the king. those who had been present at what was called the _petit lever_ retired. a new set of dignitaries, of higher name and note, crowded the anteroom to enjoy the signal honor of being present at the _grand entrée_, that is, of witnessing the sublime ceremony of seeing shirt, trowsers, and frock placed upon his sacred majesty. three of the highest officers of the court stood at the door, attended by several valets and door-keepers of the cabinet. admission to the _grand entrée_ was considered so great an honor that even princes sought it, and often in vain. as each individual presented himself, his name was whispered to the first lord of the bedchamber, who repeated it to the king. when the monarch made no reply the visitor was admitted, and the duke walked back to his station near the fireplace, where he marshaled the new-comers to their several places in order to prevent their pressing too closely about his majesty. princes and governors, marshals and peers, were alike subjected to this tedious and somewhat humiliating ceremony, from which three individuals alone were excepted, racine, boileau, and mansard. on their arrival at the guarded door they simply scratched against the panel, when the usher threw open the folding door, and they stood in the presence of the monarch. [illustration: racine and boileau.] in the mean time, a valet of the wardrobe delivered to a gentleman of the chamber the socks and garters, which the _gentleman_ presented to the monarch, and which socks his majesty deigned to draw on himself. even with his own hand he clasped the garters with their diamond buckles. etiquette did not allow the king to unclasp them at night. the head valet de chambre enjoyed the privilege of unclasping the garter of the right leg, while a more humble attendant performed the same office for the left leg. a distinguished officer of the household presented the monarch with his _haut de chausses_ (breeches), to which silk stockings were attached; the king drew them on; another gentleman put on his shoes; another gentleman buckled them. two pages, richly dressed in crimson velvet embroidered with gold, removed the slippers which the king had laid aside. and now came the royal breakfast. two officers of the household entered, in picturesque attire, one bearing a loaf of bread on an enameled salver, and another a folded napkin between two enameled plates. the royal cup-bearer handed a golden vase, richly decorated, to one of the lords. he poured into it a small quantity of wine and water. another lord tasted of it, to prove that it contained no poison. the vase was then carefully rinsed, and being again filled with the wine and water, was presented to the king on a gold salver. his majesty drank. then the dauphin, who was always present at these solemnities, handed his hat and gloves to the first lord in waiting, and presented the monarch with a napkin with which to wipe his lips. breakfast was a very frugal repast. having partaken of these slight refreshments, the king laid aside his dressing-gown. one of his lordly attendants then assisted him in removing his night-shirt by the left sleeve. it was bontems's peculiar privilege to draw it off by the right sleeve. the royal shirt, which had been carefully warmed, was then given to the first lord. he presented it to the dauphin, who approached and presented it to the king. some one of the higher lords, previously designated for the honor, assisted the king in the arrangement of his shirt and breeches. a duke enjoyed the honor of putting on his inner waistcoat. two valets presented the king with his sword, vest, and blue ribbon. a nobleman then stepped forward and buckled on the sword, assisted in putting on the vest, and placed over his shoulders a scarf bearing the cross of the holy ghost in diamonds, and the cross of st. louis. the king then drew on his under coat, with the assistance of the grand master of the robes, adjusted his cravat of rich lace, which was folded round his neck by a favorite courtier, and finally emptied into the pockets of the loose outer coat, which was presented to him for that purpose, the contents of those which he had worn the previous day. he then received two handkerchiefs of costly point from another attendant, by whom they were carried on an enameled saucer of oval shape called salve. his toilet once completed, louis xiv. returned to the _ruelle_ of his bed, where he knelt down upon two cushions already prepared for him, and said his prayers; all the bishops and cardinals entering within the balustrade in his suite, and reciting their devotional exercises in a suppressed voice. the king, being thus dressed, retired from his chamber to his cabinet. he was followed, in solemn procession, by all those dignitaries of church and state who had enjoyed the privilege of the _grand entrée_. he then issued the orders of the day, after which all withdrew excepting some of his children, whom a royal decree had legitimatized and raised to the rank of princes, with their former tutors or governors. in the mean time a crowd of courtiers were assembled in the great gallery of versailles, to accompany the king to mass. the captain of the royal guard awaited orders at the door of the cabinet. at 12 o'clock the door was thrown open, and the king, followed by a splendid retinue, proceeded to the chapel. the service was short. at one o'clock the king returned to his room, and dined sumptuously and alone. he was waited upon, at the table, by the first gentleman of the chamber. sometimes the dauphin or other lords of highest rank were present, but they stood respectfully at a distance. no one was permitted to be seated in the royal presence. the brother of the king stood at times by the chair of his majesty, holding his napkin for him. upon the king's twice requesting him to be seated, he was permitted to take a seat upon a stool, behind the king, still holding his napkin. upon rising from the table the king repaired to the grand saloon, where he tarried for a few moments, that persons of high distinction, who enjoyed the privilege of addressing him, might have an opportunity to do so. he then returned to his cabinet. the door was closed, and the king had a brief interview with his children, of whom he was very fond. he then repaired to the kennel of his dogs, of whom he was also fond, and amused himself, for a time, in feeding them and playing with them. he now made some slight change in his dress. a small number of persons, of high rank, enjoyed the distinguished honor of being present in his chamber as the monarch, with all suitable stateliness of ceremony, exchanged one royal garment for another. the carriage awaited the king in the marble court. he descended by a private staircase. his craving for fresh air was such that he took a drive whatever the weather. scarcely any degree of heat or cold, or floods of rain, could prevent him from his drive, or his stag-hunt, or his overlooking the workmen. sometimes the ladies of his court rode out with him on picnic excursions to the forests of fontainebleau or marly. upon returning from the drive, the king again changed his dress and repaired to his cabinet. he then proceeded to the apartments of madame de maintenon, where he remained conversing with her, or reading, and sometimes transacting business with his minister, until ten o'clock. the hour for supper had now arrived. the house-steward, with his badge of office in hand, gave the information to the captain of the guard. he, entering the royal presence from the antechamber, announced the fact to the king, and opened wide the door. after the delay of a quarter of an hour, which etiquette required, his majesty advanced to the supper-room. during the quarter of an hour which had elapsed, the officers of the household had made preparations for the royal repast by tasting the bread and the salt, and by testing the plates, the fork, the spoon, the knife, and the tooth-pick of the king, so as to be assured that no poison could be thus conveyed. as the king, preceded by the house-steward and two ushers with flambeaux, entered the supper-room, he found there awaiting him the princes and princesses of france, with a numerous assemblage of courtiers, gentlemen, and ladies. the king, having taken his seat, requested the others to be seated also. six noblemen immediately stationed themselves at each end of the table, to wait upon the king. each one, as he presented a dish to the king, first tasted of it himself. when the king wished for a drink, his cup-bearer exclaimed aloud, "drink for the king." two of the principal officers, making a profound obeisance, approached his majesty, one bearing an enameled cup and two decanters upon a salver. the other poured out the wine, tasted it, and presented the goblet to the king. with another low salutation, the two officers replaced the decanters upon the sideboard. the repast being finished, the king rose, and, preceded by two guards and an usher, and followed by all the company, proceeded to the bedchamber. he there bowed adieu to the company, and, entering the cabinet, took a seat in a large arm-chair. the members of the royal family were introduced. his brother, monsieur, was permitted to take an arm-chair. all the rest remained standing except the princesses, who were indulged with stools. after an hour or so of such converse as these stately forms would admit, the king, about midnight, went again to feed his dogs. he then retired to his chamber, with great pomp said his prayers, and was undressed and put to bed with ceremonies similar to those with which he had been dressed in the morning. such was the ordinary routine of the life of the king at versailles. its dreary monotony was broken by occasional fêtes, balls, and theatric shows. madame de maintenon testifies to the almost insupportable tedium of such a life. "if you could only," she exclaims, "form an idea of what it is!" magnificent apartments were prepared for madame de maintenon at versailles, opposite the suite of rooms occupied by the king. similar arrangements were made for her in all the royal palaces. royalty alone could occupy arm-chairs in the presence of the sovereign. in each of her apartments there were two such, one for the king and the other for herself. the king often transacted business with his minister, louvois, in her room. she had sufficient tact never to express an opinion, or to take a part in the conversation except when appealed to. madame de maintenon was exceedingly anxious that the king should publicly recognize her as his wife. it is said that the king, tormented by the embarrassments which the secret marriage had brought upon him, seriously contemplated this. his minister, louvois, remonstrated even passionately against such a recognition. at the close of a painful interview upon this subject, he threw himself upon his knees before his majesty, and, presenting to him the hilt of a small sword which the minister usually wore, exclaimed, "take my life, sire, that i may not become the witness of a disgrace which will dishonor your majesty in the eyes of all europe." others of the most influential members of the court joined in the opposition, and so strenuously that the king commanded madame de maintenon never again to allude to the subject. premature old age was fast advancing upon the king, though he had as yet attained only his forty-ninth year. he was tortured by the gout. he was also attacked by a very painful and dangerous internal malady. his sufferings were dreadful. it became necessary for him to submit to a perilous surgical operation. the king met the crisis with much heroism. four persons only, including madame de maintenon, were present during the operation. indeed, the greatest precautions had been adopted to keep the fact that an operation was to be performed a profound secret. during the operation the king uttered not a groan. it was successful. in gratitude he conferred upon the skillful operator who had relieved him from anguish and saved his life an estate valued at more than fifty thousand crowns. weary of every thing else, the king now sought to find some little interest in building. the renowned architect, mansard, whose genius still embellishes our most beautiful edifices, was commissioned to erect a pavilion on the grounds of versailles in imitation of an italian villa. thus rose, within a year, the _grand trianon_, which subsequently became so celebrated as the favorite rural residence of maria antoinette. [illustration: the trianon.] [illustration: marly.] most men who, with vast wealth, attempt to build a mansion which shall eclipse that of all their neighbors, and which shall be perfect in all the appliances of comfort and luxury, find themselves, in the end, bitterly disappointed. this was pre-eminently the case with louis xiv. the palace of versailles, still unfinished, had already cost him countless millions. but it did not please the king. it had cold and cheerless grandeur, but no attractions as a home. the king looked with weary eyes upon the mountain pile of marble which had risen at his bidding, and found it about as uncongenial for a home as would be the cathedral of notre dame. disgusted with the etiquette which enslaved him, satiated with sensual indulgence, and having exhausted all the fountains of worldly pleasure, with waning powers of body and of mind, it is not possible that any thing could have satisfied the world-weary king. he had other palaces. none suited him. the tuileries and the louvre were in the heart of the noisy city. the banqueting hall at st. germain overlooked the sepulchre of st. denis, where the grave-worm held its banquet. fontainebleau was at too great a distance from the capital. to reach it required a carriage drive of four or five hours. vincennes, notwithstanding the grandeur of the antique, time-worn castle, was gloomy in its surroundings, inconvenient in its internal arrangements--a prison rather than a palace. about nine miles from paris, upon the left bank of the seine, there reposed the silent village of marly. the king selected that as the spot upon which he would rear a snug "hermitage" to which he could retire "from noise and tumult far." the passion for building is a fearful passion, which often involves its victim in ruin. the plans of the king expanded under his eye. the little hermitage became a spacious palace, where a court could be entertained with all the appliances of regal elegance. but dark and stormy days were rapidly gathering around the path of the king. he became involved in war with germany. the complicated reasons can scarcely be unraveled. the king sent his son, the dauphin, at the head of one hundred thousand men, to invade holland. situated upon both sides of the rhine there was a territory called the palatinate. it embraced one thousand five hundred and ninety square miles, being not quite so large as the state of delaware. it contained an intelligent, industrious, and prosperous population of a little over three hundred thousand. the beautiful city of manheim was the capital of the province. though the dauphin was nominally at the head of the invading army, that the glory of its victories might redound to his name, the ablest of the french generals were associated with him, and they, in reality, took the direction of affairs. one city after another speedily fell into the hands of the french. the king mercilessly resolved, and without any justification whatever, to convert the whole province into a desert. an order was issued by the king that every city, village, castle, and hut should be laid in ashes. it was midwinter--the month of february, 1689. there were many beautiful cities in the province, such as manheim, philipsbourg, franckendal, spire, treves, worms, and oppendeim. there were more than fifty feudal castles in the territory, the ancestral homes of noble families. the citizens had but short warning. houses, furniture, food, all were consumed. the flames rose to heaven, calling upon god for vengeance. smouldering ruins every where met the eye. men, women, and children wandered starving through the fields. nearly all europe soon became banded against this haughty monarch, and he found it necessary to raise an army of four hundred thousand men to meet the exigencies. intoxicated by the pride of past success, he thought that he should be able to force upon england a roman catholic king, and the roman catholic faith, and thus expel _heresy_ from england, as he dreamed that he had expelled it from france. he equipped a fleet, and manned it with twenty thousand soldiers, to force upon the british people king james ii., whom they had indignantly discarded. civil war was now also desolating unhappy france. the protestants, bereft of their children, robbed of their property, driven from their homes, dragged to the galleys, plunged into dungeons, broken upon the wheel, hanged upon scaffolds, rose in several places in the most desperate insurrectionary bands. and the man who was thus crushing beneath the heel of his armies the quivering hearts of the palatinate, and who was drenching his own realms with tears and blood, was clothed in purple, and faring sumptuously, and reclining upon the silken sofas of marly and versailles. it is not strange that faith, with uplifted hands and gushing eyes, should have exclaimed, "o lord, how long!" the singular complication of the royal family, with the various mothers and the various children, some of which children were recognized by royal decree as princes, and some of whom were not, filled the palaces with bickerings, envyings, and discontent in every form. the unhappy dauphiness, who had long been immersed in the profoundest gloom, at last found a welcome retreat in the grave. neither her husband nor the king shed a single tear over her remains, which were hurried to the vaults of st. denis. chapter xi. intrigues and wars. 1690-1711 exhaustion of the treasury.--the royal plate sacrificed.--assumptions of louvois.--disgrace, sickness, and death of louvois.--louis suspicious of madame de maintenon.--letters.--court life.--the dauphin.--his sons.--graces of the duchess of burgoyne.--misery of the people.--extravagance of the court.--brilliant assembly.--death of charles ii.--the duke of anjou proclaimed king of spain.--anecdote of the princes.--preparations for the coronation.--exultation of louis xiv.--final meeting of the royal family.--last interview between madame de montespan and the king.--penance of madame de montespan.--her death.--heartless conduct of the king.--his health failing.--quarrel with philip.--he is stricken with apoplexy.--death of the king's brother.--the king dispels his gloom.--the princess des ursins.--civil war.--insurrection of the protestants.--enthusiasm of the camisards.--cruelty of the persecutors.--distress in france.--the dauphin taken sick.--death and burial of the dauphin. the treasury of the king was empty. extravagant building, a voluptuous court, and all the enormous expenses of civil and foreign wars, had quite exhausted the finances of the realm. it became necessary to call upon the cities for contributions. new offices were invented, which were imposed upon the wealthy citizens, and for which they were compelled to pay large sums. even the massive silver plate and furniture, which had attracted the admiration of all visitors to versailles, were sent to the mint and coined. most of the value of these articles of ornament consisted of the skill with which the materials had been wrought into forms of beauty. in melting them down, all this was sacrificed, and nothing remained but the mere value of the metal. large as were the sums attained by these means, they were but trifling compared with the necessities of the state. louvois, the minister of louis, had for a long time held the reins of government. it was through his influence that the king had been instigated to revoke the edict of nantes, to order the dragonnades, and to authorize those atrocities of persecution which must ever expose the name of louis xiv. to the execrations of humanity. it was louvois who, from merely contemptible caprice, plunged france into war with germany. it was through his persuasions that the king was induced to order the utter devastation of the palatinate. but the influence of louvois was now on the wane. the jealous king became weary of his increasingly haughty assumptions. the conflagration of the palatinate raised a cry of indignation which the king could not but hear. the city of treves had escaped the flames. louvois solicited an order to burn it. the king refused to give his consent. louvois insolently gave the order himself. he then informed the king that he had done so that he might spare the conscience of the king the pain of issuing such an edict. [illustration: louis xiv. directing the siege.] louis was furious. in his rage he forgot all the restraints of etiquette. he seized from the fireplace the tongs, and would have broken the head of the minister had not madame de maintenon rushed between them. the king ordered a messenger immediately to be dispatched to countermand the order. he declared that if a single house were burned, the head of the minister should be the forfeit. the city was saved. in 1691 the french army was besieging mons. the king visited the works. the haughty minister, unintimidated even by the menace of the tongs, ventured to countermand an order which the king had issued. the lowering brow of the monarch convinced him that his ministerial reign was soon to close. the health of the minister began rapidly to fail. he became emaciate, languid, and deeply depressed. a few subsequent interviews with the king satisfied him that his disgrace and ruin were decided upon. indeed, the king had already drawn up the _lettre de cachet_ which was to consign him to the bastile. about the middle of june, 1691, louvois met the king in his council chamber, and, though the monarch was unusually complaisant, louvois so thoroughly understood him that he retired to his residence in utter despair. scarcely had he entered his apartment ere he dropped dead upon the floor. whether his death were caused by apoplexy, or by poison administered by his own hand or that of others, can never be known. the king forbade all investigation of the case. immediately after the death of louvois, the king began to devote himself to business with an energy which he had never before manifested. madame de maintenon made some farther efforts to induce him to proclaim their marriage, but she soon perceived that nothing would induce him to change his resolution, and she accepted the situation. louis now yielded more than ever to her influence; but he was always apprehensive that she might be engaged in some secret intrigue, and kept a vigilant watch over her. in letters to a friend, she gives some account of her splendid misery. "the king is perpetually on guard over me. i see no one. he never leaves my room. i am compelled to rise at five in the morning in order to write to you. i experience more than ever that there is no compensation for the loss of liberty." again she writes, in reference to the weary routine of court life: "the princesses who have not attended the hunt will come in, followed by their cabal, and wait the return of the king in my apartment in order to go to dinner. the hunters will come in a crowd, and will relate the whole history of their day's sport, without sparing us a single detail. they will then go to dinner. madame de dangeau will challenge me, with a yawn, to a game of backgammon. such is the way in which people live at court." it will be remembered that the king and queen had an only son, the dauphin. he was a man of ignoble character and of feeble mind. still, as heir to the throne, he was, next to the king, the most important personage in the realm. the dauphin had three sons, who were in the direct line of succession to the crown. these were louis, duke of burgoyne, philip, duke of anjou, and charles, duke of berri. the eldest, the duke of burgoyne, who, of course, next to the dauphin, was heir to the throne, was thirteen years of age. the king selected for his wife adelaide, the daughter of the duke of savoy, a remarkably graceful, beautiful, and intelligent child of eleven years. the pretty little girl was brought to france to spend a few months in the court previous to her marriage, which was to take place as soon as she should attain her twelfth year. she came in great splendor, with her retinue, her court, and her ladies of honor. both the king and madame de maintenon were charmed with the princess. sumptuous apartments were assigned her in the palace of versailles. madame de maintenon wrote to the duchess of savoy, "the king is enchanted with her. he expatiates on her deportment, her grace, her courtesy, her reserve, and her modesty. she has all the graces of girlhood, with the perfections of a more mature age. her temper appears as perfect as her figure promises one day to become. she only requires to speak to display the extent of her intellect. i can not resist thanking your royal highness for giving us a child who, according to all appearance, will be the delight of the court, and the glory of the century." the king resolved that the festivities at the marriage of these two children should be the most splendid which france had ever witnessed. he announced the intention of appearing himself, upon the occasion, in the most sumptuous apparel which the taste and art of the times could furnish. this intimation was sufficient for the courtiers. preparations were made for such a display of folly and extravagance as even alarmed the king. all ordinary richness of dress, of satin, and velvet, and embroidery of gold, was discarded for fabrics of unprecedented costliness, for bouquets of diamonds, and wreaths of the most precious gems. "i can not understand," exclaimed the king, "how husbands are mad enough to suffer themselves to be ruined by the folly of their wives." the marriage took place between the bride of twelve years and the bridegroom of fourteen at six o'clock in the evening of the 7th of december, 1697. the ceremony was performed in the chapel of the palace at versailles. the ensuing festivals exceeded in magnificence all that versailles had previously witnessed. but there was no rejoicing among the people. they listened, some silently, some sullenly, some murmuringly, to the chiming bells and the booming cannon. the elements of discontent and wrath were slowly beginning to collect for bursting forth one hundred years later, in that most sublime of moral tempests, the french revolution. the grand avenue to versailles day after day was crowded with gorgeous equipages. at night it blazed with illuminations. the highest ingenuity was taxed to devise new scenes of splendor and amusement, which followed each other in rapid succession. three days after the marriage, the king gave a special assembly which was to eclipse all the rest. all the ladies were directed to appear in dresses of black velvet, that the precious gems, which were almost literally to cover those dresses, might sparkle more brilliantly. the great gallery of versailles was illuminated by four thousand wax-lights. the young bride wore upon her apron alone jewels estimated at a sum equal to fifty thousand dollars. on the 1st of november, 1700, charles ii., the half crazed king of spain, died, leaving no heir. the pope, innocent xii., bribed by louis xiv., sent a nuncio to the dying king, enjoining upon him to transmit his crown to the children of the dauphin of france, as the legitimate heirs to the monarchy. as the duke of burgoyne was the direct heir to the throne of france, the second son of the dauphin, the duke of anjou, still a mere boy, was proclaimed king of spain, with the title of philip v. on the 14th of the month the spanish embassador was summoned to an audience with louis xiv. at versailles. the king presented his grandson to the minister, saying, "this, sir, is the duke of anjou, whom you may salute as your king." a large crowd of courtiers was soon assembled. the spanish minister threw himself upon his knees before the boy with expressions of profound homage. there was a scene of great excitement. the king, embracing with his left arm the neck of the young prince, pointed to him with his right hand, and said to those present, "gentlemen, this is the king of spain. his birth calls him to the crown.[x] the late king has recognized his right by his will. all the nation desires his succession, and has entreated it at my hands. it is the will of heaven, to which i conform with satisfaction." [footnote x: the claim of the young prince was founded upon the fact that his grandmother, maria theresa, was the eldest daughter of philip iv. of spain. she had, however, upon her marriage, renounced all claim to the succession. her younger sister, margarita, had married the emperor leopold of austria without this renunciation. the emperor claimed the crown for her daughter, who had married the elector of bavaria. hence the war of _the spanish succession_.] the duke of anjou was quite delighted in finding himself thus liberated from all the restraints of tutors and governors, and of being, in his boyhood, elevated to the dignity of a crowned king. as soon as these stately forms of etiquette were concluded, and he was alone with his brothers, he kicked up his heels and snapped his fingers, exclaiming with delight, "so i am king of spain. you, burgoyne, will be king of france. and you, my poor berri, are the only one who must live and die a subject." the little prince replied, perhaps upon the principle that "the grapes were sour," perhaps because he had observed how little real happiness regal state had brought to his grandfather, "that fact will not grieve me. i shall have less trouble and more pleasure than either of you. i shall enjoy the right of hunting both in france and spain, and can follow a wolf from paris to madrid." preparations were immediately made for the departure of the boy-king to take possession of his spanish throne and crown. the pomp-loving french king had decided to invest the occasion with great splendor. he regarded it as a signal stroke of policy, and a great victory on his part, that he had been enabled, notwithstanding the remonstrances of other nations, to place a french bourbon prince upon the throne of spain, thus virtually uniting the two nations. he thought he had thus extended the domain of france to the straits of gibraltar. "henceforth," exclaimed louis xiv., exultingly, "there are no more pyrenees." to his grandson, the new king, he said, "be a good spaniard, but never forget that you were born a frenchman. carefully maintain the union of the two nations. thus only can you render them both happy." there was a final meeting of the royal family to take leave of the young monarch as he was departing for his realm. all the young nobility of france, with a numerous military escort, were to compose his brilliant retinue. the duchess du maine, the legitimatized daughter of madame de montespan, and thus the half brother of the dauphin, persuaded the dauphin to invite her mother to the palace on this occasion. here occurred the last interview between the heartless king and his discarded favorite. as the king made the tour of the room, he found himself opposite madame de montespan. she was greatly overcome by her emotions, and, pale and trembling, was near fainting. the king coldly and searchingly, for a moment, fixed his eye upon her, and then said, calmly, "madame, i congratulate you. you are still as handsome and attractive as ever. i hope that you are also happy." the marchioness replied, "at this moment, sire, i am very happy, since i have the honor of presenting my respectful homage to your majesty." the king, with his studied grace of courtesy, kissed her hand, and continued his progress around the circle. the monarch and his perhaps equally guilty victim never met again. she lived twenty-two years after her expulsion from the palace. they were twenty-two years of joylessness. her confessor, who seems to have been a man of sincere piety, refused her absolution until she had written to her husband, the marquis de montespan, whom she had abandoned for the guilty love of the king, affirming her heartfelt repentance, imploring his forgiveness, and entreating him either to receive her back, or to order her to any place of residence which he should think proper. the indignant marquis replied that he would neither admit her to his house, nor prescribe for her any future rules of conduct, nor suffer her name ever again to be mentioned in his presence. the reverend father compelled her, in atonement for her sins, to sit at a frugal table; to consecrate her vast wealth to objects of benevolence; to wear haircloth next her skin, and around her waist a girdle with sharp points, which lacerated her body at every movement. she was also daily employed in making garments of the coarsest materials with her own hands for the sick in the hospitals, and for the poor in their squalid homes. the guilty marchioness was dreadfully afraid of death. every night a careful guard of women watched her bedside. in a thunder-storm she would take an infant in her lap, that the child's innocence might be her protection. in the night of the 26th of may, 1707, she was attacked in her bed by very distressing suffocation. one of her sons, the marquis of antin, was immediately sent for. he found his mother insensible. seizing a casket which contained her jewels, he demanded of an attendant the key. it was suspended around the neck of his dying mother, where she ever wore it. the young man went to the bedside, tore away the lace which veiled his mother's bosom, seized the key, unlocked the casket, emptied its contents into his pockets, descended to his carriage, and hurried away with the treasure, leaving his mother to die without a relative to close her eyes. an hour after she breathed her last. the king was informed of the death of madame de montespan just as he was setting out on a shooting excursion. "ah! indeed," he said, "and so the marchioness is dead. i should have thought that she would have lasted longer. are you ready, m. de la rochefoucald? i have no doubt that after this last shower the scent will lie well for the dogs. come, let us be off at once." we have slightly anticipated the chronological sequence of events in this narrative of the death of madame de montespan, which took place in the year 1707. james ii. of england died in exile at st. germain in september, 1701. the prince of orange then occupied the british throne with the title of william iii. he formed what was called the "grand alliance" against the encroachments of france. for several years the war of the "spanish succession" raged with almost unprecedented fury throughout all europe. [illustration: front view of st. germain.] the king's health was now failing, and troubles in rapid succession came crowding upon him. his armies encountered terrible defeats. the king had thus far lived on friendly terms with his only brother philip, duke of orleans, the playmate of his childhood, and the submissive subject of maturer years. they were now both soured by misfortune. in a chance meeting at marly they fell into a violent altercation respecting the conduct of one of the sons of the duke. it was their first quarrel since childhood. the duke was so excited by the event that he hastened to his palace at st. cloud with flushed cheeks and trembling nerves, where he was stricken down by apoplexy. a courier was immediately dispatched to the king. he hastened to the bedside of his brother, and found him insensible. philip was two years younger than louis. to see him die was a louder appeal to the conscience of the king than the view of st. denis from the terrace at st. germain. death was, to this monarch, truly the king of terrors. he could not endure the spectacle of his brother's dying convulsions. burying his face in his hands, he wept and sobbed bitterly. it was a midnight scene, or rather it was the sombre hour of three o'clock in the morning. at 8 o'clock in the morning the king took his carriage and returned to marly, and repaired immediately to the apartment of madame de maintenon. at 11 o'clock his physician arrived with the intelligence that the duke was dead. again the king was overcome with emotion, and wept almost convulsively; but, soon recovering himself, he apparently resolved to make every effort to throw off these painful thoughts. notwithstanding the remonstrances of madame de maintenon, he persisted in his determination to dine, as usual, with the ladies of the court. much to the astonishment of the ladies, he was heard, in his own room, singing an air from a recent opera which was far from funereal in its character. in the month of may of this same year, 1701, the duke of anjou, the young king of spain, who was uneasily seated upon his beleaguered throne, entered into a matrimonial alliance with maria louisa of savoy, younger sister of adelaide, the duchess of burgoyne. she was of fairy-like stature, but singularly graceful and beautiful, with the finest complexion, and eyes of dazzling brilliance. her mental endowments were also equal to her physical charms. louis xiv., ever anxious to retain the control over the court of spain, appointed the princess des ursins to be the companion and adviser of the young queen. this lady was alike remarkable for her intelligence, her sagacity, her tact, and her thorough acquaintance with high and courtly breeding. the young king of spain was perfectly enamored of his lovely bride. she held the entire control over him. the worldly-wise and experienced princess des ursins guided, in obedience to the dictates of louis xiv., almost every thought and volition of the young queen. thus the monarch at marly ruled the court at madrid. while foreign war was introducing bankruptcy to the treasury of france, civil war was also desolating the kingdom. the sufferings of the protestants equaled any thing which had been witnessed in the days of pagan persecution. the most ferocious of all these men, who were breathing out threatenings and slaughter, was the abbé de chayla. this wretch had captured a party of protestants, and, with them, two young ladies from families of distinction. they were all brutally thrust into a dungeon, and were fettered in a way which caused extreme anguish, and crushed some of their bones. it was the 24th of july, 1702. at ten o'clock in the evening, a party of about fifty resolute protestants, thoroughly armed, and chanting a psalm, broke into the palace of the infamous ecclesiastic, released the prisoners from the dungeon vaults, seized the abbé, and, after compelling him to look upon the mangled bodies and broken bones of his victims, put him to death by a dagger-stroke from each one of his assailants. the torch was then applied, and the palace laid in ashes. hence commenced the terrible civil war called _the war of the camisards_. the protestants were poor, dispersed, without arms, and without leaders. despair nerved them. they fled to rocks, to the swamps, the forests. in their unutterable anguish they were led to frenzies of enthusiasm. they believed that god chose their leaders, and inspired them to action. thus roused and impelled, they set at defiance an army of twenty thousand men sent against them. the terrible war lasted two years. fiends could not have perpetrated greater cruelties than were perpetrated by the troops of the king. it is one of the mysteries of divine providence that _one man_ should have been permitted to create such wide-spread and unutterable woe. louis xiv. wished to exterminate protestantism from his realms. millions were made wretched to an intensity which no pen can describe. louis xiv. wished to place his grandson, without any legal title, upon the throne of spain. in consequence, europe was deluged in blood. cities were sacked and burned. provinces were devastated. hundreds of thousands perished in the blood of the battle-field. the book of final judgment alone can tell how many widows and orphans went weeping to their graves. the pope clement ix. fulminated a bull against the camisards, and promised the absolute remission of sins to those engaged in their extermination. protestant england and holland sent words of cheer to their fellow-religionists. we can not enter into the details of this conflict. the result was that the king found it impossible to exterminate the protestants, or to blot out their faith. a policy of semi-tolerance was gradually introduced, though in various parts of the kingdom the persecuting spirit remained for several years unbroken. the king, chagrined by the failure of his plans, would not allow the word protestant or huguenot to be pronounced in his presence. the distress in france was dreadful. a winter of unprecedented severity had even frozen the impetuous waters of the rhone. provisions commanded famine prices. the fields were barren, the store-houses exhausted, the merchant ships were captured by the enemy, and the army, humiliated by frequent defeats, was perishing with hunger. the people became desperate. the king was ignominiously lampooned and placarded. he dared not appear in public, for starving crowds gathered around his carriage clamoring for bread. even the king and the nobility sent their plate to the mint. the exhaustion of the realm had become so complete that the haggard features of want seemed to be staring in even at the windows of the palace. madame de maintenon practiced so much self-denial as to eat only oaten bread. in april of 1711 the dauphin was taken sick with apparently an attack of fever. it proved to be malignant smallpox. after a brief sickness, which terrified and dispersed the court, he died, almost alone, in a burning fever, with a frightfully swollen face, and in delirium. even the king could not visit the dying chamber of his son. he fainted upon his sofa when he heard that the dauphin was in his last agonies. the terror-stricken courtiers fled from the palace of meudon, where the loathsome remains of the heir to the throne of france awaited burial. the corpse was hurried into a plain coffin, which was not even covered by the royal pall. not a single mourning coach followed the only legitimate son of louis xiv. to the grave. he had two sisters, the princess of conti and the duchess of bourbon condé. neither of them ventured to join the funeral procession of their only brother. he had three sons, louis, philip, and charles. philip was king of spain. louis and charles were at home. but they kept at a safe distance, as did the king his father, from the meagre funeral procession which bore, with indecent haste, the remains of the prince to the vaults of st. denis. chapter xii. the last days of louis xiv. 1712-1715 the duke of burgoyne.--his character.--the dauphiness poisoned by means of snuff.--anguish of the king.--death.--the dauphin taken ill.--death of the dauphin.--death of the child-dauphin.--the duke of orleans.--he is suspected as the poisoner.--a quarrel and its result.--death of the duke de berri.--anguish of the duke of orleans.--feelings of the king.--the regency.--intrigues and plots.--louis harassed.--the duke of orleans removes to st. cloud.--policy.--wretchedness of the king.--the duchess de berri.--plottings.--the council of regency.--the last testament of the king.--unsatisfactory.--sickness of the king.--the last review.--struggles against death.--affects youthfulness.--summons a band.--scene in the death-chamber.--the last offices of the church.--the king resigned.--remorse of the king.--energy of fanaticism.--deplorable condition of france.--testimony of thomas jefferson.--napoleon.--devotion of madame de maintenon.--last messages.--melancholy spectacle.--the young heir to the throne.--dying advice.--the king blesses the dauphin.--dying confession.--scenes of suffering.--last words.--the death of the king.--louis xv. proclaimed.--ignominious burial of louis xiv.--louis xv.--louis xvi.--the revolution. upon the death of the king's son, the duke of burgoyne assumed the title of dauphin, which his father had previously borne, and became direct heir to the crown. he was a retiring, formal man, very much devoted to study, and somewhat pedantic. he was also religiously inclined. in his study, where he passed most of his time, he divided his hours between works of devotion and books of science. his sudden advent to the direct heirship to the french throne surrounded him with courtiers and flatterers. the palace at meudon, where he generally resided, was now crowded with noble guests. he became affable, frequently showed himself in public, entered into amusements, and was soon regarded as a general favorite. taught by madame de maintenon, he succeeded, by his marked respect for the king and his submission to his slightest wishes, in gaining the good will of the homage-loving monarch. the years had rolled rapidly along, and the young dauphin was thirty years of age. he had three children, and, being irreproachable in his domestic relations, was developing a very noble character. the dauphiness had attained her twenty-seventh year. she was an extremely beautiful and fascinating woman. the dauphiness was fond of snuff. on the 3d of february, 1712, the duke de noailles, a true friend, presented her with a box of spanish snuff, with which she was delighted. she left the box upon the table in her boudoir. it was there for a couple of days, she frequently indulging in the luxury of a pinch. on the 5th she was attacked with sudden sickness, accompanied by shivering fits, burning fever, and intense pain in the head. the attack was so sudden and extraordinary that all the attendants thought of poison, though none ventured to give utterance to the surmise. for four days she grew worse, with frequent seasons of delirium. the dauphin was almost frantic. the king sat in anguish, hour after hour, at her bedside. no remedies were of any avail. her sufferings were so great that the dauphin could not remain in her dying chamber to witness her agony. she was greatly surprised when informed that she must die. all the offices of the church were attended to. she received the rite of extreme unction, and, in the wildness of delirium, lost all recognition of those who were around her. the king, bowed down with anguish, was with difficulty prevailed upon to retire. he had but reached the door of the palace when she expired. the king was now a world-weary, heart-stricken old man, who had numbered more than his threescore years and ten. he seemed crushed with grief, and his eyes were flooded with tears as he returned, with madame de maintenon, to marly. the apartment which the dauphin paced in agony was immediately above the dying chamber. as soon as the death-struggle was over, he was induced to retire to marly, that he might be spared the anguish of witnessing the preparations for the funeral. as the dauphin entered the chamber of the king, the monarch was startled in witnessing the change which had taken place in his appearance. his face was flushed with fever; his eyes were dilated and inflamed, and livid stains covered his face. it was manifest that the same disease, whatever it was, which had stricken down the dauphiness, had also attacked the dauphin. the malady made rapid progress. in the intensity of his anguish, the sufferer declared his entrails were on fire. conscious that his dying hour had come, he, on the night of the 17th, partook of the sacrament of the lord's supper, and almost immediately expired. the dreadful tidings were conveyed to the king as he sat in the apartment of madame de maintenon, with the younger brother of the dauphin, charles, the duke de berri, by his side. the king, anticipating the announcement, sat with his head bent down upon his breast, and clasping almost convulsively the hand of the prince who sat at his feet. throwing his arms around the neck of the duke de berri, the king exclaimed, in accents of despair, "alas! my son, you alone are now left to me." the duke of burgoyne had buried three children. there were two then living. the eldest, the duke of bretagne, was five years of age. the youngest, the duke of anjou, had just attained his second year. by the death of the duke of burgoyne, his eldest child became the dauphin and the immediate heir to the crown. the next day both of these children were taken sick, evidently with the same malady, whether of natural disease or the effect of poison, which had proved so fatal to their parents. the eldest immediately died. the same funeral car conveyed the remains of the father, the mother, and the child to the gloomy vaults of st. denis. the youngest child, the duke of anjou, by the most careful nursing recovered to ascend the throne with the title of louis xv., and to present to the world, in his character, one of the most infamous kings who had ever worn an earthly crown. we have previously mentioned the death of the king's only brother, philip, duke of orleans. he left a son, the duke of chartres. upon the death of the duke of orleans his son inherited the title and the estate of his father. he was an exceedingly dissolute man. should all the legitimate descendants of the king die, he would be heir to the throne. with the exception of philip, who was king of spain, and thus precluded from inheriting the throne of france, all were now dead except the infant duke of anjou. the death of that child would place the crown upon the brow of philip, duke of orleans. as it was evident that all these victims had died of poison, suspicion was so directed against the duke of orleans that the accusation was often hooted at him in the streets. there is, however, no convincing evidence that he was guilty. one of the daughters of the duke of orleans had married the duke de berri. she was as wicked as she was beautiful, and scarcely condescended to disguise her profligacy. the duke intercepted some letters which proved her guilty intimacy with an officer of her household. a violent quarrel took place in the royal presence. the husband kicked his wife with his heavy boot, and the king lifted his cane to strike the duke. a sort of reconciliation was effected. the duchess, who, beyond all doubt, was a guilty woman, professed to be satisfied with the apologies which her husband made. soon after they went on a wolf-hunt in the forest of marly. both appeared in high spirits. the run was long. heated by the race and thirsty, the duke asked the duchess if she had any thing with her with which he could quench his thirst. she drew from the pocket of her carriage a small bottle, which contained, she said, an exquisite cordial with which she was always provided in case of over-fatigue. the duke drained it, and returned the empty bottle to the duchess. as she took it she said, with a smile, "i am very glad to have met you so opportunely." thus they parted. in a few hours the duke was a corpse. it was so manifestly for the interest of the dissolute and unprincipled duke of orleans that the princes which stood between him and the throne should be removed, that all these cases of poisoning were attributed to him. indeed, one of the motives which might have influenced his daughter, the duchess de berri, to poison her husband, whom she loathed, may have been the hope of seeing her father upon the throne. when the funeral procession passed near the palais royal, the residence of the duke, the tumult was so great that it was feared that the palace might be sacked. the anguish of the duke, thus clamorously assailed with the crime of the most atrocious series of assassinations, was great. a friend, the marquis de canillac, calling upon him one day, found him prostrate upon the floor of his apartment in utter despair. he knew that he was suspected by his uncle the king, and by the court as well as by the populace. at last he went boldly to the king, and demanded that he should be arrested, sent to the bastile, and put upon trial. the king sternly, and without any manifestation of sympathy, refused, saying that such a scandal should not, with his consent, be made any more public than it already was. the king also recoiled from the idea of having a prince of the blood royal tried for murder. as it was known that the king could not live long, and a babe of but two years was to be his successor--a feeble babe, who had already narrowly escaped death by poison, the question of the regency, during the minority of this babe, and of heirship to the throne in case the babe should die, became a matter of vast moment. the court was filled with intrigues and plots. the duke of orleans had his numerous partisans, men of opulence and rank. he was but a nephew of the king--son of the king's brother. on the other hand was the duke du maine, an acknowledged _son_ of the king--the legitimated son of madame de montespan. but no royal decree, no act of parliament could obliterate the stain of his birth. he had many and powerful supporters, who, by his accession to power, would be placed in all the offices of honor and emolument. madame de maintenon, in herself a host, was one of the most devoted of his friends. she had been his tutor. she had ever loved him ardently. he had also pledged her, in case of his success, that she should be recognized as queen of france. the monarch was harassed and bewildered by these contending factions. the populace took sides. the duke of orleans could not leave his palace without being exposed to the hootings of the rabble. he withdrew from his city residence, the palais royal, to the splendid palace of st. cloud. he was accompanied by a magnificent train of nobles, and, being a man of almost boundless wealth, he established his court here in regal splendor. there was no _proof_ that the duke of orleans was implicated in the poisonings. the king was unwilling to receive evidence that his brother's son could be guilty of such a crime. being superstitiously a religionist, the king recoiled from the attempt to place upon the throne a son of madame de montespan, who was the acknowledged wife of another man. he therefore favored the claims of the duke of orleans, and sent him word at st. cloud that he recognized his innocence of the crime of which public rumor accused him. it is, however, very evident that this was a measure of policy and not of sincere conviction. he entered into no friendly relations with the duke, and kept him at a respectful distance. the disastrous war of the spanish succession was now closed, through the curious complications of state policy. philip vi. retained his throne, but france was exhausted and impoverished. the king often sat for hours, with his head leaning upon his hand, in a state of profound listlessness and melancholy. famine was ravaging the land. a wail of woe came from millions whom his wars and extravagance had reduced to starvation. the duchess de berri, the unblushing profligate, the undoubted murderess, was, as the daughter of the king's brother, the only legitimate princess left to preside over the royal court. she was fascinating in person and manners, with scarcely a redeeming virtue to atone for her undisguised vices. "thus the stately court of anne of austria, the punctilious circle of maria theresa, and the elegant society of the duchess of burgoyne were--at the very period of his life when louis xiv., at length disenchanted of the greatness, and disgusted with the vices of the world, was seeking to purify his heart and to exalt his thoughts that they might become more meet for heaven--superseded by the orgies of a wanton, who, with unabashed brow and unshrinking eye, carried her intrigues into the very saloons of marly."[y] [footnote y: louis xiv. and the court of france, vol. ii., p. 588.] madame de maintenon resorted to every measure she could devise to induce the king to appoint her favorite pupil, the duke du maine, regent during the minority of the infant duke of anjou. the king was greatly harassed. old, infirm, world-weary, heart-stricken, and pulled in opposite directions, by powers so strong, he knew not what to do. at last he adopted a sort of compromise, which gave satisfaction to neither party. the king appointed a council of regency, of which the duke of orleans was president. but the duke du maine was a member of the council, and was also intrusted with the guardianship and education of the young heir to the throne. this will was carefully concealed in a cavity opened in the wall of a tower of the state apartment. the iron door of this closet was protected by three keys, one of which was held by the president of the chambers, one by the attorney general, and one by the public registrar. a royal edict forbade the closet to be opened until after the death of the king, and then only in the presence of the assembled parliament, the princes, and the peers. the document had been extorted from the king. it was not in accordance with his wishes. indeed, it satisfied no one. as he placed the papers in the hands of the president of the chambers, he said to him, gloomily, "here is my will. the experience of my predecessors has taught me that it may not be respected. but i have been tormented to frame it. i have been allowed neither peace nor rest until i complied. take it away. whatever may happen to it, i hope that i shall now be left in quiet."[z] [footnote z: memoires de st. simon.] the advanced age of the king and his many infirmities rendered even a slight indisposition alarming. on the evening of the 3d of may, 1715, the king, having supped with the duchess de berri, retired to bed early, complaining of weariness and exhaustion. the rumor spread rapidly that the king was dangerously sick. the foreign embassadors promptly dispatched the news to their several courts. the jealous king, who kept himself minutely informed of every thing which transpired, was very indignant in view of this apparent eagerness to hurry him to the tomb. to prove, not only to the court, but to all europe, that he was still every inch a king, he ordered a magnificent review of the royal troops at marly. the trumpet of preparation was blown loudly. many came, not only from different parts of the kingdom, but from the other states of europe, to witness the spectacle. it took place on the 20th of june, 1715. as the troops, in their gorgeous uniforms, defiled before the terrace of marly, quite a spruce-looking man, surrounded by obsequious attendants, emerged from the principal entrance of the palace, descended the marble steps and mounted his horse. it was the poor old king. inspired by vanity, which even dying convulsions could not quell, he had rouged his pale and haggard cheeks, wigged his thin locks, padded his skeleton limbs, and dressed himself in the almost juvenile costume of earlier years. sustained by artificial stimulants, this poor old man kept his tottering seat upon his saddle for four long hours. he then, having proved that he was still young and vigorous, returned to his chamber. the wig was thrown aside, the pads removed, the paint washed off, and the infirm septuagenarian sought rest from his exhaustion upon the royal couch. day after day the king grew more feeble, with the usual alternations of nervous strength and debility, but with no abatement of his chronic gloom. the struggles which he endured to conceal the approaches of decay did but accelerate that decay. he was restless, and again lethargic. dropsical symptoms appeared in his discolored feet and swollen ankles. still he insisted every day upon seeing his ministers, and exhibited himself padded, and rouged, and costumed in the highest style of art. he even affected, in his gait and gesture, the elasticity of youth. in his restlessness, the king repaired, with his court, from marly to versailles. here the king was again taken seriously sick with an attack of fever. with unabated resolution, he continued his struggles against the approaches of the angel of death. while the fevered blood was throbbing in his veins, he declared that he was but slightly indisposed, and summoned a musical band to his presence, with orders that the musicians should perform only the most animating and cheerful melodies. but the fever and other alarming symptoms increased so rapidly that scarcely had the band been assembled when the court physicians became apprehensive that the king's dissolution was immediately to take place. the king's confessor and the cardinal de rohan were promptly summoned to attend to the last services of the catholic church for the dying. there was a scene of confusion in the palace. the confessor, le tellier, communicated to the king the intelligence that he was probably near his end. while he was receiving the _confession_ of the royal penitent, the cardinal was hurrying to the chapel to get the viaticum for administering the communion, and the holy oil for the rite of extreme unction. it was customary that the _pyx_, as the box was called in which the host was kept, should be conveyed to the bedside of expiring royalty in formal procession. the cardinal, in his robes of office, led the way. several attendants of the royal household followed, bearing torches. then came madame de maintenon. they all gathered in the magnificent chamber, and around the massive, sumptuous couch of the monarch. the cardinal, after speaking a few words in reference to the solemnity of a dying hour, administered the sacrament and the holy oils. the king listened reverently and in silence, and then sank back upon his pillow, apparently resigned to die. to the surprise of all, he revived. patiently he bore his sufferings, which at times were severe. his legs began to swell badly and painfully. mortification took place. he was informed that the amputation of the leg was necessary to save him from speedy death. "will the operation prolong my life?" inquired the king. "yes, sire," the surgeon replied; "certainly for some days, perhaps for several weeks." "if that be all," said the king, "it is not worth the suffering. god's will be done." the king could not conceal the anguish with which he was agitated in view of his wicked life. he fully believed in the religion of the new testament, and that after death came the judgment. he tried to believe that the priest had power to grant him absolution from his sins. how far he succeeded in this no one can know. openly he expressed his anguish in view of the profligacy of his youth, and wept bitterly in the retrospect of those excesses. we know not what compunctions of conscience visited him as he reflected upon the misery he had caused by the persecution of the protestants. but he had been urged to this by his highest ecclesiastics, and even by the holy father himself. it would not be strange, under these circumstances, if a man of his superstitious and fanatical spirit should, even in a dying hour, reflect with some complacency upon these crimes, believing that thus he had been doing god service. it is this which gives to papal _fanaticism_ its terrible and demoniac energy. the _sincere_ papist believes "_heresy_" to be poison for the soul infinitely more dreadful than any poison for the body. such poison must be banished from the world at whatever cost of suffering. many an ecclesiastic has gone from his closet of prayer to kindle the flames which consumed his victim. the more _sincere_ the papist is in his belief, the more mercilessly will he swing the scourge and fire the fagot. loudly, however, he deplored the madness of his ambition which had involved europe in such desolating wars. bitterly he expressed his regret that he left france in a state of such exhaustion, impoverished, burdened with taxation, and hopelessly crushed by debt. the condition of the realm was indeed deplorable. a boy of five years of age was to inherit the throne. a man so profligate that he was infamous even in a court which rivaled sodom in its corruption was to be invested with the regency of the kingdom--a man who was accused, by the general voice of the nation, of having poisoned those who stood between him and the throne. that man's sister, an unblushing wanton, who had poisoned her own husband, presided over the festivities of the palace. the nobles, abandoned to sensual indulgence, were diligent and ingenious only in their endeavors to wrench money from the poor. the masses of the people were wretched beyond description, and almost beyond imagination in our land of liberty and competence. the execrations of the starving millions were rising in a long wail around the throne. thomas jefferson, subsequently president of the united states, who, not many years after this, was the american embassador at paris, wrote, in 1785, to mrs. trist, of philadelphia, "of twenty millions of people supposed to be in france, i am of the opinion that there are nineteen millions more wretched, more accursed in every circumstance of human existence than the most conspicuously wretched individual of the whole united states." even the duke of orleans, the appointed regent, said, "if i were a subject i would certainly revolt. the people are good-natured fools to suffer so long." these sufferings and these corruptions were the origin and cause of the french revolution.[aa] napoleon, the great advocate of the rights of the people in antagonism to this aristocratic privilege, said, at st. helena, [footnote aa: abbott's french revolution, as viewed in the light of republican institutions.] "our revolution was a national convulsion as irresistible in its effects as an eruption of vesuvius. when the mysterious fusion which takes place in the entrails of the earth is at such a crisis that an explosion follows, the eruption bursts forth. the unperceived workings of the discontent of the people follow exactly the same course. in france, the sufferings of the people, the moral combinations which produce a revolution, had arrived at maturity, and the explosion took place."[ab] [footnote ab: napoleon at st. helena, p. 374] such was the condition in which unhappy france was left by louis xiv., after a reign of seventy years. he was now seventy-seven years of age. madame de maintenon, two years his senior, was entering her eightieth year. with unwearied devotion she watched at the bedside of that selfish husband whose pride would never allow him to acknowledge her publicly as his wife. feeling that his end was drawing near, the king summoned the duke of orleans to his bedside, and informed him minutely of the measures he wished to have adopted after his death. the duke listened respectfully, but paid no more regard to the wishes of the now powerless and dying king than to the wailing of the wind. the king had penetration enough to see that his day was over. he sank back upon his pillow in despair. on the 26th of august several prominent members of his court were invited to the dying chamber of the king. his voice was almost gone. he beckoned them to gather near around his bed. then, in feeble tones, tremulous with emotion, the pitiable old man, conscious of his summons to the tribunal of god, said, "gentlemen, i ask your pardon for the bad example i have set you. i thank you for your fidelity to me, and beg you to be equally faithful to my grandson. farewell, gentlemen. forgive me. i hope you will sometimes think of me when i am gone." "by many a death-bed i have been, by many a sinner's parting scene, but never aught like this." it was, indeed, a spectacle mournfully sublime. the dying chamber was one of the most magnificent apartments in the palace of versailles. the royal couch, massive in its architecture, richly curtained in its embroidered upholstery of satin and gold, presented a bed whose pillowed luxury exhibited haggard death in the strongest possible contrast. upon this gorgeous bed the gray-haired king reclined, wrinkled and wan, and with a countenance which bore the traces both of physical suffering and of keen remorse. the velvet hangings of the bed were looped back with heavy tassels of gold. a group of nobles in gorgeous court costumes were kneeling around the bed. dispersed over the vast apartment were other groups of courtiers and ladies, in picturesque attitudes of real or affected grief. the gilded cornices, the richly-painted ceilings, the soft carpet, yielding to the pressure of the foot, the lavish display of the most costly and luxurious furniture, all conspired to render the dimmed eye, and wasted cheek, and palsied frame of the dying more impressive. at a gesture from the king nearly all retired. for a few moments there was unbroken silence. the king then requested his great grandchild, who was to be his successor, to be brought to him. a cushion was placed by the side of the bed, and the half-frightened child, clinging to the hand of his governess, kneeled upon it. louis xiv. gazed for a few moments with almost pitying tenderness upon the infant prince, and then said, "my child, you are about to become a great king. do not imitate me either in my taste for building or in my love of war. live in peace with the nations. render to god all that you owe him. teach your subjects to honor his name. strive to relieve the burdens of your people, in which i have been so unfortunate as to fail. never forget the gratitude you owe to the duchess de ventadour."[ac] [footnote ac: the duchess de ventadour, by the most careful nursing, to which she entirely devoted herself, had rescued the infant duke of anjou from the effect of the poison to which his father, mother, and brother had fallen victims.] "madame," said the king, addressing madame de ventadour, "permit me to embrace the prince." the dauphin was placed upon the bed. the king encircled him in his arms, pressed him fondly to his breast, and said, in a voice broken by emotion, "i bless you, my dear child, with all my heart." he then raised his eyes to heaven, and uttered a short prayer for god's blessing upon the boy. the next day, after another night of languor and suffering, the restless, conscience-stricken king again summoned the dignitaries of the court to his bedside, and said to them, in the presence of madame de maintenon and of his _confessor_, who had mainly instigated him in the persecution of the protestants, "gentlemen, i die in the faith and obedience of the church. i know nothing of the dogmas by which it is divided. i have followed the advice which i have received, and have done only what i was desired to do. if i have erred, my guides alone must answer before god, whom i call upon to witness this assertion." the succeeding night the king was restless and greatly agitated. he could not sleep, and seemed to pass the whole night in agonizing prayer. in the morning he said to madame de maintenon, "at this moment i only regret yourself. i have not made you happy. but i have ever felt for you all the regard and affection which you deserved. my only consolation in leaving you exists in the hope that we shall, ere long, meet again in eternity." hours of agony, bodily and mental, were still allotted to the king. his limbs were badly swollen. upon one of them mortification was rapidly advancing. he was often delirious, with but brief intervals of consciousness. the service for the dying was performed. the ceremony seemed slightly to arouse him from his lethargy. his voice was heard occasionally blending with the prayers of the ecclesiastics as he repeated several times, "now, in the hour of death, o my god, come to my aid." these were his last words. he sank back insensible upon his pillow. a few hours of painful breathing passed away, and at eight o'clock in the morning of the 1st of september, 1715, he expired, in the seventy-seventh year of his age and the seventy-second of his reign. it was the longest reign in the annals of france. had he been governed through this period by enlightened christian principle, how many millions might have been made happy whom his crimes doomed to life-long woe! an immense concourse was assembled in the court-yard at versailles, anticipating the announcement of his death. the moment he breathed his last sigh, the captain of the body-guard approached the great balcony, threw open the massive windows, and, looking down upon the multitude below, raised his truncheon above his head, broke it in the centre, threw the fragments down into the court-yard, and cried sadly, "the king is dead!" then, instantly seizing another staff from the hands of an attendant, he waved it joyfully above his head, and shouted triumphantly, "long live the king, louis xv.!" a huzza burst from the lips of the assembled thousands almost loud enough to pierce the ear of the king, now palsied in death. [illustration: announcement of the death of louis xiv.] there were few to mourn the departed monarch. as his remains were hurried to the vaults of st. denis, those vaults which he had so much dreaded, the populace shouted execrations and pelted his coffin with mud. not the slightest regard was paid to his will. the duke of orleans assumed the regency with absolute power. his reign was execrable, followed by the still more infamous reign of louis xv. then came the revolution, as the sceptre of utterly despotic sway passed into the hands of the feeble louis xvi. the storm, which had been gathering for ages, burst with fury which appalled the world. a more tremendous event has not occurred in the history of our race. the story has too often been told by those who were in sympathy with the kings and the nobles. the time will come when the _people's_ side of the story will be received, and the terrible drama will be better understood. the end. transcriber's notes 1. minor changes have been made to correct typesetters' errors, and to ensure consistent spelling and punctuation in this etext; otherwise, every effort has been made to remain true to the original book. 2. the chapter summaries in this text were originally published as banners in the page headers, and have been moved to beginning of the chapter for the reader's convenience. 3. typesetting for italics was very inconsistent in this book; no attempt has been made to regularize the use of italics. _by arvède barine_ =the youth of la grande mademoiselle 1627-1652= authorized english version. octavo. fully illustrated. (by mail, $3.25.) net, $3.00 =louis xiv. and la grande mademoiselle 1652-1693= authorized english version. octavo. fully illustrated. (by mail, $3.25.) net, $3.00 =_g. p. putnam's sons_= =_new york_= =_london_= [illustration: cliché braun, clément & cie. =mademoiselle de montpensier= she is holding the portrait of her father, gaston d'orléans from the painting by pierre bourgnignon in the musée de versailles. by permission of messrs. hachette & co.] louis xiv and la grande mademoiselle 1652-1693 by arvède barine author of "the youth of la grande mademoiselle" _authorised english version_ g. p. putnam's sons new york and london the knickerbocker press 1905 copyright, 1905 by g. p. putnam's sons the knickerbocker press, new york preface in the volume entitled _the youth of la grande mademoiselle_ i have tried to present the conditions of france during the period in which the ancient liberties of the people and the turbulent society which had abused its privileges suffered, in the one case death, in the other extinction. as is always the case, a lack of proper discipline had prepared the way for absolute rule, and the young king who was about to assume full power was an enigma to his subjects. the nearest relatives of louis had always found him impenetrable. the grande mademoiselle had been brought up side by side with her cousin, but she was entirely ignorant of his real character, knowing only that he was silent and appeared timid. in her failure to understand the king, mademoiselle showed herself again a true child of her century. at the moment in which the prince assumed full power, his true disposition, thoughts, and beliefs were entirely hidden from the public, and saint-simon has contributed to this ignorance by prolonging it to posterity. louis xiv. was over fifty when this terrible writer appeared at court. the _mémoires_ of saint-simon present the portrait of a man almost old; this portrait however is so powerful, so living that it obliterates every other. the public sees only the louis of saint-simon; for it, the youthful king as he lived during the troubled and passionate period of his career, the period that was most interesting, because most vital, has never existed. the official history of the times aids in giving a false impression of louis xiv., figuring him in a sort of hieratic attitude between an idol and a manikin. the portraits of versailles again mask the louis of the young court, the man for whose favour molière and the libertines fought with varying chances of success. in the present volume i have tried to raise a corner of this mask. the _mémoires_ of louis xiv., completely edited for the first time according to any methodical plan in 1860, have greatly aided me in this task. they abound in confessions, sometimes aside, sometimes direct, of the matters that occupied the thoughts of the youthful author. the grande mademoiselle, capable of neither reserve nor dissimulation, has proved the next most valuable guide in the attempt to penetrate into the intimate life of louis. as related by her, the perpetual difficulties with the prince throw a vivid light upon the kind of incompatibility of temper which existed at the beginning of the reign between absolute power and the survivors of the fronde. how the young king succeeded in directing his generation toward new ideas and sentiments and how the grande mademoiselle, too late carried away by the torrent, became in the end a victim to its force, will be seen in the course of the present volume, provided, that is, that i have not overestimated my powers in touching upon a subject very obscure, very delicate, with facts drawn from a period the most frequently referred to and yet in some respects the least comprehended of the entire history of france. a. b. contents chapter i page exile--provincial life--conversation at saint-fargeau--sentiment towards nature in the seventeenth century--differences between mademoiselle and her father--mademoiselle returns to court 1-57 chapter ii the education of louis xiv.--manners--poverty--charity--vincent de paul, a secret society--marriage of louis xiv.--his arrival at power on the death of mazarin--he re-educates himself 58-119 chapter iii mademoiselle at the luxembourg--her salon--the "anatomies" of the heart--projects of marriage, and new exile--louis xiv. and the libertines--fragility of fortune in land--_fêtes galantes_ 120-184 chapter iv increasing importance of the affairs of love--the corrupters of morals--birth of dramatic music and its influence--love in racine--louis xiv. and the nobility--the king is polygamous 185-236 chapter v the grande mademoiselle in love--sketch of lauzun and their romance--the court on its travels--death of madame--announcement of the marriage of mademoiselle--general consternation--louis xiv. breaks the affair 237-303 chapter vi was mademoiselle secretly married?--imprisonment of lauzun--splendour and decadence of france--_la chambre ardente_--mademoiselle purchases lauzun's freedom--their embroilment--death of the grande mademoiselle--death of lauzun--conclusion 304-377 index 379 illustrations page mademoiselle de montpensier _frontispiece_ she is holding the portrait of her father, gaston d'orléans. from the painting by pierre bourguignon in the musée de versailles. by permission of messrs. hachette & co. anne marie louise d'orléans, duchesse de montpensier 4 from the enamel by petitot in the south kensington museum. cardinal de retz 24 showing him in his coadjuteur days. after the painting by deveria. julius hardouin mansart 26 after the painting by vivien. jean de la fontaine 54 from an engraving by grevedon. louis xiv. as a boy, dedicating his crown 62 after the painting by greg huret. louis xiv. as a young man 72 from a chalk drawing in the british museum print room. françois de la rochefoucauld 130 from the engraving by hopwood after the painting by petitot. hélène lambert, madame de motteville 150 after the painting by de largillière. louise de la vallière 154 from the engraving by flameng after the painting by petitot. jean baptiste colbert 170 after the painting by champaign. "pleasures of the island of enchantment." scene on the first day of the play, before the king at versailles 172 from the engraving by israel silvestre. "pleasures of the island of enchantment." second day 174 from the engraving by israel silvestre. general view of the château of versailles 176 from the engraving by israel silvestre, 1664. the front of the louvre in course of erection 178 from the engraving by s. le clerc, 1677. jean baptiste poquelin molière 180 after the painting by noël coypel. madame henriette d'orléans 194 from the painting by mignard in the national portrait gallery. (photograph by walker, london.) madame de montespan 200 from the engraving by flameng after the painting by mignard. la voisin 206 from a print in the bibliothèque nationale. jean baptiste de lulli 216 after a contemporary print by bonnart. boileau 220 after the painting by h. rigaud. duc de lauzun 244 by permission of messrs. hachette & co. madame de sévigné 282 from the painting by pietro mignard in the uffizi gallery, florence. (photograph by alinari.) view of the palace and gardens of the tuileries 330 from an engraving by israel silvestre, 1673. view of the residence of colbert, showing also his seal 332 from an engraving by israel silvestre, 1675. view of the château of versailles, showing the fountain of the dragon 334 from an engraving by israel silvestre, 1676. duchesse de la vallière and her children 336 from the painting by p. mignard in the possession of the marquise d'oilliamson. louise de la vallière, in the garb of the order of the carmelites 338 after the painting by d. plaats. madame de maintenon 340 after the painting by p. mignard in 1694. louis xiv. and la grande mademoiselle chapter i exile--provincial life--conversation at saint-fargeau--sentiment towards nature in the seventeenth century--differences between mademoiselle and her father--mademoiselle returns to court. the fronde was an abortive revolution. it was condemned in advance, the leaders having never clearly known what ends they were seeking. the consequences of its failure proved to be of profound importance to france. the civil disorders existing between 1648 and 1652 were the last efforts of the french against the establishing of absolute monarchy, to the strengthening of which the entire regency of anne of austria had tended. the end of these disorders signified that the nation, wearied and discouraged, had accepted the new régime. the result was a great transformation, political and moral, so great that the fronde may be considered as clearly marking a separation between two periods of french history--a deep abyss as it were between the times which precede and those which follow. the leaders of the fronde had been dispersed by the return of the king to his capital on october 21, 1652. when the exiles returned, some sooner, some later, the last after the peace of the pyrénées (november 7, 1659), so great a change had taken place in ideas and customs that more than one exile felt himself in a strange land. it was necessary to adjust oneself to the new atmosphere. it was very much the same situation--though the frondeurs were under much lighter accusations--as that experienced by the _émigrés_ returning under the consulate. the princess, the events of whose heroic years have been related, offers an excellent example of this condition. when the grande mademoiselle, who had urged on the civil war in order to force louis xiv. into marriage with herself, obtained at the end of five years, permission to return to court, she brought with her the old undisciplined habits which were no longer in fashion, and in the end incurred much that was disagreeable. exile had not weakened her pride. according to a celebrated formula, she had learned nothing, she had forgotten nothing; she remained that person of impulse of whom mme. de sévigné said, "i do not care to mix myself with her impetuosities."[1] far be it from me to reproach mademoiselle! all honour be to her who stood firm in the age of servility which succeeded the fronde! in other respects exile had been most healthful for her. she had been obliged to seek in herself resources the finding of which surprised her. mademoiselle naïvely admires herself in her _mémoires_[2] for never having experienced a single moment of ennui "in the greatest desert in the world," and surely she deserves praise, as her first experiences at saint-fargeau would have crushed most women. the reader will be convinced of this if he imagines himself in her company the night of arrival in the early days of november, 1652. at the end of _the youth of la grande mademoiselle_ we left her weeping without shame before her entire suite. her dream of glory had evaporated. anne-marie-louise d'orléans would never be queen of france. she would take no more cities; pass no more troops at review to the sound of trumpet and cannon. three weeks previous, the great condé had treated her as a companion in arms. she rejoiced the soldiers by her martial carriage, and any one of them would have been not only surprised but very indignant if it had been suggested that she was capable of being almost as cowardly as her father, the "_triste_ gaston." now all that was finished, even the romantic flight. while playing hide-and-seek with imaginary pursuers, the grande mademoiselle had fallen into a state of physical and moral prostration. the heroine of orléans and of porte saint-antoine sobbed like a little child because she "had too much grief" and was "too afraid"[3]; the aspect of her future home had taken away the last remnants of courage. the château of saint-fargeau, begun under hugh capet and often repaired, particularly during the fifteenth century, seemed more like a fortress than a peaceful dwelling. its heavy mass dominated the valley of the loing, a region of great and dense forests, with few clearings. itself enveloped with brushwood and protected by deep moats, the château harmonised well with the surroundings. its windows opened at a great height above the ground, and its towers were strong. the body of the building was massive and bare, united by strong ramparts forming an _enceinte_ irregular with severe appearance. the _ensemble_ was imposing, never smiling. saint-fargeau, long uninhabited, was almost a ruin filled with rats at the time when mademoiselle presented herself as a fugitive. she was shown into a room with a prop in the centre. coming from the palace of the tuileries, this sight overwhelmed her, and made her realise the depth of her fall. she had an access of despair: "i am most unfortunate to be absent from court, to have only a dwelling as ugly as this, and to realise that this is the best of my châteaux." her fear became terror when she discovered that doors and windows were lacking. a report came from a valet that she was sought for imprisonment, and she was too confused to reflect that if the king had ordered her arrest locks would have been useless. [illustration: =anne marie louise d'orléans, duchesse de montpensier= from the enamel by petitot in the south kensington museum] she continued her journey to reach a little château, situated two leagues from saint-fargeau, which was reported safer. "imagine," says she, "with what pleasure i made the extra journey. i had risen two hours before daylight; i had ridden twenty-two miles upon a horse already worn out with previous travel. we arrived at our destination at three in the morning; i went to bed in haste." the crisis was short. the next day it was explained to mademoiselle that saint-fargeau had two exits in case of alarm. she returned in consequence on the fourth day, and there was no more question of grief, nor even ill-temper; from that moment the place was "good and strong." the princess adapted herself to the glassless windows, the broken ceilings, the absence of doors, and all the rest. the great ladies of the seventeenth century were fortunately not too particular. mademoiselle encamped in a cellar while the apartment above was being repaired, and was forced to borrow a bed. she recovered all her gaiety before the comicality of the situation: "for the first cousin of the king of france." "happily for me," wrote she, "the bailiff of the château had been recently married; therefore he possessed a new bed." the bed of madame the bailiff was the great resource of the château. it was returned as soon as the princess received her own from paris, but it was again used to give a resting-place to the christmas guests, many of whom appeared--a fact to the credit of the french nobility--as soon as it was known where the illustrious unfortunate was passing her period of banishment. mademoiselle did not know how to provide for these guests and the most important were lodged with the bailiff. the duchess of sully and her sister, the marquise of laval, came together for a prolonged sojourn and performed the office of shuttle between the cellar in which the grande mademoiselle held her court and "the new bed of the city of saint-fargeau." ladies of quality arriving at this time lodged where they could with small regard to comfort, and this condition lasted until the château was put in order. every one suffered but nobody complained. there was a certain elegance in this haughty fashion of ignoring comfort, the importance of which in our own days seems in comparison rather bourgeois, in the worst sense of the word. gradually all was arranged. the château was restored, the apartments enlarged.[4] the overgrowth of the approaches gave place to a terrace from which to the surprise of all a charming view was discovered. the saint-fargeau of the capets and of the first valois, "a place so wild," says mademoiselle, "that when i arrived, only herbs fit for soup were to be found," became a beautiful residence, hospitable and animated. the mistress of the place loved open air and movement, as did all the french nobility before an absolute monarchy, in the interest of order and peace, had trained them to rest tranquilly in the salons of versailles. muscular decadence commenced with the french at the epoch when it became the fashion to pass the days in silk stockings and practising bows, under punishment of being excluded from all society. violent exercises were abandoned or made more gentle.[5] attention was paid only to what gave majestic grace to the body in harmony with the versailles "galerie of mirrors." the bourgeoisie were eager to imitate the people of quality, and the higher classes paid for their fine manners or their attempts at fine manners with the headaches and nervous disorders of the eighteenth century. the taste for sport has only reappeared in france during our own times. we are now witnessing its resurrection. this taste, however, was still lively immediately after the fronde, and mademoiselle abandoned herself to it with passion. she ordered from england a pack of hounds and hunters. she possessed many equipages. with a game of marl before the château, indoor games for rainy days, violins from the tuileries to play for dancing, it would be difficult to find a court more brisk, more constantly in joyous movement. mademoiselle, whom nothing tired, set an example, and seasoned these "games of action" with _causeries_, some of which happily have been preserved for us by segrais,[6] her secretary of the commandments. thanks to him, we know, even admitting that he may have slightly rearranged his reports, what they talked about at the court of saint-fargeau, and one cannot fail to be somewhat surprised. he tells us all sorts of things of which we never should have dreamed, things that we have never imagined as subjects of interest in the seventeenth century. in this age which believed itself entirely indifferent towards nature, conversation nevertheless fell ceaselessly upon the beauties of landscape. people paused to admire "points of view," sought them, and endeavoured to explain why they were beautiful. the reasons given were, that those who knew how to enjoy a large forest and "the beautiful carpet of moss at the feet," actually preferred landscapes made more intelligible through the intervention of man. a desert pleased them less than an inhabited country, a wild landscape less than sunny collections of cultivated fields and orchards symmetrically planted, recalling "the agreeable variety of parterres made by the ingenuity of man." mademoiselle praises in her _mémoires_ the view from the end of the terrace. she attempts to describe it and fails. segrais also tries in vain. it was impossible at that epoch. the vocabulary did not exist which could furnish words to describe a landscape. the creation of our descriptive vocabulary is one of bernardin de saint-pierre's[7] greatest glories. in compensation, segrais knew very well how to explain why the beauty of the view, about which he had so ineffectively written, pleased him and his companions. he said that, arranged by chance, it conformed to the rules of classic pictures and in no way appeared the sole work of nature. neither the valley of the loing nor the immense marsh which closed this side of the château, nor the island in the midst of this marsh, with clumps of trees, nor the church and small height which could be perceived, seemed placed without human intervention. "and this," writes segrais, "is so well represented in those excellent landscapes of the great artists, that all who look upon it believe that they have seen the marsh, church, and little island in a thousand pictures." literature, imaginative literature at least, also held a considerable place in the conversation. mademoiselle, who had read nothing before her sojourn at saint-fargeau, was anxious to make up for lost time. "i am a very ignorant creature," writes she, at the beginning of her exile, "detesting reading and having seen only the gazettes. henceforth i am going to apply myself and see if it be possible to like a thing from deliberate determination." success surpassed her hopes; she conceived a passion for reading. in the winter of 1652-1653, during which there were few distractions, and the château was given over to workmen; when the bad weather and the rough roads rendered saint-fargeau unapproachable, and left the castle solitary, she read, or listened to reading while plying her needle, without being bored. i laboured from morning till night at my work and descended from my chamber only to dine or to be present at mass. the winter weather was so bad that walking was impossible. if there ever was a moment of fine weather i rode, or if the ground was too frozen i walked a little to watch my workmen. while i sewed some one read to me, and it was at this period that i began to love reading as i have done ever since. at the end of some years of banishment her "erudition" struck dr. huet, who met her at the baths of forges. "she loves history passionately," says he in his _mémoires_, "but above all, romances, so-called. while her women were dressing her hair, she desired me to read aloud, and no matter what the subject, it provoked a thousand questions on her part. in this i well recognised the acuteness of her mind." the fashionable romances easily pleased a princess who had a grandeur of soul and loved to meet it in others. they were the works of gomberville,[8] of la calprenède, and of mlle. de scudéry, in which the sheepfolds and dove-cotes of l'astrée had yielded to the heroic adventures and grand sentiments of princes warlike and proud, who, notwithstanding their exotic names, were the same who resisted under richelieu, and lead the fronde under mazarin. the generations born in the first third of the century were charmed with the resemblance to their own heroes which these tales offered them. they went wild with delight over scythe, oroondate, or the grand cyrus, as they were fascinated with saint-preux and lelia, and many readers remained faithful till death to these writers who had so well expressed the ideals of their youth. at sixty, la rochefoucauld re-read la calprenède. mme. de sévigné was a grandmother when she found herself "glued" to _cléopâtre_. "the beauty of the sentiments," writes she, "and the violence of the passions, the grandeur of the events, and the marvellous successes of the redoubtable swords, all enchain me as if i were still a little child. the sentiments are of a perfection which satisfy my conception of beautiful souls."[9] realism and naturalism have in the present day destroyed the capacity for enthusiasm for heroes of romance. one's imagination can hardly be kindled by a coupeau or a nana, nor even by a madame bovary, whatever may be the literary value of the works in which they figure. for the little court of saint-fargeau it was hardly possible to speak calmly of the favourite heroes. one day, followed by a numerous assemblage, mademoiselle drove in the fresh valley of the loing and descended from her chariot under the tall willows which bordered the little river. it was spring and the sun was radiant. the new grass and the growing leaves offered a picture so "laughing" that nothing else could at first be spoken of. while walking, the conversation finally turned upon romance, and each fought for the favourite hero. the discussion was waxing warm when the princess, who had hardly spoken, intervened to moderate its ardour. after avowing that she had read but little, she gave an eulogium upon roman history, or rather what it might become, better comprehended in the hands of a learned writer, and criticised the custom of giving french manners to greeks, persians, or indians. mademoiselle desired greater "historic truth" and what might be designated as more local colour. why not frankly take characters from french contemporaries? "i am astonished," she said in ending, "that so many people of intelligence who have created for us such worthy scythians and such generous parthians have not taken the same pleasure in imagining as accomplished french cavaliers or princes: whose adventures would not have been less pleasing." after a moment's silence, objections were advanced. the idea of writing a romance upon the "war of paris" seemed very daring. one young lady very naïvely urged that the author would not know how to name his characters. "the french," said she, "naturally love foreign names. arabaze, iphidamante, crosmane, are beautiful names; rohan, lorraine, montmorency, are nothing of the kind." the old mme. de choissy, with the authority given by her noted intelligence, tried to prove that in an imaginative recital both time and space must be distant. one marquise appeared wearied of the kings and emperors of romance, and desired heroes taken from the middle class. another, mme. de mauny, who was supposed[10] to have invented the expression "_s'encanailler_" asserted that it was forbidden to heroes of romance to do or say anything derogatory to pure sentiment, which was possible to those of "high birth only." mademoiselle maintained the necessity of observation and truth for the tale, but she admitted that the author of a great romance, writing as a "poet," had the right to imagine events, instead of servilely copying them. "the tale," said she, "relates things as they are, the romance as they should be." this distinction neither lacks acuteness nor a certain justice, and we should like to know how much segrais had contributed to it. no one having replied to this last remark, the princess remounted her carriage, and gave the order to follow the pack of hounds, which had just started a hare a few steps off. she was obeyed, in spite of the obstacles which the country presented, and she returned to the château, very well satisfied with her afternoon. at saint-fargeau they talked more frequently of love than of either literature or the beauties of nature. love is a subject of which women never weary, and about which they always have something to say. mademoiselle lent herself completely to such conversation; it was she who one day posed a question the subtlety of which the hôtel rambouillet might have enjoyed. "whose absence causes the greater anguish, a lover who should be loved or one who should not be?" she consented to admit the ideas of l'astrée upon the fatality of passion, on the condition that the effects should be limited to personages of romance, or in real life to those of humble birth. segrais makes her say without protest in a tale[11] ascribed to her "man is not free to love or not to love as he pleases." in the depths of her soul, in her most intimate thoughts, mademoiselle had never been further from comprehending love, never had she more energetically refused for it any beauty, any grandeur. one of her ladies, the gracious frontenac, with her eyes "filled with light," had made a marriage of inclination, an act absurd, base, and shameful in the judgment of mademoiselle, her mistress. the marriage turned out badly. m. de frontenac was eccentric. his young wife at first feared, then hated him, and at saint-fargeau there passed between the couple tragi-comic scenes, of which no one could be ignorant. mademoiselle had just commenced her _mémoires_.[12] she eagerly relates the conjugal quarrels of m. and mme. de frontenac with more details than it would be suitable to repeat, and this was the opportunity for an outburst against the folly of trying to found marriage upon the most fickle of human feelings. she writes: i have always had a strong aversion for even legitimate love. this passion appears to me unworthy of a noble soul; but i am now confirmed in this opinion, and i comprehend well that reason has but little to do with affairs of passion. passion passes quickly, is never, in fact, of long duration. one may be unhappy for life in entering upon marriage for so transient a feeling, but on the other hand, happy if one marries for reason and other imaginable considerations, even if physical aversion exists; for i believe that one often loves more with this aversion conquered. the principle may be sage, but the grande mademoiselle is too sure of her fact. this "even if aversion exists" is difficult to digest. the princess was nearing her thirtieth year, when she treated love with contempt, and nothing had yet warned her of the imprudence of defying nature; so she believed herself well protected. in the spring of 1683, the rumour had spread that she and m. le prince de condé had promised to marry, in the expectation and hope of being soon relieved of the princess de condé, now a hopeless invalid, and that the imagination of mademoiselle, for lack of heart, pressed her "furiously" in this affair. the parisian salons had discovered no other explanation for the hostile attitude which she persisted in maintaining towards the court of france, which she had so much interest in conciliating. it was inconceivable that without some reason of this kind she should compromise herself as she did, for a prince who had become an alien and whom she might never again see. why betray news through letters which always fell into the hands of mazarin? why leave to condé, now a spanish general, the companies raised under the fronde with the funds of mademoiselle and bearing her name? either she had lost her senses or one might expect some romantic prank, which could only be unravelled by marriage. "have you told everything?" demanded mademoiselle of the old countess de fiesque, her former governess, one morning, when this last poured out the comments of the world. "no," said the good woman. her mistress let her proceed, then expressed herself as indignant that she should have been believed capable of marrying on account of a sudden passion; the other reproaches had not touched her. she declared that m. le prince had never spoken of marriage, that it would be time to think of this if madame la princesse should die, when m. le prince should be pardoned, when he should formally demand her hand, and the king should approve the affair. i believe [continued she] that i should marry him finding in his personality only what is grand, heroic, and worthy of the name i bear. but that i should marry like a young lady of romance, that he should come to seek me upon a palfrey destroying all barriers in the road; and on the other hand that i should mount another palfrey like mme. oriane[13]; i assure you this would not suit my temper, and i am very indignant against those people who have thought it possible. at this point the princess was silent. it would have been the moment to confess the true key to her conduct; but one must avow that, in spite of her fine words and her expressed contempt for lovers, she was after all a true princess of romance, led by her imagination. the idea of making war upon the king from the bottom of a cellar had amused her, and still more the thinking of herself as the price of peace between her cousin and condé, and she had not wished to look further. while the tempest gathered over her head, the great preoccupation of mademoiselle was the installation of a theatre in her dilapidated château, in which the country workmen had not yet succeeded in arranging a suitable bedroom for her. she could no longer live without the comedy; the theatre must come first. it was ready in february, 1653, and inaugurated immediately by a wandering troop, engaged for the season. the hall was commodious, but very cold. the court of saint-fargeau descended from its garrets entirely muffled, the ladies in fur hoods. the country people, only too delighted to be invited to shiver in such good company, hastened from distances of ten leagues. mademoiselle was perfectly contented: "i listened to the play with more pleasure than ever before." we no longer understand what it means to love truly the theatre. according to the gazette of loret, the opening piece was a pastoral, "half gay, half moral." mademoiselle loved this sort, slightly out of fashion; segrais has preserved an agreeable reminiscence of a summer's evening passed in the forest, with the natural background of high trees, listening to an ancient "amaryllis" repolished and arranged for the stage by some penny-a-liner. mademoiselle loved, what is more, everything pertaining to the theatre from tragedy to trained dogs. one reads in a little squib written by her as a pastime,[14] and printed for the diversion of her friends, "comedians are essentials--at least for the french and italians. jugglers, rope dancers, _buveurs d'eau_, without forgetting marionettes and bell players, dogs trained to leap, and monkeys as examples to our own; violins and merry-andrews and good dancers." this skit should not be taken too seriously, but it well accords with the account left us by an eye-witness of one of the representations at saint-fargeau. the piece was called _country pleasures_, an operetta. the greatest applause fell neither to the goddess flora, nor to the "melancholy lover," but to two children disguised as monkeys, and executing songs with the "cadence which belongs to those animals." twice a week, the pleasures and cares of saint-fargeau were varied by the arrival of messengers bringing letters and gazettes. news not to be trusted to the post was received through guests from paris or by special messengers. the news consisted mainly of political events, but it fell to the exiles to discover the springs and to draw the morals from the facts. this talent of divining, possessed in a high degree by the parisians, has never passed the _banlieue_. it cannot be carried away. mademoiselle herself had never attained the art. even at the tuileries she used to say: "i can never guess anything." once in her place of refuge, she comprehended nothing of the real significance of passing events. for those who were not provincials there was nothing clearer than the conduct of the court of france, after its return to the capital. mademoiselle had fled from the tuileries october 21, 1652. the next day the young king held a _lit de justice_, in which the parliament was forbidden to occupy itself with the general affairs of the kingdom. banishments and pursuits immediately commenced, but the gazettes hardly referred to them. from their pages one might have gathered that paris was entirely absorbed in its pleasures. the post of november brought to saint-fargeau description of the first court ball and some lines on a new _lit de justice_ (november 13th), in which the prince de condé and his adherents had been declared criminals "de lèse majesté." the december number of the _gazette_ gave news of the arrest of retz, who had rallied before the end of the fronde, and the account of a great marriage with enumeration of gifts and names of donors, exactly as in our modern journals. the january number was made interesting by the accounts of the several successes of turenne over condé and the spanish troops, and by the news of the death of an ancient aunt of mademoiselle who had been in retreat for seven or eight years. the necrological article took a larger space in the gazette of loret than that absorbed by the warlike and political news together. the third of the following month the revolutionary era was closed by the triumphal return of mazarin. louis xiv. travelled three leagues to meet him, _encor qu'il fait un temps étrange temps de vent, de pluie et de fange_, and took him back in his own carriage to the louvre, where a sumptuous festival, fireworks, and homage, more or less sincere, from the crowds of courtiers, awaited him. the attention of the parisians was at once directed to a grand ballet with mechanical devices and changes of scene, danced three times by the king and the flower of his nobility,[15] before a public analogous to that of the free representations of july 14th in paris. places were reserved for the court and its guests, who really made part of the spectacle, but otherwise all entered who desired. the crowd besieged the doors to see what will probably never again be witnessed: a monarch sufficiently sure of his prestige to dare to pirouet, costumed as a mythological divinity, or stagger as a thief who had drunk too much, before the _canaille_ of his capital. the following day, a journalist bitterly bewails in his paper having seen nothing at all, although he had stood in line three hours and waited eight hours in the hall. this journalist exacted and obtained consideration; at the second representation, the chronicler before carelessly treated was lead in ceremony to the "reserved places." he was not yet content, not being in front. he showed himself, however, a good fellow and wrote an article admiring all, even a scene in which the joke to-day seems somewhat inhuman. it was a dance of cripples, the contortions of these miserable beings causing much laughter. of the abuses which gave rise to the fronde, no living soul breathed a word. not one of these abuses had disappeared. for the most part they had been aggravated by the general disorder; but france resembled an invalid who had so far found only charlatans for physicians; it was weary of remedies. "the people of paris," wrote andré d'ormesson, "were disgusted with princes and did not longer wish to feed upon war." one might say the same of the provinces. they remained for the most part troubled and miserable, their hate now turning against the nobility, with whom the four years of anarchy had brought back the manners of the feudal brigands. deceived on all sides, betrayed by all its pretended saviours, the country began again to put its faith in the central power. it was only necessary that this last should regain its strength day by day, and it was clear to the parisians as well as to the provinces that the first use royalty would make of convalescence would be to cripple the nobility so that a revival of the fronde would be impossible. the period had passed in which the king could be aided by the nobles according to their own methods not his, as at the time in which they had fought against him, to deliver him from his first minister. louis xiv. wished now to be served in his own way, which was to be obeyed, and he felt the strength to impose obedience. it required all the naïveté of mademoiselle to be able to imagine that she could make the king as an old frondeur admit the distinctions between m. le prince whose success one had the right to desire, and the spanish soldiers led by this same prince in whom one must not be interested. she had so little realisation of the change which had taken place in sentiments, from the date of her exile, that she did not even attempt to conceal her grief at the news of the victory at arras brought back by turenne, august 27, 1654. the grande mademoiselle believed herself in accord with her king and country when she wrote in her _mémoires_: "i have not desired the spaniards to gain advantage over the french, but i do wish that m. le prince might do so and i cannot persuade myself that this is against the service of the king." it was then four months since the young monarch had entered, whip in hand, into his parliament and forbade it to mix itself with his affairs; but his cousin had no more comprehended this warning than the others which had preceded it. it had not once occurred to her that the cadet branches of the royal family were amongst the vanquished and that the relations of the king of france, very far from being in a position to dictate to him, would henceforth be the most strictly held in leash of all his subjects. only the approach of the great revolution gave them an opportunity to regain their importance and we know how much louis xvi. and marie antoinette were able to congratulate themselves over this fact. monsieur gaston undertook to bring his daughter to a realisation of the truth. it had been said that as long as he lived bitter experiences would come to mademoiselle through this dangerous prince. gaston d'orléans had disappeared from the stage at the end of the fronde, like a true hero of comedy. his wife said, half weeping, half laughing, that he seemed to her a tewlin, a celebrated comic actor who filled the rôle designated to-day as the "king of operetta." the return of the court to paris had been announced to the luxembourg by a letter from louis xiv. this news had entirely upset monsieur and he blustered with so much appearance of truth that mademoiselle had once more been convinced. "he was so completely beside himself," relates de retz, "that one would judge from his manner of speaking, that he was already on horseback, completely armed and ready to cover with blood the plains of st. denis and grenelle." madame was terrified; she endeavoured to pacify him, but the more she tried the more vigorously he threatened to annihilate everything. his martial ardour vanished when he received a decree of banishment (october 21, 1652). it was at the date the king was entering paris, and cannon were heard on all sides, the populace, according to the custom of the times, firing in the air as a sign of joy. nothing, however, could persuade monsieur, old parisian as he was, that these charges did not come from the king's guards, and that the palace was not being besieged. [illustration: =cardinal de retz= showing him in his coadjuteur days. after the painting by deveria.] he was overcome with terror; moved to and fro with agitation; sent constantly to inquire what was going on, and finally hastened his departure, which should not have taken place till the next day before dawn. he drew a free breath only upon arriving at the valley of chevreuse. no one dreamed of retaining him--on the contrary, mazarin, who governed france from the depths of his exile, was resolved to have no more trouble with him. "let his royal highness depart with his appanage,"[16] wrote he. his royal highness having arrived at the château of limours, michel le tellier, secretary of state and war, hastened to find him, and it was a repetition of the former scenes with richelieu. in his final adieus to public life, gaston d'orléans denounced retz as before he had denounced chalais, montmorency, cinq-mars, and many others. when he had said all that he wished, thus preparing the arrest of the cardinal, who was to astonish mademoiselle by arriving at saint-fargeau, the king permitted him to retire to blois.[17] monsieur obeyed with ill-grace; he felt that they were burying him alive. this was not the first time that he had dwelt at blois in spite of himself. the forced sojourn made at that place under louis xiii. had not been disagreeable, constraint aside, because he was not definitely limited, and he succeeded, being young and gay, in living like "a little king of yvetot." he had rebuilt according to his own taste (1635-1638) a portion of the château after the plans of françois mansard, "the cleverest architect of his times,"[18] the uncle of the builder of the palace of versailles. chambord served him for a country-seat, near at hand, and fruitful for the kitchen garden, with forests teeming with game for hunting-grounds, and amiable people for subjects, who had guarded a monarchical faith and considered themselves much honoured when the brother of the king deigned to flatter them and their daughters. saint-fargeau was steep and gloomy; blois, on the contrary, with its sky full of caresses, showed itself the worthy forerunner of the angevine gentleness: coteaux riants y sont des deux côtés, coteaux non pas si voisins de la nue, qu'en limousin, mais coteaux enchantés, belles maisons, beaux parcs et bien plantés, prés verdoyants donc ce pays abonde, vignes et bois, tant de diversités qu'on croit d'abord être en un autre monde.[19] it is a tourist of the time who so speaks, la fontaine, who visited blois in 1663, and described it to his wife in a letter half prose, half verse. the city had charmed him on account of its beautiful situation and the amiable manners of its inhabitants: "life is very polished here, possibly has always been so, the climate and the beauty of the country contributing to its charm; probably the sojourn of monsieur or the number of pretty women has caused this politeness." [illustration: =julius hardouin mansart= after the painting by vivien] as a man of taste, la fontaine had admired the portion of the château of francis i., without regularity and order; as a good liver he had appreciated the excellent breakfast at the inn. as a good traveller, he had gossiped sufficiently with the people of the place to realise how happy they were under the gentle reign of gaston. the traces of the civil wars had been quickly effaced in these fertile and populous provinces. la fontaine gaily retook his route towards amboise; he saw the smile of france, and he was made to enjoy it. in this first time of peaceful enjoyment one of the great pleasures of monsieur was to pass through his domains as an idle prince; descending here from his carriage to chase a stag, stopping there his boat to dine upon the grass, inviting himself into any dwellings belonging to either nobles or bourgeoisie in which he found pretty women. he embarked one day on one of those covered boats which the pictures of the seventeenth century show us. they were called "galiotes," and were used in voyaging upon rivers and canals. "monsieur," relates an eye-witness, "had commanded a second boat in which he put a quantity of provisions, and the officers of his _ménage_, those of the kitchen as well as the wardrobe; the horses were led along the bank." he took ten or twelve of his suite with himself, and when he reached some beautiful and agreeable island, he disembarked and ordered dinner and supper to be served under the shade. "certainly one might say that all cares were banished from our society, that life went on without restraint, playing, drinking, eating, sleeping at will, that time meant nothing; at last the master, although son and brother of great kings, had put himself in the rank of his servants."[20] thus they drifted down the stream as far as brittany. the weather was perfect. the châteaux of the loire defiled before the galiote. these people travelled as if they were poets. as soon, however, as richelieu permitted, gaston rushed to paris and again plunged into politics; which meant to him only cowardice and betrayals, but which nevertheless fascinated him. this was his favourite vice which nothing would have induced him to correct, for politics gave him a round of new sensations. to hold the life of a friend in one's hand, knowing in advance that he will be delivered to the executioner, and at the same time bitterly to bewail his loss; to realise also that the present grief will surely vanish and that one can joyously take another life in the hand,--such events evidently make days most interesting, when neither conscience nor heart are tender. these excitements had filled the public career of gaston, and when he found himself again in his château of blois, almost twenty years after the radiant voyage down the loire, for ever deprived, according to all probabilities, of the strong emotions whose savour le tellier had permitted him to taste for the last time in the interview at limours, existence appeared to him intolerably pale and empty. the good which he could do and actually was doing, did not interest him; he bitterly regretted the evil no longer in his power. no one, even amongst his enemies, has ever accused him of being wicked. only physicians can analyse such morbid natures. monsieur had commenced by struggling against ennui. he had collected a fine library and had attracted literary people to his court, in the hopes of refinding the taste for literature which had animated his youth. he recalled his collections of objects of art and curiosities, continued them and began new. nothing, however, really interested him, except a botanical garden with which he occupied himself with pleasure. everything seemed infinitely puerile to a man who had contributed so long to the making of history; it had become impossible for him to attach any importance to the little verses of his "beaux esprits," or to become impassioned over impaled birds or even an antique medal. weary of war, he threw himself into devotion. the gazette of loret made this fact part of the official news of france and kept the country informed of his progress in the path of piety. the first sign which he gave of his conversion was to correct himself of a fault which had formerly brought from richelieu useless remonstrances. this prince with so refined a taste, cursed and swore abominably. the habit had been caught by those near him; we know that mademoiselle herself used lively words in moments of irritation. in december, 1652, oaths and blasphemies were severely forbidden at the court of blois, and monsieur insisted upon obedience. to-day, reports the gazette[21]: aucun de ceux qui sont à lui, quelque malheur qui lui survienne, n'oserait jurer la mordienne. one learns, afterwards, that these fine beginnings were not belied, and that monsieur was now "less often at home than in the church." the parisians and the court of france had much difficulty in believing that repentance should have come to a spirit so free and so skeptical. his piety would have been entirely estimable "if his laziness had not in some portion aided his virtue." but however this may be, the devotion of gaston was not the less sincere. he reformed his life, and succeeded in finding, at the foot of the altar, not perhaps contentment, but some patience and resignation. this did not come, however, for a long time; the beginning of his definite exile was filled with miserable agitations and complaints without dignity. madame rejoined him with their little flock of daughters.[22] this princess did not add to the animation of the château. entirely occupied with her own health, she lived shut up, without any other distraction than that of eating from morning till night, "in order to cure her melancholies," relates the grande mademoiselle, "but which really increases her ills." she gave no orders, only sent for her daughters ten minutes in the morning and evening, never spoke to them except to say "hold yourselves erect, raise your head"; this was her sole instruction. she never saw them again during the day and never inquired what they were doing. the governess in her turn neglected her pupils, who were abandoned to the care of inferiors. their father found nothing to criticise in these educational methods; anne of austria had not brought up her sons very differently. besides, monsieur was a submissive husband. he considered his wife's judgment good, and that she possessed much more intelligence than was indicated by her large, frightened eyes. "this one," said tallemant, "is a poor idiot, who nevertheless has intelligence." mme. de motteville judged her exactly the same. madame was not loved because she was not amiable, but no one was astonished at her ascendancy over her husband. gaston's court, contrary to that of his daughter, was almost deserted. disgrace for this couple had been the signal for general abandonment. during the first years, gaston took the trouble to entertain his guests; he became again, for some hours, the incomparable talker, who knew a thousand beautiful tales and found charming methods of telling them.[23] chapelle and bachaumont were received at the château on their passage to blois in 1656, and brought back the pleasantest remembrances of the dinners of the duc d'orléans. la d'une obligeante manière, d'un visage ouvert et riant, il nous fit bonne et grande chère, nous donnant a son ordinaire tout ce que blois a de friand. "the table arrangements were the neatest possible, not even a crumb of bread was allowed on the table. well polished glasses of all sorts stood upon the buffet, and ice was abundant. the hall was prepared for the evening dance, all the beauties of the neighbouring cities invited, all the violins from the provinces collected."[24] after a short time, however, the effort of entertaining became a burden upon monsieur. he cared for nothing but repose, and he would have passed the remainder of his days in sleeping with open eyes, if it had not been for his daughter of saint-fargeau, the terrible mademoiselle, from whom he had separated at paris after a painful explanation, and who had never left him in peace since that time. she had commenced by coming to seek him in spite of frequent commands, to which she paid not the least attention. the grande mademoiselle, openly allied to condé, was a compromising guest for a prince possessed at this epoch with the desire to retake his place near the throne. in vain she declared that she had recalled her troops from the army of the prince, her father knew very well that she was mocking him, and received her coldly on the evening of her first arrival (december, 1652). "he came to meet me at the door of his room, and said, 'i do not dare to come out because i have a swollen cheek.'" a moment after monsieur heard from afar a joyous voice; it was mademoiselle relating the adventures during her flight to saint-fargeau. monsieur could hold out no longer. he approached, made her recommence, and laughed with the others. the ice was broken. the fourth day, however, he said to préfontaine, the man of confidence of mademoiselle, while walking in the park of chambord, "i love my daughter very much, but i have many obligations, and shall be easier if she stays here but little." mademoiselle departed the next day. the following month (january, 1653), monsieur and madame made a sojourn at orléans. in spite of new orders, mademoiselle came to pass a day with them. "i did not wait for escort," wrote she, "i departed suddenly from saint-fargeau and went to orléans." this determination to impose herself upon people whom she saw with but little pleasure, is difficult to explain. monsieur and madame, who feared her, welcomed her, and her father said in bidding her farewell, "the affairs of your minority have never been settled. i wish to close this business. give orders for this to your people." mademoiselle did not wait for a second request. "in consequence i wrote to paris, then to blois, a host of writings which were somewhat wearisome." monsieur had his own projects. it was the single opportunity to extract a little money for the daughters by his second wife. these young princesses had nothing to expect from their own mother, and very little from their father, whose pensions and appointments were destined to disappear with him. madame was preoccupied with this situation. for a long time [reports one of their intimates][25] madame has skilfully urged monsieur to think of his affairs, and to put some solid property aside for her children, telling him that he possessed nothing in the world not reversible to the crown in case he had no male children, and that their daughters would be left to the mercy of the court and the ministers for their subsistence. until gaston's disgrace, madame had obtained nothing, and for cause. her husband ruined himself at play; he had been seen to lose a half-million francs to the famous chevalier de gramont. he reformed only at blois, too late to begin to save; his debts crushed him, and his pensions were paid most irregularly. the fortune of mademoiselle presented itself as the sole means of floating the house of orléans, and the accounts of her minority were the troubled waters in which it was proposed to fish. monsieur did not suspect how much the exile and the influence of préfontaine had changed his daughter. the préfontaine type has disappeared with the ancient régime. there is no place in our democratic society for these men at once servants and friends; friends however who remained in the background. persons of this kind were frequently met with in the great families of former times, and nothing appeared more natural than the dog-like devotion to their masters, always exacting and often ungrateful. the grande mademoiselle was not ungrateful but she was violent, and it was always upon the patient préfontaine that she vented her anger. he was the counsellor, the factotum shrewd and firm, to whom all affairs came, the confidant who knew her most secret projects of marriage without ceasing to be the domestic of no account. his mistress could do nothing without him, and she does not even tell us--she who loses herself in the smallest details when they concerned people of quality in her suite--at what date this precious man entered her service. she mentions him for the first time in 1651, without saying who he is or where he comes from. from that date she never ceased to speak of him as long as the troubled times lasted, but left him in the shadow nevertheless in her _mémoires_. when we have said that he was a gentleman, that there was no reason for his devotion to mademoiselle but his own choice, we have told all we know about him. he had found the affairs of his mistress in a very bad condition, and so he warned her; monsieur, her father, had been a negligent guardian and what is more an untrustworthy one. at first mademoiselle would not listen to préfontaine. it was at paris in the midst of the fire of the fronde, and she had other things to think of. préfontaine returned to the charge at saint-fargeau, where time abounded, and was better received. a new sentiment had awakened in mademoiselle. she commenced to love money. she took interest in her affairs, and skilfully applied herself to economising with so much success that she would have soon risen to be a countess pimbesche. ideas of order and economy, rarely found with princesses of this epoch, occurred to her. "it is not sufficient," said she one day to préfontaine, "to have an eye upon my legal affairs and the increase of my revenues; but it is also necessary to supervise the expenses of my house. i am convinced that i am robbed, and to prevent this, i wish to be accounted to as if i were a private person." this was not beneath a great princess. examination proved that she _was_ robbed by her people. after being assured of this, she took upon herself the duty of supervising all the accounts twice a week, "even to the smallest." she knew the price of everything; "who could have predicted when i lived at court, that i should ever know how much bricks, lime, plaster, carriages cost, what are the daily wages of the workmen, in fine all the details of a building, and that every saturday i should myself settle the accounts: every one would have been skeptical." and still more the people at large; it was really almost incredible. she quickly perceived that monsieur had not taken his duties as guardian very seriously. it was in his belief both the right and duty of the chief of the orléans family to advance the general interests of the house, even at the expense of individual members. the daughter by the first marriage was enormously rich. what could be more just than to use her fortune for the common good? what more natural than to throw upon her the burden of debts contracted to add to the éclat of the family? or to give a little of her superfluity to her young sisters in view of their establishment? gaston sent to his daughter for signature an act conceived in this spirit, and received the clearest refusal. very respectfully but with firmness mademoiselle assured him that henceforth she intended to hold to her legal rights, which guaranteed the integrity of her fortune. monsieur threw himself into a great rage, but knew not what more to do. politics gave him unexpected aid. a gentleman sent as courier by condé into france had just been arrested. among other letters was found one without address, but evidently destined for mademoiselle and most compromising for her. mazarin charged the archbishop of embrun to take a copy of this to gaston. the dispatch in which the prelate renders account of his mission has been preserved. here is one of the significant passages: blois, march 31, 1653. monseigneur: i arrived sunday evening in this city where i was received most warmly by monsieur.... immediately upon arrival i had a conference of an hour with him alone in his cabinet. i pointed out to him through the letter addressed to mademoiselle her relations to m. le prince, the spaniards, and m. de lorraine, which were all visibly marked in the letter. he declared himself very ill satisfied with mademoiselle, but that the queen knew that they had never been eight hours at a time together: and that at this moment she was trying to cause trouble in demanding account of his care of her wealth when he was guardian, and that it was thus impossible to doubt his anger. i told him that i had orders to beseech his royal highness to make two observations upon the letter; the first: that mademoiselle as long as she enjoyed the free possession of her immense wealth could assist any party she pleased, and that the king in order to check this had resolved to place administrators or a commission over her property to preserve it for her own use, but without permitting its abuse. his royal highness should be left the choice of these commissioners. the second remark was, that it was to be feared, according to the news in the letter, that if m. le prince advanced, mademoiselle would join him, and that the king in this difficulty demanded counsel of him as the person most interested in the conduct of mademoiselle. gaston replied: that he had ordered his daughter to join him at orléans, tuesday of holy week; and he would bring her back to blois, and keep her near him. i have also, my lord, talked over the same subjects with madame as with monsieur, knowing that she was very intelligent, and also that monsieur deferred much to her opinions. mazarin took no action upon this communication of the archbishop of embrun. it was sufficient to intimate to monsieur that he was authorised not to worry himself about a rebel, and gaston on his side asked nothing better. sure of being for the present under court protection, he poured forth bitter words and threats against this disobedient and heartless daughter, who forgot her duty. sometimes he wrote to her that "if she did not willingly give everything he demanded he would take possession of all the property and only give her what he pleased." sometimes he cast fire and flame between her and the public: "she does not love her sisters; says they are beggars; that after my death she will see them demand alms, without giving a penny. she wishes to see my children in the poor-house," and other sentiments of the same kind, which were repeated at saint-fargeau. mademoiselle herself dreamed one day that monsieur thought of enclosing her in a convent, "that this was the intention of the king," and that she must prepare for his coming. at the same time she was warned from paris that her father had promised the court to arrest her as soon as she arrived at blois. things reached such a pass that gaston could no longer hear the name of his daughter without flying into a passion. the princess had at first showed herself fearless. knowing that the letter of condé did not have any address, she denied that it was meant for her and took a high hand with her father; "i assert that they cannot take away my property unless i am proved either mad or criminal and i know very well that i am neither one nor the other." reflection, however, diminished her assurance. the idea of "being arrested" terrified her, and it was this fate, in the opinion of her ladies, which awaited her at blois--for which reason monsieur, having previously forbidden her to come, now ordered her to meet him. she wept torrents of tears; she was ill when she was obliged to obey and she confesses that on arriving at blois she quite lost her head from terror. it was the story of the hare and the frogs. the projects of gaston, whatever they may have been, vanished at sight of this agitated person and he had no other thought than of calming his daughter and avoiding scenes. for this he exerted all his grace, which was much, and forced mademoiselle, reassured and calmed, to acknowledge that her father could be "charming." the days rolled by and the question of their differences was not touched upon. "i wanted one day to speak to him about my affairs and he fled and would pay no attention." mademoiselle felt the delights of a country covered with superb châteaux in which she was fêted, and amiable cities which fired cannon in her honour. she made excursions during a large part of the summer (1653) and finally separated from her father most amicably. eight days after, the situation however was more sombre than before her departure for blois. the demands of monsieur had not diminished, his language became still more hard and menacing. these differences lasted many years. mademoiselle lets it be understood that it was a question of considerable sums. she relates sadly the progress of the ill-will of her father; how painful her sojourn at blois had been, so that she wept from morning till night; how without the influence of préfontaine she would have retired into a carmelite convent; "not to be a religieuse, god having never given me that vocation, but to live away from the world for some years." the ennui of the cloister life would have been compensated by the thought that it was an economical one. "i should save much money," said she; and this thought consoled her. once it was believed that an amicable solution was imminent. the father and daughter had submitted themselves to the arbitration of the maternal grandmother of mademoiselle, the old mme. de guise, who had made them promise in writing to sign "all that she wished without reading the stipulations." the only result was a more definite embroilment. mme. de guise[26] "was devoted to her house,"[27] that ambitious and intriguing house of lorraine into which she had married, and with which she was again connected through the second wife of gaston, sister of the duke henri.[28] when mademoiselle, after "signing without reading," realised the force of the "transaction" into which she had been led by her grandmother, she declared that mme. de guise had despoiled her with shocking bad faith, in order that her half-sisters, the little lorraines, should no longer be menaced with the "poor-house." the love of family had extinguished with mme. de guise, as with monsieur, all considerations of justice and sense of duty towards her own granddaughter. all this happened at orléans in the month of may, 1655. mademoiselle, indignant, ran to her grandmother: i told her that it was evident that she loved the house of lorraine better than the house of bourbon; that she was right in seeking to give money to my sisters, that they would have little from madame, and this showed me, indeed, to be a lady of great wealth, enough to provide for others, and that the fortune of my family should be established upon what could be seized from me; but as i was so much above them that they could receive my benefactions, it would serve them better to depend upon my liberality rather than to attempt to swindle me; that this would be better before both god and man. this scene lasted three hours. the same day monsieur was warned that mademoiselle refused to be "duped." he gave a precipitate order for departure, and declined to receive his daughter. in the disorder that ensued madame almost went dinnerless and appeared much disconcerted. the attendants intervened to save appearances at least, and a formal leave was taken, but this was all; the complete rupture was consummated. upon the return to saint-fargeau, mademoiselle at once learned that monsieur had taken away her men of business, including the indispensable préfontaine, and had left her without even a secretary. this gives a vision of the authority possessed by the chief of a family, and its limitations, with the princely houses of this epoch. we perceive how much better the fortune of mademoiselle was defended against her father than her person and her independence. monsieur did not dare to take away her money without a free and formal assent; he knew that if things were not done regularly "in a hundred years the heirs of mademoiselle could torment the children of monsieur." in revenge for this disability he tyrannised over her household. and here he was in his full right. he could shut her up in a convent or in the château of amboise, as many counselled him to do, and this again would be within his legal powers. if he did nothing of the kind, it was only because, being nervous and impressionable, he dreaded feminine tears. mademoiselle realised that she was at his mercy; it did not occur to her to contest the parental authority--outside of the question of money. she wept, "suffered much," but she did not attempt to save préfontaine. the years which followed were sad ones for her. until this time she had had but two days of grief a week, those upon which the courier arrived, on account of the business letters which must be read and answered. she confined herself to her study to conceal her red eyes, but her correspondence once sent off, "i only thought," says she, "of amusing myself." conditions changed when she was forced to understand that monsieur, that father so contemptible, from whom she had suffered so much since her infancy, but so amiable that she admired and loved him notwithstanding, had no kind of affection for her. very sensitive, in spite of her brusqueness, mademoiselle experienced a profound grief at this reflection. her temper gave way in a moment in which the young ladies of her suite, commencing to find the exile long, and to regret paris, were ill-disposed to patience. there was coldness, frictions, and finally that domestic war, the account of which fills a large space in the _mémoires_ of mademoiselle. petty griefs, small intrigues, and much gossip rendered insupportable to one another persons condemned to daily intercourse. affairs became so strained between some of the parties that communication was impossible, and this state of things lasted until the most discontented, mmes. de fiesque and de frontenac, had formed the determination to return to paris. these quarrels had the effect of spoiling for mademoiselle saint-fargeau, inclining her to submission to the court; but mere mention is sufficient, and we shall not again refer to them. mademoiselle commenced to be convinced of the imprudence of being at odds with the court and her father at the same time. her obstinacy in sustaining condé had ended by seriously vexing mazarin. the nobility felt this attitude and showed less fondness for the princess. in 1655 she approached to six leagues from paris. she counted much upon visitors; very few appeared. "i was responsible for so many illnesses," says she wittily, "for all those who did not dare to confess that they feared to embroil themselves with the court, feigned maladies or accidents in extraordinary numbers." the third day she received an order to "return." this misadventure enlightened her; mademoiselle admitted the necessity of making peace with royalty. just at this period the prince de condé grew less interesting to her, as his chances of becoming a widower diminished. mme. la princesse became gradually re-established in health, and each of her steps towards recovery made mademoiselle a little less warm for m. le prince. this latter perceived the change, and at once altered his tone. "there is no rupture," says the duc d'aumale, "but one can perceive the progress of the coolness and its accordance with _certain_ news." a letter from condé, received after the journey to the environs of paris, gave warning of the end of a friendship which on one side at least was entirely political. brussels, march 6, 1655. ... as to this change which you declare to perceive in me, you do me much injustice and it seems to me that i have more right to reproach you than you me. since your long silence the tone of your letters plainly indicates how different your present sentiments are from those of past times. this is not true of my own; they remain always the same and if you believe otherwise and if you lend faith to the rumours which my enemies start, it is my misfortune, not crime; for i protest there is nothing in them, that affairs are not in this state, and if they were i should never listen to a proposition without full consideration for your interests and satisfaction, also not without your consent and participation. you will recognise the truth of this statement through my conduct and not one of my actions will ever give the lie to the words which i now give you, even if you should have forgotten all the fine sentiments you had when you came to see our army, which i can hardly consider possible for a generous person like you. i knew that you came to lésigny and that, the court disapproving of this, you received orders to return, which fact gave me much displeasure. mademoiselle did not longer want a pretext for withdrawing her pin from the game. the embroilment with her father furnished it. she immediately prayed condé to write to her no more. "it is necessary to hold back," said she to herself, "and if i am able without baseness to come into accord with the cardinal mazarin, i will do it in order to withdraw myself from the persecutions of his royal highness." some days later the comte de bethune transmitted to the cardinal overtures of peace from the grande mademoiselle. the cardinal desired pledges. she sent a recall for the companies from the spanish army, upon which m. le prince without warning "held the soldiers and put the officers in prison." in vain the indignation of mademoiselle. "it is seven or eight years," wrote condé to one of the agents, "since i have really had the favour of mademoiselle; i formerly possessed her good graces, but if she now wishes to withdraw them i must accept, without desperation."[29] here is a man liberated rather than grieved. thus failed, one after the other, the menaces directed by the fronde against royalty. the project of alliance between the two cadet branches of the house of bourbon had been inspired in mademoiselle by the desire to marry. few of the ideas of all those which menaced the throne which had entered into the brain of the revolutionary leaders seemed so dangerous and caused so much care to mazarin. we must recollect that he would have been ready, in order to appease the cadet branches, to marry the little louis xiv. to his great cousin. reassured at length by the promises of mademoiselle, who engaged herself to have nothing more to do with m. le prince, mazarin took the trouble to overcome his wrath and permitted her to expect the recompense for her submission. in general, mazarin had shown himself easy with the repentant frondeurs. the prince de conti had been fêted at the louvre in 1654. it is true that he accepted the hand of a niece of mazarin in marriage, anne marie martinozzi, on conditions which put him in bad odour with the public. "this marriage," wrote d'ormesson,[30] "is one of the most signal marks of the inconsistency of human affairs and the fickleness of the french character to be seen in our times." after conti, another prince, monsieur, in person, entirely submerged as he was in laziness and devotions, exerted himself sufficiently to come to court. the welcome involved conditions which contained nothing hard nor unusual for gaston d'orléans; it cost him nothing but the abandonment of some last friends. in truth, he received but little in exchange. when he came to salute the king everyone made him feel that he was already "in the ranks of the dead," according to the expression of mme. de motteville. the ill-humour caused by this impression quickly sent him back to blois, which was precisely what was wished. it was the men of business who profited above all by this reconciliation. they had greater freedom to harass mademoiselle, and left her neither time nor repose. their end was to make her execute the transaction signed at orléans, but she held her own, without counsel or secretary. she only suffered from an enormous labour, of which her minority accounts were only a chapter, and not the most considerable. the administration of the immense domains had fallen entirely upon herself. it was now mademoiselle who opened the mass of letters arriving from her registers, foresters, controllers, lawyers, farmers, and single subjects--in short, from all who in the principalities of dombes or of roche-sur-yonne, in the duchies of montpensier or of catellerault, had an account to settle with her, an order to demand of her, or a claim to submit. it was mademoiselle herself who replied; she who followed the numerous lawsuits necessitated by the paternal management; she who terminated the great affair of champigny, of which the echo was wide-spread on account of the rank of the parties and of the remembrances awakened by the pleaders. champigny was a productive territory situated in touraine, and an inheritance of mademoiselle. richelieu had despoiled her of it when she was only a child, through a forced exchange for the château of bois-le-vicomte, in the environs of meaux. become mistress of her own fortune, mademoiselle summoned the heirs of the cardinal to give restitution, and had just gained her suit when monsieur took away préfontaine. the decree returning champigny to her allowed her also damages, the amount to be decided by experts, for buildings destroyed and woods spoiled. mademoiselle estimated that these damages might reach a large sum; she knew that with her father at blois the rumour ran that she had been placed in cruel embarrassments and that it would be repeated to all comers that she had obtained almost nothing from this source. this report excited her to action. the moment arrived; mademoiselle went to champigny, and remained there during several weeks, spending entire days upon the heels of eighteen experts, procurers, lawyers, gentlemen, masons, carpenters, wood merchants, collected together to value the damages. she had long explanations with that "good soul madelaine," counsellor of the parliament, and charged with directing the investigation, who was confounded at the knowledge of the princess. he said to her: "you know our business better than we ourselves, and you talk of affairs like a lawyer." operations finished, mademoiselle had the pleasure of writing to blois that this doubtful affair from which she was supposed to receive only "50,000 francs, really amounted to 550,000." she came out less generously from her litigation with her father. mazarin rendered mademoiselle the bad service of having her suit introduced by the king's counsellor. a decree confirmed the decision of mme. de guise, and there was nothing to do but to obey. mademoiselle signed, "furiously" weeping, the act which despoiled her, and submitted with despair to the departure for blois. she was going to visit her father, after having the thought flash through her mind that he could order her assassination. it is said there had been some question of this at blois. "immersed in melancholy reveries, i dreamed that his royal highness was a son of the médicis, and i even reflected that the poison of the médicis must have already entered my veins and caused such thoughts." her father, on the other hand, was going to overwhelm her with tenderness after having permitted it to be said without protest that mademoiselle was preparing a trap, with the purpose of poisoning one of his gentlemen. considering the times and the family, this was a situation only a little "strained"; but mademoiselle was so little a "médicis" that she made her journey a prey to a poignant grief, which was plainly to be read upon her countenance by the attendants at her arrival at blois. "upon my arrival i felt a sudden chill. i went directly to the chamber of monsieur; he saluted me and told me he was glad to see me. i replied that i was delighted to have this honour. he was much embarrassed." neither the one nor the other knew what more to say. mademoiselle silently forced back her tears. monsieur, to give himself composure, caressed the greyhounds of his daughter, la reine and madame souris. finally he said: "let us go to seek madame." "she received me very civilly and made many friendly remarks. as soon as i was in my own chamber, monsieur came to see me and talked as if nothing disagreeable had passed between us." a single quarter of an hour had sufficed to bring back to him his freedom of spirit, and he made an effort to regain the affections of his daughter. she had never known him to continue to be severe; monsieur counted upon this fact. he was attentive, flattered her weaknesses great and small, amused her with projects of marriage, and treated her greyhounds as personages of importance; he could be seen at midnight in the lower court in the midst of the dunghill, inquiring about madame souris, who had met with an accident. he did still better; he wrote to mazarin asking for an accommodation with mademoiselle. after the rupture with condé, it was evident from signs not to be mistaken that the hour was approaching in which the all-powerful minister would pardon the heroine of orléans and of porte saint-antoine. in the month of july, 1656, mademoiselle went to the baths of forges, in normandy. she had passed in sight of paris; had sojourned in the suburbs without anxiety, and her name this time had not made "every one ill." visitors had flocked. mademoiselle had entertained at dinner all the princesses and duchesses then in paris; and she drew the conclusion, knowing the court and the courtiers, that her exile was nearing an end. "in truth," says she, "i do not feel as much joy at the thought as i should have believed. when one reaches the end of a misery like mine, its remembrance lasts so long and the grief forms such a barrier against joy that it is long before the wall is sufficiently melted to permit happiness to be again enjoyed." nevertheless the news of the letter from her father to mazarin put her in a great agitation. the court of france was then in the east of france where turenne made his annual campaign against m. le prince and the spaniards. mademoiselle resolved to approach in order to sooner receive the response of the cardinal. she quitted blois as she had arrived there, a stranger. one single thing could have touched her: the recall of préfontaine and of her other servitors struck down for having been faithful. this monsieur had absolutely refused; his exaggerated politeness and his grimaces of tenderness had only the result of alienating his daughter. she felt that he detested her and she no longer loved him. upon the route to paris she doubled the length between her stopping-places. impatience gained as she neared the end and the "barrier of grief" permitted itself gradually to be penetrated by joy. she again saw, in passing, étampes[31] and its ruins, which already dated back five years and were found untouched by la fontaine in 1663. so long and difficult in certain regions was the uplifting of france, after the wars of the fronde, never taken very seriously by historians, doubtless because too many women were concerned in them. "we looked with pity at the environs of étampes," wrote la fontaine.[32] "imagine rows of houses without roofs, without windows, pierced on all sides; nothing could be more desolate and hideous." he talked of it during an entire evening, not having the soul of a heroine of the fronde, but mademoiselle had traversed with indifference these same ruins in which the grass flourished in default of inhabitants to wear it away. no remorse, no regret, however light, for her share in the responsibility for the ruin of this innocent people, had touched her mind, and yet she was considered to possess a tender heart. [illustration: =jean de la fontaine= from an engraving by grevedon] she learned at saint-cloud that she had been invited to rejoin the court at sedan. mademoiselle took a route through reims. she thus traversed champagne, which had been a battle-field during the more than twenty years of the wars with spain[33]; and which appeared the picture of desolation. the country was depopulated, numbers of villages burned, and the cities ruined by pillage and forced contributions of war. more curious in regard to things which interest _la canaille_, mademoiselle might have heard from the mouths of the survivors that of all the enemies who had trampled upon and oppressed this unfortunate people, the most cruel and barbarous had been her ally, the prince de condé, with whom were always found her own companies. she would not the less have written in her _mémoires_, entirely unconsciously, apropos of her trouble in obtaining pardon from the court: "i had really no difference with the court, and i was criminal only because i was the daughter of his royal highness." we have hardly the right to reproach her with this monstrous phrase. to betray one's country was a thing of too frequent occurrence to cause much embarrassment. the only men of this epoch who reached the point of considering the common people[34] and attaching the least importance to their sufferings were revolutionary spirits or disciples of st. vincent de paul. mademoiselle had no leaning towards extremes. neither her birth nor the slightly superficial cast of her mind fostered free opinions. during her journey in champagne, she was delighted to hear again the clink of arms and the sound of trumpets. mazarin had sent a large escort. the skirmishers of the enemy swept the country even to the environs of reims. a number of the people of the court, seizing the occasion, joined themselves to her, in order to profit by her gens d'armes and light riders. colbert also placed himself under her protection with chariots loaded with money which he was taking to sedan, and this important convoy was surrounded by the same "military pomp, as if it had guarded the person of the king." the great precautions were, perhaps, on account of the chariots of money; the honours, however, were for mademoiselle, and they much flattered her vanity. the commandant of the escort demanded the order from her. when she appeared the troops gave the military salute. a regiment which she met on her route solicited the honour of being presented to her. she examined it closely, as a warlike princess who understood military affairs, and of whom the grand condé had said one day, apropos of a movement of troops, that "gustavus adolphus could not have done better." a certain halt upon the grass in a meadow through which flowed a stream left an indelible impression. mademoiselle offered dinner this day to all the escort and almost all the convoy. the sight of the meadow crowded with uniformed men and horses recalled to her the campaigns of her fine heroic times. "the trumpets sounded during dinner; this gave completely the air of a true army march." she arrived at sedan intoxicated by the military spectacle of her route, and her entry showed this. considering her late exile the lack of modesty might well be criticised. the queen, anne of austria, driving for pleasure in the environs of sedan, saw a chariot appear with horses at full gallop surrounded by a mass of cavalry: "i arrived in this field at full speed with gens d'armes and light riders, their trumpets sounding in a manner sufficiently triumphant." the entire court of france recognised the grande mademoiselle before actually seeing her. exile had not changed her, and this entrance truly indicated her weaknesses. footnotes: [footnote 1: letter of january 19, 1689.] [footnote 2: _mémoires de mademoiselle de montpensier._ edited by chéruel.] [footnote 3: _mémoires de mademoiselle de montpensier._ edited by chéruel.] [footnote 4: the château of saint-fargeau still exists, but the interior has been transformed since a great fire which occurred in 1752; the apartments of mademoiselle no longer remain. cf. _les châteaux d'ancy-le-franc, de saint-fargeau_, etc., by the baron chaillou des barres.] [footnote 5: cf. _les sports et jeux d'exercice dans l'ancienne france_, by j. j. jusserand.] [footnote 6: les nouvelles françaises, ou _les divertissements de la princesse aurélie_, by segrais, paris, 2 vols., 1656-1657. the last of the "nouvelles françaises," _floridon, ou l'amour imprudent_, is the history of the intrigues in the harem which led to the death of bajazet. racine had certainly read it when he wrote his tragedy.] [footnote 7: see _bernardin de saint-pierre_, in the collection of grands écrivains. paris, hochette.] [footnote 8: his _polexandre_ had appeared, 1629-1637; his last romance, _la jeune alcidiane_, in 1651; _cassandre_ and _cléopâtre_, by la calprenède, in 1642-1647. _arlamène, ou le grand cyrus_, by mlle. de scudéry, was published 1649-1653.] [footnote 9: letters of the 12th and 15th of july, 1671, to mme. de grignan.] [footnote 10: see _le dictionnaire des précieuses_, by somaize.] [footnote 11: _eugénie, ou la force du destin._] [footnote 12: mademoiselle commenced her _mémoires_ shortly after her arrival at saint-fargeau. she interrupted them in 1660, resumed them in 1677, and definitely abandoned them in 1688, five years before her death.] [footnote 13: oriane was the mistress of amadis.] [footnote 14: _la relation de l'isle imaginaire_, printed in 1659, also _l'histoire de la princesse de paphlagonie_. we shall again refer to them.] [footnote 15: these representations took place in the grand hall of the petit bourbon, near the louvre. (cf. _l'histoire de paris_, by delaure.)] [footnote 16: letter of october 12th, to the abbé foucquet.] [footnote 17: _mémoires de montglat._] [footnote 18: _mémoires du marquis de sourches._ cf. _l'histoire du château de blois_, by la saussaye.] [footnote 19: letter of september 3, 1663.] [footnote 20: nicolas goulas, _mémoires_.] [footnote 21: gazette of august 22, 1654.] [footnote 22: four, but the last died at an early age.] [footnote 23: _mémoires de bussy-rabutin._] [footnote 24: _voyage de chapelle et de bachaumont._] [footnote 25: _mémoires de nicolas goulas._] [footnote 26: saint-simon, _écrits inédits_.] [footnote 27: henriette-catherine, duchesse de joyeuse, first married to henri de bourbon, duc de montpensier, by whom she had marie de bourbon, mother of mademoiselle; married for the second time to charles de lorraine, duc de guise, by whom she had several children.] [footnote 28: henri de lorraine reigned from 1608 to 1624.] [footnote 29: letter of august 10, 1657, to the comte d'auteuil.] [footnote 30: andré d'ormesson died in 1665, dean of the council of state. some fragments of his memoirs have been published by chéruel, in the course of the journal of his son, olivier d'ormesson.] [footnote 31: turenne had conquered the troops of the prince at étampes (may, 1652), upon the occasion of a review in honour of mademoiselle and of the disorder which resulted. see _the youth of la grande mademoiselle_. some weeks later, he besieged the town.] [footnote 32: letter to his wife, august 3, 1663.] [footnote 33: richelieu had declared war with spain march 26, 1635.] [footnote 34: the phrase is by bussy-rabutin.] chapter ii the education of louis xiv.--manners--poverty--charity--vincent de paul, a secret society--marriage of louis xiv.--his arrival at power, on the death of mazarin--he re-educates himself. the remembrance of the fronde was destined to remain a heavy weight during the remainder of the reign of louis xiv. its shadow dominated for more than half a century interior politics and decided the fate, good and bad, of the great families. the word "liberty" had become synonymous with "licence, confusion, disorder,"[35] and the ancient frondeurs passed the remainder of their lives in disgrace, or at least in disfavour. the grande mademoiselle was never pardoned, although she did not wish to avow this, even to herself. she might have realised the fact at once upon her return to court, if she had not decided to believe the contrary. warnings were not wanting. the first was her encounter with the queen mother in the field of sedan. when anne of austria saw arrive to sound of trumpets, with manner at ease and triumphant, this insolent princess who had drawn her cannon upon the king, hardly embracing her niece, the queen mother burst into reproaches, and declared that after the battle of saint-antoine, "if she had held her, she would have strangled her."[36] mademoiselle wept; the court looked on. "i have forgotten everything," said the queen at length, and her niece was eager to believe her. the meeting with the king was still more significant. he arrived on horseback, soaked and muddy, from the city of montmédy, taken that same day from the spaniards (august 7, 1657). his mother said to him, "behold a young lady, whom i present to you and who is very sorry to have been so naughty; she will be 'very good' in future." the young king only laughed and replied by talking of the siege of montmédy. mademoiselle nevertheless departed from sedan filled with joyous thoughts. she imagined reading in all eyes the news of marriage with the brother of the king, the little monsieur. he was seventeen, she thirty, with hair already partially white. some months ensued, passed in a half retreat, and the grande mademoiselle remained with the court during the years of transition in which the personal government of louis xiv. was maturing. a new régime was being born and a new world with it. one could gradually see this new formation relegating to the shadow of the past the old spirit of independence, and stifling the confused aspirations of the country towards any legal liberties. mazarin incarnated this great political movement. on the eve of disappearance, this unpopular minister had become all france. he was master; no one thought any longer of resisting him; but he was always detested, never admired. france having at this date neither journals nor parliamentary debates, the foreign policy of mazarin, which in our eyes did him so much honour, remained very little known even at paris. this explains why his glory has been in large part posthumous. it has increased in measure as it has been possible to judge of his entire policy, from documents contained in our national archives or in those of other countries. his correspondence displays so fine a diplomatic genius, that the historians have turned aside from the evil side of the man, his littlenesses, in order to give full weight to his services as minister. precisely a contrary course had been taken in the seventeenth century. little besides the cardinal's defects, open to all eyes, were realised. bad fortune had redoubled his rapacity. mazarin had guarded in his heart the experience of poverty at the time in which he was expelled from the kingdom. he had sworn to himself that he would not again be taken without "ammunition." he had worked industriously since his return in putting aside millions in safe keeping. everything aided him in raising this kind of war treasure. he sold high functions of state, and also those belonging to low degree, even to that of laundress to the queen. he shared the benefits with the corsairs to whom he gave letters of marque. he undertook contracts for public service, pocketed the money, left our ambassadors without salaries, our vessels and fortifications without means of subsistence. the army was crying with hunger and thirst as soon as he made himself its sutler and its commissariat. he furnished bread of diminished purity and even found means, said the courtiers, to make the soldiers, so rarely paid themselves, pay for the water they drank. turenne once broke up his plate to distribute the pieces to his troops, who were perishing from want. comical scenes mingled with these tragic ones. bussy-rabutin, who served in the army of turenne, had been fortunate at play. the cardinal had learned of this, and ordered it to be represented to bussy that his pay which had been pledged in the game would be guarded by the cardinal as his portion of the gain. he had extended his traffic into the royal palace. it was he who furnished furniture and utensils. he undertook to provide the court mourning, and costumes for the fêtes: when the king danced a ballet, his first minister gained by the decorations and accessories. the housekeeping accounts passed through his hands. during the campaign of 1658, he suppressed the king's cook, in order to appropriate to himself what the table would have cost. louis xiv. was forced to invite himself to dine with this one and that one. mazarin touched even his pocket money and the young king permitted it with a patience which was a constant source of astonishment to the courtiers. his mother was neither better treated nor less submissive. the cardinal was as jealous of his authority as of his money. the king had no voice in his council; when he accorded a pardon, however trivial, his first minister revoked it, "scolding him like a schoolboy."[37] it was said of the queen mother that her influence was only worth a hundred crowns, and she agreed. still more, she was scolded from morning till night. age had rendered mazarin insupportable. he had no delicacy with the king, still less with the king's mother: the courtiers shrugged their shoulders in hearing him speak to anne of austria "as to a chambermaid."[38] the queen was not insensible to this rudeness. she confessed to the faithful motteville "that the cardinal had become so bad tempered and so avaricious that she did not know how in the future it was going to be possible to live with him." but it did not seem to occur to her that it might be possible to live without the cardinal. can it be believed that anne of austria and mazarin were married, as la palatine,[39] mother of the regent, asserted? as they gradually grew old, one is tempted to believe it, so strongly the spectacle offered by these illustrious persons, he so disagreeable, she so submissive, gives the impression of two destinies "united together," according to the expression of the cardinal himself,[40] "by bonds which could not be broken." the question to be solved is, could mazarin marry? according to tradition he was not a priest. according to the euridite that point is open to discussion.[41] until this matter is fixed, the marriage of anne of austria with her minister will remain among historical enigmas, for everything said will be words in the air. prière du roy. jesus-christ roy du ciel et de la terre, ie vous adore et reconnois pour le roy des roys. c'est de vostre majesté diuine que ie tiens ma couronne: mon dieu ie vous l'offre, pour la gloire de la trés saincte trinité, et pour l'honneur de la reine des agnes la sacrée vierge marie que iay choisy pour ma protectrice, et des estats que vous m'auez donné; seigneur baillez moy vostre crainte et une si grande sagesse et humilité, que ie puisse deuenir un homme selon vostre coeur; en sorte que ie merite efficacement le tiltre aimable de louis dieu donné le pacifique pour maintenir vostre peuple en paix, afin qu'il vous serve avec tranquilité, et l'acomplissement de toutes les vertus. voeu et prière des peuples pour le roy. adorable redempteur jesus-christ, qui estes le distributeur des couronnes, receuez la pieté du roy tres-crestien, et exaucez ses prieres respectueses faites par l'entremise de vostre saincte mere vierge, que linfluence des graces du st. esprit luy soit donnée, afin croissant en aage, it croisse aussi en telle sagesse, qu'il puisse maintenir vostre peuple in paix, pour mieux obseruer vos saincts commandemens. (translation of the above.) prayer of the king. jesus christ, king of the heavens and the earth, i adore thee and recognize thee for the king of kings, the divine majesty from whom i receive my crown, which i offer to thee for the glory of the most holy trinity, and for the honor of the queen of angels, the blessed virgin mary, whom i have chosen as my protector, and also of the states which thou hast given me. lord grant me due reverence and that i may possess so much wisdom and humility that i may become a man after thine own heart, so that i may truly merit the title of the beloved louis, the god-given and peaceful, and be able to maintain thy people in peace that they may live in tranquillity and virtuously serve thee. vow and prayer of the people. adorable redeemer jesus christ; who art the giver of crowns; regard the piety of the most christian king and listen to his prayers for the intervention of the most blessed mother virgin; and grant that the influence of the holy spirit may so be poured out upon him that as he increases in years he may also grow in wisdom; and that he may keep thy people in peace that they may better be able to preserve thy commands. [illustration: =louis xiv. as a boy, dedicating his crown= after the painting by greg huret] the patience of louis xiv. can only be explained by his entire bringing up and by the state of mind which had been its fruit. louis's cradle had been surrounded by a crowd of servitors charged to watch over his least movement. his mother adored him and, for a queen, occupied herself much with him. nevertheless, there could hardly a child be found throughout the entire kingdom so badly cared for as the son of the king. louis xiv. had never forgotten this neglect and spoke of it all his life with bitterness. "the king always surprises me," relates mme. de maintenon at saint cyr, "when he speaks to me of his education. his governesses gossiped the entire day, and left him in the hands of their maids without paying any attention to the young prince." the maids abandoned him to his own devices and he was once found in the basin of the fountain in the palais royal. one of his greatest pleasures was to prowl in the kitchens with his brother, the little monsieur. "he ate everything he could lay his hands on without paying attention to its healthfulness. if they were frying an omelette, he would break off a piece, which he and monsieur devoured in some corner."[42] one day when the two little princes thus put their fingers into the prepared dishes, the cooks impatiently drove them away with blows from dishcloths. he played with any one. "his most frequent companion," again relates mme. de maintenon, "was the daughter of the queen's own maid." when he was withdrawn from such surroundings, to be led to his mother, or to figure in some ceremony, he appeared a bashful boy who looked at people with embarrassment without knowing what to say, and who cruelly suffered from this shyness. one day after they had given him a lesson, his timidity prevented him from remembering the right words and he burst into tears with rage and anger. the king of france to make a fool of himself! at five and a half years, they gave him a tutor and many masters,[43] but he learned nothing. mazarin for reasons known to himself would not force him to work; and circumstances favoured the views of the first minister. the fronde came, and rendered any study impossible on account of the complete upsetting of the daily life of the court of france, which was only encamped when it was not actually on the move. louis xiv. was fourteen at the date of the reinstallation of the court at the louvre and there was no question of making him recover the lost time; he thenceforth passed his days in hunting, in studying steps for the ballet, and in amusing himself with the nieces of the cardinal. the political world believed that it divined the reason for this limited education and severely expressed its opinion about it. "the king," wrote the ambassador from venice,[44] "applies himself the entire day to learning the ballet.... games, dances, and comedies are the only subjects of conversation with the king, the intention being to turn him aside from affairs more solid and important." the ambassador returns to the same subject upon the occasion of an italian opera,[45] in which the king exhibited himself as apollo surrounded by beautiful persons representing the nine muses: certain people blame this affair, but these do not understand the politics of the cardinal, who keeps the king expressly occupied with pastimes, in order to turn his attention from solid and important pursuits, and whilst the king is concerned in rolling machines of wood upon the stage, the cardinal moves and rolls at his good pleasure, upon the theatre of france, all the machines of state. some few observers, of whom mazarin himself was one, divined that this youth, with his air of being absorbed in tomfooleries, secretly reflected upon his profession of king, and upon the means of rendering himself capable of sustaining it. nature had endowed him with the instinct of command, joined to a very lively sentiment of the duties of his rank. louis says in his _mémoires_, "even from infancy the names alone of the kings _fainéants_ and mayors of the palace gave me pain if pronounced in my presence."[46] his preceptor, the abbé of péréfixe, had encouraged this sentiment, at the same time, however, permitting his pupil, by a contradiction for which perhaps he was not responsible, to take the road which leads in the direction of idleness, and thus making it possible for louis to become a true king _fainéant_ himself. péréfixe had written for the young king a history of king henry the great in which one reads that royalty is not the trade of a do-nothing, that it consists almost entirely of action, that a king should make a pleasure of his duty, that his enjoyment should be in reigning and he only should know how to reign, that is, he should himself hold the helm of the state. his glory is interested in this. in truth, who does not know that there can be no honour in bearing a title whose functions one does not fulfil-a doctrine which would suppress the first ministers and by which louis xiv. profited later. chance came to the aid of the preceptor. on june 19, 1651, the ancient governess of the king, mme. de lansac, disturbed him in the midst of a lesson, in order to make a gift of "three letters written by catherine de médicis to henry iii.,[47] her son, for his edification." péréfixe took the letters and read them aloud, the king listening "with much attention." one of them was almost a memorial.[48] in it, catherine gave to her son the same precept as péréfixe to his pupil: "a king must reign," that is to say, carry out the functions belonging to his title. in order to "reign," one must begin to work at once upon awakening, read all the dispatches and afterwards the replies, speak personally to the agents, receive every morning accounts of receipts and expenditures; pursue this course from morning till night, and every day of one's life. it was the programme for a slave to power. louis xiv. made it his own, in the bottom of his soul; he was not yet thirteen. such beautiful resolutions however, were destined to remain dead so long as mazarin lived. they could only be executed to the detriment of his authority, and the idea of entering into a struggle with the cardinal was repugnant to the young king, partially on account of old affection, partially on account of timidity and the habit of obedience. the mind of louis xiv. had however been awakened and the fruits of this awakening were later visible, but for a time he was content to find good excuses for leaving affairs alone. he explains in his _mémoires_ that he was arrested by political reasons; as he had too much experience also (however strange this word may appear when applied to a child so foolishly brought up) not to realise the danger of a revolution in the royal palace in the present condition of france after the devastations of the civil wars. in default of the science which one draws from books, louis xiv. had received lessons in realities from the fronde: the riots and barricades, the vehement discourse of the parliament to his mother, the humiliating flights with the court, the periods of poverty in which his servants had no dinner and he himself slept with his sheets full of holes, and wore clothes too short, the battles in which his subjects fired upon him, the treasons of his relations and of his nobility and their shameful bargains; nothing of all this had been lost upon the young king. with a surface order re-established, he perceived how troubled the situation remained at bottom, how precarious, and he judged it prudent to defer what he both "wished" and "feared," says very clearly his _mémoires_. he queries if this were an error: it is necessary [says he] to represent to one's self the state of affairs: agitations throughout the entire kingdom were at their height; a foreign war continued in which a thousand advantages had been lost to france owing to these domestic troubles; a prince of my own blood and a very great name at the head of my enemies; many cabals in the state; the parliaments still in possession of usurped authority; in my own court very little of either fidelity or interest, and above all my subjects, apparently the most submissive, were as great a care and as much to be suspected as those most openly rebellious. was this the moment in which to expose the country to new shocks? louis xiv. had remained convinced[49] to the contrary, avowing, however, that he had much to criticise in the fashions of mazarin, a minister [pursued he] re-established in spite of so many factions, very able, very adroit, who loved me and whom i loved, and who had rendered me great services, but whose thoughts and manners were naturally very different from mine, and whom i could not always contradict nor discredit without anew exciting, by that image, however erroneous, of disgrace, the same tempests which had been so difficult to calm. the king had also to take into consideration his own extreme youth, and his ignorance of affairs. he relates in regard to this point his ardent desire for glory, his fear of beginning ill, "for one can never retrieve one's self"; his attention to the course of events "in secret and without a confidant"; his joy when he discovered that people both able and consummate shared his fashion of thinking. considering everything, had there ever been a being urged forward and retarded so equally, in his design to take upon himself "the guidance of the state"? this curious page has no other defect than that of having been dictated by a man matured, in whose thoughts things have taken a clearness not existing in the mind of the youth, and who believes himself to recollect "determinations" when there existed in reality only "desires." louis xiv. would be unpardonable if full credit were given to his _mémoires_. why, if he saw so clearly, did he grumble at any kind of work? when louis was sixteen, mazarin had arranged with him some days in which he might be present at a council. the king was bored and retired to talk of the next ballet and to play the guitar with his intimates. mazarin was obliged to scold him to force him to return and remain at the council. with a capacity for trifling, he cared for nothing serious, and there was much laziness contained in his resolution to leave all to his minister. the court had formed its own opinion: it considered the young king incapable of application. it was also said that he lacked intelligence, and in this belief there was no error. louis himself alluded to this and said with simplicity, "i am very stupid." the libertine youth who surrounded him, and whom his solemn air restrained, did not conceal the fact that they found him a great bore, as probably did also madame de maintenon a half-century later. the guiche and the vardes believed him doomed to insignificance and did not trouble themselves much about him. the city was less convinced that he was a cipher, perhaps because otherwise it could not so easily have taken his part. paris was commencing to fear those princes with whom, for one reason or another, first ministers were necessary, and the parisian bourgeoisie was on the watch for some proof of intelligence in the young monarch. "it is said that the mind of the king is awakening," wrote guy patin in 1654; "god be thanked!" this first light not having an apparent development, paris, whilst waiting for something better, admired the looks of the sovereign. "i have to-day seen the king on his way to the chase," again wrote guy patin four years later. "a fine prince, strong and healthy; he is tall and graceful; it is a pity that he does not better understand his duties."[50] his serious air was also lauded, his dislike to debauchery in any form, and the modesty which made him bravely reply before the entire court, to a question about a new play: "i never judge a subject about which i know nothing."[51] this was not the response of a fool. in fine, as he was very cold, very capable of dissimulation, as he spoke little, through calculation as much as through instinct, and generally confined his conversation to trifles, this youth upon whom all france had its eyes fixed remained an unknown quantity to his subjects. in september, 1657, two strangers crossing the pont neuf found themselves in the midst of a pressure of people. the crowd precipitated itself with cries of joy towards a carriage whose livery had been recognised. it was the grande mademoiselle returning from exile, and coming to take possession of the palace of the luxembourg, in which her father permitted her to lodge, feeling certain that he himself should never return to it. the two strangers noted in their _journal de voyage_[52] that the parisians bore a "particular affection" for this princess, because she had behaved like a "true amazon" during the civil war. the court had resigned itself to the inevitable. mademoiselle had remained popular in paris, and her exploits during the fronde and her fine bearing at the head of her regiment were remembered with enthusiasm. she only passed through the city at this time, having affairs to regulate in the provinces. upon her definite return on december 31st, the court and the city crowded to see her. the luxembourg overflowed during several days, after which, when society had convinced itself that mademoiselle had no longer a face "fresh as a fully blown rose,"[53] its curiosity was satisfied and it occupied itself with something else. [illustration: =louis xiv. as a young man= from a chalk drawing in the british museum print room] mademoiselle herself had much to do. the idea of marrying the little monsieur had not left her mind since the meeting at sedan. she was assured that the prince was dying of desire for her, and mademoiselle naïvely responded that she very well perceived this. "this does not displease me," adds she; "a young prince, handsome, well-made, brother of the king, appears a good match." in expectation of the betrothal, she stopped her pursuits of the happy interval at saint-fargeau in which she had loved intellectual pleasures, in order to make herself the comrade of a child only absorbed in pastimes belonging to his age, and passed the winter in dancing, in masquerading, in rushing through the promenades and the booths of the fair of saint-germain.[54] the public remarked that the little monsieur appeared "not very gay" with his tall cousin, and troubled himself but little to entertain her,[55] and that he would have preferred other companions better suited to his seventeen years. mademoiselle did not perceive this. philip, duke of anjou, had a face of insipid beauty posed upon a little round body. he did not lack _esprit_, had not an evil disposition, and would have made an amiable prince if reasons of state had not tended to reduce him to the condition of a marionette. his mother and mazarin had brought him up as a girl, for fear of his later troubling his elder brother, and this education had only too well succeeded. by means of sending him to play with the future abbé de choisy, who put on a robe and patches to receive him; by means of having him dressed and barbered by the queen's maids of honour and putting him in petticoats and occupying him with dolls, he had been made an ambiguous being, a species of defective girl having only the weaknesses of his own sex. monsieur had a new coat every day and it worried him to spot it, and to be seen with his hair undressed or in profile when he believed himself handsomer in full face. paris possessed no greater gossip; he babbled, he meddled, he embroiled people by repeating everything, and this amused him. mademoiselle considered it her duty to "preach" to him of "noble deeds," but she wasted her time. he was laziness and weakness itself. the two cousins were ill-adapted to each other in every way. when they entered a salon together, monsieur short and full, attired in the costume of a hunter, his garments sewed from head to foot with precious stones, mademoiselle a little masculine of figure and manner and negligent in her dress, they were a singular couple. those who did not know them opened their eyes wide, and they were often seen together in the winter at least, for the society was at this date most mixed, even in the most élite circles. from epiphany to ash-wednesday, the parisians had no greater pleasure than to promenade masked at night, and to enter without invitation into any house where an entertainment was taking place. louis xiv. gladly joined in these gaieties. upon one evening of mardi-gras, when he was thus running the streets with mademoiselle, they met monsieur dressed as a girl with blond hair.[56] keepers of inns sent their guests to profit by this chance of free entry. a young dutchman related that he went the same night "with those of his inn" to five great balls, the first at the house of mme. de villeroy, the last with the duchess of valentinois, and that he had seen at each place more than two hundred masks.[57] the crowd would not permit that entrance should be refused on any pretext. the same dutchman reports with a note of bitterness that on another evening it had been impossible to penetrate into the house of the maréchal de l'hôpital, because the king being there, measures had been taken to avoid too great a crowd. custom obliged every one to submit to receiving society, choice or not. at a grand fête given by the duc de lesdiguières, which in the bottom of his heart he was offering to mme. de sévigné, "the king had hardly departed when the crowd commenced to scuffle and to pillage every thing, until, as it was stated, it became necessary to replace the candles of the chandeliers four or five times and this single article cost m. de lesdiguières more than a hundred pistoles."[58] such domestic manners had the encouragement of the king, who also left his doors open upon the evenings on which he danced a ballet. he did better still. he went officially to sup "with the sieur de la bazinière," ancient lackey become financier and millionaire, and having the bearing, the manners, and the ribbon cascades of the marquis de mascarille. he desired that mademoiselle should invite to the luxembourg, mme. de l'hôpital, ancient laundress married twice for her beautiful eyes; the first time by a _partisan_, the second by a marshal of france. these lessons were not lost upon the nobility. mésalliances were no more discredited, even the lowest, the most shameful, provided that the dot was sufficient. a duke and peer had married the daughter of an old charioteer. the maréchal d'estrées was the son-in-law of a _partisan_ known under the name of morin the jew. many others could be cited, for the tendency increased from year to year. in 1665, the king having entered parliament,[59] in order to confirm an edict, a group of men amongst whom was olivier d'ormesson were regarding the tribune in which were seated the ladies of the court. some one thought of counting how many of these were daughters of parvenues or of business men; he found three out of six. two others were nieces of mazarin, married to french nobles.[60] the single one of aristocratic descent was mlle. d'alençon, a half-sister of the grande mademoiselle. one could hardly have anticipated such figures, even allowing for chance. the king, however, approved of this state of affairs and the nobility was ruined; every one seized on what support he could. the general course of affairs was favourable to this confusion of rank. from the triumphal re-entry of mazarin in 1653, until his death in 1661, a kind of universal freedom continued at the court which surprised the ancient frondeurs on their return from exile. the young monarch himself encouraged familiarities and lack of etiquette. it was the nieces of the cardinal who were largely responsible for these changes in manners and who gained their own profit through the additional freedom, since marie, the third of the mancini, was soon to almost touch the crown with the tip of her finger. mademoiselle had some trouble in accustoming herself to the new manners towards the king. for me [says she], brought up to have great respect, this is most astonishing, and i have remained long time without habituating myself to this new freedom. but when i saw how others acted, when the queen told me one day that the king hated ceremony, then i yielded; for without this high authority the faults of manner could not be possible with others. the pompous louis xiv. wearing the great wig of the portraits did not yet exist, and the louvre of 1658 but little resembled the particular and formal versailles of the time of saint-simon.[61] the licence extended to morals. numbers of women of rank behaved badly, some incurred the suspicion of venality, and no faults were novelties; but vice keeps low company and it was this result which proud people like mademoiselle could not suffer. when it was related to her that the duchesse de châtillon, daughter of montmorency-boutteville, had received money from the abbé foucquet[62] and wiped out the debt by permitting such lackey-like jokes as breaking her mirrors with blows of the foot, she was revolted. "it is a strange thing," wrote she, "this difference of time; who would have said to the admiral coligny, 'the wife of your grandson will be maltreated by the abbé foucquet'?--he would not have believed it, and there was no mention at all of this name of foucquet in his time." in the mind of mademoiselle, who had lived through so many periods, it was the low birth of the abbé which would have affected the admiral. "whatever may be said," added she, "i can never believe that persons of quality abandon themselves to the point which their slanderers say. for even if they did not consider their own safety, worldly honour is in my opinion so beautiful a thing that i do not comprehend how any one can despise it." mademoiselle did not transgress upon the respect due to the hierarchy of rank; for the rest, she contented herself with what are called the morals of respectable people, which have always been sufficiently lenient. she understood, however, all the difference between this morality and christian principles. the _provinciales_ (1656) had made it clear to the blindest that it was necessary to choose between the two. mademoiselle had under this influence made a visit to port royal des champs[63] and had been entirely won by these "admirable people" who lived like saints and who spoke and wrote "the finest eloquence," while the jesuits would have done better to remain silent, "having nothing good to say and saying it very badly," "for assuredly there were never fewer preachers amongst them than at present nor fewer good writers, as appears by their letters. this is why for all sorts of reasons they would have done better not to write." seeing mademoiselle so favourably impressed, one of the monsieurs of port royal, arnauld d'andilly, said upon her departure, "you are going to the court; you can give to the queen account of what you have seen."--"i assure you that i will willingly do this." knowing her disposition, there is but little doubt that she kept her word; but this was all. the worthy mademoiselle, incapable of anything low or base, did not dream for a second of allowing the austere morality, ill fitted for the needs of a court, to intervene in influencing her judgments upon others, or in the choice of her friends. she blamed the duchesse de châtillon for reasons with which virtue, properly named, had nothing to do. we see her soon after meeting mme. de montespan, because common morality has nothing to blame in a king's mistress. mme. de sévigné agreed with mademoiselle and they were not alone. this attitude gave a kind of revenge to the jesuits. tastes became as common as sentiments; those of the king were not yet formed, and the pleasure taken in the ballet in the theatre of the louvre injured the taste for what was, in fact, no longer tragedy. corneille had given up writing for the first time in 1652, after the failure of his _pertharite_. the following year, quinault made his debut and pleased. he taught in his tragi-comedies, flowery and tender, that "love makes everything permissible," which had been said by honoré d'urfé in _l'astrée_, a half-century previous, and he retied, without difficulty, after the corneillian parenthesis, the thread of a doctrine which has been transmitted without interruption to our own days. love justifies everything, for the right of passion is sacred, nothing subsists before it. dans l'empire amoureux, le devoir n'a point de puissance. l'éclat de beaux yeux adoucit bien un crime; au regard des amants tout parait légitime.[64] the idea which this verse expresses can be found throughout the works of quinault. he has said it again and again, with the same langourous, insinuating sweetness, for a period which lasted more than thirty years, and in the beginning no one very seriously divided with him the attention of the public. at the appearance of his first piece in 1653, racine was fourteen; molière did not return to paris until 1658. corneille, in truth, was preparing his return to the theatre; but he found when his last tragedies were played, that he had done well to study quinault, and in doing this he had not wasted his time;--a decisive proof of the echo to which souls responded,[65] and of the increasing immorality of the new era. thus the court of france lost its prestige. the éclat cast by the fronde upon the men and women seeking great adventures had been replaced by no new enthusiasms. the pleasures to which entire lives were devoted had not always been refining, as we have seen above, and people had not grown in intelligence. the bold crowd of the mazarins gave the tone to the louvre, and this tone lacked delicacy. the queen, anne of austria, groaned internally, but she had loosed the reins; except in the affair of her son's marriage she had nothing to refuse to the nieces of cardinal mazarin. because the court was in general lazy and frivolous, a hasty opinion of the remainder of france should not be formed. the court did not fairly represent the entire nation; outside of it there was room for other opinions and sentiments. it was during the years of 1650 to 1656, which appear to us at first sight almost a moral desert, that private charity made in the midst of france one of its greatest efforts, an effort very much to the honour of all concerned in it. i have noticed elsewhere[66] the frightful poverty of the country during the fronde. this distress which was changing into desert places one strip after another of french territory, must be relieved, and amongst those in authority no one was found capable of doing it. it is hardly possible to represent to one's self to-day the condition left by the simple passage of an army belonging to a civilised people, through a french or german land, two or three hundred years ago. the idea of restricting the sufferings caused by war to those which are inevitable is a novel one. in the seventeenth century, on the contrary, the effort was to increase them. the chiefs for the most part showed a savage desire to excite the mania for destruction which is so easily aroused with soldiers during a campaign. towards the end of the fronde, some troops belonging to condé, then in the service of the king of spain, occupied his old province of bourgogne. if any district of france could have hoped to be respected by the prince, it was this one; his father had possessed it before him and it was full of their friends. ties of this kind, however, were of no advantage. march 23, 1652, the states of bourgogne wrote to m. de bielle, their deputy at court: the enemies having already burned fourteen villages [the names follow], besides others since burned, these fire-fiends are still in campaign and continuing these horrible ravages, all which has been under the express order of m. le prince, which the commandant [de la ville] de seurre has received, to burn the entire province if it be possible. the same sieur de bielle can judge by the account of these fires, to which there has so far been no impediment presented, in what state the province will be in a short time. the common soldier troubled himself little whether the sacked region was on the one or the other side of the frontier. he made hardly any difference. some weeks after the fires in bourgogne, two armies tortured the brie. the one belonged to the king, the other to the duc de lorraine, and there was only a shade less of cruelty with the french forces than with the others. when all the troops had passed, the country was filled with charnel houses, and there are charnel houses and charnel houses. that of rampillon,[67] particularly atrocious, must be placed to the account of the lorraines: "at each step one met mutilated people, with scattered limbs; women cut in four quarters after violation; men expiring under the ruins of burning houses, others spitted."[68] no trouble was taken to suppress these hells of infection. it would be difficult to find any fashion of carrying on a war both more ferocious and more stupid. some chiefs of divisions, precursers of humanitarian ideas, timidly protested, in the name of interest only, against a system which always gave to campaigning armies the plague, famine, and universal hatred. a letter addressed to mazarin, and signed by four of these, fabert at the head, supplicates him to arrest the ravages of a foreigner in the services of france, m. de rosen. mazarin took care to pay no attention to this protest: it would have been necessary first to pay rosen and his soldiers. if it is expected to find any sense of responsibility in the state, in the opinion of contemporaries, for saving the survivors, left without bread, animals, nor harvests, without roof and without working tools, there is disappointment; the state held itself no more responsible for public disasters than for the poor, always with it. the conception of social duty was not yet born. public assistance was in its infancy, and the little which existed had been completely disorganised by the general disorders; like everything else. each city took care of its beggars or neglected them according to its own resources and circumstances. on the other hand, the idea of christian charity had taken a strong hold upon some circles, under the combined influence of the jansenism which exacted from its devotees a living faith; of a secret catholic society whose existence is one of the most curious historical discoveries of these last years[69]; and of a poor saint whose peasant airs and whose patched _soutane_ caused much laughter when he presented himself before the queen. vincent de paul is easily recognised. relations with great people had not changed him. it was said of him after years of court society, "m. vincent is always m. vincent," and this was true: men of this calibre never change, happily for the world. he became the keynote of the impulse which caused the regeneration of provincial life, almost ruined by the wars of the fronde. even after the work was ended it would be difficult to decide upon the share of each of these bodies in this colossal enterprise. the society to which allusion has been made was founded in 1627, by the duc de ventadour, whose mystical thought had led him, as often happens, to essentially practical works. the name of compagnie du saint sacrement was given it, and without doubt its supreme end was "to make honoured the holy sacrament." precisely on account of this, the society sought to "procure" for itself "all the good" in its power, for nothing is more profitable to religion than support, material as well as spiritual and moral, distributed under its inspiration and as one might say on its own part. one passes easily from the practice of charity, a source of precious teaching, to the correction of manners. after comes the desire to control souls, which naturally leads to the destruction of heresies, with or without gentleness. this programme was responsible for many admirable charitable works, two centuries in advance of current ideas, and, at the same time, for cruelties, infamies, all the vices inseparable from the sectarian spirit in which the end justifies the means. once started, the society rapidly increased, always hidden, and multiplying precautions not to be discovered, since neither clergy nor royalty were well disposed towards this mysterious force, from which they were constantly receiving shocks without being able to discover whence came the blows. it was an occult power, analogous in its extent and its intolerance, and even in the ways and means employed, to the free masonry of the present. the compagnie du saint-sacrement had links throughout france and in all classes. anne of austria was included in its sacred band and a shoemaker played in it an important rôle. vincent de paul enrolled himself in the ranks towards the year 1635, contributed to the good, and probably was ignorant of the evil to be found in its folds. dating from his affiliation, his charitable works so mingled with those of the society that it was no longer to be recognised. the society brought to the saint powerful succour, and aided him effectively in finding the support of which he had need; it would be difficult to say from whom came the first idea of many good works. as for what at present concerns us, however, the point of departure is known. it was neither vincent de paul nor the compagnie du saint-sacrement which conceived and put in train the prodigious work of relieving the provinces. the first committee of relief was founded in paris, in 1649, by a janséniste, m. de bernières, who was also responsible for the invention of the printed "relations" which were informing all france of the miseries to be relieved. it was the first time that charity had aided itself through publicity. it soon found the value of this. m. de bernières and his committee, in which the wives of members of parliament dominated, were soon able to commence in picardie and champagne the distribution of bread, clothing, grain, and working implements. hospitals were established. they put an end to the frightful feeling of desolation of these unfortunate populations, pillaged during so many years by mercenaries of all races and tongues. but the number of workers was small even if their zeal was great, and the janséniste community was not equipped for a task of this dimension. from the end of the following year, the direction of the enterprise passed entirely into the hands of vincent de paul, who led with him his army of sisters of charity, his mission priests, and an entire contingent of allies, secret but absolutely devoted. it does not seem as if at first there was any conflict. mme. de lamoignon and the présidente de herse were the right arms of m. vincent as they had been of m. de bernières. when the queen of poland,[70] a spiritual daughter of port-royal and brought up in france, wished to subscribe to the work, she sent her money to the mother angélique, telling her to communicate with m. vincent. but this harmony was of short duration. the members of what the public were going to baptise with the sobriquet of "cabale des dévots," not being able to discover the real name, could not suffer the janséniste concurrence in charitable works. they showered upon m. de bernières a mass of odious calumnies and denunciations which resulted in the exile of this good man. this was one of the most abominable of the bad actions to which a sectarian spirit has pushed human beings. the "relations" were continued under the direction of vincent de paul. one knows through them and through the documents of the time, the details of the task undertaken. the first necessity for the public health was the clearing the surface of the ground, in the provinces in which there had been fighting, of the putrifying bodies, and of the filthiness left by the armies. there was one village from which such an odour exhaled that no one would approach it. a "relation" of 1652 describes in these terms the environs of paris: at étréchy, the living are mingled with the dead, and the country is full of the latter. at villeneuve-saint-georges, crosne, limay, one hundred and seventy-four ill people were found in the last extremity, with neither beds, clothes, nor bread. it was necessary to commence by taking away the seeds of infection which increased the maladies, by interring the corpses of men, of dead horses and cattle, and removing the heaps of dirt which the armies had left behind. the cleansing of the soil was the specialty of m. vincent and one of his most signal benefits. he employed for this work his mission priests and his sisters of charity. the missionaries placed themselves at the head of the workmen, the sisters sought the abandoned sick. cloth and cap died at need "the arms in the hand," said their chief, but their work was good; and finally the work was taken hold of in the right way. after the dead the living: the curé of boult[71] [reports another "relation"] assures us that he buried three of his parishioners dead from hunger; others were living only upon cut-up straw mixed with earth, of which was composed a food called bread. five tainted and decaying horses were devoured; an old man aged seventy-five years had entered the presbytery to roast a piece of horse-flesh, the animal having died of scab fifteen days previously, was infected with worms, and had been found cast into a foul ditch.... at saint-quentin, in the faubourgs, in which the houses had been demolished, the missionaries discovered the last inhabitants in miserable huts, "in each of which," wrote one of them, "i found one or two sick, in one single hut ten; two widows, each having four children, slept together on the ground, having nothing whatever, not even a sheet." another ecclesiastic, in his visit, having met with many closed doors, upon forcing them open discovered that the sick were too feeble to open them having eaten nothing during two days, and having beneath them only a little half rotten straw; the number of these poor was so great that without succour from paris, the citizens under the apprehension of a siege, not being able to nourish them, had resolved to cast them over the walls. millions were needed to relieve such distress, but vincent de paul and his associates had a better dream; they wished to put these dying populations in a condition to work again and to undertake the reparation of the ruins themselves. the enterprise was organised in spite of obstacles which appeared insurmountable, the exhaustion of france and the difficulty of communication being the principal. the parisians raised enormous sums and sent gifts of all kinds of materials, and found the means of transporting provisions. the committee divided the environs of paris; mme. joly took the care of one village; the présidente de nesmond, four villages; and so on. missionaries were sent outside the boundaries. one of the later biographers of vincent de paul[72] values at twelve millions of francs, at this date worth about sixty millions, the sums distributed, without counting money spent directly for the work of piety nor for the support of those engaged in it. however this may be, this latter body certainly consumed a large portion. the immensity of the enterprise, and its apparent boldness, gives us an idea of the wealth and power of the middle classes of the seventeenth century. after vincent de paul and m. de bernières, the honour for this work of relief belongs to the parliamentary world and the parisian bourgeoisie; the aristocracy only playing a very secondary rôle. the middle classes provided for this enormous effort, at a period in which all revenues failed at once. we are told that many were forced to borrow, that others sold their jewels and articles of silver; still this supposes luxury and credit. in one way or another, the citizen was in a position to give, while the small noble of lorraine or of beauce was obliged to receive; and this emphasises an historic lesson. gentlemen as well as peasants lacked bread. after remaining two days without eating, one is ready to accept alms; at the end of three days, to demand them on account of the children. the decadence of the one class, the ascension of the other until their turn comes; it has always been the same since the world began. one last detail, and perhaps the most significant: there is no reference in the memoirs of the times[73] to the principal work of vincent de paul. their authors would have made it a matter of conscience not to forget a court intrigue or a scandalous adventure; but what can be interesting in people who are naked and hungry? one avoids speaking of them. it is even better not to think of them. in 1652, the year in which poverty was at its height in oppressed paris, the mother angélique wrote from port-royal, to the queen of poland (june 28th): with the exception of the few actually engaged in charity, the rest of the world live in as much luxury as ever. the court and the tuileries are as thronged as ever, collations and the rest of the superfluities go on as always. paris amuses itself with the same fury as if its streets were not filled with frightful spectacles. and, what is more horrible, fashion will not suffer the priests to preach penitence (letter of july 12th). the lack of pity for the poor was almost general among the so-called higher classes. there is no need of too carefully inquiring as to what is passing in hovels. vincent de paul and his allies struggled six years. not once did the government come to their aid, and the war always continued; for one ruin relieved, the armies made ten others. the group of the "good souls" who had made these prodigious sacrifices was at length used up, as one might say, and was never reinforced, in spite of the inexhaustible source of devotion offered by the compagnie du saint-sacrement. this body had been composed of men and women so exceptional in character, as well as in intelligence, that its ranks, emptied by death, and by the exhaustion of means and courage, could not be filled up. in 1655, the receipts of the committee were visibly diminished. two years later, the resources were entirely exhausted and the work of relief remained unfinished. it was well that it was attempted; a leven of good has remained from it in the national soul. the actual benefits however, were promptly effaced; the famine of 1659 to 1662, especially in the latter year, counts amongst the most frightful of the century, perhaps in our entire history. the excess of material poverty engendered immense moral misery, particularly in the large cities, in which luxury stood side by side with the most frightful conditions, and paris became both excitable and evil, as always when it suffers. the carnival of 1660 was the most noisy and disorderly which old parisians had ever known. great and small sought amusement with a kind of rage, and dissensions and quarrels abounded from the top to the bottom of the social scale. public places were noisy with riots and affrays. during the nights, masks were masters of the streets, and as has been seen above, no security existed with these composite crowds, which stole candles from the houses into which they had surged. one ball alone received in a single evening the visit of sixty-five masks, who ran through the city three nights in succession. these hysterics in paris, while france was dying with hunger, are so much the more striking, inasmuch as the court was not there to communicate to the outer world its eternal need of agitation and amusement. louis xiv. spent a large portion of these critical years in journeying through his kingdom. one of the first journeys, lasting from october 27th to the following january 27th, had for its end the meeting of the princess of savoie at lyons. there had been some question of marrying this princess to the young king. on passing to dijon, the court stopped more than fifteen days. mademoiselle tells us the reason for this delay; it is not very glorious for royalty. the parliament of dijon refused to register certain edicts which aggravated the burdens of the province. le tellier, "on the part of the king," promised that there should be no more difficulty if the states of bourgogne would bring their subsidy to a sum which was indicated. "upon which they agreed to what was demanded and presented themselves to account to the king." upon the next day, with a cynical contempt for the royal promise, "her majesty went to the dijon parliament to register the deeds."[74] mademoiselle had the curiosity to be present at the session. the first president did the only thing in his power. he courageously expressed his "regrets" and was praised by all those who heard him. the court hastily departed the following day, leaving dijon and the entire province "in a certain consternation." mademoiselle blamed only the manner of action. at the bottom of her heart, she had the belief of her times: that the sovereign owed only control to his people, and that there was no question of giving them happiness. some weeks after the incident at lyons, the vicinity of the principality of dombes[75] gave her the desire to visit this place, which she had never seen. dombes did not pay any impost to the king, and this fact alone sufficed to render it prosperous. mademoiselle was scandalised at this prosperity. the peasants were well clothed, "they ate meat four times a day," and there were "no really poor people" in the country; "also," pursued mademoiselle, "they, up to this time, have paid no duties, and it would perhaps be better that they should do so, for they are do-nothings, taking no interest in either work or trade." the people had left everything and dressed themselves in their fine clothes to receive mademoiselle. in order to thank them, mademoiselle drew from them all the money she could. it is necessary to recollect, however, that in the eyes of the great, even those of the better sort, a peasant was hardly a man. it would hardly be worth while for us to be indignant at this attitude. we now admit that the so-called superior races have the right to exploit those considered inferior, and thus at need destroy them. it was the habit of our fathers to treat a lower class as to-day we treat a less advanced race; the sentiment is precisely the same. upon her return from dombes, mademoiselle found the court again at lyons. every one was all eyes and ears for a spectacle which might derange the admitted ideas of kings. marie mancini was trying to make louis xiv. marry her, and the attempt had not so absurd an air as might be imagined. the savoie project had failed under painful conditions, which gave subject of thought to the courtiers. the king had conducted himself like an ill-bred man to the princess marguerite. people were demanding whether the spanish marriage was also going to fail, and with it the so greatly desired peace, because it pleased two lovers, one of whom ought not to have forgotten his kingly duties, to proclaim the sovereign rights of passion. anne of austria became uneasy. mazarin, yielding to temptation, left the field to his niece, who "took possession" of the young king with looks and speech. she fascinated him, and he swore all that she wished. the contest was not an equal one between the passionate italian and the timid and somewhat unformed louis xiv. on his return from lyons, louis knelt down before his mother and mazarin, supplicating them to permit him to marry the one he loved. he found them inflexible. the queen realised that such a _mésalliance_ would cast disrepute on royalty. the cardinal was torn by conflicting emotions, but in the end sent away his niece. a second journey lasted more than a year. the court set out on june 29, 1659, and passed through blois. it stopped with gaston. we owe to the _mémoires_ of mademoiselle a last glimpse of this prince, formerly so brilliant, now become a lazy good-for-nothing in his provincial life, where nothing of parisian fashion was found; neither toilettes nor cooking, nor household elegance, nor even monsieur himself, who no longer knew how to receive, and was vexed that the king should kill his pheasants. he permitted it to be seen that he was put out, and this became so plain that every one was eager to depart, and there was a sudden scattering. the eldest of his daughters by his last marriage, marguerite d'orléans, had a great reputation for beauty. her parents had for a long time anticipated seeing her queen of france. on the night of the king's arrival at blois, this damsel was disfigured with mosquito bites. her dancing was much extolled, but on this special evening, she danced very badly. gaston had announced that this little girl of ten "would astonish every one with her brilliant conversation." no one could draw a single word from her. in short, nothing succeeded. mademoiselle was not especially vexed at this failure; she had trembled at the thought of seeing her younger sister "above her." hardly had the court remounted their carriages, before the royal cavalcade, according to the universal custom, commenced to mock its hosts. the king joked at the sight of his uncle's face on seeing the pheasants fall dead. mademoiselle laughed with the others. she had, however, been moved by a tender scene played by her father. he had come to awaken her at four o'clock in the morning: he seated himself on my bed and said: "i believe that you will not be vexed at being waked since i shall not soon have the chance of again seeing you. you are going to take a long journey. i am old, exhausted; i may die during your absence. if i do die, i recommend your sisters to you. i know very well that you do not love madame: that her behaviour towards you has not been all it should be; but her children have had nothing to do with this, for my sake take care of them. they will have need of you; as for madame, she will be of little help to them." he embraced me three or four times. i received all this with much tenderness; for i have a good heart. we separated on the best terms, and i went again to sleep. mademoiselle believed that at length they again loved each other. six weeks later a scandal broke out at the court of france, then at bordeaux. the duc de savoie had refused to marry the princess marguerite d'orléans, and mademoiselle was accused of having secretly written to him that her sister was a humpback. the accusation came from gaston himself, who said that he had proof of it. this was a most disagreeable incident for mademoiselle and further illusion was impossible; gaston was always gaston, the most dangerous man in france. from bordeaux, the court went to toulouse; there it was rejoined by mazarin, who had just signed the peace of the pyrénées (november 7, 1659). all histories give the articles of this peace. the results for europe have been summed up in some brilliant lines written by the great german historian, leopold ranke, who had been struck with the advantages which this treaty gave france over germany: if it were necessary to characterise in a general fashion the results of this peace ... we would say that the importance of the treaty consisted in the formation and extension of the great (geographically) military system of the french monarchy. on all sides, to the pyrénées, to the alps, above all, to the frontiers of the german empire and of the netherlands, france acquired new fortified points ... many positions as important for defence as favourable for attack. the position of france upon the upper rhine, which it owes to the peace of westphalia, received by this new treaty its greatest extension.[76] mazarin found that he had done well in himself following the campaigning armies. he knew the military importance of most of the places. the spanish negotiator could not have said as much. in the interior, the first comer could easily comprehend the political benefits of a treaty which should as far as possible abolish the past. condé had been included in the terms of the peace and returned to france, well resolved to keep quiet. he rejoined the court at aix, january 27, 1660, and found there was a certain curiosity exhibited as to how he would be received. mademoiselle hastened to anne of austria: "my niece," said the queen to her, "return to your own dwelling; m. le prince has especially asked that i should be absolutely alone when i first receive him." i began to smile with vexation, but said: "i am nobody; i believe that m. le prince will be very astonished if he does not find me here." the queen insisted in a very sharp tone; i went away resolved to complain to m. le cardinal; this i did on the following day, saying that if such a thing happened again, i should leave the court. he made many excuses. this was mazarin's system. he poured forth explanations but in no way changed his methods in the future. it is known that m. le prince demanded pardon on his knees, and that he found before him in louis xiv. a judge grave and cold, who held himself "very straight."[77] to fight against the king was decidedly no more to be considered a joke; it could not be overlooked, even if one were the conqueror of rocroy. mademoiselle did not succeed in comprehending the real situation. condé, surprised and deceived, felt his way. one evening at a dance, when talking with mademoiselle, the king joined them. the conversation fell upon the fronde. on the part of a man of as much _esprit_ as m. le prince, one can well believe that this was not by chance: "the war was much spoken of," relates mademoiselle, "and we joked at all the follies of which we had been guilty, the king with the best grace in the world joining in these pleasantries. although i was suffering with a severe headache, i was not in the least bored." mademoiselle had laughed without any second thoughts. condé, clearer sighted, trembled during the remainder of his days, before this monarch so capable of dissimulation, and so perfectly master of himself. almost at the same moment there expired another of those belated feudal ideas, which neither royalty nor manners could any longer suffer among the nobility. gaston d'orléans died at blois, february 2nd,[78] his death being caused by an attack of apoplexy. they had heard him murmur from his bed regarding his wife and children, _domus mea domus desolationis vocabitur_ ("my house will be called the house of desolation"). he spoke better than he knew. madame surpassed herself in blunders, and still more. she went to dinner while her husband was receiving the last unction, sent away the servants of monsieur immediately after the final sigh, locked up everything, and concerned herself no more. her women refused a sheet in which to wrap the body; it was necessary to beg one from the ladies of the court. some priests came to sit up with the dead, but finding neither "light nor fire" they returned, and the corpse remained alone, more completely abandoned than had been that of his brother, the king, louis xiii. the body was borne without "pomp or expense"[79] to saint-denis, and the widow hastened to paris, to take possession of the palace of the luxembourg, in the absence of mademoiselle. the court did not take the trouble to feign regrets. the king gave the tone in saying to his cousin, gaily, after the first formal compliments: "you will see my brother to-morrow in a training mantle. i believe that he is delighted at the news of your father's death. he believes that he is heir to all his belongings and state; he can talk of nothing else; but he must wait awhile." anne of austria heard this, and smiled. "it is true," pursues mademoiselle, "that monsieur appeared the next day in a wonderful mantle." mademoiselle had great difficulty in keeping her own countenance. her grief was, however, very real, notwithstanding the past, or rather, perhaps, on account of what had gone before; it was, however, only an impulse affected by the impression of the moment. she exhibited this sorrow a little too effectively: i wished to wear the most formal and deepest mourning. every one of my household was clad in black, even to the cooks, the servants, and the valets; the coverings of the mules, all the caparisons of my horses and of the other beasts of burden. nothing could be more beautiful the first time we marched than to see this grand train, expressive of grief. it had an air very magnificent and of real grandeur. everybody says how much wealth she must possess! the mules' mourning is well worth the training mantle of the little monsieur. this magnificent funeral pomp had the one inconvenience of recalling to all comers that mademoiselle must resign other pleasures. at the end of some weeks, she would have willingly resumed her share in court gaieties; anne of austria kindly commanded her to return to life. the summer was, however, approaching. the court continued to drag itself from city to city, waiting until it should please the king of spain to bring his daughter, and the time seemed long. mazarin shut himself up to work. louis drilled the soldiers of his guard. the queen mother spent long days in convents. mademoiselle wrote, or worked tapestry. a large number of the courtiers, no longer able to stand the ennui, had returned to paris; those who remained, lived lives of complete idleness. the king had at this time a fine occasion to study the condition of his provinces; but he did not possess an investigating mind. he spent long months in front of the pyrénées, without seeking to know anything of their formation, showing an unusual indifference to knowledge, even for this period. one of the few persons who risked themselves in the pyrénées, mme. de motteville, relates her astonishment at discovering valleys, torrents, cultivated fields, and inhabitants. she had believed that she should only find a great wall of rock, "deserted and untilled." the journey went on; but nature had not yet the right of entrance into literature, and society spoke but rarely of its charms. of the vast world, only what came directly under the eyes of the individual was known. at length, on june 2d (1660), the court of france, "kicking its heels" at saint-jean-de-luz during an entire month, received news of the arrival at fontarabia of philip iv. and of the infanta marie thérèse. the next day, the marriage ceremonies commenced. six long days and the best intentions on both sides were needed to consummate this great affair without offending etiquette. the problem presented was this: how to marry the king of france with the daughter of the king of spain, without permitting the king of france to put his foot on spanish territory, nor the king of spain on that belonging to france, and at the same time not to allow the infanta to quit her father before the ceremony had actually taken place? on the side of the french court, whose discipline left much to be desired, difficulties of detail arose constantly to complicate affairs. the little monsieur wept for desire to go to fontarabia to see a spanish ceremony; but etiquette made it necessary to consider this brother of the king the present heir presumptive to the crown, and, alleged louis xiv., "the heir presumptive of spain could not enter france to see a ceremony."[80] after consideration of this point, the heir was forbidden to pass the frontier. then mademoiselle arrived, who wished to be of the party. she represented that the order was not applicable to her, and cited the salic law which gave her the right to traverse the bidassoa: "i do not inherit," said she; "i should have some compensation. since daughters are of no value in france, they should at least be permitted to enjoy spectacles." mazarin convoked the ministers to submit this argument. the discussion lasted "three or four hours." finally, mademoiselle gained her cause, although the king himself was rather against her. the important question of "trains" gave also some embarrassment to the cardinal. a duke had offered to bear the train of mademoiselle in the nuptial cortége. mazarin was obliged to seek two other dukes for the younger sisters of mademoiselle, two children whom the lady of honour of their mother had led to the marriage. he could only find a marquis and a count; the dukes hid themselves. the lady of honour uttered loud protests; "her princesses must have 'tail-bearers' as titled as those of their tall sister, or they should not go at all." "i will do what i can," replied the cardinal; "but no one wishes the task." mademoiselle had the good grace to sacrifice her duke, and mazarin believed the affair terminated, when the princess palatine[81] caused a novel incident, upon the day of the ceremony, and even when the last moment was approaching. she appeared in the queen's chamber, wearing a train, to which, being a foreign princess, she had no right. la palatine had counted upon the general confusion to smuggle herself in and to create a precedent. it was needful to delay matters. the train had been reported to mademoiselle, and no marriage should prevent her protest. the cardinal and after him the king were forced to listen to a discourse upon the limitations of foreign princesses. "i believe," writes mademoiselle, "that i was very eloquent." she proved herself at least very convincing, for la palatine received the order to take off her train. but it is necessary to retrace our steps; trains have carried us too far. the relations between the two monarchs had been regulated with a minutia worthy of asiatic courts. they met only in a hall, built expressly for the purpose upon the isle des faisans, and on horseback upon the frontier. the building was half in french, half in spanish territory. the decorations of the two sides were different. louis xiv. must walk upon french carpets, philip iv. upon spanish ones. the one must only sit upon a french chair, write only upon a french table with french ink, seek the time only from a french clock, placed in his half of the hall; the other guarded himself with the same care from every object not spanish. two opposite doors gave passage at precisely the same instant. an equal number of steps led them to the place where the red carpet of france joined the gold and silver one of spain; and the two kings addressed each other and embraced over the frontier. thus demanded the laws of ceremonial monarchy. their rigour commenced to astonish the good people of france. the interviews upon the isle des faisans became legendary. la fontaine has alluded to them in one of his last fables, _les deux chèvres_,[82] in which he has found no better comparison for the solemnity with which the two goats, equally "tainted" with their rank, equally curbed, advanced towards each other upon the fragile and narrow bridge. je m'imagine voir, avec louis le grand, philippe quatre qui s'avance dans l'isle de la conférence[83] ainsi s'avançaient pas à pas, nez à nez, nos aventurières. when all was arranged, on june 3rd, neither the bride and bridegroom nor their parents having seen each other, the king of france, represented by don luis de haro, was married by proxy in the church of fontarabia to the infanta marie-thérèse. this was the expedient which saved the dignity of the two crowns. after the ceremony, the new queen returned to her father. she wrote the next day a letter of official compliment to her husband. we possess the response of louis xiv., in which he has well performed a somewhat difficult task. saint-jean-de-luz, june 4, 1660. to receive at the same time a letter from your majesty, and the news of the celebration of our marriage, and to be on the eve of seeing you, these are assuredly causes of indelible joy for me. my cousin, the duke of créqui, first gentleman of my chamber, whom i am sending expressly to your majesty, will communicate to you the sentiments of my heart, in which you will remark always increasingly an extreme impatience to convey these sentiments in person. he will also present to you some trifles on my part. the same day, in the afternoon, anne of austria met for the first time with her brother and niece together. the interview took place in the hall of the isle des faisans. philip iv. astonished the french, decidedly less bound up in tradition than the spanish. philip dwelt so immobile in his gravity that one would have hardly taken him for a living man.[84] anne of austria wishing to embrace her brother, whom she had not seen for forty-five years, he decided to make a movement, but it was only "to withdraw his head so far that she could not catch it."[85] the queen mother had forgotten the customs of her own land. to embrace in spain was not to kiss; it only consisted in giving a greeting without touching the lips, as we see done at the comédie française by personages of the classic repertoire. kissing was, as we read in molière only permitted in certain rare cases. in the _malade imaginaire_, thomas diafoirus consults his father before kissing his fiancée: "shall i kiss her?" "yes," replies m. diafoirus. the evening of the interview, june 4th, mademoiselle was curious to know whether the king of spain had kissed the queen mother. "i asked her; she told me 'no'; that they had embraced according to the fashion of their own country." how was this strange fashion established at the court of france, and from there transferred to our theatres? was it after the marriage of louis xiv.? i leave to the amateurs of the theatre the solving of this little problem in dramatic history. they brought a french chair for the queen mother, a spanish one for philip iv., and they seated themselves nearly "upon the line which separated the two kingdoms."[86] marie-thérèse, infanta of spain and bride by proxy of the king of france, was still to be seated. should this be done in france or spain? upon a spanish or french chair? they brought one spanish and two french cushions; piled them upon spanish territory, and the young queen found herself seated in a mixed fashion, suitable to her ambiguous situation. louis xiv. did not accompany his mother. etiquette did not yet permit the new couple to address a word to each other. it had been arranged that the king of france should ride along the banks of the bidassoa and that the infanta should regard him from afar through the window. a romantic impatience which seized the husband with longing to become acquainted with his wife caused this part of the programme to fail. louis xiv. looked at marie-thérèse through a half-open door. they regarded each other some seconds, and then returned, she to fontarabia, he to saint-jean-de-luz. on sunday, the sixth, they saw each other officially at the isle des faisans. affairs were but little further advanced; philip iv. had declared that the infanta must conceal her impressions until she arrived on french territory. on the seventh, anne of austria brought her daughter-in-law to saint-jean-de-luz, where the young people could at length converse together, awaiting the definite celebration of the marriage, which took place june 9th in the church of saint-jean-de-luz. some days later, the court retook the road to paris. marie-thérèse made her solemn entrance into the capital, august 20th. the procession departed from vincennes. "it was necessary to rise at four o'clock in the morning," reports mademoiselle, who had a frightful sick headache. at five o'clock, every one was in gala costume, and they reached the louvre at seven in the evening. mademoiselle was at the end of her endurance; but a princess of the blood had no right to be ill on the day of a queen's entrance. sometimes ridiculous and sometimes ferocious; such appears ancient etiquette to our democratic generation. monarchs formerly felt the value of its services too keenly to shrink from submitting to its dictates. they knew that a demi-god never descends with impunity from his pedestal. it is impossible to witness his efforts at remounting without laughter. to-day the princes themselves desire less etiquette. the monarchical sentiment is not sufficiently strong to make them willing to support the ennui of ceremonial; they are capable of any sacrifice of dignity to escape it. we see them resign to others their rank and privileges in the hope of finding in obscurity the happiness which they have missed in the king's palace. the present lack of form makes it difficult for the mass to take royalty seriously, and thus vanish together the respect for formal courtesies and for aristocracies. louis xiv. and philip iv. in spite of la fontaine, were in the right in attaching capital importance to the placing their feet upon the right carpets. this precision of etiquette prolonged the existence of the monarchy. life retook its habitual course in the palace of the louvre. the king was studying a new ballet. very few persons remarked that he found time also to make long visits upon mazarin. the cardinal, feeling himself in the clutches of death, was preparing his pupil for his "great trade" of sovereign. he made him acquainted with affairs, spoke to him in confidence of the people connected with the administration of the kingdom; discussed political questions, and recommended him to have no longer a first minister.[87] the one thing which he could not yet resolve to do was to permit the king to give a direct order. his dying hands would not let fall a half-crown or relax an atom of authority. the young queen was astonished at the money restrictions which had oppressed her since her sojourn in france; mazarin supervised her household through the intermediary of colbert, "who saved upon everything,"[88] and he (mazarin) pocketed the savings. on new year's day, he absorbed for himself three-fourths of the gifts of marie-thérèse. the queen mother having shown some discontent, "the poor monsieur the cardinal," as she called him, cried out boldly, "alas! if she knew from whence comes this money and that it is the blood of the people, she would not be so liberal." in vain mazarin hastened; he did not have time to finish his task. february 11, 1661, the king, realising that his minister was lost, began to weep and to say that he did not know what he should do. all france experienced the same fears. it did not occur to any that the king was capable of governing, or that he would take the trouble to do so. the doubt was only as to the name of the one who should take the helm in place of the cardinal. anne of austria believed in chance; condé had one party amongst the nobility. the parisian bourgeoisie said to itself that retz was perhaps going to return from over sea "for necessity."[89] the ministers admitted that there was only one man fitted for the position. while these various intrigues were progressing, mazarin expired (march 6th), and some hours later there came that _coup de théâtre_ of which one reads in all histories. louis xiv. signified to his ministers and grandees his intention of himself governing. those who knew him well, beginning with his own mother, did nothing but laugh, persuaded that it was only a fire of straw. louis at first shut himself up entirely alone during two hours, in order to establish a "rule of life"[90] as an effective monarch. the programme resulting from this meditation surprisingly resembles the one given by catherine de médicis in the letter already cited. it exacts the qualities of a great worker. from that day, louis showed these qualities. "for above all," says he in his _mémoires_, "i resolved not to have a first minister, and not to permit to be filled by another the functions belonging to the king, as long as i bear the title." the passage in which he describes his "wedding" with the joy of work is moving and beautiful. it is even poetical. i felt immediately my spirit and courage elevated. i found myself a different individual. i discovered in myself a mind which i did not know existed, and i reproached myself for having so long ignored this joy. the timidity which judgment at first gave caused me pain, above all when it was necessary to speak in public a little lengthily. this timidity, however, was dissipated little by little. at length it seemed to me i was really king and born to rule. i experienced a sense of well-being difficult to express. louis would now have need of all his courage. in measure as his mind became "elevated," shame for his gross ignorance overcame him. "when reason," says he, "commences to become solid, one feels a cutting and just chagrin in finding oneself ignorant of what all others know." the practical utility of his neglected studies was realised by him. not to know history with his "trade" was a difficulty felt every instant. not to be capable of deciphering alone a latin letter when rome and the empire wrote their dispatches only in latin, was an insupportable slavery to others. never to have read anything upon the "art of war" when the ambition was aroused to become an expert in this art and to acquire glory through it, "was to put brakes on one's own wheels." the young king's education must be remade; the only difficulty was the finding sufficient leisure. he would not allow himself to be hindered by other difficulties, of which the principal one was the danger of hazarding the newly acquired authority by returning to the schoolroom. louis xiv. braved public opinion with remarkable courage. this is one of the finest periods of his life. he proved himself truly great by his sentiment of professional duty, and by his empire over himself, the day upon which he dared to say to himself as the bourgeois gentleman of molière was forced to say, knowing well the ridicule to which he was exposed: "i wish ... to be able to reason among intelligent people." in order to do him full justice, it is necessary to remember the foolish effect at that date produced by a scholar of twenty-three.[91] classes were then finished at fifteen or sixteen, and the memory of them was inseparably connected with birch rods, without whose aid there was no teaching in the seventeenth century. when it was known that the king was again taking latin lessons from his ancient preceptor, and that he passed hours in writing themes, the courtiers might easily have had it upon the end of their tongues to demand as mme. jourdain of m. jourdain: "are you at your age going to college to be whipped?" he did not console himself with the illusion that his rank would save him from such railleries. he confesses _à propos_ of history, which he wished to study again, how keenly sensitive he was to the thought of what might be said. "one single scruple embarrassed me, which was, that i had a certain shame, considering my position in the world, of redescending into an occupation to which i should earlier have devoted myself." everything had yielded to the desire "not to be deprived of the knowledge that every worthy man should have." in spite of these efforts, louis was never educated; he never knew latin, which was deemed the real knowledge of the seventeenth century, in which century the language was well taught. too much business or too many pleasures prevented the young king from pursuing his design during a sufficiently long period. it is possible, also, that his lack of natural facility may have discouraged him. louis xiv. had memory and judgment, but his intelligence was slow. in short, he abandoned his studies too soon; he felt, and repeated till the day of his death the confession, "i am ignorant." but louis never relaxed the labours belonging to him as chief of the state. his days were regulated once for all. mme. de motteville tells the arrangement the day following the death of mazarin. saint-simon gives it again a half-century later, and it is identical. apart from extraordinary and unexpected business, and formal functions, so numerous and important at this epoch, the king regularly devoted six to eight hours daily to ordinary business. add to these hours the time for sleeping and eating, for seeing his family and taking the fresh air, and but little time would have been left for diversion if the king had not had the capacity of doing without sleep almost at will. it was this physical gift which permitted him to provide as largely for pleasure as for work. nevertheless, the court had trouble in adapting itself to the new régime. it did not know what to do while the king worked. "it is more wearisome here than can be imagined," wrote the duc d'enghien, son of the great condé, in 1664. "the king is shut up almost the entire afternoon."[92] outside the court, the people could have cried with joy. it had been a delightful surprise to discover a great worker in this ballet dancer. paris was ready to permit him to indulge in his little weaknesses, provided that he would govern, that he himself would use his power. the bourgeoisie frondeuse was disarmed. it is necessary [wrote guy patin to a friend] that i should share with you a thought which i find very amusing. m. de vendome has said that our good king resembles a young doctor who has much ardour for his profession, but who demands some _quid pro quo_. i know those who see him intimately, who have assured me that he has very good intentions and, that as soon as he is _completely the master_, he will persuade all the world of them. amen.[93] the italicised words are significant of the opinion of guy patin. in establishing absolute monarchy, louis xiv. had the good wishes of all. other testimony quite as remarkable exists to confirm this statement. after the death of mazarin, olivier d'ormesson, who had been of the opposition party in the parliament, and whose independence would soon cost him his career, let three entire years roll by before admitting any statement in his journal to the detriment of the king. this writer also believes in louis, and, on the whole, approves of the compensations (_quid pro quo_) demanded by the governing novice. after the first astonishment, the sudden change in louis's methods provoked but few commentaries in the immediate surroundings of the king. anne of austria had a fit of vexation in realising that she would never again have any influence; after which, indolence aiding, her course was taken. the queen mother had no objection on principle to absolute monarchy: she had always favoured it. she could not, as a spanish princess, conceive of royalty being the least limited. once resigned to the new situation, she became a truly maternal old queen, who preached virtue to youth, and endeavoured to lighten the monotony of her daughter-in-law's life. marie-thérèse had only one single political opinion; good government was that under which a king could pass much time with his wife. this poor little wife died without having ever really lived with her husband. mademoiselle had no reason to regret the first ministers; there had been too little reason to enjoy the two with whom she had had intercourse. she imagined herself liberated from all dependence through the death of the cardinal, succeeding that of her father, and this thought was most agreeable to her. she did not perceive that she had only changed masters, and that the new one would prove himself infinitely more difficult to please, more exacting, than that sceptical italian who confined himself to watching that she did not carry away her millions to strangers and who simply mocked at everything else. mademoiselle finally passed through the state of apprenticeship to absolute monarchy. her eyes were opened only on the day on which the thunder cloud burst upon her. footnotes: [footnote 35: see the _mémoires de louis xiv._, edited by charles dreyss. the _mémoires_ of louis xiv. were not written by himself. he dictated them to his secretaries afterward adding notes in his own handwriting and correcting the proofs. see the _introduction_ by m. dreyss.] [footnote 36: _mémoires de mademoiselle de montpensier. mémoires de montglat._] [footnote 37: montglat.] [footnote 38: _id._] [footnote 39: letters of january 3, 1717, of september 27, 1718, and of july, 1722. madame adds in this last: "now, all the circumstances are known."] [footnote 40: letter to the queen, anne of austria, october 27, 1651.] [footnote 41: march 23, 1865, père theiner, guardian of the secret archives of the vatican, replied to some one who had pressed the question: "our acts of december 16, 1641, in which jules mazarin was created cardinal, do not say whether or not he was a priest. how could he then have been admitted to the order of cardinal-priest? no doubt he was a priest." the letter of père theiner has been published by m. jules loiseleur in his _problèmes historiques_.] [footnote 42: _letters of madame de maintenon_ edited by geoffroy.] [footnote 43: for further details see the excellent volume of m. lacour-gayet, _l'éducation politique de louis xiv._] [footnote 44: december 24th, _relations des ambassadeurs vénitiens_.] [footnote 45: the letter is dated april 21, 1654. louis xiv. was then fifteen and a half years of age.] [footnote 46: mme. de motteville had heard him express the same idea. _cf._ his _mémoires_, v., 101, ed. petitot.] [footnote 47: _les fragments des mémoires inédits_ by dubois, valet of louis xiv., published by léon aubineau in the _biblothéque de l'école des chartes_, and in his _notices littéraires_ upon the 17th century.] [footnote 48: _cf._ lacour-gayet, p. 203.] [footnote 49: m. dreyss dates the writing of this portion of the _mémoires_ about 1670.] [footnote 50: letters of june 9, 1654, and april 9, 1658.] [footnote 51: _segraisiana._ louis xiv. was seventeen when he made this remark.] [footnote 52: _journal de voyage de deux jeunes hollandais à paris_ (1656-1658).] [footnote 53: _mémoires de mme. de motteville._] [footnote 54: the fair of saint-germain was held between saint-sulpice and saint-germain-des-prés, from february 3d to the evening before palm sunday. the court and the populace elbowed each other there.] [footnote 55: _journal de deux jeunes hollandais._] [footnote 56: _mémoires_ of mademoiselle.] [footnote 57: _journal de deux jeunes hollandais._] [footnote 58: _journal de deux jeunes hollandais._] [footnote 59: april 29th.] [footnote 60: to the duc de bouillon and to the son of the marshal duc de la meilleraye, who took the title of duc de mazarin.] [footnote 61: it must not be forgotten that saint-simon was presented at court in 1692. louis xiv. was then fifty-four, and had reigned forty-nine years. saint-simon only knew the end of the reign.] [footnote 62: brother of the superintendent of finances.] [footnote 63: in the summer of 1657.] [footnote 64: _vers d'atys_, opera played in 1676, and _d'astrate_, tragedy of 1663.] [footnote 65: the phrase is m. jules lemâitre's.] [footnote 66: see _the youth of la grande mademoiselle_. for this chapter _cf._ _la misère au temps de la fronde et saint-vincent de paul_, by feillet; _la cabale des dévots_, by raoul allier; _saint-vincent de paul_, by emanuel broglie; _saint-vincent de paul et les goudi_, by chantelauze; _port-royal_, by sainte-beuve.] [footnote 67: village of the arrondissement of provins.] [footnote 68: feillet, _la misère au temps de la fronde_.] [footnote 69: see the volume of raoul allier, _la cabale des dévots_.] [footnote 70: marie de gonzague.] [footnote 71: en picardie.] [footnote 72: m. emanuel de broglie.] [footnote 73: saul in the _journal des guerres civiles de dubuisson-aubenay_. he mentions the date of december 2, 1650, upon which "large donations" were sent into champagne, by mmes. de lamoignon and de herse, messieurs de bernières, lenain, etc.] [footnote 74: the parliament of dijon had a bad reputation with the ministers, who accused it of refusing all reform. this does not excuse such a lack of good faith.] [footnote 75: dombes was a small independent principality which had only been definitely united to france on march 28, 1782; its capital was trévoux.] [footnote 76: _histoire de france._ tr. by jacques porchat and miot. paris, 1886.] [footnote 77: _mémoires de montglat; mémoires de mme. de motteville._] [footnote 78: the ball took place on the 3rd. several days elapsed before the news of the death reached aix.] [footnote 79: _mémoires_ of mademoiselle.] [footnote 80: _mémoires_ of mademoiselle.] [footnote 81: anne de gonzague.] [footnote 82: this appeared in 1691.] [footnote 83: isle des faisans was also called _isle de la conférence_, since mazarin had there discussed the treaty of the pyrénées with luis de haro.] [footnote 84: _mémoires de montglat._] [footnote 85: _mémoires de mme. de motteville._] [footnote 86: _ibid._] [footnote 87: there exists in the _archives d'affaires étrangères_ a fragment of the instructions of mazarin to louis xiv., written under the dictation of the king. m. chantelauze, who discovered it, published it in the _correspondant_ of august 10, 1881.] [footnote 88: motteville.] [footnote 89: guy patin. letter of january 28, 1661.] [footnote 90: motteville.] [footnote 91: he was even twenty-four when he asked péréfixe again to give him latin lessons.] [footnote 92: letter of june 27th to the queen of poland (_archives de chantilly_). the king dined at one o'clock.] [footnote 93: letter of july 15, 1661.] chapter iii mademoiselle at the luxembourg--her salon--the "anatomies" of the heart--projects of marriage, and new exile--louis xiv. and the libertines--fragility of fortune in land--_fêtes galantes_. with the approach of her thirty-fifth year, the grande mademoiselle perceived by diverse signs that she was no longer young. she was forced to recognise that her strength had its limitations, which fact had never before been forced upon her. on february 7, 1662, louis xiv. danced for the first time a grand ballet entitled the "amours of hercules," and his cousin of montpensier took part. she was ill from fatigue. another kind of weariness overcame her; she became bored with fêtes. she had been present at so many gala occasions since her entrance into the world, and had seen so many festivals and fireworks, garlands of flowers and allegorical chariots, that she was now quickly satiated. the king still loved this kind of abundant pleasure; those which he offered to his court sometimes lasted successive days and nights, without giving time to breathe, and all being expected to feel continued amusement. mademoiselle was no longer capable of this. she was beginning to long for the repose of home. her sick headaches contributed to this disability; age had increased them, and all women know that it is better to suffer a headache in solitude. after a lively struggle, she had returned to the palace of the luxembourg and was lodging under the same roof as her stepmother. the old madame would have gladly relinquished a neighbour whose presence presaged nothing good, but no one had sustained the contention as no one was in the least interested in her welfare. one reads in a fugitive leaf of the times issued on july 21, 1660: "this affair was deliberated upon in the court, and it was found that mademoiselle had the right to demand one of the apartments free, and that madame could not refuse it." it is said that the king wrote to madame in order to soften the blow; it was necessary to drain the bitter cup to the dregs, and at a time in which madame had great need of tranquillity to install at her very door this tempestuous stepdaughter, with whom no peace was possible. madame had "vapours," otherwise called a nervous malady. she was afraid of noise, of movement, and of being forced to speak, and mademoiselle insisted upon making "scenes." "i teased her often," says the princess in her _mémoires_, "and very much despised her (in which i was wrong), and she always responded as one who feared me, and with much submission." the public did not consider it worth while to waste pity upon madame, because she bored every one; a fault never pardoned. anne of austria, herself a very amiable woman, when not opposed, could never suffer her inoffensive sister-in-law. the queen mother said to mademoiselle, who did not need this encouragement: "her person, her temper, and her manners are odious to me." the public was fundamentally right in its antipathy. madame was one of those people who render virtue hateful, and in thus doing are very injurious to humanity. the luxembourg was commodious and gay. mademoiselle enjoyed it, and it pleased her to arrange for herself a grand existence as a princess, rich and independent. nothing could be more displeasing to the court. as soon as louis xiv. had assumed full power, he let it be seen that he wished no social centre in his kingdom other than his own palace. his cousin did not take this fact into account. this was not bravado. it was due to the impossibility of comprehending that "a person of her quality" could be reduced to the rôle of satellite. it is certain that nature had not prepared her for this rôle. "i would rather pass my life in solitude," wrote she, "than restrain in any way my proud humour, even at the expense of my fortune. i have no complaisance, and i demand a great deal from others."[94] she also adds: "i do not willingly praise others and very rarely blame myself." with this avowed disposition, it would perhaps have been wiser not to go too often to the louvre. it was a great imprudence to attract the crowd to herself as she had done at the time in which she was openly opposing the tuileries. the salon of mademoiselle became the first in paris, the most interesting and select. since paris had tasted the pleasures of clever conversation and discovered, under the direction of mme. de rambouillet, the genius of this delicate art, it could not do without it. the initiator was still living, but she was old and ill, and her circle had long been dispersed.[95] mlle. de scudéry had collected together as many of the remnants of her first salon as she could, and had thus laid the foundation for the famous saturdays, at which wit and knowledge were dispensed in abundance. nevertheless, it was not the same. the saturdays of "sapho" brought back the literary people to the pedantry from which mme. de rambouillet had more or less delivered them. they were left too much to themselves, and, thus isolated, they had lost a certain intellectual grace acquired by the friction between the aristocrats and the blue-stockings. the mind as well as the body has its own manners, and they may be bad or good. in 1661, the court alone had breeding. there existed no other society in which the first comer understood how to speak a language easy and _galant_, well adapted to plumed hats and elegant bows. these belonged to the traditions of the place. such courtesies were lacking with the learned friends of mlle. de scudéry, who no longer felt themselves spurred on by the fine gentlemen, so alert, capable of such light railleries, and detesting pedants. the feminine society of the saturdays had also too little intercourse with duchesses and marquises to replace the hôtel rambouillet. mlle. bocquet, who filled a large place in the chronicles of the saturdays, was very amiable and played the lute "marvellously,"[96] but she belonged to the small bourgeoisie. mlle. dupré, another intimate, was an intelligent and educated girl, who had made a special study of philosophy. she quoted descartes too often to have "the air _galant_" in conversation. as much could be said of others. mlle. de scudéry herself, who had been received in the best company and who had formally combated the "blue-stockingism" with admirable good sense, had not written thirty-two octavo volumes with impunity. there still remained a little ink on the end of her fingers. it seemed as if all the pedants of france held their classes in her house. plays upon words filled the papers scattered about, upon which "prosecutions" were held. the "illustrious sapho" had truly inspired molière when he wrote _les précieuses ridicules_; in vain, m. cousin refuses to believe it.[97] i do not myself think that she escaped. mademoiselle rendered to the wits of the day the service of sending them back to the court for lessons in language and manners. we are well informed of this, thanks to the fantasy of a princess which produced a little literature upon the model offered by the luxembourg. in 1657, mademoiselle, being at champigny for the richelieu lawsuit, the princess of tarente[98] and mlle. de la trémouille[99] showed her their literary portraits written by themselves.[100] these were imitations of those which mlle. de scudéry, creator of the kind, gave in her romances,--the personalities to be divined with a key. "i had never before seen anything of the kind; i found them very _galants_, and wrote my own." after her own, she made others, and exacted them from those about her. from this resulted a repertoire unique of its kind, in which noble personages, of both sexes and all ages, have been so obliging as not to leave us ignorant of themselves, from the state of their teeth to their opinions upon love, nor have they omitted to present similar details concerning their friends. the collection of these _portraits_[101] reveals to us how the aristocracy then viewed itself, or, at least, how it wished to be estimated by others. the ordinary beginning was to picture the face and bearing. the fashion was to do this with sincerity, which by no means indicates modesty. the famous duchesse de châtillon warned readers that she was going to speak with a naïveté "the greatest possible." this is why [continues she] i can say that i have the most beautiful and best formed figure which has ever been seen. there is none so regular, so free, so easy. my bearing is entirely agreeable, and in all my actions i have an air infinitely _spirituel_. my face is a most perfect oval, according to all standards; my forehead is slightly elevated, which aids the regularity of the oval. my eyes are brown, very brilliant, and very deeply set; the gaze is very gentle and, at the same time, full of fire and spirit. i have a well-made nose, and as for the mouth, it is not only fine and well coloured, but infinitely agreeable, made so by a thousand little natural expressions not to be seen in any other mouths. my teeth are very beautiful and regular. i have a very small chin. i have not a very white skin. my hair is a clear chestnut, and very lustrous. my neck is more beautiful than ugly. as for my arms and hands, i am not proud of them; but the skin is very soft and smooth. it would be impossible to find a thigh better made than mine or a foot better turned. the description of the physique was a rule of the portraits, not even the _religieuses_ believing that it should be dispensed with. among the portraits is found one of an abbess who visited mademoiselle, the inspiring marie-éléonore de rohan, a person much esteemed on account of her mother, the famous duchesse de montbazon, but very disconcerting, notwithstanding, for our modern ideals of monastic life. she divided herself between the cloister and the world, sufficiently edifying when it was needful, lively and brilliant the remainder of the time, and as natural in the one rôle as in the other. the abbess composed works of piety for her nuns,--among others _la morale de salomon_, many times re-edited, and the _paraphrases des sept psaumes de la pénitence_. the lady of society placed herself before her mirror and wrote without a shade of embarrassment: "i have some haughtiness in my physiognomy and some modesty. i have too large a nose, a mouth not disagreeable, lips suitable, and teeth neither beautiful nor ugly." this "nose too large" shocked the savant huet. in reproducing the portrait of mme. l'abbesse, he wrote: "as the beauty of the nose is one to which i am very sensitive, permit, madame, that i should begin with yours. it is large; it is white, slightly aquiline, and gives something _spirituel_ to your smile." another phrase of huet's gives us a vision of how these pseudo-religieuses, whose species was destined to disappear with the reform of convents, a not regrettable fact, accommodated the convent garb with coquetry: "one cannot imagine," pursued the future bishop, "more beautiful hair than yours; it is ash colour, blond, curls in a very agreeable manner, and admirably suits your face, as far as i have been able to judge, when it has escaped by chance, in spite of your care to conceal it." after the body comes the temper, tastes, qualities, and defects of the mind. here lies the lasting interest of the portraits. it is valuable to know from first hand, through its own confidences, that this aristocratic society, from which the king exacted the complete sacrifice of its independence, hated nothing more than restraint, and did not hesitate to say so. men and women, speaking for themselves, return constantly to this point, and always in the same terms: "i hate restraint. restraint is insupportable to me." "i have an aversion for all that is called restraint." "i suffer oppression impatiently and i passionately love liberty." from the point of view of absolute monarchy and the discipline which it wished to impose upon the court, the french nobility had very bad habits. this nobility professed love of the chivalric virtues, and hatred of anything resembling baseness or disloyalty. in this, it was sincere, only we must admit that opinions are constantly changing even in relation to morals, and that to-day, we might have difficulty in agreeing with a gentleman of 1660 as to what is loyal or base and what is not. honour commanded the gentleman to avenge offences against himself without too closely examining into the methods of so doing. custom authorised him to be unjust and to act with bad faith towards the lowly, common, and feeble, in particular when money was owed. honesty was a bourgeois virtue. mademoiselle considered it unworthy that people of quality should abuse their authority to "ruin miserable creditors," but she was an exception. the obligations of "honour" were extending to all conditions. vatel was praised for having killed himself because the fish did not rise. "it was said," wrote mme. de sévigné, "that this sort of honour was a strength." it was not the same with another sentiment which filled the plays of corneille and which is constantly referred to in all the writings of the time. general consent reserved for people of quality the privilege of having ideas of "glory and of the 'beautiful' or the true," which led, according to huet's definition, to the desire for grand things. the desire for "true glory," which is carefully distinguished from what he called the "halo of glory," was the aristocratic sentiment "par excellence." even among the authors of the _portraits_, every one was not considered to possess the high capacity for strongly feeling this longing. in spite of the prevailing licentiousness of the court, there still remained in this brilliant society many pure women. at the same time, virtue was not particularly honoured. it was a matter of personal taste, the nobility only attaching a secondary and conventional importance to its practice. the women "pure," or those who were supposed so to be, received praise from friendly pens. the others were not looked at askance, except by the jansenists and other sombre spirits. the young comtesse de fiesque, with whom mademoiselle had been embroiled at saint-fargeau, had a well-established reputation for gallantry. the anonymous author of her portrait makes allusion to this, and hastens to add, "truly this does her no harm." no harm at all! mademoiselle did not think of it when mme. de fiesque came to demand pardon for her impertinences: "she threw herself on her knees before me; i raised her up and embraced her; she wept with joy. she is a worthy woman, only too easily led away, but good at heart." naturally men spoke very freely of women; it was like the crowing of cocks. an anonymous writer, who might have been the poet racan,[102] represents himself as "very ugly, very stammering, and very disagreeable, very grumbling besides and untruthful," and goes on, "i am very bold with women and quite as successful as if i were good-looking and possessed the most agreeable qualities in the world to make myself well received. i have indeed found myself sometimes as you see me..." there is still greater contempt expressed for women in the following passage from the portrait of la rochefoucauld by himself: "formerly i was a little _galant_; now not at all, although still youthful. i have renounced all flirtations. i am only astonished that there should still be so many worthy people who occupy themselves in culling these 'little flowers.'" considering mme. de longueville, this statement is rather hard. i would remark in passing, that la rochefoucauld was forty-five[103] at the moment in which he found himself somewhat "young to renounce flirtations." molière, however, was soon to make all paris laugh at the expense of arnolphe,[104] who indulged in love affairs at the age of forty-two. shall we conclude that molière attempted to lessen the limit of the age of love, or was it only in the theatre that fashion exacted young lovers? i leave this question to the clever. it is not without importance in the history of sentiments. [illustration: =françois de la rochefoucauld= from the engraving by hopwood after the painting by petitot] the fashion of portraits lasted but little more than two years with those who were its sponsors; as soon as the custom reached the bourgeoisie, the people of quality abandoned it. the very lively taste developed in the middle class, in their turn, for this diversion proved of real service to literature. the imitators of the "galerie" learned, as previously the creators of the game had done, to know the "interior of people."[105] "the anatomies" of their own hearts, imperfect as they were, habituated them to discern the "qualities and temper of people,"[106] and thus a large public was prepared to comprehend the women of racine. mademoiselle was one of the first to profit by the "soul studies" which she had brought into favour. there remains a little passage in a portion of her _mémoires_, written after 1660, which clearly indicates this. progress is equally marked in a little romance with a key, entitled _histoire de la princesse de paphlagonie_, which was composed and printed at bordeaux in 1659, during the prolonged sojourn of the court at that place. this is not the only imaginative work for which this facile pen[107] is responsible, but it is the only one worthy of notice. the subject is without interest; mademoiselle has incorporated in a literary tale the absurd quarrels of her household: "i made a little history which was finished in three days, by writing in the evening after returning from the queen." in compensation, there are in the _princesse de paphlagonie_ some sketches after nature, written with a firm and live touch, a novelty with mademoiselle. a passage upon the blue room of mme. de rambouillet will prove a great aid in any attempt to reconstruct an elegant interior under louis xiv., if the experiment should ever be made as has been suggested of playing the comedies of molière in the true "chamber" of philaminte or of célimène. others have spoken of the rooms in which mme. de rambouillet received. the harmonious decoration and the scholarly disorder have been before described, yet no one but mademoiselle has given us the intimate atmosphere of the sanctuary, with its measured and discreet light, its luxury of flowers, its objects of art, and its small but choice library betraying the tastes and the preferences of the divinity of the place. the description resembles more nearly the salon of an intelligent woman of the twentieth century than a suite of the château of versailles. the guests of mademoiselle profited also by the refinement of her tastes. she enforced one single rule in her salon: cards were banished. no one was exposed to the danger of being ruined, as was the case in the circle of the king, who encouraged heavy play. it did not displease louis xiv. to be the providence of the losers, this again being a method of keeping his nobles in hand. his cousin in no way shared in such considerations. she said: "i hate to play cards," and only played when it was impossible to avoid doing so. she did not at all like to lose. it was remarked that the luxembourg had gained in gaiety with the exclusion of gambling games. "there is a hundred times as much laughter," relates the abbé de choisy,[108] at this date very young and a frequent guest at the palace of the luxembourg, where he met numerous companions of his own age. the three daughters of the old madame, mlles. d'orléans, d'alençon, and de valois,[109] were always with their step-sister. they escaped from their deserted apartment to run towards the noise and movement; their life was too sad with madame and her eternal "vapours." relegated to their chambers as at blois, with some childish companions, among whom was louise de la vallière,[110] still unknown, they lived in a state of distrust of their almost invisible mother, who never addressed a word to them except in scolding. at least, with mademoiselle one had the right to move. young people had great freedom. little games were organised. parties of hide and seek and blind-man's-buff were enjoyed. "as i had violin players, it was easy to dance in any room sufficiently distant from madame." the abbé de choisy adds a gracious detail: "there were violinists, but ordinarily they were silent and we danced to singing. it is so charming to dance to the sound of the voice." while the young moved gaily about, their elders had also their little games. everything yielded, however, to the unequalled pleasure of conversation. among those who gave éclat to the luxembourg, the names of la rochefoucauld, segrais, mme. de lafayette, and mme. de sévigné may be mentioned. mademoiselle herself often led the conversation, beating the drums a little, her fashion in everything, but also with a certain spontaneity which she always displayed. conversation was, during more than a century, even to the time of the revolution, to be the great delight of intelligent france, and this pleasure rendered incomparable service to the french language, which had rather deteriorated during the first periods of the seventeenth century. it was immediately perceived that the worst fault for a talker was to speak like a book, and the french owe to this simple observation the lesson which taught them to become the first in the world for vivacity and naturalness in the art of conversation. the habitués of the luxembourg only regretted that the conversation did not oftener turn upon love. but, in this respect, mademoiselle was not as complaisant as at saint-fargeau. we have seen that, in practice, she closed her eyes; this simplified life. for her own pleasure, she preferred other topics; this particular one became at length insupportable to her. "i am much criticised," says she in her _portrait_, "because the verses i like the least, are those which are passionate, for i have not a tender soul." besides, she had really nothing more to say upon the subject of love. she had just made her profession of faith in a correspondence with mme. de motteville, who, while awaiting something better, circulated a manuscript in which one reads, "its conditions are shameful; it is robbery and unjust, without faith and without equity. it is an impiety; it mocks the holy sacrament. marriage adjusts nothing: everything is given to man." "let us escape from slavery," cried mademoiselle. "let there be at least one corner of the globe in which one can say that women are their own mistresses." every one has the right to despise love and marriage, provided only that one does not insist on applying this sentiment only to others. the youth of the luxembourg knew too well that mademoiselle sought with an increasing ardour that "slavery" against which in conversation or in writing she called her sex to revolt. her intimate friends realised that she was inventing illusions, under the influence of a possible possession which induced a belief in their reality. she had believed in an eager tenderness on the part of the little monsieur who had married some one else. after the restoration of the stuarts (april, 1660), she imagined (the recital is fully given in her _mémoires_) that the king, charles ii., whom she had refused with disdain when he was only a poor pretender, had no other intention in remounting the throne than again to demand her hand, and that she would nobly respond: "i do not deserve this, having rejected your suit when you were in disgrace. the remembrance of this would always rest on our two hearts and would prevent true happiness." this fine response has been quoted a hundred times. unfortunately, it is very clearly proved through the testimony of english documents[111] that mademoiselle had no occasion to make it. advances, alas! had come from one side only and had been ill received. "i very much desire the marriage of mademoiselle," wrote lady derby[112] to her sister-in-law, mme. de la trémouille, through whom passed the "insinuations," "but the king has a great aversion to it on account of the contempt which she has shown him. i have spoken of her to marquis d'ormond, but i have met with little encouragement." in another letter: "i have proposed mademoiselle, but i have little hope. if the king looks for wealth, we can hardly expect greater than with mademoiselle. but i fear that having been despised in his poverty, he may be little disposed to regard such a marriage." charles ii. would listen to nothing; he had guarded a grudge against his cousin. on the other hand, there is every appearance of truth when she states that the old duc charles iii. de lorraine,[113] had demanded her "on his knees" for a youth of eighteen, prince charles de lorraine, his nephew, who became afterwards one of the most famous austrian generals. it was a question, as can well be understood, of a political combination. unfortunately, prince charles himself had another project, better suited to his age. he was in love with the eldest daughter of madame, marguerite d'orléans, who returned his affection with all her heart. the youthful society of the luxembourg accuses mademoiselle of having, through jealousy, caused this project to fail. "the affair had been advanced," relates that gossip, the abbé de choisy, "but the old mademoiselle had talked and cackled so much that she spoiled everything." she was desperate at the thought of her younger sisters, beggars compared to herself, marrying under her very eyes. marguerite d'orléans made, out of spite, a marriage which turned out badly,[114] but through which mademoiselle in no way profited. owing to a singular change of desire, from the day on which it had depended upon herself to marry prince charles, she had only felt contempt for this little prince "_sans forts_."[115] these caprices made the king impatient, who ended by making negotiations with lorraine without any longer occupying himself with his cousin. louis xiv. still retained the old monarchical principles in relation to the marriage of princesses. he regarded them simply from the point of view of politics; questions to be settled by governments and into which sentiments must not be permitted to intrude. the idea that every human being has a right to happiness did not belong to his times, and if it had been suggested, the king would have surely condemned it, for it insisted upon individual interests as opposed to those of the community, the rights of which appeared specially sacred to the people of the seventeenth century. louis xiv. did not believe for himself that he had the right to accept only the agreeable duties belonging to his "trade of king," since he had undertaken an existence devoted to strenuous labour, when it would have been so pleasant to do nothing. according to his principle, the higher the position of an individual, the more it was fitting that he should sacrifice his own desires to the public good. mademoiselle had the honour of being his first cousin; he had firmly resolved to marry her, or not to marry her, to bestow her hand upon a hero or a monster, according as he should judge it useful to "the service of the king." there was a certain grandeur in this fashion of recognising relationship. it had not occurred to the king that mademoiselle would ever have the audacity to resist him. it can be said that any real understanding between the two was an impossibility. mademoiselle had lived too long in the midst of the opposition to yield to the notion of absolute royal power without limitations and including all possible persons. louis xiv. had a too profound faith in the doctrine of the divine right of kings to refuse for himself any of the prerogatives devolving upon him. both these opinions represented frenchmen at large; but for the moment mademoiselle was being borne along by the ebbing tide, louis xiv. by the rising one. this prince had entered the world at an opportune moment to profit by a doctrine which, according to a happy expression, seemed made for him as he for it. after the reform, the enforcing the old theory of the divine origin of power had a beneficial result. the populace in many a country and province had found themselves as much interested as the sovereigns in suppressing the political power of the pope outside of his own states, and resenting his interference in the affairs of other countries. in france, in the sixteenth century, one meets with calvinist theologians amongst the writers who claimed that princes received their power directly from god, and from god alone. the immediate consequence of this doctrine was to heighten the éclat of royalty. princes became images of divinity, and even something more; louis xiv., not yet five, heard himself spoken of as the "divinity made visible." two years later, the royal catechism[116] explained to him that he was "vice-dieu." twenty years later louis xiv. was "dieu," without any qualification, and bossuet himself declared it from the pulpit. on april 2, 1662, preaching at the louvre and speaking of the duties of kings, bossuet cried: "o gods of nations and of lands, you must die like mortals; nevertheless, until death, you are gods." when a man hears such statements without shrinking, he is quite ready to accept all the consequences. "kings," writes an anonymous person, "are absolute lords of all who breathe in any portion of their empire."[117] louis xiv. has very clearly formulated the same thought in his _mémoires_: "the one who has given kings to men has wished that they should be respected as his lieutenants, reserving for himself alone the right to examine their conduct. it is the divine wish that any one born a subject should obey without question."[118] it must be added that louis had arrived at these conclusions under a pressure of public opinion, which had become impatiently desirous of giving to monarchy the strength needed to place the shattered land again in a condition of order. on the death of mazarin, france resembled a large establishment whose cupboards, confided to a negligent steward, had not during an entire generation been put in order. a flash of vivid hope passed through france on seeing its young monarch, vigorously aided by colbert, put the broom to the mass of abuses and inequities which bore the name of administration, and show himself resolved, in spite of resistance, to introduce into the great public services order and moral cleanliness. this was not finished without tears and grinding of teeth, not without some injustice also, as in the case of foucquet, assuredly culpable, but paying for many others, of whom mazarin was the first. but this cleansing _was_ accomplished. first, the finances were attacked, with the happy result that people paid less and that the imposts returned more; then justice,--law reform was commenced in 1665, and the "grands jours" of auvergne were opened the same year; the army,--the soldiers, paid regularly, committed fewer disorders, and the nobility learned, willingly or not, military obedience. at the same time, industry and commerce increased to such an extent that, from 1668, orders flooded paris "from the entire world" for a vast number of articles which ten years previous had been imported. the ambassador from venice, giustiniani, writes this statement to his government. the strong will of the master had put the country in motion. louis xiv. was confirmed in his high opinion of absolute monarchy. the same year in which bossuet had encouraged him to believe himself above ordinary humanity, the king decided, with a perfectly equable conscience, to marry the grande mademoiselle to a veritable monster, in the interest of a political combination which he held at heart, for he returns to it several times in his _mémoires_. his father-in-law, philippe iv., menaced the independence of portugal.[119] louis xiv. hesitated to assist portugal openly, on account of the treaty of the pyrénées.[120] on the other hand, he considered double-dealing more honest to the spaniards than their conduct might be to him if opportunity permitted. "i cannot doubt that they would have been the first to violate the treaty of the pyrénées on a thousand points, and i should believe myself failing in my duty to the state, if, through being more scrupulous, i should permit them freely to ruin portugal, and to fall back upon me with their entire strength." it seemed to him that he could conciliate all by aiding portugal secretly, and turenne had no repugnance to this course. this kind of action was then called, and is often still designated, sagacious statesmanship. such being the situation, turenne came one afternoon to seek mademoiselle in her cabinet. the account of this interview has been preserved for us by the princess, and we can this time trust her accuracy. her _mémoires_ are in accord with contemporary witnesses. it was towards the end of the winter of 1662. turenne seated himself at the corner of the fireplace and began with tender protestations. "as i am somewhat brusque, i at once demanded of him, 'what is the question?' he replied: 'i wish to marry you.' i interrupted him, saying: 'that is not easy; i am content with my condition.' "'i will make you queen. listen to me. let me tell you everything, and afterward you can speak. i wish to make you queen of portugal.' 'fi!' cried i to myself, 'i do not wish it.' he went on: 'maidens of your quality have no desires; they must act as the king wills.'" the monarch whose mention makes mademoiselle cry "fi!" was called alphonse vi., and was not yet twenty. at twenty-three, the abbé de saint-romain,[121] our envoy to portugal, reported that he could neither read nor write. in compensation, he pulled the ears and tore out the hair of those who approached him, and this was in his "good days"; in the bad ones, he struck, indifferently with his feet, hands, or sword, any one who vexed him. his subjects no longer dared to pass through the streets at night, because one of his diversions was to charge at them suddenly in the "darkness and to try to spit them." in person, alphonse vi. was a fat little barrel, paralysed in one limb, "gluttonous and dirty," almost always drunk, and vomiting after his meals. he wore six or seven coats one over the other, amongst which "a petticoat of three hundred taffetas, embroidered with pistol shots"; upon his head, a hood falling over his eyes, several caps over this, one of which covered the ears, and an "english bonnet" over all. "his body," pursues the abbé, "smells horribly, and he has always bad ulcers in the softer portions ... and these offences could not be supported if he did not bathe once daily in winter, twice in other seasons." fear obliged him to make "seventeen people always sleep in his chamber." turenne, however, forced himself to gild this rather bitter pill. he pointed out to mademoiselle how useful it would be and for what reasons to have a french princess on the throne of portugal. he promised her, knowing her special weakness, that she should be absolute mistress of the "great and powerful army"; that the king would give it entirely over to her by degrees. without doubt, alphonse vi. was a paralytic, "but," asserted turenne, "this does not appear when he is dressed; he only slightly drags one leg, and is a little awkward with his arm. so much the better, if his intelligence also is a little slow. it is not known whether or not he has any wit; after all, it is only good form for husbands to be gay." "but," replied mademoiselle, "to be the link of a perpetual war between france and spain seems to me a very undesirable position." the situation would be still worse if, as she was convinced would be the case, the two crowns should arrive at an accommodation. "a truly beautiful future: to have a drunken and paralytic husband, whom the spaniards would chase from his kingdom, and to return to france to demand alms, when all my wealth has been dissipated, and to remain only the queen of some little village. it is good to be mademoiselle in france with five hundred thousand francs of income, and nothing to demand of the court. thus placed, it is foolish to move. if the court becomes weariness, one can retire to one's château in the country, in which a little private court of one's own can be held. it is very diverting also to build new houses. finally, as mistress of one's own wishes one is happy, for one does what one wills." "but," returned turenne, "remaining mademoiselle, even admitting all that you have said, you are still subject to the king. he commands what he wills; when his wishes are refused, he scolds; a thousand disagreeable things are felt at court; often the king goes farther, he chases people away. when they are content in one place, he sends them to another. he orders journeys from one end of the kingdom to the other. sometimes, he imprisons recalcitrants in their own homes, or sends them into convents, and in the end, obedience must come. what can you reply to this?" "that people of your station do not menace those of mine," cried mademoiselle in anger; "that i know what i must do; that if the king says anything contrary, i will see what i shall respond to him." she forbade turenne to mention this affair again, and withdrew. "five or six days later, he again addressed me." at this time, some common friends were present. mademoiselle grew anxious. how far was turenne the authorised messenger of the king? she wrote to the latter to provoke an explanation. no response. she confided her trouble to the queen mother, who confined herself to these words: "if the king wishes this, it is a terrible pity; he is master; as for me, i have nothing to say in the matter." "i was in frightful haste," adds mademoiselle, "that the time for the baths of forges should come, and that i might go away." the season arrived. it was needful to take leave of the king. she wished to have the court plainly understand her intention: "'sire, if your majesty is thinking of my establishment, here is m. de béziers, who will go to turin; he can negotiate my marriage with m. de savoie.'--'i will think of you when it suits me, and marry you when it will be of service to me,' in a dry tone which much frightened me. after this, he saluted me very coldly, and i went away and i took my waters." mademoiselle had the imprudence both to talk and write. bussy-rabutin even pretends that "she had written a letter to the king of spain, which was intercepted," suggesting a fête in his neighbourhood; but this is difficult to believe, however inconsiderate mademoiselle sometimes was. from forges, mademoiselle went to the château d'eu, which she had bought a short time before. it was at this place, october 15, 1662, that she received from the king commands to return to saint-fargeau, "until new orders." upon the route she met letters from every one. to be banished for having refused to marry alphonse vi.,--the country was not yet ready for these consequences of the new régime. it was soon known that mademoiselle had ordered from paris "needles, canvas, and silk," as if she expected to have on her hands plenty of spare time. but if affairs remained at this point, she was not paying too dearly for the pleasure of escaping being made queen of portugal. this was her own opinion, and she became very amiable. * * * * * the departure of mademoiselle did not leave a large vacuum in the young court; there was at the official ceremonies one princess the less, and this was all. for the new generation had passed with the king to the front ranks; the grande mademoiselle was now only the "old mademoiselle," as abbé de choisy called her. the youthful loves and the pleasures belonging to twenty years had nothing to do with her, nor, what is more, with the queen mother, who had in old age become a preacher, and who now belonged to the "dévots" grouped under her protection. molière by his impiety scandalised these pious people who considered it wicked for the king to have mistresses. the question still waiting to be solved was, on which side the master would definitely range himself. for the moment, louis xiv. leaned very strongly towards the friends of good-nature and of his joyous freedom. would he be gained over by these? would the logic of events and ideas lead him to shake off the trammel of religious practices, then that of belief, in the fashion of hugues de lionne, of the bussy-rabutins, of the guiche, of the roquelaure, of the vardes, and a hundred other "libertins," who only saw in the practices of religion a collection of silly tricks? the obtaining an answer to this query was really the important affair of the year 1662, a much more serious interest than any preoccupation in regard to the chronicle of the doings at the luxembourg or at saint-fargeau. the young queen was anxious; she scented danger, but she knew only how to groan and weep, without comprehending that red eyes and a grumbling tone were not the best attractions for retaining a husband. she had not even the consolation of being pitied, having only made the one friend, anne of austria, who in default of something better, forced herself to preserve some illusions upon the melancholy of the little queen's destiny. it would have been hard to find a better creature than marie-thérèse, fresh and round, who leapt with joy the day following her marriage, and related ingenuously to mme. de motteville her little romance. marie-thérèse had always remembered that her mother,[122] who died when she was only six, had repeated that she desired to see her queen of france; that this was the only possible happiness, or, if not attained, nothing remained but a convent. the little princess had grown up with the thought of france. louis xiv. had been the _prince charmant_ of her infant dreams. when she knew that a french lord came "post haste" to demand her hand for his master, it seemed to her entirely natural. she had spied from a window the arrival of m. de gramont.[123] he had passed by very quickly, followed by many other frenchmen, decorated with gold and silver, and covered with feathers and ribbons of all colours. one might have said, "a _parterre_ of flowers, bearing the royal demand," related the young queen, becoming poetical for the first and last time in her life. once married, marie-thérèse had demanded of her husband the promise that they should never be separated, either by day or night, if it possibly could be avoided. louis xiv. promised and kept his word, but it was a useless precaution. according to mme. de motteville and mme. de maintenon,[124] the queen did not know how to conduct herself toward her husband. she was stupid in her manner of showing her devotion; if the king wanted her, she would refuse to sacrifice a prayer in order to be with him. she had also an "ill-directed" jealousy; if the king did not desire her company, she did not sufficiently distinguish, in her complaints, against those who wiled him away, between mlle. de la vallière and the council of ministers. her ill temper was discouraging. if the king led her with him, she complained of everything; if he did not, there were floods of tears. if the dinner was not to her taste she sulked; if it pleased her, tormented herself: "everything will be eaten, nothing will be left for me." "and the king jeered at her," added mademoiselle, having the honour, through her birth, of being often found amongst those who "eat everything." [illustration: =hélène lambert, madame de motteville= after the painting by de largillière] marie-thérèse was good, generous, virtue itself, she had a violent passion for her husband, and with all this she was a person to be avoided. mme. de maintenon summed up the situation in saying that "the queen knew how to love but not how to please; the reverse of the king, who possessed qualities for pleasing all, without being capable of a strong affection. all women except his own wife were agreeable to him." free-thinkers and debauchees did not have to consider marie-thérèse; she had not a shadow of influence over her husband. for different reasons, neither monsieur, the brother of the king, nor the wife of monsieur were any obstacles. much has been said of the seductive power of mme. henrietta of england[125]; of her irresistible grace, her delicate beauty, and her special charm. these characteristics, very rare with a great princess, had proved of great value during her youth of humiliating poverty, when she was reduced to living as a "private person." she had then met with "all celebrities, all civility, and all humanity, even upon ordinary conditions,[126] and nothing perhaps had contributed more to make her love men and adore women." her faults were great, but they were not weighed against her, on account of that gift of pleasing which was in her and which circumstances had developed. madame was a hidden evil influence, and an openly dangerous one. she could become the centre of low court intrigues, without losing, or even risking, the loss of her empire over hearts. to this first good fortune was united that of having bossuet to shelter her memory. henrietta of england has traversed "centuries protected by his [bossuet's] funeral oration," as she passed through her life protected by the fascination with which nature endows certain women, by no means always the best ones. monsieur since our last encounter with him had not improved. he had, as might be said, publicly and without shame, established himself in vice, and in vice of the worst kind. marriage had done nothing for him. "the miracle of inflaming the heart of this prince," discreetly explains mme. de la fayette, "was reserved for no woman belonging to the social world."[127] delivered over to a crowd of very exacting favourites who never left him a moment free from domestic complications, monsieur had, according to the expressive word of his mother, become indisputably an intriguer. between madame and himself, their court was a place of inconceivable agitation, a sink of lies and calumnies, of small perfidies, and little treasons, which make one sick, even when related by mme. de la fayette. truly, i hardly know whether or not in writing her _histoire de madame henriette_ this latter has rendered a service to her dear princess. with the exception of the first pages, before the marriage, and of the beautiful death scene at the end, the rest is a tissue of nothings so contemptible in every respect that the book falls from one's hands: and this is all that the author of the _princesse de clèves_ has found to say about a person so prominent; of a sister-in-law to whom louis xiv. confided political secrets and whom he loved almost _too_ dearly. among all the personages belonging to the royal family, the libertins had only to consider the queen mother, their declared enemy, and the king himself, as yet too reserved for it to be divined how he contemplated accommodating pleasure and religion. it had not taken long to perceive that he would not restrain himself in pleasure. he was married, june 9, 1660. a year later commenced the series of mistresses imposed upon the royal household and upon france, they and their children, in a fashion which recalls oriental polygamy rather than the manners of the occident. louis xiv. had felt himself incapable of a virtuous life. one day, when his mother, profiting by the tenderness awakened by a reconciliation--they had not spoken for some time to each other--represented the scandal of his liaison with mlle. de la vallière, he responded cordially with tears of grief which proceeded from the bottom of his heart, where were still some remains of his former piety,--"that he knew his wrong; that he felt sometimes the pain and shame of it; that he had tried his best not to offend god and not to yield to his passions, but he was forced to confess that they were stronger than his reason, that he could not resist their violence, and that he no longer felt any desire so to do."[128] this conversation took place in july, 1664. the following autumn, the king having found the queen, his wife, in tears in her oratoire on account of a too-well founded jealousy, he gave her the hope of finding him at thirty "a good husband,"--a somewhat cynical suggestion. he not only had "violent passions," but he had not discovered any reasons for restraining himself in regard to women. one reads in his _mémoires_, which were written for the dauphin to see, a passage worthy of lord chesterfield, in which he gives his son his ideas upon the subject of kings' mistresses. the page referred to relates to the year 1667, in which commenced the war of the _dévolution_:[129] before departing for the army, i sent an edict to parliament. i raised to a duchy the territory of vaujours in favour of mlle. de la vallière and recognised a daughter of mine by her. for, resolving in accompanying the army not to remain apart from possible perils, i thought it just to assure to the child the honour of her birth, and to give to her mother an establishment suitable to the affection which since her sixth year i had felt for her. i might have done well not to mention this attachment, the example of which is not good to follow; but having drawn much instruction from the failings of others, i have not wished to deprive you of the lessons you may learn from mine. [illustration: =louise de la vallière= from the engraving by flameng after the painting by petitot] [blank page] the first instruction to draw from his failings was that it was not needful to waste time on women; "that the time devoted to love should never be taken to the prejudice of other duties." the second consideration was that in abandoning the heart it was necessary to remain absolute master of one's mind: that the tenderness of a lover should be separated from the resolutions of a sovereign; that the fair one who gives pleasure should never be permitted to speak of affairs, or of those who serve us, and that the two portions of life should be kept entirely apart. "you will remember how i have warned you on various occasions of the harmful influence of favourites; that of a mistress is still more dangerous." louis xiv. insisted at length upon the mental weakness which makes women dangerous. he had studied them from an intimate point of view, and he judged "these animals" almost as did arnolphe. "they are," said he to the dauphin, "eloquent in their expressions, pressing in their prayers, obstinate in their sentiments. no secret can be safe with them. they always act with calculation, and consequently use 'cunning and artifice.' however much it may cost to a loving heart, a prince cannot take too many 'precautions' with his mistresses. this is a duty imposed upon him by the throne itself." poor la vallière, so disinterested, so little of an intriguer! what grief if she had read these cruel pages! the counsels we have just read are very politic, very prudent; they have nothing to do with either morality or religion. the royal _mémoires_, in another part indeed, add that "the prince should always be a perfect model of virtue," and also that it is a christian duty to abstain from all illicit commerce, "which is _almost never innocent_." as a matter of fact, louis xiv. had not extracted much in regard to moral discipline from a cult of which he knew only the forms. during his infancy, his mother had reserved to herself his religious education. she had led him at an early age into the churches, where she passed a portion of each day, and she had communicated to him a little of her narrow and mechanical piety. louis xiv. never understood any other kind. he knew his catechism but little better than his latin grammar. this ignorance was, perhaps, aggravated by the fact of his realising the need of a knowledge of latin in order to read diplomatic despatches, while he could see no use whatever in knowing the facts of religion. he never changed in this respect; mme. de maintenon herself made vain efforts. the second madame, la palatine, did not succeed better. she wrote: "if he only believed that he should listen to his confessor and recite his _pater noster_, all would go well and his devotion would be perfect."[130] holding these ideas, the king was very vexed, deified as he was by a crowd of adulators, to meet among his subjects men sufficiently bold to blame his conduct and to frankly tell him so. some prelates showed severity. it belonged to their profession to do so. but that courtiers, and even, as it was related, a simple bourgeois of paris, should dare to address remonstrances to their sovereign,--this could not be tolerated,--especially as their reproaches excited his mother against him,--at the risk of an embroilment, which in fact occurred. as good politics, if for no other reason, louis xiv. was resolved not to permit any interference in his affairs. he felt somewhat vaguely that all these people were uniting to teach him a lesson. he suspected a considerable organised force behind this _cabale des dévots_, who represented austerity at court, and whom the libertins of the louvre ridiculed. we know this organised force. we have seen it at work in a former chapter under the name of _the compagnie du saint sacrement_, when it was engaged with vincent de paul in the great charitable undertakings of the century.[131] the malevolent nickname of _cabale des dévots_ had been given, towards the year 1658, by the many who abominated the society without knowing its true title or its organisation, simply because it disturbed the course of their own existence. since the date at which we last saw the organisation at work, the management had been offering the same mixture of good and evil. everything that it had done for the relief of the poor, the prisoners, the galley slaves, and other miserable beings, to protect them against abuse and tyranny, and to raise them morally, had been above all praise; as had also its efforts to assure a certain amount of decency in the streets, or to combat in the higher classes the two curses of the time, duels and gambling. as much cannot be said of the narrow and fanatical opinions which rendered it a persecutor and police agent, of its taste for spying or accusing, of its barbarity in regard to heretics and men of genius. it easily became dangerous and malignant, and it was difficult to find defence against this occult power which had "eyes and ears everywhere." mazarin, whom it secretly tormented through anonymous letters, had sought and pursued it with eagerness, and during the last months of his life the society was forced to hide itself. after the death of the cardinal, the _compagnie_ again put itself in motion, and it is evident that it had regained confidence, for with only the queen mother for its friend it dared to attack the king. at this epoch, anne of austria is a very interesting person. the _compagnie du saint sacrement_ had become a political party since it tried to make sure of the king, and if it had succeeded, the history of the entire reign would have been altered. delivered to its influence, the state would not have delayed until the great revolution to trouble its conscience about the duties towards the people at large. the imprudence of the conduct of the society towards the king, and his indiscretions, gave the game to the libertins. they did not despair, considering the discontent of the king, of attracting him to themselves, to their incredulity, their lack of docility towards religious belief, and in truth, without going to the point of regretting their final check, we can hardly be sorry that this "routine intelligence" should have received a slight shock. the mind of louis xiv., so remarkable for its justice and solidity, was the opposite of the modern mind in its total absence of curiosity and in the difficulty of changing its point of view. the king had need of skeptical reading. as he never read, the assaults of the libertins rendered him the service of slightly moving his ideas; they deranged him in his habits of mechanical practices. olivier d'ormesson, who was of the _compagnie du saint sacrement_, wrote, after the pentecost of 1664, "that the king had not performed his devotions at the fête, and that monsieur having demanded if he intended to 'practice,' he had replied that he was no longer going to be a hypocrite like himself, who was confessing only to please the queen mother."[132] the conscience of the king was passing through a crisis; every one felt this. in the presence of an event of such importance, the misfortunes of the grande mademoiselle, already but little in the thoughts of the rising generation, completely lost interest. everything was forgotten. during the first months of her exile, mademoiselle was occupied in opposing the king. louis xiv. had not abandoned the idea of marrying her to alphonse vi., and turenne was endeavouring to make her "reasonable," from which resulted an "interchange of letters" and of official visits which had the good side of breaking the monotony at saint-fargeau. this time, the life there was very dull. the old animation had not returned. too proud to avow it, mademoiselle expressed herself cheerfully in her letters. on november 9, 1662, she wrote to bussy-rabutin: "i believe that the sojourn which i shall make here will be longer than you desire. if i were not afraid of appearing too indifferent, i should say that i care but little. perhaps this would be true; but it is not well to always speak the truth."[133] her _mémoires_ are more sincere. she relates that at the end of five months, she wrote to the king that she should die if she remained longer; that it was an unhealthy place on account of the marshes by which the château was surrounded; that she "did not believe herself to have done anything which merited death, and such a death, ... and if he wished her to make a long penitence for the crimes which she had _not_ committed, she supplicated him to permit her to go to eu." louis xiv. permitted eu, but made mademoiselle understand that he had not renounced the project of marriage with the king of portugal, and that he hoped to lead her, through his kindness, "to the sentiments she should have." she did not delay to discuss the matter. "i departed at once and quitted saint-fargeau without regret." this was a final adieu. mademoiselle had just bought the comté d'eu, under circumstances which show how the landed and manorial estates of the ancient régime, which from a distance appear so solid, were in reality held by the most fragile tenure and at the mercy of any accident. the comté d'eu was the property of the illustrious and powerful family of guise. in 1654, the proprietor of the moment, louis de lorraine, duc de joyeuse, was killed at the siege of arras, leaving an only son of youthful age, louis joseph de lorraine, prince de joinville. this child had for guardian his aunt, mlle. de guise, an intelligent and important person, the oracle of the family, says saint-simon. he had also two other guardians, one of whom, claude de bourdeville, comte de montresor, had secretly married mlle. de guise. these three guardians soon perceived that they were powerless to defend the interests confided to them. the comté d'eu was burdened with two million francs of debt, a figure which would not have led to disaster if the duc de joyeuse had been there to make his rights respected and to reclaim his share of the monarchical manna; such as pensions, gratifications of the king, benefices, governments, court charges. but he was dead, and the property of the minor had been put to the quarry, by the people of affairs on the one hand, and the norman peasants on the other. against these business sharks, the guardians were obliged, after years of struggle, to invoke the aid of parliament. they addressed a petition[134] in which they stated that their ward, because he was a child "destitute of the powerful means" which his father would have possessed, had become the victim of usurers and rogues. the two million debt of the comté d'eu had been largely bought up by artificial and suspicious creditors, with whom it was impossible to arrive at any settlement. these fishers in troubled waters had brought the disorder to its height in practising seizures. the entire revenue was exhausted by expenses. the guardians besought parliament to extricate them from this slough in ordering a replevin "of all the seizures and judgments, and in according that there should be a reprieve from all prosecutions and executions against them during two years." they hoped with this respite to arrive at a general liquidation. against the norman peasants no one saw anything to do but quickly to outwit them through the sale of the comté d'eu to a master capable of overawing them. the difficulty, under the conditions in france at that time, was to find a person of quality able to dispose of several millions. mademoiselle, who always had money, had at once been thought of. at first, she was too occupied in fighting her father, but the idea struck her favourably, and as soon as her hands were free she remembered the suggestion. the bargain was concluded in 1657. this affair did not suit the pettifoggers. there were so many opposing clauses, so many legal complications, so many lawsuits, and so many decrees needed in order to place mademoiselle in power, and to make it possible for her to possess eu in due form, that years rolled by, as the petition of the two guardians testifies, before the peasants of eu were deranged in their work of moles. during the delay, they had continued to devour the substance of the princely orphan, aided it must be said by other normans not peasants, who did not show themselves more scrupulous or less avaricious. how both gentles and peasants acted can be exactly known through the archives of eu. at the time of the guardian petition, mademoiselle had sent one of her men to take account of the state of affairs. the report of the agent, completed by other business papers,[135] establishes that the comté of eu drew more than half its revenue from its forest. this forest, which still exists, contains from ten to eleven thousand acres,[136] is eight to nine leagues long, and should have been formed of trees of all ages, if the inhabitants had not worked so industriously that it was difficult to find a "piece of timber." it was, at the date of which we are speaking, only underwood, and often only scrub bushes, on account of the cattle which "damaged it." the entire neigbourhood had contributed to this extraordinary destruction of a forest of eight leagues. the inhabitants of twenty villages, several abbeys, gentlemen, priests, simple private people had come, under pretext of "ancient rights," to take the wood as if it belonged to them. the guards of the forest and their relatives and friends had likewise helped themselves. the officials of the domain had cut, wrongly or rightly, what the public had left, and to complete the ruin of the woods, every one had sent cows or pigs to run through the young bushes. the agent of mademoiselle concluded that it was absolutely needful to stop this pillage, or even "fifty thousand francs' worth of wood could never be secured annually." he pointed out other abuses; in the absence of a firm hand the nature of seignorial privilege rendered these inevitable. i have myself seen many tables of the revenues of the comté eu in the seventeenth century. the frauds must have been easy and tempting, the collecting of imposts most costly. one notes a payment due at christmas, in money and material, by inhabitants, possessors of any real estate, "house or hovel," field or garden: "francis guignon of the village of cyrel owes 40 sols 2 capons, on account of a house in the said cyrel." "françois de buc ... owes 8 sols a third of a capon, on account of a house." "guillaume fumechon ... owes 43 sols and 2 capons on account of half an acre of land." "the heirs of jean dree owe 8 sols and the half of a capon." "jean rose 31 sols, 2 fowls and 11 eggs, on account of meadow lands." "the sieur de saint-igny of mesnil at caux owes 4 francs 9 sols, 10 bushels of wheat and the same quantity of oats." "alizon owes 3 sols, 6 deniers and one third of a capon." a cultivator owes "78 quarts of wheat, 15 bushels of oats and a fowl." another "2 bushels 1 quart of oats and a quarter of a goose." another "5 quarters of a goose," and so on through 350 folio pages. the impost called "_du travers_" was enforced upon merchandise entering eu by the gate of picardy. so much was paid by chariot or loaded horse. butchers paid for "every head of cattle, sow, or pig, one denier, for each white beast, an obole"; vendors of fish for each basket borne upon the arm, "2 deniers"; furriers for each skin, an obole. then comes the impost "upon the 'old clothes,' or 'dyed materials' for which is due for every bed sold in the city of eu, new or old, 4 deniers; and for each robe, doublet, or pair of stockings, or any other article for the use of man or woman, when sold, 1 denier." the linen merchant also owed one denier, upon pain of amend, for each cut sold. there was levied a tax upon the measuring of grain and the weighing of merchandise. the mills were the property of the lord of eu, and grinding was not permitted except for him. the agent of mademoiselle recommended the enforcing of this, which had been neglected, with the result of diminished revenue. the fishers of tréport paid 500 herrings at each drawing of the nets; outsiders who came to fish in the tréport, 100 herrings. all stray animals not reclaimed before one year belonged to the lord of eu, and all royal fish, like sturgeons, whales, porpoises, 8 "_oues de mer_," and other large fish. this is not all, but it is sufficient to explain the rapidity with which the revenue of a seignorial property melted away when the master was not there to make the little world afraid, to solicit judges, in case of lawsuits, according to the usage, and to apply to the king in need, for an important person, having, according to the popular expression, "the long arm." both evil and possible remedy were known. the deplorable state in which affairs had been found had not at all disturbed the agent of mademoiselle. knowing his mistress, he did not doubt that she would get the better of the normans, and he predicted success. "when everything is put in order," said he, "(as appears will easily be accomplished) the comté of eu will be a profitable estate yielding a great revenue." the use of the word "easily" was a slight exaggeration. the comté of eu was finally "adjudged" to mademoiselle de montpensier, by "decree" of the parliament of paris, august 20, 1660, for the sum of 2,550,000 francs. she undertook at once to save the remnants of the forest and found the population leagued against her to guard its prey. at the end of six months, mademoiselle felt that she was hardly strong enough for the task, and addressed herself to the king.[137] she explained to him that for the surveillance of her forest she had established a numerous guard which "cost much to support," but that the inhabitants had formed the habit of entering boldly into the said forest and of committing all sorts of misdemeanours, boasting that they would continue so to do; that they had just killed with a gun shot in his stomach, one of her guards for having tried to prevent a theft of wood; that they were threatening others to have them appointed collectors of imposts, which would leave them no time to guard; that they taxed them as peasants, also with other impositions; that, in one word, the best was done to render the position of guard untenable. mademoiselle consequently begged the king that he would particularly forbid the inhabitants to carry arms or to have them in their homes, and, on the other hand, that he would permit her guards to be armed. she reclaimed for them also certain privileges which would enable them to punish delinquents. louis xiv. accorded all, and it proved possible to stop the depredations. on the death of mademoiselle, the forest of eu was again filled with full-grown trees. as to suppressing the "rights," it was useless to be first cousin to the king; this could not be accomplished. all that could be done was to prevent these rights multiplying and to limit as far as practicable their exactions. between the possessors of these "rights" and the proprietor, there was a chronic state of hostility. there still exist special "rights" in france; every one can for himself observe the inconvenience of the system. the only one of those interested who derived no profits from the game was the little prince de joinville, his creditors having continued their man[oe]uvres to avoid any settlement. on march 27, 1661, the parliament of paris rendered a decree which obliged them to accept payment. eight years had elapsed since the death of the duc de joyeuse. the budget of debts had reached the sum of two millions of francs.[138] when all was finally settled, instead of having a balance for their ward, the guardians found themselves in face of a deficit of more than 150,000 francs. we have already seen how gaston, in his position as chief of the house, had boldly pillaged the fortune of his minor daughter. in the present case, on the contrary, it was the loss of the father which had given opportunity for the spoliation of a child. mazarin had left gaston alone as a punishment to mademoiselle for her conduct during the fronde. louis xiv. seems to have taken little interest in the offshoot of the turbulent and ambitious family of guise. in both cases, the favourable or unfavourable attitude of royalty had decided the issue of an affair of money. mademoiselle took official possession of eu on august 24, 1661. an entry such as she loved had been arranged, with procession, banners, venetian lanterns, speeches, musket salutes, and the firing of cannon from all the artillery in the city[139]--one dozen pieces of cannon and forty _boëtes_ upon the ramparts and eight cannon and forty _boëtes_ upon the terrace of the château. mademoiselle returned the following year, but only actually installed herself at eu in 1663 after having obtained permission to leave saint-fargeau: "i am resolved to pass my winter here, without any chagrin at the thought." she watched her workmen, walked a great deal, and busied herself in the domestic offices. she also received visits: "there were many provincial people, reasonable enough; a number of persons of rank; but my heart was heavy. comedians came to offer themselves; but i was in no humour for them. i began to be discouraged. i read; i worked; days were occupied in writing; all these things made the time pass insensibly." this page of the _mémoires_ permits a glimpse of a rather restricted life. a letter from mademoiselle to bussy-rabutin confirms and accentuates the impression: eu, november 28, 1663. here is the single response to your letters. i claim that you should write four to my one, and i believe that this will be better for you; for what can one send from a desert like this, in which one sees no one all winter, the roads being impracticable for people from a distance, from paris for instance, and the winds being so strong on the plains through which neighbours must pass that the north-west wind is feared by all as a furious beast. the situation of the château d'eu is melancholy enough, the sea wind truly "ferocious" in the environs. the gazettes from paris were filled with descriptions of fêtes and visions of glory, which contrasted with the mediocrity of a provincial court. mademoiselle had in vain decided not to be bored. she discovered that she, like the rest of france, had no life far from the king; there was nothing left but shadow. in the memorable conversation in which louis xiv. avowed to his mother that he was no longer master of his passions, anne of austria had warned him that he was "too intoxicated with his own grandeur."[140] she spoke truly; the infatuation had been rapid. the excuse for the king was the fact that the entire world shared in his self-admiration. it is not our plan to give any account of the internal government, or of diplomatic action, which relates to the early attempts of louis xiv., so fruitful in great results and so glorious for himself. we limit ourselves to stating the fact. the superiority of france is manifested in the first contact with england and spain, and was not less clearly felt on the other side of the rhine. louis, says a german historian, possessed an influence in the german empire, at least in its western portions, equal if not superior to the authority of the emperor.[141] strangers were almost always struck by the solicitude of his government for artisans and commercial people. [illustration: =jean baptiste colbert= after the painting by champaign] without doubt, sentimental reasons did not count for much; when colbert forbade the collectors of taxes to take the cattle from the labourers, he was simply applying in the name of the king the principles of a good business man who considers his debtor. but the benefit was no less great. from whatever point of view one looked, france gave to other nations the impression of a progressive people. it was recognised that she had taken the position of head of europe. the country at large felt this. it very justly considered this upward flight due to the personal efforts of its young king, and was grateful for his enormous labour. louis well understood this. it was a "party cry" to insist on all occasions upon the trouble which he took in his "trade of king" and the great fatigues which he endured for the public good. the _gazette_, as an official journal, never failed to emphasise this. every event was coloured to this end. apropos of a trip of eight days, the journal wrote[142]: "this prince, as indefatigable as hercules in his labours," etc. it justified the royal ballets, which were most costly, by the excuse of the excessive brain work of the chief of state. "on the eighth [january, 1663], the king, wearied with the pains with which his majesty works so indefatigably for the welfare of his subjects, enjoyed in the palace of the cardinal the diversion of a ballet of seven acts, called the _ballet des arts_." louis xiv. danced in the _ballet des arts_ three times; mlles. de vallière, de sévigné, and de mortemart had a lively success in it; the latter was on the eve of becoming mme. de montespan.[143] the accounts of the representations of the new ballet alternate in the _gazette_ with the funeral ceremonies in honour of a daughter of the king and queen, who died at six weeks of age on december 30th. louis xiv. had wept over his loss with that superficial sensibility in which he resembles, strange as it seems, the philosophers of the seventeenth century. he could have given points to diderot in regard to the facility of pouring out torrents of tears, and he often astonished the court by his emotion. he deceived the queen from morning till evening, and he cried to see her weep when he quitted her. he brought forth crocodile tears for the death of his father-in-law.[144] in a turn of the hand, again like diderot, he forgot his existence, and lost on his account neither a step in the dance nor a _galant rendezvous_. [illustration: ="pleasures of the island of enchantment." scene on the first day of the play, before the king at versailles= from the engraving by israel silvestre ] to the ballet succeeded other "relaxations," and it is curious to see the _gazette_ taking the pains to explain that the king had well earned a simple trip for pleasure (april 7, 1663): "this week the king, in order to gain some relief from the continual application for the establishing the felicity of his subjects, has enjoyed the diversion of a little journey to saint-germain-en-laye and to versailles." the mundane chronicles[145] falling into line, louis xiv. saw his "glory" as a great worker ascending into the clouds, together with his "glory" as a man of war, and in one word as "universal hero." he could not even exercise his musketeers without the _gazette's_ issuing an extra leaf upon the "admiration of all spectators."[146] all france struck the same note. when he went to take possession of dunkerque,[147] he passed before a plaster olympus, fabricated for the occasion. "he witnessed neptune, who respectfully lowered his trident; the spirits of the earth and sea prostrated before this mighty prince"--that is to say, himself, and he permitted his official journal to regale the country with these follies; it was clear in his eyes that neptune and his court only did their duty. every one was prepared to deify him, and he received this homage with pleasure. this atmosphere of worship was very harmful to a man born with much good sense and with many superior parts. the brilliancy of his court, for which he was considered responsible, contributed also to the general dazzle. the surging crowd of twenty years later did not yet exist, when the château of versailles was finished, and louis xiv. held his nobility lodged under his own hand,[148] only moving from his side to make a campaign. the young court was only numerous at intervals. it will shortly be seen how much it had increased in may, 1664. on the 27th of the following month, the duc d'enghien wrote from fontainebleau: "there are almost no women here, and but few men. never has the court been so small."[149] on august 16th, also at fontainebleau, the queen mother gave a ball; she had only sixteen ladies and as many men.[150] in october, the court is at paris, and the king gives a fête: "the ball was not fine," writes the grand condé, "the greater number of the ladies being still in the country. in all paris, only fourteen could be found."[151] [illustration: ="pleasures of the island of enchantment." second day= from the engraving by israel silvestre] during these first years, the nobility was not yet encouraged to leave all, to come to live under the shadow of the throne. those having provincial charges "obtained with difficulty leave of absence."[152] those lacking money to appear with fitting magnificence had little aid to expect from royalty; the shower of gold did not begin to fall until later, and louis xiv. even passed for being close-fisted. "besides his natural temperament," said condé, "which is not given to lavishness, he is held back by m. colbert, who is still less given to spending, particularly when he is not persuaded of the advantage of the affair for which money must be scattered."[153] it is well known that colbert did not love waste; but he did know how to be liberal, even for expenses of luxury. no one was more convinced of the advantage of display for a sovereign, and he spared neither pains nor state pennies in making the grand festivals with which his master entertained the court and city, unrivalled in europe. and they were unparalleled, especially in the early years when tastes, like everything else, were young. even the faults, by which perhaps the tastes were benefited, were youthful. what is called impulse with the very young man takes the name of vice with the mature, and, whatever may be said, the one is much uglier than the other. louis xiv. was only twenty-three when he fell in love with mlle. de la vallière, and the festivities which he offered in her honour expressed this freshness. there were exquisite fairy scenes with the light decorations of flowers and leaves. the most famous, on account of molière's partial authorship, was called the _plaisirs de l'ile enchantée_, which was given at versailles in may, 1664. it lasted three days, and was prolonged three days more, in spite of the great number of invitations and the difficulties occasioned by the immense crowd. the court, says a "relation,"[154] arrived the fifth of may, and the king entertained till the fourteenth six hundred guests, beside a quantity of people needed for the dance and comedy, and of artisans of all sorts from paris, so numerous that it appeared a small army. all now known of versailles must be forgotten if we wish to picture it in 1664. versailles was then a small village surrounded on three sides by fields and marshes.[155] the fourth side was occupied by a château which would have been spacious for a private person, but which meant little for a court; a few dependencies; the beginning of a garden planted by le nôtre. that was all. [illustration: =general view of the château of versailles= from the engraving by israel silvestre, 1664] colbert considered versailles already too large, as soon as louis xiv. decided to offer anything more to his guests than the four walls of their chambers. it will be remembered[156] that when mademoiselle came to saint-germain to visit the queen mother she brought her own furniture and cook. not even food was provided. this was the general rule. louis xiv. aspired to great hospitality, and commenced his reform at versailles. "what is very peculiar in this house," wrote colbert in 1663, "is that his majesty has desired all apartments given to guests to be furnished. he also orders every one to be fed and provided with all necessities, even to the wood and candles in the chambers, which has never been the custom in royal establishments." colbert was evidently in a bad humour. there were, however, but few apartments to offer in the château of versailles; the 600 guests soon perceived this fact themselves. the journal of olivier d'ormesson contains on the date of may 13 the following lines: "this same day, mme. de sévigné has related to us the diversions of versailles, which have lasted from wednesday till sunday[157]: courses of bague, ballets, comedies, fireworks, and other beautiful inventions; but all the courtiers were enraged, for the king took no care of them, and monsieurs de guise and d'elbeuf could hardly find a hole in which to shelter themselves." it is to be noted that the duc de guise must costume himself and all his lackeys. the thême of the fête had been drawn from _roland furieux_, and had been made to accord with up-to-date episodes, by a courtier expert in this kind of work, the duc de saint-aignan. during three days and three nights, a volunteer company, composed of louis xiv., molière, and the greatest nobles of france, with the prettiest actresses of paris, embellished the imaginations of ariosto, in the presence of two queens and of an immense court which seemed, says the _gazette_, to have "exhausted the indies"[158] in order to cover itself with precious stones. halls of verdure, arches of flowers, and the vault of heaven formed the frame in which deployed the mythological processions, the games of chivalry, the ballets, the festivities for the "little army," and the first two representations of molière, of which one was to be the striking literary event of the century. in the evening, lamps hung upon the trees were lighted and the fête continued during the night. gentle and tender music softened this apotheosis of love, of which the heroine--and this gave an added charm--remained hidden in the crowd; louise de la vallière was still neither "recognised" nor duchess. the first of the great days of the fête was open to all. the king of france and the flower of the nobility as paladins of charlemagne, clothed and armed "à la grecque," according to the seventeenth century ideas of local colour, took part in a tournament before a sumptuous assembly who, at the appearance of the master, uttered "cries of joy and admiration."[159] [illustration: =the front of the louvre in course of erection= from the engraving by s. le clerc, 1677] louis xiv. sought these exhibitions. he shone in them and attributed to them an importance which in his _mémoires_ he explains to his son. he believed them very efficacious for binding together the affections of the people, above all those of high rank, and the sovereign. the populace have always loved spectacles, and for the nobility, the more closely the king keeps it at court, the more pains he must take to show that there is no aversion between sovereign and subject, but simply a question of reason and duty. nothing serves better for this than carrousels and other diversions of the same nature: "this society of pleasure, which gives to the courtiers an honest familiarity with us, touches and charms them more than can be told." the partakers in the "tournament" of 1664 had in reality been very proud of the honour done them. they appeared covered with gold, silver, and jewelry, escorted by pages and gentlemen gallantly equipped. after them, defiled allegorical chariots, personages of fable, and strange animals, molière as the god pan, one of his comrades mounted upon an elephant, another upon a camel. at the supper in the open air, which terminated the day, the royal table was served by the _corps de ballet_, who, dancing and whirling bore in the different dishes. the cavaliers of the tournament, with their helmets covered with feathers of various colours, and wearing the mantles of the course, stood erect behind the guests. two hundred masks, bearing torches of white wax illumined this admirable living picture, worthy of the great poet who inspired it. the next day was occupied in giving to the two hundred guests a lesson in natural philosophy, no longer symbolical and veiled, but clear and direct; it was perfectly comprehended and the spectators were convinced. the lesson was from molière, who had written his _princesse d'elide_[160] in the design well formed of "celebrating" and "justifying" the loves of the king and la vallière. the _récit de l'aurore_ will be recalled which opens the piece. dans l'âge où l'on est amiable, rien n'est si beau que d'aimer. soupirer librement pour un amant fidèle, et braver ceux qui voudraient vous blâmer. it will also be recollected that the five acts which follow are only the development, full of insistence, of that invitation to the ladies of the court not to merit the "name of cruel." after serious affairs, innocent pleasures followed, the most applauded of which was a piece of fireworks which embraced "the heavens, the earth, and the waters." [illustration: =jean baptiste poquelin molière= after the painting by noël coypel] every one was already thinking of departure, when on monday, may 12th, molière presented the first act of _tartuffe_. the connivance of the king appears well established. father rapin relates that the "sect of the _dévots_" had, since the time of mazarin, rendered itself so insupportable by its indiscreet advice, that the king, "in order to ridicule them, had permitted molière to represent them on the stage." the _dévots_ had seen the blow coming, and did their best to avoid it; the annals of the _compagnie du saint sacrement_ affirm this.[161] they report that there was "strong talk" in the séance of april 17th, in the attempt to accomplish the suppression of the wicked comedy _tartuffe_. each member of the _compagnie_ charged himself to speak to any friends who had credit at court, "begging aid in preventing its representation." the effort was vain. _tartuffe_ was acted. the spectators divined without difficulty whom molière had in view, and the _dévots_ heard with emotion this openly significant expression of contempt of religious forms, in less than one week after the _princesse d'elide_ had thrown its weight upon the side of questionable morals. from the point of view of a general principle, the two pieces naturally followed each other; they were two chapters of the same gospel. the king had the air of being about to pass to the enemy and of uniting himself with the libertins. the cabal made a desperate effort and _tartuffe_ was forbidden; at the same time no one imagined that the battle was terminated. an extraordinary agitation around the king might have been seen during the weeks which followed the fêtes of versailles. the court at once departed for fontainebleau; the two parties disputed the entire summer over the young monarch. louis himself had skirmished with both. the king felt at the same time a personal revolt against the constraints of the church, and the need of a politic catholicity which would sustain the practices of religion for state reasons, because he could not do without their aid. these two fashions of thinking can easily be accommodated together, and the king was in train to learn how to do this. after a little delay, the conciliation between the two points of view was completed in his mind. while waiting, he lived in the midst of floods of tears. the summer was a very troubled one. such events held the attention of paris, but the poor mademoiselle, forgotten in the château d'eu, fretted so much that at length her pride was conquered. "upon the news of the pregnancy of the queen," says the _mémoires_, "i decided to write, dreaming that perhaps the king wished to be besought," and she abased herself to do this. she at first expressed the hope that the child might be a son. "i exaggerated with good faith the desire which i had, and i showed the grief i felt in being forced to remain so long without the honour of seeing him [the king]. i said everything i could to oblige him to permit me to return." she wrote at the same time to colbert, who was considered the powerful man of the ministry: eu, march 23, 1664. monsieur colbert: in bearing testimony to the king of the joy which i have in the pregnancy of the queen, i am daring to command his good graces, and the permission for an audience to ask them in person. i trust that you will assist me with your good offices to obtain so precious a favour. if i cannot succeed in obtaining this, i beg to be permitted to pass through paris before may,[162] having three considerable lawsuits at this date. i look, on this occasion, for the continuation of your good offices. anne-marie-louise d'orléans. the king waited two months before responding: to my cousin mademoiselle, eldest daughter of the late monseigneur duc d'orléans my cousin: it consoles me much to find you in the state of mind which your letter shows. i willingly forget the past and permit you not only to pass through paris, but also either to dwell there, or to choose any other place of residence which may be agreeable to you, and even to come here in case you wish it, if you assure me that your conduct will always give me reason for cherishing you and for treating you properly as a personage so nearly related. i thank you for the affection with which you write to me of the queen's pregnancy and pray, etc. louis. some days later mademoiselle was _en route_ for fontainebleau, well resolved to show herself. she was transported with joy at having recovered liberty of movement, but the court at this time inspired her with terror. the ground had become too slippery for a person of her temperament, loving so much her independence and rebellious to all discipline. footnotes: [footnote 94: "_portrait de mademoiselle fait par elle-même_" (nov., 1657) in _la galerie des portraits de mademoiselle de montpensier_, edited by éduard de barthélemy (paris, 1860).] [footnote 95: mme. de rambouillet died very aged in 1665. her influence ended in 1650.] [footnote 96: _le grand cyrus._ the greater part of the friends of mlle. de scudéry are given assumed names. mlle. bocquet is called agélaste.] [footnote 97: cf. _la société française au xvii{e}. siècle_, vol., ch. xv.] [footnote 98: this is the friend of mme. de sévigné.] [footnote 99: sister-in-law of the preceding. she married, in 1662, bernard, duke of saxe-jena.] [footnote 100: mademoiselle says in her _mémoires_ that they "_had_" them written. this is an error.] [footnote 101: _la galerie des portraits._] [footnote 102: m. de barthélemy, editor of the _galerie des portraits_, called honorat de bueil, marquis de racan; born in 1589, died in 1670.] [footnote 103: or forty-six, depending upon the date of the portrait, 1658 or 1659.] [footnote 104: _l'école des femmes_ was issued in 1662.] [footnote 105: the expression is from the beautiful marquise de mauny, who formed part of the little court of saint-fargeau.] [footnote 106: from mme. de sainctôt, wife of the master of ceremonies and introducer of ambassadors under louis xiv. she was a friend of voiture.] [footnote 107: the others are, _vie de madame de fouquerolles_, supposed autobiography of a lady mixed up with fronde intrigues (ms. exists in the library of the arsenal), and _la relation de l'isle imaginaire_ (1658), badinage upon an episode in _don quixote_.] [footnote 108: _mémoires._ françois-timoléon de choisy was born in 1644. there is some question as to who was his mother.] [footnote 109: marguerite louise d'orléans was born july 28, 1645; elisabeth, called mlle. d'alençon, december 26, 1646; françoise-madeleine, called mlle. de valois, october 13, 1648.] [footnote 110: born at tours in 1644. her father, laurent de la baume le blanc, seigneur de la vallière, dying in 1654, her mother remarried jacques de courtavel, marquis de saint-remi, maître d'hôtel de gaston d'orléans.] [footnote 111: cf. _madame, memoirs of henrietta, duchess of orléans_, by julia cartwright (london, 1894).] [footnote 112: lady derby was a la trémouille. the sister-in-law to whom the letters are addressed was the sister of turenne.] [footnote 113: or charles iv.; there are two methods of counting the dukes of lorraine.] [footnote 114: see the very curious volume by m. rodocanachi, _les infortunes d'une petite-fille d'henri iv._ the marriage of the princess marguerite with the duke of tuscany took place april 19, 1661.] [footnote 115: _mémoires_ of mademoiselle.] [footnote 116: par fortin de la hoguete (1645).] [footnote 117: _l'image du souverain_ (1649).] [footnote 118: _mémoires pour 1667._ ed. by charles dreyss.] [footnote 119: portugal had again become independent in 1640.] [footnote 120: _mémoires_ for the year 1661.] [footnote 121: mignet, _négociations relatives à la succession d'espagne_.] [footnote 122: élisabeth de france, daughter of henry iv., born in 1602. she married philip iv., in 1615, gave birth to marie-thérèse in 1638, and died in 1644.] [footnote 123: this was the marshal de gramont, father of the comte de guiche. the "magnificence" and the "_galanterie_" of his journey to madrid to demand the infanta have left lively memories.] [footnote 124: _souvenirs de madame de caylus_, _mémoires de mme. de motteville_, _souvenirs sur madame de maintenon_, published by the comte de haussonville and m. g. hanotaux.] [footnote 125: married on april 1, 1661, at seventeen. monsieur (philippe de france, duc d'orléans) was then twenty-one.] [footnote 126: _histoire de madame henriette d'angleterre_, by mme. de la fayette.] [footnote 127: _histoire de madame de henriette_, etc.] [footnote 128: _mémoires de mme. de motteville._] [footnote 129: war between relations in regard to property.] [footnote 130: letter of july 9, 1749, and _passim_, in his correspondence.] [footnote 131: cf. _la cabale des dévots_, by m. raoul allier.] [footnote 132: _journal d'olivier lefèvre d'ormesson._] [footnote 133: _mémoires de bussy-rabutin._] [footnote 134: _à nos seigneurs de parlement._--archives of the château of eu. mgr. le duc d'orléans has thrown open to me the archives of eu with a liberality for which i here heartily express my gratitude.] [footnote 135: _déclaration par le menu du comté d'eu_ (may 8, 1660), and _inventoire général du comté d'eu_ (july 1, 1663).] [footnote 136: the norman acre contains 81 acres and 71 _centiares._] [footnote 137: her request to the king was dated february 9, 1661 (archives of eu).] [footnote 138: the debts amounted exactly to 2,700,718 frs. 18 sols. (_liste des créanciers_ in archives of the château of eu). it will be remembered that mademoiselle paid for eu 2,550,000 frs.] [footnote 139: the account of the entry of mademoiselle is in the archives of the château of eu.] [footnote 140: motteville.] [footnote 141: _histoire de france_, by leopold ranke.] [footnote 142: _numéro_ of september 14, 1663.] [footnote 143: the marriage took place on january 28th.] [footnote 144: philippe iv. died september 17, 1665.] [footnote 145: cf. _la relation des divertissements que le roi a donnés aux reines_, etc., by marigny (june, 1664).] [footnote 146: number of july, 21, 1663, and _passim_.] [footnote 147: louis xiv. had bought dunkerque from the king of england. the city was delivered november 27, 1662. for account of the entrance of the king, see the _gazette_.] [footnote 148: louis xiv. was installed at versailles, as a residence, may 6, 1682.] [footnote 149: letter to the queen of poland, marie de gonzague (archives of chantilly). the duc d'enghien had married, december 11, 1663, anne de barière, daughter of the princess palatine and niece of marie de gonzague.] [footnote 150: _journal d'olivier d'ormesson._] [footnote 151: letter of october 31st to the queen of poland (archives of chantilly).] [footnote 152: cf. _de la vallière à montespan_, by jean lemoine and andré lichtenberger.] [footnote 153: letter dated december 28, 1663, to the queen of poland (archives of chantilly).] [footnote 154: see the _molière_ of the _grands écrivains_, v., iv.] [footnote 155: see the contemporary engravings. some reproductions will be found in the beautiful work of m. de nolhac, _la création de versailles_.] [footnote 156: see the _youth of la grande mademoiselle_.] [footnote 157: from the 7th to the 11th of may, the first two days and the last two not counted.] [footnote 158: number of february 3, 1663, apropos of a ball given at the louvre by the king on january 31st.] [footnote 159: for this portion, see the _gazette_ of may 17th, the letters from loret of the 10th and 17th, various _relations du temps_, the _molière_ of the _grands écrivains_, etc.] [footnote 160: _louise de la vallière_, by j. lair.] [footnote 161: see _la cabale des dévots_, by m. raoul allier.] [footnote 162: a doubtful phrase.] chapter iv. increasing importance of the affairs of love--the corrupters of morals--birth of dramatic music and its influence--love in racine--louis xiv. and the nobility--the king is polygamous. it was neither through compassion nor through friendship that louis xiv. had recalled from exile a second time his cousin mlle. de montpensier. he had renounced the idea of marrying her to alphonse vi. since she persisted in her refusal, but he pursued the plan of giving her in marriage "where it would be useful to his service." and there was reason for entertaining another project. while she was in penitence at eu, one of the little sisters, mlle. de valois, had married the duc de savoie, charles emmanuel ii., and had died (january 14, 1664), at the end of some months of wedded life. the widowhood of princes is rarely a matter of long duration. the king had immediately arranged to offer the millions of the grande mademoiselle to the duc de savoie, it being of first importance to bring back this territory to france, and to recompense the king of portugal by giving him one of the princesses of nemours.[163] the new combination was well known in the political world. one reads in the journal of olivier d'ormesson on the date of june 4, 1664: "m. le pelletier[164] tells me of the return of mlle. d'orléans, and that the king had written to her with his own hand, permitting her to come back, without saying anything to the queen mother; but this was with the savoie marriage in sight." louis xiv. had not resigned himself without effort to the idea of procuring so fine an establishment for an ancient frondeuse. it may be seen through a letter from the grand condé to the queen of poland that the royal rancour had yielded for reasons of state: fontainebleau, june 3, 1664. mademoiselle having written to the king about the pregnancy of the queen, his majesty has himself responded, which is a mark of softened feelings, and every one believes that she will return and that his majesty will consent to her marriage with m. de savoie, which up to this time he has not desired, because he preferred that of mlle. d'alençon[165]: but as she is very ugly, and as an additional distinction is badly marked with small-pox, he has reason to believe that m. de savoie will not be willing to espouse her; and he fears that there may be a question of a union with the austrian house, and thus i believe, in spite of his own dislikes, he will wish to hasten the marriage of mademoiselle which, however, is not so certain as it appears.[166] there was no danger of pouts in regard to this prospective husband; this the king well understood. mademoiselle arrived at fontainebleau during the first fortnight of june, 1664. the entire court had met her upon the highway. mademoiselle was the first to whom the king had yielded since assuming the reins of government. this was a glory; she, indeed, felt it and held her head high. louis xiv. had the good taste to ignore this attitude. he greeted her graciously and limited his vengeance to teasing her during the few days she passed with him. "confess," said he to her, "that you are very bored." she cried, "i assure you not at all, and i often think that the court is very much deceived if it believes me disenchanted, for i have not experienced a moment's dulness." the king, however, believed only what pleased him. one evening, after the play, he led her upon a little terrace and spoke in these terms: "the past must be forgotten. be persuaded that you will receive all good treatment from me in the future, and that i am contemplating your establishment. naturally, m. de savoie is a better match than formerly; his mother is dead. he will recognise the difference between your sister and yourself. thus you will be very happy and i shall work seriously to accomplish this." the king's discourse was followed by an exchange of effusions. "we embraced each other, my cousin and i," said the king in reappearing before his court, and the signal word was at once comprehended. the grande mademoiselle passed an almost triumphal week at fontainebleau. the repose of provincial life was hard to bear in comparison. the king, the ministers, and the ambassadors all worked for the marriage. there was nothing to do but to leave them to act. mademoiselle wished to aid. to commence she undertook to reduce to silence the old madame, who was outraged by her eagerness to replace her younger sister. dissatisfactions grew into quarrels and louis xiv. was forced to intervene, and to silence all these women. he wrote to mademoiselle: to my cousin my cousin: i cannot prevent my aunt's people from talking, but i hardly believe that she would say that i have promised her protection against you. i love you and consider you, as much as the most pressing desires which pass through your brain are capable of inspiring me, and assuredly it is my intention to give you pleasure in every degree possible. i only avow that you can do much on your part in facilitating things a little; this is my only request, and having nothing to add to so sincere an explanation of my sentiments, i finish this letter, praying god, etc. written at fontainebleau, july 12, 1664. signed: louis.[167] it was beyond the strength of mademoiselle to abstain from interference. her anxiety to be the fly on the wheel drew upon her a new letter from the king. the tone is that of a very impatient man. to my cousin my cousin: i see clearly by your last letter that you are not accurately informed of what is passing in piedmont; for i have been obliged to be very badly satisfied with my ambassador, in that he has executed my orders with so much warmth that the duc de savoie complains through his despatches to count carrocio of apparently being forced into an action which should be the freest, even to the smallest particular. judge by this fact if the conduct proposed and suggested to you is wise? i perceive even malice in those who give you such advice; for their desire is to put you in such a state of mind that if the affair fail it is i who am to blame. i see that you are already persuaded that success depends upon my simple wish expressing my desire on one side or the other, but i am not resolved to conduct myself according to the caprices of those people. i have told you that i sincerely wish your satisfaction and i again affirm it. the friendship alone which i have for you would give me this feeling, and i realise also that the scheme is beneficial for me. you must not doubt, therefore, that i will do all which will be really useful in furthering the affair; as for the means, it is not too much to say that i see better what should be done than those who speak and write to you. however, i pray god, etc. at vincennes, september 2, 1664. signed; louis. the king spoke the truth: the duc de savoie did not want the grande mademoiselle. charles emmanuel had never digested the affront received upon the journey to lyons, from which he had seen his sister return duchess of parma when he had imagined to receive her as queen of france.[168] he was not averse to revenging himself on louis xiv. by refusing a princess of his family whose age above all "made him afraid, for he desired children."[169] he had also an account to regulate with mademoiselle, who had disdained him at the time in which she was young and beautiful. at this distant date, charles emmanuel, although her junior by seventeen years, had not concealed the fact that he would have been ready to marry her, "so much did he esteem her person and also her great wealth."[170] but it was with the duc de savoie as with the prince of wales, and later with the prince de lorraine: quoi? moi! quoi? ces gens-là! l'on radote, je pense, a moi les proposer! hélas! ils font pitié: voyez un peu la belle espèce.[171] having become less exacting with years, mademoiselle at length found a man who did not disdain to play the part of substitute for his betters. the duke remained firm, and it was again a nemours,[172] sister of the queen of portugal, who inherited the husband destined for the grande mademoiselle. equally difficult, the same fate fell upon mademoiselle as upon the marriageable daughter in la fontaine: she was to be reduced to wed a cadet of gascony, the _malotru_ of the fable. i believe that la fontaine had mademoiselle in his mind when writing _la fille_. it has been queried whether this subject was not borrowed from the _epigram_ of martial. there is no need for so distant a search. on july 8, 1664, la fontaine had been appointed "gentleman-in-waiting to the dowager duchesse d'orléans."[173] he was, therefore, in a position to be well informed concerning the projects for marriage which failed, and the ridiculous actions of the daughter of the house. we possess his confidences upon the household of the luxembourg, on the one side of the apartments of madame, on the other those of mademoiselle, in an epistle dedicated to mignon, the little dog of his mistress. for la fontaine, the luxembourg was the palace in which there was no place for lovers. the tender passion was forbidden _chez_ madame, where it was necessary to be contented with the "pious smiles" of mme. de crissé, the original of the countess de pimbesche, and to bear in mind the presence of an old capuchin become bishop of bethléem in nivernais,[174] who supervised the conversations. "speak low," says the letter _pour mignon_. si l'évêque de bethléem nous entendait, dieu sait la vie. there was not even the resource of fleeing to the "divinity" opposite. under that shelter, lovers were less well regarded year by year, and la fontaine divined why: the antipathy always evinced by mademoiselle was now doubled by envy. the check in regard to the savoie marriage had brought on a painful crisis in the life of this poor unattached heroine. for the first time, she had been made to feel that she had passed the marriageable age, and she was one of those unfortunates who cannot easily resign themselves to the fall from the purely feminine portion of existence. the revolt against nature frequently causes whimsicalities; a terrible injustice toward those doleful creatures who often have asked no better than to obey nature's laws in becoming wives and mothers. nervous maladies give to the soul-tragedy a burlesque outside, and the world laughs without comprehending. mademoiselle was one of these unfortunates. la fontaine had well discovered it when he wrote: son miroir lui disait: "prenez vite un mari." je ne sais quel désir le lui disait aussi: le désir peut loger chez une précieuse. it is very difficult to relate the decline of the grande mademoiselle without provoking a smile at least, and it would be a pity, however, if this proud figure should leave the even slight impression of that of bélise. she was left disabled, without aim in life, at the very moment in which women in general were being excluded from action, after having been slightly intoxicated with power under anne of austria. men had at that time encouraged women to enter into public life. thanks to masculine complicity, feminine influence and power had mounted high, and the weaker sex enjoyed one of the most romantic moments of its entire history. the habit of treating women as the equals of men had been fully formed when the will of a monarch who distrusted them precipitated the sex from its giddy height. it has been seen _à propos_ of la vallière with what contempt louis xiv. spoke of women in his _mémoires_. upon this subject he had truly oriental ideas, approaching those held by his spanish ancestors, inherited by them from the moors. louis could not do without women, but he wanted them only for amusement. he did not really believe them capable of giving anything else, judging them inferior and dangerous, perhaps in remembrance of marie mancini, who had almost enticed him into a crime against royalty. hardly had the king come to power when all who had issued from their sphere must re-enter it. love was the only affair of importance in which women were permitted to share. louis xiv. made no exception in favour of his mistresses. mme. de montespan tyrannised a little over him in spite of his fine theories. the others, however, were looked upon only in the light of beautiful and amusing creatures. when, towards the end of the reign, mme. de maintenon had the glory of again raising the sex to the position of being esteemed by the king, she alone benefited. in general, nothing was gained for women at large; the impression in regard to their true position had been too deep. suddenly reduced to an existence with a narrow horizon, women found it colourless and mean. they demanded love, since this was all that was left to them to supply those violent emotions to which they had become accustomed in the camps and councils. as the result of this new attitude many strange events occurred, but they were little noticed as long as the queen mother remained of this world. anne of austria succeeded in saving appearances, if in nothing else. once dead, there came the downfall, and strange things became frightful ones. it was at versailles in the midst of the bengal fires of the "île enchantée" that the queen mother felt the first pangs of the cancer which finally caused her death. paris followed with grief the course of her illness. anne of austria, remaining without influence, had again become popular. "she preserves harmony," wrote d'ormesson, "and although she cannot be credited with much good, she still prevents much that is evil" (june 5, 1665). it is known that it was owing to her that a certain decency was maintained at the court of france; that without her, louis xiv. and his sister-in-law henrietta would not have perceived in time that they already cared too much for each other and that the rumour of this was "making much noise at court."[175] [illustration: =madame henriette d'orléans= from the painting by mignard in the national portrait gallery (photograph by walker, london)] the queen mother was forced to open eyes which wished to remain closed. she had spoken frankly, and her plainness had perhaps saved the kingdom of france from an ineffaceable stain. such service cannot be forgotten by honest people. to gratitude was added a sincere admiration for her courage under suffering. the poor woman endured without complaint, and with an incredible tranquillity, nine months of sharp pain increased by the barbarous remedies applied by a crowd of quacks. in the royal family, the sentiments were mixed. louis xiv., as mme. de motteville had well remarked, was a man full of "contradictions." he cherished his mother. during a previous malady, a short time before the cancer declared itself, he had cared for her night and day with a devotion and also a skill which astonished the attendants. the thought of now losing her gave him seasons of stifling sobs. at the same time, his mother was a little too much of a personage. she troubled him by her clairvoyance. he experienced a certain relief at the knowledge that the time was approaching when she would no longer be able to watch his course of life. in all probability, he was himself ignorant of this feeling, but it was apparent to observers. when she was actually dying, affection bore away all other considerations, and the king almost fainted. hardly was she interred when the pleasure of feeling himself entirely free again became ascendant. the attachment of monsieur for his mother was his best emotion. his grief possessed no hidden relief and forced him to be always near the invalid's bed. "the odour was so frightful," reports mademoiselle, "that after seeing the wound dressed it was impossible to sup." monsieur passed all his time in the chamber and tried to demonstrate his tenderness. sometimes most ridiculous ideas occurred to him; but he was not the less touching, through his never-failing tears, on account of his sincerity. at length, anne of austria herself sent her son away. monsieur returned to his pleasures and forgot his grief in them; he would not have been philippe duc d'anjou if he had acted differently. when the end drew near, timid and submissive as he was, he would not be sent away. the king withdrew, obeying the custom which forbids princes, as formerly gods, to witness death. louis twice told his brother not to remain longer, and only received the response "that he could not obey him in this, but he promised that it was the only point, during his entire life, on which he would ever disobey."[176] a cry of monsieur piercing the walls announced to louis that the end had come. the young queen marie-thérèse, who was losing all, justified the reputation of "fool" which the court gave her. she permitted herself to be persuaded that her position would be made higher, through all the privileges left to her by the death of the queen mother, and she was more than half consoled by this chimera. mademoiselle scrupulously observed the proprieties; which is all that can be said. anne of austria had emphasised in a solemn hour the tenacity of the rancour against her niece. the evening before death, she took farewell of all. two only appeared forgotten; "i was astonished, after all that had passed," relates mademoiselle, "that she did not say a word to m. le prince or to me, who were both there, especially slighting me who was brought up near her." it was precisely on account of "all that had passed." anne of austria gave a good example to the king: she expired without pardoning the leaders of the fronde. great changes followed this death. louis xiv. lost his mother january 20, 1660; on the 27th of the same month, a deputation came from parliament "to pay their compliments to the king." d'ormesson was of this body. "i went afterwards," says his journal, "to mass with the king, at which there were present the queen, m. le dauphin, monsieur and mlle. de la vallière, whom the queen has taken near her, through complaisance for the king, in which she shows her wisdom." louis xiv. officially presented his mistress to the people, and assigned her rank immediately below that of his legitimate wife. during his mother's life he would not have dared to do this. two months later he was delivered from the _cabale des dévots_, and from its intrusive observations, through the disappearance of the _compagnie du saint sacrement_. it does not appear impossible that the death of the queen may have slightly hastened this event. anne of austria had been acquainted with the society for a long period,[177] and had testified for it during many years of absolute devotion. she had guarded it from mazarin. she did more: there is proof that she deceived her minister for the sake of the _compagnie_. the situation changed with the death of the cardinal. there is nothing to warrant the belief that anne of austria, whether restrained by fear or by some scruple, was willing, after the death of mazarin, to deceive louis xiv. for the sake of a secret society. actively pursued by colbert, who divined an occult force behind the adversaries to his power, the _compagnie_ fell back upon its habitual protector, and had the bitter disappointment of beseeching in vain. the devotion of anne of austria was henceforth to be a silent one. as long as she remained on earth, all hope was not lost; she might be brought back to the bosom of the fold, and better success might be looked for another time. her death caused the final disorganisation. the society had not, during a long period, dared to reunite. deprived of the mother of the king, it practically yielded. it dissolves and vanishes into thin air. its register stops april 8, 1666. have the records of the various prosecutions been destroyed or scattered? have all the documents been destroyed through prudence? suppositions are free. it is with this mysterious brotherhood as with those water-courses which disappear under the ground. their traces are lost. it even happens that they bear another name when they again spring to the surface. such without doubt has been the fate of the "compagnie du saint sacrement," for the sectarian spirit which has been its most significant mark has never lost its rights in the land; in our own days we still see it placing itself in france at the service of very different schools of thought and belief. in this beginning of april (1666) in which the _cabale des dévots_ had avowed itself vanquished, the court was struck with the animation of the king. "a journey was made to mouchy," wrote mademoiselle, "where three days were passed in reviews. the king ordered a quantity of troops to be assembled; he also invited many ladies. all these were in mourning. there was much diversion; the king was in gay spirits; he sang and made verses during the progress." although these were not the only ones, louis did not compose many songs during his life. he enjoyed feeling free from those wearisome persons who had abused the patronage of his mother in creating themselves censors of their sovereign. no one except his confessor and his preachers concerned themselves further with his sins. when bossuet and bourdaloue were appointed court preachers they restrained themselves but little; but louis xiv. bore their reproaches with equanimity. it was their duty, and christians of that date, even bad ones, recognised what they owed to the church, and bent their heads before the pulpit. bossuet cried out in the presence of the entire court that "immoral manners are always bad manners," and that "there is a god in heaven who avenges the sins of the people, and who, above all, avenges the sins of kings."[178] he launched apostrophies at mlle. de la vallière: "o creatures, shameful idols, withdraw from this court. shadows, phantoms, dissipate yourselves in the presence of the truth; false love, deceitful love, canst thou stand before it?" bourdaloue, who found mme. de montespan in the place of mlle. de la vallière, reproached the king for his "debauches," and openly demanded of him in his sermon if he had kept his promise of rupture: "have you not again seen this person fatal to your firmness and constancy? have you no more sought occasions so _dangerous_ for you?" mme. de sévigné went one day to hear him at saint-germain, where he preached a lenten sermon before the king and queen. she returned confounded and angry at his boldness: "we heard after dinner the sermon of bourdaloue, who speaks with all his force, launching truths with lowered bridle, attacking adultery on every side; regardless of all, he rides straight on."[179] louis xiv. accepted these public reproaches without protest; there was, however, but little result. [illustration: =madame de montespan= from the engraving by flameng after the painting by mignard] one effect of the death of the queen mother was that rivals to mlle. de la vallière were free to appear; also there was a great increase in the number of charlatans and alchemists, who found more easily an aristocratic clientèle. diviners and sorcerers also played an important rôle in the love life of this society--the most polished in the world. the practice of the magic arts was at that date considered one of the most flourishing parisian industries. the inhabitants of the streets little frequented, or of the suburbs, were accustomed to the movement which took place in the early morning, or in the evening at dusk, around certain isolated houses.[180] people of all ranks, on foot, in carriages or in chairs, women masked or muffled, succeeded each other before a closed door, which only opened at a particular sign. the state of mind which led this crowd to the clairvoyant was to be found in all classes of society, from the highest to the lowest. public credulity was passing through a period of expansion, apparently very much at odds with the splendid intellect of france at that date, at which, however, those who believe the simple formulas of history will not be astonished. two of our grand classic writers have left pages which bear witness to the extent of the evil, existing at the very moment in which france became the actual head of europe. molière mocks at occult science and its adepts, through a long play, or rather a libretto for a ballet,[181] which he wrote for the king in 1670, named as we already know, _les amants magnifiques_. the _dramatis personæ_ are divided into two camps according to a rule of his own, in a fashion very unpleasant for the grandees of this world, molière allowing them the precedence in folly. it was sufficient for his heroes to be illustrious through rank, to endow them with a blind faith in all conjurers. "the truth of astrology," says the prince iphicrate, "is an incontestable fact, and no one can dispute against the certitude of its predictions." this is also the opinion of the prince timoclès: "i am sufficiently incredulous in regard to many things, but as for astrology, there is nothing more certain and more constant than the success with which horoscopes may be drawn." the princess aristione also agrees, and is anxious in finding that her daughter is less convinced. this is a commencement of a freedom of thought, and one cannot know to what it may lead: "my daughter," says the mother, "you have a little incredulity which never leaves you." disbelief in astrology and sorcery is represented in the play of molière, figuring in the name of "clitidas, court jester," and of another person of obscure birth, "sostrate, general of the army," who takes the part of clitidas against the calmer prophets and other exploiters of human folly. there is nothing more agreeable [says he] than all the great promises of this sublime knowledge. to transform everything into gold; to find immortal life; to heal by words; to make oneself beloved by the person of one's desires; to know all the secrets of the future; to call down from the sky at will impressions upon metals which bear happiness to mortals[182]; to command demons; to render armies invisible and soldiers invulnerable--all this is doubtless charming, and there are people who have no trouble in believing in the possibility; it is the easiest thing in the world for some men to be convinced, but for me, i avow that my grosser mind has some difficulty in comprehending and in believing. la fontaine has treated the same subject in three of his fables. it is in one of these, _les devineresses_, published in 1678, consequently before the famous drama _les poisons_, in which he shows himself very well acquainted with what the police had not yet been sufficiently clever to discover. he knew marvellously well the existence of the _poudre de succession_ and of the _poudre pour l'amour_: une femme, à paris, faisait la pythonisse. on l'allait consulter sur chaque événement; perdait-on un chiffon, avait-on un amant, un mari vivant trop, au gré de son épouse, une mère fâcheuse, une femme jalouse, chez la devineuse on courait, pour se faire annoncer ce que l'on désirait. the warning was not heeded, and it needed the "burning chamber" of 1680 to make honest people comprehend that "clairvoyant" was too often another name for "seller of poisons." la fontaine had, however, given no new information about the confidence inspired. this fact was already too well known. this dangerous agency, of which we have already had a glimpse on the occasion of the first search for lesage and mariette, merits some descriptive details. in paris, during a period of twenty years, it was so mixed up with intrigues and crimes that it exercised a real influence over the morals of the parisian world and through it over the affairs at court. like a wave of madness it swept over the heads especially of the women. many of these, even those not directly mingling in political life, were in a state of revolt, inconsolable for having lost the importance acquired during the civil troubles. women had been emancipated by the force of affairs. during the actual fighting and the general disorders which ensued, the habit of remaining in the shade of obedience was lost; also the considering themselves only as objects of luxury. louis xiv. had undertaken the task of bringing the sex back to the playing of a decorative or utilitarian rôle. it was almost as if to-day we should demand of our daughters, so free, so mingled with the general movement, to return suddenly to the self-effacement and the thousand restraints of our own youth. they would be transported with rage. in 1666, the larger portion of the clients of the necromancer sought above everything else a secret by the aid of which they might shake off the yoke that had again fallen upon their shoulders. the husband was the natural incarnation of this yoke. it was therefore against him that the revolt was habitually directed. the wives addressed themselves to a clairvoyant. the first consultation was generally innocent enough. the clairvoyant counselled new-comers to go to the good saint denis, always a succour for women unhappy in their domestic life, and to the indefatigable saint antoine de padua. she reserved until later the giving of certain powders, only hinting at their existence, the secret of which had been brought from italy and which were sought at paris by both provincials and strangers. it is now known through contemporaneous documents that arsenic was an element in these powders, and that so many persons accused themselves in confession of having "poisoned some one" that the priests of nôtre-dame at length gave warning to the authorities (1673). did the penitents, especially the women, always speak the truth? popular imagination is so quickly fired when poisoning is suggested, that it may well be queried whether a portion of the unfortunates were not rather hysterical and victims of hallucinations. it is probable that the true answer will never be known. physicians at that time were the doctors of molière, and the science of chemistry did not exist. with the husband softened or suppressed, the women demanded love to replace emotion in their contracted and faded existence. the task of the necromancer thus consisted in interesting god or the devil in the heart pangs of her client and of arousing an affection in the breast of the man she designated. this was the beginning for the new clients; the end was the black mass with its obscene rites or the bloody mass, for which a small infant was strangled. all the forms of conjuration were used between the two, every charm, every talisman and many "kinds of powders," not always inoffensive. the consultations were paid for according to the rank or fortune of the clients. in default of money, a jewel was given or even a signed note, the imprudence of which last proceeding it is hardly needful to point out. in the year of the death of anne of austria, one of the clairvoyants most frequented was the wife of a hosier named antoine montvoisin, whose shop was situated upon the pont marie, which to-day still unites the right bank of the seine with the isle saint-louis. the pont marie, as almost all the bridges of paris at that date, had a double row of houses, with shops beneath, which formed a very animated street. the affairs of montvoisin, however, had not prospered. he had tried several commercial undertakings without success. he had been dry-goods merchant and jeweller, and had always "lost his shops," according to the expression of his wife, catherine montvoisin, familiarly called "the neighbour." [illustration: =la voisin= from a print in the bibliothèque nationale] it is under this latter name that she became celebrated in the annals of crime. la voisin the fortune-teller is the same as la voisin the poisoner. at the date of the hosiery shop, she had not yet attracted the attention of justice, in spite of her installation, but ill-assured, on the pont marie, which obliged her to have a double domicile, or to give rendezvous at the house of her confrère. she gained large sums of money. the price for consultation varied from a single piece to several thousand francs, or from an old rag to a necklace of precious stones, and again she drew something from the acolytes of both sexes who assisted in her wicked works. it was known from herself that her property was held in her own right, her husband having been always unfortunate in business. in spite of this precaution, the money slipped through her fingers. it is true that she had expenses, children to bring up and relatives to support. she said: "i have ten persons to feed," but she was economical for others. la voisin gave a crown a week to her mother and brought up her daughter as a small shop-keeper. it was she herself who, in company with other miserables of her own kind, spent madly. the position of husband of a poisoner seems to have been a precarious one. antoine montvoisin was familiar with the nature of his wife's industry, but his conscience did not forbid his profiting by it for his own comfort. his conscience also permitted him to appropriate to himself money entrusted to him by his wife to execute the orders for the _neuvaines_. he was as much a free-thinker as any of the vardes or guiches, and convinced that the _neuvaines_ were absolutely useless. as to going further, to putting his own "paw in the dish," he was successfully prudent. he was never anxious; but he was actually daily in danger of being poisoned, for la voisin could not suffer this coward. she would have liked to replace him by a veritable associate, and between the pair, there were perpetual fights for pre-eminence in deceit. the good man antoine would certainly have died through poisoning in spite of all his care, if he had not conceived the ingenious idea of uniting himself with an executioner, to whom he confided the situation. it was agreed between the two that, if montvoisin should die before his wife, the hangman should speak and demand an autopsy. la voisin became afraid. she tried to poison her husband on a journey, but did not succeed, and finally considered it safer to keep him with her. she had benefited, as had also the entire corporation, by the hopes awakened in the breasts of many of the pretty women among the aristocracy by the death of the queen mother. anne of austria had taken so ill the first digression of her son from the paths of virtue that the aspirants for the succession to mlle. de la vallière had preserved a certain discretion. when the rebuffs of the old queen were no longer to be feared, the passions were unchained and a flock of youthful, ambitious women addressed themselves to the "duties of fashion" in order to arrive at the good graces of the king.[183] the boldest demanded at the same time "something against mlle. de la vallière." amongst these young women was found the marquise de montespan, who loved neither her husband nor the king, but who was harrassed by her creditors, was very conscious of her own value, and determined to be "recognised mistress," since this was now a position admitted and classified. she was as "beautiful as the day," says saint-simon, without being "perfectly agreeable";--the correction is by mme. de la fayette. she had all the wit possible, was delicious in eccentricities and courtesies. in spite of so much brilliancy, the king rather avoided her and she was reduced to amusing marie-thérèse, who admitted her freely, having full confidence in her virtue. the queen had been deceived by the pious austerities of the young marquise, by her frequent communions, and by a mass of religious practices which were really actuated by a sincere sentiment, and which mme. de montespan preserved as far as she could, notwithstanding the scandals of her after life. understood in this manner, a sense of duty towards religion did not prevent resorting to sorceresses. it rather led in this direction in giving to the perverse soul "the vague consciousness of something beyond."[184] mme. de montespan became one of the best clients of la voisin, regarding neither the expense nor the decency of the ceremonies, provided that the devil would make her the beloved of louis xiv. faring better than her rivals, she received the value of her money. she began her campaign in the course of the year 1666. the _mémoires_ of mademoiselle, very full on this subject, and elsewhere confirmed, inform us that in the spring of 1667, mme. de montespan had supplanted la vallière; it was the young queen alone who was ignorant of this fact. less than two years after, la voisin had the imprudence to make a disturbance because two of her aids had not acted honestly toward her. one of these was a priest, called mariette, attached to the church of saint severin. la voisin made use of him in sacrilegious practices. the other, lesage, was a sort of jack of all trades, who recoiled before no abomination. la voisin accused them of having assaulted one of her clients, mme. de montespan, a fact true enough, but useless to proclaim from the housetops. "the quarrel having made some noise," reports la reynie, "and the king, having learned that these people were practising impieties and sacrileges, had them watched." mariette and lesage were arrested. the examinations have been preserved for us. here is an essential passage: mariette avowed without hesitation to having spoken the gospels "over the heads of various persons," a form of conjuration relatively innocent. the names were demanded. "over the heads of the lady de bougy, mme. de montespan, la duverger, m. de ravetot, all of which persons lesage had led to him."[185] with this information secured, louis xiv. ordered prosecution: saint-germain, august 16, 1668. i write this letter to tell you that it is my intention to have the said mariette and dubuisson[186] conducted from my château to the châtelet of the city of paris, for the continuation of their prosecution. one may be sure that the king did not lose this inquest from view. louis xiv. was most eager for police details and this affair touched him too nearly to be forgotten. at the beginning of the investigation, it was discovered that mariette was first cousin to the wife of the judge. on account of this connection, the châtelet estimated that it was for the honour of the magistracy to stifle the affair. he brought every effort to accomplish this and evidently met with practical approbation from the powerful of this world, for history permits us to see numerous irregularities. la voisin, returning to her senses, heartily seconded the justice in his efforts to obtain succour from those in high positions. mariette and lesage, after a period of trials and difficulties, were left in peace to occupy themselves with their ambiguous trade. both of these men figured again in the monster process of 1680, in which they were among those who spread details concerning the abominable practices with which the mme. de montespan had been connected during long years. it does not matter here whether these details are additions to the truth or not, for it is only louis xiv. who interests us, not mme. de montespan. the letter cited above proves all that is necessary, that the king knew, from the year 1668, that his new mistress had connection with the criminal world, and that she had intimate interviews with ignoble persons, submitted to degrading contact, and had practised in their company sacrilegious rites. this monarch who passed for being so delicately keen in matters of punishment showed himself singularly little moved. surrounded by free-thinkers without prejudices, himself more or less of a free-thinker, he resembles so little, either morally or physically, the bewigged figure of the end of the reign, and of the _mémoires_ of saint-simon, that he appears as another individual. how easily both proprieties and punishments are put on one side when passion reigns, but how much more alive, how much more of a natural human being, compared to the wooden figure of the portraits of versailles, is the king as now seen; louis xiv. is decidedly an enigmatical quantity. it would be inexact to state that passions had become more lively than they were during the wars of the fronde, an epoch especially ardent; but they had certainly changed their character, as had the tastes, ideas, literature, and fashions in general. this is the usual course of events, and, as we have seen, the movement was precipitated under the influence of a monarch all-powerful, determined to efface the past. an artistic event which should not be overlooked had favoured the designs of louis xiv., in opening unknown perspectives to the curious after new sensations, already numerous in the seventeenth century. dramatic music made its entry into the modern world. it brought with it, according to the phrase of one of its historians, m. romain rolland,[187] an "unlimited power for expressing passion, and with passionate emotion all that remains incommunicable through the medium of language alone." we may or may not love music, but it must be admitted that a creation of this nature will certainly exercise a strong influence over the refined portion of a nation. french society could not escape. the new art was in train to modify the nervous system, if i dare thus speak, of the world in which flourished, under the royal protection, those rather perilous ideas upon the rights of nature and the fatality of passion. day by day, new chords were struck upon impressionable hearts. dramatic music was born in italy; as might well be. in the year 1597, upon a carnival evening, a rich florentine entertained a choice audience with a musical tragedy called _dafné_, of which the score is lost. according to one of the guests, "the pleasure and astonishment which seized the soul of the auditors before so novel a spectacle could hardly be expressed." m. romain rolland confirms this testimony: "it was like a thunderbolt. all felt themselves in the presence of a new art." in ten years italian opera reached its full growth, thanks chiefly to a composer of genius, monteverde, whose _ariane_ caused an audience of more than six thousand persons to burst into sobs on its first representation. the art of singing had marched side by side with dramatic music and attained its height almost at once. a famous soprano, vittori, threw the public into almost inconceivable transports. "many persons were suddenly forced to loosen their garments in order to breathe, so suffocated were they with emotion." everywhere musical theatres were erected. the large cities built several; venice alone had five, and this number was not sufficient. the opera was given in palaces and private salons; "bologna possessed more than sixty private theatres, without mentioning the convents and colleges." the clergy were caught in the whirlwind; monks and nuns chanted operas, cardinals became stage managers of scenes, a future pope wrote librettos. it was an epidemic, a frenzy, and italy did not go mad with impunity. in its beginning, the opera is responsible for grave disorders, both nervous and moral; it became _too_ much of a passion. mazarin already possessed this taste before his establishment in france. he wished to initiate his adopted country into the joys, almost to be dreaded, which had so suddenly enriched human life, and he brought from italy one after the other four italian troupes, the first in 1645, the last a short time before his death. the result was easy to predict. a spectacle patronised by the cardinal became a matter of politics. applauded by the partisans of the minister, derided by his adversaries, the italian opera met with so strong an opposition that it was necessary to renounce it for the time, but the lesson was not lost. french composers heretofore devoted to ballets and masquerades had not received unheedingly the revelation of the dramatic style; their ambition was also aroused to express the tempests of the soul, and they began to grope along the new path. the attempt was not at once successful; but their efforts familiarised the public with the idea of a musical language of passion. in 1664, the song was considered the natural interpreter of love. molière fixes the date in his _princesse d'elide_, in which moron does not succeed in gaining the ear of philis because he speaks, instead of singing his declaration. philis flees and moron cries out: "behold how it is: if i had been able to sing, i should have done better. most women of to-day only let themselves be courted through the ears; this is the reason that the entire world has become musical, and one can succeed with the fair only by making them listen to little songs and verses. i must learn to sing like others." it was indeed somewhat different in 1671, when french opera arrived on the scene.[188] it had hardly seen the light when it became, as a result of the association of quinault with lulli, a counsellor of voluptuousness. while the decorations and the dances charmed the eyes, as the "machines" amused by their complications, the words and music, outdoing the _princesse d'elide_,[189] murmured unceasingly with the same caressing languor that no youthful beings have the right, for any motive whatever, to deny to themselves the duty of loving. "yield, give yourselves up to transports," chants a chorus of _amadis_. the thirteen "lyrical tragedies" given by quinault and lulli from 1673 to 1686 are all constructed upon this one theme. they gave expression to the one single idea; "yield! surrender yourselves!" and resulted in producing a certain eloquence from their monotony. when these lyrics are played on the piano,[190] a better means of hearing them failing, one cannot but feel that in spite of their insipidity the continuous appeal to the senses might produce in the end, particularly in the atmosphere of a theatre, a strong effect. [illustration: =jean baptiste de lulli= after a contemporary print by bonnart] moralists recognised this. all will remember the violent attack of boileau upon the opera. to-day we consider this attack as having been too narrowly virtuous, even a little ridiculous. it can be explained, however, in considering what a novelty it was to see people seized with nervous attacks and fits of weeping while listening to singing. was it the "loose morals" of quinault which caused these? was it the new music? in either case, the worthy boileau was excusable for his alarm. france had not yet reached the point of excitability which existed in italy. the french are not a sufficiently musical race for this; but in a less degree, the country submitted to the extraordinary power of the dramatic style. it is known through mme. de sévigné that if the french listeners did not invariably "burst into sobs" or "suffocate with emotion," more than one auditor, including herself, wept silently in hearing the fine passages. fashion also swayed affairs, and we know of what fashion is capable in france. saint evremond has written a comedy entitled _the operas_. in the list of _dramatis personæ_, one reads: "mlle. crisotine become mad through the hearing of operas. tirsolet, a young man from lyons, also became mad through operas." a third person relates that "nothing else is spoken of in paris. women and even young children knew the operas by heart, and there is hardly a house in which entire scenes are not sung." how nearly france and italy are approached in this. the louvre party caught the fashion, the courtiers, being eager to imitate the king, a great admirer of lulli. it had happened that louis remarked during the rehearsals of _alceste_ "that if he were at paris when the opera should be played, he would go every day." "this phrase," adds mme. de sévigné "is worth a hundred thousand francs to baptiste."[191] this was no affectation on the part of the king; he really loved music, as can be recognised through unmistakable signs. louis xiv. had throughout his life the taste and more than a taste for music; to which he added a longing to be himself a performer, a desire that can never be satisfied with the most skilled professional entertainments. as a youth, he played the guitar and took part in ensemble playing. as a man, he found that he had a good voice, and knew how to use it in amateur reunions. it can even be said that he sang not only at suitable but also at unsuitable moments: the day after the death of his son, the grand dauphin, the ladies of the palace heard with surprise the king singing opera prologues. during his later years, when it was difficult to amuse him, mme. de maintenon organized musicales in her salon and louis always enjoyed these. one evening when she substituted vespers[192] for the scores of lulli, the king made no criticism and even intoned the vespers. provided it was music, all kinds were good; but the king showed a certain predilection for the kind which he had seen created, already so rich in new emotions and which bore rare promise for the future of the artistic world, and the monarch possessed all the qualities needed to enjoy it profoundly. the reader cannot fail to perceive through the witness of his frequent bursts of tears that louis was of a nervous disposition, somewhat concealed under the cold and calm exterior which he had imposed upon himself. in advancing age, this tendency to tears became almost a malady. mme. de maintenon, in a letter dated 1705, writing to a friend of the "vapours" of the king and of his sombre humour, makes the remark that he is "sometimes overcome with weeping which he cannot restrain." he was a sensualist to whom themes of love were always attractive. "yield! surrender!" the king never ceased to repeat on his own behalf to the pretty women of his court. for the rest, quinault and lulli made him choose the subjects for their operas; and louis had therefore a responsibility for the voluptuousness which exhaled from their works. dramatic music has now established itself. the civilised world discovers with delight that this art has an unlimited capacity for expressing passion, and all the passions, even the highest, the purest, and this latter includes love. it has also been recognised that music can speak in its own words outside of the theatre, in a symphony, in a simple sonata, and that there exists no art so benevolent, so reposeful, and so reassuring to troubled souls. in spite of this, in spite of all, moralists have never been willing to throw down their weapons before music. emanuel kant was clearly hostile to it; he said, "it enervates man,"[193] and he turned away his disciples from its joys. tolstoi has been unkind to it in the _kreutzer sonata_. all forces can become dangerous; it depends on the "use made of them,"[194] and also upon the souls which receive the impulse; they must be of the calibre to support its force. the action of music upon french society has never, so far as i know, been methodically studied in relation to its effects, both physical and moral. if a historian be found, he will issue from the psychological laboratories, scientifically equipped, in which the observer conceals the physician: on this condition only can he speak with authority. [illustration: =boileau= after the painting by h. rigaud] the grande mademoiselle cared but little for music. nevertheless she extols lulli in her _mémoires_: "he makes the most beatific airs in the world." the glory of baptiste touched her because he was "her own," arriving from italy some time before the fronde. "he came to france with my late uncle the chevalier de guise. i had prayed him to bring me an italian, with whom i could speak and learn the language." lulli was only a boy of thirteen at the time that he was brought to france. between the italian lessons, he filled the office of cook. later, admitted among the violins of mademoiselle, it is related that he was chased away for having satirised his mistress in song. this recalls other events: i was exiled: he did not wish to live in the country: he demanded leave to go away: i accorded it, and since he has made his fortune, for he is a great merry-andrew. lulli always remained a buffoon in the mind of mademoiselle, although she assisted at his triumphs and survived him. mademoiselle preserved the taste for literature formed at saint-fargeau. her name is associated with several incidents, great and small, of the literary history of the times. in 1669, when _tartuffe_ was definitely authorised, she wished to have it performed in her salon. this fact is noteworthy as the church still forbade its representation. on august 21, mademoiselle gave a fête. when most of the guests had departed, "_tartuffe_, the fashionable piece, was played before twenty women and numbers of men."[195] did the end of the phrase contain a slight excuse--"which was the fashionable piece"? however this may be, mademoiselle could boast to her confessor that she had been "economical" with molière. the entertainment at the luxembourg was paid for with three hundred francs given to the actors, the current price being for such a performance five hundred and fifty francs. thus the virtuous homes evidenced their piety! on another occasion, mademoiselle had the honour, if the abbé d'olivet may be believed, of supplying molière with an entire scene ready made: and what a scene! among the _habitués_ of the salon figured one of the victims of boileau, the impudent abbé cotin, who not finding himself sufficiently _étrillé_ (thrashed) had provoked new retaliations in gossiping about molière. one day he brought some verses of his own composition to the palace of the luxembourg to read them to mademoiselle. in the midst of her admiration another writer, supposed to be ménage, entered. mademoiselle committed the error of showing the verses of the abbé and, without mentioning the name of the author, of defending the expressed opinions. the result was the scene between vadius and trissotin (at first named "tricotin" lest one should be deceived). it was only needful for molière to give the touch of genius as in the sonnet to the princess uranie and in the verses upon the _carosse amarante_. in these two cases, it is well known that the lines are copied word for word from a volume written by the abbé cotin.[196] many echoes of the grand literary battle of the century[197] still resounded in the luxembourg. the success of the first tragedies of racine irritated that portion of the public, always large, which has a horror of being disturbed in its habits of thought by importunate novelties. such a disturbance is a punishment to many persons, whether the moving force comes from literature, science, or art. there are many examples of this fixed state of mind to be found in the past century: it will suffice to recall the struggles hardly yet quieted between pasteur and wagner. racine appeared on the scene as a revolutionary force. he and molière, sustained by their friend boileau, presented a dramatic art absolutely new, which was separated by a gulf from that of corneille and for which nothing had prepared the way. corneille's predecessors were mairet, the du ryers and many others: racine stood alone. he was the first and the last to make tragedy realistic, with the subject simple, the characters scrupulously true to nature, and the language often audaciously familiar. louis xiv. applauded. racine and the king well comprehended each other. heinrich heine has given the reason for this in one of those phrases which throw light upon an entire period: "racine is the first modern poet, as louis xiv. was the first modern king." the young court applauded cordially with the king. it also belonged to the new régime; but for the old court, for the survivors of the hôtel rambouillet, the tragedy of racine was as shocking, as displeasing, as were the first realistic romances to the faithful adherents of romanticism, and for the same reasons. in spite of the difficulty so many have, of sympathising with the ideas of the one called a little disdainfully "the gentle racine," "the elegant racine," this writer appeared neither gentle nor elegant to three-fourths of the salon, to the "old court" of the grande mademoiselle. the _pyrrhus_ seemed to them "brutal," the phèdre, a "madwoman" "the blackness" of nero or narcisse entirely beyond what should be permitted on the stage. not that the personages of corneille or of his predecessors acted less wickedly, but their brutes and villains were nevertheless "heroes" and that made all the difference. the personages created by racine were only "men," simple men, who used words "low and grovelling," bourgeois words, expressions such as "quoi qu'il en soit, que fais je, que dis-je!"[198] and did not even realise the sense: more than three hundred improper terms have been counted in _andromaque_. racine would have fared better if his poetic methods had not been in some way a criticism upon the cleverness of corneille. this was the real grievance, obliging the adorers of the old poet to condemn the insolent one. mme. de sévigné, who could not always prevent herself, although "mad with corneille," from admiring racine, or from letting him perceive it, hastened to correct herself when this happened. she wrote to her daughter, "_bajazet_ is beautiful," and added six lines further on, as a person who has a reproach to make, "believe me, nothing will approach (i do not say surpass) some divine passages of corneille." having thus regulated her conscience, she returned to _bajazet_ to avow that she had "wept more than twenty tears" (letter dated january 15, 1672), but her letter evidently left her with a slight feeling of discomfort. two months later, she attenuated the praise of the new piece, to which she now accorded only "agreeable things," and declared corneille to be another order of genius: "my daughter, let us take care not to compare racine with him, let us well perceive the difference!" almost all of mademoiselle's generation showed themselves as jealous as mme. de sévigné for the glory of corneille. to the admiration inspired by his genius is added the tender gratitude that we guard for works in which live again the ideals of our youth. it is our own thoughts, our fine dreams of early days, that we love in these productions. the tragedy of racine signified that the day of corneille had passed; its success indicated the inroad of new ideas and pointed definitely to the fact that those faithful to the ancient worship had really been relegated to the position of old fogies. this is never an agreeable position when one feels still alive and with no very active realisation that old age is approaching. people of letters are the first to suffer from these revolutions of taste which leave surviving only works of the first rank while the rest are cast away into oblivion. as we know, the _litterateurs_ who frequented the salon of mademoiselle were all enemies of racine, half on account of loyalty to corneille, half on their own behalf, through an instinct of self-preservation. besides ménage and the abbé cotin, whom we have lately encountered speaking frankly to each other, besides the amiable segrais whose literary powers were too light to lead him far, there was the abbé boyer, whose tragedies segrais desired to be pardoned, because he was a "sufficiently good academician," and that worthy old man de chapelain, illustrious until the day upon which his verses went to press. there was some reason for accusing mademoiselle of having been the "centre of the opposition to the new poetry."[199] to say this is, however, to exaggerate her rôle. we shall see later that she was far too occupied in living through her own tragedy to be actively interested in those being enacted upon the boards. loaded with injuries and calumnies by the vadius and the trissotins, menaced with thrashings by the aristocratic protectors of these great men of the salon, racine ran the risk of being crushed, and was saved only by the signal favour of the king. neither he nor molière would have accomplished their work if louis xiv. had not sustained them against all critics. this is a service for which we should not limit our gratitude. the reflection upon this great debt arouses a tenderness towards a prince with whom we are otherwise not always sympathetic. it is possible that there was some politics in his attitude. the success of writers so new fell in well with his design of making a _tabula rasa_ of the detested past: but after all the main reason for which protection was accorded was affection. when louis xiv. laughed "even till his sides ached"[200] over the _école des femmes_, at which amusement the dévots and prudes were indignant, when he saved the _plaideurs_, almost hissed in the hôtel de bourgogne, by "bursts of laughter, so great that the court was astonished,"[201] there was no calculation: he was honestly amused, like any one else. it was also a true and frank admiration which caused him to dry his tears at _iphigenie_, and to order the repetition of _mithridate_. he loved the "new" for two reasons: because he had good taste, and because the heroes of the later writers were of the kind needful for his generation. it has been seen how marvellously molière and the king understood each other, and the mention of racine recalls to us the profound phrase of heine. racine revealed himself in the _andromaque_ as the "first modern poet." hermione and oreste have only a distant relationship with the heroes of corneille. they are already "those possessed by love, the great passionates with whom love becomes a malady, who love to the brink of crime, and even till death." with these characters, it can be said that modern love, profound, tender, melancholy, impregnated with soul, and at the same time troubled by the obscure influences of the nervous life, makes its entrance into french literature. oreste shows a sadness, a despair, a madness, which a century and a half later burst forth in love romances. louis xiv. had not waited for racine for his education in passion. when marie mancini fascinated him, he was one of the first examples of the modern type of those "possessed by love," and he had never forgotten this crisis; in fact he never forgot anything. this episode in the life of the young king had been a good apprenticeship for the comprehending of the love of oreste or of phédre as the true love malady, as a fatality against which our single will is only a feeble weapon. around the king, mme. henriette, mme. de montespan, all the young court and some shrewd spirits of the old, with condé at the head, rendered justice to the truth of the "anatomies of the heart," in the tragedy of racine. mademoiselle was incapable of this; she believed too firmly in the superhuman strength of the heroes of corneille, with whom the will laughs at resistance, whether the opposition arises in the soul or in the exterior world, to admit the fatality of passion. nevertheless, it was the grande mademoiselle herself who was going to demonstrate clearly to all france that it was impossible to escape fate, when this fate points to love. here we meet the great misfortune of her life! an atmosphere of passion, and an intimacy with people whose sole occupation was to render themselves attractive, was somewhat dangerous for an old maid, sensitive without realising it. mademoiselle had the singular desire, which later cost her dearly, to make an ally of mme. de montespan and thus to form a part of the chosen society of the court. she sought the company of the mistress and received service from her. mme. de montespan was her interpreter with the king. in return mademoiselle endeavoured to calm m. de montespan who, for serious or for trivial reasons[202] "flew into passions," like a "madman" or "wild person," against madame his wife. "he is my relative and i scolded him," says the _mémoires_ of mademoiselle. as a connoisseur, mademoiselle hugely enjoyed the original wit of mme. de montespan. the pleasure found in returning the ball in conversation was the foundation of the intimacy. with the growing idleness of the court, pleasure in pure cleverness increased. the play of the mind was the sole resource against ennui. wit, no matter at whose expense, became the enjoyment. the wise and prudent mme. de maintenon succumbed like mademoiselle, when her turn came, to the irresistible charm of a conversation which "renders agreeable the most serious matters, and ennobles the most trivial."[203] during the sharpest quarrel between mademoiselle and mme. de montespan, the enjoyment of the opponent's wit was so keen that they parted with pain. "mme. de montespan and i," wrote mme. de maintenon in 1681,[204] "have to-day taken a walk, holding each other's arms and laughing heartily; we are not more in accord for this." there can never be too much cleverness, but there is an inconvenience in there being nothing behind the wit, and this is one of the rocks towards which louis xiv. was pushing the french nobility. he made it impossible for those pacing his antechambers to indulge in any intellectual effort other than that of seeking pretty phrases to amuse the listeners. a gentleman of quality commences his day at eight in the morning standing in waiting before the door of the king. salutes are given and returned. the elegants comb their locks, glancing out of the corner of their eyes at those entering. molière permits us to be present at the "final assault" through verses but little known: grattez du peigne a la porte[205] de la chambre du roi; ou si, comme je prévoi, la presse s'y trouve forte, montrez de loin vôtre chapeau, ou montez sur quelque chose pour faire voir votre museau, et criez sans aucune pause, d'un ton rien moins que naturel; "monsieur l'huissier, pour le marquis un tel" jetez-vous dans la foule, et tranchez du notable, coudoyez un chacun, point du tout quartier, pressez, poussez, faites le diable pour vous mettre le premier.[206] m. le marquis enters. the chamber is already crowded. he "gains ground step by step," succeeds in seeing the king put on his shoes, for louis performs this act with his own royal hands, and thus passes the first hour. the exciting event is repeated in the evening when the king takes off his shoes. the marquis had already, at one o'clock, witnessed the consumption of the royal soup, and two or three times in the course of the day had delighted his eyes with the sight of the king passing to and fro on his way to mass or to take the fresh air. during the intervals, the courtiers were charged with certain puerile occupations. the round of homages were made to the various members of the royal family and the prominent personages of the day, and there was gambling and other pleasures. the only relief for this complete idleness was to be found in an active campaign if there happened to be a war on hand. let the courtier be admired for being able under such adverse circumstances to keep his wit awake and alert for attack and response, and also for the capacity of finding the military virtues when again called upon to exercise them. fortunately, the latter virtues were deeply ingrained in the breasts of the french gentlemen of this period, and it is not to their discredit if the other faculties, mental and physical, the exercise of which was plainly discouraged by the king, should have so fallen into disuse that their children suffered. the final descendants of four or five generations of those living this absurd life were the _émigrés_ of the great revolution, all heroes, almost all clever, or at least appearing so, and in general people of wit, but without character. this fact can hardly be too much emphasised: never has a monarch laboured with greater skill and method than louis xiv. in the successful attempt to annihilate the nobility and to ruin its reputation. this is one of the most serious souvenirs of the wars of the fronde. it was with the women as with the men--the same subjection, the same emptiness of life, from which arose the weakness of mademoiselle for mme. de montespan. the situation of recognised mistress "affects nothing"; mademoiselle had never considered that the virtue of others concerned her. the novelty of the situation, the unexpected prerogatives accruing to the new position, and the habits resulting, gave rise to some of the most curious incidents of the reign, and also strengthened an intimacy which survived many shocks. as soon as louis xiv. formally established his mistresses at court, it had been needful to frame new rules of etiquette. at first these rules were understood rather than formulated, but contemporary writers give evidence of their existence. it was the new regulations which gave scandal, rather than the fact of a weakness too common to all men of all times. the people had found the phrase suitable enough when it ran to gaze on "the three queens" in one carriage; mlle. de la vallière and mme. de montespan were publicly at the same time occupying the rank of secondary wives to the king. when the royal family made its solemn visits to any of its members who were mortally ill, these two ladies arrived after the king and queen. mademoiselle met them at the death-bed of mme. henriette; "mme. de montespan and la vallière came." she met them again over the cradle of a daughter of louis xiv. and of marie-thérèse, who died as an infant. "i found her in the last extremity.... we staid almost the entire night watching her die; mme. de montespan and mme. de la vallière were also there." the latter escaped from such honours as often as she could. mme. de montespan liked them better, and added to them. she had placed herself upon the footing of the queen in regard to ordinary visits, which she never returned. "never," says saint-simon, "not even to monsieur or madame or to the grande mademoiselle, or to the hôtel de condé." the same hauteur was displayed in the manner of receiving the princes and princesses of the blood, and this "exterior of queen" followed her into the retreat! all were accustomed to it. "the habit of respect was preserved without murmur," says again saint-simon, who recalled mme. de montespan, disgraced and passing her time in penitence, nevertheless continuing to hold court in her convent,[207] with as royal an etiquette as at saint-germain or versailles: the back of her armchair was formed by the foot-piece of the bed, and there was no other chair in the room. monsieur and the grande mademoiselle had always loved her, and often went to see her; for these, chairs were brought, and also for madame la princesse; but mme. de montespan did not dream of deranging herself for her own people nor for those they brought with them.... one can judge by this how she received "all the world." the "all the world," which included some of the most distinguished, contented themselves with small "chairs with backs," or simple camp stools. no one was offended, and "all france came"; i do not know by what fantasy it was considered a duty to make visits from time to time. she spoke to each like a queen holding her court, who honours in "addressing." marie-thérèse herself, in the time in which mme. de montespan was the actual sovereign, had submitted to the long empire of custom. in 1675, the fourth year of the war in holland, louis xiv. being with the army while mme. de montespan was at her château at clagny, one of their sons was "slightly ill."[208] the queen considered it her duty to visit the child and to comfort the mother. she went to seek mme. de montespan, and led her one day to the trianon, another to dine in some favourite convent, an example which brought the crowd to clagny and made an end of hesitancy. "the wife of her firm (_solide_) friend," wrote mme. de sévigné, "visited her, and afterward the entire family in turn. she takes precedence of all the duchesses." (july 3, 1675.) there had been a time in which this fashion of ignoring rank would have excited the indignation of mademoiselle; but this time was far distant, farther than she herself realised. in 1667 she had cried very loud because her second sister, mademoiselle d'alençon, had made a _mésalliance_ in marrying a simple seigneur, the duc de guise, and she had looked very gloomily at the pair. the time had passed for such pride, as the poor woman was herself ready for a worse _mésalliance_. her patience was at an end. her agitation while louis xiv. was attempting marriage negotiations with the duc de savoie must not be forgotten. no prince had thought of her since this affront. she was considered too old. she would not confess this to be the case, but she felt it, and a tempest gathered in the depths of her heart. the storm burst in 1669. it is impossible to say in what measure nature alone was responsible, and what was due to the atmosphere of moral disorder and voluptuousness which mademoiselle was now inhaling at the court in the frequent companionship of the favourite. one thing is certain, the grande mademoiselle did not try to struggle against the passion which seized her; her attitude was rather that of a person who sought its sway. footnotes: [footnote 163: the mlles. de nemours were daughters of elisabeth de vendôme, sister of the duc de beaufort, and of henri de savoie, duc de nemours, who was killed in a duel by his brother-in-law (july 30, 1652). the younger sister married alphonse vi. june 28, 1666.] [footnote 164: claude le pelletier, then president of inquests. after, he was minister of state and controller-general of finances.] [footnote 165: mlle. d'alençon, the second of the half-sisters of mademoiselle.] [footnote 166: _archives de chantilly._] [footnote 167: _[oe]uvres de louis xiv. lettres particulières_, paris, 1806.] [footnote 168: _l'ambassadeur de la fuente au roi d'espagne_; paris, january 27, 1664. (_archives de la bastile._) the princesse de savoie refused by louis xiv; had decided to marry the duc de parma.] [footnote 169: _mémoires de mme. de motteville._] [footnote 170: the archbishop of embrun to father brienne; turin aug. 1, 1659.] [footnote 171: la fontaine: _la fille_, fable, published for the first time in the edition 1679.] [footnote 172: marie-jeanne-baptiste de nemours married charles emmanuel ii., may 11, 1665.] [footnote 173: and not madame henriette, as has been said in error.] [footnote 174: bethléem was a suburb of clamecy.] [footnote 175: mme. de la fayette, _histoire de madame henriette_.] [footnote 176: _mémoires de mme. de motteville._] [footnote 177: see raoul allier, _la cabale des dévots_.] [footnote 178: lenten sermons for the year 1662.] [footnote 179: letter of march 29, 1680.] [footnote 180: _archives de la bastille_, by françois ravaisson, vols. iv., v., and vi., _passim_.] [footnote 181: see the review of the play in _molière_ of the _grands écrivains de la france_ (hachette).] [footnote 182: allusion to certain talismans.] [footnote 183: _archives de la bastille_: rapport de la reynie, lieutenant-general of police, à louvois (1680, no other date).] [footnote 184: _la magie dans l'inde antique_, by victor henry.] [footnote 185: interrogatory of june 30, 1668. mme. de bougy was the widow of the marquis of this name, lieutenant-general. la duverger was occupied with magic. the marquis de ravetot had married catherine de grammont, daughter of the marshal.] [footnote 186: another name for lesage.] [footnote 187: _histoire de l'opéra en europe_, by m. romain rolland. cf. _histoire de la musique dramatique en france_, by chouquet, _les origines de l'opéra français_, by nuitter and thoinan.] [footnote 188: the first opera worthy of the name was _pomone_, by cambert. it will be learned in special works how french opera differed from italian and through what a chain of circumstances it occurred that a florentine, baptiste lulli, was the true founder.] [footnote 189: see above.] [footnote 190: a selection of the operas of lulli, for piano and voice, has appeared in the collection michaelis.] [footnote 191: letter dated december 1, 1673.] [footnote 192: _introduction par m. le comte d' haussonville, aux souvenirs sur mme. de maintenon._] [footnote 193: _kant als mensch_, by erich adickes.] [footnote 194: romain rolland.] [footnote 195: _mémoires_ of mademoiselle.] [footnote 196: _oeuvres galantes en vers et en prose_, by m. cotin.] [footnote 197: for this see _les ennemis de racine_, by f. deltour; _les époques du théâtre français_, and _les études critiques sur l'histoire de la littérature française_ by m. f. brunetière; the memoirs and correspondence of the times; the collection of _mercure galant_; _les préfaces de racine_, etc.] [footnote 198: criticism by boursault.] [footnote 199: deltour, _les ennemies de racine_.] [footnote 200: _gazette de loret_, january 13, 1663.] [footnote 201: _mémoires sur la vie et les ouvrages de jean racine_, by louis racine.] [footnote 202: see the volume by mm. jean lemoine and andré lichtenberger, _de la vallière à montespan_.] [footnote 203: _souvenirs sur mme. de maintenon._--_les cahiers de mlle. d'aumale_, with an _introduction_ by m. g. hanotaux.] [footnote 204: may 27, to m. de montchevreuil.] [footnote 205: "_frappez_" would have been misunderstood.] [footnote 206: _remerciement au roi_ (1663).] [footnote 207: the convent of saint-joseph, rue saint dominique; mme. de montespan had constructed in it an apartment for herself.] [footnote 208: the comte de vexin, who died young.--mme. de sévigné, letter dated june 14, 1675.] chapter v the grande mademoiselle in love--sketch of lauzun and their romance--the court on its travels--death of madame--announcement of the marriage of mademoiselle--general consternation--louis xiv. breaks the affair. in the spring of 1669, louis xiv. one day was listening to the comtesse de soissons sing. she was the second of the mazarin nieces, and the only really wicked one in the family. she sang a new song containing many naughty couplets, in which mud was thrown upon some of the courtiers. men and women received their packet under the guise of mock praise, according to a fashion much in vogue. the phrase "mock praise" had become the name of a form of satire, which made an almost unique literature. the king permitted the couplets to pass in silence. he did not even protest at this one: et pour m. le grand,[209] il est tout mystère; quand il est galant, il a comme la vallière l'esprit pénétrant. the countess then arrived at a couplet on puyguilhem, better known under the name of lauzun.[210] de la cour la vertu la plus pure est en péguilin.... at this place the king interrupted: "if it is wished to vex him, they are wrong, but when people act as he has done, they must be let alone; as for others, they are badly treated." the sudden displeasure of the king at the mention of puyguilhem caused a general silence, and the song stopped at this point. the grande mademoiselle was present at this scene, and was surprised to discover that she was not indifferent to its import. up to this time, she had scarcely known lauzun, who did not belong to her coterie. "it pleased me," says her _mémoires_, "to hear the manner in which the king spoke of him; i felt some instinct of the future." this was the first warning of the passion which had already insinuated itself into the depths of her heart; but she did not yet comprehend it. the idea came to her, however, of seizing an occasion to converse with lauzun. she felt an inclination for this at once. "he has," said she, "a manner of explaining himself which is very extraordinary." mademoiselle was interested, but she still believed that it was only the conversational capacity which pleased her in the little cadet of gascony. she began to query, however, why, having been sufficiently content during her five years of exile, she was now so willing to remain a fixture. the year had ended before she found a satisfactory response to this question: "i went in the month of december (the 6th) to saint-germain, from which i did not depart. i soon accustomed myself to it. ordinarily, i only stayed three or four days, and my present long sojourn surprised every one." on the 31st, she decided at length to return to paris: "i was very bored there, and could not discover what i had done at saint-germain which had so much diverted me." she hastened to rejoin the court, without knowing why, and commenced again her conversations with lauzun, but still remained unconscious of any sentiment. she only knew that she was troubled and agitated, and discontented with her condition, and that she felt a desire to marry. the desire dated back a long time, but of late it had become so insistent that mademoiselle was forced to examine herself seriously. the passage in which she relates her discovery is charmingly natural and significantly true: i reasoned with myself (for i did not speak to any one) and i said, 'this is no longer a vague thought; it must have some object.' i did not discover who it was. i sought, i dreamed, but could not find out. finally, after some days of anxiety, i perceived that it was m. de lauzun whom i loved, who had glided into my heart. i thought him the most worthy man in the world, the most agreeable; nothing was lacking to make me happy but a husband like him, whom i should love and who would love me devotedly; that heretofore i had never been loved; that it was necessary once in life to taste the sweetness of being adored by some one, which would make worth while the sufferings caused by the pangs of love. this explanation of her own heart was followed by days of intoxication. mademoiselle lived in a dream, and all was easy, all was arranged: "it appeared to me that i found more pleasure in seeing him and in talking to him than heretofore; that the days in which he was absent, i was bored, and i believe that the same feeling came to him; that he did not care to confess this, but the pains he took to come wherever he was likely to meet me made the fact clear." in the absence of lauzun, she sought solitude in order to think of him freely. "i was delighted to be alone in my chamber; i formed plans of what i could do for him which would give him a higher position." one single thought, characteristic of her generation, came to trouble her happiness; she queried of herself if the great princesses of the theatre of corneille would have married a cadet of gascogne. assuredly, passion blows where it listeth. corneille had never denied this; but he had maintained that the will should render us masters of our affections, and his plays bear witness that love, even when founded in a just feeling of admiration, can efface itself before the sentiment of the duty owed to rank. happily, poets, even when they are named corneille, sometimes contradict themselves, and mademoiselle, who had seen plays since the days of swaddling clothes, well knew her _répertoire_. she now recalled for her comfort a passage in the _suite du menteur_ which clearly established the "predestination of marriage, and the foresight of god," so that it was a christian duty to submit without resistance to sentiments sent to us "from the sky." although sure of her own memory, which was indeed excellent, mademoiselle sent in great haste to paris to secure a copy of the play, and found the page (act iv.) in which mélisse confides to lise his love for dorante: quand les ordres du ciel nous ont faits l'un pour l'autre, lise, c'est un accord bientôt fait que le nôtre. sa main entre les c[oe]urs, par un secret pouvoir, sème l'intelligence avant que de se voir; il prépare si bien l'amant et la maîtresse, que leur âme au seul nom s'émeut et s'intéresse. on s'estime, on se cherche, on s'aime en un moment; tout ce qu'on s'entredit persuade aisément; et, sans s'inquiéter de mille peurs frivoles, la foi semble courir au-devant des paroles. how was it possible to doubt for a single instant after having read these verses that there is impiety in disobeying the "commands" to love which come to us from on high? nevertheless, serious conflicts took place in the soul of the royal pupil of corneille. sometimes she represented to herself with vivacity the joys of marriage, among the keenest of which would be the witnessing the vexation of her heirs, who were already beginning to find that she was making them wait too long, and whom she longed to disappoint. sometimes her mind could only dwell upon the scandal which such a _mésalliance_ would cause, the reprobation of some, and the laughter of others, and then her pride rose in arms. she thus on one day desired the marriage eagerly, while on the next she detested the thought of it, the vacillation depending upon the fact of her having between times seen or not seen m. de lauzun. this struggle between the head and the heart was prolonged during several weeks; finally, after having often passed and repassed the pro and con through my brain, my heart decided the affair, and it was in the church of recollects in which i took my final resolution. never had i felt so much devotion in church, and those who regarded me perceived that i was much absorbed; i believe that god surprised me with his commands. the next day, which was the second of march, i was very gay. if mademoiselle had been of the age of juliet, this would have been a pretty romance. but she was perhaps slightly too mature to play with the grand passion. the man who was the cause of these agitations is one of the best-known figures of his times. traces of him are found in all the contemporary writings. the singularity of his personality joined to the prodigies of his luck, good and bad, had made him an object of interest to his contemporaries. it was of him that la bruyère said: "no one can guess how he lives."[211] the political world, the ministers at the head, observed him with an anxious attention, because he had accomplished the miracle of becoming the favourite of the king, while possessing precisely the defects which louis xiv. feared the most. lauzun did not attain the position of such a favourite as the constable de luynes under louis xiii., but he secured sufficient influence to accumulate offices and honours. antonin nompar de caumont, marquis de puyguilhem, later comte de lauzun, was born in 1633 (or 1632) of an ancient family of périgord. his parents had nine children and nothing to give to the younger ones; but their birth assured to this youthful throng access to the court and hope of aid from it. the third of the boys resembled poucet in form and also possessed his keenness of mind. it was decided to send him to seek his fortune, not in the forest, as with the hero of the tale, but in the vicinity of the court of france, the parents being convinced that with his acuteness he would not permit himself to be eaten by the ogre, but would rather succeed in devouring others. the maréchal de gramont, first cousin of the old lauzun, saw arrive at his mansion a very little man, with the face of "a flayed cat,"[212] surrounded with flaxen hair, who claimed to be fourteen years of age. this grotesque person was as lively as a sparrow and gascon to the tips of his fingers. the marshal kept him and provided for his education. in winter the little man went to the "academy" to learn to dance, to shoot, and to ride. in the summer he campaigned with a cavalry regiment belonging to his uncle. there was apparently no plan for serious study of any kind, nor even any attention paid to making the youth read. complete ignorance was still accepted among the nobility without remark; there had been little change for the better in this respect since the previous century. the parents of lauzun had well judged. in a short time the boy had wormed himself into the most imposing mansions, the most sacred chambers. he was seen with the king, he was met in the company of beautiful ladies. the court and the city became familiar with his furtive and impudent physiognomy, which soon grew haughty and insolent. at eighteen, his father gave him his first military charge. at twenty-four, he possessed a regiment; then suddenly, when the king came to power, he received advancements, favours, an always increasing and inexplicable credit, which aroused for him the hatred of louvois, for in the frequent discussions in relation to the service, "the favourite always conquered." one of his tricks, which was unparalleled for impudence, and the discovery of which might well have crushed him for ever, ended in proving his strength. [illustration: cliché braun, clément & cie. =duc de lauzun= by permission of messrs. hachette & co.] at about the time when he attracted the attention of the grande mademoiselle, the insatiable little man extracted from his master (under the condition of secrecy for fear of louvois) the promise of being shortly made grand master of artillery. lauzun was foolish enough not to be silent. louvois, once warned, made such strong and convincing opposition that the king was aroused, and the favourite heard no more of the appointment. in his anxiety he appealed to mme. de montespan. she was his great friend and promised her aid; but he was distrustful and wished to "have his mind clear"; then occurred a scene which outraged saint-simon himself, as he related it long after. this writer avows in his _mémoires_ that it would have been incredible "if the truth had not been attested by all the court." like most great workers, louis xiv. was orderly and methodical in everything. he had fixed hours for his ministers and for appearing in public, hours for his wife and for his mistresses. it could always be known where he was and what he was doing. mme. de montespan's hour was in the afternoon. with the complicity of a chambermaid lauzun was introduced into the room, concealed himself under the bed, and by keeping his ears open soon "cleared his mind." mme. de montespan did not forget him in her conversation, but he heard himself severely criticised and his bad character exploited; the slight dependence which could be placed upon him and his arrogance towards louvois were also emphasised. all these charges were made with so much wit that the king, carried away, replied with almost as little charity. the listener under the bed, through rage and constraint, was thrown into a "great perspiration." finally the king returned to his own affairs and mme. de montespan to hers, which were to attire themselves for a ballet. after her toilet, madame found lauzun at her door. he offered his hand and demanded if he dared flatter himself that she had remembered him with the king. she assured him that she had not failed to do so, and expatiated upon "all the services which she had just rendered him." m. de lauzun permitted her to finish, only forcing her to walk slowly, and then softly in a low voice repeated, word for word, all that had passed between the king and herself, without leaving out a single phrase; and always retaining the sweet and gentle voice, he proceeded to call her the most infamous names, assured her that he would "spoil her face," and led her most unwillingly to the ballet, more dead than alive, and almost without consciousness. the king and mme. de montespan both believed that it was only the devil himself who could have so accurately reported what had been said. royalty and the mistress were in trouble, and in a "horrible rage"; they had not yet recovered their equanimity when the favourite recommenced his intrigues. three days after this apparently inexplicable event, he came to break his sword before the king, declaiming that he would no longer serve a prince who forswore his word for a ---(the word cannot be repeated). the conduct of louis xiv. at this juncture has remained famous. he opened the window and threw out his cane, saying that he should regret having struck a gentleman. the next day lauzun found himself in the bastile, and it might have been supposed for a long sojourn, under a monarch who never as a child had pardoned a lack of respect. the public was still more astonished to learn, at the end of the second month, that it was the king who sought pardon, and lauzun who held his head high, refusing recompense and asserting that the prison was preferable to the court. the feelings of louvois and others can be imagined during the strange interchange of visits between saint-germain and the bastile, for the purpose of obtaining from this dangerous personage the acceptance of the much-desired charge of captain of the body guard; also the alarm at the prompt[213] return of the favourite, more of a spoiled child than before the punishment. whence came this credit with a prince so little susceptible to influence, who had always pretended to be as opposed to the rule of favourites as of prime ministers? in what did this little lauzun show special merit? and what attracted women who pursued and sought his favour through cajoleries and gifts? little poucet he still was; for he had not increased in stature. "he is," wrote bussy-rabutin, "one of the smallest men god has ever made."[214] he had not become more beautiful. we can on this point believe the testimony of mademoiselle herself. however strong her passion, she is yet able to paint lauzun in these terms, writing to mme. de noailles: "he is a small man. no one can say that his figure is not the straightest, prettiest, most agreeable. the limbs are fine; he has good presence in all that he does; but little hair, blond mixed with grey, ill-combed, and often somewhat greasy; fine blue eyes, but generally red; a shrewd air; a pretty countenance. his smile pleases. the end of his nose is pointed and red; something elevated in his physiognomy; very negligent in attire; when, however, it appeals to him to be careful, he looks very well. behold the man!" this is not an alluring picture. there was but little to attract. it was murmured that he possessed secret methods of making himself beloved. "as for his temper and manners," continues mademoiselle, "i defy any one to understand them, to explain or to imitate them." the world was not entirely of this opinion. it could recognise at least that m. de lauzun was "the most insolent little man born in the century,"[215] also the most malicious. many cruel traits were ascribed to him, and his fashion of turning on his heel and plunging into the crowd before his victims had regained their composure was well known. the world was also well assured that the favourite was an intriguer. lauzun was always occupied with some machination, even against those to whom he was indifferent; this kept his hand in. for the rest, mademoiselle was right; he was _not_ understood. he was very intelligent. his clever phrases were repeated. for example, his response to the wife of a minister who said rather foolishly, in emphasising the trouble her husband gave himself: "there is nothing more embarrassing than the position of the one who holds _la queue de la poêle_, is there?" "pardon, madame, there are those who are within." but lauzun also loved to play the imbecile and to utter with the tone of a simpleton phrases without sense; he indulged in this singular taste even before the king. the contrast was great between his pretensions to the "haughty air" and the desire to be imposing and the habit of adorning himself in grotesque costumes in order to see whether any one dared to laugh at m. de lauzun. he was once found at home arrayed in a dressing gown and great wig, his mantle over the gown, a nightcap upon his wig, and a plumed hat above all. thus attired, he walked up and down scanning his domestics, and woe to him who did not keep his countenance. he was at once avaricious and lavish, ungrateful and the reverse, delighting in evil but at the same time loyal as relative or friend while not ceasing to be dangerous. he undertook at one time to advance in the world his nephew, lately come from périgord. he furnished him with a purse and took the trouble to present him at court, at which their apparition was an event. they were pointed out to every one, and no one, not even the king, composed as he was by profession, could help laughing; lauzun had indulged in the fantasy of dressing his nephew in the costume of his grandfather. the poor lad felt so ridiculous that he almost died from shame, and fled from paris without daring to show himself again. in this freak, his uncle had not acted maliciously: he had simply disregarded consequences. there was certainly a strain of madness in lauzun. if not too large, a tinge of this kind often gives to people a certain fascination. it had captivated mademoiselle, who in trying to define her attraction for lauzun was forced to conclude, "finally, he pleased me; and i love him passionately." the king had also not been insensible to this indefinable charm, but it must be said that he had been slightly dazzled by the perfection of the qualities of a courtier which were shown by this half-madman. the court of france possessed no more servile being bowing down before the master than "the most insolent little man seen during the century." this gascon played comedies of devotion for the benefit of louis xiv. and flattered him in the most shameful manner, which succeeded only too well. the king was persuaded that m. de lauzun loved him alone, lived but for him, and had no thought apart, and the king was touched by this illusion. he found such absolute devotion delightful, and was ready to pardon much to the man who gave so good an example to other courtiers. but even in giving full weight to the originality and the unscrupulousness of this man, which undoubtedly added to his force, and also bearing in mind that louis xiv. did not entirely escape a certain terror which his favourite inspired, it is still difficult to account for a success so disproportioned to the merit. lauzun had almost reached the heights when the mad strain became ascendant and ruined him. once decided upon her desires, mademoiselle became completely absorbed in finding the best means of satisfying these. the first steps appeared to be the most difficult. considering her rank, the advances must be made by her, and it fell to the grande mademoiselle to demand the hand of m. de lauzun. everything had been prepared and the princess did not anticipate a refusal. but it was not sufficient to be married; she wished to live her romance, to be loved, and to be told so, and this delight was not easy to attain. "i do not know," says she, "if he perceived what was in my heart. i was dying of desire to give him an opportunity to tell me what his feelings were to me. i knew not how to accomplish this." probably in all the court there did not exist another woman so naïve as mademoiselle in regard to the manipulation of a lover! after having seriously thought over the matter, she decided upon a classic expedient. she resolved to tell lauzun that it was a question of an alliance, and that she wished to ask his advice. if he loved her, he would certainly betray himself. she entered upon the attempt, on the same second of march on which she had awakened so gaily, and met her lover in the palace of the queen, at the time when that lady retired to her _oratoire_ to "pray god." while marie-thérèse was prolonging her devotions a certain freedom was permitted in the anteroom. "i went to him and led him near a window. with his pride and his haughty air, he appeared to me the emperor of all the world. i commenced: 'you have testified so much friendship for me during so long a time, that i have the utmost confidence in you, and i do not wish to act without your advice.'" lauzun protested, as was fitting, his gratitude and his devotion, and mademoiselle continued: "it is plainly to be seen that the king wishes to marry me to the prince de lorraine; have you heard this mentioned?" no, he had "heard nothing of it." mademoiselle poured out some confused explanations as to her reasons for wishing to remain in france, in the hope of finding at length true happiness. "for myself," concluded she, "i cannot love what i do not esteem." lauzun approved all and demanded: "do you think of marrying?" she responded naïvely, "i become enraged when i hear people calculating upon my succession." "ah," said he, "nothing would give me greater delight than to marry." at this moment, the queen came out of the _oratoire_ and it was necessary to part. lauzun had betrayed nothing. nevertheless, mademoiselle felt very happy: "i thought, there is one important step taken, and he can no longer mistake my sentiments; on the first occasion, i will learn his. i was well content with myself and with what i had done." lauzun had in fact really comprehended that the grande mademoiselle was throwing herself at his head, and he was well pleased to enter into the game at all risks, in order to gain what he could. without actually reaching the marriage ceremony, the love of a grand princess can be of advantage in many ways. he took pains, therefore, to renew the conversation, and employed all his art, all his wit, in default of feeling, in keeping the flame alight in the breast of the old maid and in flattering the weaknesses which united with the movements of her heart in increasing the desire for marriage. mademoiselle could not support the vision of the heirs always on the watch; lauzun accentuated and sympathised with her annoyance at overhearing such phrases as "this one will have that territory, another will inherit this land." "i find your vexation very reasonable," said he, "for one should live as long as possible and not love those who desire our death." mademoiselle could not resign herself to growing old. this was not coquetry, of which she could not be accused; it was the conviction that on account of her high birth she was a privileged creature. she said very seriously, "people of my quality are always young," and she dressed as at twenty, and continued to dance. lauzun attacked this delicate subject and did not hesitate to speak unpleasant truths before offering the soothing balm held in reserve. it was his habit to treat women brutally in order to make them submissive, and in this case there were double reasons for doing so. "his maxim," relates saint-simon, "was that the bourbons must be rudely treated and the rod must be held high over their heads, without which no empire could be preserved over them." this system had succeeded tolerably well with louis xiv. lauzun could well believe, in these early times, that it would also be successful with his cousin, so humbly did she accept his harshness. he said to her: "i find that you are right to take a husband, nothing in the world being so ridiculous, no matter what may be the rank, as to see a woman of forty wrapped up in the pleasures of the world, like a girl of fifteen, who thinks of nothing else. at this age, a woman should be a nun or at least a _dévote_, or she should remain at home modestly dressed." he admitted that mademoiselle, on account of her high rank, might constitute an exception, and that she might be permitted at long intervals to hear one or two acts of the opera; but her duty as old maid was "to attend vespers, and to listen to sermons, to receive the benediction, to go to assemblies for the poor, and to the hospitals." or else to marry; this was the alternative which pointed his moral. "for once married," continued he, "a woman can go anywhere at any age; she dresses like others, to please her husband, and goes to amusements because he wishes his wife not to appear peculiar." every word impressed itself on the mind of the loving princess. when saint-simon, who was intimate with lauzun, read the _mémoires_ of mademoiselle, he found the account of this adventure so true and lively that he renounced the attempt to relate it himself. "whoever knew lauzun will at once recognise him in all that mademoiselle relates, and his voice can almost be heard." through a very natural contradiction, the grande mademoiselle, even at the height of her passion, preserved "some regret that she would no longer be queen in foreign lands." lauzun tried to banish this regret. he represented to her that the trouble of playing at royalty surpassed the pleasure. if you had been really queen or empress you would soon have been bored.... you can now dwell here all your life.... if you desire to marry you can raise a man to be the equal in grandeur and power to sovereigns. above all, he will realise that you have taken pleasure in bringing him to prominence; he will be deeply grateful. it would not be needful to describe the man who may possess so much honour; for in pleasing you and in being your choice, he must of necessity be an estimable being. he will lack nothing; but where is he? this language, so clear in its import to the reader, did not entirely satisfy mademoiselle. the poor princess was ever expecting an avowal or caresses which never came. lauzun acted the disinterested friend, the person who was entirely out of the running, and he detailed all the reasons which made an unequal marriage distasteful to him. far from seeking her, he held himself at a respectful distance when he met her. "it was i," says she, "who sought him." his reserve and his reticence added fuel to the flames, and this diverted him, but for the moment he did not dare to promise himself anything more than greater credit at court. in the meantime, the duchesse de longueville[216] wished to establish the count de saint-paul, the one of her sons who resembled "infinitely" la rochefoucauld. in spite of the great difference in age--her son was only twenty--she thought of mademoiselle, who remained by far the best match in the kingdom, and commenced overtures. these were eluded, but with a gentleness which astonished the social world. mademoiselle had her reasons: "for myself, who had my own desires buried in my heart, it did not at all vex me that the report should be spread that there was question of marrying me to m. de longueville.[217] it occurred to me that this might in some measure accustom people to my future action." for once, the diplomacy of mademoiselle did not prove a failure, and her calculations were found to be justified. some days later, when the affair was being discussed before lauzun, one of his friends, who had perceived that the princess was listening with pleasure, asked him why he did not try his fortune.[218] others joined in the suggestion and all assured him that nothing was impossible for a man so advanced in the good graces of the king. lauzun expressed himself shocked at the idea of an alliance with mademoiselle; but on returning to his lodging, he ruminated the entire night upon this conversation, and from that time the thought did not appear to him so chimerical. it was necessary, however, to delay the assurance; the king led the court into flanders and gave the command of the escort to his favourite. this was a political journey. spain had been vanquished almost without resistance in the war of dévolution[219] (1667-1668). louis xiv. deemed it useful to display french royalty in all its pomp to the populations lately united with his kingdom, by the treaty of aix-la-chapelle (may 2, 1668), and all prepared to make a fine figure in a spectacle whose strangeness finds nothing analogous in modern life. in 1658, loret the journalist had valued at about twelve hundred souls (the servitors were not included) the convoy formed by the court at its departure for lyons. this figure was certainly surpassed in 1670, when the royal family alone, more than complete, since it included mme. de montespan and mlle. de la vallière, took in their train a suite of several thousand persons, not counting the army of escorts. this suite was composed of ladies and maids of honour, gentlemen, pages, domestics of all orders and of both sexes, footmen and valets of valets. the king even brought his nurse with him. on the other hand, the nobility were better disciplined than in the times of mazarin and anne of austria, and no one had dared to remain behind. the departure was from saint-germain, april 28. pellison wrote the next day to his friend mlle. de scudéry: "it is impossible to tell you how numerous the court is; it is much larger than at saint-germain or paris. every one has followed."[220] the quantity of luggage gave to this crowd the appearance of a wandering nomadic tribe. all the personages of high rank took with them complete sets of furniture. louis xiv. had on this journey "a chamber of crimson damask," for ordinary use, and another "very magnificent" where greater accommodation would be had. the bed of the last was "of green velvet embroidered with gold, immensely large, which could of itself fill several small rooms." there were also entire suites of needful furniture when the king lodged at his ease, and the same for the queen, beautiful gobelin tapestries and a quantity of silver plaques,[221] chandeliers of silver, and other pieces. the commissary department carried a monster cooking apparatus and necessary utensils to supply, morning and evening, several large tables with food served on plated dishes. when all was unpacked, their majesties were "almost as at the tuileries." monsieur could not do without pretty things nor infinite variation of toilet; he was much encumbered on a journey. mademoiselle, demanding little, had nevertheless her rank to maintain, and her "campaign chamber" was imposing. on one journey, she was obliged to lodge ten days in a peasant's hut where the ceilings were so low that it was necessary to increase the height of the room by digging out the ground which formed the floor, in order to erect the canopy of her bed. those of the courtiers obliged, from their rank as chiefs of _commandments_, to keep open table led with them a staff of domestics and enough material for an itinerant inn. others wished to make themselves conspicuous by the fineness of their equipage. that of lauzun had been much admired at his departure from paris. "he passed through the st. honoré," wrote mademoiselle, who had come across him by chance; "he was very splendid and magnificent." the most modest carried at least a camp-bed, under pain of sleeping upon mother earth during the entire trip. the train of chariots, carts, and horses, or mules with pack-saddles, which rolled along the route to flanders in 1670, can be pictured; also the difficulty of uniting luggage and owner when the resting-places were scattered over an entire village or group of villages; the accidents of all sorts which happened to the caravan, on roads almost always in a frightful condition, and in traversing rivers often without bridges; the indifference of some, the impatience of others, and the universal disorder; the anguish of losing one's cooks if one were a marie-thérèse, the desolation of not finding the rouge and powder if one were monsieur or some pretty woman! surely those who preserved their equanimity through such trials and under excessive fatigue deserve praise. louis xiv. was a good traveller, arranged everything for himself, and expected others to do as much. he detested groans, timid women, and those to whom a bed was important. the queen marie-thérèse began to grumble before actually stepping into her coach, and the fact that she was in a placid frame of mind during a trip was spread far and wide as a piece of good news. the frugal suppers and the nights passed in a waggon, while awaiting the carriage which had missed the way, appeared to her frightful calamities. the bad condition of the roads made her weep, and she uttered loud cries in traversing fords. she was once found in tears, stopping the horses in the open plain and refusing to go on or to turn back. an intelligent interest in new surroundings did not give her compensation for her woes, for she possessed no curiosity. the conferences with which the king entertained the ladies along the route, upon military tactics and fortifications, mortally bored and wearied the poor queen, and she did not know how to conceal her feelings. to tell the truth, among all the women who pressed behind the king upon the ramparts of the cities or on the fortifications of old battle-fields, appearing to absorb his words and explanations, mademoiselle was the only one who really listened with pleasure. since the exploits during the fronde, the princess had always considered herself as belonging to the profession of arms. monsieur had one great resource in travelling. when he joined the king, he brought with him some choice bits of gossip which entertained the entire coach. in the evening, when the beds were being anxiously awaited, he started games, or ordered the king's violins and gave a dance. if no other place offered, the company would use a barn for the impromptu ball. monsieur, however, was much annoyed at any mishaps which might interfere with his toilet, and could never take accidents of this kind lightly. the journey of 1670 was made more difficult by torrents of rain, and the one who was generally drenched was the commander-in-chief of the troops, who was obliged to stand with uncovered head to receive the king's orders. monsieur looked with a sort of indignation upon the piteous countenance of lauzun, his hair uncurled and dripping, and once said: "nothing would induce me to show myself in such a condition. he does not look at all well with his wet hair; i have never seen a man so hideous."[222] mademoiselle was more indignant than monsieur; chiefly over the fact that any one could consider m. de lauzun ugly "in any state," and that the king should gaily expose him to the risk of catching cold. "m. de lauzun is always without a hat and has his head drenched. i said to the king, 'sire, command him to cover his head; he will be ill.' i said this so repeatedly that i was afraid my solicitude would be noticed." mademoiselle cared but little on her own account for the discomforts of the journey. no woman made fewer grimaces at a bad supper, or for being forced to make a bedchamber of her carriage, and sometimes to sleep upon a chair. she did not, however, enjoy the reputation of being a good traveller, on account of the insurmountable terror which water inspired. during a ford, she cried out as loudly as the queen; the signs of the king's impatience could not restrain her; "as soon as i see it," said she, of the water, "i no longer know what i am doing." the rest of the party belonging to the caravan resigned themselves to the discomforts of camping through "the grace of god." it was realised that any expression of discontent caused the danger of incurring the royal displeasure, and discomfort was expected as a necessary accompaniment of a royal progress. in 1667, court had passed one night at the château of mailly near amiens. the abbé de montigny, almoner of the queen, wrote the next day to some friends, "mailly, ladies, is a caravansary. there was such a crowd that mme. de montausier slept upon a heap of straw in a cupboard, the daughters of the queen in a barn on some wheat, and your humble servant on a pile of charcoal."[223] in 1670 the account of the night of the 3d of may filled many letters. may 3d had been a painful day. the immense convoy had departed from saint-quentin for landrecies at an early hour, during a beating rain, which had visibly increased the water-courses and swamps. hour by hour the vehicles sank deeper in the mud and the roads were encumbered with horses and mules, dead or overcome, with carts sunk in the mire, and with overturned baggage. it was not long before the chariots met the same fate. the maréchal de bellefonte was forced to abandon his in a slough, and make the remainder of his way to the resting-place on foot, in the company of benserade and two others. m. de crussol[224] met the water above the doors of the carriage in traversing the sambre, and m. de bouligneux,[225] who followed him, was forced to unharness in the middle of the stream and to save himself on one of the horses. when it came to the queen and mademoiselle, it was in vain to promise to conduct them to another ford reported as "very safe." their cries and agitation were such that the attempt was abandoned. they sought shelter in the single habitation on the bank. it was a poor hut composed of two connecting rooms with only the ground for floor; on entering, mademoiselle sank up to the knees in a muddy hole. landrecies was upon the other bank of the sambre. the night fell and all were dying with hunger, for there had been no meal since saint-quentin. the king, very discontented, declared that no further attempt should be made to proceed and the night should be passed in the carriages. mademoiselle remounted into hers, put on her nightcap and undressed. she could not, however, close her eyes; "for there was such a frightful noise." some one said, "the king and queen are going to sup." mademoiselle ordered herself borne through the mud into the hut, and found the queen very sulky. marie-thérèse had no bed and was lamenting, saying "that she would be ill if she did not sleep," and demanding what was the pleasure in such journeyings. louis xiv. added the last touch to her vexation in proposing that the entire royal family and some intimates should sleep in the largest of the two rooms, letting the other serve as a military headquarters for lauzun. "look," said the king, "they are bringing mattresses; romecourt[226] has an entirely new bed upon which you can sleep." "what!" cried the queen, "sleep all together in one room? that will be horrible!" "but," rejoined the king, "you'll be completely dressed. there can be no harm. i find none." mademoiselle, chosen as arbitrator, found no impropriety, and the queen yielded. the city of landrecies had provided their sovereigns with a "bouillon very thin," the distasteful appearance of which alarmed marie-thérèse. she refused it with disgust. when it was well understood that she would not touch it, the king and mademoiselle, aided by monsieur and madame, devoured it in an instant; as soon as it was all gone, the queen said, "i wanted some soup and you have eaten it all." every one began to laugh, in spite of etiquette; when there appeared a large dish of chicken cutlets, also sent from landrecies, which was eaten with avidity, soothing the injured feelings of the queen. "the dish contained," relates mademoiselle, "meat so hard that it took all one's strength to pull a chicken apart." when the company retired for the night, those not yet prepared arrayed themselves in nightcaps and dressing-gowns,[227] and french royalty for this memorable night must be represented in the apparel of argan. in the corner of the chimney, upon the bed of romecourt, lay the queen, turned so that she might see all that was passing. "you have only to keep open your curtain," suggested the king; "you will be able to see us all." near to the queen, upon a mattress, lay mme. de bethune, the lady of honour, and mme. de thianges, sister of mme. de montespan, pressed together for lack of space. monsieur and madame, louis xiv. and the grande mademoiselle, mlle. de la vallière, and mme. de montespan, a duchess and a maid of honour were crowded on the remaining mattresses, placed at right angles and proving a most troublesome obstruction to the officers going and coming on official business to the headquarters in the other room. happily, the king at length ordered lauzun to use a hole in the outer wall for his commands. the royal dormitory was at last left in peace, and the occupants could slumber. at four in the morning, louvois gave warning that a bridge had been built. mademoiselle awakened the king and all got up. it was not a beautiful spectacle. locks were hanging in disorder and countenances were wrinkled. mademoiselle believed herself less disfigured than the others, because she felt very red, and she rejoiced, as she found it impossible to avoid the glance of lauzun. the royal party mounted into their carriages and attended mass at landrecies, after which these august personages went to bed and reposed a portion of the day. the same evening mademoiselle, only half aroused, was severely scolded by lauzun for her ridiculous dread of the water. this was very sweet to her; it being the first time he had taken such a liberty, and the most passionate women in the early days of love adore the masterful tone. the two saw each other less often than at saint-germain, but with more freedom. the chances of travel gave, from time to time, the opportunity for long tête-à-têtes, by which they profited; she, to become more pressing, he, to make himself more keenly desired. lauzun said one day that he thought of retiring from the world. "i am having a vision of such beautiful and great hopes; and if they are only delusions i shall die of grief." "but," said mademoiselle, "do you never think of marrying?" "the one thing of importance in marriage," replied he, "would be belief in the virtue of the lady, for if there had been the slightest lapse i would have none of her; even if it were a question of yourself, far above others as you are!" he said this because there was a rumour that the king had the plan of marrying mlle. de la vallière to his favourite. mademoiselle cried out ingenuously: "but you would wish me; for i am good. 'do not talk even delightful nonsense, when we are speaking seriously.' but return then to me." this was precisely what he did not wish. he recollected all at once that the venetian ambassador was expecting him. on another occasion, mademoiselle said to him, in confessing the fact that she was "entirely resolved to marry," and that her choice was made: "i intend to speak to the king, and to have the wedding in flanders; that will make less stir than at paris." "ah, i beseech you not to do this!" cried lauzun alarmed, for he did not consider the ground sufficiently prepared, "i do not wish it; ... i am absolutely opposed to it." some days after, they were together looking through a window and exchanging impressions upon the persons of quality who were passing, "their forms, their bearing, their appearance, their wit." at length, lauzun remarked, "judging by what i hear, none of these would suit you?" "assuredly not," replied mademoiselle, "i wish that the person of my choice might go by, that i could point him out to you." as every one had now passed, she continued: "he must be sought, there is still some one else." after this, relates her _mémoires_, "he smiled and we talked of something else." they had arrived at the point of smiles and mutual intelligence. nevertheless the court returned to saint-germain (june 7th) without mademoiselle having obtained the decisive word for which she was meekly begging. lauzun opposed some barriers to every advance. acting through prudence or calculation, he was to have cause to congratulate himself. fifteen days elapsed in _détours_ and feigned flights. mademoiselle was exasperated. comprehending perfectly well that a gascony cadet could not say bluntly, "take me!" she still was so little capable of subterfuge that she found the "manners of m. de lauzun towards her extraordinary." lauzun was too subtle for one so simple. la bruyère himself was going to renounce the hope of penetrating into his motives, and to avow it in the passage in which he paints him under the name of straton: "a character equivocal, unintelligible; an enigma; a problem never solved." persuaded that her lover held back through respect, mademoiselle resolved to attack affairs boldly. on june 20th, she went to enjoy the diversions of the fine season[228] at versailles. monsieur and madame were at their château at saint-cloud. mademoiselle followed the court. lauzun was absent, but he took pains from time to time to appear in the queen's salon. one evening, when he had met mademoiselle and when he was chaffing her on the subject of the duc de longueville, the princess said to him vivaciously: "assuredly i shall marry; but it will not be with that person. i pray that i may speak with you to-morrow, for i am resolved to address the king and i desire that all should be finished before july 1st." he replied: "i am going to-morrow to paris, and sunday without fail i shall be here, and we will then talk over everything; i begin also to desire to have all ended." on sunday (june 29th), towards evening, lauzun had not yet arrived. mademoiselle was notified that the queen was awaiting her for the daily drive. she went out quickly, and ran across the comte d'ayen,[229] who had also an appearance of being in haste, and who said to her in passing, "madame is dying; i am seeking m. vallot,[230] whom the king has commanded me to lead to her!" below in her carriage the queen related the tale of the glass of chicory water and the fact that madame believed herself to be poisoned. all were astonished and exclaimed, "ah, what a horror!" people looked at each other and did not know what to do. marie-thérèse descended from her carriage and was peacefully entering a boat on the grand canal, when a gentleman arrived in haste; madame was in extremity and besought the queen not to delay if she wished to see her alive. the château was speedily regained, where the confusion recommenced. the queen demanded every instant: "what shall i do? what shall i do?" she could not decide to go herself, and she prevented mademoiselle from departing without her. finally, the king appeared. he took the queen in his coach with mademoiselle and the comtesse de soissons. mlle. de la vallière and mme. de montespan followed. it was eleven o'clock when the royal family descended at the gate of the château saint-cloud. the spectacle which awaited it has been described a hundred times. a poor little dishevelled figure, pathetic from suffering, and already drawn by the approach of the dying agony, lay upon the bed. the unfastened chemise permitted her emaciation to be seen, and she was so pale that if it had not been for her cries it might have been thought that the end had already come. we know through mme. de la fayette[231] that the first sentiments of the spectators had been those of pity, natural in such a case, and here doubled by the sight of the frightful sufferings and the gentleness of this young and charming being in the presence of death. the state of madame had touched even her husband, so embittered against her by her frivolities, and only the sound of "weeping was heard in the chamber." with the entrance of the sovereigns and their suite the aspect of the room was at once altered. louis was indeed sincerely affected, mademoiselle much moved, and many of the others felt "that they were losing with madame all the joy, all the agreeableness, all the pleasures of the court."[232] but egotism and intrigue marched on the heels of their majesties. even while weeping, each began to dream over the consequences of this death. who would inherit the prestige of madame? whom would monsieur marry? would it be the grande mademoiselle? how would this affect the interests of each? the dying woman felt a sudden chill in the atmosphere. "she perceived with pain the tranquillity of every one," reports mademoiselle, "and i have never seen any sight so pitiable as her state when she realised the real attitude of those surrounding her bed. the crowd kept on talking, moving about in the room, almost laughing." monsieur was only "astonished" at what was happening. mademoiselle having urged him to send for a priest, he said, "whom shall we call? whose name will appear well in the _gazette_?" this preoccupation truly reveals monsieur. after the departure of the king, who took away others in his train, the scene again changed. monsieur had sent for bossuet, who, in a letter to one of his brothers, has related details of these last hours. to judge from this letter, it appears that the presence of the priest at the bedside of madame turned all minds from terrestrial preoccupations and banished all thoughts except those impressed by the grandeur of death. madame herself gave the example, proving with her last sigh that she felt she was accomplishing "the most important action of life."[233] "i found her fully conscious," said bossuet, "speaking and acting without ostentation, without effort, without violence; but so well, so suitably, with so much courage and piety, that i was completely overcome." thus god had the last word! on returning to versailles, the queen quietly ate her supper. mademoiselle perceived lauzun among those present. "in rising from table, i said to him, 'this is very disconcerting.' he replied, 'very, and i am afraid that it may spoil our plans.' i responded, 'ah, no. no matter what may happen.'" the poor woman could not sleep during the night: how rid herself of monsieur, if the king should wish "the marriage"? at six in the morning, word came from saint-cloud that madame was dead. "at this news," continues mademoiselle, "the king resolved to take medicine," and mademoiselle, arriving with the queen, found him in a dressing-gown, weeping bitterly over the loss of madame, and very tenderly pitying his own woe. he said to mademoiselle: "come, watch me take medicine; let us make no more fuss; better act as i am doing." after his draught he retired, and the morning was passed in his bedchamber speaking of the dead. in the afternoon, the king dressed and went to consult mademoiselle, as the great authority in matters of court etiquette, upon the proper arrangements for the funeral ceremony. after these details had been discussed, the king spoke the word she was expecting and dreading: "'my cousin, here is a vacant place, will you fill it?' i became pale as death, and said, 'you are the master, your wish is mine.' he urged me to speak frankly. i said, 'i can say nothing about this.' 'but have you any aversion to the idea?' i was silent; he went on, 'i will further the affair and report to you.'" in the salons, the crowd of courtiers was busily engaged in remarrying monsieur. the question was, "to whom?" and every one looked at the grande mademoiselle. lauzun bore the situation like a man of spirit, without troubling himself with useless regrets or feigning a loving despair which was very foreign to his nature. his manner was free, very gay, too easy to please mademoiselle when he congratulated her and refused to listen to her protestations that "it would never be." "the king said that he wished you would marry monsieur; it will be necessary to obey." he besought her not to hesitate, and dilated on the joys of grandeur, and the happiness she might have with monsieur. she responded, "i am more than fifteen, and i do not propose to accept a life fit only for children." of all the honours attached to the rank of sister-in-law to the king, one alone appealed to her,--that she would then have a good place in the royal carriage, instead of being always on the basket seat, and she represented to lauzun that the "good place would not long remain vacant." it would be assigned to the children of the king as soon as they should be grown up. once he added: "the past must be forgotten. i remember nothing of what you have told me; i have lately forgotten all." another time, he showed that he was not ignorant of what he was losing. she had just repeated, "ah, this shall never be!" "but yes," rejoined lauzun, "i shall be glad; for i prefer your grandeur to my own joy and fortune; i owe you too much to feel otherwise." "he had never before admitted as much," remarks mademoiselle. after such delightful conversations, she shut herself up to weep. the idea of marrying monsieur was odious to her, for other reasons besides the desires aroused by her passion. not that she suspected him of having poisoned his wife. mademoiselle considered her cousin incapable of such a crime. but she could not bear the thought of the many favourites of monsieur and of their power. one of these, m. de beuvron,[234] had confirmed this repugnance by coming insolently and inopportunely to assure her of his protection and of that of the chevalier de lorraine. he frankly told her: "it will be more to our advantage to have you than a german princess without a sou, who would only be an expense, while you have so much that the allowance of monsieur can be spent for his liberalities; thus we shall come off better." this was not a clever address to a princess who sincerely loved money. the following displayed even less tact: "if we aid in making your marriage, you will be under obligation to us, and you will realise our power." mademoiselle heard all and recounted the conversation to the king. "he has spoken like a fool," said louis with his shrewd common-sense. mademoiselle could not resign herself to this alliance, and lauzun trembled lest he should be held responsible. he came once again, to find the princess with the queen, and said to her: i come very humbly to supplicate, that you will speak no more to me. i am most unhappy at displeasing monsieur. he might believe that all the difficulties you are making come from me. thus i shall no longer enjoy the honour of addressing you. do not summon me, for i shall not respond. do not write to me, nor address me in any way. i am in despair to be forced to act in this fashion; but i must do so for love of you. she equivocated, tried to retain him. he repeated to her his accustomed refrain that he must obey, and coldly took leave while she cried out: "do not go away! what, shall i speak to you no more?" from that day lauzun carefully avoided her. one day, when mademoiselle requested him to re-knot her muff ribbon, he replied "that he was not sufficiently adroit," and yielded to mlle. de la vallière. he even avoided glancing in her direction. louis xiv. had found his brother well convinced of the advantage of marrying many millions; monsieur only demanded delay, not wishing, with the rumours which were circulating, to appear too eager to replace the dead. mademoiselle also on her side was endeavouring to hinder the progress of affairs. success crowned the efforts of both, and the month of september was well advanced when the king said to his cousin in the presence of the queen: "my brother has spoken to me; he wishes in case you have no children that you should make his daughter your heir,[235] and he says he will be well content not to have any more offspring, provided he is assured that my daughter shall marry his son. i counselled him to desire children, because this could not be a certainty." monsieur was thirteen years younger than mademoiselle, and the latter very well understood the significance of words. she began to laugh. "i have never heard persons on the brink of marriage say that they did not wish children, and i hardly know whether this is a courteous proposition. what does your majesty think?" the king also laughed. "my brother has said so many ridiculous things on this subject that i have advised silence." the joking continued in spite of the queen, who cried out, "this is really disagreeable!" finally, mademoiselle concluded in a serious tone: "although i am no longer young, i have not reached the age at which children are impossible.... such suggestions are most disagreeable to me." the king also became serious, and warned his cousin that she could never expect from him the gift of any government or any appointment which would permit the exercise of power, but only precious stones and furniture and other playthings. this again was a lesson from the fronde, and in his _mémoires_[236] louis confirms this same resolution. mademoiselle thanked her cousin somewhat ironically for what he had done to render monsieur desirable, and, realising by the questions of the king that some hints had reached his ears, she pictured in covered words the future of which she had had a glimpse. the queen demanded her meaning, but the king remained silent. "i do hope," observed mademoiselle in ending, "that i may be permitted to act as i wish and that the king will not force me against my desires." "no, surely," replied louis, "i will leave you free and will never constrain any one"; he added an instant after, "let us go to dinner," and they separated. some weeks rolled by. the favourites of monsieur were cold about an alliance which the temper of mademoiselle might make somewhat difficult, and which might in the end prove _not_ to their advantage.[237] events moved quietly enough when the princess one evening in october supplicated the king that there should be no more said of the project. louis xiv. appeared to be indifferent. monsieur was at first vexed and then dismissed the subject from his thoughts. marie-thérèse alone, interested neither in her brother-in-law nor in her cousin, "was in despair," relates mademoiselle, "for she wishes that we should marry and have children." but no one paid much attention to the despair of marie-thérèse. lauzun approved the course of mademoiselle and ceased to avoid her. that was all. for an ambitious man, he was not a really clever schemer; he had too great a fear of being duped. he again assumed a sombre attitude and refused to hear the name of the one chosen by mademoiselle. on a certain thursday evening, when she had menaced him with the threat of breathing against the mirror and of writing the name of the man she loved, midnight sounded during this contest. "nothing more can be said," observed mademoiselle, "for it is already friday." the next day, taking a sheet of paper, she wrote distinctly, "it is you," and sealed it. "that day i met him only on the way to supper. i said: 'i have the name in my pocket, but i do not wish to give it to you on friday.' he responded: 'give it to me! i promise that i will put it under my pillow and that i will not open the paper until midnight has passed.'" she did not trust him, and it did not occur to him to sacrifice a race that had been arranged for the saturday. "ah, well, i will wait until sunday," said mademoiselle with inconceivable patience, and her only vengeance was to let herself be implored a little, before giving up the paper. the couple were alone in a corner of the fireplace, in the salon of the queen. "i drew forth the leaf, upon which only a single word was written, which, however, told much; i showed it to him, and then replaced it in my pocket, afterward in my muff. he urged me very strongly to give it to him, saying that his heart was beating rapidly.... before yielding i said, 'you will reply on the same leaf.'"... in the evening she did not dare to raise her eyes; he declared that she was mocking him, that "he was not sufficiently foolish to be deceived," and this was the theme of the letter which he remitted to her. at the same time, he thought of the prodigious elevation which he was beginning to realise was a possibility before him. he was at last aroused, and could not always refrain from responding seriously to mademoiselle. she spoke of the happiness which awaited them, and of her plans to make him the greatest lord in the kingdom. he counselled her always to bow before fate, but one day he added: "in marrying, the temperament of those throwing their fates together should be known. i will disclose mine." he said that he possessed a nature bizarre and unsociable, being able to live only in the wake of the king; "thus i shall be a peculiar and not very diverting husband." later, he amplified a little, affirming that he was cured of desire for women, and had no more ambition. "when a post was proposed to me i refused it. after all, do you really want me?"--"yes; i wish you."--"do you find nothing in my person which is disgusting?" this question was reasonable enough. lauzun was decidedly "unclean"[238]--but it roused the indignation of mademoiselle: "when you say that you are afraid of not pleasing, you are simply mocking; you have pleased too easily in your life; but now about me, do you find anything unpleasant in my face? i believe that my only exterior fault is my teeth, which are not fine. that is a defect of my race, which fact bears its own compensations." "assuredly" replied he, and she could not extract the expected compliment. in the course of these events, the court returned to the louvre and the tuileries, mademoiselle to the luxembourg. after much hesitation lauzun consented that mademoiselle should write a letter in which she should supplicate the king to forget all that he had said against mixed marriages, and permit her to be happy. the contemporaneous opinion was that lauzun had made the first move. the spanish _chargé d'affaires_ wrote from paris, december 21: "it is certain, as every one says, that he has arrived at this point with the authorisation and permission of the king."[239] the public voice, whose echo has been preserved for us by the novelists of the period, added that mme. de montespan had been mixed up in the affair, a version which two of her letters to lauzun confirm,[240] and that she had obtained the consent of the king by saying: "ah, sire, let him alone. he has merit enough for this."[241] there was evidently some secret bond between the mistress and lauzun which united them when any mischief was at hand. the king had responded to mademoiselle without actually saying yes, or no; he confessed that her letter had astonished him and asked her to reflect again. he repeated the advice three days later, during a _tête-à-tête_ which took place behind closed doors at two o'clock in the morning. "i neither counsel you nor forbid you; but i pray you to consider well." he added that the affair was being discussed and that many people disliked m. de lauzun. "think over this fact and take your own measures." [illustration: =madame de sévigné= from the painting by pietro mignard in the uffizi gallery, florence (photograph by alinari)] the couple profited by the warning. on monday, december 15, 1670, in the afternoon, the ducs de montausier and de crégny, the maréchal d'albret and the marquis de guitry presented themselves before louis xiv., and demanded the hand of the grande mademoiselle for m. de lauzun, "as deputies from the french nobility, who would consider it a great honour and grace if the king would permit a simple gentleman to marry a princess of the blood."[242] this proceeding was a plan of lauzun's. it succeeded with the king, and after he had been thanked in the name of the entire nobility of the kingdom, mademoiselle, who was apparently listening to the reading of a sermon, behind the chair of the queen, was notified that m. de montausier was asking for her. the duke reported the good reception which they had received and ended in these terms: "your affair is accomplished, but i counsel you not to let things lag; if you follow my advice, you will marry this very night." "i was convinced that he was right" adds mademoiselle, "and i prayed him to give the same advice to m. de lauzun if he should see him before i did." there is no clearer fact in history than the evidence of the consternation into which france was thrown by the news that the duchesse de montpensier, granddaughter of henri iv., was to marry the comte de lauzun, "a simple (qualified) gentleman." to-day, an alliance of this kind, provided it does not concern the heir to the throne, is only a piece of society gossip, even in lands still profoundly loyal to monarchical sentiments. in the seventeenth century such an event touched so nearly the social hierarchy upon which all rested that mademoiselle, in thus confusing social ranks, appeared to have failed seriously in her duty as princess. louis, as king, had not considered it his duty to oppose. the criticism was more severe inasmuch as custom, encouraged by illustrious examples, offered to lovers separated by birth easy means for completing their private happiness, sustaining at the same time public decorum. "marriages of conscience" had been invented for such cases; why not be content with this means of doing your duty and of satisfying at the same time conscience and passion? paris sought a reply to this question, and the whole city was whispering and busying itself in a manner not easily to be forgotten. ten years later, when the trials of the "corrupters" disturbed the community, some one wrote to mme. de sévigné that "the last two days have been as agitated as during the time when the news of the projected marriage between the grande mademoiselle and m. de lauzun was announced. all were seeking news and, eager with curiosity, were running from one house to another to gather details."[243] the princes and princesses of the blood considered themselves insulted, and rebelled, a boldness so unexpected, on account of their habitual submission, that even louis xiv. was somewhat moved. the timid marie-thérèse gave the example. mademoiselle came to announce formally the proposed marriage. "i entirely disapprove," said the queen in a very sharp tone, "and the king will never sanction it." "he does approve it, madame, that is settled." "you would do better never to marry, to keep your wealth for my son anjou."[244] anger gave the queen courage to address the king, who was vexed, and the result was a scene, tears, a night of despair; but also nothing gained, and finally the queen was forced into a public declaration that she would sign the contract. monsieur loudly protested. he heaped abuses on the "deputies of french nobility," reproached mademoiselle in the presence of the king for being "without heart," and said that she was a person who should be "placed in an insane asylum,"[245] and also declared that he would _not_ sign the contract. the gravest accusation made by monsieur was a statement, repeated to all, that mademoiselle had said that the king had himself counselled the marriage. in vain mademoiselle asserted that she had said nothing of the kind; the charge made a great impression upon louis, and he expressed his first regret over the affair. the prince de condé, sometimes taunted with having become, somewhat late in life, an accomplished courtier, remonstrated respectfully but firmly with the king. the old madame, forgotten in her corner of the luxembourg, never really felt the wave of disgust and protest, but she was sufficiently aroused from her apathy to sign a letter to the king, written in her name by m. le pelletier, president of the department of inquests. outside the court circle, louis xiv. felt himself blamed by all classes of society. the nobles in general refused to ratify the "mandate" that the deputies had given in their name. without doubt, the honour of this marriage would be great: the permission given to a princess of the blood to marry so far beneath her rank, a most unexpected favour from a monarch who had worked so systematically to undermine the power of the aristocracy; but the larger portion of the french nobility was so much impressed with the danger of insulting royalty, and weakening the sentiment of the sanctity of the heaven-sent rulers, that it joined in the criticism of the rest of the nation. the parliamentary world and the society of the higher middle class were equally outraged. it was plain that the marriage could be made only with the king's consent, and the giving of this was considered a "shame." the bourgeoisie showed an inconceivable irritation; segrais heard guilloire, intendant of mademoiselle, say to his mistress in an excited tone, knowing very well that he was risking his position, "you are derided and hated by all europe." as to the common people, their attitude was touching. "they were," reports a witness,[246] "in a state of consternation." they grieved as if their prince had deceived them. the enemies of lauzun increased the discontent and endeavoured to gain time. louvois was credited with having persuaded the archbishop of paris to forbid the bans. the minister felt himself directly menaced, and this was also the opinion of the political world, in which many believed that the projected marriage was a stroke directed "against m. de louvois, an avowed enemy of m. de lauzun,"[247] by colbert and mme. de montespan. while the tempest was gathering, the friends of the two lovers pressed them to hasten the end. "in the name of god," said rochefort, captain of the guards, "marry to-day rather than to-morrow!" montausier "scolded" them for dallying. mme. de sévigné represented to mademoiselle that they "were tempting god and the king."[248] nothing can be done for people who are walking in the clouds. lauzun, "intoxicated with vanity,"[249] believed himself already safe in port, sheltered from all trouble, with the king and mme. de montespan on his side. mademoiselle, "dazzled by love," permitted herself to be guided. her first desire had been to marry upon the evening of the deputation to the king, without saying anything about it, but lauzun refused. "he was persuaded that mme. de montespan would not fail him, and that nothing could now turn the king against him, and considered everything secure, saying, "i distrust only you." to marry thus clandestinely would not satisfy his vanity. he wished that the deed should be done as "from crown to crown, openly and with all forms observed." he desired the chapel of the tuileries, pomp, a crowd, rows of astonished and envious faces, "rich livery" that he had hastened to order for the occasion. in short, he longed for the moon and he did not succeed in seizing it. tuesday, december 16th, was passed in talking, in expressing astonishment, in paying compliments. a multitude came to the luxembourg, among whom the archbishop of reims, brother of louvois, who said to mademoiselle: "would you do me the injury of choosing any other than myself to perform the marriage ceremony?" another had already solicited the honour, a proof that so far a rupture had not been thought of. mademoiselle replied: "m. the archbishop of paris has said that he desired the office." wednesday, there was a fresh crowd, louvois in person and all the ministers; but there was no longer the same cordiality, and mademoiselle herself perceived the difference. "they made low bows, they conversed, but no longer about the affair." the evening of the same day, the princess gave to lauzun ("awaiting something better," said mme. de sévigné), the comté of eu, which represented the first peerage of france, assuring the first rank, the principality of dombes and the duchy of montpensier, of which last lauzun assumed the title and name. it was agreed that the ceremony should take place the next day at noon. on thursday, the 18th, the contract was not yet prepared; the lawyers had delayed on purpose. towards evening, lauzun, who was losing his assurance, offered to break with mademoiselle. she was offended and tried once more to make him declare his love, but he responded, "i will say i love you only when we issue from church." there was no longer question of the tuileries chapel, nor even of dazzling the parisians, and friday found a new delay, mademoiselle having herself wavered. after consideration, a rendezvous was arranged at charenton, in the house of a friend, where the wedding was to be secretly solemnised the next evening at midnight, without even an archbishop. the parisian offer began to inspire distrust: "the curé of the place would do well enough." when all was settled, mademoiselle amused herself with showing to her intimates the chamber that she had arranged for the future duc de montpensier. "it was magnificently furnished," relates the abbé de choisy. "'do not you think,' said mademoiselle to us, 'that a gascony cadet will be sufficiently well lodged?'" lauzun took leave early to pass the night in a "bath house," as was the custom before a wedding. mademoiselle opposed this, because he was suffering from a bad cold. he had also "trouble with his eyes." i said to him, "your eyes are very red." he replied, "do they make you ill?" i said, "no; for they are in no way disgusting." it may be noticed that these illustrious lovers did not possess the light graces of conversation; their phrases were singularly heavy. "these ladies are mocking us," pursued the princess. "i do not know, however, what caused me to have a presentiment. i began to weep in seeing him depart; he, too, was sad; we were ridiculed. the ladies also departed, only mme. de nogent remaining." this last was the sister of lauzun, and mademoiselle had, during the past months, been very intimate with her. while time was thus being wasted at the luxembourg, louis submitted to the almost universal antagonism and withdrew his authorisation to the alliance. "the queen and the princes of the blood redoubled their entreaties; the maréchal de villeroy[250] threw himself upon his knees, with tears in his eyes; the ministers and all those approaching the king expressed the voice of the people. at length god touched the king's heart."[251] god? no, but a creature of flesh; mme. de montespan for the second time betrayed lauzun. la fare affirms the statement that it was the counsel of mme. de maintenon (still only mme. scarron) painfully earning her bread in bringing up in obscurity the children of mme. de montespan and the king. mme. scarron had cleverness and prudence, and at that time was far from any thought of rivalry; the king could not suffer her. she said later that he had taken her for a "learned woman," only caring for "sublime things"[252]; and louis distrusted philimantes. it was, therefore, as a disinterested friend that she "pointed out to mme. de montespan the tempest which she would draw down upon her head in sustaining lauzun in this affair; that the royal family and the king himself would reproach her for the steps she had urged. mme. scarron succeeded so well that the one who urged the marriage was responsible for preventing it."[253] louis xiv. yielded to the urgency of mme. de montespan and sent to the luxembourg for mademoiselle. it was eight o'clock in the evening. mademoiselle uttered a cry on hearing that the king commanded her presence. "i am in despair; my marriage is broken." on reaching the tuileries, the princess was led to the king by the back staircase, and quickly perceived that something was being concealed from her. in fact, louis had hidden condé behind a door, that he might listen and be witness to what passed. the door was closed behind me. i found the king alone, moved and sad. "i am in despair at the thought of what i must tell you. i am told that the world is saying that i am sacrificing you to make lauzun's fortune; that this would injure me in foreign lands, and that i must not permit the affair to be consummated. you are right in complaining of me; beat me if you wish. i will bear the weight of any expression of anger in which you may indulge, and feel that i merit your indignation." "ah!" cried i, "sire, what do you tell me? what cruelty!" she mingled protestations with reproaches, sobbed out her despair on her knees, and pleaded to know the fate of lauzun. "where is he, sire, m. de lauzun?" "do not be troubled! no harm shall come to him." true sorrow is always eloquent, and louis xiv. let his own emotion be visible without shame: he threw himself on his knees and embraced me. we wept together three quarters of an hour, his cheek pressed against mine, he weeping bitterly as i did: "ah! why have you wasted time in reflection? why did you not hasten?"--"alas, sire! who could have distrusted your majesty's word? you have never failed any one before, and you now begin with me and m. de lauzun! i shall die, and be happy in dying. i had never loved any one before in all my life; i now love, and love passionately and in good faith, the most worthy man in your kingdom; my only joy and pleasure will be in his elevation. i hoped to pass the remainder of my days agreeably with him, and in honouring and loving you as warmly as my husband. you gave him to me; you now take him away; it is tearing out my heart." some one coughed behind the door. "to whom are you betraying me, sire? can it be m. le prince?" mademoiselle grew bitter, and the king wished to end the scene; but she continued to supplicate him: "what, sire, will you not yield to my tears?" he replied, raising his voice so that he might be heard, "kings must satisfy the public"; and added, an instant after, "it is late; i can say no more nor differently, even if you remained longer." "he embraced me and conducted me to the door." such is the recital of mademoiselle. another account of the interview exists, dictated the same evening by louis to his minister of foreign affairs, as the following letter, written the next morning, testifies. before the king had risen, m. de lyonne wrote in haste to m. de pomponne, the french ambassador to holland: i am overwhelmed with business, and have no time for details, but i do not doubt that every letter from paris has brought news of the projected marriage of the grande mademoiselle with comte de lauzun. i must now warn you that the king broke this off yesterday at eleven o'clock in the evening, so that few people could be aware of the fact before the departure of the post. i have already outlined a circular letter from his majesty, to be sent to all the foreign ministers, to inform them of what has passed in regard to this affair during the past seven or eight days; but as the king does not wake before nine o'clock, and as the courier will by that time have departed, his majesty will not be able to sign in time for the letters to be forwarded to-day, and you must be contented with the simple news, that the affair is ended. i pray you to send a copy of this note to m. le chevalier de terlon and to the sieur rousseau,[254] and to advise them that i have requested you so to do. before referring to the circular letter of his majesty upon the subject which caused the cries and tears of his poor cousin, it should be noted that it seemed perfectly natural, to judge by the documents of the times, to advise officially foreign powers of events with which they were actually but little concerned. in the opinion of the seventeenth century, the man was inseparable from the sovereign, and france was deeply impressed with the universal importance of louis xiv. and by consequence of the obligations devolving upon him. "he must account to all europe for his actions," says, in regard to the "affair lauzun," the "relation" already quoted.[255] it is also well to recollect, in order to understand the text of the letter, that one of the half-sisters of mademoiselle had married the duc de guise, cadet of the house of lorraine; an alliance hardly less unequal in the eyes of the french aristocracy than that of lauzun with the princess. this marriage had excited but little attention, there being a wide difference between the importance of the sisters. referring to this event, the "deputies of the nobility of france" had not failed to assert that the nobles of france and the officers of the crown were quite equal to foreign princes, and in particular to the "lorraines" in spite of their pretensions. with this explanation, the text of the long despatch addressed to the ambassadors is given. it begins in these terms: as what has taken place during the past five or six days in regard to a plan formed by my cousin for marrying the comte de lauzun, one of the captains of the body guard, will probably make a great noise everywhere, and as my conduct in the matter is liable to be interpreted malignantly, and to be blamed by those who may be incorrectly informed of the facts, i believe it a duty to instruct all my foreign ministers." the king then explains in detail the affair, and this explanation exactly accords with the recital of mademoiselle, save that louis xiv. states that he was opposed to the marriage from the beginning, and only yielded because he was weary of the discussion, being constantly harassed by his cousin and the deputies of the nobility: "she [mademoiselle] continued ... through notes and every other available means to press me urgently to give the consent she demanded of me, as this alone could, as she said, give the happiness and repose of her life." the deputies had also represented to him that after having consented to the marriage of my cousin de guise, not only without making the least difficulty but with pleasure, i should resist this, so ardently desired by her sister, i should clearly show that i made a great distinction between the cadets of royal houses and the officers of my crown. such a distinction spain did not make, but on the other hand, gave precedence to its own grandees over any foreign princes, and it was impossible that the making of this difference in france should not greatly mortify the entire nobility of the kingdom. in conclusion, the urgency of these four persons was so strong, and their reasons so convincing, especially that emphasising the danger of insulting the french nobility, that i yielded, and gave consent to the marriage, shrugging my shoulders at the folly of my cousin, and only saying that as she was forty-three, she might do as she pleased. he continued, "from this moment it was considered that the affair was concluded." then follow the details already known, preparations for the ceremony, the crowd at the luxembourg; rumours "very injurious" that the king was responsible for the marriage, wishing to favour lauzun; and finally, the resolve to break off the affair. this is the single point on which louis xiv. believed it to be his duty to restrict his confidences to the universe. he passes over in silence the supplications of mme de montespan and the fact of condé being hidden behind the door: i sent for my cousin. i declared to her, that i would not suffer her to cross the frontier for marriage, and that i could not consent that she should marry any prince who was my subject,[256] but that she might choose among the (qualified) nobles of france, with the exception of lauzun, and that i myself would conduct her to church. it is superfluous to tell you with what grief she received this announcement, how she wept and sobbed. she threw herself upon her knees. "i had pierced her heart with a hundred dagger strokes; she wished to die"; i remained firm. the king added that he made the same communication to lauzun, "and i may say that he received it with all the self-control, submission, and resignation which i could desire."[257] it is with the unfavourable comparison to mademoiselle that this curious document terminates. louis displayed but little generosity before a grief so deep. the princess regained her chamber in a pitiable state. she went into hysterics and broke the windows of the carriage. at the luxembourg, the salon was filled with a curious crowd awaiting her return. "two of her footmen entered into the room, saying in loud voices, 'depart at once, by degrees.' every one scattered immediately; but i remained the last, and saw mademoiselle advance from the hall of the guards like a dishevelled fury, menacing heaven and earth with extended arms." she had barely time to regain a slight degree of calm, when lauzun entered, accompanied by messieurs de montausier, créqui, and guitry. "on seeing him, i uttered loud cries, and he could hardly restrain himself from weeping." the nobles of france came at the command of the king to thank the granddaughter of henri iv. for the honour that she wished to confer upon them. m. de montausier bore the address. mademoiselle sobbed. m. de lauzun had, with full understanding, taken the expected attitude, of a man who blesses the most cruel blows coming from the hand of his king. "m. de lauzun," wrote mme de sévigné, "has played his rôle to perfection; he has sustained his misfortune with firmness and courage, and has nevertheless displayed a grief, mingled with profound respect, which has won the admiration of all."[258] the princess would have been contented with something less admirable. she said to him: "'you show such strength of mind, that all will believe you to be indifferent to me. what do you say?' and i sobbed with each word." he responded very coolly: "if you take my counsel, you will go to-morrow to dine at the tuileries, and will thank the king for the honour that he has done you, in having prevented an action of which you would have repented all your life." she led her lover aside and had the pleasure of seeing him weep. "he could not speak, nor could i. i could only say: 'what! i am never to see you more? i shall certainly die.' then we turned around.... these gentlemen departed; i went to bed; i remained twenty-four hours almost without consciousness." she forbade any one to be admitted. her door was, however, opened on friday morning for mme. de sévigné. just twenty-four hours had elapsed since mademoiselle had overflowed with joy before her friend and despised any warnings. "i found her in bed[259]; she redoubled her cries on seeing me; called me, embraced me, and deluged me with her tears. she said: 'alas! do you remember what you said yesterday? ah! what cruel prudence!' i wept through sympathy with her woe." a little later the king was announced. "when he entered," reports mademoiselle, "i began to cry with all my strength; he embraced me and placed his cheek against mine. i said, 'your majesty acts like monkeys who stifle their children embracing them.'" as he was promising all kinds of wonderful things to console her, among others "that he would do fine things for m. de lauzun," she had the presence of mind, in spite of her anguish, to demand if she might not see her friend again. the reply of the king should be remembered, as it brought serious results for his cousin. he said: "i do not forbid you to see him; ... and assuredly you cannot take advice of a worthier man in regard to any of your affairs than lauzun." she hastened to confirm the permission. "it is my intention, sire, and i am very happy that you desire that he should continue to be my best friend; but at least, sire, you will not change as you did before? i cannot help reproaching you." the succeeding days she was obliged to reopen her doors, and the same crowd which had feigned to rejoice with her now pretended to pity her. it was necessary to see again the same faces, to submit to curious looks, glances filled with raillery, and to reply to _banal_ remarks. there was much joking in paris at her having received condolences in bed, after the fashion of widows. "i have heard in the salon of mme. de maintenon," relates mme. de caylus,[260] "that she cried out in her despair, 'he should be there beside me!'" a grand princess, to be dying of love and for a simple cadet from gascogne, almost a country fellow; this was a novel spectacle, which so shocked all ideas of decorum that the public could not take to heart very seriously this slightly theatrical grief. it was pretended that louis had said, "this is only a fantasy born in three days and which will pass as rapidly." true or false, the king wished to believe this, and the phrase received general approbation. it relieved the fashionable world from the duty of sympathising with the unfortunate, who was eating out her own heart, and visibly fading away. "i grew thin, with hollow cheeks, as a person who neither eats nor sleeps, and i wept the minute that i was alone, or when i met any friends of m. de lauzun and they talked of events which had any connection with him. i always desired to speak of him." the hope of a speedy death was her sole consolation, for no one, she was convinced had so deeply suffered. "my state was pitiable, and it must have been experienced to be appreciated, for such feelings cannot be expressed. it is necessary to know one's self, in order to judge, and no one can have felt a grief equal to mine; there is nothing which can compare with it." this is the universal language of disappointed lovers; but the expressive phrase below is not at the disposal of all souls. it is only applicable to moments in which the excess of grief renders it almost unconscious: "on account of feeling too much, i felt nothing." the fifth day, etiquette exacted that she should find herself consoled. her duties as princess were recalled to her. "it was needful to go to court, it was not well to pass eight days without seeing the king." in vain she fought against such cruel exactions; she was forced to make a spectacle of herself, still with "discomposed face, red and swollen eyes, with constant floods of tears, at proper or improper moments, with sharp cries at sight of lauzun." lauzun opened his eyes wide upon her as upon a naughty child, and severely menaced her: "if you act in this manner, i will never be found again in the same room with you!" but she could not compose herself. one evening, at a great court ball, she stopped in the middle of a dance and began to weep. the king rose and placed his hat before her face, leading her out of the room and explaining, "my cousin has vapours." the public did not pity her. it would have liked to celebrate her defeat. "all have praised the king for this action," wrote olivier d'ormesson. louis xiv. was again popular, a transient popularity which lasted only a few days. "it may be said that not only the court, but the entire kingdom has rejoiced in the rupture of the proposed marriage."[261] the sentiment of approval was unanimous. as to the princess, who was guilty of asserting the right to "personal happiness," opinion judged her severely. the seventeenth century did not admit, as has been seen, that individual sentiments or the interests of the heart could predominate over the exactions of rank or society, and the age of the lovers and disparity of their appearance, she so tall, he almost a dwarf, aroused ridicule instead of sympathy. the grande mademoiselle was suddenly rewarded "with contempt," "for," says la fare, "if this contemplated alliance appeared extraordinary as soon as the news was made public, it became ridiculous as soon as it was broken." it is agreeable to meet among these people, who were right in the main, but who were malicious and uncharitable, one good samaritan. while mme. de sévigné wrote gaily, "all is finished,"[262] the tears of mademoiselle inspired kind and courageous words from a person comparatively obscure, and who excused herself from corresponding because she did not have enough "wit." a letter, dated january 21, 1671, addressed to bussy-rabutin by mme. de scudéry, sister-in-law of the illustrious madeleine, contains this paragraph: i will say nothing of the affair of mademoiselle. you are no doubt acquainted with all that has passed. i will only add that, if you realise what a great passion can be, in the heart of a pure woman like the princess, you will not wonder, but will have sympathy. for myself, who know nothing of love through experience, i comprehend that mademoiselle is much to be pitied; for she has become sleepless. during the day she is agitated and weeps, and in fact is leading the most miserable existence possible.[263] bussy-rabutin replied (a chaseu, january 29, 1671): i comprehend what passion means in a woman of the age and temperament of mademoiselle, who has preserved her heart hitherto untouched, and i confess that this tale arouses my pity. love seems to me a malady like the small-pox; the later it attacks the victim, the more severe the illness. the writer had indeed well understood the characteristics of late love on only its displeasing side. but his attitude was, unfortunately, the one adopted by almost every one. regarded half-pityingly, but with an undercurrent of ridicule, the grande mademoiselle ceased to be interesting to the fickle french public. the fall from favour was very definite. the heroine of the fronde was effaced in the eyes of contemporaries, and remained only a ridiculous old maid, whose woes amused the gallery. footnotes: [footnote 209: the grande equerry, louis de lorraine, comte d' armagnac.] [footnote 210: the marquis de puyguilhem (written péguilin) had taken the name of comte de lauzun the following january. the latter title will be used in this volume.] [footnote 211: see the portrait of straton in the chapter entitled "de la cour."] [footnote 212: saint-simon, _écrits inédits_.] [footnote 213: lauzun became captain of the body guard in july, 1669.] [footnote 214: letter to mme. de sévigné, dated february 2, 1669.] [footnote 215: _mémoires et réflexions_ of the marquis de la fare.] [footnote 216: the sister of the grand condé. upon her part in the fronde, see _the youth of la grande mademoiselle_.] [footnote 217: m. de saint-paul began toward this time to bear the name of de longueville.] [footnote 218: this conversation, which gives the key to the conduct of lauzun, is reported in _le perroquet or les amours de mademoiselle_, an anonymous recital printed by m. livet following the _histoire amoureuse des gaules_ (paris, jannet, 1857); and in the _histoire de mademoiselle et du comte de losun_ (bibl. saint-geneviève ms. 3208), not always sources to be relied on, but to be trusted here.] [footnote 219: war between relatives for the succession.] [footnote 220: _lettres historiques._ pellison accompanied the court as historiographer.] [footnote 221: plaques: pieces of embossed silver, at the lower part of which was placed a chandelier.] [footnote 222: _mémoires_ of mademoiselle.] [footnote 223: _de la vallière à montespan_, by jean lemoine and andré lichtenberger.] [footnote 224: emmanuel ii. de crussol, duc d'uzès. he married the daughter of the duc de montausier and of julie d'angennes.] [footnote 225: probably the uncle by marriage of bussy-rabutin.] [footnote 226: romecourt was lieutenant of the king's guards.] [footnote 227: it is evident that these last were carried in the private carriages, ready for any accident.] [footnote 228: _gazette de renaudot._] [footnote 229: captain of the body guard. afterward, duc de noailles, and marshal of france.] [footnote 230: first physician to the king.] [footnote 231: _histoire de madame henriette d'angleterre._] [footnote 232: mme. de sévigné to bussy-rabutin. letter of july 6, 1670.] [footnote 233: mme. de sévigné to bussy-rabutin (letter dated january 15, 1687), speaking of condé's death.] [footnote 234: charles d'harcourt, chevalier, afterward comte de beuvron, was one of those whom rumour accused of having contributed to the death of madame.] [footnote 235: monsieur had two daughters by his first marriage; marie-louise d'orléans, who married, in 1679, charles ii. of spain, and anne-marie de valois, married, in 1684, to victor-amédée ii., duc de savoie.] [footnote 236: cf. _mémoires de louis xiv_. "for the year 1666." edited by charles dreyss.] [footnote 237: cf. _segraisiana._] [footnote 238: _mémoires de l'abbé de choisy._] [footnote 239: don miguel de iturrieta to don diego de la torre. _archives de la bastille._] [footnote 240: _mme. de montespan et louis xiv._, by p. clément.] [footnote 241: _histoire_ etc. (bibl. sainte-geneviève, ms. 3208). the same version is found with slight variations in _le perroquet_, etc.] [footnote 242: _mémoires de la fare._] [footnote 243: letter dated january 26, 1680.] [footnote 244: second son of louis xiv. he died young.] [footnote 245: _cf._ for this chapter, the _mélanges_ of philibert delamare (bibl. nationale, french ms. 23,251), the _journal_ of d'ormesson, and generally the memoirs, correspondences, pamphlets, and songs of the period.] [footnote 246: philibert delamare, _loc. cit._] [footnote 247: _journal_ of olivier d'ormesson.] [footnote 248: letter to coulanges, december 31st. the letter announcing the marriage, too well known to quote, is dated the 15th.] [footnote 249: _mémoires de la fare._] [footnote 250: ancient governor of the king, who had kept a strong affection for his pupil.] [footnote 251: philibert delamare, _loc. cit._] [footnote 252: mme. de maintenon, _lettres historiques et édifiantes_; _cf. mémoire de mlle. d'aumale_, published by m. le comte d'haussonville.] [footnote 253: the abbé de choisy relates the same scene, but attributes it to the princesse de carignan (marie de bourbon-soissons, 1666-1692).] [footnote 254: the french chargé d'affaires in sweden and germany, _archives de la bastille_.] [footnote 255: philibert delamare, _loc. cit._] [footnote 256: this exclusion probably refers to the prince de condé, with whom an alliance would have been considered a danger to the peace of france.] [footnote 257: _la correspondance de pomponne_ (bibl. de l'arsenal, 4712, 1598, 11. f.), fol. 373. m. chéruel in the appendix to volume iv. of _the mémoires de mademoiselle_, and m. livet in _l'histoire amoureuse des gaules_, have published this letter after an inexact copy.] [footnote 258: letter dated december 24, 1670.] [footnote 259: letter dated december 31, ----.] [footnote 260: _souvenirs et correspondance._] [footnote 261: philibert delamare, _loc. cit._] [footnote 262: letter dated december 24, 1670.] [footnote 263: _correspondance de bussy-rabutin_, published by ludovic lalanne.] chapter vi was mademoiselle secretly married?--imprisonment of lauzun--splendour and decadence of france--_la chambre ardente_--mademoiselle purchases lauzun's freedom--their embroilment--death of the grande mademoiselle--death of lauzun--conclusion. many of the events remaining to be recorded are very obscure. if they had any importance, they would have figured in the collections of historic enigmas and problems waiting to be solved; but they hardly merit the honour, as few of them have had any such influence over the destinies of france as had, for instance, the fact of the subjection of anne of austria to mazarin. nor do any possess the romantic attraction which attached to the legend of the "man with the iron mask" before its explanation. petty details, however, bring the french society of this period near to us, and the fact that events cannot always be interpreted makes them seem more like real life. it is only in romances that all is explained. the most obscure of these smaller problems is the question of the marriage of mademoiselle with the "little man," as she herself called him. contemporary opinion has been almost unanimous in its belief in this marriage. neither date nor place nor names of the possible witnesses have ever been satisfactorily established, as was done in the case of the union of louis xiv. and mme. de maintenon. there is no written proof of the fact; mademoiselle had the habit of burning her letters, and made no exception in favour of those from lauzun. she states this fact with regret, in her _mémoires_. we are thus reduced to moral proofs. it is true that these are strong in favour of the event having taken place; but they are not altogether unanswerable. the belief that a secret bond had remained, after the official rupture, rested in the mind of most people interested. one of the correspondents[264] of bussy-rabutin wrote to him, february 17, 1671: "mademoiselle sometimes still weeps when she reflects, but often she laughs and is at her ease. her lover continues to see her and no one opposes it. i do not know what will happen." three weeks later, mme. de scudéry made allusion to the same rumour (paris, march 6, 1671): "mademoiselle is always conversing with m. de lauzun. their conversations begin and end with tears. i assure you, however, that there will be no result." bussy was among those who believed that it "would come to something." he replied on the 13th to mme. de scudéry: "i am convinced that the affair of mademoiselle and lauzun will have a happy issue, not in the manner they at first hoped, but in a more secret method to which the king will consent." would mademoiselle accept this other way? doubt is permissible. _marriages of conscience_, if fashionable in the seventeenth century, created false situations, sometimes very humiliating ones, to a person not an absolute sovereign accountable to no one, and in a position to let the truth come out or not as it pleased him. for the rest of mortals, secret marriages must actually remain concealed, or there would result endless difficulties. on this account, the married pair could only meet through a happy chance, which is not agreeable, while it was also almost impossible to escape suspicious commentaries and the uncomfortable dependence upon the fidelity of servants. segrais would never believe that mademoiselle had married lauzun, and one of the reasons given was "that she sent away madelon, her chambermaid, and she would not have done this if madelon had been able to gossip." segrais might have added that his mistress had always severely criticised the equivocations arising from _marriages of conscience_. but all was changed after the serious conversation between the king and mademoiselle behind the closed doors. mademoiselle encouraged lauzun to assume airs of authority, and she was meekly submissive. "he regarded me with such a look that i no longer dared to weep, the power that he had over me retaining my tears. it is much wiser not to lose self-control!" it was by his advice that she cleared her palace of all who had blamed their first plan. m. de montausier and mme. de sévigné tried in vain to save segrais, who "was their special friend." "she cannot be touched," wrote mme. de sévigné, "upon a subject which approaches to within nine hundred leagues of a certain cape."[265] it was lauzun who designated the successor of guillore, her intendant, and who submitted the choice to the king. this might give rise to remark. lauzun warned mademoiselle of this danger. "it may be said in the world that i wish to rule you completely." she responded: "please god that you should; that is what i profoundly desire." mademoiselle had confirmed through new acts the lavish gifts assured by the contract, and the king rivalled his cousin in generosity. if the courtiers can be believed, louis had promised lauzun that he should lose nothing by _not_ marrying mademoiselle. in any case, he heaped favours upon him. the first gift was the government of berri, with fifty thousand francs to pay his debts and the hope that fortune would continue her benedictions. louvois grew anxious and amassed shiploads of hatred against the favourite. the winter passed in this manner. in the spring, the court returned to flanders. during a sojourn at dunkerque so much was said of the intimacy of the "dwarf" with the grande mademoiselle, that the report reached the ears of the princess: "the rumour is circulating that we were married before leaving paris, and the _gazette de hollande_ confirms this. some one brought the paper to me; i showed it to lauzun, who laughed." two pages further on, another conversation proves that the news was at least premature; but the public had the right to be deceived, so tender and familiar was the intercourse between the couple. there was a question in this same spring of a trip to fontainebleau: i said to m. de lauzun, "take care to wear a cap when you are in the forest; the evening dew is bad for the teeth, and further you are subject to weak eyes and to catching cold. the air of fontainebleau makes the hair fall out." he replied: "i certainly must try to preserve my teeth. i also fear cold; but as for the red eyes with which you are constantly reproaching me, they are caused by wakefulness, with which i have been troubled for some time. as for my hair, i have too little left to take further pains about it." she preached neatness to him. "if you are slovenly, it will be said that i have bad taste. for my sake, you must be careful." lauzun only laughed. indeed, she scolded him through jealousy, fearing that he was escaping from her influence and going she did not know where, and perceiving this, he cajoled her. "as soon as he saw that i wished to scold him, he had unequalled methods for putting me in a good humour." all this folly resembled a honeymoon, and the _mémoires_ of mademoiselle for this same year include a passage which is almost a confession. "it is still said that we are married. we neither of us say anything, it being only our particular friends who would dare to address us, and it is easy to laugh at them, only saying, 'the king knows all.'" the conduct of mademoiselle during the ten years following being a perpetual and striking confirmation of this half-confession, the fact of the secret marriage would seem to be assured, and the date would be placed between may and november, 1671, if it were not for a last quotation, to be given at its proper date, which again throws doubt upon the event. whatever the truth may be, it would appear that mademoiselle had known how to reunite the broken fragments of her happiness; but lauzun, for a second time, lost everything. he had easily learned that he owed the rupture of the first plan to mme. de montespan, and had conceived so furious a hate against this false friend that he lost his head. after a scene worthy of fishwives, in which he had called her names impossible to print, he would proceed to declaim against her in the salons, with the utmost violence, and sometimes at only a few steps from her ears. the courtiers marvelled at the excessive insolence on the one side and the curious patience on the other, for mme. de montespan endured these outrages without whispering a single protest. it was rumoured that she had once been his mistress, and that his power was derived from this fact. it is to this enforced penitence of the all-powerful favourite that mme. scarron alluded when at a supper, the account of which is given by mme. de sévigné[266]: "she dilated upon the horrible agitations in a country very well known, the continual rage of the little lauzun, and the black chagrin or the sad boredom of the ladies of saint-germain; and suggested that the most envied was perhaps not always exempt." mme. scarron had seen the "horrible agitations" very near, for it was she who had intervened against lauzun; it was upon her representations that mme. de montespan had ended by saying to the king that "she did not believe that her life was safe as long as this man was free."[267] lauzun was arrested at saint-germain, in his chamber, the evening of november 25, 1671. the evening previous, mademoiselle had departed for paris declaring: "i do not know what is the matter; i am in such dreadful apprehension that i cannot remain here." she wept on the way. she very well knew the cause. one of her friends had been asked, "if m. de lauzun had been arrested," and this query had worried her. delayed by chance or by precaution, the news of the arrest did not reach the luxembourg until twenty-four hours later. lauzun was already on the road to pignerol. before him hastened m. de nallot, a man of confidence despatched by louvois, who certainly felt a ferocious joy in the action, to bear the instructions of his master to the sieur de saint-mars, governor of the prison of pignerol, and of those enclosed within its walls. foucquet had been during seven years under the care of saint-mars, who had followed orders with such fidelity that louvois did not doubt that he would be obeyed as blindly in any commands it might please him to give regarding lauzun. the instructions gave orders to imprison him with one valet, and never to permit him to leave the fortress nor to have any communication with the outer world. saint-mars thus responded: pignerol, december 9, 1671. monseigneur, m. de nallot arrived here on the fifth instant, conveying the note of instructions you have been pleased to send me.... he will report to you my haste in preparing the apartment for m. de lauzun; he will tell you, monseigneur, that i will lodge him in the two low vaulted chambers which are over those of m. foucquet: these are the ones with the barred windows you yourself[268] examined. from the way in which i have arranged the place, i can respond with my life for the safety of the person of m. de lauzun, and also the certainty of intercepting any news sent or received. i engage upon my honour, monseigneur, that as long as this gentleman is under my care you will hear no further word about him, it will be as if he already lay _in pace_. the place prepared is so constructed that i can have holes made, through which i can spy into the apartment. i shall also know all that he does and says through the reports of a valet whom i will furnish as you have ordered; i have found one with much trouble, because the clever ones do not wish to pass their life in prison. you order that mass shall be celebrated for m. de lauzun only on fête days and sundays and i will scrupulously follow the letter of your instructions.... the confessor of m. foucquet will attend the new prisoner on easter and at no other time, whatever may happen. my only desire is to carry out exactly the orders with which you have honoured me: i shall always endeavour to do this with zeal, passion, and fidelity, so i trust that you may be content with my small services.[269] all the officials of the citadel had written to louvois after the arrival of his agent, so great an impression had been made. it was said that m. de lauzun was a great criminal and a very dangerous one to necessitate such precautions. each wished to show his special zeal. louis xiv. was also well informed about the prison destined for his old favourite. louvois showed the king the plan he had received. the apartment consisted of two low vaulted rooms facing a deserted court, through which no one ever passed. the windows were darkened by iron bars and were covered with a sort of basket-work used in prisons, to prevent the occupant seeing or being seen. noises from without, even those from the guards and the kitchen, did not penetrate into this remote place, the most "noiseless" of all the citadel, on account of the enormous thickness of the walls and of the vaulting. "never," said one of the letters, "will m. foucquet know that he has a companion." the correspondents of louvois unanimously insisted upon the necessity of preventing any risk of escape. a screen of iron was placed in the embrasure of the windows and a _vissante_ inserted in the chimney to prevent m. de lauzun and m. de foucquet from communicating with each other. when this new command left saint-germain, lauzun was already locked up at pignerol. he appeared very sad and depressed during the journey. his grief was changed into fury at sight of the dungeon which awaited him. saint-mars wrote to louvois (december 22, 1671): "monseigneur, my prisoner is in so profound a grief, that i can hardly describe it. he said to me that i had made him a lodging _sæcula sæculorum_." lauzun declared that he would lose his reason, and his agitation seemed to point to this danger. [december 30] i do not believe, monseigneur, that i can send you any news of my prisoner's being more tranquil; he is in so profound a grief that he does nothing but sigh and beat the ground with his feet. he asked me once if i knew the cause of his detention; i replied that i never received any news of this sort lest i should be tempted to tell it. lauzun had well divined the cause of his arrest, but he had not been told. all explanation had been refused at saint-germain, and the condemning him to such a dungeon with the most rigorous secrecy, with no declared reason, seemed a crying and tyrannical act of injustice. saint-mars began to fear a tragic ending. [january 12, 1672] monseigneur ... he is overwhelmed with so extraordinary a grief that i fear he may lose his reason, or kill himself, which last he has threatened several times.... as i do not stop to listen to his ravings, he accuses me of having grown hard and pitiless through my long occupation as jailer; and repeats that he has never been judged and that his worst suffering is caused by the fact that he is ignorant of his crime. he had never been judged! this was the refrain during ten long years! foucquet, his neighbour, had judges, _indépendants_ or not; he had known the cause of his accusation, and his defence had been heard. lauzun was in his vault through the good pleasure of the king without having had a chance to justify himself, and this grievance caused his revolt. when mademoiselle was told of the arrest of lauzun, she was so overcome that she was astonished "that she did not die." she remained in a most pitiable state until the next day. she was counselled not to delay an appeal to the king, and it was needful to form some plan. if there had been only herself to consider, mademoiselle would have been ready to bid adieu to the world; but there was lauzun, who was, according to the custom then legal, to be accused when he could not defend himself, and there was only herself to plead his cause with the king. it was impossible to abandon her lover, and mademoiselle found strength to rise and to go to saint-germain. she only reached the king in the evening at supper. "he regarded me with a sad and embarrassed air. i looked at him with tears in my eyes, but said nothing; i know what he said in returning after to the ladies[270]: 'my cousin has been very courteous, she has been silent.' he would have been imprudent to address me, as i was prepared to reply to all." the court of france was at that date very gay and animated. monsieur had just remarried (november 16), with elisabeth charlotte de bavière, princess palatine, famed for the originality of her mind and the freshness of her language. the king, who, without wit, had good taste, was charmed with his new sister-in-law, and was lavish with fêtes in her honour. at first, mademoiselle considered it a duty to be present. she pathetically relates the history of an abominable evening during which she was obliged to appear to be enjoying the spectacle of a ballet, while her thoughts were far distant, following a coach surrounded by musketeers: to think that he was absent; that it was bitterly cold and was snowing heavily, and that my dear one was on the open road on his way to prison; to picture his sufferings and his pitiable appearance made my heart ache. i believe that it would deceive those who should have been there with him to see me here, not realising the torture it gives me. my single consolation is that these constant sacrifices i am making for the king, may in the end arouse his pity for m. de lauzun and renew his tenderness, for i am not able to persuade myself that he no longer loves him. i should be only too content if my sacrifices can accomplish any results. this is my motive for remaining near the court since lauzun's imprisonment, and forces me from a sense of duty to do many things which i should have avoided if i had only consulted my inclinations. with a heart pierced with tender grief, i should have so willingly remained at home in solitude rather than to drag myself through the gay scenes of the court festivities." after each effort, she allowed herself slight relaxation and retired to weep in some corner, then returning to the king with red and swollen eyes. "i am persuaded" wrote she, apropos of a trip with the court, "that my presence has recalled the memory of m. de lauzun; this is the reason why i wish to be always before the eyes of the king.... i cannot believe that he will not feel that my looks are ever supplicating him." mademoiselle was very ingenious in her efforts to refer constantly to the absent one. if a grated window was passed she began to sigh and to pity those in prison. if there was a rumour that lauzun was ill, she solicited by letter the softening of the régime. louis never responded, but he did not show any displeasure. the enemies of the disgraced one endeavoured to detach the princess from her lover. they knew her weakness; she was very jealous, and there might easily be occasion in regard to lauzun, known as the greatest libertine of this licentious court. at the moment of arrest his papers had been seized. there were many letters; locks of hair and other love tokens, carefully ticketed, and a sort of secret museum enclosing portraits that louis xiv. ordered to be destroyed,--not promptly enough, however, as many persons enjoyed a glimpse of them, and were able to identify the originals. the "caskets" of lauzun were the great social scandal of the winter, and there were people enough to exploit the contents to mademoiselle. they gained nothing for their pains; she had the wisdom not to listen. they belonged to the past. the same kind friends endeavoured to open her eyes to the fact that she had been deceived in giving her heart to a man who only desired her millions. they said: "he did not love you; when he was promised wealth, appointments, he readily left you; the day on which the king broke the marriage, lauzun gambled all the evening with the greatest tranquility; he cares nothing about you." mademoiselle allows in her _mémoires_ that she began to be disturbed when she was forced to hear such statements from morning till night during a series of years. her own remembrances only too well confirmed the truth. she had never received a word of tenderness from lauzun, not even a truly gracious word. but misfortune is an invincible safeguard with generous souls. mademoiselle relates that her heart "fought against itself" in favour of her lover, and the heart conquered, since each new year found her still devoted, still indefatigable in her efforts to obtain his release. at the end of eight years there could be no more doubt. contemporaries and those of the next generation have tried in vain to discover why louis xiv. attached so serious an importance to preventing lauzun from receiving news. of what was he afraid? was it essential for the safety of france to insist upon such minute precautions? one day, fresh linen was to be forwarded to lauzun from saint-germain. louvois wrote to saint-mars (february 2, 1672): "have this washed two or three times before giving it to him." saint-mars signified that he comprehended and replied (february 20): i shall not fail to have the linen you are sending to lauzun thoroughly wet after having every seam examined, any writing which may be upon the linen will thus vanish. everything which is brought out of his room is put at once in a tub of water after being examined, and the laundress bringing it from the river dries it before the fire in the presence of my officers, who take turn at this duty, week by week. i also take the same precautions with the towels, napkins, etc. another time, an ancient servant of lauzun was arrested near pignerol, who, realising that he was a prisoner, killed himself, and letters were found on the body. had there been any intercourse with the prisoner? this thought cast louvois into an inconceivable agitation. he wished at every cost to clear up the affair, and he found time even during the war with holland to write letter after letter to pignerol to order that trace of accomplices should be sought. men, presumably companions of the dead, were arrested. two of them, who had fled to turin, were delivered up through diplomatic action. it was necessary to make them speak "through any means, no matter what"; the question as to whether m. de lauzun had received news must be solved. the attendants at pignerol were much perturbed. an officer wrote to louvois to "conjure" him to denounce the suspected among the soldiers under his orders, that i may arrest them and attach them as villains." and if his two nephews, who were in the citadel, should be found to be the guilty ones he "would be their first executioner." saint-mars was humiliated and offended that he should be suspected of being hoodwinked. he became ferocious against the "miserable beings" who had drawn down upon him this insult, and he willingly put them to the torture; "for, to tell the truth," wrote he to louvois, "i have only to find the smallest charge against a soldier or domestic, and i would hang him at once" (august 20). some weeks later he summed up the result of the inquest in these terms (october 7): "i cannot swear that an attempt has not been made to communicate with lauzun, but i can pledge my life in the assurance that the effort has not been successful." saint-mars had another grief. louvois recommended to him incessantly to make his prisoner talk and to report every word, even the most trivial, but lauzun would not utter a syllable. "i do not know why," wrote saint-mars, naïvely, "but he distrusts me, and hardly dares to speak to me" (february 10, 1672). on march 19: "he is always in a state of extraordinary distrust of me." louvois insisted, and received discouraged letters. (march 30:) "when i make a visit, our conversation is so dry and difficult that we often pace the room a hundred times without interchanging a word." saint-mars in vain sought innocent topics. he tried to converse about the weather. m. de lauzun interrupted him under the pretext that the state of the weather was a matter of indifference to him, since, from his dungeon, he could see "neither moon nor sun." saint-mars inquired about his health. m. de lauzun cut him short, in declaring that "his health was a matter of no consequence to any one, and that he was really only too well." saint-mars did not know what more to say. he became furious. lauzun perceived this, and grew even more taciturn. it was a fair and even fight. at the end of a year, saint-mars had not advanced an inch. [january 7, 1673] when i said good morning or good evening, and when i asked him how he felt, he made low bows, saying that he was well enough to offer his most humble respects; after having thanked him, we walked some time together without speaking to each other, and, as i wished to retire, i asked him if he had anything to demand. he made again a very low bow and conducted me to the door of the room; this is the point at which we have arrived, and i am afraid that we shall make no further progress. saint-mars tried to force the situation. it was he who furnished the prisoner with everything; who gave him clothes, furniture, bought his eye-glasses, or ordered a wig. he thought that a method of making him speak would be to give him nothing that he did not demand. lauzun invented a mute language. saint-mars would perceive, in entering, some wornout or broken object placed in a conspicuous position, having the air of saying something. "sometimes," wrote the governor of the citadel, "i feign not to notice, and in order to oblige me to speak, lauzun will direct his steps so as to pass the object again and again until i am forced to comprehend." (may 6, 1672.) the valet was almost as close as his master. saint-mars did not cease to lament the trouble which "these people" gave him. prisoners' valets shared the fate of their masters. once confined, they passed the sill of the prison only with the culprit; that is to say, in many cases never, which fact rendered it extremely difficult to procure servants. the one with lauzun was a "wicked rascal" who had been bribed, but who at the end of three months refused to do his duty as spy. saint-mars was indignant (february 20, 1672): "with your permission, i will put him [the valet] in a place that i reserve, which makes the dumb speak after a month's sojourn. i shall learn all from him, and i am certain that he will not forget the least trifle." upon reflection, however, saint-mars ended by being patient. how was he to replace the fellow? "no one of the valets attached to the citadel would enter this dungeon if i paid him millions. they have noticed that those whom i have placed with m. foucquet never come out." louvois never knew, in spite of earnest desire, what thoughts the fallen favourite was conceiving in his prison. there was a slight recompense, however, on the days on which lauzun fell into a rage, which often happened. the prisoner could not digest the fact that his questions remained unanswered. this might be reasonable enough if he asked if france were at war, or if mademoiselle were married; but why refuse news of his own affairs? why conceal from him the fact of his mother being alive or dead? his vexation became rage. he poured out a torrent of imprecations and bitter complaints, and louvois had the pleasure of hearing by the next mail that silence did not indicate absence of suffering. one day (january 28, 1673), after giving an account of one of these explosions, saint-mars added: "he said all this, weeping hot tears and crying that he detested his miserable life; he complained loudly of the horrible dungeon which i have given him, where he has lost his sight and his health." the wails of grief echoed even through paris, leaking out from the cabinet of louvois and the chamber of mme. de montespan, and the public demanded with curiosity what lauzun had done to deserve a punishment so rigorous. "i can never believe," wrote mademoiselle, "that it is by the orders of the king." it was easily guessed that louvois was avenging his frights and mme. de montespan her humiliations; but why did the king permit such severity? for louis had never appeared to take very much to heart the entanglements of these two court powers with his favourite. it is needful to recollect that the seventeenth century had no greater respect for human liberty than for human life. only rank and birth were of value, and these were honoured in a greater degree than it is possible now to comprehend. this same louvois, who was tormenting lauzun almost to the point of insanity, had hastened to send him a silver-service, and had asked him to complain if his guards were impolite. "m. de saint-mars," wrote the minister, "has orders never to fail in according the respect due to your birth and to the position which you have held at court" (december 12, 1672). from like considerations, the birth of lauzun had brought him new furniture, but not a single object of any kind which could aid him in inventing occupation or employment. this was the real punishment: a complete inaction with not a single echo from the outer world which might prevent his mind from continually turning inward upon itself. lauzun only obtained a few books at long intervals, and always with great difficulty, after every page had been examined in detail; messages written in invisible ink were feared, and phrases which might throw light upon the events of the day. when the choice of literature was left to saint-mars, he confined himself to _le tableau de la pénitence_ or the _pédagogue chrétien_. the contents of these were well known and, also, "they might be useful to lighten his despair." it will be remembered that mademoiselle had scolded the "little man" to make him take greater care of his person and toilet. in prison, lauzun had grown very careless. (april 20, 1672:) "he grows so negligent that for three weeks he has worn a handkerchief knotted around his neck in place of a cravat." from note of july 30, 1672, more than seven months after his arrival: "he has not had his room swept, nor his glass rinsed; he is extremely negligent." lauzun had permitted his beard to grow, which contributed to his neglected appearance. saint-mars declared that it was a half-yard long. (february 11, 1673:) "he is as disorderly at his meals as in his person and in his apartment." years passed. in 1673, they pruned the trees which cut off the light. this was the only change. in 1674, the prisoner almost died. his health was shattered and his temper changed. he became tranquil, except for an occasional access of anger, and was very polite to his jailer, who attributed this metamorphosis to the effects of the books of piety and the holy water freely supplied. saint-mars found him "very often" on his knees, saying his prayers before an image of the virgin, and had much joy in the change. in 1676, in the month of february, louvois received a letter,[271] the contents of which passed through paris like a flash of lightning. m. de lauzun had almost succeeded in effecting his escape; and neither by door nor window, the ordinary method in romances. he had made a hole in the dungeon of pignerol by scratching with old knives, pieces of kitchen utensils, etc., and had succeeded in piercing the thick vault below his chamber. lauzun rolled through this opening, and found himself between four walls, before a barred window. he began again to scrape; he demolished one of the corners of the window, unfastened one of the bars, and saw that he was several fathoms above the ground. his foresight had caused him to collect a quantity of napkins, from which he made a rope ladder; "the best made in the world," wrote mademoiselle, with admiration for the sample sent to louvois. he descended by this ladder to the moat surrounding the fortress, "pierced the wall on the side of the moat,"[272] encountered a rock, and recommenced at a short distance from the place of the first attempt"; the new passage led into a court of the citadel. lauzun reached the ground one morning at daybreak. he had passed three days in scraping; it was this occupation which had kept him tranquil. only an open door, and he would have been saved. he would well have deserved success as a reward for his industry and patience. but all was firmly closed, and he was stopped by an incorruptible sentinel. the poor prisoner was brought back to his dungeon, and louvois stormed at the authorities of pignerol, who permitted walls and windows to be demolished without perceiving that anything strange was occurring. repairs and numerous new measures of precaution were ordered, and saint-mars, very much abashed, swore by all the gods that such a thing should never again happen. in spite of these oaths, many of the prisoners succeeded in gaining access to their neighbours, according to the account of saint-simon.[273] it seems that the open chimneys of ancient times had become an ordinary means of communication between the dungeons of pignerol. "a hole was made in the pipe, which was carefully closed during the day," and with mutual aid the prisoners ascended and descended. lauzun was placed in relation with various prisoners, of whom one was foucquet, who believed him to be mad when listening to his account of the failure of the plan of marriage with the grande mademoiselle. these gentlemen must have resembled chimney sweeps. saint-mars, however, only knew of these practices after the death of foucquet; the troubles of lauzun were then at an end. the death of the eldest brother, which occurred in 1677, had brought new conditions. lauzun became head of the family. his sister, mme. de nogent, represented to the king that it was needful for the preservation of the "house" that m. de lauzun should be permitted to put his affairs in order, and she had no difficulty in obtaining a hearing. although the individual counted for little, the "house" was a thing sacred, even in the eyes of louis xiv. saint-mars was ordered to receive mme. de nogent, another of the brothers, chevalier de lauzun, and their advocate, m. isarn, and to permit them to meet with his prisoner, exacting the promise that only business should be discussed. he forbade a single word, "under any pretext whatever," of mlle. de montpensier. an account of these interviews, sketched by isarn, remains. it must not be forgotten in reading this document that lauzun had a great interest in inspiring a lively pity in the hearts of these people who were returning to paris. after long preliminaries, isarn arrived for the first interview with lauzun, whom no one had seen for six years. [october 29, 1667] two o'clock having come, m. de saint-mars, after sending away all the attendants, asked m. isarn to enter his room where six chairs were arranged around a table, and m. de saint-mars retiring, returned after a moment leading m. le comte de lauzun, supporting him by the arm, for the comte could hardly sustain himself, it may be on account of the open air, the bright light, or the weakness caused by his illness. at this sight, i confess, monsieur, that we were moved with pity, for we remarked his haggard face and the extreme pallor of the countenance, as much as could be seen under the long beard and moustaches, the eyes subdued with sadness and languor, so that it would be impossible not to be moved with compassion. i can hardly express the grief of madame his sister and monsieur his brother. a chair near the fire was given to him, facing the window, but he shrank back, saying in a low voice, and coughing, that the bright light made his eyes and head burn. m. de saint-mars turned his prisoner away from the window, placing himself on one side and m. the commissioner on the other. i was at the side of m. de saint-mars, having my papers before me on the table. mme. de nogent could not restrain her tears, and we remained some time without speaking. when they were all somewhat composed, isarn entered into a summary of the affairs to be regulated. at the first pause, lauzun interrupted. "he said coldly, that having been kept for six years and a portion of a seventh in a very restricted prison, and not having heard any business details for so long a time, and having met no one, his mind had become so 'sealed,' and his intelligence so clouded, that it was impossible for him to comprehend anything i was saying." he added affectionate words for his sister, touching sentiments upon his grief at having displeased the king, and, as if overcome by the remembrance of his much-loved master, he carried his handkerchief to his eyes, "where it remained a long time." this spectacle provoked such an outburst of tears and groans that it was impossible to continue the conference. lauzun "withdrew with saint-mars without speaking." the sister was carried away in a dead faint. the chevalier de lauzun, ill with emotion, retired for the night, and isarn shared in the general affliction. at the following sessions, lauzun repeated that he comprehended nothing that his advocate said, but he gave him at the same time some instructions, "with much judgment and clearness." touching scenes followed. one day, after having obtained permission, the prisoner asked if his mother were living, and there was, in this case, no need of pretence to make the scene impressive. at the last interview, he charged his sister to implore the pity of the king and the pardon of louvois, in humble and submissive terms, which showed a man conquered, crushed, and henceforth inoffensive. it may be through compassion, it may be, as was hinted, through some new and mysterious combination, that this appeal produced a relaxation in the prison discipline, which ended in a half-freedom. lauzun was permitted to give dinners, to buy saddle horses, "to ride in the court and on the bastions."[274] at length arrived a detachment of musketeers, charged to conduct him to the baths of bourbon, under pretext that he was suffering with one of his arms. he quitted pignerol april 22, 1681. foucquet had died march 23, 1680. this left to saint-mars only a single man of note; the man with the iron mask had been in the fortress some time at this date. robinson crusoe, leaving his island, was not more of a stranger to the course of events than a state prisoner after years of life in a dungeon. foucquet had believed in listening to lauzun that he was mentally deranged. when it was the fate of the latter to again come in contact with ordinary life, he found much difficulty in placing himself in the current. the history of france had been lengthened by a chapter while he was raging in his dungeon. the intimate story of court life, the most important for an ancient favourite desirous of regaining a foothold, would have filled a volume with its tragi-comic complications. at first glance, the chapter of national history was dazzling. the war with holland had given to france, franche-comté; to louis xiv., a glory and power which had raised him in european opinion above all other sovereigns. in the eyes of strangers, he was more than a king, he was _the_ king, the incarnation of the monarchical idea, the prince who had made france the mistress of the civilised world. never, in modern europe [says a german historian[275] who always considers the interests of france as opposed to those of germany] has there been a development of military power over land and sea, for attack and defence, so extraordinary as that to which france had attained during the war, and preserved during the ensuing peace; never before had a single will exercised so extended a command over troops so well trained and yet so submissive. [illustration: =view of the palace and gardens of the tuileries= from an engraving by israel silvestre, 1673] france was admired and feared. "louis xiv.," says ranke again, "reduced several of the german princes individually, and the empire at large, to a degree of abasement to which they had not fallen during centuries." spain itself was menaced with the loss of its independence. europe recognised that in "the history of the world there were few periods in which civilisation had so rapidly advanced and literature was so brilliant as that under louis xiv." such was france viewed from without, during the years which separated the peace of nimèguen (1679) from the revocation of the edict of nantes (1685). this brilliant picture showed, however, some shadows; the vanquished guarded a deep resentment, and the former allies were detached without always being replaced by new ones; but the country considered itself sufficiently strong to support its isolation. seen from within, france presented to the superficial observer an appearance of prosperity. upon a closer examination, however, it could be predicted that the lean years were approaching. many provinces had fallen back into misery. there was a general discontent, the disaffection made rapid progress; the idea of centralised and absolute power, so well received at first, was beginning to pall upon the community. four years after the death of mazarin and the arrival to power of louis xiv. keen-sighted men became anxious. olivier d'ormesson, like all the world at first under the influence of the charm of the young king, wrote in 1665 (march): "no one dares protest, although all suffer and have their hearts filled with despair; every one says that it is impossible for this state of things to last, the conduct of affairs being too unjust and violent."[276] olivier d'ormesson had personal griefs. he had been disgraced for having shown himself too independent at the time of the prosecution of foucquet, and he was also one of those old politicians, liberal after their own fashion, who held firmly to the privileges belonging to their class, and who were not accustomed to see criticisms of the king punished more severely than blasphemies against the deity. in 1668, a poor old man from saint-germain was accused "of having said that the king was a tyrant, and that there still existed some ravaillacs and people of courage and virtue." he was condemned to have his tongue cut out and to be sent to the galleys. "it is said," adds d'ormesson, "that cutting out the tongue is a new punishment, and that it was formerly the custom simply to pierce the tongue of blasphemers." from the point of view of the times, the opinion of d'ormesson is a little too advanced. but the same criticism cannot be made of colbert, then enjoying great favour and naturally a man of severity. in 1666 colbert warned louis xiv., in an almost brutal memorial, that through his extravagances he was leading france to ruin. [illustration: =view of the residence of colbert, showing also his seal= from an engraving by israel silvestre, 1675] the memorial commenced by declaring that he (colbert) did not wish stinginess where it was a matter concerning a good army or fleet, or in sustaining the suitable magnificence of his master in foreign lands, or in any useful expenditures, among which he included the proper representation of a great sovereign. he affirmed that in all these matters he would rather urge a certain lavishness, and this was the truth. but he could not share in the responsibility for the enormous leakage by which the public wealth was being exhausted, for the millions squandered in fantastic camps, in fêtes costing incredible sums,[277] and in insane gambling debts.[278] the memorial mentions also pensions and other gratifications given out freely, and makes other specifications, of which one merits some details, for it is curious, but rarely referred to, and according to colbert led to the most dangerous consequences. as will be understood, nothing other than actual war cost france so dearly under louis xiv., as the monarch's passion for playing at soldier in the presence of beautiful ladies. this mania at first glance appears innocent enough, only rather childish. colbert pointed out the inevitable effects. the king assembled armies to afford to the "_ladies_" the spectacle of a camp or the simulation of a siege, or the troops were reviewed in places agreeable for women, instead of awaiting him in their barracks. the result was, that the perpetual marching of troops to and fro was causing the exhaustion of the provinces, for "it is sufficient to say that such a city or halting-place has suffered within six months a hundred different impositions of troops, and that there are but few places which have not been obliged to stand at least fifty." the troops lived as they liked, entering and departing from their various lodging-places. "it can be affirmed distinctly that these places were left in a condition to which they would have been brought by a long war." if the king knew "how many peasants of champagne, and the other provinces lying near the frontier, are passing and arranging to pass to other countries," he would comprehend that this state of affairs could not last. the most delicate reproof was yet to be made, and colbert approached it courageously. serious ridicule had fallen upon the great monarch for these fantastic games for the benefit of his "_ladies_," not only with the french, but also among foreigners only too ready to seize an occasion for unfriendly comment. [illustration: =view of the château of versailles, showing the fountain of the dragon= from an engraving by israel silvestre, 1676] louis had just installed a camp at moret, motley and smart, with pretty tents for the amazons. "it is said," wrote d'ormesson, "that the siege of moret will be made in due form, in order to show the '_ladies_' the method of taking places by assault. people in general, disgusted and annoyed, treat this review as childish trifling for a king, and it is badly thought of in foreign countries." olivier d'ormesson did not display great merit in writing his comments in his journal for his eyes alone, but colbert wrote for the king and had still many criticisms to add. "it is further advisable for your majesty to know two things which no one has before dared to report: one that there has been a poster in paris, bearing the words _louis xiv. will give an exhibition of marionettes in the plain at moret_; the other, the publication of a libel, still more bitter, upon the distinguished deeds of the fantastic captains." the king read the memorial and re-read it in the presence of colbert, but the following year saw a new camp, in which the royal tent, composed of six sumptuous rooms, "was filled with cavaliers gorgeously attired, and better fitted to attract the enemy than to make him flee."[279] colbert did not succeed, even in time of war, in preventing a single trip to the frontier with a long train of women in rare apparel, and mistresses for whose accommodation it was necessary to put masons at work at every halting-place. from louvois, march 7, 1671: "arrange chamber marked v for mme. de montespan, opening a door in the place marked 1.... mme. de la vallière will lodge in the chamber marked y, in which a door must be made in the place marked 3n...." the expense of the numerous doors, with many others equally irregular, entered into the budget of the minister of war. how was it possible to keep the budget accounts? how reduce unnecessary expenses? colbert himself was obliged in his budget of the marine to give space to the "_ladies_." in 1678, mme. de montespan conceived the fantasy of fitting out a privateer, a vessel belonging to the king, be it understood, manned with the royal sailors. some weeks later, a second and third vessel were sent out in the same manner as privateers, always at the king's expense, "by mme. de montespan and the comtesse de soissons."[280] including everything, the taste of louis xiv. for conversation and the society of women, without mentioning the rest of his follies, probably cost france more than all the buildings erected by the grand monarch, but the one outlay can be calculated, and the other not. the large expenses of versailles and of marly are often alluded to, while the unfortunate peasants, who fled across the frontier after every military spectacle offered to the "_ladies_," are forgotten. louis xiv. was incapable of keeping accounts; that is his sole excuse. it is strange, however, that a man so methodical, having a mind so steady, so well regulated, had never been able to comprehend that figures are figures, and that no one is able to make two crowns out of one. colbert never succeeded in controlling the waste of his master, even in cases when the added profusion in no way increased the pleasure, and appears to us as a mere barbarous lavishness. [illustration: =duchesse de la vallière and her children= from the painting by p. mignard in the possession of the marquise d'oilliamson] it is known that in the seventeenth century the repasts were abundant. those of louis xiv. were excessively so. in 1664, the king, having invited the pope's legate to dine with him _tête-à-tête_, those in attendance counted the dishes; there were eighty, not including thirty-eight for dessert. this was certainly excessive, and colbert had said in the memorial of 1660, "i declare to your majesty ... that a useless meal, costing a thousand crowns, gives me an incredible pain." but the lavishness of fifteen years later was far greater. on january 16, 1680, the king married mlle. de blois, his daughter by la vallière, to prince louis-armand de conti, nephew of the great condé. "the wedding festival was royal," wrote bussy-rabutin; "there were seven hundred dishes on a single table, served in five courses, that is to say, one hundred and forty dishes to each course." mme. de sévigné points the moral. "the young husband was ill the entire night. it would be a temptation to say 'well deserved!'" if, from the incensed and suffering people, the attention is turned towards the court, the difference between without and within is perhaps as clearly marked, although more difficult to define. without, there is splendour, adulations given and received; within, a profound moral misery; with some, debauch and poverty; with others, discouragement and bitterness. mme. de sévigné, in a letter of 1680, has unconsciously painted, in six lines, the state of degradation to which the king had systematically reduced the nobility of france, lined up, as it were, to catch purses thrown to them january 12: "the king is enormously liberal in truth; it is not needful to despair; one may not be a valet, but in making one's court, something may fall upon one's head. what is certain is that far from him [the king], all seems valueless; formerly it was otherwise." if souls were debased under louis, he must be held in large part responsible. the same can be said in regard to the deterioration of manners and morals. france, before the time of louis xiv., was accustomed enough to both mistresses and bastards, but not to the prerogatives of second wives conferred on the first, nor the legitimatising of adulteries which encouraged his subjects to consider no longer seriously either law or morality. the example of the master ended in deadening consciences already somewhat feeble, and husbands might be seen encouraging their wives, the mothers of their daughters, to imitate la vallière and de montespan. [illustration: =louise de la vallière, in the garb of the order of the carmelites= after the painting by d. plaats] louis had been in some degree punished for having played sultan. polygamy cannot exist without some discomfort, in a land in which women have any position. few men, even upon the stage, have had so many quarrels with their mistresses, quarrels often violent, humiliating, as well as painful, as this majestic monarch, before whom the universe trembled. royalty does not exist before a jealous mistress, and louis xiv. was faithful only to one, mme. de maintenon. the young king had been spoiled by louise de la vallière, who was gentleness itself, and whom love inclined to pardon all. none of the other mistresses really loved louis, except perhaps marie mancini. louis did not really please women; it was only the king for whose favour they disputed. mlle. de la vallière had entered the carmelite convent in 1674. left alone upon the "breach," mme. de montespan defended the situation like a lioness. she was naturally sharp-tempered, and her fits of anger were often ungovernable,[281] as witnesses say, and louis did not possess the force which innocence alone gives. among the rivals who contended with mme. de montespan, many, in spite of her efforts, succeeded in enjoying their year, or at least their day. when she became enraged, and the king was forced to bend his neck under the tempest, "she often scolded him and he did not assert himself."[282] this was his method of expiation. the ephemeral reign of mlle. de fontanges came. she also was passionate, and she treated the king with "more authority than the others."[283] louis called mme. de maintenon to his aid, and charged her to appease these furies. stormy scenes began to weary him. it had been remarked since 1675 that louis aspired to moments of "repose and of liberty." mme. de montespan, with all her intelligence, could not comprehend that there comes a time of life at which men can no longer live in the midst of tempests, and this error was the cause of her ruin. the king acquired the habit of fleeing for refuge to mme. de maintenon, where he found an atmosphere of peace and enjoyed refreshing conversation. it was the first time that an intelligent woman had spoken seriously to him, without seeking to attract a declaration of love, nor to divert him with trifles, but to distract him agreeably from his work, and also to make him reflect upon certain subjects which did not always appeal to him. for example, what the sinner who had taken the wife of another might expect in the next world. she recalled to him the fact that there was a police in heaven as in the palaces of the king of france, and she asked him: "what would you say if some one should tell your majesty that one of the musketeers you love had seduced a married woman, and that this woman was actually living with him? i am certain that before evening this man would depart from the palace, never to return, however late it might be."[284] [illustration: =madame de maintenon= after the painting by p. mignard in 1694] the king laughed. he had never been more in love with mme. de montespan,--this happened in 1675, before the jubilee, which separated them three or four months,--but he was not vexed with mme. de maintenon; already he "could not live without her."[285] one may or may not feel sympathy with this last, but it is certain that without her, without the empire that she knew how to gain over a prince ardent for pleasure, but by no means a veritable libertine, louis xiv. might have ended shamefully. to every one their deserts. the queen marie-thérèse was right in according her friendship to mme. de maintenon, who secured for her, somewhat late it is true, a certain consideration and some affectionate demonstration to which the poor queen was not accustomed. when the king had passed forty, tranquillity became a need. he believed he had assured it by giving to mme. de montespan her official dismissal as the recognised mistress. the date of this event is known. march 29, 1679, the comtesse de soissons was prayed to yield to the ancient favourite her charge as superintendent of the palace of the queen, a position which afforded a kind of regulated retreat. the next day, mme. de montespan wrote to the duc de noailles to announce to him this arrangement, and she added: "truly this is very bearable. the king only comes into my room after mass and after supper. it is much better to see each other rarely with pleasure than often with boredom." the world was not deceived: "i really believe," wrote bussy (april 11th), "that the king, just as he is, has given this position for past favours." from mme. de scudéry to bussy, october 29, 1679: "a diversion has been established for mme. de montespan for this winter, and provided that she can do without love, she will retain the consideration of the king. this is all that an honest man can do when he ceases to love." bussy responded, november 4th: "if mme. de montespan is wise she will dream only of cards and will leave the king in peace on the subject of love; for it is impossible through complaints and scoldings to lure back unfaithful lovers." mme. de montespan was _not_ wise. in the hope of bringing the king back to her arms by force, she redoubled the disagreeable scenes. at this moment, an obscure past, filled with vague and frightful events, rose against her, and the expiation for having too much loved became almost tragic in its character. la voisin, the poisoner, cannot be forgotten, nor the prosecution in 1668, which had revealed to the young king the connection of his new mistress with the world of malefactors. this affair was stifled, but the evil continued in its subterranean influence. the merchants of love philters and of poisons and the priests of satanic rites saw their clients increasing in number year by year. when the crimes finally came to the surface, and louis established (march 7, 1679) the "_chambre ardente_" to purify france from the gangrene, so many parisians were connected in one way or another with the accused that the king had against him a powerful current of opinion. this is, perhaps, the most significant feature of the sad affair. instead of being crushed with shame in learning how many were compromised, the higher classes were indignant against the equal justice which refused to give them special consideration. they murmured loudly, and for once the people were with them, for the populace remained staunch to the sorcerers. the clamours were so menacing that the judges of the "_chambre ardente_" felt themselves in danger: "i know," wrote bussy-rabutin on april 1st, "the chamber instituted to examine the 'corrupters,' and also know that messieurs de bezons and de la reynie do not pass from paris to vincennes without an escort of the kings guards."[286] louis xiv. was obliged several times to strengthen the resolution of these judges; sometimes in openly commanding them to "judge truly"[287] without any distinction of person, condition, or sex; sometimes by assuring them through official letter of his "protection."[288] the first executions before the _chambre ardente_ took place in february, 1679, and the list of the names of those arrested or of those to whom notices of warrants to appear as witnesses had been served, a list which made so great an excitement on account of the aristocrats included,[289] is dated january 23, 1680. it had been at least four months before,[290] that there had come to the ears of the king, as some one was reading to him the account of the last examinations, two familiar names. who is mlle. des [oe]illets, ancient "follower" of mme. de montespan? who is cato, her maid, and what had they to do with la voisin and with those like her? these same names again appearing in the list of january 6, 1680, the king, while declaring that the witnesses must certainly have lied,[291] ordered the procurer-general, m. robert, "to pay strict attention to this particular case." this was done, with the result that louis was forced to ask himself if the woman whom he adored above all others, and who had borne him seven children, was a vile "corrupter"; if this perfect body for which he had risked the safety of his soul had taken part in the ignoble ceremonies of the infamous guibourg? if, discontented with the thought of sharing his favours with rivals, she might not in an access of jealousy have tried to poison him, the king? he sought the truth, but did not find it. in waiting further developments, louis led his mistress with him wherever he might go, and she was always making a disturbance of some sort. the king grew less patient; that was the only difference. from bussy-rabutin, may 18, 1680: "the king ... as he was mounting into his carriage with the queen had some rough words with mme. de montespan, about the scents with which she deluged herself, which made his majesty ill. the king at first spoke politely, but as she responded sharply, his majesty grew warm." on the 25th, mme. de sévigné noted another "serious embroilment." this time colbert succeeded in reconciling them. the situation grew painful. a long series of letters and _mémoires_ have been found in which la reynie discusses for the king the charges accumulated against mme. de montespan. the picture is given of the doubts and fluctuations of an honest man whose responsibilities somewhat rankle in his breast, and who sees an equal peril in dishonouring the throne and in permitting a guilty woman to remain near the king. louis passed through many successive stages of conviction during the prosecution. the further the examination proceeded, the stronger became the presumption of guilt, without, however, bringing positive proofs. on july 12, 1680, la reynie summed up for his master the history of the "petition to be used in poisoning the king." on october 11th he declared that he should be ruined in the affair, and supplicated his majesty to reflect whether it would be for the "welfare of the state," to make these "horrors" public. in the month of may following, he avowed that he had erred on some points and that there was more evil than at first appeared. the marvellous control that louis possessed over himself prevented outward betrayal; but certainly these uncertainties, these inferior conflicts, and it is to be hoped some sense of shame and remorse, became chastisements for his faults. on her side, mme. de montespan, in spite of the secret of her possible guilt being well guarded both at court and by the judges and police, could not be ignorant that mlle. des [oe]illets had been interrogated, confronted with witnesses, and imprisoned for life in the general hospital at tours.[292] mme. de montespan then knew that she had been denounced, but with what proof? what did the king think? what curious meetings between these two beings must have taken place. what conversations during which the king and his mistress were closely observing each other. court life, nevertheless, pursued its monotonous course, and mme. de montespan continued to figure in positions of honour. in march, 1689, she goes to meet the dauphin[293] with the rest of the court, and it is she who has charge of the choice and arrangement of the wedding presents, "being the woman in the world," wrote mademoiselle, "who knows the best forms." in july, the king led her to versailles with her sister, mme. de thianges, and her niece, the beautiful duchesse de nevers. this lady the mother and aunt were cynically offering to the monarch.[294] in february, 1681, "a lottery was opened at mme. de montespan's, of which the largest prize was one hundred thousand francs, and there were a hundred others offered of one hundred pistoles each." in july, 1682, the _chambre ardente_ was suddenly suppressed. of the three hundred accused, thirty-six people of no importance had been executed, one hundred sent to the galleys, or to prisons, or convents, or exiled; the noted among them always gaining some concessions. the dungeons of paris and vincennes were crowded. the smaller fry were released, and the remainder were scattered, without any other trial, through the provincial prisons, to await a death rarely slow in coming to relieve their misery. from louvois to m. de chauvelin, intendant, december 16, 1682, announcing the arrival of one of these convoys: above all, please take care to prevent any of these gentlemen from proclaiming aloud, a thing which has already occurred, any of the absurd statements connected with mme. de montespan, which have been proved to be absolutely without foundation. threaten a punishment so severe at the first utterance that they will not dare to breathe a word further. this letter ended the connection of mme. de montespan with the affair of the "corrupters of morals" or the poisoners. she was saved, but was this due to proofs of innocence or to reasons of state, to the refusal of louis to credit the testimony of an abbé guibourg or lesage, or to the remnants of an old tenderness? the few men with whom it had been necessary to share the secrets which would respond to these questions were so perfectly mute that contemporaries suspected nothing. they saw the ancient favourite a little neglected, but always dreaming of the possibility of reasserting herself, as the many pages of the _mémoires_ of mademoiselle testify. all this was in the natural course of events. one single indication of what louis xiv. thought at the bottom of his soul is possessed; a letter from the king to colbert, who knew all. mademoiselle had prayed mme. de montespan to solicit some favour for lauzun. the king charged colbert to reply for him (october, 1681): "you will politely explain to her that i always receive the marks of her friendship and confidence with pleasure, and that i am very vexed when it is not possible to do what she desires, but at this time i can do no more than i have already done."[295] did he believe the mistress innocent or had he pardoned her? the first preoccupation of lauzun, in returning to the world, must have been to make clear to himself through legitimate or illegitimate means the chronology of the king's love affairs, a history so essential for the comprehension of the interior life of the court. the main facts for this record have been already given in the preceding chapter. the returned prisoner had afterwards to learn all that mademoiselle had accomplished for him during his captivity, and of what the public thought of her efforts, and he recognised that no one in france except segrais doubted the fact of their marriage. that the marriage had taken place before his imprisonment was the prevalent belief, which was never really shaken. it again came to light in the eighteenth century. the historian anquetil saw at tréport, in 1744, an old person of more than seventy years of age, who resembled the portraits of the grande mademoiselle and did not know from whence came her pension.[296] this person believed herself to be the daughter of the duchesse de montpensier, and local tradition confirmed this conviction. there were, however, no absolute proofs, and it will be seen further on how this question of the marriage with lauzun is brought up over and over again in the biography of the grande mademoiselle, with a monotony slightly fatiguing and without it being possible to ever obtain a clear response. whatever the fact may be, the princess gave a very fine example of constancy and fidelity. she lived for ten years absorbed in a single thought. the _mémoires_ for the year 1673 say: "i remember nothing which has taken place during the past winter. my grief occupies me so much that i have but little interest in the actions of others." to liberate lauzun had become a fixed idea, and she attached herself to the steps of the king and to those of mme. de montespan, without permitting herself to remember the ill that they had committed, as it was they alone who could loosen the bonds. the more they showed themselves inexorable, the more mademoiselle redoubled her assiduities. in 1676 she enjoyed for the brief space of two hours the delusion that louis xiv. at length, at the end of ten years, was moved with a feeling of compassion. the news of the attempted escape of lauzun had just been received. "i learned that the king had listened to the account with some sign of humanity, i can hardly say of pity. if he had felt this, would he [lauzun] still be there?" the princess wrote to the king, but received no response; and again four years rolled by. mme. de montespan was no longer favourite. the courtiers considered it shrewd to neglect her. better inspired, mademoiselle continued to stand fast by her, and the result proved the wisdom of this course, in the dramatic moment, for louis, of the affair of the corrupters. it was in the spring of 1680, while denunciations were falling upon the fallen favourite as upon all those connected with la voisin, that mademoiselle remarked by certain movements and a change of tone that something was stirring between mme. de montespan and the fortress of pignerol: i went to her daily and she appeared touched by the thought of m. de lauzun.... she often said to me: "but think how you can make yourself agreeable to the king, that he may accord to you what you desire so dearly." she threw out such suggestions from time to time, which advised me that they were thinking of my fortune. the phrase of a friend came back to her: "but you should let them hope that you will make m. de maine your heir." she recalled other hints which at first had passed unnoticed, and understood that a bargain was offered. the monarch and his ancient favourite had agreed between them to sell to mademoiselle the freedom of the man she loved so deeply. what was to be the price? this was not yet disclosed. it was some time before mademoiselle comprehended, and then she was so disconcerted that she said nothing. she felt that the combat was not an equal one between herself, from whom passion had taken away all judgment, and mme. de montespan, who was perfectly calm, and she hesitated, fearing some snare: "finally, i resolved to make m. de maine my heir, provided that the king would send for lauzun and consent that i should marry him." some third person brought these conditions to mme. de montespan and was received with open arms. louis xiv. thanked his cousin graciously without making any allusion to the condition; he could always assert that he had made no promise. mademoiselle wished that he would at least give her some news of lauzun. mme. de montespan responded to her insistence: "it is necessary to have patience," and affairs remained at this point. at the end of some weeks, mademoiselle perceived that she was no longer free. she had counted upon taking her time and having sureties before proceeding further. an immediate execution of the deed of gift was insisted upon, and she was so harassed that she no longer felt at liberty to breathe freely. "the king must not be played with," declared mme. de montespan; "when a promise is made it must be kept." "but," objected mademoiselle, "i wish the freedom of m. de lauzun, and suppose that after what i have done i should find myself deceived, and my friend should not be liberated?" louvois was then sent to frighten her, or colbert in order to compass some concession. it was no longer a matter of testament. a donation while living[297] was exacted, of the principality of dombes and of the comté of eu without reference to the rest, and this assignment was obtained, in spite of complaints and the bitterest tears; "for they were demanding precisely what had been given to lauzun, and mademoiselle could not without difficulty resolve to despoil her lover." she finally comprehended that the king would not cease persecuting her until she consented, and, feeling no hope of diminishing the demands,[298] she yielded. the gift to the duc de maine was signed february 2, 1681. it gave some agreeable days to mademoiselle. the king assured her of his gratitude. "at supper he regarded me pleasantly and conversed with me; this was most charming." nevertheless, lauzun did not appear. one day mme. de montespan informed the princess that the king would never permit lauzun to be duc de montpensier, and that it would be necessary to have a secret marriage. the princess cried out: "what! madame, i am to permit him to live with me as my husband with no marriage ceremony! of what will the world think me capable?" this passage in the _mémoires_ apparently fixes the date of marriage after the return of lauzun from his captivity. there exist, however, a number of moral proofs against this later date. some time after this conversation, in the beginning of april, 1681, the court being at saint-germain, mme. de montespan announced to mademoiselle the immediate departure of lauzun for the baths of bourbon, and she then drew her, slightly against her will, to the end of the terrace, far from indiscreet ears. "when we were in the val, which is a garden at the end of the park of saint-germain, she said to me, 'the king has asked me to tell you that he does not wish you to dream of ever marrying m. de lauzun, at least, officially.'" mademoiselle had been tricked. "upon this, i began to weep and to talk about the gifts i had made, only on the one condition. mme. de montespan said, 'i have promised nothing.' she had gained what she wished, and was willing enough to bear anything i might say." in the evening it was necessary to assume a delighted air and thank the king for lauzun's freedom; a single sign of ill-humour and mademoiselle ran the risk of receiving nothing in exchange for her millions. there remained the task of forcing lauzun to renounce the gifts formerly presented to him. mme. de montespan took the route to bourbon, where "she found greater difficulty than she had anticipated." her demands so surpassed the expectations of the late prisoner that he revolted. there were many disputes, many despatches, and many delays,[299] at the end of which the obstinate one, having been reimprisoned,[300] was so harassed with threats and promises that he finally yielded. his signature was given; he believed himself free. instead of liberty, he received an order of exile to amboise. he also had been duped. this affair is odious from beginning to end. mademoiselle was lauzun's resource and providence. she compensated him as far as might be with a fresh devotion, in which saint-fargeau figured as an item, and found means to pay him nearly 300,000 francs[301] over what the king would have been obliged to give him if he had not been sent to pignerol. with much difficulty, the importunities of mademoiselle obtained the desired permission for the ex-prisoner to salute the king and afterward to dwell where it pleased him, on the single condition that he would not approach the court. access to this was strictly forbidden; but what would it have mattered, when he would have humbled himself before his master? alas! the charm was broken, and for ever. in march, 1682, at the single interview granted, lauzun threw himself ten times, consecutively, at the feet of louis xiv.--the king himself relates this--and employed all his grace, all his flatteries, without succeeding in breaking the ice. received coolly and dismissed without delay, there was nothing left but to fall back upon mademoiselle. they had not yet met, and it is a terrible test of devotion to meet after eleven years, and to endeavour to again open the page closed by misfortune. the grande mademoiselle of the time previous to the imprisonment at pignerol singularly resembled the hermione of racine, in her jealousy and violence. the one of 1682 was not yet a tranquil person, but hermione was an old woman, and pyrrhus a licentious greybeard, who was endeavouring to recompense himself for the time lost in prison. years had not made lauzun in love with his benefactress, and he arrived to meet her well resolved to finish simply with expressions of gratitude and of love. mademoiselle was well aware of his infidelities. the grief, mingled with irritation, which she felt displayed itself in a sort of stiffness and embarrassment. the great joy she had anticipated in again seeing her lover, she did not realise. she had existed ten long years for this moment, and when it came, she desired to escape. she went to await lauzun at mme. de montespan's, a first piece of absurdity. "m. de lauzun," say her _mémoires_, "arrived after his interview with the king; he wore an old undress uniform with short waistcoat, almost in rags, and a very ugly wig.[302] he sank at my feet with much grace. then mme. de montespan led us into a cabinet, and said, 'you will be glad to speak together.' she then went away, and i followed her." a second ridiculous action! lauzun profited by the delay to salute the rest of the royal family. on returning, he found his princess with mme. de montespan and did not see her an instant alone: "he told me that he had been cordially received, and that this he owed to me; that i was his only source of good, the one from which he received all. he made certain amiable propositions, and in thus acting he was only wise. i was silent; i was astonished." this interview finished, lauzun considered himself free from his obligations and returned to paris with a peaceful conscience. mademoiselle dared not follow him too quickly. the fourth day they were at choisy, a new mansion that mademoiselle had built two leagues from sceaux. lauzun regarded the princess while she was having her head adorned with flame-coloured ribbons. "he said, 'i was astonished to see the queen with many-coloured ribbons on her head.' 'you must find it wrong, then, that i should wear them, who am older?' he did not reply. i told him that rank permitted the decoration for a longer period." mademoiselle had at first written, "people of my rank are always young," but had effaced the phrase. lauzun knew well how to restore her to a good-humour, and he let himself be scolded, escaping towards evening to return to his pleasures. the fifth day they again disputed. lauzun was in the wrong; he had spoken of his visits to choisy as duties. mademoiselle, however, injured her cause with sharpness. "i see clearly," said she, "that in this world people who do good are mocked, as they are bores." lauzun, vexed, demanded, "how much longer is this pleasantry to last?" "as long as i please; i have the right to say all i wish, and you are bound to listen." lauzun showed "much impatience to depart," and this was not altogether unnatural, considering the nature of man. at another interview, it was the lover who was the first to show irritation. to be no longer of any importance in the world of society, to be two steps from the court without being free to enter, this was more than he could bear. he accused mademoiselle of having managed very badly and having only done harm; "if she had not interfered with his affairs," he would have come out of prison under better conditions. mme. de montespan overheard the accusation and was very indignant at this injustice and ingratitude, and the princess united with her in reproaches. it would be difficult to find a clear moment in the midst of these frequent quarrels, in which the pair would have desired to marry, if they had not done so before pignerol. here is again a moral proof to add to the others. about every two days, lauzun became metamorphosed, and was again for some hours, or at least minutes, for mademoiselle the former "little man" whose eccentricities gave an indescribable charm, difficult to explain, but impossible to deny. he had not the least trouble in again captivating his mistress. as soon as he assumed the sweet and submissive air and the enigmatical smile which she had so dearly loved (even combined with the manners which she sometimes distrusted, "of being acquainted with everything without speaking or copying"), mademoiselle fell anew under the charm and could refuse nothing. but this happy state of affairs never lasted. the time to obtain from her some new concession, another service, and the exaggerated manner of the convict dragging his chain reappeared. he loved to exasperate her jealousy. if nothing better offered, "he amused himself with grisettes,"[303] even after the royal family had received him as cousin "understood," if not avowed, and when all paris was congratulating mademoiselle on his happy release. other serious difficulties arose from the fact of lauzun considering the money of mademoiselle as his own. choisy appeared to him a useless expense; he found much fault with its management. "the terraces cost immense sums," said he one day while walking in the grounds; "what good are they?" the princess had sold in his absence a chain of pearls. "where is the money?" demanded lauzun. he wished to hold the purse strings, and no longer to be a "beggar." it astonished him that mademoiselle had not thought of preparing for him, before his arrival, "a beautiful apartment," of organising his establishment, of placing one of her carriages at his disposal. he complained openly in the social world that she left him without a penny; that she had only given him some diamonds, worth perhaps one thousand pistoles in all--and what stones, so "ugly"!--and that he had immediately sold them to obtain means of "subsistence." this is the perpetual complaint of the youthful husband, who wishes to be recompensed for the devotion lavished upon an elderly wife. the "beautiful apartment" existed and awaited him, but it was at the château of eu; the king would not tolerate his presence at the luxembourg. those who had the good fortune to visit eu before the fire of 1902 will not have forgotten the flight of loves on the ceiling of a chamber situated above that belonging to mademoiselle. the chamber of the loves was the one designed for lauzun, who failed, however, to honour the symbol. after a delay of three weeks, he no sooner arrived than he committed the unpardonable imprudence of running after the village girls, under the very eyes of mademoiselle. this was too much. the mistress of the château beat lauzun, scratched his face, and turned him out of doors. there he should stay. he was sufficiently shrewd to desire an accommodation. the comtesse de fiesque served as intermediary. in the château of eu there was a long gallery filled with family portraits. mademoiselle appeared at one end; "he [lauzun] was at the other, and he crept along on his knees the entire length of the gallery, till he reached the feet of mademoiselle."[304] possibly they forgave each other sincerely, but when friction once exists between married couples it continues, whether in the palace of princes or in the huts of charcoal burners. such scenes, more or less stormy, occurred again in the future. lauzun grew weary of being beaten, and in his turn used force with the princess, and this happened several times. in the end, disgusted with each other, they fought for the last time and separated, never to meet again. the final quarrel is related in detail in the _mémoires_ of mademoiselle. it happened in the spring of 1684. france was at war with spain. on april 22d the king departed to join his army, refusing to permit lauzun to accompany him, who imagined, rightly or wrongly, that mademoiselle was responsible for the prohibition, and was indignant. he went to the luxembourg, where a reception of raillery exasperated him still further: i met him laughing, and said: "you must retire to saint-fargeau; you will be a laughing stock if you remain at paris, as you were not permitted to go with the king, and i shall be very vexed if it is believed that it is i who have caused you to remain behind." he replied: "i am going away, and bid you farewell; i shall never see you again." i said: "it would have been better if we had never met; but better late than never." "you have ruined my career," replied he; "you might as well have cut my throat; it is your fault that i am not with the king; you asked him to leave me behind." "oh, that is false; he will tell you so himself." lauzun grew more and more angry, and i remained very calm. i said to him: "adieu, then"; and i entered my boudoir. i remained there some time; on returning, i found him still there. the ladies present said: "do you not wish to play cards?" i approached him, saying: "this is too much; keep your promise; go away." he finally withdrew. this rupture made a great scandal. dangeau, who had followed the king to the frontier, noted on may 6th, in his journal: "the news comes from paris that mademoiselle has forbidden m. de lauzun to appear again before her." thus ends meanly and miserably, with a scene worthy of dickens, the most famous passion of the century, after that of chimène and rodrigue. the first interest in the affair abated, the hero of the romance sank into obscurity. mademoiselle cast herself into an ecstasy of pious devotion, from which the virtue of pardoning the offences of others was apparently excluded. lauzun sought some support to which to attach himself, and did not easily find it. he realised too late that one could not quarrel with impunity with a princess of the blood. he made attempts at reconciliation, which mademoiselle repulsed; she had loved with too much ardour not to be capable of furious hate. the career of both lovers appeared to be finished, when the fantastic star which had guided lauzun towards so many adventures, marvellous if not always agreeable, led him to england during the autumn of 1688. he sought a more hospitable court, he found a revolution and glory. "i admire the star of m. de lauzun," wrote mme. de sévigné, "which again brings its light over the horizon when it was supposed to be for ever extinguished" (december 24, 1688). the name of lauzun was actually again on the lips of all. he had saved the queen of england and her son, and had brought them to calais at great risk, and suddenly assumed the pose of a true hero, wrongly despised and persecuted. "it is long," at once said louis, "since lauzun has seen my writing. i believe that he will rejoice at receiving a letter from me." the royal missive bore to the former favourite more than the pardon for the past; it spoke of "impatience to see him again."[305] mademoiselle considered this an outrage against herself; the ministers and courtiers, a menace. (december 27th): "he [lauzun] has found the road again to versailles by way of london; but he alone is joyful." the princess is indignant at the thought that the king is again content with him, and that he can return to court.[306] in vain the king sent seignelay to say to his cousin, as a sort of excuse and consolation: "after such services rendered by lauzun, it is my duty to see him." mademoiselle grew angry, and said, "this is then the gratitude i receive for having despoiled myself for the sake of the king's children." one of the friends of m. de lauzun was charged to present her with a letter. she threw it into the fire unread.[307] when it was realised that she was not to be appeased, people ceased to concern themselves with her and her bad temper. lauzun re-entered in triumph the court of france, and bussy-rabutin, in a letter to mme. de sévigné,[308] summed up the record of his career (february 2, 1689): "we have seen him in favour, we have seen him submerged, and now behold he is again riding the waves. do you remember a childish game in which one says, 'i have seen him alive, i have seen him dead, i have seen him alive after his death'? this tells his history." the "second volume of the romance" offers to those interested an account of the solemn conferring upon the little lauzun, in the church of notre dame, by king james ii., of the order of the garter. to this chapter succeeds one less brilliant. lauzun received the appointment as commander of the french troops sent to ireland to sustain the cause of legitimate monarchy. he lacked the necessary qualifications for this post. he astonished his officers with his incapacity, and made them blush by displaying "a longing to return to france,"[309] which was not heroic. louis xiv. consented to make lauzun duke, upon "the urgent prayer"[310] of their britannic majesties, but his opinion once formed never changed. the king never again employed the new duke in any official capacity, and this omission was always bitterly resented. as a result of many years of reflection, mademoiselle at length arrived at the conviction, an accepted commonplace, that happiness is not for the prominent upon this earth. without actually compensating her for her troubles, this discovery brought a certain consolation. she had, at this period, as neighbour in normandy, a young and charming woman called the comtesse de bayard, who became in the following century the godmother of bernardin de saint-pierre, and who furnished her godson with material[311] afterwards woven into tales made charming by his delicately sentimental language. one of these tales by saint-pierre is founded upon the romance of the grande mademoiselle. mme. de bayard liked to recall how, in their lonely walks, the princess would linger to make the villagers relate the tales of their loves and marriages; how her eyes would fill with tears, and how, returning into the château of eu, she would say that she would have been happier in a hut. to tears succeeded a certain childishness; the execrable court life had educated her only for a puerile old age, and she hastened to versailles from time to time, fearing to miss a tournament or some spectacle of this kind. on march 15, 1693, she was seized at paris with a disease of the bladder which rapidly increased in severity.[312] the luxembourg was besieged with seekers after news; the fear of losing the grande mademoiselle had aroused anew her popularity. monsieur and madame, who loved her, came to nurse her. lauzun begged to be admitted, but was refused. the condition grew rapidly worse, and the physicians, not knowing what to do, administered five doses of an emetic, the fashionable remedy that winter for all diseases, with the result that she soon saw the mournful procession of the royal family defile around her bed, the sure sign that all hope had passed. the princess died on april 15th, at the age of sixty-six years, and was buried at saint-denis with much pomp. in the midst of the ceremony, an urn, in which through a curious arrangement the entrails were enclosed, "broke with a frightful noise and emitted a sudden and intolerable odour."[313] some women fainted, while the rest of those present gained the open air by running. "all was soon perfumed and decorum was re-established," but this occurrence became the jest of paris. it was fated that the grande mademoiselle should always arouse a little ridicule, even at her interment. lauzun went into deep mourning, and made, on the day of the funeral, an offer of marriage, to prove that he was really a widower. having, on this occasion, been refused, he married (1695) the younger daughter of the maréchal de lorges and became the brother-in-law of saint-simon. mme. de lauzun was a child of fourteen,[314] to whom lauzun, with his sixty-three years, appeared so old that she had accepted him in the expectation of being quickly a widow. she flattered herself that at the end of "two or three years at most"[315] she would find herself independent, rich, and, above all, a duchess, and this idea captivated her. but lauzun could never be counted upon. his wife was obliged to endure him for nearly thirty years, passed in suffering torments from morning till night from the loving husband. the king had said to the maréchal de lorges, in learning of the marriage of his youngest daughter: "you are bold to take lauzun into your family; i trust that you may not repent it." repentance was prompt and bitter. mademoiselle was right, it was impossible to live with lauzun. it was through miracles of patience that his new wife bore to the end, and miracles should never be exacted in wedded life. the mean little calculation at the beginning had been amply expiated by the time that mme. de lauzun finally became a widow. even to the end, lauzun had remained one of the ornaments and curiosities of the court of france, noted for his grand manner, the eccentricities of his habits, the splendour of his habitation, and for the indescribable elegance and ease of conversation and bearing, which at that time was not to be acquired at versailles. at ninety he himself drove, and sometimes with fiery animals. one day, when he was training a fresh colt in the bois de boulogne, the king, louis xiv., passed. lauzun executed before him a "hundred capers" and filled the spectators with admiration, by his "address, his strength, and his grace."[316] he still often enjoyed "pretty" moments. but there was a reverse side to the medal: the malignant dwarf "frightened all who approached him with his wicked wit and his hateful tricks." from afar, lauzun is very amusing under this aspect; he excelled in buffoonery. in extreme age, he suffered from a malady which almost killed him. one day, when he was very ill, he perceived reflected in a mirror the forms of two of his heirs who entered the chamber on tiptoe, fancying themselves concealed behind the curtains, to ascertain with their own eyes how long they were to be forced to wait. lauzun feigned to perceive nothing and began to pray in a loud voice as one who believes himself alone. he demanded pardon of god for his past life, and lamented that his time for repentance was so short. he exclaimed that there was only a single way to secure his safety, which was to devote the wealth which god had given him to paying for his sins, and this he engaged to do with all his heart. he promised to leave to the hospital all that he possessed, without abstracting a single penny. he made this declaration with so much fervour and with so penetrating an accent that his heirs fled away in despair, to relate the misfortune to mme. de lauzun. this scene properly terminates the career of this extraordinary personage, unscrupulous and malignant to the last. lauzun died in 1723, at over ninety years of age. mademoiselle was the last to disappear of the grand figures belonging to the time of the fronde. retz, condé, turenne, la rochefoucauld, mme. de chevreuse, mme. de longueville, had departed before her. the only one of the ancient rebels which could not perish, the hôtel de ville of paris, had been suppressed from history by royal ordinance for the period corresponding to the fronde. the accounts of the prosecutions of the council recorded the revolutionary sentiments which prevailed at the capital during the civil war. the king ordered all the registers[317] to be destroyed, and the destruction included every record relating to public affairs for the years 1646-1653. it may be said without too much calumniating the heart of louis xiv. that the death of his cousin afforded a certain relief. she was too lively a reminder of the execrable period which he did his best to banish from his own memory as well as from that of the public. saint-simon, newly arrived at the court at the date of the death of mademoiselle, had time to convince himself that she was in the eyes of the king always the unpardoned and unpardonable heroine of the combat of the porte saint-antoine. "i heard him reproach his cousin once at supper, joking it is true, but a little roughly, for having turned the cannon of the bastile upon his troops." the royal rancour extended to the city of paris, eternal cradle of french revolutions. not being able to suppress the capital, louis xiv. banished himself from its gates. on may 6, 1682, unfortunate date for the french monarchy, the court installed itself definitely at versailles, and henceforth left this place only for sojourns at the various country seats, as fontainebleau and marly. paris was abandoned, left to do penance. not only did louis xiv. desert this city as a place of residence, but he visited it rarely. it was remarked that he often made long detours rather than to pass through paris. the nobility and ministers followed the king to versailles. royalty and the capital turned their backs on each other. another important event influenced the ideas of court decorum and propriety. the queen marie-thérèse dying in 1683 (july 30), louis xiv. in the course of the winter following formally married mme. de maintenon. the physiognomy of the court, what saint-simon would have called the bark (_écorce_), entirely changed its character. at the moment of ending this long study it is, then, a different world to which adieu must be said from the one which was found at the beginning, and the transformation did not end with the "bark." the principal cause of the change, the establishment of absolute monarchy, had acted violently upon france in shaking the nation to its depths, as do all changes not developing from national tradition. absolute monarchy was not a french tradition. it was an importation from spain. anne of austria, who did not understand any other régime, had educated her son to accept her ideas and habits of thought, and the substitution of king for minister was, at the death of mazarin, accomplished without shock. it was, however, a real _coup d'état_. before louis xiv. the royal power, without being submitted to precise limitations, from time to time hurled itself against certain rights, themselves often loosely defined. there existed privileges of the parliament, others of the state, together with those of the nobles, and others belonging to bodies and individuals, which when united left the king of france in a situation resembling that in which gulliver found himself, when the liliputians bound him with hundreds of minute threads. each single thread was of no consequence; through the compression of all together every movement was paralysed. louis xiv. resolutely broke the numerous threads which had trammelled the power of his predecessors. he freed himself in suppressing the ancient liberties of france. no student of history can be ignorant of the material results, so splendid at first, so disastrous in the end; but certain moral consequences of his government have been perhaps less clearly remarked. the french aristocracy ceased from the second generation to be a nursery for men of action. this was the result desired from the policy of keeping it chained to the steps of the throne. the end had been attained at the date of the king's death. saint-simon, who cannot be suspected of hostility towards the nobility, certifies to this. when the duke arrived at power under the regent, his brain swarming with projects for replacing the aristocrats in positions of importance, and when he sought great names with which to fill great posts, he realised that he was too late. the "nursery" was empty. the difficulty, say the _mémoires_ lay in the ignorance, the frivolity, and the lack of application of a nobility which had been accustomed to lives of frivolity and uselessness; a nobility that was good for nothing but to let itself be killed, and that reached the battle-field itself only through the force of heredity. for the remainder of the time, it was content to stagnate in an existence without a purpose. it had delivered itself over to idleness and felt keen disgust for all education, excepting that relating to military matters. the result was a general incapacity and unfitness for affairs. it is proper to render to cæsar what belongs to cæsar. the effacement of the french aristocracy is not to be laid at the door of the great revolution, which acted only upon an accomplished fact; it was the personal work of louis xiv. the higher classes also, contrary to the generally received opinion, suffered from a serious moral abasement. this fact is the more striking, as at no other period has france possessed so many elements for giving to life decorum and dignity. through a deplorable misfortune, social groups which ought, through their solid principles, to have served as the support of public morality had incurred, one after the other, the serious displeasure of royalty. among the catholics, the disciples of bérulle and of vincent de paul had compromised themselves in the affair of the _compagnie du saint sacrement_. no government worthy of the name can suffer itself to be led by a secret society, whatever the purpose or character of such society may be. the jansenists had shared with the reformers in the discontent that the least expression of a desire for independence, no matter in what domain, inspired in louis xiv. his distrust even reached the interior life of his subjects. every one, under penalty of being considered a rebel, must feel and think like the king. this was with louis a fixed idea, and during his reign gave a peculiar character to the religious persecutions. jansenists and protestants were pursued much oftener as enemies of the king than as enemies of god. the hostility of the prince to the three principal seats of the french conscience, and the destruction of two of these, left the field clear for the licentiousness which marked the end of the reign. excessive dissipation is always supposed to belong particularly to the time of the regency, but the abscess had existed for a long time before the death of louis xiv. caused it to break. a letter as early as 1680 states, "our fathers were not more chaste than we are; but ... now the vices are decorated and refined."[318] the evil had made rapid progress under the mantle of hypocrisy, which covered the court of france from the time of the rule of mme. de maintenon. this last well perceived the danger and groaned over it to no purpose. strangers were struck with the conditions. "all is more concentrated," wrote one of them in 1690, "more reserved, more restrained, than the peculiar genius of the nation can bear."[319] the real misfortune was that louis, who had been brought up and matured in an entirely formal religion, had permitted himself to be imposed upon by scoffers, who came disguised as believers, in order to make their court. the king, who had permitted the representation of _tartuffe_, had not sufficiently meditated upon its import. a final misdeed, and not the least for which the absolute régime is responsible, was the launching of the nation in pursuit of one of the most dangerous of political chimeras, that of the need of spiritual unity. louis xiv. revoked the edict of nantes in the name of the fetich that a good frenchman must be of his king's faith. a century later, the terror cut off heads in the name of a unity of opinion, because a frenchman ought to be virtuous in the fashion of rousseau and of robespierre. the reader may continue for himself the series, and count the acts of oppression committed in the nineteenth century, while even the twentieth century, young as it still is, presents examples of the attempt to enforce upon the nation a uniformity of thought which, if once attained, would signify intellectual death. for in politics, as in religion, as in art, in literature, in all, diversity is life. it is through this capital error that the reign of louis xiv., so glorious in many respects, was the precursor of the great revolution and really made its coming inevitable. the jacobins are in some measure the heirs of the great king. fundamentally, the mania for spiritual and moral unity is simply, under a less odious name, the horror of liberty; a sentiment old as the world, but which in the earlier portion of the seventeenth century had been far from dominant. the word "liberty" occurs again and again in the writings of many people of that period, theorists, jurists, and great nobles, at every point in which they touch politics. the expression contained for them nothing revolutionary. what they were demanding was rather a return to past methods, and, above all, it did not enter their thoughts to associate with liberty the word "equality." it is the eighteenth century, more philosophical, if perhaps less reasonable, that first conceived the idea of uniting two really incompatible things, without perceiving that one of the two was destined to annihilate the other. if absolute royalty had remained at paris, it would have clearly realised the point at which the nation no longer was in sympathy with its rule. at versailles it saw nothing; it shut itself up in its own tomb. the divorce was consummated between the court and the capital, one contenting itself with being figurative and ornamental, the other actively controlling opinions, since royalty had renounced the office of directing the public mind and thoughts. it will be recollected that the rôle of universal arbitrator was played by the "young court," the youthful king at its head, at the time in which there was daily contact with paris, and when the court was always in the advance in ideas as in fashions. the residence at versailles ended the possibility of these times ever returning; there was no longer any bond between the king of france and the merchant of the rue st. denis. in consequence, paris employed itself in the eighteenth century in the evolution of minds. the court had decided upon the success of the plays of molière, the parisian parquet criticised those of beaumarchais. if it be considered that the interior politics of louis xiv. were constantly dominated by a horror of the fronde, it will be recognised that this abortive revolution brought in its train consequences almost as grave as if it had been successful. this is the reason it has seemed permissible to make the history of the ideas and sentiments existing during the wars of the fronde and the succeeding forty years circle around the incidents in the life of the grande mademoiselle. she was a truly representative figure of this generation, and on this account will always merit the attention of historians, and by a double claim, through the interest in her proud conception of life, and through the importance of the evil for which she was partly responsible and by the results of which she was herself overwhelmed. no one possessed in a higher degree than this princess the great qualities belonging to her epoch, and no one preserved them so intact without thought of the danger after the retaining of such opinions had become a cause of disgrace. neither retz nor the great condé showed signs in their old age of their characteristics displayed under the fronde; both had become calmed. the grande mademoiselle remained always the grande mademoiselle, and this steadfastness, while sometimes a difficulty, was more often her real title to glory. footnotes: [footnote 264: m. du honsett, ancient intendant of finance. he had just purchased the office of chancellor of monsieur.] [footnote 265: letter dated april 1, 1671.] [footnote 266: letter dated january 13, 1672.] [footnote 267: _mémoires de la fare._ _cf._ the _mémoires de choisy, segraisiana_, etc.] [footnote 268: louvois had visited pignerol the preceding year.] [footnote 269: the authorities quoted in this and the following chapter, upon the captivity of lauzun, are in part unpublished and drawn from the archives of the minister of war, in part borrowed from the _archives de la bastille_, by m. ravaisson. see also a collection of historic documents of 1829: _histoire de la détention des philosophes_, by j. delort.] [footnote 270: mme. de montespan and mlle. de la vallière were designated briefly "_les dames_."] [footnote 271: this letter has been lost or destroyed.] [footnote 272: louvois to saint-mars, march 2, 1676.] [footnote 273: the letter from saint-mars (march 23, 1680) giving an account of the communications between the dungeons has never been found, any more than that telling of the flight of lauzun.] [footnote 274: louvois to saint-mars, november 28, 1679.] [footnote 275: leopold von ranke, _histoire de france_.] [footnote 276: _journal d'olivier lefèvre d'ormesson._] [footnote 277: two years after this warning louis xiv. gave at versailles, in honour of mme. de montespan, a fête for which special buildings were created. the ballroom, only used _one night_, was marble and porphyry; the rest in accordance.] [footnote 278: a loss of more than 100,000 crowns was not rare at the gaming table of the king. march 6, 1670, mme. de montespan lost 400,000 pistoles in one night; at eight in the morning she regained 500,000. the pistole is worth about ten francs. in 1682, three years after her disgrace, she lost at one time 700,000 crowns which she did not regain. the king paid her debts.] [footnote 279: letter of mme. de châtrier, attached to the house of condé; _de la vallière à montespan_, by jean lemoine and andré lichtenberger.] [footnote 280: letter from colbert to the intendant de rochefort (april 16, 1678).] [footnote 281: _mémoires de la fare._] [footnote 282: _mémoires de mlle. de montpensier._] [footnote 283: _mémoires de l'abbé de choisy._] [footnote 284: _souvenirs sur mme. de maintenon._--_les cahiers de mlle. d'aumale_, with an introduction by m. g. hanotaux.] [footnote 285: _ibid._] [footnote 286: letter to the marquis de trichateau.] [footnote 287: note by la reynie (december 27, 1679). the documents of the _affaire des poisons_ form more than 1300 pages of the _archives de la bastille_, and they are not complete. certain especial depositions, particularly compromising for mme. de montespan, are lacking, and were probably burned by order of louis xiv.] [footnote 288: louvois to boucherat, president of the _chambre_, february 4, 1680.] [footnote 289: it included the comtesse de soissons, the marquise d'alluye (the king saved both), the duc de luxembourg (victim of an error), the vicomtesse de polignac, the marquis de feuquières, the princesse de tingry, the maréchale de la ferté, the duchesse de bouillon, etc.] [footnote 290: cf. _archives de la bastille_, the "_note autographe_" of la reynie, dated september 17, 1679. was this the first time that these names had appeared? the destruction of portions of the testimony through the orders of the king does not permit the real truth to be disclosed.] [footnote 291: louvois to m. robert, january 15, 1680.] [footnote 292: she died there september 8, 1686. cato seems to have been dismissed, although she had been placed with mme. de montespan by la voisin.] [footnote 293: marie-anne-christine de bavière, coming to marry the grand dauphin.] [footnote 294: cf. _les souvenirs de mme. de caylus_ and--among others--the letter of mme. de sévigné dated july 17, 1680.] [footnote 295: _mme. de montespan et louis xiv._] [footnote 296: _louis xiv., sa cour et le régent_, by anquetil (paris, 1789).] [footnote 297: the gift to be enjoyed only after the death of mademoiselle.] [footnote 298: _mémoires de saint-simon._] [footnote 299: saint-simon, _écrits inédits_.] [footnote 300: at chalon-sur-saône.] [footnote 301: exactly, according to the official figures, 284,940 francs.] [footnote 302: the coat called a _brevet_, because it could only be worn with a _brevet_ from the king, was changed every year. it was thus very out of fashion at the end of twelve years. lauzun had worn a wig at pignerol, to protect his head against the dampness of his dungeon.] [footnote 303: _écrits inédits_, saint-simon.] [footnote 304: saint-simon, _mémoires_. saint-simon takes his details from an eye-witness.] [footnote 305: saint-simon, _écrits inédits_.] [footnote 306: sévigné.] [footnote 307: _mémoires de la cour de france_, by mme. de la fayette.] [footnote 308: sévigné, january 6, 1689.] [footnote 309: letter of m. d'amfreville, general-officer of the marine to seignelay, in the _histoire de louvois_, by camille rousset.] [footnote 310: saint-simon, _écrits inédits_.] [footnote 311: _[oe]uvres completes_, of bernardin de saint-pierre (paris, 1830), vol. i.; _essai sur la vie_ by aimé-martin.] [footnote 312: cf. the _gazette_ for 1693, and the series of the _mercure galant_ monthly periodical, founded in 1672 by donneau de visé.] [footnote 313: saint-simon, _mémoires_.] [footnote 314: saint-simon says fifteen. he is mistaken; the act of marriage says fourteen.] [footnote 315: _mémoires_, saint-simon.] [footnote 316: saint-simon, _mémoires_.] [footnote 317: the royal ordinance is dated july 7, 1668. louis xiv. was ever ignorant of the fact that the councillors of the hôtel de ville had passed nights in copying what was to be burned, so that the documents supposed to be destroyed still exist.] [footnote 318: from la rivière to bussy-rabutin.] [footnote 319: _relation de la cour de france_, by ézéchiel spanheim, envoy extraordinary from brandenbourg.] index a absolute monarchy, establishment of, in france, 7, 118, 142; a spanish importation, 371 adickes, erich, _kant als mensch_ by, 220 aimé-martin, _essai sur la vie_, by, 365 aix, court at, 100-102 aix-la-chapelle, treaty of, 258 albret, maréchal d', 282 _alceste_ (lulli), 218 alençon, elisabeth, mlle, d', daughter of monsieur, 77, 133, 186; marriage of, 235, 294 allier, raoul, _la cabale des dévots_, by, 83, 85, 157, 181, 198 alluye, marquise d', 344 alphonse vi., king of portugal, 142-145, 160, 185 _amadis_, 216 _amants magnifiques, les_ (molière), 202 _amaryllis_, 18 _ambassadeur de la fuente au roi d'espagne, l'_, 189 amboise, château of, 27, 44, 354 amfreville, m. d', 364 amiens, 263 "amours of hercules," 120 andilly, arnauld, d', 79 _andromaque_ (racine), 225, 228 angélique, mother, 88, 92 angennes, julie d', 264 anjou, philippe, duc d' (the little monsieur), proposed marriage of, with mademoiselle, 59, 73, 272-278; character of, 74, 102, 105, 152, 196, 261, 262, 271, 272; becomes duc d'orléans, 102; marries henrietta of england, 136, 151, 152; marries princess palatine, 156, 315; daughters of, 277; opposed to mésalliance of mlle., 285 anjou, son of louis xiv., 285 anne of austria, regency of, 1; education of her sons, 31, 63-65, 74, 371; relations of, with mazarin, 62, 63, 82, 112, 304; reception of mademoiselle, 57-59, and lack of court etiquette, 76-79, 82; member of compagnie du saint-sacrement, 87, 103, 148, 158, 198; prevents marriage of louis and marie mancini, 82, 97; receives condé, 100; interview of, with philip iv., 108-110; favours absolute monarchy, 118, 146, 371; be friends marie-thérèse, 118, 149; detests madame, 122; reproaches louis, 153, 170; influence of, 153, 159, 192, 194, 195, 208; illness and death of, 194-197; effect of death of, 195, 197, 200, 201, 206, 208, 209 anquetil, _louis xiv., sa cour et le régent_, by, 349 _archives de la bastille_ (ravaisson), 189, 201, 209, 282, 293, 312, 343, 344 _archives de chantilly_, 117, 174, 175, 186 _archives_ of eu. _see_ eu _ariane_ (monteverde), 214 armagnac, louis de lorraine, comte d', 237 arras, siege of, 23, 161 _artamène, ou le grand cyrus_ (scudéry), 11 _astrate_, 81 _astrée, l'_(d'urfé), 11, 14, 80 aubineau, léon, 67 aumale, duc d', 46 aumale, mlle. d', _mémoires_ of, 291 auteuil, comte d', 47 ayen, comte d' (duc de noailles), 270 b bachaumont, 32 _bajazet_ (racine), 8, 225 _ballet des arts_, 172 bartélemy, eduard de (honorat de bueil, marquis de racan), editor _la galerie des portraits_, etc., 122, 130 bastile, the, 247, 370 _bastille, archives de la._ _see archives_ bavière, anne de. _see_ palatine bavière, elisabeth charlotte de (madame). _see_ palatine bavière, marie anne christine de, 347 bayard, comtesse de, 365 bazinière, sieur de la, 76 beaufort, duc de, 185 bellefonte, marshal of, 264 bernières, m. de, 87, 88, 91, 92; _relations_ of, 87-90 berri, government of, 307 bérulle, 373 bethléem, bishop of, 191 béthune, comte de, 47 béthune, mme. de, 266 beuvron, charles d'harcourt, comte de, 275 béziers, m. de, 147 bezon, m. de, 343 bidassoa, river, 105, 110 bielle, sieur de, 83 blois, forced sojourn of monsieur at, 25-35, 39-41, 49-53, 97, 98, 134; court at, 97 blois, mlle. de, marriage of, 337 bocquet, mlle. (agélaste), 124 boileau, 217, 222, 223 bois-le-vicomte, château of, 50 bologna, theatres in, 215 bordeaux, court at, 98, 99, 132 bossuet, court preacher, 140, 142, 200; funeral oration of, 152; at death-bed of madame, 272, 273 boucherat, 344 bougy, lady de, 211 bouillon, duc de, 77 bouillon, duchesse de, 344 bouligneux, m. de, 264 boult, 89 bourbon, baths of, 329, 354 bourbon, henri de. _see_ montpensier bourbon, house of, 42, 47 bourbon, marie de, 42 bourdaloue, court preacher, 200 bourgogne, hôtel de, 227 bourgogne, province of, 83, 94 boursault, 225 boyer, abbé, tragedies of, 226 brandenbourg, 374 brie, province of, 83, 84 brienne, father, 190 broglie, emmanuel de, _saint vincent de paul_, by, 82, 91 brunetière, m. f., _les époques du théâtre français_; _les études critiques sur l'histoire de la littérature française_, by, 223 bussy-rabutin, _mémoires_ of, cited, 32, 55, 61, 147, 148, 160, 248, 337, 342, 343, 345; letters to, 272, 273, 302, 305, 342, 374; _correspondance de_, 303, 364 c _cabale des dévots, la_ (allier), 83, 85, 88, 148, 157, 181, 198, 199 _cahiers de mlle. d'aumale, les_, 230, 341 cambert, _pomone_, opera by, 216 carignan, princesse de, 291 carrosse _amarante_, 223 cartwright, julia, _madame, memoirs of henrietta, duchesse of orleans_, by, 136 _cassandre_ (la calprenède), 11 cato, mme. de montespan's maid, 344, 346 caylus, mme. de, _souvenirs et correspondance_ of, 300; _souvenirs de_, 150, 347 chaillou des barres, baron, _les châteaux d'ancy-le-france, de saint-fargeau_, etc., by, 6 chalais, 25 chalon-sur-saône, 354 chambord, 26, 33 _chambre ardente_, established by louis, 204, 343, 344; suppression of, 347 champagne, province of, 55, 56, 87, 92, 334 champigny lawsuit, 49, 50, 125 chantelauze, _saint vincent de paul et les gondi_, by, 82, 112 chantilly, _see archives_ of chapelle, 32 charenton, 289 charles ii. (of england), 136 charles ii. (of spain), marriage of, 277 _châteaux d'ancy-le-france, de saint-fargeau_, etc., _les_ (chaillou des barres), 6 châtelet, the, 211 châtellerault, duchy of, 49 châtillon, duchesse de, 78, 80, 126 châtrier, mme. de, 335 chauvelin, m. de, 347 chéruel, editor, 3, 48, 297 chevreuse, mme. de, 369 choisy, mlle.'s mansion at, 357, 359 choisy, françois-timoléon, abbé de, _mémoires_ of, 74, 133, 134, 138, 281, 289, 291, 310, 340 choisy, mme. de, 13 chouquet, _histoire de la musique dramatique en france_, by, 213 cinq-mars, 25 clagny, château of, 235 clairvoyants, 201-207 clamecy, 191 clément, p., _mme. de montespan et louis xiv._, by, 282 _cléopâtre_ (la calprenède), 11 colbert, protected by mademoiselle's escort, 56; reorganises finances, 141, 171, 177; letters to, 183, 348; enemy of _compagnie du saint sacrement_, 198; opposes louvois, 287; protests against king's extravagance, 332-337; mediation of, 345, 352 coligny, admiral de, 78 comédie française, 109 condé, prince de (the great), 3, 56, 117, 256, 377; alliance of, with mademoiselle, 3, 16, 17, 33, 45, 56, 369; defeat of, 20, 23, 54; letters of, 38-40, 46, 147, 174, 186; rupture of, with mlle., 46, 47, 52; cruelty of army of, 55, 83; pardoned, 100, 101, 113; son of, 117; appreciation of racine, 229; opposes mlle.'s marriage, 285, 291, 292, 296 condé, princesse de, 16, 17, 46 conti, louis armand, prince de, marriage of, 48, 337 corneille, 80, 81, 129, 223-226, 228, 240, 241 _correspondance de bussy-rabutin_, 303 _correspondance de pomponne, la_, 297 _correspondant_, the, 112 cotin, abbé, _[oe]uvres galantes en vers et en prose_, by, 220, 223, 226 coulanges, 287 _country pleasures_, operetta, 19 court of france, mademoiselle returns to, 2, 57-59, 72; in disgrace with, 16, 19, 45, 55; returns to paris, 19-21, 65, 110, 281; monsieur under protection of, 39, 40, 48; journeys of, 53, 68, 94-104, 108, 110, 132, 257, 258, 307; manners and morals of, 76-79, 81, 82, 123-125, 128-131, 338; etiquette of, 78, 104-111, 233; occupations of, 103, 230-232; the young, 148, 174, 224, 229, 376; brilliancy of, 174, 258-260, 315; size of, 174, 175, 258; at versailles, 174, 176-182, 333, 365, 370, 376; at fontainebleau, 182, 184; literary tastes of, 224, 227, 229, 376; at saint-germain, 269, 353, 354; changed character of, 370, 371, 374 court of saint-fargeau, 6-10, 17-20, 129-131, 135 cousin, _la société française au xviième siècle_, by, 124 _création de versailles, la_ (de nolhac), 176 crégny, duc de, 282 crequi, 297 crissé, mme. de, original of countess de pimbesche, 191 crosné, 89 crussol, emmanuel ii., de. _see_ uzès d _dafné_, musical tragedy, 214 _dames, les_ (the "ladies"), 315, 334-336 dauphin, the grand, 154, 155, 179; marriage of, 347; death of, 219 de chapelain, 226 _déclaration par le menu du comté d'eu_, 163 delamare, philibert, _mélanges_, by, 285, 286, 290, 294, 301 delaure, _histoire de paris_, by, 21 _de la vallière à montespan_ (lemoine and lichtenberger), 175, 229, 263, 335 delort, j., _histoire de la détention des philosophes_, by, 312 deltour, f., _les ennemis de racine_, by, 223, 226 derby, lady, 137 _deux chèvres_ (la fontaine), _les_, 107 _devineresses, les_ (la fontaine), 203 _dévolution_, war of the, 154, 257 diafoirus, thomas, 109 _dictionnaire des précieuses, le_ (somaize), 13 diderot, 172 dijon, court at, 94, 95 divine right of kings, doctrine of, 139-142 dombes, principality of, 49, 95; given to lauzun, 288; demanded for duc du maine, 352 dreyss, charles, editor of _mémoires_ of louis xiv., 58, 69, 141, 278 dubois, _les fragments des mémoires inédits_, by, 67 dubuisson (lesage). _see_ lesage dubuisson-aubenay, _journal des guerres civiles_, by, 92 dunkerque, 173, 307 dupré, mlle., 124 e _école des femmes_ (molière),131, 227 _écrits inédits_ (saint-simon), 354, 359, 363, 364 _éducation politique de louis xiv., l'_ (lacour-gayet) 64 elbeuf, m. d', 178 elisabeth de france, mother of marie-thérèse, 149 embrun, archbishop of, 38, 39 190 enghien, duc d', 117; marriage of, 174 _ennemis de racine, les_ (deltour), 223, 226 _époques du théâtre français, les_ (brunetière), 223 _essai sur la vie_ (aimé-martin), 365 estrées, maréchal d', 76 étampes, 54 étrechy, 89 _études critiques sur l'histoire de la littérature française, les_ (brunetière), 223 eu, château d', 147, 170; _archives_ of, 162, 163, 167-169; mademoiselle at, 169, 182, 183, 360-363, 365 eu, comté d', property of the guise, 161; sale of, 161-167; revenue from, 162-166; given to lauzun, 288; given to duc du maine, 352, 353 _eugénie, ou la force du destin_, 14 f fabert, 84 famine of 1659-1662, 93 feillet, _la misère au temps de la fronde et saint vincent de paul_, by, 82, 84 ferté, maréchale de la, 344 feuquieres, marquis de, 344 fiesque, comtesse de, 16, 45, 129, 360 _fille, la_, fable of (la fontaine), 190-191 flanders, court in, 257, 307 fontainebleau, court at, 174, 182-188, 308 fontanges, mlle. de, 339, 340 fontarabia, marriage of louis xiv. at, 104, 105, 110 forges, baths of, 10, 53, 146 foucquet, abbé, 25, 78; punishment of, 141; imprisonment of, 311-313, 326, 330; death of, 326, 329 _fragments des mémoires inédits, les_ (dubois), 67 france, failure of fronde important to, 1; fondness for sport in, 7; results of absolute monarchy in, 7, 371, 372; wars of with spain, 16, 20, 55, 59, 145, 361; famine and misery in, 54, 55, 82-94, 331, 334; advantages to, from peace of the pyrénées, 99; conversation, the delight of intelligent, 123, 135; reforms of louis and colbert in, 141, 142, 171; increase of industry and commerce, 142; "rights" in, 168; growing power and influence of, 171; influence of women in, 193, 194; belief in astrology and sorcery, 201-212; introduction of dramatic music into, 213-217; war of, with holland, 235, 318, 330; consternation in, over projected marriage of mademoiselle, 283, 284, 286, 290, 292, 294, 295, 297; mistress of the world, 330, 331; moral deterioration of, 338, 372-374 france, court of. _see_ court franche-comté, 330 francis i., 27 fronde, the, failure of, 1, 47; effect of, 1, 58, 65, 68, 376; leaders of, 2, 11, 81, 369; mademoiselle the heroine of, 3, 53, 59, 72, 370; wars of, 16, 20, 36, 54, 82-85, 213, 221, 232, 377; abuses giving rise to, 21, 22 frondeurs, the, 2, 47, 58, 77, 369 frontenac, mme. de, 14, 15, 45 g _galerie des portraits de mlle. de montpensier, la_, 122, 125-127, 129-131, 135 gaston, duc d'orléans. _see_ orléans _gazette de hollande_, 307 _gazette_ of loret, 18, 20, 30, 171-174, 178, 179, 227, 272, 365 _gazette de renaudot_, 269 geoffroy, editor of _letters of mme. de maintenon_, 64 germany, peace of the pyrénées unfavourable to, 99; humiliated by louis xiv., 171, 331 giustiniani, venetian ambassador, 142 gomberville, works of, 11 gonzague, anne de. _see_ palatine gonzague, marie de. _see_ poland goulas, nicolas, _mémoires_ of, 28, 34 gramont, catherine de, 211 gramont, chevalier de, 35 gramont, maréchal de, 149, 211 _grand cyrus, le_ (scudéry), 11, 124 grignan, mme. de, 11 guibourg, abbé, 345, 348 guiche, comte de, 71, 148, 149 guilloire, 286, 307 guise, charles de lorraine, duc de, 42 guise, chevalier de, 221 guise, duc de, 177, 178; married mlle. d'orléans, 294, 295 guise, duchesse de (grandmother of mademoiselle), 42, 51 guise, family of, 161. _see also_ lorraine guise, mlle. de, marriage of, 161 guitry, marquis de, 282, 297 h hachette, 202 hanotaux, m. g., 150, 230, 341 haro, don luis de, 107, 108 haussonville, comte d', 150, 219, 291 heine, heinrich, 224, 228 henrietta of england (madame) wife of philippe, duc d'orléans, 130, 151-153, 191; relations of, with louis xiv., 194, 228; death of, 233, 270-273, 275; daughters of, 277 henry iii., 67 henry iv., 149, 283 henry, victor, _la magie dans l'inde antique_, by, 210 herse, présidente de, 88, 92 _histoire amoureuse des gaules l'_, 297 _histoire du château de blois, l'_, (la saussaye), 26 _histoire de france_ (porchat and miot, trs.), 99 _histoire de france_ (von ranke), 330 _histoire de louvois_ (rousset), 364 _histoire de madame henriette d'angleterre_ (la fayette), 151-153, 194, 271 _histoire de mlle. et du comte de losun_, 257 _histoire de la musique dramatique en france_ (chouquet), 213 _histoire de l'opéra en europe_ (rolland), 213 _histoire de paris, l'_ (delaure), 21 _histoire de la princesse de paphlagonie_ (mademoiselle), 132 _histoires de la détention des philosophes_ (delort), 312 hoguete, fortin de la, 140 holland, war between france and, 235, 318, 330 honsett, m. du, 305 hôpital, maréchal de l', 75 hôpital, mme. de l', 76 hospitals, establishment of, 87 hôtel rambouillet, 14, 124 hôtel de ville, the, 369 huet, dr., _mémoires_ of, 10, 127, 129 i _image du souverain, l'_, 140 _infortunes d'une petite-fille d'henri iv., les_ (rodocanachi), 138 _inventaire général du comté d'eu_, 163 _iphigénie_ (racine), 227 isarn, m., 327-329 isle des faisans (_isle de la conférence_), 106-110 isle saint-louis, 206 iturrieta, don miguel de, 282 j jacobins, the, 375 jansenism, 85 jansenists, 87, 88, 129, 373 jesuits, the, 79, 80, 83 _jeune alcidiane, la_ (gomberville), 11 joinville, prince de. _see_ lorraine joly, mme., 90 jourdain, mme., 115 _journal des guerres civiles_ (dubuisson-aubenay), 92 _journal d'olivier lefèvre d'ormesson_, 159, 174, 177, 186, 194, 197, 285, 287, 301, 332, 335 _journal de voyage de deux jeunes hollandais à paris_, 72, 73, 75, 76 joyeuse, duc de. _see_ lorraine joyeuse, henriette catherine, duchesse de. _see_ montpensier jusserand, j. j., _les sports et jeux d'exercice dans l'ancienne france_, by, 7 k kant, emanuel, 220 _kant als mensch_ (adickes), 220 _kreutzer sonata_ (tolstoi), 220 l la bruyère, 269 la calprenède, _cassandre_ and _cléopâtre_, by, 11 lacour-gayet, _l'éducation politique de louis xiv._, by, 64, 67 la duverger, 211 la fare, marquis de, _mémoires et réflexions_ of, 248, 283, 287, 290, 302, 310, 339 la fayette, mme. de, 134; _histoire de madame henriette d'angleterre_, 151-153, 194, 271; _princesse de clèves_, by, 153; _mémoires de la cour de france_, 209, 363 la fontaine, letters of, 26, 27, 54; fables of, 107, 111, 109, 203; appointment of, 191 lair, j. _louise de la vallière_, by, 180 lalanne, ludovic, 303 lamoignon, mme. de, 88, 92 landrecies, 263-265 lansac, mme. de, 67 la reynie, lieut.-general of police, 209, 210, 343-346 la rivière, 374 la rochefoucauld, 11, 130, 134, 256, 369 la saussaye, _l'histoire du château de blois_, by, 26 lauzun, antonin nompar de caumont, marquis de puyguilhem, comte de, 238; career of, 243-247; intrigues of, 245, 246, 249-251; relations of with mme. de montespan, 245, 246, 282, 287, 290, 309; description of, 243, 244, 248, 262, 324, 356; in the bastile, 247; character of, 248-251, 269, 287, 356-359, 367-369; projected marriage of mademoiselle with, 251-257, 267-270, 276, 279-281, 284, 293; tacit consent of louis to marriage, 281-283; generous gifts of mademoiselle to, 288, 289, 355; marriage broken off, 290-297, 317, 326; question of secret marriage with mlle., 304-308, 349; arrest and imprisonment of, 310-324, 350; the "caskets" of, 317; attempted escape of, 325, 326, 350; communicates with foucquet, 326; interview of, with his family, 327-329; released from prison, 329, 349, 354, 359; forced to renounce gifts of mlle., 353, 354; reimprisoned, 354; forbidden to return to court, 354, 355, 360, 361; saves queen of england, 363; order of the garter and title conferred upon, 364; marriage of, 366; death of, 369 lauzun, chevalier de, 327 lauzun, mme. de, married life of, 366-369 laval, marquise of, 6 la vallière, laurent de la baume le blanc, seigneur de, 134 la vallière, louise de, youth of, 134; relations of, with louis xiv., 150, 153-156, 172, 176, 178, 193; made duchess, 154; position of, officially recognised, 197, 233, 234, 258, 315, 334, 336; attacked by bossuet, 200; successor to, 208-210; marriage of daughter, 337; character of, 339; retires to convent, 339 la voisin, the poisoner, 207, 208, 210, 212; clients of, 207, 208, 210-212, 342, 344-346, 351 lemaître, jules, 81 lemoine, jean, and andré lichtenberger, _de la vallière à montespan_, by, 175, 229, 263, 335 le nôtre, 176 le pelletier, claude, 186, 286 lesage (dubuisson), 204; arrest and trial of, 210-212, 348 lesdiguières, duc de, 75, 76 lésigny, 46 le tellier, michel, 25, 94 _lettres historiques et édifiantes._ _see_ maintenon libertins, the, 148, 153, 157, 159, 182 lichtenberger, andré. _see_ lemoine limay, 89 limours, château of, 25 lionne, hugues de, 148 _lit de justice_, 19, 20 livet, 257, 297 loing, valley of the, 4, 9, 12 loire, the, 28, 29 loiseleur, jules, _problèmes historiques_, by, 63 longueville, duc de (count de saint-paul), 256, 257, 270 longueville, duchesse de, 256, 369 loret, _gazette_ of, 18, 20, 30, 171-174, 178, 179, 227, 258, 272, 365 lorges, maréchal de, daughter of, marries lauzun, 366-369 lorraine, charles iii., duc de, 137 lorraine, chevalier de, 275 lorraine, duc de, cruelty of army of, 38, 84 lorraine, henri de, 42 lorraine, house of, 42, 294 lorraine, louis de, comte d'armagnac, 237 lorraine, louis de, duc de guise, 294, 295 lorraine, louis de, duc de joyeuse, death of, 161, 168 lorraine, louis joseph de, prince de joinville, 161, 168 lorraine, marguerite de (madame). _see_ orléans lorraine, prince charles de, 137 lorraine, prince de, 252 louis xiii., 25, 243; death of, 102 louis xiv., returns to paris, 2, 19, 24; occupations of court of, 7, 230-232; dictates to parliament, 19, 23; holds _lit de justice_, 19, 20; escorts mazarin to paris, 20; fondness of, for fêtes and ballets, 21, 75, 120, 172, 176, 178-181, 315; growing power of, 22-24, 59, 170, 171; education of, 31, 63-68, 371; proposed marriages of, 48, 77, 94, 96; permits mademoiselle to return to court, 57-59; effect of fronde upon, 58, 65, 68, 278, 370; character of, 68-72, 101; lack of etiquette at court, in youth of, 77, 78; infatuation of, for marie mancini, 77, 97, 193, 228; cruelty of armies of, 84; journeys of, 94, 97-100, 103, 104, 199, 257; pardons condé, 100, 101; ignorance of, 103, 104, 112-116; marriage of, with marie-thérèse, 103-111; interviews of, with philip iv., 106, 107; letters of, 108, 183, 184, 188, 189; begins to govern without minister, 113, 114; systematic regulation of his time, 116, 117; growth of absolute monarchy, 118, 119, 128, 138-142, 371; fondness of, for gaming, 133, 333; reforms abuses with colbert, 141, 142; proposes marriage of mlle. with king of portugal, 142-146, 160, 185; banishes mlle. for refusing marriage, 147, 148, 161; queen's lack of influence over, 149-151, 154; passionate temperament of, 153-155, 170, 193, 219, 220; relations of, with madame, 153, 194, 228; strained relations with his mother, 153, 157; relations of, with la vallière, 153-156, 172, 176, 193, 197; _mémoires_ written for dauphin, 154-156, 179; opinion of women, 155, 193, 194; conduct of, disapproved, 157-159; religious opinions of, 156, 212, 213, 374; influence of mme. de maintenon upon, 156, 193, 219, 339; acquires dunkerque, 173; takes up permanent residence at versailles, 174, 370; size of court, 174, 175, 258; hospitality of, 175-177; plans savoie marriage for mademoiselle, 185-190, 236; effect of mother's death on, 195-197, 199; relations of, with mme. de montespan, 193, 209, 210, 212, 229, 333, 338-342; frames rules of etiquette relating to position of mistresses, 197, 233-235, 315, 334-336; boldness of court preachers, 200, 201; orders prosecution of mariette and lesage, 210-212; lover of music, 218-220; sustains racine and molière, 224, 227, 228; death of infant daughter, 233; with the army, 235, 361; lauzun a favourite of, 243-247, 250, 251, 254, 257; discomforts of travelling in 1670, 258-267; plans marriage of mlle. with monsieur, 274, 276-278; tacitly consents to marriage of mademoiselle with lauzun, 282, 283, 286; withdraws consent, 290-293, 295, 296; treatment of mademoiselle, 299-301; lauzun's imprisonment, 312-315, 323; charmed with new sister-in-law, 315; brilliancy of reign of, 330, 331, 375; power and importance of, 330-332; extravagance of, 332-339; love of martial display, 333-336; marriage of mlle. de blois, 337; responsible for deterioration of manners and morals, 338-341, 372; finds presumptive proof of guilt of madame de montespan, 343-347, 349; orders destruction of records, 343, 344, 369; turns to mme. de maintenon, 339-341; dismisses mme. de montespan, 341, 342; establishes the _chambre ardente_, 343; suppresses the _chambre ardente_, 347; marriage of, with mme. de maintenon, 305, 370; effect of reign of, upon france, 371-373; _mémoires_ of, 58, 66, 68-70, 114, 141, 142, 154-156, 179, 193, 278, 355 _louise de la vallière_ (lair), 180 louvois, letters to, 209, 311, 325; enemy of lauzun, 244, 245, 247, 287, 288; instructions of, concerning lauzun, 310-313, 318-323, 325; letters of, 344, 347; sent to coerce mademoiselle, 352 louvre, palace of the, mazarin returns to, 20; court at, 65, 78, 82, 111, 112, 122; fête at, 178 lulli, baptiste, operas of, 216, 217, 218, 220, 221 luxembourg, duc de, 344 luxembourg, palace of the, monsieur at, 24; mademoiselle returns to, 72, 76, 121; madame occupies, 102, 121, 191, 285; salon of mademoiselle at, 122, 123, 125, 133-136, 148, 222, 223, 288, 296, 297, 361 luynes, constable de, 243 lyonne, m. de, 293 lyons, court at, 94, 96, 258 m madame. see orléans, henrietta, and palatine _madame de montespan et louis xiv._ (clément), 282, 349 _madame, memoirs of henrietta, duchess of orleans_ (cartwright), 136 madelaine, 50 mademoiselle, la grande. see montpensier _magie dans l'inde antique, la_ (henry), 210 mailly, château of, 263 maine, duc du, 351, 352 maintenon, mme. de (mme. scarron), _letters of_ (geoffroy, ed.), 63, 64; _souvenirs sur_, 150, 151, 230; influence of, over louis xiv., 71, 156, 193, 219, 339-341, 374; governess to king's children, 290, 309, 310; _lettres historiques et édifiantes_, of, 291; king marries, 305, 370 mairet, 223 _malade imaginaire_ (molière), 109 mancini, marie, niece of mazarin, 77, 96, 193, 228, 339 "mandate," the, 286 mansard, françois, 26 man with the iron mask, the, 304, 329 marie antoinette, 23 marie thérèse, infanta of spain, marriage of, with louis xiv., 103-111; political opinions of, 118; unhappy married life of, 149-151, 154, 172; character of, 149-151, 196, 252, 260, 261, 264-266, 271; friendly relations of, with mme. de montespan, 209, 210, 233-235; friendship of, for mme. de maintenon, 341; death of, 370 mariette, priest, 204, 210; arrest and trial of, 210-212 marigny, _la relation des divertissements que le roi a donnés aux reines_, by, 173 marly, 336 martinozzi, anne marie, niece of mazarin, 48 mascarille, marquis de, 76 mauny, marquise de, 13, 131 mazarin, cardinal, power of, 11, 16, 25, 38, 39, 45, 47; triumphal return of, 20; obtains pardon for mademoiselle, 48, 52, 53, 56; detestation of, 60, 61; rapacity of, 60-62, 112; relations of, with anne of austria, 62, 63, 304; created cardinal, 63; treatment of louis xiv., 65-67, 69, 70, 74; nieces of, 77, 82, 96, 97, 237; letter of protest to, 84; signs peace of pyrénées, 99, 107; difficulties of, in settling points of etiquette relating to king's marriage, 105, 106; instructions of, to louis, 112, 113; death of, 113, 116, 141; opposition of, to _compagnie du saint sacrement_, 158, 198; introduces italian opera into france, 215 médicis, catherine de', 67, 113 meilleraye, duc de la (duc de mazarin), 77 _mélanges_ (delamare), 285 _mémoires._ _see_ aumale, bussy-rabutin, choisy, goulas, huet, la fare, la fayette, montpensier, motteville, saint-simon, sourches, etc. _mémoires_ of louis xiv. _see_ under louis (editors, dreyss and petitot). _mémoires de montglat_, 25, 59, 62, 100, 108 _mémoires-relations du temps_, 179 _mémoires sur la vie et les ouvrages de jean racine_ (racine), 227 ménage, 222, 226 _mercure galant_, 365 mignet, _négociations relatives à la succession d'espagne_, by, 143 miot. _see_ porchat. _misère au temps de la fronde et saint vincent de paul, la_ (feillet), 82, 84 _mithridate_ (racine), 228 molière, returns to paris, 81; plays of, 109, 124, 131, 132, 180, 181, 202, 216, 231, 374, 376; representations of, given at versailles and the luxembourg, 178, 180, 181, 221, 222; opposition to racine and, 223-227; king sustains, 227, 228 "molière," of the _grands écrivains de la france_ (hachette), 176, 179, 202 monsieur, _see_ orléans, gaston, duc d'. monsieur, the little. _see_ anjou, philippe, duc d'. montausier, duc de, 264, 282, 287, 297, 306 montausier, mme. de, 263 montbazon, duchesse de, 126 montchevreuil, m. de, 230 montespan, marquis de, 229 montespan, marquise de, supplants la vallière, 80, 193, 209, 210; marriage of, 172, 209, 229; description of, 209, 230; client of la voisin, 210, 212, 342; criminal charges against, 212, 344-348; position of, 233, 258-271, 315, 334-336; assumes habits of royalty, 233-235; relations of, with lauzun, 245, 246, 282, 287, 354; betrays lauzun, 290, 291, 296, 309, 310, 322, 323; children of, 290, 344, 351, 352; extravagance of, 333, 336; character of, 339, 340, 342; dismissal of, 341, 342, 350, 351; evidence against destroyed, 343 monteverde, _ariane_, by, 214 montigny, abbé de, 263 montmédy, 59 montmorency-boutteville, 78 montmorency, 25 montpensier, anne marie louise d'orléans, duchess of, la grande mademoiselle, possible marriage of, with louis xiv., 2, 48; character of, 2, 56, 59, 184 montpensier, mlle., alliance of, with condé, 3, 16, 17, 33, 38, 45, 55, 56; exiled to saint-fargeau, 3-20, 32-39, 43-48; heroine of porte saint-antoine, 3, 53, 58, 59, 72, 261, 370; amusements at court of st.-fargeau, 7-10, 17-20, 148; literary tastes of, 8-10, 15, 18, 73, 132, 221, 224-226, 229; begins her _mémoires_, 15; rumoured marriage of, with condé, 16; litigation of, with father, 34, 37, 41-44, 51-54; wealth of, 35-38, 145, 163, 185, 256; skilful management of her affairs, 36, 37, 49; breaks with condé, 46, 47, 52; makes overtures to mazarin, 47, 48; wins champigny lawsuit, 49-51, 125; permitted to return to court, 54, 55, 57-59; never fully forgiven, 58, 59, 101, 169, 186, 197, 370; proposed marriage of, with little monsieur, 59, 73, 272-278; takes up residence in the luxembourg, 72, 121, 122; popularity of, in paris, 72, 366; description of, 72-74; astonished at lack of etiquette at court, 75-79; visits port-royal, 79, 80; visits dombes, 95, 96; monsieur's duplicity towards, 98, 99; grieves at death of monsieur, 102, 103; present at marriage of louis xiv., 105-111; ill-health of, 120; salon of, 122-125, 131-136, 148, 223, 224, 226; describes blue room of mme. de rambouillet, 132, 133; letters of, 160, 170, 183; letters to, 183, 188, 189, 348; proposed marriages of, 136-138; grudge of charles ii. against, 136, 137; king plans marriage of, with king of portugal, 142-146, 160, 161; refuses to marry alphonse, 145-147, 160, 185; second exile of, 147, 160-170, 182, 184; proposed marriage of, with duc de savoie, 147, 185-190, 236; buys comté d'eu, 161-168; installed at eu, 169, 170; recalled to court, 184-187; failure of proposed marriages of, 189-192; patroness of lulli, 221; cultivates mme. de montespan, 229, 230, 233-236; change in sentiments of, 235; advancing age of, 236, 254, 277, 278; infatuation of, for lauzun, 238-242, 250, 262, 279-281, 359, 360; describes lauzun, 248; makes proposals of marriage to, 251-256, 267-270, 279, 280; lauzun's treatment of, 253-256, 261, 275-277, 279, 281, 357-360; proposed de longueville marriage of, 256, 257, 270; as a traveller, 262-267; at death-bed of madame, 270-272; king's tacit consent to marriage with lauzun, 281-283, 286; criticism of projected marriage by all classes, 285, 286; bestows principalities and titles upon lauzun, 288, 307; preparing for marriage, 289, 290, 296; king refuses consent, 290-293, 295, 296, 353, 354; marriage with lauzun broken off, 291-293, 296, 297, 317, 326; appeals in vain to king, 291-293, 315, 316; grief and despair of, 296-303; wide-spread belief in secret marriage of, 304-309, 349, 353, 358; learns of lauzun's arrest and imprisonment, 310-314; efforts of, to obtain release of lauzun, 317, 318, 348-352; traditional daughter of, 349; price demanded from, for liberation of lauzun, 351, 352; makes duc du maine her heir, 351, 352; tricked by louis and mme. de montespan, 354; lauzun forced to renounce gifts of, 354; compensates lauzun, 355; devotion of, to lauzun after his liberation, 356-360; constant quarrels with lauzun, 357-361; final break with lauzun, 362, 363, 366; illness and death of, 365, 366; burial of, at st. denis, 366; last of actors in the fronde, 369; great qualities of, 377 montpensier, mlle., _mémoires_ of, 3, 4, 8, 15, 23, 36, 45, 55, 59, 79, 97, 98, 102, 105, 106, 121, 125, 131, 136, 138, 143, 160, 169, 182, 210, 221, 222, 230, 238-240, 255, 256, 262, 269, 297, 305, 308, 315-317, 339, 347, 348, 350, 353, 356, 361 montpensier, duchy of, 49; given to lauzun, 288 montpensier, henri de bourbon, duc de, 42 montpensier, henriette catherine de joyeuse, duchesse de, 42 montresor, claude de bourdeville, comte de, 161 montvoisin, antoine, 206-208 montvoisin, catherine "la voisin" the poisoner, 207, 208, 210, 212 _morale de salomon, la_, 127 moret, mock siege of, 334, 335 morin the jew, 76 mortemart, mlle. de (mme. de montespan), 172 motteville, mme. de, 31, 49, 62, 66, 116, 135, 149, 150, 195; _mémoires_ of, 73, 100, 104, 109, 112, 113, 116, 135, 149, 150, 154, 170, 190, 195 mouchy, 199 n nallot, m. de, 310, 311 nantes, revocation of edict of, 331, 374 necromancy, 202-207 _négociations relatives à la succession d'espagne_ (mignet), 143 nemours, henri de savoie, duc de, 185 nemours, marie-jeanne baptiste de, 190 nemours, the mesdemoiselles de, 185, 190 nesmond, présidente de, 90 nevers, duchesse de, 347 nimeguen, peace of, 331 noailles, duc de(comte d' ayen), 270 noailles, mme. de, 248 nogent, mme. de, 290, 327-329 nolhac, m. de, _la création de versailles_, by, 176 _nouvelles françaises, les_ (segrais), 8 nuitter and thoinan, _les origines de l'opéra français_, by, 213 o oeillets, mlle. des, 346 _oeuvres complètes_ (saint-pierre), 365 _oeuvres galantes en vers et en prose_ (cotin), 223 _oeuvres de louis xiv. lettres particulières_, 188 olivet, abbé d', 222 opera, italian, birth of, 214-216; french, 215, 216 _origines de l'opéra français, les_ (nuitter and thoinan), 213 orléans, city of, 33, 34, 39, 42, 49, 53 orléans, house of, 35, 37 orléans, gaston, duc d' (monsieur), character of, 3, 23-25, 28-30, 44, 52, 97-99; exiled to blois, 24-33; piety of, 29, 30; children of, 31, 34, 37, 39, 42, 77, 97-99, 105, 106, 133, 134, 137, 138, 186, 235, 294; pillages daughter's fortune, 35-37, 39-44, 168; under court protection, 38-40, 48, 49; litigation of, with mademoiselle, 37, 41-44, 51-54; death and burial of, 101, 102 orléans, henrietta of england (madame), wife of philippe duc d'. _see_ henrietta orléans, marguerite de lorraine (madame), second wife of gaston, duc d', 24, 43, 191, 285, 286; daughters of, 31, 34, 37, 39, 42, 77, 97-99, 105, 106, 133, 134, 137, 138, 186, 188, 235, 294; character of, 101, 102, 121, 122, 133, 134 orléans, marguerite louise, mlle. d', daughter of monsieur, 97, 98, 133; marriage of, 137, 138 orléans, marie louise d', daughter of little monsieur, 277; marriage of, 277 orléans, mgr. duc d', 162 orléans, philippe, duc d'. _see_ anjou ormesson, andré d', 22, 48 ormesson, olivier lefèvre d', _journal_ of, 48, 76, 118, 159, 174, 177, 186, 194, 197, 285, 287, 301, 331, 332, 335; disgrace of, 118, 332 ormond, marquis d', 137 p palatine, anne de bavière, princesse, 174 palatine, anne de gonzague, princesse, 106 palatine, elisabeth charlotte de bavière, princesse (madame), second wife of philippe duc d'orléans, 62, 156, 315 _paraphrases des sept psaumes de la pénitence_, 127 paris, archbishop of, 287, 288 paris, king and court return to, 2, 19-21, 24, 65, 110, 174, 281; opinion of king in, 71; committee of relief founded in, 87-93; carnival in, 93, 94; queen's entrance into, 111; commerce in, 142; magic arts in, 201-206, 342-344; bridges of, 206; lampoons against louis in, 335; dungeons of, 347; cradle of french revolutions, 370, 376 parliament, the, louis xiv. dictates to, 19, 20, 23, 76; dictates to royalty, 68, 69; petition to, 162; decrees of, 167, 168; privileges of, 371 parma, duc de, 189 patin, guy, letters of, 71, 113, 117 _pédagogue chrétien_, 324 pellison, _lettres historiques_, by, 258 péréfixe, abbé de, 66, 67, 115 _perroquet ou les amours de mademoiselle_, le 257, 282 _pertharite_ (corneille), 80 petitot, editor _mémoires_ of louis xiv., 66 _phèdre_ (racine), 224 philip iv. of spain, 103, 104, 142, 149; interviews of, with louis xiv. and anne of austria, 106-110; death of, 173 picardy, 87, 165 pignerol, fortress of, 310, 311, 318, 319, 325, 329, 351, 355, 356, 358 pimbesche, countess of, original of, 36, 191 _plaideurs_ (racine), 227 _plaisirs de l'ile enchantée_, 176 _poisons, les_ (la fontaine), 203 poland, marie de gonzague, queen of, and port-royal, 88, 92; letters to, 117, 174, 175, 186 _polexandre_ (gomberville), 11 polignac, vicomtesse de, 344 pomponne, m. de, 293, 297; _la correspondance de pomponne_, 297 pont marie, 206 porchat, jacques, and miot, _histoire de france_, tr. by, 99 porte saint-antoine, heroine of, 3, 53, 59, 72, 370 port royal des champs, 79, 88, 92 _port-royal_ (sainte-beuve), 82 portugal, independence of, threatened, 142; king of, 143-145, 160, 185 portugal, queen of, 190 _précieuses ridicules, les_ (molière), 124 préfontaine, 33, 35, 36, 41, 43, 44, 50, 53 _princesse de clèves_ (la fayette), 153 _princesse d'elide_ (molière), 180, 216 _problèmes historiques_ (loiseleur), 63 _provinciales_, the, 79 provins, 84 puyguilhem, marquis de. see lauzun pyrénées, peace of the, 2, 99, 100, 107 _pyrrhus_ (racine), 224 q "queens, the three," 233 quinault, tragedies of, 80, 81, 216, 217, 220 r racan, honorat de bueil, marquis de. _see_ barthélemy racine, jean, tragedies of, 8, 81, 223-229; and corneille compared, 223-227; king's appreciation of, 224, 227, 228 racine, louis, _mémoires sur la vie et les ouvrages de jean racine_, by, 227 rambouillet, hôtel, 14, 224 rambouillet, mme. de, salon of, 123 rampillon, 84 ranke, leopold von, _histoire de france_, by, 99, 330 rapin, father, 181 ravaisson, françois, _archives de la bastille_, by, 201, 312 ravetot, marquis de, 211 regent, the, 62, 372, 374 reims, 55, 56 reims, archbishop of, 288 _relation de la cour de france_ (spanheim), 374 _relation des divertissements que le roi a donnés aux reines, la_ (marigny), 173 _relation de l'ile imaginaire, la_ (mademoiselle), 18, 132 _relations des ambassadeurs venitiens_, 65 _relations_ of de bernières, 87-90 _remerciement au roi_ (molière), 231 retz, cardinal de, 20, 24, 25, 113, 369, 377 richelieu, 11, 25, 28, 30, 50, 55 robert, procurer-general, 344 robespierre, 375 rochefort, 287, 336 roche-sur-yon, 49 rocroy, 101 rodocanachi, m., _les infortunes d'une petite-fille d' henri iv._, by, 138 rohan, marie-eleonore de, abbess, 126, 127 _roland furieux_, 178 rolland, romain, _histoire de l'opéra en europe_, by, 213, 220 romecourt, 265, 266 roquelaure, 148 rosen, de, 84 rousseau, sieur, 293 rousset, camille, _histoire de louvois_, by, 364 s sainctôt, mme. de, 131 saint-aignan, duc de, 178 saint antoine de padua, 205 saint-cloud, château of, 54, 269 saint-cyr, 63 saint-denis, burial of monsieur at, 102; burial of mademoiselle at, 366 sainte-beuve, _port-royal_, by, 82 saint evremond, _the operas_, by, 218 saint-fargeau, château of, mademoiselle exiled to, 3-6, 36, 73; mademoiselle's court at, 6-10, 12, 17-20, 129-131, 135; mademoiselle again exiled to, 147, 148, 160, 169 saint-geneviève ms., 257 saint-germain-des prés, 73 saint-germain-en-laye, court at, 173, 177, 239, 247, 258, 269, 310, 313, 318, 353, 354 saint-jean-de-luz, court at, 104, 108; marriage of louis xiv., at, 110 saint-joseph, convent of, 234 saint-mars, sieur de, 310, 311; letter of, 313; letters to, 318-321, 325-327, 329 saint-paul, comte de (duc de longueville), 256, 257 saint-pierre, bernardin de, 9; _[oe]uvres complètes_ of, 365 saint quentin, 263 saint-rémi, jacques de courtavel, marquis de, 134 saint-romain, abbé de, 143 _saint sacrement, compagnie du_, founding of, 85-87, 93; charitable work of, 157, 158; nicknamed, 157; disapproves of king's conduct, 157-159, 373; blow aimed at, 181; disorganisation of, 198, 199 saint-severin, church of, 210 saint-simon, duc de, at court, 78, 116, 369, 370, 372; _mémoires_ of, 116, 161, 209, 212, 234, 245, 255, 326, 353, 360, 366-368, 372; _écrits inédits_ of, 354, 359, 363, 364 saint-sulpice, 73 saint vincent de paul, character and influence of, 85; joins _compagnie du saint sacrement_, 87, 373; head of relief work, 88-90, 157 _saint vincent de paul_ (broglie), 82, 91 _saint vincent de paul et les gondi_ (chantelauze), 82 salic law, the, 105 sambre, the, 264 savoie, charles emmanuel ii., duc de, marriages of, 99, 147, 185, 186, 190, 236; revenges himself on louis and mlle., 189, 190 savoie, marguerite, princesse de, louis xiv. refused to marry, 94, 96, 189; marries duc de parma, 189 savoie, victor-amédée ii., duc de, marriage of, 277 saxe-jena, bernard, duke of, 125 scarron, mme. de. _see_ maintenon sceaux, 357 scudéry, madeleine, mlle. de, 258, 302; _artamène ou le grand cyrus_, by, 11, 125; saturdays of, 123, 124 scudéry, mme. de, 302, 342 sedan, 55-59, 73 segrais, mademoiselle's secretary, 8, 9, 13, 134, 226, 286, 306, 307, 349; _les nouvelles françaises_, by, 8, 9 _segraisiana_, 71, 279, 310 seignelay, 363, 364 seine, the, 206 sévigné, mme. de, 75, 80, 134, 177, 200; letters of, 2, 11, 129, 217, 218, 225, 235, 287, 288, 307, 310, 337, 338, 345, 347, 362; letters to, 248, 284, 364 soissons, comtesse de, 237, 271, 336, 341, 344 soissons, marie de bourbon-, 291 somaize, _le dictionnaire des précieuses_, by, 13 sourches, marquis de, _mémoires_ of, 26 _souvenirs de mme. de caylus_, 150, 347 _souvenirs et correspondance_ of mme. de caylus, 300 _souvenirs sur mme. de maintenon_, 150, 219, 230, 341 spain, wars of, with france, 16, 20, 23, 38, 55, 59, 83, 361; king of, 103, 104, 142, 149, 173; etiquette of court of, 104-111; absolute monarchy an importation from, 118, 371; war of dévolution in, 154, 257; marriage of infanta of,--_see_ marie-thérèse; power of france over, 171, 331 spanheim, ézéchiel, _relation de la cour de france_, by, 374 _sports et jeux d'exercice dans l'ancienne france, les_ (jusserand), 7 _suite du menteur_ (corneille), 241 t _tableau de la pénitence, le_, 324 tallemant, 31 tarente, princess of, 125 _tartuffe_ (molière), 181, 182, 221, 222, 374 terlon, chevalier de, 293 theiner, père, 63 _the operas_ (saint evremond), 218 thianges, mme. de, 266, 347 thoinan. _see_ nuitter tingry, princesse de, 344 tolstoi, _kreutzer sonata_, by, 220 torre, don diego de la, 282 toulouse, court at, 99 tourraine, 50 tours, 346 trémouille, mlle. de la, 125, 137 tréport, 166, 349 trévoux, 95 trianon, 235 trichateau, marquis de, 343 tuileries, palace of the, 4, 19, 123 turenne, 20, 23, 53, 54, 61, 137, 369; visits and letters of, to mademoiselle, 143-146, 160 turin, 147, 319 tuscany, duke of, 138 u urfé, honoré d', _l'astrée_, by, 14, 80 uzès, emmanuel ii. de crussol, duc d', 264 v valentinois, duchess of, 75 vallot, 270 valois, anne marie de, daughter of the little monsieur, 277; marriage of, 277 valois, françoise-madeleine, mlle. de, daughter of monsieur, 133; marriage and death of, 185, 188 vardes, 71, 148 vatel 128 vaujours, duchy of, 154 vendôme, elisabeth de, 185 vendôme, m. de, 117 venice, opera houses of, 214 ventadour, duc de, 85, 86 versailles, palace of, 26; louis xiv. takes up residence at, 174, 370, 376; fêtes, 176-182, 269, 333, 365, etc.; expenses of, 336, 337 _vers d'atys_, 81 vexin, comte de, 235 _vie de madame de fouquerolles_ (mademoiselle), 132 villeneuve-saint-georges, 89 villeroy, maréchal de, 290 villeroy, mme. de, 75 vincennes, 111, 347 visé, donneau de _mecure galant_, 365 vittori, 214 voiture, 131 _voyage de chapelle et de bachaumont_, 32 w westphalia, peace of, 99 _a selection from the catalogue of_ g. p. putnam's sons [illustration] complete catalogues sent on application [blank page] by arvede barine the youth _of_ la grande mademoiselle 1627-1652 _authorized english version_ octavo. with 25 illustrations from contemporaneous sources. net, $3.00. (by mail, $3.25.) "a book that is decidedly interesting and that is well worth reading. the subject and the heroine is enough to make the volume attractive.... the volume is handsomely printed, and the illustrations are representative as well as accurate."--_the london spectator._ "this brilliant biography sparkles and intoxicates with literary vivacity. in connection with the career of the astonishing heroine, the author presents a picture that has hardly been surpassed of court life and politics in france in the seventeenth century. the illustrations from contemporary prints add greatly to the attractiveness of this fascinating volume."--_chicago evening post._ louis xiv _and_ la grande mademoiselle 1652-1693 _authorized english version_ octavo. with 30 illustrations. net, $3.00. (by mail, $3.25) (uniform with "the youth of la grande mademoiselle") "a new work on la grande mademoiselle by arvède barine is a promise of delight to all who love wit and wisdom.... it is bewildering to think of the many crowns and coronets that might have rested on the brow of the dramatic heroine, a heroine who appears and disappears in clouds of dust, with regiments of cavalry wheeling and whirling around her to the sound of the trumpets--the stern devotee of reason who dismissed one of her maids because she married for love--the philosopher who debated in her mimic court whether an accepted lover is more unhappy than a rejected lover in the absence of the beloved.... the story of this heroine is told by barine with that art which conceals art.... it forms a fitting supplement to the equally delightful volume which preceded it describing "the youth of la grande mademoiselle."--_london times._ _new york_ · g. p. putnam's sons · _london_ portraits of the seventeenth century by c. a. sainte-beuve translated by katharine p. wormeley two parts. octavo. with about 30 illustrations sold separately. each, $2.50 net _contents of part one_ cardinal richelieu duc de rohan cardinal mazarin duc de la rochefoucauld duchesse de longueville cardinal de retz ninon de l'enclos bussy-rabutin tallemant des réaux abbé de rancé la grande mademoiselle comtesse de la fayette duchesse d'orléans louis xiv. louise de la valliere _contents of part two_ history of the french academy corneille mlle. de scudéry molière la fontaine pascal mme. de sévigné bossuet boileau racine mme. de caylus fénelon comte antoine hamilton the princesse des ursins "the translator is a true servant and friend, not the proverbial traducer; none but miss wormeley could have been selected for the task, and she has given of her best, her indefatigable, conscientious, intellectual best, which has made her the mistress of a difficult art."--_the n. y. evening mail._ =send for descriptive circular= =g. p. putnam's sons= =new york= =london= little french masterpieces representative tales by the best french authors edited by =alexander jessup= translations by =george burnham ives= with portraits in photogravure. issued in a small and attractive form _six volumes, 16{o}, in a box, cloth, $6.00_ _limp leather, $7.50_ _also sold separately_ _cloth, $1.00_ _leather, $1.25_ =i. prosper mérimée.= introduction by grace king. =ii. gustave flaubert.= introduction by frank thomas marzials. =iii. théophile gautier.= introduction by frédéric-césar de sumichrast. =iv. alphonse daudet.= introduction by william p. trent. =v. guy de maupassant.= introduction by arthur symons. =vi. honoré de balzac.= introduction by f. brunetière. "a capital idea is here admirably carried out. the supremacy of the french in the delicately finished short story is undisputed, and the six authors here represented are the finest flowers of this development of french literature. the little volumes are all that is charming in outward appearance, are literally volumes for the pocket, have portraits of the authors, and each is introduced by a competent critic. the stories themselves are well chosen and carefully translated."--_the outlook._ =g. p. putnam's sons= =new york= =london= by elizabeth w. champney =romance of the french abbeys= octavo. with 2 coloured, 9 photogravure, 50 other illustrations, and ornamental headpieces "a delightful blending of history, art and romance.... many of the stories related are thrilling and none the less exciting because they belong to history."--_chicago dial._ "the book fully carries out the suggestion of guizot, 'if you are fond of romance, read history.'"--_boston transcript._ =romance of the feudal châteaux= octavo. with 40 photogravure and other illustrations "the author has retold the legends and traditions which cluster about the châteaux and castles, which have come down from the middle ages, with the skillful touch of the artist and the grace of the practiced writer.... the story of france takes on a new light as studied in connection with the architecture of these fortified homes."--_christian intelligencer._ =romance of the renaissance châteaux= octavo. with 40 photogravure and other illustrations "the romances of those beautiful châteaux are placed by the author on the lips of the people who lived in them. she gives us a feeling of intimacy with characters whose names belong to history."--_n. y. mail and express._ "a book of high merit.... good history, good story, and good art."--_hartford courant._ =romance of the bourbon châteaux= octavo. with coloured frontispiece and 47 photogravure and other illustrations "told with a keen eye to the romantic elements, and a clear understanding of historical significance."--_boston transcript._ "it is a book that will be read with interest this year or ten or twenty years hence."--_hartford courant._ =four volumes. illustrated. each, in a box, net, $3.00 (by mail, $3.25.) the set, 4 volumes in a box, net, $12.00= =g. p. putnam's sons= =new york= =london= ----------------------------------------------------------------------- note: tags that surround the word =g. p.= indicate bold. tags that surround the word _hartford courant._ indicate italics. --------------------------------------------------------------------- transcriber's notes: letters surrounded with {e} represent supertext. p.26. 'qu'en croit' should be .qu'on croit'. p. 62. cammandemens should be commandemens. changed. p.62. 'voster' should be 'vostre'. changed. p.91. 'bourgeosie' should be 'bourgeoisie'. changed. fontainbleau changed with fontainebleau throughout the text. p.187. vengance should be vengeance. changed. footnote [187] &lt; index. 'l'opera' should be histoire de 'l'opéra'. p.132. footnote 107: 'l'île' shoulde be 'l'isle', changed. took out 'court of france continued' in index. p. 382. p.212, 'de' mme. de changed to 'the' mme. de. p.229 'trival'. changed to 'trivial'. footone [269]. 'historie' should be 'histoire'. p.329, 'lauzon' should be 'lauzun'. p.347, 'suddently'should be 'suddenly'. p.379. arras, 'seige' of, should be 'siege'. p.383. conversation, the delight of intelligent, p.369. arrived 'a' the court should be 'at'. these correction are not indicated. fixed multiple instances of: fontainbleau to fontainebleau. d'ormesson. d'aumale d'haussonville d'ormesson blois, mlle. de princesse accents that have been fixed: hélène. sévigné. prés. péréfixe. angélique. problèmes. béziers. événement phèdre condé littérature nôtre opéra marie-thérèse indépendants pédagogue écrits molière misère édifiantes pédagogue saint-geneviève ----------------------------------------------------------------------- * * * * * 