Full text of "Memoirs of Madame de Motteville on Anne of Austria and her court. With an introd. by C.A. Saint-Beuve. Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley"

MEMOIRS

MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE

VOLUME I.

Cour ttt jFtance IStrttCon

LIMITED TO TWELVE HUNDRED AND
FIFTY NUMBERED SETS, OF WHICH THIS is

MEMOIRS

MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE

ANNE OF AUSTRIA AND HER COURT.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

C.-A. SAINTE-BEUVE.

2Translatrt bo
KATHARINE PRESCOTT WORMELEY.

ILLUSTRATED WITH PORTRAITS FROM THE ORIGINAL

IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. I.

BOSTON:

HARDY, PRATT & COMPANY.
1902.

Knibersttg
JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.

COKTEISTTS.

PAGE

INTRODUCTION BY C.-A. SAINTE-BEUVE 1

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE 21

PREFACE 23

CHAPTER I. 1611-1630.

Flourishing state of the kingdom at the death of Henri IV. Evil in-
fluence of the Marechal d'Ancre. His murder. Majority of
Louis XIII. Marriage of Philip IV. of Spain to Elisabeth of
France, and of Louis XIII. with Anne of Austria. Toilet of the
latter. Portrait of Louis XIII. Intrigues of the Due de Luynes.
Vexations of Anne of Austria. Death of de Luynes. Passion
of the Duke of Buckingham for the queen. Madame de Che-
vreuse. Persecution of Cardinal Richelieu against Aqnfi ofAnafaria,
and his love for her. Her hatred and contempt for him. His
policy. The queen's fear of being repudiated. Madame de
Motteville sent away from the queen. Portrait of the queen at
that time. portraits of the most remarkable women at Court . . 25

CHAPTER II. 1630-1643.

Hatred of Marie de' Medici against Cardinal Kichelieu. The " Day of
the Dupes " and its consequences. Arrest of Marie de' Medici at
Compiegne, and her escape to Flanders. Mademoi">Ufi dp TTunt.*-
fort. Slavery of Louis XIII. to Cardinal Richelieu. His melan-
choly life at Saint-Germain. Anne of Austria neglected. Incli-
nation of the king for Mademoiselle de La Fayette ; she becomes
a nun; singular and affecting romance. Birth of Louis XIV.,
Septembers, 1638. Reconciliation of king and queen. D_eath
oLCardinal Richelieu, December 4, 1642. His portrait. The^
courtiers cluster round Anne of Austria. The king opens the
prisons and allows the exiles to return. Makes Cardinal Mazarin
his minister. Louis XIII. in the last days of his life. Declara-
tion to his council on the regency . Anne of Austria swears to
observe it. Details on death of Louis XIII., May 14, 1643. His
portrait 47

yi CONTENTS.

CHAPTER m. 1643-1644.

PAGE

Regency of Anne of Austria. Arrival of queen with the young king
in Paris. Goes to parliament with the king and the princes of the
blood. Speech of the chancellor, Seguier. The Due d'Orleans
and the Prince de CoadiL accept the regency unreservedly. Dis-
missal of Chavigny. The Duchesse d'Aiguillon allowed to keep the
government of Havre. Dissatisfaction of the Prince de Marsillac.

Mazarin prime minister. The queen persuaded to confide in
him. TJie^pju^d'EnghienJthe^Great^ Conde)_wins the battle of
Rocroj. Mazarin's policy cleverly beneficent. He persuades the
queen to protect the relatives and friends of Richelieu. His grow-
ing favour with the queen. Intrigues of the Vendome cabal.
The Duchesse de Montbazon. Affair of a letter attributed to
Madame de Longueville. The queen grants them justice for the
outrage of Madame de Montbazon. dismissal of the latter from
Court. The Due de Beaufort ; accused of intending to murder
Mazarin. His dismissal and imprisonment. Exile of " the Im-
portants." Unkind dismissal of the Bishop of Beauvais.
Madame de Chevreuse irritates the queen, and is relegated to Tours.

She leaves France. Madame de Hautefort: her hatred to Car-
dinal Mazarin. TT p r itppro^A"^ d' e rnissrv1, ^nd repair .... 70

CHAPTER IV. 1644-1645.

The council of conscience. Saint Vincent de Paul. Cpjmpletepowgr^.
of riarHinaj J^[^^jj^_- H,fc JUifllMincP...^.. the, flueen's mind.
Cnanges in the civil service. Private lifejrf tha qpepn; tastes,
feelings, character, and disposition of her mind at forty years of
age. The Due d'Orleans commands the army of Flanders ; the
Due d'Enghien that of Germany. First agitation in parliament.
President Barillon sent to Pignerol. The parliament goes to the
Palais-Royal to remonstrate. The queen refuses to receive them.

Stay of the Court at Rnel. Voiture's impromptu verses.
Henri III.'s opinion of Paris. Death of Pope Urbain VIII.
Arrival of Queen Henrietta of England, wife of Charles I., in
consequence of the English revolution. Sorrows and sufferings
of that princess. Affectionate reception of her by Anne of Austria.

Death of Elisabeth of France, Queen of Spain ; her portrait ;
regrets at her death. Squabbles for precedence between Mademoi-
selle and the Princesse de Conde' and Duchesse d'Enghien.
Anger of the queen against Mademoiselle. Arrival of the Queen

of England in Paris ; her portrait ............ 102

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V. 1645-1646.

PAGE

The battle of Nordlingen won by the Due d'Enghien. Emotion
"caused by the losses there made. JNObie worSsofthe cardinal on
that occasion. The queen and the young king go to parliament in
state. Beauty and fine presence of the queen at this ceremony.
Grace of the king when addressing the assembly. Bold harangue
of the advocate-general, Omer Talon. Impression it made on the
mind of the queen. Mademoiselle de Rohan marries Chabot
against the opposition of her family. Marriage of the King of
Poland to Priucesse Marie of Mantua. Brilliant Polish embassy
on this occasion. Portrait of the new Queen of Poland. Her
disappointment on arriving at Warsaw. Portrait of the king, her
husband ; his brutal reception of her 124

CHAPTER VI. 1646-1647.

Conduct of the queen towards her servants ; treats them well, but does
not concern herself about their interests. Education of Louis XTV. -

The queen gives the management of it to Cardinal Mazarin.
Dismissal of Mademoiselle de Beaumont exacted by the cardinal.
Madame de Motteville is threatened with the loss of her position.

The queen reassures her. Interview between Madame de Motte-
ville and the cardinaLon this subject. Ambition and policy of the
Due d'Enghien. Prudent policy of the Prince and Princesse de
Conde. Amusements of the Court at Eontainebleau. War in
Flanders ; the taking of Courtray ; the siege of Mardick. Loss of
life. The queen's remark on. the. Due d'Enghien (the Great
Conde). The Due d'Orleans quits the army, and leaves the com-
mand to the Due d'Enghien [September, 1646]. Embassy from
the Queen of Sweden received at Fontainebleau. Portrait of that
queen. Military successes. Death and portrait of Bassompierre.

Intrigues and ambition of the Due d'Enghien. Death of the
Prince de Conde, December 26, 1646. Portrait of that prince . . 144

CHAPTER VII. 1647.

Anne^of Austria's taste for the theatre. The rector of Saint-Germain
speaks against this amusement. Seven doctors of the Sorbonne
condemn it, ten tolerate it. Peace between Holland and Spain.

Decided by the greed of the Princess of Orange. ThejGreat
Cftude and his petit-maitres. Cardinal Mazarin gives a fete to the
Court. Ball at Court ; description of the ball. Dress and appear-
ance of Louis XIV., aged eight, at this ball. Toilets of other

V1U . CONTENTS.

PAQB

personages. Shabby supper given by Cardinal Mazarin to the
queen's women. Departure of the Prince de Coude for Catalonia.
His portrait. Death of the 1'riuce of Orange The King of
England betrayed by the Scotch. Quarrels about grace. Molin-
ists and Jausenists ; the blame which the latter deserve. Anne of
Austria supports the Jesuits. Journey of the Due and Dnchesse
d'Orleans to Bourbon. Singular character of the duchess ; her
portrait. Portrait of the Due d'Orle'ans. Devotions of Anne of
Austria at the Val-de-Grace. Return to Paris of Madame de
Longueville. She occupies almost the entire attention of the
Court. Her intimacy with the Prince de Marsillac. Her por-
trait. Reasons of the queen's coldness to her. Capacity and
activity of Cardinal Mazariu. His defects 168

CHAPTER Vni. 1647.

Desires for peace. Mazarin suspected of not wishing it. Murmurs in
Paris at the conduct of the war. Many of the malcontents exiled.

Short stay of the Court at Dieppe ; attachment of the inhabitants
to the king's person. Return of the Court to Paris. Illness of
the Due d'Anjou, the little Monsieur. Portrait of that young
prince. Opposition of the parliament to a tax on provisions.
Conference at the Palais-Royal on this subject. The tax is Toted.
Arrival at the Court of the Mancini. Their portraits. Courtier-
ship of the Comte de Nogent. His wife presents the Mancini chil-
dren to the queen. The Mazarin family little thought of in Rome.
Harshness of the queen to the Dnchesse de Schomberg. Depart-
ure of the queen for Fontaiuebleau. Ill-will ofCardigaL.Mazarin
to.Jladame^de^M^tteville. Thejjneen_ comforts her. Upright-
ness of Anne of Austria. Her piety embarrasses the cardinal.

Evil consequences of her weakness towards the minister. Abil-
ity of the cardinal. The Prince of Wales, son of Charles I., visits
the king and queen at Fontainebleau. Stiffness of the prince and
Louis XIV. when together. Return of the Court to Paris. The
king falls ill with small-pox, November, 1647. Peril of the king;
a g n y f the queen. Characteristics of the young monarch.
His recovery. Delicate behaviour of the Prince de Conde. The
queen seized with fever, but recovers quickly. Her feelings during
her illness. She spends Christmas at the Val-de-Grace. The
king's recovery brings back the ladies who had fled the Court.
The little king's reproaches to them. Bad disposition of all minds

at the close of the year 1647 194

CONTENTS. IX

CHAPTER IX. 1648.

PAGE

The Court. Anne of Austria's indolence. Uprising of the merchants
of Paris against a tax. Mutiny of the masters of petitions. Coun-
cil in the queen's room oh this occasion. The burghers hecome
excited. Failure of attempt of women to address the queen. Dis-
play of troops in Paris. The king goes to Notre Dame; also to
parliament. Vigorous speech of Omer Talon. The courtiers de-
stroy its effect on the queen. Bitterness of the public mind. Pen-
ury of the Court. The masters of petitions resent an edict.
Parliament receives their complaint. Displeasure of the queen.
The Due d'Orleans and the Prince de Conde support the queen.
The Court during the holidays. Murmurs against Mazarin.
The Dutch make peace with Spain. Delay and resistance of par-
liament. The queen goes to Chartres. Arrest of Saujeon.
Mademoiselle reprimanded. Madame_de Motteville helps to
reconcile her with^ej^ath^r^^ r jQoJd,..tratmeiit of her by the ..
queen 21E

CHAPTER X. 1648.

Difficulties with parliament. The paulette. Decree of union of all
the supreme courts with parliament. Indignation of the queen.
Methodical resistance of parliament. Determination to raise an
opposition to Mazarin. The Duke of York escapes from England
and comes to France. Parliament forbidden to meet. Exile of
members and of the courts. Escape of the Due de Beaufort.
The queen consoled, but Mazarin uneasy at the escape. The queen
visits the queen of England. The jubilee. Conversation of the
queen in the garden of the Palais-Royal. Assembling of parlia-
ment against the will of the queen. Speech of President de
Mesmes. The queen complains. The cardinal tries gentleness
with the grand council and the cour des aides. The queen walks in
the Holy Sacrament. She releases from prison a spy on President
de Mesmes. Five treasurers of France imprisoned. Parliament
deliberates on king's order, annulling its decree of union with the
other courts. Meets with the deputies of the other courts in the
Chamber of Saint-Louis. Parliament summoned to the Palais-
Royal June 16. Another decree of the king in council. Resist-
ance of parliament. Speech of Omer Talon. The queen disposed
to severity. The cardinal's concessions. They diminish the royal
authority. Death of the King of Poland. Audacity of parlia-
ment increases. Depression of the cardinal. Propositions of

X CONTENTS.

PAGE

parliament and the other courts. Conference proposed by Due
d'Orleans. Advances of the cardinal to parliament. D'fimery,
superintendent of finances, dismissed. The Marechal de Meille-
raye appointed in his place .............. 242

CHAPTER XI. 1648.

Impoverished condition of the Court and kingdom. Conference of
ministers and parliament. Shameful proposal as to loans.
Good-will of parliament to the Due d'Orle'ans. Bitter distress of
the queen. Blames the cardinal. The latter alarmed at the state
'i of things. Poverty of the Queen of England. The king yields

everything to parliament. Reflections on the right of remon-
strance. General revolt of the parliaments. The Prince de
K CojidsLjJOjafiS-iQ -Paris. Annoyance of the Due d'Orleans at his
return. The prince returns to the army. Taking of Tortosa by
Marechal Schomberg. Fresh remonstrances of parliament. The
queen resolves to endure no more. Goes to parliament. Declara-
tion of the king. Appearance of the young king. Coolness of
the people towards him. Mazarines system of moderation. The
discussion in parliament becomes factious. ^The.^Duc, d'Orleans
moderates it. Anger of the provinces against the minister and the
queen, The queen upholds the minister, and why. Her Charity
and good works. Allowed by the minister to want for money.
The king and cardinal go to vespers at the Feuillants. Bloody
quarrel between the king's Guards and the guards of the grand
provost. The result. Honourable conduct of Charost and Chan-
denier. Dismissal of all the captains of the Guard. Continuation
of the struggle between the Court and parliament. The battle
of Lens .................. ... 280

CHAPTER XII. 1648.

The Te Deum at Notre Dame. Arrest of Broussel, Blancmesnil, and
Charton, Riot and barricades in Paris. The insurgents respect
the coadjutor [de Retz]. Confidence of the queen. She refuses
the release of Bronssel. Ajarnuof. Madame .daJdoitfiYalle.. The
chief president compelled by populace to ask for Broussel's release.
The queen refuses it. Danger run by Chancellor Seguier.
Condition of the streets of Paris. Vigorous firmness of the queen
in receiving parliament. The populace compels parliament to go
a third time to the queen and demand Broussel. Firm answer of
the queen. The members consult at the Palais-Royal. Mazarin
makes them a weak and halting speech, which is ridiculed. Prom-

CONTENTS. XI

PAGE

ise of transient obedience. Broussel is released. Humiliation of
the queen. Regret of honest Frenchmen., Discipline of the
burgher army. Uprising of the people. An anxious night.
Personal feac^.a.d,prccautic)iis of the cardinal. Broussel received
in triumph. The burghers refuse to lower the barricades unless by
order of parliament. Parliament gives the order. A small inci-
dent raises them once more. Anxiety of the queen. She orders
the Guards to their quarters, which does not quiet the populace.
Terrible alarm at night. Threat of the burghers to seize the king.
Courage and firmness of the queen. Her fine woHJs. TO ^wjard-_
ice of Mazariu. The excitement of the people quiets down . . . 313

at^(i*Sf1*3*' t iy'**i- l ^*r^, J -- v i'-i-:- 1 - ;:-"'..',,-..'! "--. ' .-^-'' .-. ; .-Vit >-.'* :"-*

CHAPTER XIII. 1648.

Quiet in Paris. Dissatisfaction of the coadjutor. Secret ambition of
the Due d'Orleans. The queen begins to distrust him. Thinks of
turning for help to Prince de Conde. Illness of the Due d'Anjou,
the little Monsieur. Parliament renews its persecutions. The
queen thanks the burghers for guarding the city. Yields to the
new demands of parliament. Conciliatory policy of the minister.

Prince de Conde' wounded at Fumes. The Court retires to
Ruel. The queen's good judgment and courage. The Prince de
Conde desires to return to Paris to support the king and queen.
The queen consents. Speculative minds suggest the blockade of
Paris. Exile of Chateauneuf and arrest of Chavigny. Fidelity
of Commander de Jars to his friend. Fontrailles escapes imprison-
ment by flight. Parliament demands the return of the king to
Paris and the dismissal of the minister. Return of the Prince de
Condd Queen's speech at Ruel to a deputation from parliament.

She refuses their demands and the princes support her. Re-
moval of the little Monsieur from Paris. The Court goes to
Saint-Germain. The king issues a decree forbidding parliament
to assemble. Alarm in Paris. Letters of the Due d'Orle'ans and
the Prince de Conde to parliament proposing a conference. Par-
liament stipulates that Mazarin shall be excluded from it.
Speeches of the princes of the blood sustaining the authority of the
king. Demands of parliament. Concessions of the queen.
Both parties only half satisfied. The Duchesse de Vendome in-
vokes the protection of parliament against Mazarin 338

INDEX . 369

LIST OF
PHOTOGRAVURE ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

MOTTEVILLE, FRANCOISE BEBTAUD, MADAME DE .... Frontispiece

By Largilliere ; Portraits Nationaux.
CHAPTER

I. BUCKINGHAM, GEORGE VILLIERS, DUKE OF 32

Drawing by Rubens ; Vienna.

II. RICHELIEU, ARMAND-JEAN-DUPLESSIS, CARDINAL DE . . . . 62

By Philippe de Champaigne ; Louvre.

III. ANNE OP AUSTRIA 70

This portrait was made on her arrival in France to be married
to Louis XIII. By Franz Porbus ; Maltres Anciens.

IV. HENRIETTA-MARIA, QUEEN OF ENGLAND 116

By Van Dyck ; Dresden.

VI. CHRISTINA, QUEEN OF SWEDEN . 160

From a contemporary print by Peter Aubry.

XI. MAZARIN, JULES, CARDINAL 290

By Pierre Mignard ; Chantilly.

FAC-SIMILE LETTER.

VII. ANNE OF AUSTRIA TO THE PRINCE DE CONDE (THE

GREAT CONDE) 187

INTRODUCTION.

BY C.-A. SAINTE-BEUVE.

LET us repose awhile with. Madame de Motteville, the
writer of these judicious Memoirs, with that wise and
reasonable mind which saw very closely the things of her
day, and estimated and described them in such perfect pro-
portion and with an accuracy so agreeable. When the
Memoirs of Madame de Motteville appeared for the first
time, in 1723, the journalists and critics of that day, while
praising their tone of sincerity, deemed that they gave too
many minute details, too many little facts. This was the
opinion of not only the " Journal de TreVoux " and the " Jour-
nal des Savants," but it was that of Voltaire himself. We
no longer think so. These little facts, belonging to an old
and vanished society which they represent to us with abso-
lute truth, please us and fasten our attention: at a short
distance they might seem superabundant and superfluous;
at a greater distance they become both new and interesting.
And besides, while Madame de Motteville, keeping to her
woman's r6le and telling nothing that she does not know of
her own knowledge, never attempts to penetrate cabinet
secrets (though she divines some of them very well indeed),
she pictures to the life the general spirit of all situations and
the moral character of the personages. It is this lasting side
that time has more clearly brought forth, placing her hence-
forth in a rank both distinguished and well-established.

Madame de Motteville, born about 1621, her maiden name
being Franchise Bertaut, was the niece of a bishop-poet,

TOL. I. 1

2 INTRODUCTION.

illustrious in his day and still remarkable for sentiment and
elegance; the same Bertaut whom Boileau praised for his
reserve, and Eonsard judged to be "too virtuous a poet."
I remark at once on this basis of virtue, which seems to
have been inherent in the race. Madame de Motteville had
a younger sister who was called from her infancy Socratine,
on account of her austerity, which ended by making her a
Carmelite. This austerity, much softened and adorned in
the elder sister, deserved in her the name of reason and
good sense ; and it was thus that those who knew her only
by reputation spoke of her. " Melise may pass for one of
the most sensible preeieuses of the island of Delos," says the
" Grand Dictionnaire des Preeieuses."

Mademoiselle Bertaut had received a very careful and
very literary education. Her father, Pierre Bertaut, was
gentleman-in-ordinary of the king's bed-chamber. Her
mother, who came of a noble family in Spain and had
lived her youth in that country, was noticed by Anne of
Austria in the early days after the queen's arrival in France.
Knowing Spanish as her own language, she was employed
by the queen for her family correspondence and treated as
a friend. She profited by this favour to give, as they said
in those days, meaning to attach to the queen's service, her
daughter, then seven years old (1628). But Cardinal Eiche-
lieu, always uneasy about the queen's surroundings and
anxious to cut off her communications with Spain, removed
the little girl, an act to which Anne of Austria strongly
objected. To all her complaints " they answered," so Madame
de Motteville tells us, "that my mother was half Spanish,
that she had much intelligence, that already I spoke Spanish
and might resemble her." Madame Bertaut accordingly
took her daughter, now ten years old, to Normandy, where
she completed her education with care. The young girl

INTRODUCTION. 3

still received an annual payment of six hundred limes from
the queen, and in 1639 she was thought worthy, for her
beauty and good reputation, to be married to M. Langlois de
Motteville, president of the Chamber of Accounts of Nor-
mandy, who made her his third wife. "This was an ill-
assorted marriage," says the " Journal de Savants " (January,
1724); "the president was eighty years old, and the wife
only eighteen. It is said that she wearied of her half of
the bed, so that sometimes after the goodman went to sleep
she made her waiting-maid take her place, and the old man
never found it out." If this detail, stated by a grave journal,
is correct, it was the liveliest piece of giddiness of Madame
de Motteville's life. Her nature, calm and unimpassioned,
seems never to have suffered from such a marriage. " In the
year 1$39, having married M. de Motteville," she says, "I
found much comfort, with an abundance of everything ; and
if I had been willing to profit by the friendship he had for
me and receive the advantages he could and would have
given me, I should have been rich after his death." But she
neglected these views of self-interest, and, like all others
exiled from Court, she thought only of the hope held out by
the coming death of the cardinal, at which time she expected
her return to favour. On the death of the cardinal and that
of the king, one of the queen's first acts was to recall all
those who had been dismissed on account of their love for
her, and Madame de Motteville was among them. She was
henceforth attached to the queen, less as woman-in-waiting
(which was her title) than as one of the persons of her daily
intercourse and intimacy. Wise, discreet, and punctual, of
a gentle but playful mind, a curiosity both serious and
readily amused, with an observing eye that did not seek to
be piercing or to look deep, but contented itself with seeing
clearly that which went on about her, she spent twenty-two

4 INTRODUCTION.

very varied years, some of which, were shaken by violent
storms. Faithful and devoted, without pretending to be
heroic, she was able to reconcile the timidities of her sex
with the obligations and duties of her position, and pass at
Court through the breakers of many reefs, visible and invis-
ible, without being turned from her way, continuing always
within the rules and delicacies of scrupulous integrity
woman in many points, but the most reasonable of women,
a genuine person, yet at the same time amiable. She seems
never to have thought of remarrying, and never to have
known a tender weakness. In that agreeable discussion
which she holds by letter with La Grande Mademoiselle on
the conditions of a perfectly happy life she says: "I was
only twenty years old when I regained my liberty, which
has always seemed to me preferable to all the other good
things that the world esteems ; and by the way I have used
it I seem to be a fit inhabitant of the village of Kandan,"
a village in Auvergne where the widows do not marry again.
The title of dowager, which she gained so young, did not
terrify her. She enjoyed friendship and conversation; but
she could also enjoy, if need were, " the sweets of solitude,
which are books and revery." A true and practical religion,
which did not exclude but on the contrary brought her back
to philosophical reflection, sustained and strengthened her
in virtue and prudence. It was thus that this soul, equable
and temperate, passed through life, without great lustre,
without inward distresses, and constantly ripening,

We at once ask ourselves, as we do of all women, whether
Madame de Motteville was beautiful, and it appears that
she was. " Her portrait, which is at Motteville," says the
"Journal des Savants," "represents her as a very pretty
brunette." The only engraved portrait which I have seen
of her, and which every one may see at the Cabinet des

INTRODUCTION. 5

Estampes, shows her to us with her hair dressed in the
fashion of Anne of Austria, no longer in her first youth,
the face full, with a double chin, and a gentle, tranquil ex-
pression. The lower part of the face, however, is scarcely
agreeable, and the whole together has nothing that claims
marked attention. It is in her mind that we must seek for
the delicate and charming traits that distinguished her.

The principal figure around whom Madame de Motte-
ville's narrative unfolds itself is that of the queen, Anne of
Austria, her mistress. The author does not pique herself on
being either a politician or an historian ; she is a woman who
relates that which she has seen with her own eyes or learned
from the best-informed persons. Very sensible and very
safe as she was, the most honourable men among the initi-
ated and the talented (such as de Eetz calls the Estre*es
and the Senneterres) liked to talk with her. She was usu-
ally in the cabinet, that is to say, the royal withdrawing-
room; she makes it her centre, and dwells more willingly
on the scenes there presented to her observation. Never-
theless, she does not neglect, as occasion offers, more ex-
tended narratives, such, for instance, as the episode on the
English Eevolution, which she gathered from the lips of the
Queen of England herself and made into a separate narra-
tive. She also enlarges on the revolution in Naples, which
took place about the same time. " This is a fragment which
I let drop as I go my way," she says of one of these chance
episodes: "it will find its place with others of the same
nature; and as it will not be treated with more order or
connection it will also not have more value." The sound
judgment of Madame de Motteville, which led her to con-
sult as to these remote matters none but good witnesses and
also made those most worthy of confidence like to speak of
them openly with her, gives to these accessory parts and

6 INTRODUCTION.

to these hors-cFceuvres more interest than she ventures to
claim.

She begins by an abridged narrative of the queen's life
from her arrival in France to the death of Louis XIII. and
the Regency. But the original part of these Memoirs is
that which starts from the latter period and treats only of
what passed within sight of the writer. When she returns
to Court in 1643 Madame de Motteville describes to us the
different personages on the stage, the divers cabal interests ;
she shows herself to us in the midst of those great intrigues
as a simple spectator seated in a corner of the best box and
perfectly disinterested. " I thought only of amusing myself
with what I saw, as at a fine comedy played before my eyes
in which I had no interest." "Kings' cabinets," she says
elsewhere, " are theatres in which are being played continu-
ally the pieces that all the world is thinking about: some
are simply comic; others are tragic, the greatest events of
which are caused by trifles." Present at all these things
with a clear-sighted mind and a spirit never bitter, and at
first taking interest in them merely to escape tedium, she
had, very early, a resource that came to her from her family
that of writing ; the moments that other women took for
cards or promenades, she spent in locking herself in and
making notes of all she had seen and heard, to be used at
a later day.

The first period of the regency of Anne of Austria is ex-
hibited and clearly shown by Madame de Motteville in a
manner that makes us present with her. All the old friends
of the queen have returned, after an exile more or less long ;
each of them expects the same favour as before, and they do
not at first perceive that the Anne of Austria whom they
had left oppressed by Richelieu, without children, and
Spanish at heart, was now a mother, devoted to the in-

INTRODUCTION. 7

terests of the young king, and a queen wholly French.
Neither do they perceive that her heart is already won by
Mazarin, and that she has chosen him, from affection and
laziness, as the minister who is to release her from business
and make her reign. Madame de Senece*, Madame de Che-
vreuse, Madame de Hautefort on returning to Court have
therefore much to learn, much to divine. Many of these
exiles of other days no sooner think they have again grasped
Fortune than they provoke to their own detriment her ca-
price and inconstancy. " Here, then, is the Court, very grand
and beautiful, but much embroiled," says Madame de Motte-
ville, who cannot help enjoying the spectacle. "Each is
thinking of his own designs, his own interest and cabaL
The cardinal, of a suave, shrewd mind, goes about working
to win to himself all parties." But a goodly number, feel-
ing sure of their ground, resisted all his advances. Madame
de Motteville shows us, in this interior view, the unexpected
reverses from which resulted new downfalls for the presump-
tuous and for those who played the " Important." Apropos
of Madame de Hautefort, whose firmness without gentleness
and " mind attached to her senses " harshly resist the queen,
Madame de Motteville lets us see the whole of her own
court morality, a temperate but not relaxed morality. " We
may give our advice to our masters and our friends," she
thinks, "but if they are determined not to follow it we
ought to enter into their inclinations rather than follow our
own, when we do not see essential evil in them and when
the things themselves are not important."

The quality of Cardinal Mazarin's cleverness, his dissimu-
lation, the grace and delicacy of his play, that cabinet spirit
in which he excelled and which " set going so many great
engines" are rendered with fidelity and to the life by a
person who, without reason herself to speak well of him,

8 INTRODUCTION.

has the merit of appreciating equitably his superior points.
Many of those whom Mazarin dismissed were friends of
Madame de Motteville; she does not abandon them when
they fall; she visits, consoles, and even tries in some cases
to defend them to the queen. By this sincerity of action
she does herself harm with the minister ; but the queen has
enough elevation of heart to forgive her all such proofs of in-
tegrity and, after a first coolness, to bear no resentment to her.

If Ann P. of Austria were more interesting than she appears
to us in history, we might adopt from Madame de Motteville
the various portraits she has made of her which are full of
noble beauty and majesty. The waiting-woman (for here
Madame de Motteville is somewhat that) shows us her royal
mistress with admiration and love from the moment she
wakes and rises and is given her chemise to that of her
supper and coucher. Her widow's mourning became the
queen, and she lost something by quitting it. She was at
that time forty years old, " an age so dreadful for our sex,"
says Madame de Motteville ; but she triumphed over it by
a stately appearance as sovereign and mother.

All the portraits given by Madame de Motteville are fine
and made almost without intention. In the troubles which
soon arose she shows us qualities in the queen which it
would be unjust to refuse her amid her faults; she had
courage and pride; "the blood of Charles V. gave her a
lofty dignity," and boiled in her veins. To such descrip-
tions of Anne of Austria, a little partial but not false, we
must always add, and hear, the " sharp little voice " she had
when angry, the tone of which Retz has so well conveyed.

The Queen of England, magnificently lauded by Bossuet,
is pictured more familiarly by Madame de Motteville, who
knew her well; and this time it is she who gives to that
figure, solemnized in the funeral oration, the touch of reality.

INTRODUCTION. 9

On the occasion of the arrival of a Swedish ambassador
(September, 1646), Madame de Motteville shows us the first
idea received in France of Queen Christina, and, while
making herself the echo of that extraordinary eulogy, she
adds a touch of light and gentle irony, as sometimes happens
with her. " Fame," she says, is a great talker, she is fond
of passing the limits of truth ; but truth has much force ; it
does not long leave a credulous world in the hands of de-
ception. Some time, later, it was known that the virtues
of this queen were middling; she had no respect for
Christians; and if she practised morality it was more from
fancy than feeling."

Thus speaking, Madame de Motteville, who is always
essentially a woman, gently avenges her sex, outraged some-
what by the brusque and fantastic manners of that eccentric
queen.

"Fame a great talker" reminds me of one of the graces
of Madame de Motteville's style; a simple style, rather
incorrect in its arrangement of sentences, retouched perhaps
in various places by the editor, but excellent and wholly her
own in the essentials of language and expression. She has
many of those pleasing metaphors which brighten the tex-
ture. Wishing, for example, to say that kings never see
evils and danger until at the last extremity, because they are
hidden from them by a thousand clouds, "Truth," she re-
marks, "which poets and painters represent naked, is always
dressed up in a hundred ways before kings ; and never did
a worldly woman so often change her fashions as truth
when she enters a royal palace." Apropos of the cardinal's
hat promised for years to the Abbe" de la Eiviere, MONSIEUK'S
favourite, and suddenly claimed by the Prince de Conde* for
his brother the Prince de Conti, she says that "Discord
has flung a crimson apple into the cabinet." Pointing to

10 INTRODUCTION.

Mazarin, so adroit in turning to account the very excesses
of hatred and accusation, in neutralizing and making his
own profit from them, she says : " Cardinal Mazarin does
with insults what Mithridates did with poisons, which in-
stead of killing him came at last by constant usage to nour-
ish him. The minister, in like manner, seems by his adroit-
ness to make good use of public maledictions; he employs
them in getting credit with the queen for suffering in her
defence." We feel in these passages, and in the whole
current of Madame de Motteville's style, a natural and
poetic imagination, without much sparkle, but such as be-
came the niece of the amiable poet Bertaut. In certain
places we find some wealth of imagery in " flowers," " roses,"
" thorns," some trace of the bad taste of the Louis XIII.
period ; but these are only here and there ; her natural good
sense usually reigns in her language as it does in her judg-
ment and thought.

Madame de Motteville is a contemporary of Corneille, and
has a little of the tone of the romances of that period in
her language. Speaking of Cinq-Mars, she calls him " that
amiable criminal ; " in relating the downfall of those whom
fortune deserted she is touched by "so many illustrious
unfortunates;" though still young she slightly regrets the
olden time. Speaking of the old Mare'chal de Bassompierre,
whom the young men laughed at, she says, after praising his
generosity, his magnificence, and his courteous manners :
"The relics of the old mare'chal are worth more than the
youth of some of the most polished men of these times"
(1646). In Corneille's plays she liked especially the lofty
morality and the noble sentiments which had purified the
stage. When Italian comedy was introduced under Maza-
rin's auspices she took but little pleasure in those musical
plays. " Persons who understand them esteem them highly,"

INTRODUCTION. 11

she says; "as for me, I find that the length of the play
diminishes the pleasure, and I think that verses, repeated
naturally, represent conversation more easily and touch the
mind better than song delights the ear." All this shows
a right mind and a noble heart, rather than a nature inclined
to tenderness or passion. Italian comedy, played before the
cardinal, excited the enthusiasm of certain courtiers, such
as the Mardchal de Grammont and the Due de Mortemart,
who seemed enchanted by the very names of the minor
actors, and "all together, in order to please the minister,
uttered such great exaggerations when they spoke of them
that Italian comedy became wearisome to persons who were
moderate in speech." Madame de Motteville was one of
those moderate persons, and she gives us in those words
the tone of her own soul. Thus, when I say she was by
taste somewhat a contemporary of Corneille, the reader
sees in what sense it must be understood, and how she
corrected all exaggeration of it.

Though she likes to recall and repeat the following gallant
lines of her uncle,

" And constantly to love rare beauty
Is the sweetest error of earth's vanities, "

her heart was more fitted for friendship than for love ; she
was made, in all ways, for correct and regulated sentiments,
for happy equanimity, and she expresses a desire for them
more than once. From her beautiful Normandy she had
gained a love of nature and of country life ; but she could
not enjoy it on a hasty journey. "The country," she says,
"is beautiful with repose and solitude only when we can
taste the innocent pleasure that the beauty of Nature affords
us in woods and on the shores of rivers." She says else-
where, speaking of kings : " I think those happy who know

12 INTRODUCTION.

them only through the respect due to their name, who can
enjoy the quiet, tranquil life of a good citizen with means,
who have enough to live on and are not poisoned by ambi-
tion. That is where all reasonable souls should seek for true
happiness, obscure, it is true, but tranquil and innocent."
This desire for private life reappears in her frequently, with
a tone of sincerity that cannot be misunderstood.

She likes, in these Memoirs of hers, to moralize, to
give serious reflections which she enforces by agreeable
quotations; she is fond of citing Spanish or Italian poets,
sometimes Seneca, but oftener Holy Scripture. These reflec-
tions have been thought too long and too frequent, which
may be true of the latter part of the Memoirs; but as a
general thing she knows how to mingle them with the cir-
cumstances that inspired them. In certain very fine pages
on the character, schemes, and talents of Cardinal Mazarin
she shows him to us (during a stay he made in Paris,
May, 1647) as shutting himself up to work, and leaving the
greatest men in the kingdom waiting in his antechamber
unable to reach him. Murmurs resounded on all sides;
but the door opened, the minister came out, and all were
silent :

" When he got into his coach to go away, the courtyard
of the Palais-Royal was filled with cordons bleus, great sei-
gneurs, and persons of that quality, who, by their eager
manner, seemed only too happy to have looked at him
solely from a distance. All men are by nature slaves to
fortune ; and I can say that I never knew a person at Court
who was not a flatterer, some more, some less. The self-
interest that blinds us misleads and betrays us on occasions
which concern ourselves ; it makes us act with more senti-
ment than intelligence ; quite often it happens that we are
ashamed of our weaknesses; but they are not perceived

INTRODUCTION. 13

except through wise reflection, which we all owe to our-
selves, but which does not come until the occasion to do
better has passed."

She knows what the grand airs of independence assumed
by those whom favour rebuffs too often signify ; she under-
stands the showy pride which melts at the first advance and
turns to meanness. Mazarin, who cannot use her, as he
wished, for a creature of his own beside the queen, cavils
at her, makes her sometimes uneasy, and keeps her on the
qui vive : that is his system when he is not sure of people.

" As he did not know my intentions, and judged me by
the opinion he held of the universal corruption of the world,
he could not keep himself from suspecting that I was mixed
up in many things contrary to his interests. He told me
one day that he was convinced of this because I never told
him anything of others; I listened to the malcontents,
and must therefore be in their confidence."

And, in truth, more than one malcontent was not afraid
to confide in Madame de Motteville, even where there was
no intimacy, and they spoke to her " as to a person who had
the reputation of knowing how to hold her tongue." This
was precisely what displeased Mazarin and made him com-
plain of her. " That reproach," she adds, " shows his natu-
ral distrust and how unfortunate we were in living under the
power of a man who loved double-dealing and with whom
integrity had so little value that he thought it a crime."
These complaints of the cardinal, which did not fail to
transpire, she endeavoured to offset by certain kind words
of the queen which counteracted the impression before
others; "for at Court," she remarks, "it is easy to dazzle
spectators ; we must never give them the pleasure of know-
ing we are not as fortunate as they imagine, or as unfortu-
nate as they desire."

14 INTRODUCTION.

In all her remarks on the Court, that "delightful and
wicked place" which was often justly hated, but "always
naturally loved," I fancy as I read Madame de Motteville
that I am listening to Nicole, but a feminine Nicole, soft-
ened and more agreeable.

Nevertheless, we meet with many very fine expressions
of vigour and moral energy. At a ball given by Cardinal
Mazarin during the carnival of 1647 she describes to us,
one after another, the principal beauties and queens of the
festival; after which she makes the supernumeraries defile
before us, and they are by no means the least pretentious
or the least noisy. "The queen's maids-of-honour, Pons,
Guerchy, and Saint-Me'grin, tried to make a few natural
conquests by the pains they took to embellish themselves
in all sorts of ways ; happy if, among so many lovers, they
could have caught husbands suited to their ambition and
the license of their desires." That is only a piquant stroke ;
but presently, speaking more particularly of Mademoiselle
de Pons, beloved by the Due de Guise, now on his way to
conquer Naples for her sake, and yet, for all that, not con-
tent or satisfied with such a prize, she says: "That soul,
gluttonous of pleasure, was not content with an absent lover
who adored her and a hero who, to deserve her, sought to
make himself a sovereign. Ambition and love combined did
not have charms enough to fill her heart ; to satisfy her she
must needs go promenading on the Cours, where she received
the incense of all her new conquests." A soul gluttonous of
pleasure ! it is a sense of honest decency which here conveys
to Madame de Motteville's style that expression of disgust.

Her habitual tones are much more restrained; acrimony
does not touch her decent pen. Near as they are to the
queen, she and her companions are deprived by the avarice
of the cardinal of many of the practical and efficacious

INTRODUCTION. 15

results of favour, but she confines herself to jesting about it
with light and smiling irony. There is nothing in these
Memoirs of Madame de Motteville that recalls those other
Memoirs, so distinguished but so bitter, of Madame de Staal-
Delaunay, lady-in-waiting to the Duchesse du Maine; the
situation however was very different. Madame de Motte-
ville was in a great and real Court, beside a queen who,
with a mind of ordinary compass (though accommodating
and agreeable), had a noble and generous heart and paid for
services with esteem. If one must find an historical paren-
tage for Madame de Motteville, I find it more in the Memoirs
of the wise chamberlain Philippe de Commines, whom she
likes to quote, recalling at times the results of his sound
and judicious experience.

Her own Memoirs become more serious and take a loftier
historical character the farther they advance into the period
of civil agitations and the troubles of the Fronde. Madame
de Motteville judged them rightly, and while ascribing to
herself only the role of a timid woman, she makes reflec-
tions which one could wish had been made at the time by
many men. The long conversations in private which she
had with the Queen of England had enlightened her as to
the real tendency of perils which often, in their beginning,
seem no more than a gust. Noting with vigorous justice
the illusion of the Parliament people, and their insatiable ex-
actions which caused them to reject all preliminary offers of
compromise and conciliation, she boldly declares that " the
corruption of men is such that to make them live according
to reason they must not be treated reasonably, and to make
them just they must be treated unjustly." She points to
men of property who, by obstinately shouting against taxa-
tion and those who abused it, were aiding turbulence and
lending support to malcontents, which often happened.

16 . INTRODUCTION.

" Men of property, without considering that an evil is some-
times necessary, and that, in this respect, all the ages have
been about equal, hoped through disorder to attain to some
better order; and that word reformation not only pleased
them as a good principle, but it also suited those who
courted evil through the excess of their folly and ambition."
There are moments when all things concur for disorder and
ruin, and when sedition is in the very air. " The star," says
Madame de Motteville, "was at that time terrible against
kings."

The first scenes of the Fronde are related by her in a
manner that does not pale before even the narrative of Car-
dinal de Retz. The latter gives us the scene in the rue du
Palais-Eoyal when he enters it, and of the ulterior of the
archbishop's palace. Madame de Motteville shows us the
interior of the queen's cabinet, where she finds herself, at
first, the only person who is seriously alarmed. The first
day of the Barricades was almost wholly spent in joking
her. " As I was the least valiant of the company, all the
shame of that day fell upon me."

For a person belonging to that interior she comprehends
very clearly and at once the nature of the revolt in the town,
and the disorder so quickly and so well organized. "The
bourgeois," she says, " who had taken arms very willingly to
save the city from pillage, were no better than the populace,
and demanded Broussel as heartily as the scavengers; for,
besides being infected with a love of the public welfare,
which they reckoned to be theirs personally, . . . they were
filled with joy in thinking themselves necessary to some-
thing." These words, " infected with a love of the public
welfare," have often been quoted ; but we should see in them
only a simple little jest of Madame de Motteville ; she knew
what she was saying in speaking thus and in characterizing

INTRODUCTION. 17

as disease and pestilence the false love which, had seized
that seditious populace for a moment.

Madame de Motteville is not a blind royalist ; she believes
in the right of kings, but also in the justice which is its law,
and which God, she thinks, often inspires in kings, and has
done so almost always in this kingdom of France. Her
ideal of a monarch is Charles V. On the day when Parliament
relied on I forget which ordinance of Louis XII. to demand
that "no one shall be put in prison without being brought
twenty-four hours later before his native judges," she cannot
help remarking that this article guaranteeing individual
security, as we should say, " was agreeable to all France.
The love of liberty," she adds, " is strongly imprinted in
nature. The wisest minds, which, until then, had disap-
proved of the doings of this Assembly, could not in their
hearts, hate this proposition; they blamed it apparently,
because it was impossible to praise it before the world, but
in point of fact they liked it and could not help respect-
ing such boldness and wishing it success." We see that
Madame de Motteville would have made a fairly liberal
royalist ; but this woman of intelligence and good sense, who
was present at such terrible scenes, and relates them, is
never the dupe of grand words nor of appearances; she
mingles with them observations such as do honour to his-
torians and are not disavowed by politicians. " When sub-
jects revolt," she says, " they are pushed into it by causes of
which they are ignorant, and, as a usual thing, what they de-
mand is not what is needed to pacify them" She points out
to us these very magistrates (the parliament), who had been
the first to stir up the people, amazed to find it turning
against them and not respecting them. " They knew them-
selves to be the cause of these disorders, but they could not
have remedied them had they wished to do so, for when the

VOL. I. 2

18 INTRODUCTION.

people meddle with ordering there is no longer any master ;
each man for himself endeavours to be one." We may look
at home to-day, and ask ourselves if this is not still our
history.

But I remind myself that I chose the subject of Madame
de Motteville in order to distract my mind for a moment
mine and my reader's if possible from the painful specta-
cle of our present dissensions [Dec. 1, 1851], and I do not
wish to fall back to them by allusions which they supply
but too freely.

Madame de Motteville ran some danger in Paris during
the first Fronde. Not being able in the early days of 1649
to follow the fugitive queen to Saint-Germain, and wishing
to rejoin her soon after, she was arrested, with her sister, at
the Porte Saint-Honore* by a furious mob, and was forced to
take refuge on the steps of the high altar at Saint-Roch,
where some of her friends, hastily summoned, came to her
rescue. She joined the queen a little later and quitted her
again at certain times; for this distinguished woman was
not, as she tells us humbly, an amazon or a heroine ; it was
with difficulty that she rose above the terrors or even the
inconveniences of her sex. Present or absent, however, her
fidelity never failed. When peace was re-established, she
resumed beside the queen the habits of her regular, gentle,
serious life, which suited her so well. Her virtue, her deli-
cate integrity in that world of treachery and ambush, ex-
posed her, even to the last, to certain cavillings, over which
her prudence and calmness, supported by the esteem of the
queen-mother, enabled her to triumph. Religion took deeper
and deeper hold on a soul made to welcome it and natu-
rally ordained to it. This enlightened and submissive reli-
gion has dictated to her in these Memoirs certain pages,
which are as charming as they are solid and sensible, on

INTRODUCTION. 19

the quarrels of the period, the disputes of Jansenism and
Molinism, in which women were as eager as others to mingle.
" It costs us so dear," she says, alluding to Eve, " for having
sought to learn the knowledge of good and evil, that we
ought to agree that it is better to be ignorant of it than to
know it; especially as we women are accused of being the
cause of all evil. . . . Whenever men talk of God and the
hidden mysteries I am astonished at their boldness, and I
am delighted not to be obliged to know more than my Pater,
my Credo, and the Commandments." Madame de Motteville
follows exactly the line that Bossuet traced in such matters.
This whole page should be read ; the author crowns it with
very noble Italian verses, which prove that while submitting
her mind she by no means renounced a reasonable self-
adornment and embellishment. This rare person, this hon-
est woman of so much judgment and intelligence, died in
December, 1689, in her sixty-eighth year. She can be appre-
ciated at her full value only by accompanying her through-
out the whole course of her Memoirs, following her in her
development and continuity; quotations and analysis give
but a very imperfect idea of their slow, full, tranquil, and
engaging character.

SAINTE-BEUVE.

TKANSLATOE'S NOTE.

THESE Memoirs are somewhat abridged; chiefly in the
parts relating to matters that did not come under Madame
de Motteville's personal observation ; such, for instance, as
the period before she became the daily companion of Anne
of Austria, the military details of the wars of the Fronde,
etc.

PREFACE.

KINGS are not only exposed to the eyes but to the judg-
ment of all the world ; very often their actions are good or
bad according only to the different sentiments of those who
judge them by their passions. They have the misfortune
to be censured with severity for things about which they
might be blamed, but no one has the kindness to defend
them for other things which might justly obtain some ex-
cuse. All who approach them praise them in their presence
through base self-interest, in order to please them ; but each
man, with sham virtue, joins in judging them severely when
absent. Moreover, their intentions and their sentiments
being unknown and their actions public, it often happens
that, without wronging equity, they may be accused of faults
which they never intended to commit, but of which they are
nevertheless guilty, because they have been deceived, either
by themselves, for want of knowledge, or by their ministers,
who, slaves to ambition, never tell them the truth.

It is this that has led me to write in my leisure hours, and
for my amusement, what I know of the life, habits, and
inclinations of Queen Anne of Austria, and to repay, by the
simple recital of what I recognize in her, the honour she did
me in giving me her familiarity. For, though I do not pre-
tend to be able to praise her in all things, and, in accordance
with my natural disposition, I am not capable of disguise,
I am, nevertheless, very sure that historians who have not
known her virtues and her kindness, and who will speak of
her only in accordance with the satirical talk of the public,

24 PREFACE.

can never do her the justice that I would fain be able
to do her if my incapacity and my want of eloquence did
not take from me the means of doing it.

Therefore, what I now undertake is not with any fixed
design of correcting their ignorance or their malice; that
project would be too great for a lazy woman, and too bold
for a person like me who dreads to show herself and would
be unwilling to be thought an author. But I do it for my
own satisfaction, out of gratitude to the queen, and to re-
view once more (if I live), as in a picture, all that has come
to my knowledge concerning the things of a Court, which
is certainly very limited, for I do not like intrigue. But I
shall add nothing. That which I put upon paper I have seen
and I have heard, and during the whole Eegency (which is
the period of my attendance on the princess), I have written,
without order, from time to time, and sometimes daily, what
seemed to me most remarkable. In doing this I employed
the time that ladies are accustomed to give to cards and
promenades, because of the hatred I have always felt to the
useless life of the people of the great world. I do not know
if I have done better than others ; but at least I know well
that, to my thinking, one cannot do worse than to do
nothing.

MEMOIRS

MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE.

1611 1630.

KING Louis XIII. was but nine years and eight days old
when he came to the crown; but King Henri IV. had left
him a kingdom so peaceful and flourishing, with such good
troops in his armies, such able ministers in his councils, and
such large sums in his coffers, that if the queen, Marie de'
Medici, had been willing to follow the system established
by that great prince in the State, her regency would have
been far more glorious and the rest of her life much happier.
But, having allowed the Marquis d'Ancre, whom she made
marshal of France, to take too great authority, he advised
her to dismiss the servitors of the late king, and particu-
larly those great men who had grown old in the highest
offices and managed the most important negotiations, to put
in their place others who were wholly dependent upon her.

This drew upon her the hatred of all the princes of the
blood, and of the other princes and great seigneurs, whom
she treated with such haughtiness that they retired from
Court; and the treaties of Sainte-Me'nehould and Loudun,
which the marshal had made, having no effect, the number
of malcontents increasing daily, he resolved, in order to break

26 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. i.

up the measures he saw were preparing against him, to arrest
the Prince de Conde", who, as first prince of the blood, would
probably be the leader of the party now beginning to form
itself. At the same time he sent orders to the two armies
intended to act outside the kingdom, in execution of the
great designs of the king who had raised them, to hold
themselves ready to sustain the royal authority confided to
him [the Mar^chal d'Ancre] in case it was attacked in con-
sequence of the arrest of the prince. He also raised a third
army, to be ready to march more promptly against the first
malcontents who ventured to declare themselves.

So bold an action as this and such great preparations con-
firmed the queen in the high opinion she had of him whose
advice she blindly followed, and made her believe she would
soon be mistress of the Court and of all France without op-
position. It was this that ruined her, as well as the man
she had chosen for her first minister. For, as she was per-
suaded that none could resist her, she imagined she had no
need to treat any one with caution, not even the king her
son ; and she took no heed that he too had a favourite with
as much ambition as her own, who, insinuating himself daily
more and more, worked so strongly to detach the king from
the tenderness he had for his mother that in the end he
made him resolve to part from her altogether. This favour-
ite was de Luynes, who, during the time he was the young
prince's page, had found means to make himself so agreeable
and so necessary to all his pleasures, exercises, and amuse-
ments, particularly those of all kinds of hunting where few
persons liked to follow him, that the freedom in which he
lived with the king raised him at last to the dignity of
connetable.

The French nobles, naturally attached to the princes of
the blood, having taken up arms in the provinces, were daily

1 Til -1630] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 27

swelling the party of the Prince de Cond^, while disorder
reigned in Paris, where the populace pillaged the house of
the Mare'chal d'Ancre, against whom they made loud out-
cries as the author of the violent manner of the queen's
governing, and the bad employment, robbery, and squander-
ing of the treasure amassed by Henri IV. Eiots became
daily more frequent, and no one having the force or the
desire to quell them, the populace at last attacked the mar-
shal as he was leaving the Louvre, April 24, 1617, the
bravi who everywhere accompanied him, giving him no
succour, nor the guards either (who were not far off when
he drew his sword intending to defend himself), for they
thought that the Marquis de Vitry, their captain, who ap-
peared at that moment, was coming to his rescue. Instead
of that, he came to arrest him, so that it remained doubtful
whether his death was due to the fury of the people, or to
his own resistance to the king's orders.

Since his majority the king had manifested on so many
occasions his intention of taking cognizance of public mat-
ters that, the queen having now retired to Blois, he was not
long in recalling the chancellor, de Sillery, and in setting
the Prince de Conde* at liberty. This was not enough to
really pacificate the kingdom which all these changes had
disturbed. But as I have not undertaken to describe the
life of that unhappy princess, I shall not speak of the war
undertaken by those who took her side. My purpose is
only to note what may concern Queen Anne of Austria, who
began to be spoken of during the subsequent negotiations
for a general peace which her marriage was to give to all
Europe.

I shall therefore merely say here that the Grand-duke of
Tuscany, being naturally obliged to act towards maintaining
Queen Marie de' Medici's former influence with the king

28 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. i.

(who, though attaining his majority, was still willing to
share his authority with her), and having great interest in
the tranquillity of France, which could not be shaken without
Italy and Spain being disturbed, directed the Marquis Borri,
his ambassador, to be the first hi the conferences held
with the Spanish ministers at Madrid to suggest a double
marriage between the two princes and the two princesses of
France and Spain.

The result was that the Due du Maine went to Spain
and the Due de Pastrana came to France. The espousals
of Philip IV., son of Philip III., King of Spain with
Madame Fjlisabeth of France [daughter of Henri IV.] were
solemnized at Burgos, and those of King Louis XIII. with
Anne of Austria, Infanta of Spain, at Bordeaux in 1615. The
Due de Guise, who had conducted Madame FJisabeth to
the middle of the little river of Bidassoa, which separates the
two kingdoms, took leave of her to let her pass on to Fonta-
rabia, while he himself conducted the Infanta of Spain to
Saint-Jean de Luz, where the Due de Luynes gave her a
letter from the king, to which, it is said, he brought back an
answer in her own handwriting. It was supposed that the
army of the Huguenots would oppose her journey, and it is
true that it was so near to that of the king that it seemed
to flank it; but this only served to make them see his
strength, and to render the entry of the Infanta into France
the more imposing.

I know from my late mother, who had henceforth the
honour to approach the princess familiarly (though she was
not her servant), that she was handsome and very amiable.
I have heard my mother say that the first time she saw her
she was seated on cushions, according to the Spanish custom,
among her ladies, of whom she had a great number, dressed
in the Spanish fashion in a gown of green satin, embroidered

1611-1630] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 29

in silver and gold, with large hanging sleeves, fastened with
great diamonds serving as buttons, on the arms ; she wore
also a closed ruff and a little cap upon her head of the
same colour as her dress, in which was a heron's feather
which enhanced by its blackness the beauty of her hair,
which at that time was very handsome and worn in large
curls.

The young king was also very handsome and very well
made, and his dark beauty did not displease our young queen.
She thought him very agreeable from the beginning; and
though he stuttered, and the fatigues of hunting, his long ill-
nesses, and his natural gloom changed him infinitely towards
the end of his life, I still believe, from the way in which
I have heard the queen speak of him, that she would have
loved him much if the misfortune of both, and that fatality
which seems inevitable for all princes, had not disposed
otherwise; for the king, making for himself a grievous
destiny, did not love the queen as much as she deserved.
He spent his life in hunting beasts and allowed himself to
be governed by favourites; so much so that he and the
queen lived together with little intercourse or happiness.

All the Spanish ladies who came with our young queen
were soon taken from her, which caused her great pain.
Only one remained, named Donna Estefania, whom she
loved tenderly because she had brought her up, and was, as
we say in France, her first bed-chamber woman. My late
mother, who had lived many years in Spain (whither she
had been taken at six years of age by her grandmother, the
second wife of the Sieur Saldagna, who had no children, to
obtain an inheritance of which she had promised her the
chief share), was a great comfort to Donna Estefania in the
first years of her life in France, during which she took no
pleasure except in things that reminded her of Spain.

30 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. i.

My mother formed at the outset a great friendship with
this lady, who, beginning to feel infirm, needed to lay her
cares on some faithful person who not only spoke Spanish
but could also read and write it, and who knew the Spanish
Court ; and the queen herself, finding all these requisites in
my mother with much intelligence and charm, made no
difficulty in placing confidence in her, not only for the inno-
cent, though secret, correspondence which she maintained
with her brother, the King of Spain, but also to console her-
self with her for the grief she could not disguise at the
great favour of the Due de Luynes, who had the audacity,
so it was said, to propose to the king to repudiate her and
marry a relation of his wife, afterwards the Princesse de
Gue'mene'e, whom we knew as the handsomest woman of the
Court.

But if this thought ever came into his mind, it could only
have remained there a moment as an absurd vision; for
the Duchesse de Luynes, who was on very good terms with
her husband, was not long without being liked by the queen,
who, although in the beginning she could not endure her on
account of her own aversion to the duke, did accustom her-
self to her for the sake of the good terms she was thus en-
abled to have with the king, who liked the duchess, and for
the hunting and riding parties she was now invited to join.

Thus she did enjoy certain periods of pleasure without
other bitterness than that of becoming pregnant several times,
as she believed, and miscarrying for having ridden too hard
in hunting. From which we may judge that if her Court
lacked prudence it was not without enjoyment, since youth
and beauty had sovereign rights there.

The Due de Luynes having died in 1621, his little em-
pire ended with him; and Queen Marie de' Medici, being
reconciled to the king, the peace between mother and son

1611-1630] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 31

destroyed that between husband and wife; for the queen-
mother, being convinced that, to hold control over the young
prince, the young princess must not be on good terms with
him, intrigued with such perseverance and success in creat-
ing misunderstandings be'tween them that from that day
forth the queen, her daughter-in-law, had neither influence
nor comfort. All her consolation was the part which the
Duchesse de Luynes, now remarried with the Due de Che-
vreuse, a prince of the house of Lorraine, took in her sorrows,
which she tried to soften by the amusements she proposed
and by communicating to her, as much as she could, her
own gay and lively humour, which turned the most serious
things of the greatest consequence into matters for jest and
laughter a giovinc cuor tutto e giuoco.

Some years went by without my being able to explain
how they were passed, knowing nothing but what the
queen herself told me later, amusing herself sometimes by
relating stories of them. I can say, however, that she was
loved, and that, in spite of the respect which her majesty
inspired, her beauty did not fail to touch certain men who
openly showed their passion.

The Duke of Buckingham was the only one who dared
to attack her heart. He came, on the part of the King of
England, his master, to marry by proxy Madame, the king's
sister. He was well-made, handsome in face; he had a
lofty soul, was magnificent, liberal, and a favourite of his
king, so that he had his wealth to spend, and all the crown
jewels to adorn him. It is not astonishing that with such
amiable advantages he had high thoughts and noble but
dangerous and blamable desires, or that he had the happi-
ness to make the beautiful queen admit that if a virtuous
woman could love another than her husband, he would have
been the only one who could have pleased her. The praises

32 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. i.

that I give him I heard from the queen herself, for he was
the person in the world of whom I have heard her say the
most good. It is, no doubt, to be presumed that his regard
was not unwelcome, and that his vows were received with
a certain amount of complacency. The queen, making no
secret of it, had no difficulty in telling me later (wholly
undeceived then about such dangerous illusions) that, being
young, she did not comprehend that fine conversation, other-
wise called polite gallantry, in which no pledges were given,
could be blamable any more than that which Spanish ladies
practise in the palace, where, living like nuns and speaking
to men only in presence of the King and Queen of Spam,
they nevertheless boast of their conquests and talk of them
as a thing which, far from injuring their reputation, adds
to it. She had in the Duchesse de Chevreuse a friend who
was wholly given up to these vain amusements; and the
queen, by her counsels, had not avoided, in spite of the
purity of her soul, taking pleasure in the charms of that
passion which she accepted with a certain complacency, for
it flattered her glory more than it shocked her virtue.

Much has been said of a walk she took in the garden
of a house where she lodged when she went to conduct the
Queen of England to Amiens. But this was most unjust,
for I know from herself, who did me the honour to confide
it to me without reserve, that she only wished to walk in
that garden because the king had forbidden every one to
enter it, and, as difficulty increases desire, this gave her a
very strong wish to go there ; so that, after getting the keys
with much trouble from the captain of the guard, she walked
there one evening with Madame de Chevreuse and her little
Court. The walk was taken in presence of her whole suite,
which accompanied the princess as usual. I have seen per-
sons who were present and who told me the truth. The

Rubens

1611-1630] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 33

Duke of Buckingham was there and wanted to talk with
her. Putange, the queen's equerry, left her for a few mo-
ments, thinking that respect required him not to listen to
what the English lord was- saying to her. Chance led them
to a turn of the path where a palisade hid them from view.
The queen, at that moment, surprised to find herself alone,
and apparently startled by some too passionate sentiment
from the Duke of Buckingham, cried out, and calling to
her equerry, blamed him for leaving her.

By that cry she showed her wisdom and her virtue, pre-
ferring the preservation of her inward innocence to the fear
she must have had of being blamed ; for that cry, reported
to the king, would certainly cause her much embarrassment.
If on this occasion she showed that her heart could be sus-
ceptible of a tenderness that invited her to listen to the
romantic speech of a man who loved her, it must at the
same time be admitted that a love of purity and her virtu-
ous feelings surmounted all the rest, and that she preferred
a real and true credit, unmixed by any sentiment unworthy
of her, to a reputation suspected, after all, of little.

When the duke took leave of the queen-mother, who had
also come to conduct her daughter, the Queen of England,
beyond Amiens, the queen did me the honour to tell me
that when he came to kiss her gown, she being in the front
of the coach with the Princesse de Conti beside her, he
screened himself with the curtain to say a few words to
her and to wipe the tears that were falling from his eyes.
The Princesse de Conti, who laughed at goodness, and was,
as I have heard say, very witty, said as to this, speaking of
the queen, that she could assure the king of her virtue;
but she could not say as much for her cruelty, because no
doubt the tears of this lover, which she had seen (being
seated beside the queen), must have touched her heart, and

VOL. I. 3

34 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. i.

she suspected that her eyes at least looked at him with
some pity.

The Duke of Buckingham's passion led him to do an-
other very bold action, about which the queen informed me
and the Queen of England afterwards confirmed to me,
having heard it from himself. This celebrated foreigner,
after starting from Amiens to return to England, conduct-
ing Madame Henriette de France to her king and to reign
over the English, being full of his passion and goaded by
the pain of absence, wanted to see the queen again, if only
for a moment. Though they had almost reached Calais, he
made a plan to satisfy his desire by feigning to receive news
from the king his master which obliged him to go to the
French Court.

Leaving the future queen of England at Boulogne, he
returned to see the queen-mother and negotiate this pre-
tended affair, which was only a pretext for returning to
Court. After discussing his chimerical negotiation, he went
to the queen, whom he found in bed and almost alone.
This princess knew by letters from the Duchesse de Che-
vreuse, who was accompanying the Queen of England, that
he had returned. ' She spoke of it before Nogent, laughing,
and was not astonished when she saw him. But she was
surprised when, with much freedom, he threw himself on
his knees before the bed and kissed her sheet with trans-
ports so excessive that it was easy to see his passion was
violent, and one of those which deprive such as are touched
by them of their reason. The queen did me the honour
to tell me she was embarrassed; and this embarrassment
mingled with vexation caused her to remain for some time
without speaking. The Comtesse de Lannoi, then her lady-
of-honour, wise, virtuous, and elderly, who was beside her
pillow, not willing to allow the duke to remain in such a

1611-1630] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 35

state, told him with much severity that it was not the
custom in France and that she wished him to rise. But
he, not abashed, argued with the old lady, saying that he
was not a Frenchman and was not bound to observe all
the laws of that State. Then, addressing the queen, he said
the most tender things in the world to her. But she only
answered with complaints of his boldness, and, without
perhaps being very angry, ordered him to rise and leave
the room. He did so ; and after seeing her again the next
day in presence of all the Court, he departed, fully resolved
to return to France as soon as possible.

After the English ambassador had crossed the sea, the
two queens returned to the king who awaited them at Fon-
tainebleau. All these things relating to Buckingham were
told to him to the disadvantage of the queen, so much so,
that several of her servants were dismissed. Putange, her
equerry, was exiled ; Datal, La Porte, and the queen's doctor
were treated in the same way.

The Queen of England told me afterwards that in the
beginning of her marriage she had some distaste to the king,
her husband, and that Buckingham fomented it, telling her
freely that he would set them against each other if he could.
He succeeded so far that, from a feeling of vexation, she
wanted to return to France to see her mother; and as she
knew the passionate desire the English duke had to see the
queen again, she spoke to him of her design. He entered
into it with ardour, and powerfully helped her to obtain the
permission of the king, her husband. The princess, knowing
this, wrote to the queen-mother asking her to think it well
that she should bring the Duke of Buckingham with her,
because without him she could not make the journey. She
was refused both by the queen her mother, and the king her
brother ; and her project, in consequence of this desire of the

36 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. i.

duke, could not take effect. This need not astonish us ; the
rumour of his sentiments was an invincible obstacle. As
the king had some tendency to jealousy, the queen-mother
giving him as much as she could to disgust him with the
queen (served in this by Cardinal Eichelieu, whom she had
brought into public affairs), the Duke of Buckingham could
never afterwards obtain permission to return to France.

This man, who, from all descriptions given to me, had as
much vanity as ambition, embroiled the two crowns in order
to get back to France by the necessity of a treaty of peace,
after he had, as he intended, made a great reputation by
the victories he expected to win over our nation. On this
basis he brought a powerful naval force to the help of the
Eochelle people then besieged by King Louis XIII., show-
ing publicly the passion he had for the queen and making a
glory of it. But this ostentation was punished at last by
no success, and the shame of having ill succeeded in all his
designs.

Madame de Chevreuse, who followed vehemently all her
inclinations and loved the Duke of Holland, a friend of the
Duke of Buckingham, having now returned from England,
saw with some satisfaction the arrival of Buckingham's fleet
and his return to France with what at first appeared to be
a high reputation. She did not cease to talk of it to the
queen. The mistress and favourite both hated Cardinal
Eichelieu because he was the creature of the king and the
queen-mother, who had put him in the ministry. They
found nothing more agreeable than to annoy him, all the
more because the queen was persuaded that he did her ill
service with the king. She made therefore no difficulty in
listening with pleasure to the wishes Madame de Chevreuse
expressed for the success of the English. She often told
me this herself, wondering at the error, into which the

1611-1630] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 37

gayety and folly of innocent youth, which did not yet know
the full extent to which virtue, reason, and justice bound it,
had led her.

The Duchesse de Chevreuse'was no doubt the cause of this
blindness, which was not in reality as criminal as it seemed,
because the intentions and sentiments of the soul are what
make good or evil in us. But in the days when the queen
became more enlightened she regretted it. Madame de
Chevreuse told me afterwards, in relating the follies of her
youth, that she had forced the queen to think of Buckingham
by always talking of him and removing what scruples she
had by dwelling on the annoyance thus given to Cardinal
de Eichelieu. I have also heard her say, with much assev-
eration on this point, that it was true that the queen had a
noble soul and a very pure heart ; and that, in spite of the
clime in which she was born, where, as I have said, the
name of having a lover is the fashion, she had had all
the trouble in the world to make the queen take a liking to
the fame of being loved.

The queen herself spoke of these things with so free and
honest a simplicity that it was easy to see she had never
had in herself other than slight imperfections. Indeed,
they served to make her know in later days what she owed
to God for having maintained her in true purity, when
vanity made her swerve from the maxims so virtuous a
princess wished and was bound to observe. Her misfortune
was in not being loved enough by the king her husband, and
in being as it were forced to amuse her heart elsewhere
by giving it to ladies who made a bad use of it, and who,
during her first years, instead of leading her to seek occa-
sions to please the king, and to desire to be esteemed by
him, estranged her from him as much as they possibly could
in order to possess her more completely.

38 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. i.

It is believed that Cardinal de Eiclielieu had in reality
more love for the queen than hatred, and that, seeing she
was not inclined to wish him well, he did, either for revenge
or from the necessity of thus using her, do her harm with
the king. The first signs of his affection were the persecu-
tions he inflicted on her. They were visible to the eyes of
all ; and we shall see that this new manner of loving lasted
till the end of the cardinal's life. There is no apparent
ground for thinking that this passion, so vaunted by poets,
caused the strange effects they asserted in his soul. But the
queen related to me that one day he spoke to her in too
gallant a manner for an enemy, and made her a very passion-
ate speech, which she was about to answer with anger and
contempt, but the king entering the room at that moment,
his presence interrupted her reply; and since that instant,
she had never dared to return to the cardinal's harangue,
fearing to do him too much favour by showing that she
remembered it. But she answered him tacitly by the hatred
she always had for him and by the steady refusal she gave
to his friendship and his assistance with the king. Those
who had the most influence with her and who did not like
the cardinal did not fail, in order to draw her to their party,
to strengthen her aversion. That aversion won her many
adherents, for Cardinal Richelieu was hated; but by this
conduct, though it was just fundamentally, she placed her-
self much worse with the king; we can judge from her
sentiments and those of the minister whether there was
reason for it.

The queen and many private persons who had felt the
harsh effects of this minister's cruel principles had cause
to hate him ; but, besides the fact that he was beloved by
friends because he esteemed them much, envy certainly was
the sole cause for the public hatred, because in truth he did

1611-1630] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 39

not deserve it ; for, in spite of his defects and the justifiable
dislike of the queen, it must be said of him that he was the
greatest man of our time, and that past ages had none
who could surpass him. He had the principles of illustrious
tyrants; he ruled his designs, his thoughts, his resolutions
by reasons of State and the public good, which he considered
only so far as this said public good enhanced the authority of
the king and swelled his treasury. He wished to make him
reign over his peoples and to reign himself over his king.
The life and death of men touched him only according to
the interests of his grandeur and fortune, on which he
thought those of the State depended wholly.

Under this pretence of preserving the one by the other
he made no difficulty in sacrificing all things to his private
preservation ; and though he wrote " The Life of the Chris-
tian," he was very far indeed from gospel principles. His
enemies were the worse for his not following those principles,
but France profited ; like those fortunate children who enjoy
here below a prosperity for which their fathers toiled, pro-
curing for themselves perhaps eternal woe.

Not that I wish to make an evil judgment of that great
man; it must be owned that he enlarged the borders of
France, and by the taking of La Rochelle diminished the
power of heresy, which was still considerable in all the
provinces where the remains of the old war kept it alive.
His great vigilance in discovering cabals that were formed
at Court, and his speed in smothering them, enabled him
to maintain the kingdom. He was, moreover, the first
favourite who had the courage to lessen the power of princes
and grandees, so damaging to that of our kings, and in
the desire perhaps to govern alone to destroy whatever
was opposed to royal authority, defeating those who tried
by ill-offices to remove him from royal favour.

40 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. I.

The queen was amiable, the king inclined to piety, and
if the policy of the minister had not put obstacles in the
way of their union it is very likely that Louis XIII. would
have attached himself to the friendship of the person in the
world most capable of it from the sweetness of her nature,
and most worthy of it for her goodness and beauty. Some
have said that the king never had any inclination for her,
and the queen herself believed this, because she judged by
the indifference he showed to her; but I know from one
of the king's favourites, 1 inferior in power to Richelieu, but
who, nevertheless, had enough share in the king's inclina-
tions to know all such private matters, that he thought her
beautiful, and one day, making him a confidence in respect
to her beauty, he said that he dared not show her tenderness
lest he should displease the queen his mother and the
cardinal, whose counsel and services were more important to
him than to live pleasantly with his wife.

The enemies of the queen, the better to succeed in making
the king hate her, used against her strongly the intercourse
she kept up with Spain. The slightest mark of affection ,
that she gave her brother the King of Spain, they magnified j
into crime against her husband. She had some reason to-J
fear being repudiated, and for all consolation, she hoped,
after the death of her aunt, the Infanta Isabella-Clara-
Eugenia, to be sent to govern the Low Countries, whither
my late mother, who always passed for a Spaniard on
account of her name, Luisa de Saldagna, which she had
borne in Spain, was resolved to take me. The inheritance
from the Dame Du Fai and that from my late uncle the
Bishop of Se*ez not proving as good as they imagined, the
pension of six hundred livres which the queen had given

1 On the margin of the manuscript is written "Due de Saint-Simon."
This was the father of the author of the Memoirs.

1611-1630] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 41

me since 1622, when I was only seven years old, and the
brevet she gave me in 1627, which bound me, indispen-
sably, to follow her fortunes, were very welcome, but they
gave occasion to Cardinal Kichelieu, who knew that the
queen had great confidence in my mother, and who saw that
she was beginning to take pleasure in conversing with me
in Spanish, to make the king send me an order to retire
from Court. The queen could not refrain from complaining
that they took from her even a child, for I was then only
nine or ten years old. My late mother, seeing that the
matter concerned her as much or more than it did me,
took me to Normandy; but the queen paid my mother,
when she could, the pension she had given me.

In the year 1639, having married Monsieur de Motteville,
president of the Chamber of Accounts of Normandy, who
had no children and much property, I found comfort with
an abundance of all things ; and if I had chosen to profit by
the friendship he had for me and receive the advantages he
could and would have given me, I should have found myself
rich at his death. But, being wholly occupied by the hope
that every one had in those days of the approaching death
of Cardinal Richelieu, which would give us the opportunity
to return to Court, I was very glad to make a journey there
in the same year (1639), believing that, being married and
settled in Normandy, my presence could no longer give
anxiety to Cardinal Richelieu. I went, therefore, without
any scruple to pay my duty to the queen, who received me
very well and gave me letters as one of her ladies, with a
brevet of two thousand livres pension; and the late Mon-
sieur de Motteville, as well as my father and mother,
having died shortly after Cardinal Richelieu, I prepared to
establish myself with my sister in Paris, where my brother
was finishing his studies. The order the queen gave me

42 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. L

was far more agreeable than the one which obliged me to
quit her. She received us with much kindness, and said
the same day to one of my mother's friends that the children
of her friend had come back, and she was very glad to see
them.

Having thus returned to the Court, which I had left so
young, I tried to recall in my memory the state in which it
then was, to compare it with that in which I now found
! it. I do not know if the regency gave a grander and more
majestic air to the queen than that she had when unfor-
tunate, but she seemed to me more amiable than formerly,
and as beautiful as any of those who formed her circle.

At the time when I was sent away she wore her hair in
the fashion of a round coiffure, transparently frizzed, and
with much powder ; after that she took to curls. Her hair
had grown rather darker in colour, and she had a great
quantity of it. Her features were not delicate ; having even
the defect of too thick a nose, and she wore, in Spanish
fashion, too much rouge ; but she was fair, and never was
there a finer skin than hers. Her eyes were perfectly
beautiful; gentleness and majesty united in them; their
colour, mingled with green, made her glance the more vivid
and full of all the charms that Nature gave them. Her
mouth was small and rosy, the smile admirable, and the lips
had only enough of the Austrian family to make them more
beautiful than many that claimed to be more perfect. The
shape of her face was handsome and the forehead well-
made. Her hands and arms were of surpassing beauty, and
all Europe has heard their praises ; their whiteness, without
exaggeration, equalled that of snow; poets could not say
enough when they wished to laud them. Her bust was
very fine, without being quite perfect. She was tall, and her
bearing lofty but not haughty. She had great charms in

1611-1630] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 43

the expression of her face, and her beauty imprinted in the
hearts of those who saw her a tenderness which did not
lack the accompaniment of veneration and respect. Besides
these perfections, she had the piety of her mother, Queen
Marguerite of Austria, dead in the odour of sanctity, who,
having had the care of her daughter's education, had im-
printed in her heart the sentiments that filled her own ;
this it was that produced in her that great inclination to
virtue which drew to her the grace, that God gave her
throughout her life, to prefer it to all things else.

The Court was at this time full of beautiful women.
Among the princesses, she who was the first of them was
also the first in beauty [the Princesse de Conde*]. Without
youth, she still excited the admiration of all who saw
her. Her gift of beauty she shared with Mademoiselle de
Bourbon, her daughter, who was beginning, though still
young to reveal the first charms of that angelic face which
later was to have such fame, a fame followed by griev-
ous events and salutary sufferings.

I leave the Cardinal Bentivoglio, who has published in his
writings the praises of Madame la Princesse, to tell of her
adventures and of the passion King Henri IV. had for her ;
I desire only to bear witness that her beauty was still great
when in my childhood I lived at Court, and that it lasted to
the end of her life. We praised it during the regency of
the queen, when she was over fifty, and praised it without
flattery. She was fair and white, her eyes blue and per-
fectly beautiful. Her bearing was lofty and full of majesty,
and her whole person, her manners being agreeable, always
pleased, except when she prevented it herself by a rude
pride full of acerbity against those who ventured to
displease her; then she changed entirely, and became
the aversion of those to whom she showed it. We like,

44 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. i.

naturally, whatever flatters us ; never can that which despises
and affronts us be agreeable. E ritrosa bella ritroso cuor
non prende.

After Madame la Princesse, such as I represent her, the
Court had many beautiful women. Madame de Montbazon
was one of those who made the greatest stir. She had
extreme beauty with an extreme desire to please ; she was
tall, and in her whole person we felt an air of freedom,
gaiety, and hauteur. But her mind was not as fine as her
body ; her lights were limited to her eyes, which imperiously
demanded love. Her forehead was so well modelled and
perfect that she always wore it uncovered without giving it
any added charm by the arrangement of her hair ; the out-
line of her face was so handsome that, to let it be seen, she
wore her hair in very few curls. Her lips were not full;
and for this reason her mouth seemed rather less prominent
than was necessary to make her beauty quite perfect. She
had fine teeth, and her neck was shaped like those the great
sculptors represent to us in Greek and Roman beauties. She
claimed universal admiration, and men paid her that tribute,
ever vain, imperfect, and often criminal in its results and
effects. I desire, nevertheless, to doubt, in the matter of
gallantry, that which one ought never to believe, and which
does not appear in evidence. But to show the character
of her mind as to this, she told me one day when I saw
her during the regency and praised before her one of my
friends for being virtuous, that all women were equally so,
and (with a laugh at me) she let me understand that she
did not think much of that quality.

Madame de Gue'mene'e, her daughter-in-law, was also one
of the handsomest women at Court, and did not yield to her
in the quantity of her lovers, or in valuing that sort of good
which ladies imagine to be great triumphs. She had a very

1611-1630] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 45

handsome face, all the features of which were equally per-
fect. I heard the queen say, long afterwards, that on ball
days when this one and that one was striving who should
be most beautiful, she and Madame de Chevreuse, fearing
Madame de Guemene'e, did what they could by many inven-
tions to prevent her from effacing their beauty; and that
sometimes when she arrived in a state to cause jealousy to
those most perfect they would go in concert to tell her she
was not looking well. On which, without consulting a
mirror, she would go away quite terrified and hide herself ;
by which artifice they often escaped the shame of not being
the handsomest woman present.

In the rank of those who were younger than Madame
de Chevreuse, Madame de Montbazon, and Madame de
Gue'mene'e, was Madame la Princesse Marie [de Gonzague] ,
with whom Monsieur, the king's brother, had been in love,
and whom the queen, his mother, Marie de' Medici, had put
away for some time in the forest of Vincennes, fearing that
he would marry her. She was afterwards married to the
King of Poland. There was also Mademoiselle de Eohan,
who was very beautiful ; she seemed to wish to make profes-
sion of extreme virtue and great pride, both of which she
maintained until the time of the regency, when we beheld
her pride change to passion, and her virtue, as I shall tell
elsewhere, forced her to marry a gentleman of quality [Henri
Chabot], but much inferior to those she might have chosen.

There were other handsome women, particularly Made-
moiselle de Guise, estimable in all things and whose beauty
was great and perfect. Mademoiselle de Vendome was also
a fine woman. They deserve, with many others, a panegyric
in their favour, but I shall pause only on Mademoiselle de
Hautefort, who made, as soon as she came to Court, a
greater effect than all the other beauties of whom I have

46 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. i.

spoken. Her eyes were blue, large, and full of fire, her
teeth white and even, and her complexion had the fairness
and glow which belong to a blond beauty. The number of
those who loved her was great ; but then: chains were often
made heavy to bear ; for though she was kind she was not
tender, severe, rather than hard, and naturally satirical.

As soon as the king saw her he had an inclination for
her. The queen-mother, to whom she had been given as
maid-of-honour, seeing this little spark of fire in the soul of
a prince so shy of women, tried to light rather than extin-
guish it, in order to gain his good graces by such compliance.
But the piety of the king made him attach himself so little
that I heard this very Mile, de Hautefort say later that he
never talked to her of anything but dogs, birds, and hunting ;
and I have known her, with all her virtue, when telling me
this history, laugh at him because he dared not come near
her when conversing with her. This passion was not strong
enough to bring him as often to the queen-mother's apart-
ment as he would have come had he been really in love
with one of her ladies ; instead of making her Court more
gay and gallant, it only diminished the influence of the
queen and increased that of the queen-mother. The latter
was the absolute mistress of France, and her happiness
seemed to be without a flaw ; but now came a change, which
ought to show to all the world that no creature is safe from
the blows of fortune, and that crowned heads, in being above
those of other men, are the most exposed.

16301643.

THE queen-mother, having raised Cardinal Eichelieu, her
favourite after Mare*chal d'Ancre, to the dignity of prime
minister, she considered him her creature and believed she
would always reign through him; but she deceived herself,
and gained cruel experience of the little fidelity to be met
with in those who have unbounded ambition. I do not know
what grounds of complaint she had against him, and few per-
sons have known them ; I have only heard say that, not being
satisfied, she desired to ruin him, supposing it to be an easy
thing to do, and that no one could object if, being mistress of
her work, she destroyed it when she saw fit.

But that which seems to us right when we wish it, is
often not according to the impenetrable will of God, who
does not choose that human judgment should be followed by
events that would authorize it. I knew from the queen, who,
not liking Cardinal Eichelieu, was glad to know all that was
doing against him, when I put her on the topic, that on a
journey to Lyon when the king was so ill that he thought
himself dying and the cardinal thought himself lost, the
queen-mother (who was beginning to no longer defend him
against those who did him ill turns with her in order to get
his place) requested the king to dismiss him ; and that this
prince after promising that he would and agreeing to send
him away whenever she wished, begged her to let him stay a
little longer on account of the plans he had about Italy ; so
that Queen Marie de' Medici, satisfied with this willingness,

48 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. n.

would not press her son to dismiss him immediately for fear
of inconveniencing his affairs, and contented herself with his
promise to do so whenever it pleased her.

By this kindness which deprived her of happiness for the
rest of her life, she enabled the cardinal to get her sent away
herself, though the mother and mother-in-law of the greatest
kings in Europe. Marie de' Medici had given a queen to
Spain, a sovereign to Savoie, a queen to England, and a king
to France ; but all these dignities which environed her could
not guarantee her from disaster. The Court having returned
to Paris, she pressed the king to fulfil his promise, and, as
she supposed the affair to present no difficulty, she was
astonished to find that the king resisted it. He not only
asked for time, but he urgently entreated her to forgive
Cardinal Richelieu.

The queen-mother, surprised and angry at the proposition,
burst out against her son, shed tears, and reproached him,
neglecting nothing that might win her the victory in this
battle. But, far from succeeding, she found that her son and
judge was in collusion against her with her enemy, and was
quasi on his side. Cardinal Richelieu entered the room
where they were together, to plead his cause in concert with
the king. The queen-mother, all in tears and provoked that
he had come into that room against her will, called him a
traitor, told him it was true that she complained of him to
the king, and railed against him with the strong feelings that
always accompany great affronts and great hatreds. She did
the same to his niece, the Duchesse d'Aiguillon, who entered
towards the end of the conversation, treating her with the
utmost contempt.

But the cardinal, without showing surprise, threw himself
at her feet and asked pardon on his knees, doing, so they say,
all that he could to obtain it. The queen-mother, incensed

1630-1643] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 49

against her son for having refused her, and full of wrath
against the servant whom she believed unfaithful, would not
pardon him. Nor would she pardon the king himself, who
knelt before her and seemed in great trouble. Finding him-
self refused, without any plan of what came later but with a
sense of grief for the quarrel, the king went off to Versailles
to reflect on what he had better do.

The cardinal, quite overcome, not knowing whether he
ought to abandon all, took counsel with Cardinal de la Va-
lette ; after which he followed the king, and served his own
purposes so adroitly by the advantage that personal presence
gives, that he made himself in a short time, or rather in a
few hours, master of the king's mind. It was then deter-
mined to arrest the Keeper of the Seals Marillac ; and there
is little doubt that Cardinal Kichelieu began on this day to
premeditate what was done later at Compiegne against the
queen-mother, his benefactress. This day, so terrible in its
effects and its changes, has since been very famous, because
many persons who agreed with the queen-mother in wishing
the dismissal of Cardinal Kichelieu, were duped in all their
hopes and suffered for them. [This was the celebrated
" Day of the Dupes," November 11, 1630.]

Queen Marie de' Medici, by remaining in Paris at her
house of the Luxembourg and not following the king, ruined
her cause completely. She abandoned it in this way to the
artfulness of her enemy, and ruined at the same time the
great seigneurs of the kingdom, who, hating the cardinal, had
made common cause with her. It was said that the whole
cabal had held certain councils against the cardinal in which
each member had given his opinion ; and later he treated
these persons according to the manner of their advice:
Mare*chal de Marillac, who was said to have advised that he
be killed as soon as the king abandoned him, he put to death

VOL. I. 4

50 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHJLP. IL

very unjustly ; Mare*chal de Bassompierre, who had proposed
imprisonment only, was put in prison himself, where he
stayed twelve years; and so with the others, as the mare'-
chal, whom I knew later during the queen's regency, con-
firmed to me. This was the first cause of all the many
persecutions and exiles which made, during this century, so
large a number of illustrious unfortunates. Monsieur, the
king's brother, Gaston de France, who was ever at the head
of all these cabals, was, with good reason, at the head of this
one on account of the queen his mother.

Some time after this " day of the dupes " the Court went
to Compiegne, the two queens in the best understanding on
account of the hatred they united in feeling for Cardinal
Richelieu, and also because their fates began to be alike.
The king, having the intention to arrest the queen his
mother, was very restless ; although he had done the same
thing before, the influence of nature, which he now had to
conquer at an age when he knew his duty better, weakened
at times his resolution and made it uncertain. On the other
hand, the minister, impatient to avenge himself, to satisfy
and secure himself, turned many schemes over in his head ;
while the queen-mother, ill-treated by her son, and little con-
fident of succeeding in her designs, was far from tranquil in
soul

A few days after their arrival, the day on which the des-
tiny of so many great personages was to be fulfilled, a knock
was given very early in the morning on the door of the queen's
[Anne of Austria's] chamber. Hearing the sound she woke,
astonished, and called her women to know if, by chance, it
could be the king at her door. He alone had the right
to treat her with such familiarity. In that instant, having
herself opened her curtains and seen that it was scarcely
daylight, she was troubled by a thousand thoughts that

1630-1643] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 51

passed through her mind. As she always doubted, and with
reason, of the king's good-will, she fancied they had come to
bring her some fatal news which, at the least, might exile
her from France. Eegarding this moment as one which
might decide her whole life, she strove to gather up her
strength to meet the blow with as much courage as possible.
She had by nature a firm soul and a sufficiently resolute
mind, and I do not doubt what she did me the honour to tell
me afterwards when relating these particulars, that, the first
moment over, she resolved without much difficulty to receive
with submission whatever Heaven ordained for her.

She bade them open the door, and her first waiting-woman
returning to tell her it was the Keeper of the Seals who
asked to speak with Her Majesty from the king, she was
fully confirmed in her first belief. This apprehension was,
however, soon removed by the speech of the envoy. He
told her that, for certain reasons which concerned the wel-
fare of the State, the king was obliged to leave his mother
in that place under guard of Mare'chal d'Estre'es, and that
he begged the queen not to see her, but to rise and come
to him at the Capucins, where he had already gone to await
her.

At this news the queen was much surprised, as any one
who loved justice and right reason would be ; but she was
comforted to find that the matter only touched her through
the compassion she must feel for the queen, her mother-
in-law. She replied to the king's commands by prompt
obedience, and rose as quickly as she could to go to him.
But not without first going to see the disgraced queen. She
thought the king would pardon her that small disobedience,
which pity alone induced her to commit ; but, by the advice
of the Marquise de Senece', her lady-of-honour, she sent
to the unhappy queen-mother, to express the desire she had

52 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. n.

to see her and speak to her on a matter of importance,
though, for certain reasons, she dared not go to her unless
she first sent to ask her to do so.

The queen-mother, knowing nothing of this decision,
although, in the position she felt herself to be in, she feared
a return of all the evils she had already borne, sent Made-
moiselle Catherine, her first waiting-woman, at once to do
what the queen requested, a slyness asked solely to satisfy
the king. The queen took only a dressing-gown and went
in her night-dress to the queen-mother, whom she found
sitting up in her bed. She was hugging her knees, and, not
knowing what to think of this mystery, she cried out as the
queen entered : " Ah ! my daughter, either I am dead or a
prisoner. Will the king leave me here? What does he
mean to do with me ? " The queen, touched by compassion,
flung herself into her arms, and though in the days of her
favour the queen-mother had sometimes ill-used her, the
position she was now in effaced such memories ; she wept for
her downfall, she felt it, and showed a sincere regret for the
king's decision, which she told her, and also the order for

Pisonment.
tie two princesses parted, satisfied with each other and
much touched at seeing themselves the victims of Car-
uiiial Richelieu, their common enemy. This was the last
time they saw each other, for the queen-mother, alarmed at
an imprisonment in Compiegne, escaped during the night
[July 19, 1631] and went to Flanders, where the Infanta
Clara-Eugenia, granddaughter of Charles V. and aunt of the
queen, received her and treated her well. She received in
the same manner Monsieur, the king's only brother, Gaston
de France, who, after having threatened Cardinal Eichelieu,
went to share with his mother the kindness of that great
princess.

1630-1643] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 53

The queen, having satisfied by this pitying visit what she
owed to one who so shortly before had seemed to have abso-
lute power, went to the Capucins to meet the king, who was
awaiting her in order to take her back to Paris. There, he
made her a present of Mademoiselle de Hautefort, of whom I
have already spoken, whom he had taken from the queen-
mother; also of Madame de la Flote, Mademoiselle de
Hautefort's grandmother, as lady of the bed-chamber. Some
time later he gave the beautiful granddaughter the reversion
of that office, in order that she might have the title of
" Madame." The king, in presenting her to the queen, said
that he begged her to like her and to treat her well for his
sake. She was then without lady of the bed-chamber ; since
the dismissal of Madame Du Farges, whom she liked, she
had never been willing, from vexation and revenge, to fill her
place ; but she was now constrained to accept all that the
king chose to give her, for this was no time to say, " I will
not." She received both ladies with the best face in the
world, and though such presents do not usually please wives
very much, it is nevertheless true that the queen loved
Madame de Hautefort for herself, and that that beautiful and
virtuous girl, esteeming the noble qualities of the queen,
and sufficiently disgusted with the king's temper, gave her-
self entirely to her, and was faithful to her through all her
troubles. The king, some years later, angry at this change,
wished to harm her; he ceased to love her much when
she began to love the queen, and when he saw that she was
entirely devoted to her, he ceased to love her at all. His
resentment went so far at last that he dismissed her, and
sent her back to her province, where she was when he
died.

After the great stroke at Compiegne, the king, to soften
in some way the bitterness the people felt against him for

54 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. 11.

the imprisonment of his mother, and for rigours enforced
against many private persons, treated the queen, his wife,
rather better, and saw her oftener ; this pleased the people,
because she was much loved. Cardinal Eichelieu, to con-
ciliate her, brought back Madame de Chevreuse from Lor-
raine where she had passed her exile ; no doubt that lady
promised him all he wanted of her. The cardinal, in spite
of his severity against her, had never hated her. Her beauty
had charms for him, but as she was allied with the queen
and contraband with the queen-mother, ambition, which
always carries the day over friendship, had forcibly removed
her from the good graces of the minister. But after he had
himself quarrelled with his benefactress, wishing to be recon-
ciled with the queen and to gain alliance with her through
her_favourite, he brought the latter back to Court.
f After all this the king, following his natural inclinations,
/abandoned himself wholly to the power of the cardinal.
' He found himself reduced to the most melancholy, most
; miserable life in the world; without suite, without Court,
/ without power, and consequently without pleasure and with-
L out honour. In this way several years of his life were
passed at Saint-Germain, where he lived like a private
person, and while his armies were taking cities and fighting
battles he was amusing himself by snaring birds. This
prince was unhappy in every way; he did not love the
queen, but on the contrary felt a coldness to her, and he
was the martyr of Madame de Hautefort, whom he loved in
spite of himself, and whom he could not resolve to send away
from Court, though accusing her of laughing at him with the
queen. Moreover, he had scruples about his attachment to
her, and did not approve of himself. Jealous of the grandeur
of his minister, though it came only from the part which he
himself bestowed, he began to hate him when he saw the

1630-1643] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 55

extreme authority he assumed in his kingdom; and not
being able to live happily either with or without him, he
never was happy at all.

The queen accustomed herself to her solitude as best she
could, leading a pious and private life, and living only on
news which her attendants and her friends brought to her.
She made a few little intrigues against the cardinal, or at
least desired to make some that might ruin him. He only
laughed at them, and his power increased through the need
the king had of his counsels. He made all France adore
him and obey the king, making his master his slave, and that
illustrious slave the monarch of a great kingdom !

Amid such gloomy humours and dark fancies it would
seem that a great passion could find no place in the king's
heart. Nor did it after the fashion of men who find pleasure
in it ; for this soul, accustomed to bitterness, had no tender-
ness beyond that of feeling the more for his own pains and
sorrows. But at last, weary of suffering, he dismissed, as I
have said, Madame de Hautefort, and turned his inclinations
to a new object whose brunette beauty was not so dazzling,
but who, with beautiful features and much charm, had also
great sweetness and strength of mind. La Fayette, maid-of-
honour to the queen [Louise Motier de La Fayette], amiable
and proud both, was the one he loved ; and it was to her
that he unbosomed himself most about the cardinal, and the
vexation that his power gave him.

As this young girl had an upright heart she did not fail
to keep the secrecy she owed to the king. She strengthened
him in his aversion from the regard she felt for him, think-
ing him dishonoured by too basely allowing himself to be
governed by the minister. The cardinal did his best to
win her over, as he did all persons who approached the
king ; but she possessed more courage than the men of the

56 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. n.

Court, who had the baseness to tell the cardinal what-
ever the king said against him. They feared, if they were
faithful, to lose benefits, and their interests seemed to them
something better than integrity. They feared also that the
king, ever timid, would betray them, and they wished to be
the first to betray. But a young girl had a finer and firmer
soul than they ; she resolved to do right, and had the courage
to despise ill-fortune through a secret resolution which she
made in her heart to become a nun.

The king, finding in her as much security and virtue as
beauty, respected and loved her ; and I know that he had
thoughts about her that were far above the common affec-
tions of mankind. The same sentiment which made this
generous girl refuse all relations with Cardinal Kichelieu
also made her live under some reserve with the queen.
Not that she did her any ill-offices, as her rival, Madame
de Hautef ort, tried to persuade the queen she did she was
too virtuous for that ; and the queen knew, later, the good-
ness and generosity of her whole conduct. But the fact is
she liked the king, and said so openly ; for a pure and honour-
able friendship can be owned without shame. And truly,
the virtue and propriety of the king, which equalled that of
the most modest woman, controlled him strictly ; so that she
felt she ought to repay that virtuous affection by great
fidelity to his confidences. I am assured that she was the
only person who ever had such feelings towards him, and
consequently the only one who could have made the happi-
ness of his life.

^~Ao. attachment so great and so perfect could not fail to
please the king and displease the queen, though the latter
was used to the misfortune of not being loved by her hus-
band. This deprivation of a happiness she desired and
thought her due, in whatever way it was seasoned to her,

1630-1643] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 57

did not fail to seem to her very hard and disagreeable. La
Fayette, avowing openly that she, loved the king, and in the
manner he seemed to wish, might have made the happiness
of his life. But the king was not fated to be happy ; he
could not keep his treasure. It was said that the cardinal
made use of his piety to deprive him of it, and that, not
being able to have La Fayette in his own pay, he used her
confessor to give her scruples as to her compliance to the
king, which idea was so shrewdly managed by the confessors
of both that the love of God triumphed over human love ;
La Fayette retired to a convent, and the king resolved to
permit it. The truth is, that God destined her for that
happiness, in spite of the malice and false arguments of the
Court people. Pere Caussin, confessor of the king, has him-
self written in his Memoirs (which the Comte de Maure, to
whom he confided them, showed me) that instead of adher-
ing to Cardinal Eichelieu, as he was supposed to have done,
he advised her, in view of the innocent intentions with
which he credited her, not to make herself a nun ; thinking
that he would himself use her to inspire the king to recall
the queen-mother, and govern the kingdom himself.

But she, who was urged by Him who gives the will and
the power to do, did not hesitate long between God and
His creatures. Perhaps also she saw with some vexation
the intrigue that was forming against her, and pride
mingled with virtue had some share in her retreat. It
was even suspected that her relation, Madame de Senece'
had tried to give her over to the cardinal. I do not know
the ground or the details of this accusation; I know only
that she begged the king's confessor to go to him and ask
permission that she might quit the Court and enter a con-
vent. Pere Caussin describes in his memoirs the pains
he took to examine into the vocation of La Fayette, and to

58 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. 11.

give the king the advice he asked of him. He states that
the king seemed much afflicted at the resolution of the vir-
tuous young girl, and threw himself back into the bed from
which he had risen when the father began to speak to him,
weeping, and complaining that she wanted to leave him ; but
at last, having conquered the tortures of his grief by his
piety, he made him this answer : " It is true she is very
dear to me ; but if God calls her to religion, I will put no
hindrance to it."

This permission being once obtained, she was seen to
leave the Court suddenly, in spite of the tears of the king
and the joy of her enemies, which, as she told me afterwards,
were the only things to conquer. It needed great strength
of mind to put herself above that weakness, for though the
king was not gallant, the ladies of the Court were none the
less glad to please him. Among others, Madame de Haute-
fort was far from sorry at her retirement; she was not
ashamed to be thought her rival; and there was no prude
who did not aspire to be loved by the king as he had loved
La Fayette for everybody was convinced that the passion
she had for him was not incompatible with virtue. When
she parted from him she talked to him long before all the
company in the queen's room, where she went as soon as she
had received his permission to leave. No change appeared
on her face ; she had the strength not to give a single tear
to those which the king shed publicly. After quitting him,
she took leave of the queen, who could not like her; she
did this with gentleness and the satisfaction a Christian
must have in seeking God, wishing to love but Him on
earth, and to desire only eternity.

The king was not long without going to see her at the
convent of the daughters of Sainte-Marie, in the rue Saint-
Antoine, which she had chosen for her life-long place of

1630-1643] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE, 59

rest and the haven of her salvation. The first few times he
went there he stayed so long before her grating that Car-
dinal Eichelieu, thrown into fresh alarms, resumed his in-
trigues to detach the king wholly from her. He succeeded
finally and found means to take from his master the con-
solation of sharing his griefs with the only person he had
found discreet and faithful enough to confide in, and one
with a spirit that was soft and pleasant enough to soothe
them. It was to the king as cruel a deed as that of a rob-
ber on the highway who takes from a traveller his all ; for
the greatest of the blessings of life is the love of a faithful
friend; and if my uncle, the Bishop of Se'ez, says in his
poems, with the approval of everybody, that to love a young
beauty is " the sweetest error of earth's vanities," it is even
more true to say that to love solidly as the king loved La
Fayette was the sweetest of all innocent pleasures.

I cannot, however, refrain, while on the subject of this
pure and beautiful love between a prince so pious and a girl
so virtuous, from relating a strong proof of the corruption
which may always be met with in attachments of feeling
which count themselves pure. I heard this from La Fay-
ette herself who, being at Chaillot [where she founded the
Convent of the Visitation] and my friend, talked with me
confidentially. She told me that in her last days at Court,
before she had fully resolved to enter religion, the king, so
wise and so constant in virtue, had, nevertheless, certain
moments of weakness in which, ceasing to be modest, he
had pressed her to consent that he should place her at
Versailles, to live under his orders and to be wholly his ; and
that this proposal, so contrary to his usual sentiments, having
alarmed her, was the cause of her resolving more quickly
to leave the Court and take vows upon herself which must
remove from his mind all sentiments of that nature.

60 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. n.

For some time nature struggled against grace, but grace
was at last victorious. Otherwise the king would never have
consented so easily that she might enter a convent ; but as
soon as she was there, he had no pain in seeing her in a
nun's dress, nor had she any in seeing him before the grat-
ing ; both were far away from a desire to maintain an inter-
course for which they might have scruples. But in order to
have peace with his minister, he consented to lose this one
satisfaction that remained to him, and he left her to give her-
self entirely to Him who gives to all according to their ac-
tions, contenting himself with now and then sending a priest
from Saint-Germain to bring him news of her. I know that
this piety brought him to certain thoughts of inward retreat;
and though he still went sometimes to see her, it was to
talk over designs known to none but herself, which would
have astonished Europe had they been executed. But God
was satisfied with his intention, and, to reward him for
the sacrifice he wished to make to Him, He granted the
prayers of his subjects by taking from him those melan-
choly thoughts which prevented his living well with the
queen, who at last became pregnant. It is even said that
La Fayette was a secondary cause of the queen's pregnancy.
Having stayed with her too late to return to Saint>Germain
as he intended, he was constrained to go to the Louvre and
share the bed of the queen, who had come to Paris for af-
fairs of no importance ; and it is said that this gave us, Sep-
tember 5, 1638, our present reigning king, Louis XIV.

In the beginning of this pregnancy the king showed much
satisfaction and even tenderness for the queen's person.
But this comfort lasted but a short time, and when she was
delivered it was necessary to urge him to approach her and
kiss her.

France supposed that after giving to the king a

1630-1643] MEMOIKS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 61

dauphin the queen would have some influence, but as the
minister was not on her side, and* she was too generous to
seek him, she remained in the same condition as before. As
an increase of favour, however, God gave her a second son,
Philippe de France, on the 21st of September, 1640, for
which the king, as I have heard the queen say, showed far
more pleasure than at the birth of the first, because he did
not expect the great happiness of being father of two
children, he who had feared he might have none at all.
But it is a strange thing that the dauphin was only
three years old when he began to cause him grief and
umbrage. The queen did me the honour to tell me that one
day, after a hunting party, the little prince, seeing his father
in a night-cap, began to cry and was frightened, not being
accustomed to see him thus, and the king was angry as if
it were a matter of the greatest consequence, complaining
to the queen and reproaching her for bringing up her son
to aversion for his person, and roughly threatening to take
away from her both her children. But when the king
started for a journey to Narbonne he had with him his
equerry Cinq-Mars, a man whom Cardinal Richelieu had given
him as a favourite after the loss of La Fayette. Whether
it was by Cinq-Mars' advice or of his own motion, he spoke
to the queen in another manner. Bidding her farewell, he
said quite cordially that he begged her to take good care
of his children, and not to quit them which she religiously
obeyed. Besides the interest that she had in their preser-
vation she fastened all her pleasure to the agreeable oc-
cupation of seeing and caressing them.

December 4, 1642, Cardinal Eichelieu died gloriously in
Paris at his own house, with the tranquillity of a private
individual, and in the arms of his king, whom he made his
heir in many things. He received all the sacraments. He

62 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. n.

died, laden with honours and glory, in the lustre of many
virtues and the shame of great defects, of which cruelty
and tyranny were the chief. It may be said of him that
Ee "acquired a great reputation by procuring the good of the
State and the power and grandeur of his prince. The
harshness with which he treated the queen-mother, his mis-
tress and his benefactress, during her exile, lessens by a
great deal the eulogy that is due to his memory; and his
cruelty towards many private persons makes him infinitely
blamable. He died finally with the aspect of a saint, not
having lived in all things the life of a Christian. I have
heard it said that he asked a bishop if he could die in peace
without having made restitution of the property he had
taken from the public and from private persons, sometimes
unjustly; and the bishop, accustomed to flatter him, having
answered yes, that the great benefits he had done to France
rendered his own legitimate, he begged him to give him that
opinion in writing; and that writing he put very carefully
under the "pillow of his bed, as if to serve as justification
before God of his iniquities. What seems to me strange
is that a man more able and possessing more knowledge
than the man on whom he laid the burden of his scruple,
should be willing to deceive himself in a matter where he
alone could be the judge, and his own conscience the most
faithful instructor he could consult. 1

He seemed so content with having triumphed over his
enemies that his chaplain could not refrain from urging
him to forgive them; to which he answered that he had
never had any enemies but those of the State. He had
written books on the Education and on the Perfection of
Christians ; therefore he ought to have known in what they
consisted. Nevertheless the Bishop of Nantes, Cospean,

1 On the margin is written : " This is not a certain thing."

1630-1643] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 63

esteemed for his virtue and piety, who was afterwards
Bishop of Lizieux, having gone to see him at the close of
his life, said aloud, as he left the room after conversing with
him, that his tranquillity astonished him. And they say
that Pope Urbain VIII., hearing of his death and of his
life, remarked, with a great exclamation : Ah ! die se gli e
un Dio, ben tosto lo pagara ; ma veramente se non c'e Dio,
& galantuomo. ("Ah! if there is a God he will soon pay
for it ; but truly if there is no God, he is an able man.")
An Italian friend of mine, whom I asked if that were true,
told me it was true, and it was not surprising, for the good
pope often jested and said witty things, but all the same
he was a great man and had virtue which does not accord
very well with such jokes.

The queen, after this death, which did not afflict her
much, began to foresee her coming power by the crowd that
now surrounded her. It was not because the king showed
her more consideration. The cardinal had worked with
such care to destroy her in his mind that she could never
obtain a better place there ; and the prince himself was by
nature so gloomy, and at this time so crushed by his woes
that he was no longer capable of any feeling of tenderness
for one whom he had never been accustomed to treat well.
But, serenity having returned to the faces of the courtiers, 1 *
and this change giving hope and consequently joy to all, they I.
began to consider the queen as the mother of two princes
and the wife of a sickly king. She was nearing the period/
of a regency which would surely be a long one ; so that/
now she was regarded as a rising sun from which each in)
particular expected to receive in his turn a favourable!
influence.

The king, though ill, attended to all business, and publicly
announced that he would have no other governor. He

64 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. 11.

sent pardons to criminals, opened the prisons, suffered exiles
to return, and did all that was needed to persuade his people
that the late cruelties had not been done by himself and
that his inclinations were far removed from them. All
this mildness and calm caused the present reign to be
blessed and the late severity detested; but it did not last
long, for the king died shortly after. He had called to
the ministry Cardinal Mazarin, an Italian by birth, but
half Spanish from the years he had passed in Spain, and
a friend of Cardinal Eichelieu. It is to be supposed that
he would have gained power over the king had the latter
lived, for he knew how to please when he chose.

This was the state of the Court when France lost the
king. He was still young, but so broken by fatigues, wor-
ries, remedies, and hunting, that, feeling he could not live
any longer, he resolved to die well in order to live eternally.
He did it in a manner that was quite extraordinary. No
one ever showed such constancy in suffering, such firmness
in the^certain thought of his end, or such indifference to
life. I He had always been unhappy because he had subjected
himself to others, following the passions of his favourites
rather than his own sentiments. This submission had led
him to commit faults for which he repented within himself.

There is reason to think that the innocent passions he had
felt for Madame de Hautefort and La Fayette had caused
him nothing but grief and a few moments of weakness
which God had given him the grace to surmount; for he
always appeared to fear God, and they both believed him
very scrupulous, worthy in that of great praise if in other
things he had shown the same strength.

It was in his last days, in view of the judgments of God,
that he repented keenly for having failed in keeping one
of His first commandments. Cardinal Richelieu was no

1630-1643] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 65

longer with, him to maintain the exile of the queen-mother
as necessary to the State ; and, examining himself sincerely
on that matter, what he had done against her now seemed
to him as terrible as it really was. He openly asked pardon
of God for it with great signs of a true repentance, and he
did apparently all that a good Christian is bound to do,
with sentiments of piety and marks of perfect faith. He
had said to Chavigny at the beginning of his illness that
he felt a cruel distress for two things : first, for having ill-
treated his mother, who had lately died [Marie de' Medici
died at Cologne July 3, 1642], and secondly, for not having
made peace.

Towards the end of the king's illness, when M. de Cha-
vigny saw that the doctors considered the king had no
hope of escaping, he took upon himself to warn him of the
state in which he was ; which he did, while softening the
harshness of the news as much as possible. Nevertheless, he
represented to him with strength and courage that although
he was a great prince he was on an equality with the least
of men in death, and ended by saying it was time for him
to think of quitting life. The king embraced him, and said,
as he pressed him in his arms, that he thanked him for that
good news, and assured him that he had never felt such joy
in life as he received in hearing he was about to lose it.
He made him withdraw that he might think of his con-
science and his affairs; then, after passing half an hour
alone, he recalled him and said, "M. de Chavigny, let us
now think of business." They then made the plan of his
will, in which he declared the queen regent. Madame de
Chavigny told me that her husband, who had more share
in this than Cardinal Mazarin, could have had Monsieur,
the king's brother, appointed, the latter having requested
him to do so ; but he held good for the queen, thinking he

VOL. I. 5

66 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. IL

could thus serve his own interests better, in which he was
much mistaken. The queen did not like him, and those
about her had already resolved on his downfall.

After this, the queen entered the council, and the king
made the chancellor read the declaration, the plan of which
had been written by Chavigny and adopted by the king. It
was read in presence of the parliament and of the nobles
of the kingdom. The king required the queen to swear
that she would observe it inviolably. This she was obliged
to do; but she did it with an intention contrary to the
king's wishes as to certain persons, some of whom had
gained his hatred, others his friendship. The king had
wished to put in a clause that the Keeper of the Seals,
CMteauneuf, and Madame de Chevreuse should be forever
removed from the Court, as dangerous persons, whose minds
were always to be feared. He was dissuaded by those who
wished to please the coming regent, and who dared no longer
act except in harmony with her. When the reader of the
declaration came to the place where this was omitted the
king, who was then moribund, fearing those two persons as
favourites of the queen, rose in his bed and said aloud,
" That is devilish, that ! " [ Voila le didble, cela !~\

Sdguin, the queen's head doctor told me that two hours
before the king's death, as he passed before his bed, he made
him a sign with his head and eyes to come to him, and
holding out his hand said in a firm voice : " Se*guin, feel
my pulse, and tell me, I beg of you, how many more hours
I have to live ; but feel it carefully, for I should be glad to
know the truth." The doctor, seeing his firmness, and not
wishing to disguise a truth which he saw would not frighten
him, said, quite coolly : " Sire, your Majesty may have two,
or three hours at the most." On which the king, clasping
his hands and turning his eyes to heaven, said softly, with-

1630-1643] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 67

out showing any alteration whatever, "Then, my God, I
consent, with all my heart." And shortly after he closed
his eyes forever, May 14, 1643, aged forty-two years only.

The queen seemed sincerely afflicted. She went at once
to the little dauphin, or rather the king ; whom she saluted
and embraced with tears in her eyes as her king and child.
It may be said that she and all France did right to weep
for the king, who, according to his lights and his sentiments,
might even then have governed his kingdom gloriously.
/He had defects which effaced him from the hearts of his
subjects and of all his family ; but he had also great virtues,
which, for his misfortune, have never been sufficiently
known ; and the subjection of his will to that of his minis-
ter had smothered all these nobler qualities. He was Jull
of piety and zeal for the service of God and the grandeur
of the Church ; and his greatest 'joy in taking La Kochelle
and other places was the thought that he would drive all
heretics from his kingdom and purge it in this way of the
different religions which spoil and infect the Church of
God.

He was, as I have heard his most intimate favourites

say, one of the best soldiers of his kingdom. He knew
war, and he was valiant. I know this from those who in
their youth were with him in danger, when he seemed not
to fear it. He loved the officers on service, and this was
the only matter he did not abandon to his minister. He
himself knew the men of true courage, who had done fine
actions, and he took great care to reward them. His keen-
est vexation against the cardinal was that he often wanted
to command his army in person, and the cardinal, fearing to
let him go among such a crowd of his o\vn enemies, always
opposed it and prevented it by a thousand contrivances.
He had much intelligence and knowledge ; Cardinal Eiche-

68 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. n.

lieu himself said of him on several occasions that in his
council he was always of the right opinion, and often found
expedients in the most embarrassing matters. I have heard
the Due de Saint-Simon, who was with him on the day he
quarrelled with the queen-mother, say that he would not
give up Cardinal Eichelieu when she asked it, from a prin-
ciple of justice, because he was convinced that he had not
been unfaithful to him ; that it was the Mare*chal de Maril-
lac and the Mare"chal de Bassompierre and several others
who, having formed a cabal with the Princesse de Conti
against Cardinal Eichelieu, wanted, for their own private
interests, to use the queen-mother as a buckler against him ;
and that the king, knowing the services he had rendered him,
thought himself obliged to uphold him ; but that never had
he any thought of injuring the queen his mother to save
the cardinal; on the contrary, his design was to keep his
minister without failing in respect to her ; and that the first
thing that alienated him from her was her urging him to
dismiss the cardinal, and, having gone upon his knees before
her to soften her, that she had no regard to his submission
or to his prayers. It was this that caused him some vexa-
tion, so that he went to Versailles, where the cardinal, by
the advice of friends, followed him. At first the minister
wished to retire, but the king said to him : " No, Monsieur
le Cardinal, I will not allow it ; you have done no wrong to
the queen my mother; if you had, I would never see you
again ; but knowing that all these things are being done by
a cabal, and that you have served me well, I should not be
just if I abandoned you."

Other persons of that time have also assured me that he
never had any plan for what happened afterwards at Com-
piegne. But soon after this [Day of Dupes] the cardinal
made him understand that he must break up the cabal which

1630-1643] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 69

was instigating the queen-mother to embroil the State ; and
for that purpose she must be arrested for some little time,
after which, her party being dead or imprisoned, it would be
easy to bring her back again. But, the queen-mother having
escaped to Flanders (which was, they say, arranged by the
cardinal himself), it was easy for him to disguise the truth
from the king her son, and persuade him that her absence
was necessary for the peace of his kingdom. That is what
may be said to excuse the greatest fault which the king
committed; for as to the death of the Marshal d'Ancre,
there was never any sign that he ordered it, or the indigni-
ties that accompanied it, which must be attributed to the
little discretion of those who had the order to arrest him,
to the resistance offered by the attendants of the marechal,
and to the hatred that the people had to him. Conse-
quently, that matter did not prevent the king from ob-
taining the title of Just. Nor has any one ever doubted
that he was brave, and that he knew how to take an army
into battle as well as any of his generals. But, besides
these great qualities so necessary to great kings, he knew
many things to which melancholy minds are wont to devote
themselves, such as music and the mechanical arts, for
which he had great skill and a peculiar talent.

16431644.

WE now come to the regency of the queen [May 15,
1643], where we shall see, as in a picture, the various revo-
lutions of fortune ; of what nature is that climate called the
Court ; its corruption, and how fortunate should they esteem
themselves who are not fated to live there. The air is never
sweet or serene for any one. Even those who, apparently
in perfect prosperity, are adored as gods, are the ones most
threatened by tempests. The thunder growls incessantly
for great and small; and those whom their compatriots
regard with envy know no calm. It is a windy, gloomy
region, filled with perpetual storms. Men live there little,
and during the time that fortune keeps them there, they are
always ill of that contagious malady, ambition, which kills
their peace, gnaws their heart, sends fumes to their head
and often deprives them of reason. This disease gives them
a continual disgust for better things. They are ignorant of
the value of equity, justice, kindliness. The sweetness of
life, of innocent pleasures, of all that the sages of antiquity
counted as good, seem to them ridiculous ; they are incapable
of knowing virtue and following its precepts, unless chance
may happen to remove them from this region. Then, if
they can by absence be cured of their malady, they become
wise, they become enlightened ; and no man can be so good
a Christian or so truly a philosopher as a disillusioned
courtier.

On the morrow of the death of King Louis XIII., King
Louis XIV., the queen, Monsieur le Due d'Anjou, the Due

1643-1644] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 71

d'Orldans, and the Prince de Conde" quitted Saint-Germain
to come to Paris. The body of the late king was left alone
at Saint-Germain, without other surroundings than the peo-
ple, who flocked to see it out of curiosity rather than tender-
ness. The Due de VendSme remained there to do the
honours, and the Marquis de Souvre", gentleman of the bed-
chamber on service, to do his duty. Of all the people of
quality who were paying their court the night before, not
one remained to pay respect to his memory; they all ran
after the regent.

The queen had many on her side in the parliament ;
among them its president, Barillon, who had been at all
times attached to her person. All were of opinion that the
queen should not be satisfied with a restricted regency as
provided by the king, and that she ought to make use of the
parliament to render her mistress of everything.

She liked the proposal extremely, for it put her in a
position to break her chains and dismiss those persons
whom the king had appointed to take part in all delibera-
tions. Chavigny and his father [President Bouthillier] were
the ones she particularly desired to remove, as the creatures
of Eichelieu and hated by those who were now the most
powerful about her. On the other hand, the parliament
desired to find occasion to recover the authority it had lost
under the late king; and the able men of this assembly
esteemed it fortunate that the queen (who thought that the
late king had not treated her properly in his will) should
wish to use them to receive from their hands the sovereign
power which the king had seemed to take from her by
ordaining that, in the council of regency, affairs should be
determined by a plurality of votes. She herself could
scarcely endure that restraint, and those who hoped to have
a share in her confidence wished her to have the power to

72 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP, in

dismiss some of those who were appointed, in order that
they might take their places.

The offers of the parliament gentry to annul the declara-
tion of the king in its present form were accepted. I have
since heard Cardinal Mazarin say that the queen did them
too much honour in putting them above the king's wishes
and giving them the power to ordain a thing of so much
consequence. She went to parliament, where, with the con-
sent of Monsieur, Due d'Orle*ans, and the Prince de Conde",
she was declared regent, without the appointment of a
council The queen was in deep mourning, and took with
her the king, who was still in his bibs and was carried by
the Due de Chevreuse, his grand chamberlain, and accom-
panied by the Due d'Orldans, his uncle, and the Prince de
Conde", first prince of the blood, the dukes and peers, the
marshals of France, and the whole council.

The chancellor, Se"guier, made an harangue that was
worthy of the esteem he had acquired; and, after exalting
the virtues of the queen, he thanked Heaven for having given
I to France a regent from whom they might hope to gain a
general peace and the repose of the State. He then called
for votes on the clause of the regency. Monsieur, uncle of
the king, promptly and without hesitating, gave his in its
favour ; declaring that of his own will he made . over to the
queen all the power which, as only brother of the late king,
he could have claimed in the kingdom in order that her
regency might be more absolute and her will unlimited.
The Prince de Cond6 said, in his turn, that since Monsieur
so desired it he consented. I have heard the queen say, as
to that consent, that it was by no means as frank as that of
Monsieur, and that she noticed on his face a repugnance to
give it ; and also that the difficulty he seemed to have hi
resolving to do so made her feel more obligations to Mon-

1643-1644] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 73

sieur, whose power would have been much greater had hers
been limited, which it would have been had he voted as the
Prince de Conde" wished.

As she knew the opposition of the one, she must also have
felt the yielding of the other ; which, in truth, was surpris-
ing, seeing that it is not natural to give up so easily one's
share in a great benefit. Many persons ascribed it to
weakness, and this weakness to the selfish interests of his
favourite, the Abbe* de la Kiviere, who was accused of de-
taching him from ambitious sentiments in the hope of mak-
ing his own private fortune through the benefactions of the
queen, rather than by leading his master to great projects
for which he may have thought him incapable, for the
soul of that prince was not turned to things heroic. How-
ever that may be, the two lions were tamed, and Monsieur
contented himself with the station of generalissimo of the
armies of France, very different hi that from the king his
father, Henri le Grand, of whom it was said that never was
there a better king nor a worse prince of the blood. Indeed
the great qualities that make a great king do always pre-
vent the first prince of the blood from being peaceable and
without faction.

As soon as the queen saw herself independent and abso-
lute mistress, she dismissed Chavigny from the council, and
took the finances from his father, Bouthillier, to give them
to President de Bailleul, whom she knew to have much
integrity, without knowing if he had any talent for that
office. At the same time she sent to Eome to ask for a
cardinal's hat for the Bishop of Beauvais, recalled the
Duchesse de Chevreuse from exile, and did favours to many
private persons without regarding the just measure that the
great are bound to examine, but which she did not duly
observe because as yet she did not know the value of her

74 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. in.

liberalities, while every one hastened to ask favours of her
boldly and refusal gave her too much pain to inflict.

The Due de Vendome, and his whole family, had so far
gained more than any one by the king's death ; and particu-
larly his youngest son, the Due de Beaufort, for the queen
during the last days of the king's illness had confided to the
latter the care of her children. The fame of this confidence
had attracted so many persons to him that he seemed for a
time to be master of the Court.

The queen had intended to take the government of Havre
from the Duchesse d'Aiguillon and give it to the Prince de
Marsillac, a friend of Madame de Chevreuse and Madame de
Hautefort, who was very handsome, had much wit and many
ideas, and whose extraordinary merit destined him to cut a
great figure in the world. The duchess, Eichelieu's niece, who
had played a great part during the ministry of her uncle, now
commanded in Havre, and that government was left to her
by consent of the late king, to hold it for her nephews.

This lady, who by her fine qualities surpassed ordinary
women in many ways, was so well able to defend her cause
that she almost convinced the queen that it was necessary
for her service to leave her in that important place, telling her
that having none but enemies now in France, she could have
no safety or refuge, except under the protection of her
Majesty, who would always be her mistress, while, on the
contrary, the Prince de Marsillac to whom she was giving
the government was too clever, too capable of ambitious
designs, and might at the least affront join some cabal;
it was, therefore, important for the good of the service that
she should keep this place safe for the king. The tears of
a woman who had once been so proud arrested the queen in
the first place, and then, after reflecting on these reasons, she
thought it best to leave things as they were.

1643-1644] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 75

The complaints of the Prince de Marsillac were many ; he
murmured publicly against the queen, and, on the first
occasion that presented itself, he let her see that he felt her
change, and was resolved to abandon her interests and take
others in revenge, which was in part the cause of all our
woes.

The Bishop of Beauvais did not maintain public affairs
with the force and capacity a prime minister ought to have ;
the queen, drawn from a life of great idleness, and by nature
lazy, felt herself completely overwhelmed by so great a
burden. She was not long without seeing that she needed
help, and that it was impossible for her to govern a State as
large as France, or distinguish all alone the interests of the
people and those of the nobles, which are two very different
things ; it is certain, moreover, that a long time was needed
to examine that question, which would harass the greatest
minds if they were not accustomed to toil, and had no
knowledge of public business.

That which gave the greatest trouble to the queen was
the desire she had to satisfy, as far as she could, those who
demanded justice for the losses they declared they had
borne under the ministry of Cardinal Richelieu, who came in
great numbers and were very difficult to content.

In this interval of disgust and embarrassment, Cardinal
Mazarin, appointed by the late king as one of the council,
was lucky enough to be fated, and then chosen by the queen,
to fill that place. She had not dismissed him, because she
had no dislike to him; and as he was very able he had
won the favour of the Prince de Conde", who did not like
the VendQmes, and he had put into his interests the Due
d'Orle'ans' favourite, the Abb de la Riviere, who was not of
their party.

At the same time he acquired as friends those who were

76 MEMOIKS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP, in.

servants of the queen without being of the VendQme cabal ;
such as the Marquis de Liancourt, the Marquis de Morte-
mart, Beringhen, and Lord Montague, an Englishman whom
the queen had known in the days of Buckingham, and
who retained a familiarity with her. The first two were
recommended by the regard the late king had felt for them,
and the last two by the confidence the queen reposed in
them. They were all former courtiers who esteemed Car-
dinal Mazarin, having known him long before in France
with Cardinal Eichelieu, and they now gave all their atten-
tion to persuading the queen of his ability. They had not
much trouble in succeeding, for the queen was already dis-
gusted with the Bishop of Beauvais, so much so that by
her own inclination she was quite disposed to make use
of the cardinal, whose wit and person pleased her in the first
conversation she had with him. During the life of the late
king she had quite often signified, in speaking of Cardinal
Mazarin, that she esteemed him, and to those in whom she
confided she declared she was not sorry to see him in order
to inform herself about foreign affairs, of which he had a
perfect knowledge, and in which the late king had employed
him. Following, therefore, her personal sentiments, the
advice of some of her best servants, and the desire of the
Due d'Orle'ans and the Prince de Cond who declared they
esteemed him, she willingly gave him her confidence, yielded
her authority to him, and allowed him to acquire within
a few days the highest degree of favour in her heart, while
those who believed they possessed it solely never imagined
that he dared to even think of it.

This insinuating process was so easily carried on in the
soul of the queen that the cardinal became in short time
master of the council, the Bishop of Beauvais diminishing
in power in proportion as that of his competitor increased;

/ 643-1 644] MEMOIES OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 77

the new minister beginning from this time to come every
evening to the queen, and hold long conferences with her.
His gentle, humble manner, beneath which were hidden his
ambition and his designs, made the opposite cabal have
almost no fear of him ; they regarded him at first with the
assumption that favour inspires. But the fickle creature to
whom under the name of Fortune pagans burn incense,
desiring, as usual, to mock at those who follow her, aban-
doned them all to give herself wholly to a foreigner, and
raise him suddenly from the first rung of the ladder to
ithe highest a private individual could reach, above all the
princes and grandees of the kingdom.

While these intrigues were tangling in the cabinet, God
was favourably taking part in our affairs in the field. The
Prince de Condd had a son, the Due d'Enghien. He had
married in spite of his father a niece of Cardinal Eichelieu,
and commanded the armies when the king died. At the
beginning of the regency he won a battle before Eocroy,
which strengthened the good fortune of the queen, and was
the first of the fine actions of that young prince, then twenty-
two years of age, so brave and with so great a genius for
war that the greatest captains of antiquity can scarcely be
compared with him. The late king, a few days before his
death, dreamed that he saw him giving battle and defeating
the enemy at the very spot. This is a matter worthy of
wonder, which ought to cause respect for the memory of
the king, who, dying amid sufferings, and quitting the world
with joy, seems to have had some light upon the future.

This victory, won at the beginning of the queen's regency,
was a good omen for what might follow, and, by making
her feared without, put her in a position to manage all
things within the kingdom. But the princes of Vendome
and the Bishop of Beauvajs were growing uneasy. They

78 MEMOIES OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. in.

now wished to oppose the new-comer, Cardinal Mazarin, and
drive him away as an interloper, not liking that any one
should share the influence they had with the queen. But
they were not able to succeed, and what they did only
served to ruin them.

I have heard it said by Mare*chal d'Estre'es, uncle of the
Due de Vendome and brother of the Duchesse de Beaufort
whom Henri IV. had thought of marrying, that Cardinal
Mazarin, in the early days of the regency, not knowing
which side to turn, tried at first to join that cabal, as the
one best established in the niind of the queen, and that he
asked him, the mare'chal, to be his negotiator ; and as he
was interested in the fortunes of these princes, being their
nearest relative, he did his best to attach them to Cardinal
Mazarin, whom he had known in Eome when he was sent
there as ambassador. He thought him a great politician and
a great courtier, and liked him, in consequence, doubly,
believing that his ability and his shrewdness of mind would
infallibly raise him to favour. It depended, therefore, solely
on the Vendome princes whether or not he joined their for-
tunes ; but they refused his friendship, from the hatred they
felt to everything connected with Cardinal Richelieu. They
could not help seeing, however, that he was a man to fear,
not only for his ability, but for his charming manners which
might make him beloved by the queen.

The VendSme princes having thus missed their opportu-
nity and refused alliance with Cardinal Mazarin, the for-
tunes of that minister took a turn, but only to rise the
faster and show the inconstancy of the things of this world.
I know from the queen that one evening in the early days
of her power she asked Lord Montague, who often spoke to
her of Cardinal Mazarin, whether she could trust him, and
what his natural temper was; and that Lord Montague

1643-1644] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 79

having told her, in his praise, that he was the opposite in all
things of Cardinal Eichelieu, that answer seemed to her
such great eulogy, through the hatred she had to the memory
of the dead man, that it helped her much in determining to
use him. And after she had taken this resolution it was so
fully confirmed daily that it soon became immovable ; and
he, as prime minister, took the habit, as I said before, of com-
ing every evening to converse with her. These conferences
began from that time to be called " the little council." He
remained a long time with the queen, all the doors being
open to the place where she was. He related to her the
various foreign affairs of which he had been master during
the lifetime of the late king, having made himself (before
becoming cardinal) capable of serving her well through the
many high offices he had filled, whether in foreign affairs
and in the interests of various princes, the King of Spain,
and the Due de Savoie, or through the services he had given
to France (which made him a cardinal) and the lessons he
had derived from that able minister Cardinal Eichelieu
whom would to God he had more closely resembled in
certain ways.

It is not astonishing that the queen followed his advice.
The great reputation he had acquired in Italy, where, by a
flourish of his hat, he was able, though at that time only
il Signor Giulio, to stop the armies on the point of combat-
ing, won him that of cardinal ; and the great affairs he had
negotiated with Cardinal Eichelieu made the latter conceive
so high an esteem for him that, intending to make him his
successor, he had given him all the instructions necessary to
serve France, binding him firmly to carry out his principles
and perfect them.

Every one knew that Cardinal Mazarin had been named
in the declaration of the late king as prime minister, because

80 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. in.

Cardinal Kichelieu, before dying, had assured the king that
he knew no one more capable than he of filling the place.
And this declaration the queen made use of to obtain
approval for her own choice of him. I know, as to that, that
this lucky minister, being persuaded of his luck by that
which he had already found in all phases of his life, said
to one of his friends (the Mardchale d'Estrdes), while the
decision was pending, that he was not troubled on that point,
but merely that he did not as yet see how to spiegar le vele
piu larghe (put on all sail).

Here, then, was Cardinal Mazarin, his favour already con-
spicuous through the crowd that was beginning to surround
him. He replaced Chavigny in the ministry, being unable
not to keep his word or refuse his obligations to those who
had placed him near the queen, but he held him aloof from
his confidence. He confirmed the queen in the inclina-
tion she had to allow the Duchesse d'Aguillon to retain
Havre, and he prevented her from ruining the relatives of
Cardinal Kichelieu by telling her that they, having no pro-
tection but hers, would doubtless be the ones who would
serve her best. He did his duty in sustaining those who
were left of a great man to whom he owed his grandeur.
But, besides this reason, it was shrewd policy, seeing that he
had this troop of courtiers on his shoulders, to make power-
ful friends of those who held offices and possessed the
highest dignities in the kingdom. In this he succeeded so
well that in spite of the opposition of the queen's former
friends, she relinquished the intention she had had of dis-
missing Cardinal Kichelieu's followers, and the hatred she
had seemed to feel so strongly against them in the early
days of her regency. She passed easily to the greatest
gentleness towards them, and, by her authority, they almost
all became her confidants and were well-treated.

1043-1644] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 81

This change, which was in the first place a counsel
received and given from political maxims, readily became
in the queen's soul a Christian principle, which her virtue
and clemency made her value ;; and as she was capable
of being deceived under a semblance of good, it is to be
believed that Cardinal Mazarin, without being generous,
advised her to act generously, intending to weaken the
impulse of her heart towards hatred as well as towards
friendship, so that, becoming indifferent to revenge, she
might be more susceptible to the impressions he wanted to
give her for his own interests. The queen, thinking his
advice to be good and sincere, followed it without objection
and even with some satisfaction, believing that she com-
bined the good of the State with the pleasure of conquering
| herself in her resentment.

The favour of the cardinal was therefore more and more
established in the mind of the queen, and the Vend6me
party became truly alarmed by it. They made every effort
to oppose it and to bring the queen back to her first feelings.
But opposition has this quality, it excites the desire and the
will to resist and combat. / The queen was determined to
defend and maintain her minister by force of reason. She
openly declared that she chose to make use of it, and said
to all those who spoke to her, that his policy was sound in
advising her not to enter upon any plans of vengeance,
unworthy of a Christian and royal soul; and she freely
showed to certain of her servitors that she should be very
glad if they accommodated themselves to her inclination
and will. Then, paying but little attention to the Bishop of
Beauvais, she showed by all her actions that she had given
her entire confidence to Cardinal Mazarin.

He was capable of pleasing by his adroit mind, shrewd
and clever at intrigue, and by a manner and behaviour full

VOL. I. 6

82 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP, in

of gentleness, far removed from the severity of the preced-
ing reign and well-suited to the queen's natural kindnessi lit
has been thought that he was not worthy of her esteem ; but
it is true, nevertheless, that he had laudable qualities which
were fitted to repair the defects that were in him, although,
increased by envy, those defects made him hated and de-
spised by the people and by many honourable men. The
queen had reason to esteem the beauty of his mind, his
capacity, and the signs he gave her of his moderation. She
readily believed that he was virtuous in all things because
he had no apparent vice or evil qualities that she could
then perceive; and although she judged him rather too
favourably, the infinite difference between him and the
Bishop of Beauvais renders the queen praiseworthy for her
discernment^]

The Court being in this state, favour was still unsettled ;
for, to the eyes of the public it did not seem as fixed as it
really was, on account of the great stir which the princes
of Vend6me still made. But this disturbance no longer had
much force except through the unbridled audacity of the
Due de Beaufort, who, young and well-made, with many
friends and a haughty demeanour, seemed to live in the
fashion of favourites. Nor could it be imagined that the
queen would so quickly abandon those whom, up to that
time, she had liked and treated with so many marks of
sincere friendship. Cardinal Mazarin had only just dawned
into her good-will; she gave him, apparently, no more
favourable treatment than she did the Due de Beaufort,
who spent whole days beside her, entertaining her gayly
and with the freedom that smiling fortune inspires in the
favoured. But the need of being served, and the pains the
minister took to show that he was sincere and full of kind-
ness, made the entire conquest of her confidence at all

1643-1644] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 83

moments easy to him. The duke, his competitor, mingled
what he had of good and praiseworthy with many defects;
his youth deprived him of experience, his natural intelli-
gence was very limited, he talked boldly and talked ill ; it
is not surprising, therefore, that so many bad points pro-
duced much that was not advantageous to him.

About this time an affair happened which disclosed the
intrigues of the Court, and was the cause of Cardinal
Mazarin's finding himself, soon after, completely established
in the power and eminence that he desired. It was by a
special providence of God that the very things which mis-
chief-makers tried to use to overturn the Court were actually
what brought it into order, at the cost, however, of a few
worthy persons.

Women are usually the originating causes of the great
convulsions of States, and wars which ruin kingdoms and
empires proceed nearly always from the effects produced by
their beauty or their malice. The Duchesse de Montbazon,
who, in our time, held the first rank for beauty and gallan-
try, being the mother-in-law of the Duchesse de Chevreuse,
belonged with the latter to the Vendome cabal, not so
much out of interest for her daughter-in-law, but because
the Due de Beaufort was her lover. Consequently, both
these ladies were opposed to the Princesse de Conde*, who
liked neither the one nor the other, and who favoured the
cardinal because of her hatred to ChMeauneuf, the Keeper
of the Seals.

Besides these contending interests, there was another very
strong one between Madame de Longueville, daughter of
the Princesse de Conde", and the Duchesse de Montbazon.
This young and beautiful demoiselle de Bourbon had been
forced by the prince her father to marry the Due de Longue-
ville, who was the greatest seigneur, by reason of his vast

84 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. in.

property, whom she could have married. He followed in
precedence the princes of the blood ; but he could not con-
sider himself wholly worthy of her, because of his birth, and
because of his age, and also because he was in love with
Madame de Montbazon. These two ladies, therefore, with
many reasons not to like each other, had strong inclinations
to do each other harm; and the perfect beauty of Madame
de Longueville, her youth, and her natural grandeur led her
often to look down upon her rival with contempt.

It happened one day that, Madame de Montbazon being
at home in her house with a great company, one of her young
ladies found a letter in the room, and picking it up carried
it to her mistress. The letter was in a woman's handwriting
and was tenderly addressed to some man whom she did not
hate. As such matters are usually the talk of all companies
and preferred to all else, the subject of laughter thus afforded
to Madame de Montbazon's company was not neglected.
From gayety they passed to curiosity, from curiosity to
suspicion, and from suspicion they ended by deciding that
the letter had fallen from the pocket of Coligny, who had
just left the room, and who, it was whispered, had a passion
for Madame de Longueville. This princess had a great
reputation for virtue and prudence, although she was sus-
pected of not hating adoration and praise.

Those of Madame de Montbazon's company who first said,
after her, that this letter was from Madame de Longueville,
did not really believe it. It was then only an amusing story
which each told secretly to friends, merely to divert those
who had not heard it. But it was not long in reaching the
ears of the Princesse de Conde*, who, with her proud and
vindictive nature, resented it keenly, and it is impossible to
say to what lengths she might not have earned her wrath
and indignation. Madame de Longueville, who did not feel

1643-1644] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 85

the matter less, but was more self-controlled, thought .it
advisable not to make a stir. The jealousy she felt of
Madame de Montbazon, being proportioned to the love she
had for her husband, did not carry her so far but what she
thought it best to overlook the outrage ; for it was of such
a nature that she desired to smother it rather than make
it the occasion of a solemn vengeance.

The Princess, her mother, was actuated by other great
interests. She knew how to profit by her advantage in
having entered the house of Bourbon ; and being unable to
restrain herself she made this quarrel a State affair. She
came to see the queen and complained loudly of Madame
de Montbazon. The Court was divided. The women, who
had respect for the princess and little esteem for her enemy,
ranged themselves on her side; while nearly all the men
went over to Madame de Montbazon ; as many as fourteen
princes were said to have gone to see her. This glory, with
the pleasure of avenging herself on Madame de Longueville,
who had married the lover she hoped to make her husband
as soon as her present one, who was very old, was dead,
were matters that gave much joy to a malicious woman who
desired no other reputation than that of making a brilliant
appearance and of having many lovers.

But all the abettors of her vanity were soon after com-
pelled to desert her from the fear they had of the young
Due d'Enghien, who, when he heard of the anger of the
princess his mother, showed plainly that he meant to support
the interests of his sister with much warmth. That fear
made them all withdraw quickly, for he alone was worth
the fourteen other princes put together. Among this num-
ber must be excepted, in the matter of esteem, M. de
Nemours who had just married Mademoiselle de Vendome,
an amiable prince and one of great worth.

86 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. IIL

The queen, who had always liked the Princesse de Conde",
was much disposed to favour her; she was mother of the
Due d'Enghien who had just won a battle and was already
making himself feared ; it was necessary to conciliate her in
every way lest the peace of the regency be troubled. These
considerations carried the day against all the rest. The
thing in itself was compelling, and the right on the side of
these persons obliged her to protect the fame of Madame de
Longueville, who, besides her birth, had noble qualities,
whose reputation had never yet been attacked, and who was
very amiable personally.

She was at this time pregnant, and had gone to La Barre,
a country-house near Paris, to escape the first annoyance of
this affair and to rest. The queen went to see her to com-
fort her and promise her protection. After the opening
speeches of civility, the Princesse de Conde* took the queen
into an inner room where mother and daughter threw them-
selves at her feet and asked justice for the outrage Madame
de Montbazon had done to them. This they did with such
feeling and tears that the queen, having done me the honour
to tell me these particulars on her return from Barre, said to
me that the princesses had made her pity them and she had
promised they should be entirely justified. Which was done
with all requisite ceremony, and in a manner that satisfied
them.

The Due de Beaufort, the great supporter of Madame de
Montbazon, was beginning to fall from his first favour, which
had dazzled every one. In spite of his love for Madame de
Montbazon, the queen now favoured the Princesse de Conde"
and Madame de Longueville. He asked for the admiralship ;
it was refused him because Cardinal Mazarin had previously
induced the queen to give it to the Due de Braze", nephew of
Cardinal Kichelieu. The latter was already in possession

1643-1644] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 87

and deserved it, but the office would have been taken from
him had it not been for the cardinal.

This change in the queen's mind was very displeasing to
the opposing cabal, but it keenly affronted the Due de
Beaufort personally. He was amazed to be refused a favour
he had expected and which he openly said the queen had
promised him. His resentment made him resolve to get rid
of the minister, who was beginning to brave him on all
occasions ; and the minister, seeing plainly how these people
wished his downfall, determined to use the anger of the
Princesse de Cond^ to drive them out and ruin them, if he
could.

That which proceeded from the malignity of Madame de
Montbazon, seeking as much to gratify her private passion
as to do harm to those who supported Cardinal Mazarin,
served the cardinal usefully in getting rid of his enemies
and in annihilating the cabals against him. As he had more
intelligence than they, and that sort of cabinet intelligence
which can work so many machines, it was easy for him to
use these petty events to further his great designs. He was
insinuating; he knew how to employ his kindness to his
own advantage; he had the art of charming men and of
making himself beloved by those to whom fate subjected
him ; just as he had that of making himself hated and de-
spised by those who were dependent on him, because he had
the essential defects of great baseness of soul, avarice, and
insincerity. I have heard it said by a person who knew him
intimately in Eome (the Mare'chale d'Estrdes) that when his
fortunes were only moderate he was the most agreeable
man in the world ; which made me conclude that we ought
not to feel surprised if he was able to please a great queen
and two princes like Monsieur and the Prince de Cond^
(to whom he at first deferred in all things), while at the

88 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP, m

same time lie made himself disliked by all France with
many signs of contempt and hatred.

The queen, to pacify these little disturbances, which she
regarded as trifles, ordered that the Duchesse de Montbazon
should go to the Princesse de Conde* and not only make
excuses to her, but also public reparation for what had been
said either by her or by those who were at her house. The
speech she was to make for this purpose was written out in
the little salon at the Louvre on the tablets of Cardinal
Mazarin, who was apparently working to pacify the quarrel
to the satisfaction of both parties. I was present on the
evening that all these important trifles were discussed ; and
I remember that I wondered in my soul at the follies and
the silly preoccupations of that society. I saw the queen in
the large cabinet and the Princesse de Condd, excited and
terrible, with her, making a crime of lese majeste* out of the
affair. Madame de Chevreuse, involved for many reasons in
the quarrel of her mother-in-law, was with the cardinal com-
posing the speech that Madame de Montbazon was to make.
Over every word parleys were held. The cardinal, playing
the go-between, went from one side to the other to settle
their differences, as if this peace were necessary to the wel-
fare of France and to his own in particular. I never saw,
as I think, such complete mummery ; for the thing in itself
was nothing at all ; such things, and worse, happen every day
not only to private persons, princes, and princesses, but to
kings and queens. Crowned heads are, in every way, the
most exposed to the injustice of evil tongues ; the most
reasonable among them endeavour not only not to feel it,
but not to punish it ; they know, and ought to know, that it
is an irremediable evil. There is no place in the world
where tongues are more licentious or minds more unchained
in judging ill and speaking ill of sovereigns than our France.

JC643-1644] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 89

Every one declaims freely against king and ministers, every
one takes upon himself to censure them freely, and no one
thinks it improper. But fate chose that in this particular
affair the license thus practised should have results of the
greatest consequence.

It was finally settled that the criminal duchess should go
the next morning to the princess ; where she was to say that
the talk made about the letter was false, and the invention
of malignant minds ; l and that, for her part, she had never
thought it, knowing too well the virtue of Madame de
Longueville and the respect which she owed to her. This
speech was written out in a little note attached to her fan
in order that she might say it word for word to the princess.
She did this in the haughtiest and proudest manner possible ;
making a grimace which seemed to say, "I scoff at all I
say."

The Princesse de Conde*, after this satisfaction, entreated the
queen to permit that she might never be in the same place
with the Duchesse de Montbazon, which the queen granted
readily. She was glad to do her that kindness, thinking the
matter of no great consequence, though difficult to execute.
It happened, some days later, that Madame de Chevreuse
gave a collation to the queen in Regnard's garden at the end
of the Tuileries. The queen, wishing to take the Princesse
de Conde" with her, assured her that Madame de Montbazon
would not be present because she knew she had taken medi-
cine that morning. On this assurance the princess risked
accompanying her. But when the queen entered the garden
she was told that Madame de Montbazon was already there,

1 I ought to say here that it was known for a certainty that this letter
found in Madame de Montbazon's salon was written to Maulevrier by
a lady [Madame de Tonquerolles, author of Memoirs of no value],
who was very unworthy of being compared to Madame de Longueville.
(Author's note.)

90 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. in.

assuming to do the honours of the collation as mother-in-law
of the lady who gave it.

The queen was much surprised ; she had promised security
to the princess and was greatly embarrassed at the luckless
encounter. The Princesse de Condd made a motion to retire
in order not to trouble the fete ; but the queen retained her,
saying that she herself must remedy the matter inasmuch as
it was on her word that the princess came. To do this with-
out an uproar, she sent to beg Madame de Montbazon to
pretend to be taken ill and to withdraw, in order to relieve
her from the embarrassment in which she found herself.

But that lady, knowing the cause of her little banishment,
would not consent to flee before her enemy, and was stupid
enough to refuse this compliance to one to whom she owed
much more. The queen was offended at such resistance ; she
would not allow the Princesse de Conde" to go away alone, but
she herself, declining the collation and the promenade, re-
turned to the Louvre, much irritated at the little respect
Madame de Montbazon had shown to her. As kings are
usually far above those who offend them, they can easily
avenge themselves. The next day the queen sent a com-
mand to Madame de Montbazon to absent herself from
Court, and to go to one of her country-houses. This she did
at once, to the great regret of her friends, and even to that
of the Due d'Orleans, who, having loved her in former days,
still remembered that fact. He could offer no remedy,
however, for the queen was angry. She had reason to be
so, and her minister thought it expedient, even more for
his own interests than because of the affront offered to
her.

This dismissal was immediately followed by that of the
Due de Beaufort and of the whole troop of " the Importants."
The intimacy he had with the exiled duchess, the anger he

1643-1644] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 91

showed in finding that the cardinal had taken his favour
from him, the hatred that the Prince de Conde", the princess,
and Madame de Longueville felt against the whole cabal, but
above all, the necessity which the cardinal felt to ruin him,
led finally to his disgrace, caused the disaster of his life, and
strangled the great hopes he had conceived, with some rea-
son, of his . future fortunes. He was unlucky enough to be!
unable to accommodate himself to the inclinations of the
queen, who had always shown much friendship and con-
fidence in him. In fact it was that which spoilt him ; wish-
ing to possess that favour for himself alone, he could not
endure to share it with another, to fail towards those he de-
sired to place in the first rank, or to submit himself to the
authority of a foreigner who was no friend to him. Conse-
quently, being allied to those now out of favour, he was
dragged down by them ; and, by his fate and that of others,
he fell, and found himself reduced to a most deplorable ;
condition. __^>

He was suddenly accused of intending to assassinate
Cardinal Mazarin, and the queen became convinced that he
had twice thought of doing so. What I know of my own
knowledge is that certain friends of the Due de Beaufort did
not altogether deny it to me; and it is true that on the
morrow of that day the rumour was strong at Court that an
intention existed to murder Cardinal Mazarin. On this
rumour, a great many persons came to the Louvre ; and the
queen seemed to me very ill-pleased with the Due de Beau-
fort and the whole cabal of " the Importants." She said to
me, when I went up to her and asked the cause of the
tumult,

" You will see before twice twenty-four hours go by how I
avenge myself for the ill-turns these evil friends have done
me."

92 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. in.

As I was then without interests and without passion, and
/was by nature rather discreet, I kept in my own heart, very
secretly, what the queen had done me the honour to tell me,
and waited, very attentive to observe and see the result of
the two days of which the queen had notified me. Never
will the memory of those few words be effaced from my
mind. I saw at that moment by the fire that blazed in the
eyes of the queen, and by the things that actually happened
on the morrow and even the same night, what a royal per-
\ sonage is when angry and able to do whatever she wills.
"That same evening the Due de Beaufort, as he returned
from hunting, met, on entering the Louvre, Madame de
Guise, and Madame de VendOme, his mother, with Madame
de Nemours, his sister, who had been with the queen all
day. They had heard the rumour of assassination and
had seen the emotion on the face of the queen. For this
reason they did all they could to prevent the duke from
going up to her, telling him that his friends were of opinion
that he ought to absent himself for a few days and see what
would happen. But he, not disturbed, continued his way,
and replied to them, what the Due de Guise had said before
he was killed, "They will not dare." He was bold, and
still intoxicated with the belief of his favour. He had seen
the queen in the morning, or on the evening of the preced-
ing day, when she spoke to him with her usual sweetness
and familiarity, so that he never imagined that his fate could
change so readily. He therefore entered the queen's pres-
ence in this perfect security.

He found her in the great cabinet of the Louvre, where
she received him amiably, and asked him a few questions
about the hunt, as if she had no other thought in her mind.
She had learned to dissimulate from the late king, her hus-
band, who had practised that ugly virtue with more per-

1643-1644] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 93

fection than any other prince in the world. But finally,
after fulfilling with fine acting all that policy required of
her, and the cardinal having entered during this suave con-
versation, the queen rose, told the cardinal to follow her,
and went, as if to hold the little council, into her own room.
The Due de Beaufort then, intending to leave by the little
cabinet, found there Guitaut, captain of the queen's guards,
who arrested him and commanded him in the name of the
king and queen to follow him. The prince, without seeming
astonished, looked at him fixedly, and said, " Yes, I am
willing; but it is, I acknowledge, rather strange." Then
turning to Madame de Chevreuse and Madame de Hautefort,
who were in the room and conversing together, he said to
them, " Mesdames, you see that the queen has ordered my
arrest."

No doubt they were much surprised by the affair and
pained by it, for they were friends of his; as for him, I
think that vexation and anger filled his soul completely.
He never imagined that after the service he had rendered
the queen in her misfortunes she could ever resolve on
treating him so ill. He was not a man disillusioned of the
things of this world, nor one who could make the solid judg-
ment that a reasoning mind would have made; he was a
man of intelligence in many things, but strongly attached to
the false glory that goes with favour ; consequently, he was
ill-pleased to find himself deceived and his finest hopes be-
trayed ; but as he was a man of courage, he put a good face
on his misfortune.

The next day, very early, the prisoner was taken to the
forest of Vincennes. They gave him one of the king's valets
to serve him, and a cook. His friends complained that
his own servants were not given to him, but the queen, to
whom I spoke of it at their request, assured me it was not

94 MEMOIES OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. in.

the custom. Commands were sent to M. and Madame de
Vendome, and M. de Mercosur, elder brother of the Due de
Beaufort, and other of " the Importants " to leave Paris in-
stantly, on which they retired to their country-places. M. de
Vendome at first excused himself on the ground of being
ill ; but to hasten his departure and make it more comfort-
able, the queen sent him her own litter.

The downfall of the Due de Beaufort was followed by
that of the Bishop of Beauvais, who could not hold out
against a competitor as powerful as Cardinal Mazarin. The
hat which had been asked for him was countermanded.
He seemed to quit the Court without regret, and went to
find in his diocese of Beauvais a better master than the best
and greatest kings of this world can ever be ; and there he
lived a saintly life for the rest of his days. [This was a mat-
ter of which one cannot speak without blaming the queen,
because she might have made the bishop a cardinal without
keeping him as minister. He was a worthy man, very pious
and very peaceable; so that he could have lived at her
Court beside her, without suspicion that his intrigues would
ever trouble the State. He deserved much from her (she
even owed him a great deal of money), and was very faith-
ful to her. The money, no doubt, was paid, but his fidelity,
which was worth more than the wealth of the Indies, was
very ill rewardedj

Madame de Chevreuse, disgusted at seeing all her friends
exiled and ill-treated and her own influence lessening day
by day, complained to the queen of the little consideration
she showed to her old servants. The queen requested her
not to interfere, but to leave her to govern the State and
choose what minister she pleased and manage her affairs in
her own way. She advised her, as she did me the honour to
tell me, to live pleasantly in France, not to mix herself in

1643-1644] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 95

any intrigue, but to enjoy under her regency the peace she
had never had in the days of the late king. She represented
to her that it was time to find pleasure in retreat and to
regulate her life on thoughts of the other world. She told
her that she promised her her friendship on that condition ;
but, that if she chose to trouble the Court and meddle in
matters in which she forbade her to take part, it would
force her, the queen, to send her away, and that she could
promise her no other favour than that of being the last
person dismissed.

Madame de Chevreuse did not take these remonstrances
and counsels in the spirit that is practised in convents ; she
did not believe that charity and a care for her salvation
were their principal motive. It is not in a Court that such
merchandise is sold in good faith ; nor is it there received
with humility. Thoughts of retreat from the world do not
enter hearts from human motives ; on the contrary, nothing
makes minds so rebellious as preachments against their
grain. This one had precisely that effect ; and as the queen
received no satisfaction from her answer or her conduct, the
displeasure increased on her side, and Madame de Che-
vreuse, aware that the good-will of the queen was lessening
towards her every day, was not surprised when at last she
received an order to go to Tours or to one of her country-
houses.

She left the Court and was several days in her own house ;
but, unable to stay quietly in retreat, she started in disguise,
with Mademoiselle de Chevreuse, her daughter, intending to
go to England, but was taken ill and remained in the island
of Guernsey, where she suffered much misery. From there
she went to Flanders, where the poor Due de Lorraine, ban-
ished as he was, received her most kindly for the second
time, and assisted her much. Cardinal Mazarin said, to

96 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. in.

excuse himself for her dismissal, that she had too much
love for Spain, and wanted so urgently to have peace made
for the advantage of Spaniards that he could never acquire
her friendship.

I have heard it said, by those who knew her intimately
that no one ever understood so well the interests of all
princes, or talked of them better, or had more capacity to
disentangle great affairs; but it never seemed to me from
her conduct that her ideas were as great as her reputation.
As she had intelligence and experience among foreigners it
is to be believed, without saying too much in her favour,
that she may have been capable of giving advice as to the
peace ; but we may also say of her with justice that those
who examined what seemed good in her found many defects.
She was vague in speech, and much occupied by chimeras
which her inclination for intrigue suggested to her. It is
also to be presumed that her judgments were not always
regulated by reason, but that her passions contributed to
form them. The queen and her minister had some cause
therefore to fear her. I heard her say of herself (one day
when I was praising her for having played a part in all the
great affairs which had happened in Europe) that ambition
had never touched her heart, and that pleasure alone had
led her ; that is to say, she had been interested in the affairs
of the world solely in relation to those she loved.

In the person of Madame de Hautefort we shall now
[1644] see the fate of the whole group of "the Importants"
accomplished. The queen had quitted the Louvre, where
her apartment did not please her, and had taken up her
abode in the Palais-Koyal, which Cardinal Eichelieu when
dying had bequeathed to the late king. In the beginning
of her residence there she was very ill with a dreadful jaun-
dice, considered by the doctors to come solely from vexa-

1643-1644J MEMOIKS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 97

tions and sadness. The vexations she received from the
many complaints made against her government troubled
her; the management of public affairs brought her much
embarrassment; and the pain she felt in being forced to
cause unhappiness made so great an impression on her mind
that her body, sharing these sufferings, felt them too much.
Her sadness being dissipated after a while, and her illness
also, she determined to think of nothing but enjoying the
rest she gave herself by laying upon her minister the cares
and the business of the State, believing that henceforth she
would be as happy as she was' powerful.

Madame de Hautefort, who had never been able to con-
quer the hatred she felt for Cardinal Mazarin, was the only
person who now troubled the calm of the queen's soul, not
only because she could not endure the minister, but because
her self-sufficient mind, turning to piety, began to take up
sentiments that made her stern, rather annoying, and too
critical. All that the queen did displeased her ; and as she
still retained something of her old familiarity with her, she
was constantly saying rough things and showing plainly
that she did not approve of her conduct in any way. The
queen could not endure this behaviour, and the cardinal, who
desired the dismissal of the lady, did not fail to embitter the
queen's mind against her. So that her lectures on gener-
osity were considered to be tacit reproaches ; and such con-
duct, lacking all prudence, caused her finally to lose the
good graces of one who, up to that time, had treated her as
a dear friend.

One day in the year 1644, having, as usual, had the
honour of passing the evening with the queen up to mid-
night, we left Madame de Hautefort talking with the
princess in perfect freedom and with the pleasure that her
presence and the favour she did us in allowing us to be

VOL. I. 7

98 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. m.

with, her always gave us. The queen was just about to go
to bed and had only her last prayer to say when we left her
and retired, Mademoiselle de Beaumont, the Commander
de Jars, my sister, and myself. At this moment Madame
de Hautefort, always thinking of doing good, supported
(while they were removing the queen's shoes and stockings)
the application of one of her women who spoke in favour
of an old gentleman, long her servant, who needed some
favour. Madame de Hautefort, not finding the queen very
willing to help him, said, making her meaning plain by
disdainful smiles, that she ought not to forget her old
servants.

The queen, who was waiting for an occasion to dismiss
her, contrary to her usual gentleness took fire at this, and
said, much displeased and very angry, that she was tired
of her reprimands and very much dissatisfied with the
manner in which she behaved to her. As she said those
important words she threw herself into her bed and ordered
her to close the curtains and say no more to her. Madame
de Hautefort, astounded at this thunderbolt, fell upon her
knees and, clasping her hands, called God to witness her
innocence and the sincerity of her intentions, protesting
to the queen that she believed she had never failed in
serving her, or in her duty to her. She went to her room
after that, deeply moved by the incident, and I may say
much afflicted. The next day the queen sent her word
to leave the palace and take with her her sister, Made-
moiselle d'Escars, who had always been in service with the
queen.

I was never more astonished than when I heard in the
morning, at my waking, this history of what had happened
in the short time after we had left Madame de Hautefort
with the queen, which had brought such results upon her.

1643-1644] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 99

It may be said in her defence that her good intentions
made her excusable; but the best things are on a level
with the worst when they are not wisely done, and virtue
taken askew has often caused as much evil as its contrary.
As I respected hers, though I saw its imprudence, I went
to see her in her chamber. She seemed to me fairly strong
under her misfortune if misfortune it is to leave a Court.
After a conversation of an hour, during which she justified
herself to me as best she could, I went to find the queen, to
whom I related the visit I had just paid, excusing the lady
with as much judgment as possible.

The queen, with feeling, did me the honour to say that
I was wrong not to enter into her just reasons for com-
plaint; that I hardly knew Madame de Hautefort and
already my kindness made me excuse her, though I ought
to see very plainly that she was to blame. Besides these
reproaches to me, she said to Beringhen, shortly after, that
she was sorry to see me so quickly engage in friendship
with Madame de Hautefort, having but lately returned
to Court, and that I ought to have no better friend than
herself.

~ This complaint was very kind, coming from a great queen
who certainly, if I may dare to say so, was my best friend
and the one I loved most truly. But as the heart cannot
be seen, the queen was for some time rather cold to me,
and that did me some harm with the minister, who believed
I was against his interests because I seemed to take the
part of a dismissed person who was so opposed to him.
Nevertheless, I had entered no cabal, my intentions were
upright; pity alone had made me act^-J

I did not refrain from returning that evening to Madame
de Hautefort, who, from having wished to seem strong,
had so restrained her grief and weakness within her heart

100 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. in.

that she nearly died of them. Her illness was so violent
that she could not leave her room, in spite of the commands
she had received. We found her Commander de Jars,
Mile, de Beaumont, my sister, and myself in a pitiable
state. Her heart, which had not sighed all day, renouncing
at last the pride with which she strove to fill it, was now
so choked, so wrung, so abandoned to her resentment that
I can truly say I never saw anything like it. She sobbed
in such a manner that it was easy to see she had much
loved the queen, that her dismissal was hard to bear, and
that she had not foreseen it.

We consoled her as best we could; and heartily wished
that the queen was capable of softening, and forgiving her.
But the next day, being rather better, and relieved by two
bleedings which they had to give her during the night, she
left the Palais-Eoyal to the regret of every one. For, as
disgrace without wrong-doing has this property, that it kills
envy in the souls of enemies and moves them readily from
hatred to pity, so it increases friendship in friends who are
sufficiently honourable persons to love generosity and to
excuse faults that result from a virtue so remarkable.

This illustrious unfortunate shut herself up at first in a
convent, where she remained some time. Then she left it
and lived in great retirement, seeing only her nearest friends.
Some years later she married very highly and became a
duchess and mare'chale of France, having wedded M. de
Schomberg, a man sufficiently honourable to prefer merit
to favour. I dared no longer go to see her, because when
I spoke of her to the queen and asked, as a favour, that she
would not think it ill if I went, she answered coldly that
I was free, and could do as I wished. I told her, kissing
her hand, that I should never wish to do anything that dis-
pleased her; and owing all to her and nothing to Madame

1643-1644] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 101

de Hautefort but civility and esteem, I pledged myself not
to see her again. The Commander de Jars, who was much
more her friend than I was, and never failed in heart to
his friends, did as I did, and saw her no more until after
her marriage.

IV.

1644

AT the beginning of the regency the queen had established
a council of conscience, at which were decided all matters
concerning benefices, the choice of bishops and abbe's, and
the distribution of pensions that she wished to give to the
glory of God and the advantage of religion. This council
existed as long as the minister, seeing his authority thwarted,
remained under some restraint; but as soon as he had ac-
quired complete dominion over the queen's mind, the council
of conscience went off in smoke; he wished to dispose as
he pleased, without any contradiction, of the benefices as
of everything else, in order that those to whom the queen
gave them should be friends of his, without caring much
whether they were true servants of God, saying that he
supposed all priests were that.

This council consequently served only to exclude those
he did not wish to favour; and a few years later it was
abolished altogether because Pere Vincent [Saint-Vincent
de Paul] who was at its head, being a man of single mind,
very devout and pious, who had never dreamed of winning
the good graces of the Court people, whose manners and
ways he knew not, was easily made, in spite of the queen's
esteem for him, the ridicule of the Court; for it is almost
impossible that humility, penitence, and gospel simplicity
should accord with the ambition, vanity, and self-interest
that reign there. She who had placed him in that position
would gladly have maintained him. This is why she still

1644-1645] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 103

had several long conversations with him on the scruples
which continued in her mind; but she lacked firmness on
this occasion, and finally let things go as it pleased her
minister, not thinking herself as able as he, or as much so
as she really was in many matters ; which made it easy for
him to persuade her to do what he chose, and to bring her
round, after some resistance, to things he had resolved
\ upon.

I know nevertheless that, in the choice of bishops espe-
cially, she had great pain in yielding, and much more when
she recognized that she had followed his advice too easily
in these important matters, which she did not always do, and
never without privately consulting Pere Vincent, as long
as he lived, or others whom she thought men of worth.
But she was sometimes cruelly deceived by the false virtue
of those who sought the prelacy, for whom the pious persons
on whom she relied to examine them answered perhaps
too lightly. However, in spite of the indifference her min-
ister seemed to show on this subject, God so favoured this
princess that the greater number of those who were raised
to that dignity during her regency did their duty and ful-
filled their functions with exemplary sanctity.

The queen had appointed to the finances the president
de Bailleul, a good man and a judge of great integrity, but
too tame and gentle for that office, where justice is not the
chief necessary quality. It was important for Cardinal
Mazarin to change him for some one less precise but much
harsher than he. He did not wish to turn him out at once,
but he put d'Emery under him as controller-general with
power attached to that office, so that little by little he could
install as superintendent of finances a man who was his
own creature and over whom he had absolute control,
which happened not long after.

104 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. iv.

At the same time the queen, who desired to remove
Chavigny from the council, where the cardinal was not over
pleased to have him exercise the office of secretary of state
for foreign affairs (for which he was very capable and through
which, having the management of the great matters that
came before it, he became necessarily a part of the ministry),
ordered him to resign and sell his office to the Comte de
Brienne, who would then sell the one he held in the king's
household to Duplessis-Gue'ne'gaud. As the queen respected
de Brienne not only for his integrity but also on account of
her friendship for his wife, she gave him two hundred thou-
sand francs towards paying for the office, which was sold to
him for five hundred thousand.

The cardinal having no longer any one in the council to
cause him jealousy, the Comte de Brienne making no diffi-
culty in signing all the despatches they sent to him, nothing
remained but the office of secretary of state for war, then
held by des Noyers who had been dismissed by the late
king. This the minister made him give in commission to
Le Tellier, 1 whom he had known in Italy, and who soon had
the full title by the death of des Noyers. He has since
never lacked offices, having been very important through-
out our period, much liked by the queen, and well regarded
by the minister ; and we shall see him play his part in very
extraordinary matters. In this way the cardinal had the
gratification of filling for himself the offices of the four
secretaries of state, the titular secretaries being merely his
clerks.

After relating thus the state of the Court I think it is
right to say something personal of the queen. She waked
usually between ten and eleven o'clock, on days of devotion
at nine, and she always made a long prayer before calling

1 Michel Le Tellier, father of the Marquis de Louvois.

1644-1645] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 105

those who slept near her. As soon as her waking was
announced her principal officers came to pay their court to
her, and often other persons entered, especially certain
ladies who came to tell her of alms and charities to be done
in Paris, in all France, and even in foreign parts. Her lib-
eralities at all times were great, extended usually to what-
ever concerned piety, and her attention to all claims on her
protection and justice never relaxed.

Men were not excluded from her audiences. During
these early hours she gave them to several, entering into
the business they brought before her according as she
deemed it necessary. The king never missed, nor did Mon-
sieur, coming to see her in the morning; not leaving her
again till they went to bed, except for their meals and their
games, their youth not permitting them to eat with her, as
they did later.

After half an hour's conversation, and those who desired
to speak with her having had their audience, she rose, put
on a dressing-gown, and, after making a second prayer,
ate her breakfast with great appetite. Her breakfast was
always good, for her health was admirable. After her
bouillon she was served with cutlets, sausages, and boiled
bread. Usually she ate a little of all, and dined on no less.
Then she took her chemise, which the king gave her, kissing
her tenderly ; and this custom lasted a long time. After
putting on her petticoat, she took a wrapper and a black
hongreline, and in that state she heard mass very devoutly ;
and that sacred action ended, she returned to her toilet.
At this there was unparalleled pleasure in seeing her do
her hair and dress herself. She was skilful, and her beauti-
ful hands thus employed were the admiration of those who
saw them. She had the handsomest hair in the world, of a
light chestnut, very long and in great quantity, which she

106 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. iv.

preserved for a long time, years having no power to destroy
its beauty. She dressed with care and the choiceness per-
missible to those who desire to look well without luxury,
without gold or silver or paint or any extravagant fashion.
It was nevertheless easy to see, in spite of the modesty of
her clothes, that she could be influenced by a little vanity.

After the death of the late king she ceased to wear rouge,
which increased the whiteness and nicety of her skin.
Instead of diminishing her beauty, this made it the more
esteemed, and public approbation soon obliged all ladies to
follow her example. She took at this time a habit of keep-
ing her room now and then for a day or two to rest, and see
only such persons as were most familiar with her and least
likely to importune her. On other days she readily gave
audience to all who asked for it, whether on general busi-
ness or on private matters. As she had good sense and good
judgment she satisfied all by her answers, given with kind-
ness ; and those who loved her could have wished that she
had always acted by her own ideas as she at first intended,
to avoid the blame she saw given to the late king for aban-
doning his authority to Cardinal Eichelieu, often saying at
that time to her servants that she should never do likewise.
But, unhappily for those who were about her, her resolutions
were weakened by a desire for repose, and by the trouble she
found in the multiplicity of business affairs inseparable from
the government of a great kingdom. In course of time, as
she became more lazy, she learned by experience that God
has not placed kings on thrones to do nothing, but to en-
dure some at least of the miseries which are attached to all
sorts and conditions of life.

The queen did not often dine in public served by her
officers, but nearly always in her little cabinet served by
her women. The king and Monsieur kept her company

1644-1645] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 107

and were seldom absent. After her dinner she retired to
her own room to be a short time alone; often giving an
hour to God in devout reading, which she did in her oratory.
After which she held her "circle," or else she went out,
either to see nuns or pay her devotions ; and on returning
she gave sometime to the princesses and ladies of quality
who came to pay their court to her.

After the Due d'Orle'ans returned to Court he came
daily to see her. The Prince de Conde* and the Due
d'Enghien also came occasionally. But as, at the beginning
of the regency, they were not yet in the little secret council,
as they were later, they retired early. The Due d'Orle'ans
stayed late, and Cardinal Mazarin never missed this fine
evening hour, during which the conversation went on
publicly between the queen, the princes, and the minister.
At this period, therefore, the Court was a very large one.
After this the queen retired to her private rooms. The Due
d'Orle'ans then had a private interview and returned to
the Luxembourg, leaving Cardinal Mazarin alone with the
queen. The minister stayed sometimes an hour, sometimes
more. The doors of the rooms remained open after the
departure of the Due d'Orle'ans, and the Court people, as-
sembled in the little chamber of the Palais-Royal adjoining
the cabinet, remained there talking until the " little council "
was over. When it ended the queen, shortly after, bade
good-night to all who composed what is called the great
world. The crowd of great seigneurs and courtiers remained
in the grand cabinet, and it was there that took place, no
doubt, all that gallantry and passionate intrigues can pro-
duce. A few men, with four or five persons of our sex, had
the honour of remaining with the queen at all hours when
she was in private.

When she had bid good-night, and Cardinal Mazarin had

108 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. rr.

left her, she entered her oratory and remained a full hour
in prayer; after which she came out to supper at eleven
o'clock. Her supper finished, we ate the rest of it, without
order or ceremony, using, for all convenience, her napkin and
the remains of her bread ; and although this meal was ill-
arranged, it was not disagreeable, through the quality of the
persons present, and because of the jests and the conversa-
tion of the queen, who told us good things and laughed
much because the women who served her, and who were not
the most polite in the world, tried to rob us of all they
could to keep it for the morrow. After this feast we fol-
lowed her into her cabinet, where a gay and lively conver-
sation continued till midnight or one o'clock; and then,
after she was undressed, and often when she was in bed and
ready to go to sleep, we left her to do likewise.

We followed this life punctually for several years, even
during the little journeys to Fontainebleau and Saint-
Grermain, until the civil war and the siege of Paris, when
the troubles became so great as to interrupt its system I
mean as regards our attendance, but not as regards the
queen, for she was the most regular person in the world in
all her habits of life. She held a council Mondays and
Thursdays, and on those days she was beset by crowds of
people. She fasted on all appointed days and, in spite of
her appetite, all through Lent. When in Paris, she went
every Saturday to mass at Notre-Dame, and usually spent
the remainder of that day in resting; taking the greatest
pleasure in getting away from the crowd that surrounded
her, but which, towards the last, grew accustomed not to
importune her as much then as on other days. She took
the communion regularly on Sundays and feast-days. On
the evening before the great feasts she went to sleep at the
Val-de-Gra"ce, where she resolved to build a new monastery,

1644-1645] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 109

finer than the one already there, and to add to it a church
worthy of a queen, mother of a great king. She gave this
in charge of Tuboeuf. There she frequently remained several
days, retired from the world, taking pleasure in conversations
with the nuns. She sought the most saintly, accommodating
herself to those who had but medium merit ; but whenever
they reached her esteem she honoured them with friendship.
Good sermons from the sternest preachers were those that
pleased her most. She went sometimes, but rarely, to visit
the prisons disguised as a servant, and, to my knowledge,
she one day followed the Princesse de Conde" for that purpose.
She had a waiting-maid, a pious and devout woman, who
in the first years of her regency was shut up with her every
evening in her oratory. The whole duty of that person was
to inform the queen of the daily needs, public and private,
of the poor, and to receive from her the money to relieve them.
She was always touched by things she thought her duty. I
have seen her during the war which happened later, when
she had no money, sell her diamond ear-rings (which she
had had very curiously made) to give money to those who
were suffering by it.

The queen had not yet renounced all the pleasures she
had formerly liked and which she thought innocent. Her
amusements were all moderate ; she loved nothing ardently.
She once liked balls, but had lost the liking with her youth,
and her long residence at Saint-Germain had accustomed
her to do without such things. But she went to the theatre
half -hidden behind one of us, whom she made to sit forward
in the box, not willing, during her mourning, to appear
publicly in the place she would have occupied in other days.
This amusement was not disagreeable to her. Corneille,
the illustrious poet of our epoch, had enriched the stage
with noble plays, the moral of which could serve as a lesson

110 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. iv.

to correct the unruliness of human passions, and among the
vain and dangerous occupations of the Court this at least
was not among the worst.

The queen was grave and discreet in all her ways of act-
ing and speaking; she was judicious and very secret as to
the confidences her familiar servants ventured to make to
her. She was liberal by her own impulse; and what she
gave she gave with a good grace ; but she often failed to
give for want of reflection, and it was necessary to employ
too much help to obtain her benefits. This defect, which
was not in her heart nor in her will, came from her per-
mitting insensibly her resolutions to be formed by the will
of others whose advice she respected, and her attendants
suffered in consequence. She gave in profusion to certain
persons who had the power to persuade her in their favour ;
persons who by constant application to their own fortune
found means to make it.

She did not like to read, and knew very little ; but she
had intelligence, and an easy, accommodating, and agree-
able mind. Her conversation was serious and free both;
those she esteemed found great charms in her because she
was secret, and always glad to enter into the feelings and
interests of those who opened their hearts to her ; and this
good treatment made a great impression on the souls of
those who loved her. I have spoken elsewhere of her
beauty ; I shall only say here that, being agreeable in per-
son, gentle and polite in her actions, and familiar with
those who had the honour to approach her, she had only to
follow her natural inclinations and show herself as she
really was, to please every one. / But, in spite of her virtuous
inclinations, it was easy for the cardinal, making use of
"reasons of State," to change her feelings and make her
capable of doing harsh things to those she was accustomed

1644-1645] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. Ill

to treat well. In the beginning of her regency she was
much praised for her kindness, and great hopes were founded
on its effects. But when she was seen to dismiss those she
had formerly relied on she was loudly condemned. Many
publications were issued to decry a goodness which the
people had believed in, and with reason. But this belief
was held for some time in the rank of things doubtful by
those who were now not prosperous enough to be content.

At the end of the year from the king's death [May, 1644],
she quitted her deep mourning, which had made her seem
beautiful, and the age of forty, so dreadful to our sex, did
not prevent her from being still agreeable. She had a fresh-
ness and plumpness which placed her in the ranks of the
handsomest women of her kingdom, and we saw her, as time
went on, increase in years without losing these advantages.

At the beginning of this year [1644] preparations were
made for war. The Due d'Orle'ans went to command the
army of Flanders, and the Due d'Enghien [the great Conde*],
that of Germany. We shall see the first conquer several
fortresses, and the second defeat the enemy with glory and
renown.

President Barillon and several others of the principal
parliament leaders were not satisfied because they were less
considered than they hoped to be. On the first occasion
that offered for a mutiny they took it ; they began by com-
plaining that the chancellor quashed in the council all the
decrees of the parliament, and they loudly complained of
their president, who seemed to consent with too much com-
pliance. They assembled and made speeches against the
royal authority, censured all things, and made the Court
apprehensive of coming disorders and quarrels.

The day after this assembly [May 22, 1644], a command
was sent to President Barillon, President Gayant, and others

112 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. iv.

of the cabal to retire. President Barillon was a worthy man
and much respected ; he had served the queen in the parlia-
ment, where he had much influence and reputation. The
" Importants " were his friends ; he and they had been ser-
vitors of the queen, and were so no longer. He was sent to
Pignerol, to the great displeasure of many worthy persons,
and he died there a year later regretted by every one. I
have heard the queen say that during the life of the late
king she had had no servant more faithful than this presi-
dent, but that as soon as she was regent he abandoned her
and disapproved of all her actions.

Sometime after this dismissal, others of the parliament,
rebelling at the rigour they declared had been shown to
their company, held several assemblies. They determined
to see the queen and complain of the wrong she had done
them, and they resolved to go to her without asking for an
audience. At this time, though Monsieur had not yet
started for the army, he was at one of his country-houses,
and Cardinal Mazarin had gone to make a little journey and
meet Cardinal de Valengay, who was coming from Eome
but was forbidden to enter Paris.

The queen was in bed, alone in the Palais-Royal ; I had
the honour of being with her. They came to tell her that
the parliament was coming in a body, on foot, to make re-
monstrances about the affair of President Barillon. It was
easy to see that the object of this assembly was to stir up
the people ; and the persons who first gave notice of their
coining seemed to me frightened. The queen, who had a
firm soul and was not easily startled, showed no uneasiness.
She sent for President de Bailleul, superintendent of
finances, rather liked in his corps ; and, not willing to close
the doors as some advised, she ordered the parliament to be
received under the arcade which separated the two arches.

1644-1645] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE.

There she sent them word by the captain of her guards and
the superintendent that she did not think it right they
should come to her without her permission and without
asking for an audience ; that they must now return whence
they started, for, having taken medicine, she could not see
them.

To their shame they had to do as she commanded; and
the queen laughed at me because these old dotards had
frightened me so much that I advised her to send for the
Mare'chal de Gramont, major of her regiment of guards, so
as to have some defenders if the populace should take part
hi the affair. A few days later an audience was granted on
their demand; and their harangues, which demanded the
release of President Barillon, were not listened to as re-
garded him, but other points of no great weight were
granted. After this first commotion, the parliament re-
mained for some time rather peaceable, ruminating their
designs to infringe on the royal authority, which appeared
a few years later.

When summer weather invited the princes to leave the
pleasures of the Court for the toils of wars, the queen
thought it time to seek cool airs out of Paris. She wished
to pass the great heat at Ruel with the Duchesse d'Aiguillon.
That house is very convenient through its vicinity to Paris,
and very agreeable from the beauty of its gardens and the
number of its streams, which are very natural. The queen
took pleasure in the place, where her enemy Cardinal Riche-
lieu had so long received the adoration of all France. It
was not from that motive, however, that she chose it; she
had too noble a soul to wish to trouble the repose of the
dead by so petty a triumph. It was, on the contrary, to
oblige his niece, the Duchesse d'Aiguillon, and give her
marks of royal protection against the Prince de Conde", with

VOL. I. 8

114 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. iv.

whom she had great differences to settle. It is to be sup-
posed, however, that the queen, acting from generosity, had
a certain joy in finding herself able to do good by her mere
presence to those whom she believed had done her much evil.
She took great pleasure in her evening walks during the
time she was in this delightful place, and in all the innocent
pleasures that its beauty and convenience afforded. But it
pleased the people of Paris to rise against certain taxes
which were about to be placed on houses, so that the king
and herself departed at the end of six weeks in great haste
to pacify them, and the whole Court followed them very
willingly to Paris.

One day during the queen's stay at Euel, as she was driv-
ing in a caleche through the gardens she noticed Voiture,
walking along hi a revery. That man had wit, and by the
charm of his conversation he was the amusement of the
ruelles of those ladies who make it then- boast to receive
the best company. The queen, to please the Princesse de
Conde" who was seated beside her, asked him what he was
thinking of. Voiture, without much reflection, made some
burlesque verses in answer to the queen, which were amus-
ing and bold. She was not offended by the jest ; hi fact, she
thought the verses pretty, and kept them for a long time in
her room. She did me the honour to give them to me after-
wards, and, from the things I have already told about
her life, it is easy to understand them. They were as

follows :

" I 'm thinking how that destiny
After so many unjust ills,
Has justly corne to crown you
With splendour, honours, glory,
But that you were plus heureuse
As you were in other days,
When I '11 not say amoureuse
Though my rhyme demands it

1644-1645] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 115

" I 'm thinking, too, how this poor Love,
Who always lent you arms,
Is banished from your Court
With arrows, bow, and charms ;
And what then will it profit me
To spend my life beside you,
If you can choose to treat so ill
Those who have so well served you.

" I 'm thinking (for we poets
Do think extravagantly)
Of what, in your present mood,
You would do if here before you,
In this place and at this moment,
Came the Duke of Buckingham ;
Which would be the worst dismissed,
The duke or Father Vincent."

I must end this trip to Euel with this trifle, and return to
Paris to resume the gravity and seriousness required for that
great city. One of our kings [Henri III.] has said that the
head of this kingdom was always too big ; that it was full of
humours injurious to the rest of its members, and that a
bleeding now and then was necessary. This time, however,
the presence of the king and queen pacified everything; it
was only a little blaze of straw, which did not in any
way prevent the Court from enjoying in peace the comforts
and pleasures that are ever to be found in that agreeable
region.

Pope Urbain VIII. died in July, 1644. He had held the
Holy See for many years with the reputation of an able
man and a great politician. The Cardinals Barberini, his
nephews, who were protectors of France, were left masters
of the election of his successor. Several partisans of Spain
who sought to be raised to that dignity were opposed, par-
ticularly the Cardinal Pamphilo, who seemed to have more
claim to it than any other; but finally, the king did not

116 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVJLLE. [CHAP. iv.

prevail; the Barberinis served France very ill on this
occasion.

In this same month, the Queen of England, whom her
rebellious people had driven into a little corner of her king-
dom to give birth to her last child, was forced, only seven-
teen days later, to escape to France to avoid what she had to
fear from the hatred of her subjects, who were at open war
with their king, and wished to take her prisoner, perhaps to
begin on her the lack of respect they owed to royalty. This
princess, after being the most fortunate and most opulent of
all the queens of Europe, with three crowns upon her head,
was reduced to such a state that in order to lie-in it was
necessary that our queen should send her Madame Peronne,
her own midwife, and even the slightest articles that were
necessary to her condition.

She had been taken to Oxford by the king her husband,
who left her there; but having reason to fear that his
enemies would besiege her, she started hastily for Exeter,
where she gave birth to her child in the poverty I have just
represented. She was ill with a serious malady which pre-
ceded her pregnancy, and in no state to help her husband.
In this extremity she was forced to take shelter from the
dangers with which her person and health were threatened.
She wished to come to her native country, to drink the
waters at Bourbon and find safety for her life which was
in danger.

In France she was received with joy. The populace,
regarding her as the sister, daughter, and aunt of their
kings, respected her ; the queen was delighted to help her
in her troubles and to soften them as much as she could;
although she had never been well-treated by her, who had,
on the contrary, caused her many griefs while still in France.
For the princess, being supported by the queen-mother [Marie

'(-ft/ rieffia, <^/rta.

1644-1645] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 117

de' Medici] who did not like the queen, did her those little
malicious things which are great ills to those who receive
them at certain times, but are not capable of altering friend-
ship as soon as they are things of the past. The King of
England had contributed much to soften these dislikes ; for
after his marriage he took pleasure in all opportunities of
obliging our queen, particularly in the person of Madame
de Chevreuse during her first exile. So that when the
Queen of England arrived in France, the queen had a fine
occasion to return in person to that afflicted princess all that
she owed to the King of England; and the two princesses
having changed in feeling, the one was truly glad to oblige
the other, and she who was thus well received and well
treated showed the greatest gratitude.

The Queen of England remained at Bourbon three months
endeavouring to recover her health, and our queen offered all
that depended on the king and herself. I had the honour of
approaching this unhappy princess familiarly, and I heard
from her the beginning and end of their misfortunes, for she
did me the honour to relate them to me in that solitary place,
where peace and rest reigned without disturbance. I left her
at Bourbon, where the queen, not contenting herself with the
offers she had made to her, which were only compliments,
sent her all the money necessary for her subsistence, also
great sums which she conveyed to the king her husband.
But as that unhappy prince, who was only too good, was
destined to serve as a formidable warning to all kings of
the weakness of their power, and of the pleasure Fortune
sometimes takes hi playing with crowns and overthrowing
the best-established thrones, taking them and returning
them at her caprice, all was useless to him.

As the memory of King Henri IV. is dear to Frenchmen,
the Queen of England, his granddaughter, was constantly fol-

118 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. iv.

lowed by a great crowd of people running to see her. She
was very ill and much changed ; her misfortunes had given
her such sadness, and her mind was so filled with her sor-
rows, that she wept continually, which shows what the suffer-
ings of soul and body can do, for by nature this princess was
gay and talked pleasantly. But now, in the grievous state
to which she was reduced, she said one day to the great
physician Mayerne, who attended her, that she felt her mind
weakening, and feared that she might become crazy. To which,
as she told me, he answered brusquely, " You need not fear
it, madame, for you are that already." She certainly found
some remedy for her bodily ills in France, her native coun-
try, the air and the baths of which were beneficial to her,
but it needed much time to soften her other woes. I shall
tell elsewhere how. she seemed to us when we saw her at
Court.

The campaign of the Due d' Enghien increased his reputa-
tion to a dazzling glory, and he fought a battle at Fribourg
which will surely hold a great place in history; but as
chance willed that I did not remark its particulars, and
do not find them in my notes, I shall say no more about it.

Elisabeth of France, Queen of Spain, died at the begin-
ning of this whiter, a worthy daughter of Henri le Grand,
and most deserving of the esteem that Europe felt for her.
She was regretted throughout its whole extent, and her
people, who felt a great admiration for her, were afflicted.
The king, her husband, had not always loved her as she
deserved, because he was too gallant, not to say worse. But
before she died he was beginning to recognize her noble
qualities and her capacity. He left her for a time to govern
his kingdom, which she did with much glory, so that he re-
gretted her greatly. I have heard my late mother (who had
the honour to know her on her return from Spain and before

1644-1645] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 119

the princess left France) say that she was beautiful and
agreeable, and glad of the prospect of being queen of so
grand a kingdom. She lived there some years pleasantly.
The Prince of Spain was handsome and well-made, and
they loved each other. It is even said that the king
her father-in-law, finding her beautiful, put off joining
them, with a notion of taking her for himself. I have
since been told that this was only true in that he loved
her as his daughter, and very tenderly. But the prince
her husband, after he became king [Philip IV.] had
so many mistresses of all kinds that, from the jealousy
she had reason to feel, her whole life became a torture
as keen as it was long and sorrowful. She had reason to
complain, but her complaints were always useless, and
though she was as chaste as he was voluptuous, the cus-
toms of Spain were rigorous against her. 1

The queen, wishing to render to the memory of this
illustrious queen, doubly her sister-in-law, all that was due
to her as a daughter of France, ordered, according to custom,
a service to be performed with the magnificence that was
due to so great a princess. On such occasions it often
happens that precedence, which is not well-regulated in
France, produces bitter quarrels. Mademoiselle [daughter
of Gaston, Due d'0rle"ans] as the granddaughter of Henri
IV., claimed that there was much distinction to be made
between herself and the Princesse de Conde". On the
other hand, the Due d'Enghien, wishing to sustain his
rank and the grandeur his birth and glory gave him, de-
manded of the queen that the duchess, his wife, should
follow Mademoiselle on all occasions, declaring that the
latter was only first princess of the blood. The queen,

1 Her beautiful portrait by Rubens will be found in Brantome's " Book
of the Ladies," belonging to these " Historical Memoirs." TB.

120 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. iv.

paying at that time little attention to the interests of
Mademoiselle, without considering that she was then in pos-
session of certain prerogatives which created a difference be-
tween her family and that of Conde", granted what he asked.
Madame de Longueville [the Due d'Enghien's sister] who
had lost her rank by marrying the Due de Longueville and
had taken a patent from the king under which she preserved
it, also wished to use this occasion to re-establish herself
openly in the rights her Bourbon blood gave her ; she there-
fore claimed to follow the Duchesse d'Enghien and do as she
did.

Mademoiselle, being warned of the designs against her,
resolved not to go to the service of her aunt, the Queen
of Spain. When the time came to start, she said she
was ill and could not leave her room. The queen, as
soon as she knew what the difficulty was, felt displeased ;
she sent her orders to go, and complained to the Due
d'Orl^ans. That prince blamed his daughter, and disapproved
of her proceedings, so that Mademoiselle found herself de-
serted, not only by the queen but by her father, whose
grandeur she was sustaining by maintaining her own rank.
But not being able to hold out against such rough attack,
she yielded, against her will, to force, went to Notre-Dame,
and exposed herself to the pretensions of those who, having
the honour to be her relations, wished to equal her. On start-
ing, she had ordered that two persons should bear her train,
but as soon as the Due d'Enghien saw this, he signed to one
of his suite to join the person who was already bearing the
train of his wife, whom he led by the hand. Madame de
Longueville, seeing that Mademoiselle, by seating herself in
the canon's chairs in the choir, intended to put an empty
place between them, pushed the Duchesse d'Enghien, her
sister-in-law, and they both took the seats next to her

1644-1645] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 121

Mademoiselle was keenly affronted by this treatment.
She wept, and made much talk about it ; representing that
she possessed many marks of distinction between herself
and the Princesse de Conde", who was bound on all occa-
sions to give way to her, such, for instance, as having a
dais in the king's house, a mailed coach [carrosse cloue], foot-
men with their hose turned over, and the privilege of giving
the princesses of the blood chairs without backs in her own
house, while she was in an armchair. Her anger was, however,
crushed down by that of the queen against her. It was pro-
posed to put her in a convent for a few days' punishment,
but instead of bearing her trifling disgrace with noble indif-
ference, she had recourse to the Princesse de Conde", or rather,
she accepted the offer the princess made her to heal matters
with the queen, who blamed her extremely. The Due
d'Enghien gave as his reasons that she ought to be satisfied
with the prerogatives she had, without always pretending to
fresh ones, and that the advantages she enjoyed were all she
ought to have. Monsieur bethought himself later that his
daughter was right. He then grew angry, complained to the
queen, and went and sulked for three days at Chambord.
The queen, who had allowed the Due d'Enghien to do what
he did, felt obliged, for the sake of, peace, to relieve him of
all fault and take the blame on herself, so that finally,
with a few excuses on her part, and a few compliments from
the Due d'Enghien, the matter was pacified.

The Queen of England came to Paris soon after this affair,
having been three or four months at Bourbon. The queen
went out of the city to receive her, with the king and the
Due d'Anjou (the actual Monsieur). These two great prin-
cesses embraced with much tenderness and friendship, and
paid each other compliments which were not mere compli-
ments. They took the English queen to lodge in the

122 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. iv.

Louvre, which was then unoccupied ; and for a country-house
they gave her Saint-Germain. As the king's affairs were in
good condition and the wars had not yet ruined the royal
finances, they gave her a pension of ten or twelve thousand
crowns a month, so that in all things she had great reason to
praise the queen.

The Queen of England was much disfigured by the sever-
ity of her illness and her misfortunes, no trace remaining
of her past beauty. Her eyes were fine, her complexion
admirable, and her nose well-shaped. There was some-
thing so agreeable in her face that it made her beloved
by every one, but she was thin and short ; her figure was
even deformed, and her mouth, never handsome naturally,
was now, from the thinness of her face, too large. I have
seen her portraits, done in the days of her beauty, which
show that she was very pleasing ; but as that beauty lasted
but the space of a morning and left her before her midday,
she was accustomed to declare that no woman could be
handsome after twenty-two years of age.

To complete the presentation of her such as I saw her, I
must add that she had infinite wit, and a brilliant mind
which pleased all spectators. She was agreeable in society,
honourable, gentle, and easy ; living with those who had the
honour to approach her without ceremony. Her tempera-
ment inclined her to gaiety ; and even amid her tears, if it
occurred to her to say something amusing, she would stop
them to divert the company. The almost continual suffer-
ing she endured gave her much gravity and contempt for
life, which, to my thinking, made her more solid, more se-
rious, more estimable than she might have been had she
always been happy. She was naturally liberal ; and those
who knew her in prosperity assured us she had exhausted
her wealth in doing good to those she loved

1644-1645] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 123

Her favourite, who, so the public said, had a share in
the misfortunes of England, was a rather worthy man, of
a gentle mind which seemed very narrow and more fitted
for petty things than great ones. He had the fidelity
towards her which ministers usually have; he wanted
money, before all else, to meet his expenses, which were
large. The princess no doubt had too much confidence
in him, but it is true that he did not govern her abso-
lutely ; she often had a will quite contrary to his, which
she maintained as the absolute mistress. She supported
her opinions with strong reasons ; but they were always
accompanied with a charm, a raillery that pleased and
corrected the signs of haughtiness and courage which
she had shown in the principal actions of her life. She
lacked the great and noble knowledge which is acquired
by reading. Her misfortunes had repaired that defect, for
grievous experience had given her capacity. We saw her
in France lose the tottering crown she still wore, lose the
king her husband by a dreadful death, and suffer with
constancy the adversities it pleased God to send her.

The cabinets of kings are stages on which are performed
continually the plays that occupy the minds of the whole
world. Some are simply comic, others are tragic, and their
greatest events are caused by trifles. After speaking of
the horrible effects of Fortune, and the indifference with
which she scoffs at crowned heads, we should consider those
produced by that mad passion of ambition, which is not
content with intrigues of pleasure, but, mingling hi affairs
more serious, never fails to create the greatest disorders
when it masters the hearts of men.

1645 1646.

THE spring of this year having prompted the princes to
go to the army, they started, giving every public sign of the
impatience they felt to toil in war for the glory of France
and the good of the State. The Due d'Orle'ans took com-
mand of the army of Flanders, the Due d'Enghien that of
Germany, while the queen spent a good part of the summer
of this year in Paris. The Due d'Enghien, after having,
as usual, carried alarm and terror into Germany, fought a
battle at Nordlingen [August 3, 1645] which was one of
his finest actions. I lost there two relations of my own:
Lanquetot and Gre'monville, both honourable gentlemen.
Their loss was sore to me, for, besides the relationship, they
were friends to me, which has to be considered. The day
that the news of the winning of this battle came, I was
surprised as I returned from a walk in the Palais-Eoyal
to see a great number of persons talking together in separate
groups. The emotion that the love of country inspires in
all hearts makes itself felt on such occasions. Some of my
acquaintance came up to me to tell me that a battle was
won, but also that a great many men were killed. The first
feeling in all was joy, then followed fear, and each for him-
self seemed already regretting a friend or relative dead.

This consternation in others imparted itself to me, and
though my affection for the queen was sufficiently strong
not to fail in sharing the satisfaction that such great news
would surely give her, the sorrow of families touched me,

1645-1646] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 125

and my feelings were much divided. With these thoughts
I went upstairs. Victories are the delight of sovereigns,;
all the more because they taste their pleasures without
deeply sharing the pain of private persons. It was not
that the queen on such occasions did not seem to have
much humanity and to regret men of merit, but in short,
she was queen.

The cardinal came at once to tell her the particulars of
this great battle. When she saw him she went to meet
him with a smiling, satisfied face. He received her by
saying in a grave tone : " Madame, so many are dead that
your Majesty can scarcely rejoice at this victory." Perhaps
he spoke in this way to win the good graces of those present
and to gain the reputation of being tender to his friends ;
but whether the sentiment was natural to him or whether
he took pains to affect it from policy, he deserves praise for>,
it. A man who exercises virtue, whether it be by his will
or from his inclination, does not fail in being estimable ;
for motives are impenetrable, and it belongs to Him only
who formed the human heart to know it and judge it. The j
cardinal began with the name of the Marechal de Gramont,
taken prisoner, at which he showed much regret ; and then
he read to the queen the list of deaths; it was by that
reading that I learned I had lost my two relatives and
several of my friends whom I regretted much.

While the princes of the blood were gaining almost con-
tinual victories over the enemy [September, 1645] and
France through its good fortune was making itself revered
in all Europe, the queen was meditating how to find money
to continue the war with the same glory as heretofore. She
resolved to go before parliament to get certain edicts passed,
considering that course the qiiickest remedy to apply to the
wants of the State. This remedy, however, is violent and

126 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE [CHAP. v.

injurious to the State itself ; the people always fear it ; and
the parliaments usually seek by humble entreaties to mod-
erate the excessive terms proposed to them. But it some-
times happens that they use this pretext to increase the
authority of their office and to carry resistance far beyond
the public good ; that is to say, they endeavour to take
part in the ministry, when times and occasions give them
the audacity to aim for it.

The parliament of Paris believed that it could find, during
the regency, opportunity to make itself felt; and those of
this assembly who called themselves guardians of the king
desired to make known their power by opposing that of
the regent. During the late reign their authority had been
humbled ; they sought impatiently for means to raise it, and
at last their conduct revealed their intention. It was veiled,
however, by zeal for the public good ; and in this first en-
counter they declared that the sole rule of their sentiments
was the desire to do right. As soon as the queen proposed
to go before parliament, they said that she had not the right
to do so. She laughed at this and said her right was founded
on precedent, for the late queen, Marie de' Medici, had gone
there. She resolved, however, to wait the return of the Due
d'0rle*ans; for though she did not need his presence as a
necessary thing, the prince was then living with her on such
good terms that she thought, with reason, that she could not
show him too much consideration ; and moreover, she was
convinced that the presence of the king's uncle would always
be advantageous to her son's affairs.

The Due d'Orle'ans having arrived, and the day being
fixed to go to parliament, the captain of the Guards, as was
customary, visited all the prisons and took the keys of the
Palais de Justice. The queen rose very early, and dressed
with more care than usual She wore earrings of large dia-

1645-1646] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 127

monds mingled with very large and pear-shaped pearls. On
her bosom she had a cross of the same sort, of great value.
This adornment, with her black veil, made her seem beautiful
and of fine presence, and as such she pleased the whole
assembly. Many gazed at her with admiration; and all
acknowledged that in the gravity and sweetness of her eyes
they recognized the grandeur of her birth and the beauty of
her life and morals.

The companies of the Guards and the Suisses were ordered
to make a hedge, as was customary, along the way to the
Palais de Justice ; and the queen with the king, whose
beauty was then perfect, walked between them with all the
grandeur that accompanies a king of France when he
marches in ceremony ; on which occasion he is followed by
his guards, his Suisses, his light-horse cavalry, his mus-
keteers, and many gentlemen and nobles. Four presidents
came to receive the king and queen at the Sainte-Chapelle,
where their Majesties heard mass. The king, who was still
in tunics, was carried to his lit de justice by his chief equerry.
Mademoiselle de Beaumont, my sister, and I had gone before
to see the arrival of the king and queen, and to be present
at the function, in which we took much interest because the
queen was the chief actress.

When the king was placed, she stationed herself at his
right hand. The Due d'Orle'ans (still called Monsieur) was
below the queen, and the Prince de Conde* beside him.
Then came the dukes and peers and the marshals of France,
according to the rank of their duchies. On the other side
were Cardinal Mazarin and several ecclesiastical peers. At
the feet of the king was the Due de Joyeuse, his grand
chamberlain, reclining on a hassock. Below was the chan-
cellor of France, and beside him on the floor, were the judges
of the courts. On the other side of the chancellor was a

128 MEMOffiS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. v.

bench, on which were seated the Princesse de Cc-nde*, and
the Princesse de Carignan, and farther down were the
queen's maids-of -honour. The four secretaries of State were
below on another bench, opposite to the judges. Madame
de Senece', the king's governess, stood beside the king ; she
seemed to me to be the nearest to the lit de justice. 1 After
this order was fully established, the king saluted the whole
assembly ; and after casting his eyes at the queen as if to
ask her approval, he said aloud : " Messieurs, I have come
here to talk to you of my affairs ; my chancellor will tell
you my will."

He pronounced those few words with a grace that gave
joy to the whole assembly; and the joy was followed by
public acclamation that lasted a long time. When the noise
ceased, the chancellor, in an eloquent discourse, represented
the necessities of the State, the splendid and celebrated
victories we had won over the enemy, the desire the queen
had for peace, and the need of continuing the war vigorously
in order to force the Spaniards to make peace by the con-
tinuation of our conquests; and for these results, he con-
cluded, money was required, for in that lay the whole secret.
The first president [Matthieu Mole", son of the great president
under Henri IV.] praised the queen strongly, exaggerated
the good fortune of France, the wise conduct of the minister,
and the valour of the princes of the blood. In the same
manner he represented with much vigour the necessities of
the people, and made an harangue that was calculated to
please both king and subjects. The advocate-general Talon
[Omer Talon] spoke in a bolder manner ; he represented to
the queen the oppressed people, ruined by past and present
wars, asked mercy for them on his knees in a pathetic and

1 This description tallies very closely with Saint-Simon's famous scene
and diagram of Louis XV.'s first lit de justice under the regency. TR.

1645-1646] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 129

touching manner, and said things much opposed to the
supreme authority of favourites. The parliament thought
that he had spoken well ; but I think that the minister was
not well pleased, for I heard the speaker blamed by the
Court adulators. 1

The queen went to bed immediately on her return, to rest
from this fatigue. After her dinner I found her in bed, and
the cardinal with her. On opening the door of her room I
made a noise; whereupon she asked one of her women,
standing out of respect at a little distance, who it was. She
heard, from myself, that it was I who entered, and she did
me the honour to call me to her and wished me to give my
opinion as to what had taken place that morning in parlia-
ment. She asked me if the king had not pleased me infi-
nitely when he spoke with such grace, and whether I had
noticed his tender action in turning towards her ; and she
specially ordered me to tell her what I thought of the
harangues. As she saw by my answer that I was pretty
well satisfied with the freedom of the advocate-general and
spoke of it with respect, she replied in these noble words,
worthy of a great queen : " You do right to praise him ; I
strongly approve the firmness of his speech, and the warmth
with which he defended the poor people. I esteem him, for
we are always too much flattered ; and yet I think he said
a little too much for a person as well-intentioned as I am,
who desire with all my heart to relieve the people."

The queen and her minister then talked of peace, and she
showed an extreme desire for it ; but according to what the
minister then told her, and I think he spoke the truth, it
was necessary to continue the war to constrain the enemy to

1 In Omer Talon's " Me'moires " he gives an account of this, and shows
how his intervention only added to the bad state of the financial affairs.
FR. ED.

VOL. I. 9

130 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. v.

make peace. In all this conversation, which was long, I
saw nothing in the queen but upright intentions for the good
of the State and the relief of the people ; even the cardinal
seemed to me touched by it.

Other persons came in whose presence changed the topic.
They spoke of Mademoiselle de Eohan, who, to satisfy the
then reigning star, was about to marry Chabot, a gentleman
of good and illustrious family, well-made, and a very worthy
man, but, as I have said elsewhere, very inferior to the
princes whom she might have married. She had great
beauty, much intelligence, and was herself of illustrious
birth; with it all she was very rich, as the heiress of the
house of Eohan allied to that of our kings, and daughter of
that great Due de Eohan so renowned in the history of the
wars of the Huguenots. He had been their leader; and
by his " Memoirs " we learn from himself the events of his
life.

Mademoiselle de Eohan married therefore from inclina-
tion, after having passed her first youth with the reputation
of so great a pride and a virtue so extraordinary that it was
thought she could never be touched by any passion ; but the
love that captured her heart forced her to be more gentle
and less ambitious. Chabot was descended from the ad-
miral of that name; but he was only a simple gentleman,
without property or any establishment, whose sole advantage
was that he had the good fortune to please a girl whom the
Comte de Soissons thought to marry, and who could have
married the Duke of Weimar, as rich in glory as the Caesars
and Alexanders, whom she slighted with many others, among
them the Due de Nemours, the eldest of the princes of the
house of Savoie, who, as I have been told, was handsome
and well-made. This was her last triumph, and the begin-
ning of Chabot was that he profited by the failure of that

1645-1646] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 131

marriage, seeing that the object of the desires of so many
princes appeared to care for no one.

She continued several years in this state; during which
Chabot, under the name of relative and friend, often entered
her room, and, by means of a sister of his who was with her,
acquired her confidence. This familiarity gave him an
opportunity of insinuating himself into her heart ; and when
she perceived it she could no longer drive him out. I do
not doubt that her reason and her pride gave her strange
disquietudes, and often ill-treated the new-comer who
wished to overthrow their empire. That soul so haughty
had doubtless felt all that pride can make a person with so
much ambition suffer. Honour, a powerful phantom which
gives and takes away the reputation of honest men more in
accordance with the clamour of the many than in obedience
to true justice, often prompted her to renounce the friendship
that so touched her.

Nevertheless, I do not know if the sternness of her reflec-
tions was not too great ; for it seems as if that which is in
conformity with God's demands might always be excusable,
and that her greatest fault in the matter was her failure of
respect towards her mother. But that which calls itself the
great world decides in another manner; and though every
one knows how difficult it is to please that world, we all
submit to its tyranny. "We run incessantly after its appro-
bation, our lives are spent in that servitude, and never do
we taste either sweetness or liberty because we have not the
boldness to rise above vulgar opinions. At last, however, in
spite of her combats, the pride of this illustrious heiress was
lowered, and her reason driven off as importunate.

The Duchesse de Eohan, her mother, was strongly opposed
to the marriage, and the relatives of the house of Eohan
were in despair. The friends of the heiress, who had re-

132 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP, v

vered her as a divinity, either from jealousy of Chabot,
whom they regarded as their own equal, or from zeal to
her interests, became her most cruel enemies. They banded
together against her in order to persecute her ; which they
did with an ardour in which there was far more outrage
than love. This harshness which she encountered in the
souls of her false friends, took away from her all the sweet-
ness of her marriage, and made her know by experience that
we are not to seek for true satisfaction in this life, and that
whatever side the spirit of man turns to, it finds nothing but
thorns.

The fine autumn season (October, 1645), so suitable for a
stay at Fontainebleau, induced the queen to go there, where
(not to change our topic) we were to see a marriage far
more dazzling than that of Mademoiselle de Eohan, because
of the rank of the personages, whose birth was royal and sov-
ereign, who had done nothing that was not strictly in order,
but about whom nevertheless there was something extraor-
dinary. The King of Poland, king by election and legiti-
mate heir to the crown of Sweden, wishing to marry, had
inquired, sub rosa, if Mademoiselle wished to be a queen.
She received the proposal with great contempt ; the age of
the king, his gout, and the barbarism of his country made
her refuse him in a manner that showed she did not think
him worthy of her. He then had some thoughts of Made-
moiselle de Guise ; but that princess was in no favour at
Court, because she had friends who were not friends of the
cardinal; and although she had virtue, merit, and some
remains of her great beauty, the marriage could not take
place, for the queen had no inclination for it, and Mademoi-
selle de Guise took no pains to bring it about.

The old king then selected the Princesse Marie [de Gon-
zague], who had been proposed to him with others. This

1645-1646] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 133

princess, daughter of the Duke of Mantua, had been beau-
tiful and agreeable; and was still so, although she had
passed the first years of that youth which has the privilege
of embellishing every woman. Monsieur, the king's brother,
had been in love with her when he was presumptive heir
to the crown. The queen his mother, Marie de' Medici,
who had other designs for him, feared this passion, and sent
the Princesse Marie to Vincennes, where she was for some
time the innocent victim of a laudable affection. But the
usual inconstancy of men and the downfall of Queen
Marie de' Medici, in which the prince was involved, put
an end to this little romance. When a hero gives up his
love at the first unpropitious event it is to be supposed that
the heroine will not be pleased and that the story is no
longer charming. This love, which at first made a great
noise and doubtless an impression on the heart of the Prin-
cesse Marie, had short duration in that of Monsieur. But
the remembrance of it was bitter to her who was forgotten,
and I have heard some friends of the princess say that from
the time of her imprisonment she hated the Due d'Orleans
with irreconcilable hatred.

After this they talked of marrying her to the King of
Poland; but as such propositions do not always succeed
he married instead of her a German princess, who did not
live long, and left him with one daughter. The Duke of
Mantua having died, the Princesse Marie remained in Paris,
leading an easy and pleasant life among her friends. She
thought only of amusing herself and enjoying the pleasure
which the society of honourable people gives. In this agree-
able condition, however, she was not exempt from vexations,
for she had but little means and few husbands at her com-
mand. Her affairs grew at last so bad that, the grand
equerry Cinq-Mars having, during his favour, loved her,

134 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. v.

she listened favourably to him. His passion pleased her;
and through this sentiment it was that he entered upon the
great designs that ruined him, trusting to the hope that he
might become connetable, and that with that rank and the
splendour of his favour he would be worthy of marrying
the daughter of a sovereign. His ruin, which she felt keenly,
was in no way honourable to her; it made her friendship
for him public and caused her much confusion.

After this unfortunate affair, which discredited her and
seemed to have lowered that noble pride which never wholly
abandons persons of her birth, she had reason to believe
she could no longer find happiness in life and that all
things would go against her. But the Princesse de Conde*
had a regard for her; she took up her interests warmly,
and applied herself with care to bring about her marriage
to the King of Poland. She spoke of it to the queen
and to Cardinal Mazarin, and made her son the Due
d'Enghien and all his cabal act in favour of it. She in-
creased a desire in the queen's mind to choose her in pref-
erence to Mademoiselle de Guise ; and the cardinal, on his
part, believed that the Princesse Marie, who had no interests
contrary to his, and who was poor and crushed by ill-fortune,
would feel much gratitude. All these things together made
him send Bregi as ambassador to Poland to negotiate the
marriage. The latter succeeded so well that he made the
king resolve to send ambassadors to ask for her. The Due
d'Orle'ans, who had seen her troubles without pity, now saw
her luck without envy ; if he had any feeling left for her,
hatred had more share in it than love.

The Polish ambassadors were received at Fontainebleau in
the great salon of the queen, whose apartments are very
beautiful. When they entered, the Princesse Marie was
in the circle. She rose, so as not to be present at their

1645-1646] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 135

harangue, and retired to a corner of the room to see them
from a distance. She made use of me to screen herself
from their sight, and by putting me before her prevented the
men who were to be her subjects from perceiving her. After
the ceremony, which only lasted the length of a compli-
ment, these persons, who were all dressed in the French
fashion and did not seem like foreigners, asked where she
was. Some among them, who had already been hi France,
knew her, and pointed her out to the ambassadors. We
saw them turn towards her to salute her, and as I did not
hide her much, in spite of her efforts, one of them, as he
withdrew, made her a profound bow and all the others in
his suite did likewise. At the audience which he had with
her the next day he treated her as Majesty and with the
same respect as if she had already been his queen.

During the winter we beheld the second Polish embassy,
which was fine and worthy of curiosity. It represented
to our minds that ancient magnificence which passed from
the Medes to the Persians, the luxury of which has been
so well depicted by ancient authors. Though the Scythians
have never had the reputation of being given to sensual
habits, their descendants, who, at present, are neighbours
to the Turks, seem to wish in a way to imitate the grandeur
and majesty of the Seraglio. It appears that there still
remain among them certain vestiges of their former bar-
barism; nevertheless, our Frenchmen, instead of scoffing
at them as they proposed to do, were constrained to praise
them and acknowledge frankly, to the advantage of their
nation, that their entry into Paris deserved our admiration.
I saw them pass in the Place Koyale, from the house of
Madame de Yellesavin, who gave us a great collation, where
we found very good company to eat it.

The Palatine of Posnania and the Bishop of Warmy were

136 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. v.

those whom the King of Poland selected to come and marry
the Princesse Marie and bring her to him. They chose to
appear dressed in the fashion of their country, the better to
show their magnificence and the splendour of their stuffs.
The Due d'Elbeuf was appointed by the queen, with a dozen
other persons of quality, to receive them, and the carriages of
the king, the Due d'0rle*ans, and the cardinal were sent for
them. But, to tell the truth, all this seemed wretched in
comparison with what these foreigners brought with them ;
and yet they had traversed all Germany ! They made their
entry into Paris by the Porte Saint-Antoine, with much grav-
ity and the best order in the world.

First we saw pass a company of foot-guards, dressed in red
and yellow, with great jewelled buttons on their coats. They
were commanded by two or three officers, richly clothed and
very well mounted. Their coats were Turkish jackets of
great beauty. Over them they wore a wide mantle with
long sleeves which they allowed to hang negligently down
the sides of their horses. Their jackets were enriched with
buttons of diamonds, rubies, and pearls, and the mantles the
same, which were lined like the jackets.

After this company came another of the same kind com-
manded by officers more richly dressed. Then- jackets and
mantles were the same colour as that of their heiduques,
green and gray. We then saw two other companies on
horseback, who wore the same uniform as those on foot, one
being red and yellow, the other green and gray, except that
these were of richer material, and the caparison of the horses
finer; also they wore more jewels. After them came our
academistes, 1 who, to do honour to the foreign embassy and
dishonour to their own land, had gone to meet it; they

1 Meaning persons from the riding-schools, which were then called
academies ; these were nearly all young seigneurs. FR. ED.

1645-1646] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 137

seemed poor, and their horses also, though they were loaded
with ribbons and feathers of all colours. On this occasion
the French fashion of wearing no adornment but ribbons
appeared mean and ridiculous.

After these companies came many Polish seigneurs, each
with their suite and their liveries, dressed in heavy brocades
of silver and gold. Their stuffs were so rich, so beautiful, and
the colours so vivid, that nothing in the world could be more
pleasing. Diamonds glittered on their jackets; and yet,
amid these riches, it must be owned that their magnificence
had much that was barbaric. They wore no linen; they
never slept in sheets like Europeans, but in skins of fur
with which they wrapped themselves. Under their fur
caps their heads were shaved, all but one little lock at
the top of their heads which they allowed to hang down
behind. As a general thing, they are so fat that they are
sickening to look at ; and in all that concerns their persons
they are dirty. Each Pole had a Frenchman at his side.
These were men of the Court, all well-made, who had gone
to meet them.

This procession covered a long space of ground ; conse-
quently its entry was very fine. There was one chief officer,
who, as a mark of his dignity, wore three cock's-feathers in
his cap, and the decoration of his horse was composed of the
same kind of feathers. Some of their horses were painted
red, and this fashion, though fantastic, was not thought
unpleasing. The Palatine and the Bishop of Warmy came
last ; behind them were the Due d'Elbeuf and his son the
Prince d'Harcourt. The Palatine was handsome in face ; he
had a fine complexion and black eyes, with a good expres-
sion, and he wore his beard rather long and rather thick.
The bishop also had a good expression, and was hi no way
different from the others, not even in the shaved head. After

138 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. v.

them came their coaches, covered with massive silver where
ours have only iron. The horses that drew them were hand-
some and fat and did not seem tired with their journey. In
short, all that we saw was worthy of being shown on parade.
They crossed the whole city in this state ; the populace were
in the streets, the people of quality at their windows. The
king and queen were on a balcony which overlooked the open
space, intending to see them; but they did not have that
pleasure, because it was too late when the procession passed.
They were taken to lodge at the VendSme mansion, which
was empty on account of its master's exile; and there the
king provided for them every day, magnificently.

These foreigners had audience in the grand gallery of the
Palais-Eoyal, which was shortened to one half of its length
by a platform on which the queen stood. The princesses and
duchesses who formed the circle, with the other ladies, were
behind her. It was intended to celebrate the marriage with
all the ceremonies required on such occasions, in order to
show the grandeur of France to this barbaric nation ; but as
precedence was not established, and each prince wished to go
before the others, the plan was stopped by this difficulty.
Great murmuring had arisen on all sides, and so many old
disputes were revived that the queen thought best to smother
the whole thing by having the ceremony in private. They
began with Mademoiselle, in order to exclude all the rest, so
that never was a wedding as solitary when done beneath the
purple and a sceptre.

The day being chosen, the Princesse Marie came very early
in the morning from the hotel de Nevers to the room of
Madame de Bregi, wife of the ambassador of France, who
lodged in the Palais-EoyaL This room was near enough to
the chapel for her to go down easily when all was ready.
I went to see her as she was dressing for this celebrated

1645-1646] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 139

day. I found her looking handsome, and whiter, I thought,
than usual, though she was naturally very much so; but
ladies on great occasions are never satisfied with what
nature gives them. She had a fine figure, and was then of
a reasonable plumpness. She was thirty-three years old.
Her eyes were black and handsome, hair of the same colour,
complexion and teeth beautiful, and the other features of
her face neither handsome nor ugly; but altogether she
had beauty, with the grand air in her person that befits
a queen. She seemed to deserve all she had expected to
have in marrying the Due d'0rle*ans, and all she was really
to have in marrying a king.

Her wedding dress was a body and petticoat of cloth of
silver with silver embroideries. Above this she had in-
tended to wear her Polish royal mantle, which is white,
strewn with great flashes of gold ; but as the marriage was
performed without ceremony the queen was of opinion that
she ought not to wear it. She was left therefore with only
the body and white petticoat, which latter, being in-
tended to be worn underneath, was too short and had not
the dignity required by the occasion. She was decked with
the pearls and diamonds of the crown, which the queen had
put together with her own hands. This adornment accom-
panied a closed crown made of large diamonds and very
large pearls of great price. When she was ready to put the
crown on her head, she doubted if she ought to do so before
the ceremony, and she ordered me to go to the queen and
ask her opinion ; the queen did me the honour to tell me
that as yet she had no right to wear it. When she was
dressed she wished to show herself to the queen, who was
in her own apartment, and she crossed the terrace which
joins the two buildings, with two of her friends, my sister
and myself.

140 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. v.

The Poles, who were in the courtyard below awaiting the
hour for the mass, seeing her, sent up shouts of joy and
gave her many benedictions. She found the queen in her
room, and, after thanking her for the kindness she had
shown her, she addressed the cardinal, who had worthily
served her, and told him she came to show him whether
the crown he had placed upon her head became her. The
queen, who was wearing her great pearls and her mourning
mantle, then led the princess to the chapel through the
great gallery. There was no one present but the king, the
queen, the queen that .was to be, the little Monsieur and
the Due d'Orle'ans. The princess knelt upon the foot-cloth
laid in the centre of the chapel, the king on her right side,
the queen on her left. Monsieur the king's brother, and
the Due d'Oiie'ans, the king's uncle, were behind on their
knees upon the foot-cloth ; consequently the latter was for
this day her inferior. This moment, when she saw herself
raised above that faithless prince, above even the queen
whose subject she had been before her father became sover-
eign, was no doubt most agreeable and glorious to her.

The Bishop of Warmy celebrated the mass and the mar-
riage of his king and queen, whom the Palatine married in
the name of his master. After mass was said they placed
the crown upon her head. It was Madame de Senec^ and
Champagne, the hair-dresser, who performed that office for
her. Besides the Poles, there was no one in the chapel but
the royal personages and those of the blood royal whom I
have just named, except the Mare"chale d'Estre"es, Madame
de Montausier, and Madame de Choisy. The last three
were the intimate friends of the Queen of Poland, and she
had entreated the queen to allow them to be present.
Madame de Bregi, my sister, and I were also present.

As good is usually mingled with evil, all the grandeur of

1645-1646] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 141

the Queen of Poland lost much of its splendour when she
arrived at her capital, and her joy was evaporated by the
presence of the king she had come so far to seek. In
Warsaw she was received with little acclamation, for the
king was old, oppressed with gout and fat, and so ill and
gloomy that he would allow no ceremonies on her arrival.
He did not think her as handsome as her portraits, and
showed no esteem for her person. I heard from the Mare"-
chale de G-ue'briant, who accompanied her by order of
the queen, that this old husband received her in church
seated on a chair from which he did not rise, or even pre-
tend to do so.

When she came beside him she knelt and kissed his hand.
He received her salute without the slightest sign of gentle-
ness or benignity. He looked at her gravely and let her
kiss his hand without saying a word. Then he turned
towards Bregi, the ambassador, who stood beside him, and
said aloud : " Is that the great beauty about which you told
me wonders ? " The Mare"chale de Gue"briant told me that
the princess, who saw nothing in him but rudeness and per^
ceived the disgust he showed for her, was amazed ; and this
bad reception, added to the fatigue of the journey, made her
so ugly that the king had reason to be disgusted. The red
of vexation and shame is not a good rouge for ladies, and
grief takes the fire from their eyes.

The king, ill and gouty, rose from his chair after this
cruelty, and went to the altar, where, without ceasing his
rudeness, he married the queen again; after which they
sat down to assist in singing psalms to the praise of God,
and in thanks to Him for their marriage. The queen was
then taken to the king's palace, where their Polish Majesties
were served at supper with a meat which seemed horrible to
the eyes of the queen and the Mare*chale de Gue"briant, but

142 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. v.

worse a thousand times to their taste. In short, all that they
saw frightened them, and at night the queen, terrified at
the position in which she found herself, said in a low voice
to the marechale that she had better return to France. The
rest of the day was passed in the same way. The king did
not speak to her, and far from showing her any tenderness,
she was obliged, after waiting for him, to go into another
apartment and pass the night alone.

Madame de Gue"briant made complaints, and told certain
of the nation whom she knew among those who had accom-
panied the queen to Poland, that France would be very
ill-pleased if contempt were shown to what she had sent
them. She said she could not return satisfied if she did
not see the king less indifferent to the queen. Her com-
plaints did lessen to some extent the contempt of the king ;
they forced him to treat the princess rather better, and live
with her as his wife. When Madame de Gue*briant left her,
she was growing more contented, and consoling herself with
the magnificent gifts that were sent to her from all parts;
for in that country when the kings marry, their subjects are
accustomed to make the new queen presents of great value.
The hope of growing rich comforted this queen. She
became rich, and the treasure she amassed served her soon
after hi the great trials God sent her, which have made
her illustrious through the proofs she then gave to all
Europe of her firmness and courage. 1

This winter was spent by the Court in perfect tranquillity.
A few little jealousies between Mademoiselle and the Prin-
cesse de Conde* occupied the queen's cabinet, but without
disturbing it, and if the queen had only followed her own

1 On the death of the king, Ladislas III., she married his brother and
successor, Jean Casimir. Her sister, Anne de Gonzague, was the cele-
brated Princess Palatine.

1645-1646] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 143

sentiments, and confined the exercise of her will exclusively
to herself, we could have boasted that our Court was the
most agreeable in the world, and so have enjoyed the
pleasantest life ever tasted by those who have the honour of
approaching great personages.

VI.

1646 1647-

THE queen was personally amiable; she treated her ser-
vants as friends, though she never took enough pains to
do good to those she esteemed and to whom she felt kindly.
Persons of right feeling, though deprived of benefits from
her through the avarice of her minister, had at least this
consolation, that she distinguished them by her esteem, and,
though she did not do them many favours, it was not
because she thought they were unworthy of them. We were
obliged, therefore, to content ourselves with the queen's
kind treatment ; and this pleasure, which contained in itself
enough glory to satisfy a faithful heart, was accompanied
by great peacefulness. Self-interests did not light the
consuming fires of jealousy among us, and our hopes were
always so dead, our ambition so crushed, that we could
say we had seen a Court only in picture, because we saw
it without venturing to form desires about the great in-
terests that usually charm men.

The queen, who, during the lifetime of the late king and
after God had given her children, had talked only of the desire
she felt to have them instructed in all knowledge, was much
embarrassed when it became a question of how it should be
done. There is no one into whose mind it does not come
that princes ought to know more than one thing, and we
must agree that Latin is not the most necessary knowledge.
Politics is the true grammar which they ought to study ; and
history, good in all languages, will show them examples, and

1646-1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 145

give them views by which to govern great kingdoms, to
control by the same laws peoples of different natures, to
maintain them in peace with their neighbours, and make
them feared by their enemies. The evil is that this is
not a science that can be taught to children; it is only
through the experience of some years that these things
can be learned.

For this reason the queen, convinced that Cardinal Mazarin
was the ablest man in Europe, resolved at last to yield up
to him the care of educating the king her son. She left to
him even the choice of the king's governor, and it was the
cardinal who appointed the Marquis de Villeroy to a post so
important. He was the wisest man at Court ; he had com-
manded the armies ; but his great qualification was knowing
better than any one else the interior affairs of the kingdom,
and having both capacity and ideas for matters of State.
The tutor appointed under him was the Abbe* de Beaumont,
a doctor of theology, brought up under Cardinal Kichelieu.
He had integrity, but never having devoted himself to
belles-lettres was little capable of embellishing the mind of
a young prince and of occupying it with the great and inter-
esting things which ought not to be unknown to sovereigns.
The Marquis de Villeroy and the abbe* both replied to those
who made them suggestions, that their conduct was ruled
by the superior, to whom was given superintendence of the
royal education, this being a title newly invented to make
all employments and all offices dependent on the cardinal.
I ought to render one testimony to the truth, namely : that
the Marquis de Villeroy (soon after Due and Mardchal
de France) told me at the time, speaking of the king,
whose natural intelligence he admired, that he was not
master of the way hi which he was being brought up ;
and that if he were listened to, he would not leave so good

VOL. I. 10

146 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. VL

a soil without cultivating it at the time it was most impor-
tant to do so. For that reason he wished his friends to do
him justice and not blame him for doing his duty ilL

It is true that he took pains to present to the king those
who excelled in any science or art ; and he never lost an
occasion to relate to him things that had happened in his
time, and good sayings that he had heard from persons of the
old Court; about which he made reflections that might be
useful to him. The tutor, on the other hand, jealous of his
office, took no pleasure in making the king talk with men
of intellect, for which he might perhaps have acquired a taste
together with a curiosity to learn a thousand things of which
he was ignorant; for the king had a natural desire to be
told things he did not know, and would himself talk only
of things he knew.

He was made to translate the Commentaries of Csesar ; he
learned to dance, to draw, and to ride on horseback ; and he
was very skilful in all exercises of the body, as much so
as a prince who is not to make a profession of it ought to
be. But the queen, who had reserved the supervision she
would naturally have in the education of her son over and
above that she had yielded to her minister, took great care
to maintain in the soul of the young king those sentiments
of virtue, honour, and piety, which she had instilled into
him from infancy; caring more to prevent a young mind
like his from losing the innocence of its morals than to
see him better instructed in those things that are apt to
take from youth a certain timidity which precedes good
judgment and is lost but too soon.

At the beginning of the summer [May, 1646], the queen
made a journey to Compie'gne, whence she went to Amiens
to accompany the Due d'Orle'ans on his way to command
the army in Flanders, to which, soon after, the Due d'En-

1646-1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 147

ghien was added. I stayed in Paris, because, not having
certain advantages in servants, journeys were fatiguing to
rne and very costly. Monsieur delayed a few days later
than the queen in order to prepare himself for war, and I
remember that many of my friends came to bid me adieu
who were killed in that murderous campaign. Valourfso}
vaunted by all nations and practised by ours, noble as it is,*
has its drawbacks; and the bravest who rush with such joy!
to its opportunities, have even more if they return with theiri
legs and arms. It desolates families and robs the Court of
its best, and, to tell the whole truth, though nothing in th6
world is finer than valour, nothing is worse than war.

The queen was away on her journey six weeks. Nothing
extraordinary happened, and her return brought us joy, for
not only was her intimacy with us gentle, agreeable, and
glorious, but we were so accustomed to the honour of seeing
her that Paris, during her absence, seemed to us another
city, and our life another life. In these first years of the
regency the Court was so tranquil and our life so delightful
that it was impossible not to love it. Mademoiselle de
Beaumont, however, noticed an alteration in the queen's face
after her return which threatened her with a little storm.
Though the queen on arriving in Paris told the Princesse
de Conde", who was with her, that she was glad to see us
again, it is certain that this young lady in particular had
had the misfortune to displease the minister. Her conduct
was rather imprudent. She was a daring girl, whose spirit
was high, rough, and ill-regulated. She blamed the govern-
ment with so little caution that she often found spies where
she thought she was safe ; and though these qualities were
mingled with noble sentiments, as the vessel was without a
pilot it was easily wrecked on that sea, although at the
time it was perfectly calm.

148 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. vi.

During the queen's absence she had gone to make a trip
with M. and Mme. de Chavigny, who continued to stand ill
at Court. This intimacy displeased the cardinal, though it
had nothing in itself but what was praiseworthy; but this
displeasure induced the cardinal to request the queen to dis-
miss her. It is not difficult to make great personages dislike
those who talk much and who may therefore be suspected
of rashness. On this pretext her dismissal was asked

f and granted. Though Mademoiselle de Beaumont and I

\ were of different temperaments, and her manner of acting
was the opposite of mine, chance had made us friends; I
loved in her without approving her proceedings her
frankness, her spirit, which was natural, and her sentiments,
which seemed to me to have a certain stoical virtue. But I
made her continual harangues as to her conduct which I did
not like, and as to the vehemence of her decisions. She
always wanted to reform the State, from that false glory
that people give themselves by despising others, and not at
all from any true source of honour and integrity. She was
the only one who knew of the blame I gave her, and as we
were often together Cardinal Mazarin for this reason desired

I that I ' also should be sent away from Court.
""fie judged of my thoughts by the friendship I had for her

; and by the approval I appeared to give to her words. The
queen, who had known me from my childhood, and knew
that my intentions were upright, could not doubt my fidelity.
She was good enough to answer for me to her minister, and
to assure him of the propriety of my conduct without inquir-
ing of me ; so true is it that on all occasions it is best to do
right and not boast of it. This was the cause of my good
fortune that the queen never had any ill-opinion of me ; and
as Cardinal Mazarin was not strongly determined on my
ruin, he let himself be persuaded by her ; and thus I saved

1646-1647] MEMOIES OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 149

myself from a punishment I did not deserve, and a peril I
did not perceive until it had passed.,!

Commands were sent to Mademoiselle de Beaumont not
to see the queen again. I was astonished when, on the eve-
ning of the same day, I heard this news. It was thought
that I should be included and made to feel on this occasion
the consequences of the word " cabal." My friends were
anxious about me, and when I entered the queen's room,
though I myself was far from having any fear, I noticed a
change on their faces ; indifferent persons looked at me from
a distance ; and all, whispering to their neighbours, thought
me lost. One of my friends had the boldness to approach
me and pay me a compliment. I asked him, laughing, the
reason of such serious discourse, and from him I heard of
the dismissal of Mademoiselle de Beaumont. From this, I
comprehended easily all the rest. I was sorry for the mis-
fortune of my friend, but I did not feel, I think, any trouble
in my soul that could shame me. As I was sure of my own
innocence, I went abruptly into- the cabinet where the queen
was ; and in that instant, despite the charms of her presence
and the honour I had in being admitted to it, it crossed my
mind that the benefits we possess at a Court, and even the
favour I had had there, are not true benefits worthy of
esteem ;/ and that perhaps my dismissal, casting me against
my will into solitude, might be to me a veritable happiness ;
for it is not one to live in a place where it is almost impos-
sible to keep one's self from weaknesses which give as much
pain as they do vexation to those who are intelligent enough
to recognize them i

I was not long in this effort to strengthen myself by
reason against my dismissal. The queen, who was afraid
that the affair of Mile, de Beaumont would cause me
uneasiness, took care to remove it. As soon as she saw me

150 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. YI.

she assumed a kindly face and spoke to me amiably ; and
this care, at this moment, showed me the generosity of her
soul, which was quite independent of the sentiments of
others. She was undressing to enter her bath, for it was
very hot weather. As soon as she was in it, I knelt beside
the bathtub to speak with her, and I asked her the reason of
my friend's dismissal She did me the honour to reply
as follows: that she had sent her away because she had
blamed her conduct in a displeasing manner ; that she was
one of those persons who cry out against everything, more
from bad taste than from any good reason they have to
do so ; who disapprove of all they see, and who discern the
actions they pretend to judge solely through their self-
conceit. She added that she wondered how I, who had not
the same sentiments or the same heart, could have friend-
ship with her and be social up to that time with a person so
far from my own nature.

It was time to say no more, and I merely tried to soften
the queen's resentment. I excused my friend on the hasti-
ness of her mind and her impetuous temperament ; and, try-
ing to justify her good intentions, I assured the queen that
the foundation was good, and that in all essential things I
believed she would never fail in fidelity to her service or in
zeal for her interests. At that moment the queen drew her
hand from the water and laid it all wet upon mine, which
she pressed, saying, in tones to be remembered : " You are
too good, Madame de Motteville: I assure you she would
not do as much for you, and I know what I say." Those
words impressed themselves deeply on my soul, and although
they did not make me wholly suspect my friend, because it
would not be just to doubt for so slight a cause, they at least
made me more easily enlightened in the future, so that in
course of time I became altogether undeceived. The hard

1646-1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 151

experience I have had of the fictitious friendship of human
beings has forced me to believe that there is nothing so rare
in this world as probity, or a good heart capable of gratitude
to those who act uprightly. )

Cardinal Mazarin also spoke to me on the subjects of
complaint he thought he had against me; he told me that
my friends did me harm, meaning this exiled one and Com-
mander de Jars. He let me know that Mile, de Beaumont
made me offensive in her way, and that the queen had been
told that when she wanted to point some specially sharp satire
against her she always said, " Madame de Motteville and I
think, or say, or judge thus and so," and to strengthen herself
she brought me into the game about whatever she alleged.

I easily understood the cardinal's mind when he spoke
to me in this manner. I knew very well that no regard
for me led him to make me that confidence ; and that his
only object was to part and disunite us, by letting me know
I must follow that course if I wished to please him. But,
as for truth, I think he did not deceive me, and that
Mile, de Beaumont, who, in spite of her free-thinking mind,
was shrewd and politic, wished to have confederates. I
had often, also, surprised her in ways of acting to insure
that I was not more agreeable to the queen than herself.
I contented myself, however, by replying to the minister
as I had to the queen. I excused her of whom he com-
plained as best I could ; and, separating my conduct from
that of others, I tried to persuade him in my favour. I
did not acquire his good graces in this way; because he
never esteemed those who made it a principle to act
honestly and without treachery; but as he had softness
and benignity and had seen the queen show an inclina-
tion to protect me, I found it easy to cure his mind of
its dislike. My words had enough force to induce him

152 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVELLE. [CHAP. vi.

to leave me in peace, but not enough to produce any good
effects on my fortunes. I own that I did not apply myself
to succeed in that. Moreover, I always had friends whom
he hated, perhaps justly, whose proceedings I was never
willing to blame ; and through this fidelity which we owe
to one another, I have preferred the pleasure of serving
them to that of promoting my own affairs.

The queen had entirely settled down into following the
advice of this minister ; he knew that we were not neces-
sary to her, and he no longer feared that any one could
injure him with her. For this reason he continued with
us on the same terms. As for me, he let me live on with-
out doing me either good or evil; as for those who dis-
pleased him, he found means to dismiss them when they
had given enough cause by their conduct to obtain the
consent of the queen. But the truth must be told that
he used his power with laudable moderation ; he loved the
State, and served the king with a fidelity that deserved
J3ie_ confidence the queen placed in him.

Directly after the death of the Due de Bre*z [killed at
the naval battle of Orbitello] the Prince de Condd attacked
the Duchesse d'Aiguillon, who claimed that the Duchesse
d'Enghien could not inherit from her brother the Due de
Bre"ze\ because she had renounced her inheritance on marry-
ing. At the same time the prince asked of the queen the
vacant admiralty, the government of Brouage, and all its
offices. The admiralty was not granted to him, because
the control of the sea would have made a first prince of
the blood too powerful in France; and the government of
Brouage remained in the hands of one of the Due de Bre"z#s
favourites, named the Comte de Daugnon, who had quietly
taken possession of it against the will of the queen and
minister.

1646-1647] MEMOIES OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 153

On this refusal, the Prince de Conde* left the Court, pre-
tending to grumble, and went to his own estates. The Due
d'Enghien, who was with the army commanded by Monsieur,
wrote to the queen and loudly asserted his claims. He
declared them legitimate, and that he hoped to obtain this
justice from her. I saw the letters that he wrote her.
From their style, it was easy to judge that he did not
mean the blood of France to be useless to him, and that
he had a pride of heart which might one day be trouble-
some to the king. It was said of him that his courage and
his genius led him more to combats than to politics. On
this occasion, however, he observed all the rules of policy,
and, quitting the audacious manner in which he was wont
to wrangle with Monsieur about everything, he began by
humbling himself wholly to him. As they were in the
same army he affected to show him the greatest assiduity,
and even sought with care to win over the Abb^ de la
Eiviere. Their intimacy advanced so much that Monsieur
wrote to the queen and to the cardinal in favour of the
Due d'Enghien, which caused great uneasiness to the min-
ister. The enmity of those two important personages pleased
him much more than their union.

The Prince de Conde* was a great politician. He was
timid and afraid of quarrelling with the Court. He loved
the State, and it was said of him now that his counsels were
always for order and justice. He gave them with much
intelligence, and it was often remarked that he would have
made a great king. The baseness he had shown under his
brother Louis XIII. had been to his shame, but he was now
held to be wise and prudent. As he was beginning to grow
old and knew the evils a prince of the blood must endure
if he revolts against the king, he readily allowed himself to
be persuaded that he must not grumble too long. A few

154 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. vi.

days later he sent to Le Tellier, secretary of State, to lodge
his complaint. Some negotiation took place, the conclusion
of which was that the decision on his claims should be put
off till the end of the campaign, and that meantime they
would all be good friends. Thus the prince's wrath passed
easily away. He returned to Court, was treated well, and
his grievances were apparently calmed after the manner
of great personages, who nearly always hate each other, and
make pretence to the contrary as a matter of parade.

The Princesse de Conde", who was then with the queen,
although she was ambitious and would have liked to see
all the crowns of Europe on the head of her son the Due
d'Enghien, never ceased to protest to the queen that she
had no interests separate from hers, and that her friendship
for her was stronger than her desires for the grandeur of
her son ; so that the queen was apparently half convinced,
and continued to live with her in her usual manner, If,
without being a dupe, she chose to believe what the princess
told her, I make bold to be certain that though the latter
did not feel the friendship she testified to the queen, she
was at least touched by her caresses and the pleasures of
favour. From the Princesse de Condi's nature, I feel sure
she would have been in despair to have her family quarrel
with the Court, as much from fear of losing its delights, as
for the sake of her greater interests.

The queen spent nearly the whole summer at Fontaine-
bleau, and the one spot in the world where the heat is
greatest served as her retreat for the hottest season. The
amusements of the ladies were entirely confined within
the limits of the river Seine. Every day they spent many
hours in the water, or in the forest which they had to pass
through in order to reach it; the dust of the one being
washed off by the other.

1646-1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 155

The king, who was still a child, bathed also, and his
governor, the Marshal de Villeroy, who never left him,
did the same. The queen, and all those who had the
honour to accompany her, usually wore long chemises of
gray linen which trailed on the ground. The king's gov-
ernor wore the same, and modesty was in no wise wounded.
All the men under sixty were at the army ; none remained
with the queen but her officers and a small number of
courtiers attached to the service or the fortunes of the
minister ; otherwise the Court was deserted. I found, never-
theless, that we were a good company, for, to my thinking,
a Court is never more agreeable than when the crowd is
not there.

In Flanders, our army, though large and fine, did not do
great exploits. They besieged Courtray with thirty thousand
men, and the Due de Lorraine with equal numbers camped
in front of us. The two armies were a long time looking
at each other without doing themselves any harm. We
offered battle to the enemy, but they did not accept it.
Only a few little fights took place ; but at last they ventured
to attack our lines, and we took the place [June 30] in
their presence and to their shame.

After this conquest the army went straight to attack
Mardick, which the Due d'Orle'ans had taken the previous
year and which, this year, had been surprised and retaken
by the enemy in three hours. Clanleu, whom the Due
d'Orle'ans had placed there in command, being absent when
the enemy attacked, was blamed for this loss. Though he
was known to be valiant, there was guilt enough in being
imprudent or careless. He was doubly so because this
siege, by which Monsieur undertook to repair his fault, cost
much blood to France, and much treasure. The duke was
blamed for undertaking it ; he had no naval force, and the

156 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. vi.

enemy, having a free exit towards Dunkerque, could enter
as they pleased, so that this paltry little place was able
to defend itself. He excused himself on the score of the
Dutch, who still made a show of being on our side. They
had promised him to be before the place at a certain time
with a number of vessels capable of preventing all com-
munication by the enemy. As they meant in the end to
desert us, they failed to keep this promise in time, and the
duke failed in his project. This was the reason why those
who were in Mardick defended themselves so easily against
our attacks and made the affair so disadvantageous for us.

The enemy made a sortie on the side of the Due
d'Enghien; and that prince, rushing to the support of his
men, was wounded in the face [August 15] by a pot which
was flung from the town, and came near killing him or
putting out his sight. The Comte de Flex, son-in-law of
the Marquise de Senec6, lady-of-honour to the queen, was
killed, a good man who, with many fine qualities, deserved
much. The young Comte de Eoche-Guyon had the same
misfortune ; he was son of the Due de Liancourt, and sole
heir of his father's great wealth, and that of his uncle the
Mare*chal de Schomberg. He had married the heiress of
the house of Lannoi, who was left pregnant of a daughter
to whom she gave birth soon after her husband's death.
This young seigneur was extremely regretted, as much
out of considerations for his father and mother, who were
respected by all good people, as for the charm of his person ;
every one pitied his fate.

The Due de Nemours was wounded in the thigh. He
was an amiable prince and worthy of all esteem. His
wound caused great anxiety to his friends, and many ladies,
so it was secretly told, made vows for his recovery. The
Chevalier de Fiesque, who, his friends declared, had intel-

1646-1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 157

ligence and virtue, was killed ; he was mourned by the
daughter of a great house, who honoured him with a tender
and virtuous love. I know none of the particulars, but,
according to general opinion, it was founded on piety and
virtue, and consequently very remarkable. Soon after his
death, this virtuous young woman, wishing to despise utterly
the grandeurs of the world, left them all, as unworthy to
occupy a place in her soul; she gave herself to God, and
shut herself up in the great convent of the Carmelites,
where she now serves as an example through the life she
leads. The Marquis de The*mines, sole heir of his house,
had the same unfortunate fate as the others. He was son
of the Mare*chale d'Estrdes by her first husband. He showed
much promise and was a great loss to his family.

The day the courier who brought the sad news arrived, all
the rooms at Fontainebleau resounded with cries. These
illustrious dead and wounded were personages of the Court
and among the most distinguished; their relatives and
friends wept for them before the eyes of the queen. She
went to see Madame de Senece" to console her for the loss of
her son-in-law, who left a young widow of extreme virtue,
and little children who lost much in losing him. The queen
endeavoured to soften the bitter sorrow of others by the com-
passion she felt for it, and by the feelings she showed to
them. The Princesse de Condd was for several days in great
anxiety ; her fears led her to believe that they were conceal-
ing from her the danger of her son's wound. To the con-
dolences of those whom she did not think in her interests,
she answered, being sour and proud, by telling them they
were sad because he was not wounded badly enough.

The queen might have consoled herself, for the Due
d'Enghien was dreaded in the matter of the government of
Brouage, and for his claim to the admiralship, which she did

158 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. vi.

not choose to give him. One evening, lying on a little bed
in her cabinet, and talking of him to me with the esteem
which he deserved that she should feel for him, after
expressing a wish for his recovery, she said a thing which
came from the confidence she always had in God : " I believe
that God, to whose providence I confide myself wholly, inas-
much as He has saved him, knows that he will not do me
harm ; and if he should do me any, it will be according to
His orders, and for my good and my salvation." Her
prophecy has been accomplished; the prince, after doing
great services to the king and to her, did her harm. She was
compelled to do the same to him ; but I do not doubt that
she profited by the good use I saw her make of all the
troubles that afterwards come upon her from this source.

The Due d'0rle"ans, at the queen's request, returned to
Fontainebleau, September 1, 1646, where she awaited him to
end their summer together in that agreeable place with the
amusements to be found there. She wished to leave the
Due d'Enghien to his amusements of cannon and sword,
the accompaniments of a warrior who finds his pleasure in
battle and the conquest of cities. The king and queen,
wishing to welcome Monsieur, intended to go out and meet
him, but as their Majesties did not encounter him soon, their
plan ended in only a drive. The cardinal continued on until
he met him, and returned with him a few hours later. This
arrival filled the Court with the Dues de Guise, d'Elbosuf, de
Candale, and a fine troop of men of quality, who were not
sorry to rest from the fatigues of the siege of Mardick in the
loveliest spot in the world.

As soon as the Due d'Enghien found himself in a position
to act alone, he besieged Furnes, September 9, a little town
near Dunkerque, which he took in a few days. This plan,
the precursor of a greater, pleased the minister. He had

1646-1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 159

counselled attacking that place before they went to Mardick,
but the Due d'Orldans would not consent, considering the
enterprise too difficult. The friendship which had seemingly
existed between the two princes during the campaign was
not strong enough to keep their hearts from being filled by
jealousy and self-love. The Due d'Orldans did not see with-
out vexation the project the Due d'Enghien had of taking
Dunkerque, which he had kept secret from him; and the
Due d'Enghien did not find himself sole master of that great
design without feeling the utmost joy. I have heard Com-
minges, who was with him for some time, say that he was
not as much wounded when he found himself alone as he
was when his superior was with him ; and Comminges sus-
pected him of having feigned a greater wound than he had,
in order to let Monsieur go away in the belief that he was
not in a state to undertake anything.

The queen received, September 13, 1646, an ambassador
extraordinary from the Queen of Sweden, who apparently
came only to bring about the alliance of the two crowns.
The person chosen by the Swedish queen for that purpose
was the Comte de La Gardie. He was son of the Conne'table
of Sweden; his grandfather was French, of, it was said,
rather ordinary birth. He was well-made, with a haughty
manner and the air of a favourite. He spoke of his queen in
terms both passionate and respectful, so that he was readily
suspected of greater tenderness than that which he owed her
as a subject. He was betrothed to a cousin-german of the
queen, whom she herself made him marry. Some said that
if she had followed her inclinations she would have taken
him herself, but she conquered them by her reason and the
grandeur of her soul, which could not endure that lowering.
Others said that she was born free-thinking, and that being
able to put herself above custom, she either did not love him,

160 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. vi.

or no longer loved him, when she gave him to another.
However that may be, the man seemed worthy of his luck,
but more fitted to please than to govern.

From the manner hi which he spoke of the queen his mis-
tress, it seemed that she needed no minister, for although
very young she managed all her affairs herself. Besides the
hours she gave to study, she employed many, he told us, in
the care of her kingdom. Judging by the description he
gave of her, she had neither the face, nor the beauty, nor
the inclinations of a lady. Instead of making men die of
love, she made them die of shame and vexation, and was the
cause of the great philosopher Descartes losing his life in
that way because she did not approve of his philosophy. 1
She wrote to the queen, to Monsieur the king's uncle, to the
Due d'Enghien, and to Cardinal Mazarin, letters which I saw
and which were much admired for the gallantry of the
thoughts, the beauty of the style, and the facility with
which she expressed herself in our language, which was
familiar to her, as were many others. At that time all the
heroic virtues were attributed to her ; she was placed on a
par with the most illustrious women of antiquity ; every pen
was employed hi praising her, and it was said that the
highest sciences were to her what the needle and distaff are
to the rest of our sex. Fame is a great talker ; it often likes
to pass the bounds of truth ; but truth has strength ; it does
not long leave a credulous world abandoned to deception.
Some time later it was known that the virtues of this Gothic
queen were only middling ; she had no respect for Christian-
ity, and if she practised its precepts it was more from fancy

1 Christina, Queen of Sweden, daughter of Gustavus Adolphus ; born
1626 ; ascended the throne 1632 ; abdicated in favour of her cousin,
Charles Gustavus, 1664 ; and died in Rome 1689. It was the severe
climate of Sweden that killed Descartes, and not her ill reception of his
philosophy. TR.

1646-1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 161

than feeling. But she was learned to the level of the most
learned man ; and up to this time she had a great reputation
at her Court, among her peoples, and throughout all Europe.

To welcome her ambassador, balls, comedies, great repasts,
and all ordinary amusements were given to him. He adorned
the drive by the canal of Fontainebleau with a coach of
gold and silver embroidery which was made expressly for
his queen. It was drawn by six horses, richly harnessed,
followed by a dozen pages in the Queen of Sweden's livery,
which was yellow and black with silver lace. This image
of another Court, uniting with the reality and beauty of
ours, made the drive by the canal most agreeable.

Shortly after our return from Fontainebleau, the news
arrived of the taking of Dunkerque, which gave great glory
to the Due d'Enghien and much joy to the minister, who
felt that it contributed to his own glory. He believed, with
much reason, that the prosperity of the State was the
foundation of his own good fortune, rather than the magni-
fying of the crown. The Mare*chal de La Meilleraye took
at the same time Porto-Longone in Italy; and this victory,
though little fruitful for France, was an agreeable success
to the cardinal, who liked to triumph and make himself
feared in his own country.

About this time died the illustrious Bassompierre, much
lauded in the last century for his gallantry. He had gone
to Pons to see d'fimery, the neighbour of Bouthillier, father
of Chavigny, to whom the beautiful mansion of Pons be-
longed. There he fell ill of a continued fever, of which
he was cured in a few days ; but on his way back to Court,
his servants found him dead in his bed in the morning, at
an inn where he passed the night, although he had shown
no sign of more illness.

This seigneur, who was valued by Henri IV., favoured

VOL. I 11

162 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. vi.

by Marie de' Medici, and so lauded and admired in the
days of his youth, was no longer regretted in ours. He
still preserved a few remains of his past beauty ; he was
civil, obliging, and liberal ; but the young people could not
endure him ; and I have seen some of them unjust enough
to turn him into ridicule because he liked to invite them
to good cheer when he had not enough dinner for himself
alone. They said he was no longer in the fashion, that he
told too many little stories, and talked too much of himself
and his times. Other defects they put upon him, some of
which I agree to. They accused him, as if it were a great
crime, of liking to please and of being grandiloquent, and
also that, coming from a Court where civility and respect were
the rule towards ladies, he continued to live by the same
principles in one where men thought it shamed them to pay
any civility, and where unbridled ambition and cupidity are
the noblest virtues of the great seigneurs and the most
honest men of our century.

The cold severity during the reign of the late king, and
the temperament of Cardinal Mazarin were among the causes
of the present rudeness; for the latter, besides his avarice,
despised honest women, belles-lettres, and all that con-
tributes to the politeness of men. The sterility of favours,
the desire to obtain them, and the impossibility of doing
so by deserving them, have rendered courtiers incapable of
seeking distinction in noble ways ; but as their ambition
becomes stronger and more ill-regulated, it triumphs over
then- hearts ; and the result is that they cannot endure a
man who has preserved the old customs; in which they
certainly are, to my mind, wrong. The relics of old Mare*-
chal de Bassompierre were worth more than the youth of
some of the most polished men of our day.

The Due d'Enghien, soon after, arrived from the army

1646-1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 163

victorious, and demanded, with apparent humility and real
boldness, the reward of the admiralship. The queen had
already taken that dignity in her own name to keep it for
the king, and Cardinal Mazarin therefore possessed it, with-
out appearing to do so, for several years. The prince made
many propositions which were not received, such as that
of giving him an army for Franch'e-Comte', which he would
afterwards have erected into a sovereignty. This proposal
was evaded, for it recalled the evils which the Dues de Bour-
gogne, princes of the blood and sovereigns, had formerly
done to the kingdom. Other proposals were then made to
him, which he rejected. The Due d'Ole'ans, with his good
intentions and kindliness, showed great interest in main-
taining the peace of the Court ; so that during these secret
negotiations matters did not cease to appear in a good state.
The Due d'Enghien was not strong enough, even if his in-
tentions were worse than they were, to form a party for
himself with the hope of good success. Many persons
were disposed to quarrel, but the queen was still too well
supported, and the victories strengthened her power. The
Due d'Orldans was content, and the cardinal not yet enough
hated ; she had therefore nothing to fear.

While they were thus striving to satisfy the Due d'En-
ghien, who wanted much, and to whom they wished to give
little, the Prince de Conde*, his father, fell ill and died in
three days. His offices and his governments, which were
very considerable, served to pay to his son the debts he
thought were due to him. He was sorry, no doubt, that
he had not pressed for a decision sooner, having boldness
enough to take both advantages; but not having done so,
he had not enough boldness to insist on the two inheri-
tances, which would have made him master of France.
The offers that had been made to him about that of the

164 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. vi.

Due de Bre'ze', his brother-in-law, were of no small impor-
tance. He could then have had Stenay, Jametz, and Cler-
mont; but he refused them, to claim more. In the end
he obtained them because the minister had not the strength
to refuse him when, in the quarrels that afterwards arose,
his power lessened and that of the princes increased.

The Prince de Conde', first prince of the blood and full of
merit, died about midnight on the day after Christmas, 1646 ;
he ended his life as a Christian, and his last hours must
have effaced before God the passions of his youth. Though
his forefathers had been Huguenots, he was always the
inveterate enemy of that religion, and he ever remained
firmly in the true one. Henri IV. had caused him to be
declared presumptive heir to the crown; he was then so
poor that his property was reckoned at ten thousand francs
a year. At his death it was said that he left a million
a year, besides his office as grand-master of the king's house-
hold, and his various governments. His defects equalled
his virtues ; both were considerable. Besides the bad repu-
tation he acquired in his youth, he was avaricious, and
also unlucky in war. That is the mildest term one can
use about a prince who was said not to be valiant. Those
who saw him when young said that he was then handsome ;
but in his last years he was dirty and slovenly, and had
few remains of his good looks. His eyes, which were very
large, were red ; his beard was neglected, and his hair, as
a usual thing, very greasy. He always wore it tucked
behind his ears; in short, he was in no wise agreeable to
look upon.

But, beyond what I have said of him, it should be added
that he always wanted the laws of the State observed, and
that in the councils he invariably protected justice. He
was the scourge of partisans, and had shown on many occa-

1646-1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 165

sions that he had no greater passion than that for equity
and honest reasoning. This same spirit led to order in
his household; he took care himself to send his servants
to mass on Sundays and fete-days, and at Easter he was
accustomed, in order to oblige his people to do their duty
on that sacred day, to give them each a quarter of a crown.
I have heard it said, but I do not know if it is true, that
he sometimes went to the public markets to inquire himself
into the price of provisions, and to know the details of
everything, that he might look after the police, and famil-
iarize himself with the populace; not, perhaps, without
design to please them and attach them to his person.

He was preparing to oppose Cardinal Mazarin, whose
conduct he did not approve. It is to be believed that he
expected that revolts would arise during a long regency,
which would give him an opportunity to attack him. The
queen could not endure that in the councils he should offer
the slightest opposition to the matters there treated; and
therefore he was nearly always an obstacle to the minister's
plans ; which often proceeded from the rectitude and zeal
that prompted him for the good of the State. When dying,
he asked pardon of the minister, and assured him he had
never had any design against him, other than that of doing
his own duty and satisfying his conscience. He gave his
blessing to his children on condition that they lived as
good Catholics. He advised them never to fail in what they
owed to the king, and assured them that the greatest mis-
fortune that could happen to a prince of the blood was
to take sides against his sovereign, because that was losing
a noble station to become the slave of those who served
him. He behaved to the Princesse de Conde* as if he had
loved her all his life ; but the truth is, he never considered
her until he found she could serve his interests at Court,

1G6 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. vi.

where she was better liked than he. She was not in de-
spair at his death; and the illustrious Madame de Ram-
bouillet was much lauded for saying on this occasion that
Madame la princesse had never had but two happy days
with her husband: the day he married her, on account of
the high rank he gave her, and the day he died, through
the liberty he returned to her and the great property he
left her. Besides being well-treated in his will, she had,
as heiress of the great house of the Montmorencys, large
claims upon the estate of her late husband.

On that same Christmas day the Duchesse d'Orle'ans gave
birth to a daughter, a cause of great grief to her husband,
who passionately desired a son ; and as he was kind and
much-loved, Frenchmen desired it for him ; for naturally we
like the race of our kings and desire to see it preserved.
What afflicted Monsieur was joy to the Due d'Enghien, who
thus found himself first prince of the blood, not only by
the death of the prince his father, but because this daughter
did not prevent him from assuming that rank at once, and
enjoying its prerogatives for the rest of his life. The
advantages are great, and can never be lost when once they
are possessed.

The new Prince de Conde" was more fortunate than Mon-
sieur, for he already had a son, who, child as he was, had
borne the holy-water from the king to his grandfather.
The body of the late prince lay in state for three days, and
as he had been very miserly in life, the Court people made
amusing jests on the pain his soul must be feeling in the
other world at such great and useless expense about his
body. The wit of man is always ready to laugh at things
serious. Such examples ought nevertheless to make him
enter more deeply into a sense of the nothingness of the
vanities and grandeurs of this world.

1046-1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 167

The queen went to see the Princesse de Conde", more to
rejoice than condole with her; and she also visited the
whole family, except Madame de Longueville who had been
for some time absent, having gone to Munster to join the
Due de Longueville, whom the queen had sent there at the
beginning of her regency to work for peace.

vn.

1647.

THE chief affairs of the Court, those of which it seemed to
think the most, were amusement and pleasure. I have
already said that the queen loved the theatre, and went there
in secret during the year of her great mourning ; but she now
went publicly. Comedies were played every two days, some-
times Italian, sometimes French ; and quite often there were
assemblies. The preceding year the rector of Saint-Germain,
a severe and pious man, wrote to the queen that she ought not,
in conscience, to permit such amusements. He condemned
the theatre ; particularly Italian comedies, as freer and less
modest. This letter had troubled the soul of the queen, who
did not wish to permit anything against what she owed to
God. Being still uneasy on the subject, she consulted many
persons. Several bishops told her that plays which repre-
sented, as a usual thing, serious histories could not do harm ;
they assured her that the courtiers needed such occupations
to keep them from worse things ; they said that the piety of
kings ought to be different from that of private persons, for
being public personages they should authorize public amuse-
ments when they were of the class of harmless things.
Accordingly the theatre was approved, and the gayety of
Italian comedy saved itself under the wing of serious
plays.

The Court assembled in the evenings in the little salle des
comedies at the Palais-EoyaL The queen sat in a box to
hear more conveniently, and went there by a little staircase
which was not very far from her chamber. She took the

1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 169

king, the cardinal, and sometimes persons to whom she
wished to pay attentions, either for their rank or as a favour.
We received such favours with pleasure, because those who
have the honour to approach kings familiarly can never pre-
vent themselves from regarding these trifles as very impor-
tant things ; all the more because they are counted as such
in public estimation.

When the rector of Saint-Germain saw that the theatre
was fully established, he woke up in good earnest and spoke
against it like a man who wished to do what he thought his
duty. He came to see the queen and maintained to her that
this amusement was a mortal sin and ought not to be per-
mitted. He brought his opinion signed by seven doctors of
the Sorbonne who held the same sentiments. This second
pastoral reprimand caused fresh uneasiness to the queen, who
resolved to send the Abbd de Beaumont, the king's tutor, to
consult in the Sorbonne itself a contrary opinion. It was
declared by ten or twelve doctors that, provided nothing was
said on the stage that could bring scandal or was contrary to
virtuous morals, the theatre was in itself harmless and could
be attended without scruple ; and this was founded on the fact
that the usage of the Church had greatly lessened the apos-
tolic severity which the early Christians observed in the first
centuries. By this means the queen's conscience was set at
rest ; but sorrow to us who have degenerated from the virtue
of our fathers, sorrow to us for thus becoming infirm in zeal
and faithfulness ! The courtiers cried out against the rector
and treated him openly with ridicule. They tried to persuade
the queen that Pere Vincent, a worthy man and one of great
piety, had taken part in this affair in order to work the ruin
of her minister, by condemning things that he had author-
ized. But on several occasions she replied to this that she
did not believe a word of it.

170 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. vn.

Though. I only mention great affairs in passing, as a
woman who cannot know them thoroughly and has often
neglected to notice them at all, it has happened, nevertheless,
that many have been discussed in the cabinet and that I
have applied myself to listen to the actors in them when
they spoke. Those that were of consequence, coming thus to
my knowledge, I shall write down as they may happen to
occur to me, without being careful to know them all, or any
of them to their full extent, because I have no intention of
writing a regular history. But I have taken care to tell only
the truth ; which has always come to me solely from those
who had the chief part in such affairs. The peace which
the Dutch made with Spain, which I shall mention here, is a
proof of what I say ; it is a fragment which I let fall as I go
my way; it will find its place with others of the same
nature, and as it will not be treated with more order or con-
nection than those, it will not have more worth or value.

This people, rebellious against its king, which had caused
such trouble to Philip the Second, which had sated the cruelty
of the Duke of Alba under his yoke, given employment to
the valour of the Duke of Parma, and put to such proof
the virtue of Marguerite and that of the Infanta Clara-
Eugenia this republic, in short, so celebrated for its
power, for the boldness of its enterprise, for its establishment
and the glorious actions done by the Prince of Orange in
governing it, had sustained its rebellion by the assistance of
France ; but this assistance it now resolved to abandon, and
to put itself completely in possession of legitimate liberty.

Liberty had already been offered to the people of Holland,
but the ministers of France, Cardinals Eichelieu and Mazarin,
had always hindered it. The depressed condition of their
real master, whose affairs were in a bad state, now gave them
the means of making peace with him and preserving their

1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 171

usurped States, their conquests, and their supremacy. Ac-
cordingly they made a treaty with him (which was not con-
cluded until some time later) and became peaceably lords of
their country, of which they remained sovereigns, with the
shame of being as bad Christians as they were bad subjects.
To keep some terms with France they delayed signing this
treaty, saying that they wished to bring about a general
peace before they separated entirely from us. Orders were
given to the Comte de Servien, who was at Munster, to go to
Holland and endeavour to break off this particular treaty;
but he did not succeed ; these people, following the example
of all others, thought only of their own interests and the
strengthening of their own grandeur.

D'Estrades, who was envoy to the Prince of Orange from
the king when this arrangement was concluded, told me that
the cupidity of the Princess of Orange was the cause of it ;
and that the Spaniards had won her over during the last
days of her husband's life. He declared that that prince,
who resembled his forefathers in valour and capacity, would
never have consented to the peace had he been hi a state to
follow his feelings of glory and ambition. He was convinced
that the end of the war would be the end of the power of his
house, and that when he no longer made himself feared by
arms his people would despise him. But his maladies, by
diminishing the strength of his body, diminished also his
strength of mind, so that he did not oppose the negotiation
as he would have done had he been in better health. If the
greed of a woman began the work, the avarice of the minis-
ter, in spite of his desire to prevent the peace, concluded it.
D'Estrades, relating to me all the particulars, said that the
princess only allied herself with Spain out of vexation that
Cardinal Mazarin failed to send her some diamond earrings
which he had led her to expect.

172 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. vn.

But not to leave so long the Court of our regent let us
return to the princes, who were the only cause of uneasiness
that the queen now had [January, 1647]. The Prince de
Condd, having become rich and powerful, was regarded by
the whole Court as the one whose friendship or hatred was
to make or mar the fortunes of men.

That victorious air which the battles of Eocroy and Fri-
bourg and the taking of Furnes, Mardick, and Dunkerque had
given him, made him so considered by his masters that most
persons sought his protection rather than that of the Due
d'0rle*ans. That is why his court was so very large ; those
who, through their great establishments, were in a position
to do harm or good having offered him their services and
attached themselves to his interests ; whenever he came to
visit the queen he filled her room with the most distinguished
personages of the kingdom. His favourites, who were the
greater part of the young seigneurs who had followed him in
the army and now shared his grandeur as they did his glory,
were called the petits-maitres, because they belonged to one
who seemed to be the master of them all ; and this new title
effaced that of the importants.

At the end of the Shrovetide [March 2, 1647] Cardinal
Mazarin gave a great fete to the Court, which was very fine
and much praised by adulators, who are to be met with at
all times. It consisted of a comedy, with stage scenery and
music in the Italian fashion, which seemed to us most beau-
tiful, although we had seen others that were wonderful and
regal. He had brought the musicians from Eome with great
trouble, also the machinist, who was a man of much reputa-
tion for such scenery. The dresses were magnificent, and the
whole preparation of the same kind. Worldlings were de-
lighted, the devout murmured ; and those ill-regulated minds
who blame everything that takes place did not fail, as usual,

1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 173

to poison pleasure, because such persons cannot breathe its
atmosphere without vexation and wrath.

This comedy could not be ready till the last days of the
carnival , which caused the cardinal and the Due d'Orle'ans
to urge the queen to let it be played in Lent ; but she, who
kept her will in all that related to her conscience, refused
consent. She even showed some annoyance that the comedy,
which was played on a Saturday for the first time, was
arranged to begin late, because she wished to make her
devotions on the Sunday; and the evening of the days on
which she took the communion she was accustomed to retire
early in order to rise earlier than usual the next morning.
She did not wish to lose the pleasure altogether, for the sake
of him who gave it; but in order not to fail in what she
thought her duty, she left the play in the middle to pray to
God and sup and go to bed at the suitable time, so that
nothing might upset the regularity of her life. Cardinal
Mazarin showed some annoyance at this ; and though the
matter was a mere trifle, with only enough serious foundation
to oblige the queen to do as she did, she was nevertheless
considered to have acted against the feelings of her minister.
And as he showed he was vexed, this little bitterness was a
sweet morsel to a large number of persons. Idle tongues
and ears were busy with it for days ; and even the gravest
persons felt moments of joy which were to them delectable.

The Mare*chal de Gramont, eloquent, witty, Gascon, and
bold hi flattery, set this comedy among the wonders of the
world ; the Due de Mortemart, great amateur of music and
great courtier, seemed enchanted with the mere name of the
lowest actors ; and the pair, in order to please the minister,
made such exaggerations when they talked of it that they
became wearisome at last to persons who were moderate in
speech.

174 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. vii.

The next evening the celebrated comedy was played again,
and the queen saw the whole of it. On Monday there was a
ball, given on the stage of a hall arranged with scenery,
which could be moved in a moment ; it was really the finest
thing ever seen. The hall was gilded and lined with great
frames hi which were pictures painted in perspective ; a most
agreeable sight to those who occupied the amphitheatre.
This hall was also furnished with seats and hassocks placed
hi niches around it, and did not look as if the hand of man
had anything to do with it. At one end was a throne raised
about four or five steps, on which were cushions, chairs with
arms, and a dais overhead of silver and gold cloth, with
fringes worthy of such furniture. Four great crystal chan-
deliers lighted this hall, which seemed a veritable fairyland,
representing in our day the era of Urganda and Armida,

The king, to show civility to the Prince of Wales, would
not take his own seat, but gave it to Mademoiselle, who
was decked that evening by the queen's own hands with
the crown jewels, pearls and diamonds, fastened with little
cherry-coloured and black and white ribbons. This adorn-
ment was beautiful and pleasing, particularly the bouquet
she wore upon her head. It seemed as if those great
diamonds and pearls were strewn among the flowers, and
that all the beauty and wealth of nature were gathered
there expressly to deck her. From this bouquet issued three
feathers, of the three colours of the ribbons, which drooped to
her throat, and she made us see on this occasion that a hand-
some person becomes handsomer for being decorated. The
king wore a suit of black satin embroidered with silver and
gold, through which the black appeared only enough to set
off the embroidery. Cherry-coloured plumes and ribbons
completed his adornment, but the beautiful features of his
face, the sweetness of his eyes joined to their gravity, the

1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 175

whiteness and brilliancy of his complexion, together with his
hair, which was then very blond, adorned him more than his
clothes. He danced perfectly ; and though he was then only
eight years old, it could be said of him that he was the one
of the whole company who had the most distinguished air
and assuredly the most beauty.

The Prince of Wales received much praise and pleased
everybody. But the one whose suit obtained the most
approbation was the Vidame d' Amiens, son-in-law of the
Mare'chal de Villeroy. He wore an embroidery of gold and
pearls, the workmanship of which was so delicate that there
was nothing of the common order in it ; it seemed to disdain
jewels as if they were something too vulgar.

The Duchesse de Montbazon came decked with pearls, and
cherry-coloured feathers on her head, and though she was
then more than forty years of age, she was still in dazzling
beauty, showing that a fine autumn is always beautiful.
Mademoiselle de Guise was present, no longer young, though
much more so than the Duchesse de Montbazon. Her
beauty, her kind manner and her modesty, with pearls and a
black gown, made her admired by all who saw her. All the
other persons of an age to adorn a ball did their best to
please the spectators. The queen's maids-of-honour, Pons,
Querchy, and Saint-Me'grin, tried to make a few natural con-
quests by the care they took to embellish themselves in all
sorts of ways. Happy they if, among so many lovers, they
had been able to catch husbands according to their ambition,
and the unruliness of their desires.

The comedy was again represented on the following day,
the Mardi gras. It ended very late and we had had no sup-
per. The cardinal offered us his, and we went to eat it with
him, Madame de Bregi, Mademoiselle de Beaumont, my
sister, and I (for Mile, de Beaumont was now restored to the

176 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. vn.

good graces of the queen). This was the only meal he ever
gave us in his life, and it was not much. He treated us with
great indifference and coldness. He despised women and
did not think them worthy of esteem, unless, by intrigues or
malice, they found means to obtain his confidence. We left
him very ill-pleased at not being better received, particularly
Madame de Bregi, who being a handsome woman made a
profession of being so, and even had the audacity to pretend
that the great minister had a certain feeling of tenderness
for her. For this reason she felt his coldness more than the
rest of us, who were quite resolved to put up with it and
well accustomed to his disdainful manners.

The Prince de Conde', seeing the month of March advanc-
ing, began to think of his journey to Catalonia. Before he
started [March 20, 1647] he had a short emotion which
troubled the peace of his heart. He had let himself be over-
come by the beauty of Mademoiselle de Toussy, and this
weakness slipped into his heart at a time when, in spite of
his youth, he was beginning to profess loudly a contempt for
the mad passion of love, and a resolve to give himself
entirely to that of glory. He played the braggart against
gallantry, often declaring that he renounced it, and even did
so at this ball, though it was a place where his presence
appeared to advantage. He was not handsome ; his face was
ugly in shape ; his eyes were blue and keen, and there was
much pride in his glance. His nose was aquiline, his mouth
extremely disagreeable, because it was large and his teeth
projected too much ; but in his whole countenance there was
something grand and haughty, with a certain resemblance to
an eagle. He was not very tall, but his figure in itself was
perfect. He danced well and had an agreeable air; his
bearing was lofty and his head fine, its arrangement with
curls and powder being required to make it appear so. But

1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 177

even at this time he neglected his person much ; and in the
deep mourning which he wore for his late father he was not
pleasing, for, his face being long and thin, this negligence was
the more disadvantageous to him.

The Prince of Orange died about this time. His death,
for the reasons I have given, was a loss to France, and
his merits having made him respected throughout Europe,
he was much regretted. The unfortunate King of Eng-
land, who had honoured him with his alliance, was now
rinding himself on the verge of his fatal destiny. He was
betrayed by the Scotch, to whom he had gone in search of
fidelity and troops to avenge him on the parliamentarians ;
but that barbarous people delivered him to his enemies. I
heard it said that they asked him if he was not content to
go back to England, and he answered that it was more
just he should go to those who had bought him than stay
with those who had sold him. He went, only to be kept a
prisoner in the Isle of Wight, where he stayed till his death.
Many proposals were made to him by the parliament and
his subjects. But, whether he found them contrary to his
conscience, or lacked ability to choose those that were suit-
able (as was said by persons capable of judging), he did not
accept any, and was reserved by God's decree for the most
cruel and amazing end a king can come to.

In France we no longer have, thank God, religious wars ;
there are now only contests frequently arising among our
learned men on questions of theology. There was one on
Grace which seemed to have been ended by a decision of
Pope Urbain VIII., against which none of the doctors de-
claimed; but in their hearts both sides were still of the
same sentiments made public by their writings. Pere Des
Mares, of the congregation of the priests of the Oratory, who
preached the Lent of this year with much zeal and wholly

TOL. I. 12

178 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. vn.

according to the Gospel as to morals, was admired by people
of the highest quality, the finest minds, and even those who
were most retired from the world. But, as to doctrine, he
was thought to be of the opinion of Jansenius, Bishop of
Ypres in Flanders, who had written a book in the spirit of
Saint Augustin on this great mystery. And, as it was diffi-
cult for him, as for other preachers, to treat this matter so
delicately that no word could be found to cavil at, nothing was
talked of in Paris but " the Jansenists " and " the Molinists."
This question, as to which there was no one who did not
take an interest for the satisfaction of his conscience, not
only divided the schools, but social life [les ruelles], and the
city as well as the Court. Those who were called Molinists
(from Molina, a learned Spanish priest) had on their side the
censure of five propositions in the book of Jansenius ; and
those called Jansenists maintained that the five condemned
propositions were not in that book. This defence, their
wholly exemplary lives, the austerity of which they made
profession, drew to them the esteem of a great number of
persons of solid piety ; and they would have been esteemed
by every one if they had avoided the blame that may justly
be cast upon them of having taught women (in French so
beautiful that it made the sex quit their novels) those great
difficulties on which it is forbidden to write, together with
questions of conscience about which none but confessors
should be instructed. It has cost us so much to have learned
the knowledge of good and evil that we ought to agree that
it is better to be ignorant of such matters than to learn
them ; especially for us women who are accused of being the
cause of all evil. We see such great men, with all their in-
tellect and all their learning, ruin themselves in heresies
which they think they draw from Holy Scripture ! I cannot
withhold myself from saying that no Christian should decide

1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 179

for himself that which is environed by so much obscurity ;
nor should he enter into the details of mysteries which the
councils themselves cannot elucidate, and which they com-
mand us to believe surrounded by all their darkness. God
himself having chosen, no doubt, to hide from us this knowl-
edge and enclose it in its own immensity, we must hope that
in heaven souls, separated from their earthly natures, will
learn its wonders and see the causes for which it has pleased
Him to leave them ignorant of the deep abysses of Grace,
and the manner in which it operates in the soul for our
salvation.

The great Saint Augustin, whose ideas are revered in the
Church, and whose writings seem to have produced the
opinions of those who are called Jansenists, has never clearly
explained these wonderful secrets. The saint himself could
not comprehend them ; he speaks of their Author with
admiration, and confesses humbly that the judgments of
God are inscrutable, and His ways past discovering. The
most learned know nothing when it is a question of under-
standing them; and I believe that this great teacher of
grace, teacher of all Christians, and of the Jansenists in
particular, would have willingly said, when in this world,
with the Italian poet,

" Ampi volumi immeiisi
De le tue glorie eterne
Son le sfere superne ;
E con dorata, e lucida favella
Di te parla ogni stella.
lo lo so, Signer, ma non penetro i sensi,
Ch' a la lingua del mondo avvezzo essendo
La favella del ciel non ben comprendo." *

1 The celestial spheres are ample and vast volumes of Thy eternal
glories ; and each star speaks of Thee in golden words. I know it, Lord ;
but their meaning I cannot penetrate, because, being used to the language
of earth, I cannot comprehend the language of heaven.

180 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. VH.

Whenever I hear men speaking of God in relation to
the hidden mysteries, I am delighted not to be obliged to
know more than my Pater, my Credo, and the Command-
ments of God. As to the matter of which I have been
speaking, I know that it suffices me to believe we have
nothing but that which we have received; that I can do
no good without the grace of God ; and that he has given
me my free will.

The queen at once took the side of the Jesuits [Molinists],
who had the advantage of governing the king's conscience.
She thought herself obliged to oppose opinions whi'ch were
considered novelties and might disturb the Church. On
the other hand, one had reason to be surprised in seeing
those who appeared to maintain the orthodox opinions allow-
ing the publication, under their name, of maxims quite con-
trary to the Gospel touching morality, without sufficiently
rebuking the authors. The queen, zealous for good, was
often led to say with pain, not intending to lay it on any
special person, that she knew no perfect virtue, nor any
piety without much weakness.

Early in the year the Due d'Orle'ans started for Bourbon
to take the waters, and Madame followed him. They went
there for health in order to give a prince to France, a grand-
son of Henri IV., which Monsieur passionately desired.
The princess never made long journeys, whether from
crotchets or real illness ; she seldom went out, declaring that
the least agitation made her faint. I have sometimes heard
Monsieur laughing about her, and telling the queen how she
took the communion in her bed rather than go to the chapel
which was close by, without her having, apparently, any real
illness. When she came to see the queen, once in two years
or so, she had herself carried in a chair, but with such fuss
and affectation that her arrival at the Palais-Eoyal was

1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 181

celebrated as if it were a little miracle. Often she would
get only three steps from the Luxembourg, when she had
to be taken back, being attacked by some of the many ills
she said she felt, but which never appeared. She ate bread
which she carried in a provision pocket ; and Russia leather
boots were her mortal enemies. She was sister to the Due
de Lorraine, and Monsieur had married her during his exile
from France, without the consent of the late king. When
Nancy was taken she had to fly, disguised as a page, in
the bottom of a cart; and was forced to pay with great
distresses for the honour she had gained in marrying
Monsieur.

That prince, on his side, being then heir presumptive to
the crown, though obliged to leave her in Flanders when he
returned to France, remained inviolably faithful to her. As
he showed no firmness for others who had attached them-
selves to him, King Louis XIII., his brother, urged him, on
his return to France, to consent to the rupture of the mar-
riage ; but this he would never do, and he brought his wife
to France as soon as the death of the king and that of
Cardinal Richelieu enabled him to do so.

I have heard it said that on arriving at that beautiful
palace of the Luxembourg in Paris some one asked if she
did not feel great joy at finding herself in that superb place ;
to which she coldly answered that after the joy of again
seeing Monsieur, all the rest seemed nothing to her. She
had a good mind, and reasoned well on all subjects about
which she chose to talk. She seemed, by what she said, to
have heart and ambition. She loved Monsieur ardently;
and hated in the same way any one who could injure her
with him. She was handsome in the features of her face,
which were beautiful and well-formed; but she was not
agreeable ; her whole person lacked I know not what that

182 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. vii.

was pleasing ; but as for actual ugliness, she had it only in
her teeth, which were already decayed. It was said of this
princess that she was beautiful without being so, and had
intellect but seemed to have none because she made no use
of it. She was fat and thin both; her face was full and
her bosom handsome, so her women said, but her hands and
arms were very thin. It must also be said that she had not
a fine figure, but neither was she deformed. In short, all
contrasts were collected in her in a surprising manner ; and
it was impossible to speak of her except with an ambiguity
to be used about no one else.

It was also true that Monsieur loved her and did not love
her. He lived with her and treated her well ; he never
deliberately annoyed her ; and when he thought her dis-
satisfied or grieved he did all he could to cure her little
thoughts. He never left her, and when he was at home he
spent nearly all his time in her room, showing sometimes
that he esteemed her virtue and her intelligence. But he had
a favourite [the Abbe* de la Eiviere] whom she did not like ;
he had raised him to extreme grandeur and had confidence
in him, and she was never able to do him an injury. Mon-
sieur often laughed at her delicacies and whims with the
ladies who served her, and even with the queen, to whom
he used to say that she was visionary, that her piety was
ridiculous, that she never talked except to her confessor,
whom she consulted about the merest trifles. Neither did
he spare her favourites, who were among the silliest crea-
tures in Paris. He said, speaking of them, that persons of
merit, lacking discernment, ought to be ashamed to be on
good terms with them ; that her court was decried because
those who were obliged to see her, on account of her rank,
found there none but persons unworthy of her favour and
approbation. So it may be said he loved her, but did not

1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 183

love her often ; and the respect he had for her was varied in
the same degree.

Those who knew her intimately told me she was naturally
insensible to friendship ; and that, if she loved Monsieur,
that feeling had no other operation in her than to incite her
to scold him continually and cause him much vexation ; so
that their union was as inexplicable as all the rest. As the
princess was both healthy and ill at the same time, and as
she belonged to those virtuous women who like to follow
their husbands, her physician obliged her much by ordering
her to the baths of Bourbon because Monsieur was to take
them. She ceased to complain in order to make the journey,
because she always wanted to be with him ; and not only
did she make it, but she did not go in a chair, as she first
intended. She never left the coach in which Monsieur was,
and seemed to bear the fatigues of the journey more easily
than the most robust women.

The Duchesse d'0rle*ans might justly have a passion for
Monsieur. He was agreeable in person. His complexion
and the features of his face were handsome, the expression
of his countenance pleasing; his eyes were blue, his hair
black. He looked like the son of a king, but badly trained.
In spite of his natural restlessness and his grimaces, it was
easy to see both birth and grandeur in his person. He was
kind and easy of access. He had intelligence, spoke well,
and jested pleasantly. He had read much and knew history
thoroughly, with much other studious knowledge. Nothing
was wanting in this prince for society, except that he was
rather vainglorious, with that coarse pride which made him
hold his rank too stiffly, though it did not prevent his treat-
ing kindly those who approached him. I have seen women
of quality standing in the room where he was, to show the
respect they owed him, without his having the civility to

184 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. vn.

ask them to sit down ; and men complained that in the
roughest weather he never told them to put on their hats,
which the king, his brother, always did.

He was accused of being timid and lazy. But I have
heard it said that he sometimes went into very dangerous
places, as far in the advance as the common soldiers. But
there is one stain on his life which dishonours him. It was
when, in his youth, he formed a party in France for the
interests of the queen his mother, and the Due de Mont-
morency, fighting for him, was made prisoner before his
very eyes; he could have saved him, but he did not, and
was the cause that that great seigneur, the most amiable,
as I was told, of men, was beheaded. His favourite, the
Abbe" de la Kiviere, whose interest it was to preserve him,
kept him as much as he could from going into danger ; and
Mare'chal de G-assion, one day when the prince had done
personally well and had bravely risked musket shots, said,
after praising him, that he had been lively that time because
his suckfish [remora] was not there. It was for this reason
that the Court desired this year that the Due d'Orldans should
not command the army; and the doctors who sent him to
the Baths gave no little pleasure to the ministers; for not
only did his expenses as commander increase immensely
the royal budget, but the finest plans were rendered useless
by cares for his preservation. The maxim of conquerors is
to risk; but it was impossible to propose schemes of that
nature to a general of such consequence, who, after the
king, the queen, and the little real Monsieur, held the first
place in the kingdom, and whose life was therefore precious
to France, which naturally loves the children of her kings.

The Comte d'Harcourt, that unfortunate general, returning
from Catalonia, arrived in Holy-Week [April 20, 1647]. The
queen, by advice of the cardinal, received him coldly. It

1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 185

was the minister's habit to do harsh things through her, and
to reserve favours, benefits, and pardons for his own bestowal;
for the queen was convinced that the more friends the car-
dinal made, the more the peace of her regency was secured.
With this idea, she told Comte d'Harcourt that she thought
him wrong for having undertaken the siege of Lerida against
the orders of the king. He replied like an able man, though
he was not suspected of being one, that he entreated her
very humbly to believe him incapable of failing in respect
or fidelity to whatever concerned his duty and the obedience
that he owed to her wishes ; and (in order not to importune
her with his reasons for so acting) he begged her to let him
inform the cardinal, who, he hoped, would have sufficient
equity to justify him to her. His scheme succeeded ; for
as the minister only wanted to mortify him, he took him
back into his good graces after a great explanation, and, as
the count himself had foreseen, he received good treatment
from the queen when he next presented himself before her.

The festivals passed as usual. The queen, after having
taken the Lord's supper at home on Holy Thursday, went
to shut herself up at the Val-de-Grace to spend the rest of
Holy- Week in retreat and prayer. We went there, my
sister and I, very early on Good Friday morning, in order
to profit by her example. She had risen and dressed by
five o'clock, and was already employed in meditating on the
wonders which God on that day had worked in our favour.
She heard the Passion preached at seven o'clock by a Jesuit,
who did not make himself admired ; and after the service
was over, she went to adore the Cross with the saintly
nuns who live in continual penitence and show by all their
actions that the Cross is ever in their thoughts and before
their eyes. She did these things with a devoutness fit to
edify the most hardened to the laws of God.

186 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. vn.

After returning to her chamber she spoke to us, to my
sister and me, of the instability of the things of earth, of
the importance of our salvation, the danger in which we
continually are of failing in what we have to do for the
accomplishment of that great work, which we agreed at
that moment was the first and chief of all After his
dinner the king came to see her, bringing the cardinal with
him, and about a dozen of the Court who were necessary
about his person. The queen took great pleasure in show-
ing them the whole house, and the designs she had for a
beautiful new convent which should preserve to posterity
eternal signs of the honour it had received in being the
place where she went to enjoy solitude.

The king and Cardinal Mazarin were present at the
tenebrce. The former was admired by his people, who saw
him, through the nun's grating, running hither and thither,
blowing out the candles and behaving like a child that
loves to play. The minister, who accompanied all his
actions with great modesty, played the pious and devout
personage, though perhaps he was not so at alL He took
care to seem regular in his external actions, and it was
impossible to reproach him for a vice, or for any irregularity
which might go by that name.

When the king had departed and the queen found herself
alone in her desert, she went into the infirmary to visit a nun
who was dying of a cancer in her breast, which had rotted
away the side of it. The smell from the wound was not
only such as to be offensive to the queen, who liked sweet
odours, but to men the most used to infection and the misery
of hospitals. She stayed a long time and chose to see the
wound dressed; which was a pitiable sight. The disease
had so eaten away the part on which it had fastened that
we could see into her body. After this act of charity we

(F AC-SIMILE LETTER.)

ANNE OF AUSTRIA TO THE PRINCE DE CONDE
(THE GREAT CONDE).

1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 187

left the queen to enjoy the rest that is found at the foot
of altars. The next day she returned to the Palais-Eoyal
to be present on Easter-day in its parish church and perform
her devotions.

The fetes over, nothing was talked of but war and jour-
neys. The Court had planned to go to the frontier and even
beyond Amiens and Compiegne, but in spite of this excite-
ment which seemed to foreshadow battles, the peace that
reigned in the Court itself and made it pleasurable induced
the queen to have that fine comedy, with scenery, of which I
have already spoken played three or four times before her ;
she was always present and never wearied of it. The last
time was to entertain Madame de Longueville, who had
lately returned from Munster.

This princess, who, though absent, reigned in her family,
and whose approbation every one desired as a sovereign good,
returned to Paris in May, 1647, and did not fail to appear
there with even more lustre than she had when she left it.
The friendship that the Prince de Conde", her brother, felt for
her gave authority to her actions and manners, and the gran-
deur of her beauty and of her mind so increased the cabal
of her family that she had not been long at Court before she
occupied it wholly. She became the object of all desires;
her reception \ruelle\ was the centre of all intrigues, and those
whom she liked were considered at once as the darlings of
fortune. Her courtiers were revered by the minister ; and
before long we shall see her the cause of our revolutions
and of all the quarrels that came so near destroying France.

The Prince de Marsillac had formed an intimacy with M.
le Prince [the Court title given to the Prince de Conde*] ever
since the queen, changing to many, had changed to him,
and after promising much had thought it her duty not to
give him what he asked. In attaching himself to M. le

188 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. vn.

Prince through policy, he gave himself to Madame de
Longueville in a rather more tender manner, joining feel-
ings of the heart to regard for her grandeur and fortune.
This gift of himself was apparent to the eyes of the public ;
and it seemed to the whole Court that the princess received
it with welcome. In all that she did later, it was clearly
seen that ambition was not the only emotion that filled her
soul, for the interests of the Prince de Marsillac held a large
place in it. She became ambitious for him; for his sake
she ceased to love repose, and in becoming sensible to that
affection she became insensible to her own fame.

Her ideas, her intellect, and the opinion formed of her
discernment made her the admired of all men; they were
convinced that her esteem alone was enough to give them
reputation. Though she ruled all souls by this means, that
of her beauty was no less potent ; for although she had had
the small-pox since the regency began and had slightly lost
the purity of her complexion, the glow of her charms always
attracted the inclination of those who saw her; above all,
she possessed in a sovereign degree that which the Spanish
language expresses by the words : donayre, brio, y bizarm.
Her figure was admirable ; the very air of her person had a
charm, the spell of which extended even to her own sex. It
was impossible to see her without liking her, and wishing to
please her. Her beauty, nevertheless, consisted more in the
colouring of her face than in the perfection of its features.
Her eyes were not large, but beautiful, soft and brilliant, and
the blue was wonderful, like that of the turquoise. Poets
could only compare to lilies and roses the tones of her face ;
and the silvery fair hair that accompanied such marvels
made her resemble an angel such as the weakness of our
nature makes us imagine them much more than a woman.

It may be said that at this time all grandeur, all glory, all

1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 189

gallantry were held in this Bourbon family, of which M. le
Prince was the head, and success was no longer thought a
good unless it came through their hands. The Prince de
Conti, 1 younger brother of this brother and sister, had just
left college and was beginning to appear in society. He was
handsome in face, but as his figure was deformed he was
destined for the Church. He possessed many benefices, and
several persons attached themselves to him in the hope of
making their fortune on this line. The young prince, find-
ing that his sister, Mme. de Longueville, had so great a
reputation, desired to follow her advice and sentiments, and
allowed himself to be tempted to win respect through her.
He sought to please her, more even as an honourable man
than as her brother ; he had intelligence and he succeeded.

The queen, who was by nature neither jealous nor ambi-
tious, nevertheless showed some coldness towards Mme. de
Longueville. She did not like this manner of publicly pro-
fessing to be a lei esprit; she disliked all the ways of it.
She herself had reason and good sense ; all that was in her
was natural and without art; and these two personages,
according to the measure of their age, both being infinitely
amiable, were so different in character that it was impos-
sible that the inferior, who lived as a queen and did not
render great duty to her sovereign, could please the latter.

The occupation given by the plaudits of the great world,
which usually regards with too much admiration the fine
qualities of people of high birth, had deprived Mme. de
Longueville of the leisure to read and to give to her mind
a knowledge sufficiently extended to call her learned. She
was by nature too much concerned about sentiments ; which

1 Armand de Bourbon, brother of the great Conde, abbe and prior of
Cluny. He left the Church and married Anne Martinozzi, niece of Cardi-
nal Mazarin ; their son Louis-Armand married the daughter of Louis XIV.
and Mme. de la Valliere. TK.

190 MEMOIKS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. vii.

passed with her for infallible rules, and were not so always :
and there was too much affectation in her manner of speak-
ing and acting, the greatest beauty of which consisted in the
delicacy of her thoughts and a very just reasoning. She
seemed constrained; and the refined satire, of which she
and her courtiers made profession, often fell upon those
who, wishing to pay her their duty, could not help feeling
that the honest sincerity which should be observed in polite
society was apparently banished from hers. The virtues
and laudable qualities of the most excellent beings are
mingled with things that are their opposite ; all men share
the clay from which they get then* origin, and God alone is
perfect.

May 9, 1647, the queen took the road to Compiegne, in-
tending to go as far as Amiens. The cardinal stayed three
or four days behind her in Paris to conclude some business,
and started to join her on the 15th of the same month. As
he was indefatigable in working, and did the duties of all
the secretaries of State, wishing to know everything, he was
so continually busy that it was almost impossible to see him.
Italians are usually haters of a crowd and bustle; for this
reason the minister disliked to show himself so much so
that persons of quality murmured at being forced to wait at
his door until he would see them. They were not repulsed,
however, by the contempt shown to them, which, apparently,
produced no other effect upon their souls than to make them
more humble and grovelling ; but as the French allow them-
selves to be easily governed by favourites, so are they also
as easily led into talking against them. The cardinal, know-
ing this, was accustomed to say, in speaking of these people,
that he was willing to let them talk provided that they would
let him do. The murmuring began from ear to ear in the
antechamber of the man who sneered at their attentions,

1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 191

and was uttered in a loud voice as soon as the mutterers
were out of it. Sometimes I grew weary of hearing him so
abused ; for, besides the fact that it was often unjust, what
in itself is useless always seems to me disagreeable.
! The cardinal had as many lights as a man who was the
artisan of his own grandeur could have. He had great
capacity, above all, industry, and marvellous shrewdness in
leading and amusing men by countless deceptive hopes. He
never did harm unless from necessity to those who dis-
pleased him. Usually, he was content to complain of them,
and these complaints produced explanations which readily
restored to him the friendship of those who had been un-
faithful to him, or who thought they had cause to be vexed
with him. He had the gift of pleasing, and it was impossible
to keep one's self from being charmed by his sweetness ; but
this same sweetness was the cause, when not accompanied
by the benefits it seemed to promise, that those who were
weary of expecting fell into disgust and vexation. Until
now, the complaints of private persons had made no great
impression upon the public mind, and they were founded
more on the loss of his favour than on hatred to his person.

The respect that the halo of royal power, which surrounded
him gloriously, impressed upon the hearts of the king's sub-
jects arrested much that human malice tried to blame in
him; and the tranquillity of the Court, joined to fortunate
successes in war, had given him, up to this time, more repu-
tation than the worst of the courtiers could give him shame.
But, little by little, they went on discovering defects in him ;
some of which could be attributed to all favourites, others
of which were essentially his. They said that he ignored
our customs, and did not trouble himself sufficiently to have
them observed; that he did not take pains, as he should
have done, to govern the State by its long-established laws ;

192 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. VH.

that he did not protect justice and law as he was bound by
his position as prime minister to do ; and that he thus failed
in the care he owed to the public weal. These sins of omis-
sion, though great, could not rightly dishonour him, because
he may have had good intentions which, if known, would
have justified him to the public.

It may be said, nevertheless, that, with the temperament
he had, these accusations were not far wrong, for it was his
nature to neglect too much to do good. [He" seemed to
respect no virtue, and to hate no vice. He appeared to have
neither; he passed for a man habituated to the custom of
Christian virtues, but showing no desire for their practice.
He made no profession of piety, and gave no signs to the
contrary by any of his actions, unless it were that satirical
remarks occasionally escaped him which were at variance
with the respect that a Christian ought to have for whatever
concerns religion) In spite of his greed he had not yet
seemed miserly ; and the finances were more wasted at this
period of his administration by partisans than at any previous
time.

He also, as I have said elsewhere speaking of the queen,
granted the dignities of the Church to many persons who
claimed them from profane motives ; and he did not always
appoint to the bishoprics men who could honour his choice
by their virtue and piety, j Eeligion was too much neglected
by him ; he was always too indifferent to that sacred trust
which God had committed to him. By nature he was dis-
trustful ; and one of his greatest cares was to study men in
order to know them and guard himself from attacks and
from the intrigues that were formed against him. He pro-
fessed to fear nothing, and to despise even the cautions that
were given him about his person, though hi reality the prin-
ciple of his greatest care was his personal preservation.

1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 193

The few days that the minister remained behind in Paris
served only to still further foment the jealousies that were
beginning to appear ; because many of those who wished to
see him could not succeed in doing so. When he got into his
coach to go away the whole courtyard of the Palais-Eoyal
was filled with cordons-bleus, great seigneurs, and persons of
rank, who by their eagerness seemed to be only too happy to
look at him from a distance. \ All men are naturally slaves
to fortune ; I can truly say that I never saw any one at Court
who was not a flatterer, some more, others less. Self-interest,
which blinds us, takes us unawares and betrays us on occa-
sions which concern us ; it makes us act with more feeling
than intelligence; and it happens often enough that we
become ashamed of our weakness ; which, however, we do
not perceive except through sage reflection, and after the
occasion for doing better has passed.

VIIL

1647.

THOUGH peace could not, at this time have been so glori-
ous for France, it would not have failed to be convenient and
advantageous to her. The long wars had exhausted her in
men, forces, and money. 1 It was doubted in those days
whether the minister really wished for peace. At any rate,
the fortunate moment passed, and this period, propitious for
good fortune, was not destined to soon return. God puts,
when it pleases Him, limits to our ambition ; He knows how
to humiliate those who trust in their own wisdom, and shows
to kings and ministers that they are not the masters of their
own fate. The cardinal may, perhaps, have had good mo-
tives for delaying the peace, which seemed to all Europe to
depend on him only ; but, as it is easy to suspect a minister

1 Laporte relates in his memoirs dreadful details of this misery, which
kept on increasing : " The king saw quantities of sick and maimed soldiers
following him everywhere, and begging for help to relieve their misery,
without his having a single penny to give them; which amazed people
much.

" Besides the misery of the soldiers, that of the people was awful ; and
wherever the Court went the poor peasants flung themselves around it,
thinking to be in greater safety, because the army devastated the country.
They brought their cattle, which immediately died from hunger, for they
dared not lead them to pasture. When the cattle were dead they died
themselves incontinently, for they had nothing to live on but the Court
charities, which were middling; each one considering his own interests
first. They had no shelter from the great heat of the day and the chilli-
ness of night, except that of awnings, carts, and vans which were in the
streets. When the mothers were dead the children soon died ; and I saw
on the bridge of Melun three children lying on their dead mother and
still sucking her." This went on from 1646 to 1652. FR. ED.

1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 195

of having more regard for his private benefit than for the
public weal, and as the common opinion was that peace
would have been the rum of that benefit because all the
strength of the cabinet could have gathered more easily
against him, Cardinal Mazarin was judged as a man who
apprehended this very danger.

The queen, who desired peace, always assured me in those
days that she knew for a certainty that her minister did his
best to give it to France and to all Europe. She said that
what others had reason to apprehend would not happen to
one in his position, for he was well assured that she would
never permit intrigues against him, and that the same confi-
dence she had had in him during the war she would have
during peace. But he may have deceived the queen, who
was certainly unable to convince the public. Nevertheless,
it is possible that he wished for peace at that time, and had
reason to do so; for besides appearing always to aim at
the good of the State, he was avaricious and master of the
finances. It may be believed, therefore, that peace would
have brought him the means to amass much treasure, which
to him would possess a considerable charm.

In Paris the murmuring was great about our losses in the
war. The honour of the taking of La Basse'e [Flanders] was
granted to Mare"chal de Gassion, but the blame for the victo-
ries won by our enemies was put upon Cardinal Mazarin.
They were adduced as signs of his bad conduct of the war,
and his adversaries presented them to the public as evident
proofs of all that they preached against him.

This murmuring caused several banishments. The Comte
de Fiesque was the most important of the exiles. He had
been well-treated by the cardinal, but on the downfall of the
Due de Beaufort, whose friend he said he was, he declaimed
against him loudly, telling him, in justification, that between

196 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. vin.

two equal friends one should always follow the unfortunate,
and quit the dominant one. He therefore shared the misfor-
tune of the one by exile, and showed that he hated the power
of the other by his speeches. The cardinal, however, urged
by the friends of the Comte de Fiesque, wishing to forget
the affronts he thought he had received, brought him back
from this first exile with every sign of true reconciliation.
He followed, in thus forgiving, his natural inclination which
inclined him to gentleness and peace. That of his pardoned
enemy was different ; he was never content and was always
rinding fault with the actions of those who governed. For
this reason his temperament kept him from profiting by the
truce between them ; so that his conduct forced the minister
at last to send him away again. The Abbe de Belebat was
also exiled, and Sarrazin [the poet], for having written satiri-
cal verses ; together with others of small note who had said
in wine-shops and public places a few silly things.

An ordinance was issued, forbidding all persons to talk
about the affairs of the State ; and the queen showed much
aversion to those who said more than they ought. She re-
marked to the Mare'chale d'Estre'es, seeing the arrival in the
streets of Amiens of Madame de Choisy, who came to speak
to her on behalf of her brother, Belebat : " That poor woman
makes me pity her, for her journey is useless ; I am resolved
to punish severely all those who talk against the govern-
ment." And the Mare'chale d'Estre'es, in relating to me
what I here write, added that the queen held firm against
the prayers of Madame de Choisy, and openly blamed Cardi-
nal Mazarin for being too kind and too long-suffering.

The queen after seeing that order was restored on the fron-
tier and the army of the king in a condition to defend itself,
left Amiens and went to spend some days at Abbeville.
From there she came to Dieppe, intending to go to Eouen ;

1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 197

but our province and particularly the town of Rouen was so
insensible to the honour the king did it that it carefully
evaded the visit. The queen, on her side, pretended to dread
the fuss and annoyance of the visit and of all the harangues
they would have to listen to. She resolved to return by
G-ournay, Gisors, and Pontoise, and stayed but three days at
Dieppe, though the place was agreeable to her. She liked
the view of the ocean which she saw from the windows of
her chamber, where also she could see the fireships burning at
sea for her amusement. The king went to see the large fine
ship the Queen of Sweden had sent him, and a naval combat
took place on the occasion. To crown the joy of the inhabi-
tants they were allowed the honour of guarding the person
of the king, which was partly necessary because he had few
of his guards with him.

The people of Dieppe, who had always been faithful to
Henri IV., the king's grandfather, deserved to receive this
mark of the confidence reposed in them ; and as they took it
in that spirit they went about the streets shouting that it
was right to confide the king to their care, for there were
no Ravaillacs among them. Women ran after their Majes-
ties, and all the villagers of that region followed them,
crying out endless benedictions, which, in spite of their
horrible Norman accent, pleased their Majesties. I heard
the queen herself say that the affection she recognized in
this people had been agreeable enough to relieve her of
the annoyance she usually felt at such importunities.

Though the queen desired to evade harangues, she could
not entirely exempt herself from them. The parliament of
Normandy came to welcome her, also the " Chambre des
Comptes " and the " Cours des Aides." On this occasion we
saw what is not extraordinary to see, but what, in itself, is
ever terrible to the mind of man. The chief judge of Rys,

198 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. vm.

about sixty years of age but in vigorous health, died suddenly
at the head of the staircase as he left the queen's presence,
and so quickly that there was no interval between his life
and his death. The king and queen ran to him, to make
him open his mouth and take remedies, but they found him
lifeless and their kindness was of no use. I had joined the
queen at Dieppe to be with her as long as she was in our
province; I therefore saw this sight, with the feeling of
horror one has when it is seen near-by. The queen took the
road to Paris with satisfaction, whither I followed her soon
after.

I reached Paris August 28, very wearied with my journey,
because I had been travelling all the time. The country is
beautiful with repose and solitude only when we can enjoy
the innocent pleasures that Nature gives in woods and
streams. I found the queen in the chamber of the Due
d'Anjou, who was ill with a disease sufficiently important to
cause uneasiness to so good a mother as herself.

He was beginning to get better, and his room was filled
with the most important personages of the Court. This
annoyance, which is inseparable from illness, was such that
the little prince was inconvenienced by the fine company
and entreated the queen to send them all away and stay with
him alone. The queen told him that she dared not do so,
because the Princesse de Condd and many persons of rank
were there. To which he answered : " Eh ! bon Dieu,
madame, pray laugh at that. Are not you the mistress ?
What is the good of your crown if not to do what you will ?
You send me away when it pleases you, though I am your
son ; is it not fair that each should have his turn ? " I was
with the queen, and as she thought he was right, she did me
the honour to say to me : " I must satisfy him ; but not in
his way ; I shall go myself, and that will draw away those

1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 199

who annoy him." She led away the princess, and the rest
whom she could not dismiss.

This young prince 1 had intelligence from the time he
could talk. The clearness of his thoughts was accompanied
by two fine inclinations, which were beginning to appear in
him and are necessary to persons of his birth, namely ; liber-
ality and humanity. It is to be wished that he had been
deprived of the idle amusements allowed him in his youth.
He liked to be with women and girls, and to dress them and
arrange their hair. He knew what became them better than
any woman ; and his greatest delight, as he grew older, was
to deck and adorn them, and buy jewels to lend or give to
those who were his favourites. He was well-made ; the
features of his face seemed perfect. His black eyes were
admirably fine and brilliant ; they had sweetness and gravity
combined. His mouth was in some respects like that of the
queen, his mother. His black hair, in heavy natural curls,
suited his complexion ; and his nose, which promised to be
aquiline, was at that time quite well-formed. It might be
expected that, if years did not diminish his beauty, he would
dispute the prize with that of the handsomest women ; but,
as for his figure, it seemed as though he would never be
tall.

That same day, in the evening, the king's lawyers came
before the queen at her command. She sent for them to
complain of the parliament, which opposed a certain tax laid
upon provisions, which up to this time had not been levied
because the president, de Mesmes, holding the sessions of
1646, had forbidden its being put in force. But in spite
of this prohibition, the affair was again brought up for dis-
cussion in the Council, where, on account of the need of

1 Philippe d'Orleans, husband of Henrietta of England, and secondly of
Elisabeth-Charlotte, Princess Palatine, the mother of the Regent. TR.

200 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. vin.

having money, it was proposed to maintain the royal author-
ity in this matter.

The parliament, which assumed to have the right of ex-
amining the edicts that laid burdens on the people, having
maintained what President de Mesmes had done, and ordered
that very humble remonstrances should be sent to the queen
on this affair, their resistance made the Court resolve to
offer them other edicts less difficult to pass. A conference
was held on this subject at the Palais-Royal, when the coun-
sel for the king and that for the parliament were present.
The queen was not present, because it is a rule that subjects
shall not confer with masters. They all sat down at a large
table; the Due d'Orle'ans at the head, Cardinal Mazarin
opposite to him ; next below Monsieur was the chancellor,
and next below the cardinal was President de Mesmes ; the
rest according to rank. D'Emery, at that time superin-
tendent of finance, was at a corner of the table, but had no
seat there ; and the four secretaries of State were in their
usual place. It was expected that the chancellor would
make a speech ; but the cardinal had sent him a memoran-
dum, made by Lyonne, his secretary, on which were written,
by his order, the principal points of the speech. The chan-
cellor felt that he could not maintain the credit he had
acquired whenever he spoke in public if he submitted to
this dictation; he therefore preferred to say nothing, and
excused himself as being indisposed.

At this conference it was finally determined to pass the
original tariff, because the parliament considered that by
the new propositions made to them the advantage to the
people would be no greater. They resolved merely to
modify it, and they decreed that it should be levied for
two years only, at the end of which time they forbade that
it be levied any longer ; and at the same time the Cour des

1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEV1LLE. 201

Aides was forbidden to interfere. In getting the money,
Cardinal Mazarin was satisfied ; so was the queen, because
she was saved by this agreement the fatigue of going to
parliament in person to get the new edicts passed; which
she would have been forced to do had the affair not ended
amicably.

On the llth of September, 1647, we saw, arriving from
Italy, three nieces of Cardinal Mazarin, and a nephew. 1
Two Mancini sisters and the nephew were the children of
the youngest sister of his Eminence ; the third niece was a
Martinozzi, daughter of the minister's eldest sister.

The eldest of the little Mancinis was a pleasing brunette
with a handsome face, about twelve or thirteen years of age.
The second, also a brunette, had a long face and pointed
chin. Her eyes were small but lively, and it might be
expected that when fifteen years old she would have some
charm. According to the rules of beauty it was impossible
at this time to grant her any, except that of having dimples
hi her cheeks. Mademoiselle de Martinozzi was blonde ;
her features were beautiful, and she had much sweetness
in her eyes. She gave promise of becoming very handsome,
and had we been astrologers enough to divine in her face
the prospects of her fortune as we did those of her beauty,
we should have known even then that she was destined to
high rank. The last two were of the same age, we were
told about nine or ten years old.

Madame de Nogent went to Fontainebleau, by the cardi-

1 Cardinal Mazarin had two sisters living in Rome ; the eldest married
to Comte Martinozzi, had two daughters ; the other, married to Signor
Mancini, had three sons and five daughters. The eldest Mancini became
Madame de Mercoeur and died young. The second was Olympe, Comtesse
de Soissons ; the third was Marie, Louis XIV.'s love, finally married to
Prince Colonna ; the fourth was Hortense, Duchesse de Mazarin ; the
fifth was Marie-Anne, Duchesse de Bouillon. Anne Martinozzi, daughter
of the cardinal's eldest sister, married the Prince de Conti. TK.

202 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. vm.

nal's order, to meet them. The minister would never incur
great obligations to any of the more important persons of
the Court, for fear of being forced into inconvenient grati-
tude. He treated this affair like a man whose chief care
is to seem uninterested ; and the opinion his familiar cour-
tiers formed was that he abandoned these children to the
Comte de Nogent, a great flatterer and capable of carrying
flattery to extremities, expecting him to do them the honours
of the great world, while he himself could always say, " It
is the humour of that man," and turn him into ridicule with
the queen if he thought it useful ; in fact, he often treated
him in that manner about his conceited speeches and
buffooneries.

This man [Nogent] had all his life imitated wit; he
affected to make people laugh, talking incessantly, though
no one could accuse him of saying' anything. In this way
he attained to the luck of making a great fortune. There
was no person of rank at Court who received greater bene-
fits from it than he, whether by private privileges, by
prerogatives and preferences to favours of distinction, or
through the great property he had begun to amass under
Cardinal Eichelieu, who contributed more than any one to
make him rich. This great sayer of nothings found means
through silliness to rise and to obtain that which his birth
denied to him, and which virtue and great merit would not
have given him so easily. He had intelligence after his
fashion; he was not malicious, and I never heard him say
harm of any one, no matter who. Perhaps on great occa-
sions the desire to please made him commit great faults in
the sight of God, but as for what appeared externally, if
he did not protect the unfortunate, neither did he contribute
to ruin them. He gave pleasure when he could, in his own
way, which was to turn all things into jest. Though it was

1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 203

difficult to respect him, it was still more difficult to hate
him, for he never gave any real grounds for doing so.

This illustrious chatterer was the man who, by means of
his wife, presented to the queen the nephew and nieces of
her minister. She wished to see them the evening of their
arrival, and saw them with pleasure. She thought them
pretty, and the time the children spent in her presence
was employed in remarks -on their appearance. Madame
de Senece' proposed to the queen to go and see them the
next day and pay them her compliments; but she was
made to understand that the cardinal did not wish them to
be visited, on the plea that being lodged in his house where
he liked to be in peace, visitors would disturb him much
if he allowed them to come there.

When this revered uncle, so fortunate and so powerful,
saw the arrival of his nieces, he left the queen the moment
that they entered her room, and went off to bed hi his own
house. After the queen had seen them they were taken to
the cardinal ; but he seemed not to care for them much ; on
the contrary, he jested about those who were silly enough
to show them attentions. But, despite this scorn, he cer-
tainly had great designs based on these little girls. His
indifference about them was all pure comedy; and by that
we may judge that it is not only on the stage that comic
actors play good parts.

The next day the nieces were again brought to the queen,
who kept them some moments near her to examine them
better. Cardinal Mazarin was there also; but seemed no
more touched by them than he was on the first day. After
this, they were shown in public. Every one hastened to see
them, and the spectators made a point of extolling them,
sometimes as very agreeable, and sometimes as very beauti-
ful; they even gave them intellect on sight, and all the

204 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. vni.

praises that could be thought of were amply bestowed by
their liberality.

While the courtiers were hastening to talk in this way, the
Due d'Orldans came up to the Abbe' de La Eiviere and me, who
were talking together near a window, and said in a low voice :
" So many persons are round these little girls that I doubt if
their lives are safe : they will be smothered by force of being
looked at." The Mare'chal de Villeroy, who had the gravity
of a minister, came up at the same time and said : " See
those little girls who now are not rich ; they will soon have
fine ch^teaus, good incomes, splendid jewels, beautiful silver
services, and perhaps great dignities ; but as for the boy, it
needs time to make him great, and he may only see his for-
tune foreshadowed," meaning that his uncle might fall
before he was old enough to be raised very high ; in which,
without knowing it, the mare'chal prophesied truly.

The girls became greater ladies than he thought, but the
boy never really enjoyed his luck, for death robbed him
of the favour of him who might have put him in the way to
be respected of all men. An Italian friend of mine told me,
some time later, that people in Eome were amazed when they
heard in what way these children had been received in
France; and especially that princes and great seigneurs
thought of marrying them. In their own land and according
to their birth, these nieces would have had few suitors, and
few people in Eome would have nocked to see them ; but the
rank they had at our Court as soon as they came there is suffi-
cient proof of the position of him who gave the lustre which
Italians could not approve. They laughed at our nation for
allowing itself to be governed by a man whom they did not
like because they knew him too well ; it is natural to men
to admire only distant things : Fugga il tetto nativo, chi gloria
brama. " Flee the native roof, you who to glory aspire."

1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 205

The Princess Palestrina, Donna Anna Colonna, who re-
turned to Italy soon after their arrival in Paris, assured me
that the cardinal told her in confidence, speaking of his
nieces, that already the highest men in the kingdom had
asked him for them. And yet he had said to his friends
some years earlier, pointing to certain statues he had brought
from Eome, that those were the only relatives he meant to
bring to France ; but, like the sage, he changed his mind, and
let himself be urged by the queen, to whom he would not re-
fuse this favour, to allow his nieces come. He did nothing
in this that was contrary to reason; it was just that he
should let his own family share his grandeur, and use them
to strengthen still further his own fortunes. If those who
are masters do not attempt to limit a minister's ambition, he
is excusable if, during their power, he desires more than the
just reward of his services. It is natural to men to want
more glory, more happiness, more wealth than they have,
and often more than they deserve.

The next day, at the queen's lever, a little affair happened
to a Court lady, vexatious and harsh enough to be put in the
list of mortifications which persons often taste in the course
of their lives. The Duchesse de Schomberg, on giving up the
name, as I have told, of Madame de Hautefort, gave up also
her claim to the office of lady-in-waiting (then still pos-
sessed by her grandmother, Madame de La Flotte) for a com-
pensation of two hundred thousand francs. But, as the
longing for favour is an invisible chain which attaches every
one to the person of kings, some from inclination, others from
self-interest, and as few ever willingly detach themselves,
Madame de Schomberg did all she could to recover the good
graces of the queen, and would have liked to resume with
her the familiar intercourse of times past.

It is the rule that the lady of honour shall have the right

206 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVLLLE.

to serve the queen by handing her the chemise unless she
cedes that honour to a princess of the blood ; and when the
lady-in-waiting is present she shares the service in certain
things with the lady-of-honour. Madame de Schomberg,
since her marriage, when alone with the queen had had
the honour to serve her ; and the queen had pleasantly re-
ceived the service, to do her a favour and not rebuff her,
but never as though she had a right to take the part of
lady-in-waiting on such occasions.

She attempted one day to enjoy the same privilege when
the Princesse de Conde* and Madame de Senece" were present.
The queen then said to her, and rather severely, for the old
friendship was entirely passed: "Madame, do you not see
that Madame de Senece* is here and you are taking her office ? "
The Duchesse de Schomberg answered rather brusquely that
she saw her very well, but the service she was doing was her
own. The queen, a little excited, said at once : " Your office,
madame ! Did you not resign it when you married, for two
hundred thousand francs which I gave you in compensa-
tion ? " " Yes, madame," replied Madame de Schomberg, " but
I have not yet received the money. That is why I think I
have the right to exercise the office." " Oh ! very well,
madame ; you will be paid," answered the queen ; " there is
enough money in France for that ; but you must know that
it is difficult to re-enter my heart when once a person has
gone out of it." The lady, keenly touched and pained, an-
swered only by tears, and followed the queen the whole day,
unable to keep from weeping before her. She had done the
thing against her will, so as not to displease her husband,
who wished her to obtain a return of past favours.

The queen, moved to pity, spoke to her and made her
several caresses to soften her pain, but, as this lady told me
later, she returned home resolved never again to try to obtain

1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 207

the queen's good graces. She contented herself after that
with seeing her like the other duchesses, who only go to the
Louvre at the hour of the cercle ; and shortly after, without
fuss or complaint, she and the Mare*chal de Schomberg went
to their own house and government to live the Christian life
which alone gives peace of mind and tranquillity of soul.

This little tale made a great noise at Court; every one
spoke of it as he or she personally felt. Some blamed
Madame de Schomberg for imprudence in risking such
displeasure ; others accused the queen of harshness, which
is a thing she never felt to any one.

Some hours later, having asked her what the affair was
which was making so much stir, she told me what I have
just written down ; and she told it with the more kindness
because, as she said, she was grieved that the lady had
forced her, against her disposition, to cause her this vexa-
tion, for she did not like to give pain to any one whomsoever ;
but that she could not let herself be taken for a dupe, and
she saw plainly that Madame de Schomberg acted in that
manner, not to regain her- friendship (which motive would
have been kindly), but to claim her former office for the
purpose of keeping it for her sister, d'Escars, for whom she,
the queen, had a great aversion ; and it was not just that
because she was a queen she should have to be served,
against her will, by those she did not like. The Duchesse
de Schomberg afterwards told me the same thing, and said
that she had hoped to preserve the office for her sister.

The queen, who found pleasure in change, left Paris,
September 15 [1647] to spend the autumn in that beautiful
habitation of Fontainebleau, leaving in Paris the little Mon-
sieur, who was not yet sufficiently recovered to bear the
fatigue of a journey. The Mare"chal de Villeroy, anxious to
please the man who had made him the king's governor, put

208 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. vm.

it into the heart of the young king to wish to take the
youngest of the three Mancini girls on this trip; and he
asked it so eagerly of the queen that she willingly re-
quested the cardinal not to send his little niece to the
Jesuits.

The evening before the queen's departure, I went up to
the minister, to pay him the homage due to one who re-
ceived the same from the greatest in the kingdom. He
returned my compliments by making a sham quarrel, as he
frequently did; for it was his way to give us often such
alarms. He told me that he was informed that Sarrazin,
the dismissed poet, had made satirical and malicious verses
in my apartments, which attacked the person of the queen.
My mind was so far from thinking anything of that nature
that at first I did not sufficiently notice the horror of this
insult. I merely answered, as if laughing, that the joke
was hard on a person like me who took no pleasure in
satirical verses against my greatest enemies; and that I
thought I should do myself a wrong to answer such false-
hood seriously, though it was four years since I had seen
the man. This was the truth. From that I passed to other
matters about which I had to speak to him, and said no
more.

' I am convinced I paid my court to him very ill ; for, not
wishing to do us real benefits, he took pleasure in causing
us false anxieties ; so that we might feel ourselves obliged
to him for pardoning our imaginary wrong-doings and leav-
ing us in peace. At other times he treated persons with
such gentleness and apparent good-will that it was impos-
sible to avoid being charmed by him; when he wished
to please he deceived the most distrustful persons. But
towards me such favours were rare. After I returned home,
recalling this malicious act which the minister's policy or

1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 209

the baseness of some malignant mind had done me, I spent
several hours of the night in murmuring against the world,
against the ambitions which delude us and the weakness
which retains us in it.

I complained to the queen, who thought I had good
reason to be displeased ; and in spite of the approbation she
usually gave to all that came from the cardinal, her natural
equity made her regret that he had listened to this tale and
had spoken of it to me as a believable story. She assured
me, moreover, that she would tell him what she thought of
it, and I venture to believe that she made him see that the
accusation he had made to me was wholly unreasonable.

This princess was full of kindness and justice; she was
not suspicious, not easy to prejudice, and when they told
her evil of any one of whom she had a good opinion she
resisted strongly. We should always have had smooth seas
with her, without tempests, if he in whom she had confi-
dence had not too often had the power to change her own
impressions by the pains he took to despise before her those
she esteemed ; but when he wanted to ruin any one it was ;
necessary, in order to succeed, that he should arrange matters /
in a way to deceive her with the appearances of a real
cause.

As my case could not convince her, I felt on this occasion
as on the others I have mentioned, how upright her soul
was when her natural instincts were not darkened. I can
also say with truth that whatever she knew that might
harm those to whom she wished well she never told to her
minister ; and among those whom he hated and wished to
drive from Court there were some whom she supported
against him solely because of their innocence, either be-
cause it was better known to her than that of others, or
because they really had more. The cardinal often said to

VOL.1. 14

210 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. VIIL

Le Tellier (as the latter told me himself) that the queen's
piety hindered him, and that she yielded with difficulty on
whatever she thought to be for the glory of God. She had
insight enough to know the right ; and if she had had the
strength to always defend it, the pens of historians could
not have praised her enough ; but she was too distrustful of
herself, and her humility easily convinced her of her
incapacity to govern the State.

This feeling, in some respects unjust and unreasonable,
did much to establish the power of her minister, who, with-
out it, might have worthily filled the office in which the
late king placed him and the queen maintained him. If he
had thought himself less necessary to her he would have
taken more pains to deserve the esteem of the people. If
he had had reason to fear the ill offices that others might
do him with her, he would have had more consideration for
right-minded persons, who would always have had influence
upon her because by nature she felt good-will to them.
And also, if the queen had esteemed herself more and main-
tained her own sentiments (as she did sometimes when she
thought her j duty required it), her good intentions would
have improved those of her minister, who really had fine
qualities which, if well managed by a power above his
own, would have made him a minister worthy of general
respect.

(^^The greatness of his genius placed him above other men,
hot only by luck but by the superiority of his knowledge.
Never did any of those who were in his confidence and
intimacy have power over him, unless some necessity in his
affairs or his designs required it. He had great experience
in foreign affairs, and was capable of the highest enterprises.
He worked hard. His policy was shrewd ; he was clever at
intrigue ; he attained his ends by circumlocutions and wiles

1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 211

that were well-nigh impenetrable. He was not malignant'
or cruel. At first he had not even an excessive ambition ;
for up to that time he had declined the great establishments \
that other favourites obtain. He had taken neither places, \
governments, dignities, nor offices. Nor did his avidity for i
money appear then such as it really was ; and those who \
accused him of it were unjust. Many who courted him
owed him great favours, and of those many were much
richer than he. He was quite agreeable in person ; and in
spite of his defects he will always be spoken of as an ex-
traordinary man. His prodigious power will amaze the
whole world, and the marvellous events of his rise to for-
tune will lift him very high. He has had the destiny of
great men, alike in his good and his evil fortunes ; he may
also have their reputation, for I doubt if all the centuries
put together can produce a greater.

The Prince of Wales [Charles II.] came to Fontainebleau
to see the king and the queen. They entertained him with
balls, comedies, and excursions. He seemed to have in-
creased in good looks. The unhappy state of his affairs
made every one regard him with the tenderness that accom-
panies pity, and through that sentiment his good qualities
received greater lustre. He even showed some beginning
of inclination for Madame de ChStillon, which was thought
a good augury. His mind, however, was never brilliant
and he stuttered somewhat. In that he resembled his
father, who, as I have heard, did so a little, and his grand-
father, the late king [James I.] who did so much. The king
and he behaved together like young princes who felt em-
barrassed by each other's presence ; both were shy, and with-
out that freedom of spirit which intercourse with the world
gives to private individuals. The king, whose beauty had
charms, though young was already tall. He was grave, and

212 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. vm.

in his eyes could be seen a serious expression which marked
his dignity. He was even prudent enough to say little, from
fear of not speaking well. The Prince of Wales kept silence
also ; but they had at least the comfort of banishing the
ceremonies of their rank, which softened the rest.

The Court having returned to Paris in October, the king, in
the midst of the finest possible health, suddenly, November
10, left his games, wearied of the comedy, and then told the
queen that he felt ill and had pains in his loins. At first it
was thought to be nothing, but the next day his fever was
high, which alarmed the queen very much, who now feared
a continued fever. A courier was sent to the Due d'Orle'ans,
who was at one of his country-houses, telling him of the
king's state.

Two days later the disease degenerated into small-pox,
which at first consoled the queen, who had feared something
worse. She left her apartment on the same day and slept in
that of the patient. As the king's fever continued, her
anxiety increased, and the doctors were unable to reassure
her. All the young people who laid claims to beauty and
those who had not had the small-pox left the Palais-Eoyal.
I think I was the only one, who had not renounced youth,
who would not leave the queen on this occasion. I own that
I made an effort over myself to give her this proof of my
zeal, for though I had had the disease, it is quite common to
have it twice, and commoner still to think of one's own
safety. My sister, moreover, had not had it, and I might
have conveyed the infection to her. But God preserved us.

The king, up to the eleventh day of his illness, gave the
queen no greater anxiety than she had felt before the small-
pox appeared. She suffered from seeing him suffer ; but as
it is a disease which is common to children, she was quite
resolved to be comforted for the loss of his beauty provided

1647] MEMOIRS .OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 213

his life was saved. On the 21st of the month, at nine in the
morning, while the queen had gone to Notre-Dame to make
her devotions, the king grew worse ; the fever increased ; he
fainted, and remained in that condition for three-quarters of
an hour.

The queen, on her return, finding him in this state was
struck to the heart with such grief that it needed but little
more to kill her. All that day the king, according to the
doctors' opinion, was in the greatest danger, and the queen
never ceased to weep. The Due d'Orle'ans was constantly
beside her ; and this increased her pain ; she found no com-
fort or consolation in shedding tears before him. That eve-
ning, about midnight, the king grew better; but the next
day his illness increased very much. On Sunday, the four-
teenth day, he was so ill that the doctors thought him in
danger of immediate death, because, since the eleventh day,
on which he had fainted, the small-pox had gone in, and
four bleedings which were taken did not diminish his fever.
Its heat was so great that it entirely dried up whatever had
issued from his body.

All that day the queen seemed to choke ; for her nature
was not to weep, and when she was in sorrow she usually
shut it up within herself. This sorrow made her feel keenly
all that love and fear can implant in a soul possessed by
a violent passion. Though she followed no policy on this
occasion, yet, having naturally a firm mind and much reserve
in her outward actions, she did not choose to show her
weakness, especially before those who would have profited
by her misfortune. But, as nature cannot continue in such
a state without some sign appearing, she fainted on that
day by the king's bedside ; and that night, very late, having
retired, with no witnesses but the cardinal, a few of her
women, and myself, she wept bitterly. Seeing her in that

214 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. vm.

state, we begged her to go to bed ; which she did ; but could
find no rest in any place. At last, about midnight, God
gave her back the child so dear to her, and whose life was
so necessary to France. The fever lessened and the small-
pox came out once more. Monday and Tuesday the doctors
purged him, and thenceforth the disease diminished until
he was completely cured. The queen's alarm having passed,
she told us that she felt in the midst of it that, had she
lost the king, she could not have survived him, and that
the submission she should have wished to show to the divine
will would doubtless not have prevented her grief from
strangling her.

During this illness the king seemed to those about him to
be a prince wholly inclined to gentleness and kindness. He
spoke humanely to all who served him, said obliging and
intelligent things, and was docile to all that the doctors
desired of him. The queen received marks of affection from
him which touched her keenly ; at all moments he called to
her, and begged her to stay by him, assuring her that her
presence lessened his illness. The queen told us afterwards
that in all her sorrow she had feared losing him from tender-
ness only; and that she should have mourned for Mm
because she loved him, and in his quality as son, not as king ;
which, she said, in no wise touched her.

Frenchmen had reason to hope that they would one day
see this young king become as great through the qualities
of his soul as he already was by his crown. They regarded
him as a king given by God himself in answer to the public
prayer, and as a child of benediction ; his perfections filled
the eyes of his subjects, partly by his person, partly by his
inclinations, which all seemed good and tending towards vir-
tue and glory. The impress of the power to which God des-
tined him was already marked on his person and on all his

1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 215

actions. We never saw in him those headstrong sentiments
which are natural to most children. The queen, through
reason and the obedience he gave to her, led him always to
do what she wished of him.

I often noticed with astonishment that in his plays and
amusements the king never laughed. Those who had the
honour to approach him told him too often, I thought, that
he was the master ; and when he had some little differences
with Monsieur, occasions which happened of course in their
childhood, the queen always insisted that he should be
obeyed, and seemed to desire that his power should be re-
spected as much as he was loved. All these anticipated
grandeurs could not seem dangerous to her, in view of the
natural innocence of the young monarch; which gave her
reason to hope that God, the author of Nature, in sending
him from on high, as He did to Solomon, a spirit of wisdom
with the gift of persisting in virtuous ways, would render
his life pleasing in His sight, and his reign accompanied by
continual prosperity. " The principality of the virtuous
shall be stable."

As the king grew better, the mind of the queen recovered
its usual tranquillity ; and the Court, on the arrival of the
Prince de Conde*, was filled with additional grandeur and
adorned with fresh beauty through the numbers of worthy
persons whom he brought with him. He had known of the
extreme danger of the king, but would not hasten his return,
expressly not to show eagerness at a time when it might
have seemed that he came only to share the power of the
Due d'Orle'ans, of which, apparently, he might have claimed
the greater share. He maintained this moderation, though
the queen had sent several couriers urging him to come.

A few days after the happy recovery of the king, the suffer-
ing the queen had endured from his illness, and the violence

216 MEMOIES OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. vni.

she had done herself in not wholly showing it, her wakeful
nights and anxieties, gave her a fever which was very strong
for two days. Cardinal Mazarin seemed alarmed ; but when
the doctors thought she was about to have a severe illness
the fever suddenly left her, which caused much joy to those
who loved her and had reason to be anxious at her illness.
The evening of her amendment, as I approached her and
wished to touch her pulse to see if her state was as good as
we hoped, she did me the honour to put her hand in mine ;
and I having kissed it with joy at finding it so cool, she said
she did not doubt that I was very glad of her improvement,
adding these noble words: that death had never caused
her fear ; but in the state in which she left the king and the
kingdom, France and her children caused her pity ; that this
made her offer some wishes for life ; but that the greatest of
them all was that God would give her grace to employ it well
in His service.

The Christmas festivities stopped for awhile all public and
private matters. The -queen, being at the Val de Gr^ce, saw
the little Monsieur, whom she had not yet dared to see for fear
of giving him the infection. A few days later he returned
to the Palais-Royal, and was allowed to see the king, whom
he did not recognize, so changed was he. All the ladies
returned to Court, and the king was shown to every one,
though still in a bad state from the swelling and redness of
his face. He scolded those who had abandoned him ; which
was taken as a good omen, and as a sign that he would
not be so indifferent to friendship as princes usually are.
Though I had not quitted the queen during his illness, I had
not approached him. The queen, seeing that I made an
effort to follow her into his room, where, in spite of the glory
of a crown, there was danger, commanded me not to enter
it. I had, therefore, my share in the king's little plaint, for

1647] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 217

which I consoled myself like the rest, who were not much
afflicted by it, but felt honoured by his resentment.

Thus ended this year [1647], without much happiness, or
yet real evils. Nevertheless, the ablest men at Court and
the best-informed told me on that day that they feared the
future of the State would be troubled by many evils, in view
of the bad disposition that existed in all minds. The queen,
on the contrary, on the evening of the same day, said to us,
as she was seated at her toilet-table while undressing, that
it gave her joy to enter upon a new year, because in the one
just ending she had had nothing but trouble, little success
in war, and much anxiety from the illness of her children,
whom she had feared to lose. But she was deceived in her
hopes, and had cause to regret the repose she had hitherto
enjoyed. The troubles that came upon her later taught her
that the human being knows neither his strength nor his
weakness; that our desires mislead us, and that we ought
to allow ourselves to be guided by that superior Power who
rules us. Otherwise, we find that by our own choice we
are oftener led to evil than to good.

IX.

1648.

ON the Epiphany the queen, having made her devotions,
passed the whole evening in great solitude. As she liked
repose, and her own power was a matter of indifference to
her, no one was urgent to enter her cabinets when she was
alone. The Due d'Orle'ans and the cardinal supped that
evening with the Prince de Conde*; and when such feasts
occurred all the courtiers desired to be in the train of one of
the three; so that the sovereign's apartment was left de-
serted. Far from objecting to this, she was delighted that
her creatures should follow the minister, and, without en-
joying the pleasures of solitude, which are books and revery,
she remained very willingly alone, without either pleasure
or trouble.

This evening, in order to amuse the king, she did us the
honour to have a cake brought to Madame de Bregy, my
sister, and me, which we divided with her; drinking her
health in hippocras, which she ordered for us; and she
admitted that on this occasion she should, in spite of her
natural inclinations, have felt bored without our company ;
which was a great favour, for, truth to tell, her kindness had
more share than her heart in the good treatment we received
from her. God alone, the king and Monsieur, her minis-
ter and his affairs absorbed her wholly; and the cardinal
was all the more agreeable to her because he took great
care to keep her unoccupied, and was glad to relieve her
of the greater part of the trouble her regency imposed
upon her.

1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 219

The next day the comedies began again by the wish of the
king and the whole Court ; and the ladies, much pleased at
this revival, came in full dress, intending to drive away for-
ever from the Palais-Eoyal all recollection of unpleasant
things. The king appeared with his blotched and swelled
face, and looked the uglier because he had so lately appeared
in beauty; and as it was at the theatre on Martinmas-day
that he was taken ill, Beautru [one of the first members of
the Academy, and ambassador to England and to Spain] was
fain to say that he came to return his disease to the stage.

January 7, eight hundred merchants of Paris assembled
and rebelled against a tax imposed upon the proprietors
of houses, or for other reasons of which I did not take
particular notice. They deputed ten of then- number to speak
on their behalf to the Due d'Orle'ans. These deputies went
to the Luxembourg and entered the duke's room, demanding
justice and letting him know they were resolved not to
suffer these taxes; for, in spite of the universal poverty of
the kingdom, Paris, at any rate, chose to be rich, and would
not hear of giving money to the king. The Due d'Orle'ans
made them hope for some amelioration, promised to speak of
it to the queen, showed them their duty and the obedience
they owed to her will, and dismissed them with the usual
saying of princes : " We will see about it."

The next day the same troop assembled again. It went
to the Palais de Justice, and finding there the President de
Thore*, son of d'Emery, superintendent of finances, they
shouted against him, called him the son of the tyrant, and
from threats they came within an ace of attacking him per-
sonally ; but, thanks to some of his friends, he escaped from
their hands. The next day they muttered loudly against
him, and threatened to make him suffer for the wrongs that
were being done them. This man, whose firmness will be

220 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. ix.

seen on several occasions to equal that of the most illus-
trious Komans, told them, without emotion, that if they
did not keep silence and obey the king's will, he would
have gallows erected in the square on which to hang in-
stantly the most refractory among them. To which these
insolent people answered that they would use those gallows
themselves for the wicked judges from whom no justice
could be got and who were slaves to royal favour.

On that same day, January 9, so famous for its events, the
masters of petitions \maitres de requetes magistrates whose
duty it was to present petitions and other written demands
to the council of State] mutinied also in the council because
it was proposed to increase their body by a dozen new offi-
cers. As they had bought their offices at a high price, and
this increase in number would diminish their value, they de-
clared that many families in Paris would thus become em-
barrassed, and so, resenting an evil they feared, they refused
to report the cases of private persons, and swore among them-
selves on the Holy Gospels not to allow this increase, and
to resist the persecution that might be made upon them from
the Court side. They promised one another that if any of
them lost his office by this opposition to the will of the
king, they would all subscribe to repay him the value
of the said office.

They went to see Cardinal Mazarin; and one of them
named Gomin, spoke so strongly and with such boldness
that the cardinal was startled. Council was held in the
queen's room to decide on the remedies for these turmoils.
D'fimery had the whole people on his shoulders shouting
against him; and the chancellor had the masters of peti-
tions to restrain and console. The latter really complained
less of d'fimery than of him who governed all ; but, not daring
at present to fulminate against the cardinal, they attacked

1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 221

the superintendent strongly and cast their wrath in the
meantime upon him. Therefore, in consequence of these
matters, the council sat long on that day and opinions were
much contested.

The chief president [premier president] and the king's
lawyers were sent for, a resolution was taken to issue ful-
minating decrees against all parties; and then, it being
now evening, the Prince de Cond and the cardinal went
to sup with the Due d'Orle'ans, to bury under good cheer
and cards this beginning of troubles which did not cause
as much uneasiness to the princes as it did to the minister.
He now began to see that he was the object of public
hatred, and that this hatred would fill the princes of the
blood with the sweet delusions that please great personages,
making them hope that through troubles and changes their
authority would increase as that of the king and queen
Diminished; for, as the Spanish proverb says, Rio turbio
fjanancia de pescadores ; "troubled waters are the fisher's
gain."

On the night of the 10th the burghers vented their ill-
humour by constant firing. The lieutenant of police having
sent through all the quarters of the city to know the cause,
they answered that they were trying their arms for the
king's service, adding that if they were asked to pay money
they would follow the example of the Neapolitans and
revolt. I am even assured that men had gone from house
to house during the night advising the burghers to lay in
a stock of food. All this was caused by cabals against the
Court by the parliament, by the masters of petitions, and
by that spirit of rebellion which some demon, visible or
invisible, was beginning to inspire in the soul of each indi-
vidual. Since then this demon has produced all that we
have seen of civil discord; it has caused great evils, and

222 MEMOIKS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. ix.

made our condition such that we can never in our old age
resemble our fathers, whose custom it was to laud the days
of their youth and prefer them to the present.

On the morning of the llth, the queen, on going to mass
at Notre-Dame (which she did regularly every Saturday),
was followed by about two hundred women into the church
itself. They tried to kneel before her to make her pity
them; but the guards prevented their approach, and the
queen passed on without listening to their clamours. She
told us, on her return, that she had been tempted to speak
to them. Surely the words of a queen so amiable would
have been powerful over those minds ; but she owned to us
that she had feared the insolence of such canaille, and had
therefore thought it wiser not to enter upon the subject with
people who never listened to reason, who could not compre-
hend it, having in their heads only their petty interests and
being consequently unable to appreciate the causes, however
just they may be, that compel kings to ask them for money.

After midday a council was held on immediate affairs,
before which the chief president appeared; and after long
consultation on remedies for the evil, it was decided that
the queen should order the king's lawyers (who had been
summoned for the purpose) to take measures to maintain
the authority of the king. That evening commands were
issued to the regiment of the Gardes to remain under arms,
and sentinels and guard-houses were posted in all quarters
of the city. The Mare*chal de Schomberg was commanded
to do the same with the Swiss guards, and Paris on that
night was like a military camp. The noise of fire-arms
was incessant ; and these small appearances of war fore-
shadowed a revolt of greater consequence, which, according
to the behaviour of the people and the bad disposition of the
public mind was likely to lead to some dangerous result.

1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 223

On the morning after the 12th, the king went to Notre-
Dame to hear mass, and to make his first outing after his
illness an act of grace and gratitude to Him who had
restored him to life. It was more than a week since the
queen had expressed the desire that the king should make
this little trip through Paris, therefore it was decided not to
delay it, lest it should be said they showed fear of those
who were so anxious to inspire it in the queen and in her
minister. But instead of having his usual guard for such
occasions, he went with every necessary precaution around
him. All that could serve to magnify the royal majesty
attended him, in order to excite by that means in the
minds of the people the respect that such things usually
produce in feeble souls. Many of the principal officers
were on horseback, and nearly the whole Court accompanied
him with the usual guards. While the king was at Notre-
Dame, the queen held a council, at which it was resolved
that their Majesties should go a second time before parlia-
ment to pass the edict creating the new masters of petitions,
and the other decrees which were murmured against ; and
this was done in order not to show relaxation of the resolves
already taken, and to make evident that the resistance of
officials and people was counted as nothing.

According to this resolution, the king went to parliament,
January 15 ; not with the beauty he had had on the former
occasion, but with the same ceremonies. The chancellor
made a long harangue; he represented the necessities of
the State, the need the king had that his people should give
him means to meet the costs of the war, in order that by
war we might obtain a good peace. He spoke strongly on
the power of kings, tried to establish as a fundamental law
the obedience of subjects to their princes, and showed
plainly the necessity of union between the head and the

224 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. ix.

members, saying that without it no kingdom could enjoy
true happiness.

The chief president, though an able man and usually very
eloquent, wishing to please the Court, delivered a speech
which seemed feeble to his colleagues and was not praised
even in the cabinet. That of the attorney-general, Talon,
was strong and vigorous. He represented the misery of the
people, and implored the queen to remember it in her oratory ;
telling her that she ought to consider that she ruled a free
people and not slaves; but, as things were, these very
people found themselves so oppressed by subsidies and taxes
that they might indeed say nothing was their own but their
souls for those could not be sold at auction; and the
laurels and victories won from the enemy with which the
necessities of the people were being met, were not meat to
feed them nor clothes to cover them. He said, moreover,
certain things which showed the universal dissatisfaction of
all Frenchmen at the delay of peace. His boldness was not
approved by the minister.

That evening the cardinal made war on the queen about
her being sent to her oratory by Talon. In this he was
seconded by her familiar servants, who thought she already
remained there too long, and, in the interest of their own
pleasure, continually reproached her for it. Thus the most
serious lessons given to kings make no good impression on
their minds ; for a turn to ridicule is usually given them,
which drives away the virtuous thoughts to which they
might otherwise have given birth. Princes seldom meet
with persons who speak to them strongly ; and those who do
so are the ones most frequently treated as ridiculous by the
courtiers. This is why, their reason being weakened by the
care taken to disguise from them the truth, sovereigns do not
apply themselves to distinguish the true from the false ; and,

1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 225

letting their mind go to laziness and lightly passing over
good and over evil, they are nearly always carried whitherso-
ever their ministers are pleased to lead them.

The queen, by nature equitable, pious, and well-intentioned,
often fell for these very reasons into this misfortune ; and,
not seeking to know fundamentally and studiously the cause
of the evils that she saw before her eyes, it was impossible
for her to remedy them ; consequently they became excessive
and brought her in the end to the condition of fearing all
things. To maintain the royal power, of which she had a
lofty idea, it is much to be wished, for the sake of her own
happiness, that she had herself shown clearly that she did
not choose to have the king's subjects oppressed, nor yet to
allow them to be disobedient to her. In those two points
lies the justice of kings towards their subjects, and that of
subjects towards their sovereign.

The queen, as I have said already, had a soul sufficiently
enriched by the gifts of God to govern well ; her ministers
said that her opinions on affairs of .consequence, and her
first sentiments, were always those of reason and justice;
whereas those of her prime minister showed nothing that
seemed to proceed from a lofty soul. On this very day cer-
tain counsellors of the parliament, who came to see me,
admitted that they had been much touched by the presence
of the queen. They agreed with me that she had the gift of
pleasing, and they said that France would have been happy
indeed had she chosen to govern it, or, at any rate, if she had
not abandoned it too much to her minister.

The decrees were fairly moderate ; the visit to parliament
was made more to maintain the royal authority than to in-
crease its demands. The edict for creating the twelve new
masters of petitions was the principal object, because it was
felt that the revolt of the present officers must not be allowed.

VOL. I. 15

226 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVLLLE. [CHAP. ix.

But as this affair, in the order of destiny, was fated to be the
cause and the beginning of many great events, this little
remedy, far from curing the evil, greatly embittered it and had
results which made us see that God, when it pleases Him, can
give to the ant the strength of the elephant.

The people thought they had reason to cry out against
those who were trying to rob them, and they declared that
the more taxes were levied, the more the king's coffers were
locked. It was heard on all sides that the salaries of the
crown officers and those of the leaders at Court were cut down,
that the lesser men were not paid at all, that favours had
ceased, and that the queen had lost the beautiful quality of
liberality which she held as her illustrious birthright ; and
this, though the revenues of France were still paying much.

The Court was indeed beginning to appear in a condition
of mortifying want. The minister tried to convince every-
one by his speeches (and I think he spoke the truth) that
the Due d'0rle"ans and the Prince de Conde" were squandering
the king's money, and therefore it was out of his power to do
favours. Tubeuf, at that time still in the public service,
told me that the Treasury account for the last year had
amounted to one hundred and forty-two millions, The car-
dinal was accused of having usurped a large portion of that
sum for himself ; but his modesty was still restrained within
narrower limits. The two princes, by taking much money,
prevented him from using it as he pleased ; he was at that
time only the corsair, the princes were the great robbers who
resembled Alexander.

The outcry against the minister made the war its pretext.
This sufficed to make him hated by the people, always easy
to excite by plausible reasons of the public good, and ever
charmed by the good words " peace " and " rest." I remember
that one of my friends, arriving from Rome about this time,

1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 227

told me that, having been ordered to say to the pope how
much peace was desired, and that, in order to obtain it, all
our hopes of fortunate successes in the field would be sacri-
ficed to the public good, his Holiness replied in sarcastic
tones that he did not meddle in the affair of the peace, but
he saw plainly that in order to obtain it voi altri Francesi
non volete donare che quel cTie non avete ; " to get peace, you
Frenchmen will only give that which you have not."

The next day the queen summoned before her the masters
of petitions. She received them in her great cabinet, accom-
panied by the Due d'0rle*ans, the Prince de Conde", her min-
ister, the king's council, and the whole Court. The chancellor
gave them a severe reprimand, which the queen interrupted,
of her own monition, to tell them they were strange people to
wish to limit the king's authority ; and that she would show
them he had power to create what new offices he chose. The
chancellor, continuing his harangue, dismissed them from
their offices and ordered them to give to the queen the paper
which it was said they had signed among themselves ; or else
to sign another paper stating that they had never written it.

When they heard this speech and this command, some of
them, without considering the respect they owed to the
queen, shook their heads boldly, and all gave signs that
they were not inclined to obey. After making a profound
bow, they went away, ill-pleased, and with the firm inten-
tion of defending themselves. They felt there were clouds
in the sky, that the weather was bad for the Court, and that
they themselves had a chance to resist; consequently this
severity had no good result.

The next day, January 20, they presented themselves be-
fore parliament in a body in order to oppose the enregister-
ing of the decree against them. Presenting themselves as
parties in a case, they stood before the bar ; and although the

228 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. ix.

decree had been issued in the king's presence, the chief
president did not abstain from receiving them in opposition
to it. The Court was ill-pleased, and the minister made
loud complaints ; but the chief president was clever enough
not to be shaken and to succeed in convincing the cardinal
that it was all in order. He told him that the ordinances
required him to receive them ; that parliament had power to
assemble and deliberate over matters that had even been
decreed in presence of the king ; and also that they possessed
the right to remonstrate with him. This answer obliged the
queen to summon the parliament in a body to tell them that
at first she had thought their conduct blamable in listening
as they had to the opposition of the masters of petitions ; but
that having subsequently learned they were entitled by their
ordinances to do so, she excused them, and consented that
they should have assembled, as they had done, to confer, and
even to go so far as to remonstrate ; but she ordered them
not to go further, and not to assemble again.

The parliament replied with fine protestations of fidelity ;
and then, without the slightest regard to the queen's com-
mand, they assembled as many times as they thought
necessary to satisfy their fancy. We shall see other such
commands, often reiterated and often as little respected.

In the beginning of these disturbances in Paris the Due
d'Orle'ans kept himself one with the queen's interests and
supported her authority in every way that he could. He
was not, perhaps, sorry at some disturbance, for that, of
course, rendered him more necessary to her ; but he laid no
schemes to increase it, and his intentions seemed upright
and altogether in the line of equity and justice. The Abb
de La Riviere, through his temperament, his interests, and
his common-sense, turned his master ever towards peace;
nattering himself with the hope of becoming some day a

1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 229

cardinal, he rendered to the queen and her minister such
services as he thought most useful and agreeable to them.
The mischief-makers and the malcontents were in despair
because, desiring disturbances and change, they saw it was
impossible to get much of them so long as the Due d'Orle'ans,
uncle of the king, continued attached to the interests of the
queen. What might really be called kindness in the char-
acter of the duke was attributed by them to weakness ; that
which to men of honour seemed a virtue, they despised,
saying that if the master lacked courage, his favourite de
La Kiviere was the cause of it; and that out of base
self-interest he prevented him from acquiring glory and
grandeur.

The Prince de Conde", on his side, acted in the same man-
ner ; his advantage being wholly in living at Court in the
good graces of the queen. The Due d'Orle'ans did not over-
shadow him enough to obscure his own grandeur ; the repu-
tation of the duke was not dazzling like his own ; and the
rank of lieutenant-general of the kingdom and of the armies
of the king, and that of being son and uncle of kings, could
not take from the prince the glory of having won two great
battles. For these reasons he reigned in the cabinet almost
as sovereignly as if he had been the sole prince of the blood ;
and, the Due d'Orle'ans having no son, all the grandeur of
the second branch of the family came to the prince, and
made his court much larger than that of the duke, to whom,
however, he paid great respect and homage in order to
keep him satisfied with appearances, while he enjoyed in
reality the solid advantages of power, and gave to his
creatures and his friends all that he pleased.

The Shrovetide of this year went by without any unusual
fetes. There was a ballet at which the Due de Joyeuse,
Louis de Lorraine, danced (January 23), also the Dues de

230 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. ix.

Candale, de Damoille, de Eoannet, and several others, which
was fine. The Court gaieties were moderate, and suited to
the gravity and seriousness of the queen ; she did not like
them any more than she ought. In the evening, which is
the hour for amusement, the crowd left her and she remained
in her own apartments solitary, tranquil, and content. The
courtiers all went to the cardinal; the queen wished it;
desiring nothing in the world more than to make over to
him her power, being persuaded that that of the minister
strengthened her own. Moreover, I can say with truth that
her natural indifference put her above the sentiments which
self-love and ambition usually produce in the human heart.
No doubt she despised too much the one advantage of kings
that of commanding, and of being able to contribute by
their authority and their benefits to the happiness of man-
kind, thus sharing in a way the supreme power of God him-
self. But this defect in her proceeded in part from a fine
cause which deserves more praise than blame. The effect,
nevertheless, was so contrary to her interests that she would
have done well to correct it; and for that very reason I
scarcely dare to call attention to its merits.

I have remarked that the murmuring against the cardinal
was great for not having brought about a peace. Every one,
in these first disagreements, fearing to bring on civil war,
blamed him for this one thing, and for having said, some-
times very publicly, that peace had been in his own hands.
The populace cried out against him, and minds that were
ready for revolt could not forgive him that fault.

The Dutch had requested the Due de Longueville, when
he was on the point of returning to France, to delay his
departure from Munster for a short time ; which gave rise
to the hope that through their intervention Spam would
make a treaty with us. But the King of Spam, who was

1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 231

beginning to see a change in the luck of France through
the state in which it now was, desiring that we should grant
all his demands, said openly that without great advantages
he would refuse a peace; and his proposals were so hard
that it was impossible to think of any agreement.

Therefore the Dutch, who wished to quit us, having signed
their treaty, the Due de Longueville found himself wholly
useless at Minister for the public good. He thought also of
his private interests, and asked permission to return to
France; which was granted readily, and he appeared at
Court with the sole advantage of having seen the Dutch
make peace with Spain, which was likely to be damaging
to us. The minister made the queen receive him with
evident marks of good-will. I remember that on the eve-
ning of the day he arrived, as she was undressing she said
to us much good of this prince, treating him almost as a
father to the country, although he had already been twice
opposed to the king. He was given a place in the Council ;
which at that time was a favour not as easy to obtain as it
has been since. This prerogative had really been granted
to him before he went to Miinster, up to which time none
but princes of the blood had enjoyed the privilege ; but the
malicious said that such caresses were given only to oblige
him to keep the secret of the rupture of the peace, and
the difficulties the minister had produced to prevent its
conclusion.

The parliament inconvenienced the Court by its delays.
Some among its members began to talk loudly ; and the
queen, who did not like to meet an obstacle to her power
when the authority of the king was concerned, was annoyed
by the slowness of its proceedings. She sent to ask them
whether they assumed to have the right to limit the king's
will. They took opinions on this point, and some of them

232 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. ix.

advised consulting their registers in order to make the queen
an answer authorized by examples from past centuries;
which would, no doubt, have mightily displeased the min-
ister. But the majority being of a contrary opinion, they
sent their chief president as deputy to the queen to assure
her of their obedience and fidelity, and to let her know that
what they had done to modify the decrees the king had
brought to parliament, and what they were doing in favour
of the masters of petitions were only in accordance with the
king's good pleasure, and without the least intention of
failing in the respect they owed to him as good and faithful
subjects.

These protestations were not followed up; parliament,
continuing its assemblies, did not cease to delay the register-
ing of decrees that were necessary for the service of the
king and the advantage of the minister. Their conduct
obliged the queen to summon parliament to let it know her
resolves. She wished to make it understand that it had no
right, after making its remonstrances to the king and to
herself, to oppose the registration of the decrees. She also
ordered the members to bring the sheet in which their deci-
sion had been registered, which contained the statement that
their own modifications would be carried out; her design
being to make them tear it up in her presence. But they,
having assembled, sent a message to the queen, entreating
her to think it right that they should not go to her, assuring
her that they were resolved to pay her all the respect that
was her due.

The queen, having risen earlier than usual to receive
them, held a council to decide how to answer this. It was
resolved that they should be summoned a second time and
received by the queen after her dinner. The procureur-
general, who went to them with these orders, did not find

1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 233

them in session ; weary of waiting they had departed ; which
was thought disrespectful by those who knew the respect
due by subjects to their sovereign. They were then sum-
moned for the morrow; and in order that this occasion
might be the more solemn, the dukes and peers of France
were assembled to receive them, and all the great seigneurs
then at Court were invited. As it was known that the queen
intended to give them a severe and public reprimand,
they came with humility to make excuses to her by the
mouth of the chief president, whose harangue was full of
submission, respect, and promises to obey her ; so that instead
of punishment they received from the queen a favourable
greeting, joined to a command that they should work steadily
at the king's business and make no more delays. She told
them that she gave them only eight days to conclude it.

The queen took that week to make a little journey
(March 25) to Notre-Dame de Chartres, where, during the
illness of the king, she had made a vow to go. On leaving
Paris, she reiterated to the president the command she had
given to his assembled company, and assured him that she
should be but five days on her journey. She spent the day
at Notre-Dame de Chartres with the king, whom she took
there, also Monsieur, who was removed from the hands of
women on this occasion. They gave him as governor the
Mare*chal Du Plessis-Praslin (Ce'sar de Choiseul), a great
and successful captain, who had acquired much reputation
for the battles he had won and the cities he had taken.
He commanded the army of the king in Italy, where
Cardinal Mazarin had known his merits.

During this little absence the masters of petitions, who
had been suppressed, came in a body to see the cardinal, to
entreat him to protect them with the queen and to get
them replaced in their offices. They made him excuses

234 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. ix.

for their revolt and asked for pardon and favour both. He
received them with a grave and stern face, but answered
gently that if they were willing to humiliate themselves
and obey the queen's will, he would do them good service
with her.

This action was happiness to the minister. He despatched
a courier to the queen with the news, and fully believed
that this visit meant that the masters of petitions had
resolved to submit to the creation of twelve more offices,
which at first they resisted. But they who had made this
advance only to succeed in their ends and make the car-
dinal plume himself on the glory of doing them a service,
were not satisfied with his reply and continued in their
former determination. So that it was finally decided in
council to order the counsellors of State to report all cases
of private persons, in order to let the masters of petitions
know that the king could dispense with the services of their
body. By this punishment many families in Paris were
thrown into great distress and fear lest they should lose
their offices. As persons of the long robe are for the most
part bound together by ties of parentage, this affair seemed
to them of great consequence, for it concerned all the sover-
eign courts. 1 They therefore wished to make known that
they would not permit that favourites and ministers should
annihilate, in the name of the king, such important officers ;
and one and all they united to sustain the masters of peti-
tions, intending in that way to save themselves from a
like peril.

1 Cours souveraines, or compagnies souveraines supreme courts : these
were, as given here, the court of parliament, the cour des comptes, the cour
des aides, and the grand council ; when these separate courts met for con-
sultation it was by delegates from each, who held their sessions in the
chamber of Saint-Louis, at the Palais de Justice ; hence this united court
\s called the Chamber of Saint-Louis. TR.

1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 235

The Prince de Cond began his campaign this year by a
stay of eight days at Chantilly, where he went, with all his
court, to spend Holy Week ; and the Due d'Orle'ans was
destined to be the queen's supporter in the events which it
was foreseen must arise on the parliamentary side. At this
time the two princes seemed to have good intentions to
serve the king well, whether in peace or war. The queen
spent the holy days as usual, and, to employ them worthily,
she ordered public prayers for peace ; which were not effica-
cious, because men are not worthy of the gift that God by
His Gospel gave at this time (Easter) to His apostles, say-
ing, when He appeared to them, " Peace be unto you ! "

Towards the end of April a gentleman belonging to the
household of Mademoiselle, named Saujeon, was arrested.
His sister was maid-of-honour to Madame, and the Due
d'Orle'ans did not hate her. But the inclination he had
for the sister did not prevent the disgrace of the brother,
because the reasons for it were strong, and the matter
itself seemed delicate.

At first, a great secret was made of the affair ; the queen
alone, her minister, the Due d'Orle'ans, and his favourite
knew it ; and the Court people employed some days in find-
ing out the truth, because adventures which are thought to
proceed from the cabinet cause more curiosity than matters
of any other nature. The prisoner was secretly interrogated
during a little journey which the Due d'Orle'ans made to
Limours; and though the above-named four personages
kept silence religiously, Comminges, a relative of Saujeon,
who was a friend of mine, told me the story ; but in relating
to me the matter of Saujeon's interrogation, he begged me
to keep it secret for a certain time.

Every one began to suspect the truth, but no one knew it
wholly. We saw its outburst one Thursday evening, after

236 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. ix.

the council, which was held that day in the little gallery
of the queen's apartment. The Due d'Orle'ans sent for
Mademoiselle to come to that place, where they remained
alone, the queen, Monsieur, Cardinal Mazarin, and the Abbe*
de la Eiviere. As she entered, the favourite of her father,
whom she hated, told her in a low voice that she was about
to receive a reprimand from Monsieur her father, and that
the only thing to do was to humble herself to him and to
the queen.

The gist of this affair was that Saujeon, perhaps with
Mademoiselle's consent, wished to marry her to the arch-
duke. 1 His crime was to have had an understanding with
a burgher at Furnes, and this burgher had another with a
person of quality who was at the court of the archduke.
This person, instead of working for the success of the affair
(whether by consent of his master or as a spy paid by
France to betray him), warned the cardinal of the negotia-
tion; and the minister, not being pleased with Mademoi-
selle, blackened her to the queen and spoke of this collusion
as semi-criminal and deserving of her anger. The queen,
who really thought Mademoiselle guilty, spoke of it to
Monsieur with such resentment that, in spite of his being
her father, he dared not excuse her.

The young princess, who had felt the coming storm, con-
sidered that she had better hide her uneasiness and appear
to fear nothing ; so that on the previous day (last of April)
entering the chamber of Madame her step-mother, at the
Luxembourg, she remarked, laughing, that it was said that
Saujeon was a prisoner for her sake because he wanted to
marry her to the archduke ; as for her, she thought it amus-

1 Mademoiselle relates this affair at great length in her Memoirs. She
treats Saujeon as a visionary, and denies all direct participation in the
project of a marriage with the archduke. FK. ED.

1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 237

ing, but as she knew nothing about the matter she could
take no part in it except to pity him. However, here she
was, called before the council, and much disturbed by the
advice the Abbe* de La Eiviere had whispered in her ear.
She found the queen irritated; accusing her of having pri-
vate understandings with the enemies of the State, of wishing
to marry without her consent or that of her father, and of
wanting in respect towards both of them; then, having
rigorously treated her, she turned her over to the Due
d'Orle'ans, who confirmed the anger of the queen and him-
self, and did not refrain from saying everything that could
serve as a punishment for her fault.

Mademoiselle, finding herself thus openly attacked, gath-
ered strength from her weakness and sustained herself bravely
against these two persons, whom, for so many reasons, she
had to fear. She maintained boldly that she had not done
wrong and had known nothing of the negotiation. On the
contrary, she reproached Monsieur because he might, if he
had chosen, have married her to the emperor ; and she made
it plain to him that it was shameful not to protect her now
when her fame was attacked.

The queen, who listened to these words with astonishment,
did me the honour to say to me that evening that if she had
had a daughter who treated her as Mademoiselle had treated
her father she would have banished her from Court forever
and shut her up in a convent. We heard the noise of the
accusations and the defence; and though none but those
three persons spoke (the minister not wishing to show that
he had any share in the reprimand), the uproar was so great
that we who were in the adjoining cabinet were full of the
desire to know the details and the upshot of the quarrel.

Mademoiselle came from the gallery with a face more
haughty than ashamed, and her eyes were full of anger

238 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. ix.

rather than repentance. In passing, she stopped before the
Abbe* de la Kiviere and then went away to her own apart-
ments, keenly hurt to see herself abandoned by him from
whom she had the right to hope for support and consolation.
The next day the Abbe* de la Kiviere went to see her on
behalf of his master, to forbid her to see any one whomsoever
until she had confessed all she knew of the affair. The
abbe*, who perhaps would not have been sorry to please the
minister by confounding this criminal, who he knew hated
him, did all he could to make her admit the truth of the
intrigue ; but she continued firm and steadfast hi denying it.

She was greatly distressed by many painful things, and
this distress gave her a fever; she even fainted from grief
when they took away from her one of her women whom they
suspected of having aided her to have long conversations
with Saujeon. This gentleman had wished to serve a prin-
cess who deserved help ; but he belonged in duty to the king,
and was therefore blamable. His fault, nevertheless, was
more imprudent than criminal, for the motive was perfectly
innocent. Apparently, Mademoiselle wished to marry, and
in this purpose she had doubtless no intention of failing in
the respect she owed to the queen and Monsieur; but her
conduct was blamable when considered by the axioms of the
State, which forbid all private intercourse with enemies and
foreigners.

Personally, I had at that time no reason to be pleased
with the princess except for the share she gave me of her
civility to everybody ; and I cannot be suspected of ardour
in all that I may say of her; but as I make profession of
perfect sincerity I am obliged to render her this testimony.
I even had the equity, though she never knew it, to maintain
to the queen on the day of this affair, that Mademoiselle
was right not to acknowledge she was looking for a husband

1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 239

through secret intrigues ; and I told the queen that I thought

whether this were true or not that Monsieur did wrong
to abandon her and to try to make her publicly confess a
thing which was more shameful to acknowledge than to do

for a girl is not to blame for thinking of her establish-
ment, but it is not proper that this should be known ; nor
should she appear to be working for that purpose. " Fathers,
Madame," I said to her, " are accustomed, when proposals of
marriage are made, to keep to certain conventions in order
to protect the fame of their daughters, which always seem
smirched when they seek that which it is perfectly allowable
to wish for."

The queen, who always did me the honour to receive
kindly whatever came from a heart that she knew to be
faithful to her, was displeased by the sentiments which I
had on this affair, because she herself totally disapproved
of it; and that was why in her displeasure she told
the Due d'Orle'ans what I had said, and he, without con-
sidering the motive which made me speak, complained to
me and said he was astonished that I blamed his course,
because he had always thought me more his friend than that
of his daughter. Instead of justifying myself to him, I told
my sentiments to his favourite, who was sometimes reason-
able enough to receive them well. I advised him to try and
heal the quarrel, and said that I could understand that Mon-
sieur should complain of a princess who wished to marry
without the concurrence of a father like himself, and that
the queen had also reason to be angry with her. But I
insisted to him that Monsieur ought not to force her to con-
fess a thing of that nature, and that he himself ought not, out
of compliance, to embitter Monsieur against her. And I
said that if he did not endeavour to end the quarrel he would
be blamed by everybody for not making his master recognize

240 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. ix.

the true interests of Mademoiselle's reputation, which were
really his own, inasmuch as she was his daughter. I con-
cluded the conversation by telling him, in presence of Made-
moiselle de Beaumont, the princess's woman, that while it
was true she was wrong and had perhaps risked too much,
her fault was legitimate, and that the old age of the arch-
duke, his big ears, and his stern piety ought to justify her
before all the world.

This little harangue had its effect. Shortly after, Monsieur
learned the truth. Mademoiselle got some one to speak to
the cardinal and beg him to change the queen's mind as to
the accusation she made against her. Several persons spoke
to the Abbe" de La Riviere on her behalf, and the minister,
who was very glad to lay claim to some merit with her,
expressed a desire to serve her. Monsieur's favourite fol-
lowed this example; and, comprehending that it was right
that his master should show pity, he forgot his own little
resentments in order to serve her; so that finally, on the
eleventh day of her captivity, after great conferences which
it was necessary to have with the queen, the Abbe" de la
Eiviere went to take to Mademoiselle a few words of kind-
ness from Monsieur, accompanied by strong lessons and re-
spectful reprimands about her conduct.

The princess had given various subjects of annoyance to
Monsieur ; and the Comtesse de Fiesque, her governess, made
many complaints against her, accusing her of imprudence in
her actions, and particularly in not endeavouring carefully to
obtain the good graces of the minister. She blamed her for
being too much carried away by her friends and against her
enemies; and by wise and politic speeches she often drew
upon the princess little paternal punishments, gentle or severe
according to the mood in which the prince happened to be.
But, after all, he tenderly loved Mademoiselle, and always

1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 241

lived on good terms with her ; he treated her kindly, and
I have several times heard him say that his daughter fed
him ; that he was a beggar, while she was rich, and without
her he should sometimes have wanted bread.

He told the truth, for Mademoiselle having the property
of her mother, who was heiress of the house of Montpensier
and that of Joyeuse, he had always enjoyed the use of it ;
not giving her more than was needed to maintain her es-
tablishment. This inheritance he paid to her later, in conse-
quence of the suits he had with her, when, growing older,
she avenged herself upon him, and insisted on having her
property, with signs of a soul that was rather too hard
for love.

The same day, after this mollifying, Mademoiselle went to
see the queen, who received her coldly. She told her that
she ought not to plume herself on having stood out against
her father and her sovereign, not confessing the faults she
had committed ; that those who counselled her gave her, no
doubt, high praise, but that she ought not to allow herself to
be deceived by them, for they did not advise her well ; and
that she ought rather to believe that her fault was great,
because she saw it was disapproved by so kind a father
as hers and by herself, who had always treated her as
her own daughter.

Some days later peace was entirely restored by a visit she
received permission to pay to Monsieur, who, after a private
conversation, forgave her all her little faults. After that
the Court busied itself about other matters, this one being
already too old to talk about. Saujeon was sent a pris-
oner to Pierre-Encise, whence he issued soon after, in May.
About this time the little Monsieur, brother of the king, was
baptized, and named Philippe, by the Queen of England and
by Monsieur, his uncle and that of the king.

VOL. I. 16

1648.

AN event which caused the affair of Mademoiselle to be
the more quickly forgotten was the arrival of a courier sent
by the Prince de Cond to the queen, to let her know he was
beginning to march upon the enemy with a very fine army.
This news made the minister resolve to take the Court to
the frontier, that it might be well placed to assist at the
grandeur of France through the downfall of its enemies ;
which could readily be hoped with good troops and a gen-
eral like the Prince de Conde*. But the queen was detained
in Paris by a new embarrassment in the king's affairs, which
proved in the end to be of no small consequence to the
State.

The paulette was again given to all the supreme compan-
ies on condition that their salaries for four years be with-
held. 1 But to content parliament separately, as the most
important body in the kingdom, and therefore the most
to be feared, it was given to that body without the four
years' forfeiture. The Chambre des Comptes, the Cour des
Aides, the grand council, and all the officers of France, who
found themselves hampered by this treatment, complained to
parliament, and asked its assistance to maintain their right
against the oppression which, they said, had been put upon

1 Fiscal duty invented by Charles Paulet, secretary of the king's cham-
ber. By paying this tax at the beginning of each year the titulary to an
office (whether judicial or financial) secured its inheritance to his heirs.
If it were not paid, the office, in case of death, reverted to the king.
FR. ED.

1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 243

them. They pointed out to parliament that it ought to
fear being some day involved in this ordinance; that their
humiliation ought to make it apprehend that its own power
would be diminished ; and that if the courts did not sustain
one another they were all equally threatened with total ruin ;
because favourites, having no more formidable obstacle than
the power of parliament, if parliament stood alone by itself,
nothing would be easier than to diminish what power re-
mained to it, and put it on a par with the other assemblies
of the kingdom.

Parliament was moved by these reasons, by a fear of like
treatment, and also by the desire, which at that time ruled
the chief minds in that great assembly, to rise higher. It
assembled, and it murmured; nearly all its members de-
clared that if they abandoned their brethren the latter would
have the right to complain of them; and if they were ill-
treated it was to be expected that all would have their share
of woes. In short, on May 13, the Chambers having assent
bled, they gave a decision whereby a union with the othei
courts [compagnies] was agreed to, in which it was said
that " they forbade the reception of any new officers at a
time when, the paulette not being granted to all, the offices
would revert to the king, and the widows and heirs be left
non-content."

On this decision the queen ordered the chancellor to
summon parliament and declare to it, from her, that, having
gratified that body especially, her Majesty had believed it
would be grateful to her ; but, recognizing from its pro-
ceedings that it took her favour in another way, she no
longer promised to exempt it from the payment of the four
years' salaries which she had thought proper to retain from
the officers of the other companies ; and she would now
leave matters as they had been ; but she begged them to

244 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. x.

consider the necessities of the king's affairs, and to consult
as to other means of obtaining money.

This answer was too gentle for an offended master; it
appeared to come from the spirit of the minister, always
ready to come down when resisted, and to force too much
when he thought he could do so. But it had a double
meaning; the cardinal's thought was to leave the parlia-
ment in the condition hi which it was, and revenge himself
by letting its members languish hi uncertainty lest each in
dying should lose his office.

The queen sent to the registrar's office (May 18) an order
forbidding the reception of any money from parliament,
revoking the gift she had made it of the paulette, and
replacing it on the same footing as the other companies.
This course was approved by able men, and would perhaps
have succeeded had the minister been able to sustain it.
But as parliament now felt itself engaged in a great enter-
prise it believed that it ought to push its resistance farther,
and, in order to come safely out of the affair, to give birth
to an opposition to Cardinal Mazarin which would embarrass
him. It sought its means carefully; and the bad disposi-
tion of the minds at Court, the misery of all France, the
public hatred which was beginning to openly declare itself
against the minister, gave it such support that without some
special protection of God over the kingdom, it is to be
believed that parliament might then have overthrown the
monarchy.

The queen, who had not tried to gratify parliament will-
ingly, said, in speaking of this affair, that she believed it
would repent of what it had done ; and that she was not
sorry to be compelled to revoke the favour she had shown
it against her will, treating it more kindly than it deserved.
As the blood of Charles V. made her by nature haughty, she

1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 245

had never supposed that any creature, any servant, could or
would dare to defend himself against the will of the king ;
so that in all these affairs with parliament, whose rules and
quibblings she did not understand, she always wanted to
overthrow it, and believed that whatever was ordered in her
council was to be executed by that assembly.

About this time (May, 1648) the Duke of York, twelve or
thirteen years old, escaped from England under orders sent
to him by the queen, his mother, and went to Holland. He
has since related to me himself how he had kept this plan
in his heart for a whole year, without being able to execute
it. He made use at last of one of the servants whom the
queen his mother sent to him.

His governor had already had the same design, and
thought of executing it ; but he had been made answerable
for him to the English parliament, which, suspecting some
such purpose, threatened him that if he ever thought of it
the prince would be sent to the Tower of London. The
prince related to me what he had suffered, without allow-
ing any thought of escape to show itself. At last, one day
when he saw his guards amusing themselves by playing
games, he slipped out by a little back door into the park,
where the servant who helped him was waiting with
women's clothes. He put them on and went to a house in
London, where he stayed some days dressed as a girl. Then
he embarked with his equerry in a vessel which sailed for
Holland ; and as he was very handsome the sailors suspected
that he was not too virtuous.

When his flight was discovered in London he was pursued
by an English vessel, and came near being captured in sight
of Flushing. The port where he wished to land was dan-
gerous on account of the wind which was then blowing ; so
that the prince, divining th^t the vessel that followed them

246 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. x.

was after him, quitted his borrowed sex to threaten the
pilot and force him to put him ashore at the peril of his
life. When the master of the vessel, who did not want to
go to land, resisted, he took the sword of the man who was
near him and made as though he would run him through
the body, in order to make him put him ashore where he
wished to go. The master obeyed under force ; and he thus
escaped the persecutions which the barbarous subjects of his
father intended for him.

He came to France, where the king and queen received
him kindly and with the affection due to the grandson of
Henri IV. and the son of a great and unfortunate king. He
left in England the Duke of Gloucester, his younger brother,
with his governor the Duke of Northumberland; also a
princess, his sister, about eleven or twelve years old. These
two children alone received the last blessing of the king
their father when, a few months later, he was put to death.
Then the parliament sent the little prince, who remained in
their hands, and whom they never treated as a prince while
in their power, to the queen, his mother. The daughter died ;
she had seemed to feel deeply the misfortunes of the king
her father.

On the 25th of May the queen, seeing that the parliament
was determined to hold out against her will and to favour
public rights, sent to order it to come to her. When it came
the chancellor spoke to it for her, and he spoke strongly.
After this discourse she gave the members a sharp reprimand
herself, telling them that, as their company abused the
favourable intentions she had had to benefit them, she would
never in future do them favours; and she forbade them
absolutely to assemble, or to communicate among themselves
by deputies. The president wished to answer her ; but she,
her face severe and threatening, forbade him to speak. Two

1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 247

days later all the other supreme courts were summoned,
the Chambre des Comptes, the Cour des Aides, and the
Grand Council. The same things were said to them, but
with even more rigour, because they were less thought of
than the parliament ; and as the minister judged it necessary
to make the anger of the queen feared in some stronger way
than by mere words, which do no harm, several of the Grand
Council were dismissed and eight from the Cour des Aides,
who were all exiled to different parts of the kingdom. Par-
liament showed much resentment at this petty chastisement ;
and the courts one and all resolved to assemble in spite of
the queen's command.

On the day of Pentecost, the first of the month of June,
the Due de Beaufort, a prisoner for the last five years at
Vincennes, escaped from his prison about midday. He
found means to burst his chains through the cleverness of
friends and some of his family, who on this occasion served
him faithfully. He was guarded by an officer of the Gardes
du corps, and by seven or eight of the Gardes who slept in
his chamber and never left him. He was served by officers
of the king; not one of his own servants was about him;
and above all, Chavigny, who was not his friend, was
governor of Vincennes.

The officer who guarded him, named La Rame'e, had taken
to Vincennes, at the request of one of his friends, a certain
man who, under pretext of a duel that brought him under
the law on account of the king's edict against duelling, de-
sired this asylum by which to save himself. It is to be
believed, however, that he was put there by the followers of
the prince, and perhaps by consent of the officer ; but I am
ignorant of these particulars, and am only convinced by
appearances.

This man, at first, to play the good valet and show that he

248 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. x.

was not useless, busied himself more than all the others in
carefully guarding the prisoner; and it was told to the
queen, in relating the story to her, that he even went so far
as roughness. Whether it was that he went there to serve
the Due de Beaufort, or allowed himself to be gained over by
him, the duke used him to communicate his thoughts to his
friends and obtain knowledge of the plans they had made
for his release.

When the time came for executing their scheme, they
expressly chose the day of Pentecost because the solemnity
of that festival occupied every one in divine service. At the
hour when the guards dined, the duke asked La Bame'e to
let him walk in a gallery where he had obtained permission
to go and amuse himself at times. This gallery was lower
than the place where he was lodged, but still very high up,
on account of the depth of the moats which it overlooked on
two sides. La Bame'e followed him on this walk and re-
mained alone with him in the gallery. The man won over
by the duke pretended to go and dine with the rest; but,
counterfeiting illness, he took only a little wine and left the
room locking the door upon them, also several other doors
between the gallery and the room where they took their
meals.

He then went to find the prisoner and the officer who
guarded him, and entering the gallery he locked that door
also and put the keys of all the doors in his pocket. At the
next moment the Due de Beaufort, who was of commanding
figure, and this man who was secretly his, flung themselves
upon La Bame'e and prevented him from crying out. Then,
not wishing to kill him, although it was dangerous not to do
so unless he were really won over to their side, they gagged
him, bound him hand and foot, and left him. After which
they fastened a rope to the window and lowered themselves,

1648J MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVTLLE. 249

one after the other, but the valet first, as he would certainly
have been rigorously punished had he failed to escape.
They let themselves slip into the moat, the depth of which
was greater than the length of then* rope ; so that, dropping
from the end of the rope the prince ran the risk of injuring
himself, which really happened. The pain made him swoon,
and he continued a long time in that state without recover-
ing his senses.

Coming to himself after a while, four or five of his friends,
who were on the other side of the moat, and had seen him
lying half dead with terrible anxiety, flung him another rope
which he fastened round his body, and in this way they
dragged him by strength of arms up to them ; the valet first,
according to the promise the prince had made him, which
was faithfully kept. When he reached the top, he was in a
bad state, for besides the hurt he received in falling, the
rope he had tied round his body had tightened upon his
stomach under the joltings he had received in being drawn
up. But having recovered some strength through the vigour
of his courage and the fear of losing the fruit of his pains, he
rose and went to join a party of fifty men who were awaiting
him in a neighbouring wood.

A gentleman of his own family who took part in the expe-
dition, told me afterwards, that on seeing himself surrounded
by this troop of men, the joy of finding he was at liberty and
among his own people was so great that he was cured in a
moment of all his pains, and springing on a horse that was
held ready for him, he disappeared like lightning, enchanted
to breathe the air without restraint and to be able to say,
like King Francois I. when he set foot in France on return-
ing from Spain, " Ha ! I am free ! "

A woman who was gathering herbs in a garden at the edge
of the moat, with a little boy, saw all that happened of this

250 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. x.

mystery. But the men who were in ambush had so threat-
ened her to force her to be silent that, having little interest
in preventing the prince from escaping, she and her son stood
quietly looking on at all they did. As soon as he was gone
the woman went and told her husband, who was gardener of
the place, and they both went to notify the guards. But it
was then too late; men could not change what God had
ordered ; and the stars, which sometimes seem to tell the
decrees of that Sovereign, had already revealed to many per-
sons, through an astrologer named Goisel, that the Due de
Beaufort was to leave his prison on that very day.

The news at first surprised the whole Court, particularly
those who were not indifferent to it. The minister was no
doubt disturbed; but, as usual, he did not show it. The
queen, who formerly regarded the prince as a friend, and who
now hated him more for reasons of State than from inclina-
tion, consoled herself readily for the little annoyance this
escape had given her ; and doubtless a great many persons
rejoiced at it. For, besides the fact that the prince was
loved and had a great cabal taking part in his interests, the
enemies of the cardinal hoped that, being at liberty, the duke
would make a party in France and bring about a change in
the government. No one doubted that he had great desires
for revenge upon his enemy, and that the bad disposition of
many minds would easily give him means to obtain it.

The queen and the cardinal talked kindly about the
escape, and laughed over it, saying that M. de Beaufort had
done well Chavigny alone was blamed, for not having
taken care enough to guard the prisoner; and the queen
blamed him loudly for leaving the exterior of the prison
without sentinels who would have seen the plot. But
Chavigny, though driven from the council by the Due de
Beaufort and receiving him at Vincennes with joy, not being

1648] MEMOIKS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 251

now so well treated by the cardinal as he had a right to ex-
pect after the rout of " the Importants," no longer cared to
guard this enemy, whose ruin had done him no good. When
the prisoner escaped Chavigny had gone to spend the festival
at the Chartreuse, where he often went for consolation in
default of human favour ; and in justifying himself to the
queen and cardinal he alleged no other reasons except that
he considered he ought to leave that duty to the king's offi-
cers who were answerable for it, and not he, to whom no
special order for watchfulness was given.

The Due de Beaufort had lived religiously in prison ; for
it is customary with men to seek God when in trouble and
forget him in prosperity. This very thing happened to the
prince, who, penitent enough in the forest of Vincennes,
thought only of revenge and diversion as soon as he was out
of it.

Before this good luck happened to the Due de Beaufort
the cardinal was warned that a plot was preparing to set him
at liberty. He wrote to La Kame'e about it ; ordering him to
take especial care to prevent such a thing from happening.
The officer answered that unless the prince became a little
bird capable of flying out of the window, it was impossible
that he could get away ; and that very thing having hap-
pened, the cardinal showed the letter to the Mare'chal
d'Estre"es, uncle of the Due de Beaufort, who was astonished
to see that an all-powerful minister, so well warned, was
unable to avert what destiny decreed for the prisoner,
namely, to leave his prison for the accomplishment of great
events about to happen in which he was to have so large a
share.

The cardinal telt some uneasiness as to the place of the
Due de Beaufort's retreat. He was afraid he might go to
Brittany, where his principal estates lay, and would there

252 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. x.

raise a faction and disturbances. 1 But one of my friends,
to whom the cardinal communicated his thoughts on the
subject, reassured him completely, and told him that the
prince, having neither fortresses nor money, could do nothing
against the State or against him against the State on
account of his powerlessness ; against him, because the
cardinal could pay those who guarded him higher than the
duke could pay those he might employ against him.

The queen, doing me the honour to speak to me of all
this, said that the Due de Beaufort was not in a condition
to raise a party in France ; and, in regard to the cardinal's
person, she added that the prince had taken the sacraments
too many times in his prison to still retain in his soul the
intention to murder. And on my saying that perhaps he
would seek to be reconciled with her minister and would
ask him to restore him to her good graces, she answered that
the cardinal would be foolish to do that and that she should
never advise it, knowing well that M. de Beaufort was
incapable of making good use of a return to favour.

June 3, the queen went to visit the Queen of England,
who had come from Saint-Germain to spend two weeks in
Paris for the purpose of gaining the jubilee. 2 Our regent,
after visiting also the Due d'Orle'ans, who had the gout,
began herself the stations ordained to receive that sacred
liberality of the pope, who had granted it to Christians from
good motives, though it has since served in Naples to further
the interests of the King of Spain. France wisely took a
spiritual part hi it, which was preferable to that taken by
foreigners. The queen visited thirty-seven churches, though

1 The Due de Beaufort hid himself in the Vendomois, from house to
house, until the day when he could come to Paris, and go to Prudhomme's
house. FR. ED.

2 Plenary indulgence granted by the pope at certain times and on
certain occasions. TE.

1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 253

she was obliged actually to visit but one; and by this
exemplary piety she induced us to do the same, and quit
repose for toil in order that by this toil we might acquire
true rest.

The evening of the day on which she had gone through
such fatigue, both devotional and civil, she went, to refresh
herself after the heat she felt in the streets, to walk in the
garden of the Palais-Eoyal, where she spent a good part of
the night ; for her health was such that she could not bear
excess of any kind. Five persons Mademoiselle Beaumont,
my sister Mademoiselle Bertaut, commonly called Socratine
on account of her wisdom, M. de Chandenier, M. de Com-
minges, and myself had the honour of accompanying her
on this promenade. The conversation was agreeable and
free, and capable of bringing us some profit. We spoke of
what we owed to God by obligation, and what we gave to
creatures from inclination. We considered to how many
great things that obligation, bound us, and to how many evils
that inclination exposed us. After examining those two
points, we found that we gave nothing to Him to whom
we owed everything, and all to those to whom we owed
nothing.

The two men who were in our little group admitted,
through equity and a sense of justice, a part of their wrong-
doing, recognizing its injury; and we, out of sincerity,
candidly avowed, in the name of our sex, that the too great
love we felt for ourselves brought us over-much praise and
applause ; and that often flattery, which we ought to hate,
made us too sensitive to the love of human creatures. And
we concluded, to our shame, that the wisest and most vir-
tuous of women, at the age when she pleases herself and
desires to please others, has moments when she is neither
Christian nor virtuous ; for, instead of rendering to God the

254 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. x.

homage that she owes Him, she desires the adoration of
others, and would like to have over men the empire that
the Creator alone should possess.

Neither is she virtuous; because true virtue proceeds
from the heart and the sentiments of the soul, and it is
easier to keep the body exempt from corruption than the
soul without licentiousness, vanity, or weakness. In short,
we judged the human race on this ground, namely: that
defects of the spirit are worse by far than the external faults
which are seen of men ; and that the most virtuous, whether
men or women, who call themselves earthly sages, are not
so at all. After this general confession, we followed the
queen, who went to bed ; and when we left her Aurora was
just beginning to show, as the poets say, that soon she
would enrich us with her pearls ; which made us extremely
lazy on the following day.

Monday, June 5, parliament assembled, against the orders
of the queen ; but the chief president, wishing to sometimes
do his duty, prevented the members from speaking, and
would not open the session ; so that, after being all assem-
bled in the great chamber until ten o'clock without saying a
word, the members were forced to separate. But they did
not do so without great complaints against their leader, nor
without muttering loudly against him.

The next day the same thing was done; and President
Mesmes, after the chief president had spoken, told them
they did some wrong in showing tumultuously so little
respect to the queen's orders; for subjects should always
testify obedience and submission to their sovereign ; but that,
nevertheless, he freely admitted they had good reason to
apprehend harsh chains because of the iron shackles they
had seen put on others ; and that he was of opinion that the
assembly ought to employ itself in finding a remedy. On

1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 255

that point he blamed the neglect of the Chamber, as much
as he blamed its impetuosity in other ways ; and he ad-
vised that parliament should assemble on the Monday fol-
lowing to consult as to the means of satisfying the queen,
and of preventing their robes from being torn from their
backs like those of their neighbours and colleagues, who
were the first to be maltreated, and were a sign of what
would sooner or later happen to themselves.

This speech was blamed by the cardinal ; and the queen
spoke of it that night, while undressing, to Mademoiselle de
Beaumont, a friend of Madame de Mesmes. She complained
of that president as a man who seemed to have bad inten-
tions, and said that in talking of respect and submission he
doubtless intended to foment the spirit of sedition and re-
volt in the souls of his colleagues, and that she saw plainly
that he wanted to avenge himself on the cardinal, who was
the sworn enemy of his brother, Comte d'Avaux. These
opinions were inspired in her by her minister in order to get
them repeated to that lady, and by that means have them
reach President de Mesmes and induce him to correct him-
self in future and change his conduct.

June 8, the king's lawyers were summoned, and the chan-
cellor spoke to them at the council in presence of the queen,
in relation to the resolution of parliament to meet in defiance
of the prohibition. He told them that the queen, in forbid-
ding them to assemble, had no intention of opposing the
privileges of their body, but only to prevent the union of the
other courts with theirs. After which he enlarged upon
their rebellion, their want of respect, and upon the claim the
king made that it did not belong to them to protect the
other courts against his will.

The cardinal, on his side, sent for several members of the
Grand Council and the Cour des Aides, and spoke to them

256 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. x.

humanely, as they said, but very weakly. He assured them
he wished to oblige them, said that he thought their reasons
very good, and better than he had supposed them; advised
them to address themselves to him, as devout men to saints
in regard to God, in order to obtain their pardon from the
queen, as much for themselves in general as for those of
their number who had been exiled ; and he promised to exert
himself for them, begging, nevertheless, that they would obey
the king, which was necessary to maintain the due order of
the State.

These mild words, in a period of revolt, had no other effect
than to cause great contempt for the minister and produce
much ridicule of the weakness and inconsistency of his con-
duct, which was sometimes too haughty and sometimes too
humble. This story went the rounds, even of the ladies'
ruelles, and gave occasion for all France to say that the
minister was incapable of governing or of guiding the
country.

June 12, the queen, whose piety was always sacredly
occupied, in order to honour the festival of the very Holy
Sacrament, ordered to be set up on this day an altar (re-
posoir) in the first courtyard of the Palais-Royal, on which
she placed the finest tapestries of the king and the richest
ornaments a great queen ever possessed. She ordered, for this
purpose, a closed crown, to place upon the altar where the
Saint of saints was to rest, made of the finest crown jewels,
so rich and splendid that it would have been difficult, if
estimated, to put a price upon it.

After having adored Our Lord on that spot, where she
awaited the procession, she accompanied the Host on foot
through great heat to Saint-Eustache, taking with her the
king and the little Monsieur ; and the people, as they saw
her pass, gave her many benedictions, though already they

1648] MEMOIKS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 257

seemed a little alienated from the love they had formerly
borne her.

That evening she sent for the lieutenant of police, and
ordered him to release from prison a man whom President
Mesmes had sent there because he was found before his door
writing down the names of all who entered. This man had
declared on being arrested that he was there by order of the
Court and belonged to the provost of 1'Isle. The next day,
on leaving prison, he went to see the queen and complained
to her of President Mesmes, saying that he had received great
outrages from his servants. When going to bed that night
the queen told us, laughing, that she meant to avenge him
for all the wrongs he had suffered. And she did, in fact,
avenge him so well that she ordered the grand provost to
arrest all the servants of the president of whom the man
complained. 1

President de Mesmes, seeing clearly that he did not stand
well at Court, thought himself obliged to act with prudence ;
he left the game ; and the next day sent his excuses to his
colleagues, saying that he was ill, and needed change of air.
He absented himself for some time, in order to avoid the
two accusations to which he saw himself exposed, namely :
that of weakness if he spoke in parliament in favour of the
king, which he was accustomed to do when his duty obliged
him ; and that of wishing to avenge himself if he said the
least word that might seem contrary to the king's service.

He was blamed by those he wanted to satisfy ; they mur-
mured against him at Court, and his friends on the other
side said that he was very wrong to abandon his associates
at this conjuncture, when they were entering into conflict

1 Omer Talon relates the same fact, and lets it be understood that the
man was a spy of the queen. " All this," he says, " irritated the public
mind extremely, as a species of inquisition." FR. ED.

VOL i. 17

258 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. x.

with the king, and consequently had great need of assistance
as strong as that of a man like himself.

Five treasurers of France were put in prison for having
written circular letters to their colleagues, exhorting them
not to pay over the taxes that the king demanded, and to
pay themselves from the sums that passed through their
hands. The man who wrote the letter was named Frotte", a
man of worth and zealous for the public good. When he
learned what had happened to his five colleagues (a mis-
fortune from which his friends, without his knowing it, had
saved him) he presented himself to d'fimery [superinten-
dent of finance] and complained to him that he had not
been imprisoned with the others, as if it were a great affront
to him, declaring that his fame and honour were affected by
his being separated from his colleagues. He continued stead-
fast in these sentiments, and, shortly after, the prisoners were
released, because the minister was always inclined on his
own account to gentleness and pardon.

June 15, parliament assembled again to discuss the pro-
tection it wished to give, and claimed that it could give, to
the other sovereign courts [compagnies]. It chose to delib-
erate also on the annulling of its decree of union with those
courts by the order that had been brought to it from the
king ; and it finally determined that its said decree should
be maintained in spite of the one by which the king in coun-
cil had annulled it. It further resolved to meet the next
day in the Chamber of Saint-Louis for ample deliberation,
and that deputies from the other courts should be received
there. Several members on that day made fine harangues
in support of their opinions, which all went to break up the
government and blame the conduct of the minister, publicly
accusing Superintendent d'fimery of extortion and robbery.

This was a mortal blow to the prosperity of France, and

1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 259

made her enemies hope that these intestine wrangles would
replace them in the fine position from which they were
driven out by the able leadership of Cardinal Eichelieu and
the fortunate success of the regency. That this hardihood
displeased the queen and her minister, it is impossible to
doubt. After the council held in the cabinet on this affair,
it was resolved to annul once more this action of the parlia-
ment. The queen commanded Du Plessis, secretary of State,
followed by Carnavalet and a few gardes de corps, to go to the
Palais de Justice and bring to the king that decree so per-
nicious to the public peace. But the clerks at the Palais
assembled and cried out in such a way against him and his
posse, declaring that they would be killed first, that he was
compelled to return bringing nothing.

On the 16th, parliament was summoned in a body. It
came, as usual on foot, to the Palais-Eoyal. To receive it
legally, the dukes and peers, the marshals of France, and all
the officers of the crown were assembled. A dais was placed
in the great cabinet with a platform beneath it, on which
were the king and queen, seated on a species of throne sur-
rounded by all the great seigneurs of the Court. The queen's
face was stern and full of grave majesty which marked a
threatening anger.

The chancellor made the members a long discourse in the
nature of a reprimand, without, however, saying anything to
affront them. Then, having ordered their edict of union
to be read aloud, he pointed out the fault they had com-
mitted in uniting themselves like factious persons with the
other courts. He made them see how by so doing they had
fomented rebellion and disobedience among the subjects of
the king, whom they were, on the contrary, bound to main-
tain in respect for the laws and order. He also ordered to
be read aloud the decree of the Council annulling theirs, and

260 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. x.

proved to them that the king, in order to maintain his author-
ity, was forced to do as he had done. And then, coming to
their edict of the previous day, in which, without regard to
the king's command, they re-affirmed that union, he enlarged
upon their action, representing the great and injurious con-
sequences which would follow it ; and said that, even were
it accompanied by good and innocent intentions, it could
only produce much evil to the State, very bad effects upon
France, and give great hopes to her enemies.

He concluded by the reading of another decree given by
the king that same day. This last contained a long argu-
ment on all the past and present points, and annulled both
the edict the parliament had given for the union of the com-
panies and the one of the preceding day. He ordered the
members in the king's name to employ themselves in future
solely in administering justice to his subjects, and com-
manded them not to meddle again in the affairs of State.
He told them that the king alone could claim that right as
his inheritance, together with the power to govern as he
chose, either by himself or by his ministers. He said that
the votes in their assemblies had been counted, but not
weighed; that there were many wise men in their body;
that his Majesty was grieved to be unable to separate these
from the others, to praise them publicly and worthily reward
them on this occasion ; but that he would mark that differ-
ence when the time came to do so ; and then he gave orders
to the clerk on the spot to bring to the queen the record
of the last edict within twenty-four hours.

The chief president attempted to reply ; but the queen in-
terrupted him, and told him he could make no answer;
that, for her part, she knew his good intentions, and that
sufficed ; and with regard to the factious persons who were
troubling the peace of the State, she assured them that if

1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 261

they did not obey the commands of the king they would be
punished in their persons, their property, and their posterity.

In spite of this ceremony, as soon as the parliament re-
turned to the Palais the members assembled and forbade the
clerk with one voice to take their edict to the queen as she
had commanded. Moreover, they notified the delegates from
the other companies, who were waiting in the Chamber of
Saint-Louis that they could not assemble with them until
they had first deliberated among themselves over the orders
that were given them from the king.

Politicians, arguing in the cabinet over present affairs, all
said that the little respect shown by parliament for the pro-
hibitions of the queen would compel the minister to punish
it, and to employ against it, in order to maintain the king's
authority, all the means which vigorous justice could furnish
for such occasions. But, besides the fact that many persons
to whom the power of the favourite was displeasing did
not altogether disapprove of the course taken by parliament,
those who seemed to counsel punishment did not really wish
the cardinal to follow their advice. Even if such a course
had been a certain remedy for the evil, they would not have
desired it ; for they all wanted the minister's ruin, and would
have been in despair had he done the right thing to prevent
the misfortunes which they hoped would lead to it. So that
the minister, lacking true counsel and, as every one thought,
firmness, let pass all occasions to arrest the torrent at the
beginning of its flow ; and as this tolerance greatly increased
the audacity of parliament, it continued to assemble on the
following days, and to testify by its unity a great and firm
resolution to maintain its interests against the king.

The minister, who did not wish to push things to extrem-
ities, took the part of gentleness and humility, just as the
other side took that of force and arrogance. Matters could

262 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP, x,

not go on thus, one side threatening and doing no harm, the
other side offending, but with nothing to fear. It was neces-
sary that either their boldness should frighten the minister,
or that he, not willing to be frightened, should send terror
to their souls by the effects of the sovereign power. But he
did not take this course ; he laid down his arms and fol-
lowed, in spite of all ordinary maxims of policy, a system
of tolerance and gentleness.

Parliament, on its side, did not send the record it had
been ordered to convey to the queen ; the members openly
declared that their edicts should pass and those of the king
should be null, and they voted to still assemble, in spite
of the queen's prohibition, in the Chamber of Saint-Louis.
There they murmured loudly, and made known by their
speeches not only their own interests (the annual tax for
themselves and that of the officers justly exciting them), but
they declared that they meant to take cognizance of the
administration of the finances and concern themselves in
the reform of the State, which they insisted was not well
governed.

The attorney-general [Omer Talon], wishing in some de-
gree to do his duty and, as the king's lawyer, to represent to
parliament its excessive boldness, said that they were getting
so forward that either the royal authority would be degraded,
or that of parliament annihilated ; and he advised, as a wise
man, that moderation should be given to their passion.

He was treated as ridiculous by all the youth of the
assembly, as though he had uttered the greatest nonsense ;
and he who on so many occasions had shown such partiality
for the interests of parliament and the public was ill-treated
at the first word he said in behalf of the king's authority,
and forced to silence. They all retorted that he was wrong
in making such remonstrances; that they were as good

1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 263

servants of the king as himself ; that what they were doing
was for the king's service; that they sought only to reform
the abuses of the State, and especially the bad management
of the treasury.

The cardinal, finding that the mutineers held firmly
against him, resolved to go to them and to win over their
sullen spirits by smooth words and appeals to their interest.

The queen, who had threatened as a sovereign and feared
nothing, believing that exile and imprisonment would put
an end to such revolts, could with difficulty bring herself
to follow the wishes of the cardinal. She said to those
whom she thought his friends that he was too kind, and
would spoil all by trying to acquire the good graces of his
enemies.

She had a great contempt for the robe, and could not
imagine that that portion of the king's subjects could disturb
or bring change into his affairs. Moroever, she was ignorant
of the great events which, from such small beginnings,
had overthrown the most powerful monarchies and ruined
the best established empires ; so that, knowing nothing
but her own grandeur and the external pomp that en-
virons kings with guards and suites, that very splendour
(though her virtue made her despise it) rendered her
incapable of conceiving that her regency, which she saw
accompanied by so much glory, could have any revolution by
such low means. This was why she proposed punishment as
a remedy which must indubitably arrest the revolt at its
source ; which sentiment was altogether in accordance with
the good sense and advice of the ablest of her Court. She
often said to those familiarly about her that she would never
permit that canaille (meaning the men of the robe) to attack
the authority of the king, her son ; so that her minister, who
had not expected their audacity to reach a point at which he

264 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. x.

was compelled to yield, now regretted much that he had
embittered her mind against parliament.

The queen, who could be gentle and kind, had, neverthe-
less, an unparalleled firmness, which showed plainly that, if
she had been sustained, she would have followed the sternest
precepts with force and vigour on this occasion, when it was
a question of punishing servants of the king who sought to
oppose his authority. She was excusable in having this
sentiment and this severity, so long as it was limited by the
reason and kindness which always seemed to overrule in her
her opposite qualities. It is to be believed that the exile
of a few persons now would have saved great evils ; for their
punishment would no doubt have been followed by acts of
her kindness, which always urged her to do harm to none,
and to leave every one in the enjoyment of his property and
office, as in the past. But she was fated to follow the
will of her minister, and was forced to consent to what he
desired to do on this occasion.

He resolved, therefore, with the Due d'0rle*ans and the
Prince de Cond^, to offer to parliament all it demanded. He
perceived that he had pushed the sovereign companies too
far, and he meant that his present gentleness should be the
remedy. The princes and the cardinal were of one opinion
on this point, and one day, as they were talking together of
the queen and her firmness, the minister said that while he
desired greatly to pacify all things, the queen was valiant,
like a soldier who is brave because he does not understand
the danger.

According to this last resolution all the seniors of both
Chambers were requested to assemble at the house of the
Due d'Orldans, who spoke to them cordially, assured them of
his protection with the queen, promised to intercede for them,
and made them hope that the annual fee should be again

1648] MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. 265

granted to them. They were requested to no longer protect
the masters of petitions, and they were given to understand
that if they would only make a show of behaving properly
the latter would soon be restored ; also it was promised that
if they abolished that name of union, nothing should be
asked of the other courts whose defence they had taken up ;
and, finally, that the exiled members should be recalled.
The chancellor exhorted them with all his might to receive
with a good grace the favours which the queen granted them
at the instance of Monsieur, the king's uncle.

The cardinal also made them a great speech, which con-
tained the same things and concluded by begging them to
consider that, being offered all they could desire of the
queen's kindness, they would, if they refused these favours,
be guilty towards the people of whatever evils might happen,
for which they would have to answer before God and man,
and bear the stigma to posterity.

This done, it was hoped that matters would be settled;
for the presidents, who are always more for the Court than
the councillors, had made the cardinal hope that by means
of these concessions the assembly would become reasonable.
But they were not correct in this judgment, nor was the pol-
icy of the minister advantageous to the State ; which shows
plainly that the corruption of men is such that, to make
them live according to reason, they must not be treated
reasonably ; and in order to make them just, they must be
treated unjustly.

Until now parliament had had some right to oppose what
was done to the supreme courts ; and to tell the truth, the
public had need of such protection against the sovereign
power, which might sometimes be alarming in the hands
of ministers if it did not have the limitations that kings
themselves have given to it by the intervention of parlia-

266 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE. [CHAP. x.

ments. If this celebrated assembly had only taken care to
accompany its actions and words with more submission to
the orders of the king and queen, its intentions would have
been laudable and its humble remons