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diff --git a/old/12309-h/12309-h.htm b/old/12309-h/12309-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..602c876 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12309-h/12309-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,11270 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" + content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + <title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Love affairs of the Courts of Europe, by Thornton Hall, F.S.A..</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + } + HR { width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + a {text-decoration: none;} + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .note {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} /* footnote */ + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-left: 1em; font-size: smaller; float: right; clear: right;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + .poem .caesura {vertical-align: -200%;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Love affairs of the Courts of Europe, by Thornton Hall + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Love affairs of the Courts of Europe + +Author: Thornton Hall + +Release Date: May 9, 2004 [EBook #12309] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOVE AFFAIRS OF THE COURTS *** + + + + +Produced by Dave Morgan, Wilelmina Mallière and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +</pre> + +<br> +<h1>LOVE AFFAIRS OF THE</h1> +<h1>COURTS OF EUROPE</h1> +<h3>BY</h3> +<h2>THORNTON HALL, F.S.A.,</h2> +<h3>Barrister-at-Law,<br> +</h3> +<br> +<h3>Author of "Love romancies of the Aristocracy", <br> +</h3> +<h3>"Love intrigues of Royal Courts", etc., etc.</h3> +<hr style="width: 65%;"> +<h3>TO</h3> +<h3>MY COUSIN,</h3> +<h3>LENORE</h3> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 45%;"> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<p><br> +</p> +I. <a href="#CHAPTER_I">A COMEDY QUEEN</a><br> +II. <a href="#CHAPTER_II">THE "BONNIE PRINCE'S" BRIDE</a><br> +III. <a href="#CHAPTER_III">THE PEASANT AND THE EMPRESS</a><br> +IV. <a href="#CHAPTER_IV">A CROWN THAT FAILED</a><br> +V. <a href="#CHAPTER_V">A QUEEN OF HEARTS</a><br> +VI. <a href="#CHAPTER_VI">THE REGENT'S DAUGHTER</a><br> +VII. <a href="#CHAPTER_VII">A PRINCESS OF MYSTERY</a><br> +VIII. <a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">THE KING AND THE "LITTLE DOVE"</a><br> +IX. <a href="#CHAPTER_IX">THE ROMANCE OF THE BEAUTIFUL SWEDE</a><br> +X. <a href="#CHAPTER_X">THE SISTER OF AN EMPEROR</a><br> +XI. <a href="#CHAPTER_XI">A SIREN OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY</a><br> +XII. <a href="#CHAPTER_XII">THE CORSICAN AND THE CREOLE</a><br> +XIII. <a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">THE ENSLAVER OF A KING</a><br> +XIV. <a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">AN EMPRESS AND HER FAVOURITES</a><br> +XV. <a href="#CHAPTER_XV">A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY CINDERELLA</a><br> +XVI. <a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">BIANCA, GRAND DUCHESS OF TUSCANY</a><br> +XVII. <a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">RICHELIEU, THE ROUÉ</a><br> +XVIII. <a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">THE INDISCRETIONS OF A PRINCESS</a><br> +XIX. <a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">THE INDISCRETIONS OF A PRINCESS—<i>continued</i></a><br> +XX. <a href="#CHAPTER_XX">THE LOVE-AFFAIRS OF A REGENT</a><br> +XXI. <a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">A DELILAH OF THE COURT OF FRANCE</a><br> +<a name="Page_-1"></a>XXII. <a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">THE "SUN-KING" AND +THE WIDOW</a><br> +XXIII. <a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">A THRONED BARBARIAN</a><br> +XXIV. <a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">A FRIEND OF MARIE ANTOINETTE</a><br> +XXV. <a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">THE RIVAL SISTERS</a><br> +XXVI. <a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">THE RIVAL SISTERS—<i>continued</i></a><br> +XXVII. <a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">A MISTRESS OF INTRIGUE</a><br> +XXVIII. <a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">AN ILL-FATED MARRIAGE</a><br> +XXIX. <a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">AN ILL-FATED MARRIAGE—<i>continued</i></a><br> +<hr style="width: 65%;"> +<br> +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> +<br> +<p><a href="#img001">BIANCA CAPELLO BONAVENTURA GRAND DUCHESS OF TUSCANY</a></p> +<p><a href="#img002">CATHERINE THE SECOND OF RUSSIA</a></p> +<p><a href="#img003">COUNT GREGORY ORLOFF</a></p> +<p><a href="#img004">DESIRÉE CLARY</a></p> +<p><a href="#img005">JOSEPHINE DE BEAUHARNAIS, EMPRESS (BY PRUD'HON)</a></p> +<p><a href="#img006">LOLA MONTEZ, COUNTESS OF LANDSFELD</a></p> +<p><a href="#img007">LUDWIG I., KING OF BAVARIA</a></p> +<p><a href="#img008">FRANCESCO I., GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY</a></p> +<p><a href="#img009">CAROLINE OF BRUNSWICK, WIFE OF GEORGE IV</a><br> +<br> +</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;"> +<br> +<h2><a name="Page_1"></a>LOVE AFFAIRS OF THE COURTS</h2> +<h2>OF EUROPE</h2> +<br> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 35%;"> +<a name="CHAPTER_I"></a> +<h2>CHAPTER I</h2> +<h2>A COMEDY QUEEN</h2> +<br> +<p>"It was to a noise like thunder, and close clasped in +a soldier's embrace, that Catherine I. made her first +appearance in Russian history."</p> +<p>History, indeed, contains few chapters more +strange, more seemingly impossible, than this which +tells the story of the maid-of-all-work—the red-armed, +illiterate peasant-girl who, without any dower +of beauty or charm, won the idolatry of an Emperor +and succeeded him on the greatest throne of Europe. +So obscure was Catherine's origin that no records +reveal either her true name or the year or place of +her birth. All that we know is that she was cradled +in some Livonian village, either in Sweden or +Poland, about the year 1685, the reputed daughter of +a serf-mother and a peasant-father; and that her +numerous brothers and sisters were known in later +years by the name Skovoroshtchenko or Skovronski. +The very Christian name by which she is +<a name="Page_2"></a>known to history was not hers until it was given +to +her by her Imperial lover.</p> +<p>It is not until the year 1702, when the future +Empress of the Russias was a girl of seventeen, that +she makes her first dramatic appearance on the stage +on which she was to play so remarkable a part. +Then we find her acting as maid-servant to the +Lutheran pastor of Marienburg, scrubbing his floors, +nursing his children, and waiting on his resident +pupils, in the midst of all the perils of warfare. +The Russian hosts had for weeks been laying siege +to Marienburg; and the Commandant, unable to +defend the town any longer against such overwhelming +odds, had announced his intention to blow up +the fortress, and had warned the inhabitants to +leave the town.</p> +<p>Between the alternatives of death within the walls +and the enemy without, Pastor Glück chose the +latter; and sallying forth with his family and maid-servant, +threw himself on the mercy of the Russians +who promptly packed him off to Moscow a prisoner. +For Martha (as she seems to have been known in +those days) a different fate was reserved. Her red +lips, saucy eyes, and opulent figure were too seductive +a spoil to part with, General Shérémétief +decided, and she was left behind, a by no means +reluctant hostage.</p> +<p>Peter's soldiers, now that victory was assured, were +holding high revel of feasting and song and dancing. +They received the new prisoner literally with open +arms, and almost before she had wiped the tears +from her eyes, at parting from her nurslings, she +<a name="Page_3"></a>was capering gaily to the music of hautboy and +fiddle, +with the arm of a stalwart soldier round her waist.</p> +<p>"Suddenly," says Waliszewski, "a fearful explosion +overthrew the dancers, cut the music short, and +left the servant-maid, fainting with terror, in the arms +of a dragoon."</p> +<p>Thus did Martha, the "Siren of the Kitchen," +dance her way into Russian history, little dreaming, +we may be sure, to what dizzy heights her nimble feet +were to carry her. For a time she found her pleasure +in the attentions of a non-commissioned officer, +sharing the life of camp and barracks and making +friends by the good-nature which bubbled in her, +and which was always her chief charm. When her +sergeant began to weary of her, she found a humble +place as laundry-maid in the household of Menshikoff, +the Tsar's favourite, whose shirts, we are told, +it was her privilege to wash; and who, it seems, was +by no means insensible to the buxom charms of this +maid of the laundry. At any rate we find Menshikoff, +when he was spending the Easter of 1706 at +Witebsk, writing to his sister to send her to him.</p> +<p>But a greater than Menshikoff was soon to appear +on the scene—none other than the Emperor Peter +himself. One day the Tsar, calling on his favourite, +was astonished to see the cleanliness of his surroundings +and his person. "How do you contrive," he +asked, "to have your house so well kept, and to +wear such fresh and dainty linen?" Menshikoff's +answer was "to open a door, through which the +sovereign perceived a handsome girl, aproned, and +sponge in hand, bustling from chair to chair, and +<a name="Page_4"></a>going from window to window, scrubbing the +window-panes"—a vision of industry which made +such a powerful appeal to His Majesty that he +begged an introduction on the spot to the lady of +the sponge.</p> +<p>The most daring writer of fiction could scarcely +devise a more romantic meeting than this between +the autocrat of Russia and the red-armed, bustling +cleaner of the window-panes, and he would certainly +never have ventured to build on it the romance of +which it was the prelude. What it was in the young +peasant-woman that attracted the Emperor it is impossible +to say. Of beauty she seems to have had none—save +perhaps such as lies in youth and rude health.</p> +<p>We look at her portraits in vain to discover a trace +of any charm that might appeal to man. Her pictures +in the Romanof Gallery at St Petersburg show +a singularly plain woman with a large, round peasant-face, +the most conspicuous feature of which is a +hideously turned-up nose. Large, protruding eyes +and an opulent bust complete a presentment of the +typical household drudge—"a servant-girl in a +German inn." But Peter the Great, who was ever +abnormal in all his tastes and appetites, was always +more ready to make love to a woman of the people +than to the most beautiful and refined of his Court +ladies. His standard of taste, as of manners, has +not inaptly been likened to that of a Dutch sailor.</p> +<p>But whatever it was in the low-born laundry-woman +that attracted the Tsar of Russia, we know +that this first unconventional meeting led to many +others, and that before long Catherine (for we may +<a name="Page_5"></a>now call her by the name she made so famous) was +removed from his favourite's household and installed +in the Imperial harem where, for a time at least, she +seems to have shared her favours indiscriminately +between her old master and her new—"an obscure +and complaisant mistress"—until Menshikoff finally +resigned all rights in her to his sovereign.</p> +<p>When Catherine took up her residence in her new +home, Waliszewski tells us, "her eye shortly fell on +certain magnificent jewels. Forthwith, bursting into +tears, she addressed her new protector: 'Who put +these ornaments here? If they come from the other +one, I will keep nothing but this little ring; but if +they come from you, how could you think I needed +them to make me love you?'"</p> +<p>If Catherine lacked physical graces, this and many +another story prove that she had a rare gift of diplomacy. +She had, moreover, an unfailing cheerfulness +and goodness of heart which quickly endeared +her to the moody and capricious Peter. In his +frequent fits of nervous irritability which verged on +madness, she alone had the power to soothe him and +restore him to sanity. Her very voice had a magic +to arrest him in his worst rages, and when the fit of +madness (for such it undoubtedly was) was passing +away she would "take his head and caress it tenderly, +passing her fingers through his hair. Soon +he grew drowsy and slept, leaning against her breast. +For two or three hours she would sit motionless, +waiting for the cure slumber always brought him, +until at last he awoke cheerful and refreshed."</p> +<p>Thus each day the Livonian peasant-woman took +<a name="Page_6"></a>deeper root in the heart of the Emperor, until she +became indispensable to him. Wherever he went +she was his constant companion—in camp or on +visits to foreign Courts, where she was received with +the honours due to a Queen. And not only were +her presence and her ministrations infinitely pleasant +to him; her prudent counsel saved him from many a +blunder and mad excess, and on at least one occasion +rescued his army from destruction.</p> +<p>So strong was the hold she soon won on his affection +and gratitude that he is said to have married her +secretly within three years of first setting eyes on her. +Her future and that of the children she had borne +to him became his chief concern; and as early as +1708, when he was leaving Moscow to join his army, +he left behind him a note: "If, by God's will, anything +should happen to me, let the 3000 roubles +which will be found in Menshikoff's house be given +to Catherine Vassilevska and her daughter."</p> +<p>But whatever the truth may be about the alleged +secret marriage, we know that early in 1712, Peter, +in his Admiral's uniform, stood at the altar with the +Livonian maid-servant, in the presence of his Court +officials, and with two of her own little daughters as +bridesmaids. The wedding, we are told, was performed +in a little chapel belonging to Prince Menshikoff, +and was preceded by an interview with the +Dowager-Empress and his Princess sisters, in which +Peter declared his intention to make Catherine his +wife and commanded them to pay her the respect +due to her new rank. Then followed, in brilliant +sequence, State dinners, receptions, and balls, at all +<a name="Page_7"></a>of which the laundress-bride sat at her husband's +right hand and received the homage of his subjects +as his Queen.</p> +<p>Picture now the woman who but a few years earlier +had scrubbed Pastor Glück's floors and cleaned Menshikoff's +window-panes, in all her new splendours as +Empress of Russia. The portraits of her, in her +unaccustomed glories, are far from flattering and by +no means consistent. "She showed no sign of ever +having possessed beauty," says Baron von Pöllnitz; +"she was tall and strong and very dark, and would +have seemed darker but for the rouge and whitening +with which she plastered her face."</p> +<p>The picture drawn by the Margravine of Baireuth +is still less attractive: "She was short and huddled +up, much tanned, and utterly devoid of dignity or +grace. Muffled up in her clothes, she looked like a +German comedy-actress. Her old-fashioned gown, +heavily embroidered with silver, and covered with +dirt, had been bought in some old-clothes shop. +The front of her skirt was adorned with jewels, +and she had a dozen orders and as many portraits +of saints fastened all along the facings of her +dress, so that when she walked she jingled like +a mule."</p> +<p>But in the eyes of one man at least—and he +the greatest in all Russia—she was beautiful. His +allegiance never wavered, nor indeed did that of his +army, which idolised her to a man. She might have +no boudoir graces, but at least she was the typical +soldier's wife, and cut a brave figure, as she reviewed +the troops or rode at their head in her uniform and +<a name="Page_8"></a>grenadier cap. She shared all the hardships and +dangers of campaigns with a smile on her lips, sleeping +on the hard ground, and standing in the trenches +with the bullets whistling about her ears, and men +dropping to right and left of her.</p> +<p>Nor was there ever a trace of vanity in her. She +was as proud of her humble origin as if she had been +cradled in a palace. To princes and ambassadors +she would talk freely of the days when she was a +household drudge, and loved to remind her husband +of the time when his Empress used to wash shirts for +his favourite. "Though, no doubt, you have other +laundresses about you," she wrote to him once, "the +old one never forgets you."</p> +<p>The letters that passed between this oddly +assorted couple, if couched in terms which could +scarcely see print in our more restrained age, are +eloquent of affection and devotion. To Peter his +kitchen-Queen was "friend of my Heart," "dearest +Heart," and "dear little Mother." He complains +pathetically, when away with his army, "I am dull +without you—and there is nobody to take care of my +shirts." When Catherine once left him on a round +of visits, he grew so impatient at her absence that he +sent a yacht to bring her back, and with it a note: +"When I go into my rooms and find them deserted, +I feel as if I must rush away at once. It is all so +empty without thee."</p> +<p>And each letter is accompanied by a present—now +a watch, now some costly lace, and again a lock of +his hair, or a simple bunch of dried flowers, while she +returns some such homely gift as a little fruit or a +<a name="Page_9"></a>fur-lined waistcoat. On both sides, too, a vein of +jocularity runs through the letters, as when Catherine +addresses him as "Your Excellency, the very +illustrious and eminent Prince-General and Knight +of the crowned Compass and Axe"; and when +Peter, after the Peace of Nystadt, writes: "According +to the Treaty I am obliged to return all Livonian +prisoners to the King of Sweden. What is to +become of thee, I don't know." To which she +answers, with true wifely (if affected) humility: "I +am your servant; do with me as you will; yet I +venture to think you won't send <i>me</i> back."</p> +<p>Quite idyllic, this post-nuptial love-making between +the great Emperor and his low-born Queen, +who has so possessed his heart that no other woman, +however fair, could wrest it from her. And in her +exalted position of Empress she practised the same +diplomatic arts by which she had won Peter's devotion. +Politics she left severely alone; she turned a +forbidding back on all attempts to involve her in +State intrigues, but she was ever ready to protect +those who appealed to her for help, and to use her +influence with her husband to procure pardon or +lighter punishment for those who had fallen under +his displeasure.</p> +<p>Nor did she forget her poor relations in Livonia. +One brother, a postillion, she openly acknowledged, +introduced to her husband, and obtained a liberal +pension for him; and to her other brothers and +sisters she sent frequent presents and sums of +money. More she could not well do during her +husband's lifetime, but when she in turn came to +<a name="Page_10"></a>the throne, she brought the whole +family—postillion, +shoemaker, farm-labourer and serf, their wives and +families—to her capital, installed them in sumptuous +apartments in her palaces, decked them in the finest +Court feathers, and gave them large fortunes and +titles of nobility.</p> +<p>When the Tsar's quarrel with his eldest son came +to its tragic <i>dénouement</i> in Alexis' death, her own +son became heir presumptive to the throne of +Russia. And thus the chain that bound Peter to +his Empress received its completing link. It only +remained now to place the crown formally on the head +of the mother of the new heir, and this supreme +honour was hers in the month of May, 1729.</p> +<p>Wonderful tales are told of the splendours of +Catherine's coronation. No existing crown was +good enough for the ex-maid-of-all-work, so one of +special magnificence was made by the Court jewellers—a +miracle of diamonds and pearls, crowned by +a monster ruby—at a cost of a million and a half +roubles. The Coronation gown, which cost four +thousand roubles, was made at Paris; and from Paris, +too, came the gorgeous coach with its blaze of gold +and heraldry, in which the Tsarina made her triumphal +progress through the streets of the capital from +the Winter Palace. The culminating point of this +remarkable ceremony came when, after Peter had +placed the crown on his wife's head, she sank weeping +at his feet and embraced his knees.</p> +<p>Catherine, however, had not worn her crown many +months when she found herself in considerable +danger of losing not only her dignities but even her +<a name="Page_11"></a>liberty. For some time, it is said, she had been +engaged in a liaison with William Mons, a handsome, +gay young courtier, brother to a former mistress +of the Tsar. The love affair had been common +knowledge at the Court—to all but Peter himself, +and it was accident that at last opened his eyes to +his wife's dishonour. One moonlight night, so the +story is told, he chanced to enter an arbour in the +palace gardens, and there discovered her in the arms +of her lover.</p> +<p>His vengeance was swift and terrible. Mons +was arrested the same night in his rooms, and +dragged fainting into the Tsar's presence, where he +confessed his disloyalty. A few days later he was +beheaded, at the very moment when the Empress +was dancing a minuet with her ladies, a smile on her +lips, whatever grief was in her heart. The following +day she was driven by her husband past the scaffold +where her lover's dead body was exposed to public +view—so close, in fact, that her dress brushed against +it; but, without turning her head, she kept up a +smiling conversation with the perpetrator of this outrage +on her feelings.</p> +<p>Still not content with his revenge, Peter next +placed the dead man's head, enclosed in a bottle of +spirits of wine, in a prominent place in the Empress's +apartments; and when she still smilingly ignored +its horrible proximity, his anger, hitherto repressed, +blazed forth fiercely. With a blow of his strong fist +he shattered a priceless Venetian vase, shouting, +"Thus will I treat thee and thine"—to which she +calmly responded, "You have broken one of the +<a name="Page_12"></a>chief ornaments of your palace; do you think you +have increased its charm?"</p> +<p>For a time Peter refused to be propitiated; he +would not speak to his wife, or share her meals or +her room. But she had "tamed the tiger" many a +time before, and she was able to do it again. Within +two months she had won her way back into full +favour, and was once more the Tsar's dearest <i>Katiérinoushka.</i></p> +<p>A month later Peter was dead, carrying his love +for his peasant-Empress to the grave, and Catherine +was reigning in his stead, able at last to conduct her +amours openly—spending her nights in shameless +orgies with her lovers, and leaving the rascally +Menshikoff to do the ruling, until death brought her +amazing career to an end within sixteen months of +mounting her throne.</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 35%;"> +<a name="CHAPTER_II"></a> +<h2><a name="Page_13"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> +<h2>THE "BONNIE PRINCE'S" BRIDE</h2> +<br> +<p>In the pageant of our history there are few more +attractive figures than that of "Bonnie Prince +Charlie," the "yellow-haired laddie" whose blue +eyes made a slave of every woman who came under +their magic, and whose genial, unaffected manners +turned the veriest coward into a hero, ready to follow +him to the death in that year of ill-fated romance, +"the forty-five."</p> +<p>The very name of the "Bonnie Prince," the hope +of the fallen Stuarts, the idol of Scotland—leading a +forlorn hope with laughter on his lips, now riding +proudly at the head of his rabble army, now a fugitive +Ishmael among the hills and caves of the Highlands, +but ever the last to lose heart—has a magic +still to quicken the pulses. That later years proved +the idol's feet to be of clay, that he fell from his +pedestal to end his days an object of contempt and +derision, only served to those who knew him in the +pride of his youth to mingle pity with the glamour +of romance that still surrounds his name.</p> +<p>In the year 1772, when this story opens, Charles +Edward, Count of Albany, had already travelled far +<a name="Page_14"></a>on the downward road that led from the glory of +Prestonpans to his drunkard's grave. A pitiful pensioner +of France, who had known the ignominy of +wearing fetters in a French prison, a social outcast +whose Royal pretensions were at best the subject of +an amused tolerance, the "laddie of the yellow hair" +had fallen so low that the brandy bottle, which was his +constant companion night and day, was his only solace.</p> +<p>Picture him at this period, and mark the pathetic +change which less than thirty years had wrought in +the Stuart "darling" of "the forty-five," when many +a proud lady of Scotland would have given her life +for a smile from his bonnie face. A middle-aged man +with dropsy in his limbs, and with the bloated face +of the drunkard; "dull, thick, silent-looking lips, of +purplish red scarce redder than the skin; pale blue +eyes tending to a watery greyness, leaden, vague, +sad, but with angry streakings of red; something +inexpressibly sad, gloomy, helpless, vacant, and +debased in the whole face."</p> +<p>Such was this "Young Chevalier" when France +took it into her head to make a pawn of him in the +political chess-game with England. As a man he +was beneath contempt; as a "King"—well, he was +a <i>Roi pour rire</i>; but at least the Royal House he +represented might be made a useful weapon against +the arrogant Hanoverian who sat on his father's +throne. That rival stock must not be allowed to die +out; his claims might weigh heavily some day in the +scale between France and England. Charles Edward +must marry, and provide a worthier successor to his +empty honours.</p> +<p><a name="Page_15"></a>And thus it was that France came to the exiled +Prince with the seductive offer of a pretty bride and +a pension of forty thousand crowns a year. The +besotted Charles jumped at the offer; left his brandy +bottle, and, with the alacrity of a youthful lover, +rushed away to woo and win the bride who had been +chosen for him.</p> +<p>And never surely was there such a grotesque +wooing. Charles was a physical wreck of fifty-two; +his bride-elect had only seen nineteen summers. +The daughter of Prince Gustav Adolf of Stolberg +and the Countess of Horn, Princess Louise was kin +to many of the greatest houses in Europe, from the +Colonnas and Orsinis to the Hohenzollerns and +Bruces. In blood she was thus at least a match for +her Stuart bridegroom.</p> +<p>She had spent some years in the seclusion of a +monastery, and had emerged for her undesired trip +to the altar a young woman of rare beauty and +charm, with glorious brown eyes, the delicate tint +of the wild rose in her dimpled cheeks, a wealth of +golden hair, and a figure every line and movement of +which was instinct with beauty and grace. She was +a fresh, unspoilt child, bubbling with gaiety and the +joy of life, and her dainty little head was full of the +romance of sweet nineteen.</p> +<p>Such then was the singularly contrasted couple—"Beauty +and the Beast" they were dubbed by many—who +stood together at the altar at Macerata on +Good Friday of the year 1772—the bridegroom, +"looking hideous in his wedding suit of crimson +silk," in flaming contrast to the virginal white of his +<a name="Page_16"></a>pretty victim. It needed no such day of ill-omen +as +a Friday to inaugurate a union which could not have +been otherwise than disastrous—the union of a beautiful, +romantic girl eager to exploit the world of freedom +and of pleasure, and a drink-sodden man old +enough to be her father, for whom life had long lost +all its illusions.</p> +<p>It is true that for a time Charles Edward was +drawn from his bottle by the lure of a pretty and +winsome wife, who should, if any power on earth +could, have made a man again of him. She laughed, +indeed, at his maudlin tales of past heroism and +adventure in love and battle; to her he was a plaster +hero, and she let him know it. She was "mated to +a clown," and a drunken clown to boot—and, well, +she would make the best of a bad bargain. If her +husband was the sorriest lover who ever poured thick-voiced +flatteries into a girl-wife's ears, there were +others, plenty of them, who were eager to pay more +acceptable homage to her; and these men—poets, +courtiers, great men in art and letters—flocked to +her <i>salon</i> to bask in her beauty and to be charmed +by her wit.</p> +<p>After all, she was a Queen, although she wore no +crown. She had a Court, although no Royalties +graced it. From the Pope to the King of France, +no monarch in Europe would recognise her husband's +kingship. But at such neglect, the offspring +of jealousy, of course, she only smiled. She could +indeed have been moderately happy in her girlish, +light-hearted way, if her husband had not been such +an impossible person.</p> +<p><a name="Page_17"></a>As for Charles Edward, he soon wearied of a +bride +who did nothing but laugh at him, and who was so +ready to escape from his obnoxious presence to the +company of more congenial admirers. He returned +to his brandy bottle, and alternated between a +fuddled brain and moods of wild jealousy. He +would not allow his wife to leave the door without +his escort; if she refused to accompany him, he +turned the key in her bedroom door, to which the +only access was through his own room.</p> +<p>He took her occasionally to the theatre or opera, +his brandy bottle always making a third for company. +Before the performance was half through he +was snoring stertorously on the couch which he +insisted on having in his box; and, more often than +not, was borne to his carriage for the journey home +helplessly drunk. And this within the first year of +his wedded life.</p> +<p>If any woman had excuse for seeking elsewhere +the love she could not find in her husband it was +Louise of Albany. There were dames in plenty in +Rome (where they were now living) who, not content +with devoted husbands, had their <i>cisibeos</i> to play +the lover to them; but Louise sought no such questionable +escape from her unhappiness. Her books +and the clever men who thronged her <i>salon</i> were all +the solace she asked; and under temptation such +as few women of that country and day would +have resisted, she carried the shield of a blameless +life.</p> +<p>From Rome the Countess and her husband fared +to Florence in 1774; and here matters went from +<a name="Page_18"></a>bad to worse. Charles was now seldom sober day +or night; and his jealousy often found expression +in filthy abuse and cowardly assaults. Hitherto he +had been simply disgusting; now he was a constant +menace, even to her life. She lived in hourly fear of +his brutality; but in her darkest hour sunshine came +again into her life with the coming of Vittorio +Alfieri, whose name was to be linked with hers for +so many years.</p> +<p>At this time Alfieri was in the very prime of his +splendid manhood, one of the handsomest and most +fascinating men in all Europe. Some four years +older than herself, he was a tall, stalwart, soldierly +man, blue-eyed and auburn-haired, an aristocrat to +his finger-tips, a daring horseman, a poet, and a man +of rare culture—just the man to set any woman's +heart a-flutter, as he had already done in most of the +capitals of the Continent.</p> +<p>He was a spoilt child of fortune, this Italian poet +and soldier, a man who had drunk deep of the cup of +life, and to whom all conquests came with such fatal +ease that already he had drained life dry of its +pleasures.</p> +<p>Such was the man who one autumn day in the +year 1777 came into the unhappy life of the Countess +of Albany, still full of the passions and yearnings of +youth. It was surely fate that thus brought together +these two young people of kindred tastes and +kindred disillusions; and we cannot wonder that, +of that first meeting, Alfieri should write, "At last +I had met the one woman whom I had sought so +long, the woman who could inspire my ambition +<a name="Page_19"></a>and my work. Recognising this, and prizing so +rare +a treasure, I gave myself up wholly to her."</p> +<p>Those were happy days for the Countess that +followed this fateful meeting—days of sweet communion +of twin souls, hours of stolen bliss, when they +could dwell apart in a region of high and ennobling +thoughts, while the besotted husband was sleeping +off the effects of his drunken orgies in the next room. +To Alfieri, Louise was indeed "the anchor of his +life," giving stability to his vacillating nature, and +inspiring all that was best and noblest in him; while +to her the association with this "splendid creature," +who so thoroughly understood and sympathised with +her, was the revelation of a new world.</p> +<p>Thus three happy years passed; and then the crisis +came. One night the Prince, in a mood of drunken +madness, inflamed by jealousy, attacked his wife, +and, after severely beating her, flung her down on +her bed and attempted to strangle her. This was +the crowning outrage of years of brutality. She +could not, dared not, spend another day with such a +madman. At any cost she must leave him—and +for ever.</p> +<p>When morning came, with Alfieri's assistance, the +plan of escape was arranged. In the company of a +lady friend—and also of her husband, now scared +and penitent, but fearing to let her out of his sight—she +drove to a neighbouring convent, ostensibly to +inspect the nuns' needlework. On reaching her +destination she ran up the convent steps, entered the +building, and the door was slammed and bolted +behind her in the very face of Charles Edward, who +<a name="Page_20"></a>had followed as fast as his dropsical legs would +carry +him up the steps. The Prince, blazing at such an +outrage, hammered fiercely at the door until at last +the Lady Abbess herself showed her face at the +grating, and told him in no ambiguous words that +he would not be allowed to enter! His wife had +come to her for protection; and if he had any grievance +he had better appeal to the Duke of Tuscany.</p> +<p>Thus ended the tragic union of the "Bonnie +Prince" and his Countess. Emancipation had come +at last; and, while Louise was now free to devote +her life to her beloved Alfieri, her brutal husband +was left for eight years to the company of his bottle +and the ministrations of his natural daughter, until +a drunkard's grave at Frascati closed over his mis-spent +life. The pity and the tragedy of it!</p> +<p>Louise of Albany and her poet-lover were now free +to link their lives at the altar—but no such thought +seems to have entered the head of either. They were +perfectly happy without the bond of the wedding-ring, +of which the Countess had such terrible +memories; and together they walked through life, +happy in each other and indifferent to the world's +opinion.</p> +<p>Now in Florence, now in Rome; living together +in Alsace, drifting to Paris; and, when the Revolution +drove them from the French capital, seeking +refuge in London, where we find the uncrowned +Queen of England chatting amicably with the +"usurper" George in the Royal box at the opera—always +inseparable, and Louise always clinging to +the shreds of her Royal dignity, with a throne in her +<a name="Page_21"></a>ante-room, and "Your Majesty" on her servants' +lips. Thus passed the careless, happy years for +Countess and poet until, in 1803, Alfieri followed +the "Bonnie Prince" behind the veil, and left a +desolate Louise to moan amid her tears, "There is +no more happiness for me."</p> +<p>But Louise was not left even now without the +solace of a man's love, which seemed as indispensable +to her nature as the air she breathed. Before Alfieri +had been many months in his Florence tomb his +place by the Countess's side had been taken by +François Xavier Fabre, a good-looking painter of +only moderate gifts, whose handsome face, plausible +tongue, and sunny disposition soon made a captive +of her middle-aged heart. At the time when Fabre +came thus into her life Madame la Comtesse had +passed her fiftieth birthday—youth and beauty had +taken wings; and passion (if ever she had any—for +her relations with Alfieri seem to have been quite +platonic) had died down to its embers.</p> +<p>But a man's companionship and homage were +always necessary to her, and in Fabre she found her +ideal cavalier. Her <i>salon</i> now became more popular +even than in the days of her young wifehood. It +drew to it all the greatest men in Europe, men of +world-wide fame in statesmanship, letters, and art, +all anxious to do homage to a woman of such culture +and with such rare gifts of conversation.</p> +<p>That she was now middle-aged, stout and dowdy—"like +a cook with pretty hands," as Stendhal said of +her—mattered nothing to her admirers, many of +whom remembered her in the days of her lovely +<a name="Page_22"></a>youth. She was, in their eyes, as much a Queen +as if she wore a crown; and, moreover, she was a +woman of magnetic charm and clever brain.</p> +<p>And thus, with her books and her <i>salon</i> and her +cavalier, she spent the rest of her chequered life until +the end came one day in 1824; and her last resting-place +was, as she wished it to be, by the side of her +beloved Alfieri. In the Church of Santa Croce, in +Florence, midway between the tombs of Michael +Angelo and Machiavelli, the two lovers sleep +together their last sleep, beneath a beautiful monument +fashioned by Canova's hands—Louise, wife of +the "Bonnie Prince" (as we still choose to remember +him) and Vittorio Alfieri, to whom, to quote his own +words, "she was beyond all things beloved."</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 35%;"> +<a name="CHAPTER_III"></a> +<h2><a name="Page_23"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> +<h2>THE PEASANT AND THE EMPRESS</h2> +<br> +Many an autocrat of Russia has shown a truly +sovereign contempt for convention in the choice of +his or her favourites, the "playthings of an hour"; +and at least three of them have carried this contempt +to the altar itself. +<p>Peter, the first, as we have seen, offered a crown +to Martha Skovronski, a Livonian scullery-maid, +who succeeded him on the throne; the second +Catherine gave her hand as well as her heart to +Patiomkin, the gigantic, ill-favoured ex-sergeant of +cavalry; and Elizabeth, daughter of Peter and his +kitchen-Queen, proved herself worthy of her parentage +when she made Alexis Razoum, a peasant's son, +husband of the Empress of Russia. You will search +history in vain for a story so strange and romantic as +this of the great Empress and the lowly shepherd's +son, whom her love raised from a hovel to a palace, +and on whom one of the most amorous and fickle of +sovereign ladies lavished honours and riches and an +unwavering devotion, until her eyes, speaking their +love to the last, were closed in death.</p> +<p>It was in the humblest hovel of the village +<a name="Page_24"></a>of Lemesh that Alexis Razoum drew his first +breath +one day in 1709. His father, Gregory Razoum, was +a shepherd, who spent his pitiful earnings in drink—a +man of violent temper who, in his drunken rages, +was the terror not only of his home but of the entire +village. His wife and children cowered at his approach; +and on more than one occasion only accident +(or Providence) saved him from the crime of murder. +On one such occasion, we are told, the child Alexis, +who from his earliest years had a passion for reading, +was absorbed in a book, when his father, in ungovernable +fury, seized a hatchet and hurled it at +the boy's head. Luckily, the missile missed its mark, +and Alexis escaped, to find refuge in the house of a +friendly priest, who not only gave him shelter and +protection, but taught him to write, and, above all, +to sing—little dreaming that he was thus paving the +way which was to lead the drunken shepherd's lad +to the dizziest heights in Russia. For the boy had +a beautiful voice. When he joined the choir of his +village church, people flocked from far and near to +listen to the sweet notes that soared, pure and liquid +as a nightingale's song, above the rest. "It was," +all declared, "the voice of an angel—and the face +of an angel," for Alexis was as beautiful in those days +as any child of picture or of dreams.</p> +<p>One day a splendidly dressed stranger chanced to +enter the Lemesh church during Mass—none other +than Colonel Vishnevsky, a great Court official, who +was on his way back to Moscow from a diplomatic +mission; and he listened entranced to a voice sweeter +than any he had ever heard. The service over, he +<a name="Page_25"></a>made the acquaintance of the young chorister, +interviewed +his guardian, the "good Samaritan" priest, +and persuaded him to allow the boy to accompany +him to the capital. Thus the shepherd's son took +weeping farewell of the good priest, of his mother, +and of his brothers and sisters; and a few weeks +later the Empress and her ladies were listening enchanted +to his voice in the Imperial choir at Moscow—but +none with more delight than the Princess +Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great, to whom +Alexis' beauty appealed even more strongly than his +sweet singing.</p> +<p>Elizabeth, true daughter of her father, had already, +young as she was, counted her lovers by the +score—lovers chosen indiscriminately, from Royal +princes to grooms and common soldiers. She was +already sated with the licence of the most dissolute +Court of Europe, and to her the young Cossack of +the beautiful face and voice, and rustic innocence, +opened a new and seductive vista of pleasure. She +lost her heart to him, had him transferred to her +own Court as her favourite singer, and, within a +few years, gave him charge of her purse and her +properties.</p> +<p>The shepherd's son was now not only lover-elect, +but principal "minister" to the daughter of an +Emperor, who was herself to wear the Imperial +crown. And while Alexis was thus luxuriating amid +the splendour of a Court, he by no means forgot the +humble relatives he had left behind in his native +village. His father was dead; his mother was reduced +for a time to such a depth of destitution that +<a name="Page_26"></a>she had to beg her bread from door to door. His +sisters had found husbands for themselves in their +own rank; and the favourite of an Imperial Princess +had for brothers-in-law a tailor, a weaver, and +a shepherd. When news came to Alexis of his +mother's destitution he had sent her a sum of money +sufficient to install her in comfort as an innkeeper: +the first of many kindnesses which were to work +a startling transformation in the fortunes of the +Razoum family.</p> +<p>Events now hurried quickly. The Empress Anna +died, and was succeeded on the throne by the infant +Ivan, her grand-nephew, who had been Emperor but +a few months when, in 1741, a <i>coup d'état</i> gave the +crown to Elizabeth, mistress of the Lemesh peasant. +Alexis was now husband in all but name of the +Empress of all the Russias; honours and riches +were showered on him; he was General, Grandmaster +of the Hounds, Chief Gentleman of the Bedchamber, +and lord of large estates yielding regal +revenues.</p> +<p>But all his grandeur was powerless to spoil the +man, who still remained the simple peasant who, so +many years earlier, had left his low-born mother +with streaming eyes. His great ambition now was +to share his good-fortune with her. She must +exchange her village inn for the luxuries and splendours +of a palace. And thus it was that one day +a splendid carriage, with gay-liveried postillions, +dashed up to the door of the Lemesh inn and carried +off the simple peasant woman, her youngest son, +Cyril, and one of her daughters, to the open-mouthed +<a name="Page_27"></a>amazement of the villagers. At the entrance to +the +capital she was received by a magnificently attired +gentleman, in whom she failed to recognise her son +Alexis, until he showed her a birthmark on his body.</p> +<p>Picture now the peasant-woman sumptuously +lodged in the Moscow palace, decked in all the finery +of silks and laces and jewels, receiving the respectful +homage of high Court officials, caressed and +petted by an Empress, while her splendid son looks +smilingly on, as proud of his cottage-mother as if she +were a Princess of the Blood Royal. That the innkeeper +was not happy in her gilded cage, that her +thoughts often wandered longingly to her cronies and +the simple life of the village, is not to be wondered at.</p> +<p>It was all very well for such a fine gentleman as +her son, Alexis; but for a poor, simple-minded +woman like herself—well, she was too old for such a +transplanting. And we can imagine her relief when, +on the removal of the Court to St Petersburg, she +was allowed to bring her visit to an end and to return +to her inn with wonderful stories of all she had seen. +Her son and daughter, however, elected to remain. +As for Cyril, a handsome youth, almost young +enough to be his brother's son, he was quick to win +his way into the favour of the Empress. Before he +had been many months at Court he was made +a Count and Gentleman of the Bedchamber. He +was given for bride a grand-niece of Elizabeth; and +at twenty-two he was Viceroy of the Ukraine, virtual +sovereign of a kingdom of his own, with his peasant-mother, +who declined to share his palace, comfortably +installed in a modest house near his gates.</p> +<p><a name="Page_28"></a>Cyril, in fact, was to his last day as +unspoiled by +his unaccustomed grandeur as his brother Alexis. +Each was ready at any moment to turn from the +obsequious homage of nobles to hobnob with a +peasant friend or relative. How utterly devoid of +false pride Alexis was is proved by the following +anecdote. One day when, in company with the +Empress, he was paying a visit to Count Löwenwolde, +he rushed from Elizabeth's side to fling his +arms round the neck of one of his host's footmen. +"Are you mad, Alexis?" exclaimed the Empress, +in her astonishment. "What do you mean by such +senseless behaviour?" "I am not mad at all," +answered the favourite. "He is an old friend of +mine."</p> +<p>But although no man ever deposed the shepherd +from the first place in Elizabeth's favour, it must not +be imagined that he was her only lover. The daughter +of the hot-blooded Peter and the lusty scullery +wench had always as great a passion for men as the +second Catherine, who had almost as many favourites +in her boudoir as gowns in her wardrobes. She had +her lovers before she was emancipated from the +schoolroom; and not the least favoured of them, it is +said, was her own nephew, Peter the Second, whom +she would no doubt have married if it had been +possible.</p> +<p>She turned her back on one great alliance after +another, preferring her freedom to a wedding-ring +that brought no love with it; and she found her +pleasure alike among the gentlemen of the Court +and among her own servants. In the long list of her +<a name="Page_29"></a>favourites we find a General succeeded by a +Sergeant; +Boutourlin, the handsome courtier, giving +place to Lialin, the sailor; and Count Shouvalov +retiring in favour of Voytshinsky, the coachman. +Thus one liaison succeeded another from girlhood to +middle-age—indeed long after she had passed the +altar. But through all these varying attachments her +heart remained constant to her shepherd-lover, to +whom she was ever the devoted wife, and, when he +was ill, the tenderest of nurses. To please him, she +even accompanied him on a visit to his native village, +smiling graciously on his humble friends of other +days, and partaking of the hospitality of the +poorest cottagers; while on all who had befriended +him in the days of his obscurity she lavished her +favours.</p> +<p>Of one man who had been thus kind she made a +General on the spot; the friendly priest was given a +highly paid post at Court; high rank in the army +was given to many of his humble relatives; and a +husband was found for a favourite niece in Count +Ryoumin, the Chancellor's son.</p> +<p>As for Alexis himself, nothing was too good for +him. Although he had probably never handled a gun +in his life she made him Field-Marshal and head of +her army; and, at her request, Charles VII. dubbed +him Count of the Holy Roman Empire, a distinction +which Gregory Orloff in later years prized more than +all the honours Catherine II. showered on him; while +the estates of which she made him lord were a small +kingdom in themselves. Alexis, the shepherd's son, +was now, beyond any question, the most powerful +<a name="Page_30"></a>man in Russia. If he would, he might easily have +taken the sceptre from the yielding hands of the +Empress and played the autocrat, as Patiomkin +played it under similar circumstances in later years. +But Alexis cared as little for power as for rank and +wealth. He smiled at his honours. "Fancy," he +said, with his hearty laugh, "a peasant's son, a +Count; and a man who ought to be tending sheep, a +Field-Marshal!"</p> +<p>When courtly genealogists spread before him an +elaborate family-tree, proving that he sprang from +the princely stock of Bogdan, with many a Grand +Duke of Lithuania among his lineal ancestors, he +laughed loud and long at them for their pains. +"Don't be so ridiculous," he said. "You know as well +as I that my parents were simple peasants, honest +enough, but people of the soil and nothing else. If +I am Count and Field-Marshal and Viceroy, I owe +it all to the good heart of your Empress and mine, +whose humble servant I am. Take it away, and let +me hear no more of such foolery."</p> +<p>Such to the last was the unspoiled, child-like nature +of the man who so soon was to be not merely the +first favourite but husband of an Empress. Probably +Alexis would have lived and died Elizabeth's +unlicensed lover had it not been for the cunning of +the cleverest of her Chancellors, Bestyouzhev, who +saw in his mistress's infatuation for her peasant the +means of making his own position more secure. +Elizabeth was still a young and attractive woman, +who might pick and choose among some of the most +eligible suitors in Europe for a sharer of her throne; +<a name="Page_31"></a>for there were many who would gladly have +played consort to the good-looking autocrat of +Russia.</p> +<p>Such a husband, especially if he were a strong +man, might seriously imperil the Chancellor's position; +might even dispense with him altogether. On +the other hand, he was high in the favour of the +shepherd's son, who had such a contempt for power, +and who thus would be a puppet in his hands. Why +not make him husband in name as well as in fact? +It was, after all, an easy task the Chancellor thus set +himself. Elizabeth was by no means unwilling to +wear a wedding-ring for the man who had loved +her so loyally and so long; and any difficulties she +might raise were quickly disposed of by her father-confessor, +who was Bestyouzhev's tool. Thus it came +to pass that one day Elizabeth and Alexis stood side +by side before the village altar of Perovo; and the +words were spoken which made the shepherd's son +husband of the Empress. The secrecy with which +the ceremony was performed was but a fiction. +All the world knew that Alexis Gregorovitch +was Emperor by right of wedlock, and flocked to +pay homage to him in his new and exalted +character.</p> +<p>He now had sumptuous apartments next to those +of his wife; he sat at her right hand on all State occasions; +he was her shadow everywhere; and during +his frequent attacks of gout the Empress ministered +to him night and day in his own rooms with the +tender devotion of a mother to a child. Two children +were born to them, a son and a daughter, the latter +<a name="Page_32"></a>of whom, after a life of strange romance and +vicissitude, +ended her days in a loathsome dungeon of +the fortress of Saints Peter and Paul, the victim of +Catherine II.'s vengeance—miserably drowned, so +one story goes, by an inundation of her cell.</p> +<p>On Elizabeth's death, in the year 1762, her husband +was glad to retire from the Court in which he +had for so long played so splendid a part. "None +but myself," he said, "can know with what pleasure +I leave a sphere to which I was not born, and to +which only my love for my dear mistress made me +resigned. I should have been happier far with her +in some small cottage far removed from the gilded +slavery of Court life." He was happy enough now +leading the peaceful life of a country gentleman on +one of his many estates.</p> +<p>Catherine II. had mounted the throne of Russia—the +Empress who, according to Masson, had but two +passions, which she carried to the grave—"her love +of man, which degenerated into libertinage; and her +love of glory, which degenerated into vanity." A +woman with the brain of a man and the heart of +a courtesan, Catherine's fickle affection had flitted +from one lover to another, until now it had settled +on Gregory Orloff, the handsomest man in her +dominions, whom she was more than half disposed +to make her husband.</p> +<p>This was a scheme which commended itself +strongly to her Chancellor, Vorontsov. There was +a most useful precedent to lend support to it—the +alliance of the Empress Elizabeth with a man of +immeasurably lower rank than Catherine's favourite; +<a name="Page_33"></a>but it was important that this precedent should +be +established beyond dispute. Thus it was that one +day, when Count Alexis was poring over his Bible +by his country fireside, Chancellor Vorontsov made +his appearance with ingratiating words and promises. +Her Majesty, he informed the Count, was willing to +confer Imperial rank on him in return for one small +favour—the possession of the documents which +proved his marriage to her predecessor, Elizabeth.</p> +<p>On hearing the request, the ex-shepherd rose, +and, with words of quiet scorn, refused both the +request and the proffered honour. "Am not I," he +said, "a Count, a Field-Marshal, a man of wealth? +all of which I owe to the kindness of my dear, +dead mistress. Are not such honours enough +for the peasant's son whom she raised from the +mire to sit by her side, that I should purchase +another bauble by an act of treachery to her +memory?</p> +<p>"But wait one moment," he continued; and, leaving +the room, he returned carrying a small bundle of +papers, which he proceeded to examine one by one. +Then, collecting them, he placed the bundle in the +heart of the fire, to the horror of the onlooking Chancellor; +and, as the flames were reducing the precious +documents to ashes, he said, "Go now and tell those +who sent you, that I never was more than the slave +of my august benefactress, the Empress Elizabeth, +who could never so far have forgotten her position +as to marry a subject."</p> +<p>Thus with a lie on his lips—the last crowning evidence +of loyalty to his beloved Queen and wife—Alexis +<a name="Page_34"></a>Razoum makes his exit from the stage on +which he played so strangely romantic a part. A +few years later his days ended in peace at his +St Petersburg palace, with the name he loved best, +"Elizabeth," on his lips.</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 35%;"> +<a name="CHAPTER_IV"></a> +<h2><a name="Page_35"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> +<h2>A CROWN THAT FAILED</h2> +<p>Henri of Navarre, hero of romance and probably +the greatest King who ever sat on the throne of +France, had a heart as weak in love as it was stout +in war. To his last day he was a veritable coward +before the battery of bright eyes; and before Ravaillac's +dagger brought his career to a tragic end one +May day in the year 1610 he had counted his mistresses +to as many as the years he had lived.</p> +<p>But of them all, fifty-seven of them—for the most +part lightly coming and lightly going—only one ever +really reached his heart, and was within measurable +distance of a seat on his throne—the woman to whom +he wrote in the hey-day of his passion, "Never has +man loved as I love you. If any sacrifice of mine +could purchase your happiness, how gladly I would +make it, even to the last drop of my life's blood."</p> +<p>Gabrielle d'Estrées who thus enslaved the heart +of the hero, which carried him to a throne through +a hundred fights and inconceivable hardships, was +cradled one day in the year 1573 in Touraine. From +her mother, Françoise Babou, she inherited both +beauty and frailness; for the Babou women were +<a name="Page_36"></a>famous alike for their loveliness and for a +virtue as +facile even as that of Marie Gaudin, the pretty plaything +of François I., who left François' arms to find +a husband in Philip Babou and thus to transmit her +charms and frailty to Gabrielle.</p> +<p>Her father, Antoine, son of Jean d'Estrées, a +valiant soldier under five kings, was a man of +pleasure, who drank and sang his way through life, +preferring Cupid to Mars and the <i>joie de vivre</i> to +the call of duty. It is perhaps little wonder that +Antoine's wife, after bearing seven children to her +husband, left him to find at least more loyalty in the +Marquess of Tourel-Alégre, a lover twenty years +younger than herself.</p> +<p>Thus it was that, deserted by her mother, and +with a father too addicted to pleasure to spare a +thought for his children, Gabrielle grew to beautiful +girlhood under the care of an aunt—now living in +the family château in Picardy, now in the great Paris +mansion, the Hotel d'Estrées; and with so little +guidance from precept or example that, in later years, +she and her six sisters and brothers were known as +the "Seven Deadly Sins."</p> +<p>In Gabrielle at least there was little that was +vicious. She was an irresponsible little creature, +bubbling over with mischief and gaiety, eager to +snatch every flower of pleasure that caught her eyes; +a dainty little fairy with big blue "wonder" eyes, +golden hair, the sweetest rosebud of a mouth, ready +to smile or to pout as the mood of the moment +suggested, with soft round baby cheeks as delicately +flushed as any rose.</p> +<p><a name="Page_37"></a>Such was Gabrielle d'Estrées on the +verge of +young womanhood when Roger de Saint-Larry, Duc +de Bellegarde, the King's grand equerry, and one of +the handsomest young men in France, first set eyes +on her in the château of Coeuvres; and, as was +inevitable, lost his heart to her at first sight. When +he rode away two days later, such excellent use had +he made of his opportunities, he left a very happy, +if desolate maiden behind; for Gabrielle had little +power to resist fascinations which had made a conquest +of many of the fairest ladies at Court.</p> +<p>When Bellegarde returned to Mantes, where +Henri was still struggling for the crown which was +so soon to be his, he foolishly gave the King of +Navarre such a rapturous account of the young +beauty of Picardy and his conquest that Henri, +already weary of the faded charms of Diane +d'Audouins, his mistress, promptly left his soldiering +and rode away to see the lady for himself, and to +find that Bellegarde's raptures were more than +justified.</p> +<p>Gabrielle, however, flattered though she was by +such an honour as a visit from the King of Navarre, +was by no means disposed to smile on the wooing +of "an ugly man, old enough to be my father." And +indeed, Henri, with all the glamour of the hero to +aid him, was but a sorry rival for the handsome and +courtly Bellegarde. Now nearing his fortieth year, +with grizzled beard, and skin battered and lined by +long years of hard campaigning, the future King of +France had little to appeal to the romantic eyes of +a maid who counted less than half his years; and the +<a name="Page_38"></a>King in turn rode away from the Coeuvres Castle +as +hopelessly in love as Bellegarde, but with much less +encouragement to return.</p> +<p>But the hero of Ivry and a hundred other battles +was no man to submit to defeat in any lists; and +within a few weeks Gabrielle was summoned to +Mantes, where he told her in decisive words that he +loved her, and that no one, Bellegarde or any other, +should share her with him. "Indeed!" she exclaimed, +with a defiant toss of the head, "I will be +no man's slave; I shall give my heart to whom I +please, and certainly not to any man who demands +it as a right." And within an hour she was riding +home fast as her horse could gallop.</p> +<p>Henri was thunderstruck at such defiance. He +must follow her at once and bring her to reason; but, +in order to do so, he must risk his life by passing +through the enemy's lines. Such an adventure, +however, was after his own heart; and disguising +himself as a peasant, with a bundle of faggots on his +shoulder, he made his way safely to Coeuvres, where +he presented himself, a pitiable spectacle of rags and +poverty, to be greeted by his lady with shouts of +derisive laughter. "Oh dear!" she gasped between +her paroxysms of mirth, "what a fright you look! +For goodness' sake go and change your clothes." +But though the King obeyed humbly, Gabrielle shut +herself in her room and declined point-blank to see +him again.</p> +<p>Such devotion, however, expressed in such +fashion, did not fail in its appeal to the romantic +girl; and when, a little later, Gabrielle visited the +<a name="Page_39"></a>Royalist army then besieging Chartres, it was a +much +more pliant Gabrielle who listened to the King's +wooing and whose eyes brightened at his stories of +bravery and danger. Henri might be old and ugly, +but he had at least a charm of manner, a frank, simple +manliness, which made him the idol of his soldiers +and in fact of every woman who once came under +its spell. And to this charm even Gabrielle, the +rebel, had at last to submit, until Bellegarde was forgotten, +and her hero was all the world to her.</p> +<p>The days that followed this slow awaking were +crowded with happiness for the two lovers; when +Gabrielle was not by her King's side, he was writing +letters to her full of passionate tenderness. "My +beautiful Love," "My All," "My Trueheart"—such +were the sweet terms he lavished on her. "I kiss +you a million times. You say that you love me a +thousand times more than I love you. You have +lied, and you shall maintain your falsehood with the +arms which you have chosen. I shall not see you +for ten days, it is enough to kill me." And again, +"They call me King of France and Navarre—that +of your subject is much more delightful—you have +much more cause for fearing that I love you too +much than too little. That fault pleases you, and +also me, since you love it. See how I yield to your +every wish."</p> +<p>Such were the letters—among the most beautiful +ever penned by lover—which the King addressed to +his "Menon" in those golden days, when all the +world was sunshine for him, black as the sky was +still with the clouds of war. And she returned love +<a name="Page_40"></a>for love; tenderness for passion. When he was +lying ill at St Denis, she wrote, "I die of fear. Tell +me, I implore you, how fares the bravest of the brave. +Give me news, my cavalier; for you know how fatal +to me is your least ill. I cannot sleep without sending +you a thousand good nights; for I am the +Princess Constancy, sensible to all that concerns you, +and careless of all else in the world, good or bad."</p> +<p>Through the period of stress and struggle that still +separated Henri from the crown which for nearly +twenty years was his goal, Gabrielle was ever by his +side, to soothe and comfort him, to chase away the +clouds of gloom which so often settled on him, to +inspire him with new courage and hope, and, with +her diplomacy checking his impulses, to smooth over +every obstacle that the cunning of his enemies placed +in his path.</p> +<p>And when, at last, one evening in 1594, Henri +made his triumphal entry into Paris, on a grey horse, +wearing a gold-embroidered grey habit, his face +proud and smiling, saluting with his plume-crowned +hat the cheering crowds, Gabrielle had the place of +honour in front of him, "in a gorgeous litter, so +bedecked with pearls and gems that she paled the +light of the escorting torches."</p> +<p>This was, indeed, a proud hour for the lovers which +saw Henri acclaimed at "long last" King of France, +and his loyal lady-love Queen in all but name. The +years of struggle and hardship were over—years in +which Henri of Navarre had braved and escaped a +hundred deaths; and in which he had been reduced +to such pitiable straits that he had often not known +<a name="Page_41"></a>where his next meal was to come from or where to +find a shirt to put on his back.</p> +<p>Gabrielle was now Marquise de Monceaux, a title +to which her Royal lover later added that of Duchesse +de Beaufort. Her son, César, was known as +"Monsieur," the title that would have been his if he +had been heir to the French throne. All that now +remained to fill the cup of her ambition and her +happiness was that she should become the legal wife +of the King she loved so well; and of this the +prospect seemed more than fair.</p> +<p>Charming stories are told of the idyllic family life +of the new King; how his greatest pleasure was to +"play at soldiers" with his children, to join in their +nursery romps, or to take them, like some bourgeois +father, to the Saint Germain fair, and return loaded +with toys and boxes of sweetmeats, to spend delightful +homely evenings with the woman he adored.</p> +<p>But it was not all sunshine for the lovers. Paris +was in the throes of famine and plague and flood. +Poverty and discontent stalked through her streets, +and there were scowling and envious eyes to greet +the King and his lady when they rode laughing by; +or when, as on one occasion we read of, they returned +from a hunting excursion, riding side by side, "she +sitting astride dressed all in green" and holding the +King's hand.</p> +<p>Nor within the palace walls was it all a bed of +roses for Gabrielle; for she had her enemies there; +and chief among them the powerful Duc de Sully, +her most formidable rival in the King's affection. +Sully was not only Henri's favourite minister; he +<a name="Page_42"></a>was the Jonathan to his David, the man who had +shared a hundred dangers by his side, and by his +devotion and affection had found a firm lodging in +his heart.</p> +<p>Between the minister and the mistress, each consumed +with jealousy of the other, Henri had many a +bad hour; and the climax came when de Sully refused +to pass the extravagant charges for the baptism +of the Marquise's second son, Alexander. Gabrielle +was indignant and appealed angrily and tearfully to +the King, who supported his minister. "I have loved +you," he said at last, roused to wrath, "because I +thought you gentle and sweet and yielding; now that +I have raised you to high position, I find you exacting +and domineering. Know this, I could better +spare a dozen mistresses like you than one minister +so devoted to me as Sully."</p> +<p>At these harsh words, Gabrielle burst into tears. +"If I had a dagger," she exclaimed, "I would plunge +it into my heart, and then you would find your image +there." And when Henri rushed from the room, she +ran after him, flung herself at his feet, and with +heart-breaking sobs, begged for forgiveness and a +kind word. Such troubles as these, however, were +but as the clouds that come and go in a summer sky. +Gabrielle's sun was now nearing its zenith; Henri +had long intended to make her his wife at the altar; +proceedings for divorce from his wife, Marguerite +de Valois, were running smoothly; and now the +crowning day in the two lives thus romantically +linked was at hand.</p> +<p>In the month of April, 1599, Gabrielle and Henri +<a name="Page_43"></a>were spending the last ante-nuptial days together +at Fontainebleau; the wedding was fixed for the +first Sunday after Easter, and Gabrielle was ideally +happy among her wedding finery and the costly presents +that had been showered on her from all parts of +France—from the ring Henri had worn at his Coronation +and which he was to place on her finger at +the altar, to a statue of the King in gold from Lyons, +and a "giant piece of amber in a silver casket from +Bordeaux."</p> +<p>Her wedding-dress was a gorgeous robe of Spanish +velvet, rich in embroideries of gold and silver; +the suite of rooms which was to be hers as Queen +was already ready, with its splendours of crimson +and gold furnishing. The greatest ladies in France +were now proud to act as her tire-women; and +princes and ambassadors flocked to Fontainebleau to +pay her homage.</p> +<p>The last days of Holy Week it had been arranged +that she should spend in devotion at Paris, and Henri +was her escort the greater part of the way. When +they parted on the banks of the Seine they wept in +each other's arms, while Gabrielle, full of nameless +forebodings, clung to her lover and begged him to +take her back to Fontainebleau. But with a final +embrace he tore himself away; and with streaming +eyes Gabrielle continued her journey, full of fears +as to its issue; for had not a seer of Piedmont told +her that the marriage would never take place; and +other diviners, whom she had consulted, warned her +that she would die young, and never call Henri +husband?</p> +<p><a name="Page_44"></a>Two days later Gabrielle heard Mass at the +Church of St Germain l'Auxerrois; and on returning +to the Deanery, her aunt's home, became seriously +ill. She grew rapidly worse; her sufferings +were terrible to witness; and on Good Friday she +was delivered of a dead child. To quote an eye-witness, +"She lingered until six o'clock in very great +pain, the like of which doctors and surgeons had +never seen before. In her agony she tore her face, +and injured herself in other parts of her body." Before +dawn broke on the following day she drew her last +breath.</p> +<p>When news of her illness reached the King, he +flew to her swift as his horse could carry him, only +to meet couriers on his way who told him that +Madame was already dead; and to find, when at last +he reached St Germain l'Auxerrois, the door of the +room in which she lay barred against him. He could +not take her living once more into his arms; he was +not allowed to see her dead.</p> +<p>Henri was as a man who is mad with grief; he +was inconsolable.. None dared even to approach him +with words of pity and comfort. For eight days he +shut himself in a black-draped room, himself clothed +in black; and he wrote to his sister, "The root of +my love is dead; there will be no Spring for me any +more." Three months later he was making love to +Gabrielle's successor, Henriette d'Entragues!</p> +<p>Thus perished in tragedy Gabrielle d'Estrées, the +creature of sunshine, who won the bravest heart in +Europe, and carried her conquest to the very foot of +a throne.</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 35%;"> +<a name="CHAPTER_V"></a> +<h2><a name="Page_45"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> +<h2>A QUEEN OF HEARTS</h2> +<p>If ever woman was born for love and for empire over +the hearts of men it was surely Jeanne Bécu, who +first opened her eyes one August day in the year +1743, at dreary Vaucouleurs, in Joan of Arc's country, +and who was fated to dance her light-hearted +way through the palace of a King to the guillotine.</p> +<p>Scarcely ever has woman, born to such beauty and +witchery, been cradled less auspiciously. Her reputed +father was a scullion, her mother a sempstress. +For grandfather she had Fabien Bécu, who left his +frying-pans in a Paris kitchen to lead Jeanne Husson, +a fellow-servant, to the altar. Such was the ignoble +strain that flowed in the veins of the Vaucouleurs +beauty, who five-and-twenty years later was playfully +pulling the nose of the fifteenth Louis, and +queening it in his palaces with a splendour which +Marie Antoinette herself never surpassed.</p> +<p>From her sordid home Jeanne was transported at +the age of six to a convent, where she spent nine +years in rebellion against rules and punishments, until +"the golden head emerged at last from black woollen +veil and coarse unstarched bands, the exquisite +<a name="Page_46"></a>form from shapeless, hideous robe, the perfect +little +feet from abominable yellow shoes," to play first +the rôle of lady's maid to a wealthy widow, and, +when she wearied (as she quickly did) of coiffing hair, +to learn the arts of millinery.</p> +<p>"Picture," says de Goncourt, "the glittering shop, +where all day long charming idlers and handsome +great gentlemen lounged and ogled; the pretty +milliner tripping through the streets, her head covered +by a big, black <i>calèche</i>, whence her golden curls +escaped, her round, dainty waist defined by a muslin-frilled +pinafore, her feet in little high-heeled, buckled +shoes, and in her hand a tiny fan, which she uses as +she goes—and then imagine the conversations, proposals, +replies!"</p> +<p>Such was Jeanne Bécu in the first bloom of her +dainty beauty, the prettiest grisette who ever set +hearts fluttering in Paris streets; with laughter +dancing in her eyes, a charming pertness at her +red lips, grace in every movement, and the springtide +of youth racing through her veins.</p> +<p>When Voltaire first saw her portrait, he exclaimed, +"The original was fashioned for the gods." And +we cannot wonder, as we look on the ravishing beauty +of the face that wrung this eloquent tribute from the +cold-blooded cynic—the tender, melting violet of +the eyes, with their sweeping brown lashes, under the +exquisite arch of brown eyebrows, the dainty little +Greek nose, the bent bow of the delicious tiny mouth, +the perfect oval of the face, the complexion "fair and +fresh as an infant's," and a glorious halo of golden +hair, a dream of fascinating curls and tendrils.</p> +<p><a name="Page_47"></a>It was to this bewitching picture, "with the +perfume +and light as of a goddess of love," that Jean du +Barry, self-styled Comte, adventurer and roué, succumbed +at a glance. But du Barry's tenure of her +heart, if indeed he ever touched it at all, was brief; +for the moment Louis XV. set eyes on the ravishing +girl he determined to make the prize his own, a +superior claim to which the Comte perforce yielded +gracefully.</p> +<p>Thus, in 1768, we find Jeanne Bécu—or "Mademoiselle +Vaubarnier," as she now called herself—transported +by a bound to the Palace of Versailles +and to the first place in the favour of the King, having +first gone through the farce of a wedding ceremony +with du Barry's brother, Guillaume, a husband +whom she first saw on the marriage morning, and +on whom she looked her last at the church door.</p> +<p>Then followed for the maid of the kitchen a few +years of such Queendom and splendour as have seldom +fallen to the lot of any lady cradled in a palace—the +idolatrous worship of a King, the intoxication of +the power that only beauty thus enshrined can wield, +the glitter of priceless jewels, rarest laces, and richest +satins and silks, the flash of gold on dinner and toilet-table, +an army of servants in sumptuous liveries, the +fawning of great Court ladies, the courtly flatteries of +princes—every folly and extravagance that money +could purchase or vanity desire.</p> +<p>Six years of such intoxicating life and then—the +end. Louis is lying on his death-bed and, with fear +in his eyes and a tardy penitence on his lips, is saying +to her, "Madame, it is time that we should part." +<a name="Page_48"></a>And, indeed, the hour of parting had arrived; for +a +few days later he drew his last wicked breath, and +Madame du Barry was under orders to retire to a +convent. But her grief for the dead King was as +brief as her love for him had been small; for within +a few months, we find her installed in her beautiful +country home, Lucienne, ready for fresh conquests, +and eager to drain the cup of pleasure to the last +drop. Nor was there any lack of ministers to the +vanity of the woman who had now reached the zenith +of her incomparable charms.</p> +<p>Among the many lovers who flocked to the country +shrine of the widowed "Queen," was Louis, Duc de +Cossé, son of the Maréchal de Brissac, who, although +Madame du Barry's senior by nine years, was still in +the prime of his manhood—handsome as an Apollo +and a model of the courtly graces which distinguished +the old <i>noblesse</i> in the day of its greatest pride, which +was then so near its tragic downfall.</p> +<p>De Cassé had long been a mute worshipper of +Louis' beautiful "Queen," and now that she was a +free woman he was at last able to pay open homage +to her, a homage which she accepted with indifference, +for at the time her heart had strayed to +Henry Seymour, although in vain. The woman +whose beauty had conquered all other men was +powerless to raise a flame in the breast of the cold-blooded +Englishman; and, realising this, she at last +bade him farewell in a letter, pathetic in its tender +dignity. "It is idle," she wrote, "to speak of my +affection for you—you know it. But what you do +not know is my pain. You have not deigned to +<a name="Page_49"></a>reassure me about that which most matters to my +heart. And so I must believe that my ease of mind, +my happiness, are of little importance to you. I am +sorry that I should have to allude to them; it is for +the last time."</p> +<p>It was in this hour of disillusion and humiliation +that she turned for solace to de Cossé, whose touching +constancy at last found its reward. It was not +long before friendship ripened into a love as ardent +as his own; and for the first time this fickle beauty, +whose heart had been a pawn in the game of ambition, +knew what a beautiful and ennobling thing true +love is.</p> +<p>Those were halcyon days which followed for de +Cossé and the lady his loyalty had won; days of +sweet meetings and tender partings—of a union of +souls which even death was powerless to dissolve. +When they could not meet—and de Cossé's duties +often kept him from her side—letters were always on +the wing between Lucienne and Paris, letters some +of which have survived to bring their fragrance to +our day.</p> +<p>Thus the lover writes, "A thousand thanks, a +thousand thanks, dear heart! To-day I shall be +with you. Yes, I find my happiness is in being loved +by you. I kiss you a thousand times! Good-bye. +I love you for ever." In another letter we read, +"Yes, dear heart, I desire so ardently to be with you—not +in spirit, my thoughts are ever with you, but +bodily—that nothing can calm my impatience. +Good-bye, my darling. I kiss you many and many +times with all my heart." The curious may read at +<a name="Page_50"></a>the French Record Office many of these letters +written in a bold, flowing hand by de Cossé in the +hey-day of his love. The paper is time-stained, +the ink is faded; but each sentence still palpitates +with the passion that inspired it a century and a +quarter ago.</p> +<p>And with this great love came new honours for +de Cossé. His father's death made him Duc de +Brissac, head of one of the greatest houses in France, +owner of vast estates. He was appointed Governor +of Paris and Colonel of the King's own body-guard. +He had, in fact, risen to a perilous eminence; for the +clouds of the great Revolution were already massing +in the sky, and the <i>sans-culotte</i> crowds were straining +to be at the throats of the cursed "aristos," and +to hurl Louis from his throne. Brissac (as we must +now call him) was thus an object of special hatred, +as of splendour, standing out so prominently as representative +of the hated <i>noblesse</i>.</p> +<p>Other nobles, fearful of the breaking of the storm, +were flying in droves to seek safety in England and +elsewhere. But when the Governor of Paris was +urged to fly, he answered proudly, "Certainly not. +I shall act according to my duty to my ancestors and +myself." And, heedless of his life, he clung to his +duty and his honour, presenting a smiling face to the +scowls of hatred and envy, and spending blissful +hours at Lucienne with the woman he loved.</p> +<p>Nor was she any less conscious of her danger, or +less indifferent to it. She also had become a target +of hatred and scarcely veiled threats. Watchful +eyes marked every coming and going of Brissac's +<a name="Page_51"></a>messengers with their missives of love; it was +discovered +that Brissac's aide-de-camp, whose life they +sought, was in hiding in her house; that she was +supplying the noble emigrants with money. The +climax was reached when she boldly advertised a +reward of two thousand louis for a clue to the jewellery +of which burglars had robbed her—jewels of +which she published a long and dazzling list, thus +bringing to memory the days when the late King had +squandered his ill-gotten gold on her.</p> +<p>The Duc, at last alarmed for her—never for himself—begged +her either to escape, or, as he wrote, +to "come quickly, my darling, and take every precaution +for your valuables, if you have any left. Yes, +come, and your beauty, your kindness and magnanimity. +I am ashamed of it, but I feel weaker than +you. How should I feel otherwise for the one I +love best?"</p> +<p>But already the hour for flight had passed. The +passions of the mob were breaking down the barriers +that were now too weak to hold them in check; the +Paris streets had their first baptism of blood, prelude +to the deluge to follow; hideous, fierce-eyed crowds +were clamouring at the gates of Versailles; and de +Brissac was soon on his way, a prisoner, to Orleans.</p> +<p>The blow had fallen at last, suddenly, and with +crushing force. When "Louis Hercule Timoleon +de Cossé-Brissac, soldier from his birth," was charged +before the National High Court with admitting +Royalists into the Guards, he answered: "I have +admitted into the King's Guards no one but citizens +who fulfilled all the conditions contained in the decree +<a name="Page_52"></a>of formation": and no other answer or plea would +he deign to his accusers.</p> +<p>From his Orleans prison, where he now awaited +the inevitable end, he wrote daily to his beloved lady; +and every day brought him a tender and cheering +letter from her. On 11th August, 1792, he writes: +"I received this morning the best letter I have had +for a long time past; none have rejoiced my heart +so much. Thank you for it. I kiss you a thousand +times. You indeed will have my last thought. Ah, +my darling, why am I not with you in a wilderness +rather than in Orleans?"</p> +<p>A few days later news reached Madame du Barry +that her lover, with other prisoners, was to be brought +from Orleans to Paris. He would thus actually pass +her own door; she would at least see him once again, +under however tragic conditions. With what leaden +steps the intervening hours crawled by! Each sound +set her heart beating furiously as if it would choke +her. Each moment was an agony of anticipation. +At last she hears the sound of coming feet. She flies +to the window, piercing the dark night with straining +eyes. The sound grows nearer, a tumult of trampling +feet and hoarse cries. A mob of dark figures +surges through her gates, pours riotously up the steps +and through the open door. In the hall there is a +pandemonium of cries and oaths; the door of her +room is burst open, and something is flung at her +feet. She glances down; and, with a gasp of +unspeakable horror, looks down on the severed head +of her lover, red with his blood.</p> +<p>The <i>sans-culottes</i> had indeed taken a terrible +<a name="Page_53"></a>revenge. They had fallen in overwhelming numbers +on the prisoners and their escort; the soldiers had +fled; and de Brissac found himself the centre of a +mob, the helpless target of a hundred murderous +blows. With a knife for sole weapon he fought valiantly, +like the brave soldier he was, until a cowardly +blow from behind felled him to the ground. "Fire +at me with your pistols," he shouted, "your work +will the sooner be over." A few moments later he +drew his last gallant breath, almost within sight of the +house that sheltered his beloved.</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 25%;"> +<p>United in life, the lovers were not long to be +divided. "Since that awful day," Madame du +Barry wrote to a friend, "you can easily imagine what +my grief has been. They have consummated the +frightful crime, the cause of my misery and my eternal +regrets—my grief is complete—a life which ought +to have been so grand and glorious! Good God, +what an end!"</p> +<p>Thus cruelly deprived of all that made life worth +living, she cared little how soon the end came. "I +ask nothing now of life," she wrote, "but that it +should quickly give me back to him." And her +prayer was soon to be granted. A few months after +that night of horrors she herself was awaiting the +guillotine in her cell at the conciergerie.</p> +<p>In vain did an Irish priest who visited her offer to +secure her escape if she would give him money to +bribe her jailers. "No," she answered with a smile, +"I have no wish to escape. I am glad to die; but I +will give you money willingly on condition that you +<a name="Page_54"></a>save the Duchesse de Mortemart." And while +Madame de Mortemart, daughter of the man she +loved, was making her way to safety under the priest's +escort, Jeanne du Barry was being led to the scaffold, +breathing the name of the man she had loved +so well; and, however feeble the flesh, glad to follow +where he had led the way.</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 35%;"> +<a name="CHAPTER_VI"></a> +<h2><a name="Page_55"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> +<h2>THE REGENT'S DAUGHTER</h2> +<br> +<p>Many unwomanly women have played their parts in +the drama of Royal Courts, but scarcely one, not +even those Messalinas, Catherine II. of Russia and +Christina of Sweden, conducted herself with such +a shameless disregard of conventionality as Marie +Louise Elizabeth d'Orléans, known to fame as the +Duchesse de Berry, who probably crowded within +the brief space of her years more wickedness than any +woman who was ever cradled in a palace.</p> +<p>It is said that this libertine Duchesse was mad; +and certainly he would be a bold champion who +would try to prove her sanity. But, apart from any +question of a disordered brain, there was a taint in +her blood sufficient to account for almost any lapse +from conventional standards of pure living. Her +father was that Duc d'Orléans who shocked the none +too strait-laced Europe of two centuries ago by his +orgies; her grandfather was that other Orleans Duke, +brother of Louis XIV., whose passion for his minions +broke the heart of his English wife, the Stuart Princess +Henriettta; and she had for mother one of the +daughters of Madame de Montespan, light-o'-love to +<i>le Roi Soleil</i>.</p> +<p><a name="Page_56"></a>The offspring of such parents could scarcely +have +been normal; and how far from normal Marie Louise +was, this story of her singular life will show. When +her father, the Duc de Chartres, took to wife Mademoiselle +de Blois, Montespan's daughter, there were +many who significantly shrugged their shoulders and +curled their lips at such a union; and one at least, the +Duc's mother, Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine, +was undisguisedly furious. She refused point-blank +to be present at the nuptials, and when her +son, fresh from the altar, approached her to ask her +blessing, she retorted by giving the bridegroom a +resounding slap on the face.</p> +<p>Such was the ill-omened opening to a wedded life +which brought nothing but unhappiness with it and +which gave to the world some of the most degenerate +women (in addition to a son who was almost an idiot) +who have ever been cradled.</p> +<p>The first of these degenerates was Marie Elizabeth, +who was born one August day in the year 1695, +and who from her earliest infancy was her father's +pet and favourite. His idolatry of his first-born +child, indeed, is one of the most inscrutable things +in a life full of the abnormal, and in later years +afforded much material for the tongue of scandal. +He was inseparable from her; her lightest wish was +law to him; he nursed her through her childish illnesses +with more than the devotion of a mother; and, +as she grew to girlhood, he worshipped at the shrine +of her young beauty with the adoration of a lover and +put her charms on canvas in the guise of a pagan +goddess.</p> +<p><a name="Page_57"></a>The Duc's affection for his daughter, indeed, +was +so extravagant that it was made the subject of scores +of scurrilous lampoons to which even Voltaire contributed, +and was a delicious morsel of ill-natured +gossip in all the <i>salons</i> and cabarets of Paris. At +fifteen the princess was already a woman—tall, handsome, +well-formed, with brilliant eyes and the full +lips eloquent of a sensuous nature. Already she +had had her initiation into the vices that proved her +undoing; for in a Court noted for its free-living, she +was known for her love of the table and the wine-bottle.</p> +<p>Such was the Duc's eldest daughter when she was +ripe for the altar and became the object of an intrigue +in which her scheming father, the Royal Duchesses, +the Duc de Saint-Simon, the King himself, and the +Jesuits all took a part, and the prize of which was +the hand of the young Duc de Berry, a younger son +of the Dauphin, the grandson of King Louis.</p> +<p>Over the plotting and counterplotting, the rivalries +and jealousies which followed, we must pass. It +must suffice to record that the King's consent was at +last won by the Orleans faction; Madame de Maintenon +was persuaded to smile on the alliance; and, +one July day, the nuptials of the Duc de Berry and +the Orleans Princess were celebrated in the presence +of the Royal family and the Court. A regal supper +followed; and, the last toast drunk, the young couple +were escorted to their room with all the stately, if +scarcely decent, ceremonial which in those days +inaugurated the life of the newly-wedded.</p> +<p>Seldom has there been a more singular union than +<a name="Page_58"></a>this of the Duc d'Orléans' prodigal +daughter with +the almost imbecile grandson of the French King. +The Duc de Berry, it is true, was good to look upon. +Tall, fair-haired, with a good complexion and splendid +health, he was physically, at twenty-four, no unworthy +descendant of the great Louis. He had, too, +many amiable qualities calculated to win affection; +but he was mentally little better than a clown. His +education had been shamefully neglected; he had +been suppressed and kept in the background until, in +spite of his manhood, he had all the shyness, awkwardness +and dullness of a backward child.</p> +<p>As he himself confessed to Madame de Saint-Simon, +"They have done all they could to stifle my +intelligence. They did not want me to have any +brains. I was the youngest, and yet ventured to +argue with my brother. Afraid of the results of my +courage, they crushed me; they taught me nothing +except to hunt and gamble; they succeeded in +making a fool of me, one incapable of anything +and who will yet be the laughing-stock of everybody."</p> +<p>Such was the weak-kneed husband to whom was +now allied the most precocious, headstrong young +woman in all France; who, although still short of +her sixteenth birthday, was a past-mistress of the arts +of pleasure, and was now determined to have her full +fling at any cost. She had been thoroughly spoiled +by her too indulgent father, who was even then the +most powerful man in France after the King; and +she was in no mood to brook restraint from anyone, +even from Louis himself.</p> +<p><a name="Page_59"></a>The pleasures of the table seem now to have +absorbed the greater part of her life. Read what +her grandmother, the Princess Palatine, says of her: +"Madame de Berry does not eat much at dinner. +How, indeed, can she? She never leaves her room +before noon, and spends her mornings in eating all +kinds of delicacies. At two o'clock she sits down +to an elaborate dinner, and does not rise from the +table until three. At four she is eating again—fruit, +salad, cheese, etc. She takes no exercise whatever. +At ten she has a heavy supper, and retires to bed +between one and two in the morning. She likes +very strong brandy." And in this last sentence we +have the true secret of her undoing. The Royal +Princess was, even tat this early age, a confirmed +dipsomaniac, with her brandy bottle always by her +side; and was seldom sober, from rising to retiring.</p> +<p>To such a woman, a slave to the senses, a husband +like the Duc de Berry, unredeemed by a vestige of +manliness, could make no appeal. She wanted +"men" to pay her homage; and, like Catherine of +Russia, she had them in abundance—lovers who were +only too ready to pay court to a beautiful Princess, +who might one day be Queen of France. For the +Dauphin was now dead; his eldest son, the Duc de +Bourgogne, had followed him to the grave a few +months later. Prince Philip had renounced his right +to the French crown when he accepted that of Spain; +and, between her husband and the throne there was +now but one frail life, that of the three-year-old Duc +d'Anjou, a child so delicate that he might easily not +survive his great-grandfather, Louis, whose hand was +<a name="Page_60"></a>already relaxing its grasp of the sceptre he had +held +so long.</p> +<p>On the intrigues with which this Queen <i>in posse</i> +beguiled her days, it is perhaps well not to look too +closely. They are unsavoury, as so much of her life +was. Her lovers succeeded one another with quite +bewildering rapidity, and with little regard either to +rank or good-looks. One special favourite of our +Sultana was La Haye, a Court equerry, whom she +made Chamberlain, and who is pictured by Saint-Simon +as "tall, bony, with an awkward carriage and +an ugly face; conceited, stupid, dull-witted, and only +looking at all passable when on horseback."</p> +<p>So infatuated was the Duchesse with her ill-favoured +equerry that nothing less would please her +than an elopement to Holland—a proposal which so +scared La Haye that, in his alarm, he went forthwith +to the lady's father and let the cat out of the bag. +"Why on earth does my daughter want to run away +to Holland?" the Due exclaimed with a laugh. "I +should have thought she was having quite a good +enough time here!" And so would anyone else have +thought.</p> +<p>And while his Duchesse was thus dallying with her +multitude of lovers and stupefying herself with her +brandy bottle, her husband was driven to his wits' +end by her exhibitions of temper, as by her infidelities. +In vain he stormed and threatened to have her +shut up in a convent. All her retort was to laugh +in his face and order him out of her apartment. +Violent scenes were everyday incidents. "The last +one," says Saint-Simon, "was at Rambouillet; and, +<a name="Page_61"></a>by a regrettable mishap, the Duchesse received a +kick."</p> +<p>The Duc's laggard courage was spurred to fight +more than one duel for his wife's tarnished fame. Of +one of these sorry combats, Maurepas writes, "Her +conduct with her father became so notorious that His +Grace the Duc de Berry, disgusted at the scandal, +forced the Duc d'Orléans to fight a duel on the terrace +at Marly. They were, however, soon separated, +and the whole affair was hushed up."</p> +<p>But release from such an intolerable life was soon +coming to the ill-used Duc. One day, when hunting, +he was thrown from his horse, and ruptured a +blood-vessel. Fearful of alarming the King, now +near the end of his long life, he foolishly made light +of his accident, and only consented to see a doctor +when it was too late. When the doctors were at last +summoned he was a dying man, his body drained of +blood, which was later found in bowls concealed in +various parts of his bedroom. With his last breath, +he said to his confessor, "Ah, reverend father, I +alone am the real cause of my death."</p> +<p>Thus, one May day in 1714, the Duchesse found +herself a widow, within four years of her wedding-day; +and the last frail barrier was removed from the +path of self-indulgence and low passions to which +her life was dedicated. When, with the aged King's +death in the following year, her father became Regent +of France, her position as daughter of the virtual +sovereign was now more splendid than ever; and +before she had worn her widow's weeds a month, she +had plunged again, still deeper, into dissipation, with +<a name="Page_62"></a>Madame de Mouchy, one of her waiting-women, as +chief minister to her pleasures.</p> +<p>It was at this time, before her husband had been +many weeks in his grave, that the Comte de Riom, +the last and most ill-favoured of her many lovers, +came on the scene. Nothing but a perverted taste +could surely have seen any attraction in such a lover +as this grand-nephew of the Duc de Lauzun, of whom +the austere and disapproving Palatine Duchess draws +the following picture: "He has neither figure nor +good-looks. He is more like an ogre than a man, +with his face of greenish yellow. He has the nose, +eyes, and mouth of a Chinaman; he looks, in fact, +more like a baboon than the Gascon he really is. +Conceited and stupid, his large head seems to sit on +his broad shoulders, owing to the shortness of his neck. +He is shortsighted and altogether is preternaturally +ugly; and he appears so ill that he might be suffering +from some loathsome disease."</p> +<p>To this unflattering description, Saint-Simon adds +the fact that his "large, pasty face was so covered +by pimples that it looked like one large abscess.'" +Such, then, was the repulsive lover who found favour +in the eyes of the Regent's daughter, and for whom +she was ready to discard all her legion of more attractive +wooers.</p> +<p>With the coming of de Riom, the Duchesse entered +on the last and worst stage of her mis-spent life. +Strange tales are told of the orgies of which the +Luxembourg, the splendid palace her father had given +her, was now the scene—orgies in which Madame de +Mouchy and a Jesuit, one Father Ringlet, took a +<a name="Page_63"></a>part, and over which the evil de Riom ruled as +"Lord +of merry disports." The Duchesse, now sunk to the +lowest depths of degradation, was the veriest puppet +in his strong hands, flattered by his coarse attentions +and submitting to rudeness and ridicule such as any +grisette, with a grain of pride, would have resented.</p> +<p>When these scandalous "carryings-on" at the +Luxembourg Palace reached the Regent's ears and +he ventured to read his daughter a severe lecture on +her conduct, she retaliated by snapping her fingers +at him and telling him in so many words to mind his +own business. And to the tongue of scandal that +found voice everywhere, she turned a contemptuous +ear. She even locked and barred her palace gates +to keep prying eyes at a safe distance.</p> +<p>But, although she thus defied man, she was powerless +to stay the steps of fate. Her health, robust as +it had been, was shattered by her excesses; and when +a serious illness assailed her, she was horrified to find +death so uncomfortably near. In her alarm she called +for a priest to shrive her; and the Abbé Languet +came at the summons to bring her the consolations +of the Church. He refused point-blank, however, +to give the sinner absolution until the palace +was purged of the presence of de Riom and Madame +de Mouchy, the arch-partners in her vices.</p> +<p>To this suggestion the Duchesse, perilous as her +condition was, returned an uncompromising "No!" +If the Abbé would not absolve her—well, there were +other priests, less exacting, who would; and one +such priest of elastic conscience, a Franciscan friar, +was summoned to her bedside. Then ensued an +<a name="Page_64"></a>unseemly struggle around the dying woman's bed, +in which the Regent, Cardinal Noailles, Madame de +Mouchy, and the rival clerics all played their parts.</p> +<p>While the obliging friar remained in the room +awaiting an opportunity to administer the last Sacrament, +the Abbé and his curates kept watch at the +bedroom door to see that he did no such thing; and +thus the siege lasted for four days and nights until, +the patient's crisis over, the services of the Church +were summarily dispensed with.</p> +<p>With the return of health, the Duchesse's piety +quickly evaporated. It is true that she had had a +fright; and, by way of modified penitence, she vowed +to dress herself and her household in white for six +months and also to make a husband of her lover. +Within a few weeks, de Riom led the Regent's +daughter to the altar, thus throwing the cloak of the +Church over the licence of the past.</p> +<p>Now that our Princess was once more a "respectable" +woman, she returned gladly to her old life of +indulgence; until the Duchess Palatine exclaimed in +alarm, "I am afraid her excesses in drinking and eating +will kill her." And never was prediction more +sure of early fulfilment. When she was not keeping +company with her brandy bottle, she was gorging +herself with delicacies of all kinds, from patties and +fricassées to peaches and nectarines, washed down +with copious draughts of iced beer.</p> +<p>As a last desperate effort to reform her, at the +eleventh hour, the Regent packed de Riom off to his +regiment. A few days later, the Duchesse invited +her father to a sumptuous banquet on the terrace at +<a name="Page_65"></a>Meudon, at which, regardless of her delicate +health, +she ate and drank more voraciously than ever. The +same evening she was taken ill; and when, on the +following Sunday, her mother-in-law, the Duchess, +visited her, she found the patient in a deplorable +condition—wasted to a "shadow" and burning with +fever. "She was suffering such horrible pains in her +toes and under the feet," says the Duchess, "that +tears came to her eyes. She looked so very bad that +three doctors were called in consultation. They resolved +to bleed her; but it was difficult to bring her +to it, for her pains were so great that the least touch +of the sheets made her shriek."</p> +<p>A few days later, in the early hours of 17th July, +1719, the Duchesse de Berry passed away in her +sleep. The life which she had wasted with such shameless +prodigality closed in peace; and at the moment +when she was being laid to rest in the Church of St +Denis, Madame de Mouchy, blazing in the dead +woman's jewels, was laughing merrily over her +champagne-glass at a dinner-party to which she had +invited all the sharers in the orgies which had made +the Palace of the Luxembourg infamous!</p> +<p>The moral of this pitifully squandered life needs +no pointing out. And on reviewing it one can only +in charity echo the words spoken by Madame de +Meilleraye of another sinner, the Chevalier de Savoie, +"For my part, I believe the good God must think +twice before sending one born of such parents to the +nether regions."</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 35%;"> +<a name="CHAPTER_VII"></a> +<h2><a name="Page_66"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> +<h2>A PRINCESS OF MYSTERY</h2> +<p>In the spring of the year 1772 the fashionable world +of Paris was full of speculation and gossip about a +stranger, as mysterious as she was beautiful, who had +appeared from no one knew where, in its midst, and +who called herself the Princess Aly Émettée de +Vlodimir. That she was a woman of rank and +distinction admitted of no question. Her queenly +carriage and the graciousness and dignity of her +deportment were in keeping with the Royal character +she assumed; but more remarkable than these evidences +of high station was her beauty, which in +its brilliance eclipsed that of the fairest women of +Versailles and the Tuileries.</p> +<p>Tall, with a figure of exquisite modelling and +grace, her daintily poised head crowned with a +coronal of golden-brown hair, with a face of perfect +oval, dimpled cheeks as delicately tinted as a rose, +her chief glory lay in her eyes, large and lustrous, +which had the singular quality of changing colour—"now +blue, now black, which gave to their dreamy +expression a peculiar, mysterious air."</p> +<p>Who was she, this woman of beauty and mystery? +<a name="Page_67"></a>It was rumoured that she was a Circassian +Princess, +"the heroine of strange romances." She was living +luxuriously in a fine house in the most fashionable +quarter of Paris, in company with two German +"Barons"—one, the Baron von Embs, who claimed +to be her cousin; the other, Baron von Schenk, who +appeared to play the rôle of guardian. To her +<i>salon</i> in the Ile St Louis were flocking many of the +greatest men in France, infatuated by her beauty, +and paying homage to her charms. To a man, they +adored the mysterious lady—from Prince Ojinski +and other illustrious refugees from Poland to the +Comte de Rochefort-Velcourt, the Duke of Limburg's +representative at the French Court, and the +wealthy old <i>beau</i> M. de Marine, who, it was said, +placed his long purse at her disposal.</p> +<p>But while the men were thus her slaves, the women +tossed their heads contemptuously at their dangerous +rival. She was an adventuress, they declared with +one voice; and great was their satisfaction when, one +day, news came that the Baron von Embs had been +arrested for debt and that, on investigation, he proved +to be no Baron at all, but the good-for-nothing son of +a Ghent tradesman.</p> +<p>The "bubble" had soon burst, and the attentions +of the police became so embarrassing that the Princess +was glad to escape from the scene of her brief +triumphs with her cavaliers (Von Embs' liberty +having been purchased by that "credulous old fool," +de Marine) to Frankfort, leaving a wake of debts +behind.</p> +<p>Arrived at Frankfort, the fair Circassian resumed +<a name="Page_68"></a>her luxurious mode of life, carrying a part of +her +retinue of admirers with her, and making it known +that she was daily expecting a large remittance from +her good friend, the Shah of Persia. And it was not +long before, thanks to the offices of de Rochefort-Velcourt, +she had at her feet no less a personage than +Philip, Duke of Limburg, and Prince of the Empire, +one of those petty German potentates who assumed +more than the airs and arrogance of kings. Though +his duchy was no larger than an English county, +Philip had his ambassadors at the Courts of Vienna +and Versailles; and though he had neither courtiers, +army, nor exchequer, he lavished his titles of nobility +and surrounded himself with as much state and ceremonial +as any Tsar or Emperor.</p> +<p>But exalted and serene as was His Highness, he +was caught as helplessly in the toils of the Princess +Aly as any lovesick boy; and within a week of +making his first bow had her installed in his Castle +of Oberstein, after satisfying the most clamorous of +her creditors with borrowed money. That there +might be no question of obligation, the Princess +repaid him with the most lavish promises to redeem +his heavily mortgaged estate with the millions she +was daily expecting from Persia, and to use her great +influence with Tsar and Sultan to support his claim +to the Schleswig and Holstein duchies. And that +he might be in no doubt as to her ability to discharge +these promises, she showed him letters, addressed +to her in the friendliest of terms by these august +personages.</p> +<p>Each day in the presence of this most alluring of +<a name="Page_69"></a>princesses forged new fetters for the susceptible +Duke, until one day she announced to him, with +tears streaming down her pretty cheeks, that she +had received a letter recalling her to Persia—to +be married. The crucial hour had arrived. The +Duke, reduced to despair, begs her to accept his own +exalted hand in marriage, vowing that, if she refuses, +he will "shut himself up in a cloister"; and is only +restored to a measure of sanity when she promises to +consider his offer.</p> +<p>When Hornstein, the Duke's ambassador to +Vienna, appears on the scene, full of suspicion and +doubts, she makes an equally easy conquest of him. +She announces to his gratified ears her wish to become +a Catholic; flatters him by begging him to act as her +instructor in the creed that is so dear to him; and she +reveals to him "for the first time" the true secret of +her identity. She is really, she says, the Princess of +Azov, heiress to vast estates, which may come to her +any day; and the first use she intends to make of her +millions is to fill the empty coffers of the Limburg +duchy.</p> +<p>Hornstein is not only converted; he becomes as +ardent an admirer as his master, the Duke. The +Princess takes her place as the coming Duchess of +Limburg, much to the disgust of his subjects, who +show their feelings by hissing when she appears in +public. Her hour of triumph has arrived—when, +like a bolt from the blue, an anonymous letter comes +to Hornstein revealing the story of her past doings +in several capitals of Europe, and branding her as +an "impostor."</p> +<p><a name="Page_70"></a>For a time the Duke treats these anonymous +slanders with scorn. He refuses to believe a word +against his divinity, the beautiful, high-born woman +who is to crown his life's happiness and, incidentally, +to save him from bankruptcy. But gradually the +poison begins to work, supplemented as it is by the +suspicions and discontent of his subjects. At last +he summons up courage to ask an explanation—to +beg her to assure him that the charges against her +are as false as he believes them.</p> +<p>She listens to him with quiet dignity until he has +finished, and then replies, with tears in her eyes, that +she is not unprepared for disloyalty from a man who +is so obviously the slave of false friends and of public +opinion, but that she had hoped that he would at +least have some pity and consideration for a woman +who was about to become the mother of his child. +This unexpected announcement, with its appeal to +his manhood, proves more eloquent than a world of +proofs and protestations. The Duke's suspicions +vanish in face of the news that the woman he loves +is to become the mother of his child, and in a moment +he is at her knees imploring her pardon, and uttering +abject apologies. He is now more deeply than +ever in her toils, ready to defy the world in defence +of the Princess he adores and can no longer +doubt.</p> +<p>It is at this stage that a man who was to play such +an important part in the Princess's life first crosses +her path—one Domanski, a handsome young Pole, +whose passionate and ill-fated patriotism had driven +him from his native land to find an asylum, like many +<a name="Page_71"></a>another Polish refugee, in the Limburg duchy. He +had heard much of the romantic story of the Princess +Aly, and was drawn by sympathy, as by the rumour +of her remarkable beauty, to seek an interview with +her, during her visit to Mannheim. Such a meeting +could have but one issue for the romantic Pole. He +lost both head and heart at sight of the lovely and +gracious Princess, and from that moment became the +most devoted of all her slaves.</p> +<p>When she returned to Oberstein he was swift to +follow her and to install himself under her castle walls, +where he could catch an occasional glimpse of her, +or, by good-fortune, have a few blissful moments in +her company. Indeed, it was not long before stories +began to be circulated among the good folk of Oberstein +of strange meetings between the mysterious +young stranger who had come to live in their midst +and an equally mysterious lady. "The postman," +it was rumoured, "often sees him on the road leading +to the castle, talking in a shadow with someone +enveloped in a long, black, hooded cloak, whom he +once thought he recognised as the Princess."</p> +<p>No wonder tongues wagged in Oberstein. What +could be the meaning of these secret assignations +between the Princess, who was the destined bride +of their Duke, and the obscure young refugee? +It was a delicious bit of scandal to add to the +many which had already gathered round the +"adventuress."</p> +<p>But there was a greater surprise in store for the +Obersteiners, as for the world outside their walls. +Soon it began to be rumoured that the Duke's <a name="Page_72"></a>bride-to-be +was no obscure Circassian +Princess; this +was merely a convenient cloak to conceal her true +identity, which was none less than that of daughter +of an Empress! She was, in fact, the child of Elizabeth, +Tsarina of Russia, and her peasant husband, +Razoum; and in proof of her exalted birth she +actually had in her possession the will in which +the late Empress bequeathed to her the throne of +Russia.</p> +<p>How these rumours originated none seemed to +know. Was it Domanski who set them circulating? +We know, at least, that they soon became public +property, and that, strangely enough, they won +credence everywhere. The very people who had +branded her "adventuress" and hissed her in the +streets, now raised cheers to the future Empress of +Russia; while the Duke, delighted at such a wonderful +transformation in the woman he loved, was more +eager than ever to hasten the day when he could call +her his own. As for the Princess, she accepted her +new dignities with the complaisance to be expected +from the daughter of a Tsarina. There was now no +need to refer the sceptics to Circassia for proof of +her station and her potential wealth. As heiress to +one of the greatest thrones of Europe, she could at +last reveal herself in her true character, without any +need for dissimulation.</p> +<p>The curtain was now ready to rise on the crowning +act of her life-drama, an act more brilliant than any +she had dared to imagine. Russia was seething +with discontent and rebellion; the throne of Catherine +II. was trembling; one revolt had followed +<a name="Page_73"></a>another, until Pugatchef had led his rabble of a +hundred thousand serfs to the very gates of Moscow—only, +when success seemed assured, to meet +disaster and death. If the ex-bandit could come +so near to victory, an uprising headed by Elizabeth's +own daughter and heiress could scarcely fail to hurl +Catherine from her throne.</p> +<p>It would have been difficult to find a more powerful +ally in this daring project than Prince Charles +Radziwill, chief of Polish patriots, who was then, as +luck would have it, living in exile at Mannheim, and +who hated Russia as only a Pole ever hated her. +To Radziwill, then, Domanski went to offer the help +of his Princess for the liberation of Poland and the +capture of Catherine's throne.</p> +<p>Here indeed was a valuable pawn to play in +Radziwill's game of vengeance and ambition. But +the Prince was by no means disposed to snatch the +bait hurriedly. Experience had taught him caution. +He must count the cost carefully before taking the +step, and while writing to the Princess, "I consider it +a miracle of Providence that it has provided so great +a heroine for my unhappy country," he took his +departure to Venice, suggesting that the Princess +should meet him there, where matters could be more +safely and successfully discussed. Thus it was that +the Princess said her last good-bye to her ducal +lover, full of promises for the future when she should +have won her throne, and as "Countess of Pinneberg" +set forth with a retinue of followers to Venice, +where she was regally received at the French +embassy.</p> +<p><a name="Page_74"></a>Here she tasted the first sweets of her coming +Queendom—holding her Courts, to which distinguished +Poles and Frenchmen flocked to pay +homage to the Empress-to-be, and having daily +conferences with Radziwill, who treated her as +already a Queen. That her purse was empty and +the bankers declined to honour her drafts was a +matter to smile at, since the way now seemed clear +to a crown, with all it meant of wealth and power. +When the Venetian Government grew uneasy at the +plotting within its borders, she went to Ragusa, +where she blossomed into the "Princess of all the +Russias," assumed the sceptre that was soon to +be hers, issued proclamations as a sovereign, and +crowned these regal acts by sending a ukase to +Alexis Orloff, the Russian Commander-in-Chief, +"signed Elizabeth II., and instructing him to communicate +its contents to the army and fleet under his +command."</p> +<p>Once more, however, fortune played the Princess +a scurvy trick, just when her favour seemed most +assured. One night a man was seen scaling the +garden-wall of the palace she was occupying. The +guard fired at him, and the following morning +Domanski was found, lying wounded and unconscious +in the garden. The tongues of scandal were +set wagging again, old suspicions were revived, and +once again the word "adventuress"—and worse—passed +from mouth to mouth. The men who had +fawned on her now avoided her; worse still, Radziwill, +his latent suspicions thoroughly awakened, and +confirmed by a hundred stories and rumours that +<a name="Page_75"></a>came to his ears, declined to have anything more +to +do with her, and returned in disgust to Germany.</p> +<p>But even this crushing rebuff was powerless to +damp the spirits and ambition of the "adventuress," +who shook the dust of Ragusa off her dainty feet, and +went off to Rome, where she soon cast her spell over +Sir William Hamilton, our Ambassador there, who +gave her the warmest hospitality. "For several +days," we learn, "she reigns like a Queen in the +<i>salon</i> of the Ambassador, out of whose penchant +for beautiful women she has no difficulty in wiling +a passport that enables her to enter the most exclusive +circles of Roman society."</p> +<p>In Rome she lays aside her regal trappings, and +wins the respect of all by her unostentatious living +and her prodigal charities. She becomes a favourite +at the Vatican; Cardinals do homage to her +goodness, with perhaps a pardonable eye to her +beauty. But behind the brave and pious front she +thus shows to the world her heart is growing more +heavy day by day. Poverty is at her door in the +guise of importunate creditors, her servants are +clamouring for overdue wages, and consumption, +which for long has threatened her, now shows its +presence in hectic cheeks and a hacking cough. +Fortune seems at last to have abandoned her; and +it requires all her courage to sustain her in this hour +of darkness.</p> +<p>In her extremity she appeals to Sir William +Hamilton for a loan, much as a Queen might confer +a favour on a subject, and Hamilton, pleased to be +of service to so fair and pious a lady, sends her letter +<a name="Page_76"></a>to his Leghorn banker, Mr John Dick, with +instructions +to arrange the matter</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 25%;"> +<p style="text-align: center;"><br> +<img style="width: 276px; height: 341px;" alt="Count Gregory Orloff" + title="Count Gregory Orloff" src="images/court003.jpg"><a name="img003"></a><br> +</p> +<h5>COUNT GREGORY ORLOFF.</h5> +<p>While the Princess Aly was practising piety and +cultivating Cardinals in Rome, with an empty purse +and a pain-racked body to make a mockery of her +claim to a crown, away in distant Russia Catherine +II. was nursing a terrible revenge on the woman who +had dared to usurp her position and threaten her +throne. The succession of revolutions, at which +she had at first smiled scornfully, had now roused the +tigress in her. She would show the world that she +was no woman to be trifled with, and the first victim +of her vengeance should be that brazen Princess who +dared to masquerade as "Elizabeth II."</p> +<p>She sent imperative orders to her trusted and +beloved Orloff, fresh from his crushing defeat of the +Turkish fleet, to seize her at any cost, even if he had +to raze Ragusa to the ground; and these orders she +knew would be executed to the letter. For was not +Orloff the man whose strong hands had strangled her +husband and placed the crown on her head; also her +most devoted slave? He was, it is true, the biggest +scoundrel (as he was also one of the handsomest +men) in Europe, a man ready to stoop to any infamy, +and thus the best possible tool for such an infamous +purpose; but he was also her greatest admirer, eager +to step into the place of "chief favourite" from which +his brother Gregory had just been dismissed.</p> +<p>When, however, Orloff went to Ragusa, with his +soldiers at his back, he found that the Princess had +already flown, leaving no trace behind her. He +<a name="Page_77"></a>ransacked Sicily in vain, and it was only when +Sir +William Hamilton's letter to his Leghorn banker +came to his hands that he discovered that she was +in Rome, a much safer asylum than Ragusa. It was +hopeless now to capture her by force; he must try +diplomacy, and, by the hands of an aide-de-camp, he +sent her a letter in which he informed her that he +had received her ukase and was anxious to pay due +homage to the future Empress of Russia.</p> +<p>Such was the "Judas" message Kristenef, Orloff's +emissary, carried to the Princess, whom he found in +a pitiful condition, wasted to a shadow by disease +and starvation—"in a room cold and bare, whose +only furniture was a leather sofa, on which she lay +in a high fever, coughing convulsively." To such +pathetic straits was "Elizabeth II." reduced +when Kristenef came with his fawning airs and lying +tongue to tell her that Alexis Orloff, the greatest man +in Russia, had instructed him to offer her the throne +of the Tsars, and, as an earnest of his loyalty, to beg +her acceptance of a loan of eleven thousand ducats.</p> +<p>In vain did Domanski, who was still by her side, +warn her against the smooth-tongued envoy. She +was flattered by such unexpected homage, her eyes +were dazzled by the near prospect of the coveted +crown which was to be hers, at last, just when hope +seemed dead. She would accept Orloff's invitation +to go to Pisa to meet him. "As for you," she said, +"if you are afraid, you can stay behind. I am going +where Destiny calls me."</p> +<p>This revolution in her fortunes acted like magic. +New life coursed through her veins, colour returned +<a name="Page_78"></a>to her cheeks, and brightness to her eyes, as one +February day in 1775 she left Rome, with the +devoted Domanski for companion and a brilliant +escort, for Pisa, where Orloff greeted her as an +Empress. He gave regal fêtes in her honour +and filled her ears with honeyed and flattering +words.</p> +<p>Affecting to be dazzled by her beauty, he even +dared to make passionate love to her, which no man +of his day could do more effectively than this handsomest +of the Orloffs; and so infatuated was the poor +Princess by the adoration of her handsome lover and +the assurance of the throne he was to give her, that +she at last consented to share that throne with him, +and by his side went through a marriage ceremony, +at which two of his officers masqueraded as officiating +priests.</p> +<p>Nothing remained now between her and the goal +of her desires, except to make the journey to Russia +as speedily as possible, and a few hours after the +wedding banquet we see her in the Admiral's launch, +with Orloff and Domanski and a brilliant suite of +officers, leaving Leghorn for the Russian flagship, +where she was received with the blare of bands and +the booming of artillery. The crowning moment +arrived when, as she was being hoisted to the deck in +a gorgeous chair suspended from the yard-arm, her +future sailors greeted her with thunders of shouts, +"Long live the Empress!"</p> +<p>The moment she set foot on deck she was seized, +handcuffs were snapped on her wrists, and she was +carried a helpless captive to a cabin. At the same +<a name="Page_79"></a>moment Domanski was overpowered before he had +time to use his sword, and made a prisoner.</p> +<p>The Princess's cries for Orloff, her husband and +saviour, are met with derision. Orloff she is told is +himself a prisoner. He has, in fact, vanished, his +dastardly mission executed; and she never saw him +again. Two months later the victim of a man's +treachery and a woman's vengeance is looking with +tear-dimmed eyes on "her capital" through a barred +window of a cell in the fortress of Saints Peter +and Paul.</p> +<p>Over the tragic closing of her days we may not +dwell long. The scene is too pitiful, too harrowing. +In vain she implores an interview with Catherine, who +blazes into anger at the request. "The impudence +of the wretch," she exclaims, "is beyond all bounds! +She must be mad. Tell her if she wishes any +improvement in her lot to cease the comedy she is +playing." Prince Galitzin, Grand Chancellor, exerts +all his skill in vain to force a confession of imposture +from her. To his wiles and threats alike she opposes +a dignified and calm front. She persists in the story +of her birth; refuses to admit that she is an impostor.</p> +<p>Even when she is flung into a loathsome cell, with +bread and water for diet, she does not waver a jot +in her demeanour of dignity or in her Royal claims. +Only when she is charged with being the daughter +of a Prague innkeeper does she allow indignation to +master her, as she retorts, "I have never been in +Prague in my life, and if I knew who had thus slandered +me I would scratch his eyes out." Domanski, +too, proves equally intractable; even the promise of +<a name="Page_80"></a>marriage to her will not wring from him a word +that +might discredit his beloved Princess.</p> +<p>But although the Princess keeps such a brave +heart under conditions that might well have broken +it, her spirit is powerless against the insidious disease +that is working such havoc with her body. In her +damp, noisome cell consumption makes rapid headway. +Her strength ebbs daily; the end is coming +swiftly near. She makes a last dying appeal to +Catherine to see her if but for a few moments, but +the appeal falls on deaf ears. When she sends for a +priest to minister to her last hours, and, by Catherine's +orders, he makes a final attempt to wrest her +secret from her, she moans with her failing breath, +"Say the prayers for the dead. That is all there is +for you to do here."</p> +<p>Four days later death came to her release. +Catherine's throne was safe from this danger at +least, and she was left to dalliance with her legion +of lovers, while the woman on whom she had wreaked +such terrible vengeance lay deeply buried in the +courtyard of her prison, the very soldiers who dug +her grave being sworn to secrecy. Thus in mystery +her life opened, and in secrecy it closed.</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 35%;"> +<a name="CHAPTER_VIII"></a> +<h2><a name="Page_81"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> +<h2>THE KING AND THE "LITTLE DOVE"</h2> +<p>A savage murmur ran through the market-place of +Bergen, one summer morning in the year 1507, as +Chancellor Valkendorf made his pompous way along +the avenues of stalls laden with their country produce, +his passage followed by scowling eyes and +low-spoken maledictions.</p> +<p>There could not have been a more unwelcome +visitor than this cold-eyed, supercilious Chancellor, +unless it were his master, Christian, the Danish +Prince who had come to rule Norway with the iron +hand, and to stamp out the fires of rebellion against +the alien rule that were always smouldering, when +not leaping into flame. Bergen itself had been the +scene of the latest revolt against oppressive and unjust +taxes, and the insolent Valkendorf, who was now +taking his morning stroll in the market-place, was +fresh from suppressing it with a rough hand which +had left many a smart and longing for vengeance +behind it.</p> +<p>But the Chancellor could afford to smile at such +evidences of unpopularity. He knew that he was the +most hated man in Norway—after his master—but +<a name="Page_82"></a>he had executed his mission well and was ready to +do it again. And thus it was with an air, half-amused, +half-contemptuous, that he made his progress +this July morning among the booths and stalls +of the market, with eyes scornfully blind to frowns, +but very wide open for any pretty face he might +chance to see.</p> +<p>He had not strolled far before his eyes were arrested +by as strangely contrasted a picture as any he +had ever seen. Behind one of the stalls, heaped high +with luscious, many-coloured fruits and mountains of +vegetables, were two women, each so remarkable in +her different way that, almost involuntarily, he stood +rooted to the spot, gazing open-eyed at them. The +elder of the two was of gigantic stature, towering +head and shoulders over her companion, with harsh, +masculine face, massive jaw, coarse protruding lips, +and black eyes which were fixed on him in a magnetic +stare, defiant and scornful—for none knew better +than she who the stranger was, and few hated him +more.</p> +<p>But it was not to this grim, hard-visaged Amazon +that Valkendorf's eyes were drawn, compelling as +were her stature and her basilisk stare. They quickly +turned from her, with a motion of contempt, to feast +on the vision by her side—that of a girl on the +threshold of young womanhood and of a beauty that +dazzled the eyes of the old voluptuary. How had +she come there and in such company, this ravishing +girl on whom Nature had lavished the last touch of +virginal loveliness, this maiden with her figure of +such supple grace, the proud little oval face with its +<a name="Page_83"></a>complexion of cream and roses, the dainty head +from +which twin plaits of golden hair fell almost to her +knees, and the eyes blue as violets, now veiled +demurely, now opening wide to reveal their glories, +enhanced by a look of appeal, almost of fear.</p> +<p>The Chancellor, who was the last man to pass by +a flower so seductively beautiful, approached the +stall, undaunted by the forbidding eyes of the +giantess, Frau Sigbrit, by name, and, after making +a small purchase, sought to draw her into amiable +conversation. "No," she said in answer to his +inquiries, "we are not Norwegian. We come from +Holland, my daughter and I, and we are trying to +earn a little money before returning there. But why +do you ask?" she demanded almost fiercely, putting +a protecting arm around the girl, as if she would +shield her from an enemy. "You are in such +a different world from ours!"</p> +<p>Little by little, however, the grim face began to +relax under the adroit flatteries and courtly deference +of the Chancellor—for none knew better than +he the arts of charming, when he pleased; and it was +not long before the Amazon, completely thawed, was +confiding to him the most intimate details of her +history and her hopes.</p> +<p>"Yes, my daughter is beautiful," she said, with a +look of pride at the girl which transfigured her face. +"Many a great man has told me so—dukes, princes, +and lords. She is as fair a flower as ever grew in +Holland; and she is as sweet as she is fair. She is +Dyveke, my "little dove," the pride of my heart, my +soul, my life. She is to be a Queen one day. It +<a name="Page_84"></a>has been revealed to me in my dreams. But when +the day dawns it will be the saddest in my life." And +with further amiable words and a final courtly salute, +Valkendorf continued his stroll, secretly promising +himself a further acquaintance with the dragon and +her "little dove."</p> +<p>This was the first of many morning strolls in the +Bergen market, in which the Chancellor spent delightful +moments at Frau Sigbrit's stall, each leaving +him more and more a slave to her daughter's charms; +for he quickly found that to her physical perfections +were allied a low, sweet voice, every note of which +was musical as that of a nightingale, a quiet dignity +and refinement as far removed from her station as +her simple print frock with the bunch of roses nestling +in the white purity of her bosom, and a sprightliness +of wit which even her modesty could not always +repress.</p> +<p>Thus it was that, when Valkendorf at last returned +to Upsala and the Court of his master, Christian, +his tongue was full of the praises of the "market-beauty" +of Bergen, whose charms he pictured so +glowingly that the Prince's heart became as inflamed +by a sympathetic passion as his mind by curiosity to +see such a siren. "I shall not rest," he said to his +Chancellor, "until I have seen your 'little dove' with +my own eyes; and who knows," he added with a +laugh, "perhaps I shall steal her from you!"</p> +<p>It was in vain that Valkendorf, now alarmed by +his indiscretion, began to pour cold water on the +flames he had lit. Christian had quite lost his susceptible +heart to the rustic and unknown beauty, and +<a name="Page_85"></a>vowed that he could not rest until he had seen +her +with his own eyes. And within a month he was +riding into Bergen, with Valkendorf by his side, at +the head of a brilliant retinue.</p> +<p>As the Prince made his way through the crowded +avenues of the Bergen streets to an accompaniment +of scowls punctuated by feeble, forced cheers, he cut +a goodly enough figure to win many an admiring, if +reluctant, glance from bright eyes. With his broad +shoulders, his erect, well-knit figure clothed in purple +velvet, his stern, swarthy face crowned by a white-plumed +hat, Christian looked every inch a Prince.</p> +<p>To-day, too, he was in his most amiable mood, +with a smile ready to leap to his lips, and many a +gracious wave of the hand and sweep of plumed hat +to acknowledge the grudged salutes of his subjects. +He could be charming enough when he pleased, and +this was a day of high good-humour; for his mind +was full of the pleasure that awaited him. Even +Frau Sigbrit's scowl was chased away when his eyes +were drawn to her towering figure, and with a swift +smile he singled her out for the honour of a special +salute.</p> +<p>When the Prince at last arrived in the market-square, +he was greeted by a procession of the +prettiest maidens in Bergen who, in white frocks and +with flower-wreathed hair, advanced to pay him the +homage of demure eyes. But among them all, the +loveliest girls of the city, Christian saw but one—a +girl younger than almost any other, but so radiantly +lovely that his eyes fixed themselves on her as if +entranced, until her cheeks flamed a vivid crimson +<a name="Page_86"></a>under the ardour of his gaze. "No need to point +her out," he whispered delightedly to Valkendorf, "I +see your 'little dove,' and she is all you have told me +and more."</p> +<p>Before many hours had passed, a Court official +appeared at Frau Sigbrit's cottage door with a command +from the Prince to her and her daughter to +attend a State ball the following evening. If the +poor market-woman had had a crown laid at her feet, +her surprise and consternation could scarcely have +been greater. But she would make a bigger sacrifice +of inclination than this for the "little dove" who filled +her heart, and who, she remembered, was destined +to be a Queen; and decking her in all the finery her +modest purse could command and with a taste of +which few would have suspected she was capable, the +market stall-keeper stalked majestically through the +avenue of gorgeous flunkeys, her little Princess with +downcast eyes following demurely in her wake.</p> +<p>All the fairest women of Bergen were gathered at +this ball, the host of which was their coming King, +but it was to the fruit-seller's daughter that all eyes +were turned, in homage to such a rare combination +of beauty, grace, and modesty. Many a fair lip, it +is true, curled in mockery, recognising in the belle of +the ball the low-born girl of the market-place; but it +was the mockery of jealousy, the scornful tribute to +a loveliness greater than their own.</p> +<p>As for Prince Christian, he had no eyes for any but +the "little dove" who outshone all her rivals as the +sun pales the stars. It was the maid of the market +whom he led out for the first dance, and throughout +<a name="Page_87"></a>the long night he rarely left her side, whirling +round +the room with her, his arm close-clasped round her +slender waist, not seeing or indifferent to the glances +of envy and hate that followed them; or, during the +intervals, drinking in her beauty as he poured sweet +flatteries into her ears. As for Dyveke, she was +radiantly happy at finding herself thus transported +into the favour of a Prince and the Queendom of fair +women, for whose envy she cared as little as for the +danger in which she stood.</p> +<p>If anything had remained to complete Christian's +infatuation, this intoxicating night of the ball supplied +it. The "little dove" had found a secure nesting-place +in his heart. She must be his at any cost. +She and her mother alone, of all the guests, were +invited to spend the rest of the night at the castle as +the Prince's guests; and when he parted from her +the following day, it was with vows on his part of +undying love and fidelity, and a promise on hers to +come to him at Upsala as soon as a suitable home +could be found for her.</p> +<p>Thus easily was the dove caught in the toils of one +of the most amorous Princes of Europe; but it must +be said for her that her heart went with the surrender +of her freedom, for the Prince, with his ardent +passion, his strength and his magnetism, had swept +her as quickly off her feet as she had made a quick +conquest of him.</p> +<p>Thus, before many weeks had passed, we find +Dyveke installed with her mother in a sumptuous +home in the outskirts of Upsala, queening it in the +Prince's Court, and every day forging new fetters to +<a name="Page_88"></a>bind him to her. And while Dyveke thus ruled over +Christian's heart, her strong-minded mother soon +established a similar empire over his mind. With +the clever, masterful brain of a man, the Amazon +of the market-place developed such a capacity for +intrigue, such a grasp of statesmanship and such +arts of diplomacy that Christian, strong man as he +thought himself, soon became little more than a +puppet in her hands, taking her counsel and deferring +to her judgment in preference to those of his +ministers. The fruit-seller thus found herself virtual +Prime Minister, while her daughter reigned, an +uncrowned Queen.</p> +<p>When the Prince was summoned to Copenhagen +by his father's failing health, Frau Sigbrit and her +daughter accompanied him, one in her way as indispensable +as the other; and when King James died +and Christian reigned in his stead, the women of the +Bergen market were installed in a splendid suite of +apartments in his palace. So hopeless was his subjection +to both that his subjects, with an indifferent +shrug of the shoulders, accepted them as inevitable.</p> +<p>For a time, it is true, their supremacy was in +danger. Now that Christian was King, it became +important to provide him with a Queen, and a suitable +consort was found for him in the Austrian +Princess, Isabella, sister of the Emperor Charles V., +a well-gilded bride, distinguished alike for her beauty +and her piety. Isabella, however, was one of the last +women to tolerate any rivalry in her husband's affection, +and before the marriage-contract was sealed, +she had received a solemn pledge from Christian's +<a name="Page_89"></a>envoys that his relations with the pretty +flower-girl +should cease.</p> +<p>But even Christian's word of honour was seldom +allowed to bar the way to his pleasure, and within +a few weeks of Isabella's bridal entry into Copenhagen, +Dyveke and her mother resumed their places +at his Court, to his Queen's unconcealed disgust and +displeasure. More than this, he established them +in a fine house near his palace gates; and when he +was not dallying there with Dyveke, he was to be +found by her side at the Castle of Hvideur, of which +he had made her chatelaine.</p> +<p>The remonstrances of Valkendorf and his other +ministers were made to deaf ears; his wife's reproaches +and tears were as futile as the strongly +worded protestations of his Royal relatives. Pleadings, +arguments, and threats were alike powerless to +break the spell Dyveke and her mother had cast over +him. But Dyveke's day of empire was now drawing +to a tragic close. One day, after eating some +cherries from the palace gardens, she was seized with +a violent pain. All the skill of the Court doctors +could do as little to assuage her agony as to save her +life; and within a few hours she died, clasped to the +breast of her distracted lover!</p> +<p>Such was Christian's distress that for a time his +reason trembled in the balance. He vowed that he +would not be separated from her even by death; he +threatened to put an end to his own life since it had +been reft of all that made it worth living. And when +cooler moments came, he swore a terrible vengeance +against those who had robbed him of his beloved. +<a name="Page_90"></a>She had been poisoned beyond a doubt; but who +had done the dastardly deed?</p> +<p>The finger of suspicion pointed to the steward of +his household, Torbern Oxe, who, it was said, had +been among the most ardent of Dyveke's admirers, +and had had the audacity to aspire to her hand. It +was even rumoured that he had had more intimate +relations with her. Such were the stories and +suspicions that passed from mouth to mouth in +Christian's clouded Court before Dyveke's beautiful +body was cold; and such were the tales which Hans +Faaborg, the King's Treasurer, poured into his +master's ears.</p> +<p>Hans Faaborg little dreamt that when he was thus +trying to bring about the downfall of his rival he was +sealing his own fate. Christian lent an eager ear to +the stories of his steward's iniquities; but, when he +found there was no shred of proof to support them, +his anger and disappointment vented themselves on +the informer. He had long suspected Faaborg of +irregularities in his purse-holding, and in these suspicions +found a weapon to use against him. Faaborg +was arrested; an examination of his ledgers showed +that for years he had been waxing rich at his master's +expense, and he had to pay with his life the penalty +of his fraud and his unproved testimony.</p> +<p>But Faaborg, though thus removed from his path, +was by no means done with. Rumours began to +be circulated that a strange light appeared every +night above the dead man's head as he swung on the +gallows. The city was full of superstitious awe and +of whisperings that Heaven was thus bearing witness +<a name="Page_91"></a>to the Treasurer's innocence. And even the King +himself, when he too saw the unearthly light forming +a halo round his victim's head, was filled with +remorse and fear to such an extent that he had +Faaborg's body cut down and honoured with a State +funeral.</p> +<p>He was still, however, as far as ever from solving +the mystery of Dyveke's death; and the longer his +desire for vengeance was baffled, the more clamorous +it became. Although nothing could be proved +against Torbern Oxe, Christian was by no means +satisfied of his innocence, and he decided to discover +by guile the secret which all other means had failed +to reveal. He would, if possible, make his steward +his own betrayer. One day, at a Court banquet, he +turned in jocular mood to the minister and said, +"Tell me now, my dear Torbern, was there really +any truth in what Faaborg told me of your relations +with my beautiful Lady! Don't hesitate to tell the +truth, which only you know, for I assure you no harm +shall come to you from it."</p> +<p>Thus thrown off his guard and reassured, the +steward, who, like his master, had probably drunk +not wisely, confessed that he had loved Dyveke, and +had asked her to be his wife. "But, sire," he added, +"that was the extent of my offence. I was never +intimate with her." During the remainder of the +banquet Christian was most affable to the indiscreet +steward, not only showing no trace of resentment, +but treating him with marked friendliness.</p> +<p>The following day, however, Torbern was flung +into prison, and charged, not only with his +<a name="Page_92"></a>confession, but with the murder of the woman he +had +so vainly loved; and, in spite of the storm of indignation +that swept over Denmark, the pleadings of the +Papal Legate, Arcimbaldo, and the tears of the +Queen, was sentenced to death for a crime of which +there was no scrap of evidence to point to his guilt.</p> +<p>This gross act of injustice proved to be the +beginning of Christian's downfall. His cruelties and +oppressions had long made him odious to his +subjects, and the climax came when a popular uprising +hurled him from his throne and drove him an +exile to Holland. An attempt to recover his crown +ended in speedy disaster, and his last years were +spent, in company with his favourite dwarf, in a cell +of the Holstein Castle of Sondeborg.</p> +<p>As for Sigbrit, the woman who had played such a +conspicuous and baleful part in Christian's life, she +deserted her benefactor at the first sign of his coming +ruin and ended her days in her native Holland, +bemoaning to the last the loss of her "little dove," +whom she had seen raised almost to a throne and +had lost so tragically.</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 35%;"> +<a name="CHAPTER_IX"></a> +<h2><a name="Page_93"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> +<h2>THE ROMANCE OF THE BEAUTIFUL SWEDE</h2> +<p>Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King +of Poland, owes his place in the world's memory to +his brawny muscles and to his conquest of women. +Like the third Alexander of Russia of later years, +he could, with his powerful arms, convert a thick +iron bar into a necklace, crush a pewter tankard by +the pressure of a mighty hand, toss a heavy anvil into +the air and catch it as another man would catch a +ball, or with a wrench straighten out the stoutest +horse-shoe ever forged.</p> +<p>And his strength of muscle was matched by his +skill in the lists of love. No Louis of France could +boast such an array of conquests as this Saxon +Hercules, who changed his mistresses as easily as he +changed his coats; the fairest women in Europe, +from Turkey to Poland, succeeded each other in +bewildering succession as the slaves of his pleasure, +and before he died he counted his children to as +many as the year has days.</p> +<p>Of all these fair and frail women who thus ministered +to the pleasure of the "Saxon Samson," none +was so beautiful, so gifted, so altogether alluring +<a name="Page_94"></a>as Marie Aurora, Countess of Königsmarck, +the +younger of the two daughters of Conrad of Königsmarck. +Born in the year 1668, Aurora was one of +three children of the Swedish Count Conrad and +his wife, the daughter of the great Field-Marshal +Wrangel. Her elder sister, little less fair than +herself, found a husband, when little more than a +child, in Count Axel Löwenhaupt; her brother +Philip, the handsomest man of his day in Europe, +was destined to end his days tragically as the price +of his infatuation for a Queen.</p> +<p>Betrayed by a jealous woman, the Countess +Platen, whose overtures he spurned, this too gallant +lover of Sophia Dorothea of Celle, wife of the first +of our Georges, was foully done to death in a corridor +of the Leine Schloss by La Paten's hired assassins, +while she looked smilingly on at his futile struggle +for life, and gloated over his dying agonies.</p> +<p>On the death of her father, when she was but a +child of three, Aurora was taken by her mother from +her native Sweden to Hamburg, where she grew to +beautiful young womanhood; and when, in turn, her +mother died, she found a home with her married +sister, the Countess Löwenhaupt. And it is at this +period of her life that her romantic story opens.</p> +<p>If we are to believe her contemporaries, the world +has seldom seen so much beauty and so many graces +enshrined in the form of woman as in this daughter +of Sweden. Her description reads like a catalogue +of all human perfections. Of medium height and a +figure as faultless in its exquisite modelling as in its +grace and suppleness; her hair, black as a raven's +<a name="Page_95"></a>plumage, and falling, like a veil of night, below +her +knees, emphasised the white purity of face and +throat, arms, and hands. Her teeth, twin rows of +pearls, glistened between smiling crimson lips, curved +like Cupid's bow. Her face of perfect oval, with its +delicately moulded features, was illuminated by a pair +of large black eyes, now melting, now flaming, as +mood succeeded mood.</p> +<p>To these graces of body were allied equal graces +of mind and character. Her conversation sparkled +with wit and wisdom; she could hold fluent discourse +in half a dozen tongues; she played and sang +divinely, wrote elegant verses, and painted dainty +pictures. Her manner was caressing and courteous; +she was generous to a fault, with a heart as tender +as it was large. And the supreme touch was added +by an entire unconsciousness of her charms, and an +unaffected modesty which captivated all hearts.</p> +<p>Such was Aurora of Königsmarck who, in company +with her sister, set forth one day to claim the +fortune which her ill-fated brother, Philip, was said +to have left in the custody of his Hanoverian bankers—a +journey which was to make such a dramatic +revolution in her own life.</p> +<p>Arrived at Hanover the sisters found themselves +faced by no easy task. The bankers declared that +they had nothing of the late Count's effects beyond +a few diamonds, which they declined to part with, +unless evidence were forthcoming that the Count +had died and had left no will behind him—evidence +which, owing to the secrecy surrounding his murder, +it was impossible to furnish. And when a discharged +<a name="Page_96"></a>clerk revealed the fact that the dishonest +bankers had +actually all the Count's estate, valued at four hundred +thousand crowns, in their possession, the sisters were +unable to make them disgorge a solitary mark.</p> +<p>In their extremity, they decided to appeal to the +Elector of Saxony, who had known Count Philip +well and who would, they hoped, be the champion +of their rights; and, with this object, they journeyed +to Dresden, only to find themselves again baffled. +Augustus was away on a hunting excursion, and +would not return for a whole month. His wife and +mother, however, gave them a gracious reception, as +charmed by their beauty and sweetness as sympathetic +in their trouble.</p> +<p>When at last Augustus made his tardy appearance +at his capital, the fair petitioners were presented +to him by the Dowager Electress with words of +strong recommendation to his favour. "These +ladies, my son," she said, "have come to beg for +your protection and help, to which they are entitled +both by birth and their merits. I beg that you will +spare no effort to ensure that justice is done to them."</p> +<p>His mother's pleading, however, was not necessary +to ensure a favourable hearing from the Elector, +whose eyes were eloquent of the admiration he felt +for the two fairest women who had ever visited his +land. Aurora's beauty, enhanced by her attitude of +appeal, the mute craving for protection, was irresistible. +From the moment she entered his presence +he was her slave, as anxious to do her will as any +lovesick boy.</p> +<p>And it was to her that, with his courtliest bow, he +<a name="Page_97"></a>answered, "Be assured, dear lady, that I shall +know +no rest until your wrongs are repaired. If I fail, I +myself will make reparation in full. Meanwhile, may +I beg you and your sister to be my guests, that I +may prove how deep is my sympathy, and how profound +the respect I feel for you."</p> +<p>Thus it was that by the magic of beauty Aurora +and her Countess sister found themselves installed +at the Dresden Court, feted like Queens, receiving +the caresses of the Court ladies, and the homage of +every man, from Augustus himself to the youngest +page, of whom a smile from their pretty lips made a +veritable slave. As for the Elector, sated as he was +with the easy smiles and favours of fair women, he +gave to the Swedish beauty, from the first, a homage +he had never paid to any of her predecessors in his +affection.</p> +<p>But Aurora was no woman to be easily won by +any man. She listened smilingly to the Elector's +honeyed words, and received his attentions with the +gracious complaisance of a Queen. When, however, +he ventured to tell her that "her charms inspired him +with a passion such as he had never felt for any +woman," she answered coldly, "I came here prepared +for your generosity, but I did not expect that your +kindness would assume a form to cause me shame. +I beg you not to say anything that can lessen the +gratitude I owe you, and the respect I feel for you."</p> +<p>Here indeed was a rebuff such as Augustus was +little prepared for, or accustomed to. The beauty, +of whom he had hoped to make an easy conquest, +was an iceberg whom all his ardour could not thaw. +<a name="Page_98"></a>He was in despair. "I am sure she hates and +despises me, while I love her dearer than life itself," +he confessed to his favourite Beuchling, who vainly +tried to console and cheer him. He confided his +passion and his pain to Aurora's sister, whose hopeful +words were alike powerless to dispel his gloom.</p> +<p>When Aurora held aloof from him, he sent letter +after letter of passionate pleading to her by the hand +of the trusty Beuchling. "If you knew the tortures +I am suffering," he wrote, "your kindness of heart +could not resist pitying me. I was mad to declare +my passion so brutally to you. Let me expiate my +fault, prostrate at your feet; and, if you wish for my +death, let me at least receive my sentence from your +own sweet lips."</p> +<p>To such a desperate state was Augustus brought +within a few days of setting eyes on his new divinity! +As for Aurora of the tender heart, her lover's distress +thawed her more than a year of passionate protestations +could have done. She replied, assuring him of +her gratitude, her esteem and respect, and begging +him to dismiss such unworthy thoughts of her. But +she had no word of encouragement to send him in +the note which her lover kissed so rapturously before +placing it next his heart.</p> +<p>So alarmed, indeed, was Aurora, that she announced +her intention of leaving forthwith a Court in +which she was exposed to so much danger—a project +to which her sister gave a reluctant approval. But +the Countess Löwenhaupt was little disposed to leave +a Court where she at least was having such a good +time; for she, too, had her lovers, and among them +<a name="Page_99"></a>the Prince of Fürstenberg, the handsomest +man in +Saxony, whose devotion was more than agreeable to +her. She preferred to play the part of Cupid's agent—to +exercise her diplomacy in bringing together +those two foolish persons, her sister and the Elector.</p> +<p>And so skilfully did she play her part, appealing +to Aurora's pity, and assuring Augustus of her sister's +love in spite of her seeming coldness, that before +many weeks had passed Aurora had yielded and was +listening with no unwilling ear to the vows of her +exalted lover, now transported to the seventh heaven +of happiness. One condition she made, when their +mutual troth was plighted, that it should, for a time +at least, remain a secret from the Court, and to this +the Elector gratefully assented.</p> +<p>Such was the strange wooing of Augustus and the +Countess Aurora, in which passion had its response +in a pity which, in this case at least, was the parent +of love.</p> +<p>It was with no very light heart that Aurora set forth +to Mauritzburg, a few days later, to keep "honeymoon +tryst" with Augustus, who had preceded her, +to make, as she understood, the necessary preparations +for her reception. With her sister and a +mounted escort of the most beautiful ladies of the +Court, she had ridden as far as the entrance to the +Mauritzburg forest, when her carriage suddenly came +to a halt in front of a magnificent palace. From the +open door emerged Diana with her attendant nymphs +to greet her with words of welcome, and to beg +her to tarry a while to accept the hospitality of the +forest gods.</p> +<p><a name="Page_100"></a>In response to this flattering invitation +Aurora left +her carriage and was escorted in stately procession to +a saloon, richly painted with sylvan scenes, in which +a sumptuous banquet was spread. No sooner were +she and her ladies seated at the table than, to the +strains of beautiful music, the god Pan (none other +than the Elector himself), with his retinue of fawns +and other richly and quaintly garbed forest gods, +made his entry, and took his seat at the right hand +of his goddess. Then, to the deft ministry of Diana +and her satellites, and to the soft accompaniment of +pipes and hautboys, the feasting began, while Pan +whispered love to the lady for whom he had prepared +such a charming hospitality.</p> +<p>The banquet had scarcely come to an end when +the jubilant sound of horns was heard from the +forest. A stag dashed by a window in full flight, +and Aurora and her ladies, rushing excitedly to the +door, saw horses awaiting them for the hunt.</p> +<p>In a moment they are mounted, and, gaily laughing, +with Pan leading the way, they are galloping +through the forest glades in the wake of the flying +stag and the music of the hounds, until the stag, +hotly pursued, dashes into a lake, in the centre of +which is a beautiful wooded island. Dismounting, +the ladies enter the gondolas which are so opportunely +awaiting them, and are rowed across the strip +of water just in time to witness the death of the +gallant animal they have been chasing.</p> +<p>The hunt over, Aurora and her ladies are conducted +to the leafy heart of the island, where, as by +the touch of a magician's wand, a gorgeous Eastern +<a name="Page_101"></a>tent has sprung up, and here another sumptuous +entertainment is prepared for them. Seated on +soft-cushioned divans, in the many-hued environment +of Oriental luxury, rare fruits and delicacies +are brought to them in silver baskets by turbaned +Turks. The island Sultan now appears, ablaze with +gems, with his officers little less gorgeous than himself, +and with deep obeisances craves permission to +seat himself by Aurora's side, a favour which she was +not likely to refuse to a Sultan in whom she recognised +her lover, the Elector. Troupes of dancing-girls +follow, and the moments fly swiftly to the +twinkling of dainty feet, the gliding and posturing +of supple bodies, and the strains of sensuous music.</p> +<p>Another hour spent in the gondolas, dreamily +gliding under the light of the moon, and horses are +again mounted; and Aurora, with Augustus riding +proudly by her side, heads the splendid procession +which, with laughter, and in the gayest of spirits, +rides forth to the Mauritzburg Castle at the close of +a day so full of delights.</p> +<p>"Here," was the Elector's greeting, as he conducted +his bride to her room with its furnishing of +silver and rich damask, and its pictured Cupid +showering roses on the silk-curtained bed, "you are +the Queen, and I am your slave."</p> +<p>Such was the beginning of Aurora's reign over the +heart of the Elector of Saxony—a reign of unclouded +splendour and happiness for the woman in whom +pity for her lover was soon replaced by a passion as +ardent as his own. Fêtes and banquets and balls +<a name="Page_102"></a>succeeded each other in swift sequence, at all +of +which Aurora was Queen, the focus of all eyes, and +receiving universal homage, won no more by her +beauty and her position as the Elector's favourite +than by her sweetness and graciousness to the +humblest. No mistress of a King was ever more +beloved than this daughter of Sweden. Even the +Elector's mother, a pattern of the most rigid propriety, +had ever a kind word and a caress for her; +his neglected wife made a friend and confidante of +the woman of whom she said, "Since I must have +a rival, I am glad she should be one so sweet and +lovable."</p> +<p>We must hasten over the years that followed—years +during which Augustus had no eyes for any +other woman than his "uncrowned Queen," and +during which she bore him a son who, as Maurice of +Saxony, was to win many laurels in the years to +come. It must suffice to say that never was Royal +liaison conducted with so much propriety, or was +marked by so much mutual devotion and loyalty.</p> +<p>But it was not in the nature of Augustus the Strong +to remain always true to any woman, however charming; +and although Aurora's reign lasted longer than +that of any half-dozen of her rivals, it, too, had its +ending. Within a month of the birth of her son, +Augustus, now King of Poland, was caught in the +toils of another enslaver, the beautiful Countess +Esterle. Aurora realised that her sun had set, and +relinquishing her sceptre without a murmur, she +retired to the convent of Quedlinburg, of which +Augustus had appointed her Abbess.</p> +<p><a name="Page_103"></a>Thus in an atmosphere of peace and piety, +beloved +of all for her sweetness and charity, Aurora of +Königsmarck spent her last years until the end +came one day in the year 1728; and in the crypt +of the convent she loved so well she sleeps her +last sleep.</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 35%;"> +<a name="CHAPTER_X"></a> +<h2><a name="Page_104"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> +<h2>THE SISTER OF AN EMPEROR</h2> +<br> +<a name="img004"></a> +<div style="text-align: center;"><img + style="width: 305px; height: 479px;" alt="DESIREE CLARY." + title="DESIREE CLARY." src="images/court004.jpg"><br> +<h5>DESIREE CLARY.</h5> +</div> +<br> +<p>When Napoleon Bonaparte, the shabby, sallow-faced, +out-of-work captain of artillery, was kicking +his heels in morose idleness at Marseilles, and whiling +away the dull hours in making love to Desirée Clary, +the pretty daughter of the silk-merchant in the Rue +des Phocéens, his sisters were living with their +mother, the Signora Letizia, in a sordid fourth-floor +apartment in a slum near the Cannebiere, and running +wild in the Marseilles streets.</p> +<p>Strange tales are told of those early years of the +sisters of an Emperor-to-be—Elisa Bonaparte, future +Grand Duchess of Tuscany; Pauline, embryo Princess +Borghese; and Caroline, who was to wear a +crown as Queen of Naples—high-spirited, beautiful +girls, brimful of frolic and fun, laughing at their +poverty, decking themselves out in cheap, home-made +finery, and flirting outrageously with every +good-looking young man who was willing to pay +homage to their <i>beaux yeux</i>. If Marseilles deigned +to notice these pretty young madcaps, it was only +with the cold eyes of disapproval; for such "shameless +goings-on" were little less than a scandal.</p> +<p><a name="Page_105"></a>The pity of it was that there was no one to +check their escapades. Their mother, the imposing +Madame Mère of later years, seemed indifferent +what her daughters did, so long as they left her in +peace; their brothers, Kings-to-be, were too much +occupied with their own love-making or their pranks +to spare them a thought. And thus the trio of tomboys +were left, with a loose rein, to indulge every +impulse that entered their foolish heads. And a +right merry time they had, with their dancing, their +private theatricals, the fun behind the scenes, and +their promiscuous love affairs, each serious and +thrilling until it gave place to a successor.</p> +<p>Of the three Bonaparte "graces" the most lovely +by far (though each was passing fair) was Pauline, +who, though still little more than a child, gave +promise of that rare perfection of face and figure +which was to make her the most beautiful woman in +all France. "It is impossible, with either pen or +brush," wrote one who knew her, "to do any justice +to her charms—the brilliance of her eyes, which +dazzled and thrilled all on whom they fell; the glory +of her black hair, rippling in a cascade to her knees; +the classic purity of her Grecian profile, the wild-rose +delicacy of her complexion, the proud, dainty poise +of her head, and the exquisite modelling of the figure +which inspired Canova's 'Venus Victrix.'"</p> +<p>Such was Pauline Bonaparte, whose charms, +although then immature, played such havoc with the +young men of Marseilles, and who thus early began +that career of conquest which was to afford so much +gossip for the tongue of scandal. That the winsome +<a name="Page_106"></a>little minx had her legion of lovers from the +day she +set foot in Marseilles, at the age of thirteen, we know; +but it was not until Frèron came on the scene that +her volatile little heart was touched—Frèron, the +handsome coxcomb and arch-revolutionary, who +was sent to Marseilles as a Commissioner of the +Convention.</p> +<p>To Pauline, the gay, gallant Parisian, penniless +adventurer though he was, was a veritable hero of +romance; and at sight of him she completely lost her +heart. It was a <i>grande passion</i>, which he was by no +means slow to return. Those were delicious hours +which Pauline spent in the company of her beloved +"Stanislas," hours of ecstasy; and when he left +Marseilles she pursued him with the most passionate +protestations.</p> +<p>"Yes," she wrote, "I swear, dear Stanislas, never +to love any other than thee; my heart knows no +divided allegiance. It is thine alone. Who could +oppose the union of two souls who seek to find no +other happiness than in a mutual love?" And again, +"Thou knowest how I worship thee. It is not possible +for Paulette to live apart from her adored Stanislas. +I love thee for ever, most passionately, my +beautiful god, my adorable one—I love thee, love +thee, love thee!"</p> +<p>In such hot words this child of fifteen poured out +her soul to the Paris dandy. "Neither mamma," +she vowed, "nor anyone in the world shall come +between us." But Pauline had not counted on her +brother Napoleon, whose foot was now placed on the +ladder of ambition, at the top of which was an Im<a name="Page_107"></a>perial +crown, and who had other designs for his sister +than to marry her to a penniless nobody. In vain +did Pauline rage and weep, and declare that "she +would die—<i>voilà tout!</i>" Napoleon was inexorable; +and the flower of her first romance was trodden ruthlessly +under his feet.</p> +<p>When Junot, his own aide-de-camp, next came +awooing Pauline, he was equally obdurate. "No," +he said to the young soldier; "you have nothing, she +has nothing. And what is twice nothing?" And +thus lover number two was sent away disconsolate.</p> +<p>Napoleon's sun was now in the ascendant, and his +family were basking in its rays. From the Marseilles +slums they were transported first to a sumptuous +villa at Antibes; then to the Castle of Montebello, at +Naples. The days of poverty were gone like an evil +dream; the sisters of the famous General and coming +Emperor were now young ladies of fashion, courted +and fawned on. Their lovers were not Marseilles +tradesmen or obscure soldiers and journalists (like +Junot and Frèron), but brilliant Generals and men +of the great world; and among them Napoleon now +sought a husband for his prettiest and most irresponsible +sister.</p> +<p>This, however, proved no easy task. When he +offered her to his favourite General, Marmont, he +was met with a polite refusal. "She is indeed charming +and lovely," said Marmont; "but I fear I could +not make her happy." Then, waxing bolder, he continued: +"I have dreams of domestic happiness, of +fidelity, virtue; and these dreams I can scarcely +hope to realise in your sister." Albert Permon, +<a name="Page_108"></a>Napoleon's old schoolfellow, next declined the +honour of Pauline's hand, although it held the +bait of a high office and splendid fortune.</p> +<p>The explanation of these refusals is not far to seek +if we believe Arnault's description of Pauline—"An +extraordinary combination of the most faultless +physical beauty and the oddest moral laxity. She +had no more manners than a schoolgirl—she talked +incoherently, giggled at everything and nothing, +mimicked the most serious personages, put out her +tongue at her sister-in-law.... She was a good +child naturally rather than voluntarily, for she had +no principles."</p> +<p>But Pauline was not to wait long, after all, for a +husband. Among the many men who fluttered round +her, willing to woo if not to wed the empty-headed +beauty, was General Leclerc, young and rich, but +weak in body and mind, "a quiet, insignificant-looking +man," who at least loved her passionately, +and would make a pliant husband to the capricious +little autocrat. And we may be sure Napoleon +heaved a sigh of relief when his madcap sister was +safely tied to her weak-kneed General.</p> +<p>Pauline was at last free to conduct her flirtations +secure from the frowns of the brother she both feared +and adored, and she seems to have made excellent +use of her opportunities; and, what was even more +to her, to encourage to the full her passion for finery. +Dress and love filled her whole life; and while her +idolatrous husband lavishly supplied the former, he +turned a conveniently blind eye to the latter.</p> +<p>Remarkable stories are told of Pauline's extrava<a name="Page_109"></a>gant +and daring costumes at this time. Thus, at a +great ball in Madame Permon's Paris mansion, she +appeared in a dress of classic scantiness of Indian +muslin, ornamented with gold palm leaves. Beneath +her breasts was a cincture of gold, with a gorgeous +jewelled clasp; and her head was wreathed with +bands spotted like a leopard's skin, and adorned with +bunches of gold grapes.</p> +<p>When this bewitching Bacchante made her appearance +in the ballroom the sensation she created was so +great that the dancing stopped instantly; women and +men alike climbed on chairs to catch a glimpse of +the rare and radiant vision, and murmurs of admiration +and envy ran round the <i>salon</i>. Her triumph +was complete. In the hush that followed, a voice +was heard: "<i>Quel dommage!</i> How lovely she would +be, if it weren't for her ears. If I had such ears, I +would cut them off, or hide them." Pauline heard +the cruel words. The flush of mortification and +anger flamed in her cheeks; she burst into tears and +walked out of the room. Madame de Coutades, her +most jealous rival, had found a rich revenge.</p> +<p>General Leclerc did not live long to play the slave +to his little autocrat; and when he died at San +Domingo, the beautiful widow returned to France, +accompanied by his embalmed body, with her glorious +hair, which she had cut off for the purpose, +wreathing his head! She had not, however, worn +her weeds many months before she was once more +surrounded by her court of lovers—actors, soldiers, +singers, on each of whom in turn she lavished her +smiles; and such time as she could spare from their +<a name="Page_110"></a>flatteries and ogling she spent at the +card-table, with +fortune-tellers, or, chief joy of all, in decking her +beauty with wondrous dresses and jewels.</p> +<p>But the charming widow, sister of the great Napoleon, +was not long to be left unclaimed; and this +time the choice fell on Prince Camillo Borghese, +a handsome, black-haired Italian, who allied to a +head as vain and empty as her own the physical +graces and gifts of an Admirable Crichton, and +who, moreover, was lord of all the famed Borghese +riches.</p> +<p>Pauline had now reached dizzy heights, undreamed +of in the days, only ten short years earlier, when she +was coquetting in home-made finery with the young +tradesmen of Marseilles. She was a Princess, bearing +the greatest name in all Italy; and to this dignity +her gratified brother added that of Princess of Gustalla. +All the world-famous Borghese jewels were +hers to deck her beauty with—a small Golconda of +priceless gems; there was gold galore to satisfy her +most extravagant whims; and she was still young—only +twenty-five—and in the very zenith of her +loveliness.</p> +<p>Picture, then, the pride with which, one early day +of her new bridehood, she drove to the Palace of St +Cloud in the gorgeous Borghese State carriage, +behind six horses, and with an escort of torch-bearers, +to pay a formal call on her sister-in-law, Josephine, +Empress-to-be. She had decked herself in a wonderful +creation of green velvet; she was ablaze from +head to foot with the Borghese diamonds. Such a +dazzling vision could not fail to fill Josephine with +<a name="Page_111"></a>envy—Josephine, who had hitherto treated her +with +such haughty patronage.</p> +<p>As she sailed into the <i>salon</i> in all her Queen of +Sheba splendour, it was to be greeted by her sister-in-law +in a modest dress of muslin, without a solitary +gem to relieve its simplicity; and—horror!—to find +that the room had been re-decorated in blue by the +artful Josephine—a colour absolutely fatal to her +green magnificence! It was thus a very disgusted +Princess who made her early exit from the palace +between a double line of bowing flunkeys, masking +her anger behind an affectation of ultra-Royal +dignity.</p> +<p>Still, Pauline was now a <i>grande dame</i> indeed, who +could really afford to patronise even Napoleon's +wife. Her Court was more splendid than that of +Josephine. She had lovers by the score—from +Blanguini, who composed his most exquisite songs +to sing for her ears alone, to Forbin, her artist Chamberlain, +whose brushes she inspired in a hundred +paintings of her lovely self in as many unconventional +guises. Her caskets of jewels were matched +by the most wonderful collection of dresses in France, +the richest and daintiest confections, from pearl +embroidered ball-gowns which cost twenty thousand +francs to the mauve and silver in which she went +a-hunting in the forest of Fontainebleau. At Petit +Trianon and in the Faubourg St Honoré, she had +palaces that were dreams of beauty and luxury. The +only thorn in her bed of roses was, in fact, her husband, +the Prince, the very sight of whom was sufficient +to spoil a day for her.</p> +<p><a name="Page_112"></a>When, at Napoleon's bidding, she accompanied +Borghese to his Governorship beyond the Alps, she +took in her train seven wagon-loads of finery. At +Turin she held the Court of a Queen, to which +the Prince was only admitted on sufferance. Royal +visits, dinners, dances, receptions followed one another +in dazzling succession; behind her chair, at +dinner or reception, always stood two gigantic +negroes, crowned with ostrich plumes. She was +now "sister of the Emperor," and all the world +should know it!</p> +<p>If only she could escape from her detested husband +she would be the happiest woman on earth. But +Napoleon on this point was adamant. In her rage +and rebellion she tore her hair, rolled on the floor, +took drugs to make her ill; and at last so succeeded +in alarming her Imperial brother that he summoned +her back to France, where her army of lovers gave +her a warm welcome, and where she could indulge +in any vanity and folly unchecked.</p> +<p>Matters were now hastening to a tragic climax for +Napoleon and the family he had raised from slumdom +in Marseilles to crowns and coronets. Josephine +had been divorced, to Pauline's undisguised joy; and +her place had been taken by Marie Louise, the proud +Austrian, whom she liked at least as little. When +Napoleon fell from his throne, she alone of all his +sisters helped to cheer his exile in Elba; for the +brother she loved and feared was the only man to +whom Pauline's fickle heart was ever true. She +even stripped herself of all her jewels to make the +way smooth back to his crown. And when at last +<a name="Page_113"></a>news came to her at Rome of his death at St +Helena +it was she who shed the bitterest tears and refused +to be comforted. That an empire was lost, was +nothing compared with the loss of the brother who +had always been so lenient to her failings, so responsive +to her love.</p> +<p>Two years later her own end came at Florence. +When she felt the cold hand of death on her, she +called feebly for a mirror, that she might look for the +last time on her beauty. "Thank God," she whispered, +as she gazed, "I am still lovely! I am ready +to die." A few moments later, with the mirror still +clutched in her hand, and her eyes still feasting on +the charms which time and death itself were powerless +to dim, died Pauline Bonaparte, sister of an +Emperor and herself an Empress by the right of her +incomparable beauty.</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 35%;"> +<a name="CHAPTER_XI"></a> +<h2><a name="Page_114"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> +<h2>A SIREN OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY</h2> +<p>When Wilhelmine Encke first opened her eyes on +the world one day in the year 1754, he would have +been a bold prophet who would have predicted that +she would one day be the uncrowned Queen of the +Court of Russia, <i>plus Reine que la Reine</i>, and that +her children would have in their veins the proudest +blood in Europe. Such a prophecy might well have +been laughed to scorn, for little Wilhelmine had as +obscure a cradle as almost any infant in all Prussia. +Her father was an army bugler, who wore private's +uniform in Frederick the Great's army; and her early +years were to be spent playing with other soldiers' +children in the sordid environment of Berlin barracks.</p> +<p>When her father turned his back on the army, while +Wilhelmine was still nursing her dolls, it was to play +the humble rôle of landlord of a small tavern, from +which he was lured by the bait of a place as French-horn +player in Frederick's private band; and the goal +of his modest ambition was reached when he was +appointed trumpeter to the King.</p> +<p>This was Herr Encke's position when the curtain +rises on our story at Potsdam, and shows us Wilhel<a name="Page_115"></a>mine, +an unattractive maid of ten, the Cinderella of +her family, for whom there seemed no better prospect +than a soldier-husband, if indeed she were +lucky enough to capture him. She was, in fact, the +"ugly duckling" of a good-looking family, removed +by a whole world from her beautiful eldest sister +Charlotte, who counted among her many admirers +no less exalted a wooer than Prince Frederick +William, the King's nephew and heir to his throne.</p> +<p>There was, indeed, no more beautiful or haughty +damsel in all Potsdam than this trumpeter's daughter +who had caught the amorous fancy of the Prince, +then, as to his last day, the slave of every pretty face +that crossed his path. But Charlotte Encke was +much too imperious a young lady to hold her Royal +lover long in fetters. He quickly wearied of her +caprices, her petulances, and her exhibitions of temper; +and the climax came one day when in a fit of +anger she struck her little sister, in his presence, and +he took up the cudgels for Wilhelmine.</p> +<p>This was the last straw for the disillusioned and +disgusted Prince, who sent Charlotte off to Paris, +where as the Countess Matushke she played the fine +lady at her lover's cost, while the Prince took her +Cinderella sister under his protection. He took her +education into his own hands, provided her with +masters to teach her a wide range of accomplishments, +from languages to dancing and deportment, +while he himself gave her lessons in history and +geography. Nor did he lack the reward of his benevolent +offices; for Wilhelmine, under his ministrations, +not only developed rare gifts and graces of +<a name="Page_116"></a>mind, like many another Cinderella before her; +she +blossomed into a rose of girlhood, more beautiful +even than her imperious sister, and with a sweetness +of character and a winsomeness which Charlotte could +never have attained.</p> +<p>On her part, gratitude to her benefactor rapidly +grew into love for the handsome and courtly Prince; +on his, sympathy for the ill-used Cinderella, into a +passion for the lovely maiden hovering on the verge +of a still more beautiful womanhood. It was a mutual +passion, strong and deep, which now linked the +widely contrasted lives of the King-to-be and the +trumpeter's daughter—a passion which, with each, +was to last as long as life itself.</p> +<p>Wilhelmine was now formally installed in the place +of the deposed Charlotte as favourite of the heir to +the throne; and idyllic years followed, during which +she gave pledges of her love to the man who was her +husband in all but name. That her purse was often +empty was a matter to smile at; that she had to act +as "breadwinner" to her family, and was at times +reduced to such straits that she was obliged to pawn +some of her small stock of jewellery in order to provide +her lover with a supper, was a bagatelle. She +was the happiest young woman in Prussia.</p> +<p>Even what seemed to be a crowning disaster, fortune +turned into a boon for her. When news of this +unlicensed love-making came to the King's ears, he +was furious. It was intolerable that the destined +ruler of a great and powerful nation should be +governed and duped by a woman of the people. He +gave his nephew a sound rating—alike for his extra<a name="Page_117"></a>vagance +and his amour; and packed off Wilhelmine +to join her sister in Paris.</p> +<p>But, for once, Frederick found that he had made +a mistake. The Prince, robbed of the woman he +loved, took the bit in his teeth, and plunged so deeply +into extravagant dallying with ballet-dancers and +stars of the opera that the King was glad to choose +the lesser evil, and to summon Wilhelmine back to +her Prince's arms. One stipulation only he made, +that she should make her home away from the capital +and the dangerous allurements which his nephew +found there.</p> +<p>Now at last we find Cinderella happily installed, +with the King's august approval, in a beautiful home +which has since blossomed into the splendours of +Charlottenburg. Here she gave birth to a son, whom +Frederick dubbed Count de la Marke in his nurse's +arms, but who was fated never to leave his cradle. +This child of love, the idol of his parents, sleeps in +a splendid mausoleum in the great Protestant Church +of Berlin.</p> +<p>As a sop to Prussian morality and to make the old +King quite easy, a complaisant husband was now +found for the Prince's favourite in his chamberlain, +Herr Rietz, son of a palace gardener; and Frederick +William himself looked on while the woman he loved, +the mother of his children, was converted by a few +priestly words into a "respectable married woman"—only +to leave the altar on his own arm, his wife in +the eyes of the world.</p> +<p>The time was now drawing near when Wilhelmine +was to reach the zenith of her adventurous life. One +<a name="Page_118"></a>August day in 1786 Frederick the Great drew his +last breath in the Potsdam Palace, and his nephew +awoke to be greeted by his chamberlain as "Your +Majesty." The trumpeter's daughter was at last a +Queen, in fact, if not in name, more secure in +her husband's love than ever, and with long years of +splendour and happiness before her. That his fancy, +ever wayward, flitted to other women as fair as herself, +did not trouble her a whit. Like Madame de +Pompadour, she was prepared even to encourage such +rivalry, so long as the first place (and this she knew) +in her husband's heart was unassailably her own.</p> +<p>Picture our Cinderella now in all her new splendours, +moving as a Queen among her courtiers, +receiving the homage of princes and ambassadors as +her right, making her voice heard in the Council +Chamber, and holding her <i>salon</i>, to which all the +great ones of the earth flocked to pay tribute to her +beauty and her gifts of mind. It was a strange transformation +from the barracks-kitchen to the Queendom +of one of the greatest Courts of Europe; but no +Queen cradled in a palace ever wore her honours +with greater dignity, grace, and simplicity than this +daughter of an army bandsman.</p> +<p>The days of the empty purse were, of course, at +an end. She had now her ten thousand francs a +month for "pin-money," her luxuriously appointed +palace at Charlottenburg, and her Berlin mansion, +"Unter den Linden," with its private theatre, in +which she and her Royal lover, surrounded by their +brilliant Court, applauded the greatest actors from +Paris and Vienna. It is said that many of these +<a name="Page_119"></a>stage-plays were of questionable decency, with +more +than a suggestion of the garden of Eden in them; +but this is an aspersion which Madame de Rietz +indignantly repudiates in her "Memoirs."</p> +<p>While Wilhelmine was thus happy in her Court +magnificence, varied by days of "delightful repose," +at Charlottenburg, France was in the throes of her +Revolution, drenched with the blood of her greatest +men and fairest women; her King had lost his crown +and his head with it; and Europe was in arms against +her. When Frederick William joined his army +camped on the Rhine bank, Wilhelmine was by his +side to counsel him as he wavered between war and +peace. The fate of the coalition against France was +practically in the hands of the trumpeter's daughter, +whose voice was all for peace. "What matters it," +she said, "how France is governed? Let her +manage her own affairs, and let Europe be saved +from the horrors of bloodshed."</p> +<p>In vain did the envoys of Spain and Italy, Austria +and England, practise all their diplomacy to place +her influence in the scale of war. When Lord Henry +Spencer offered her a hundred thousand guineas if +she would dissuade her husband from concluding a +treaty with France, she turned a deaf ear to all his +pleading and arguments. Such influence as she possessed +should be exercised in the interests of peace, +and thus it was that the vacillating King deserted his +allies, and signed the Treaty of Bâle, in 1795.</p> +<p>Such was the triumphant issue of Madame Rietz's +intervention in the affairs of Europe; such the proof +she gave to the world of her conquest of a King. It +<a name="Page_120"></a>was thus with a light heart that she turned her +back +on the Rhine camp; and with her husband's children +and a splendid retinue set out on her journey to +Italy, to see which was the greatest ambition of her +life. At the Austrian Court she was coldly received, +it is true, thanks to her part in the Treaty of Bâle; +but in Italy she was greeted as a Queen. At +Naples Queen Caroline received her as a sister; the +trumpeter's daughter was the brilliant centre of fêtes +and banquets and receptions such as might have +gratified the vanity of an Empress: while at Florence +she spent days of ideal happiness under the blue +sky of Italy and among her beauties of Nature +and Art.</p> +<p>It was at Venice that she wrote to her King lover, +"Your Majesty knows well that, for myself, I place +no value on the foolish vanities of Court etiquette; +but I am placed in an awkward position by my daughter +being raised to the rank of Countess, while I am +still in the lowly position of a bourgeoise." She had, +in fact, always declined the honour of a title, which +Frederick William had so often begged her to accept; +and it was only for her daughter's sake, when the +question of an alliance between the young Countess +de la Marke and Lord Bristol's heir arose, that she +at last stooped to ask for what she had so long +refused.</p> +<p>A few weeks later her brother, the King's equerry, +placed in her hands the patent which made her +Countess Lichtenau, with the right to bear on her +shield of arms the Prussian eagle and the Royal +crown.</p> +<p><a name="Page_121"></a>Wherever the Countess (as we must now call +her) +went on her Italian tour she drew men to her feet +by the magnetism of her beauty, who would have +paid no homage to her as <i>chère amie</i> of a King; for +she was now in the early thirties, in the full bloom +of the loveliness that had its obscure budding in the +Potsdam barrack-rooms. Young and old were +equally powerless to resist her fascinations. She +had, indeed, no more ardent slave and admirer than +my Lord Bristol, the octogenarian Bishop of Londonderry, +whose passion for the Countess, young +enough to be his granddaughter, was that of a lovesick +youth.</p> +<p>From "dear Countess and adorable friend," he +quickly leaps in his letters to "my dear Wilhelmine." +He looks forward with the impatience of a boy to +seeing her at "that terrestrial paradise which is +called Naples, where we shall enjoy perpetual spring +and spend delightful days in listening to the divine +<i>Paesiello</i>. Do you know," he adds, "I passed two +hours of real delight this morning in simply contemplating +your elegant bedroom where only the +elegant sleeper was missing."</p> +<p>"It is in <i>Crocelle</i>," he writes a little later, "that +you will make people happy by your presence, and +where you will recuperate your health, regain your +gaiety, and forget an Irishman; and a holy Bishop, +more worthy of your affection, on account of the +deep attachment he has for you, will take his +place."</p> +<p>In June, 1796, this senile lover writes, "In an +hour I depart for Germany; and, as the wind is +<a name="Page_122"></a>north, with every step I take I shall say: 'This +breeze comes perhaps from her; it has touched her +rosy lips and mingled its scent with the perfume of +her breath which I shall inhale, the perfume of the +breath of my dear Wilhelmine.'"</p> +<p>But these days of dallying with her legion of +lovers, of regal fêtes and pleasure-chasing, were +brought to an abrupt conclusion when news came to +her at Venice that her "husband," the King, was +dying, with the Royal family by his bedside awaiting +the end. Such news, with all its import of sorrow +and tragedy, set the Countess racing across the +Continent, fast as horses could carry her, to the side +of her beloved King, whom she found, if not <i>in +extremis</i>, "very dangerously ill and pitifully +changed" from the robust man she had left. Her +return, however, did more for him than all the skill +of his doctors. It gave him a new lease of life, +in which her presence brought happiness into +days which, none knew better than himself, were +numbered.</p> +<p>For more than a year the Countess was his tender +nurse and constant companion, ministering to his +comfort and arranging plays and tableaux for his +entertainment. She watched over him as jealously +as any mother over her dying child; but all her +devotion could not stay the steps of death, which +every day brought nearer. As the inevitable end +approached, her friends warned her to leave Charlottenburg +while the opportunity was still hers—to +escape with her jewels and her money (a fortune of +£150,000)—but to all such urging she was deaf. +<a name="Page_123"></a>She would stay by her lover's side to the last, +though +she well knew the danger of delay.</p> +<p>One November day in 1797 Frederick William +made his last public appearance at a banquet, with +the Countess at his right hand; and seldom has +festival had such a setting in tragedy. "None of +the guests," we are told, "uttered a word or ate a +mouthful of anything; the plates were cleared at +the hasty ringing of a bell. A convulsive movement +made by the sick man showed that he was suffering +agonies. Before half-past nine every guest had +left, greatly troubled. The majority of those who had +been present never saw the unfortunate monarch +again. They all shared the same presentiment of +disaster, and wept."</p> +<p>From that night the King was dead, even to his +own Court. The gates of his palace were closed +against the world, and none were allowed to approach +the chamber in which his life was ebbing +away, save the Countess, his nurse, and his doctors. +Even his children were refused admittance to his +presence. As the Marquis de Saint Mexent said, +"The King of Prussia ends his days as though +he were a rich benefactor. All the relations are +excluded by the housekeeper."</p> +<p>A few days before the end came the Countess was +seen to leave the palace, carrying a large red portfolio—a +suspicious circumstance which the Crown +Prince's spies promptly reported to their master. +There could be only one inference—she had been +caught in the act of stealing State papers, a crime +for which she would have to pay a heavy price as +<a name="Page_124"></a>soon as her protector was no more! As a matter +of fact the portfolio contained nothing more secret +or valuable than the letters she had written to +the King during the twenty-seven years of their +romance, letters which, after reading, she consigned +to the flames in her boudoir within an hour of the +suspected theft of State documents.</p> +<p>A few days later, on the night of the 16th of +November (1797), the King entered on his "death +agony," one fit of suffocation succeeding another, +until the Countess, unable to bear any longer the +sight of such suffering, was carried away in violent +convulsions. She saw him no more; for by seven +o'clock in the morning Frederick William had +found release from his agony in death, and his son +had begun to reign in his stead.</p> +<p>At last the long-delayed hour of revenge had come +to Frederick William III., who had always regarded +his father's favourite as an enemy; and his vengeance +was swift to strike. Before the late King's body +was cold, his successor's emissaries appeared at the +palace door, Unter den Linden, with orders to search +her papers and to demand the keys of every desk +and cupboard. Even then she scorned to fly before +the storm which she knew was breaking. For three +days and nights her carriage stood at her gates ready +to take her away to safety; but she refused to move +a step.</p> +<p>Then one morning, before she had left her bed, +a major of the guards, with a posse of soldiers, +appeared at her bedroom door armed with a warrant +for her arrest; and for many weeks she was a closely +<a name="Page_125"></a>guarded prisoner in her own house, subject to +daily +insults and indignities from men who, a few weeks +earlier, had saluted her as a Queen.</p> +<p>At the trial which followed some very grave +indictments were preferred against her. She was +charged with having betrayed State secrets; with +having robbed the Royal Exchequer; stolen the +King's portfolio; and removed the priceless solitaire +diamond from his crown, and the very rings from +his fingers as he lay dying. To these and other +equally grave charges the Countess gave a dignified +denial, which the evidence she was able to produce +supported. The diamond and the rings were, in fact, +discovered in places indicated by her where they had +been put, by the King's orders, for safe custody.</p> +<p>The trial had a happier ending than, from the +malignity of her enemies, especially of the King, +might have been expected. After three months of +durance she was removed to a Silesian fortress. Her +houses and lands were taken from her; but her furniture +and jewels were left untouched, and with them +she was allowed to enjoy a pension of four thousand +thalers a year. Such was the judgment of a Court +which proved more merciful than she had perhaps a +right to expect. And two months later, the influence +and pleading of her friends set her free from her +fortress-prison to spend her life where and as she +would.</p> +<p>The sun of her splendour had indeed set, but many +years of peaceful and not unhappy life remained for +our ex-Queen, who was still in the prime of her +womanhood and beauty and with the magnetism +<a name="Page_126"></a>that, to her last day, brought men to her feet. +At +fifty she was able to inspire such passion in the breast +of a young artist, Francis Holbein, that he asked +and won her hand in marriage. But this romance +was short-lived, for within a year he left her, to +spend the remainder of her days in Paris, Vienna, +and her native Prussia. Here her adventurous +career closed in such obscurity, at the age of sixty-eight, +that even those who ministered to her last +moments were unaware that the dying woman was +the Countess who had played so dazzling a part a +generation earlier, as favourite of the King of +Prussia and Queen of her loveliest women.</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 35%;"> +<a name="CHAPTER_XII"></a> +<h2><a name="Page_127"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> +<h2>THE CORSICAN AND THE CREOLE</h2> +<div style="text-align: center;"><a name="img005"></a><img + style="width: 283px; height: 437px;" + alt="Joséphine de Beauharnais, par Proud'hon." + title="Joséphine de Beauharnais, par Proud'hon." + src="images/court005.jpg"><br> +<h5>JOSEPHINE DE BEAUHARNAIS.</h5> +</div> +<br> +<p>Of the many women who succeeded one another +with such bewildering rapidity in the favour of the +first Napoleon, from Desirée Clary, daughter of the +Marseilles silk-merchant, the "little wife" of his days +of obscurity, to Madame Walewska, the beautiful +Pole, who so fruitlessly bartered her charms for her +country's salvation, only one really captured his +fickle heart—Josephine de Beauharnais, the woman +whom he raised to the splendour of an Imperial +crown, only to fling her aside when she no longer +served the purposes of his ambition.</p> +<p>It was one October day in the year 1795 that +Josephine, Vicomtesse de Beauharnais, first cast the +spell of her beauty on the "ugly little Corsican," +who had then got his foot well planted on the ladder, +at the summit of which was his crown of empire. +At twenty-six, the man who, but a little earlier, was +an out-of-work captain, eating his heart out in a +Marseilles slum, was General-in-Chief of the armies +of France, with the disarmed rebels of Paris grovelling +at his feet.</p> +<p>One day a handsome boy came to him, craving +<a name="Page_128"></a>permission to retain the sword his father had +won, a +favour which the General, pleased by the boy's frankness +and manliness, granted. The next day the +young rebel's mother presented herself to thank him +with gracious words for his kindness to her son—a +creature of another world than his, with a beauty, +grace and refinement which were a new revelation +to his bourgeois eyes.</p> +<p>The fair vision haunted him; the music of her +voice lingered in his ears. He must see her again. +And, before another day had passed, we find the +pale-faced, grim Corsican, with the burning eyes, +sitting awkwardly on a horse-hair chair of Madame's +dining-room in her small house in the Rue Chantereine, +nervously awaiting the entry of the Vicomtesse +who had already played such havoc with his +peace of mind. And when at last she made her +appearance, few would have recognised in the man, +who made his shy, awkward bow, the famous General +with whose name the whole of France was ringing.</p> +<p>It was little wonder, perhaps, that the little Corsican's +heart went pit-a-pat, or that his knees trembled +under him, for the lady whose smile and the touch +of whose hand sent a thrill through him, was indeed, +to quote his own words, "beautiful as a dream." +From the chestnut hair which rippled over her small, +proudly poised head to the arch of her tiny, dainty +feet, "made for homage and for kisses," she was, "all +glorious without." There was witchery in every +part of her—in the rich colour that mantled in her +cheeks; the sweet brown eyes that looked out between +long-fringed eyelids; the small, delicate nose; +"<a name="Page_129"></a>the nostrils quivering at the least emotion"; +the +exquisite lines of the tall, supple figure, instinct with +grace in every moment; and, above all, in the seductive +music of a voice, every note of which was a +caress.</p> +<p>Sixteen years earlier, Josephine had come from +Martinique to Paris as bride of the Vicomte de Beauharnais, +with whom she had led a more or less unhappy +life, until the guillotine of the Revolution left +her a widow, with two children and an empty purse. +But even this crowning calamity was powerless to +crush the sunny-hearted Creole, who merely laughed +at the load of debts which piled themselves up +around her. A little of the wreckage of her husband's +fortune had been rescued for her by influential +friends; but this had disappeared long before +Napoleon crossed her path. And at last the light-hearted +widow realised that if she had a card left to +play, she must play it quickly.</p> +<p>Here then was her opportunity. The little +General was obviously a slave at her feet; he was +already a great man, destined to be still greater; and +if he was bourgeois to his coarse finger-tips, he could +at least serve as a stepping-stone to raise her from +poverty and obscurity.</p> +<p>As for Napoleon, he was a vanquished man—and +he knew it—before ever he set foot in Madame's +modest dining-room. When he left, he "trod on +air," for the Vicomtesse had been more than gracious +to him. The next day he was drawn as by a magnet +to the Rue Chantereine, and the next and the next, +each interview with his divinity forging fresh links +<a name="Page_130"></a>for the chain that bound him; and at each visit +he +met under Madame's roof some of the great ones of +that other world in which Josephine moved, the old +<i>noblesse</i> of France—who paid her the homage due +to a Queen.</p> +<p>Thus vanity and ambition fed the flames of the +passion which was consuming him; and within a +fortnight he had laid his heart and his fortune, which +at the time consisted of "his personal wardrobe and +his military accoutrements" at the feet of the Creole +widow; and one March day in 1796 Napoleon +Bonaparte, General, and Josephine de Beauharnais, +were made one by a registrar who obligingly described +the bride as twenty-nine (thus robbing her of +three years), and added two to the bridegroom's +twenty-six years.</p> +<p>After two days of rapturous honeymooning Napoleon +was on his way to join his army in Italy, as +reluctant a bridegroom as ever left Cupid at the bidding +of Mars. At every change of horses during the +long journey he dispatched letters to the wife he had +left behind—letters full of passion and yearning. In +one of them he wrote, "When I am tempted to curse +my fate, I place my hand on my heart and find your +portrait there. As I gaze at it I am filled with a joy +unutterable. Life seems to hold no pain, save that +of severance from my beloved."</p> +<p>At Nice, amid all the labours and anxieties of +organising his rabble army for a campaign, his +thoughts are always taking wings to her; her portrait +is ever in his hand. He says his prayers before +it; and, when once he accidentally broke the glass, +<a name="Page_131"></a>he was in an agony of despair and superstitious +foreboding. +His one cry was, "Come to me! Come to +my heart and to my arms. Oh, that you had wings!"</p> +<p>Even when flushed with the surrender of Piedmont +after a fortnight's brilliant fighting, in which he had +won half a dozen battles and reaped twenty-one standards, +he would have bartered all his laurels for a sight +of the woman he loved so passionately. But while he +was thus yearning for her in distant Italy, Madame +was much too happy in her beloved Paris to lend an +ear to his pleadings. As wife of the great Napoleon +she was a veritable Queen, fawned on and flattered +by all the great ones in the capital. Hers was the +place of honour at every fête and banquet; the banners +her husband had captured were presented to +her amid a tumult of acclamation; when she entered +a theatre the entire house rose to greet her with +cheers. She was thus in no mood to leave her +Queendom for the arms of her husband, whose +unattractive person and clumsy ardour only repelled +her.</p> +<p>When his letters calling her to him became more +and more imperative, she could no longer ignore +them. But she could, at least, invent an excellent +excuse for her tarrying. She wrote to tell him that +she was expecting to become a mother. This at +least would put a stop to his importunity. And it +did. Napoleon was full of delight—and self-reproach +at the joyful news. "Forgive me, my +beloved," he wrote. "How can I ever atone? You +were ill and I accused you of lingering in Paris. My +love robs me of my reason, and I shall never regain +<a name="Page_132"></a>it.... A child, sweet as its mother, is soon to +lie +in your arms. Oh! that I could be with you, even +if only for one day!"</p> +<p>To his brother Joseph he writes in a similar strain: +"The thought of her illness drives me mad. I long +to see her, to hold her in my arms. I love her so +madly, I cannot live without her. If she were to +die, I should have absolutely nothing left to live for."</p> +<p>When, however, he learns that Madame's illness +is not sufficient to interfere with her Paris gaieties, +a different mood seizes him. Jealousy and anger +take the place of anxious sympathy. He insists +that she shall join him—threatens to resign his command +if she refuses. Josephine no longer dares to +keep up her deception. She must obey. And thus, +in a flood of angry tears, we see her starting on her +long journey to Italy, in company with her dog, her +maid, and a brilliant escort of officers. Arrived at +Milan, she was welcomed by Napoleon with open +arms; but "after two days of rapture and caresses," +he was face to face with the great crisis of Castiglione. +His army was in imminent danger of annihilation; +his own fate and fortune trembled in the +balance. Nothing short of a miracle could save +him; and on the third day of his new honeymoon +he was back again in the field at grips with fate.</p> +<p>But even at this supreme crisis he found time to +write daily letters to the dear one who was awaiting +the issue in Milan, begging her to share his life. +"Your tears," he writes, "drive me to distraction; +they set my blood on fire. Come to me here, that +at least we may be able to say before we die we had +<a name="Page_133"></a>so many days of happiness." Thus he pleads in +letter after letter until Josephine, for very shame, is +forced to yield, and to return to her husband, who, +as Masson tells us, "was all day at her feet as before +some divinity."</p> +<p>Such days of bliss were, however, few and far between +for the man who was now in the throes of a +Titanic struggle, on the issue of which his fortunes +and those of France hung. But when duty took him +into danger where his lady could not follow, she +found ample solace. Monsieur Charles, Leclerc's +adjutant, was all the cavalier she needed—an Adonis +for beauty, a Hercules for strength, the handsomest +soldier in Napoleon's army, a past-master in all the +arts of love-making. There was no dull moment +for Josephine with such a squire at her elbow to +pour flatteries into her ears and to entertain her with +his clever tongue.</p> +<p>But Monsieur Charles had short shrift when Napoleon's +jealousy was aroused. He was quickly sent +packing to Paris; and Josephine was left to write +to her aunt, "I am bored to extinction." She was +weary of her husband's love-rhapsodies, disgusted +with the crudities of his passion. She had, however, +a solace in the homage paid to her everywhere. At +Genoa she was received as a Queen; at Florence the +Grand Duke called her "cousin"; the entire army, +from General to private, was under the spell of +her beauty and the graciousness that captivated all +hearts. She was, too, reaping a rich harvest of costly +presents and bribes, from all who sought to win +Napoleon's favour through her.</p> +<p><a name="Page_134"></a>The Italian campaign at last over, Madame +found +herself back again in her dear Paris, raised to a +higher pinnacle of Queendom than ever, basking in +the splendours of the husband whose glories she so +gladly shared, though she held his love in such light +esteem. But for him, at least, there was no time +for dallying. Within a few months he was waving +farewell to her again, from the bridge of the <i>Océan</i> +which was carrying him off to the conquest of Egypt, +buoyed by her promise that she would join him when +his work was done. And long before he had reached +Malta she was back again in the vortex of Paris +gaiety, setting the tongue of scandal wagging by her +open flirtation with one lover after another.</p> +<p>It was not long before the news of Madame's +"goings-on" reached as far as Alexandria. The +dormant jealousy in Napoleon, lulled to rest since +Monsieur Charles had vanished from the scene, was +fanned into flame. He was furious; disillusion +seized him, and thoughts of divorce began to enter +his brain. Two could play at this game of falseness; +and there were many beautiful women in +Egypt only too eager to console the great Napoleon.</p> +<p>When news came to Josephine that her husband +had landed at Fréjus, and would shortly be with her, +she was in a state bordering on panic. She shrank +from facing his anger; from the revelation of debts +and unwifely conduct which was inevitable. Her +all was at stake and the game was more than half +lost. In her desperation she took her courage in +both hands and set forth, as fast as horses could take +her, to meet Napoleon, that she might at least have +<a name="Page_135"></a>the first word with him; but as ill-luck would +have it, he travelled by a different route and she +missed him.</p> +<p>On her return to Paris she found the door of +Napoleon's room barred against her. "After repeated +knocking in vain," says M. Masson, "she +sank on her knees sobbing aloud. Still the door +remained closed. For a whole day the scene was +prolonged, without any sign from within. Worn out +at last, Josephine was about to retire in despair, when +her maid fetched her children. Eugène and Hortense, +kneeling beside their mother, mingled their +supplications with hers. At last the door was opened; +speechless, tears streaming down his cheeks, his face +convulsed with the struggle that had rent his heart, +Bonaparte appeared, holding out his arms to his +wife."</p> +<p>Such was the meeting of the unfaithful Josephine +and the husband who had vowed that he would no +longer call her wife. The reconciliation was complete; +for Napoleon was no man of half-measures. +He frankly forgave the weeping woman all her sins +against him; and with generous hand removed the +mountain of debt her extravagance had heaped up—debts +amounting to more than two million francs, +one million two hundred thousand of which she owed +to tradespeople alone.</p> +<p>But Napoleon's passion for his wife, of whose +beauty few traces now remained, was dead. His +loyalty only remained; and this, in turn, was to +be swept away by the tide of his ambition. A few +years later Josephine was crowned Empress by her +<a name="Page_136"></a>husband, and consecrated by the Pope, after a +priest +had given the sanction of the Church to her incomplete +nuptials.</p> +<p>She had now reached the dazzling zenith of her +career. At the Tuileries, at St Cloud, and at Malmaison, +she held her splendid Courts as Empress. +She had the most magnificent crown jewels in the +world; and at Malmaison she spent her happiest +hours in spreading her gems out on the table before +her, and feasting her eyes on their many-hued fires. +Her wardrobes were full of the daintiest and costliest +gowns of which, we are told, more than two hundred +were summer-dresses of percale and of muslin, costing +from one thousand to two thousand francs each.</p> +<p>Less than six years of such splendour and luxury, +and the inevitable end of it all came. Napoleon's +eyes were dazzled by the offer of an alliance with the +eldest daughter of the Austrian Emperor. His whole +ambition now was focused on providing a successor +to his crown (Josephine had failed him in this important +matter); and in Marie Louise of Austria he not +only saw the prospective mother of his heir, but an +alliance with one of the great reigning houses of +Europe, which would lend a much-needed glamour +to his bourgeois crown.</p> +<p>His mind was at last inevitably made up. Josephine +must be divorced. Her pleadings and tears and +faintings were powerless to melt him. And one +December day, in the year 1809, Napoleon was free +to wed his Austrian Princess; and Josephine was left +to console herself as best she might, with the knowledge +that at least she had rescued from her downfall +<a name="Page_137"></a>a life-income of three million francs a year, on +which +she could still play the rôle of Empress at the Elysée, +Malmaison, and Navarre, the sumptuous homes with +which Napoleon's generosity had dowered the wife +who failed.</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 35%;"> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIII"></a> +<h2><a name="Page_138"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> +<h2>THE ENSLAVER OF A KING</h2> +<div style="text-align: center;"><a name="img006"></a><img + style="width: 298px; height: 392px;" + alt="Lola Montez, Countess of Landsfeld." + title="Lola Montez, Countess of Landsfeld." src="images/court006.jpg"><br> +<h5>LOLA MONTEZ, COUNTESS OF LANDSFELD.</h5> +</div> +<br> +<p>More than fifty years have gone since the penitent +soul of Lola Montez took flight to its Creator; but +there must be some still living whose pulses quicken +at the very mention of a name which recalls so much +mystery and romance and bewildering fascination of +the days when, for them, as for her, "all the world +was young."</p> +<p>Who was she, this woman whose beauty dazzled +the eyes and whose witchery turned the heads of men +in the forties and fifties of last century? A dozen +countries, from Spain to India, were credited with +her birth. Some said she was the daughter of a +noble house, kidnapped by gipsies in her infancy; +others were equally confident that she had for father +the coroneted rake, Lord Byron, and for mother a +charwoman.</p> +<p>Her early years were wrapped in a mystery which +she mischievously helped to intensify by declaring +that her father was a famous Spanish toreador. Her +origin, however, was prosaic enough. She was the +daughter of an obscure army captain, Gilbert, who +hailed from Limerick; her mother was an Oliver, +<a name="Page_139"></a>from whom she received her strain of Spanish +blood; +and the names given to her at a Limerick font, one +day in 1818, two months after her parents had made +their runaway match, were Marie Dolores Eliza +Rosanna.</p> +<p>When Captain Gilbert returned, after his furlough-romance, +to India, he took his wife and child with +him. Seven years later cholera removed him; his +widow found speedy solace in the arms of a second +husband, one Captain Craigie; and Dolores was +packed off to Scotland to the care of her stepfather's +people until her schooldays were ended.</p> +<p>In the next few years she alternated between the +Scottish household, with its chilly atmosphere of +Calvinism, and schools in Paris and London, until, +her education completed, she escaped the husband, +a mummified Indian judge, whom her mother had +chosen for her, by eloping with a young army officer, +a Captain James, and with him made the return +voyage to India.</p> +<p>A few months later her romance came to a tragic +end, when her Lothario husband fell under the spell +of a brother-officer's wife and ran away with her to +the seclusion of the Neilgherry Hills, leaving his wife +stranded and desolate. And thus it was that Dolores +Gilbert wiped the dust of India finally off her feet, +and with a cheque for a thousand pounds, which her +good-hearted stepfather slipped into her hand, started +once more for England, to commence that career of +adventure which has scarcely a parallel even in +fiction. She had had more than enough of wedded +life, of Scottish Calvinism, and of a mother's selfish +<a name="Page_140"></a>indifference. She would be henceforth the +mistress +of her own fate. She had beauty such as few women +could boast—she had talents and a stout heart; and +these should be her fortune.</p> +<p>Her first ambition was to be a great actress; and +when she found that acting was not her forte she +determined to dance her way to fame and fortune, +and after a year's training in London and Spain she +was ready to conquer the world with her twinkling +feet and supple body.</p> +<p>Of her first appearance as a danseuse, before a +private gathering of Pressmen, we have the following +account by one who was there: "Her figure was +even more attractive than her face, lovely as the +latter was. Lithe and graceful as a young fawn, +every movement that she made seemed instinct with +melody. Her dark eyes were blazing and flashing +with excitement. In her pose grace seemed involuntarily +to preside over her limbs and dispose their +attitude. Her foot and ankle were almost faultless."</p> +<p>Such was the enthusiastic description of Lola +Montez (as she now chose to call herself) on the eve +of her bid for fame as a dancer who should perhaps +rival the glories of a Taglioni. A few days later the +world of rank and fashion flocked to see the début +of the danseuse whose fame had been trumpeted +abroad; and as Lola pirouetted on to the stage—the +focus of a thousand pairs of eyes—she felt that the +crowning moment of her life had come.</p> +<p>Almost before her twinkling feet had carried her +to the centre of the stage an ominous sound broke +the silence of expectation. A hiss came from one of +<a name="Page_141"></a>the boxes; it was repeated from another, and +another. +The sibilant sound spread round the house; +it swelled into a sinister storm of hisses and boos. +The light faded out of the dancer's eyes, the smile +from her lips; and as the tumult of disapprobation +rose to a deafening climax the curtain was rung +down, and Lola rushed weeping from the stage. Her +career as a dancer, in England, had ended at its birth.</p> +<p>But Lola Montez was not the woman to sit down +calmly under defeat. A few weeks later we find her +tripping it on the stage at Dresden, and at Berlin, +where the King of Prussia himself was among her +applauders. But such success as the Continent +brought her was too small to keep her now deplenished +purse supplied. She fell on evil days, and for +two years led a precarious life—now, we are told, +singing in Brussels streets to keep starvation from +her side, now playing the political spy in Russia, and +again, by a capricious turn of fortune's wheel, being +fêted and courted in the exalted circles of Vienna +and Paris.</p> +<p>From the French capital she made her way to +Warsaw, where stirring adventures awaited her, for +before she had been there many days the Polish Viceroy, +General Paskevitch, cast his aged but lascivious +eyes on her young beauty and sent an equerry to +desire her presence at the palace. "He offered her" +(so runs the story as told by her own lips) "the gift +of a splendid country estate, and would load her with +diamonds besides. The poor old man was a comic +sight to look upon—unusually short in stature; and +every time he spoke he threw his head back and +<a name="Page_142"></a>opened his mouth so wide as to expose the +artificial +gold roof of his palate. A death's head making love +to a lady could not have been a more horrible or +disgusting sight. These generous gifts were most +respectfully and very decidedly declined."</p> +<p>But General Paskevitch was not disposed to be +spurned with impunity. The contemptuous beauty +must be punished for her scorn of his wooing; and, +when she made her appearance on the stage the same +night it was to a greeting of hisses by the Viceroy's +hirelings. The next night brought the same experience; +but when on the third night the storm arose, +"Lola, in a rage, rushed down to the footlights and +declared that those hisses had been set at her by the +director, because she had refused certain gifts from +the old Prince, his master. Then came a tremendous +shower of applause from the audience, and the old +Princess, who was present, both nodded her head and +clapped her hands to the enraged and fiery little Lola."</p> +<p>A tumultuous crowd of Poles escorted her to her +lodgings that night. She was the heroine of the +hour, who had dared to give open defiance to the +hated Viceroy. The next morning Warsaw was +"bubbling and raging with the signs of an incipient +revolution. When Lola Montez was apprised of the +fact that her arrest was ordered she barricaded her +door; and when the police arrived she sat behind it +with a pistol in her hand, declaring that she would +certainly shoot the first man who should dare to break +in." Fortunately for Lola, her pistol was not used. +The French Consul came to her rescue, claiming her +as a subject of France, and thus protecting her from +<a name="Page_143"></a>arrest. But the order that she should quit +Warsaw +was peremptory, and Warsaw saw her no more.</p> +<p>Back again in Paris, Lola found that even her new +halo of romance was powerless to win favour for her +dancing. Again she was to hear the storm of hisses; +and this time in her rage "she retaliated by making +faces at her audience," and flinging parts of her +clothing in their faces. But if Paris was not to be +charmed by her dainty feet it was ready to yield an +unstinted homage to her rare beauty and charm. She +found a flattering welcome in the most exclusive +of <i>salons</i>; the cleverest men in the capital confessed +the charm of her wit and surrounded her with their +flatteries.</p> +<p>M. Dujarrier, the most brilliant of them all, young, +rich, and handsome, fell head over ears in love with +her and asked her to be his wife. But the cup of +happiness was scarcely at her lips before it was dashed +away. Dujarrier was challenged to a duel by Beauvallon, +a political enemy; and when Lola was on her +way to stop the meeting she met a mournful procession +bringing back her dead lover's body, on which +she flung herself in an agony of grief and covered it +with kisses. At the subsequent trial of Beauvallon +she electrified the Court by declaring with streaming +eyes, "If Beauvallon wanted satisfaction I would have +fought him myself, for I am a better shot than poor +Dujarrier ever was." And she was probably only +speaking the truth, for her courage was as great as +the love she bore for the victim of the duel.</p> +<p>As a child Lola had shocked her puritanical Scottish +hosts by declaring that "she meant to marry a +<a name="Page_144"></a>Prince," and unkindly as fate had treated her, +she +had by no means relinquished this childish ambition. +It may be that it was in her mind when, a year and +a half after the tragedy that had so clouded her life +in Paris, she drifted to Munich in search of more +conquests.</p> +<p>Now in the full bloom of her radiant loveliness—"the +most beautiful woman in Europe" many declared—mingling +the vivacity of an Irish beauty with +the voluptuous charms of a Spaniard—she was splendidly +equipped for the conquest of any man, be he +King or subject; and Ludwig I., King of Bavaria, +had as keen an eye for female beauty as for the +objects of art on which he squandered his millions.</p> +<p>It was this Ludwig who made Munich the fairest +city in all Germany, and who enriched his palace +with the finest private collection of pictures and +statues that Europe can boast. But among all his +treasures of art he valued none more than his gallery +of portraits of fair women, each of whom had, at one +time or another, visited his capital.</p> +<p>Such was Ludwig, Bavaria's King, to whom Lola +Montez now brought a new revelation of female loveliness, +to which his gallery could furnish no rival. +At first sight of her, as she danced in the opera +ballet, he was undone. The next day and the next +his eyes were feasting on her charms and her supple +grace; and within a week she was installed at the +Court and was being introduced by His Majesty as +"my best friend."</p> +<p>And not only the King, but all Munich was at the +feet of the lovely "Spaniard"; her drives through +<a name="Page_145"></a>the streets were Royal progresses; her +receptions in +the palace which Ludwig presented to her were +thronged by all the greatest in Bavaria; on Prince +and peasant alike she cast the spell of her witchery. +As for Ludwig, connoisseur of the beautiful, he was +her shadow and her slave, showering on her gifts an +Empress might well have envied. Fortune had relented +at last and was now smiling her sweetest on +the adventuress; and if Lola had been content with +such triumphs as these the story of her later life might +have been very different. But she craved power to +add to her trophies, and aspired to take the sceptre +from the weak hand of her Royal lover.</p> +<p>Never did woman make a more fatal mistake. On +the one hand was arrayed the might of Austria and +of Rome, whose puppet Ludwig was; on the other +hand was a nation clamouring for reforms. Revolution +was already in the air, and it was reserved to +this too daring woman to precipitate the storm.</p> +<p>Her first ambition was to persuade Ludwig to dismiss +his Ministry, to shake himself free from foreign +influence, and to inaugurate the era of reform for +which his subjects were clamouring. In vain did +Austria try to win her to its side by bribes of gold (no +less than a million florins) and the offer of a noble +husband. To all its seductions Lola turned as deaf +an ear as to the offers of Poland's Viceroy. And so +strenuous was her championship of the people that +the Cabinet was compelled to resign in favour of +the "Lola Ministry" of reformers.</p> +<p>So far she had succeeded, but the price was still to +pay. The reactionaries, supported by Austria and +<a name="Page_146"></a>the Romish Church, were quick to retaliate by +waging +remorseless war against the King's mistress; and, +among their most powerful weapons, used the students' +clubs of Munich, who, from being Lola's most +enthusiastic admirers, became her bitterest enemies.</p> +<p>To counteract this move Lola enrolled a students' +corps of her own—a small army of young stalwarts, +whose cry was "Lola and Liberty," and who were +sworn to fight her battles, if need be, to the death. +Thus was the fire of revolution kindled by a woman's +vanity and lust of power. Students' fights became +everyday incidents in the streets of Munich, and on +one occasion when Lola, pistol in hand, intervened +to prevent bloodshed, she was rescued with difficulty +by Ludwig himself and a detachment of soldiers.</p> +<p>The climax came when she induced the King to +close the University for a year—an autocratic step +which aroused the anger not only of every student +but of the whole country. The streets were paraded +by mobs crying, "Down with the concubine!" and +"Long live the Republic!" Barricades were erected +and an influential deputation waited on the King to +demand the expulsion of the worker of so much +mischief.</p> +<p>In vain did Ludwig declare that he would part with +his crown rather than with the Countess of Landsfeld—for +this was one of the titles he had conferred +on his favourite. The forces arrayed against him +were too strong, and the order of expulsion was at +last conceded. It was only, however, when her +palace was in flames and surrounded by a howling +mob that the dauntless woman deigned to seek refuge +<a name="Page_147"></a>in flight, and, disguised as a boy, suffered +herself to +be escorted to the frontier. Two weeks later Ludwig +lost his crown.</p> +<p>The remainder of this strange story may be told +in a few words. Thrown once more on the world, +with a few hastily rescued jewels for all her fortune, +Lola Montez resumed her stage life, appearing in +London in a drama entitled "Lola Montez: or a +Countess for an Hour." Here she made a conquest +of a young Life Guardsman, called Heald, who had +recently succeeded to an estate worth £5000 a year; +and with him she spent a few years, made wretched +by continual quarrels, in one of which she stabbed +him. When he was "found drowned" at Lisbon +she drifted to Paris, and later to the United States, +which she toured with a drama entitled "Lola Montez +in Bavaria." There she made her third appearance +at the altar, with a bridegroom named Hull, +whom she divorced as soon as the honeymoon had +waned.</p> +<p>Thus she carried her restless spirit through a few +more years of wandering and growing poverty, until +a chance visit to Spurgeon's Tabernacle revolutionised +her life. She decided to abandon the stage +and to devote the remainder of her days to penitence +and good works. But the end was already near. In +New York, where she had gone to lecture, she was +struck down by paralysis, and a few weeks before +she had seen her forty-second birthday she died in +a charitable institution, joining fervently in the +prayers of the clergyman who was summoned to her +death-bed.</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_148"></a>When she was near the end, and could not +speak," +the clergyman says, "I asked her to let me know by +a sign whether she was at peace. She fixed her eyes +on mine and nodded affirmatively. I do not think I +ever saw deeper penitence and humility than in this +poor woman."<br> +</p> +<p style="text-align: center;"><a name="img007"></a><img + style="width: 282px; height: 408px;" alt="Ludwig I., King of Bavaria." + title="Ludwig I., King of Bavaria." src="images/court007.jpg"><br> +</p> +<h5>LUDWIG I., KING OF BAVARIA.</h5> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 35%;"> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIV"></a> +<h2><a name="Page_149"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> +<h2>AN EMPRESS AND HER FAVOURITES</h2> +<br> +<a name="img002"></a> +<div style="text-align: center;"><img + style="width: 243px; height: 350px;" + alt="Catherine the Second of Russia." + title="Catherine the Second of Russia." src="images/court002.jpg"><br> +</div> +<div style="text-align: center;"> +<h5>CATHERINE THE SECOND OF RUSSIA.</h5> +<br> +</div> +<p>When Sophie Augusta Frederica of Anhalt-Zerbst +was romping on the ramparts or in the streets of +Stettin with burghers' children for playmates, he +would have been a bold prophet who would have +predicted that one day she would be the most splendid +figure among Europe's sovereigns, "the only +great man in Europe," according to Voltaire, "an +angel before whom all men should be silent"; and +that, while dazzling Europe by her statesmanship +and learning, she would afford more material for +scandal than any woman, except perhaps Christina +of Sweden, who ever wore a crown.</p> +<p>There is much, it is true, to be said in extenuation +of the weakness that has left such a stain on the +memory of Catherine II. of Russia. Equipped far +beyond most women with the beauty and charms +that fascinate men, and craving more than most of +her sex the love of man, she was mated when little +more than a child to the most degenerate Prince in +all Europe.</p> +<p>The Grand Duke Peter, heir to the Russian +throne, who at sixteen took to wife the girl-Princess +<a name="Page_150"></a>of Anhalt-Zerbst, was already an expert in +almost +every vice. Imbecile in mind, he found his chief +pleasure in the company of the most degraded. He +rarely went to bed sober—in fact, his bride's first +sight of him was when he was drunk, at the age of +ten. He was, too, "a liar and a coward, vicious and +violent; pale, sickly, and uncomely—a crooked soul +in a prematurely ravaged body."</p> +<p>Such was the Grand Duke Peter, to whom the +high-spirited, beautiful Princess Sophie (thenceforth +to be known as "Catherine") was tied for life one +day in the year 1744—a youth the very sight of +whom repelled her, while his vices filled her with +loathing. Add to this revolting union the fact that +she found herself under the despotic rule of the +Empress Elizabeth, who made no concealment of +her hatred and jealousy of the fair young Princess, +surrounded her with spies, and treated her as a rebellious +child, to be checked and bullied at every turn—and +it is not difficult to understand the spirit of +recklessness and defiance that was soon roused in +Catherine's breast.</p> +<p>There was at the Russian Court no lack of temptation +to indulge this spirit of revolt to the full. The +young German beauty, mated to worse than a clown, +soon had her Court of admirers to pour flatteries into +her dainty ears, and she would perhaps have been +less than a woman if she had not eagerly drunk them +in. She had no need of anyone to tell her that she +was fair. "I know I am beautiful as the day," she +once exclaimed, as she looked at her mirrored reflection +in her first ball finery at St Petersburg, with a +<a name="Page_151"></a>red rose in her glorious hair; and the mirror +told no +flattering tale.</p> +<p>See the picture Poniatowski, one of her earliest +and most ardent slaves, paints of the young Grand +Duchess. "With her black hair she had a dazzling +whiteness of skin, a vivid colour, large blue eyes +prominent and eloquent, black and long eyebrows, +a Greek nose, a mouth that looked made for kissing, +a slight, rather tall figure, a carriage that was lively, +yet full of nobility, a pleasing voice, and a laugh as +merry as the humour through which she could +pass with ease from the most playful and childish +amusements to the most fatiguing mathematical +calculations."</p> +<p>With the brain, even in those early years, of a +clever man, she was essentially a woman, with all a +woman's passion for the admiration and love of men; +and one cannot wonder, however much one may +deplore, that while her imbecile husband was guzzling +with common soldiers, or playing with his toys and +tin cannon in bed, vacuous smiles on his face, his +beautiful bride should find her own pleasures in the +homage of a Soltykoff, a Poniatowski, an Orloff, or +any other of the legion of lovers who in quick +succession took her fancy.</p> +<p>The first among her admirers to capture her fancy +was Sergius Soltykoff, her chamberlain, high-born, +"beautiful as the day," polished courtier, supple-tongued +wooer, to whom the Grand Duchess gave +the heart her husband spurned. But Soltykoff's +reign was short; the fickle Princess, ever seeking +fresh conquests, wearied of him as of all her lovers +<a name="Page_152"></a>in turn, and his place was taken within a year +by +Stanislas Poniatowski, a fascinating young Pole, +who returned to St Petersburg with a reputation of +gallantry won in almost every Court of Europe.</p> +<p>Poniatowski had not perhaps the physical perfections +of his dethroned predecessor, but he had the +well-stored brain that made an even more potent +appeal to Catherine. He could talk "like an angel" +on every subject that appealed to her, from art to +philosophy; and he had, moreover, a magnetic +charm of manner which few women could resist.</p> +<p>Such a lover was, indeed, after her heart, for he +brought romance and adventure to his wooing; and +whether he found his way to her boudoir disguised +as a ladies' tailor or as one of the Grand Duke's +musicians, or made open love to her under the very +nose of her courtiers, he played his rôle of lover to +admiration. Once Peter, in jealous mood, threatened +to run his rival through with his sword, and, in +his rage, "went into his wife's bedroom and pulled +her out of bed without leaving her time to dress." +An hour later his anger had changed to an amused +complaisance, and he was supping with the culprits, +and with boisterous laughter was drinking their +healths.</p> +<p>When at last a political storm drove Poniatowski +from Russia, Catherine, who never forgot a banished +lover, secured for him the crown of Poland.</p> +<p>Thus the favourites come and go, each supreme +for a time, each inevitably packed off to give place +to a successor. With Poniatowski away in Poland, +Catherine cast her eyes round her Court to find a +<a name="Page_153"></a>third favourite, and her choice was soon made, +for of +all her army of admirers there was one who fully +satisfied her ideal of handsome manhood.</p> +<p>Of the five Orloff brothers, each a Goliath in +stature and a Hercules in strength, the handsomest +was Gregory, "the giant with the face of an angel." +Towering head and shoulders over most of his +fellow-courtiers, with knotted muscles which could +fell an ox or crush a horse-shoe with the closing of +a hand, Gregory Orloff was reputed the bravest man +in Russia, as he was the idol of his soldiers. He +was also a notorious gambler and drinker and the +hero of countless love adventures.</p> +<p>No greater contrast could be possible than +between this dare-devil son of Anak and the cultured, +almost feminine Poniatowski; but Catherine +loved, above all things, variety, and here it was in +startling abundance. Nor was her new lover any +the less desirable because he was some years younger +than herself, or that his grandfather had been a +common soldier in the army of Peter the Great.</p> +<p>And Gregory Orloff proved himself as bold in +wooing as he was brave in war. For him there was +no stealing up back stairs, no masquerading in disguises. +He was the elect favourite of the future +Empress of Russia, and all the world should know +it. He was inseparable from his mistress, and paid +his court to her under the eyes of her husband; while +Catherine, thus emboldened, made as little concealment +of her partiality.</p> +<p>But troublous days were coming to break the idyll +of their love. The Empress Elizabeth, as was +<a name="Page_154"></a>inevitable, at last drank herself to death, and +her +nephew Peter, now a besotted imbecile of thirty-four, +put on the Imperial robes, and was free to +indulge his madness without restraint. The first +use he made of his freedom was to subject his wife +to every insult and humiliation his debased brain +could suggest. He flaunted his amours and vices +before her, taunted her in public with her own indiscretions, +and shouted in his cups that he would +divorce her.</p> +<p>Not content with these outrages on his Empress, +he lost no opportunity of disgusting his subjects and +driving his soldiers to the verge of mutiny. Such +an intolerable state of things could only have one +issue. The Emperor was undoubtedly mad; the +Emperor must go.</p> +<p>Over the <i>coup d'état</i> which followed we must pass +hurriedly—the conspiracy of Catherine and the +Orloffs, the eager response of the army which +flocked to the Empress, "kissing me, embracing +my hands, my feet, my dress, and calling me their +saviour"; the marching of the insurgent troops to +Oranienbaum, with Catherine, astride on horseback, +at their head; and Peter's craven submission, +when he crawled on his knees to his wife, with +whimpering and tears, begging her to allow him +to keep "his mistress, his dog, his negro, and his +violin."</p> +<p>The Emperor was safe behind barred doors at +Mopsa; Catherine was now Empress in fact as well +as name. Three weeks later Peter was dead; was +he done to death by Catherine's orders? To this +<a name="Page_155"></a>day none can say with certainty. The story of +this +tragedy as told by Castèra makes gruesome reading.</p> +<p>One day Alexis Orloff and Teplof appeared at +Mopsa to announce to the deposed sovereign his +approaching deliverance and to ask a dinner of him. +Glasses and brandy were ordered, and while Teplof +was amusing the Tsar, Orloff filled the glasses, +adding poison to one of them.</p> +<p>"The Tsar, suspecting no harm, took the poison +and swallowed it. He was soon seized with agonising +pains. He screamed aloud for milk, but the two +monsters again presented poison to him and forced +him to take it. When the Tsar's valet bravely interposed +he was hurled from the room. In the midst of +the tumult there entered Prince Baratinski, who +commanded the Guard. Orloff, who had already +thrown down the Tsar, pressed upon his chest with +his own knees, holding him fast at the same time by +the throat. Baratinski and Teplof then passed a +table-napkin with a sliding knot round his neck, and +the murderers accomplished the work of death by +strangling him."</p> +<p>Such is the story as it has come down to us, and +as it was believed in Russia at the time. That +Gregory Orloff was innocent of a crime in which his +own brother played a leading part is as little to be +credited as that Catherine herself was in ignorance +of the design on her husband's life. But, however +this may be, we are told that when the news of her +husband's death was brought to the Empress at a +banquet, she was to all appearance overcome with +horror and grief. She left the table with streaming +<a name="Page_156"></a>eyes and spent the next few days in +unapproachable +solitude in her rooms.</p> +<p>Thus at last Catherine was free both from the +tyranny of Elizabeth and from the brutality of her +bestial husband. She was sole sovereign of all the +Russias, at liberty to indulge any caprice that entered +her versatile brain. That her subjects, almost to a +man, regarded her with horror as her husband's murderer, +that this detestation was shared by the army +that had put her on the throne, and by the nobles who +had been her slaves, troubled her little. She was +mistress of her fate, and strong enough (as indeed +she proved) to hold, with a firm grasp, the sceptre +she had won.</p> +<p>High as Gregory Orloff had stood in her favour +before she came to her crown, his position was +now more splendid and secure. She showered her +favours on him with prodigal hand. Lands and +jewels and gold were squandered on her "First +Favourite"—the official designation she invented +for him; and he wore on his broad chest her miniature +in a blazing oval of diamonds, the crowning +mark of her approval. And to his brothers she was +almost equally generous, for in a few years of her +ascendancy the Orloffs were enriched by vast estates +on which forty-five thousand serfs toiled, by palaces, +and by gold to the amount of seventeen million +roubles. Such it was to be in the good books of +Catherine II., Empress of Russia.</p> +<p>With riches and power, Gregory's ambition grew +until he dreamt of sitting on the throne itself by +Catherine's side; and in her foolish infatuation even +<a name="Page_157"></a>this prize might have been his, had not wiser +counsels +come to her rescue. "The Empress," said Panine +to her, "can do what she likes; but Madame Orloff +can never be Empress of Russia." And thus +Gregory's greatest ambition was happily nipped in +the bud.</p> +<p>The man who had played his cards with such skill +and discretion in the early days of his love-making +had now, his head swollen by pride and power, grown +reckless. If he could not be Emperor in name, he +would at least wield the sceptre. The woman to +whom he owed all was, he thought, but a puppet in +his hands, as ready to do his bidding as any of his +minions. But through all her dallying Catherine's +smiles masked an iron will. In heart she was a +woman; in brain and will-power, a man. And +Orloff, like many another favourite, was to learn the +lesson to his cost.</p> +<p>The time came when she could no longer tolerate +his airs and assumptions. There was only one +Empress, but lovers were plentiful, and she already +had an eye on his successor. And thus it was that +one day the swollen Orloff was sent on a diplomatic +mission to arrange peace between Russia and +Turkey. When she bade him good-bye she called +him her "angel of peace," but she knew that it was +her angel's farewell to his paradise.</p> +<p>How the Ambassador, instead of making peace, +stirred up the embers of war into fresh flame is a +matter of history. But he was not long left to work +such mad mischief. While he was swaggering at a +Jassy fête, in a costume ablaze with diamonds worth +<a name="Page_158"></a>a million roubles, news came to him of a +good-looking +young lieutenant who was not only installed +in his place by Catherine's side, but was actually +occupying his own apartments. Within an hour he +was racing back to St Petersburg, resting neither +night nor day until he had covered the thousand +leagues that separated him from the capital.</p> +<p>Before, however, his sweating horses could enter +it, he was stopped by Catherine's emissaries and +ordered to repair to the Imperial Palace at Gatshina. +And then he realised that his sun had indeed come +to its setting. His honours were soon stripped from +him, and although he was allowed to keep his lands, +his gold and jewels, the spoils of Cupid, the diamond-framed +miniature, was taken away to adorn the breast +of his successor, the lieutenant.</p> +<p>Under this cloud of disfavour Orloff conducted +himself with such resignation—none knew better +than he how futile it was to fight—that Catherine, +before many months had passed, not only recalled +him to Court, but secured for him a Princedom of the +Holy Empire. "As for Prince Gregory," she said +amiably, "he is free to go or stay, to hunt, to drink, +or to gamble. I intend to live according to my own +pleasure, and in entire independence."</p> +<p>After a tragically brief wedded life with a beautiful +girl-cousin, who died of consumption, Orloff returned +to St Petersburg to spend the last few months +of his life, "broken-hearted and mad." And to his +last hour his clouded brain was tortured with visions +of the "avenging shade of the murdered Peter."</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 35%;"> +<a name="CHAPTER_XV"></a> +<h2><a name="Page_159"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> +<h2>A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY CINDERELLA</h2> +<p>It was to all seeming a strange whim that caused +Cardinal Mazarin, one day in the year 1653, to +summon his nieces, daughters of his sister, Hieronyme +Mancini, from their obscurity in Italy to bask +in the sunshine of his splendours in Paris.</p> +<p>At the time of this odd caprice, Richelieu's crafty +successor had reached the zenith of his power. His +was the most potent and splendid figure in all +Europe that did not wear a crown. He was the +avowed favourite and lover of Anne of Austria, +Queen of France, to whose vanity he had paid such +skilful court—indeed it was common rumour that she +had actually given him her hand in secret marriage. +The boy-King, Louis XIV., was a puppet in his +strong hands. He was, in fact, the dictator of +France, whose smiles the greatest courtiers tried to +win, and before whose frowns they trembled.</p> +<p>In contrast to such magnificence, his sister, +Madame Mancini, was the wife of a petty Italian +baron, who was struggling to bring up her five +daughters on a pathetically scanty purse—as far +removed from her magnificent brother as a moth from +a star. There was, on the face of things, every +<a name="Page_160"></a>reason why the great and all-powerful Cardinal +should leave his nieces to their genteel poverty; +and we can imagine both the astonishment and +delight with which Madame Mancini received the +summons to Paris which meant such a revolution in +life for her and her daughters.</p> +<p>If the Mancini girls had no heritage of money, +they had at least the dower of beauty. Each of the +five gave promise of a rare loveliness—with the +solitary exception of Marie, Madame's third daughter, +who at fourteen was singularly unattractive even +for that awkward age. Tall, thin, and angular, +without a vestige of grace either of figure or movement, +she had a sallow face out of which two great +black eyes looked gloomily, and a mouth wide and +thin-lipped. She was, in addition, shy and slow-witted +to the verge of stupidity. Marie, in fact, +was quite hopeless, the "ugly duckling" of a good-looking +family, and for this reason an object of +dislike and resentment to her mother.</p> +<p>Certainly, said Madame, Marie must be left +behind. Her other daughters would be a source of +pride to their uncle; he could secure great matches +for them, but Marie—pah! she would bring discredit +on the whole family. And so it was decided in +conclave that the "ugly duckling" should be left in +a nunnery—the only fit place for her. But Marie +happily had a spirit of her own. She would not be +left behind, she declared; and if she must go to a +nunnery, why there were nunneries in plenty in +France to which they could send her. And Marie +had her way.</p> +<p><a name="Page_161"></a>She was not, however, to escape the cloister +after +all, for to a Paris nunnery she was consigned when +her Cardinal uncle had set eyes on her. "Let her +have a year or two there," was his verdict, "and, who +knows, she may blossom into a beauty yet. At any +rate she can put on flesh and not be the scarecrow +she is." And thus, while her more favoured sisters +were revelling in the gaieties of Court life, Marie +was sent to tell her beads and to spend Spartan days +among the nuns.</p> +<p>Nearly two years passed before Mazarin expressed +a wish to see his ugly niece again; and it was indeed +a very different Marie who now made her curtsy to +him. Gone were the angular figure, the awkward +movements, the sallow face, the slow wits. Time +and the healthy life of the cloisters had done their +work well. What the Cardinal now saw was a girl +of seventeen, of exquisitely modelled figure, graceful +and self-possessed; a face piquant and full of animation, +illuminated by a pair of glorious dark eyes, and +with a dazzling smile which revealed the prettiest +teeth in France. Above all, and what delighted the +Cardinal most, she had now a sprightly wit, and a +quite brilliant gift of conversation. It was thus a +smiling and gratified Cardinal who gave greeting to +his niece, now as fair as her sisters and more fascinating +than any of them. There was no doubt that he +could find a high-placed husband for her, and thus—for +this was, in fact, his motive for rescuing his pretty +nieces from their obscurity—make his position +secure by powerful family alliances.</p> +<p>It was not long before Mazarin fixed on a suitor +<a name="Page_162"></a>in the person of Armande de la Porte, son of the +Marquis de la Meilleraye, one of the most powerful +nobles in France. But alas for his scheming! +Armande's heart had already been caught while +Marie was reciting her matins and vespers: He +had lost it utterly to her beautiful sister, Hortense; +he vowed that he would marry no other, and that if +Hortense could not be his wife he would prefer to +die. Thus Marie was rescued from a union which +brought her sister so much misery in later years, +and for a time she was condemned to spend unhappy +months with her mother at the Louvre.</p> +<p>To this period of her life Marie Mancini could +never look back without a shudder. "My mother," +she says, "who, I think, had always hated me, was +more unbearable than ever. She treated me, although +I was no longer ugly, with the utmost aversion and +cruelty. My sisters went to Court and were fussed +and fêted. I was kept always at home, in our miserable +lodgings, an unhappy Cinderella."</p> +<p>But Fortune did not long hide his face from +Cinderella. Her "Prince Charming" was coming—in +the guise of the handsome young King, Louis +XIV. himself. It was one day while visiting +Madame Mancini in her lodgings at the Louvre that +Louis first saw the girl who was to play such havoc +with his heart; and at the first sight of those melting +dark eyes and that intoxicating smile he was undone. +He came again and again—always under the pretext +of visiting Madame, and happy beyond expression +if he could exchange a few words with her daughter, +Marie; until he soon counted a day worse than lost +<a name="Page_163"></a>that did not bring him the stolen sweetness of a +meeting.</p> +<p>When, a few weeks later, Madame Mancini died, +and Marie was recalled to Court by her uncle, her +life was completely changed for her. Louis had +now abundant opportunities of seeking her side; and +excellent use he made of them. The two young +people were inseparable, much to the alarm of the +Cardinal and Madame Mère, the Queen. The +young King was never happy out of her sight; he +danced with her (and none could dance more divinely +than Marie); he listened as she sang to him with +a voice whose sweetness thrilled him; they read the +same books together in blissful solitude; she taught +him her native Italian, and entranced him by the +brilliance of her wit; and when, after a slight +illness, he heard of her anxious inquiries and her +tears of sympathy, his conquest was complete. He +vowed that she and no other should be his wife and +Queen of France.</p> +<p>But these halcyon days were not to last long. It +was no part of Mazarin's scheming that a niece of +his should sit on the throne. The prospect was +dazzling, it is true, but it would inevitably mean his +own downfall, so strongly would such an alliance be +resented by friends as well as enemies; and Anne of +Austria was as little in the mood to be deposed by +such an obscure person as the "Mancini girl." +Thus it was that Queen and Cardinal joined hands +to nip the young romance in the bud.</p> +<p>A Royal bride must be found for Louis, and that +quickly; and negotiations were soon on foot to +<a name="Page_164"></a>secure as his wife Margaret, Princess of Savoy. +In +vain did the boy-King storm and protest; equally +futile were Marie's tearful pleadings to her uncle. +The fiat had gone forth. Louis must have a Royal +bride; and she was already about to leave Italy on +her bridal progress to France.</p> +<p>It was, we may be sure, with a heavy heart that +Marie joined the cavalcade which, with its gorgeous +procession of equipages, its gaily mounted courtiers, +and its brave escort of soldiery, swept out of Paris +on its stately progress to Lyons, to meet the Queen-to-be. +But there was no escape from the humiliation, +for she must accompany Anne of Austria, as +one of her retinue of maids-of-honour. Arrived too +soon at Lyons, Louis rides on to give first greeting +to his bride, who is now within a day's journey; and +returns with a smiling face to announce to his mother +that he finds the Princess pleasing to his eye, and to +describe, with boyish enthusiasm, her grace and +graciousness, her magnificent eyes, her beautiful +hair, and the delicate olive of her complexion, while +Marie's heart sinks at the recital. Could this be the +lover who, but a few days ago, had been at her feet, +vowing that she was the only bride in all the world +for him?</p> +<p>When he seeks her side and shamefacedly makes +excuses for his seeming recreancy, she bids him +marry his "ugly bride" in accents of scorn, and then +bursts into tears, which she only consents to wipe +away when he declares that his heart will always +be hers and that he will never marry the Italian +Princess.</p> +<p><a name="Page_165"></a>But Margaret of Savoy was not after all to be +Queen of France. She was, as it proved, merely a +pawn in the Cardinal's deep game. It was a Spanish +alliance that he sought for his young King; and +when, at the eleventh hour, an ambassador came +hurriedly to Lyons to offer the Infanta's hand, the +Savoy Duke and his sister, the Princess, had perforce +to return to Italy "empty-handed."</p> +<p>There was at least a time of respite now for Louis +and Marie, and as they rode back to Paris, side by +side, chatting gaily and exchanging sweet confidences, +the sun once more shone on the happiest +young people in all France. Then followed a period +of blissful days, of dances and fêtes, in brilliant +succession, in which the lovers were inseparable; +above all, of long rambles together, when, "the +world forgetting," they could live in the happy +present, whatever the future might have in store +for them.</p> +<p>Meanwhile the negotiations for the Spanish +marriage were ripening fast. Louis and Marie again +appeal, first to the Cardinal, then to the Queen, to +sanction their union, but to no purpose; both are +inflexible. Their foolish romance must come to an +end. As a last resource Marie flies to the King, +with tender pleadings and tears, begging him not to +desert her; to which he answers that no power on +earth shall make him wed the Infanta. "You +alone," he swears, "shall wear the crown of Queen"; +and in token of his love he buys for her the pearls +that were the most treasured belongings of the exiled +Stuart Queen, Henrietta Maria. The lovers part +<a name="Page_166"></a>in tears, and the following day Marie receives +orders +to leave Paris and to retire to La Rochelle.</p> +<p>At every stage of her journey she was overtaken +by messengers bearing letters from Louis, full of love +and protestations of unflinching loyalty; and when +Louis moved with his Court to Bayonne, the lovers +met once more to mingle their tears. But Louis, +ever fickle, was already wavering again. "If I must +marry the Infanta," he said, "I suppose I must. +But I shall never love any but you."</p> +<p>Marie now realised that this was to be the end. +In face of a lover so weak, and a fate so inflexible, +what could she do but submit? And it was with a +proud but breaking heart that she wrote a few days +later to tell Louis that she wished him not to write to +her again and that she would not answer his letters. +One June day news came to her that her lover was +married and that "he was very much in love with the +Infanta"; and even her pride, crushed as it was, +could not restrain her from writing to her sister, +Hortense, "Say everything you can that is horrid +about him. Point out all his faults to me, that I +may find relief for my aching heart." When, a few +months later, Marie saw the King again, he received +her almost as a stranger, and had the bad taste to +sing the praises of his Queen.</p> +<p>But Marie Mancini was the last girl in all France +to wed herself long to grief or an outraged vanity. +There were other lovers by the score among whom +she could pick and choose. She was more lovely +now than when the recreant Louis first succumbed to +her charms—with a ripened witchery of black eyes, +<a name="Page_167"></a>red lips, the flash of pearly teeth revealed by +every +dazzling smile, with glorious black hair, the grace +of a fawn, and a "voluptuous fascination" which no +man could resist.</p> +<p>Prince Charles of Lorraine was her veriest slave, +but Mazarin would have none of him. Prince +Colonna, Grand Constable of Naples, was more +fortunate when he in turn came a-wooing. He bore +the proudest name in Italy, and he had wealth, good-looks, +and high connections to lend a glamour to +his birth. The Cardinal smiled on his suit, and +Marie, since she had no heart to give, willingly +gave her hand.</p> +<p>Louis himself graced the wedding with his +presence; and we are told, as the white-faced bride +"said the 'yes' which was to bind her to a stranger, +her eyes, with an indescribable expression, sought +those of the King, who turned pale as he met them."</p> +<p>Over the rest of Marie Mancini's chequered life we +must hasten. After a few years of wedded life with +her Italian Prince, "Colonna's early passion for his +beautiful wife was succeeded by a distaste amounting +to hatred. He disgusted her with his amours; and +when she ventured to protest against his infidelity, +he tried to poison her." This crowning outrage +determined Marie to fly, and, in company with her +sister, Hortense, who had fled to her from the +brutality of her own husband, she made her escape +one dark night to Civita Vecchia, where a boat was +awaiting the runaways.</p> +<p>Hotly pursued on land and sea, narrowly escaping +shipwreck, braving hardships, hunger, and hourly +<a name="Page_168"></a>danger of capture, the fugitives at last reached +Marseilles +where Marie (Hortense now seeking a refuge +in Savoy) began those years of wandering and +adventure, the story of which outstrips fiction.</p> +<p>Now we find her seeking asylum at convents from +Aix to Madrid; now queening it at the Court of +Savoy, with Duke Charles Emmanuel for lover; +now she is dazzling Madrid with the Almirante of +Castille and many another high-placed worshipper +dancing attendance on her; and now she is in +Rome, turning the heads of grave cardinals with her +witcheries. Sometimes penniless and friendless, at +others lapped in luxury; but carrying everywhere in +her bosom the English pearls, the last gift of her +false and frail Louis.</p> +<p>Thus, through the long, troubled years, until old-age +crept on her, the Cardinal's niece wandered, a +fugitive, over the face of Europe, alternately caressed +and buffeted by fortune, until "at long last" the +end came and brought peace with it. As she lay +dying in the house of a good Samaritan at Pisa, with +no other hand to minister to her, she called for pen +and paper, and with failing hand wrote her own +epitaph, surely the most tragic ever penned—"Marie +Mancini Colonna—Dust and Ashes."</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 35%;"> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVI"></a> +<h2><a name="Page_169"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> +<h2>BIANCA, GRAND DUCHESS OF TUSCANY</h2> +<br> +<div style="text-align: center;"><a name="img001"></a><img + style="width: 295px; height: 435px;" alt="Bianco Capello Bonaventuri" + title="Bianco Capello Bonaventuri" src="images/court001.jpg"><br> +</div> +<div style="text-align: center;"> +<h5>BIANCA CAPELLO BONAVENTURI.</h5> +</div> +<p>More than three centuries have gone since Florence +made merry over the death of her Grand Duchess, +Bianca. It was an occasion for rejoicing; her name +was bandied from lips to lips—"La Pessima +Bianca"; jeers and laughter followed her to her +unmarked grave in the Church of San Lorenzo. +But through the ages her picture has come down to +us as she strutted on the world's stage in all her +pride and beauty, with a vividness which few better +women of her time retain.</p> +<p>It was in the year 1548, when our boy-King, the +sixth Edward, was fresh to his crown, that Bianca +Capello was cradled in the palace of her father, one +of the greatest men of Venice, Senator and Privy +Councillor. As a child she was as beautiful as she +was wilful; the pride of her father, the despair of his +wife, her stepmother—her little head full of romance, +her heart full of rebellion against any kind of discipline +or restraint.</p> +<p>Before she had left the schoolroom Capello's +daughter was, by common consent, the fairest girl +in her native city, with a beauty riper than her years. +<a name="Page_170"></a>Tall, and with a well-developed figure of +singular +grace, she carried her head as proudly as any +Queen. Her fair hair fell in a rippling cascade far +below her waist; her face, hands, and throat, we are +told, were "white as lilies," save for the delicate +rose-colour that tinted her cheeks. Her eyes were +large and dark, and of an almost dazzling brilliance; +and her full, pouting lips were red and fragrant +as a rose.</p> +<p>Such was Bianca Capello on the threshold of +womanhood, as you may see her pictured to-day in +Bronzino's miniature at the British Museum, with a +loveliness which set the hearts of the Venetian +gallants a-flutter before our Shakespeare was in his +cradle. She might, if she would, have mated with +almost any noble in Tuscany, had not her foolish, +wayward fancy fallen on Pietro Bonaventuri, a handsome +young clerk in Salviati's bank, whose eyes had +often strayed from his ledgers to follow her as, in the +company of her maid, the Senator's daughter took +her daily walk past his office window.</p> +<p>At sight of so fair a vision Pietro was undone; he +fell violently in love with her long before he exchanged +a word with her, and although no one knew +better than he the gulf that separated the daughter +of a nobleman and a Senator from the drudge of the +quill, he determined to win her. Youth and good-looks +such as his, with plenty of assurance to support +them, had done as much for others, and they should +do it for him. How they first met we know not, but +we know that shortly after this momentous meeting +Bianca had completely lost her heart to the knight +<a name="Page_171"></a>of the quill, with the handsome face, the dark, +flashing +eyes, and the courtly manner.</p> +<p>Other meetings followed—secret rendezvous +arranged by the duenna herself in return for liberal +bribes—to keep which Bianca would steal out of her +father's palace at dead of night, leaving the door +open behind her to ensure safe return before dawn. +On one such occasion, so the story runs, Bianca +returned to find the door closed against her by a too +officious hand. She dared not wake the sleepers to +gain admittance—that would be to expose her secret +and to cover herself with disgrace—and in her fears +and alarm she fled back to her lover.</p> +<p>However this may be, we know that, for some +urgent reason or other, the young lovers disappeared +one night together from Venice and made their way +to Florence to find a refuge under the roof of Pietro's +parents. Here a terrible disillusion met Bianca at +the threshold. Her husband—for, on the runaway +journey, Pietro had secured the friendly services of +a village priest to marry them—had told her that he +was the son of noble parents, kin to his employers, +the Salviatis. The home to which he now introduced +her was little better than a hovel, with poverty +looking out of its windows.</p> +<p>Here indeed was a sorry home-coming for the +new-made bride, daughter of the great Capello! +There was not even a drudge to do the housework, +which Bianca was compelled to share with her +bucolic mother-in-law. It is even said that she was +compelled to do laundry-work in order to keep the +domestic purse supplied. Her husband had forfeited +<a name="Page_172"></a>his meagre salary; she had equally sacrificed +the +fortune left to her by her mother. Sordid, grinding +poverty stared both in the face.</p> +<p>To return to her own home in Venice was +impossible. So furious were her father and stepmother +at her escapade that a large reward was +advertised for the capture of her husband, "alive or +dead," and a sentence of death had been procured +from the Council of Ten in the event of his arrest. +More than this, a sentence of banishment was pronounced +against Pietro and Bianca; the maid who +had connived at their illicit wooing and flight paid +for her treachery with her life; and Pietro's uncle +ended his days in a loathsome dungeon.</p> +<p>Such was the vengeance taken by Bartolomeo +Capello. As for the runaways, they spent a long +honeymoon in concealment and hourly dread of the +fate that hung over them. It was well known, however, +in Florence where they were in hiding; and +curious crowds were drawn to the Bonaventuri hovel +to catch a glimpse of the heroes of a scandal with +which all Italy was ringing. Thus it was that +Francesco de Medici first set eyes on the woman +who was to play so great a part in his life.</p> +<p>There could be no greater contrast than that +between Francesco de Medici, heir to the Tuscan +Grand Dukedom, and the beautiful young wife of +the bank-clerk, now playing the rôle of maid-of-all-work +and charwoman. It is said that Francesco +was a madman; and indeed what we know of him +makes this description quite plausible. He was a +man of black brow and violent temper, repelling alike +<a name="Page_173"></a>in appearance and manner. He was, we are told, +"more of a savage than a civilised human being." +His food was deluged with ginger and pepper; his +favourite fare was raw eggs filled with red pepper, +and raw onions, of which he ate enormous quantities. +He drank iced water by the gallon, and slept between +frozen sheets. He was a man, moreover, of evil life, +familiar with every form of vicious indulgence. His +only redeeming feature was a love of art, which +enriched the galleries of Florence.</p> +<p>Such was the Medici—half-ogre, half-madman, +who, riding one day through a Florence slum, saw +at the window of a mean dwelling the beautiful face +of Bianca Bonaventuri, and rode on leaving his +heart behind. Here indeed was a dainty dish to set +before his jaded appetite. The owner of that fair +face, with the crimson lips and the black, flashing +eyes, must be his. On the following day a great +Court lady, the Marchesa Mondragone, presents +herself at the Bonaventuri door, with smiles and +gracious words, bearing an invitation to Court for the +lady of the window. "Impossible," bluntly answers +Signora Bonaventuri; her daughter-in-law has no +clothes fit to be seen at Court. "But," persists the +Marchesa, "that is a matter that can easily be +arranged. It will be a pleasure to me to supply +the necessary outfit, if the Signora and her daughter-in-law +will but come to-morrow to the Mondragone +Palace." The bride, when consulted, is not unwilling; +and the following day, in company with +her mother-in-law, she is effusively received by the +Marchesa, and is feasting her eyes on exquisite +<a name="Page_174"></a>robes and the glitter of rare gems, among which +she +is invited to make her choice. A moment later +Francesco enters, and with courtly grace is kissing +the hand of his new divinity....</p> +<p>Then followed secret meetings such as marked +Bianca's first unhappy wooing in Venice—hours of +rapture for the Tuscan Duke, of flattered submission +by the runaway bride; and within a few weeks we +find Bianca installed in a palace of her own with +Francesco's guards and equipage ever at its door, +while his newly made bride, Giovanna, Archduchess +of Austria, kept her lonely vigil in the apartments +which so seldom saw her husband.</p> +<p>Francesco, indeed, had no eyes or thought for +any but the lovely woman who had so completely +enslaved him. As for her, condemn her as we must, +much can be pleaded in extenuation of her conduct. +She had been basely deceived and betrayed. On +the one side was a life of sordid poverty and +drudgery, with a husband for whom she had now +nothing but dislike and contempt; on the other was +the ardent homage of the future ruler of Tuscany, +with its accompaniment of splendour, luxury, and +power. A fig for love! ambition should now rule +her life. She would drain the cup of pleasure, +though the dregs might be bitter to the taste.</p> +<p>She was now in the very prime of her beauty, and +a Queen in all but the name. Between her and her +full Queendom were but two obstacles—her lover's +plain, unattractive wife, and her own worthless +husband; and of these obstacles one was soon to be +removed from her path.</p> +<p><a name="Page_175"></a>Pietro, who had been made chamberlain to the +Tuscan Court, was more than content that his wife +should go her own way, so long as he was allowed +to go his. He was kept very agreeably occupied +with love affairs of his own. The richest widow in +Florence, Cassandra Borgianni, was eager to lavish +her smiles and favours on him; and the knowledge +that two of his predecessors in her affection had +fallen under the assassin's knife only lent zest to a +love adventure which was after his heart. Warnings +of the fate that might await him in turn fell on deaf +ears. When his wife ventured to point out the +danger he retorted, "If you say another word I will +cut your throat." The following night as he was +returning from a visit to the widow, a dagger was +sheathed in his heart, and Pietro's amorous race +was run.</p> +<p>Such was the end of the bank-clerk and his +eleventh-hour glories and love adventures. Now +only Giovanna remained to block the way to the +pinnacle of Bianca's ambition; and her health was so +frail that the waiting might not be long. Giovanna +had provided no successor to her husband (who had +now succeeded to his Grand Dukedom); if Bianca +could succeed where the Grand Duchess had failed, +she could at least ensure that a son of hers would +one day rule over Tuscany.</p> +<p>Thus one August day in 1576 the news flashed +round Florence that a male child had been born in +the palace on the Via Maggiore. Francesco was +in the "seventh heaven" of delight. Here at last +was the long-looked-for inheritor of his honours—the +<a name="Page_176"></a>son who was to perpetuate the glories of the +Medici and to thwart his brother, the Cardinal, who +had so confidently counted on the succession for +himself. And Madame Bianca professed herself +equally delighted, although her pleasure was qualified +by fear.</p> +<p>She had played her part with consummate cleverness; +but there were two women who knew the true +story of the birth of the child, which had been +smuggled into the palace from a Florence slum. +One was the changeling's mother, a woman of the +people, whom a substantial bribe had induced to +part with her new-born infant; the other was +Bianca's waiting woman. These witnesses to the +imposture must be silenced effectually.</p> +<p>Hired assassins made short work of the mother. +The waiting-maid was "left for dead" in a mountain-pass, +to which she had been lured; but she survived +long enough at least to communicate her secret to +the Grand Duke's brother, the Cardinal Ferdinand +de Medici.</p> +<p>Bianca was now in a parlous plight. At any +moment her enemy, the Cardinal, might betray her +to her lover, and bring the carefully planned edifice +of her fortunes tumbling about her ears. But she +proved equal even to this emergency. Taking her +courage in both hands, she herself confessed the +fraud to the Grand Duke, who not only forgave her +(so completely was he under the spell of her beauty) +but insisted on calling the gutter-child his son.</p> +<p>The tables, however, were soon to be turned on +her, for Giovanna, who had long despaired of provid<a name="Page_177"></a>ing +an heir to her husband, gave birth a few months +later to a male child. Florence was jubilant, for the +Grand Duchess was as beloved as her rival was +detested; and the christening of the heir was made +the occasion of festivities and rejoicing. Bianca's +day of triumph seemed at last to be over. For a +time she left Florence to hide her humiliation; but +within a year she was back again, to be received with +open arms of welcome by the Duke. During her +absence she had made peace with her family, and +when her father and brother came to Florence to +visit her, they were received by Francesco with regal +entertainments, and sent away loaded with presents +and honours.</p> +<p>Bianca had now reached the zenith of her power +and splendour. Before she had been back many +months the Grand Duchess died, to the undisguised +relief of her husband, who hastened from her funeral +to the arms of her rival. Her position was now +secure, unassailable; and before Giovanna had been +two months in the family vault, Bianca was secretly +married to her Grand ducal lover.</p> +<p>Florence was furious. But what mattered that? +The Venetian Senate had recognised Bianca as a +true daughter of the Republic. She was the legal +wife of the ruler of Tuscany. She was Grand +Duchess at last, and she meant all the world to know +it. That she was cordially hated by her husband's +subjects, that the air was full of stories of her extravagance, +her intemperance, and her cruelty, gave +her no moment's unhappiness. For eight years she +reigned as Queen, wielding the sceptre her husband's +<a name="Page_178"></a>hands were too weak or indifferent to hold. +Giovanna's +son had followed his mother to the grave; +and the child of the slums, who had been so +fruitlessly smuggled into her palace, had been +legitimated.</p> +<p>The only thorn now left in her bed of roses was +the enmity of the Grand Duke's brother, the Cardinal; +and her greatest ambition was to win him to +her side. In the autumn of 1787 he was invited to +Florence, and as the culmination of a series of +festivities, a grand banquet was given, at which he +had the place of honour, at her right hand. The +feast was drawing near to its end. Bianca, with +sparkling eyes and flushed face, looking lovelier +than she had ever looked before, was at her happiest, +for the Cardinal had at last succumbed to her bright +eyes and honeyed words. It was the crowning +moment of her many triumphs, when life left nothing +more to desire.</p> +<p>Then it was, at the supreme moment, that tragedy +in its most terrible form fell on the scene of festivity +and mirth. While Bianca was smiling her sweetest +on the Cardinal she was seized by violent pains, +"her mouth foams, her face is distorted by agony; +she shrieks aloud that she is dying. Francesco tries +to go to her aid, but his steps are suddenly arrested. +He too is seized by the same terrible anguish. A +few hours later both she and he breathe their last +breath."</p> +<p>"Poison" was the word which ran through the +palace and soon through Florence from blanched +lips to blanched lips. Some said it was the Cardinal +<a name="Page_179"></a>who had done the deed; others whispered stories +of +a poisoned tart designed by Bianca for the Cardinal, +who refused to be tempted. Whereupon the Grand +Duke had eaten of it, and Bianca, "seeing that her +plot had so tragically miscarried, seized the tart from +her husband's hand and ate what was left of it."</p> +<p>The truth will never be known. What we do +know is that within a few hours of the last joke and +the last drained glass of that fatal banquet the bodies +of Francesco and Bianca were lying in death side +by side in an adjacent room, the door of which was +locked against the eyes of the curious—even against +the physicians.</p> +<p>In the solemn lying-in-state that followed Bianca +had no place. Francesco alone, by his brother's +orders, wore his crown in death. As for Bianca, her +body was hurried away and flung into the common +vault of San Lorenzo, with the light of two yellow +wax torches to bear it company, and the jibes and +jeers of Florence for its only requiem.<br> +</p> +<p style="text-align: center;"><a name="img008"></a><img + style="width: 270px; height: 394px;" + alt="Francesco I., Grand Duke of Tuscany." + title="Francesco I., Grand Duke of Tuscany." src="images/court008.jpg"><br> +</p> +<h5>FRANCESCO I., GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY.</h5> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 35%;"> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVII"></a> +<h2><a name="Page_180"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> +<h2>RICHELIEU, THE ROUÉ</h2> +<p>In the drama of the French Court many a fine-feathered +villain "struts his brief hour" on the stage, +dazzling eyes by his splendour, and shocking a world +none too easily shocked in those days of easy morals +by his profligacy; but it would be difficult among all +these gilded rakes to find a match for the Duc de +Richelieu, who carried his villainies through little +less than a century of life.</p> +<p>Born in 1696, when Louis XIV. had still nearly +twenty years of his long reign before him, Louis +François Armand Duplessis, Duc de Richelieu, survived +to hear the rumblings which heralded the +French Revolution ninety-two years later; and for +three-quarters of a century to be known as the most +accomplished and heartless roué in all France. +Bearer of a great name, and inheritor of the splendours +and riches of his great-uncle, the Cardinal, +who was Louis XII.'s right-hand man, and, in his +day, the most powerful subject in Europe, the Duc +was born with the football of fortune at his feet; +and probably no man who has ever lived so shamefully +prostituted such magnificent opportunities and +gifts.</p> +<p><a name="Page_181"></a>As a boy, still in his teens, he had begun to +play +the rôle of Don Juan at the Court of the child-King, +Louis XV. The most beautiful women at the +Court, we are told, went crazy over the handsome +boy, who bore the most splendid name in France; +and thus early his head was turned by flatteries and +attentions which followed him almost to the grave.</p> +<p>The young Duchesse de Bourgogne, the King's +mother, made love to him, to the scandal of the +Court; and from Princesses of the Blood Royal to +the humblest serving-maid, there was scarcely a +woman at Court who would not have given her eyes +for a smile from the Duc de Fronsac, as he was then +known.</p> +<p>How he revelled in his conquests he makes +abundantly clear in the Memoirs he left behind him—surely +the most scandalous ever written—in which +he recounts his love affairs, in long sequence, with +a cold-blooded heartlessness which shocks the reader +to-day, so long after lover and victims have been +dust. He revels in describing the artifices by which +he got the most unassailable of women into his power—such +as the young and beautiful Madame Michelin, +whose religious scruples proved such a frail +barrier against the assaults of the young Lothario. +He chuckles with a diabolical pride as he tells us how +he played off one mistress against another; how he +made one liaison pave the way to its successor; and +how he abandoned each in turn when it had served +its purpose, and betrayed, one after another, the +women who had trusted to his nebulous sense of +honour.</p> +<p><a name="Page_182"></a>A profligate so tempted as the Duc de +Richelieu +was from his earliest years, one can understand, +however much we may condemn; but for the man +who conducted his love affairs with such heartlessness +and dishonour no language has words of execration +and contempt to describe him.</p> +<p>From his earliest youth there was no "game" too +high for our Don Juan to fly at. Long before he +had reached manhood he counted his lady-loves by +the score; and among them were at least three +Royal Princesses, Mademoiselle de Charolais, and +two of the Regent's own daughters, the Duchesse de +Berry and Mademoiselle de Valois, later Duchess +of Modena, who, in their jealousy, were ready to +"tear each other's eyes out" for love of the Duc. +Quarrels between the rival ladies were of everyday +occurrence; and even duels were by no means +unknown.</p> +<p>When, for instance, the Duc wearied of the lovely +Madame de Polignac, this lady was so inflamed by +hatred of her successor in his affections, the Marquise +de Nesle, that she challenged her to a duel to +the death in the Bois de Boulogne. When Madame +de Polignac, after a fierce exchange of shots, saw her +rival stretched at her feet, she turned furiously on +the wounded woman. "Go!" she shrieked. "I +will teach you to walk in the footsteps of a woman +like me! If I had the traitor here, I would blow +his brains out!" Whereupon, Madame de Nesle, +fainting as she was from loss of blood, retorted that +her lover was worthy that even more noble blood +than hers should be shed for him. "He is," she said +<a name="Page_183"></a>to the few onlookers who had hurried to the +scene +on hearing the shots, "the most amiable <i>seigneur</i> of +the Court. I am ready to shed for him the last drop +of blood in my veins. All these ladies try to catch +him, but I hope that the proofs I have given of my +devotion will win him for myself without sharing with +anyone. Why should I hide his name? He is the +Duc de Richelieu—yes, the Duc de Richelieu, the +eldest son of Venus and Mars!"</p> +<p>Such was the devotion which this heartless profligate +won from some of the most beautiful and +highly placed ladies of France. What was the secret +of the spell he cast over them it is difficult to say. +It is true that he was a handsome man, as his +portraits show, but there were men quite as handsome +at the French Court; he was courtly and +accomplished, but he had many rivals as clever and +as skilled in courtly arts as himself. His power +must, one thinks, have lain in that strange magnetism +which women seem so powerless to resist in +men, and which outweighs all graces of mind and +physical perfections.</p> +<p>The Duc's career, however, was not one unbroken +dallying with love. Thrice, at least, he was sent +to cool his ardour within the walls of the Bastille—on +one occasion as the result of a duel with the +Comte de Gacé. His lady-loves were desolate at +the cruel fate which had overtaken their idol. They +fell on their knees at the Regent's feet, and, with +tears streaming down their pretty cheeks, pleaded +for his freedom. Two of the Royal Princesses, +both disguised as Sisters of Charity, visited the +<a name="Page_184"></a>prisoner daily in his dungeon, carrying with +them +delicacies to tempt his appetite, and consolation to +cheer his captivity.</p> +<p>In vain did Duc and Comte both declare that they +had never fought a duel; and when, in the absence +of proof, the Regent insisted that their bodies should +be examined for the convicting wounds, the impish +Richelieu came triumphantly through the ordeal as +the result of having his wounds covered with pink +taffeta and skilfully painted!</p> +<p>It was a more serious matter that sent him again +to the Bastille in 1718. False to his country as to +the victims of his fascinations, he had been plotting +with Spain, France's bitterest enemy, for the seizure +of the Regent and the carrying him off across the +Pyrenees; and certain incriminating letters sent to +him by Cardinal Alberoni had been intercepted, and +were in the Regent's hands. The Regent's daughter, +Mademoiselle de Valois, warned her lover of +his danger, but too late. Before he could escape, +he was arrested, and with an escort of archers was +safely lodged in the Bastille.</p> +<p>Our Lothario was now indeed in a parlous plight. +Lodged in the deepest and most loathsome dungeon +of the Bastille—a dungeon so damp that within a +few hours his clothes were saturated—without even +a chair to sit on or a bed to lie on, with legions of +hungry rats for company, he was now face to face +with almost certain death. The Regent, whose love +affairs he had thwarted a score of times, and who +thus had no reason to love the profligate Duc, vowed +that his head should pay the price of his treason.</p> +<p><a name="Page_185"></a>Once more the Court ladies were reduced to +hysterics and despair, and forgot their jealousies +in a common appeal to the Regent for clemency. +Mademoiselle de Valois was driven to distraction; +and when tears and pleadings failed to soften her +father's heart, she declared in the hearing of the +Court that she would commit suicide unless her lover +was restored to liberty. In company with her rival, +Mademoiselle de Charolais, she visited the dungeon +in the dark night hours, taking flint and steel, candles +and bonbons, to weep with the captive.</p> +<p>She squandered two hundred thousand livres in +attempts to bribe his guards, but all to no purpose: +and it was not until after six months of durance that +the Regent at last yielded—moved partly by his +daughter's tears and threats and partly by the pleadings +of the Cardinal-Archbishop of Paris—and the +prisoner was released, on condition that the Cardinal +and the Duchesse de Richelieu would be responsible +for his custody and good behaviour.</p> +<p>A few days later we find the irresponsible +Richelieu climbing over the garden-walls of his new +"prison" at Conflans, racing through the darkness +to Paris behind swift horses, and making love to the +Regent's own mistresses and his daughter!</p> +<p>But such facilities for dalliance with the Regent's +daughter were soon to be brought to an end. +Mademoiselle de Valois, in order to ensure her +lover's freedom, had at last consented to accept the +hand of the Duke of Modena, an alliance which she +had long fought against; and before the Duc had +been a free man again many weeks she paid this part +<a name="Page_186"></a>of his ransom by going into exile, and to an +odious +wedded life, in a far corner of Italy—much, it may +be imagined, to the Regent's relief, for his daughters +and their love affairs were ever a thorn in his side.</p> +<p>It was not long, however, before the new Duchess +of Modena began to sigh for her distant lover, and to +bombard him with letters begging him to come to +her. "I cannot live without your love," she wrote. +"Come to me—only, come in disguise, so that no +one can recognise you."</p> +<p>This was indeed an adventure after the Lothario +Duc's heart—an adventure with love as its reward +and danger as its spur. And thus it was that, a few +weeks after the Duchess had sent her invitation, two +travel-stained pedlars, with packs on their backs, +entered the city of Modena to find customers for their +books and phamphlets. At the small hostelry whose +hospitality they sought the hawkers gave their names +as Gasparini and Romano, names which masked the +identities of the knight-errant Duc and his friend, +La Fosse, respectively.</p> +<p>The following morning behold the itinerant +hawkers in the palace grounds, their wares spread +out to tempt the Court ladies on their way to Mass, +when the Duchess herself passed their way and +deigned to stop to converse graciously with the +strangers. To her inquiries they answered that they +came from Piedmont; and their curious jargon of +French and Italian lent support to the story. After +inspecting their wares she asked for a certain book. +"Alas! Madame," Gasparini answered, "I have not +a copy here, but I have one at my inn." And +<a name="Page_187"></a>bidding him bring the volume to her at the +palace, +the great lady resumed her devout journey to Mass.</p> +<p>A few hours later Gasparini presented himself at +the palace with the required volume, and was +ushered into the august presence of the Duchess. A +moment later, on the closing of the door, the Royal +lady was in the "hawker's" arms, her own flung +around his neck, as with tears of joy she welcomed +the lover who had come to her in such strange guise +and at such risk.</p> +<p>A few stolen moments of happiness was all the +lovers dared now to allow themselves. The Duke +of Modena was in the palace, and the situation was +full of danger. But on the morrow he was going +away on a hunting expedition, and then—well, then +they might meet without fear.</p> +<p>On the following day, the coast now clear, behold +our "hawker" once more at the palace door, with a +bundle of books under his arm for the inspection of +Her Highness, and being ushered into the Duchess's +reading-room, full of souvenirs of the happy days +they had spent together in distant Paris and Versailles. +Among them, most prized of all, was a lock +of his own hair, enshrined on a small altar, and +surmounted by a crown of interlocked hearts. This +lock, the Duchess told him, she had kissed and wept +over every day since they had parted.</p> +<p>Each day now brought its hours of blissful meeting, +so seemingly short that the Princess would +throw her arms around her "hawker's" neck and +implore him to stay a little longer. One day, +however, he tarried too long; the Duke returned +<a name="Page_188"></a>unexpectedly from his hunting, and before the +lovers +could part, he had entered the room—just in time to +see the pedlar bowing humbly in farewell to his +Duchess, and to hear him assure her that he +would call again with the further books she wished +to see.</p> +<p>Certainly it was a strange spectacle to greet the +eyes of a home-coming Duke—that of his lady +closeted with a shabby pedlar of books; but at least +there was nothing suspicious in it, and, getting into +conversation with the "hawker," the Duke found +him quite an entertaining fellow, full of news of what +was going on in the world outside his small duchy.</p> +<p>In his curious jargon of French and Italian, +Gasparini had much to tell His Highness apart from +book-talk. He entertained him with the latest +scandals of the French Court; with gossip about +well-known personages, from the Regent to Dubois. +"And what about that rascal, the Duc de Richelieu?" +asked the great man. "What tricks has he +been up to lately?" "Oh," answered Gasparini, +with a wink at the Duchess, who was crimson with +suppressed laughter, "he is one of my best customers. +Ah, Monsieur le Duc, he is a gay dog. I +hear that all the women at the Court are madly in +love with him; that the Princesses adore him, and +that he is driving all the husbands to distraction."</p> +<p>"Is it as bad as that?" asked the Duke, with a +laugh. "He is a more dangerous fellow even than +I thought. And what is his latest game?"</p> +<p>"Oh," answered the hawker, "I am told that he +has made a wager that he will come to Modena, in +<a name="Page_189"></a>spite of you; and I shouldn't be at all +surprised if +he does!"</p> +<p>"As for that," said the Duke, with a chuckle, "I +am not afraid. I defy him to do his worst; and I +am willing to wager that I shall be a match for him. +However," he added, "you're an entertaining +fellow; so come and see me again whenever you +please."</p> +<p>And thus, by the wish of the Duchess's husband +himself, the ducal "hawker" became a daily visitor +at the palace, entertaining His Highness with his +chatter, and, when his back was turned, making love +to his wife, and joining her in shrieks of laughter at +his easy gullibility.</p> +<p>Thus many happy weeks passed, Gasparini, the +pedlar, selling few volumes, but reaping a rich harvest +of stolen pleasure, and revelling in an adventure +which added such a new zest to a life sated with +more humdrum love-making. But even the Duchess's +charms began to pall; the ladies he had left so disconsolate +in Paris were inundating him with letters, +begging him to return to them—letters, all forwarded +to him from his château at Richelieu, where he was +supposed to be in retreat. The lure was too strong +for him; and, taking leave of the Duchess in floods +of tears, he returned to his beloved Paris to fresh +conquests.</p> +<p>And thus it was with the gay Duc until the +century that followed that of his birth was drawing +to its close; until its sun was beginning to set in the +blood of that Revolution, which, if he had lived but +one year longer, would surely have claimed him as +<a name="Page_190"></a>one of its first victims. Three wives he led to +the +altar—the last when he had passed into the eighties—but +no marital duty was allowed to interfere with +the amours which filled his life; and to the last no +pity ever gave a pang to the "conscience" which +allowed him to pick and fling away his flowers at +will, and to trample, one after another, on the hearts +that yielded to his love and trusted to his honour.</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 35%;"> +<a name="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a> +<h2><a name="Page_191"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> +<h2>THE INDISCRETIONS OF A PRINCESS</h2> +<div style="text-align: center;"><img + style="width: 312px; height: 431px;" + alt="Caroline of Brunswick, wife of George IV." + title="Caroline of Brunswick, wife of George IV." + src="images/court009.jpg"><a name="img009"></a><br> +<h5>CAROLINE OF BRUNSWICK, WIFE OF GEORGE IV.</h5> +</div> +<br> +<p>It was an ill fate that brought Caroline, Princess of +Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel to England to be the bride +of George, Prince of Wales, one April day in the +year 1795; although probably no woman has ever +set forth on her bridal journey with a lighter or +prouder heart, for, as she said, "Am I not going to +be the wife of the handsomest Prince in the world?" +If she had any momentary doubt of this, a glance +at the miniature she carried in her bosom reassured +her; for the pictured face that smiled at her was +handsome as that of an Apollo.</p> +<p>No wonder the Princess's heart beat high with pride +and pleasure during that last triumphal stage of her +journey to her husband's arms; for he was not only +the handsomest man, with "the best shaped leg in +Europe," he was by common consent the "greatest +gentleman" any Court could show. Picture him as +he made his first appearance at a Court ball. "His +coat," we are told, "was of pink silk, with white cuffs; +his waistcoat of white silk, embroidered with various-coloured +foil and adorned with a profusion of French +paste. And his hat was ornamented with two rows +<a name="Page_192"></a>of steel beads, five thousand in number, with a +button +and a loop of the same metal, and cocked in a new +military style." See young "Florizel" as he makes +his smiling and gracious progress through the +avenues of courtiers; note the winsomeness of his +smiles, the inimitable grace of his bows, his pleasant, +courtly words of recognition, and say if ever Royalty +assumed a form more agreeable to the eye and captivating +to the senses.</p> +<p>"Florizel" was indeed the most splendid Prince +in the world, and the most "perfect gentleman." He +was also, though his bride-to-be little knew it, the +most dissolute man in Europe, the greatest gambler +and voluptuary—a man who was as false to his +friends as he was traitor to every woman who crossed +his path, a man whom no appeal of honour or mercy +could check in his selfish pursuit of pleasure.</p> +<p>"I look through all his life," Thackeray says, +"and recognise but a bow and a grin. I try and +take him to pieces, and find silk stockings, padding, +stays, a coat with frogs and a fur collar, a star and +blue ribbon, a pocket handkerchief prodigiously +scented, one of Truefitt's best nutty brown wigs reeking +with oil, a set of teeth and a huge black stock, +under-waistcoats, more under-waistcoats, and then—nothing. +French ballet-dancers, French cooks, +horse-jockeys, buffoons, procuresses, tailors, boxers, +fencing-masters, china, jewel and gimcrack-merchants—these +were his real companions."</p> +<p>Such was the husband Princess Caroline came so +light-heartedly, with laughter on her lips, from Brunswick +to wed, little dreaming of the disillusion and +<a name="Page_193"></a>tears that were to await her on the very +threshold of +the life to which she had looked forward with such +high hopes.</p> +<p>We get the first glimpse of Caroline some twelve +years earlier, when Sir John Stanley, who was making +the grand tour, spent a few weeks at her father's +Court. He speaks of her as a "beautiful girl of fourteen," +and adds, "I did think and dream of her day +and night at Brunswick, and for a year afterwards I +saw her for hours three or fours times a week, but as a +star out of my reach." Years later he met her again +under sadly changed conditions. "One day only," +he writes, "when dining with her and her mother at +Blackheath, she smiled at something which had +pleased her, and for an instant only I could have +fancied she had been the Caroline of fourteen years +old—the lovely, pretty Caroline, the girl my eyes had +so often rested on, with light and powdered hair +hanging in curls on her neck, the lips from which only +sweet words seemed as if they would flow, with looks +animated, and always simply and modestly dressed."</p> +<p>Lady Charlotte Campbell, too, gives us a glimpse +of her in these early and happier years, before sorrow +had laid its defacing hand on her. "The Princess +was in her early youth a pretty girl," Lady Charlotte +says, "with fine light hair—very delicately formed +features, and a fine complexion—quick, glancing, +penetrating eyes, long cut and rather small in the +head, which gave them much expression; and a +remarkably delicately formed mouth."</p> +<p>It was in no happy home that the Princess had +been cradled one May day in 1768. Her father, +<a name="Page_194"></a>Charles William, Duke of Brunswick, was an +austere +soldier, too much absorbed in his military life and +his mistress, to give much thought to his daughters. +Her mother, the Duchess Augusta, sister of our own +George III., was weak and small-minded, too much +occupied in self-indulgence and scandal-talking to +trouble about the training of her children.</p> +<p>Princess Caroline herself draws an unattractive +picture of her home-life, in answer to Lady Charlotte +Campbell's question, "Were you sorry to leave +Brunswick?" "Not at all," was the answer; "I was +sick tired of it, though I was sorry to leave my fader. +I loved my fader dearly, better than any oder person. +But dere were some unlucky tings in our Court which +made my position difficult. My fader was most entirely +attached to a lady for thirty years, who was in +fact his mistress. She was the beautifullest creature +and the cleverest, but, though my fader continued +to pay my moder all possible respect, my poor moder +could not suffer this attachment. And de consequence +was, I did not know what to do between +them; when I was civil to one, I was scolded by +the other, and was very tired of being shuttlecock +between them."</p> +<p>But in spite of these unfortunate home conditions +Caroline appears to have spent a fairly happy girlhood, +thanks to her exuberant spirits; and such faults +as she developed were largely due to the lack of +parental care, which left her training to servants. +Thus she grew up with quite a shocking disregard +of conventions, running wild like a young filly, and +finding her pleasure and her companions in undesir<a name="Page_195"></a>able +directions. Strange stories are told of her +girlish love affairs, which seem to have been indiscreet +if nothing worse, while her beauty drew to her +many a high-placed wooer, including the Prince of +Orange and Prince George of Darmstadt, to all of +whom she seems to have turned a cold shoulder.</p> +<p>But the wilful Princess was not to be left mistress +of her own destiny. One November day, in 1794, +Lord Malmesbury arrived at the Brunswick Court +to demand her hand for the Prince of Wales, whom +his burden of debts and the necessity of providing +an heir to the throne of England were at last driving +reluctantly to the altar. And thus a new and dazzling +future opened for her. To her parents nothing could +have been more welcome than this prospect of a +crown for their daughter; while to her it offered a +release from a life that had become odious.</p> +<p>"The Princess Caroline much embarrassed on my +first being presented to her," Malmesbury enters in +his diary—"pretty face, not expressive of softness—her +figure not graceful, fine eyes, good hands, tolerable +teeth, fair hair and light eyebrows, good bust, +short, with what the French call 'des épaules impertinentes,' +vastly happy with her future expectations."</p> +<p>Such were Malmesbury's first impressions of the +future Queen of England, whom it was his duty to +prepare for her exalted station—a duty which he +seems to have taken very seriously, even to the regulating +of her toilette and her manners. Thus, a few +days after setting eyes on her, his diary records: +"She <i>will</i> call ladies whom she meets for the first +time 'Mon coeur, ma chère, ma petite,' and I am +<a name="Page_196"></a>obliged to rebuke and correct her." He lectures +her +on her undignified habit of whispering and giggling, +and impresses on her the necessity of greater care in +her attire, on more constant and thorough ablution, +more frequent changes of linen, the care of her teeth, +and so on—all of which admonitions she seems to +have taken in excellent part, with demure promises +of amendment, until he is impelled to write, "Princess +Caroline improves very much on a closer acquaintance—cheerful +and loves laughing. If she +can get rid of her gossiping habit she will do +very well."</p> +<p>Thus a few months passed at the Brunswick Court. +The ceremonial of betrothal took place in December—"Princess +Caroline much affected, but replies distinctly +and well"; the marriage-contract was signed, +and finally on 28th March the Princess embarked +for England on her journey to the unseen husband +whose good-looks and splendour have filled her with +such high expectations. That she had not yet +learnt discretion, in spite of all Malmesbury's homilies, +is proved by the fact that she spent the night +on board in walking up and down the deck in the +company of a handsome young naval officer, conduct +which naturally gave cause for observation and suspicion +in the affianced bride of the future King of +England.</p> +<p>It was well, perhaps, that she had snatched these +few hours of innocent pleasure: for her first meeting +with her future husband was well calculated to scatter +all her rosy dreams. Arrived at last at St James's +Palace, "I immediately notified the arrival to the +<a name="Page_197"></a>King and Prince of Wales," says Malmesbury; "the +last came immediately. I accordingly introduced +the Princess Caroline to him. She very properly +attempted to kneel to him. He raised her gracefully +enough, and embraced her, said barely one word, +turned round and retired to a distant part of the apartment, +and calling to me said: 'Harris, I am not well; +pray get me a glass of brandy.' I said, 'Sir, had +you not better have a glass of water?' Upon which +he, much out of humour, said with an oath: 'No; I +will go directly to the Queen,' and away he went. +The Princess, left during this short moment alone, +was in a state of astonishment; and, on my joining +her, said, '<i>Mon Dieu</i>, is the Prince always like +that? I find him very fat, and not at all as handsome +as his portrait.'"</p> +<p>Such was the Princess's welcome to the arms of +her handsome husband and to the Court over which +she hoped to reign as Queen; nor did she receive +much warmer hospitality from the Prince's family. +The Queen, who had designed a very different bride +for her eldest son, received her with scarcely disguised +enmity, while the King, although, as he afterwards +proved, kindly disposed towards her, treated +her at first with an amiable indifference. And certainly +her attitude seems to have been calculated +to create an unfavourable impression on her new +relatives and on the Court generally.</p> +<p>At the banquet which followed her reception, +Malmesbury says, "I was far from satisfied with +the Princess's behaviour. It was flippant, rattling, +affecting raillery and wit, and throwing out coarse, +<a name="Page_198"></a>vulgar hints about Lady——, who was present. The +Prince was evidently disgusted, and this unfortunate +dinner fixed his dislike, which, when left to herself, +the Princess had not the talent to remove; but by +still observing the same giddy manners and attempts +at cleverness and coarse sarcasm, increased it till it +became positive hatred."</p> +<p>"What," as Thackeray asks, "could be expected +from a wedding which had such a beginning—from +such a bridegroom and such a bride? Malmesbury +tells us how the Prince reeled into the Chapel Royal +to be married on the evening of Wednesday, the 8th +of April; and how he hiccuped out his vows of +fidelity." "My brother," John, Duke of Bedford, +records, "was one of the two unmarried dukes who +supported the Prince at the ceremony, and he had +need of his support; for my brother told me the +Prince was so drunk that he could scarcely support +himself from falling. He told my brother that he +had drunk several glasses of brandy to enable him to +go through the ceremony. There is no doubt that +it was a <i>compulsory</i> marriage."</p> +<p>With such an overture, we are not surprised to +learn that the Royal bridegroom spent his wedding-night +in a state of stupor on the floor of his bedroom; +or that at dawn, when he had slept off the effects of his +debauch, "pages heard cries proceeding from the +nuptial chamber, and shortly afterwards saw the +bridegroom rush out violently."</p> +<p>Nor, we may be sure, was the Prince's undisguised +hatred of his bride in any way mitigated by the stories +which Lady Jersey and others of hex rivals poured into +<a name="Page_199"></a>his willing ears—stories of her attachment to a +young +German Prince whom she was not allowed to marry; +of a mysterious illness, followed by a few weeks' +retreat; of that midnight promenade with the young +naval officer; of assignations with Major Toebingen, +the handsomest soldier in Europe, who so proudly +wore the amethyst tie-pin she had presented to him—these +and many another story which reflected none +too well on her reputation before he had set eyes on +her. But it needed no such whispered scandal to +strengthen his hatred of a bride who personally +repelled him, and who had been forced on him at a +time when his heart was fully engaged with his lawful +wedded wife, Mrs Fitzherbert, when it was not +straying to Lady Jersey, to "Perdita" or others of +his legion of lights-o'-love.</p> +<p>From the first day the ill-fated union was doomed. +One violent scene succeeded another, until, before +she had been two months a wife, the Prince declared +that he would no longer live with her. He would +only wait until her child was born; then he would +formally and finally leave her. Thus, three months +after the birth of the Princess Charlotte, the deed of +separation was signed, and Caroline was at last free +to escape from a Court which she had grown to detest, +with good reason, and from a husband whose brutalities +and infidelities filled her with loathing.</p> +<p>She carried with her, however, this consolation, +that the "great, hearty people of England loved +and pitied her." "God bless you! we will bring your +husband back to you," was among the many cries +that greeted her as she left the palace on her way to +<a name="Page_200"></a>exile. But, to quote Thackeray again, "they +could +not bring that husband back; they could not cleanse +that selfish heart. Was hers the only one he had +wounded? Steeped in selfishness, impotent for +faithful attachment and manly enduring love—had it +not survived remorse, was it not accustomed to +desertion?"</p> +<p>For a time the outcast Princess, with her infant +daughter, led a retired life amid the peace and beauty +of Blackheath, where she lived as simply as any +bourgeoise, playing the "lady bountiful" to the poor +among her neighbours. Her chief pleasure seems +to have been to surround herself with cottage babies, +converting Montague House into a "positive nursery, +littered up with cradles, swaddling-bands, +feeding bottles, and other things of the kind."</p> +<p>But even to this rustic retirement watchful eyes +and slanderous tongues followed her; and it was not +long before stories were passing from mouth to mouth +in the Court of strange doings at Blackheath. The +Princess, it was said, had become very intimate with +Sir John Douglas and his lady, her near neighbours, +and more especially with Sydney Smith, a good-looking +naval captain, who shared the Douglas home, +a man, moreover, with whom she had had suspicious +relations at her father's Court many years earlier. It +was rumoured that Captain Smith was a frequent +and too welcome guest at Montague House, at hours +when discreet ladies are not in the habit of receiving +their male friends. Nor was the handsome captain +the only friend thus unconventionally entertained. +There was another good-looking naval officer, a +<a name="Page_201"></a>Captain Manby, and also Sir Thomas Lawrence, the +famous painter, both of whom were admitted to a +suspicious intimacy with the Princess of Wales.</p> +<p>These rumours, sufficiently disquieting in themselves, +were followed by stories of the concealed birth +of a child, who had come mysteriously to swell the +numbers of the Princess's protégés of the crèche. +Even King George, whose sympathy with his heir's +ill-used wife was a matter of common knowledge, +could not overlook a charge so grave as this. It +must be investigated in the interests of the State, as +well as of his family's honour; and, by his orders, a +Commission of Peers was appointed to examine into +the matter and ascertain the truth.</p> +<p>The inquiry—the "Delicate Investigation" as it +was appropriately called—opened in June, 1806, and +witness after witness, from the Douglases to Robert +Bidgood, a groom, gave evidence which more or less +supported the charges of infidelity and concealment. +The result of the investigation, however, was a verdict +of acquittal, the Commissioners reporting that +the Princess, although innocent, had been guilty of +very indiscreet conduct—and this verdict the Privy +Council confirmed.</p> +<p>For the Princess it was a triumphant vindication, +which was hailed with acclamation throughout the +country. Even the Royal family showed their +satisfaction by formal visits of congratulation to the +Princess, from the King himself to the Duke of +Cumberland who conducted his sister-in-law on a +visit to the Court.</p> +<p>But the days of Blackheath and the amateur +<a name="Page_202"></a>nursery were at an end. The Princess returned to +London, and found a more suitable home in Kensington +Palace for some years, where she held her +Court in rivalry of that of her husband at Carlton +House. Here she was subjected to every affront +and slight by the Prince and his set that the ingenuity +of hatred could devise, and to crown her humiliation +and isolation, her daughter Charlotte was taken from +her and forbidden even to recognise her when their +carriages passed in the street or park.</p> +<p>Can we wonder that, under such remorseless persecutions, +the Princess became more and more defiant; +that she gave herself up to a life of recklessness and +extravagance; that, more and more isolated from her +own world, she sought her pleasure and her companions +in undesirable quarters, finding her chief +intimates in a family of Italian musicians; or that +finally, heart-broken and despairing, she determined +once for all to shake off the dust of a land that had +treated her so cruelly?</p> +<p>In August, 1814, with the approval of King and +Parliament, the Princess left England to begin a +career of amazing adventures and indiscrétions, the +story of which is one of the most remarkable in +history.</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 35%;"> +<a name="CHAPTER_XIX"></a> +<h2><a name="Page_203"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> +<h2>THE INDISCRETIONS OF A PRINCESS—<i>continued</i></h2> +<p>When Caroline, Princess of Wales, shook the dust +of England off her feet one August day in the year +1814, it was only natural that her steps should first +turn towards the Brunswick home which held for her +at least a few happy memories, and where she hoped +to find in sympathy and old associations some salve +for her wounded heart.</p> +<p>But the fever of restlessness was in her blood—the +restlessness which was to make her a wanderer +over the face of the earth for half a dozen years. +The peace and solace she had looked for in Brunswick +eluded her; and before many days had passed +she was on her way through Switzerland to the sunny +skies of Italy, where she could perhaps find in +distraction and pleasure the anodyne which a life of +retirement denied her. She was full of rebellion +against fate, of hatred against her husband and his +country which had treated her with such unmerited +cruelty. She would defy fate; she would put a +whole continent between herself and the nightmare +life she had left behind, she hoped for ever. She +would pursue and find pleasure at whatever cost.</p> +<p><a name="Page_204"></a>In September, within five weeks of leaving +England, +we find her at Geneva, installed in a suite of +rooms next to those occupied by Marie Louise, late +Empress of France, a fugitive and exile like herself, +and animated by the same spirit of reckless revolt +against destiny—Marie Louise, we read, "making +excursions like a lunatic on foot and on horseback, +never even seeming to dream of making people +remember that, before she became mixed up with a +Corsican adventurer, she was an Archduchess"; the +Princess of Wales, equally careless of her dignity +and position, finding her pleasure in questionable +company.</p> +<p>"From the inn where she was stopping she heard +music, and, quite unaccompanied, immediately entered +a neighbouring house and disappeared in the +medley of dancers." A few days later, at Lausanne, +"she learned that a little ball was in progress at a +house opposite the 'Golden Lion,' and she asked for +an invitation. After dancing with everybody and +anybody, she finished up by dancing a Savoyard +dance, called a <i>fricassée</i>, with a nobody. Madame +de Corsal, who blushed and wept for the rest of the +company, declares that it has made her ill, and that +she feels that the honour of England has been compromised." +Thus early did Caroline begin that +career of indiscretion, to call it by no worse name, +which made of her six years' exile "a long suicide of +her reputation."</p> +<p>In October we find the Princess entering Milan, +with her retinue of ladies-in-waiting, chamberlains, +equerry, page, courier, and coachman, and with +<a name="Page_205"></a>William Austin for companion—a boy, now about +thirteen, whom she treated as her son, and who was +believed by many to be the child of her imprudence +at Blackheath, although the Commission of the +"Delicate Investigation" had pronounced that he +was son of a poor woman at Deptford. At Milan, +as indeed wherever she wandered in Italy, the +"vagabond Princess" was received as a Queen. +Count di Bellegarde, the Austrian Governor, was +the first to pay homage to her; at the Scala Theatre, +the same evening, her entry was greeted with +thunders of applause, and whenever she appeared +in the Milan streets it was to an accompaniment of +doffed hats and cheers.</p> +<p>One of her first visits was to the studio of Giuseppe +Bossi, the famous and handsome artist, whom she +requested to paint her portrait. "On Thursday," +Bossi records, "I sketched her successfully in the +character of a Muse; then on Friday she came to +show me her arms, of which she was, not without +reason, decidedly vain—she is a gay and whimsical +woman, she seems to have a good heart; at times she +is ennuyée through lack of occupation." On one +occasion when she met in the studio some French +ladies, two of whom had been mistresses of the King +of Westphalia, the poor artist was driven to distraction +by the chatter, the singing, and dancing, in which +the Princess especially displayed her agility, until, +as he pathetically says, "the house seemed possessed +of the devil, and you can imagine with what kind of +ease it was possible for me to work."</p> +<p>Before leaving Milan the Princess gave a grand +<a name="Page_206"></a>banquet to Bellegarde and a number of the +principal +men of the city—a feast which was to have very +important and serious consequences, for it was at this +banquet that General Pino, one of her guests, introduced +to Caroline a new courier, a man who, though +she little dreamt it at the time, was destined to play +a very baleful part in her life.</p> +<p>This new courier was a tall and strikingly handsome +man, who had seen service in the Italian army, +until a duel, in which he killed a superior officer, +compelled him to leave it in disgrace. At the time he +entered the Princess's service he was a needy adventurer, +whose scheming brain and utter lack of +principle were in the market for the highest bidder. +"He is," said Baron Ompteda, "a sort of Apollo, of +a superb and commanding appearance, more than +six feet high; his physical beauty attracts all eyes. +This man is called Pergami; he belongs to Milan, +and has entered the Princess's service. The Princess," +he significantly adds, "is shunned by all the +English people of rank; her behaviour has created +the most marked scandal."</p> +<p>Such was the man with whose life that of the +Princess of Wales was to be so intimately and disastrously +linked, and whose relations with her were to +be displayed to a shocked world but a few years +later. It was indeed an evil fate that brought this +"superb Apollo" of the crafty brain and conscienceless +ambition into the life of the Princess at the +high tide of her revolt against the world and its +conventions.</p> +<p>When Caroline and her retinue set out from Milan +<a name="Page_207"></a>for Tuscany it was in the wake of Pergami, who +had ridden ahead to discharge his duties as <i>avant +courier</i>; but before Rome was reached his intimacy +and familiarity with his mistress were already the +subject of whispered comments and shrugged shoulders. +At a ball given in her honour at Rome by the +banker Tortonia, the Princess shocked even the least +prudish by the abandon of her dancing and the +tenuity of her costume, which, we are told, consisted +of "a single embroidered garment, fastened beneath +the bosom, without the shadow of a corset +and without sleeves." And at Naples, where King +Joachim Murat gave her a regal reception, with a +sequel of fêtes and gala-performances in honour of +the wife of the Regent of England, she attended a +rout, at the Teatro San Carlo, so lightly attired +"that many who saw her at her first entrance looked +her up and down, and, not recognising her, or pretending +not to recognise her, began to mutter disapprobation +to such an extent that she was compelled +to withdraw.... The English residents soon +let her understand, by ceasing to frequent her palace, +that even at Naples there were certain laws of dress +which could not be trampled underfoot in this hoydenish +manner."</p> +<p>While Caroline was thus defying convention and +even decency, watchful eyes were following her +everywhere. A body of secret police, whose headquarters +were at Milan, was noting every indiscretion; +and every week brought fresh and damaging +reports to England, where they were eagerly welcomed +by the Regent and his satellites. And while +<a name="Page_208"></a>the Princess was thus playing unconsciously, or +recklessly, +into the hands of the enemy, Pergami was +daily making his footing in her favour more secure. +Before Caroline left Naples he had been promoted +from courier to equerry, and in this more exalted and +privileged rôle was always at her side. So marked, +in fact, was the intimacy even at this early stage, that +the Princess's retinue, one after another, and on one +flimsy pretext or another, deserted her in disgust, +each vacancy, as it occurred, being filled by one of +Pergami's relatives—his brother, his daughter, his +sister-in-law (the Countess Oidi), and others, until +Caroline was soon surrounded by members of the +ex-courier's family.</p> +<p>From Naples she wandered to Genoa, and from +Genoa to Milan and Venice, received regally everywhere +by the Italians and shunned by the English +residents. From Venice she drifted to Lake Como, +with whose beauties she was so charmed that she +decided to make her home there, purchasing the +Villa del Garrovo for one hundred and fifty thousand +francs, and setting the builders to work to make it a +still more splendid home for a future Queen of +England. But even to the lonely isolation of the +Italian lakes the eyes of her husband's secret agents +pursued her, spying on her every movement—"uncertain +shadows gliding in the twilight along the +paths and between the hedges, and even in the cellars +and attics of the villa"—until the shadowy presences +filled her with such terror and unrest that she sought +to escape them by a long tour in the East.</p> +<p>Thus it was that in November, 1815, the Princess +<a name="Page_209"></a>and her Pergami household set forth on their +journey +to Sicily, Tunis, Athens, the cities of the East and +Jerusalem, the strange story of which was to be +unfolded to the world five years later. How intimate +the Princess and her handsome, stalwart courier had +by this time become was illustrated by the Attorney-General +in his opening speech at her memorable +trial. "One day, after dinner, when the Princess's +servants had withdrawn, a waiter at the hotel, Gran +Brettagna, saw the Princess put a golden necklace +round Pergami's neck. Pergami took it off again +and put it jestingly on the neck of the Princess, who +in her turn once more removed it and put it again +round Pergami's neck."</p> +<p>As early as August in this year Pergami had his +appointed place at the Princess's table, and his room +communicating with hers, and on the various voyages +of the Eastern tour there was abundant evidence to +prove "the habit which the Princess had of sleeping +under one and the same awning with Pergami."</p> +<p>But it is as impossible in the limits of space to +follow Caroline and her handsome cavalier through +every stage of these Eastern wanderings, as it is +unnecessary to describe in detail the evidence of +intimacy so lavishly provided by the witnesses for +the prosecution at the trial—evidence much of which +was doubtless as false as it was venal. That the +Princess, however, was infatuated by her cavalier, +and that she was in the highest degree indiscreet in +her relations with him, seems abundantly clear, whatever +the precise degree of actual guilt may have been.</p> +<p>Pergami had now been promoted from equerry to +<a name="Page_210"></a>Grand Chamberlain to Her Royal Highness, and as +further evidence of her favour, she bought for him +in Sicily an estate which conferred on its owner the +title of Baron della Francina. At Malta she procured +for him a knighthood of that island's famous +order; at Jerusalem she secured his nomination as +Knight of the Holy Sepulchre; and, to crown her +favours, she herself instituted the Order of St Caroline, +with Pergami for Grand Master. Behold now +our ex-courier and adventurer in all his new glory as +Grand Chamberlain and lover of a future Queen of +England, as Baron della Francina, Knight of two +Orders and Grand Master of a third, while every +post of profit in that vagrant Court was held by some +member of his family!</p> +<p>The Eastern tour ended, which had ranged from +Algiers and Egypt to Constantinople and Jerusalem, +and throughout which she had progressed and been +received as a Queen, Caroline settled down for a +time in her now restored villa on Lake Como, celebrating +her return by lavish charities to her poor +neighbours, and by popular fêtes and balls, in one +of which "she danced as Columbine, wearing her +lover's ear-rings, whilst Pergami, dressed as harlequin +and wearing her ear-rings, supported her."</p> +<p>But even here she was to find no peace from her +husband's spies, whose evidence, confirmed on oath +by a score of witnesses, was being accumulated in +London against the longed-for day of reckoning. +And it was not long before Caroline and her Grand +Chamberlain were on their wanderings again—this +time to the Tyrol, to Austria, and through Northern +<a name="Page_211"></a>Italy, always inseparable and everywhere setting +the +tongue of scandal wagging by their indiscreet intimacy. +Even the tragic death in childbirth of her +only daughter, the Princess Charlotte, which put all +England in mourning, seemed powerless to check +her career of folly. It is true that, on hearing of it, +she fell into a faint and afterwards into a kind of +protracted lethargy, but within a few weeks she had +flung herself again into her life of pleasure-chasing +and reckless disregard of convention.</p> +<p>But matters were now hurrying fast to their tragic +climax. For some time the life of George III. had +been flickering to its close. Any day might bring +news that the end had come, and that the Princess +was a Queen. And for some time Caroline had been +bracing herself to face this crisis in her life and to +pit herself against her enemies in a grim struggle for +a crown, the title to which her years of folly (for +such at the best they had been) had so gravely +endangered. Over the remainder of her vagrant +life, with its restless flittings, and its indiscretions, +marked by spying eyes, we must pass to that February +morning in 1820 when, to quote a historian, "the +Princess had scarcely reached her hotel (at Florence) +when her faithful major-domo, John Jacob Sicard, +appeared before her, accompanied by two noblemen, +and in a voice full of emotion announced, 'You are +Queen.'"</p> +<p>The fateful hour had at last arrived when Caroline +must either renounce her new Queendom or present +a bold front to her enemies and claim the crown +that was hers. After a few indecisive days, spent in +<a name="Page_212"></a>Rome, where news reached her that the King had +given orders that her name should be excluded from +the Prayer Book, her wavering resolution took a +definite and determined shape. She would go to +London and face the storm which she knew her +coming would bring on her head.</p> +<p>At Paris she was met by Lord Hutchinson with +a promise of an increase of her yearly allowance +to fifty thousand pounds, on condition that she +renounced her claim to the title of Queen, and consented +never to put foot again in England—an offer +to which she gave a prompt and scornful refusal; +and on the afternoon of 5th June she reached Dover, +greeted by enthusiastic cheers and shouts of "God +save Queen Caroline!" by the fluttering of flags, +and the jubilant clanging of church-bells. The wanderer +had come back to the land of her sorrow, to +find herself welcomed with open arms by the subjects +of the King whose brutality had driven her to exile +and to shame.</p> +<p>The story of the trial which so soon followed her +arrival has too enduring a place in our history to call +for a detailed description—the trial in which all the +weight of the Crown and the testimony of a small +army of suborned witnesses—"a troupe of comedians +in the pay of malevolence," to quote Brougham—were +arrayed against her; and in which she had so +doughty a champion in Brougham, and such solace +and support in the sympathy of all England. We +know the fate of that Bill of Pains and Penalties, +which charged her with having permitted a shameful +intimacy with one Bartolomeo Pergami, and pro<a name="Page_213"></a>vided +as penalty that she should be deprived of the +title and privilege of Queen, and that her marriage +to King George IV. should be for ever dissolved and +annulled—how it was forced through the House of +Lords with a diminishing majority, and finally withdrawn. +And we know, too, the outburst of almost +delirious delight that swept from end to end of +England at the virtual acquittal of the persecuted +Caroline. "The generous exultation of the people +was," to quote a contemporary, "beyond all description. +It was a conflagration of hearts."</p> +<p>We also recall that pathetic scene when Caroline +presented herself at the door of Westminster Abbey +to demand admission, on the day of her husband's +coronation, to be received by the frigid words, "We +have no instructions to allow you to pass"; and we +can see her as, "humiliated, confounded, and with +tears in her eyes," she returned sadly to her carriage, +the heart crushed within her. Less than three weeks +later, seized by a grave and mysterious illness, she +laid down for ever the burden of her sorrows, leaving +instructions that her tomb should bear the words:</p> +<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">CAROLINE</span><br + style="font-weight: bold;"> +<span style="font-weight: bold;">THE INJURED QUEEN OF ENGLAND.</span><br> +</div> +<p>As for Pergami, the idol with the feet of clay, who +had clouded her last years in tragedy, he survived +for twenty years more to enjoy his honours and his +ill-gotten gold; while William Austin, who had +masqueraded as a Prince and called Caroline +"mother," ended his days, while still a young man, +in a madhouse.</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 35%;"> +<a name="CHAPTER_XX"></a> +<h2><a name="Page_214"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> +<h2>THE LOVE-AFFAIRS OF A REGENT</h2> +<p>When Louis XIV. laid down, one September day in +the year 1715, the crown which he had worn with +such splendour for more than seventy years, his +sceptre fell into the hands of his nephew Philippe, +Duc d'Orléans, who for eight years ruled France as +Regent, and as guardian of the child-King, the +fifteenth Louis.</p> +<p>Seldom in the world's history has a reign, so splendid +as that of the Sun-King, closed in such darkness +and tragedy. The disastrous war of the Spanish +Succession had drained France of her strength and +her gold. She lay crushed under a mountain of debt—ten +thousand million francs; she was reduced to +the lowest depths of wretchedness, ruin, and disorder, +and it was at this crisis in her life as a nation that +fate placed a child of four on her throne, and gave +the reins of power into the hands of the most dissolute +man in Europe.</p> +<p>Not that Philippe of Orleans lacked many of the +qualities that go to the making of a ruler and a man. +He had proved himself, in Italy and in Spain, one +of the bravest of his country's soldiers, and an able, +<a name="Page_215"></a>far-seeing leader of armies; and he had, as his +Regency +proved, no mean gifts of statesmanship. But +his kingly qualities were marred by the taint of birth +and early environment.</p> +<p>Such good qualities as he had he no doubt drew +from his mother, the capable, austere, high-minded +Elizabeth of Bavaria, who to her last day was the +one good influence in his life. To his father, Louis +XIV.'s younger brother, who is said to have been +son of Cardinal Mazarin, Anne of Austria's lover, +and who was the most debased man of his time in +all France, he just as surely owed the bias of sensuality +to which he chiefly owes his place in memory.</p> +<p>And not only was he thus handicapped by his +birth; he had for tutor that arch-scoundrel Dubois—the +"grovelling insect" who rarely opened his mouth +without uttering a blasphemy or indecency, and who +initiated his charge, while still a boy, into every base +form of so-called pleasure.</p> +<p>Such was the man who, amid the ruins of his +country, inaugurated in France an era of licentiousness +such as she had never known—an incomprehensible +mass of contradictions—a kingly presence with +the soul of a Caliban, statesman and sinner, high-minded +and low-living, spending his days as a +sovereign, a rôle which he played to perfection, and +his nights as a sot and a sensualist.</p> +<p>It was doubtless Dubois who was mostly responsible +for the baseness in the Regent's character—Dubois +who had taught him a contempt for religion +and morality, the cynical view of life which makes +the pleasure of the moment the only thing worth +<a name="Page_216"></a>pursuing, at whatever cost; and who had +impressed +indelibly on his mind that no woman is virtuous and +that men are knaves. And there was never any lack +of men to continue Dubois' teaching. He gathered +round him the most dissolute gallants in France, in +whose company he gave the rein to his most vicious +appetites. His "roués" he dubbed them, a title +which aptly described them; although they affected to +give it a very different interpretation. They were the +Regent's roués, they said, no doubt with the tongue +in the cheek, because they were so devoted to him +that they were ready, in his defence, to be broken on +the wheel (<i>la roue</i>)!</p> +<p>Each of these boon-comrades was a past-master in +the arts of dissipation, and each was also among the +most brilliant men of his day. The Chevalier de +Simiane was famous alike for his drinking powers +and his gift of graceful verse; De Fargy was a +polished wit, and the handsomest man in France, +with an unrivalled reputation for gallantry; the +Comte de Nocé was the Regent's most intimate friend +from boyhood—brother-in-law he called him, since +they had not only tastes but even mistresses in common. +Then there were the Marquis de la Fare, +Captain of Guards and <i>bon enfant</i>; the Marquis de +Broglio, the biggest debauchee in France, the Marquis +de Canillac, the Duc de Brancas, and many +another—all famous (or infamous) for some pet +vice, and all the best of boon-companions for the +pleasure-loving Regent.</p> +<p>Strange tales are told of the orgies of this select +band which the Regent gathered around him—orgies +<a name="Page_217"></a>which shocked even the France of the eighteenth +century, when she was the acknowledged leader in +licence. At six o'clock every evening Philippe's +kingship ended for the day. He had had enough—more +than enough—of State and ceremonial, of interviewing +ambassadors, and of the flatteries of Princes +and the obsequious homage of courtiers. Pleasure +called him away from the boredom of empire; and +at the stroke of six we find him retiring to the company +of his mistresses and his roués to feast and +drink and gamble until dawn broke on the revelry—his +laugh the loudest, his wit the most dazzling, his +stories the most piquant, keeping the table in a roar +with his infectious gaiety. He was Regent no +longer; he was simply a <i>bon camarade</i>, as ready to +exchange familiarities with a "lady of the ballet" as +to lead the laughter at a joke at his own expense.</p> +<p>At nine o'clock, when the fun had waxed furious +and wine had set the slowest tongue wagging and +every eye a-sparkle, other guests streamed in to join +the orgy—the most beautiful ladies of the Court, +from the Duchesse de Gesores and Madame de +Mouchy to the Regent's own daughter, the Duchesse +de Berry, who, young as she was, had little to learn +of the arts of dissipation. And in the wake of these +high-born women would follow laughing, bright-eyed +troupes of dancing and chorus-girls from the theatres +with an escort of the cleverest actors of Paris, to join +the Regent's merry throng.</p> +<p>The champagne now flowed in rivers; the servants +were sent away; the doors were locked and the fun +grew riotous; ceremony had no place there; rank +<a name="Page_218"></a>and social distinctions were forgotten. +Countesses +flirted with comedians; Princes made love to ballet-girls +and duchesses alike. The leader of the +moment was the man or woman who could sing the +most daring song, tell the most piquant story, or play +the most audacious practical joke, even on the Regent +himself. Sometimes, we are told, the lights would +be extinguished, and the orgy continued under the +cover of darkness, until the Regent suddenly opened +a cupboard, in which lights were concealed—to an +outburst of shrieks of laughter at the scenes revealed.</p> +<p>Thus the mad night hours passed until dawn came +to bring the revels to a close; or until the Regent +would sally forth with a few chosen comrades on a +midnight ramble to other haunts of pleasure in the +capital—the lower the better. Such was the way +in which Philippe of Orleans, Regent of France, +spent his nights. A few hours after the carouse had +ended he would resume his sceptre, as austere and +dignified a ruler as you would find in Europe.</p> +<p>It must not be imagined that Philippe was the only +Royal personage who thus set a scandalous example +to France. There was, in fact, scarcely a Prince or +Princess of the Blood Royal whose love affairs were +not conducted flagrantly in the eyes of the world, +from the Dowager Duchesse de Bourbon, who +lavished her favours on the Scotch financier, John +Law, of Lauriston, to the Princesse de Conte, who +mingled her piety with a marked partiality for her +nephew, Le Kallière.</p> +<p>As for the Regent's own daughters, from the +Duchesse de Berry, to Louise, Queen of Spain, each +<a name="Page_219"></a>has left behind her a record almost as +scandalous as +that of her father. It was, in fact, an era of corruption +in high places, when, in the reaction that followed +the dismal and decorous last years of Louis XIV.'s +reign, Pleasure rose phoenix-like from the ashes of +ruin and flaunted herself unashamed in every guise +with which vice could deck her.</p> +<p>It must be said for the Regent, corrupt as he was, +that he never abused his position and his power in +the pursuit of beauty. His mistresses flocked to him +from every rank of life, from the stage to the highest +Court circles, but remained no longer than inclination +dictated. And the fascination is not far to seek, +for Philippe d'Orléans was of the men who find easy +conquests in the field of love. He was one of the +handsomest men in all France; and to his good-looks +and his reputation for bravery he added a manner of +rare grace and courtliness, a supple tongue, and that +strange magnetic power which few women could +resist.</p> +<p>No King ever boasted a greater or more varied list +of favourites, in which actresses and duchesses vied +with each other for his smiles, in a rivalry which +seems to have been singularly free from petty jealousy. +Among the beauties of the Court we find the +Duchesse de Fedari, the Duchesse de Gesores, the +Comtesse de Sabran at one extreme; and actresses +like Emilie, Desmarre, and La Souris at the other, +pretty butterflies of the footlights who appealed to +the Regent no more than Madame d'Averne, the +gifted pet of France's wits and literary men, the most +charming "blue-stocking" of her day. And all, +<a name="Page_220"></a>without exception—duchesses, countesses, and +actresses—were as ready to give their love to +Philippe, the man, as to the Duc d'Orléans, Regent +of France.</p> +<p>Even in his relations with these ministers of +pleasure, the Regent's better qualities often exhibit +themselves agreeably. To the pretty actress, Emilie, +whose heart was so completely his, he always acted +with a characteristic generosity and forbearance; and +her conduct is by no means less pleasing than his. +Once, we are told, when he expressed a wish to give +her a pair of diamond ear-rings at a cost of fifteen +thousand francs, she demurred at accepting so valuable +a present. "If you must be so generous," she +pleaded, "please don't give me the ear-rings, which +are much too grand for such as me. Give me, instead, +ten thousand francs, so that I may buy a small +house to which I can retire when you no longer love +me as you now do."</p> +<p>Emilie had scarcely returned home, however, when +a Court official appeared with a package containing, +not ten thousand, but twenty-five thousand francs, +which her lover insisted on her keeping; and when +she returned fifteen thousand francs, he promptly +sent them back again, declaring that he would be +very angry if she refused again to accept them.</p> +<p>His love, indeed, for Emilie seems to have been +as pure and deep as any of which he was capable. +It was no fleeting passion, but an affection based on +a sincere respect for her character and mental gifts. +So highly, indeed, did he think of her judgment that +she became his most trusted counsellor. She sat by +<a name="Page_221"></a>his side when he received ambassadors; he +consulted +her on difficult problems of State; and it was her +advice that he often followed in preference to the +wisdom of all his ministers; for, as he said to Dubois, +"Emilie has an excellent brain; she always gives me +the best counsel."</p> +<p>When at last he had to part from the modest and +accomplished actress it was under circumstances +which speak well for his generosity. A former lover, +the Marquis de Fimarcon, on his return from fighting +in Spain, sought Emilie out, and, blazing with +jealousy, insisted that she should leave the Regent +and return to his protection. He vowed that, if she +refused, he would murder her; and when, in her +alarm, she sought refuge in a convent at Charenton, +he threatened to burn the nuns alive in their cells +unless they restored her to him. Thus it was that, +rather than allow Emilie to run any risks from her +revengeful and brutal lover, the Regent relinquished +his claim to her; and only when Fimarcon's continued +brutality at last made intervention necessary, +did he order the bully to be arrested and consigned +to the prison of Fort l'Évêque.</p> +<p>It is, however, in the story of Mademoiselle Aissé, +the Circassian slave, that we find the best illustration +of the chivalry which underlay the Regent's passion +for women, and which he never forgot in his wildest +excesses. This story, one of the most touching in +French history, opens in the year 1698, when a band +of Turkish soldiers returned to Constantinople from +a raid in the Caucasus, bringing with them, among +many other captives, a beautiful child of four years, +<a name="Page_222"></a>said to be the daughter of a King. So lovely was +the little Circassian fairy that when the Comte de +Feriol, France's Ambassador to Turkey, set eyes +on her, he decided to purchase her; and she +became his property in exchange for fifteen hundred +livres.</p> +<p>That she might have every advantage of training +to fit her for his seraglio in later years, the child was +sent to Paris, to the home of the Ambassador's +brother, President de Feriol, where she grew to +beautiful girlhood as a member of the family, as fair +a flower as ever was transplanted to French soil. +Thus she passed the next thirteen years of her young +life, charming all by her sweetness of disposition, as +she won the homage of all by her remarkable beauty +and grace.</p> +<p>Such was Ayesha, or Aissé, the Circassian maid, +when at last her "owner" returned to Paris to fall +under the spell of her radiant beauty and to claim her +as his chattel, bought with good gold and trained at +his cost to adorn his harem. In vain did Aissé weep +and plead to be spared a fate from which every fibre +of her being shrank in horror. Her "master" was +inexorable. "When I bought you," he said, "it was +my intention to make you my daughter or my mistress. +I now intend that you shall become both the +one and the other." Friendless and helpless, she was +obliged to yield; and for six years she had to submit +to the endearments of her protector, a man more than +old enough to be her father, until his death brought +her release.</p> +<p>At twenty-four, more lovely than ever, combining +<a name="Page_223"></a>the beauty of the Circassian with the graces of +France, Aissé had now every right to look forward +at least to such happiness as was possible to a stranger +in a strange land. But no sooner was one danger +to her peace removed than another sprang up to take +its place. The rumour of her beauty and her sweetness +had come to the ears of the Regent, and strong +forces were at work to bring her to his arms. Madame +de Tencin was the leader in this base conspiracy, +with the power of the Romish Church at her back; +for with the fair Circassian high in the Regent's +favour and a pliant tool in their hands, the Jesuits' +influence at Court would be greatly strengthened. +Dubois was won over to the unholy alliance; and the +Due's <i>maîtresse en titre</i> was bribed, not only to +withdraw all opposition to her proposed rival, but to +arrange a meeting between the Regent and the +victim.</p> +<p>Success seemed to be assured. Mademoiselle +Aissé was to exchange slavery to her late owner for +an equally odious place in the harem of the ruler +of France. Her tears and entreaties were all in +vain; when she begged on her knees to be allowed +to retire to a convent Madame de Feriol turned +her back on her. Her only hope of rescue now lay +in the Regent himself; and to him she pleaded her +cause with such pathetic eloquence that he not only +allowed her to depart in peace, but with words of +sympathy and promises of his protection in the pure +and noble sense of the word.</p> +<p>Thus by the chivalry of the most dissolute man of +his age the Circassian slave-girl was rescued from a +<a name="Page_224"></a>life which to her would have been worse than +death—to +spend her remaining years, happy in the love of +an honest man, the Chevalier d'Aydie, until death +claimed her while she still possessed the beauty +which had been at once her glory and her inevitable +shame.</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 25%;"> +<p>The close of the Regent's mis-spent life came with +tragic suddenness. Worn out with excesses, while still +young in years, his doctors had warned him that death +might come to him any day; but with the light-heartedness +that was his to the last, he laughed at +their gloomy forebodings and refused to take the +least precautions to safeguard his health. Two days +before the end came he declined point-blank to be +bled in order to avert a threatened attack of apoplexy. +"Let it come if it will," he said, with a laugh. "I +do not fear death; and if it comes quickly, so much +the better!"</p> +<p>On the evening of 2nd December, 1720, he was +chatting gaily to the young Duchesse de Falari, when +he suddenly turned to her and asked: "Do you think +there is any hell—or Paradise?" "Of course I do," +answered the Duchesse. "Then are you not afraid +to lead the life you do?" "Well," replied Madame, +"I think God will have pity on me."</p> +<p>Scarcely had the words left her lips when the +Regent's head fell heavily on her shoulder, and he +began to slip to the floor. A glance showed her +that he was unconscious; and, rushing out of the +room, the terrified Duchesse raced through the dark, +<a name="Page_225"></a>deserted corridors of the palace shrieking for +help. +When at last help arrived, it came too late. The +Regent had gone to find for himself an answer to the +question his lips had framed a few minutes earlier—"is +there any hell—or Paradise?"</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 35%;"> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXI"></a> +<h2><a name="Page_226"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2> +<h2>A DELILAH OF THE COURT OF FRANCE</h2> +<p>It was a cruel fate that snatched Gabrielle d'Estrées +from the arms of Henri IV., King of France and +Navarre, at the moment when her long devotion to +her hero-lover was on the eve of being crowned by +the bridal veil; and for many a week there was no +more stricken man in Europe than the disconsolate +King as he wailed in his black-draped chamber, "The +root of my love is dead, and will never blossom again."</p> +<p>No doubt Henri's grief was as sincere as it was +deep, for he had loved his golden-haired Gabrielle of +the blue eyes and dimpled baby-cheeks as he had +never loved woman before. It was the passion of a +lifetime, the passion of a strong man in his prime, +that fate had thus nipped in the fullness of its bloom; +and its loss plunged him into an abyss of sorrow and +despair such as few men have known.</p> +<p>But with the hero of Ivry no emotion of grief +or pleasure ever endured long. He was a man of +erratic, widely contrasted moods—now on the peaks +of happiness, now in the gulf of dejection; one mood +succeeding another as inevitably and widely as the +pendulum swings. Thus when he had spent three +<a name="Page_227"></a>seemingly endless months of gloom and solitude, +reaction seized him, and he flung aside his grief with +his black raiment. He was still in the prime of his +strength, with many years before him. He would +drink the cup of life, even to its dregs. He had long +been weary of the matrimonial chains that fettered +him to Marguerite of Valois. He would strike them +off, and in another wife and other loves find a new +lease of pleasure.</p> +<p>Thus it was with no heavy heart that he turned +his back on Fontainebleau and his darkened room, +and fared to Paris to find a new vista of pleasure +opening to him at his palace doors, and his ears full +of the praises of a new divinity who had come, during +his absence, to grace his Court—a girl of such beauty, +sprightliness, and wit as his capital had not seen for +many a year.</p> +<p>Henriette d'Entragues—for this was the divinity's +name—was equipped by fate as few women were +ever equipped, for the conquest of a King. Her +mother, Marie Touchet, had been "light-o'-love" to +Charles IX.; her father was the Seigneur d'Entragues, +member of one of the most blue-blooded +families of France, a soldier and statesman of fame; +and their daughter had inherited, with her mother's +beauty and grace, the clever brain and diplomatic skill +of her father. A strange mixture of the bewitching +and bewildering, this daughter of a King's mistress +seems to have been. Tall and dark, voluptuous of +figure, with ripe red lips, and bold and dazzling black +eyes, she was, in her full-blooded, sensuous charms, +the very "antipodes" to the childish, fairy-like +<a name="Page_228"></a>Gabrielle who had so long been enshrined in the +King's heart. And to this physical appeal—irresistible +to a man of such strong passion as Henri, she +added gifts of mind which "baby Gabrielle" could +never claim.</p> +<p>She had a wit as brilliant as the tongue which was +its vehicle; her well-stored brain was more than a +match for the most learned men at Court, and she +would leave an archbishop discomfited in a theological +argument, to cross swords with Sully himself +on some abstruse problem of statesmanship. When +Sully had been brought to his knees, she would rush +away, with mischief in her eyes, to take the lead in +some merry escapade or practical joke, her silvery +laughter echoing in some remote palace corridor. +A bewildering, alluring bundle of inconsistencies—beauty, +savant, wit, and madcap—such was Henriette +d'Entragues when Henri, fresh from his woes, came +under the spell of her magnetism.</p> +<p>Here, indeed, was an escape from his grief such as +the King had never dared to hope for. Before he +had been many hours in his palace, Henri was +caught hopelessly in the toils of the new siren, and +was intoxicated by her smiles and witcheries. Never +was conquest so speedy, so dramatic. Before a +week had flown he was at Henrietta's feet, as lovesick +a swain as ever sighed for a lady, pouring love +into her ears and writing her passionate letters +between the frequent meetings, in which he would +send her a "good night, my dearest heart," with +"a million kisses."</p> +<p>In the days of his lusty youth the idol and hero of +<a name="Page_229"></a>France had never known passion such as this +which +consumed him within sight of his fiftieth birthday, +and which was inspired by a woman of much less +than half his years; for at the time Henri was forty-six, +and Henriette was barely twenty.</p> +<p>He quickly found, however, that his wooing was +not to be all "plain sailing." When Henriette's +parents heard of it, they affected to be horrified at +the danger in which their beloved daughter was +placed. They summoned her home from the perils +of Court and a King's passion; and when Henri sent +an envoy to bring them to reason they sent him back +with a rebuff. Their daughter was to be no man's—not +even a King's—plaything. If Henri's passion +was sincere, he must prove it by a definite promise +of marriage; and only on this condition would their +opposition be removed.</p> +<p>Even to such a stipulation Henri, such was his +infatuation, made no demur. With his own hand +he wrote an agreement pledging himself to make +Demoiselle Henriette his lawful wife in case, within +a certain period, she became the mother of a son; and +undertaking to dissolve his marriage with his wife, +Marguerite of France, for this purpose. And this +agreement, signed with his own hand, he sent to the +Seigneur d'Entragues and his wife, accompanied by +a <i>douceur</i> of a hundred thousand crowns.</p> +<p>But before it was dispatched a more formidable +obstacle than even the lady's natural guardians +remained to be faced—none other than the Duc de +Sully, the man who had shared all the perils of a +hundred fights with Henri and was at once his chief +<a name="Page_230"></a>counsellor and his <i>fidus Achates</i>. When +at last he +summoned up courage to place the document in +Sully's hands, he awaited the verdict as nervously +as any schoolboy in the presence of a dreaded master. +Sully read through the paper, was silent for a few +moments, and then spoke. "Sire," he said, "am I +to give you my candid opinion on this document, without +fear of anger or giving offence?" "Certainly," +answered the King. "Well then, this is what I think +of it," was Sully's reply, as he tore the document in +two pieces and flung them on the floor. "Sully, you +are mad!" exclaimed Henri, flaring into anger at such +an outrage. "You are right, Sire, I am a weak fool, +and would gladly know myself still more a fool—if +I might be the only one in France!"</p> +<p>It was in vain, however, that Sully pointed out the +follies and dangers of such a step as was proposed. +Henri's mind was made up, and leaving his friend, +in high dudgeon, he went to his study and re-wrote +his promise of marriage. The way was at last clear +to the gratification of his passion. Henriette was +more than willing, her parents' scruples and greed +were appeased, and as for Sully—well, he must be +left to get over his tantrums. Even to please such +an old and trusted friend he could not sacrifice such +an opportunity for pleasure and a new lease of life +as now presented itself!</p> +<p>Halcyon months followed for Henri—months in +which even Gabrielle was forgotten in the intoxication +of a new passion, compared with which the +memory of her gentle charms was but as water +to rich, red wine. That Henriette proved wilful, +<a name="Page_231"></a>capricious, and extravagant—that her vanity +drained +his exchequer of hundreds of thousands of crowns +for costly jewellery and dresses, was a mere bagatelle, +compared with his delight in her manifold +allurements.</p> +<p>But Sully had by no means said his last word. +The decree for annulling Henri's marriage with Marguerite +de Valois was pronounced; and it was of the +highest importance that she should have a worthy +successor as Queen of France—a successor whom he +found in Marie de Medicis.</p> +<p>The marriage-contract was actually sealed before +the King had any suspicion that his hand was being +disposed of, and it was only when Sully one day +entered his study with the startling words, "Sire, we +have been marrying you," that the awakening came. +For a few moments Henri sat as a man stunned, his +head buried in his hands; then, with a deep sigh, +he spoke: "If God orders it so, so let it be. There +seems to be no escape; since you say that it is +necessary for my kingdom and my subjects, why, +marry I must."</p> +<p>It was a strange predicament in which Henri now +found himself. Still more infatuated than ever with +Henriette, he was to be tied for life to a Princess +whom he had never even seen. To add to the +embarrassment of his position, the condition of his +marriage promise to Henriette was already on the +way to fulfilment; and he was thus pledged to wed +her as strongly as any State compact could bind him +to stand at the altar with Marie de Medicis. One +thing was clear, he must at any cost recover that fatal +<a name="Page_232"></a>document; and, while he was giving orders for +the +suitable reception of his new Queen, and arranging +for her triumphal progress to Paris, he was writing +to Henriette and her parents demanding the return +of his promise of marriage agreement—to her, a +pleading letter in which he prays her "to return the +promise you have by you and not to compel me to +have recourse to other means in order to obtain it"; +to her father, a more imperious demand to which he +expects instant obedience.</p> +<p>As some consolation to his mistress, whose alternate +tears, rage, and reproaches drove him to distraction, +he creates her Marquise de Verneuil and promises +that, if he should be unable to marry her, he will at +least give her a husband of Royal rank, the Due +de Nevers, who was eager to make her his wife.</p> +<p>But pleadings and threats alike fail to secure the +return of the fatal document, and Henri is reduced +to despair, until Henriette gives birth to a dead child +and his promise thus becomes of as little value as +the paper it was written on. The condition has +failed, and he is a free man to marry his Tuscan +Princess, while Henriette, thus foiled in her great +ambition, is in danger not only of losing her coveted +crown, but her place in the King's favour. The days +of her wilful autocracy are ended; and, though her +heart is full of anger and disappointment, she writes +to him a pitiful letter imploring him still to love her +and not to cast her "from the Heaven to which he has +raised her, down to the earth where he found her." +"Do not let your wedding festivities be the funeral +of my hopes," she writes. "Do not banish me from +<a name="Page_233"></a>your Royal presence and your heart. I speak in +sighs to you, my King, my lover, my all—I, who +have been loved by the earth's greatest monarch, and +am willing to be his mistress and his servant."</p> +<p>To such humility was the proud, arrogant beauty +now reduced. She was an abject suppliant where +she had reigned a Queen. Nor did her pleadings +fall on deaf ears. Her Royal lover's hand was +given, against his will, to his new Queen, but his +heart, he vowed, was all Henriette's—so much so +that he soon installed her in sumptuous rooms in his +palace adjoining those of the Queen herself.</p> +<p>Was ever man placed in a more delicate position +than this King of France, between the rival claims +of his wife and mistress, who were occupying adjacent +apartments, and who, moreover, were both +about to become mothers? It speaks well for Henri's +tactfulness that for a time at least this <i>ménage à +trois</i> +appears to have been quite amiably conducted. +When Queen Marie gave birth to a son it was to +Henriette that the infant's father first confided the +good news, seasoning it with "a million kisses" for +herself. And when Henriette, in turn, became a +mother for the second time, the double Royal event +was celebrated by fêtes and rejoicings in which each +lady took an equally proud and conspicuous part.</p> +<p>It was inevitable, however, that a woman so +favoured by the King, and of so imperious a nature, +should have enemies at Court; and it was not long +before she became the object of a conspiracy of which +the Duchesse de Villars and the Queen were the +arch-leaders. One day a bundle of letters was sent +<a name="Page_234"></a>anonymously to Henri, letters full of tenderness +and passion, addressed by his beloved Marquise, +Henriette, to the Prince de Joinville. The King +was furious at such evidence of his mistress's disloyalty, +and vowed he would never see her again. +But all his storming and reproaches left the Marquise +unmoved. She declared, with scorn in her voice, +that the letters were forgeries; that she had never +written to Joinville in her life, nor spoken a word to +him that His Majesty might not have heard. She +even pointed out the forger, the Duc de Guise's +secretary, and was at last able to convince the King +of her innocence.</p> +<p>The Duchesse de Villars and Joinville were +banished from the Court in disgrace; the Queen had +a severe lecture from her husband; and Henriette +was not only restored to full favour, but was consoled +by a welcome present of six thousand pounds.</p> +<p>But the days of peace in the King's household +were now gone for ever. Queen Marie, thus humiliated +by her rival, became her bitter enemy and also +a thorn in the side of her unfaithful husband. Every +day brought its fierce quarrels which only stopped on +the verge of violence. More than once in fact Henri +had to beat a retreat before his Queen's clenched +fist, while she lost no opportunity of insulting and +humiliating the Marquise.</p> +<p>It is impossible altogether to withhold sympathy +from a man thus distracted between two jealous +women—a shrewish wife, who in her most amiable +mood repelled his advances with coldness and cutting +words, and a mistress who vented on him all the re<a name="Page_235"></a>sentment +which the Queen's insults and snubs roused +in her. Even all Sully's diplomacy was powerless +to pour oil on such vexed waters as these.</p> +<p>The Queen, however, had not long to wait for +her revenge, which came with the disclosure of a conspiracy, +at the head of which were Henriette's father +and her half-brother, the Comte d'Auvergne, and in +which, it was proved, she herself had played no insignificant +part. Punishment came, swift and terrible. +Her father and brother were sentenced to death, herself +to perpetual confinement in a monastery.</p> +<p>But even at this crisis in her life, Henriette's stout +heart did not fail her for a moment. "The King +may take my life, if he pleases," she said. "Everybody +will say that he killed his wife; for I was Queen +before the Tuscan woman came on the scene at all." +None knew better than she that she could afford thus +to put on a bold front. Henri was still her slave, to +whom her little finger was more than his crown; and +she knew that in his hands both her liberty and her +life were safe. And thus it proved; for before she +had spent many weeks in the Monastery of Beaumont-les-Tours, +its doors were flung open for her, +and the first news she heard was that her father was +a free man, while her brother's death-sentence had +been commuted to a few years in the Bastille.</p> +<p>Thus Henriette returned to the turbulent life of +the palace—the daily routine of quarrels and peacemaking +with the King, and undisguised hostility from +the Queen, through all of which Henri's heart still +remained hers. "How I long to have you in my +arms again," he writes, when on a hunting excursion, +<a name="Page_236"></a>which had led him to the scene of their early +romance. "As my letter brings back the memory of +the past, I know you will feel that nothing in the +present is worth anything in comparison. This, at +least, was my feeling as I walked along the roads +I so often traversed in the old days on my journey +to your side. When I sleep I dream of you; when +I wake my thoughts are all of you." He sends her +a million kisses, and vows that all he asks of life +is that she shall always love him entirely and +him alone.</p> +<p>One would have thought that such a conquest of +a King and such triumph over a Queen would have +gratified the ambition of the most exacting of women. +But the Marquise de Verneuil seems to have found +small satisfaction in her victories. When she was +not provoking quarrels with Henri, which roused him +to such a pitch of anger that at times he threatened +to strike her, she received his advances with a coldness +or a sullen acquiescence calculated to chill the +most ardent lover. In other moods she would drive +him to despair by declaring that she had long ceased +to love him, and that all she wanted from him was a +dowry to carry in marriage to one or other of several +suitors who were dying for her hand.</p> +<p>But Madame's day of triumph was drawing much +nearer to an end than she imagined. The end, in +fact, came with dramatic suddenness when Henri +first set eyes on the radiantly lovely Charlotte de +Montmorency. Weary at heart of the tempers and +exactions of Henriette, it needed but such a lure as +this to draw him finally from her side; and from the +<a name="Page_237"></a>first flash of Charlotte's beautiful eyes this +most +susceptible of Kings was undone. Madame de Verneuil's +reign was ended; the next quarrel was made +the occasion for a complete rupture, and the Court +saw her no more.</p> +<p>Already she had lost the bloom of her beauty; she +had grown stout and coarse through her excessive +fondness for the pleasures of the table, and the rest +of her days, which were passed in friendless isolation, +she spent in indulging appetites, which added to her +mountain of flesh while robbing her of the last trace +of good-looks. When the knife of Ravaillac brought +Henri's life and his new romance to a tragic end, the +Marquise was among those who were suspected of +inspiring the assassin's blow; and although her guilt +was never proved, the taint of suspicion clung to her +to her last day.</p> +<p>After fruitless angling for a husband—the Duc de +Guise, the Prince de Joinville, and many another +who, with one consent, fled from her advances, she +resigned herself to a life of obscurity and gluttony, +until death came, one day in the year 1633, to release +her from a world of vanity and disillusionment.</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 35%;"> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXII"></a> +<h2><a name="Page_238"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2> +<h2>THE "SUN-KING" AND THE WIDOW</h2> +<br> +<p>Search where you will in the record of Kings, you +will find nowhere a figure more splendid and more +impressive than that of the fourteenth Louis, who for +more then seventy years ruled over France, and +for more than fifty eclipsed in glory his fellow-sovereigns +as the sun pales the stars. Nearly two +centuries have gone since he closed his weary and +disillusioned eyes on the world he had so long +dominated; but to-day he shines in history in the +galaxy of monarchs with a lustre almost as great as +when he was hailed throughout the world as the +"Sun-King," and in his pride exclaimed, "<i>I</i> am the +State."</p> +<p>Placed, like his successor, on the greatest throne +in Europe, a child of five, fortune exhausted itself +in lavishing gifts on him. The world was at his +feet almost before he had learned to walk. He grew +to manhood amid the adulation and flatteries of the +greatest men and the fairest of women. And that +he might lack no great gift, he was dowered with +every physical perfection that should go to the +making of a King.</p> +<p><a name="Page_239"></a>There was no more goodly youth in France than +Louis when he first practised the arts of love-making, +in which he later became such an adept, on +Mazarin's lovely niece, Marie Mancini. Tall, with +a well-knit, supple figure, with dark, beautiful eyes +illuminating a singularly handsome face, with a bearing +of rare grace and distinction, this son of Anne of +Austria was a lover whom few women could resist.</p> +<p>Such conquests came to him with fatal ease, and +for thirty years at least, until satiety killed passion, +there was no lack of beautiful women to minister to +his pleasure and to console him for the lack of charms +in the Spanish wife whom Mazarin thrust into his +reluctant arms when he was little more than a +boy, and when his heart was in Marie Mancini's +keeping.</p> +<p>Among all the fair and frail women who succeeded +one another in his affection three stand out from the +rest with a prominence which his special favour +assigned to each in turn. For ten early years it was +Louise de la Baume-Leblanc (better known to fame +as the Duchesse de Lavallière) who reigned as his +uncrowned Queen, and who gave her life to his +pleasure and to the care of the children she bore to +him. But such constancy could not last for ever in a +man so constitutionally inconstant as Louis. When +the Marquise de Montespan, in all her radiant and +sensuous loveliness, came on the scene, she drew the +King to her arms as a flame lures the moth. Her +voluptuous charms, her abounding vitality and witty +tongue, made the more refined beauty and the gentleness +of the Duchesse flavourless in comparison; and +<a name="Page_240"></a>Louise, realising that her sun had set, retired +to spend +the rest of her life in the prayers and piety of a +convent, leaving her brilliant rival in undisputed +possession of the field.</p> +<p>For many years Madame de Montespan, the most +consummate courtesan who ever enslaved a King, +queened it over Louis in her magnificent apartments +at Versailles and in the Tuileries. He was never +weary of showering rich gifts and favours on her; +and, in return, she became the mother of his children +and ministered to his every whim, little dreaming of +the day when she in turn was to be dethroned by +an insignificant widow whom she regarded as the +creature of her bounty, and who so often awaited her +pleasure in her ante-room.</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 25%;"> +<p>When Françoise d'Aubigné was cradled, one +November day in the year 1635, within the walls of +a fortress-prison in Poitou, the prospect of a Queendom +seemed as remote as a palace in the moon. +She had good blood in her veins, it is true. Her +ancestors had been noblemen of Normandy before +the Conqueror ever thought of crossing the English +Channel, and her grandfather, General Theodore +d'Aubigné, had won distinction as a soldier on many +a battlefield. It was to her father, profligate and +spendthrift, who, after squandering his patrimony, +had found himself lodged in jail, that Françoise +owed the ignominy of her birthplace, for her mother +had insisted on sharing the captivity of her ne'er-do-well +husband.</p> +<p>When at last Constant d'Aubigné found his prison +<a name="Page_241"></a>doors opened, he shook the dust of France off +his +feet and took his wife and young children away to +Martinique, where at least, he hoped, his record +would not be known. On the voyage, we are told, +the child was brought so near to death's door by an +illness that her body was actually on the point of +being flung overboard when her mother detected +signs of life, and rescued her from a watery grave. +A little later, in Martinique, she had an equally +narrow escape from death as the result of a snakebite. +A child thus twice miraculously preserved was +evidently destined for better things than an early +tomb, more than one declared; and so indeed it +proved.</p> +<p>When the father ended his mis-spent days in the +West Indian island, the widow took her poverty and +her fledgelings back to France, where Françoise was +placed under the charge of a Madame de Villette, to +pick up such education as she could in exchange for +such menial work as looking after Madame's poultry +and scrubbing her floors. When her mother in turn +died, the child (she was only fifteen at the time) was +taken to Paris by an aunt, whose miserliness or +poverty often sent her hungry to bed.</p> +<p>Such was Françoise's condition when she was +taken one day to the house of Paul Scarron, the +crippled poet, whose satires and burlesques kept +Paris in a ripple of merriment, and to whom the +child's poverty and friendless position made as +powerful an appeal as her budding beauty and her +modesty. It was a very tender heart that beat in +the pain-racked, paralysed body of the "father of +<a name="Page_242"></a>French burlesque"; and within a few days of +first +setting eyes on his "little Indian girl," as he called +her, he asked her to marry him. "It is a sorry offer +to make you, my dear child," he said, "but it is either +this or a convent." And, to escape the convent, +Françoise consented to become the wife of the +"bundle of pains and deformities" old enough to be +her father.</p> +<p>In the marriage-contract Scarron, with characteristic +buffoonery, recognises her as bringing a dower +of "four louis, two large and very expressive eyes, a +fine bosom, a pair of lovely hands, and a good intellect"; +while to the attorney, when asked what his +contribution was, he answered, "I give her my +name, and that means immortality." For eight +years Françoise was the dutiful wife of her crippled +husband, nursing him tenderly, managing his home +and his purse, redeeming his writing from its +coarseness, and generally proving her gratitude by +a ceaseless devotion. Then came the day when +Scarron bade her farewell on his death-bed, begging +her with his last breath to remember him sometimes, +and bidding her to be "always virtuous."</p> +<p>Thus Françoise d'Aubigné was thrown once more +on a cold world, with nothing between her and +starvation but Scarron's small pension, which the +Queen-mother continued to his widow, and compelled +to seek a cheap refuge within convent walls. +She had however good-looks which might stand her +in good stead. She was tall, with an imposing +figure and a natural dignity of carriage. She had a +wealth of light-brown hair, eyes dark and brilliant, +<a name="Page_243"></a>full of fire and intelligence, a well-shaped +nose, and +an exquisitely modelled mouth.</p> +<p>Beautiful she was beyond doubt, in these days of +her prime; but there were thousands of more beautiful +women in France. And for ten years Madame +Scarron was left to languish within the convent +walls with never a lover to offer her release. When +the Queen-mother died, and with her the pitiful +pension, her plight was indeed pitiful. Her petitions +to the King fell on deaf ears, until Montespan, moved +by her tears and entreaties, pleaded for her; and +Louis at last gave a reluctant consent to continue the +allowance.</p> +<p>It was a happy inspiration that led Scarron's widow +to the King's favourite, for Madame de Montespan's +heart, ever better than her life, went out to the gentle +woman whom fate was treating so scurvily. Not +content with procuring the pension, she placed her +in charge of her nursery, an office of great trust and +delicacy; and thus Madame Scarron found herself +comfortably installed in the King's palace with a +salary of two thousand crowns a year. Her day of +poverty and independence was at last ended. She +had, in fact, though she little knew it, placed her foot +on the ladder, at the summit of which was the dazzling +prize of the King's hand.</p> +<p>Those were happy years which followed. High +in the favour of the King's mistress, loving the little +ones given into her charge as if they were her own +children, especially the eldest born, the delicate and +warm-hearted Duc de Maine, who was also his +father's darling, Madame had nothing left to wish +<a name="Page_244"></a>for in life. Her days were full of duty, of +peace, and +contentment. Even Louis, as he watched the loving +care she lavished on his children, began to thaw and +to smile on her, and to find pleasure in his visits to +the nursery, which grew more and more frequent. +There was a charm in this sweet-eyed, gentle-voiced +widow, whose tongue was so skilful in wise and +pleasant words. Her patient devotion deserved +recognition. He gave orders that more fitting +apartments should be assigned to Madame—a suite +little less sumptuous than that of Montespan herself; +and that money should not be lacking, he made her +a gift of two hundred thousand francs, which the +provident widow promptly invested in the purchase +of the castle and estate of Maintenon.</p> +<p>Such marked favours as these not unnaturally set +jealous tongues wagging. Even Montespan began +to grow uneasy, and to wonder what was coming +next. When she ventured to refer sarcastically to +the use "Scarron's widow" had made of his present, +Louis silenced her by answering, "In my opinion, +<i>Madame de Maintenon</i> has acted very wisely"; +thus by a word conferring noble rank on the woman +his favourite was already beginning to fear as a rival.</p> +<p>And indeed there were soon to be sufficient +grounds for Montespan's jealously and alarm. Every +day saw Louis more and more under the spell of +his children's governess—the middle-aged woman +whose musical voice, gentle eyes, and wise words of +counsel were opening a new and better world to him. +She knew, as well as himself, how sated and weary +he was of the cup of pleasure he had now drained to +<a name="Page_245"></a>its last dregs of disillusionment; and he +listened with +eager ears to the words which pointed to him a surer +path of happiness. Even reproof from her lips +became more grateful to him than the sweetest +flatteries from those of the most beautiful woman +who counted but half of her years.</p> +<p>The growing influence of the widow Scarron over +the "Sun-King" had already become the chief +gossip of the Court. From the allurements of +Montespan, of Mademoiselle de Fontanges, and of +de Ludre he loved to escape to the apartments of the +soft-voiced woman who cared so much more for his +soul than for his smiles. "His Majesty's interviews +with Madame de Maintenon," Madame de Sevigné +writes, "become more and more frequent, and they +last from six in the morning to ten at night, she sitting +in one arm-chair, he in another."</p> +<p>In vain Montespan stormed and wept in her fits +of jealous rage; in vain did the beautiful de Fontanges +seek to lure him to her arms, until death +claimed her so tragically before she had well passed +her twentieth birthday. The King had had more +than enough of such Delilahs. Pleasure had palled; +peace was what he craved now—salve for his seared +conscience.</p> +<p>When Madame de Maintenon was appointed principal +lady-in-waiting to the Dauphine and when, a +little later, Louis' unhappy Queen drew her last +breath in her arms, Montespan at last realised that +her day of power was over. She wrote letters to the +King begging him not to withdraw his affection from +her, but to these appeals Louis was silent; he +<a name="Page_246"></a>handed the letters to Madame de Maintenon to +answer as she willed.</p> +<p>The Court was quick to realise that a new star +had risen; ministers and ambassadors now flocked +to the new divinity to consult her and to win her +favour. The governess was hailed as the new +Queen of Louis and of France. The climax came +when the King was thrown one day from his horse +while hunting, and broke his arm. It was Madame +de Maintenon alone who was allowed to nurse him, +and who was by his side night and day. Before the +arm was well again she was standing, thickly veiled, +before an improvised altar in the King's study, with +Louis by her side, while the words that made them +man and wife were pronounced by Archbishop de +Harlay.</p> +<p>The prison-child had now reached the loftiest +pinnacle in the land of her birth. Though she wore +no crown, she was Queen of France, wielding a +power which few throned ladies have ever known. +Princes and Princesses rose to greet her entry with +bows and curtsies; the mother of the coming King +called her "aunt"; her rooms, splendid as the +King's, adjoined his; she had the place of honour +in the King's Council Room; the State's secrets were +in her keeping; she guided and controlled the +destinies of the nation. And all this greatness came +to her when she had passed her fiftieth year, and +when all the grace and bloom of youth were but a +distant memory.</p> +<p>The King himself, two years her junior, and still +in the prime of his manhood, was her shadow, paying +<a name="Page_247"></a>to the plain, middle-aged woman such deference +and +courtesy as he had never shown to the youth and +beauty of her predecessors in his affection. And she—thus +translated to dizzy heights—kept a head as +cool and a demeanour as modest as when she was +"Scarron's widow," the convent protégée. For +power and splendour she cared no whit. Her +ambition now, as always, was to be loved for herself, +to "play a beautiful part in the world," and to deserve +the respect of all good men.</p> +<p>Her chief pleasure was found away from the pomp +and glitter of the Court, among "her children" of +the Saint Cyr Convent, which she had founded for +the education of the daughters of poor noblemen, +over whom she watched with loving and unflagging +care. And yet she was not happy—not nearly as +happy as in the days of her obscure widowhood. +"I am dying of sorrow in the midst of luxury," she +wrote. And again. "I cannot bear it. I wish I +were dead." Why she was so unhappy, with her +Queendom and her environment of love and esteem, +and her life of good works, it is impossible to say. +The fact remains, inscrutable, but still fact.</p> +<p>Twenty-five years of such life of splendid sadness, +and Louis, his last days clouded by loss and +suffering, died with her prayers in his ears, his +coverlet moistened by her tears. Two years later—years +spent in prayers and masses and charitable +work—the "Queen Dowager" drew the last breath +of her long life at St Cyr, shortly after hearing that +her beloved Due de Maine, her pet nursling of +other days, had been arrested and flung into prison.</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 35%;"> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a> +<h2><a name="Page_248"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> +<h2>A THRONED BARBARIAN</h2> +<br> +<p>The dawn of the eighteenth century saw the thrones +of France and Russia occupied by two of the most +remarkable sovereigns who ever wore a crown—Louis +XIV., the "Sun-King," whose splendours +dazzled Europe, and whose power held it in awe; +and Peter I. of Russia, whose destructive sword +swept Europe from Sweden to the Dardenelles, and +whose clever brain laid sure the foundation of his +country's greatness. Each of these Royal rivals +dwarfed all other fellow-monarchs as the sun pales +the stars; and yet it would scarcely have been +possible to find two men more widely different in all +save their passion for power and their love of woman, +which alone they had in common.</p> +<p>Of the two, Peter is unquestionably to-day the +more arresting, dominating figure. Although nearly +two centuries have gone since he made his exit from +the world, we can still picture him in his pride, +towering a head higher than the tallest of his +courtiers, swart of face, "as if he had been born in +Africa," with his black, close-curling hair, his bold, +imperious eyes, his powerful, well-knit frame—"the +<a name="Page_249"></a>muscles and stature of a Goliath"—a kingly +figure, +with majesty in every movement.</p> +<p>We see him, too, wilfully discarding the kingliness +with which nature had so liberally dowered him—now +receiving ambassadors "in a short dressing-gown, +below which his bare legs were exposed, a +thick nightcap, lined with linen, on his head, his +stockings dropped down over his slippers"—now +walking through the Copenhagen streets grotesque +in a green cap, a brown overcoat with horn +buttons, worsted stockings full of darns, and dirty, +cobbled shoes; and again carousing, red of face and +loud of voice, with his meanest subjects in some low +tavern.</p> +<p>As the mood seizes him he plays the rôle of fireman +for hours together; goes carol-singing in his +sledge, and reaps his harvest of coppers from the +houses of his subjects; rides a hobby-horse at a +village fair, and shrieks with laughter until he falls +off; or plies saw and plane in a shipbuilding yard, +sharing the meals and drinking bouts of his fellow-workmen.</p> +<p>The French Ambassador, Campredon, wrote of +him in 1725:—"It is utterly impossible at the +present moment to approach the Tsar on serious +subjects; he is altogether given up to his amusements, +which consist in going every day to the +principal houses in the town with a suite of 200 +persons, musicians and so forth, who sing songs on +every sort of subject, and amuse themselves by +eating and drinking at the expense of the persons +they visit." "He never passed a single day without +<a name="Page_250"></a>being the worse for drink," Baron Pöllnitz +tells us; +and his drinking companions were usually chosen +from the most degraded of his subjects, of both +sexes, with whom he consorted on the most familiar +terms.</p> +<p>When his muddled brain occasionally awoke to +the knowledge that he was a King, he would bully +and hector his boon-comrades like any drunken +trooper. On one occasion, when a young Jewess +refused to drain a goblet of neat brandy which he +thrust into her hand, he promptly administered two +resounding boxes on her ears, shouting, "Vile +Hebrew spawn! I'll teach thee to obey."</p> +<p>There was in him, too, a vein of savage cruelty +which took remarkable forms. A favourite pastime +was to visit the torture-chamber and gloat over the +sufferings of the victims of the knout and the +strappado; or to attend (and frequently to officiate at) +public executions. Once, we are told, at a banquet, +he "amused himself by decapitating twenty Streltsy, +emptying as many glasses of brandy between successive +strokes, and challenging the Prussian envoy +to repeat the feat."</p> +<p>Mad? There can be little doubt that Peter +had madness in his veins. He was a degenerate +and an epileptic, subject to brain storms which +terrified all who witnessed them. "A sort of convulsion +seized him, which often for hours threw him +into a most distressing condition. His body was +violently contorted; his face distorted into horrible +grimaces; and he was further subject to paroxysms +of rage, during which it was almost certain death to +<a name="Page_251"></a>approach him." Even in his saner moods, as +Waliszewski tells us, he "joined to the roughness of +a Russian <i>barin</i> all the coarseness of a Dutch sailor." +Such in brief suggestion was Peter I. of Russia, +half-savage, half-sovereign, the strangest jumble +of contradictions who has ever worn the Imperial +purple—"a huge mastodon, whose moral perceptions +were all colossal and monstrous."</p> +<p>It was, perhaps, inevitable that a man so primitive, +so little removed from the animal, should find +his chief pleasures in low pursuits and companionships. +During his historic visit to London, after a +hard day's work with adze and saw in the shipbuilding +yard, the Tsar would adjourn with his fellow-workmen +to a public-house in Great Tower Street, +and "smoke and drink ale and brandy, almost +enough to float the vessel he had been helping to +construct."</p> +<p>And in his own kingdom the favourite companions +of his debauches were common soldiers and servants.</p> +<p>"He chose his friends among the common herd; +looked after his household like any shopkeeper; +thrashed his wife like a peasant; and sought his +pleasure where the lower populace generally finds +it." His female companions were chosen rather for +their coarseness than their charms, and pleased him +most when they were drunk. It was thus fitting that +he should make an Empress of a scullery-maid, who, +as we have seen in an earlier chapter, had no vestige +of beauty to commend her to his favour, and whose +chief attractions in his eyes were that she had a coarse +tongue and was a "first-rate toper."</p> +<p><a name="Page_252"></a>It was thus a strange and unhappy caprice of +fate +that united Peter, while still a youth, to his first +Empress, the refined and sensitive Eudoxia, a woman +as remote from her husband as the stars. Never +was there a more incongruous bride than this +delicately nurtured girl provided by the Empress +Nathalie for her coarse-grained son. From the hour +at which they stood together at the altar the union +was doomed to tragic failure; before the honeymoon +waned Peter had terrified his bride by his brutality +and disgusted her by the open attentions he paid to +his favourites of the hour, the daughters of Botticher, +the goldsmith, and Mons, the wine-merchant.</p> +<p>For five years husband and wife saw little of each +other; and when, in 1694, Nathalie's death removed +the one influence which gave the union at least +the outward form of substance, Peter lost no time +in exhibiting his true colours. He dismissed all +Eudoxia's relatives from the Court, and sent her +father into exile. One brother he caused to be +whipped in public; another was put to the torture, +which had its horrible climax when Peter himself +saturated his victim's clothes with spirits of wine, +and then set them on fire. For Eudoxia a different +fate was reserved. Not only had he long grown +weary of her insipid beauty and of her refinement +and gentleness, which were a constant mute reproach +to his own low tastes and hectoring manners—he had +grown to hate the very sight of her, and determined +that she should no longer stand between him and the +unbridled indulgence of his pleasure.</p> +<p>During his visit to England he never once wrote +<a name="Page_253"></a>to her, and on his return to Moscow his first +words +were a brutal announcement of his intention to be +rid of her. In vain she pleaded and wept. To her +tearful inquiries, "What have I done to offend you? +What fault have you to find with me?" he turned a +deaf ear. "I never want to see you again," were his +last inexorable words. A few days later a hackney +coach drove up to the palace doors; the unhappy +Tsarina was bundled unceremoniously into it, and +she was carried away to the nunnery of the "Intercession +of the Blessed Virgin," whose doors were +closed on her for a score of years.</p> +<p>Pitiful years they were for the young Empress, +consigned by her husband to a life that was worse +than death—robbed of her rank, her splendours, and +luxuries, her very name—she was now only Helen, +the nun, faring worse than the meanest of her +sister-nuns; for while they at least had plenty to eat, +the Tsarina seems many a time to have known the +pangs of hunger. The letters she wrote to one of +her brothers are pathetic evidence of the straits to +which she was reduced. "For pity's sake," she +wrote, "give me food and drink. Give clothes to +the beggar. There is nothing here. I do not need +a great deal; still I must eat."</p> +<p>It is not to be wondered at, that, in her misery, +she should turn anywhere for succour and sympathy; +and both came to her at last in the guise of Major +Glebof, an officer in the district, whose heart was +touched by the sadness of her fate. He sent her food +and wine to restore her strength, and warm furs to protect +her from the iciness of her cell. In response to her +<a name="Page_254"></a>letters of thanks, he visited her again and +again, +bringing sunshine into her darkened life with his +presence, and soothing her with words of sympathy +and encouragement, until gratitude to the "good +Samaritan" grew into love for the man.</p> +<p>When she learned that the man who had so +befriended her was himself poor, actually in money +difficulties, she insisted on giving him every rouble +she could wring, by any abject appeal, out of her +friends and relatives. She became his very slave, +grovelling at his feet. "Where thy heart is, dearest +one," she wrote to him, "there is mine also; +where thy tongue is, there is my head; thy will is +also mine." She loved him with a passion which +broke down all barriers of modesty and prudence, +reckless of the fact that he had a wife, as she had a +husband.</p> +<p>When Major Glebof's visits and letters grew more +and more infrequent, she suffered tortures of anxiety +and despair. "My light, my soul, my joy," she +wrote in one distracted letter, "has the cruel hour of +separation come already? O, my light! how can I +live apart from thee? How can I endure existence? +Rather would I see my soul parted from my body. +God alone knows how dear thou art to me. Why +do I love thee so much, my adored one, that without +thee life is so worthless? Why art thou angry with +me? Why, my <i>batioushka</i>, dost thou not come +to see me? Have pity on me, O my lord, and +come to see me to-morrow. O, my world, my +dearest and best, answer me; do not let me die +of grief."</p> +<p><a name="Page_255"></a>Thus one distracted, incoherent letter +followed +another, heart-breaking in their grief, pitiful in their +appeal. "Come to me," she cried; "without thee I +shall die. Why dost thou cause me such anguish? +Have I been guilty without knowing it? Better far +to have struck me, to have punished me in any way, +for this fault I have innocently committed." And +again: "Why am I not dead? Oh, that thou hadst +buried me with thy own hands! Forgive me, O my +soul! Do not let me die.... Send me but a crust +of bread thou hast bitten with thy teeth, or the +waistcoat thou hast often worn, that I may have something +to bring thee near to me."</p> +<p>What answers, if any, the Major vouchsafed to +these pathetic letters we know not. The probability +is that they received no answer—that the "good +Samaritan" had either wearied of or grown alarmed +at a passion which he could not return, and which +was fraught with danger. It was accident only that +revealed to the world the story of this strange and +tragic infatuation.</p> +<p>When the Tsarevitch, Alexis, was brought to trial +in 1718 on a charge of conspiracy against his father, +Peter, suspecting that Eudoxia had had a hand in +the rebellion, ordered a descent on the nunnery and +an inquiry. Nothing was found to connect her with +her son's ill-fated venture; but the inquiry revealed +the whole story of her relations with the too friendly +officer. The evidence of the nuns and servants alone—evidence +of frequent and long meetings by day and +night, of embraces exchanged—was sufficiently conclusive, +without the incriminating letters which were +<a name="Page_256"></a>discovered in the Major's bureau, labelled +"Letters +from the Tsarina," or Eudoxia's confession which +was extorted from her.</p> +<p>This was an opportunity of vengeance such as +exceeded all the Tsar's hopes. Glebof was arrested +and put on his trial. Evidence was forced from the +nuns by the lashing of the knout, so severe that some +of them died under it. Glebof, subjected to such +frightful tortures that in his agony he confessed much +more than the truth, was sentenced to death by +impalement. In order to prolong his suffering to the +last possible moment, he was warmly wrapped in furs, +to protect him from the bitter cold, and for twenty-eight +hours he suffered indescribable agony, until at +last death came to his release.</p> +<p>As for Eudoxia, her punishment was a public +flogging and consignment to a nunnery still more +isolated and miserable than that in which she had +dragged out twenty years of her broken life. Here she +remained for seven years, until, on the Tsar's death, +an even worse fate befell her. She was then, by +Catherine's orders, taken from the convent, and +flung into the most loathsome, rat-infested dungeon +of the fortress of Schlussenberg, where she remained +for two years of unspeakable horror.</p> +<p>Then at last, after nearly thirty years of life that +was worse than death, the sun shone again for her. +One day her dungeon door flew open, and to the +bowing of obsequious courtiers, the prisoner was +conducted to a sumptuous apartment. "The walls +were hung with splendid stuffs; the table was covered +with gold-plate; ten thousand roubles awaited her in +<a name="Page_257"></a>a casket. Courtiers stood in her ante-chamber; +carriages and horses were at her orders."</p> +<p>Catherine, the "scullery-Empress," was dead; +Eudoxia's grandson, Peter II., now wore the crown +of Russia; and Eudoxia found herself transported, +as by the touch of a magic wand, from her loathsome +prison-cell to the old-time splendours of palaces—the +greatest lady in all Russia, to whom Princesses, +ambassadors, and courtiers were all proud to pay +respectful homage. But the transformation had +come too late; her life was crushed beyond restoration; +and after a few months of her new glory she +was glad to find an asylum once more within +convent walls, until Death, the great healer of broken +hearts, took her to where, "beyond these voices, +there is peace."</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 25%;"> +<p>While Eudoxia was eating her heart out in her +convent cell, her husband was finding ample compensation +for her absence in Bacchanalian orgies +and the company of his galaxies of favourites, from +tradesmen's daughters to servant-maids of buxom +charms, such as the Livonian peasant-girl, in whom +he found his second Empress.</p> +<p>Of the almost countless women who thus fell under +his baneful influence one stands out from the rest by +reason of the tragedy which surrounds her memory. +Mary Hamilton was no low-born maid, such as +Peter especially chose to honour with his attentions. +She had in her veins the blood of the ducal +Hamiltons of Scotland, and of many a noble family +of Russia, from which her more immediate ancestors +<a name="Page_258"></a>had taken their wives; and it was an ill fate +that +took her, when little more than a child, to the most +debased Court of Europe to play the part of maid-of-honour, +and thus to cross the path of the most +unprincipled lover in Europe.</p> +<p>Peter's infatuation for the pretty young "Scotswoman," +however, was but short-lived. She had +none of the vulgar attractions that could win him to +any kind of constancy; and he quickly abandoned +her for the more agreeable company of his +<i>dienshtchiks</i>, leaving her to find consolation in the +affection of more courtly, if less exalted, lovers—notably +the young Count Orloff, who proved as +faithless as his master.</p> +<p>Such was Mary's infatuation for the worthless +Count that, under his influence, she stooped to +various kinds of crime, from stealing the Tsarina's +jewels to fill her lover's purse, to infanticide. The +climax came when an important document was +missing from the Tsar's cabinet. Suspicion pointed +to Orloff as the thief; he was arrested, and, when +brought into Peter's presence, not only confessed to +the thefts and to his share in making away with the +undesirable infants, but betrayed the partner of +his guilt.</p> +<p>There was short shrift for poor Mary Hamilton +when she was put on her trial on these grave charges. +She made full confession of her crimes; but no torture +could wring from her the name of the man for love +of whom she had committed them, and of whose +treachery to her she was ignorant. She was sentenced +to death; and one March day, in the year +<a name="Page_259"></a>1719, she was led to the scaffold "in a white +silk +gown trimmed with black ribbons."</p> +<p>Then followed one of the grimmest scenes +recorded in history. Peter, the man who had been +the first to betray her, and who had refused her +pardon even when her cause was pleaded by his wife, +was a keenly interested spectator of her execution. +At the foot of the scaffold he embraced her, and +exhorted her to pray, before stepping aside to give +place to the headsman. When the axe had done its +deadly work, he again stepped forward, picked up +the lifeless and still beautiful head which had rolled +into the mud, and calmly proceeded to give a lecture +on anatomy to the assembled crowd, "drawing +attention to the number and nature of the organs +severed by the axe." His lecture concluded, he +kissed the pale, dead lips, crossed himself, and +walked away with a smile of satisfaction on his face.</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 35%;"> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a> +<h2><a name="Page_260"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> +<h2>A FRIEND OF MARIE ANTOINETTE</h2> +<br> +<p>There is scarcely a spectacle in the whole drama +of history more pathetic than that of Marie Antoinette, +dancing her light-hearted way through life to +the guillotine, seemingly unconscious of the eyes of +jealousy and hate that watched her every step; or, if +she noticed at all, returning a gay smile for a frown.</p> +<p>Wedded when but a child, full of the joy of youth, +with laughter bubbling on her pretty lips and gaiety +dancing in her eyes, to a dull-witted clown to whom +her fresh young beauty made no appeal; surrounded +by Court ladies jealous of her charms; feared for her +foreign sympathies, and hated by a sullen, starving +populace for her extravagance and her pursuit of +pleasure, the Austrian Princess with all her young +loveliness and the sweetness of her nature could +please no one in the land of her exile. Her very +amiability was an offence; her unaffected simplicity +a subject of scorn; and her love of pleasure a crime.</p> +<p>Had she realised the danger of her position, and +adapted herself to its demands, her story might have +been written very differently; but her tragedy was +that she saw or heeded none of the danger-signals +<a name="Page_261"></a>that marked her path until it was too late to +retrace +a step; and that her most innocent pleasures were +made to pave the way to her doom.</p> +<p>Nothing, for instance, could have been more harmless +to the seeming than Marie Antoinette's friendship +for Yolande de Polignac; but this friendship +had, beyond doubt, a greater part in her undoing +than any other incident in her life, from the affair +of the "diamond necklace" to her innocent infatuation +for Count Fersen; and it would have been well +for the Queen of France if Madame de Polignac had +been content to remain in her rustic obscurity, and +had never crossed her path.</p> +<p>When Yolande Gabrielle de Polastron was led to +the altar, one day in the year 1767, by Comte Jules +de Polignac, she never dreamt, we may be sure, of +the dazzling rôle she was destined to play at the +Court of France. Like her husband, she was a member +of the smaller <i>noblesse</i>, as proud as they were +poor. Her husband, it is true, boasted a long pedigree, +with its roots in the Dark Ages; but his family +had given to France only one man of note, that +Cardinal de Polignac, accomplished scholar, courtier, +and man of affairs, who was able to twist Louis XIV. +round his dexterous thumb; and Comte Jules was +the Cardinal's great-nephew, and, through his +mother, had Mazarin blood in his veins.</p> +<p>But the young couple had a purse as short as their +descent was long; and the early years of their wedded +life were spent in Comte Jules' dilapidated château, +on an income less than the equivalent of a pound a +day—in a rustic retirement which was varied by an +<a name="Page_262"></a>occasional jaunt to Paris to "see the sights," +and +enjoy a little cheap gaiety.</p> +<p>Comte Jules, however, had a sister, Diane, a +clever-tongued, ambitious young woman, who had +found a footing at Court as lady-in-waiting to the +Comtesse d'Artois, and whom her brother and his +wife were proud to visit on their rare journeys to the +capital. And it was during one of these visits that +Marie Antoinette, who had struck up an informal +friendship with the sprightly, laughter-loving Diane, +first met the woman who was to play such an important +and dangerous part in her life.</p> +<p>It was, perhaps, little wonder that the French +Queen, craving for friendship and sympathy, fell +under the charm of Yolande de Polignac—a girl +still, but a few years older than herself, with a singular +sweetness and winsomeness, and "beautiful as a +dream." The beauty of the young Comtesse was, +indeed, a revelation even in a Court of fair women. +In the extravagant words of chroniclers of the time, +"she had the most heavenly face that was ever seen. +Her glance, her smile, every feature was angelic." +No picture could, it was said, do any justice to this +lovely creature of the glorious brown hair and blue +eyes, who seemed so utterly unconscious of her +beauty.</p> +<p>Such was the woman who came into the life of +Marie Antoinette, and at once took possession of her +heart. At last the Queen of France, in her isolation, +had found the ideal friend she had sought so long in +vain; a woman young and beautiful like herself, with +kindred tastes, eager as she was to enjoy life, and +<a name="Page_263"></a>with all the qualities to make a charming and +sympathetic +companion. It was a case of love at first +sight, on Marie Antoinette's part at least; and each +subsequent meeting only served to strengthen the +link that bound these two women so strangely +brought together.</p> +<p>The Comtesse must come oftener to Court, the +Queen pleaded, so that they might have more opportunities +of meeting and of learning to know each +other; and when the Comtesse pleaded poverty, +Marie Antoinette brushed the difficulty aside. That +could easily be arranged; the Queen had a vacancy +in the ranks of her equerries. M. le Comte would +accept the post, and then Madame would have her +apartments at the Court itself.</p> +<p>Thus it was that Comte Jules' wife was transported +from her poor country château to the splendours of +Versailles, installed as <i>chère amie</i> of the Queen in +place of the Princesse de Lamballe, and with the ball +of fortune at her pretty feet. And never did woman +adapt herself more easily to such a change of environment. +It was, indeed, a great part of the charm of +this remarkable woman that, amid success which +would have turned the head of almost any other of +her sex, she remained to her last day as simple and +unaffected as when she won the Queen's heart in +Diane de Polignac's apartment.</p> +<p>So absolutely indifferent did she seem to her new +splendours, that, when jealousy sought to undermine +the Queen's friendship, she implored Marie Antoinette +to allow her to go back to her old, obscure life; +and it was only when the Queen begged her to stay, +<a name="Page_264"></a>with arms around her neck and with streaming +tears, +that she consented to remain by her side.</p> +<p>If the Queen ever had any doubt that she had at +last found a friend who loved her for herself, the +doubt was now finally dissipated. Such an unselfish +love as this was a treasure to be prized; and from +this moment Queen and waiting-woman were inseparable. +When they were not strolling arm-in-arm +in the corridors or gardens of Versailles, Her Majesty +was spending her days in Madame's apartments, +where, as she said, "We are no longer Queen and +subject, but just dear friends."</p> +<p>So unhappy was Marie Antoinette apart from her +new friend that, when Madame de Polignac gave +birth to a child at Passy, the Court itself was moved +to La Muette, so that the Queen could play the part +of nurse by her friend's bedside.</p> +<p>Such, now, was the Queen's devotion that there +was no favour she would not have gladly showered +on the Comtesse; but to all such offers Madame +turned a deaf ear. She wanted nothing but Marie +Antoinette's love and friendship for herself; but if the +Queen, in her goodness, chose to extend her favour +to Madame's relatives—well, that was another matter.</p> +<p>Thus it was that Comte Jules soon blossomed into +a Duke, and Madame perforce became a Duchess, +with a coveted tabouret at Court. But they were +still poor, in spite of an equerry's pay, and heavily +in debt, a matter which must be seen to. The +Queen's purse satisfied every creditor, to the tune +of four hundred thousand livres, and Duc Jules found +himself lord of an estate which added seventy thousand +<a name="Page_265"></a>livres yearly to his exchequer, with another +annual +eighty thousand livres as revenue for his office of +Director-General of Posts.</p> +<p>Of course, if the Queen <i>would</i> be so foolishly +generous, it was not the Duchesse's fault, and when +Marie Antoinette next proposed to give a dowry of +eight hundred thousand livres to the Duchesse's +daughter on her marriage to the Comte de Guiche, +and to raise the bridegroom to a dukedom—well, it +was "very sweet of Her Majesty," and it was not +for her to oppose such a lavish autocrat.</p> +<p>Thus the shower of Royal favours grew; and it is +perhaps little wonder that each new evidence of the +Queen's prodigality was greeted with curses by the +mob clamouring for bread outside the palace gates; +while even her father's minister, Kaunitz, in far +Vienna, brutally dubbed the Duchesse and her +family, "a gang of thieves."</p> +<p>Diane de Polignac, the Duchesse's sister-in-law, +had long been made a Countess and placed in charge +of a Royal household; and the grateful shower fell +on all who had any connection with the favourite. +Her father-in-law, Cardinal de Polignac's nephew, +was rescued from his rustic poverty to play the +exalted rôle of ambassador; an uncle was raised +<i>per saltum</i> from <i>curé</i> to bishop. The Duchesse's +widowed aunt was made happy by a pension of six +thousand livres a year; and her son-in-law, de Guiche, +in addition to his dukedom, was rewarded further for +his fortunate nuptials by valuable sinecure offices at +Court.</p> +<p>So the tide of benefactions flowed until it was +<a name="Page_266"></a>calculated that the Polignac family were drawing +half +a million livres every year as the fruits of the Queen's +partiality for her favourite. Little wonder that, at +a time when France was groaning under dire poverty, +the volume of curses should swell against the +"Austrian panther," who could thus squander gold +while her subjects were starving; or that the Court +should be inflamed by jealousy at such favours shown +to a family so obscure as the Polignacs.</p> +<p>To the warnings of her own family Marie Antoinette +was deaf. What cared she for such exhibitions +of spite and jealousy? She was Queen; and if she +wished to be generous to her favourite's family, none +should say her nay. And thus, with a smile half-careless, +half-defiant, she went to meet the doom +which, though she little dreamt it, awaited her.</p> +<p>The Duchesse was now promoted to the office of +governess of the Queen's children, a position which +was the prerogative of Royalty itself, or, at least, of +the very highest nobility. With her usual modesty, +she had fought long against the promotion; but the +Queen's will was law, and she had to submit to the +inevitable as gracefully as she could. And now we +see her installed in the most splendid apartments at +Versailles, holding a <i>salon</i> almost as regal as that +of Marie Antoinette herself.</p> +<p>She was surrounded by sycophants and place-seekers, +eager to capture the Queen's favour through +her. And such was her influence that a word from +her was powerful enough to make or mar a minister. +She held, in fact, the reins of power and was now +more potent than the weak-kneed King himself.</p> +<p><a name="Page_267"></a>It was at this stage in her brilliant career +that the +Duchesse came under the spell of the Comte de +Vaudreuil—handsome, courtly, an intriguer to his +finger-tips, a man of many accomplishments, of a +supple tongue, and with great wealth to lend a +glamour to his gifts. A man of rare fascination, and +as dangerous as he was fascinating.</p> +<p>The woman who had carried a level head through +so much unaccustomed splendour and power became +the veriest slave of this handsome, honey-tongued +Comte, who ruled her, as she in turn ruled the Queen. +At his bidding she made and unmade ministers; she +obtained for him pensions and high offices, and +robbed the treasury of nearly two million livres to +fill his pockets. When Marie Antoinette at last +ventured to thwart the Comte in his ambition to +become the Dauphin's Governor, he retaliated by +poisoning the Duchesse's mind against her, and +bringing about the first estrangement between the +friends.</p> +<p>Torn between her infatuation for Vaudreuil and +her love of the Queen, the Duchesse was in an +awkward dilemma. It became necessary to choose +between the two rivals; and that Vaudreuil's spell +proved the stronger, her increasing coldness to Marie +Antoinette soon proved. It was the "rift within the +lute" which was to make the music of their friendship +mute. The Queen gradually withdrew herself +from the Duchesse's <i>salon</i>, where she was sure to +meet the insolent Vaudreuil; and thus the gulf gradually +widened until the severance was complete.</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 25%;"> +<p><a name="Page_268"></a>Evil days were now coming for Marie +Antoinette. +The affair of the diamond necklace had made powerful +enemies; the Polignac family, taking the side of +Vaudreuil and their protectress, were arrayed against +her; France was rising on the tide of hate to sweep +the Austrian and her husband from the throne. The +horrors of the Revolution were being loosed, and all +who could were flying for safety to other lands.</p> +<p>At this terrible crisis the Queen's thoughts were +less for herself than for her friend of happier days. +She sought the Duchesse and begged her to fly while +there was still time. Then it was that, touched by +such unselfish love, the Duchesse's pride broke down, +and all her old love for her sovereign lady returned +in full flood. Bursting into tears, she flung herself +at Marie Antoinette's feet, and begged forgiveness +from the woman whose friendship she had +spurned, and whose life she had, however innocently, +done so much to ruin.</p> +<p>A few hours later the Duchesse, disguised as a +chambermaid and sitting by the coachman's side, +was making her escape from France in company with +her husband and other members of her family, while +the Queen who had loved her so well was left to take +the last tragic steps that had the guillotine for goal.</p> +<p>Just before the carriage started on its long and +perilous journey, a note was thrust into the "chambermaid's" +hand—"Adieu, most tender of friends. +How terrible is this word! But it is necessary. +Adieu! I have only strength left to embrace you. +Your heart-broken Marie."</p> +<p>Then ensued for the Duchesse a time of perilous +<a name="Page_269"></a>journeying to safety. At Sens her carriage was +surrounded +by a fierce mob, clamouring for the blood +of the "aristos." "Are the Polignacs still with the +Queen?" demanded one man, thrusting his head into +the carriage. "The Polignacs?" answered the Abbé +de Baliviere, with marvellous presence of mind. +"Oh! they have left Versailles long ago. Those +vile persons have been got rid of." And with a howl +of baffled rage the mob allowed the carriage to continue +its journey, taking with it the most hated of all +the Polignacs, the chambermaid, whose heart, we +may be sure, was in her mouth!</p> +<p>Thus the Duchesse made her way through Switzerland, +to Turin, and to Rome, and to Venice, where +news came to her of the fall ot the monarchy and +Louis' execution. By the time she reached Vienna +on her restless wanderings, her health, shattered by +hardships and by her anxiety for her friend, broke +down completely. She was a dying woman; and +when, a few months later, she learned that Marie +Antoinette was also dead—"a natural death," they +mercifully told her—"Thank God!" she exclaimed; +"now, at last, she is free from those bloodthirsty +monsters! Now I can die in peace."</p> +<p>Seven weeks later the Duchesse drew her last +breath, with the name she still loved best in all the +world on her lips. In death she and her beloved +Queen were not divided.</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 35%;"> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXV"></a> +<h2><a name="Page_270"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2> +<h2>THE RIVAL SISTERS</h2> +<br> +<p>It was an unkind fate that linked the lives of +the fifteenth Louis of France and Marie Leczinska, +Princess of Lorraine, and daughter of Stanislas, the +dethroned King of Poland; for there was probably +no Princess in Europe less equipped by nature to +hold the fickle allegiance of the young French King, +and no Royal husband less likely to bring happiness +into the life of such a consort.</p> +<p>When Princess Marie was called to the throne of +France, she found herself transported from one of +the most penurious and obscure to the most splendid +of the Courts of Europe—"frightened and overwhelmed," +as de Goncourt tells us, "by the grandeur +of the King, bringing to her husband nothing but +obedience, to marriage only duty; trembling and +faltering in her queenly rôle like some escaped nun +lost in Versailles." Although by no means devoid +of good-looks, as Nattier's portrait of her at this time +proves, her attractions were shy ones, as her virtues +were modest, almost ashamed.</p> +<p>She shrank alike from the embraces of her husband +and the gaieties of his Court, finding her chief +pleasure in music and painting, in long talks with +<a name="Page_271"></a>the most serious-minded of her ladies, in Masses +and +prayers—spending gloomy hours in her oratory with +its death's head, which she always carried with her +on her journeys. Such was the nun-like wife whom +Louis XV. led to the altar shortly after he had entered +his sixteenth year, and had already had his initiation +into that career of vice which he pursued with few +intervals to the end of his life.</p> +<p>Already, at fifteen, the King, who has been mockingly +dubbed "<i>le bien aimé</i>" was breaking away +from the austere hands of his boyhood's mentor, Cardinal +Fleury, and was beginning to snatch a few "fearful +joys" in the company of his mignons, such as the +Duc de La Tremouille, and the Duc de Gesvres, +and a few gay women of whom the sprightly and +beautiful Princesse de Charolois was the ringleader. +But he was still nothing more than "a big and gloomy +child," whose ill-balanced nature gravitated between +fits of profound gloom and the wild abandonment of +debauch; one hour, torn and shaken by religious +terrors, fears of hell and of death; the next, the very +soul of hysterical gaiety, with words of blasphemy on +his lips, the gayest member of a band of Bacchanals +in some midnight orgy.</p> +<p>To such a youth, feverishly seeking distraction +from his own black moods, the demure, devout +Princess, ignorant of the caresses and coquetry of her +sex, moving like a spectre among the brilliant, light-hearted +ladies of his Court, was the most unsuitable, +the most impossible of brides. He quickly wearied +of her company, and fled from her sighs and her +homilies to seek forgetfulness of her and of himself +<a name="Page_272"></a>in the society of such sirens of the Court as +Mademoiselle de Beaujolais, Madame de Lauraguais, +and Mademoiselle de Charolois, whose coquetries +and high spirits never failed to charm away his +gloomy humours.</p> +<p>But although one lady after another, from that +most bewitching of madcaps, Mademoiselle de +Charolois, to the dark-eyed, buxom Comtesse de +Toulouse, practised on him all their allurements, +strove to awake his senses "by a thousand coquetries, +a thousand assaults, the King's timidity eluded these +advances, which amused and alarmed, but did not +tempt his heart; that young monarch's heart was still +so full of the aged Fleury's terrifying tales of the +women of the Regency."</p> +<p>Such coyness, however, was not long to stand in +the way of the King's appetite for pleasure which +every day strengthened. One day it began to be +whispered that at last Louis had been vanquished—that, +at a supper at La Muette, he had proposed +the health of an "Unknown Fair," which had been +drunk with acclamation by his boon-companions; and +the Court was full of excited speculation as to who +his mysterious charmer could be. That some new +and powerful influence had come into the young +sovereign's life was abundantly clear, from the new +light that shone in his eyes, the laughter that was now +always on his lips. He had said "good-bye" to +melancholy; he astonished all by his new vivacity, +and became the leader in one dissipation after another, +"whose noisy merriment he led and prolonged +far into the night."</p> +<p><a name="Page_273"></a>It was not long before the identity of the +worker +of this miracle was revealed to the world. She had +been recognised more than once when making her +stealthy way to the King's apartments; she was his +chosen companion on his journey to Compiègne; and +it was soon public knowledge that Madame de Mailly +was the woman who had captured the King's elusive +heart. And indeed there was little occasion for +surprise; for Madame de Mailly, although she would +never see her thirtieth birthday again, was one of +the most seductive women in all France.</p> +<p>Black-eyed, crimson-lipped, oval-faced, Madame +de Mailly was one of those women who "with cheeks +on fire, and blood astir, eyes large and lustrous as +the eyes of Juno, with bold carriage and in free +toilettes, step forward out of the past with the proud +and insolent graces of the divinities of some +Bacchanalia." With the provocative and sensual +charm which is so powerful in its appeal, she had a +rare skill in displaying her beauty to its fullest +advantage. Her cult of the toilette, the Duc de +Luynes tells us, went with her even by night. She +never went to bed without decking herself with all +her diamonds; and her most seductive hour was in +the morning, when, in her bed, with her glorious +dishevelled hair veiling her pillow, a-glitter with her +jewels, she gave audience to her friends.</p> +<p>Such was the ravishing, ardent, passionate woman +who was the first of many to carry Louis' heart by +storm, and to be established in his palace as his +mistress—to inaugurate for him a new life of +pleasure, and to estrange him still more from his +<a name="Page_274"></a>unhappy Queen, shut up with her prayers and her +tears in her own room, with her tapestry, her books +of history, and her music for sole relaxation. "The +most innocent pleasures," Queen Marie wrote sadly +at this time, "are not for me."</p> +<p>Under Madame de Mailly's rule the Court of Versailles +awoke to a new life. "The little apartments +grow animated, gay to the point of licence. Noise, +merriment, an even gayer and livelier clash of +glasses, madder nights." Fête succeeded fête in +brilliant sequence. Each night saw its Royal debauch, +with the King and his mistress for arch-spirits +of the revels. There were nightly banquets, with +the rarest wines and the most costly viands, supplemented +by salads prepared by the dainty hands of +Mademoiselle de Charolois, and ragouts cooked by +Louis himself in silver saucepans. And these were +followed by orgies which left the celebrants, in the +last excesses of intoxication, to be gathered up at +break of day and carried helpless to bed.</p> +<p>Such wild excesses could not fail sooner or later +to bring satiety to a lover so unstable as Louis; and +it was not long before he grew a little weary of +his mistress, who, too assured of her conquest, began +to exhibit sudden whims and caprices, and fits of +obstinacy. Her jealous eyes followed him everywhere, +her reproaches, if he so much as smiled on +a rival beauty, provoked daily quarrels. He was +drawn, much against his will, into her family disputes, +and into the disgraceful affairs of her father, the dissolute +Marquis de Nesle.</p> +<p>Meanwhile Madame de Mailly's supremacy was +<a name="Page_275"></a>being threatened in a most unexpected quarter. +Among the pupils of the convent school at Port +Royal was a young girl, in whose ambitious brain +the project was forming of supplanting the King's +favourite, and of ruling France and Louis at the same +time. The idle dream of a schoolgirl, of course! +But to Félicité de Nesle it was no vain dream, but the +ambition of a lifetime, which dominated her more and +more as the months passed in her convent seclusion. +If her sister, Madame de Mailly, had so easily made +a conquest of the King, why should she, with less +beauty, it is true, but with a much cleverer brain, +despair? And thus it was that every letter Madame +received from her "little sister" pleaded for an +invitation to Court, until at last Mademoiselle de +Nesle found herself the guest of Louis' mistress in +his palace.</p> +<p>Thus the first important step was taken. The rest +would be easy; for Mademoiselle never doubted for +a moment her ability to carry out her programme to +its splendid climax. It was certainly a bold, almost +impudent design; for the girl of the convent had few +attractions to appeal to a monarch so surrounded by +beauty as the King of France. What the courtiers +saw, says the Duc de Richelieu, was "a long neck +clumsily set on the shoulders, a masculine figure and +carriage, features not unlike those of Madame de +Mailly, but thinner and harder, which exhibited none +of her flashes of kindness, her tenderness of passion."</p> +<p>Even her manners seemed calculated to repel, +rather than attract the man she meant to conquer; +for she treated him, from the first, with a familiarity +<a name="Page_276"></a>amounting almost to rudeness, and a wilfulness +to +which he was by no means accustomed. There was, +at any rate, something novel and piquant in an +attitude so different from that of all other Court +ladies. Resentment was soon replaced by interest, +and interest by attraction; until Louis, before he was +aware of it, began to find the society of the impish, +mocking, defiant maid from the convent more to +his taste than that of the most fascinating women +of his Court.</p> +<p>The more he saw of her, the more effectually he +came under her spell. Each day found her in some +new and tantalising mood; and as she drew him more +and more into her toils, she kept him there by her +ingenuity in devising novel pleasures and entertainments +for him, until, within a month of setting eyes on +her, he was telling Madame de Mailly, he "loved her +sister more than herself." One of the first evidences +of his favour was to provide her with a husband in +the Comte de Vintimille, and a dower of two hundred +thousand livres. He promised her a post as lady-in-waiting +to Madame la Dauphine and gave her a +sumptuous suite of rooms at Versailles. He even +conferred on her husband the honour of handing him +his shirt on the wedding-night, an evidence of high +favour such as no other bridegroom had enjoyed.</p> +<p>It was thus little surprise to anyone to find the +Comtesse-bride not only her sister's most formidable +rival, but actually usurping her place and privileges. +Nor was it long before this place, on which she had +set her heart first within the walls of the Port Royal +Convent, was unassailably hers; and Madame de +<a name="Page_277"></a>Mailly, in tears and sadness, saw an +unbridgeable +gulf widen between her and the man she undoubtedly +had grown to love.</p> +<p>That Félicité de Nesle had not over-estimated her +powers of conquest was soon apparent. Louis became +her abject slave, humouring her caprices and +submitting to her will. And this will, let it be said +to her credit, she exercised largely for his good. She +weaned him from his vicious ways; she stimulated +whatever good remained in him; she tried, and in a +measure succeeded in making a man of him. Under +her influence he began to realise that he was a King, +and to play his exalted part more worthily. He +asserted himself in a variety of directions, from +looking personally after the ordering of his household +to taking the reins of State into his own hands.</p> +<p>Nor did she curtail his pleasures. She merely +gave them a saner direction. Orgies and midnight +revelry became things of the past, but their place was +taken by delightful days spent at the Château of +Choisy, that regal little pleasure-house between +the waters of the Seine and the Forest of Sénart, +with all its marvels of costly and artistic furnishing. +Here one entertainment succeeded another, from the +hunting which opened, to the card-games which +closed the day. A time of innocent delights which +came sweet to the jaded palate of the King.</p> +<p>Thus the halcyon months passed, until, one +August day in 1741, the Comtesse was seized with a +slight fever; Louis, consumed by anxiety, spending +the anxious hours by her bedside or pacing the +corridor outside. Two days later he was stooping +<a name="Page_278"></a>to kiss an infant presented to him on a cushion +of +cramoisi velvet. His happiness was crowned at last, +and life spread before him a prospect of many such +years. But tragedy was already brooding over this +scene of pleasure, although none, least of all the +King, seemed to see the shadow of her wings.</p> +<p>One early day in December, Madame de Vintimille +was seized with a severe illness, as sudden as +it was mysterious. Physicians were hastily summoned +from Paris, only, to Louis' despair, to declare that +they could do nothing to save the life of the Comtesse. +"Tortured by excruciating pain," says de +Goncourt, "struggling against a death which was full +of terror, and which seemed to point to the violence +of poison, the dying woman sent for a confessor. +She died almost instantly in his arms before the Sacraments +could be administered. And as the confessor, +charged with the dead woman's last penitent message +to her sister, entered Madame de Mailly's <i>salon</i>, he +dropped dead."</p> +<p>Here, indeed, was tragedy in its most sudden +and terrible form! The King was stunned, incredulous. +He refused to believe that the woman +he had so lately clasped in his arms, so warm, so full +of life, was dead. And when at last the truth broke +on him with crushing force, he was as a man +distraught. "He shut himself up in his room, and +listened half-dead to a Mass from his bed." He +would not allow any but the priest to come near him; +he repulsed all efforts at consolation.</p> +<p>And whilst Louis was thus alone with his demented +grief, "thrust away in a stable of the palace, lay the +<a name="Page_279"></a>body of the dead woman, which had been kept for +a +cast to be taken; that distorted countenance, that +mouth which had breathed out its soul in a convulsion, +so that the efforts of two men were required to close it +for moulding, the already decomposing remains of +Madame de Vintimille served as a plaything and a +laughing-stock to the children and lackeys."</p> +<p>When the storm of his grief at last began to abate, +the King retired to his remote country-seat of Saint +Leger, carrying his broken heart with him—and also +Madame de Mailly, as sharer of his sorrow; for it +was to the woman whom he had so lightly discarded +that he first turned for solace. At Saint Leger he +passed his days in reading and re-reading the two +thousand letters the dead Comtesse had written to +him, sprinkling their perfumed pages with his tears. +And when he was not thus burying himself in the +past, he was a prey to the terrors that had obsessed +his childhood—the fear of death and of hell.</p> +<p>At supper—the only meal which he shared with +others, he refused to touch meat, "in order that he +might not commit sin on every side"; if a light word +was spoken he would rebuke the speaker by talk of +death and judgment; and if his eyes met those of +Madame de Mailly, he burst into tears and was led +sobbing from the room.</p> +<p>The communion of grief gradually awoke in him +his old affection for Madame de Mailly; and for a +time it seemed not unlikely that she might regain +her lost supremacy. But the discarded mistress had +many enemies at Court, who were by no means +willing to see her re-established in favour—the chief +<a name="Page_280"></a>of them, the Duc de Richelieu, the handsomest +man +and the "hero" of more scandalous amours than any +other in France—a man, moreover, of crafty brain, +who had already acquired an ascendancy over the +King's mind.</p> +<p>With Madame de Tencin, a woman as scheming +and with as evil a reputation as himself, for chief ally, +the Due determined to find another mistress who +should finally oust Madame de Mailly from Louis' +favour; and her he found in a woman, devoted to +himself and his interests, and of such surpassing +loveliness that, when the King first saw her at Petit +Bourg, he exclaimed, "Heavens! how beautiful +she is!"</p> +<p>Such was the involuntary tribute Louis paid at first +sight to the charms of Madame de la Tournelle, who +was now fated to take the place of her dead sister, +Madame de Vintimille, just as the Comtesse had +supplanted another sister, Madame de Mailly.</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 35%;"> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a> +<h2><a name="Page_281"></a>CHAPTER XXVI</h2> +<h2>THE RIVAL SISTERS—<i>continued</i></h2> +<br> +<p>Louis XV.'s involuntary exclamation when he first +set eyes on the loveliness of Madame de la Tournelle, +"Heavens! how beautiful she is!" becomes +intelligible when we look on Nattier's picture of this +fairest of the de Nesle sisters in his "Allegory of the +Daybreak," and read the contemporary descriptions +of her charms.</p> +<p>"She ravished the eye," we are told, "with her +skin of dazzling whiteness, her elegant carriage, her +free gestures, the enchanting glance of her big blue +eyes—a gaze of which the cunning was veiled by +sentiment—by the smile of a child, moist lips, a +bosom surging, heaving, ever agitated by the flux +and reflux of life, by a physiognomy at once passionate +and mutinous." And to these seductions were +added a sunny temperament, an infectious gaiety of +spirit, and a playful wit which made her infinitely +attractive to men much less susceptible that the +amorous Louis.</p> +<p>It is little wonder then that in the reaction which +followed his stormy grief for his dead love, the +Comtesse de Vintimille, he should turn from the +<a name="Page_282"></a>lachrymose companionship of Madame de Mailly to +bask in the sunshine of this third of the beautiful +sisters, Madame de la Tournelle, and that the wish to +possess her should fire his blood. But Madame de +la Tournelle was not to prove such an easy conquest +as her two sisters, who had come almost unasked to +his arms.</p> +<p>At the time when she came thus dramatically into +his life she was living with Madame de Mazarin, a +strong-minded woman who had no cause to love +Louis, who had thwarted and opposed him more +than once, and who was determined at any cost to +keep her protégée and pet out of his clutches. And +his desires had also two other stout opponents in +Cardinal Fleury, his old mentor, and Maurepas, the +most subtle and clever of his ministers, each of whom +for different reasons was strongly averse to this new +and dangerous liaison, which would make him the +tool of Richelieu's favourite and Richelieu's party.</p> +<p>Thus, for months, Louis found himself baffled in +all his efforts to win the prize on which he had set +his heart until, in September, 1742, one formidable +obstacle was removed from his path by the death +of Madame de Mazarin. To Madame de la Tournelle +the loss of her protectress was little short of a +calamity, for it left her not only homeless, but +practically penniless; and, in her extremity, she +naturally turned hopeful eyes to the King, of whose +passion she was well aware. At least, she hoped, he +might give her some position at his Court which +would rescue her from poverty. When she begged +Maurepas, Madame de Mazarin's kinsman and heir, +<a name="Page_283"></a>to appeal to the King on her behalf, his answer +was +to order her and her sister, Madame de Flavacourt, to +leave the Hotel Mazarin, thus making her plight still +more desperate.</p> +<p>But, fortunately, in this hour of her greatest need +she found an unexpected friend in Louis' ill-used +Queen, who, ignorant of her husband's infatuation +for the beautiful Madame de la Tournelle, sent for +her, spoke gracious words of sympathy to her, and +announced her intention of installing her in Madame +de Mazarin's place as a lady of the palace. Thus +did fortune smile on Madame just when her future +seemed darkest. But her troubles were by no +means at an end. Fleury and Maurepas were more +determined than ever that the King should not come +into the power of a woman so alluring and so dangerous; +and they exhausted every expedient to put +obstacles in her path and to discover and support +rival claimants to the post.</p> +<p>For once, however, Louis was adamant. He +had not waited so long and feverishly for his prize +to be baulked when it seemed almost in his grasp. +Madame de la Tournelle should have her place at +his Court, and it would not be his fault if she did not +soon fill one more exalted and intimate. Thus it +was that when Fleury submitted to him the list of +applicants, with la Tournelle's name at the bottom, +he promptly re-wrote it at the head of the list, and +handed it back to the Cardinal with the words, +"The Queen is decided, and wishes to give her the +place."</p> +<p>We can picture Madame de Mailly's distress and +<a name="Page_284"></a>suspense while these negotiations were +proceeding. +She had, as we have seen in the previous chapter, +been supplanted by one sister in the King's affection; +and just as she was recovering some of her old +position in his favour, she was threatened with a +second dethronement by another sister. In her +alarm she flew to Madame de la Tournelle, to set +her fears at rest one way or the other. "Can it be +possible that you are going to take my place?" she +asked, the tears streaming down her cheeks. "Quite +impossible, my sister," answered Madame, with a +smile; and Madame de Mailly, thus reassured, +returned to Versailles the happiest woman in +France—to learn, a few days later, that it was not +only possible, it was an accomplished fact. For the +second time, and now, as she knew well, finally, she +was ousted from the affection of the King she loved +so sincerely; and again it was a sister who had done +her this grievous wrong. She was determined, however, +that she would not quit the field without a last +fight, and she knew she had doughty champions in +Fleury and Maurepas, who still refused to acknowledge +defeat.</p> +<p>Although Madame de la Tournelle was now installed +in the palace, the day of Louis' conquest had +not arrived. The gratification of his passion was +still thwarted in several directions. Not only was +Madame de Mailly's presence a difficulty and a +reproach to him; his new favourite was by no means +willing to respond to his advances. Her heart was +still engaged to the Due d'Agenois, and was not +hers to dispose of. Richelieu, however, was quick +<a name="Page_285"></a>to dispose of this difficulty. He sent the +handsome +Duc to Languedoc, exposed him to the attractions +of a pretty woman, and before many weeks had +passed, was able to show Madame de la Tournelle +passionate letters addressed to her rival by her +lover, as evidence of the worthlessness of his vows; +thus arming her pride against him and disposing her +at last to lend a more favourable ear to the King.</p> +<p>As for Madame de Mailly, her shrift was short. +In spite of her tears, her pleadings, her caresses, +Louis made no concealment of his intention to be +rid of her. "No sorrow, no humiliation was lacking +in the death-struggle of love. The King spared her +nothing. He did not even spare her those harsh +words which snap the bonds of the most vulgar +liaisons." And the climax came when he told the +heart-broken woman, as she cringed pitifully at his +feet, "You must go away this very day." "My +sacrifices are finished," she sobbed, a little later to the +"Judas," Richelieu, when, with friendly words, he +urged her to humour the King and go away at least +for a time; "it will be my death, but I will be in Paris +to-night."</p> +<p>And while Madame de Mailly was carrying her +crushed heart through the darkness to her exile, the +King and Richelieu, disguised in large perukes +and black coats, were stealing across the great courtyards +to the rooms of Madame de la Tournelle, +where the King's long waiting was to have its +reward. And, the following day, the usurper was +callously writing to a friend, "Doubtless Meuse will +have informed you of the trouble I had in ousting +<a name="Page_286"></a>Madame de Mailly; at last I obtained a mandate +to +the effect that she was not to return until she was +sent for."</p> +<p>"No portrait," says de Goncourt, referring to this +letter, "is to be compared with such a confession. +It is the woman herself with the cynicism of her +hardness, her shameless and cold-blooded ingratitude.... It +is as though she drives her sister +out by the two shoulders with those words which +have the coarse energy of the lower orders."</p> +<p>Louis, at last happy in the achievement of his +desire, was not long in discovering that in the third +of the Nesle sisters he had his hands more full than +with either of her predecessors. Madame de Mailly +and the Comtesse de Vintimille had been content to +play the rôle of mistress, and to receive the King's +none too lavish largesse with gratitude. Madame de +la Tournelle was not so complaisant, so easily satisfied. +She intended—and she lost no time in making +the King aware of her intention—to have her position +recognised by the world at large, to reign as +Montespan had reigned, to have the Treasury placed +at her disposal, and her children, if she had any, +made legitimate. Her last stipulation was that she +should be made a Duchess before the end of the +year. And to all these proposals Louis gave a meek +assent.</p> +<p>To show further her independence, she soon began +to drive her lover to distraction by her caprices +and her temper: "She tantalised, at once rebuffed +and excited the King by the most adroit comedies and +those coquetries which are the strength of her sex, +<a name="Page_287"></a>assuring him that she would be delighted if he +would transfer his affection to other ladies." And +while the favourite was thus revelling in the insolence +of her conquest, her supplanted sister was +eating out her heart in Paris. "Her despair was +terrible; the trouble of her heart refused consolation, +begged for solitude, found vent every moment in +cries for Louis. Those who were around her trembled +for her reason, for her life.... Again and again she +made up her mind to start for the Court, to make a +final appeal to the King, but each time, when the +carriage was ready, she burst into tears and fell back +upon her bed."</p> +<p>As for Louis, chilled by the coldness of his mistress, +distracted by her whims and rages, his heart +often yearned for the woman he had so cruelly +discarded; and separation did more than all her +tears and caresses could have done, to awake again +the love he fancied was dead.</p> +<p>When Madame de la Tournelle paid her first +visit as <i>Maîtresse en titre</i> to Choisy, nothing would +satisfy her but an escort of the noblest ladies in +France, including a Princess of the Blood. Her +progress was that of a Queen; and in return for this +honour, wrung out of the King's weakness, she +repaid him with weeks of coldness and ill-humour. +She refused to play at <i>cavagnol</i> with him; she barricaded +herself in her room, refusing to open to all +her lover's knocking; and vented her vapours on +him with, or without, provocation, until, as she +considered, she had reduced him to a becoming +submission. Then she used her power and her +<a name="Page_288"></a>coquetries to wheedle out of him one concession +after +another, including a promise by the King to return +unopened any letters Madame de Mailly might send +to him. Nor was she content until her sister was +finally disposed of by the grant of a small pension +and a modest lodging in the Luxembourg.</p> +<p>Before the year closed Madame de la Tournelle +was installed in the most luxurious apartments at +Versailles, and Louis, now completely caught in her +toils, was the slave of her and his senses, flinging +himself into all the licence of passion, and reviving +the nightly debauches from which the dead Comtesse +had weaned him. And while her lover was thus +steeped in sensuality, his mistress was, with infinite +tact, pursuing her ambition. Affecting an indifference +to affairs of State, she was gradually, and with +seeming reluctance, worming herself into the position +of chief Counsellor, and while professing to despise +money she was draining the exchequer to feed her +extravagance.</p> +<p>Never was King so hopelessly in the toils of a +woman as Louis, the well-beloved, in those of +Madame de la Tournelle. He accepted as meekly +as a child all her coldness and caprices, her +jealousies and her rages; and was ideally happy +when, in a gracious mood, she would allow him to +assist at her toilette as the reward for some regal +present of diamonds, horses, or gowns.</p> +<p>It was after one such privileged hour that Louis, +with childish pleasure, handed to his favourite the +patent, creating her Duchesse de Chateauroux, +enclosed in a casket of gold; and with it a rapturous +<a name="Page_289"></a>letter in which he promised her a pension of +eighty-thousand +livres, the better to maintain her new +dignity!</p> +<p>Having thus achieved her greatest ambition, the +Duchesse (as we must now call her) aspired to play +a leading part in the affairs of Europe. France and +Prussia were leagued in war against the forces of +England, Austria, and Holland. This was a seductive +game in which to take a hand, and thus we find +her stimulating the sluggard kingliness in her lover, +urging him to leave his debauches and to lead +his armies to victory, assuring him of the gratitude +and admiration of his subjects. Nothing less, +she told him, would save his country from +disaster.</p> +<p>To this appeal and temptation Louis was not slow +to respond; and in May, 1744, we find him, to the +delight of his soldiers and all France, at the seat of +war, reviewing his troops, speaking words of high +courage to them, visiting hospitals and canteens, +and actually sending back a haughty message to the +Dutch: "I will give you your answer in Flanders." +No wonder the army was roused to enthusiasm, or +that it exclaimed with one voice, "At last we have +found a King!"</p> +<p>So strong was Louis in his new martial resolve +that he actually refused Madame de Chateauroux permission +to accompany him. France was delighted +that at last her King had emancipated himself +from petticoat influence, but the delight was short-lived, +for before he had been many days in camp +the Duchesse made her stately appearance, and saws +<a name="Page_290"></a>and hammers were at work making a covered way +between the house assigned to her and that occupied +by the King. A fortnight later Ypres had fallen, +and she was writing to Richelieu, "This is mighty +pleasant news and gives me huge pleasure. I am +overwhelmed with joy, to take Ypres in nine days. +You can think of nothing more glorious, more flattering +to the King; and his great-grandfather, great +as he was, never did the like!"</p> +<p>But grief was coming quickly on the heels of joy. +The King was seized with a sudden and serious +illness, after a banquet shared with his ally, the King +of Prussia; and in a few days a malignant fever had +brought him face to face with death. Madame de +Chateauroux watched his sufferings with the eyes of +despair. "Leaning over the pillow of the dying +man, aghast and trembling, she fights for him with +sickness and death, terror and remorse." With +locked door she keeps her jealous watch by his +bedside, allowing none to enter but Richelieu, the +doctors, and nurses, whilst outside are gathered the +Princes of the Blood and the great officers of +the Court, clamouring for admittance.</p> +<p>It was a grim environment for the death-bed of a +King, this struggle for supremacy, in which a frail +woman defied the powers of France for the monopoly +of his last hours. And chief of all the terrors that +assailed her was the dread of that climax to it all, +when her lover would have to make his last confession, +the price of his absolution being, as she well +knew, a final severance from herself.</p> +<p>Over this protracted and unseemly duel, in which +<a name="Page_291"></a>blows were exchanged, entrance was forced, and +Princes and ministers crowded indecently around +the King's bed; over the Duchesse's tearful +pleadings with the confessor to spare her the disgrace +of dismissal, we must hasten to the crowning moment +when Louis, feeling that he was dying, hastily +summoned a confessor, who, a few moments later, +flung open the door of the closet in which the +Duchesse was waiting and weeping, and pronounced +the fatal words, "The King commands you to leave +his presence immediately."</p> +<p>Then followed that secret flight to Paris, "amidst +a torrent of maledictions," the Duchesse hiding herself +from view as best she could, and at each town +and village where horses were changed, slinking +back and taking refuge in some by-road until she +could resume her journey. Then it was that in her +grief and despair she wrote to Richelieu, "Oh, my +God! what a thing it all is! I give you my word, it +is all over with me! One would need to be a poor +fool to start it all over again."</p> +<p>But Louis was by no means a dead man. From +the day on which he received absolution from his +manifold sins he made such haste to recover that, +within a month, he was well again and eager to fly +to the arms of the woman he had so abruptly abandoned +with all other earthly vanities. It was one +thing, however, to dismiss the Duchesse, and quite +another to call her back. For a time she refused +point-blank to look again on the King who had +spurned her from fear of hell; and when at last she +consented to receive the penitent at Versailles she +<a name="Page_292"></a>let him know, in no vague terms, that "it would +cost +France too many heads if she were to return to his +Court."</p> +<p>Vengeance on her enemies was the only price she +would accept for forgiveness, and this price Louis +promised to pay in liberal measure. One after the +other, those who had brought about her humiliation +were sent to disgrace or exile—from the Duc de +Chatillon to La Rochefoucauld and Perusseau. +Maurepas, the most virulent of them all, the King +declined to exile, but he consented to a compromise. +He should be made to offer Madame an abject +apology, to grovel at her feet, a punishment with +which she was content. And when the great minister +presented himself by her bedside, in fear and +trembling, to express his profound penitence and to +beg her to return to Court, all she answered was, +"Give me the King's letters and go!"</p> +<p>The following Saturday she fixed on as the day of +her triumphant return—"but it was death that was to +raise her from the bed on which she had received the +King's submission at the hands of his Prime Minister." +Within twenty-four hours she was seized with +violent convulsions and delirium. In her intervals +of consciousness she shrieked aloud that she had +been poisoned, and called down curses on her +murderer—Maurepas. For eleven days she passed +from one delirious attack to another, and as many +times she was bled. But all the skill of the Court +physicians was powerless to save her, and at five +o'clock in the morning of the 8th December the +Duchesse drew her last tortured breath in the arms +<a name="Page_293"></a>of Madame de Mailly, the sister she had so +cruelly +wronged.</p> +<p>Two days later, de Goncourt tells us, she was +buried at Saint Sulpice, an hour before the customary +time for interments, her coffin guarded by +soldiers, to protect it from the fury of the mob.</p> +<p>As for Madame de Mailly, she spent the last years +of her troubled life in the odour of a tardy sanctity—washing +the feet of the poor, ministering to the sick, +bringing consolation to those in prison; and she was +laid to rest amongst the poorest in the Cimetière des +Innocents, wearing the hair-shirt which had been +part of her penance during life, and with a simple +cross of wood for all monument.</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 35%;"> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a> +<h2><a name="Page_294"></a>CHAPTER XXVII</h2> +<h2>A MISTRESS OF INTRIGUE</h2> +<br> +<p>"On 11th September," Madame de Motteville says, +"we saw arrive from Italy three nieces of Cardinal +Mazarin and a nephew. Two Mancini sisters and +the nephew were the children of the youngest sister +of his Eminence; and of the sisters Laure, the elder, +was a pleasing brunette with a handsome face, about +twelve or thirteen years of age; the second (Olympe), +also a brunette, had a long face and pointed chin. +Her eyes were small, but lively; and it might be expected +that, when fifteen years of age, she would have +some charm. According to the rules of beauty, it +was impossible to grant her any, save that of having +dimples in her cheeks."</p> +<p>Such, at the age of nine or ten, was Olympe Mancini, +who, in spite of her childish lack of beauty, was +destined to enslave the handsomest King in Europe; +and, after a life of discreditable intrigues, in which +she incurred the stigma of witchcraft and murder, to +end her career in obscurity, shunned by all who had +known her in her day of splendour.</p> +<p>It was a singular freak of fortune which translated +the Mancini girls from their modest home in Italy to +<a name="Page_295"></a>the magnificence of the French Court, as the +adopted +children of their uncle, Cardinal Mazarin, the virtual +ruler of France, and the avowed lover (if not, as some +say, the husband) of Anne of Austria, the Queen-mother. +"See those little girls," said the wife of +Maréchal de Villeroi to Gaston d'Orléans, pointing +to the Mancini children, the centre of an admiring +crowd of courtiers. "They are not rich now; but +some day they will have fine châteaux, large incomes, +splendid jewels, beautiful silver, and perhaps great +dignities."</p> +<p>And how true this prophecy proved, we know; for, +of the Cardinal's five Mancini nieces (for three others +came, later, as their uncle's protégées), Laure found +a husband in the Duc de Mercoeur, grandson of +Henri IV.; two others lived to wear the coronet of +Duchess; Olympe, as we shall see, became Comtesse +de Soissons; and Marie, after narrowly missing +the Queendom of France, became the wife of the +Constable Colonna, one of the greatest nobles of +Italy.</p> +<p>Nor is there anything in such high alliances to +cause surprise; for their future was in the hands of +the most powerful, ambitious, and wealthy man in +France. From their first appearance as his guests +they were received with open arms by Louis' Court. +They were speedily transferred to the Palais Royal, +to be brought up with the boy-King, Louis XIV., and +his brother, the Prince of Anjou; while the Queen +herself not only paid them the most flattering attentions +and treated them as her own children, but herself +undertook part of their education.</p> +<p><a name="Page_296"></a>It was under such enviable conditions that +the +young daughters of a poor Roman baron grew up +to girlhood—the pets of the Queen and the Court, +the playfellows of the King, and the acknowledged +heiresses of their uncle's millions; and of them all, +not one had a keener eye to the future than Olympe +of the long face, pointed chin, and dimples. It was +she who entered with the greatest zest into the romps +and games of her playmate, Louis XIV., who surrounded +him with the most delicate flatteries and +attentions, and practised all her childish arts and +coquetries to win his favour. And she succeeded +to such an extent that it was always the company of +Olympe, and not of her more beautiful sisters, Hortense, +Laure, or Marie, that Louis most sought.</p> +<p>Not that Olympe was always to remain the plain, +unattractive child Madame de Motteville describes +in 1647. Each year, as it passed, added some touch +of beauty, developed some latent charm, until at +eighteen she was very fair to look upon. "Her eyes +now" says Madame de Motteville, "were full of fire, +her complexion had become beautiful, her face less +thin, her cheeks took dimples which gave her a fresh +charm, and she had fine arms and beautiful hands. +She certainly seemed charming in the eyes of the +King, and sufficiently pretty to indifferent spectators."</p> +<p>That she had wooers in plenty, even before she +was so far advanced in the teens, was inevitable; but +her personal preferences counted for little in face of +the Cardinal's determination to find for her, as for all +his nieces, a splendid alliance which should shed +lustre on himself. And thus it was that, without any +<a name="Page_297"></a>consultation of her heart, Olympe's hand was +formally +given to Prince Eugene de Savoie, Comte de +Soissons, a man in whose veins flowed the Royal +strains of Savoy and France.</p> +<p>It was a brilliant match indeed for the daughter +of a petty Italian baron; and Mazarin saw that it was +celebrated with becoming magnificence. On the 20th +February, 1657, we see a brilliant company repairing +to the Queen's apartments, "the Comte de Soissons +escorting his betrothed, dressed in a gown of silver +cloth, with a bouquet of pearls on her head, valued at +more than 50,000 livres, and so many jewels that +their splendour, joined to the natural éclat of her +beauty, caused her to be admired by everyone. +Immediately afterwards, the nuptials were celebrated +in the Queen's chapel. Then the illustrious pair, +after dining with the Princesse de Carignan-Savoie, +ascended to the apartments of his Eminence, the +Cardinal, where they were entertained to a magnificent +supper, at which the King and Monsieur did the +company the honour of joining them."</p> +<p>Then followed two days of regal receptions; a +visit to Notre Dame to hear Mass, with the Queen +herself as escort; and a stately journey to the Hôtel +de Soissons, where the Comtesse's mother-in-law +"testified to her, by her joy and the rich presents +which she made her, how great was the satisfaction +with which she regarded this marriage."</p> +<p>Thus raised to the rank of a Princess of the Blood, +Olympe was by no means the proud and happy +woman she ought to have been. She had, in fact, +aspired much higher; she had had dreams of sharing +<a name="Page_298"></a>the throne of France with her handsome young +playmate, the King; and to Louis, wife though she +now was, she had lost none of the attraction she +possessed when he called her his "little sweetheart" +in their childish games together. "He continued to +visit her with the greatest regularity," to quote Mr +Noel Williams; "indeed, scarcely a day went by on +which His Majesty's coach did not stop at the gate +of the Hôtel de Soissons; and Olympe, basking in +the rays of the Royal favour, rapidly took her place +as the brilliant, intriguing great lady Nature intended +her to be."</p> +<p>It is little wonder, perhaps, that Olympe's foolish +head was turned by such flattering attentions from +her sovereign, or that she began to give herself airs +and to treat members of the Royal family with a +haughty patronage. Even La Grande Mademoiselle +did not escape her insolence; for, as she +herself records, "when I paid her a thousand +compliments and told her that her marriage had given +me the greatest joy and that I hoped we should +always be good friends, she answered me not a +word."</p> +<p>But Olympe's supremacy was not to remain much +longer unchallenged. The King's vagrant fancy was +already turning to her younger sister, Marie, whose +childish plainness had now ripened to a beauty more +dazzling than her own—the witchery of large and +brilliant black eyes, a complexion of pure olive, +luxuriant, jet-black hair, a figure of singular suppleness +and grace, and a sprightliness of wit and a <i>gaieté +de coeur</i> which the Comtesse could not hope to rival. +<a name="Page_299"></a>It soon began to be rumoured in Court that Louis +spent hours daily in the company of Mazarin's beautiful +niece; a rumour which Hortense Mancini supports +in her "Memoirs." "The presence of the +King, who seldom stirred from our lodging, often +interrupted us," she says; "my sister, Marie, alone +was undisturbed; and you can easily understand that +his assiduity had charms for her, who was the cause +of it, because it had none for others."</p> +<p>And as Louis' visits to the Mancini lodging became +more and more frequent, each adding a fresh link to +the chain that was binding him to her young sister, +Madame de Soissons saw less and less of him, until +an amused tolerance gave place to a genuine alarm. +It was nothing less than an outrage that she, who had +so long held first place in the King's favour, should +be ousted by a "mere child," the last person in the +world whom she could have thought of as a rival. +But the Comtesse was no woman to be easily +dethroned. Although at every Court ball, fête, or +ballet, Louis was now inseparable from her sister, she +affected to ignore these open slights and lost no +opportunity in public of vaunting her intimacy with +His Majesty, even to the extent on one occasion, as +Mademoiselle records, of taking Louis' seat at a ball +supper and compelling him to share it with her.</p> +<p>But such shameless arrogance only served to +estrange the King still further, and to make him seek +still more the company of the young sister, who had +already captured his heart as the Comtesse had never +captured it. When Louis made his memorable +journey to Lyons to meet the Princess Margaret of +<a name="Page_300"></a>Savoy, it was to Marie that he paid the most +courtly and tender attentions. "During the journey," +says Mademoiselle, "he did not address a +word to the Comtesse de Soissons"; and, indeed, +on more than one occasion he showed a marked +aversion to her.</p> +<p>At St Jean d'Angely, Louis not only himself +escorted Marie to her lodging; he stayed with her +until two o'clock in the morning. "Nothing," her +sister Hortense records, "could equal the passion +which the King showed, and the tenderness with +which he asked of Marie her pardon for all she had +suffered for his sake." It was, indeed, no secret at +Court that he had offered her marriage, and had taken +a solemn vow that neither Margaret of Savoy nor +the Infanta of Spain should be his wife. But, as we +have seen in a previous chapter, both the Queen +and Mazarin were determined that the Infanta +should be Queen of France; and that his foolish +romance with the Mancini girl should be nipped in +the bud.</p> +<p>There was also another powerful influence at work +to thwart his passion for Marie. The indifference +of the Comtesse de Soissons had given place to a fury +of resentment; and she needed no instigation of her +uncle to determine at any cost to recover the place +she had lost in Louis' favour. She brought all her +armoury of coquetry and flatteries to bear on him, +and so far succeeded that, we read, "the King has +resumed his relations with the Comtesse; he has +recommenced to talk and laugh with her; and three +days since he entertained M. and Madame de +<a name="Page_301"></a>Soissons with a ball and a play, and afterwards +they partook of <i>medianoche</i> (a midnight banquet) +together, passing more than three hours in conversation +with them."</p> +<p>Meanwhile Marie, realising the hopelessness of her +passion in face of the opposition of her uncle and the +Queen, and of Louis' approaching marriage to the +Spanish Princess, had given him unequivocally to +understand that their relations must cease, and the +rupture was complete when the Comtesse told the +King of her sister's dallying with Prince Charles of +Lorraine, of their assignations in the Tuileries, of +their mutual infatuation, and of the rumours of an +arranged marriage. "<i>Cela est bien</i>" was all Louis +remarked, but the dark flush of anger that flooded his +face was a sweet reward to the Comtesse for her +treachery.</p> +<p>A few days later her revenge was complete when, +in the King's presence, she rallied her sister on her +low spirits. "You find the time pass slowly when +you are away from Paris," she said; "nor am I +surprised, since you have left your lover there"; to +which Marie answered with a haughty toss of the +head, "That is possible, Madame."</p> +<p>One formidable rival thus removed from her path, +Madame de Soissons was not long left to enjoy her +triumph; for another was quick to take the place +abandoned by the broken-hearted Marie—the beautiful +and gentle La Vallière, who was the next to +acquire an ascendancy over the King's susceptible +heart. Once more the Comtesse, to her undisguised +chagrin, found herself relegated to the background, +<a name="Page_302"></a>to look impotently on while Louis made love to +her +successor, and to meditate new schemes of vengeance. +It was in vain that Louis, by way of amende, +found for her a lover in the Marquis de Vardes, the +most handsome and dissolute of his courtiers, for +whom she soon developed a veritable passion. Her +vanity might be appeased, but her bitterness—the +<i>spretoe injuria formoe</i>—remained; and she lost no +time in plotting further mischief.</p> +<p>With the help of M. de Vardes and the Comte de +Guiche, she sent an anonymous letter to the Queen, +containing a full and intimate account of her husband's +amour with La Vallière—the letter enclosed +in an envelope addressed in the handwriting of the +Queen of Spain. Fortunately for Maria Theresa's +peace of mind the letter fell into the hands of Louis +himself, who was naturally furious at such treachery +and determined to make those responsible for it suffer—when +he should discover them. As, however, the +investigation of the matter was entrusted to de +Vardes, it is needless to say that the culprits escaped +detection.</p> +<p>Madame de Soissons' next attempt to bring about +a rupture between the King and La Vallière, by +bringing forward a rival in the person of the seductive +Mlle de la Motte-Houdancourt, proved equally +futile, when Louis discovered by accident that she +was but a tool in Madame's designing hands; and +for a time the Comtesse was sent in disgrace from +the Court to nurse her jealousy and to devise more +effectual plans of vengeance.</p> +<p>What form these took seems clear from an +<a name="Page_303"></a>investigation held at the close of 1678 into a +supposed +plot to poison the King and the Dauphin—a plot +of which La Voisin, one of the greatest criminals +in history, was suspected of being the ringleader. +During this inquiry La Voisin confessed that the +Comtesse de Soissons had come to her house one +day "and demanded the means of getting rid of Mile +de la Vallière"; and, further, that the Comtesse had +avowed her intention to destroy not only Louis' +mistress, but the King himself.</p> +<p>Such a confession was well calculated to rouse a +storm of indignation in France, where Madame de +Soissons had made many powerful enemies. The +Chambre unanimously demanded her arrest; but +before it could be effected, Madame, stoutly declaring +her innocence, had shaken the dust of Paris off +her feet, and was on her way to Brussels.</p> +<p>During her flight to safety, we are told, "the +principal inns in the towns and villages through which +she passed refused to receive her"; and more than +once she was compelled to sleep on straw and suffer +the insults of the populace, which reviled her as +sorceress and poisoner. "We are assured," Madame +de Sevigné writes, "that the gates of Namur, +Antwerp, and other towns have been closed against +the Countess, the people crying out, 'We want no +poisoner here'!" Even at Brussels, whenever she +ventured into the streets she was assailed by a storm +of insults; and on one occasion, when she entered a +church, "a number of people rushed out, collected +all the black cats they could find, tied their tails +together, and brought them howling and spitting into +<a name="Page_304"></a>the porch, crying out that they were devils who +were +following the Comtesse."</p> +<p>In the face of such chilling hospitality Madame de +Soissons was not tempted to make a long stay in +Brussels; and after a few months of restless wandering +in Flanders and Germany, she drifted to Spain +where she succeeded in ingratiating herself with the +Queen. She found little welcome however from the +King, who, as the French Ambassador to Madrid +wrote, "was warned against her. He accused her of +sorcery, and I learn that, some days ago, he conceived +the idea that, had it not been for a spell she +had cast over him, he would have had children.... +The life of the Comtesse de Soissons consists in +receiving at her house all persons who desire to come +there, from four o'clock in the evening up to two or +three hours after midnight. There is, sire, everything +that can convey an air of familiarity and +contempt for the house of a woman of quality."</p> +<p>That Carlos' suspicions were not without reason +was proved when one day his Queen, after, it is said, +drinking a glass of milk handed to her by the Comtesse, +was taken suddenly ill and expired after three +days of terrible suffering. That she died of poison, +like her mother, the ill-fated sister of our second +Charles, seems probable; but that the poison was +administered by the Comtesse, whose friend and +protectress she was and who had every reason to wish +her well, is less to be believed, in spite of Saint-Simon's +unequivocal accusation. Certainly the +crime was not proved against her; for we find +her still in Spain in the following spring, when +<a name="Page_305"></a>Carlos, his patience exhausted, ordered her to +leave +the country.</p> +<p>After a short stay in Portugal and Germany, +Madame de Soissons was back in Brussels, where +she spent the brief remainder of her days—"all the +French of distinction who visited the City" (to quote +Saint-Simon) "being strictly forbidden to visit her." +Here, on the 9th October, 1690, her beauty but a +memory, bankrupt in reputation, friendless and poor, +the curtain fell on the life so full of mis-used gifts and +baffled ambitions.</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 35%;"> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a> +<h2><a name="Page_306"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2> +<h2>AN ILL-FATED MARRIAGE</h2> +<br> +<p>Few Kings have come to their thrones under such +brilliant auspices as Milan I. of Servia; few have +abandoned their crowns to the greater relief of their +subjects, or have been followed to their exile by so +much hatred. But a fortnight before Milan's accession, +his cousin and predecessor, Prince Michael, +had been foully done to death by hired assassins as +he was walking in the park of Topfschider, with three +ladies of his Court; and the murdered man had been +placed in a carriage, sitting upright as in life, and +had been driven back to his palace through the +respectful greetings of his subjects, who little knew +that they were saluting a corpse.</p> +<p>There was good reason for this mockery of death, +for Prince Alexander Karageorgevitch had long set +ambitious eyes on the crown of Servia, and resolved +to wrest it by fair means or foul from the boy-heir to +the throne; and it was of the highest importance that +Michael's death, which he had so brutally planned, +should be concealed from him until the succession +had been secured to his young rival, Milan. And +thus it was that, before Karageorgevitch could bring +<a name="Page_307"></a>his plotting to the head of achievement, Milan +was +hailed with acclamation as Servia's new Prince, and, +on the 23rd June, 1868, made his triumphal entry +into Belgrade to the jubilant ringing of bells and the +thunderous cheers of the people.</p> +<p>Twelve days later, Belgrade was <i>en fête</i> for his +crowning, her streets ablaze with bunting and floral +decorations, as the handsome boy made his way +through the tumults of cheers and avenues of +fluttering handkerchiefs to the Metropolitan Church. +The men, we are told, "took off their cloaks and +placed them under his feet, that he might walk on +them; they clustered round him, kissing his garments, +and blessing him as their very own; they +worshipped his handsome face and loved his boyish +smile." And when his young voice rang clearly out +in the words, "I promise you that I shall, to my +dying day, preserve faithfully the honour and integrity +of Servia, and shall be ready to shed the last +drop of my blood to defend its rights," there was +scarcely one of the enthusiastic thousands that heard +him who would not have been willing to lay down his +life for the idolised Prince.</p> +<p>It was by strange paths that the fourteen-year-old +Milan had thus come to his Principality. The +son of Jefrenn Obrenovitch, uncle of the reigning +Michael, he was cradled one August day in 1854, +his mother being Marie Catargo, of the powerful +race of Roumanian "Hospodars," a woman of strong +passions and dissolute life. When her temper and infidelities +had driven her husband to the drinking that +put a premature end to his days, Marie transferred +<a name="Page_308"></a>her affection, without the sanction of a +wedding-ring, +to Prince Kusa, a man of as evil repute as +herself. In such a home and with such guardians +her only child, Milan, the future ruler of Servia, +spent the early years of his life—ill-fed, neglected, +and supremely wretched.</p> +<p>Thus it was that, when Prince Michael summoned +the boy to Belgrade, in order to make the acquaintance +of his successor, he was horrified to see an +uncouth lad, as devoid of manners and of education +as any in the slums of his capital. The heir to the +throne could neither read nor write; the only language +he spoke was a debased Roumanian, picked +up from the servants who had been his only associates, +while of the land over which he was to rule one +day he knew absolutely nothing. The only hope for +him was his extreme youth—he was at the time only +twelve years old—and Michael lost no time in +having him trained for the high station he was +destined to fill.</p> +<p>The progress the boy made was amazing. Within +two years he was unrecognisable as the half-savage +who had so shocked the Court of Belgrade. +He could speak the Servian tongue with fluency and +grace; he had acquired elegance of manners and +speech, and a winning courtesy of manner which to +his last day was his most marked characteristic; he +had mastered many accomplishments, and he excelled +in most manly exercises, from riding to swimming. +And to all this remarkable promise the +finishing touches were put by a visit to Paris under +the tutorship of a courtly and learned professor.</p> +<p><a name="Page_309"></a>Thus when, within two years of his +emancipation, +he came to his crown, the uncouth lad from Roumania +had blossomed into a Prince as goodly to look +on as any Europe could show—a handsome boy of +courtly graces and accomplishments, able to converse +in several languages, and singularly equipped in all +ways to win the homage of the simple people over +whom he had been so early called to rule. As +Mrs Gerard says, "They idolised their boy-Prince. +Every day they stood in long, closely packed lines +watching to see him come out of the castle to ride or +drive; as he passed along, smiling affectionately on +his people, blessings were showered on him. There +was, however, another side to this picture of devotion. +There were those who hated the boy because +he had thwarted their plans." And this hatred, as +persistent as it was malignant, was to follow him +throughout his reign, and through his years of +unhappy exile, to his grave.</p> +<p>But these days were happily still remote. After +four years of minority and Regency, when he was +able to take the reins of government into his own +hands, his empire over the hearts of his subjects +was more firmly based than ever. His youth, his +modesty, and his compelling charm of manner made +friends for him wherever his wanderings took him, +from Paris to Constantinople. He was the "Prince +Charming" of Europe, as popular abroad as he was +idolised at home; and when the time arrived to find +a consort for him he might, one would have thought, +have been able to pick and choose among the fairest +Princesses of the Continent.</p> +<p><a name="Page_310"></a>But handsome and gallant and popular as he +was, +the overtures of his ministers were coldly received +by one Royal house after another. Milan might be +a reigning Prince and a charming one to boot, but it +was not forgotten that the first of his line had been a +common herdsman, and the blood of Hapsburgs and +Hohenzollerns could not be allowed to mingle with +so base a strain. Even a mere Hungarian Count, +whose fair daughter had caught Milan's fancy, +frowned on the suit of the swineherd's successor. +But fate had already chosen a bride for the young +Prince, who was more than equal in birth to any +Count's daughter; who would bring beauty and +riches as her portion; and who, after many unhappy +years, was to crown her dower with tragedy.</p> +<p>It was at Nice, where Prince Milan was spending +the winter months of 1875, that he first set eyes on +the woman whose life was to be so tragically linked +with his own. Among the visitors there was the +family of a Russian colonel, Nathaniel Ketschko, a +man of high lineage and great wealth. He claimed, +in fact, descent from the Royal race of Comnenus, +which had given many a King to the thrones of +Europe, and whose sons for long centuries had won +fame as generals, statesmen, and ambassadors. And +to this exalted strain was allied enormous wealth, of +which the Colonel's share was represented by a regal +revenue of four hundred thousand roubles a year.</p> +<p>But proud as he was of his birth and his riches, +Colonel Nathaniel was still prouder of his two lovely +daughters, each of whom had inherited in liberal +measure the beauty of their mother, a daughter of +<a name="Page_311"></a>the princely house of Stourza; and of the two +the +more beautiful, by common consent, was Natalie, +whose charms won this spontaneous tribute from +Tsar Nicholas, when first he saw her, "I would I +were a beggar that I might every day ask your alms, +and have the happiness of kissing your hand." She +had, says one who knew her in her radiant youth, +"an irresistible charm that permeated her whole +being with such a harmony of grace, sweetness, and +overpowering attraction that one felt drawn to her +with magnetic force; and to adore her seemed the +most natural and indeed the only position."</p> +<p>Such was the high tribute paid to Servia's future +Queen at the first dawning of that beauty which was +to make her also Queen of all the fair women of +Europe, and which at its zenith was thus described +by one who saw her at Wiesbaden ten years or so +later: "She walked along the promenade with a +light, graceful movement; her feet hardly seemed to +touch the ground, her figure was elegant, her finely +cut face was lit up by those wonderful eyes, once +seen never forgotten—brilliant, tender, loving; her +luxuriant hair of raven black was loosely coiled +round the well-set head, or fell in curls on the beautifully +arched neck. For each one she had a pleasant +smile, a gracious bow, or a few words, spoken in a +musical voice." No wonder the Germans, who +looked at this apparition of grace and beauty, +"simply fell down and adored her."</p> +<p>Such was the vision of beauty of which Prince +Milan caught his first glimpse on the promenade at +Nice in the winter of 1875, and which haunted him, +<a name="Page_312"></a>day and night, until chance brought their paths +together again, and he won her consent to share his +throne. That such a high destiny awaited her, +Natalie had already been told by a gipsy whom she +met one day in the woods of her father's estate near +Moscow—a meeting of which the following story +is told.</p> +<p>At sight of the beautiful young girl the gipsy +stooped in homage and kissed the hem of her dress. +"Why do you do that?" asked Natalie, half in +alarm and half in pleasure. "Because," the woman +answered, "I salute you as the chosen bride of a +great Prince. Over your head I see a crown floating +in the air. It descends lower and lower until it +rests on your head. A dazzling brilliance adorns the +crown; it is a Royal diadem."</p> +<p>"What else?" asked Natalie eagerly, her face +flushed with excitement and delight. "Oh! do tell +me more, please!" "What more shall I say," +continued the gipsy, "except that you will be a +Queen, and the mother of a King; but then—"</p> +<p>"But then, what? "exclaimed the eager and impatient +girl; "do go on, please. What then?" and +she held out a gold coin temptingly. "I see a large +house; you will be there, but—take care; you will +be turned out by force.... And now give me +the coin and let me go. More I must not tell you."</p> +<p>Such were the dazzling and mysterious words +spoken by the gipsy woman in the Russian forest, a +year or more before Natalie first saw the Prince who +was destined to make them true. But it was not at +Nice that opportunity came to Milan. It was an +<a name="Page_313"></a>accidental meeting in Paris, some months later, +that +made his path clear. During a visit to the French +capital he met a young Servian officer, a distant +kinsman, one Alexander Konstantinovitch, who +confided to him, over their wine and cigarettes, the +story of his infatuation for the daughter of a Russian +colonel, who at the time was staying with her aunt, +the Princess Murussi. He raved of her beauty and +her charm, and concluded by asking the Prince to +accompany him that he might make the acquaintance +of the Lieutenant's bride-to-be.</p> +<p>Arrived at their destination, the Prince and his +companion were graciously received by the Princess +Murussi, but Milan had no eyes for the dignified +lady who gave him such a flattering reception; they +were drawn as by a magnet to the girl by her side—"a +child with a woman's grace and an angel's soul +smiling in her eyes"; the incarnation of his dreams, +the very girl whose beauty, though he had caught +but one passing glimpse of it, had so intoxicated his +brain a few months earlier at Nice.</p> +<p>"Allow me," said the Lieutenant, "to introduce to +Your Highness Natalie Ketschko, my affianced wife." +Milan's face flushed with surprise and anger at the +words. What was this trick that had been played +on him? Had Konstantinovitch then brought him +here only to humiliate him? But before he could +recover from his indignation and astonishment, the +Princess said chillingly, "Pardon me, Monsieur +Konstantinovitch, you are not speaking the truth. +My niece, Colonel Ketschko's daughter, is not your +affianced wife. You are too premature."</p> +<p><a name="Page_314"></a>Thus rebuffed, the Lieutenant was not +encouraged +to prolong his stay; and Milan was left, reassured, +to bask in the smiles of the Princess and her lovely +niece, and to pursue his wooing under the most +favourable auspices. This first visit was quickly +followed by others; and before a week had passed the +Prince had won the prize on which his heart was set, +and with it a dower of five million roubles. Now +followed halcyon days for the young lovers—long +hours of sweet communion, of anticipation of the +happy years that stretched in such a golden vista +before them. It was a love-idyll such as delighted +the romantic heart of Paris; and congratulations and +presents poured on the young couple; "the very +beggars in the streets," we are told, "blessing them +as they drove by."</p> +<p>"Happy is the wooing that is not long a-doing," +and Milan's wooing was as brief as it was blissful. +He was all impatience to possess fully the prize he +had won; preparations for the nuptials were hastened, +but, before the crowning day dawned, once +more the voice of warning spoke.</p> +<p>A few days before the wedding, as Milan was +leaving the Murussi Palace, he was accosted by a +woman, who craved permission to speak to him, a +favour which was smilingly accorded. "I know +you," said the woman, thus permitted to speak, +"although you do not know me. You are the Prince +of Servia; I am a servant in the household of the +Princess Murussi. Your Highness, listen! I love +Natalie. I have known and loved her since she was +a child; and I beg of you not to marry her. Such a +<a name="Page_315"></a>union is doomed to unhappiness. You love to +rule, +to command. So does Natalie; and it is <i>she</i> who +will be the ruler. You are utterly unsuited for each +other, and nothing but great unhappiness can possibly +come from your union."</p> +<p>To this warning Milan turned a smiling face and +a deaf ear, as Natalie had done to the voice of the +gipsy. A fig for such gloomy prophecy! They +were ideally happy in the present, and the future +should be equally bright, however ravens might +croak. Thus, one October day in 1875, Vienna +held high holiday for the nuptials of the handsome +Prince and his beautiful bride; and it was through +avenues densely packed with cheering onlookers that +Natalie made her triumphal progress to the altar, in +her flower-garlanded dress of white satin, a tiara of +diamonds flashing from the blackness of her hair, no +brighter than the brilliance of her eyes, her face +irradiated with happiness.</p> +<p>That no Royalty graced their wedding was a +matter of no moment to Milan and Natalie, whose +happiness was thus crowned; and when at the +subsequent banquet Milan said, "I wish from my +very heart that every one of my subjects, as well as +everybody I know, could be always as happy as I am +this moment," none who heard him could doubt the +sincerity of his words, or see any but a golden future +for so ideal a union of hearts.</p> +<p>By Servia her young Princess was received with +open arms of welcome. "Her reception," we are +told, "was beyond description. The festivities +lasted three days, and during that time the love of +<a name="Page_316"></a>the people for their Prince, and their +admiration of +the beauty and charm of his bride, were beyond +words to describe." Never did Royal wedded life +open more full of bright promise, and never did +consort make more immediate conquest of the affections +of her husband's subjects. "No one could +have believed that this marriage, which was contracted +from love and love alone, would have ended +in so tragic a manner, or that hate could so quickly +have taken the place of love."</p> +<p>But the serpent was quick to show his head in +Natalie's new paradise. Before she had been many +weeks a wife, stories came to her ears of her husband's +many infidelities. Now the story was of one +lady of her Court, now of another, until the horrified +Princess knew not whom to trust or to respect. +Strange tales, too, came to her (mostly anonymously) +of Milan's amours in Paris, in Vienna, and half a +dozen of his other haunts of pleasure, until her love, +poisoned at its very springing, turned to suspicion +and distrust of the man to whom she had given +her heart.</p> +<p>Other disillusions were quick to follow. She discovered +that her husband was a hopeless gambler +and spendthrift, spending long hours daily at the +card-tables, watching with pale face and trembling +lips his pile of gold dwindle (as it usually did) to +its last coin; and often losing at a single sitting a +month's revenue from the Civil List. Her own +dowry of five million roubles, she knew, was safe +from his clutches. Her father had taken care to +make that secure, but Milan's private fortune, large +<a name="Page_317"></a>as it had been, had already been squandered in +this and other forms of dissipation; and even the +expenses of his wedding, she learned, had been +met by a loan raised at ruinous interest.</p> +<p>Such discoveries as these were well calculated to +shatter the dreams of the most infatuated of brides, +and less was sufficient to rouse Natalie's proud spirit +to rebellion. When affectionate pleadings proved +useless, reproaches took their place. Heated words +were exchanged, and the records tell of many violent +scenes before Natalie had been six months Princess +of Servia. "You love to rule," the warning voice +had told Milan—"to command. So does Natalie"; +and already the clashing of strong wills and imperious +tempers, which must end in the yielding of one +or the other, had begun to be heard.</p> +<p>If more fuel had been needed to feed the flames of +dissension, it was quickly supplied by two unfortunate +incidents. The first was Milan's open dallying +with Fräulein S——, one of Natalie's maids-of-honour, +a girl almost as beautiful as herself, but with +the <i>beauté de diable</i>. The second was the appearance +in Belgrade of Dimitri Wasseljevitchca, who +was suspected of plotting to assassinate the Tsar. +Russia demanded that the fugitive should be given +up to justice, and enlisted Natalie's co-operation with +this object. Milan, however, was resolute not to +surrender the plotter, and turned a deaf ear to all +the Princess's pleadings and cajoleries. "The most +exciting scene followed. Natalie, abandoning entreaties, +threatened and even commanded her husband +to obey her"; and when threats and commands +<a name="Page_318"></a>equally failed, she gave way to a paroxysm of +rage +in which she heaped the most unbridled scorn and +contempt on her husband.</p> +<p>Thus jealousy, a thwarted will, and Milan's low +pleasures combined to widen the breach between the +Royal couple, so recently plighted to each other in +the sacred name of love, and to prepare the way for +the troubled and tragic years to come.</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 35%;"> +<a name="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a> +<h2><a name="Page_319"></a>CHAPTER XXIX</h2> +<h2>AN ILL-FATED MARRIAGE—<i>continued</i></h2> +<br> +<p>If anything could have restored happiness to +Milan of Servia and his Princess, Natalie, it should +surely have been the birth of the baby-Prince, +Alexander, whom both equally adored and equally +spoiled. But, instead of linking his parents in a new +bond of affection "Sacha" was from his cradle +the innocent cause of widening the breach that +severed them.</p> +<p>For a time, fortunately, Milan had little opportunity +of continuing the feud of recrimination with +his high-spirited and hot-tempered spouse. More +serious matters claimed him. Servia was plunged +into war with Turkey, and his days were spent in +camp and on the battlefield, until the intervention of +Russia put an end to the long and hopeless struggle, +and Milan found himself one February day in 1882, +thanks to the Berlin Conference, hailed the first King +of his country, under the title of Milan I.</p> +<p>Then followed a disastrous war with Bulgaria into +which the headstrong King rushed in spite of +Natalie's warning—"Draw back, Milan, and have +no share in what will prove a bloody drama. You +have no chance of conquering, for Alexander is made +<a name="Page_320"></a>of the stuff of the Hohenzollerns." And indeed +the +struggle was doomed to failure from the first; for +Milan was no man to lead an army to victory. Read +his method of conducting a campaign, as described +by one of his aides-de-camp—</p> +<p>"Our troops continue to retreat—I never imagined +a campaign could be so jolly. We do nothing but +dance and sing and fiddle. Yesterday the King had +some guests and the champagne literally flowed. We +had the Belgrade singers, who used to delight us in +the theatre-café. They sang and danced delightfully. +The last two days we have had plenty of fun, and +yesterday a lot of jolly girls came to enliven us." +Such was Milan's method of conducting a great war, +on which the very existence of his kingdom hung. +Wine and women and song were more to his taste +than forced marches, strategy, and hard-fought +battles. But once again foreign intervention came +to his rescue; and his armies were saved from +annihilation.</p> +<p>When his sword was finally sheathed, if not with +honour, he returned to Belgrade to resume his +gambling, his dallyings with fair women—and his +daily quarrels with his Queen, whose bitterness +absence had done nothing to assuage. So far from +Natalie's spirit being crushed, it was higher and +prouder than ever. She would die before she would +yield; but she was in no mood to die, this autocratic, +fiery-tempered, strong-willed daughter of Russia. +She gave literally a "striking" proof of the spirit that +was in her at the Easter reception of 1886, when the +wife of a Greek diplomat—a beautiful woman, to +<a name="Page_321"></a>whom her husband had been more than +kind—presented +herself smilingly to receive the "salute +courteous" from Her Majesty. With a look of +scorn Natalie coolly surveyed her rival from head +to foot; and then, in the presence of the Court, gave +her a resounding slap on the cheek.</p> +<p>But the Grecian lady was only one of many fair +women who basked successively (or together) in +Milan's favour. A much more formidable rival was +Artemesia Christich, a woman as designing as she +was lovely, who was quick to envelop the weak King +in the toils of her witchery. Not content with his +smiles and favours she aspired to take Natalie's place +as Queen of Servia; and, it is said, had extorted from +him a promise that he would make her his Queen as +soon as his existing marriage tie could be dissolved. +And to this infamous compact Artemesia's husband, +a man as crafty and unscrupulous as herself, consented, +in return for his promotion to certain high and +profitable offices in the State.</p> +<p>In vain did the Emperor and the Crown Prince of +Austria, with many another high-placed friend, plead +with Milan not to commit such a folly. He was +driven to distraction between such powerful appeals +and the allurement of the siren who had him so +effectually under her spell, until in his despair he +entertained serious thoughts of suicide as escape from +his dilemma. Meanwhile, we are told, "a perfect +hell" raged in the castle; each day brought its +scandalous scene between his outraged Queen and +himself. His unpopularity with his subjects became +so acute that he was hissed whenever he made his +<a name="Page_322"></a>appearance in the streets of his capital; and +Artemesia +was obliged to have police protection to shield +her from the vengeance of the mob.</p> +<p>As for Natalie, this crowning injury decided her to +bear her purgatory no longer. She would force her +husband to abdicate and secure her own appointment +as Regent for her son; or, failing that, she would +leave her husband and seek an asylum out of Servia. +And with the object of still further embittering his +subjects against the King she made the full story of +her injuries public, and enlisted the sympathy, not +only of Milan's most powerful ministers, but of the +entire country.</p> +<p>"The castle is in utter confusion," wrote an +officer of the Belgrade garrison, in October, 1886. +"The King looks ill, and as if he never slept. Poor +fellow! he flies for refuge to us in the guard-house, +and plays cards with the officers. Card-playing is +his worst enemy. He loves it passionately, and +plays excitedly and for high points—and he always +loses."</p> +<p>Matters were now hastening to a crisis. Hopelessly +in debt, scorned by his subjects, and hated by +his wife, Milan's plight was pitiful. The scenes +between the King and the Queen were becoming +more violent and disgraceful every day. "There +was no peace anywhere, nor did anyone belonging +to the Court enjoy a moment of tranquillity." So +intolerable had life become that, early in 1887, Milan +decided to dissolve his marriage; and it was only at +the pleading of the Austrian Emperor that he consented +to abandon this design, on condition that his +<a name="Page_323"></a>wife left Servia; and thus it was that one day +in April +Queen Natalie left Belgrade, accompanied by her +son "Sacha," ostensibly that he might continue his +education in Germany.</p> +<p>But, although husband and wife were thus at last +separated, Milan's resolve to divorce her remained +firm. "I have to inform you," he wrote shortly after +her departure, "that I have this day sent in my +application to our Holy National Church for permission +to dissolve our marriage." And that nothing +might be lacking to Natalie's suffering and humiliation, +he sent General Protitsch to Wiesbaden with a +peremptory demand that his son, "Sacha," should +return to Servia.</p> +<p>In vain did Natalie protest against both indignities. +Milan might divorce her; but at least he should not +rob her of her son, the only solace left to her in life. +And when General Protitsch, seeing that milder +measures were futile, gave orders for the Prince to +be removed by force, the distracted mother flung one +protecting arm round her boy; and, pointing a loaded +pistol with the other, threatened to shoot dead the +man who dared approach her.</p> +<p>Opposition, however, was futile; the following +evening the boy-Prince was in his father's arms, and +the weeping mother was left disconsolate. Thus +robbed of her darling "Sacha," it was not long before +the second blow fell. The divorce proceedings were +rushed through the Synod. A deaf ear was turned +to Natalie's petition to be allowed, at least, to defend +herself in person; and on the 12th October, 1888, +the "marriage between King Milan I. and Natalie, +<a name="Page_324"></a>born Ketschko," was formally dissolved. Well +might this most unhappy of Queens write, "The +position is embittered by my conscience assuring me +that I have neglected no duty, and that there is not +a single action of my life which could be cited against +me as a grave offence, or could put me to shame were +it brought before the whole world. My fate should +draw tears from the very stones; but I do not ask for +pity; I demand justice."</p> +<p>If anything could have increased Milan's unpopularity +it was this brutal treatment of his Queen. The +very men who, at his coronation, had taken off their +cloaks that he might walk on them, and the women +who had kissed his garments, now hissed him in the +streets of his capital. In his own Court he had no +friend except the infamous Christitch; the general +hatred even took the form of repeated attempts on his +life. If he would save it, he realised he must abandon +his crown; and one March morning in 1889, +after informing his ministers of his intention to +abdicate, he awoke his twelve-year-old son with the +greeting, "Good morning, Your Majesty!" Milan +was no longer King of Servia; his son, Alexander, +reigned in his stead.</p> +<p>Probably no King ever laid down his crown more +willingly. He had put aside for ever his Royal +trappings, with all their unhappy memories, and their +present discomforts and danger; but in distant Paris +he knew a life of new pleasure awaited him, remote +from the wranglings of Courts and the assassin's +knife. And within a week of greeting his successor +as King, he was gaily riding in the Bois, attending +<a name="Page_325"></a>the theatres, supping hilariously with ladies of +the +ballet, or dining with his friends at Verrey's "where +his somewhat rough manner and coarse jokes (the +legacy of his swineherd ancestry) caused him sometimes +to be mistaken for a parvenu," until a waiter +would correct the impression by a whispered, +"That gentleman with the dark moustache is Milan, +ex-King of Servia."</p> +<p>While her husband was thus drinking the cup of +Paris pleasure, his wife was still doomed to exile from +her kingdom and her son, with permission only to +pay two brief visits each year. But Natalie, who +had so long defied a King, was not the woman to be +daunted by mere Regents. She would return to +Belgrade, and at least make her home where she +could catch an occasional glimpse of her boy. And +to Belgrade she went, to make her entry over flower-strewn +streets, and through a tornado of cheers and +shouts of "Zivela Rufe!" It was a truly Royal +welcome to the great warm heart of the Servian +people; but no official of the Court was there to greet +her coming, and as she drove past the castle which +held all she counted dear in life, not even the flutter +of a handkerchief marked the passing of Servia's +former Queen.</p> +<p>Had she but played her cards now with the least +discretion, she might have been allowed to remain +in Belgrade in peace. But Natalie seems fated to +have been the harbinger of storm. For a time, it is +true, she was content to lie <i>perdue</i>, entertaining her +friends at her house in Prince Michael Street, driving +through the streets of her capital behind her pair of +<a name="Page_326"></a>white ponies, or walking with her pet goat for +companion, +greeted everywhere with respect and affection. +But her restless, vengeful spirit, still burning +from the indignities she had suffered, would not +allow her to remain long in the background. She +threw herself into political agitation, and thus +brought herself into open conflict with the Regents; +she inaugurated a campaign of abuse against her +husband, whom she still pursued with a relentless +hatred; and generally made herself so objectionable +to the authorities that the Skupshtina was at last +compelled to order her banishment.</p> +<p>When the deputies presented themselves before +her with the decree of expulsion, she laughed in their +very faces, declaring that she would only submit to +force. "I refuse to go," she said defiantly, "unless +I am expelled by the hands of the police." A few +hours later she was forcibly removed from her weeping +and protesting ladies, hurried into a carriage, and +driven off, with a strong escort of soldiers, on her +journey to exile.</p> +<p>But the good people of Belgrade, who had got +wind of the proposed abduction, were by no means +disposed to look on while their beloved Queen was +thus brutally taken from them. When the cortège +reached the Cathedral Square, it was stopped by a +formidable and menacing mob; the escort, furiously +assailed with sticks and showers of stones, was beaten +off; the horses were taken from the carriage, and the +Queen was drawn back in triumph by scores of willing +hands, to her residence.</p> +<p>Natalie's victory, however, was short-lived. At +<a name="Page_327"></a>midnight, when her stalwart champions were +sleeping +in their beds, the police, crawling over the roofs of +the houses in Prince Michael Street, and descending +into the Queen's courtyard, found it a very simple +matter to complete their dastardly work. The Queen +was again bundled unceremoniously into a carriage, +and before Belgrade was well awake, she was far on +her way to her new exile in Hungary. A few days +later a formal decree of banishment was pronounced +against her, forbidding her, under any pretext whatever, +to enter Servia again without the Regent's +permission.</p> +<p>Only once more did Natalie and Milan set eyes on +each other—when the ex-King presented himself at +Biarritz, to bring her news of their son's projected +<i>coup d'état</i>, by which he designed to depose the +Regents and to take the reins of government into his +own hands. Taken by surprise, the Queen received +Milan, but when she saw him standing before her, an +aged, broken man, her composure gave way. She +could not speak; she trembled like a leaf.</p> +<p>With Alexander's dramatic accession to his full +Kingship a new, if brief, era of happiness opened to +Natalie. The Regents were no longer able to +exclude her from Servia, and by her son's invitation +she returned to Belgrade to resume her old position +of Queen.</p> +<p>Still beautiful, in spite of all her suffering, she +played for a time the rôle of Queen-mother to perfection, +holding her Courts, presiding at balls and +soirées, taking a prominent part in affairs of State, and +gradually acquiring more power than her easy-going +<a name="Page_328"></a>son himself enjoyed. At last, after long years +of +unrest and unhappiness, she seemed assured of +peaceful years, secure in the affection of her son and +her people, and far removed from the husband who +had brought so much misery into her life.</p> +<p>But Natalie was fated never to be happy long, and +once more her evil Destiny was to snatch the cup from +her lips, assuming this time the form of Draga +Maschin, one of her own ladies-in-waiting, under the +spell of whose black eyes and voluptuous charms her +son quickly fell, after that first dramatic incident at +Biarritz, when she plunged into the sea to his rescue +and saved him from drowning.</p> +<p>Many months earlier a clairvoyante at Paris had +told Natalie, "Your Majesty is cherishing in your +bosom a poisonous snake, which one day will give +you a mortal wound." She had smiled incredulously +at the warning, but she was soon to learn what truth +it held. Certainly Draga Maschin was the last +person she would have suspected of being a source +of danger—a woman many years older than her son, +the penniless widow of a drunken engineer—a +woman, moreover, of whose life, before Natalie had +taken pity on her poverty, many strange stories were +told—how, for instance, she had often been seen in +low resorts, "with the arm of a forester or a tradesman +round her, singing the old Servian songs."</p> +<p>But she had not taken into account Draga's +sensuous beauty, before which her son was powerless. +Each meeting left him more and more involved +in her toils, until, to the consternation of +Servia and the horror of his mother, he announced +<a name="Page_329"></a>his intention of making her his Queen. Even +Milan, degraded as he was, was horror-struck when +the news came to him in Paris. "And this," he +exclaimed, "is the act of 'Sacha'—my own son. He +is a monster, a thing of evil in the eyes of all men! +The Maschin will be Queen of Servia. What a +reproach! What an evil! A creature like her! A +sordid creature! Could he not have put aside his +love for this low-born woman? But I could never +make the fool understand that a King has duties; he +has something else to think of but love-making."</p> +<p>When taking leave of the friend who had brought +him this evil news Milan said, "I shall never see +Servia again. My experience has been a bitter one—everywhere +treachery and deceit. And now my +own son—<i>that</i> has broken my heart." A few +months later, worn out by his excesses, prematurely +old and broken-hearted, the man who had prostituted +life's best gifts drew his last breath at Vienna at the +age of forty-six.</p> +<p>As for Natalie, this crowning calamity of her son's +disgrace did more than all her past sufferings to +crush her proud spirit. But fate had not yet dealt +the last and most cruel blow of all. That fell on that +fatal June day of 1902 when her beloved "Sacha's" +mutilated body was flung by his assassins out of his +palace window, to be greeted with shouts of derisive +laughter and cries of "Long live King Peter," from +the dense crowds who had come to gloat over this last +scene in the tragedy of the House of the Obrenvoie.</p> +<hr style="height: 2px; width: 45%;"> +<a name="INDEX"></a> +<h2>INDEX</h2> +Agenois, Duc, d', <a href="#Page_284">284</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a><br> +Aissé, Mlle, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>-<a href="#Page_224">224</a><br> +Albany, Count of, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>-<a href="#Page_20">20</a><br> + " Countess +of, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>-<a href="#Page_22">22</a><br> +Alberoni, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_184">184</a><br> +Alexander, King of Servia, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>-<a + href="#Page_329">329</a><br> +Alexander III., of Russia, <a href="#Page_93">93</a><br> +Alexis, Tsarevitch, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a><br> +Alfieri, Vittorio, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>-<a href="#Page_22">22</a><br> +Anjou, Duc d', <a href="#Page_59">59</a><br> +Anna, Empress, <a href="#Page_26">26</a><br> +Anne of Austria, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, +<a href="#Page_164">164</a><br> +Arcimbaldo, <a href="#Page_92">92</a><br> +Aubigné, Constant d', <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a + href="#Page_241">241</a><br> + +" Françoise d', <a + href="#Page_240">240</a>-<a href="#Page_247">247</a><br> +Audouins, Diane d', <a href="#Page_37">37</a><br> +Augustus, of Saxony, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>-<a href="#Page_102">102</a><br> +Austin, William, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a><br> +Auvergne, Comte d', <a href="#Page_235">235</a><br> +<br> +Babou, Françoise, <a href="#Page_35">35</a><br> +Baireuth, Margravine of, <a href="#Page_7">7</a><br> +Baratinski, Prince, <a href="#Page_155">155</a><br> +Barry, Guillaume du, <a href="#Page_47">47</a><br> + " Jean du, <a + href="#Page_47">47</a><br> + " Madame du, <a + href="#Page_47">47</a>-<a href="#Page_54">54</a><br> +Bavaria, Elizabeth of, <a href="#Page_215">215</a><br> +Beaufort, Duchesse de, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>-<a href="#Page_44">44</a><br> +Beauharnais, Eugène, <a href="#Page_135">135</a><br> + " + Hortense, <a href="#Page_135">135</a><br> + +" +Josephine, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>-<a href="#Page_137">137</a><br> +Beauvallon, <a href="#Page_143">143</a><br> +Bécu, Jeanne, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>-<a href="#Page_54">54</a><br> +Bellegarde, Count di, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>-<a href="#Page_206">206</a><br> + +" Duc de, <a + href="#Page_37">37</a>-<a href="#Page_39">39</a><br> +Berry, Duc de, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>-<a href="#Page_61">61</a><br> + " Duchesse de, <a + href="#Page_55">55</a>-<a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, +<a href="#Page_217">217</a><br> +Bestyouzhev, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a><br> +Beuchling, <a href="#Page_98">98</a><br> +Blanguini, <a href="#Page_111">111</a><br> +Blois, Mlle de, <a href="#Page_56">56</a><br> +Bonaparte, Elisa, <a href="#Page_104">104</a><br> + +" Letizia, <a + href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a><br> + +" Napoleon, <a + href="#Page_104">104</a>-<a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a + href="#Page_127">127</a>-<a href="#Page_137">137</a><br> +Bonaparte, Pauline, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>-<a href="#Page_113">113</a><br> +Bonaventuri, Pietro, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>-<a href="#Page_175">175</a><br> +"Bonnie Prince," <a href="#Page_13">13</a>-<a href="#Page_22">22</a><br> +Borghese, Prince Camillo, <a href="#Page_110">110</a><br> +Borghese, Princess Pauline, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>-<a + href="#Page_113">113</a><br> +Bossi, Giuseppe, <a href="#Page_205">205</a><br> +Bourgogne, Duc de, <a href="#Page_59">59</a><br> + +" Duchesse de, <a + href="#Page_181">181</a><br> +Brissac, Duc de, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>-<a href="#Page_53">53</a><br> +Bristol, Lord, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a><br> +Brougham, <a href="#Page_212">212</a><br> +Brunswick, Augusta, Duchess of, <a href="#Page_194">194</a><br> +Brunswick, Charles Wm., Duke of, <a href="#Page_194">194</a><br> +Byron, Lord, <a href="#Page_138">138</a><br> +<br> +Campbell, Lady Charlotte, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a + href="#Page_194">194</a><br> +Campredon, <a href="#Page_249">249</a><br> +Capello, Bartolomeo, <a href="#Page_172">172</a><br> + " Bianca, <a + href="#Page_169">169</a>-<a href="#Page_179">179</a><br> +Carlos, King of Spain, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a + href="#Page_305">305</a>.<br> +Caroline, Princess of Wales, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>-<a + href="#Page_202">202</a><br> +Caroline, Queen of Naples, <a href="#Page_120">120</a><br> +Catargo, Marie, <a href="#Page_307">307</a><br> +Catherine I., of Russia, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>-<a href="#Page_12">12</a>, +<a href="#Page_23">23</a><br> +Catherine II., of Russia, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a + href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, +<a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a + href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>-<a + href="#Page_158">158</a><br> +Charles V., Emperor, <a href="#Page_88">88</a><br> +Charles VII., Emperor, <a href="#Page_29">29</a><br> +Charles IX., King of France, <a href="#Page_227">227</a><br> +Charles, Monsieur, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a><br> +Charlotte, Princess, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, +<a href="#Page_211">211</a><br> +Charlotte, Queen, <a href="#Page_197">197</a><br> +Chartres, Duc de, <a href="#Page_56">56</a><br> +Chateauroux, Duchesse de, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>-<a + href="#Page_293">293</a><br> +Christian II, of Denmark, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>-<a href="#Page_92">92</a><br> +Christich, Artemesia, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a><br> +Clary, Desirée, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a + href="#Page_127">127</a><br> +Colonna, Prince, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">" + Princess, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a + href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a></span><br> +Cosse, Louis, Duc de, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>-<a href="#Page_50">50</a><br> +<br> +Domanski, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>-<a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a + href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a><br> +Douglas, Lady, <a href="#Page_200">200</a><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">" Sir +John, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></span><br> +Dubois, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a><br> +Dujarrier, M., <a href="#Page_143">143</a><br> +Dyveke, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>-<a href="#Page_89">89</a><br> +<br> +Elizabeth I., of Russia, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>-<a href="#Page_32">32</a>, +<a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a + href="#Page_153">153</a><br> +"Elizabeth II." of Russia, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a + href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a><br> +Embs, Baron von, <a href="#Page_67">67</a><br> +Emilie, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a><br> +Encke, Charlotte, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" Wilhelmine, <a + href="#Page_114">114</a>-<a href="#Page_126">126</a></span><br> +Entragues, Henriette d', <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a + href="#Page_227">227</a>-<a href="#Page_237">237</a><br> +Entragues, Seigneur d', <a href="#Page_227">227</a>, <a + href="#Page_229">229</a><br> +Esterle, Countess, <a href="#Page_102">102</a><br> +Estrées, Antoine d', <a href="#Page_36">36</a><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">" Gabrielle +d', <a href="#Page_35">35</a>-<a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a + href="#Page_226">226</a></span><br> +Estrées, Jean d', <a href="#Page_36">36</a><br> +Eudoxia, Empress, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>-<a href="#Page_257">257</a><br> +<br> +Faaborg, Hans, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>-<a href="#Page_91">91</a><br> +Fabre, François X., <a href="#Page_21">21</a><br> +Falari, Duchesse de, <a href="#Page_224">224</a><br> +Feriol, Comte de, <a href="#Page_222">222</a><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" Madame de, <a + href="#Page_223">223</a></span><br> +Fersen, Count, <a href="#Page_261">261</a><br> +Fimarcon, Marquis de, <a href="#Page_221">221</a><br> +Fitzherbert, Mrs, <a href="#Page_199">199</a><br> +Flavacourt, Madame de, <a href="#Page_283">283</a><br> +Fleury, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, +<a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a + href="#Page_284">284</a><br> +Fontanges, Mlle de, <a href="#Page_245">245</a><br> +Forbin, <a href="#Page_111">111</a><br> +François I, <a href="#Page_36">36</a><br> +Frederick the Great, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>-<a href="#Page_118">118</a><br> +Frederick William II, of Prussia, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>-<a + href="#Page_124">124</a><br> +Frederick William III., of Prussia, <a href="#Page_124">124</a><br> +Frèron, <a href="#Page_106">106</a><br> +<br> +Gacé, Comte De, <a href="#Page_183">183</a><br> +Galitzin, Prince, <a href="#Page_79">79</a><br> +George III., <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, +<a href="#Page_211">211</a><br> +George IV., <a href="#Page_191">191</a>-<a href="#Page_202">202</a><br> +Giovanna, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>-<a + href="#Page_177">177</a><br> +Glebof, Major, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>-<a href="#Page_256">256</a><br> +Goncourt, de, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, +<a href="#Page_286">286</a><br> +Guiche, Comte de, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a><br> +Guise, Duc de, <a href="#Page_237">237</a><br> +Gustav, Adolf, <a href="#Page_15">15</a><br> +<br> +Hamilton, Mary, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>-<a href="#Page_259">259</a><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">" Sir +William, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></span><br> +Haye, La, <a href="#Page_60">60</a><br> +Henri IV., of France (and Navarre), <a href="#Page_35">35</a>-<a + href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>-<a + href="#Page_237">237</a><br> +Holbein, Francis, <a href="#Page_126">126</a><br> +Hornstein, <a href="#Page_69">69</a><br> +Hutchinson, Lord, <a href="#Page_212">212</a><br> +<br> +Isabella, Princess, <a href="#Page_88">88</a><br> +Ivan, <a href="#Page_26">26</a><br> +<br> +Jersey, Lady, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a><br> +Joachim Murat, King, <a href="#Page_207">207</a><br> +Joinville, Prince de, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a><br> +Josephine, Empress, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>-<a href="#Page_112">112</a>, +<a href="#Page_127">127</a>-<a href="#Page_137">137</a><br> +Junot, <a href="#Page_107">107</a><br> +<br> +Karageorgevitch, Alex., <a href="#Page_306">306</a><br> +Ketschko, Natalie, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>-<a href="#Page_329">329</a><br> + +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">" Nathaniel, <a + href="#Page_310">310</a></span><br> +Königsmarck, Aurora von, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>-<a + href="#Page_103">103</a><br> +Königsmarck, Conrad von, <a href="#Page_94">94</a><br> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" +Philip von, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>-<a href="#Page_96">96</a></span><br> +Konstantinovitch, Alex., <a href="#Page_313">313</a><br> +Kristenef, <a href="#Page_77">77</a><br> +Kusa, Prince, <a href="#Page_308">308</a><br> +<br> +Lamballe, Princesse de, <a href="#Page_263">263</a><br> +Landsfeld, Countess of, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>-<a href="#Page_148">148</a><br> +Languet, Abbé, <a href="#Page_63">63</a><br> +Lauzun, Duc de, <a href="#Page_62">62</a><br> +Lavallière, Duchesse de, <a href="#Page_239">239</a><br> +Lawrence, Sir Thomas, <a href="#Page_201">201</a><br> +Leclerc, General, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br> +Lichtenau, Countess, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>-<a href="#Page_126">126</a><br> +Limburg, Duke of, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a><br> +Lorraine, Prince Charles of, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a + href="#Page_301">301</a><br> +Louis XIV., <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>-<a + href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>-<a + href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a + href="#Page_295">295</a><br> +Louis XV., <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>-<a + href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>-<a + href="#Page_292">292</a><br> +Louise, Countess of Albany, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>-<a + href="#Page_22">22</a><br> +Löwenhaupt, Count Axel, <a href="#Page_94">94</a><br> + <span style="margin-left: 1em;">" +Countess, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>-<a + href="#Page_99">99</a></span><br> +Ludwig I., of Bavaria, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>-<a href="#Page_147">147</a><br> +Luynes, Duc de, <a href="#Page_273">273</a><br> +<br> +Mailly, Madame de, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>-<a href="#Page_293">293</a><br> +Maine, Duc de, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a><br> +Maintenon, Madame de, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>-<a + href="#Page_247">247</a><br> +Malmesbury, Lord, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>-<a href="#Page_198">198</a><br> +Manby, Captain, <a href="#Page_201">201</a><br> +Mancini, Hortense, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, +<a href="#Page_168">168</a><br> +Mancini, Laure, <a href="#Page_294">294</a><br> + <span style="margin-left: 1em;">" +Madame, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>-<a href="#Page_163">163</a></span><br> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" Marie, <a + href="#Page_160">160</a>-<a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a + href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>-<a + href="#Page_301">301</a></span><br> +Mancini, Olympe, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>-<a href="#Page_305">305</a><br> +Maria Theresa, Queen of Spain, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a + href="#Page_304">304</a><br> +Marie Antoinette, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>-<a href="#Page_269">269</a><br> +Marie Leczinska, <a href="#Page_270">270</a><br> +Marie Louise, Empress, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a + href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a><br> +Marine, Monsieur de, <a href="#Page_67">67</a><br> +Marke, Count de la, <a href="#Page_117">117</a><br> +Marmont, General, <a href="#Page_107">107</a><br> +Maschin, Draga, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a><br> +Masson, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a><br> +Maurepas, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>-<a href="#Page_284">284</a>, <a + href="#Page_292">292</a><br> +Mazarin, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>-<a href="#Page_163">163</a>, +<a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a + href="#Page_297">297</a><br> +Mazarin, Madame de, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a><br> +Medici, Cardinal de, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>-<a href="#Page_176">176</a><br> + <span style="margin-left: 1em;">" +Francesco de, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>-<a href="#Page_179">179</a></span><br> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" Marie +de, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>-<a href="#Page_235">235</a></span><br> +Menshikoff, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a + href="#Page_12">12</a><br> +Mercoeur, Duc de, <a href="#Page_295">295</a><br> +Mexent, Marquis de Saint, <a href="#Page_123">123</a><br> +Michael, Prince, of Servia, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a + href="#Page_308">308</a><br> +Michelin, Madame, <a href="#Page_181">181</a><br> +Milan I., of Servia, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>-<a href="#Page_329">329</a><br> +Modena, Duke of, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>-<a href="#Page_189">189</a><br> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" +Duchess of, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, +<a href="#Page_186">186</a>-<a href="#Page_189">189</a></span><br> +Monceaux, Marquise de, <a href="#Page_41">41</a><br> +Mons, William, <a href="#Page_11">11</a><br> +Montespan, Madame de, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, +<a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a + href="#Page_243">243</a>-<a href="#Page_245">245</a><br> +Montez, Lola, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>-<a href="#Page_148">148</a><br> +Montmorency, Charlotte de, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a + href="#Page_237">237</a><br> +Mortemart, Duchesse de, <a href="#Page_54">54</a><br> +Motte-Houdancourt, Mlle de la, <a href="#Page_302">302</a><br> +Motteville, Madame de, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a + href="#Page_296">296</a><br> +Mouchy, Madame de, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>-<a href="#Page_65">65</a>, +<a href="#Page_217">217</a><br> +Murussi, Princess, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a><br> +<br> +Napoleon I., <a href="#Page_104">104</a>-<a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a + href="#Page_127">127</a>-<a href="#Page_137">137</a><br> +Natalie, Queen of Servia, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>-<a + href="#Page_329">329</a><br> +Nathalie, Empress, <a href="#Page_252">252</a><br> +Nesle, Félicité de, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>-<a + href="#Page_279">279</a><br> + <span style="margin-left: 1em;">" Marquise de, <a + href="#Page_182">182</a></span><br> +Nevers, Duc de, <a href="#Page_232">232</a><br> +Noailles, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_64">64</a><br> +<br> +Obrenovitch Jefrenn, <a href="#Page_307">307</a><br> +Ompteda, Baron, <a href="#Page_206">206</a><br> +Orleans, Philippe, Duc de, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>-<a href="#Page_57">57</a>, +<a href="#Page_60">60</a>-<a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a + href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>-<a + href="#Page_225">225</a><br> +Orloff, Alexis, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>-<a + href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a><br> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" Count, <a + href="#Page_258">258</a></span><br> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" Gregory, <a + href="#Page_29">29</a>, +<a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a + href="#Page_153">153</a>-<a href="#Page_158">158</a></span><br> +<br> +Palatine, Princess, Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a + href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a><br> +Panine, <a href="#Page_157">157</a><br> +Paskevitch, General, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a><br> +Patiomkin, <a href="#Page_23">23</a><br> +Perdita, <a href="#Page_199">199</a><br> +Pergami, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>-<a href="#Page_213">213</a><br> +Permon, Albert, <a href="#Page_107">107</a><br> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" Madame, <a + href="#Page_109">109</a></span><br> +Peter the Great, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>-<a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a + href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>-<a + href="#Page_259">259</a><br> +Peter II., of Russia, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a><br> +Peter III., of Russia, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>-<a href="#Page_155">155</a><br> +Pinneberg, Countess of, <a href="#Page_73">73</a><br> +Platen, Countess, <a href="#Page_94">94</a><br> +Polignac, Cardinal de, <a href="#Page_261">261</a><br> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" Diane +de, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></span><br> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" +Jules, Comte de, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>-<a href="#Page_264">264</a></span><br> +Polignac, Madame de, <a href="#Page_182">182</a><br> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" Yolande, +de, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>-<a href="#Page_269">269</a></span><br> +Pöllnitz, Von, <a href="#Page_7">7</a><br> +Poniatowski, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a><br> +Porte, Armande de la, <a href="#Page_162">162</a><br> +Protitsch, General, <a href="#Page_323">323</a><br> +Pugatchef, <a href="#Page_73">73</a><br> +<br> +Radziwill, Prince Charles, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a + href="#Page_74">74</a><br> +Ravaillac, <a href="#Page_35">35</a><br> +Razoum, Alexis, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>-<a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a + href="#Page_72">72</a><br> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" Cyril, <a + href="#Page_26">26</a>-<a href="#Page_28">28</a></span><br> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" Gregory, <a + href="#Page_24">24</a></span><br> +Richelieu, Duc de, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>-<a href="#Page_190">190</a>, +<a href="#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>, <a + href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a + href="#Page_291">291</a><br> +Richelieu, Duchesse de, <a href="#Page_185">185</a><br> +Rietz, Herr, <a href="#Page_117">117</a><br> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" Wilhelmine, <a + href="#Page_117">117</a>-<a href="#Page_120">120</a></span><br> +Ringlet, Father, <a href="#Page_62">62</a><br> +Riom, Comte de, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>-<a href="#Page_64">64</a><br> +<br> +Saint-Simon, Duc de, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, +<a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_305">305</a><br> +Saint-Simon, Madame de, <a href="#Page_58">58</a><br> +Savoie, Chevalier de, <a href="#Page_65">65</a><br> +Savoy, Charles Emmanuel, Duke of, <a href="#Page_168">168</a><br> +Savoy, Margaret, Princess of, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a + href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a + href="#Page_300">300</a><br> +Scarron, Paul, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a><br> +Schenk, Baron von, <a href="#Page_67">67</a><br> +Sevigné, Madame de, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a + href="#Page_303">303</a><br> +Seymour, Henry, <a href="#Page_48">48</a><br> +Shouvalov, <a href="#Page_29">29</a><br> +Sigbrit, Frau, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>-<a href="#Page_92">92</a><br> +Skovronski, I, <a href="#Page_23">23</a><br> +Smith, Sydney, Captain, <a href="#Page_200">200</a><br> +Soissons, Comte de, <a href="#Page_297">297</a><br> + +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">" Comtesse +de, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>-<a + href="#Page_305">305</a></span><br> +Soltykoff, Sergius, <a href="#Page_151">151</a><br> +Sophia Dorothea, of Celle, <a href="#Page_94">94</a><br> +Spencer, Lord Henry, <a href="#Page_119">119</a><br> +Stanley, Sir John, <a href="#Page_193">193</a><br> +Stendhal, <a href="#Page_21">21</a><br> +Stuart, Charles, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>-<a href="#Page_20">20</a><br> +Sully, Duc de, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a + href="#Page_229">229</a>-<a href="#Page_231">231</a><br> +<br> +Tencin, Madame de, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a><br> +Teplof, <a href="#Page_155">155</a><br> +Thackeray, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a + href="#Page_200">200</a><br> +Toebingen, Major, <a href="#Page_199">199</a><br> +Torbern, Oxe, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>-<a href="#Page_92">92</a><br> +Touchet, Marie, <a href="#Page_227">227</a><br> +Tourel-Alégre, Marquess, <a href="#Page_36">36</a><br> +Tournelle, Mme de la, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>-<a href="#Page_293">293</a><br> +Tuscany, Bianca, Grand Duchess of, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>-<a + href="#Page_179">179</a><br> +Tuscany, Francesco, Grand Duke of, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>-<a + href="#Page_179">179</a><br> +<br> +Valkendorf, Chancellor, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>-<a href="#Page_85">85</a>, +<a href="#Page_89">89</a><br> +Vallière, La, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>-<a href="#Page_303">303</a><br> +Valois, Marguerite de, Queen of France, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a + href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a><br> +Valois, Mlle de, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, +<a href="#Page_185">185</a><br> +Vardes, Marquis de, <a href="#Page_302">302</a><br> +Vaudreuil, Comte de, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a><br> +Verneuil, Marquise de, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>-<a href="#Page_237">237</a><br> +Villars, Duchesse de, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a><br> +Vintimille, Comtesse de, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>-<a + href="#Page_279">279</a><br> +Vishnevsky, Colonel, <a href="#Page_24">24</a><br> +Vlodimir, Princess Aly de, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>-<a href="#Page_80">80</a><br> +Voisin, La, <a href="#Page_303">303</a><br> +Voltaire, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a + href="#Page_149">149</a><br> +Vorontsov, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a><br> +<br> +Walewska, Madame, <a href="#Page_127">127</a><br> +Waliszewski, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a + href="#Page_251">251</a><br> +Wasseljevitchca, Dimitri, <a href="#Page_317">317</a><br> +<br> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Love affairs of the Courts of Europe +by Thornton Hall + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOVE AFFAIRS OF THE COURTS *** + +***** This file should be 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: + https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + + + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/old/12309-h/images/court001.jpg b/old/12309-h/images/court001.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f3d742e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12309-h/images/court001.jpg diff --git a/old/12309-h/images/court002.jpg b/old/12309-h/images/court002.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..805144d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12309-h/images/court002.jpg diff --git a/old/12309-h/images/court003.jpg b/old/12309-h/images/court003.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f58f89c --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12309-h/images/court003.jpg diff --git a/old/12309-h/images/court004.jpg b/old/12309-h/images/court004.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..83f4514 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12309-h/images/court004.jpg diff --git a/old/12309-h/images/court005.jpg b/old/12309-h/images/court005.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f214886 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12309-h/images/court005.jpg diff --git a/old/12309-h/images/court006.jpg b/old/12309-h/images/court006.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c010ef9 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12309-h/images/court006.jpg diff --git a/old/12309-h/images/court007.jpg b/old/12309-h/images/court007.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e74c85a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12309-h/images/court007.jpg diff --git a/old/12309-h/images/court008.jpg b/old/12309-h/images/court008.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c5aeab3 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12309-h/images/court008.jpg diff --git a/old/12309-h/images/court009.jpg b/old/12309-h/images/court009.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f793cbe --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12309-h/images/court009.jpg |
