Louis XIV and La Grande Mademoiselle Part 15

I trust that you will a.s.sist me with your good offices to obtain so precious a favour. If I cannot succeed in obtaining this, I beg to be permitted to pa.s.s through Paris before May,[162] having three considerable lawsuits at this date. I look, on this occasion, for the continuation of your good offices.

ANNE-MARIE-LOUISE D'ORLeANS.

The King waited two months before responding:

TO MY COUSIN MADEMOISELLE, ELDEST DAUGHTER OF THE LATE MONSEIGNEUR DUC D'ORLeANS

MY COUSIN:

It consoles me much to find you in the state of mind which your letter shows. I willingly forget the past and permit you not only to pa.s.s through Paris, but also either to dwell there, or to choose any other place of residence which may be agreeable to you, and even to come here in case you wish it, if you a.s.sure me that your conduct will always give me reason for cheris.h.i.+ng you and for treating you properly as a personage so nearly related.

I thank you for the affection with which you write to me of the Queen's pregnancy and pray, etc.

LOUIS.

Some days later Mademoiselle was _en route_ for Fontainebleau, well resolved to show herself. She was transported with joy at having recovered liberty of movement, but the Court at this time inspired her with terror. The ground had become too slippery for a person of her temperament, loving so much her independence and rebellious to all discipline.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 94: "_Portrait de Mademoiselle fait par elle-meme_" (Nov., 1657) in _La Galerie des Portraits de Mademoiselle de Montpensier_, edited by eduard de Barthelemy (Paris, 1860).]

[Footnote 95: Mme. de Rambouillet died very aged in 1665. Her influence ended in 1650.]

[Footnote 96: _Le Grand Cyrus._ The greater part of the friends of Mlle.

de Scudery are given a.s.sumed names. Mlle. Bocquet is called Agelaste.]

[Footnote 97: Cf. _La Societe francaise au XVII{e}. siecle_, vol., ch.

xv.]

[Footnote 98: This is the friend of Mme. de Sevigne.]

[Footnote 99: Sister-in-law of the preceding. She married, in 1662, Bernard, Duke of Saxe-Jena.]

[Footnote 100: Mademoiselle says in her _Memoires_ that they "_had_" them written. This is an error.]

[Footnote 101: _La Galerie des Portraits._]

[Footnote 102: M. de Barthelemy, editor of the _Galerie des Portraits_, called Honorat de Bueil, marquis de Racan; born in 1589, died in 1670.]

[Footnote 103: Or forty-six, depending upon the date of the Portrait, 1658 or 1659.]

[Footnote 104: _L'ecole des Femmes_ was issued in 1662.]

[Footnote 105: The expression is from the beautiful Marquise de Mauny, who formed part of the little Court of Saint-Fargeau.]

[Footnote 106: From Mme. de Sainctot, wife of the master of ceremonies and introducer of amba.s.sadors under Louis XIV. She was a friend of Voiture.]

[Footnote 107: The others are, _Vie de Madame de Fouquerolles_, supposed autobiography of a lady mixed up with Fronde intrigues (MS. exists in the library of the a.r.s.enal), and _La Relation de l'Isle imaginaire_ (1658), badinage upon an episode in _Don Quixote_.]

[Footnote 108: _Memoires._ Francois-Timoleon de Choisy was born in 1644.

There is some question as to who was his mother.]

[Footnote 109: Marguerite Louise d'Orleans was born July 28, 1645; Elisabeth, called Mlle. d'Alencon, December 26, 1646; Francoise-Madeleine, called Mlle. de Valois, October 13, 1648.]

[Footnote 110: Born at Tours in 1644. Her father, Laurent de La Baume Le Blanc, Seigneur de La Valliere, dying in 1654, her mother remarried Jacques de Courtavel, marquis de Saint-Remi, maitre d'hotel de Gaston d'Orleans.]

[Footnote 111: Cf. _Madame, Memoirs of Henrietta, d.u.c.h.ess of Orleans_, by Julia Cartwright (London, 1894).]

[Footnote 112: Lady Derby was a La Tremouille. The sister-in-law to whom the letters are addressed was the sister of Turenne.]

[Footnote 113: Or Charles IV.; there are two methods of counting the Dukes of Lorraine.]

[Footnote 114: See the very curious volume by M. Rodocanachi, _Les Infortunes d'une pet.i.te-fille d'Henri IV._ The marriage of the Princess Marguerite with the Duke of Tuscany took place April 19, 1661.]

[Footnote 115: _Memoires_ of Mademoiselle.]

[Footnote 116: Par Fortin de la Hoguete (1645).]

[Footnote 117: _L'Image du Souverain_ (1649).]

[Footnote 118: _Memoires pour 1667._ Ed. by Charles Dreyss.]

[Footnote 119: Portugal had again become independent in 1640.]

[Footnote 120: _Memoires_ for the year 1661.]

[Footnote 121: Mignet, _Negociations relatives a la succession d'Espagne_.]

[Footnote 122: elisabeth de France, daughter of Henry IV., born in 1602.

She married Philip IV., in 1615, gave birth to Marie-Therese in 1638, and died in 1644.]

[Footnote 123: This was the Marshal de Gramont, father of the Comte de Guiche. The "magnificence" and the "_galanterie_" of his journey to Madrid to demand the Infanta have left lively memories.]

[Footnote 124: _Souvenirs de Madame de Caylus_, _Memoires de Mme. de Motteville_, _Souvenirs sur Madame de Maintenon_, published by the Comte de Haussonville and M. G. Hanotaux.]

[Footnote 125: Married on April 1, 1661, at seventeen. Monsieur (Philippe de France, duc d'Orleans) was then twenty-one.]

[Footnote 126: _Histoire de Madame Henriette d'Angleterre_, by Mme. de La Fayette.]

[Footnote 127: _Histoire de Madame de Henriette_, etc.]

[Footnote 128: _Memoires de Mme. de Motteville._]

[Footnote 129: War between relations in regard to property.]

[Footnote 130: Letter of July 9, 1749, and _pa.s.sim_, in his correspondence.]

[Footnote 131: Cf. _La Cabale des Devots_, by M. Raoul Allier.]