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Memoirs of the Court of Louis XIV and the Regency

Duchesse d'Orleans

Madame la Marechale de Schomberg had a niece, Mademoiselle d'Aumale, whom
her parents had placed at St. Cyr during the King's life.  She was ugly,
but possessed great wit, and succeeded in amusing the King so well that
the old Maintenon became disturbed at it.  She picked a quarrel with her,
and wanted to send her again to the convent.  But the King opposed this,
and made the old lady bring her back.  When the King died, Mademoiselle
d'Aumale would not stay any longer with Madame de Maintenon.

When the Dauphine first arrived, she did not know a soul.  Her household
was formed before she came.  She did not know who Maintenon was; and when
Monsieur explained it to her a year or two afterwards, it was too late to
resist.  The Dauphin used at first to laugh at the old woman, but as he
was amorous of one of the Dauphine's Maids of Honour, and consequently
was acquainted with the gouvernante of the Maids of Honour,
Montchevreuil, a creature of Maintenon's, that old fool set her out in
very fair colours.  Madame de Maintenon did not scruple to estrange the
Dauphin from the Dauphine, and very piously to sell him first Rambure and
afterwards La Force.


18th April, 1719--To-day I will begin my letter with the story of Madame
de Ponikau, in Saxony.  One day during her lying-in, as she was quite
alone, a little woman dressed in the ancient French fashion came into the
room and begged her to permit a party to celebrate a wedding, promising
that they would take care it should be when she was alone.  Madame de
Ponikau having consented, one day a company of dwarfs of both sexes
entered her chamber.  They brought with them a little table, upon which a
good dinner, consisting of a great number of dishes, was placed, and
round which all the wedding guests took their seats.  In the midst of the
banquet, one of the little waiting-maids ran in, crying,

"Thank Heaven, we have escaped great perplexity. The old ----- is dead."

It is the same here, the old is dead.  She quitted this world at St.
Cyr, on Saturday last, the 15th day of April, between four and five
o'clock in the evening.  The news of the Duc du Maine and his wife being
arrested made her faint, and was probably the cause of her death, for
from that time she had not a moment's repose or content.  Her rage, and
the annihilation of her hopes of reigning with him, turned her blood.
She fell sick of the measles, and was for twenty days in great fever.
The disorder then took an unfavourable turn, and she died.  She had
concealed two years of her age, for she pretended to be only eighty-four,
while she was really eighty-six years old.  I believe that what grieved
her most in dying was to quit the world, and leave me and my son behind
her in good health.  When her approaching death was announced to her, she
said, "To die is the least event of my life."  The sums which her nephew
and niece De Noailles inherited from her were immense; but the amount
cannot be ascertained, because she had concealed a large part of her
wealth.

A cousin of hers, the Archbishop of Rouen, who created so much trouble
with respect to the Constitution, followed his dear cousin into the other
world exactly a week afterwards, on the same day, and at the same hour.

Nobody, knows what the King said to Maintenon on his death bed.  She had
retired to St. Cyr before he died.  They fetched her back, but she did
not stay, to the end.  I think the King repented of his folly in having
married her, and, indeed, notwithstanding all her contrivances, she could
not persuade him to declare their marriage.  She wept for the King's
death, but was not so deeply afflicted as she ought to have been.  She
always flattered herself with the hope of reigning together with the Duc
du Maine.

From the beginning to the end of their connection, the King's society was
always irksome to her, and she did not scruple to say so to her own
relations.  She had before been much accustomed to the company of men,
but afterwards dared see none but the King, whom she never loved, and his
Ministers.  This made her ill-tempered, and she did not fail to make
those persons who were within her power feel its effects.  My son and I
have had our share of it.  She thought only of two things, her ambition
and her amusement.  The old sorceress never loved any one but her
favourite, the Duc du Maine.  Perceiving that the Dauphine was desirous
of acting for herself and profiting by the king's favour, that she
ridiculed her to her attendants, and seemed not disposed to yield to her
domination, she withdrew her attention from her; and if the Dauphine had
not possessed great influence with the King, Maintenon would have turned
round upon her former favourite; she was therefore very soon consoled for
this Princess's death.  She thought to have the King entirely at her
disposal through the Duc du Maine, and it was for this reason that she
relied so much upon him, and was so deeply afflicted at his imprisonment.

She was not always so malicious, but her wickedness increased with her
years.  For us it had been well that she had died twenty years before,
but for the honour of the late King that event ought to have taken place
thirty-three years back, for, if I do not mistake, she was married to the
King two years after the Queen's death, which happened five-and-thirty
years ago.

If she had not been so outrageously inveterate against me, she could have
done me much more injury with the King, but she set about it too
violently; this caused the King to perceive that it was mere malice, and
therefore it had no effect.  There were three reasons why she hated me
horribly.  The first was, that the King treated me favourably.  I was
twenty-five years of age when she came into power; she saw that, instead
of suffering myself to be governed by her, I would have my own way, and,
as the King was kind to me, that I should undeceive him and counsel him
not to suffer himself to be blindly led by so worthless a person.  The
second reason was that, knowing how much I must disapprove of her
marriage with the King, she imagined I should always be an obstacle to
her being proclaimed Queen; and the third was, that I had always taken
the Dauphine's part whenever Maintenon had mortified her.  The poor
Dauphine did not know what to do with Maintenon, who possessed the King's
heart, and was acquainted with all his intentions.  Notwithstanding all
the favour she enjoyed, the old lady was somewhat timid.  If the Dauphine
could have summoned courage to threaten Maintenon, as I advised her, to
hint that her previous life was well known, and that unless she behaved
better to the Dauphine the latter would expose her to the King, but that
if, on the contrary, she would live quietly and on good terms, silence
should be kept, then Maintenon would have pursued a very different
conduct.  That wicked Bessola always prevented this, because then she
would have had no more tales to tell.

One day I found the Dauphine in the greatest distress and drowned in
tears, because the old woman had threatened to make her miserable, to
have Madame du Maine preferred to her, to make her odious to the whole
Court and to the King besides.  I laughed when she told me all this.

"Is it possible," I said, "with so much sense and courage as you possess
that you will suffer this old hag to frighten you thus?  You can have
nothing to fear: you are the Dauphine, the first person in the kingdom;
no one can do you any mischief without the most serious cause.  When,
therefore, they threaten you, answer boldly: 'I do not fear pour menaces;
Madame de Maintenon is too much beneath me, and the King is too just to
condemn without hearing me.  If you compel me I will speak to him myself,
and we shall see whether he will protect me or not.'"

The Dauphine was not backward in repeating this word for word.  The old
woman immediately said, "This is not your own speech; this proceeds from
Madame's bad advice; you have not courage enough to think thus for
yourself; however, we shall see whether Madame's friendship will be
profitable to you or not."  But from that time forth she never threatened
the Princess.  She had introduced the name of the Duchesse du Maine
adroitly enough in her threats to the Dauphine, because, having educated
the Duke, she thought her power at Court unlimited, and wished to chew
that she could prefer the last Princess of the blood before the first
person in France, and that therefore it was expedient to submit to her
and obey her.  But Bessola, who was jealous of me, and could not bear
that the Dauphine should confide in me, had been bought over by the old
woman, to whom she betrayed us, and told her all that I had said to
console the Princess; she was commissioned, besides, to torment and
intimidate her mistress as much as possible, and acquitted herself to
a miracle, terrifying her to death, and at the same time seeming to act
only from attachment, and to be entirely devoted to her.  The poor
Dauphine never distrusted this woman, who had been educated with her, and
had accompanied her to France; she did not imagine that falsehood and
perfidy existed to such an extent as this infernal creature carried them.
I was perfectly amazed at it.  I opposed Bessola, and did all I could to
console the Dauphine and to alleviate her vexation.  She told me when she
was dying that I had prolonged her life by two years by inspiring her
with courage.  My exertions, however, procured for me Maintenon's cordial
hatred, which lasted to the end of her life.  Although the Dauphine might
have something to reproach herself with, she was not to be taken to task
for it by that old woman, for who had ever led a less circumspect life
than she?  In public, or when we were together, she never said anything
unpleasant to me, for she knew that I would not have failed to answer her
properly, as I knew her whole life.  Villarceaux had told me more of her
than I desired to know.

When the King was talking to me on his death-bed she turned as red as
fire.

"Go away, Madame," said she; "the King is too much affected while he
talks to you; it may do him harm.  Pray go away."

As I went out she followed me and said, "Do not think, Madame, that I
have ever done you an ill turn with the King."

I answered her with tears, for I thought I should choke with grief:
"Madame, do not let us talk upon that subject," and so quitted her.

That humpbacked old Fagon, her favourite, used to say that he disliked
Christianity because it would not allow him to build a temple to
Maintenon and an altar to worship her.

The only trait in her character that I can find to praise is her conduct
to Montchevreuil; although she was a wicked old devil, Maintenon had
reason to love her and be kind to her, for she had fed and clothed her
when Maintenon was in great want.

I believe the old woman would not procure for Madame de Dangeau the
privilege of the tabouret, only because she was a German and of good
family.  She once had two young girls from Strasbourg brought to Court,
and made them pass for Countesses Palatine, placing them in the office of
attendants upon her nieces.  I did not know a word of it until the
Dauphine came to tell it me with tears in her eyes.

I said to her, "Do not disturb yourself, leave me alone to act; when I
have a good reason for what I do, I despise the old witch."

When I saw from my window the niece walking with these German girls,
I went into the garden and met them.  I called one of them, and asked her
who she was.  She told me, boldly, that she was a Countess Palatine of
Lutzelstein.

"By the left hand?" I asked.

"No," she replied, "I am not illegitimate; the young Count Palatine
married my mother, who is of the house of Gehlen."

"In that case," I said, "you cannot be Countess Palatine; for we never
allow such unequal marriages to hold good.  I will tell you, moreover,
that you lie when you say that the Count Palatine married your mother;
she is a -----, and the Count has married her no more than a hundred
others have done; I know her lawful husband is a hautboy-player.  If you
presume, in future, to pass yourself off as a Countess Palatine I will
have you stripped; let me never again hear anything of this; but if you
will follow my advice, and take your proper name, I shall not reproach
you.  And now you see what you have to choose between."

The girl took this so much to heart that she died some days afterwards.
As for the second, she was sent to a boarding-house in Paris, where she
became as bad as her mother; but as she changed her name I did not
trouble myself any further about her.

I told the Dauphine what I had done, who was very much obliged to me,
and confessed she should not have had courage enough to do it herself.
She feared that the King would be displeased with me; but he only said
to me, jestingly, "One must not play tricks with you about your family,
for it seems to be a matter of life or death with you."

I replied, "I hate lies."

There was a troop of Italian players who had got up a comedy called "The
Pretended Prude."  When I learnt they were going to represent it, I sent
for them and told them not to do so.  It was in vain; they played it, and
got a great deal of money by it; but they were afterwards sent away in
consequence.  They then came to me and wanted me to intercede for them;
but I said, "Why did you not take my advice?"  It was said they hit off
the character of Maintenon with the most amusing fidelity.  I should have
liked to see it, but I would not go lest the old woman should have told
the King that I had planned it out of ill-will to her.
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