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Memoirs of the Court of Louis XIV and the Regency
I would willingly have married the Prince of Orange, for by that union
I might have hoped to remain near my dear Electress (of Hanover).
Upon my arrival at Saint-Germain I felt as if I had fallen from the
clouds. The Princess Palatine went to Paris and there fixed me. I
put as good a face upon the affair as was possible; I saw very well
that I did not please my husband much, and indeed that could not be
wondered at, considering my ugliness; however, I resolved to conduct
myself in such a manner towards Monsieur that he should become
accustomed to me by my attentions, and eventually should be enabled to
endure me. Immediately upon my arrival, the King came to see me at
the Chateau Neuf, where Monsieur and I lived; he brought with him the
Dauphin, who was then a child of about ten years old. As soon as I
had finished my toilette the King returned to the old Chateau, where
he received me in the Guards' hall, and led me to the Queen,
whispering at the same time,--"Do not be frightened, Madame; she will
be more afraid of you than you of her." The King felt so much the
embarrassment of my situation that he would not quit me; he sat by my
side, and whenever it was necessary for me to rise, that is to say,
whenever a Duke or a Prince entered the apartment, he gave me a gentle
push in the side without being perceived.
According to the custom of Paris, when a marriage is made, all
property is in common; but the husband has the entire control over it.
That only which has been brought by way of dowry is taken into the
account; for this reason I never knew how much my husband received
with me. After his death, when I expected to gain my cause at Rome
and to receive some money, the disagreeable old Maintenon asked me in
the King's name to promise that if I gained the cause I would
immediately cede the half of the property to my son; and in case of
refusal I was menaced with the King's displeasure. I laughed at this,
and replied that I did not know why they threatened me, for that my
son was in the course of nature my heir, but that it was at least just
that he should stay until my death before he took possession of my
property, and that I knew the King was too equitable to require of me
anything but what was consistent with justice. I soon afterwards
received the news of the loss of my cause, and I was not sorry for it,
on account of the circumstance I have just related.
When the Abby de Tesse had convinced the Pope that his people had
decided without having read our papers, and that they had accepted
50,000 crowns from the Grand Duke to pronounce against me, he began
weeping, and said, "Am I not an unhappy man to be obliged to trust
such persons?" This will show what sort of a character the Pope was.
When I arrived in France I had only an allowance of a hundred louis
d'or for my pocket-money; and this money was always consumed in
advance. After my mother's death, when my husband received money from
the Palatinate, he increased this allowance to two hundred louis; and
once, when I was in his good graces, he gave me a thousand louis.
Besides this, the King had given me annually one thousand louis up to
the year before the marriage of my son. That supported me, but as I
would not consent to the marriage I was deprived of this sum, and it
has never been restored to me. On my first journey to Fontainebleau,
the King would have given me 2,000 pistoles, but that Monsieur begged
him to keep half of them for Madame, afterwards the Queen of
Spain.--[Marie-Louise d'Orleans, born in 1662, married, in 1679, to
Charles IL, King of Spain.]
I cared very little about it, and, nevertheless, went to
Fontainebleau, where I lost all my money at Hoca. Monsieur told me,
for the purpose of vexing me, of the good office he had done me with
the King; I only laughed at it, and told him that, if Madame had
chosen to accept the thousand pistoles from my hands, I would very
freely have given them to her. Monsieur was quite confused at this,
and, by way of repairing the offence he had committed, he took upon
himself the payment of 600 louis d'or, which I had lost over and above
the thousand pistoles.
I receive now only 456,000 francs, which is exactly consumed within
the year; if, they could have given me any less they would. I would
not be thought to make claims to which I am not entitled, but it
should be remembered that Monsieur has had the money of my family.
I was very glad when, after the birth of my daughter,
[Elizabeth-Charlotte d'Orleans, born in 1676, married, in 1697, to the
Duc de Lorraine. Philippe d'Orleans, afterwards Regent of France, was
born in 1674; there were no other children by this marriage.]
my husband proposed separate beds; for, to tell the truth, I was never
very fond of having children. When he proposed it to me, I answered,
"Yes, Monsieur, I shall be very well contented with the arrangement,
provided you do not hate me, and that you will continue to behave with
some kindness to me." He promised, and we were very well satisfied
with each other. It was, besides, very disagreeable to sleep with
Monsieur; he could not bear any one to touch him when he was asleep,
so that I was obliged to lie on the very edge of the bed; whence it
sometimes happened that I fell out like a sack. I was therefore
enchanted when Monsieur proposed to me in friendly terms, and without
any anger, to lie in separate rooms.
I obeyed the late Monsieur by not troubling him with my embraces, and
always conducted myself towards him with respect and submission.
He was a good sort of man, notwithstanding his weaknesses, which,
indeed, oftener excited my pity than my anger. I must confess that I
did occasionally express some impatience, but when he begged pardon,
it was all forgotten.
Madame de Fiennes had a considerable stock of wit, and was a great
joker; her tongue spared no one but me. Perceiving that she treated
the King and Monsieur with as little ceremony as any other persons, I
took her by the hand one day, and, leading her apart, I said to her,
"Madame, you are very agreeable; you have a great deal of wit, and the
manner in which you display it is pleasant to the King and Monsieur,
because they are accustomed to you; but to me, who am but just
arrived, I cannot say that I like it. When any persons entertain
themselves at my expense, I cannot help being very angry, and it is
for this reason that I am going to give you a little advice. If you
spare me we shall be mighty good friends; but if you treat me as I see
you treat others, I shall say nothing to you; I shall, nevertheless,
complain of you to your husband, and if he does not restrain you I
shall dismiss him."
He was my Equerry-in-Ordinary.
She promised never to speak of me, and she kept her word.
Monsieur often said to me, "How does it happen that Madame de Fiennes
never says anything severe of you?"
I answered, "Because she loves me."
I would not tell him what I had done, for he would immediately have
excited her to attack me.
I was called sometimes 'Soeur Pacifique', because I did all in my
power to maintain harmony between Monsieur and his cousins, La Grande
Mademoiselle,
[Anne-Marie-Louise d'Orleans, Duchesse de Montpensier, and
Marguerite-Louise d'Orleans, Duchess of Tuscany, daughters of Gaston,
Duc d'Orleans, but by different wives.]
and La Grande Duchesse:
[Charlotte-Eleonore-Maddleine de la Motte Houdancourt, Duchesse de
Ventadour; she was gouvernante to Louis XV.]
they quarrelled very frequently, and always like children, for the
slightest trifles.
Madame de Ventadour was my Maid of Honour for at least sixteen years.
She did not quit me until two years after the death of my husband, and
then it was by a contrivance of old Maintenon; she wished to annoy me
because she knew I was attached to this lady, who was good and
amiable, but not very cunning. Old Maintenon succeeded in depriving
me of her by means of promises and threats, which were conveyed by
Soubise, whose son had married Madame de Ventadour's daughter, and who
was an artful woman. By way of recompense she was made gouvernante.
They tried, also, to deprive me of Madame de Chateau Thiers; the old
woman employed all her power there, too, but Madame de Chateau Thiers
remained faithful to me, without telling of these attempts, which I
learnt from another source.
Madame de Monaco might, perhaps, be fond of forming very close
attachments of her own sex, and Madame de Maintenon would have put me
on the same footing; but she did not succeed, and was so much vexed at
her disappointment that she wept. Afterwards she wanted to make me in
love with the Chevalier de Vendome, and this project succeeded no
better than the other. She often said she could not think of what
disposition I must be, since I cared neither for men nor women, and
that the German nation must be colder than any other.
I like persons of that cool temperament. The poor Dauphine of Bavaria
used to send all the young coxcombs of the Court to me, knowing that I
detested such persons, and would be nearly choked with laughter at
seeing the discontented air with which I talked to them.
Falsehood and superstition were never to my taste.
The King was in the habit of saying, "Madame cannot endure unequal
marriages; she always ridicules them."
Although there are some most delightful walks at Versailles, no one
went out either on foot or in carriages but myself; the King observed
this, and said, "You are the only one who enjoys the beauties of
Versailles."
All my life, even from my earliest years, I thought myself so ugly
that I did not like to be looked at. I therefore cared little for
dress, because jewels and decoration attract attention. As Monsieur
loved to be covered with diamonds, it was fortunate that I did not
regard them, for, otherwise, we should have quarrelled about who was
to wear them. On grand occasions Monsieur used formerly to make me
dress in red; I did so, but much against my inclination, for I always
hated whatever was inconvenient to me. He always ordered my dresses,
and even used to paint my cheeks himself.
I made the Countess of Soissons laugh very heartily once. She said to
me, "How is it, Madame, that you never look in a mirror when you pass
it, as everybody else does?"
I answered, "Because I have too great a regard for myself to be fond
of seeing myself look as ugly as I really am."
I was always attached to the King; and when he did anything
disagreeable to me it was generally to please Monsieur, whose
favourites and my enemies did all they could to embroil me with him,
and through his means with the King, that I might not be able to
denounce them. It was natural enough that the King should be more
inclined to please his brother than me; but when Monsieur's conscience
reproached him, he repented of having done me ill offices with the
King, and he confessed this to the King; His Majesty would then come
to us again immediately, notwithstanding the malicious contrivances of
old Maintenon.
I have always had my own household, although during Monsieur's life I
was not the mistress of it, because all his favourites derived a share
of profit from it. Thus no one could buy any employment in my
establishment without a bribe to Grancey, to the Chevalier de
Lorraine, to Cocard, or to M. Spied. I troubled myself little about
these persons; so long as they continued to behave with proper respect
towards me, I let them alone; but when they presumed to ridicule me,
or to give me any trouble, I set them to rights without hesitation and
as they deserved.
Finding that Madame la Marechale de Clerambault was attached to me,
they removed her, and they placed my daughter under the care of Madame
la Marechale de Grancey, the creature of my, bitterest enemy, the
Chevalier de Lorraine, whose mistress was the elder sister of this
very, Grancei. It may be imagined how fit an example such a woman was
for my daughter; but all my prayers, all my, remonstrances, were in
vain.
Madame de Montespan said to me one day that it was a shame I had no
ambition, and would not take part in anything.
I replied, "If a person should have intrigued assiduously to become
Madame, could not her son permit her to enjoy that rank peaceably?
Well, then, fancy that I have become so by such means, and leave me to
repose."
"You are obstinate," said she.
"No, Madame," I answered; "but I love quiet, and I look upon all your
ambition to be pure vanity."
I thought she would have burst with spite, so angry was she. She,
however, continued,--
"But make the attempt and we will assist you."
"No," I replied, "Madame, when I think that you, who have a hundred
times more wit than I, have not been able to maintain your consequence
in that Court which you love so much, what hope can I, a poor
foreigner, have of succeeding, who know nothing of intrigue, and like
it as little?"
She was quite mortified. "Go along," she said, "you are good for
nothing."
Old Maintenon and her party had instilled into the Dauphine a deep
hatred against me; by their direction she often said very impertinent
things to me. They hoped that I should resent them to the Dauphine in
such manner as to afford her reason to complain to the King of me, and
thus draw his displeasure upon me. But as I knew the tricks of the
old woman and her coterie, I resolved not to give them that
satisfaction; I only laughed at the disobliging manner in which they
treated me, and I gave them to understand that I thought the ill
behaviour of the Dauphine was but a trick of her childhood, which she
would correct as she grew older. When I spoke to her she made me no
reply, and laughed at me with the ladies attendant upon her.
"Ladies," she once said to them, "amuse me; I am tired;" and at the
same time looked at me disdainfully. I only smiled at her, as if her
behaviour had no effect upon me.
I said, however, to old Maintenon, in a careless tone, "Madame la
Dauphine receives me ungraciously; I do not intend to quarrel with
her, but if she should become too rude I shall ask the King if he
approves of her behaviour."
The old woman was alarmed, because she knew very well that the King
had enjoined the Dauphine always to behave politely to me; she begged
me immediately not to say a word to the King, assuring me that I
should soon see the Dauphine's behaviour changed; and indeed, from
that time, the Dauphine altered her conduct, and lived upon much
better terms with me. If I had complained to the King of the ill
treatment I received from the Dauphine he would have been very angry;
but she would not have hated me the less, and she and her old aunt
would have formed means to repay me double.
Ratzenhausen has the good fortune to be sprung from a very good
family; the King was always glad to see her, because she made him
laugh; she also diverted the Dauphine, and Madame de Berri liked her
much, and made her visit her frequently. It is not surprising that we
should be good friends; we have been so since our infancy, for I was
not nine years old when I first became acquainted with her. Of all
the old women I know, there is not one who keeps up her gaiety like
Linor.
I often visited Madame de Maintenon, and did all in my power to gain
her affections, but could never succeed. The Queen of Sicily asked me
one day if I did not go out with the King in his carriage, as when she
was with us. I replied to her by some verses (from Racine's Phedre).
Madame de Torci told this again to old Maintenon, as if it applied to
her, which indeed it did, and the King was obliged to look coldly on
me for some time.
During the last three years of his life I had entirely gained my
husband to myself, so that he laughed at his own weaknesses, and was
no longer displeased at being joked with. I had suffered dreadfully
before; but from this period he confided in me entirely, and, always
took my part. By his death I saw the result of the care and pains of
thirty years vanish. After Monsieur's decease, the King sent to ask
me whither I wished to retire, whether to a convent in Paris, or to
Maubuisson, or elsewhere. I replied that as I had the honour to be of
the royal house I could not live but where the King was, and that I
intended to go directly to Versailles. The King was pleased at this,
and came to see me. He somewhat mortified me by saying that he sent
to ask me whither I wished to go because he had not imagined that I
should choose to stay where he was. I replied that I did not know who
could have told His Majesty anything so false and injurious, and that
I had a much more sincere respect and attachment for His Majesty than
those who had thus falsely accused me. The King then dismissed all
the persons present, and we had a long explanation, in the course of
which the King told me I hated Madame de Maintenon. I confessed that
I did hate her, but only through my attachment for him, and because
she did me wrong to His Majesty; nevertheless, I added that, if it
were agreeable to him that I should be reconciled to her, I was ready
to become so. The good lady was not prepared for this, or she would
not have suffered the King to come to me; he was, however, so
satisfied that he remained favourable to me up to his last hour. He
made old Maintenon come, and said to her, "Madame is willing to make
friends with you." He then caused us to embrace, and there the scene
ended. He required her also to live upon good terms with me, which
she did in appearance, but secretly played me all sorts of tricks. It
was at this time a matter of indifference to me whether I went to live
at Montargis or not, but I would not have the appearance of doing so
in consequence of any disgrace, and as if I had committed some offence
for which I was driven from the Court. I had reason to fear, besides,
that at the end of two days' journey I might be left to die of hunger,
and to avoid this risk I chose rather to be reconciled to the King.
As to going into a convent, I never once thought of it, although it
was that which old Maintenon most desired. The Castle of Montargis is
my jointure; at Orleans there is no house. St. Cloud is not a part of
the hereditary property, but was bought by Monsieur with his own
money. Therefore my jointure produces nothing; all that I have to live
on comes from the King and my son. At the commencement of my
widowhood I was left unpaid, and there was an arrear of 300,000 francs
due to me, which were not paid until after the death of Louis XIV.
What, then, would have become of me if I had chosen to retire to
Montargis? My household expenses amounted annually to 298,758 livres.
Although Monsieur received considerable wealth with me, I was obliged,
after his death, to give up to my son the jewels, movables,
pictures--in short, all that had come from my family; otherwise I
should not have had enough to live according to my rank and to keep up
my establishment, which is large. In my opinion, to do this is much
better than to wear diamonds.
My income is not more than 456,000 livres; and yet, if it please God,
I will not leave a farthing of debt. My son has just made me more
rich by adding 150,000 livres to my pension (1719). The cause of
almost all the evil which prevails here is the passion of women for
play. I have often been told to my face, "You are good for nothing;
you do not like play."
If by my influence I can serve any unfortunate persons with the
different branches of the Government, I always do so willingly; in
case of success I rejoice; in a less fortunate event I console myself
by the belief that it was not the will of God.
After the King's death I repaired to St. Cyr to pay a visit to Madame
de Maintenon. On my entering the room she said to me, "Madame, what
do you come here for?"
I replied, "I come to mingle my tears with those of her whom the King
I so much deplore loved most.--that is yourself, Madame."
"Yes, indeed," she said, "he loved me well; but he loved you, also."
I replied, "He did me the honour to say that, he would always
distinguish me by his friendship, although everything was done to make
him hate me."
I wished thus to let her understand that I was, quite aware of her
conduct, but that, being a Christian, I could pardon my enemies. If
she possessed any sensibility she must have felt some pain at thus.
receiving the forgiveness of one whom she had incessantly persecuted.
The affair of Loube is only a small part of what I have suffered here.
I have now no circle, for ladies a tabouret--[Ladies having the
privilege of seats upon small stools in the presence.]--seldom come to
me, not liking to appear but in full dress. I begged them to be
present as usual at an audience, which I was to give to the ambassador
of Malta, but not one of them came. When the late Monsieur and the
King were alive, they were more assiduous; they were not then so much
accustomed to full dresses, and when they did not come in sufficient
numbers Monsieur threatened to tell the King of it.
But this is enough, as M. Biermann said, after having preached four
hours together.