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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.06/12/01*END* +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + + + + + +This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + + +MEMOIRS OF MADAME LA MARQUISE DE MONTESPAN, v5 + +Written by Herself + +Being the Historic Memoirs of the Court of Louis XIV. + + + +BOOK 5. + + +CHAPTER I. + +The Prince de Mont-Beliard.--He Agrees to the Propositions Made Him.-- +The King's Note.--Diplomacy of the Chancellor of England.--Letter from +the Marquis de Montespan.--The Duchy in the Air.--The Domain of Navarre, +Belonging to the Prince de Bouillon, Promised to the Marquise. + +There was but a small company this year at the Waters of Bourbonne,-- +to begin with, at any rate; for afterwards there appeared to be many +arrivals, to see me, probably, and Mademoiselle de Nantes. + +The Chancellor Hyde was already installed there, and his establishment +was one of the most agreeable and convenient; he was kind enough to +exchange it for mine. A few days afterwards he informed me of the +arrival of the Prince de Mont-Beliard, of Wurtemberg, who was anxious to +pay his respects to me, as though to the King's daughter. In effect, +this royal prince came and paid me a visit; I thought him greatly changed +for such a short lapse of years. + +We had seen each other--as, I believe, I have already told--at the time +of the King's first journey in Flanders. He recalled all the +circumstances to me, and was amiable enough to tell me that, instead of +waning, my beauty had increased. + +"It is you, Prince, who embellish everything," I answered him. "I begin +to grow like a dilapidated house; I am only here to repair myself." + +Less than a year before, M. de Mont-Billiard had lost that amiable +princess, his wife; he had a lively sense of this loss, and never spoke +of it without tears in his eyes. + +"You know, madame," he told me, "my states are, at present, not entirely +administered, but occupied throughout by the officers of the King of +France. Those persons who have my interests at heart, as well as those +who delight at my fears, seem persuaded that this provisional occupation +will shortly become permanent. I dare not question you on this subject, +knowing how much discretion is required of you; but I confess that I +should pass quieter and more tranquil nights if you could reassure me up +to a certain point." + +"Prince," I replied to him, "the King is never harsh except with those of +whom he has had reason to complain. M. le Duc de Neubourg, and certain +other of the Rhine princes, have been thick-witted enough to be disloyal +to him; he has punished them for it, as Caesar did, and as all great +princes after him will do. But you have never shown him either coldness, +or aversion, or indifference. He has commanded the Marechal de +Luxembourg to enter your territory to prevent the Prince of Orange from +reaching there before us, and your authority has been put, not under the +domination, but under the protection, of the King of France, who is +desirous of being able to pass from there into the Brisgau." + +Madame de Thianges, Madame de Nevers, and myself did all that lay in our +power to distract or relieve the sorrows of the Prince; but the loss of +Mademoiselle de Chatillon, his charming spouse, was much more present +with him than that of his states; the bitterness which he drew from it +was out of the retch of all consolation possible. The Marquise de +Thianges procured the Chancellor of England to approach the Prince, and +find out from him, to a certain extent, whether he would consent to +exchange the County of Mont-Beliard for some magnificent estates in +France, to which some millions in money would be added. + +M. de Wurtemberg asked for a few days in which to reflect, and imagining +that these suggestions emanated from Versailles, he replied that he could +refuse nothing to the greatest of kings. My sister wrote on the day +following to the Marquis de Louvois, instead of asking it of the King in +person. M. de Luvois, who, probably, wished to despoil M. de Mont- +Beliard without undoing his purse-strings, put this overture before the +King maliciously, and the King wrote me immediately the following letter: + + Leave M. de Mont-Beliard alone, and do not speak to him again of his + estates. If the matter which occupies Madame de Thianges could be + arranged, it would be of the utmost propriety that a principality of + such importance rested in the Crown, at least as far as sovereignty. + The case of the Principality of Orange is a good enough lesson to + me; there must be one ruler only in an empire. As for you, my dear + lady, feel no regret for all that. You shall be a duchess, and I am + pleased to give you this title which you desire. Let M. de + Montespan be informed that his marquisate is to be elevated into a + duchy with a peerage, and that I will add to it the number of + seigniories that is proper, as I do not wish to deviate from the + usage which has become a law, etc. + +The prince's decision was definite, and as his character was, there was +no wavering. I wrote to him immediately to express my lively gratitude, +and we considered, the Marquise and I, as to the intermediary to whom we +could entrust the unsavoury commission of approaching the Marquis de +Montespan. He hated all my family from his having obtained no +satisfaction from it for his wrath. We begged the Chancellor Hyde, a +personage of importance, to be good enough to accept this mission; he saw +no reason to refuse it, and, after ten or eleven days, he received the +following reply, with which he was moderately amused: + + CHATEAU SAINT ELIX . . . . AT THE WORLD'S END. + + I am sensible, my Lord, as I should be, of the honour which you have + wished to do me, whilst, notwithstanding, permit me to consider it + strange that a man of your importance has cared to meddle in such a + negotiation. His Majesty the King of France did not consult me when + he wished to make my wife his mistress; it is somewhat remarkable + that so great a prince expects my intervention today to recompense + conduct that I have disapproved, that I disapprove, and shall + disapprove to my last breath. His Majesty has got eight or ten + children from my wife without saying a word to me about it; this + monarch can surely, therefore, make her a present of a duchy without + summoning me to his assistance. According to all laws, human and + divine, the King ought to punish Madame de Montespan, and, instead + of censuring her, he wishes to make her a duchess! . . . Let him + make her a princess, even a highness, if he likes; he has all the + power in his hands. I am only a twig; he is an oak. + + If madame is fostering ambition, mine has been satisfied for forty + years; I was born a marquis; a marquis--apart from some unforeseen + catastrophe--I will die; and Madame la Marquise, as long as she does + not alter her conduct, has no need to alter her degree. + + I will, however, waive my severity, if M. le Duc du Maine will + intervene for his mother, and call me his father, however it may be. + I am none the less sensible, my lord, of the honour of your + acquaintance, and since you form one of the society of Madame la + Marquise, endeavour to release yourself from her charms, for she can + be an enchantress when she likes.... It is true that, from what + they tell me, you were not quite king in your England. + + I am, from out my exile (almost as voluntary as yours), the most + obliged and grateful of your servants, + + DE GONDRIN MONTESPAN. + + +The Marquise de Thianges felt a certain irritation at the reading of this +letter; she offered all our excuses for it to the English Chancellor, and +said to me: "I begin to fear that the King of Versailles is not acting +with good faith towards you, when he makes your advancement depend on the +Marquis de Montespan; it is as though he were giving you a duchy in the +moon." + +I sent word to the King that the Marquis refused to assist his generous +projects; he answered me: + +"Very well, we must look somewhere else." + +Happily, this domestic humiliation did not transpire at Bourbonne; for M. +de la Bruyere had arrived there with Monsieur le Prince, and that model +satirist would unfailingly have made merry over it at my expense. + +The best society lavished its attentions on me; Coulanges, whose +flatteries are so amusing, never left us for a moment. + +The Prince, after the States were over, had come to relax himself at +Bourbonne, which was his property. After having done all in his power +formerly to dethrone his master, he is his enthusiastic servitor now that +he sees him so strong. He was fascinated with Mademoiselle de Nantes, +and asked my permission to seek her hand for the Duc de Bourbon, his +grandson; my reply was, that the alliance was desirable on both sides, +but that these arrangements were settled only by the King. + +In spite of the insolent diatribe of M. de Montespan, the waters proved +good and favourable; my blood, little by little, grew calm; my pains, +passing from one knee to the other, insensibly faded away in both; and, +after having given a brilliant fete to the Prince de Mont-Beliard, the +English Chancellor, and our most distinguished bathers, I went back to +Versailles, where the work seemed to me to have singularly advanced. + +The King went in advance of us to Corbeil; Madame de Maintenon, her +pretty nieces, and my children were in the carriage. The King received +me with his ordinary kindness, and yet said no word to me of the +harshness which I had suffered from my husband. Two or three months +afterwards he recollected his royal word, and gave me to understand that +the Prince de Bourbon was shortly going to give up Navarre, in Normandy, +and that this vast and magnificent estate would be raised to a duchy for +me. + +It has not been yet, at the moment that I write. Perhaps it is written +above that I shall never be a duchess. In such a case, the King would +not deserve the inward reproaches that my sensibility addresses him, +since his good-will would be fettered by destiny. + +It is my kindness which makes me speak so. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +The Venetian Drummer.--The Little Olivier.--Adriani's Love.-- +His Ingratitude.--His Punishment.--His Vengeance.-- +Complaint on This Account. + +At the great slaughter of Candia, M. de Vivonne had the pleasure of +saving a young Venetian drummer whom he noticed all covered with blood, +and senseless, amongst the dead and dying, with whom the field was +covered far and wide. He had his wounds dressed and cared for by the +surgeons of the French navy, with the intention of giving him me, either +as a valet de chambre or a page, so handsome and agreeable this young +Italian was. Adriani was his name. He presented him to me after the +return of the expedition to France, and I was sensible of this amiable +attention of my brother, for truly the peer of this young drummer did not +exist. + +Adrien was admirable to see in my livery, and when my carriage went out, +he attracted alone all the public attention. His figure was still not +all that it might be; it developed suddenly, and then one was not wrong +in comparing him with a perfect model for the Academy. He took small +time in losing the manners which he had brought with him from his +original calling. I discovered the best 'ton' in him; he would have been +far better seated in the interior than outside my equipage. +Unfortunately, this young impertinent gave himself airs of finding my +person agreeable, and of cherishing a passion for me; my first valet de +chambre told me of it at once. I gave him to the King, who had sometimes +noticed him in passing. + +Adrien was inconsolable at first at this change, for which he was not +prepared, but his vanity soon came uppermost; he understood that it was +an advancement, and took himself for a great personage, since he had the +honour of approaching and serving the King. + +The little Olivier--the first assistant in the shop of Madame Camille, my +dressmaker--saw Adrien, inspired him with love, and herself with much, +and they had to be married. I was good-natured enough to be interested +in this union, and as I had never any fault to find with the intelligent +services and attentions of the little modiste, I gave her two hundred +louis, that she might establish herself well and without any waiting. + +She had a daughter whom she was anxious to call Athenais. I thought this +request excessive; I granted my name of Francoise only. + +The young couple would have succeeded amply with their business, since my +confidence and favour were sufficient to give them vogue; but I was not +slow in learning that cruel discord had already penetrated to their +household, and that Adrien, in spite of his adopted country, had remained +at heart Italian. Jealous without motive, and almost without love, he +tormented with his suspicions, his reproaches, and his harshness, an +attentive and industrious young wife, who loved him with intense love, +and was unable to succeed in persuading him of it. From her condition, +a modiste cannot dispense with being amiable, gracious, engaging. The +little Olivier, as pretty as one can be, easily secured the homage of the +cavaliers. For all thanks she smiled at the gentlemen, as a well brought +up woman should do. Adrien disapproved these manners,--too French, in +his opinion. One day he dared to say to his wife, and that before +witnesses: "Because you have belonged to Madame de Montespan, do you +think you have the same rights that she has?" And with that he +administered a blow to her. + +This indecency was reported to me. I did not take long in discovering +what it was right to do with Adrien. I had him sent to Clagny, where I +happened to be at the time. + +"Monsieur the Venetian drummer," I said to him, with the hauteur which it +was necessary to oppose to his audacity, "Monsieur le Marechal de +Vivonne, who is always too good, saved your life without knowing you. +I gave you to the King, imagining that I knew you. Now I am undeceived, +and I know, without the least possibility of doubt, that beneath the +appearance of a good heart you hide the ungrateful and insolent rogue. +The King needs persons more discreet, less violent, and more polite. +Madame de Montespan gave you up to the King; Madame de Montespan has +taken you back this morning to her service. You depend for the future on +nobody but Madame de Montespan, and it is her alone that you are bound to +obey. Your service in her house has commenced this morning; it will +finish this evening, and, before midnight, you will leave her for good +and all. I have known on all occasions how to pardon slight offences; +there are some that a person of my rank could not excuse; yours is of +that number. Go; make no answer! Obey, ingrate! Disappear, I command +you!" + +At these words he tried to throw himself at my feet. "Go, wretched +fellow!" I cried to him; and, at my voice, my lackeys ran up and drove +him from the room and from the chateau. + +Almost always these bad-natured folks have cowardly souls. Adrien, his +head in a whirl, presented himself to my Suisse at Versailles, who, +finding his look somewhat sinister, refused to receive him. He retired +to my hotel in Paris, where the Suisse, being less of a physiognomist, +delivered him the key of his old room, and was willing to allow him to +pass the night there. + +Adrien, thinking of naught but how to harm me and give me a memorable +proof of his vengeance, ran and set fire to my two storehouses, and, to +put a crown on his rancour, went and hanged himself in an attic. + +About two o'clock in the morning, a sick-nurse, having perceived the +flames, gave loud cries and succeeded in making herself heard. Public +help arrived; the fire was mastered. My Suisse sought everywhere for the +Italian, whom he thought to be in danger; he stumbled against his corpse. +What a scene! What an affliction! The commissary having had his room +opened, on a small bureau a letter was found which he had been at the +pains of writing, and in which he accused me of his despair and death. + +The people of Paris have been at all times extravagance and credulity +itself. They looked upon this young villain as a martyr, and at once +dedicated an elegy to him, in which I was compared with Medea, Circe, and +Fredegonde. + +It is precisely on account of this elegy that I have cared to set down +this cruel anecdote. My readers, to whom I have just narrated the facts +with entire frankness, can see well that, instead of having merited +reproaches, I should only have received praise for my restraint and +moderation. + +It is, assuredly, most painful to have to suffer the abuse of those for +whom we have never done aught; but the outrages of those whom we have +succoured, maintained, and favoured are insupportable injuries. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +The Equipage at Full Speed.--The Poor Vine-grower.--Sensibility of Madame +de Maintenon.--Her Popularity.--One Has the Right to Crush a Man Who Will +Not Get Out of the Way.--What One Sees.--What They Tell You.--All Ends at +the Opera.--One Can Be Moved to Tears and Yet Like Chocolate. + +Another event with a tragical issue, and one to which I contributed even +less, served to feed and foster that hatred, mixed with envy, which the +rabble populace guards always so persistently towards the favourites of +kings or fortune. + +Naturally quick and impatient, I cannot endure to move with calm and +state along the roads. My postilions, my coachmen know it, driving in +such fashion that no equipage is ever met which cleaves the air like +mine. + +I was descending one day the declivity of the Coeur-Volant, between Saint +Germain and Marly. The Marquises de Maintenon and d'Hudicourt were in my +carriage with M. le Duc du Maine, so far as I can remember. We were +going at the pace which I have just told, and my outriders, who rode in +advance, were clearing the way, as is customary. A vine-grower, laden +with sticks, chose this moment to cross the road, thinking himself, no +doubt, agile enough to escape my six horses. The cries of my people were +useless. The imprudent fellow took his own course, and my postilions, in +spite of their efforts with the reins, could not prevent themselves from +passing over his body; the wheels followed the horses; the poor man was +cut in pieces. + +At the lamentations of the country folk and the horrified passers-by, we +stopped. Madame de Maintenon wished to alight, and when she perceived +the unfortunate vine-grower disfigured with his wounds, she clasped her +hands and fell to weeping. The Marquise d'Hudicourt, who was always +simplicity itself, followed her friend's example; there was nothing but +groans and sorrowful exclamations. My coachman blamed the postilions, +the postilions the man's obstinacy. + +Madame de Maintenon, speaking as though she were the mistress, bade them +be silent, and dared to say to them before all the crowd: "If you +belonged to me, I would soon settle you." At these words all the +spectators applauded, and cried: "Vive Madame de Maintenon!" + +Irritated at what I had just heard, I put my head out of the door, and, +turning to these sentimental women, I said to them: "Be good enough to +get in, mesdames; are you determined to have me stoned?" + +They mounted again, after having left my purse with the poor relations +of the dead man; and as far as Ruel, which was our destination, I was +compelled to listen to their complaints and litanies. + +"Admit, madame," I declared to Madame de Maintenon, "that any person +except myself could and would detest you for the harm you have done me. +Your part was to blame the postilions lightly and the rustic very +positively. My equipage did not come unexpectedly, and my two outriders +had signalled from their horses." + +"Madame," she replied, "you have not seen, as I did, those eyes of the +unhappy man forced violently from their sockets, his poor crushed head, +his palpitating heart, from which the blood soaked the pavement; such a +sight has moved and broken my own heart. I was, as I am still, quite +beside myself, and, in such a situation, it is permissible to forget +discretion in one's speech and the proprieties. I had no intention of +giving you pain; I am distressed at having done so. But as for your +coachmen I loathe them, and, since you undertake their defence, I shall +not for the future show myself in your equipage." + + [In one of her letters, Madame de Maintenon speaks of this accident, + but she does not give quite the same account of it. It is natural + that Madame de Montespan seeks to excuse her people and herself if + she can.--EDITOR'S NOTE.] + +At Ruel, she dared take the same tone before the Duchesse de Richelieu, +who rebuked her for officiousness, and out of spite, or some other +reason, Madame de Maintenon refused to dine. She had two or three +swooning fits; her tears started afresh four or five times, and the +Marquise d'Hudicourt, who dined only by snatches, went into a corner to +sob and weep along with her. + +"Admit, madame," I said then to Madame de Maintenon, "your excessive +grief for an unknown man is singular. He was, perhaps, actually a +dishonest fellow. The accident which you come back to incessantly, and +which distresses me also, is doubtless deplorable; but, after all, it is +not a murder, an ambush, a premeditated assassination. I imagine that if +such a catastrophe had happened elsewhere, and been reported to us in a +gazette or a book, you would have read of it with interest and +commiseration; but we should not have seen you clasp your hands over your +head, turn red and pale, utter loud cries, shed tears, sob, and scold a +coachman, postilions, perhaps even me. The event, would, nevertheless, +be actually the same. Admit, then, madame, and you, too, Madame +d'Hudicourt, that there is an exaggeration in your sorrow, and that you +would have made, both of you, two excellent comedians." + +Madame de Maintenon, piqued at these last words, sought to make us +understand, and even make us admit, that there is a great difference +between an event narrated to you by a third party, and an event which one +has seen. Madame de Richelieu shut her mouth pleasantly with these +words: "We know, Madame la Marquise, how much eloquence and wit is yours. +We approve all your arguments, past and to be. Let us speak no further +of an accident which distresses you; and since you require to be +diverted, let us go to the Opdra, which is only two leagues off." + +She consented to accompany us, for fear of proving herself entirely +ridiculous; but to delay us as much as possible, she required a cup of +chocolate, her favourite dish, her appetite having returned as soon as +she had exhausted the possibilities of her grief. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +Charles II., King of England.--How Interest Can Give Memory.-- +His Grievances against France.--The Two Daughters of the Duke of York.-- +William of Orange Marries One, in Spite of the Opposition of the King.-- +Great Joy of the Allies.--How the King of England Understands Peace.-- +Saying of the King.--Preparations for War. + +The King, Charles Stuart, who reigned in England since the death of the +usurper, Cromwell, was a grandson of Henri IV., just as much as our King. +Charles II. displayed the pronounced penchant of Henri IV. for the ladies +and for pleasure; but he had neither his energy, nor his genial temper, +nor his amiable frankness. After the death of Henrietta of England, his +beloved sister, he remained for some time longer our ally, but only to +take great advantage from our union and alliance. He had made use of it +against the Dutch, his naval and commercial rivals, and had compelled +them, by the aid of the King of France (then his friend), to reimburse +him a sum of twenty-six millions, and to pay him, further, an annual +tribute of twelve or fifteen thousand livres for the right of fishing +round his island domains. + +All these things being obtained, be seemed to recollect that Cardinal de +Richelieu had not protected his father, Stuart; that the Cardinal Mazarin +had declared for Cromwell in his triumph; that the Court of France had +indecently gone into mourning for that robber; that there had been +granted neither guards, nor palace, nor homages of state to the Queen, +his mother, although daughter and sister of two French kings; that this +Queen, in a modest retirement--sometimes in a cell in the convent of +Chaillot, sometimes in her little pavilion at Colombesl--had died, +poisoned by her physician, without the orator, Bossuet, having even +frowned at it in the funeral oration; + + [Mademoiselle de Montpensier, in her Memoirs, says that this Queen, + already languishing, had lost her sleep, and was given soporific + pills, on account of which Henrietta of France awoke no more; but it + is probable that the servants, and not the doctors, committed this + blunder.] + +that the unfortunate Henrietta daughter of this Queen and first wife of +Monsieur had succumbed to the horrible tortures of a poisoning even more +visible and manifest; whilst her poisoners, who were well known, had +never been in the least blamed or disgraced. + +On all these arguments, with more or less foundation, Charles II. +managed to conclude that he ought to detach himself from France, who was +not helpful enough; and, by deserting us, he excited universal joy +amongst his subjects, who were constantly jealous of us. + +Charles Stuart had had children by his mistresses; he had had none by the +Queen, his wife. The presumptive heir to the Crown was the Duke of York, +his Majesty's only brother. + +The Duke of York, son-in-law--as I have noticed already--of our good +Chancellor, Lord Hyde, had himself only two daughters, equally beautiful, +who, according to the laws of those islanders, would bear the sceptre in +turn. + +Our King, who read in the future, was thinking of marrying these two +princesses conformably with our interests, when the Prince of Orange +crossed the sea, and went formally to ask the hand of the elder of his +uncle. + +Informed of this proceeding, the King at once sent M. de Croissy-Colbert +to the Duke of York, to induce him to interfere and refuse his daughter; +but, in royal families, it is always the head who makes and decides +marriages. William of Orange obtained his charming cousin Mary, and +acquired that day the expectation of the Protestant throne, which was his +ambition. + +At the news of this marriage, the allies, that is to say, all the King's +enemies, had an outburst of satisfaction, and gave themselves up to +puerile jubilations. The King of Great Britain stood definitely on their +side; he made common cause with them, and soon there appeared in the +political world an audacious document signed by this prince, in which, +from the retreat of his island, the empire of fogs, he dared to demand +peace from Louis of Bourbon, his ancient ally and his cousin german, +imposing on him the most revolting conditions. + +According to the English monarch, France ought to restore to the +Spaniards, first Sicily, and, further, the towns of Charleroi, Ath, +Courtrai, Condo, Saint Guilain, Tournai, and Valenciennes, as a condition +of retaining Franche-Comte; moreover, France was compelled to give up +Lorraine to the Duke Charles, and places in German Alsace to the Emperor. + +The King replied that "too much was too much." He referred the decision +of his difficulties to the fortune of war, and collected fresh soldiers. + +Then, without further delay, England and the States General signed a +particular treaty at La Hague, to constrain France (or, rather, her +ruler) to accept the propositions that his pride refused to hear. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +The Great Mademoiselle Buys Choisy.--The President Gonthier.--The +Indemnity.--The Salmon.--The Harangue as It Is Not Done in the Academy. + +The King had only caused against his own desire the extreme grief which +Mademoiselle felt at the imprisonment of Lauzun. His Majesty was +sensible of the wisdom of the resolution which she had made not to break +with the Court, and to show herself at Saint Germain, or at Versailles, +from time to time, as her rank, her near kinship, her birth demanded. +He said to me one day: "My cousin is beginning to look up. I see with +pleasure that her complexion is clearing, that she laughs willingly at +this and that, and that her good-will for me is restored. I am told that +she is occupied in building a country-house above Vitry. Let us go to- +day and surprise her, and see what this house of Choisy is like." + +We arrived at a sufficiently early hour, and had time to see everything. +The King found the situation most agreeable; those lovely gardens united +high up above the Seine, those woods full of broad walks, of light and +air, those points of view happily chosen and arranged, gave a charming +effect; the house of one story, raised on steps of sixteen stairs, +appeared to us elegant from its novelty; but the King blamed his cousin +for not having put a little architecture and ornament on the facade. + +"Princes," said he, "have no right to be careless; since universal +agreement has made us Highnesses, we must know how to carry our burden, +and to lay it down at no time, and in no place." + +Mademoiselle excused herself on the ground of her remoteness from the +world, and on the expense, which she wished to keep down. + +"From the sight of the country," said the King, "you must have a hundred +to a hundred and twelve, acres here." + +"A hundred and nine," she answered. + +"Have you paid dear for this property?" went on the King. "It is the +President Gonthier who has sold it?" + +"I paid for this site, and the old house which no longer exists, forty +thousand livres," she said. + +"Forty thousand livres!" cried the King. "Oh, my cousin, there is no +such thing as conscience! You have not paid for the ground. I was +assured that poor President Gonthier had only got rid of his house at +Choisy because his affairs were embarrassed; you must indemnify him, or +rather I will indemnify him myself, by giving him a pension." + +Mademoiselle bit her lip and added: + +"The President asked sixty thousand first; my men of business offered him +forty, and he accepted it." + +Mademoiselle has no generosity, although she is immensely rich; she +pretended not to hear, and it was M. Colbert who sent by order the twenty +thousand livres to the President. + +Mademoiselle, vain and petty, as though she were a bourgeoise of +yesterday, showed us her gallery, where she had already collected the +selected portraits of all her ancestors, relations, and kindred; she +pointed out to us in her winter salon the portrait of the little Comte de +Toulouse, painted, not as an admiral, but as God of the Sea, floating on +a pearl shell; and his brother, the Duc du Maine, as Colonel-General of +the Swiss and Grisons. The full-length portrait of the King was visible +on three chimneypieces; she was at great pains to make a merit of it, and +call for thanks. + +Having followed her into her state chamber, where she had stolen in +privately, I saw that she was taking away the portrait of Lauzun. I went +and told it to the King, who shrugged his shoulders and fell to laughing. + +"She is fifty-two years old," he said to me. + +A very pretty collation of confitures and fruits was served us, to which +the King prayed her to add a ragout of peas and a roasted fowl. + +During the repast, he said to her: "For the rest, I have not noticed the +portrait of Gaston, your father; is it a distraction on my part, or an +omission on yours?" + +"It will be put there later," she answered. "It is not time." + +"What! your father!" added the King. "You do not think that, cousin!" + +"All my actions," added the Princess, "are weighed in the balance +beforehand; if I were to exhibit the portrait of my father at the head of +these various pictures, I should have to put my stepmother, his wife, +there too, as a necessary pendant. The harm which she has done me does +not permit of that complacence. One opens one's house only to one's +friends." + +"Your stepmother has never done you any other harm," replied the King, +"than to reclaim for her children the funds or the furniture left by your +father. The character of Margaret of Lorraine has always been sweetness +itself; seeing your irritation, she begged me to arbitrate myself; and +you know all that M. Colbert and the Chancellor did to satisfy you under +the circumstances. But let us speak of something else, and cease these +discussions. I have a service to ask of you: here is M. le Duc du Maine +already big; everybody knows of your affection for him, and I have seen +his portrait with pleasure, in one of your salons. I am going to +establish him; would it be agreeable to you if I give him your livery?" + +"M. le Duc du Maine," said the Princess, "is the type of what is +gracious, and noble, and beautiful; he can only do honour to my livery; +I grant it him with all my heart, since you do me the favour of desiring +it. Would I were in a position to do more for him!" + +The King perfectly understood these last words; he made no reply to them, +but he understood all that he was meant to understand. We went down +again into the gardens. + +The fishermen of Choisy had just caught a salmon of enormous size, which +they had been pursuing for four or five days; they had intended to offer +it to Mademoiselle; the presence of the King inspired them with another +design. They wove with great diligence a large and pretty basket of +reeds, garnished it with foliage, young grass, and flowers, and came and +presented to the King their salmon, all leaping in the basket. + +The fisherman charged with the address only uttered a few words; they +were quite evidently improvised, so that they gave more pleasure and +effect than those of academicians, or persons of importance. The +fisherman expressed himself thus: + +"You have brought us good fortune, Sire, by your presence, as you bring +fortune to your generals. You arrive on the Monday; on the Tuesday the +town is taken. We come to offer to the greatest of kings the greatest +salmon that can be caught." + +The King desired this speech to be instantly transcribed; and, after +having bountifully rewarded the sailors, his Majesty said to +Mademoiselle: + +"This man was born to be a wit; if he were younger, I would place him in +a college. There is wit at Choisy in every rank of life." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +Departure of the King.--Ghent Reduced in Five Days.--Taking of Ypres.-- +Peace Signed.--The Prince of Orange Is at Pains Not to Know of It.-- +Horrible Cruelties. + +I have related in what manner Charles II., suddenly pronouncing in favour +of his nephew, the Prince of Orange, had signed a league with his old +enemies, the Dutch, in order to counteract the success of the King of +France and compel him to sign a humiliating and entirely inadmissible +peace. + +The King left Versailles suddenly on the 4th of February, 1678, taking, +with his whole Court, the road to Lorraine, while waiting for the troops +which had wintered on the frontiers, and were investing at once +Luxembourg, Charlemont, Namur, Mons, and Ypres, five of the strongest and +best provisioned places in the Low Countries. By this march and +manoeuvre, he wished to hoodwink the allied generals, who were very far +from imagining that Ghent was the point towards which the Conqueror's +intentions were directed. + +In effect, hardly had the King seen them occupied in preparing the +defence of the above named places, when, leaving the Queen and the ladies +in the agreeable town of Metz, he rapidly traversed sixty leagues of +country, and laid siege to the town of Ghent, which was scarcely +expecting him. + +The Spanish governor, Don Francisco de Pardo, having but a weak garrison +and little artillery, decided upon releasing the waters and inundating +the country; but certain heights remained which could not be covered, and +from here the French artillery started to storm the ramparts and the +fort. + +The siege was commenced on the 4th of March; upon the 9th the town opened +its gates, and two days later the citadel. Ypres was carried at the end +of a week, in spite of the most obstinate resistance. Our grenadiers +performed prodigies, and lost all their officers, without exception. +I lost there one of my nephews, the one hope of his family; my +compliments to the King, therefore, were soon made. + +He went to Versailles to take back the Queen, and returned to Ghent with +the speed and promptitude of lightning. The same evening he sent an +order to a detachment of the garrison of Maestricht to hasten and seize +the town and citadel of Leuwe, in Brabant, which was executed on the +instant. It was then that the Dutch sent their deputation, charged to +plead for a suspension of hostilities for six weeks. The King granted +it, although these blunderers hardly merited it. They undertook that +Spain should join them in the peace, and finally, after some +difficulties, settled more or less rightly, the treaty was signed on the +10th of August, just as the six weeks were about to expire. + +The Prince of Orange, naturally bellicose, and, above all things, +passionately hostile to France, pretended to ignore the existence of this +peace, which he disapproved. The Marechal de Luxembourg, informed of the +treaty, gave himself up to the security of the moment; he was actually at +table with his numerous officers when he was warned that the Prince of +Orange was advancing against him. The alarm was quickly sounded; such +troops and cavalry as could be were assembled, and a terrible action +ensued. + +At first we were repulsed, but soon the Marshal rallied his men; +he excited their indignation by exposing to them the atrocity of M. +d'Orange, and after a terrible massacre, in which two thousand English +bit the dust, the Marechal de Luxembourg remained master of the field. + +He was victorious, but in this unfortunate action we lost, ourselves, the +entire regiment of guards, that of Feuquieres, and several others +besides, with an incredible quantity of officers, killed or wounded. + +The name of the Prince of Orange, since that day, was held in horror in +both armies, and he would have fallen into disgrace with the States +General themselves had it not been for the protection of the King of +England, to whom the Dutch were greatly bound. + +On the following day, this monster sent a parliamentary officer to the +French generals to inform them that during the night official news of the +peace had reached him. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +Mission of Madame de Maintenon to Choisy.--Mademoiselle Gives the +Principalities of Eu and Dombes in Exchange for M. de Lauzun.-- +He Is Set at Liberty. + +The four or five words which had escaped Mademoiselle de Montpensier had +remained in the King's recollection. He said to me: "If you had more +patience, and a sweeter and more pliant temper, I would employ you to go +and have a little talk with Mademoiselle, in order to induce her to +explain what intentions she may have relative to my son." + +"I admit, Sire," I answered him, "that I am not the person required for +affairs of that sort. Your cousin is proud and cutting; I would not +endure what she has made others endure. I cannot accept such a +commission. But Madame de Maintenon, who is gentleness itself, is +suitable--no one more so for this mission; she is at once insinuating and +respectful; she is attached to the Duc du Maine. The interests of my son +could not be in better hands." + +The King agreed with me, and both he and I begged the Marquise to conduct +M. du Maine to Choisy. + +Mademoiselle de Montpensier received him with rapture. He thanked her +for what she had done for him, in granting him her colours, and upon that +Mademoiselle asked his permission to embrace him, and to tell him how +amiable and worthy of belonging to the King she found him. She led him +to the hall, in which he was to be seen represented as a colonel-general +of Swiss. + +"I have always loved the Swiss," she said, "because of their great +bravery, their fidelity, and their excellent discipline. The Marechal de +Bassompierre made his corps the perfection which it is; it is for you, my +cousin, to maintain it." + +She passed into another apartment, where she was to be seen represented +as Bellona. Two Loves were presenting her, one with his helm adorned +with martial plumes, the other with his buckler of gold, with the +Orleans-Montpensier arms. The laurel crown, with which Triumphs were +ornamenting her head, and the scaled cuirass of Pallas completed her +decoration. M. le Duc du Maine praised, without affectation, the +intelligence of the artist; and as for the figure and the likeness, he +said to the Princess: "You are good, but you are better." The calm and +the naivety of this compliment made Mademoiselle shed tears. Her emotion +was visible; she embraced my son anew. + +"You have brought him up perfectly," she said to Madame de Maintenon. +"His urbanity is of good origin; that is how a king's son ought to act +and speak: + +"His Majesty," said Madame de Maintenon, "has been enchanted with your +country-house; he spoke of it all the evening. He even added that you +had ordered it all yourself, without an architect, and that M. le Notre +would not have done better." + +"M. le Notre," replied the Princess, "came here for a little; he wanted +to cut and destroy, and upset and disarrange, as with the King at +Versailles. But I am of a different mould to my cousin; I am not to be +surprised with big words. I saw that Le Notre thought only of +expenditure and tyranny; I thanked him for his good intentions, and +prayed him not to put himself out for me. I found there thickets already +made, of an indescribable charm; he wanted, on the instant, to clear them +away, so that one could testify that all this new park was his. If you +please, madame, tell his Majesty that M. le Notre is the sworn enemy of +Nature; that he sees only the pleasures of proprietorship in the future, +and promises us cover and shade just at that epoch of our life when we +shall only ask for sunshine in which to warm ourselves." + +She next led her guests towards the large apartments. When she had come +to her bedroom, she showed the Marquise the mysterious portrait, and +asked if she recognised it. + +"Ah, my God! 'tis himself!" said Madame de Maintenon at once. "He sees, +he breathes, he regards us; one might believe one heard him speak. Why +do you give yourself this torture?" continued the ambassadress. "The +continual presence of an unhappy and beloved being feeds your grief, and +this grief insensibly undermines you. In your place, Princess, I should +put him elsewhere until a happier and more favourable hour." + +"That hour will never come," cried Mademoiselle. + +"Pardon me," resumed Madame de Maintenon; "the King is never inhuman and +inexorable; you should know that better than any one. He punishes only +against the protests of his heart, and, as soon as he can relent without +impropriety or danger, he pardons. M. de Lauzun, by refusing haughtily +the marshal's baton, which was offered him in despite of his youth, +deeply offended the King, and the disturbance he allowed himself to make +at Madame de Montespan's depicted him as a dangerous and wrong-headed +man. Those are his sins. Rest assured, Princess, that I am well +informed. But as I know, at the same time, that the King was much +attached to him,--and is still so, to some extent, and that a captivity +of ten years is a rough school, I have the assurance that your Highness +will not be thought importunate if you make today some slight attempt +towards a clemency." + +"I will do everything they like," Mademoiselle de Montpensier said then; +"but shall I have any one near his Majesty to assist and support my +undertaking? I have no more trust in Madame de Montespan; she has +betrayed us, she will betray us again; the offence of M. de Lauzun is +always present in her memory, and she is a lady who does not easily +forgive. As for you, madame, I know that the King considers you for the +invaluable services of the education given to his children. Deign to +speak and act in favour of my unhappy husband, and I will make you a +present of one of my fine titled territories." + +Madame de Maintenon was too acute to accept anything in such a case; +she answered the Princess that her generosities, to please the King, +should be offered to M. le Duc du Maine, and that, by assuring a part of +her succession to that young prince, she had a sure method of moving the +monarch, and of turning his paternal gratitude to the most favourable +concessions. The Princess, enchanted, then said to the negotiatrix: + +"Be good enough to inform his Majesty, this evening, that I offer to +give, at once, to his dear and amiable child the County of Eu and my +Sovereignty of Dombes, adding the revenues to them if it is necessary." + +Madame de Maintenon, who worships her pupil, kissed the hand of +Mademoiselle, and promised to return and see her immediately. + +That very evening she gave an account to the King of her embassy; she +solicited the liberty of the Marquis de Lauzun, and the King commenced by +granting "the authorisation of mineral waters." + +Meanwhile, Mademoiselle, presented by Madame de Maintenon, went to take +counsel with the King. She made a formal donation of the two +principalities which I have named. His Majesty, out of courtesy, left +her the revenues, and, in fine, she was permitted to marry her M. de +Lauzun, and to assure him, by contract, fifty thousand livres of income. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +M. de Brisacier and King Casimir.--One Is Never so Well Praised as by +Oneself.--He Is Sent to Get Himself Made a Duke Elsewhere. + +The Abbe de Brisacier, the famous director of consciences, possessed +enough friends and credit to advance young Brisacier, his nephew, to the +Queen's household, to whom he had been made private secretary. +Slanderers or impostors had persuaded this young coxcomb that Casimir, +the King of Poland, whilst dwelling in Paris in the quality of a simple +gentleman, had shown himself most assiduous to Madame Brisacier, and that +he, Brisacier of France, was born of these assiduities of the Polish +prince. + +When he saw the Comte Casimir raised to the elective throne of Poland, +he considered himself as the issue of royal blood, and it seemed to him +that his position with the Queen, Maria Theresa, was a great injustice of +fortune; he thought, nevertheless, that he ought to remain some time +longer in this post of inferiority, in order to use it as a ladder of +ascent. + +The Queen wrote quantities of letters to different countries, and +especially to Spain, but never, or hardly ever, in her own hand. One +day, whilst handling all this correspondence for the princess's +signature, the private secretary slipped one in, addressed to Casimir, +the Polish King. + +In this letter, which from one end to the other sang the praises of the +Seigneur Brisacier, the Queen had the extreme kindness to remind the +Northern monarch of his old liaison with the respectable mother of the +young man, and her Majesty begged the prince to solicit from the King of +France the title and rank of duke for so excellent a subject. + +King Casimir was not, as one knows, distrust and prudence personified; he +walked blindfold into the trap; he wrote with his royal hand to his +brother, the King of France, and asked him a brevet as duke for young +Brisacier. Our King, who did not throw duchies at people's heads, read +and re-read the strange missive with astonishment and suspicion. He +wrote in his turn to the suppliant King, and begged him to send him the +why and the wherefore of this hieroglyphic adventure. The good prince, +ignorant of ruses, sent the letter of the Queen herself. + +Had this princess ever given any reason to be talked about, there is no +doubt that she would have been lost on this occasion; but there was +nothing to excite suspicion. The King, no less, approached her with +precaution, in order to observe the first results of her answers. + +"Madame," he said, "are you still quite satisfied with young Brisacier, +your private secretary?" + +"More or less," replied the Infanta; "a little light, a little absent; +but, on the whole, a good enough young man." + +"Why have you recommended him to the King of Poland, instead of +recommending him to me directly?" + +"To the King of Poland!--I? I have not written to him since I +congratulated him on his succession." + +"Then, madame, you have been deceived in this matter, since I have your +last letter in my hands. Here it is; I return it to you." + +The princess read the letter with attention; her astonishment was +immense. + +"My signature has been used without authority," she said. "Brisacier +alone can be guilty, being the only one interested." + +This new kind of ambitious man was summoned; he was easily confounded. +The King ordered him to prison, wishing to frighten him for a punishment, +and at the end of some days he was commanded to quit France and go and be +made duke somewhere else. + +This event threw such ridicule upon pretenders to the ducal state, that I +no longer dared speak further to the King of the hopes which he had held +out to me; moreover, the things which supervened left me quite convinced +of the small success which would attend my efforts. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +Compliment from Monsieur to the New Prince de Dombes.--Roman History.-- +The Emperors Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, and Verus.--The Danger of Erudition. + +Monsieur, having learnt what his cousin of Montpensier had just done for +my Duc du Maine, felt all possible grief and envy at it. He had always +looked to inherit from her, and the harshest enemy whom M. de Lauzun met +with at his wedding was, undoubtedly, Monsieur. When M. le Duc du Maine +received the congratulations of all the Court on the ground of his new +dignity of Prince de Dombes, his uncle was the last to appear; even so he +could not refrain from making him hear these disobliging words,--who +would believe it?--"If I, too, were to give you my congratulation, it +would be scarcely sincere; what will be left for my children?" + +Madame de Maintenon, who is never at a loss, replied: "There will be left +always, Monseigneur, the remembrance of your virtues; that is a fair +enough inheritance." + +We complained of it to the King; he reprimanded him in a fine fashion. +"I gave you a condition so considerable," said he, "that the Queen, our +mother, herself thought it exaggerated and dangerous in your hands. You +have no liking for my children, although you feign a passionate affection +for their father; the result of your misbehaviour will be that I shall +grow cool to your line, and that your daughter, however beautiful and +amiable she may be, will not marry my Dauphin." + +At this threat Monsieur was quite overcome, and anxious to make his +apologies to the King; he assured him of his tender affection for M. le +Duc du Maine, and would give him to understand that Madame de Maintenon +had misunderstood him. + +"It is not from her that your compliment came to us; it is from M. le Duc +du Maine, who is uprightness itself, and whose mouth has never lied." + +Monsieur then started playing at distraction and puerility; the medal- +case was standing opened, his gaze was turned to it. Then he came to me +and said in a whisper: "I pray you, come and look at the coin of Marcus +Aurelius; do you not find that the King resembles that emperor in every +feature?" + +"You are joking," I answered him. "His Majesty is as much like him as +you are like me." + +He insisted, and his brother, who witnessed our argument, wished to know +the reason. When he understood, he said to Monsieur: "Madame de +Montespan is right; I am not in the least like that Roman prince in face. +The one to whom I should wish to be like in merit is Trajan." + +"Trajan had fine qualities," replied Monsieur; "that does not prevent me +from preferring Marcus Aurelius." + +"On what grounds?" asked his Majesty. + +"On the grounds that he shared his throne with Verus," replied Monsieur, +unhesitatingly. + +The King flushed at this reply, and answered in few words: "Marcus +Aurelius's action to his brother may, be called generous; it was none +the less inconsiderate. By his own confession, the Emperor Verus proved, +by his debauchery and his vices, unworthy, of the honour which had been +done him. Happily, he died from his excesses during the Pannonian War, +and Marcus Aurelius could only do well from that day on." + +Monsieur, annoyed with his erudition and confused at his escapade, sought +to change the conversation. The King, passing into his cabinet, left him +entirely, in my charge. I scolded him for his inconsequences, and he +dared to implore me to put his daughter "in the right way," to become one +day Queen of France by marrying Monsieur le Dauphin, whom she loved +already with her whole heart. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +The Benedictines of Fontevrault.--The Head in the Basin.--The Unfortunate +Delivery.--The Baptism of the Monster.--The Courageous Marriage.-- +Foundation of the Royal Abbey of Fontevrault. + +Two or three days after our arrival at Fontevrault, the King, who loves +to know all the geographical details of important places, asked me of the +form and particulars of the celebrated abbey. I gave him a natural +description of it. + +"They are two vast communities," I told him, "which the founder, for some +inexplicable whim, united in one domain, of an extent which astonishes +the imagination." + +The Community of Benedictine Nuns is regarded as the first, because of +the abbotorial dignity it possesses. The Community of Benedictine Monks +is only second,--a fact which surprises greatly strangers and visitors. +Both in the monastery and the convent the buildings are huge and +magnificent, the courts spacious, the woods and streams well distributed +and well kept. + +"Every morning you may see a hundred and fifty to two hundred ploughs +issue from both establishments; these spread over the plain and till an +immense expanse of land. Carts drawn by bullocks, big mules, or superb +horses are ceaselessly exporting the products of the fields, the meadows, +or the orchards. Innumerable cows cover the pastures, and legions of +women and herds are employed to look after these estates. + +"The aspect of Fontevrault gives an exact idea of the ancient homes of +the Patriarchs, in their remote periods of early civilisation, which saw +the great proprietors delighting in their natal hearth, and finding their +glory, as well as their happiness, in fertilising or assisting nature. + +"The abbess rules like a sovereign over her companion nuns, and over the +monks, her neighbours. She appoints their officers and their temporal +prince. It is she who admits postulants, who fixes the dates of +ordinations, pronounces interdictions, graces, and penances. They render +her an account of their administration and the employment of their +revenues, from which she subtracts carefully her third share, as the +essential right of her crosier of authority." + +"Have you invited the Benedictine Fathers to your fete in the wood?" the +King asked me, smiling. + +"We had no power, Sire," I answered. "There are many young ladies being +educated with the nuns of Fontevrault. The parents of these young ladies +respectful as they are to these monks, would have looked askance at the +innovation. The Fathers never go in there. They are to be seen at the +abbey church, where they sing and say their offices. Only the three +secular chaplains of the abbess penetrate into the house of the nuns; the +youngest of the three cannot be less than fifty. + +"The night of the feast the monks draw near our cloister by means of a +wooden theatre, which forms a terrace, and from this elevation they +participate by the eye and ear in our amusements; that is enough." + +"Has Madame de Mortemart ever related to you the origin of her abbey?" +resumed the King. "Perhaps she is ignorant of it. I am going to tell +you of it, for it is extremely curious; it is not as it is related in the +books, and I take the facts from good authority. You must hear of it, +and you will see. + +"There was once a Comtesse de Poitiers, named Honorinde, to whom fate had +given for a husband the greatest hunter in the world. This man would +have willingly passed his life in the woods, where he hunted, night and +day, what we call, in hunter's parlance, 'big game.' Having won the +victory over a monstrous boar, he cut off the head himself, and this +quivering and bleeding mask he went to offer to his lady in a basin. The +young woman was in the first month of her pregnancy. She was filled with +repugnance and fright at the sight of this still-threatening head; it +troubled her to the prejudice of her fruit. + +"Eight, or seven and a half, months afterwards, she brought into the +world a girl who was human in her whole body, but above had the horrible +head of a wild boar! Imagine what cries, what grief, what despair! The +cure of the place refused baptism, and the Count, broken down and +desolate, ordered the child to be drowned. + +"Instead of throwing it into the water, his servant scrupulously went +straight to the monastery where your sister rules. He laid down his +closed packet in the church of the monks, and then returned to his lord, +who never had any other child. + +"The religious Benedictines, not knowing whence this monster came, +believed there was some prodigy in it. They baptised in this little +person all that was not boar, and left the surplus to Providence. They +brought up the singular creature in the greatest secrecy; it drank and +lapped after the manner of its kind. As it grew up it walked on its +feet, and that without the least imperfection; it could sit down, go on +its knees, and even make a courtesy. But it never articulated any +distinct words, and it had always a harsh and rough voice which howled +and grunted. Its intelligence never reached the knowledge of reading or +writing; but it understood easily all that could be said to it, and the +proof was that it replied by its actions. + +"The Comte de Poitiers having died whilst hunting, Honorinde learnt of +her old serving-man in what refuge, in what asylum, he had long ago +deposited the little one. This good mother proceeded there, and the +monks, after some hesitation, confessed what had become of it. She +wished to see it; they showed it her. At its aspect she felt the same +inward commotion which had, years before, perverted nature. She groaned, +fainted, burst into tears, and never had the courage and firmness to +embrace what she had seen. + +"Her gratitude was not less lively and sincere; she handed a considerable +sum to the Benedictines of Fontevrault, charging them to continue their +good work and charity. + +"The reverend Prior, reflecting that his hideous inmate came of a great +family, and of a family of great property, resolved to procure it as a +wife for his nephew. He sounded the young man, who looked fixedly at his +future bride, and avowed that he was satisfied. + +"She is a good Christian," he replied to his uncle, since you have +baptised her here. She is of a good family, since Honorinde has +recognised her. There are many as ugly as she is to be seen who still +find husbands. I will put a pretty mask on her, and the mask will give +me sufficient illusion. Benedicte, so far as she goes, is well-made; I +hope to have fine children who will talk. + +"The Prior commenced by marrying them; he then confided in Honorinde, +who, not daring to noise abroad this existence, was compelled to submit +to what had been done. + +"The marriage of the young she-monster was not happy. She bit her +husband from morning to night. She did not know how to sit at table, +and would only eat out of a trough. She needed neither an armchair, +a sofa, nor a couch; she stretched herself out on the sand or on the +pavement. + +"Her husband, in despair, demanded the nullification of his marriage; +and as the courts did not proceed fast enough for his impatience, +he killed his companion, Benedicte, with a pistol-shot, at the moment +when she was biting and tearing him before witnesses. + +"Honorinde had her buried at Fontevrault, and over her tomb, at the end +of the year, she built a convent, to which her immense property was +given, where she retired herself as a simple nun, and of which she was +appointed first abbess by the Pope who reigned at the time. + +"There, madame," added the King, "is the somewhat singular origin of the +illustrious abbey which your sister rules with such eclat. You must have +remarked the boar's head, perfectly imitated in sculpture, in the dome; +that mask is the speaking history of the noble community of Fontevrault, +where more than a hundred Benedictine monks obey an abbess." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +Fine Couples Make Fine Children.--The Dauphine of Bavaria.--She +Displeases Madame de Montespan.--First Debut Relating to Madame de +Maintenon, Appointed Lady-in-waiting.--Conversation between the Two +Marquises. + +The King, in his moments of effusion and abandonment (then so full of +pleasantness), had said more than once: "If I have any physical beauty, +I owe it to the Queen, my mother; if my daughters have any beauty, they +owe it to me: it is only fine couples who get fine children." + +When I saw him decided upon marrying Monseigneur le Dauphin, I reminded +him of his maxim. He fell to smiling, and answered me: "Chance, too, +sometimes works its miracles. My choice for my son is a decided thing; +my politics come before my taste, and I have asked for the daughter of +the Elector of Bavaria, whose portrait I will show you. She is not +beautiful, like you; she is prettier than Benedicte, and I hope that she +will not bite Monseigneur le Dauphin in her capricious transports." + +The portrait that the King showed me was a flattering one, as are, in +general, all these preliminary samples. For all that, the Princess +seemed to me hideous, and even disagreeable, especially about her eyes, +that portion of the face which confirms the physiognomy and decides +everything. + +"Monseigneur will never love that woman," I said to the King. "That +constrained look in the pupil, those drooping eyes,--they make my heart +ache." + +"My son, happily," his Majesty answered, "is not so difficult as you and +I. He has already seen this likeness, and at the second look he was +taken; and as we have assured him that the young person is well made, he +cries quits with her face, and proposes to love her as soon as he gets +her." + +"God grant it!" I added; and the King told me, more or less in detail, +of what important personages he was going to compose his household. The +eternal Abbe Bossuet was to become first chaplain, as being the tutor-in- +chief to the Dauphin; the Duchesse de Richelieu, for her great name, was +going to be lady of honour; and the two posts of ladies in waiting were +destined for the Marquise de Rochefort, wife of the Marshal, and for +Madame de Maintenon, ex-governess of the Duc du Maine. The gesture of +disapproval which escaped me gave his Majesty pain. + +"Why this air of contempt or aversion?" he said, changing colour. +"Is it to the Marechale de Rochefort or the Marquise de Maintenon that +you object? I esteem both the one and the other, and I am sorry for you +if you do not esteem them too." + +"The Marechale de Rochefort," I replied, without taking any fright, "is +aged, and almost always sick; a lady of honour having her appearance will +make a contrast with her office. As to the other, she still has beauty +and elegance; but do you imagine, Sire, that the Court of Bavaria and the +Court of France have forgotten, in so short a time, the pleasant and +burlesque name of the poet Scarron?" + +"Every one ought to forget what I have forgotten," replied the King, +"and what my gratitude will not, and cannot forget, I am surprised that +you, madame, should take pleasure in forgetting." + +"She has taken care of my children since the cradle, I admit it with +pleasure," said I to his Majesty, without changing my tone; "you have +given her a marquisate for recompense, and a superb hotel completely +furnished at Versailles. I do not see that she has any cause for +complaint, nor that after such bounty there is more to add." + +"Of eight children that you have brought into the world, madame, she has +reared and attended perfectly to six," replied the King. "The estate of +Maintenon has, at the most, recompensed the education of the Comtes de +Vegin, whose childhood was so onerous. And for the remainder of my +little family, what have I yet done that deserves mention?" + +"Give her a second estate and money," I cried, quite out of patience, +"since it is money which pays all services of that nature; but what need +have you to raise her to great office, and keep her at Court? She dotes, +she says, on her old chateau of Maintenon; do not deprive her of this +delight. By making her lady in waiting, you would be disobliging her." + +"She will accept out of courtesy," he said to me, putting on an air of +mockery. And as the time for the Council was noted by him on my clock, +he went away without adding more. + +Since M. le Duc du Maine had grown up, and Mademoiselle de Nantes had +been confided to the Marquise de Montchevreuil, Madame de Maintenon +continued to occupy her handsome apartment on the Princes' Court. There +she received innumerable visits, she paid assiduous court to the Queen, +who had suddenly formed a taste for her, and took her on her walks and +her visits to the communities; but this new Marquise saw me rarely. +Since the affair of the vine-grower, killed on the road, she declared +that I had insulted her before everybody, and that I had ordered her +imperiously to return to my carriage, as though she had been a waiting- +maid, or some other menial. Her excessive sensibility readily afforded +her this pretext, so that she neglected and visibly overlooked me. + +As she did not come to me, I betook myself to her at a tolerably early +hour, before the flood of visitors, and started her on the history of the +lady in waiting. + +"His Majesty has spoken of it to me," she said, "as of a thing possible; +but I do not think there is anything settled yet in the matter." + +"Will you accept," I asked her, "supposing the King to insist?" + +"I should like a hundred times better," she replied, "to go and live in +independence in my little kingdom of Maintenon, and with my own hands +gather on my walls those velvet, brilliant peaches, which grow so fine in +those districts. But if the King commands me to remain at Court, and +form our young Bavarian Princess in the manners of this country, have I +the right, in good conscience, to refuse?" + +"Your long services have gained you the right to desire and take your +retirement," I said to her; "in your place, I should insist upon the +necessities of my health. And the Court of France will not fall nor +change its physiognomy, even if a German or Iroquois Dauphine should +courtesy awry, or in bad taste." + +Madame de Maintenon began to laugh, and assured me that "her post as lady +in waiting would be an actual burden, if the King had destined her for it +in spite of herself, and there should be no means of withdrawing from +it." + +At this speech I saw clearly that things were already fixed. Not wishing +to call upon me the reproaches of my lord, I carried the conversation no +further. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +The "Powder of Inheritance."--The Chambre Ardente.--The Comtesse de +Soissons's Arrest Decreed.--The Marquise de Montespan Buys Her +Superintendence of the Queen's Council.--Madame de Soubise.--Madame de +Maintenon and the King. + +At the time of the poisonings committed by Madame de Brinvilliers, +the Government obtained evidence that a powder, called "the powder of +inheritance," was being sold in Paris, by means of which impatient heirs +shortened the days of unfortunate holders, and entered into possession +before their time. + +Two obscure women, called La Vigoureuse and La Voisine, were arrested, +having been caught redhanded. Submitted to the question, they confessed +their crime, and mentioned several persons, whom they qualified as +"having bought and made use of the said powder of inheritance." + +We saw suddenly the arrest of the Marechal de Luxembourg, the Princesse +de Tingry, and many others. The 'Chambre Ardente'--[The French Star +Chamber.]--issued a warrant also to seize the person of the Duchesse de +Bouillon and the Comtesse de Soissons, the celebrated nieces of the +Cardinal Mazarin, sisters-in-law, both, of my niece De Nevers, who was +dutifully afflicted thereby. + +The Comtesse de Soissons had possessed hitherto an important office, +whose functions suited me in every respect,--that of the superintendence +of the Queen's household and council. I bought this post at a +considerable price. The Queen, who had never cared for the Countess, +did me the honour of assuring me that she preferred me to the other, +when I came to take my oath in her presence. + +Madame la Princesse de Rohan-Soubise had wished to supplant me at that +time, and I was aware of her constant desire to obtain a fine post at +Court. She loved the King, who had shown her his favours in more than +one circumstance; but, as she had a place neither in his esteem nor in +his affection, I did not fear her. I despatched to her, very adroitly, +a person of her acquaintance, who spoke to her of the new household of a +Dauphine, and gave her the idea of soliciting for herself the place of +lady in waiting, destined for Madame de Maintenon. + +The Princesse de Soubise put herself immediately amongst the candidates. +She wrote to the King, her friend, a pressing and affectionate letter, +to which he did not even reply. She wrote one next in a more majestic +and appropriate style. It was notified to her that she was forbidden to +reappear at Court. + +The prince had resolutely taken his course. He wished to put Madame de +Maintenon in evidence, and what he has once decided he abandons never. + +I was soon aware that costumes of an unheard-of magnificence were being +executed for the Marquise. Gold, silver, precious stones abounded. +I was offered a secret view of her robe of ceremony, with a long mantle +train. I saw this extraordinarily rich garment, and was sorry in advance +for the young stranger, whose lady in waiting could not fail to eclipse +her in everything. + +I then put some questions to myself,--asked myself severely if my +disapproval sprang from natural haughtiness, which would have been +possible, and even excusable, or whether, mingled with all that, was some +little agitation of jealousy and emulation. + +I collected together a crowd of slight and scattered circumstances; +and in this union of several small facts, at first neglected and almost +unperceived, I distinguished on the part of the King a gradual and +increasing attachment for the governess, and at the same time a +negligence in regard to me,--a coldness, a cooling-down, at least, and +that sort of familiarity, close parent of weariness, which comes to sight +in the midst of courtesies and attentions the most satisfying and the +most frequent. + +The King, in the old days, never glanced towards my clock till as late as +possible, and always at the last moment, at the last extremity. Now he +cast his eyes on it a score of times in half an hour. He contradicted me +about trifles. He explained to me ingeniously the faults, or alleged +faults, of my temper and character. If it was a question of Madame de +Maintenon, she was of a birth equal and almost superior to the rest of +the Court. He forgot himself so far as to quote before me the subtilty +of her answers or the delight of her most intimate conversation. Did he +wish to describe a noble carriage, an attitude at once easy and +distinguished, it was Madame de Maintenon's. She possessed this, she +possessed that, she possessed everything. + +Soon there was not the slightest doubt left to me; and I knew, as did the +whole Court, that he openly visited the Marquise, and was glad to pass +some moments there. + +These things, in truth, never lacked some plausible pretext, and he chose +the time when Madame de Montchevreuil and Mademoiselle de Nantes were +presenting their homages to Madame de Maintenon. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +Marie Louise, Daughter of Henrietta of England, Betrothed to the King of +Spain.--Her Affliction.--Jealousy of the King, Her Husband. + +The unfortunate lady, Henrietta of England, had left, at her death, two +extremely young girls, one of them, indeed, being still in the cradle. +The new Madame was seized with good-will for these two orphans to such an +extent as to complain to the King. They were brought up with the +greatest care; they were, both of them, pretty and charming. + +The elder was named Marie Louise. It was this one whom Monsieur destined +in his own mind for Monseigneur le Dauphin; and the Princess, accustomed +early to this prospect, had insensibly adapted to it her mind and hope. +Young, beautiful, agreeable, and charming as her mother, she created +already the keenest sensation at Court, and the King felt an inclination +to cherish her as much as he had loved Madame. But the excessive freedom +which this alliance would not have failed to give his brother, both with +his son-in-law and nephew, and with the Ministry, prevented his Majesty +from giving way to this penchunt for Marie Louise. On the contrary, he +consented to her marriage with the King of Spain, and the news of it was +accordingly carried to Monsieur le Duc d'Orleans. He and his wife felt +much annoyance at it. But after communications of that kind there was +scarcely any course open to be taken than that of acquiescence. Monsieur +conveyed the news to his beloved daughter, and, on hearing that she was +to be made Queen of Spain, this amiable child uttered loud lamentations. + +When she went to Versailles to thank the King, her uncle, her fine eyes +were still suffused with tears. The few words which she uttered were +mingled with sighing and weeping; and when she saw the indifference of +her cousin, who felicitated her like the rest, she almost fainted with +grief and regret. + +"My dear cousin," said this dull-witted young lord, "I shall count the +hours until you go to Spain. You will send me some 'touru', for I am +very fond of it?" + +The King could not but find this reflection of his son very silly and out +of place. But intelligence is neither to be given nor communicated by +example. His Majesty had to support to the end this son, legitimate as +much as you like, but altogether in degree, and with a person which +formed a perpetual contrast with the person of the King. It was my Duc +du Maine who should have been in the eminent position of Monseigneur. +Nature willed it so. She had proved it sufficiently by lavishing all her +favours on him, all her graces; but the laws of convention and usage +would not have it. His Majesty has made this same reflection, groaning, +more than once. + +Marie Louise, having been married by proxy, in the great Chapel of Saint +Germain, where the Cardinal de Bouillon blessed the ring in his quality +of Grand Almoner of France, left for that Spain which her young heart +distrusted. + +Her beauty and charms rendered her precious to the monarch, utterly +melancholy and devout as he was. He did not delay subjecting her to the +wretched, petty, tiresome, and absurd etiquette of that Gothic Court. +Mademoiselle submitted to all these nothings, seeing she had been able to +submit to separation from France. She condemned herself to the most +fastidious observances and the most sore privations, which did not much +ameliorate her lot. + +A young Castilian lord, almost mad himself, thought fit to find this +Queen pretty, and publicly testify his love for her. The jealousy of the +religious King flared up like a funeral torch. He conceived a hatred of +his wife, reserved and innocent though she was. She died cruelly by +poison. And Monseigneur le Dauphin probably cried, after his manner: + +"What a great pity! She won't send me the touru!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +The Dauphine of Bavaria.--The Confessor with Spurs.--Madame de Maintenon +Disputes with Bossuet.--He Opposes to Her Past Ages and History.-- +The Military Absolution. + +Eight months after the wedding of Marie Louise, we witnessed the arrival +of Anne Marie Christine, Princess of Bavaria, daughter of the Elector +Ferdinand. The King and Monseigneur went to receive her at Vitry-le- +Francais, and then escorted her to Chalons, where the Queen was awaiting +her. + +The Cardinal de Bouillon celebrated the marriage in the cathedral church +of this third-class town. The festivities and jubilations there lasted a +week. + +The King had been very willing to charge me with the arrangement of the +baskets of presents destined for the Dauphine; I acquitted myself of this +commission with French taste and a sentiment of what was proper. When +the Queen saw all these magnificent gifts placed and spread out in a +gallery, she cried out, and said: + +"Things were not done so nobly for me; and yet, I can say without vanity, +I was of a better house than she." + +This remark paints the Queen, Maria Theresa, better than anything which +could be said. Can one wonder, after that, that she should have brought +into the world an hereditary prince who so keenly loves 'touru', and asks +for it! + +Madame de Maintenon and M. Bossuet had gone to receive the Princess of +Schelestadt. When she was on her husband's territory, and it was +necessary, to confess her for the sacrament of matrimony, she was +strangely embarrassed. They had not remembered to bring a chaplain of +her own nation for her; and she could not confess except in the German +tongue. + +Madame de Maintenon, who is skilled in all matters of religion, said to +the prelate: "I really think, monsieur, that, having educated Monsieur le +Dauphin, you ought to know a little German,--you who have composed the +treatise on universal history." + +The Bishop of Meaux excused himself, saying that he knew Greek, Syriac, +and even Hebrew; but that, through a fatality, he was ignorant of the +German language. A trumpeter was then sent out to ask if there was not +in the country a Catholic priest who was a German, or acquainted with the +German tongue. Luckily one was found, and Madame de Maintenon, who is +very, pedantic, even in the matter of toilet and ornaments, trembled with +joy and thanked God for it. But what was her astonishment when they came +to bring her the priest! He was in coloured clothes, a silk doublet, +flowing peruke, and boots and spurs. The lady in waiting rated him +severely, and was tempted to send him back. But Bossuet--a far greater +casuist than she--decided that in these urgent cases one need hold much +less to forms. They were contented with taking away the spurs from this +amphibious personage; they pushed him into a confessional,--the curtain +of which he was careful to draw before himself,--and they brought the +Bavarian Princess, who, not knowing the circumstances, confessed the sins +of her whole life to this sort of soldier. + +Madame de Maintenon always had this general confession on her conscience; +she scolded Bossuet for it as a sort of sacrilege, and the latter, who +was only difficult and particular with simple folk, quoted historical +examples in which soldiers, on the eve of battle, had confessed to their +general. + +"Yes," said the King, on hearing these quotations from the imperturbable +man; "that must have been to the Bishop of Puy or the Bishop of Orange, +who, in effect, donned the shield and cuirass at the time of the crusades +against the Saracens; or perhaps, again, to the Cardinal de la Valette +d'Epernon, who commanded our armies under Richelieu successfully." + +"No, Sire," replied the Bishop; "to generals who were simply soldiers." + +"But," said the King, "were the confessions, then, null?" + +"Sire," added the Bishop of Meaux, "circumstances decide everything. +Of old, in the time of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and much later still, +confessions of Christians were public,--made in a loud voice; sometimes a +number together, and always in the open air. Those of soldiers that I +have quoted to madame were somewhat of the kind of these confessions of +the primitive Church; and to-day, still, at the moment when battle is +announced, a military almoner gives the signal for confession. The +regiments confess on their knees before the Most High, who hears them; +and the almoner, raised aloft on a pile of drums, holds the crucifix in +one hand, and with the other gives the general absolution to eighty +thousand soldiers at once." + +This clear and precise explanation somewhat calmed Madame de Maintenon, +and Madame la Dauphine,--displeased at what she had done on arriving,-- +in order to be regular, learned to confess in French. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +Pere de la Chaise.--The Jesuits.--The Pavilion of Belleville.-- +The Handkerchief. + +Pere de la Chaise has never done me good or ill; I have no motives for +conciliating him, no reason to slander him. I am ignorant if he were the +least in the world concerned, at the epoch of the Grand Jubilee, with +those ecclesiastical attempts of which Bossuet had constituted himself +spokesman. Pere de la Chaise has in his favour a great evenness of +temper and character; an excellent tone, which comes to him from his +birth; a conciliatory philosophy, which renders him always master of his +condition and of his metier. He is, in a single individual, the happy +combination of several men, that is to say, be is by turns, and as it may +be needful, a man indulgent or severe in his preaching; a man of +abstinence, or a good feeder; a man of the world, or a cenobite; a man of +his breviary, or a courtier. He knows that the sins of woodcutters and +the sins of kings are not of the same family, and that copper and gold +are not weighed in the same scales. + +He is a Jesuit by his garb; be is much more so than they are by his +'savoir-vivre'. His companions love the King because he is the King; he +loves him, and pities him because he sees his weakness. He shows for his +penitent the circumspection and tenderness of a father, and in the long +run he has made of him a spoiled child. + +This Pere de la Chaise fell suddenly ill, and with symptoms so alarming +that the cabals each wished to appropriate this essential post of +confessor. + +The Jansenists would have been quite willing to lay hold of it. The +Jesuits, and principally the cordons bleus, did not quit the pillow of +the sick man for an instant. + +The King had himself informed of his condition every half-hour. There +was a bulletin, as there is for potentates. One evening, when the +doctors were grave on his account, I saw anxiety and affliction painted +on the visage of his Majesty. + +"Where shall I find his like?" said he to me. "Where shall I find such +knowledge, such indulgence, such kindness? The Pere de la Chaise knew +the bottom of my heart; he knew, as an intelligent man, how to reconcile +religion with nature; and when duty brings me to the foot of his +tribunal, as a humble Christian, he never forgets that royalty, cannot be +long on its knees, and he accompanies with his attentions and with +deference the religious commands which he is bound to impose on me." + +"I hope that God will preserve him to you," I replied to his Majesty; +"but let us suppose the case in which this useful and precious man should +see his career come to an end; will you grant still this mark of +confidence and favour to the Jesuits? All the French being your +subjects, would it not be fitting to grant this distinction sometimes to +the one and sometimes to the other? You would, perhaps, extinguish by +this that hate or animosity by which the Jesuits see themselves assailed, +which your preference draws upon them." + +"I do not love the Jesuits with that affection that you seem to suggest," +replied the monarch. "I look upon them as men of instruction, as a +learned and well-governed corporation; but as for their attachment for +me, I know how to estimate it. This kind of people, strangers to the +soft emotions of nature, have no affection or love for anything. Before +the triumph of the King my grandfather, they intrigued and exerted +themselves to bring about his fall; he opened the gates of Paris, and the +Jesuits, like the Capuchins, at once recognised him and bowed down before +him. King Henri, who knew what men are, pretended to forget the past; he +pronounced himself decidedly in favour of the Jesuits because this body +of teachers, numerous, rich, and of good credit, had just pronounced +itself in favour of him. + +"It was, then, a reconciliation between power and power, and the politics +of my grandfather were to survive him and become mine, since the same +elements exist and I am encamped on the same ground. If God takes away +from me my poor Pere de la Chaise, I shall feel this misfortune deeply, +because I shall lose in him, not a Jesuit, not a priest, but a good +companion, a trusty and proved friend. If I lose him, I shall assuredly +be inconsolable for him; but it will be very necessary for me to take his +successor from the Grand Monastery of the Rue Saint Antoine. This +community knows me by heart, and I do not like innovations." + +The successor of the Pere de la Chaise was already settled with the +Jesuit Fathers; but this man of the vanguard was spared marching and +meeting danger. The Court was not condemned to see and salute a new +face; the old confessor recovered his health. His Majesty experienced a +veritable joy at it, a joy as real as if the Prince of Orange had died. + +Wishing to prove to the good convalescent how dear his preservation was +to him, the King released him from his function for the rest of the year, +and begged him to watch over his health, the most important of his duties +and his possessions. + +Having learnt that they had neither terraces nor gardens at the grand +monastery of the Rue Saint Antoine, his Majesty made a present to his +confessor of a very agreeable house in the district of Belleville, and +caused to be transported thither all kinds of orange-trees, rare shrubs, +and flowers from Versailles. These tasteful attentions, these filial +cares, diverted the capital somewhat; but Paris is a rich soil, where the +strangest things are easily received and naturalised without an effort. + +The Pare de la Chaise had his chariot with his arms on it, and his family +livery; and as the income from his benefices remained to him, joined to +his office of confessor, he continued to have every day a numerous court +of young abbes, priests well on in years, barons, countesses, marquises, +magistrates and colonels, who came to Belleville in anxiety about his +health, to congratulate themselves upon his convalescence, to ask of him, +with submission and reverence, a bishopric, an archbishopric, +a cardinal's hat, an important priory, a canonry, or an abbey. + +Having myself to place the three daughters of one of my relatives, I went +to see the noble confessor at his pavilion of Belleville. He received me +with the most marked distinction, and was lavish in acts of gratitude for +all the benefits of the King. + +As he crossed his salon, in order to accompany me and escort me out, he +let his white handkerchief fall; three bishops at once flung themselves +upon it, and there was a struggle as to who should pick it up to give it +back to him. + +I related to the King what I had seen. He said to me: "These prelates +honour my confessor, looking upon him as a second me." In fact, the sins +of the King could only throw his confessor into relief and add to his +merit. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +Mademoiselle de Fontanges.--The Pavilions of the Garden of Flora.--Rapid +Triumph of the Favourite.--Her Retreat to Val-de-grace.--Her Death. + +Madame de Maintenon was already forty-four years old, and appeared to be +only thirty. This freshness, that she owed either to painstaking care or +to her happy and quite peculiar constitution, gave her that air of youth +which fascinated the eyes of the courtiers and those of the monarch +himself. I wished one day to annoy her by bringing the conversation on +this subject, which could not be diverting to her. I began by putting +the question generally, and I then named several of our superannuated +beauties who still fluttered in the smiling gardens of Flora without +having the youth of butterflies. + +"There are butterflies of every age and colour in the gardens of Flora," +said she, catching the ball on the rebound. "There are presumptuous +ones, whom the first breath of the zephyr despoils of their plumage and +discolours; others, more reserved and less frivolous, keep their glamour +and prestige for a much longer time. For the rest, the latter seem to me +to rejoice without being vain in their advantages. And at bottom, what +should any insect gain by being proud?" + +"Very little," I answered her, "since being dressed as a butterfly does +not prevent one from being an insect, and the best sustained preservation +lasts at most till the day after to-morrow." + +The King entered. I started speaking of a young person, extremely +beautiful, who had just appeared at Court, and would eclipse, in my +opinion, all who had shone there before her. + +"What do you call her?" asked his Majesty. "To what family does she +belong?" + +"She comes from the provinces," I continued, "just like silk, silver, and +gold. Her parents desire to place her among the maids of honour of the +Queen. Her name is Fontanges, and God has never made anything so +beautiful." + +As I said these words I watched the face of the Marquise. She listened +to this portrayal with attention, but without appearing moved by it, such +is her power of suppressing her natural feeling. The King only added +these words: + +"This young person needs be quite extraordinary, since Madame de +Montespan praises her, and praises her with so much vivacity. However, +we shall see." + +Two days afterwards, Mademoiselle de Fontanges was seen in the salon of +the grand table. The King, in spite of his composure, had looks and +attentions for no one else. + +This excessive preoccupation struck the Queen, who, marking the +blandishments of the young coquette and the King's response, guessed the +whole future of this encounter; and in her heart was almost glad at it, +seeing that my turn had come. + +Mademoiselle de Fontanges, given to the King by her shameless family, +feigned love and passion for the monarch, as though he had returned by +enchantment to his twentieth year. + +As for him, he too appeared to us to forget all dates. I know that he +was only now forty-one years old, and having been the finest man in the +world, he could not but preserve agreeable vestiges of a once striking +beauty. But his young conquest had hardly entered on her eighteenth +year, and this difference could not fail to be plain to the most +inattentive, or most indulgent eyes. + +The King, with a sort of anticipatory resignation, had for six or seven +years greatly simplified his appearance. We had seen him, little by +little, reform that Spanish and chivalric costume with which he once +embellished his first loves. The flowing plumes no longer floated over +his forehead, which had become pensive and quite serious. The diagonal, +scarf was suppressed, and the long boots, with gold and silver +embroidery, were no longer seen. To please his new divinity, the monarch +suddenly enough rejuvenated his attire. The most elegant stuffs became +the substance of his garments; feathers reappeared. He joined to them +emeralds and diamonds. + +Allegorical comedies, concerts on the waters recommenced. Triumphant +horse-races set the whole Court abob and in movement. There was a fresh +carousal; there was all that resembles the enthusiasms of youthful +affection, and the deliriums of youth. The youth alone was not there, +at least in proportion, assortment, and similarity. + +All that I was soliciting for twelve years, Mademoiselle de Fontanges had +only to desire for a week. She was created duchess at her debut; and the +lozenge of her escutcheon was of a sudden adorned with a ducal coronet, +and a peer's mantle. + +I did not deign to pay attention to this outrage; at least, I made a +formal resolution never to say a single word on it. + +The King came no less from time to time, to pay me a visit, and to talk +to me, as of old, of operas and his hunting. I endured his conversation +with a philosophical phlegm. He scarcely suspected the change in me. + +At the chase, one day, his nymph, whom nothing could stop, had her knot +of riband caught and held by a branch; the royal lover compelled the +branch to restore the knot, and went and offered it to his Amazon. +Singular and sparkling, although lacking in intelligence, she carried +herself this knot of riband to the top of her hair, and fixed it there +with a long pin. + +Fortune willed it that this coiffure, without order or arrangement, +suited her face, and suited it greatly. The King was the first to +congratulate her on it; all the courtiers applauded it, and this coiffure +of the chase became the fashion of the day. + +All the ladies, and the Queen herself, found themselves obliged to adopt +it. Madame de Maintenon submitted herself to it, like the others. I +alone refused to sacrifice to the idol, and my knee, being once more +painful, would not bend before Baal. + +With the exception of the general duties of the sovereignty, the prince +appeared to have forgotten everything for his flame. The Pere de la +Chaise, who had returned to his post, regarded this fresh incident with +his philosophic calm, and congratulated himself on seeing the monarch +healed of at least one of his passions. + +I had always taken the greatest care to respect the Queen; and since my +star condemned me to stand in her shoes, I did not spare myself the +general attentions which two well-born people owe one another, and which, +at least, prove a lofty education. + +The Duchesse de Fontanges, doubtless, believed herself Queen, because she +had the public homage and the King. This imprudent and conceited +schoolgirl had the face to pass before her sovereign without stopping, +and without troubling to courtesy. + +The Infanta reddened with disapproval, and persuaded herself, by way of +consolation, that Fontanges had lost her senses or was on the road to +madness. + +Beautiful and brilliant as the flowers, the Duchess, like them, passed +swiftly away. Her pregnancy, by reason of toilsome rides, hunting +parties, and other agitations, became complicated. From the eighth month +she fell into a fever, into exhaustion and languor. The terror that took +possession of her imagination caused her to desire a sojourn in a convent +as a refuge of health, where God would see her nearer and, perhaps, come +to her aid. + +She had herself transported during the night to the House of the Ladies +of Val-de-Grace, and desired that they should place in her chamber +several relics from their altars. + +Her confinement was not less laboured and sinister. When she saw that +all the assistance of art could not stop the bleeding, with which her +deep bed was flooded, she caused the King to be summoned, embraced him +tenderly, in the midst of sobs and tears, and died in the night, +pronouncing the name of God and the name of the King, the objects of her +love and of fears. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +Madame de Sevigne.--Madame de Grignan.--Madame de Montespan at the +Carmelites.--Madame de la Valliere.--These Two Great Ruins Console One +Another.--An Angel of Sweetness, Goodness, and Kindness. + +Fifteen or twenty days before the death of Mademoiselle de Fontanges, my +sister and I were taking a walk in the new woods of Versailles. We met +the Marquise de Sevigne near the canal; she was showing these marvellous +constructions to her daughter, the Comtesse de Grignan. They greeted us +with their charming amiability, and, after having spoken of several +indifferent matters, the Marquise said to me: "We saw, five or six days +ago, a person, madame, of whom you were formerly very fond, and who +charged us to recall her to the memory of her friends. You are still of +that number,--I like to think so, and our commission holds good where you +are concerned, if you will allow it." + +Then she mentioned to me that poor Duchesse de la Valliere, to whom I was +once compelled by my unhappy star to give umbrage, and whom, in my fatal +thoughtlessness, I had afflicted without desiring it. + +Tears came into my eyes; Madame de Sevigne saw them, and expressed her +regret at having caused me pain. Madame de Thianges and I asked her if +my old friend was much changed. She and Madame de Grignan assured us +that she was fresh, in good health, and that her face appeared more +beautiful. On the next day I wished absolutely to see her, and drove to +the Carmelites. + +On seeing my pretty cripple, who hobbled among us with so great a charm, +I uttered a cry, which for a moment troubled her. She sank down to +salute the crucifix, as custom demands, and, after her short prayer, she +came to me. "I did not mention your name to Mesdames de Sevigne," said +she; "but, however, I am obliged to them, since they have been able to +procure me the pleasure of seeing you once more." + +"The general opinion of the Court, and in the world, my dear Duchess," +answered I, "is that I brought about your disgrace myself; and the +public, that loved you, has not ceased to reproach me with your +misfortune." + +"The public is very kind still to occupy itself with me," she answered; +"but it is wrong in that, as in so many other matters. My retirement +from the world is not a misfortune, and I never suspected that the soul +could find such peace and satisfaction in these silent solitudes. + +"The first days were painful to me, I admit it, owing to the +inexpressible difference which struck me between what I found here and +what I had left elsewhere. But just as the eye accustoms itself, little +by little, to the feeble glimmer of a vault, in the same way my body has +accustomed itself to the roughness of my new existence, and my heart to +all its great privations. + +"If life had not to finish, in fulfilment of a solemn, universal, and +inevitable decree, the constraint that I have put upon myself might at +length become oppressive, and my yoke prove somewhat heavy. But all that +will finish soon, for all undertakings come to an end. I left you young, +beautiful, adored, and triumphant in the land of enchantments. But six +years have passed, and they assure me that your own afflictions have +come, and that you, yourself, have been forced to drink the bitter cup of +deprivation." + +At these words, pronounced in a melancholy and celestial voice, I felt as +though my heart were broken, and burst into tears. + +"I pity you, Athenais," she resumed. "Is, then, what I have been told +lightly, and almost in haste, only too certain for you? How is it you +did not expect it? How could you believe him constant and immutable, +after what happened to me? + +"To-day, I make no secret to you of it, and I say it with the peaceful +indifference which God has generously granted me, after such dolorous +tribulations. I make no secret of it to you, Athenais; a thousand times +you plunged the sword and dagger into my heart, when, profiting by my +confidence in you, by my sense of entire security, you permitted your own +inclination to substitute itself for mine, and a young man seething with +desires to be attracted by your charms. These unlimited sufferings +exhausted, I must believe, all the sensibility of my soul. And when this +corrosive flame had completely devoured my grief, a new existence grew up +in me; I no longer saw in the father of my children other than a young +prince, accustomed to see his dominating will fulfilled in everything. +Knowing how little in this matter he is master of himself, he who knows +so well how to be master of himself in everything to do with his numerous +inferiors, I deplored the facility he enjoys from his attractions, from +his wealth, from his power to dazzle the hearts which he desires to move +and subdue. + +"Recognise these truths, my dear Marquise," she added, "and gain, for it +is time, a just idea of your position. After the unhappiness I felt at +being loved no longer, I should have quitted the Court that very instant, +if I had been permitted to bring up and tend my poor children. They were +too young to abandon! I stayed still in the midst of you, as the swallow +hovers and flits among the smoke of the fire, in order to watch over and +save her little ones. Do not wait till disdain or authority mingles in +the matter. Do not come to the sad necessity of resisting a monarch, +and of detesting to the point of scandal that which you have so publicly +loved; pity him, but depart. This kind of intimacy, once broken, cannot +be renewed. However skilfully it may be patched up, the rent always +reappears." + +"My good Louise," I replied to the amiable Carmelite, "your wise counsels +touch me, persuade me, and are nothing but the truth. But in listening +to you I feel overwhelmed; and that strength which you knew how to gain, +and show to the world, your former companion will never possess. + +"I see with astonished eyes the supernatural calm which reigns in your +countenance; your health seems to me a prodigy, your beauty was never so +ravishing; but this barbarous garb pierces me to the heart. + +"The King does not yet hate me; he shows me even a remnant of respect, +with which he would colour his indifference. Permit me to ask from him +for you an abbey like that of Fontevrault, where the felicities of +sanctuary and of the world are all in the power of my sister. He will +ask nothing better than to take you out, be assured." + +"Speak to him of me," answered Louise; "I do not oppose that; but leave +me until the end the role of obedience and humility that his fault and +mine impose on me. Why should he wish that I should command others,-- +I who did not know how to command myself at an epoch when my innocence +was so dear to me, and when I knew that, in losing that, one is lost?" + +As she said these words two nuns came to announce her Serene Highness, +that is to say, her daughter, the Princesse de Conti. I prayed Madame de +la Valliere to keep between ourselves the communications that had just +taken place in the intimacy of confidence. She promised me with her +usual candour. I made a profound reverence to the daughter, embraced the +mother weeping, and regained my carriage, which the Princess must have +remarked on entering. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +Reflections.--The Future.--The Refuge of Foresight.--Community of Saint +Joseph.--Wicked Saying of Bossuet. + +I wept much during the journey; and to save the spectacle of my grief +from the passers-by, I was at the pains to lower the curtains. I passed +over in my mind all that the Duchess had said to me. It was very easy +for me to understand that the monarch's heart had escaped me, and that, +owing to his character, all resistance, all contradiction would be vain. +The figure, as it had been supernumerary and on sufferance, which the +Duchess had made in the midst of the Court when she ceased to be loved, +returned to my memory completely, and I felt I had not the courage to +drink a similar cup of humiliation. + +I reminded myself of what the prince had told me several times in those +days when his keen affection for me led him to wish for my happiness, +even in the future,--even after his death, if I were destined to survive +him. + +"You ought," he said to me, at those moments, "you ought to choose and +assure yourself beforehand of an honourable retreat; for it is rarely +that a king accords his respect or his good-will to the beloved +confidante of his predecessor." + +Not wishing to ask a refuge of any one, but, on the contrary, being +greatly set upon ruling in my own house, I resolved to build myself, not +a formal convent like Val-de-Grace or Fontevrault, but a pretty little +community, whose nuns, few in number, would owe me their entire +existence, which would necessarily attach them to all my interests. +I held to this idea. I charged my intendant to seek for me a site +spacious enough for my enterprise; and when he had found it, had showed +it to me, and had satisfied me with it, I had what rambling buildings +there were pulled down, and began, with a sort of joy, the excavations +and foundations. + +The first blow of the hammer was struck, by some inconceivable fortuity, +at the moment when the Duchesse de Fontanges expired. Her death did not +weaken my resolutions nor slacken my ardour. I got away quite often to +cast an eye over the work, and ordered my architect to second my +impatience and spur on the numerous workmen. + +The rumour was current in Paris that the example of "Soeur Louise" had +touched me, and that I was going to take the veil in my convent. I took +no notice of this fickle public, and persisted wisely in my plan. + +The unexpected and almost sudden decease of Mademoiselle de Fontanges had +singularly moved the King. Extraordinary and almost incredible to +relate, he was for a whole week absent from the Council. His eyes had +shed so many tears that they were swollen and unrecognisable. He shunned +the occasions when there was an assembly, buried himself in his private +apartments or in his groves, and resembled, in every trait, Orpheus +weeping for his fair Eurydice, and refusing to be consoled. + +I should be false to others and to myself if I were to say that his +extreme grief excited my compassion; but I should equally belie the truth +if I gave it to be understood that his "widowhood" gave me pleasure, +and that I congratulated myself on his sorrow and bitterness. + +He came to see me when he found himself presentable, and, for the first +few days, I abstained from all reprisal and any allusion. The +innumerable labours of his State soon threw him, in spite of himself, +into those manifold distractions which, in their nature, despise or +absorb the sensibilities of the soul. He resumed, little by little, his +accustomed serenity, and, at the end of the month, appeared to have got +over it. + +"What," he asked me, "are those buildings with which you are busy in +Paris, opposite the Ladies of Belle-Chasse? I hear of a convent; is it +your intention to retire?" + +"It is a 'refuge of foresight,'" I answered him. "Who can count upon the +morrow? And after what has befallen Mademoiselle de Fontanges, we must +consider ourselves as persons already numbered, who wait only for the +call." + +He sighed, and soon spoke of something else. + +I reminded myself that, to speak correctly, I had in Paris no habitation +worthy of my children and of my quality. That little hotel in the Rue +Saint Andre-des-Arcs I could count for no more than a little box. +I sought amongst my papers for a design of a magnificent hotel which I +had obtained from the famous Blondel. I found it without difficulty, +with full elevations and sections. The artist had adroitly imitated in +it the beautiful architecture of the Louvre; this fair palace would suit +me in every respect. + +My architect, at a cursory glance, judged that the construction and +completion of this edifice would easily cost as much as eighteen hundred +thousand livres. This expense being no more than I could afford, I +commissioned him to choose me a spacious site for the buildings and +gardens over by Roule and La Pepiniere. + +Not caring to superintend several undertakings at once, I desired, before +everything, that my house in the Faubourg Saint Germain should be +complete and when the building and the chapel were in a condition to +receive the little colony, I dedicated my "refuge of foresight" to Saint +Joseph, the respectful spouse of the Holy Virgin and foster-father of the +Child Jesus. This agreeable mansion lacked a large garden. I felt a +sensible regret for this, especially for the sake of my inmates; but +there was a little open space furnished with vines and fruit-walls, and +one of the largest courtyards in the whole of the Faubourg Saint Germain. + +Having always loved society, I had multiplied in the two principal blocks +of the sleeping-rooms and the entrance-hall complete apartments for the +lady inmates. And a proof that I was neither detested by the world nor +unconsidered is that all these apartments were sought after and occupied +as soon as the windows were put in and the painting done. My own +apartment was simple, but of a majestic dignity. It communicated with +the chapel, where my tribune, closed with a handsome window, was in face +of the altar. + +I decided, once for all, that the Superior should be my nomination whilst +God should leave me in this world, but that this right should not pass on +to my heirs. The bell of honour rang for twenty minutes every time I +paid a visit to these ladies; and I only had incense at high mass, and at +the Magnificat, in my quality of foundress. + +I went from time to time to make retreats, or, to be more accurate, +vacations, in my House of Saint Joseph. M. Bossuet solicited the favour +of being allowed to preach there on the day of the solemn consecration. +I begged him to preserve himself for my funeral oration. He answered +cruelly that there was nothing he could refuse me. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Grow like a dilapidated house; I am only here to repair myself +He contradicted me about trifles +Intimacy, once broken, cannot be renewed +Jealous without motive, and almost without love +The King replied that "too much was too much" +The monarch suddenly enough rejuvenated his attire +There is an exaggeration in your sorrow + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Memoirs of Madame de Montespan, v5 +by Madame La Marquise De Montespan + |