ArcaMax Publishing > Books > Non Fiction > Memoirs of the Court of Louis XIV and the Regency > Section 29
Memoirs of the Court of Louis XIV and the Regency

Duchesse d'Orleans

Section 29 of 33 - Table of Contents
In the reign of Henri IV. the King's illegitimate children took
precedence of the Princes of the House of Lorraine.  On the day after the
King's death, the Duc de Verneuil was about to go before the Duc de
Guise, when the latter, taking him by the arm, said, "That might have
been yesterday, but to-day matters are altered."

Two young Duchesses, not being able to see their lovers, invented the
following stratagem to accomplish their wishes.  These two sisters had
been educated in a convent some leagues distant from Paris.  A nun of
their acquaintance happening to die there, they pretended to be much
afflicted at it, and requested permission to perform the last duties to
her, and to be present at her funeral.  They were believed to be sincere,
and the permission they asked was readily granted them.  In the funeral
procession it was perceived that, besides the two ladies, there were two
other persons whom no one knew.  Upon being asked who they were, they
replied they were poor priests in need of protection; and that, having
learnt two Duchesses were to be present at the funeral, they had come to
the convent for the purpose of imploring their good offices.  When they
were presented to them, the young ladies said they would interrogate them
after the service in their chambers.  The young priests waited upon them
at the time appointed, and stayed there until the evening.  The Abbess,
who began to think their audience was too long, sent to beg the priests
would retire.  One of them seemed very melancholy, but the other laughed
as if he would burst his sides.  This was the Duc de Richelieu; the other
was the Chevalier de Guemene, the younger son of the Duke of that name.
The gentlemen themselves divulged the adventure.

The King's illegitimate children, fearing that they should be treated in
the same way as the Princes of the blood, have for some months past been
engaged in drawing a strong party of the nobility to their side, and have
presented a very unjust petition against the Dukes and Peers.  My son has
refused to receive this petition, and has interdicted them from holding
assemblies, the object of which he knows would tend to revolt.  They
have, nevertheless, continued them at the instigations of the Duc du
Maine and his wife, and have even carried their insolence so far as to
address a memorial to my son and another to the Parliament, in which they
assert that it is within the province of the nobility alone to decide
between the Princes of the blood and the legitimated Princes.  Thirty of
them have signed this memorial, of whom my son has had six arrested;
three of them have been sent to the Bastille, and the other three to
Vincennes; they are MM. de Chatillon, de Rieux, de Beaufremont, de
Polignac, de Clermont, and d'O.  The last was the Governor of the Comte
de Toulouse, and remains with him.  Clermont's wife is one of the
Duchesse de Berri's ladies.  She is not the most discreet person in the
world, and has been long in the habit of saying to any one who would
listen to her, "Whatever may come of it, my husband and I are willing to
risk our lives for the Comte de Toulouse."  It is therefore evident that
all this proceeds from the bastards.  But I must expose still further the
ingratitude of these people.  Chatillon is a poor gentleman, whose father
held a small employment under M. Gaston, one of those offices which
confer the privilege of the entree to the antechambers, and the holders
of which do not sit in the carriage with their masters.  The two
descendants, as they call themselves, of the house of Chatillon, insist
that this Chatillon, who married an attorney's daughter, is descended
from the illegitimate branches of that family.  His son was a subaltern
in the Body Guard.  In the summer time, when the young officers went to
bathe, they used to take young Chatillon with them to guard their
clothes, and for this office they gave him a crown for his supper.
Monsieur having taken this poor person into his service, gave him a
cordon bleu, and furnished him with money to commence a suit which he
subsequently gained against the House of Chatillon, and they were
compelled to recognize him.  He then made him a Captain in the Guards;
gave him a considerable pension, which my son continued, and permitted
him also to have apartments in the Palais Royal.  In these very
apartments did this ungrateful man hold those secret meetings, the end of
which was proposed to be my son's ruin.  Rieux's grandfather had
neglected to uphold the honour to which he was entitled, of being called
the King's cousin.  My son restored him to this honour, gave his brother
a place in the gendarmerie, and rendered him many other services.
Chatillon tried particularly to excite the nobility against my son; and
this is the recompense for all his kindness.  My son's wife is gay and
content, in the hope that all will go well with her brothers.

That old Maintenon has continued pretty tranquil until the termination of
the process relating to the legitimation of the bastards.  No one has
heard her utter a single expression on the subject.  This makes me
believe that she has some project in her head, but I cannot tell what it
is.

A monk, who was journeying a few days ago to Luzarche, met upon the road
a stranger, who fell into conversation with him.  He was an agreeable
companion, and related various adventures very pleasantly.  Having
learned from the monk that he was charged with the rents of the convent,
to which some estates in the neighbourhood of Luzarche belonged, the
stranger told him that he belonged to that place, whither he was
returning after a long journey; and then observing to the monk that the
road they were pursuing was roundabout, he pointed out to him a nearer
one through the forest.  When they had reached the thickest part of the
wood, the stranger alighted, and, seizing the bridle of the monk's horse,
demanded his money.  The monk replied that he thought he was travelling
with an honest man, and that he was astonished at so singular a demand.
The stranger replied that he had no time for trifling, and that the monk
must either give up his money or his life.  The monk replied, "I never
carry money about me; but if you will let me alight and go to my servant,
who carries my money, I will bring you 1,000 francs."

The robber suffered the monk to alight, who went to his servant, and,
taking from him the 1,000 francs which were in a purse, he at the same
time furnished himself with a loaded pistol which he concealed in his
sleeve.  When he returned to the thief, he threw down the purse, and, as
the robber stooped to pick it up, the monk fired and shot him dead; then,
remounting his horse, he hastened to apply to the police, and related his
adventure.  A patrole was sent back with him to the wood, and, upon
searching the robber, there were found in his pockets six whistles of
different sizes; they blew the largest of the number, upon which ten
other armed robbers soon afterwards appeared; they defended themselves,
but eventually two of them were killed and the others taken.

The Chevalier Schaub, who was employed in State affairs by Stanhope, the
English Minister, brought with him a secretary, to whom the Prince of
Wales had entrusted sixty guineas, to be paid to a M. d'Isten, who had
made a purchase of some lace to that amount for the Princess of Wales;
the brother of M. d'Isten, then living in London, had also given the same
secretary 200 guineas, to be delivered to his brother at Paris.  When the
secretary arrived he enquired at the Ambassador's where M. d'Isten lived,
and, having procured his address, he went to the house and asked for the
German gentleman.  A person appeared, who said, "I am he."  The secretary
suspecting nothing, gave him the Prince of Wales' letter and the sixty
guineas.  The fictitious d'Isten, perceiving that the secretary had a
gold watch, and a purse containing fifty other guineas, detained him to
supper; but no sooner had the secretary drank some wine than he was
seized with an invincible desire to go to sleep.  "My good friend," said
his host, "your journey has fatigued you; you had better undress and lie
down on my bed for a short time."  The secretary, who could not keep his
eyes open, consented; and no sooner had he lain down than he was asleep.
Some time after, his servant came to look for him, and awoke him; the
bottles were still standing before the bed, but the poor secretary's
pockets were emptied, and the sharper who had personated M. d'Isten had
disappeared with their valuable contents.

The Princesse Maubuisson was astonishingly pleasant and amiable.  I was
always delighted to visit her, and never felt myself tired in her
society.  I soon found myself in much greater favour than any other of
her nieces, because I could converse with her about almost everybody she
had known in the whole course of her life, which the others could not.
She used frequently to talk German with me, which she knew very well; and
she told me all her adventures.  I asked her how she could accustom
herself to the monastic life.  She laughed and said, "I never speak to
the nuns but to give orders."  She had a deaf nun with her in her own
chamber, that she might not feel any desire to speak.  She told me that
she had always been fond of a country life, and that she still could
fancy herself a country girl.  "But," I asked her, "how do you like
getting up and going to church in the middle of the night?"  She replied
that she did as the painters do, who increase the splendour of their
light by the introduction of deep shadows.  She had in general the
faculty of giving to all things a turn which deprived them of their
absurdity.

I have often heard M. Bernstorff spoken of by a person who was formerly
very agreeable to him; I mean the Duchess of Mecklenbourg, the Duc de
Luxembourg's sister.  She praised his talents very highly, and assured me
that it was she who gave him to the Duke George William.

The wife of the Marechal de Villars is running after the Comte de
Toulouse.  My son is also in her good graces, and is not a whit more
discreet.  Marechal de Villars came one day to see me; and, as he
pretends to understand medals, he asked to see mine.  Baudelot, who is a
very honest and clever man, and in whose keeping they are, was desired to
show them; he is not the most cautious man in the world, and is very
little acquainted with what is going on at Court.  He had written a
dissertation upon one of my medals, in which he proved, against the
opinion of other learned men, that the horned head which it displayed was
that of Pan and not of Jupiter Ammon.  Honest Baudelot, to display his
erudition, said to the Marshal, "Ah, Monseigneur, this is one of the
finest medals that Madame possesses: it is the triumph of Cornificius; he
has, you see, all sorts of horns.  He was like you, sir, a great general;
he wears the horns of Juno and Faunus.  Cornificius was, as you probably
well know, sir, a very able general."  Here I interrupted him.  "Let us
pass on," I said, "to the other medal; if you stop in this manner at
each, you will not have time to show the whole."

But he, full of his subject, returned to it.  "Ah, Madame," he went on,
"this is worthy of more attention than perhaps any other; Cornificius is,
indeed, one of the most rare medals in the world.  Look at it, Madame;
I beg you to observe it narrowly; here, you see, is Juno crowned, and she
is also crowning this great general."  All that I could say to him was
not sufficient to prevent Baudelot talking to the Marshal of horns.
"Monseigneur," he said, "is well versed in all these matters, and I want
him to see that I am right in insisting that these horns are those of
Faunus, not those of Jupiter Ammon."

All the people who were in the chamber, with difficulty refrained from
bursting into a loud laugh.  If the plan had been laid for the purpose,
it could not have succeeded better.  When the Marshal had gone, I, too,
indulged myself by joining in the laugh.  It was with great difficulty
that I could make Baudelot understand he had done wrong.

The same Baudelot, one day at a masked ball, had been saying a great many
civil things to the Dowager Madame, who was there masked, and whom,
therefore, he did not know.  When he came and saw that it was Madame, he
was terrified with affright: the Princess laughed beyond measure at it.

Our Princes here have no particular costume.  When they go to the
Parliament they wear only a cloak, which, in my opinion, has a very
vulgar appearance; and the more so, as they wear the 'collet' without a
cravat.  Those of the Royal Family have no privileges above the other
Dukes, excepting in their seats and the right of crossing over the
carpet, which is allowed to none but them.  The President, when he
addresses them, is uncovered, but keeps his hat on when he speaks to
everybody else.  This is the cause of those great disputes which the
Princes of the blood have had with the bastards, as may be seen by their
memorial.  The Presidents of the Parliament wear flame-coloured robes
trimmed with ermine at the neck and sleeves.

The Comtesse de Soissons, Angelique Cunegonde, the daughter of
Francois-Henri de Luxembourg, has, it must be confessed, a considerable
share of virtue and of wit; but she has also her faults, like the rest
of the world.  It may be said of her that she is truly a poor Princess.
Her husband, Louis-Henri, Chevalier de Soissons, was very ugly, having a
very long hooked nose, and eyes extremely close to it.  He was as yellow
as saffron; his mouth was extremely small for a man, and full of bad
teeth of a most villanous odour; his legs were ugly and clumsy; his
knees and feet turned inwards, which made him look when he was walking
like a parrot; and his manner of making a bow was bad.  He was rather
short than otherwise; but he had fine hair and a large quantity of it.
He was rather good-looking when a child.  I have seen portraits of him
painted at that period.  If the Comtesse de Soissons' son had resembled
his mother, he would have been very well, for her features are good, and
nothing could be better than her, eyes, her mouth, and the turn of her
face; only her nose was too large and thick, and her skin was not fine
enough.

Whoever is like the Prince Eugene in person cannot be called a handsome
man; he is shorter than his elder brother, but, with the exception of
Prince Eugene, all the rest of them are good for nothing.  The youngest,
Prince Philippe, was a great madman, and died of the small-pox at Paris.
He was of a very fair complexion, had an ungraceful manner, and always
looked distracted.  He had a nose like a hawk, a large mouth, thick lips,
and hollow cheeks; in all respects I thought he was like his elder
brother.  The third brother, who was called the Chevalier de Savoie, died
in consequence of a fall from his horse.  The Prince Eugene was a younger
brother: he had two sisters, who were equally ugly; one of them is dead,
and the other is still living (1717) in a convent in Savoy.  The elder
was of a monstrous shape, but a mere dwarf.  She led a very irregular
life.  She afterwards ran away with a rogue, the Abbe de la Bourlie, whom
she obliged to marry her at Geneva; they used to beat each other.  She is
now dead.

Prince Eugene was not in his younger days so ugly as he has become since;
but he never was good-looking, nor had he any nobility in his manner.
His eyes were pretty good, but his nose, and two large teeth which he
displayed whenever he opened his mouth, completely spoilt his face.  He
was besides always very filthy, and his coarse hair was never dressed.

This Prince is little addicted to women, and, during the whole time that
he has been here, I never heard one mentioned who has pleased him, or
whom he has distinguished or visited more than another.

His mother took no care of him; she brought him up like a scullion, and
liked better to stake her money at play than to expend it upon her
youngest son.  This is the ordinary practice of women in this country.
Prev Next All
Printer Friendly Version | Send this page to a friend | Discuss this Book
Your email address is safe with us. View our Privacy policy.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Mark Twain Category: Fiction Sections: 35 What's this? Table of Contents		Fiction Short Stories Poetry Plays Sci Fi Philosophy Religion Biography