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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/77579-0.txt b/77579-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..539aa15 --- /dev/null +++ b/77579-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9795 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77579 *** +Transcriber’s Note: Two pages of adverts have been moved to the end of +the book. + + + + + THE YOUTH + OF + MADAME DE LONGUEVILLE, + OR + NEW REVELATIONS + OF + COURT AND CONVENT IN THE SEVENTEENTH + CENTURY. + + FROM THE FRENCH OF VICTOR COUSIN. + + BY F. W. RICORD. + + NEW YORK: + D. APPLETON & CO., 346 & 348 BROADWAY, + AND 16 LITTLE BRITAIN, LONDON. + M DCCC LIV. + + Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, + BY D. APPLETON & COMPANY, + In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States + for the Southern District of New York. + + + + + TO + + ABRAM COLES, M. D., + + OF NEWARK, N. J., + + AS A TRIBUTE TO HIS MANY VIRTUES, + + AND AS A SMALL RETURN FOR HIS MANY KINDNESSES, + + This Volume + + IS RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED + + BY HIS FRIEND, + + THE TRANSLATOR. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + INTRODUCTION. + + The person of Madame de Longueville—Description + of contemporaries—Authentic portraits—Her wit and + style—Her character—Explanation of her conduct in the + Fronde—Mademoiselle de La Vallière and Madame de Longueville 15 + + CHAPTER I. + 1619 to 1635. + + Mademoiselle de Bourbon in her family—Her mother, Charlotte de + Montmorency—Her father, M. the Prince—Her brother, the Duke + d’Enghien—Her religious education—The convent of the Carmelites + of the Rue Saint-Jacques—The four great prioresses—Mademoiselle + d’Epernon—Mademoiselle de Bourbon at the ball of the Louvre, + February 18, 1635—Her portrait at the age of fifteen years 79 + + CHAPTER II. + 1635 to 1642. + + Mademoiselle de Bourbon at the hôtel de Rambouillet—The Genre + Précieux—Madame de Sablé, type of the true précieuse—Corneille + and Voiture—Mademoiselle de Bourbon at Chantilly—At Ruel—At + Liancourt—Her young friends—Mademoiselle Du Vigean and + Condé—Marriage of Mademoiselle de Bourbon 150 + + CHAPTER III. + 1642 to 1644. + + Poetry and gallantry—State of affairs in 1643—Battle of + Rocroy—Mazarin and the _Importants_—Madame de Montbazon—Letter + attributed to Madame de Longueville—Duel between Coligny and De + Guise—An unpublished novel of the seventeenth century 241 + + CHAPTER IV. + 1644 to 1649. + + Campaigns of Condé in Flanders and on the Rhine—Congress + and peace of Munster—Madame de Longueville at Munster—Her + portrait by Van Hull—Her return to France—Her brother, the + Prince de Conti—Sonnets of Voiture and of Benserade—La + Rochefoucauld—Commencement of his connection with Madame de + Longueville—The first Fronde—Noble conduct of Condé—Madame de + Longueville at the hôtel de Ville—Birth of Charles de Paris, + Count de Saint-Paul—Peace of 1649 309 + + + + +PREFACE. + + +Villefore has written the life of Madame de Longueville, and it is +not our intention to re-write it. We have only wished to penetrate +into the intimacy of a lofty spirit, that inspires us with an especial +interest, by the aid of the most reliable documents that history can +employ—confidential correspondences, in which hearts, opening themselves +far from the eye of the public, involuntarily reveal characters, that +is to say, the truest causes of human events. In order to procure such +documents, we have delved, with the perseverance of passion, in libraries +public and private, and have succeeded in laying hands upon a very great +number of unpublished letters, which have elucidated for us many obscure +points in the life of Mme. de Longueville, of that of Condé, her brother, +of their most celebrated contemporaries, male and female. + +In default, then, of every other merit, this production will at least +have that of offering to the reader things hitherto unknown, or scarcely +perceived: for example, the interior, for the first time opened, of that +great convent of the Carmelites of the _Rue Saint Jacques_, which served +as an asylum to so many wounded hearts, where Mlle. de Bourbon was, as +it were, brought up, and wished, at fifteen years of age, to bury her +beauty and her genius; the graceful pastimes of her youth at the Louvre, +at the hôtel de Rambouillet, at Chantilly, at Ruel, at Liancourt; her +charming friends, her brilliant and valiant adorers; the skilful and too +little appreciated politics of her father; the military education, and +also the first loves of Condé; above all, that pure and touching Mlle. Du +Vigean, worthy object of the tenderness of a hero, whom we have in some +sort found again, whom we dare to put by the side of Mlle. de La Vallière. + +For more than fifteen years, in our hours of leisure, we have dreamed of +a work the most foreign to our ordinary labors, which has attracted us, +and attached us by its very contrast. The great men, and particularly the +great writers, of the seventeenth century, are almost our contemporaries; +but the women were then not less remarkable than the men, and scarcely +any of them, except Mme. de Sévigné, Mme. de La Fayette, and a very few +others, are known; whilst there were everywhere, at the court and in the +_salons_ of Paris, in the brilliant country-seats of the aristocracy, +and in the austere retreats of religion, women of great spirit and great +heart, who doubtless knew not how to write like professional authors, +who nevertheless wrote much, because it was the mode of the times, who +would not write in a mediocre manner, with the thoughts and sentiments +on which they had been nourished. We have therefore amused ourselves in +searching for, and we have succeeded in discovering a literature wholly +feminine, three-quarters unknown, which does not seem to us unworthy +of having a place by the side of the manly literature in possession of +universal admiration. Hence the project of a gallery of illustrious +females of the seventeenth century, upon the model of the illustrious men +of Perrault. We have given the first page of such a history in JACQUELINE +PASCAL;[1] and this is probably the last. Age is coming on; the heavens +are growing dark; and we owe ourselves to more serious thoughts, to a +great cause which we have heretofore served with the ardor and the energy +of youth, which to-day, compromised by some, betrayed by others, claims +our last efforts, and our highest devotion.[2] Nevertheless, we shall +not regret the moments that we have given to these studies, somewhat +light, if they can increase the knowledge of, and a taste for the most +admirable epoch of our history, of that powerful French society of the +seventeenth century, which is the more admired the more it is seen under +its different aspects; when France was a spectacle to the nations, and +marched at the head of humanity, when philosophy was an honor, as well as +poetry and the arts, the religious spirit and the military spirit; when +Descartes divided public esteem with Corneille and Condé; when Mme. de +Grignan studied him with a passionate vivacity; when Bossuet and Arnauld, +Fénelon and Malebranche, openly declared themselves his disciples. +So that, to speak truly, at that common focus of the great and the +beautiful, our literary predilections and our philosophic faith are tied +to each other in an intimate manner, and reciprocally vivify each other. + +But if the seventeenth century has more than ever our admiration, we +guard ourselves from the too much accredited error that confounds that +century with the reign of Louis XIV. Surely Louis XIV. is for us also a +great king. He had, what is rarest in the world, grandeur in character; +that is his immortal glory. Moreover, he was reserved, attentive, +laborious, capable of a firm and persistent course; but, it must be said, +he was profoundly selfish, and loved his person and his family much +more than France. He was radically deceived in the only two enterprises +that originated in his own will,—the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, +and the wars of the Succession. He left France humiliated, enfeebled, +discontented, and already full of the germs of revolutions; whilst Henry +IV., Richelieu, and Mazarin had transmitted it to him covered with glory, +powerful and preponderant abroad, tranquil and satisfied at home. Louis +XIV. terminates the seventeenth century: he did not inspire it, and he +is far from being its perfect representative. It was under Henry IV., +under Louis XIII., and under Queen Anne, that were born, formed, and +even developed, the great statesmen and the great warriors, as well as +the greatest writers of either sex, those even, like Madame de Sévigné +and Bossuet, whose career was most prolonged. The influence of Louis +XIV. made itself felt sufficiently late. He took the reins of government +only in 1661, and at first he followed his times, and did not control +them; he truly appeared himself, only when he was no longer guided by +Lyonne and Colbert, the last disciples of Richelieu and Mazarin. It was +then that, governing almost alone and superior to all around him, he +placed everywhere the impress of his taste, in politics, in religion, in +manners, in arts, and in letters. He substituted in every way simplicity +for _naïveté_, nobility for grandeur, dignity for force, elegance for +grace: he effaced characters, and polished, as it were, the surface of +souls; he eradicated great vices and great virtues; he put the purely +literary, and consequently the somewhat inferior school of Racine and +Boileau in the place of that great school of virtue, politics, and war, +instituted by Corneille; as heirs to Descartes, Pascal, and Bossuet, +he gave Massillon, Fontenelle, and Voltaire—the true children of the +end of the seventeenth century. After Madame de Sévigné, that rival of +Molière, formed, like him, from 1640 to 1660, appeared Mme. de Maintenon, +the model of the common-place, with her agreeable small-talk, Mme. de +Coylus, Mme. de Stael, and Mme. Lambert. Add to that, as we have already +said, the wholly gratuitous revocation of the Edict of Nantes, when +Protestants, subdued, but protected, rivalled in zeal the Catholics for +the service of the state, and when their most illustrious families were +by degrees converted; add especially, the deplorable wars undertaken by +Louis XIV., with a ministry of court clerks and generals, in order to put +the crown of Spain on the head of his grandson, when in exchange for his +pretensions, and without drawing the sword, he might have given Belgium +to France; and you have the end of a reign that little resembles its +beginning; for the beginning comes from a wholly different genius—from +that genius which inspired Henry IV., Richelieu, and Mazarin, dictated +the Edict of Nantes, the treaty of Munster, and that of the Pyrenees, +the Cid, Polyeucte, and Cinna, the Discours de la Méthode, and the +Provinciales, Don Juan, and the Misanthrope, and the most pathetic +sermons of Bossuet. It is genius that we recall, and glorify everywhere +in this work; because to our eyes it is the genius itself of France at +the epoch of her true greatness. + +If the public receives these studies somewhat favorably, we shall offer +to it their sequel; we will exhibit also Mme. de Longueville during the +Fronde, and after her conversion, from 1649 to 1680. It is certainly not +the least beautiful part of the seventeenth century. + + V. COUSIN. + + DECEMBER 15, 1852. + + + + +MADAME DE LONGUEVILLE. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + The person of Madame de Longueville—Description of + contemporaries—Authentic portraits—Her wit and style—Her + character—Explanation of her conduct in the Fronde—Mademoiselle + de La Vallière and Madame de Longueville. + + +There are three well-defined periods in the life of the Duchess de +Longueville.[3] + +Born in 1619, in the castle of Vincennes, during the captivity of her +father, Henri de Bourbon, prince de Condé, whose imprisonment was shared +by his young wife, that celebrated beauty, Charlotte Marguerite de +Montmorency, we at first see Mademoiselle de Bourbon, growing in graces +by the side of such a mother, dividing her time between the convent +of the Carmelites and the hôtel de Rambouillet, nourishing her heart +with pious emotions and romantic reading; going to a ball, but with +an under-garment of hair-cloth; sharing the confidence of a hero, her +brother, the Duke d’Enghien; sympathizing with him in his love of the +beautiful Mademoiselle Du Vigean, and witnessing her entrance into a +cloister, where she herself is destined at last to die. At the age of +twenty-three years she marries M. de Longueville, who is forty-seven, and +who, instead of making up for this disparity, by an assiduous tenderness, +continues in the suite of the saddest coquette of the time, the famous +Duchess de Montbazon. Outraged by this rival, unprotected by a husband, +who is even incapable of jealousy, she yields little by little to the +contagion which surrounds her; and returning to Paris, after passing some +time amid the magnificent distractions of the embassy of Munster, she +suffers herself to be captivated by the wit, grand air, and chivalrous +appearance of Prince de Marcillac, afterwards Duke de La Rochefoucauld. +This liaison shapes her life, and closes its first period in 1648. + +The Fronde with its vicissitudes; love—such as it was understood at +the hôtel de Rambouillet, the love of Corneille and Scudéry—with its +enchantments and its griefs, mingled with dangers and glory, crossed +by a thousand adventures, the vanquisher of the rudest obstacles, and +yielding to its own infirmities—in fine, exhausting itself;—such is the +second period, so short and so full, beginning in 1648, and closing in +the midst of 1654. + +From this time the whole life of Madame de Longueville is one long, +austere penance, performed successively in Normandy, near her aged +husband, among the Carmelites, at Port Royal, and finally concluded in +1679. + +Thus at first a spotless reputation, then faults, then expiation divide +the career of Madame de Longueville. + +It is in this order that we have collected, and that we shall present +all that patient research has enabled us to gather concerning Madame +de Longueville. We shall give political and religious writings, and +especially confidential letters, thrown off from her pen during every +important moment of her life, and which exhibit it in a manner equally +faithful and agreeable. + +But if the writings and letters which we are about to publish, elucidate +the character of Madame de Longueville, it is quite as true that the +character, well comprehended, explains them and places them in their true +light. To introduce and give interest to a work, it is usual to begin +with some details respecting its author; and as in this case the author +is a woman, it is necessary to become acquainted with her person, as +well as with her mind and her heart. + + +I. + +Anne Geneviève de Bourbon was the daughter, as we have said, of that +Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency, Princess de Condé, who had turned +the head of Henry IV., and whom, it is said, he wished to snatch from +the hands of her jealous husband, at the risk of setting all Europe in +commotion. The daughter was at least as beautiful as the mother, and this +was a principal advantage of Madame de Longueville, which, we confess, +possesses for us no ordinary attractions. + +Beauty extends its prestige to posterity itself, and attaches a charm, +for centuries, to the name alone of the privileged creatures upon whom +it has pleased God to bestow it. But I speak of true beauty. This is not +less rare than genius and virtue. Beauty has also its epochs. It does not +belong to all men and to all ages to taste it in its exquisite truth. +As there are fashions which spoil it, there are periods which affect +its sentiment. For example, it became the eighteenth century to invent +pretty women—those charming dolls, perfumed and powdered, affecting the +attractions which they do not possess under their vast hoops and great +furbelows. It was quite sufficient to prattle in a _salon_, to write +_Lettres peruviennes_, to serve as models for the heroines of the younger +Crébillon, and to turn the heads of the heroes of Rosbach. Those of +Rocroy and of Lens, the contemporaries of Richelieu, of Descartes, and of +Corneille, the energetic and somewhat rude men who preceded Louis XIV., +and who delighted in a life of agitation, but to end it like Pascal and +Rancé, would not have been tempted to bend the knee before such frail +idols. Let us dare to say that the foundation of true beauty, as of +true virtue, as of true genius, is force. Shed over this force a ray of +heaven, elegance, grace, delicacy, and you have beauty. Its perfect type +is the Venus of Milo;[4] or again, that pure and mysterious apparition, +goddess or mortal, which is called the Psyche, or the Venus of Naples.[5] +Beauty is certainly to be seen in the Venus de Médicis, but in this we +feel that it is declining, or about to decline. Look at, not the women +of Titian, but the virgins of Raphael and of Leonardi: the face is of +infinite delicacy, but the body evinces strength; they will disgust you +forever with the shadows and monkeys _à la Pompadour_. Adore grace, but +do not in every thing separate it too much from force, for without force +grace soon shares the fate of the flower that is separated from the stem +which animates and sustains it. + +It was Florence, it was its artists and its princes, that carried into +France the sentiment of true beauty. Here it was rapidly developed, and, +for various reasons which I cannot now even point out, it reigned among +us until near the close of the XVIIth century. + +What a train of accomplished women this century presents to us! women who +were loaded with admiration, drawing after them all hearts, and spreading +from rank to rank that worship of beauty which throughout all Europe +received the name of French gallantry! They accompany this great century +in its too rapid course; they mark its principal epochs, beginning +with Charlotte de Montmorency, and finishing with Madame de Montespan. +Between these place the lady of the High Constable of Luynes, afterwards +Duchess de Chevreuse, Madame de Hautefort, Madame de Montbazon, Madame +de Guimenée, Madame de Châtillon, Marie de Gonzague, afterwards Queen of +Poland, her sister the Palatine, and so many others, among whom, to my +extreme regret, I dare not mention Mademoiselle de La Vallière, and yet +am compelled to place Madame de Maintenon. + +Madame de Longueville has her place in this dazzling gallery. She had all +the characteristics of true beauty, joining to it a peculiar charm. + +She was of good stature and of an admirable form. Embonpoint with all +its advantages were not wanting to her. She possessed, as I cannot doubt +in examining the authentic portraits before me, that kind of attraction +so much prized during the XVIIth century, and which, with beautiful +hands, had made the reputation of Anne of Austria. Her eyes were of the +most tender blue. Her fine light hair, descending in large ringlets, +displayed the graceful contour of her face, and overspread her admirable +shoulders, much exposed, according to the fashion of the times. Behold +the foundation of true beauty. Add to it a complexion whose whiteness, +delicacy, and tempered lustre have given it the name of pearly. This +charming complexion displayed every shade of sentiment that crossed her +soul. In speech she was most gentle. Her gestures, with the expression +of her countenance, and the sound of her voice, produced the completest +music; such is the language of a disinterested contemporary, a Jansenist, +Nicole, perhaps, who describes her as “the most perfect actress in the +world.” But her peculiar charm consisted in a graceful ease, a languor, +as all her contemporaries expressed it, which would change to the highest +degree of animation when passion seized her, but which usually gave her +an air of indolence and aristocratic carelessness, mistaken sometimes +for _ennuie_, sometimes for disdain. I have observed this air in but one +person in all France, and this person has left a memory so pure, I may +say so holy, that I dare not name her in this connection, even to compare +her with Madame de Longueville. + +Believe me, I am not drawing upon my fancy for a portrait. I confine +myself strictly to the best authorities. I will cite them, if necessary, +to prove my perfect exactness. + +Let us begin with him who knew her best, and who certainly has +not flattered her. “This princess,” says La Rochefoucauld in his +_Mémoires_,[6] “had all the advantages of mind and beauty in such +perfection, that it seemed as if nature had in her taken peculiar +pleasure in forming a masterpiece.” + +Listen also to Cardinal de Retz, a very good judge in such matters, and +who would have gladly taken the place of La Rochefoucauld. “In regard to +Madame de Longueville, the small-pox had marred her original beauty,[7] +but it had left her nearly all its brilliancy, and this brilliancy, +joined to her quality, her wit, and her languor, which in her possessed +a peculiar charm, rendered her one of the most amiable persons in +France.”[8] And elsewhere: “She had a languor in her manner more touching +than the animation of those who were more beautiful.” + +After consulting her male contemporaries, let us examine the opinions +of those of her own sex. We may, it would seem, believe them when they +eulogize the beauty of another. Observe what Madame de Motteville says in +several places concerning that of Madame de Longueville: “Mademoiselle de +Bourbon was beginning to display the first charms of that angelic face +which has since become so celebrated.”[9] “If Madame de Longueville[10] +exerted great influence in this way (by her mind and fortune), the +influence of her beauty was not less powerful; for although the +small-pox had, since the regency, somewhat injured the perfection of her +complexion, the brilliancy of her charms attracted those who saw her; and +she possessed in the highest degree what the Spanish language expresses +by those words—_donayre, brio, y byzarria_ (gallant air). She had an +admirable form, and her personal appearance had a charm whose power +extended even over our own sex. It was impossible to see her without +loving her, and without desiring to please her. Her beauty, however, +consisted more in the coloring of her face than in the perfection of her +features. Her eyes were not large, but beautiful, soft, and brilliant, +and their blue was admirable; it was similar to that of the turquoise. +Poets could compare the white and incarnation of her face to lilies and +roses only; and the light shining hair which accompanied so many other +wonderful things, made her resemble an angel, such as our feeble nature +can conceive one, rather than a woman: + + ‘Poca grana y mucha nieve + Van competiendo en su cara, + Y entre lirios y iasmines + Assomanse algunas rosas.’” + +To these different passages from Madame de Motteville, we would add +a single line from the great Mademoiselle, who was not troubled with +extreme benevolence: “Madame de Longueville was old; Mademoiselle de +Bourbon was young and beautiful as an angel.”[11] + +And the angelic air as well as the pearly complexion must have belonged +to Madame de Longueville in a peculiar manner, since we again find these +expressions in an unpublished letter[12] of another female of the same +period, Mademoiselle de Vaudy, who writes to Madame de Longueville in +1655: “Though your Highness had not the tint of the pearl, the mind and +the sweetness of an angel....” Does not this unintentional agreement +of different persons prove the general effect produced by Madame de +Longueville, and the justness of the comparisons naturally suggested by +her beauty? + +This fortuitous and striking harmony authorizes and fully justifies +the language, which might otherwise be suspected, of Scudéry, in the +dedication of _Artamène ou le Grand Cyrus_: “The beauty which you possess +in the highest degree ... is not the most remarkable of your gifts, +although an object of wonder to all the world. Doubtless we realize in +your Highness the most perfect idea, whether it be of form, of which +yours is so beautiful and so noble, or of majestic bearing, or of +beautiful hair, or of brilliancy, as well in the eyes, in the clearness +and vivacity of complexion, in the just proportion of all the features, +and in that modest and gallant air, which is the soul of beauty.”[13] + +Not content with this description, Scudéry has taken it up again, and, +as we would now-a-days say, illustrated it with a portrait of Madame +de Longueville, just as Chapelain, in dedicating _La Pucelle_ to her +husband, placed the portrait of that prince at the beginning of his work. +This leads us to say a few words in regard to the different portraits +which we have seen of Madame de Longueville; they present her to us in +the gracefulness of youth, in the full splendor of all her charms, in her +maturity. + +King Louis-Philippe conceived the happy idea of assembling at Versailles, +in the galleries of the second floor, all the portraits which he could +collect of the celebrated personages of France. Among them we find[14] a +portrait of Madame de Longueville in youth, by the side of her father, +Henri de Bourbon, and of her mother, Charlotte de Montmorency. It is +unfortunately a copy. A note placed behind the frame says that this +copy was made from an original painting of Ducayer executed in 1634. +Mademoiselle de Bourbon, born in 1619, was then but fifteen years old. +It is impossible to see or to imagine a more charming creature. All the +signs of her future great beauty are already visible; certain attractions +are still wanting, but the strength which promises and assures them is +stamped upon every part. + +We again behold her, after her marriage, and during the embassy of +Munster, in 1646 and 1647. She is now twenty-seven or twenty-eight years +of age. Anselm Van Hull is the author of this portrait. It is a bust, +with a highly ornamented frame. The young woman has well preserved all +that the young girl promised. The forms of beauty are developed. Her +tresses are magnificent. She has the collar of pearls, which seldom quits +her. This portrait is engraved in the collection of the negotiators of +Munster.[15] + +That which is prefixed to the first volume of the _Grand Cyrus_ +represents Madame de Longueville in 1649.[16] Her age at this period is +thirty years. This engraving is by Regnesson, brother-in-law of Nanteuil, +after Chauveau. There are also two other engravings, slightly differing +from each other, one by Moncornet, the other by Frosne. Among the +enamel pictures of Petitot, in the museum of the Louvre, is one, in our +opinion, ordinary enough, marked No. 50, which is referred to Madame de +Longueville. All these portraits are of nearly the same period, and give +her the same character of beauty, strength, and ampleness of form, face +more full than in Van Hull, and a more marked embonpoint. To the honor +of Scudéry, it must be said that the passages from the dedication of the +_Grand Cyrus_, which we have quoted, may serve as a faithful text to the +engraving which accompanies them. Here are those light tresses, those +eyes so soft, that complexion of dazzling brightness, and I may add that +graceful and noble dress so becoming to beauty, even as the female dress +of the eighteenth century seems to have been invented for ugliness itself. + +Finally, the museum of Versailles[17] contains another portrait of Madame +de Longueville, attributed to Mignard. It is easy to recognize in it the +noble lady, whose image is prefixed to the _Grand Cyrus_. It is truly +Madame de Longueville, with that grand air and amiable languor, which +every one attributes to her. She is sitting, dressed in a rich court +costume, and holding a bouquet of flowers in her hand. + +Let us not forget to mention a beautiful silver medallion,[18] without +date, and without engraver’s name, which represents her at nearly the +same age as the portrait of Versailles, in her beautiful maturity, and in +the opulence of her charms.[19] + +Even after her conversion, and when she had entirely renounced the world, +she preserved a portion of her beauty; and a gentleman who saw her at +this time at the house of her brother, the Prince de Condé, declared[20] +that the progress of age was scarcely visible upon her; that her piety +became her; that her candor, her modesty, and her sweetness, ennobled by +her air of dignity, rendered her at this period as capable of pleasing as +ever. + + +II. + +In describing the person of Madame de Longueville, we find ourselves +tracing the character of her mind and of her soul. + +Her mind has received the homage of the most delicate connoisseurs. +We have seen that La Rochefoucauld, Retz, and Madame de Motteville +praise it as much as they do her beauty. Retz urges particularly that +this mind owed every thing to nature, and almost nothing to study, its +indolence removing it from every effort in ordinary things. “Madame de +Longueville,” says he, “has naturally a great fund of wit, but she has +still more finesse and tact. Her capacity, which has not been aided +by her indolence, is not exercised upon business matters,[21] etc.” +And speaking of the languor of her manners: “She had even a languor +of the mind, which was charming, because it had, if we may so speak, +luminous and startling awakenings.” Madame de Motteville coincides with +the Cardinal de Retz: “This princess ... was very indolent.”[22] The +occupation furnished by the applause of the great world, which ordinarily +regards with too much admiration the fine qualities of persons of rank, +had deprived Madame de Longueville of opportunities for reading and +for storing her mind sufficiently to be called learned.[23] She was +indeed far enough from this, and did not pique herself at all upon her +acquirements. While her two brothers, the Prince de Condé and the Prince +de Conti, had studied assiduously with the Jesuits of Bourges and of +Paris, Mademoiselle de Bourbon had received, under the direction of her +mother, nothing more than the simple instructions given in those times to +women. A happy disposition and social intercourse with the choice spirits +around her supplied every thing. Even at an early age she acquired a +great reputation, and I find that while yet a child she was loaded with +praises and even with dedications. I have now before me a _pastoral +tragic comedy_, entitled _Uranie_,[24] which a certain Bridard dedicated +to her in 1631, that is, when she was twelve years old. This Bridard says +to her: “The most perfect courtiers know that you have a mind far before +your years. I can myself testify to this, having heard you recite verses +with so much grace, that one might suppose that an angel, borrowing +your beauty, had descended upon the earth to discourse upon the wonders +of heaven.” I quote this passage from that book forgotten, and justly +forgotten, because it forestalls all those of Madame de Motteville, of +Mademoiselle de Montpensier, and of Mademoiselle de Vaudy. At twelve +years we find her an _angel_, and so called ever afterwards. From early +youth she had, with her brother, the Duke d’Enghien, frequented the +hôtel de Rambouillet; and the _salons_ of the Rue Saint Thomas du Louvre +were not the most proper school for a mind characterized by grandeur and +finesse, but a grandeur tending to the romantic, and a finesse often +degenerating into subtility—a mind, too, like that of Corneille, the +perfect representative of its epoch. It seems, however, that the hôtel +de Rambouillet did not fasten upon her its likes and dislikes, for one +day, while listening to the reading of _La Pucelle_ of Chapelain, so +praised in this quarter, and hearing the remarks upon its pretended +beauties—“Yes,” said she,[25] “it is very beautiful, but it is very +tiresome!” Somewhat in the same manner her brother, the great Condé, +defended Corneille against the rules, exclaiming that he could not pardon +rules which forced the Abbé d’Aubignac to write such bad tragedies. She +was everywhere proclaimed the sovereign judge of all writings, the queen +of wit, the arbiter of taste and of elegance, as Horace says. In 1649, in +the quarrel concerning the two sonnets of Benserade and of Voiture, the +whole court took the part of Benserade; but Madame de Longueville having +declared herself in favor of Voiture, every one went over to her side. +And at this period of her life she must have yielded to the prevailing +taste, and must have been somewhat of a _précieuse_, for Madame de +Motteville, in speaking of the principal beauty of her mind, which lay in +delicacy of thought, accuses her of affectation, adding immediately, as +if to excuse herself for finding any blemish in so accomplished a person: +“All men partake of that clay from which they originate, and God alone +is perfect.”[26] + +All agree in saying that she conversed divinely, and with an exquisite +mixture of vivacity and sweetness. The charm of her conversation must +have been very extraordinary to have survived her youth and her worldly +life, and still subsist in devotion and penitence. The Jansenist writer +who left us a portrait, or, as it was then called, a _character_ of +Madame de Longueville,[27] does not hesitate to compare, and almost +prefer her, to one of the most intellectual men, and most celebrated +conversationists, of the XVIIth century, M. de Tréville.[28] “The manner +in which Madame de Longueville conversed is something to be studied.... +Every thing that she said was so well said, that it would have been +difficult, even with much study, to say it better. There were more +lively and rare things in what M. de Tréville uttered, but there was +more delicacy, and more spirit and good sense in Madame de Longueville’s +manner of expression.” + +But to speak and to write are two very different things, each demanding +a particular cultivation; and that Madame de Longueville did not study, +is evident as soon as she takes up the pen. Her great natural qualities +showed themselves with difficulty through the faults of every kind +which resulted from her inexperience. It is in fact no small affair to +express one’s sentiments and ideas in a natural order, with their true +shades, and in terms neither too nice nor too vulgar, terms which neither +exaggerate nor enfeeble them. It is not unusual to find men full of +wit, enthusiasm, and grace when they speak, and who, when they take up +the pen, become contemptible. It is because writing is an art, a very +difficult art, and which must have been learned. Madame de Longueville +was entirely ignorant of it, and so were the most eminent women of +her time. I have elsewhere[29] spoken of Madame Angélique Arnaud and +of Jacqueline Pascal, who, though highly gifted, have left but very +imperfect works. All are unanimous in representing the Princess Palatine +as a person of great mind, who treated the greatest men as their +equal. Retz[30] and Bossuet[31] affirm this, and I believe them, for in +this matter they were better judges than I. Read, however, some of the +manuscript letters of the Palatine. They are not, certainly, deficient +in respect to solidity, finesse, and ingenuity; but I am forced to admit +that they are often full of inaccuracies, that their construction is very +awkward, and that the most common rules of orthography are sometimes +outrageously violated. I do not conclude from this that the Palatine had +not a mind of the first order, but simply that she had not been taught +the art of writing properly her sentiments and thoughts. In this Madame +de Longueville was no better skilled. Thus, all that we shall publish +from her pen exhibits at once the beauty of her genius and the defects of +her education. + +With these women who write so well and so badly, we may contrast Madame +de Sévigné and Madame de La Fayette, who always write well. To be just, +however, it seems to me that we should take into consideration two very +important things. + +In the first place, these two ladies had received an education +altogether different from that given to Madame de Longueville; they had +been under the tuition of skilful masters of language and of literature, +among whom was one of the most learned men of the seventeenth century, +who at the same time made the greatest pretensions to wit, gentility, and +gallantry. Ménage had, during their youth and even after their marriage, +taught Mademoiselle de Rabutin, and afterwards Madame de Lavergne, not +only the French language as it was spoken and written by the Academy, +but the language of the wits of the time, the Italian, and even somewhat +of the Latin; he excused them from the Greek alone. He exercised them in +writing, pointing out their errors, cultivating their happy instincts, +polishing and regulating their mind and style. He retained them for +a considerable time under this discipline, which was indeed highly +agreeable to himself. Their professor was also their Platonic admirer, +more Platonic than he perhaps desired. He addressed to them stanzas, +sonnets, idyls, madrigals, and all sorts of verses in French, in Italian, +and in Latin. He celebrated by turns the _formosissima Laverna_ and the +_bellissima Marchesa di Sevigni_.[32] He certainly would not have taken +the trouble to compose, in honor of their wit and charms, Latin and +Italian verses which they might have been unable to comprehend. On the +contrary, both of them wrote very well in Italian.[33] In a manuscript +correspondence of Madame de La Fayette, lately in my possession, I +have found more than one allusion to the time when, thus to speak, she +pursued her studies under Ménage.[34] Nature had done every thing for +Madame de Sévigné: it had given her perfect exactness and solidity, with +inexhaustible playfulness and sparkling vivacity. Art and genius united, +made of her the incomparable letter-writer who left Balzac and Voiture +a thousand leagues behind, and whom Voltaire himself has not surpassed. +Like a mad and ignorant person, she appears to defy every thing; but in +her boldest strokes she never miscalculates, which is an infallible sign +of a finished art. Observe again, that if Madame de Sévigné wrote well, +it was because she knew that her letters would be shown; but of this she +does not betray the least suspicion: it is true that she wrote nothing +but letters; I even doubt whether she could have written a book, and I +could not imagine her engaged upon a romance, or upon any work whatever, +except, perhaps, memoirs and satires, like those of her Cousin Bussy or +Saint-Simon, or perhaps upon theological treatises like those of her +daughter, Madame de Grignan.[35] This was not the case with Madame de +La Fayette. She was not only a person of great wit and information, but +she was also an author. It is not surprising that she knew how to write, +since she made a profession of it. An exquisite polish is her prominent +characteristic, and it may be in part referred to the literary discipline +which she preserved much longer than her friend; it may also be accounted +for by the fact that she never wrote a word without submitting it to +that same Ménage, to Sagrais, who resided with her, and who, if he did +not lend her his pen, aided her with his counsels and his name, to Huet, +or to La Rochefoucauld. Madame de La Fayette is certainly far superior +to Madame de La Suze, to Madame de Brégy, to Madame Deshoulières, to +Mademoiselle de Scudéry, to Madame d’Aulnoy, to Madame Lambert, but she +belongs to their family. Although she passed her life with Madame de +Sévigné, she differs from her essentially, and she belongs, too, to a +very different world from that of Madame de Longueville. + +But it is important to remember that Madame de Longueville preceded, by +several years, the two illustrious friends, and that, early separated +from the world, and buried in retirement during the last twenty-five +years of her life, she was unable to profit by the then rapid progress +of language and taste. There are in fact two very different parties in +the literature of the seventeenth century: that of Louis XIII. and of +the Regency, represented by Corneille and Pascal; and that which is +particularly the work of Louis XIV., of which Racine and Fénelon are the +most accomplished expression. In one we find a grandeur somewhat uncouth; +in the other a charming art, sometimes felt too sensibly. In the style as +well as in the conversation of the women of the seventeenth century, we +observe prolixity, carelessness, and even incorrectness, for the language +which they write or speak is not settled. They are neither able to choose +between their thoughts, nor to give them that happy turn, that precision +and elegance which, thanks to the superabundance of genius, became so +common at the close of the century. But their attainment to all great +things, political and religious, worldly ambition and holy penitence, +gave their minds a much harder tempering than that possessed by the +women who came after the Fronde, and who, with all France, were stamped +with the taste of Louis XIV. Madame de Sévigné, born and formed in the +first epoch, became fully developed in the second. Her heart is with +the first, her genius springs from it; the second gave her its polish +without depriving her of its vigor and its original fervor.[36] Madame de +Longueville was in full splendor under the Fronde; afterwards she lived +among the Carmelites and at Port-Royal; the cultivation of her taste +ceased about the year 1650. Let us not then demand in her qualities which +she cannot possess. Let us recognize in her a mind of the first rank, but +still the mind of a woman—of a great lady, of a very indolent princess, +who has not made the least improvement of her talents, and who shows +equally her merits and defects, which are also the merits and defects of +the times in which she lived, namely, an uncultivated grandeur, a refined +delicacy, with a perpetual negligence. + + +III. + +If the mind of Madame de Longueville displays the woman, her soul +especially is in the highest degree feminine, and, far from accusing, +I desire to praise her for it. Yes, Madame de Longueville belongs to +her own sex; she possesses its adorable qualities and its well-known +imperfections. In a world in which gallantry was the order of the day, +this young and ravishing creature, married to a man already old and even +otherwise connected, followed the universal example. Naturally tender, +the senses, according to her own most humble confession, had no part in +the affairs of her heart; but, overwhelmed with homage, she yielded to +it. Amiable, she made her happiness in being loved. The sister of the +great Condé, she was not insensible to the idea of playing a conspicuous +part; but far from pretending to rule, she was so much the woman, that +she permitted herself to be governed and guided by him whom she loved. +While around her, interest and ambition so often took the colors of love, +she listened to her heart alone, and devoted herself to the ambition +and interest of another. All authors are unanimous in this particular. +Her enemies reproach her with severity for not having a proper aim, and +for having despised her own interests. They do not suspect that in +the expectation of overwhelming her, they elevate her; and even they +themselves take care to conceal her conduct and her faults, which, after +all, may be reduced to a single one. + +She could even be touched by the devotion of Coligny, who shed his +blood to avenge her of the outrage of Madame de Montbazon;[37] for a +moment she listened[38] heedlessly to the gallantries of the brave and +intellectual Moissons, afterwards Marshal d’Albret; still later she +compromised herself somewhat with the Duke de Nemours; but the only +person that she loved truly was La Rochefoucauld. She devoted herself to +him entirely; she sacrificed every thing to him; her duty, her interests, +her repose, her reputation. For him she staked her fortune and her life. +She exhibited the most equivocal and the most contrary conduct. It +was La Rochefoucauld, who caused her to take part in the Fronde, who, +according to his liking, made her advance or recede, who united her to, +or separated her from, her family, who governed her absolutely. In a +word, she consented to be in his hand a mere heroic instrument. Pride +and passion had doubtless something to do with this life of adventure +and this contempt of peril. But of what stamp must have been the soul +that could find consolation in this! And, as often happens, the man to +whom she devoted herself was not wholly worthy of her. He had infinite +spirit; but he was profoundly selfish, meanly ambitious; he measured +others by himself; he was as subtile in evil as she was in good; he +was full of refinement in his self-love, and in the pursuit of his own +interest; in reality, the least chivalrous of men, although he affected +all the appearance of the highest chivalry. So, as soon as he believes +that Madame de Longueville has left him for a moment, and listened too +long to the Duke de Nemours, he returns against her, and pursues her +with the most pitiful resentment. He blackens her character in the eyes +of her brother; he reveals the weaknesses of which he himself has taken +advantage; and when she is devoted to the task of repairing the errors +of her life, when she is expiating them by the severest penitence, he +seeks, by publications in a foreign land, which he dares not own,[39] +to blast her name, just as at a later period he will cause Madame de +Sablé to print to his glory newspaper articles, which his own hand will +correct, and carefully relieve of the little criticisms, inserted for the +purpose of adding weight to the praise;[40] so that the poor woman on +returning from the Carmelites or from Port-Royal was forced to encounter +in the few _salons_ which she still entered, the history of her amours +and the narrative of her errors penned by the hand of him who should +have died in her defence, even, if necessary, against the truth. On the +breaking up of the Fronde, La Rochefoucauld managed his affairs so well +as to retain a good position with the court; he entered the carriage of +Mazarin, uttering those famous words: “Every thing happens in France;” he +solicited and obtained great favors for his son; he sought for himself +the situation of governor of the Dauphin, which was given to Montausier; +he knew how to surround himself with amiable women, who bestowed upon +him their admiration and their little cares, and one of whom, Madame de +La Fayette, consecrated to him her life, and took the place of Madame +de Longueville. How different the conduct of Anne de Bourbon! Love had +drawn her into the Fronde, love had there retained her; when love no +longer exists, she knows not where she is. The proud heroine, who, to war +upon Mazarin, had sold her jewels, pledged her fortune, risked her life +in a frail bark upon the sea, aroused the South, and held in check the +royal power, as soon as she finds that her exertions must avail herself +alone, withdraws into obscurity, and, at the age of thirty-five years, +in all her beauty, plunges into solitude to grieve, like Mademoiselle de +La Vallière, over the errors of her past life. Ah! doubtless it would +have been better to struggle against the heart, and by force of courage +and vigilance to fly all weakness. We bow the knee before those who have +never transgressed; but when, with Mademoiselle de La Vallière, or with +Madame de Longueville, one would compare Madame de Maintenon, with the +endless calculations of her worldly prudence, and the tardy scruples +of her piety, which ever come to the aid of her fortune, we protest +with all our soul. We speak boldly in behalf of the sister Louise de la +Miséricorde, and for the penitent of M. Singlin and of M. Marcel. We +prefer a thousand times the opprobrium with which they sought in vain +to cover themselves, to the vain consideration which, in a degenerate +court, surrounded Madame Scarron, who became privately the wife of Louis +XIV. Two things only move us—virtue and true passion: the one is above +all things else, and can be recompensed worthily by God alone; the other +should not be too much celebrated; but it has its excuse in the grandeur +of its disinterested transports, in its sacrifices, in its sufferings, +and, above all, in its expiations. + +Let us endeavor to comprehend Madame de Longueville. She was not a +politician like the Palatine; she had no true business tact. It is folly +to accuse her of not having consistency and personal character. Her true +character and the unity of her life should be sought where they are—in +her devotion to him whom she loved. It is there wholly and always the +same, at once consistent and absurd, and touching even in her follies. + +I attribute all her disorderly movements to the uneasy and fickle spirit +of La Rochefoucauld. He it is who is ambitious; he it is who is full of +intrigues; he it is who wanders at random here and there, according to +circumstances, solely occupied with his own interests, and without any +other great merit than a mind fertile in expedients of every kind, and +a dashing courage, without military talents. And I attribute to Madame +de Longueville—to the blood of the Condés, to that great heart which she +ever exhibited—I attribute to her boldness in danger, a certain secret +contentment in the excess of misfortune, and after reverses a pride +before the victors which yields not to that of the Cardinal de Retz. +Madame de Longueville, therefore, did not cast down her eyes; she lifted +them to a more worthy object. Stripped of what was her all, she bid adieu +to the world, and, making no apology to the court, went to ask pardon of +God alone. + +This considered, all the criticisms which have been lavished upon Madame +de Longueville, result in her favor. + +La Rochefoucauld, after having eulogized Madame de Longueville in +the words which we have quoted, adds: “But these fine qualities were +rendered less brilliant by a stain which was never seen upon a princess +of such merit, which found no imitations on those who entertained for +her a particular adoration; a stain which so transformed her in their +sentiments that she did not recognize her own. At this time the Prince +de Marcillac shared her mind, and as he joined his ambition to his love, +he inspired her with a desire for business to which she had a natural +aversion.” This stain, with which La Rochefoucauld here reproaches her, +is precisely her glory—the affection of a loving and devoted woman. + +The future author of the _Maximes_ has no difficulty in confessing that +he was attached to her as much from interest as from affection. After +such a declaration, we cannot admit the chivalrous exclamation: + + That I might win her heart, be pleasant in her eyes, + War I’ve waged with kings, I would have storm’d the skies. + +No, it was not to please her that you entered the Fronde; it was a +passion for movement and intrigue that prompted you to take part in it. +You know that she had a natural aversion to business, and that contrary +to her taste and her manifest interests, she entered into it for your +sake alone. + +La Rochefoucauld relates, in the new part of his _Mémoires_, how and with +what intentions he became connected with Madame de Longueville. He was +striving to revenge himself of the queen and of Mazarin; to accomplish +this he had need of the Prince de Condé, and he sought to secure the +brother by means of the sister. But let us permit him to speak for +himself: “So much unprofitable labor and so much weariness, finally gave +me other thoughts, and made me attempt dangerous ways in order to show my +resentment to the queen and the Cardinal Mazarin. The beauty of Madame de +Longueville, her wit and the charms of her person attached to her all who +could hope for her favor. Many men and women of quality sought to please +her; and in addition to the charms of this court, Madame de Longueville +was upon such good terms with all her house, and so tenderly beloved +by the Duke d’Enghien, her brother, that the esteem and friendship of +this prince could be safely counted upon by any one fortunate enough to +secure the approval of his sister. Many people uselessly attempted this +game, mingling other sentiments with those of ambition. Miossens, who +afterwards became marshal of France, persisted longest, and with similar +success. I was one of his particular friends, and he informed me of his +designs. They were soon destroyed of themselves. He knew it, and told me +several times that he had resolved to renounce them; but vanity, which +was the strongest of his passions, prevented him often from telling me +the truth, and he dissembled hopes which he had not, and which I knew he +ought not to have entertained. Some time passed in this way, and finally +I had reason to believe that I could make a more considerable use than +Miossens of the friendship and confidence of Madame de Longueville. I +convinced him of this. He knew my position at court. I told him my views, +stating that consideration for him would always restrain me, and that I +should not seek to form a connection with Madame de Longueville without +his permission. I confess that to obtain this, I purposely excited him +against her; not, however, by uttering any thing untrue. His full consent +was finally obtained; but he repented of having given it to me when he +saw the result of this connection.” + +The declared enemy of Madame de Longueville was her daughter-in-law, +Madame de Nemours, whose character was entirely the opposite of her own. +She was judicious but severe. She was quite naturally on the side of M. +de Longueville, her father, whom she endeavored to withdraw from the +influence of his wife. In her _Mémoires_ she recognizes the perfect +disinterestedness of Madame de Longueville, her sincere attachment +to her brother, and her want of taste for politics: “It is certainly +astonishing[41] that Madame de Longueville should have been one of the +first (to take part in the Fronde), she who had nothing to hope from this +party, and who had no reason to complain of the court.... The prince +entertained an extreme tenderness for his sister. She, on her side, +managed him less from interest than for the particular esteem and tender +friendship which she felt for him.... Madame de Longueville knew very +little about politics.” At the same time she accuses her of being fond of +show, of having no weighty motive for her conduct; of having sacrificed +fortune and repose to a false glory, and all under the influence of La +Rochefoucauld. “It was,” said she, “M. de La Rochefoucauld who inspired +this princess with so many foolish and false sentiments. As he had a very +great power over her, and as, besides, he thought only of himself, he +engaged her in all the intrigues with which she was connected, only to +promote his own selfish designs.... Marcillac, who ruled her absolutely, +and who wished that others should have no credit with her, or even to +appear to have any, alienated her from the deputy, who would not have +been sorry to rule her also.... Marcillac, to promote his own interest, +showed Madame de Longueville.... As soon as Marcillac, who urged on +Madame de Longueville only to procure sooner what had been promised to +him by the court, had obtained what he desired, he thought no more of +the interests of others; he found in his own all that he sought. He even +persuaded Madame de Longueville that she herself was little thought of.” + +Retz confirms the insinuations of Madame de Nemours concerning +himself, and takes good care to explain her pretensions, and even +her expectations. He thus concludes the portrait which he has traced +of Madame de Longueville: “She would have had few defects had it not +been for gallantry. As her passion compelled her to make politics a +secondary matter, instead of the heroine of a great party, she became its +adventurer.” + +To justify the sentiments of Madame de Longueville, we might have +limited ourselves to quoting two decisive passages from the most +impartial witness of the things and persons of this period, Madame +de Motteville:[42] “In attaching himself politically to the prince, +Marcillac devoted himself to Madame de Longueville in a manner somewhat +more tender, uniting the sentiments of the heart to the consideration of +grandeur and fortune. It was quite apparent to the whole court that this +princess treated him with great attention. In all that she afterwards +did, it was clearly seen that her mind was not solely occupied with +ambition, but that the interests of the Prince de Marcillac filled a +prominent place therein. For him she became ambitious; for him she +ceased to love repose, and, in order to be sensible to this affection, +she became too insensible to her own glory.... The wishes of the Prince +de Marcillac, as I have said, were not displeasing to her; and this +nobleman, who was perhaps more selfish than tender, anxious to benefit +himself through her, thought it his duty to inspire her with the desire +of ruling the princes her brothers.” + +Let us crown all these quotations with one from Guy-Joly: “The Prince de +Marcillac managed her with care, judging that she would have particular +consideration in the party, by reason of the ascendency which she had +over the Princes de Condé and de Longueville, and that, being in her good +graces, it would be easy for him to obtain great advantage whenever it +might be necessary for him to treat with the court.”[43] + +Thus, by the admission of every one, La Rochefoucauld pursued in the +Fronde his own interest alone, and Madame de Longueville pursued only the +interest of La Rochefoucauld. + +But we must not stop here; we must establish, by undoubted facts, and +present clearly the point of view which we have just indicated. La +Rochefoucauld himself, closely interrogated, testifies that, far from +having been drawn into the Fronde by Madame de Longueville, as some have +been pleased to represent, it was he himself who drew her in, and he +himself who directed all her movements. + +It is he himself who informs us of the motive which prompted him to the +connection which he formed with Madame de Longueville at the close of +1647, or at the beginning of 1648. He continued wonderfully faithful to +the plan which he had proposed to himself. + +1st. At the close of 1647, La Rochefoucauld was irritated because he +could not obtain from the cardinal either the place of Governor of Havre +or that of a colonel of cavalry. He succeeded in turning Madame de +Longueville against Mazarin, by making her believe that Condé had not +received all that was due to him. “Madame de Longueville, whose entire +confidence I possessed, felt as keenly as I could desire the conduct of +the cardinal towards the Duke d’Enghien.”[44] In 1648, before embracing +the party of the Fronde, La Rochefoucauld tried for the last time to gain +Mazarin, and demanded “for his house the same advantages which had been +accorded to those of Rohan, of La Trémouille, and some others.” “I found +myself,” said he,[45] “so removed from favor that I stopped here. I spoke +of it to the cardinal in leaving him. He promised positively to grant my +request in a short time. On my return I should have received the title +of duke in order that my wife might have the privilege of sitting in the +presence of the king. I went to Poitou with this expectation, and there I +quelled the disorders (the first movements of the Fronde); but I saw that +the cardinal, far from keeping his promise, had granted dukes’ patents +to six persons of quality, without remembering me.” And then he engaged +in the sedition. Madame de Longueville, following the instructions which +he had given to her, had commenced laying snares for the deputy and the +parliament, had overcome Conti, gained her husband, and circumvented +Condé; but she held so loosely the reins of this intrigue, that she +wrote to La Rochefoucauld, submitting to him her own proceedings, +and begging him to come and decide what should be done. The passage +from La Rochefoucauld on this subject is very curious, and deserves +to be quoted.[46] “I was in the first transports which a treatment so +extraordinary might be expected to produce, when I learned from Madame +de Longueville that the whole plan of the civil war had been resolved +upon at Noisy between the Prince de Conti, the Duke de Longueville, the +Deputy of Paris, and the most prominent members of the parliament. She +informed me that there was hope of gaining the Prince de Condé; that she +did not know precisely what to do at this juncture, being ignorant of my +sentiments, and she besought me to come by diligence to Paris, that we +might decide together whether she ought to push or delay this project. +This news consoled me in my chagrin, and I felt myself able to convince +the queen and the cardinal that it would have been well for them to humor +me. I asked leave of absence; I had difficulty in obtaining it; and it +was granted only on condition that I would not complain of the treatment +which I had received, and that I would not insist upon my pretensions. +It was easy to promise all this, and I arrived in Paris full of the +resentment which I had a right to feel. I there found things precisely +in the condition described by Madame de Longueville; but I found less +excitement, either because the first steps had been taken, or because +the diversity of interests and grandeur of the design had diminished +the ardor of those who had undertaken it. Madame de Longueville herself +had purposely raised difficulties, in order that I might have time to +make my appearance, and to render myself competent to decide. I did not +hesitate to do it, and I felt great pleasure in knowing that, to whatever +extremity the severity of the queen and the hatred of the cardinal might +reduce me, I had still the means to be revenged.” + +2. Thus engaged in the Fronde, Madame de Longueville appeared to become +entirely reckless. She delivered the Prince de Conti into the hands of +La Rochefoucauld; she conspired to lead away M. de Longueville; she +deceived her mother by refusing to accompany her to court, under pretence +of sickness; she went so far as to commit herself, notwithstanding +her approaching confinement, to the hands of the people at the Hôtel +de Ville. She did more: for the sake of La Rochefoucauld, she became +embroiled with her brother Condé, for whom she entertained the greatest +affection; she strove to draw him into the Fronde; he became angry with +her; hence that rupture so astonishing after such tender friendship, +and those outbursts of wrath now so easily accounted for. “The Prince +de Conti ... was weak and fickle; he depended entirely upon Madame de +Longueville, and she left to me the care of guiding him.[47] The Duke de +Longueville possessed mind and experience; he entered easily into the +parties opposed to the court, and left them still more easily.... He was +continually raising obstacles, and repenting of his engagements in it. +I was afraid that he might do more, and discover to the prince what he +knew of the enterprise. With this apprehension, I sent Gourville to Paris +to notify Madame de Longueville and the deputy of the suspicion which +there was reason for entertaining of the Duke de Longueville.... The +Marquis de Noirmontiers and myself were constrained to tell him that we +were going to carry away the Prince de Conti, and that we would declare +to the world that he alone had shown a want of fidelity to his friends, +after engaging them in an undertaking which he abandoned. He could not +bear these reproaches, and suffered himself to be led as we desired.... +The king, followed by the queen, the Duke d’Orleans, and the prince, set +out secretly from Paris at midnight, near the close of the year 1649, +and went to Saint-Germain. All the court followed in great disorder. +The princess wished to carry along Madame de Longueville, who was on +the point of being confined; but she feigned illness, and remained at +Paris.... The Prince de Conti and Madame de Longueville, in order to give +more confidence, lodged in the Hôtel de Ville, and committed themselves +entirely into the hands of the people.” ... In another place he says:[48] +“Madame de Longueville was again obliged to reside at the Hôtel de Ville +as a pledge of the fidelity of her brother and husband to the people, who +are naturally suspicious of the great, because they are ordinarily the +victims of their evil doings.... The Prince de Condé[49] ... had taken +measures with the court. The connection which I had with the Prince de +Conti and Madame de Longueville was not agreeable to him.... The cardinal +was preparing to quit the kingdom; but the prince soon reassured him; and +the bitterness which he exhibited towards the Prince de Conti, towards +Madame de Longueville and myself, was so great, that the cardinal could +not doubt that it was genuine.” + +3. At the end of this first Parisian war, in 1649, the Prince de Condé +became reconciled with his family, and even with La Rochefoucauld. The +latter was included in the treaty which was consummated; he obtained for +his house “the same advantages of rank that had been accorded to those +of Rohan, of Foix, and of Luxembourg.” Such is the declaration of La +Rochefoucauld;[50] but the truth is, that it was Madame de Longueville +who claimed for him these advantages, and who labored energetically in +his interests. So Madame de Mottville asserts: “Madame de Longueville[51] +omitted nothing in her efforts to secure the favor of the court for the +Prince de Marcillac.... To satisfy[52] her fully it was necessary to +promote the Prince de Marcillac, and in this conjuncture she procured for +his wife the right of sitting in the royal presence, and of entering the +Louvre in her carriage. These advantages placed him above dukes, and upon +an equality with princes, though he was neither the one nor the other: +he was not a member of the royal family.” Madame de Nemours goes still +farther:[53] “Madame de Longueville interfered in this settlement, and it +is even pretended that M. de Marcillac received some money.” What a part +in all this affair was that of La Rochefoucauld! Madame de Longueville +is at least disinterested. She at the same time suffers herself to be +eclipsed and to be compromised, anxious only to serve and to please. + +4. In 1650, Mazarin thinking that he ought to revoke the favors which +Madame de Longueville had obtained for La Rochefoucauld, all minds became +exasperated: troubles recommenced; the princes were put in prison; the +arrest of Madame de Longueville was contemplated, and an order was +issued directing her to appear before the Queen at the Palais-Royal. +“Instead[54] of obeying, she resolved, by the advice of the Prince de +Marcillac, to set out at once, with all speed, for Normandy, for the +purpose of engaging that province, and the parliament of Rouen, on the +side of the princes, and of securing in her friendship the fortresses +of the Duke de Longueville and of Havre-de-Grace..... The Prince de +Marcillac accompanied her in this journey.” I ask, which of the two drew +the other into this second war, much more serious than the first? But I +hasten to say that on this occasion both conducted themselves equally +well. While Madame de Longueville was pledging her jewels in Holland for +her defence at Sténay, La Rochefoucauld was also exposing his fortunes +in Guyenne. It was the saddest and the most touching moment in the +history of their loves and their adventures. They were separated from one +another, but still they loved; they served with ardor the same cause; +they struggled and they suffered together. + +5. In 1651, after the deliverance of the princes, La Rochefoucauld +grew weary of war, into which he seems to have engaged only to please +Madame de Longueville. “The Duke de La Rochefoucauld[55] could not +testify so openly his repugnance to this war; he was obliged to consult +the feelings of Madame de Longueville, and all that he could then do +was to try to make her desire peace.” What then were the feelings of +Madame de Longueville? Did she wish to continue the war for the sake of +playing a conspicuous part, and with a view to gratify that ambition +of glory with which she has been so often reproached? By no means. Her +thoughts were much more humble. Still attached to La Rochefoucauld, she +contemplated with pain a peace which threatened to separate them. Madame +de Longueville[56] knew that the deputy had embroiled her irrevocably +with her husband, and that after the impressions made upon him as to +her conduct, she could not return to him in Normandy without at least +hazarding her liberty. The Duke de Longueville, however, wished to keep +her near him, and she had no pretext for avoiding this dangerous journey, +except the desire of instigating her brother to carry on a civil war. At +the same time La Rochefoucauld informs us that he persuaded her to avoid +such a responsibility, to retire to Montrond with the Princess de Condé, +and to allow matters to unravel themselves. He[57] showed Madame de +Longueville that her removal from Paris alone could satisfy her husband, +and prevent him from making the journey which she dreaded; that the +prince might easily grow weary of the protection which he had until then +afforded her, having a pretext so specious as that of reconciling a woman +with her husband, and especially if he thought that he might thereby +attach to himself the Duke de Longueville; besides, that she alone would +be accused of fomenting disorder; that she would be, in various ways, +held responsible both to her brother and to the world, for kindling in +the kingdom a war whose results might be grievous to her house and to +the State.... In fine, to avoid so many difficulties, he advised her to +ask the prince to permit the princess, the Duke d’Enghien, and herself +to retire to Montrond, in order that he might not be embarrassed in a +precipitate march if he found himself obliged to depart, and in order +that he might have no scruple in deciding either to fire the kingdom by +a civil war, or to risk his life, his liberty, and his fortune, upon the +doubtful faith of Cardinal Mazarin. This advice met the approbation of +Madame de Longueville, and the prince soon after consented to have it +followed. + +Madame de Longueville, in this instance, as in all the others, did not +then lead away La Rochefoucauld; she permitted herself to be guided by +him; she obeyed his counsels, which to her were laws. + +Here again is the true and perfect unity of her conduct: Madame de +Longueville pursues the course marked out for her by another, with an +indefatigable constancy, amid all intrigues and dangers, and, as it were, +with her eyes shut to the motives which actuate La Rochefoucauld. + +Her blindness is for a long time complete; but, as she united great +shrewdness to great passion, after they had been long separated, and when +she was no longer under the charm or under the yoke of his presence, +her eyes became partly opened; and in the voyage from Guyenne, having +encountered the Duke de Nemours, who showed every appearance of perfect +chivalry, and who was then said to be very attentive to Madame de +Châtillon, absence, the void already in her heart, the innate love of +pleasing, the desire of showing the power of her charms, and of troubling +somewhat a rival who wished at the same time to retain both Nemours and +Condé, in short, the feeling of liberty inspired by a voyage rendered her +more open than she should have been to the addresses of the young and +handsome cavalier. There is no proof that she was beyond temptation.[58] +Scarcely had he returned to Paris when M. de Nemours forgot her, +submitted to the chains of Madame de Châtillon, who triumphed, with her +accustomed perfidy, over the sacrifice which had been made to her. Justly +wounded, La Rochefoucauld falls out with her forever. It is said[59] +that he seized with joy this occasion for separating himself from her, +as he had long desired it. Let this be so; he might have stopped there; +it was unnecessary to calumniate her in the mind of Condé, to impute to +her the base design of having wished to ruin the party and betray her +brother in order to serve the interests of the Duke de Nemours,[60] an +absurd accusation, and one which her whole conduct falsifies, and to +paint her as a vulgar creature, capable of going to the same extremities +for another, if that other so desired; it was unnecessary, as Madame +de Motteville so well says,[61] “from a lover to become an enemy, from +an enemy an ingrate,” and to suffer himself through revenge to commit +offences which went, as Madame de Motteville again says, “beyond what a +Christian owes to God, and a man of honor to a lady.” + +Is it possible, in fact, that resentment, of which wounded self-love +was the occasion (for then La Rochefoucauld loved Madame de Longueville +very feebly, if ever he loved[62] her truly), could have degraded a man +of honor like him so far as to make him engage in the shameful plots of +Madame de Châtillon? Madame de Motteville exhibits, as if with regret, +the conduct of La Rochefoucauld in this affair:[63] “Madame de Châtillon +made use of the Duke de La Rochefoucauld and of his passions.... M. de La +Rochefoucauld told me that jealousy and revenge made him act carefully, +and that he did all that she desired.” Now, what Madame de Châtillon +desired, was to humiliate Madame de Longueville, to keep Nemours for her +pleasures, and Condé for her fortune. La Rochefoucauld has in so small +a degree the sentiment of the good and the bad, of the honest and the +dishonest, that he relates what he has done with a sort of satisfaction; +he appears to triumph in an intrigue so skilfully planned. “Madame de +Châtillon[64] brought about a desire for peace by very agreeable means. +She believed that so great a good ought to be the work of her beauty, +and mingling ambition with the design of making a new conquest, she +wished at the same time to triumph over the heart of the prince, and +to draw from the court all the advantages of the negotiation. These +were not her only reasons for entertaining such thoughts: a desire to +gratify vanity and revenge actuated her as much as any thing else. The +emulation which beauty and gallantry often produce among ladies, had +caused an extreme bitterness between Madame de Longueville and Madame +de Châtillon; they had long concealed their feelings, but they finally +made a full exhibition of them; and Madame de Châtillon did not content +herself with compelling M. de Nemours to break off all commerce with +Madame de Longueville; she wished, besides, to obtain the sole disposal +of the conduct and interests of the prince. The Duke de Nemours, who +had a perfect understanding with her, approved this design; he thought +that, being able to regulate the conduct of Madame de Châtillon towards +the prince, she would inspire him with such sentiments as he could wish +to give him, and that thus he would be able to dispose of the prince +by the power which he possessed over Madame de Châtillon. The Duke de +la Rochefoucauld was much deeper than any one in the confidence of the +prince, and was, at the same time, very closely connected with the Duke +de Nemours and Madame de Châtillon.... He induced the prince to engage +with her and to give her, in her own right, the lands of Merlou; he +disposed her also to humor the prince and M. de Nemours, so that she +might preserve them both, and made M. de Nemours approve this connection, +and even appear not to suspect it, since he was to make his account in +it and make use of it for obtaining the principal part in affairs. This +machine being conducted and regulated by the Duke de La Rochefoucauld, +gave him almost the entire disposition of all that composed it, and +thus these four persons therein equally finding their advantage, it +would have doubtless had the success which they contemplated, had not +fortune opposed it.” Let us finish this picture by a stroke which La +Rochefoucauld has forgotten, and which Mademoiselle furnishes: “Madame +de Châtillon,[65] MM. de Nemours and de La Rochefoucauld, who expected +great advantages by a treaty, the first a hundred thousand crowns, the +other a government, and the last a similar sum, thought only of making +peace for the prince.” + +Thus, in the end as well as in the midst and at the beginning of +his connection with Madame de Longueville, the only motives of La +Rochefoucauld were interest and self-love. One day in his _Maximes_ he +will thereunto reduce all human nature, inclosing it within the precincts +of his own person, and giving as limits to the moral world those of his +very small experience as a frondeur and a courtier.[66] + +Truly we may smile to hear the author of the _Mémoires_ and the _Maximes_ +say in the portrait which he has left us of himself: “Ambition does not +move me ... I have virtuous sentiments ... I can keep a secret, and I +have less difficulty than others in keeping to myself what has been told +me in confidence.... I love my friends, and my love is of such a nature +that I would not hesitate to sacrifice my interests to theirs.” Segrais +was hard to suit with eulogy, or he had not read the above passages, +when he said that La Rochefoucauld never praised himself.[67] Madame +de Longueville would have recognized La Rochefoucauld by the following +traits: “I am not incapable of avenging myself if I have been offended, +and when it concerns my honor to resent an injury committed against me; +on the contrary, I should be sure that duty would perform so well in me +the office of hatred, that I would pursue my revenge with greater vigor +than another.” The true portrait of La Rochefoucauld is that which has +been drawn by Retz.[68] “There has always been something indescribable in +M. de La Rochefoucauld: he took pleasure in intrigues at an early age, +and at a time when he did not trouble himself with little things, never +a weakness with him, and at a time, too, when he was unacquainted with +great ones, which were not his forte; he never had much capacity for +business ... his views were not sufficiently extended ... he always had +an habitual irresolution ... he was never a warrior, though a very good +soldier; he was never of himself a good courtier, although he had the +best intention to be one; he was never a good party man, though all his +life a partisan.... All these things, together with his _Maximes_, which +do not exhibit much faith in virtue, and his policy which has always +been to withdraw from business with as much impatience as he engaged in +it, makes me conclude that he would have done much better to have known +himself, and to have passed, as he might have done, for the most polished +courtier, and for the most civil man in common life which his century +produced.” + +As to Madame de Longueville, she is certainly far from being perfect, +and perhaps she would have been less loved had she been so; but amid the +follies into which passion plunged her, we feel at least that interest +is nothing to her. The defect of which she continually accuses herself, +is the desire of pleasing and of appearing. The only injury which +she committed against La Rochefoucauld was that momentary display of +giddiness and coquetry during the journey from Guyenne. This was her real +stain. All the rest of her conduct in the Fronde is explained and easily +defended when viewed as we have indicated. + +Besides, no one’s conduct in the Fronde should be regarded in too serious +a light, for the Fronde was not a serious affair;[69] it was a series of +intrigues, in which no one had any other object than interest, vanity, +love of importance, with gallantry, and pleasure. Princes thought only of +themselves, of increasing their authority and their fortune; and to this +end, they went by turns from one party to another according to events +and to the daily changes around them. Condé, the prominent person in the +drama, and the only one who with his rival Mazarin merits a place in +history, despised at bottom all parties; but in the end he fixed his mind +upon a place incompatible with royal grandeur. His natural inclination +was to the side of the Court: the Fronde, properly speaking, and the +parliament were odious to him, and he never served them except with great +disrelish. His chief spring of action was war, for which he had a genius; +and this it was which, after much deliberation and hesitation, finally +carried him away. The parliament, forgetting its part and its duties, +was agitated by young lords—burlesque tribunes. The people of Paris were +set in commotion: they were excited against the Court; but as soon as +serious reforms and a convocation of the States-General were talked of, +the parliament took alarm, and receded as well as the opposing party.[70] +The only use of the Fronde, in the admirable economy of our history, +has been to strengthen the royal power, to make every one sensible of +its absolute necessity, and to promote, perhaps to excess, the work of +Louis XI., of Henri IV., and of Richelieu. Under the League, two great +opinions, two great causes, were in hostility. The League also produced +minds, stamped characters, was a school of politics and of war, and +formed the strong men of the first half of the seventeenth century. The +Fronde is in our annals an episode without grandeur; it formed no one, +either a warrior or a statesman; the nation took very little part in +it, because it felt that in it no great interest was at stake; it was a +pastime for gentlemen, for wits, and belles. To the ladies especially the +Fronde belonged: they were at once its motive power and its instruments, +its most interested actors; and among them Madame de Longueville played +the most conspicuous part. + + +IV. + +We should be tempted to be more severe towards the faults of more +than one kind into which she was drawn by her sad connection with La +Rochefoucauld if she herself had felt less remorse, if her repentance +had not been so long and so severe. Her errors began at the close of +1647, or during the first months of 1648—they did not extend beyond 1652; +her remorse ceased only with her life in 1679. Madame de Longueville +was roused to reflection in 1653: she became converted in the middle +of the year 1654. At this period she was thirty-five years of age, and +in all the splendor of her beauty. For a long time yet she might have +enjoyed the pleasures of life and of the world. She renounced them to +devote herself unreservedly and forever to God. During twenty-five +years, in Normandy, among the Carmelites, and at Port-Royal, she lived +only for duty and repentance, seeking to become dead to every thing +that had formerly occupied her life—the cares of her beauty, the +tendernesses of the heart, the graceful employments of the mind. But +in the dress of hair-cloth as well as in fashionable attire, among the +Carmelites and at Port-Royal as well as at the hôtel de Rambouillet +and in the Fronde, she preserved what she could never lose—an angelic +face, a mind charming in the most extreme negligence, with a certain +loftiness of soul and character. This third and last epoch of the life +of Madame de Longueville, will here be presented as fully as the subject +demands: therein we shall see, in all its truth, a devotion continually +increasing, and more and more scrupulous, sometimes reducing her to the +most pitiful condition, sometimes elevating her to an admirable grandeur; +as, for example, in her struggles, after the death of her husband, with +her brother Condé, in regard to her two sons, and in the defence which +she undertook of persecuted Port-Royal. + +We do not think that we debase Mademoiselle de Lavallière by comparing +with her Madame de Longueville. It is true that the loves of Mademoiselle +de Lavallière move us in a very different manner from those which we +shall have to relate. In setting aside the circumstance of royalty, which +in this case forms the disagreeable side, and which is always somewhat +injurious to true and disinterested love, Louis XIV. was much better +calculated to please than La Rochefoucauld; he was much younger and +much more handsome; he was, or appeared to be, a great man and a hero. +He adored Mademoiselle de Lavallière at once with an impetuous ardor +and with the most delicate tenderness, and his passion continued for a +long time. Mademoiselle de Lavallière loved the king as she would have +loved a simple gentleman. It is this which gives her a separate place +among the favorites of Louis XIV., and places her far above Madame de +Montespan, and especially above Madame de Maintenon. It cannot be denied +that Madame de Longueville loved with the same disinterestedness and the +same abandonment; but her affection was ill bestowed, but she mingled +with it wit and vanity, but she became giddy and coquettish. Thus far the +comparison is entirely against her. But, besides, she was far superior +to Mademoiselle de Lavallière. She was incomparably more beautiful and +more intellectual. Her soul was also more proud. At the least suspicion +of change in the affection of Louis XIV., she would have fled from the +court; while Mademoiselle de Lavallière remained in it some time, in +the presence of her proud, triumphing rival, thinking that by force of +humility, of patience, and of devotion, she would reconquer the heart +that she had lost. And then, what better could she do than to enter a +cloister? Would she not have rendered herself contemptible by remaining +in the world, by giving to society the spectacle of a favorite of the +king consoling herself, like Madame de Soubise, for the inconstancy +of her royal lover, in the enjoyment of a fortune sadly acquired and +shamefully preserved! In entering the convent of the Carmelites, +Mademoiselle de Lavallière did no more than she was compelled to do. +There is in the conversion and retirement of Madame de Longueville +something more free and more unusual, and to glorify her penitence, +nothing is wanting but the voice of Bossuet. If the incomparable orator +who had consecrated to God Louise de La Miséricorde, and who, at a later +period, had made his words equal in greatness to the actions of Condé, +if his voice had been heard at the celebration of the obsequies of Anne +de Bourbon, Christian letters would have counted another masterpiece, +of which the funeral oration of the Princess Palatine may give us some +idea, and the name of Madame de Longueville would be surrounded with an +immortal halo. + + + + +THE YOUTH OF MADAME DE LONGUEVILLE. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +1619 to 1635. + + Mademoiselle de Bourbon in her family—Her mother, Charlotte de + Montmorency—Her father, M. the Prince—Her brother, the Duke + d’Enghien—Her religious education—The convent of the Carmelites + of the Rue Saint-Jacques—The four great prioresses—Mademoiselle + d’Epernon—Mademoiselle de Bourbon at the ball of the Louvre, + February 18, 1635—Her portrait at the age of fifteen years. + + +I shall some day attempt to make known in Madame de Longueville the +heroine, or, if you prefer, the adventuress of the Fronde, casting +herself amid dangers and intrigues of every kind in order to serve the +interests and the passions of another. I shall afterwards show her +overcome, disabused, her soul at once wounded and bereaved, turning its +regards towards the only side that cannot deceive her, towards duty +and God. At present, I would recount her life before the Fronde, and +even before the unequal marriage imposed upon her by her family, the +source, indeed, of her errors and her misfortunes. I would paint the +youth of Madame de Longueville, show Mademoiselle de Bourbon in her days +of innocent splendor, yet bearing in herself all the seeds of a stormy +future; born in a prison, and leaving it to mount almost upon the steps +of a throne; surrounded early by the most gloomy spectacles, with all the +felicities of life, beautiful and intellectual; proud and tender, ardent +and melancholy, wishing to bury herself at fifteen in a cloister, and, +once thrown, in spite of herself, into the world, allowing herself there +to be intoxicated with her own success; becoming the ornament of the +court of Louis XIII. and of the hôtel de Rambouillet, eclipsing the most +accomplished beauties by a peculiar sweetness and a ravishing languor; +giving ear to two proposals, but still pure and free; and advancing, +apparently, towards the most beautiful destiny, under the wing of a +mother like Charlotte de Montmorency, by the side of a brother like the +Duke d’Enghien. + +I agree that this picture of a brilliant but fortunate youth, without +adventures and without blemishes, may seem somewhat tame to readers +accustomed to the great bustle and the sudden turns of fortune in +fashionable romances. In order to indemnify them, I shall place with +this picture another more highly colored. After the young girl growing +up innocently between religion and the muses, as heretofore described, +I shall exhibit the young woman, rushing, in her turn, into the arena of +gallantry, scattering around her conquests and quarrels, and becoming +the subject of the most famous of the great duels which, during so many +years, reddened the Place-Royale, and were not arrested even before the +implacable axe of Richelieu. These will be scenes sufficiently animated; +but, while waiting for the tragi-comedy, endure, a little while, the +pastoral. It was then a necessary interlude, and I beg you to assume for +a moment with me the taste and the manners of the seventeenth century. + +Anne Geneviève de Bourbon was born August 28, 1619, in the tower of +Vincennes, where her father and mother had been prisoners for three years. + +Her mother was Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency, granddaughter of +the high constable, and, according to unanimous testimonies, the most +beautiful person of her times. Dazzling in her early youth, she preserved +even in advanced age a remarkable beauty. In addition to her portraits, +we have two faithful descriptions, one by Cardinal Bentivoglio, who +knew her and loved her, it is said, at Brussels, where he was apostolic +nuncio in 1609, when she was nearly sixteen years of age; the other, +by the hand of Madame de Motteville, who has portrayed her as she saw +her later at the court of Queen Anne. “She had a complexion,” says +Bentivoglio,[71] “of extraordinary whiteness, eyes and features full of +charm; she was graceful in gestures and manner of speaking; and all her +different qualities heightened each other, because she added to them none +of the affectations of which women are accustomed to avail themselves.” +Madame de Motteville thus expresses herself:[72] “Among the princesses, +she who was first had also the most beauty; and, though not young, she +still caused admiration in those who saw her.... I wish to testify that +her beauty was still great, when, in my infancy, I was at court, and that +it endured to the end of her life. We praised her during the regency of +the queen, at fifty years of age, and we praised her without flattery. +Her complexion was fair; she had blue and perfectly beautiful eyes. Her +mien was lofty and full of majesty, and her whole person, which was in +every way agreeable, always pleased, except when she proudly and sharply +opposed those who dared to displease her.” When, at fifteen years of age, +she appeared at the court of Henry IV., she turned the head of the old +king. He married her to his nephew, the Prince de Condé, in the hope of +finding him a convenient husband; but he, proud and amorous, was clearly +of the opinion that he had married the beautiful Charlotte for himself; +and, seeing the king more and more inflamed, he found no other means of +extricating himself from his difficult position, than by taking his wife +and flying with her to Brussels. We know all the follies that Henry IV. +then committed, and to what extremities he was about to go when he was +assassinated, in 1610.[73] + +Henri de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, was no ordinary man. He owed much to +Henry IV., and he expected much from him; but he had not the courage to +peril the fortune of his house by voluntarily exiling himself; and later +he compromised himself anew by his resistance to the tyrannical conduct +of Marshal d’Ancre, under the regency of Marie de Médicis. Arrested in +1616, he did not leave his prison until the end of 1619, and from that +time he no longer thought of any thing but his fortune. Born Protestant, +he had embraced Catholicism through policy, after the example of Henry +IV. His wife had brought to him a great part of the immense riches of +the Montmorencys. He submitted himself to Luynes, and served Richelieu. +He forced his son, the Duke d’Enghien, to espouse a niece of the +all-powerful cardinal, who had just decapitated his brother-in-law. As +avaricious as ambitious, he amassed property and heaped up honors. At the +death of Richelieu, he became the chief of the council, and displayed in +that difficult conjuncture a fortunate mixture of prudence and firmness. +He sustained the regency of Anne of Austria, and saved France from the +first perils of the long minority of Louis XIV. He merits a place in the +gratitude of his country, for having given to it twice, as it were, the +great Condé, by imposing upon that nature of fire—a nature wholly made +for war, the severest military education that ever prince received, and +by preparing him to take, at twenty-one years of age, the command in +chief of the army, on which rested, in 1643, the destinies of France. + +When Henri de Bourbon, who was called M. the Prince, was arrested, +he preferred but one petition, and that was dictated by jealousy and +love; he demanded that his wife might be allowed to share his prison. +Charlotte de Montmorency was scarcely twenty-one years of age; she did +not love her husband, and they did not live agreeably together; but, +without hesitation, she besought the king in person to permit her to +imprison herself with her husband, accepting the condition of remaining +a prisoner as long as he should be the same. This captivity, at first +very hard at the Bastile, then a little less rigorous at Vincennes, +continued three years. The young princess was often ill; she was several +times unfortunately the mother of untimely children.[74] Finally, August +28, 1619, between midnight and one o’clock, she gave to the world Anne +Geneviève. It seems as if the birth of this child brought good fortune +to her parents; for two months had not passed away, when the Prince de +Condé left prison with his wife and daughter, and resumed his rank and +all his honors. + +Anne Geneviève passed very soon from the tower of Vincennes to the hôtel +de Condé. There, two years afterwards, September 2, 1621, was born the +brother, who was destined to give such lustre to the name of Condé, +Louis, Duke d’Enghien; and later, in 1629, another brother still, Armand, +Prince de Conti. This last was not wanting in spirit; but he was feeble +in body, and even considerably deformed. He was destined for the Church. +He pursued his studies at the college of Clermont, with the Jesuits, +in company with Molière, and studied theology at Bourges, under Father +Deschamps. He made his appearance in the world in the early part of +1647, a little previous to the Fronde. The Duke d’Enghien, charged with +sustaining the greatness of his house, was brought up by his father with +the masculine tenderness already spoken of, the fruits of which have been +too great to allow us to show them in a single moment. + +M. the Prince gave no governor to his son; he chose to direct his +education himself, calling to his aid two gentlemen, one for exercises +of the body, the other for those of the mind. The young duke pursued +his studies, under the Jesuits of Bourges, with the greatest success. +He maintained there, with a certain _éclat_, philosophical theses. He +learned the principles of law under the celebrated Doctor Edmond Mérille. +He studied history and mathematics, without neglecting the Italian, +dancing, boxing, horsemanship, and the chase. On his return to Paris, he +saw again his sister, and was charmed with her grace and spirit: he bound +himself to her in a most tender friendship, which suffered some changes, +but resisted all trials, and, after the passionate age, became as firm as +at first it had been ardent. At the hôtel de Condé, the Duke d’Enghien +learned, in the company of his sister and his mother, politeness, elegant +manners, and gallantry. His father placed him at the academy, under a +renowned master, to whom he gave absolute authority over him. Louis de +Bourbon was there treated as severely as a simple gentleman. He had at +the academy the same success as at college, which he left, the most +capable of all those that were there with him. Let us listen to the words +of Lenet,[75] the reliable witness of all that he recounts: + +“No one had yet seen a prince of the blood brought up and instructed in +that common manner; nor had any one seen a prince who, in so short a +time, and in such extreme youth, exhibited so much knowledge, so much +experience, and so much address in every thing. The prince, his father, +skilful and enlightened in all matters, believed that in the academy he +would be less diverted from that occupation, so necessary to a young +man of birth, than in the hôtel. He also thought that those lords and +gentlemen who were there, and who had entered it in order to have the +honor of his company, would be servants and friends, who would attach +themselves to his person and his fortune. During all those days devoted +to work, nothing could divert his mind. The whole court admired his air +and his grace in skilfully managing a horse, in running at the ring, +in dancing and fencing. The king himself compelled him, from time to +time, to give an account of his conduct, and often praised the profound +judgment of the prince his father in every thing, and particularly in the +education of the duke his son, saying to everybody that in this he wished +to imitate him, and to have Monsieur the Dauphin instructed and brought +up in the same manner.”... + +... “After the young duke had remained at this excellent school the time +necessary to perfect himself, as he did, he left it; and after having +been some months at court and among the ladies, where, in the beginning, +he exhibited that noble and gallant air so universally admired, the +prince his father persuaded the king and Cardinal Richelieu—that +powerful, skilled, and authoritative minister—to send him into his own +government of Burgundy, with letters-patent, to command there in his +absence.”... + +... “The troops often traversed Burgundy, and frequently made it their +winter-quarters. There the young prince began to learn the manner of +properly establishing and governing them, that is, of giving subsistence +to the troops without ruining the places where they sojourned. He learned +how to mark out lines of march and places of bivouac, and to make +soldiers live with order and discipline. He received the complaints of +all, and caused justice to be done them. He found a manner of satisfying +the soldiers and the people. He often received orders from the king, and +letters from the ministers; he was punctual in replying to them; and +the court, like the province, saw with astonishment his application to +business. He entered the parliament when important subjects rendered his +presence necessary, or when the discussion of some interesting question +excited his curiosity. The intendant of justice completed nothing without +rendering an account of it to him. He began from that moment, whatever +might be his confidence in his secretaries, to sign no order, no letters, +which he had not previously commanded, which he had not read from end +to end.... These great and serious occupations did not interfere with +his amusements, and his pleasures were no obstacle to his studies. He +found days and hours for all things. He went to the chase, and was +among the best at shooting on the wing; he gave balls to the ladies; he +looked after the management of his servants; he danced; he continued to +learn languages and read history; he applied himself to mathematics, and +especially to geometry and fortifications; he planned and raised a fort +of four bastions, a league from Dijon, in the plain of Bloye; and such +was his eagerness to see it completed and in readiness for attack and +defence—as was the case several times with the young lords and gentlemen +who rendered themselves assiduous about him—that he had his table removed +thither, and took there most of his meals.” + +Thus prepared, the Duke d’Enghien went, during the summer of 1640, +to serve, in the capacity of volunteer, in the army of Marshal de La +Meilleraye. The marshal wished to take his orders, and to have the +appearance at least of depending on him. The young duke firmly refused, +saying that he had come to learn his trade, and wished to fulfil all the +functions of a volunteer, without regard to his rank. In one of the first +engagements, La Ferté-Seneterre was wounded, and had his horse killed +by a cannon-shot. The Duke d’Enghien was so near him, that the blood of +the horse covered his face. At the siege of Arras, he was everywhere seen +at the head of the volunteers. He was found at all the sallies made by +the besieged. He rarely left the trench; often slept there, and had his +food brought there. Three engagements took place during this siege. The +young duke distinguished himself in all. “The great heart which he showed +upon these occasions,” says Lenet;[76] “the obliging manner with which he +treated every one; the liberality with which he assisted friends who were +in need, wounded officers and soldiers; the secrecy which he observed in +rendering them assistance, made the clear-sighted predict that he would +some day be one of the greatest captains of the world.” + +It was in the winter of 1641, that he was compelled to espouse +Mademoiselle de Brézé, niece of Richelieu. The Duke d’Enghien did every +thing in his power to shun an alliance which was repugnant to his heart +as well as to his ambition. He had cast his eyes upon Mademoiselle, then +the only daughter of the Duke of Orleans, beautiful, young, rich, and +intellectual. He had already allowed his soul to be penetrated with a +particular sentiment for another person, whom he at length adored. He +yielded only after a long resistance, protesting officially and before +a notary, that he gave way to force and to the deference that he owed +to the will of his father. He fell sick, and was even in danger, when, +suddenly, the report was spread abroad that the campaign was about to +be opened, and that the army of Marshal de La Meilleraye was marching +into Flanders, to attack the stronghold of Aire. This news reached him +when still so feeble that he could scarcely quit his bed. “He sets out +immediately,” says Lenet.[77] “The prayers of his family, the tears of +his mistress, the command of the king himself are not able to arrest +him. He learns on his march, being at Abbeville, that the cardinal +was approaching from the besieged place in order to attack the lines. +He quits his coach, mounts a horse at the same hour with the Duke de +Nemours, his intimate friend, a handsome prince, full of spirit and +courage, whom death took from him soon after.[78] He passes in the night +by Hesdin, so near the enemy that one might almost say that he passed +through their army, and arrives fortunately in the camp, where he is +received with testimonies of joy that it would be difficult to express. +This fatigue, which might have been expected to cause a relapse in a +feeble and reduced convalescent, gives to him new strength, and from +that moment he is seen exposing himself to all the perils of war. He +often sleeps in the trench; he eats there; and there is no work, however +advanced, where he is not seen taking part like a simple soldier.... +At the siege of Bapaume, the duke wished to end the campaign as he had +commenced it; that is, by going everywhere, and incurring all the hazards +and all the perils of the trench and advance works. It was not possible +for him to leave the army as long as he thought there was any thing of +importance to undertake.” + +Some time after, he followed the Cardinal de Richelieu and the king to +the siege of Perpignan. He was there wounded, and there covered with +glory; so that no one was astonished when, in 1643, after the death +of Richelieu, Louis XIII., also near his death, at the same time that +he established the Prince de Condé chief of council, named the Duke +d’Enghien Generalissimo of the principal army of France, destined to +defend the frontier of Flanders, menaced by a powerful Spanish army. The +Duke d’Enghien was not twenty-two years of age. A month afterwards he +gained the battle of Rocroy, soon to be followed by those of Friburgh, +Nortlingen, and Lens. + +Such was the brother. The sister had not disregarded the examples of +her house, but on the contrary had rapidly attained, by her wit and her +beauty, a renown sufficiently great. + +From her infancy, great lessons had never been wanting to her. + +She was eight years of age in 1627, when one of the near relatives +of her mother, Montmorency-Boutteville, was beheaded in the Place de +Grève, for having fought a duel in spite of the edict of the king, +leaving, under the protection of Madame the Princess, his widow and +three young children,—Marie-Louise, afterwards Marchioness de Valençay; +Isabelle-Angélique, afterwards Duchess de Châtillon; and François-Henri +de Montmorency, born after the death of his father, who became the +Duke Marshal de Luxembourg, one of the most faithful friends and best +lieutenants of Condé. + +She was thirteen in 1632, when the own brother of her mother, the Duke +de Montmorency, ascended the scaffold at Toulouse for having revolted +against the king, or rather against Richelieu, upon the uncertain faith +of Gaston, Duke of Orleans. This terrible catastrophe, which resounded +from one end of France to the other, filled the hôtel de Condé with +mourning, and made a profound impression upon the delicate and proud +soul of Mademoiselle de Bourbon. She was so troubled by it, that her +grief, adding new ardor to the piety in which she had been nourished, +caused her to think seriously of quitting the world and becoming a +Carmelite in the great convent of the Rue Saint-Jacques. + +What religious education had Mademoiselle de Bourbon received, then, that +such a thought should come to her at thirteen or fourteen years of age? +How did she know the convent of the Carmelites—what ties had she already +formed there, which attracted her so powerfully? + +It was the time when the religious spirit, after having gone astray in +the civil wars, and produced the great crimes and the great virtues of +the League, refined, but not enfeebled, by the Edict of Nantes and the +policy of Henry IV., found in peace new strength, and covered France, +no longer with inimical parties armed against each other, but with +pious institutions, in which weary souls were eager to seek an asylum. +Everywhere the ancient orders were reformed, and new orders were founded. +Richelieu courageously undertook the reformation of the clergy, created +seminaries, and above these, as their model and tribunal, raised the +Sorbonne. Bérulle instituted the _Oratoire_, César de Bus the _Doctrine +chrétienne_. The Jesuits, who sprang up in the middle of the sixteenth +century, and who spread themselves so rapidly over France, at first +decried and even banished for their participation in culpable excesses, +little by little regained favor under the protection of the immense +services which their heroic skill daily rendered, beyond the ocean, to +Christianity and civilization. The order of Saint Benedict engaged in +a salutary reform, and the Benedictines of Saint-Maur gave the prelude +to their gigantic works. But who can enumerate the fine institutions, +designed for women, that were founded on every hand by Christianity, +during the first half of the seventeenth century? The two most +illustrious, after reformed Port-Royal, are the Sisters of Charity about +1640, and the Carmelites in 1602. + +The first convent of the Carmelites was established at Paris, in the +Faubourg Saint-Jacques, under the auspices and by the munificence of that +house of Longueville, into which Mademoiselle de Bourbon was destined to +enter. Her mother, Madame the Princess, was one of the benefactresses +of the rising institution. There she had an apartment, where she +often retreated for a long time. At an early period, she thither led +her daughter, and there filled her soul with the principles and the +devotional habits of the times. Mademoiselle de Bourbon grew up in the +shade of the holy monastery. There she beheld the reign of virtue, +goodness, concord, peace, silence: there she was loved, and there she +was called. It is, then, natural that at the first sight of the tempests +which menaced all the great things of the earth, and struck the most +illustrious members of her own family, she should think of forestalling +her destiny, and seek a shelter under the humble roof of the Carmelites. +She had there sweet and noble friendships, which she never abandoned. +We possess a multitude of letters, addressed by her to the Carmelites +of the convent of the Rue Saint-Jacques, at all the epochs of her life, +before, during, and after the Fronde. We feel that they were written +to persons who had her entire confidence and whole soul. But what were +those persons? She calls them sometimes the Mother Prioress, sometimes +the Mother Sub-prioress, Sister Marthe, Sister Anne-Marie, Mother +Marie-Madeleine, Mother Agnès, etc. One could wish to pierce the veil +that covers the family names of all these nuns. We doubt much whether +the friends of Mademoiselle de Bourbon and Madame de Longueville could +have been common creatures; and as we know that many women of the first +quality and of noblest heart found a refuge among the Carmelites, as the +name of Sister Louise de La Miséricorde has become the popular symbol of +disinterested and unfortunate love, a curiosity, somewhat profane but +very natural, leads us to inquire what these nuns, so dear to the sister +of the great Condé, were in the world. + +Hitherto we have been reduced to conjectures, suggested to us by bringing +together different passages from Madame de Sévigné, Madame de Motteville, +and Mademoiselle. The French Carmelites have no history. Faithful to +their vow of obscurity, these worthy daughters of Saint Theresa have +passed away without leaving any traces of themselves behind. As during +their life, an impenetrable cloister shut them out from all eyes, and +buried them in advance, so the genius of their order seems to have taken +care to annihilate them in the memory of men. At long intervals have +appeared a few memoirs of the Carmelites, consecrated to edification, +filled with holy maxims, void of human facts, and almost with out dates. +At the beginning of this century, a priest, M. Boucher, in a new _Life of +the blessed Sister Marie, of the Incarnation, Madame Acarie, Foundress of +the reformed Carmelites of France_,[79] has, for the first time, thrown +a little light upon the origin of that holy house, presenting, or rather +withholding, in the notes of his work, a few short biographies of the +principal nuns. The national library, so rich in manuscripts of every +kind, possesses none that comes from the Carmelites of the Faubourg +Saint-Jacques, or that relates to them. The general Archives have +inherited all their principal titles. We have studied them sufficiently +to give the assurance that a record[80] of the greatest interest might +be formed of them. Among other precious pieces, we may designate an +inventory of paintings, by different celebrated masters,[81] statues,[82] +and objects of art which the liberal and generous piety of the faithful +of every rank had, during two centuries, accumulated for the Carmelites, +and which were again noticed in 1790. But there were other treasures +which we had wished to discover—we desired an exact list of all the nuns +of that convent during the seventeenth century, with their religious +and their family names, the date of their profession and that of their +death. We placed a particular value upon knowing the succession of +prioresses who had, by turns, governed the convent, spoken or written in +its name. It was conceived, in fact, that without these two documents, +the friendships of Mademoiselle de Bourbon and Madame de Longueville +would remain, for us, almost impenetrable. + +Light has come to us from a quarter where we had not, at first, sought +for it. + +In the ruins of the convent of the Faubourg Saint-Jacques, spared by +the revolutionary tempest, yet barely standing, some poor nuns, having +escaped a stupid persecution, have been trying, for fifty years past, +to collect the traditions of the Carmelites, and they continue it in +obscurity, prayer, and toil: + + Præcipites atra sue tempestate columbæ, + Condensæ et divûm amplexæ simulacra sedebant. + +Weary of uselessly searching archives and libraries, I addressed myself +to these good nuns, and they responded to me with the most graceful +kindness. The two documents that I needed were sent to me, with +manuscript annals, and a collection of biographies ample and full of +details. Thanks to these precious communications, it is easy to make out +the history of the Carmelites of the Faubourg Saint-Jacques. Under the +pious designations and mystic symbols of Carmel, we recognize more than +one person who has already been met in the memoirs of the times. Instead +of beings in some sort abstract and anonymous, we have before us animated +and living creatures, whose regards were doubtless finally directed +towards heaven, not to be turned thence, who, nevertheless, for a longer +or shorter period, inhabited the earth, knew our sentiments, felt our +weaknesses, and, always remaining pure, sometimes felt sorely tempted, +and shared our humanity. Some day we shall deliver to the public the key +that has been lent us, which will give the secret of many mysterious +things in the intimate history of the manners of the seventeenth century. +Here we shall allow ourselves only a few rapid sketches that can throw +light upon the obscure part of the youth and of the whole life of Madame +de Longueville. + +Saint Theresa, who died in 1582, had refounded in Spain the ancient and +degenerate order of Carmel. The saintly renown of the new Carmelites of +Spain spread itself rapidly in Italy and France. An admirable woman, +Madame Acarie, afterwards Sister Mary of the Incarnation, conceived the +idea of sending to Spain for some disciples of Saint Theresa, and of +establishing them at Paris in the Faubourg Saint-Jacques. Such was the +origin of the first convent of French Carmelites. + +There are two Princesses de Longueville who obtained from Henri IV., +in 1602,[83] the necessary letters-patent, Catherine and Marguerite +d’Orleans, daughters of Henri, Duke de Longueville, who died +unmarried,—Marguerite in 1615, Catherine in 1638, both buried in the +convent whose second founders they were called, the title of first +founder having been reserved for Marie de Médicis. And when, in 1617, +the young institution was already strong enough to need another house at +Paris, it was again a Princess de Longueville who defrayed the expense of +the new establishment, in the Rue Chapon,[84] to wit, the sister-in-law +of Marguerite and of Catherine,[85] the widow of their brother, Henri +d’Orleans, first of the name, and the mother of Henri II., who espoused +Mademoiselle de Bourbon. Madame the Princess de Condé was not backward in +bestowing her benefits on the convent of the Rue Saint-Jacques, and she +became especially attached to it. So it may be said that Mademoiselle de +Bourbon was, in advance, consecrated in every way to the Carmelites. + +Let us endeavor to represent what was, in the seventeenth century, +the convent of the Carmelites, where Mademoiselle de Bourbon wished +to conceal her life, where Madame de Longueville returned to die. It +was situated in the street of the Faubourg Saint-Jacques, directly +opposite to Val-de-Grâce. It extended from the Rue Saint-Jacques to +the Rue d’Enfer, and finally embraced, with all its dependencies, +the vast space which, from the garden and inclosure of the Oratorian +seminary of Saint-Magloire, at present the Sourds-Muets, ascends to the +buildings now occupied in the Rue Saint-Jacques and in the Rue d’Enfer, +by the establishment called the brew-house of Luxembourg. There were +two entrances, one from the Rue Saint-Jacques, the other from the Rue +d’Enfer. The entrance from the Rue d’Enfer still exists, at No. 67, and +is now what it was two centuries ago. It led into the existing court, +which served as a public passage to the Rue Saint-Jacques. Almost +opposite, a little to the right, was the church; a little farther to the +right, on the grounds where the wholly new street of Val-de-Grâce has +been opened, were vast gardens, with numerous chapels, the monastery +itself, and, entirely upon the Rue d’Enfer, the infirmary and the +apartments reserved for particular persons. On the other side, to the +left, towards Saint-Magloire, were the different main-houses of the +monastery and their dependents.[86] + +But the monastery had thus increased only with time. + +The first seat of the community had been the ancient priory of +Nôtre-Dame-des-Champs, whose church was of the time of Hugh Capet, +and, according to ancient tradition, was established upon the ruins of +a temple of Ceres, where Saint Denis had already taken refuge when he +preached the gospel at Paris. At least, excavations made in 1630, have +brought to light some remains of pagan antiquity. There was, therefore, +already some mystery about the new establishment at the beginning of the +seventeenth century.[87] + +If it was the Spanish Carmelites who founded the convent of the Rue +Saint-Jacques, and established there the spirit and rule of Saint +Theresa, it must be remembered that, those nuns having left France +in 1618, to return to Spain, or to end their days in Belgium in the +monasteries of their order, it was the French genius which early took +possession of the convent of the Rue Saint-Jacques, and made it what it +became. + +In the number of the prioresses who governed it, may be distinguished +four, who aided the rising congregation to advance rapidly towards +the perfection which it attained at the close of the seventeenth +century. These were Mademoiselle de Fontaines, the Mother Madeleine de +Saint-Joseph; the Marchioness de Bréauté, Marie de Jésus; Mademoiselle +Lancri de Bains, Marie-Madeleine; and Mademoiselle Bellefonds, the Mother +Agnès de Jésus-Maria. Mademoiselle de Bourbon knew them all, and some of +them were her friends. + +Mademoiselle de Fontaines was the first French head-prioress. She was +of an excellent family of Touraine. Her father had been ambassador +to Flanders, and her mother was sister to the wife of Sillery the +chancellor. It was the Cardinal de Bérulle who, meeting her at Tours, +and seeing her there young and already filled with holy thoughts, pointed +out to her the Carmelites of the Rue Saint-Jacques as the way to the +perfection after which she aspired. She did not walk thither, but ran, +as Madame Acarie says of her. And yet she loved her family so tenderly +that she felt a poignant grief in leaving it, and, as she herself said +at a subsequent period, the coach that took her to the Carmelites seemed +to her like a car that carries criminals to punishment. Touched by her +example, two of her sisters followed her to the Carmelites.[88] She +joined them at twenty-six years of age. For some time she had before her +the Spanish mothers, and from them caught that holy ardor which excites +and vivifies, and can alone surmount the difficult commencements of +every great establishment. She was constantly faithful to the device of +Saint Theresa: Endure or die. She is the Saint Theresa of France. The +nun who succeeded her has thus painted the effects of the government of +Mother Madeleine de Saint-Joseph: “When she was prioress, I can truly +say the monastery resembled a paradise, so much fervor and desire for +perfection of heart was seen. The question was who should be the most +humble, the most penitent, the most subdued, the most collected, the +most meditative, the most solitary, the most charitable; in brief, who +should be most conformed to our Lord Jesus Christ; and all this, too, +with a peace, an innocence, a beatitude, and an elevation to God that +surpass the power of expression. This servant of God was among us like a +torch that gave us light, like a fire that warmed us, a living rule by +whose example we could learn how to become saints.” Some admirable words +of hers have been preserved. We will cite but a single sentence: “Yes,” +said she to her daughters, who for the most part were of high rank, “yes, +we are of a very good house; we are daughters of a king, sisters of a +king, spouses of a king; for we are the daughters of the Father Eternal, +the sisters of Christ, and the spouses of the Holy Spirit.” She had one +of those great hearts that make heroes of every kind, and which are the +primary source of miracles. She therefore performed miracles like Saint +Theresa: like her she had ecstasies and visions. It was the heart in +her that warmed the imagination, and, in fact, the heart is the sacred +source of all great things. What[89] philosophy would interpose here its +miserable objections! Be on your guard; those objections would turn +against Socrates and his demon, as well as against the good angel of +Mother Madeleine de Saint-Joseph. That good angel was at least the inner +vision, the secret and truly marvellous voice of a great soul. + +Mother Madeleine de Saint-Joseph was born in 1578, entered the convent in +1604, pronounced her vows in 1605, and died in 1637.[90] + +Marie de Jésus is a nun of a wholly different character. + +Charlotte de Sancy was daughter of Nicolas de Harlay, Lord de Sancy, +who was under Henri IV. ambassador, superintendent of the finances, +and colonel of the Swiss. The two sons of Harlay de Sancy, after +having occupied important positions, retired to the Oratoire. His +first daughter was married to M. d’Alincourt, grandfather of Duke de +Villeroy; the second, Charlotte, was married to the Marquis de Bréauté. +Having remained a widow twenty-one years—beautiful,[91] spirituelle, +of a charming temper, she was the delight of her family, and one of +the ornaments of the court of Henri IV. Two circumstances conspired to +snatch her from the pleasures that surrounded her. One day, at Spa, while +dancing at a ball during a storm, she heard a clap of thunder, and wished +to retire. The gentleman who was her partner laughed at her fright, and +retained her. At the same instant the thunder again sounded, and the +man by her side was struck dead. Some time afterwards she met with the +writings of Saint Theresa, read them, and was so touched by them, that, +young as she was, she resolved at once to quit the world. She entered +among the Carmelites, and took the veil, under the name of Marie de +Jésus, the same year with Mademoiselle de Fontaines. She preserved in the +cloister that winning gentleness which, in the world, added to the effect +of her beauty, and subjected to her all hearts. She was adored by her +new companions, as she had been at the court. Her particular gift was, +with sweetness and humility, a boundless charity, which was especially +exercised in the salvation of souls. She excelled in the art of bringing +sinners to God. These were her miracles. Here is one of them that the +tradition of the Carmelites has preserved for us:[92] + +A man of merit, who possessed goods and important occupations, formed a +culpable connection. His mother was in distress about it, and often went +to pour her grief into the bosom of her daughter, a nun at the convent +of the Rue Saint-Jacques. One day when she was in the parlor, Marie de +Jésus was inspired to go to her and console her. She gave her Saint +Augustine’s _Confessions_ and Saint Theresa’s _Way to Perfection_, asking +her to make her son promise to read them for a quarter of a hour only +every morning. He made the promise, but did not keep it for eight days. +One night, feeling urged to keep his word, he arose and read some pages +of these books. As he continued reading, God enlightened him, and so +touched him, that he shed tears for several hours, troubled and agitated +lest he should lose the Holy Spirit. Finally he became calm, and, during +several nights, was penetrated, and, as it were, inundated with light +in regard to the perfection of God. One morning, at the break of day, +he drove to the Place de Grenelle with the person who held him captive. +There he announced to her that he should never see her again. He left +her his carriage to drive where she wished. Returning home on foot, he +went to the Carmelites to visit his sister, whom he had not seen for many +years. She called Marie de Jésus, and said to her brother: Behold your +benefactress! Marie de Jésus had not ceased to pray for him. She lavished +upon him the most affectionate counsels, which she renewed regularly once +a week for several years. He followed them with great docility, and made +such progress in virtue, that, giving up his charge, and renouncing all +the pleasures of life, he retired into a country-place, lived there in +penitence, and died in the love of God. + +Marie de Jésus was loved much by Anne of Austria, who often went to +see her, accompanied by Louis XIV. and his brother the Duke d’Anjou. +She contributed largely to the aggrandizement and embellishment of the +monastery, which lost her in 1652. + +In the year 1620, the Carmelites acquired a worthy sister in one of the +maids of honor of Queen Marie de Médicis, Mademoiselle Marie Lancri de +Bains. In order to show what Mademoiselle de Bains was, we shall avail +ourselves of a manuscript life, composed by a Carmelite who knew her +perfectly well.[93] + +“Madame de Bains had her daughter brought up among the Ursulines: she +removed her from their charge at the age of twelve years, to place her at +court, hoping that her beauty and acquirements might procure for her an +establishment, little reflecting upon the perils to which she exposed her +by leaving her to herself in a place so full of dangers. But God, who had +already appropriated this soul, kept watch over her, and preserved her, +without a stain, in the midst of that court. Her virtue was there admired +as much as her perfect beauty; her portrait passed even into foreign +lands, where the most famous painters emulously drew it, in order to +exhibit the skill of their pencil. She afterwards declared that until the +age of fifteen years, she never reflected upon this advantage, but that +she then saw herself with the same eyes as the public. The attractions of +her person, and still more her sweetness and modesty, won the esteem and +affection of the queen. Mademoiselle de Bains never gloried in any thing +but in doing good to the unfortunate. This generosity had its source in +a noble, tender, constant heart, united with a mind solid, judicious, +capable of great things; and it seemed as if the Creator had been pleased +to prepare in this masterpiece of nature the triumph of grace. So many +amiable qualities attracted the attention of the whole court. A number +of lords, as the Duke de Bellegarde, the Marshal de Saint-Luc, etc., +sued for an alliance so desirable. But He who had elected her from all +eternity for his bride, did not allow that heart, worthy of himself +alone, to be shared by any creature. Divine Providence continued to bring +upon her at the same time some mortification (we are ignorant of its +nature), which began to open her eyes, and to give her some slight idea +of a calling for the religious life.” + +Mademoiselle de Bains never accompanied the Queen Marie de Médicis to the +Carmelites, without wishing to remain there. A sickness which she had at +eighteen years of age, redoubled her fervor, but she was opposed by the +efforts of the whole court to retain her, especially by the entreaties +and tears of her mother. When Mademoiselle de Bains threw herself among +the Carmelites, at scarcely twenty years of age, her mother followed +her thither. “She conducted her daughter to the bottom of the garden, +and there, during three whole hours, employed all the persuasives that +tenderest love could suggest. After having exhausted endearments, and +tried to move her conscience by telling her that it was her duty to help +her widowed mother in her old age, finally, getting beside herself, she +fell at the feet of her daughter, drowned in tears. What a trial for +Mademoiselle de Bains, who loved that tender mother as much as she was +loved by her! Her recourse to God enabled her to come out victorious from +that first contest, which was not the last, for, during the entire period +of her novitiate, Madame her mother often returned to the charge.” + +For some time the convent of the Rue Saint-Jacques was besieged by +noblemen of the first rank, who went to offer their alliance to the +beautiful novice. Her constancy was not in the least shaken, and she +would have refused all these visits if the mother prioress had not, in +order to prove her, constrained her to receive them. She pronounced her +vows in 1620, under the name of Marie-Madeleine de Jésus. + +Her beauty must have had something very extraordinary in it, to judge +by the following anecdote, related by the pious author of whom we avail +ourselves: “Humility being the foundation of every spiritual edifice, +Sister Marie-Madeleine de Jésus seized with avidity every means of +destroying, in her own eyes and in the eyes of others, the gifts of +nature and of grace with which God had favored her. She was not contented +with refusing the visits of the great, as well as of all her friends, but +desirous of being forgotten, and of removing from their sight every thing +that might remind them of her, she endeavored, under different pretexts, +to recall her portraits from their hands, in order to burn them. One +of these portraits having been sent to Mother Madeleine Saint-Joseph, +she amused herself by showing it to the assembled community. At the +sight of it all the nuns, not recognizing it at first, were touched, and +besought God not to leave in the world that masterpiece of nature, worthy +of himself alone, but to bestow her upon Carmel. One of them, Marie de +Saint-Theresa, daughter of Madame Acarie, offered herself to God, to +suffer every thing that it might please him to inflict in return for such +a grace. Then Mother Madeleine de Saint-Joseph, smiling and touching her +on the shoulder, told her that the goodness of God had anticipated her +desires, that the person for whom she trembled was already in the order, +and that it was only necessary to ask for her perseverance.”[94] + +Sister Marie-Madeleine passed rapidly through all the grades of the +order. Elected prioress in 1635, and often re-elected, she witnessed, +in 1637, the death of the venerable Mother Madeleine de Saint-Joseph, +in 1652 the death of Mother Marie de Jésus, and successively the death +of the head visitors of the order and of the instructors of the holy +monastery.[95] The wars of the Fronde were to her a perilous trial, +wherein she often found herself sharing danger with Queen Anne and +the Princess de Condé, the two protectresses of the convent. She was +obliged to quit for some time the house in the Rue Saint-Jacques, which +was too much exposed to the soldiery, to send a part of the community +to Pontoise, and to take the rest to the Rue Chapon. It required great +firmness to maintain religious discipline in the midst of such trouble. +Through fear of the least abatement, she continually applied herself +to renew the fervor of the primitive spirit in the souls committed +to her charge. It is said that she then spoke to her daughters with +words of fire, which filled them with a holy emulation. She displayed +usually a sweet and majestic cheerfulness, a charming affability, with +an intrepidity that was proof against every trial when the question +was concerning the interests of God, of those of the order, or of the +salvation of souls. On such occasions, says our manuscript, without being +surprised or arrested, she would have overcome a world of opposition, and +sacrificed her own life. So much virtue united with so much sensibility, +had acquired for her such an ascendancy over the hearts and minds of her +daughters, that one of them wrote that if she had undertaken to persuade +them that white was black and day night, they would have believed her, so +thoroughly were they convinced that she could not be deceived. In fine, +she possessed in the highest degree the gift of governing. It was to +her that so many persons of highest birth, wounded or repentant hearts, +intrusted themselves, seeking refuge among the Carmelites. + +Marie-Madeleine, born in 1598, lived a long time, and died in 1679, +the same year with Madame de Longueville. She had found an admirable +assistant in Mademoiselle de Bellefonds. + +Judith de Bellefonds was born in 1611. Her father, governor of Caen, was +the grandfather of the marshal of that name. Her mother was the sister +of the wife of Marshal de Saint-Géran, and she herself was sister to the +Marchioness de Villars, mother of the vanquisher of Denain, celebrated +for graces of mind.[96] She was as handsome[97] as her mother, as +spirituelle as her sister, and she possessed all the requisites for +pleasing. She had the greatest success at the court of Queen Marie de +Médicis. Going with her to the Carmelites, she met Madame de Bréauté, +Marie de Jésus, who, like her, had known all the attractions of the +world, and by her entreaties and her example persuaded her to renounce +it, and to give herself to God alone. Mademoiselle de Bellefonds joined +the Carmelites in 1629, at seventeen years of age, choosing Saint Agnès +as her patron saint, from whom she took the name of Agnès de Jésus-Maria. +Her first years at the convent being spent with Mother Madeleine de +Saint-Joseph, who had become very infirm, she was penetrated with +the spirit of that great servant of God, and promptly showed all the +qualities requisite for a great prioress. She was elected sub-prioress at +thirty years of age, prioress three years afterwards, and she discharged +the duties of one or the other of these offices for thirty-two years, +her life being prolonged until near the close of the century. She found +the French Carmel established by the eminent virtues of those who had +preceded her—she had simply to sustain it. Her dominant qualities were +firmness and moderation. With equal facility she dealt with great and +small things; always mistress of herself, even-tempered, sensible, +and enlightened, speaking of every thing with justice and simplicity, +and removing difficulties with an astonishing precision. She who, by +the elevation and charms of her mind, seemed born only for the people +of the world and important things, was still more admirable with the +simple and the poor. She used their ills, to which she was sensible, to +elevate them to God, yet ceased not in her endeavors to console them. +The happy also found near her protection against the dangers of fortune. +The Queen of England, in the midst of her terrible trials, often went to +the Carmelites to find consolation with Mother Agnès. The chancellor, +Le Tellier, often consulted her. Courted on all sides for the charm of +her conversation, she sought solitude, and endeavored to make it loved +by her companions. Mademoiselle de Guise having offered 100,000 livres +to obtain the privilege of often entering the convent, Mother Agnès +refused that sum, saying that 100,000 livres could not repair the injury +thereby certain to be done to the spirit of the institution, which can be +preserved only by seclusion and separation from the world. Her charity +was such that after her death the mother who succeeded her, being blamed +for bestowing alms a little too freely, replied: “You are very fortunate +that Mother Agnès is no more; she would have left on this occasion +neither communion-cup nor vessel of silver in our church.” It must be +perceived in Madame de Sévigné, how much she made of Mother Agnès: +“I was ravished,” wrote she to her daughter,[98] “with the spirit of +Mother Agnès.” Elsewhere she speaks of the vivacity and the charm of her +speech.[99] But all eulogies pale before that touching letter of Bossuet, +written to the prioress who succeeded her:[100] “We shall then see her +no more, that dear mother; we shall no longer hear from her mouth those +words that charity, that gentleness, that faith, that prudence dictated +and rendered worthy of being listened to.[101] This was the sensible +person who believed in the law of God, and faithfully kept it. Prudence +was her companion, Wisdom her sister. The joy of the Holy Spirit did +not leave her. Her balance was always just; her judgments were always +right. Her counsels never led astray; they were preceded by her example. +Her death was tranquil as her life, and she rejoiced in the last day. I +thank you for remembering me upon this sad occasion. My spirit unites +with yours in the prayers and sacrifices that are offered for that soul +blessed of God and men. I join you in the pious tears that you shed upon +her tomb, and take part in the consolations with which faith inspires +you.” + +Such was the convent where Mademoiselle de Bourbon received those +impressions that decided her whole life; such were the women whom she +saw and heard, when she accompanied the princess her mother to the +sacred house. She perceived, moreover, the venerable looks, the already +transfigured face of Mother Madeleine de Saint-Joseph, and listened +to her powerful speech, for Mother de Saint-Joseph was the friend and +counsellor of Madame the Princess. She felt, too, the penetrating +sweetness of the conversation of Marie de Jésus. She knew that +Marie-Madeleine, who was so dangerous in the world by her beauty, so +edifying and powerful in the cloister. With her she formed a connection +which ceased only with life. But it was, above all, Mademoiselle de +Bellefonds, the Mother Agnès, who attracted and charmed her. They were +almost of the same age, and the free and joyous temper of the young and +spiritual nun established between them, at an early period, an intimacy +whose traces are found even in the letters subsequently addressed by the +unfortunate and repentant princess to the great prioress, wholly occupied +with her difficult duties. The following note,[102] written during their +youth, will give an idea of the intimacy of their relation, and show the +natural graces of Mademoiselle de Bourbon’s mind. It bears the date of +1637. She was then seventeen years of age. These are the earliest lines +of hers that we have been able to find. Did Marie de Rabutin write in a +more amiable manner at the same age? + + “TO MY SISTER AGNÈS DE JÉSUS-MARIA. + + “MY VERY DEAR SISTER: + + “I write this to you to give you a severe reprimand. I + think you will be much astonished at it; but it seems to me + that I am not wrong. I must tell you, in order not to leave + you any longer in suspense, that, since the death[103] of + our blessed mother (Madeleine de Saint-Joseph), our mother + (Marie-Madeleine) has promised me her picture. It is three + or four days since I reminded her of this promise, and she + has sent me word that it was not her fault, but that you had + prevented her from giving me what she had promised, and that I + must tease you for it. I am therefore resolved to give you no + peace until you put me in possession of the portrait. If you + wish, I will allow you to have it copied, but if you are not + quick about it, you will see that we shall be on bad terms. + You know that it would not take much to embroil us, since we + are very much inclined to hate each other. It seems to me that + I have gone bravely through my reprimand, and that it is very + severe. I think it will put you in great alarm, and you will + consequently be in much fear of losing my good graces.[104]... + When the picture is finished, send to me for whatever it costs. + (Take care), if you please, to have it made very near the size + of that of my Sister Catherine[105] de Jésus, or a little + larger. + + “Your very affectionate sister and servant, + + “ANNE DE BOURBON.” + +And observe that I have here spoken only of the most eminent prioresses, +without saying a word of so many other nuns of the highest rank and the +most amiable character, who were in the convent of the Rue Saint-Jacques +during the youth of Madame de Longueville: Madame Séguier d’Autry, mother +of Chancellor Séguier, the Mother Marie de Jésus-Christ; Madame La +Rochefoucauld de Chandenier, Sister Marie de Saint-Joseph; Mademoiselle +Le Bouthillier, Sister Philippe de Saint-Paul; Mademoiselle d’Anglure +de Bourlemont, niece of Pope Urban VIII., Sister Geneviève des Anges; +Madame de Brienne, the Mother Anne de Saint-Joseph; the Countess de +Bury, left a widow at nineteen years of age, Sister Madeleine de Jésus; +Mademoiselle de Lenoncourt, the Mother Charlotte de Jésus; Mademoiselle +de Fieubet, Mesdemoiselles de Marillac, and somewhat later, names still +more illustrious, hearts still nearer that of Mademoiselle de Bourbon, +who, at the first impressions of passion or unhappiness, sought an asylum +in the holy solitude. + +Among those noble penitents, we must distinguish a particular friend of +Madame de Longueville, whose rank was nearly equal to her own, who was, +like her, sensitive and proud, who, wounded early in her affections, +retired from the world before her, and heard the noise of the Fronde only +through the walls of the convent of the Rue Saint-Jacques, where, several +years before, she had fled the threat of a throne and the perils of her +own heart. That friend to whom Madame de Longueville wrote more than one +letter, was Sister Anne-Marie de Jésus, that is, Anne Louise-Christine +de Foix de La Valette d’Epernon, sister of the Duke de Candale, daughter +of Bernard, Duke de La Valette d’Epernon, and of Gabrielle de Bourbon, +legitimate daughter of the Duchess de Verneuil and Henri IV. + +We have a sufficiently full life of Mademoiselle d’Epernon, from the +hand of the Abbé de Montis.[106] But edifying lives must be distrusted +almost as much as the histories of Tallemant des Réaux. This person looks +for scandal only, and nowhere sees any thing but the evil. The pious +panegyrists are quite as credulous in regard to the good. Evidently the +Abbé de Montis did not know every thing, or was unwilling to tell every +thing. He seems to have read neither the Memoirs of Mademoiselle nor +those of Madame de Motteville. He paints with truth the person and the +character of Mademoiselle d’Epernon. He is deceived when he imagines that +the instinct of Christian perfection alone led her to the Carmelites. +This instinct was nourished and supported by the experience of the vanity +of human affections; it shone forth, and suddenly threw Mademoiselle +d’Epernon among the Carmelites, in consequence of a cruel loss, the +death of a person to whom she had given her heart. This death, with the +great error that preceded it, induced her to quit the world; and neither +the long resistance of her family, nor even the hope of a crown could +change her resolution. + +For the sake of brevity, we shall confine ourselves to the collection of +a limited amount of testimony. That of the veracious Madame de Motteville +is decisive: “The Chevalier de Fiesque, who was killed at the siege of +Mardyck, in 1646, had, according to the opinion of his friends, great +spirit and valor. He was regretted by a young lady of high birth, who +honored him with a tender and virtuous friendship. I know nothing of it +in particular; but, according to the general opinion, it was founded upon +piety and virtue, and consequently somewhat unusual. This virtuous lady +began, soon after the death of De Fiesque, to despise the pleasures of +the world, and finally forsook them all, as unworthy to occupy a place +in her soul; she gave herself to God, entering the great convent of the +Carmelites, where her pious life is an example to all.”[107] + +Mademoiselle,[108] who knew Mademoiselle d’Epernon well, and loved +her tenderly, takes up matters farther back: “It was principally at +these balls (during the winter of 1644), that the Chevalier de Guise +(afterwards the Duke de Joyeuse) testified, without any reserve, his +passion for Mademoiselle d’Epernon.... The malady[109] of Mademoiselle +d’Epernon gave me much pain. The Chevalier de Guise took every care of +her imaginable. The danger to be apprehended in approaching those who +have the small-pox, did not hinder him from visiting her every day. +He manifested for her an incredible passion, which lasted during the +whole of the following winter.” The marriage failed; not at all, as the +Abbé Montis says, through the refusal or the indecision of Mademoiselle +d’Epernon, but through the intrigues of Mademoiselle de Guise, who tried +to marry her brother to Mademoiselle d’Angoulême. + +After the death of Chevalier de Fiesque, killed at the siege of Mardyck, +Mademoiselle d’Epernon appeared wholly changed. She, so recently given +up to display, so carried away with pleasures, no longer thought of any +thing but her own salvation, “which displeased and surprised me,” says +Mademoiselle.[110] “I had seen her very far from the austerity which she +was continually preaching; she no longer spoke of any thing but death, +contempt for the world, and the happiness of the religious life.... +The morning of her departure for Bordeaux (whither she was called by +her father, Governor of Guyenne), which was the day of Saint Theresa, +she came to bid me adieu. She found me in bed; fell upon her knees by +my side, and told me that the goodness which I had always shown towards +her, and the reciprocal confidence which had existed between us, obliged +her to reveal to me the resolution which she had taken of joining the +Carmelites, and the hope she entertained of carrying this resolution +into execution. Such was my tenderness for her, that I could not help +being moved. Touched by her design, I could not speak of it without +weeping. I used every reason that I could to dissuade her from it.... +She had already taken her resolution too firmly to listen to any thing +that might change it.... The cardinal had been consulted[111] concerning +the marriage of Prince Casimir, brother of the King of Poland,[112] and +now himself king, with Mademoiselle d’Epernon.... I confess, that when +I heard this news, I had the greatest joy. Although the emperor was +married, he had a son, who was King of Hungary, of an age proportionate +to mine, and a prince of good promise. Thus the proximity of Germany +and Poland made me believe that my good friend and myself might pass our +days together. She would be amply avenged of Mademoiselle de Guise and +M. de Joyeuse. In this affair there was nothing to displease me; and it +may be seen from the manner in which I wrote to her concerning it, that +I strove to hinder her from becoming a Carmelite. The conjuncture was +most favorable.... The devotion of Mademoiselle d’Epernon defeated this +design, and she preferred the crown of thorns to that of Poland. Although +she seemed to receive this proposition as a high honor, she feigned +sickness, and caused the waters of Bourbon to be prescribed for her, +in order to enter the first convent of the Carmelites that she should +find on the way.... Madame d’Epernon[113] took her on this journey in +utter ignorance of her design. They proceeded to Bourges, where the next +day she joined the Carmelites. Here she took the habit with one of the +domestics of Madame d’Epernon.... She wrote me from Bourges, informing +me that she was coming to the great convent at Paris.... Mademoiselle +d’Epernon could not be better situated. It is a great house, well +located, and filled with young ladies of quality and spirit, who have +left the world which they knew and despised. Now, it is this that makes +great nuns.... When she had arrived, she requested me to pay her a visit. +I went angry enough, grieved indeed to the very heart. When, however, I +saw her, I was touched with the utmost tenderness, and all other feelings +yielded so thoroughly thereto, that it was impossible for me to conceal +it from her, my tears and my extreme grief not even leaving me power to +speak; these tears did not cease during the two hours that I was with +her, though I was unable to say a single word.... Time has taught me in +turn the happiness which she enjoyed.” + +Mademoiselle d’Epernon, born in 1624, entered among the Carmelites at +twenty-four years of age, in 1648; took the veil in 1649; spent many +years in penitence and religious training, and died in 1701, at the age +of seventy-seven years, having passed fifty-three in the monastery of the +Rue Saint-Jacques. She desired to live the most obscure life, and was not +even sub-prioress.[114] + +Like Mademoiselle d’Epernon, Mademoiselle de Bourbon thought of laying +the storms that awaited her, in the peaceful retreat where she had so +many friends. There she enjoyed herself, and passed the greater part +of her life; for her mother, the Princess de Condé, always made her a +companion in her frequent visits to this convent. This princess, as was +not rare in those times, possessed at once great ambition, with a piety +that bordered upon superstition. Contrasts abounded in her character. She +never loved her husband very much, and at twenty-one years of age had +imprisoned herself with him at the Bastile and Vincennes, for three long +years. She was vain enough of her great beauty, taking great pleasure +in making conquests; that of Henry IV. had at least flattered her; she +had been very much sought after, much praised, and her life had always +been free from scandal. She had a pride that passed all bounds when +any want of proper respect was shown towards her; but when this pride +was undisturbed, she was amiable and at ease. She was not destitute of +greatness of soul or spirit. She destined her daughter for the highest +position; but, observing her great beauty, and knowing, by her own +experience, the perils thereof, she took care to arm her against them, by +planting in her heart a serious piety, and by surrounding her with the +most edifying examples. Not content with going often to the convent of +the Carmelites, she wished to be able to go there at any hour; to remain +there—she and her daughter—as long as she liked; to have an apartment +there like the queen herself; and, to that end, she took upon her burdens +onerous enough, as appears from an authentic act, passed November 18, +1637, in her own name, and in the name of Mademoiselle de Bourbon, from +which we give the following extract: + +“We, present in person, the reverend Mothers Marie-Madeleine de Jésus +(Mademoiselle de Bains), humble prioress; Sister Marie de la Passion +(Mademoiselle de Machault), sub-prioress; Sister Philippe de Saint-Paul +(Mademoiselle de Bouthillier), and Sister Marie de Saint-Barthélemy +(Mademoiselle Guichard), depositaries, representing the community, ... +who, advertised of the great desire that the high and powerful princess, +Dame Charlotte-Marguerite de Montmorency, spouse of the high and powerful +Prince Henri de Bourbon, first prince of the blood, and Demoiselle Anne +de Bourbon, their daughter, have shown to be received as founders of +the new house which the said reverends are at present constructing, +and which they expect to join to their ancient cloister; after having +proposed the business in full chapter, and with the permission of their +superiors, ... in consideration of the great piety professed by the said +dame princesses, ... and of the very charitable affection which they +have always borne towards the order of the Carmelites, and particularly +towards this monastery, have voluntarily admitted the said princesses as +founders, granting them the enjoyment of all the privileges accorded to +founders, ... to wit, freely to enter the monastery whenever they wish; +to drink, to eat, to sleep there; to be present at divine service and +other spiritual exercises; to take part in all the prayers, vigils, and +other pious works that are performed daily; we have moreover consented +that the same dame princess may enjoy the privilege, which she has +obtained from the Holy Father, of bringing two persons with her three +times a month, as she has done thus far, ... always on the condition +that the said two persons shall not remain in the monastery after six +o’clock in the evening during the winter, and after seven o’clock during +the summer.... This being accepted, ... the said dames are obligated to +continue the honor of their benevolence to the reverends, and also to +defray the costs and expenses of the building.” + +In consequence of this act, Madame the Princess gave more than 120,000 +livres at different times, a quantity of precious stones, ornaments +for the church, relics which she caused to be set with a magnificence +corresponding with her piety and her position. At the same time, she was +anxious to enjoy her rights, and, while awaiting the completion of the +new building, she took an apartment at the convent, which she furnished +somewhat like a Carmelite. Her bed and all her furniture were of brown +serge. In this desert she sometimes spent a whole week or a fortnight; +finding herself more happy, she said, than in the midst of the pleasures +of the court. A simple nun could never have shown more respect for the +regulations of the house. She subjected herself to long silence through +fear of meddling with that which was prescribed. Sometimes finding +herself alone in her chamber with the two nuns who kept her company, +she declared that she was afraid, and that at evening she took them +for phantoms, because they spoke to her only by signs, and for things +absolutely necessary. Subsequently, she wished to have a cell in the +dormitory, as simple as that of all the others. “She would,” says the +manuscript history[115] which has been confided to us, “have willingly +employed all her goods for the use or the embellishment of the convent, +if address had not been employed to conceal from her the knowledge of its +most legitimate wants. Sometimes she complained with infinite grace: If +your mothers were willing, I would do here a thousand things; but they +cannot do this thing, they will not do that, and I can do nothing. This +great princess, whom a natural pride sometimes rendered so formidable, +here became the friend, the companion, the mother of whomsoever applied +to her. Her power was never felt except through her benefits. The will +of the mother prioress was her law: she called her our mother; rose up +whenever she perceived her; submitted herself to her commands with a +charming sweetness, and was seen in the choir, at morning prayers, at +every service, in the refectory, practising ordinary mortifications, +laying her natural greatness at the feet of the spouses of Jesus Christ, +with a humility that rendered her to them still more noble.” + +Admitted with her mother into the interior of the monastery, +Anne-Geneviève filled her soul with the most edifying conversations, +the gravest and most touching spectacles. Everywhere she met none but +the living already dead and kneeling upon the grave. Here was the +tomb of Michel de Marillac, keeper of the seals, who died in exile, +at Châteaudun, in that same year, 1632, when Richelieu beheaded his +brother, Marshal de Marillac, uncle of Mademoiselle de Bourbon, Duke de +Montmorency; here were the funeral monuments of the two women of the +house of Longueville, Marguerite and Catherine d’Orleans. She doubted +not that she should one day see buried in this same place her brilliant +friend, the famous Julie, Mademoiselle de Rambouillet, now Duchess de +Montausier; that she should see carried to this place the heart of +Turenne—that heart which, for a moment, she was destined to trouble and +dispute with duty and the king; that here several of her own children +should also have their tombs, and that here she herself should repose by +the side of her mother, Madame the Princess, and of her sister-in-law, +the sweet, pure, and graceful Anne-Marie Martinozzi, Princess de +Conti.[116] + +Mademoiselle de Bourbon wished, in her turn, to be one of the +benefactresses of the Carmelites, and to make such presents as would +please them. She obtained from Pope Urban VII. the relics of seven martyr +virgins, with a brief of the Holy Father attesting their authenticity, +and that the names of each of these victims of faith had been found +entire, or abbreviated on the stone that held their bodies inclosed in +the catacombs. Let us transport ourselves to those times; let us place +ourselves in a convent of the Carmelites, and we shall form some idea +of the holy joy which filled the house on witnessing the arrival of +this magnificent and august present. Queen Anne, touched with a pious +emulation, placed with them some relics of Saint Paule, a Roman dame, +and an illustrious friend of Saint Jerome. The body of Saint Rosalie, +a grandchild of France, had just been found at Palermo. M. d’Alincourt +obtained it, and sent it as an offering. Mademoiselle de Bourbon placed +all these relics in a silver shrine, made in the form of a dome, +surmounted by a lantern, and surrounded by four figures, representing the +Evangelists. + +The Duke d’Enghien seeing his sister, whom he adored, and whose spirit +he knew, thus occupied with embellishing and enriching the convent of +the Carmelites, where he was sometimes taken, felt his honor piqued, +and wished to make his offering also. In order to divert him during +his recovery from a severe illness, various curiosities of the day +were brought and shown to him in his chamber, and among other things a +reliquary, admirable for its design and richness. The Duke d’Enghien +asked the purpose of this masterpiece. The goldsmith replied that it was +for the Carmelites of the Rue Saint-Jacques, but that, not being in a +condition to pay for such a piece of workmanship, they had left it on his +hands. The young duke exclaimed that he wished the Carmelites could have +this beautiful reliquary, and he found a very good way of realizing his +wish. He took a purse in hand, and, extolling the curiosity, which he +kept concealed, refused to show it to those who came to visit him, unless +some pieces of gold or silver were put in his purse; and he succeeded in +procuring the sum demanded, which was 2,000 louis.[117] + +Thus passed the infancy and the youth of Mademoiselle de Bourbon, in the +midst of the spectacles and practice of a true and profound piety. We +must not be surprised, then, that this piety should at length induce her +to renounce the world and become a Carmelite. She who was one day to be +the ardent disciple and the intrepid protector of Port-Royal, was then +in the hands of a Jesuit, Father Le Jeune. He encouraged her design; +but in vain she addressed the most earnest supplications to her father, +the Prince de Condé. Having other views in regard to his daughter, he +complained to Madame the Princess; and in order to break the charm that +attached Anne-Geneviève to the Carmelites, it was decided that she should +be taken oftener into society. Mademoiselle de Bourbon obeyed; but, her +mind being still filled with the images and the discourses of the Rue +Saint-Jacques, she took no pleasure in these brilliant assemblages. +When her mother found fault with her poor success, Mademoiselle de +Bourbon is said to have replied to her:[118] “You have, madame, such +touching graces, that, as I simply attend you, and appear after you, I +am not noticed.” This manner of justifying herself appeased Madame the +Princess, who, in spite of her devotion, willingly suffered herself to be +reminded that she had been and was still very beautiful. + +Mademoiselle de Bourbon, during several years, followed her inclination; +and, in order to make her renounce it, it was necessary to do her a sort +of violence. Thus far she had found means of escaping the ball. Madame +the Princess was obliged to employ her authority to make her go; and +three days before its occurrence, she was commanded to prepare herself +for it. + +“Her first movement,” says Villefore,[119] “was to go and tell this news +to her good friends the Carmelites, who were very much afflicted at it, +and embarrassed in replying to her, for she asked their advice as to her +conduct at so difficult a conjuncture. A council was held in due form, +over which presided, in religious habit, two excellent virtues, Penitence +and Prudence; and it was resolved that Mademoiselle de Bourbon, before +going to the assault, should arm her self, under her clothing, with a +small cuirass, vulgarly called a hair-cloth, and that she should then +lend herself, in good faith, to all the finery that was designed for +her. As soon as her consent was obtained, every thing was resorted to +that could most enliven her natural graces, and nothing was forgotten +to ornament a beauty more brilliant by its own splendor than by all the +jewels with which it was loaded. The Carmelites had strongly recommended +her to be on her guard, but her self-confidence misled her. From the +moment she entered the ball-room, and as long as she remained there, the +eyes of the whole assembly were fixed upon her. Admirers flocked about +her, lavishing those subtle praises that easily lay hold of a newly +enkindled self-love, which is suspicious of nothing.... On retiring from +the ball, she felt her heart agitated by new emotions: she was no longer +the same person.” + +It would not be without interest to know something about that ball where +Mademoiselle de Bourbon was carried away as a victim, where she appeared +to conquer, and which she left intoxicated; but Villefore gives us no +information respecting it. We are therefore reduced to conjecture. Here +is one which we give for what it is worth. We read in the manuscript +memoirs of André d’Ormesson, and in the _Gazette de France_, of +Renaudot,[120] that, February 18, 1635, there was given at the Louvre, +under King Louis XIII., a grand ball, in which figured all the beauties +of the day, and among the rest Mademoiselle de Bourbon. Observe that it +is the first court-ball in which the name of Mademoiselle de Bourbon +is found, both in d’Ormesson and the _Gazette_. Again, that the great +violence, an account of which has been preserved for us by Villefore, +could have been shown to the princess only on an occasion that demanded +the infliction, and for a royal ball. If this conjecture were admitted, +we should have the precise date of the conversion of Mademoiselle de +Bourbon to worldly life, as we have of the date of her conversion to +the religious life, which is certainly August 2, 1654, when she was +thirty-five years of age: the first would be February 18, 1635, when +Mademoiselle de Bourbon was sixteen. + +It is to very near this age of Madame de Longueville that these words of +Madame de Motteville refer: “Mademoiselle de Bourbon began, although very +young, to exhibit the first charms of that angelic face which has since +had such renown.” In order to judge how faithful this slight sketch is, +one must go to Versailles and see a portrait, by an old and excellent +master, named Ducayer, representing Mademoiselle de Bourbon, at the age +of fifteen years, by the side of her father and her mother, in 1634. She +is here seen in all the freshness of her virgin beauty, but in court +attire, and as if going to that ball which she so much dreaded, and which +changed her soul and her life. + +Mademoiselle de Bourbon did not, however, forget her friends of the +convent of the Carmelites, and continued to visit them. Thus far she had +experienced but one sentiment; from that time she had two,—love of God +and of the Carmelites, with a taste for worldly success. She preserved +the same piety, but that piety was henceforth combated by the desire of +pleasure, the need of loving and being loved, the wish for applause upon +that stage where she witnessed the success of so many persons who had +neither her mirth, nor her spirit, nor her face. This combat continued +a long time. We have letters addressed by her to the Carmelites, and in +a tone of the most lively piety, even when she was allowing herself +to be most carried away by her passions. Accuse neither her sincerity, +nor the inefficacy of the best principles. We are really sincere when +we express sentiments that are really in the heart, although we may not +have strength to follow them; and these noble sentiments have also the +precious advantage of mingling with our faults a remnant of virtue that +hinders us from sinking to the bottom of the abyss, of uniting therewith +a beneficent remorse that sustains the moral life, and of almost always +achieving a triumphant restoration to well-doing. Let them sleep for a +season in the soul of Madame de Longueville. There they will never be +extinguished. At some future day they will be awakened, and we shall +return to the convent of the Carmelites, in the Rue Saint-Jacques. +But it is necessary to quit it, in order to follow Mademoiselle de +Bourbon to the court, to Chantilly, to Ruel, to Liancourt, among +beautiful companions, amid agreeable promenades, taking part in gallant +conversations. We shall follow her first to Rue Saint-Thomas-du-Louvre, +to the hôtel de Rambouillet. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +1635 to 1642. + + Mademoiselle de Bourbon at the hôtel de Rambouillet—The Genre + Précieux—Madame de Sablé, type of the true précieuse—Corneille + and Voiture—Mademoiselle de Bourbon at Chantilly—At Ruel—At + Liancourt—Her young friends—Mademoiselle du Vigean and + Condé—Marriage of Mademoiselle de Bourbon. + + +It is an error too general, and recently fortified by M. Rœderer in his +ingenious and learned memoir on _Polite Society in France_,[121] that the +hôtel de Rambouillet was the first, and for a long time the only _salon_ +in Paris where good company ever assembled. No: the Marchioness de +Rambouillet did not create, she simply followed up the happy revolution +which caused a taste for intellectual things, delicate pleasures, elegant +occupations to succeed, in France, the barbarity of the civil wars, and +the license of manners too much allowed by Henry IV. This taste is the +distinctive characteristic of the seventeenth century; it is the pure +and noble source whence issued all the wonders of this great period. +Louis XIV., in 1661, received it wholly formed, illustrious on all sides +by reason of the most brilliant military and political success, rich in +masterpieces of every kind, when already the finest geniuses had finished +or commenced their career; when Malherbe and Balzac, the founders of the +new prose and of the new poesy, when Descartes, the founder of the new +philosophy, had long been buried; when Le Sueur and Sarrazin were dead; +when Pascal and Poussin were about to close their eyes; when Corneille +was no longer but a shadow of himself; when Madame de Sévigné, La +Fontaine, and Molière, were forty, and Bossuet thirty-six years of age. +All these great minds have, in their style as well as in their thought, +something artless and masculine, which betrays another epoch; an art and +a literature developed under other auspices. The seventeenth century +does not commence with Louis XIV., who crowns it, but with Richelieu, +who inspired it. No one felt better than Richelieu the growing taste for +politeness and letters. The foundation of this great soul was ambition: +his true genius was for politics; but, eager for every kind of glory, +he desired also to be, or to appear, one of the first wits of his time, +and even an accomplished cavalier. Like all great men from Cæsar to +Napoleon, he was very amiable when he wished to be so. It pleased him +for a while to affect to be a discontented man of ambition, who was +abiding his time under the appearance of a man of the world, seeking and +obtaining the most brilliant success in society. As soon as he acquired +power, he gave vogue to his own tastes; and in 1630 there was in Paris +more than one hôtel where there were assembled, for agreeable pastime, +people of wit, of lofty and of low descent, military personages, lawyers +and theologians, with their amiable wives, who naturally gave the ton. +The hôtel de Rambouillet was the most considerable of all the rendezvous +of the new spirit, and it continued to be the most celebrated, by reason +rather of the defects than of the good qualities there encountered. + +In fact, what idea is presented to the mind as soon as we hear mentioned +the hôtel de Rambouillet? That of a choice reunion where the most +exquisite politeness is cultivated, but where, little by little, the +_genre précieux_ enters and acquires full control. + +And what was this _genre précieux_? + +It was at first simply what is now called the style _distingué_. +Distinction was what was sought above all things at the hôtel de +Rambouillet: whoever possessed it, or aspired to it, from princes and +princesses of the blood to lettered persons of the most humble fortune, +was well received, attracted to, retained in the amiable and illustrious +company. + +But what must we understand by distinction? It cannot be defined in +an absolute manner. Each epoch makes an ideal of distinction for its +own use. Two things, however, almost always enter it, two things in +appearance contrary, and which are combined only in choice spirits +happily cultivated: a certain elevation in ideas and sentiments, with +an extreme simplicity in manners and language. I suppose that with +Aspasia, at Athens, Pericles, Anaxagoras, and Phidias talked of art, +of philosophy, of politics, with no more effort and declamation, than +workmen and merchants would have used in conversing about their ordinary +occupations. Socrates was an accomplished model in this style, and the +_Banquet_ of Plato, wherein, after supper, discourse is held upon the +most elevated topics in the most charming and most natural manner, gives +us a perfect idea of what was then the _ton_ of that particular atticism +at Athens, and which, even at Athens, was the mark of distinction. It +was the same at Rome with the Scipios, where an amiable badinage was +often mingled with the gravest matters, a little less, perhaps, at the +suppers of Cicero, when Cæsar was not present, the master of the house +not being a sufficiently great lord to be always perfectly simple, and +the new man,—I do not say the parvenu—especially the orator and the man +of letters, being a little too perceptible, even when he strove most +to imitate Plato. It was this Roman urbanity, the somewhat degenerated +daughter of Athenian atticism, that the hôtel de Rambouillet aimed at and +contributed to spread.[122] + +Grandeur was in some sort in the air from the very commencement of +the seventeenth century. The policy of the government was grand, and +great men sprang up in crowds to carry it out in the councils and on +the battle-field. A mighty spirit pervaded French society. Everywhere +were great designs in the arts, in letters, in sciences, in philosophy. +Descartes, Poussin, and Corneille were advancing towards their future +glory, full of bold thoughts, under the eyes of Richelieu. Every thing +was turned to grandeur. Every thing was rude, even somewhat gross, mind +as well as heart. Force abounded; grace was absent. In this excessive +vigor, good taste was unknown. Politeness was necessary to lead the +century to perfection. Of this the hôtel de Rambouillet was particularly +the school. + +The days of its greatest lustre begin in 1630, and extend to 1648, when +the idol of the house, Mademoiselle de Rambouillet, married in 1645 to +M. de Montausier, follows him into his government of Saintonge and of +Angoumois, at the commencement of the Fronde. The palmy days of the +illustrious hôtel were then under Richelieu, and during the first years +of the regency. For a score of years it rendered incontestable services +to the national taste; but the good which it was able to do, was achieved +in 1648. Already its defects had begun to appear and to encroach upon +its good qualities. The inferior circles which had been formed in Paris +and in the provinces, at first useful because they promoted politeness, +had terminated in being dangerous by degenerating loftiness of ideas and +sentiments into a false grandeur, extravagant and affected, especially +by carrying affectation into simplicity. It was then that the _genre +précieux_, becoming corrupted, the great master in fact of nature and +truth, declared against it that pitiless war, opened by his comedy of +_Les Précieuses Ridicules_, printed in 1660, and closed by that of _Les +Femmes Savantes_, printed in 1673. But let us return to 1630. + +In 1630 there was much originality in France, but it was an originality +which showed the necessity of foreign models. At a later period, Molière, +La Fontaine, Boileau, and Racine, those geniuses so eminently French, +proposed the study of models; they sought them in antiquity, which they +imitated without ceasing to be original, giving the French character +to every thing that they touched. Their predecessors had addressed +themselves to Italy and to Spain, in their eyes the two nations most +advanced. The Médicis had introduced among us a taste for Italian +literature. Queen Anne brought, or rather strengthened, a taste for +Spanish literature. The hôtel de Rambouillet endeavored to unite them. + +The Spanish style was, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, made +up of high gallantry, languishing and Platonic; of a heroism somewhat +romantic; a knightly courage; a lively sentiment of the beauties of +nature, which developed itself in eclogues and idyls, both prose and +verse; a passion for music and serenades, as well as for carousals, +elegant conversations, and magnificent diversions. The Italian style was +precisely the contrary of Spanish grandeur, or, if you please, bombast, +wit, carried to refinement, raillery and jesting, which threatened to +abase every thing. From the mixture of these two styles sprang the +alliance, ardently pursued, rarely accomplished in a perfect proportion, +of the grand and the familiar, of the grave and the pleasant, of the +sprightly and the sublime. + +At the hôtel de Rambouillet, it was not sufficient to be a hero; it +was also necessary to be a gallant man, an _honnête_ man, as was the +appellation in 1630, and as it continued to be during the seventeenth +century; an _honnête_ man, new and piquant expression, mysterious +type which it is difficult to define, and whose sentiment spread with +inconceivable rapidity. The _honnête_ man had elevated sentiments: he was +necessarily brave, gallant, liberal; he had wit and fine manners, but +all this without the least appearance of pedantry, and with an easy and +familiar air. Such was the ideal which the hôtel de Rambouillet proposed +for public admiration, and for the imitation of people who prided +themselves on being _comme il faut_. + +The women were naturally called upon to play the principal rôle in an +enterprise like this, and the Marchioness de Rambouillet seemed formed +expressly to preside over it. She was almost Italian: her father was +Vivonne Pisani, and her mother, Savelli. Her husband was a very high +lord, and had been ambassador extraordinary to Spain. They had already +withdrawn from business, with a considerable fortune, to a beautiful +hôtel near Paris, a magnificent country residence:[123] they were there +in the way of no one, and drew about them a large circle. To finish the +portrait of an accomplished hostess, add that Madame de Rambouillet, +though very beautiful, had never been engaged in any intrigue, and +that she was passionately fond of people of wit, though without any +pretension thereto herself: in fact, only a few letters and two stanzas +are all that can be found from her pen.[124] + +She was also an object of admiration to all those who knew her. Tallemant +des Réaux himself passes upon her the highest eulogy. He says that she +was beautiful, virtuous, and sensible. “She has,”[125] observes he, +“always loved beautiful things; and for the sake of reading Virgil, +she applied herself to the study of Latin, but was prevented from +accomplishing her design by sickness: she contented herself afterwards +with learning Spanish.... She was in every thing a very clever person.... +No one in the world was less selfish; she went farther than those who +say that giving is a pleasure worthy of a king, for she said that it was +a pleasure worthy of God.... There never was a mind more upright.... +Never was there a truer friend.” Her only defect which M. Rœderer has +intentionally suppressed, and which Tallemant does not fail to notice, +was an excessive delicacy in language. There were words which frightened +her, and which found no favor with her,[126] so that there was already +in Arthénice (the _nom de précieuse_ of Madame de Rambouillet) something +of Philaminte. Segrais speaks of her in terms similar to those of +Tallemant:[127] “Madame de Rambouillet was admirable; she was good, +gentle, beneficent, and warm-hearted, and she possessed a correct mind. +It was she who corrected the bad manners then prevalent. She had formed +her mind by reading good Italian and Spanish books; and she taught +politeness to all those who frequented her company. Princes visited her, +though she was not a duchess. She was also an excellent friend, obliging +to every one. The Cardinal Richelieu held her in the highest esteem.... +Madame de La Fayette learned much from her.” One of her daughters, the +celebrated Julie, possessed a most remarkable mind, and, in default of +great beauty, a very fine form and noble air. She understood how to make +agreeable the house of her mother, and she was ably seconded by her +brother, the Marquis de Pisani, as intellectual as he was brave; also +by her numerous sisters, especially by her who was the first Madame de +Grignan.[128] + +We may find anywhere a description of the hôtel de Rambouillet, and +of that famous blue chamber, which was in some sort the sanctuary of +the temple of the goddess of Athens, to speak like Mademoiselle in _La +Princesse de Paphlagonie_.[129] It was a large _salon_, the decorations +of which were all of blue velvet, set off with gold and silver, and +whose large windows, opening from the ceiling to the floor, admitted +abundance of light and air, and gave the prospect of a very beautiful +and well-cultivated garden, which extended as far as the eye could +reach. The hôtel had been built upon a new plan, designed by Madame de +Rambouillet herself. It was not very vast, but of a beautiful appearance. +It was the last hôtel but one of the Rue Saint-Thomas-du-Louvre, on the +side of the Place du Palais Cardinal, between the Quinze-Vingts, which +occupied the corner of the street, and the hôtel de Chevreuse, afterwards +the hôtel d’Epernon, and a little later, towards 1663 or 1664, the hôtel +de Longueville.[130] + +M. Rœderer has left hardly any thing to be done in cataloguing the great +lords and ladies who frequented the hôtel de Rambouillet during the +last half of its long and brilliant existence. I will limit myself to +selecting, from the group of amiable women ever found there, one whom M. +Rœderer has too much neglected, and who is, in my eyes, the model of a +true and perfect _précieuse_, Madeleine de Souvre, Marchioness de Sablé, +whose life is connected with that of Madame de Longueville, and of whom +Madame de Motteville has left us the following portrait: + +“The Marchioness de Sablé[131] was one of those whose beauty was creating +the most sensation when the queen (Queen Anne) arrived in France (in +1615); but if she was lovely, she was still more desirous of appearing +so. The love which this lady had for herself rendered her a little too +sensible to that testified to her by the other sex. There were in France +some relics of the politeness that Catherine de Médicis had introduced +from Italy; and so much delicacy was found in the new comedies and in +all other works, both prose and verse, which came from Madrid, that she +conceived a very high opinion of the gallantry which the Spaniards had +caught from the Moors. She was persuaded that men might, without crime, +entertain the most tender sentiments for females; that the desire of +pleasing impelled them to the greatest and handsomest acts, gave them +spirit and inspired them with liberality and every virtue; but that, on +the other hand, women, who were the ornament of the world, and made to +be served and adored, ought to tolerate their respect alone. This lady, +supporting her sentiments with fine wit and great beauty, gave them much +authority in her time; and the number and consideration of those who +continued to see her, perpetuated in our time what the Spaniards call, +_fucezas_.”[132] + +Madame de Sablé had been passionately loved by the brave, handsome, and +unfortunate Duke de Montmorency, uncle of Madame de Longueville, who +was decapitated at Toulouse in 1632. She responded to his passion; but +Montmorency having raised his eyes upon the queen, Madame de Sablé, like +a true Spaniard, broke connection with him. “I heard her say,” says +Madame de Motteville again, “that her own pride was so great, that, on +the first demonstration made by the Duke de Montmorency of his change +of affection, she wished to see him no more, being unable to receive +agreeably devotion which she was obliged to share even with the greatest +princess in the world.” + +The Marchioness de Sablé continued faithful to the manners of her youth, +and, when the hôtel de Rambouillet was almost closed, she maintained +something akin to it in her hôtel of the Place-Royale, with her +intellectual friend, the Countess de Maure, and even in her retreat of +Port-Royal, at the Faubourg Saint-Jacques. She kept up for a long time +a school of _bon ton_, of _morale_, and of refined literature, whence +originated the _Maximes_ of La Rochefoucauld. + +Among the people of letters who came often to the hôtel de Rambouillet, +the two most celebrated are without contradiction Corneille and Voiture. + +Corneille, with Descartes, is the highest expression of the literature +of the first half of the seventeenth century. His qualities, like his +defects, were in the most perfect harmony with his times. Hence a success +which no one has since equalled. Under Louis XIV., what piece of Racine +produced the impression made by the _Cid_, in 1636? It is necessary +to read the writers of the times in order to obtain an idea of the +enthusiasm which seized Paris and all France. They were true transports: + + All Paris for Chimène hath the eyes of Rodrigue. + +Nothing more true. Because at this time there was not a gentleman in +Paris who did not pretend to be a Rodrigue; not a woman of _bon ton_ who +had not at heart, or who did not affect the sentiments of Chimène. The +more we study this admirable piece, which _Polyeucte_ alone surpassed +a few years after, the more we discover in it the traits of that great +epoch forever gone, heroism and great gallantry; that point of honor +which doubtless shed much blood, but promoted the warlike spirit; in ripe +men and in chieftains, serious interests and energetic passions clashing +with each other; in youth, the generous struggle of love and duty, which +will one day be carried to the utmost degree of the pathetic in Pauline +and in Sévère, throughout it a language somewhat rude, but artless and +strong, ever familiar; at the same time, it is true, an ill-founded taste +straying sometimes in the pursuit of grandeur, of delicacies infinite +and full of grace, but somewhat critical, and of subtile analyses of +passion reasoning upon itself. Such was the hôtel de Rambouillet. It +recognized itself in and defended the _Cid_ against the all-powerful +minister.[133] It was in the noble _salon_ that Corneille encountered +Balzac, and conversed with him concerning Rome and the Romans. Let the +discourses upon the Romans addressed by Balzac to the Marchioness de +Rambouillet[134] be read, and it will be seen whether the conversations +of this period were useless. I dare say that France never witnessed a +time when politics were more the order of the day. Every one was then +occupied with public affairs. It was neither Lucan nor Tacitus who taught +Corneille the language of _Cinna_ and of the first scene of _La Mort de +Pompée_. The true school of Corneille was the spectacle of what passed +around him, the story of great contemporaneous events, the conversations +of Richelieu and of his familiars, Father Joseph, Mazarin, Lyonne, and +those who were every day in the companies which he frequented, where +ambassadors, warriors, bishops, councillors of state mingled with men +of letters. Corneille read all his pieces at the hôtel de Rambouillet. +It was in all its glory, and it declined with him; his masterpiece, the +masterpiece also of the French stage, _Polyeucte_, appeared in 1643, that +is, during the most brilliant days of the hôtel de Rambouillet, and I +may add of France, for it was in this same year, 1643, that one of the +youngest disciples of the illustrious hôtel, the most passionate admirer +of Corneille, the brother of Mademoiselle de Bourbon, the Duke d’Enghien, +gained at the age of twenty-two years, in a manner worthy of Alexander +and of Cæsar, one of those battles of which history records but five +or six—that battle of Rocroy, in which the designs of Henri IV. and of +Richelieu were justified by victory, and by which France succeeded Spain +in the moral and military supremacy of Europe. + +Voiture was admired by his most intellectual and fastidious +contemporaries. La Fontaine places him in the number of his masters.[135] +Madame de Sévigné characterizes his mind as “free, playful, +charming.”[136] Boileau says that Voiture is, in his eyes, a sort of +clown, asking what there is in him to be so much admired.[137] Let us +confess it: we all more or less resemble this clown: we are scarcely able +at the present day to account for the fame of Voiture. Many reasons may +be assigned for it which militate neither against Voiture nor ourselves. + +Of all our faculties, wit is that which has most to do with social +intercourse, but which leaves the least trace. A sally, a repartee, +cannot be separated from the manner in which they are expressed. +Sprightly sayings have not all their grace except in the mouth of a man +of wit. It is not thus with words proceeding from the heart, and with +great thoughts. As they come from the depths of human nature, which +changes not, they have infinite perspectives, and they endure as long as +the heart and the reason. But wit plays upon the surface; it sparkles +and becomes extinguished in an instant. Wit is the offspring of the +moment. The effect of an impromptu depends upon a thousand things, which, +in disappearing, carry with them what had most charmed us. What, I pray +you, is the present value of a pleasantry perpetrated two centuries ago? + +Madame de Sévigné, in her enthusiasm for him who had been one of the +masters of her youth, exclaims: “So much the worse for those who do not +understand him!” But it is easy for the amiable marchioness to speak +concerning him; she had an intimate knowledge of the manners, of the +things, of the men, of the women, of the adventures, of the little +accidents to which the verses and prose of Voiture related. His nephew, +Martin Pinchesne, who, a year or two after the death of his uncle, +published his works, was foolish or kind enough to suppress the dates +of the jokes and the names of most of the persons who had called them +forth, so that even in the seventeenth century those who had not been of +Voiture’s society, had need of a commentator to understand him. Tallemant +confesses that there are in his writings many things, the point of which +he has not been able to discover. “At some future day,” says he, “if it +can be done without offending too many people, I will have them printed +with notes, and I will add to them such other pieces as I shall be able +to find of the society of the hôtel de Rambouillet.”[138] + +In fact, to relish Voiture, he should have been seen upon the theatre +of his success from 1630 to 1648, with those pretty women who sought to +be amused, among those young gentlemen who, in the interval of battles, +were partaking of the most refined pleasures of the mind. Voiture reigned +at the hôtel de Rambouillet. Corneille, timid and proud, neglected and +full of himself, was but ill at ease in this great society: he listened +almost always in silence, and seldom conversed except with Balzac, his +fellow-citizen in the Roman republic. But Voiture was the gayety, the +life, the soul of the house. He was always in the proper mood; his +inexhaustible flow of spirits mingled in every thing, animated every +thing, and, while Corneille was grave in the midst of trifles, and +introducing, involuntarily, into the very comedies which he wished to +make most diverting, tragic movements, Voiture, in the most serious +matters, was lavishing his witticisms. He represents the playful side of +the hôtel de Rambouillet, as Corneille did its severe side. + +Let us not forget that Voiture wrote only as he was inspired by the +occasion—that circumstance was his favorite muse, and that she dictated +to him most of those little things, produced in haste, and which he did +not even take the trouble to collect. It is then ridiculous to criticise +them. They were for the most part songs, intended to be sung, and which +were sung. The editor has sometimes indicated the airs, and we have found +nearly all of them in a curious collection, belonging to the library of +the Arsenal, entitled _Chansons notées_. + +But Voiture has not merely a facility full of charm; it seems to me +that in his somewhat more studied efforts, he has ideas, philosophy, +sensibility, sometimes even passion. I feel obliged to shelter myself +behind the authority of Boileau, who, in his letter to Perrault,[139] +eulogizes Voiture, and particularly his elegies. For my part, I prefer +them to all those which appeared before 1648, the year of the death +of Voiture, and of the end, or at least of the decay of the hôtel de +Rambouillet, excepting, indeed, the elegies of Corneille, now too much +forgotten, and which contain passages vieing with the most touching of +his tragedies.[140] + +I would call attention to the elegy to a coquette, whom Voiture names +Bélise. Is there, indeed, no elevation, no force in the following verses? + + Your charms which but the face adorn, + Can ne’er control a soul well born, + Your sway’s too harsh to be secure; + If any one can it endure, + With so much scorn, ingratitude, + He must be born for servitude, + Or else some wretch whom gods pursue + In wrath by giving him to you. + For praise and honor vainly moved, + You cannot love, yet would be loved,[141] etc. + +We must give almost in full the elegy to a lady whom he had quitted for +another, and to whom he returned: + + Leaving for me her native pride, + Sweet Iris could no more deride; + Approved my flame, my hopes allow’d, + Received my love, heard what I vow’d, + Bestow’d those tokens, one by one, + Which lovers hang their hopes upon. + Treatment so mild, ’t must be averr’d, + Some feeling in my bosom stirr’d,— + Of love? This perjured soul ’gainst you + Such injury could never do; + Of friendship only, yet so strong, + I thought to love ’twould turn ere long. + In her I daily hoped to meet + The traits which render you so sweet, + Those charms divine, by which, at will, + You either make alive or kill; + Your graces perfectly refined, + The native grandeur of your mind, + That discourse sweet, to nature true, + But these I find alone in you. + Of beauty, sooth, she had enough + To move the heart of sternest stuff; + A hundred charms in her I found, + But greater charms in you abound; + None of those looks with which, as darts, + Your eyes transfix the hardest hearts. + How, oft, when by your beauty smit, + Or by your grace or sparkling wit, + I’ve said, and I can quickly prove, + That Philis merits truest love? + +We cannot mistake a true sensibility, the accent of passion, or, if you +please, of pleasure, in these _stanzas_, addressed to an Aminte who is +unknown to us: + + When simply with two words you chose + To make my pains forever cease; + When I had felt a martyr’s woes, + You oped the skies and gave me peace. + Your charms, which nothing can eclipse, + Conceal’d the rigor of your part, + Love’s lures were all upon your lips, + And all his shafts went to my heart. + You took at once a beauty new, + A radiance vieing that above. + Ah! how mine eyes were then on you, + And how your eyes saw me in love! + +Here, in a very different style, are some verses, which, twenty years +later, Saint-Evremond would not have disavowed. Voiture is writing to the +Duke d’Enghien on his recovery from a disease by which it was thought he +would be carried off, after the campaign in Germany, in 1645: + + I much rejoice, my lord, to know + Your safe return from Allemagne, + From sickness, too, that laid you low, + Just at the close of the campaign; + Spreading a hope throughout all Spain, + That Heaven at last would show it grace + By cutting short your fearful race, + And that undoubted valor stay + Which it so dreads to face. + But, seignior, let me know, I pray, + Does Death, who, on the battle-fields,— + ’Mid cries and terrible alarms, + ’Mid flames, and swords, and spears, and shields, + The noise and rage of clashing arms,— + Appears for you to have some charms, + And seem’d so very fine before + To you array’d in garb of war: + Does he appear the same, I pray, + When leisurely he takes his way + Towards one too sick to hold his head; + And has he not an ugly grin, + When cold and stiff he saunters in, + To take a man from out his bed? etc. + +In justice to Voiture, it must be acknowledged: he is the creator of a +particular literature—the literature of society, if the expression may +be allowed. He excelled in playful and light poetry; in that kind of +trifling verse in which he has since had so many insipid imitators; which +Voltaire carried so far, and which forms the best part, the truest title, +to his poetic glory. Voiture was indeed the miniature Voltaire of the +hôtel de Rambouillet. + +I leave him, after saying to his honor that, though an attendant at the +court, he had not the manners of a courtier. Voiture is the first example +of a man of letters who preserved his independence among the greatest +lords: he had rather the saucy tone and manners of his successors of +the end of the eighteenth century. He was very caustic, and therefore +much dreaded. Great care was taken not to incur one of his epigrams, for +they were sharp swift arrows that flew all over Paris, tearing their +poor victim to pieces in a thousand different places at the same time. +The Duke d’Enghien, who loved to laugh, and who could appreciate a +joke, because he himself had great wit, agreed perfectly with Voiture, +saying, however, “He would be insupportable, if he was one of ourselves.” +Besides, Voiture, still surpassing his disciples of the eighteenth +century, had procured an excellent post through his success in society. +He was appointed introducer of ambassadors to his Royal Highness, Gaston, +Duke of Orleans. He was also appointed an officer of finance, in which +capacity he seldom served, although he thence derived a handsome income. +He had been intrusted with more than one important mission, principally +to the Count Duke d’Olivares. In person he was well made, and he dressed +himself in the best taste. It was his office to be the chevalier, the +lover, and, as they then said, the _mourant_ (dying man) of all the +belles, especially of the pretty Mademoiselle Paulet, whose somewhat bold +manners and blond hair had won for her the name of the lioness of the +hôtel de Rambouillet. + +Such was the society into which, about the year 1635 or 1636—after the +great ball which bore off Mademoiselle de Bourbon from the Carmelites—the +Princess de Condé introduced her daughter, with her son, the young Duke +d’Enghien. They did not enter it unprepared. The hôtel de Condé was +also the rendezvous of the best company. Situated in the vast space at +present occupied by the Rue de Condé, the street, place, and theatre de +l’Odéon, as far as the Rue des Fossés-Monsieur-le-Prince, it was, says +Sauval,[142] magnificently built, and Madame the Princess did its honors +with a dignity almost royal, tempered with grace and wit. Lenet, to whom +we must always refer in regard to every thing connected with the Condés, +informs us that Madame the Princess had bestowed great pains upon the +manners of her children. “Marguerite de Montmorency,[143] who had been +the beauty, grace, and majesty of her times, and who was proportionably +so in advanced age, even till her death, had always around her a circle +of the most agreeable and intellectual ladies of the court. Near her were +found all the most gallant, the most _honnête_, and most elevated, both +by birth and merit. The young prince became pleased with this society. +He frequented it continually, and from it received the first tincture of +that noble and gallant civility which he has ever possessed, which he +still preserves towards ladies ... Mademoiselle de Bourbon, his sister, +who was afterwards the Duchess de Longueville, possessed great spirit +and extraordinary beauty.” We can then easily conceive how the two young +people were received at the hôtel de Rambouillet. From the first moment, +they gave it the greatest lustre. + +Mademoiselle de Bourbon, the person whom we have described, with +beautiful blue eyes, light hair, fine form, careless and languishing +air, was formed exactly, by the bent of her mind and character, to +become an accomplished pupil of the hôtel de Rambouillet. There was in +her an innate depth of pride, which slumbered in ordinary life, but, at +intervals, was promptly aroused. Her mind was of the finest stamp, but +its delicacy often turned to subtilty. Especially the tender, Platonic +gallantry, which was the order of the day, was calculated to charm +without causing her fear, for her rank protected her; and, besides, she +says in the most humble of confessions, the pleasures of sense never +attracted her. What touched her, and ended in misleading her, was a +desire to be loved, and also the wish to appear, to show, as they then +said, the power of her mind and of her eyes. + +Her brother, the Duke d’Enghien, had her hauteur, but nothing whatever of +her delicacy. In spite of all the efforts of his mother, and the example +of his sister, the easy manner of the warrior always marked him; and he +often carried freedom of thought and language even to license. Though not +handsome, he was well made; and, when elegantly dressed, he presented +a fine appearance. His keen eyes, very aqueline nose, somewhat decayed +teeth, abundant and usually disordered hair, gave him an eagle-like look +when animated.[144] He possessed an agreeable mind, a gayety which was +most freely exhibited in the midst of dangers, and which did not abandon +him in prison. Whatever may be said of him, he was full of heart. He +loved his friends, and he never betrayed one of them. He exacted much +from them, but he also gave them much. He lavished their blood, as well +as his own, upon the battle-field; but he promoted their interests, and +demanded for them more than for himself. Any other person, after the +battle of Rocroy, would have been jealous of Gassion, who was said to +have advised the manœuvre which decided the day; he himself, from the +field of battle, demanded for Gassion the baton of Marshal of France, +and the office of Lieutenant-General for Sirot, who, at the head of +the reserve, had completed the victory. When, in the fight of the Rue +Saint-Antoine, escaping with difficulty from the carnage, harassed with +fatigue, defeated, covered with blood, he arrived, sword in hand, at the +house of Mademoiselle, his first exclamation, accompanied with a torrent +of tears, was, “Ah! madame, you see a man who has lost all his friends!” +At Brussels, when negotiating his return to France, he stipulated also +for a similar grace to those who had followed him. He wrote very spirited +verses, but they were satirical and somewhat soldierlike.[145] He once +loved, in the Spanish fashion, according to all the rules of the hôtel de +Rambouillet. We shall presently make known the object of this touching +passion, which does lasting honor to the great Condé; but we may here say +that she was a heroine worthy of the hero. + +Represent to yourself these two young persons at the hôtel de +Rambouillet. There Condé amused himself and laughed freely with Voiture +and the wits around him; but his favorite was Corneille. The latter, who +was poor, and somewhat fond of money, complained to Segrais, a Normand +like himself,[146] that the Prince de Condé, who professed so much +admiration for his works, had never made him large presents. Segrais +did not then know, that until the death of his father in 1646, the Duke +d’Enghien had nothing but his glory, that he was unable to give the least +pension; and what pension, I ask, would have been worth so much as the +presence of Condé at the first representation of _Cinna_, and the sobs +which escaped him at those memorable words: + + Let us be friends, _Cinna_; ’tis I who ask thee, etc. + +We should remark in passing that this same Condé, who was the +enthusiastic admirer of Corneille, became the friend of Bossuet, and +the faithful defender of Molière. He had seen Bossuet almost a child +beginning his career as a preacher at the hôtel de Rambouillet; he +had been present at, and had thought of taking part in the brilliant +struggles of his doctorship: near the close of his life he sought his +conversation, and found in him not only the most eloquent, but the most +exact historian, the most faithful painter of Rocroy, especially the +most worthy interpreter of that great heart, immortal dwelling of the +beautiful and good. + +Mademoiselle de Bourbon soon became one of the most brilliant ornaments +of the hôtel de Rambouillet. She there met the Marchioness de Sablé, +still beautiful, and celebrated for her admiration of Spanish manners, +and for her loves with Montmorency. Madame de Sablé guided the first +steps of her youth, and twenty-five years after, received her at that +common rendezvous of noble disabused hearts, religion. But Mademoiselle +de Bourbon was then in the morning of life; and, little thinking of the +storms that awaited her, she yielded herself, on leaving the Carmelites, +to all the pleasures which came before her. + +Like her brother, she admired Corneille; but she had a particular taste +for Voiture, and this taste never forsook her. She thought, she spoke +continually of Voiture, like Madame de Sévigné. It was not the charm +of his wit alone that pleased her; she was, doubtless, touched with the +sensibility which we have shown that he possessed, and which places +Voiture above all his rivals. In the famous quarrel concerning the two +sonnets upon Job, and upon Uranie, which divided the court and the city, +the _salons_ and the Academy, when every one was for Benserade, Madame +de Longueville, then the arbiter of taste and of elegance, took in hand +the cause of Voiture, and brought all to her opinion. A whole volume has +been written on this quarrel: it is not exhausted, and we shall hereafter +take it up by aid of new pieces, which, in showing for the first time the +motives of Madame de Longueville, will reveal to us the delicacy of her +mind, which belongs to that of her heart.[147] + +Mademoiselle de Bourbon became acquainted, also, at the hôtel de +Rambouillet, with the cultivated, moderate, discreet Chapelain, the +sincere friend of good literature, and who might have become a writer +of the third, perhaps, even of the second rank, as well as his friend, +Pélisson, if, as was said by Boileau, whose shafts of wit are all serious +judgments, he had been contented to write in prose. Mademoiselle de +Bourbon conceived a great esteem for Chapelain, and, when she married, +she made Monsieur de Longueville give him a pension sufficient to enable +him to labor in security upon that famous _Pucelle_, which was to be the +Iliad of France, which was applauded in advance in the _salons_ of the +Rue Saint-Thomas-du-Louvre, and of which the young admirer of Corneille +and Voiture was already beginning to grow weary. + +Among the mediocre wits whom she met in the illustrious hôtel, was +Godeau, the little abbé, who was called in the house the dwarf of +Julie, and who during all his life, by turns bishop of Grasse and of +Vence, kept up a written correspondence, half devotional, half gallant, +with Mademoiselle de Bourbon and Madame de Longueville.[148] There was +Esprit, too, of the French Academy, who played all sorts of parts; at +first, a man of letters and messmate of the chancellor, who placed him +in the Academy, then suddenly a priest of l’Oratoire, then a man of the +world again, and father of a family, who could not have been devoid of +merit, for he had the esteem of the best judges of his times: attached +afterwards to the embassy of Munster, one of the pensioners of M. and +Madame de Longueville, preceptor of their nephews, the young princes +de Conti, holding a prominent place in the _salon_ of Madame de Sablé, +consulted by La Rochefoucauld, and even passing for one of the authors of +the _Maximes_, a reputation which he might have preserved if he had not +been so imprudent as to print a work in 1678.[149] + +I should be scrupulous, were I to forget Madame Scudéry as one of the +frequenters of the hôtel de Rambouillet. She was certainly very homely, +yet a person of true talent, writing perhaps too rapidly, but with +a correctness and polish which were not common in 1640. She enjoyed +and merited great consideration. Leibnitz sought the honor of her +correspondence. She wrote verses which were relished in their time, and +which still seem to us very agreeable. Her romances are so long, and the +episodes in them so embarrassing to one another, that it is absolutely +impossible to read them at the present day. But those who dare to enter +this labyrinth will meet here and there portraits well drawn, and +resembling, though somewhat flattered, the illustrious originals, poorly +disguised under Greek, Persian, and Roman names; exact descriptions of +the finest places, and most magnificent palaces of France and of Paris, +transported to Rome or to Armenia; great sentiments then in vogue; +tendernesses of a refined Platonism; conversations sometimes a little +insipid, sometimes a little refined, but which give a very agreeable +idea of the real conversations which Madame Scudéry tried to imitate. +Madame de Lafayette will, some day, abridge these pictures and these +discourses; she will take from them these insipidities and weaknesses; +she will soften these subtilties; but she will preserve the charm of +these heroic and gallant manners, and the delicate minds, whose delights +are in _Zaïdé_, and _The Princesses de Clèves_, in the _Bérénice_ of +Racine, the _Psyché_ of Molière, and of Corneille, will not read without +pleasure, certain chapters of the _Grand Cyrus_. Georges Scudéry himself, +insupportable on account of his self-love and bravado style, was a man of +honor, reliable as a friend, and who, in the most trying moments, before +Mazarin, on whom he depended, preserved proudly his fidelity to Condé +and his sister. + +It is proper to mention these different persons, because they reappear +in the life of Madame de Longueville. At the hôtel de Rambouillet, they +attached themselves to Mademoiselle de Bourbon, and began her reputation, +which grew rapidly from year to year. + +Mademoiselle de Bourbon passed the winters in Paris, at the hôtel de +Condé, at the Louvre, at the Palais Cardinal, in some hôtels of the +Place-Royale, especially at the hôtel de Rambouillet, amid balls, +concerts, comedies, gallant conversations; and everywhere she was +brilliant by the graces of her mind and person. In summer she was +occupied with other pleasures: she went to Fontainebleau with the court, +or to visit her mother at Chantilly, or to see Cardinal Richelieu and +the duchess d’Aiguillon at Ruel, or perhaps to Liancourt, to visit the +Duchess of Liancourt, Jeanne de Schomberg; or perhaps again, to Labarre, +near Paris, to pass some time with the Baroness Du Vigean, who, though of +inferior rank, but of great fortune, had the most amiable family,—a son, +the Marquis de Fors, one of the bravest comrades of the Duke d’Enghien, +and two charming daughters, who were greatly sought by all the young and +gallant nobility. Before as well as after her marriage, Mademoiselle +de Bourbon divided her time among these different residences, which +rivalled each other in magnificence and charms. Naturally, it was to her +mother, at Chantilly, that she went most frequently. + +We must look in Du Cerceau[150] and in Perelle[151] to know what +Chantilly was at the beginning and at the end of the seventeenth century. +This vast and beautiful domain had long belonged to the family of +Montmorency, and it came into that of Condé, in 1632, through Madame +the Princess, on the death of her brother, decapitated at Toulouse. It +assembles then the souvenirs of the two greatest military families of +ancient France. Anne and Louis de Bourbon pervade it, and their spirits +will cover and protect Chantilly so long as there shall remain among us +any patriotic piety, any national pride. The Montmorencys transferred +the charming château to the Condés a little before the _renaissance_, +which Du Cerceau has described in all its details. It was the great +Condé, during the last fifteen years of his life, who, finding in the +vicinity the most beautiful woods, a true forest, with a canal resembling +a river, abundant waters and vast gardens, drew from them the wonders +which the graver of Perelle has preserved for us, and which Bossuet +could not help praising,—those fountains, those cascades, those grottoes, +those pavilions, “those superb avenues, those water jets which ceased +neither day nor night.”[152] They have ceased now. The bad taste of the +seventeenth century and revolutions have destroyed Chantilly. A prince +worthy of his name had undertaken to restore it to its first beauty. +He had wished to expend upon it the fortune which the mishaps of the +house of Condé had brought to him, and that which he held from his own +house. The young captain had dreamed of returning at a future day, after +having extended and secured French dominion in Africa, to repose with +his lieutenants in the sacred home of the Montmorencys and the Condés, +restored and embellished by his own hand. Providence ordered otherwise, +and Chantilly still awaits a repairing hand. But let us return to the +Chantilly of the middle of the seventeenth century, before the epoch of +its great magnificence, between the periods described respectively by Du +Cerceau and Perelle. + +It was already a delicious abode. Madame the Princess delighted in it, +and there passed, with her children, almost every summer. She brought +with her a little court, composed of the friends of her son and +daughter, with some of the choicest wits, and particularly Voiture, with +whom they could not dispense. In default of Voiture, they had his small +change, Montreuil or Sarrazin, attachés of the house of Condé, and who +were successively secretaries of Condé, of the Prince de Conti, and of +Madame de Longueville. They were men of fine spirit; and Boileau, in his +letter to Perrault, names Sarrazin after Voiture. M. the Prince, for +whom the country possessed but little charm, remained usually in Paris, +to prosecute his designs and his fortune. Madame the Princess did not +dislike diversion, and young people devoted themselves to her with ardor. +Court was paid to the ladies. During the heat of the day, they amused +themselves in reading romances or poetry; in the evening they took long +promenades and held long conversations. They lived after the manner of +Astrea, in awaiting the adventures of the great Cyrus. Even in 1650, +after the death of her husband, during the captivity of her two sons and +of her son-in-law and the exile of her daughter, the troubles of the +civil war and the noise of arms, Lenet relates to us how the Princess +de Condé, passed the time at Chantilly:[153] “The promenades were the +most agreeable in the world.... The evenings were not less diverting. +The company repaired to the apartment of the princess, where they +played at different games. There were often fine voices, and especially +agreeable conversations and stories of intrigues, which made life pass +as pleasantly as possible.... These diversions were interrupted by bad +news, occasionally brought or written. It was a very great pleasure to +see all the young ladies sad or gay, according to the rare or frequent +visits made to them, and according to the nature of the letters which +they received; and as the affairs of each were pretty well known, it was +easy to enter into them enough in advance to be amused. Every moment some +visitors or some messages arrived, which caused great jealousy among +those who did not receive them; and all this occasioned songs, sonnets, +and elegies, which were not less diverting to the indifferent than to the +interested. They made rhymes and enigmas, which occupied spare hours. +Some might be seen walking along the banks of the ponds, in the avenues +of the garden or park, on the terrace or on the downs, alone or in +troops, according to the humor of the moment; while others were singing +an air or reciting verses, or reading romances on a balcony, or walking +or reclining upon the grass. Never did any one see so beautiful a place, +in so beautiful a season, filled with better or more amiable company.” + +But before 1650, before the Fronde, which divided all French society, +Chantilly was a still more agreeable abode. Judge of it by this letter, +which Sarrazin wrote from thence, at the commencement of 1648, to +Mademoiselle de Rambouillet, at that time Madame de Montausier, who had +just set out, with her husband, for their government of Saintonge and +d’Angoumois:[154] + + Whate’er of that beautiful land they may say, + Where homage devout was paid to Astrée; + However superbly or brightly they may + That mansion enchanted portray, + Where am’rous Armida and am’rous Aleine + Then captives enamor’d consign’d; + Those gardens, abounding with pleasures refined, + Which boasted, despite Falerine, + Of holding the proudest Paladins confined: + How charming soever one might + The tale of their glories relate, + They match not in beauty the spot whence I date, + The spot whence to you I now write + A truth whose resemblance to fiction is great. + +The hum which the zephyr excites among the leaves of the grove when +night is about to cover the earth, was gently agitating the forest of +Chantilly, when, upon the principal road, three nymphs appeared to the +solitary Tircis. They were not those poor wood-nymphs, more worthy of +pity than envy, who, for lodging and clothing, have nothing but the bark +of the trees. Their equipage was superb, and their clothing brilliant.... +The majestic air of the oldest impressed all who approached her with +profound respect. The one by her side displayed a beauty which neither +painting, sculpture, nor poetry have ever realized. The third had that +easy air that is given to the Graces. + + Slowly two demigods beside her stroll’d, + The one of aspect sweet, the other bold; + The one walk’d like a conq’ror in his might, + And even Mars would have appall’d; + The other could with truth enough be call’d + The earth’s delight. + +That is to say, Madame, yesterday evening, at twilight, I met, on the +great road to Chantilly, Madame the Princess, who was never in better +health, accompanied by Madame de Longueville, who never looked more +beautiful, and Madame de Saint-Loup,[155] who was never more gay, all +three in deshabille and in a calash, followed by the Princes de Condé and +de Conti.... Madame the Princess, perceiving me, exclaimed: Sarrazin, +I wish you to sit down this moment, and write to Madame de Montausier, +that Chantilly was never more beautiful, that time there never passed +more pleasantly, that her society was never more desired, and that she is +making a fool of herself by staying at Saintonge, while we are here: + + Tell her what we do each day, + Tell her every thing we say. + In obedience to command, + Lo! I take my pen in hand. + When gay Aurora, on her endless race + In far-off India, shows her smiling face, + And flocks of little birds, roused from their rest, + Sing sweetly ’mong the trees so gayly dress’d, + And tardy serfs go forth to sow or reap, + At Chantilly we’re fast asleep. + So, when the night her sombre vestment spreads, + And Cynthia ’mid the stars her radiance sheds, + When now past midnight’s goal she onward speeds, + When calm the noise of day succeeds, + When all throughout the world to sleep betake, + At Chantilly we’re wide awake. + And oh! between these two extremes, + What careless, happy lives lead we! + And oh! this mansion of Silvie[156] + Gives joys by night, by day sweet dreams! + ... + Music we have of every sort, + Of lutes, and violins, and voice; + And in the woods we oft rejoice, + With dogs and horns, to take the hunter’s sport. + Sometimes on horseback off we fly, + And at the swiftest speed we try + To catch the ring suspended high. + In tilting, too, we pleasure take, + And many handsome tourneys make, etc. + ... + And shall I here, too, make you find + The list of good things furnish’d for our mind? + Say Ablancourt, Calprenède, and Corneille, + Or rather, vulgarly to speak, + Say verse, and hist’ry, and romance, + Divert us daily without fail, + And that our joys are never marr’d perchance? etc. + +We may by this judge what Chantilly must have been eight or ten years +before, when all there were young; when the great Condé was still the +Duke d’Enghien; Madame de Longueville, Mademoiselle de Bourbon; Madame +de Montausier, Mademoiselle de Rambouillet; when, instead of the civil +war, a flourishing peace or glorious victories filled every heart with +gladness. The Duke d’Enghien was never there except amid a crowd of +brave and gallant gentlemen, who afterwards fought with him at Rocroy, +at Fribourg, at Dunkirk, at Lens, but who then shared his pleasures at +the hôtel de Condé and at Chantilly—devoted confidants of his designs +and of his loves. Among these were the Duke de Nemours, so suddenly +slain, and whose brother—inheritor of his title, of his beauty, and his +bravery—perished also in a frightful duel in the midst of the Fronde; +Coligny, killed also, at an early age, in a duel of another character; +his brother, Dandelot, afterwards Duke de Châtillon, one of the heroes of +Lens, who promised to be a great warrior, and who perished at the attack +of Charenton, during the first days of the Fronde; Laval, the son of the +Marquis de Sablé, handsome, brave, and witty, who distinguished himself, +and was slain at the siege of Dunkirk; La Moussaye, his aid-de-camp and +principal officer in every battle, who, too, died young at Sténay, in +1650; Chabot, who married the beautiful and rich heiress of the Rohans; +Pisani, the son of the Marchioness de Rambouillet, who fell sword in +hand; the Marquis de Fors Du Vigean, Nangis, Tavannes, Seneçay, and many +others, among whom arose the young Montmorency-Boutteville, afterwards +Duke Maréchal-de-Luxembourg; all this school of Condé, entirely different +from that of Turenne, into which the Duke d’Enghien early breathed his +genius and the divine part of art, as Napoleon so well expressed it, +the instinct of war, the glance which seized the strategic point of an +affair, with audacity and obstinacy in execution; that admirable school, +which began at Rocroy, and from which arose twelve marshals, without +counting those generals who sustained the honor of France to the very end +of the century. These were the youth who amused themselves at Chantilly, +preluding glory by gallantry. + +Mademoiselle de Bourbon, in selecting companions, was equal to her +brother. She formed a connection with the Marchioness de Sablé, who +became the friend of her whole life; but she had younger friends, if not +more dear, at least with whom she was more familiar; she had formed a +little private society, composed chiefly of Mademoiselle de Rambouillet, +of Mesdemoiselles Du Vigean, and of her two cousins, Mesdemoiselles de +Boutteville. It must be confessed that it was a circle of charming and +redoubtable beauties, harmonious in their graceful youth, but destined +soon to be separated, and to become rivals or enemies. + +Voiture, we may conceive, took great care of these beautiful ladies, and +especially of Mademoiselle de Bourbon: he celebrated her in verse and +in prose, in every tune, and upon every occasion. Even in his letters +written to others, he cannot cease speaking of her mind and beauty: “The +mind of Mademoiselle de Bourbon,” says he, “is all that can cause one to +doubt whether her beauty is the most perfect thing in the world.” He is +continually comparing her to an angel: + + “of pearls and stars and flowers of finest shade, + Bourbon, the heaven hath thy complexion made, + And ’mid thy charms it hath enshrined + An angel’s mind.” + +In another place he says: + + “The Bourbon, you might safely swear, + Seeing her skin so fresh, so fair, + Had from a lily sprung.” + +It is to her again that he addresses this agreeable song, intended, +doubtless, to be chanted in a low tone by the side of Mademoiselle de +Bourbon, as she lay dozing in one of the groves of Chantilly: + + “Our Aurora ’mid roses + Now gently reposes; + Let each keep silence once more, + And let no one disturb her, + Unless it be life to restore.”[157] + +And if these ladies staid too long in the country, when Voiture was not +with them, he called them back to Paris, in his burlesque, sentimental +complaints.[158] + +But they did not spend the whole summer at Chantilly. Madame the Princess +possessed several other country-seats in the vicinity: Marlou, La +Versine, Méru, l’Isle-Adam, charming places to which she often went. She +was also obliged to visit the cardinal and Madame d’Aiguillon in their +beautiful summer residence at Ruel, on the borders of the Seine, between +Saint-Germain and Paris.[159] The pleasures of these places were very +different from those of Chantilly. Art reigned at Ruel. Like Paris, it +had a theatre, where the cardinal caused the representation of pieces +with machinery brought from Italy. He gave great mythological ballets, +like those of the Louvre, and feasts of a magnificence almost royal; +whilst at Chantilly, much more removed from Paris, there was doubtless +grandeur and opulence, but a grandeur full of quiet, and an opulence +which placed especially at its service the beauties of nature. Ruel was +also quite as lively as the Palais-Cardinal. Richelieu labored there with +his ministers: there he received the court, France, Europe. Business +was there mingled with diversion. The Duchess d’Aiguillon was worthy of +her uncle, ambitious and prudent, devoted to him to whom she owed every +thing, sharing his cares as well as his fortune, and governing admirably +his house. She was still young enough, of a regular beauty, and not +implicated in any affair of gallantry. Calumny or slander had attacked +her relations with Richelieu, and even with Madame Du Vigean. She had +more sense than wit, and was by no means a _précieuse_, although she +frequented the hôtel de Rambouillet. Madame the Princess did not like +Richelieu; she could not pardon the death of her brother, Montmorency, +whom all her prayers and tears had not been able to save; but she +subscribed to the political opinions of her husband. She had been obliged +to agree to the marriage of the Duke d’Enghien with Mademoiselle de +Brézé, and she was continually with his children at the Palais-Cardinal +and at Ruel. She was received there in a manner that was unavoidable, +and the poets of the cardinal chanted the praises of both the mother and +daughter. Richelieu, as is well known, had five poets whom he employed +to labor for his theatre: Bois-Robert, Colletet, l’Etoile, Corneille, +and Retrou. They were called the five authors, and as such, produced in +common several pieces: _l’Aveugle de Smyrne_, _La Comédie des Tuileries_, +etc. This did not prevent the presence of other poets at the palace +of his Eminence: Georges Scudéry, Voiture himself, who paid court to +Richelieu and celebrated the Duchess d’Aiguillon. It was at Ruel that, +meeting in an avenue Queen Anne, and challenged by her to make some +verses on the spot, Voiture improvised that little piece, remarkable +especially for the ease and boldness with which he ventured to speak to +her of Buckingham. But the two favorites of the cardinal were Desmarets +and Bois-Robert; he employed their pens upon every occasion, in what was +light as well as in what was serious. It seems that Desmarets had been +instructed to do the poetic honors of Ruel to Madame the Princess and to +her daughter. We find in fact, in the collection, now rare enough and +very little read, of the works of the king’s counsellor and minister of +war, Desmarets, dedicated to Richelieu, and handsomely printed,[160] a +multitude of very agreeable verses, which were sung in the mythological +ballets of Ruel, and of which several are addressed to Mademoiselle de +Bourbon, and to Madame the Princess. In a _Mascarade of the Graces and +the Loves, addressing themselves to Madame the Duchess d’Aiguillon in +presence of Madame the Princess and of Mademoiselle de Bourbon_, the +Graces say to the latter: + + Wonderful beauty! offspring too of royalty, + Whose charms to own the gods have e’en repined, + We truly thought we were but three, + Yet now a thousand graces in thee find. + +These are but insipid affairs, while the two following pieces have at +least the advantage of describing the person of Mademoiselle de Bourbon, +as she then was before her marriage, a few years after the portrait of +Ducayer. We here see Mademoiselle de Bourbon beginning to fulfil the +promise of her youth, and the angelic face described to us by Madame de +Motteville, already accompanied by other attractions of true beauty: + +_To Mademoiselle de Bourbon._ + + Thou with whose charms naught can compare, + Pride of a nation’s heart, + Whose beauteous tints, whose graces rare + The strongest love impart, + + To win thee, ah! why should I aim, + Since e’en the purest flame, + Though nurtured in the skies, + Could not deserve a glance from thy bright eyes! etc. + +_To the same._ + + Complexion where the rose and lily wed, + Beauty of magic powers, + Charming these souls of ours; + Tresses so lustrous, lips so ruby red; + Who ever could resist, who could resign + Attractions so divine? etc. + +A few leagues from Chantilly were the beautiful lands of Liancourt, +which Jeanne de Schomberg, at first Duchess de Brissac, then Duchess de +Liancourt, had converted into a magnificent abode. She was a person of +the greatest merit, and we have received from her pen a very remarkable +work,[161] destined for the education of her granddaughter, Mademoiselle +de La Roche-Guyon, who, in 1659, married the son of La Rochefoucauld. +She took pleasure in planning and carrying out the arrangements of a +sumptuous establishment. She bought Rue de Seine, the ancient hôtel de +Bouillon, and erected in its place the hôtel de Liancourt, afterwards +called the hôtel de La Rochefoucauld, which extended from the Rue de +Seine to the Rue des Augustins, in the space now occupied by the Rue +des Beaux Arts. “At Liancourt,” says Tallemant,[162] “the duchess had +done all that any one could do for avenues and meadows. Every year +she added some new beauty.” In 1656, Silvestre designed and engraved +the _different views of the castle and gardens, fountains, cascades, +canals, and parterres of Liancourt_.[163] Madame the Princess often +made a visit to this beautiful place. At one time when the small-pox +was making fearful ravages in the neighborhood of Chantilly, and in +the domains of the princess, Marlou, La Versine, Méru, she sent her +children, with all their young friends, to pass some time at Liancourt. +The Mesdemoiselles Du Vigean alone were wanting, having been called +to Paris by their mother. The only son of the house, La Roche-Guyon, +was one of the friends of the Duke d’Enghien; he was slain in 1646, +while serving under him at the bloody siege of Mardyck. It was autumn. +On All-Saints’ Day, these young ladies performed their devotions with +accustomed exactitude. They then gave themselves up to quiet diversions, +and, for want of better, and sharing the dominant taste for wit, also in +the company perhaps of Montreuil or Sarrazin, they employed themselves in +making rhymes; so that even on All-Saints’ Day they addressed to Marlou, +where Madame the Princess was then staying, _The Life and Miracles of +Saint Marguerite Charlotte de Montmorency, Princess de Condé, versified +at Liancourt_. These verses, says the manuscript from which we borrow +these details,[164] were made upon the spot, and the authors appear to +have been Mademoiselle de Bourbon, and Mesdemoiselles de Rambouillet, de +Boutteville, and de Brienne. + + Yet to a living saint, on this Saints’ Day, + A charming saint, we ought to pray. + ... + As soon as she was born, her matchless eyes + Beam’d like two suns in summer skies: + Her cheeks of lilies made—her lips, when closed, + Were beds whereon the rose reposed; + And then in partly opening them to smile, + Pearls of the East she showed the while, etc. + +It was impossible for them to forget the two amiable absentees, +Mesdemoiselles Du Vigean, who were fatiguing themselves at Paris, while +they were passing the time so agreeably at Liancourt. They wrote to +them a very long letter in verse, wherein they regretted their absence, +and enumerated their consolations. These unpublished verses, like the +preceding, are also very mediocre; but it must not be forgotten that they +are the impromptus of young girls and noble-born ladies.[165] + +_Letter of Mademoiselle de Bourbon, and of Mesdemoiselles de Rambouillet, +de Boutteville, and de Brienne, sent from Liancourt to Mesdemoiselles Du +Vigean at Paris._ + + + Four clever nymphs, perhaps more free + Than even those of wood and sea, + To two who with their hearts in pain + Curse bitterly the prisoner’s chain; + + We who pretended every wise + That praise for us was always stored, + That by an arrow from our eyes + We might be everywhere adored. + + ... + + Of empire we have been deprived; + We’ve been forsaken, frown’d upon: + At Méru, scarce had we arrived, + Than to Versine we’re forced to run. + + ... + + There, too, that foe to female grace, + That death to all of woman’s charms, + Our vanity still to abase, + O’erwhelm’d us with the worst alarms. + + At noise of this disease so fell, + Each hurries off with looks forlorn; + For, sooth, to lovers all farewell, + If, of our beauty we are shorn! + + Of Love’s keen weapons to make sure, + In some place fit for his domains, + We came at last to Liancourt, + Where Flora with sweet Zephyr reigns, + + Where full a hundred walks are found, + A hundred fountains and cascades— + A hundred meads where streams abound, + Made for the pleasures of the Naiads. + + A place, like which, there are so few, + We hoped some length of time to own, + But here now comes that Richelieu,[166] + And hence, at last, we must be gone. + + See us, whom lovers all agreed + The brightest stars of France to call; + But we are wand’ring stars indeed, + Who now possess no power at all. + +What was most curious and unexpected was, that the mania for rhyming took +possession of Condé himself. As we have said, he had much wit and gayety, +and he entered willingly into the society with which he was surrounded. +In the midst of the Fronde, when war was also carried on by means of +songs, he made more than one, bearing his own peculiar stamp. During the +first war of Paris, in which Condé, still faithful to the true interests +of his house, sided with the court, one of the most ardent chieftains +of the opposing party was the Count de Maure, a cadet of the Duke de +Mortemart, uncle of Madame de Montespan, husband of the witty Anne Doni +d’Attichy, intimate friend of Madame de Sablé. In the councils of the +Fronde, the count always favored the most rash resolutions. The Mazarins +turned him into ridicule, and overwhelmed him with a shower of epigrams. +Bachaumont, one of the authors of the celebrated _Voyage de Chapelle +et Bachaumont_, had written against him some little verses, which +terminated thus:[167] + + Oh! a buff-jacket, with black velvet sleeves, + Is worn by the great Count de Maure; + And over this hero, whom well it relieves, + There is a buff-jacket, with black velvet sleeves: + Look out, Sir Condé, one easy perceives + You are destined for food to this hero in war. + Oh! a buff-jacket, with black velvet sleeves, + Is worn by the great Count de Maure. + +Condé, according to the testimony of Tallemant, whom we have no reason to +discredit, added the following lines: + + He’s a blood-thirsty tiger, the worst of his kind, + This very same brave Count de Maure; + When to be ’mong the foremost in fight he’s a mind, + He’s a blood-thirsty tiger, the worst of his kind. + But he’s not very oft with the foremost we find, + Thus is it that Condé was not kill’d before. + He’s a blood-thirsty tiger, the worst of his kind, + This very same brave Count de Maure. + +Among his best lieutenants was the Count de Marsin, father of the +marshal, indeed much superior to him, and a veritable warrior. Condé +esteemed him highly, but for all that he did not spare him. One day at +table, in drinking his health, he improvised to a tune, then very common, +this little song,[168] which has never been published, and which seems +to us very piquant: + + My dear Marsin, I drink to thee, + Mars truly must thy cousin be, + Bellona sure thy ma, + But who may be thy pa + Is more than I can see. + Tin, tin, trelin, tin, tin, tin. + +At Liancourt, having nothing to do, and vexed because his sister and +her beautiful friends stayed so long at church on All-Saints’ Day, he +addressed to them the following epigram:[169] + + Impose on others, if you may, + A hundred pater-nosters say, + And mumble o’er to day your prayers. + You’re very artful, we believe, + For, if a beau his love declares, + You’re ready then your prayers to leave. + +Among other friends whom he had with him at Liancourt, was the Marquis +de Roussillon, an excellent officer and man of spirit, together with +the intrepid La Moussaye, who was faithful to him to the last, and who, +during the captivity of Condé, shut himself up with Madame de Longueville +in the citadel of Sténay, where he died. Roussillon and La Moussaye, +having been compelled to leave Liancourt for Lyons, Condé, in imitation +of his sister’s letter to the Mesdemoiselles Du Vigean, wrote, or caused +to be written, one of the same kind to his two absent friends. We give +this piece almost entire, because it is written by Condé, or because +Condé, at least, had a hand in it, and especially because it describes +so naturally the life lead at Liancourt, at Chantilly, and in all the +grand abodes of that aristocracy of the seventeenth century, so badly +appreciated, and which, during peace, honored and cultivated the arts, +which gave to letters a Rochefoucauld, a Retz, a Saint-Evremond, a +Saint-Simond, without speaking of Madame de Sévigné and Madame de La +Fayette, and which, when war broke out, flew to the battle-field, and +lavished its blood in the cause of France. These are the verses of the +future hero of Rocroy: + +_Letter[170] of Monseigneur the Duke d’Enghien, written from Liancourt to +MM. de Roussillon, and de La Moussaye at Lyons._ + + Since you’ve been gone, a hundred dear delights + Have e’er consumed our days and nights; + And to recount these pastimes so diverse, + We are compell’d to write in verse. + + Upon the spot most beautiful of earth, + To pleasures ever giving birth, + Where Art, with Nature, every charm employs, + We daily find a thousand joys; + + A troop of young and peerless maids, + More beautiful by virtue’s aids, + In sports commingle with a hundred youth, + Sage, gallant, handsome too forsooth. + + Each, in a way to envy, e’er displays + His person and his winning ways; + At every moment, too, he tries his best + To please the one who rules his breast: + + Talks of his love ’mid groves and promenades, + While leaning o’er the bright cascades, + And really seems the utmost bliss to gain + When sadly he recounts his pain. + + A dozen gallants, blest with stoutest lungs, + In comedies employ their tongues; + Display their forms in garments rich and rare, + And strut with a majestic air. + + At night, we list to charming serenades, + Or please ourselves with mascarades; + But still, among the pastimes most in quest, + The _Ballet du Printemps_ seems best. + + ... + + The ladies oft, when favor’d by the sky, + Love on their well-train’d nags to fly; + To scare the partridge, give the wolf a chase, + And o’er to Marlou have a race. + + And lovers meantime whisper in their ear, + Oh! beauty, to the gods so dear! + Leave birds and beasts, since from your eyes fly darts + That daily pierce the bravest hearts. + + These are our pastimes, these the sports we take, + And happiness enough they make. + Did you imagine that you hence could bear + A portion of the joys we share?[171] + +A very natural feeling leads us to inquire into the destiny of this court +of young and brave gentlemen, of gay and charming young women, then +surrounding Mademoiselle de Bourbon and her brother. We have told that +of the gentlemen: all of them became illustrious warriors; most of them +died upon the battle-field. But what became of their amiable companions, +that swarm of youthful beauties whom we followed upon the steps of +Mademoiselle de Bourbon to Chantilly, to Ruel, to Liancourt,—those five +inseparable friends, whose verses, less pleasing than their faces, we +have published, Mademoiselle de Rambouillet, Mademoiselle de Brienne, +Mademoiselle de Montmorency-Boutteville, Mademoiselle Du Vigean? They had +the most dissimilar fortunes, as we shall rapidly indicate. + +Marie-Antoinette de Lomélie, daughter of the Count de Brienne, one of +the ministers of Queen Anne, married, in 1642, the Marquis de Gamache, +who became lieutenant-general. Her portraits, traced by herself, may be +seen among the _Portraits_ of Mademoiselle, with those of her father and +mother. She made no noise; all her life passed on quietly and piously. +She died at the age of eighty years, in 1704. She kept up continually, +with Madame de Longueville, the most friendly intercourse. She was the +least brilliant of the five friends, but she was the most fortunate. + +What became of Mademoiselle de Rambouillet is well known. Spirituelle +but ambitious, after having married Montausier, in 1645, she sought, as +well as her husband, the favors of the court, and obtained them by paying +the ransom. It is sad to begin in youth with harshness to one’s lovers, +as they said at the hôtel de Rambouillet, and to be married only as a +sort of favor, like the Armande of the _Femmes Savantes_, in order to +become one of the most obliging of duennas. At first appointed a maid of +honor of Queen Marie-Thérèse, she had, in 1664, the courage to take the +place of the virtuous Duchess de Navailles, who would not countenance +the love of the young king, Louis XIV., and Mademoiselle de La Vallière. +Hence the well-founded accusations entertained by the benevolent Madame +de Motteville herself, and which, at a later period, were confirmed by +her weakness, when the king abandoned Mademoiselle de La Vallière for +Madame de Montespan.[172] It was in the midst of all these rumors that +her husband was named Governor of the Dauphin. Montausier was certainly +a man of merit, and, like his wife, he had great qualities, which he +spoiled by great defects. He made a great show of virtue, under which +was hidden much that was pitiful. He was very free in censuring every +one, and suffered no one to fail in rendering him his due. He was abrupt, +headstrong, of an insupportable haughtiness and pride.[173] Charged +provisionally and by commission with the government of Normandy, at +the death of M. de Longueville, in 1663, he assumed the dignity of a +prince of the blood, and exacted all the honor that was rendered to M. +de Longueville himself. Hard towards his inferiors, difficult with his +equals, he knew perfectly how to manage his credit and push his fortune. +Born a Protestant, he became converted for the sake of his wife, as well +as for political purposes.[174] Madame de Montausier was more amiable, +but quite as careful of her own interests. She was of that same school of +which Madame de Maintenon was the consummate mistress,—that school which +seeks the appearance of good rather than good itself, which accommodates +itself to meanness, skilfully concealed, and bestows all its care, all +its study upon not compromising itself; whilst proud and truly honest +souls, whom passion misleads, take no pains to hide their faults, being +careless of reputation when virtue is lost. Madame de Montausier was +especially occupied with herself. She had the confidence of the king. She +became a duchess. Her career was brilliant, but was she happy? She became +embroiled and reconciled more than once with Madame de Longueville. She +died in 1671, after her mother, the noble marchioness, who died in 1665, +and, like her, she was buried in that convent of the Carmelites of the +Rue Saint-Jacques, which most of the friends of Mademoiselle de Bourbon +seem to have made a place of rendezvous during life and after death. + +Mademoiselle de Montmorency-Boutteville, Isabelle Angélique,[175] +possessed at an early age a beauty which she preserved to the end. Her +younger sister, Marie Louise, yielded to her, says Lenet,[176] not as +to the more beautiful, but as to the elder. She married the Marquis de +Valency, and disappeared ten years before her sister, in 1684. Isabelle +de Montmorency had much mind, and to the brilliancy of her charms united +at first great coquetry, and afterwards the most shameful artifices. +The first pages of her life are a romance—the last, a vulgar story. +Protected, as well as her sister and brother, by Madame the Princess, +and placed almost upon an equality with Mademoiselle de Bourbon and the +Duke d’Enghien, she made, or seemed to make, some impression upon the +latter; but she inflamed especially the handsome and the brave Dandelot. +Madame de Boutteville refused to give him her daughter, because he was +a Protestant and simply a younger brother, his elder brother, Coligny, +being heir to the fortune and title of the Châtillons. But, after the +death of Coligny, Dandelot who took his name, feeling himself upheld +by the Duke d’Enghien and by his sister, carried off Mademoiselle de +Boutteville, with her own consent of course, and after that it became +necessary to marry the two fugitives.[177] Voiture wrote some very +lively verses upon this elopement,[178] and Sarrazin made a ballad upon +the method of conducting such matters.[179] It would be supposed that a +marriage so passionately desired on both sides would result in continued +happiness to both parties. It was not, however, so. Coligny having +become Duke de Châtillon, thought much more of war than of his wife: he +covered himself with glory at Lens; but, as we have said, he perished in +a miserable combat at Charenton in 1649. It must be confessed that he +was the first to do wrong, and in dying he asked pardon of her whose +pride he had especially wounded.[180] The young and beautiful widow soon +found consolation; she got possession of the heart of Condé, which had +been for some time unoccupied, and exerted herself to keep it without +bestowing her own, or even giving it to another, skilful in the art of +promoting her interests and her pleasures. The memoirs of the times, +and particularly those of La Rochefoucauld, describe her as managing at +once the imperious Condé, from whom she drew great advantages, and the +suspicious Nemours, whom she preferred, striving to conciliate them, +and to win them both to the court with which she had a secret treaty. +A little while after she plunges into the most diverse intrigues, +connecting herself with the Marshal d’Hoquincourt and with the Abbé +Fouquet, retaining over the absent Condé the power of her charms, trying +this power upon the young king Louis XIV., marrying in 1664 the Duke de +Meklembourg in the hope of a crown in Germany, and leaving after her the +reputation of having been as beautiful and as selfish as the Duchess de +Montbazon. The latter doubtless possessed beauty of a superior style, but +the other, less imposing, was a thousand times more agreeable. They were +by turns the two most dangerous rivals and mortal enemies of Madame de +Longueville.[181] + +But we now present a very different person, whose destiny, like her +character, forms a perfect contrast with that of Madame de Châtillon; +very beautiful also, but less dazzling and more touching; a person who +had not perhaps the mind and the finesse of the seductive friend of +her childhood, but who knew none of her artifices and intrigues; who +glittered a moment only to be quickly extinguished, but who has left a +virtuous and sweet memory; a person superior perhaps to Mademoiselle +de La Vallière herself, for she also loved and was able to resist her +heart, and, without falling, deceived in her affections, she determined +to finish her life like the sister Louise de la Miséricorde. Let us not +pity her too much: she tasted in this world an inexpressible happiness; +she felt beating for her the heart of a hero, that of the conqueror of +Rocroy and of Fribourg, of the ardent and impetuous Duke d’Enghien, who +could not quit her without shedding tears and without fainting. Sensible +to a passion so true, and which promised to be so durable, but disarmed +in some measure by the charm of a modest and sincere virtue, she made +Condé know, at least once in his life, what was true love. After that +he knew nothing but the transient intoxication of the senses, especially +the passion of war, for which he was born—his true passion indeed, his +mistress, his part, his country, his king, the true object of all his +life, and by turns his shame and his glory. + +This charming creature, who for several years was the idol of Condé, +was the young Mademoiselle Du Vigean. Her destiny was so touching, and +it was so intimately connected with that of Mademoiselle de Bourbon and +of Madame de Longueville, that we shall be pardoned for dwelling a few +moments upon it. + +Mademoiselle Du Vigean was the youngest daughter of François Poussart +de Fors, at first Baron, then Marquis Du Vigean, a man of little +importance,[182] and of Anne de Neubourg, who was a very great character +under Louis XIII., thanks to the friendship of the Duchess d’Aiguillon, +niece of Richelieu. Admitted into the first society, the letters and +poesy of Voiture show that Madame Du Vigean held well her place.[183] +This success, and the connection which was the occasion of it, could +not fail to make her the subject of envy, and various rumors were spread +concerning her and Madame d’Aiguillon, equally injurious to both, and of +which we find no feeble echo in the scandalous chronicle of Tallemant +and in the songs of the times.[184] She possessed at La Barre, near +Paris, above Saint-Denis and d’Enghien, and quite near to Montmorency, a +charming residence which Voiture has described, and where she received +magnificently the best and choicest society, even to Madame the Princess +and Mademoiselle de Bourbon.[185] + +Madame Du Vigean had two sons and two daughters. The eldest of the sons, +the Marquis de Fors, was an officer of the greatest promise, who was +killed at the age of twenty years at the siege of Arras, where the Duke +d’Enghien served as a volunteer. He had been made a prisoner twice, +but he perished finally, after prodigies of valor. He was wept by the +Duke d’Enghien and by all his comrades. Magnificent funeral ceremonies +were performed over him, and Desmarets, one of the poets of Richelieu, +consecrated to him a long elegy.[186] His young brother, who also +served, finished his career still more sadly: he was assassinated under +circumstances which could never be discovered. + +As to the two sisters, their eulogy is found in all the gallant poems of +this epoch. They are praised equally with Mademoiselle de Boutteville +and Mademoiselle de Bourbon, in a piece in the manuscript collection of +Maurepas,[187] and Voiture places them in a review of the beauties of the +court of Chantilly, addressed to Madame the Princess.[188] He is pleased +to celebrate the mother and the two daughters, and particularly the young +Du Vigean: + + Baroness so sweet, so fair too, + The mother, or the sister, are you + Of these two gentle belles whom all + Your daughters call? + + ... + + Upon her face, (De Fors, Du Vigean’s eldest sister) beneath her feet, + Spring flowers beautiful and sweet, + Which elsewhere no one sees, etc. + + A rising sun this Vigean (the younger) glows, + A bud just ready to unclose, etc. + + Of love though ignorant indeed, + Yet in her eyes one may love read, + And everywhere she sets it free + Unconsciously.[189] + +Here again are a few words of Voiture, hitherto unintelligible, and which +now have a certain application: + + Our Aurora, de La Barre, + Is now a glowing sun. + ... + These matchless charms, in truth, + Revive my long lost youth. + +Evidently the poet speaks of Mademoiselle Du Vigean the younger, who, +after having been a rising sun, an aurora, became, in a few years, a sun +in full splendor. She was called the Aurora of La Barre, from the name of +the house of which she was the most amiable ornament. + +In writing all these verses in honor of Mesdemoiselles Du Vigean, Voiture +had doubtless under his eyes the devices which had been made for them and +for their mother, and which are preserved in the papers of Conrart:[190] +“For Madame Du Vigean, who had lost her eldest son, an orange-tree, +having at its foot its topmost branch cut off, covered with flowers and +fruit: _Quis dolor_.” “For Mademoiselle de Fors, her eldest daughter, +a rose among several flowers: _Dat decor imperium_.” “For Mademoiselle +Du Vigean, her second daughter, a lighted taper, surrounded with moths: +_Oblecto sed uro_.” Let us add these two devices, which describe so well +the character, and already the reputation of those who were the subject +of them: “For Mademoiselle de Rambouillet, a crown with this inscription: +_Me quieren todos_.” “For Mademoiselle de Bourbon, an ermine: _Intus +candidior_.” + +In 1635, at the great ball given at the Louvre by Louis XIII., to which +Mademoiselle de Bourbon consented to go with so much difficulty, and +which proved the ruin of her religious ardor, among the ladies who danced +with her, André d’Ormesson[191] mentions Mesdemoiselles Du Vigean. The +eldest, Anne Fors Du Vigean, was pretty, sweet, insinuating,[192] and, +says Madame de Motteville, ambitious and prone to flattery. She was +married to M. de Pons, who had not much property, but who pretended to +be connected with the illustrious house d’Albredt. Becoming a widow in +1648, and the confidant of the Duchess d’Aiguillon, intimate friend +of her mother, she succeeded in obtaining the love of the nephew, the +young Duke de Richelieu, and in marrying him, notwithstanding the +duchess and notwithstanding the queen, thanks to the protection of Condé +and of Madame de Longueville. For this fortunate protection she was +indebted to the remembrances of childhood, especially to the tender and +profound sentiment which Condé and his sister had early felt and ever +preserved for her younger sister, the young, beautiful, virtuous, and +unfortunate—Mademoiselle Du Vigean. + +Contemporaneous memoirs give neither the particular name, nor the precise +date of the birth of this amiable person. But, thanks to the unpublished +documents which have been placed in our hands, we know that the young Du +Vigean was born in 1622, and that she was called Martha,[193] a modest +name, and answering well to her character and destiny. She was then +almost of the same age as Mademoiselle de Bourbon. She had been brought +up with her, and, when they appeared together, it was almost with the +same éclat. It is impossible to find any portrait or engraving of her +which can be relied upon. Her charms were greatly heightened by a modesty +full of grace, and the verses which we have quoted from Voiture, show her +still young, in the innocence of a beauty of which she was ignorant, and +which excited passions which she herself did not share. + +Let us say, in the first place, in order to justify Condé and her who +received his first homage, that the inclination of the Duke d’Enghien for +the young Du Vigean, preceded his marriage with Mademoiselle de Brézé, +niece of the cardinal, and continued till the year 1640, when the young +duke was leading, at Paris, at the hôtel de Condé, at Chantilly, and +elsewhere, the innocent life which we have described, surrounded by his +comrades in arms, and among the charming and dangerous companions of +Mademoiselle de Bourbon. It was then that he met Madame Du Vigean and her +two daughters, and that he began, says Lenet, “to feel for Mademoiselle +Du Vigean an esteem and a friendship which became, by degrees, a strong +and tender love.”[194] + +Indeed, the Duke d’Enghien might have imagined that it would not +be impossible for him to obtain from his father and from the king, +that is, from the Cardinal de Richelieu, their consent to a marriage, +disproportionate, without doubt, but in no wise degrading to him. +Mademoiselle Du Vigean was very rich, and her family was in great credit; +Richelieu favored her; and it would not have been displeasing to him to +see a prince of the blood descending somewhat from his own rank. The +marriage which was imposed upon Condé some time after, was not much above +what this might have been. A little delusion was permitted to the age and +impetuosity of the young duke, and, once the affections engaged, they +yielded only to time and necessity. + +With such a sentiment in the heart, one can imagine how much the Duke +d’Enghien must have suffered from the marriage to which he was condemned +in 1641. It is to his chagrin upon this occasion, that the sickness +with which he was then attacked is attributed. Although his young wife, +Claire-Clémence Maillé de Brézé, was very agreeable, he did not live +with her, and formed, from the moment of his marriage, the design of +repudiating her as soon as he could. He protested against the violence +which had been done to him. He made this protestation in the shape of a +national deed, clothed with all legal forms, and signed by himself, by +the president of Vernon, superintendent of his house, and by Perrault, +at that time his secretary.[195] + +We have related how, notwithstanding his disorder, as soon as he learned +that the campaign was about to open, nothing could retain him, neither +the prayers of his family, nor the tears of his mistress; he set out +hardly convalescent, and returned covered with glory. On his return, he +“continued to give to Mademoiselle Du Vigean all the marks of a tender +and respectful passion.”[196] + +In 1642, being at the waters of Bourbon with the Cardinal de Richelieu, +the Duke d’Enghien, at a most critical period, seized a pretext for going +to Paris, “where the passion which he felt for Mademoiselle Du Vigean +called him.”[197] + +It was especially after the death of the cardinal, in the years 1643 and +1644, that the amours of Condé were chiefly observable. Gallantry being +then fashionable, these amours were neither a mystery nor a scandal. +The National Library possesses more than one manuscript history of the +regency of Anne of Austria, the author of which declares that he was the +witness of every thing that he relates, and, in a letter addressed to +the Prince de Condé, dedicates these memoirs to him.[198] The tenderness +of the two young people is here several times alluded to. After the +campaign of Flanders, in which the Duke d’Orleans had taken Gravelines, +and in which Condé had taken Fribourg, “these illustrious conquerors,” +says our manuscript, “having carried their laurels to the feet of the +regent, who was then at Fontainebleau, retired, the first to Paris, and +the other to Chantilly. If the court of Fontainebleau surpassed that of +Chantilly in number, the latter did not yield to it in gallantry and +in pleasures. The Princess de Condé, the Duchesses d’Anguyen and de +Longueville, were there, accompanied by a dozen of the most agreeable +persons of quality in France. In addition to the beauty of the place, +games and promenades, music and the chase, and every thing generally +that can make a place agreeable, were to be found here. The young Du +Vigean was there, for whom the Duke d’Anguyen had then much esteem and +friendship. She, on her side, responded to it, and every one favored +them.” + +It is necessary to look into the memoirs of the times for the details +of this curious episode of the youth of Condé, the vicissitudes of +this connection, as tender as it was pure, the hopes, the fears, the +jealousies, all the troubles which accompany love. Mademoiselle Du +Vigean had besought[199] Condé to conceal his sentiments in public; +she had engaged him, in joke, perhaps, to make believe that he loved +Mademoiselle de Boutteville; but the latter was so beautiful, and +the game was so dangerous, that Mademoiselle Du Vigean hastened to +countermand her order, and to forbid the duke to see Mademoiselle de +Boutteville and to speak to her. Condé again obeyed her; he discontinued +all intercourse with his cousin, and yielded his place to Dandelot, +whose projects he was the more eager to favor, as he felt some anxiety +in regard to his own; for Mademoiselle Du Vigean had warned him that her +father was thinking of marrying her to this same Dandelot, and that he +had offered the Marshal de Châtillon a very considerable dower to have +his son as a son-in-law.[200] “This news,” says Madame de Motteville, +“gave the prince the utmost alarm: he often faced the enemies of +the State, but his heart was not so valiant against love as against +them.”[201] He took fright therefore, and, to parry the blow, he entered +so earnestly into the cause of Dandelot, that he counselled him to elope +with Mademoiselle de Boutteville. + +In the mean time he continued all his efforts to break his own marriage; +he labored for it with ardor and perseverance. The Duchess d’Enghien +falling sick, he anticipated the accomplishment of his wishes; but she +recovered; it was therefore necessary to obtain a judicial dissolution of +his marriage. The thing was almost impossible, for the Duchess d’Enghien +was then, at least, perfectly irreproachable, and moreover he had by her +a son. Such, however, was the passion of Condé, that he addressed himself +to Cardinal Mazarin,[202] who, not being very scrupulous, would have +permitted the rupture, if he had not feared that Condé, once at liberty, +might aspire to Mademoiselle, and become much too powerful. + +Thus we are enabled to judge of the depth of Condé’s feelings. These +feelings were inspired not only by the beauty of Mademoiselle Du Vigean, +but by her candor and her modesty, by that tenderness at once devoted +and virtuous, which led her far enough to be compromised somewhat in the +eyes of the world, while it suffered her to do nothing which might mar +in the mind of Condé the ideal of angelic purity which she represented +to him. Hence that passion mingled with respect and ardor which he +burned to satisfy in despite of all obstacles, and which was never +gratified. Madame de Motteville, who was informed of the least details +of this amorous intrigue by Madame de Montausier, its witness and almost +confidant, says expressly, as “a thing to be believed by every one,”[203] +that Mademoiselle Du Vigean “is the only one whom Condé truly loved.” +Mademoiselle, who from different motives did not love those whom Condé +loved, and who was very severe upon Madame de Châtillon, expresses +herself thus in regard to the loves of Condé and of Mademoiselle Du +Vigean: “She was very beautiful; this illustrious lover was also deeply +moved. When he set out for the army, the desire of glory did not prevent +him from feeling the grief of separation, and he could not bid adieu +without shedding tears; and when he departed on his last journey to +Germany (where he achieved the victory of Nortlingen), he fainted when he +left her.” + +Such a passion was too violent to continue for a great length of time; it +was prolonged even beyond ordinary bounds. Mademoiselle Du Vigean would +consent to be the wife alone of Condé, and the marriage of the latter +could not be broken: things advanced on neither side, and every one grew +weary. + +It may be imagined that the interest which Condé manifested for +Mademoiselle Du Vigean intimidated those who would have aspired to her +hand. Two marriages were proposed to her. Among her admirers was the +Marquis d’Huxelles, who afterwards married Marie de Bailleul, daughter +of the Superintendent of Finances. D’Huxelles was a very distinguished +military man, who expected to become Marshal of France, and whose +services and premature death in consequence of his wounds,[204] enabled +his son to obtain that honor. He thought very seriously of marrying +Mademoiselle Du Vigean.[205] He hesitated on account of the reports which +did not fail to find circulation. “Although,” says Lenet, from whom we +obtain these facts, “I know with all the certainty that one can have in +regard to matters of this kind, that love was never more passionate than +that on the part of the prince, nor listened to with more discretion and +modesty, than was exhibited on the part of Mademoiselle Du Vigean.” And +in this Madame de Motteville and Mademoiselle agree perfectly with Lenet. + +Mademoiselle Du Vigean had been also sought by another amiable and +brave gentleman, the Marquis Jacques Stuart de Saint-Mégrin, brother +of the beautiful Saint-Mégrin of whom the Duke d’Orleans was so fond. +Saint-Mégrin continued for a long time his affection for Mademoiselle Du +Vigean;[206] but he dared not come in competition with Condé. At a later +period he learned with extreme joy that his suit might be heard; and he +addressed himself at once to the parents of Mademoiselle Du Vigean. The +marriage did not take place: a passion such as that which we have just +described was destined to have a very different dénouement. + +It is known that after the German campaign of 1645, and the disputed +victory of Nortlingen, Condé was seized with a violent sickness. It +was then that, despairing of a dissolution of his marriage, and of +conquering the virtuous scruples of Mademoiselle Du Vigean, he resolved +to turn his thoughts in another direction. Mademoiselle Du Vigean did +not complain; she closed her ears to all propositions, resisted the +counsels and even the orders of her family, and in the full splendor of +her beauty and her youth she cast herself among the Carmelites of the Rue +Saint-Jacques.[207] Condé did not attempt to see her again, but he always +preserved for her, says Lenet, a remembrance full of respect.[208] The +love of Condé was not, then, a transient caprice. It began before his +marriage; it continued four long years; it remained ardent and pure in +the midst of camps, and was extinguished only in the despair of bringing +it to a happy conclusion, and after a long and critical disorder, from +which the hero of Nortlingen arose ever to renounce love for glory and +ambition. + +It would be gratifying to follow Mademoiselle Du Vigean to the convent +of the Carmelites, to know at what time precisely she entered it, what +occupied her there, and when she died. These are points upon which no +contemporaries enlighten us, and all that we are now able to assert with +certainty is, that Mademoiselle Du Vigean made a profession in 1649. +Thus, she must have joined the Carmelites in 1647, since the vows can +be taken only after a service of one or two years as a candidate and a +novice. She took the name of sister Marthe de Jésus;[209] she died in +1665; she was never prioress; she was sub-prioress in 1659, and ceased +to be so in 1662. According to custom, she must have held this situation +six years, and consequently her term of service was between the years +1656 and 1662; whence it follows that all the letters of Madame de +Longueville, addressed to sister Marthe and to the Mother Sub-prioress, +between 1656 and 1662, are to the same nun, and that this nun was +Mademoiselle Du Vigean, which accounts for the particularly affectionate +tone of these letters. In fact, we have found in the National Library, +in the collection of Doctor Vallant[210] and in those of Gaignières,[211] +two billets from Mademoiselle Du Vigean, then sister Marthe, to Madame +de Sablé, and another to that very Marchioness d’Huxelles whose place +she might have occupied. These billets are the only relics which remain +to us of this interesting person, who, because she was too pleasing to a +prince, was compelled to bury her beauty and her virtue in a cloister. + +Such is often the end of the pleasures of youth, the inclinations of +the most generous, the feasts of the heart and of life. Mademoiselle de +Bourbon witnessed the birth, growth, and death of the loves of Condé and +of Mademoiselle Du Vigean. Villefore says that she thwarted them, but he +produces no proof of this. It is at least very certain that she strove +to repair, as much as she could, the injury which her brother had done +to her young and charming friend. For her sake, she loaded her sister +with benefits, and, when the poor forlorn creature sought an asylum among +the Carmelites, she maintained with her an affectionate intercourse; she +visited her, wrote to her often, and, even to the end of life, retained +for her a place in her heart by the side of Madame de Sablé. + +But let us not anticipate the future. We are still amid the illusions +of youth, still in the season of pleasures and love. Whilst around her, +at the hôtel de Rambouillet and at the hôtel de Condé, at Chantilly, at +Ruel, at Liancourt, all was heroism and gallantry, whilst surrounded +by young and brilliant cavaliers, destined to become great captains; +with agreeable female friends who drew after them all hearts, what +did Mademoiselle de Bourbon do with her own? Did she bestow it as did +Mademoiselle Du Vigean and Mademoiselle de Boutteville? Among so many +adorers who crowded around her, did she distinguish none? Tender and +somewhat coquettish, with the soul and the eyes of Chimène, what Rodrigue +among the heroes of her brother’s court found her sensible? At the age of +nineteen, she had been promised to the Prince de Joinville, son of Henri +de Lorraine, Duke de Guise. A powerful alliance would this have been, +which had united the Montmorencys, the Condés, and the Guises; but the +Prince de Joinville died in Italy, where he went to meet his father, in +the violent and obstinate persecution which the implacable avenger and +indefatigable promoter of royal authority, Cardinal de Richelieu, did not +cease to exercise against the Guises in remembrance of the League. It +is said that a marriage was also contemplated between her and d’Armand, +Marquis de Brézé, nephew of Cardinal Richelieu, brother of her who was +forced upon the Duke d’Enghien, the intrepid sailor who twice beat the +fleets of Spain, and perished at the age of twenty-seven, from a cannon +shot, at the siege of Orbitello, in 1646. This marriage would have +placed in the hands of the house of Condé, by means of the two heroic +brothers-in-law, all the forces of France, both by sea and land; but this +marriage was defeated, for reasons in regard to which there are various +opinions.[212] + +Mademoiselle de Bourbon attracted whilst she discouraged. There was not +a gentleman who would not have given his life for her favor; but no one +was rash enough to aspire to her hand. Many then sighed for her, and some +even paid her the most marked homage. Mention is made, among others, +of the Duke de Beaufort, more brave than witty, loyal and chivalrous +enough, who, being politely rejected, fell at the feet of Madame de +Montbazon, and served her till death. Especial notice is taken of Maurice +de Coligny, the son of Marshal de Châtillon. In 1642 M. the Prince and +Madame the Princess, not finding a single young lord in all the kingdom +to whom policy permitted them to give Mademoiselle de Bourbon, proposed +to her the greatest lord of France, after the princes of the blood, the +Duke de Longueville. He was the widower of Louise de Bourbon, daughter +of the Count de Soissons, by whom he had Marie d’Orleans, who was already +seventeen or eighteen years of age: he was forty-seven, and even at this +age was said to be still attached to Madame de Montbazon. Mademoiselle +de Bourbon resisted, or at least testified at first a great repugnance; +it was, however, necessary to yield; herein she displayed the resolution +which she testified on all great occasions. She married then on the 2d of +June, 1642, at the age of twenty-three years, her heart and mind filled +with poetry and gallantry, a man much older than herself, and who was not +even sufficiently touched with her charms to renounce his old mistress. + +The fêtes on the occasion of this marriage were still more brilliant +than those which took place at the marriage of the Duke d’Enghien. +Mademoiselle de Bourbon walked to the altar with a sort of intrepidity, +and she seemed almost gay at the hôtel de Longueville, occupying the +spectators so much with her dazzling beauty that they did not remark +the violence which she did to her feelings. It is her historian, the +Jansenist Villefore, who has preserved for us this tradition. Scarcely a +year had flown by, when, without even giving her heart, for a long time +yet unoccupied, she was the involuntary cause of a most tragic quarrel, +in which Coligny, who had sighed for her, perished in the flower of +youth, and perhaps under her own eyes, by the hand of one of those Guises +to whom she had been for a moment destined. Sinister prelude of the +storms that awaited her first adventure, which consecrated her beauty in +so sad a manner, and which won for her, at the age of twenty-four years, +in the world of gallantry, a renown, a popularity even, almost equal to +that which victory had achieved for her brother, the Duke d’Enghien. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +1642 to 1644. + + Poetry and gallantry—State of affairs in 1643—Battle of + Rocroy—Mazarin and the _Importants_—Madame de Montbazon—Letter + attributed to Madame de Longueville—Duel between Coligny and De + Guise.—An unpublished novel of the seventeenth century. + + +We find Mademoiselle de Bourbon married then on the 2d of June, 1642. +“For her it was a cruel destiny; M. de Longueville was old, she was +young and beautiful as an angel.” Thus, in relation to this marriage, +speaks Mademoiselle, the faithful interpreter of the opinions of that +period.[213] + +Henri II., Duke de Longueville, descended from that famous Count de +Dunois whose name is connected with that of Jeanne d’Arc, in the great +wars of the independence under Charles VII. He was the son of Henri +d’Orleans, first of the name, sovereign prince of Neufchâtel and +Valengin, a warrior worthy of his ancestors, and who gave the League +a mortal blow by the victory of Senlis. His mother was Catherine de +Gonzague, sister of the Duke de Nevers, who was father of the two +celebrated princesses, Marie, Queen of Poland, and Anne, the Palatine. +Born in 1595, Henri II. had first married Louise de Bourbon, daughter +of the Count de Soissons, high steward of France, who died in 1637, and +by whom he had Marie d’Orleans, Mademoiselle de Longueville, who, in +1650, played a conspicuous part in the Fronde, and at length married the +Duke de Nemours, brother of him who was slain by the Duke de Beaufort. +Thus, when the Duke de Longueville took a second wife in 1642, he was +forty-seven years of age, and to this wife he brought a daughter-in-law +nearly as old, but of a very different character,—beautiful, +intellectual, but deprived of all sensibility, who soon became the censor +of her mother-in-law and her enemy in the family circle, and even with +posterity by means of the memoirs which she has left of the Fronde. + +The Duke de Longueville was truly a great lord He was gallant and +brave,[214] liberal even to magnificence, of a noble and generous +character, but feeble; willing to engage in an enterprise, and ready to +abandon it; without passion, and without ambition; and possessing all +that was necessary to make him shine in the second rank, but incapable +of holding the first. He began by making some opposition to Richelieu, +but he yielded soon enough; afterwards he engaged in the Fronde; he +shared the captivity of his two brothers-in-law, but scarcely did he +leave the prison, than he made peace with the court. Nature had fitted +him to follow the path which his fathers had traced for him, and to +serve the crown in great military and civil offices, which he would +have worthily filled. The misfortune of his life was to be continually +engaged, through his own fault and through that of others, in enterprises +and adventures for which he was unfitted, and in which his good qualities +were less prominent than his defects. + +Let us add that M. de Longueville, whose morals were not the best, had, +in early youth, by Jacqueline d’Illiers, afterwards abbess of Saint-Avit, +a natural daughter, Catherine Angélique d’Orleans, who was successively +a nun in several religious houses, and who died abbess of Maubuisson, in +1664, at the age of forty-seven years. Already in the decline of life, +he became smitten with the Duchess de Montbazon, who rejoiced at this +useful conquest, and maintained it, as is said, even after the second +marriage of M. de Longueville, notwithstanding the displeasure of Madame +the Princess, and the very bitter reproaches which she cast upon her +son-in-law. + +It must be confessed that there was little in such a person to captivate +the heart and the imagination of a young woman such as we have described +Mademoiselle de Bourbon. With her instincts of pride and heroism, +her refinements of spirit and heart, her principles and habits as a +_précieuse_, she could not admire M. de Longueville, and, formed as she +was, admiration was for her the road to love. She was destined, with +all her advantages, to be wounded by a rival; and what made this wound +more painful was, that this rival, so little worthy of being compared +with her in character, was the greatest beauty of the day, so that the +apparent infidelity of M. de Longueville seemed an offensive preference +for this rival’s charms; and, as we have said, Mademoiselle de Bourbon +was not only tender, she was vain-glorious, and somewhat coquettish. +However, as she did not love her husband, her gentleness, easily +sustained by her indifference, saved her from irritation. She considered +herself at liberty to be admired, and she continued to live at the hôtel +de Longueville, as she had done at the hôtel de Condé, with the same +court of young and agreeable female friends, of young and brilliant +cavaliers.[215] + +The marriage fêtes had hardly ended when Madame de Longueville was seized +with sickness. The small-pox, then so dreaded, which had driven her away +from Chantilly, and against which she had made, at Liancourt, such bad +verses, caught her in the autumn of 1642, and placed her charming face in +peril. All Rambouillet was moved. The Marchioness de Sablé, too faithful +to this fear of contagion, which was the ridicule of her life, could not +persuade herself, notwithstanding the most sincere tenderness, to take +care of the interesting sufferer; but Mademoiselle de Rambouillet did +not abandon her,[216] and there was a sort of public rejoicing when it +was known that Madame de Longueville had been spared, and that, if she +had lost the first freshness of her beauty, she had preserved all its +brilliancy. These are the very words of Retz,[217] and the gallant Bishop +de Grasse, Godeau, confirms them by compliments which, in a sermon-like +manner, he addresses to Madame de Longueville.[218] + +During this sickness, M. de Longueville did not come near his wife. The +Cardinal de Richelieu had just sent for him to take command of the army +of Italy in the place of the Duke de Bouillon, the elder brother of +Turenne, who, compromised in the affair of Cinq-Mars, had been arrested, +by order of the cardinal, at the head of his army, conducted from Cazal +to Lyons, to the Château de Pièrre-Encise, and who was fortunate enough +to be able to purchase his life by abandoning his stronghold of Sedan. + +The winter of 1643 passed away for Madame de Longueville in the agreeable +occupations which had delighted her youth. She was constantly at the +Louvre, at the hôtel de Condé, at the Place-Royale, or at the hôtel de +Rambouillet, whose éclat was every day increasing. It was about the +time of the _Guirlande de Julie_. Tallemant had proposed to add to the +collection of poems, by Voiture, many other productions of the hôtel de +Rambouillet. In truth, we might furnish it by aid of the manuscripts +of Conrart, who was also one of the inmates of the illustrious hôtel. +We might draw continually from these inexhaustible manuscripts, and +we should only be embarrassed as to choice. But if all these verses +describe admirably the society of the seventeenth century—fond of wit +as well as of bravery, intoxicated with heroism and gallantry—they +would charm, perhaps moderately, the society of the present day, and +we have already put our readers to a test which we should not dare to +repeat. Let us simply say that Madame de Longueville was still more +surrounded than Mademoiselle de Bourbon with that poetic incense, +somewhat tiresome it is true, but which has rarely been displeasing to +beauties the most spirituelle. We have before us poems of every kind, +and from every hand, which describe her sometimes at the balls of the +Louvre and of the Luxembourg, sometimes at court with her two beautiful +friends, Mesdemoiselles Du Vigean, sometimes following her husband into +his government of Normandy, and called back by the hôtel de Rambouillet, +everywhere pursued with assiduous cares and homages, and displaying +everywhere a gentleness full of charm, with a carelessness which seldom +abandoned her when her heart was not occupied. And it was not yet +occupied, or, if at all, only at the surface. She did not love, but +she had distinguished, in the crowd of her adorers, Maurice, Count de +Coligny, elder brother of Dandelot, son of Marshal de Châtillon, who had +sighed for her before her marriage, and had not yet yielded to a husband +of forty-seven years, but little jealous, and even still in the chains of +another. + +“I do not know,” says Lenet,[219] “whether Coligny was attached to +Mademoiselle de Bourbon by reason of her beauty, her wit, or the respect +which he owed her; but I know well, that although he saw her only in the +midst of company, in presence of the princess or of the duke, it was said +in the end that he had sentiments of love for her.” In addition to this, +there is not a word in regard to Coligny, his character, his mind, or his +person. All that we know is, that he was one of the particular friends +of La Rochefoucauld, and especially of the Duke d’Enghien,[220] who +employed him in more than one delicate negotiation. We confess that such +silence is but little in his favor; but let us bear in mind that Coligny +was young, that he had not had time to make himself known, and that he +was naturally eclipsed by his younger brother, Dandelot, who inherited +his title and took his place near Condé. In the absence of every other +document, a manuscript of the National Library, to which we have already +had recourse, furnishes us some other details, the correctness of which +we do not guaranty, but which, for want of better, we are not permitted +to neglect. This manuscript represents Coligny to us as very well made, +without, however, a very elegant form; intellectual and ambitious, but +in merit below his ambition. The author, taking appearance for reality, +supposes also that Madame de Longueville shared the sentiments of +Coligny, because she did not repress them; and he paints, in a very +romantic manner, the beginning of their pretended loves. We give the +entire passage, leaving it to the judgment of the reader.[221] + +“Anne de Bourbon, Duchess de Longueville, was then one of the most +pleasing persons in the world, as well on account of the charms of her +mind, as on account of those of her beauty. Coligny, eldest son of +the Marshal de Châtillon, loved her passionately, and it is said that +he was beloved by her. He was a young man of very fine form, but he +looked more like a German than a Frenchman. He had infinite spirits and +great thoughts, but it was believed that his valor[222] did not equal +his ambition. Even before the marriage of this princess, he was on the +best terms with her. It is said that he adopted a very excellent and +very singular plan for declaring to her his passion. The romance of +_Polexandre_[223] was very fashionable and much in vogue, but especially +at the hôtel de Condé, which was then regarded as the temple of +gallantry and of wit. The Duke d’Enghien read this book continually, and, +finding in it a tender and passionate letter, he showed it to Coligny, +from whom he had nothing to conceal. The latter saw how he might profit +by so favorable an occasion, and proposed to the Duke d’Enghien to make a +copy, and place it adroitly in the pocket of the duchess. Scarcely a day +passed that some fête did not occur at the hôtel de Condé, and there was +dancing almost every evening. The proposition was accepted, and Coligny, +having volunteered to copy this letter, gave it to the Duke d’Enghien. +Upon this day every one was in the gayest attire, and the duchess shone +with a thousand rays. The ball began early, and the duke, having taken +the hand of his sister, executed easily their design. I know no more of +the affair, but apparently the letter was read without giving any offence +to the duchess.” + +Whilst the young people thus gave themselves up to the pleasures of +gallantry, grave events were changing the face of the court and of France. + +Richelieu had died on the 2d of December, 1642, after having seen +Cinq-Mars ascend the scaffold, the Count de Soissons buried in his +victory of Marfée, and the Duke de Bouillon compelled to surrender the +principality of Sedan to the royal power. Scarcely had he closed his eyes +than his enemies renewed their designs and their hopes. Faithful to his +minister even after his death, Louis XIII. kept them within bounds for +some time; He employed Mazarin, whom the cardinal had given to him, and +continued his policy by softening it; but it did not survive him even +for a single year. The 14th of May, 1643, he went to join him, leaving a +king four years of age, the regency in the hands of a woman, our northern +frontier menaced, factions chafing, and, to sustain the burden of +affairs, the Duke d’Orleans and the Prince de Condé fortunately united in +the council of the regency, Mazarin at the head of the cabinet, and the +Duke d’Enghien at the head of the army. This was all that was needed for +the safety of France. + +The Duke d’Enghien received in Flanders, publicly, by the hands of a +courier extraordinary, the news of the king’s death. He feared that this +news might increase the courage of the Spaniards, and diminish that of +the French; he determined to conceal it, and to hasten the inevitable +battle which was to decide the destiny of his country. Lost, it would +introduce the enemy into the heart of the kingdom; but, gained, it would +impress upon Spain and all Europe a terror necessary to the beginning +of a new reign; it would strengthen the regency of Anne of Austria; it +would place royalty above all factions, without taking into consideration +the high elevation which it would give to the house of Condé. The Duke +d’Enghien submitted the affair to the council of generals, but only for +form’s sake, declaring that he took upon himself the event; and the +next day, May 19th, whilst the body of Louis XIII. was on its way to +Saint-Denis, he hazarded the battle of Rocroy. It continued a whole day. +Compromised for a short time by the Marshal de l’Hôpital, who had been +intrusted with conducting it, it was gained by Condé himself, not yet +twenty-two years of age—thanks to a manœuvre which first revealed the +great captain, and inaugurated a new school of warfare.[224] Condé, with +Gassion, was charged with the command of the right wing. He had confided +his left to La Ferté-Seneterre, as well as to the Marshal de l’Hôpital, +who represented the old school. He had placed Espenan in the centre with +the infantry, and the reserve in the hands of Sirot,[225] an officer +of tried bravery, like Gassion. Directed by Condé in person, the right +French wing overthrew every thing that opposed it, and pushed the enemy +vigorously. During this time the left wing, under La Ferté-Seneterre +and Marshal de l’Hôpital, was very badly treated, and its two commanders +placed _hors de combat_; in giving way it threatened to draw with it +the centre, where Espenan was maintaining a firm ground, but earnestly +calling for reinforcements. Any other than Condé would doubtless have +turned upon his steps and retraced, in an equivocal attitude, the space +gloriously run over, and, thus affording aid to his left and his centre, +contrive, by means of his reserve, to achieve the victory, or cover and +repair the defeat. Condé took a very different course: instead of giving +way, he advanced still more; then, having arrived at the extreme of the +enemy’s lines, where the Italian infantry were located, he turned to +the left, threw himself upon this infantry, passed it furiously, and +went thundering down upon the rear of the victorious wing, after telling +Sirot to march, with all his reserve, to the help of Espenan and of +l’Hôpital. Thus caught between two fires, the enemy yielded on the left +as well as on the right, and the day was won. But it was not enough to +have delivered France from present danger, it was necessary at the same +time to secure the future by removing the terror connected with the name +of Spanish arms—the name of that old Spanish infantry which formed the +reserve, and, according to the rules of ancient strategy and the policy +of the court of Madrid, had been carefully preserved, that is, had +remained useless. Nothing remained but to destroy this infantry. Condé +assailed it on all sides with his victorious squadrons, with all that he +could pick up of his own infantry, especially with his artillery, and, +after a memorable resistance, he succeeded in demolishing it, root and +branch:[226] it perished almost to a man at Rocroy. + +At the report of this battle, in which every thing was wonderful—the +youth of the general, the boldness and the novelty of the manœuvres, and +the grandeur of the results—the court and all Paris went into transports +of enthusiasm. The greatest disasters had been anticipated, but the army +was safe, it was victorious, and the future seemed crowded with similar +achievements. From the time of Henri IV., France had doubtless had +excellent generals, who were well acquainted with their profession, and +who had met with great success in Germany and in Italy; but here was a +general, of twenty-two years, who eclipsed them all, and who created a +new mode of warfare, wherein boldness was at the service of calculation, +just as Descartes and Corneille—pardon me the comparison—had created +a new philosophy and a new poesy, to serve as a solid foundation or +brilliant interpreter to sublime sentiments and thoughts. Rocroy answers +to the _Cid_, to _Cinna_, and to _Polyeucte_, so also to the _Discours de +La Méthode_ in the history of French greatness: incomparable epoch, which +no other has ever equalled, and which not even that of the Consulate, +after Marengo, approaches, because, amid all its splendors, it had +neither a Descartes nor a Corneille! + +We may easily imagine the intoxication of the hôtel de Condé, when La +Moussaye, one of the companions of the Duke d’Enghien in the amusements +of Chantilly and Liancourt, and who had served him faithfully during the +eventful day, brought the triumphant news. All the muses of Rambouillet, +great and small, sang the exploits of their brilliant pupil. The Spanish +flags taken at Rocroy were displayed for several days in the great halls +of the hôtel de Condé, before being transported to Nôtre-Dame. The people +hastened to behold them. While all hearts were beating with patriotic +pride, all eyes were also moved to tears when it was known that the +young captain, as humane and pious as he was brave, had, before all his +army, knelt upon the battle-field in thanksgiving to God; that he had +immediately taken care of the wounded, conquerors and conquered, as if +they had been of his own household, consoling them, encouraging them, +distributing every thing abundantly among them without ever humiliating +them; that he had asked for his lieutenants every recompense, wishing, +like the Cid, Polexandre, and Cyrus, those heroes of tragedy and romance, +glory alone. In a short time it was known, that after a few days devoted +to religion and to humanity, the Duke d’Enghien had resumed the pursuit +of the enemy, and that he was already under the walls of Thionville. + +The house of Condé needed the éclat and the strength which it received +from the victory of Rocroy in order to face its own enemies, and to +obtain satisfaction of the insult which it had just received in the +person of Madame de Longueville. + +It is necessary to have a just idea of the situation of affairs, as well +as of the situation of the parties who disputed the government, in order +to see the importance of an adventure which in itself seems to be of +little consequence. + +Soon after the death of Richelieu, there sprang up a powerful faction, +composed of all those whom the imperious cardinal had sacrificed to his +designs, whom he had had exiled from the court or from France, and who; +their terrible adversary being dead, burned to take possession of his +spoils. They expected the support of Queen Anne, for she also had been +oppressed, and it was in her service that they had incurred persecution. +The favor of the regent appeared to them a debt, and they claimed it in a +manner which, little by little, wounded the queen and turned her against +them. In proportion as they lost ground with her, Mazarin gained it. He +was still young, handsome, mild, insinuating, faithful to the policy of +Richelieu, his master, but practising it differently; of a mind less +elevated, less extensive—not uniting, like his incomparable predecessor, +the genius of administration in all its branches to that of politics in +general; especially a diplomatist, but a diplomatist of the first order, +with his name attached to two of the greatest treaties of the seventeenth +century, the treaty of Westphalia and that of the Pyrenees; inexhaustible +in resources and in expedients; always preferring artifice to violence; +managing every one, treating with all parties, choosing rather to corrupt +than to exterminate them; aiming, especially in 1643, to penetrate +into the heart of the queen, as had been attempted by Richelieu, but +possessing many other means for succeeding in his design. The handsome +cardinal[227] then gained his end. Once master of the heart,[228] he +directed easily the mind of the queen, and taught her the difficult art +of pursuing steadily the same aim, the supremacy of royal authority, +by means of the most contrary conduct, according to the change of +circumstances. In the beginning, all his efforts were used in supporting +himself and in avoiding the _Importants_. Such was the name applied +to the chiefs of the malcontents, on account of the air of importance +which they assumed, blaming inconsiderately every measure of government, +affecting a sort of melancholy, of profundity, and of refined sublimity, +which separated them from other men. They ruled in the _salons_, and they +exercised considerable authority at court and throughout all the kingdom, +because they had at their head the two great houses of Vendôme and of +Lorraine. + +The Duke de Beaufort, second son of the Duke César de Vendôme, bore +proudly the name of grandson of Henry IV.: he was possessed of bravery +and of honor. During the evil times, he had shown a chivalrous fidelity +to the queen, who, before having appreciated Mazarin, was much inclined +to his side; and he would have perhaps succeeded, if he had not spoiled +his affairs by excessive pretensions and by a haughtiness of little +efficacy with a Spanish woman, who must be a long time flattered before +she can be governed. He had, moreover, no genius, and he would have made +a miserable figure in the highest rank: he was made only for the part +which he afterwards played, that of a theatrical hero. + +The exhausted house of Guise did not possess at this time a single +superior man. Long exiled, it had, in 1640, lost in Italy its chief, +Charles de Lorraine, and, in 1639, the Prince de Joinville, to whom +Mademoiselle de Bourbon had once been destined. The brother who followed +this prince was that Henri de Guise, at first archbishop of Rheims, +then Duke de Guise, so celebrated for his adventures, his bravery, +and his fickleness; who had all kinds of ambition, formed all sorts +of enterprises, and succeeded in nothing, not even in being a hero of +romance, whatever may be said of him. See, I pray, if this is the life +of a chevalier, of an ancient paladin, as Madame de Motteville calls +him;[229] and if, according to the pretensions of Mademoiselle,[230] he +made love after the manner of romances. After the death of his father +and of his elder brother, he made his peace with Richelieu, and returned +to the court: a year had scarcely passed by, when he conspired against +Richelieu with the Count de Soissons, and was compelled to quit France. +Whilst archbishop of Rheims, he was smitten with the beautiful Anne de +Gonzague, afterwards Princess Palatine; he was engaged to her by an +explicit promise of marriage, and when Anne de Gonzague, relying upon +his word, commits the folly of going, under the name of Madame de Guise, +to rejoin him at Brussels, she finds him married to the Countess de +Bossu, of whom he soon grows weary and abandons, in order to return to +Paris, when Richelieu and Louis XIII. are no more. There he pays a very +easy court to Madame de Montbazon. A little while after he falls madly +in love with Mademoiselle de Pons, one of the maids of honor of Queen +Anne, very pretty and very coquettish: he wishes to marry her; he goes to +Rome to solicit the dissolution of his first marriage, and by the way, +in order to conquer a crown for his new mistress, he places himself at +the head of the insurrection of Naples. He arrives through a thousand +hazards, displays the most brilliant valor, without any political +or military talent, is made prisoner by the Spaniards, begs Condé, +unfortunately then all-powerful in Spain, to obtain his deliverance, +promising to him eternal devotion; and after recovering his liberty, +thanks to the intervention of Condé, instead of serving him as he had +publicly sworn, he abandons him, passes over to Mazarin, takes part in +every thing opposed to his liberator, commences a lawsuit against this +same Mademoiselle de Pons, whom he wished to make queen of Naples, for +the recovery of the furniture and jewels which he had given her, becomes +high chamberlain, and is fit only to parade in fêtes and tourneys of +the court, and to call forth the speech, when seen in the company of +Condé: “There goes the hero of fable by the side of the hero of history:” +carrying with him to the tomb, in 1664, that illustrious house of Guise +which merited a very different end. In 1643, on his arrival in Paris, he +fell into the party of the _Importants_, and he was marvellously formed +for one of the chiefs of this party, for he was vain, brilliant, and +incapable. + +The women occupied a prominent place in this anticipated Fronde of the +beginning of the regency. Queen Anne had formerly had for her friends the +celebrated Duchess de Chevreuse and Mademoiselle d’Hautefort, afterwards +Duchess de Schomberg. These ladies shared equally great beauty, ambition, +and a courageously supported disgrace. Marie d’Hautefort[231] was, +with Madame de Sablé, one of the models of a true _précieuse_, whose +conduct equalled her maxims. Maid of honor to the queen, Louis XIII. had +entertained for her that Platonic love, then in fashion, which he also +showed for Mademoiselle de La Fayette. Richelieu, after having vainly +endeavored to obtain her, had embroiled her with her royal lover, and +exiled her from the court. Queen Anne had loved her almost as much as +the king; and, as soon as she was free and mistress of herself, she +wrote to her with her own hand: “Come, my dear friend, I am dying with +impatience to embrace you.” Mademoiselle d’Hautefort eagerly obeyed the +summons; but when she wished to speak of Mazarin as she formerly did of +Richelieu, she found a less favorable audience, and, not knowing how +to accommodate herself to the new situation, her stately tenderness +became wearisome. Madame de Chevreuse had possessed the beauty[232] of +Mademoiselle d’Hautefort, but not her virtues. Marie de Rohan Montbazon, +daughter of the Duke Hercule de Montbazon by a former marriage, was +first married to the High Constable de Luynes, early became a widow, and +then entered the house of Lorraine by marrying the Duke de Chevreuse. A +victim of her fidelity to the queen, banished by Richelieu, she had long +wandered in Europe, and returned to France with the pretensions of an +emigrant. Occupied with gallantry, devoted to the lover of the moment, +she moved heaven and earth to overturn Mazarin and to put in his place +Châteauneuf, the old keeper of the seals, who, in the party, passed for a +man of superior capacity, and in the State for being the most important +minister. She exacted also a high situation for La Rochefoucauld, who +had been more or less tenderly attached to her, and who still possessed +that romantic sentimentality, in the fashion of the Duke de Guise, whose +foundation is almost always a vanity, shameful in itself, and whose +climax must, in this case, be the book of _maxims_. + +Mazarin defended himself, as we have said, by gaining, little by little, +the heart of the queen; and to the attacks of the houses of Vendôme and +of Lorraine he opposed the weight of the old partisans of Richelieu, +still numerous and influential, especially the house of Condé, with its +alliances and its friendships, the Montmorencys, the Longuevilles, the +Brézés, the Ventadours, the Châtillons. Mazarin would have been undone +in these difficult beginnings, if the Prince de Condé had not remained +firmly attached to royal authority. He supported the uncertain Duke +d’Orleans, who, after having engaged in more than one intrigue against +Richelieu, and saved himself by betraying his friends, had attempted +again to lay his snares. The prince was too good a politician not to +understand that it was better for him to be the powerful protector, +rather than the unequal adversary of royalty; that in this case it was +necessary to defend it with energy, and that his rank would always raise +him above a minister, when this minister was not Richelieu; and if no one +contested the capacity of Mazarin, no one would suspect all his power. +As chief of the council and governor of Paris, M. the Prince applied +himself, in concert with M. the Lieutenant-General of the kingdom, to +baffle all the designs of the _Importants_, and in this way he made +bitter enemies. + +Their hatred for the house of Condé, hardly fell upon Madame de +Longueville. Her gentleness in every thing in which her heart was not +seriously engaged, her perfect indifference in regard to politics at +this period of her life, with the graces of her mind and of her person, +rendered her pleasing to every one, and protected her against the +injustice of parties. But aside from the affairs of State, she had an +enemy, and a fearful enemy, in the Duchess de Montbazon. We have said +that Madame de Montbazon had been the mistress of M. de Longueville; it +is necessary that she should be a little better known, for she is one of +the principal personages of the drama which we are about to relate. + +Marie de Bretagne, who was born about 1612, and who died in 1657, at +the age of forty-five, was the eldest daughter of that famous Countess +de Vertus, whose father was La Varenne Fouquet, chief of the household, +and very obliging servant of Henry IV. The Count de Vertus, of the +illustrious house of Bretagne, had married Mademoiselle de La Varenne on +account of her extreme beauty, and he had hastened to withdraw her from +Paris, and to take her to his own house. He gained nothing by this, +and Tallemant[233] has told us, concerning the beautiful and foolish +countess, a story of the most tragic nature. In beauty the daughter was +worthy of the mother, but in vices she left her far behind. Married, in +1628, to the old Duke de Montbazon, father of Madame de Chevreuse, she +soon placed herself at ease. Her mind was not her most brilliant side, +and the little that she had was turned to intrigue and perfidy. “Her +mind,” says the indulgent Madame de Motteville,[234] “was not so fine as +her person; her brilliancy was limited to her eyes, which commanded love. +She claimed universal admiration.” In regard to her character, all are +unanimous. Retz, who knew her well, speaks of her in these terms;[235] +“Madame de Montbazon was a very great beauty. Modesty was wanting in her +air. Her jargon might, in a dull time, have supplied the defects of her +mind. She showed but little faith in gallantry, none in business. She +loved her own pleasure alone, and above her pleasure her interest. I +never saw a person who, in vice, preserved so little respect for virtue.” +Supremely vain and passionately fond of money, it was by aid of her +beauty that she sought influence and fortune. She therefore took infinite +care of it, as of her idol, as of her resources, her treasure. She kept +it in repair, heightened it by all kinds of artifices, and preserved +it almost uninjured till her death. Madame de Motteville asserts that, +during the latter part of her life, she was as full of vanity as if she +were but twenty-five years of age;[236] that she had the same desire to +please, and that she wore her mourning garb in so charming a manner, that +“the order of nature seemed changed, since years and beauty could be +found united.” Ten years before, in 1647, at the age of thirty-five, when +Mazarin gave a comedy in the Italian style, that is, an opera, there was +in the evening a great ball, and the Duchess de Montbazon was present, +adorned with pearls, with a red feather on her head, and so dazzling in +her appearance that the whole company was completely ravished. We can +imagine what she was in 1643, at the age of thirty-one years. + +Of the two conditions of perfect beauty, strength and grace,[237] +Madame de Montbazon possessed the first in the highest degree; but this +quality being almost alone, or entirely dominant, left something to be +desired—that precisely which makes the charm of beauty. She was tall and +majestic, to such a point indeed that Tallemant, who always exaggerates, +and seldom lies, says: “She was a Colossus.”[238] She possessed all the +charms of embonpoint. Her throat reminded one of the fulness, in this +particular, of the antique statues, exceeding them perhaps somewhat. What +struck the beholder most were her eyes and hair of intense blackness, +upon a groundwork of the most dazzling white. Her defect was a nose +somewhat too prominent, with a mouth so large as to give her face an +appearance of severity.[239] It was plain enough that she was the +very opposite of Madame de Longueville. The latter was tall, but not +to excess. The richness of her form did not diminish its delicacy. A +moderate embonpoint exhibited, in full and exquisite measure, the beauty +of the female form. Her eyes were of the softest blue; her hair of the +most beautiful blonde. She had the most majestic air, and yet her +peculiar characteristic was grace. To these add the great difference +of manners and tone. Madame de Longueville was, in her deportment, +dignity, politeness, modesty, sweetness itself, with a languor and +a nonchalance which formed not her least charm. Her words were few, +as well as her gestures; the inflexions of her voice were a perfect +music.[240] The excess, into which she never fell, might have been a sort +of fastidiousness. Every thing in her was wit, sentiment, charm. Madame +de Montbazon, on the contrary, was free of speech, bold and easy in her +tone, full of stateliness and pride. + +She was nevertheless a very attractive creature, when she wished to be +so, and she had a great number of adorers, and of happy adorers, from +Gaston, Duke of Orleans, and the Count de Soissons, slain at Marfée, to +Rancé, the young and gallant editor of Anacreon, and the future founder +of La Trappe. M. de Longueville had been for some time her lover by +title, and he afforded her considerable advantages. When he married +Mademoiselle de Bourbon, Madame the Princess exacted, without however +being very faithfully obeyed, the discontinuance of all intercourse with +his old mistress. Hence, in that interested soul, an irritation, which +wounded vanity redoubled, when she saw this young woman, with her great +name, her marvellous mind, her undefinable charms, advance into the world +of gallantry, without the least effort draw after her all hearts, and +take possession of, or at least share that empire of beauty of which she +was so proud, and which was to her so precious. On the other hand, the +Duke de Beaufort had not been able to restrain a passionate admiration +for Madame de Longueville, which had been very coldly received. He was +wounded by it, and his wound bled for a long time, as his friend, La +Châtre, informs us,[241] even after he had transferred his homage to +Madame de Montbazon. The latter, as may be easily imagined, was again +exasperated. Finally, the Duke de Guise, recently from Paris, placed +himself in the party of the _Importants_, and at the service of Madame +de Montbazon, who received him very well, at the same time that she was +striving to keep or to recall M. de Longueville, and that she was ruling +Beaufort, whose office near her was that, somewhat, of an attending +cavalier. Thus we see that Madame de Montbazon disposed, through Beaufort +and through Guise, as also through her daughter-in-law, Madame de +Chevreuse, of the house of Vendôme, and of the house of Lorraine, and she +employed all this credit to the profit of her hatred against Madame de +Longueville. She burned to injure her; she found an opportunity to do it. + +One day when a large company was assembled at her house, some person +picked up two letters, having no signatures, but in the handwriting of +a female, and of a somewhat equivocal style. They were read; a thousand +jokes were perpetrated concerning them, and some effort made to discover +the author. Madame de Montbazon pretended that they had fallen from the +pocket of Maurice de Coligny, who had just gone out, and that they were +in the handwriting of Madame de Longueville. The word of command thus +once given, all the echoes of the party of the _Importants_ spread it, +and this adventure became the entertainment of the court. The following +are the two letters, found at the house of Madame de Montbazon: a +frivolous curiosity has preserved them very faithfully:[242] + +I. + + “I should much more regret the change in your conduct if I + thought myself less worthy of a continuation of your affection. + I confess to you that so long as I believed it to be true and + warm, mine gave you all the advantages which you could desire. + Now, hope nothing more from me than the esteem which I owe to + your discretion. I have too much pride to share the passion + which you have so often sworn to me, and I desire to punish + your negligence in seeing me, in no other way than by depriving + you entirely of my society. I request that you will visit me + no more, since I have no more the power of commanding your + presence.” + +II. + + “To what conclusion have you come after so long a silence? Do + you not know that the same pride which rendered me sensible to + your past affection forbids me to endure the false appearances + of its continuation! You say that my suspicions and my + inequalities render you the most unhappy person in the world: + I assure you that I believe no such thing, although I cannot + deny that you have perfectly loved me, as you must confess that + my esteem has worthily recompensed you. So far we have done + each other justice, and I am determined not to have in the end + less goodness, if your conduct responds to my intentions. You + would find them less unreasonable if you had more passion, and + the difficulties of seeing me would only augment instead of + diminishing it. I suffer for not loving enough, and you for + loving too much.[243] If I must believe you, let us exchange + humors: I shall find repose in doing my duty, and you in doing + yours must fail, in order to obtain liberty. I do not perceive + that I forget the manner in which I passed the winter with you, + and that I speak to you as frankly as I have heretofore done. + I hope that you will make as good use of it, and that I shall + not regret being overcome in the resolution which I have made + to return to it no more. I shall remain in my lodgings three or + four days in succession, and will be seen only in the evening: + you know the reason.” + +These letters were not forged. They had been really written by Madame +de Fouquerolles to the handsome and elegant Marquis de Maulevrier,[244] +who had been foolish enough to drop them in the _salon_ of Madame de +Montbazon. Maulevrier, trembling at being discovered, and at having +compromised Madame de Fouquerolles, ran to one of the chiefs of the +_Importants_, La Rochefoucauld, who was his friend, confided to him +his secret, and begged him to undertake to hush up the affair. La +Rochefoucauld made Madame de Montbazon understand that it was for her +interest to be generous on this occasion, for the error or fraud would be +easily recognized as soon as the writing should be compared with that of +Madame de Longueville. Madame de Montbazon placed the original letters +in the hands of La Rochefoucauld, who showed them to M. the Prince, +and to Madame the Princess, to Madame de Rambouillet, and to Madame +Sablé, particular friends of Madame de Longueville, and, the truth being +well established, burned them in the presence of the queen, delivering +Maulevrier and Madame de Fouquerolles from the terrible uneasiness into +which they had been for some time thrown.[245] + +It had perhaps been wise to have dropped the matter here. This was the +somewhat interested opinion of the weak and prudent M. de Longueville, +who wished to manage Madame de Montbazon, and who did not believe that +the honor of his wife would gain much by farther disclosures. Madame +de Longueville was not very much irritated; but Madame the Princess, +impelled by her high spirit, and still intoxicated by the success of +her son, exacted a reparation equal to the offence, and declared loudly +that, if the queen and the government did not defend the honor of her +house, she and all her family would withdraw from the court. She was +indignant at the mere idea of placing her daughter in the scales with +the granddaughter of a cook, as she called La Varenne, father of the +Countess de Vertus, who had been chief of the hôtel of Henri IV. In vain +did the whole party of the _Importants_, with Beaufort and Guise at their +head, agitate and threaten; in vain did Madame de Chevreuse, who had +not yet lost all her credit with the queen, strive earnestly in behalf +of her mother-in-law. Mazarin was too wise to take two enemies upon his +arms at once, and to become embroiled with the Condés, without any hope +of gaining or disarming the Lorraines and the Vendômes. He inclined the +queen without difficulty to the side of Madame the Princess. Madame de +Longueville had gone to pass the first moments of this disagreeable +adventure at La Barre, with her dear friends, Mesdemoiselles Du Vigean. +The queen herself went to see her there, and promised her protection. It +was decided that the Duchess de Montbazon should repair to Madame the +Princess at the hôtel de Condé, and make to her a public reparation. +Madame de Motteville tells, in a very pleasant way, how much diplomacy +was necessary in order to arrange the speech of Madame de Montbazon and +the reply of Madame the Princess. The queen was in her cabinet, and +Madame the Princess, terribly excited, was with her, endeavoring to +make the affair one of high-treason. Madame de Chevreuse, engaged for a +thousand reasons in the quarrel of her mother-in-law, was with Cardinal +Mazarin, composing the speech necessary to be made upon the occasion. +Every word of it occasioned an hour’s discussion. The cardinal, greatly +embarrassed, went from one side to the other to accommodate their +differences, as if this peace was necessary to the happiness of France, +and to his own in particular. It was concluded that the criminal should +go, the next day, to Madame the Princess, and say that the expressions +used in regard to the letters were false, invented by evil-disposed +persons, and that she herself had never entertained them, knowing too +well the virtue of Madame de Longueville and the respect that was due to +her. This harangue was written upon a small piece of paper and attached +to her fan, in order that she might repeat it word for word to Madame the +Princess. She did it in the most haughty manner possible, putting on an +air which seemed to say: I jest in every word I utter. + +Mademoiselle[246] gives us the two speeches made upon the occasion: +“Madame, I come here to protest to you that I am innocent of the +wickedness of which I have been accused: no person of honor can utter +a calumny like this. If I had committed a fault like this, I should +have submitted to any punishment which it might have pleased the queen +to inflict upon me; I should have never shown myself in the world, and +would have asked your pardon. I beg you to believe that I shall never +fail in the respect which I owe to you and in the opinion which I have +of the virtue and of the merit of Madame de Longueville.” Madame the +Princess replied: “Madame, I receive very willingly the assurance which +you give me that you have had no part in the wicked things that have been +circulated; I have too much respect for the commands of the queen.” + +We find in the manuscript journal of Olivier d’Ormesson some details +which add to the piquancy of this comical scene. It took place on the 8th +of August. The Cardinal Mazarin was present, as a witness on the part of +the queen. Madame de Montbazon having begun her speech without saying +_Madame_, the princess complained, and she was obliged to recommence with +the respectful addition. Such a reconciliation amounted to nothing, and a +few days after war recommenced. + +Besides the satisfaction which she had just received, Madame the Princess +had asked and had been permitted the privilege of never associating +with the Duchess de Montbazon. Some time after, Madame de Chevreuse +invited the queen to a collation in the garden of Renard. This garden +was the rendezvous of the best society. It was at the termination of +the Tuileries, near the Porte de la Conférence, which conducted to the +Cours-la-Reine; that is, at the left angle of the Place Louis XV., upon +the ground since occupied by two of those ditches which even to this day +have spoiled that magnificent place which might so easily be rendered +the most beautiful in Europe. In the summer, on returning from the +Cours, which was the promenade of the nobility, and the spot where the +beauties of the day exercised their powers, it was customary to stop at +the garden Renard, for the purpose of taking refreshments, and to listen +to the serenades performed after the Spanish fashion. The queen took +great pleasure in visiting this place during the fine summer evenings. +She desired Madame the Princess to partake with her the collation offered +by Madame de Chevreuse, assuring her at the same time that Madame de +Montbazon would not be present; but the latter person was really there, +and even pretended to do the honors of the collation as mother-in-law +of the lady who gave it. Madame the Princess wished to withdraw, in +order that the entertainment might not be disturbed: the queen had no +right whatever to detain her. She therefore begged Madame de Montbazon +to pretend sickness, and by leaving the company, to relieve her from +embarrassment. The haughty duchess would not consent to fly before her +enemy, and kept her place. The queen, offended, refused the collation, +and quitted the promenade. On the morrow, an order from the king enjoined +upon Madame de Montbazon to leave Paris. This disgrace irritated the +_Importants_. They thought themselves humiliated and enfeebled, and there +were no violent or extreme measures which they did not contemplate. The +Duke de Beaufort, smitten at once in his credit and in his love, raised +loud cries, and it was reported that a plot had been formed against the +life of Mazarin.[247] In this conjuncture the cardinal showed himself +the worthy heir of Richelieu. Although he may have lacked his patience, +his cunning, and his intrigue, he was not deprived of courage, and he +knew how to take his part. He was already on very good terms with the +queen, and began to seem necessary, or at least very useful to her. He +represented to her mildly, but forcibly, what she owed to the State and +to the royal authority now menaced; that it was necessary to prefer the +interests of her son and of his crown to friendships which were perhaps +at one time well enough, but which were now becoming dangerous. He +won her, and the ruin of the _Importants_ was decided. On the 2d of +September, the Duke de Beaufort was arrested within the very walls of the +Louvre, and he was conducted to Vincennes. The command of the Swiss was +taken from his friend, La Châtre. The Bishop de Beauvais, who for a short +time enjoyed the favor of the queen, and was thought of as the successor +of Richelieu, was sent to his church; the Duke de Vendôme, as well as the +Duke de Mercœur, his eldest son, were exiled, and Madame de Chevreuse +banished to Tours. These measures, seasonably executed, broke up the +party of the _Importants._ The intestine disorders which menaced the new +reign were destined to await more favorable days. Mazarin, soon without +a rival with the queen, continued at home and especially abroad the +policy of his predecessor, and royalty, as well as France, anticipated a +succession of glorious years, thanks to the union of the princes of the +blood with the crown, to the skilful management of the prime minister, to +the prudence of Condé, and to the military genius of the Duke d’Enghien. + +The latter had returned to Paris at the close of the campaign, after +having taken Thionville and several other places, and brought his +victorious army over the Rhine. The queen had received him as the +deliverer of France. Mazarin, who thought more of the reality than of +the appearance of power, told him that his greatest ambition was to be +his chaplain and his business man with the queen. At a distance the +Duke d’Enghien had applauded all that had been done, and he returned +still burning for Mademoiselle Du Vigean, and furious on account of the +insult which had been offered to his sister. He adored his sister, and he +loved Coligny. He was acquainted with, and he had favored his passion. +Burning himself with a love as ardent as it was chaste, he knew that his +sister could not have been insensible to the passion of Maurice; but he +revolted at the thought of attributing to her the letters of one Madame +de Fouquerolles, and he took it in a manner which intimidated the most +insolent. + +Among the friends of the Duke de Beaufort and of Madame de Montbazon, +was the Duke de Guise, afterwards chief of the house of Lorraine in +France. He had been secured, as well as all his family, on account of +Gaston, Duke of Orleans, who had taken, as a second wife, a princess of +this house, the beautiful Marguerite.[248] The Duke de Guise was such as +we have described him. He had committed more than one folly, but he had +not yet shamefully failed in all his enterprises; his incapacity was +not declared. He had all the prestige of his name, of youth, of beauty, +and of a bravery bordering upon temerity. The avowed servant of Madame +de Montbazon, he had espoused her quarrel, without entering into the +violence of Beaufort, and he stood boldly up before the victorious Condés. + +Coligny had been prudent enough to withdraw during the storm, for fear +of still more compromising Madame de Longueville by becoming openly +her defender; but some months having passed, he thought that he might +show himself, and, as we are informed by the unpublished work upon the +regency, which we have several times quoted,[249] “the prison of the +Duke de Beaufort not affording him an opportunity to draw his sword, +he addressed himself to the Duke de Guise.” La Rochefoucauld states it +thus:[250] “The Duke d’Enghien, not being able to testify to the Duke de +Beaufort, who was in prison, the resentment which he felt on account of +what had happened between Madame de Longueville and Madame de Montbazon, +suffered Coligny to fight with the Duke de Guise, who had taken part in +this affair.” The Duke d’Enghien knew, then, and approved what Coligny +did. As for Madame de Longueville, it is absurd to suppose that she, +wishing to be avenged, drove on Coligny, for every one attributes to her +a conduct very moderate compared with that of Madame the Princess. Far +from encouraging the quarrel, she sought to appease it, and Madame de +Motteville herself refutes the report which she relates by saying: “Her +jealousy of the Duchess de Montbazon, being proportioned to her love for +her husband, did not carry her away so far as to prevent her from finding +her advantage in dissembling this outrage.” + +La Rochefoucauld gives us a piece of information which explains what +follows: Coligny had just risen from a long sickness; he was still +feeble, and he was not very skilful in fencing.[251] It was in this +condition that he attacked the Duke de Guise, who, like all fancy heroes, +possessed great skill in this kind of exercise. + +Let us say a few words in regard to the seconds whom they chose; they +are in all respects worthy of the trouble. The seconds were then +witnesses who fought. Coligny took for his second and for the bearer of +his challenge, Godefroi, Count d’Estrades, a man of cool and well-tried +courage. D’Estrades had served in Holland, under Maurice de Nassau. +He had distinguished himself in several such encounters. One day, as +Tallemant relates, fighting with a bully who placed himself on the +border of a little ditch, saying to Estrades: “I will not pass over this +ditch.” “And I,” said Estrades, making a mark behind him with his sword, +“I will not pass over this mark.” They fought; Estrades slew him. He +was employed, by turns and with equal success, in war and in diplomacy, +and became Marshal of France in 1675. The second of the Duke de Guise +was the Marquis de Bridieu, a gentleman of Limosin, a brave officer, +and friend of the house of Lorraine, who, in 1650, made an admirable +defence of an important stronghold on the frontiers of Flanders, +against the Spanish army and against Turenne, for which he was created +lieutenant-general.[252] + +It was agreed that the affair should take place at the Place-Royale—the +usual theatre of these combats, and which they had a thousand times +stained with the best blood. The Place-Royale was also the residence +of the greatest ladies, the flower of gallantry, Marguerite de Rohan, +Madame de Guimenée, Madame de Chaulnes, Madame de Saint-Géran, Madame +de Sablé, the Countess de Maure, and many others, under whose eyes these +thoughtless and valiant gentlemen delighted to cross their swords. Many +had there breathed their last. In the first quarter of the seventeenth +century, duelling was a custom at once useful and disastrous; it +encouraged the warlike spirit of the nobility, but it was almost as +destructive as war, and for more frivolous causes. To draw the sword for +a trifle had become a part of genteel manners, and, as gallantry had its +elegancies, so the duel had its refinements. During the period of a few +short years, nine hundred gentlemen had perished in private combats. +To arrest this scourge, Richelieu procured the terrible decree which +punished the surviving combatant with death, and sent the abettors from +the Place-Royale to the Place de Grève. Richelieu was inflexible, and +the example of Montmorency-Boutteville—decapitated, with his second, +the Count Deschapelles, for having provoked Beuvron, and for fighting +with him on the Place-Royale in full day—impressed a salutary terror, +and rendered infractions of the edict rare enough. Coligny braved every +thing; he challenged Guise, and, upon the appointed day, the two noble +adversaries, assisted by their seconds, d’Estrades and Bridieu, met upon +the Place-Royale. + +We have it in our power to give the most minute details of the combat, +thanks to different contemporary memoirs, and especially to two new +documents, the manuscript already quoted in regard to the Regency, and +the unpublished journal of Olivier d’Ormesson. + +It was on the morning of the 12th of December[253] that d’Estrades +carried to the Duke de Guise the challenge of Coligny. The meeting was +fixed for the same day, at the Place-Royale, at three[254] o’clock. The +two adversaries exhibited nothing unusual during the whole morning, and +at three o’clock they were at the rendezvous. A speech[255] is attributed +to the Duke de Guise, which gives to this scene an unexpected grandeur, +which exhibits upon the Place-Royale and places in hostility for the +last time the two most illustrious combatants of the wars of the League +in the persons of their descendants. On receiving his sword, Guise said +to Coligny: “We are now going to decide the ancient quarrels of our two +houses, and the world shall soon see what difference there is between the +blood of the Guise and that of Coligny.” Coligny aimed at his adversary a +prodigious thrust, says the journal of d’Ormesson,[256] but, still weak +on account of his recent sickness, his foot failed him, and he fell upon +his knee. Guise, closing with him, placed his foot upon the sword of the +fallen man. Coligny, though thus disarmed, would not ask his life. Guise +said to him:[257] “I will not kill you, but treat you as you deserve, +for having addressed, without any provocation, a prince of my birth;” +and thereupon he struck him with the flat of his sword.[258] Coligny, +indignant, summoned all his strength, threw himself backwards, disengaged +his sword, and renewed the struggle.[259] In this second encounter, Guise +was slightly wounded in the shoulder,[260] and Coligny in the hand; but +Guise, closing with Coligny a second time, seized his sword, by which he +cut his hand somewhat, and, taking it away, disabled him by a terrible +cut upon the arm. At the same time d’Estrades and Bridieu were sorely +wounded.[261] + +Such was the issue of this duel, the last, I believe, of the celebrated +duels of the Place-Royale. It was referred to Parliament, agreeably to +the edict of Richelieu; but the course of justice was stayed by the +influence of Condé, and especially by the deplorable condition[262] into +which Coligny, the most guilty party, had been thrown. The proof that an +understanding existed between Condé and Coligny is based upon the fact +that the latter found an asylum in his house of Saint-Maur. There he +languished some time,[263] and died of the mortification occasioned by +his poor defence of the cause of his own house and of that of Madame de +Longueville. + +This affair, with its dramatic circumstances and its tragic dénouement, +caused an extraordinary and painful sensation throughout Paris and +all France. It renewed, for a moment, the differences of parties, and +suspended the diversions and fêtes of the winter of 1644;[264] it did +not occupy the families interested and the court alone—it touched every +individual of the higher ranks, and continued for some time to be the +subject of conversation for the _salons_. We easily imagine that, as the +story spread, it was gradually lengthened by imaginary incidents. At +first, it was supposed that Madame de Longueville loved Coligny. Then, +that the tale might not lack interest, it was asserted that she did. +Hence the other invention, that she herself had placed the sword in the +hand of Coligny, and that d’Estrades, commissioned to challenge the Duke +de Guise, having told Coligny that the duke would disavow the injurious +words that had been attributed to him, and thus satisfy honor, Coligny +had replied to him: “This has nothing to do with the matter; I have +promised Madame de Longueville to fight him at the Place-Royale, and I +cannot fail to do it.”[265] It would not do to spoil so fine a tale, and +Madame de Longueville would not have been the sister of the conqueror of +Rocroy, a heroine worthy of being compared with those of Spain, who saw +their lovers dying at their feet in tourneys, if she had not been present +at the combat of Guise and Coligny. We are assured then that on the 12th +of December she was in a hôtel of the Place-Royale, at the Duchess de +Rohan’s, and that there, concealed by a window-curtain, she witnessed the +terrible encounter. + +Then, as at the present day, it was poetry, that is, song, which placed +the seal upon the popularity of an event. When the event was sad, the +song was a complaint full of burlesque pathos, and always ridiculous. +Such was that which, upon this occasion, ran through every circle, and +was really sung, for we find it in the _Collection of noted Songs_ of the +Arsenal:[266] + + Dry now your beauteous eyes, + Sweet Madame de Longueville; + Dry now your beauteous eyes, + Coligny’s getting well. + If death he’s seem’d to flee, + Oh blame him not therefore; + For as your lover, he + Would live forevermore. + +After the song came the romance: Madame de Longueville had hers also. A +wit of the times, whose name is unknown to us, composed on this occasion +a novel, in which, under fictitious names, and mingling falsehood with +truth, he relates the touching adventure which then occupied all Paris. +We have discovered this novel of the middle of the seventeenth century in +the library of the Arsenal and in the National Library.[267] Its title +is: _Story of Agésilan and Isménie_; that is, the story of Coligny and +Madame de Longueville. It has the advantage of being very short. Not +daring to give it entire, we will partially exhibit this little monument +of the growing celebrity of Madame de Longueville. + +It must be understood that Isménie loved Agésilan in the most tender +manner possible, and she loved him before being married to Amilcar, the +Duke de Longueville, by order of her father and of her mother, Antenor +and Simiane, M. the Prince and Madame the Princess. Isménie has for +an enemy Roxane, Madame de Montbazon, jealous of her beauty, and then +follow two portraits of Isménie and Roxane, which are historically +exact. “Roxane was wounded by the praises bestowed upon Isménie on +account of her beauty, which was truly wonderful. Her hair of a pale +yellow, her eyes blue; the whiteness of her complexion and her form were +incomparable; her spirit gentle, insinuating, and even pleasing, gave +her the approbation of all the world. Roxane, possessed of a beauty and +disposition very different, had not so many admirers of her grace as +Isménie, although many preferred her beauty. Her hair was of a light +brown; her eyes black and well formed, emitting a fire which penetrated +the most insensible hearts; her aspect, proud and haughty, inspired fear +rather than love; her spirit was cruel, full of violence. It would not do +to be at variance with her.” + +The following is one of the conversations of the two lovers, not so +long, fortunately, as those of Astrée and of the great Cyrus, but which +possesses their agreeable insipidity, their melancholy sentimentality: +“Isménie was walking pensively along a stream which watered the woods of +Mirabelle (Chantilly). Suddenly she saw a man emerge from among the thick +trees, who, pale and dejected, came and cast himself at her feet. She +at once recognized Agésilan, who said to her: ‘What! my princess, will +you abandon me after so many promises of firmness? In refusing the match +which is offered to you, will you not show to the world that my princess +has as much fidelity as beauty, and that her word is not to be shaken +when she has given it? If you have still any remembrance of the unhappy +Agésilan, and of the tenderness which you have had for him, give him one +more month before you consent to this marriage. The term is short for an +affection which will cost me my life.’ ‘Agésilan,’ said Isménie, ‘God +knows, if my own feelings were consulted, whether I would belong to any +other than to you! For this I have done more than duty demanded: I have +long resisted the orders of Antenor and Simiane. I have passed days and +nights in weeping the loss of my dear Agésilan. All that I can do is to +preserve for him continually my esteem and my friendship.’ She embraced +him for the last time, and entered the château without waiting for his +reply.” + +Agésilan, in despair, set out to rejoin the army, commanded by the +brother of Isménie, Marcomir, Duke d’Enghien, and we are presented with +a narrative of the battle of Rocroy, correct enough, except in two +particulars. The author does not seem to have been acquainted with the +bold and skilful manœuvre which decided the victory, and which we have +endeavored to describe. He has also given to Coligny, upon this great +occasion, a part which he did not perform. In the novel, Agésilan takes +the place of Gassion, and commands the right wing, whilst Gassion +commands the left in place of La Ferté-Seneterre and the Marshal de +l’Hôpital; for it is doubtless Gassion who is spoken of under the name of +Hilla or Hillarius, “an old colonel of horse, now[268] major-general, a +soldier of fortune, but who had occupied every post, having great courage +and firmness.” Marcomir had confided the right wing to Agésilan, “being +sure of his fidelity and of his great courage.” Agésilan seeks death, +and, according to the rules of romance, he finds only glory, with many +wounds, it is true, which will afterwards explain his languor and his +weakness. Among other exploits, he has an encounter with Alaric, king of +the Goths. Marcomir, on his part, performs extraordinary actions, and +kills, with his own hand, the chief of the hostile army. As Agésilan, +Coligny is here put in the place of Gassion, so d’Estrades, friend of +Coligny, is substituted, under the name of Théodate, for the brave Sirot, +who commanded the reserve, and contributed so much to the success of the +battle. + +The novel describes faithfully the conduct of d’Enghien, Marcomir, after +the victory. “After having rendered thanks to God for so great a victory, +Marcomir returned to his camp. He was slightly wounded, had two horses +killed under him, and did in this action all that a good general and a +great captain can do: he took great care of the wounded, and he visited +them every day.” He could not fail to take particular care of Agésilan, +his kinsman, and of Théodate; he took them with him to Lutétie, where +they received all the praises which their fine actions merited. + +In the novel, as well as in some memoirs, it is Roxane, Madame de +Montbazon, who invents and counterfeits the two famous letters, in order +to dishonor and destroy Isménie. She tries to compel her lover, Florizel, +the Duke de Guise, to maintain that these letters are veritable; and not +being able to get his consent to such an unworthy action, she asks him to +express himself at least with some doubt as to the matter. Florizel has +the weakness to please her in this; his words are promptly exaggerated +and envenomed, and it is everywhere reported that Florizel defends loudly +the truth of these letters, and declares himself ready to maintain it +against Agésilan himself, “in whatever manner he may choose.” Then comes +the indignation of Queen Amalasonte, Anne of Austria, against Isménie, +whom she believes guilty; the great wrath of Antenor and of Simiane, M. +the Prince and Madame the Princess, against their daughter, and the +despair of the latter, for the two imaginary letters by Roxane are much +stronger than those which were written by Madame de Fouquerolles to +Maulevrier, and which were attributed to Madame de Longueville. First +letter: “I cannot suffer you to remain any longer in the sadness into +which you are plunged. Your constancy has entirely gained me. Come this +evening to the avenue of the Sicamores, near the baths of Diane. I will +tell you what I wish you to do.” The other letter: “I believe that you +are pleased with me, dear Agésilan; but if the walk in the avenue of +the Sicamores has pleased you more, the one which I now invite you to +take will not please you less. Come, alone, at ten o’clock this evening, +through the garden gate; you will find Lydie, who will show you where I +am. Adieu.” + +These two rendezvous are well enough imagined to explain the irritation +of Isménie, and to account for the manner in which she drove Agésilan +to avenge her, as well for her success in procuring for him a skilful +second in Théodate. The duel had been decided upon “in a council held at +the house of Isménie, at which Marcomir and Agésilan were present.” The +preparations for the encounter and the details are less striking and less +romantic in the tale than in the history. The scene in it is faithfully +related, but much abridged in regard to the two principal adversaries; +the intervention of the Duke d’Enghien is more marked. + +“It was agreed that the meeting should take place at two o’clock in the +afternoon, at the Place des Nymphes (Place-Royale). Florizel was to come +with a second, a page, and a lackey; Agésilan and Théodate were to do +the same; the two carriages were to meet before the house of Caliste, +and the coachmen were to beat each other with their whips in order to +pretend that it was a chance fight. Things were conducted according +to arrangement, and the balconies and the windows of the houses were +filled with ladies. Chrysante and Théodate (Bridieu and d’Estrades) were +the first to seize their swords. Chrysante is a gentleman of merit, +brave, and one of the strongest men in the world. He is governor of a +considerable stronghold on the frontier of Belgium. Théodate, in the +first place, gives him a thrust in the body; he at the same time receives +one in the arm. Chrysante, feeling incommoded by the loss of blood, +wished to make use of his strength and to engage closely with Théodate; +he embraced him with both arms, and pressed him with so much violence +that, notwithstanding his great wound, he would have strangled Théodate, +if the latter had not made an effort to withdraw himself from his hands. +It was so great that they both fell to the ground, without a victory on +either side, and were separated immediately by persons of quality who +arrived upon the spot. In the mean time Florizel and Agésilan were both +engaged. Théodate thought it was time to separate them, when he saw the +poor Agésilan stretched upon the ground, disarmed. Florizel leaves him +in order to meet Théodate, and to embrace him and seek his friendship. +He says to him: ‘I am sorry for the sad condition in which you will +find Agésilan. He has quarrelled with me wantonly; I protest to you, +with truth, that I have never offended him.’ Théodate replied briefly +enough to this compliment, being in haste to reach Agésilan, whom he +finds unconscious, by reason of the dissatisfaction occasioned by his +ill-luck,—a dissatisfaction which, in the end, carried him to his grave. +At this moment, Marcomir, and several princes and nobles of the court, +arrived in the Place des Nymphes. Marcomir placed Agésilan and Théodate +in one of his carriages, and gave them an apartment in his hôtel for the +safety of their persons.” + +“Not many days before, the senate had issued a decree against duels, +which condemned to death all those who engaged in them. Amalasonte, +wishing the decree to be executed according to its tenor, ordered the +arrest of Agésilan and Théodate as aggressors, but the proceedings were +less rigorous against Florizel and Chrysante. Marcomir complained loudly, +and the apprehensions which Amalasonte had lest the matter might produce +a civil war—all the court having arranged themselves upon one side or the +other—occasioned a command that the affair should pass for an accidental +encounter, and that the king should issue letters of pardon; which was +done to the satisfaction of all concerned.” + +Here the romance resumes its rights, and, carrying Madame de Longueville +to the bed of the dying Coligny, places in the mouths of both of them +those pathetic speeches which never fail to produce an effect upon +readers less sensible to true art, than to what is touching in situations +of this kind. + +“The wounds which Agésilan had received, grew worse every day. The +surgeons considered them mortal. Théodate did not care for his own. +He was continually by the side of Agésilan, who, feeling his strength +diminishing, said to Théodate: I have one request to make of you, and +that is, that you will compel Isménie to come and see me for the last +time, and that you will be the sole witness to what I have to say to her. +Théodate having been assured by the physicians and surgeons that Agésilan +could not survive the day, hastened to find Isménie, and to persuade her +to come and say adieu to Agésilan, which she did with extreme grief. +As soon as Agésilan saw her, the color returned to his face, and the +emotion occasioned by beholding her whom he loved dearly, gave him the +strength to say: ‘Madame, since I have lost you, I have desired nothing +more than to die in your service. God has heard my prayers. I cannot +be happy so long as I cannot possess you. My passion was too strong to +remain contented in the world. I render you thanks for the goodness with +which you permit me to tell you that I die for you, and glad that I can +no longer trouble your repose.’ And, stretching out his hand to her, he +said, ‘Adieu, my dear Isménie,’ and immediately breathed his last. After +the final adieu of Agésilan which accompanied his last sigh, Isménie +remained some time motionless. Then suddenly she threw herself upon his +body, embraced him, took his hands in hers, moistened them with her +tears, and, in a clear voice, said: ‘Must I survive the most faithful +and sincere lover that the world ever saw! Is this, my dear Agésilan, +the recompense that you should expect from the ungrateful Isménie? Her +alone thou hast loved, and when she abandoned thee, thy despair drove +thee to seek death upon the battle-field, where thy great courage, thy +reputation, and thy great actions rendered thee immortal; and after that +thou comest to breathe thy last before my eyes, and to tell me that thou +hast never known joy since losing me, and that thou dost die contented +since thou canst not possess me!... Receive, dear and faithful friend, +these tears and this endless regret for thy loss, which will pierce my +heart a thousand times each day. Receive the atonement which I make thee +for all my severity and for all the pains which I have caused thee. Ah! +miserable me! what will become of me? Where shall I go? Let me die of +regret and of love. I will quit thee no more; I will remain beside thee.’ +And, embracing him, she kissed his eyes and his face with transports of +tenderness, sufficient to break the heart of any one.” + +But let us bear in mind that all these tender sentiments are poetical +inventions of the author of the novel. To render Madame de Longueville +more touching, she has been represented as sharing the passion which +she inspired. But nothing authorizes us to suppose that she was in love +with Coligny. She loved him as one of the companions of her infancy, as +one of the comrades of her brother, as a gentleman of nearly her own +rank, whose homage she had no reason to reject, and who pleased her by +a persevering and devoted tenderness. She permitted him to sigh for +her, and to declare himself her loyal knight after the Spanish fashion, +according to the principles of Madame de Sablé and of the _précieuses_ +of the hôtel de Rambouillet, who did not forbid men to serve and to +adore them, but in the most respectful fashion. Such were the manners of +this epoch. A gentleman did not pass for a well-bred man if he had not a +mistress, that is, a lady to whom he paid particular homage, and whose +colors he wore at fêtes and on the battle-field. There was not a beauty, +however virtuous, who had not lovers, that is, gentlemen who sighed for +her in truth and honorably. The Duchess d’Aiguillon, presenting her young +nephew, the Duke de Richelieu, to the elder Mademoiselle Du Vigean, +begged her to make an _honnête_ man of him; and to this end she exhorted +the young man seriously to fall in love with the beautiful lady.[269] +Madame de Longueville suffered thus the assiduous attentions of Coligny. +Her coquetry was flattered by them, while neither her virtue nor even her +reputation were sullied. Let us add that she was surrounded by the best +examples. The young Du Vigean, her dearest friend, resisted the conqueror +of Rocroy; Mademoiselle de Brienne was wholly devoted to her husband, +M. de Gamache; Julie de Rambouillet did not hastily yield to the long +passion of Montausier, and Isabelle de Montmorency herself did no more +than listen to the tender propositions of Dandelot. Retz affirms that +the love was all on the side of Coligny, and he says that he was thus +informed by Condé himself; but who is not acquainted with the frivolity +of Retz? Who would wish to rely on his testimony when he is alone, and +in relation to matters in which he has not personally mingled? In 1643, +Retz had hardly the secret of his own intrigues. The well-informed +Madame de Motteville, who, at a later period, will not conceal the fall +of Madame de Longueville, may be believed when she affirms that in +1643,[270] “she had still a great reputation for virtue and prudence,” +and that “she erred only in not hating adoration and praise.” Finally, +we have a decisive testimony, that of La Rochefoucauld. He was at once +the friend of Maulevrier and of Coligny; he was therefore well acquainted +with the whole affair. Now, he who, at a future day, will turn against +Madame de Longueville,—will reveal her weakness, will enlarge her faults, +will strive to blacken her character,—declares that, until a certain +period—at which we have not yet arrived—all those who attempted to +please the sister of Condé, _strove in vain_.[271] After Coligny, the +brave and presumptuous Miossens, afterwards Marshal d’Albret, paid very +assiduous court to Madame de Longueville, and he failed like the others. +She was too young still, and too recently drawn from the habits of her +pure and pious youth; she had not yet reached the age so fatal to the +most virtuous intentions: her hour had not yet come. It came at a later +period, when Madame de Longueville had become better acquainted with +the world and life, and had longer breathed the air of her times; when +her brother had forgotten the chaste grandeur of his first loves; when +the friend who could sustain her, the beautiful and noble Mademoiselle +Du Vigean, was no more beside her; when her husband was at a distance; +when, finally, weary of combating, and more than ever carried away by +wit and heroic appearances, she met a person, still young and handsome, +of great bravery, who passed for a model of chivalrous devotion, who +could skilfully interest her self-love in his ambitious projects, and +seduce her by the attractions of glory. La Rochefoucauld was the first +who touched the soul of Madame de Longueville; he says so, and we believe +him. Their connection commenced a little before or a little after the +embassy of Munster, their intimacy at the close of 1647 or at the +beginning of 1648, and the fulness of their love continued between 1648 +and 1652. In 1643, Madame de Longueville was still occupied with the +noble and graceful gallantry which she saw everywhere in honor, which +she heard celebrated at the hôtel de Rambouillet as well as at the hôtel +de Condé, in the great verses of Corneille and in the trifling verses of +Voiture. She delighted in exhibiting the power of her charms. A thousand +adorers pressed around her. Coligny was perhaps nearest to her heart, +but had not, however, entered it. But one cannot, with impunity, trifle +with love. It will some day cost Madame de Longueville many tears. Its +victim at this time was the eldest of the Châtillons, who perished, in +the flower of his youth, by the hand of the eldest of the Guises, to +avenge her whom he loved. This tragic adventure, quickly spread by all +the echoes of the _salons_, by song and romance, cast a gloom upon the +destiny of Madame de Longueville, and gave her, at an early period, a +fame at once aristocratic and popular, which prepared her wonderfully to +play a great part in that other tragi-comedy, heroic and gallant, called +the Fronde. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +1644 to 1649. + + Campaigns of Condé in Flanders and on the Rhine—Congress + and peace of Munster—Madame de Longueville at Munster—Her + portrait by Van Hull—Her return to France—Her brother, the + Prince de Conti—Sonnets of Voiture and of Benserade—La + Rochefoucauld—Commencement of his connection with Madame de + Longueville—The first Fronde—Noble conduct of Condé—Madame de + Longueville at the hôtel de Ville—Birth of Charles de Paris, + Count de Saint-Paul—Peace of 1649. + + +We have passed over the most truly beautiful period of the youth of +Madame de Longueville, that wherein the splendor of her success was +not at the expense of her virtue. The time approaches in which she is +about to yield to the manners of her age, and to the long combated wants +of her heart. The love which she inspired in others, she is, in turn, +about to feel herself, and to engage her, at the age of twenty-eight or +twenty-nine years, in a fatal connection, which will make her forget +all her duties, and turn her most brilliant qualities against herself, +against her family, and against France. + +In order to measure the fault of Madame de Longueville, it is necessary +to know to what grandeur the house of Condé had reached by its faithful +service of king and country. + +In the history of France, there are no more glorious years than the +first six of the Regency of Anne of Austria and of the government +of Mazarin,—tranquil at home after the defeat of the party of the +Importants, triumphant upon every battle-field, from 1643 to 1649, +from the victory of Rocroy to that of Lens, connected by so many other +victories, and crowned by the treaty of Westphalia. It is the house +of Condé which occupies nearly the whole of this memorable epoch, or +therein, at least, plays the most conspicuous part. In the council, M. +the Prince seconds Mazarin, as he had done Richelieu, and shares with +him the government. The intrepid Brézé, opening the list of the great +admirals of the seventeenth century, holds in check or disperses, in +the Mediterranean, the fleets of Spain. M. de Longueville, charged with +the greatest embassy of the times, places in the diplomatic balance the +weight of his name, of his moderation, and of his magnificence. As to +the young Condé,—who has not read, at least in Bossuet, his campaigns in +Flanders and upon the Rhine? We have shown how valuable to France was the +victory of Rocroy, in 1643; those which followed were not less necessary. + +We have for some time been permitted to speak of Condé as of a young +hero, who owed all his success to the ascendency of an irresistible +courage. Let us beware of making him a paladin of the middle age, or +a brilliant grenadier like such or such a marshal of the empire, or a +captain of the family of Alexander, of Cæsar, and of Napoleon. Like +them, Condé had doubtless a genius for war, and, as well as Alexander, +he excelled especially in execution, and fearlessly exposed his person; +but it seems that the splendor of his bravery had concealed the grandeur +and originality of his conceptions, as his extreme youth, at Rocroy, had +caused a forgetfulness of the fact that for many years he had studied +war with passion, and had already made three campaigns under the most +renowned masters. If this were the proper place, and if I dared to +encounter ridicule by setting myself up as a military man, I would like +to compare the campaigns of Condé, in Flanders and upon the Rhine, with +those of General Bonaparte in Italy. They have many things in common: +the youth of the two generals,[272] that of their principal lieutenants, +the political grandeur of the results, the novelty of the manœuvres, the +same strategy, the same calculations served by the same audacity, by the +same activity, by the same obstinacy. It is degrading the art of war to +measure military success by the number of combatants, for we should thus +make Tamerlane and Gengis-Khan the two greatest captains of the world. + +The general of the army of Italy, like Condé, had little more than twenty +or twenty-five thousand men drawn up in his greatest battles.[273] I +can say to the honor of Condé, that he always had before him the best +troops and the best generals of his times, among others, Mercy, the first +captain of Germany during the seventeenth century.[274] At one time he +had under his command only an army composed of different nations, whose +jealousies, and even defections, betrayed his greatest designs. At +another time he was at the head of fatigued and discouraged troops, whose +whole strength was in himself alone. And then—which is, in my eyes, the +most certain evidence of a great man—he founded an immense school: he +left to France many great generals formed by his lessons, prepared by +his hands, and who, at a great distance from him and after him, gained +victories. To him are we, in a great measure, indebted for Turenne, who, +by seeing his actions at Fribourg and at Nortlingen, added more and more +activity and audacity to his other qualities. We are indebted to him +for Luxembourg and Conti. We are also indebted to him for many others, +who might perhaps have equalled those already mentioned, but whose +bright hopes were too suddenly extinguished, Gèvres, Laval, La Moussaye, +Châtillon. To all this add that magnanimity of a high-born man, who, +instead of attributing the honor of success to himself alone, shared +it with all those who served him well, and took pleasure in praising +Gassion and Sirot after the victory of Rocroy, Turenne after Fribourg and +Nortlingen, and Châtillon after Lens.[275] + +Condé conquered at Rocroy by the very simple manœuvre which we have +pointed out.[276] The problem was, to arrive in the shortest time and +with the greatest force upon the point which was to decide the day. It +was evident that, the left wing of the enemy being dispersed, but his +right wing victorious and threatening to crush all in its way, it was +necessary, at every hazard, to arrest and destroy it. To reach this +in the speediest manner possible, from the height of the battle-field +where Condé was, the most direct road was to make a passage through the +Spanish army, by forcing his last line, and falling afterwards like a +thunderbolt upon the rear of his triumphing wing. If the infantry, whose +overthrow was sought, had been that of the Count de Fontaine, it would +have remained firm, checked Condé, and achieved his destruction; but he +knew that this infantry was a mixture of Italians, Walloons, and Germans: +he hoped, therefore, to succeed by dint of energy. For this reason he +led the charge himself, and performed prodigies of valor with the most +severe calculation. Afterwards, when he was complimented on his courage, +he replied that he had never shown any except when it was necessary. It +is true that heroes alone have audacity at will. He conducted himself +almost in the same manner during the following year, 1644, in his great +combats with Mercy, near Fribourg. Finding it impossible to separate any +of the divisions of the imperial army, which were protected by formidable +intrenchments, he attacked them himself with that French fury to which +every thing yields;[277] at the same time he sent Turenne, during the +night, to a great distance, through frightful gorges, as did Bonaparte +in the marshes of Arcola,[278] to take in flank and rear the hostile +army, which would have been destroyed, if Mercy, warned in season and +confounded by such a manœuvre, had not hastily escaped. In the second +battle of Fribourg, Condé renewed this same manœuvre, sending Turenne to +a still greater distance than before, in order to cut off all retreat for +Mercy, whilst he attacked him in front, and to crush him in his camp or +force him to capitulate. The vigilant Mercy escaped a second time; but +his retreat, admirable as it was, resembled no less a defeat, for he lost +not only the honor of his arms and of the field of battle, but all of his +artillery and a part of his troops. + +In 1645, Mercy and Condé met again. Mercy had just fought with Turenne +at Mariendal. This victory had inflated the courage of the Imperialists, +and the emperor and the King of Bavaria were unwilling to make peace. +Condé, in again taking command of a defeated army, found it, as in the +preceding year, composed of 5000 Weimarians, survivors of the battle of +Mariendal, 4000 Swedes, 6000 Hessians, and 8000 Frenchmen, which he had +with him. With these 23,000 he conceived the plan of the campaign which +was afterwards partly executed by Moreau and completed by Napoleon. He +resolved to risk a great battle with Mercy, and after having routed him, +to march upon Munich and Vienna, and to dictate peace to the emperor +in his capital. This plan failed because Condé was at the head of a +combined army; because the Swedes and the Hessians refused to follow +the French general to such a distance, and because the Swedes even +withdrew. Condé could not expect any aid from France, which was exhausted +in order to send five armies into Spain, into Italy, into Lorraine, +into Flanders, and upon the Rhine. He abandoned therefore his greatest +military conception with sorrow and rage, as did Hannibal when he was +compelled to quit Italy: it was his wish to exterminate the army of +Mercy. The latter, who knew the man with whom he had to deal, had taken a +position quite as strong as that of Fribourg—a position which protected +him against the favorite manœuvres of Condé—to cut off the enemy or +surprise him at a distance in flank or rear. Turenne declared that to +attack an enemy thus intrenched was ruinous; and Napoleon, whom no one +will accuse of timidity, was of the same opinion.[279] Condé replied +as a politician rather than as a military man, that it was in vain to +undertake by any manœuvre to drive Mercy from a position wisely chosen; +that it was necessary, therefore, either to attack him or to retreat, +and that to retreat would shake the confidence of all our allies, after +the defeat of Mariendal and the defection of the Swedes. France was +in need of a victory. Condé gained that of Nortlingen, but he gained +it, thanks to two accidents upon which he had no right to count—thanks +also to the inspiration of a great character. It must be confessed that +in execution Condé was never greater. He saw at once that every thing +depended upon Mercy’s centre. He made it his own business to attack it. +He had one horse slain under him, two wounded, and twenty cuts upon his +arms and clothes. Marsin, who under him commanded the French centre, +was dangerously wounded, and the intrepid La Moussaye was disabled. The +French and the Imperialists, by turns conquerors and conquered, performed +prodigies of valor. It was a frightful butchery. Mercy perished in it. +In the mean time, Jean de Wert, who commanded the left wing, descended +from the height which he occupied, crushed the right wing of the French, +and dispersed our reserve, notwithstanding the efforts of his two chiefs, +Chabot and Arnauld.[280] It would have been fatal to the whole army, +if, instead of amusing himself with pursuing the flying and pillaging +the baggage, Jean de Wert had thrown himself upon the rear of our +half-destroyed centre, and pressed our left wing between his victorious +squadrons and the still entire division of General Gleen. This error, and +the death of Mercy, saved Condé, because he knew how to profit by them +with incomparable promptitude. He saw that, after having lost his right +wing, his reserve, and a great part of his centre, to try to retreat +with his left wing was an operation apparently prudent, but really rash, +before an enemy which had still great masses of infantry, much artillery, +and a redoubtable cavalry; he saw that it was better to maintain the +combat, and that by exposing himself to peril, he might possibly conquer. +This rapid glance of a strong mind, which seizes and embraces the only +means of safety, however perilous it may be, is the characteristic of +the genius of Condé. All wounded as he was, harassed with fatigue, but +drawing new vigor from the grandeur of his resolution, he places himself +at the head of the left wing of Turenne, dashes, as if in the very +beginning of the battle, upon the right wing of the enemy, plunges into +its midst, and makes prisoner of its commander; then, turning to the +right, he throws himself upon the centre of the Imperialists, rescues +his own, rallies it, leads it anew to the combat, and, master of the +battle-field, prepares himself to meet Jean de Wert, who, returning from +his useless pursuit, learning the death of Mercy[281] and the capture +of Gleen, amazed at the disaster produced by his absence, dares neither +to attack nor to await Condé, but gathers together his shattered army, +and flies to Donauwerth. Condé had, in this second combat, another +horse killed under him; he also received a pistol-shot, and indeed +barely survived his victory. It was at this time that he suffered from +that severe sickness, on recovery from which he found that he had lost +with his blood and his strength all his passion for Mademoiselle Du +Vigean.[282] + +Condé is one of the small number of captains who have no less excelled +in the art of besieging than in that of combating.[283] After Rocroy, +in 1643, he took Thionville, one of the first fortified places of the +times. In 1644, he took Philipsbourg, which commanded the upper Rhine. In +1646, having had the wisdom to consent to serve under the Duke d’Orleans, +in order to quiet the distrust and please the vanity of this prince; +and although placed in command of the army only at the close of the +campaign, he terminated it by a memorable siege, in which he covered +himself with glory: he took Dunkirk on the 11th of October,[284] 1646. + +Accustomed to repair the errors of others, Condé went, in 1647, to +take the place of Count d’Harcourt, who had just made a failure before +Lerida. Mazarin had wished, several times, to send Condé to Catalonia; +his father, M. the Prince, had always opposed it, and all his friends +dissuaded him from accepting this command. He certainly showed great +deference for Mazarin, by quitting the ordinary theatre of his exploits +for a country where it was necessary to engage in a petty war, with +an army incapable of giving battle, and, at most, fit only to sustain +itself before the enemy. When every one was making sport of the Count +d’Harcourt, who had been unable to take Lerida, Condé had the good sense +and generosity to defend this excellent general: he thus in advance +defended himself. In fact, having arrived in his turn before Lerida, and +receiving from France neither the troops which had been promised to him, +nor the munitions and artillery, of which he was in absolute need, and +not having sufficient force to meet the Spanish army, and not being able +to think of assaulting Lerida with a handful of half-dead soldiers, he +had the courage to raise the siege and to make a good retreat, preferring +the safety of the army to his own reputation. This conduct, sustained +by his accustomed hauteur, did him the greatest honor, and proved that +he was master of himself and knew how to employ by turns prudence or +audacity according as circumstances demanded. + +Thus, at Lens in 1648, finding the Archduke Léopold in a position as +formidable as that of Mercy at Nortlingen, he saw that it would be highly +imprudent to tempt fortune a second time; and, knowing that he had not +now to deal with Mercy, he undertook to draw the Archduke Léopold and +General Beck upon more favorable ground, in a plain where the principal +force of the French army, the gendarmery, commanded by Châtillon, might +have a great advantage. Numbers, abundance, and discipline were on the +side of the Spaniards; misery and audacity on that of the French. Behind +the centre of the archduke were towns and hamlets, forming natural +intrenchments. His right, composed of all that remained of the old +national bands, rested upon the city of Lens. His left wing was posted +upon an eminence, which could not be reached except through the most +narrow paths. It was necessary to manœuvre with infinite art to induce an +enemy to abandon such an impregnable position. Condé commanded a false +retreat, which explained perfectly the weakness of the French army. Beck, +deceived, detached the Lorraine cavalry to disturb, and, if possible, to +cut in pieces our rear guard, which was promptly enough broken and thrown +into confusion. Châtillon marched to their aid with his gendarmery; +he drove back the Lorraine troops, and threatened them with slaughter. +They could not be abandoned. The archduke sent all his cavalry to their +assistance. The combat began; the whole of the hostile army moved and +descended into the plain. This was precisely what Condé desired. The +very same manœuvre that had failed at Nortlingen, succeeded at Lens. The +imperial army had still the immense disadvantage of being obliged to form +as it advanced, while the French army had been since morning arranged in +good order at the extremity of the plain, upon well-chosen ground. Condé +relied especially upon the gendarmery of Châtillon; he had recalled it +soon after the first engagement, and had placed it in the second line to +give it time to refresh; afterwards, when the two contending bodies had +become closely engaged, he let it loose again with its intrepid general, +and, after being so useful at the beginning of the fight, it finally +decided it by over-throwing every thing in its way. The Spanish infantry +remained; it did not show the same obstinacy as at Rocroy, but it cried +for life. Old General Beck conducted himself like Fontaine and Mercy: +he fought like a lion, was wounded and taken, and he died of despair. +The Archduke Léopold, after conducting himself well, escaped into the +Pays-Bas with the Count de Fuensaldaigne. + +The victory of Lens was as important and as useful as that of Rocroy: +to it is due the recommencement of the negotiations of Munster and the +conclusion of the treaty of Westphalia. This treaty was the result of the +five great campaigns of Condé in Flanders and on the Rhine. Condé was +there an armed negotiator, as we might say; M. de Longueville was, at +Munster, a pacific negotiator. + +Father Bougeant, in his estimable history of the treaty of +Westphalia,[285] supposes that Mazarin sent the Duke de Longueville to +Munster, “in order to remove from the court a prince capable of exciting +troubles in it.” But, in 1645, Mazarin had no more troubles to fear, and +the Duke de Longueville was not a man to create them: he suffered himself +to be guided at that time, as well as the rest of his family, by the +policy of its chief, M. the Prince. It is much easier to believe that it +was the latter who gave the embassy of Munster to his son-in-law. Mazarin +had not chosen him for his capacity, although he was not deficient in it, +but to aid d’Avaux and Servien, who stood in need of him, and to give +éclat to the French legation. He remained master of the negotiations, +and the Condés must have been flattered to be at the head of the most +important diplomatic affair, having already command of the fleet in the +Mediterranean, and of the army upon the Rhine. + +M. de Longueville had to pursue the great object at which the French +cabinet had aimed from the time of Henry IV.,—the enfeebling of the +empire to the advantage of France. With this view it was that the +very Christian king, the Cardinal Richelieu, and the Cardinal Mazarin +united with the Protestant Gustavus Adolphus, drew him into the heart +of Germany, him and after him his lieutenants, and sustained Protestant +Holland against Catholic Spain. This struggle, which, for thirty years, +was carried on with so much éclat, continued for more than twelve years +at Osnabrück and at Munster. On the one side were Austria, Spain, and +Bavaria, with the ecclesiastical electors of Mayence and of Cologne; +on the other, the Protestant powers, Brandenburg, Saxony, Hesse, with +their allies, Holland, Sweden, and France. The Protestant party wished +to obtain the greatest concessions, and the Catholic party to make the +fewest possible. They advanced and receded according to the vicissitudes +of war. Richelieu had designated the man, who had all his confidence, +Mazarin and the Count d’Avaux, of the powerful family of Messne, to +represent France at Munster. When Mazarin succeeded Richelieu in the +ministry, he named in his own place Count Abel Servien, uncle of the +skilful and judicious Lyonne, who was to him what he had himself been to +Richelieu. He retained d’Avaux, who had wit and penetration, uprightness +and nobleness, with a degree of piety which made him acceptable to the +Catholic powers, but which carried him a little too far to make him +accommodating with them, and at the same time more anxious for the +advantage of the Church than policy demanded. Servien alone was the +depository of the thoughts of Mazarin, and Mazarin, like his predecessor, +knew but one interest, that of the greatness of France. He was desirous +of obtaining from the empire the whole of Alsace, with some strongholds +upon the Rhine, in order to complete the legitimate development of +France in that quarter. He had still another ambition, which Richelieu +had bequeathed to him, and which he bequeathed to Lyonne: it was that +of tearing from Spain the trade of Catalonia, where Richelieu and +himself had cunningly carried the war against the Low Countries, without +which France has really no northern frontier, and is exposed, after +an unfortunate battle, to the passage of a hostile army even to the +very walls of Paris. Such were the thoughts which occupied the mind of +Mazarin, and which he pursued at once, by means of negotiations and by +arms, with the mildness and constancy which characterized this great +statesman. + +M. de Longueville arrived at Munster on the 30th of June, 1645, at nearly +the same time that his brother-in-law, the Duke d’Enghien, was going +to take command of the army of the Rhine, in the place of Turenne, who +had just suffered a very grave defeat at Mariendal. The victory of +Nortlingen, of the 5th of August, 1645, gave the greatest strength to M. +de Longueville; and the Duke of Bavaria, the second Catholic power of +Germany, who had broken off negotiations after the battle of Mariendal, +recommenced them eagerly after that of Nortlingen. The cession of Alsace +was then almost gained; but victorious Mazarin could with difficulty +renounce the hope which he had long entertained of acquiring the Low +Countries from Spain in exchange for Catalonia. Therein resided all the +difficulty of the negotiations, the knot which no skill could loosen, and +which the sword alone could cut. It was reserved for Louis XIV., at the +close of the seventeenth century, after having lost the three statesmen +who, for a long time, formed his strength and his glory, Mazarin, +Lyonne, and Colbert; it was reserved for him to abandon the schemes +of his predecessors, and, when it was proposed that he should receive +the Low Countries in return for his rights over Spain, to reject this +favor of fortune, which Mazarin and Richelieu would have embraced with +transports of joy; this he did for the sake of family interest, staking +his own crown for the sake of placing one upon the head of his grandson, +and jeopardizing the safety of France without giving to it, even for a +quarter of a century, the alliance of Spain. We may remark in passing, +that this incredible resolution, poorly covered with an appearance of +grandeur, and the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, are the two great +personal inspirations of Louis XIV.: they determine his policy, internal +and external, compared with that of Mazarin, of Richelieu, and of Henri +IV. It is impossible to recount all the efforts made by Mazarin, in +1648, to induce Spain to yield to him the Low Countries. He offered, +with all Catalonia, the young Louis XIV. for the infanta Maria-Thérissa. +At the same time he sent d’Estrades, with whom we have before become +acquainted,[286] into Holland, in order to promote the arrangement which +he so ardently desired: he went even so far as to propose Antwerp to the +commerce of Holland. It was a powerful temptation; but Holland resisted +it; she was weary of a war which must thus be prolonged; and besides, +she was beginning to be less afraid of Spain, and was hoping a great +advantage by acquiring a conquering neighbor instead of a feeble one. +Spain, on her side, saw our horizon darkened with new troubles, and, full +of hope, she broke off negotiations, made a separate treaty with Holland, +and persuaded the emperor to unite with her in a last and powerful +effort. One man alone was able to save France, menaced as it was in +1643. This man was the conqueror of Rocroy. It was then that Condé, who +was well acquainted with the position of affairs, engaged, upon the +plains of Lens, on the 20th of August, 1648, in the memorable battle +which we have described, in which he was as prudent as ever Turenne had +been, and as bold as his own genius and circumstances permitted. From +this moment negotiations were conducted with promptness. On the 24th of +October, 1648, was signed, at Munster, the Treaty of Westphalia, which +gave peace to Germany for a century, which there strengthened religious +liberty, and which acknowledged all the conquests of France over the +empire.[287] + +Thanks to this treaty, Mazarin had now Spain alone in view, and he hoped +soon to bring it to that point which could give to France a frontier on +the north similar to that which it had just acquired on the south of +Germany. He dreamed of obtaining, at the close of a few more fortunate +campaigns, a treaty still more favorable than that of the Pyrenees, in +1660. He had in his hands the conqueror of Lens, whom he hoped to launch +upon the Low Countries; it was in his power to send into Spain and into +Italy, generals still superior to d’Harcourt and to Schomberg; he hoped +to maintain or re-enkindle the insurrection of Naples: a magnificent +future was before France. Who deprived her of this future? Who divided +and exhausted her strength? Who made her, with a suicidal hand, shed +her own best blood? Who sowed discord among the most illustrious of her +captains? Who arrested Condé in his course, at the age of twenty-seven +years, when he might yet have added so many victories to all those of his +youth, when he might have planted the standard of France in Brussels or +in Madrid? + +The Fronde it was that committed the inexpiable crime of having stopped +the rise of Condé and of French grandeur. And, in return, did it +increase and develop our old national franchises? Far from that: by +an inevitable reaction, it disgusted France, for a long time, with an +anarchical liberty, incompatible with public order, with the force of the +government and of the nation; it took away from royalty every species of +counterpoise; it produced the despotism, at first intelligent and useful, +afterwards improvident and grievous, of Louis XIV. + +And now, what gave birth to the Fronde, or what sustained it? What +raised up the old party of the _Importants_, stifled, it would seem, +under the laurels of Rocroy? What separated the princes of the blood +from the crown? What turned against the throne that illustrious house of +Condé, which, until then, had been its buckler and its sword? There were +doubtless many general causes for all this; but it is impossible for us +to conceal one, private, it is true, but which exercised a powerful and +deplorable influence—the unexpected love of Madame de Longueville for one +of the chiefs of the _Importants_, who had become one of the chiefs of +the Fronde. Yes—I say it with regret—it was Madame de Longueville, who, +joining the party of the malcontents, attracted thereto, at first, a part +of her family, then her whole family, and thus precipitated it from the +pinnacle of honor and glory to which so many services had elevated it. + +Let us narrate, as rapidly as possible, what we know of Madame de +Longueville, from the moment that we left her until the commencement of +the year 1648. + +No authentic documents, printed or in manuscript, authorize us to suppose +that before the close of the year 1647, Madame de Longueville had ever +passed the limits of fashionable gallantry. On the 4th of February, 1644, +soon after the adventure of the letters, and of the tragic quarrel which +followed it, she gave birth to a daughter, who received the name of her +mother and of her brother, Charlotte Louise, Mademoiselle de Dunois, +and who died on the 30th of April,[288] 1645. A year after, the 12th of +January, 1646, she had a son, Charles d’Orleans, Count de Dunois, who was +expected to succeed to the titles of his father, but who, ill-favored by +nature, attempted, without success, various careers, and finally buried +himself in the Church, at the close of the century, under the name of +the Abbé d’Orleans. In 1647, she gave birth to a second daughter, Marie +Gabrielle, who died in 1650. We shall presently speak of the last son, +who was born during the Fronde. + +Madame de Longueville was twenty-five years of age at the time of the +duel between Coligny and Guise, in 1644. Each year only added to her +charms. The glory of her brother fell upon her, and she responded to it +somewhat by her own success at court and in the _salons_. She acquired +more and more the manners of the times. Coquetry and wit formed all her +occupation. Her delicate situation not permitting her to accompany M. +de Longueville to Munster, in June, 1645, she remained in Paris; she +enjoyed it very much, and, whether her heart had already been touched, +or whether it was still entirely free, it is clear that she was not +very glad, after her confinement, in 1646, to join, under the sky of +Westphalia, a husband who was not, as Retz says, the most agreeable man +to her in the world.[289] Imagine, in fact, this spoiled child of the +hôtel de Rambouillet leaving Corneille and Voiture, all the elegances +and refinements of life, to go to Munster, to listen to the German or +Latin conversations of foreign diplomatists. It was to her a double +exile, for her country was not only France, it was Paris, it was the +court, it was the hôtel de Condé, Chantilly, the Place-Royale, the Rue +Saint-Thomas du Louvre. It was, however, necessary to obey, and to set +off with her step-daughter, Mademoiselle de Longueville, who was already +more than twenty years of age. In order to have something of Paris, she +took with her several men of letters, and among others, Claude Joly, +uncle of Guy Joly, author of the _Mémoires_, canon of Nôtre-Dame, who +remained all his life attached to the Condés, and who made himself +known by different works full of learning and of merit;[290] also the +academician and oratorian Esprit, one of the frequenters of the hôtel +de Rambouillet,[291] who had just been embroiled with the Chancellor +Séguier, for having favored the marriage of his daughter, the Marchioness +de Coislin, with the son of Madame de Sablé, the handsome and brave +Marquis de Laval, who was killed some time after, by the side of Condé, +at the siege of Dunkirk. A little before her departure for Munster, +Esprit had introduced to Madame de Longueville one of the old favorite +poets of Richelieu, Bois-Robert, who had continued to be dazzled with +the new éclat of her whom he had formerly admired amid the fêtes of +Ruel. It was in the following terms that Bois-Robert relates to Esprit +his visit, and describes to him Madame de Longueville. The verses are +mediocre, but we must be satisfied, for they hold the place of an +infinite number of other verses, which we might with propriety quote, +in regard to the same person and the same epoch, and which are still +worse:[292] + + Almost conceal’d beneath the crystal wave, + She raised her naked arms her brow to lave. + My eyes the living marble haply spied; + To test its warmth my glowing bosom sigh’d. + The sprightly zephyrs in a merry mood + Her tresses bore along the silvery flood; + They kiss’d her neck, they kiss’d her cheeks, whose hues + Gay Nature when she paints but seldom woos— + A neck and cheeks that verily might claim + To put the fairest flowers of Spring to shame. + With fingers, rosy as Aurora plies, + The moisture dashing from her fretted eyes, + She now reveal’d, as ne’er reveal’d before, + Those two resplendent suns which to adore + I dropp’d my eyes, because my feeble sight + Could not endure such dazzling floods of light; + And in one living form I saw combined + All ever seen of beauty most refined: + But how her coral lips shall I extol? + Oh how express the rapture of my soul, + When to the charms which bade me most rejoice, + She added too the music of her voice? etc. + +Madame de Longueville left Paris on the 20th of June, 1646, accompanied +by her step-daughter, and with a numerous escort under the command of +Montigny, lieutenant of the guards of M. de Longueville. The whole +journey from Paris to Munster was a continual ovation. Her course may +be followed day by day, and from city to city, thanks to the detailed +narrative of Claude Joly. Belgians, Hollanders, Spaniards, Imperialists, +and every one strove to show their gallantry to the beautiful +ambassadress. Governors went out to meet her at the heads of their +garrisons. The keys of the cities through which she passed were offered +to her. She had continual escorts of cavalry. The Duke de Longueville +went as far as Wesel to meet her. Turenne, who then commanded upon the +Rhine, exhibited to her his army drawn up in order of battle. Was it then +that the great captain, well known to be sensible to beauty, received +the impression which was renewed at Sténay in 1650, and which, prudently +preserved by Madame de Longueville, always formed between them a tender +and intimate connection?[293] + +On the 22d of July she made a triumphal entry into Munster. Holland was +too near to her not to tempt her curiosity. She took a walk thither, if +we may thus speak.[294] During all the autumn of 1646 and the winter of +1647, she was truly the queen of the congress of Munster. Her graces +made their impression upon diplomatists as well as upon warriors. She +connected herself particularly, in the French embassy, with Claude de +Mesmes, Count d’Avaux, of whom we have already spoken, and who was the +friend and correspondent of Voiture, of Madame de Sablé, and of Madame +de Rambouillet. We have before us some manuscript letters of d’Avaux to +Voiture: they are very agreeable, but not very natural; and, amid Latin +quotations, then very fashionable among people who prided themselves upon +their erudition, they show us what an impression was made by Madame de +Longueville upon the dean of our diplomatic corps. She did not appear +very melancholy to d’Avaux; but the rival of Servien was perhaps better +fitted to discover cabinet intrigues than to read the heart of a woman. + +“It is to[295] Madame de Montausier and to Madame the Marchioness de +Sablé that I am indebted for the favors which I have received from Madame +de Longueville.... You say that commerce is dangerous with a person so +well made, as if the great disproportion and the great distance between +those persons and such as myself did not shelter me. You know that the +eloquence of Balzac makes no impression upon the mind of a peasant. No, +no, I am not afraid. It would be strange enough if in a peaceful assembly +I had not sufficient public faith for my preservation, and if, with the +passports of the emperor and of the king of Spain, Munster should not +be a safe place for me.... I look however, I do not pluck out my eyes. +I see beauty greater than I have ever seen before; I see all of what is +graceful and charming that can be united, and a something which, it seems +to me, can nowhere else be found, with so much majesty: + + Video igne micantes, + Sideribus similes oculos, video oscula, sed quæ + Est vidisse satis. + +I admire with you that goodness, that generosity, and those amiable +qualities which we shall always vie in praising, but which we can +never praise enough. The correctness of that mind, its strength and +its extent, astonish me also, and sometimes displease me with myself; +for there is in it so much that is extraordinary and above the age and +the sex. Suppose that I was made of stuff as combustible as you,[296] +who still complain of the trials of youth, how small a spark would set +me in a blaze! A _précieuse_, who has travelled two hundred leagues +to join an old husband, who has quitted the court for Westphalia, who +is here in continual gayety, who was lately delighted to see a comedy +among the Jesuits (truly, however, in good Latin), who gives constrained +audiences, who converses pleasantly with M. Salvius, M. Vulteius, and M. +Lampadius,[297] who is not frightened if a big Hollander kisses her twice +during his regular daily visits, who receives agreeably the civility of +another ambassador counselling him to learn German for his recreation, +who with all this preserves her embonpoint and pleasant countenance....” + +“... I must indeed revenge myself a little now. Some complaints are +made here of your taciturnity; but they are uttered by persons of no +very great consequence: by no one in fact but Madame de Longueville, +and she is hardly worth speaking of. She has paid you some very +great compliments; her friends have received orders to solicit your +remembrance; she has requested them several times to let her lose nothing +in the friendship which you promised her; in short, she has sent you word +that she was not proof against such continued indifference, and yet she +receives no satisfaction. This is perhaps, as you say, because commerce +is dangerous with her, and you yourself take the advice which you give +me; but the poor princess cannot be consoled.... Although you were a +perfect philosopher, and although you had lost sentiment and life, you +should at least speak when Madame de Longueville looks at you, even as +did the statue of Memnon when it was illumined by the rays of the sun. +If you continue, I doubt not that you will be set down as a mute. Give +your orders, if you please. All that I could do for you was to answer +your letter to M. the Duke d’Enghien.[298] Madame, his sister, read it +with great pleasure; and, M. Esprit entering the room a quarter of an +hour afterwards, she was very glad to have another pretext for seeing +it again, and left her seat to hear it read once more. This is not all: +she requested me to send it to her the next day, with the promise that +she would take but a single copy to place among her papers. I will not +tell you how much she thinks of it; but will content myself with simply +confessing, that it is one of the most delightful things in the world, to +see this mouth filled with your praises, and that your name is nowhere +more magnificently entertained....” + +Voiture is not in arrears with his ingenious correspondent on the account +of Madame de Longueville: + +“... I am very impatient to witness the return of Madame de Longueville +after the conclusion of a good peace. What you say to me of this princess +is as beautiful as she is herself, and I shall keep it for her to look +at some day.... Tell the truth, my lord: do you think it is possible +to find, I do not mean in a single person, but in every thing that is +beautiful and lovely throughout the world—do you think it is possible +to find so much wit, grace, and charm as there is in this princess? Be +on your guard. She writes to us wonderful things concerning you, and of +the friendship that exists between you. Commerce is dangerous with her. +I assure you besides, that she is as good as she is beautiful, and that +there is no soul in the world more lofty or better than hers....” + +A little while after, January 9, 1647, he says: + +“... Respect has hitherto prevented me from writing to Madame de +Longueville; but you make me much more afraid of her by representing her +to me as being so serious and so occupied with politics. We take great +pleasure in imagining her entertaining M. Lampadius (he is said to be +dressed ordinarily in violet satin), M. Vulteius, and M. Salvius, and +especially that big Hollander. + + ‘Dulcia barbarè + Lædentem oscula quæ Venus + Quinta parte sui nectaris imbuit.’ + +“His advice to her to study German for her amusement, has been a subject +of great mirth for Madame de Sablé and Madame de Montausier....”[299] + +Among the monuments of the abode of Madame de Longueville at Munster, +we must place the portrait which was made of her by Anselme Van Hull, +and which was engraved with those of M. de Longueville, of d’Avaux, +and of Servien, in the collection of portraits of all the princes and +diplomatists assembled at Munster.[300] It is a bust. Even in the +engraving, mediocre as it is, we perceive the charming softness of the +eyes. A mass of blonde hair surrounds her face.[301] Her bosom, partly +exposed, appears in its modest beauty. A small collar of pearls adorns a +fresh and delicate neck. The following lines, written perhaps by d’Avaux +or Voiture, are placed beneath the portrait: + + These heroes gather’d in Westphalia, + From France, the North, from Spain, Italia, + Finding so many charms in me, + Fancy, as my face they see, + That I the living form must be + Of Peace and Concord, hither sent, + War’s dire misfortunes to prevent. + +In the mean time, all the circles of Paris mourned the absence of Madame +de Longueville. Godeau did not cease to urge her return in the name of +the hôtel de Rambouillet: + +“Is it not better, madame,” wrote he to her, “that you should return +to the hôtel de Longueville, where you are still more powerful than at +Munster? Every one is wishing it this winter. My lord, your brother, has +returned covered with palms; come back yourself crowned with the myrtles +of peace, for it seems to me that it is not enough for you to carry olive +branches alone. I dare not explain myself farther, lest I should be +guilty of gallantry. This I leave to the Julies and to the Chapelains, +etc.”[302] + +She had enjoyed sufficiently her brilliant exile, but, with her habitual +politeness and sweetness, she dissembled her weariness. In the winter of +1647, she had two reasons for returning to France. Her father, M. the +Prince, died at the close of December, 1646: this was an immense loss to +his family and to France, and its consequences were soon keenly felt. In +addition to this, Madame de Longueville had, for the third time, found +herself _enceinte_ at Munster. Her mother was, for this reason, anxious +to have her at home; and M. de Longueville was constrained to permit his +wife to take the road to Paris. + +Her return to France—first to Chantilly, then to Paris—in the month of +May, 1647, was a very different triumph from that which characterized +her journey upon the Rhine, and into Holland, and her abode at Munster. +She found the crowd of her adorers more numerous and more eager than +ever; and in the first rank was her brother, the Prince de Conti, who, +fresh from college, was taking his first lessons in the world. Let us say +a word in regard to this new personage, who now appears for the first +time, and who will play a very conspicuous part in the life of Madame de +Longueville. + +Armand de Bourbon, Prince de Conti, who was born in 1629, was eighteen +years of age in 1647. He had a good mind, and not an unpleasant face; +but a slight deformity and a certain feebleness of body, rendering +him unfit for the army, he was early destined for the Church. He had +studied among the Jesuits at the college of Clermont, with Molière, +and M. the Prince, before his death, had obtained for him the richest +benefices,[303] and demanded a cardinal’s hat. While waiting for this +hat, Armand de Bourbon was living at the hôtel de Condé, partly an +ecclesiastic, partly a man of the world, all occupied with wit, and +greedy of every species of success. The glory of his brother filled +him with emulation, and he dreamed himself of warlike exploits. When +his sister returned from Germany, he went to meet her, and, dazzled by +her beauty, her grace, and her fame, he began to love her rather as +a gallant than as a brother.[304] He followed her blindly in all her +adventures, in which he exhibited as much courage as lightness. When he +had made his peace with the court—thanks to his marriage with a niece of +Mazarin, the beautiful and virtuous Anne-Marie Martinozzi—he obtained +the command-in-chief of the army of Catalonia, in which capacity he +acquitted himself with great honor. He was much less successful in Italy. +On the whole, he was far from injuring his name, and he gave to France, +in the person of his young son, a true warrior, one of the best pupils +of Condé, one of the last eminent generals of the seventeenth century. +Constrained, through ill-health, to betake himself again to religion, the +Prince de Conti finished, where he had begun, with theology. He composed +several meritorious and learned works on various religious subjects.[305] +In 1647, he was entirely devoted to vanity and pleasures. He adored his +sister, and she exercised over him a somewhat ridiculous empire, which +continued during several years. + +The court and Paris were then occupied with festivals and enjoyments, +which all were eager to share with Madame de Longueville. To please the +queen, Mazarin multiplied the balls and the operas. At a great expense +he sent to Italy for artists, singers, male and female, who represented +an opera of _Orpheus_, the machinery and decorations of which are said +to have cost more than 400,000 livres. The queen delighted in these +spectacles. France also, as if touched with its own grandeur, took +pleasure in the magnificence of its government, and seconded it by +redoubling its own luxury and elegance. The pleasures of wit occupied +the first rank. The hôtel de Rambouillet, near its decline, was shedding +its last rays. Madame de Longueville reigned there as well as in all the +circles of Paris; and, it must be confessed, with her good qualities +she had also the defects of the best _précieuses_. The following is the +picture which Madame de Motteville has traced[306] of her person, of the +turn of her mind, of her occupations, of her credit, and of that of the +whole house of Condé, at this period, which may be considered as the +most brilliant of her life: “This princess, who, during her absence, +reigned in her family, and whose approbation was sought as if she were +a true sovereign, did not fail, on her return to Paris, to appear in +greater splendor than when she left it. The friendship entertained for +her by the prince, her brother, authorizing her actions and her manners, +the greatness of her beauty and of her mind increased so much the cabal +of her family, that she was not long at court without almost entirely +engrossing it. She became the object of all desires: her clique was +the centre of all intrigues, and those whom she loved became also the +favorites of fortune.... Her intelligence, her wit, and the high opinion +entertained for her discernment, won for her the admiration of all good +people, who were persuaded that her esteem alone was enough to give +them reputation. If, in this way, she governed souls, she was not less +successful by means of her beauty; for, although she had suffered with +the small-pox since the Regency, and although she had lost somewhat of +the perfection of her complexion, the splendor of her charms exerted a +powerful influence upon those who saw her; and she possessed especially, +in the highest degree, what, in the Spanish language, is expressed by +those words, _donayre, brio, y bizarrie_ (gallant air). She had an +admirable form, and her person possessed a charm whose power extended +over our own sex. It was impossible to see her without loving her, and +without desiring to please her. Her beauty consisted, however, more in +the colors of her face than in the perfection of her features. Her eyes +were not large, but beautiful, soft and brilliant, and their blue was +admirable: it was like that of the turquoise. Poets could compare the +incarnation upon her face to lilies and roses only; and the light shining +hair which accompanied so many wonderful things, made her more like an +angel, such as our poor nature can imagine one, than like a woman.... She +was then too much engrossed with her own sentiments, which passed for +infallible rules while they were not always so, and there was too much +affectation in her manner of speaking and acting, whose greatest beauty +was attributable to delicacy of thought and correctness of reasoning. +She appeared constrained, and the fine raillery, exercised by herself +and her courtiers, often fell upon those who, while rendering her their +homage, felt, to their mortification, that honest sincerity, which ought +to be observed in polite society, was apparently banished from hers. The +virtues and praiseworthy qualities of the most excellent creatures are +mingled with things which are opposed to them: all men partake of this +clay from which they draw their origin, and God alone is perfect.... In +fine, it may be said that at this time all greatness, all glory, and all +gallantry were confined to this family of Bourbon, of which M. the Prince +was the chief, and that fortune was not considered a desirable thing, if +it did not come from their hands.” + +It was about this time that the two sonnets of Voiture and of Benserade +divided the court and the city, the _salons_ and the academy. Almost all +the documents appertaining to this little literary contest have been +preserved;[307] but we have discovered some hitherto unknown, which we +cannot withhold from the reader, because they show the passion which then +existed for literary matters, the ascendency of Madame de Longueville, +and the peculiar delicacy of her taste. + +Voiture had just died in 1648, and his friends had caught, as the last +sigh of his muse, the sonnet to Uranie. At the same time another sonnet +appeared, written by one of the rivals of Voiture, younger than himself, +and who had not been formed at the hôtel de Rambouillet: it was the +complaint of a lover who pretended to be more miserable than Job, because +Job could at least groan aloud on account of his misfortune, whilst the +poor lover was compelled to suffer in silence: + + Job, whom a thousand torments grieve, + Shall to your eyes his torture prove; + And yet with reason shall believe + That they will not your pity move. + + Regard his ills in every light, + Feel every word as he explains: + You grow accustomed to the sight + Of one who suffers and complains. + + Although his anguish was extreme, + Yet human patience you will deem + To have e’en his by far outdone. + He suffer’d pangs past all belief, + Complain’d, and told them one by one, + But I have known far greater grief.[308] + +All the fashionable lovers of the day, the languishing and the dying, +admired this description of their martyrdom, the height of sorrow being +to suffer without complaining; and it is certain that the close of the +sonnet of Benserade is neither without spirit nor without charm. It +created a furor. The sonnet of Voiture was of a very different character. +It possessed a finished elegance, somewhat feeble it is true, but +elevated and animated by a certain passionate accent, which is sweetly +felt throughout it. It was of a more distinguished and more rare quality, +and for this reason it had at first less success. Balzac[309] composed +upon these two pieces a formal dissertation, in which he weighs in the +balance of the most scrupulous criticism the merits and the defects of +both. Corneille, annoyed by a quarrel which turned attention a little +too much from his own works, began to make sport of the two sonnets; +afterwards, the affair acquiring more and more literary interest, he +engaged in it himself, and took sides with Job against Uranie, in a +sonnet in which he does not hesitate to say that Voiture’s is doubtless +_better conceived, better conducted, better finished, but that he would +prefer to be the author of the other_. He returns to the charge in an +epigram which terminates as follows: + + The one displays more art, the other much more life; + The one is more precise, the other much more _naïf_; + The one shows labor long, the other much more sprite: + In short, the one is right well made, the other pretty, quite. + To use the fewest words I can— + The one springs from a soul polite, + The other from a gallant man.[310] + +This was a very imposing judgment, and, to all appearance, there was +little hope for Voiture, when Madame de Longueville undertook his +defence. Her situation was somewhat embarrassing. Her brother, the +Prince de Conti, was at the head of the Jobelins, and Esprit, who had +accompanied her to Munster, and on whom she might have depended upon any +occasion, Esprit, who, without ceasing to be of the Church, was occupied +with the most gallant literature, as he will at a future day be occupied +with sentences and maxims, had written very warmly in favor of Benserade. +But Madame de Longueville was not the person to take the lucky side and +to abandon her old friend Voiture. Her authority soon changed the face of +the combat. + +In the camp of the Jobelins was the Countess de Brégy, one of the +ladies of honor of Queen Anne, and wife of a famous ambassador, from +whom we have a collection[311] of prose and verse, and some _questions +d’amour_, to which Quinault replied by order of the young king. She was +much surprised to learn that Madame de Longueville preferred to the +universally applauded sonnet a piece of verse which had not produced a +very great effect. She hastened to write to her, asking permission to +maintain her own opinion against hers. The following is her letter, with +the diplomatic reply of the ambassadress of Munster.[312] + +_Madame de Brégy to Madame de Longueville._ + + “Job, in ages past, was scarcely less humiliated than I now am + to find myself opposed to the opinion of Your Highness; for if + I had not enough sense to conform myself to it, my spirit of + divination ought to serve the other in this encounter, and not + permit him to endure the shame of seeing himself opposed to + sentiments which I have regarded as a rule by which one could + never fail. But, since I have taken up the cause of Job, more + unfortunate because he suffers at your hands than on account + of all his first evils, be pleased, Madame, to allow me an + opportunity on Thursday evening to defend an unhappy person, + against whom the devil has cunningly excited your persecution, + as the only means of divesting him of that patience which he + has exhibited for so many ages, and which cannot be preserved + when one is despised by you.” + +_Madame de Longueville[313] to Madame de Brégy._ + + “Your letter has done more for the sonnet of Job than Benserade + himself; and it occasions me so much regret at not entertaining + sentiments conformed to those of the person who wrote it, that, + if it does not make me alter, it makes me at least condemn + my own, thus obtaining from me a preference for Job, which I + should have always refused so long as the sonnet had spoken for + itself. This, I think, is all that a generous person can do for + a party to which she does not belong; and I assure you that if + yours is not that of my choice, it is exalted in my esteem. I + shall be glad to see you on Thursday, and to hear you advocate + the cause of Job; but be admonished, at least, that I will hear + you argue against my past sentiments only, consenting no longer + to oppose your own, etc.” + +The two ladies contended, as we see, in the most courteous manner; but +they contended warmly and for a long time. I conjecture that aside from +literature there was some secret motive in it all. Madame de Brégy was +beautiful and coquettish as well as intellectual. She could, without much +difficulty, believe that the piece of Benserade was addressed to her, +and that it was an indirect declaration of a somewhat plebeian love, +condemned to wear out secretly in suffering. Benserade had, at least, +composed for her an epistle, in which he pleads the fear of love as his +excuse for flying from her.[314] Madame de Longueville could not have +forgotten all the verses which Voiture had written in her praise while +yet quite young; and perhaps the latter, on again beholding, in 1647, +the noble beauty in all the splendor of her charms, quitting his former +familiarity for an affectionate respect, was desirous of ending as he had +begun, and dying, as was then said, in the service of her whom he called +Uranie, a celestial beauty upon whom he dares scarcely to lift his eyes. + + In love with Uranie I’ll pine e’ermore; + Absence nor time to me affords a cure; + Naught can my pain the least relief procure, + Nor any thing my freedom e’er restore. + + Her chains oppress me each day more and more; + But witnessing her beauty passing pure, + I willingly can any death endure, + And e’en her tyranny dare not deplore. + + My reason, feebly though, sometimes essays + To urge me to revolt, its strength arrays; + But when to use it I am ever prone, + + It strives in vain my shackles to remove + Then claims that worth is Uranie’s alone, + And, more than all my senses, prompts to love. + +Madame de Longueville thought, moreover, that her preference was +supported by very good reason, and in this we are inclined to agree with +her. The work of Benserade possesses undoubtedly more wit, invention, and +even originality, since it is certainly something quite new to place in +the mouth of Job a declaration of love: that of Voiture, to us, possesses +a secret and melancholy gracefulness which touches the heart. With +Corneille, we find the sonnet of Job _prettier_, though _unnatural_—a +strange eulogium, and one hardly to be expected here from either party +pronouncing it; but the sonnet of Uranie seems to us to proceed more +from one in love, and this it is which decides us. Perhaps if Madame +de Longueville had conversed with Corneille, she would have converted +him in the name of their common principles; she succeeded, at least, in +overcoming her brother, the Prince de Conti, who, after having made a +sonnet to Benserade, at last took the part of Voiture and of his sister. +She launched against him Sarrazin, whose commentary in verse we still +possess—a commentary that turns into ridicule the sonnet of Benserade and +the opinion of Esprit: + + Sir Esprit, of the Oratory, + In you we piety perceive, + Thus crowning, as you do with glory, + “Job, whom a thousand torments grieve.” etc.[315] + +Madame de Longueville herself wrote to Esprit a letter, in which she +evinces a fine cultivated literary taste. She acknowledges, in the +sonnet of Job, a gallant air and delicacy, but nothing more. With the +exception of a few lines, all the others seem to her full of faults, and +she carries refinement and preciseness so far as to designate certain +expressions of Benserade as disgusting, meaning by this, vulgar. On +the contrary, she finds in the sonnet of Voiture, beauty and force of +expression, with thoughts which, though not new, possess the sovereign +merit of passion. She makes a thousand concessions to Esprit; she asks +pardon for her audacity in differing with him;[316] she announces, at +the same time, that she means to continue the war; she appeals to _all +Rambouillet_, and jests pleasantly upon this new kind of Fronde. + +_Madame de Longueville to Monsieur Esprit.[317]_ + + “It is true that I am in the utmost astonishment to find + our tastes so different in this matter; and my astonishment + is the greater because it seemed to me a subject upon which + our sentiments should be the same. For, in short, with the + exception of the seventh, eighth, and last lines of the sonnet + of Job, I find it not only full of faults, but even of such + as you have never been able to endure; its expression goes so + far as to be disgusting; whereas, in the piece of Voiture (at + least in its last six lines), the most beautiful and forcible + expression in the world is united with a thought which, though + not certainly new, is so passionate that it should, it seems + to me, be more highly esteemed than the mere delicacy which + characterizes that of Job. I confess that it has as gallant + an air as any thing that I have even seen; also, although I + find reason upon my side, I think that if there is none which + authorizes the other party, there is at least the greatest + cause in the world for preferring its taste; and if one may + suffer himself to be seduced without dying of shame, I confess + that it is upon such an occasion. This is all that my natural + justice can permit me to feel for those who have not followed + my sentiments. I send you what will acquaint you with the + manner in which my brother has made known his own, that is, + his final opinion; for the first was made in prose, and more + favorable to Uranie than to Job, but with the declaration that + if he should choose to send one of the two sonnets to his + mistress, it would be that of Job. Neither party was satisfied + with this judgment, not being able to turn it fully to its own + account. A more decided one was demanded. There are some who + think that even this[318] is not so; but, for my own part, + I am contented that Voiture is therein pronounced admirable + and grand, and Benserade only gallant and pretty. He has made + another sonnet, which I send you also, together with the list + of our friends and of our enemies. They have taken sides + uninfluenced by prejudice, politics, or any other motives than + the force of reason in some cases, and the gratification of + taste and blindness of mind in others. But I am not going so + far as to use invectives, and I think that there is as little + generosity in attacking a father of the Oratoire, as there + would be in assailing an unarmed man. I close therefore for + the very reason which made me prefer Uranie to Job, and the + celestial muse to a man infected from the crown of his head to + the soles of his feet. + + “I beg you to tell M. the Abbé de Croisy,[319] that I wish + him to take my part. I forgot to tell you that we are writing + circular letters, and that we expect the opinions of M. and + Madame de Montausier, of all Rambouillet, and of M. and Madame + de Liancourt. In fine, this matter will not rest here; and + if the excitement about it continues, the ministers will be + more apt to occupy themselves with it than with the assemblies + of the nobility; and the tolerance shown for our seditious + manners, is the strongest indication which we have had for + a year of the humbling of royal authority, for they are + cantonments against the fundamental laws of a well-governed + State.[320] In short, God wills it, and we have nothing to say. + + “A word of reply in regard to persons of your own party and of + mine, etc.” + +Madame de Longueville gained the day; all the hôtel de Rambouillet went +over to her side, and Benserade, beaten after having been triumphant, +thus complained to her who had robbed him of his glory: + + You give me then the lowest place! + The vanquish’d in this contest I, + I, elevated once so high, + Must now conceal my blushing face. + + This evil luck will soon apace + Through mem’ry’s fane my name decry; + And fallen, I must ever lie + O’erwhelm’d with sorrow and disgrace. + +We give also this pretty quatrain of Mademoiselle de Scudéry: + + ’Tis but the simple truth to say, + Job’s fate most strange hath been; + Tormented ever, day by day, + First by a demon, by an angel then. + +Such were the frivolous pastimes, at once innocent and dangerous, of +Madame de Longueville. All the prosperities and all the felicities of +life surrounded her. Every thing conspired in her favor, or rather +against her,—the triumphs of the mind as well as those of beauty, the +continually increasing glory of her house, the intoxication of vanity, +the secret desires of her heart. The trial was too strong; she yielded +to it. In the enchanted circle in which she moved, more than one adorer +attracted her attention; one of them succeeded in winning her, according +to all appearances, at the close of 1647 or at the commencement of 1648. +She was then about twenty-nine years of age. + +François, first Prince de Marcillac, afterwards, upon the death of his +father, Duke de La Rochefoucauld, was the eldest son of François de La +Rochefoucauld, whom Louis XIII. created a duke and a peer in 1622, and +of Gabrielle de Liancourt. He was born December 15, 1613, and at an +early age married Mademoiselle de Vivonne. He served honorably in Italy +and in Flanders, and in 1646 he was wounded at the siege of Mardyck. As +Retz says, he was not a warrior, although he was a very good soldier. +Without being very handsome, he was well formed and very agreeable. +What distinguished him especially was his wit. Of this he possessed an +infinite fund, of the finest and most delicate. His conversation was +mild, easy, insinuating; and his manners were at once the most natural +and most polished. He had a lofty air. In him vanity supplied the place +of ambition. At an early age he showed a fondness for distinction and +for intrigues. Profoundly selfish, and having succeeded in acquiring a +knowledge of himself and in reducing to theory his nature, his character, +and his tastes, he set out with contrary appearances, and with those +chivalrous manners affected by the _Importants_. One of his first +connections was with Madame de Chevreuse, who gave him to Queen Anne. +He entered so earnestly into the interests of the queen and into those +of Mademoiselle d’Hautefort, that he conceived or caught the idea of +carrying them away. “I was,” says he,[321] “at an age when one loves +to perform extraordinary and brilliant things, and I thought that +nothing could be more so than to carry off the queen at once from the +king, her husband, and from Cardinal Richelieu, who was jealous of him, +and of bearing away Mademoiselle d’Hautefort from the king, who was +enamored of her.” He did not execute this fine project; but Richelieu, +who had some suspicion of all these intrigues, placed him for eight +days in the Bastile. It seems that he was not entirely a stranger to +the conspiracies of Cinq-Mars. At the death of Richelieu he hastened to +Paris, and, when that of Louis XIII. had placed the supreme authority +in the hands of Queen Anne, he imagined that his fortune was made. He +sought successively various important offices which the queen could not +grant, whatever fondness she might have entertained for him. Madame de +Chevreuse exacted for her old friend the government of Havre, which +was then of the highest consequence; but this government was in the +family of Richelieu, and Mazarin could not take it away from the Duchess +d’Aiguillon. La Rochefoucauld aspired to the command of the cavalry; he +was very brave, but he was not considered capable of such an employment. +He tried thus several schemes; the queen applied herself to soothing his +disappointments, by manners so tender, as to retain him, as would be now +said, in a moderate opposition, and keep him from taking part in the +violence of Beaufort. He was not then covered with the disgrace of the +_Importants_, though he shared it to a certain extent; and he did not +cease to be, or to seem to be, very much attached, not to the government, +but to the person of the queen. He looked continually for some great +favor at her hands. These favors not arriving, he determined to procure +through intimidation what his fidelity had not been able to secure. + +It was during this state of his feelings that he met Madame de +Longueville, on her return from Munster, surrounded by the most earnest +admirers. The Count de Miossens, afterwards Marshal d’Albret—handsome, +brave, full of wit and of talent, as enterprising in love as in war—was +paying her a very zealous court. La Rochefoucauld persuaded Miossens, +who was one of his friends, that, after all, if he should overcome +the resistance of Madame de Longueville, it would only be a victory +flattering to his vanity, whilst that he, La Rochefoucauld, would be able +to turn it to a very good account. This was certainly a very touching +and heroic reason for loving! Corneille did not think of it in the _Cid_ +and in _Polyeucte_. We have, however, done no more than to transfer, +with the utmost exactness, a piece from La Rochefoucauld himself, which +we will now quote, word for word:[322] “So much unprofitable labor and +so much weariness, finally gave me other thoughts, and led me to attempt +dangerous ways in order to testify my hostility to the queen and Cardinal +Mazarin. The beauty of Madame de Longueville, her wit, and the charms of +her person, attached to her all who could hope for her favor. Many men +and women of quality strove to please her; and besides all this, Madame +de Longueville was then upon such good terms with all her house, and so +tenderly beloved by the Duke d’Enghien, her brother, that the esteem and +friendship of this prince might be counted upon by any one in the favor +of Madame his sister. Many persons vainly attempted this game, mingling +other sentiments with those of ambition. Miossens, who afterwards became +Marshal of France, persisted in it longest, but with similar success. I +was one of his intimate friends, and he told me his designs. They soon +fell to the ground of themselves. He saw this, and told me several times +that he was about to renounce them; but vanity, which was the strongest +of his passions, prevented him from telling me the truth, and he +professed to entertain hopes which he had not, and which I knew that he +could not have. Some time passed in this way; and, finally, I had reason +to believe that I could make a more considerable use than Miossens +of the friendship and confidence of Madame de Longueville. I made him +believe it himself. He knew my position at court; I told him my views, +declaring that my consideration for him would restrain me always, and +that I would not attempt to form a connection with Madame de Longueville +without his permission. I will even confess that I irritated him against +her in order to obtain it, without however saying any thing untrue. He +delivered her entirely to me, but he repented when he saw the result of +this connection....” + +La Rochefoucauld pleased Madame de Longueville, doubtless, by the graces +of his mind and the charms of his person, and especially by that glory +won for him by his conduct towards the queen, which was enough to dazzle +a pupil of the hôtel de Rambouillet. He paid her homage which was, to +all appearance, the most passionate in the world. In proportion as he +insinuated himself into her heart, he skilfully aroused in her that +desire of appearing and of producing an effect, so natural in woman. +Little by little, he displayed before her eyes a new object which she +had not yet perceived—an important part upon the theatre of events just +opening. He transformed her natural coquetry into political ambition, or +rather he inspired her with his own ambition. + +When Madame de Longueville, touched by the passion shown for her by La +Rochefoucauld, had determined to respond to it, she gave herself up to +him entirely; she devoted herself to him whom she dared to love; she made +it a point of honor, as well doubtless as a secret happiness, to share +his destiny and to follow him without looking behind her, sacrificing to +him all her private interests, the evident interest of her family, and +the strongest sentiment of her soul, her tenderness for her brother Condé. + +Oh admirable thing! do you know who it is that commits a crime against +this devotion? He precisely who makes his profit in it. La Rochefoucauld +expresses himself thus in regard to Madame de Longueville:[323] “This +princess possessed all the advantages of mind and beauty to such a degree +and with so much charm, that it seemed as if nature had taken pleasure +in forming a masterpiece.... But these fine qualities were rendered less +brilliant by a stain which was never seen upon a princess of such merit, +which found no imitations on those who entertained for her a particular +adoration; a stain which so transformed her in their sentiments, that she +did not recognize her own. At this time the Prince de Marcillac shared +her mind, and as he joined his ambition to his love, he inspired her +with a desire for business, to which she had a natural aversion.” + +Let us listen to the declared enemy of Madame de Longueville, her +step-daughter, the Duchess de Nemours: “It will doubtless cause +astonishment[324] that Madame de Longueville should have been one of +the first (to join the party of malcontents), she who had nothing to +hope from that party, and who had no reason to complain of the court.... +M. the Prince felt an extreme tenderness for his sister. She, on her +side, humored him, less from interest than from the particular esteem +and tender friendship which she had for him. At this time neither she +nor the whole cabal showed much wit in their designs; and although +they were all possessed of enough of it, they employed it only in gay +conversations, only in commenting and refining upon the delicacies of the +heart and of the sentiments. They made all the wit and merit of a person +to consist in making subtile distinctions and representations, sometimes +unnatural enough. Those who made the most display were, in their +opinion, the most creditable and most learned persons, and they treated +as ridiculous and coarse whatever approached to grave conversation.... +It was La Rochefoucauld who gave to this princess so many hollow and +false sentiments. As he exercised a very great power over her, and as he +seldom thought of any other person than himself, he drew her into all the +intrigues in which she engaged, only to be able thereby to promote his +own ends.” + +Madame de Motteville, whom we must never grow weary of studying and +citing when we wish to know and to establish the truth, after having +marked the principal motive which urged La Rochefoucauld in his pursuit +of Madame de Longueville, adds: “In[325] all that she has since done, +it is clearly seen that ambition was not the only thing that occupied +her soul, and that the interests of the Prince de Marcillac there held +a prominent place. For him she became ambitious, for him she ceased to +love repose; and in order to be sensible to this affection, she became +too insensible to her own glory.... The declarations of the Prince de +Marcillac, as I have already said, had not been displeasing to her; and +this nobleman, who was perhaps more selfish than tender, wishing through +her to promote his own interests, believed that he should inspire her +with a desire of ruling the princes her brothers....” + +Finally Retz, who was perfectly acquainted with all the actors and all +the actresses of the Fronde, and who, in regard to this epoch, merits +not to be believed without reserve, but to be listened to seriously, +closes the most charming eulogy upon Madame de Longueville with +these words, so often repeated, and which contain the true judgment +of posterity: “As her passion obliged her to make politics only a +secondary matter, from the heroine of a great party, she became its +adventuress.”[326] + +We must either renounce all historical criticism, or from these +accumulated testimonies, which we could have much increased, we must draw +this conclusion: 1, That before her connection with La Rochefoucauld, +Madame de Longueville remained entirely unconcerned in every political +intrigue; that she was occupied only with intellectual matters and +gallantry, suffering herself to be guided absolutely in every thing else +by her father and by her brother; 2, That it was not on her account, as +has been often repeated, that La Rochefoucauld entered the Fronde; that, +far from this, it was La Rochefoucauld, and La Rochefoucauld alone, who, +little by little, engaged her in it, designedly and selfishly; 3, That +the conduct of Madame de Longueville in the Fronde must be referred to La +Rochefoucauld, who governed her, and that the only good thing in her is +the character which she exhibited when the intrigue became a tempest, +when it was necessary to risk her person; to stake her happiness, her +repose, her fortune, and her life, retaining still under the hand of +another what she could never lose—the pride of soul and brilliant energy +of the sister of the great Condé. + +It is not our business here to give a history of the Fronde, to make +known its peripetics, its principal personages, the true springs of their +actions, their apparent patriotism, their real ambition, their unstable +hopes, their perpetual changes. We wish simply to describe Madame de +Longueville; it is to her, without separating her from her brother Condé, +that we would confine ourselves in this labyrinth of intrigues; here even +we will show her only in the first scenes of the Fronde. + +As soon as La Rochefoucauld had entered the heart of Madame de +Longueville, he occupied it entirely. She employed in his service all the +charms of her person, the resources of her mind, the greatness of her +heart. Careless of her interests, and turning her back upon the fortunes +of her house, she attacked openly, or undermined by artifice, that +royalty which her family had supported, and which had been still more the +support of her family. Forgetful of her most just resentment, even of her +honor, she entered the ranks of those who, in 1643, had endeavored to +blast in the bud her fresh and unsullied fame. The daughter of the Condés +went over to the Vendômes and to the Lorraines, made common cause with +Beaufort and with Madame de Chevreuse, and exposed herself to the risk of +encountering in this new circle her old and implacable enemy, Madame de +Montbazon. If Guise had not then been at Naples, she would doubtless have +testified her perfect change by shaking the hand that had slain Coligny! + +In the mean time La Rochefoucauld did not forget his reason for desiring +so ardently the conquest of Madame de Longueville. He had wished, as he +himself tells us, to reach the brother through the sister, and to draw +into the Fronde the house of Condé, which had hitherto been a rampart to +the queen and to Mazarin. + +M. the Prince had died at the close of 1646, and with him his family +had lost its political helm. Madame the Princess remained firmly +attached to the queen; but Madame de Longueville succeeded, without much +difficulty, in numbering among the malcontents the Prince de Conti, who, +while waiting for a cardinal’s hat, was not sorry to make some noise, +play some part, and acquire an importance which might make him compare +favorably with his brother. She needed no great cunning to draw among the +malcontents her husband, who was naturally inclined towards them. But +the great difficulty was to win Condé himself. + +The latter imagined that he had great cause of complaint against the +cardinal. At the death of his brother-in-law, Brézé, in 1646, he asked +to succeed him as High-Admiral of France. It was impossible to add this +office to the number already possessed by the Condés; but, through +management, the queen gave it to no one, and set it down for herself. +M. the Prince, who was still living, ambitious and greedy, had warmly +resented this refusal. The impetuous Condé had not concealed his anger. +He was also much irritated at being sent into Catalonia to replace +d’Harcourt, with the promise of every thing necessary to carry on a +campaign worthy of him; and that he had been left, without the aid +promised and earnestly claimed, between a strongly fortified place, +which he could not take by assault on account of the condition of his +troops, and a powerful army which he could neither wait for nor reach, +so that he was obliged to raise the siege of Lerida, and to retreat +in good order before the enemy. He felt that he had done well, but it +was the first time that he had given way; in spite of him, his glory +suffered by it, and he complained with bitterness of what he called the +disloyalty of the cardinal. Finally, he was sent into Flanders to take +command of a very feeble army,—not an army destitute of courage, but +entirely undisciplined. Besides, it must be confessed, the true genius +of Condé was for war. In this, again, he is the first of his age, and +equal to the greatest in antiquity and in modern times,—as ardent as +Alexander, as resolute as Cæsar, as fertile in expedients as Hannibal, +as capable of making precise and vast calculations as Napoleon, which +may be seen by the plan of the campaign by which, in 1645, he proposed +to dictate peace to the Emperor in Vienna. He possessed all the +qualifications of a warrior. He knew not only how to achieve a victory +by the boldness of his manœuvres, but he knew how to calculate upon +one, and, as Bossuet said of a very different person, he left nothing +to fortune which he could accomplish through prudence and foresight. +He was as good a military manager as he was an active and enterprising +general. He excelled in the art of encamping and of besieging, as well +as in that of fighting, and he surpassed Vauban. By turns, he exhibited +that audacity which confounded Mercy at Fribourg and at Nortlingen, and +that great prudence which led him to raise the siege of Lerida, and +which at a later period, in 1675, wearied Montecuculli. With the most +happy instincts, he united profound study. In Catalonia he marched with +a copy of Cæsar in his hand, explaining it to his lieutenants. He formed +the greatest generals, commencing with Turenne, who served under him +during two campaigns, and finishing with that Luxembourg who, if he were +rejudged, would perhaps be found not inferior to Turenne himself. Let +us add this very striking fact: Condé is the only modern captain who +never suffered defeat, and who was always victorious when he commanded +in chief. Turenne was beaten twice in regular battle—at Rethel and at +Mariendal; Frederic commenced with reverses; Napoleon terminated his +dazzling career by two frightful routes—Leipsic and Waterloo; Condé +alone was ever triumphant. He had arrayed against him the three greatest +generals of Europe—Mercy, Montecuculli, and William; not one of them was +able to deprive him of even the shadow of an advantage. We might easily +extend, without exhausting it, the eulogy of the warrior in Condé; but, +we acknowledge it, he had not the qualifications of a great politician, +because at bottom he had no true determined ambition. First prince of +the blood in a monarchy such as was that of France in the seventeenth +century, what could he desire beyond the acquisition of glory? And after +Richelieu and under Mazarin, this glory could be reached by him only on +the battle-field. It was for this and for this alone that his father +had reared him. He was also subjected, at an early age, to that severe +discipline of ambition which teaches to speak at the proper moment and +to be silent, to exhibit no humor, to keep the eye fixed upon the highest +object, never suffering it to be turned aside by secondary interests, or +by the caprices of the imagination or of the heart. Such is the ambitious +man; such were, more or less, Henri IV., Richelieu, and Mazarin; for it +is just to place Mazarin in this illustrious company. All three had a +great end to attain, which they pursued with constancy. Condé had no aim; +he formed no great design, being by birth as high as he could become—all +that he could ever dream of being, unless he acted the madman or the +traitor; and he had a mind perfectly correct, with a corresponding heart. +His conscience and his good sense told him then that he had nothing to +gain by all the intrigues in which others wished to engage him; that his +place was near the throne, in order to protect it with his sword against +its enemies, whoever they might be, whether at home or abroad. If he +had kept this place, he would have attained to a rank much higher than +even the usurpation of royalty. Let us not hesitate to look at it, that +we may the better feel the greatness of his fall: to his five years of +brilliant victories in Flanders and upon the Rhine, from 1643 to 1648, +he might, beyond all doubt, have added, during the war which continued +between France and Spain after the treaty of Westphalia, new victories, +which, in two campaigns, at most, might have forever conquered Belgium, +as the preceding had added Alsace to the French territory. He would then, +at the age of thirty, have gained as many battles as Alexander, Hannibal, +and Cæsar; and still there would have been before him twenty years of +vigor, twenty other victories, like that of Senef, for example,[327] +which he gained upon the verge of old age, before laying aside his sword, +as a monument of what he might have done from 1648 to 1675. Incomparable +would have been his destiny had he performed his part as first prince +of the blood, firm defender of the crown yet loyal interpreter of the +nation; bearing to the queen without frightening her, and to Mazarin, +while sustaining him, the legitimate complaints of the nobility, of the +parliament, and of the people. + +There was, in fact, a cause for the Fronde; Mazarin, almost equal to +Richelieu as a diplomatist, had not, in the smallest degree, the genius +of his master for the administration of State affairs. Incessantly +occupied with increasing the territory and strengthening the royal +authority, he attended to little else, and suffered abuses and disorders +to creep in everywhere. The great wars which he undertook, the four +or five armies which he was obliged to support, had exhausted France, +which did not always find in glory a consolation for its misery. It had +been necessary to increase the taxes, even to sell the public offices, +in order to have means for paying the troops. The authority of the +parliament had often been eluded or disarmed. The blood of the nobility +had flowed in torrents. The people groaned under the heaviest burdens; +and if the sentiment of national grandeur abandoned them even for a +moment, the greatness of the evil caused them to utter complaints, and +drove them to revolt. I do not accuse the people: they are seldom wrong; +they move only when they suffer; they agitate only to improve their +condition, or at least to make it less unhappy. It is parties that are +culpable, when, instead of striving to afford relief to the evils of the +people, they apply themselves to rendering these evils more poignant and +more bitter, by inflammatory declamations, thus driving the people beyond +all bounds. I pity, in 1648, the people, naturally irritated by the +increase of taxes, and by the disorders of the administration; I condemn +the Fronde, which, in its chiefs, with few exceptions, was deceitful +and corrupt, violent and mad; and I am in favor of Mazarin, without +loving him or without being deceived in regard to his defects and his +faults, because, after all, he served France well, conducting with great +ability its affairs abroad, and diminishing, by the peace with Germany, +its misery at home. I admire Condé in this first Fronde, for having +resisted his own injuries, the antipathy which he felt for Mazarin, the +solicitations of his own family, and of his sister. I shall blame him in +the strongest terms when, unfaithful to his fortune and to his glory, +sacrificing the part of a principal to that of an accessory, putting +temper in the place of policy, he shall engage in the intrigues which he +had spurned, and shall allow himself at first to humor, then to serve the +Fronde. + +He commenced very differently. In the beginning of the troubles, Condé, +without having enough of the statesman to crush the sedition in its bud, +preserved at least a lofty bearing towards the malcontents; he lent a +careless ear to the proposals of his sister, and having no taste for +popular agitations, and not more for the tumultuous and often ridiculous +deliberations of the parliament, occupied only with the coalition of +Spain and of the empire, he went, in the spring of 1648, to take command +of the army of Flanders, resolved to strike a blow and to repeat the +victory of Rocroy. Not being able to secure him, the malcontents wished +at least to profit by his absence. While Mazarin, for the best interests +of the country, was demanding its utmost resources, and turning every +thing into money, in order to raise additional troops, the Frondeurs, +that is, a few of the great lords, supported by a part of the nobility, +aroused the people and the parliament, who had not the least idea of +the true situation of affairs; for the parliament was not a political +assembly, and the people were simply aware that they were suffering. +Mazarin, entirely occupied with the peril of the frontier, did not give +enough attention to domestic dangers. He had kept very few troops near +him, and one fine morning it happened that the Frondeurs took possession +of Paris. The battle of the barricades followed close upon that of Lens. +On his return, Condé found royalty humiliated, the parliament triumphing +and dictating laws to the crown, the Duke de Beaufort, with whom he +once thought of measuring swords in defence of the honor of his sister, +freed from his prison of Vincennes, and master of Paris by aid of the +populace who idolized him; the fickle and vain Abbé de Retz transformed +into a tribune of the people; the Prince de Conti into a captain; M. de +Longueville under the guidance of his wife and La Rochefoucauld; and the +feeble Duke d’Orleans fancying himself almost a king, because he saw the +queen humiliated, and because the Frondeurs, cunningly flattering his +self-love, were treating him like a sovereign. Condé, at a glance, saw +the situation of affairs and his duty also; and, without any hesitation, +he offered his sword to the queen. + +He had a stormy explanation with his sister. + +It is pretended, that for some time their reciprocal tenderness had +suffered more than one interruption; that, in 1645, Madame de Longueville +had crossed the loves of her brother and Mademoiselle Du Vigean; that, +in 1646, Condé, seeing her too intimate with La Rochefoucauld, had +caused her to be called to Munster by her husband: but for this we have +only the authority of the Duchess de Nemours,[328] and nothing is less +probable. The passion of Condé for Mademoiselle Du Vigean extinguished +itself, as we have seen, and as all contemporaries affirm. The attentions +of La Rochefoucauld to Madame de Longueville may have preceded the +embassy of Munster, but they were not observed until 1647, and it is +at the close of this year that Madame de Motteville places them, while +attributing them especially to the desire of La Rochefoucauld to share +the credit of the sister with the brother. But it is very certain, that +as soon as the latter remarked this connection, he disapproved of it +entirely; and not succeeding in his effort to rouse his sister from the +intoxication of a first love, he passed from the most ardent affection +to a bitter discontent. In the autumn of 1648, on his return from Lens, +this connection had acquired its greatest strength, and become almost +notorious. Madame de Longueville, directed by La Rochefoucauld, did +then every thing in the world to gain her brother: she brought to bear +upon him all her allurements, all her fondlings; she put into operation +every thing which she thought might influence this passionate and fickle +heart; she failed. He did not succeed in gaining over her his accustomed +ascendency. They quarrelled and separated openly. Madame de Longueville +plunged more deeply into the Fronde, and Condé applied himself to giving +the new _Importants_ a harsh lesson. + +It is not my intention to enter into details. I wish simply to show that +the brother and sister, in their opposite conduct, exhibited the same +blood and the same audacity. + +The queen had retired to Saint-Germain with the young king and all the +government. Paris was under the absolute control of the Fronde. In spite +of the first president, Molé, the l’Hôpital of the seventeenth century, +it stirred up the parliament, by the aid of a few ambitious councillors +and by seditious and mischievous inquests. It disposed of a great part +of the Parisian clergy, through the coadjutor of the archbishop, Retz, +who possessed and exercised all the authority of his uncle. It had +continually at its head the two great houses of Vendôme and Lorraine, +with two princes of the blood, the Prince de Conti and the Duke de +Longueville, followed by a very great number of illustrious families. It +gave law in the _salons_, thanks to a brilliant troupe of pretty women, +who drew after them the flower of the young nobility. In short, the army +itself was divided. Turenne, with his troops, who were stationed upon +the borders of the Rhine until the perfect conclusion of the treaty of +Westphalia, obedient to the suggestions of his eldest brother, the Duke +de Bouillon, who wished to gain his principality of Sedan, had just +raised the standard of revolt, and was threatening to place the court +between his own army and that of Paris. Add that the parliament of the +capital had sent deputies to all the parliaments of the kingdom, and +that it was thus forming a sort of formidable parliamentary league in +the face of monarchy. Condé took command of all the troops that remained +faithful, and everywhere opposed the insurrection. He wrote himself +to the army of the Rhine, which knew him, and which, after the route +sustained by Turenne at Mariendal, had been led back by him to victory: +these letters, supported by the proceedings of the government, succeeded +in arresting the revolt; and Turenne, abandoned by his own soldiers, was +obliged to fly to Holland.[329] At ease upon this subject, Condé marched +upon Paris, and placed it in siege. Instead of disputing the ground, as +he might have done, foot by foot, with the sedition, he allowed it the +freest course, sure that the spectacle of licentiousness, which could +not fail to appear, would, little by little, restore to loyalty those +who had for a moment gone astray. He began by calling, in the name of +the queen and through his mother, all his family to Saint-Germain. The +Prince de Conti and M. de Longueville did not dare to disobey; but La +Rochefoucauld saw that the Fronde was in the greatest peril; he hastened +after these two princes; he brought them back to Paris, made the Prince +de Conti generalissimo, placing under him the Dukes d’Elbeuf and de +Bouillon, who shared authority with the Marshal de La Mothe Houdancourt, +governor of Paris.[330] As to Madame de Longueville, she excused herself +to the queen and to her mother on the grounds of her delicate situation, +which would not permit her to undertake the least fatigue. In fact, +Madame de Longueville was in this condition, for the last time, in 1648, +when, it must be confessed, her connection with La Rochefoucauld was +well known. It was in this condition that, willing to share the perils +of her friends, proud also of playing a part and of filling all the +trumpets of fame, she acted the warrior as well as she was able. There +is, it is said,[331] a portrait representing her as Pallas, just as, a +little later, Mademoiselle was represented; her light hair covered with +a helmet, and her soft eyes trying to wear a martial look. It is at +least certain that she shared all the fatigues of the siege, that she +was present at the reviews of the troops, at the parades of the citizen +soldiery,[332] and that all the civil and military plans were discussed +before her. The memoirs of the times are full, in regard to this, of the +most curious details. The hôtel de Longueville was continually filled +with officers and generals; nothing was seen there but plumes, helmets, +and swords. + +Notwithstanding all this, the democratic spirit which had originated +the Fronde, was not satisfied: it beheld with displeasure all the forces +of Paris in the hands of the brother, of the brother-in-law, and of the +sister of him who commanded the siege. Believing very little, and with +reason, in the patriotism of the princes, the citizens demanded some +sureties from the chiefs who might at any time betray them, and make +peace, at their expense, with Saint-Germain. No one seemed to know how +to appease this multitude, without which nothing could be done. It was +then that Madame de Longueville showed that, if she had forgotten her +true duties, she had retained the energy of her race and the intrepidity +of the Condés. She took her young children, and, notwithstanding +her delicate condition, proceeded to the principal quarter of the +insurrection, the hôtel de Ville, placing herself in the hands of the +people as a hostage, with all that was most dear to her.[333] Her example +was followed by the Duchess de Bouillon.[334] “Imagine,” says Retz, +“these two beautiful persons upon the balcony of the hôtel de Ville; +more beautiful because they appeared neglected, although they were not. +Each held in her arms one of her children, who were as beautiful as +their mothers. La Grève was full of people, even to the housetops; the +men all raised cries of joy, and the women wept with tenderness.”[335] +There, on the night of the 28th of January, 1649, Madame de Longueville +gave birth to her last child, a son, who was baptized by Retz in the +church Saint-Jean-de Grève, having for its godfather the Provost, for its +godmother the Duchess de Bouillon, and who received the name of Charles +de Paris;[336] the child of the Fronde, handsome, talented, and brave, +who during his life was the troublesome hope, the melancholy joy of his +mother, and the cause of her greatest grief in 1672, when he perished, in +the passage of the Rhine, by the side of his uncle.[337] + +For some time, Condé limited himself to subjecting Paris to a blockade +more and more rigorous, and to small attacks, the effect of which was not +very encouraging to the citizen troops. The gentry alone, even during +their negotiations with Mazarin, fought well. They carried on the war +in two modes, by the sword and by epigrams, songs and vaudevilles. The +party of Mazarin, as may be conceived, accomplished very little with +Madame de Longueville.[338] Condé himself, who had loved her so much, and +who, afterwards, will resume for her all his early tenderness, did not +hesitate to ridicule her with the accustomed license of his language. He +diverted himself very much at the expense of the martial spirit of his +brother, the Prince de Conti, and he lampooned his adversaries, among +others the Count de Maure,[339] the youngest of the Montemarts, with so +much spirit and in such a soldierlike way, that he abused the troops and +the citizens, when they dared to venture a few steps from the ramparts of +Paris. To enable one to judge of the Fronde, even in this first period +of its short, yet too long history, it will be sufficient to say that +it had from that moment recourse to the only remaining enemy of France; +that these great patriots, who continually reproached Mazarin with being +a stranger, applied to Spain, and that an envoy of the archduke and of +the Count de Fuensaldaigne was received, and heard in full parliament. +Is it astonishing, after this, that in the course of a few years, the +young Louis XIV. should, without attracting attention, enter this same +parliament equipped for a ride and with whip in hand! Demagoguery +produces necessarily tyranny, and, what is more sad, it therewith +produces universal applause, bruising the hearts of those alone who had +not merited it, and had simply desired a moderate liberty. When the +shameful proposition was made to receive the Spanish envoy, the President +de Mesmes, turning towards the Prince de Conti, addressed to him these +severe words:[340] “Is it possible, sir, that a prince of the blood of +France proposes to give audience upon the _fleurs de lys_ to a deputy of +the most cruel enemy of the _fleurs de lys_!” + +Condé thought that it was time to bring matters to a close. He rendered +more rigorous the blockade, and multiplied the attacks. It was in one +of these attacks, at Charenton, February 9, 1649, that he lost his best +friend, the younger Coligny, the brave d’Andelot, then Duke de Châtillon, +the husband of Isabelle de Montmorency, one of the heroes of Lens, where +he served in the capacity of a lieutenant-general, from which office he +was about to be elevated to that of marshal; he was, it is true, somewhat +easy in his life and manners, but he promised to make for France a +captain of the strength of his brother-in-law, Montmorency Boutteville, +Marshal de Luxembourg. Condé flew to the spot where Châtillon had just +fallen, received him in his arms, and, bathing him with tears, caused +him to be transported to Vincennes, where he drew his last breath.[341] +All historians agree in their descriptions of the great grief into +which Condé was thrown by this death; it animated him still more against +the Fronde. At the same time, it showed the court the importance of +terminating a war which was sweeping so many brave men from both sides, +to the great joy of Spain; and by showing in this place the point of +his sword, and by speaking with firmness in that, he soon brought Paris +and the parliament to ask peace, and Mazarin to give one which was +humiliating to neither. He did not simply obtain a general amnesty; he +did more: he represented that, in order to disarm the Fronde, it was +necessary to listen to its legitimate complaints, which constituted its +strength; and that royalty once replaced above all factions, it was wise +to make it the origin of all necessary ameliorations. Hence the royal +declaration of the 12th of March, 1649,[342] which annulled all the +measures taken by the parliament during the preceding six months, which +expelled the envoy of Spain, placed all the civil and military forces +in the hands of the king, interdicted, during the remainder of the year +1649, every general assembly of the parliament, but which promised that +Paris should see the return of the king, that the parliament should +henceforth consult him in regard to extraordinary imposts, and that, if +a treaty was made with Spain, the parliament should choose one of its +officers to assist in its formation. The declaration said nothing in +regard to the nobility, for the very simple reason that there was among +them no general cause to be satisfied, and that private interests alone +demanded attention. + +It is amusing to read, in Madame de Motteville,[343] a piece entitled: +“_Particular demands of Messieurs the Generals and others interested_. +They each had, at Saint-Germain, deputies who treated for them. For +example, the Duke de Beaufort was not contented with what had been +privately offered to him. He asked much, because his heart was still +swollen by the pride occasioned by the remembrance of his past favor. He +wished the ministry to reward him for his chains and his imprisonment; +he spoke proudly; he declared loudly that he would not make terms with +Mazarin; and, carrying his resentment farther than others, he rendered +the adjustment of his affairs more difficult.... Madame de Montbazon, who +was beloved by the Duke de Beaufort, gave hopes that she would at least +please him, if she could have what she desired. She obtained moneys and +abbeys; and the Duke de Beaufort, who loved her, was pleased that this +lady could profit by the inclination which he had for her.” + +In short, every one was, or strove to be contented. The Prince de Conti +was the first who left Paris to salute the queen. He was presented by +Condé, who made him embrace the Cardinal Mazarin. The Prince de Conti, in +his turn, presented the Duke de Bouillon, La Rochefoucauld, the Count de +Maure, and many others. M. de Longueville, who had gone to Normandy to +arouse that province and its parliament, did not delay to return to offer +his homage, and it was quite time for the beautiful and proud duchess to +show her submission. The scene is worth relating: “I was alone,”[344] +says Madame de Motteville, “with the queen, and she did me the honor to +speak to me of the embarrassment testified by the Duke de Longueville in +saluting her. As I knew that Madame de Longueville was about to enter, +I arose, for I was on my knees beside her bed, and placed myself near +to the queen, resolved not to stir, but to discover whether this witty +princess would be more eloquent than the prince her husband. As she was +naturally timid and apt to blush, all her care could not save her from +the embarrassment which she experienced on meeting the queen. I was +sufficiently near to these two illustrious persons to know what they +said; but I heard nothing except _Madame_, and a few words which she +pronounced so low that the queen, who listened attentively to what she +would say, could not comprehend a single sentence.” + +This same Madame de Motteville, so veracious notwithstanding her +benevolence, so difficult in every thing concerning the queen, her +mistress, does not hesitate to give to Condé the honor of the peace: “We +should not forget to observe here the disinterested firmness of M. the +Prince, who, without considering either his family or his friends, acted +always for the interests of the king.”[345] + +It is true, for the memorable service which he had just rendered, Condé +reaped scarcely any benefit; but his noble conduct increased the splendor +of his last campaign of 1648; it added to his military titles those of +defender and saviour of the throne, of pacificator of the kingdom, of +arbiter and enlightened conciliator of parties; it gave the climax to his +credit and to his glory. Happy would it have been, if, after having thus +terminated this sad war, he had quitted the court and its intrigues, to +seek other battle-fields, and to finish another war somewhat more useful +and more glorious to France—that which still remained with Spain! Happy +also had been Madame de Longueville, if, taught by her own conscience, +in her last interview with the queen, and by the shameful dénouement of +the miserable intrigues of which she had the secret, instead of still +serving as their instrument, she had shown her courage in resisting +them; if, after all the proofs of devotion which she had just given to +La Rochefoucauld, she had strongly represented to him that, even for +his own interest, a different course was necessary; that it would be +better to look for fortune and honors by making himself esteemed, than +by trying to be feared; that ambition as well as duty showed his place +to be by the side of Condé, in the service of the State and of the king; +that it was easy for him to obtain in the army some post, where he would +have simply to march forward, trusting to his courage and his merit! +But even if she had been wise enough to speak thus to La Rochefoucauld, +she would not have succeeded in gaining his ear. This restless spirit, +this ever-discontented vanity, pursuing by turns the most dissimilar +objects, because it selected none within its reach, this _indefinable +something_, as Retz[346] says, which was in La Rochefoucauld, caused him +to abandon the great and straight roads, and led him into by-paths full +of precipices. The poor woman there follows him, and aids him in his +extravagant and guilty designs. Receiving the law instead of giving it, +she strives to promote the passion of another by devoting to his service +all her coquetry and greatness of soul, her penetration and intrepidity, +her attractive sweetness and indomitable energy. She undertakes to +mislead Condé, to take away from France the conqueror of Rocroy and of +Lens, and to give him to Spain. But let us not anticipate these unhappy +times. We have now traced the last glorious days of Condé and the first +faults of Madame de Longueville. Let us stop here; let us not enter upon +the civil wars about to follow, impious wars, in which the brother and +the sister will treasure up long remorse, in which the one will signalize +himself by exploits so deplorable, that he will some day veil himself at +Chantilly, for the sake of his own glory and of France, and in which the +other will display the most brilliant qualities of mind, only to weep for +twenty-five years among the Carmelites and at Port-Royal! + + +THE END. + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + +[1] Fourth Series of our works, _Literature_, vol. ii. + +[2] It remains for us to collect from all our writings the scattered +elements of a new Theodicea, especially founded upon an exact Psychology, +fecundated by a legitimate induction, with the double purpose of +defending the great faith of the human race against the detestable +philosophy which Germany, in these last times, has sent into France, +after having borrowed it from her, and of defending also true and good +philosophy against a pusillanimous devotion, unworthy of Christianity, +and condemned by the Church, which refuses to human reason the right and +the power of elevating itself, even to God. It especially remains to us +to put the last hand to that translation of Plato, which we would make +the least perishable monument of our philosophic enterprise. + +[3] See the work of Villefore: _The Life of Madame the Duchess de +Longueville_, in two parts. There are two somewhat different editions. +The first, which we shall quote, is of 1738, without indication of place; +the second of Amsterdam, 1739. + +[4] Quatremère de Quincy: _Dissertation upon the Antique Statue of +Venus, discovered in the Island of Milo_, in-4ᵒ; and _Collection of +Archeological Dissertations_, 1836, in-8ᵒ, p. 143. + +[5] Millengen: _Ancient Unedited Monuments_, in fol.: London, 1826, p. +15, plate viii. + +[6] The only two good and complete editions are those of Renouard, 1804 +and 1817, and that of the collection of Petitot. See this last vol. 51, +p. 455. + +[7] This disease attacked her during the year of her marriage. Scarcely +any trace of it remained. + +[8] Retz, Amsterdam, 1731, vol. i., p. 185. Ibid., vol. iv., p. 219. + +[9] _Memoirs_, Amsterdam, 1750, vol. i., p. 44. + +[10] Vol. ii., p. 16-17. + +[11] _Memoirs_, Amsterdam, 1735, vol. i., p. 45. + +[12] Library of the Arsenal, Manuscripts of Conrart, in fol., vol. viii., +p. 145. On Mademoiselle de Vaudy, the relative and friend of Madame the +Countess de Maure, see Mademoiselle, vol. iii., p. 58, and vol. v., p. +25, as well as her portrait among the portraits of Mademoiselle. See also +Tallemant, vol. ii., p. 334. + +[13] In an obscure work, entitled, _The Life of Pierre Dubose, Minister +of the Holy Gospel, enriched with Letters, Harangues_, etc., Rotterdam, +1698, in-8ᵒ, I find a speech made to Madame de Longueville, at Caen, in +June, 1648, in which the good Protestant minister speaks of her very much +like Scudéry, p. 328: “The portrait, Madame, which fame has made of you, +is known throughout the world; and it is so full of marvels that every +one supposes the original to be flattered until he has the happiness +of seeing you. Then all admit that what the public voice says of your +Highness is but a pencil-sketch of what you are.... It is impossible to +paint too well that agreeable mixture of sweetness and majesty which +tempers your countenance, and which at once gives boldness and fear to +those who have the honor to approach your person. It is impossible to +express that inimitable address which appears in all your actions, that +brilliant vivacity so admired in your words, that graceful and grand air +which causes your silence to be respected. And what pencil can represent +that mind, formed by the hand of the Graces and cultivated by that of the +Muses, which produces nothing in you but that is judicious, delicate, +brilliant, which gains for you the admiration of the age, the rapture +of the court, the applause of the provinces, which has even merited the +homage of enemies at Munster, bringing them to your feet, while they +refused peace to all Europe.” + +[14] Attique du Nord, No. 2173. + +[15] _Pacificatores orbis Christiani, sive icones principum, ducum et +legatorum qui Monasterii atque Osnabrugæ pacem Europæ reconciliarunt, +quosque singulos ad nativam imaginem expressit Van Hull, celissimi +principis Auriaci dum viveret pictor_, in folio, Rotterodami, 1697. +This portrait has been often reproduced, among others, in the _Europe +illustre_ and the Collection of Odieuvre. + +[16] This is, in fact, the date of the first edition of the first part, +as given in the patent, printed January 7, 1649. + +[17] Gallery of the first floor, No. 2195. + +[18] Cabinet of Medallions, with this inscription: AN. GEN. BORBONIA, D. +LONG, S. P. NOVI CASTRI. On the other side of the medal is the portrait +of her husband. + +[19] There should be at the Château d’Eu a portrait of Madame de +Longueville, 22 inches by 18, which comes from the old collection of the +Duchess de Montpensier. See vol. ii., p. 124, the work of M. Vatout, +entitled, _Historical and Descriptive Catalogue of the Pictures belonging +to his Royal Highness the Duke of Orleans_. 4 vols., in-8ᵒ, 1823. It is +so long since we have seen this portrait, that we cannot say at what +period it represents Madame de Longueville, wherein it differs from or +resembles other portraits of her, or by what hand it was produced. It +is perhaps the portrait which is at Versailles. Father Lelong mentions +the following portraits of Madame de Longueville: 1, Van Hull; 2, +Poilly, in fol. (We have not found this portrait in the work of Poilly +in the Stamp-Office. See note, p. 363.) 3, Frosne; 4, Moncornet; 5, the +collection of Odieuvre. + +[20] Villefore, 2d part, p. 170. + +[21] Retz, vol. i., p. 219. + +[22] Ibid., vol. iii., p. 59. + +[23] Retz, vol. ii., p. 18. + +[24] In-12ᵒ. We possess the copy of the dedication which belonged to +Mademoiselle de Bourbon, and which bears her arms. + +[25] Villefore, p. 75. + +[26] Vol. ii., p. 19. + +[27] Ibid., p. 7. + +[28] Boileau, in his letter to Perrault, places the Count de Tréville +among the nicest judges of wit. Saint-Simon undertakes to paint him, +vol. iv., p. 184, and thus finishes his portrait, vol. vi., p. 372: +He had belonged “to the great world, at one time a courtier, then a +devotee and recluse, again, by degrees, an active member of the best +society, always gallant, full of wit, and of the most refined taste.” +He had loved Madame, the amiable Henriette, and the beautiful de Ludre. +See the _Memoirs_ of Lafare and Madame de Sévigné, letter of the 13th +March, 1671. It is said that the observation, _he talks like a book_, was +first made concerning him. He is the _Arsène_ of the _charactères_ of La +Bruyère. I have seen some of his unpublished letters; the language is the +best, but for any thing else they are not remarkable. + +[29] IVth Series of our works, LITTÉRATURE, vol. ii., _Jacqueline +Pascal_, p. 20. + +[30] _Memoirs_, vol. i., p. 221: “I do not believe that Queen Elizabeth +of England had more capacity for State affairs.” + +[31] _Oraison funèbre de la Princesse Palatine._ + +[32] Ægidii Menagii Pœmata, since the first edition, which is of 1652, +in-4ᵒ, Ægidii Menagii Miscellanea, until the Elzeverian edition, more +complete, of 1663. In this there are more than twenty French, Latin, and +Italian pieces to Madame de La Fayette before and after her marriage. +Madame de Sévigné does not appear so often; but, as an offset, she is +seen in the edition of 1652, both under her own name and under that of +Uranie. The study of the different editions of the poems of Ménage would +not be useless in a history of Madame de Sévigné and of Madame de La +Fayette. + +[33] See the Italian Sonnet of Madame de Sévigné, published by M. de +Montmerqué. + +[34] This correspondence was sold at Sens, in 1849, at the sale of +M. Tarbé. I examined it for several hours. It is composed of about +seventy-six letters, all unpublished, and runs over almost all the +life of Madame de La Fayette. We here find that Ménage felt a passion +for his beautiful pupils. Repulsed and discouraged rather quickly by +Marie de Chantil, he turned to her relative, Mademoiselle de Lavergne, +with no better fortune, but without experiencing so much neglect. The +intercourse of Ménage with Mademoiselle de Lavergne continued even after +her marriage to the Count de La Fayette, became more intimate during +her widowhood, and continued even until her death. Madame de La Fayette +coquetted evidently with her Latin and Italian master, and for some time +their relations were intimate but not tender. Finally, they became good +and perfect friends. Several letters show with what care Madame de La +Fayette had studied under Ménage the poets and good writers, both ancient +and modern. She consults him, and refers to their disputes in regard to +the use of such and such an expression. She speaks continually of their +common friend, Huet, who wrote for _Zaïdé_ a dissertation on the origin +of the romance. There are a few lines about Segrais. I do not remember +seeing the name of La Rochefoucauld once mentioned. This was perhaps +a delicate subject, upon which the beautiful lady did not consult her +learned friends. What existed between the duke and the countess did not +concern the Abbé Huet and the Abbé Ménage. It was only to the Marchioness +de Sévigné, or to the Marchioness de Sablé, that she would speak on +such a matter. Besides, in this collection, we have only the letters or +rather notes of Madame de La Fayette; not one of Ménage. Most of them are +autographs, some dictated and signed, all perfectly authentic. M. Tarbé +made a copy of this correspondence, which was sold with the autographs. +It belongs now to M. Feuillet. + +[35] See the dissertation of Madame de Grignan on the _Pure Love_ of +Fénelon, in vol. x. of the works of Madame de Sévigné, p. 518, edition +Montmerqué. + +[36] We shall often return in this work, for example, 1st Part, chap. +ii., to this difference between the literature of Louis XIII. and that +of Louis XIV. We have elsewhere said, Fourth Series, vol. ii., of the +illustrious women of the seventeenth century, p. 13: “Let us go on and +examine the age of Louis XIV. An end has come to the manly vigor of the +times of Richelieu; the freedom of the Fronde has ceased; Louis XIV. has +made politeness and dignity, tempered by good taste, the order of the +day. Fortunate are the minds which have been formed in the strength and +liberty of the preceding age, which receive the polish of the new epoch! +This was the privilege of Madame de Sévigné, as well as of Molière and of +Bossuet.” + +[37] Part i., chap. iii. + +[38] Ibid., chap. iv. + +[39] No one has been duped by the disavowal which he made, for political +purposes, of the passages of these memoirs which concern Condé and his +sister; for they are the very ones which most betray his hand. They +shocked the public conscience, whose interpreter is Madame de Motteville, +vol. v., pp. 114, 115, and 132. + +[40] See Part iii. + +[41] _Mémoires_, edit. of Amsterdam, 1733, p. 12. + +[42] _Mémoires_, vol. ii., p. 15. + +[43] _Mémoires de Guy-Joly_, collection Michaud, 3d Series, vol. ii., p. +15. + +[44] Petitot, vol. li., p. 896. + +[45] Ibid., p. 398, 399. + +[46] Petitot, vol. li., pp. 898, 899. + +[47] Petitot, vol. li., p. 899, etc. + +[48] Petitot, vol. li., p. 462. + +[49] Ibid., p. 401. + +[50] Petitot, vol. lii., p. 9. + +[51] Vol. iii., p. 295. + +[52] Ibid., p. 393. + +[53] _Mémoires_, p. 47. + +[54] Mémoires de La Rochefoucauld, Petitot, vol. lii., p. 24. + +[55] Mémoires de La Rochefouc., Petitot, vol.lii., p. 72. + +[56] Ibid., p. 71. + +[57] Mémoires de La Rochefoucauld, Petitot, vol. lii., pp. 79, 80. + +[58] See Part ii. + +[59] _Mémoires de Madame de Nemours_, p. 150. + +[60] La Rochefoucauld, p. 198 of the edition of 1664: “The Prince de +Condé was warned of the design which she had to ruin his party, by very +extraordinary means, for the interest of Nemours, and feared, that +similarly prejudiced in behalf of another, she might go to the same +extremities if this one should so desire it.” _Was warned_, and by whom, +if not by La Rochefoucauld, who then enjoyed the entire confidence of +Condé? La Rochefoucauld perceived so plainly the odiousness of this +passage, that he afterwards modified and softened it, as may be seen in +the editions of Renouard and Petitot. + +[61] Vol. v., pp. 114, 115. + +[62] Madame de Sévigné doubts it very much. Letter of October 7, 1676: +“I do not believe that he was ever in love.” He says himself in making +his own portrait: “I who know whatever is delicate and strong in the +sentiments of love, if ever I happen to love, it will certainly be in +this manner. But in one of my make, I do not believe that this knowledge +which I possess ever passes from the mind to the heart.” Segrais, +(Mémoires, Anecdotes, edit. d’Amsterdam, 1723, p. 113): “M. de la +Rochefoucauld said that he had never found love except in romances; as +for him, he had never felt it.” + +[63] Vol. v., p. 132. + +[64] Edit. of 1664, pp. 229-282; Petitot, pp. 156-158. + +[65] _Mémoires_, vol. ii., p. 129. + +[66] Some time ago I expressed the same opinion in regard to La +Rochefoucauld, and, as may be seen, I still hold it. See 1st series of my +works, vol. iv., p. 200; 4th series, vol. i., p. 51, and vol. ii., p. 8. + +[67] Mémoires, Anecdotes, p. 31. + +[68] Vol. i., p. 217. + +[69] On the Fronde and its general causes, see Part i., chap. 4. + +[70] See thereon a curious passage of Madame de Motteville, vol. iv., p. +359, etc. + +[71] We borrow the translation that Villefore has given of this part of +the Italian narrative of the cardinal, Part 1st, p. 22. + +[72] Part 1st, p. 44. + +[73] See, in the Library of the Arsenal, Manuscripts of Conrart, in-4ᵒ, +vol. xvi., p. 642, an unpublished letter of Henri de Bourbon to his +mother, upon the assassination of Henri IV., which proves how absurd it +is to accuse him of having been concerned in that assassination. The same +volume contains different writings of the same prince against Marshal +d’Ancre. + +[74] We find in regard to all this, new and curious details in a +_Journal historique et anecdote de la cour et de Paris_, t. xi., in-4ᵒ, +manuscripts of Conrart. This unpublished journal commences January 1, +1614, and goes to January 1, 1620. + +M. the Prince was arrested September 1, 1616, by order of Marshal +d’Ancre, favorite of the queen regent, Marie de Médicis. + +“September 11. Madame the young Princess arrives very much afflicted. +It is said that M. de Montmorency was not pleased that the queen was +unwilling to permit her to see M. le Prince. + +“May 19, 1617. M. le Prince petitions the king to do a charitable deed by +delivering to him his wife, that she might remain a prisoner with him. + +“May 26, 1617. Madame the Princess de Condé goes to salute the king and +supplicate him to let her enter as a prisoner in the Bastile with M. +the Prince. The king grants it to her, and permits her to take with her +only one damsel. Upon which her _petit nain_, having supplicated the +king to be pleased that he should not abandon his mistress, his majesty +also permitted him. The same day, after dinner, Madame the Princess +entered the Bastile, where she was received by M. the Prince with all the +testimonies of friendship that can be imagined; and he gave her no repose +until she had said to him that she pardoned him.” In this same journal, +there has often been a question of the bad conduct of the prince towards +his wife, in regard to which there is not one word of blame. + +“August 31, 1617. The undertaking to save the prince from the Bastile +discovered. + +“September 15, 1617. M. the Prince taken from the Bastile to the wood of +Vincennes.... A long time before he had asked that he might be placed +there in order to have better air. M. de Modène said to him that, mindful +of that, he had pressed the king so much upon the subject, that at last +he had obtained it. M. the Prince responded that in the mean time he had +become accustomed to the air of the Bastile; and thereupon resisted all +that he could, until it was necessary to go. Madame the Princess also +went with him in a coach, having been unwilling to enter a litter. It is +said that in the beginning M. the Prince only thought it was desired to +deprive him of his wife. M. de Vitry, M. de Persan, M. de Modène, were +with him in the coach. After his arrival at the wood of Vincennes, it was +permitted him, about the beginning of October, to walk upon the top of a +thick wall, which is in the form of a gallery. M. de Persan dwelt in the +tower of the wood of Vincennes, in order to guard the prince with the +greatest part of the soldiers that he had with him in the Bastile, and M. +de Cadenet (afterwards Duke and Marshal de Chaulnes, brother of Constable +de Luynes), with a dozen companies of the regiment of Normandy, kept +guard in the court of the château, which the soldiers are not permitted +to leave. + +“About December 20, 1617. Madame the Princess very sick. She is put to +bed in the wood of Vincennes, at seven months, of a still-born child, +and was more than forty-eight hours without motion or feeling. Never was +a person in greater extremity without dying. Among other physicians, M. +Duret and M. Pietre assisted her with extreme care. When M. the Prince +desired that there should be obsequies for this little infant, M. the +Bishop of Paris assembled some theologians, who judged that, since, +not having received baptism, it had not entered into the Church, no +ceremonies ought to be used on the subject of its death. + +“September 5, 1618. Madame the Princess is put to bed of two dead +boys. The king shows great displeasure thereupon. Several persons had +permission to go to see her. + +“March 21, 1619. M. the Prince falls sick. Tuesday, April 2. MM. Hatin, +Duret, and Seguin came to the Louvre to represent the state of the +malady. The cause was attributed to profound melancholy. For several days +he was regarded as hopeless. Madame his mother, Madame the Countess, +Madame de Ventadour, Madame the Countess d’Auvergne, Madame de la +Trémouille, Madame de Fontaines, Madame la Grande, etc., were allowed to +go and visit him. Monday, April 8, the king sent to him his sword by M. +de Cadenet, and wrote to him: ‘My cousin, I am very much grieved at your +illness. I pray you to be comforted. As soon as I shall have set in order +my affairs, I will give you your liberty. Be rejoiced then, and have the +assurance of my friendship. I am, etc.’ + +“August 28, 1619. Between midnight and one o’clock, Madame the Princess +was put to bed of a daughter, in the wood of Vincennes. + +“October 17, 1619. Council held, in which is taken the final resolution +of releasing M. the Prince. + +“October 18. The king goes to Chantilly, to await there M. the Prince. + +“19th. M. de Luynes goes to find M. the Prince at the wood of Vincennes. + +“20th. M. de Luynes goes early in the morning to the wood of Vincennes, +and gets into a carriage with M. the Prince and Madame the Princess, in +which were also MM. de Cadenet and de Modène. He goes to Chantilly to +find the king, and sees him in a cabinet, where, it is said, he falls +upon his knees, and makes extreme protestations of fidelity, and feeling +of obligation, which he had for him. + +“22d. The king returns to Compiègne, accompanied by M. the Prince. Madame +the Princess arrived there and saw the queen the same day.” + +In the xvi. vol. of the same manuscript, p. 933, a French diplomatic +agent transmits the reports spread abroad in the Low Countries, on the +subject of the Prince and Princess de Condé, prisoners at the Bastile +or in Vincennes: “The Princess de Condé, the younger, has written from +there to her own _femme de chambre_ married in that city, that M. the +Prince de Condé was under the impression that he had been poisoned by +his head-cook, named Baucheron, who had practiced and received money for +that purpose, and had escaped; and because he might take refuge in that +country, she charges her to inform the Prince and Princess of Orange, in +order to arrest him if possible. The people of the so-called Prince of +Orange also say, that M. the Prince de Condé has thought of escaping, and +has been betrayed and discovered by one of his domestics, but that he has +still other means for regaining his liberty.” + +[75] _Mémoires de Lenet_, collection of Michaud, 3d series, v. ii., p. +448. + +[76] _Mémoires de Lenet_, Michaud, 3d series, vol. ii., p. 458. + +[77] _Mémoires de Lenet_, Michaud, 3d series, vol. ii., p. 455. + +[78] His eldest brother, who, having taken his title after his death, was +also distinguished for his beauty, his bravery, his gallantry, played an +important part in the life of Madame de Longueville, and perished in a +senseless duel with the Duke de Beaufort, his brother-in-law. + +[79] Paris, 1800, in-8ᵒ. + +[80] There is a constant demand for a collection of the cartularies +of the old abbeys. Why will not some friend of religion and letters +occupy himself with filling up the lacunes, so much to be regretted, of +the _Gallia christiana_, by bringing together, under the name of the +Cartulary of the convent of the Carmelites of the Faubourg Saint-Jacques, +a multitude of pieces which we have held in our hands, which would +establish, upon authentic monuments, the history of that interesting +congregation, from the first years of the seventeenth century to the +French Revolution? All the notes, extracts, and copies, that we have +amassed, belong to him who will undertake to enrich with a new volume of +this kind the _Collection des documents inédits relatifs à l’histoire de +France_. + +[81] For example, Guido, Champagne, and Lebrun. + +[82] Among others, a statue, in white marble, representing the Cardinal +de Bérulle on his knees. This beautiful work is by Jacques Sarrazin, and +is still to be seen in the chapel of the Carmelites. + +[83] General Archives, demesnial section, 1st file, letter C: +“Letters-patent of King Henry IV. for the establishment of the order of +the nuns of Nôtre-Dame of Mount Carmel, verified in parliament October +1, 1602, at the very humble petition of our dear well-beloved cousin, +Demoiselle de Longueville.” And in other pieces it is also said: “The +said lord (King Henry), favorably disposed to the petition of Catherine +d’Orleans, daughter of the late Henri d’Orleans, Duke de Longueville and +de Touteville....” + +[84] Since that time the convent of the Rue Saint-Jacques has been called +the Great Convent, to distinguish it from the house in the Rue Chapon. + +[85] The act of donation which is in the General Archives, was made in +the name of the duchess dowager de Longueville, as well as in the name +of her son, the future husband of Anne de Bourbon. “Madame Catherine +de Gonzagues and de Clèves, Duchess de Longueville and de Touteville, +widow of the late very powerful prince Henri d’Orleans, during his life, +Duke de Longueville and de Touteville, sovereign Count of Neufchâtel and +Valengin, in Switzerland, also Count of Dunois and Tancarville, etc., +dwelling at Paris, in his hôtel de Longueville, Rue des Poulies, parish +of Saint-Germain de l’Auxerrois, as well in his own name as in that of +Monseigneur Henri d’Orleans, his son, also Duke de Longueville and de +Touteville.” ... Catherine de Gonzagues and Clèves was sister of Charles +de Gonzagues, Duke de Nevers, the father of Marie and Anne de Gonzagues, +the queen of Poland and the Palatine. Her son, Henry II., exercised +himself much in playing at tennis, and one of his shoulders became larger +and more elevated than the other. All the skill of the physicians was +powerless. The desolate mother addressed herself to Madame Acarie, then +sister Marie de l’Incarnation. She engaged in prayer previous to the holy +sacrament, and the next day the form of the youth was very much improved. +Through gratitude, the mother and son founded the house of the Rue +Chapon, endowed it with ten thousand crowns in silver, and two thousand +livres a year. The Duke de Longueville testified to this fact before +the Apostolic Commissioners, charged with the beatification of Madame +Acarie. Catherine de Gonzagues died in 1629. We find in the Archives +different acts which prove that the niece of Richelieu, Madame the +Duchess d’Aiguillon, was also one of the benefactresses of both convents. +“Marie Vignerot, Duchess d’Esguillon, dwelling in her hôtel, situated in +Saint-Germain-des-Prés, parish of Saint-Sulpice.”... + +[86] See Gomboust’s plan of Paris, in 1652, and the plan called Turgot’s, +of Paris, in 1740. + +[87] See Malingre, _Antiquités de la Ville de Paris_, in-fol., Paris, +1640, pp. 152 and 153, also pp. 501 and 503, _Nouveaux Mémoires +concernant la maison des Carmélites_; a few lines in the _Histoire de la +Ville de Paris_ of Felibien and of Lobineau, vol. ii., pp. 1268-1271, +and some records in vol. iii. of the _Preuves et Pièces justificatives_, +p. 144. Sauval contains but a page on the Carmelites, vol. i., p. 450. +The best thing in regard to this convent is found in the _Curiosités +de Paris_, 1771, vol. i., pp. 459-463. We take from it the following +description of the church: “Although the main body of this church is +very ancient, it is one of the best decorated in Paris. The great altar +is formed of four marble columns, and is reached by twelve steps, very +ingeniously placed, with a balustrade of marble. All the ornaments of +this altar are of bronze gilded; the tabernacle, which represents the +ark of the covenant, is all of silver; the bas-relief in front is highly +wrought, and represents the Annunciation. Nothing is more sumptuous +than this altar on feast-days. You then see a sun, bright with stones +of great value, accompanied by candlesticks, vases, and other pieces of +goldsmith’s ware, whose quantity equals its magnificence. The picture is +by Guido, and represents the Annunciation. + +“The choir is separated from the nave by four beautiful columns of +sea-green marble, surmounted by flames of gilded bronze of wonderful +beauty and size. The crucifix of bronze, which you see on the door, is +one of the best and highly esteemed of the works of Sarrazin. + +“The vault of the church, upon which numerous stories from the Holy +Scriptures are represented, was painted by Champagne, through the +liberality of Marie de Médicis. Observe in it an excellent piece of +perspective, designed by Des Argues: it is a crucifix, with the Holy +Virgin and St. John, so artistically painted by the same Champagne, that, +on entering the church, they appear upon a perpendicular plane, although +horizontal, which produces an agreeable and singular effect. + +“Above the door of this church there is a beautiful gallery, containing +statues of Saint Peter, of Saint Paul, and of Saint Michael overcoming +the devil. + +“All the chapels are magnificent: the most beautiful pictures and +gildings adorn all parts of it; neatness and good taste reign throughout. + +“The twelve pictures ornamented with gilded frames, which are placed +under the windows, represent subjects drawn from the New Testament, +and were painted by very skilful masters. The first, at the right on +entering, represents the _Resurrection of Lazarus_; the second, _The +Circumcision of our Lord_; the third, _The Adoration of the Magi_; the +fourth, _The Assumption of the Holy Virgin_; the fifth, _The Descent of +the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles_; the sixth, _The Birth of our Lord_. +These six pictures were also painted by the celebrated Champagne, and +are very highly esteemed. On the other side, the first represents the +_Miracle of the Five Loaves_, by Stella; the second, _The Madeline at the +feet of our Lord, at the house of Simon the Pharisee_—it is one of the +finest works of the famous Le Brun; the third, _The Entry of Jesus Christ +into Jerusalem_, by La Hire; the fourth, _Christ at the side of Jacob’s +well, talking with the Samaritan woman_, by Stella; the fifth, _Christ +served in the Desert by Angels_—this is also by Le Brun; the sixth, _The +Appearance of our Lord to the three Marys_, by La Hire. + +“Opposite to the choir of the nuns, observe the great picture +representing _the Annunciation_; it is an excellent work by Guido, who +painted it for Queen Marie de Médicis. + +“Look afterwards at the chapel of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine; it is one +of the most ornamented. You will there see the statue of Cardinal de +Bérulle, made in marble by Sarrazin, in 1657; it is raised upon a +marble pedestal, upon which are excellent bas-reliefs, by Lestocart, a +famous sculptor. These bas-reliefs represent the Holy Sacrifice of the +Mass, and that also performed by Noah, when he left the ark. You will +also see in this chapel, all covered with pictures, one of the most +perfect paintings ever produced by the famous Le Brun; it represents the +_Penitent Madeleine_. Grief and repentance are so vividly expressed in +this, and the skill of the excellent master so well proved by all the +accompaniments, that you can find nothing more finished and more perfect. +The life of this saint is represented in the wainscot of this beautiful +chapel.” + +[88] _Histoire manuscrite_, t. ii. + +[89] We have elsewhere established that of the three sources of human +knowledge, intuition, induction, and deduction, the first is much the +most fertile and the most elevated. It is intuition, which, by its own +spontaneous power, discovers directly and without the aid of reflection, +all essential truths; it is the source of light to the human race; the +voice that speaks to prophets and poets; the principle of all inspiration +of enthusiasm, and of that unalterable and sure faith, that astonishes +reasoning which is compelled to treat it as a folly, because it cannot +account for it by its ordinary processes. See the _Cours de Philosophie_, +particularly, First Series, vol. v., p. 301; and Second Series, vol. i., +Lecture vi., pp. 131-141, etc. + +[90] See the _Vie de la Mère Madeleine de Saint-Joseph, religieuse +Carmélite déchaussée_, by a priest of the Oratoire (Father Senault): +Paris, 1655, in-4ᵒ. There is a second edition, of 1670, augmented. The +Carmelites still have the head of their venerable mother. It is powerful +and large. A portrait of her, preserved by the convent, exhibits in her +face great strength of character. It has been many times engraved. + +[91] The Carmelites have a small portrait, painted on wood, of Mother +Marie de Jésus, somewhat advanced in life, but of a noble and sweet +visage. It has been engraved by Regnesson. + +[92] _Histoire manuscrite_, vol. ii. + +[93] _Histoire manuscrite_, vol. ii. + +[94] The Carmelites were very willing to let me see the portrait, +painted upon canvas, of Mother Marie-Madeleine, which does not belie her +reputation for beauty. The face is of the most perfect oval; the eyes are +of the finest and deepest blue; the forehead is noble; the general aspect +is full of grandeur and grace. It would be difficult to find any thing +more beautiful. + +[95] We will mention the best known of the general visitors of the +order: in 1614, the Cardinal de Bérulle; in 1619, Father de Condren, the +second general of the Oratoire; in 1627, the Abbé de Bérulle, nephew +of the cardinal, etc. Among the superiors of the monastery, we find, +in the earlier period, Father Gibieuf, a learned oratorien, one of +the correspondents of Descartes; later, in 1662, M. Ferret, doctor in +theology, and curate of Saint-Nicholas-du-Chardonnet; in 1678, M. Pirot, +a doctor of the Sorbonne; in 1715, M. Vivant, grand vicar of Cardinal +de Noailles; in 1747, the Bishop of Bethlehem, celebrated for having +extirpated Jansenism, which had been introduced among the Carmelites at +the close of the preceding century. + +[96] Her letters from Spain to Madame de Coulanges, are, for +attractiveness of style, much superior to those of Madame des Ursins. +Letters de Madame de Villars, etc., Paris, 1806 and 1823, and what Madame +de Sévigné says of her, letters of October 8, 1679, and February 28, 1680. + +[97] The painted portrait that has been shown me, represents her in fact +as having the most happy face, with charming blue eyes and beautiful +forehead, and a look at once lively and agreeable. + +[98] Letter of January 5, 1680. + +[99] Letter of November 22, 1688. + +[100] Edition of Lebel, vol. xxxix., p. 690. + +[101] Varying from our manuscripts: _weighed_. + +[102] An autograph billet, for which we are indebted to the Carmelite +ladies. + +[103] This fixes the date of the note: it is therefore a little while +after the death of Mother Madeleine de Saint-Joseph; that is, in 1637. + +[104] Several lines effaced and wholly illegible, and half of a page cut. + +[105] Mademoiselle Nicolas, born at Bordeaux, agreeable in person and +mind, say our manuscripts, and pleasing to everybody. Having read, when +quite a child, the Life of Catherine de Sienne, she devoted herself +to imitating her, and joined the Carmelites at nineteen, and died +at thirty-three. There is a small portrait of her, very well made, +representing her in ecstasy. + +[106] Paris, 1774, in-12ᵒ. + +[107] Vol. 1st, p. 369. + +[108] Ibid., p. 74. + +[109] Vol. 1st, p. 79. + +[110] Ibid., p. 124. + +[111] Vol. 1st, p. 146. + +[112] The King of Poland, Wladislas, had just espoused Marie de Gonzague, +daughter of the Duke de Nevers, sister of the Palatine. After the death +of this first husband, she passed with the crown to his brother Casimir, +whom Mademoiselle d’Epernon had refused. + +[113] Her mother-in-law, Marie de Cambout, niece of Richelieu, whom the +cardinal had married to the Duke d’Epernon, as he had married another +of his nieces, Mademoiselle de Brézé, to the Duke d’Enghien. Madame +d’Epernon was ill-treated by her husband, and died in retreat, in 1691. +She was sister of the Abbé du Cambout de Pontchâteau, a celebrated +Jansenist. See two portraits of her among the portraits of Mademoiselle. + +[114] It is worth while to see, in the Abbé Montis, the great resistance +which Mademoiselle d’Epernon had to overcome from her brother, the +Duke de Candale, and especially from her father, who appealed to the +parliament and to the pope; the death of the Duke de Candale, his remains +carried to the Carmelites; the conversion of the duke through the +instrumentality of his daughter, the finest portions of her life and her +pious death. She was one of the benefactresses. _Histoire manuscrite_, +vol. 1st, p. 558. “The gifts bestowed by Anne-Marie de Jésus amounted to +more than a hundred and fifty thousand livres. Besides this immense sum, +the Duke d’Epernon, her father, dying in 1661, without heirs, bequeathed +to it a hundred thousand livres over and above the sixteen thousand which +he left as a pious legacy. This lord had already assigned to the house, +during the life of our very honored Sister Anne-Marie, three thousand +livres pension, finding that the sixteen thousand livres, which were +regarded as her dowry, was too slender a sum, and sufficient only to +endow a lady who had followed her.” The lady here alluded to, and of whom +Mademoiselle also speaks, was named Bouchereau. “Being,” says the Abbé +Montis (p. 34), “of an agreeable form, she occupied herself with things +quite as fragile; but she finally turned her attention to religion, +and, desiring to become a nun, and guessing the views of Mademoiselle +d’Epernon, she opened her heart to her, and begged to be allowed to +follow her, which was readily granted.” Mademoiselle Bouchereau died +during her novitiate, before making a profession. + +It is through error that, on the faith of the Abbé Mentis, in the +abridged Life of the Mother, joined to that of Mademoiselle d’Epernon, p. +291, the learned editor of the works of Bossuet supposes, vol. xxxiv., +p. 690, “the beautiful letter on the Mother Agnès is addressed to Madame +d’Epernon, prioress of the Carmelites of the Faubourg Saint-Jacques,” +for Mademoiselle d’Epernon—it was thus that she was called—and not +Madame d’Epernon, was never prioress. Bossuet wrote to the prioress who +succeeded the Mother Agnès, either the Mother Claire du Saint-Sacrement, +who died as he entered upon his office; or rather to the one who almost +immediately took her place, that is, the Mother Marie du Saint-Sacrement; +in the world, Madame de La Thuillerie, who took her vows in 1654, was +prioress from 1691 to 1700, and died in 1705. Our manuscripts contain +several ancient copies of the letter of Bossuet, all bearing the +inscription: _To the Mother of the Saint-Sacrement_. + +In 1680, Madame de Sévigné, accompanying Mademoiselle to the Carmelites, +there saw Mademoiselle d’Epernon, and found her very much altered. +Letter of the 5th of January, 1680: “I was yesterday at the convent of +the Carmelites with Mademoiselle, who was good enough to ask Madame +Lesdiguières to take me there. We entered this holy place. I was +delighted with Mother Agnès. She spoke to me of you, whom she seemed +to know through her sister (Madame the Marchioness de Villars). I saw +Madame de Stuart, beautiful and contented (she made a profession this +very year, say our manuscripts, under the name of Sister Marguerite de +Saint-Augustin, and died in 1722). I saw Madame d’Epernon.... More than +thirty years had elapsed since we had seen one another: she seemed to be +horribly changed.” + +And nevertheless, without being a great beauty, she was the worthy sister +of the beautiful Candale. The convent of the Carmelites possesses several +pictures of her. One is quite large, representing her between forty and +fifty, pale and sick, but still agreeable. The best and most perfectly +preserved, represents her young and charming. Her figure is delicate and +graceful, but of that fragile grace which years do not respect. She is +painted with a smile upon her lips, and such as she was in the world. It +is probably the portrait of Beaubrun, engraved by Edelinck. + +[115] Vol. 1st. + +[116] L’Histoire manuscrite, vol. 1st, contains the epitaphs of Michel de +Marillac, of Marguerite and Catherine d’Orleans, of Madame the Princess, +of the Princess de Conti, etc. When the keeper of the seals, Marillac, +was arrested, the Mother Madeleine de Saint-Joseph tried, in every way, +to serve and console him in his misfortune. Regardless of the opinion +of Richelieu, who was then more powerful than ever, and who was the +protector of the order, she caused an exposition of the eucharist during +sixty days and sixty nights; procured the offering of a large number of +prayers; she wrote often to the pious exile; implored the cardinal to +have him treated with less rigor; and after his death earnestly sought +and obtained his body from Châteaudun; erected to him a tomb at the base +of the sanctuary in the chapel of Saint Thérèse, and composed herself +this epitaph: “Here lies Messire Michel de Marillac, keeper of the seals +of France, who, having been raised to this and other dignities, has +always preserved an esteem for true honors and eternal riches, doing +many good works, loving justice, seeking the glory of God, sustaining +his Church, succoring the oppressed, giving all that he had to the poor; +and when he was, by Providence, deprived of all, he showed his great +magnanimity and contempt of earthly things; living contentedly, and +journeying on to a holy death, by which he passed from this world to +another, in the year of grace 1682.” + +[117] _Histoire manuscrite_, vol. 1st, pp. 491, 492. + +[118] Villefore, p. 13. + +[119] Villefore, p. 14. + +[120] Manuscript of André d’Ormesson, fol. 332, verso.—It was on the +occasion of the ballet of the 18th of February, 1635, that the _Gazette +de France_ cited, for the first time, the name of Mademoiselle de +Bourbon. The extra of the 21st of February, gives a full account of the +fête of the 18th. It describes all the scenes of the ballet of the king, +names all the great lords who danced in it, and concludes thus: “Such was +the grand ballet of the queen, which so delighted all who were present +that they were unable to decide which was most charming, the beauties +who adorned, the gems with which they glittered, or the figures which +represented those _sixteen_ divinities of which it was composed: the +queen, _Mademoiselle de Bourbon_, Mesdames de Longueville (the first wife +of the Duke de Longueville), de Montbazon, de Chaulnes, de La Valette, +de Retz, Mademoiselle de Rohan, Mesdames de Lyancourt and de Mortemart, +Mesdemoiselles de Senecé, de Hautefort, d’Esche, de Vieux-Pont, de +Saint-Georges and de La Fayette, who did not quit it until three o’clock +in the morning. Every one left this place of marvels with the feelings of +Jacob, who, having seen angels in the night, thought that he was standing +upon the spot where heaven and earth united.” + +[121] _Mémoire pour servir à l’histoire de la Société polie en France_; +Paris, in-8ᵒ, 1835. See also M. Walckenær: _Mémoires touchant la Vie et +les Ecrits de Madame de Sévigné_, vol. 1st, chap. iv. and v. + +[122] The very word _urbanity_ is from Balzac, one of the first and most +illustrious frequenters of the house. + +[123] The Château de Rambouillet, above Versailles, ten leagues from +Paris. Francis I. died here. + +[124] One to Madame the Duchess d’Aiguillon, relating to a certain +water-course: Tallemant, vol. ii., p. 228. The other, her epitaph, +preserved by Ménage in his _Observations on the Poetry of Malherbe_. + +[125] Vol. ii., p. 233. + +[126] I do not know where M. Rœderer got the idea that Madame de +Rambouillet wrote so simply. Here is one of her billets, which could not +have led the person to whom it is addressed to speak of _simplicity_, +as M. Rœderer does of the letters of Madame de Rambouillet, and of her +daughter to Voiture; we speak from conjecture, for these letters have not +been seen by us. The one we give here was found among the manuscripts of +Conrart, in the Library of the Arsenal, vol. xiv., in-4ᵒ, p. 53; it is +addressed to Godeau, by turns Bishop of Grasse and of Vence: + + “SIR:—If my carabineer-poet or poetic carabineer (Arnault, + Colonel of Carabineers, a distinguished warrior, a man of great + wit, but a satirist, and a person enough like Bussy) was in + Paris, I would reply to you in verse, and not in prose; but for + myself I have no familiarity with the muses. I return a million + thanks for your kind wishes; and in recompense, I wish every + moment that you were in a lodge, where I am sure you would + sleep better than you do at Vence. It is supported by columns + of transparent marble, and was built above the mid-region + of the air by Queen Zirfée. The sky there is always serene; + clouds darken neither the sight nor the understanding, and + thence quite at my ease I have considered the downfall of the + terrestrial Angel. It seems to me that on this occasion fortune + has shown that it is a slander to say that she favors only the + young. And because I am no more the subject of change than my + lodge, you may rest assured that I shall continue so as long as + I live. + + “Sir, + + “Your very humble servant, + + ↃC (Catherine) DE VIVONNE.” + + _June 26, 1642._ + +[127] The works of Segrais, Amsterdam, 1723, vol. 1st. _Mémoires +Anecdotes_, p. 29. + +[128] On Mademoiselle de Rambouillet, Pisani, and his sisters, see +Tallemant, vol. ii., pp. 207-262. + +[129] Edition of 1659, pp. 118-121. + +[130] See Saural, _Antiquités de Paris_, vol. iii., p. 200, and the +plan of Paris by Gomboust. These hôtels, or rather their ruins, have +just entirely disappeared, with the Rue Saint-Thomas-du-Louvre, to the +advantage of the Place du Carrousel. May this admirable place preserve +its grandeur, so dearly bought, and no transversal building spoil +the beautiful harmony of the Louvre and the Tuileries! May also some +competent and industrious man, devoted to the study of Paris and its +monuments, resolve not to let the Rue Saint-Thomas-du-Louvre perish +without giving its description and a history faithful to the epoch of its +greatest glory. + +[131] _Mémoires_, vol. 1st, p. 18. + +[132] Ed. of Amsterdam. Petitot, vol. xxxvi. of the collection, p. 841, +proposes to read _husesas_, from _huso_, spindle. The true reading seems +_finezas_. + +[133] It is very certain that the author of _Mirame_ show some littleness +in the ridiculous quarrel raised against _The Cid_; but it must be +acknowledged that he had some State reasons not to be despised. He +who had brought about the royal edict against duels could not endure +verses in their honor; there was also in _The Cid_ more than one +word unfavorable to the prime ministers. Besides, the cardinal loved +Corneille; he gave him a good pension, and even performed the marriage +ceremony for him. One day Corneille having presented himself more sad and +thoughtful than ordinary before the Cardinal Richelieu, the latter asked +him if he was working. Corneille replied that he was far from having +the tranquillity necessary for composition, that his head was turned +with love. It was necessary to explain the whole matter, and he told the +cardinal that he was passionately in love with the daughter of Lieutenant +General d’Andely, and that he could not obtain her from her father. The +cardinal requested this father, so hard to please, to come to him at +Paris. He arrived trembling at receiving such an unexpected order, and +returned very glad to get off with giving his daughter to a man in such +high credit. See the brothers Parfait, _History of the French Theatre_, +vol. v., p. 304. + +[134] Works of Balzac, in-fol., vol. ii., p. 419. + +[135] Maitre Vincent, etc. + +[136] Letter of November 24, 1676. + +[137] Third Satire. + +[138] Tallemant, ii., p. 295. + +[139] Edit. of Saint-Surin, vol. iv., p. 375. + +[140] See in the _Œuvres diverses_ of Corneille, ed. of Amsterdam, 1740, +p. 174, the elegy containing a declaration of love: it is not dated, but +must have been written during the youth of Corneille, and even before his +glory, for he does not speak of it, whilst later he uses a very different +tone. The lady to whom his elegy is addressed, must have been of good +birth, if the young poet is to be believed. He paints finely the passage +from admiration to love: + + Mais de ce sentiment la flatteuse imposture + N’empêcha pas le mal pour cacher la blessure, + Et ce soin d’admirer, qui dure plus d’un jour, + S’il n’est amour dejà, devient bientôt amour. + Un je ne sais quel trouble où je me vis réduire + De cette vérité sut assez tôt m’instruire: + Par d’inquiets transports me sentant émouvoir, + J’en connus le sujet quand j’osai vous revoir. + ... + Un désordre confus m’expliqua mon martyre: + Je voulus vous parler, mais je ne sus que dire. + Je rougis, je pàlis, et d’un tacite aveu + Je n’aime point, dis je, hélas! qu’il s’en faut peu! etc. + +The piece entitled _Jalousie_, and which is not finished, has parts which +seem written by Molière. + + Le plus léger chagrin d’une humeur inégale, + Le moindre égarement d’un mauvais intervalle, + Un souris par mégarde à ses yeux dérobé, + Un coup d’œil par hasard sur un autre tombé, + ... + Tout cela fait pour lui de grands crimes d’État, + Et plus l’amour est fort, plus il est délicat. + +Corneille felt a tender sentiment for the Marchioness de B. A. T. (we are +ignorant of the name of the person concealed under these initials). He +speaks of himself now in a very different manner from that of his youth, +and he turns the honors of his glory to the profit of his love: + + Je connais mes défauts, mais aprés tout je pense + Être pour vous encore un captif d’importance, + Car vous aimez le gloire, et vous savez qu’un roi + No vous en peut jamais assurer tant que moi, etc. + +Corneille bid adieu to her whose love he despairs of obtaining; he yields +to younger rivals: + + Négligez-moi pour eux, mals dites en vous-même: + Moins il me veut aimer, plus il fait voir qu’il m’aime, + Et m’aime d’autant plus que son cœur enflammé + N’ose même aspirer au bonheur d’être aimé. + Je fais tous ses plaisirs, j’ai toutes ses pensées, + Sans que le moindre espoir les ait intéressées. + Puisse-je malgré vous y penser au peu moins, + M’échapper quelque jour vers quelques autres soins, + Trouver quelques plaisirs ailleurs qu’en votre idée, + Et voir toute mon âme un peu moins obsédée; + Et vous, de qui je n’ose attendre jamais rien, + Ne ressentir jamais un mal pareil au mien! + +I will not quote, but indicate the stanzas addressed to the same person, +and which express the same sentiments in a different meter: + + Marquise, si mon visage + A quelques traits un peu vieux, etc. + +[141] Vol. ii., p. 87. The first edition of Voiture is that given by his +nephew, Pinchesne, almost immediately after his death, in 1650, in-4ᵒ, +and which is dedicated to Condé. There was already a seventh edition, +in-12ᵒ, in 1665. The last and most complete is that, of 1745, 2 vol., +small in-8ᵒ. It is this that we shall quote. + +[142] Vol. ii., p. 66. It was the ancient hôtel de Gondi, _the most +magnificent of the times_, says again Sauval, _Ibid._, p. 131. Perelle +has engraved the hôtel and the gardens. + +[143] Lenet, edit. Michaud, pp. 447 and 450. + +[144] One is deceived in expecting to become acquainted with the great +Condé, by seeing the celebrated portrait of Nanteuil. This portrait is of +1662. It represents Condé fatigued and grown old, after the civil war. We +must look for the conqueror of Rocroy and of Lens, in the portraits of +Haret, of Michel Lasne, and especially of Duret. + +[145] See farther on. + +[146] _Mémoires anecdotes_, p. 108. + +[147] Farther on, chap. iv. + +[148] Observe the style in which he writes from Grasse, the 18th +December, 1637, to Mademoiselle de Bourbon: “Mademoiselle, I am proud to +learn that she, who occupies all hearts, should fear that she is not in +my memory. Though it were a temple, you should there have a place; judge, +then, whether I have no interest in preserving you in it, in order that +you may render it precious, poor and unfaithful as it was before. It is +principally at the altar, Mademoiselle, that you are present with me. +I truly ask God to add other lilies to those of your crown, but I ask +him, also, to mingle with them the love of the thorns of his Son, and to +strengthen you in the generous contempt of the grandeur in which I have +seen (an allusion to the thought entertained by Mademoiselle de Bourbon +of becoming a Carmelite).” Elsewhere, May 3, 1641...... “Our Lord is very +good, but he is jealous, and he would prefer that we should never have +tasted his spirit, than to become disgusted with it, and suffer it to be +quenched. Roses have thorns which defend their beauty, but princesses are +in the midst of roses which do not secure them against the temptations +which the pleasures of the world inspire....” See _Letters of M. Godeau, +Bishop of Vence, on different subjects_; Paris, 1718, p. 17 and p. 148. + +[149] _De la Fausseté des Vertus humaines_, by M. Esprit; in-12ᵒ, two +vol., Paris, 1678. + +[150] _The most excellent Buildings of France_, in-fol., 1607, vol. ii. +Many plates of the castle, none of the garden. + +[151] _Views of the finest Buildings of France_, by Perelle.—_General +view of the Château de Chantilly, of its canals, fountains, and groves_, +etc. + +[152] Bossuet, funeral oration on the great Condé. + +[153] Edition Michaud, p. 229. + +[154] _Œuvres de Sarrazin_, at Paris, in-4ᵒ, 1656, p. 231. This first +edition was reproduced in two small volumes in 1663, and in 1685. +In 1674, appeared the _Nouvelles Œuvres de Sarrazin_, in two parts, +containing prose and verse. + +[155] Mademoiselle Chateignier de La Rocheposay, one of the prettiest +of women, and much courted by the Duke de Candale, the brother of +Mademoiselle d’Epernon. + +[156] See the pretty engraving of Parelle. + +[157] Edit. of 1745, vol. 1st, etc. _Our Aurora_, hitherto perfectly +unknown, is in fact Mademoiselle de Bourbon herself, according to an +old tradition preserved by the manuscript collection of songs, called +_Recueil de Maurepas_, for opposite to the first couplet this note is +found: _For Mademoiselle de Bourbon, sleeping_. + +[158] _Ibid._, p. 170. See also the song to Madame la Princesse, to the +air _Des Landriri_; ibid., p. 129. + +[159] See the different views of Ruel, by Parelle. + +[160] Paris, in-4ᵒ, 1641. + +[161] _Reglement donné par une dame de haute qualité à madame sa +petit-fille_, published first in 1698, reprinted in 1779. + +[162] Tallemant, vol. iv., p. 806. + +[163] Cotin has made an exact _Déscription de Liancourt_ in his _Œuvres +galantes_, second edition, 1665, pp. 108-115. + +[164] Manuscripts of Conrart, in-4ᵒ, vol. xi., p. 443. + +[165] _Ibid._, p. 851. + +[166] The cardinal, now old and sick, was as much dreaded by these young +girls as the small-pox, from which they had been flying. + +[167] Tallemant, vol. ii., p. 337, attributes these couplets to +Bachaumont; Madame de Motteville, vol. iii., p. 230, gives them without +the author’s name, and they are found with many others in a long +mazarinade, entitled, _Triolets de Saint-Germain_, in-4ᵒ, 1649. + +[168] Library of the Arsenal, _Belles-Lettres Françaises_, No. 70, +collection in-fol., entitled: _Chansons Notées_, vol. ii., p. 66. + +[169] Manuscripts of Conrart, in-4ᵒ, vol. xi., p. 848. + +[170] Manuscripts of Conrart, in-4ᵒ, vol. xi., p. 848. + +[171] Writing in verse had become a great amusement with all this young +and ingenious society. Vol. xiii. of the Manuscripts of Conrart, in-fol., +p. 337, contains an epistle in verse to the Duke d’Enghien, when he was +at Dijon, and only twenty years of age. + +[172] Mémoires, vol. vi., p. 105. “This lady did not hate the court. She +desired general approbation, and especially the approbation of those who +had credit, for naturally she had a greediness for all that is called +favor.”—_Ibid._, p. 167. “According to what I have said of Madame de +Montausier, it is easy to judge that she must have been agreeable to the +king, not only because she had fine qualities, but because the merit +which she possessed was entirely conformed to the fashion of the world. +One day that the queen-mother had unwillingly received Mademoiselle de +La Vallière, Madame de Montausier applauded this condescension, which +had given Queen Maria-Theresa so much pain.”—_Ibid._ “I cannot help, in +this place, mentioning a circumstance which may show how much the hearts +and minds of people of court are ordinarily spoiled. At the moment when +the queen had commanded me to go and speak to the queen her mother, I +met Madame de Montausier, who was rejoicing over the very matter that +had thrown the queen into despair. She said to me with an exclamation of +joy: Ah! Madame, the queen-mother has done an admirable act in wishing +to see La Vallière. See the tact of a very shrewd woman and of a good +politician. But, added this lady, she is so feeble that we cannot hope +that she will sustain this act as she should. I was truly astonished to +see the operations of different sentiments in different persons, and, +unwilling to reply, I quitted her.... The Duke de Montausier, who had +the reputation of a man of honor, caused in me, about the same time, a +similar pain, for, in speaking of the ill-feeling which the queen-mother +entertained towards the Countess de Brancas, he said to me these words: +Ah! truly the queen is very pleasant to be offended, because Madame +de Brancas is so complaisant towards the king as to keep company with +Mademoiselle de La Vallière. If she were cunning and wise, she would be +very glad that the king was in love with Mademoiselle de Brancas, for, +being the daughter of the first officer in her service (the Count de +Brancas was chevalier d’honneur of the queen-mother), he, his wife and +his daughter, would be of great advantage to her with the king.” When +the amours of the king with Madame de Montespan commenced, Madame de +Montausier was not more severe, _Mémoires de Mademoiselle_, vol. v., p. +254: “Madame de Montespan took up her quarters in the room belonging to +Madame de Montausier, near that of the king; and it was observed that +a sentinel, who had been placed in the passage communicating with the +lodging of the king and that of Madame de Montespan, had been removed.... +I am told, said the queen, that it is Madame de Montausier who conducts +this intrigue, that she deceives me, that the king visits Madame de +Montespan in her room. Madame de Montausier said to the queen: Since +your Majesty would be made to believe that I give mistresses to the +king, what injury may any one expect to escape? The queen replied to her +in equivocal terms: I know more than you think; I am not the dupe of +any one.” Appearances were all against Madame de Montausier. Also, at +a later period, Montespan, who was evil-minded enough to misinterpret +the honor done by the king to his wife, made for Madame Montausier a +most disagreeable scene. Madame de Montausier complained to the king, +who sent for Montespan, for the purpose of putting him in prison. See +_Mademoiselle_, vol. vi., 82: “This affair made a great noise in the +world, because it was an extraordinary outrage upon a woman who had +thus far sustained an excellent reputation. M. de Montausier was at +Rambouillet; he did not know of the affair; they even said that it was +concealed from him; others imagined that he knew it, but that it was for +his advantage to seem ignorant. A little while after he was made tutor of +the Dauphin, etc.” + +[173] If it is true, as several contemporaries assure us, and among +others, Segrais, that Montausier had served as a model for the +_Misanthrope_, it was because Molière, who did not search things closely, +has taken a difficult virtue for reality. But Molière told his secret to +no one, and probably there is no secret here except that of genius. The +_Misanthrope_ is not the copy of any original. Many originals have been +before the great observer, and furnished him with a thousand particular +traits; but the entire and complete character of the _Misanthrope_ is his +own creation. + +[174] Tallemant, vol. ii., p. 243: “Our marquis, seeing that his religion +was an obstacle to his designs, changed it. He said that salvation could +be obtained in either; but in the change he seems to have consulted his +interest.” + +[175] Every one called her Elizabeth, and she is thus named in the +most authentic printed documents; but in all our manuscripts she never +signs herself Elizabeth, but almost always Isabelle. See several or her +autograph letters among the papers of Lenet in the National Library. A +manuscript piece, the judicial evidence given by Madame de Châtillon +before an ecclesiastical commission delegated by the Pope, in the matter +of the canonization of the Mother Madeleine de Saint-Joseph, can leave no +doubt; Madame de Châtillon deposes thus: “My name is Isabelle Angélique +de Montmorency; I am a native of the city of Paris; I am thirty-two years +of age, daughter of Henry François de Montmorency, Count de Boutteville +and other places, and of Isabelle Angélique de Vienne, his lawful wife; +I am widow of Gaspard de Coligny, Duke de Châtillon....” and she signs: +“Moy, Isabelle Angélique de Montmorency.” + +[176] Lenet, ed. Mich., p. 437. + +[177] See long details on this subject in Madame de Motteville, vol. 1st, +p. 292, etc. + +[178] _Œuvres de Voiture_, vol. ii., p. 174, Epistle to M. de Coligny. + +[179] _Œuvres de Sarrazin_, in-4ᵒ; Poésies, p. 74. + +[180] Madame de Motteville, vol. iii., p. 133, etc. + +[181] See on Madame de Montbazon, the chapter which follows, and, on +Madame de Châtillon, the INTRODUCTION. + +[182] We are not very well acquainted with the origin and history of the +Du Vigeans. We find a Protestant Vigean in the States-General in 1615, +where he performed an active part.—_Journal historique et anecdotes de la +cour et de Paris_, among the manuscript papers of Conrart; in-4ᵒ, vol. +xi., p. 238. + +[183] Letter of Voiture to Madame Du Vigean, in sending him an elegy +which he had made and which she had asked, vol. i., p. 27. It is +also Madame Du Vigean whom he designates by the name of the _Belle +Baronne_, in two couplets, at page 120 and 127 of vol. ii. It seems +that the Du Vigeans resided at first in the quarter Saint-Germain, as +well as Madame d’Aiguillon, and that she afterwards resided in the Rue +Saint-Thomas-du-Louvre. + +[184] Tallemant, vol. ii., p. 32, and Library of the Arsenal, _Collection +of Historical Songs_, vol. i., p. 149. + +[185] _Œuvres_, vol. i., pp. 20-25; letter tenth to the Cardinal de La +Valette. + +[186] Desmarets, _Œuvres poétique_, in-4ᵒ, 1641, pp. 18-21. + +[187] Vol. ii., fol. 801. + +[188] Vol. i., p. 181. + +[189] _Ibid._, p. 186. + +[190] Library of the Arsenal, manuscripts of Conrart, in-4ᵒ, vol. xi., +p. 855.—Devices were then in fashion; at a later period Mademoiselle +placed portraits in them, and Madame Sablé maxims and thoughts. These +devices had nothing official in them, and in that they resembled what +are now called fancy seals, which must not be confounded with family +arms. Individuals made devices for themselves and others; they had them +printed, and they are regarded as true works of art. There is in the +Arsenal, _Belles-Lettres Françaises_, No. 348, a collection, in-folio, +upon vellum, of great beauty. It had been made for the Duchess de La +Trémouille, whose portrait is found among those of Mademoiselle. Each +device occupies an entire leaf. We find here those of Anne of Austria, of +Madame the Princess, of Mademoiselle de Montpensier, and of many other +illustrious females of the seventeenth century. We limit ourselves to +giving the device of Madame de Longueville. It is very different from +that of Mademoiselle de Bourbon. It is a bunch of lilies upon a nest of +serpents, with these words: _Meo moriuntur odore_. + +[191] Fol., 332, verso. + +[192] _Mémoires_, vol. iii., p. 893. See also vol. iv., p. 89. + +[193] Deposition in the affair of the beatification of the Mother +Madeleine de Saint-Joseph: “I, Sister Marthe Poussar du Vigean, called de +Jésus, aged 28 years.... November 17, 1650.” + +[194] _Mémoires de Lenet_, edit. Michaud, p. 550. + +[195] Lenet, edit. Michaud, p. 550. + +[196] Lenet, _ibid._ + +[197] _Ibid._ + +[198] _Supplément Français_, No. 925. The author seems to be called +Maupassant. “It is the custom,” says he, in commencing, “of all those +who write history, to wish to appear faithful, disinterested, and exempt +from all passion. For my part, I do not pretend to persuade any one of +my sincerity, but I dare to declare that I have seen most of the things +which I undertake to write about.” + +[199] Mémoires de Madame de Motteville, vol. i., p. 295: “The Duke +d’Enghien had so strong a passion for Mademoiselle Du Vigean, that I have +heard Madame Du Vigean, her mother, say that he had often wished to break +his marriage, having been forced to espouse the Duchess d’Enghien, in +order that he might marry her daughter, and that he had even labored to +this end. I have heard Madame de Montausier, who knew these intrigues, +say that this prince had pretended to love Mademoiselle de Boutteville, +by the express order of Mademoiselle Du Vigean, in order to conceal +in public the friendship which he had for her, but that the beauty of +Mademoiselle de Boutteville having frightened Mademoiselle Du Vigean, +she had forbidden him, a little after, to see her and to speak to her, +and that he had obeyed her so promptly, that all at once he ceased all +intercourse with her, and that, to show that he had no affection for her, +he caused her to marry Dandelot.” + +[200] Mémoires de Madame de Motteville, p. 294. + +[201] _Ibid._ + +[202] _Mémoires de Mademoiselle_, vol. 1st, p. 84. + +[203] Mémoires, vol. i., p. 302. + +[204] The Marquis d’Huxelles died in 1658, of his wounds, and of his +chagrin on account of not receiving the appointment of Marshal. The +office was conferred upon his son in 1703. Mademoiselle d’Huxelles was +amiable and sprightly. She died at an advanced age in 1712. + +[205] _Mémoires de Lenet_, part i., p. 207. + +[206] _Mémoires de Mademoiselle_, vol. i., p. 84. + +[207] As every thing then was the subject of songs, the two following +couplets, which we find among the _Chansons Notées_ of the Arsenal, were +written upon this occasion: + +SUR L’AIR: _Laire lan lère._ + + Lorsque Vigean quitta la cour, + Les Jeux, les Graces, les Amours + Entrèrent dans le Monastère. + Laire la laire lan lère, + Laire la laire lan la. + + Les Jeux pleurèrent ce jour-là; + Ce jour la Beauté se voila, + Et fit vœu d’être solitaire. + Laire la laire, etc. + +[208] _Ibid._ The remembrance which Condé preserved for Mademoiselle +Du Vigean was such, that Mademoiselle asserts, vol. i., p. 88, that if +Condé favored Chabot in his designs upon Mademoiselle de Rohan, it was +because Chabot had been his confidant with Mademoiselle Du Vigean. “So,” +says she, “after having been served during one of the most important +periods of his life, it is not wonderful that he took care to promote the +marriage so desired by Chabot.” + +[209] It was customary to take in religion one’s baptismal name, as +Louise de La Vallière was called Louise de La Miséricorde, and Anne Marie +d’Epernon, Anne Marie de Jésus, etc. + +[210] Vol. v. + +[211] _Lettres originales_, vol. iv. + +[212] Villefore, pp. 37, 38. + +[213] _Mémoires_, edition of Amsterdam, 1735; vol. i., p. 45. + +[214] A fine portrait of M. de Longueville, painted by Champagne, +and engraved by Nanteuil, forms the frontispiece of _The Pucelle_ of +Chapelain, in-fol., 1656. + +[215] The hôtel of the Dukes de Longueville is not at all the one +which, after the death of her husband, Madame de Longueville bought +of the Epernons, on the Rue Saint Thomas-du-Louvre, near the hôtel de +Rambouillet, where she resided with her children, and which bore her name +from 1664 till the close of the seventeenth century. The dwelling of the +Longuevilles was the old hôtel d’Alençon. (See Sauval, vol. i., pp. 65 +and 70, especially p. 119.) It was situated on the Rue des Poulies, among +the rich hôtels which line the right side of that street from the Rue +Saint Honoré to the Seine, and which, with their dependencies and their +gardens, extend to the Louvre. It was almost opposite to the Rue des +Fossés-Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois. Upon its right, towards the Seine, was +the Petit-Bourbon, which, having served as a residence and a stronghold +in Paris to the eldest of the house of Bourbon, became a royal building, +a sort of appendage to the Louvre, where the young king, Louis XIV., +gave several great balls, and the theatre of which was lent to Molière, +for the performance of his comedies, upon his arrival in Paris. Upon the +left, on the same line, after the hôtel de Longueville, came the hôtels +de Villequier and d’Aumont; and a little nearer to the church and house +of l’Oratoire, the hôtels de La Force and de Créqui. When, in 1663, +Louis XIV., having entered into full possession of royal authority, and +wishing to signalize his reign by great monuments, undertook to finish +the Louvre and to give it a façade worthy of the rest of the edifice, it +was necessary for him to pull down, with the Petit-Bourbon, a part of +the hôtels of the Rue des Poulies, and among others that of Longueville. +This was the most ancient and most considerable. It was composed of a +large front building, of a vast court, of the hôtel proper, with immense +gardens. Those of our readers who desire to be sure of the correctness +of these details, have only to cast their eyes upon the excellent plan +of Gomboust, which gives an admirable view of Paris in the seventeenth +century, in 1652. + +[216] It is truly inconceivable that a woman of so much mind as Madame +de Sablé, could have carried her fear of sickness and contagion so +far as all contemporary writers, Voiture, Tallemant, Mademoiselle, +etc., testify. Her weakness upon this occasion, and the fidelity of +Mademoiselle de Rambouillet, are attested to us by several unpublished +letters of those ladies, which we find in the Library of the Arsenal, +among the papers of Conrart, in-4ᵒ, vol. xiv. + +[217] It is in vain that Mademoiselle says, vol. 1st, p. 47, that Madame +de Longueville remained marked with the small-pox. Retz affirms the +contrary. Edit. of Amsterdam, 1731, vol. i., p. 185: “The small-pox +had taken away the first flower of her beauty, but left her all its +brilliancy.” + +[218] _Letters de Monseigneur Godeau sur divers sujets_, Paris, 1713, +letter 76, p. 243: “Degrasse, December 13, 1642.... As to your face, +another will rejoice, with much more propriety, that it will not be +spoiled. Mademoiselle Paulet tells me so. I have so good an opinion of +your sense, that I believe you would have been easily consoled if your +disease had left its marks. Scars are often given by Divine Mercy to make +persons, who have loved too well their complexions, see that it is a +flower liable to fade even as it begins to bloom.” + +[219] Edit. Michaud, p. 450. + +[220] _Mémoires de La Rochefoucauld_, collection Petitot, vol. li., pp. +370 and 386. + +[221] Bibliothèque Nationale, _Supplément Français_, No. 925. + +[222] There can be no doubt in this case as to courage; a Coligny, a +friend of Condé, having never been suspected of wanting it. + +[223] The _Polexandre_ of Gomberville appeared in 1637. This romance had +great success, and in a short time went through several editions; the +best and the most complete is that of 1645, in five parts, forming eight +volumes. + +[224] I rely upon the report given by Lenet, which is almost the same as +that sent at the time, by order of the Duke d’Enghien, to his father, the +Prince de Condé. Lenet, edit. Michaud, p. 479, etc. See commencement of +chap. iv. + +[225] Claude de Letouf de Pradines, Baron de Sirot, a Burgundian +gentleman, born near 1600, mortally wounded in 1652, at the bridge de +Gergeau, in the wars of the Fronde. + +[226] Bossuet, in his admirable narrative of the battle of Rocroy, has +perfectly painted its close—the destruction of the Spanish infantry; +but he has not even indicated the manœuvre which decided the day. It +is to be regretted that Napoleon did not pay the same attention to the +campaigns of Condé as he did to those of Turenne and of Frederic, and +that after having incidentally judged, with the superiority of a master, +and worthily relieved the judicious boldness which achieved the battle of +Nortlingen, in which Condé did not fear to engage his only remaining wing +for re-establishing the combat, instead of employing it to make a very +difficult retreat before the cavalry of Jean de Vert, he did not devote +a chapter to the examination of the battle of Rocroy, which opens a new +military school. + +[227] There is not, we believe, or at least we do not know that there +is, any portrait painted or engraved of Mazarin in his youth. He was but +forty-one years of age in 1643, and a portrait by M. Lasne represents +him then with a face still handsome, in which delicacy is united with +grandeur. + +[228] See, upon this delicate point, M. Walckenær, _Mémoires sur Madame +de Sévigné_, vol. i., p. 213, especially the somewhat decided letter of +Anne to Mazarin, vol. iii., _Supplément_, p. 471. + +[229] Vol. ii., p. 108. + +[230] _Mémoires_, vol. i., p. 231. + +[231] Madame de Motteville has thus painted her, vol. i., p. 47: “Her +eyes were blue, large, and full of fire; her teeth white and even, +and her complexion had the white and incarnation necessary to a light +beauty.” Her _Nom de Précieuse_ was Hermione, _Grand Dictionnaire des +Pretieuses_, vol. i., p. 218. Scarron has greatly celebrated her. Married +in 1646 to the Marshal Charles de Schomberg, she followed him into his +government of Trois Evechés, encountered Metz, the young Bossuet, and +encouraged his first efforts. After the death of the marshal she lived in +retirement, and died in 1691. + +[232] To judge of her beauty, she should not be seen as Retz saw her +at fifty years of age, nor as most of her portraits show her at the +approach of age, with the widow’s cap which she wore after the death of +her second husband; she should be seen when young and brilliant, if not +during the life of the High Constable De Luynes, at least at the period +of her second marriage. Born in 1604, married in 1617, a widow in 1619, +remarried in 1622, at the age of eighteen, she had from fifteen to twenty +years of the greatest splendor. Her form was charming. She had blue eyes, +light chestnut hair, and a most beautiful bosom. Thus she is represented +by several of the portraits of the times possessed by the Duke de Luynes, +also by a charming portrait engraved by Daret. + +[233] Tallemant, vol. iii., p. 407. + +[234] _Mémoires_, vol. i., p. 46. + +[235] Vol. i., p. 221. He cites, as well as Tallemant and even Madame +de Motteville, incredible things. The collections of songs of the times +abound in outrageous epigrams against her. See the _Collection of +Maurepas_, in the National Library, and the collections of _Chanson’s +historiques_, of the Library of the Arsenal. + +[236] Vol. v., p. 246. + +[237] See Introduction. + +[238] Vol. iii., p. 410. + +[239] In regard to the beauty of Madame de Montbazon, we have united what +is said by Tallemant, vol. iii., p. 411, and by Madame de Motteville, +vol. i., p. 146. The reader may judge of the truth of our description +by going to see, at Versailles, in the curious gallery of the northern +attic, under No. 2030, a small picture, representing Madame de Montbazon, +at the age of thirty-five to forty years, with a collar of pearls, a +beautiful forehead, fine black eyes, a magnificent throat; but all +somewhat strong and without much distinction. This picture seems the +original of the portrait engraved by Le Blond. + +[240] Villefore, p. 82. + +[241] _Mémoires_ of La Châtre in the collection Petitot, vol. li., p. 230. + +[242] Mademoiselle, vol. 1st, pp. 62 and 68. + +[243] It seems to me that it would be better to say: “I suffer for loving +too much, and you for not loving enough.” + +[244] See Mademoiselle, Madame de Motteville, and La Rochefoucauld. + +[245] Mémoires de La Rochefoucauld, Collection Petitot, vol. li, p. 387. + +[246] Vol. i., p. 65. + +[247] See the _Mémoires_ of the times, and especially those of Campion. + +[248] Second daughter of Duke François. This marriage, contracted in +1632, is a romance, which may be read in all the memoirs of the times. + +[249] Royal Library, _Supplément Français_, No. 925, fol. 11. + +[250] _Mémoires_, p. 391. + +[251] _Mémoires_, p. 391. + +[252] The Place-Royale and its environs were then the quarters of the +upper classes. Begun in 1604 (_Antiquities and most remarkable things +of Paris_, 1608, by Bonfons and by Du Breuil, p. 430), on the ruins +of the Palais des Tournelles, by Henri IV., it was finished in 1612. +(_Theatre of the Antiquities of Paris_, by Father Du Breuil, in-4ᵒ, 1613, +p. 1050.) It is, as is known, a great square, or rather a rectangle, +bordered on all sides by thirty-seven pavilions, supported by pillars +forming a gallery, which extends entirely around the place. In the midst +was a vast yard, divided into six beautiful grass-plots. In the centre +was the equestrian statue of Louis XIII. The statue was by Biard, and +the horse by Daniel de Volterre. On one of the faces of the pedestal +of white marble, was the following inscription: “To the glorious and +immortal memory of the great and invincible Louis the Just, thirteenth of +the name, King of France and of Navarre, Armand, Cardinal de Richelieu, +his principal minister, has raised this statue as an eternal mark of +his zeal, of his fidelity, and of his gratitude, in 1639.” Under Louis +XIV. this beautiful square was surrounded with a railing of excellent +workmanship. Lemaire, said in 1685, vol. iii., p. 307: “They are now +making a balustrade of iron, which will extend entirely around it and +inclose a very agreeable garden, in which there will be four great +reservoirs of water in the four corners. Private persons having their +residences here, will contribute to the expense of this, each the sum +of one thousand livres. The city will furnish the rest.” Germain Brice, +in the first edition of his curious work, which appeared in 1685, as +did that of Lemaire, says the same thing, adding that the inhabitants +alone of the place will have the right of enjoying the garden which is +to be laid out. “No one will enter except those belonging to the houses +which have been furnished with keys.” In the second edition of Brice, of +1687, the beautiful railing was not erected; it is in the edition which +follows, of 1701; it is seen in La Caille, in 1714; and in the engraving +of Defer, in 1716. As to the garden and the four reservoirs, they are +not even yet in the plan of Turgot, in 1740. It was the Restoration +which accomplished the designs of the administration of Louis XIV. How +many public and domestic events has this place witnessed during the +seventeenth century, how many noble tourneys, how many atrocious duels, +how many amiable rendezvous! What conversations, worthy of those of +Décaméron, it has heard,—conversations which Corneille has collected +in one of his first comedies, and in several acts of the _Menteur_! +What graceful creatures have inhabited these pavilions! What sumptuous +furniture, what treasures of taste have been assembled here! How many +illustrious personages, of every kind, have mounted these beautiful +staircases! Richelieu and Condé, Corneille and Molière, have trod them a +thousand times. It was while walking under this gallery that Descartes, +conversing with Pascal, suggested to him the idea of his beautiful +experiments upon the weight of the air. It was there also that, while +going one evening from the house of Madame de Guimenée, the melancholy De +Thou received from Cinq-Mars the involuntary confidence of the conspiracy +which was to lead them both to the scaffold. It was there, in short, +that Madame de Sévigné was born, and close by it she lived. On reaching +the Place-Royale by its true entrance, the Rue-Royale, beside the Rue +Saint-Antoine, we find at the right angle the hôtel de Rohan, long +occupied by the old Duchess Dowager, widow of that great Duke de Rohan, +one of the first generals, and the greatest military writers of his age. +In the left angle was the hôtel de Chaulnes, whose magnificent apartments +have been celebrated by Bois-Robert, and which, at a later period, passed +to Nicolaï. At the other two corners of the place were, to the right, +on the side of the Rue des Tournelles and of the Boulevard, the vast +and sumptuous hôtel of Saint-Géran; and to the left, on the side of the +street Saint-Louis, the hôtel which was occupied by Richelieu before he +had built and finished Palais-Cardinal. The four galleries were filled +with hôtels not unworthy of those already mentioned. There was the hôtel +of the Marshal de Lavardin, that of M. de Nouveau, that of Villequier, +captain of the guards, who sold it to M. de Hameaux, by whom it was +resold, in 1680, to the Rohan-Chabots, and from them this hôtel, even +in passing through other hands, retained the name of hôtel Chabot. M. +Walckenær, in his _La Bruyère_, p. 743, says that the Count de Montgomery +and the unfortunate Marquis de Langlade, so celebrated in the history +of unjust condemnations, lived together at the Place-Royale. Brice, in +1685, indicates the hôtel of the Marquis de Dangeau, and in 1713, on the +right, in entering by the Rue Saint-Antoine, the hôtel of the Baron de +Breteuil, and on the other side the house of the President Carrel. We +know certainly that Madame de Sablé resided at the Place-Royale, as well +as the Countess de Maure, with Mademoiselle de Vaudy; but the difficulty +would be to discover the inhabitants of all the other pavilions, and +thus to make an exact and complete history of the Place-Royale until +the close of the seventeenth century. We suggest this subject of study +to some pupil of the _Ecole des Chartes_, or to some young artist; they +would find in it matter of the most interesting investigation, as well +as descriptions the most charming, and a modest glory would not fail +to follow after a few years of the most attractive labor. We take the +liberty of pointing out to them, besides Felibien, vol. ii., Sauval, vol. +ii., p. 624, the plan of Gomboust, from 1652, and the after plans, the +following works: 1st, _The Paris Guide_, etc., by the Sieur de Schayes, +1647; 2d, _The Convenient Book, containing the addresses of the city of +Paris, by Abraham Pradel, philosopher and mathematician_, Paris, small +in-8ᵒ; 3d, _The Royal Almanac_, of 1699; 4th, the sequel to the different +editions of G. Brice, from 1685 to 1725; 5th, the verses by Scarron, +_Adieu au Marais et à la Place-Royale_, edit. of Amsterdam, of 1752, +vol. vii., pp. 29-35; 6th, a Manuscript of the National Library, No. +7905, wherein is a _Supplement of the Antiquities of Paris, with all the +most remarkable transactions from 1610 until the present time, by D. H. +J. lawyer_. “_Until the present time_,” is up to 1640. Let us conclude +with this remark: there is but one hôtel of the Place-Royale which has +remained in the same family from 1612 till our own day, namely, the hôtel +which bears the No. 25, and which, from father to son, has come down to +its present proprietor, M. the Count de l’Escalopier. + +[253] It is d’Ormesson who gives this date. + +[254] D’Ormesson, manuscript on the Regency, whose author seems to be one +Maupassant. + +[255] La Rochefoucauld. + +[256] Fol. 28, verso. + +[257] D’Ormesson. + +[258] D’Ormesson, Maupassant, and La Rochefoucauld. + +[259] D’Ormesson. + +[260] D’Ormesson; Maupassant says in the right side. + +[261] D’Ormesson, Maupassant, La Rochefoucauld, Motteville. + +[262] Maupassant says that the Duke de Guise and Coligny appeared before +the court and justified themselves, the Duke de Guise with the greatest +success and Coligny with very bad grace; but D’Ormesson, so well informed +in regard to all that was going on in the Council of State and in the +Parliament, says not a word of the matter—and nothing is more improbable, +Coligny having immediately fallen into a desperate condition. + +[263] La Rochefoucauld says that Coligny died four or five months +after: it should be four or five days. In fact, we find in the journal +of Olivier d’Ormesson, fol. 29, as follows: “Tuesday, December 29, the +Marquis de Pardaillan came to see me, and told me that M. de Coligny +was at Saint-Maur, and was likely to die of gangrene of his arm.” ... +“Wednesday, December 30 (D’Ormesson has, through mistake, made it +January), M. de Coligny was beyond hope, his wound making neither flesh +nor matter, on account of his naturally bad constitution. M. the Duke +d’Enghien had resolved to have his arm taken off.” + +[264] Mademoiselle, _Mémoires_, vol. i., p. 74. + +[265] Madame de Motteville, vol. i., p. 201. + +[266] It is also in Madame de Motteville, vol. i., p. 201. + +[267] Library of the Arsenal, small in-4ᵒ, lettered on the back, _Fr. +Jurisprudence_, 19 (B). “It contains: 1st, Proposals for the reform of +Abbeys and Priories; 2d, Fable of the Lion and of the Fox; 3d, Story +of M. de Coligny and of Madame de Longueville.”—National Library, +_Mélanges_, vol. cclxi., in-12ᵒ, comprising a collection of songs, +letters of Madame de Courcelles, pretended letters of different ladies +to Fouquet, and in the midst the history of Agésilan and Isménie. In +comparing the two manuscripts, we find but little difference between them. + +[268] The word _now_ shows that the novel was composed before the death +of Gassion, who was slain before Lens in 1647. + +[269] Madame de Motteville, vol. iv., p. 42. + +[270] Madame de Motteville, vol. i., pp. 174-197. + +[271] _Mémoires_ de La Rochefoucauld, Coll. Petitot, vol. li., p. 393. + +[272] Napoleon was twenty-six years of age at the time of his first +battle, that of Montenotte, and thirty, at the time of that of Marengo. +Condé was not quite twenty-two years of age at Rocroy, and he was +twenty-seven at Lens. + +[273] General Bonaparte entered Italy in 1796, with 30,000 men under +arms. He had at most from 15,000 to 20,000 at Montenotte; 20,000 at +Castiglione; 13,000 only at Arcola; 16,000, at most, at Rivoli. It is +true that at Marengo he had 28,000; but, for conception and execution, +who would compare Marengo with Arcola and Rivoli? These were the most +scientific and boldest campaigns of Italy, the most resembling those of +Rocroy and of Fribourg. + +[274] General Bonaparte had no adversaries like Mercy. Beaulieu, +apparently thinking himself too strong, had so scattered his troops, +that at Montenotte he fought with but half of his army. Wurmser, at +Castiglione, committed the same error. D’Alvinzy was superior to them, +and at Arcola and at Rivoli he yielded only to the unexpected grandeur +of the manœuvres of the French general. Melas fought well at Marengo, as +did also General Bonaparte, but neither of them performed any remarkable +manœuvre; and this battle would have been lost but for the arrival of +Desaix, as Waterloo was lost because Grouchy was not Desaix. + +[275] I know nothing more noble than the dispatches of Condé, announcing +his different victories. He says very little in them of himself, and much +of others. During his retirement at Chantilly, his friends urged him to +write his military memoirs; he refused, saying that he would be obliged +to blame sometimes estimable generals, and to speak well of himself. +Never was any one less a charlatan. In this respect, Turenne resembled +Condé. What injures somewhat in my estimation the memoirs of Napoleon, +is that ardent and continual self-preoccupation, which sees himself +only everywhere, refers every thing to himself, confesses no fault, +enlarges the least actions, praises none but mediocre men, depreciates +eminent merit, treats Moreau and Kleber as he would have done some of his +marshals, and prepares for himself everywhere a pedestal. But we must not +forget that Napoleon was writing in exile and in misfortune, and that he +was reduced to defend his own glory. See in Lenet, edit. Michaud, several +letters of Condé to Mazarin, after Fribourg, after Lerida, after the +taking of Ipres and the retaking of Furnes, especially after the battle +of Lens. In giving an account of this affair, the secretary of the prince +had written: _our victory_. Condé effaced the last word, and substituted +_combat_. (Unpublished part of Memoirs of Lenet, pp. 499-515.) + +[276] See chapter iii. + +[277] It was at the attack of the lines of Fribourg that he threw into +the enemy’s intrenchments his baton of command, indicating thereby his +resolution to conquer or perish. + +[278] Napoleon’s manœuvre of quitting Verona, in order to go around +Caldiero, whom he could not attack in front, and to surprise Alvinzy in +the marshes, where valor could make up for numbers, has been, and cannot +be too much praised. There was prudence and audacity in it. General +Bonaparte, knowing that he would be lost if he did not pass the bridge +of Arcola, allowed the destruction of his best lieutenants, and barely +escaped death himself. On this occasion, he showed himself great by the +genius which conceives and by the heroism which executes; and he showed +himself the equal of the Alexanders and Condés. + +[279] _Mémoires_, vol. v., p. 20. + +[280] This is the same Arnauld from whom we have so many pretty verses +in the style of Voiture, and on account of whose absence Madame de +Rambouillet regrets that she cannot reply to Godeau. See chap. ii. + +[281] Allow me to repeat here that Mercy, whom the Spaniards created +Count de Fuentes, and Fontaine, were two French gentlemen, one of +Lorraine, the other of Burgundy. + +[282] See close of chap. ii. + +[283] In Italy, Napoleon never undertook a siege properly so called. + +[284] The Prince de Condé has left a name in the science of +fortification. He studied while at Bourges under the engineer Sarrazin, +who rendered Montrond a very difficult place to be taken. When he went to +Burgundy, he paid great attention to this part of the military art. There +is preserved in the depot of fortifications an atlas of the strongholds +of Burgundy, drawn by the hand of Condé: _Plan of the capital cities +and frontiers of the Duchy of Burgundy, Bresse, and Gex, made at Dijon, +January 7, 1640_, with this dedication: + + TO MY FATHER. + + SIR—This work which I present belongs to you, since all that + is mine is yours. I have never been able to see you in the + command of armies without thinking of war myself; and I could + not believe that my study of fortifications would be agreeable + to you, unless continued. If you deign to think well of these + efforts of my mind and hand, I desire no other approbation of + my labor, as I shall never have any other wish than to live and + die in the obedience and respect due to you from him who is, + sir, + + Your very humble and very obedient son and servant, + + LOUIS DE BOURBON. + +Following this are eleven plans upon vellum of the strongholds of +Burgundy, with remarks. + +The great sieges which Condé undertook so successfully, particularly +those of Thionville and of Dunkirk, are the admiration of military men. +After his return to France in 1660, he was continually consulted upon all +projects of fortification, and his name, as well as his opinions, appear +in the official correspondence of the department of war, especially +during 1664, 1670, and 1673, until 1675, when he retired from the +service, and left Vauban to act alone. Fontenelle, in his eulogy of +Sauveur, says, that it was in his frequent visits to Chantilly and in his +conversations with Condé, that Sauveur conceived the idea of his treatise +upon fortification. + +[285] _History of the Wars and of the Negotiations which preceded the +Treaty of Westphalia_, vol. iii., in-4ᵒ. To this work we must add the +_Secret Negotiations touching the Peace of Munster and of Osnaburg, or +General Collection of Preliminaries, Instructions, Letters, Memoirs, +concerning these negotiations, from their commencement until their +conclusion, in 1648_, 2 vol., in-fol., Hague, 1725. In vol. xxx. of +the _Mélanges de Clérambault_, in the National Library, may be found +a summary of all the correspondence of the French cabinet and of the +embassy. We give a few extracts: + +Year 1645.—June 3, Mazarin to M. de Longueville, complimenting him upon +the interesting condition of his wife, and urging him to hasten his +departure for Munster. Scarcely arrived, M. de Longueville writes to +Mazarin, July 2, telling him that he has reconciled d’Avaux and Servien. + +Year 1646.—June 22, Mazarin announces to M. de Longueville the departure +of Madame de Longueville. July 24, M. de Longueville notifies Mazarin +that he is going to meet Madame de Longueville. October 23, M. de +Longueville thanks Mazarin for promising him the office of General of the +Swiss. + +Year 1647.—January 16, Mazarin to M. de Longueville: The king sends to +him a gentleman, as well as to Madame de Longueville, announcing the +death of M. the Prince. March 15, Mazarin to M. de Longueville, informing +him that he cannot have the office of General of the Swiss, and offering +him in lieu thereof the Château de Caen. March 25, M. de Longueville to +the queen, in regard to the office of General of the Swiss. _Idem_, to +Mazarin on the same subject. Dissatisfaction of M. de Longueville; he +asks for his discharge; it is granted to him. May 17, M. de Longueville +thanks Mazarin for the discharge which he has procured for him; he will +not leave until the proper time. June 22, Mazarin complains to M. de +Longueville of his last letter, in which he is charged with not desiring +peace; he claims the contrary, and shows his resentment of the manner in +which the Spaniards have acted. “France wishes peace, and will make it +glorious.” July 1, M. de Longueville assures his Eminence that his letter +is far from bearing the interpretation which he has placed upon it; that +he does not know him, which compels him to desire leave to return to +France. Same day, d’Avaux writes to Mazarin that he had no part in the +letter of M. de Longueville. July 13, Mazarin to M. de Longueville: he +is very glad that the intention of his letter is such as he claims; he +desires nothing in the world more ardently than peace, and wishes that +Pegnaranda (the Spanish ambassador) would leave Munster, that he might +have an opportunity to take a trip to Paris. Same day, Mazarin testifies +to d’Avaux the pleasure which he experiences in having an understanding +with his friends. Same day, important dispatch from Mazarin to Servien, +in which he discovers all his thoughts: Treaty with Germany, or, at +least, a grant of a truce in the Low Countries. “If nothing was to be +done in Flanders and in Germany, war could be easily carried on in Spain +and in Italy.” July 22, M. de Longueville to Mazarin: The Swedes cannot +be satisfied without giving them positive assurances of the establishment +of Lutheranism. The Protestants propose to conclude without France. +The departure of the Count de Trautmansdorf (imperial ambassador) with +liberty to retire, of which he will avail himself as soon as possible. +July 29, Mazarin begs M. de Longueville to defer his departure. August 9, +Mazarin to M. de Longueville: How to treat with the Swedes. A gentleman +of M. de Vandosme, carrying letters to the archduke, was arrested and +conducted to Nancy. The Spaniards are far from peace. The King of Spain +changes his manner of acting with the emperor. Trautmansdorf might have +concluded something advantageous for Sweden at the expense of France. +August 19, M. de Longueville to Mazarin: The Neapolitans have driven +off the Spaniards. Pegnaranda will do nothing until the close of the +campaign. He will take this time to visit his Eminence. August 30, +Mazarin expresses to M. de Longueville some apprehensions as to the +design of his journey. August 30, confidential letter from Lyonne to +Servien: he begs him to discover the cabals that M. d’Avaux has made +against his Eminence. Orders are given to M. de Turenne to abolish +the name of Weimarians. The conclusion of peace must not be deferred +on account of the absence of M. de Longueville. M. d’Avaux seeks the +protection of M. the Prince and of M. the Duke d’Orleans. September 6, +Mazarin to M. de Longueville: Good effects apparently produced by the +delay of his journey. September 16, M. de Longueville complains of the +delay of business; he recommends to Mazarin the Marshal de La Mothe +(who has just been arrested). October 7, renewed solicitations of M. +de Longueville in behalf of the Marshal de La Mothe. October 15, M. de +Longueville to Mazarin: He fears that the Hollanders may conclude their +treaty without France. The enemies have received, with singular joy, +the news of the death of M. de Gassion (killed at Lens). October 18, +Mazarin informs M. de Longueville of the promotion of seven cardinals, +among whom is his brother, the Cardinal de Sainte-Cecile. October 29, M. +de Longueville recommends the Prince de Conti for the siege of Trèves +or of Liége. November 1, Mazarin informs M. de Longueville that all +their dispatches have fallen into the hands of the Spaniards. November +8, Mazarin imparts to M. de Longueville a proposition of marriage from +the emperor with Mademoiselle. (See the _Memoirs_ of Mademoiselle; also +chapter i. of this work.) December 22, Mazarin to M. de Longueville: The +Spaniards do not desire peace. Try to have it proclaimed that if peace is +not established, it is Spain that has prevented it. + +Year 1648.—January 6, M. de Longueville to Mazarin: It was the fault of +the Imperialists and the Spaniards alone that peace was not concluded; +all the others desired it. January 16, M. de Longueville is not of the +opinion that Nancy should be given up without demolishing it. January +17, Mazarin imparts to M. de Longueville a proposition of marriage +between his daughter, Mademoiselle de Longueville, and the Duke de +Mantua. January 28, Confidential letter from Lyonne to Servien: There +is much dissatisfaction with M. d’Avaux; he would have been recalled if +he had not engaged M. de Longueville in his opinion. February 3, M. de +Longueville announces his departure. February 23, having arrived at Trie, +he writes to Mazarin a letter of compliments. March 23, d’Avaux, being +found too favorable to M. de Lorraine, and too eager to make peace at +any price, prepares to depart. April 27, Mazarin informs Servien that he +is named minister, and charged with completing the negotiations. In the +correspondence of July, frequent mention is made of the troubles of the +parliament. Mazarin begs Servien to manage something in Alsace for M. +de Turenne, in order to secure him. August 14, Servien gives to Mazarin +the reasons for not pressing the treaty with Spain. August 21, dispatch +of Mazarin: M. the Prince has just gained a battle against the archduke. +France nevertheless wishes peace. If the Spaniards wish it, they will +conclude it upon the proposed conditions; if not, it will be of no +service to relax. September 17, he invites Servien to urge the peace with +Germany, on account of the troubles. + +[286] See preceding chapter. + +[287] The Treaty of Munster secured to France the sovereignty of the +three bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, of which it had been for a +long time possessed; the sovereignty of Pignerol, which gave it the entry +of Italy; the sovereignty of all Alsace, upper and lower, with that of +Brissac and of Landau; in short, the right of garrison in the fortress of +Philipsbourg. + +[288] _Gazette_ of May 6, 1645. Died, April 30, about 2 o’clock in the +morning, at the hôtel de Longueville, the Countess de Dunois, daughter, +by the second marriage, of the Duke de Longueville, aged fourteen +months. All the court having testified much regret at the death of +this young princess, whose body, having been embalmed and placed in a +lead coffin, was carried, on the second of this month (of May), to the +great convent of the Carmelites, where the Duchess de Longueville, her +mother, wished it to be interred near the tomb of the Mother Madeleine +de Saint-Joseph; the pages and valets of the Duke and Duchess de +Longueville, each with a flambeau of white wax, surrounding the hearse, +followed by great numbers of others. It was presented at the door of the +church, laid out upon white serge, with two breadths of white satin, +charged with the scutcheons of Bourbon and Longueville, by the curate +of Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois to the Bishop d’Utique, coadjutor of +Montauban, assisted by several ecclesiastics and fathers of the Oratoire +de Saint-Magloire, who received it in the name of this monastery; and, +having placed it under a canopy of silver-cloth ornamented with the same +armorial bearings, covered with a pall of the same stuff bordered with +ermine, and with a ducal crown of gold covered with a veil of gauze, +after the usual benedictions and incensing, the nuns, to the number of +sixty, came in a procession to the door of the monastery to receive the +body, which was carried to the grave made in the cloister, and buried +by the same bishop, with the ceremonies of the order of the Carmelites, +whose garb this little princess wore. + +[289] _Mémoires_, vol. i., p. 182. + +[290] We shall limit ourselves to citing the following: _Histoire de la +prison et de la liberté de M. le Prince_, 1651.—_Recueil des Maximes +veritables pour l’Institution du Roi contre la pernicieuse politique du +Cardinal Mazarin_, 1652, burned by the hand of the executioner,—_Statuts +et Reglements des petits icoles de grammaire de la ville de Paris_, +1672,—_Traité historique des Ecoles Episcopales_, 1678.—_Voyage fait à +Munster en Westphalie et autres lieux voisins_, 1670. + +[291] See chapter ii. + +[292] _Les Epistres en vers et autres œuvres poétiques de M. +de Bois-Robert Metel, Conseiller d’Estat ordinaire, abbé de +Châtillon-sur-Seine_, Paris, 1659, in-8ᵒ, p. 11: _To Monsieur Esprit: he +entertains him with the beauties of Madame the Duchess de Longueville, +and with the favorable reception which he received from her on his +departure._ + +[293] _Letters and Mémoires of M. de Turenne_, by Grimoard, in-fol., +1782, vol. i., 1646, July 20: “My dear Sister—I wrote to you from the +vicinity of Cologne, four or five days since, and yesterday passed the +Rhine to Wesel. Madame de Longueville arrived the same day, and intends +visiting the army to-day. From this place we shall travel with her a day +or two. I confess to you that nothing in the world is more astonishing. +M. de Longueville has come to meet her at Wesel. She is not at all +changed, nor is Mademoiselle de Longueville....” + +[294] From the 21st of August to the 12th of September. See the _Voyage_ +of Claude Joly. + +[295] Library of the Arsenal, Manuscripts of Conrart, in-4ᵒ, vol. x. + +[296] D’Avaux, born in 1595, was fifty-two years old in 1647. + +[297] Jean Adler Salvius, one of the Swedish plenipotentiaries; Jean +Vulteius, one of the envoys of the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel; Jacques +Lampadius, envoy of the Duke de Lunebürg Grubenhagen. See Father Bougeant. + +[298] In default of the subject and of the date, choice may be made +between the different letters written by Voiture to the Duke d’Enghien, +about this period, and which will be found in the works of Voiture, vol. +ii., of the edition of 1745. + +[299] Voiture, vol. i., pp. 368, 369, 371, 374. + +[300] In-folio, Rotterdam, 1697. This portrait has been reduced and +engraved anew by Odieuvre. + +[301] Madame de Longueville seems in this somewhat fatigued. She was at +this time in a delicate situation. + +[302] Villefore, part 1st, p. 75. + +[303] There are three very good portraits in-fol. by Daret, by Rousselet, +and by M. de Lasne, all of this year, 1647. In all of them, Armand +de Bourbon has a fine face, and already shows the marks of some high +ecclesiastical dignitary. Daret supports his medallion by little +angels, who are playing with the hat of the future cardinal—a charming +composition, after the design of Lesueur. In Rousselet, Fame bears the +medallion of the young prince, Religion presents him with a mitre, War +carries a suit of armor, Politics a crown, and Philosophy the sun of +intelligence and the mysterious serpent. This was truly the image of the +uncertain destiny of the Prince de Conti. + +[304] Madame de Motteville, vol. ii., p. 17. + +[305] _Les Devoirs des grands, par Monseigneur le Prince de Conti, avec +son Testament_, Paris, 1667.—_Traité de la Comédie et des Spectacles +selon la tradition de l’Eglise_, 1667.—_Lettres du Prince de Conti, ou +l’accord du libre-arbitre avec la grace de Jésus-Christ_, Cologne, 1689. + +[306] _Mémoires_, vol. ii., pp. 14-20. + +[307] _Mémoires de Littérature_, vol. i., pp. 116-184. + +[308] _Œuvres de Benserade_, 1697, vol. i., p. 174. + +[309] _Œuvres de Balzac_, in-folio, vol. ii., pp. 580-594. + +[310] _Œuvres diverses_, edit. de 1740, Amsterdam, pp. 162-165. + +[311] _Les Œuvres galantes de Madame la Comtesse de B., imprimé à Leyde +et se vend à Paris_, in-18ᵒ, 1666. + +[312] _Œuvres galantes_, etc., p. 17. + +[313] This letter is printed among those of Madame de Brégy, with many +little errors, which we correct without indicating them. + +[314] _Œuvres de Benserade_, vol. i., p. 97, and _Œuvres de Madame de +Brégy_, p. 98. + +[315] The last line of each of the couplets of this commentary recalls +successively and in their order the lines of the sonnet of Benserade. It +is not in the works of Sarrazin of 1654, nor in his _Œuvres Nouvelles_; +it will be found in the 1st vol. of Benserade, p. 175. + +[316] During his youth, Madame de Longueville paid much attention to +Esprit, in order, probably, to please Madame de Sablé, his avowed +protectress. She took him with her to Munster. Here she testified for him +the greatest regard. In an unpublished letter, of October 13, 1646, she +recommends him to Mazarin for a benefice. Mazarin does not seem to have +been much pleased with him. He writes to Servien, March 22, 1647, with +seeming discontent, that Esprit solicits from Munster “to be of the house +of Monsieur.” Mélanges de Clérambault, vol. cxxx. + +[317] Library of the Arsenal, Manuscripts of Conrart, in-4ᵒ, vol. ii., p. +13. + +[318] The final opinion of the Prince de Conti. + +[319] We have no knowledge of the Abbé de Croisy. We are inclined to +believe that the copy of Conrart is here defective; and we propose to +read the Abbé de Cerisy, Habert, of the French Academy—a wit then of some +reputation, and author of works now forgotten; among others, _Poésies +Chrétiennes et diverses_, dedicated to the Prince de Conti. He died in +1654, at the age of forty-four years. + +[320] This allusion to the assemblies of the nobility fixes the date +of this letter, placing it more than a year after the epoch with which +we are occupied, that is, at the close of 1649, when the nobility rose +against the new brevets. But, although written at the close of 1649, this +little affair shows faithfully the manner in which Madame de Longueville +passed her life in 1648. It is surprising that, in the great collection +of pieces relating to the two sonnets (Mélanges de Littérature, etc.), +not a single date is given. Our conjecture in regard to the letter of +Esprit, is confirmed by the following note, found in vol. xi., in-fol., +of the papers of Conrart, p. 1118 “In the month of December, 1649, +all the court was divided in regard to the two sonnets of Voiture and +Benserade. Every one took sides and declared in favor of him who was most +admired. Of the two parties formed upon this subject, those of the first +were called _Uranias_, and Madame de Longueville was their chief; those +of the second were called _Jobelins_, and M. the Prince de Conti was at +their head. M. the Prince (Condé) being urged to say of which he would +be, would never explain himself otherwise than by declaring both to be +very fine.” + +[321] Collection Petitot, vol. li., p. 353. + +[322] Collection Petitot, vol. li., p. 393. + +[323] Collection Petitot, vol. li., p. 455. + +[324] _Mémoires_, p. 18, etc. + +[325] _Mémoires_, vol. ii., p. 15. + +[326] _Mémoires_, vol. i, p. 219. + +[327] Condé gained the battle of Senef, in 1674, with 45,000 men against +65,000, commanded by the Prince of Orange. Had it not been for the +cowardice of the Swiss infantry, who refused to fight, he would have +destroyed the entire army of the enemy. + +[328] _Mémoires_, p. 19, etc. Villefore has followed Madame de Nemours. + +[329] History of Turenne, by Ramsay, vol. ii., _Mémoires_ de Turenne, p. +lix., and the letters of Queen Anne, _Preuves_, p. viii., etc. + +[330] Philippe de La Mothe Houdancourt, Duke de Cardonne, Viceroy of +Catalonia, the husband of the beautiful De Toussy, who, upon strong +suspicions, was arrested in 1647, and for whom M. de Longueville +interceded from Munster. + +[331] Father Lelong speaks of this portrait, by Poilly, in-fol.; we have +sought for it in vain. It is probable that Father Lelong has referred to +Madame de Longueville the fine portrait by Nicolas Poilly, the more or +less authentic inscription of which is: _Mademoiselle de Montpensier_, +with the equivocal arms, at once of the Orleans and of the Condés. We +think, however, that it is Mademoiselle much embellished. + +[332] The war movement of Paris, in this first Fronde, is well depicted +in these couplets of an unpublished song of the _Recueil de Maurepas_, +vol. ii., p. 43: _Blocus de Paris pendant le Carnaval de 1649_: + + “Que vous nous causez de tourment, + Facheux Parlement! + Que vos arrests + Sont ennemis de tous nos interests! + Le carnaval a perdu tous ses charmes; + Tout est en armes, + Et les amours + Sont effrayés par le bruit des tambours. + + La guerre va chasser l’amour, + Ainsi que la cour; + Et dans Paris + La peur bannit et les jeux et les ris. + Adieu le bal, adieu les promenades, + Les sérénades + Car les amours + Sont effrayés par le bruit des tambours. + + Mars est un fort mauvais galant, + Il est insolent, + Et la beauté + Perd tous ses traits auprès de sa fierté. + L’on ne peut pas accorder les trompettes + Et les fleurettes; + Car les amours + Sont effrayés par le bruit des tambours. + + ... + + L’on ne voit plus d’esprit sensé; + Tout est renversé. + Le sénateur + Tranche à présent du grand gladiateur. + Lee échevins ont quitté la police + Pour la milice, + Et le bourgeois + Croit avoir droit de réformer les loix. + + Place Royale, où tant d’amans + Contoient leurs tourments, + Ou leur destin + Étoit souvent flatté par Constantin; + Tu n’entends plus, au lieu de tant d’aubades, + Que mousquetades, + Et les amours + Pour leurs jouëts n’ont plus que des tambours.” + +[333] _Le premier Courrier Français traduit fidèlement en vers +burlesques_, 1649, p. 11. + + “... Ce seigneur prudent et sage (M. de Longueville) + Donne see enfans en ostage + Avec Madame leur maman, + Qui n’est superbe comme un paon, + Mais dont l’humeur douce et courtoise + Cause avec la moindre bourgeoise.” + +[334] Eléonore-Catherine-Fébronie de Bergues, whose merit equalled her +beauty: she married in 1634, and died in 1657. + +[335] Vol. 1st, p. 221. + +[336] _Le quatrième Courrier_, etc., p. 3: + + Né, dis-je, dans l’Hôtel de Ville, + Il fut à Saint-Jean baptisé + Et ce jour christianisé. + ... + Or, cette duchesse (de Bouillon) et la ville + Tinrent le jeune Longueville, + Et le nommèrent Carolus + De Paris, et s’il en faut plus, + D’Orléans; s’il en faut encore, + Comte de Saint-Paul, que j’honore, + Pour la ville étant le Feron (Prévôt des marchands). + +[337] Charles de Paris, Count de Saint-Paul, was at first destined for +the Church. There is a charming portrait of him, by Nanteuil, after +Ferdinand, which represents him, at the age of eleven years, in 1660, +with an abbé’s cross, and this inscription upon the border: _Messire +Charles Paris d’Orléans, Count de Saint-Paul, Abbé de St.-Remi de Reims_, +etc. It is impossible to find a more graceful creature. + +[338] Notwithstanding her sacrifices, democratic suspicions did not +spare her. The _Recueil de Maurepas_, vol. ii, p. 417, contains a song +under this title: _Les Honni soit-il de ce temps-ci_, in which Madame de +Longueville has also her couplet: + + “Servir pour ostage à la ville, + Croire son conseil très-utile, + Tandis que son mari nous vend; + Tous les jours estre à l’audience + Et ne résoudre que du vent, + Honni soit-il qui mal y pense!” + +Another couplet from a Mazarin song, same volume, p. 255: + + “Si l’amour de Marsillac + Fait durer ce miquemac, + De longtemps la paix n’est faite, + Et bientôt cette amourette + Nous mettra tous au bissac.” + +The collection of historical songs of the Arsenal, have a few other +pieces more difficult to cite. + +[339] See chapter ii., versos of Condé on the Count de Maure. + +[340] Retz, vol. 1st, p. 247: “The President de Mesmes, a man of +capacity, uncle of him whom you now see....” This certainly means Henri +de Mesmes, second of the name, eldest son of Jean Jacques de Mesmes, +M. de Roissy, brother of Claude de Mesmes, M. d’Avaux, the skilful +diplomatist of whom we have before spoken, brother also of Jean Antoine +de Mesmes, whose eldest son was Jean Jacques de Mesmes, third of the +name, successively counsellor to the parliament, president, grand-master +of ceremonies, one of the forty of the French Academy, who died in +1678. His uncle, Henri de Mesmes, here spoken of, was president of +the parliament from 1627 until his death, in 1650. We have excellent +portraits of these four De Mesmes. + +[341] He was thirty-nine years of age, and left but one son, born after +the death of his father, and taken off quite young in 1650. The following +is the manner in which _Le Courrier François_ relates, in its fifth +number, the death of Châtillon: + + “...Navarre, brave régiment, + Lascha le pied vilainement. + Le Prince, adverti de l’escarre + Que le canon fait sur Navarre, + Pensa crever dans son pourpoint, + Mais pourtant il ne creva point + Dans l’esperance de combattre + Le bourgeois qu’on tenoit à quatre, + Qui comme un diable juroit Dieu + Qu’il vouloit secourir ce lieu; + Il dit de Condé peste et rage. + Mais le Prince à son advantage + Attendoit messieurs de Paris, + Comme le chat fait la souris. + Assuré sur son éminence, + Il avoit grande impatience + De taster le pouls au bourgeois + Qui ne sortit pas cette fois. + Il est prudent et craint la touche, + Joint qu’il n’aime pas la cartouche + Dont si fit son canon charger. + Paris n’en voulant point ronger, + Le Prince qui faisoit fanfare + Commit pour soutenir Navarre + Chastillon avec du renfort; + Mais il l’envoyoit à la mort, + Car aussitôt au bas du ventre + Une balle de mousquet entre + Sans respecter ce duc nouveau, + Jeune, vaillant, adroit et beau, + ... + Aussi ne put pas s’empescher + Condé de lui donner des larmes + Et trahir le dieu des alarmes, + Ennemi de dame pitié; + Mais ce furent pleurs d’amitié + A cause de leur parentage...” + +The collections of Mazarinades for the year 1649, contain an _Agreeable +and true narrative of what happened before the taking of the king in the +city of Paris_, where the author puts in the mouth of the dying Châtillon +a discourse against Mazarin. We have again: 1st, The Regrets of Madame de +Chastillon on the death of her dear husband; 2d, The Adieux made by M. de +Chastillon, before dying, to his mother and his wife; 3d, The Apparition +of the spirit of M. de Chastillon to the Prince de Condé, etc. + +[342] See Madame de Motteville, vol. iii., p. 215. She confirmed the +declaration of February of the same year, and those of May and of +October, 1648. + +[343] Vol. iii., p. 232, etc. + +[344] Vol. iii., p. 263. + +[345] Vol. iii., p. 209. + +[346] Portrait of La Rochefoucauld in Retz. Vol. i., p. 217. + + + + +_D. APPLETON & COMPANY’S PUBLICATIONS._ + + +The Great Work on Russia. + +Fifth Edition now ready. + +RUSSIA AS IT IS. + +BY COUNT A. DE GUROWSKI. + +One neat volume 12mo., pp. 328, well printed. Price $1, cloth. + +CONTENTS.—Preface.—Introduction.—Czarism: its historical origin—The +Czar Nicholas.—The Organization of the Government.—The Army and +Navy.—The Nobility.—The Clergy.—The Bourgeoisie.—The Cossacks.—The +Real People, the Peasantry.—The Rights of Aliens and Strangers.—The +Commoner.—Emancipation.—Manifest Destiny.—Appendix.—The Amazons.—The +Fourteen Classes of the Russian Public Service; or, the Tschins.—The +Political Testament of Peter the Great.—Extract from an Old Chronicle. + +Notices of the Press. + +“The author takes no superficial, empirical view of his subject, but +collecting a rich variety of facts, brings the lights of a profound +philosophy to their explanation. His work, indeed, neglects no essential +detail—it is minute and accurate in its statistics—it abounds in lively +pictures of society, manners and character.... 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Lieut. FOOTE not only places +before us a record of what occurred whilst he was in command of the U. +S. Brig “Perry,” but gives us an account of the History and Government +of the African Race—their Manners and Customs, an Account of the +Establishment of the Commonwealth of Liberia, its Condition, Prospects, +&c., &c. It abounds with every variety of incident and adventure, and +will, from the very novelty of the subject, have a wide sale. In order +that some idea may be formed of the character of the work, a selection +from the table of contents is prefixed. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77579 *** diff --git a/77579-h/77579-h.htm b/77579-h/77579-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7ada67a --- /dev/null +++ b/77579-h/77579-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,12855 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + The Youth of Madame de Longueville | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +a { + text-decoration: none; +} + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +h1,h2,h3 { + text-align: center; + clear: both; +} + +h2.nobreak { + page-break-before: avoid; +} + +hr.chap { + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + clear: both; + width: 65%; + margin-left: 17.5%; + margin-right: 17.5%; +} + +div.chapter { + page-break-before: always; +} + +.chapter p { + padding-left: 2em; + text-indent: -2em; + font-size: 90%; + margin-bottom: 1.5em; +} + +p { + margin-top: 0.5em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: 0.5em; + text-indent: 1em; +} + +table { + margin: 1em auto 1em auto; + max-width: 40em; + border-collapse: collapse; +} + +td { + padding-left: 2.25em; + padding-right: 0.25em; + vertical-align: top; + text-indent: -2em; + text-align: justify; +} + +.tdc { + text-align: center; + padding: 0.75em 0.25em 0.5em 0.25em; + text-indent: 0; + font-size: 110%; +} + +.tdpg { + vertical-align: bottom; + text-align: right; +} + +blockquote { + margin: 1.5em 10%; +} + +.center { + text-align: center; + text-indent: 0; +} + +.dedication { + text-align: center; + text-indent: 0; + line-height: 1.8em; + font-size: 120%; +} + +.footnotes { + margin-top: 1em; + border: dashed 1px; +} + +.footnote { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + font-size: 0.9em; +} + +.footnote .label { + position: absolute; + right: 84%; + text-align: right; +} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none; +} + +.gothic { + font-family: 'Old English Text MT', 'Old English', serif; +} + +.hanging { + padding-left: 2em; + text-indent: -2em; +} + +.larger { + font-size: 125%; +} + +.noindent { + text-indent: 0; +} + +.pagenum { + position: absolute; + right: 4%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; +} + +.poetry-container { + text-align: center; +} + +.poetry { + display: inline-block; + text-align: left; +} + +.poetry .stanza { + margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em; +} + +.poetry .verse { + padding-left: 3em; +} + +.poetry .indent0 {text-indent: -3.0em;} +.poetry .indent2 {text-indent: -2.0em;} +.poetry .indent4 {text-indent: -1.0em;} +.poetry .indent6 {text-indent: 0.0em;} +.poetry .indent8 {text-indent: 1.0em;} +.poetry .indent10 {text-indent: 2.0em;} +.poetry .indent12 {text-indent: 3.0em;} +.poetry .indent16 {text-indent: 5.0em;} +.poetry .indent20 {text-indent: 7.0em;} + +.right { + text-align: right; +} + +.smaller { + font-size: 80%; +} + +.smcap { + font-variant: small-caps; + font-style: normal; +} + +.allsmcap { + font-variant: small-caps; + font-style: normal; + text-transform: lowercase; +} + +.titlepage { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 3em; + text-indent: 0; +} + +.transnote { + background-color: #E6E6FA; + color: black; + text-align: center; + font-size: smaller; + padding: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 5em; +} + +.x-ebookmaker .poetry { + display: block; + margin-left: 1.5em; +} + +.x-ebookmaker blockquote { + margin: 1.5em 5%; +} + + </style> + </head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77579 ***</div> + +<div class="transnote"> + +<p class="center">Transcriber’s Note: Two pages of adverts have been moved to the end of +the book.</p> + +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[3]</span></p> + +<p class="titlepage larger">THE YOUTH<br> +<span class="smaller">OF</span><br> +<span class="larger">MADAME DE LONGUEVILLE,</span><br> +<span class="smaller">OR</span><br> +NEW REVELATIONS<br> +<span class="smaller">OF</span><br> +COURT AND CONVENT IN THE SEVENTEENTH<br> +CENTURY.</p> + +<p class="titlepage">FROM THE FRENCH OF VICTOR COUSIN.</p> + +<p class="titlepage">BY F. W. RICORD.</p> + +<p class="titlepage">NEW YORK:<br> +D. APPLETON & CO., 346 & 348 BROADWAY,<br> +<span class="smaller">AND 16 LITTLE BRITAIN, LONDON.<br> +M DCCC LIV.</span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[4]</span></p> + +<p class="titlepage smaller">Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854,<br> +<span class="smcap">By D. APPLETON & COMPANY</span>,<br> +In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern<br> +District of New York.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[5]</span></p> + +<p class="dedication"><span class="smaller allsmcap">TO</span><br> +ABRAM COLES, M. D.,<br> +<span class="smaller allsmcap">OF NEWARK, N. J.,<br> +AS A TRIBUTE TO HIS MANY VIRTUES,<br> +AND AS A SMALL RETURN FOR HIS MANY KINDNESSES,</span><br> +<span class="larger gothic">This Volume</span><br> +<span class="smaller allsmcap">IS RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED<br> +BY HIS FRIEND,</span><br> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;" class="smaller">THE TRANSLATOR.</span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[6]</span></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[7]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS.</h2> + +</div> + +<table> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">INTRODUCTION.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>The person of Madame de Longueville—Description of + contemporaries—Authentic portraits—Her wit and style—Her + character—Explanation of her conduct in the Fronde—Mademoiselle + de La Vallière and Madame de Longueville</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#INTRODUCTION">15</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER I.<br> + <span class="smaller">1619 to 1635.</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Mademoiselle de Bourbon in her family—Her mother, + Charlotte de Montmorency—Her father, M. the Prince—Her + brother, the Duke d’Enghien—Her religious education—The + convent of the Carmelites of the Rue Saint-Jacques—The + four great prioresses—Mademoiselle d’Epernon—Mademoiselle + de Bourbon at the ball of the Louvre, February 18, 1635—Her + portrait at the age of fifteen years</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">79</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER II.<br> + <span class="smaller">1635 to 1642.</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Mademoiselle de Bourbon at the hôtel de Rambouillet—The + Genre Précieux—Madame de Sablé, type of the true précieuse—Corneille + and Voiture—Mademoiselle de Bourbon at Chantilly—At Ruel—At + Liancourt—Her young friends—Mademoiselle Du Vigean and + Condé—Marriage of Mademoiselle de Bourbon</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">150</a> + <span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER III.<br> + <span class="smaller">1642 to 1644.</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Poetry and gallantry—State of affairs in 1643—Battle of + Rocroy—Mazarin and the <i>Importants</i>—Madame de + Montbazon—Letter attributed to Madame de Longueville—Duel + between Coligny and De Guise—An unpublished novel of the + seventeenth century</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">241</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td colspan="2" class="tdc">CHAPTER IV.<br> + <span class="smaller">1644 to 1649.</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Campaigns of Condé in Flanders and on the Rhine—Congress + and peace of Munster—Madame de Longueville at Munster—Her + portrait by Van Hull—Her return to France—Her brother, the + Prince de Conti—Sonnets of Voiture and of Benserade—La + Rochefoucauld—Commencement of his connection with Madame + de Longueville—The first Fronde—Noble conduct of Condé—Madame + de Longueville at the hôtel de Ville—Birth of Charles de Paris, + Count de Saint-Paul—Peace of 1649</td> + <td class="tdpg"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">309</a></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="PREFACE">PREFACE.</h2> + +</div> + +<p>Villefore has written the life of Madame de Longueville, +and it is not our intention to re-write it. We have only +wished to penetrate into the intimacy of a lofty spirit, that +inspires us with an especial interest, by the aid of the most +reliable documents that history can employ—confidential +correspondences, in which hearts, opening themselves far +from the eye of the public, involuntarily reveal characters, +that is to say, the truest causes of human events. In order +to procure such documents, we have delved, with the perseverance +of passion, in libraries public and private, and have +succeeded in laying hands upon a very great number of unpublished +letters, which have elucidated for us many obscure +points in the life of Mme. de Longueville, of that of +Condé, her brother, of their most celebrated contemporaries, +male and female.</p> + +<p>In default, then, of every other merit, this production will +at least have that of offering to the reader things hitherto +unknown, or scarcely perceived: for example, the interior, +for the first time opened, of that great convent of the Carmelites +of the <i>Rue Saint Jacques</i>, which served as an asylum +to so many wounded hearts, where Mlle. de Bourbon was, as +it were, brought up, and wished, at fifteen years of age, to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[10]</span>bury her beauty and her genius; the graceful pastimes of her +youth at the Louvre, at the hôtel de Rambouillet, at Chantilly, +at Ruel, at Liancourt; her charming friends, her brilliant +and valiant adorers; the skilful and too little appreciated +politics of her father; the military education, and also +the first loves of Condé; above all, that pure and touching +Mlle. Du Vigean, worthy object of the tenderness of a hero, +whom we have in some sort found again, whom we dare to +put by the side of Mlle. de La Vallière.</p> + +<p>For more than fifteen years, in our hours of leisure, we +have dreamed of a work the most foreign to our ordinary +labors, which has attracted us, and attached us by its very +contrast. The great men, and particularly the great writers, of +the seventeenth century, are almost our contemporaries; but +the women were then not less remarkable than the men, and +scarcely any of them, except Mme. de Sévigné, Mme. de La +Fayette, and a very few others, are known; whilst there were +everywhere, at the court and in the <i>salons</i> of Paris, in the +brilliant country-seats of the aristocracy, and in the austere +retreats of religion, women of great spirit and great heart, who +doubtless knew not how to write like professional authors, +who nevertheless wrote much, because it was the mode of the +times, who would not write in a mediocre manner, with the +thoughts and sentiments on which they had been nourished. +We have therefore amused ourselves in searching for, and we +have succeeded in discovering a literature wholly feminine, +three-quarters unknown, which does not seem to us unworthy +of having a place by the side of the manly literature in possession +of universal admiration. Hence the project of a gallery +of illustrious females of the seventeenth century, upon +the model of the illustrious men of Perrault. We have +given the first page of such a history in <span class="smcap">Jacqueline +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span>Pascal</span>;⁠<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> and this is probably the last. Age is coming on; the +heavens are growing dark; and we owe ourselves to more +serious thoughts, to a great cause which we have heretofore +served with the ardor and the energy of youth, which to-day, +compromised by some, betrayed by others, claims our last +efforts, and our highest devotion.⁠<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> Nevertheless, we shall +not regret the moments that we have given to these studies, +somewhat light, if they can increase the knowledge of, and a +taste for the most admirable epoch of our history, of that +powerful French society of the seventeenth century, which is +the more admired the more it is seen under its different aspects; +when France was a spectacle to the nations, and +marched at the head of humanity, when philosophy was an +honor, as well as poetry and the arts, the religious spirit and +the military spirit; when Descartes divided public esteem +with Corneille and Condé; when Mme. de Grignan studied +him with a passionate vivacity; when Bossuet and Arnauld, +Fénelon and Malebranche, openly declared themselves his disciples. +So that, to speak truly, at that common focus of the +great and the beautiful, our literary predilections and our +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[12]</span>philosophic faith are tied to each other in an intimate manner, +and reciprocally vivify each other.</p> + +<p>But if the seventeenth century has more than ever our admiration, +we guard ourselves from the too much accredited +error that confounds that century with the reign of Louis XIV. +Surely Louis XIV. is for us also a great king. He had, what +is rarest in the world, grandeur in character; that is his immortal +glory. Moreover, he was reserved, attentive, laborious, +capable of a firm and persistent course; but, it must be said, +he was profoundly selfish, and loved his person and his family +much more than France. He was radically deceived in the +only two enterprises that originated in his own will,—the revocation +of the Edict of Nantes, and the wars of the Succession. +He left France humiliated, enfeebled, discontented, and already +full of the germs of revolutions; whilst Henry IV., +Richelieu, and Mazarin had transmitted it to him covered +with glory, powerful and preponderant abroad, tranquil and +satisfied at home. Louis XIV. terminates the seventeenth +century: he did not inspire it, and he is far from being its +perfect representative. It was under Henry IV., under Louis +XIII., and under Queen Anne, that were born, formed, and +even developed, the great statesmen and the great warriors, as +well as the greatest writers of either sex, those even, like Madame +de Sévigné and Bossuet, whose career was most prolonged. +The influence of Louis XIV. made itself felt sufficiently +late. He took the reins of government only in 1661, +and at first he followed his times, and did not control +them; he truly appeared himself, only when he was no longer +guided by Lyonne and Colbert, the last disciples of Richelieu +and Mazarin. It was then that, governing almost alone and +superior to all around him, he placed everywhere the impress +of his taste, in politics, in religion, in manners, in arts, and +in letters. He substituted in every way simplicity for <i>naïveté</i>, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span>nobility for grandeur, dignity for force, elegance for grace: +he effaced characters, and polished, as it were, the surface of +souls; he eradicated great vices and great virtues; he put +the purely literary, and consequently the somewhat inferior +school of Racine and Boileau in the place of that great school +of virtue, politics, and war, instituted by Corneille; as heirs +to Descartes, Pascal, and Bossuet, he gave Massillon, Fontenelle, +and Voltaire—the true children of the end of the seventeenth +century. After Madame de Sévigné, that rival of +Molière, formed, like him, from 1640 to 1660, appeared +Mme. de Maintenon, the model of the common-place, with +her agreeable small-talk, Mme. de Coylus, Mme. de Stael, and +Mme. Lambert. Add to that, as we have already said, the +wholly gratuitous revocation of the Edict of Nantes, when +Protestants, subdued, but protected, rivalled in zeal the Catholics +for the service of the state, and when their most illustrious +families were by degrees converted; add especially, +the deplorable wars undertaken by Louis XIV., with a ministry +of court clerks and generals, in order to put the crown +of Spain on the head of his grandson, when in exchange for +his pretensions, and without drawing the sword, he might +have given Belgium to France; and you have the end of a +reign that little resembles its beginning; for the beginning +comes from a wholly different genius—from that genius +which inspired Henry IV., Richelieu, and Mazarin, dictated +the Edict of Nantes, the treaty of Munster, and that of the +Pyrenees, the Cid, Polyeucte, and Cinna, the Discours de la +Méthode, and the Provinciales, Don Juan, and the Misanthrope, +and the most pathetic sermons of Bossuet. It is +genius that we recall, and glorify everywhere in this work; +because to our eyes it is the genius itself of France at the +epoch of her true greatness.</p> + +<p>If the public receives these studies somewhat favorably, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[14]</span>we shall offer to it their sequel; we will exhibit also Mme. +de Longueville during the Fronde, and after her conversion, +from 1649 to 1680. It is certainly not the least beautiful +part of the seventeenth century.</p> + +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">V. Cousin.</span></p> + +<p class="smaller"><span class="smcap">December 15, 1852.</span></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[15]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="INTRODUCTION">MADAME DE LONGUEVILLE.<br> +<span class="smaller">INTRODUCTION.</span></h2> + +<p>The person of Madame de Longueville—Description of contemporaries—Authentic +portraits—Her wit and style—Her character—Explanation +of her conduct in the Fronde—Mademoiselle de La Vallière and +Madame de Longueville.</p> + +</div> + +<p>There are three well-defined periods in the life of +the Duchess de Longueville.⁠<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>Born in 1619, in the castle of Vincennes, during +the captivity of her father, Henri de Bourbon, prince +de Condé, whose imprisonment was shared by his +young wife, that celebrated beauty, Charlotte Marguerite +de Montmorency, we at first see Mademoiselle +de Bourbon, growing in graces by the side of such a +mother, dividing her time between the convent of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[16]</span>Carmelites and the hôtel de Rambouillet, nourishing +her heart with pious emotions and romantic reading; +going to a ball, but with an under-garment of hair-cloth; +sharing the confidence of a hero, her brother, +the Duke d’Enghien; sympathizing with him in his +love of the beautiful Mademoiselle Du Vigean, and +witnessing her entrance into a cloister, where she herself +is destined at last to die. At the age of twenty-three +years she marries M. de Longueville, who is +forty-seven, and who, instead of making up for this +disparity, by an assiduous tenderness, continues in the +suite of the saddest coquette of the time, the famous +Duchess de Montbazon. Outraged by this rival, unprotected +by a husband, who is even incapable of +jealousy, she yields little by little to the contagion +which surrounds her; and returning to Paris, after +passing some time amid the magnificent distractions +of the embassy of Munster, she suffers herself to be +captivated by the wit, grand air, and chivalrous appearance +of Prince de Marcillac, afterwards Duke +de La Rochefoucauld. This liaison shapes her life, +and closes its first period in 1648.</p> + +<p>The Fronde with its vicissitudes; love—such as it +was understood at the hôtel de Rambouillet, the love +of Corneille and Scudéry—with its enchantments and +its griefs, mingled with dangers and glory, crossed +by a thousand adventures, the vanquisher of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[17]</span>rudest obstacles, and yielding to its own infirmities—in +fine, exhausting itself;—such is the second period, +so short and so full, beginning in 1648, and closing +in the midst of 1654.</p> + +<p>From this time the whole life of Madame de +Longueville is one long, austere penance, performed +successively in Normandy, near her aged husband, +among the Carmelites, at Port Royal, and finally concluded +in 1679.</p> + +<p>Thus at first a spotless reputation, then faults, then +expiation divide the career of Madame de Longueville.</p> + +<p>It is in this order that we have collected, and that +we shall present all that patient research has enabled +us to gather concerning Madame de Longueville. We +shall give political and religious writings, and especially +confidential letters, thrown off from her pen +during every important moment of her life, and +which exhibit it in a manner equally faithful and +agreeable.</p> + +<p>But if the writings and letters which we are about +to publish, elucidate the character of Madame de +Longueville, it is quite as true that the character, +well comprehended, explains them and places them +in their true light. To introduce and give interest to +a work, it is usual to begin with some details respecting +its author; and as in this case the author is a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[18]</span>woman, it is necessary to become acquainted with her +person, as well as with her mind and her heart.</p> + +<h3>I.</h3> + +<p>Anne Geneviève de Bourbon was the daughter, as +we have said, of that Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency, +Princess de Condé, who had turned the head of +Henry IV., and whom, it is said, he wished to snatch +from the hands of her jealous husband, at the risk of +setting all Europe in commotion. The daughter was +at least as beautiful as the mother, and this was a +principal advantage of Madame de Longueville, +which, we confess, possesses for us no ordinary attractions.</p> + +<p>Beauty extends its prestige to posterity itself, and +attaches a charm, for centuries, to the name alone of +the privileged creatures upon whom it has pleased +God to bestow it. But I speak of true beauty. +This is not less rare than genius and virtue. Beauty +has also its epochs. It does not belong to all men +and to all ages to taste it in its exquisite truth. As +there are fashions which spoil it, there are periods +which affect its sentiment. For example, it became +the eighteenth century to invent pretty women—those +charming dolls, perfumed and powdered, affecting +the attractions which they do not possess +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[19]</span>under their vast hoops and great furbelows. It was +quite sufficient to prattle in a <i>salon</i>, to write <i>Lettres +peruviennes</i>, to serve as models for the heroines of +the younger Crébillon, and to turn the heads of the +heroes of Rosbach. Those of Rocroy and of Lens, +the contemporaries of Richelieu, of Descartes, and of +Corneille, the energetic and somewhat rude men who +preceded Louis XIV., and who delighted in a life of +agitation, but to end it like Pascal and Rancé, would +not have been tempted to bend the knee before such +frail idols. Let us dare to say that the foundation of +true beauty, as of true virtue, as of true genius, is +force. Shed over this force a ray of heaven, elegance, +grace, delicacy, and you have beauty. Its +perfect type is the Venus of Milo;⁠<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> or again, that +pure and mysterious apparition, goddess or mortal, +which is called the Psyche, or the Venus of Naples.⁠<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> +Beauty is certainly to be seen in the Venus de Médicis, +but in this we feel that it is declining, or about +to decline. Look at, not the women of Titian, but +the virgins of Raphael and of Leonardi: the face is +of infinite delicacy, but the body evinces strength; +they will disgust you forever with the shadows and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[20]</span>monkeys <i>à la Pompadour</i>. Adore grace, but do not +in every thing separate it too much from force, for +without force grace soon shares the fate of the flower +that is separated from the stem which animates and +sustains it.</p> + +<p>It was Florence, it was its artists and its princes, +that carried into France the sentiment of true beauty. +Here it was rapidly developed, and, for various reasons +which I cannot now even point out, it reigned +among us until near the close of the XVIIth century.</p> + +<p>What a train of accomplished women this century +presents to us! women who were loaded with admiration, +drawing after them all hearts, and spreading +from rank to rank that worship of beauty which +throughout all Europe received the name of French +gallantry! They accompany this great century in its +too rapid course; they mark its principal epochs, +beginning with Charlotte de Montmorency, and +finishing with Madame de Montespan. Between +these place the lady of the High Constable of +Luynes, afterwards Duchess de Chevreuse, Madame +de Hautefort, Madame de Montbazon, Madame de +Guimenée, Madame de Châtillon, Marie de Gonzague, +afterwards Queen of Poland, her sister the +Palatine, and so many others, among whom, to my +extreme regret, I dare not mention Mademoiselle de +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[21]</span>La Vallière, and yet am compelled to place Madame +de Maintenon.</p> + +<p>Madame de Longueville has her place in this dazzling +gallery. She had all the characteristics of true +beauty, joining to it a peculiar charm.</p> + +<p>She was of good stature and of an admirable form. +Embonpoint with all its advantages were not wanting +to her. She possessed, as I cannot doubt in examining +the authentic portraits before me, that kind of +attraction so much prized during the XVIIth century, +and which, with beautiful hands, had made the +reputation of Anne of Austria. Her eyes were of +the most tender blue. Her fine light hair, descending +in large ringlets, displayed the graceful contour +of her face, and overspread her admirable shoulders, +much exposed, according to the fashion of the times. +Behold the foundation of true beauty. Add to it a +complexion whose whiteness, delicacy, and tempered +lustre have given it the name of pearly. This +charming complexion displayed every shade of sentiment +that crossed her soul. In speech she was most +gentle. Her gestures, with the expression of her +countenance, and the sound of her voice, produced +the completest music; such is the language of a disinterested +contemporary, a Jansenist, Nicole, perhaps, +who describes her as “the most perfect actress +in the world.” But her peculiar charm consisted in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[22]</span>a graceful ease, a languor, as all her contemporaries +expressed it, which would change to the highest degree +of animation when passion seized her, but which +usually gave her an air of indolence and aristocratic +carelessness, mistaken sometimes for <i>ennuie</i>, sometimes +for disdain. I have observed this air in but +one person in all France, and this person has left a +memory so pure, I may say so holy, that I dare not +name her in this connection, even to compare her +with Madame de Longueville.</p> + +<p>Believe me, I am not drawing upon my fancy for +a portrait. I confine myself strictly to the best +authorities. I will cite them, if necessary, to prove +my perfect exactness.</p> + +<p>Let us begin with him who knew her best, and +who certainly has not flattered her. “This princess,” +says La Rochefoucauld in his <i>Mémoires</i>,⁠<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> “had all +the advantages of mind and beauty in such perfection, +that it seemed as if nature had in her taken +peculiar pleasure in forming a masterpiece.”</p> + +<p>Listen also to Cardinal de Retz, a very good judge +in such matters, and who would have gladly taken +the place of La Rochefoucauld. “In regard to +Madame de Longueville, the small-pox had marred +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[23]</span>her original beauty,⁠<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> but it had left her nearly all its +brilliancy, and this brilliancy, joined to her quality, +her wit, and her languor, which in her possessed a +peculiar charm, rendered her one of the most amiable +persons in France.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> And elsewhere: “She had +a languor in her manner more touching than the animation +of those who were more beautiful.”</p> + +<p>After consulting her male contemporaries, let us +examine the opinions of those of her own sex. We +may, it would seem, believe them when they eulogize +the beauty of another. Observe what Madame +de Motteville says in several places concerning that +of Madame de Longueville: “Mademoiselle de Bourbon +was beginning to display the first charms of that +angelic face which has since become so celebrated.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> +“If Madame de Longueville⁠<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> exerted great influence +in this way (by her mind and fortune), the influence +of her beauty was not less powerful; for although the +small-pox had, since the regency, somewhat injured +the perfection of her complexion, the brilliancy of +her charms attracted those who saw her; and she +possessed in the highest degree what the Spanish +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[24]</span>language expresses by those words—<i>donayre, brio, y +byzarria</i> (gallant air). She had an admirable form, +and her personal appearance had a charm whose +power extended even over our own sex. It was impossible +to see her without loving her, and without +desiring to please her. Her beauty, however, consisted +more in the coloring of her face than in the +perfection of her features. Her eyes were not large, +but beautiful, soft, and brilliant, and their blue was +admirable; it was similar to that of the turquoise. +Poets could compare the white and incarnation of +her face to lilies and roses only; and the light shining +hair which accompanied so many other wonderful +things, made her resemble an angel, such as our +feeble nature can conceive one, rather than a woman:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">‘Poca grana y mucha nieve</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Van competiendo en su cara,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Y entre lirios y iasmines</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Assomanse algunas rosas.’”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>To these different passages from Madame de Motteville, +we would add a single line from the great +Mademoiselle, who was not troubled with extreme +benevolence: “Madame de Longueville was old; +Mademoiselle de Bourbon was young and beautiful +as an angel.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[25]</span></p> + +<p>And the angelic air as well as the pearly complexion +must have belonged to Madame de Longueville +in a peculiar manner, since we again find these expressions +in an unpublished letter⁠<a id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> of another female +of the same period, Mademoiselle de Vaudy, who +writes to Madame de Longueville in 1655: “Though +your Highness had not the tint of the pearl, the mind +and the sweetness of an angel....” Does not this +unintentional agreement of different persons prove +the general effect produced by Madame de Longueville, +and the justness of the comparisons naturally +suggested by her beauty?</p> + +<p>This fortuitous and striking harmony authorizes +and fully justifies the language, which might otherwise +be suspected, of Scudéry, in the dedication of +<i>Artamène ou le Grand Cyrus</i>: “The beauty which +you possess in the highest degree ... is not the most +remarkable of your gifts, although an object of wonder +to all the world. Doubtless we realize in your +Highness the most perfect idea, whether it be of +form, of which yours is so beautiful and so noble, or +of majestic bearing, or of beautiful hair, or of brilliancy, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[26]</span>as well in the eyes, in the clearness and vivacity +of complexion, in the just proportion of all the +features, and in that modest and gallant air, which +is the soul of beauty.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<p>Not content with this description, Scudéry has +taken it up again, and, as we would now-a-days say, +illustrated it with a portrait of Madame de Longueville, +just as Chapelain, in dedicating <i>La Pucelle</i> to +her husband, placed the portrait of that prince at +the beginning of his work. This leads us to say a +few words in regard to the different portraits which +we have seen of Madame de Longueville; they present +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[27]</span>her to us in the gracefulness of youth, in the +full splendor of all her charms, in her maturity.</p> + +<p>King Louis-Philippe conceived the happy idea of +assembling at Versailles, in the galleries of the second +floor, all the portraits which he could collect of +the celebrated personages of France. Among them +we find⁠<a id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> a portrait of Madame de Longueville in +youth, by the side of her father, Henri de Bourbon, +and of her mother, Charlotte de Montmorency. It +is unfortunately a copy. A note placed behind the +frame says that this copy was made from an original +painting of Ducayer executed in 1634. Mademoiselle +de Bourbon, born in 1619, was then but fifteen +years old. It is impossible to see or to imagine a +more charming creature. All the signs of her future +great beauty are already visible; certain attractions +are still wanting, but the strength which promises +and assures them is stamped upon every part.</p> + +<p>We again behold her, after her marriage, and during +the embassy of Munster, in 1646 and 1647. She +is now twenty-seven or twenty-eight years of age. +Anselm Van Hull is the author of this portrait. It +is a bust, with a highly ornamented frame. The +young woman has well preserved all that the young +girl promised. The forms of beauty are developed. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[28]</span>Her tresses are magnificent. She has the collar of +pearls, which seldom quits her. This portrait is +engraved in the collection of the negotiators of +Munster.⁠<a id="FNanchor_15" href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p> + +<p>That which is prefixed to the first volume of the +<i>Grand Cyrus</i> represents Madame de Longueville in +1649.⁠<a id="FNanchor_16" href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> Her age at this period is thirty years. This +engraving is by Regnesson, brother-in-law of Nanteuil, +after Chauveau. There are also two other engravings, +slightly differing from each other, one by +Moncornet, the other by Frosne. Among the enamel +pictures of Petitot, in the museum of the Louvre, is +one, in our opinion, ordinary enough, marked No. 50, +which is referred to Madame de Longueville. All +these portraits are of nearly the same period, and +give her the same character of beauty, strength, and +ampleness of form, face more full than in Van Hull, +and a more marked embonpoint. To the honor of +Scudéry, it must be said that the passages from the +dedication of the <i>Grand Cyrus</i>, which we have +quoted, may serve as a faithful text to the engraving +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[29]</span>which accompanies them. Here are those light +tresses, those eyes so soft, that complexion of dazzling +brightness, and I may add that graceful and +noble dress so becoming to beauty, even as the female +dress of the eighteenth century seems to have +been invented for ugliness itself.</p> + +<p>Finally, the museum of Versailles⁠<a id="FNanchor_17" href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> contains another +portrait of Madame de Longueville, attributed +to Mignard. It is easy to recognize in it the noble +lady, whose image is prefixed to the <i>Grand Cyrus</i>. +It is truly Madame de Longueville, with that grand +air and amiable languor, which every one attributes +to her. She is sitting, dressed in a rich court costume, +and holding a bouquet of flowers in her hand.</p> + +<p>Let us not forget to mention a beautiful silver +medallion,⁠<a id="FNanchor_18" href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> without date, and without engraver’s +name, which represents her at nearly the same age +as the portrait of Versailles, in her beautiful maturity, +and in the opulence of her charms.⁠<a id="FNanchor_19" href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[30]</span></p> + +<p>Even after her conversion, and when she had entirely +renounced the world, she preserved a portion +of her beauty; and a gentleman who saw her at this +time at the house of her brother, the Prince de Condé, +declared⁠<a id="FNanchor_20" href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> that the progress of age was scarcely visible +upon her; that her piety became her; that her +candor, her modesty, and her sweetness, ennobled by +her air of dignity, rendered her at this period as +capable of pleasing as ever.</p> + +<h3>II.</h3> + +<p>In describing the person of Madame de Longueville, +we find ourselves tracing the character of her +mind and of her soul.</p> + +<p>Her mind has received the homage of the most +delicate connoisseurs. We have seen that La Rochefoucauld, +Retz, and Madame de Motteville praise it +as much as they do her beauty. Retz urges particularly +that this mind owed every thing to nature, and +almost nothing to study, its indolence removing it +from every effort in ordinary things. “Madame de +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[31]</span>Longueville,” says he, “has naturally a great fund +of wit, but she has still more finesse and tact. +Her capacity, which has not been aided by her indolence, +is not exercised upon business matters,⁠<a id="FNanchor_21" href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> etc.” +And speaking of the languor of her manners: “She +had even a languor of the mind, which was charming, +because it had, if we may so speak, luminous +and startling awakenings.” Madame de Motteville +coincides with the Cardinal de Retz: “This +princess ... was very indolent.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_22" href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> The occupation +furnished by the applause of the great world, +which ordinarily regards with too much admiration +the fine qualities of persons of rank, had deprived +Madame de Longueville of opportunities for reading +and for storing her mind sufficiently to be called +learned.⁠<a id="FNanchor_23" href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> She was indeed far enough from this, and +did not pique herself at all upon her acquirements. +While her two brothers, the Prince de Condé and the +Prince de Conti, had studied assiduously with the +Jesuits of Bourges and of Paris, Mademoiselle de +Bourbon had received, under the direction of her +mother, nothing more than the simple instructions +given in those times to women. A happy disposition +and social intercourse with the choice spirits around +her supplied every thing. Even at an early age she +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[32]</span>acquired a great reputation, and I find that while yet +a child she was loaded with praises and even with +dedications. I have now before me a <i>pastoral tragic +comedy</i>, entitled <i>Uranie</i>,⁠<a id="FNanchor_24" href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> which a certain Bridard +dedicated to her in 1631, that is, when she was +twelve years old. This Bridard says to her: “The +most perfect courtiers know that you have a mind +far before your years. I can myself testify to this, +having heard you recite verses with so much grace, +that one might suppose that an angel, borrowing +your beauty, had descended upon the earth to discourse +upon the wonders of heaven.” I quote this +passage from that book forgotten, and justly forgotten, +because it forestalls all those of Madame de +Motteville, of Mademoiselle de Montpensier, and of +Mademoiselle de Vaudy. At twelve years we find +her an <i>angel</i>, and so called ever afterwards. From +early youth she had, with her brother, the Duke +d’Enghien, frequented the hôtel de Rambouillet; +and the <i>salons</i> of the Rue Saint Thomas du Louvre +were not the most proper school for a mind characterized +by grandeur and finesse, but a grandeur +tending to the romantic, and a finesse often degenerating +into subtility—a mind, too, like that of Corneille, +the perfect representative of its epoch. It +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[33]</span>seems, however, that the hôtel de Rambouillet did +not fasten upon her its likes and dislikes, for one +day, while listening to the reading of <i>La Pucelle</i> of +Chapelain, so praised in this quarter, and hearing +the remarks upon its pretended beauties—“Yes,” +said she,⁠<a id="FNanchor_25" href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> “it is very beautiful, but it is very tiresome!” +Somewhat in the same manner her brother, +the great Condé, defended Corneille against the +rules, exclaiming that he could not pardon rules +which forced the Abbé d’Aubignac to write such +bad tragedies. She was everywhere proclaimed the +sovereign judge of all writings, the queen of wit, the +arbiter of taste and of elegance, as Horace says. In +1649, in the quarrel concerning the two sonnets of +Benserade and of Voiture, the whole court took the +part of Benserade; but Madame de Longueville +having declared herself in favor of Voiture, every +one went over to her side. And at this period of her +life she must have yielded to the prevailing taste, +and must have been somewhat of a <i>précieuse</i>, for +Madame de Motteville, in speaking of the principal +beauty of her mind, which lay in delicacy of thought, +accuses her of affectation, adding immediately, as if +to excuse herself for finding any blemish in so accomplished +a person: “All men partake of that clay +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[34]</span>from which they originate, and God alone is perfect.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_26" href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p> + +<p>All agree in saying that she conversed divinely, +and with an exquisite mixture of vivacity and sweetness. +The charm of her conversation must have been +very extraordinary to have survived her youth and +her worldly life, and still subsist in devotion and +penitence. The Jansenist writer who left us a portrait, +or, as it was then called, a <i>character</i> of Madame +de Longueville,⁠<a id="FNanchor_27" href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> does not hesitate to compare, and +almost prefer her, to one of the most intellectual men, +and most celebrated conversationists, of the XVIIth +century, M. de Tréville.⁠<a id="FNanchor_28" href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> “The manner in which +Madame de Longueville conversed is something to +be studied.... Every thing that she said was so +well said, that it would have been difficult, even +with much study, to say it better. There were more +lively and rare things in what M. de Tréville uttered, +but there was more delicacy, and more spirit and +good sense in Madame de Longueville’s manner of +expression.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[35]</span></p> + +<p>But to speak and to write are two very different +things, each demanding a particular cultivation; and +that Madame de Longueville did not study, is evident +as soon as she takes up the pen. Her great +natural qualities showed themselves with difficulty +through the faults of every kind which resulted from +her inexperience. It is in fact no small affair to express +one’s sentiments and ideas in a natural order, +with their true shades, and in terms neither too nice +nor too vulgar, terms which neither exaggerate nor +enfeeble them. It is not unusual to find men full of +wit, enthusiasm, and grace when they speak, and +who, when they take up the pen, become contemptible. +It is because writing is an art, a very difficult +art, and which must have been learned. Madame +de Longueville was entirely ignorant of it, and so +were the most eminent women of her time. I have +elsewhere⁠<a id="FNanchor_29" href="#Footnote_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> spoken of Madame Angélique Arnaud +and of Jacqueline Pascal, who, though highly gifted, +have left but very imperfect works. All are unanimous +in representing the Princess Palatine as a person +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[36]</span>of great mind, who treated the greatest men as +their equal. Retz⁠<a id="FNanchor_30" href="#Footnote_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> and Bossuet⁠<a id="FNanchor_31" href="#Footnote_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> + affirm this, and I +believe them, for in this matter they were better +judges than I. Read, however, some of the manuscript +letters of the Palatine. They are not, certainly, +deficient in respect to solidity, finesse, and +ingenuity; but I am forced to admit that they are +often full of inaccuracies, that their construction is +very awkward, and that the most common rules of +orthography are sometimes outrageously violated. +I do not conclude from this that the Palatine had +not a mind of the first order, but simply that she +had not been taught the art of writing properly +her sentiments and thoughts. In this Madame de +Longueville was no better skilled. Thus, all that +we shall publish from her pen exhibits at once +the beauty of her genius and the defects of her education.</p> + +<p>With these women who write so well and so badly, +we may contrast Madame de Sévigné and Madame +de La Fayette, who always write well. To be just, +however, it seems to me that we should take into +consideration two very important things.</p> + +<p>In the first place, these two ladies had received an +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[37]</span>education altogether different from that given to +Madame de Longueville; they had been under the +tuition of skilful masters of language and of literature, +among whom was one of the most learned men of +the seventeenth century, who at the same time made +the greatest pretensions to wit, gentility, and gallantry. +Ménage had, during their youth and even +after their marriage, taught Mademoiselle de Rabutin, +and afterwards Madame de Lavergne, not only the +French language as it was spoken and written by the +Academy, but the language of the wits of the time, +the Italian, and even somewhat of the Latin; he excused +them from the Greek alone. He exercised +them in writing, pointing out their errors, cultivating +their happy instincts, polishing and regulating their +mind and style. He retained them for a considerable +time under this discipline, which was indeed +highly agreeable to himself. Their professor was +also their Platonic admirer, more Platonic than he +perhaps desired. He addressed to them stanzas, +sonnets, idyls, madrigals, and all sorts of verses in +French, in Italian, and in Latin. He celebrated by +turns the <i>formosissima Laverna</i> and the <i>bellissima +Marchesa di Sevigni</i>.⁠<a id="FNanchor_32" href="#Footnote_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> He certainly would not have +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[38]</span>taken the trouble to compose, in honor of their wit +and charms, Latin and Italian verses which they +might have been unable to comprehend. On the +contrary, both of them wrote very well in Italian.⁠<a id="FNanchor_33" href="#Footnote_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> +In a manuscript correspondence of Madame de La +Fayette, lately in my possession, I have found more +than one allusion to the time when, thus to speak, she +pursued her studies under Ménage.⁠<a id="FNanchor_34" href="#Footnote_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> Nature had +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[39]</span>done every thing for Madame de Sévigné: it had +given her perfect exactness and solidity, with inexhaustible +playfulness and sparkling vivacity. Art +and genius united, made of her the incomparable +letter-writer who left Balzac and Voiture a thousand +leagues behind, and whom Voltaire himself has not +surpassed. Like a mad and ignorant person, she appears +to defy every thing; but in her boldest strokes +she never miscalculates, which is an infallible sign of +a finished art. Observe again, that if Madame de +Sévigné wrote well, it was because she knew that her +letters would be shown; but of this she does not betray +the least suspicion: it is true that she wrote +nothing but letters; I even doubt whether she could +have written a book, and I could not imagine her +engaged upon a romance, or upon any work whatever, +except, perhaps, memoirs and satires, like those +of her Cousin Bussy or Saint-Simon, or perhaps upon +theological treatises like those of her daughter, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[40]</span>Madame de Grignan.⁠<a id="FNanchor_35" href="#Footnote_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> This was not the case with +Madame de La Fayette. She was not only a person +of great wit and information, but she was also an +author. It is not surprising that she knew how to +write, since she made a profession of it. An exquisite +polish is her prominent characteristic, and it may be +in part referred to the literary discipline which she +preserved much longer than her friend; it may also +be accounted for by the fact that she never wrote a +word without submitting it to that same Ménage, +to Sagrais, who resided with her, and who, if he +did not lend her his pen, aided her with his counsels +and his name, to Huet, or to La Rochefoucauld. +Madame de La Fayette is certainly far +superior to Madame de La Suze, to Madame de +Brégy, to Madame Deshoulières, to Mademoiselle +de Scudéry, to Madame d’Aulnoy, to Madame Lambert, +but she belongs to their family. Although +she passed her life with Madame de Sévigné, she +differs from her essentially, and she belongs, too, +to a very different world from that of Madame de +Longueville.</p> + +<p>But it is important to remember that Madame de +Longueville preceded, by several years, the two illustrious +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[41]</span>friends, and that, early separated from the +world, and buried in retirement during the last twenty-five +years of her life, she was unable to profit by +the then rapid progress of language and taste. There +are in fact two very different parties in the literature +of the seventeenth century: that of Louis XIII. and +of the Regency, represented by Corneille and Pascal; +and that which is particularly the work of Louis +XIV., of which Racine and Fénelon are the most +accomplished expression. In one we find a grandeur +somewhat uncouth; in the other a charming art, +sometimes felt too sensibly. In the style as well as +in the conversation of the women of the seventeenth +century, we observe prolixity, carelessness, and even +incorrectness, for the language which they write or +speak is not settled. They are neither able to choose +between their thoughts, nor to give them that happy +turn, that precision and elegance which, thanks to the +superabundance of genius, became so common at the +close of the century. But their attainment to all +great things, political and religious, worldly ambition +and holy penitence, gave their minds a much +harder tempering than that possessed by the women +who came after the Fronde, and who, with all France, +were stamped with the taste of Louis XIV. Madame +de Sévigné, born and formed in the first epoch, became +fully developed in the second. Her heart is +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[42]</span>with the first, her genius springs from it; the second +gave her its polish without depriving her of its vigor +and its original fervor.⁠<a id="FNanchor_36" href="#Footnote_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> Madame de Longueville +was in full splendor under the Fronde; afterwards +she lived among the Carmelites and at Port-Royal; +the cultivation of her taste ceased about the year +1650. Let us not then demand in her qualities which +she cannot possess. Let us recognize in her a +mind of the first rank, but still the mind of a woman—of +a great lady, of a very indolent princess, +who has not made the least improvement of her talents, +and who shows equally her merits and defects, +which are also the merits and defects of the times in +which she lived, namely, an uncultivated grandeur, +a refined delicacy, with a perpetual negligence.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[43]</span></p> + +<h3>III.</h3> + +<p>If the mind of Madame de Longueville displays +the woman, her soul especially is in the highest degree +feminine, and, far from accusing, I desire to +praise her for it. Yes, Madame de Longueville belongs +to her own sex; she possesses its adorable qualities +and its well-known imperfections. In a world +in which gallantry was the order of the day, this +young and ravishing creature, married to a man already +old and even otherwise connected, followed the +universal example. Naturally tender, the senses, +according to her own most humble confession, had +no part in the affairs of her heart; but, overwhelmed +with homage, she yielded to it. Amiable, she made +her happiness in being loved. The sister of the great +Condé, she was not insensible to the idea of playing +a conspicuous part; but far from pretending to rule, +she was so much the woman, that she permitted herself +to be governed and guided by him whom she +loved. While around her, interest and ambition so +often took the colors of love, she listened to her heart +alone, and devoted herself to the ambition and interest +of another. All authors are unanimous in this +particular. Her enemies reproach her with severity +for not having a proper aim, and for having despised +her own interests. They do not suspect that +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[44]</span>in the expectation of overwhelming her, they elevate +her; and even they themselves take care to conceal +her conduct and her faults, which, after all, may be +reduced to a single one.</p> + +<p>She could even be touched by the devotion of Coligny, +who shed his blood to avenge her of the outrage +of Madame de Montbazon;⁠<a id="FNanchor_37" href="#Footnote_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> for a moment she +listened⁠<a id="FNanchor_38" href="#Footnote_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> heedlessly to the gallantries of the brave +and intellectual Moissons, afterwards Marshal d’Albret; +still later she compromised herself somewhat +with the Duke de Nemours; but the only person +that she loved truly was La Rochefoucauld. She +devoted herself to him entirely; she sacrificed every +thing to him; her duty, her interests, her repose, her +reputation. For him she staked her fortune and her +life. She exhibited the most equivocal and the most +contrary conduct. It was La Rochefoucauld, who +caused her to take part in the Fronde, who, according +to his liking, made her advance or recede, who +united her to, or separated her from, her family, who +governed her absolutely. In a word, she consented +to be in his hand a mere heroic instrument. Pride and +passion had doubtless something to do with this life +of adventure and this contempt of peril. But of what +stamp must have been the soul that could find consolation +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[45]</span>in this! And, as often happens, the man to whom +she devoted herself was not wholly worthy of her. +He had infinite spirit; but he was profoundly selfish, +meanly ambitious; he measured others by himself; +he was as subtile in evil as she was in good; he was +full of refinement in his self-love, and in the pursuit +of his own interest; in reality, the least chivalrous +of men, although he affected all the appearance of +the highest chivalry. So, as soon as he believes that +Madame de Longueville has left him for a moment, +and listened too long to the Duke de Nemours, he +returns against her, and pursues her with the most +pitiful resentment. He blackens her character in +the eyes of her brother; he reveals the weaknesses +of which he himself has taken advantage; and when +she is devoted to the task of repairing the errors of +her life, when she is expiating them by the severest +penitence, he seeks, by publications in a foreign land, +which he dares not own,⁠<a id="FNanchor_39" href="#Footnote_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> to blast her name, just as +at a later period he will cause Madame de Sablé to +print to his glory newspaper articles, which his own +hand will correct, and carefully relieve of the little +criticisms, inserted for the purpose of adding weight +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[46]</span>to the praise;⁠<a id="FNanchor_40" href="#Footnote_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> so that the poor woman on returning +from the Carmelites or from Port-Royal was forced +to encounter in the few <i>salons</i> which she still entered, +the history of her amours and the narrative of +her errors penned by the hand of him who should +have died in her defence, even, if necessary, against +the truth. On the breaking up of the Fronde, La +Rochefoucauld managed his affairs so well as to retain +a good position with the court; he entered the +carriage of Mazarin, uttering those famous words: +“Every thing happens in France;” he solicited and +obtained great favors for his son; he sought for himself +the situation of governor of the Dauphin, which +was given to Montausier; he knew how to surround +himself with amiable women, who bestowed upon +him their admiration and their little cares, and one +of whom, Madame de La Fayette, consecrated to him +her life, and took the place of Madame de Longueville. +How different the conduct of Anne de Bourbon! +Love had drawn her into the Fronde, love had +there retained her; when love no longer exists, she +knows not where she is. The proud heroine, who, to +war upon Mazarin, had sold her jewels, pledged her +fortune, risked her life in a frail bark upon the sea, +aroused the South, and held in check the royal power, +as soon as she finds that her exertions must avail +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[47]</span>herself alone, withdraws into obscurity, and, at the +age of thirty-five years, in all her beauty, plunges +into solitude to grieve, like Mademoiselle de La Vallière, +over the errors of her past life. Ah! doubtless +it would have been better to struggle against the +heart, and by force of courage and vigilance to fly +all weakness. We bow the knee before those who +have never transgressed; but when, with Mademoiselle +de La Vallière, or with Madame de Longueville, +one would compare Madame de Maintenon, with the +endless calculations of her worldly prudence, and the +tardy scruples of her piety, which ever come to the +aid of her fortune, we protest with all our soul. We +speak boldly in behalf of the sister Louise de la Miséricorde, +and for the penitent of M. Singlin and of +M. Marcel. We prefer a thousand times the opprobrium +with which they sought in vain to cover themselves, +to the vain consideration which, in a degenerate +court, surrounded Madame Scarron, who became +privately the wife of Louis XIV. Two things only +move us—virtue and true passion: the one is above +all things else, and can be recompensed worthily by +God alone; the other should not be too much celebrated; +but it has its excuse in the grandeur of its +disinterested transports, in its sacrifices, in its sufferings, +and, above all, in its expiations.</p> + +<p>Let us endeavor to comprehend Madame de +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[48]</span>Longueville. She was not a politician like the Palatine; +she had no true business tact. It is folly to +accuse her of not having consistency and personal character. +Her true character and the unity of her life +should be sought where they are—in her devotion to +him whom she loved. It is there wholly and always +the same, at once consistent and absurd, and touching +even in her follies.</p> + +<p>I attribute all her disorderly movements to the uneasy +and fickle spirit of La Rochefoucauld. He it is +who is ambitious; he it is who is full of intrigues; +he it is who wanders at random here and there, according +to circumstances, solely occupied with his +own interests, and without any other great merit than +a mind fertile in expedients of every kind, and a +dashing courage, without military talents. And I +attribute to Madame de Longueville—to the blood +of the Condés, to that great heart which she ever exhibited—I +attribute to her boldness in danger, a certain +secret contentment in the excess of misfortune, +and after reverses a pride before the victors which +yields not to that of the Cardinal de Retz. Madame +de Longueville, therefore, did not cast down her +eyes; she lifted them to a more worthy object. +Stripped of what was her all, she bid adieu to the +world, and, making no apology to the court, went to +ask pardon of God alone.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[49]</span></p> + +<p>This considered, all the criticisms which have been +lavished upon Madame de Longueville, result in her +favor.</p> + +<p>La Rochefoucauld, after having eulogized Madame +de Longueville in the words which we have quoted, +adds: “But these fine qualities were rendered less +brilliant by a stain which was never seen upon a +princess of such merit, which found no imitations on +those who entertained for her a particular adoration; +a stain which so transformed her in their sentiments +that she did not recognize her own. At this time the +Prince de Marcillac shared her mind, and as he +joined his ambition to his love, he inspired her with +a desire for business to which she had a natural aversion.” +This stain, with which La Rochefoucauld here +reproaches her, is precisely her glory—the affection +of a loving and devoted woman.</p> + +<p>The future author of the <i>Maximes</i> has no difficulty +in confessing that he was attached to her as much +from interest as from affection. After such a declaration, +we cannot admit the chivalrous exclamation:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">That I might win her heart, be pleasant in her eyes,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">War I’ve waged with kings, I would have storm’d the skies.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>No, it was not to please her that you entered the +Fronde; it was a passion for movement and intrigue +that prompted you to take part in it. You know +that she had a natural aversion to business, and that +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[50]</span>contrary to her taste and her manifest interests, she +entered into it for your sake alone.</p> + +<p>La Rochefoucauld relates, in the new part of his +<i>Mémoires</i>, how and with what intentions he became +connected with Madame de Longueville. He was +striving to revenge himself of the queen and of Mazarin; +to accomplish this he had need of the Prince de +Condé, and he sought to secure the brother by means +of the sister. But let us permit him to speak for himself: +“So much unprofitable labor and so much +weariness, finally gave me other thoughts, and made +me attempt dangerous ways in order to show my resentment +to the queen and the Cardinal Mazarin. +The beauty of Madame de Longueville, her wit and +the charms of her person attached to her all who +could hope for her favor. Many men and women of +quality sought to please her; and in addition to the +charms of this court, Madame de Longueville was +upon such good terms with all her house, and so tenderly +beloved by the Duke d’Enghien, her brother, +that the esteem and friendship of this prince could +be safely counted upon by any one fortunate enough +to secure the approval of his sister. Many people +uselessly attempted this game, mingling other sentiments +with those of ambition. Miossens, who afterwards +became marshal of France, persisted longest, +and with similar success. I was one of his particular +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[51]</span>friends, and he informed me of his designs. They +were soon destroyed of themselves. He knew it, and +told me several times that he had resolved to renounce +them; but vanity, which was the strongest of his +passions, prevented him often from telling me the +truth, and he dissembled hopes which he had not, +and which I knew he ought not to have entertained. +Some time passed in this way, and finally I had reason +to believe that I could make a more considerable +use than Miossens of the friendship and confidence of +Madame de Longueville. I convinced him of this. +He knew my position at court. I told him my views, +stating that consideration for him would always restrain +me, and that I should not seek to form a connection +with Madame de Longueville without his +permission. I confess that to obtain this, I purposely +excited him against her; not, however, by uttering +any thing untrue. His full consent was finally obtained; +but he repented of having given it to me +when he saw the result of this connection.”</p> + +<p>The declared enemy of Madame de Longueville +was her daughter-in-law, Madame de Nemours, +whose character was entirely the opposite of her own. +She was judicious but severe. She was quite naturally +on the side of M. de Longueville, her father, +whom she endeavored to withdraw from the influence +of his wife. In her <i>Mémoires</i> she recognizes the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[52]</span>perfect disinterestedness of Madame de Longueville, +her sincere attachment to her brother, and her want +of taste for politics: “It is certainly astonishing⁠<a id="FNanchor_41" href="#Footnote_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> that +Madame de Longueville should have been one of the +first (to take part in the Fronde), she who had nothing +to hope from this party, and who had no reason +to complain of the court.... The prince entertained +an extreme tenderness for his sister. She, on her side, +managed him less from interest than for the particular +esteem and tender friendship which she felt for him.... +Madame de Longueville knew very little about +politics.” At the same time she accuses her of +being fond of show, of having no weighty motive for +her conduct; of having sacrificed fortune and repose +to a false glory, and all under the influence of La +Rochefoucauld. “It was,” said she, “M. de La +Rochefoucauld who inspired this princess with so +many foolish and false sentiments. As he had a +very great power over her, and as, besides, he +thought only of himself, he engaged her in all the +intrigues with which she was connected, only to promote +his own selfish designs.... Marcillac, who +ruled her absolutely, and who wished that others +should have no credit with her, or even to appear to +have any, alienated her from the deputy, who would +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[53]</span>not have been sorry to rule her also.... Marcillac, +to promote his own interest, showed Madame de +Longueville.... As soon as Marcillac, who urged on +Madame de Longueville only to procure sooner what +had been promised to him by the court, had obtained +what he desired, he thought no more of the interests +of others; he found in his own all that he sought. +He even persuaded Madame de Longueville that she +herself was little thought of.”</p> + +<p>Retz confirms the insinuations of Madame de Nemours +concerning himself, and takes good care to +explain her pretensions, and even her expectations. +He thus concludes the portrait which he has traced +of Madame de Longueville: “She would have had +few defects had it not been for gallantry. As her +passion compelled her to make politics a secondary +matter, instead of the heroine of a great party, she +became its adventurer.”</p> + +<p>To justify the sentiments of Madame de Longueville, +we might have limited ourselves to quoting two +decisive passages from the most impartial witness of +the things and persons of this period, Madame de +Motteville:⁠<a id="FNanchor_42" href="#Footnote_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> “In attaching himself politically to the +prince, Marcillac devoted himself to Madame de +Longueville in a manner somewhat more tender, uniting +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[54]</span>the sentiments of the heart to the consideration +of grandeur and fortune. It was quite apparent to +the whole court that this princess treated him with +great attention. In all that she afterwards did, it +was clearly seen that her mind was not solely occupied +with ambition, but that the interests of the Prince +de Marcillac filled a prominent place therein. For +him she became ambitious; for him she ceased to +love repose, and, in order to be sensible to this affection, +she became too insensible to her own glory.... +The wishes of the Prince de Marcillac, as I have +said, were not displeasing to her; and this nobleman, +who was perhaps more selfish than tender, anxious to +benefit himself through her, thought it his duty to +inspire her with the desire of ruling the princes her +brothers.”</p> + +<p>Let us crown all these quotations with one from +Guy-Joly: “The Prince de Marcillac managed her +with care, judging that she would have particular +consideration in the party, by reason of the ascendency +which she had over the Princes de Condé and +de Longueville, and that, being in her good graces, +it would be easy for him to obtain great advantage +whenever it might be necessary for him to treat with +the court.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_43" href="#Footnote_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[55]</span></p> + +<p>Thus, by the admission of every one, La Rochefoucauld +pursued in the Fronde his own interest alone, +and Madame de Longueville pursued only the interest +of La Rochefoucauld.</p> + +<p>But we must not stop here; we must establish, by +undoubted facts, and present clearly the point of view +which we have just indicated. La Rochefoucauld +himself, closely interrogated, testifies that, far from +having been drawn into the Fronde by Madame de +Longueville, as some have been pleased to represent, +it was he himself who drew her in, and he himself +who directed all her movements.</p> + +<p>It is he himself who informs us of the motive +which prompted him to the connection which he +formed with Madame de Longueville at the close of +1647, or at the beginning of 1648. He continued +wonderfully faithful to the plan which he had proposed +to himself.</p> + +<p>1st. At the close of 1647, La Rochefoucauld was +irritated because he could not obtain from the cardinal +either the place of Governor of Havre or that +of a colonel of cavalry. He succeeded in turning +Madame de Longueville against Mazarin, by making +her believe that Condé had not received all that was +due to him. “Madame de Longueville, whose entire +confidence I possessed, felt as keenly as I could desire +the conduct of the cardinal towards the Duke +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[56]</span>d’Enghien.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_44" href="#Footnote_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> In 1648, before embracing the party +of the Fronde, La Rochefoucauld tried for the last +time to gain Mazarin, and demanded “for his house +the same advantages which had been accorded to +those of Rohan, of La Trémouille, and some others.” +“I found myself,” said he,⁠<a id="FNanchor_45" href="#Footnote_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> “so removed from favor +that I stopped here. I spoke of it to the cardinal in +leaving him. He promised positively to grant my +request in a short time. On my return I should have +received the title of duke in order that my wife +might have the privilege of sitting in the presence of +the king. I went to Poitou with this expectation, +and there I quelled the disorders (the first movements +of the Fronde); but I saw that the cardinal, +far from keeping his promise, had granted dukes’ +patents to six persons of quality, without remembering +me.” And then he engaged in the sedition. +Madame de Longueville, following the instructions +which he had given to her, had commenced laying +snares for the deputy and the parliament, had overcome +Conti, gained her husband, and circumvented +Condé; but she held so loosely the reins of this intrigue, +that she wrote to La Rochefoucauld, submitting +to him her own proceedings, and begging him +to come and decide what should be done. The passage +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[57]</span>from La Rochefoucauld on this subject is very +curious, and deserves to be quoted.⁠<a id="FNanchor_46" href="#Footnote_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> “I was in the +first transports which a treatment so extraordinary +might be expected to produce, when I learned from +Madame de Longueville that the whole plan of the +civil war had been resolved upon at Noisy between +the Prince de Conti, the Duke de Longueville, the +Deputy of Paris, and the most prominent members +of the parliament. She informed me that there was +hope of gaining the Prince de Condé; that she did +not know precisely what to do at this juncture, being +ignorant of my sentiments, and she besought me to +come by diligence to Paris, that we might decide together +whether she ought to push or delay this project. +This news consoled me in my chagrin, and I +felt myself able to convince the queen and the cardinal +that it would have been well for them to humor +me. I asked leave of absence; I had difficulty in +obtaining it; and it was granted only on condition +that I would not complain of the treatment which I +had received, and that I would not insist upon my +pretensions. It was easy to promise all this, and I +arrived in Paris full of the resentment which I had a +right to feel. I there found things precisely in the +condition described by Madame de Longueville; but +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[58]</span>I found less excitement, either because the first steps +had been taken, or because the diversity of interests +and grandeur of the design had diminished the ardor +of those who had undertaken it. Madame de Longueville +herself had purposely raised difficulties, in order +that I might have time to make my appearance, and +to render myself competent to decide. I did not +hesitate to do it, and I felt great pleasure in knowing +that, to whatever extremity the severity of the queen +and the hatred of the cardinal might reduce me, I +had still the means to be revenged.”</p> + +<p>2. Thus engaged in the Fronde, Madame de +Longueville appeared to become entirely reckless. +She delivered the Prince de Conti into the hands of +La Rochefoucauld; she conspired to lead away M. +de Longueville; she deceived her mother by refusing +to accompany her to court, under pretence of +sickness; she went so far as to commit herself, notwithstanding +her approaching confinement, to the +hands of the people at the Hôtel de Ville. She did +more: for the sake of La Rochefoucauld, she became +embroiled with her brother Condé, for whom she entertained +the greatest affection; she strove to draw +him into the Fronde; he became angry with her; +hence that rupture so astonishing after such tender +friendship, and those outbursts of wrath now so +easily accounted for. “The Prince de Conti ... was +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[59]</span>weak and fickle; he depended entirely upon Madame +de Longueville, and she left to me the care of +guiding him.⁠<a id="FNanchor_47" href="#Footnote_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> The Duke de Longueville possessed +mind and experience; he entered easily into the +parties opposed to the court, and left them still more +easily.... He was continually raising obstacles, +and repenting of his engagements in it. I was +afraid that he might do more, and discover to the +prince what he knew of the enterprise. With this +apprehension, I sent Gourville to Paris to notify +Madame de Longueville and the deputy of the suspicion +which there was reason for entertaining of +the Duke de Longueville.... The Marquis de +Noirmontiers and myself were constrained to tell +him that we were going to carry away the Prince de +Conti, and that we would declare to the world that +he alone had shown a want of fidelity to his friends, +after engaging them in an undertaking which he +abandoned. He could not bear these reproaches, +and suffered himself to be led as we desired.... +The king, followed by the queen, the Duke d’Orleans, +and the prince, set out secretly from Paris at midnight, +near the close of the year 1649, and went to +Saint-Germain. All the court followed in great disorder. +The princess wished to carry along Madame +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[60]</span>de Longueville, who was on the point of being confined; +but she feigned illness, and remained at Paris.... +The Prince de Conti and Madame de Longueville, +in order to give more confidence, lodged in +the Hôtel de Ville, and committed themselves entirely +into the hands of the people.” ... In another +place he says:⁠<a id="FNanchor_48" href="#Footnote_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> “Madame de Longueville was again +obliged to reside at the Hôtel de Ville as a pledge of +the fidelity of her brother and husband to the people, +who are naturally suspicious of the great, because +they are ordinarily the victims of their evil doings.... +The Prince de Condé⁠<a id="FNanchor_49" href="#Footnote_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> ... had taken measures +with the court. The connection which I had with +the Prince de Conti and Madame de Longueville +was not agreeable to him.... The cardinal was preparing +to quit the kingdom; but the prince soon reassured +him; and the bitterness which he exhibited +towards the Prince de Conti, towards Madame de +Longueville and myself, was so great, that the cardinal +could not doubt that it was genuine.”</p> + +<p>3. At the end of this first Parisian war, in 1649, +the Prince de Condé became reconciled with his +family, and even with La Rochefoucauld. The latter +was included in the treaty which was consummated; +he obtained for his house “the same advantages of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[61]</span>rank that had been accorded to those of Rohan, of +Foix, and of Luxembourg.” Such is the declaration +of La Rochefoucauld;⁠<a id="FNanchor_50" href="#Footnote_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> but the truth is, that it was +Madame de Longueville who claimed for him these +advantages, and who labored energetically in his interests. +So Madame de Mottville asserts: “Madame +de Longueville⁠<a id="FNanchor_51" href="#Footnote_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> omitted nothing in her efforts to +secure the favor of the court for the Prince de Marcillac.... +To satisfy⁠<a id="FNanchor_52" href="#Footnote_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> her fully it was necessary to +promote the Prince de Marcillac, and in this conjuncture +she procured for his wife the right of sitting +in the royal presence, and of entering the Louvre in +her carriage. These advantages placed him above +dukes, and upon an equality with princes, though he +was neither the one nor the other: he was not a +member of the royal family.” Madame de Nemours +goes still farther:⁠<a id="FNanchor_53" href="#Footnote_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> “Madame de Longueville interfered +in this settlement, and it is even pretended that +M. de Marcillac received some money.” What a +part in all this affair was that of La Rochefoucauld! +Madame de Longueville is at least disinterested. She +at the same time suffers herself to be eclipsed and to +be compromised, anxious only to serve and to please.</p> + +<p>4. In 1650, Mazarin thinking that he ought to revoke +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[62]</span>the favors which Madame de Longueville had +obtained for La Rochefoucauld, all minds became +exasperated: troubles recommenced; the princes were +put in prison; the arrest of Madame de Longueville +was contemplated, and an order was issued directing +her to appear before the Queen at the Palais-Royal. +“Instead⁠<a id="FNanchor_54" href="#Footnote_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> of obeying, she resolved, by the advice of +the Prince de Marcillac, to set out at once, with all +speed, for Normandy, for the purpose of engaging that +province, and the parliament of Rouen, on the side of +the princes, and of securing in her friendship the fortresses +of the Duke de Longueville and of Havre-de-Grace..... +The Prince de Marcillac accompanied her +in this journey.” I ask, which of the two drew the +other into this second war, much more serious than +the first? But I hasten to say that on this occasion +both conducted themselves equally well. While +Madame de Longueville was pledging her jewels in +Holland for her defence at Sténay, La Rochefoucauld +was also exposing his fortunes in Guyenne. It was +the saddest and the most touching moment in the +history of their loves and their adventures. They +were separated from one another, but still they loved; +they served with ardor the same cause; they struggled +and they suffered together.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[63]</span></p> + +<p>5. In 1651, after the deliverance of the princes, +La Rochefoucauld grew weary of war, into which +he seems to have engaged only to please Madame +de Longueville. “The Duke de La Rochefoucauld⁠<a id="FNanchor_55" href="#Footnote_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> +could not testify so openly his repugnance to this +war; he was obliged to consult the feelings of Madame +de Longueville, and all that he could then do +was to try to make her desire peace.” What then +were the feelings of Madame de Longueville? Did +she wish to continue the war for the sake of playing +a conspicuous part, and with a view to gratify that +ambition of glory with which she has been so often +reproached? By no means. Her thoughts were +much more humble. Still attached to La Rochefoucauld, +she contemplated with pain a peace which +threatened to separate them. Madame de Longueville⁠<a id="FNanchor_56" href="#Footnote_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> +knew that the deputy had embroiled her irrevocably +with her husband, and that after the impressions +made upon him as to her conduct, she could +not return to him in Normandy without at least hazarding +her liberty. The Duke de Longueville, however, +wished to keep her near him, and she had no +pretext for avoiding this dangerous journey, except +the desire of instigating her brother to carry on a +civil war. At the same time La Rochefoucauld +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[64]</span>informs us that he persuaded her to avoid such a responsibility, +to retire to Montrond with the Princess +de Condé, and to allow matters to unravel themselves. +He⁠<a id="FNanchor_57" href="#Footnote_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> showed Madame de Longueville that her removal +from Paris alone could satisfy her husband, +and prevent him from making the journey which she +dreaded; that the prince might easily grow weary +of the protection which he had until then afforded +her, having a pretext so specious as that of reconciling +a woman with her husband, and especially if +he thought that he might thereby attach to himself +the Duke de Longueville; besides, that she alone +would be accused of fomenting disorder; that she +would be, in various ways, held responsible both to +her brother and to the world, for kindling in the +kingdom a war whose results might be grievous to +her house and to the State.... In fine, to avoid so +many difficulties, he advised her to ask the prince to +permit the princess, the Duke d’Enghien, and herself +to retire to Montrond, in order that he might not +be embarrassed in a precipitate march if he found +himself obliged to depart, and in order that he might +have no scruple in deciding either to fire the kingdom +by a civil war, or to risk his life, his liberty, and +his fortune, upon the doubtful faith of Cardinal Mazarin. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[65]</span>This advice met the approbation of Madame +de Longueville, and the prince soon after consented +to have it followed.</p> + +<p>Madame de Longueville, in this instance, as in all +the others, did not then lead away La Rochefoucauld; +she permitted herself to be guided by him; she +obeyed his counsels, which to her were laws.</p> + +<p>Here again is the true and perfect unity of her +conduct: Madame de Longueville pursues the course +marked out for her by another, with an indefatigable +constancy, amid all intrigues and dangers, and, as it +were, with her eyes shut to the motives which actuate +La Rochefoucauld.</p> + +<p>Her blindness is for a long time complete; but, as +she united great shrewdness to great passion, after +they had been long separated, and when she was no +longer under the charm or under the yoke of his +presence, her eyes became partly opened; and in the +voyage from Guyenne, having encountered the Duke +de Nemours, who showed every appearance of perfect +chivalry, and who was then said to be very attentive +to Madame de Châtillon, absence, the void already +in her heart, the innate love of pleasing, the desire of +showing the power of her charms, and of troubling +somewhat a rival who wished at the same time to retain +both Nemours and Condé, in short, the feeling +of liberty inspired by a voyage rendered her more +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[66]</span>open than she should have been to the addresses of +the young and handsome cavalier. There is no proof +that she was beyond temptation.⁠<a id="FNanchor_58" href="#Footnote_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> Scarcely had he +returned to Paris when M. de Nemours forgot her, +submitted to the chains of Madame de Châtillon, +who triumphed, with her accustomed perfidy, over +the sacrifice which had been made to her. Justly +wounded, La Rochefoucauld falls out with her forever. +It is said⁠<a id="FNanchor_59" href="#Footnote_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> that he seized with joy this occasion +for separating himself from her, as he had long +desired it. Let this be so; he might have stopped +there; it was unnecessary to calumniate her in the +mind of Condé, to impute to her the base design of +having wished to ruin the party and betray her +brother in order to serve the interests of the Duke de +Nemours,⁠<a id="FNanchor_60" href="#Footnote_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> an absurd accusation, and one which her +whole conduct falsifies, and to paint her as a vulgar +creature, capable of going to the same extremities +for another, if that other so desired; it was unnecessary, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[67]</span>as Madame de Motteville so well says,⁠<a id="FNanchor_61" href="#Footnote_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> “from +a lover to become an enemy, from an enemy an ingrate,” +and to suffer himself through revenge to commit +offences which went, as Madame de Motteville +again says, “beyond what a Christian owes to God, +and a man of honor to a lady.”</p> + +<p>Is it possible, in fact, that resentment, of which +wounded self-love was the occasion (for then La +Rochefoucauld loved Madame de Longueville very +feebly, if ever he loved⁠<a id="FNanchor_62" href="#Footnote_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> her truly), could have degraded +a man of honor like him so far as to make +him engage in the shameful plots of Madame de +Châtillon? Madame de Motteville exhibits, as if +with regret, the conduct of La Rochefoucauld in this +affair:⁠<a id="FNanchor_63" href="#Footnote_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> “Madame de Châtillon made use of the Duke +de La Rochefoucauld and of his passions.... M. de +La Rochefoucauld told me that jealousy and revenge +made him act carefully, and that he did all that she +desired.” Now, what Madame de Châtillon desired, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[68]</span>was to humiliate Madame de Longueville, to keep +Nemours for her pleasures, and Condé for her fortune. +La Rochefoucauld has in so small a degree +the sentiment of the good and the bad, of the honest +and the dishonest, that he relates what he has done +with a sort of satisfaction; he appears to triumph in +an intrigue so skilfully planned. “Madame de Châtillon⁠<a id="FNanchor_64" href="#Footnote_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> +brought about a desire for peace by very +agreeable means. She believed that so great a good +ought to be the work of her beauty, and mingling +ambition with the design of making a new conquest, +she wished at the same time to triumph over the +heart of the prince, and to draw from the court all +the advantages of the negotiation. These were not +her only reasons for entertaining such thoughts: a +desire to gratify vanity and revenge actuated her as +much as any thing else. The emulation which +beauty and gallantry often produce among ladies, +had caused an extreme bitterness between Madame +de Longueville and Madame de Châtillon; they had +long concealed their feelings, but they finally made +a full exhibition of them; and Madame de Châtillon +did not content herself with compelling M. de Nemours +to break off all commerce with Madame de +Longueville; she wished, besides, to obtain the sole +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[69]</span>disposal of the conduct and interests of the prince. +The Duke de Nemours, who had a perfect understanding +with her, approved this design; he thought +that, being able to regulate the conduct of Madame +de Châtillon towards the prince, she would inspire +him with such sentiments as he could wish to give +him, and that thus he would be able to dispose of +the prince by the power which he possessed over +Madame de Châtillon. The Duke de la Rochefoucauld +was much deeper than any one in the confidence +of the prince, and was, at the same time, very +closely connected with the Duke de Nemours and +Madame de Châtillon.... He induced the prince +to engage with her and to give her, in her own right, +the lands of Merlou; he disposed her also to humor +the prince and M. de Nemours, so that she might +preserve them both, and made M. de Nemours approve +this connection, and even appear not to suspect +it, since he was to make his account in it and +make use of it for obtaining the principal part in +affairs. This machine being conducted and regulated +by the Duke de La Rochefoucauld, gave him almost +the entire disposition of all that composed it, and +thus these four persons therein equally finding their +advantage, it would have doubtless had the success +which they contemplated, had not fortune opposed +it.” Let us finish this picture by a stroke which La +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[70]</span>Rochefoucauld has forgotten, and which Mademoiselle +furnishes: “Madame de Châtillon,⁠<a id="FNanchor_65" href="#Footnote_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> MM. de +Nemours and de La Rochefoucauld, who expected +great advantages by a treaty, the first a hundred +thousand crowns, the other a government, and the +last a similar sum, thought only of making peace for +the prince.”</p> + +<p>Thus, in the end as well as in the midst and at +the beginning of his connection with Madame de +Longueville, the only motives of La Rochefoucauld +were interest and self-love. One day in his <i>Maximes</i> +he will thereunto reduce all human nature, inclosing +it within the precincts of his own person, and giving +as limits to the moral world those of his very small +experience as a frondeur and a courtier.⁠<a id="FNanchor_66" href="#Footnote_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a></p> + +<p>Truly we may smile to hear the author of the <i>Mémoires</i> +and the <i>Maximes</i> say in the portrait which he +has left us of himself: “Ambition does not move +me ... I have virtuous sentiments ... I can keep +a secret, and I have less difficulty than others in +keeping to myself what has been told me in confidence.... I +love my friends, and my love is of such +a nature that I would not hesitate to sacrifice my +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[71]</span>interests to theirs.” Segrais was hard to suit with +eulogy, or he had not read the above passages, when +he said that La Rochefoucauld never praised himself.⁠<a id="FNanchor_67" href="#Footnote_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> +Madame de Longueville would have recognized +La Rochefoucauld by the following traits: “I +am not incapable of avenging myself if I have been +offended, and when it concerns my honor to resent +an injury committed against me; on the contrary, I +should be sure that duty would perform so well in +me the office of hatred, that I would pursue my revenge +with greater vigor than another.” The true +portrait of La Rochefoucauld is that which has been +drawn by Retz.⁠<a id="FNanchor_68" href="#Footnote_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> “There has always been something +indescribable in M. de La Rochefoucauld: he took +pleasure in intrigues at an early age, and at a time +when he did not trouble himself with little things, +never a weakness with him, and at a time, too, when +he was unacquainted with great ones, which were +not his forte; he never had much capacity for business +... his views were not sufficiently extended ... +he always had an habitual irresolution ... he was +never a warrior, though a very good soldier; he was +never of himself a good courtier, although he had +the best intention to be one; he was never a good +party man, though all his life a partisan.... All +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[72]</span>these things, together with his <i>Maximes</i>, which do +not exhibit much faith in virtue, and his policy which +has always been to withdraw from business with as +much impatience as he engaged in it, makes me conclude +that he would have done much better to have +known himself, and to have passed, as he might have +done, for the most polished courtier, and for the most +civil man in common life which his century produced.”</p> + +<p>As to Madame de Longueville, she is certainly far +from being perfect, and perhaps she would have been +less loved had she been so; but amid the follies into +which passion plunged her, we feel at least that interest +is nothing to her. The defect of which she +continually accuses herself, is the desire of pleasing +and of appearing. The only injury which she committed +against La Rochefoucauld was that momentary +display of giddiness and coquetry during the +journey from Guyenne. This was her real stain. All +the rest of her conduct in the Fronde is explained +and easily defended when viewed as we have indicated.</p> + +<p>Besides, no one’s conduct in the Fronde should be +regarded in too serious a light, for the Fronde was +not a serious affair;⁠<a id="FNanchor_69" href="#Footnote_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a> it was a series of intrigues, in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[73]</span>which no one had any other object than interest, vanity, +love of importance, with gallantry, and pleasure. +Princes thought only of themselves, of increasing +their authority and their fortune; and to this end, +they went by turns from one party to another according +to events and to the daily changes around them. +Condé, the prominent person in the drama, and the +only one who with his rival Mazarin merits a place +in history, despised at bottom all parties; but in the +end he fixed his mind upon a place incompatible +with royal grandeur. His natural inclination was to +the side of the Court: the Fronde, properly speaking, +and the parliament were odious to him, and he never +served them except with great disrelish. His chief +spring of action was war, for which he had a genius; +and this it was which, after much deliberation +and hesitation, finally carried him away. The parliament, +forgetting its part and its duties, was agitated +by young lords—burlesque tribunes. The people +of Paris were set in commotion: they were excited +against the Court; but as soon as serious reforms and +a convocation of the States-General were talked of, +the parliament took alarm, and receded as well as +the opposing party.⁠<a id="FNanchor_70" href="#Footnote_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> The only use of the Fronde, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[74]</span>in the admirable economy of our history, has been +to strengthen the royal power, to make every one +sensible of its absolute necessity, and to promote, perhaps +to excess, the work of Louis XI., of Henri IV., +and of Richelieu. Under the League, two great +opinions, two great causes, were in hostility. The +League also produced minds, stamped characters, +was a school of politics and of war, and formed the +strong men of the first half of the seventeenth century. +The Fronde is in our annals an episode without +grandeur; it formed no one, either a warrior or +a statesman; the nation took very little part in it, +because it felt that in it no great interest was at stake; +it was a pastime for gentlemen, for wits, and belles. +To the ladies especially the Fronde belonged: they +were at once its motive power and its instruments, its +most interested actors; and among them Madame de +Longueville played the most conspicuous part.</p> + +<h3>IV.</h3> + +<p>We should be tempted to be more severe towards +the faults of more than one kind into which she was +drawn by her sad connection with La Rochefoucauld +if she herself had felt less remorse, if her repentance +had not been so long and so severe. Her errors began +at the close of 1647, or during the first months +of 1648—they did not extend beyond 1652; her +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[75]</span>remorse ceased only with her life in 1679. Madame +de Longueville was roused to reflection in 1653: she +became converted in the middle of the year 1654. +At this period she was thirty-five years of age, and in +all the splendor of her beauty. For a long time yet +she might have enjoyed the pleasures of life and of +the world. She renounced them to devote herself +unreservedly and forever to God. During twenty-five +years, in Normandy, among the Carmelites, and +at Port-Royal, she lived only for duty and repentance, +seeking to become dead to every thing that had +formerly occupied her life—the cares of her beauty, +the tendernesses of the heart, the graceful employments +of the mind. But in the dress of hair-cloth as +well as in fashionable attire, among the Carmelites +and at Port-Royal as well as at the hôtel de Rambouillet +and in the Fronde, she preserved what she +could never lose—an angelic face, a mind charming +in the most extreme negligence, with a certain loftiness +of soul and character. This third and last epoch +of the life of Madame de Longueville, will here be +presented as fully as the subject demands: therein +we shall see, in all its truth, a devotion continually +increasing, and more and more scrupulous, sometimes +reducing her to the most pitiful condition, sometimes +elevating her to an admirable grandeur; as, for example, +in her struggles, after the death of her husband, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[76]</span>with her brother Condé, in regard to her two +sons, and in the defence which she undertook of persecuted +Port-Royal.</p> + +<p>We do not think that we debase Mademoiselle de +Lavallière by comparing with her Madame de +Longueville. It is true that the loves of Mademoiselle +de Lavallière move us in a very different +manner from those which we shall have to relate. In +setting aside the circumstance of royalty, which in +this case forms the disagreeable side, and which is always +somewhat injurious to true and disinterested love, +Louis XIV. was much better calculated to please than +La Rochefoucauld; he was much younger and much +more handsome; he was, or appeared to be, a great +man and a hero. He adored Mademoiselle de Lavallière +at once with an impetuous ardor and with the +most delicate tenderness, and his passion continued +for a long time. Mademoiselle de Lavallière loved +the king as she would have loved a simple gentleman. +It is this which gives her a separate place among the +favorites of Louis XIV., and places her far above +Madame de Montespan, and especially above Madame +de Maintenon. It cannot be denied that Madame +de Longueville loved with the same disinterestedness +and the same abandonment; but her affection was ill +bestowed, but she mingled with it wit and vanity, +but she became giddy and coquettish. Thus far the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[77]</span>comparison is entirely against her. But, besides, she +was far superior to Mademoiselle de Lavallière. She +was incomparably more beautiful and more intellectual. +Her soul was also more proud. At the least +suspicion of change in the affection of Louis XIV., +she would have fled from the court; while Mademoiselle +de Lavallière remained in it some time, in +the presence of her proud, triumphing rival, thinking +that by force of humility, of patience, and of devotion, +she would reconquer the heart that she had lost. +And then, what better could she do than to enter a +cloister? Would she not have rendered herself contemptible +by remaining in the world, by giving to +society the spectacle of a favorite of the king consoling +herself, like Madame de Soubise, for the inconstancy +of her royal lover, in the enjoyment of a fortune +sadly acquired and shamefully preserved! In entering +the convent of the Carmelites, Mademoiselle de +Lavallière did no more than she was compelled to do. +There is in the conversion and retirement of Madame +de Longueville something more free and more unusual, +and to glorify her penitence, nothing is wanting +but the voice of Bossuet. If the incomparable orator +who had consecrated to God Louise de La Miséricorde, +and who, at a later period, had made his words +equal in greatness to the actions of Condé, if his voice +had been heard at the celebration of the obsequies of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[78]</span>Anne de Bourbon, Christian letters would have +counted another masterpiece, of which the funeral +oration of the Princess Palatine may give us some +idea, and the name of Madame de Longueville would +be surrounded with an immortal halo.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[79]</span></p> + +<h1>THE YOUTH OF MADAME DE LONGUEVILLE.</h1> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.<br> +<span class="smaller">1619 to 1635.</span></h2> + +<p>Mademoiselle de Bourbon in her family—Her mother, Charlotte de +Montmorency—Her father, M. the Prince—Her brother, the Duke +d’Enghien—Her religious education—The convent of the Carmelites +of the Rue Saint-Jacques—The four great prioresses—Mademoiselle +d’Epernon—Mademoiselle de Bourbon at the ball of the Louvre, February +18, 1635—Her portrait at the age of fifteen years.</p> + +</div> + +<p>I shall some day attempt to make known in Madame +de Longueville the heroine, or, if you prefer, +the adventuress of the Fronde, casting herself amid +dangers and intrigues of every kind in order to serve +the interests and the passions of another. I shall +afterwards show her overcome, disabused, her soul +at once wounded and bereaved, turning its regards +towards the only side that cannot deceive her, towards +duty and God. At present, I would recount +her life before the Fronde, and even before the +unequal marriage imposed upon her by her family, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[80]</span>the source, indeed, of her errors and her misfortunes. +I would paint the youth of Madame de +Longueville, show Mademoiselle de Bourbon in her +days of innocent splendor, yet bearing in herself all +the seeds of a stormy future; born in a prison, and +leaving it to mount almost upon the steps of a throne; +surrounded early by the most gloomy spectacles, with +all the felicities of life, beautiful and intellectual; +proud and tender, ardent and melancholy, wishing to +bury herself at fifteen in a cloister, and, once thrown, in +spite of herself, into the world, allowing herself there +to be intoxicated with her own success; becoming +the ornament of the court of Louis XIII. and of the +hôtel de Rambouillet, eclipsing the most accomplished +beauties by a peculiar sweetness and a ravishing +languor; giving ear to two proposals, but still +pure and free; and advancing, apparently, towards +the most beautiful destiny, under the wing of a +mother like Charlotte de Montmorency, by the side +of a brother like the Duke d’Enghien.</p> + +<p>I agree that this picture of a brilliant but fortunate +youth, without adventures and without blemishes, +may seem somewhat tame to readers accustomed to +the great bustle and the sudden turns of fortune in +fashionable romances. In order to indemnify them, +I shall place with this picture another more highly +colored. After the young girl growing up innocently +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[81]</span>between religion and the muses, as heretofore +described, I shall exhibit the young woman, +rushing, in her turn, into the arena of gallantry, +scattering around her conquests and quarrels, and +becoming the subject of the most famous of the great +duels which, during so many years, reddened the +Place-Royale, and were not arrested even before the +implacable axe of Richelieu. These will be scenes +sufficiently animated; but, while waiting for the +tragi-comedy, endure, a little while, the pastoral. +It was then a necessary interlude, and I beg you to +assume for a moment with me the taste and the +manners of the seventeenth century.</p> + +<p>Anne Geneviève de Bourbon was born August +28, 1619, in the tower of Vincennes, where her +father and mother had been prisoners for three +years.</p> + +<p>Her mother was Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency, +granddaughter of the high constable, and, +according to unanimous testimonies, the most beautiful +person of her times. Dazzling in her early youth, +she preserved even in advanced age a remarkable +beauty. In addition to her portraits, we have two +faithful descriptions, one by Cardinal Bentivoglio, +who knew her and loved her, it is said, at Brussels, +where he was apostolic nuncio in 1609, when she +was nearly sixteen years of age; the other, by the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[82]</span>hand of Madame de Motteville, who has portrayed +her as she saw her later at the court of Queen Anne. +“She had a complexion,” says Bentivoglio,⁠<a id="FNanchor_71" href="#Footnote_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> “of +extraordinary whiteness, eyes and features full of +charm; she was graceful in gestures and manner +of speaking; and all her different qualities heightened +each other, because she added to them none of +the affectations of which women are accustomed to +avail themselves.” Madame de Motteville thus expresses +herself:⁠<a id="FNanchor_72" href="#Footnote_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> “Among the princesses, she who +was first had also the most beauty; and, though not +young, she still caused admiration in those who saw +her.... I wish to testify that her beauty was still +great, when, in my infancy, I was at court, and that +it endured to the end of her life. We praised her +during the regency of the queen, at fifty years of age, +and we praised her without flattery. Her complexion +was fair; she had blue and perfectly beautiful +eyes. Her mien was lofty and full of majesty, and +her whole person, which was in every way agreeable, +always pleased, except when she proudly and +sharply opposed those who dared to displease her.” +When, at fifteen years of age, she appeared at the +court of Henry IV., she turned the head of the old +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[83]</span>king. He married her to his nephew, the Prince de +Condé, in the hope of finding him a convenient husband; +but he, proud and amorous, was clearly of the +opinion that he had married the beautiful Charlotte +for himself; and, seeing the king more and more inflamed, +he found no other means of extricating himself +from his difficult position, than by taking his +wife and flying with her to Brussels. We know all +the follies that Henry IV. then committed, and to +what extremities he was about to go when he was +assassinated, in 1610.⁠<a id="FNanchor_73" href="#Footnote_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a></p> + +<p>Henri de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, was no ordinary +man. He owed much to Henry IV., and he +expected much from him; but he had not the courage +to peril the fortune of his house by voluntarily +exiling himself; and later he compromised himself +anew by his resistance to the tyrannical conduct +of Marshal d’Ancre, under the regency of Marie +de Médicis. Arrested in 1616, he did not leave +his prison until the end of 1619, and from that +time he no longer thought of any thing but his fortune. +Born Protestant, he had embraced Catholicism +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[84]</span>through policy, after the example of Henry IV. His +wife had brought to him a great part of the immense +riches of the Montmorencys. He submitted himself +to Luynes, and served Richelieu. He forced his son, +the Duke d’Enghien, to espouse a niece of the all-powerful +cardinal, who had just decapitated his +brother-in-law. As avaricious as ambitious, he +amassed property and heaped up honors. At the +death of Richelieu, he became the chief of the council, +and displayed in that difficult conjuncture a fortunate +mixture of prudence and firmness. He sustained the +regency of Anne of Austria, and saved France from +the first perils of the long minority of Louis XIV. +He merits a place in the gratitude of his country, for +having given to it twice, as it were, the great Condé, +by imposing upon that nature of fire—a nature wholly +made for war, the severest military education that +ever prince received, and by preparing him to take, +at twenty-one years of age, the command in chief +of the army, on which rested, in 1643, the destinies +of France.</p> + +<p>When Henri de Bourbon, who was called M. the +Prince, was arrested, he preferred but one petition, +and that was dictated by jealousy and love; he demanded +that his wife might be allowed to share his +prison. Charlotte de Montmorency was scarcely +twenty-one years of age; she did not love her husband, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[85]</span>and they did not live agreeably together; but, without +hesitation, she besought the king in person +to permit her to imprison herself with her husband, +accepting the condition of remaining a prisoner +as long as he should be the same. This captivity, +at first very hard at the Bastile, then a little +less rigorous at Vincennes, continued three years. +The young princess was often ill; she was several +times unfortunately the mother of untimely children.⁠<a id="FNanchor_74" href="#Footnote_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a> +Finally, August 28, 1619, between midnight +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[86]</span>and one o’clock, she gave to the world Anne +Geneviève. It seems as if the birth of this child +brought good fortune to her parents; for two months +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[87]</span>had not passed away, when the Prince de Condé left +prison with his wife and daughter, and resumed his +rank and all his honors.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[88]</span></p> + +<p>Anne Geneviève passed very soon from the tower +of Vincennes to the hôtel de Condé. There, two +years afterwards, September 2, 1621, was born the +brother, who was destined to give such lustre to the +name of Condé, Louis, Duke d’Enghien; and later, +in 1629, another brother still, Armand, Prince de +Conti. This last was not wanting in spirit; but he +was feeble in body, and even considerably deformed. +He was destined for the Church. He +pursued his studies at the college of Clermont, with +the Jesuits, in company with Molière, and studied +theology at Bourges, under Father Deschamps. He +made his appearance in the world in the early part +of 1647, a little previous to the Fronde. The Duke +d’Enghien, charged with sustaining the greatness +of his house, was brought up by his father with the +masculine tenderness already spoken of, the fruits of +which have been too great to allow us to show +them in a single moment.</p> + +<p>M. the Prince gave no governor to his son; he +chose to direct his education himself, calling to his +aid two gentlemen, one for exercises of the body, the +other for those of the mind. The young duke pursued +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[89]</span>his studies, under the Jesuits of Bourges, with +the greatest success. He maintained there, with a +certain <i>éclat</i>, philosophical theses. He learned the +principles of law under the celebrated Doctor Edmond +Mérille. He studied history and mathematics, without +neglecting the Italian, dancing, boxing, horsemanship, +and the chase. On his return to Paris, he +saw again his sister, and was charmed with her +grace and spirit: he bound himself to her in a most +tender friendship, which suffered some changes, but +resisted all trials, and, after the passionate age, became +as firm as at first it had been ardent. At the +hôtel de Condé, the Duke d’Enghien learned, in the +company of his sister and his mother, politeness, +elegant manners, and gallantry. His father placed +him at the academy, under a renowned master, to +whom he gave absolute authority over him. Louis +de Bourbon was there treated as severely as a simple +gentleman. He had at the academy the same success +as at college, which he left, the most capable of all +those that were there with him. Let us listen to +the words of Lenet,⁠<a id="FNanchor_75" href="#Footnote_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a> the reliable witness of all that +he recounts:</p> + +<p>“No one had yet seen a prince of the blood +brought up and instructed in that common manner; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[90]</span>nor had any one seen a prince who, in so short a +time, and in such extreme youth, exhibited so much +knowledge, so much experience, and so much address +in every thing. The prince, his father, skilful +and enlightened in all matters, believed that in +the academy he would be less diverted from that occupation, +so necessary to a young man of birth, than +in the hôtel. He also thought that those lords and +gentlemen who were there, and who had entered it +in order to have the honor of his company, would be +servants and friends, who would attach themselves to +his person and his fortune. During all those days +devoted to work, nothing could divert his mind. +The whole court admired his air and his grace in +skilfully managing a horse, in running at the ring, +in dancing and fencing. The king himself compelled +him, from time to time, to give an account of his conduct, +and often praised the profound judgment of the +prince his father in every thing, and particularly in +the education of the duke his son, saying to everybody +that in this he wished to imitate him, and to +have Monsieur the Dauphin instructed and brought +up in the same manner.”...</p> + +<p>... “After the young duke had remained at +this excellent school the time necessary to perfect +himself, as he did, he left it; and after having been +some months at court and among the ladies, where, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[91]</span>in the beginning, he exhibited that noble and gallant +air so universally admired, the prince his father +persuaded the king and Cardinal Richelieu—that +powerful, skilled, and authoritative minister—to send +him into his own government of Burgundy, with letters-patent, +to command there in his absence.”...</p> + +<p>... “The troops often traversed Burgundy, and +frequently made it their winter-quarters. There the +young prince began to learn the manner of properly +establishing and governing them, that is, of giving +subsistence to the troops without ruining the places +where they sojourned. He learned how to mark out +lines of march and places of bivouac, and to make +soldiers live with order and discipline. He received +the complaints of all, and caused justice to be done +them. He found a manner of satisfying the soldiers +and the people. He often received orders from the +king, and letters from the ministers; he was punctual +in replying to them; and the court, like the province, +saw with astonishment his application to business. +He entered the parliament when important subjects +rendered his presence necessary, or when the discussion +of some interesting question excited his curiosity. +The intendant of justice completed nothing without +rendering an account of it to him. He began from +that moment, whatever might be his confidence in his +secretaries, to sign no order, no letters, which he had +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[92]</span>not previously commanded, which he had not read +from end to end.... These great and serious occupations +did not interfere with his amusements, and +his pleasures were no obstacle to his studies. He +found days and hours for all things. He went to the +chase, and was among the best at shooting on the +wing; he gave balls to the ladies; he looked after the +management of his servants; he danced; he continued +to learn languages and read history; he applied +himself to mathematics, and especially to geometry +and fortifications; he planned and raised a +fort of four bastions, a league from Dijon, in the plain +of Bloye; and such was his eagerness to see it completed +and in readiness for attack and defence—as +was the case several times with the young lords and +gentlemen who rendered themselves assiduous about +him—that he had his table removed thither, and took +there most of his meals.”</p> + +<p>Thus prepared, the Duke d’Enghien went, during +the summer of 1640, to serve, in the capacity of volunteer, +in the army of Marshal de La Meilleraye. +The marshal wished to take his orders, and to have +the appearance at least of depending on him. The +young duke firmly refused, saying that he had come +to learn his trade, and wished to fulfil all the functions +of a volunteer, without regard to his rank. In +one of the first engagements, La Ferté-Seneterre +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[93]</span>was wounded, and had his horse killed by a cannon-shot. +The Duke d’Enghien was so near him, that +the blood of the horse covered his face. At the siege +of Arras, he was everywhere seen at the head of the +volunteers. He was found at all the sallies made by +the besieged. He rarely left the trench; often slept +there, and had his food brought there. Three engagements +took place during this siege. The young +duke distinguished himself in all. “The great +heart which he showed upon these occasions,” says +Lenet;⁠<a id="FNanchor_76" href="#Footnote_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a> “the obliging manner with which he treated +every one; the liberality with which he assisted +friends who were in need, wounded officers and soldiers; +the secrecy which he observed in rendering +them assistance, made the clear-sighted predict that +he would some day be one of the greatest captains of +the world.”</p> + +<p>It was in the winter of 1641, that he was compelled +to espouse Mademoiselle de Brézé, niece of Richelieu. +The Duke d’Enghien did every thing in his power to +shun an alliance which was repugnant to his heart as +well as to his ambition. He had cast his eyes upon +Mademoiselle, then the only daughter of the Duke +of Orleans, beautiful, young, rich, and intellectual. +He had already allowed his soul to be penetrated +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[94]</span>with a particular sentiment for another person, whom +he at length adored. He yielded only after a long +resistance, protesting officially and before a notary, +that he gave way to force and to the deference that +he owed to the will of his father. He fell sick, +and was even in danger, when, suddenly, the report +was spread abroad that the campaign was +about to be opened, and that the army of Marshal +de La Meilleraye was marching into Flanders, to +attack the stronghold of Aire. This news reached +him when still so feeble that he could scarcely +quit his bed. “He sets out immediately,” says +Lenet.⁠<a id="FNanchor_77" href="#Footnote_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a> “The prayers of his family, the tears +of his mistress, the command of the king himself +are not able to arrest him. He learns on his +march, being at Abbeville, that the cardinal was +approaching from the besieged place in order to attack +the lines. He quits his coach, mounts a horse +at the same hour with the Duke de Nemours, his intimate +friend, a handsome prince, full of spirit and +courage, whom death took from him soon after.⁠<a id="FNanchor_78" href="#Footnote_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a> +He passes in the night by Hesdin, so near the enemy +that one might almost say that he passed through +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[95]</span>their army, and arrives fortunately in the camp, +where he is received with testimonies of joy that +it would be difficult to express. This fatigue, which +might have been expected to cause a relapse in +a feeble and reduced convalescent, gives to him +new strength, and from that moment he is seen +exposing himself to all the perils of war. He often +sleeps in the trench; he eats there; and there is no +work, however advanced, where he is not seen taking +part like a simple soldier.... At the siege of +Bapaume, the duke wished to end the campaign as +he had commenced it; that is, by going everywhere, +and incurring all the hazards and all the perils of the +trench and advance works. It was not possible for +him to leave the army as long as he thought there +was any thing of importance to undertake.”</p> + +<p>Some time after, he followed the Cardinal de +Richelieu and the king to the siege of Perpignan. +He was there wounded, and there covered with +glory; so that no one was astonished when, in 1643, +after the death of Richelieu, Louis XIII., also near +his death, at the same time that he established the +Prince de Condé chief of council, named the Duke +d’Enghien Generalissimo of the principal army of +France, destined to defend the frontier of Flanders, +menaced by a powerful Spanish army. The Duke +d’Enghien was not twenty-two years of age. A month +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[96]</span>afterwards he gained the battle of Rocroy, soon to be +followed by those of Friburgh, Nortlingen, and Lens.</p> + +<p>Such was the brother. The sister had not disregarded +the examples of her house, but on the +contrary had rapidly attained, by her wit and her +beauty, a renown sufficiently great.</p> + +<p>From her infancy, great lessons had never been +wanting to her.</p> + +<p>She was eight years of age in 1627, when one of +the near relatives of her mother, Montmorency-Boutteville, +was beheaded in the Place de Grève, for +having fought a duel in spite of the edict of the king, +leaving, under the protection of Madame the Princess, +his widow and three young children,—Marie-Louise, +afterwards Marchioness de Valençay; Isabelle-Angélique, +afterwards Duchess de Châtillon; +and François-Henri de Montmorency, born after the +death of his father, who became the Duke Marshal +de Luxembourg, one of the most faithful friends and +best lieutenants of Condé.</p> + +<p>She was thirteen in 1632, when the own brother of +her mother, the Duke de Montmorency, ascended the +scaffold at Toulouse for having revolted against the +king, or rather against Richelieu, upon the uncertain +faith of Gaston, Duke of Orleans. This terrible +catastrophe, which resounded from one end of France +to the other, filled the hôtel de Condé with mourning, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[97]</span>and made a profound impression upon the delicate and +proud soul of Mademoiselle de Bourbon. She was +so troubled by it, that her grief, adding new ardor to +the piety in which she had been nourished, caused her +to think seriously of quitting the world and becoming +a Carmelite in the great convent of the Rue Saint-Jacques.</p> + +<p>What religious education had Mademoiselle de +Bourbon received, then, that such a thought should +come to her at thirteen or fourteen years of age? +How did she know the convent of the Carmelites—what +ties had she already formed there, which attracted +her so powerfully?</p> + +<p>It was the time when the religious spirit, after having +gone astray in the civil wars, and produced the +great crimes and the great virtues of the League, refined, +but not enfeebled, by the Edict of Nantes and +the policy of Henry IV., found in peace new strength, +and covered France, no longer with inimical parties +armed against each other, but with pious institutions, +in which weary souls were eager to seek an asylum. +Everywhere the ancient orders were reformed, and +new orders were founded. Richelieu courageously undertook +the reformation of the clergy, created seminaries, +and above these, as their model and tribunal, +raised the Sorbonne. Bérulle instituted the <i>Oratoire</i>, +César de Bus the <i>Doctrine chrétienne</i>. The Jesuits, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[98]</span>who sprang up in the middle of the sixteenth century, +and who spread themselves so rapidly over +France, at first decried and even banished for their +participation in culpable excesses, little by little regained +favor under the protection of the immense services +which their heroic skill daily rendered, beyond +the ocean, to Christianity and civilization. The order +of Saint Benedict engaged in a salutary reform, and +the Benedictines of Saint-Maur gave the prelude to +their gigantic works. But who can enumerate the fine +institutions, designed for women, that were founded +on every hand by Christianity, during the first half +of the seventeenth century? The two most illustrious, +after reformed Port-Royal, are the Sisters of +Charity about 1640, and the Carmelites in 1602.</p> + +<p>The first convent of the Carmelites was established +at Paris, in the Faubourg Saint-Jacques, under the +auspices and by the munificence of that house of +Longueville, into which Mademoiselle de Bourbon +was destined to enter. Her mother, Madame the Princess, +was one of the benefactresses of the rising institution. +There she had an apartment, where she often +retreated for a long time. At an early period, she +thither led her daughter, and there filled her soul +with the principles and the devotional habits of the +times. Mademoiselle de Bourbon grew up in the shade +of the holy monastery. There she beheld the reign of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[99]</span>virtue, goodness, concord, peace, silence: there she was +loved, and there she was called. It is, then, natural +that at the first sight of the tempests which menaced +all the great things of the earth, and struck the most +illustrious members of her own family, she should +think of forestalling her destiny, and seek a shelter +under the humble roof of the Carmelites. She had +there sweet and noble friendships, which she never +abandoned. We possess a multitude of letters, addressed +by her to the Carmelites of the convent of +the Rue Saint-Jacques, at all the epochs of her life, +before, during, and after the Fronde. We feel that +they were written to persons who had her entire confidence +and whole soul. But what were those persons? +She calls them sometimes the Mother Prioress, +sometimes the Mother Sub-prioress, Sister +Marthe, Sister Anne-Marie, Mother Marie-Madeleine, +Mother Agnès, etc. One could wish to pierce the +veil that covers the family names of all these nuns. +We doubt much whether the friends of Mademoiselle +de Bourbon and Madame de Longueville could have +been common creatures; and as we know that many +women of the first quality and of noblest heart found +a refuge among the Carmelites, as the name of Sister +Louise de La Miséricorde has become the popular +symbol of disinterested and unfortunate love, a curiosity, +somewhat profane but very natural, leads us to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[100]</span>inquire what these nuns, so dear to the sister of the +great Condé, were in the world.</p> + +<p>Hitherto we have been reduced to conjectures, +suggested to us by bringing together different passages +from Madame de Sévigné, Madame de Motteville, +and Mademoiselle. The French Carmelites +have no history. Faithful to their vow of obscurity, +these worthy daughters of Saint Theresa have passed +away without leaving any traces of themselves behind. +As during their life, an impenetrable cloister +shut them out from all eyes, and buried them in +advance, so the genius of their order seems to have +taken care to annihilate them in the memory of men. +At long intervals have appeared a few memoirs of +the Carmelites, consecrated to edification, filled with +holy maxims, void of human facts, and almost with +out dates. At the beginning of this century, a +priest, M. Boucher, in a new <i>Life of the blessed +Sister Marie, of the Incarnation, Madame Acarie, +Foundress of the reformed Carmelites of France</i>,⁠<a id="FNanchor_79" href="#Footnote_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a> +has, for the first time, thrown a little light upon +the origin of that holy house, presenting, or rather +withholding, in the notes of his work, a few short +biographies of the principal nuns. The national +library, so rich in manuscripts of every kind, possesses +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[101]</span>none that comes from the Carmelites of the Faubourg +Saint-Jacques, or that relates to them. The +general Archives have inherited all their principal +titles. We have studied them sufficiently to give the +assurance that a record⁠<a id="FNanchor_80" href="#Footnote_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a> of the greatest interest might +be formed of them. Among other precious pieces, +we may designate an inventory of paintings, by different +celebrated masters,⁠<a id="FNanchor_81" href="#Footnote_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> statues,⁠<a id="FNanchor_82" href="#Footnote_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> + and objects of art +which the liberal and generous piety of the faithful +of every rank had, during two centuries, accumulated +for the Carmelites, and which were again noticed +in 1790. But there were other treasures which +we had wished to discover—we desired an exact +list of all the nuns of that convent during the +seventeenth century, with their religious and their +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[102]</span>family names, the date of their profession and that of +their death. We placed a particular value upon +knowing the succession of prioresses who had, by +turns, governed the convent, spoken or written in its +name. It was conceived, in fact, that without these +two documents, the friendships of Mademoiselle de +Bourbon and Madame de Longueville would remain, +for us, almost impenetrable.</p> + +<p>Light has come to us from a quarter where we had +not, at first, sought for it.</p> + +<p>In the ruins of the convent of the Faubourg Saint-Jacques, +spared by the revolutionary tempest, yet +barely standing, some poor nuns, having escaped a +stupid persecution, have been trying, for fifty years +past, to collect the traditions of the Carmelites, and +they continue it in obscurity, prayer, and toil:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Præcipites atra sue tempestate columbæ,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Condensæ et divûm amplexæ simulacra sedebant.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Weary of uselessly searching archives and libraries, +I addressed myself to these good nuns, and they +responded to me with the most graceful kindness. +The two documents that I needed were sent to me, +with manuscript annals, and a collection of biographies +ample and full of details. Thanks to these +precious communications, it is easy to make out the +history of the Carmelites of the Faubourg Saint-Jacques. +Under the pious designations and mystic +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[103]</span>symbols of Carmel, we recognize more than +one person who has already been met in the memoirs +of the times. Instead of beings in some sort +abstract and anonymous, we have before us animated +and living creatures, whose regards were doubtless +finally directed towards heaven, not to be turned +thence, who, nevertheless, for a longer or shorter +period, inhabited the earth, knew our sentiments, felt +our weaknesses, and, always remaining pure, sometimes +felt sorely tempted, and shared our humanity. +Some day we shall deliver to the public the key +that has been lent us, which will give the secret of +many mysterious things in the intimate history of the +manners of the seventeenth century. Here we shall +allow ourselves only a few rapid sketches that can +throw light upon the obscure part of the youth and +of the whole life of Madame de Longueville.</p> + +<p>Saint Theresa, who died in 1582, had refounded in +Spain the ancient and degenerate order of Carmel. +The saintly renown of the new Carmelites of Spain +spread itself rapidly in Italy and France. An admirable +woman, Madame Acarie, afterwards Sister +Mary of the Incarnation, conceived the idea of sending +to Spain for some disciples of Saint Theresa, and of +establishing them at Paris in the Faubourg Saint-Jacques. +Such was the origin of the first convent of +French Carmelites.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[104]</span></p> + +<p>There are two Princesses de Longueville who obtained +from Henri IV., in 1602,⁠<a id="FNanchor_83" href="#Footnote_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a> the necessary letters-patent, +Catherine and Marguerite d’Orleans, +daughters of Henri, Duke de Longueville, who +died unmarried,—Marguerite in 1615, Catherine +in 1638, both buried in the convent whose second +founders they were called, the title of first founder +having been reserved for Marie de Médicis. And +when, in 1617, the young institution was already +strong enough to need another house at Paris, it was +again a Princess de Longueville who defrayed the expense +of the new establishment, in the Rue Chapon,⁠<a id="FNanchor_84" href="#Footnote_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a> to +wit, the sister-in-law of Marguerite and of Catherine,⁠<a id="FNanchor_85" href="#Footnote_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[105]</span>the widow of their brother, Henri d’Orleans, first of +the name, and the mother of Henri II., who espoused +Mademoiselle de Bourbon. Madame the +Princess de Condé was not backward in bestowing +her benefits on the convent of the Rue Saint-Jacques, +and she became especially attached to it. So it may +be said that Mademoiselle de Bourbon was, in advance, +consecrated in every way to the Carmelites.</p> + +<p>Let us endeavor to represent what was, in the seventeenth +century, the convent of the Carmelites, where +Mademoiselle de Bourbon wished to conceal her life, +where Madame de Longueville returned to die. It +was situated in the street of the Faubourg Saint-Jacques, +directly opposite to Val-de-Grâce. It extended +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[106]</span>from the Rue Saint-Jacques to the Rue +d’Enfer, and finally embraced, with all its dependencies, +the vast space which, from the garden and +inclosure of the Oratorian seminary of Saint-Magloire, +at present the Sourds-Muets, ascends to the buildings +now occupied in the Rue Saint-Jacques and in the +Rue d’Enfer, by the establishment called the brew-house +of Luxembourg. There were two entrances, +one from the Rue Saint-Jacques, the other from +the Rue d’Enfer. The entrance from the Rue d’Enfer +still exists, at No. 67, and is now what it was +two centuries ago. It led into the existing court, +which served as a public passage to the Rue Saint-Jacques. +Almost opposite, a little to the right, +was the church; a little farther to the right, on the +grounds where the wholly new street of Val-de-Grâce +has been opened, were vast gardens, with numerous +chapels, the monastery itself, and, entirely upon the +Rue d’Enfer, the infirmary and the apartments reserved +for particular persons. On the other side, to +the left, towards Saint-Magloire, were the different +main-houses of the monastery and their dependents.⁠<a id="FNanchor_86" href="#Footnote_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a></p> + +<p>But the monastery had thus increased only with +time.</p> + +<p>The first seat of the community had been the ancient +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[107]</span>priory of Nôtre-Dame-des-Champs, whose church +was of the time of Hugh Capet, and, according to +ancient tradition, was established upon the ruins of a +temple of Ceres, where Saint Denis had already taken +refuge when he preached the gospel at Paris. At +least, excavations made in 1630, have brought to light +some remains of pagan antiquity. There was, therefore, +already some mystery about the new establishment +at the beginning of the seventeenth century.⁠<a id="FNanchor_87" href="#Footnote_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[108]</span></p> + +<p>If it was the Spanish Carmelites who founded the +convent of the Rue Saint-Jacques, and established +there the spirit and rule of Saint Theresa, it must be +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[109]</span>remembered that, those nuns having left France in +1618, to return to Spain, or to end their days in Belgium +in the monasteries of their order, it was the +French genius which early took possession of the +convent of the Rue Saint-Jacques, and made it what +it became.</p> + +<p>In the number of the prioresses who governed it, +may be distinguished four, who aided the rising congregation +to advance rapidly towards the perfection +which it attained at the close of the seventeenth century. +These were Mademoiselle de Fontaines, the +Mother Madeleine de Saint-Joseph; the Marchioness +de Bréauté, Marie de Jésus; Mademoiselle Lancri +de Bains, Marie-Madeleine; and Mademoiselle Bellefonds, +the Mother Agnès de Jésus-Maria. Mademoiselle +de Bourbon knew them all, and some of +them were her friends.</p> + +<p>Mademoiselle de Fontaines was the first French head-prioress. +She was of an excellent family of Touraine. +Her father had been ambassador to Flanders, and her +mother was sister to the wife of Sillery the chancellor. +It was the Cardinal de Bérulle who, meeting her at +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[110]</span>Tours, and seeing her there young and already filled +with holy thoughts, pointed out to her the Carmelites +of the Rue Saint-Jacques as the way to the perfection +after which she aspired. She did not walk +thither, but ran, as Madame Acarie says of her. +And yet she loved her family so tenderly that she +felt a poignant grief in leaving it, and, as she herself +said at a subsequent period, the coach that took her +to the Carmelites seemed to her like a car that carries +criminals to punishment. Touched by her example, +two of her sisters followed her to the Carmelites.⁠<a id="FNanchor_88" href="#Footnote_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a> +She joined them at twenty-six years of age. For +some time she had before her the Spanish mothers, +and from them caught that holy ardor which excites +and vivifies, and can alone surmount the difficult +commencements of every great establishment. She +was constantly faithful to the device of Saint Theresa: +Endure or die. She is the Saint Theresa of France. +The nun who succeeded her has thus painted the +effects of the government of Mother Madeleine de +Saint-Joseph: “When she was prioress, I can truly +say the monastery resembled a paradise, so much fervor +and desire for perfection of heart was seen. The +question was who should be the most humble, the +most penitent, the most subdued, the most collected, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[111]</span>the most meditative, the most solitary, the most charitable; +in brief, who should be most conformed to our +Lord Jesus Christ; and all this, too, with a peace, an +innocence, a beatitude, and an elevation to God that +surpass the power of expression. This servant of God +was among us like a torch that gave us light, like a +fire that warmed us, a living rule by whose example +we could learn how to become saints.” Some +admirable words of hers have been preserved. We +will cite but a single sentence: “Yes,” said she to +her daughters, who for the most part were of high +rank, “yes, we are of a very good house; we are +daughters of a king, sisters of a king, spouses of a +king; for we are the daughters of the Father Eternal, +the sisters of Christ, and the spouses of the Holy +Spirit.” She had one of those great hearts that make +heroes of every kind, and which are the primary source +of miracles. She therefore performed miracles like +Saint Theresa: like her she had ecstasies and visions. +It was the heart in her that warmed the imagination, +and, in fact, the heart is the sacred source of all great +things. What⁠<a id="FNanchor_89" href="#Footnote_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a> philosophy would interpose here its +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[112]</span>miserable objections! Be on your guard; those objections +would turn against Socrates and his demon, +as well as against the good angel of Mother Madeleine +de Saint-Joseph. That good angel was at +least the inner vision, the secret and truly marvellous +voice of a great soul.</p> + +<p>Mother Madeleine de Saint-Joseph was born in +1578, entered the convent in 1604, pronounced her +vows in 1605, and died in 1637.⁠<a id="FNanchor_90" href="#Footnote_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a></p> + +<p>Marie de Jésus is a nun of a wholly different character.</p> + +<p>Charlotte de Sancy was daughter of Nicolas de +Harlay, Lord de Sancy, who was under Henri IV. +ambassador, superintendent of the finances, and +colonel of the Swiss. The two sons of Harlay de +Sancy, after having occupied important positions, retired +to the Oratoire. His first daughter was married +to M. d’Alincourt, grandfather of Duke de Villeroy; +the second, Charlotte, was married to the Marquis +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[113]</span>de Bréauté. Having remained a widow twenty-one +years—beautiful,⁠<a id="FNanchor_91" href="#Footnote_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a> spirituelle, of a charming +temper, she was the delight of her family, and one of +the ornaments of the court of Henri IV. Two circumstances +conspired to snatch her from the pleasures +that surrounded her. One day, at Spa, while dancing +at a ball during a storm, she heard a clap of thunder, +and wished to retire. The gentleman who was +her partner laughed at her fright, and retained her. +At the same instant the thunder again sounded, +and the man by her side was struck dead. Some +time afterwards she met with the writings of Saint +Theresa, read them, and was so touched by them, +that, young as she was, she resolved at once to quit +the world. She entered among the Carmelites, +and took the veil, under the name of Marie de +Jésus, the same year with Mademoiselle de Fontaines. +She preserved in the cloister that winning +gentleness which, in the world, added to the effect of +her beauty, and subjected to her all hearts. She +was adored by her new companions, as she had been +at the court. Her particular gift was, with sweetness +and humility, a boundless charity, which was especially +exercised in the salvation of souls. She excelled +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[114]</span>in the art of bringing sinners to God. These were her +miracles. Here is one of them that the tradition of +the Carmelites has preserved for us:⁠<a id="FNanchor_92" href="#Footnote_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a></p> + +<p>A man of merit, who possessed goods and important +occupations, formed a culpable connection. His +mother was in distress about it, and often went to +pour her grief into the bosom of her daughter, a nun +at the convent of the Rue Saint-Jacques. One day +when she was in the parlor, Marie de Jésus was inspired +to go to her and console her. She gave her +Saint Augustine’s <i>Confessions</i> and Saint Theresa’s +<i>Way to Perfection</i>, asking her to make her son promise +to read them for a quarter of a hour only every +morning. He made the promise, but did not keep it +for eight days. One night, feeling urged to keep +his word, he arose and read some pages of these +books. As he continued reading, God enlightened +him, and so touched him, that he shed tears for several +hours, troubled and agitated lest he should lose +the Holy Spirit. Finally he became calm, and, during +several nights, was penetrated, and, as it were, +inundated with light in regard to the perfection of +God. One morning, at the break of day, he drove +to the Place de Grenelle with the person who held +him captive. There he announced to her that he +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[115]</span>should never see her again. He left her his carriage +to drive where she wished. Returning home on +foot, he went to the Carmelites to visit his sister, +whom he had not seen for many years. She called +Marie de Jésus, and said to her brother: Behold your +benefactress! Marie de Jésus had not ceased to pray +for him. She lavished upon him the most affectionate +counsels, which she renewed regularly once a +week for several years. He followed them with +great docility, and made such progress in virtue, that, +giving up his charge, and renouncing all the pleasures +of life, he retired into a country-place, lived there +in penitence, and died in the love of God.</p> + +<p>Marie de Jésus was loved much by Anne of Austria, +who often went to see her, accompanied by +Louis XIV. and his brother the Duke d’Anjou. She +contributed largely to the aggrandizement and embellishment +of the monastery, which lost her in 1652.</p> + +<p>In the year 1620, the Carmelites acquired a worthy +sister in one of the maids of honor of Queen +Marie de Médicis, Mademoiselle Marie Lancri de +Bains. In order to show what Mademoiselle de +Bains was, we shall avail ourselves of a manuscript +life, composed by a Carmelite who knew her perfectly +well.⁠<a id="FNanchor_93" href="#Footnote_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[116]</span></p> + +<p>“Madame de Bains had her daughter brought up +among the Ursulines: she removed her from their +charge at the age of twelve years, to place her at +court, hoping that her beauty and acquirements might +procure for her an establishment, little reflecting upon +the perils to which she exposed her by leaving her +to herself in a place so full of dangers. But God, +who had already appropriated this soul, kept watch +over her, and preserved her, without a stain, in the +midst of that court. Her virtue was there admired as +much as her perfect beauty; her portrait passed even +into foreign lands, where the most famous painters +emulously drew it, in order to exhibit the skill of +their pencil. She afterwards declared that until the +age of fifteen years, she never reflected upon this +advantage, but that she then saw herself with the +same eyes as the public. The attractions of her person, +and still more her sweetness and modesty, won +the esteem and affection of the queen. Mademoiselle +de Bains never gloried in any thing but in doing +good to the unfortunate. This generosity had its +source in a noble, tender, constant heart, united +with a mind solid, judicious, capable of great +things; and it seemed as if the Creator had been +pleased to prepare in this masterpiece of nature the +triumph of grace. So many amiable qualities attracted +the attention of the whole court. A number +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[117]</span>of lords, as the Duke de Bellegarde, the Marshal de +Saint-Luc, etc., sued for an alliance so desirable. +But He who had elected her from all eternity for his +bride, did not allow that heart, worthy of himself +alone, to be shared by any creature. Divine Providence +continued to bring upon her at the same time +some mortification (we are ignorant of its nature), +which began to open her eyes, and to give her some +slight idea of a calling for the religious life.”</p> + +<p>Mademoiselle de Bains never accompanied the +Queen Marie de Médicis to the Carmelites, without +wishing to remain there. A sickness which she had +at eighteen years of age, redoubled her fervor, but she +was opposed by the efforts of the whole court to retain +her, especially by the entreaties and tears of her +mother. When Mademoiselle de Bains threw herself +among the Carmelites, at scarcely twenty years +of age, her mother followed her thither. “She conducted +her daughter to the bottom of the garden, +and there, during three whole hours, employed all +the persuasives that tenderest love could suggest. +After having exhausted endearments, and tried to +move her conscience by telling her that it was her +duty to help her widowed mother in her old age, +finally, getting beside herself, she fell at the feet +of her daughter, drowned in tears. What a trial +for Mademoiselle de Bains, who loved that tender +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[118]</span>mother as much as she was loved by her! Her +recourse to God enabled her to come out victorious +from that first contest, which was not the last, for, +during the entire period of her novitiate, Madame +her mother often returned to the charge.”</p> + +<p>For some time the convent of the Rue Saint-Jacques +was besieged by noblemen of the first rank, +who went to offer their alliance to the beautiful +novice. Her constancy was not in the least shaken, +and she would have refused all these visits if the +mother prioress had not, in order to prove her, constrained +her to receive them. She pronounced her +vows in 1620, under the name of Marie-Madeleine de +Jésus.</p> + +<p>Her beauty must have had something very extraordinary +in it, to judge by the following anecdote, +related by the pious author of whom we avail ourselves: +“Humility being the foundation of every +spiritual edifice, Sister Marie-Madeleine de Jésus +seized with avidity every means of destroying, in her +own eyes and in the eyes of others, the gifts of nature +and of grace with which God had favored her. +She was not contented with refusing the visits of the +great, as well as of all her friends, but desirous of +being forgotten, and of removing from their sight +every thing that might remind them of her, she endeavored, +under different pretexts, to recall her portraits +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[119]</span>from their hands, in order to burn them. One of +these portraits having been sent to Mother Madeleine +Saint-Joseph, she amused herself by showing it to the +assembled community. At the sight of it all the +nuns, not recognizing it at first, were touched, and +besought God not to leave in the world that masterpiece +of nature, worthy of himself alone, but to bestow +her upon Carmel. One of them, Marie de Saint-Theresa, +daughter of Madame Acarie, offered herself +to God, to suffer every thing that it might please him +to inflict in return for such a grace. Then Mother +Madeleine de Saint-Joseph, smiling and touching her +on the shoulder, told her that the goodness of God +had anticipated her desires, that the person for +whom she trembled was already in the order, and +that it was only necessary to ask for her perseverance.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_94" href="#Footnote_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a></p> + +<p>Sister Marie-Madeleine passed rapidly through all +the grades of the order. Elected prioress in 1635, +and often re-elected, she witnessed, in 1637, the death +of the venerable Mother Madeleine de Saint-Joseph, +in 1652 the death of Mother Marie de Jésus, and successively +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[120]</span>the death of the head visitors of the order and +of the instructors of the holy monastery.⁠<a id="FNanchor_95" href="#Footnote_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a> The wars of +the Fronde were to her a perilous trial, wherein she +often found herself sharing danger with Queen Anne +and the Princess de Condé, the two protectresses of the +convent. She was obliged to quit for some time the +house in the Rue Saint-Jacques, which was too much +exposed to the soldiery, to send a part of the community +to Pontoise, and to take the rest to the Rue +Chapon. It required great firmness to maintain +religious discipline in the midst of such trouble. +Through fear of the least abatement, she continually +applied herself to renew the fervor of the primitive +spirit in the souls committed to her charge. It is +said that she then spoke to her daughters with words +of fire, which filled them with a holy emulation. She +displayed usually a sweet and majestic cheerfulness, +a charming affability, with an intrepidity that was +proof against every trial when the question was concerning +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[121]</span>the interests of God, of those of the order, +or of the salvation of souls. On such occasions, says +our manuscript, without being surprised or arrested, +she would have overcome a world of opposition, and +sacrificed her own life. So much virtue united with +so much sensibility, had acquired for her such an +ascendancy over the hearts and minds of her daughters, +that one of them wrote that if she had undertaken +to persuade them that white was black and day +night, they would have believed her, so thoroughly +were they convinced that she could not be deceived. +In fine, she possessed in the highest degree the gift of +governing. It was to her that so many persons of +highest birth, wounded or repentant hearts, intrusted +themselves, seeking refuge among the Carmelites.</p> + +<p>Marie-Madeleine, born in 1598, lived a long time, +and died in 1679, the same year with Madame de +Longueville. She had found an admirable assistant +in Mademoiselle de Bellefonds.</p> + +<p>Judith de Bellefonds was born in 1611. Her +father, governor of Caen, was the grandfather of the +marshal of that name. Her mother was the sister of +the wife of Marshal de Saint-Géran, and she herself +was sister to the Marchioness de Villars, mother of the +vanquisher of Denain, celebrated for graces of mind.⁠<a id="FNanchor_96" href="#Footnote_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[122]</span>She was as handsome⁠<a id="FNanchor_97" href="#Footnote_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a> as her mother, as spirituelle +as her sister, and she possessed all the requisites +for pleasing. She had the greatest success at the +court of Queen Marie de Médicis. Going with her +to the Carmelites, she met Madame de Bréauté, +Marie de Jésus, who, like her, had known all the attractions +of the world, and by her entreaties and her +example persuaded her to renounce it, and to give +herself to God alone. Mademoiselle de Bellefonds +joined the Carmelites in 1629, at seventeen years +of age, choosing Saint Agnès as her patron saint, +from whom she took the name of Agnès de Jésus-Maria. +Her first years at the convent being spent +with Mother Madeleine de Saint-Joseph, who had +become very infirm, she was penetrated with the +spirit of that great servant of God, and promptly +showed all the qualities requisite for a great prioress. +She was elected sub-prioress at thirty years of age, +prioress three years afterwards, and she discharged +the duties of one or the other of these offices for +thirty-two years, her life being prolonged until near +the close of the century. She found the French Carmel +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[123]</span>established by the eminent virtues of those who +had preceded her—she had simply to sustain it. Her +dominant qualities were firmness and moderation. +With equal facility she dealt with great and small +things; always mistress of herself, even-tempered, +sensible, and enlightened, speaking of every thing +with justice and simplicity, and removing difficulties +with an astonishing precision. She who, by the elevation +and charms of her mind, seemed born only +for the people of the world and important things, +was still more admirable with the simple and the +poor. She used their ills, to which she was sensible, +to elevate them to God, yet ceased not in her +endeavors to console them. The happy also found +near her protection against the dangers of fortune. +The Queen of England, in the midst of her terrible +trials, often went to the Carmelites to find consolation +with Mother Agnès. The chancellor, Le Tellier, +often consulted her. Courted on all sides for the +charm of her conversation, she sought solitude, and +endeavored to make it loved by her companions. +Mademoiselle de Guise having offered 100,000 livres +to obtain the privilege of often entering the convent, +Mother Agnès refused that sum, saying that +100,000 livres could not repair the injury thereby +certain to be done to the spirit of the institution, +which can be preserved only by seclusion and separation +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[124]</span>from the world. Her charity was such +that after her death the mother who succeeded her, +being blamed for bestowing alms a little too freely, +replied: “You are very fortunate that Mother Agnès +is no more; she would have left on this occasion +neither communion-cup nor vessel of silver in our +church.” It must be perceived in Madame de +Sévigné, how much she made of Mother Agnès: +“I was ravished,” wrote she to her daughter,⁠<a id="FNanchor_98" href="#Footnote_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a> +“with the spirit of Mother Agnès.” Elsewhere she +speaks of the vivacity and the charm of her speech.⁠<a id="FNanchor_99" href="#Footnote_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a> +But all eulogies pale before that touching letter of +Bossuet, written to the prioress who succeeded her:⁠<a id="FNanchor_100" href="#Footnote_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a> +“We shall then see her no more, that dear mother; +we shall no longer hear from her mouth those words +that charity, that gentleness, that faith, that prudence +dictated and rendered worthy of being listened to.⁠<a id="FNanchor_101" href="#Footnote_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a> +This was the sensible person who believed in the law +of God, and faithfully kept it. Prudence was her +companion, Wisdom her sister. The joy of the Holy +Spirit did not leave her. Her balance was always +just; her judgments were always right. Her counsels +never led astray; they were preceded by her +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[125]</span>example. Her death was tranquil as her life, and +she rejoiced in the last day. I thank you for remembering +me upon this sad occasion. My spirit +unites with yours in the prayers and sacrifices that +are offered for that soul blessed of God and men. +I join you in the pious tears that you shed upon her +tomb, and take part in the consolations with which +faith inspires you.”</p> + +<p>Such was the convent where Mademoiselle de +Bourbon received those impressions that decided her +whole life; such were the women whom she saw +and heard, when she accompanied the princess her +mother to the sacred house. She perceived, moreover, +the venerable looks, the already transfigured +face of Mother Madeleine de Saint-Joseph, and listened +to her powerful speech, for Mother de Saint-Joseph +was the friend and counsellor of Madame the +Princess. She felt, too, the penetrating sweetness of +the conversation of Marie de Jésus. She knew that +Marie-Madeleine, who was so dangerous in the world +by her beauty, so edifying and powerful in the cloister. +With her she formed a connection which ceased only +with life. But it was, above all, Mademoiselle de +Bellefonds, the Mother Agnès, who attracted and +charmed her. They were almost of the same age, +and the free and joyous temper of the young and +spiritual nun established between them, at an early +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[126]</span>period, an intimacy whose traces are found even in +the letters subsequently addressed by the unfortunate +and repentant princess to the great prioress, wholly +occupied with her difficult duties. The following +note,⁠<a id="FNanchor_102" href="#Footnote_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a> written during their youth, will give an idea +of the intimacy of their relation, and show the +natural graces of Mademoiselle de Bourbon’s mind. +It bears the date of 1637. She was then seventeen +years of age. These are the earliest lines of hers that +we have been able to find. Did Marie de Rabutin +write in a more amiable manner at the same age?</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p class="right">“<span class="smcap">To my Sister Agnès de Jésus-Maria.</span></p> + +<p class="noindent">“<span class="smcap">My very dear Sister</span>:</p> + +<p>“I write this to you to give you a severe reprimand. +I think you will be much astonished at it; +but it seems to me that I am not wrong. I must tell +you, in order not to leave you any longer in suspense, +that, since the death⁠<a id="FNanchor_103" href="#Footnote_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a> of our blessed mother (Madeleine +de Saint-Joseph), our mother (Marie-Madeleine) +has promised me her picture. It is three or four +days since I reminded her of this promise, and she +has sent me word that it was not her fault, but that +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[127]</span>you had prevented her from giving me what she +had promised, and that I must tease you for it. I +am therefore resolved to give you no peace until +you put me in possession of the portrait. If you wish, +I will allow you to have it copied, but if you are not +quick about it, you will see that we shall be on bad +terms. You know that it would not take much to embroil +us, since we are very much inclined to hate each +other. It seems to me that I have gone bravely +through my reprimand, and that it is very severe. +I think it will put you in great alarm, and you will +consequently be in much fear of losing my good +graces.⁠<a id="FNanchor_104" href="#Footnote_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a>... When the picture is finished, send to +me for whatever it costs. (Take care), if you please, +to have it made very near the size of that of my Sister +Catherine⁠<a id="FNanchor_105" href="#Footnote_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a> de Jésus, or a little larger.</p> + +<p class="center">“Your very affectionate sister and servant,</p> + +<p class="right">“<span class="smcap">Anne de Bourbon</span>.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>And observe that I have here spoken only of the +most eminent prioresses, without saying a word of so +many other nuns of the highest rank and the most +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[128]</span>amiable character, who were in the convent of the +Rue Saint-Jacques during the youth of Madame de +Longueville: Madame Séguier d’Autry, mother of +Chancellor Séguier, the Mother Marie de Jésus-Christ; +Madame La Rochefoucauld de Chandenier, +Sister Marie de Saint-Joseph; Mademoiselle Le +Bouthillier, Sister Philippe de Saint-Paul; Mademoiselle +d’Anglure de Bourlemont, niece of Pope +Urban VIII., Sister Geneviève des Anges; Madame +de Brienne, the Mother Anne de Saint-Joseph; the +Countess de Bury, left a widow at nineteen years of +age, Sister Madeleine de Jésus; Mademoiselle de +Lenoncourt, the Mother Charlotte de Jésus; Mademoiselle +de Fieubet, Mesdemoiselles de Marillac, and +somewhat later, names still more illustrious, hearts +still nearer that of Mademoiselle de Bourbon, who, at +the first impressions of passion or unhappiness, sought +an asylum in the holy solitude.</p> + +<p>Among those noble penitents, we must distinguish +a particular friend of Madame de Longueville, whose +rank was nearly equal to her own, who was, like her, +sensitive and proud, who, wounded early in her affections, +retired from the world before her, and heard +the noise of the Fronde only through the walls of the +convent of the Rue Saint-Jacques, where, several +years before, she had fled the threat of a throne and +the perils of her own heart. That friend to whom +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[129]</span>Madame de Longueville wrote more than one letter, +was Sister Anne-Marie de Jésus, that is, Anne Louise-Christine +de Foix de La Valette d’Epernon, sister of +the Duke de Candale, daughter of Bernard, Duke de +La Valette d’Epernon, and of Gabrielle de Bourbon, +legitimate daughter of the Duchess de Verneuil and +Henri IV.</p> + +<p>We have a sufficiently full life of Mademoiselle +d’Epernon, from the hand of the Abbé de Montis.⁠<a id="FNanchor_106" href="#Footnote_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a> +But edifying lives must be distrusted almost as +much as the histories of Tallemant des Réaux. This +person looks for scandal only, and nowhere sees +any thing but the evil. The pious panegyrists are +quite as credulous in regard to the good. Evidently +the Abbé de Montis did not know every thing, or +was unwilling to tell every thing. He seems to +have read neither the Memoirs of Mademoiselle nor +those of Madame de Motteville. He paints with +truth the person and the character of Mademoiselle +d’Epernon. He is deceived when he imagines that +the instinct of Christian perfection alone led her to +the Carmelites. This instinct was nourished and supported +by the experience of the vanity of human +affections; it shone forth, and suddenly threw Mademoiselle +d’Epernon among the Carmelites, in consequence +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[130]</span>of a cruel loss, the death of a person to +whom she had given her heart. This death, with +the great error that preceded it, induced her to quit +the world; and neither the long resistance of her +family, nor even the hope of a crown could change +her resolution.</p> + +<p>For the sake of brevity, we shall confine ourselves +to the collection of a limited amount of testimony. +That of the veracious Madame de Motteville is decisive: +“The Chevalier de Fiesque, who was killed +at the siege of Mardyck, in 1646, had, according to +the opinion of his friends, great spirit and valor. He +was regretted by a young lady of high birth, who +honored him with a tender and virtuous friendship. +I know nothing of it in particular; but, according to +the general opinion, it was founded upon piety and +virtue, and consequently somewhat unusual. This +virtuous lady began, soon after the death of De +Fiesque, to despise the pleasures of the world, and +finally forsook them all, as unworthy to occupy a +place in her soul; she gave herself to God, entering +the great convent of the Carmelites, where her pious +life is an example to all.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_107" href="#Footnote_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a></p> + +<p>Mademoiselle,⁠<a id="FNanchor_108" href="#Footnote_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a> who knew Mademoiselle d’Epernon +well, and loved her tenderly, takes up matters farther +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[131]</span>back: “It was principally at these balls (during the +winter of 1644), that the Chevalier de Guise (afterwards +the Duke de Joyeuse) testified, without any +reserve, his passion for Mademoiselle d’Epernon.... The +malady⁠<a id="FNanchor_109" href="#Footnote_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a> of Mademoiselle d’Epernon gave me +much pain. The Chevalier de Guise took every care +of her imaginable. The danger to be apprehended +in approaching those who have the small-pox, did +not hinder him from visiting her every day. He +manifested for her an incredible passion, which lasted +during the whole of the following winter.” The +marriage failed; not at all, as the Abbé Montis says, +through the refusal or the indecision of Mademoiselle +d’Epernon, but through the intrigues of Mademoiselle +de Guise, who tried to marry her brother to +Mademoiselle d’Angoulême.</p> + +<p>After the death of Chevalier de Fiesque, killed at +the siege of Mardyck, Mademoiselle d’Epernon appeared +wholly changed. She, so recently given up to +display, so carried away with pleasures, no longer +thought of any thing but her own salvation, “which +displeased and surprised me,” says Mademoiselle.⁠<a id="FNanchor_110" href="#Footnote_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a> +“I had seen her very far from the austerity which +she was continually preaching; she no longer spoke +of any thing but death, contempt for the world, and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[132]</span>the happiness of the religious life.... The morning +of her departure for Bordeaux (whither she was called +by her father, Governor of Guyenne), which was the +day of Saint Theresa, she came to bid me adieu. +She found me in bed; fell upon her knees by my +side, and told me that the goodness which I had always +shown towards her, and the reciprocal confidence +which had existed between us, obliged her to reveal +to me the resolution which she had taken of joining +the Carmelites, and the hope she entertained of carrying +this resolution into execution. Such was my tenderness +for her, that I could not help being moved. +Touched by her design, I could not speak of it without +weeping. I used every reason that I could to +dissuade her from it.... She had already taken her +resolution too firmly to listen to any thing that might +change it.... The cardinal had been consulted⁠<a id="FNanchor_111" href="#Footnote_111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a> concerning +the marriage of Prince Casimir, brother of +the King of Poland,⁠<a id="FNanchor_112" href="#Footnote_112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a> and now himself king, with +Mademoiselle d’Epernon.... I confess, that when +I heard this news, I had the greatest joy. Although +the emperor was married, he had a son, who was +King of Hungary, of an age proportionate to mine, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[133]</span>and a prince of good promise. Thus the proximity of +Germany and Poland made me believe that my good +friend and myself might pass our days together. She +would be amply avenged of Mademoiselle de Guise +and M. de Joyeuse. In this affair there was nothing +to displease me; and it may be seen from the manner +in which I wrote to her concerning it, that I +strove to hinder her from becoming a Carmelite. +The conjuncture was most favorable.... The devotion +of Mademoiselle d’Epernon defeated this design, +and she preferred the crown of thorns to that of Poland. +Although she seemed to receive this proposition +as a high honor, she feigned sickness, and caused +the waters of Bourbon to be prescribed for her, in +order to enter the first convent of the Carmelites +that she should find on the way.... Madame +d’Epernon⁠<a id="FNanchor_113" href="#Footnote_113" class="fnanchor">[113]</a> took her on this journey in utter ignorance +of her design. They proceeded to Bourges, +where the next day she joined the Carmelites. Here +she took the habit with one of the domestics of Madame +d’Epernon.... She wrote me from Bourges, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[134]</span>informing me that she was coming to the great convent +at Paris.... Mademoiselle d’Epernon could not +be better situated. It is a great house, well located, +and filled with young ladies of quality and spirit, +who have left the world which they knew and +despised. Now, it is this that makes great nuns.... When +she had arrived, she requested me to pay her +a visit. I went angry enough, grieved indeed to +the very heart. When, however, I saw her, I was +touched with the utmost tenderness, and all other +feelings yielded so thoroughly thereto, that it was +impossible for me to conceal it from her, my tears +and my extreme grief not even leaving me power +to speak; these tears did not cease during the two +hours that I was with her, though I was unable to +say a single word.... Time has taught me in turn +the happiness which she enjoyed.”</p> + +<p>Mademoiselle d’Epernon, born in 1624, entered +among the Carmelites at twenty-four years of age, in +1648; took the veil in 1649; spent many years in +penitence and religious training, and died in 1701, at +the age of seventy-seven years, having passed fifty-three +in the monastery of the Rue Saint-Jacques. +She desired to live the most obscure life, and was +not even sub-prioress.⁠<a id="FNanchor_114" href="#Footnote_114" class="fnanchor">[114]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[135]</span></p> + +<p>Like Mademoiselle d’Epernon, Mademoiselle de +Bourbon thought of laying the storms that awaited +her, in the peaceful retreat where she had so many +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[136]</span>friends. There she enjoyed herself, and passed the +greater part of her life; for her mother, the Princess +de Condé, always made her a companion in her frequent +visits to this convent. This princess, as was +not rare in those times, possessed at once great ambition, +with a piety that bordered upon superstition. +Contrasts abounded in her character. She never +loved her husband very much, and at twenty-one +years of age had imprisoned herself with him at the +Bastile and Vincennes, for three long years. She +was vain enough of her great beauty, taking great +pleasure in making conquests; that of Henry IV. had +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[137]</span>at least flattered her; she had been very much sought +after, much praised, and her life had always been +free from scandal. She had a pride that passed all +bounds when any want of proper respect was shown +towards her; but when this pride was undisturbed, +she was amiable and at ease. She was not destitute +of greatness of soul or spirit. She destined her +daughter for the highest position; but, observing her +great beauty, and knowing, by her own experience, +the perils thereof, she took care to arm her against +them, by planting in her heart a serious piety, and by +surrounding her with the most edifying examples. +Not content with going often to the convent of the +Carmelites, she wished to be able to go there at any +hour; to remain there—she and her daughter—as +long as she liked; to have an apartment there like the +queen herself; and, to that end, she took upon her +burdens onerous enough, as appears from an authentic +act, passed November 18, 1637, in her own +name, and in the name of Mademoiselle de Bourbon, +from which we give the following extract:</p> + +<p>“We, present in person, the reverend Mothers +Marie-Madeleine de Jésus (Mademoiselle de Bains), +humble prioress; Sister Marie de la Passion (Mademoiselle +de Machault), sub-prioress; Sister Philippe +de Saint-Paul (Mademoiselle de Bouthillier), and Sister +Marie de Saint-Barthélemy (Mademoiselle Guichard), +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[138]</span>depositaries, representing the community, ... +who, advertised of the great desire that the high and +powerful princess, Dame Charlotte-Marguerite de +Montmorency, spouse of the high and powerful +Prince Henri de Bourbon, first prince of the blood, +and Demoiselle Anne de Bourbon, their daughter, +have shown to be received as founders of the new +house which the said reverends are at present constructing, +and which they expect to join to their ancient +cloister; after having proposed the business in +full chapter, and with the permission of their superiors, ... in +consideration of the great piety professed by the +said dame princesses, ... and of the very charitable +affection which they have always borne towards the +order of the Carmelites, and particularly towards this +monastery, have voluntarily admitted the said princesses +as founders, granting them the enjoyment of all +the privileges accorded to founders, ... to wit, freely to +enter the monastery whenever they wish; to drink, to +eat, to sleep there; to be present at divine service and +other spiritual exercises; to take part in all the prayers, +vigils, and other pious works that are performed +daily; we have moreover consented that the same +dame princess may enjoy the privilege, which she has +obtained from the Holy Father, of bringing two persons +with her three times a month, as she has done +thus far, ... always on the condition that the said +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[139]</span>two persons shall not remain in the monastery after +six o’clock in the evening during the winter, and after +seven o’clock during the summer.... This being +accepted, ... the said dames are obligated to continue +the honor of their benevolence to the reverends, and +also to defray the costs and expenses of the building.”</p> + +<p>In consequence of this act, Madame the Princess +gave more than 120,000 livres at different times, a +quantity of precious stones, ornaments for the church, +relics which she caused to be set with a magnificence +corresponding with her piety and her position. At the +same time, she was anxious to enjoy her rights, and, +while awaiting the completion of the new building, +she took an apartment at the convent, which she +furnished somewhat like a Carmelite. Her bed and +all her furniture were of brown serge. In this desert +she sometimes spent a whole week or a fortnight; +finding herself more happy, she said, than in the midst +of the pleasures of the court. A simple nun could +never have shown more respect for the regulations of +the house. She subjected herself to long silence +through fear of meddling with that which was prescribed. +Sometimes finding herself alone in her chamber +with the two nuns who kept her company, she declared +that she was afraid, and that at evening she took +them for phantoms, because they spoke to her only by +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[140]</span>signs, and for things absolutely necessary. Subsequently, +she wished to have a cell in the dormitory, as +simple as that of all the others. “She would,” says +the manuscript history⁠<a id="FNanchor_115" href="#Footnote_115" class="fnanchor">[115]</a> which has been confided to us, +“have willingly employed all her goods for the use +or the embellishment of the convent, if address had +not been employed to conceal from her the knowledge +of its most legitimate wants. Sometimes she +complained with infinite grace: If your mothers were +willing, I would do here a thousand things; but they +cannot do this thing, they will not do that, and I can +do nothing. This great princess, whom a natural +pride sometimes rendered so formidable, here became +the friend, the companion, the mother of whomsoever +applied to her. Her power was never felt except +through her benefits. The will of the mother prioress +was her law: she called her our mother; rose up whenever +she perceived her; submitted herself to her +commands with a charming sweetness, and was seen +in the choir, at morning prayers, at every service, in +the refectory, practising ordinary mortifications, laying +her natural greatness at the feet of the spouses +of Jesus Christ, with a humility that rendered her to +them still more noble.”</p> + +<p>Admitted with her mother into the interior of the +monastery, Anne-Geneviève filled her soul with the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[141]</span>most edifying conversations, the gravest and most +touching spectacles. Everywhere she met none but +the living already dead and kneeling upon the grave. +Here was the tomb of Michel de Marillac, keeper +of the seals, who died in exile, at Châteaudun, in +that same year, 1632, when Richelieu beheaded his +brother, Marshal de Marillac, uncle of Mademoiselle +de Bourbon, Duke de Montmorency; here were +the funeral monuments of the two women of the +house of Longueville, Marguerite and Catherine d’Orleans. +She doubted not that she should one day see +buried in this same place her brilliant friend, the +famous Julie, Mademoiselle de Rambouillet, now +Duchess de Montausier; that she should see carried +to this place the heart of Turenne—that heart which, +for a moment, she was destined to trouble and dispute +with duty and the king; that here several of her own +children should also have their tombs, and that here +she herself should repose by the side of her mother, +Madame the Princess, and of her sister-in-law, the +sweet, pure, and graceful Anne-Marie Martinozzi, +Princess de Conti.⁠<a id="FNanchor_116" href="#Footnote_116" class="fnanchor">[116]</a></p> + +<p>Mademoiselle de Bourbon wished, in her turn, to +be one of the benefactresses of the Carmelites, and to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[142]</span>make such presents as would please them. She +obtained from Pope Urban VII. the relics of seven +martyr virgins, with a brief of the Holy Father +attesting their authenticity, and that the names of +each of these victims of faith had been found entire, +or abbreviated on the stone that held their bodies inclosed +in the catacombs. Let us transport ourselves to +those times; let us place ourselves in a convent of the +Carmelites, and we shall form some idea of the holy +joy which filled the house on witnessing the arrival +of this magnificent and august present. Queen Anne, +touched with a pious emulation, placed with them +some relics of Saint Paule, a Roman dame, and an illustrious +friend of Saint Jerome. The body of Saint +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[143]</span>Rosalie, a grandchild of France, had just been found +at Palermo. M. d’Alincourt obtained it, and sent +it as an offering. Mademoiselle de Bourbon placed +all these relics in a silver shrine, made in the form of +a dome, surmounted by a lantern, and surrounded by +four figures, representing the Evangelists.</p> + +<p>The Duke d’Enghien seeing his sister, whom he +adored, and whose spirit he knew, thus occupied +with embellishing and enriching the convent of the +Carmelites, where he was sometimes taken, felt his +honor piqued, and wished to make his offering also. +In order to divert him during his recovery from a +severe illness, various curiosities of the day were +brought and shown to him in his chamber, and +among other things a reliquary, admirable for its +design and richness. The Duke d’Enghien asked +the purpose of this masterpiece. The goldsmith +replied that it was for the Carmelites of the Rue +Saint-Jacques, but that, not being in a condition +to pay for such a piece of workmanship, they had +left it on his hands. The young duke exclaimed that +he wished the Carmelites could have this beautiful +reliquary, and he found a very good way of realizing +his wish. He took a purse in hand, and, extolling +the curiosity, which he kept concealed, refused to +show it to those who came to visit him, unless some +pieces of gold or silver were put in his purse; and he +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[144]</span>succeeded in procuring the sum demanded, which +was 2,000 louis.⁠<a id="FNanchor_117" href="#Footnote_117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a></p> + +<p>Thus passed the infancy and the youth of Mademoiselle +de Bourbon, in the midst of the spectacles +and practice of a true and profound piety. We +must not be surprised, then, that this piety should +at length induce her to renounce the world and become +a Carmelite. She who was one day to be the +ardent disciple and the intrepid protector of Port-Royal, +was then in the hands of a Jesuit, Father Le +Jeune. He encouraged her design; but in vain she +addressed the most earnest supplications to her +father, the Prince de Condé. Having other views +in regard to his daughter, he complained to Madame +the Princess; and in order to break the charm that +attached Anne-Geneviève to the Carmelites, it was +decided that she should be taken oftener into society. +Mademoiselle de Bourbon obeyed; but, her mind +being still filled with the images and the discourses +of the Rue Saint-Jacques, she took no pleasure in +these brilliant assemblages. When her mother found +fault with her poor success, Mademoiselle de Bourbon +is said to have replied to her:⁠<a id="FNanchor_118" href="#Footnote_118" class="fnanchor">[118]</a> “You have, +madame, such touching graces, that, as I simply attend +you, and appear after you, I am not noticed.” +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[145]</span>This manner of justifying herself appeased Madame +the Princess, who, in spite of her devotion, willingly +suffered herself to be reminded that she had been +and was still very beautiful.</p> + +<p>Mademoiselle de Bourbon, during several years, +followed her inclination; and, in order to make her +renounce it, it was necessary to do her a sort of violence. +Thus far she had found means of escaping +the ball. Madame the Princess was obliged to employ +her authority to make her go; and three days +before its occurrence, she was commanded to prepare +herself for it.</p> + +<p>“Her first movement,” says Villefore,⁠<a id="FNanchor_119" href="#Footnote_119" class="fnanchor">[119]</a> “was to go +and tell this news to her good friends the Carmelites, +who were very much afflicted at it, and embarrassed +in replying to her, for she asked their advice as +to her conduct at so difficult a conjuncture. A council +was held in due form, over which presided, in +religious habit, two excellent virtues, Penitence and +Prudence; and it was resolved that Mademoiselle de +Bourbon, before going to the assault, should arm her +self, under her clothing, with a small cuirass, vulgarly +called a hair-cloth, and that she should then +lend herself, in good faith, to all the finery that was +designed for her. As soon as her consent was obtained, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[146]</span>every thing was resorted to that could most enliven +her natural graces, and nothing was forgotten to ornament +a beauty more brilliant by its own splendor +than by all the jewels with which it was loaded. +The Carmelites had strongly recommended her to be +on her guard, but her self-confidence misled her. +From the moment she entered the ball-room, and as +long as she remained there, the eyes of the whole +assembly were fixed upon her. Admirers flocked +about her, lavishing those subtle praises that easily +lay hold of a newly enkindled self-love, which is +suspicious of nothing.... On retiring from the ball, +she felt her heart agitated by new emotions: she +was no longer the same person.”</p> + +<p>It would not be without interest to know something +about that ball where Mademoiselle de Bourbon was +carried away as a victim, where she appeared to conquer, +and which she left intoxicated; but Villefore +gives us no information respecting it. We are therefore +reduced to conjecture. Here is one which we +give for what it is worth. We read in the manuscript +memoirs of André d’Ormesson, and in the +<i>Gazette de France</i>, of Renaudot,⁠<a id="FNanchor_120" href="#Footnote_120" class="fnanchor">[120]</a> that, February 18, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[147]</span>1635, there was given at the Louvre, under King +Louis XIII., a grand ball, in which figured all the +beauties of the day, and among the rest Mademoiselle +de Bourbon. Observe that it is the first court-ball in +which the name of Mademoiselle de Bourbon is found, +both in d’Ormesson and the <i>Gazette</i>. Again, that the +great violence, an account of which has been preserved +for us by Villefore, could have been shown to +the princess only on an occasion that demanded the +infliction, and for a royal ball. If this conjecture were +admitted, we should have the precise date of the conversion +of Mademoiselle de Bourbon to worldly life, +as we have of the date of her conversion to the religious +life, which is certainly August 2, 1654, when +she was thirty-five years of age: the first would be +February 18, 1635, when Mademoiselle de Bourbon +was sixteen.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[148]</span></p> + +<p>It is to very near this age of Madame de Longueville +that these words of Madame de Motteville refer: +“Mademoiselle de Bourbon began, although +very young, to exhibit the first charms of that angelic +face which has since had such renown.” In order +to judge how faithful this slight sketch is, one must +go to Versailles and see a portrait, by an old and excellent +master, named Ducayer, representing Mademoiselle +de Bourbon, at the age of fifteen years, by +the side of her father and her mother, in 1634. She +is here seen in all the freshness of her virgin beauty, +but in court attire, and as if going to that ball which +she so much dreaded, and which changed her soul +and her life.</p> + +<p>Mademoiselle de Bourbon did not, however, forget +her friends of the convent of the Carmelites, and +continued to visit them. Thus far she had experienced +but one sentiment; from that time she had two,—love +of God and of the Carmelites, with a taste for worldly +success. She preserved the same piety, but that piety +was henceforth combated by the desire of pleasure, +the need of loving and being loved, the wish for +applause upon that stage where she witnessed the +success of so many persons who had neither her mirth, +nor her spirit, nor her face. This combat continued +a long time. We have letters addressed by her to the +Carmelites, and in a tone of the most lively piety, even +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[149]</span>when she was allowing herself to be most carried away +by her passions. Accuse neither her sincerity, nor +the inefficacy of the best principles. We are really +sincere when we express sentiments that are really +in the heart, although we may not have strength +to follow them; and these noble sentiments have also +the precious advantage of mingling with our faults +a remnant of virtue that hinders us from sinking to +the bottom of the abyss, of uniting therewith a beneficent +remorse that sustains the moral life, and of almost +always achieving a triumphant restoration to well-doing. +Let them sleep for a season in the soul of +Madame de Longueville. There they will never be +extinguished. At some future day they will be +awakened, and we shall return to the convent of the +Carmelites, in the Rue Saint-Jacques. But it is necessary +to quit it, in order to follow Mademoiselle de +Bourbon to the court, to Chantilly, to Ruel, to Liancourt, +among beautiful companions, amid agreeable +promenades, taking part in gallant conversations. +We shall follow her first to Rue Saint-Thomas-du-Louvre, +to the hôtel de Rambouillet.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[150]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.<br> +<span class="smaller">1635 to 1642.</span></h2> + +<p>Mademoiselle de Bourbon at the hôtel de Rambouillet—The Genre Précieux—Madame +de Sablé, type of the true précieuse—Corneille and +Voiture—Mademoiselle de Bourbon at Chantilly—At Ruel—At Liancourt—Her +young friends—Mademoiselle du Vigean and Condé—Marriage +of Mademoiselle de Bourbon.</p> + +</div> + +<p>It is an error too general, and recently fortified by +M. Rœderer in his ingenious and learned memoir on +<i>Polite Society in France</i>,⁠<a id="FNanchor_121" href="#Footnote_121" class="fnanchor">[121]</a> that the hôtel de Rambouillet +was the first, and for a long time the only +<i>salon</i> in Paris where good company ever assembled. +No: the Marchioness de Rambouillet did not create, +she simply followed up the happy revolution which +caused a taste for intellectual things, delicate pleasures, +elegant occupations to succeed, in France, the +barbarity of the civil wars, and the license of manners +too much allowed by Henry IV. This taste is +the distinctive characteristic of the seventeenth century; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[151]</span>it is the pure and noble source whence issued +all the wonders of this great period. Louis XIV., in +1661, received it wholly formed, illustrious on all +sides by reason of the most brilliant military and +political success, rich in masterpieces of every kind, +when already the finest geniuses had finished or commenced +their career; when Malherbe and Balzac, the +founders of the new prose and of the new poesy, +when Descartes, the founder of the new philosophy, +had long been buried; when Le Sueur and Sarrazin +were dead; when Pascal and Poussin were about to +close their eyes; when Corneille was no longer but a +shadow of himself; when Madame de Sévigné, La +Fontaine, and Molière, were forty, and Bossuet thirty-six +years of age. All these great minds have, in their +style as well as in their thought, something artless +and masculine, which betrays another epoch; an art +and a literature developed under other auspices. +The seventeenth century does not commence with +Louis XIV., who crowns it, but with Richelieu, who +inspired it. No one felt better than Richelieu the +growing taste for politeness and letters. The foundation +of this great soul was ambition: his true genius +was for politics; but, eager for every kind of glory, +he desired also to be, or to appear, one of the first +wits of his time, and even an accomplished cavalier. +Like all great men from Cæsar to Napoleon, he was +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[152]</span>very amiable when he wished to be so. It pleased +him for a while to affect to be a discontented man of +ambition, who was abiding his time under the appearance +of a man of the world, seeking and obtaining +the most brilliant success in society. As soon as +he acquired power, he gave vogue to his own tastes; +and in 1630 there was in Paris more than one hôtel +where there were assembled, for agreeable pastime, +people of wit, of lofty and of low descent, military +personages, lawyers and theologians, with their amiable +wives, who naturally gave the ton. The hôtel +de Rambouillet was the most considerable of all +the rendezvous of the new spirit, and it continued +to be the most celebrated, by reason rather of +the defects than of the good qualities there encountered.</p> + +<p>In fact, what idea is presented to the mind as soon +as we hear mentioned the hôtel de Rambouillet? +That of a choice reunion where the most exquisite +politeness is cultivated, but where, little by little, the +<i>genre précieux</i> enters and acquires full control.</p> + +<p>And what was this <i>genre précieux</i>?</p> + +<p>It was at first simply what is now called the style +<i>distingué</i>. Distinction was what was sought above +all things at the hôtel de Rambouillet: whoever possessed +it, or aspired to it, from princes and princesses +of the blood to lettered persons of the most humble +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[153]</span>fortune, was well received, attracted to, retained in +the amiable and illustrious company.</p> + +<p>But what must we understand by distinction? It +cannot be defined in an absolute manner. Each +epoch makes an ideal of distinction for its own use. +Two things, however, almost always enter it, two +things in appearance contrary, and which are combined +only in choice spirits happily cultivated: a +certain elevation in ideas and sentiments, with an extreme +simplicity in manners and language. I suppose +that with Aspasia, at Athens, Pericles, Anaxagoras, +and Phidias talked of art, of philosophy, of +politics, with no more effort and declamation, than +workmen and merchants would have used in conversing +about their ordinary occupations. Socrates was +an accomplished model in this style, and the <i>Banquet</i> +of Plato, wherein, after supper, discourse is held +upon the most elevated topics in the most charming +and most natural manner, gives us a perfect idea of +what was then the <i>ton</i> of that particular atticism at +Athens, and which, even at Athens, was the mark of +distinction. It was the same at Rome with the +Scipios, where an amiable badinage was often mingled +with the gravest matters, a little less, perhaps, +at the suppers of Cicero, when Cæsar was not present, +the master of the house not being a sufficiently great +lord to be always perfectly simple, and the new man,—I +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[154]</span>do not say the parvenu—especially the orator and +the man of letters, being a little too perceptible, even +when he strove most to imitate Plato. It was this +Roman urbanity, the somewhat degenerated daughter +of Athenian atticism, that the hôtel de Rambouillet +aimed at and contributed to spread.⁠<a id="FNanchor_122" href="#Footnote_122" class="fnanchor">[122]</a></p> + +<p>Grandeur was in some sort in the air from the very +commencement of the seventeenth century. The +policy of the government was grand, and great men +sprang up in crowds to carry it out in the councils +and on the battle-field. A mighty spirit pervaded +French society. Everywhere were great designs in +the arts, in letters, in sciences, in philosophy. Descartes, +Poussin, and Corneille were advancing towards +their future glory, full of bold thoughts, under +the eyes of Richelieu. Every thing was turned to +grandeur. Every thing was rude, even somewhat +gross, mind as well as heart. Force abounded; +grace was absent. In this excessive vigor, good taste +was unknown. Politeness was necessary to lead the +century to perfection. Of this the hôtel de Rambouillet +was particularly the school.</p> + +<p>The days of its greatest lustre begin in 1630, and +extend to 1648, when the idol of the house, Mademoiselle +de Rambouillet, married in 1645 to M. de +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[155]</span>Montausier, follows him into his government of Saintonge +and of Angoumois, at the commencement of +the Fronde. The palmy days of the illustrious hôtel +were then under Richelieu, and during the first years +of the regency. For a score of years it rendered incontestable +services to the national taste; but the +good which it was able to do, was achieved in 1648. +Already its defects had begun to appear and to encroach +upon its good qualities. The inferior circles +which had been formed in Paris and in the provinces, +at first useful because they promoted politeness, +had terminated in being dangerous by degenerating +loftiness of ideas and sentiments into a false +grandeur, extravagant and affected, especially by carrying +affectation into simplicity. It was then that the +<i>genre précieux</i>, becoming corrupted, the great master +in fact of nature and truth, declared against it that +pitiless war, opened by his comedy of <i>Les Précieuses +Ridicules</i>, printed in 1660, and closed by that of <i>Les +Femmes Savantes</i>, printed in 1673. But let us return +to 1630.</p> + +<p>In 1630 there was much originality in France, but +it was an originality which showed the necessity of +foreign models. At a later period, Molière, La Fontaine, +Boileau, and Racine, those geniuses so eminently +French, proposed the study of models; they +sought them in antiquity, which they imitated without +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[156]</span>ceasing to be original, giving the French character +to every thing that they touched. Their predecessors +had addressed themselves to Italy and to +Spain, in their eyes the two nations most advanced. +The Médicis had introduced among us a taste for +Italian literature. Queen Anne brought, or rather +strengthened, a taste for Spanish literature. The +hôtel de Rambouillet endeavored to unite them.</p> + +<p>The Spanish style was, at the beginning of the seventeenth +century, made up of high gallantry, languishing +and Platonic; of a heroism somewhat romantic; +a knightly courage; a lively sentiment of the +beauties of nature, which developed itself in eclogues +and idyls, both prose and verse; a passion for music +and serenades, as well as for carousals, elegant conversations, +and magnificent diversions. The Italian +style was precisely the contrary of Spanish grandeur, +or, if you please, bombast, wit, carried to refinement, +raillery and jesting, which threatened to abase every +thing. From the mixture of these two styles sprang +the alliance, ardently pursued, rarely accomplished +in a perfect proportion, of the grand and the familiar, +of the grave and the pleasant, of the sprightly and the +sublime.</p> + +<p>At the hôtel de Rambouillet, it was not sufficient to +be a hero; it was also necessary to be a gallant man, +an <i>honnête</i> man, as was the appellation in 1630, and as +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[157]</span>it continued to be during the seventeenth century; an +<i>honnête</i> man, new and piquant expression, mysterious +type which it is difficult to define, and whose sentiment +spread with inconceivable rapidity. The <i>honnête</i> +man had elevated sentiments: he was necessarily +brave, gallant, liberal; he had wit and fine manners, +but all this without the least appearance of pedantry, +and with an easy and familiar air. Such was the +ideal which the hôtel de Rambouillet proposed for +public admiration, and for the imitation of people +who prided themselves on being <i>comme il faut</i>.</p> + +<p>The women were naturally called upon to play the +principal rôle in an enterprise like this, and the Marchioness +de Rambouillet seemed formed expressly to +preside over it. She was almost Italian: her father +was Vivonne Pisani, and her mother, Savelli. Her +husband was a very high lord, and had been ambassador +extraordinary to Spain. They had already +withdrawn from business, with a considerable fortune, +to a beautiful hôtel near Paris, a magnificent country +residence:⁠<a id="FNanchor_123" href="#Footnote_123" class="fnanchor">[123]</a> they were there in the way of no one, and +drew about them a large circle. To finish the portrait +of an accomplished hostess, add that Madame de Rambouillet, +though very beautiful, had never been engaged +in any intrigue, and that she was passionately +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[158]</span>fond of people of wit, though without any pretension +thereto herself: in fact, only a few letters and two +stanzas are all that can be found from her pen.⁠<a id="FNanchor_124" href="#Footnote_124" class="fnanchor">[124]</a></p> + +<p>She was also an object of admiration to all those +who knew her. Tallemant des Réaux himself passes +upon her the highest eulogy. He says that she was +beautiful, virtuous, and sensible. “She has,”⁠<a id="FNanchor_125" href="#Footnote_125" class="fnanchor">[125]</a> observes +he, “always loved beautiful things; and for the sake of +reading Virgil, she applied herself to the study of Latin, +but was prevented from accomplishing her design +by sickness: she contented herself afterwards with +learning Spanish.... She was in every thing a very +clever person.... No one in the world was less selfish; +she went farther than those who say that giving +is a pleasure worthy of a king, for she said that it +was a pleasure worthy of God.... There never was +a mind more upright.... Never was there a truer +friend.” Her only defect which M. Rœderer has intentionally +suppressed, and which Tallemant does +not fail to notice, was an excessive delicacy in language. +There were words which frightened her, and +which found no favor with her,⁠<a id="FNanchor_126" href="#Footnote_126" class="fnanchor">[126]</a> so that there was +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[159]</span>already in Arthénice (the <i>nom de précieuse</i> of Madame +de Rambouillet) something of Philaminte. +Segrais speaks of her in terms similar to those of +Tallemant:⁠<a id="FNanchor_127" href="#Footnote_127" class="fnanchor">[127]</a> “Madame de Rambouillet was admirable; +she was good, gentle, beneficent, and warm-hearted, +and she possessed a correct mind. It was +she who corrected the bad manners then prevalent. +She had formed her mind by reading good Italian +and Spanish books; and she taught politeness to all +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[160]</span>those who frequented her company. Princes visited +her, though she was not a duchess. She was also an +excellent friend, obliging to every one. The Cardinal +Richelieu held her in the highest esteem.... +Madame de La Fayette learned much from her.” +One of her daughters, the celebrated Julie, possessed +a most remarkable mind, and, in default of great +beauty, a very fine form and noble air. She understood +how to make agreeable the house of her mother, +and she was ably seconded by her brother, the Marquis +de Pisani, as intellectual as he was brave; also +by her numerous sisters, especially by her who was +the first Madame de Grignan.⁠<a id="FNanchor_128" href="#Footnote_128" class="fnanchor">[128]</a></p> + +<p>We may find anywhere a description of the hôtel +de Rambouillet, and of that famous blue chamber, +which was in some sort the sanctuary of the temple +of the goddess of Athens, to speak like Mademoiselle +in <i>La Princesse de Paphlagonie</i>.⁠<a id="FNanchor_129" href="#Footnote_129" class="fnanchor">[129]</a> It was a large +<i>salon</i>, the decorations of which were all of blue velvet, +set off with gold and silver, and whose large +windows, opening from the ceiling to the floor, admitted +abundance of light and air, and gave the +prospect of a very beautiful and well-cultivated garden, +which extended as far as the eye could reach. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[161]</span>The hôtel had been built upon a new plan, designed +by Madame de Rambouillet herself. It was not very +vast, but of a beautiful appearance. It was the last +hôtel but one of the Rue Saint-Thomas-du-Louvre, on +the side of the Place du Palais Cardinal, between the +Quinze-Vingts, which occupied the corner of the +street, and the hôtel de Chevreuse, afterwards the +hôtel d’Epernon, and a little later, towards 1663 or +1664, the hôtel de Longueville.⁠<a id="FNanchor_130" href="#Footnote_130" class="fnanchor">[130]</a></p> + +<p>M. Rœderer has left hardly any thing to be done +in cataloguing the great lords and ladies who frequented +the hôtel de Rambouillet during the last half +of its long and brilliant existence. I will limit myself +to selecting, from the group of amiable women +ever found there, one whom M. Rœderer has too much +neglected, and who is, in my eyes, the model of a true +and perfect <i>précieuse</i>, Madeleine de Souvre, Marchioness +de Sablé, whose life is connected with that +of Madame de Longueville, and of whom Madame de +Motteville has left us the following portrait:</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[162]</span></p> + +<p>“The Marchioness de Sablé⁠<a id="FNanchor_131" href="#Footnote_131" class="fnanchor">[131]</a> was one of those whose +beauty was creating the most sensation when the +queen (Queen Anne) arrived in France (in 1615); +but if she was lovely, she was still more desirous of +appearing so. The love which this lady had for herself +rendered her a little too sensible to that testified +to her by the other sex. There were in France some +relics of the politeness that Catherine de Médicis had +introduced from Italy; and so much delicacy was +found in the new comedies and in all other works, +both prose and verse, which came from Madrid, that +she conceived a very high opinion of the gallantry +which the Spaniards had caught from the Moors. She +was persuaded that men might, without crime, entertain +the most tender sentiments for females; that the +desire of pleasing impelled them to the greatest and +handsomest acts, gave them spirit and inspired them +with liberality and every virtue; but that, on the other +hand, women, who were the ornament of the world, +and made to be served and adored, ought to tolerate +their respect alone. This lady, supporting her sentiments +with fine wit and great beauty, gave them +much authority in her time; and the number and consideration +of those who continued to see her, perpetuated +in our time what the Spaniards call, <i>fucezas</i>.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_132" href="#Footnote_132" class="fnanchor">[132]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[163]</span></p> + +<p>Madame de Sablé had been passionately loved by +the brave, handsome, and unfortunate Duke de Montmorency, +uncle of Madame de Longueville, who was +decapitated at Toulouse in 1632. She responded to +his passion; but Montmorency having raised his +eyes upon the queen, Madame de Sablé, like a true +Spaniard, broke connection with him. “I heard her +say,” says Madame de Motteville again, “that her +own pride was so great, that, on the first demonstration +made by the Duke de Montmorency of his +change of affection, she wished to see him no more, +being unable to receive agreeably devotion which she +was obliged to share even with the greatest princess +in the world.”</p> + +<p>The Marchioness de Sablé continued faithful to the +manners of her youth, and, when the hôtel de Rambouillet +was almost closed, she maintained something +akin to it in her hôtel of the Place-Royale, with her +intellectual friend, the Countess de Maure, and even +in her retreat of Port-Royal, at the Faubourg Saint-Jacques. +She kept up for a long time a school of +<i>bon ton</i>, of <i>morale</i>, and of refined literature, whence +originated the <i>Maximes</i> of La Rochefoucauld.</p> + +<p>Among the people of letters who came often +to the hôtel de Rambouillet, the two most celebrated +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[164]</span>are without contradiction Corneille and Voiture.</p> + +<p>Corneille, with Descartes, is the highest expression +of the literature of the first half of the seventeenth +century. His qualities, like his defects, were in the +most perfect harmony with his times. Hence a success +which no one has since equalled. Under Louis +XIV., what piece of Racine produced the impression +made by the <i>Cid</i>, in 1636? It is necessary to read the +writers of the times in order to obtain an idea of the +enthusiasm which seized Paris and all France. They +were true transports:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">All Paris for Chimène hath the eyes of Rodrigue.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Nothing more true. Because at this time there +was not a gentleman in Paris who did not pretend to +be a Rodrigue; not a woman of <i>bon ton</i> who had not +at heart, or who did not affect the sentiments of +Chimène. The more we study this admirable piece, +which <i>Polyeucte</i> alone surpassed a few years after, +the more we discover in it the traits of that great +epoch forever gone, heroism and great gallantry; that +point of honor which doubtless shed much blood, but +promoted the warlike spirit; in ripe men and in chieftains, +serious interests and energetic passions clashing +with each other; in youth, the generous struggle of +love and duty, which will one day be carried to the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[165]</span>utmost degree of the pathetic in Pauline and in +Sévère, throughout it a language somewhat rude, but +artless and strong, ever familiar; at the same time, it +is true, an ill-founded taste straying sometimes in the +pursuit of grandeur, of delicacies infinite and full of +grace, but somewhat critical, and of subtile analyses +of passion reasoning upon itself. Such was the hôtel +de Rambouillet. It recognized itself in and defended +the <i>Cid</i> against the all-powerful minister.⁠<a id="FNanchor_133" href="#Footnote_133" class="fnanchor">[133]</a> It was in +the noble <i>salon</i> that Corneille encountered Balzac, +and conversed with him concerning Rome and the +Romans. Let the discourses upon the Romans addressed +by Balzac to the Marchioness de Rambouillet⁠<a id="FNanchor_134" href="#Footnote_134" class="fnanchor">[134]</a> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[166]</span>be read, and it will be seen whether the conversations +of this period were useless. I dare say that France +never witnessed a time when politics were more the +order of the day. Every one was then occupied with +public affairs. It was neither Lucan nor Tacitus who +taught Corneille the language of <i>Cinna</i> and of the +first scene of <i>La Mort de Pompée</i>. The true school +of Corneille was the spectacle of what passed around +him, the story of great contemporaneous events, the +conversations of Richelieu and of his familiars, Father +Joseph, Mazarin, Lyonne, and those who were every +day in the companies which he frequented, where +ambassadors, warriors, bishops, councillors of state +mingled with men of letters. Corneille read all his +pieces at the hôtel de Rambouillet. It was in all its +glory, and it declined with him; his masterpiece, the +masterpiece also of the French stage, <i>Polyeucte</i>, appeared +in 1643, that is, during the most brilliant days +of the hôtel de Rambouillet, and I may add of France, +for it was in this same year, 1643, that one of the +youngest disciples of the illustrious hôtel, the most +passionate admirer of Corneille, the brother of Mademoiselle +de Bourbon, the Duke d’Enghien, gained +at the age of twenty-two years, in a manner worthy +of Alexander and of Cæsar, one of those battles +of which history records but five or six—that battle of +Rocroy, in which the designs of Henri IV. and of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[167]</span>Richelieu were justified by victory, and by which +France succeeded Spain in the moral and military +supremacy of Europe.</p> + +<p>Voiture was admired by his most intellectual and +fastidious contemporaries. La Fontaine places him in +the number of his masters.⁠<a id="FNanchor_135" href="#Footnote_135" class="fnanchor">[135]</a> Madame de Sévigné +characterizes his mind as “free, playful, charming.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_136" href="#Footnote_136" class="fnanchor">[136]</a> +Boileau says that Voiture is, in his eyes, a sort of +clown, asking what there is in him to be so much admired.⁠<a id="FNanchor_137" href="#Footnote_137" class="fnanchor">[137]</a> +Let us confess it: we all more or less resemble +this clown: we are scarcely able at the present +day to account for the fame of Voiture. Many reasons +may be assigned for it which militate neither +against Voiture nor ourselves.</p> + +<p>Of all our faculties, wit is that which has most to +do with social intercourse, but which leaves the least +trace. A sally, a repartee, cannot be separated from +the manner in which they are expressed. Sprightly +sayings have not all their grace except in the mouth +of a man of wit. It is not thus with words proceeding +from the heart, and with great thoughts. As they +come from the depths of human nature, which changes +not, they have infinite perspectives, and they endure +as long as the heart and the reason. But wit plays +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[168]</span>upon the surface; it sparkles and becomes extinguished +in an instant. Wit is the offspring of the +moment. The effect of an impromptu depends upon +a thousand things, which, in disappearing, carry with +them what had most charmed us. What, I pray you, +is the present value of a pleasantry perpetrated two +centuries ago?</p> + +<p>Madame de Sévigné, in her enthusiasm for him +who had been one of the masters of her youth, exclaims: +“So much the worse for those who do not +understand him!” But it is easy for the amiable marchioness +to speak concerning him; she had an intimate +knowledge of the manners, of the things, of the +men, of the women, of the adventures, of the little +accidents to which the verses and prose of Voiture +related. His nephew, Martin Pinchesne, who, a +year or two after the death of his uncle, published +his works, was foolish or kind enough to suppress the +dates of the jokes and the names of most of the persons +who had called them forth, so that even in the +seventeenth century those who had not been of +Voiture’s society, had need of a commentator to understand +him. Tallemant confesses that there are +in his writings many things, the point of which he +has not been able to discover. “At some future day,” +says he, “if it can be done without offending too +many people, I will have them printed with notes, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[169]</span>and I will add to them such other pieces as I shall be +able to find of the society of the hôtel de Rambouillet.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_138" href="#Footnote_138" class="fnanchor">[138]</a></p> + +<p>In fact, to relish Voiture, he should have been seen +upon the theatre of his success from 1630 to 1648, +with those pretty women who sought to be amused, +among those young gentlemen who, in the interval +of battles, were partaking of the most refined pleasures +of the mind. Voiture reigned at the hôtel de +Rambouillet. Corneille, timid and proud, neglected +and full of himself, was but ill at ease in this great +society: he listened almost always in silence, and seldom +conversed except with Balzac, his fellow-citizen +in the Roman republic. But Voiture was the gayety, +the life, the soul of the house. He was always +in the proper mood; his inexhaustible flow of spirits +mingled in every thing, animated every thing, and, +while Corneille was grave in the midst of trifles, and +introducing, involuntarily, into the very comedies +which he wished to make most diverting, tragic +movements, Voiture, in the most serious matters, was +lavishing his witticisms. He represents the playful +side of the hôtel de Rambouillet, as Corneille did its +severe side.</p> + +<p>Let us not forget that Voiture wrote only as he was +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[170]</span>inspired by the occasion—that circumstance was his +favorite muse, and that she dictated to him most of +those little things, produced in haste, and which he +did not even take the trouble to collect. It is then +ridiculous to criticise them. They were for the most +part songs, intended to be sung, and which were +sung. The editor has sometimes indicated the airs, +and we have found nearly all of them in a curious +collection, belonging to the library of the Arsenal, +entitled <i>Chansons notées</i>.</p> + +<p>But Voiture has not merely a facility full of charm; +it seems to me that in his somewhat more studied +efforts, he has ideas, philosophy, sensibility, sometimes +even passion. I feel obliged to shelter myself +behind the authority of Boileau, who, in his letter to +Perrault,⁠<a id="FNanchor_139" href="#Footnote_139" class="fnanchor">[139]</a> eulogizes Voiture, and particularly his elegies. +For my part, I prefer them to all those which +appeared before 1648, the year of the death of Voiture, +and of the end, or at least of the decay of the +hôtel de Rambouillet, excepting, indeed, the elegies +of Corneille, now too much forgotten, and which contain +passages vieing with the most touching of his +tragedies.⁠<a id="FNanchor_140" href="#Footnote_140" class="fnanchor">[140]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[171]</span></p> + +<p>I would call attention to the elegy to a coquette, +whom Voiture names Bélise. Is there, indeed, no +elevation, no force in the following verses?</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Your charms which but the face adorn,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Can ne’er control a soul well born,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Your sway’s too harsh to be secure;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">If any one can it endure,</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[172]</span> <div class="verse indent0">With so much scorn, ingratitude,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He must be born for servitude,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or else some wretch whom gods pursue</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In wrath by giving him to you.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For praise and honor vainly moved,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">You cannot love, yet would be loved,⁠<a id="FNanchor_141" href="#Footnote_141" class="fnanchor">[141]</a> etc.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>We must give almost in full the elegy to a lady +whom he had quitted for another, and to whom he +returned:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Leaving for me her native pride,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sweet Iris could no more deride;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Approved my flame, my hopes allow’d,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Received my love, heard what I vow’d,</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[173]</span> <div class="verse indent0">Bestow’d those tokens, one by one,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Which lovers hang their hopes upon.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Treatment so mild, ’t must be averr’d,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Some feeling in my bosom stirr’d,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of love? This perjured soul ’gainst you</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Such injury could never do;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of friendship only, yet so strong,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I thought to love ’twould turn ere long.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In her I daily hoped to meet</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The traits which render you so sweet,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Those charms divine, by which, at will,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">You either make alive or kill;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Your graces perfectly refined,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The native grandeur of your mind,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That discourse sweet, to nature true,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But these I find alone in you.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of beauty, sooth, she had enough</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To move the heart of sternest stuff;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A hundred charms in her I found,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But greater charms in you abound;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">None of those looks with which, as darts,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Your eyes transfix the hardest hearts.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">How, oft, when by your beauty smit,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or by your grace or sparkling wit,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I’ve said, and I can quickly prove,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That Philis merits truest love?</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>We cannot mistake a true sensibility, the accent of +passion, or, if you please, of pleasure, in these <i>stanzas</i>, +addressed to an Aminte who is unknown to us:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">When simply with two words you chose</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To make my pains forever cease;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When I had felt a martyr’s woes,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">You oped the skies and gave me peace.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Your charms, which nothing can eclipse,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Conceal’d the rigor of your part,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Love’s lures were all upon your lips,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And all his shafts went to my heart.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">You took at once a beauty new,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A radiance vieing that above.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[174]</span> <div class="verse indent0">Ah! how mine eyes were then on you,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And how your eyes saw me in love!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Here, in a very different style, are some verses, +which, twenty years later, Saint-Evremond would not +have disavowed. Voiture is writing to the Duke +d’Enghien on his recovery from a disease by which +it was thought he would be carried off, after the campaign +in Germany, in 1645:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I much rejoice, my lord, to know</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Your safe return from Allemagne,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">From sickness, too, that laid you low,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Just at the close of the campaign;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Spreading a hope throughout all Spain,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That Heaven at last would show it grace</div> + <div class="verse indent0">By cutting short your fearful race,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And that undoubted valor stay</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Which it so dreads to face.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But, seignior, let me know, I pray,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Does Death, who, on the battle-fields,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">’Mid cries and terrible alarms,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">’Mid flames, and swords, and spears, and shields,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The noise and rage of clashing arms,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Appears for you to have some charms,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And seem’d so very fine before</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To you array’d in garb of war:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Does he appear the same, I pray,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When leisurely he takes his way</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Towards one too sick to hold his head;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And has he not an ugly grin,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When cold and stiff he saunters in,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To take a man from out his bed? etc.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>In justice to Voiture, it must be acknowledged: +he is the creator of a particular literature—the literature +of society, if the expression may be allowed. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[175]</span>He excelled in playful and light poetry; in that kind +of trifling verse in which he has since had so many +insipid imitators; which Voltaire carried so far, and +which forms the best part, the truest title, to his +poetic glory. Voiture was indeed the miniature Voltaire +of the hôtel de Rambouillet.</p> + +<p>I leave him, after saying to his honor that, though +an attendant at the court, he had not the manners of +a courtier. Voiture is the first example of a man of +letters who preserved his independence among the +greatest lords: he had rather the saucy tone and +manners of his successors of the end of the eighteenth +century. He was very caustic, and therefore much +dreaded. Great care was taken not to incur one of +his epigrams, for they were sharp swift arrows that +flew all over Paris, tearing their poor victim to pieces +in a thousand different places at the same time. The +Duke d’Enghien, who loved to laugh, and who could +appreciate a joke, because he himself had great wit, +agreed perfectly with Voiture, saying, however, +“He would be insupportable, if he was one of ourselves.” +Besides, Voiture, still surpassing his disciples +of the eighteenth century, had procured an excellent +post through his success in society. He was +appointed introducer of ambassadors to his Royal +Highness, Gaston, Duke of Orleans. He was also +appointed an officer of finance, in which capacity he +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[176]</span>seldom served, although he thence derived a handsome +income. He had been intrusted with more +than one important mission, principally to the Count +Duke d’Olivares. In person he was well made, and +he dressed himself in the best taste. It was his office +to be the chevalier, the lover, and, as they then said, +the <i>mourant</i> (dying man) of all the belles, especially +of the pretty Mademoiselle Paulet, whose somewhat +bold manners and blond hair had won for her the +name of the lioness of the hôtel de Rambouillet.</p> + +<p>Such was the society into which, about the year +1635 or 1636—after the great ball which bore off +Mademoiselle de Bourbon from the Carmelites—the +Princess de Condé introduced her daughter, with her +son, the young Duke d’Enghien. They did not enter +it unprepared. The hôtel de Condé was also the +rendezvous of the best company. Situated in the vast +space at present occupied by the Rue de Condé, the +street, place, and theatre de l’Odéon, as far as the +Rue des Fossés-Monsieur-le-Prince, it was, says Sauval,⁠<a id="FNanchor_142" href="#Footnote_142" class="fnanchor">[142]</a> +magnificently built, and Madame the Princess +did its honors with a dignity almost royal, tempered +with grace and wit. Lenet, to whom we must always +refer in regard to every thing connected with the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[177]</span>Condés, informs us that Madame the Princess had +bestowed great pains upon the manners of her children. +“Marguerite de Montmorency,⁠<a id="FNanchor_143" href="#Footnote_143" class="fnanchor">[143]</a> who had been +the beauty, grace, and majesty of her times, and who +was proportionably so in advanced age, even till her +death, had always around her a circle of the most +agreeable and intellectual ladies of the court. Near +her were found all the most gallant, the most <i>honnête</i>, +and most elevated, both by birth and merit. +The young prince became pleased with this society. +He frequented it continually, and from it received +the first tincture of that noble and gallant civility +which he has ever possessed, which he still preserves +towards ladies ... Mademoiselle de Bourbon, his +sister, who was afterwards the Duchess de Longueville, +possessed great spirit and extraordinary beauty.” +We can then easily conceive how the two +young people were received at the hôtel de Rambouillet. +From the first moment, they gave it the +greatest lustre.</p> + +<p>Mademoiselle de Bourbon, the person whom we +have described, with beautiful blue eyes, light hair, +fine form, careless and languishing air, was formed +exactly, by the bent of her mind and character, to +become an accomplished pupil of the hôtel de Rambouillet. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[178]</span>There was in her an innate depth of pride, +which slumbered in ordinary life, but, at intervals, +was promptly aroused. Her mind was of the finest +stamp, but its delicacy often turned to subtilty. +Especially the tender, Platonic gallantry, which was +the order of the day, was calculated to charm without +causing her fear, for her rank protected her; and, +besides, she says in the most humble of confessions, +the pleasures of sense never attracted her. What +touched her, and ended in misleading her, was a +desire to be loved, and also the wish to appear, to +show, as they then said, the power of her mind and +of her eyes.</p> + +<p>Her brother, the Duke d’Enghien, had her hauteur, +but nothing whatever of her delicacy. In spite +of all the efforts of his mother, and the example of +his sister, the easy manner of the warrior always +marked him; and he often carried freedom of thought +and language even to license. Though not handsome, +he was well made; and, when elegantly +dressed, he presented a fine appearance. His keen +eyes, very aqueline nose, somewhat decayed teeth, +abundant and usually disordered hair, gave him an +eagle-like look when animated.⁠<a id="FNanchor_144" href="#Footnote_144" class="fnanchor">[144]</a> He possessed an +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[179]</span>agreeable mind, a gayety which was most freely exhibited +in the midst of dangers, and which did not +abandon him in prison. Whatever may be said of +him, he was full of heart. He loved his friends, and +he never betrayed one of them. He exacted much +from them, but he also gave them much. He lavished +their blood, as well as his own, upon the battle-field; +but he promoted their interests, and demanded +for them more than for himself. Any other person, +after the battle of Rocroy, would have been jealous +of Gassion, who was said to have advised the manœuvre +which decided the day; he himself, from the +field of battle, demanded for Gassion the baton of +Marshal of France, and the office of Lieutenant-General +for Sirot, who, at the head of the reserve, had +completed the victory. When, in the fight of the Rue +Saint-Antoine, escaping with difficulty from the carnage, +harassed with fatigue, defeated, covered with +blood, he arrived, sword in hand, at the house of +Mademoiselle, his first exclamation, accompanied +with a torrent of tears, was, “Ah! madame, you see +a man who has lost all his friends!” At Brussels, +when negotiating his return to France, he stipulated +also for a similar grace to those who had followed +him. He wrote very spirited verses, but they were +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[180]</span>satirical and somewhat soldierlike.⁠<a id="FNanchor_145" href="#Footnote_145" class="fnanchor">[145]</a> He once loved, +in the Spanish fashion, according to all the rules of +the hôtel de Rambouillet. We shall presently make +known the object of this touching passion, which +does lasting honor to the great Condé; but we +may here say that she was a heroine worthy of the +hero.</p> + +<p>Represent to yourself these two young persons at the +hôtel de Rambouillet. There Condé amused himself +and laughed freely with Voiture and the wits around +him; but his favorite was Corneille. The latter, who +was poor, and somewhat fond of money, complained +to Segrais, a Normand like himself,⁠<a id="FNanchor_146" href="#Footnote_146" class="fnanchor">[146]</a> that the Prince +de Condé, who professed so much admiration for his +works, had never made him large presents. Segrais +did not then know, that until the death of his father +in 1646, the Duke d’Enghien had nothing but his +glory, that he was unable to give the least pension; +and what pension, I ask, would have been worth so +much as the presence of Condé at the first representation +of <i>Cinna</i>, and the sobs which escaped him at +those memorable words:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Let us be friends, <i>Cinna</i>; ’tis I who ask thee, etc.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>We should remark in passing that this same Condé, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[181]</span>who was the enthusiastic admirer of Corneille, became +the friend of Bossuet, and the faithful defender +of Molière. He had seen Bossuet almost a child beginning +his career as a preacher at the hôtel de Rambouillet; +he had been present at, and had thought of +taking part in the brilliant struggles of his doctorship: +near the close of his life he sought his conversation, +and found in him not only the most eloquent, +but the most exact historian, the most faithful painter +of Rocroy, especially the most worthy interpreter of +that great heart, immortal dwelling of the beautiful +and good.</p> + +<p>Mademoiselle de Bourbon soon became one of the +most brilliant ornaments of the hôtel de Rambouillet. +She there met the Marchioness de Sablé, still beautiful, +and celebrated for her admiration of Spanish +manners, and for her loves with Montmorency. Madame +de Sablé guided the first steps of her youth, +and twenty-five years after, received her at that common +rendezvous of noble disabused hearts, religion. +But Mademoiselle de Bourbon was then in the morning +of life; and, little thinking of the storms that +awaited her, she yielded herself, on leaving the Carmelites, +to all the pleasures which came before her.</p> + +<p>Like her brother, she admired Corneille; but she +had a particular taste for Voiture, and this taste never +forsook her. She thought, she spoke continually of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[182]</span>Voiture, like Madame de Sévigné. It was not the +charm of his wit alone that pleased her; she was, +doubtless, touched with the sensibility which we have +shown that he possessed, and which places Voiture +above all his rivals. In the famous quarrel concerning +the two sonnets upon Job, and upon Uranie, +which divided the court and the city, the <i>salons</i> +and the Academy, when every one was for Benserade, +Madame de Longueville, then the arbiter of taste +and of elegance, took in hand the cause of Voiture, +and brought all to her opinion. A whole volume has +been written on this quarrel: it is not exhausted, and +we shall hereafter take it up by aid of new pieces, +which, in showing for the first time the motives of +Madame de Longueville, will reveal to us the delicacy +of her mind, which belongs to that of her heart.⁠<a id="FNanchor_147" href="#Footnote_147" class="fnanchor">[147]</a></p> + +<p>Mademoiselle de Bourbon became acquainted, also, +at the hôtel de Rambouillet, with the cultivated, moderate, +discreet Chapelain, the sincere friend of good +literature, and who might have become a writer of +the third, perhaps, even of the second rank, as well +as his friend, Pélisson, if, as was said by Boileau, +whose shafts of wit are all serious judgments, he had +been contented to write in prose. Mademoiselle de +Bourbon conceived a great esteem for Chapelain, and, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[183]</span>when she married, she made Monsieur de Longueville +give him a pension sufficient to enable him to +labor in security upon that famous <i>Pucelle</i>, which +was to be the Iliad of France, which was applauded +in advance in the <i>salons</i> of the Rue Saint-Thomas-du-Louvre, +and of which the young admirer of Corneille +and Voiture was already beginning to grow weary.</p> + +<p>Among the mediocre wits whom she met in the +illustrious hôtel, was Godeau, the little abbé, who +was called in the house the dwarf of Julie, and who +during all his life, by turns bishop of Grasse and of +Vence, kept up a written correspondence, half devotional, +half gallant, with Mademoiselle de Bourbon +and Madame de Longueville.⁠<a id="FNanchor_148" href="#Footnote_148" class="fnanchor">[148]</a> There was Esprit, too, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[184]</span>of the French Academy, who played all sorts of parts; +at first, a man of letters and messmate of the chancellor, +who placed him in the Academy, then suddenly +a priest of l’Oratoire, then a man of the world again, +and father of a family, who could not have been devoid +of merit, for he had the esteem of the best +judges of his times: attached afterwards to the embassy +of Munster, one of the pensioners of M. and +Madame de Longueville, preceptor of their nephews, +the young princes de Conti, holding a prominent +place in the <i>salon</i> of Madame de Sablé, consulted by +La Rochefoucauld, and even passing for one of the +authors of the <i>Maximes</i>, a reputation which he might +have preserved if he had not been so imprudent as +to print a work in 1678.⁠<a id="FNanchor_149" href="#Footnote_149" class="fnanchor">[149]</a></p> + +<p>I should be scrupulous, were I to forget Madame +Scudéry as one of the frequenters of the hôtel de +Rambouillet. She was certainly very homely, yet a +person of true talent, writing perhaps too rapidly, +but with a correctness and polish which were not +common in 1640. She enjoyed and merited great +consideration. Leibnitz sought the honor of her correspondence. +She wrote verses which were relished +in their time, and which still seem to us very agreeable. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[185]</span>Her romances are so long, and the episodes in +them so embarrassing to one another, that it is absolutely +impossible to read them at the present day. +But those who dare to enter this labyrinth will meet +here and there portraits well drawn, and resembling, +though somewhat flattered, the illustrious originals, +poorly disguised under Greek, Persian, and Roman +names; exact descriptions of the finest places, and +most magnificent palaces of France and of Paris, +transported to Rome or to Armenia; great sentiments +then in vogue; tendernesses of a refined Platonism; +conversations sometimes a little insipid, sometimes a +little refined, but which give a very agreeable idea of +the real conversations which Madame Scudéry tried +to imitate. Madame de Lafayette will, some day, +abridge these pictures and these discourses; she will +take from them these insipidities and weaknesses; +she will soften these subtilties; but she will preserve +the charm of these heroic and gallant manners, and +the delicate minds, whose delights are in <i>Zaïdé</i>, and +<i>The Princesses de Clèves</i>, in the <i>Bérénice</i> of Racine, +the <i>Psyché</i> of Molière, and of Corneille, will not +read without pleasure, certain chapters of the <i>Grand +Cyrus</i>. Georges Scudéry himself, insupportable on +account of his self-love and bravado style, was a +man of honor, reliable as a friend, and who, in the +most trying moments, before Mazarin, on whom he +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[186]</span>depended, preserved proudly his fidelity to Condé +and his sister.</p> + +<p>It is proper to mention these different persons, because +they reappear in the life of Madame de Longueville. +At the hôtel de Rambouillet, they attached +themselves to Mademoiselle de Bourbon, and began +her reputation, which grew rapidly from year to year.</p> + +<p>Mademoiselle de Bourbon passed the winters in +Paris, at the hôtel de Condé, at the Louvre, at the +Palais Cardinal, in some hôtels of the Place-Royale, +especially at the hôtel de Rambouillet, amid balls, +concerts, comedies, gallant conversations; and everywhere +she was brilliant by the graces of her mind +and person. In summer she was occupied with other +pleasures: she went to Fontainebleau with the court, +or to visit her mother at Chantilly, or to see Cardinal +Richelieu and the duchess d’Aiguillon at Ruel, +or perhaps to Liancourt, to visit the Duchess of +Liancourt, Jeanne de Schomberg; or perhaps again, +to Labarre, near Paris, to pass some time with the +Baroness Du Vigean, who, though of inferior rank, +but of great fortune, had the most amiable family,—a +son, the Marquis de Fors, one of the bravest comrades +of the Duke d’Enghien, and two charming +daughters, who were greatly sought by all the young +and gallant nobility. Before as well as after her +marriage, Mademoiselle de Bourbon divided her time +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[187]</span>among these different residences, which rivalled each +other in magnificence and charms. Naturally, it +was to her mother, at Chantilly, that she went most +frequently.</p> + +<p>We must look in Du Cerceau⁠<a id="FNanchor_150" href="#Footnote_150" class="fnanchor">[150]</a> + and in Perelle⁠<a id="FNanchor_151" href="#Footnote_151" class="fnanchor">[151]</a> to +know what Chantilly was at the beginning and at +the end of the seventeenth century. This vast and +beautiful domain had long belonged to the family of +Montmorency, and it came into that of Condé, in +1632, through Madame the Princess, on the death of +her brother, decapitated at Toulouse. It assembles +then the souvenirs of the two greatest military families +of ancient France. Anne and Louis de Bourbon +pervade it, and their spirits will cover and protect +Chantilly so long as there shall remain among us any +patriotic piety, any national pride. The Montmorencys +transferred the charming château to the Condés a +little before the <i>renaissance</i>, which Du Cerceau has +described in all its details. It was the great Condé, +during the last fifteen years of his life, who, finding +in the vicinity the most beautiful woods, a true forest, +with a canal resembling a river, abundant waters and +vast gardens, drew from them the wonders which the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[188]</span>graver of Perelle has preserved for us, and which +Bossuet could not help praising,—those fountains, +those cascades, those grottoes, those pavilions, “those +superb avenues, those water jets which ceased neither +day nor night.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_152" href="#Footnote_152" class="fnanchor">[152]</a> They have ceased now. The bad +taste of the seventeenth century and revolutions have +destroyed Chantilly. A prince worthy of his name +had undertaken to restore it to its first beauty. He +had wished to expend upon it the fortune which the +mishaps of the house of Condé had brought to him, +and that which he held from his own house. The +young captain had dreamed of returning at a future +day, after having extended and secured French dominion +in Africa, to repose with his lieutenants in the +sacred home of the Montmorencys and the Condés, restored +and embellished by his own hand. Providence +ordered otherwise, and Chantilly still awaits a repairing +hand. But let us return to the Chantilly of +the middle of the seventeenth century, before the +epoch of its great magnificence, between the periods +described respectively by Du Cerceau and +Perelle.</p> + +<p>It was already a delicious abode. Madame the +Princess delighted in it, and there passed, with her +children, almost every summer. She brought with +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[189]</span>her a little court, composed of the friends of her son +and daughter, with some of the choicest wits, and +particularly Voiture, with whom they could not dispense. +In default of Voiture, they had his small +change, Montreuil or Sarrazin, attachés of the house +of Condé, and who were successively secretaries of +Condé, of the Prince de Conti, and of Madame de +Longueville. They were men of fine spirit; and +Boileau, in his letter to Perrault, names Sarrazin after +Voiture. M. the Prince, for whom the country possessed +but little charm, remained usually in Paris, +to prosecute his designs and his fortune. Madame +the Princess did not dislike diversion, and young +people devoted themselves to her with ardor. Court +was paid to the ladies. During the heat of the day, +they amused themselves in reading romances or poetry; +in the evening they took long promenades and +held long conversations. They lived after the manner +of Astrea, in awaiting the adventures of the great +Cyrus. Even in 1650, after the death of her husband, +during the captivity of her two sons and of her +son-in-law and the exile of her daughter, the troubles +of the civil war and the noise of arms, Lenet relates +to us how the Princess de Condé, passed the time at +Chantilly:⁠<a id="FNanchor_153" href="#Footnote_153" class="fnanchor">[153]</a> “The promenades were the most agreeable +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[190]</span>in the world.... The evenings were not less +diverting. The company repaired to the apartment +of the princess, where they played at different games. +There were often fine voices, and especially agreeable +conversations and stories of intrigues, which made +life pass as pleasantly as possible.... These diversions +were interrupted by bad news, occasionally +brought or written. It was a very great pleasure to +see all the young ladies sad or gay, according to the +rare or frequent visits made to them, and according +to the nature of the letters which they received; and +as the affairs of each were pretty well known, it was +easy to enter into them enough in advance to be +amused. Every moment some visitors or some messages +arrived, which caused great jealousy among +those who did not receive them; and all this occasioned +songs, sonnets, and elegies, which were not +less diverting to the indifferent than to the interested. +They made rhymes and enigmas, which occupied +spare hours. Some might be seen walking along +the banks of the ponds, in the avenues of the garden +or park, on the terrace or on the downs, alone or in +troops, according to the humor of the moment; while +others were singing an air or reciting verses, or reading +romances on a balcony, or walking or reclining +upon the grass. Never did any one see so beautiful +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[191]</span>a place, in so beautiful a season, filled with better or +more amiable company.”</p> + +<p>But before 1650, before the Fronde, which divided +all French society, Chantilly was a still more agreeable +abode. Judge of it by this letter, which Sarrazin +wrote from thence, at the commencement of 1648, to +Mademoiselle de Rambouillet, at that time Madame +de Montausier, who had just set out, with her husband, +for their government of Saintonge and d’Angoumois:⁠<a id="FNanchor_154" href="#Footnote_154" class="fnanchor">[154]</a></p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Whate’er of that beautiful land they may say,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where homage devout was paid to Astrée;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">However superbly or brightly they may</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That mansion enchanted portray,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Where am’rous Armida and am’rous Aleine</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Then captives enamor’d consign’d;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Those gardens, abounding with pleasures refined,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Which boasted, despite Falerine,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of holding the proudest Paladins confined:</div> + <div class="verse indent2">How charming soever one might</div> + <div class="verse indent2">The tale of their glories relate,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They match not in beauty the spot whence I date,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">The spot whence to you I now write</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A truth whose resemblance to fiction is great.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>The hum which the zephyr excites among the +leaves of the grove when night is about to cover the +earth, was gently agitating the forest of Chantilly, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[192]</span>when, upon the principal road, three nymphs appeared +to the solitary Tircis. They were not those +poor wood-nymphs, more worthy of pity than envy, +who, for lodging and clothing, have nothing but the +bark of the trees. Their equipage was superb, and +their clothing brilliant.... The majestic air of the +oldest impressed all who approached her with profound +respect. The one by her side displayed a +beauty which neither painting, sculpture, nor poetry +have ever realized. The third had that easy air that +is given to the Graces.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Slowly two demigods beside her stroll’d,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The one of aspect sweet, the other bold;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The one walk’d like a conq’ror in his might,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And even Mars would have appall’d;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The other could with truth enough be call’d</div> + <div class="verse indent2">The earth’s delight.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class="noindent">That is to say, Madame, yesterday evening, at twilight, +I met, on the great road to Chantilly, Madame +the Princess, who was never in better health, accompanied +by Madame de Longueville, who never looked +more beautiful, and Madame de Saint-Loup,⁠<a id="FNanchor_155" href="#Footnote_155" class="fnanchor">[155]</a> who +was never more gay, all three in deshabille and in +a calash, followed by the Princes de Condé and de +Conti.... Madame the Princess, perceiving me, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[193]</span>exclaimed: Sarrazin, I wish you to sit down this +moment, and write to Madame de Montausier, that +Chantilly was never more beautiful, that time there +never passed more pleasantly, that her society was +never more desired, and that she is making a fool of +herself by staying at Saintonge, while we are here:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent2">Tell her what we do each day,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Tell her every thing we say.</div> + <div class="verse indent2">In obedience to command,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Lo! I take my pen in hand.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When gay Aurora, on her endless race</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In far-off India, shows her smiling face,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And flocks of little birds, roused from their rest,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sing sweetly ’mong the trees so gayly dress’d,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And tardy serfs go forth to sow or reap,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">At Chantilly we’re fast asleep.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So, when the night her sombre vestment spreads,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And Cynthia ’mid the stars her radiance sheds,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When now past midnight’s goal she onward speeds,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">When calm the noise of day succeeds,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When all throughout the world to sleep betake,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">At Chantilly we’re wide awake.</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And oh! between these two extremes,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">What careless, happy lives lead we!</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And oh! this mansion of Silvie⁠<a id="FNanchor_156" href="#Footnote_156" class="fnanchor">[156]</a></div> + <div class="verse indent2">Gives joys by night, by day sweet dreams!</div> + <div class="center">...</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Music we have of every sort,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Of lutes, and violins, and voice;</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And in the woods we oft rejoice,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With dogs and horns, to take the hunter’s sport.</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Sometimes on horseback off we fly,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And at the swiftest speed we try</div> + <div class="verse indent2">To catch the ring suspended high.</div> + <div class="verse indent2">In tilting, too, we pleasure take,</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[194]</span> <div class="verse indent2">And many handsome tourneys make, etc.</div> + <div class="center">...</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And shall I here, too, make you find</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The list of good things furnish’d for our mind?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Say Ablancourt, Calprenède, and Corneille,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Or rather, vulgarly to speak,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Say verse, and hist’ry, and romance,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Divert us daily without fail,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And that our joys are never marr’d perchance? etc.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>We may by this judge what Chantilly must have +been eight or ten years before, when all there +were young; when the great Condé was still the +Duke d’Enghien; Madame de Longueville, Mademoiselle +de Bourbon; Madame de Montausier, Mademoiselle +de Rambouillet; when, instead of the civil +war, a flourishing peace or glorious victories filled +every heart with gladness. The Duke d’Enghien +was never there except amid a crowd of brave and +gallant gentlemen, who afterwards fought with him +at Rocroy, at Fribourg, at Dunkirk, at Lens, but who +then shared his pleasures at the hôtel de Condé and +at Chantilly—devoted confidants of his designs and of +his loves. Among these were the Duke de Nemours, +so suddenly slain, and whose brother—inheritor of his +title, of his beauty, and his bravery—perished also in +a frightful duel in the midst of the Fronde; Coligny, +killed also, at an early age, in a duel of another +character; his brother, Dandelot, afterwards Duke +de Châtillon, one of the heroes of Lens, who promised +to be a great warrior, and who perished at the attack +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[195]</span>of Charenton, during the first days of the Fronde; +Laval, the son of the Marquis de Sablé, handsome, +brave, and witty, who distinguished himself, and was +slain at the siege of Dunkirk; La Moussaye, his aid-de-camp +and principal officer in every battle, who, +too, died young at Sténay, in 1650; Chabot, who +married the beautiful and rich heiress of the Rohans; +Pisani, the son of the Marchioness de Rambouillet, +who fell sword in hand; the Marquis de Fors Du +Vigean, Nangis, Tavannes, Seneçay, and many others, +among whom arose the young Montmorency-Boutteville, +afterwards Duke Maréchal-de-Luxembourg; all +this school of Condé, entirely different from that of +Turenne, into which the Duke d’Enghien early +breathed his genius and the divine part of art, as +Napoleon so well expressed it, the instinct of war, +the glance which seized the strategic point of an +affair, with audacity and obstinacy in execution; +that admirable school, which began at Rocroy, and +from which arose twelve marshals, without counting +those generals who sustained the honor of France to +the very end of the century. These were the youth +who amused themselves at Chantilly, preluding glory +by gallantry.</p> + +<p>Mademoiselle de Bourbon, in selecting companions, +was equal to her brother. She formed a connection +with the Marchioness de Sablé, who became the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[196]</span>friend of her whole life; but she had younger friends, +if not more dear, at least with whom she was more +familiar; she had formed a little private society, composed +chiefly of Mademoiselle de Rambouillet, of Mesdemoiselles +Du Vigean, and of her two cousins, Mesdemoiselles +de Boutteville. It must be confessed that +it was a circle of charming and redoubtable beauties, +harmonious in their graceful youth, but destined soon +to be separated, and to become rivals or enemies.</p> + +<p>Voiture, we may conceive, took great care of these +beautiful ladies, and especially of Mademoiselle de +Bourbon: he celebrated her in verse and in prose, in +every tune, and upon every occasion. Even in his +letters written to others, he cannot cease speaking of +her mind and beauty: “The mind of Mademoiselle +de Bourbon,” says he, “is all that can cause one to +doubt whether her beauty is the most perfect thing +in the world.” He is continually comparing her to +an angel:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“of pearls and stars and flowers of finest shade,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Bourbon, the heaven hath thy complexion made,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And ’mid thy charms it hath enshrined</div> + <div class="verse indent16">An angel’s mind.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class="noindent">In another place he says:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“The Bourbon, you might safely swear,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Seeing her skin so fresh, so fair,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Had from a lily sprung.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class="noindent">It is to her again that he addresses this agreeable +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[197]</span>song, intended, doubtless, to be chanted in a low tone +by the side of Mademoiselle de Bourbon, as she lay +dozing in one of the groves of Chantilly:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Our Aurora ’mid roses</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Now gently reposes;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Let each keep silence once more,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And let no one disturb her,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Unless it be life to restore.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_157" href="#Footnote_157" class="fnanchor">[157]</a></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class="noindent">And if these ladies staid too long in the country, +when Voiture was not with them, he called them +back to Paris, in his burlesque, sentimental complaints.⁠<a id="FNanchor_158" href="#Footnote_158" class="fnanchor">[158]</a></p> + +<p>But they did not spend the whole summer at Chantilly. +Madame the Princess possessed several other +country-seats in the vicinity: Marlou, La Versine, +Méru, l’Isle-Adam, charming places to which she often +went. She was also obliged to visit the cardinal and +Madame d’Aiguillon in their beautiful summer residence +at Ruel, on the borders of the Seine, between +Saint-Germain and Paris.⁠<a id="FNanchor_159" href="#Footnote_159" class="fnanchor">[159]</a> The pleasures of these +places were very different from those of Chantilly. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[198]</span>Art reigned at Ruel. Like Paris, it had a theatre, +where the cardinal caused the representation of +pieces with machinery brought from Italy. He gave +great mythological ballets, like those of the Louvre, +and feasts of a magnificence almost royal; whilst at +Chantilly, much more removed from Paris, there was +doubtless grandeur and opulence, but a grandeur full +of quiet, and an opulence which placed especially at its +service the beauties of nature. Ruel was also quite +as lively as the Palais-Cardinal. Richelieu labored +there with his ministers: there he received the court, +France, Europe. Business was there mingled with +diversion. The Duchess d’Aiguillon was worthy of +her uncle, ambitious and prudent, devoted to him to +whom she owed every thing, sharing his cares as well +as his fortune, and governing admirably his house. +She was still young enough, of a regular beauty, and +not implicated in any affair of gallantry. Calumny +or slander had attacked her relations with Richelieu, +and even with Madame Du Vigean. She had more +sense than wit, and was by no means a <i>précieuse</i>, although +she frequented the hôtel de Rambouillet. +Madame the Princess did not like Richelieu; she +could not pardon the death of her brother, Montmorency, +whom all her prayers and tears had not been +able to save; but she subscribed to the political +opinions of her husband. She had been obliged to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[199]</span>agree to the marriage of the Duke d’Enghien with +Mademoiselle de Brézé, and she was continually with +his children at the Palais-Cardinal and at Ruel. She +was received there in a manner that was unavoidable, +and the poets of the cardinal chanted the praises of +both the mother and daughter. Richelieu, as is well +known, had five poets whom he employed to labor +for his theatre: Bois-Robert, Colletet, l’Etoile, Corneille, +and Retrou. They were called the five authors, +and as such, produced in common several pieces: +<i>l’Aveugle de Smyrne</i>, <i>La Comédie des Tuileries</i>, etc. +This did not prevent the presence of other poets at +the palace of his Eminence: Georges Scudéry, Voiture +himself, who paid court to Richelieu and celebrated the +Duchess d’Aiguillon. It was at Ruel that, meeting +in an avenue Queen Anne, and challenged by her to +make some verses on the spot, Voiture improvised +that little piece, remarkable especially for the ease +and boldness with which he ventured to speak to her +of Buckingham. But the two favorites of the cardinal +were Desmarets and Bois-Robert; he employed +their pens upon every occasion, in what was light as +well as in what was serious. It seems that Desmarets +had been instructed to do the poetic honors of Ruel +to Madame the Princess and to her daughter. We +find in fact, in the collection, now rare enough and very +little read, of the works of the king’s counsellor and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[200]</span>minister of war, Desmarets, dedicated to Richelieu, and +handsomely printed,⁠<a id="FNanchor_160" href="#Footnote_160" class="fnanchor">[160]</a> a multitude of very agreeable +verses, which were sung in the mythological ballets +of Ruel, and of which several are addressed to Mademoiselle +de Bourbon, and to Madame the Princess. +In a <i>Mascarade of the Graces and the Loves, addressing +themselves to Madame the Duchess d’Aiguillon in +presence of Madame the Princess and of Mademoiselle +de Bourbon</i>, the Graces say to the latter:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Wonderful beauty! offspring too of royalty,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Whose charms to own the gods have e’en repined,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">We truly thought we were but three,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Yet now a thousand graces in thee find.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>These are but insipid affairs, while the two following +pieces have at least the advantage of describing +the person of Mademoiselle de Bourbon, as she then +was before her marriage, a few years after the portrait +of Ducayer. We here see Mademoiselle de +Bourbon beginning to fulfil the promise of her +youth, and the angelic face described to us by Madame +de Motteville, already accompanied by other +attractions of true beauty:</p> + +<p class="center"><i>To Mademoiselle de Bourbon.</i></p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Thou with whose charms naught can compare,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Pride of a nation’s heart,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Whose beauteous tints, whose graces rare</div> + <div class="verse indent2">The strongest love impart,</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[201]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">To win thee, ah! why should I aim,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">Since e’en the purest flame,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">Though nurtured in the skies,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Could not deserve a glance from thy bright eyes! etc.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class="center"><i>To the same.</i></p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Complexion where the rose and lily wed,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Beauty of magic powers,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Charming these souls of ours;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Tresses so lustrous, lips so ruby red;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who ever could resist, who could resign</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Attractions so divine? etc.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>A few leagues from Chantilly were the beautiful +lands of Liancourt, which Jeanne de Schomberg, at +first Duchess de Brissac, then Duchess de Liancourt, +had converted into a magnificent abode. She was a +person of the greatest merit, and we have received +from her pen a very remarkable work,⁠<a id="FNanchor_161" href="#Footnote_161" class="fnanchor">[161]</a> destined for +the education of her granddaughter, Mademoiselle de +La Roche-Guyon, who, in 1659, married the son of La +Rochefoucauld. She took pleasure in planning and +carrying out the arrangements of a sumptuous establishment. +She bought Rue de Seine, the ancient hôtel +de Bouillon, and erected in its place the hôtel de +Liancourt, afterwards called the hôtel de La Rochefoucauld, +which extended from the Rue de Seine to +the Rue des Augustins, in the space now occupied by +the Rue des Beaux Arts. “At Liancourt,” says +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[202]</span>Tallemant,⁠<a id="FNanchor_162" href="#Footnote_162" class="fnanchor">[162]</a> “the duchess had done all that any one could +do for avenues and meadows. Every year she added +some new beauty.” In 1656, Silvestre designed and +engraved the <i>different views of the castle and gardens, +fountains, cascades, canals, and parterres of +Liancourt</i>.⁠<a id="FNanchor_163" href="#Footnote_163" class="fnanchor">[163]</a> Madame the Princess often made a visit +to this beautiful place. At one time when the small-pox +was making fearful ravages in the neighborhood +of Chantilly, and in the domains of the princess, +Marlou, La Versine, Méru, she sent her children, +with all their young friends, to pass some time at +Liancourt. The Mesdemoiselles Du Vigean alone +were wanting, having been called to Paris by their +mother. The only son of the house, La Roche-Guyon, +was one of the friends of the Duke d’Enghien; +he was slain in 1646, while serving under him at the +bloody siege of Mardyck. It was autumn. On All-Saints’ +Day, these young ladies performed their devotions +with accustomed exactitude. They then gave +themselves up to quiet diversions, and, for want of +better, and sharing the dominant taste for wit, also in +the company perhaps of Montreuil or Sarrazin, they +employed themselves in making rhymes; so that +even on All-Saints’ Day they addressed to Marlou, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[203]</span>where Madame the Princess was then staying, <i>The +Life and Miracles of Saint Marguerite Charlotte de +Montmorency, Princess de Condé, versified at Liancourt</i>. +These verses, says the manuscript from which +we borrow these details,⁠<a id="FNanchor_164" href="#Footnote_164" class="fnanchor">[164]</a> were made upon the spot, +and the authors appear to have been Mademoiselle +de Bourbon, and Mesdemoiselles de Rambouillet, de +Boutteville, and de Brienne.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet to a living saint, on this Saints’ Day,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A charming saint, we ought to pray.</div> + <div class="center">...</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As soon as she was born, her matchless eyes</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Beam’d like two suns in summer skies:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Her cheeks of lilies made—her lips, when closed,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Were beds whereon the rose reposed;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And then in partly opening them to smile,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Pearls of the East she showed the while, etc.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>It was impossible for them to forget the two amiable +absentees, Mesdemoiselles Du Vigean, who were +fatiguing themselves at Paris, while they were passing +the time so agreeably at Liancourt. They wrote to +them a very long letter in verse, wherein they regretted +their absence, and enumerated their consolations. +These unpublished verses, like the preceding, +are also very mediocre; but it must not be forgotten +that they are the impromptus of young girls and +noble-born ladies.⁠<a id="FNanchor_165" href="#Footnote_165" class="fnanchor">[165]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[204]</span></p> + +<p class="center"><i>Letter of Mademoiselle de Bourbon, and of Mesdemoiselles de +Rambouillet, de Boutteville, and de Brienne, sent from +Liancourt to Mesdemoiselles Du Vigean at Paris.</i></p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Four clever nymphs, perhaps more free</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Than even those of wood and sea,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To two who with their hearts in pain</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Curse bitterly the prisoner’s chain;</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">We who pretended every wise</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That praise for us was always stored,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That by an arrow from our eyes</div> + <div class="verse indent0">We might be everywhere adored.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="center">...</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Of empire we have been deprived;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">We’ve been forsaken, frown’d upon:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">At Méru, scarce had we arrived,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Than to Versine we’re forced to run.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="center">...</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">There, too, that foe to female grace,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That death to all of woman’s charms,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Our vanity still to abase,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">O’erwhelm’d us with the worst alarms.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">At noise of this disease so fell,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Each hurries off with looks forlorn;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For, sooth, to lovers all farewell,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">If, of our beauty we are shorn!</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Of Love’s keen weapons to make sure,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In some place fit for his domains,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">We came at last to Liancourt,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where Flora with sweet Zephyr reigns,</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Where full a hundred walks are found,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A hundred fountains and cascades—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A hundred meads where streams abound,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Made for the pleasures of the Naiads.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">A place, like which, there are so few,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">We hoped some length of time to own,</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[205]</span> + <div class="verse indent0">But here now comes that Richelieu,⁠<a id="FNanchor_166" href="#Footnote_166" class="fnanchor">[166]</a></div> + <div class="verse indent0">And hence, at last, we must be gone.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">See us, whom lovers all agreed</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The brightest stars of France to call;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But we are wand’ring stars indeed,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Who now possess no power at all.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>What was most curious and unexpected was, that +the mania for rhyming took possession of Condé himself. +As we have said, he had much wit and gayety, +and he entered willingly into the society with which +he was surrounded. In the midst of the Fronde, +when war was also carried on by means of songs, he +made more than one, bearing his own peculiar stamp. +During the first war of Paris, in which Condé, still +faithful to the true interests of his house, sided with +the court, one of the most ardent chieftains of the +opposing party was the Count de Maure, a cadet of +the Duke de Mortemart, uncle of Madame de Montespan, +husband of the witty Anne Doni d’Attichy, +intimate friend of Madame de Sablé. In the councils +of the Fronde, the count always favored the most +rash resolutions. The Mazarins turned him into ridicule, +and overwhelmed him with a shower of epigrams. +Bachaumont, one of the authors of the celebrated +<i>Voyage de Chapelle et Bachaumont</i>, had +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[206]</span>written against him some little verses, which terminated +thus:⁠<a id="FNanchor_167" href="#Footnote_167" class="fnanchor">[167]</a></p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh! a buff-jacket, with black velvet sleeves,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Is worn by the great Count de Maure;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And over this hero, whom well it relieves,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">There is a buff-jacket, with black velvet sleeves:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Look out, Sir Condé, one easy perceives</div> + <div class="verse indent0">You are destined for food to this hero in war.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh! a buff-jacket, with black velvet sleeves,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Is worn by the great Count de Maure.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Condé, according to the testimony of Tallemant, +whom we have no reason to discredit, added the following +lines:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">He’s a blood-thirsty tiger, the worst of his kind,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">This very same brave Count de Maure;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When to be ’mong the foremost in fight he’s a mind,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He’s a blood-thirsty tiger, the worst of his kind.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But he’s not very oft with the foremost we find,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thus is it that Condé was not kill’d before.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">He’s a blood-thirsty tiger, the worst of his kind,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">This very same brave Count de Maure.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Among his best lieutenants was the Count de Marsin, +father of the marshal, indeed much superior to +him, and a veritable warrior. Condé esteemed him +highly, but for all that he did not spare him. One +day at table, in drinking his health, he improvised to +a tune, then very common, this little song,⁠<a id="FNanchor_168" href="#Footnote_168" class="fnanchor">[168]</a> which has +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[207]</span>never been published, and which seems to us very +piquant:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">My dear Marsin, I drink to thee,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Mars truly must thy cousin be,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Bellona sure thy ma,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">But who may be thy pa</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Is more than I can see.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Tin, tin, trelin, tin, tin, tin.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>At Liancourt, having nothing to do, and vexed +because his sister and her beautiful friends stayed so +long at church on All-Saints’ Day, he addressed to +them the following epigram:⁠<a id="FNanchor_169" href="#Footnote_169" class="fnanchor">[169]</a></p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Impose on others, if you may,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A hundred pater-nosters say,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And mumble o’er to day your prayers.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">You’re very artful, we believe,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For, if a beau his love declares,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">You’re ready then your prayers to leave.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Among other friends whom he had with him at +Liancourt, was the Marquis de Roussillon, an excellent +officer and man of spirit, together with the intrepid +La Moussaye, who was faithful to him to the +last, and who, during the captivity of Condé, shut +himself up with Madame de Longueville in the citadel +of Sténay, where he died. Roussillon and La +Moussaye, having been compelled to leave Liancourt +for Lyons, Condé, in imitation of his sister’s letter to +the Mesdemoiselles Du Vigean, wrote, or caused to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[208]</span>be written, one of the same kind to his two absent +friends. We give this piece almost entire, because it +is written by Condé, or because Condé, at least, had +a hand in it, and especially because it describes so +naturally the life lead at Liancourt, at Chantilly, and +in all the grand abodes of that aristocracy of the +seventeenth century, so badly appreciated, and which, +during peace, honored and cultivated the arts, which +gave to letters a Rochefoucauld, a Retz, a Saint-Evremond, +a Saint-Simond, without speaking of +Madame de Sévigné and Madame de La Fayette, and +which, when war broke out, flew to the battle-field, +and lavished its blood in the cause of France. These +are the verses of the future hero of Rocroy:</p> + +<p class="center"><i>Letter⁠<a id="FNanchor_170" href="#Footnote_170" class="fnanchor">[170]</a> of Monseigneur the Duke d’Enghien, written from +Liancourt to MM. de Roussillon, and de La Moussaye +at Lyons.</i></p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Since you’ve been gone, a hundred dear delights</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Have e’er consumed our days and nights;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And to recount these pastimes so diverse,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">We are compell’d to write in verse.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Upon the spot most beautiful of earth,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">To pleasures ever giving birth,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where Art, with Nature, every charm employs,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">We daily find a thousand joys;</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">A troop of young and peerless maids,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">More beautiful by virtue’s aids,</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[209]</span> <div class="verse indent0">In sports commingle with a hundred youth,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Sage, gallant, handsome too forsooth.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Each, in a way to envy, e’er displays</div> + <div class="verse indent2">His person and his winning ways;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">At every moment, too, he tries his best</div> + <div class="verse indent2">To please the one who rules his breast:</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Talks of his love ’mid groves and promenades,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">While leaning o’er the bright cascades,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And really seems the utmost bliss to gain</div> + <div class="verse indent2">When sadly he recounts his pain.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">A dozen gallants, blest with stoutest lungs,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">In comedies employ their tongues;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Display their forms in garments rich and rare,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And strut with a majestic air.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">At night, we list to charming serenades,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Or please ourselves with mascarades;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But still, among the pastimes most in quest,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">The <i>Ballet du Printemps</i> seems best.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="center">...</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The ladies oft, when favor’d by the sky,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Love on their well-train’d nags to fly;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To scare the partridge, give the wolf a chase,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And o’er to Marlou have a race.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">And lovers meantime whisper in their ear,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Oh! beauty, to the gods so dear!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Leave birds and beasts, since from your eyes fly darts</div> + <div class="verse indent2">That daily pierce the bravest hearts.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">These are our pastimes, these the sports we take,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And happiness enough they make.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Did you imagine that you hence could bear</div> + <div class="verse indent2">A portion of the joys we share?⁠<a id="FNanchor_171" href="#Footnote_171" class="fnanchor">[171]</a></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[210]</span></p> + +<p>A very natural feeling leads us to inquire into the +destiny of this court of young and brave gentlemen, +of gay and charming young women, then surrounding +Mademoiselle de Bourbon and her brother. We +have told that of the gentlemen: all of them became +illustrious warriors; most of them died upon the +battle-field. But what became of their amiable companions, +that swarm of youthful beauties whom we +followed upon the steps of Mademoiselle de Bourbon +to Chantilly, to Ruel, to Liancourt,—those five inseparable +friends, whose verses, less pleasing than their +faces, we have published, Mademoiselle de Rambouillet, +Mademoiselle de Brienne, Mademoiselle de +Montmorency-Boutteville, Mademoiselle Du Vigean? +They had the most dissimilar fortunes, as we shall +rapidly indicate.</p> + +<p>Marie-Antoinette de Lomélie, daughter of the +Count de Brienne, one of the ministers of Queen +Anne, married, in 1642, the Marquis de Gamache, +who became lieutenant-general. Her portraits, traced +by herself, may be seen among the <i>Portraits</i> of +Mademoiselle, with those of her father and mother. +She made no noise; all her life passed on quietly +and piously. She died at the age of eighty years, in +1704. She kept up continually, with Madame de +Longueville, the most friendly intercourse. She was +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[211]</span>the least brilliant of the five friends, but she was the +most fortunate.</p> + +<p>What became of Mademoiselle de Rambouillet is +well known. Spirituelle but ambitious, after having +married Montausier, in 1645, she sought, as well as +her husband, the favors of the court, and obtained +them by paying the ransom. It is sad to begin in +youth with harshness to one’s lovers, as they said at +the hôtel de Rambouillet, and to be married only as +a sort of favor, like the Armande of the <i>Femmes +Savantes</i>, in order to become one of the most obliging +of duennas. At first appointed a maid of honor of +Queen Marie-Thérèse, she had, in 1664, the courage +to take the place of the virtuous Duchess de Navailles, +who would not countenance the love of the +young king, Louis XIV., and Mademoiselle de La +Vallière. Hence the well-founded accusations entertained +by the benevolent Madame de Motteville herself, +and which, at a later period, were confirmed by +her weakness, when the king abandoned Mademoiselle +de La Vallière for Madame de Montespan.⁠<a id="FNanchor_172" href="#Footnote_172" class="fnanchor">[172]</a> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[212]</span>It was in the midst of all these rumors that her husband +was named Governor of the Dauphin. Montausier +was certainly a man of merit, and, like his +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[213]</span>wife, he had great qualities, which he spoiled by +great defects. He made a great show of virtue, under +which was hidden much that was pitiful. He +was very free in censuring every one, and suffered +no one to fail in rendering him his due. He was +abrupt, headstrong, of an insupportable haughtiness +and pride.⁠<a id="FNanchor_173" href="#Footnote_173" class="fnanchor">[173]</a> Charged provisionally and by commission +with the government of Normandy, at the +death of M. de Longueville, in 1663, he assumed the +dignity of a prince of the blood, and exacted all the +honor that was rendered to M. de Longueville himself. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[214]</span>Hard towards his inferiors, difficult with his +equals, he knew perfectly how to manage his credit +and push his fortune. Born a Protestant, he became +converted for the sake of his wife, as well as for +political purposes.⁠<a id="FNanchor_174" href="#Footnote_174" class="fnanchor">[174]</a> Madame de Montausier was +more amiable, but quite as careful of her own interests. +She was of that same school of which Madame +de Maintenon was the consummate mistress,—that +school which seeks the appearance of good rather +than good itself, which accommodates itself to meanness, +skilfully concealed, and bestows all its care, all +its study upon not compromising itself; whilst proud +and truly honest souls, whom passion misleads, take +no pains to hide their faults, being careless of reputation +when virtue is lost. Madame de Montausier +was especially occupied with herself. She had the +confidence of the king. She became a duchess. +Her career was brilliant, but was she happy? She +became embroiled and reconciled more than once +with Madame de Longueville. She died in 1671, +after her mother, the noble marchioness, who died in +1665, and, like her, she was buried in that convent +of the Carmelites of the Rue Saint-Jacques, which +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[215]</span>most of the friends of Mademoiselle de Bourbon +seem to have made a place of rendezvous during +life and after death.</p> + +<p>Mademoiselle de Montmorency-Boutteville, Isabelle +Angélique,⁠<a id="FNanchor_175" href="#Footnote_175" class="fnanchor">[175]</a> possessed at an early age a beauty +which she preserved to the end. Her younger sister, +Marie Louise, yielded to her, says Lenet,⁠<a id="FNanchor_176" href="#Footnote_176" class="fnanchor">[176]</a> not as to the +more beautiful, but as to the elder. She married the +Marquis de Valency, and disappeared ten years before +her sister, in 1684. Isabelle de Montmorency +had much mind, and to the brilliancy of her charms +united at first great coquetry, and afterwards the +most shameful artifices. The first pages of her life +are a romance—the last, a vulgar story. Protected, +as well as her sister and brother, by Madame the +Princess, and placed almost upon an equality with +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[216]</span>Mademoiselle de Bourbon and the Duke d’Enghien, +she made, or seemed to make, some impression upon +the latter; but she inflamed especially the handsome +and the brave Dandelot. Madame de Boutteville refused +to give him her daughter, because he was a +Protestant and simply a younger brother, his elder +brother, Coligny, being heir to the fortune and title of +the Châtillons. But, after the death of Coligny, Dandelot +who took his name, feeling himself upheld by the +Duke d’Enghien and by his sister, carried off Mademoiselle +de Boutteville, with her own consent of course, +and after that it became necessary to marry the two +fugitives.⁠<a id="FNanchor_177" href="#Footnote_177" class="fnanchor">[177]</a> Voiture wrote some very lively verses upon +this elopement,⁠<a id="FNanchor_178" href="#Footnote_178" class="fnanchor">[178]</a> and Sarrazin made a ballad upon the +method of conducting such matters.⁠<a id="FNanchor_179" href="#Footnote_179" class="fnanchor">[179]</a> It would be +supposed that a marriage so passionately desired on +both sides would result in continued happiness to both +parties. It was not, however, so. Coligny having +become Duke de Châtillon, thought much more of +war than of his wife: he covered himself with glory +at Lens; but, as we have said, he perished in a +miserable combat at Charenton in 1649. It must be +confessed that he was the first to do wrong, and in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[217]</span>dying he asked pardon of her whose pride he had +especially wounded.⁠<a id="FNanchor_180" href="#Footnote_180" class="fnanchor">[180]</a> The young and beautiful widow +soon found consolation; she got possession of the +heart of Condé, which had been for some time unoccupied, +and exerted herself to keep it without bestowing +her own, or even giving it to another, skilful in +the art of promoting her interests and her pleasures. +The memoirs of the times, and particularly those of +La Rochefoucauld, describe her as managing at once +the imperious Condé, from whom she drew great advantages, +and the suspicious Nemours, whom she preferred, +striving to conciliate them, and to win them +both to the court with which she had a secret treaty. +A little while after she plunges into the most diverse +intrigues, connecting herself with the Marshal d’Hoquincourt +and with the Abbé Fouquet, retaining over +the absent Condé the power of her charms, trying +this power upon the young king Louis XIV., marrying +in 1664 the Duke de Meklembourg in the hope +of a crown in Germany, and leaving after her the +reputation of having been as beautiful and as selfish +as the Duchess de Montbazon. The latter doubtless +possessed beauty of a superior style, but the other, +less imposing, was a thousand times more agreeable. +They were by turns the two most dangerous +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[218]</span>rivals and mortal enemies of Madame de Longueville.⁠<a id="FNanchor_181" href="#Footnote_181" class="fnanchor">[181]</a></p> + +<p>But we now present a very different person, whose +destiny, like her character, forms a perfect contrast +with that of Madame de Châtillon; very beautiful +also, but less dazzling and more touching; a person +who had not perhaps the mind and the finesse of the +seductive friend of her childhood, but who knew +none of her artifices and intrigues; who glittered a +moment only to be quickly extinguished, but who +has left a virtuous and sweet memory; a person superior +perhaps to Mademoiselle de La Vallière herself, +for she also loved and was able to resist her heart, +and, without falling, deceived in her affections, she +determined to finish her life like the sister Louise de la +Miséricorde. Let us not pity her too much: she +tasted in this world an inexpressible happiness; she +felt beating for her the heart of a hero, that of the +conqueror of Rocroy and of Fribourg, of the ardent +and impetuous Duke d’Enghien, who could not quit +her without shedding tears and without fainting. +Sensible to a passion so true, and which promised to +be so durable, but disarmed in some measure by the +charm of a modest and sincere virtue, she made Condé +know, at least once in his life, what was true love. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[219]</span>After that he knew nothing but the transient intoxication +of the senses, especially the passion of war, for +which he was born—his true passion indeed, his +mistress, his part, his country, his king, the true +object of all his life, and by turns his shame and his +glory.</p> + +<p>This charming creature, who for several years was +the idol of Condé, was the young Mademoiselle Du +Vigean. Her destiny was so touching, and it was so +intimately connected with that of Mademoiselle de +Bourbon and of Madame de Longueville, that we +shall be pardoned for dwelling a few moments +upon it.</p> + +<p>Mademoiselle Du Vigean was the youngest daughter +of François Poussart de Fors, at first Baron, then +Marquis Du Vigean, a man of little importance,⁠<a id="FNanchor_182" href="#Footnote_182" class="fnanchor">[182]</a> and +of Anne de Neubourg, who was a very great character +under Louis XIII., thanks to the friendship of the +Duchess d’Aiguillon, niece of Richelieu. Admitted +into the first society, the letters and poesy of Voiture +show that Madame Du Vigean held well her place.⁠<a id="FNanchor_183" href="#Footnote_183" class="fnanchor">[183]</a> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[220]</span>This success, and the connection which was the occasion +of it, could not fail to make her the subject of +envy, and various rumors were spread concerning her +and Madame d’Aiguillon, equally injurious to both, +and of which we find no feeble echo in the scandalous +chronicle of Tallemant and in the songs of the times.⁠<a id="FNanchor_184" href="#Footnote_184" class="fnanchor">[184]</a> +She possessed at La Barre, near Paris, above Saint-Denis +and d’Enghien, and quite near to Montmorency, +a charming residence which Voiture has described, +and where she received magnificently the best and +choicest society, even to Madame the Princess and +Mademoiselle de Bourbon.⁠<a id="FNanchor_185" href="#Footnote_185" class="fnanchor">[185]</a></p> + +<p>Madame Du Vigean had two sons and two daughters. +The eldest of the sons, the Marquis de Fors, was +an officer of the greatest promise, who was killed at +the age of twenty years at the siege of Arras, where the +Duke d’Enghien served as a volunteer. He had been +made a prisoner twice, but he perished finally, after +prodigies of valor. He was wept by the Duke d’Enghien +and by all his comrades. Magnificent funeral +ceremonies were performed over him, and Desmarets, +one of the poets of Richelieu, consecrated to him a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[221]</span>long elegy.⁠<a id="FNanchor_186" href="#Footnote_186" class="fnanchor">[186]</a> His young brother, who also served, finished +his career still more sadly: he was assassinated +under circumstances which could never be discovered.</p> + +<p>As to the two sisters, their eulogy is found in all +the gallant poems of this epoch. They are praised +equally with Mademoiselle de Boutteville and Mademoiselle +de Bourbon, in a piece in the manuscript +collection of Maurepas,⁠<a id="FNanchor_187" href="#Footnote_187" class="fnanchor">[187]</a> and Voiture places them in +a review of the beauties of the court of Chantilly, addressed +to Madame the Princess.⁠<a id="FNanchor_188" href="#Footnote_188" class="fnanchor">[188]</a> He is pleased to +celebrate the mother and the two daughters, and particularly +the young Du Vigean:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Baroness so sweet, so fair too,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The mother, or the sister, are you</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of these two gentle belles whom all</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Your daughters call?</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="center">...</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Upon her face, (De Fors, Du Vigean’s eldest sister) beneath her feet,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Spring flowers beautiful and sweet,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Which elsewhere no one sees, etc.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">A rising sun this Vigean (the younger) glows,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A bud just ready to unclose, etc.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Of love though ignorant indeed,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet in her eyes one may love read,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And everywhere she sets it free</div> + <div class="verse indent8">Unconsciously.⁠<a id="FNanchor_189" href="#Footnote_189" class="fnanchor">[189]</a></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">[222]</span></p> + +<p>Here again are a few words of Voiture, hitherto +unintelligible, and which now have a certain application:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Our Aurora, de La Barre,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Is now a glowing sun.</div> + <div class="center">...</div> + <div class="verse indent0">These matchless charms, in truth,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Revive my long lost youth.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class="noindent">Evidently the poet speaks of Mademoiselle Du Vigean +the younger, who, after having been a rising +sun, an aurora, became, in a few years, a sun in full +splendor. She was called the Aurora of La Barre, +from the name of the house of which she was the +most amiable ornament.</p> + +<p>In writing all these verses in honor of Mesdemoiselles +Du Vigean, Voiture had doubtless under his +eyes the devices which had been made for them and +for their mother, and which are preserved in the +papers of Conrart:⁠<a id="FNanchor_190" href="#Footnote_190" class="fnanchor">[190]</a> “For Madame Du Vigean, who +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[223]</span>had lost her eldest son, an orange-tree, having at its +foot its topmost branch cut off, covered with flowers +and fruit: <i>Quis dolor</i>.” “For Mademoiselle de Fors, +her eldest daughter, a rose among several flowers: +<i>Dat decor imperium</i>.” “For Mademoiselle Du Vigean, +her second daughter, a lighted taper, surrounded +with moths: <i>Oblecto sed uro</i>.” Let us add +these two devices, which describe so well the character, +and already the reputation of those who were +the subject of them: “For Mademoiselle de Rambouillet, +a crown with this inscription: <i>Me quieren +todos</i>.” “For Mademoiselle de Bourbon, an ermine: +<i>Intus candidior</i>.”</p> + +<p>In 1635, at the great ball given at the Louvre by +Louis XIII., to which Mademoiselle de Bourbon consented +to go with so much difficulty, and which +proved the ruin of her religious ardor, among the +ladies who danced with her, André d’Ormesson⁠<a id="FNanchor_191" href="#Footnote_191" class="fnanchor">[191]</a> +mentions Mesdemoiselles Du Vigean. The eldest, +Anne Fors Du Vigean, was pretty, sweet, insinuating,⁠<a id="FNanchor_192" href="#Footnote_192" class="fnanchor">[192]</a> +and, says Madame de Motteville, ambitious and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">[224]</span>prone to flattery. She was married to M. de Pons, +who had not much property, but who pretended to +be connected with the illustrious house d’Albredt. +Becoming a widow in 1648, and the confidant of the +Duchess d’Aiguillon, intimate friend of her mother, +she succeeded in obtaining the love of the nephew, +the young Duke de Richelieu, and in marrying him, +notwithstanding the duchess and notwithstanding +the queen, thanks to the protection of Condé and of +Madame de Longueville. For this fortunate protection +she was indebted to the remembrances of childhood, +especially to the tender and profound sentiment +which Condé and his sister had early felt and +ever preserved for her younger sister, the young, +beautiful, virtuous, and unfortunate—Mademoiselle +Du Vigean.</p> + +<p>Contemporaneous memoirs give neither the particular +name, nor the precise date of the birth of this +amiable person. But, thanks to the unpublished documents +which have been placed in our hands, we +know that the young Du Vigean was born in 1622, +and that she was called Martha,⁠<a id="FNanchor_193" href="#Footnote_193" class="fnanchor">[193]</a> a modest name, +and answering well to her character and destiny. +She was then almost of the same age as Mademoiselle +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[225]</span>de Bourbon. She had been brought up with her, +and, when they appeared together, it was almost with +the same éclat. It is impossible to find any portrait +or engraving of her which can be relied upon. Her +charms were greatly heightened by a modesty full of +grace, and the verses which we have quoted from +Voiture, show her still young, in the innocence of a +beauty of which she was ignorant, and which excited +passions which she herself did not share.</p> + +<p>Let us say, in the first place, in order to justify +Condé and her who received his first homage, that +the inclination of the Duke d’Enghien for the young +Du Vigean, preceded his marriage with Mademoiselle +de Brézé, niece of the cardinal, and continued till the +year 1640, when the young duke was leading, at +Paris, at the hôtel de Condé, at Chantilly, and elsewhere, +the innocent life which we have described, +surrounded by his comrades in arms, and among the +charming and dangerous companions of Mademoiselle +de Bourbon. It was then that he met Madame Du +Vigean and her two daughters, and that he began, +says Lenet, “to feel for Mademoiselle Du Vigean an +esteem and a friendship which became, by degrees, +a strong and tender love.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_194" href="#Footnote_194" class="fnanchor">[194]</a></p> + +<p>Indeed, the Duke d’Enghien might have imagined +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">[226]</span>that it would not be impossible for him to obtain from +his father and from the king, that is, from the Cardinal +de Richelieu, their consent to a marriage, disproportionate, +without doubt, but in no wise degrading +to him. Mademoiselle Du Vigean was very rich, and +her family was in great credit; Richelieu favored +her; and it would not have been displeasing to him +to see a prince of the blood descending somewhat +from his own rank. The marriage which was imposed +upon Condé some time after, was not much +above what this might have been. A little delusion +was permitted to the age and impetuosity of the +young duke, and, once the affections engaged, they +yielded only to time and necessity.</p> + +<p>With such a sentiment in the heart, one can imagine +how much the Duke d’Enghien must have suffered +from the marriage to which he was condemned +in 1641. It is to his chagrin upon this occasion, that +the sickness with which he was then attacked is +attributed. Although his young wife, Claire-Clémence +Maillé de Brézé, was very agreeable, he did +not live with her, and formed, from the moment of +his marriage, the design of repudiating her as soon +as he could. He protested against the violence which +had been done to him. He made this protestation +in the shape of a national deed, clothed with all legal +forms, and signed by himself, by the president of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[227]</span>Vernon, superintendent of his house, and by Perrault, +at that time his secretary.⁠<a id="FNanchor_195" href="#Footnote_195" class="fnanchor">[195]</a></p> + +<p>We have related how, notwithstanding his disorder, +as soon as he learned that the campaign was +about to open, nothing could retain him, neither the +prayers of his family, nor the tears of his mistress; +he set out hardly convalescent, and returned covered +with glory. On his return, he “continued to give to +Mademoiselle Du Vigean all the marks of a tender +and respectful passion.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_196" href="#Footnote_196" class="fnanchor">[196]</a></p> + +<p>In 1642, being at the waters of Bourbon with the +Cardinal de Richelieu, the Duke d’Enghien, at a +most critical period, seized a pretext for going to +Paris, “where the passion which he felt for Mademoiselle +Du Vigean called him.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_197" href="#Footnote_197" class="fnanchor">[197]</a></p> + +<p>It was especially after the death of the cardinal, +in the years 1643 and 1644, that the amours of Condé +were chiefly observable. Gallantry being then fashionable, +these amours were neither a mystery nor a +scandal. The National Library possesses more than +one manuscript history of the regency of Anne of +Austria, the author of which declares that he was the +witness of every thing that he relates, and, in a letter +addressed to the Prince de Condé, dedicates these +memoirs to him.⁠<a id="FNanchor_198" href="#Footnote_198" class="fnanchor">[198]</a> The tenderness of the two young +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">[228]</span>people is here several times alluded to. After the +campaign of Flanders, in which the Duke d’Orleans +had taken Gravelines, and in which Condé had taken +Fribourg, “these illustrious conquerors,” says our +manuscript, “having carried their laurels to the feet +of the regent, who was then at Fontainebleau, retired, +the first to Paris, and the other to Chantilly. If the +court of Fontainebleau surpassed that of Chantilly in +number, the latter did not yield to it in gallantry and +in pleasures. The Princess de Condé, the Duchesses +d’Anguyen and de Longueville, were there, accompanied +by a dozen of the most agreeable persons of +quality in France. In addition to the beauty of the +place, games and promenades, music and the chase, +and every thing generally that can make a place +agreeable, were to be found here. The young Du +Vigean was there, for whom the Duke d’Anguyen +had then much esteem and friendship. She, on her +side, responded to it, and every one favored them.”</p> + +<p>It is necessary to look into the memoirs of the +times for the details of this curious episode of the +youth of Condé, the vicissitudes of this connection, +as tender as it was pure, the hopes, the fears, the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">[229]</span>jealousies, all the troubles which accompany love. +Mademoiselle Du Vigean had besought⁠<a id="FNanchor_199" href="#Footnote_199" class="fnanchor">[199]</a> Condé to +conceal his sentiments in public; she had engaged +him, in joke, perhaps, to make believe that he loved +Mademoiselle de Boutteville; but the latter was so +beautiful, and the game was so dangerous, that Mademoiselle +Du Vigean hastened to countermand her +order, and to forbid the duke to see Mademoiselle +de Boutteville and to speak to her. Condé again +obeyed her; he discontinued all intercourse with his +cousin, and yielded his place to Dandelot, whose +projects he was the more eager to favor, as he felt +some anxiety in regard to his own; for Mademoiselle +Du Vigean had warned him that her father was +thinking of marrying her to this same Dandelot, and +that he had offered the Marshal de Châtillon a very +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">[230]</span>considerable dower to have his son as a son-in-law.⁠<a id="FNanchor_200" href="#Footnote_200" class="fnanchor">[200]</a> +“This news,” says Madame de Motteville, “gave the +prince the utmost alarm: he often faced the enemies +of the State, but his heart was not so valiant against +love as against them.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_201" href="#Footnote_201" class="fnanchor">[201]</a> He took fright therefore, +and, to parry the blow, he entered so earnestly into +the cause of Dandelot, that he counselled him to +elope with Mademoiselle de Boutteville.</p> + +<p>In the mean time he continued all his efforts to +break his own marriage; he labored for it with ardor +and perseverance. The Duchess d’Enghien falling +sick, he anticipated the accomplishment of his +wishes; but she recovered; it was therefore necessary +to obtain a judicial dissolution of his marriage. +The thing was almost impossible, for the Duchess +d’Enghien was then, at least, perfectly irreproachable, +and moreover he had by her a son. Such, however, +was the passion of Condé, that he addressed +himself to Cardinal Mazarin,⁠<a id="FNanchor_202" href="#Footnote_202" class="fnanchor">[202]</a> who, not being very +scrupulous, would have permitted the rupture, if he +had not feared that Condé, once at liberty, might +aspire to Mademoiselle, and become much too powerful.</p> + +<p>Thus we are enabled to judge of the depth of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">[231]</span>Condé’s feelings. These feelings were inspired not +only by the beauty of Mademoiselle Du Vigean, but +by her candor and her modesty, by that tenderness at +once devoted and virtuous, which led her far enough +to be compromised somewhat in the eyes of the world, +while it suffered her to do nothing which might mar +in the mind of Condé the ideal of angelic purity +which she represented to him. Hence that passion +mingled with respect and ardor which he burned to +satisfy in despite of all obstacles, and which was never +gratified. Madame de Motteville, who was informed +of the least details of this amorous intrigue by Madame +de Montausier, its witness and almost confidant, +says expressly, as “a thing to be believed by every +one,”⁠<a id="FNanchor_203" href="#Footnote_203" class="fnanchor">[203]</a> that Mademoiselle Du Vigean “is the only one +whom Condé truly loved.” Mademoiselle, who from +different motives did not love those whom Condé +loved, and who was very severe upon Madame de +Châtillon, expresses herself thus in regard to the loves +of Condé and of Mademoiselle Du Vigean: “She was +very beautiful; this illustrious lover was also deeply +moved. When he set out for the army, the desire of +glory did not prevent him from feeling the grief of +separation, and he could not bid adieu without shedding +tears; and when he departed on his last journey +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">[232]</span>to Germany (where he achieved the victory of Nortlingen), +he fainted when he left her.”</p> + +<p>Such a passion was too violent to continue for a +great length of time; it was prolonged even beyond +ordinary bounds. Mademoiselle Du Vigean would +consent to be the wife alone of Condé, and the marriage +of the latter could not be broken: things advanced +on neither side, and every one grew weary.</p> + +<p>It may be imagined that the interest which Condé +manifested for Mademoiselle Du Vigean intimidated +those who would have aspired to her hand. Two +marriages were proposed to her. Among her admirers +was the Marquis d’Huxelles, who afterwards +married Marie de Bailleul, daughter of the Superintendent +of Finances. D’Huxelles was a very distinguished +military man, who expected to become +Marshal of France, and whose services and premature +death in consequence of his wounds,⁠<a id="FNanchor_204" href="#Footnote_204" class="fnanchor">[204]</a> enabled his +son to obtain that honor. He thought very seriously +of marrying Mademoiselle Du Vigean.⁠<a id="FNanchor_205" href="#Footnote_205" class="fnanchor">[205]</a> He hesitated +on account of the reports which did not fail to find +circulation. “Although,” says Lenet, from whom we +obtain these facts, “I know with all the certainty that +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">[233]</span>one can have in regard to matters of this kind, that +love was never more passionate than that on the part +of the prince, nor listened to with more discretion +and modesty, than was exhibited on the part of Mademoiselle +Du Vigean.” And in this Madame de +Motteville and Mademoiselle agree perfectly with +Lenet.</p> + +<p>Mademoiselle Du Vigean had been also sought by +another amiable and brave gentleman, the Marquis +Jacques Stuart de Saint-Mégrin, brother of the beautiful +Saint-Mégrin of whom the Duke d’Orleans was +so fond. Saint-Mégrin continued for a long time his +affection for Mademoiselle Du Vigean;⁠<a id="FNanchor_206" href="#Footnote_206" class="fnanchor">[206]</a> but he dared +not come in competition with Condé. At a later period +he learned with extreme joy that his suit might +be heard; and he addressed himself at once to the +parents of Mademoiselle Du Vigean. The marriage +did not take place: a passion such as that which we +have just described was destined to have a very different +dénouement.</p> + +<p>It is known that after the German campaign of +1645, and the disputed victory of Nortlingen, Condé +was seized with a violent sickness. It was then that, +despairing of a dissolution of his marriage, and of +conquering the virtuous scruples of Mademoiselle Du +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">[234]</span>Vigean, he resolved to turn his thoughts in another +direction. Mademoiselle Du Vigean did not complain; +she closed her ears to all propositions, resisted +the counsels and even the orders of her family, and +in the full splendor of her beauty and her youth she +cast herself among the Carmelites of the Rue Saint-Jacques.⁠<a id="FNanchor_207" href="#Footnote_207" class="fnanchor">[207]</a> +Condé did not attempt to see her again, +but he always preserved for her, says Lenet, a remembrance +full of respect.⁠<a id="FNanchor_208" href="#Footnote_208" class="fnanchor">[208]</a> The love of Condé was +not, then, a transient caprice. It began before his +marriage; it continued four long years; it remained +ardent and pure in the midst of camps, and was extinguished +only in the despair of bringing it to a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">[235]</span>happy conclusion, and after a long and critical disorder, +from which the hero of Nortlingen arose ever +to renounce love for glory and ambition.</p> + +<p>It would be gratifying to follow Mademoiselle Du +Vigean to the convent of the Carmelites, to know at +what time precisely she entered it, what occupied her +there, and when she died. These are points upon +which no contemporaries enlighten us, and all that +we are now able to assert with certainty is, that +Mademoiselle Du Vigean made a profession in 1649. +Thus, she must have joined the Carmelites in 1647, +since the vows can be taken only after a service of +one or two years as a candidate and a novice. She +took the name of sister Marthe de Jésus;⁠<a id="FNanchor_209" href="#Footnote_209" class="fnanchor">[209]</a> she died +in 1665; she was never prioress; she was sub-prioress +in 1659, and ceased to be so in 1662. According +to custom, she must have held this situation six +years, and consequently her term of service was +between the years 1656 and 1662; whence it follows +that all the letters of Madame de Longueville, +addressed to sister Marthe and to the Mother Sub-prioress, +between 1656 and 1662, are to the same +nun, and that this nun was Mademoiselle Du Vigean, +which accounts for the particularly affectionate tone +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">[236]</span>of these letters. In fact, we have found in the +National Library, in the collection of Doctor Vallant⁠<a id="FNanchor_210" href="#Footnote_210" class="fnanchor">[210]</a> +and in those of Gaignières,⁠<a id="FNanchor_211" href="#Footnote_211" class="fnanchor">[211]</a> two billets from +Mademoiselle Du Vigean, then sister Marthe, to +Madame de Sablé, and another to that very Marchioness +d’Huxelles whose place she might have +occupied. These billets are the only relics which +remain to us of this interesting person, who, because +she was too pleasing to a prince, was compelled to +bury her beauty and her virtue in a cloister.</p> + +<p>Such is often the end of the pleasures of youth, +the inclinations of the most generous, the feasts of +the heart and of life. Mademoiselle de Bourbon +witnessed the birth, growth, and death of the loves +of Condé and of Mademoiselle Du Vigean. Villefore +says that she thwarted them, but he produces no +proof of this. It is at least very certain that she +strove to repair, as much as she could, the injury +which her brother had done to her young and charming +friend. For her sake, she loaded her sister with +benefits, and, when the poor forlorn creature sought +an asylum among the Carmelites, she maintained +with her an affectionate intercourse; she visited her, +wrote to her often, and, even to the end of life, +retained for her a place in her heart by the side of +Madame de Sablé.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">[237]</span></p> + +<p>But let us not anticipate the future. We are still +amid the illusions of youth, still in the season of +pleasures and love. Whilst around her, at the hôtel +de Rambouillet and at the hôtel de Condé, at Chantilly, +at Ruel, at Liancourt, all was heroism and gallantry, +whilst surrounded by young and brilliant cavaliers, +destined to become great captains; with agreeable +female friends who drew after them all hearts, +what did Mademoiselle de Bourbon do with her own? +Did she bestow it as did Mademoiselle Du Vigean +and Mademoiselle de Boutteville? Among so many +adorers who crowded around her, did she distinguish +none? Tender and somewhat coquettish, with the +soul and the eyes of Chimène, what Rodrigue among +the heroes of her brother’s court found her sensible? +At the age of nineteen, she had been promised to the +Prince de Joinville, son of Henri de Lorraine, Duke +de Guise. A powerful alliance would this have been, +which had united the Montmorencys, the Condés, and +the Guises; but the Prince de Joinville died in Italy, +where he went to meet his father, in the violent and +obstinate persecution which the implacable avenger +and indefatigable promoter of royal authority, Cardinal +de Richelieu, did not cease to exercise against the +Guises in remembrance of the League. It is said that +a marriage was also contemplated between her and +d’Armand, Marquis de Brézé, nephew of Cardinal +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">[238]</span>Richelieu, brother of her who was forced upon the +Duke d’Enghien, the intrepid sailor who twice beat +the fleets of Spain, and perished at the age of twenty-seven, +from a cannon shot, at the siege of Orbitello, +in 1646. This marriage would have placed in the +hands of the house of Condé, by means of the two +heroic brothers-in-law, all the forces of France, both +by sea and land; but this marriage was defeated, for +reasons in regard to which there are various opinions.⁠<a id="FNanchor_212" href="#Footnote_212" class="fnanchor">[212]</a></p> + +<p>Mademoiselle de Bourbon attracted whilst she +discouraged. There was not a gentleman who would +not have given his life for her favor; but no one was +rash enough to aspire to her hand. Many then sighed +for her, and some even paid her the most marked +homage. Mention is made, among others, of the Duke +de Beaufort, more brave than witty, loyal and chivalrous +enough, who, being politely rejected, fell at the +feet of Madame de Montbazon, and served her till +death. Especial notice is taken of Maurice de +Coligny, the son of Marshal de Châtillon. In 1642 +M. the Prince and Madame the Princess, not finding +a single young lord in all the kingdom to whom +policy permitted them to give Mademoiselle de +Bourbon, proposed to her the greatest lord of France, +after the princes of the blood, the Duke de Longueville. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">[239]</span>He was the widower of Louise de Bourbon, +daughter of the Count de Soissons, by whom he had +Marie d’Orleans, who was already seventeen or eighteen +years of age: he was forty-seven, and even at +this age was said to be still attached to Madame de +Montbazon. Mademoiselle de Bourbon resisted, or at +least testified at first a great repugnance; it was, +however, necessary to yield; herein she displayed the +resolution which she testified on all great occasions. +She married then on the 2d of June, 1642, at the age +of twenty-three years, her heart and mind filled with +poetry and gallantry, a man much older than herself, +and who was not even sufficiently touched with her +charms to renounce his old mistress.</p> + +<p>The fêtes on the occasion of this marriage were +still more brilliant than those which took place at the +marriage of the Duke d’Enghien. Mademoiselle de +Bourbon walked to the altar with a sort of intrepidity, +and she seemed almost gay at the hôtel de Longueville, +occupying the spectators so much with her dazzling +beauty that they did not remark the violence +which she did to her feelings. It is her historian, +the Jansenist Villefore, who has preserved for us this +tradition. Scarcely a year had flown by, when, without +even giving her heart, for a long time yet unoccupied, +she was the involuntary cause of a most tragic +quarrel, in which Coligny, who had sighed for her, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">[240]</span>perished in the flower of youth, and perhaps under +her own eyes, by the hand of one of those Guises to +whom she had been for a moment destined. Sinister +prelude of the storms that awaited her first adventure, +which consecrated her beauty in so sad a manner, +and which won for her, at the age of twenty-four +years, in the world of gallantry, a renown, a +popularity even, almost equal to that which victory +had achieved for her brother, the Duke d’Enghien.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">[241]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.<br> +<span class="smaller">1642 to 1644.</span></h2> + +<p>Poetry and gallantry—State of affairs in 1643—Battle of Rocroy—Mazarin +and the <i>Importants</i>—Madame de Montbazon—Letter attributed to +Madame de Longueville—Duel between Coligny and De Guise.—An +unpublished novel of the seventeenth century.</p> + +</div> + +<p>We find Mademoiselle de Bourbon married then +on the 2d of June, 1642. “For her it was a cruel +destiny; M. de Longueville was old, she was young +and beautiful as an angel.” Thus, in relation to this +marriage, speaks Mademoiselle, the faithful interpreter +of the opinions of that period.⁠<a id="FNanchor_213" href="#Footnote_213" class="fnanchor">[213]</a></p> + +<p>Henri II., Duke de Longueville, descended from +that famous Count de Dunois whose name is connected +with that of Jeanne d’Arc, in the great wars +of the independence under Charles VII. He was the +son of Henri d’Orleans, first of the name, sovereign +prince of Neufchâtel and Valengin, a warrior worthy +of his ancestors, and who gave the League a mortal +blow by the victory of Senlis. His mother was +Catherine de Gonzague, sister of the Duke de Nevers, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">[242]</span>who was father of the two celebrated princesses, +Marie, Queen of Poland, and Anne, the Palatine. +Born in 1595, Henri II. had first married Louise de +Bourbon, daughter of the Count de Soissons, high +steward of France, who died in 1637, and by whom +he had Marie d’Orleans, Mademoiselle de Longueville, +who, in 1650, played a conspicuous part in the +Fronde, and at length married the Duke de Nemours, +brother of him who was slain by the Duke de Beaufort. +Thus, when the Duke de Longueville took a +second wife in 1642, he was forty-seven years of age, +and to this wife he brought a daughter-in-law nearly +as old, but of a very different character,—beautiful, +intellectual, but deprived of all sensibility, who soon +became the censor of her mother-in-law and her enemy +in the family circle, and even with posterity by +means of the memoirs which she has left of the +Fronde.</p> + +<p>The Duke de Longueville was truly a great lord +He was gallant and brave,⁠<a id="FNanchor_214" href="#Footnote_214" class="fnanchor">[214]</a> liberal even to magnificence, +of a noble and generous character, but feeble; +willing to engage in an enterprise, and ready to +abandon it; without passion, and without ambition; +and possessing all that was necessary to make him +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">[243]</span>shine in the second rank, but incapable of holding +the first. He began by making some opposition to +Richelieu, but he yielded soon enough; afterwards +he engaged in the Fronde; he shared the captivity +of his two brothers-in-law, but scarcely did he leave +the prison, than he made peace with the court. Nature +had fitted him to follow the path which his +fathers had traced for him, and to serve the crown in +great military and civil offices, which he would have +worthily filled. The misfortune of his life was to be +continually engaged, through his own fault and +through that of others, in enterprises and adventures +for which he was unfitted, and in which his good +qualities were less prominent than his defects.</p> + +<p>Let us add that M. de Longueville, whose morals +were not the best, had, in early youth, by Jacqueline +d’Illiers, afterwards abbess of Saint-Avit, a natural +daughter, Catherine Angélique d’Orleans, who was +successively a nun in several religious houses, and +who died abbess of Maubuisson, in 1664, at the age +of forty-seven years. Already in the decline of life, +he became smitten with the Duchess de Montbazon, +who rejoiced at this useful conquest, and maintained +it, as is said, even after the second marriage of M. de +Longueville, notwithstanding the displeasure of Madame +the Princess, and the very bitter reproaches +which she cast upon her son-in-law.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">[244]</span></p> + +<p>It must be confessed that there was little in such a +person to captivate the heart and the imagination of +a young woman such as we have described Mademoiselle +de Bourbon. With her instincts of pride +and heroism, her refinements of spirit and heart, her +principles and habits as a <i>précieuse</i>, she could not +admire M. de Longueville, and, formed as she was, +admiration was for her the road to love. She was +destined, with all her advantages, to be wounded by +a rival; and what made this wound more painful was, +that this rival, so little worthy of being compared with +her in character, was the greatest beauty of the day, +so that the apparent infidelity of M. de Longueville +seemed an offensive preference for this rival’s charms; +and, as we have said, Mademoiselle de Bourbon was +not only tender, she was vain-glorious, and somewhat +coquettish. However, as she did not love her husband, +her gentleness, easily sustained by her indifference, +saved her from irritation. She considered +herself at liberty to be admired, and she continued +to live at the hôtel de Longueville, as she had done +at the hôtel de Condé, with the same court of young +and agreeable female friends, of young and brilliant +cavaliers.⁠<a id="FNanchor_215" href="#Footnote_215" class="fnanchor">[215]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">[245]</span></p> + +<p>The marriage fêtes had hardly ended when Madame +de Longueville was seized with sickness. The +small-pox, then so dreaded, which had driven her +away from Chantilly, and against which she had +made, at Liancourt, such bad verses, caught her in +the autumn of 1642, and placed her charming face +in peril. All Rambouillet was moved. The Marchioness +de Sablé, too faithful to this fear of contagion, +which was the ridicule of her life, could not +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">[246]</span>persuade herself, notwithstanding the most sincere +tenderness, to take care of the interesting sufferer; +but Mademoiselle de Rambouillet did not abandon +her,⁠<a id="FNanchor_216" href="#Footnote_216" class="fnanchor">[216]</a> and there was a sort of public rejoicing when it +was known that Madame de Longueville had been +spared, and that, if she had lost the first freshness of +her beauty, she had preserved all its brilliancy. +These are the very words of Retz,⁠<a id="FNanchor_217" href="#Footnote_217" class="fnanchor">[217]</a> and the gallant +Bishop de Grasse, Godeau, confirms them by compliments +which, in a sermon-like manner, he addresses +to Madame de Longueville.⁠<a id="FNanchor_218" href="#Footnote_218" class="fnanchor">[218]</a></p> + +<p>During this sickness, M. de Longueville did not +come near his wife. The Cardinal de Richelieu had +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">[247]</span>just sent for him to take command of the army of +Italy in the place of the Duke de Bouillon, the elder +brother of Turenne, who, compromised in the affair +of Cinq-Mars, had been arrested, by order of the +cardinal, at the head of his army, conducted from +Cazal to Lyons, to the Château de Pièrre-Encise, and +who was fortunate enough to be able to purchase his +life by abandoning his stronghold of Sedan.</p> + +<p>The winter of 1643 passed away for Madame de +Longueville in the agreeable occupations which had +delighted her youth. She was constantly at the +Louvre, at the hôtel de Condé, at the Place-Royale, +or at the hôtel de Rambouillet, whose éclat was every +day increasing. It was about the time of the <i>Guirlande +de Julie</i>. Tallemant had proposed to add to +the collection of poems, by Voiture, many other productions +of the hôtel de Rambouillet. In truth, we +might furnish it by aid of the manuscripts of Conrart, +who was also one of the inmates of the illustrious +hôtel. We might draw continually from these inexhaustible +manuscripts, and we should only be embarrassed +as to choice. But if all these verses describe +admirably the society of the seventeenth century—fond +of wit as well as of bravery, intoxicated with +heroism and gallantry—they would charm, perhaps +moderately, the society of the present day, and we +have already put our readers to a test which we +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">[248]</span>should not dare to repeat. Let us simply say that +Madame de Longueville was still more surrounded +than Mademoiselle de Bourbon with that poetic incense, +somewhat tiresome it is true, but which has +rarely been displeasing to beauties the most spirituelle. +We have before us poems of every kind, and +from every hand, which describe her sometimes at +the balls of the Louvre and of the Luxembourg, +sometimes at court with her two beautiful friends, +Mesdemoiselles Du Vigean, sometimes following her +husband into his government of Normandy, and +called back by the hôtel de Rambouillet, everywhere +pursued with assiduous cares and homages, and displaying +everywhere a gentleness full of charm, with +a carelessness which seldom abandoned her when +her heart was not occupied. And it was not yet +occupied, or, if at all, only at the surface. She did +not love, but she had distinguished, in the crowd of +her adorers, Maurice, Count de Coligny, elder brother +of Dandelot, son of Marshal de Châtillon, who had +sighed for her before her marriage, and had not yet +yielded to a husband of forty-seven years, but little +jealous, and even still in the chains of another.</p> + +<p>“I do not know,” says Lenet,⁠<a id="FNanchor_219" href="#Footnote_219" class="fnanchor">[219]</a> “whether Coligny +was attached to Mademoiselle de Bourbon by reason +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">[249]</span>of her beauty, her wit, or the respect which he owed +her; but I know well, that although he saw her only +in the midst of company, in presence of the princess or +of the duke, it was said in the end that he had sentiments +of love for her.” In addition to this, there is +not a word in regard to Coligny, his character, his +mind, or his person. All that we know is, that he +was one of the particular friends of La Rochefoucauld, +and especially of the Duke d’Enghien,⁠<a id="FNanchor_220" href="#Footnote_220" class="fnanchor">[220]</a> who employed +him in more than one delicate negotiation. +We confess that such silence is but little in his favor; +but let us bear in mind that Coligny was young, that +he had not had time to make himself known, and +that he was naturally eclipsed by his younger brother, +Dandelot, who inherited his title and took his place +near Condé. In the absence of every other document, +a manuscript of the National Library, to which +we have already had recourse, furnishes us some other +details, the correctness of which we do not guaranty, +but which, for want of better, we are not permitted to +neglect. This manuscript represents Coligny to us +as very well made, without, however, a very elegant +form; intellectual and ambitious, but in merit below +his ambition. The author, taking appearance for +reality, supposes also that Madame de Longueville +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">[250]</span>shared the sentiments of Coligny, because she did +not repress them; and he paints, in a very romantic +manner, the beginning of their pretended loves. We +give the entire passage, leaving it to the judgment of +the reader.⁠<a id="FNanchor_221" href="#Footnote_221" class="fnanchor">[221]</a></p> + +<p>“Anne de Bourbon, Duchess de Longueville, was +then one of the most pleasing persons in the world, +as well on account of the charms of her mind, as on +account of those of her beauty. Coligny, eldest son +of the Marshal de Châtillon, loved her passionately, +and it is said that he was beloved by her. He was +a young man of very fine form, but he looked more +like a German than a Frenchman. He had infinite +spirits and great thoughts, but it was believed that +his valor⁠<a id="FNanchor_222" href="#Footnote_222" class="fnanchor">[222]</a> did not equal his ambition. Even before +the marriage of this princess, he was on the best +terms with her. It is said that he adopted a very +excellent and very singular plan for declaring to her +his passion. The romance of <i>Polexandre</i>⁠<a id="FNanchor_223" href="#Footnote_223" class="fnanchor">[223]</a> was very +fashionable and much in vogue, but especially at the +hôtel de Condé, which was then regarded as the temple +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">[251]</span>of gallantry and of wit. The Duke d’Enghien +read this book continually, and, finding in it a tender +and passionate letter, he showed it to Coligny, from +whom he had nothing to conceal. The latter saw +how he might profit by so favorable an occasion, and +proposed to the Duke d’Enghien to make a copy, +and place it adroitly in the pocket of the duchess. +Scarcely a day passed that some fête did not occur +at the hôtel de Condé, and there was dancing almost +every evening. The proposition was accepted, and +Coligny, having volunteered to copy this letter, gave +it to the Duke d’Enghien. Upon this day every one +was in the gayest attire, and the duchess shone with +a thousand rays. The ball began early, and the +duke, having taken the hand of his sister, executed +easily their design. I know no more of the affair, +but apparently the letter was read without giving any +offence to the duchess.”</p> + +<p>Whilst the young people thus gave themselves up +to the pleasures of gallantry, grave events were +changing the face of the court and of France.</p> + +<p>Richelieu had died on the 2d of December, 1642, +after having seen Cinq-Mars ascend the scaffold, the +Count de Soissons buried in his victory of Marfée, +and the Duke de Bouillon compelled to surrender the +principality of Sedan to the royal power. Scarcely +had he closed his eyes than his enemies renewed +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">[252]</span>their designs and their hopes. Faithful to his minister +even after his death, Louis XIII. kept them within +bounds for some time; He employed Mazarin, whom +the cardinal had given to him, and continued his +policy by softening it; but it did not survive him +even for a single year. The 14th of May, 1643, he +went to join him, leaving a king four years of age, +the regency in the hands of a woman, our northern +frontier menaced, factions chafing, and, to sustain the +burden of affairs, the Duke d’Orleans and the Prince +de Condé fortunately united in the council of the +regency, Mazarin at the head of the cabinet, and the +Duke d’Enghien at the head of the army. This was +all that was needed for the safety of France.</p> + +<p>The Duke d’Enghien received in Flanders, publicly, +by the hands of a courier extraordinary, the +news of the king’s death. He feared that this news +might increase the courage of the Spaniards, and +diminish that of the French; he determined to conceal +it, and to hasten the inevitable battle which was to +decide the destiny of his country. Lost, it would introduce +the enemy into the heart of the kingdom; but, +gained, it would impress upon Spain and all Europe +a terror necessary to the beginning of a new reign; +it would strengthen the regency of Anne of Austria; +it would place royalty above all factions, without +taking into consideration the high elevation which it +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">[253]</span>would give to the house of Condé. The Duke d’Enghien +submitted the affair to the council of generals, +but only for form’s sake, declaring that he took upon +himself the event; and the next day, May 19th, +whilst the body of Louis XIII. was on its way to +Saint-Denis, he hazarded the battle of Rocroy. It +continued a whole day. Compromised for a short +time by the Marshal de l’Hôpital, who had been intrusted +with conducting it, it was gained by Condé +himself, not yet twenty-two years of age—thanks to a +manœuvre which first revealed the great captain, and +inaugurated a new school of warfare.⁠<a id="FNanchor_224" href="#Footnote_224" class="fnanchor">[224]</a> Condé, with +Gassion, was charged with the command of the right +wing. He had confided his left to La Ferté-Seneterre, +as well as to the Marshal de l’Hôpital, who represented +the old school. He had placed Espenan in +the centre with the infantry, and the reserve in the +hands of Sirot,⁠<a id="FNanchor_225" href="#Footnote_225" class="fnanchor">[225]</a> an officer of tried bravery, like Gassion. +Directed by Condé in person, the right French +wing overthrew every thing that opposed it, and +pushed the enemy vigorously. During this time the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">[254]</span>left wing, under La Ferté-Seneterre and Marshal de +l’Hôpital, was very badly treated, and its two commanders +placed <i>hors de combat</i>; in giving way it +threatened to draw with it the centre, where Espenan +was maintaining a firm ground, but earnestly calling +for reinforcements. Any other than Condé would +doubtless have turned upon his steps and retraced, in +an equivocal attitude, the space gloriously run over, +and, thus affording aid to his left and his centre, contrive, +by means of his reserve, to achieve the victory, +or cover and repair the defeat. Condé took a very +different course: instead of giving way, he advanced +still more; then, having arrived at the extreme of the +enemy’s lines, where the Italian infantry were located, +he turned to the left, threw himself upon this +infantry, passed it furiously, and went thundering +down upon the rear of the victorious wing, after telling +Sirot to march, with all his reserve, to the help +of Espenan and of l’Hôpital. Thus caught between +two fires, the enemy yielded on the left as well as on +the right, and the day was won. But it was not +enough to have delivered France from present danger, +it was necessary at the same time to secure the +future by removing the terror connected with the +name of Spanish arms—the name of that old Spanish +infantry which formed the reserve, and, according to +the rules of ancient strategy and the policy of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">[255]</span>court of Madrid, had been carefully preserved, that +is, had remained useless. Nothing remained but to +destroy this infantry. Condé assailed it on all sides +with his victorious squadrons, with all that he could +pick up of his own infantry, especially with his artillery, +and, after a memorable resistance, he succeeded +in demolishing it, root and branch:⁠<a id="FNanchor_226" href="#Footnote_226" class="fnanchor">[226]</a> it perished almost +to a man at Rocroy.</p> + +<p>At the report of this battle, in which every thing +was wonderful—the youth of the general, the boldness +and the novelty of the manœuvres, and the grandeur +of the results—the court and all Paris went into +transports of enthusiasm. The greatest disasters had +been anticipated, but the army was safe, it was victorious, +and the future seemed crowded with similar +achievements. From the time of Henri IV., France +had doubtless had excellent generals, who were well +acquainted with their profession, and who had met +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">[256]</span>with great success in Germany and in Italy; but +here was a general, of twenty-two years, who eclipsed +them all, and who created a new mode of warfare, +wherein boldness was at the service of calculation, +just as Descartes and Corneille—pardon me the comparison—had +created a new philosophy and a new +poesy, to serve as a solid foundation or brilliant interpreter +to sublime sentiments and thoughts. Rocroy +answers to the <i>Cid</i>, to <i>Cinna</i>, and to <i>Polyeucte</i>, so +also to the <i>Discours de La Méthode</i> in the history of +French greatness: incomparable epoch, which no +other has ever equalled, and which not even that of +the Consulate, after Marengo, approaches, because, +amid all its splendors, it had neither a Descartes nor +a Corneille!</p> + +<p>We may easily imagine the intoxication of the +hôtel de Condé, when La Moussaye, one of the companions +of the Duke d’Enghien in the amusements +of Chantilly and Liancourt, and who had served him +faithfully during the eventful day, brought the triumphant +news. All the muses of Rambouillet, great +and small, sang the exploits of their brilliant pupil. +The Spanish flags taken at Rocroy were displayed +for several days in the great halls of the hôtel de +Condé, before being transported to Nôtre-Dame. The +people hastened to behold them. While all hearts +were beating with patriotic pride, all eyes were also +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">[257]</span>moved to tears when it was known that the young +captain, as humane and pious as he was brave, had, +before all his army, knelt upon the battle-field in +thanksgiving to God; that he had immediately taken +care of the wounded, conquerors and conquered, as if +they had been of his own household, consoling them, +encouraging them, distributing every thing abundantly +among them without ever humiliating them; +that he had asked for his lieutenants every recompense, +wishing, like the Cid, Polexandre, and Cyrus, +those heroes of tragedy and romance, glory alone. +In a short time it was known, that after a few days +devoted to religion and to humanity, the Duke +d’Enghien had resumed the pursuit of the enemy, +and that he was already under the walls of Thionville.</p> + +<p>The house of Condé needed the éclat and the +strength which it received from the victory of Rocroy +in order to face its own enemies, and to obtain +satisfaction of the insult which it had just received +in the person of Madame de Longueville.</p> + +<p>It is necessary to have a just idea of the situation +of affairs, as well as of the situation of the parties who +disputed the government, in order to see the importance +of an adventure which in itself seems to be of +little consequence.</p> + +<p>Soon after the death of Richelieu, there sprang up +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_258">[258]</span>a powerful faction, composed of all those whom the imperious +cardinal had sacrificed to his designs, whom +he had had exiled from the court or from France, and +who; their terrible adversary being dead, burned to +take possession of his spoils. They expected the support +of Queen Anne, for she also had been oppressed, +and it was in her service that they had incurred persecution. +The favor of the regent appeared to them +a debt, and they claimed it in a manner which, little +by little, wounded the queen and turned her against +them. In proportion as they lost ground with her, +Mazarin gained it. He was still young, handsome, +mild, insinuating, faithful to the policy of Richelieu, +his master, but practising it differently; of a mind +less elevated, less extensive—not uniting, like his incomparable +predecessor, the genius of administration +in all its branches to that of politics in general; especially +a diplomatist, but a diplomatist of the first +order, with his name attached to two of the greatest +treaties of the seventeenth century, the treaty of +Westphalia and that of the Pyrenees; inexhaustible +in resources and in expedients; always preferring +artifice to violence; managing every one, treating +with all parties, choosing rather to corrupt than to +exterminate them; aiming, especially in 1643, to +penetrate into the heart of the queen, as had been +attempted by Richelieu, but possessing many other +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_259">[259]</span>means for succeeding in his design. The handsome +cardinal⁠<a id="FNanchor_227" href="#Footnote_227" class="fnanchor">[227]</a> then gained his end. Once master of the +heart,⁠<a id="FNanchor_228" href="#Footnote_228" class="fnanchor">[228]</a> he directed easily the mind of the queen, and +taught her the difficult art of pursuing steadily the +same aim, the supremacy of royal authority, by +means of the most contrary conduct, according to +the change of circumstances. In the beginning, all +his efforts were used in supporting himself and in +avoiding the <i>Importants</i>. Such was the name applied +to the chiefs of the malcontents, on account of +the air of importance which they assumed, blaming +inconsiderately every measure of government, affecting +a sort of melancholy, of profundity, and of refined +sublimity, which separated them from other men. +They ruled in the <i>salons</i>, and they exercised considerable +authority at court and throughout all the +kingdom, because they had at their head the two +great houses of Vendôme and of Lorraine.</p> + +<p>The Duke de Beaufort, second son of the Duke +César de Vendôme, bore proudly the name of grandson +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">[260]</span>of Henry IV.: he was possessed of bravery and +of honor. During the evil times, he had shown a chivalrous +fidelity to the queen, who, before having appreciated +Mazarin, was much inclined to his side; +and he would have perhaps succeeded, if he had +not spoiled his affairs by excessive pretensions and +by a haughtiness of little efficacy with a Spanish +woman, who must be a long time flattered before +she can be governed. He had, moreover, no genius, +and he would have made a miserable figure in the +highest rank: he was made only for the part +which he afterwards played, that of a theatrical +hero.</p> + +<p>The exhausted house of Guise did not possess at +this time a single superior man. Long exiled, it +had, in 1640, lost in Italy its chief, Charles de Lorraine, +and, in 1639, the Prince de Joinville, to whom +Mademoiselle de Bourbon had once been destined. +The brother who followed this prince was that Henri +de Guise, at first archbishop of Rheims, then Duke +de Guise, so celebrated for his adventures, his bravery, +and his fickleness; who had all kinds of ambition, +formed all sorts of enterprises, and succeeded in +nothing, not even in being a hero of romance, whatever +may be said of him. See, I pray, if this is the +life of a chevalier, of an ancient paladin, as Madame +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">[261]</span>de Motteville calls him;⁠<a id="FNanchor_229" href="#Footnote_229" class="fnanchor">[229]</a> and if, according to the pretensions +of Mademoiselle,⁠<a id="FNanchor_230" href="#Footnote_230" class="fnanchor">[230]</a> he made love after the +manner of romances. After the death of his father +and of his elder brother, he made his peace with +Richelieu, and returned to the court: a year had +scarcely passed by, when he conspired against Richelieu +with the Count de Soissons, and was compelled +to quit France. Whilst archbishop of Rheims, he +was smitten with the beautiful Anne de Gonzague, +afterwards Princess Palatine; he was engaged to her +by an explicit promise of marriage, and when Anne +de Gonzague, relying upon his word, commits the +folly of going, under the name of Madame de Guise, +to rejoin him at Brussels, she finds him married to +the Countess de Bossu, of whom he soon grows +weary and abandons, in order to return to Paris, +when Richelieu and Louis XIII. are no more. There +he pays a very easy court to Madame de Montbazon. +A little while after he falls madly in love with Mademoiselle +de Pons, one of the maids of honor of +Queen Anne, very pretty and very coquettish: he +wishes to marry her; he goes to Rome to solicit the +dissolution of his first marriage, and by the way, in +order to conquer a crown for his new mistress, he +places himself at the head of the insurrection of Naples. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">[262]</span>He arrives through a thousand hazards, displays +the most brilliant valor, without any political +or military talent, is made prisoner by the Spaniards, +begs Condé, unfortunately then all-powerful in Spain, +to obtain his deliverance, promising to him eternal +devotion; and after recovering his liberty, thanks to +the intervention of Condé, instead of serving him as +he had publicly sworn, he abandons him, passes over +to Mazarin, takes part in every thing opposed to his +liberator, commences a lawsuit against this same +Mademoiselle de Pons, whom he wished to make +queen of Naples, for the recovery of the furniture +and jewels which he had given her, becomes high +chamberlain, and is fit only to parade in fêtes and +tourneys of the court, and to call forth the speech, +when seen in the company of Condé: “There goes +the hero of fable by the side of the hero of history:” +carrying with him to the tomb, in 1664, that illustrious +house of Guise which merited a very different +end. In 1643, on his arrival in Paris, he fell into +the party of the <i>Importants</i>, and he was marvellously +formed for one of the chiefs of this party, for he was +vain, brilliant, and incapable.</p> + +<p>The women occupied a prominent place in this anticipated +Fronde of the beginning of the regency. +Queen Anne had formerly had for her friends the +celebrated Duchess de Chevreuse and Mademoiselle +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">[263]</span>d’Hautefort, afterwards Duchess de Schomberg. +These ladies shared equally great beauty, ambition, +and a courageously supported disgrace. Marie +d’Hautefort⁠<a id="FNanchor_231" href="#Footnote_231" class="fnanchor">[231]</a> was, with Madame de Sablé, one of the +models of a true <i>précieuse</i>, whose conduct equalled +her maxims. Maid of honor to the queen, Louis +XIII. had entertained for her that Platonic love, then +in fashion, which he also showed for Mademoiselle +de La Fayette. Richelieu, after having vainly endeavored +to obtain her, had embroiled her with her +royal lover, and exiled her from the court. Queen +Anne had loved her almost as much as the king; +and, as soon as she was free and mistress of herself, +she wrote to her with her own hand: “Come, my +dear friend, I am dying with impatience to embrace +you.” Mademoiselle d’Hautefort eagerly obeyed the +summons; but when she wished to speak of Mazarin +as she formerly did of Richelieu, she found a less favorable +audience, and, not knowing how to accommodate +herself to the new situation, her stately tenderness +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">[264]</span>became wearisome. Madame de Chevreuse +had possessed the beauty⁠<a id="FNanchor_232" href="#Footnote_232" class="fnanchor">[232]</a> of Mademoiselle d’Hautefort, +but not her virtues. Marie de Rohan Montbazon, +daughter of the Duke Hercule de Montbazon by +a former marriage, was first married to the High +Constable de Luynes, early became a widow, and +then entered the house of Lorraine by marrying the +Duke de Chevreuse. A victim of her fidelity to the +queen, banished by Richelieu, she had long wandered +in Europe, and returned to France with the +pretensions of an emigrant. Occupied with gallantry, +devoted to the lover of the moment, she moved +heaven and earth to overturn Mazarin and to put in +his place Châteauneuf, the old keeper of the seals, +who, in the party, passed for a man of superior capacity, +and in the State for being the most important +minister. She exacted also a high situation for La +Rochefoucauld, who had been more or less tenderly +attached to her, and who still possessed that romantic +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_265">[265]</span>sentimentality, in the fashion of the Duke de Guise, +whose foundation is almost always a vanity, shameful +in itself, and whose climax must, in this case, be +the book of <i>maxims</i>.</p> + +<p>Mazarin defended himself, as we have said, by +gaining, little by little, the heart of the queen; and +to the attacks of the houses of Vendôme and of Lorraine +he opposed the weight of the old partisans of +Richelieu, still numerous and influential, especially +the house of Condé, with its alliances and its friendships, +the Montmorencys, the Longuevilles, the Brézés, +the Ventadours, the Châtillons. Mazarin would +have been undone in these difficult beginnings, if the +Prince de Condé had not remained firmly attached to +royal authority. He supported the uncertain Duke +d’Orleans, who, after having engaged in more than +one intrigue against Richelieu, and saved himself by +betraying his friends, had attempted again to lay his +snares. The prince was too good a politician not to understand +that it was better for him to be the powerful +protector, rather than the unequal adversary of royalty; +that in this case it was necessary to defend it with +energy, and that his rank would always raise him +above a minister, when this minister was not Richelieu; +and if no one contested the capacity of Mazarin, +no one would suspect all his power. As chief of +the council and governor of Paris, M. the Prince applied +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_266">[266]</span>himself, in concert with M. the Lieutenant-General +of the kingdom, to baffle all the designs of the +<i>Importants</i>, and in this way he made bitter enemies.</p> + +<p>Their hatred for the house of Condé, hardly fell +upon Madame de Longueville. Her gentleness in +every thing in which her heart was not seriously engaged, +her perfect indifference in regard to politics +at this period of her life, with the graces of her mind +and of her person, rendered her pleasing to every +one, and protected her against the injustice of parties. +But aside from the affairs of State, she had an enemy, +and a fearful enemy, in the Duchess de Montbazon. +We have said that Madame de Montbazon had been +the mistress of M. de Longueville; it is necessary +that she should be a little better known, for she is +one of the principal personages of the drama which +we are about to relate.</p> + +<p>Marie de Bretagne, who was born about 1612, and +who died in 1657, at the age of forty-five, was the +eldest daughter of that famous Countess de Vertus, +whose father was La Varenne Fouquet, chief of the +household, and very obliging servant of Henry IV. +The Count de Vertus, of the illustrious house of Bretagne, +had married Mademoiselle de La Varenne on +account of her extreme beauty, and he had hastened +to withdraw her from Paris, and to take her to his +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_267">[267]</span>own house. He gained nothing by this, and Tallemant⁠<a id="FNanchor_233" href="#Footnote_233" class="fnanchor">[233]</a> +has told us, concerning the beautiful and foolish +countess, a story of the most tragic nature. In +beauty the daughter was worthy of the mother, but +in vices she left her far behind. Married, in 1628, +to the old Duke de Montbazon, father of Madame de +Chevreuse, she soon placed herself at ease. Her +mind was not her most brilliant side, and the little +that she had was turned to intrigue and perfidy. +“Her mind,” says the indulgent Madame de Motteville,⁠<a id="FNanchor_234" href="#Footnote_234" class="fnanchor">[234]</a> +“was not so fine as her person; her brilliancy +was limited to her eyes, which commanded love. +She claimed universal admiration.” In regard to her +character, all are unanimous. Retz, who knew her +well, speaks of her in these terms;⁠<a id="FNanchor_235" href="#Footnote_235" class="fnanchor">[235]</a> “Madame de +Montbazon was a very great beauty. Modesty was +wanting in her air. Her jargon might, in a dull +time, have supplied the defects of her mind. She +showed but little faith in gallantry, none in business. +She loved her own pleasure alone, and above her +pleasure her interest. I never saw a person who, in +vice, preserved so little respect for virtue.” Supremely +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_268">[268]</span>vain and passionately fond of money, it was +by aid of her beauty that she sought influence and +fortune. She therefore took infinite care of it, as of +her idol, as of her resources, her treasure. She kept +it in repair, heightened it by all kinds of artifices, and +preserved it almost uninjured till her death. Madame +de Motteville asserts that, during the latter part +of her life, she was as full of vanity as if she were but +twenty-five years of age;⁠<a id="FNanchor_236" href="#Footnote_236" class="fnanchor">[236]</a> that she had the same +desire to please, and that she wore her mourning garb +in so charming a manner, that “the order of nature +seemed changed, since years and beauty could be +found united.” Ten years before, in 1647, at the age +of thirty-five, when Mazarin gave a comedy in the +Italian style, that is, an opera, there was in the evening +a great ball, and the Duchess de Montbazon was +present, adorned with pearls, with a red feather on +her head, and so dazzling in her appearance that the +whole company was completely ravished. We can +imagine what she was in 1643, at the age of thirty-one +years.</p> + +<p>Of the two conditions of perfect beauty, strength +and grace,⁠<a id="FNanchor_237" href="#Footnote_237" class="fnanchor">[237]</a> Madame de Montbazon possessed the first +in the highest degree; but this quality being almost +alone, or entirely dominant, left something to be +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_269">[269]</span>desired—that precisely which makes the charm of +beauty. She was tall and majestic, to such a point +indeed that Tallemant, who always exaggerates, and +seldom lies, says: “She was a Colossus.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_238" href="#Footnote_238" class="fnanchor">[238]</a> She possessed +all the charms of embonpoint. Her throat +reminded one of the fulness, in this particular, of the +antique statues, exceeding them perhaps somewhat. +What struck the beholder most were her eyes and +hair of intense blackness, upon a groundwork of the +most dazzling white. Her defect was a nose somewhat +too prominent, with a mouth so large as to give +her face an appearance of severity.⁠<a id="FNanchor_239" href="#Footnote_239" class="fnanchor">[239]</a> It was plain +enough that she was the very opposite of Madame de +Longueville. The latter was tall, but not to excess. +The richness of her form did not diminish its delicacy. +A moderate embonpoint exhibited, in full and +exquisite measure, the beauty of the female form. +Her eyes were of the softest blue; her hair of the +most beautiful blonde. She had the most majestic +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_270">[270]</span>air, and yet her peculiar characteristic was grace. To +these add the great difference of manners and tone. +Madame de Longueville was, in her deportment, dignity, +politeness, modesty, sweetness itself, with a languor +and a nonchalance which formed not her least +charm. Her words were few, as well as her gestures; +the inflexions of her voice were a perfect music.⁠<a id="FNanchor_240" href="#Footnote_240" class="fnanchor">[240]</a> +The excess, into which she never fell, might have +been a sort of fastidiousness. Every thing in her was +wit, sentiment, charm. Madame de Montbazon, on +the contrary, was free of speech, bold and easy in her +tone, full of stateliness and pride.</p> + +<p>She was nevertheless a very attractive creature, +when she wished to be so, and she had a great number +of adorers, and of happy adorers, from Gaston, +Duke of Orleans, and the Count de Soissons, slain at +Marfée, to Rancé, the young and gallant editor of +Anacreon, and the future founder of La Trappe. +M. de Longueville had been for some time her lover +by title, and he afforded her considerable advantages. +When he married Mademoiselle de Bourbon, +Madame the Princess exacted, without however being +very faithfully obeyed, the discontinuance of all intercourse +with his old mistress. Hence, in that interested +soul, an irritation, which wounded vanity +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_271">[271]</span>redoubled, when she saw this young woman, with her +great name, her marvellous mind, her undefinable +charms, advance into the world of gallantry, without +the least effort draw after her all hearts, and take possession +of, or at least share that empire of beauty of +which she was so proud, and which was to her so +precious. On the other hand, the Duke de Beaufort +had not been able to restrain a passionate admiration +for Madame de Longueville, which had been very +coldly received. He was wounded by it, and his +wound bled for a long time, as his friend, La Châtre, +informs us,⁠<a id="FNanchor_241" href="#Footnote_241" class="fnanchor">[241]</a> even after he had transferred his homage +to Madame de Montbazon. The latter, as may be +easily imagined, was again exasperated. Finally, +the Duke de Guise, recently from Paris, placed himself +in the party of the <i>Importants</i>, and at the service +of Madame de Montbazon, who received him very +well, at the same time that she was striving to keep +or to recall M. de Longueville, and that she was ruling +Beaufort, whose office near her was that, somewhat, +of an attending cavalier. Thus we see that Madame +de Montbazon disposed, through Beaufort and through +Guise, as also through her daughter-in-law, Madame +de Chevreuse, of the house of Vendôme, and of the +house of Lorraine, and she employed all this credit +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_272">[272]</span>to the profit of her hatred against Madame de +Longueville. She burned to injure her; she found +an opportunity to do it.</p> + +<p>One day when a large company was assembled at +her house, some person picked up two letters, having +no signatures, but in the handwriting of a female, and +of a somewhat equivocal style. They were read; a +thousand jokes were perpetrated concerning them, +and some effort made to discover the author. Madame +de Montbazon pretended that they had fallen +from the pocket of Maurice de Coligny, who had just +gone out, and that they were in the handwriting of +Madame de Longueville. The word of command +thus once given, all the echoes of the party of the +<i>Importants</i> spread it, and this adventure became the +entertainment of the court. The following are the +two letters, found at the house of Madame de Montbazon: +a frivolous curiosity has preserved them very +faithfully:⁠<a id="FNanchor_242" href="#Footnote_242" class="fnanchor">[242]</a></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p class="center">I.</p> + +<p>“I should much more regret the change in your +conduct if I thought myself less worthy of a continuation +of your affection. I confess to you that so +long as I believed it to be true and warm, mine gave +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_273">[273]</span>you all the advantages which you could desire. +Now, hope nothing more from me than the esteem +which I owe to your discretion. I have too much +pride to share the passion which you have so often +sworn to me, and I desire to punish your negligence +in seeing me, in no other way than by depriving you +entirely of my society. I request that you will visit +me no more, since I have no more the power of commanding +your presence.”</p> + +<p class="center">II.</p> + +<p>“To what conclusion have you come after so long +a silence? Do you not know that the same pride +which rendered me sensible to your past affection +forbids me to endure the false appearances of its continuation! +You say that my suspicions and my inequalities +render you the most unhappy person in the +world: I assure you that I believe no such thing, although +I cannot deny that you have perfectly loved +me, as you must confess that my esteem has worthily +recompensed you. So far we have done each other +justice, and I am determined not to have in the end +less goodness, if your conduct responds to my intentions. +You would find them less unreasonable if you +had more passion, and the difficulties of seeing me +would only augment instead of diminishing it. I +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_274">[274]</span>suffer for not loving enough, and you for loving too +much.⁠<a id="FNanchor_243" href="#Footnote_243" class="fnanchor">[243]</a> If I must believe you, let us exchange humors: +I shall find repose in doing my duty, and you +in doing yours must fail, in order to obtain liberty. +I do not perceive that I forget the manner in which +I passed the winter with you, and that I speak to +you as frankly as I have heretofore done. I hope +that you will make as good use of it, and that I shall +not regret being overcome in the resolution which I +have made to return to it no more. I shall remain +in my lodgings three or four days in succession, and +will be seen only in the evening: you know the +reason.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>These letters were not forged. They had been +really written by Madame de Fouquerolles to the +handsome and elegant Marquis de Maulevrier,⁠<a id="FNanchor_244" href="#Footnote_244" class="fnanchor">[244]</a> who +had been foolish enough to drop them in the <i>salon</i> of +Madame de Montbazon. Maulevrier, trembling at +being discovered, and at having compromised Madame +de Fouquerolles, ran to one of the chiefs of the +<i>Importants</i>, La Rochefoucauld, who was his friend, +confided to him his secret, and begged him to undertake +to hush up the affair. La Rochefoucauld made +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_275">[275]</span>Madame de Montbazon understand that it was for +her interest to be generous on this occasion, for the +error or fraud would be easily recognized as soon as +the writing should be compared with that of Madame +de Longueville. Madame de Montbazon placed the +original letters in the hands of La Rochefoucauld, +who showed them to M. the Prince, and to Madame +the Princess, to Madame de Rambouillet, and to +Madame Sablé, particular friends of Madame de +Longueville, and, the truth being well established, +burned them in the presence of the queen, delivering +Maulevrier and Madame de Fouquerolles from the +terrible uneasiness into which they had been for some +time thrown.⁠<a id="FNanchor_245" href="#Footnote_245" class="fnanchor">[245]</a></p> + +<p>It had perhaps been wise to have dropped the +matter here. This was the somewhat interested opinion +of the weak and prudent M. de Longueville, who +wished to manage Madame de Montbazon, and who +did not believe that the honor of his wife would gain +much by farther disclosures. Madame de Longueville +was not very much irritated; but Madame the +Princess, impelled by her high spirit, and still intoxicated +by the success of her son, exacted a reparation +equal to the offence, and declared loudly that, if the +queen and the government did not defend the honor +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_276">[276]</span>of her house, she and all her family would withdraw +from the court. She was indignant at the mere idea +of placing her daughter in the scales with the granddaughter +of a cook, as she called La Varenne, father +of the Countess de Vertus, who had been chief of the +hôtel of Henri IV. In vain did the whole party of +the <i>Importants</i>, with Beaufort and Guise at their +head, agitate and threaten; in vain did Madame de +Chevreuse, who had not yet lost all her credit with the +queen, strive earnestly in behalf of her mother-in-law. +Mazarin was too wise to take two enemies upon +his arms at once, and to become embroiled with the +Condés, without any hope of gaining or disarming +the Lorraines and the Vendômes. He inclined the +queen without difficulty to the side of Madame the +Princess. Madame de Longueville had gone to pass +the first moments of this disagreeable adventure at +La Barre, with her dear friends, Mesdemoiselles Du +Vigean. The queen herself went to see her there, +and promised her protection. It was decided that +the Duchess de Montbazon should repair to Madame +the Princess at the hôtel de Condé, and make to her +a public reparation. Madame de Motteville tells, in +a very pleasant way, how much diplomacy was necessary +in order to arrange the speech of Madame de +Montbazon and the reply of Madame the Princess. +The queen was in her cabinet, and Madame the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_277">[277]</span>Princess, terribly excited, was with her, endeavoring +to make the affair one of high-treason. Madame de +Chevreuse, engaged for a thousand reasons in the +quarrel of her mother-in-law, was with Cardinal Mazarin, +composing the speech necessary to be made +upon the occasion. Every word of it occasioned an +hour’s discussion. The cardinal, greatly embarrassed, +went from one side to the other to accommodate their +differences, as if this peace was necessary to the happiness +of France, and to his own in particular. It +was concluded that the criminal should go, the next +day, to Madame the Princess, and say that the expressions +used in regard to the letters were false, +invented by evil-disposed persons, and that she herself +had never entertained them, knowing too well +the virtue of Madame de Longueville and the respect +that was due to her. This harangue was written upon +a small piece of paper and attached to her fan, in +order that she might repeat it word for word to Madame +the Princess. She did it in the most haughty +manner possible, putting on an air which seemed to +say: I jest in every word I utter.</p> + +<p>Mademoiselle⁠<a id="FNanchor_246" href="#Footnote_246" class="fnanchor">[246]</a> gives us the two speeches made +upon the occasion: “Madame, I come here to protest +to you that I am innocent of the wickedness of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_278">[278]</span>which I have been accused: no person of honor can +utter a calumny like this. If I had committed a fault +like this, I should have submitted to any punishment +which it might have pleased the queen to inflict upon +me; I should have never shown myself in the world, +and would have asked your pardon. I beg you to +believe that I shall never fail in the respect which I +owe to you and in the opinion which I have of the +virtue and of the merit of Madame de Longueville.” +Madame the Princess replied: “Madame, I receive +very willingly the assurance which you give me that +you have had no part in the wicked things that have +been circulated; I have too much respect for the +commands of the queen.”</p> + +<p>We find in the manuscript journal of Olivier +d’Ormesson some details which add to the piquancy +of this comical scene. It took place on the 8th of +August. The Cardinal Mazarin was present, as a +witness on the part of the queen. Madame de Montbazon +having begun her speech without saying <i>Madame</i>, +the princess complained, and she was obliged +to recommence with the respectful addition. Such +a reconciliation amounted to nothing, and a few days +after war recommenced.</p> + +<p>Besides the satisfaction which she had just received, +Madame the Princess had asked and had been permitted +the privilege of never associating with the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_279">[279]</span>Duchess de Montbazon. Some time after, Madame +de Chevreuse invited the queen to a collation in the +garden of Renard. This garden was the rendezvous +of the best society. It was at the termination of the +Tuileries, near the Porte de la Conférence, which +conducted to the Cours-la-Reine; that is, at the left +angle of the Place Louis XV., upon the ground since +occupied by two of those ditches which even to this +day have spoiled that magnificent place which might +so easily be rendered the most beautiful in Europe. +In the summer, on returning from the Cours, which +was the promenade of the nobility, and the spot +where the beauties of the day exercised their powers, +it was customary to stop at the garden Renard, +for the purpose of taking refreshments, and to +listen to the serenades performed after the Spanish +fashion. The queen took great pleasure in visiting +this place during the fine summer evenings. She +desired Madame the Princess to partake with her +the collation offered by Madame de Chevreuse, assuring +her at the same time that Madame de Montbazon +would not be present; but the latter person +was really there, and even pretended to do the honors +of the collation as mother-in-law of the lady who +gave it. Madame the Princess wished to withdraw, +in order that the entertainment might not be disturbed: +the queen had no right whatever to detain +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_280">[280]</span>her. She therefore begged Madame de Montbazon +to pretend sickness, and by leaving the company, to +relieve her from embarrassment. The haughty duchess +would not consent to fly before her enemy, and +kept her place. The queen, offended, refused the +collation, and quitted the promenade. On the morrow, +an order from the king enjoined upon Madame +de Montbazon to leave Paris. This disgrace irritated +the <i>Importants</i>. They thought themselves humiliated +and enfeebled, and there were no violent or +extreme measures which they did not contemplate. +The Duke de Beaufort, smitten at once in his credit +and in his love, raised loud cries, and it was reported +that a plot had been formed against the life of Mazarin.⁠<a id="FNanchor_247" href="#Footnote_247" class="fnanchor">[247]</a> +In this conjuncture the cardinal showed himself +the worthy heir of Richelieu. Although he may +have lacked his patience, his cunning, and his intrigue, +he was not deprived of courage, and he knew +how to take his part. He was already on very good +terms with the queen, and began to seem necessary, +or at least very useful to her. He represented to +her mildly, but forcibly, what she owed to the State +and to the royal authority now menaced; that it was +necessary to prefer the interests of her son and of his +crown to friendships which were perhaps at one time +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_281">[281]</span>well enough, but which were now becoming dangerous. +He won her, and the ruin of the <i>Importants</i> was decided. +On the 2d of September, the Duke de Beaufort +was arrested within the very walls of the Louvre, +and he was conducted to Vincennes. The command +of the Swiss was taken from his friend, La Châtre. +The Bishop de Beauvais, who for a short time enjoyed +the favor of the queen, and was thought of as +the successor of Richelieu, was sent to his church; +the Duke de Vendôme, as well as the Duke de Mercœur, +his eldest son, were exiled, and Madame de +Chevreuse banished to Tours. These measures, seasonably +executed, broke up the party of the <i>Importants.</i> +The intestine disorders which menaced the +new reign were destined to await more favorable +days. Mazarin, soon without a rival with the queen, +continued at home and especially abroad the policy +of his predecessor, and royalty, as well as France, +anticipated a succession of glorious years, thanks to +the union of the princes of the blood with the crown, +to the skilful management of the prime minister, to +the prudence of Condé, and to the military genius +of the Duke d’Enghien.</p> + +<p>The latter had returned to Paris at the close of the +campaign, after having taken Thionville and several +other places, and brought his victorious army over +the Rhine. The queen had received him as the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_282">[282]</span>deliverer of France. Mazarin, who thought more of +the reality than of the appearance of power, told him +that his greatest ambition was to be his chaplain +and his business man with the queen. At a distance +the Duke d’Enghien had applauded all that had been +done, and he returned still burning for Mademoiselle +Du Vigean, and furious on account of the insult which +had been offered to his sister. He adored his sister, +and he loved Coligny. He was acquainted with, and +he had favored his passion. Burning himself with a +love as ardent as it was chaste, he knew that his sister +could not have been insensible to the passion of +Maurice; but he revolted at the thought of attributing +to her the letters of one Madame de Fouquerolles, +and he took it in a manner which intimidated the +most insolent.</p> + +<p>Among the friends of the Duke de Beaufort and +of Madame de Montbazon, was the Duke de Guise, +afterwards chief of the house of Lorraine in France. +He had been secured, as well as all his family, on +account of Gaston, Duke of Orleans, who had taken, +as a second wife, a princess of this house, the beautiful +Marguerite.⁠<a id="FNanchor_248" href="#Footnote_248" class="fnanchor">[248]</a> The Duke de Guise was such as +we have described him. He had committed more +than one folly, but he had not yet shamefully failed +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_283">[283]</span>in all his enterprises; his incapacity was not declared. +He had all the prestige of his name, of youth, of +beauty, and of a bravery bordering upon temerity. +The avowed servant of Madame de Montbazon, he +had espoused her quarrel, without entering into the +violence of Beaufort, and he stood boldly up before +the victorious Condés.</p> + +<p>Coligny had been prudent enough to withdraw +during the storm, for fear of still more compromising +Madame de Longueville by becoming openly her +defender; but some months having passed, he thought +that he might show himself, and, as we are informed +by the unpublished work upon the regency, which we +have several times quoted,⁠<a id="FNanchor_249" href="#Footnote_249" class="fnanchor">[249]</a> “the prison of the Duke +de Beaufort not affording him an opportunity to draw +his sword, he addressed himself to the Duke de +Guise.” La Rochefoucauld states it thus:⁠<a id="FNanchor_250" href="#Footnote_250" class="fnanchor">[250]</a> “The +Duke d’Enghien, not being able to testify to the +Duke de Beaufort, who was in prison, the resentment +which he felt on account of what had happened between +Madame de Longueville and Madame de +Montbazon, suffered Coligny to fight with the Duke +de Guise, who had taken part in this affair.” The +Duke d’Enghien knew, then, and approved what +Coligny did. As for Madame de Longueville, it is +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_284">[284]</span>absurd to suppose that she, wishing to be avenged, +drove on Coligny, for every one attributes to her a +conduct very moderate compared with that of Madame +the Princess. Far from encouraging the quarrel, +she sought to appease it, and Madame de Motteville +herself refutes the report which she relates by saying: +“Her jealousy of the Duchess de Montbazon, +being proportioned to her love for her husband, did +not carry her away so far as to prevent her from finding +her advantage in dissembling this outrage.”</p> + +<p>La Rochefoucauld gives us a piece of information +which explains what follows: Coligny had just risen +from a long sickness; he was still feeble, and he was +not very skilful in fencing.⁠<a id="FNanchor_251" href="#Footnote_251" class="fnanchor">[251]</a> It was in this condition +that he attacked the Duke de Guise, who, like all +fancy heroes, possessed great skill in this kind of exercise.</p> + +<p>Let us say a few words in regard to the seconds +whom they chose; they are in all respects worthy of +the trouble. The seconds were then witnesses who +fought. Coligny took for his second and for the +bearer of his challenge, Godefroi, Count d’Estrades, +a man of cool and well-tried courage. D’Estrades +had served in Holland, under Maurice de Nassau. +He had distinguished himself in several such encounters. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_285">[285]</span>One day, as Tallemant relates, fighting with a +bully who placed himself on the border of a little ditch, +saying to Estrades: “I will not pass over this ditch.” +“And I,” said Estrades, making a mark behind him +with his sword, “I will not pass over this mark.” +They fought; Estrades slew him. He was employed, +by turns and with equal success, in war and in diplomacy, +and became Marshal of France in 1675. +The second of the Duke de Guise was the Marquis +de Bridieu, a gentleman of Limosin, a brave officer, +and friend of the house of Lorraine, who, in 1650, +made an admirable defence of an important stronghold +on the frontiers of Flanders, against the Spanish +army and against Turenne, for which he was created +lieutenant-general.⁠<a id="FNanchor_252" href="#Footnote_252" class="fnanchor">[252]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_286">[286]</span></p> + +<p>It was agreed that the affair should take place at +the Place-Royale—the usual theatre of these combats, +and which they had a thousand times stained with +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_287">[287]</span>the best blood. The Place-Royale was also the residence +of the greatest ladies, the flower of gallantry, +Marguerite de Rohan, Madame de Guimenée, Madame +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_288">[288]</span>de Chaulnes, Madame de Saint-Géran, Madame +de Sablé, the Countess de Maure, and many +others, under whose eyes these thoughtless and valiant +gentlemen delighted to cross their swords. +Many had there breathed their last. In the first +quarter of the seventeenth century, duelling was a +custom at once useful and disastrous; it encouraged +the warlike spirit of the nobility, but it was almost +as destructive as war, and for more frivolous causes. +To draw the sword for a trifle had become a part of +genteel manners, and, as gallantry had its elegancies, +so the duel had its refinements. During the period +of a few short years, nine hundred gentlemen had +perished in private combats. To arrest this scourge, +Richelieu procured the terrible decree which punished +the surviving combatant with death, and sent +the abettors from the Place-Royale to the Place de +Grève. Richelieu was inflexible, and the example +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_289">[289]</span>of Montmorency-Boutteville—decapitated, with his +second, the Count Deschapelles, for having provoked +Beuvron, and for fighting with him on the Place-Royale +in full day—impressed a salutary terror, and +rendered infractions of the edict rare enough. Coligny +braved every thing; he challenged Guise, and, +upon the appointed day, the two noble adversaries, +assisted by their seconds, d’Estrades and Bridieu, met +upon the Place-Royale.</p> + +<p>We have it in our power to give the most minute +details of the combat, thanks to different contemporary +memoirs, and especially to two new documents, +the manuscript already quoted in regard to the +Regency, and the unpublished journal of Olivier +d’Ormesson.</p> + +<p>It was on the morning of the 12th of December⁠<a id="FNanchor_253" href="#Footnote_253" class="fnanchor">[253]</a> +that d’Estrades carried to the Duke de Guise the +challenge of Coligny. The meeting was fixed for the +same day, at the Place-Royale, at three⁠<a id="FNanchor_254" href="#Footnote_254" class="fnanchor">[254]</a> o’clock. +The two adversaries exhibited nothing unusual during +the whole morning, and at three o’clock they were at +the rendezvous. A speech⁠<a id="FNanchor_255" href="#Footnote_255" class="fnanchor">[255]</a> is attributed to the Duke +de Guise, which gives to this scene an unexpected +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_290">[290]</span>grandeur, which exhibits upon the Place-Royale +and places in hostility for the last time the two most +illustrious combatants of the wars of the League in +the persons of their descendants. On receiving his +sword, Guise said to Coligny: “We are now going +to decide the ancient quarrels of our two houses, and +the world shall soon see what difference there is between +the blood of the Guise and that of Coligny.” +Coligny aimed at his adversary a prodigious thrust, +says the journal of d’Ormesson,⁠<a id="FNanchor_256" href="#Footnote_256" class="fnanchor">[256]</a> but, still weak on account +of his recent sickness, his foot failed him, and +he fell upon his knee. Guise, closing with him, +placed his foot upon the sword of the fallen man. +Coligny, though thus disarmed, would not ask his +life. Guise said to him:⁠<a id="FNanchor_257" href="#Footnote_257" class="fnanchor">[257]</a> “I will not kill you, but +treat you as you deserve, for having addressed, without +any provocation, a prince of my birth;” and +thereupon he struck him with the flat of his sword.⁠<a id="FNanchor_258" href="#Footnote_258" class="fnanchor">[258]</a> +Coligny, indignant, summoned all his strength, threw +himself backwards, disengaged his sword, and renewed +the struggle.⁠<a id="FNanchor_259" href="#Footnote_259" class="fnanchor">[259]</a> In this second encounter, Guise +was slightly wounded in the shoulder,⁠<a id="FNanchor_260" href="#Footnote_260" class="fnanchor">[260]</a> and Coligny +in the hand; but Guise, closing with Coligny a second +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_291">[291]</span>time, seized his sword, by which he cut his +hand somewhat, and, taking it away, disabled him +by a terrible cut upon the arm. At the same time +d’Estrades and Bridieu were sorely wounded.⁠<a id="FNanchor_261" href="#Footnote_261" class="fnanchor">[261]</a></p> + +<p>Such was the issue of this duel, the last, I believe, +of the celebrated duels of the Place-Royale. It was +referred to Parliament, agreeably to the edict of +Richelieu; but the course of justice was stayed by +the influence of Condé, and especially by the deplorable +condition⁠<a id="FNanchor_262" href="#Footnote_262" class="fnanchor">[262]</a> into which Coligny, the most guilty +party, had been thrown. The proof that an understanding +existed between Condé and Coligny is based +upon the fact that the latter found an asylum in his +house of Saint-Maur. There he languished some +time,⁠<a id="FNanchor_263" href="#Footnote_263" class="fnanchor">[263]</a> and died of the mortification occasioned by +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_292">[292]</span>his poor defence of the cause of his own house and +of that of Madame de Longueville.</p> + +<p>This affair, with its dramatic circumstances and +its tragic dénouement, caused an extraordinary and +painful sensation throughout Paris and all France. +It renewed, for a moment, the differences of parties, +and suspended the diversions and fêtes of the winter +of 1644;⁠<a id="FNanchor_264" href="#Footnote_264" class="fnanchor">[264]</a> it did not occupy the families interested +and the court alone—it touched every individual of +the higher ranks, and continued for some time to be +the subject of conversation for the <i>salons</i>. We easily +imagine that, as the story spread, it was gradually +lengthened by imaginary incidents. At first, it was +supposed that Madame de Longueville loved Coligny. +Then, that the tale might not lack interest, it was asserted +that she did. Hence the other invention, that +she herself had placed the sword in the hand of Coligny, +and that d’Estrades, commissioned to challenge +the Duke de Guise, having told Coligny that the duke +would disavow the injurious words that had been +attributed to him, and thus satisfy honor, Coligny +had replied to him: “This has nothing to do with +the matter; I have promised Madame de Longueville +to fight him at the Place-Royale, and I cannot +fail to do it.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_265" href="#Footnote_265" class="fnanchor">[265]</a> It would not do to spoil so fine a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_293">[293]</span>tale, and Madame de Longueville would not have +been the sister of the conqueror of Rocroy, a heroine +worthy of being compared with those of Spain, who +saw their lovers dying at their feet in tourneys, if she +had not been present at the combat of Guise and +Coligny. We are assured then that on the 12th of +December she was in a hôtel of the Place-Royale, at +the Duchess de Rohan’s, and that there, concealed +by a window-curtain, she witnessed the terrible encounter.</p> + +<p>Then, as at the present day, it was poetry, that is, +song, which placed the seal upon the popularity of +an event. When the event was sad, the song was a +complaint full of burlesque pathos, and always ridiculous. +Such was that which, upon this occasion, ran +through every circle, and was really sung, for we +find it in the <i>Collection of noted Songs</i> of the Arsenal:⁠<a id="FNanchor_266" href="#Footnote_266" class="fnanchor">[266]</a></p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Dry now your beauteous eyes,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sweet Madame de Longueville;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Dry now your beauteous eyes,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Coligny’s getting well.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">If death he’s seem’d to flee,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh blame him not therefore;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For as your lover, he</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Would live forevermore.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>After the song came the romance: Madame de +Longueville had hers also. A wit of the times, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_294">[294]</span>whose name is unknown to us, composed on this occasion +a novel, in which, under fictitious names, and +mingling falsehood with truth, he relates the touching +adventure which then occupied all Paris. We +have discovered this novel of the middle of the +seventeenth century in the library of the Arsenal +and in the National Library.⁠<a id="FNanchor_267" href="#Footnote_267" class="fnanchor">[267]</a> Its title is: <i>Story of +Agésilan and Isménie</i>; that is, the story of Coligny +and Madame de Longueville. It has the advantage +of being very short. Not daring to give it entire, +we will partially exhibit this little monument of the +growing celebrity of Madame de Longueville.</p> + +<p>It must be understood that Isménie loved Agésilan +in the most tender manner possible, and she loved +him before being married to Amilcar, the Duke de +Longueville, by order of her father and of her mother, +Antenor and Simiane, M. the Prince and Madame +the Princess. Isménie has for an enemy Roxane, +Madame de Montbazon, jealous of her beauty, and +then follow two portraits of Isménie and Roxane, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_295">[295]</span>which are historically exact. “Roxane was wounded +by the praises bestowed upon Isménie on account of +her beauty, which was truly wonderful. Her hair of +a pale yellow, her eyes blue; the whiteness of her +complexion and her form were incomparable; her +spirit gentle, insinuating, and even pleasing, gave +her the approbation of all the world. Roxane, possessed +of a beauty and disposition very different, had +not so many admirers of her grace as Isménie, although +many preferred her beauty. Her hair was +of a light brown; her eyes black and well formed, +emitting a fire which penetrated the most insensible +hearts; her aspect, proud and haughty, inspired fear +rather than love; her spirit was cruel, full of violence. +It would not do to be at variance with her.”</p> + +<p>The following is one of the conversations of the +two lovers, not so long, fortunately, as those of Astrée +and of the great Cyrus, but which possesses +their agreeable insipidity, their melancholy sentimentality: +“Isménie was walking pensively along +a stream which watered the woods of Mirabelle +(Chantilly). Suddenly she saw a man emerge from +among the thick trees, who, pale and dejected, came +and cast himself at her feet. She at once recognized +Agésilan, who said to her: ‘What! my princess, will +you abandon me after so many promises of firmness? +In refusing the match which is offered to you, will you +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_296">[296]</span>not show to the world that my princess has as much +fidelity as beauty, and that her word is not to be +shaken when she has given it? If you have still any +remembrance of the unhappy Agésilan, and of the +tenderness which you have had for him, give him +one more month before you consent to this marriage. +The term is short for an affection which will cost me +my life.’ ‘Agésilan,’ said Isménie, ‘God knows, if +my own feelings were consulted, whether I would +belong to any other than to you! For this I have +done more than duty demanded: I have long resisted +the orders of Antenor and Simiane. I have +passed days and nights in weeping the loss of my +dear Agésilan. All that I can do is to preserve for +him continually my esteem and my friendship.’ She +embraced him for the last time, and entered the +château without waiting for his reply.”</p> + +<p>Agésilan, in despair, set out to rejoin the army, +commanded by the brother of Isménie, Marcomir, +Duke d’Enghien, and we are presented with a narrative +of the battle of Rocroy, correct enough, except +in two particulars. The author does not seem to have +been acquainted with the bold and skilful manœuvre +which decided the victory, and which we have endeavored +to describe. He has also given to Coligny, +upon this great occasion, a part which he did not +perform. In the novel, Agésilan takes the place of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_297">[297]</span>Gassion, and commands the right wing, whilst Gassion +commands the left in place of La Ferté-Seneterre +and the Marshal de l’Hôpital; for it is doubtless +Gassion who is spoken of under the name of Hilla or +Hillarius, “an old colonel of horse, now⁠<a id="FNanchor_268" href="#Footnote_268" class="fnanchor">[268]</a> major-general, +a soldier of fortune, but who had occupied every +post, having great courage and firmness.” Marcomir +had confided the right wing to Agésilan, “being sure +of his fidelity and of his great courage.” Agésilan +seeks death, and, according to the rules of romance, +he finds only glory, with many wounds, it is true, +which will afterwards explain his languor and his +weakness. Among other exploits, he has an encounter +with Alaric, king of the Goths. Marcomir, on +his part, performs extraordinary actions, and kills, +with his own hand, the chief of the hostile army. +As Agésilan, Coligny is here put in the place of +Gassion, so d’Estrades, friend of Coligny, is substituted, +under the name of Théodate, for the brave +Sirot, who commanded the reserve, and contributed +so much to the success of the battle.</p> + +<p>The novel describes faithfully the conduct of d’Enghien, +Marcomir, after the victory. “After having +rendered thanks to God for so great a victory, Marcomir +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_298">[298]</span>returned to his camp. He was slightly +wounded, had two horses killed under him, and did +in this action all that a good general and a great +captain can do: he took great care of the wounded, +and he visited them every day.” He could not fail +to take particular care of Agésilan, his kinsman, and +of Théodate; he took them with him to Lutétie, +where they received all the praises which their fine +actions merited.</p> + +<p>In the novel, as well as in some memoirs, it is +Roxane, Madame de Montbazon, who invents and +counterfeits the two famous letters, in order to dishonor +and destroy Isménie. She tries to compel her +lover, Florizel, the Duke de Guise, to maintain that +these letters are veritable; and not being able to get +his consent to such an unworthy action, she asks him +to express himself at least with some doubt as to the +matter. Florizel has the weakness to please her in +this; his words are promptly exaggerated and envenomed, +and it is everywhere reported that Florizel +defends loudly the truth of these letters, and declares +himself ready to maintain it against Agésilan himself, +“in whatever manner he may choose.” Then +comes the indignation of Queen Amalasonte, Anne +of Austria, against Isménie, whom she believes +guilty; the great wrath of Antenor and of Simiane, +M. the Prince and Madame the Princess, against +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_299">[299]</span>their daughter, and the despair of the latter, for the +two imaginary letters by Roxane are much stronger +than those which were written by Madame de Fouquerolles +to Maulevrier, and which were attributed +to Madame de Longueville. First letter: “I cannot +suffer you to remain any longer in the sadness into +which you are plunged. Your constancy has entirely +gained me. Come this evening to the avenue +of the Sicamores, near the baths of Diane. I will +tell you what I wish you to do.” The other letter: +“I believe that you are pleased with me, dear Agésilan; +but if the walk in the avenue of the Sicamores +has pleased you more, the one which I now invite +you to take will not please you less. Come, alone, +at ten o’clock this evening, through the garden gate; +you will find Lydie, who will show you where I am. +Adieu.”</p> + +<p>These two rendezvous are well enough imagined +to explain the irritation of Isménie, and to account +for the manner in which she drove Agésilan to avenge +her, as well for her success in procuring for him a +skilful second in Théodate. The duel had been decided +upon “in a council held at the house of Isménie, +at which Marcomir and Agésilan were present.” +The preparations for the encounter and the details are +less striking and less romantic in the tale than in the +history. The scene in it is faithfully related, but +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_300">[300]</span>much abridged in regard to the two principal adversaries; +the intervention of the Duke d’Enghien is +more marked.</p> + +<p>“It was agreed that the meeting should take place +at two o’clock in the afternoon, at the Place des +Nymphes (Place-Royale). Florizel was to come with +a second, a page, and a lackey; Agésilan and Théodate +were to do the same; the two carriages were to +meet before the house of Caliste, and the coachmen +were to beat each other with their whips in order to +pretend that it was a chance fight. Things were +conducted according to arrangement, and the balconies +and the windows of the houses were filled with +ladies. Chrysante and Théodate (Bridieu and d’Estrades) +were the first to seize their swords. Chrysante +is a gentleman of merit, brave, and one of the strongest +men in the world. He is governor of a considerable +stronghold on the frontier of Belgium. Théodate, +in the first place, gives him a thrust in the body; he +at the same time receives one in the arm. Chrysante, +feeling incommoded by the loss of blood, +wished to make use of his strength and to engage +closely with Théodate; he embraced him with both +arms, and pressed him with so much violence that, +notwithstanding his great wound, he would have +strangled Théodate, if the latter had not made an +effort to withdraw himself from his hands. It was so +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_301">[301]</span>great that they both fell to the ground, without a +victory on either side, and were separated immediately +by persons of quality who arrived upon the +spot. In the mean time Florizel and Agésilan were +both engaged. Théodate thought it was time to separate +them, when he saw the poor Agésilan stretched +upon the ground, disarmed. Florizel leaves him in +order to meet Théodate, and to embrace him and +seek his friendship. He says to him: ‘I am sorry +for the sad condition in which you will find Agésilan. +He has quarrelled with me wantonly; I protest +to you, with truth, that I have never offended +him.’ Théodate replied briefly enough to this compliment, +being in haste to reach Agésilan, whom he +finds unconscious, by reason of the dissatisfaction +occasioned by his ill-luck,—a dissatisfaction which, +in the end, carried him to his grave. At this moment, +Marcomir, and several princes and nobles of +the court, arrived in the Place des Nymphes. Marcomir +placed Agésilan and Théodate in one of his +carriages, and gave them an apartment in his hôtel +for the safety of their persons.”</p> + +<p>“Not many days before, the senate had issued a +decree against duels, which condemned to death all +those who engaged in them. Amalasonte, wishing +the decree to be executed according to its tenor, +ordered the arrest of Agésilan and Théodate as aggressors, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_302">[302]</span>but the proceedings were less rigorous +against Florizel and Chrysante. Marcomir complained +loudly, and the apprehensions which Amalasonte +had lest the matter might produce a civil war—all +the court having arranged themselves upon one +side or the other—occasioned a command that the +affair should pass for an accidental encounter, and +that the king should issue letters of pardon; which +was done to the satisfaction of all concerned.”</p> + +<p>Here the romance resumes its rights, and, carrying +Madame de Longueville to the bed of the dying +Coligny, places in the mouths of both of them those +pathetic speeches which never fail to produce an +effect upon readers less sensible to true art, than to +what is touching in situations of this kind.</p> + +<p>“The wounds which Agésilan had received, grew +worse every day. The surgeons considered them +mortal. Théodate did not care for his own. He was +continually by the side of Agésilan, who, feeling his +strength diminishing, said to Théodate: I have one +request to make of you, and that is, that you will +compel Isménie to come and see me for the last time, +and that you will be the sole witness to what I have +to say to her. Théodate having been assured by the +physicians and surgeons that Agésilan could not survive +the day, hastened to find Isménie, and to persuade +her to come and say adieu to Agésilan, which +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_303">[303]</span>she did with extreme grief. As soon as Agésilan saw +her, the color returned to his face, and the emotion +occasioned by beholding her whom he loved dearly, +gave him the strength to say: ‘Madame, since I have +lost you, I have desired nothing more than to die in +your service. God has heard my prayers. I cannot +be happy so long as I cannot possess you. My passion +was too strong to remain contented in the world. +I render you thanks for the goodness with which you +permit me to tell you that I die for you, and glad +that I can no longer trouble your repose.’ And, +stretching out his hand to her, he said, ‘Adieu, my +dear Isménie,’ and immediately breathed his last. +After the final adieu of Agésilan which accompanied +his last sigh, Isménie remained some time motionless. +Then suddenly she threw herself upon his body, embraced +him, took his hands in hers, moistened them +with her tears, and, in a clear voice, said: ‘Must I +survive the most faithful and sincere lover that the +world ever saw! Is this, my dear Agésilan, the +recompense that you should expect from the ungrateful +Isménie? Her alone thou hast loved, and when +she abandoned thee, thy despair drove thee to seek +death upon the battle-field, where thy great courage, +thy reputation, and thy great actions rendered thee +immortal; and after that thou comest to breathe thy +last before my eyes, and to tell me that thou hast +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_304">[304]</span>never known joy since losing me, and that thou dost +die contented since thou canst not possess me!... +Receive, dear and faithful friend, these tears and +this endless regret for thy loss, which will pierce my +heart a thousand times each day. Receive the atonement +which I make thee for all my severity and for +all the pains which I have caused thee. Ah! miserable +me! what will become of me? Where shall I +go? Let me die of regret and of love. I will quit +thee no more; I will remain beside thee.’ And, +embracing him, she kissed his eyes and his face with +transports of tenderness, sufficient to break the heart +of any one.”</p> + +<p>But let us bear in mind that all these tender sentiments +are poetical inventions of the author of the +novel. To render Madame de Longueville more +touching, she has been represented as sharing the +passion which she inspired. But nothing authorizes +us to suppose that she was in love with Coligny. +She loved him as one of the companions of her infancy, +as one of the comrades of her brother, as a +gentleman of nearly her own rank, whose homage +she had no reason to reject, and who pleased her by +a persevering and devoted tenderness. She permitted +him to sigh for her, and to declare himself +her loyal knight after the Spanish fashion, according +to the principles of Madame de Sablé and of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_305">[305]</span><i>précieuses</i> of the hôtel de Rambouillet, who did not +forbid men to serve and to adore them, but in the +most respectful fashion. Such were the manners of +this epoch. A gentleman did not pass for a well-bred +man if he had not a mistress, that is, a lady to +whom he paid particular homage, and whose colors +he wore at fêtes and on the battle-field. There was +not a beauty, however virtuous, who had not lovers, +that is, gentlemen who sighed for her in truth and +honorably. The Duchess d’Aiguillon, presenting her +young nephew, the Duke de Richelieu, to the elder +Mademoiselle Du Vigean, begged her to make an +<i>honnête</i> man of him; and to this end she exhorted +the young man seriously to fall in love with the +beautiful lady.⁠<a id="FNanchor_269" href="#Footnote_269" class="fnanchor">[269]</a> Madame de Longueville suffered +thus the assiduous attentions of Coligny. Her coquetry +was flattered by them, while neither her virtue +nor even her reputation were sullied. Let us +add that she was surrounded by the best examples. +The young Du Vigean, her dearest friend, resisted +the conqueror of Rocroy; Mademoiselle de Brienne +was wholly devoted to her husband, M. de Gamache; +Julie de Rambouillet did not hastily yield to the long +passion of Montausier, and Isabelle de Montmorency +herself did no more than listen to the tender propositions +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_306">[306]</span>of Dandelot. Retz affirms that the love was all +on the side of Coligny, and he says that he was thus +informed by Condé himself; but who is not acquainted +with the frivolity of Retz? Who would +wish to rely on his testimony when he is alone, and in +relation to matters in which he has not personally +mingled? In 1643, Retz had hardly the secret of +his own intrigues. The well-informed Madame de +Motteville, who, at a later period, will not conceal +the fall of Madame de Longueville, may be believed +when she affirms that in 1643,⁠<a id="FNanchor_270" href="#Footnote_270" class="fnanchor">[270]</a> “she had still a great +reputation for virtue and prudence,” and that “she +erred only in not hating adoration and praise.” +Finally, we have a decisive testimony, that of La +Rochefoucauld. He was at once the friend of +Maulevrier and of Coligny; he was therefore well +acquainted with the whole affair. Now, he who, at +a future day, will turn against Madame de Longueville,—will +reveal her weakness, will enlarge her +faults, will strive to blacken her character,—declares +that, until a certain period—at which we have not yet +arrived—all those who attempted to please the sister +of Condé, <i>strove in vain</i>.⁠<a id="FNanchor_271" href="#Footnote_271" class="fnanchor">[271]</a> After Coligny, the brave +and presumptuous Miossens, afterwards Marshal +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_307">[307]</span>d’Albret, paid very assiduous court to Madame de +Longueville, and he failed like the others. She was +too young still, and too recently drawn from the +habits of her pure and pious youth; she had not yet +reached the age so fatal to the most virtuous intentions: +her hour had not yet come. It came at a +later period, when Madame de Longueville had become +better acquainted with the world and life, and +had longer breathed the air of her times; when her +brother had forgotten the chaste grandeur of his first +loves; when the friend who could sustain her, the +beautiful and noble Mademoiselle Du Vigean, was +no more beside her; when her husband was at a +distance; when, finally, weary of combating, and +more than ever carried away by wit and heroic appearances, +she met a person, still young and handsome, +of great bravery, who passed for a model of +chivalrous devotion, who could skilfully interest her +self-love in his ambitious projects, and seduce her by +the attractions of glory. La Rochefoucauld was the +first who touched the soul of Madame de Longueville; +he says so, and we believe him. Their connection +commenced a little before or a little after the +embassy of Munster, their intimacy at the close of +1647 or at the beginning of 1648, and the fulness of +their love continued between 1648 and 1652. In +1643, Madame de Longueville was still occupied +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_308">[308]</span>with the noble and graceful gallantry which she saw +everywhere in honor, which she heard celebrated at +the hôtel de Rambouillet as well as at the hôtel de +Condé, in the great verses of Corneille and in the trifling +verses of Voiture. She delighted in exhibiting +the power of her charms. A thousand adorers pressed +around her. Coligny was perhaps nearest to her +heart, but had not, however, entered it. But one +cannot, with impunity, trifle with love. It will some +day cost Madame de Longueville many tears. Its +victim at this time was the eldest of the Châtillons, +who perished, in the flower of his youth, by the hand +of the eldest of the Guises, to avenge her whom he +loved. This tragic adventure, quickly spread by all +the echoes of the <i>salons</i>, by song and romance, cast +a gloom upon the destiny of Madame de Longueville, +and gave her, at an early period, a fame at +once aristocratic and popular, which prepared her +wonderfully to play a great part in that other tragi-comedy, +heroic and gallant, called the Fronde.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_309">[309]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.<br> +<span class="smaller">1644 to 1649.</span></h2> + +<p>Campaigns of Condé in Flanders and on the Rhine—Congress and +peace of Munster—Madame de Longueville at Munster—Her portrait +by Van Hull—Her return to France—Her brother, the Prince de Conti—Sonnets +of Voiture and of Benserade—La Rochefoucauld—Commencement +of his connection with Madame de Longueville—The first +Fronde—Noble conduct of Condé—Madame de Longueville at the +hôtel de Ville—Birth of Charles de Paris, Count de Saint-Paul—Peace +of 1649.</p> + +</div> + +<p>We have passed over the most truly beautiful +period of the youth of Madame de Longueville, that +wherein the splendor of her success was not at the +expense of her virtue. The time approaches in which +she is about to yield to the manners of her age, and +to the long combated wants of her heart. The love +which she inspired in others, she is, in turn, about to +feel herself, and to engage her, at the age of twenty-eight +or twenty-nine years, in a fatal connection, +which will make her forget all her duties, and turn +her most brilliant qualities against herself, against +her family, and against France.</p> + +<p>In order to measure the fault of Madame de +Longueville, it is necessary to know to what grandeur +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_310">[310]</span>the house of Condé had reached by its faithful +service of king and country.</p> + +<p>In the history of France, there are no more glorious +years than the first six of the Regency of Anne of +Austria and of the government of Mazarin,—tranquil +at home after the defeat of the party of the Importants, +triumphant upon every battle-field, from 1643 +to 1649, from the victory of Rocroy to that of Lens, +connected by so many other victories, and crowned +by the treaty of Westphalia. It is the house of +Condé which occupies nearly the whole of this memorable +epoch, or therein, at least, plays the most +conspicuous part. In the council, M. the Prince +seconds Mazarin, as he had done Richelieu, and +shares with him the government. The intrepid +Brézé, opening the list of the great admirals of the +seventeenth century, holds in check or disperses, in +the Mediterranean, the fleets of Spain. M. de +Longueville, charged with the greatest embassy of +the times, places in the diplomatic balance the weight +of his name, of his moderation, and of his magnificence. +As to the young Condé,—who has not read, +at least in Bossuet, his campaigns in Flanders and +upon the Rhine? We have shown how valuable to +France was the victory of Rocroy, in 1643; those +which followed were not less necessary.</p> + +<p>We have for some time been permitted to speak of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_311">[311]</span>Condé as of a young hero, who owed all his success +to the ascendency of an irresistible courage. Let us +beware of making him a paladin of the middle age, +or a brilliant grenadier like such or such a marshal +of the empire, or a captain of the family of Alexander, +of Cæsar, and of Napoleon. Like them, Condé +had doubtless a genius for war, and, as well as Alexander, +he excelled especially in execution, and fearlessly +exposed his person; but it seems that the +splendor of his bravery had concealed the grandeur +and originality of his conceptions, as his extreme +youth, at Rocroy, had caused a forgetfulness of the +fact that for many years he had studied war with +passion, and had already made three campaigns +under the most renowned masters. If this were the +proper place, and if I dared to encounter ridicule by +setting myself up as a military man, I would like to +compare the campaigns of Condé, in Flanders and +upon the Rhine, with those of General Bonaparte in +Italy. They have many things in common: the +youth of the two generals,⁠<a id="FNanchor_272" href="#Footnote_272" class="fnanchor">[272]</a> that of their principal +lieutenants, the political grandeur of the results, the +novelty of the manœuvres, the same strategy, the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_312">[312]</span>same calculations served by the same audacity, by +the same activity, by the same obstinacy. It is +degrading the art of war to measure military success +by the number of combatants, for we should thus +make Tamerlane and Gengis-Khan the two greatest +captains of the world.</p> + +<p>The general of the army of Italy, like Condé, had +little more than twenty or twenty-five thousand men +drawn up in his greatest battles.⁠<a id="FNanchor_273" href="#Footnote_273" class="fnanchor">[273]</a> I can say to the +honor of Condé, that he always had before him the +best troops and the best generals of his times, among +others, Mercy, the first captain of Germany during +the seventeenth century.⁠<a id="FNanchor_274" href="#Footnote_274" class="fnanchor">[274]</a> At one time he had under +his command only an army composed of different +nations, whose jealousies, and even defections, betrayed +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_313">[313]</span>his greatest designs. At another time he was +at the head of fatigued and discouraged troops, whose +whole strength was in himself alone. And then—which +is, in my eyes, the most certain evidence of +a great man—he founded an immense school: he +left to France many great generals formed by his +lessons, prepared by his hands, and who, at a great +distance from him and after him, gained victories. +To him are we, in a great measure, indebted for +Turenne, who, by seeing his actions at Fribourg and +at Nortlingen, added more and more activity and +audacity to his other qualities. We are indebted to +him for Luxembourg and Conti. We are also indebted +to him for many others, who might perhaps +have equalled those already mentioned, but whose +bright hopes were too suddenly extinguished, Gèvres, +Laval, La Moussaye, Châtillon. To all this add that +magnanimity of a high-born man, who, instead of +attributing the honor of success to himself alone, +shared it with all those who served him well, and +took pleasure in praising Gassion and Sirot after the +victory of Rocroy, Turenne after Fribourg and Nortlingen, +and Châtillon after Lens.⁠<a id="FNanchor_275" href="#Footnote_275" class="fnanchor">[275]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_314">[314]</span></p> + +<p>Condé conquered at Rocroy by the very simple +manœuvre which we have pointed out.⁠<a id="FNanchor_276" href="#Footnote_276" class="fnanchor">[276]</a> The problem +was, to arrive in the shortest time and with the +greatest force upon the point which was to decide +the day. It was evident that, the left wing of the +enemy being dispersed, but his right wing victorious +and threatening to crush all in its way, it was necessary, +at every hazard, to arrest and destroy it. To +reach this in the speediest manner possible, from the +height of the battle-field where Condé was, the most +direct road was to make a passage through the Spanish +army, by forcing his last line, and falling afterwards +like a thunderbolt upon the rear of his triumphing +wing. If the infantry, whose overthrow +was sought, had been that of the Count de Fontaine, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_315">[315]</span>it would have remained firm, checked Condé, and +achieved his destruction; but he knew that this infantry +was a mixture of Italians, Walloons, and Germans: +he hoped, therefore, to succeed by dint of +energy. For this reason he led the charge himself, +and performed prodigies of valor with the most severe +calculation. Afterwards, when he was complimented +on his courage, he replied that he had never +shown any except when it was necessary. It is true +that heroes alone have audacity at will. He conducted +himself almost in the same manner during +the following year, 1644, in his great combats with +Mercy, near Fribourg. Finding it impossible to +separate any of the divisions of the imperial army, +which were protected by formidable intrenchments, +he attacked them himself with that French fury to +which every thing yields;⁠<a id="FNanchor_277" href="#Footnote_277" class="fnanchor">[277]</a> at the same time he sent +Turenne, during the night, to a great distance, through +frightful gorges, as did Bonaparte in the marshes of +Arcola,⁠<a id="FNanchor_278" href="#Footnote_278" class="fnanchor">[278]</a> to take in flank and rear the hostile army, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_316">[316]</span>which would have been destroyed, if Mercy, warned +in season and confounded by such a manœuvre, had +not hastily escaped. In the second battle of Fribourg, +Condé renewed this same manœuvre, sending +Turenne to a still greater distance than before, in +order to cut off all retreat for Mercy, whilst he attacked +him in front, and to crush him in his camp or +force him to capitulate. The vigilant Mercy escaped +a second time; but his retreat, admirable as it was, +resembled no less a defeat, for he lost not only the +honor of his arms and of the field of battle, but all of +his artillery and a part of his troops.</p> + +<p>In 1645, Mercy and Condé met again. Mercy had +just fought with Turenne at Mariendal. This victory +had inflated the courage of the Imperialists, and the +emperor and the King of Bavaria were unwilling to +make peace. Condé, in again taking command of a +defeated army, found it, as in the preceding year, +composed of 5000 Weimarians, survivors of the battle +of Mariendal, 4000 Swedes, 6000 Hessians, and +8000 Frenchmen, which he had with him. With +these 23,000 he conceived the plan of the campaign +which was afterwards partly executed by Moreau +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_317">[317]</span>and completed by Napoleon. He resolved to risk a +great battle with Mercy, and after having routed him, +to march upon Munich and Vienna, and to dictate +peace to the emperor in his capital. This plan failed +because Condé was at the head of a combined army; +because the Swedes and the Hessians refused to follow +the French general to such a distance, and because +the Swedes even withdrew. Condé could not +expect any aid from France, which was exhausted in +order to send five armies into Spain, into Italy, into +Lorraine, into Flanders, and upon the Rhine. He +abandoned therefore his greatest military conception +with sorrow and rage, as did Hannibal when he was +compelled to quit Italy: it was his wish to exterminate +the army of Mercy. The latter, who knew the man +with whom he had to deal, had taken a position quite as +strong as that of Fribourg—a position which protected +him against the favorite manœuvres of Condé—to cut +off the enemy or surprise him at a distance in flank +or rear. Turenne declared that to attack an enemy +thus intrenched was ruinous; and Napoleon, whom +no one will accuse of timidity, was of the same opinion.⁠<a id="FNanchor_279" href="#Footnote_279" class="fnanchor">[279]</a> +Condé replied as a politician rather than as a +military man, that it was in vain to undertake by any +manœuvre to drive Mercy from a position wisely +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_318">[318]</span>chosen; that it was necessary, therefore, either to +attack him or to retreat, and that to retreat would +shake the confidence of all our allies, after the defeat +of Mariendal and the defection of the Swedes. France +was in need of a victory. Condé gained that of Nortlingen, +but he gained it, thanks to two accidents +upon which he had no right to count—thanks also to +the inspiration of a great character. It must be confessed +that in execution Condé was never greater. +He saw at once that every thing depended upon +Mercy’s centre. He made it his own business to attack +it. He had one horse slain under him, two +wounded, and twenty cuts upon his arms and clothes. +Marsin, who under him commanded the French centre, +was dangerously wounded, and the intrepid La +Moussaye was disabled. The French and the Imperialists, +by turns conquerors and conquered, performed +prodigies of valor. It was a frightful butchery. +Mercy perished in it. In the mean time, Jean +de Wert, who commanded the left wing, descended +from the height which he occupied, crushed the right +wing of the French, and dispersed our reserve, notwithstanding +the efforts of his two chiefs, Chabot and +Arnauld.⁠<a id="FNanchor_280" href="#Footnote_280" class="fnanchor">[280]</a> It would have been fatal to the whole +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_319">[319]</span>army, if, instead of amusing himself with pursuing +the flying and pillaging the baggage, Jean de Wert +had thrown himself upon the rear of our half-destroyed +centre, and pressed our left wing between his victorious +squadrons and the still entire division of General +Gleen. This error, and the death of Mercy, saved +Condé, because he knew how to profit by them with +incomparable promptitude. He saw that, after having +lost his right wing, his reserve, and a great part +of his centre, to try to retreat with his left wing was +an operation apparently prudent, but really rash, +before an enemy which had still great masses of infantry, +much artillery, and a redoubtable cavalry; he +saw that it was better to maintain the combat, and +that by exposing himself to peril, he might possibly +conquer. This rapid glance of a strong mind, which +seizes and embraces the only means of safety, however +perilous it may be, is the characteristic of the +genius of Condé. All wounded as he was, harassed +with fatigue, but drawing new vigor from the grandeur +of his resolution, he places himself at the head +of the left wing of Turenne, dashes, as if in the very +beginning of the battle, upon the right wing of the +enemy, plunges into its midst, and makes prisoner of +its commander; then, turning to the right, he throws +himself upon the centre of the Imperialists, rescues +his own, rallies it, leads it anew to the combat, and, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_320">[320]</span>master of the battle-field, prepares himself to meet +Jean de Wert, who, returning from his useless pursuit, +learning the death of Mercy⁠<a id="FNanchor_281" href="#Footnote_281" class="fnanchor">[281]</a> and the capture of +Gleen, amazed at the disaster produced by his absence, +dares neither to attack nor to await Condé, +but gathers together his shattered army, and flies to +Donauwerth. Condé had, in this second combat, another +horse killed under him; he also received a +pistol-shot, and indeed barely survived his victory. +It was at this time that he suffered from that severe +sickness, on recovery from which he found that he +had lost with his blood and his strength all his passion +for Mademoiselle Du Vigean.⁠<a id="FNanchor_282" href="#Footnote_282" class="fnanchor">[282]</a></p> + +<p>Condé is one of the small number of captains who +have no less excelled in the art of besieging than in +that of combating.⁠<a id="FNanchor_283" href="#Footnote_283" class="fnanchor">[283]</a> After Rocroy, in 1643, he took +Thionville, one of the first fortified places of the +times. In 1644, he took Philipsbourg, which commanded +the upper Rhine. In 1646, having had the +wisdom to consent to serve under the Duke d’Orleans, +in order to quiet the distrust and please the vanity +of this prince; and although placed in command of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_321">[321]</span>the army only at the close of the campaign, he terminated +it by a memorable siege, in which he covered +himself with glory: he took Dunkirk on the 11th of +October,⁠<a id="FNanchor_284" href="#Footnote_284" class="fnanchor">[284]</a> 1646.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_322">[322]</span></p> + +<p>Accustomed to repair the errors of others, Condé +went, in 1647, to take the place of Count d’Harcourt, +who had just made a failure before Lerida. Mazarin +had wished, several times, to send Condé to Catalonia; +his father, M. the Prince, had always opposed +it, and all his friends dissuaded him from accepting +this command. He certainly showed great deference +for Mazarin, by quitting the ordinary theatre of his +exploits for a country where it was necessary to engage +in a petty war, with an army incapable of giving +battle, and, at most, fit only to sustain itself before +the enemy. When every one was making sport of +the Count d’Harcourt, who had been unable to take +Lerida, Condé had the good sense and generosity to +defend this excellent general: he thus in advance defended +himself. In fact, having arrived in his turn +before Lerida, and receiving from France neither the +troops which had been promised to him, nor the munitions +and artillery, of which he was in absolute +need, and not having sufficient force to meet the +Spanish army, and not being able to think of assaulting +Lerida with a handful of half-dead soldiers, he +had the courage to raise the siege and to make a +good retreat, preferring the safety of the army to his +own reputation. This conduct, sustained by his accustomed +hauteur, did him the greatest honor, and +proved that he was master of himself and knew how +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_323">[323]</span>to employ by turns prudence or audacity according +as circumstances demanded.</p> + +<p>Thus, at Lens in 1648, finding the Archduke Léopold +in a position as formidable as that of Mercy at +Nortlingen, he saw that it would be highly imprudent +to tempt fortune a second time; and, knowing +that he had not now to deal with Mercy, he undertook +to draw the Archduke Léopold and General +Beck upon more favorable ground, in a plain where +the principal force of the French army, the gendarmery, +commanded by Châtillon, might have a great +advantage. Numbers, abundance, and discipline +were on the side of the Spaniards; misery and audacity +on that of the French. Behind the centre of +the archduke were towns and hamlets, forming natural +intrenchments. His right, composed of all that +remained of the old national bands, rested upon the +city of Lens. His left wing was posted upon an eminence, +which could not be reached except through +the most narrow paths. It was necessary to manœuvre +with infinite art to induce an enemy to abandon +such an impregnable position. Condé commanded +a false retreat, which explained perfectly +the weakness of the French army. Beck, deceived, +detached the Lorraine cavalry to disturb, and, if possible, +to cut in pieces our rear guard, which was +promptly enough broken and thrown into confusion. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_324">[324]</span>Châtillon marched to their aid with his gendarmery; +he drove back the Lorraine troops, and threatened +them with slaughter. They could not be abandoned. +The archduke sent all his cavalry to their assistance. +The combat began; the whole of the hostile +army moved and descended into the plain. This was +precisely what Condé desired. The very same manœuvre +that had failed at Nortlingen, succeeded at +Lens. The imperial army had still the immense disadvantage +of being obliged to form as it advanced, +while the French army had been since morning arranged +in good order at the extremity of the plain, +upon well-chosen ground. Condé relied especially +upon the gendarmery of Châtillon; he had recalled +it soon after the first engagement, and had placed it +in the second line to give it time to refresh; afterwards, +when the two contending bodies had become +closely engaged, he let it loose again with its intrepid +general, and, after being so useful at the +beginning of the fight, it finally decided it by over-throwing +every thing in its way. The Spanish infantry +remained; it did not show the same obstinacy +as at Rocroy, but it cried for life. Old General +Beck conducted himself like Fontaine and Mercy: +he fought like a lion, was wounded and taken, and he +died of despair. The Archduke Léopold, after conducting +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_325">[325]</span>himself well, escaped into the Pays-Bas with +the Count de Fuensaldaigne.</p> + +<p>The victory of Lens was as important and as useful +as that of Rocroy: to it is due the recommencement of +the negotiations of Munster and the conclusion of the +treaty of Westphalia. This treaty was the result of +the five great campaigns of Condé in Flanders and +on the Rhine. Condé was there an armed negotiator, +as we might say; M. de Longueville was, at +Munster, a pacific negotiator.</p> + +<p>Father Bougeant, in his estimable history of the +treaty of Westphalia,⁠<a id="FNanchor_285" href="#Footnote_285" class="fnanchor">[285]</a> supposes that Mazarin sent the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_326">[326]</span>Duke de Longueville to Munster, “in order to remove +from the court a prince capable of exciting +troubles in it.” But, in 1645, Mazarin had no more +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_327">[327]</span>troubles to fear, and the Duke de Longueville was +not a man to create them: he suffered himself to be +guided at that time, as well as the rest of his family, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_328">[328]</span>by the policy of its chief, M. the Prince. It is much +easier to believe that it was the latter who gave the +embassy of Munster to his son-in-law. Mazarin had +not chosen him for his capacity, although he was +not deficient in it, but to aid d’Avaux and Servien, +who stood in need of him, and to give éclat to the +French legation. He remained master of the negotiations, +and the Condés must have been flattered to +be at the head of the most important diplomatic +affair, having already command of the fleet in the +Mediterranean, and of the army upon the Rhine.</p> + +<p>M. de Longueville had to pursue the great object +at which the French cabinet had aimed from the +time of Henry IV.,—the enfeebling of the empire to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_329">[329]</span>the advantage of France. With this view it was +that the very Christian king, the Cardinal Richelieu, +and the Cardinal Mazarin united with the Protestant +Gustavus Adolphus, drew him into the heart of Germany, +him and after him his lieutenants, and sustained +Protestant Holland against Catholic Spain. +This struggle, which, for thirty years, was carried +on with so much éclat, continued for more than +twelve years at Osnabrück and at Munster. On the +one side were Austria, Spain, and Bavaria, with the +ecclesiastical electors of Mayence and of Cologne; +on the other, the Protestant powers, Brandenburg, +Saxony, Hesse, with their allies, Holland, Sweden, +and France. The Protestant party wished to obtain +the greatest concessions, and the Catholic party to +make the fewest possible. They advanced and receded +according to the vicissitudes of war. Richelieu +had designated the man, who had all his confidence, +Mazarin and the Count d’Avaux, of the +powerful family of Messne, to represent France at +Munster. When Mazarin succeeded Richelieu in the +ministry, he named in his own place Count Abel +Servien, uncle of the skilful and judicious Lyonne, +who was to him what he had himself been to Richelieu. +He retained d’Avaux, who had wit and penetration, +uprightness and nobleness, with a degree of +piety which made him acceptable to the Catholic +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_330">[330]</span>powers, but which carried him a little too far to make +him accommodating with them, and at the same time +more anxious for the advantage of the Church than +policy demanded. Servien alone was the depository +of the thoughts of Mazarin, and Mazarin, like his predecessor, +knew but one interest, that of the greatness +of France. He was desirous of obtaining from the +empire the whole of Alsace, with some strongholds +upon the Rhine, in order to complete the legitimate +development of France in that quarter. He had still +another ambition, which Richelieu had bequeathed to +him, and which he bequeathed to Lyonne: it was that +of tearing from Spain the trade of Catalonia, where +Richelieu and himself had cunningly carried the war +against the Low Countries, without which France +has really no northern frontier, and is exposed, after +an unfortunate battle, to the passage of a hostile army +even to the very walls of Paris. Such were the +thoughts which occupied the mind of Mazarin, and +which he pursued at once, by means of negotiations +and by arms, with the mildness and constancy which +characterized this great statesman.</p> + +<p>M. de Longueville arrived at Munster on the 30th +of June, 1645, at nearly the same time that his +brother-in-law, the Duke d’Enghien, was going to +take command of the army of the Rhine, in the place +of Turenne, who had just suffered a very grave defeat +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_331">[331]</span>at Mariendal. The victory of Nortlingen, of the 5th +of August, 1645, gave the greatest strength to M. de +Longueville; and the Duke of Bavaria, the second +Catholic power of Germany, who had broken off negotiations +after the battle of Mariendal, recommenced +them eagerly after that of Nortlingen. The cession +of Alsace was then almost gained; but victorious +Mazarin could with difficulty renounce the hope +which he had long entertained of acquiring the Low +Countries from Spain in exchange for Catalonia. +Therein resided all the difficulty of the negotiations, +the knot which no skill could loosen, and which the +sword alone could cut. It was reserved for Louis +XIV., at the close of the seventeenth century, after +having lost the three statesmen who, for a long time, +formed his strength and his glory, Mazarin, Lyonne, +and Colbert; it was reserved for him to abandon the +schemes of his predecessors, and, when it was proposed +that he should receive the Low Countries in +return for his rights over Spain, to reject this favor of +fortune, which Mazarin and Richelieu would have +embraced with transports of joy; this he did for the +sake of family interest, staking his own crown for the +sake of placing one upon the head of his grandson, +and jeopardizing the safety of France without giving +to it, even for a quarter of a century, the alliance of +Spain. We may remark in passing, that this incredible +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_332">[332]</span>resolution, poorly covered with an appearance +of grandeur, and the revocation of the Edict of +Nantes, are the two great personal inspirations of Louis +XIV.: they determine his policy, internal and external, +compared with that of Mazarin, of Richelieu, +and of Henri IV. It is impossible to recount all the +efforts made by Mazarin, in 1648, to induce Spain to +yield to him the Low Countries. He offered, with +all Catalonia, the young Louis XIV. for the infanta +Maria-Thérissa. At the same time he sent d’Estrades, +with whom we have before become acquainted,⁠<a id="FNanchor_286" href="#Footnote_286" class="fnanchor">[286]</a> +into Holland, in order to promote the +arrangement which he so ardently desired: he went +even so far as to propose Antwerp to the commerce +of Holland. It was a powerful temptation; but +Holland resisted it; she was weary of a war which +must thus be prolonged; and besides, she was beginning +to be less afraid of Spain, and was hoping a +great advantage by acquiring a conquering neighbor +instead of a feeble one. Spain, on her side, saw our +horizon darkened with new troubles, and, full of +hope, she broke off negotiations, made a separate +treaty with Holland, and persuaded the emperor to +unite with her in a last and powerful effort. One +man alone was able to save France, menaced as it +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_333">[333]</span>was in 1643. This man was the conqueror of Rocroy. +It was then that Condé, who was well acquainted +with the position of affairs, engaged, upon +the plains of Lens, on the 20th of August, 1648, in +the memorable battle which we have described, in +which he was as prudent as ever Turenne had been, +and as bold as his own genius and circumstances +permitted. From this moment negotiations were +conducted with promptness. On the 24th of October, +1648, was signed, at Munster, the Treaty of +Westphalia, which gave peace to Germany for a +century, which there strengthened religious liberty, +and which acknowledged all the conquests of France +over the empire.⁠<a id="FNanchor_287" href="#Footnote_287" class="fnanchor">[287]</a></p> + +<p>Thanks to this treaty, Mazarin had now Spain alone +in view, and he hoped soon to bring it to that point +which could give to France a frontier on the north +similar to that which it had just acquired on the +south of Germany. He dreamed of obtaining, at the +close of a few more fortunate campaigns, a treaty +still more favorable than that of the Pyrenees, in +1660. He had in his hands the conqueror of Lens, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_334">[334]</span>whom he hoped to launch upon the Low Countries; +it was in his power to send into Spain and into Italy, +generals still superior to d’Harcourt and to Schomberg; +he hoped to maintain or re-enkindle the insurrection +of Naples: a magnificent future was before +France. Who deprived her of this future? Who +divided and exhausted her strength? Who made +her, with a suicidal hand, shed her own best blood? +Who sowed discord among the most illustrious of her +captains? Who arrested Condé in his course, at the +age of twenty-seven years, when he might yet have +added so many victories to all those of his youth, +when he might have planted the standard of France +in Brussels or in Madrid?</p> + +<p>The Fronde it was that committed the inexpiable +crime of having stopped the rise of Condé and of +French grandeur. And, in return, did it increase +and develop our old national franchises? Far from +that: by an inevitable reaction, it disgusted France, +for a long time, with an anarchical liberty, incompatible +with public order, with the force of the +government and of the nation; it took away from +royalty every species of counterpoise; it produced +the despotism, at first intelligent and useful, afterwards +improvident and grievous, of Louis XIV.</p> + +<p>And now, what gave birth to the Fronde, or what +sustained it? What raised up the old party of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_335">[335]</span><i>Importants</i>, stifled, it would seem, under the laurels +of Rocroy? What separated the princes of the blood +from the crown? What turned against the throne +that illustrious house of Condé, which, until then, had +been its buckler and its sword? There were doubtless +many general causes for all this; but it is impossible +for us to conceal one, private, it is true, but +which exercised a powerful and deplorable influence—the +unexpected love of Madame de Longueville +for one of the chiefs of the <i>Importants</i>, who had become +one of the chiefs of the Fronde. Yes—I say it +with regret—it was Madame de Longueville, who, +joining the party of the malcontents, attracted thereto, +at first, a part of her family, then her whole family, +and thus precipitated it from the pinnacle of honor +and glory to which so many services had elevated it.</p> + +<p>Let us narrate, as rapidly as possible, what we +know of Madame de Longueville, from the moment +that we left her until the commencement of the year +1648.</p> + +<p>No authentic documents, printed or in manuscript, +authorize us to suppose that before the close of the +year 1647, Madame de Longueville had ever passed +the limits of fashionable gallantry. On the 4th of +February, 1644, soon after the adventure of the letters, +and of the tragic quarrel which followed it, she +gave birth to a daughter, who received the name of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_336">[336]</span>her mother and of her brother, Charlotte Louise, +Mademoiselle de Dunois, and who died on the 30th +of April,⁠<a id="FNanchor_288" href="#Footnote_288" class="fnanchor">[288]</a> 1645. A year after, the 12th of January, +1646, she had a son, Charles d’Orleans, Count de +Dunois, who was expected to succeed to the titles of +his father, but who, ill-favored by nature, attempted, +without success, various careers, and finally buried +himself in the Church, at the close of the century, +under the name of the Abbé d’Orleans. In 1647, +she gave birth to a second daughter, Marie Gabrielle, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_337">[337]</span>who died in 1650. We shall presently speak of the +last son, who was born during the Fronde.</p> + +<p>Madame de Longueville was twenty-five years of +age at the time of the duel between Coligny and +Guise, in 1644. Each year only added to her +charms. The glory of her brother fell upon her, and +she responded to it somewhat by her own success at +court and in the <i>salons</i>. She acquired more and +more the manners of the times. Coquetry and wit +formed all her occupation. Her delicate situation +not permitting her to accompany M. de Longueville +to Munster, in June, 1645, she remained in Paris; +she enjoyed it very much, and, whether her heart +had already been touched, or whether it was still entirely +free, it is clear that she was not very glad, after +her confinement, in 1646, to join, under the sky of +Westphalia, a husband who was not, as Retz says, the +most agreeable man to her in the world.⁠<a id="FNanchor_289" href="#Footnote_289" class="fnanchor">[289]</a> Imagine, +in fact, this spoiled child of the hôtel de Rambouillet +leaving Corneille and Voiture, all the elegances and +refinements of life, to go to Munster, to listen to the +German or Latin conversations of foreign diplomatists. +It was to her a double exile, for her country +was not only France, it was Paris, it was the court, +it was the hôtel de Condé, Chantilly, the Place-Royale, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_338">[338]</span>the Rue Saint-Thomas du Louvre. It was, +however, necessary to obey, and to set off with her +step-daughter, Mademoiselle de Longueville, who was +already more than twenty years of age. In order to +have something of Paris, she took with her several +men of letters, and among others, Claude Joly, uncle +of Guy Joly, author of the <i>Mémoires</i>, canon of Nôtre-Dame, +who remained all his life attached to the +Condés, and who made himself known by different +works full of learning and of merit;⁠<a id="FNanchor_290" href="#Footnote_290" class="fnanchor">[290]</a> also the academician +and oratorian Esprit, one of the frequenters +of the hôtel de Rambouillet,⁠<a id="FNanchor_291" href="#Footnote_291" class="fnanchor">[291]</a> who had just been +embroiled with the Chancellor Séguier, for having +favored the marriage of his daughter, the Marchioness +de Coislin, with the son of Madame de Sablé, the +handsome and brave Marquis de Laval, who was +killed some time after, by the side of Condé, at the +siege of Dunkirk. A little before her departure for +Munster, Esprit had introduced to Madame de +Longueville one of the old favorite poets of Richelieu, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_339">[339]</span>Bois-Robert, who had continued to be dazzled +with the new éclat of her whom he had formerly admired +amid the fêtes of Ruel. It was in the following +terms that Bois-Robert relates to Esprit his visit, +and describes to him Madame de Longueville. The +verses are mediocre, but we must be satisfied, for +they hold the place of an infinite number of other +verses, which we might with propriety quote, in regard +to the same person and the same epoch, and +which are still worse:⁠<a id="FNanchor_292" href="#Footnote_292" class="fnanchor">[292]</a></p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Almost conceal’d beneath the crystal wave,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">She raised her naked arms her brow to lave.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">My eyes the living marble haply spied;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To test its warmth my glowing bosom sigh’d.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The sprightly zephyrs in a merry mood</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Her tresses bore along the silvery flood;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">They kiss’d her neck, they kiss’d her cheeks, whose hues</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Gay Nature when she paints but seldom woos—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A neck and cheeks that verily might claim</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To put the fairest flowers of Spring to shame.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With fingers, rosy as Aurora plies,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The moisture dashing from her fretted eyes,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">She now reveal’d, as ne’er reveal’d before,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Those two resplendent suns which to adore</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I dropp’d my eyes, because my feeble sight</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Could not endure such dazzling floods of light;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And in one living form I saw combined</div> + <div class="verse indent0">All ever seen of beauty most refined:</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_340">[340]</span> <div class="verse indent0">But how her coral lips shall I extol?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh how express the rapture of my soul,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When to the charms which bade me most rejoice,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">She added too the music of her voice? etc.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Madame de Longueville left Paris on the 20th of +June, 1646, accompanied by her step-daughter, and +with a numerous escort under the command of Montigny, +lieutenant of the guards of M. de Longueville. +The whole journey from Paris to Munster was a continual +ovation. Her course may be followed day by +day, and from city to city, thanks to the detailed +narrative of Claude Joly. Belgians, Hollanders, +Spaniards, Imperialists, and every one strove to show +their gallantry to the beautiful ambassadress. Governors +went out to meet her at the heads of their garrisons. +The keys of the cities through which she passed +were offered to her. She had continual escorts of +cavalry. The Duke de Longueville went as far as +Wesel to meet her. Turenne, who then commanded +upon the Rhine, exhibited to her his army drawn up in +order of battle. Was it then that the great captain, +well known to be sensible to beauty, received the +impression which was renewed at Sténay in 1650, +and which, prudently preserved by Madame de +Longueville, always formed between them a tender +and intimate connection?⁠<a id="FNanchor_293" href="#Footnote_293" class="fnanchor">[293]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_341">[341]</span></p> + +<p>On the 22d of July she made a triumphal entry +into Munster. Holland was too near to her not to +tempt her curiosity. She took a walk thither, if we +may thus speak.⁠<a id="FNanchor_294" href="#Footnote_294" class="fnanchor">[294]</a> During all the autumn of 1646 +and the winter of 1647, she was truly the queen of +the congress of Munster. Her graces made their +impression upon diplomatists as well as upon warriors. +She connected herself particularly, in the +French embassy, with Claude de Mesmes, Count +d’Avaux, of whom we have already spoken, and +who was the friend and correspondent of Voiture, of +Madame de Sablé, and of Madame de Rambouillet. +We have before us some manuscript letters of +d’Avaux to Voiture: they are very agreeable, but +not very natural; and, amid Latin quotations, then +very fashionable among people who prided themselves +upon their erudition, they show us what an +impression was made by Madame de Longueville +upon the dean of our diplomatic corps. She did not +appear very melancholy to d’Avaux; but the rival +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_342">[342]</span>of Servien was perhaps better fitted to discover cabinet +intrigues than to read the heart of a woman.</p> + +<p>“It is to⁠<a id="FNanchor_295" href="#Footnote_295" class="fnanchor">[295]</a> Madame de Montausier and to Madame +the Marchioness de Sablé that I am indebted for the +favors which I have received from Madame de +Longueville.... You say that commerce is dangerous +with a person so well made, as if the great +disproportion and the great distance between those +persons and such as myself did not shelter me. You +know that the eloquence of Balzac makes no impression +upon the mind of a peasant. No, no, I am not +afraid. It would be strange enough if in a peaceful +assembly I had not sufficient public faith for my +preservation, and if, with the passports of the emperor +and of the king of Spain, Munster should not be +a safe place for me.... I look however, I do not +pluck out my eyes. I see beauty greater than I have +ever seen before; I see all of what is graceful and +charming that can be united, and a something which, +it seems to me, can nowhere else be found, with so +much majesty:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent20">Video igne micantes,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sideribus similes oculos, video oscula, sed quæ</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Est vidisse satis.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class="noindent">I admire with you that goodness, that generosity, and +those amiable qualities which we shall always vie in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_343">[343]</span>praising, but which we can never praise enough. +The correctness of that mind, its strength and its extent, +astonish me also, and sometimes displease me +with myself; for there is in it so much that is extraordinary +and above the age and the sex. Suppose +that I was made of stuff as combustible as you,⁠<a id="FNanchor_296" href="#Footnote_296" class="fnanchor">[296]</a> who +still complain of the trials of youth, how small a spark +would set me in a blaze! A <i>précieuse</i>, who has travelled +two hundred leagues to join an old husband, +who has quitted the court for Westphalia, who is +here in continual gayety, who was lately delighted +to see a comedy among the Jesuits (truly, however, +in good Latin), who gives constrained audiences, who +converses pleasantly with M. Salvius, M. Vulteius, +and M. Lampadius,⁠<a id="FNanchor_297" href="#Footnote_297" class="fnanchor">[297]</a> who is not frightened if a big +Hollander kisses her twice during his regular daily +visits, who receives agreeably the civility of another +ambassador counselling him to learn German for his +recreation, who with all this preserves her embonpoint +and pleasant countenance....”</p> + +<p>“... I must indeed revenge myself a little now. +Some complaints are made here of your taciturnity; +but they are uttered by persons of no very great consequence: +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_344">[344]</span>by no one in fact but Madame de Longueville, +and she is hardly worth speaking of. She has +paid you some very great compliments; her friends +have received orders to solicit your remembrance; +she has requested them several times to let her lose +nothing in the friendship which you promised her; +in short, she has sent you word that she was not +proof against such continued indifference, and yet +she receives no satisfaction. This is perhaps, as you +say, because commerce is dangerous with her, and +you yourself take the advice which you give me; +but the poor princess cannot be consoled.... Although +you were a perfect philosopher, and although +you had lost sentiment and life, you should at least +speak when Madame de Longueville looks at you, +even as did the statue of Memnon when it was illumined +by the rays of the sun. If you continue, I +doubt not that you will be set down as a mute. Give +your orders, if you please. All that I could do for +you was to answer your letter to M. the Duke d’Enghien.⁠<a id="FNanchor_298" href="#Footnote_298" class="fnanchor">[298]</a> +Madame, his sister, read it with great pleasure; +and, M. Esprit entering the room a quarter of +an hour afterwards, she was very glad to have another +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_345">[345]</span>pretext for seeing it again, and left her seat to +hear it read once more. This is not all: she requested +me to send it to her the next day, with the promise +that she would take but a single copy to place among +her papers. I will not tell you how much she thinks +of it; but will content myself with simply confessing, +that it is one of the most delightful things in the +world, to see this mouth filled with your praises, and +that your name is nowhere more magnificently entertained....”</p> + +<p>Voiture is not in arrears with his ingenious correspondent +on the account of Madame de Longueville:</p> + +<p>“... I am very impatient to witness the return +of Madame de Longueville after the conclusion of a +good peace. What you say to me of this princess is +as beautiful as she is herself, and I shall keep it for +her to look at some day.... Tell the truth, my lord: +do you think it is possible to find, I do not mean in a +single person, but in every thing that is beautiful and +lovely throughout the world—do you think it is possible +to find so much wit, grace, and charm as there +is in this princess? Be on your guard. She writes +to us wonderful things concerning you, and of the +friendship that exists between you. Commerce is +dangerous with her. I assure you besides, that she +is as good as she is beautiful, and that there is no +soul in the world more lofty or better than hers....”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_346">[346]</span></p> + +<p>A little while after, January 9, 1647, he says:</p> + +<p>“... Respect has hitherto prevented me from +writing to Madame de Longueville; but you make +me much more afraid of her by representing her to +me as being so serious and so occupied with politics. +We take great pleasure in imagining her entertaining +M. Lampadius (he is said to be dressed ordinarily +in violet satin), M. Vulteius, and M. Salvius, +and especially that big Hollander.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent8">‘Dulcia barbarè</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lædentem oscula quæ Venus</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Quinta parte sui nectaris imbuit.’</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>“His advice to her to study German for her amusement, +has been a subject of great mirth for Madame +de Sablé and Madame de Montausier....”⁠<a id="FNanchor_299" href="#Footnote_299" class="fnanchor">[299]</a></p> + +<p>Among the monuments of the abode of Madame +de Longueville at Munster, we must place the portrait +which was made of her by Anselme Van Hull, +and which was engraved with those of M. de Longueville, +of d’Avaux, and of Servien, in the collection of +portraits of all the princes and diplomatists assembled +at Munster.⁠<a id="FNanchor_300" href="#Footnote_300" class="fnanchor">[300]</a> It is a bust. Even in the engraving, +mediocre as it is, we perceive the charming +softness of the eyes. A mass of blonde hair surrounds +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_347">[347]</span>her face.⁠<a id="FNanchor_301" href="#Footnote_301" class="fnanchor">[301]</a> Her bosom, partly exposed, appears +in its modest beauty. A small collar of pearls +adorns a fresh and delicate neck. The following +lines, written perhaps by d’Avaux or Voiture, are +placed beneath the portrait:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">These heroes gather’d in Westphalia,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">From France, the North, from Spain, Italia,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Finding so many charms in me,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Fancy, as my face they see,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That I the living form must be</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of Peace and Concord, hither sent,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">War’s dire misfortunes to prevent.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>In the mean time, all the circles of Paris mourned +the absence of Madame de Longueville. Godeau +did not cease to urge her return in the name of the +hôtel de Rambouillet:</p> + +<p>“Is it not better, madame,” wrote he to her, “that +you should return to the hôtel de Longueville, where +you are still more powerful than at Munster? Every +one is wishing it this winter. My lord, your brother, +has returned covered with palms; come back yourself +crowned with the myrtles of peace, for it seems to +me that it is not enough for you to carry olive +branches alone. I dare not explain myself farther, +lest I should be guilty of gallantry. This I leave to +the Julies and to the Chapelains, etc.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_302" href="#Footnote_302" class="fnanchor">[302]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_348">[348]</span></p> + +<p>She had enjoyed sufficiently her brilliant exile, +but, with her habitual politeness and sweetness, she +dissembled her weariness. In the winter of 1647, +she had two reasons for returning to France. Her +father, M. the Prince, died at the close of December, +1646: this was an immense loss to his family and to +France, and its consequences were soon keenly felt. +In addition to this, Madame de Longueville had, for +the third time, found herself <i>enceinte</i> at Munster. +Her mother was, for this reason, anxious to have her +at home; and M. de Longueville was constrained to +permit his wife to take the road to Paris.</p> + +<p>Her return to France—first to Chantilly, then to +Paris—in the month of May, 1647, was a very different +triumph from that which characterized her journey +upon the Rhine, and into Holland, and her abode +at Munster. She found the crowd of her adorers +more numerous and more eager than ever; and in +the first rank was her brother, the Prince de Conti, +who, fresh from college, was taking his first lessons +in the world. Let us say a word in regard to this +new personage, who now appears for the first time, +and who will play a very conspicuous part in the life +of Madame de Longueville.</p> + +<p>Armand de Bourbon, Prince de Conti, who was +born in 1629, was eighteen years of age in 1647. +He had a good mind, and not an unpleasant face; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_349">[349]</span>but a slight deformity and a certain feebleness of +body, rendering him unfit for the army, he was early +destined for the Church. He had studied among the +Jesuits at the college of Clermont, with Molière, and +M. the Prince, before his death, had obtained for him +the richest benefices,⁠<a id="FNanchor_303" href="#Footnote_303" class="fnanchor">[303]</a> and demanded a cardinal’s hat. +While waiting for this hat, Armand de Bourbon was +living at the hôtel de Condé, partly an ecclesiastic, +partly a man of the world, all occupied with wit, and +greedy of every species of success. The glory of his +brother filled him with emulation, and he dreamed +himself of warlike exploits. When his sister returned +from Germany, he went to meet her, and, +dazzled by her beauty, her grace, and her fame, he +began to love her rather as a gallant than as a +brother.⁠<a id="FNanchor_304" href="#Footnote_304" class="fnanchor">[304]</a> He followed her blindly in all her adventures, +in which he exhibited as much courage as +lightness. When he had made his peace with the +court—thanks to his marriage with a niece of Mazarin, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_350">[350]</span>the beautiful and virtuous Anne-Marie Martinozzi—he +obtained the command-in-chief of the army +of Catalonia, in which capacity he acquitted himself +with great honor. He was much less successful in +Italy. On the whole, he was far from injuring his +name, and he gave to France, in the person of his +young son, a true warrior, one of the best pupils of +Condé, one of the last eminent generals of the seventeenth +century. Constrained, through ill-health, to +betake himself again to religion, the Prince de Conti +finished, where he had begun, with theology. He +composed several meritorious and learned works on +various religious subjects.⁠<a id="FNanchor_305" href="#Footnote_305" class="fnanchor">[305]</a> In 1647, he was entirely +devoted to vanity and pleasures. He adored his +sister, and she exercised over him a somewhat ridiculous +empire, which continued during several +years.</p> + +<p>The court and Paris were then occupied with festivals +and enjoyments, which all were eager to share +with Madame de Longueville. To please the queen, +Mazarin multiplied the balls and the operas. At a +great expense he sent to Italy for artists, singers, +male and female, who represented an opera of <i>Orpheus</i>, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_351">[351]</span>the machinery and decorations of which are +said to have cost more than 400,000 livres. The +queen delighted in these spectacles. France also, as +if touched with its own grandeur, took pleasure in +the magnificence of its government, and seconded it +by redoubling its own luxury and elegance. The +pleasures of wit occupied the first rank. The hôtel +de Rambouillet, near its decline, was shedding its +last rays. Madame de Longueville reigned there as +well as in all the circles of Paris; and, it must be +confessed, with her good qualities she had also the +defects of the best <i>précieuses</i>. The following is the +picture which Madame de Motteville has traced⁠<a id="FNanchor_306" href="#Footnote_306" class="fnanchor">[306]</a> of +her person, of the turn of her mind, of her occupations, +of her credit, and of that of the whole house of +Condé, at this period, which may be considered as +the most brilliant of her life: “This princess, who, +during her absence, reigned in her family, and whose +approbation was sought as if she were a true sovereign, +did not fail, on her return to Paris, to appear in +greater splendor than when she left it. The friendship +entertained for her by the prince, her brother, +authorizing her actions and her manners, the greatness +of her beauty and of her mind increased so much +the cabal of her family, that she was not long at +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_352">[352]</span>court without almost entirely engrossing it. She became +the object of all desires: her clique was the +centre of all intrigues, and those whom she loved +became also the favorites of fortune.... Her intelligence, +her wit, and the high opinion entertained for +her discernment, won for her the admiration of all +good people, who were persuaded that her esteem +alone was enough to give them reputation. If, in +this way, she governed souls, she was not less successful +by means of her beauty; for, although she +had suffered with the small-pox since the Regency, +and although she had lost somewhat of the perfection +of her complexion, the splendor of her charms exerted +a powerful influence upon those who saw her; and +she possessed especially, in the highest degree, what, +in the Spanish language, is expressed by those words, +<i>donayre, brio, y bizarrie</i> (gallant air). She had an +admirable form, and her person possessed a charm +whose power extended over our own sex. It was +impossible to see her without loving her, and without +desiring to please her. Her beauty consisted, however, +more in the colors of her face than in the perfection +of her features. Her eyes were not large, but +beautiful, soft and brilliant, and their blue was admirable: +it was like that of the turquoise. Poets +could compare the incarnation upon her face to lilies +and roses only; and the light shining hair which +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_353">[353]</span>accompanied so many wonderful things, made her +more like an angel, such as our poor nature can imagine +one, than like a woman.... She was then too +much engrossed with her own sentiments, which +passed for infallible rules while they were not always +so, and there was too much affectation in her manner +of speaking and acting, whose greatest beauty was +attributable to delicacy of thought and correctness of +reasoning. She appeared constrained, and the fine +raillery, exercised by herself and her courtiers, often +fell upon those who, while rendering her their homage, +felt, to their mortification, that honest sincerity, which +ought to be observed in polite society, was apparently +banished from hers. The virtues and praiseworthy +qualities of the most excellent creatures are mingled +with things which are opposed to them: all men partake +of this clay from which they draw their origin, +and God alone is perfect.... In fine, it may be +said that at this time all greatness, all glory, and all +gallantry were confined to this family of Bourbon, of +which M. the Prince was the chief, and that fortune +was not considered a desirable thing, if it did not +come from their hands.”</p> + +<p>It was about this time that the two sonnets of Voiture +and of Benserade divided the court and the +city, the <i>salons</i> and the academy. Almost all the +documents appertaining to this little literary contest +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_354">[354]</span>have been preserved;⁠<a id="FNanchor_307" href="#Footnote_307" class="fnanchor">[307]</a> but we have discovered some +hitherto unknown, which we cannot withhold from +the reader, because they show the passion which +then existed for literary matters, the ascendency of +Madame de Longueville, and the peculiar delicacy +of her taste.</p> + +<p>Voiture had just died in 1648, and his friends had +caught, as the last sigh of his muse, the sonnet to +Uranie. At the same time another sonnet appeared, +written by one of the rivals of Voiture, younger than +himself, and who had not been formed at the hôtel +de Rambouillet: it was the complaint of a lover who +pretended to be more miserable than Job, because +Job could at least groan aloud on account of his misfortune, +whilst the poor lover was compelled to suffer +in silence:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Job, whom a thousand torments grieve,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Shall to your eyes his torture prove;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And yet with reason shall believe</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That they will not your pity move.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Regard his ills in every light,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Feel every word as he explains:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">You grow accustomed to the sight</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Of one who suffers and complains.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Although his anguish was extreme,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Yet human patience you will deem</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To have e’en his by far outdone.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_355">[355]</span> <div class="verse indent0">He suffer’d pangs past all belief,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Complain’d, and told them one by one,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But I have known far greater grief.⁠<a id="FNanchor_308" href="#Footnote_308" class="fnanchor">[308]</a></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>All the fashionable lovers of the day, the languishing +and the dying, admired this description of their +martyrdom, the height of sorrow being to suffer without +complaining; and it is certain that the close of +the sonnet of Benserade is neither without spirit nor +without charm. It created a furor. The sonnet of +Voiture was of a very different character. It possessed +a finished elegance, somewhat feeble it is true, +but elevated and animated by a certain passionate +accent, which is sweetly felt throughout it. It was +of a more distinguished and more rare quality, and +for this reason it had at first less success. Balzac⁠<a id="FNanchor_309" href="#Footnote_309" class="fnanchor">[309]</a> +composed upon these two pieces a formal dissertation, +in which he weighs in the balance of the most scrupulous +criticism the merits and the defects of both. +Corneille, annoyed by a quarrel which turned attention +a little too much from his own works, began +to make sport of the two sonnets; afterwards, the +affair acquiring more and more literary interest, he +engaged in it himself, and took sides with Job against +Uranie, in a sonnet in which he does not hesitate to +say that Voiture’s is doubtless <i>better conceived, better +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_356">[356]</span>conducted, better finished, but that he would prefer to +be the author of the other</i>. He returns to the charge +in an epigram which terminates as follows:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The one displays more art, the other much more life;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The one is more precise, the other much more <i>naïf</i>;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The one shows labor long, the other much more sprite:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In short, the one is right well made, the other pretty, quite.</div> + <div class="verse indent6">To use the fewest words I can—</div> + <div class="verse indent6">The one springs from a soul polite,</div> + <div class="verse indent6">The other from a gallant man.⁠<a id="FNanchor_310" href="#Footnote_310" class="fnanchor">[310]</a></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>This was a very imposing judgment, and, to all +appearance, there was little hope for Voiture, when +Madame de Longueville undertook his defence. Her +situation was somewhat embarrassing. Her brother, +the Prince de Conti, was at the head of the Jobelins, +and Esprit, who had accompanied her to Munster, +and on whom she might have depended upon any +occasion, Esprit, who, without ceasing to be of the +Church, was occupied with the most gallant literature, +as he will at a future day be occupied with +sentences and maxims, had written very warmly in +favor of Benserade. But Madame de Longueville +was not the person to take the lucky side and to +abandon her old friend Voiture. Her authority soon +changed the face of the combat.</p> + +<p>In the camp of the Jobelins was the Countess de +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_357">[357]</span>Brégy, one of the ladies of honor of Queen Anne, +and wife of a famous ambassador, from whom we +have a collection⁠<a id="FNanchor_311" href="#Footnote_311" class="fnanchor">[311]</a> of prose and verse, and some <i>questions +d’amour</i>, to which Quinault replied by order of +the young king. She was much surprised to learn +that Madame de Longueville preferred to the universally +applauded sonnet a piece of verse which +had not produced a very great effect. She hastened +to write to her, asking permission to maintain her +own opinion against hers. The following is her letter, +with the diplomatic reply of the ambassadress of +Munster.⁠<a id="FNanchor_312" href="#Footnote_312" class="fnanchor">[312]</a></p> + +<blockquote> + +<p class="center"><i>Madame de Brégy to Madame de Longueville.</i></p> + +<p>“Job, in ages past, was scarcely less humiliated +than I now am to find myself opposed to the opinion +of Your Highness; for if I had not enough sense to +conform myself to it, my spirit of divination ought +to serve the other in this encounter, and not permit +him to endure the shame of seeing himself opposed +to sentiments which I have regarded as a rule by +which one could never fail. But, since I have taken +up the cause of Job, more unfortunate because he +suffers at your hands than on account of all his first +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_358">[358]</span>evils, be pleased, Madame, to allow me an opportunity +on Thursday evening to defend an unhappy person, +against whom the devil has cunningly excited +your persecution, as the only means of divesting him +of that patience which he has exhibited for so many +ages, and which cannot be preserved when one is +despised by you.”</p> + +<p class="center"><i>Madame de Longueville⁠<a id="FNanchor_313" href="#Footnote_313" class="fnanchor">[313]</a> to Madame de Brégy.</i></p> + +<p>“Your letter has done more for the sonnet of Job +than Benserade himself; and it occasions me so +much regret at not entertaining sentiments conformed +to those of the person who wrote it, that, if it does +not make me alter, it makes me at least condemn my +own, thus obtaining from me a preference for Job, +which I should have always refused so long as the +sonnet had spoken for itself. This, I think, is all +that a generous person can do for a party to which +she does not belong; and I assure you that if yours +is not that of my choice, it is exalted in my esteem. +I shall be glad to see you on Thursday, and to hear +you advocate the cause of Job; but be admonished, +at least, that I will hear you argue against my past +sentiments only, consenting no longer to oppose your +own, etc.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_359">[359]</span></p> + +<p>The two ladies contended, as we see, in the most +courteous manner; but they contended warmly and +for a long time. I conjecture that aside from literature +there was some secret motive in it all. Madame +de Brégy was beautiful and coquettish as well as intellectual. +She could, without much difficulty, believe +that the piece of Benserade was addressed to +her, and that it was an indirect declaration of a somewhat +plebeian love, condemned to wear out secretly +in suffering. Benserade had, at least, composed for +her an epistle, in which he pleads the fear of love as +his excuse for flying from her.⁠<a id="FNanchor_314" href="#Footnote_314" class="fnanchor">[314]</a> Madame de Longueville +could not have forgotten all the verses which +Voiture had written in her praise while yet quite +young; and perhaps the latter, on again beholding, +in 1647, the noble beauty in all the splendor of her +charms, quitting his former familiarity for an affectionate +respect, was desirous of ending as he had +begun, and dying, as was then said, in the service of +her whom he called Uranie, a celestial beauty upon +whom he dares scarcely to lift his eyes.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">In love with Uranie I’ll pine e’ermore;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Absence nor time to me affords a cure;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Naught can my pain the least relief procure,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nor any thing my freedom e’er restore.</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_360">[360]</span> </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Her chains oppress me each day more and more;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But witnessing her beauty passing pure,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I willingly can any death endure,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And e’en her tyranny dare not deplore.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">My reason, feebly though, sometimes essays</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To urge me to revolt, its strength arrays;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But when to use it I am ever prone,</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">It strives in vain my shackles to remove</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Then claims that worth is Uranie’s alone,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And, more than all my senses, prompts to love.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Madame de Longueville thought, moreover, that +her preference was supported by very good reason, +and in this we are inclined to agree with her. The +work of Benserade possesses undoubtedly more wit, +invention, and even originality, since it is certainly +something quite new to place in the mouth of Job a +declaration of love: that of Voiture, to us, possesses +a secret and melancholy gracefulness which touches +the heart. With Corneille, we find the sonnet of Job +<i>prettier</i>, though <i>unnatural</i>—a strange eulogium, and +one hardly to be expected here from either party +pronouncing it; but the sonnet of Uranie seems to us +to proceed more from one in love, and this it is +which decides us. Perhaps if Madame de Longueville +had conversed with Corneille, she would have +converted him in the name of their common principles; +she succeeded, at least, in overcoming her +brother, the Prince de Conti, who, after having made +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_361">[361]</span>a sonnet to Benserade, at last took the part of Voiture +and of his sister. She launched against him +Sarrazin, whose commentary in verse we still possess—a +commentary that turns into ridicule the sonnet +of Benserade and the opinion of Esprit:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Sir Esprit, of the Oratory,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In you we piety perceive,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thus crowning, as you do with glory,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">“Job, whom a thousand torments grieve.” etc.⁠<a id="FNanchor_315" href="#Footnote_315" class="fnanchor">[315]</a></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Madame de Longueville herself wrote to Esprit a +letter, in which she evinces a fine cultivated literary +taste. She acknowledges, in the sonnet of Job, a +gallant air and delicacy, but nothing more. With +the exception of a few lines, all the others seem to +her full of faults, and she carries refinement and preciseness +so far as to designate certain expressions of +Benserade as disgusting, meaning by this, vulgar. +On the contrary, she finds in the sonnet of Voiture, +beauty and force of expression, with thoughts which, +though not new, possess the sovereign merit of passion. +She makes a thousand concessions to Esprit; +she asks pardon for her audacity in differing with +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_362">[362]</span>him;⁠<a id="FNanchor_316" href="#Footnote_316" class="fnanchor">[316]</a> she announces, at the same time, that she +means to continue the war; she appeals to <i>all Rambouillet</i>, +and jests pleasantly upon this new kind of +Fronde.</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p class="center"><i>Madame de Longueville to Monsieur Esprit.⁠<a id="FNanchor_317" href="#Footnote_317" class="fnanchor">[317]</a></i></p> + +<p>“It is true that I am in the utmost astonishment to +find our tastes so different in this matter; and my +astonishment is the greater because it seemed to me +a subject upon which our sentiments should be the +same. For, in short, with the exception of the seventh, +eighth, and last lines of the sonnet of Job, I +find it not only full of faults, but even of such as you +have never been able to endure; its expression goes +so far as to be disgusting; whereas, in the piece of +Voiture (at least in its last six lines), the most beautiful +and forcible expression in the world is united with +a thought which, though not certainly new, is so passionate +that it should, it seems to me, be more highly +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_363">[363]</span>esteemed than the mere delicacy which characterizes +that of Job. I confess that it has as gallant an air as +any thing that I have even seen; also, although I find +reason upon my side, I think that if there is none +which authorizes the other party, there is at least the +greatest cause in the world for preferring its taste; +and if one may suffer himself to be seduced without +dying of shame, I confess that it is upon such an +occasion. This is all that my natural justice can +permit me to feel for those who have not followed +my sentiments. I send you what will acquaint you +with the manner in which my brother has made +known his own, that is, his final opinion; for the first +was made in prose, and more favorable to Uranie +than to Job, but with the declaration that if he should +choose to send one of the two sonnets to his mistress, +it would be that of Job. Neither party was satisfied +with this judgment, not being able to turn it fully to +its own account. A more decided one was demanded. +There are some who think that even this⁠<a id="FNanchor_318" href="#Footnote_318" class="fnanchor">[318]</a> +is not so; but, for my own part, I am contented that +Voiture is therein pronounced admirable and grand, +and Benserade only gallant and pretty. He has +made another sonnet, which I send you also, together +with the list of our friends and of our enemies. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_364">[364]</span>They have taken sides uninfluenced by prejudice, +politics, or any other motives than the force of reason +in some cases, and the gratification of taste and +blindness of mind in others. But I am not going so +far as to use invectives, and I think that there is as +little generosity in attacking a father of the Oratoire, +as there would be in assailing an unarmed man. I +close therefore for the very reason which made me +prefer Uranie to Job, and the celestial muse to a man +infected from the crown of his head to the soles of his +feet.</p> + +<p>“I beg you to tell M. the Abbé de Croisy,⁠<a id="FNanchor_319" href="#Footnote_319" class="fnanchor">[319]</a> that I +wish him to take my part. I forgot to tell you that +we are writing circular letters, and that we expect +the opinions of M. and Madame de Montausier, of all +Rambouillet, and of M. and Madame de Liancourt. +In fine, this matter will not rest here; and if the excitement +about it continues, the ministers will be +more apt to occupy themselves with it than with the +assemblies of the nobility; and the tolerance shown +for our seditious manners, is the strongest indication +which we have had for a year of the humbling of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_365">[365]</span>royal authority, for they are cantonments against the +fundamental laws of a well-governed State.⁠<a id="FNanchor_320" href="#Footnote_320" class="fnanchor">[320]</a> In +short, God wills it, and we have nothing to say.</p> + +<p>“A word of reply in regard to persons of your +own party and of mine, etc.”</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Madame de Longueville gained the day; all the +hôtel de Rambouillet went over to her side, and +Benserade, beaten after having been triumphant, +thus complained to her who had robbed him of his +glory:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">You give me then the lowest place!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The vanquish’d in this contest I,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I, elevated once so high,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Must now conceal my blushing face.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">This evil luck will soon apace</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Through mem’ry’s fane my name decry;</div> +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_366">[366]</span> <div class="verse indent0">And fallen, I must ever lie</div> + <div class="verse indent0">O’erwhelm’d with sorrow and disgrace.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>We give also this pretty quatrain of Mademoiselle +de Scudéry:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">’Tis but the simple truth to say,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Job’s fate most strange hath been;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Tormented ever, day by day,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">First by a demon, by an angel then.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Such were the frivolous pastimes, at once innocent +and dangerous, of Madame de Longueville. All the +prosperities and all the felicities of life surrounded +her. Every thing conspired in her favor, or rather +against her,—the triumphs of the mind as well as +those of beauty, the continually increasing glory of +her house, the intoxication of vanity, the secret desires +of her heart. The trial was too strong; she +yielded to it. In the enchanted circle in which she +moved, more than one adorer attracted her attention; +one of them succeeded in winning her, according to +all appearances, at the close of 1647 or at the commencement +of 1648. She was then about twenty-nine +years of age.</p> + +<p>François, first Prince de Marcillac, afterwards, +upon the death of his father, Duke de La Rochefoucauld, +was the eldest son of François de La +Rochefoucauld, whom Louis XIII. created a duke +and a peer in 1622, and of Gabrielle de Liancourt. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_367">[367]</span>He was born December 15, 1613, and at an early +age married Mademoiselle de Vivonne. He served +honorably in Italy and in Flanders, and in 1646 he +was wounded at the siege of Mardyck. As Retz says, +he was not a warrior, although he was a very good +soldier. Without being very handsome, he was well +formed and very agreeable. What distinguished +him especially was his wit. Of this he possessed an +infinite fund, of the finest and most delicate. His +conversation was mild, easy, insinuating; and his +manners were at once the most natural and most polished. +He had a lofty air. In him vanity supplied +the place of ambition. At an early age he showed a +fondness for distinction and for intrigues. Profoundly +selfish, and having succeeded in acquiring a knowledge +of himself and in reducing to theory his nature, +his character, and his tastes, he set out with contrary +appearances, and with those chivalrous manners affected +by the <i>Importants</i>. One of his first connections +was with Madame de Chevreuse, who gave +him to Queen Anne. He entered so earnestly into +the interests of the queen and into those of Mademoiselle +d’Hautefort, that he conceived or caught +the idea of carrying them away. “I was,” says he,⁠<a id="FNanchor_321" href="#Footnote_321" class="fnanchor">[321]</a> +“at an age when one loves to perform extraordinary +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_368">[368]</span>and brilliant things, and I thought that nothing could +be more so than to carry off the queen at once from +the king, her husband, and from Cardinal Richelieu, +who was jealous of him, and of bearing away Mademoiselle +d’Hautefort from the king, who was enamored +of her.” He did not execute this fine project; +but Richelieu, who had some suspicion of all these +intrigues, placed him for eight days in the Bastile. +It seems that he was not entirely a stranger to the +conspiracies of Cinq-Mars. At the death of Richelieu +he hastened to Paris, and, when that of Louis +XIII. had placed the supreme authority in the hands +of Queen Anne, he imagined that his fortune was +made. He sought successively various important +offices which the queen could not grant, whatever +fondness she might have entertained for him. Madame +de Chevreuse exacted for her old friend the +government of Havre, which was then of the highest +consequence; but this government was in the family +of Richelieu, and Mazarin could not take it away +from the Duchess d’Aiguillon. La Rochefoucauld +aspired to the command of the cavalry; he was very +brave, but he was not considered capable of such an +employment. He tried thus several schemes; the +queen applied herself to soothing his disappointments, +by manners so tender, as to retain him, as would be +now said, in a moderate opposition, and keep him +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_369">[369]</span>from taking part in the violence of Beaufort. He +was not then covered with the disgrace of the <i>Importants</i>, +though he shared it to a certain extent; +and he did not cease to be, or to seem to be, very +much attached, not to the government, but to the +person of the queen. He looked continually for some +great favor at her hands. These favors not arriving, +he determined to procure through intimidation what +his fidelity had not been able to secure.</p> + +<p>It was during this state of his feelings that he met +Madame de Longueville, on her return from Munster, +surrounded by the most earnest admirers. The +Count de Miossens, afterwards Marshal d’Albret—handsome, +brave, full of wit and of talent, as enterprising +in love as in war—was paying her a very +zealous court. La Rochefoucauld persuaded Miossens, +who was one of his friends, that, after all, if +he should overcome the resistance of Madame de +Longueville, it would only be a victory flattering to +his vanity, whilst that he, La Rochefoucauld, would +be able to turn it to a very good account. This was +certainly a very touching and heroic reason for loving! +Corneille did not think of it in the <i>Cid</i> and in +<i>Polyeucte</i>. We have, however, done no more than +to transfer, with the utmost exactness, a piece from +La Rochefoucauld himself, which we will now quote, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_370">[370]</span>word for word:⁠<a id="FNanchor_322" href="#Footnote_322" class="fnanchor">[322]</a> “So much unprofitable labor and so +much weariness, finally gave me other thoughts, and +led me to attempt dangerous ways in order to testify +my hostility to the queen and Cardinal Mazarin. +The beauty of Madame de Longueville, her wit, and +the charms of her person, attached to her all who +could hope for her favor. Many men and women of +quality strove to please her; and besides all this, +Madame de Longueville was then upon such good +terms with all her house, and so tenderly beloved by +the Duke d’Enghien, her brother, that the esteem +and friendship of this prince might be counted upon +by any one in the favor of Madame his sister. Many +persons vainly attempted this game, mingling other +sentiments with those of ambition. Miossens, who +afterwards became Marshal of France, persisted in it +longest, but with similar success. I was one of his +intimate friends, and he told me his designs. They +soon fell to the ground of themselves. He saw this, +and told me several times that he was about to renounce +them; but vanity, which was the strongest of +his passions, prevented him from telling me the truth, +and he professed to entertain hopes which he had not, +and which I knew that he could not have. Some +time passed in this way; and, finally, I had reason +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_371">[371]</span>to believe that I could make a more considerable use +than Miossens of the friendship and confidence of +Madame de Longueville. I made him believe it +himself. He knew my position at court; I told him +my views, declaring that my consideration for him +would restrain me always, and that I would not attempt +to form a connection with Madame de Longueville +without his permission. I will even confess that +I irritated him against her in order to obtain it, without +however saying any thing untrue. He delivered +her entirely to me, but he repented when he saw the +result of this connection....”</p> + +<p>La Rochefoucauld pleased Madame de Longueville, +doubtless, by the graces of his mind and the charms +of his person, and especially by that glory won for +him by his conduct towards the queen, which was +enough to dazzle a pupil of the hôtel de Rambouillet. +He paid her homage which was, to all appearance, +the most passionate in the world. In proportion as +he insinuated himself into her heart, he skilfully +aroused in her that desire of appearing and of producing +an effect, so natural in woman. Little by +little, he displayed before her eyes a new object +which she had not yet perceived—an important part +upon the theatre of events just opening. He transformed +her natural coquetry into political ambition, +or rather he inspired her with his own ambition.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_372">[372]</span></p> + +<p>When Madame de Longueville, touched by the +passion shown for her by La Rochefoucauld, had determined +to respond to it, she gave herself up to him +entirely; she devoted herself to him whom she +dared to love; she made it a point of honor, as well +doubtless as a secret happiness, to share his destiny +and to follow him without looking behind her, sacrificing +to him all her private interests, the evident interest +of her family, and the strongest sentiment of +her soul, her tenderness for her brother Condé.</p> + +<p>Oh admirable thing! do you know who it is that +commits a crime against this devotion? He precisely +who makes his profit in it. La Rochefoucauld +expresses himself thus in regard to Madame de +Longueville:⁠<a id="FNanchor_323" href="#Footnote_323" class="fnanchor">[323]</a> “This princess possessed all the advantages +of mind and beauty to such a degree and with +so much charm, that it seemed as if nature had taken +pleasure in forming a masterpiece.... But these +fine qualities were rendered less brilliant by a stain +which was never seen upon a princess of such merit, +which found no imitations on those who entertained +for her a particular adoration; a stain which so +transformed her in their sentiments, that she did not +recognize her own. At this time the Prince de Marcillac +shared her mind, and as he joined his ambition +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_373">[373]</span>to his love, he inspired her with a desire for business, +to which she had a natural aversion.”</p> + +<p>Let us listen to the declared enemy of Madame de +Longueville, her step-daughter, the Duchess de Nemours: +“It will doubtless cause astonishment⁠<a id="FNanchor_324" href="#Footnote_324" class="fnanchor">[324]</a> that +Madame de Longueville should have been one of the +first (to join the party of malcontents), she who had +nothing to hope from that party, and who had no +reason to complain of the court.... M. the Prince +felt an extreme tenderness for his sister. She, on her +side, humored him, less from interest than from the +particular esteem and tender friendship which she +had for him. At this time neither she nor the whole +cabal showed much wit in their designs; and although +they were all possessed of enough of it, they +employed it only in gay conversations, only in commenting +and refining upon the delicacies of the heart +and of the sentiments. They made all the wit and +merit of a person to consist in making subtile distinctions +and representations, sometimes unnatural +enough. Those who made the most display were, in +their opinion, the most creditable and most learned +persons, and they treated as ridiculous and coarse +whatever approached to grave conversation.... It +was La Rochefoucauld who gave to this princess so +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_374">[374]</span>many hollow and false sentiments. As he exercised a +very great power over her, and as he seldom thought +of any other person than himself, he drew her into +all the intrigues in which she engaged, only to be +able thereby to promote his own ends.”</p> + +<p>Madame de Motteville, whom we must never grow +weary of studying and citing when we wish to know +and to establish the truth, after having marked the +principal motive which urged La Rochefoucauld in +his pursuit of Madame de Longueville, adds: “In⁠<a id="FNanchor_325" href="#Footnote_325" class="fnanchor">[325]</a> +all that she has since done, it is clearly seen that +ambition was not the only thing that occupied her +soul, and that the interests of the Prince de Marcillac +there held a prominent place. For him she became +ambitious, for him she ceased to love repose; and in +order to be sensible to this affection, she became too +insensible to her own glory.... The declarations of +the Prince de Marcillac, as I have already said, had +not been displeasing to her; and this nobleman, who +was perhaps more selfish than tender, wishing through +her to promote his own interests, believed that he +should inspire her with a desire of ruling the princes +her brothers....”</p> + +<p>Finally Retz, who was perfectly acquainted with +all the actors and all the actresses of the Fronde, and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_375">[375]</span>who, in regard to this epoch, merits not to be believed +without reserve, but to be listened to seriously, +closes the most charming eulogy upon Madame de +Longueville with these words, so often repeated, and +which contain the true judgment of posterity: “As +her passion obliged her to make politics only a secondary +matter, from the heroine of a great party, she +became its adventuress.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_326" href="#Footnote_326" class="fnanchor">[326]</a></p> + +<p>We must either renounce all historical criticism, +or from these accumulated testimonies, which we +could have much increased, we must draw this conclusion: +1, That before her connection with La Rochefoucauld, +Madame de Longueville remained entirely +unconcerned in every political intrigue; that +she was occupied only with intellectual matters and +gallantry, suffering herself to be guided absolutely in +every thing else by her father and by her brother; +2, That it was not on her account, as has been often +repeated, that La Rochefoucauld entered the Fronde; +that, far from this, it was La Rochefoucauld, and La +Rochefoucauld alone, who, little by little, engaged her +in it, designedly and selfishly; 3, That the conduct +of Madame de Longueville in the Fronde must be +referred to La Rochefoucauld, who governed her, and +that the only good thing in her is the character which +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_376">[376]</span>she exhibited when the intrigue became a tempest, +when it was necessary to risk her person; to stake her +happiness, her repose, her fortune, and her life, retaining +still under the hand of another what she could +never lose—the pride of soul and brilliant energy of +the sister of the great Condé.</p> + +<p>It is not our business here to give a history of the +Fronde, to make known its peripetics, its principal +personages, the true springs of their actions, their apparent +patriotism, their real ambition, their unstable +hopes, their perpetual changes. We wish simply to +describe Madame de Longueville; it is to her, without +separating her from her brother Condé, that we +would confine ourselves in this labyrinth of intrigues; +here even we will show her only in the first scenes of +the Fronde.</p> + +<p>As soon as La Rochefoucauld had entered the +heart of Madame de Longueville, he occupied it entirely. +She employed in his service all the charms +of her person, the resources of her mind, the greatness +of her heart. Careless of her interests, and +turning her back upon the fortunes of her house, she +attacked openly, or undermined by artifice, that royalty +which her family had supported, and which had +been still more the support of her family. Forgetful +of her most just resentment, even of her honor, she +entered the ranks of those who, in 1643, had endeavored +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_377">[377]</span>to blast in the bud her fresh and unsullied fame. +The daughter of the Condés went over to the Vendômes +and to the Lorraines, made common cause +with Beaufort and with Madame de Chevreuse, and +exposed herself to the risk of encountering in this +new circle her old and implacable enemy, Madame +de Montbazon. If Guise had not then been at Naples, +she would doubtless have testified her perfect +change by shaking the hand that had slain Coligny!</p> + +<p>In the mean time La Rochefoucauld did not forget +his reason for desiring so ardently the conquest of +Madame de Longueville. He had wished, as he +himself tells us, to reach the brother through the +sister, and to draw into the Fronde the house of +Condé, which had hitherto been a rampart to the +queen and to Mazarin.</p> + +<p>M. the Prince had died at the close of 1646, and +with him his family had lost its political helm. +Madame the Princess remained firmly attached to +the queen; but Madame de Longueville succeeded, +without much difficulty, in numbering among the +malcontents the Prince de Conti, who, while waiting +for a cardinal’s hat, was not sorry to make some +noise, play some part, and acquire an importance +which might make him compare favorably with his +brother. She needed no great cunning to draw +among the malcontents her husband, who was naturally +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_378">[378]</span>inclined towards them. But the great difficulty +was to win Condé himself.</p> + +<p>The latter imagined that he had great cause of +complaint against the cardinal. At the death of his +brother-in-law, Brézé, in 1646, he asked to succeed +him as High-Admiral of France. It was impossible +to add this office to the number already possessed by +the Condés; but, through management, the queen +gave it to no one, and set it down for herself. M. the +Prince, who was still living, ambitious and greedy, +had warmly resented this refusal. The impetuous +Condé had not concealed his anger. He was also +much irritated at being sent into Catalonia to replace +d’Harcourt, with the promise of every thing necessary +to carry on a campaign worthy of him; and that +he had been left, without the aid promised and +earnestly claimed, between a strongly fortified place, +which he could not take by assault on account of +the condition of his troops, and a powerful army +which he could neither wait for nor reach, so that he +was obliged to raise the siege of Lerida, and to retreat +in good order before the enemy. He felt that +he had done well, but it was the first time that he had +given way; in spite of him, his glory suffered by it, +and he complained with bitterness of what he called +the disloyalty of the cardinal. Finally, he was sent +into Flanders to take command of a very feeble +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_379">[379]</span>army,—not an army destitute of courage, but entirely +undisciplined. Besides, it must be confessed, +the true genius of Condé was for war. In this, again, +he is the first of his age, and equal to the greatest in +antiquity and in modern times,—as ardent as Alexander, +as resolute as Cæsar, as fertile in expedients as +Hannibal, as capable of making precise and vast calculations +as Napoleon, which may be seen by the +plan of the campaign by which, in 1645, he proposed +to dictate peace to the Emperor in Vienna. He possessed +all the qualifications of a warrior. He knew +not only how to achieve a victory by the boldness of +his manœuvres, but he knew how to calculate upon +one, and, as Bossuet said of a very different person, +he left nothing to fortune which he could accomplish +through prudence and foresight. He was as good a +military manager as he was an active and enterprising +general. He excelled in the art of encamping and +of besieging, as well as in that of fighting, and he +surpassed Vauban. By turns, he exhibited that +audacity which confounded Mercy at Fribourg and +at Nortlingen, and that great prudence which led +him to raise the siege of Lerida, and which at a later +period, in 1675, wearied Montecuculli. With the +most happy instincts, he united profound study. In +Catalonia he marched with a copy of Cæsar in his +hand, explaining it to his lieutenants. He formed +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_380">[380]</span>the greatest generals, commencing with Turenne, +who served under him during two campaigns, and +finishing with that Luxembourg who, if he were +rejudged, would perhaps be found not inferior to +Turenne himself. Let us add this very striking fact: +Condé is the only modern captain who never suffered +defeat, and who was always victorious when he commanded +in chief. Turenne was beaten twice in regular +battle—at Rethel and at Mariendal; Frederic +commenced with reverses; Napoleon terminated his +dazzling career by two frightful routes—Leipsic and +Waterloo; Condé alone was ever triumphant. He +had arrayed against him the three greatest generals +of Europe—Mercy, Montecuculli, and William; not +one of them was able to deprive him of even the +shadow of an advantage. We might easily extend, +without exhausting it, the eulogy of the warrior in +Condé; but, we acknowledge it, he had not the qualifications +of a great politician, because at bottom he +had no true determined ambition. First prince of the +blood in a monarchy such as was that of France in +the seventeenth century, what could he desire beyond +the acquisition of glory? And after Richelieu +and under Mazarin, this glory could be reached by +him only on the battle-field. It was for this and for +this alone that his father had reared him. He was +also subjected, at an early age, to that severe discipline +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_381">[381]</span>of ambition which teaches to speak at the +proper moment and to be silent, to exhibit no humor, +to keep the eye fixed upon the highest object, never +suffering it to be turned aside by secondary interests, +or by the caprices of the imagination or of the heart. +Such is the ambitious man; such were, more or less, +Henri IV., Richelieu, and Mazarin; for it is just to +place Mazarin in this illustrious company. All three +had a great end to attain, which they pursued with +constancy. Condé had no aim; he formed no great +design, being by birth as high as he could become—all +that he could ever dream of being, unless he +acted the madman or the traitor; and he had a mind +perfectly correct, with a corresponding heart. His +conscience and his good sense told him then that he +had nothing to gain by all the intrigues in which +others wished to engage him; that his place was near +the throne, in order to protect it with his sword +against its enemies, whoever they might be, whether +at home or abroad. If he had kept this place, he +would have attained to a rank much higher than even +the usurpation of royalty. Let us not hesitate to look +at it, that we may the better feel the greatness of his +fall: to his five years of brilliant victories in Flanders +and upon the Rhine, from 1643 to 1648, he +might, beyond all doubt, have added, during the war +which continued between France and Spain after the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_382">[382]</span>treaty of Westphalia, new victories, which, in two +campaigns, at most, might have forever conquered +Belgium, as the preceding had added Alsace to the +French territory. He would then, at the age of +thirty, have gained as many battles as Alexander, +Hannibal, and Cæsar; and still there would have +been before him twenty years of vigor, twenty other +victories, like that of Senef, for example,⁠<a id="FNanchor_327" href="#Footnote_327" class="fnanchor">[327]</a> which he +gained upon the verge of old age, before laying aside +his sword, as a monument of what he might have +done from 1648 to 1675. Incomparable would have +been his destiny had he performed his part as first +prince of the blood, firm defender of the crown yet +loyal interpreter of the nation; bearing to the queen +without frightening her, and to Mazarin, while sustaining +him, the legitimate complaints of the nobility, +of the parliament, and of the people.</p> + +<p>There was, in fact, a cause for the Fronde; Mazarin, +almost equal to Richelieu as a diplomatist, had +not, in the smallest degree, the genius of his master +for the administration of State affairs. Incessantly +occupied with increasing the territory and strengthening +the royal authority, he attended to little else, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_383">[383]</span>and suffered abuses and disorders to creep in everywhere. +The great wars which he undertook, the four +or five armies which he was obliged to support, had +exhausted France, which did not always find in glory +a consolation for its misery. It had been necessary +to increase the taxes, even to sell the public offices, +in order to have means for paying the troops. The +authority of the parliament had often been eluded or +disarmed. The blood of the nobility had flowed in +torrents. The people groaned under the heaviest +burdens; and if the sentiment of national grandeur +abandoned them even for a moment, the greatness of +the evil caused them to utter complaints, and drove +them to revolt. I do not accuse the people: they +are seldom wrong; they move only when they suffer; +they agitate only to improve their condition, or at +least to make it less unhappy. It is parties that are +culpable, when, instead of striving to afford relief to +the evils of the people, they apply themselves to rendering +these evils more poignant and more bitter, by +inflammatory declamations, thus driving the people +beyond all bounds. I pity, in 1648, the people, naturally +irritated by the increase of taxes, and by the +disorders of the administration; I condemn the +Fronde, which, in its chiefs, with few exceptions, +was deceitful and corrupt, violent and mad; and I +am in favor of Mazarin, without loving him or without +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_384">[384]</span>being deceived in regard to his defects and his +faults, because, after all, he served France well, conducting +with great ability its affairs abroad, and diminishing, +by the peace with Germany, its misery at home. +I admire Condé in this first Fronde, for having resisted +his own injuries, the antipathy which he felt +for Mazarin, the solicitations of his own family, and +of his sister. I shall blame him in the strongest +terms when, unfaithful to his fortune and to his +glory, sacrificing the part of a principal to that of an +accessory, putting temper in the place of policy, he +shall engage in the intrigues which he had spurned, +and shall allow himself at first to humor, then to +serve the Fronde.</p> + +<p>He commenced very differently. In the beginning +of the troubles, Condé, without having enough of the +statesman to crush the sedition in its bud, preserved +at least a lofty bearing towards the malcontents; he +lent a careless ear to the proposals of his sister, and +having no taste for popular agitations, and not more +for the tumultuous and often ridiculous deliberations +of the parliament, occupied only with the coalition +of Spain and of the empire, he went, in the spring of +1648, to take command of the army of Flanders, resolved +to strike a blow and to repeat the victory of +Rocroy. Not being able to secure him, the malcontents +wished at least to profit by his absence. While +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_385">[385]</span>Mazarin, for the best interests of the country, was +demanding its utmost resources, and turning every +thing into money, in order to raise additional troops, +the Frondeurs, that is, a few of the great lords, supported +by a part of the nobility, aroused the people +and the parliament, who had not the least idea of the +true situation of affairs; for the parliament was not +a political assembly, and the people were simply +aware that they were suffering. Mazarin, entirely +occupied with the peril of the frontier, did not give +enough attention to domestic dangers. He had kept +very few troops near him, and one fine morning it +happened that the Frondeurs took possession of Paris. +The battle of the barricades followed close upon that +of Lens. On his return, Condé found royalty humiliated, +the parliament triumphing and dictating laws +to the crown, the Duke de Beaufort, with whom he +once thought of measuring swords in defence of the +honor of his sister, freed from his prison of Vincennes, +and master of Paris by aid of the populace +who idolized him; the fickle and vain Abbé de Retz +transformed into a tribune of the people; the Prince +de Conti into a captain; M. de Longueville under +the guidance of his wife and La Rochefoucauld; and +the feeble Duke d’Orleans fancying himself almost a +king, because he saw the queen humiliated, and because +the Frondeurs, cunningly flattering his self-love, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_386">[386]</span>were treating him like a sovereign. Condé, at a +glance, saw the situation of affairs and his duty also; +and, without any hesitation, he offered his sword to +the queen.</p> + +<p>He had a stormy explanation with his sister.</p> + +<p>It is pretended, that for some time their reciprocal +tenderness had suffered more than one interruption; +that, in 1645, Madame de Longueville had crossed +the loves of her brother and Mademoiselle Du Vigean; +that, in 1646, Condé, seeing her too intimate +with La Rochefoucauld, had caused her to be called +to Munster by her husband: but for this we have +only the authority of the Duchess de Nemours,⁠<a id="FNanchor_328" href="#Footnote_328" class="fnanchor">[328]</a> and +nothing is less probable. The passion of Condé for +Mademoiselle Du Vigean extinguished itself, as we +have seen, and as all contemporaries affirm. The +attentions of La Rochefoucauld to Madame de +Longueville may have preceded the embassy of +Munster, but they were not observed until 1647, and +it is at the close of this year that Madame de Motteville +places them, while attributing them especially +to the desire of La Rochefoucauld to share the credit +of the sister with the brother. But it is very certain, +that as soon as the latter remarked this connection, +he disapproved of it entirely; and not succeeding in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_387">[387]</span>his effort to rouse his sister from the intoxication of a +first love, he passed from the most ardent affection to +a bitter discontent. In the autumn of 1648, on his +return from Lens, this connection had acquired its +greatest strength, and become almost notorious. +Madame de Longueville, directed by La Rochefoucauld, +did then every thing in the world to gain her +brother: she brought to bear upon him all her allurements, +all her fondlings; she put into operation +every thing which she thought might influence this +passionate and fickle heart; she failed. He did not +succeed in gaining over her his accustomed ascendency. +They quarrelled and separated openly. Madame +de Longueville plunged more deeply into the +Fronde, and Condé applied himself to giving the +new <i>Importants</i> a harsh lesson.</p> + +<p>It is not my intention to enter into details. I wish +simply to show that the brother and sister, in their +opposite conduct, exhibited the same blood and the +same audacity.</p> + +<p>The queen had retired to Saint-Germain with the +young king and all the government. Paris was +under the absolute control of the Fronde. In spite +of the first president, Molé, the l’Hôpital of the seventeenth +century, it stirred up the parliament, by the +aid of a few ambitious councillors and by seditious +and mischievous inquests. It disposed of a great +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_388">[388]</span>part of the Parisian clergy, through the coadjutor of +the archbishop, Retz, who possessed and exercised all +the authority of his uncle. It had continually at its +head the two great houses of Vendôme and Lorraine, +with two princes of the blood, the Prince de Conti +and the Duke de Longueville, followed by a very +great number of illustrious families. It gave law in +the <i>salons</i>, thanks to a brilliant troupe of pretty +women, who drew after them the flower of the young +nobility. In short, the army itself was divided. +Turenne, with his troops, who were stationed upon +the borders of the Rhine until the perfect conclusion +of the treaty of Westphalia, obedient to the suggestions +of his eldest brother, the Duke de Bouillon, who +wished to gain his principality of Sedan, had just +raised the standard of revolt, and was threatening to +place the court between his own army and that of +Paris. Add that the parliament of the capital had +sent deputies to all the parliaments of the kingdom, +and that it was thus forming a sort of formidable +parliamentary league in the face of monarchy. +Condé took command of all the troops that remained +faithful, and everywhere opposed the insurrection. +He wrote himself to the army of the Rhine, which +knew him, and which, after the route sustained by +Turenne at Mariendal, had been led back by him to +victory: these letters, supported by the proceedings +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_389">[389]</span>of the government, succeeded in arresting the revolt; +and Turenne, abandoned by his own soldiers, was +obliged to fly to Holland.⁠<a id="FNanchor_329" href="#Footnote_329" class="fnanchor">[329]</a> At ease upon this subject, +Condé marched upon Paris, and placed it in +siege. Instead of disputing the ground, as he might +have done, foot by foot, with the sedition, he allowed +it the freest course, sure that the spectacle of licentiousness, +which could not fail to appear, would, little +by little, restore to loyalty those who had for a +moment gone astray. He began by calling, in the +name of the queen and through his mother, all his +family to Saint-Germain. The Prince de Conti and +M. de Longueville did not dare to disobey; but La +Rochefoucauld saw that the Fronde was in the greatest +peril; he hastened after these two princes; he +brought them back to Paris, made the Prince de +Conti generalissimo, placing under him the Dukes +d’Elbeuf and de Bouillon, who shared authority with +the Marshal de La Mothe Houdancourt, governor of +Paris.⁠<a id="FNanchor_330" href="#Footnote_330" class="fnanchor">[330]</a> As to Madame de Longueville, she excused +herself to the queen and to her mother on the grounds +of her delicate situation, which would not permit her +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_390">[390]</span>to undertake the least fatigue. In fact, Madame +de Longueville was in this condition, for the last +time, in 1648, when, it must be confessed, her connection +with La Rochefoucauld was well known. +It was in this condition that, willing to share the +perils of her friends, proud also of playing a part +and of filling all the trumpets of fame, she acted +the warrior as well as she was able. There is, +it is said,⁠<a id="FNanchor_331" href="#Footnote_331" class="fnanchor">[331]</a> a portrait representing her as Pallas, +just as, a little later, Mademoiselle was represented; +her light hair covered with a helmet, and her soft +eyes trying to wear a martial look. It is at least certain +that she shared all the fatigues of the siege, that +she was present at the reviews of the troops, at the +parades of the citizen soldiery,⁠<a id="FNanchor_332" href="#Footnote_332" class="fnanchor">[332]</a> and that all the civil +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_391">[391]</span>and military plans were discussed before her. The +memoirs of the times are full, in regard to this, of the +most curious details. The hôtel de Longueville was +continually filled with officers and generals; nothing +was seen there but plumes, helmets, and swords.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding all this, the democratic spirit +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_392">[392]</span>which had originated the Fronde, was not satisfied: +it beheld with displeasure all the forces of Paris in +the hands of the brother, of the brother-in-law, and +of the sister of him who commanded the siege. Believing +very little, and with reason, in the patriotism +of the princes, the citizens demanded some sureties +from the chiefs who might at any time betray them, +and make peace, at their expense, with Saint-Germain. +No one seemed to know how to appease this multitude, +without which nothing could be done. It was +then that Madame de Longueville showed that, if she +had forgotten her true duties, she had retained the +energy of her race and the intrepidity of the Condés. +She took her young children, and, notwithstanding her +delicate condition, proceeded to the principal quarter +of the insurrection, the hôtel de Ville, placing herself +in the hands of the people as a hostage, with all that +was most dear to her.⁠<a id="FNanchor_333" href="#Footnote_333" class="fnanchor">[333]</a> Her example was followed +by the Duchess de Bouillon.⁠<a id="FNanchor_334" href="#Footnote_334" class="fnanchor">[334]</a> “Imagine,” says Retz, +“these two beautiful persons upon the balcony of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_393">[393]</span>hôtel de Ville; more beautiful because they appeared +neglected, although they were not. Each held in +her arms one of her children, who were as beautiful +as their mothers. La Grève was full of people, even +to the housetops; the men all raised cries of joy, and +the women wept with tenderness.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_335" href="#Footnote_335" class="fnanchor">[335]</a> There, on the +night of the 28th of January, 1649, Madame de +Longueville gave birth to her last child, a son, who +was baptized by Retz in the church Saint-Jean-de Grève, +having for its godfather the Provost, for its +godmother the Duchess de Bouillon, and who received +the name of Charles de Paris;⁠<a id="FNanchor_336" href="#Footnote_336" class="fnanchor">[336]</a> the child of +the Fronde, handsome, talented, and brave, who +during his life was the troublesome hope, the melancholy +joy of his mother, and the cause of her greatest +grief in 1672, when he perished, in the passage of +the Rhine, by the side of his uncle.⁠<a id="FNanchor_337" href="#Footnote_337" class="fnanchor">[337]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_394">[394]</span></p> + +<p>For some time, Condé limited himself to subjecting +Paris to a blockade more and more rigorous, and to +small attacks, the effect of which was not very encouraging +to the citizen troops. The gentry alone, +even during their negotiations with Mazarin, fought +well. They carried on the war in two modes, by the +sword and by epigrams, songs and vaudevilles. The +party of Mazarin, as may be conceived, accomplished +very little with Madame de Longueville.⁠<a id="FNanchor_338" href="#Footnote_338" class="fnanchor">[338]</a> Condé +himself, who had loved her so much, and who, afterwards, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_395">[395]</span>will resume for her all his early tenderness, +did not hesitate to ridicule her with the accustomed +license of his language. He diverted himself very +much at the expense of the martial spirit of his +brother, the Prince de Conti, and he lampooned his +adversaries, among others the Count de Maure,⁠<a id="FNanchor_339" href="#Footnote_339" class="fnanchor">[339]</a> the +youngest of the Montemarts, with so much spirit and +in such a soldierlike way, that he abused the troops +and the citizens, when they dared to venture a few +steps from the ramparts of Paris. To enable one to +judge of the Fronde, even in this first period of its +short, yet too long history, it will be sufficient to +say that it had from that moment recourse to the +only remaining enemy of France; that these great +patriots, who continually reproached Mazarin with +being a stranger, applied to Spain, and that an envoy +of the archduke and of the Count de Fuensaldaigne +was received, and heard in full parliament. Is it +astonishing, after this, that in the course of a few +years, the young Louis XIV. should, without attracting +attention, enter this same parliament equipped +for a ride and with whip in hand! Demagoguery +produces necessarily tyranny, and, what is more sad, +it therewith produces universal applause, bruising the +hearts of those alone who had not merited it, and had +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_396">[396]</span>simply desired a moderate liberty. When the +shameful proposition was made to receive the Spanish +envoy, the President de Mesmes, turning towards +the Prince de Conti, addressed to him these severe +words:⁠<a id="FNanchor_340" href="#Footnote_340" class="fnanchor">[340]</a> “Is it possible, sir, that a prince of the blood +of France proposes to give audience upon the <i>fleurs +de lys</i> to a deputy of the most cruel enemy of the +<i>fleurs de lys</i>!”</p> + +<p>Condé thought that it was time to bring matters to +a close. He rendered more rigorous the blockade, +and multiplied the attacks. It was in one of these +attacks, at Charenton, February 9, 1649, that he lost +his best friend, the younger Coligny, the brave d’Andelot, +then Duke de Châtillon, the husband of Isabelle +de Montmorency, one of the heroes of Lens, +where he served in the capacity of a lieutenant-general, +from which office he was about to be elevated +to that of marshal; he was, it is true, somewhat easy +in his life and manners, but he promised to make +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_397">[397]</span>for France a captain of the strength of his brother-in-law, +Montmorency Boutteville, Marshal de Luxembourg. +Condé flew to the spot where Châtillon had +just fallen, received him in his arms, and, bathing +him with tears, caused him to be transported to Vincennes, +where he drew his last breath.⁠<a id="FNanchor_341" href="#Footnote_341" class="fnanchor">[341]</a> All historians +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_398">[398]</span>agree in their descriptions of the great grief into +which Condé was thrown by this death; it animated +him still more against the Fronde. At the same time, +it showed the court the importance of terminating a +war which was sweeping so many brave men from +both sides, to the great joy of Spain; and by showing +in this place the point of his sword, and by speaking +with firmness in that, he soon brought Paris and the +parliament to ask peace, and Mazarin to give one +which was humiliating to neither. He did not simply +obtain a general amnesty; he did more: he represented +that, in order to disarm the Fronde, it was +necessary to listen to its legitimate complaints, which +constituted its strength; and that royalty once replaced +above all factions, it was wise to make it the +origin of all necessary ameliorations. Hence the +royal declaration of the 12th of March, 1649,⁠<a id="FNanchor_342" href="#Footnote_342" class="fnanchor">[342]</a> which +annulled all the measures taken by the parliament +during the preceding six months, which expelled the +envoy of Spain, placed all the civil and military +forces in the hands of the king, interdicted, during +the remainder of the year 1649, every general assembly +of the parliament, but which promised that Paris +should see the return of the king, that the parliament +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_399">[399]</span>should henceforth consult him in regard to extraordinary +imposts, and that, if a treaty was made with +Spain, the parliament should choose one of its officers +to assist in its formation. The declaration said +nothing in regard to the nobility, for the very simple +reason that there was among them no general cause +to be satisfied, and that private interests alone demanded +attention.</p> + +<p>It is amusing to read, in Madame de Motteville,⁠<a id="FNanchor_343" href="#Footnote_343" class="fnanchor">[343]</a> a +piece entitled: “<i>Particular demands of Messieurs +the Generals and others interested</i>. They each had, +at Saint-Germain, deputies who treated for them. +For example, the Duke de Beaufort was not contented +with what had been privately offered to him. He +asked much, because his heart was still swollen by +the pride occasioned by the remembrance of his past +favor. He wished the ministry to reward him for +his chains and his imprisonment; he spoke proudly; +he declared loudly that he would not make terms +with Mazarin; and, carrying his resentment farther +than others, he rendered the adjustment of his affairs +more difficult.... Madame de Montbazon, who was +beloved by the Duke de Beaufort, gave hopes that +she would at least please him, if she could have what +she desired. She obtained moneys and abbeys; and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_400">[400]</span>the Duke de Beaufort, who loved her, was pleased +that this lady could profit by the inclination which +he had for her.”</p> + +<p>In short, every one was, or strove to be contented. +The Prince de Conti was the first who left Paris to +salute the queen. He was presented by Condé, who +made him embrace the Cardinal Mazarin. The +Prince de Conti, in his turn, presented the Duke de +Bouillon, La Rochefoucauld, the Count de Maure, +and many others. M. de Longueville, who had gone +to Normandy to arouse that province and its parliament, +did not delay to return to offer his homage, and +it was quite time for the beautiful and proud duchess +to show her submission. The scene is worth relating: +“I was alone,”⁠<a id="FNanchor_344" href="#Footnote_344" class="fnanchor">[344]</a> says Madame de Motteville, “with +the queen, and she did me the honor to speak to me +of the embarrassment testified by the Duke de +Longueville in saluting her. As I knew that Madame +de Longueville was about to enter, I arose, for I +was on my knees beside her bed, and placed myself +near to the queen, resolved not to stir, but to discover +whether this witty princess would be more eloquent +than the prince her husband. As she was naturally +timid and apt to blush, all her care could not save +her from the embarrassment which she experienced +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_401">[401]</span>on meeting the queen. I was sufficiently near to +these two illustrious persons to know what they +said; but I heard nothing except <i>Madame</i>, and a few +words which she pronounced so low that the queen, +who listened attentively to what she would say, +could not comprehend a single sentence.”</p> + +<p>This same Madame de Motteville, so veracious +notwithstanding her benevolence, so difficult in every +thing concerning the queen, her mistress, does +not hesitate to give to Condé the honor of the peace: +“We should not forget to observe here the disinterested +firmness of M. the Prince, who, without considering +either his family or his friends, acted always +for the interests of the king.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_345" href="#Footnote_345" class="fnanchor">[345]</a></p> + +<p>It is true, for the memorable service which he had +just rendered, Condé reaped scarcely any benefit; +but his noble conduct increased the splendor of his +last campaign of 1648; it added to his military +titles those of defender and saviour of the throne, of +pacificator of the kingdom, of arbiter and enlightened +conciliator of parties; it gave the climax to his credit +and to his glory. Happy would it have been, if, after +having thus terminated this sad war, he had quitted +the court and its intrigues, to seek other battle-fields, +and to finish another war somewhat more useful and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_402">[402]</span>more glorious to France—that which still remained +with Spain! Happy also had been Madame de +Longueville, if, taught by her own conscience, in her +last interview with the queen, and by the shameful +dénouement of the miserable intrigues of which she +had the secret, instead of still serving as their instrument, +she had shown her courage in resisting them; +if, after all the proofs of devotion which she had just +given to La Rochefoucauld, she had strongly represented +to him that, even for his own interest, a different +course was necessary; that it would be better to +look for fortune and honors by making himself esteemed, +than by trying to be feared; that ambition +as well as duty showed his place to be by the side of +Condé, in the service of the State and of the king; +that it was easy for him to obtain in the army some +post, where he would have simply to march forward, +trusting to his courage and his merit! But even if +she had been wise enough to speak thus to La Rochefoucauld, +she would not have succeeded in gaining +his ear. This restless spirit, this ever-discontented +vanity, pursuing by turns the most dissimilar objects, +because it selected none within its reach, this <i>indefinable +something</i>, as Retz⁠<a id="FNanchor_346" href="#Footnote_346" class="fnanchor">[346]</a> says, which was in La +Rochefoucauld, caused him to abandon the great +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_403">[403]</span>and straight roads, and led him into by-paths full of +precipices. The poor woman there follows him, and +aids him in his extravagant and guilty designs. Receiving +the law instead of giving it, she strives to promote +the passion of another by devoting to his service +all her coquetry and greatness of soul, her penetration +and intrepidity, her attractive sweetness and indomitable +energy. She undertakes to mislead Condé, to take +away from France the conqueror of Rocroy and of +Lens, and to give him to Spain. But let us not anticipate +these unhappy times. We have now traced +the last glorious days of Condé and the first faults of +Madame de Longueville. Let us stop here; let us +not enter upon the civil wars about to follow, impious +wars, in which the brother and the sister will +treasure up long remorse, in which the one will signalize +himself by exploits so deplorable, that he will +some day veil himself at Chantilly, for the sake of +his own glory and of France, and in which the other +will display the most brilliant qualities of mind, only +to weep for twenty-five years among the Carmelites +and at Port-Royal!</p> + +<p class="titlepage">THE END.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="FOOTNOTES">FOOTNOTES</h2> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> Fourth Series of our works, <i>Literature</i>, vol. ii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> It remains for us to collect from all our writings the scattered elements +of a new Theodicea, especially founded upon an exact Psychology, +fecundated by a legitimate induction, with the double purpose of +defending the great faith of the human race against the detestable philosophy +which Germany, in these last times, has sent into France, after +having borrowed it from her, and of defending also true and good +philosophy against a pusillanimous devotion, unworthy of Christianity, +and condemned by the Church, which refuses to human reason the +right and the power of elevating itself, even to God. It especially remains +to us to put the last hand to that translation of Plato, which we +would make the least perishable monument of our philosophic enterprise.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> See the work of Villefore: <i>The Life of Madame the Duchess de +Longueville</i>, in two parts. There are two somewhat different editions. +The first, which we shall quote, is of 1738, without indication of place; +the second of Amsterdam, 1739.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[4]</a> Quatremère de Quincy: <i>Dissertation upon the Antique Statue of +Venus, discovered in the Island of Milo</i>, in-4ᵒ; and <i>Collection of Archeological +Dissertations</i>, 1836, in-8ᵒ, p. 143.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">[5]</a> Millengen: <i>Ancient Unedited Monuments</i>, in fol.: London, 1826, +p. 15, plate viii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">[6]</a> The only two good and complete editions are those of Renouard, +1804 and 1817, and that of the collection of Petitot. See this last vol. +51, p. 455.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">[7]</a> This disease attacked her during the year of her marriage. Scarcely +any trace of it remained.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="label">[8]</a> Retz, Amsterdam, 1731, vol. i., p. 185. Ibid., vol. iv., p. 219.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="label">[9]</a> <i>Memoirs</i>, Amsterdam, 1750, vol. i., p. 44.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="label">[10]</a> Vol. ii., p. 16-17.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="label">[11]</a> <i>Memoirs</i>, Amsterdam, 1735, vol. i., p. 45.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12" class="label">[12]</a> Library of the Arsenal, Manuscripts of Conrart, in fol., vol. viii., +p. 145. On Mademoiselle de Vaudy, the relative and friend of Madame +the Countess de Maure, see Mademoiselle, vol. iii., p. 58, and vol. v., p. +25, as well as her portrait among the portraits of Mademoiselle. See +also Tallemant, vol. ii., p. 334.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13" class="label">[13]</a> In an obscure work, entitled, <i>The Life of Pierre Dubose, Minister +of the Holy Gospel, enriched with Letters, Harangues</i>, etc., Rotterdam, +1698, in-8ᵒ, I find a speech made to Madame de Longueville, at Caen, +in June, 1648, in which the good Protestant minister speaks of her very +much like Scudéry, p. 328: “The portrait, Madame, which fame has +made of you, is known throughout the world; and it is so full of marvels +that every one supposes the original to be flattered until he has the +happiness of seeing you. Then all admit that what the public voice +says of your Highness is but a pencil-sketch of what you are.... It +is impossible to paint too well that agreeable mixture of sweetness and +majesty which tempers your countenance, and which at once gives boldness +and fear to those who have the honor to approach your person. It +is impossible to express that inimitable address which appears in all +your actions, that brilliant vivacity so admired in your words, that graceful +and grand air which causes your silence to be respected. And what +pencil can represent that mind, formed by the hand of the Graces and +cultivated by that of the Muses, which produces nothing in you but +that is judicious, delicate, brilliant, which gains for you the admiration +of the age, the rapture of the court, the applause of the provinces, +which has even merited the homage of enemies at Munster, bringing +them to your feet, while they refused peace to all Europe.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14" class="label">[14]</a> Attique du Nord, No. 2173.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_15" href="#FNanchor_15" class="label">[15]</a> <i>Pacificatores orbis Christiani, sive icones principum, ducum et legatorum +qui Monasterii atque Osnabrugæ pacem Europæ reconciliarunt, +quosque singulos ad nativam imaginem expressit Van Hull, celissimi +principis Auriaci dum viveret pictor</i>, in folio, Rotterodami, 1697. This +portrait has been often reproduced, among others, in the <i>Europe illustre</i> +and the Collection of Odieuvre.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_16" href="#FNanchor_16" class="label">[16]</a> This is, in fact, the date of the first edition of the first part, as +given in the patent, printed January 7, 1649.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_17" href="#FNanchor_17" class="label">[17]</a> Gallery of the first floor, No. 2195.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_18" href="#FNanchor_18" class="label">[18]</a> Cabinet of Medallions, with this inscription: <span class="smcap">An. Gen. Borbonia, +D. Long, S. P. Novi Castri</span>. On the other side of the medal is the +portrait of her husband.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_19" href="#FNanchor_19" class="label">[19]</a> There should be at the Château d’Eu a portrait of Madame de +Longueville, 22 inches by 18, which comes from the old collection of the +Duchess de Montpensier. See vol. ii., p. 124, the work of M. Vatout, +entitled, <i>Historical and Descriptive Catalogue of the Pictures belonging to +his Royal Highness the Duke of Orleans</i>. 4 vols., in-8ᵒ, 1823. It is so +long since we have seen this portrait, that we cannot say at what period +it represents Madame de Longueville, wherein it differs from or resembles +other portraits of her, or by what hand it was produced. It is perhaps +the portrait which is at Versailles. Father Lelong mentions the +following portraits of Madame de Longueville: 1, Van Hull; 2, Poilly, +in fol. (We have not found this portrait in the work of Poilly in the +Stamp-Office. See note, p. 363.) 3, Frosne; 4, Moncornet; 5, the +collection of Odieuvre.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_20" href="#FNanchor_20" class="label">[20]</a> Villefore, 2d part, p. 170.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_21" href="#FNanchor_21" class="label">[21]</a> Retz, vol. i., p. 219.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_22" href="#FNanchor_22" class="label">[22]</a> Ibid., vol. iii., p. 59.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_23" href="#FNanchor_23" class="label">[23]</a> Retz, vol. ii., p. 18.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_24" href="#FNanchor_24" class="label">[24]</a> In-12ᵒ. We possess the copy of the dedication which belonged to +Mademoiselle de Bourbon, and which bears her arms.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_25" href="#FNanchor_25" class="label">[25]</a> Villefore, p. 75.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_26" href="#FNanchor_26" class="label">[26]</a> Vol. ii., p. 19.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_27" href="#FNanchor_27" class="label">[27]</a> Ibid., p. 7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_28" href="#FNanchor_28" class="label">[28]</a> Boileau, in his letter to Perrault, places the Count de Tréville +among the nicest judges of wit. Saint-Simon undertakes to paint him, +vol. iv., p. 184, and thus finishes his portrait, vol. vi., p. 372: He had +belonged “to the great world, at one time a courtier, then a devotee +and recluse, again, by degrees, an active member of the best society, +always gallant, full of wit, and of the most refined taste.” He had loved +Madame, the amiable Henriette, and the beautiful de Ludre. See the +<i>Memoirs</i> of Lafare and Madame de Sévigné, letter of the 13th March, +1671. It is said that the observation, <i>he talks like a book</i>, was first +made concerning him. He is the <i>Arsène</i> of the <i>charactères</i> of La Bruyère. +I have seen some of his unpublished letters; the language is the +best, but for any thing else they are not remarkable.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_29" href="#FNanchor_29" class="label">[29]</a> IVth Series of our works, <span class="smcap">Littérature</span>, vol. ii., <i>Jacqueline Pascal</i>, +p. 20.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_30" href="#FNanchor_30" class="label">[30]</a> <i>Memoirs</i>, vol. i., p. 221: “I do not believe that Queen Elizabeth of +England had more capacity for State affairs.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_31" href="#FNanchor_31" class="label">[31]</a> <i>Oraison funèbre de la Princesse Palatine.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_32" href="#FNanchor_32" class="label">[32]</a> Ægidii Menagii Pœmata, since the first edition, which is of 1652, +in-4ᵒ, Ægidii Menagii Miscellanea, until the Elzeverian edition, more +complete, of 1663. In this there are more than twenty French, Latin, +and Italian pieces to Madame de La Fayette before and after her marriage. +Madame de Sévigné does not appear so often; but, as an offset, +she is seen in the edition of 1652, both under her own name and under +that of Uranie. The study of the different editions of the poems of Ménage +would not be useless in a history of Madame de Sévigné and of +Madame de La Fayette.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_33" href="#FNanchor_33" class="label">[33]</a> See the Italian Sonnet of Madame de Sévigné, published by M. de +Montmerqué.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_34" href="#FNanchor_34" class="label">[34]</a> This correspondence was sold at Sens, in 1849, at the sale of M. +Tarbé. I examined it for several hours. It is composed of about seventy-six +letters, all unpublished, and runs over almost all the life of +Madame de La Fayette. We here find that Ménage felt a passion for his +beautiful pupils. Repulsed and discouraged rather quickly by Marie +de Chantil, he turned to her relative, Mademoiselle de Lavergne, with +no better fortune, but without experiencing so much neglect. The intercourse +of Ménage with Mademoiselle de Lavergne continued even +after her marriage to the Count de La Fayette, became more intimate +during her widowhood, and continued even until her death. Madame +de La Fayette coquetted evidently with her Latin and Italian master, +and for some time their relations were intimate but not tender. Finally, +they became good and perfect friends. Several letters show with what +care Madame de La Fayette had studied under Ménage the poets and +good writers, both ancient and modern. She consults him, and refers +to their disputes in regard to the use of such and such an expression. +She speaks continually of their common friend, Huet, who wrote for +<i>Zaïdé</i> a dissertation on the origin of the romance. There are a few lines +about Segrais. I do not remember seeing the name of La Rochefoucauld +once mentioned. This was perhaps a delicate subject, upon which +the beautiful lady did not consult her learned friends. What existed +between the duke and the countess did not concern the Abbé Huet +and the Abbé Ménage. It was only to the Marchioness de Sévigné, or +to the Marchioness de Sablé, that she would speak on such a matter. +Besides, in this collection, we have only the letters or rather notes of +Madame de La Fayette; not one of Ménage. Most of them are autographs, +some dictated and signed, all perfectly authentic. M. Tarbé +made a copy of this correspondence, which was sold with the autographs. +It belongs now to M. Feuillet.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_35" href="#FNanchor_35" class="label">[35]</a> See the dissertation of Madame de Grignan on the <i>Pure Love</i> of +Fénelon, in vol. x. of the works of Madame de Sévigné, p. 518, edition +Montmerqué.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_36" href="#FNanchor_36" class="label">[36]</a> We shall often return in this work, for example, 1st Part, chap. +ii., to this difference between the literature of Louis XIII. and that +of Louis XIV. We have elsewhere said, Fourth Series, vol. ii., of the +illustrious women of the seventeenth century, p. 13: “Let us go on +and examine the age of Louis XIV. An end has come to the manly +vigor of the times of Richelieu; the freedom of the Fronde has ceased; +Louis XIV. has made politeness and dignity, tempered by good taste, +the order of the day. Fortunate are the minds which have been +formed in the strength and liberty of the preceding age, which receive +the polish of the new epoch! This was the privilege of Madame de +Sévigné, as well as of Molière and of Bossuet.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_37" href="#FNanchor_37" class="label">[37]</a> Part i., chap. iii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_38" href="#FNanchor_38" class="label">[38]</a> Ibid., chap. iv.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_39" href="#FNanchor_39" class="label">[39]</a> No one has been duped by the disavowal which he made, for political +purposes, of the passages of these memoirs which concern Condé +and his sister; for they are the very ones which most betray his hand. +They shocked the public conscience, whose interpreter is Madame de +Motteville, vol. v., pp. 114, 115, and 132.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_40" href="#FNanchor_40" class="label">[40]</a> See Part iii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_41" href="#FNanchor_41" class="label">[41]</a> <i>Mémoires</i>, edit. of Amsterdam, 1733, p. 12.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_42" href="#FNanchor_42" class="label">[42]</a> <i>Mémoires</i>, vol. ii., p. 15.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_43" href="#FNanchor_43" class="label">[43]</a> <i>Mémoires de Guy-Joly</i>, collection Michaud, 3d Series, vol. ii., p. 15.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_44" href="#FNanchor_44" class="label">[44]</a> Petitot, vol. li., p. 896.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_45" href="#FNanchor_45" class="label">[45]</a> Ibid., p. 398, 399.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_46" href="#FNanchor_46" class="label">[46]</a> Petitot, vol. li., pp. 898, 899.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_47" href="#FNanchor_47" class="label">[47]</a> Petitot, vol. li., p. 899, etc.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_48" href="#FNanchor_48" class="label">[48]</a> Petitot, vol. li., p. 462.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_49" href="#FNanchor_49" class="label">[49]</a> Ibid., p. 401.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_50" href="#FNanchor_50" class="label">[50]</a> Petitot, vol. lii., p. 9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_51" href="#FNanchor_51" class="label">[51]</a> Vol. iii., p. 295.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_52" href="#FNanchor_52" class="label">[52]</a> Ibid., p. 393.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_53" href="#FNanchor_53" class="label">[53]</a> <i>Mémoires</i>, p. 47.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_54" href="#FNanchor_54" class="label">[54]</a> Mémoires de La Rochefoucauld, Petitot, vol. lii., p. 24.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_55" href="#FNanchor_55" class="label">[55]</a> Mémoires de La Rochefouc., Petitot, vol.lii., p. 72.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_56" href="#FNanchor_56" class="label">[56]</a> Ibid., p. 71.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_57" href="#FNanchor_57" class="label">[57]</a> Mémoires de La Rochefoucauld, Petitot, vol. lii., pp. 79, 80.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_58" href="#FNanchor_58" class="label">[58]</a> See Part ii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_59" href="#FNanchor_59" class="label">[59]</a> <i>Mémoires de Madame de Nemours</i>, p. 150.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_60" href="#FNanchor_60" class="label">[60]</a> La Rochefoucauld, p. 198 of the edition of 1664: “The Prince de +Condé was warned of the design which she had to ruin his party, by +very extraordinary means, for the interest of Nemours, and feared, that +similarly prejudiced in behalf of another, she might go to the same extremities +if this one should so desire it.” <i>Was warned</i>, and by whom, +if not by La Rochefoucauld, who then enjoyed the entire confidence of +Condé? La Rochefoucauld perceived so plainly the odiousness of this +passage, that he afterwards modified and softened it, as may be seen in +the editions of Renouard and Petitot.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_61" href="#FNanchor_61" class="label">[61]</a> Vol. v., pp. 114, 115.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_62" href="#FNanchor_62" class="label">[62]</a> Madame de Sévigné doubts it very much. Letter of October 7, +1676: “I do not believe that he was ever in love.” He says himself in +making his own portrait: “I who know whatever is delicate and strong +in the sentiments of love, if ever I happen to love, it will certainly be +in this manner. But in one of my make, I do not believe that this +knowledge which I possess ever passes from the mind to the heart.” +Segrais, (Mémoires, Anecdotes, edit. d’Amsterdam, 1723, p. 113): +“M. de la Rochefoucauld said that he had never found love except in +romances; as for him, he had never felt it.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_63" href="#FNanchor_63" class="label">[63]</a> Vol. v., p. 132.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_64" href="#FNanchor_64" class="label">[64]</a> Edit. of 1664, pp. 229-282; Petitot, pp. 156-158.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_65" href="#FNanchor_65" class="label">[65]</a> <i>Mémoires</i>, vol. ii., p. 129.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_66" href="#FNanchor_66" class="label">[66]</a> Some time ago I expressed the same opinion in regard to La Rochefoucauld, +and, as may be seen, I still hold it. See 1st series of my works, +vol. iv., p. 200; 4th series, vol. i., p. 51, and vol. ii., p. 8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_67" href="#FNanchor_67" class="label">[67]</a> Mémoires, Anecdotes, p. 31.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_68" href="#FNanchor_68" class="label">[68]</a> Vol. i., p. 217.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_69" href="#FNanchor_69" class="label">[69]</a> On the Fronde and its general causes, see Part i., chap. 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_70" href="#FNanchor_70" class="label">[70]</a> See thereon a curious passage of Madame de Motteville, vol. iv., +p. 359, etc.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_71" href="#FNanchor_71" class="label">[71]</a> We borrow the translation that Villefore has given of this part of +the Italian narrative of the cardinal, Part 1st, p. 22.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_72" href="#FNanchor_72" class="label">[72]</a> Part 1st, p. 44.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_73" href="#FNanchor_73" class="label">[73]</a> See, in the Library of the Arsenal, Manuscripts of Conrart, in-4ᵒ, vol. +xvi., p. 642, an unpublished letter of Henri de Bourbon to his mother, +upon the assassination of Henri IV., which proves how absurd it is to +accuse him of having been concerned in that assassination. The same +volume contains different writings of the same prince against Marshal +d’Ancre.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_74" href="#FNanchor_74" class="label">[74]</a> We find in regard to all this, new and curious details in a <i>Journal +historique et anecdote de la cour et de Paris</i>, t. xi., in-4ᵒ, manuscripts +of Conrart. This unpublished journal commences January 1, 1614, and +goes to January 1, 1620.</p> + +<p>M. the Prince was arrested September 1, 1616, by order of Marshal +d’Ancre, favorite of the queen regent, Marie de Médicis.</p> + +<p>“September 11. Madame the young Princess arrives very much afflicted. +It is said that M. de Montmorency was not pleased that the +queen was unwilling to permit her to see M. le Prince.</p> + +<p>“May 19, 1617. M. le Prince petitions the king to do a charitable +deed by delivering to him his wife, that she might remain a prisoner +with him.</p> + +<p>“May 26, 1617. Madame the Princess de Condé goes to salute the +king and supplicate him to let her enter as a prisoner in the Bastile +with M. the Prince. The king grants it to her, and permits her to +take with her only one damsel. Upon which her <i>petit nain</i>, having +supplicated the king to be pleased that he should not abandon his +mistress, his majesty also permitted him. The same day, after dinner, +Madame the Princess entered the Bastile, where she was received by +M. the Prince with all the testimonies of friendship that can be imagined; +and he gave her no repose until she had said to him that +she pardoned him.” In this same journal, there has often been a +question of the bad conduct of the prince towards his wife, in regard +to which there is not one word of blame.</p> + +<p>“August 31, 1617. The undertaking to save the prince from the +Bastile discovered.</p> + +<p>“September 15, 1617. M. the Prince taken from the Bastile to the +wood of Vincennes.... A long time before he had asked that he +might be placed there in order to have better air. M. de Modène +said to him that, mindful of that, he had pressed the king so much +upon the subject, that at last he had obtained it. M. the Prince responded +that in the mean time he had become accustomed to the air +of the Bastile; and thereupon resisted all that he could, until it was +necessary to go. Madame the Princess also went with him in a coach, +having been unwilling to enter a litter. It is said that in the beginning +M. the Prince only thought it was desired to deprive him of his +wife. M. de Vitry, M. de Persan, M. de Modène, were with him in the +coach. After his arrival at the wood of Vincennes, it was permitted +him, about the beginning of October, to walk upon the top of a thick +wall, which is in the form of a gallery. M. de Persan dwelt in the +tower of the wood of Vincennes, in order to guard the prince with the +greatest part of the soldiers that he had with him in the Bastile, and +M. de Cadenet (afterwards Duke and Marshal de Chaulnes, brother of +Constable de Luynes), with a dozen companies of the regiment of Normandy, +kept guard in the court of the château, which the soldiers +are not permitted to leave.</p> + +<p>“About December 20, 1617. Madame the Princess very sick. She +is put to bed in the wood of Vincennes, at seven months, of a still-born +child, and was more than forty-eight hours without motion or +feeling. Never was a person in greater extremity without dying. +Among other physicians, M. Duret and M. Pietre assisted her with extreme +care. When M. the Prince desired that there should be obsequies +for this little infant, M. the Bishop of Paris assembled some +theologians, who judged that, since, not having received baptism, it had +not entered into the Church, no ceremonies ought to be used on the +subject of its death.</p> + +<p>“September 5, 1618. Madame the Princess is put to bed of two dead +boys. The king shows great displeasure thereupon. Several persons +had permission to go to see her.</p> + +<p>“March 21, 1619. M. the Prince falls sick. Tuesday, April 2. MM. +Hatin, Duret, and Seguin came to the Louvre to represent the state of the +malady. The cause was attributed to profound melancholy. For several +days he was regarded as hopeless. Madame his mother, Madame +the Countess, Madame de Ventadour, Madame the Countess d’Auvergne, +Madame de la Trémouille, Madame de Fontaines, Madame la Grande, etc., +were allowed to go and visit him. Monday, April 8, the king sent to +him his sword by M. de Cadenet, and wrote to him: ‘My cousin, I am very +much grieved at your illness. I pray you to be comforted. As soon as +I shall have set in order my affairs, I will give you your liberty. Be +rejoiced then, and have the assurance of my friendship. I am, etc.’</p> + +<p>“August 28, 1619. Between midnight and one o’clock, Madame the +Princess was put to bed of a daughter, in the wood of Vincennes.</p> + +<p>“October 17, 1619. Council held, in which is taken the final resolution +of releasing M. the Prince.</p> + +<p>“October 18. The king goes to Chantilly, to await there M. the +Prince.</p> + +<p>“19th. M. de Luynes goes to find M. the Prince at the wood of Vincennes.</p> + +<p>“20th. M. de Luynes goes early in the morning to the wood of Vincennes, +and gets into a carriage with M. the Prince and Madame the +Princess, in which were also MM. de Cadenet and de Modène. He goes +to Chantilly to find the king, and sees him in a cabinet, where, it is said, +he falls upon his knees, and makes extreme protestations of fidelity, +and feeling of obligation, which he had for him.</p> + +<p>“22d. The king returns to Compiègne, accompanied by M. the Prince. +Madame the Princess arrived there and saw the queen the same day.”</p> + +<p>In the xvi. vol. of the same manuscript, p. 933, a French diplomatic +agent transmits the reports spread abroad in the Low Countries, on the +subject of the Prince and Princess de Condé, prisoners at the Bastile or +in Vincennes: “The Princess de Condé, the younger, has written from +there to her own <i>femme de chambre</i> married in that city, that M. the +Prince de Condé was under the impression that he had been poisoned +by his head-cook, named Baucheron, who had practiced and received +money for that purpose, and had escaped; and because he might take +refuge in that country, she charges her to inform the Prince and Princess +of Orange, in order to arrest him if possible. The people of the so-called +Prince of Orange also say, that M. the Prince de Condé has +thought of escaping, and has been betrayed and discovered by one of +his domestics, but that he has still other means for regaining his liberty.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_75" href="#FNanchor_75" class="label">[75]</a> <i>Mémoires de Lenet</i>, collection of Michaud, 3d series, v. ii., p. 448.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_76" href="#FNanchor_76" class="label">[76]</a> <i>Mémoires de Lenet</i>, Michaud, 3d series, vol. ii., p. 458.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_77" href="#FNanchor_77" class="label">[77]</a> <i>Mémoires de Lenet</i>, Michaud, 3d series, vol. ii., p. 455.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_78" href="#FNanchor_78" class="label">[78]</a> His eldest brother, who, having taken his title after his death, was +also distinguished for his beauty, his bravery, his gallantry, played +an important part in the life of Madame de Longueville, and perished in +a senseless duel with the Duke de Beaufort, his brother-in-law.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_79" href="#FNanchor_79" class="label">[79]</a> Paris, 1800, in-8ᵒ.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_80" href="#FNanchor_80" class="label">[80]</a> There is a constant demand for a collection of the cartularies of +the old abbeys. Why will not some friend of religion and letters occupy +himself with filling up the lacunes, so much to be regretted, of +the <i>Gallia christiana</i>, by bringing together, under the name of the Cartulary +of the convent of the Carmelites of the Faubourg Saint-Jacques, +a multitude of pieces which we have held in our hands, which would +establish, upon authentic monuments, the history of that interesting +congregation, from the first years of the seventeenth century to the +French Revolution? All the notes, extracts, and copies, that we have +amassed, belong to him who will undertake to enrich with a new volume +of this kind the <i>Collection des documents inédits relatifs à l’histoire +de France</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_81" href="#FNanchor_81" class="label">[81]</a> For example, Guido, Champagne, and Lebrun.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_82" href="#FNanchor_82" class="label">[82]</a> Among others, a statue, in white marble, representing the Cardinal +de Bérulle on his knees. This beautiful work is by Jacques Sarrazin, +and is still to be seen in the chapel of the Carmelites.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_83" href="#FNanchor_83" class="label">[83]</a> General Archives, demesnial section, 1st file, letter C: “Letters-patent +of King Henry IV. for the establishment of the order of the +nuns of Nôtre-Dame of Mount Carmel, verified in parliament October +1, 1602, at the very humble petition of our dear well-beloved cousin, +Demoiselle de Longueville.” And in other pieces it is also said: +“The said lord (King Henry), favorably disposed to the petition of +Catherine d’Orleans, daughter of the late Henri d’Orleans, Duke de +Longueville and de Touteville....”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_84" href="#FNanchor_84" class="label">[84]</a> Since that time the convent of the Rue Saint-Jacques has been called +the Great Convent, to distinguish it from the house in the Rue +Chapon.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_85" href="#FNanchor_85" class="label">[85]</a> The act of donation which is in the General Archives, was made in +the name of the duchess dowager de Longueville, as well as in the +name of her son, the future husband of Anne de Bourbon. “Madame +Catherine de Gonzagues and de Clèves, Duchess de Longueville and +de Touteville, widow of the late very powerful prince Henri d’Orleans, +during his life, Duke de Longueville and de Touteville, sovereign +Count of Neufchâtel and Valengin, in Switzerland, also Count of Dunois +and Tancarville, etc., dwelling at Paris, in his hôtel de Longueville, Rue +des Poulies, parish of Saint-Germain de l’Auxerrois, as well in his own +name as in that of Monseigneur Henri d’Orleans, his son, also Duke de +Longueville and de Touteville.” ... Catherine de Gonzagues and +Clèves was sister of Charles de Gonzagues, Duke de Nevers, the +father of Marie and Anne de Gonzagues, the queen of Poland and the +Palatine. Her son, Henry II., exercised himself much in playing at +tennis, and one of his shoulders became larger and more elevated than +the other. All the skill of the physicians was powerless. The desolate +mother addressed herself to Madame Acarie, then sister Marie de l’Incarnation. +She engaged in prayer previous to the holy sacrament, and +the next day the form of the youth was very much improved. Through +gratitude, the mother and son founded the house of the Rue Chapon, +endowed it with ten thousand crowns in silver, and two thousand livres +a year. The Duke de Longueville testified to this fact before the +Apostolic Commissioners, charged with the beatification of Madame +Acarie. Catherine de Gonzagues died in 1629. We find in the Archives +different acts which prove that the niece of Richelieu, Madame +the Duchess d’Aiguillon, was also one of the benefactresses of both convents. +“Marie Vignerot, Duchess d’Esguillon, dwelling in her hôtel, +situated in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, parish of Saint-Sulpice.”...</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_86" href="#FNanchor_86" class="label">[86]</a> See Gomboust’s plan of Paris, in 1652, and the plan called Turgot’s, +of Paris, in 1740.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_87" href="#FNanchor_87" class="label">[87]</a> See Malingre, <i>Antiquités de la Ville de Paris</i>, in-fol., Paris, 1640, pp. +152 and 153, also pp. 501 and 503, <i>Nouveaux Mémoires concernant la maison +des Carmélites</i>; a few lines in the <i>Histoire de la Ville de Paris</i> of +Felibien and of Lobineau, vol. ii., pp. 1268-1271, and some records in +vol. iii. of the <i>Preuves et Pièces justificatives</i>, p. 144. Sauval contains +but a page on the Carmelites, vol. i., p. 450. The best thing in regard +to this convent is found in the <i>Curiosités de Paris</i>, 1771, vol. i., pp. +459-463. We take from it the following description of the church: +“Although the main body of this church is very ancient, it is one of +the best decorated in Paris. The great altar is formed of four marble +columns, and is reached by twelve steps, very ingeniously placed, +with a balustrade of marble. All the ornaments of this altar are of +bronze gilded; the tabernacle, which represents the ark of the covenant, +is all of silver; the bas-relief in front is highly wrought, and +represents the Annunciation. Nothing is more sumptuous than this +altar on feast-days. You then see a sun, bright with stones of great +value, accompanied by candlesticks, vases, and other pieces of goldsmith’s +ware, whose quantity equals its magnificence. The picture is +by Guido, and represents the Annunciation.</p> + +<p>“The choir is separated from the nave by four beautiful columns of +sea-green marble, surmounted by flames of gilded bronze of wonderful +beauty and size. The crucifix of bronze, which you see on the door, is +one of the best and highly esteemed of the works of Sarrazin.</p> + +<p>“The vault of the church, upon which numerous stories from the Holy +Scriptures are represented, was painted by Champagne, through the +liberality of Marie de Médicis. Observe in it an excellent piece of perspective, +designed by Des Argues: it is a crucifix, with the Holy Virgin +and St. John, so artistically painted by the same Champagne, that, on +entering the church, they appear upon a perpendicular plane, although +horizontal, which produces an agreeable and singular effect.</p> + +<p>“Above the door of this church there is a beautiful gallery, containing +statues of Saint Peter, of Saint Paul, and of Saint Michael overcoming +the devil.</p> + +<p>“All the chapels are magnificent: the most beautiful pictures and +gildings adorn all parts of it; neatness and good taste reign throughout.</p> + +<p>“The twelve pictures ornamented with gilded frames, which are placed +under the windows, represent subjects drawn from the New Testament, +and were painted by very skilful masters. The first, at the right +on entering, represents the <i>Resurrection of Lazarus</i>; the second, <i>The +Circumcision of our Lord</i>; the third, <i>The Adoration of the Magi</i>; the +fourth, <i>The Assumption of the Holy Virgin</i>; the fifth, <i>The Descent of the +Holy Ghost upon the Apostles</i>; the sixth, <i>The Birth of our Lord</i>. These +six pictures were also painted by the celebrated Champagne, and are very +highly esteemed. On the other side, the first represents the <i>Miracle of +the Five Loaves</i>, by Stella; the second, <i>The Madeline at the feet of our +Lord, at the house of Simon the Pharisee</i>—it is one of the finest works of the +famous Le Brun; the third, <i>The Entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem</i>, by +La Hire; the fourth, <i>Christ at the side of Jacob’s well, talking with the +Samaritan woman</i>, by Stella; the fifth, <i>Christ served in the Desert by +Angels</i>—this is also by Le Brun; the sixth, <i>The Appearance of our Lord +to the three Marys</i>, by La Hire.</p> + +<p>“Opposite to the choir of the nuns, observe the great picture representing +<i>the Annunciation</i>; it is an excellent work by Guido, who painted +it for Queen Marie de Médicis.</p> + +<p>“Look afterwards at the chapel of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine; it is one of +the most ornamented. You will there see the statue of Cardinal de +Bérulle, made in marble by Sarrazin, in 1657; it is raised upon a marble +pedestal, upon which are excellent bas-reliefs, by Lestocart, a famous +sculptor. These bas-reliefs represent the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, +and that also performed by Noah, when he left the ark. You will also +see in this chapel, all covered with pictures, one of the most perfect +paintings ever produced by the famous Le Brun; it represents the <i>Penitent +Madeleine</i>. Grief and repentance are so vividly expressed in this, +and the skill of the excellent master so well proved by all the accompaniments, +that you can find nothing more finished and more perfect. +The life of this saint is represented in the wainscot of this beautiful +chapel.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_88" href="#FNanchor_88" class="label">[88]</a> <i>Histoire manuscrite</i>, t. ii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_89" href="#FNanchor_89" class="label">[89]</a> We have elsewhere established that of the three sources of human +knowledge, intuition, induction, and deduction, the first is much the +most fertile and the most elevated. It is intuition, which, by its own +spontaneous power, discovers directly and without the aid of reflection, +all essential truths; it is the source of light to the human race; the +voice that speaks to prophets and poets; the principle of all inspiration +of enthusiasm, and of that unalterable and sure faith, that astonishes +reasoning which is compelled to treat it as a folly, because it +cannot account for it by its ordinary processes. See the <i>Cours de Philosophie</i>, +particularly, First Series, vol. v., p. 301; and Second Series, +vol. i., Lecture vi., pp. 131-141, etc.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_90" href="#FNanchor_90" class="label">[90]</a> See the <i>Vie de la Mère Madeleine de Saint-Joseph, religieuse Carmélite +déchaussée</i>, by a priest of the Oratoire (Father Senault): Paris, 1655, +in-4ᵒ. There is a second edition, of 1670, augmented. The Carmelites +still have the head of their venerable mother. It is powerful and +large. A portrait of her, preserved by the convent, exhibits in her +face great strength of character. It has been many times engraved.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_91" href="#FNanchor_91" class="label">[91]</a> The Carmelites have a small portrait, painted on wood, of Mother +Marie de Jésus, somewhat advanced in life, but of a noble and sweet +visage. It has been engraved by Regnesson.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_92" href="#FNanchor_92" class="label">[92]</a> <i>Histoire manuscrite</i>, vol. ii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_93" href="#FNanchor_93" class="label">[93]</a> <i>Histoire manuscrite</i>, vol. ii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_94" href="#FNanchor_94" class="label">[94]</a> The Carmelites were very willing to let me see the portrait, painted +upon canvas, of Mother Marie-Madeleine, which does not belie her reputation +for beauty. The face is of the most perfect oval; the eyes are +of the finest and deepest blue; the forehead is noble; the general aspect +is full of grandeur and grace. It would be difficult to find any thing +more beautiful.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_95" href="#FNanchor_95" class="label">[95]</a> We will mention the best known of the general visitors of the +order: in 1614, the Cardinal de Bérulle; in 1619, Father de Condren, +the second general of the Oratoire; in 1627, the Abbé de Bérulle, +nephew of the cardinal, etc. Among the superiors of the monastery, +we find, in the earlier period, Father Gibieuf, a learned oratorien, +one of the correspondents of Descartes; later, in 1662, M. Ferret, doctor +in theology, and curate of Saint-Nicholas-du-Chardonnet; in 1678, M. +Pirot, a doctor of the Sorbonne; in 1715, M. Vivant, grand vicar of Cardinal +de Noailles; in 1747, the Bishop of Bethlehem, celebrated for +having extirpated Jansenism, which had been introduced among the +Carmelites at the close of the preceding century.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_96" href="#FNanchor_96" class="label">[96]</a> Her letters from Spain to Madame de Coulanges, are, for attractiveness +of style, much superior to those of Madame des Ursins. Letters +de Madame de Villars, etc., Paris, 1806 and 1823, and what Madame de +Sévigné says of her, letters of October 8, 1679, and February 28, 1680.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_97" href="#FNanchor_97" class="label">[97]</a> The painted portrait that has been shown me, represents her in fact +as having the most happy face, with charming blue eyes and beautiful +forehead, and a look at once lively and agreeable.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_98" href="#FNanchor_98" class="label">[98]</a> Letter of January 5, 1680.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_99" href="#FNanchor_99" class="label">[99]</a> Letter of November 22, 1688.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_100" href="#FNanchor_100" class="label">[100]</a> Edition of Lebel, vol. xxxix., p. 690.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_101" href="#FNanchor_101" class="label">[101]</a> Varying from our manuscripts: <i>weighed</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_102" href="#FNanchor_102" class="label">[102]</a> An autograph billet, for which we are indebted to the Carmelite +ladies.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_103" href="#FNanchor_103" class="label">[103]</a> This fixes the date of the note: it is therefore a little while after the +death of Mother Madeleine de Saint-Joseph; that is, in 1637.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_104" href="#FNanchor_104" class="label">[104]</a> Several lines effaced and wholly illegible, and half of a page cut.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_105" href="#FNanchor_105" class="label">[105]</a> Mademoiselle Nicolas, born at Bordeaux, agreeable in person and +mind, say our manuscripts, and pleasing to everybody. Having read, +when quite a child, the Life of Catherine de Sienne, she devoted herself +to imitating her, and joined the Carmelites at nineteen, and died at +thirty-three. There is a small portrait of her, very well made, representing +her in ecstasy.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_106" href="#FNanchor_106" class="label">[106]</a> Paris, 1774, in-12ᵒ.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_107" href="#FNanchor_107" class="label">[107]</a> Vol. 1st, p. 369.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_108" href="#FNanchor_108" class="label">[108]</a> Ibid., p. 74.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_109" href="#FNanchor_109" class="label">[109]</a> Vol. 1st, p. 79.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_110" href="#FNanchor_110" class="label">[110]</a> Ibid., p. 124.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_111" href="#FNanchor_111" class="label">[111]</a> Vol. 1st, p. 146.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_112" href="#FNanchor_112" class="label">[112]</a> The King of Poland, Wladislas, had just espoused Marie de Gonzague, +daughter of the Duke de Nevers, sister of the Palatine. After +the death of this first husband, she passed with the crown to his +brother Casimir, whom Mademoiselle d’Epernon had refused.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_113" href="#FNanchor_113" class="label">[113]</a> Her mother-in-law, Marie de Cambout, niece of Richelieu, whom +the cardinal had married to the Duke d’Epernon, as he had married +another of his nieces, Mademoiselle de Brézé, to the Duke d’Enghien. +Madame d’Epernon was ill-treated by her husband, and died in retreat, +in 1691. She was sister of the Abbé du Cambout de Pontchâteau, a +celebrated Jansenist. See two portraits of her among the portraits of +Mademoiselle.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_114" href="#FNanchor_114" class="label">[114]</a> It is worth while to see, in the Abbé Montis, the great resistance +which Mademoiselle d’Epernon had to overcome from her brother, the +Duke de Candale, and especially from her father, who appealed to the +parliament and to the pope; the death of the Duke de Candale, his remains +carried to the Carmelites; the conversion of the duke through +the instrumentality of his daughter, the finest portions of her life and +her pious death. She was one of the benefactresses. <i>Histoire manuscrite</i>, +vol. 1st, p. 558. “The gifts bestowed by Anne-Marie de Jésus +amounted to more than a hundred and fifty thousand livres. Besides +this immense sum, the Duke d’Epernon, her father, dying in 1661, without +heirs, bequeathed to it a hundred thousand livres over and above +the sixteen thousand which he left as a pious legacy. This lord had already +assigned to the house, during the life of our very honored Sister +Anne-Marie, three thousand livres pension, finding that the sixteen +thousand livres, which were regarded as her dowry, was too slender a +sum, and sufficient only to endow a lady who had followed her.” The +lady here alluded to, and of whom Mademoiselle also speaks, was named +Bouchereau. “Being,” says the Abbé Montis (p. 34), “of an agreeable +form, she occupied herself with things quite as fragile; but she finally +turned her attention to religion, and, desiring to become a nun, and +guessing the views of Mademoiselle d’Epernon, she opened her heart to +her, and begged to be allowed to follow her, which was readily granted.” +Mademoiselle Bouchereau died during her novitiate, before making a +profession.</p> + +<p>It is through error that, on the faith of the Abbé Mentis, in the +abridged Life of the Mother, joined to that of Mademoiselle d’Epernon, +p. 291, the learned editor of the works of Bossuet supposes, vol. xxxiv., +p. 690, “the beautiful letter on the Mother Agnès is addressed to Madame +d’Epernon, prioress of the Carmelites of the Faubourg Saint-Jacques,” +for Mademoiselle d’Epernon—it was thus that she was called—and not +Madame d’Epernon, was never prioress. Bossuet wrote to the prioress +who succeeded the Mother Agnès, either the Mother Claire du Saint-Sacrement, +who died as he entered upon his office; or rather to the one +who almost immediately took her place, that is, the Mother Marie du +Saint-Sacrement; in the world, Madame de La Thuillerie, who took her +vows in 1654, was prioress from 1691 to 1700, and died in 1705. Our +manuscripts contain several ancient copies of the letter of Bossuet, all +bearing the inscription: <i>To the Mother of the Saint-Sacrement</i>.</p> + +<p>In 1680, Madame de Sévigné, accompanying Mademoiselle to the Carmelites, +there saw Mademoiselle d’Epernon, and found her very much +altered. Letter of the 5th of January, 1680: “I was yesterday at the +convent of the Carmelites with Mademoiselle, who was good enough to +ask Madame Lesdiguières to take me there. We entered this holy +place. I was delighted with Mother Agnès. She spoke to me of you, +whom she seemed to know through her sister (Madame the Marchioness +de Villars). I saw Madame de Stuart, beautiful and contented (she +made a profession this very year, say our manuscripts, under the name +of Sister Marguerite de Saint-Augustin, and died in 1722). I saw Madame +d’Epernon.... More than thirty years had elapsed since we had +seen one another: she seemed to be horribly changed.”</p> + +<p>And nevertheless, without being a great beauty, she was the worthy +sister of the beautiful Candale. The convent of the Carmelites possesses +several pictures of her. One is quite large, representing her +between forty and fifty, pale and sick, but still agreeable. The best +and most perfectly preserved, represents her young and charming. +Her figure is delicate and graceful, but of that fragile grace which years +do not respect. She is painted with a smile upon her lips, and such as +she was in the world. It is probably the portrait of Beaubrun, engraved +by Edelinck.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_115" href="#FNanchor_115" class="label">[115]</a> Vol. 1st.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_116" href="#FNanchor_116" class="label">[116]</a> L’Histoire manuscrite, vol. 1st, contains the epitaphs of Michel de +Marillac, of Marguerite and Catherine d’Orleans, of Madame the Princess, +of the Princess de Conti, etc. When the keeper of the seals, Marillac, +was arrested, the Mother Madeleine de Saint-Joseph tried, in every way, +to serve and console him in his misfortune. Regardless of the opinion +of Richelieu, who was then more powerful than ever, and who was the +protector of the order, she caused an exposition of the eucharist during +sixty days and sixty nights; procured the offering of a large number of +prayers; she wrote often to the pious exile; implored the cardinal to +have him treated with less rigor; and after his death earnestly sought +and obtained his body from Châteaudun; erected to him a tomb at the +base of the sanctuary in the chapel of Saint Thérèse, and composed herself +this epitaph: “Here lies Messire Michel de Marillac, keeper of +the seals of France, who, having been raised to this and other dignities, +has always preserved an esteem for true honors and eternal riches, doing +many good works, loving justice, seeking the glory of God, sustaining +his Church, succoring the oppressed, giving all that he had to the poor; +and when he was, by Providence, deprived of all, he showed his great +magnanimity and contempt of earthly things; living contentedly, and +journeying on to a holy death, by which he passed from this world to +another, in the year of grace 1682.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_117" href="#FNanchor_117" class="label">[117]</a> <i>Histoire manuscrite</i>, vol. 1st, pp. 491, 492.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_118" href="#FNanchor_118" class="label">[118]</a> Villefore, p. 13.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_119" href="#FNanchor_119" class="label">[119]</a> Villefore, p. 14.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_120" href="#FNanchor_120" class="label">[120]</a> Manuscript of André d’Ormesson, fol. 332, verso.—It was on the +occasion of the ballet of the 18th of February, 1635, that the <i>Gazette de +France</i> cited, for the first time, the name of Mademoiselle de Bourbon. +The extra of the 21st of February, gives a full account of the fête of the +18th. It describes all the scenes of the ballet of the king, names all the +great lords who danced in it, and concludes thus: “Such was the grand +ballet of the queen, which so delighted all who were present that they +were unable to decide which was most charming, the beauties who +adorned, the gems with which they glittered, or the figures which represented +those <i>sixteen</i> divinities of which it was composed: the queen, +<i>Mademoiselle de Bourbon</i>, Mesdames de Longueville (the first wife of +the Duke de Longueville), de Montbazon, de Chaulnes, de La Valette, +de Retz, Mademoiselle de Rohan, Mesdames de Lyancourt and de Mortemart, +Mesdemoiselles de Senecé, de Hautefort, d’Esche, de Vieux-Pont, +de Saint-Georges and de La Fayette, who did not quit it until +three o’clock in the morning. Every one left this place of marvels with +the feelings of Jacob, who, having seen angels in the night, thought +that he was standing upon the spot where heaven and earth united.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_121" href="#FNanchor_121" class="label">[121]</a> <i>Mémoire pour servir à l’histoire de la Société polie en France</i>; Paris, +in-8ᵒ, 1835. See also M. Walckenær: <i>Mémoires touchant la Vie et les +Ecrits de Madame de Sévigné</i>, vol. 1st, chap. iv. and v.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_122" href="#FNanchor_122" class="label">[122]</a> The very word <i>urbanity</i> is from Balzac, one of the first and most +illustrious frequenters of the house.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_123" href="#FNanchor_123" class="label">[123]</a> The Château de Rambouillet, above Versailles, ten leagues from +Paris. Francis I. died here.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_124" href="#FNanchor_124" class="label">[124]</a> One to Madame the Duchess d’Aiguillon, relating to a certain water-course: +Tallemant, vol. ii., p. 228. The other, her epitaph, preserved by +Ménage in his <i>Observations on the Poetry of Malherbe</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_125" href="#FNanchor_125" class="label">[125]</a> Vol. ii., p. 233.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_126" href="#FNanchor_126" class="label">[126]</a> I do not know where M. Rœderer got the idea that Madame de Rambouillet +wrote so simply. Here is one of her billets, which could not +have led the person to whom it is addressed to speak of <i>simplicity</i>, as +M. Rœderer does of the letters of Madame de Rambouillet, and of her +daughter to Voiture; we speak from conjecture, for these letters have +not been seen by us. The one we give here was found among the manuscripts +of Conrart, in the Library of the Arsenal, vol. xiv., in-4ᵒ, p. 53; +it is addressed to Godeau, by turns Bishop of Grasse and of Vence:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p>“<span class="smcap">Sir</span>:—If my carabineer-poet or poetic carabineer (Arnault, Colonel of +Carabineers, a distinguished warrior, a man of great wit, but a satirist, +and a person enough like Bussy) was in Paris, I would reply to you in +verse, and not in prose; but for myself I have no familiarity with +the muses. I return a million thanks for your kind wishes; and in +recompense, I wish every moment that you were in a lodge, where I am +sure you would sleep better than you do at Vence. It is supported by +columns of transparent marble, and was built above the mid-region of +the air by Queen Zirfée. The sky there is always serene; clouds darken +neither the sight nor the understanding, and thence quite at my ease +I have considered the downfall of the terrestrial Angel. It seems to +me that on this occasion fortune has shown that it is a slander to say +that she favors only the young. And because I am no more the subject +of change than my lodge, you may rest assured that I shall continue +so as long as I live.</p> + +<p class="center">“Sir,</p> + +<p class="center">“Your very humble servant,</p> + +<p class="right">ↃC (Catherine) <span class="smcap">de Vivonne</span>.”</p> + +<p><i>June 26, 1642.</i></p> + +</blockquote> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_127" href="#FNanchor_127" class="label">[127]</a> The works of Segrais, Amsterdam, 1723, vol. 1st. <i>Mémoires Anecdotes</i>, +p. 29.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_128" href="#FNanchor_128" class="label">[128]</a> On Mademoiselle de Rambouillet, Pisani, and his sisters, see Tallemant, +vol. ii., pp. 207-262.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_129" href="#FNanchor_129" class="label">[129]</a> Edition of 1659, pp. 118-121.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_130" href="#FNanchor_130" class="label">[130]</a> See Saural, <i>Antiquités de Paris</i>, vol. iii., p. 200, and the plan of Paris +by Gomboust. These hôtels, or rather their ruins, have just entirely +disappeared, with the Rue Saint-Thomas-du-Louvre, to the advantage +of the Place du Carrousel. May this admirable place preserve its grandeur, +so dearly bought, and no transversal building spoil the beautiful +harmony of the Louvre and the Tuileries! May also some competent +and industrious man, devoted to the study of Paris and its monuments, +resolve not to let the Rue Saint-Thomas-du-Louvre perish without +giving its description and a history faithful to the epoch of its greatest +glory.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_131" href="#FNanchor_131" class="label">[131]</a> <i>Mémoires</i>, vol. 1st, p. 18.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_132" href="#FNanchor_132" class="label">[132]</a> Ed. of Amsterdam. Petitot, vol. xxxvi. of the collection, p. 841, +proposes to read <i>husesas</i>, from <i>huso</i>, spindle. The true reading seems +<i>finezas</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_133" href="#FNanchor_133" class="label">[133]</a> It is very certain that the author of <i>Mirame</i> show some littleness in +the ridiculous quarrel raised against <i>The Cid</i>; but it must be acknowledged +that he had some State reasons not to be despised. He who had +brought about the royal edict against duels could not endure verses in +their honor; there was also in <i>The Cid</i> more than one word unfavorable +to the prime ministers. Besides, the cardinal loved Corneille; he +gave him a good pension, and even performed the marriage ceremony +for him. One day Corneille having presented himself more sad and +thoughtful than ordinary before the Cardinal Richelieu, the latter asked +him if he was working. Corneille replied that he was far from having +the tranquillity necessary for composition, that his head was turned +with love. It was necessary to explain the whole matter, and he told the +cardinal that he was passionately in love with the daughter of Lieutenant +General d’Andely, and that he could not obtain her from her father. +The cardinal requested this father, so hard to please, to come to him at +Paris. He arrived trembling at receiving such an unexpected order, +and returned very glad to get off with giving his daughter to a man in +such high credit. See the brothers Parfait, <i>History of the French +Theatre</i>, vol. v., p. 304.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_134" href="#FNanchor_134" class="label">[134]</a> Works of Balzac, in-fol., vol. ii., p. 419.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_135" href="#FNanchor_135" class="label">[135]</a> Maitre Vincent, etc.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_136" href="#FNanchor_136" class="label">[136]</a> Letter of November 24, 1676.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_137" href="#FNanchor_137" class="label">[137]</a> Third Satire.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_138" href="#FNanchor_138" class="label">[138]</a> Tallemant, ii., p. 295.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_139" href="#FNanchor_139" class="label">[139]</a> Edit. of Saint-Surin, vol. iv., p. 375.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_140" href="#FNanchor_140" class="label">[140]</a> See in the <i>Œuvres diverses</i> of Corneille, ed. of Amsterdam, 1740, +p. 174, the elegy containing a declaration of love: it is not dated, but +must have been written during the youth of Corneille, and even before +his glory, for he does not speak of it, whilst later he uses a very different +tone. The lady to whom his elegy is addressed, must have been +of good birth, if the young poet is to be believed. He paints finely the +passage from admiration to love:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Mais de ce sentiment la flatteuse imposture</div> + <div class="verse indent0">N’empêcha pas le mal pour cacher la blessure,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Et ce soin d’admirer, qui dure plus d’un jour,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">S’il n’est amour dejà, devient bientôt amour.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Un je ne sais quel trouble où je me vis réduire</div> + <div class="verse indent0">De cette vérité sut assez tôt m’instruire:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Par d’inquiets transports me sentant émouvoir,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">J’en connus le sujet quand j’osai vous revoir.</div> + <div class="center">...</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Un désordre confus m’expliqua mon martyre:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Je voulus vous parler, mais je ne sus que dire.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Je rougis, je pàlis, et d’un tacite aveu</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Je n’aime point, dis je, hélas! qu’il s’en faut peu! etc.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>The piece entitled <i>Jalousie</i>, and which is not finished, has parts +which seem written by Molière.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Le plus léger chagrin d’une humeur inégale,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Le moindre égarement d’un mauvais intervalle,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Un souris par mégarde à ses yeux dérobé,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Un coup d’œil par hasard sur un autre tombé,</div> + <div class="center">...</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Tout cela fait pour lui de grands crimes d’État,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Et plus l’amour est fort, plus il est délicat.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Corneille felt a tender sentiment for the Marchioness de B. A. T. (we +are ignorant of the name of the person concealed under these initials). +He speaks of himself now in a very different manner from that of his +youth, and he turns the honors of his glory to the profit of his love:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Je connais mes défauts, mais aprés tout je pense</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Être pour vous encore un captif d’importance,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Car vous aimez le gloire, et vous savez qu’un roi</div> + <div class="verse indent0">No vous en peut jamais assurer tant que moi, etc.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Corneille bid adieu to her whose love he despairs of obtaining; he +yields to younger rivals:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Négligez-moi pour eux, mals dites en vous-même:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Moins il me veut aimer, plus il fait voir qu’il m’aime,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Et m’aime d’autant plus que son cœur enflammé</div> + <div class="verse indent0">N’ose même aspirer au bonheur d’être aimé.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Je fais tous ses plaisirs, j’ai toutes ses pensées,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sans que le moindre espoir les ait intéressées.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Puisse-je malgré vous y penser au peu moins,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">M’échapper quelque jour vers quelques autres soins,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Trouver quelques plaisirs ailleurs qu’en votre idée,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Et voir toute mon âme un peu moins obsédée;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Et vous, de qui je n’ose attendre jamais rien,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ne ressentir jamais un mal pareil au mien!</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>I will not quote, but indicate the stanzas addressed to the same person, +and which express the same sentiments in a different meter:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Marquise, si mon visage</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A quelques traits un peu vieux, etc.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_141" href="#FNanchor_141" class="label">[141]</a> Vol. ii., p. 87. The first edition of Voiture is that given by his nephew, +Pinchesne, almost immediately after his death, in 1650, in-4ᵒ, and +which is dedicated to Condé. There was already a seventh edition, +in-12ᵒ, in 1665. The last and most complete is that, of 1745, 2 vol., small +in-8ᵒ. It is this that we shall quote.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_142" href="#FNanchor_142" class="label">[142]</a> Vol. ii., p. 66. It was the ancient hôtel de Gondi, <i>the most magnificent +of the times</i>, says again Sauval, <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 131. Perelle has engraved +the hôtel and the gardens.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_143" href="#FNanchor_143" class="label">[143]</a> Lenet, edit. Michaud, pp. 447 and 450.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_144" href="#FNanchor_144" class="label">[144]</a> One is deceived in expecting to become acquainted with the great +Condé, by seeing the celebrated portrait of Nanteuil. This portrait is +of 1662. It represents Condé fatigued and grown old, after the civil war. +We must look for the conqueror of Rocroy and of Lens, in the portraits +of Haret, of Michel Lasne, and especially of Duret.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_145" href="#FNanchor_145" class="label">[145]</a> See farther on.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_146" href="#FNanchor_146" class="label">[146]</a> <i>Mémoires anecdotes</i>, p. 108.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_147" href="#FNanchor_147" class="label">[147]</a> Farther on, chap. iv.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_148" href="#FNanchor_148" class="label">[148]</a> Observe the style in which he writes from Grasse, the 18th December, +1637, to Mademoiselle de Bourbon: “Mademoiselle, I am proud to +learn that she, who occupies all hearts, should fear that she is not in my +memory. Though it were a temple, you should there have a place; judge, +then, whether I have no interest in preserving you in it, in order that +you may render it precious, poor and unfaithful as it was before. It is +principally at the altar, Mademoiselle, that you are present with me. I +truly ask God to add other lilies to those of your crown, but I ask him, +also, to mingle with them the love of the thorns of his Son, and to +strengthen you in the generous contempt of the grandeur in which I +have seen (an allusion to the thought entertained by Mademoiselle de +Bourbon of becoming a Carmelite).” Elsewhere, May 3, 1641...... +“Our Lord is very good, but he is jealous, and he would prefer that we +should never have tasted his spirit, than to become disgusted with it, and +suffer it to be quenched. Roses have thorns which defend their beauty, +but princesses are in the midst of roses which do not secure them +against the temptations which the pleasures of the world inspire....” +See <i>Letters of M. Godeau, Bishop of Vence, on different subjects</i>; Paris, +1718, p. 17 and p. 148.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_149" href="#FNanchor_149" class="label">[149]</a> <i>De la Fausseté des Vertus humaines</i>, by M. Esprit; in-12ᵒ, two vol., +Paris, 1678.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_150" href="#FNanchor_150" class="label">[150]</a> <i>The most excellent Buildings of France</i>, in-fol., 1607, vol. ii. Many +plates of the castle, none of the garden.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_151" href="#FNanchor_151" class="label">[151]</a> <i>Views of the finest Buildings of France</i>, by Perelle.—<i>General view of +the Château de Chantilly, of its canals, fountains, and groves</i>, etc.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_152" href="#FNanchor_152" class="label">[152]</a> Bossuet, funeral oration on the great Condé.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_153" href="#FNanchor_153" class="label">[153]</a> Edition Michaud, p. 229.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_154" href="#FNanchor_154" class="label">[154]</a> <i>Œuvres de Sarrazin</i>, at Paris, in-4ᵒ, 1656, p. 231. This first edition +was reproduced in two small volumes in 1663, and in 1685. In 1674, +appeared the <i>Nouvelles Œuvres de Sarrazin</i>, in two parts, containing +prose and verse.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_155" href="#FNanchor_155" class="label">[155]</a> Mademoiselle Chateignier de La Rocheposay, one of the prettiest of +women, and much courted by the Duke de Candale, the brother of +Mademoiselle d’Epernon.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_156" href="#FNanchor_156" class="label">[156]</a> See the pretty engraving of Parelle.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_157" href="#FNanchor_157" class="label">[157]</a> Edit. of 1745, vol. 1st, etc. <i>Our Aurora</i>, hitherto perfectly unknown, +is in fact Mademoiselle de Bourbon herself, according to an +old tradition preserved by the manuscript collection of songs, called +<i>Recueil de Maurepas</i>, for opposite to the first couplet this note is +found: <i>For Mademoiselle de Bourbon, sleeping</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_158" href="#FNanchor_158" class="label">[158]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 170. See also the song to Madame la Princesse, to the +air <i>Des Landriri</i>; ibid., p. 129.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_159" href="#FNanchor_159" class="label">[159]</a> See the different views of Ruel, by Parelle.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_160" href="#FNanchor_160" class="label">[160]</a> Paris, in-4ᵒ, 1641.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_161" href="#FNanchor_161" class="label">[161]</a> <i>Reglement donné par une dame de haute qualité à madame sa petit-fille</i>, +published first in 1698, reprinted in 1779.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_162" href="#FNanchor_162" class="label">[162]</a> Tallemant, vol. iv., p. 806.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_163" href="#FNanchor_163" class="label">[163]</a> Cotin has made an exact <i>Déscription de Liancourt</i> in his <i>Œuvres +galantes</i>, second edition, 1665, pp. 108-115.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_164" href="#FNanchor_164" class="label">[164]</a> Manuscripts of Conrart, in-4ᵒ, vol. xi., p. 443.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_165" href="#FNanchor_165" class="label">[165]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 851.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_166" href="#FNanchor_166" class="label">[166]</a> The cardinal, now old and sick, was as much dreaded by these +young girls as the small-pox, from which they had been flying.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_167" href="#FNanchor_167" class="label">[167]</a> Tallemant, vol. ii., p. 337, attributes these couplets to Bachaumont; +Madame de Motteville, vol. iii., p. 230, gives them without the author’s +name, and they are found with many others in a long mazarinade, entitled, +<i>Triolets de Saint-Germain</i>, in-4ᵒ, 1649.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_168" href="#FNanchor_168" class="label">[168]</a> Library of the Arsenal, <i>Belles-Lettres Françaises</i>, No. 70, collection +in-fol., entitled: <i>Chansons Notées</i>, vol. ii., p. 66.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_169" href="#FNanchor_169" class="label">[169]</a> Manuscripts of Conrart, in-4ᵒ, vol. xi., p. 848.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_170" href="#FNanchor_170" class="label">[170]</a> Manuscripts of Conrart, in-4ᵒ, vol. xi., p. 848.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_171" href="#FNanchor_171" class="label">[171]</a> Writing in verse had become a great amusement with all this +young and ingenious society. Vol. xiii. of the Manuscripts of Conrart, +in-fol., p. 337, contains an epistle in verse to the Duke d’Enghien, +when he was at Dijon, and only twenty years of age.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_172" href="#FNanchor_172" class="label">[172]</a> Mémoires, vol. vi., p. 105. “This lady did not hate the court. +She desired general approbation, and especially the approbation of +those who had credit, for naturally she had a greediness for all that +is called favor.”—<i>Ibid.</i>, p. 167. “According to what I have said of +Madame de Montausier, it is easy to judge that she must have been +agreeable to the king, not only because she had fine qualities, but +because the merit which she possessed was entirely conformed to the +fashion of the world. One day that the queen-mother had unwillingly +received Mademoiselle de La Vallière, Madame de Montausier +applauded this condescension, which had given Queen Maria-Theresa +so much pain.”—<i>Ibid.</i> “I cannot help, in this place, mentioning a +circumstance which may show how much the hearts and minds of +people of court are ordinarily spoiled. At the moment when the +queen had commanded me to go and speak to the queen her mother, +I met Madame de Montausier, who was rejoicing over the very matter +that had thrown the queen into despair. She said to me with an +exclamation of joy: Ah! Madame, the queen-mother has done an admirable +act in wishing to see La Vallière. See the tact of a very shrewd +woman and of a good politician. But, added this lady, she is so feeble +that we cannot hope that she will sustain this act as she should. I +was truly astonished to see the operations of different sentiments in +different persons, and, unwilling to reply, I quitted her.... The Duke +de Montausier, who had the reputation of a man of honor, caused in +me, about the same time, a similar pain, for, in speaking of the ill-feeling +which the queen-mother entertained towards the Countess de +Brancas, he said to me these words: Ah! truly the queen is very +pleasant to be offended, because Madame de Brancas is so complaisant +towards the king as to keep company with Mademoiselle de La +Vallière. If she were cunning and wise, she would be very glad that +the king was in love with Mademoiselle de Brancas, for, being the +daughter of the first officer in her service (the Count de Brancas was +chevalier d’honneur of the queen-mother), he, his wife and his daughter, +would be of great advantage to her with the king.” When the +amours of the king with Madame de Montespan commenced, Madame +de Montausier was not more severe, <i>Mémoires de Mademoiselle</i>, vol. v., +p. 254: “Madame de Montespan took up her quarters in the room belonging +to Madame de Montausier, near that of the king; and it was +observed that a sentinel, who had been placed in the passage communicating +with the lodging of the king and that of Madame de Montespan, +had been removed.... I am told, said the queen, that it is +Madame de Montausier who conducts this intrigue, that she deceives +me, that the king visits Madame de Montespan in her room. Madame +de Montausier said to the queen: Since your Majesty would be +made to believe that I give mistresses to the king, what injury may +any one expect to escape? The queen replied to her in equivocal +terms: I know more than you think; I am not the dupe of any one.” +Appearances were all against Madame de Montausier. Also, at a later +period, Montespan, who was evil-minded enough to misinterpret the +honor done by the king to his wife, made for Madame Montausier a +most disagreeable scene. Madame de Montausier complained to the +king, who sent for Montespan, for the purpose of putting him in +prison. See <i>Mademoiselle</i>, vol. vi., 82: “This affair made a great noise +in the world, because it was an extraordinary outrage upon a woman +who had thus far sustained an excellent reputation. M. de Montausier +was at Rambouillet; he did not know of the affair; they even +said that it was concealed from him; others imagined that he knew it, +but that it was for his advantage to seem ignorant. A little while +after he was made tutor of the Dauphin, etc.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_173" href="#FNanchor_173" class="label">[173]</a> If it is true, as several contemporaries assure us, and among others, +Segrais, that Montausier had served as a model for the <i>Misanthrope</i>, +it was because Molière, who did not search things closely, has taken +a difficult virtue for reality. But Molière told his secret to no one, +and probably there is no secret here except that of genius. The <i>Misanthrope</i> +is not the copy of any original. Many originals have been +before the great observer, and furnished him with a thousand particular +traits; but the entire and complete character of the <i>Misanthrope</i> is +his own creation.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_174" href="#FNanchor_174" class="label">[174]</a> Tallemant, vol. ii., p. 243: “Our marquis, seeing that his religion +was an obstacle to his designs, changed it. He said that salvation +could be obtained in either; but in the change he seems to have consulted +his interest.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_175" href="#FNanchor_175" class="label">[175]</a> Every one called her Elizabeth, and she is thus named in the most +authentic printed documents; but in all our manuscripts she never +signs herself Elizabeth, but almost always Isabelle. See several or +her autograph letters among the papers of Lenet in the National Library. +A manuscript piece, the judicial evidence given by Madame +de Châtillon before an ecclesiastical commission delegated by the Pope, +in the matter of the canonization of the Mother Madeleine de Saint-Joseph, +can leave no doubt; Madame de Châtillon deposes thus: +“My name is Isabelle Angélique de Montmorency; I am a native of +the city of Paris; I am thirty-two years of age, daughter of Henry +François de Montmorency, Count de Boutteville and other places, and +of Isabelle Angélique de Vienne, his lawful wife; I am widow of +Gaspard de Coligny, Duke de Châtillon....” and she signs: “Moy, +Isabelle Angélique de Montmorency.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_176" href="#FNanchor_176" class="label">[176]</a> Lenet, ed. Mich., p. 437.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_177" href="#FNanchor_177" class="label">[177]</a> See long details on this subject in Madame de Motteville, vol. 1st, +p. 292, etc.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_178" href="#FNanchor_178" class="label">[178]</a> <i>Œuvres de Voiture</i>, vol. ii., p. 174, Epistle to M. de Coligny.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_179" href="#FNanchor_179" class="label">[179]</a> <i>Œuvres de Sarrazin</i>, in-4ᵒ; Poésies, p. 74.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_180" href="#FNanchor_180" class="label">[180]</a> Madame de Motteville, vol. iii., p. 133, etc.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_181" href="#FNanchor_181" class="label">[181]</a> See on Madame de Montbazon, the chapter which follows, and, on +Madame de Châtillon, the <span class="smcap">Introduction</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_182" href="#FNanchor_182" class="label">[182]</a> We are not very well acquainted with the origin and history of the +Du Vigeans. We find a Protestant Vigean in the States-General in +1615, where he performed an active part.—<i>Journal historique et anecdotes +de la cour et de Paris</i>, among the manuscript papers of Conrart; in-4ᵒ, +vol. xi., p. 238.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_183" href="#FNanchor_183" class="label">[183]</a> Letter of Voiture to Madame Du Vigean, in sending him an elegy +which he had made and which she had asked, vol. i., p. 27. It is also +Madame Du Vigean whom he designates by the name of the <i>Belle +Baronne</i>, in two couplets, at page 120 and 127 of vol. ii. It seems that +the Du Vigeans resided at first in the quarter Saint-Germain, as well as +Madame d’Aiguillon, and that she afterwards resided in the Rue Saint-Thomas-du-Louvre.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_184" href="#FNanchor_184" class="label">[184]</a> Tallemant, vol. ii., p. 32, and Library of the Arsenal, <i>Collection of +Historical Songs</i>, vol. i., p. 149.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_185" href="#FNanchor_185" class="label">[185]</a> <i>Œuvres</i>, vol. i., pp. 20-25; letter tenth to the Cardinal de La Valette.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_186" href="#FNanchor_186" class="label">[186]</a> Desmarets, <i>Œuvres poétique</i>, in-4ᵒ, 1641, pp. 18-21.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_187" href="#FNanchor_187" class="label">[187]</a> Vol. ii., fol. 801.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_188" href="#FNanchor_188" class="label">[188]</a> Vol. i., p. 181.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_189" href="#FNanchor_189" class="label">[189]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 186.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_190" href="#FNanchor_190" class="label">[190]</a> Library of the Arsenal, manuscripts of Conrart, in-4ᵒ, vol. xi., p. +855.—Devices were then in fashion; at a later period Mademoiselle +placed portraits in them, and Madame Sablé maxims and thoughts. +These devices had nothing official in them, and in that they resembled +what are now called fancy seals, which must not be confounded +with family arms. Individuals made devices for themselves and others; +they had them printed, and they are regarded as true works of art. +There is in the Arsenal, <i>Belles-Lettres Françaises</i>, No. 348, a collection, +in-folio, upon vellum, of great beauty. It had been made for the +Duchess de La Trémouille, whose portrait is found among those of +Mademoiselle. Each device occupies an entire leaf. We find here +those of Anne of Austria, of Madame the Princess, of Mademoiselle de +Montpensier, and of many other illustrious females of the seventeenth +century. We limit ourselves to giving the device of Madame de +Longueville. It is very different from that of Mademoiselle de Bourbon. +It is a bunch of lilies upon a nest of serpents, with these words: +<i>Meo moriuntur odore</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_191" href="#FNanchor_191" class="label">[191]</a> Fol., 332, verso.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_192" href="#FNanchor_192" class="label">[192]</a> <i>Mémoires</i>, vol. iii., p. 893. See also vol. iv., p. 89.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_193" href="#FNanchor_193" class="label">[193]</a> Deposition in the affair of the beatification of the Mother Madeleine +de Saint-Joseph: “I, Sister Marthe Poussar du Vigean, called de +Jésus, aged 28 years.... November 17, 1650.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_194" href="#FNanchor_194" class="label">[194]</a> <i>Mémoires de Lenet</i>, edit. Michaud, p. 550.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_195" href="#FNanchor_195" class="label">[195]</a> Lenet, edit. Michaud, p. 550.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_196" href="#FNanchor_196" class="label">[196]</a> Lenet, <i>ibid.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_197" href="#FNanchor_197" class="label">[197]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_198" href="#FNanchor_198" class="label">[198]</a> <i>Supplément Français</i>, No. 925. The author seems to be called +Maupassant. “It is the custom,” says he, in commencing, “of all those +who write history, to wish to appear faithful, disinterested, and exempt +from all passion. For my part, I do not pretend to persuade any one +of my sincerity, but I dare to declare that I have seen most of the things +which I undertake to write about.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_199" href="#FNanchor_199" class="label">[199]</a> Mémoires de Madame de Motteville, vol. i., p. 295: “The Duke +d’Enghien had so strong a passion for Mademoiselle Du Vigean, that I +have heard Madame Du Vigean, her mother, say that he had often +wished to break his marriage, having been forced to espouse the +Duchess d’Enghien, in order that he might marry her daughter, and +that he had even labored to this end. I have heard Madame de Montausier, +who knew these intrigues, say that this prince had pretended +to love Mademoiselle de Boutteville, by the express order of Mademoiselle +Du Vigean, in order to conceal in public the friendship which +he had for her, but that the beauty of Mademoiselle de Boutteville having +frightened Mademoiselle Du Vigean, she had forbidden him, a little +after, to see her and to speak to her, and that he had obeyed her so +promptly, that all at once he ceased all intercourse with her, and that, +to show that he had no affection for her, he caused her to marry Dandelot.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_200" href="#FNanchor_200" class="label">[200]</a> Mémoires de Madame de Motteville, p. 294.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_201" href="#FNanchor_201" class="label">[201]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_202" href="#FNanchor_202" class="label">[202]</a> <i>Mémoires de Mademoiselle</i>, vol. 1st, p. 84.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_203" href="#FNanchor_203" class="label">[203]</a> Mémoires, vol. i., p. 302.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_204" href="#FNanchor_204" class="label">[204]</a> The Marquis d’Huxelles died in 1658, of his wounds, and of his +chagrin on account of not receiving the appointment of Marshal. +The office was conferred upon his son in 1703. Mademoiselle d’Huxelles +was amiable and sprightly. She died at an advanced age in 1712.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_205" href="#FNanchor_205" class="label">[205]</a> <i>Mémoires de Lenet</i>, part i., p. 207.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_206" href="#FNanchor_206" class="label">[206]</a> <i>Mémoires de Mademoiselle</i>, vol. i., p. 84.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_207" href="#FNanchor_207" class="label">[207]</a> As every thing then was the subject of songs, the two following +couplets, which we find among the <i>Chansons Notées</i> of the Arsenal, were +written upon this occasion:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Sur L’Air</span>: <i>Laire lan lère.</i></p> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Lorsque Vigean quitta la cour,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Les Jeux, les Graces, les Amours</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Entrèrent dans le Monastère.</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Laire la laire lan lère,</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Laire la laire lan la.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Les Jeux pleurèrent ce jour-là;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ce jour la Beauté se voila,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Et fit vœu d’être solitaire.</div> + <div class="verse indent4">Laire la laire, etc.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_208" href="#FNanchor_208" class="label">[208]</a> <i>Ibid.</i> The remembrance which Condé preserved for Mademoiselle +Du Vigean was such, that Mademoiselle asserts, vol. i., p. 88, that if +Condé favored Chabot in his designs upon Mademoiselle de Rohan, it +was because Chabot had been his confidant with Mademoiselle Du +Vigean. “So,” says she, “after having been served during one of the +most important periods of his life, it is not wonderful that he took care +to promote the marriage so desired by Chabot.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_209" href="#FNanchor_209" class="label">[209]</a> It was customary to take in religion one’s baptismal name, as Louise +de La Vallière was called Louise de La Miséricorde, and Anne Marie +d’Epernon, Anne Marie de Jésus, etc.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_210" href="#FNanchor_210" class="label">[210]</a> Vol. v.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_211" href="#FNanchor_211" class="label">[211]</a> <i>Lettres originales</i>, vol. iv.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_212" href="#FNanchor_212" class="label">[212]</a> Villefore, pp. 37, 38.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_213" href="#FNanchor_213" class="label">[213]</a> <i>Mémoires</i>, edition of Amsterdam, 1735; vol. i., p. 45.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_214" href="#FNanchor_214" class="label">[214]</a> A fine portrait of M. de Longueville, painted by Champagne, and +engraved by Nanteuil, forms the frontispiece of <i>The Pucelle</i> of Chapelain, +in-fol., 1656.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_215" href="#FNanchor_215" class="label">[215]</a> The hôtel of the Dukes de Longueville is not at all the one which, +after the death of her husband, Madame de Longueville bought of the +Epernons, on the Rue Saint Thomas-du-Louvre, near the hôtel de Rambouillet, +where she resided with her children, and which bore her +name from 1664 till the close of the seventeenth century. The dwelling +of the Longuevilles was the old hôtel d’Alençon. (See Sauval, vol. i., +pp. 65 and 70, especially p. 119.) It was situated on the Rue des Poulies, +among the rich hôtels which line the right side of that street from +the Rue Saint Honoré to the Seine, and which, with their dependencies +and their gardens, extend to the Louvre. It was almost opposite to the +Rue des Fossés-Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois. Upon its right, towards +the Seine, was the Petit-Bourbon, which, having served as a residence +and a stronghold in Paris to the eldest of the house of Bourbon, became +a royal building, a sort of appendage to the Louvre, where the young +king, Louis XIV., gave several great balls, and the theatre of which was +lent to Molière, for the performance of his comedies, upon his arrival in +Paris. Upon the left, on the same line, after the hôtel de Longueville, +came the hôtels de Villequier and d’Aumont; and a little nearer to the +church and house of l’Oratoire, the hôtels de La Force and de Créqui. +When, in 1663, Louis XIV., having entered into full possession of royal +authority, and wishing to signalize his reign by great monuments, undertook +to finish the Louvre and to give it a façade worthy of the rest of +the edifice, it was necessary for him to pull down, with the Petit-Bourbon, +a part of the hôtels of the Rue des Poulies, and among others that +of Longueville. This was the most ancient and most considerable. It +was composed of a large front building, of a vast court, of the hôtel +proper, with immense gardens. Those of our readers who desire to be +sure of the correctness of these details, have only to cast their eyes upon +the excellent plan of Gomboust, which gives an admirable view of Paris +in the seventeenth century, in 1652.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_216" href="#FNanchor_216" class="label">[216]</a> It is truly inconceivable that a woman of so much mind as Madame +de Sablé, could have carried her fear of sickness and contagion so far as +all contemporary writers, Voiture, Tallemant, Mademoiselle, etc., testify. +Her weakness upon this occasion, and the fidelity of Mademoiselle de +Rambouillet, are attested to us by several unpublished letters of those +ladies, which we find in the Library of the Arsenal, among the papers +of Conrart, in-4ᵒ, vol. xiv.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_217" href="#FNanchor_217" class="label">[217]</a> It is in vain that Mademoiselle says, vol. 1st, p. 47, that Madame +de Longueville remained marked with the small-pox. Retz affirms the +contrary. Edit. of Amsterdam, 1731, vol. i., p. 185: “The small-pox +had taken away the first flower of her beauty, but left her all its brilliancy.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_218" href="#FNanchor_218" class="label">[218]</a> <i>Letters de Monseigneur Godeau sur divers sujets</i>, Paris, 1713, letter +76, p. 243: “Degrasse, December 13, 1642.... As to your face, another +will rejoice, with much more propriety, that it will not be spoiled. Mademoiselle +Paulet tells me so. I have so good an opinion of your sense, +that I believe you would have been easily consoled if your disease had +left its marks. Scars are often given by Divine Mercy to make persons, +who have loved too well their complexions, see that it is a flower +liable to fade even as it begins to bloom.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_219" href="#FNanchor_219" class="label">[219]</a> Edit. Michaud, p. 450.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_220" href="#FNanchor_220" class="label">[220]</a> <i>Mémoires de La Rochefoucauld</i>, collection Petitot, vol. li., pp. 370 +and 386.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_221" href="#FNanchor_221" class="label">[221]</a> Bibliothèque Nationale, <i>Supplément Français</i>, No. 925.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_222" href="#FNanchor_222" class="label">[222]</a> There can be no doubt in this case as to courage; a Coligny, a friend +of Condé, having never been suspected of wanting it.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_223" href="#FNanchor_223" class="label">[223]</a> The <i>Polexandre</i> of Gomberville appeared in 1637. This romance +had great success, and in a short time went through several editions; +the best and the most complete is that of 1645, in five parts, forming +eight volumes.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_224" href="#FNanchor_224" class="label">[224]</a> I rely upon the report given by Lenet, which is almost the same as +that sent at the time, by order of the Duke d’Enghien, to his father, the +Prince de Condé. Lenet, edit. Michaud, p. 479, etc. See commencement +of chap. iv.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_225" href="#FNanchor_225" class="label">[225]</a> Claude de Letouf de Pradines, Baron de Sirot, a Burgundian gentleman, +born near 1600, mortally wounded in 1652, at the bridge de +Gergeau, in the wars of the Fronde.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_226" href="#FNanchor_226" class="label">[226]</a> Bossuet, in his admirable narrative of the battle of Rocroy, has perfectly +painted its close—the destruction of the Spanish infantry; but he +has not even indicated the manœuvre which decided the day. It is to +be regretted that Napoleon did not pay the same attention to the campaigns +of Condé as he did to those of Turenne and of Frederic, and +that after having incidentally judged, with the superiority of a master, +and worthily relieved the judicious boldness which achieved the battle +of Nortlingen, in which Condé did not fear to engage his only remaining +wing for re-establishing the combat, instead of employing it to make +a very difficult retreat before the cavalry of Jean de Vert, he did not +devote a chapter to the examination of the battle of Rocroy, which opens +a new military school.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_227" href="#FNanchor_227" class="label">[227]</a> There is not, we believe, or at least we do not know that there is, +any portrait painted or engraved of Mazarin in his youth. He was but +forty-one years of age in 1643, and a portrait by M. Lasne represents +him then with a face still handsome, in which delicacy is united with +grandeur.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_228" href="#FNanchor_228" class="label">[228]</a> See, upon this delicate point, M. Walckenær, <i>Mémoires sur Madame +de Sévigné</i>, vol. i., p. 213, especially the somewhat decided letter of Anne +to Mazarin, vol. iii., <i>Supplément</i>, p. 471.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_229" href="#FNanchor_229" class="label">[229]</a> Vol. ii., p. 108.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_230" href="#FNanchor_230" class="label">[230]</a> <i>Mémoires</i>, vol. i., p. 231.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_231" href="#FNanchor_231" class="label">[231]</a> Madame de Motteville has thus painted her, vol. i., p. 47: “Her +eyes were blue, large, and full of fire; her teeth white and even, and her +complexion had the white and incarnation necessary to a light beauty.” +Her <i>Nom de Précieuse</i> was Hermione, <i>Grand Dictionnaire des Pretieuses</i>, +vol. i., p. 218. Scarron has greatly celebrated her. Married in 1646 to +the Marshal Charles de Schomberg, she followed him into his government +of Trois Evechés, encountered Metz, the young Bossuet, and encouraged his +first efforts. After the death of the marshal she lived in +retirement, and died in 1691.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_232" href="#FNanchor_232" class="label">[232]</a> To judge of her beauty, she should not be seen as Retz saw her +at fifty years of age, nor as most of her portraits show her at the +approach of age, with the widow’s cap which she wore after the death +of her second husband; she should be seen when young and brilliant, +if not during the life of the High Constable De Luynes, at least at the +period of her second marriage. Born in 1604, married in 1617, a widow +in 1619, remarried in 1622, at the age of eighteen, she had from fifteen +to twenty years of the greatest splendor. Her form was charming. +She had blue eyes, light chestnut hair, and a most beautiful bosom. +Thus she is represented by several of the portraits of the times possessed +by the Duke de Luynes, also by a charming portrait engraved +by Daret.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_233" href="#FNanchor_233" class="label">[233]</a> Tallemant, vol. iii., p. 407.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_234" href="#FNanchor_234" class="label">[234]</a> <i>Mémoires</i>, vol. i., p. 46.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_235" href="#FNanchor_235" class="label">[235]</a> Vol. i., p. 221. He cites, as well as Tallemant and even Madame de +Motteville, incredible things. The collections of songs of the times +abound in outrageous epigrams against her. See the <i>Collection of +Maurepas</i>, in the National Library, and the collections of <i>Chanson’s +historiques</i>, of the Library of the Arsenal.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_236" href="#FNanchor_236" class="label">[236]</a> Vol. v., p. 246.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_237" href="#FNanchor_237" class="label">[237]</a> See Introduction.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_238" href="#FNanchor_238" class="label">[238]</a> Vol. iii., p. 410.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_239" href="#FNanchor_239" class="label">[239]</a> In regard to the beauty of Madame de Montbazon, we have united +what is said by Tallemant, vol. iii., p. 411, and by Madame de Motteville, +vol. i., p. 146. The reader may judge of the truth of our description +by going to see, at Versailles, in the curious gallery of the northern +attic, under No. 2030, a small picture, representing Madame de Montbazon, +at the age of thirty-five to forty years, with a collar of pearls, a +beautiful forehead, fine black eyes, a magnificent throat; but all somewhat +strong and without much distinction. This picture seems the +original of the portrait engraved by Le Blond.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_240" href="#FNanchor_240" class="label">[240]</a> Villefore, p. 82.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_241" href="#FNanchor_241" class="label">[241]</a> <i>Mémoires</i> of La Châtre in the collection Petitot, vol. li., p. 230.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_242" href="#FNanchor_242" class="label">[242]</a> Mademoiselle, vol. 1st, pp. 62 and 68.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_243" href="#FNanchor_243" class="label">[243]</a> It seems to me that it would be better to say: “I suffer for loving +too much, and you for not loving enough.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_244" href="#FNanchor_244" class="label">[244]</a> See Mademoiselle, Madame de Motteville, and La Rochefoucauld.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_245" href="#FNanchor_245" class="label">[245]</a> Mémoires de La Rochefoucauld, Collection Petitot, vol. li, p. 387.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_246" href="#FNanchor_246" class="label">[246]</a> Vol. i., p. 65.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_247" href="#FNanchor_247" class="label">[247]</a> See the <i>Mémoires</i> of the times, and especially those of Campion.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_248" href="#FNanchor_248" class="label">[248]</a> Second daughter of Duke François. This marriage, contracted in +1632, is a romance, which may be read in all the memoirs of the times.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_249" href="#FNanchor_249" class="label">[249]</a> Royal Library, <i>Supplément Français</i>, No. 925, fol. 11.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_250" href="#FNanchor_250" class="label">[250]</a> <i>Mémoires</i>, p. 391.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_251" href="#FNanchor_251" class="label">[251]</a> <i>Mémoires</i>, p. 391.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_252" href="#FNanchor_252" class="label">[252]</a> The Place-Royale and its environs were then the quarters of the +upper classes. Begun in 1604 (<i>Antiquities and most remarkable things +of Paris</i>, 1608, by Bonfons and by Du Breuil, p. 430), on the ruins of +the Palais des Tournelles, by Henri IV., it was finished in 1612. (<i>Theatre +of the Antiquities of Paris</i>, by Father Du Breuil, in-4ᵒ, 1613, p. +1050.) It is, as is known, a great square, or rather a rectangle, bordered +on all sides by thirty-seven pavilions, supported by pillars forming +a gallery, which extends entirely around the place. In the midst +was a vast yard, divided into six beautiful grass-plots. In the centre +was the equestrian statue of Louis XIII. The statue was by Biard, +and the horse by Daniel de Volterre. On one of the faces of the pedestal +of white marble, was the following inscription: “To the glorious +and immortal memory of the great and invincible Louis the Just, +thirteenth of the name, King of France and of Navarre, Armand, Cardinal +de Richelieu, his principal minister, has raised this statue as an +eternal mark of his zeal, of his fidelity, and of his gratitude, in 1639.” +Under Louis XIV. this beautiful square was surrounded with a railing +of excellent workmanship. Lemaire, said in 1685, vol. iii., p. 307: +“They are now making a balustrade of iron, which will extend entirely +around it and inclose a very agreeable garden, in which there will be four +great reservoirs of water in the four corners. Private persons having +their residences here, will contribute to the expense of this, each +the sum of one thousand livres. The city will furnish the rest.” +Germain Brice, in the first edition of his curious work, which appeared +in 1685, as did that of Lemaire, says the same thing, adding +that the inhabitants alone of the place will have the right of enjoying +the garden which is to be laid out. “No one will enter except those +belonging to the houses which have been furnished with keys.” In +the second edition of Brice, of 1687, the beautiful railing was not +erected; it is in the edition which follows, of 1701; it is seen in La +Caille, in 1714; and in the engraving of Defer, in 1716. As to the +garden and the four reservoirs, they are not even yet in the plan of +Turgot, in 1740. It was the Restoration which accomplished the designs +of the administration of Louis XIV. How many public and +domestic events has this place witnessed during the seventeenth +century, how many noble tourneys, how many atrocious duels, how +many amiable rendezvous! What conversations, worthy of those of +Décaméron, it has heard,—conversations which Corneille has collected +in one of his first comedies, and in several acts of the <i>Menteur</i>! What +graceful creatures have inhabited these pavilions! What sumptuous +furniture, what treasures of taste have been assembled here! How +many illustrious personages, of every kind, have mounted these beautiful +staircases! Richelieu and Condé, Corneille and Molière, have trod +them a thousand times. It was while walking under this gallery that +Descartes, conversing with Pascal, suggested to him the idea of his +beautiful experiments upon the weight of the air. It was there also +that, while going one evening from the house of Madame de Guimenée, +the melancholy De Thou received from Cinq-Mars the involuntary +confidence of the conspiracy which was to lead them both to the scaffold. +It was there, in short, that Madame de Sévigné was born, and +close by it she lived. On reaching the Place-Royale by its true entrance, +the Rue-Royale, beside the Rue Saint-Antoine, we find at the +right angle the hôtel de Rohan, long occupied by the old Duchess +Dowager, widow of that great Duke de Rohan, one of the first generals, +and the greatest military writers of his age. In the left angle was +the hôtel de Chaulnes, whose magnificent apartments have been celebrated +by Bois-Robert, and which, at a later period, passed to Nicolaï. +At the other two corners of the place were, to the right, on the side of +the Rue des Tournelles and of the Boulevard, the vast and sumptuous +hôtel of Saint-Géran; and to the left, on the side of the street Saint-Louis, +the hôtel which was occupied by Richelieu before he had built +and finished Palais-Cardinal. The four galleries were filled with hôtels +not unworthy of those already mentioned. There was the hôtel of the +Marshal de Lavardin, that of M. de Nouveau, that of Villequier, captain +of the guards, who sold it to M. de Hameaux, by whom it was resold, +in 1680, to the Rohan-Chabots, and from them this hôtel, even in +passing through other hands, retained the name of hôtel Chabot. M. +Walckenær, in his <i>La Bruyère</i>, p. 743, says that the Count de Montgomery +and the unfortunate Marquis de Langlade, so celebrated in the +history of unjust condemnations, lived together at the Place-Royale. +Brice, in 1685, indicates the hôtel of the Marquis de Dangeau, and in +1713, on the right, in entering by the Rue Saint-Antoine, the hôtel of +the Baron de Breteuil, and on the other side the house of the President +Carrel. We know certainly that Madame de Sablé resided at the Place-Royale, +as well as the Countess de Maure, with Mademoiselle de Vaudy; +but the difficulty would be to discover the inhabitants of all the +other pavilions, and thus to make an exact and complete history of the +Place-Royale until the close of the seventeenth century. We suggest +this subject of study to some pupil of the <i>Ecole des Chartes</i>, or to some +young artist; they would find in it matter of the most interesting investigation, +as well as descriptions the most charming, and a modest +glory would not fail to follow after a few years of the most attractive +labor. We take the liberty of pointing out to them, besides Felibien, +vol. ii., Sauval, vol. ii., p. 624, the plan of Gomboust, from 1652, and +the after plans, the following works: 1st, <i>The Paris Guide</i>, etc., by the +Sieur de Schayes, 1647; 2d, <i>The Convenient Book, containing the addresses +of the city of Paris, by Abraham Pradel, philosopher and mathematician</i>, +Paris, small in-8ᵒ; 3d, <i>The Royal Almanac</i>, of 1699; 4th, the +sequel to the different editions of G. Brice, from 1685 to 1725; 5th, the +verses by Scarron, <i>Adieu au Marais et à la Place-Royale</i>, edit. of Amsterdam, +of 1752, vol. vii., pp. 29-35; 6th, a Manuscript of the National +Library, No. 7905, wherein is a <i>Supplement of the Antiquities of Paris, +with all the most remarkable transactions from 1610 until the present +time, by D. H. J. lawyer</i>. “<i>Until the present time</i>,” is up to 1640. +Let us conclude with this remark: there is but one hôtel of the Place-Royale +which has remained in the same family from 1612 till our +own day, namely, the hôtel which bears the No. 25, and which, from +father to son, has come down to its present proprietor, M. the Count de +l’Escalopier.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_253" href="#FNanchor_253" class="label">[253]</a> It is d’Ormesson who gives this date.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_254" href="#FNanchor_254" class="label">[254]</a> D’Ormesson, manuscript on the Regency, whose author seems to +be one Maupassant.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_255" href="#FNanchor_255" class="label">[255]</a> La Rochefoucauld.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_256" href="#FNanchor_256" class="label">[256]</a> Fol. 28, verso.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_257" href="#FNanchor_257" class="label">[257]</a> D’Ormesson.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_258" href="#FNanchor_258" class="label">[258]</a> D’Ormesson, Maupassant, and La Rochefoucauld.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_259" href="#FNanchor_259" class="label">[259]</a> D’Ormesson.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_260" href="#FNanchor_260" class="label">[260]</a> D’Ormesson; Maupassant says in the right side.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_261" href="#FNanchor_261" class="label">[261]</a> D’Ormesson, Maupassant, La Rochefoucauld, Motteville.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_262" href="#FNanchor_262" class="label">[262]</a> Maupassant says that the Duke de Guise and Coligny appeared before +the court and justified themselves, the Duke de Guise with the +greatest success and Coligny with very bad grace; but D’Ormesson, so +well informed in regard to all that was going on in the Council of State +and in the Parliament, says not a word of the matter—and nothing is +more improbable, Coligny having immediately fallen into a desperate +condition.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_263" href="#FNanchor_263" class="label">[263]</a> La Rochefoucauld says that Coligny died four or five months after: +it should be four or five days. In fact, we find in the journal of Olivier +d’Ormesson, fol. 29, as follows: “Tuesday, December 29, the Marquis +de Pardaillan came to see me, and told me that M. de Coligny was at +Saint-Maur, and was likely to die of gangrene of his arm.” ... “Wednesday, +December 30 (D’Ormesson has, through mistake, made it January), +M. de Coligny was beyond hope, his wound making neither flesh +nor matter, on account of his naturally bad constitution. M. the Duke +d’Enghien had resolved to have his arm taken off.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_264" href="#FNanchor_264" class="label">[264]</a> Mademoiselle, <i>Mémoires</i>, vol. i., p. 74.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_265" href="#FNanchor_265" class="label">[265]</a> Madame de Motteville, vol. i., p. 201.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_266" href="#FNanchor_266" class="label">[266]</a> It is also in Madame de Motteville, vol. i., p. 201.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_267" href="#FNanchor_267" class="label">[267]</a> Library of the Arsenal, small in-4ᵒ, lettered on the back, <i>Fr. Jurisprudence</i>, +19 (B). “It contains: 1st, Proposals for the reform of Abbeys +and Priories; 2d, Fable of the Lion and of the Fox; 3d, Story of +M. de Coligny and of Madame de Longueville.”—National Library, +<i>Mélanges</i>, vol. cclxi., in-12ᵒ, comprising a collection of songs, letters of +Madame de Courcelles, pretended letters of different ladies to Fouquet, +and in the midst the history of Agésilan and Isménie. In comparing +the two manuscripts, we find but little difference between them.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_268" href="#FNanchor_268" class="label">[268]</a> The word <i>now</i> shows that the novel was composed before the death +of Gassion, who was slain before Lens in 1647.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_269" href="#FNanchor_269" class="label">[269]</a> Madame de Motteville, vol. iv., p. 42.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_270" href="#FNanchor_270" class="label">[270]</a> Madame de Motteville, vol. i., pp. 174-197.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_271" href="#FNanchor_271" class="label">[271]</a> <i>Mémoires</i> de La Rochefoucauld, Coll. Petitot, vol. li., p. 393.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_272" href="#FNanchor_272" class="label">[272]</a> Napoleon was twenty-six years of age at the time of his first battle, +that of Montenotte, and thirty, at the time of that of Marengo. Condé +was not quite twenty-two years of age at Rocroy, and he was twenty-seven +at Lens.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_273" href="#FNanchor_273" class="label">[273]</a> General Bonaparte entered Italy in 1796, with 30,000 men under +arms. He had at most from 15,000 to 20,000 at Montenotte; 20,000 at +Castiglione; 13,000 only at Arcola; 16,000, at most, at Rivoli. It is true +that at Marengo he had 28,000; but, for conception and execution, who +would compare Marengo with Arcola and Rivoli? These were the most +scientific and boldest campaigns of Italy, the most resembling those of +Rocroy and of Fribourg.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_274" href="#FNanchor_274" class="label">[274]</a> General Bonaparte had no adversaries like Mercy. Beaulieu, apparently +thinking himself too strong, had so scattered his troops, that +at Montenotte he fought with but half of his army. Wurmser, at Castiglione, +committed the same error. D’Alvinzy was superior to them, +and at Arcola and at Rivoli he yielded only to the unexpected grandeur +of the manœuvres of the French general. Melas fought well at +Marengo, as did also General Bonaparte, but neither of them performed +any remarkable manœuvre; and this battle would have been lost but +for the arrival of Desaix, as Waterloo was lost because Grouchy was +not Desaix.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_275" href="#FNanchor_275" class="label">[275]</a> I know nothing more noble than the dispatches of Condé, announcing +his different victories. He says very little in them of himself, and +much of others. During his retirement at Chantilly, his friends urged +him to write his military memoirs; he refused, saying that he would +be obliged to blame sometimes estimable generals, and to speak well of +himself. Never was any one less a charlatan. In this respect, Turenne +resembled Condé. What injures somewhat in my estimation +the memoirs of Napoleon, is that ardent and continual self-preoccupation, +which sees himself only everywhere, refers every thing to himself, +confesses no fault, enlarges the least actions, praises none but +mediocre men, depreciates eminent merit, treats Moreau and Kleber +as he would have done some of his marshals, and prepares for himself +everywhere a pedestal. But we must not forget that Napoleon was +writing in exile and in misfortune, and that he was reduced to defend +his own glory. See in Lenet, edit. Michaud, several letters of Condé to +Mazarin, after Fribourg, after Lerida, after the taking of Ipres and the +retaking of Furnes, especially after the battle of Lens. In giving an +account of this affair, the secretary of the prince had written: <i>our victory</i>. +Condé effaced the last word, and substituted <i>combat</i>. (Unpublished +part of Memoirs of Lenet, pp. 499-515.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_276" href="#FNanchor_276" class="label">[276]</a> See chapter iii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_277" href="#FNanchor_277" class="label">[277]</a> It was at the attack of the lines of Fribourg that he threw into the +enemy’s intrenchments his baton of command, indicating thereby his +resolution to conquer or perish.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_278" href="#FNanchor_278" class="label">[278]</a> Napoleon’s manœuvre of quitting Verona, in order to go around +Caldiero, whom he could not attack in front, and to surprise Alvinzy in +the marshes, where valor could make up for numbers, has been, and +cannot be too much praised. There was prudence and audacity in it. +General Bonaparte, knowing that he would be lost if he did not pass +the bridge of Arcola, allowed the destruction of his best lieutenants, +and barely escaped death himself. On this occasion, he showed himself +great by the genius which conceives and by the heroism which +executes; and he showed himself the equal of the Alexanders and +Condés.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_279" href="#FNanchor_279" class="label">[279]</a> <i>Mémoires</i>, vol. v., p. 20.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_280" href="#FNanchor_280" class="label">[280]</a> This is the same Arnauld from whom we have so many pretty +verses in the style of Voiture, and on account of whose absence Madame +de Rambouillet regrets that she cannot reply to Godeau. See chap. ii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_281" href="#FNanchor_281" class="label">[281]</a> Allow me to repeat here that Mercy, whom the Spaniards created +Count de Fuentes, and Fontaine, were two French gentlemen, one of +Lorraine, the other of Burgundy.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_282" href="#FNanchor_282" class="label">[282]</a> See close of chap. ii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_283" href="#FNanchor_283" class="label">[283]</a> In Italy, Napoleon never undertook a siege properly so called.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_284" href="#FNanchor_284" class="label">[284]</a> The Prince de Condé has left a name in the science of fortification. +He studied while at Bourges under the engineer Sarrazin, who rendered +Montrond a very difficult place to be taken. When he went to Burgundy, +he paid great attention to this part of the military art. There +is preserved in the depot of fortifications an atlas of the strongholds of +Burgundy, drawn by the hand of Condé: <i>Plan of the capital cities and +frontiers of the Duchy of Burgundy, Bresse, and Gex, made at Dijon, +January 7, 1640</i>, with this dedication:</p> + +<blockquote> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">To my Father.</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>—This work which I present belongs to you, since all that is mine +is yours. I have never been able to see you in the command of armies +without thinking of war myself; and I could not believe that my study +of fortifications would be agreeable to you, unless continued. If you +deign to think well of these efforts of my mind and hand, I desire no +other approbation of my labor, as I shall never have any other wish +than to live and die in the obedience and respect due to you from him +who is, sir,</p> + +<p>Your very humble and very obedient son and servant,</p> + +<p class="right">LOUIS DE BOURBON.</p> + +</blockquote> + +<p>Following this are eleven plans upon vellum of the strongholds of +Burgundy, with remarks.</p> + +<p>The great sieges which Condé undertook so successfully, particularly +those of Thionville and of Dunkirk, are the admiration of military men. +After his return to France in 1660, he was continually consulted upon all +projects of fortification, and his name, as well as his opinions, appear in +the official correspondence of the department of war, especially during +1664, 1670, and 1673, until 1675, when he retired from the service, and +left Vauban to act alone. Fontenelle, in his eulogy of Sauveur, says, +that it was in his frequent visits to Chantilly and in his conversations +with Condé, that Sauveur conceived the idea of his treatise upon fortification.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_285" href="#FNanchor_285" class="label">[285]</a> <i>History of the Wars and of the Negotiations which preceded the Treaty +of Westphalia</i>, vol. iii., in-4ᵒ. To this work we must add the <i>Secret +Negotiations touching the Peace of Munster and of Osnaburg, or General +Collection of Preliminaries, Instructions, Letters, Memoirs, concerning these +negotiations, from their commencement until their conclusion, in 1648</i>, 2 vol., +in-fol., Hague, 1725. In vol. xxx. of the <i>Mélanges de Clérambault</i>, in the +National Library, may be found a summary of all the correspondence +of the French cabinet and of the embassy. We give a few extracts:</p> + +<p>Year 1645.—June 3, Mazarin to M. de Longueville, complimenting +him upon the interesting condition of his wife, and urging him to +hasten his departure for Munster. Scarcely arrived, M. de Longueville +writes to Mazarin, July 2, telling him that he has reconciled +d’Avaux and Servien.</p> + +<p>Year 1646.—June 22, Mazarin announces to M. de Longueville the +departure of Madame de Longueville. July 24, M. de Longueville notifies +Mazarin that he is going to meet Madame de Longueville. October +23, M. de Longueville thanks Mazarin for promising him the office +of General of the Swiss.</p> + +<p>Year 1647.—January 16, Mazarin to M. de Longueville: The king +sends to him a gentleman, as well as to Madame de Longueville, announcing +the death of M. the Prince. March 15, Mazarin to M. de +Longueville, informing him that he cannot have the office of General +of the Swiss, and offering him in lieu thereof the Château de Caen. +March 25, M. de Longueville to the queen, in regard to the office of General +of the Swiss. <i>Idem</i>, to Mazarin on the same subject. Dissatisfaction +of M. de Longueville; he asks for his discharge; it is granted +to him. May 17, M. de Longueville thanks Mazarin for the discharge +which he has procured for him; he will not leave until the proper time. +June 22, Mazarin complains to M. de Longueville of his last letter, in +which he is charged with not desiring peace; he claims the contrary, +and shows his resentment of the manner in which the Spaniards have +acted. “France wishes peace, and will make it glorious.” July 1, M. +de Longueville assures his Eminence that his letter is far from bearing +the interpretation which he has placed upon it; that he does not know +him, which compels him to desire leave to return to France. Same day, +d’Avaux writes to Mazarin that he had no part in the letter of M. de +Longueville. July 13, Mazarin to M. de Longueville: he is very glad +that the intention of his letter is such as he claims; he desires nothing +in the world more ardently than peace, and wishes that Pegnaranda (the +Spanish ambassador) would leave Munster, that he might have an opportunity +to take a trip to Paris. Same day, Mazarin testifies to +d’Avaux the pleasure which he experiences in having an understanding +with his friends. Same day, important dispatch from Mazarin to Servien, +in which he discovers all his thoughts: Treaty with Germany, or, +at least, a grant of a truce in the Low Countries. “If nothing was to +be done in Flanders and in Germany, war could be easily carried on in +Spain and in Italy.” July 22, M. de Longueville to Mazarin: The +Swedes cannot be satisfied without giving them positive assurances of +the establishment of Lutheranism. The Protestants propose to conclude +without France. The departure of the Count de Trautmansdorf (imperial +ambassador) with liberty to retire, of which he will avail himself +as soon as possible. July 29, Mazarin begs M. de Longueville to defer +his departure. August 9, Mazarin to M. de Longueville: How to treat +with the Swedes. A gentleman of M. de Vandosme, carrying letters to +the archduke, was arrested and conducted to Nancy. The Spaniards +are far from peace. The King of Spain changes his manner of acting +with the emperor. Trautmansdorf might have concluded something +advantageous for Sweden at the expense of France. August 19, M. de +Longueville to Mazarin: The Neapolitans have driven off the Spaniards. +Pegnaranda will do nothing until the close of the campaign. +He will take this time to visit his Eminence. August 30, Mazarin expresses +to M. de Longueville some apprehensions as to the design of +his journey. August 30, confidential letter from Lyonne to Servien: +he begs him to discover the cabals that M. d’Avaux has made against +his Eminence. Orders are given to M. de Turenne to abolish the name +of Weimarians. The conclusion of peace must not be deferred on account +of the absence of M. de Longueville. M. d’Avaux seeks the protection +of M. the Prince and of M. the Duke d’Orleans. September 6, +Mazarin to M. de Longueville: Good effects apparently produced by the +delay of his journey. September 16, M. de Longueville complains of +the delay of business; he recommends to Mazarin the Marshal de La +Mothe (who has just been arrested). October 7, renewed solicitations +of M. de Longueville in behalf of the Marshal de La Mothe. October +15, M. de Longueville to Mazarin: He fears that the Hollanders may +conclude their treaty without France. The enemies have received, with +singular joy, the news of the death of M. de Gassion (killed at Lens). +October 18, Mazarin informs M. de Longueville of the promotion of seven +cardinals, among whom is his brother, the Cardinal de Sainte-Cecile. +October 29, M. de Longueville recommends the Prince de Conti for the +siege of Trèves or of Liége. November 1, Mazarin informs M. de +Longueville that all their dispatches have fallen into the hands of the +Spaniards. November 8, Mazarin imparts to M. de Longueville a proposition +of marriage from the emperor with Mademoiselle. (See the <i>Memoirs</i> +of Mademoiselle; also chapter i. of this work.) December 22, +Mazarin to M. de Longueville: The Spaniards do not desire peace. Try +to have it proclaimed that if peace is not established, it is Spain that has +prevented it.</p> + +<p>Year 1648.—January 6, M. de Longueville to Mazarin: It was the fault +of the Imperialists and the Spaniards alone that peace was not concluded; +all the others desired it. January 16, M. de Longueville is not of the +opinion that Nancy should be given up without demolishing it. January +17, Mazarin imparts to M. de Longueville a proposition of marriage +between his daughter, Mademoiselle de Longueville, and the Duke de +Mantua. January 28, Confidential letter from Lyonne to Servien: +There is much dissatisfaction with M. d’Avaux; he would have been +recalled if he had not engaged M. de Longueville in his opinion. February +3, M. de Longueville announces his departure. February 23, +having arrived at Trie, he writes to Mazarin a letter of compliments. +March 23, d’Avaux, being found too favorable to M. de Lorraine, and too +eager to make peace at any price, prepares to depart. April 27, Mazarin +informs Servien that he is named minister, and charged with completing +the negotiations. In the correspondence of July, frequent +mention is made of the troubles of the parliament. Mazarin begs Servien +to manage something in Alsace for M. de Turenne, in order to +secure him. August 14, Servien gives to Mazarin the reasons for not +pressing the treaty with Spain. August 21, dispatch of Mazarin: M. +the Prince has just gained a battle against the archduke. France nevertheless +wishes peace. If the Spaniards wish it, they will conclude it +upon the proposed conditions; if not, it will be of no service to relax. +September 17, he invites Servien to urge the peace with Germany, on +account of the troubles.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_286" href="#FNanchor_286" class="label">[286]</a> See preceding chapter.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_287" href="#FNanchor_287" class="label">[287]</a> The Treaty of Munster secured to France the sovereignty of the +three bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, of which it had been for a +long time possessed; the sovereignty of Pignerol, which gave it the +entry of Italy; the sovereignty of all Alsace, upper and lower, with that +of Brissac and of Landau; in short, the right of garrison in the fortress +of Philipsbourg.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_288" href="#FNanchor_288" class="label">[288]</a> <i>Gazette</i> of May 6, 1645. Died, April 30, about 2 o’clock in the +morning, at the hôtel de Longueville, the Countess de Dunois, daughter, +by the second marriage, of the Duke de Longueville, aged fourteen +months. All the court having testified much regret at the death of this +young princess, whose body, having been embalmed and placed in a +lead coffin, was carried, on the second of this month (of May), to the +great convent of the Carmelites, where the Duchess de Longueville, +her mother, wished it to be interred near the tomb of the Mother Madeleine +de Saint-Joseph; the pages and valets of the Duke and Duchess +de Longueville, each with a flambeau of white wax, surrounding the +hearse, followed by great numbers of others. It was presented at the +door of the church, laid out upon white serge, with two breadths of +white satin, charged with the scutcheons of Bourbon and Longueville, +by the curate of Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois to the Bishop d’Utique, +coadjutor of Montauban, assisted by several ecclesiastics and fathers of +the Oratoire de Saint-Magloire, who received it in the name of this monastery; +and, having placed it under a canopy of silver-cloth ornamented +with the same armorial bearings, covered with a pall of the same stuff +bordered with ermine, and with a ducal crown of gold covered with a +veil of gauze, after the usual benedictions and incensing, the nuns, to +the number of sixty, came in a procession to the door of the monastery +to receive the body, which was carried to the grave made in the cloister, +and buried by the same bishop, with the ceremonies of the order +of the Carmelites, whose garb this little princess wore.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_289" href="#FNanchor_289" class="label">[289]</a> <i>Mémoires</i>, vol. i., p. 182.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_290" href="#FNanchor_290" class="label">[290]</a> We shall limit ourselves to citing the following: <i>Histoire de la prison +et de la liberté de M. le Prince</i>, 1651.—<i>Recueil des Maximes veritables pour +l’Institution du Roi contre la pernicieuse politique du Cardinal Mazarin</i>, +1652, burned by the hand of the executioner,—<i>Statuts et Reglements +des petits icoles de grammaire de la ville de Paris</i>, 1672,—<i>Traité +historique des Ecoles Episcopales</i>, 1678.—<i>Voyage fait à Munster en Westphalie +et autres lieux voisins</i>, 1670.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_291" href="#FNanchor_291" class="label">[291]</a> See chapter ii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_292" href="#FNanchor_292" class="label">[292]</a> <i>Les Epistres en vers et autres œuvres poétiques de M. de Bois-Robert +Metel, Conseiller d’Estat ordinaire, abbé de Châtillon-sur-Seine</i>, Paris, +1659, in-8ᵒ, p. 11: <i>To Monsieur Esprit: he entertains him with the beauties +of Madame the Duchess de Longueville, and with the favorable reception +which he received from her on his departure.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_293" href="#FNanchor_293" class="label">[293]</a> <i>Letters and Mémoires of M. de Turenne</i>, by Grimoard, in-fol., 1782, +vol. i., 1646, July 20: “My dear Sister—I wrote to you from the vicinity +of Cologne, four or five days since, and yesterday passed the Rhine +to Wesel. Madame de Longueville arrived the same day, and intends +visiting the army to-day. From this place we shall travel with her a +day or two. I confess to you that nothing in the world is more astonishing. +M. de Longueville has come to meet her at Wesel. She is not +at all changed, nor is Mademoiselle de Longueville....”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_294" href="#FNanchor_294" class="label">[294]</a> From the 21st of August to the 12th of September. See the <i>Voyage</i> +of Claude Joly.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_295" href="#FNanchor_295" class="label">[295]</a> Library of the Arsenal, Manuscripts of Conrart, in-4ᵒ, vol. x.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_296" href="#FNanchor_296" class="label">[296]</a> D’Avaux, born in 1595, was fifty-two years old in 1647.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_297" href="#FNanchor_297" class="label">[297]</a> Jean Adler Salvius, one of the Swedish plenipotentiaries; Jean +Vulteius, one of the envoys of the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel; Jacques +Lampadius, envoy of the Duke de Lunebürg Grubenhagen. See +Father Bougeant.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_298" href="#FNanchor_298" class="label">[298]</a> In default of the subject and of the date, choice may be made +between the different letters written by Voiture to the Duke d’Enghien, +about this period, and which will be found in the works of Voiture, vol. +ii., of the edition of 1745.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_299" href="#FNanchor_299" class="label">[299]</a> Voiture, vol. i., pp. 368, 369, 371, 374.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_300" href="#FNanchor_300" class="label">[300]</a> In-folio, Rotterdam, 1697. This portrait has been reduced and engraved +anew by Odieuvre.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_301" href="#FNanchor_301" class="label">[301]</a> Madame de Longueville seems in this somewhat fatigued. She +was at this time in a delicate situation.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_302" href="#FNanchor_302" class="label">[302]</a> Villefore, part 1st, p. 75.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_303" href="#FNanchor_303" class="label">[303]</a> There are three very good portraits in-fol. by Daret, by Rousselet, +and by M. de Lasne, all of this year, 1647. In all of them, Armand de +Bourbon has a fine face, and already shows the marks of some high ecclesiastical +dignitary. Daret supports his medallion by little angels, +who are playing with the hat of the future cardinal—a charming composition, +after the design of Lesueur. In Rousselet, Fame bears the medallion +of the young prince, Religion presents him with a mitre, War +carries a suit of armor, Politics a crown, and Philosophy the sun of intelligence +and the mysterious serpent. This was truly the image of the +uncertain destiny of the Prince de Conti.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_304" href="#FNanchor_304" class="label">[304]</a> Madame de Motteville, vol. ii., p. 17.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_305" href="#FNanchor_305" class="label">[305]</a> <i>Les Devoirs des grands, par Monseigneur le Prince de Conti, avec son +Testament</i>, Paris, 1667.—<i>Traité de la Comédie et des Spectacles selon la tradition +de l’Eglise</i>, 1667.—<i>Lettres du Prince de Conti, ou l’accord du libre-arbitre +avec la grace de Jésus-Christ</i>, Cologne, 1689.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_306" href="#FNanchor_306" class="label">[306]</a> <i>Mémoires</i>, vol. ii., pp. 14-20.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_307" href="#FNanchor_307" class="label">[307]</a> <i>Mémoires de Littérature</i>, vol. i., pp. 116-184.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_308" href="#FNanchor_308" class="label">[308]</a> <i>Œuvres de Benserade</i>, 1697, vol. i., p. 174.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_309" href="#FNanchor_309" class="label">[309]</a> <i>Œuvres de Balzac</i>, in-folio, vol. ii., pp. 580-594.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_310" href="#FNanchor_310" class="label">[310]</a> <i>Œuvres diverses</i>, edit. de 1740, Amsterdam, pp. 162-165.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_311" href="#FNanchor_311" class="label">[311]</a> <i>Les Œuvres galantes de Madame la Comtesse de B., imprimé à Leyde +et se vend à Paris</i>, in-18ᵒ, 1666.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_312" href="#FNanchor_312" class="label">[312]</a> <i>Œuvres galantes</i>, etc., p. 17.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_313" href="#FNanchor_313" class="label">[313]</a> This letter is printed among those of Madame de Brégy, with +many little errors, which we correct without indicating them.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_314" href="#FNanchor_314" class="label">[314]</a> <i>Œuvres de Benserade</i>, vol. i., p. 97, and <i>Œuvres de Madame de +Brégy</i>, p. 98.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_315" href="#FNanchor_315" class="label">[315]</a> The last line of each of the couplets of this commentary recalls successively +and in their order the lines of the sonnet of Benserade. It is +not in the works of Sarrazin of 1654, nor in his <i>Œuvres Nouvelles</i>; it will +be found in the 1st vol. of Benserade, p. 175.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_316" href="#FNanchor_316" class="label">[316]</a> During his youth, Madame de Longueville paid much attention to +Esprit, in order, probably, to please Madame de Sablé, his avowed protectress. +She took him with her to Munster. Here she testified for +him the greatest regard. In an unpublished letter, of October 13, 1646, +she recommends him to Mazarin for a benefice. Mazarin does not seem +to have been much pleased with him. He writes to Servien, March 22, +1647, with seeming discontent, that Esprit solicits from Munster “to be +of the house of Monsieur.” Mélanges de Clérambault, vol. cxxx.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_317" href="#FNanchor_317" class="label">[317]</a> Library of the Arsenal, Manuscripts of Conrart, in-4ᵒ, vol. ii., p. 13.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_318" href="#FNanchor_318" class="label">[318]</a> The final opinion of the Prince de Conti.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_319" href="#FNanchor_319" class="label">[319]</a> We have no knowledge of the Abbé de Croisy. We are inclined +to believe that the copy of Conrart is here defective; and we propose to +read the Abbé de Cerisy, Habert, of the French Academy—a wit then +of some reputation, and author of works now forgotten; among others, +<i>Poésies Chrétiennes et diverses</i>, dedicated to the Prince de Conti. He +died in 1654, at the age of forty-four years.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_320" href="#FNanchor_320" class="label">[320]</a> This allusion to the assemblies of the nobility fixes the date of this +letter, placing it more than a year after the epoch with which we are +occupied, that is, at the close of 1649, when the nobility rose against the +new brevets. But, although written at the close of 1649, this little affair +shows faithfully the manner in which Madame de Longueville passed +her life in 1648. It is surprising that, in the great collection of pieces +relating to the two sonnets (Mélanges de Littérature, etc.), not a single +date is given. Our conjecture in regard to the letter of Esprit, is confirmed +by the following note, found in vol. xi., in-fol., of the papers of +Conrart, p. 1118 “In the month of December, 1649, all the court was +divided in regard to the two sonnets of Voiture and Benserade. Every +one took sides and declared in favor of him who was most admired. Of +the two parties formed upon this subject, those of the first were called +<i>Uranias</i>, and Madame de Longueville was their chief; those of the +second were called <i>Jobelins</i>, and M. the Prince de Conti was at their +head. M. the Prince (Condé) being urged to say of which he would +be, would never explain himself otherwise than by declaring both to be +very fine.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_321" href="#FNanchor_321" class="label">[321]</a> Collection Petitot, vol. li., p. 353.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_322" href="#FNanchor_322" class="label">[322]</a> Collection Petitot, vol. li., p. 393.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_323" href="#FNanchor_323" class="label">[323]</a> Collection Petitot, vol. li., p. 455.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_324" href="#FNanchor_324" class="label">[324]</a> <i>Mémoires</i>, p. 18, etc.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_325" href="#FNanchor_325" class="label">[325]</a> <i>Mémoires</i>, vol. ii., p. 15.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_326" href="#FNanchor_326" class="label">[326]</a> <i>Mémoires</i>, vol. i, p. 219.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_327" href="#FNanchor_327" class="label">[327]</a> Condé gained the battle of Senef, in 1674, with 45,000 men against +65,000, commanded by the Prince of Orange. Had it not been for the +cowardice of the Swiss infantry, who refused to fight, he would have +destroyed the entire army of the enemy.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_328" href="#FNanchor_328" class="label">[328]</a> <i>Mémoires</i>, p. 19, etc. Villefore has followed Madame de Nemours.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_329" href="#FNanchor_329" class="label">[329]</a> History of Turenne, by Ramsay, vol. ii., <i>Mémoires</i> de Turenne, p. +lix., and the letters of Queen Anne, <i>Preuves</i>, p. viii., etc.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_330" href="#FNanchor_330" class="label">[330]</a> Philippe de La Mothe Houdancourt, Duke de Cardonne, Viceroy of +Catalonia, the husband of the beautiful De Toussy, who, upon strong +suspicions, was arrested in 1647, and for whom M. de Longueville interceded +from Munster.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_331" href="#FNanchor_331" class="label">[331]</a> Father Lelong speaks of this portrait, by Poilly, in-fol.; we have +sought for it in vain. It is probable that Father Lelong has referred to +Madame de Longueville the fine portrait by Nicolas Poilly, the more or +less authentic inscription of which is: <i>Mademoiselle de Montpensier</i>, with +the equivocal arms, at once of the Orleans and of the Condés. We think, +however, that it is Mademoiselle much embellished.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_332" href="#FNanchor_332" class="label">[332]</a> The war movement of Paris, in this first Fronde, is well depicted in +these couplets of an unpublished song of the <i>Recueil de Maurepas</i>, vol. +ii., p. 43: <i>Blocus de Paris pendant le Carnaval de 1649</i>:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent6">“Que vous nous causez de tourment,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Facheux Parlement!</div> + <div class="verse indent12">Que vos arrests</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sont ennemis de tous nos interests!</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Le carnaval a perdu tous ses charmes;</div> + <div class="verse indent12">Tout est en armes,</div> + <div class="verse indent12">Et les amours</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sont effrayés par le bruit des tambours.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent6">La guerre va chasser l’amour,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Ainsi que la cour;</div> + <div class="verse indent12">Et dans Paris</div> + <div class="verse indent0">La peur bannit et les jeux et les ris.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Adieu le bal, adieu les promenades,</div> + <div class="verse indent12">Les sérénades</div> + <div class="verse indent12">Car les amours</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sont effrayés par le bruit des tambours.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent6">Mars est un fort mauvais galant,</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Il est insolent,</div> + <div class="verse indent12">Et la beauté</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Perd tous ses traits auprès de sa fierté.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">L’on ne peut pas accorder les trompettes</div> + <div class="verse indent12">Et les fleurettes;</div> + <div class="verse indent12">Car les amours</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sont effrayés par le bruit des tambours.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="center">...</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent6">L’on ne voit plus d’esprit sensé;</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Tout est renversé.</div> + <div class="verse indent12">Le sénateur</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Tranche à présent du grand gladiateur.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lee échevins ont quitté la police</div> + <div class="verse indent12">Pour la milice,</div> + <div class="verse indent12">Et le bourgeois</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Croit avoir droit de réformer les loix.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent6">Place Royale, où tant d’amans</div> + <div class="verse indent10">Contoient leurs tourments,</div> + <div class="verse indent12">Ou leur destin</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Étoit souvent flatté par Constantin;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Tu n’entends plus, au lieu de tant d’aubades,</div> + <div class="verse indent12">Que mousquetades,</div> + <div class="verse indent12">Et les amours</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Pour leurs jouëts n’ont plus que des tambours.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_333" href="#FNanchor_333" class="label">[333]</a> <i>Le premier Courrier Français traduit fidèlement en vers burlesques</i>, +1649, p. 11.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“... Ce seigneur prudent et sage (M. de Longueville)</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Donne see enfans en ostage</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Avec Madame leur maman,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Qui n’est superbe comme un paon,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Mais dont l’humeur douce et courtoise</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Cause avec la moindre bourgeoise.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_334" href="#FNanchor_334" class="label">[334]</a> Eléonore-Catherine-Fébronie de Bergues, whose merit equalled her +beauty: she married in 1634, and died in 1657.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_335" href="#FNanchor_335" class="label">[335]</a> Vol. 1st, p. 221.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_336" href="#FNanchor_336" class="label">[336]</a> <i>Le quatrième Courrier</i>, etc., p. 3:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Né, dis-je, dans l’Hôtel de Ville,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Il fut à Saint-Jean baptisé</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Et ce jour christianisé.</div> + <div class="center">...</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or, cette duchesse (de Bouillon) et la ville</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Tinrent le jeune Longueville,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Et le nommèrent Carolus</div> + <div class="verse indent0">De Paris, et s’il en faut plus,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">D’Orléans; s’il en faut encore,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Comte de Saint-Paul, que j’honore,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Pour la ville étant le Feron (Prévôt des marchands).</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_337" href="#FNanchor_337" class="label">[337]</a> Charles de Paris, Count de Saint-Paul, was at first destined for the +Church. There is a charming portrait of him, by Nanteuil, after Ferdinand, +which represents him, at the age of eleven years, in 1660, with an +abbé’s cross, and this inscription upon the border: <i>Messire Charles Paris +d’Orléans, Count de Saint-Paul, Abbé de St.-Remi de Reims</i>, etc. It is +impossible to find a more graceful creature.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_338" href="#FNanchor_338" class="label">[338]</a> Notwithstanding her sacrifices, democratic suspicions did not spare +her. The <i>Recueil de Maurepas</i>, vol. ii, p. 417, contains a song under +this title: <i>Les Honni soit-il de ce temps-ci</i>, in which Madame de Longueville +has also her couplet:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Servir pour ostage à la ville,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Croire son conseil très-utile,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Tandis que son mari nous vend;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Tous les jours estre à l’audience</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Et ne résoudre que du vent,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Honni soit-il qui mal y pense!”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Another couplet from a Mazarin song, same volume, p. 255:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Si l’amour de Marsillac</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Fait durer ce miquemac,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">De longtemps la paix n’est faite,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Et bientôt cette amourette</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Nous mettra tous au bissac.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>The collection of historical songs of the Arsenal, have a few other +pieces more difficult to cite.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_339" href="#FNanchor_339" class="label">[339]</a> See chapter ii., versos of Condé on the Count de Maure.</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[1]</span></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_340" href="#FNanchor_340" class="label">[340]</a> Retz, vol. 1st, p. 247: “The President de Mesmes, a man of capacity, +uncle of him whom you now see....” This certainly means +Henri de Mesmes, second of the name, eldest son of Jean Jacques +de Mesmes, M. de Roissy, brother of Claude de Mesmes, M. d’Avaux, +the skilful diplomatist of whom we have before spoken, brother also +of Jean Antoine de Mesmes, whose eldest son was Jean Jacques de +Mesmes, third of the name, successively counsellor to the parliament, +president, grand-master of ceremonies, one of the forty of the French +Academy, who died in 1678. His uncle, Henri de Mesmes, here spoken +of, was president of the parliament from 1627 until his death, in 1650. +We have excellent portraits of these four De Mesmes.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_341" href="#FNanchor_341" class="label">[341]</a> He was thirty-nine years of age, and left but one son, born after +the death of his father, and taken off quite young in 1650. The following +is the manner in which <i>Le Courrier François</i> relates, in its fifth +number, the death of Châtillon:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“...Navarre, brave régiment,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Lascha le pied vilainement.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Le Prince, adverti de l’escarre</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Que le canon fait sur Navarre,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Pensa crever dans son pourpoint,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Mais pourtant il ne creva point</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Dans l’esperance de combattre</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Le bourgeois qu’on tenoit à quatre,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Qui comme un diable juroit Dieu</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Qu’il vouloit secourir ce lieu;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Il dit de Condé peste et rage.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Mais le Prince à son advantage</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Attendoit messieurs de Paris,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Comme le chat fait la souris.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Assuré sur son éminence,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Il avoit grande impatience</div> + <div class="verse indent0">De taster le pouls au bourgeois</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Qui ne sortit pas cette fois.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Il est prudent et craint la touche,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Joint qu’il n’aime pas la cartouche</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Dont si fit son canon charger.</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Paris n’en voulant point ronger,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Le Prince qui faisoit fanfare</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Commit pour soutenir Navarre</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Chastillon avec du renfort;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Mais il l’envoyoit à la mort,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Car aussitôt au bas du ventre</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Une balle de mousquet entre</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Sans respecter ce duc nouveau,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Jeune, vaillant, adroit et beau,</div> + <div class="center">...</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Aussi ne put pas s’empescher</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Condé de lui donner des larmes</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Et trahir le dieu des alarmes,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Ennemi de dame pitié;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Mais ce furent pleurs d’amitié</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A cause de leur parentage...”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>The collections of Mazarinades for the year 1649, contain an <i>Agreeable +and true narrative of what happened before the taking of the king in +the city of Paris</i>, where the author puts in the mouth of the dying +Châtillon a discourse against Mazarin. We have again: 1st, The Regrets +of Madame de Chastillon on the death of her dear husband; +2d, The Adieux made by M. de Chastillon, before dying, to his mother +and his wife; 3d, The Apparition of the spirit of M. de Chastillon +to the Prince de Condé, etc.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_342" href="#FNanchor_342" class="label">[342]</a> See Madame de Motteville, vol. iii., p. 215. She confirmed the +declaration of February of the same year, and those of May and of +October, 1648.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_343" href="#FNanchor_343" class="label">[343]</a> Vol. iii., p. 232, etc.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_344" href="#FNanchor_344" class="label">[344]</a> Vol. iii., p. 263.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_345" href="#FNanchor_345" class="label">[345]</a> Vol. iii., p. 209.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_346" href="#FNanchor_346" class="label">[346]</a> Portrait of La Rochefoucauld in Retz. Vol. i., p. 217.</p></div> + +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2 class="nobreak"><i>D. 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Price $1, cloth.</p> + +<p class="hanging">CONTENTS.—Preface.—Introduction.—Czarism: its historical origin—The +Czar Nicholas.—The Organization of the Government.—The Army and +Navy.—The Nobility.—The Clergy.—The Bourgeoisie.—The Cossacks.—The +Real People, the Peasantry.—The Rights of Aliens and Strangers.—The +Commoner.—Emancipation.—Manifest Destiny.—Appendix.—The +Amazons.—The Fourteen Classes of the Russian Public Service; or, +the Tschins.—The Political Testament of Peter the Great.—Extract +from an Old Chronicle.</p> + +<div class="smaller"> + +<p class="center">Notices of the Press.</p> + +<p>“The author takes no superficial, empirical view of his subject, but collecting a rich +variety of facts, brings the lights of a profound philosophy to their explanation. His work, +indeed, neglects no essential detail—it is minute and accurate in its statistics—it abounds +in lively pictures of society, manners and character.... Whoever wishes to obtain an +accurate notion of the internal condition of Russia, the nature and extent of her resources, +and the practical influence of her institutions will here find better materials for his purpose +than in any single volume now extant.”—<i>N. Y. Tribune.</i></p> + +<p>“This is a powerfully-written book, and will prove of vast service to every one who +desires to comprehend the real nature and bearings of the great contest in which Russia is +now engaged.”—<i>N. Y. Courier.</i></p> + +<p>“It is original in its conclusions; it is striking in its revelations. Numerous as are the +volumes that have been written about Russia, we really hitherto have known little of that +immense territory—of that numerous people. Count Gurowski’s work sheds a light which +at this time is most welcome and satisfactory.”—<i>N. Y. Times.</i></p> + +<p>“The book is well written, and as might be expected in a work by a writer so unusually +conversant with all sides of Russian affairs, it contains so much important information +respecting the Russian people, their government and religion.”—<i>Com. Advertiser.</i></p> + +<p>“This is a valuable work, explaining in a very satisfactory manner the internal conditions +of the Russian people, and the construction of their political society. The institutions of +Russia are presented as they exist in reality, and as they are determined by existing and +obligatory laws.”—<i>N. Y. Herald.</i></p> + +<p>“A hasty glance over this handsome volume has satisfied us that it is one worthy of +general perusal.... It is full of valuable historical information, with very interesting +accounts of the various classes among the Russian people, their condition and aspirations.”—<i>N. +Y. Sun.</i></p> + +<p>“This is a volume that can hardly fail to attract very general attention, and command a +wide sale in view of the present juncture of European affairs, and the prominent part +therein which Russia is to play.”—<i>Utica Gazette.</i></p> + +<p>“A timely book. It will be found all that it professes to be, though some may be startled +at some of its conclusions.”—<i>Boston Atlas.</i></p> + +<p>“This is one of the best of all the books caused by the present excitement in relation to +Russia. It is a very able publication—one that will do much to destroy the general belief +in the infallibility of Russia. The writer shows himself master of his subject, and treats of +the internal condition of Russia, her institutions and customs, society, laws, &c., in an enlightened +and scholarly manner.”—<i>City Item.</i></p> + +</div> + +<hr> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[2]</span></p> + +<p class="center">CAPT. FOOTE’S NEW AND HIGHLY INTERESTING WORK</p> + +<h3>Africa and the American Flag.</h3> + +<p class="center">BY COMMANDER ANDREW H. FOOTE,<br> +<i>Lieut. Commanding U. S. Brig “Perry,” on the Coast of Africa, +A.D. 1850-51</i>.</p> + +<p class="center">ILLUSTRATED WITH HANDSOMELY TINTED LITHOGRAPHIC PLATES.</p> + +<p class="center">One Volume, 12mo. 379 pages. Price $1.50.</p> + +<div class="smaller"> + +<p class="center">CONTENTS.</p> + +<p>Discoveries by French and Portuguese along the Coast—Slave Trade Systematized—“Horrors +of the Middle Passage”—African Nations—Formation of the American +Colonization Society—Disposal of Recaptured Slaves by the American Government—The +Commonwealth of Liberia—Thos. H. Buchanan—Use of the American Flag in +the Slave Trade—Slavers at Bassa—Expedition against them—Conflict—Death of King +Bentrerai—Expedition of Buchanan against Gaytinuba—Death of Buchanan—His +Character—Condition of Liberia as a Nation—Aspect of Liberia to a Visitor—Condition +of the People compared with that of their race in the United States—Schools—Condition +of Slaves on board of the Slave Vessels—Capture of the Slave Barque Pons—Affair +with the Natives near Palmas—Cruise of the “Perry”—Abuse of the American Flag—An +Arrangement made with the British Commodore for the Joint Cruising of the +“Perry” and Steamer “Cyclops”—Capture of the American Slave Ship “Martha”—Claims +to Brazilian Nationality—Letters found on board illustrative of the Slave Trade—St. +Helena—Appearance of the Island—Island of Madeira—Interference of the British +Consul with the “Louisa Benton”—Necessity of Squadrons for Protection of Commerce +and Citizens Abroad.</p> + +</div> + +<p>This very interesting volume makes us acquainted with very important +facts connected with the efforts of the American Government +to suppress the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa. Lieut. <span class="smcap">Foote</span> not +only places before us a record of what occurred whilst he was in command +of the U. S. Brig “Perry,” but gives us an account of the History +and Government of the African Race—their Manners and Customs, an +Account of the Establishment of the Commonwealth of Liberia, its +Condition, Prospects, &c., &c. It abounds with every variety of incident +and adventure, and will, from the very novelty of the subject, +have a wide sale. In order that some idea may be formed of the character +of the work, a selection from the table of contents is prefixed.</p> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77579 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/77579-h/images/cover.jpg b/77579-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e91d7f0 --- /dev/null +++ b/77579-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6c72794 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fa688ef --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for eBook #77579 +(https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77579) |
