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 I
 
 FROM THE CRUSADES TO THE 
 FRENCH REVOLUTION
 
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 FROM THE CRUSADES TO THE 
 FRENCH REVOLUTION 
 
 A HISTORY OF THE 
 LA TREMOILLE FAMILY 
 
 BY 
 
 WINIFRED STEPHENS 
 
 LONDON 
 
 CONSTABLE & COMPANY LTD 
 
 1914
 
 uc 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 Without exaggeration it may be said that in the 
 history of France few families, if any, have played 
 a more persistently prominent part than the house of 
 La Tremoille. 1 For five centuries, from the Crusades to 
 the Revolution, the La Tremoille stock has never failed 
 to produce men of mark, and women too. Whether 
 for good or for evil La Tremoilles have stamped their 
 personalities on those great movements which have 
 built up modern France : on the Crusades, on the 
 Hundred Years War, on the Italian campaigns, on the 
 religious strife which followed the Reformation, on the 
 Fronde, and, during the Revolution, on the death struggle 
 of that ancien regime with which they had been so 
 intimately associated. 
 
 Outside France, too, in the affairs of England and of 
 Denmark, and in such great European movements as the 
 struggle for independence of the United Provinces and 
 the establishment of the Bourbons on the throne of Spain, 
 we shall find La Tremoilles active. We shall also find 
 them figuring in association with such famous persons as 
 Joan of Arc, Prince Rupert, Oliver Cromwell, Madame de 
 S6vign6, Prince Charles Edward, and Marie Antoinette. 
 
 To tell adequately the story of this illustrious house it 
 would be necessary, therefore, to write not only the 
 history of France through five centuries, but more than 
 
 1 This name, which in Latin was Tremulia, in French is to be found 
 in four different waj rrimoille, Tremoille, Trimouille and 
 Tremoille. The last is the form hi re adopted.
 
 vi PREFACE 
 
 one chapter in the history of other states. Such an 
 undertaking the limits of the present volume forbid. 
 My readers must brook abridgment. 
 
 The persistent dominance of the La Tremoille line the 
 modern eugenist will ascribe to the care of its members 
 always to choose their consorts from the most vigorous 
 families of the day — Montmorency, Nassau, Arragon, 
 Stanley, Conde, Hesse Cassel, Sobieski — to mention only 
 a few of the influential houses to which they were allied. 
 But the La Tremoilles have not always been equally 
 powerful. Their wealth and influence attained its zenith 
 towards the end of the sixteenth century, during the life- 
 time of Claude, the second Duke. Then with their 1,700 
 vassals, a larger number than were included in any other 
 French fief, the heads of this house were nothing more or 
 less than kinglets of western France. At Laval and at 
 Thouars, their Breton and Poitevin capitals, they kept 
 truly royal state. On the banks of the little river Thouet 
 they raised a princely pile * which cast into insignificance 
 such royal residences as Marly and Chenonceaux. Had 
 any La Tremoille a grievance against the Crown, which not 
 infrequently happened, in a very short time he could equip 
 and put into the field an army of several hundred men. 
 
 But, towards the middle of the following century, the 
 tide of their success changed and their fortunes began to 
 ebb. In the civil war of the Fronde, that last great struggle 
 of the French nobility against the centralised government 
 of Richelieu and Mazarin, a government intended to thwart 
 the aspirations of the nobles and to degrade kinglets into 
 courtiers, La Tremoille wealth, freely expended on the side 
 of the nobility, dwindled, estates grew encumbered and 
 their owners burdened with debt. 
 
 1 Still standing to-day and used as a prison. See illustration.
 
 PREFACE vii 
 
 Henceforth the Dukes of La Tremoille found it 
 impossible to keep up the double state of a hotel in Paris 
 and a court in the west. They were now compelled to 
 choose between the prestige of a great feudal lord in the 
 provinces and the glamour of a grandee at court ; they 
 elected the latter, and they began to reside more and 
 more at Paris. Poitevins and Bretons came to know 
 them no more. Thus, on the La Tremoille estates, as 
 throughout the rest of France, there grew up that 
 disastrous system of absenteeism, which caused the feudal 
 yoke so to chafe the necks of its wearers that ultimately, 
 with one great throb of agony, they cast it off. 
 
 As long as the Dukes of La Tremoille lived amongst 
 their vassals, taking a personal interest in their concerns, 
 feudal burdens, though heavy, were bearable. At the 
 bidding of the Duke and Duchess living in their midst 
 the people of Thouars had been content to slave, to give 
 their labour, as well as their money, for the building of 
 that huge castle which still dominates their town. But 
 when their princes left them to return only at rare 
 intervals, and then without ceremony or even incognito, 
 when they ceased to hold in those lordly halls the annual 
 gatherings of their numerous vassals, when the courts of 
 Thouars ceased to resound beneath the armed feet of 
 goodly companies assembling to be led to battle by their 
 chief, when corvecs had to be rendered and feudal dues paid 
 to an absent and unknown lord, then the gorges of sturdy 
 Bretons and Poitevins rose against the injustice of the 
 ancien rigime ; Thouars became one of the first pro- 
 vincial cities to set up a Jacobite club, and soon the broad 
 lands of the La Tremoilles were seized by the Government 
 of the Revolution. 
 Bui it i:, importanl t<> remark that when the state took
 
 Vlll 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 possession of the La Tremoille property, and the Jacobins 
 of Thouars could range at will through the lofty halL of 
 the castle on the Thouet, it was only on the property of 
 the Duke of that day that they wreaked their vengeance. 
 The portraits of his ancestors, with one exception, 1 they 
 venerated and even carried off to their own homes in 
 order to save them from desecration by strangers. 
 
 While Sans-Culottes were profaning the homes of his 
 ancestors, the Due de La Tremoille, Charles Bretagne, 
 was reduced to wandering over the face of Europe serving 
 in foreign armies against his republican countrymen. 
 His eldest brother, leading the forlorn hope of the ancien 
 regime in La Vendee, was taken, and by a Republican 
 court martial condemned to die beneath the walls of his 
 own castle of Laval. A few months later another brother 
 was guillotined at Paris. 
 
 After the Revolution turmoil had subsided, the late 
 Duke, Louis Charles de La Tremoille, devoted many years 
 to making known the history of his illustrious family. 
 And it is chiefly from the La Tremoille archives as pub- 
 lished by Duke Louis that the story told in this book has 
 been derived. 
 
 The history of these archives is in itself a romance. 
 When in the seventeenth century Marie de la Tour 
 d'Auvergne and her husband, Duke Henry de La Tremoille, 
 built their great chateau on the Thouet, they constructed 
 in one of its towers a strong room with a heavy iron door, 
 and here they placed the family records which had 
 accumulated through the ages. In the previous genera- 
 tion at Duke Claude's request these documents had been 
 classified and arranged by two eminent archivists of the 
 day, the brothers Scevole and Louis de Sainte-Marthe. 
 
 1 That of Marie de la Tour d'Auvergne. See post, 200.
 
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 PREFACE ix 
 
 These historians composed a summary of their researches, 
 which, after their death, was published by their son and 
 nephew, Pierre Scevole de Sainte-Marthe. This, 1 the 
 earliest known history of the La Tremoilles, appeared in 
 1668. 
 
 For a century and more the La Tremoille archives 
 rested in peace in the muniment room of Thouars. Then 
 the Revolution broke out and the Poitevin town became 
 one of the centres of the war waged in the west by the 
 courageous supporters of monarchy. More than once the 
 chateau had to stand a siege, and more than once it 
 narrowly escaped being burnt, to the ground. But 
 through all these dangers, though riddled with bullets, the 
 iron door kept out the besiegers and the archives remained 
 intact. 
 
 The time came, however, when the La Tremoilles, 
 having emigrated, their chateau, as we have said, was 
 seized by the Revolution Government. Then the muni- 
 ment room became public property. Then the battered 
 iron door was left to swing on its hinges, the chests were 
 rifled and their contents exposed to the ravages of auto- 
 graph hunters, of rats and of damp, while the finest pieces 
 of parchment the good wives of Thouars eagerly appro- 
 priated to serve as covers for their jam pots. So, when 
 Revolution wrath had subsided and Duke Charles asked 
 Napoleon's Government to restore his family records, the 
 steward sent down to Thouars to examine them, found 
 the contents of two dusts, such as remained of them, 
 strewn like SO many scraps of waste paper on the floor of 
 the muniment room. But the papers in the four remain- 
 ing chests appear to have been untouched, and they con- 
 tained enough material for the composition of a connected 
 
 1 " llistoire Gen£alogique dc la Maison de lumoille."
 
 x PREFACE 
 
 family history. Some twenty years later, when in 1830 
 Duke Charles took for his third wife the Comtesse de 
 Serrant, these documents, securely packed in eighty cases, 
 were removed to the chateau of Serrant, where most of 
 them remain to this day. 
 
 Nevertheless, the true value of these records was not 
 rightly estimated until the middle of the last century, 
 when M. Paul Marchegay, archivist, of Maine-et-Loire, in 
 search of letters from Madame de Sevigne to a La Tre- 
 moille princess, 1 obtained permission to examine them. 
 Of the letters he sought not one did M. Marchegay dis- 
 cover, 2 but he found others equally interesting, written by 
 Louise de Coligny, sister of the famous Admiral and third 
 wife of William the Silent, to her step-daughter, Charlotte 
 Brabantine, who had married Duke Claude de La Tre- 
 moille. These, with other valuable letters of the same 
 period, M. Marchegay published in three volumes. 3 
 
 Following in M. Marchegay's footsteps and with his 
 assistance Duke Louis de La Tremoille undertook for 
 publication a systematic arrangement of the family 
 archives. In 1877, there appeared for private circulation 
 a fine folio, the " Chartier de Thouars," a copy of which the 
 Duke presented to the British Museum. Then between 
 1890 and 1896 he gave to the public five handsome volumes 
 entitled " Les La Tremoille pendant cinq siecles." 
 
 From these and other minor publications it will be seen 
 
 1 See post, 203 et seq. 
 
 2 They were found elsewhere and inserted by M. Monmerque in his 
 edition of Madame de Sevigne's letters. 
 
 :! " Lettres de Louise de Coligny . . . a . . . Charlotte Brabantine 
 de Nassau, Duchesse de La Tremoille," 1872 ; " Lettres d'Elisabeth de 
 Nassau, Duchesse de Bouillon, a sa sceur Charlotte Brabantine de 
 Nassau, Duchesse de La Tremoille," 1875 ; " Correspondance de Louise 
 de Coligny recueillie par P. Marchegay," 1887. See also by the same 
 author, " Recherches historiques sur le d£partement de La Vend6e," 
 1859, and " Cartulaires du Bas-Poitou," 1877.
 
 PREFACE xi 
 
 that, despite many serious losses, there remained of the 
 La Tremoille documents an invaluable collection including 
 letters from kings and princes, correspondence between 
 other great historical personages and, by no means the 
 least interesting to English readers, the letters of that 
 famous Charlotte de La Tremoille, Countess of Derby, 
 that Lady of Lathom whom Sir Walter Scott has so 
 admirably depicted in " Peveril of the Peak." 
 
 For four centuries at least, from Froissart downwards, 
 French chronicles, memoirs and histories abound in 
 references to the members of this house. 
 
 The earliest biography of a La Tremoille was written 
 in the sixteenth century by Jean Bouchet, a Poitiers 
 lawyer, and a retainer of the great Count Louis de La 
 Tremoille. 1 In terms of extravagant adulation Bouchet 
 tells the story of his master's adventurous career and of 
 the Italian wars in which he commanded the armies of 
 three successive French Kings. 
 
 The most recent biography of a La Tremoille is a 
 volume by Edouard Barthelemy, telling the tragic story 
 of Charlotte de La Tremoille, Princesse de Conde, who was 
 accused of poisoning her huiband. Of that other and 
 later Charlotte, the Lady of Lathom, there are two 
 excellent biographies, one in English by Guizot's daughter, 
 Madame de Witt, and another more recent, in French, by 
 I /on Marlet." No less than four members of the family 
 have written their own memoirs. The letters of several 
 others have been published. For example, the corre- 
 spondence of his illustrious kinswoman, the Princesse des 
 Ursins, on the question of the Spanish succession, the Due 
 
 1 'I in . life La in< luded m Mi« baud and Poujoulat's collection of Fren< b 
 memoirs, Sei ies I ., Vol. IV. 
 
 - A third, by Miss \<<>\\ sell, contains nothing which is not to be found 
 in Madame de Witt's book save several inai i lira
 
 xii PREFACE 
 
 de La Tremoille has published in no less than six magnifi- 
 cent quarto volumes. All these sources I have con- 
 scientiously consulted, and detailed references to them 
 will be found in the following pages. 
 
 It now only remains for me to express my thanks to 
 those who by their kindness have facilitated the illustra- 
 tion of this book : to Madame la Duchesse Douairiere de 
 La Tremoille for her gracious permission to reproduce 
 pictures and portraits contained in the publications of 
 the late Due de La Tremoille ; to Mrs. Aubrey Le Blond, 
 herself a descendant of a Princesse de La Tremoille, for 
 generously placing her portrait album at my disposal ; 
 to Count Bentinck and Mr. Aldenburg Bentinck for their 
 permission to reproduce portraits in their possession ; to 
 Miss Evelyn Glover, for an excellent photograph of the 
 Castle at Vitre ; and to Miss Dorothy McDougall for 
 supplying me with an interesting collection of pictures of 
 Poitou.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 Preface ...... v 
 
 I. La Tremoilles in the Crusades and the English 
 
 Wars. 1040 — 1397 ..... 1 
 
 II. Georges de La Tremoille. 1382 (?) — 1446. . 16 
 
 III. Two Loyal Servants of King Louis XL . 42 
 
 IV. La Tremoilles in the Italian Wars . . 51 
 V. La Tremoilles in the Wars of Religion . 92 
 
 VI. The Lady of Lathom. 1559 — 1664 . . . 122 
 
 VII. Henry Charles de La Tremoille, a Hero of 
 
 the Fronde. 1620— 1672 .... 173 
 
 VIII. La Bonne Tarente and her Daughter, as they 
 
 APPEAR IN THE LETTERS OF MME. DE S£viGNE . 203 
 
 IX. " A Lieutenant of Mme. de Maintenon," La 
 
 Princesse des Ursins. 1642(F) — 1722 . . 213 
 
 X. The Princesse de Talmond, Prince Charlie's 
 Egeria, and other La Tremoilles of the 
 
 Eighteenth Century ..... 257 
 
 XL The Family During the Revolution. 1764— 1839 273 
 
 Index ........ 317
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 TO FACE 
 PAGE 
 
 Jean Bretagne, Due de La Tremoille, Marie de Salm, 
 
 DUCHESSE DE LA TREMOILLE, AND THEIR SONS 
 
 Frontispiece 
 The Chateau of Thouars in its present Condition . viii 
 The mediaeval L'Ile Bouchart and its Chateau . . 42 
 
 All that to-day remains of the Ile Bouchart 
 
 Chateau ........ 44 
 
 Louis XL, King of France ..... 46 
 
 The Chateau Wall at Bommiers .... 54 
 
 La Tour au Prevot, part of the old La Tremoille 
 
 Chateau at Thouars ...... 56 
 
 Louis II., Comte de La Tremoille [from a portrait by 
 
 Ghirlandajo, at Chantilly) ...... 60 
 
 Ludovic le More {from a portrait of the Milanese School, 
 
 now in the Louvre) ....... 74 
 
 Facade of the Church of Notre Dame at Thouars . 90 
 
 Charlotte de La Tremoille, Princesse de Conde 
 {from a portrait by Francois Oucsnct in the Bibliotheque 
 Nationale, Paris) ....... 96 
 
 Jeanne de Montmorency, Duchesse de La Tremoille 
 
 {from a portrait of the Clouct School) . . . 104 
 
 Claude de La Tremoille, Second Due de Thouars . 108 
 
 The Tomb of Charlotte de La Tremoille, Princesse 
 
 LI Covin'. . . . . . . . . I20 
 
 Charlotte de La Tremoille, Countess of Derby {from 
 
 a picture by Vandyke) ...... 130
 
 xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 TO FACE 
 PAGE 
 
 James Stanley, Earl of Derby, Husband of Charlotte 
 
 de La Tr£moille {from a picture by Vandyke) . .136 
 
 Charlotte de La Tr£moille, Countess of Derby, with 
 her Husband and their Daughter Catherine {from 
 a picture by Vandyke) ...... 154 
 
 Henry de La Tr£moille, Due de Thouars . -174 
 
 Henry Charles de La Tr£moille, Prince de Tarente . 186 
 Marie de La Tour d'Auvergne, Duchesse de La 
 
 Tr^moille et de Thouars ..... 200 
 
 The La Tr£moille Chateau at Vitre\ . . . 204 
 
 Charlotte Amfxie de La Tre'moille, Princess of 
 
 Altenburg ........ 206 
 
 Count Griffenfeld ....... 208 
 
 Francois de La Tr£moille, Marquis de Noirmoustier . 214 
 Marie Anne de La Tr£moille, Princesse des Ursins . 224 
 Madeleine de La Fayette, Duchesse de La Tr£moille, 
 and her Son, Armand Rene\ Due de La Tre^moille 
 {from a picture attributed to fervas) .... 260 
 
 Facade of the Hotel de La Tr£moille at Paris . 274 
 Marie Antoinette after the King's Death {from a 
 portrait drawn in the Temple and presented to the Princesse 
 de Tarente) ........ 282 
 
 Emmanuelle de ChAtillon, Princesse de Tarente . 292 
 Antoine Philippe, Prince de Talmond . . . 298 
 
 The Chateau of Serrant, Residence of the present 
 
 Due de La Tremoille ...... 314
 
 FROM THE CRUSADES TO THE 
 FRENCH REVOLUTION 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 LA TREMOILLES IN THE CRUSADES AND THE ENGLISH WARS. 
 
 IO4O— 1397 
 
 There is nothing to especially distinguish the small 
 market town of La Tremoille, in Poitou, from hundreds 
 of other agricultural centres scattered here and there 
 throughout the length and breadth of France. The little 
 river Benaize, on which La Tremoille stands, is spanned 
 by the usual solid stone bridge. From the bridge end 
 there rambles up aimlessly into the country-side the 
 usual Grand' Rue, with its side paths of irregular paving 
 stones and its rough cast, slate-roofed houses, many with 
 shop fronts, and generally of two stories, broken occa- 
 sionally by a low gable end or the addition of a third floor. 
 
 This is the little town which gave its name to, or 
 received its name from, the La Trcmoilles, of whom one, 
 Pierre de La Tremoille, living in 1040, is the earliest 
 known representative. But in days yet more remote, a 
 lordship of La Tremoille formed part of the domain of the 
 Counts of Poitou, and eventually became a separate fief 
 held by younger members of (he Count's family. 
 
 Of tl, 1 11 lv Sieurs de La Tremoille, little is known, 
 save thai from the days of Pierre onwards, they grew 
 in wealth, dignity, and dominions. Later from simple 
 lords or seigneurs they rose to be counts, then dukes, 
 
 C.R. b
 
 2 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 then princes, always, as we have said, allying themselves 
 with great houses, notably in the sixteenth century with 
 that of Arragon, through which they assumed the title of 
 Princes of Taranto, and claimed a right to the crown of 
 Naples, enjoying at the French court for nearly ioo years 
 privileges only accorded to foreign princes. 
 
 Down through all the ages of the family history the 
 La Tremoille women have ever occupied a position of 
 unusual honour. While the descent of the French 
 Monarchy was subject to the restrictions of the Salic Law, 
 not so the Duchy of La Tremoille, which, in the event of 
 the failure of male heirs, 1 was held capable of descending 
 through the female line. La Tremoille princesses, in the 
 seventeenth century, attained to the highest of court 
 honours, that of " having the tabouret," as it was called, 
 which meant that from the tender age of seven a princess 
 of this house might in her sovereign's presence remain 
 proudly seated on a folding chair without arms or back, 
 called a Tabouret. 
 
 Of the earliest La Tremoilles we know the bare fact 
 that they took part in the Crusades ; that Guy I. accom- 
 panied Godefroi de Bouillon to the Holy Land in 1096 ; 
 that Guy's son, Guillaume II., went with Louis VII. on 
 the second Crusade, in 1147 '> an< ^ that Thibaud or 
 Imbaud, with his three sons, in 1248, followed St. Louis 
 on his disastrous African expedition. But of Thibaud 
 we know also that in the narrow streets of an African 
 town, Mansourah, whither the vanguard of the Crusaders 
 had been led by the rash zeal of the Comte d'Artois, the 
 King's brother, he and his sons, with the flower of French 
 chivalry, assailed by the Saracens with " arrows and 
 pieces of wood," fell fighting gloriously. 
 
 1 This event has never yet occurred.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 3 
 
 Not, however, before the thirteenth century is it 
 possible to piece together anything like a connected 
 history of this house. And the first La Tremoille of whom 
 we possess any detailed knowledge is Guy VI. whose 
 parents were Guy V., Grand Panetier 1 of France in 1353, 
 and Radegonde Guenaud. 2 
 
 Born about the middle of the fourteenth century, 
 Guy VI., on his father's death, entered into vast posses- 
 sions, broad lands in such different parts of the kingdom 
 as Poitou, Berry, Bourbonnais, Burgundy, Limousin, 
 Orleannais, Savoy and lTle-de-France. This extensive 
 domain was further augmented by his marriage with 
 Marie de Sully, one of the wealthiest heiresses of her day. 
 It was Marie who brought her husband that great castle 
 of Sully on the Loire, not far from Orleans, one of the 
 most princely of La Tremoille residences. Despite the 
 renovations and additions of four centuries, in its great 
 central wing it still perpetuates the memory of the opulent 
 Madame Marie. 
 
 When still young, Sieur Guy, was already renowned as 
 un brilliant chevalier. It was in that desultory warfare 
 by which, after Crecy and Poitiers, the English gradually 
 lost the conquests they had won that Guy de La Tre- 
 moille won his spurs. In 1382, in the Cathedral of St. 
 Denis, from the hands of his sovereign, Charles VI., Guy 
 received the glorious oriflammc of Clovis and of Charle- 
 magne, the sacred standard of France, woven of costly 
 silk, called sandal, and edged about with tassels of green, 
 which he bore gallantly before his king into battle 
 with the English. Two years later Guy was appointed 
 
 1 Master of the King's pantry. 
 1 oi Guy's other children, see Anselme, "Histoire Genealogique ct 
 Chronologique," IV., 181. 
 
 B 2
 
 4 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 one of the ambassadors to cross the Channel and treat of 
 peace with England. There so deeply did he impress 
 the English as a gallant knight, that two years later 
 still, Sir Peter Courtenay journeyed into France with no 
 object but to break a lance with this expert warrior. 
 
 Together Guy and his adversary tilted before the King 
 and his court, while the Duchess of Burgundy, wife of the 
 great Philip the Bold, commanded prayers to be offered 
 for the success of the French champion. But King 
 Charles, hesitating to take sides, and equally dreading the 
 mischance of either combatant, of his good vassal, or of 
 his trustful guest, after a few bouts ordered the lists to be 
 closed before either knight had won any vantage. 
 
 At such treatment we are not surprised to find Sir 
 Peter bitterly incensed. Only with rich gifts and fair 
 words was his anger appeased ; but even these did 
 not entirely content him, for on the way home he 
 complained bitterly of the French King's action. The 
 numerous heralds, who had accompanied the knight from 
 England, were perhaps better pleased, for they had 
 received between them from the King's uncle, the Duke 
 of Burgundy, no less a sum than 150 francs, which is more 
 than ten times as much in modern money. Meanwhile, 
 the great Duke Philip testified his appreciation of the 
 valour and prowess of his cher et feal cousin, as he called 
 LaTremoille, by appointing him his executor, and directing 
 that on his death he should be interred at the Duke's 
 feet in the Carthusian monastery of Champnol-les-Dijon. 
 Here we note the earliest evidence of that close connection 
 between the La Tremoilles and the Dukes of Burgundy, 
 which was to endure for more than a century. 1 
 
 1 Some writers describe the La Tremoilles as of Burgundian origin. 
 It is certain that from very early times they held lands in Burgundy.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 5 
 
 Closely associated with his suzerain, Duke Philip, was 
 Guy de La Tremoille in that monster expedition against 
 England, which was one of the greatest wonders and the 
 most disastrous failures of the age. For like Napoleon's 
 expedition, this vast host, having assembled through 
 many months on the coast of Flanders, never even 
 succeeded in crossing the Channel. 
 
 " The biggest fleet that had ever been seen since the 
 creation of the world," 1,400 ships, hired or purchased 
 from well nigh every maritime power in Europe, Duke 
 Philip, during the summer of 1386, assembled in Flemish 
 harbours. .Meanwhile to the camp at Arras there 
 flocked the flower of French chivalry, hundreds of knights, 
 who lavished on their accoutrement untold sums, for 
 which they looked to recoup themselves by booty captured 
 in England. Covered with silken tents from which 
 floated all the pomp of heraldry — lions, dragons, and 
 unicorns, destined to defy the leopards of England — the 
 camp at Arras in its magnificence anticipated the Field 
 of the Cloth of Gold. Accompanying the knights was a 
 vast host, mustering no less than 8,000 men-at-arms and 
 60,000 foot-soldiers ; while for the feeding of this great 
 multitude there was gathered from every part of France 
 vast store of victuals — hay, oats, wine, sacks of flour, 
 barrels of salt and of onions, and casks filled with yolks 
 of eggs. 
 
 But the crowning glory of Duke Philip's preparations 
 was a complete wooden town with houses, towers and 
 palisades, constructed in Breton forests, and intended to 
 be set up on British shores, where it was to form .1 kind of 
 moveable Calais for the shelter of French troops. No 
 less than seventy-two vessels were sent to convey this 
 marvellous triumph of medieval engineering to Flanders.
 
 6 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 But now mischance began to overtake Duke Philip's scheme. 
 Between Flanders and Brittany, tempests beat upon the 
 wooden town, and shattered it to pieces. Meanwhile the 
 host at Arras was awaiting the coming of the King who 
 was to command it. But quarrels at court and jealousy 
 of Duke Philip were delaying the King's departure, and 
 the summer months were fleeting by. When at length 
 he arrived at Arras, the most favourable time for 
 crossing had passed, autumn had set in, the ruined 
 knights had begun to return to their mortgaged demesnes, 
 the vast host was dwindling ; then the equinoctial gales 
 began, the sea guarded Great Britain. 
 
 " And Ocean 'mid his uproar wild 
 Spoke safety to his island-child." l 
 
 Thus vanished Guy de La Tremoille's first and only 
 opportunity of displaying his warlike prowess on English 
 soil. 
 
 Then for a while there was peace between France 
 and England. So now warriors on both sides the Channel 
 might together turn their arms against the Infidel. In 
 1389, as in St. Louis' day, it was against the African 
 Miscreant that the Crusade was directed. Guy de La 
 Tremoille, with his brother Guillaume, and his brother- 
 in-law Sully, was not loath, we may be sure, to follow 
 the Due de Bourbon, another of the King's uncles, who 
 led the French Crusaders. 
 
 In some of his most picturesque passages, Froissart has 
 described the voyage of these " Christen men " to what 
 he calls " the town of Afryke," the modern Almalia, very 
 near the site of ancient Carthage. 
 
 ' The trumpets blew up at their departing," writes 
 
 1 Coleridge, " Ode on the Departing Year," quoted bv Michelet, " Hist. 
 de France," Bk. VII., Chap. II.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 7 
 
 the historian, 1 "and it was great pleasure to behold how 
 they rowed abroad in the sea, which was peaceable, calm 
 and fair, showing herself desirous that the Christen men 
 should come before the .strong town of Afryke. The 
 Christen navy was goodly to regard, and well ordered ; 
 and it was great beauty to see the banners and penons of 
 silk, with the arms and badges of the lordes and other, 
 waving with the wind, and shining against the sun. 
 Coming to the haven of Afryke, the Christen men lodged 
 all night there. The next morning the weather was fair 
 and clear, and the air in good temper, and the sun rose, 
 that it was pleasure to behold. Then the Christen men 
 began to stir and to make ready to take land. Then 
 trumpets and clarions began to sound in the galleys and 
 vessels, and made great noise. And about nine of the 
 clock, when the Christen men had taken a little refreshing 
 with drink, then were they rejoiced and lighted. And, 
 according as they had appointed before, they sent in first 
 their light vessels called brigandyns, well furnished with 
 artillery ; they entered into the haven, and after them 
 came the galleys and the other ships of the fleet in good 
 order. 
 
 "And, turning towards the land by the sea side, there 
 was a strong castle with high towers, and especially one 
 Tower which defended the sea side and the land also ; 
 and in this Tower was a bricoll or an engine which was not 
 idle, but still did cast great stones among the Christen 
 men's ships. And likewise in every tower of the town 
 on the sea-side, there were engines to cast stones." 
 
 Despite these stones which assailed them, the " Christen 
 men" appear to have received no great hurt in landing. 
 And without further let or hindrance from the Saracens, 
 they pitched their tents upon the shore, (iuillaume de La 
 Tremoille's on the right of the Duke's from which floated, 
 his banner covered with flowers de luce, with Our Lady 
 
 1 Lord Berner's 1 ran , cd. 1812, II., 499,
 
 8 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 in the midst and the arms of Bourbon at her feet. Next 
 to Guillaume's tent came the Comte de Sully's, and then 
 Sire Guy's. 
 
 From the walls of Afryke " the false Saracens " had 
 watched the " Christen men " disembarking, and had mar- 
 velled to see them approach the shore in little boats. 
 But, save for the throwing of stones, the Infidel made no 
 attempt to prevent their landing. 
 
 Soon, however, tidings of the enemy's descent upon 
 their coasts were bruited abroad in the country round 
 about Afryke ; and a great Saracen army came and 
 encamped over against the " Christen men" on the sea- 
 shore. 
 
 Then there began what was little more than a long 
 drawn out tournament. On the second day in the morn- 
 ing, the Saracens came to skirmish with the " Christen 
 men ; " and the skirmishing endured the space of two 
 hours. The Saracens would not fight hand to hand, but 
 they fought with casting of darts and shooting, and 
 would not foolishly adventure themselves, but wisely and 
 sagely " reculed." 
 
 Among the Saracens was one knight who especially 
 distinguished himself. His name was Agadingor Doly- 
 ferne (sic), and his father was the Duke of Olyferne. 
 Agadingor was always well mounted on a light and ready 
 horse, " which seemed as if he did flie in the air." Armed 
 he was with three feathered darts, and right well could 
 he handle them. About his head he wore a long white 
 towel. His apparel was black, and his own colour 
 brown. The knights of France would fain have taken 
 him, but they could never entrap or enclose him, so swift 
 was his horse, and so ready to his hand. 
 
 The " Christen men " said they thought he did such deeds
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 9 
 
 for the love of some young lady of his country. And true 
 it was that he loved entirely the lady Azala, daughter of 
 the King of Tunis. " I cannot tell," says Froissart as 
 he relates this story, " if they were married together after 
 or not." 
 
 After some weeks of this skirmishing, the Saracens 
 bethought them to send a messenger to the ' ' Christen men 
 to inquire of them wherefore they had come against the 
 town of Afryke. So they took an interpreter, who spoke 
 Italian, and sent him. On the way to the Christen 
 camp the interpreter met a Genoese, and together they 
 went to the " Christen men " and asked them wherefore 
 they had come to Afryke. 
 
 Then the Due de Bourbon held a council of war in his 
 tent, summoning no doubt the two La Tremoilles and 
 their brother-in-law Sully. And, after deliberating as to 
 what answer they should send to their enemies, the 
 knights told the interpreter to say that because the 
 Saracens had crucified Jesus Christ, the Son of God, 
 therefore had the Christen men come against them. 
 
 When the interpreter rendered this answer to those 
 who had sent him, the Saracens did nothing but laugh, 
 and say how that answer was nothing reasonable, for it 
 was the Jews who put Christ to death, and not they. 
 
 Now this skirmishing and curvetting in the plain had 
 already lasted a month, and no attack had yet been made 
 upon the town. Soon after the answer had been sent to the 
 Saracens, the "Christen men " stormed Afryke and entered 
 within the walls, where many of their number were slain, 
 and whence they were forced to retreat, having failed to 
 capture the town. Then great discontent arose in the 
 army. The Due de Bourbon was arrogant and lazy. 
 Famine and pestilence attacked the "Christen men," and
 
 io FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 also many died of the great heat. Moreover, the knights 
 began to fear the treachery of the Genoese, whose ships 
 had brought them to Afryke. And so, seeing there was 
 nothing more to be done, the " Christen men " — such of 
 them as were left — returned crestfallen to their own homes. 
 
 The La Tremoille brothers were among those who had 
 escaped the mischance of war, famine and disease. They 
 with their companions-in-arms assigned the ignominious 
 failure of the expedition to the incompetency of its 
 leader, the Due de Bourbon, who had done nothing but 
 lounge idly at his tent door, surveying his camp in super- 
 cilious taciturnity. 
 
 Nothing daunted, however, Sire Guy and his brother 
 began to dream of new conquests. And soon we shall 
 find them setting forth on another crusade. Meanwhile, 
 Guy's sword was not allowed to rust in its scabbard. 
 When there were no English to fight in France, he was 
 ready to strike a blow for any righteous cause that might 
 present itself. Accordingly in the Tremoille archives we 
 find evidence of numerous sums of money received by 
 Sire Guy, as the reward of his military services, from 
 various European potentates, from Pope Clement VII., 
 from Galeas Visconti Duke of Milan, from the Duchess of 
 Brabant, and from the Queen of Naples and Jerusalem. 
 Not that Guy de La Tremoille was a mercenary soldier. 
 He offered his services freely ; but when they had been 
 rendered he was apparently not above accepting some 
 financial acknowledgment of them. 
 
 In 1391, Charles VI. tendered to Guy de La Tremoille 
 the highest military honour he had to bestow, the sword 
 of the Constable of France. The previous Constable, 
 Olivier de Clisson, unpopular at court, had been deprived 
 of his office, and an attempt had been made to assassinate
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION n 
 
 him. But Olivier had been Count Guy's friend and com- 
 panion-in-arms, and La Tremoille loyally refused to 
 profit by his friend's disgrace. 
 
 Instead he went with King Charles on an expedition to 
 punish the would-be murderer, who had taken refuge in 
 the heaths of Brittany. It was with Count Guy at his 
 side that, in the broiling August heat, the King at the 
 head of his barons rode forth into the west country, and 
 there was overtaken by the first of those terrible attacks 
 of madness which were to plunge the realm into ruin and 
 confusion. 
 
 Soon afterwards, another truce 1 having been signed 
 with England, and sealed by the marriage of the French 
 King's little daughter Isabelle with Richard II., the 
 widower King of England, French and English knights 
 again prepared to wage war in common against the 
 Infidel. And again Guy and Guillaume de La Tremoille 
 took the cross. 
 
 At the request of Sigismund, King of Hungary, the 
 Crusaders directed their march towards the Balkans, 
 where that great Ottoman leader, Bajazet, surnamed 
 Ildemin or Lightning, was laying waste the country with 
 fire and sword, advancing to the walls of Constantinople, 
 and boasting that he would feed his horse with a bushel 
 of oats on St. Peter's altar at Rome. 
 
 This time the French Crusaders were led by the King's 
 cousin, the young Comte de Nevers, eldest son of Duke 
 Philip, and later to be known as John the Fearless. On the 
 most extravagant and luxurious scale did the French 
 knights make their preparations. Their banners and 
 saddle cloths were embroidered in gold and silver, their 
 
 1 Signed in 1305 for three years, and in the following year prolonged 
 for twenty-eight
 
 12 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 tents were of satin ; carts laden with silver plate and 
 delicate wines followed the army. 
 
 Thus equipped, gay and joyous as if for a tournament, 
 commanded by the flower of French chivalry, the crusad- 
 ing host, some 10,000 strong, set forth to join in Hungary 
 the German, Polish, English and Hungarian troops 
 collected by Sigismund. 
 
 No sooner had the Crusaders joined forces than 
 dissension broke out in the councils of war. The cautious 
 Sigismund wished to remain on the defensive, while the 
 headstrong French knights insisted on immediately 
 marching in search of the enemy. 
 
 Having crossed the Danube at Orsova, the Crusaders 
 proceeded to lay siege to the town of Nicopolis. Then, 
 with a rapidity which justified his name, Bajazet, raising 
 the siege of Constantinople, descended upon the Crusaders 
 before they had the slightest idea that he was even in the 
 neighbourhood. The French lords were at table and 
 already heated with wine, when their scouts brought in 
 the news that Bajazet was upon them. Again the 
 impetuous Comte de Nevers, rejecting the Hungarian 
 King's counsels of caution, insisted on leading his troops 
 to the attack. And at first he was victorious, forcing a 
 rampart of stakes and overcoming even the Janissaries 
 themselves. Then, inflated with pride and zeal, he 
 committed the error of the Comte d'Artois at Mansourah, 
 and allowed the French vanguard to be cut off from the 
 main body of the army. Overwhelmed by numerous 
 squadrons which issued from the woods, these intrepid 
 warriors were surrounded on all sides. 
 
 The rank and file, having refused to abjure their faith, 
 were to the number of 10,000 beheaded in the con- 
 queror's presence. Nevers and four and twenty knights
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 13 
 
 who had escaped slaughter were kept as prisoners and 
 held to ransom. Among them were Lord Guy and his 
 brother. 
 
 That year, as the King was keeping Christmas, at Paris, 
 in his H6tel of St. Paul, there dashed into his presence a 
 messenger from the east, all booted and spurred and dust 
 stained with travel. He was one of the twenty-five 
 prisoners taken at Nicopolis, and Bajazet had released 
 him in order that he might carry to France tidings of the 
 disaster. 
 
 It was only with the greatest difficulty that the 
 enormous ransoms which the Turk demanded could be 
 collected. Lord Guy's for the most part was borrowed 
 from the Pallavicini at Geneva. Meanwhile, in order to 
 appease the conqueror's wrath, and secure good treat- 
 ment of the prisoners, King Charles and Duke Philip sent 
 him rich gifts — a gold salt-cellar of curious workmanship, 
 a cast of Norwegian hawks, and six horse-loads of scarlet 
 cloth, of fine Reims linen and of Arras tapestry, repre- 
 senting the battles of Alexander. 
 
 For nine months the prisoners were dragged from place 
 to place in their conqueror's train. And then at length 
 their ransoms arrived. 
 
 Before they left him, Bajazet let flie at his prisoners 
 one parting shaft of derision. Summoning the French 
 knights to his presence, he cried : " Raise what puissance 
 ye will, spare nought, and come against me a second time. 
 Ye shall find me always ready to receive ye in the field in 
 plain battle." To point this mockery, and to reciprocate 
 the French King's gifts, Bajazet sent him a mass of iron, 
 a suit of Turkish armour made of wool, a drum and bows 
 with strings made of human entrails. 
 
 From Bajazet 's camp the French knights sailed in
 
 i 4 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 galleys to the island of Rhodes, staying on their way in 
 the port of Mathelyn. There Guy and his brother were 
 graciously received by the Lady of Mathelyn, who, we 
 read, was as well assured of herself as any lady in Greece, 
 for had she not been brought up at the Emperor Con- 
 stantine's court with the Lady Mary of Bourbon ? And 
 from her she had learnt French nurture, " for in France 
 the lords and ladies were more honorable than in any 
 other countries." 
 
 By the Lady of Mathelyn the French knights were 
 newly apparelled in shirts, gowns, and other garments of 
 fine damask, according to the usage of Greece. Then, 
 proceeding to Rhodes, they received from the Grand 
 Prior some gold and silver of which they stood in dire 
 need. 
 
 But to Sire Guy it was not given to return to his native 
 land, nor to be buried at Dijon as Duke Philip had directed. 
 For he had never recovered from the wounds received at 
 Nicopolis. At Rhodes a fever fell upon him, and he died 
 on May 4th, 1397, and was buried in the Church of St. 
 John, " the lords of France doing his obsequy right 
 reverently." 
 
 Meanwhile, away in France, Marie de Sully was looking 
 eagerly for her husband's return. On May 22nd, 1397, 
 Duke Philip had sent her word that Sire Guy was well, 
 that his ransom had been paid, and that he was on his 
 way home. On August 7th, when she was in her chateau 
 of Craon, came the news that Guy lay dead in the Island 
 of Rhodes. 1 
 
 A life full of care Dame Marie must have led during her 
 husband's absences on the Crusades. For to raise funds 
 for these expeditions his lands had been heavily mort- 
 
 1 Bertrand de Broussillon, " La Maison de Craon," II., 38.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 15 
 
 gaged, and on Marie it had devolved to pay the interest 
 on the money lent, and out of such revenue as remained 
 to keep the princely household going. Now she was left 
 a widow with seven children, four sons and three daughters. 
 Perhaps it was to provide herself and her family with a 
 protector that, soon after Guy's death, she gave a step- 
 father to her children in the person of Charles d'Albret, 
 Constable of France. By him she was to become the 
 ancestress of French Kings, of whom the first was the 
 famous Henry Quatre.
 
 16 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 GEORGES DE LA TREMOILLE. I382 (?) — 1446 
 " A kind of Gargantua, who devoured the country." l 
 
 Towards the dawn of the fifteenth century, disruptive 
 forces were everywhere at work throughout Christendom ; 
 and among the most powerful were the violence and greed 
 of barons like Georges de La Tremoille. 
 
 ' Luxury and vice such as 'twere piteous to tell of had 
 kindled against the French the wrath of Heaven, and in 
 the divine hand the King of England was but a rod for 
 chastisement." This was the consolation which Henry V. 
 addressed to Charles, Duke of Orleans, who, having been 
 taken prisoner at Agincourt, in abject grief and utter 
 desolation was refusing food and drink, like many a 
 prisoner of later date. 
 
 But in his complacent self-satisfaction, Henry V. 
 failed to discern the true cause of the wickedness he held 
 himself divinely appointed to punish. He would have 
 been the last to admit that his own people, by their 
 perpetual invasions of French territory, had created that 
 prolonged disorder, during which French barons became 
 monsters of iniquity preying upon women and children, 
 and scrupling not even to enter into contracts with the 
 Evil One. 
 
 Almost incredible are the hideous crimes said to have 
 been committed in France in those days. The story of 
 the ghastly enormities perpetrated by Gille de Rais, the 
 
 1 "The Life of Joan of Arc," translated from the French of Anatole 
 France, I., 147.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 17 
 
 original of Blue Beard, is well known. And Gille was a 
 relative of La Tremoille. The brutality of Georges de La 
 Tremoille himself has seldom been equalled. By his 
 persistent cruelty he caused the death of his first wife. 
 But the victim who suffered most from his cruelty was 
 hapless France. Poverty stricken she was when he 
 found her ; yet by his ruthless extortions " he stripped 
 her to the bone, and left her a bloodless corpse, a mere 
 skeleton." 
 
 Georges, the eldest son of Guy de La Tremoille and 
 Marie de Sully, was born in the early eighties of the 
 fourteenth century. He was brought up in the house- 
 hold of the Burgundian dukes, first by Duke Philip and, 
 after his death, by his son, John the Fearless. 
 
 In 1407, Georges became Duke John's chief Chamber- 
 lain, and in that year fought with the Burgundian forces 
 against the citizens of Liege at the battle of Tongres. 
 Then King Charles VI. appointed him Master of Woods 
 and Waters, and Governor of Dauphine. By this time 
 La Tremoille was one of the boon companions of the 
 worthless Dauphin Louis, 1 generally known as the Duke 
 of Guyenne. And in that capacity he played no incon- 
 siderable part in the troubled events of 1413, one of the 
 most revolutionary years in French history. 
 
 Charles VI. was now hopelessly mad, and the royal 
 
 power was alternately exercised by the leaders of the 
 
 Burgundian and Orleanist factions, Duke John and 
 
 1 lernard, Count of Armagnac. As leader of the Orlcanists, 
 
 henceforth to be known as Armagnacs, Count Bernard 
 
 had succeeded Louis, Duke of Orleans, murdered some 
 
 six years earlier by Burgundy's paid assassins. 
 
 1 rhree of Charles VI. 's sons in sua ession bore the title ol Dauphin : 
 Louis, who died in [415; then fean, who died in 1416; and then 
 Charles, who, in 1 1- j. ucceeded to the throne as Charles VII. 
 
 C.K. C
 
 18 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 In 1413, however, Burgundians and Armagnacs alike 
 were superseded by the dominance of the Butchers or 
 Cabochiens, the richest, the oldest, and the most in- 
 fluential of the trade corporations of Paris. Including 
 not merely slaughterers and sellers of cattle, but tanners, 
 leather-workers and tripe-dealers, the Butchers were 
 proud to trace back the origin of their corporation to 
 Roman times. Indeed, they considered themselves a 
 commercial aristocracy. Kings and courtiers did not 
 disdain to don the white hood which was the sign of their 
 order. The Butchers' shops descended like feudal fiefs 
 from father to son. Their nobility were the families of 
 St. Yon, of Thibert and of Legoix, who constituted what 
 was called La Grande Boucherie, and who dwelt near the 
 present Tour St. Jacques, behind what was then the 
 Chatelet Prison. In those days the citizens of Paris were 
 organised into quarters, each quarter into hundreds, and 
 each hundred into groups of ten. Every quarter had its 
 captain or quartenier, whose duty it was to command the 
 watch, and to provide for the defence of his district. In 
 1413, the captain of the Butchers' quarter was Jean 
 Caboche, who gave his name to the fraternity. 
 
 The quarter of Jean Caboche, consisting of an army of 
 slaughterers, salesmen and apprentices, was a formidable 
 force which had to be reckoned with in all city riots. 
 Indeed, considering on the one hand the Crown's weakness 
 and the feuds among the barons, and on the other the 
 Butchers' wealth and compact organisation, it seemed 
 not unlikely that this corporation of Parisian tradesmen 
 might one day come to rule the kingdom. 
 
 Duke John of Burgundy was quick to grasp this 
 situation and to turn it to his own advantage, wherefore 
 he made friends with the Butchers, sending them every
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 19 
 
 year casks of choice wine from his rich vintage of 
 Beaune. 
 
 Precisely how far this alliance between Burgundy and 
 the Butchers extended and how much it involved is 
 difficult to tell. At times Duke John seemed to be 
 using the Cabochiens as his instruments, at others the 
 tradesmen seemed to be bending the great Duke to their 
 will and employing him to carry out a policy which was 
 all their own. In the tangled turmoil of events in 1413 
 it is impossible to say whether it was Burgundy who 
 incited the Butchers or the Butchers Burgundy. But 
 one point is clear : the Butchers believed that all the 
 woes from which France was suffering were caused by 
 the King's lunacy, which was a punishment sent from 
 God 1 ; and they held that it was for the sins of royalty 
 God had smitten the King with madness, and struck 
 down his brother, the Duke of Orleans. The Butchers' 
 one hope for the Kingdom of France lay in La Tremoille's 
 friend, the Dauphin Louis ; but this hope was tempered 
 by the fear lest he should resemble his father. 
 
 In this year, 1413, Louis was seventeen, a much more 
 mature age then than now. For at fifteen Louis' cousin, 
 Charles, Duke of Orleans, was a married man, the father 
 of a family, and the nominal leader of a great party. 
 Yet at seventeen the Dauphin was set on nothing save 
 pageantry and pleasure. This frivolity, however, the 
 Butchers attributed to evil influences, one of the most 
 pernicious of which they considered to be his friendship 
 with La Tremoille. There was no man in France whom 
 the Butehers more bitterly hated. And to separate him 
 from the Dauphin became one of their chief objects 
 throughout this year. Had it not been for the powerful 
 
 1 Michclct, " Hist, dc France." Bk. VIII., Chap. III. 
 
 C 2
 
 20 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 influence which Duke John exercised on his behalf, 
 Georges would doubtless have shared the fate of other 
 members of the Dauphin's circle, whom the Butchers 
 drowned in the Seine or imprisoned in the Louvre. The 
 following graphic details of one of La Tremoille's 
 encounters with these tradesmen have been preserved in 
 a chronicle of the period. 1 
 
 It fell out that upon July ioth, 1413, as a little before 
 midnight, a company of Butchers, led by one, Helion de 
 Jacqueville, a knight of Beauce, were returning from 
 their patrol of the city to their quarters in St. Jacques 
 that they passed by the Hotel de Guyenne, the Dauphin's 
 palace in the Rue St. Antoine. There the puritanical 
 ears of the watch were offended by the sound of music 
 and of dancing. Highly improper did it seem to Jacque- 
 ville and his men that the heir to the fair realm of France 
 should be keeping high revelry at that hour of the night. 
 With other functions of government the Butchers had 
 already assumed the censorship of public morals. And 
 in this capacity they forced their way into the palace, 
 penetrating even into the royal presence chamber. 
 
 There finding the Dauphin dancing with his lords and 
 ladies, Jacqueville rated his prince soundly for being a 
 profligate and a spendthrift. But La Tremoille, who was 
 standing by, was the last to tolerate such an intrusion 
 on his own and his prince's pleasures. To Jacqueville's 
 sermon La Tremoille retorted that it was grossly imper- 
 tinent to address the Dauphin thus, and at such an hour 
 to intrude on the royal presence. In the violent dispute 
 which ensued Louis, in self-defence, drew his dagger and 
 three times smote Jacqueville on the breast, but did 
 
 1 Juvenal des Ursins, " Histoire de Charles VI., Roi de France," ed : 
 Micliaud et Poujoulat, Ser. I., Vol. II., p. 485.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 21 
 
 him no hurt, because the knight wore a coat of mail 
 beneath his cloak. On the morrow, the Butchers were 
 preparing to take and slay the proud baron who on the 
 previous evening had bearded them in the Dauphin's 
 chamber, when Burgundy intervened on behalf of his 
 vassal, and saved La Tremoille's life. 
 
 The arrogant Cabochiens, however, were heading for 
 a fall. The other Parisian corporations would not long 
 brook the insolence of the Butchers. The Carpenters of 
 Paris, declaring they would soon see whether there were 
 not in the city as many hewers of wood as slayers of 
 beasts, called to their aid the Duke of Orleans and the 
 Count of Armagnac, who, with a powerful force, were 
 marching towards the capital. 
 
 On his rivals' entrance into Paris, on August 23rd, Duke 
 John prudently withdrew, taking the poor, mad King with 
 him. But a party of citizens intercepted the Duke's com- 
 pany at Vincennes and brought the King back to his 
 capital. Two of the Butchers' leaders were executed, and 
 their quarters in St. Jacques were razed to the ground. 
 
 La Tremoille did not, as we might expect, accompany 
 Duke John into exile. Now that the Armagnacs were 
 in the ascendant, and his enemies, the Butchers, deposed 
 from power, Georges forgot the gratitude he owed to 
 Burgundy, and, remaining in Paris with his friend the 
 Dauphin, threw in his lot with the new government. In 
 1416 we find King Charles undertaking to pay La 
 Tremoille 10,000 francs if he will raise a company 
 of men-at-arms to proceed against the English and the 
 Burgundians. Georges duly performed his part of the 
 bargain. But, when he found that Charles was not so 
 ready to perform his, La Tremoille paid himself the 
 10,000 francs out of the purse of one of the King's
 
 22 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 tax-gatherers who, with a goodly sum collected in Orleans 
 and destined for the royal exchequer, had the misfortune 
 to pass by Sully on his way to court. 
 
 When the Dauphin's dissolute court was scattered on 
 Louis' death in 1415, La Tremoille speedily joined the 
 no less licentious circle which gathered round Queen 
 Isabelle at her palaces of Vincennes and Melun. 
 
 No name in French history is more execrated than 
 that of Isabelle, Charles VI. 's Queen ; for she it was 
 who some years later sold France to the English. Yet 
 her sad history must arouse pity even in the most 
 censorious breast. Radiantly beautiful in youth, she 
 was passionately adored by her royal husband. Then 
 lunacy converted Charles VI. from the most amorous 
 into the most persecuting of consorts. He, whom 
 Isabelle's portrait had once struck dumb with admiration, 
 was now driven frantic by the mere sight of her arms 
 quartered with his own. To save her life the Queen was 
 compelled to establish herself in a separate residence, 
 where her weak, voluptuous nature found consolation in 
 the attentions of numerous admirers. Among them was 
 her brother-in-law, Louis, Duke of Orleans. And it 
 was as, with a song upon his lips, he rode carelessly out 
 of the gateway of the Queen's Hotel, Barbette, into the 
 darkness of the night that Louis had been set upon and 
 slain by the Duke of Burgundy's hired assassins. 
 
 Shunning an abode haunted by so sad a memory, the 
 pleasure-loving Queen removed to Vincennes. There 
 she rapidly sank into a valetudinarian and sybaritish 
 old age. She, who had once been the most graceful and 
 agile of horsewomen, grew so corpulent that her valets had 
 to carry her in a chair from room to room. At Vincennes, 
 while the peasants of France were starving, Isabelle
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 23 
 
 hoarded treasure, and lavished vast sums on all manner 
 of whimsies, on aviaries of singing birds, on menageries, 
 and on marvellous medicines. 
 
 To the Queen, in 1415, resorted, as we have said, 
 La Tremoille and all the dead Dauphin's boon com- 
 panions. And one is not surprised that to contemporary 
 moralists, scandalised by the manners of the Vincennes 
 court, the spindle legs of these gay gallants encased in 
 the tightest of hose and the high-horned, wide-eared 
 head-dresses of their ladies, appeared somewhat devilish. 
 
 Soon, however, serious national matters claimed even 
 the attention of these voluptuous courtiers, for the knights 
 of France were summoned to resist Henry of England 
 upon the field of Agincourt. And there, on October 25th, 
 1415, La Tremoille was taken prisoner. Happily for 
 him, but unhappily for France, he was not considered 
 sufficiently important to be carried away to England 
 with prisoners of higher rank, such as the Duke of Orleans, 
 the Duke of Bourbon, the Count of Vendome and the 
 Count of Richemont. So, on November 29th, having 
 received from King Henry a robe of fine damask, and 
 undertaken to pay a heavy ransom at the great Lcndit 
 Fair at St. Denis on the following Midsummer Day, 
 La Tremoille was liberated at Calais. 
 
 We suspect that it was to help pay his ransom that 
 Georges now resolved to take a wife. The unhappy 
 victim he selected was a great heiress, ten years his 
 senior j a princess of the blood royal, Jeanne, Countess of 
 I'.oiilM-iir and of Auvergne, once the adored wife, and 
 now the widow of the old Duke of Berry. 
 
 Only four months after the Duke's death, in the year 
 after Agincourt, Jeanne d'Auvergne and La Tremoille 
 were married.
 
 24 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 In the contract signed at Aigueperse, Jeanne unwisely 
 agreed that she and her husband should hold all their 
 property in common. Of this generosity she soon had 
 reason to repent ; and, falling out with her rapacious 
 husband, she settled all her wealth on her cousin, Marie 
 d'Auvergne. Meanwhile the Duke of Burgundy, who 
 was Jeanne's overlord, refused to deliver into her husband's 
 hands the county of Boulogne. So, La Tremoille, doubly 
 disappointed in his greed, vented his fury on his miserable 
 wife, whom he imprisoned in a lonely castle of Auvergne 
 until, in 1418, death came to her release. 
 
 La Tremoille was now fully launched on a career of 
 rapine and violence. In the neighbourhood of his great 
 castles peace and security were unknown. In order 
 to further his covetous designs he did not hesitate to 
 lay waste whole districts with fire and sword ; and from 
 the confusion and disorder already existing in France 
 he made ready to suck no small advantage. Although 
 more than once he was employed to negotiate terms of 
 peace between English and French, Burgundians and 
 Armagnacs, peace was the very last thing he wanted. 
 Had his negotiations been successful, which they never 
 were, he would have pleaded in the words of the trouba- 
 dour, Bertrand de Born : " When there is peace on every 
 hand let a strip of war be left for me." 
 
 In 1418, La Tremoille, apparently without any provoca- 
 tion, had seized Gouge de Charpaignes, Bishop of 
 Clermont, and imprisoned him in his castle of Sully, 
 intending to keep him there until he should pay the 
 ransom his captor demanded. And it was only the 
 appearance before Sully of the Dauphin himself at the 
 head of a formidable army that set the unhappy bishop 
 at liberty.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 25 
 
 Now, on his wife's death La Tremoille determined that 
 at any cost he would conquer her inheritance ; and with 
 this object he sent an army into Auvergne. But again 
 his lawless plans were thwarted by the Dauphin, who, 
 in 1423, despatched against him Marshal Gilbert de La 
 Fayette at the head of a formidable force. La Tremoille 
 withdrew his troops from Auvergne, but he never forgave 
 the general who had compelled him to do so ; and when, 
 some years later, he became minister of the Crown, one 
 of his first acts was to deprive La Fayette of the command 
 and to banish him from Court, appointing in his stead 
 his (La Tremoillc's) own notorious cousin, Gille de Rais. 
 
 After the signing at Troyes in 1420 of that disastrous 
 treaty which made King Henry V. of England heir to 
 the French crown, France became divided into two 
 hostile kingdoms : roughly speaking, the country north 
 of the Loire acknowledged the King of England and was 
 friendly to his great ally the Duke of Burgundy, while 
 the country south of that river was friendly to the 
 Armagnacs and loyal to the mad King's son, the Dauphin 
 Charles, known as " the King of Bourges," because he 
 made that city his capital. 1 
 
 La Tremoille would doubtless have preferred to remain 
 a free lance, independent of either potentate ; but recent 
 events had shown him the disadvantages of such an 
 attitude. His defeat in Auvergne convinced him of the 
 prudence of throwing in his lot with one party or the 
 other, and he selected the Dauphin's because over it, 
 being the weaker, lie would have the best chance of 
 domineering. 
 
 La Tremoille's choice was fraught with the direst 
 
 1 Charles \ I and Henry V. died in the same year, 1 i-'j. Following 
 the custom of the time, we shall describe Charles VII. as Dauphin until, 
 in 1429, he wa ■ 1 rowned by Joan of Arc at Reims.
 
 26 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 consequences for France. As Councillor-Chamberlain he 
 came to exercise over the Dauphin's mind the most 
 disastrous influence. In the years which preceded La 
 Tremoille's rule the Prince had shown himself capable of 
 acting with wisdom and vigour, after La Tremoille's fall 
 Charles developed into a wise and energetic monarch ; 
 but during the years of La Tremoille's ministry he was 
 the meanest, the most phlegmatic, and the most abject of 
 princes. That this monster of iniquity, " this Gargantua 
 who devoured the country," did not succeed in per- 
 manently ruining France is chiefly due to Joan of Arc's 
 heroic example and inspiring initiative. 
 
 Precisely how La Tremoille came to exercise so 
 pernicious an influence over the Dauphin is somewhat 
 mysterious. The first sign of their alliance was Charles's 
 despatch of La Tremoille in December, 1425, on an 
 embassy to Burgundy at Bruges. And it was on this 
 journey, that at the hands of a free lance, Perrinet Gres- 
 sart, the Dauphin's emissary suffered that fate which he 
 had so often inflicted on others : he was detained in the 
 citadel of La Charite until he had paid Gressart 14,000 
 crowns, as well as another 6,000 in the shape of gifts 
 which the prisoner was compelled to bestow on the 
 captains and wife of his captor. One might chuckle with 
 delight to find La Tremoille thus being paid in his own 
 rr»in, did not the ultimate advantage which he was 
 careful to derive from his imprisonment suggest that, 
 after all, the incident had been planned by the prisoner 
 himself, with a view to compensation. For, on La 
 Tremoille's return to court we find him extracting from 
 the Dauphin the greater part of his ransom and rich lands 
 in Poitou 1 to boot, while no less than seven years later 
 
 The lordship and bishopric of Melle.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 27 
 
 this same imprisonment gave him an excuse for squeezing 
 out of the Duke of Burgundy a sum of 18,000 crowns. 
 
 Quitting Perrinet Gressart's castle, La Tremoille pro- 
 ceeded to Bruges. Concerning the success of his mission 
 to Duke Philip ' we know nothing. The only incident of 
 this embassy which has come clown to us is that the 
 Dauphin's ambassador, when he left the city, carried 
 away with him the wife of one of the citizens, who in the 
 following year was clamouring to be restored to her 
 husband. 2 
 
 La Tremoille, nothing daunted by his failure to secure 
 his first wife's inheritance, was now casting about for her 
 wealthy successor. One of the most richly dowered 
 ladies of the Dauphin's court was the beautiful Catherine 
 de lTle Bouchard, Countess of Tonnerre. She happened 
 to be married already, but inconvenient husbands and 
 wives were not difficult to get rid of in those days. Indeed, 
 Catherine's husband, Pierre de Giac, had himself disposed 
 of her predecessor in a manner almost too brutal to bear 
 mention. True, Pierre de Giac was at this time the 
 Dauphin's prime favourite, but that circumstance pre- 
 sented no difficulty, for Charles was used to having his 
 favourites forcibly removed ; and the removal of this 
 one was probably facilitated by the connivance of the 
 favourite's wife, and certainly by that of the Constable, 
 Arthur de Richemont. The manner of its accomplish- 
 ment was characteristic of that brutal age. 
 
 Giac was with the Dauphin at his chateau of Issoudun, 
 when, on the morning of February 8th, 1427, as he lay in 
 bed with his wife, ( atherine, the favourite was rudely 
 awakened by a loud knot king at his door. " Who is 
 
 1 John the Fearless ha<l been murdered in [4TO, on the Bridge of 
 Monten 
 
 " i E. Cosncau, " Lc Connctablc dc Richemont,'' 141, note 4.
 
 28 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 there ? ' he cried. " The Constable," was the reply. 
 " Then I am a dead man," groaned Giac, who knew 
 Richemont to be his enemy. The door was broken 
 open and the favourite, clad only in nightgown and 
 slippers, dragged out of the palace and placed on horse- 
 back. Catherine the while had flown to her jewel chest, 
 eager to secure it for La Tremoille, who was probably 
 already her lover. Everything was done as quietly as 
 possible for fear of rousing the Dauphin, who was strongly 
 attached to his favourite. But Charles became aware of 
 confusion in the palace, and inquired what was going 
 forward. He was told that what was happening was for 
 his good. 
 
 Meanwhile, Giac had been hurried off to the chateau of 
 Dun-le-Roi, which belonged to Richemont 's wife, the 
 Duchesse de Guyenne, widow of the Dauphin Louis. 
 Thence, after a mock trial, an executioner having been 
 brought from Bourges, Giac was cast into the River 
 Auron and drowned. Meanwhile, La Tremoille anxiously 
 rode to and fro nearby, impatient for news that Catherine's 
 husband had ceased to breathe. On hearing that his 
 mistress was free, he rode to join her in her castle of Meun, 
 where she was waiting to bestow upon him the jewels she 
 had so carefully guarded from the cupidity of her husband's 
 murderers. After spending some months together at 
 Meun, La Tremoille and Catherine repaired to the former's 
 chateau of Gencay in Poitou, where they were married on 
 July 2nd. Their wedding, following so soon on Giac's 
 death, caused some astonishment even among the 
 Dauphin's unscrupulous courtiers, who thought that 
 Catherine might have had the decency to wait a little 
 longer before marrying her husband's murderer. 
 
 As for the Dauphin himself, after he had recovered
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 29 
 
 from his first indignation at his favourite's treatment, he 
 easily consoled himself with his successor. This was 
 an obscure person, one Camus de Vernet, knight of 
 Beaulieu, who was no better than his predecessor, and 
 who came to as untimely an end. 
 
 After the assassination of Camus, which took place 
 before the Dauphin's very eyes, La Tremoille persuaded 
 the Constable to install him as Charles's chief favourite. 
 
 Arthur de Richemont, one of the few disinterested 
 barons of that day, despite the part he had played in 
 Giac's assassination, was in many respects a fine figure. 
 In astuteness and insight into character, however, he must 
 have been deplorably lacking, or he would never have 
 placed in a position of such power so rapacious a person 
 as La Tremoille. 
 
 The Dauphin was wiser than his Constable ; for, 
 trembling to see Richemont confide in La Tremoille, 
 Charles said : " You will repent it, for I know him better 
 than you do." To this feeble remonstrance the Constable 
 paid no heed ; but alas ! Charles's words proved only too 
 true, and it was in his treatment of Richemont himself 
 that La Tremoille first verified his Prince's prognostica- 
 tion. The Dauphin was cowed into banishing the Con- 
 stable from court and bestowing his governorship of 
 Dauphine upon his rival. 
 
 La Tremoille was now supreme ; as Councillor- 
 Chamberlain, for six years he ruled ; and he was one of 
 the most terrible scourges France has ever known ; never, 
 not from Clovis to Charles X., have the national fortunes 
 sunk so low as during that six years of La Tremoille's 
 power. 
 
 With half France, including the French capital, given 
 up to the English, with an English army about to cross
 
 3 o FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 the Loire to conquer the remaining half, La Tremoille's 
 only thoughts were the filling of his private purse and the 
 avenging of his private quarrels. 
 
 For some years before he became the Dauphin's 
 favourite he had been nothing more or less than the 
 Grand Usurer of the kingdom. He was the first of those 
 great tax-farmers, those leaches who, sucking the nation's 
 life-blood, were to prey upon the national exchequer. 
 And while in those terrible times the King went in tatters 
 and brave soldiers of the Crown and disinterested leaders 
 remained unpaid, for La Tremoille money was always 
 forthcoming. In his private war with Richemont and his 
 allies, La Tremoille, taken prisoner in the Castle of Gencay, 
 insisted on the Dauphin paying his ransom to the tune of 
 10,000 crowns. 
 
 Soon, however, even while the Councillor-Chamberlain 
 with havoc and with bloodshed was rending the fair 
 realm of France, there appeared in more than one quarter 
 of the kingdom signs of a new spirit which was ultimately 
 to defeat La Tremoille and all his nefarious projects. 
 The outrages of the barons and the invasion of a foreign 
 foe gave birth among the oppressed and the conquered to 
 a sentiment of nationality, which was even now revealing 
 itself in different parts of the country : on the Loire, 
 where the neighbouring towns were straining every nerve 
 to succour the gallant citizens of Orleans besieged by the 
 English ; in the Dauphin's own circle, where his mother- 
 in-law, Yolande of Arragon, Duchess of Anjou, and Queen 
 of Jerusalem and Sicily, one of the best and bravest 
 women of her time, with political insight and pity for her 
 persecuted country, was devising La Tremoille's fall ; 
 and in distant Lorraine, whence a peasant maid at the 
 behest of heavenly voices was setting forth to deliver France.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 31 
 
 One isolated good deed, but that a purely negative and 
 an unconsciously meritorious one, may be placed to La 
 Tremoille's account : he offered no opposition to Joan of 
 Arc's employment in the Dauphin's service, and dispatch 
 to the relief of Orleans. 
 
 Joan at her trial related that La Tremoille was present 
 among the crowd of courtiers round the Dauphin in the 
 castle of Chinon on that evening in March, 1429, when, 
 clad in doublet and hose, with her hair cut round like a 
 boy's, the maid was ushered into her Prince's presence. 
 A few days later, one morning after mass, La Tremoille 
 with the Dauphin and the Duke of Alencon had a private 
 interview with her. Then he heard her promise the 
 Dauphin that the King of Heaven would do for Charles 
 what He had done for his predecessors, and restore him 
 to his father's dominions. 
 
 After events prove that such a consummation was 
 far from the Councillor-Chamberlain's desire. All he 
 expected Joan to do was to restore French courage and 
 initiative so far as to enable them to continue the conflict 
 with the English. La Tremoille wished neither com- 
 batant to be completely victorious ; but when Joan 
 appeared, there seemed a danger that the English would 
 establish their dominion throughout the land. It was to 
 avert what would have been a personal catastrophe as 
 well as a national disaster that La Tremoille received Joan 
 and sent her with an army to relieve Orleans. 
 
 But after her glorious victory at that city, followed by 
 a month of marvellous successes in the Loire valley, La 
 Tremoille, fearing lest Joan should cast the weight of 
 conquest too strongly on his own, the French side, 
 began to oppose her and her forward policy. The first 
 conflict between the Maid and the Minister occurred
 
 32 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 over the question of the Constable's restoration to 
 power. 
 
 During the Loire campaign, La Tremoille had held 
 aloof from the army, keeping watch and ward over the 
 Dauphin, jealous lest he should fall under the influence of 
 some rival favourite, detaining the Prince in one of the 
 Loire chateaux, most of the time in the great La Tremoille 
 stronghold of Sully. During the Minister's absence, and 
 directly contrary to his command, Arthur de Richemont, 
 with a company of Breton troops, had been permitted to 
 serve in the royal army, and to take part in the crowning 
 victory of Pathay. 1 No sooner was the battle won, than 
 in their gladness and gratitude to the Constable for the 
 aid he had generously granted them, Joan and the Duke 
 of Alencon solicited Richemont's recall. It is the 
 unanimous opinion of expert historians, that had this 
 request been granted, had the Dauphin's army made 
 common cause with the troops which Richemont and his 
 brother, the Duke of Brittany, could raise in western 
 France, the English might speedily have been driven 
 from the country. But La Tremoille was determined not 
 to be reconciled with his rival ; and at his Minister's 
 bidding, the Dauphin resolutely refused the Maid's 
 request. 
 
 It now became obvious that as long as La Tremoille 
 remained in power the complete discomfiture of the 
 English would be impossible. In the Dauphin's council 
 there were now two parties and two policies : a forward 
 policy advocated by Joan 2 and Alencon, her " fair Duke," 
 
 1 June, 1429. For a picturesque account of the meeting of the Maid 
 and the Constable, see Anatole France, " Joan of Arc," Eng. trans. I., 
 
 364. 
 
 2 Joan was seldom actually admitted to the councils of war. She 
 had, therefore, to rely upon Alencon to advocate her views, which he 
 did loyally
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 33 
 
 as she called him ; and a temporising policy advocated 
 by La Tremoille and his ally, the Dauphin's Chancellor, 
 Regnault de Chartres, Archbishop of Reims. 
 
 On one point the forward party won the day : they 
 succeeded, possibly against the will of the Chancellor 
 and the Chamberlain, 1 in conducting the Dauphin to 
 Reims for his coronation. But on the way to Reims the 
 two parties were in constant conflict, in which Joan was 
 generally worsted. The Maid was for storming the 
 hostile cities which refused to admit the Dauphin's army 
 within their gates ; but here for the most part, and 
 notably at Auxerre and Troyes, La Tremoille imposed 
 his more moderate policy, from which, as usual, he reaped 
 personal advantage ; in the case of Auxerre, at any 
 rate, the 2,000 crowns paid by the citizens in return 
 for a promise not to storm the town were pocketed 
 by the Minister. After the coronation dissensions 
 between the parties broke out anew, Joan and " her 
 fair Duke ' and a powerful faction of the nobility were 
 for marching straight on Paris; La Tremoille, whom 
 Charles at his crowning had created Count, wished to 
 return to the south of the Loire and to negotiate with 
 Burgundy. Now, as always, the Chamberlain had his 
 private advantage in view ; through Burgundy's influence 
 Georges wished to recover certain Burgundian lands, 
 formerly belonging to him, which the Duke of Bedford 
 had conquered and bestowed on La Tr&noille's younger 
 brother, the Sieur de Jonvelle. In achieving the second 
 part of his project the Minister was partially successful, 
 and a truce for fifteen days, afterwards prolonged, was 
 iie.i with Burgundy. Bui in the first of his designs 
 he was thwarted by the English, who cut off the retreat 
 
 1 This matter is obscure and has been much discussed. 
 C.R. D
 
 34 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 of the French towards the south. Thus, much against 
 their will, Charles and La Tremoille were forced into the 
 neighbourhood of Paris, where a series of skirmishes took 
 place with the English, under the Duke of Bedford, who 
 was Regent for the infant King, Henry VI. 
 
 In one of these skirmishes at Crepy-en-Valois, France 
 came near to being delivered from her oppressor, for 
 La Tremoille, contrary to his custom of keeping out of 
 action, mounted a charger richly caparisoned, and, lance 
 in hand, rode into the heart of the melio. There, falling 
 from his horse, he would have been slain had not some 
 misguided Frenchman come to his aid. 
 
 Still avoiding Paris, Charles, after Crepy, entered 
 Compiegne. 1 And there La Tremoille re-opened negotia- 
 tions with Burgundy, attempting to detach him from the 
 English alliance, by offering to make him master of 
 Compiegne. But the citizens of the town refused to be 
 handed over to the Duke. Then, rather than come to a 
 rupture with Philip, La Tremoille carried out one of the 
 most amazing pieces of diplomacy known in history : 
 towards the end of August, Joan and " her fair Duke ,; 
 had left Compiegne with the object of attacking Paris, 
 of which city the English had appointed Philip governor ; 
 after their departure La Tremoille and Charles seem to 
 have promised Burgundy that the attack on Paris should 
 not be seriously prosecuted, and on this condition the 
 truce was renewed. 
 
 It is not surprising, therefore, that the operations were 
 somewhat desultory when, on September 8th, an attempt 
 was made to storm the capital. In vain Joan, standing 
 on a mound outside the St. Honore Gate, called on the 
 citizens to surrender in Jesus' name, threatening, if they 
 
 1 On August i8th, 1429.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 35 
 
 yielded not before nightfall, to enter by force and put all 
 to death without mercy. Joan knew nothing of the 
 negotiations at Compiegne. But at nightfall, instead 
 of, as she had hoped, entering triumphantly into Paris, 
 the Maid lay wounded beneath the shelter of a breast- 
 work, urging her men to fill up the moat with faggots 
 and to storm the gates of the city. La Tremoille, however, 
 was commanding the combatants to retreat. Joan 
 refused to obey him, until her Duke sent for her, and even 
 then, as two knights carried her off the field, she was 
 murmuring, ' In God's name, the city might have 
 been taken." 
 
 It did not accord with La Tremoille's purpose that 
 Paris should be taken, or that Joan should win any more 
 decisive victories. Therefore he persuaded Charles to 
 refuse Alencon's request that the Maid might be sent 
 with him to cut off the base of the enemy's communications 
 in Normandy, and he kept her in the Loire valley, where 
 there was no chance of her being able to strike a decisive 
 blow. Here, although but ill supported, Joan, by her 
 heroism and persistence, succeeded in taking by storm 
 the town of St. Pierre-le-Mousticr, but she was repulsed 
 at La Charite. 
 
 Even such partial success was not to La Tremoille's 
 liking. Therefore for some weeks in the spring of 1430, 
 he detained the Maid with the King and himself in his 
 castle of Sully. Many a time during those weary 
 weeks of waiting must Joan have gazed regretfully from 
 the towers of Sully up that great northern road leading 
 to Paris and to those fields of battle, whither she longed 
 to return. 
 
 At length, in the last days of March, the Maid, with a 
 small body of soldiers, was permitted to fare forth. 
 
 D 2
 
 36 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 La Tremoille's hopes of a compact with Burgundy had 
 been finally disappointed by a renewal of the alliance 
 between Duke Philip and England. And so Joan was 
 left free to open that last campaign which was to end 
 in her capture by the Burgundians outside the walls of 
 Compiegne. 
 
 There are those who do not hesitate to accuse La 
 Tremoille of having planned the capture of the Maid. 
 That at almost every turn he had thwarted her patriotic 
 designs there is no doubt whatever, but that he deliber- 
 ately betrayed her into the hands of the Burgundians 
 has never been sufficiently proved. The Chamberlain's 
 record is black enough without this charge being laid 
 to his door. 
 
 If from such a crime he may be exonerated there is, 
 however, another offence towards the Maid, and one 
 equally heinous, of which he must be accused. In the 
 cruel indifference to Joan's fate displayed by the King 
 and his council, we cannot fail to trace the influence of 
 La Tremoille. During the year which elapsed between 
 her capture at Compiegne in May, 1430, and her execution 
 at Rouen in May, 143 1, not an effort was made for her 
 deliverance. La Tremoille was then all powerful at 
 court, and had he made the slightest movement either 
 diplomatic or military for Joan's rescue he would doubt- 
 less have been seconded by many among the King's 
 nobles. But for the Chamberlain the Maid was nothing 
 more than a kind of charm, a figure-head to encourage 
 the army. And, Joan taken, any other charm would 
 do equally well, a shepherd-boy with stigmata from the 
 heaths of Gevaudan or a devout woman from La Rochelle, 
 one of the Maid's own companions. 
 
 Fortunately for France the years of La Tremoille's
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 37 
 
 power were already numbered. His increasing arrogance 
 and greed were raising against him among the French 
 nobility a powerful party led by Queen Yolande, the 
 Constable and the Constable's brother, John, Duke of 
 Brittany. At the close of one of the Chamberlain's 
 devastating private wars against Richemont, Queen 
 Yolande negotiated a treaty by which La Trcmoille was 
 to deliver the town of Montargis to the Constable. But 
 before the surrender of the town took place it felt into the 
 hands of the English, and — so it was believed — with the 
 connivance of the Chamberlain. 
 
 So dastardly a deed brought to a head the hatred of 
 the King's favourite. In the same year, 1431, at the 
 funeral of the Duchess of Brittany, which took place at 
 Vannes, a plot was formed against La Tremoille's life. 
 It took effect in the following June (1433). wlien the 
 Chamberlain was with the King at Chinon, lodged in 
 that very Coudray Tower which had sheltered Joan four 
 years earlier. Admitted to the tower by night through 
 a postern gate, four of the conspirators, among whom was 
 La Tremoille's own nephew, Jean de Bucil, 1 followed by 
 some twenty men-at-arms, made their way to the 
 Chamberlain's room. There, in the struggle which 
 ensued, La Tremoille received a sword-thrust in the 
 stomach ; but like the wicked of the Psalmist, " enclosed 
 in his own Eat," for he was a very barrel of a man, his 
 " Falstaffian paunch ' saved his life. And Jean de 
 Bueil was content to carry him off a prisoner to the 
 Chat' Mil of Montrcsor. There he who had so often 
 "ted an exorbitant ransom from others was him- 
 self compelled to buy his liberty with 4,000 crowns 
 and a promise to keep away from the King and from 
 
 1 His father was La Tremoille's brother, the Sieur de Jonvelle.
 
 38 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 affairs of state. The King's quarters at Chinon were 
 almost opposite his favourite's, and, as at the time 
 of Pierre de Giac's arrest, Charles was roused in the 
 night by the sound of mailed feet and the clashing of 
 arms. But once again it was not difficult to per- 
 suade him that the disturbance augured nothing but 
 good. And we cannot believe that Charles grieved 
 at being rid of this monster who was devouring his 
 kingdom. 
 
 Queen Yolande had now no one to oppose her beneficent 
 designs : she was able therefore to restore the Constable 
 to power, to encourage Charles to adopt as his favourite 
 her own son, Charles of Anjou, and to receive as his 
 mistress the famous and fascinating Agnes Sorel. 
 
 Under Angevin influence the King became a new man, 
 displaying energy, prudence and courage, and appearing 
 the precise contrary of that roi faineant who used, in 
 La Tremoille's day, to skulk in some distant castle far 
 removed from the enemy and the battlefield. 
 
 Under the rule of this new Charles VII., resistance to 
 the English was vigorously organised, Paris was taken, 
 peace made with Burgundy, and the invaders driven 
 back until they retained only the maritime provinces; 
 at the same time the power of the turbulent French 
 barons was curbed, and that work of centralisation begun 
 which was carried on and completed by Charles's great 
 successors, Louis XL, Henry IV. and Louis XIV. 
 
 Not without a struggle, however, was this great work 
 inaugurated. On his vast domains in Poitou, Limousin, 
 Anjou, Touraine and Berry, La Tremoille was still 
 powerful ; Jean de Bueil's mercy — or was it his 
 greed for the 4,000 crowns ransom ? — had left the 
 monster's wings insufficiently clipped. His castles were
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 39 
 
 centres of brigandage and sedition to which resorted all 
 the discontented nobles of the realm. Here was hatched 
 that wide-spreading revolt of the French barons known as 
 " the Praguerie." ' The immediate cause of this rising 
 was the royal ordonnance issued in 1439, which summoned 
 before the King's court all barons who in defiance of the 
 King had arrogated to themselves the right to impose 
 taxes in their dominions, who had appropriated the royal 
 taxes or interfered with their collection. The ordonnance 
 was clearly aimed against La Tremoille and his associates ; 
 and it was the signal for their concerted movement 
 against the Crown. 
 
 The barons chose for their leader no less a per- 
 sonage than the Dauphin, the King's own son, who 
 later as Louis XI. was to prove the most formidable foe 
 to those ambitions of the nobility which he was now 
 furthering. 
 
 Louis demanded that the control of public affairs 
 should be placed in his hands. To the standard of revolt 
 which he raised at Blois in 1440, flocked not only barons 
 but princes of the blood royal, among them Joan's 
 " fair Duke," Alencon, while from Poitou La Tremoille 
 wrote that he would command the forces of the rebels 
 in that province. 
 
 It seemed as if the fire of civil strife were about to be 
 rekindled throughout the kingdom. But the promp- 
 titude and vigour of the King and his Constable imme- 
 diately quenched the flame. Rightly regarding La 
 Tn'moille's rising in Poitou as the focus of discontent, 
 Charles and Richemont marched straight into that 
 province, and in a few weeks from the raising of the rebel 
 
 1 After the Hussite rebellion in Bohemia, which some time before 
 had 1 entred at Prague.
 
 40 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 standard sedition was completely quelled, and the barons 
 were summoned to appear before the King's court. 
 Among the rebels there was one whom the King refused 
 to see : La Tremoille he would not admit to his presence. 
 But this wily baron, ever eager to safeguard his own 
 interest, had obtained in writing from the Dauphin a 
 promise of his support, and a guarantee that as long as 
 he lived he should enjoy his pension and other revenues. 
 In accordance with this undertaking Louis refused to 
 submit to his royal father unless the King agreed to 
 pardon La Tremoille. Charles, however, refused to 
 grant his son's demand. " Then I shall go back with 
 the rebels," said Louis. " The doors are open to you," 
 replied the King, " and if they are not wide enough, I 
 will cause some hundred feet of the wall to be broken 
 down so that you may pass through at your will." 
 Charles's firmness won the day, and reduced all the 
 revolted barons to submission. 
 
 As long as La Tremoille lived, however, Poitou con- 
 tinued a centre of discontent. In 1442, Charles was 
 compelled again to proceed in person against his former 
 favourite, and to capture several of his strongholds. 
 Nevertheless, the Chamberlain continued his old work, 
 and, in 1446, an action was brought against him in the 
 King's court for spoliation and homicide. Yet, but a 
 short time afterwards, in March that year, when the new 
 Duke of Brittany, Francis I., came to render homage 
 to King Charles, we find La Tremoille appearing once 
 more at court in all the state of his high office of Councillor- 
 Chamberlain. In the following May, a pardon for all 
 past offences, which fifteen years earlier he had wrested 
 from his docile master, was registered among the royal 
 charters.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 41 
 
 But possibly by that time the culprit was already 
 beyond the reach of any human pardon, for on the 
 6th of that month La Tremoille expired in his castle of 
 Sully, where he was buried ; and France was delivered 
 from one of the most terrible of her oppressors.
 
 42 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 TWO LOYAL SERVANTS OF KING LOUIS XI 
 
 LOUIS DE LA TREMOILLE, DIED I481. 
 GEORGES DE LA TREMOILLE, SEIGNEUR DE CRAON, DIED I483. 
 
 Later La Tremoilles were hardly proud of their notori- 
 ous ancestor. From the recesses of the family cupboard, 
 down through succeeding ages, the bloated features of 
 the Councillor-Chamberlain, " that toper, that barrel 
 of a man," grinning like an ogre, haunted his posterity. 
 His very physical semblance was abhorred, and when- 
 ever one of his descendants began to display a tendency 
 to his forbear's corpulence it was striven against by 
 violent exercises worthy of a mediaeval Sandow. 
 
 Fortunately for France and for the La Tremoilles, 
 while the Chamberlain's physical features reproduced 
 themselves in his sons, his grandsons, and even his great- 
 grandson, this was not the case with his character ; 
 and it is only in his remote descendant, Catherine 
 de Medicis, 1 in her unscrupulous egoism and in her 
 disruptive policy, that Georges' moral defects were 
 continued. Meanwhile, for the sins of their father and 
 grandfather, La Tremoilles were striving to atone by 
 the loyalty and courage with which they served the 
 French crown and the French nation. 
 
 The Chamberlain's two sons — Louis, and especially 
 
 1 See genealogical table, p. 43, n.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 43 
 
 his second son, a second Georges, the famous Seigneur 
 de Craon — as loyal servants of King Louis XL did their 
 best to destroy their father's wicked work, and out of 
 that chaos for which he was largely responsible, to create 
 a new French nation, the most compact, the most har- 
 monious, and the most united in Europe. 
 
 When the Councillor-Chamberlain died, his wife 
 Catherine was still living. She resided in her lordly 
 castle of He Bouchart. And there, though her sons 
 were well past the age when boys were accustomed 
 to escape from their mother's control, she kept them 
 in tutelage, expecting them to obey a poor relation, 
 one Pean de la Vallee, whom she had set over her house- 
 hold. Louis and Georges, already chafing beneath the 
 maternal yoke, absolutely refused submission to their 
 mother's steward, who by his malgracieux treatment 
 of the youths drove them to flee from He Bouchart, 
 Louis to his chateau of Bommiers in Berry, Georges to 
 the court of Duke Philip at Brussels. Thence, after a 
 
 Genealogical Table showing the Descent of Catherine de 
 Medicis from Georges de La Tri moille. 
 
 Georges de La Tremoille 
 
 Louis I. Georges, Louise m. Bertrand VI., Comte d'Auvergne 
 Seigneur et de Boulogne, grandson of 
 
 de Craon Marie d'Auvergne, Jeanne 
 
 d'Auvergne's cousin. 
 
 Jean de La Tour, Comte d'Auvergne, w*. 
 
 Jeanne de Bourbon. 
 
 Madeleine de La Tour, hi. (Jan., 1518) Lorenzo 
 
 di Medici, Duke of 
 
 Urbino. 
 Catherine de Medicis.
 
 44 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 while, Georges was induced to return to He Bouchart by 
 his mother's promise to marry him to a wealthy heiress, 
 the daughter of the Seneschal of Normandy. On inquiry, 
 however, the conditions of this marriage proved to be 
 less advantageous than the young Seigneur de Craon 
 had believed. Still, he stayed on at his mother's castle, 
 apparently plotting against her steward, for, at a hunting 
 party in 1458, Georges took Pean prisoner and carried 
 him off to Burgundy. There, on the steward's promising 
 to break off all relations with the Countess, Craon set him 
 at liberty. But no sooner was Pean free than he cited his 
 captor to appear and answer for his violence before the 
 chief magistrate of Touraine at Chinon. Georges, how- 
 ever, pleading ill-health as a reason for his non-appearance, 
 appealed to the King to pardon him ; and in this appeal 
 he was supported by his mother, who may have grown 
 as tired of her old favourite as many years previously she 
 had done of her first husband. Charles VII. granted 
 the pardon. And in the document which awarded 
 it may be read all the incidents of the Seigneur 
 de Craon's quarrel with his mother's steward, related, 
 it must be remembered, entirely from Craon's point 
 of view. 
 
 Like his great contemporary, the historian, Philippe de 
 Commines, Georges de Craon having first served the 
 Dukes of Burgundy, Philip the Good and his son Charles 
 the Rash, transferred his allegiance to their mortal 
 enemy, the King of France, Louis XL, who succeeded 
 to the throne in 1461. 
 
 For nine years, from 1468 till 1477, Craon, alike in the 
 council-chamber and on the battle-field, was one of 
 King Louis' most effective instruments in that long struggle 
 with Duke Charles of Burgundy, whose defeat and death
 
 ALL THAT REMAINS OF THE CASTLE OF L' ILE BOUCHART
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 45 
 
 at the battle of Nancy was to be one of the chief corner- 
 stones in the building of modern France. 
 
 It was during the sack of Liege, in 1468, that Craon 
 and King Louis met and came to terms. The King 
 shortly before, having gone to Peronne to confer with 
 his enemy, had there been taken prisoner and only released 
 in exchange for a promise to aid Burgundy in besieging 
 the town of Liege. At this siege Craon was present in 
 command of a Burgundian company and charged with 
 defending the outposts. In this capacity he gallantly 
 repulsed a night sortie, pursuing the besieged within 
 the gates and thus giving the signal for a general attack, 
 which resulted in the capture of the city. 
 
 Struck with admiration of La Tremoille's prowess, 
 Louis determined to win him for his own service. What 
 means he employed, whether he offered bribes in the form 
 of high office and rich lands, or whether he relied solely 
 on his own magnetic personality and power of persuasion 
 we do not know. At any rate, he induced Georges de 
 Craon to forsake the Duke ; and straightway the Seigneur 
 was admitted to the King's Council and created Lord 
 High Chamberlain. 
 
 More a conflict of keen wits than of weapons of war 
 was this duel between France and Burgund}- . The diminu- 
 tive figure of Louis XL, his foxy face, with its hawk-like 
 nose, its sly eyes and thin lips, suggest the diplomatist 
 rather than the warrior. More than once a great army 
 was discomfited by Louis' wiles. And Craon was almost 
 as able a diplomatist as his master. La Tremoille was 
 present at that mysterious interview on a bridge over 
 the Somme, which resulted in the Treaty of Picquigny, 
 when the sovereigns of England and France leered at 
 one another through a barrier of lattice-work, and the
 
 46 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 English King was induced, without striking a blow, to 
 withdraw his lordly host from French territory. 
 
 But the Seigneur deCraon's two most brilliant diplomatic 
 achievements were the winning for France of two powerful 
 allies, Rene II., 1 Duke of Lorraine, and the Confederation 
 of the Swiss Cantons. 
 
 One of Duke Charles's ambitious projects was the 
 conquest of Lorraine, which, extending as it did from 
 Verdun on the north to Franche Comte on the south, cut 
 his Burgundian possessions in two. Craon, who was 
 then Governor of Champagne, was the Duke of Lorraine's 
 neighbour. This gave him an opportunity of working on 
 Rene's fears of Burgundian conquest, and on his hopes of 
 French reward, and by these means of winning, in the 
 year 1474, his alliance for Louis XI. Then, in conjunction 
 with Rene, Craon laid siege to Pierre Fort and captured 
 this Burgundian stronghold, which was but five miles 
 from the Lotharingian capital of Nancy. Duke Charles, 
 however, retaliated by overrunning Lorraine and annexing 
 it. Now it seemed as if Rene had done a foolish thing in 
 throwing in his lot with the French King. But Rene's 
 day of vengeance was to come. 
 
 Meanwhile, Craon had been contracting that other 
 alliance, with the Swiss Cantons. Liberally bribed with 
 French gold, the Swiss entered into a covenant with King 
 Louis for ten years, and in the autumn of this same year, 
 1474, invaded the Burgundian province of Franche Comte, 
 defeating the Burgundians at Hericourt and sacking 
 Pontarlier. Two years later Charles, uniting all his 
 forces against the Cantons, met the Swiss near Lake 
 Neufchatel, where he suffered two serious defeats at 
 their hands in the battles of Grandson and Morat. 
 
 1 Reigned from 1473 — 1508.

 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 47 
 
 Before Burgundy could recover from these disasters, 
 Rene had begun to reconquer his duchy ; he had already 
 recaptured Nancy and other fortresses when Charles led 
 an army against him. On January 5th, 1477, beneath 
 the walls of his capital, Rene at the head of a Swiss army 
 inflicted a crushing defeat upon the Duke of Burgundy. 
 Already the two alliances negotiated by the Sire de Craon 
 had served their purpose : Lorraine was safe from 
 Burgundian ambition and the power of Charles le 
 Temeraire lay in the dust. 
 
 At the close of the battle, the Duke himself was missing. 
 His fate was uncertain ; and in the letter which the Sire 
 de Craon despatched to his royal master, all he could tell 
 was that Burgundy had suffered a crushing defeat. But 
 that was good enough for Louis ; whether Charles were 
 alive or dead, these tidings filled the King with exaltation. 
 And straightway, by that royal post which he was the 
 first to institute in France, he despatched to his Governor, 
 Craon, the following letter : — 
 
 " Monsieur le Comtc, my friend, I have received your 
 letters, and heard the good news they contain, for which 
 I thank y< m with all my heart. Now is the time to employ 
 all your five natural senses in order to put the duchy and 
 county of Burgundy into my hands. And, if so be that 
 the Duke of Burgundy is dead, then as Governor of 
 Champagne, enter the said country with your army, and, 
 as you love me dear, hold it for me. Among your men- 
 at-arms ke< p order as if you were in Paris, and prove to 
 the inhabitants that I intend to treat them as well as any 
 oi my subjects. 
 
 ' With regard to our goddaughter, 1 1 intend to conclude 
 the marriage, which already I have negotiated, between 
 her and my Lord the Dauphin. 
 
 ' Mary, daughter of Charles the Ra ih, and his heiress, for he left no 
 
 son. She afterwards married Maximilian of Austria, later Emperor.
 
 48 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 ' My lord Count, I do not wish you to enter the afore- 
 said countries or to mention the above in the case that 
 the Duke of Burgundy should be still living. And in this 
 matter I trust to you to serve me. 
 
 " Farewell. Written at Plessis-du Pare, 1 the 9th of 
 January. 
 
 Signed " Louis." 2 
 
 The messenger who bore this letter met upon the road 
 another messenger from the Sire de Craon, who was 
 travelling to the King with the news of his great enemy's 
 death. For a whole day after the battle the Duke's fate 
 was unknown. The engagement was fought on a Sunday, 
 and it was not until the following Monday evening that 
 there was brought to Duke Rene an Italian page who told 
 how he had seen Burgundy fall. After a long search on 
 the battlefield, the Duke's body was found. Though 
 covered with wounds, it was not so defaced that it could 
 not be recognised by his laundress, his valet, and his 
 doctor. 
 
 The Battle of Nancy marks the climax in the Seigneur 
 de Craon's prosperity. After that victory there began 
 to come upon him the physical and moral defects of his 
 family. " The said Seigneur de Craon was an exceedingly 
 fat man," writes Commines. 3 And with his father's 
 corpulence, Craon began to reveal a tendency to develop 
 his father's vices. In the Duchy of Burgundy, where 
 King Louis, after Nancy, had established him in command, 
 La Tremoille permitted and possibly even perpetrated 
 grandes pilleries, while by arrogance and quarrelsomeness 
 he alienated one of Louis' most powerful allies, the 
 
 1 Doubtless Louis' favourite residence in Touraine, better known as 
 Plessis-les-Tours. 
 
 2 See " Archives d'un Serviteur de Louis XL," pp. iv. and v. 
 
 3 " Memoires," ed. Mich, et Poujoulat, Ser. I., Vol. iv., 145.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 49 
 
 Prince of Orange. The Prince retaliated by raising a 
 great part of the duchy against the French. Consequently 
 after he had suffered a severe defeat at the Battle of Dole, 
 Craon was deprived of the Burgundian command. 
 
 After this disgrace La Tremoille retired from public 
 life. But he had learnt his lesson. On his estates in 
 Barrois and Mayenne, where he spent the remnant of his 
 days, he lived as a law-abiding vassal of the King, occupy- 
 ing himself in good works and pious foundations. At his 
 chateau of Craon in Mayenne he died in the year 1481. 
 
 His domestic experiences were not unlike his father's, 
 for Craon's consort, Marie de Montauban, like his father's 
 first wife, Jeanne, ended her life in prison. Accused 
 of betraying her husband and even of plotting with 
 one of her lovers to poison him, Marie was con- 
 demned by order of Louis XL to perpetual imprisonment. 
 She died without children ; and her husband bequeathed 
 all his vast estates to his elder brother, Louis. 
 
 Louis de La Tremoille, having served in the army of 
 Charles VII. against the English, on the accession of 
 Louis XI. retired to his estates, where he lived the life of a 
 pious country gentleman. By his loyalty and orderliness, 
 Count Louis, although holding aloof from public affairs, 
 was a tower of strength to his sovereign in that part of 
 France. Had La Tr&noiUe with his great wealth and 
 numerous vassals thrown in his lot with the discontented 
 barons, that Mad War which broke out sonic years after 
 hin death might have occurred earlier, and been less 
 worthy of its name. Yet La Tremoille had better 
 ons tor quarrelling with his sovereign than many of 
 his discontented neighbours. For the greater pari oi the 
 vast inheritani e, the e tati i oi ralmond and of Thouars, 
 which should have come to him with his wife Marguerite 
 
 C.K. E
 
 50 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 d'Amboise 1 had been seized by the King, who had bestowed 
 them on his favourites. How by the persistence of Louis' 
 famous son, Count Louis II., these estates were regained 
 and united to the family dominions is another story which 
 shall be told in the following chapter. 
 
 1 The daughter cf Louis, Vicomte d'Amboise.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 LA TREMOILLES IN THE ITALIAN WARS 
 
 LOUIS II., I460 — 1525. CHARLES, I485 — 1515. 
 FRANCIS, I502 — 1542. 
 
 While Craon was fighting the King's battles, in his 
 brother's chateau of Bommiers, in Berry, was growing 
 up a golden-haired, hazel-eyed boy, Louis, the son of 
 Louis. This youth was to be the typical knight of 
 chivalry, and by his lustrous deeds to atone for the 
 family ogre's villainy. In the midst of the family picture 
 Louis II. dc La Tremoille stands out like a veritable 
 demi-god. His well-knit frame, curly locks, aquiline 
 nose, and decided chin are those of the verie parfit gcntil 
 knyghte. " The greatest captain of the world," his 
 contemporaries called him, " the glory of his century," 
 " the jewel of the French monarchy," and, like Bayard, 
 " the knight without reproach." ' 
 
 Yet despite his heroic qualities Louis did not stand 
 aloof from his comrades, proudly looking down on them 
 from a pedestal of stern virtue. With his companions 
 in arms he was hail-fellow-well-met. And though, in 
 writing, they may have lavished upon him the laudatory 
 epithets we have quoted, in speech they called him by 
 a nickname, suggested by his favourite oath Lavraye-corps- 
 
 1 Bayard, however, was " the knight without fear and without 
 reproach." 
 
 E Z
 
 52 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 Dien, a pseudonym, somewhat profane, and a trifle 
 lengthy, but doubtless familiarly contracted. 1 
 
 The story of Louis' career was recorded by one of his 
 own retainers, Jean Bouchet, a Poitiers lawyer, in a 
 biography entitled " Le Panegyric du Chevalier sans 
 Reproche." 2 
 
 The extravagant adulation of this book cannot fail 
 to fill with misgiving the critical modern reader. And 
 in order to gratify his judicial sense we have searched 
 diligently but with no great success in the La Tremoille 
 archives for the reverse side of Bouchet's flattering 
 picture. Our hero's gravest failings, as revealed by these 
 family documents, are a tendency to hold too loosely 
 the strings of his well-filled purse and a passion for 
 games of chance. With King Francis, his mother, 
 Louise of Savoy, and his much-tried Consort, Queen 
 Claude, La Tremoille lost heavily at cards. We may 
 conclude, therefore, that when Louis' good wife, Gabrielle 
 de Bourbon, is found pledging her jewels and silver plate, 
 and converting her ornaments into golden crowns of the 
 sun, it may not always have been to pay for the equipment 
 of her husband and his retainers in expeditions of war. 
 
 But when all is said these are no very serious offences ; 
 card-playing for high stakes was common in those days, 
 and excessive liberality may almost be regarded as a 
 weakness becoming to a hero. 
 
 Louis opened his career in the truly heroic manner 
 by running away from home. In his childhood at 
 Bommiers, with his younger brothers, Jean, Jacques 
 and Georges, he had played at being a soldier. Trained 
 
 1 See Brant6me, " (Euvres Completes," ed. Lalanne, II., 393 
 et seq., where he cites the favourite oaths of great captains. The most 
 curious is that of La Roche-du-Mayne, Teste Dieu pleine de reliques. 
 
 a Ed. Mich, et Pouj., Ser. I., Vol. IV., 405—478.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 53 
 
 to run, to wrestle, to leap, to draw the bow and to wield 
 the sling, he and his brethren loved to fight sham battles 
 and engage in sham sieges. But soon of this world of 
 make-believe Louis wearied. His first taste of real life 
 came when he was permitted to ride forth with his 
 father to hunt in the forests of Berry, and then sport so 
 absorbed him that he would pass whole days without 
 food or drink. 
 
 But not even the excitement of the chase satisfied his 
 craving for adventure. Stories of the King's court and 
 of the band of noble youths whom Louis XI. was gathering 
 round the Dauphin and training for knightly deeds, 
 penetrated even to remote Bommiers, and young La 
 Tremoille longed to enter this school of chivalry. It was 
 therefore a bitter disappointment when the Count, because 
 of his quarrel with the King, refused his sovereign's 
 demand that the young Louis should join the youthful 
 band at court, those striplings whom the King was 
 bringing up, not entirely for their own good but also as 
 hostages for their Sires' loyalty. 
 
 Shortly afterwards, during a long night in the forest, 
 when, having lost his way on one of his hunting expedi- 
 tions, Louis had ample time for meditation, he resolved 
 that should his father continue to refuse to send him to 
 court, he would take the matter into his own hands and 
 set forth on his own account. 
 
 The Count proving obdurate, the young Louis took 
 with him as companion another noble youth, and secretly 
 started. But his absence was soon discovered ; he was 
 overtaken and ignominiously brought home. 
 
 Barely had the truant returned when there reached 
 Bommiers a second royal messenger, summoning the 
 boy to court in tones so peremptory thai this time his
 
 54 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 father dared not disobey. So our hero, instead of 
 being punished for his truancy, heard the welcome news 
 that his dearest wish was to be gratified. A fortnight 
 later, in high glee as we may imagine, clothed in rich 
 attire and accompanied by the comrade of his former 
 evasion, Louis set out on his adventures. 
 
 Having been graciously welcomed at court by the King 
 and by his uncle, the Seigneur de Craon, the young 
 La Tremoille was admitted to the circle of noble youths, 
 whom the King in his capacity of " universal guardian ' 
 had gathered round the Dauphin Charles. 
 
 And there in courtly duties and martial exercises 
 Louis' days passed pleasantly. A fear, however, began 
 to haunt this fair stripling ; his figure began to fill out 
 too rapidly, and there came upon him the horrid dread 
 of his grandfather's bloated obesity ; wherefore, with 
 renewed vigour, he engaged in all manner of violent 
 exercises, subjecting himself to the severest discipline 
 of diet, with the result that his persistent efforts were 
 rewarded, the terrible fate of a resemblance to the family 
 ogre was averted ; and Louis remained slim and agile 
 to the end of his days. 
 
 " A young shoot, plucked withal from an old Bur- 
 gundian stock, yet growing to be a hedge of defence for 
 the realm of France, and a rod wherewith to beat 
 Burgundy," thus did the wily King, with a gleam in those 
 foxy eyes of his, describe Count Louis' son. Thirteen 
 years old was Louis when he came to court ; five years 
 he passed in martial and courtly training. Then at 
 eighteen he was at length permitted to engage in active 
 service, and to accompany his uncle Craon to the conquest 
 of Burgundy. 
 
 So fair a youth was not destined to escape the darts
 
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 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 55 
 
 of love, and Bouchet, in the long-winded fantastic 
 manner of the mediaeval romance, spins out to an inter- 
 minable length the story of his hero's first gallant adven- 
 ture. But doubtless our readers will brook abridgment 
 and rest satisfied to know that, as frequently happened 
 in mediaeval story, the lady of Louis' desire was already 
 the wife of another, and of the lover's most intimate 
 friend ; that while Louis' Dulcinca returned his love, 
 and while the lovers confessed their passion to one 
 another, they successfully concealed it from the husband 
 until one day their amorous glances betrayed them ; 
 but that, still true to the heroic tenor of the popular 
 talc, the husband, magnanimously relying upon the 
 honour of his wife and friend, placed no obstacle in the 
 way of their meeting ; and that thus trusted the lovers 
 felt bound to subject their passion to their honour. 
 1'irtunately, such a stern trial of their virtue Louis and 
 his lady had not long to endure, for soon the knight was 
 summoned from court to Bommicrs, where his father 
 lay at the point of death. There, surrounded by his 
 children, Count Louis passed away in the year 1483. 
 
 Our hero was now Count of La Trcmoille, the possessor 
 of a great fortune and the lord of vast domains. And 
 we hear nothing more of his romantic affection. Descend- 
 ing rapidly from high-flown romance to mere material 
 concerns, the Count's chief object now became to obtain 
 from the King the restoration of those confiscated lands, 1 
 that part of the Amboise inheritance which, as we have 
 said, Louis XL had bestowed on his favourites. 8 
 
 Accordingly, soon after his father's funeral, the Count 
 
 1 r i l.-uiars and Talmond, these e tates included the lordship 
 
 of Mauleon, the principalities "i Berrie, He de Rhe, Marans, and other 
 land 1 in ] 'oitou ami Sainton 
 
 9 One of them was the historian, Fhilippc de Commincs.
 
 56 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 set forth with his brothers for the Touraine chateau of 
 Plessis-les-Tours, where the King was residing. At 
 Plessis, by the intervention of the Archbishop of Tours, 
 La Tremoille's complaint was presented to Louis, who 
 promised to restore the confiscated dominions. But 
 death overtook him before he had time to fulfil his 
 undertaking. It was left for King Louis' virile daughter, 
 Anne de Beaujeu, who, during the minority of her 
 brother, the thirteen-year-old Charles VIII., practically 
 ruled the kingdom, to fulfil her father's promise to La 
 Tremoille. On September 30th, 1483, the rich estates of 
 Amboise passed into Count Louis' possession. Hence- 
 forth Louis and his descendants, as well as Counts of 
 La Tremoille, were Viscounts of Thouars l and Princes of 
 Talmond. 
 
 The town of Thouars, 2 on the Thouet, which now 
 belonged to the La Tremoilles, had once, during the 
 English occupation of western France, been a favourite 
 residence of English kings. Henry II. built there a palace 
 with two towers, la Tour au Prev6t and laTourGrenetiere, 3 
 of which the ruins may be seen to-day. The facade of 
 the old palace, bearing the arms of the kings of England, 
 was still standing at the Revolution. But the Republican 
 government insisted on the then occupant, Madame de 
 Bournisseaux, removing the sign of royalty from its walls. 
 After 1483, Thouars may be regarded as the La Tremoille 
 capital in the west. In the ancient palace of English kings 
 the La Tremoilles lived until the seventeenth century, 
 when a duchess of La Tremoille built on the banks of the 
 Thouet one of the most magnificent chateaux in France. 4 
 
 1 Thouars was to be created into a duchy by Charles IX. in 1563. 
 
 2 In the department of Sevres. 
 8 See illustration. 
 
 4 See ante, VI., and post, 133 and 200.
 
 LA TOUR AU PREVOT 
 Part of the old La Tr<!moille chateau at Thouare, built by King Henry II of England
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 57 
 
 Thouars was of great ecclesiastical importance, for 
 within its walls lay buried St. Laon de Cursay, to 
 whose shrine for many a year had flocked multitudes 
 of the mentally afflicted. Marvellous miracles had been 
 worked there, and, besides the church named after the 
 saint and built over his tomb, numerous other sacred 
 edifices had been erected. 
 
 Count Louis and his pious wife, Gabrielle de Bourbon, 
 richly endowed all these ecclesiastical foundations, while 
 not far from their palace they built the fine church of 
 Notre Dame. In a chapel of this church dedicated to 
 St. Medard were to be buried the La Tremoilles of future 
 generations. The fme tombs of Count Louis and his 
 wife in the choir were destroyed at the Revolution ; but 
 in the crypt the bodies of their descendants to this day 
 rest in peace. 1 
 
 Anne de Beaujeu had inherited her father's shrewdness. 
 Therefore she was quick to realise the importance of 
 securing the services of so brilliant a knight as Louis de 
 La Tremoille. She admitted him to the royal council, 
 and proposed his marriage with Gabrielle de Bourbon, a 
 princess of the blood royal, a descendant of St. Louis, 
 and a daughter of the Count of Montpcnsicr. Louis, 
 completely cured of his earlier romantic attachment, 
 gladly welcomed Anne de Beaujcu's proposal, and when 
 he saw Gabrielle's portrait, he became still more eager for 
 the match. To this ardent lover's disappointment, 
 Madame de Beaujeu refused to permit him to conduct 
 his wooing in person. A gentleman of the court was 
 charged to journey into Anvergne, to the castle of Mont- 
 pensier, where the lady dwelt, and to bear a letter 
 
 1 The late Duke, Louis Charles de La Tremoille, however, was 
 int. ned at Serrant.
 
 58 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 proposing the marriage. But Louis, determined to 
 circumvent Madame's prudent designs, like a true knight- 
 errant disguising himself as one of the messenger's 
 retainers, accompanied him to Auvergne. There he 
 penetrated into the Montpensier chateau and himself 
 presented the letter. Then for his pains the masquerading 
 suitor was fully rewarded by hearing Mdlle. de Mont- 
 pensier say as she read the missive, that though she had 
 never seen the Comte de La Tremoille, his fame was so 
 fair, that she would esteem herself happy in becoming his 
 wife. 
 
 Gabrielle, as may be imagined, was only flattered when 
 she discovered the trick her gallant had played her. The 
 course of their love ran smooth, and, on July 28th, 1484, 
 at the castle of Escolles in Auvergne, they were married. 
 
 Bouchet in his biography of La Tremoille draws a 
 striking picture of Countess Gabrielle, representing her as 
 a fine type of the cultured Frenchwoman in austere pre- 
 Renaissance days, before the Italian wars had introduced 
 into French chateaux Italian luxury and freedom. 
 
 Unlike her husband, Dame Gabrielle had literary tastes. 
 She was even the author of treatises, the solemn tenor of 
 which is betokened by such titles as le Chasteau de Sainct 
 Esprit, V Instruction des Jeunes Filles, and le Viateur. 
 These works the excellent Bouchet found to be so well 
 written, that he had difficulty in believing they were by a 
 woman — i.e., until he recollected that Madame Gabrielle 
 had had the good sense to appeal to his sound judgment 
 and that of other members of the superior sex for advice 
 as to their composition. For Madame Gabrielle knew her 
 place as a mediaeval woman. She recognised the limits 
 that men set to her poor feminine intelligence ; and, 
 though a devout Christian, she forbore to inquire too
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 59 
 
 closely into the mysteries of religion, exercising a discre- 
 tion which the good Bouchet highly commends. For the 
 Poitiers lawyer the Countess was an ideal woman ; and 
 in terms of the highest praise, he recounts how she used 
 to spend her day. Having paid her devotions, she passed 
 most of her time in embroidery and other domestic 
 avocations, surrounded by her numerous ladies, who all 
 belonged to noble houses. Then for a space she would 
 withdraw into the privacy of her book-lined closet to read 
 some history or moral discourse, or herself compose one 
 of her pious treatises. 
 
 Dame Gabrielle's love of letters was inherited by her 
 son Charles, Prince de Talmond, born the year after his 
 parents' marriage, and in early years the author of elegant 
 epistles and rondeaux. If in mind Prince Charles 
 resembled his mother, in physique he was a true La 
 Tremoille. And in his case not the severest discipline or 
 the most violent exercise succeeded in counteracting the 
 family corpulence : had death not cut short his career 
 he would probably have become as fat as his great- 
 grandfather. 
 
 But we are anticipating. We must return to a time 
 before so dark a destiny threatened the Prince, when he 
 was but an infant in the cradle. In 1485 a number of dis- 
 contented nobles, led by the King's cousin, Louis Due 
 d'Orleans, who aimed at replacing Anne dc Beaujeu in the 
 Regency of the realm, rose in rebellion, and waged another 
 mad war. The revolt had lasted but a few months, 
 when, being utterly worsted, the rebels laid down their 
 arms. Shortly afterwards, however, the malcontents 
 formed a new League in which they included Maximilian, 
 Archduke of Austria. War broke out again in [487. It 
 was waged chiefly in Brittany, where Nantes obstinately
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 61 
 
 himself that, through his grandmother, Marie d'Anjou, he 
 had a right to the crown of Naples ; and there was coming 
 upon him that passion for Italian conquest which for 
 half a century was to obsess French sovereigns. 
 
 Among all the turbulent princes of Italy none was 
 more ambitious than Ludovico Sforza of Milan, usually 
 known as II Mow, and one of the most striking figures of 
 the Renaissance. In this year, 1492, Ludovico fanned 
 Charles's ambition by sending to his court an embassy 
 instructed to encourage the King to assert his claim to 
 the Neapolitan kingdom. 
 
 What were the precise proposals made by the 
 ambassadors is uncertain, but it is perfectly clear that 
 their motive was to divert Charles in his proposed Italian 
 expedition from any enterprise against the Duchy of 
 Milan. Through his kinswoman, Valentine Visconti, 
 daughter of the Duke of Milan, the King might possibly 
 have laid claim to that duchy ] ; but on Milan Ludovico 
 himself had designs. He had already usurped the 
 government and thrust himself into the position of 
 Regent for his nephew, the Duke Galeazzo, whom he 
 had cast into prison. Now Galeazzo's father-in-law was 
 the King of Naples, and Sforza's design was, by bringing 
 King Charles against the Neapolitan kingdom, to prevent 
 Naples from intervening on his son-in-law's behalf in 
 Milan. The scheme was successful. And, when in 
 1494, Charles invaded Italy, it was against Naples alone 
 that his arms were directed. Milan's turn was to come 
 later. 
 
 In the previous year, if we may believe Jean B< indict, 
 La Tremoille had been despatched on a mission to Pope 
 
 1 Eventually Charles vm.'s cousin, and successor, Louis XII., who 
 was directly descended from Valentine, did claim it.
 
 62 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 Alexander VI., whose alliance the King eagerly coveted. 
 No other authorities, 1 however, mention Louis as one of 
 the ambassadors to Rome. The Count we know was 
 appointed lieutenant-general in the King's army. And 
 it seems likely that La Tremoille accompanied Charles 
 when, in August, 1494, he crossed the Alps by the 
 Mont Genevre. 
 
 There is, likewise, every reason to believe that Count 
 Louis participated in that crescendo of marvels, that 
 march of the Northerners, tramping over the ancient 
 Italian roads lying white in the autumn dust, from Pavia 
 to Florence, from Florence to Rome, and from Rome to 
 Naples. 
 
 That La Tremoille was with the King at the famous 
 capture of Fort San Giovanni, which laid Naples at the 
 feet of the French, there is no doubt. For to Count Louis 
 redounded all the honours of that glorious day. 
 
 With the true instinct of a successful commander 
 Louis was always careful for the physical condition of 
 his soldiers. And on the morning of the attack on San 
 Giovanni, at his own expense, he had the gunners served 
 with wine. The cannonading lasted four hours, at the 
 end of which time the Count, at the head of three com- 
 panies, led the assault and was the first to set foot within 
 the walls of the town. No sooner, at the head of his 
 first company, had he planted his standard in the breach 
 than it was seen to float from another which had been 
 simultaneously effected by the second company. So 
 great was the " Frankish fury " that in the space of an 
 hour the town lay at the invader's mercy. Then, crossing 
 the Liris and threatening the enemy on the flank and 
 
 1 See Delaborde, " l'Expedition de Charles VIII.," 322, according 
 to whom the ambassadors were d'Aubigny, Perron de Baschi, President 
 Matheron, and Bidan, superintendent of finances.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 63 
 
 rear, Charles compelled the Neapolitan army to retreat 
 to Capua, while he, on February 22nd, entered Naples. 
 
 Of the spoils of the Neapolitan kingdom, which Charles 
 distributed among the nobles of his army, La Tremoille 
 appears to have received his share. But, once the 
 plundering over, the French King and his generals were 
 anxious to return to their native land. Like their 
 country-woman of a later date, who, when she gazed on 
 the blue waters of the Bay of Naples, longed for the mud 
 of her natal Rue du Bac, Charles's nobles beneath those 
 sunny skies longed to be back among the clouds and 
 mists of their northern fatherland. Moreover, the 
 King's allies were turning against him. Sforza, having 
 secured for himself the Duchy of Milan, 1 was uniting in 
 a league against the French, Venice, the Pope, the 
 Emperor, Ferdinand of Arragon and Isabella of Castile. 
 
 Threatened with isolation in a hostile country, King 
 Charles began to prepare for a return to his base of 
 operations. In Naples he stayed only long enough to 
 make a triumphal entry on May 12th, and to install the 
 Comte de Montpensier, La Tremoille's brother-in-law, 
 as his viceroy. Then, a week later, Louis with the King 
 and his army turned his steps northward. The progress 
 of the French was rapid ; entering Rome, whence the 
 Pope had lied, on June 1st, on the 13th they were at 
 Sienna, on the 23rd at Pisa. At Poggibonsi, Charles 
 gave audience to Savonarola, to whom he confessed, 
 and from whose hands he received the Eucharist. 
 
 North of Pisa, at Sarzana, the invaders were confronted 
 by a perplexing alternative : whether to take the coast 
 road winding along the Gulf of Genoa or, marching north 
 by way of Parma and Piaccnza, to cross the Apennines 
 
 1 Gak-azzo bad died in prison.
 
 64 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 into the Lombard plain. Both roads were equally 
 difficult for a large army encumbered with a train of 
 heavy artillery : the coast road, as travellers by train from 
 Genoa to Florence will recollect, is bounded on the one 
 hand by the sea, and on the other by high mountains ; 
 the inland road ran over the precipitous peaks and 
 through the narrow gorges of the Apennines ; in both 
 directions the King had good reason to believe a hostile 
 army awaited him. Rather than fall into the enemy's 
 hands between the sea and the mountains, Charles 
 elected to cross the Apennines. And it was this deci- 
 sion which gave La Tremoille the opportunity of per- 
 forming the most glorious of all his exploits. The ascent 
 was made from Sarzana, not far from the famous 
 marble quarries of Carrara, in that wild, picturesque 
 country with which Andrew Wilson's landscapes have 
 rendered us so familiar. But as they neared the higher 
 peaks of the Apennines, covered with dense forests, 
 the French commanders were met by an almost in- 
 superable difficulty : how to convey over these precipi- 
 tous mountains their train of fourteen huge cannon, each 
 of which was usually drawn by thirty-five horses. In 
 this dilemma the Swiss came to their rescue. These 
 mercenaries by plundering a captured town in violation 
 of the King's command had fallen into disfavour. Being 
 anxious to reinstate themselves in their employer's good 
 graces, they proposed to harness themselves to the guns 
 and to drag them over the mountain. Their offer was 
 eagerly accepted. 
 
 Now, while the master-gunner, Jean de la Grange, 
 arranged the technicalities of this tremendous under- 
 taking, it was La Tremoille who supervised its execution. 
 And to him is chiefly due the perfect success of this
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 65 
 
 Herculean enterprise, the transport of fourteen enormous 
 cannon over a pathless mountain in the scorching July 
 sun. To prepare a way for the guns to pass, trees had 
 to be cut down, rocks exploded, and the ground levelled. 
 In all these works Count Louis personally took part. 
 Clad only in doublet and hose, he worked in harness side 
 by side with the Swiss, and with his own hand bore over 
 the mountain helmets full of heavy cannon-balls. All 
 the while with characteristic French patience and cheer- 
 fulness he was encouraging the soldiers by offering rewards 
 to those who should first drag their gun to the summit, 
 and now, as at San Giovanni, providing wine with which 
 to quench the men's parching thirst. Thus encouraged 
 by their heroic captain, and inspirited by the martial 
 music of trumpet, fife and drum, inciting one another to 
 new efforts by those curious cries which their descendants 
 even to-day call over the Alpine valleys, the Swiss at 
 Length succeeded in dragging up to the top of the mountain 
 all the fourteen cannon. Then came the descent, which 
 was even more difficult than the ascent had been. For 
 the guns were allowed to go down by their own weight ; 
 and the Swiss, roped to the backs of them to steady 
 their descent, were in danger of being carried away by 
 the impetus of the artillery. To La Tremoille's care- 
 fulness it was mainly due that during this dangerous 
 business Dot one life was lost. And at the end of two 
 days, the Count, burnt to a blackamoor by the sun, 
 triumphantly told the King that his artillery train had 
 crossed the mountains and lay safe on the boulder-strewn 
 bank of the River Tiro. 
 
 Charles was overjoyed ; and to his indomitable general 
 the words with which the King welcomed these tidings 
 must have been highly gratifying : ' To-day, my cousin," 
 
 C.R. F
 
 66 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 said the King, " at the risk of your own person, which 
 you are very ready to hazard in the service of me and 
 mine, you have accomplished more than Hannibal of 
 Carthage, or Julius Caesar. And I promise you that 
 when I see you again in France such rewards shall be 
 bestowed upon you as shall inspire others with a wish 
 to serve me." 
 
 La Tremoille, with a noble knight's true modesty, 
 replied : " Sire, I regret that my mind and body cannot 
 better serve you ; no other reward do I desire than your 
 grace and goodwill." l 
 
 But the invaders had not yet overcome all their 
 difficulties. And before they could cross the Alps they 
 had to force their way through the enemy's army at 
 Fornovo, where, on July 5th, La Tremoille commanded 
 the rearguard, which appears to have borne the brunt of 
 the fighting. Immediately on his return to France, 
 Charles, remembering his promise, appointed his 
 brilliant general High Chamberlain. 2 
 
 Two years and a half later, on April 7th, 1498, the 
 King died childless, leaving as his heir his cousin Louis, 
 Duke of Orleans, whom La Tremoille had taken prisoner 
 at St. Aubin-du-Cormier. 
 
 The accession to the throne of King Louis XII., the 
 Count's sometime prisoner naturally filled La Tremoille 
 with misgiving. But the new sovereign prudently 
 announced that the King of France did not intend to 
 avenge the wrongs of the Duke of Orleans. And with 
 magnanimity, 'mingled no doubt with shrewdness, 
 Louis not only confirmed La Tremoille in the possession 
 
 1 Bouchet, 437. 
 
 2 Premier Chambellan. For three generations La Tremoilles held 
 this office: Georges under Charles VII., the Seigneur de Craon under 
 Louis XL, and now Count Louis.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 67 
 
 of those lands, offices and pensions which he had enjoyed 
 under King Charles, but admitted him to his innermost 
 councils. 
 
 In the year of his accession two problems perplexed 
 the King, and in the solution of both he employed 
 La Tremoille. 
 
 First, he was thinking of divorcing his wife, Jeanne 
 de France, the plain, deformed little daughter of Louis XL 
 Jeanne's story is a sad one. She had been the victim of her 
 father's ambition and revenge. Usually royal marriages 
 are planned for the continuity of a house ; the object of 
 this one was the reverse, it was designed to extinguish 
 the house of Orleans. At the time of Jeanne's marriage 
 to Louis of Orleans the direct succession to the crown 
 depended on the thinnest of threads, on the life of a six- 
 year-old child, Louis XL's only son. The idea that an 
 Orleans, a member of the bitterly hated younger branch 
 f«f his family, should one day succeed him Louis could 
 not tolerate. So to the head of the Orleans house, to 
 his cousin Duke Louis, he gave to wife a princess whom 
 he believed would have no children, his own poor little 
 afflicted daughter, Jeanne. 
 
 Heartily as he detested the marriage, Orleans was not 
 then in a position to resist. Like everyone else at 
 Louis XL's court, he must needs bow to that monarch's 
 will. Whether the union was ever more than nominal 
 was later to be debated : the husband declared it was not, 
 the wife asserted the contrary. At any rate, when, after 
 twenty-two years of at least nominal marriage, Orleans 
 ascended the throne as Louis XII., he determined to 
 untie the knot whi< b bound him to Jeanne. 
 
 Too close a blood relationship was the pretexl the King 
 pleaded when from the Pope, Alexander VI., he demanded 
 
 F 2
 
 68 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 a bill nullifying his marriage. But in reality two other 
 considerations, both of them perfectly legitimate according 
 to the standards of that age, compelled the King to take 
 a step which was much more usual in those days than now : 
 first, he desired an heir ; second, he longed by marriage 
 with his predecessor's widow, Anne, the wealthy and 
 powerful Duchess of Brittany, to unite to the French 
 crown that last of the great independent feudal fiefs. 
 
 The King, not unnaturally, hesitated to himself broach 
 to Jeanne the subject of the dissolution of their union. 
 But La Tremoille and the Queen had been friends ever 
 since their childhood, when Jeanne was living at the 
 castle of Linieres, not far from Bommiers. So it was 
 La Tremoille whom the King entrusted with the dis- 
 agreeable task of making known to the Queen her royal 
 husband's wishes. And Louis knew enough of his 
 emissary to be sure that he would perform his graceless 
 mission in the most graceful manner possible. The 
 King was not mistaken. In his difficult interview with 
 Jeanne, La Tremoille, showed himself at once diplomatic 
 and delicate. He began by assuring the Queen that 
 the King loved her beyond any woman in the world ; 
 an assurance which was not unnecessary in face of the 
 persistent neglect with which Louis had treated his wife 
 throughout the long years of their marriage. Had the 
 Queen been able to continue the royal line, said the 
 ambassador, then her consort would have been only too 
 happy to end his days in her sainted society. 
 
 Apparently Jeanne received her lord's proposal with 
 the resignation of a Griseldis. But, as La Tremoille was 
 leaving her, she bade him entreat the King to take counsel 
 and not to marry from motives of passion, of ambition, or 
 of avarice.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 69 
 
 But Jeanne's warning was too late a day. Already, 
 as we have seen, Louis' mind was made up ; already the 
 machinery for the dissolution of his marriage had been 
 set working, and the King and the Pope had struck 
 a bargain : in return for a papal bull appointing a 
 commission to inquire into the validity of the royal 
 union, the Pope's son, Csesare Borgia, was to receive a 
 rich wife, Charlotte d'Albret, with the fat lands of the 
 duchy of Valentinois. 1 
 
 To save appearances a papal inquiry was necessary. 
 It opened at Troyes, on August 10th, 1498, in the house 
 of the Dean of the Chapter. There, after much hesitation 
 and anguish of heart, Madame Jeanne de France, the 
 daughter and wife of kings, made up her mind to appear 
 in order to contest Louis' assertion that their marriage 
 had never been consummated. 
 
 Nothing but a strong sense of religious duty could 
 have induced the timid Jeanne, who, in her father's 
 presence, out of sheer shyness, used to shrink behind 
 her governess, to come forth from her retirement into 
 the ignominous publi< ity of a court of law. But to her 
 marriage was a sacrament, and to preserve its sanctity 
 she consented even to reveal the tender hidden things of 
 her inmost heart. 
 
 Yel Jeanne's evidence, torn from her at the cost of so 
 much suffering, was of no avail. The commission sat 
 for four months, but without waiting for its decision the 
 Pope signed the dispensation for Louis' marriage with 
 Anne of Brittany. In that month of August tlic King, 
 with the Duchess and La Tremoille, was at Ftampes, 
 signing, with Count Louis as guarantor and witness, a 
 
 1 The marriage was celebrated at Blois in 1499; and it was the 
 daughtei of < • are and ( oarlotte whom La Crenioille, after Gabrielle'a 
 
 Eh, in, ti 1 ied fur In . -<•< ond wife.
 
 7 o FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 solemn promise to marry Anne within a year or to 
 surrender to her the Breton towns of Nantes and 
 Fougeres, of which La Tremoille was captain. 
 
 Anne, for her part, by virtue of a clause in her marriage 
 contract with Charles VIII., which obliged her to marry 
 the King of France, his successor, promised in writing 
 to marry Louis as soon as the papal inquiry should be 
 completed. Before the close of the year the marriage 
 took place. And Jeanne retired to her appanage at 
 Berry, where six years later she died in such odour of 
 sanctity that some years later she was beatified. 
 
 For his son's marriage with Charlotte d'Albret the Pope 
 had paid a further price in promising his support to King 
 Louis in the expedition he was then preparing against 
 the Duchy of Milan. For Louis XII. shared his pre- 
 decessor's passion for Italian conquest. On his accession, 
 Louis had assumed the titles of Duke of Milan and King 
 of Sicily. But, as grandson of the Milanese princess, 
 Valentine Visconti, it was Milan rather than Naples that 
 first attracted his ambition. 
 
 Therefore, in 1499, the year after his accession, having 
 isolated his prey by a formidable network of alliances, 
 including the Pope, the King of England, the King and 
 Queen of Spain, Scotland, Portugal, Venice, Hungary, 
 Bohemia, Switzerland and even the Empire, Louis 
 despatched an expedition against Milan under the leader- 
 ship of Trivulzio, a Milanese exile. La Tremoille would 
 appear to have been a more natural commander. But 
 it now became obvious that there was some influence 
 at court working against him. It cannot have been the 
 King's influence, for Louis XII., as we have seen, had 
 completely taken his sometime captor into his confidence. 
 More probably it was the Queen's malevolence that caused
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 71 
 
 Count Louis to be passed over, for the cold, vindictive 
 Anne of Brittany had never forgiven him for having in 
 earlier days besieged her good Breton towns and overrun 
 her duchy. Not under La Tremoille, therefore, but under 
 Trivulzio, the French army crossed the Alps. Yet, 
 although La Tremoille did not take part in this expedition, 
 we must follow it briefly in order to understand the 
 Count's subsequent doings. 
 
 Against the invading force of the French King, leagued 
 with all the great Continental powers, the Duke of Milan 
 felt he had no possible chance. He therefore decided to 
 flee from his duchy, and, while raising a formidable army 
 of mercenaries, to endeavour to break up the league of 
 his enemies. The first member he succeeded in detaching 
 was the Emperor Maximilian. Meanwhile, in September, 
 1499 , Trivulzio and the French, having overrun the 
 greater part of the Milanese, were able to enter the city 
 and buy out the Duke's garrison from the citadel. Towards 
 the end of the month King Louis himself crossed the Alps 
 to take possession of his conquest, and on October 6th 
 made his solemn entry into Milan. Then, after spending 
 a month in regulating the affairs of the duchy, he returned 
 to France, leaving Trivulzio in supreme command. 
 
 But the Italian's arrogance was so overbearing and his 
 exactions so heavy, that the Milanese rose in revolt, and 
 on February 3rd, 1500, Trivulzio, hearing that the fugitive 
 Duke with an army of Swiss mercenaries was approa< lung 
 the city, deemed it wise to withdraw with his army, leaving, 
 however, a French garrison in the citadel. On February 
 5th, Sforza re-entered Milan, greeted by enthusiastic 
 cries of " Moro, Moro." But all his efforts to capture the 
 citadel were unavailing ; so he must needs content him- 
 self with taking the neighbouring town of Vigevano,
 
 72 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 whence he advanced to Novara. There, on March 21st, 
 he compelled the French to capitulate. 
 
 By this time Trivulzio had made himself cordially 
 disliked and distrusted by his companions in arms. And 
 Louis was driven to the conclusion that, unless his 
 Italian army were to be utterly routed, he must appoint a 
 new and trusted general. No one was better fitted for 
 such a responsible post than La Tremoille, and, disregard- 
 ing all remonstrances, it was La Tremoille whom the 
 King now chose to lead his reinforcements into Italy, 
 and to join Trivulzio in command. 
 
 On March 26th, 1500, with 500 men-at-arms and an 
 excellent train of artillery, Count Louis joined hands 
 with Trivulzio at Mortara, where, a few days later, he 
 was further reinforced by 14,000 Swiss, bringing the 
 number of his troops up to 30,000. 
 
 In the almost incredibly brief interval of nine days, 
 the Count converted Trivulzio 's discontented and mutinous 
 army into the finest force ever commanded by a French 
 general for more than a century. 1 Preceded by a banner, 
 on which were painted a whip, a torch and a blood-stained 
 sword, at the head of his lordly host La Tremoille, 
 on April 5th, set forth for Novara. 
 
 Before this town, on the banks of the Sesia, the Duke of 
 Milan was encamped with a force in numbers slightly 
 superior to that of his adversary, but in morale vastly 
 inferior. For the Duke's army, consisting of Swiss, 
 Germans, Burgundians and Italians, all clamouring for 
 arrears of pay, was disunited and discontented. 
 
 On the day after their departure from Mortara, La 
 Tremoille and his men took up their position over against 
 Sforza before Novara. For the two following days there 
 
 1 Auton, " Chroniques," ed. Maulde la Claviere, 241 et seq.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 73 
 
 was indecisive skirmishing. Meanwhile the troops on 
 both sides, many of whom were compatriots, were 
 fraternising. From their countrymen in the Count's 
 service, the Duke's Burgundians, Swiss and Italians were 
 learning that against so excellently organised a force 
 Sforza's disintegrated host had not the remotest chance 
 of victory. Wherefore, during the night of April 7th, 
 vast bodies of the Duke's soldiers slipped off, some to 
 take refuge within the walls of the town, others to cross 
 the Sesia and return to their native land. Consequently, 
 when the Duke of Milan awoke in the morning it was to 
 find that a great part of his army had melted away. 
 
 On that day, which was April 8th, the French closely 
 invested Novara. And then Sforza's Swiss, seeing their 
 cause to be hopeless, opened negotiations with La 
 Tremoille, demanding a safe conduct to their native land. 
 But before the French general would accede to their 
 request he demanded the Duke's surrender. Even to 
 these mercenaries so open an act of treachery was odious. 
 At first they hesitated ; and it was only after a whole 
 day's bargaining that, on the 9th, they agreed not to 
 resist their leader's capture, if, during their retreat, he 
 should be discovered in their ranks. 
 
 The events which followed are somewhat obscure. 
 But it appears that La Tremoille, determined not to permit 
 so valuable a prize to escape him, ordered the Swiss, as 
 they withdrew, to defile singly beneath a pike held over 
 their heads by the French soldiers. Seeing that some 
 thousands of Swiss soldiers still remained in Novara, 
 it may be imagined that the process was a somewhat 
 lengthy one. After it had lasted three hours, there passed 
 beneath the pike one with a careworn look and furtive 
 glance, whose marked features, colossal height and
 
 74 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 distinguished bearing were unmistakable — the Duke of 
 Milan was recognised and arrested. 1 
 
 Thus, for a second time within but a few years, had it 
 fallen to La Tremoille's lot to capture the leader of a 
 hostile army. And in the King's judgment Novara must 
 surely have atoned for St. Aubin-du-Cormier. 
 
 It was Count Louis himself who wrote a long letter to 
 the King announcing the Duke of Milan's capture. 
 Louis received the news at Lyons early one morning, 
 before he was up. And at once he hastened to announce 
 it to the Queen. " Madame," he cried, on entering 
 Anne's chamber, " will you believe it, La Tremoille has 
 taken Louis Sforza ! " But Anne refused to believe it, 
 until Louis repeatedly assured her that it was certain, 
 and that a sovereign of France never had a better or 
 more loyal servant, or one more successful in his under- 
 takings. 
 
 Well might the King of France rejoice, for among all 
 his enemies Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, was the 
 most formidable. 
 
 The husband of Beatrice d'Este, the Duke of Ferrara's 
 brilliant and graceful daughter, who happily did not live 
 to see her husband's ruin, Sforza was the patron of litera- 
 ture and of art. To the brutal virility of a condottieri he 
 united the taste and the learning of a polished gentleman 
 and a refined scholar. 
 
 There are those who consider that because Sforza 
 brought the French into Italy he was a traitor to his 
 native land. But such detractors forget that in those 
 days Italy was but a geographical expression, that her 
 numerous independent states were separate entities, and 
 
 1 Bouchet says he was wearing the habit of a Franciscan friar : that 
 he should have donned such a disguise is improbable, for it would only 
 have rendered his striking personality more recognisable.
 
 [OirmtdoH, Photo 
 
 lrom a portrait of the Milanese School now in the Louvre
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 75 
 
 that when Sforza invited Charles VIII. to cross the Alps 
 and attack Naples, he was merely opposing a hostile 
 power. That the Duke of Milan was a usurper 
 who had ousted his nephew, Galeazzo, from power 
 no one can deny. And for this treachery La Tremoille's 
 captive paid the penalty to the uttermost in long 
 years of imprisonment and a miserable death in a 
 foreign dungeon. 
 
 Transported with joy at his enemy's capture, Louis 
 wrote no less than three letters to La Tremoille, urging 
 him to lose no time in sending his prisoner to France, 
 and to neglect no precaution to prevent his escaping on 
 the road. ' For I have a marvellous desire to see him 
 over here . . . and I shall never be at ease until I 
 behold Ludovico on this side the mountains," ' wrote 
 Louis from Lyons. 
 
 As soon as the King's commands were received, Sforza, 
 who for the time being had been confined in the citadel 
 of Novara, was placed in an iron cage covered with 
 wood and taken first to Lyons that the King might 
 behold his fallen foe, and thence to the castle of 
 Lys-Saint-Georges in Berry, where he died eight years 
 afterwards.' 2 
 
 Having conquered Milan, King Louis next proceeded 
 against Naples. And in the plans made for the conquest 
 of the Neapolitan kingdom, La Tremoille was treated 
 just as he had been when the conquest of Milan had been 
 undertaken. Now again he found himself passed over 
 and replaced by Italians. This time the Queen's 
 influence is perfectly obvious. There is no doubt that 
 it was at her suggestion that the King detained Count 
 
 1 " Chartier de Thouars," 32 and 33, 
 
 2 There appears to be no authority for the tradition that he died in 
 
 the chateau ol I .<>■ in Touraine
 
 76 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 Louis at home to guard the coast of Anne's duchy 1 
 against a possible English invasion. 
 
 " At the instance of our very dear and greatly beloved 
 companion " (notre tres chere et Ires aimee compaigne), so 
 runs the official document of La Tremoille's nomination, 2 
 the King committed to his loyal servant's charge watch 
 and ward over the Breton coasts in addition to the 
 defence of those of Guyenne which he already exercised. 
 
 But now again, as during the Milanese conquest, the 
 Italian commanders having proved incompetent, the 
 King was glad to supersede them by Frenchmen, one of 
 whom was La Tremoille. 
 
 It was in August, 1503, that for the third time Count 
 Louis crossed the Alps into Italy. On the 18th of the 
 month, the Pope, Alexander Borgia, died. And King 
 Louis, hoping to secure the election to the papal chair 
 of his minister, La Tremoille's uncle, Georges d'Amboise, 
 and thinking that the presence of a French army near 
 Rome might further this design, ordered the Count to 
 linger round the Holy City instead of marching on Naples. 
 
 La Tremoille had not been well when he left France, 
 and the effect of the Italian heat of those summer months, 
 aggravated, perhaps, by some disappointment at being 
 withheld from active service, was not to improve his 
 health. He grew rapidly worse until his doctor, des- 
 pairing of his life, demanded his recall. Louis replaced 
 the Count by his old enemy at Fornavo, Gonzaga, Marquis 
 of Mantua, who, like many another Italian general in 
 those wars, had gone over to the French. Gonzaga took 
 the command, and La Tremoille regretfully returned to 
 France. 
 
 1 The Queen's duchy of Brittany was not formally united to the 
 crown until after her death. 
 
 2 " Les La Tremoille pendant cinq siecles," II. 128 129
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 77 
 
 Their general's illness was only the beginning of the 
 French misfortunes. Gonzaga soon became unpopular 
 with the troops and resigned, leaving the army leaderless, 
 disunited and undisciplined, to be completely routed by 
 the Spanish general, Gonzala. 1 
 
 Meanwhile, La Tremoille was in for a year's serious 
 illness. The King grieved sorely over his indisposition, 
 for the Count was one of the few at court who were ever 
 ready to serve their sovereign without clamouring for a 
 reward. Despite his disinterestedness, however, he was 
 not to go entirely unrecompensed. On his recovery, 
 the King appointed him governor of the rich province 
 of Burgundy. This was a " fine estate and one eagerly 
 desired by all good people." Yet the office was far from 
 being a sinecure ; for as a frontier province Burgundy 
 was constantly open to attack. The Mayor of Dijon 
 welcoming the new Governor into his capital did 
 not conceal how much was expected from him. The 
 Burgundians looked to La Tremoille, he said, and to the 
 renown of his victories to serve them as a rampart 
 against the sudden movements of the industrious 
 Flemings, the pertinacious Hainaulters, the pillaging 
 Swiss, the greedy Germans, and all those who were 
 envious of the frugality and the wealth of these bounti- 
 fully gifted people. Burgundy was, indeed, the wealthiest 
 of French provinces, and on that account there were few 
 French nobles who could have been trusted to govern 
 it. But La Tremoille, being totally devoid of avarice, 
 appears to have kept his hands immaculate, " uncor- 
 ruptcd," says Bouchct, " by gifts of gold or silver." 
 
 Despite the cares of his new office, Louis still required 
 the Count's services in Italy. And in 1507 we find him 
 
 1 On the Garigliano, December, 1503.
 
 78 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 accompanying the King to suppress a revolt of Genoa 
 against French rule. This done the King proceeded to 
 Milan, and thither went with him three La Tremoilles, 
 Count Louis, his son, Charles, Prince of Talmond, and 
 his brother, Jean. 
 
 Jean was the first of the La Tremoille cardinals. 
 Having entered the Church in early years he rose rapidly, 
 chiefly through his brother's influence, to be Bishop of 
 Poitiers and Archbishop of Auch. He was a typical 
 prince of the Church, and as great a pluralist as our own 
 Cardinal Wolsey, for in addition to his bishopric and 
 archbishopric he enjoyed the revenues of half the 
 bishopric of Agen, of eight abbeys and of one prioiy. 
 With an income of 50,000 livres he lived in great 
 state with fifty horses in the stable, a magnificent train 
 of falcons, and a master falconer, who was one of the 
 most famous in his day and generation. 
 
 Jean had been made a Cardinal by Julius II. in 1506. 
 And in this year, 1507, he was on his way to Rome to do 
 homage to the Pope. But at Milan he was stricken with 
 fever and died. His body, having temporarily rested in 
 a Franciscan church of the city where the Cardinal had 
 been accustomed to hear mass, was eventually taken to 
 France and buried at Thouars, in the church of Notre 
 Dame. 
 
 Twice again during the reign of Louis XII. was Count 
 Louis to visit Italy, in 1509 and in 1513. In the former 
 year the Count and his son, the Prince de Talmond, 
 distinguished themselves at Agnadello, where the King 
 defeated the Venetians. In 1513, once again in joint 
 command with Trivulzio, La Tremoille led an unfortunate 
 expedition against the members of the newly-formed 
 Holy League. By a curious coincidence the chief
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 79 
 
 engagement was fought on the scene of the Count's 
 famous capture of Ludovico Sforza, outside the walls of 
 Novara. But now the fortunes of war were reversed, 
 and La Tremoille suffered defeat at the hands of the 
 Swiss, whom formerly he had conquered. Having lost 
 all their artillery and stores, Louis and his fellow com- 
 mander were compelled to retreat hastily into France 
 by the passes of Susa and Mont Cenis. 1 
 
 In the previous year the French had lost Milan, and 
 the last of King Louis' Italian campaigns had been fought. 
 Not that he had relinquished his designs on Milan or 
 on Naples, for he devoted the remainder of his reign 
 to preparing a formidable expedition, the undertak- 
 ing of which death compelled him to leave to his 
 successor. 
 
 After his defeat at Novara, La Tremoille hastened to 
 his province of Burgundy, which had already been 
 invaded by the victorious Swiss. Strengthened by 
 imperial support, they were investing Dijon with an 
 army of 60,000. Count Louis sent an urgent request 
 to the King for reinforcements. But, as the English 
 were at that time invading France on the north, no army 
 was forthcoming, and La Tremoille was forced to buy 
 off the Invaders with a promise of 400,000 crowns. 2 
 
 The news of this humiliating treaty was a great blow 
 
 to the King, who was at first inclined to severely censure 
 
 its author ; but, when it was represented to him what 
 
 normous odds were against his general, his common 
 
 use vanquished his chagrin and La Tremoille was 
 
 forgiven. 
 
 1 Bouchet exoneral hero from any blame in this revi tying 
 
 that the del I from [rivulzio's refusal to follow hiscolleaj 
 
 adh 
 
 ,J See Brantome " Lea Gram! Capitainet Francais," ed. Lalanne, 
 
 II.. 393 et seq.
 
 80 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 In the following year his old enemy, Queen Anne, 
 having died, the Count, with a train of other distin- 
 guished knights rode out of Abbeville to meet his 
 sovereign's bride, Mary Tudor, and to escort her to her 
 husband. The King survived his third marriage but a 
 few months. In January, 1515, he died, leaving his 
 throne and his Italian quarrels to his kinsman, Francis 
 of Angouleme, Duke of Valois. 
 
 One of the first acts of King Francis was to confirm 
 La Tremoille in the possession of all his estates and 
 offices. At the court of the new King, says Michelet, 
 the veteran commanders, La Tremoille and Trivulzio, 
 were like two pieces of old furniture which had served 
 their turn. 1 Yet Francis did not despise his " old 
 furniture." And, when a few months after his succession, 
 in August, 1515, in pursuance of his predecessor's design, 
 he led over the Alps an army more powerful than any 
 yet raised in the wars, La Tremoille went with him. 
 With the old Count were his son, Charles Prince de 
 Talmond, and his grandson, Francis, who was but a 
 boy of thirteen. 
 
 King Francis was obviously bent on honouring the 
 La Tremoilles, for it was to the wardship of his namesake, 
 this boy of thirteen, that the King committed the first 
 distinguished prisoner taken in the campaign, Prospero 
 Colonna, whom Francis de La Tremoille conducted right 
 across France to his Poitevin prison in the castle of 
 Montegu. 2 
 
 The boy's father and grandfather meanwhile were 
 with the French army at Novara avenging Count Louis' 
 defeat of two years earlier, and winning back the lost 
 
 1 Michelet, " Hist, de France an Seizieme Siecle," Bk. I., Chap. XIII. 
 
 2 Brantome " CEuvres Completes " (ed. Lalanne), V. 146.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 8r 
 
 artillery. Then the French encamped by the Roman 
 road, ten miles from Milan city, close to the village of 
 Marignano. 
 
 There, on the afternoon of September 13th, as King 
 Francis was in his tent trying on a new suit of German 
 armour, he heard that the enemy's Swiss mercenaries 
 had come out of Milan, and that in battle array some 
 30,000 strong they were rapidly advancing to the 
 attack. 
 
 Of the two days' battle which followed accounts vary. 
 During the hours of darkness which suspended the fighting, 
 while their adversaries were refreshed by food and drink 
 from Milan, the hungry French lay all night under arms. 
 Having called for a glass of water, the young King found 
 it mingled with gore. Thirsty, he retired to his rest 
 beneath a gun-carriage, having first extinguished his 
 fire so that unseen he might observe what his men were 
 doing. Close beside him lay La Tremoille. The Prince 
 du Talmond was in another part of the camp with his 
 cousin, Constable Bourbon. 
 
 With early dawn the struggle was renewed. It was, 
 as Trivulzio called it, " a battle of giants," and long did 
 the issue tremble in the balance. The tide turned in 
 favour of the French when Alviano, the general of the 
 Venetian Republic, the only Italian ally of France, came 
 up with a body of horse. Alviano's arrival, like that of 
 Blucher al Waterloo, took the heart out of the enemy. 
 Soon afterwards they retreated, leaving, so it is said, 
 "'» Less than half their number, 15,000, on the field. 
 
 The French, too, had lost heavily. And Count 
 Louis' son, ( harles, Prince de Talmond, lay dying, 
 wounded in sixty-two parts of the body. 1 
 
 1 We quote Bou< h'-t. 
 C.R. G
 
 82 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 It was the young King who took upon himself the 
 terrible task of breaking to the Count that he must not 
 hope for his son's recovery. Charles died thirty-six hours 
 after the battle. 
 
 Though grieving deeply over the death of his only son, 
 La Tremoille, with characteristic devotion to duty, 
 remained with the army. To the care of his grand- 
 son's tutor, Regnaud de Moussy, he committed his 
 son's body. Slowly and pompously it was conveyed 
 through France to Thouars to its last resting-place 
 in the church of Notre Dame by the side of Cardinal 
 Jean. 
 
 A messenger from her husband had borne to Gabrielle 
 de Bourbon the sad tidings of her son's death. Despite 
 the spiritual consolations of her nephew, the Bishop of 
 Poitiers, who was with her at the time, Gabrielle was 
 unable to practise those counsels of resignation she sent 
 to her husband, and, sinking beneath the blow, she died 
 of grief in the following year. 
 
 Thus there passed away one of the finest types of old 
 French feminity. Bouchet, whose literary tastes made 
 him her favourite companion, describes her as a woman 
 of few words, temperate, 1 grave, magnanimous, and above 
 all things, pious. Dignified and distant in public, among 
 the ladies and gentlemen of her household, and those she 
 knew well, she was always gracious and familiar, ready 
 with kind words and wise counsel, but disliking scandalous 
 and licentious talk. 
 
 The death of the Prince de Talmond left as heir to the 
 La Tremoille estates the young Francis, whose mother, 
 Louise de Coetivy, was first cousin to the King of 
 
 1 " Elle se contentoit de peu de viandes aux heures accoutu- 
 mees."
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 83 
 
 France. 1 The uncertain life of a boy of thirteen was but a 
 slender thread on which to hang the hope of the perpetua- 
 tion of the La Tremoille line. And it may have been 
 primarily for the purpose of furnishing his family with 
 another heir that Count Louis, despite his deep grief at 
 Gabrielle's death, only a year afterwards took to himself 
 another wife, Louise d'Albret, Duchess of Valentinois and 
 only child of Casare Borgia and Charlotte d'Albret. 2 While 
 the lately disconsolate widower was fifty-seven, his bride 
 was but a girl of seventeen. The Count's friends expressed 
 their amazement at his choosing a successor to the highly 
 virtuous Gabrielle de Bourbon from the decadent Borgia 
 house. Louis is said to have made the astounding reply, 
 that it was precisely because Louise came of a stock 
 the virtue of whose women had never been questioned, 
 that he had chosen her. If tradition speak true, there was 
 certainly no question about the virtue of the Borgia 
 women : for one cannot question what does not exist. 
 But perhaps that was hardly the Count's meaning. 
 Louis may have been closing his eyes to the Borgia family 
 history, and thinking only of the maternal side of his 
 wife's house, of the d'Albret women, who had on the 
 whole, been beyond reproach. 
 
 Both Louise's parents were dead at the time of her 
 Iding. And apparently it was by the King's mother. 
 
 1 John of Angouldmc. 
 
 Charles m Louise ot Savi Joan m diaries de Coetivy, 
 
 Comte de Taillebourg. 
 
 Francis I. Louise de Co tivy m, Charles 
 
 de la Trcniuille. 
 
 Frani 1 - de la 1 n moilie. 
 
 a See ante, 69 and note. 
 
 G 2
 
 84 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 Louise de Savoie, of whom Mdlle. d'Albret was a lady-in- 
 waiting, that the marriage was arranged. After Gabrielle's 
 death, Count Louis had been much at court, losing large 
 sums of money at games of chance, and it may have been 
 while playing at trictrac or oie that Madame de Savoie 
 suggested to the Count that he might fill his rapidly 
 emptying purse, and at the same time secure the con- 
 tinuation of his house, by espousing the wealthy young 
 Duchess of Valentinois. 
 
 Marriages were just then running in Louis' mind. 
 And in order to make doubly secure the La Tremoille 
 succession, in this same year, 1517, he betrothed his 
 niece, Jacqueline, daughter of his brother, Georges, 
 Seigneur de Jonvelle, to the friend of the King's boyhood, 
 Anne de Montmorency, who later as Constable of France 
 was to be one of the century's most prominent figures. 
 In the event of the Count and his brother dying without 
 male heirs, Montmorency was to inherit the La Tremoille 
 title and possessions. But Jacqueline was not yet of a 
 marriageable age, and when she became old enough, 
 Montmorency had changed his mind, so this wedding 
 never took place. 
 
 For the first few years after his second marriage Louis' 
 sword rested in the scabbard. With three young Kings 
 on the three greatest thrones of Europe, Henry VIII. in 
 England, Charles in Spain, Francis in France, Christen- 
 dom was en fete, and jest and laughter, hunting and 
 dancing were the order of the day. The French court 
 was the gayest of all ; and the Spanish ambassadors, 
 following the King from chateau to chateau, complained 
 that they could never obtain an audience from the 
 pleasure-loving monarch : in the evening he was too busy 
 with banquet, concert and dance ; in the early morning
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 85 
 
 too sleepy, and no sooner up and awake than off to the 
 greenwood with the hunt. 
 
 Every political event was eagerly used as an excuse for 
 more festivity. In December and January, 1518 — 1519, 
 the court was at Paris entertaining with jousts, banquets, 
 balls and hunting parties four English ambassadors, the 
 Lord Chamberlain, the Prior of St. John's, the Captain of 
 Guisnes, and the Bishop of Ely. 1 On December 23rd, the 
 King offered these ambassadors one of the most magnifi- 
 cent royal banquets recorded in history. It was given in 
 the great court of the Bastille, which for the purpose was 
 roofed with sail-cloth and lined within by pleached box, 
 from which hung oranges and other fruits. The feast was 
 followed by a dance, and in the small hours of the morning 
 the entertainment closed with an elaborate collation of 
 sweetmeats served by court ladies. 
 
 On January 1st La Tremoille followed suit, and pre- 
 sented the ambassadors with a sumptuous repast in his 
 Hotel des Creneaux.' 2 According to the family records, 
 this was a truly Gargantuan feast. The bill, preserved 
 for us by the piety or admiration of the host's descendants, 
 spreads itself over nine royal octavo pages. Every variety 
 of edible fish, flesh and fowl seems to have been there. 
 The board groaned beneath 25 lbs. of beef, twenty- 
 three fat capons, eight pigs, twelve dozen larks, seventy- 
 one pigeons, twelve large hams, five salmon, twenty-four 
 , 1,100 herrings, 800 oysters, snails, of which we hope 
 the English guests did not partake, and all manner of 
 other fish. The venison the King himself provided. 
 Of the salad let modern housewives take note : there were 
 
 1 " Cal. St. P. Ven. II." (1509—1519), 480, 482, 485 n srq. 
 Probably the magnificent mansion he had recently built 00 the 
 the Latin quarter. It was afterwards known as the 1 1-">tel 
 <!■ La 1 remoille. See post, 274, n. 5.
 
 86 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 eighteen dishes of it, arranged artistically in the form 
 of flowers and foliage, and its ingredients were 
 endive, beetroot and olives. Fruits and sweetmeats 
 were not lacking, and the long list of spices used in the 
 cooking would excite envy in the breast of any votary 
 of the culinary art. The King lent silver plate, and so 
 did several of the nobles. Twenty-six lbs. of candles 
 illuminated the feast, the total cost of which amounted 
 to 676 livres toumois. 
 
 In La Tremoille's recently replenished purse another 
 big hole was made in the following year, when the Count 
 and his grandson accompanied King Francis to that 
 culminating glory of these festive years, the Field of the 
 Cloth of Gold. It was, as Michelet calls it, "a duel of 
 expenditure," for the nobles of England and France, 
 each nation vying with the other in magnificence, sold 
 and mortgaged castles and lands to procure for the 
 adorning of themselves and their retainers gold and silver, 
 jewels, satins and velvets. In such grandeur La Tremoille 
 could not be behind the rest. And for his own and his 
 grandson's accoutring no doubt his bride's fortune 
 proved useful. 
 
 From the family accounts we learn that it was to his 
 apothecary, Jean Billard, that Louis entrusted the care 
 of his equipment, the ordering of cloaks in the Spanish 
 mode fashioned out of " cloth of velvet," a robe of violet 
 velvet and sundry other garments, as well as clothes 
 for the men-at-arms and coverings for their horses, and 
 the painting of the Count's standard, with three banners 
 for trumpeters and cornets to boot. 
 
 Thus equipped, we may be sure that old Louis and young 
 Francis de La Tremoille ruffled it well among the glittering 
 splendours of the golden field. And there it may have
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 87 
 
 been that for the young Prince of Talmond was arranged 
 that illustrious marriage with the heiress of the house 
 of Laval, which was celebrated in the following year. 
 
 The Prince's grandmother had been a princess of the 
 royal Bourbon house, his mother first cousin to the King, 
 and now the Prince himself was to marry a King's grand- 
 daughter. The grandfather of his Breton bride, Anne de 
 Laval, was Frederick of Arragon, King of Naples. And 
 through their Neapolitan ancestors we shall find Anne 
 de Laval's La Tremoille descendants calling themselves 
 Princes of Tarente or Taranto, and for two centuries 
 claiming the Neapolitan crown. 1 
 
 With the Field of the Cloth of Gold the fat years of 
 feasting came to an end. In the lean years which followed 
 the veteran Count Louis rendered valiant service to France. 
 The Kings who had so cordially embraced at Ardres 
 were soon falling out. An English army invaded the 
 north, while the Emperor attacked France in the south. 
 Had it not been for La Tremoille's skilful conduct of the 
 northern campaign, the English might have marched on 
 Paris. But, though so badly provided with troops 
 that, as soon as he had effectually defended one stronghold 
 he must needs move his men to secure the next, Count 
 Louis succeeded in driving back the English, not, however, 
 before they had approached to within twenty miles of 
 Pi lis. 
 
 This was in the year 1422, just after Bourbon, Constable 
 of France, Count Louis' nephew had inflicted a crushing 
 blow on his country by deserting to the enemy. 
 
 In the following year we find Louis enjoying a brief 
 interval of repose and relaxation at court, where on 
 July 12th he paid four livres of Tours to the King's 
 
 1 See post, 155 and n. 2 and 289 and n. 1.
 
 88 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 cornets and trumpeters in acknowledgment of " the 
 pastime which they had that day afforded him." 
 
 After spending some months in Burgundy defending 
 his province against imperial attack, Louis joined his 
 King near Avignon in October, 1524, and then for the 
 eighth 1 and last time crossed the Alps into Italy to take 
 part in the famous Pavia campaign. 
 
 The object of this expedition was the reconquest of 
 Milan. Making straight for this city, Francis, although 
 he failed to capture the citadel, succeeded in taking 
 the town and driving out the imperial generals Bourbon, 
 Pescara and Charles de Lannoy. The two latter en- 
 trenched themselves in the neighbouring town of Lodi, 
 while Bourbon crossed the Alps to raise reinforcements 
 in Switzerland and Germany. 
 
 Then the King made a fatal mistake, which was to 
 cost him his liberty and La Tremoille his life. Instead 
 of immediately besieging the enemy in Lodi, Francis 
 wasted the winter months in a useless siege of Pavia, and, 
 filled with vain confidence by his victory at Milan, disas- 
 trously weakened his army by detaching a large part 
 of it under the Duke of Albany for the conquest of Naples. 
 
 December and January, the last months of his life, 
 La Tremoille passed in the great camp which the French 
 constructed round Pavia. It was like a huge town, 
 with a population of merchants, victuallers and women 
 as well as soldiers, amounting to no less than 70,000 
 souls. 
 
 The King, given up to gaiety and all the soft volup- 
 tuousness of his beloved Italy, was residing in the neigh- 
 bouring chateau of Mirabello. But his generals were 
 
 1 The dates of Count Louis' Italian campaigns are 1494, 1500, 1503, 
 1507, 1509, 1513, 1515. 1524—1525-
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 89 
 
 not so comfortably quartered, and La Tremoille may 
 have been one of those who was reduced to go and warm 
 his hands at his royal master's fire. 
 
 Meanwhile the imperial forces were concentrating at 
 Lodi. Bourbon had arrived with reinforcements, and 
 late in January the imperial commanders decided to 
 come to the relief of the inhabitants of Pavia, who were 
 reduced to great straits. On January 24th the imperialists 
 left Lodi, and a week later took up their position within 
 a mile of the French outposts before Pavia. The French 
 were now as if besieged between Pavia on the one hand, 
 and the relieving force on the other. Some weeks 
 were occupied in skirmishing between the two armies. 
 But on February 25th, the imperialists having during 
 the night obtained possession of the park of Mirabello, 
 the battle was engaged. 
 
 Conflicting accounts render it difficult to ascertain what 
 actually took place at Pavia. But concerning the chief 
 incident of the battle, there is no doubt : the King, 
 accompanied by La Tremoille, threw himself so rashly 
 upon his enemies that his infantry found it impossible 
 to follow. Francis and the gentlemen of his household 
 were isolated. 
 
 La Tremoille, ever in the thickest of the milie, was 
 wounded in the face beneath the eye ; and his horse, 
 likewise wounded, was about to fall beneath him, when a 
 certain Jacques de la Brossc, who had once been the 
 (Hunt's page, offered Louis his horse. Then, remounted, 
 La Tremoille, despite his wound, hastened to his 
 sovereign's side, but only to fall, disabled by an arquebus 
 shot, and this time mortally wounded. 
 
 ( lose .it hand at this moment was La Tremoille's 
 grandson, Francis, who, to avenge his grandsire's death,
 
 go FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 throwing himself into the heart of the battle, was sur- 
 rounded by foes on every hand, and taken prisoner. 
 
 A similar fate had overtaken the King himself, while 
 many of La Tremoille's companions-in-arms lay with him 
 dead upon the battlefield. 
 
 Like most warriors, Count Louis had looked forward to 
 death in action. But he who had so often seen the dead 
 bodies of wounded generals lying defaced and un- 
 recognisable had conceived a curious design for diverting 
 from himself a fate so undesirable ; he had told his 
 friends that in the case of his being killed in battle his 
 body might be identified by the unusual length of the 
 nail of his big toe on the right foot, and Bouchet relates 
 that it was by this mark that the Count's body was 
 recognised. It was borne into one of the churches of 
 Pavia. There it remained until, embalmed with myrrh 
 and aloes, and enclosed in a coffin, it was conveyed in 
 great pomp and magnificence from Italy into France, and 
 by way of Lyons, Loudun, and He Bouchard to Thouars, 
 where in the church of Notre Dame it found its last 
 resting-place in a gorgeous tomb by the side of Gabrielle 
 de Bourbon. 
 
 On the day of Louis' funeral at Thouars, tidings 
 reached the castle that the new Count Francis had 
 returned to Lyons, having paid his ransom of no less than 
 9,000 crowns to his three captors, Francesco di Miranda, 
 Alvaro di Cartagena and Andrea di Malo. 
 
 Exorbitant as was the amount of this ransom, Francis 
 was well able to pay it ; for, as we have seen, his wife had 
 brought him a huge fortune. The new Count is said to 
 have been the wealthiest of all the La Tremoilles. 
 
 Without playing so important a part in public affairs 
 as his grandfather, Count Francis served the King faith-
 
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 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 91 
 
 fully in his Italian wars. But it is chiefly as a provincial 
 administrator that he is remembered. As lieutenant- 
 general of Poitou, Saintonge and Aunis, he protected 
 agriculture. Like his great-grandfather, the first Louis, 
 he was an ideal country gentleman, and he died peace- 
 fully in his bed, in his chateau of Thouars, at the 
 comparatively early age of forty. 
 
 Two years before his death he had been charged by the 
 King to welcome to Poitiers the Emperor Charles V. on 
 his progress through France. 
 
 The eldest of his eleven children, a third Louis, 
 succeeded to his domains, and, as we shall see in the next 
 chapter, threw himself heartily into the struggle between 
 Catholics and Protestants-
 
 92 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE LA TREMOILLES AND THE WARS OF RELIGION 
 
 LOUIS III., VICOMTE AND THEN DUC DE THOUARS, 1522 — 1577- 
 CLAUDE, DUC DE THOUARS, I566 — 1604. 
 
 CHARLOTTE DE LA TREMOILLE, PRINCESSE DE CONDE, 1568 — 1629. 
 HER SON, HENRI DE BOURBON, PRINCE DE CONDE, I588 — 1646. 
 
 The French Wars of Religion followed hard upon the 
 conclusion of the Italian campaigns. When the safety- 
 valve for baronial turbulence afforded by foreign warfare 
 was closed, then the nobles turned against each other at 
 home. For half a century they wasted France in a civil 
 war, which was fought in the name of religion, but was 
 nothing more nor less than a struggle between rival 
 political factions. 
 
 In this conflict the La Tremoilles played an important 
 part, fighting first on the Catholic side, and then for a 
 generation espousing the Protestant cause. 
 
 Louis III., 1 eldest son of Francis de La Tremoille, 
 having served in the Catholic army during the early 
 years of the civil war, was, in 1576, appointed lieutenant- 
 general of a Poitevin army raised to fight against the 
 Protestant leader, the Comte de Lude. Only for a few 
 months, however, did La Tremoille occupy this prominent 
 post ; for in the following year, while besieging the strong- 
 
 1 1522 — 1577. In 1550 he was sent to England as one of the hostages 
 for the execution of the Treaty of Boulogne.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 93 
 
 hold of Melle, he was stricken with an illness which 
 proved fatal on the very day of the town's surrender. 1 
 
 Louis was one of the richest of the La Tremoilles. 
 Partly on this account, but also as a reward for his 
 services to the crown, Charles IX. had converted the 
 viscounty of Thouars into a duchy," with the unusual 
 proviso, that in default of heirs male it was to descend 
 through the female line. In 1594 Louis had married 
 Jeanne de Montmorency, daughter of the great Constable 
 Anne. By her he left two children, a son Claude, born in 
 1566, and a daughter Charlotte, two years younger. 
 
 In the province of Poitou, and especially in the town 
 of Thouars, during Louis' lifetime, Protestantism had 
 been making rapid progress. Berthre de Bournisseaux, a 
 Catholic historian, 8 relates that a whole convent of nuns 
 had been converted and conducted by their abbess to 
 Geneva, there to publicly abjure the religion of their 
 fathers. Meanwhile, their fellow-converts at home were 
 plundering churches, breaking sacred vases, and throwing 
 to the four winds all the holy relics they could lay hands 
 on. Ascending the pulpit of the church of Notre Dame, 
 at Thouars (again we cite the Catholic historian), an ex- 
 Carmelite, united in unholy wedlock to a woman whose 
 husband was still alive, uttered such terrible blasphemies 
 that the scandalised congregation rose, dragged him from 
 the church and straightway hanged him in the street 
 outside. 4 
 
 All these disorders Duke Louis seems to have regarded 
 with a serenity unworthy of so stalwart a defender of 
 the faith. It was not until the Huguenots had introduced 
 
 1 March 25th, 1577. 
 
 a By letters patent, registered October 21st, 1503. 
 8 " 1 list de la Ville de Thouars " (1S2.J), 17.} et seq. 
 4 September 30th, 15O1.
 
 94 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 into Thouars for their protection a company of 500 foot 
 soldiers, lodging them in the churches and the priests' 
 houses, that the Duke somewhat tardily put forth his 
 hand and asserted his authority. The Catholic worship, 
 which had for some months been suspended, was restored. 
 But down to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 
 Calvinism continued to flourish in Thouars and the 
 neighbourhood. 
 
 It was in troublous times, therefore, that Louis' death 
 left his wife, Jeanne de Montmorency, a widow, and his 
 heir, the young Duke Claude, her son, but a boy of eleven 
 years old. But Jeanne was as resolute a person as her 
 father ; and she brought up her children with great 
 strictness. Probably not a little of Claude's high principle 
 and unswerving devotion to duty was due to his mother's 
 influence and training. 
 
 Hitherto, with the one exception of Gabrielle de 
 Bourbon, there has been little to say of the La Tremoille 
 women. But we are now approaching a period when the 
 women of this great family in vigorous character and 
 decisive action vied with the men, and even surpassed 
 them. 
 
 Two years after her husband's death, the Duchesse de 
 La Tremoille, believing Claude to have learnt all that his 
 home tutor could teach him, sent her boy to Paris with a 
 letter l to one, Monsieur Rouhet, whom she requested 
 to select from the colleges a learned man (un homme docte) 
 worthy to instruct her son. 
 
 As soon as he was of an age to bear arms Claude took 
 service in the Catholic army, and was soon commanding 
 a company of cavalry for King Henry III. But even 
 
 1 See " Jeanne de Montmorency . . . et sa Fille, la Princesse de 
 CondeY' published by the Due de La Tremoille, 1895, p. 5.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 95 
 
 in those early years Claude must have been a strenuous 
 youth, whom so decadent a monarch was not likely to 
 inspire with any enthusiasm. Moreover, contact with 
 the Calvinists of Poitou had doubtless already shaken 
 Claude's orthodoxy. So we are not surprised to find that 
 when, in 1585, the Duke de Mercceur at the head of a 
 Catholic force invaded Poitou, the young Duke de La 
 Tremoille threw in his lot with the Protestants and joined 
 Henry de Bourbon, Prince de Conde, who was besieging 
 Brouage. 
 
 It was indicative of his brave and resolute spirit that 
 Claude de La Tremoille should have joined the Protestants 
 at a time when their cause seemed most desperate. In 
 Holland in the previous year the champion of the 
 Protestant faith, William the Silent, had been shot by a 
 Catholic, fanatic. In England plots were thickening round 
 Queen Elizabeth. In Spain, King Philip was preparing 
 the great Armada, designed, with one blow, to destroy the 
 reformed religion in these Islands. In France this year, 
 1585, witnessed the formation of the great Catholic 
 League, and the papal excommunication of the Protestant 
 leaders, Henry of Navarre and his cousin the Prince de 
 Condi'-. 
 
 One of the results of Claude's joining the Protestants 
 at Brouage was that during the siege their leader Conde 
 went off to the La Tremoille castle of Taillebourg, there 
 to pay his addresses to Mdlle. de La Tremoille, Claude's 
 sister Charlotte, then a maiden of seventeen. 
 
 Conde" had for eleven years been a sonless widower, 
 his first wife, Marie de Cleves, having died in 1574. And 
 Charlotte's beauty and intelligence, so we are told, were 
 already famous throughout the land. Her intelligence 
 we may credit, but her beauty — if we may judge from her
 
 96 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 portraits— would not have appealed to the modern 
 suitor. The high, aggressive forehead, the prominent 
 eyes, heavy nose and thick lips, suggest ability and 
 intelligence. But from the pictures of Charlotte we 
 possess, it is hard to guess wherein lay that charm, 
 which — if we may believe the gossips of the day — capti- 
 vated two royal Henries in succession. 1 
 
 Neither had Conde any physical attractions to recom- 
 mend him : small and insignificant of figure, with 
 prominent features and abundant wrinkles, he looked 
 considerably older than his age, which was then thirty- 
 three. Yet these two plain persons — for we must call 
 Charlotte plain — were about to engage in one of the 
 most thrilling romances of history, by the side of which 
 many a romance of fiction grows dull and pale. 
 
 Charlotte, before she saw Conde, had made him 
 her hero. His leadership of the Protestant party since 
 1574 had won him a reputation for valour and prowess, 
 which appealed to Mdlle. de La Tremoille's imagination, 
 quickened by the perusal of those popular romances of 
 chivalry, which she had eagerly devoured in secret when- 
 ever she could escape from her mother's supervision. 
 
 Conde, before he saw Charlotte, had been attracted 
 by the idea of marriage with the wealthy, clever and 
 " beautiful " Mdlle. de La Tremoille. And both parties, 
 when they met, remained enamoured of each other. 
 
 The unconventional conditions of their first meeting 
 heightened the romance of their relationship. For the 
 Duchess de La Tremoille, journeying from Thouars to 
 
 1 The scandalmonger, Brantome (see " CEuvres," ed. Lalanne, IX. 
 in), accuses her ot having been Henry III.'s mistress. That she 
 was the mistress of Henry IV. is suggested in the article in " La Bio- 
 graphie Universelle," on what authority we cannot divine, all the 
 evidence we can discover going to prove that there was never any 
 love lost between Henry of Navarre and the Princesse de Conde.
 
 \ Oiraudon, Photo 
 CHARLOTTE DE I A ikf.MOILLE, PRINCES I DE COND6 
 
 From a portr.it by I'ranvois Queue) in the Bibliothtque Nation.ilc, Pull
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 97 
 
 Taillcbourg to chaperon her daughter, had been delayed. 
 So Charlotte in solitary state received her suitor and 
 entertained him with the perfect assurance of seventeen 
 summers, and the perfect serenity of une grande dame. 
 
 To Conde, Charlotte appeared the most beautiful woman 
 in the world. To Charlotte, Conde appeared the greatest 
 hero. He came to her but poorly attended, like a typical 
 knight-errant, with a following of only three or four 
 men-at-arms. That her lover should thus for her sake, 
 and in open war, hazard his precious life, made Charlotte 
 adore him more than ever. The garrison of her castle 
 numbered no more than twenty-four men-at-arms. 
 She trembled for her Prince's safety. But she did her 
 best to minimise the risk he was running. At night, 
 while her suitor slept soundly after his journey, this 
 maiden of seventeen kept watch and ward. She super- 
 intended the changing of the sentinels, and patrolled 
 the ramparts, peering out into the darkness to make sure 
 that no danger threatened her sleeping hero. Before his 
 departure on the morrow Conde recorded in writing a 
 promise to marry his brave hostess. 
 
 But, alas ! before that promise could be kept, danger 
 and disaster overtook the adventurous lover. Leaving 
 his infantry to continue the siege of Brouage, Conde 
 proceeded from Taillcbourg to attack Angers. On the 
 way there he met Madame de La Tremoille. At first the 
 Dui hess had favoured the proposed marriage ; but now, 
 as Condi' wrote hurriedly to Charlotte, for" some unknown 
 on " she looked coldly on his suit. This " unknown 
 reason " is not difficult to divine ; the King was said to 
 have declared against the union, and Conde's prospects 
 were steadily darkening. 
 
 Having met with a humiliating repulse before the walls 
 
 c.k. h
 
 9 8 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 of Angers, the Prince, accompanied by Claude de La 
 Tremoille, fled to St. Malo, where he took ship for 
 Guernsey. And there, from October to January, 1 he 
 remained in exile, vainly soliciting help from England. 
 
 Meanwhile Jeanne de Montmorency had joined her 
 daughter at Taillebourg. There the stern Duchess found 
 herself defied by the iron will of her daughter of seventeen. 
 Charlotte refused to break off her engagement to Conde ; 
 she likewise refused at her mother's bidding to surrender 
 her brother's castle of Taillebourg to the approaching 
 Catholic army. 
 
 Jeanne, in high dudgeon, was reduced to leaving her 
 daughter in command at Taillebourg. And shortly 
 afterwards the castle was besieged by the King's troops. 
 
 Taillebourg, as we have said, was but meagrely garri- 
 soned. It was also poorly provisioned, as well as being 
 surrounded by the town and difficult to defend. Nothing 
 daunted, however, Charlotte, like her niece the Lady of 
 Lathom, fifty years later, made every preparation for a 
 gallant defence. The only cannon she possessed, two 
 small culverins, she placed at the gateway leading to the 
 town, and in the night, letting one of her servants down by 
 a rope from a castle window, she sent him with letters 
 imploring help from the nearest Protestant army. This 
 force, commanded by her kinsman, the Comte de Laval, 
 quickly came to her aid and dispersed the besiegers. 
 
 Encouraged by her success at Taillebourg, this girl 
 of seventeen next began to scheme for her lover's return 
 to France, and with this object she went to La Rochelle. 
 
 One day in January, just as Conde and La Tremoille, 
 disappointed in their hope of help from England, were 
 reduced to the lowest depths of despair, they perceived 
 
 1 1585— 1586.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 99 
 
 approaching the Guernsey harbour two French ships of 
 war. These vessels had been sent by Charlotte from 
 La Rochelle. They were commanded by that stalwart 
 Protestant, that " Pope of the Huguenots," as he was 
 called, M. du Plessis-Mornay, who bore a letter from 
 Mdlle. de La Tremoille to her betrothed. 
 
 Joyfully returning to La Rochelle on the warship, the 
 exiles were welcomed by their fair deliverer, who, a few 
 days later, on January 19th, was formally affianced to 
 her hero. And, on the following March 16th, the consent 
 of Madame de La Tremoille having been gained, the 
 marriage was celebrated very simply, but, as it would 
 seem, very appropriately, at that chateau of Taillebourg 
 which the bride had so gallantly defended. Almost 
 immediately afterwards the bride and bridegroom 
 parted, for Conde must needs take the field against the 
 Catholics. 
 
 Shortly before her marriage La Princesse de Conde had 
 publicly embraced the Protestant faith. A year later 
 her brother followed her example. Claude had been 
 slow to change his opinions, but once having adopted the 
 religion, as it was called, he became a pillar of the faith. 
 No mere political Protestant he ; in the fervour of his 
 religious belief, and in the strictness of his religious 
 practice, he resembled the English Puritans. His two 
 most intimate friends were those bulwarks of Protes- 
 tantism, M. du Plessis-Mornay and Agrippa d'Aubigne. 
 With Henry of Navarre, whom he regarded as a sceptical 
 time-server, ( laude had no sympathy whatever ; and 
 we shall frequently find him withdrawing from the field 
 of action, disgusted with Henry's two-faccdness : he 
 died in the shadow of the King's wrath, " overwhelmed,*' 
 say.^ d'Aubigne^ " by the King's hatred." At the time 
 
 H 2
 
 ioo FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 of the memorable reconciliation between Henry and 
 d'Aubigne, so graphically related by the latter, the King 
 reproached his former friend with having cared too much 
 for La Tremoille. " It was a friendship made in your 
 service," objected d'Aubigne. " Yes," replied Henry 
 reproachfully, " but when I began to hate him, you did 
 not cease from loving him." 1 
 
 At Henry's brilliant victory of Coutras, won over the 
 Due de Joyeuse on October 20th, 1587, Claude was present. 
 For Claude's sister, Charlotte, this Protestant victory of 
 Coutras was to be fraught with the direst consequences. 
 The Prince de Conde, who took part in the action, by 
 a fall from his horse sustained an internal injury to which 
 the ignorance of sixteenth century surgery attached no 
 importance, not even when for five months it was followed 
 by frequent attacks of fever, violent pain in the stomach, 
 and occasional sickness. And when, on March 5th, 1588, 
 Conde died, the doctors regarded his death as so sudden, 
 and so mysterious that they demanded a post-mortem 
 examination, as the result of which they declared the 
 Prince to have died of poisoning. This was the 
 verdict of five physicians and surgeons ; and no one 
 called it in question except the medical faculty of 
 Montpellier. But not even the Montpellier doctors 
 seem to have connected Conde's death with his fall at 
 Coutras. 
 
 Even more disastrous than the doctors' obtusity was 
 the malice which accused Charlotte of being her husband's 
 murderer. This terrible charge was unsupported by a 
 particle of evidence save a few wild words uttered by one 
 of the witnesses under torture, and afterwards denied. 
 Before her marriage Charlotte may have been fast ; 
 
 1 D'Aubigne\ " Memoires," ed. le Baron de Ruble, 108.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 101 
 
 as we have said l she was the reputed mistress of Henry III. 
 But that after her marriage to Conde she carried on an 
 intrigue with her page, in order to marry whom she 
 murdered her husband, which was the charge brought 
 against her, would be highly improbable even if the cause 
 of Conde's death were less obvious. 
 
 In those days lack of evidence mattered nothing, and 
 Charlotte, though she was never brought to trial, was 
 universally regarded as her husband's murderess, and for 
 seven years, until 1595, kept in the strictest confinement. 
 Had she not been expecting a child at the time of the 
 Prince's death she would probably have been subjected 
 to torture. 
 
 When in her prison of St. Jean d'Angely' 2 on Sep- 
 tember 1st, 1588, Charlotte gave birth to a son, his 
 legitimacy was questioned. It was not until four years 
 later, when Henry of Navarre had ascended the French 
 throne, and when, being without legitimate heirs, it suited 
 his purpose to make Charlotte's son his godchild and heir- 
 apparent to the French crown, that the King acknow- 
 ledged him as Conde's son and a Prince of the Blood. 
 The King's recognition of her son's legitimacy greatly 
 improved Charlotte's position by helping to clear her 
 from the charge of unfaithfulness to her husband. 
 
 Soon afterwards, the severity of her captivity was so 
 far relaxed that she was allowed to leave her prison 
 twice a week, in order to attend divine service. Yet, 
 though still untried and unconvicted, she was regarded 
 as a murderess. And the Calvinist ministers of St. Jean 
 d'Angely refused to administer the Sacrament to her. 
 In vain was there shown to them a letter from the King 
 
 1 S 96, n. 
 
 J Tn the province of Saintonge, on the high road from Saintcs to 
 Poitiers, and about sixty miles from the latter.
 
 102 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 permitting to the Princess all the consolations of her 
 religion. The Protestant pastors remained obdurate. 
 Then it became necessary for the Duke of Thouars him- 
 self to interfere, and the influence of so powerful a pillar 
 of the Reformed Church effected what the command of 
 an apostate King had failed to accomplish : at the Duke's 
 request a special consistory was summoned, which granted 
 the Princess the privilege she coveted. 
 
 During all these years Charlotte had had no oppor- 
 tunity of clearing herself from the infamous charge under 
 which she laboured. Time and again she had appealed 
 for judgment to the Parlement of Paris, the highest 
 court in the realm, and the only one which she as a 
 princess held entitled to pass judgment upon her. 
 
 But it was not until 1595, seven years after her hus- 
 band's death, that the King allowed her appeal. Then 
 at length she was freed from captivity, and permitted to 
 leave St. Jean d'Angely on the solemn promise, for the 
 performance of which her brother and other great nobles 
 stood surety, to appear before the Parliament at Paris on 
 the following July 22nd. 
 
 There and then the Princess de Conde did duly appear ; 
 but her two chief accusers, her brothers-in-law, the Prince 
 de Conti and the Comte de Soissons, failed to answer the 
 Parliament's summons, and so in their default there was 
 nothing to be done but to declare the accused innocent. 
 Thus at length, after seven interminable years of terrible 
 suffering, Charlotte's ordeal came to an end. But there 
 is little doubt that her acquittal was merely a political 
 move on the part of the King. It did not suit him for the 
 mother of his heir to lie in prison under the accusation of 
 murder. 
 
 Indeed, all the while the Princess may have been
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 103 
 
 merely the King's scapegoat. For there were those who 
 were inclined to accuse Henry himself of having instigated 
 his cousin's murder. The two Protestant leaders had 
 been known to be rivals, each jealous of the other's power 
 and influence. Against Henry there was no more evi- 
 dence than against the Princess. But the King was 
 doubtless glad to have some one on to whom to cast the 
 opprobrium of the supposed crime, until the indignation 
 it had aroused had somewhat abated. Almost from the 
 first Henry seems to have persuaded himself of Charlotte's 
 guilt. ' A dangerous beast is a wicked woman," he 
 wrote to his mistress, La Belle Corisande, 1 soon after 
 Conde's death. And even after he had permitted her 
 rehabilitation, we doubt whether the King allowed him- 
 self to believe in her innocence ; for, while lavishing 
 favours upon the young Prince de Conde, Henry always 
 treated Conde's mother with marked coldness. Possibly, 
 had it not suited the royal purpose, Charlotte might 
 have been left to languish like a condemned criminal 
 in perpetual captivity. 
 
 In reviewing the history of this cause eelebre, one cannot 
 help feeling astonished that a family so powerful as the 
 La Tremoilles should have permitted Charlotte to suffer 
 for so long such terrible injustice. Her mother, we know, 
 did all she could to rehabilitate her. As soon as she heard 
 of the accusation, the Duchess journeyed to St. Jean 
 d'Angely, but when there she was refused admission to 
 her daughter's prison." Charlotte's brother, however, 
 
 1 " La Princesse de Cond6," Ed. Barthelemy, 236. 
 
 2 M. Barth616xny represents [eanne .1 • having done nothing for her 
 daughtei ; surely he 1 annol have Been a letter reproduced in " [eanne 
 de Montmorency el sa Fille," 7. relating the Duchess's journey to 
 St fean d'Angely, and her efforts on licr daughter's behalf. Several 
 other letters m this volume prove h<>w emr, n< allv the Duchess 
 strove to obtain her daughter's freedom and justification.
 
 104 FR0M THE CRUSADES 
 
 the powerful Due de Thouars, was the most influential 
 member of her family. And we cannot discover that he 
 ever actively bestirred himself to clear his sister from so 
 horrible a charge. Apparently his only intervention on 
 her behalf was when the ministers of St. Jean d'Angely 
 refused her the Sacrament. Can it have been that, 
 influenced by his friends, Conde's brothers, he behaved 
 his sister guilty of so dastardly a deed, and that he only 
 changed his attitude towards her when the sun of royal 
 favour seemed about to shine upon her and hers ? With 
 Calvinistic fatalism La Tremoille may have regarded 
 Charlotte's sufferings as a divine punishment for her sins. 
 If Claude had heard Brantome's story of the intimacy 
 between the Princess and Henry III., that in itself would 
 have been sufficient to prejudice the Protestant Duke 
 against his sister, and to account for his lukewarmness in 
 her cause. For, although La Tremoille was himself the 
 father of a son born out of wedlock, his Calvinism rendered 
 him censorious of the failings of others, especially of his 
 own sister. Even after Charlotte's acquittal, there is no 
 evidence of any friendly intercourse between the brother 
 and sister. During the Duke's last illness they were on 
 such bad terms that the Duchess refused to admit her 
 sister-in-law to Claude's chamber, pleading that the sight 
 of the Princess would kill her husband. 
 
 As a brother, therefore, Claude de La Tremoille does 
 not win our admiration ; but in his public capacity, as a 
 soldier and a defender of the Protestant faith against the 
 attacks of the great Catholic League, he appears to 
 greater advantage. 
 
 From the time of his return from Guernsey in 1586 
 until the pacification of Nantes in 1598, not a year passed 
 without finding the Due de Thouars in the field against
 
 r 
 
 t 
 
 '**<*^ 
 
 
 S ) s 
 
 s U 
 
 
 
 
 ill " 
 
 
 iii- 
 
 ^ 
 
 i Hrumdt « ■ Photo 
 JEANNE Dl MONTMORENCY, DUCHESS DE LA rREMOILLl 
 From a portrait of the Clouet School
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 105 
 
 the enemies of Protestantism. In 1586, his horse was 
 killed under him during an expedition in which he 
 besieged and took his own castle of Talmond which the 
 Catholics had captured. In the next year he commanded 
 a body of light cavalry at Coutras, and in 1588 covered 
 the attack on the sea-port of Marans, afterwards inflicting 
 a check upon the Catholics near Poitiers. In 1589 we 
 find him aiding the Bearnais l to besiege the Norman 
 chateau of La Garnache, and later in the same year 
 saving Tours and the King, Henry III., who was then 
 residing within its walls, from capture by the Due de May- 
 enne, then commanding the forces of the League.' 2 In 
 this year, on August 4th, Henry III. was assassinated, 
 and Henry of Navarre became King of France. But for 
 some time a large part of the nation refused to recognise 
 him. And, in order to conciliate these malcontents, the 
 King, on August 4th, issued a declaration promising to 
 respect the Catholic religion, and to himself receive 
 instruction in it. 
 
 To so stalwart a Protestant as Duke Claude this com- 
 promise seemed a betrayal of the sacred cause. He re- 
 fused to fight for a Sovereign pledged to support " popish 
 idolatry," and with a large company of Poitevins and 
 Gascon reformers withdrew on to his own estates. 
 
 In the following year, however, La Trcmoille appears 
 to have thought better of his resolution. Possibly it was 
 the invasion of France by a Spanish force under the Duke 
 of Parma, who came to support the League, that drew 
 the Duke once more into action. Raising a force of 
 
 1 A name by whi< h the King of Navarre, also Seigneur de Beam, was 
 frequently known among his contemporaries. Catherine de Mddicia 
 
 u '■! to call him " nion petit Bearnais.' 
 
 a Alter Guise's assassination at Minis, on Peeember 23rd, 1 588, 
 
 Henry ol France and 1 [enry of Navarre bad agreed to make common 
 cause against the League.
 
 106 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 500 gentlemen and 2,000 infantry, and equipping them 
 all at his own expense, he joined the King's army, and, 
 by breaking up a squadron of Walloons, won his share 
 of glory in the great victory of Ivry. Later he took 
 part in the long and unsuccessful siege of Paris. In 
 1592, he was present at the siege of Rouen, which was 
 relieved by the Duke of Parma, and in 1595 at Henry's 
 final defeat of the Spaniards at Fontaine-Francaise. 
 
 Though a valiant soldier, La Tremoille had a tender 
 heart ; at least, when neither religion nor morals were 
 concerned. And his friend, D'Aubigne, relates 1 how 
 one day, when they were passing by a place where 
 terrible slaughter had occurred, the Duke turned pale and 
 trembled, while his companion took him by the hand, 
 saying : " Comrade, you must look at these things 
 boldly, for in our life one has to accustom oneself to the 
 sight of death." 
 
 It was in the year of Fontaine-Frangaise, in 1595, that 
 the King rewarded La Tremoille's services by converting 
 his duchy into a duche fiairie, 2 or duchy with a peerage 
 attached. So Claude was now admitted to the mystic 
 circle of the twelve peers of France, a company descended 
 from the dim mists of the Dark Ages, for it had been 
 called into being by no less a hero than the Emperor 
 Charlemagne himself. But it was not until four years 
 later that this high honour was publicly conferred upon 
 La Tremoille. Then, by an elaborate ceremony performed 
 by the Parlement of Paris, in the presence of the King 
 and all the court, he was admitted to the company of 
 the twelve. 3 
 
 1 " Memoires," ed. le Baron de Ruble, 109. 
 
 2 The peerage, unlike the duchy, descended only to heirs male, and 
 in their default became extinct. 
 
 8 It is described by Louise de Coligny, the step-mother of the Duchesse 
 de La Tremoille, in one of her letters to her daughter. See " Lettres
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 107 
 
 In bestowing a peerage upon La Tremoille, Henry's 
 motive was that proverbial gratitude which anticipates 
 services to come while rewarding those that are past, 
 for in the settlement with the Protestants which was to 
 follow his accession to the throne of France 1 the King 
 hoped to gain the support of the greatest Protestant 
 leader in the west. 
 
 But the Due de Thouars was not to be bribed ; while 
 accepting his peerage as a royal acknowledgment for all 
 he had done in the past, Claude was determined to 
 preserve an independent attitude in the future. In 
 1596, we find him seizing, for the payment of the 
 Protestant garrison of Thouars, funds belonging to the 
 crown, and in 1597 battling nobly for the Protestant 
 cause in the negotiations which were to terminate in 
 the Edict of Nantes. To La Tremoille's refusal to 
 compromise were largely due those highly advantageous 
 terms which the Edict granted to the Huguenots. 
 
 In order to discuss the terms of the settlement, a great 
 assembly of deputies from the Huguenot churches was 
 summoned to meet at Chatcllcrault on June 16th, 1597. 
 And of this assembly the Due de Thouars was elected 
 President. The fact that he was then suffering from an 
 attack of his lifelong enemy, the gout, probably did not 
 increase his amenability ; and soon, disgusted with the 
 moderate demands of the deputies, he withdrew to 
 Poitou, and there occupied himself in raising troops to 
 be employed against the crown in case the assembly 
 failed to arrange a settlement. Towards the close of 
 the year, however, the Protestant churches persuaded 
 
 de Louise de Coligny . . . a . . . Charlotte Brabantine de Nassau, 
 I iin ho ;e do La l remoille," ed. Man begay, i s ;^. i". 
 
 1 Henry of Navarre was crowned King ol France at Chartres on 
 February 27th, 15941
 
 ::> FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 .... to return to Chatellerault and resume his 
 
 Here he repulsed all the attempts of the 
 
 King's emissai - Gaspard de Schomberg and the 
 
 Pre? .. .:: 3c Thou to boy his submission with the promise 
 
 snsion for himseti and high offices ::: his friends. 
 
 u antly addressing these tempters the Duke 
 
 :ntlemen, I excuse you. for you come 
 
 m ex::" cashing the League, the members of which 
 
 yon found s -ollen with private interest. To prick such 
 
 persons in their most sensitive spot was enough to reduce 
 
 ::ole party to nothing. To show you that such 
 
 conditions do nc: exist among us. let me tell you that 
 
 .: give me ..-if the kingdom and to refuse those 
 
 r folk in the hall liberty : serve God in safety, it 
 
 would profit ;::: nothing. But if you grant them such 
 
 thir..- - arc just and ... sessary, then the King may hang 
 
 ..: the door of the assembly, and you will still have 
 
 : : : mplished your mission and established your work on 
 
 a sv. nidation.*' 
 
 I .jrvelling at these words, the President de Thou 
 turned to D ' Aub ignc and as ked whether there were many 
 Hugnenots like this. 
 
 5: ill finding it impossible to procure what he con- 
 - : . fair terms La Tremoille, on March 6th, again 
 
 withe: :ou. and this time he did not return. 
 
 Hi- sn ssor in the presidency proved more docile, 
 and on April 13th, 159S, the Edict of Xantes was signed 
 and declared irrevocable. 
 
 Considering the ideas of rehgi as toleration then 
 
 alent, the provisions of the Edict were quite as 
 
 arable as the Protestants had any right to exp . 
 
 They were granted the b - e of their reHgion in all 
 
 es where it had been established in the two preceding
 
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 Charlotte 
 
 _ -
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 109 
 
 years, in those named in the Edict of 1577, an d in one 
 city or town in every district of a seneschal where its estab- 
 lishment did not infringe treaties already made with 
 Catholics. Further, no less than 100 strongholds, some 
 of them extremely defensible, like Montpellier, Montauban 
 and La Rochelle, were left for eight years in the possession 
 of the Protestant party ; and, while the Huguenots were 
 to appoint the governors of these places, the Catholic 
 state undertook to pay them and their garrisons. When 
 we remember that, in addition to these privileges Protes- 
 tants were to be admitted to all colleges, schools and 
 hospitals, to all offices and employments, without sub- 
 mitting to any oath or ceremony contrary to their 
 conscience, and that they were to be permitted to found 
 schools and colleges of their own, we realise how great was 
 the strength of the Protestant party as established by the 
 Edict of Nantes, and how high a price La Tremoille's firm- 
 ness compelled King Henry to pay for Protestant support. 
 
 Whilst at Chatellerault, La Tremoille had not been 
 wholly absorbed in the negotiations between the King and 
 the Huguenots ; other matters, one of which was extremely 
 personal, had engaged his attention. For some years he 
 had been in search of a wife, and now, in 1597, he was 
 proposing to marry Charlotte Brabantine de Nassau, 1 the 
 daughter of that great hero and martyr of Protestantism, 
 William the Silent, Prince of Orange. 2 
 
 William had been four times married ; and the lady 
 whom La Tivmoille was courting was the Prince's daughter 
 by his third wife, Charlotte de Bourbon, 3 daughter of 
 Louis, Due de Montpensier. 
 
 1 Horn at Antwerp on September 27th, 15S0. 
 a He had been inated in 1 58 |. 
 
 8 Bcforr embracing " the religion," Charlotte had been abbess of 
 the Convent of Jouarre. William's other wives were Anne d'Egmont,
 
 no FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 The marriage contract between Claude de La Tremoille 
 and Charlotte of Nassau, drawn up at Ch atelier ault, was 
 signed by the bride's brother, Maurice of Nassau, Prince of 
 Orange, in his camp before the town of Oldenzeel, on 
 October 23rd, 1597. The bridegroom, being too much 
 occupied with political affairs to leave his country, the 
 Princess Charlotte, accompanied by her step-mother 
 Louise, Coligny 's daughter, and her governess, journeyed 
 to Thouars, where in March, 1598, the marriage was 
 celebrated. 
 
 At first Henry IV. seems to have considered himself 
 slighted because La Tremoille had not consulted him 
 before asking for the hand of a foreign princess. So 
 Claude deemed it prudent to despatch an emissary to 
 court in order to explain his action to the King. The 
 emissary was apparently successful, and Henry must 
 have relented, for the year after the wedding we find him 
 graciously granting, as a sign of his favour, to the servants 
 of La Dame de La Tremoille, Duchesse de Thouars, per- 
 mission to bear muskets throughout the length and 
 breadth of her lands, and to shoot such game " as are not 
 forbidden by royal ordinances." * 
 
 Both for husband and wife, Claude's marriage appears 
 to have been a very happy one. Abundant evidence of 
 their affection for one another may be found in the 
 interesting letters of Charlotte's step-mother, Louise de 
 Coligny. 
 
 Interspersed with family matters and scenes of country 
 life are vivid descriptions of everyday doings at the 
 French court. There we see the ladies quarrelling over 
 
 Anne, daughter of Maurice, Elector of Saxony, and Louise de Coligny, 
 daughter of the Admiral and widow of Charles de Teligny, who perished' 
 in the massacre of St. Bartholomew. 
 
 1 " Les La Tremoilles pendant cinq Siecles," IV., 31.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION ill 
 
 precedence, while those whose privilege was beyond 
 dispute sit serenely on their tabourets round Queen Marie 
 de Medicis, all busily at work embroidering a vast counter- 
 pane. That Louise and her step-daughter were on the 
 best of terms is proved by the playful manner in which 
 the Admiral's daughter twits Madame de La Tremoille for 
 her disgraceful handwriting : ' I am sure you will find it 
 as difficult to read mine as I do yours," she writes, 
 " because for you every day calligraphy must become 
 more and more of a lost art." ' 
 
 As one reads these lively letters, one would never dream 
 through what terrible tragedies their writer had lived in 
 earlier years — that, by the hands of Catholic assassins, she 
 had been orphaned and twice widowed. 2 Yet even over 
 Louise's gaiety serious concerns do occasionally cast their 
 shadow : that eternal lack of pence, which in days of civil 
 war harassed all classes, makes itself felt in the Princess's 
 reiterated request for the repayment of certain monies 
 which she had lent to the Duke at the time of his marriage. 
 In her letters to her step-daughter the plaintive request 
 occurs over and over again like a refrain ; ' I would come 
 and visit you at Thouars if only La Tremoille would pay 
 me my money ; " " I hear that the Duke is to visit Paris, 
 remind him to bring my money with him," and so forth. 
 No wonder that Claude was in financial difficulties, seeing 
 what vast sums he had expended on the equipment and 
 maintenance of troops during the religious wars. But 
 in the end the loan was repaid, although not long after- 
 wards we find the Duke compelled to raise money by 
 
 1 " Lettrea de Louise de Coligny . . . a . . . Charlotte Brabantine 
 de \-i isau," 9 — 10. 
 
 • Her father, Admiral Coligny, had been killed on the eve of the 
 
 ot St. Bartholomew (1572), during which her fust husband, 
 
 Charles de Teligny, perished ; while her set ond husband, William, l'rince 
 
 ol I >i.u< hut. by the fanatic, Gerard, shortly after their marriage.
 
 ii2 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 selling to Maximilien de Bethune, Marquis de Rosny, the 
 fine old La Tremoille chateau of Sully, which, as will be 
 remembered, had been in the family for over 200 years. 
 
 Despite this financial misunderstanding, Louise was 
 sincerely attached to her son-in-law. And perhaps what 
 pleased her most in him was his affection for his wife. 
 ' Your husband is passionately in love with you," she 
 writes to Charlotte. But Madame de La Tremoille did not 
 need this assurance, for at that time Claude was writing 
 her amorous letters, one of which, dated Paris, June 27th, 
 1598, has been preserved in the La Tremoille archives. 1 
 
 After referring to the petty jealousies and quarrels of 
 the court, and expressing solicitude for his wife's health, 
 Claude writes : ' I greatly desire to see you. Besides 
 the affection for you which my duty enjoins upon me, 
 believe me, my dear lady, all my inclination is to love you 
 passionately. Never doubt it, and believe that I adore 
 you as much as it is possible to adore anyone. Often do 
 I recall my delight in your presence and my joy in your 
 young beauty.' 2 My imagination leads me to tell you of 
 my ardour. When we are parted my greatest joy is to 
 think of you. Farewell, my heart, a thousand and a 
 thousand times do I kiss you ; and rather would I die 
 than that the affection which I am sure you bear me 
 should diminish." 
 
 On December 22nd, 1598, Charlotte gave birth to a 
 son, 3 whom his fond grandmother hears is " a child 
 so handsome, and so fat that he might well be 
 mistaken for a Dutch baby." 4 " His uncle," 6 she 
 
 1 " Le Chartier de Thouars," 108. 
 
 2 Born in 15S0, the Duchess was eighteen at the time of her marriage, 
 while her husband was thirty-two. 
 
 3 Henry, Due de La Tremoille. 
 
 4 " Lettres," 8. 
 
 5 The Due de Bouillon, who had married another daughter of William 
 the Silent.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 113 
 
 continues, " swears that he is like his own little daughter, 
 but that is pure imagination, since he has never seen 
 him." 1 
 
 Then there followed in succession three other children : 
 in December, 1599, Charlotte," who married Lord Strange, 
 later Earl of Derby ; in October, 1600, Elizabeth, who died 
 in infancy ; and about March, 1602, Frederic, who took 
 the title of Comte de Laval, and was killed in a duel at 
 Venice in 1642. Claude's domestic bliss was but short- 
 lived. Despite annual visits to French watering-places, 
 his old enemy, the gout, was growing more and more 
 importunate. The lively Louise in one of her letters 3 
 pictures her son-in-law in his bath. ' I can see," she 
 writes, " his fat valet, bearing with all his weight on the 
 Duke's shoulders in order to emerse him in the mud, and 
 all the while pulling wry faces as he sees his master's skin 
 defiled with mire, but mire which is salutary, since it 
 does him so much good." 
 
 The baths failed to effect a cure, and in October, 
 1604, while his daughter Charlotte lay ill of the small- 
 pox, the Duke died at Thouars, in the presence of his 
 old friend, M. du Plcssis-Mornay. 
 
 The latter and Agrippa d'Aubigne were present, on 
 October 26th, at the opening of La Tremoille's will. 
 This is a striking document, 4 expressing the Duke's stern 
 Huguenotterie and unrelenting Calvinism. After making 
 a profession of faith in " the true and perfect religion of 
 i is Christ as professed by the reformed Churches of 
 France," Claude proceeds to threaten with his curse any 
 of his children who, forsaking " this true and perfect" 
 
 1 " Lettres," 1 1 , 
 
 he i" • ame the famou 1 Lady of Lathom, at whom moro hereaftei . 
 1 '.it. I Octobei 1 
 4 See " Les La Tremoilles pendant cinq Siecles," IV'., ; |. 
 
 C.K. I
 
 ii 4 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 religion in which alone lies salvation, shall marry outside 
 the reformed Church. 
 
 Claude's terrible injunction, however, proved un- 
 availing : only fourteen years later, his son and successor, 
 Henry de La Tremoille, braving his father's curse, 
 having been instructed by Cardinal Richelieu, in the 
 camp before La Rochelle, abjured his father's religion, 
 and returned to the bosom of the Catholic Church. 
 
 Henry's abjuration did not end the La Tremoille 
 connection with Protestantism. His wife, Marie de la 
 Tour, remained a Calvinist, and his son and daughter both 
 reverted to their grandfather's religion. 
 
 Meanwhile, Henry's Aunt Charlotte, the famous Princesse 
 de Conde and her son had some years before Claude's 
 death 1 been received back into the Roman Communion. 
 
 While Claude died at thirty-eight, Charlotte lived to be 
 an old woman. In 1604, the Princess's adventurous 
 career had still many years to run — years in which her 
 inflexible will and imperious temper were to involve her 
 in more than one serious dispute, and even in civil war. 
 
 In 1596, she with her son had taken up her abode at 
 St. Germain. As governor to the young Prince, then 
 the recognised heir-presumptive to the throne of France, 
 the King had appointed the Marquis de Pisani. For this 
 important office Henry could hardly have chosen a man 
 more eminent in council and in war. Besides being a famous 
 marshal, Pisani was a veteran diplomatist. But to us his 
 chief interest is the reflected glory which he gains from his 
 daughter, the brilliant Marquise de Rambouillet, the mis- 
 tress of what is commonly held to be the first French Salon. 2 
 
 1 In 1596. 
 
 2 In reality, other Salons less famous but equally distinguished, 
 Louise Labe's at Lyon and Madame de Morel's at Paris, had nourished 
 in xhe sixteenth century.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 115 
 
 That the Marquis de Pisani was not a very tactful tutor 
 appears from a letter he wrote to King Henry soon after 
 his appointment. The Princess and her son had just 
 arrived at St. Germain. " Madame, his mother, takes 
 great care of him," writes Pisani. But he goes on to 
 complain that the Prince has no establishment of his own, 
 not even a piece of furniture, that he sleeps in his mother's 
 room, and that his Governor can never see him in the 
 morning and evening to correct "sundry little faults 
 which time will increase, if they be not checked early." ! 
 
 This attempt to thrust himself in between mother and 
 child caused the Princess to dislike Pisani ; and from first 
 to last they were sworn foes, for ever disputing as to the 
 method of their charge's upbringing. ' It is pitiable to 
 see how this little Prince is being treated," wrote his 
 Governor." 
 
 Pisani's method was probably the best ; at any rate 
 
 the following anecdote related by Tallemant des Reaux 
 
 makes the tutor's regime appear to have been bottomed 
 
 in sound sense. Riding along the road one day on their 
 
 way to the hunt, the Marquis and his pupil passed a 
 
 -.ant, who in humble loyalty prostrated himself at 
 
 his prince's feet. But the young Conde went on his way, 
 
 no heed to the man's salutations, not even by 
 
 so much as a nod. " Monsieur," remonstrated his 
 
 Governor, " there may be no one lower than that man, 
 
 there is no one higher than you ; but if he and his 
 
 equals did not cultivate the land, you and your equals 
 
 would be ill danger of dying from starvation." 3 
 
 Perhaps the imputation of insensibility to feminine 
 charms under which Conde was to labour in after years 
 
 BarthAMmy, " La Princesse <lc Conde," 205. 
 
 2 J hid., 93. 
 
 R Tallemant des Reaux, " Memoires," ed. 1834, I. 32. 
 
 I 2
 
 n6 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 arose from the strictness of his upbringing ; for we are 
 told that when he and the future Queen of Rambouillet 
 were children together, in one of their games, he took 
 the little girl's head in his hands and kissed her, an 
 indiscretion for which, so runs the tale, he was punished 
 so severely that he ever afterwards disliked women. 1 
 
 The perpetual bickerings between Charlotte and her 
 son's Governor only came to an end when, in 1599, 
 Pisani died, and Henry IV. appointed to succeed him 
 a man after the Princess's own heart, the Comte de Bellin, 
 a former general of the League.' 2 
 
 But by that time the young Conde's importance was 
 beginning to dwindle, for Henry IV., having obtained a 
 divorce from his first wife, Marguerite de Valois, had 
 married Marie de Medicis, who was about to bear him an 
 heir. " When I wished to make my nephew a King, I 
 gave him the Marquis of Pisani," said Henry, " when I 
 wished to make him a subject I gave him the Comte de 
 Bellin." 3 
 
 Pisani had died at the Princess's residence of St. 
 Maur-les-Fosses, an ancient Abbey, not far from Paris, 
 once belonging to Catherine de Medicis, and after her 
 death purchased by Charlotte's mother. The Abbey, 
 with the rest of Jeanne de Montmorency's estate, had on 
 her death, in 1596, passed into her daughter's possession ; 
 and La Princesse de Conde was now a rich woman. 
 Her wealth, however, did not hinder her from waging a 
 warfare of words with that skilful financier, Sully, on 
 the questions of the amount of her son's pension and the 
 sum to be expended on the maintenance of his household. 
 
 Having withdrawn to St. Maur in order to escape 
 
 1 Tallemant des Rcaux, op. cit. I., 32. 
 
 2 Ibid., 32. 
 8 Ibid., 32,
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 117 
 
 from an epidemic which was ravaging St. Germain, 
 the Princess continued to reside at the Abbey until the 
 close of Henry's reign ; for the King, persisting in his 
 dislike of his cousin's widow, always met with coldness 
 her various attempts to obtain a position at court. 
 
 Only once during the ten years which preceded Henry's 
 assassination ! do we find her appearing at Paris. That 
 was in March, 1609, on the occasion of her son's marriage 
 with the beautiful Charlotte de Montmorency. 2 Then 
 the Princess de Conde was present with all the court 
 at the formal betrothal in the Louvre gallery at 
 Chantilly. 
 
 With Mdlle. de Montmorency, who was considered 
 by all the court gallants to be perfect in beauty and in 
 grace, the King was passionately in love. And it was in 
 the hope of making her his mistress that Henry had 
 chosen for her husband the cold-blooded Conde, the reputed 
 misogynist of the court. But the King was mistaken in 
 his cousin ; Conde did not prove the accommodating 
 husband he had hoped ; for, suspecting the royal designs, 
 he obtained permission to take his wife to Moret, on the 
 edge of the Forest of Fontainebleau, and thence, putting 
 her on a pillion behind one of his valets, he carried her 
 off in haste to the Low Countries. 
 
 The news of his lady's departure was brought to the 
 King at P. iris as he sat at cards with some nobles of the 
 court. ' My friend, I am lost," whispered the King to 
 his partner, " take care of my money and keep the game 
 going while I enquire into this matter." Having learned 
 
 1 M.iv, [6lO. 
 
 - Daughter of the Constable, Henry de Montmorency, known earlier 
 as Marechal de Damville, ><>n ol the Famous Anne de Montmorency. 
 
 8 " Memoir eft," Bassompierxe, ed. Mich, el Poujoulat, Serie II., 
 Vol. VI. 67.
 
 n8 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 that the tidings were only too true, Henry flew into a 
 violent passion. Summoning his ministers, he inquired 
 first from one, then from the other, what was to be done, 
 while the cautious Sully nearly drove his master to despera- 
 tion by counselling him to do nothing. Far from following 
 Sully's advice, Henry, in the hottest haste, despatched a 
 gentleman of the court to pursue the fugitives and, if 
 possible, persuade them to return ; but, in the event of 
 his failure, the messenger was instructed to warn the 
 powers of the Low Countries that they would incur the 
 enmity of the King of France if they granted harbourage 
 to the runaway couple. 
 
 In both missions Henry's messenger failed, for Conde 
 and his bride crossed the frontier and found refuge at 
 Brussels. There the lady stayed until the King's death. 
 Conde, as soon as his wife was out of the King's way, 
 ceased to take any interest in her and, escaping in disguise, 
 went off to Italy. He was at Milan when the news of 
 Henry's assassination reached him and brought him 
 back to Paris. 
 
 Marie de Medicis, who had seized the Regenc}' on her 
 husband's death, dreaded Conde'Sr return, fearing that, 
 as a Prince of the Blood, he might claim the right to rule 
 during the King's minority. But, although he entered 
 the capital in a somewhat redoubtable manner, at the 
 head of 1,500 gentlemen, Conde proved ready to sell his 
 birthright for a pension of 50,000 crowns and the Hotel 
 de Gondi. 1 Afterwards, he installed his mother in 
 a little hotel in the Rue de Conde close by. Then, in 
 these two palaces, the Prince and Princess Dowager 
 proceeded to hold a veritable court, and to gather round 
 
 1 Later known as the Hotel de Conde. Pulled down in the 
 eighteenth century ; it occupied almost exactly the site of the 
 modern Theatre de l'Odcon.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 119 
 
 them a party of opposition to the government of the 
 Queen Regent and of her favourite, Concini, best known 
 as the Marechal d'Ancre. 
 
 The chief point of their attack was the government's 
 foreign policy, the Franco-Spanish alliance, which was to 
 be cemented by a double marriage, that of Louis XIII. 
 with Anne of Austria, Philip III.'s eldest daughter, 
 and of Elizabeth of France with the Prince of the Asturias. 
 Twice, in 1614 and 1615, did Conde and his associates 
 have recourse to arms. Although they failed to prevent 
 the Spanish marriages — that of Louis XIII. was cele- 
 brated in the Cathedral of Bordeaux in November, 
 1615 — they succeeded in forcing the government to 
 summon the States General — for the last time before 
 the Revolution. They succeeded also in extracting from 
 the crown vast sums of money, which were paid into the 
 Prince's exchequer. Indeed, from the two agreements 
 of Sainte Menehould and Loudon, Conde acquired so 
 much power and importance, which he used with so much 
 insolence, that he seemed to eclipse the authority of the 
 Queen : the finances were abandoned to his direction ; 
 no ordinance was issued without his signature ; and, 
 while the Louvre was deserted, to Conde's hotel such 
 crowds resorted that it was difficult to approach the gates, 
 powerful a rival Marie de Medicis could not possibly 
 tolerate. While apparently all smiles and graces to the 
 Prin< e, she was in reality planning his arrest. This took 
 place one morning, September ist, 1616, in the King's 
 chamber in the palace of the Louvre. 1 
 
 Wry soon afterwards the Princess Dowager, in her hdtel, 
 received the news that her sen had been assassinated. 
 
 1 It is graphically related in " L'Histoire de Prince de Conde," by 
 the Due d'Aumale (1886), HI 85
 
 120 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 Charlotte was by that time a middle-aged woman of 
 forty-eight, but the courage and decision of early years 
 now returned to her. This was the kind of occasion 
 when she appeared to greatest advantage. Immediately 
 she ordered her coach, and, accompanied by an imposing 
 escort on horseback, drove through the streets of the 
 capital endeavouring to raise Paris on her son's behalf. 
 Leaning out of the carriage window, her face bathed in 
 tears, she cried : "To arms, gentlemen of Paris ! The 
 Marechal d'Ancre has slain Monsieur le Prince ! To arms, 
 all good Frenchmen ! " And her escort re-echoed the 
 cry. 
 
 But this dramatic scene availed nothing. While a few 
 shops were shut for fear of disturbance, the phlegmatic 
 Parisians looked on, and laughed when one feeble old 
 woman stretched a chain across the street. 
 
 Having driven down to the Pont de Notre Dame, 
 Charlotte, convinced of the failure of her attempted coup 
 d'etat, ordered her coachman to turn round, and with her 
 escort went back to her hotel, where she found some 
 thirty of her friends assembled. Having learnt from them 
 that, after all, her son was alive although a prisoner, she 
 adopted her friends' advice to renounce all attempt to 
 raise a rebellion. 1 
 
 This, as far as we know, was the Princess's last sensa- 
 tional appearance in public. During her son's imprison- 
 ment, first in the Bastille, then at Vincennes, she made 
 every effort for his deliverance, and vainly solicited 
 the interference of James I. of England on his behalf. 
 But Conde was not released until 1619. Some time before, 
 his wife had joined him at Vincennes, where in this year 
 
 1 The only disorder which actually took place was the sacking of the 
 hotels of Concini and of his secretary by the mob, under the leadership 
 of one Picard, a shoemaker.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 121 
 
 she gave birth to a daughter, who was to become the 
 famous Duchesse de Longueville. 1 
 
 Of Charlotte de La Tremoille's last years there is little 
 to relate. Like that other turbulent Frenchwoman, 
 Georges Sand, after a tempestuous youth and maturity, 
 the Princess enjoyed a peaceful old age. She became 
 reconciled to her sister-in-law, the Dowager Duchess of 
 Thouars, with whose eldest son Henry, Due de Thouars, 
 she had been for some years corresponding on friendly 
 terms. She lived to see the head of the La Tremoille 
 house return to the Catholic faith, and she died in the 
 following year, on August 29th, 1629, in her hotel at 
 Paris. 
 
 Her body was buried in the Convent of the Ave Maria, 
 where an elaborate monument was erected to her memory. 2 
 Her heart was placed in the burial-place of the Condes at 
 Valery, near Montereau. 
 
 The story of her son's life after her death belongs to 
 the history of the House of Conde. Here it may suffice 
 to say that he became the bitter enemy of the Huguenots, 
 fighting against them in the expedition to the He de Re, 
 and retiring from the army rather than make peace with 
 those into whose church he had been born. Ever careful 
 to secure his own personal advancement, he married his 
 son, then the Due d'Enghien, to the niece of Cardinal 
 Richelieu. Surviving until 1646, he lived to see the 
 dawn of that son's military glory. 
 
 1 Two years Liter was born Conde's son, Louis, who was to be known 
 aa " le (.rand Conde ." 
 
 2 See illustration.
 
 122 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE LADY OF LATHOM. 1559 — J ^4 
 
 Now we come to a La Tremoille who is no stranger 
 to English readers. For Charlotte de La Tremoille, 
 Duke Claude's daughter, stands immortalised in one of the 
 most popular of our novels, in " Peveril of the Peak." 
 Students of history know her as the stern Countess of 
 Derby who gallantly defended Lathom House against 
 the Parliamentarians. Readers of fiction remember her 
 chiefly as the imperious lady in Scott's novel, who, 
 advancing suddenly from behind the arras in the gilded 
 chamber of Martindale Castle, startled little Peveril and 
 the baby Alice at their play. 
 
 While the Lady of Lathom's gifted biographer, 1 Madame 
 de Witt, accused Scott of travestying the Countess, and of 
 degrading one of the noblest of women into a mere heroine 
 of melodrama, others may marvel at the accuracy with 
 which the novelist has caught and rendered the spirit of 
 Charlotte de La Tremoille. Scott may have availed 
 himself of the novelist's license to twist and distort facts. 
 Indeed, in his introduction to " Peveril of the Peak," 
 he admits that he has dared to transform into a Catholic 
 so stalwart a Protestant as Duke Claude's daughter. 
 He might also have admitted that at her door instead of 
 at her son's, he has laid the guilt, if guilt it were, of the 
 
 1 The two best biographies of the Lady of Lathom are one by Madame 
 de Witt (translated into English, 1869), and another by Leon Marlet 
 (i895)-
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 123 
 
 traitor Christian's summary execution. But for these 
 violations of the letter of history his adherence to its 
 spirit amply atones ; and no one has ever passed a truer 
 verdict upon Charlotte's character than Sir Walter's 
 description of the famous Countess as " a man when so 
 many men proved women." 
 
 Charlotte was every inch a heroine and every inch the 
 granddaughter of William the Silent. Not only from her 
 illustrious lineage, however, but also from her strenuous 
 upbringing, she derived that heroism with which she 
 ever confronted the vicissitudes of her tempestuous life. 
 
 She was, as we have said, a mere child when her father 
 died. And it was to two stern Protestant women, her 
 step-grandmother, Louise de Coligny, the Admiral's 
 daughter, and her mother, Charlotte Brabantine, the 
 daughter of William the Silent, that fell the care of her 
 nurture and education. The chief object of these 
 Calvinist dames seems to have been to tame their 
 young charge's turbulence and to break her will. This 
 they never completely achieved. They did succeed, 
 however, in refining Charlotte's passionate turbulence 
 into that calm courage and her obstinate self-will into 
 that persistent tenacity which were eventually to render 
 her the brave defendress of her husband's house and lands. 
 
 There is little doubt that all seventeenth century 
 children, but especially those of Puritan parents, were 
 more strictly brought up than are the children of to-day. 
 It was, therefore, in accordance with the custom of the 
 age that Charlotte's childhood should have been a series 
 of chastisements. In mortal terror of these punishments 
 we find the child in her own early letters, and in those of 
 her mother and grandmother, constantly protesting her 
 resolution" tobegood." But that this resolve frequently
 
 124 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 shared the proverbial fate of such determinations may be 
 gathered from the numerous references in her relatives' 
 letters to a generous administration of the rod. 
 
 ' I have her well flogged whenever she deserves it," 
 wrote her grandmother at the Hague, where Charlotte 
 was then staying ; and again, " her governess does not 
 spare the cane." Even the child's absent mother from 
 distant Thouars collaborated in her little girl's punishment, 
 and when she heard that Charlotte had been naughty 
 refused to send her a New Year's gift. 
 
 Mdlle. de La Tremoille's weaknesses were those of most 
 little girls of her age : a love of play, a lack of application 
 and a fondness for dress. But the Calvinist minds 
 of her guardians tortured these healthy symptoms 
 into signs of original sin, which, if not nipped 
 in the bud, would bloom later into vices hideous and 
 
 deadly. " To-day, Sunday " triumphantly writes 
 
 Charlotte's grandmother, " she is crying because she 
 is not allowed to wear her best frock." 
 
 Yet even Coligny's daughter permitted some worldly 
 amusements. Charlotte went to parties. But the heart 
 of her absent mother was filled with misgiving when she 
 heard that her little daughter had been the belle of a 
 babies' ball. Such vanities could only have one result, 
 and surely enough, so she gathered from the next letter, 
 that result followed. Charlotte was said to be showing 
 a dangerous fondness for the opposite sex, for she had been 
 found talking privily to her grandmother's nephew, a 
 youth in his teens, one of the Chatillons who was staying 
 at the Hague. 
 
 In those days the young ladies of the Dutch capital 
 were reputed fast, and the influence of these flighty 
 damsels Charlotte's mother feared was beginning to
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 125 
 
 bear poisonous fruit in her little girl of ten. So Mdlle. 
 de La Tremoille was recalled from the snares of the Hague 
 to the cloistered retreat of her Poitevin home. In vain 
 did Louise and the castigating governess write protesting 
 that Charlotte's flirtation with Chatillon was but an 
 exception, and that usually she regarded her boy friends 
 with the proudest disdain. William the Silent's daughter 
 was not to be convinced, and Charlotte came home. 
 
 Very absurd to us to-day seems all this fuss over a 
 boy and girl's harmless conversation. But we must 
 remember that in the seventeenth century maidens grew 
 up quickly, that a girl of ten was then regarded as a 
 young miss of seventeen would be now, and that in ques- 
 tions of morals Calvinists have always tended to make 
 mountains out of mole-hills. 
 
 At Thouars, Charlotte had no playmates of either sex 
 to join her in those games of which she was reputed so 
 inordinately fond. For her only sister Elizabeth had 
 died of that same epidemic of small-pox which, at the 
 time of her father's death, had smitten Charlotte. Her 
 eldest brother, Henry, gloomy and taciturn, was no 
 cheerful companion when at home, and frequently he 
 was absent on those distant travels which were then held 
 necessary for the education of a complete gentleman. 
 
 With what meticulous care Madame de La Tremoille 
 educated her children may be seen in the list of instruc- 
 tions 1 with which she equipped her son, when, in December, 
 1613, 2 the young Duke, then a boy of fifteen, set out for 
 Holland, there to visit his uncle, the Stadtholdcr, Prince 
 Maurice of Nassau. In these instructions we find the 
 Length of the traveller's absence, not more than four or 
 
 1 " Cbartier de Thouara," 124— 1:15. 
 
 1 Two years later Henry visited Switzerland and Italy.
 
 126 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 five weeks, carefully specified, a list of the towns he is 
 to visit — on no account must he miss Delft and Leyden — 
 admonitions as to his expenditure — at the Hague he 
 may buy himself a complete outfit, but nothing must 
 be purchased save by the advice of those who accompany 
 him — and rules for his daily conduct — an hour every 
 afternoon must be set aside for some profitable exercise, 
 all that is remarkable in the places visited must be 
 observed and written down, but above all things, the 
 traveller must not forget to pray every night and morning, 
 " remembering that without God he can do nothing." 
 
 Charlotte's youngest brother, Frederic, Comte de Laval, 
 was her favourite. To him she was devotedly attached, 
 and over his babyhood she watched with all the passionate 
 tenderness of a loving little mother. Frederic's was a 
 cheerful spirit ; but, alas ! his natural gaiety, reacting 
 against Calvinist strictness, was to lead him into wild and 
 yet wilder courses, until finally he perished in a duel at 
 Venice. Not long after her return from the Hague, 
 however, Charlotte and Frederic were parted, for the 
 young Comte de Laval was sent away from home to 
 pursue his studies at the University of Sedan. 
 
 Meanwhile, Mdlle. de La Tremoille's own edu- 
 cation was progressing apace, and she could write to her 
 mother : ' Thank God, you will find me quite learned. 
 I know seventeen Psalms, all the quatrains of Pibrac, all 
 the huitains of Zamariel, and above all, I can talk Latin. 1 
 But these serious studies, while developing a strenuous- 
 ness of character which was to prove valuable in after 
 
 1 Charlotte de La Tremoille's letters quoted in this chapter may be 
 found in the two biographies of the Lady of Lathom already referred to. 
 Both Madame de Witt and Leon Marlet claim to have copied the letters 
 direct from the original MSS., which are in the possession of the Duke 
 de La Tremoille.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 127 
 
 years, can hardly have enlivened the little girl's solitude. 
 Among her seventeen Psalms would doubtless be those 
 two Huguenot favourites, the battle psalm as it was called : 
 " Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered ; let them 
 also that hate Him flee before Him," and that eloquent 
 lamentation, " My tears have been my meat day and 
 night . . . O my God, my soul is cast down within me 
 . . .all Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over me." 
 Natural enough may these curses and wailings sound upon 
 the lips of a mature Calvinist, but in the mouth of a 
 mere babe they strike one as somewhat inappropriate. 
 
 No more likely to foster the blithe spirit one likes to 
 associate with childhood were the verses of the Calvinist 
 agitator, Zamariel or Chandieu, on the vanity of all things 
 human, or those moral quatrains of Pibrac, which for 
 seven generations boys and girls were required to commit 
 to memory. Two lines of these quatrains : ' Love the 
 state as thou findest it ; be it royal then love royalty," ] 
 must have stamped themselves upon Charlotte's memory, 
 and from them she must have derived inspiration for her 
 whole career ; indeed, she might have chosen them as her 
 motto. 
 
 Already a regime of chastening and chastising was 
 casting a gloom over Charlotte's natural cheerfulness. She 
 was rapidly losing her love of play, and at fifteen we 
 find her wondering whether a ball were really worth the 
 trouble. Yet some sparks of fun still remained to her, 
 and she could laugh at the exaggerated seriousness 
 of a Protestant pastor denouncing certain wedding 
 festivities she had attended. ' How he did scold," 
 
 1 Ayme l\ (.it fcel que t u le voi , < .trc : 
 S'ii est i"'- al, ayme la Royaute\ 
 
 Quoted by Montaigne, " Iissais," J3k. III. : " De la YaniteV*
 
 i 2 8 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 wrote the maiden ; " why, he nearly mentioned us all by 
 name, and yet I assure you we had done nothing to 
 deserve such reproaches." 
 
 In 1619 life grew less solitary for Charlotte, for in that 
 year her brother Henry brought home to Thouars his 
 young bride and cousin, Marie de La Tour d'Auvergne, 
 daughter of the Due de Bouillon. Plain, grasping, and, 
 above all, ambitious, Marie cannot have been a very 
 attractive companion ; yet some good qualities must have 
 been hers, for she and Charlotte were speedily united in 
 a friendship which endured until Charlotte's death. In- 
 deed, it is from the correspondence of the sisters-in-law, 
 preserved in the archives of Thouars, that we derive much 
 of our information concerning our heroine's career. 
 
 Visits to Paris, too, in company with her mother, who 
 was conducting a law-suit there, occasionally broke the 
 routine of life at Thouars. And, now that Charlotte was 
 growing up, came the diversion of various proposals of 
 marriage, for Mdlle. de La Tremoille, one of the wealthiest 
 heiresses in Europe, was naturally much sought after. 
 
 Not among the Italianate nobles of Marie de Medicis' 
 dissolute court was the Duchess likely to find a 
 suitable husband for her daughter. Moreover, according 
 to her father's will, Charlotte's mate must perforce be a 
 Protestant. But French Protestants in those days were 
 rapidly dwindling in power, wealth and importance. 
 Charlotte's choice, therefore, was very limited ; and so it 
 fell out that at the age of twenty-six she was still to 
 marry. 
 
 It was doubtless with the object of marrying her 
 daughter that in 1626 Madame de La Tremoille took her 
 to Holland. At the Hague, Charlotte revisited the scene 
 of her infantile gaieties, and wrote to her sister-in-law at
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 129 
 
 Thouars a somewhat doleful letter, in which, after 
 mechanically describing the magnificent feting of the 
 Persian Ambassador, she moaned over " the horrible 
 laws " of the Persians, especially with regard to women, 
 over the lack of religious zeal in Flanders, and finally over 
 the perplexities of life in general. " More and more is it 
 borne in upon me," she groaned, " how difficult a place 
 the world is to live in. May God guide us, and 
 may He grant unto you, my heart, a full measure of 
 contentment." 
 
 The hospitable Dutch court was then sheltering the 
 exiled King and Queen of Bohemia, Frederic, Elector 
 Palatine of the Rhine, and his fascinating wife, Charles I.'s 
 sister, Elizabeth Stuart, known in history as " the Queen 
 of Hearts." x Elizabeth's husband was the Duchess's 
 nephew, and the La Tremoilles soon after their arrival 
 joined that distinguished circle gathered round the 
 sovereigns in exile. To the match-making Queen it was 
 a great advantage to have the hand of a wealthy heiress 
 to dispose of, and from among the young English noblemen 
 who had flocked to the Hague to do homage to Elizabeth's 
 charms, she was not long in selecting a husband for 
 Charlotte. Possibly among " the perplexities of life ' 
 which then afflicted Mdlle. de La Tremoille were the 
 rival appeals to her affections of the addresses of James 
 Stanley, Lord Strange, and her love for her motherland. 
 
 As for Madame de La Tremoille, she had no doubt 
 whatever as to the reception to be given to Lord Strange's 
 wooing of her daughter. For James Stanley, besides 
 being a staun« h Protestant, was son and heir to the Earl 
 of Derby, whose vast estates in Lancashire and Cheshire, 
 and whose so-called sovereignity of the tsle of Man, 
 
 1 See Sir Henry Wotton'a verses t<> Elizabeth <>i 1;"!,' Mia. 
 
 C.K. K
 
 130 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 rendered him one of the greatest and wealthiest of 
 English nobles. The Stanleys, moreover, on the female 
 side, were of royal blood, being descended from Mary 
 Tudor, daughter of King Henry VII. 1 
 
 The fact that Lord Strange was two years Charlotte's 
 junior did not seem to the Duchess any serious objection, 
 and she gladly gave her consent to the wedding, which 
 was celebrated at the Hague in July. Soon afterwards 
 the bride and bridegroom, accompanied by the bride's 
 mother, set out for England. 
 
 They reached London in the midst of a court crisis. In 
 the previous summer Charles I. had wedded his French 
 bride, Henrietta Maria, the daughter of King Henry IV. 
 The first years of their married life had been one long 
 series of disputes, which the King had just now brought 
 to a climax by his peremptory dismissal of the Queen's 
 French attendants, whom he had ordered to pack up and 
 depart at a few days' notice. This summary measure, 
 while delighting Londoners and members of Parliament, 
 with whom the French papists were most unpopular, 
 threw Henrietta Maria into such a fury that she and her 
 husband were barely on speaking terms. 
 
 1 The illustrious descent of Charlotte and her husband may be seen 
 from the following genealogical table, printed in Horace Walpole's 
 "' Letters," Cunningham edition, VI. 372, note: — 
 
 Henry VII. 
 
 Charles Brandon, Duke of 
 Sultolk = Mary Tudor. 
 
 L. de Bourbon, William, Anne de Montmorency W. Cecil, Eleanor = Clifford, 
 D. de Mont- Pr. of (Constable of France) = Lord Earl of Cumber- 
 
 pensier. Orange. Madeleine de Savoie. Burleigh. land. 
 
 II III 
 
 Marie = William the Jeanne = Louis, 1st D. Anne = Vere, Margaret = Earl of 
 I Silent. de La Tremoille. E. of Oxford. Derby. 
 
 I III 
 
 Charlotte Brabantine de Nassau = Claude, 2nd Elizabeth = William, 6th Earl 
 
 D. de La Trdmoille. of Derby. 
 
 Charlotte de La Trdmoille = James, 7th Earl of Derby.
 
 CHARLOTTE DE LA I Kl \h ULLE, COUNTESS OF DERBY 
 From a picture by Vandyke
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 131 
 
 Madame de La Tremoille and her daughter, arriving 
 only a few days after the departure of the French retinue, 
 came in the very nick of time ; for the French nationality 
 and the Protestant faith of Lady Strange and her mother 
 at once rendered them popular with both sides in the 
 dispute — with the homesick Queen, eager to welcome her 
 fellow-countrywomen, and with King and Parliament 
 ready to trust these new foreigners because of their 
 Protestant religion. 
 
 Charles, therefore, encouraged the new arrivals to stay 
 at court, granting them those apartments in St. James's 
 Palace which had recently been vacated by the Queen's 
 French household. But it must have been some time 
 before Lord and Lady Strange and the Duchess Dowager 
 could actually take up their abode in these quarters, on 
 account of their previous occupants' lack of cleanliness, 
 which, we are told, had rendered them totally uninhabit- 
 able. Madame de La Tremoille was now appointed Lady 
 of the Queen's Bedchamber, a position in which, after 
 her return to France in October, 1626, she was suc- 
 ceeded by her daughter. 
 
 For some months Lady Strange lived in London, and 
 apparently it was not until the autumn of 1627, when her 
 husband was associated with his father, the Earl of 
 Derby, in the lieutenancy of Lancashire and Cheshire, 
 that Lord Strange took his bride to her northern home 
 and introduced her to her father-in-law, who was then 
 living at Chester. 
 
 With gracious English kindness and old-world courtesy 
 the Earl received his daughter-in-law, speaking to her in 
 French, calling her " Lady " and " mistress of the house," 
 a position he said he wished no other woman to hold. 
 With her princely residence of Lathom House Lady 
 
 k 2
 
 i 3 2 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 Strange was delighted, as well she might be, for the 
 mansion was one of the finest in England. Indeed, at that 
 time everything smiled upon her, and through her 
 husband's devotion the world seemed to have grown " a 
 less difficult place to live in." "He shows me the utmost 
 affection, and God gives us grace to live in much happiness 
 and peace of mind," she wrote. Within a year of their 
 marriage, without a word from his wife, and despite 
 serious financial difficulties in which his family were 
 involved, Lord Strange settled a sum of £2,000 upon his 
 lady. This jointure she considered extremely generous, 
 especially as only a very small part of her own marriage 
 portion had then been paid. It is doubtful whether the 
 whole sum of £50,000 promised in her marriage contract 
 ever reached her. At any rate, her brother, Duke Henry, 
 for some years postponed payment of a great part of it, 
 and Charlotte was constrained to write continually to her 
 mother and sister-in-law expressing her annoyance that 
 she should have brought nothing but expense to a family 
 from whom she had received so much kindness. At one 
 time she even hinted at the suspicion that her brother was 
 trying to possess himself of her fortune, and no doubt she 
 was all the more inclined to distrust him when, in 1628, 
 he abjured his father's faith, and returned to the Church 
 of Rome. 
 
 In La Tremoille's excuse it may be urged that, owing to 
 constant civil war, now followed by war with England, his 
 estates had become so encumbered that it was difficult 
 for him to pay either the capital or the interest of his 
 sister's fortune. Moreover, the Duke was certainly not 
 a good business man, for we find him selling to Cardinal 
 Richelieu the domain of L'lle Bouchard for a sum which 
 barely covered the value of the forest timber, and making
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 133 
 
 an equally bad bargain when he parted with a portion of 
 the famous forest of Broceliande. 1 
 
 Nevertheless, despite her husband's financial em- 
 barrassments, Marie de La Tour was at this very time 
 building that magnificent chateau of Thouars which, with 
 its four great towers and fine river frontage, dominating 
 the country-side for miles around, belies Henry's plea of 
 poverty and justifies Tallement des Reaux in charging 
 the Duchesse de La Tremoille with ambition. For the 
 aspiring Marie de La Tour determined to copy no less a 
 personage than that great builder of the previous century, 
 Catherine de Medicis, and it was according to the plans 
 which Philibert de l'Ormc had drawn for the Tuileries 
 that the Duchess was now building her castle at Thouars. 
 Possibly, however, Marie, more fortunate than Charlotte 
 in the payment of her dowry, may have been using her 
 own marriage portion for the building of the family 
 mansion. The association of her name, rather than that 
 of her husband, with the chateau would indicate that such 
 was the case, and if so, then the rising of that lordly pile 
 on the steep bank of the river Thouet is not inconsistent 
 with the Duke's protested poverty. 
 
 Except for these financial cares, Charlotte's early 
 married years passed peacefully, disturbed only by those 
 natural vicissitudes of life and death which ever attend 
 the destinies of mortals. In i63i,her mother died, but 
 even so heavy a blow was perhaps easier to bear than the 
 vicious courses in which her favourite brother, Frederic, 
 Comte de Laval, was indulging, in the Netherlands, 
 and in London. In London he had formed a union 
 with a woman of the middle class, a Miss Orpe, who, after 
 having born him several children, inflicted a heavy blow on 
 
 1 Then called Quintin, and afterwards known as the Forftt de Lorges.
 
 i 3 4 FR0M THE CRUSADES 
 
 the La Tremoille family pride by claiming to be his wife 
 and assuming the title of Comtesse de Laval. 
 
 Charlotte first became a mother in January, 1628. 
 In that year her son Charles, afterwards Lord Derby, was 
 born and there followed in rapid succession eight other 
 children, of whom six lived to grow up. 1 
 
 Of English nurses and English nursing Lady Strange 
 had no opinion whatever. The English custom of giving 
 infants the full use of their limbs, instead of binding them 
 tightly on to a cushion, seemed to this Frenchwoman 
 utterly barbarous. And one night she was horrified to 
 find her baby boy of but three days old lying in his 
 cradle sucking his thumb. " Just imagine ! " exclaimed 
 this outraged parent in a letter to her sister-in-law. 
 And later to her mother she wrote, " Why, in this country 
 they put infants of a month or six weeks into robes, 
 and I am thought out of my senses because I have not 
 provided any dresses for my baby." No doubt poor 
 Lady Strange found her opinion of English child-nurture 
 only too forcibly confirmed when her baby Charlotte 
 died from being overlaid by her nurse. 
 
 Soon after 1631, in order to arrange her mother's affairs, 
 Lady Strange undertook a journey to Holland, hoping, 
 but vainly as it proved, at the same time to exercise 
 some salutary influence over her favourite brother, who 
 was then at the Hague. 
 
 Meanwhile, in England, the political horizon was 
 darkening, and every day the country was drawing nearer 
 to civil war. 
 
 Lord Strange, despite the high office he held — as well 
 
 1 Charlotte, Henrietta Maria, Catherine, Amelia Anna Sophia, 
 Edward, William and two other sons, Henry Frederick and James, who 
 both died in infancy. See "Stanley Papers," Vol. II., Part III., 
 pp cclxxxviii. — ccxcii.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 135 
 
 as being with his father joint lieutenant of Lancashire 
 and Cheshire, he was Chamberlain of Chester and Lord 
 Lieutenant of North Wales — never took any very active 
 part in politics. Only now and again did he attend the 
 meetings of Parliament in London. His tastes were 
 those of the country gentleman ; and he loved to spend 
 his days on the hunting field or in his magnificent houses 
 of Lathom and Knowsley, surrounded by his retainers, 
 entertaining with princely hospitality large companies 
 of friends. 
 
 ' The air of London disagrees with him," wrote Lady 
 Strange, and glad she was that he did not go there often, 
 for, as she added, " in these times there is always some- 
 thing to fear." Still for such leaders of the aristocracy 
 as were Lord and Lady Strange, it was necessary that 
 sometimes they should put in an appearance at court. 
 And so, in 1630, we find them both figuring in royal 
 pageantry : Charlotte's husband in Ben Jonson's masque, 
 " Love's Triumph through Callipolis," where fifteen lovers 
 ranged themselves seven and seven aside, with the King 
 in the centre, and each with a cupid bearing a lighted 
 torch before him, Lord Strange not inappropriately 
 representing the secure lover; Charlotte herself, in 
 another masque, was one of a circle of nymphs, who, 
 dressed in white, embroidered with silver, sat round the 
 Queen in her bower. 1 
 
 Hut in the early years of her motherhood such court 
 festivities were not greatly to Charlotte's taste ; and she 
 preferred to remain quietly at home busily plying her 
 needle over those numerous tiny garments necessary for 
 her increasing household. 
 
 Then, in 1642, those war clouds which had so long been 
 
 1 Peter Draper, " The House of Stanley " (1804). 77-
 
 136 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 gathering burst, and the King and Parliament took up 
 arms. 
 
 For so peaceable a man as Lord Strange the position 
 was extremely difficult. He shared the opinion of 
 Lord Kingston, who to the Parliament emissaries is said 
 to have replied : " When I take arms with the King against 
 the Parliament, or with the Parliament against the King, 
 let a cannon bullet divide me between them." x 
 
 At first, in his own county of Lancashire, Lord Strange 
 endeavoured to arrange a compromise between the 
 disputants. Then, having failed, he yielded to his wife's 
 influence and declared for the King. 
 
 Faithful to her early teaching, and believing strongly 
 in the divine right of kings, to Lady Strange the support 
 of royalty was a religion. Pibrac's line, learnt long ago 
 at Thouars, " Love the state as thou findest it, if it be 
 royal, love royalty," she had never forgotten. And now, 
 putting aside all considerations of personal safety on her 
 own, her husband's and her children's behalf, she urged 
 Lord Strange to join the King, who was then at York. 
 
 James Stanley, showing now as always perfect confi- 
 dence in his wife's judgment, adopted her counsel. But 
 Charlotte, though she might guide the course of her 
 husband's action, could not convert the country gentleman 
 into a general or a soldier ; and throughout the civil war 
 the career of Lord Strange, who, in this year 1642, by 
 his father's death became Earl of Derby, though distin- 
 guished by admirable courage and crowned by a martyr's 
 death, was little but a series of misfortunes and failures. 
 
 His attempts to raise Lancashire in the King's cause, 
 and to take Manchester and Warrington were attended 
 with ill success. The troops, which he had raised and 
 
 1 See " Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson " (1906), 120.
 
 I UHES ST Wl.l V, I \KI. I >F DERBY 
 
 Husband "( C'liarlullc de I.. i I i moilli'
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 137 
 
 equipped at his own expense, were almost everywhere 
 defeated, and in May, 1643, leaving his army in command 
 of Lord Molyneux, who was even unhappier than his 
 predecessor, Derby, went to York, to beg the Queen to 
 place at his disposal some of the reinforcements she had 
 recently brought from Holland. 
 
 Meanwhile Lady Derby dashed off a few hurried lines 
 to her cousin, Prince Rupert, 1 whom she knew to be in 
 Staffordshire, but two days' ride from Lathom, entreating 
 him to come to their aid. ' Take pity upon my husband, 
 my children and me," she wrote, " for we are ruined for 
 ever if God and your Highness have not compassion upon 
 us." In a very different tone was this hurried note from 
 the letter, which, a year previously, soon after Prince 
 Rupert's landing at Tynemouth, Charlotte had written 
 to her kinsman. Then she had done no more than 
 request the Prince to use his influence with the King 
 to induce him to send reinforcements to Lancashire. 
 
 While Derby was with the Queen at York, he heard 
 that his subjects in the Isle of Man, having revolted 
 from his rule, were negotiating with the Scots. The latter 
 weir then planning an invasion of England, in which 
 they hoped to make Man their basis of attack upon the 
 English coast. 
 
 In deciding, after some perplexity, to cross over to 
 
 1 Lady Sti t cousin to Rupert I he Ele tor 
 
 Palatine. 
 
 William <>f Orange. 
 
 Charlotte Brabantine Claude de La Tremoille. Louie Julienne a 
 
 the Elecl 1 1 'alatine, 
 
 Charlotte, Lady sir.. Frfderic, Elector Palatine 
 
 (aftero d 1 idy Derby). = Elizabeth Stuart. 
 
 I 
 Prince Kupert.
 
 138 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 Man and to leave Lathom to the mercy of the Parliamen- 
 tarian army then approaching it, Lord Derby must have 
 known he had his wife's approval, for Charlotte would 
 never have allowed her own or her family's safety to 
 stand in the way of the defence of the royal cause. But, 
 indeed, her position was dangerous. For no sooner was 
 the Earl out of the country, than the Governor of 
 Manchester sent an envoy to demand that Lady Derby 
 should submit to his terms or surrender her house. 
 Although Charlotte replied proudly that it suited her 
 to do neither, the reflection that Lathom was but ill 
 armed and provisioned reduced even a La Tremoille to 
 compromise. And so she agreed to give up to the Round- 
 heads such lands as were outside her park wall, stipulating 
 that she should be permitted to remain in peace in her 
 house and to retain a sufficient garrison to protect herself 
 and her household from the insults of the soldiers. 
 
 Lady Derby could not have made a wiser move, for 
 in view of the siege, which she wisely saw to be inevitable, 
 she was now able to concentrate all her attention on the 
 defence of her house and grounds, while, by the surrender 
 of her outlying possessions she gained time — a respite of 
 no less than eight months — which she busily occupied 
 in strengthening her garrison, organising her defence, 
 and provisioning Lathom. 
 
 We must now describe the position and structure of 
 that mansion, which was about to sustain one of the most 
 famous sieges in English history. Lathom House was 
 so spacious that at one time it is said to have accommo- 
 dated no less than three Kings and their retinues. Yet, 
 in spite of its size, all writers agree in describing it as 
 one of the most defensible dwellings in the kingdom. 
 Girt about with high walls two yards in thickness, and
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 139 
 
 protected by nine lofty towers, it lay in a hollow, 
 surrounded by hills, sloping so rapidly as to render it 
 impossible to construct any fortifications on them or 
 to work artillery with impunity from the castle walls. 
 Beyond the ramparts was a moat eight yards wide and 
 two yards deep, bordered by a strong wall of palisades, 
 and only to be crossed from strongly fortified postern 
 gates at the discretion of the garrison. In the midst of 
 the house was a high building, known as the Eagle Tower, 
 and commanding all the rest. The gatehouse was 
 high and strong, with a tower on each side of it. In 
 the towers and on the ramparts were placed eight or 
 nine small pieces of ordnance and some murderers, or 
 large blunderbusses, which moved upon a pivot and a rest. 
 
 Throughout her precious eight months' respite, steadily 
 and secretly Lady Derby assembled her garrison and 
 gathered in her provisions, the men came in at night 
 bearing victuals and ammunition ; yet, despite all the 
 Countess's efforts, there was a scarcity of the latter 
 throughout the siege, and Lathom's defenders had always 
 to be sparing of their powder and shot. 
 
 In the end the garrison numbered 300. These men 
 the Countess divided into six companies under six captains, 
 chosen for their courage and integrity, and each responsible 
 U ft the training of his company. Over them all Lady Derby 
 appointed as major a Scotsman, one Captain Farmer, 
 who was very skilful in war, having served in the Low 
 Countries. 1 Bu1 Captain Farmer, in his turn, received 
 his orders from the Countess, for over household and 
 garrison Charlotte reigned supreme 
 
 So stealthily had all these works been carried out that 
 the Parliamentarian troops, who, under Colonel Rigby, 
 
 1 He afterwards fell at Huston Moor.
 
 i 4 o FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 were constantly harrying the neighbourhood, had not 
 the remotest idea of the increase in the garrison, nor of 
 the extent of the defences of Lathom House. 
 
 Some idea, however, of what had been taking place 
 dawned upon the Roundhead general when, early in 
 February, 1644, a reconnoitring party, having approached 
 to within gunshot of the walls, was welcomed with such 
 a volley of musketry that several of their number were 
 slain and one was taken prisoner. On the following day, 
 February 24th, a council of war was held at Manchester, 
 and it was decided to open a regular attack on the mansion. 
 The next day being Sunday, the pulpits of Wigan, the 
 nearest town to Lathom and but six miles distant, 
 resounded with anathemas hurled at " the wicked woman 
 of Babylon," who was opposing the progress " of the 
 Lord's chosen people," and one preacher, converting his 
 sermon into an announcement of the siege, which was 
 to open on the morrow, blew a trumpet blast from the 
 fiftieth chapter of Jeremiah, calling on the people to put 
 themselves " in array against Babylon round about " : 
 ' all ye that bend the bow," he cried, " shoot at her, 
 spare no arrows ; for she hath sinned against the Lord." 
 
 The Puritan preacher doubtless hoped a very few Sab- 
 baths hence to preach another sermon, taking for his text 
 the next verse : " Shout against her round about : she 
 hath given her hand : her foundations are fallen, her 
 walls are thrown down : for it is the vengeance of the 
 Lord : take vengeance upon her." 
 
 But " the woman of Babylon " was not to be so easily 
 vanquished ; and as long as Charlotte de La Tremoille 
 commanded within the walls of Lathom, they stood 
 firm against the forces of the Parliament. 
 
 Of the details of this memorable siege we are fortunate
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 141 
 
 in possessing a graphic account written by an eye-witness, 
 one of the Countess's little band of defenders. This 
 narrative is to be found printed at the end of Bonn's 
 edition of the " Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson." Two 
 manuscripts of it still exist, one in the Ashmolean Museum, 
 Oxford, 1 another among the Harleian MSS. in the British 
 Museum. 2 Which of Lathom's defenders wrote this story 
 is a question which has been much disputed. It may 
 have been Edward Halsall, a youth of only seventeen 
 at the time of the siege, or, more probably, a maturer 
 soldier, Chissenhall by name, one of Charlotte's captains. 3 
 
 It was on Tuesday, February 27th, 4 that Lathom 
 was completely invested. Then the troops of Sir 
 Thomas Fairfax encamped round about the house at the 
 distance of a mile or two. But before the actual attack 
 began, a week passed in negotiations between Lady Derby 
 and Parliamentary envoys. One set of proposals after 
 another she refused, replying finally that she declined 
 all their articles, and was truly happy in that they refused 
 hers, for she would rather hazard her life than offer the 
 like again. Then she added defiantly that, though a 
 woman and a foreigner, divorced from her friends and 
 robbed of her estate, she was ready to receive the enemy's 
 utmost violence, trusting in God for protection and 
 deliverance. 
 
 The next morning r ' when the Countess's household 
 awoke, it seemed to them that the siege had begun in 
 real earnest. For during the night, at about a musket- 
 shot's distance from the house, on the sloping ground 
 
 1 A Wood MS. d. i''. 
 
 ■ N(). 2" } >,. 
 
 ■ Another account of the sie^'C may lie found in the " .Memoirs of 
 John Seacombc " (1S21). 
 
 * N.S. March 7th. 
 6 March 6th OS.
 
 142 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 surrounding it, the Parliamentarians had been throwing 
 up earthworks for the protection of the ordnance which 
 were to fire upon the towers of Lathom. These earth- 
 works, during the following days, were continued by the 
 people of the country-side, who, much against their 
 will, had been pressed into the Parliamentarian service 
 by Fairfax and his colonels. Apparently the sympathies 
 of these country folk were royalist. And although, 
 instigated by Fairfax, six of them waited on Lady Derby 
 to represent to her that it would be for their benefit if 
 she would consent to treat with the Parliamentarians, 
 when she explained to them her reasons for resisting, 
 they went away crying : " God save the King and the 
 Earl of Derby ! " 
 
 Fairfax, however, still delayed to open the attack, 
 either because he regarded the siege as hopeless, or 
 because this chivalrous general disliked making war upon 
 a woman. So, on Monday, March nth, he renewed 
 negotiations, which proved as fruitless as the earlier ones 
 had been. And on the following day it was the besieged 
 who opened the attack. A hundred foot, supported by 
 twelve horsemen, boldly sallied forth from Lathom gates, 
 went right up to the enemy's works without firing a shot, 
 then, proceeding to fire, drove them from their holes, 
 slaying thirty, taking forty arms, one drum and six 
 prisoners without any injury to themselves. 
 
 These sallies repeated on succeeding days inflicted great 
 hurt on the besiegers, and also unhappily on the poor 
 country folk at work in the trenches. The enemy 
 replied by attempting to bombard the house. But the 
 configuration of the land rendered their cannon useless. 
 
 ' On Tuesday night," writes our eye-witness, " they 
 brought up one piece of cannon. On Wednesday morning
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 143 
 
 they gave us some sport. They then played their cannon 
 three shots, the ball a twenty-four pounder. They first 
 tried the wall, which, being found proof without yielding 
 or showing the least impression (sic), they afterwards shot 
 higher to beat down the pinnacles or turrets, or else to 
 please the women that came to see the spectacle." 
 
 Dismayed by the failure of his bombardment, Fairfax 
 made another attempt to bring the Countess to terms, 
 and this time he thought to possess an infallible argument 
 in a letter from Lord Derby which had just reached him. 
 The Earl had returned from Man, and, alarmed by the 
 news of his wife's danger, he asked Fairfax to permit the 
 Countess and her children, should it seem good to her, to 
 leave the house and proceed to a place of safety. But 
 Lord Derby, when he penned that request, had no idea of 
 his wife's spirit. To such a Minerva " it did not seem 
 good ' to leave her home in the hour of danger, for 
 Charlotte knew full well that she was the soul of the 
 defence, and that in her absence Lathom would soon be 
 taken. So, thanking Sir Thomas for his courtesy, the 
 Countess professed her willingness to adopt her Lord's 
 suggestion, but only when she herself was fully persuaded 
 that such really was his pleasure. The blockade was 
 then resumed. But soon afterwards, Lady Derby, 
 taking advantage of a sally, contrived to get two 
 messengers through the enemy's lines, one bearing a 
 letter to her husband, and the other one to Prince Rupert. 
 The latter was written in a very different torn- from the 
 despairing request she had addressed to her kinsman but 
 a year ago. By now Charlotte de La Tremoille had 
 proved her mettle, and this, her third appeal to her 
 cousin, reveals a serenity and strength which is truly 
 admirable in a lone woman and a foreigner at the
 
 144 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 head of a small garrison, besieged by an army of 
 3,000 men. 
 
 " Sir," wrote the Countess, " I make bold to write 
 these lines to your Highness to implore you very humbly 
 to be so kind as to converse with the bearer of this letter 
 touching the condition of this country, which has great 
 need of your presence, as your Highness will be able to 
 gather for yourself from the words of my messenger, in 
 whose hands I leave it, while I entreat you believe me 
 more than any one, Sir, the very humble and very 
 obedient and very faithful servant of your Highness. 
 
 " C. de Tremaille." l 
 
 Though the Countess was thus reduced to imploring aid 
 from her husband and her cousin, the besiegers were 
 beginning to despair of ever forcing her to surrender by 
 human means at any rate. And so they resolved to 
 beseech the divinity to intervene on their side. " All 
 ministers and other well-affected persons " of Lancashire 
 were called upon to commend the Parliament's case to 
 God. Meanwhile, those " well-affected ' persons who 
 had been bombarding Lathom desisted from action, in 
 order, as our eye-witness puts it, " to sleep out four days 
 in the pious exercises of prayer and supplication." 
 
 The Countess and her household used this respite to 
 prepare a somewhat rude awakening for these pious 
 sleepers. And, on April ioth, the besieged sallied forth 
 and attacked the enemy's lines with such vigour, that all 
 their cannon were nailed, fifty of their men slain, sixty 
 arms taken, with one set of colours and three drums, all 
 with the loss to the assailants of only one man. The 
 besiegers' most formidable weapon, however, Charlotte's 
 men failed to damage : the Parliamentarians had recently 
 
 1 Charlotte's usual way of writing her name.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 145 
 
 brought from London a huge mortar, which was a form of 
 artillery but newly invented. The Lathom soldiers did 
 their very best to silence this redoubtable engine of war ; 
 they nailed it, and battered it with smith's hammers, but 
 all to no purpose, for its mouth was too wide to be stopped. 
 And for the next thirteen days the mortar was destined 
 to inflict considerable damage on the house and its 
 occupants, but not nearly such serious injury as it might 
 have caused had the firing of it been properly under- 
 stood. Not even Lathom's stout ramparts could have 
 stood firm against shells and stones fifty-three inches 
 in diameter, had they been fired so as to describe that 
 peculiar curve which rendered the mortar the most 
 deadly engine of attack upon a house lying in a hollow 
 like that now being assailed. The inexperience of the 
 gunners, however, caused the balls generally to follow a 
 horizontal direction, and only now and again to do 
 any serious damage. Once a ball fell into the dining- 
 room where the Countess and her children sat at meat, 
 and twice shells entered Lady Derby's bed-chamber; 
 but almost miraculously on neither occasion was anyone 
 hurt. And it was only with great difficulty that the 
 ( ountess could be persuaded to change her room, which 
 m<l especially open to attack, for once previously, 
 
 ore the mortar's arrival, a sakcr bullet had come in 
 through her window. 
 
 But nothing dismayed the Countess or shook her 
 determination to continue her resistance. Never would 
 she yield as long as a roof remained over her head, 
 she protested And at length Fairfax, who was badly 
 wanted In other parts of the country, grew tired of so 
 unprofitable an enterprise. On April 24th he marched 
 off, leaving the conduct of the siege to Colonel Rigby, a 
 
 c.r. l
 
 i 4 6 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 gruff, uncouth attorney, very different from his courteous 
 and cultured superior. 
 
 In keeping with Rigby's character was the insolent 
 tone of the message by which, on the day after his 
 general's departure, he called upon Lady Derby to sur- 
 render before eight o'clock on the following afternoon. 
 But in the Countess, Rigby had met his match. Haughtily 
 tearing up the Colonel's missive, she told his messenger 
 that as a reward for his pains he deserved to be hanged 
 at her gates, and that to the traitor who sent him he 
 might say that neither house, goods nor persons should 
 he have, that rather than fall into his hands she would 
 set fire to the place and consign herself, her children and 
 her soldiers to the flames. 
 
 These were bold words ; and on hearing them the 
 garrison shouted : "We will die for his Majesty and your 
 Honour. God save the King! " 
 
 For herself, Lady Derby knew no fear. Yet, despite 
 the brave defiance she had sent to Rigby, there were 
 moments when she trembled for her children. ' The 
 little ladies," writes the eye-witness, " had stomachs 
 to digest cannon, but they, no more than the stoutest 
 soldiers, had hearts for grenades." 
 
 So, no sooner was the messenger departed than the 
 Countess summoned a council of war, and told her 
 captains that something must be done to stop the mouth 
 of the mortar. As the result of these deliberations 
 another sally was made, which was to prove the boldest 
 and bravest of the siege. At four o'clock the next 
 morning, while the besiegers were asleep, Lady Derby 
 herself, with most of her garrison, issued forth from the 
 gates. They approached the mortar and took possession 
 of it ; then the soldiers, encouraged by their gallant
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 147 
 
 Countess, dragged it inside the ramparts. There in the 
 courtyard, like a dead lion, lay the monster that had 
 frightened the brave defenders of Lathom from their 
 meat and sleep. ' Everyone had his eye and his foot 
 upon it, shouting and rejoicing as merrily as they used 
 to do with their ale and their bagpipes." 
 
 And even Charlotte de La Tremoille, never very joyful 
 at the best of times, and grimmer than ever now after 
 eight anxious weeks of suffering — even Charlotte was 
 jubilant, and in her gladness she instructed her chaplain, 
 the Reverend Mr. Rutter, to hold a public thanks- 
 giving. 
 
 Rigby, too, had arranged a thanksgiving for that day, 
 and had invited the people of the countryside to come 
 and see the walls of Lathom House fall beneath the 
 mortar's volleys of shot and shell ; but now his great 
 battering-ram lay silent and secure within the enemy's 
 gates, and there remained for the Colonel nothing but 
 rage and mortification. In despair he appealed to the 
 County Committee to send him reinforcements. " We are 
 obliged to drive them back as often as five or six times 
 in the same night," he wrote. ' These constant alarms, 
 the strength of the garrison, and the numerous losses 
 we have had, oblige the soldiers to guard the trenches 
 sometimes two nights running. My son does this duty 
 as well as the youngest officer. And for my own part, 
 i .1111 ready to sink under the weight, having worked 
 beyond my strength." 
 
 In r< -iponsr to Kigby's request Colom-1 Holland was 
 
 senl from Manchester with reinforcements. Bui these 
 
 new troops seem to have been singularly ineffective ; 
 
 and we read thai after the mortar's capture until the 
 
 ring of the siege on May 26th, the garrison enjoyed a 
 
 L 2
 
 148 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 continued calm, so that they were scarce sensible of a 
 siege save for the restraint put upon their liberty. 
 
 On May 23rd Rigby sent another and the last of his 
 insolent messages, to which Lady Derby replied as 
 defiantly as before, that unless the enemy would treat 
 with her lord, they should never have her or any of her 
 friends alive. 
 
 The Countess, when she sent this defiance, had no idea 
 that her lord was then close at hand. But that very 
 night one of her scouts returned to Lathom and told how 
 Prince Rupert was in Cheshire, and with him the Earl, 
 and that they were coming to raise the siege. 
 
 From more than one quarter Prince Rupert had been 
 urged to go to his gallant cousin's rescue ; her husband 
 had implored the Prince's help, so had the Royalist 
 commander of Chester, and finally the King himself 
 wrote that while desirous not to interfere with his 
 nephew's plans, he would be glad to learn that the 
 Countess of Derby was out of danger. Thus it fell out 
 that the Prince, having been joined by Derby, was now 
 marching to Lathom. 
 
 The news that on May 25th Rupert had taken Stockport 
 reached the besiegers on the following day. That night 
 they broke up their camp and vanished in the darkness, 
 so quietly that the inhabitants of Lathom knew nothing 
 of their departure ; and the Countess, when she awoke 
 on the morning of the 27th, beheld with immense astonish- 
 ment and unspeakable relief that the enemy had departed. 
 
 On the evening of the following day the Earl and his 
 Countess were reunited. Between the Parliamentarians' 
 flight and Derby's return had intervened the Royalist 
 capture of Bolton-le-Moors, where Stanley and Rupert 
 wreaked their revenge on Rigby and his men for all the
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 149 
 
 suffering they had for eight weeks been inflicting on the 
 Countess and her children. 
 
 The Earl, on his return to his damaged home and to 
 his brave wife and children, had been preceded by Sir 
 Richard Crane, who came on the part of Prince Rupert 
 to lay at his courageous cousin's feet twenty-two flags 
 captured from the enemy at Bolton, and to announce 
 to her that the Prince was pleased to accept her invitation 
 to spend a few days at Lathom on his way to York. 
 Charlotte, therefore, made haste to prepare to receive 
 her princely cousin with as good cheer as might be, in 
 a house strangely shattered by the siege, and still bearing 
 traces of the work of the enemy's cannon. 
 
 Rupert was then at the height of his renown. His 
 arrogance and hot-headedness had not yet alienated the 
 ( avaliers, who, in this year 1644, regarded the King's 
 nephew as almost invincible. Lady Derby and her cousin 
 must have been well acquainted by repute, for it was 
 the Prince's mother, the fascinating Elizabeth Stuart, 
 who, at the court of the Hague, had arranged Charlotte's 
 marriage ; but at that time young Rupert himself was 
 away at the University of Leyden. Probably, therefore, 
 the cousins never met until that glad summer day, 
 when the Prince of five-and-twenty, the handsomest and 
 bravest commander of the time, rode proudly through 
 the battered gates of Lathom to congratulate, in a voice 
 half broken with emotion, his valiant kinswoman on the 
 glorious victory she had won. 
 
 Many a noble and many a royal guesl had in times past 
 been royally entertained beneath Lathom's hospitable 
 roof. But now, with the resources of her house all 
 wasted by the siege, with her jewels pawned to raise 
 money for the defence of her home, with robes of state
 
 150 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 laid aside, and triumphs of costume and drapery for- 
 gotten, Charlotte found court ceremonial impossible. 
 Yet never was guest welcomed with greater rejoicing, and 
 never did more fervent thanksgivings rise from the 
 chapel than on the occasion of Prince Rupert's coming 
 to Lathom. 
 
 During this brief visit the Prince was busily occupied 
 in arranging for the repair and strengthening of the 
 fortifications of the house, and in rewarding the officers 
 who had so gallantly served their King and their lady. 
 Before his departure, Rupert advised the Countess to 
 retire with her children to the Isle of Man, enjoining her 
 to take great care of her sons and daughters, for, he said, 
 " the children of such a father and mother will one day 
 render to their King as much service as yours has received 
 from you." 
 
 It was not, however, until more than three weeks after 
 the Royalist rout at Marston Moor that Charlotte 
 adopted her cousin's counsel. The battle was fought on 
 July 2nd ; and on the 30th Lady Derby and her children 
 crossed over to the Isle of Man. Whether the Earl 
 accompanied them we do not know. But, if he did, his 
 stay in the island was brief, for in September we find 
 him back at Lathom, which was again being besieged by 
 the Parliamentarians. The siege dragged on for over 
 a year. Not until December, 1645, did the gallant 
 garrison surrender. By that time the Earl had rejoined 
 his family in the Isle of Man, and it was there that they 
 heard of the wanton destruction of their beautiful home, 
 how it had been razed to the ground, all its valuable 
 furniture and works of art scattered or demolished, and 
 only a few timber buildings left to mark the site of the 
 lordly Lathom.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 151 
 
 For the Earl and Countess of Derby, as indeed for all 
 Royalists, the next five years, from Lathom's fall in 
 December, 1644, until the King's execution in January, 
 1649, were full of suffering and anxiety. Most of this 
 time the Countess spent in the Isle of Man. And from 
 her letters to her sister-in-law, Marie de la Tour, Duchesse 
 de La Tremoille, we learn that to grief over national 
 affairs were added family troubles. These arose chiefly 
 from the conduct of her eldest son, Charles, Lord Strange, 
 then a youth of eighteen. Only a year after Lathom's 
 fall, Charles departed secretly from the Isle of Man, and, 
 crossing over to Ireland, made his way thence to Paris. 
 He left behind him letters saying that he was going to his 
 Aunt, the Duchess. And to her Lady Derby wrote, 
 imploring that for her sister's sake she would receive the 
 truant kindly and be a mother to him, " all the more," 
 she adds, ' because what he has done has offended 
 osieur his father and me. If he obeys you he will the 
 more readily obtain our pardon." 
 
 Such kindness the Countess was entitled to expect from 
 sister-in-law ; for, as we shall see in the next chapter, 
 many years earlier the Derbys had hospitably received 
 into their London house the Duchess's own runaway son, 
 Henri Charles de La Tremoille. Marie de la Tour, 
 therefore, was only too willing to grant her sister's 
 request, winning her gratitude and that of her husband, 
 who wrote to Madame de La Tremoille that he could 
 never sufficiently thank her for the care she had deigned 
 to take of his truant son. 
 
 Their first-born's evasion must have been a great 
 disappointment to Lord and Lady Derby. For, from his 
 cradle they had spared qo pains, by dint of careful tuition 
 and advice, to lit him for the exalted position he was one
 
 i 5 2 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 day to occupy. Among the Stanley papers is a volume 1 
 of rules and aphorisms written by Lord Derby for his 
 son's benefit, and dealing with every phase of behaviour, 
 and every vicissitude of life, health, table manners, 
 expenditure, the regulations of a household, and especially 
 the choice of a wife. " Choose not a dwarf or a fool," 
 Charles was advised, " for the children of one will be 
 pigmies, and the other your disgrace by a continual 
 clack; there is nothing more fulsome than a she-fool." 
 Looking still further ahead, the Earl admonishes his son 
 to bring up his children with " learning and obedience, 
 yet without austerity, praising them openly, and repre- 
 hending them secretly." 
 
 But, above all things, Charles is enjoined to cultivate 
 home life and to avoid travel, especially in Italy, because 
 in that country " is nothing to be learned but pride, vice, 
 luxury, and atheism, with a few useless words of no 
 profit." " For words," the Earl insists, " you have no 
 need to travel, your mother having conferred on you the 
 benefit of her language." 
 
 But travel was the one thing Charles Stanley desired, 
 partly, no doubt, in order to escape from his father's 
 persistent aphorisms and his tutor's virtuous precepts ; 
 and so, eluding the vigilance of the learned Mr. Rutter, 
 he exchanged the monotony of life in the Isle of Man for 
 the livelier atmosphere of Paris. 
 
 Eventually Lord Strange was to win his father's for- 
 giveness, and to prove a loyal and affectionate son. But 
 with his mother henceforth he was never on the best of 
 terms. Charlotte could not recover from her disappoint- 
 ment at her boy's truancy. To her sister-in-law she 
 
 1 Part III., 1867, 42 et seq. " The Stanley Papers " have been 
 published by the Chetham Society.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 153 
 
 wrote of him as " a useless creature," and one from whom 
 all she could expect was that he should eschew evil 
 practices, and avoid following the example of his uncle, 
 the Comte de Laval, Charlotte's favourite brother, who 
 three years earlier had died from wounds received in a 
 duel. 1 Nevertheless, for this " useless creature " Lady 
 Derby was careful to draw up a programme of studies, 
 to pursue him with reams of judicious advice, to scheme 
 for his worldly advancement by asking the Duchess to 
 present him to Henrietta Maria and the Prince of Wales, 
 who were then in Paris, and to plan sending him to learn 
 the art of war from his kinsman, the great Turenne. 
 
 Soon, however, the Countess's attention was diverted 
 from her truant son by a new danger which threatened 
 her husband. Towards the close of 1646 negotiations 
 were in progress between the Scots, whom the King had 
 joined at Newcastle, and the members of the Long 
 Parliament. As part of the projected settlement it was 
 proposed to proclaim an amnesty for the King's sup- 
 porters ; but from that pardon certain eminent Royalists 
 were to be excluded, and among them was Lord 
 Derby. 
 
 With her usual indefatigable energy, the Countess 
 resolved to undertake the hazardous and difficult journey 
 to London, there to petition the Parliament to include 
 her husband in the Amnesty Bill. Having waited long 
 and anxiously for a passport, she received it in mid- 
 January. And then, in tempestuous weather, and 
 embarking in an unseaworthy boat, Lady Derby bade 
 farewell to her fearful husband and children, and after a 
 forty-eight hours' passage, landed safely in Lancashire. 
 
 'Fought at Venice with Le Coudray Montpensier in February, 
 
 1642.
 
 154 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 There she spent a fortnight procuring money for her 
 further journey. On March ioth she was at Chelsea ; 
 and in London or its neighbourhood she remained for 
 over a year negotiating with the Parliament, and not 
 without success. 
 
 Some weeks after her arrival she was able to write to 
 her sister-in-law, " that the Lords have already struck 
 out Monsieur your brother-in-law's name from the list of 
 exceptions. ... It passed without any opposition, but 
 the Commons have done nothing, as it has not been sent 
 to them yet from the Lords ; but I am encouraged to 
 hope that, with God's help, there will be no difficulty." 
 
 In the autumn of this year, probably owing to Lady 
 Derby's intervention, one-fifth of the Earl's estate, which 
 had been confiscated by Parliament, was granted to his 
 children. The Manor of Knowsley, with its house, lands 
 and appurtenances, was included in this restoration, and 
 thither the Earl sent his daughters, Catherine and 
 Amelia, to reside at Knowsley under the protection of 
 Sir Thomas Fairfax, in order that they might keep 
 possession of the house and receive that part of 
 their father's income which Parliament had granted 
 them. 
 
 It was in September, 1647, that Lady Derby twice 
 visited the King at Hampton Court. Of her second 
 visit she writes : " He is hopeful about his affairs. The 
 Princes, his children, see him two or three times a week ; 
 they are living only three miles from Hampton Court, 
 the finest of his houses." 
 
 While thus earnestly engaged in matters which so 
 vitally concerned her husband and children, Lady Derby 
 never lost interest in the doings of her relatives in France. 
 Her heart swelled with family pride when her brother,
 
 CHARLOTTE Dl LA ["REMOILLE, COUNTESS OF DERBY, WITH HER 
 
 HUSBAND AND THEIR DAUGHT1 R, ( Mill RINB 
 
 Prom .1 in tun- by \ .ihlvl.i , in the collection of the Earl of Clarendon
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 155 
 
 Duke Henry, at the Council of Munster 1 in 1648, laid 
 claim to the kingdom of Naples." 
 
 But her pride fell when, shortly afterwards, her dead 
 brother's mistress, Miss Orpe, claimed his estate and 
 assumed the title of Comtesse de Laval. 3 Miss Orpe was 
 connected with the English Royal household, and in the 
 suit she brought against the house of La Tremoille was 
 protected by Queen Henrietta Maria. Despite this 
 powerful patronage, however, " that woman," as the 
 Countess described the plaintiff, lost her case, and the 
 Laval estate was divided between Count Frederic's 
 brother and sister. 
 
 While she was in London, the Countess was writing 
 to her sister-in-law long lamentations over the woeful 
 plight to which the Parliament's government had reduced 
 her adopted land. " On every hand," she wrote, " were 
 discontent and disagreement, falling out between Lords 
 and Commons, and between the Parliament and the 
 army, but worst of all the abuse of religion, the disregard 
 of God's commandments, books printed which deny the 
 Holy Ghost, the Lord's Prayer neglected, the Sacraments 
 administered according to the fancy of the administrator, 
 any one allowed to preach, even women, baptism thought 
 nothing of, and not administered to children, and worse 
 things which make all who have any religion left shudder." 
 
 In the spring of 1648 lack of pence compelled Lady 
 
 1 Summoned to adjust the conflicting demands of the numerous 
 1 '1 in- es i 111 t he Thirty Yr;u . War. 
 
 - Through his ana rtr< , Vnne de Laval, granddaughter of Frederic, 
 
 King nt Naples, and wife Oi Irainois de La rremoille (see ante, p 87). 
 For two 1 enturies the king oi Fran* e had 1 la nurd to be kings oi Naples. 
 They now abrogated their claim in favour of the La [remoilles, who 
 1 on tinned to ' theirs down to the end of the 1 i titeenth cenl ory. 
 
 And in virtue oi this pretended right the eld< 1 "M "i the house hence- 
 forth ( until 1815) was styled Prince de Tarente. See " Les La 
 Trfemoilles pendant cinq Siecles." IV., U5 et seq. 
 8 See ante, p. 1 34.
 
 i 5 6 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 Derby to leave London without having obtained her 
 object, for the Commons had not yet undertaken to 
 include her husband in the Amnesty Bill. But she 
 hoped much from the divisions among her enemies. 
 These hopes were destined to disappointment. 
 
 On her way back to the Isle of Man, the Countess 
 visited her daughters at Knowsley. In February, 1649, 
 she was back again in the Island. And there she and her 
 husband heard of the King's execution. 
 
 For this event they had long been prepared. Years 
 before, at the time of Strafford's death, 1 Lord Derby had 
 described the Parliament as " wolves, that, after their 
 first tasting of man's blood, grow bold, and mad of more 
 . . . worse than beasts, they make noe difference of 
 drinkes ; for they now become ravenous of royall blood." 
 
 It was not until six months after the King's execution 
 that Lady Derby's petition to the Parliament received 
 any definite answer. Then, on July 12th, Lieutenant- 
 General Ireton, on the Parliament's behalf, proposed to 
 the Earl, that in return for the peaceable possession of 
 half his estate, Derby should surrender the Isle of Man. 
 
 The vehemence with which the Earl rejected this 
 proposal suggests that Charlotte was responsible for the 
 terms of his reply, which were remarkably like those in 
 which she had been wont to answer the envoys of Fairfax 
 and Rigby during the siege of Lathom. 
 
 " I scorn your proffers, disdain your favour, and abhor 
 your treason," wrote the Earl, " and am so far from 
 delivering up this Island to your advantage, that I will 
 keep it to the utmost of my power and your destruction. 
 Take this for your final answer and forbear any further 
 solicitations ; for if you trouble me with any more 
 
 1 May, 1641.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 157 
 
 messages on this occasion I will burn the paper and 
 hang the bearer. This is the immutable resolution and 
 shall be the undoubted practice of him who accounts 
 it his chiefest glory to be 
 
 ' His Majesty's most loyal and obedient servant, 
 
 "Derby." 1 
 
 This virulent defiance having convinced the Parliament 
 of the vanity of all attempts at negotiation, they then 
 proceeded by force of arms to try and conquer the Island. 
 
 But for some time the Earl had been collecting and 
 equipping a fleet, and with this ever active and efficient 
 little navy, he continued to guard the Island from Round- 
 head attacks, so that Man became a sure and safe refuge 
 for Royalist refugees, whom, in spite of their poverty, 
 Lord and Lady Derby hospitably entertained at Castle 
 Rushen. 
 
 The story of these years, of the straits to which the 
 Countess was reduced, even in order to clothe her waiting- 
 women, of the hair-breadth escapes of her husband 
 and his retainers from the guns of the Parliament's 
 vessels constantly hovering round the coast, forms one 
 of the most thrilling chapters in the history of Charlotte 
 de La Tremoille's romantic career. 
 
 So much care and anxiety now had their natural 
 effect even on the Countess's vigorous constitution ; 
 she fell ill, and for a time her life was despaired of. So 
 beset was she by dangers and difficulties that, on her 
 recovery from seven weeks' illness, she wrote to her 
 sister-in-law that " had it been God's will," she would 
 have been well satisfied to quit " this miserable world." 
 At the same time she mourns over the condition of her 
 adopted land, in which the sects were iini casing daily, 
 1 " Stanley Papexa," Part III. Vol. I., cliv.
 
 158 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 where the Koran was printed with permission, where 
 it was common to deny both God and Jesus Christ, and to 
 believe only in the spirit of the Universe, where baptism 
 was made a joke of, where a Puritan minister maintained 
 openly in church that there was no greater divinity than 
 himself, and that, as he was not God, therefore God did 
 not exist. 
 
 In another letter Lady Derby related how one of the 
 Earl's retainers, returning from Scotland, described the 
 burning of sorcerers who declared that they were always 
 with Cromwell when he fought. Another, in prison at 
 Edinburgh, affirmed that he had been present when 
 Cromwell renounced his baptismal vow. 
 
 Many other equally slanderous tales did the Countess 
 repeat for the benefit of her sister-in-law. Perhaps some 
 of them were not without foundation. Everyone knows 
 that during that century hundreds of witches and wizards 
 were burnt, especially in Scotland, and that under torture 
 no statement was too wild for those poor wretches to make. 
 But the majority of these stories were undoubtedly mere 
 inventions, chiefly significant as showing that Cavaliers 
 and Puritans, like many politicians of the present day, were 
 only too eager to credit the most absurd tales told at the 
 expense of their opponents. 
 
 After awhile the Parliament, having failed to capture 
 the Isle of Man by their war vessels, attempted to wring 
 its surrender from the stalwart Derby by ill-treatment 
 of his daughters. Catherine and Amelia were removed 
 from Knowsley to Liverpool, where they were lodged in 
 a miserable, ill-ventilated house, strictly watched, and 
 not allowed to go a few miles from their abode without 
 permission. While the Parliament thus held the Earl's 
 daughters as hostages, they sent word to their father that
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 159 
 
 if he would surrender Man the ladies should be set at 
 liberty. But this stratagem was no more successful than 
 previous devices had been in bringing the proud Earl to 
 submission ; and Derby answered that his children should 
 never be redeemed by disloyalty. 
 
 While doubtless approving of her husband's reply, 
 Charlotte's maternal heart bled at the news of her 
 daughters' sufferings. " I hear they are bearing it 
 bravely," she wrote to the Duchess, " and I have no 
 doubt this is true of the eldest ; but my daughter Amelia 
 is delicate and timid, and is undergoing medical treat- 
 ment by order of Monsieur de Mayerne." ' 
 
 In the midst of her fears for her daughters another 
 blow fell upon Lady Derby. She heard that her son, 
 who was in Holland, was about to marry a Mdlle. Rupa, 
 a young German lady, high born but penniless. In 
 the present state of the family fortunes such a match 
 was not to be dreamt of. And to prevent it the Countess 
 immediately set out for Holland, by way of Scotland. 
 But there her progress was arrested. For, landing in 
 Kirkcudbright, she found herself in the presence of an 
 English army which was marching to Dunbar ; then she 
 discovered that without a passport it was impossible for 
 her to continue her journey ; and, after a fortnight spent 
 in vainly endeavouring to obtain one, she was reduced 
 to returning to Man. 
 
 Lord Strange married Mdlle. Rupa, and then attempted 
 to compensate for his wife's lack of fortune by obtaining 
 from the Parliament a portion of his father's confiscated 
 revenue. With this object Lord ami Lady Strange 
 1 imeto London. Their negotiations with the Parliament, 
 
 1 Sir Theodore Tun Mayerne (1573— 1655 , a Genevese who 
 
 ! been physician to Charles I.
 
 160 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 which Lord Derby described as " going over to the rebels," 
 drove their parents into a fury, and no doubt confirmed 
 the Countess in her opinion that her eldest son was but 
 a " useless creature." 
 
 During her brief stay in Scotland Lady Derby had 
 waited on Charles II., whom she found, so she wrote 
 to the Duchess, behaving with wonderful prudence. 
 Indignantly the Countess rejected the charge then being 
 spread abroad that her King was a Catholic. " He is 
 as true a Protestant as ever," she wrote. But she pitied 
 him in being obliged to listen to horrible sermons against 
 his father, delivered by persons whom she called 
 " atheists." 
 
 Charlotte's loyalty must have been severely tested 
 when, a few months later, she heard that on his coronation 
 at Scone 1 Charles had subscribed to the Solemn League 
 and Covenant, thereby admitting his father's sin, and 
 his mother's idolatry. 
 
 The King himself sent word to Lord Derby that the 
 Scotch Presbyterians had determined to make common 
 cause with English Royalists, and to restore him to the 
 throne. These tidings Charlotte and her husband 
 received with great joy. And henceforth the Earl held 
 himself in readiness to join his sovereign whenever the 
 summons should reach him. Meanwhile, throughout the 
 summer of 1651, Derby busied himself in organising his 
 gallant little navy, and in completing the defences of Man, 
 so that in his absence the Island might continue to defy 
 the enemy. 
 
 Finally, in August, came the call which for ever was to 
 part Lady Derby from the devoted husband who for 
 twenty-five years had been her lover and friend. 
 
 1 January, 1651.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 161 
 
 For a while storms delayed his departure. " The wind 
 is unmercifully cruel," wrote his brave daughter Henrietta 
 Maria. But it must have been with mixed feelings of 
 impatience and apprehension that she and her mother 
 listened to the howling of the tempest round the walls of 
 Castle Rushen. 
 
 ' It begins to be fair," she adds in the same letter. 
 And on August 12th, Derby wrote : " my little vessel 
 will be ready this tide." 
 
 Three days later he was in Lancashire. Then began a 
 period of anxious suspense for Lady Derby and her 
 children left behind in the Isle of Man. 
 
 Of her husband's desperate adventures from his landing 
 in Lancashire, until his execution at Bolton-le-Moors, 
 Charlotte knew nothing at the time. Of his successful 
 raising of the county for the King, of his grievous wound- 
 ing and defeat at Wigan, of his escape in disguise to 
 Worcester, of his saving the King's life after the battle, 
 of the exhausted Earl's own surrender to the Parlia- 
 mentarians, of his imprisonment, trial and execution, 
 not one word penetrated to his wife in her island home 
 until after Derby had breathed his last on the scaffold — 
 of all these sad happenings she heard nothing until the 
 tidings reached her of her husband's death at Bolton on 
 October 15th. 
 
 When and how news of this tragedy first came to the 
 we do DOl know. But that some time or other 
 the Earl's trusty chaplain, the Reverend Humphrey 
 Baggerley, performed his lord's behe I by delivering his 
 letter-, to Charlotte, and telling her of the Earl's last 
 moments, we do not doubt. From Baggerlev, Lady 
 
 Derby must have learnl thai her lord had died bravely 
 for God, the King, and the laws, that shortly before the 
 
 C.R. M
 
 102 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 end he had spoken of his honour and respect for his lady, 
 and of her goodness as a wife, that he had remembered 
 his eldest daughter, " Mall," * and his sons, 2 " the honour- 
 able little masters," and that but a few hours before his 
 execution he had drunk a cup of beer to his lady and 
 their children. 
 
 In the two letters which the chaplain delivered to Lady 
 Derby, the Earl took a tender pathetic farewell of his 
 wife and children. To his lady, referring to earlier 
 letters, which likewise did not reach her until after his 
 death, he wrote : 
 
 " My dear Heart, I have heretofore sent you comfort- 
 able lines, but, alas ! I have now no word of comfort, 
 saving to our last and best refuge, which is Almighty God, 
 to Whose will we must submit. ... I conjure you, my 
 dearest heart, by all those graces which God hath given 
 you, that you exercise your patience in this great and 
 strange trial. If harm come to you, then I am dead 
 indeed, and until then I shall live in you, who are truly 
 the best part of myself. When there is no such as I in 
 being, then look upon yourself and my poor children ; 
 then take comfort, and God will bless you." 3 
 
 To his "poor children," to "little Mall, Ned and 
 Billy," of whom he had often thought and spoken during 
 his captivity, the Earl wrote 4 : 
 
 " I remember well how sad you were to part with me, 
 but now I fear your sorrow will be greatly increased to be 
 
 1 Derby's two younger daughters, Catherine and Amelia, the Parlia- 
 ment had established at Chester shortly before their father had been 
 brought there as a prisoner. The Stanley girls were permitted to visit 
 the Earl in prison and to bid him farewell on his way to execution. 
 
 2 As soon as he heard of his father's imprisonment, the Earl's eldest 
 son, Lord Strange, had, with his wife, come to Chester. And there he 
 and Lady Strange were completely reconciled to their father. 
 
 8 See Seacombe, op. cit., 185 — 186. 
 4 Ibid., 186 — 187.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 163 
 
 informed that you can never see me more in this world ; 
 but I charge you all to strive against too great a sorrow : 
 you are all of you of that temper that it would do you 
 harm. My desires and prayers to God are, that you may 
 have a happy life. Let it be as holy a life as you can, and 
 as little sinful as you can avoid or prevent. I can well 
 now give you that counsel, having in myself at this time 
 so great a sense of the vanities of my life, which fill my 
 soul with sorrow ; yet I rejoice to remember that when I 
 have blessed God with pious devotion, it has been most 
 delightful to my soul, and must be my eternal happiness. 
 ' Love the Archdeacon, 1 he will give you good precepts. 
 Obey your mother with cheerfulness and grieve her not ; 
 for she is your example, your nursery, your counsellor, 
 your all under God. There never was, nor ever can be a 
 more deserving person. I am called away, and this is the 
 last I shall write to you. The Lord my God bless and 
 guard you from all evil. So prays your father at this 
 time, whose sorrow is inexorable to part with Mall, Ned 
 and Billy. Remember, 
 
 " Derby." 
 
 Lord Derby had anticipated that after his death his 
 gallant wife would have great difficulty in maintaining 
 her defence of Man. And in more than one of his letters 
 the Earl had advised Charlotte to surrender the Island to 
 tin Parliament on the best terms she could secure for 
 herself, her children and the inhabitants, and then to 
 retire with her family to some place remote from the war. 
 Lord Derby's fears proved to have been well justified. 
 But Charlotte de I. a Tre'moille's stout heart could not 
 brin^ itseli to follow her Lord's counsel. And when two 
 <>i the Parliament's colonels, Duckenfield and Birch, with 
 ten >hips of war, approaching the Island, summoned the 
 
 1 Mr. Rutter, who had been tutor to Lord Stn.r. 
 
 M 1
 
 164 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 Countess to surrender, Lady Derby, as in Lathom days, 
 boldly bade them defiance. 1 
 
 Into the Countess's mouth on this occasion, Scott, in 
 " Peveril of the Peak," puts just such words as she might 
 actually have spoken. Referring to this event in after 
 years, he makes her say : — 
 
 " I would have held . . . that island against the knaves 
 as long as the sea continued to flow around it. Till the 
 shoals which surround it had become safe anchorage, till 
 its precipices had melted beneath the sunshine, till of all 
 its strong abodes and castles not one stone remained upon 
 another, would I have defended against these villainous 
 hypocritical rebels my dear husband's hereditary 
 dominions." 
 
 Vain were all Lady Derby's courage and heroism. 
 The Island was undermined by treason. Treachery did 
 what force could never have accomplished. The Governor 
 of Man, William Christian, in whom the late Earl had 
 placed implicit confidence, was in league with the enemy. 
 Led by Christian, the very night after the arrival of 
 the Parliament's ships, the Manxmen rose in a body, 
 seized Castle Rushen, where Lady Derby was then 
 residing, and prepared to hand the whole island over to 
 the enemy. 
 
 Meanwhile, in the other fortress of Man, in Peel Castle, 
 which at high tide formed an island of itself, there still 
 held out a brave body of men commanded by a gallant 
 royalist, Sir Philip Musgrave. The Parliamentarians, in 
 negotiating with the captive Countess, offered her life, 
 liberty, and all her goods if she would abandon this little 
 band of defenders unconditionally into their hands. But 
 
 1 It is doubtful whether at that time Lady Derby had received her 
 husband's letters. It may have been those Parliamentarian generals 
 who sent her news of the Earl's death.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 165 
 
 those who made such a proposal little knew the loyalty 
 of a La Tremoille. Their offer Lady Derby rejected with 
 the utmost scorn, replying that she preferred to remain a 
 prisoner rather than abandon a single man who had been 
 faithful to her. So with the greater part of her personal 
 property in the Island, the Countess purchased the lives 
 of Musgrave and his men. 1 Out of all her goods, 400 
 crowns worth of silver plate was allowed her, just sufficient 
 to pay for the passage to England of herself and her 
 children. 
 
 Under Musgrave's escort, Lady Derby and her family, 
 after a stormy crossing, landed at Beaumaris. There they 
 bade farewell to their brave comrade ; Sir Philip took his 
 way to the north, while the Countess and her children, we 
 presume, journeyed to London. For it was there that in 
 the following March, Lady Derby resumed her corre- 
 spondence with her sister-in-law, in a letter 2 from which 
 we obtain our only reliable information concerning her 
 departure from Man. 
 
 During the eight years between her arrival in England 
 and the King's restoration, Lady Derby was chiefly 
 concerned in endeavouring to rescue from Parliamen- 
 tarian confiscators the remnants of her own and her 
 husband's fortune, in marrying her daughters, and in 
 providing for the advancement of her two younger sons. 
 
 After three years she succeeded in recovering her own 
 dowry and the estate of Knowsley, whither she retired, 
 glad to leave London, where she found living too expensive 
 for her very limited resources. 
 
 The year after the surrender of Man, Lady Derby 
 
 1 This agreement ned on November nth, 1651. 
 
 ,J Tbia lettex contradicts the statement made by more than one 
 authority thai for Beveral months after the Island's surrender tho 
 Countess was kept a prisoner in Man.
 
 166 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 married her second daughter, Catherine, to Henry 
 Pierrepont, Marquis of Dorchester, a middle-aged widower, 
 very rich, but one of the most eccentric persons of his 
 time. Dorchester, by adopting the medical profession, 
 had scandalised the nobility and terrified all his friends 
 and relatives for whom he insisted on prescribing. By 
 the time Catherine Stanley married him he was said to 
 have already killed his daughter, his coachman, and five 
 other patients. In the end he himself is said to have died 
 of his physic. But unfortunately for Catherine that 
 Nemesis did not overtake him until she had been ten 
 years in her grave. Yet a naturally strong constitution 
 had enabled her long to resist her husband's medica- 
 ments, and, victimised by his extravagant whims and 
 irascible disposition, to live through twenty-seven years 
 of married misery. 
 
 Lady Derby, who at first exulted in procuring so 
 wealthy a husband for her daughter, only three months 
 after the wedding, realised that she had made a hideous 
 mistake. Therefore in mating her two other daughters 
 she avoided eccentricities. Henrietta Maria and Amelia 
 were lucky in being united to quite commonplace persons. 
 Henrietta's spouse, William Wentworth, second son of the 
 famous Earl of Strafford, inherited none of his father's 
 gifts and probably proved a placid husband. 
 
 Amelia, a clever and attractive brunette, " with an 
 equal and patient temper," in her marriage with John, 
 the second earl and first Marquis of Atholl, appears to 
 have been the most fortunate of the sisters. Her wedding, 
 which took place on May 5th, 1659, rendered her, as she 
 wrote, " the happiest creature alive," and the happiness 
 seems to have endured. She bore her husband three 
 sons, the eldest of whom, John, became first Duke of
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 167 
 
 Atholl. The Marquis died in 1703. His wife was 
 living in 1691, but the date of her death is uncertain. 
 
 While Lady Derby was busy marrying her daughters, 
 she was sending her two youngest sons abroad. Edward, 
 her second son, she had despatched, in 1654, to his aunt, 
 the Duchess, enjoining on him to show her the same 
 affection, respect and obedience as he had rendered to his 
 mother. ' He has some knowledge of mathematics, 
 painting and surveying," she wrote. " He is gentle, and 
 of a good disposition, brave, but without pride, a very 
 common vice of his nation." That lack of pride or that 
 dignified modesty has ever been one of the finest 
 chara< teristics of the typical English country gentleman, 
 and it was from his father that Edward Stanley had 
 inherited it. 
 
 In 1657, William Stanley joined his brother in France. 
 ' Poor children," wrote their mother, " they must needs 
 seek their fortunes abroad, since they have nothing to 
 hope for from the land of their birth." 
 
 From her eldest son, Charles, now Lord Derby, Char- 
 lotte continued estranged. Not even his devotion to his 
 father in his imprisonment could win his mother's 
 forgiveness. Charles is said to have ridden from Cluster 
 to London and back in twenty-four hours, in order to 
 
 tit ion Parliament to annul the capital sentence passed 
 by court-martial on his father. But nothing could make 
 ( harlotte forget that her first-born had run away from 
 home, had wedded .1 wife without a dowry, and had 
 negotiated with the Parliament. " Worse than the 
 prodigal son," she calls him. And to her daughter-in-law 
 she was equally unjust. ' Then- never was so malignant 
 a nature as that woman's, who has nothing good or 
 pleasant about her," she wrote.
 
 168 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 Despite these hard words, however, motherly love was 
 not utterly extinguished in Charlotte's heart ; and the 
 approach of danger fanned that spark into a flame. 
 
 In the Royalist rising which took place in Lancashire 
 in 1659, Lord Derby, having been defeated at Nantwich, 
 was taken prisoner. His wife joined him in prison. 
 And then Charlotte welcomed to her home at Knowsley 
 his nine little children, one of whom was an infant but a 
 few weeks old. At the same time, the Countess wrote to 
 her sister-in-law entreating her to procure the inter- 
 vention of the French ambassador in England, Monsieur 
 de Bordeaux, on her nephew's behalf. Apparently this 
 intervention took place and succeeded ; for Derby, after 
 having been imprisoned first at Shrewsbury, and then in 
 the Tower of London, was set at liberty. 
 
 No sooner was her son out of danger than Charlotte's 
 bitterness against him returned. She accused him of 
 cheating her out of a share in the revenues of the Isle of 
 Man, which she said his father had assigned to her for 
 twenty-one years. 
 
 As to the merits of this quarrel we cannot attempt to 
 judge. But the vindictiveness with which the Countess 
 pursued it is revealed in her letters. Another document 
 shows her inconsistency : in her will, dated 1654, while 
 " trusting in Jesus to forgive her own misdeeds," she 
 refuses to pardon her son, and cuts him off with £5. 
 
 We must not, however, be too hard on Charlotte by 
 demanding from her virtues not in accordance with the 
 spirit of the age, or with her own upbringing. The 
 austere Calvinist faith in which she had been nurtured, 
 encouraged an unforgiving disposition. Moreover, the 
 Countess, like the rest of us, suffered from the vices of her 
 virtues ; and it was the same stern resolution which had
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 160 
 
 enabled her to hold Lathom against the Parliamentarians, 
 that now rendered her implacable in resentment. We 
 may also suspect that Charlotte and her eldest son were 
 too much alike in disposition to have ever been excellent 
 friends. Charles Stanley had all the La Tremoille 
 characteristics ; he, unlike his brother Edward, was 
 proud, and at the same time, impulsive, resolute and 
 vigorous. 
 
 Meanwhile, despite the failure of the Lancashire rising, 
 Royalist feeling was growing throughout the country, 
 and the Republican party was daily becoming more 
 disintegrated. Lady Derby was now filled with hope, 
 especially when General Monk set out from Scotland on 
 his famous march to London. 
 
 " General Monk has seized Berwick . . . where he is 
 now negotiating some kind of treaty with Lambert," 
 wrote Charlotte. ' God in His goodness will bring out 
 order from disorder." 
 
 And her hopes were not disappointed. Events moved 
 rapidly. On February nth, 1660, Monk led his troops 
 into London. On May 7th, Lady Derby could write that 
 Parliament had "done justice and recognised his Majesty." 
 ' It is true that this passes human wisdom," she ex- 
 claimed ; ' it is beyond our understanding, and can never 
 be enough admired." 
 
 I'.y thi> time the Countess's two eldesl sons had taken 
 their places in Parliament, the Earl in the House of Lords, 
 his brother William in the Commons, but not without 
 considerable opposition. The youngest, Edward Stanley, 
 was abroad with the King, standing high in bis Sovereign's 
 favour. In such stirring times the Countess could no 
 longer remain in exile at Knowsley. If only for her 
 children's interests, she must needs come to London. It
 
 170 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 was difficult, however, for her to afford the journey and 
 the expense of living in the capital. But, summoning all 
 her resources, in May she arrived in town. 
 
 As she had anticipated, after years of country life, the 
 sight of the great v/orld and its rejoicings filled her with 
 mingled thoughts. But she would not permit the con- 
 templation of her own misfortunes to cloud her joy at her 
 Sovereign's restoration. " We may well say God hath 
 done wonders," she wrote, " for which may His name be 
 for ever blessed." 
 
 From the King, both for herself and her children, Lady 
 Derby hoped much. Alas ! those hopes were destined to 
 disappointment. Had her loyalty permitted, the Countess 
 at the close of her life might have echoed the Psalmist's 
 cry: " Put not your trust in princes . . . in whom there 
 is no help." Charles no doubt found it impossible to 
 gratify all those who looked to him for the reward of past 
 services. Yet one would have thought that the defender 
 of Lathom, and the widow of one who had died in his 
 cause, had a first claim upon his gratitude. 
 
 True, the King was lavish in his promises, true he was 
 all kindness, courtesy and sympathy to the widow, 
 visiting her unceremoniously when she was ill, and 
 winning her heart, so that she described him as " the 
 most charming prince in the world." Yet this Prince 
 Charming, while rewarding others who had served him 
 less faithfully, did nothing but dangle before Charlotte's 
 aspiring gaze the uncertain hope that if the Queen bore 
 him children, Lady Derby should be their governess. 
 
 For Lady Derby's sons the King did practically 
 nothing. All that William Stanley received was a 
 cornetcy in the Guards. The King's brother, the Duke of 
 York, showed a truer appreciation of the services rendered
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 171 
 
 by this family to the royal cause by appointing Edward 
 Stanley to be first and sole gentleman of his bedchamber. 
 Meanwhile the " worse than prodigal son," possessed by 
 his mother's vindictiveness, had fallen into disgrace by his 
 summary execution of the traitor, William Christian, thus 
 violating the Act of Indemnity, and laying himself open 
 to a charge of murder. From this charge Lord Derby 
 was fortunate in escaping with no heavier penalty than 
 the confiscation of part of his estates and banishment 
 from court. 
 
 These bitter disappointments, however, Charlotte in 
 that glorious year of the Restoration did not foresee. 
 Then in the fulness of hope she could participate in 
 royalist rejoicing. And in an unusually cheerful spirit 
 in this and following years, she wrote to her sister-in-law 
 of the gay doings at court and in town, of the coronation, 
 of the Queen-Dowager's return, of the marriage of the 
 King and the Duke of York, also, alas ! — and with no less 
 satisfaction — of those dire deeds of revenge which sullied 
 the King's return, of that black day, January 30th, 1661, 
 the twelfth anniversary of Charles I.'s death, when the 
 exhumed corpses of Cromwell, Ireton and Bradlaugh 
 were dragged on hurdles through London streets, hanged 
 at Tyburn gate, and buried beneath it. 
 
 Towards the end of her life, Lady Derby found it im- 
 ; -ible to meet the expenses involved by residence in 
 London. She was in debt ; tradesmen were beginning to 
 dun her, and even to refuse to supply her with necessaries. 
 Therefore, she retired to Knowsley ; and there during the 
 severe winter of 1662-3 snr fell ill. Although from that 
 sickness she recovered, another followed ; ;in d on 
 March 31st, 1664, she died at the age of sixty-live. 
 
 In her will She had pathetically begged "to be buried
 
 i 7 2 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 near her dear lord and husband in the parish church at 
 Ormskirk in Lancashire, "if it may be without un- 
 necessary expense." Possibly the expense was deemed 
 unnecessary. At any rate, this testamentary request was 
 ignored until nine years after Charlotte's death. Then, 
 and not till then, were her remains interred in Ormskirk 
 Church, and after her name in the parish register were 
 inscribed the words : post funera virtus.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 173 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 HENRY CHARLES DE LA TREMOILLE, A HERO OF THE FRONDE. 
 
 l620 — 1672 
 
 The heads of the La Tremoille family may be classed in 
 two categories, those who played a prominent part in war 
 and in national affairs, and those who lived quietly the 
 lives of country gentlemen. 
 
 To the second category, in the last part of his life, 
 belongs Lady Derby's eldest brother Henry, Due de 
 Thouars. Having served his King in many campaigns, 
 Henry, at the age of forty-five, on the death of Louis XIII., 
 just at the time when across the channel his sister was 
 holding at bay the Parliamentarian army, retired from 
 public affairs. On his estates in Poitou and Brittany he 
 passed the remainder of his days, keeping aloof alike from 
 the troubles of Louis XIV. 's long minority, and from the 
 splendour of his personal rule. In the quietude of this 
 rural existence the Duke's life was prolonged to what was 
 then the extremely advanced age of seventy-six. Out- 
 living his wife and eldest son, he died in 1674. 
 
 But during this long retirement, Henry by no means 
 
 lost interesl in public affairs. And in 1658, on the death 
 
 of Oliver Cromwell, we find him writing 1 to the exiled 
 
 Queen of England, Henrietta Maria, a letter permeated 
 
 not only with ardent uionari hism, but with that religious 
 
 1 The letter dated October ist, 1658, appears in the " Registre de 
 Corr€spondance el Biographie <lu Due Henry de La TrlmoOle," par 
 Hugues Imbert (Poitiers, 1S07), 53.
 
 174 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 bitterness which too often characterises those who have 
 changed their faith. 1 " Madame," he wrote, " my 
 isolation from court and from society hath alone deferred 
 the performance of my duty in giving expression to my 
 feelings on the death of the common enemy of princes, of 
 religion, and of your Majesty. The public and my own 
 personal joy [at this event] is augmented and intensified 
 by the desire and the hope to behold the King, your Son, 
 established upon the august throne of an empire once so 
 prosperous, but now to the horrible scandal of all Christen- 
 dom, ruined by heresy, impiety and rebellion. We hoped 
 from divine justice a chastisement which it seems pleased 
 to reserve for another life, possibly because in this one 
 there exists no punishment proportionate to crimes 
 unparalleled throughout all time." 
 
 The Duke's change of religion must have caused 
 considerable dissension in the ducal household, where the 
 Duchess, the stern Marie de la Tour, remained true to 
 Protestantism, and where the children, two of them, 2 
 although the Duke had insisted on their all being admitted 
 with him into the Catholic Church, afterwards reverted to 
 their mother's faith. 
 
 By Marie de la Tour, Henry had five children : Henry 
 Charles, Prince de Tarente ; Louis Maurice, Comte de 
 Laval, who served with the Due de Longueville in his 
 Italian campaigns ; Armand Charles and Elizabeth, who 
 both died in childhood ; and Marie Charlotte, who at 
 Paris on July 18th, 1662, married Bernard of Saxe 
 Weimar, son of the Duke of Saxe Weimar ; she became a 
 widow in 1678, and died of apoplexy in 1682. 8 
 
 1 For the Duke's abjuration of the Protestant religion, see ante, 
 132. 
 
 2 The Prince de Tarente and his sister, Marie Charlotte. 
 
 B In " La Galerie des Portraits de Mdlle. de Montpensier " (see ed. 
 Barthelemy, 50 — 54), Mdlle. de La Tremoille in terms by no means
 
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 in acStaan A d'Etitpbel <•/<■ Naffau
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 175 
 
 It was to his eldest son, Charles, famous in history as the 
 Prince de Tarente, that the Duke looked for the main- 
 tenance of the family tradition of prowess in war and 
 activity in national affairs. And in 1656, in order to 
 help him to maintain this position, Henry, like a latter- 
 day King Lear, actually ceded to his son the duchy of 
 Thouars with its title, chateau, lands, and all other 
 appurtenances. Charles in his father's stead became a 
 peer of France, and took his place in the Paris Parlement. 
 But such fame had he won as Prince de Tarente that until 
 the day of his death, in 1672, he was known by no other 
 title. 
 
 For the Prince de Tarente's eventful career we are 
 fortunate in possessing an excellent authority in the 
 shape of his own Memoirs, 1 told in his own words for 
 the benefit of his children. 
 
 Of this valuable little book, as far as we can ascertain, 
 there exists only one edition, that printed at Liege in 
 1767. But the Due de La Tremoille possesses two 
 manuscripts of the work enriched with corrections and 
 additions. It is mainly from this narrative that the 
 following story of the Prince's life is derived. 
 
 Born at Thouars on December 17th, 1620, in his 
 earliest years Charles was extremely delicate. He was 
 about seven years old when his father became a Catholic ; 
 and then the boy's education was confided to a Jesuit 
 priest, who taught him, in addition to mathematics and 
 drawing, to speak Latin with as great facility as his 
 mother tongue. Later, Charles was sent to the Academy 
 
 flattering gives a description of her own character ami pi-ixmal 
 api 1 .11 am e 
 
 1 " M< moire de Henri Charles de La 1 rtfmoille, Prince de rarente," 
 a Li> . J. F. Bassompierrc, Imprimeur de son Altesse et Librairie, 
 
 1767.
 
 176 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 of one Sieur Benjamin, where he had for playmate and 
 friend his cousin the Due d'Enghien, 1 who, as the great 
 Conde, was to exercise a dominant and disastrous influence 
 over his career. 
 
 His schooldays ended, Charles returned to Thouars. 
 There he found time hang heavily on his hands. The 
 humdrum life of a country gentleman was not to the 
 taste of this aspiring youth. The blood of his warrior 
 ancestors boiled in his veins, and he longed to go forth 
 and win his spurs in the field of war. The example of his 
 great forbear, Louis de La Tremoille, the " Knight 
 without Reproach," fired his ambition. And we are not 
 surprised to find him following in Louis' footsteps and 
 running away from home. 2 But Charles's escapade met 
 with better success than Louis', for while the fifteenth 
 century truant had been ignominiously caught and 
 brought home, his descendant succeeded in reaching 
 Dieppe and embarking on a boat which carried him to 
 England. In after years, La Tremoille confessed to his 
 children, that his success in getting away was largely due 
 to his Protestant mother, who, eager to remove her son 
 from his father's Catholic influence, had connived at his 
 flight. But England was not the destination on which 
 the truant had set his heart. His ambition was to trail 
 a pike in the Low Countries, that great school of war 
 whither his great-uncle, 3 the Stadtholder, Frederick, 
 Henry of Nassau, by his brilliant campaigns against the 
 Spaniards, was attracting all the gallant youth of Europe. 
 
 The tempests of the Channel and the qualms of sea- 
 sickness, however, so cooled the Prince's ardour that by 
 
 1 The grandson of Charlotte de La Tremoille, Princesse de Conde. 
 
 2 See ante, 53. 
 
 8 Frederick Henry was the son of William the Silent, and the 
 brother of Charlotte Brabantine, wife of Claude de La Tremoille, who 
 was our hero's grandmother.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 177 
 
 the time his captain landed him at a Devonshire sea-port 
 he had for the moment lost all taste for adventure ; and 
 gladly did he accept his Aunt and Uncle Derby's invitation 
 to spend two months with them in London. 
 
 During this time La Tremoille's diplomatic mother was 
 winning her husband's pardon for their son, and obtaining 
 his consent to Charles's design of joining his great kinsman 
 in the Netherlands. So completely successful was her 
 intercession, that the Duke promised Charles an allowance 
 of 30,000 livres per annum, to which amount Marie de la 
 Tour, from her private purse, added a considerable sum. 
 
 It was during his stay in England that the Prince 
 rejoiced his mother's heart by resolving to return to the 
 Reformed faith, a resolution to which he gave effect 
 immediately on his arrival at the Hague. 
 
 In that year, 1639, the Dutch court was busy with 
 negotiations for the marriage of the Stadtholder's son, 
 Prince William, with the English Princess Mary, eldest 
 daughter of Charles I. The marriage was arranged in the 
 following year, and La Tremoille was invited to accompany 
 the bridegroom, who was but a boy of sixteen, to his 
 wedding in London. 
 
 But on the eve of departure Charles met with an 
 adventure which came near to upsetting his English 
 visit. 
 
 This youth oi twenty had employed his time at the 
 Dut( h court by falling in love with his cousin, Louisa 
 Henrietta, the Stadtholder's daughter. And when the 
 royal party found itself hindered from starting and 
 windbound in Brill harbour, our young adventurer 
 profited by the delay to slip bark to the Hague and bid 
 his dear cousin one more farewell. Then on the morrow, 
 fearing lest the Prince might have set forth without him, 
 
 c.r. N
 
 178 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 he returned with all possible speed to the coast, and, in a 
 little boat, with one sailor and an officer of his suite, set 
 out for Brill. Five miles from land, however, as ill luck 
 would have it, they were caught in a squall. The seaman 
 promptly lost his head, while the landsmen fell a-pray- 
 ing. From these pious exercises they were speedily 
 diverted by the mariner joining them. This La Tremoille 
 could not endure. It was all very well for landlubbers to 
 pray, but from a sailor his passengers expected more 
 active measures. So, in the most violent Flemish he 
 could command, Charles rounded on the praying sailor, 
 explaining to him forcibly, that faith without works is 
 dead. The works which followed this adjuration, how- 
 ever, bid fair to be the death of these seafarers : for with 
 La Tremoille at the helm and the boatman obeying his 
 orders by sailing in the teeth of the storm, things went 
 from bad to worse : first their mast was shattered, then 
 they themselves were plunged up to their necks in water, 
 and finally the barque capsized. Afraid lest the land was 
 too far away for them to swim to, they clung to their over- 
 turned craft, and just managed to keep afloat until the 
 tempest abated and their boat righted herself. Eventu- 
 ally, after a voyage of three hours, which ought not to 
 have lasted more than forty-five minutes, they reached 
 Brill in time to join the Prince and his escort. 
 
 Overtaken by no further adventure and escorted by the 
 Dutch fleet, the royal party crossed the sea and sailed up 
 the Thames to Gravesend. 
 
 Here they were met by the Ambassadors from the Low 
 Countries, and by royal coaches which conveyed them to 
 Whitehall, where Prince William, and — we may presume 
 — La Tremoille with him, was presented to their Majesties. 
 Thence, after visiting the Princes and Princesses at
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 179 
 
 Somerset House, they proceeded to their own quarters 
 near by, in that curious assemblage of detached buildings 
 known as Arundel House. Despite its lack of archi- 
 tectural beauty, Arundel House, filled as it was with 
 priceless works of art, had for years been deemed a worthy 
 residence for distinguished foreign visitors to London. 
 Sully had stayed there when he was French Ambassador 
 in the reign of James I. 
 
 At this point La Tremoille's Memoirs are disappointing. 
 Of the royal wedding there was little to tell, for it was 
 celebrated quietly on May 2nd, 1641, on the very day 
 when King Charles was making one of his attempts to 
 gain military control over the Tower of London ; and we 
 may pardon our author if of the unceremonious espousal 
 at Whitehall of the little girl of ten by the boy of sixteen 
 he has not a word to say. But of the impression made 
 upon the young foreigner's mind by the condition of 
 England at that time, of an England on the eve of civil 
 war, of an England in which the Archbishop of Canterbury 
 lay impeached on a charge of high treason in the Tower, 
 and in which the King's first minister was but a few days 
 later to lose his head, we might have expected to have 
 been given some idea. At that time such subjects, 
 ; , did not interest our Memoirist. War and 
 women were the matters of most moment to him then, 
 and war for him, ;l^ for many another in that day, too 
 often meant mere revenge for private wrongs. 
 
 So duiing In- English visit he was completely absorbed 
 with what he proudly describes as his " first affair of 
 honour since he came into the world." It arose out of 
 a dispute with Count Henry oi Nassau, who wished to 
 occupv .1 dressing-room which had been assigned to La 
 h.inoille. This wonderful duel, much to the would-be 
 
 N 2
 
 180 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 warrior's chagrin, never took place, for the young Prince 
 of Orange bound him over to keep the peace while in 
 England, and on his return to Holland the Stadtholder 
 forbade him to fight. 
 
 From personal affairs of honour La Tremoille was soon 
 diverted by the wider operations of the Thirty Years' War. 
 In the summer of 1641, Frederick Henry appointed him 
 colonel of a cavalry regiment ; and in this capacity La 
 Tremoille, so he tells us, distinguished himself for vigour 
 and valour, remaining four consecutive nights on horse- 
 back to avoid a surprise by the enemy. But this excess 
 of youthful ardour resulted in an illness which before the 
 close of the campaign compelled the young colonel to 
 withdraw from action. 
 
 By the next year he was well enough to take the field 
 again. And now " the vivacity of his youth," as he calls 
 it, involved him in a second affair of honour, which 
 proved more serious than the first. Encamped before 
 Rhimbergue, he fought a duel with Prince Radzivill, 1 one 
 of Elizabeth Stuart's numerous admirers. His antagonist 
 wounded him so severely in the right arm, four inches 
 above the wrist, that the limb was nearly severed. 2 
 
 ' Straightway," writes Tarente, " my sword flew out of 
 my hand. I fell, and Prince Radzivill's people raised me 
 and tied up my arm in order to stop the flow of blood, for 
 I was bleeding profusely. A messenger hastened to 
 Rhimbergue for a surgeon, and came back with one called 
 Le Sage, who saved my life by his diligence. In order to 
 stanch the blood he was obliged to bind several veins 
 (sic) and arteries, which operation gave me intense pain. 
 I was carried to Rhimbergue ; and there Le Sage, having 
 
 1 There were several princes of that name who distinguished them- 
 selves in this century. This was probably Janussius II., Grand 
 Chamberlain of Lithuania. See Moreri's Dictionary, under Radzivill 
 
 2 " M£moires," 19.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 181 
 
 permitted me to rest for an hour, effected other ligatures, 
 which caused me even worse pain than the first. Yet, 
 notwithstanding all that I had suffered, the following 
 night I slept soundly, and three weeks later a party of 
 2,000 horse having approached our quarters, I mounted 
 and charged them." 
 
 But an injury such as La Tremoille describes could not 
 be cured in three weeks, and a year later the wound was 
 still troubling him. Then, when the campaign of 1643 
 was over, he returned to France to take the waters of 
 Barege in order to strengthen his arm ; and, after having 
 greatly benefited from a month's treatment, he visited 
 his parents at Thouars. There the subject of his marriage 
 was mooted. The bride whom the Duke and Duchess had 
 1 hosen lor their eldest son was a great heiress, Mdlle. de 
 Rohan, who, on account of her vast wealth, was one of the 
 greatest matches in Europe. Already she had refused 
 s< vera] distinguished suitors, among them La Tremoille's 
 kinsman, Prince Rupert. But Mdlle. de Rohan's wealth 
 had no attraction for La Tremoille, who was still deeply 
 in love with his cousin Henrietta ; and during his stay at 
 Thouars he persuaded his parents to do what they could 
 in that quarter to further his suit. 
 
 Returning to Holland, Tarcnte was in time to engage 
 in the campaign of [644, in which he had an extra- 
 ordinary adventure. The plague was then devastating 
 the Low Countries. After a long night march, La 
 Tremoille with liis regiment entered a village, where, 
 a out with fatigue, he wenl into one of the first 
 
 houses he came to. There, without undressing, he threw 
 
 himself on a bed and slept soundly. Suddenly he was 
 
 awakened by the noise of trumpets ; au<\. on opening his 
 
 ^, saw standing by his bedside the village priest, who
 
 i82 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 told him that the plague was rife in that village, and that 
 he was in an infected house ; he believed, moreover, 
 added the priest, that the house contained the bodies of 
 its master and mistress, who, having died of the plague, 
 were about to be interred when the army entered the 
 village. " If we look we shall find them," said the priest. 
 And he was not mistaken. The bed on which La Tremoille 
 had been calmly reposing for an hour was unmade, and 
 there beneath the mattress were the two corpses. 1 
 
 By a marvellous stroke of luck La Tremoille escaped 
 infection and returned to the Hague, where he continued 
 to pay his addresses to his cousin. Many pages of the 
 Memoirs are devoted to this love story. The lady herself 
 apparently returned La Tremoille's affection ; the 
 Stadtholder favoured his suit ; but in the Stadtholder's 
 wife, the Princess of Orange, Emilie of Solms, he had a 
 formidable adversary. She had first determined to 
 marry her eldest daughter to the Prince of Wales ; but as 
 the royal fortunes in England darkened, she selected as 
 her son-in-law Frederick William, Elector of Branden- 
 bourg, who was later to be known as the Great Elector. 
 True to her cousin, however, Henrietta was obdurate, 
 and, when the wedding day arrived, the bride had to be 
 conducted to the church by force. In other respects, 
 too, the bridal was a sad one, for Henrietta's illustrious 
 father, Frederick Henry, was lying at the point of death, 
 attacked by a mental malady. 
 
 Shortly afterwards the family was summoned to his 
 death-bed ; and Tarente tells us that he could not restrain 
 his tears when he saw this famous captain, " who for so 
 many years had gloriously commanded the armies of the 
 United Provinces, and ruled the Republic with such 
 
 1 " Memoires," 28.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 183 
 
 great wisdom and authority, stretched upon his bed with 
 less understanding than an infant." Frederick Henry 
 had indeed been one of the most striking figures of the 
 age ; by his military and political talents, by his wisdom 
 and his diplomacy, he had brought his country to the 
 height of prosperity. It must have been inexpressibly 
 sad to see such a ruler laid low and deprived of intellect. 
 A few days later, in March, 1647, William the Silent's 
 great son passed away. ' His death," writes La Tre- 
 moille, " deprived me of all desire to establish myself in 
 Holland." So, bidding farewell to his former love, 
 whom he counselled to do her best to forget him, and to 
 live happily with her husband, the Prince de Tarente 
 returned to Thouars. 
 
 Soon after his arrival negotiations for his mairiage 
 with a member of the distinguished German house of 
 Hesse Cassel were opened, and in a few months carried 
 through. In September, 1647, the La Tremoille emissary, 
 one Dumontal by name, was despatched to Cassel for the 
 drawing up of the marriage contract ; and in the following 
 May, ' with more ceremony than he liked," in the 
 Protestant church of Cassel, the Prince de Tarente was 
 united to the very noble and illustrious Princess, Madame 
 Emilie, Princess Landgrave of Hesse. 
 
 The new Princesse de Tarente, who was later to become 
 the friend of Madame de SeVigne\ and to figure in her 
 Letters as la bonne Tarente, was the daughter of the late 
 Landgraf oi II.- e Cassel, Wilhelm V. Her mother, one 
 of the stri I minded women of the age, was Countess 
 of 1 1. m. 111 Muntzenberg, 1 and lady of other extensive 
 
 1 Her husband died in [637, leaving In ivily burdened 
 
 with debt, which his widow during hei on's long minority su I 
 
 in paying ofl She \\a, also able to raise and to maintain on the side 
 "i Fran< 1 in the 1 hirty Y- ai »' Wai a e oi 6,000 foot and .j.ooo hi
 
 184 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 domains, the guttural names 1 of which, grating on the ears 
 of Madame de Sevigne, were to suffer cruel distortion 
 and merry mockery from the pen of that brilliant letter- 
 writer. 
 
 In his own marriage, the Prince de Tarente did not 
 succeed in practising the wise counsel he had given to his 
 former love : he and his wife, if we may believe the 
 Memoirs 2 of their daughter, Charlotte Amelie, Countess of 
 Altenburg, did not live happily together. In his own 
 Memoirs the Prince very seldom mentions his wife. 
 
 After the Treaty of Westphalia had made peace 
 between the United Provinces and Spain, Holland ceased 
 to afford La Tremoille a field for his warlike activities. 
 He discovered one, however, in France, where the war 
 which continued with Spain was soon to be complicated 
 by the internal struggles of the Fronde. 3 
 
 With the wisdom of after years, the Prince looked back 
 regretfully on this period of his life. " Those events," 
 he wrote, referring to the Fronde, " did more than any- 
 thing else to injure my own fortunes, and those of my 
 house." And, indeed, never in French history was there 
 such a medley of inconsequence and folly as that into 
 which La Tremoille, by the influence of his cousin, the 
 Prince de Conde, was now being drawn. 
 
 The objects of the Frondcurs were purely personal. 
 Hatred of Cardinal Mazarin, the young King's chief 
 
 Meanwhile her court became a school of manners, whither princes 
 flocked to learn the fine art of commanding others and of commanding 
 themselves. See Moreri's Dictionary, under Hesse Cassel, Amelie 
 Elizabeth. 
 
 1 Catzenelmbogen, Dietz, Ziegenhaim, Nidda. 
 
 2 Of these interesting " Memoirs," the original MS. in French is in 
 the Grand Ducal Library at Oldenburg ; translated into German, it 
 has been published with an introduction, notes and commentary by 
 Dr. Reinhard Mosen (Oldenburg, Leipzig, 1892). Mrs. Aubrey 
 Le Blond is preparing an English version. 
 
 8 So called from the slings or Frondes used by Parisian street arabs 
 in their gutter-play. This civil war broke out in 1648.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 185 
 
 minister, inspired them all. In La Tremoille's case it 
 was his desire to oust the Rohans from the presidency 
 over the provincial parliament, the estates of Brittany, 
 that induced him to throw in his lot with the rebellious 
 nobles. Mazarin had favoured the Rohans. The Prince 
 de Conde, Tarente's cousin, and the leader of the Fronde, 
 promised to espouse his kinsman's cause if he would 
 intervene actively on his side in the civil war. 
 
 Thus was La Tremoille drawn into that vortex of 
 romance, lawlessness and bizarrerie which for some years 
 threatened to shipwreck the fortunes of France. On 
 October 1st, 1651, we find him accepting Conde's com- 
 mission to raise a regiment of thirty companies in Poitou. 
 
 Among all the confusion of the Fronde, one circum- 
 stance stands out distinctly ; the whole movement was 
 dominated by women, by a group of Amazons, who were 
 at once its instruments and its motive power, chiefly by 
 two duchesses and two princesses, Chevreuse and Longue- 
 ville, the Palatine, 1 and the Great Mademoiselle. This 
 brilliant, beautiful and fascinating quartette, mingling 
 their political intrigues with those of love, played with 
 the honour and the lives of men, and two of them, 
 Chevreuse and the Palatine, did not scruple to disport 
 themselves on the highways in masculine attire. 
 
 Of the Palatine it was said that not even Elizabeth of 
 England had more capacity for governing a state. 
 Madame de Longueville's 8 gifts were her blonde hair 
 and charming eyes. But by far the most influential 
 and the most bizarre of the l-'rondc uses was the Great 
 
 Mademoiselle, Anne de Montpensier, daughter of Gaston, 
 
 1 \n:ir de Gonzague, second daughtei oi Charles de Gonzague, 
 1 up c 1 • ' herine of Loi 
 
 ■ Born in a prison, she died in a convent, sin- was sister to the 
 ,t ( ond6, and 1 ousin, therefore, to the Prince de farente
 
 186 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 Duke of Orleans, and grand - daughter of King 
 Henry IV. 
 
 With the Great Mademoiselle's two most striking 
 achievements during the Fronde, the capture of Orleans 
 and the battle of the Porte St. Antoine, the Prince de 
 Tarente was more or less connected. 
 
 After the Princess's ludicrous entry into Orleans, 
 which, as related in her own Memoirs, reads like an 
 absurd travesty of Jeanne d'Arc's entering the city, 
 la Grande Mademoiselle amused herself by receiving 
 presents of bonbons from the city council and by seizing 
 and perusing the various despatches which passed through 
 the town. When these chanced to contain love stories, 
 or to reveal family secrets, the conqueress of Orleans was 
 mightily diverted. One of these captured despatches, 
 which to the Princess was very uninteresting, to Tarente 
 was highly important ; and to him Mademoiselle had the 
 good sense to send it. The possession of this letter 
 enabled the Prince to save his chateau of Taillebourg 
 from being razed to the ground by one of Mazarin's 
 generals. But, balked of their prey in one direction, the 
 Prince's enemies turned in their wrath against the most 
 lordly of all the La Tremoille castles and threatened to 
 besiege Thouars, where Duke Henry and his Duchess 
 were then residing. 
 
 It was to obtain a force for the protection of his own 
 dominions that in March, 1652, Tarente, having resigned 
 the command which for some months he had been 
 exercising in Guyenne and Saintonge, went to Paris and 
 there witnessed the Great Mademoiselle's second exploit. 
 
 The Prince found Paris in a state of the utmost disorder. 
 In the absence of Mazarin and the court, the feeble, 
 vacillating Duke of Orleans, Mademoiselle's father, who
 
 HENRY i HARLES HI. l.\ I Ki MOILLB, PRIN( I Dl I \ki N I I 
 
 Prom ■ photograph by Mi tubn y Le Blond ol > pli tun bt i"iininK 
 to Mi. Aldenburg Bentlnck .it India
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 187 
 
 should have been at the head of affairs, was proving 
 himself totally incompetent. Waves of riot and robbery 
 surged up to the very gates of his palace, the Luxembourg. 
 Only a few yards away, in the Rue de Tournon, a President 
 of the Parlement was nearly murdered. The most 
 brilliant figure of the day, Cardinal de Retz, in his Memoirs 
 tells how he went in hourly fear of death by assassination. 
 
 The horror of this state of things appears to have 
 impressed La Tremoille, for, when Conde came to Paris 
 in April, we find the Prince vainly endeavouring to 
 persuade his kinsman to make peace. 
 
 In May, Mademoiselle left Orleans, and entered Paris, 
 where she took up her abode in the Tuileries. On the 
 way she had been besieged in Etampes by Mazarin's army 
 under Turenne. 
 
 Coming away from the Protestant sermon at Charenton 
 one Sunday morning, La Tremoille heard of the raising of 
 the siege of Etampes and the march of Turenne towards 
 Paris. Hastening to the Hotel de Conde, 1 near the 
 Luxembourg, the Prince de Tarente was in time to assist 
 at a council of war, which resulted in the raising of a 
 citizen army. With this force Conde, and La Tremoille 
 with him, marched out to St. Cloud, while Turenne took 
 up his position a little further north, on the opposite bank 
 of the Seine, at St. Denis. A good deal of skirmishing 
 took place between the two forces. And La Tremoille 
 relates how, during a night attack on the village of St. 
 Denis, he and his men crossed the moat up to their necks 
 in water, and drove the Swiss guards, who win- holding 
 the village for Turenne, to take refuge in the Abbey. 
 But two days later the King's troops recaptured St. Denis, 
 
 1 The present Rue de Comic taki ime from the old hotel, of 
 
 w hit h aothing 1 • main 1,
 
 188 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 and Conde soon began to find his position at St. Cloud 
 untenable. 
 
 He then resolved to transfer his army to Charenton ; 
 and, in order to avoid making a long detour, he asked the 
 municipality of Paris to allow his force to pass through 
 the city. This permission, however, was refused. And 
 thus it came about that on the night of July ist, as 
 Mademoiselle was leaning out of her window in the 
 Tuileries, she heard the sound of drums and trumpets, 
 and saw in the distance a whole army beginning to 
 defile past on the other side of the ramparts. 1 
 
 Close on Conde's rear Turenne's army was pressing ; 
 and at dawn in the Faubourg St. Antoine a battle engaged, 
 in which the Frondeurs, with their backs to the St. Antoine 
 gate, soon began to have the worst of it. Then it was 
 that Conde despatched in all haste a message to the 
 Luxembourg, imploring the Duke of Orleans for aid. But 
 Gaston, as was his wont in every crisis, pleaded illness and 
 refused to see the messenger, who speedily went to the 
 Tuileries and knocked up Mademoiselle. It was six 
 o'clock in the morning. The heroine of Orleans had 
 passed but four hours in bed, for until two o'clock she had 
 been at her window watching the troops on the march. In 
 a trice, however, she was up and away to the Luxembourg, 
 weeping and storming at her phlegmatic father, until, 
 merely to get rid of her, he bade her be gone to the Hotel 
 de Ville to command the municipality to open its gates to 
 Conde and his army. Then, tearing through the streets, 
 forcing her way through the mob which thronged the Place 
 de Greve into the presence of the Provost of the Merchants, 
 the aldermen and the governor of Paris, assembled in 
 
 1 " Memoires de Mdlle. de Montpensier," ed. Mich, et Poujoulat, 
 Ser. II., Vol. IV., 118.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 189 
 
 the Hotel de Ville, she read them a letter from her father, 
 asking them to excuse his absence through illness and to 
 listen to his wishes as expressed by his daughter. These 
 wishes were that the municipality should not only send 
 an armed force to Conde's aid, but that they should 
 reverse their previous decision and permit his army to 
 pass through the city. It was hard for these civic 
 dignitaries thus to eat their own words, and not until 
 they had deliberated long and caused Mademoiselle to 
 suffer an agony of suspense, did they agree to obey the 
 Duke's orders. 
 
 Meanwhile, Conde, with whom Mademoiselle imagined 
 herself ardently in love, was in danger of defeat and death 
 at the city gate. Of the events which there transpired, 
 La Tremoille in his Memoirs gives a vivid account, which 
 for the most part may be related in his own words. 
 
 ' Two harmless wounds I received in this action," he 
 writes, " one in the belt of my cuirasse, the other in my 
 helmet. In the place of the Due de Nemours, who had 
 been wounded in the hand I offered the Prince [Conde] 
 to command the vanguard, a proposal he received gladly. 
 But, as I was advancing at his side, my horse fell, killed 
 by a canon ball. Whereupon the Prince, thinking that 
 I too had been struck, cried aloud, ' Alas ! unhappy that 
 I am to have lost the last of my friends.' But I from 
 beneath my horse called out that I was unharmed and 
 suffering only from the bruises inflicted by my own 
 armour during my fall. Straightway a soldier brought 
 me another horse, which I mounted." 
 
 Meanwhile, continues La Tremoille, Mademoiselle, 
 
 ' with a courage worthy of her birth, and far superior to 
 
 that <>f her sex, had come to the Porte St. Antoine, where 
 
 she persuaded the people that we were fighting for their 
 
 liberty and for the banishment of a Minister who oppressed
 
 igo FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 them. All she could do, however, was to induce them to 
 open the gates so as to let pass the baggage of our army ; 
 and meanwhile she wrote a note to the Prince, entreating 
 him to save his life by coming in with the baggage. 
 This he refused to do. Later, owing to Mademoiselle's 
 persuasions, a Parisian force came out to join us. And 
 at length the citizens listened to her entreaties, and 
 opened the gates to all of us while the canon of the 
 Bastille were fired on Turenne's army." 
 
 La Tremoille's account of these proceedings differs in 
 one or two details from that given by Mademoiselle in her 
 Memoirs. For example, the former would indicate that, 
 after winning the consent of the city council to open the 
 gate, Mademoiselle had some difficulty in persuading the 
 citizens to carry out the council's command. Made- 
 moiselle herself does not mention this. But, however it 
 may have been, Paris was now enthusiastically Frondeur. 
 Conde and Mademoiselle were the heroes of the hour. 
 La Tremoille shared their triumph. With his cousin, 
 Tarente went to the Luxembourg, where Gaston d'Orleans 
 received him, " doing me the honour," he writes, " to say 
 that I had caused him more anxiety than anyone." 
 
 During the weeks that followed, Paris was in an uproar. 
 Its fickle citizens vacillated from side to side, while the 
 leaders of both parties were negotiating or playing at 
 negotiations, as was their custom throughout the Fronde. 
 And meanwhile Mazarin was trying to use La Tremoille's 
 known discontent with his position in Conde's army to 
 detach him from his cousin. But the Cardinal did not 
 succeed ; Tarente's affection for the Prince won the day ; 
 and when the latter fell ill 1 in September, it was La 
 
 1 Conde was suffering from the stone, a malady he had inherited 
 from his father.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 191 
 
 Tremoille who commanded his troops in the constant 
 skirmishings with the royal forces outside the city gates. 
 The Parisians soon grew tired of feeding Conde's army, 
 and, victuals having been refused, the leader of the Fronde, 
 on October 14th, was compelled to quit the capital. 1 
 With him went La Tremoille. They directed their march 
 to Champagne, where, as the result of a series of brilliant 
 military operations, Conde captured several towns. He 
 was unable to hold them, however, for any length of time ; 
 and, finding it impossible to take any firm foothold in this 
 province, he made his way to the northern frontier. 
 There La Tremoille remained with him while he was 
 recovering from another illness in his great forest-girt 
 fortress of Stenay, through the winter of 1652-3. And 
 it was then that the Prince de Tarente followed his leader, 
 who had been appointed general of the Spanish forces, and 
 openly joined the enemy of his country. 
 
 In the summer of this year the Prince left his cousin for 
 a while in order to go to Holland and raise money. 
 Returning to the French frontier, La Tremoille found 
 Condi' again stricken with illness, while his troops were 
 about to attack the town of Rocroy. Then Tarente, so 
 he tells us, took the command, and after a siege of twenty- 
 two days, captured the town. 8 
 
 Bui Condi's army, writes the Prince, was in a terrible 
 plight, two-thirds of the cavalry unmounted, and the rest 
 of the soldiers wretchedly accoutred. Willingly would 
 ! I r6moille have equipped them at his own expense, had 
 he been able. But his fortune was spent and his credit 
 chausted, as well as thai of his friends. Indeed, for 
 
 Cardinal de Retz, " Mdmoire ," ed. Mich el Poujoulat, Ser. III.. 
 
 . 
 2 The greal History of the Princi 1 ol I onde\ by the Due d'Aumale, 
 Vol. VI itating that Cond6 was ill at this tunc, makes 
 
 no mention nt La li mo lie's command.
 
 192 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 generations the La Tremoille treasury was to suffer from 
 deplenishment through the Prince de Tarente's lavish 
 expenditure during this civil war. 
 
 Hopeless of achieving anything with so miserable a 
 force, the Prince threw up his command and returned to 
 Holland. 
 
 At Spa in the previous summer he had met the exiled 
 Charles II. of England, who, having been turned out of 
 France, where his presence impeded Mazarin's negotia- 
 tions with Cromwell, had come to drink the waters with 
 his sister Mary, the Dowager Princess of Orange. While 
 residing in France, Charles had played a prominent part 
 in the interminable negotiations between Frondcurs and 
 Royalists ; and there doubtless he had met La Tremoille, 
 whose importance and capacity must have made a great 
 impression on the King. For Charles now conferred on 
 him one of the highest honours left to the banished 
 monarch to bestow, he invested him with the Order of the 
 Garter. But in return for this favour, Charles asked the 
 Prince to do him a service, which La Tremoille found it 
 impossible to perform, viz. : to effect a reconciliation 
 between the Princess of Orange and her mother-in-law, 
 that quarrelsome Emilie de Solms, who had never forgiven 
 Tarente for aspiring to the hand of her daughter. 
 
 Once having cut himself adrift from his country, La 
 Tremoille grew extremely eclectic in his foreign relations. 
 Having drawn sword for the Catholic King, and accepted 
 high honour from Charles, the Prince now negotiated 
 with the champion of Protestantism and Charles's mortal 
 enemy, Oliver Cromwell. While still at Spa, La Tremoille 
 received an emissary from the Protector, who asked him 
 to lead a movement of the French Protestant churches 
 against the French crown. But the Prince's Protestantism
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 193 
 
 was purely political, and in so rash an enterprise he 
 refused to involve himself unless the Protector would 
 undertake to appear in Languedoc. This was impossible ; 
 and so the negotiations, during which La Tremoille had 
 been careful not to commit himself in writing, fell through. 
 In the winter of 1654 — 5 the Prince was at the 
 Hague, where his hospitable reception encouraged him to 
 send for his wife, the Princess Emilie, and his sister, Marie 
 Charlotte. And it was at the Hague, in May, 1655, that 
 his eldest son, Charles, was born. He already had a 
 daughter, Charlotte Emilie. 1 
 
 Despite his father's poverty, the baptism of the infant 
 Prince on July 18th was a magnificent and gorgeous 
 ceremony, which is described in detail in a document of 
 the La Tremoille archives. 2 For sponsors the babe had 
 the Estates of the United Provinces, represented by the 
 deputies of Guelders, Holland, Zealand, and Utrecht ; the 
 King of Sweden, Charles Gustavus, 3 represented by Baron 
 Spar ; and his aunt, Mademoiselle de La Tremoille. 
 
 Amidst a huge concourse of people assembled from all 
 the neighbouring towns, preceded by a body of troops and 
 followed by all that was most distinguished at the Dutch 
 court, this tiny scrap of humanity, smothered in jewels 
 and cloth of silver, lying on a cushion of the same, from 
 which depended an interminable train borne by two noble 
 damsels, was carried by his aunt, Marie Charlotte, to the 
 Protestant Temple at the Hague. 
 
 There he received the names of Charles, after his royal 
 godfather, of Hollande, after one of his mother's kinsmen, 
 and of Belgique, after the Estates. A luxurious banquet 
 
 1 Known also as " Ann 'lie." 
 
 Lcs La 1 remoilles pendanl 1 inq Siei les," IV., 20^ — 206. 
 " Cousin and sn u <>f the famous ( uri itina, who bad abdii ated 
 
 in the previous year, 
 
 C.R. O
 
 i 9 4 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 followed the christening. From seven o'clock in the 
 evening until four in the morning the illustrious guests 
 were entertained, their ears diverted " by the flourishing 
 of trumpets, the sound of timbrels, and the harmony of 
 viols, and their palates flattered by the delicacy and 
 diversity of the viands set before them." A few days 
 later the Estates bestowed upon their godson a pension 
 for life of 1,000 golden florins, to begin on July 18th in the 
 following year. 
 
 Throughout 1655, high pomps and pageants were the 
 order of the day at the Dutch court. In one of her lively 
 letters to her nephew Charles II., Elizabeth of Bohemia 
 tells of a court ball at which the King's sister, the Princess 
 of Orange, appeared as an Amazon, and the Princesse de 
 Tarente as a shepherdess. For the Princesse de Tarente 
 such pastimes might be all very well, but such a life of 
 mere court gaiety irked her husband's martial soul. 
 Now that the war was over, Holland was no place for him. 
 His active mind longed for battles and sieges, or, failing 
 them, for a political career. And so, towards the end of 
 this year, we find him soliciting from the French court 
 pardon for his treason and permission to return to the 
 land of his birth. Both these requests Mazarin, now 
 completely reinstated in power, granted with apparent 
 magnanimity. But the wily Cardinal had his own ends 
 to serve. La Tremoille, however, was quick to discern 
 them. He was not to be hoodwinked by " the suave, 
 affable and insinuating air " with which Mazarin greeted 
 him on his arrival in Paris. The Prince realised imme- 
 diately that this arch schemer wanted to use him as 
 mediator with the still implacable Conde ; and La 
 Tremoille, much to the disappointment of his relatives, 
 refused thus to be made a tool of. In a very irreconcilable
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 195 
 
 mood, therefore, he left Paris to go down and visit his 
 parents at Thouars. 
 
 It was there and then that Duke Henry resigned the 
 dukedom of Thouars into his son's hands. 1 And the 
 Prince went back to Paris to take his seat in the 
 Parlement. 
 
 Mazarin had already begun to take his revenge for La 
 Tremoille's obduracy by inciting the young Louis XIV. 
 to find fault with the Prince for having without his 
 sovereign's permission accepted an Order from a foreign 
 king. But by some means or other Louis had been won 
 over to La Tremoille's side, and on the previous 1st of 
 November the Prince de Tarente had received his King's 
 permission to wear the Garter. All the while, however, 
 Mazarin continued to plot against him. And the Prince's 
 attempt to rouse the peasants of Poitou to resist the 
 imposition of the salt tax did not render the Minister 
 men- friendly. 
 
 In the spring of 1656 the court was at Compiegne ; 
 and thither La Tremoille was summoned to join it. The 
 Cardinal was amiability itself. He engaged the Prince in 
 long conversations, which always terminated with an en- 
 treaty thai he would renounce Conde and all his works. 
 Then, finding the Prince hopelessly obdurate, Mazarin 
 changed his tactics; La Tremoille suddenly found 
 himself arrested, hurried into a coach with an officer 
 and two guards, and whirled away to the citadel of 
 Aniiei 
 
 1 have heard with great sorrow of your son's im- 
 prisonment. I have since learnt . . . that his life is not 
 in danger, for which I bless God. . . . I do not doubt that, 
 
 1 ill.- document "i abdication i^ dated [anuary zoth, 1656 (" Les 
 La [remoiUea pendant cinq Sieclea," IV., 177). 
 
 o 2
 
 196 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 with God's help for which I pray, he will soon recover his 
 liberty." Thus wrote Lady Derby to her sister-in- 
 law. 1 And we may be certain that the energetic Marie 
 de La Tour left not a stone unturned in her efforts to 
 obtain her son's liberty. 
 
 Fortunately, on his way to prison, La Tremoille had 
 fallen in with a knight of his mother's suite, by whom he 
 had been able to send a message, not only to the Duchess, 
 Marie, but to the Elector of Brandenbourg, husband of his 
 former love, to the King of Sweden, his son's godfather, 
 to the Landgraf of Hesse Cassel, his brother-in-law, and 
 to his good friends, the States General of the United 
 Provinces, all of whom he implored to intervene on his 
 behalf. Through their influence probably, and through 
 the kindness of the governor, he was leniently treated in 
 prison, permitted to walk on the ramparts of the fortress, 
 to converse with the townsfolk, and to communicate with 
 his friends. His mother also was allowed to visit him 
 and to discuss with him plans for his liberation. She 
 had doubtless already interceded with Mazarin, and now 
 she came to implore her son as the price of his freedom to 
 give an undertaking, should the Cardinal require it, that 
 he would leave the country. This La Tremoille promised 
 to do. Meanwhile, in case his relatives' intercession 
 should fail, he was laying plans for his escape : a faithful 
 friend had smuggled into his prison ropes and an anchor, 
 with which to attach them to the wall ; another friend 
 was sounding the moat, and yet another had horses in 
 readiness. 
 
 All these contrivances, however, proved unnecessary ; 
 for Mazarin agreed to the Duchess's conditions and 
 released her son, permitting him to come to Paris to 
 
 1 See Madame de Witt, " The Lady of Lathom," 221.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 197 
 
 arrange his affairs before starting for abroad. At the 
 Porte St. Antoine, La Tremoille's mother awaited him, 
 and while he was in Paris busied herself with further 
 negotiations on his behalf, which resulted in a permission 
 to go down to Brittany and spend six weeks with his 
 father. During this time other friends were working for 
 him, notably his kinsman, the Due de Noirmoustiers, 
 and with such success that the decree of banishment 
 from France was commuted into banishment from 
 Paris. 
 
 But for three years longer, until the Treaty of the 
 Pyrenees in 1659, the Prince was far from being a free 
 man. Mazarin controlled his movements, forbidding 
 him to visit discontented Poitou, banishing him from his 
 Breton estates, and finally commanding him to reside 
 cither at Troyes or at Auxerre. There is reason to be- 
 lieve, also, that all this while La Tremoille was intriguing 
 with Conde and fanning discontent with Mazarin's 
 government. Finally, however, the Treaty of the 
 Pyrenees ended civil as well as foreign war. Conde sub- 
 mitted, and the King and Queen received La Tremoille 
 at Toulouse. ' The King told me he had forgotten 
 everything," wrote Tarente, " and that in the future he 
 would give me proofs of his affection." Conde was now 
 free to return to France ; and after some years' separation 
 thru- was ;m affectionate meeting of the cousins at Dijon, 
 where La Tremoille promised to do his best to restore 
 Condi'- to the Cardinal's good graces. 
 
 It was not, however, until after Mazarin's death in 
 1661 that Condi and Tarente were completely reinstated 
 in all honour and greatness at court. Then at length 
 Louis XIV. granted to La Tremoille that dignity so long 
 solicited by his house of presiding over the A sembly of
 
 198 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 the Breton Estates. And the Prince's conduct of the 
 session rendered him highly popular with the King, for 
 at La Tremoille's suggestion a sum of no less than 
 400,000 livres, afterwards doubled, was granted to the 
 Crown. 
 
 In the following year, on July 20th, 1662, La Tremoille 
 married his sister Marie Charlotte to Bernard of Saxony, 
 Duke of Jena, fourth son of the Duke of Saxe Weimar. 
 And on this occasion Tarente obtained from Louis XIV. 
 the official recognition of the title of Prince and Princess 
 for all the members of his house, titles which they 
 had assumed since the end of the fifteenth century, 
 but were apparently only now officially permitted to 
 bear. 
 
 Then it was that La Tremoille ladies first began to 
 enjoy that honour so greedily coveted by all high-born 
 French dames and damsels of remaining seated on a 
 tabouret or armless chair in the presence of their Sovereign. 
 Charlotte Amelie tells 1 how to her great chagrin, on 
 her promotion to the tabouret at the age of ten, her 
 La Tremoille pride and person suffered a humiliating fall. 
 The Princess being very small and the tabouret very high, 
 she had to be lifted on to it by an Abbe of the Queen's 
 household. But he placed her too far forward on the 
 stool, and she, trying to seat herself more comfortably, 
 fell off, amidst the loud laughter of the assembled court. 
 Other privileges only granted to foreign princes were 
 now accorded to the La Tremoilles. For as Princes of 
 Taranto they now asserted their right to the Neapolitan 
 crown, which they claimed to have inherited from their 
 ancestress Anne de Laval, grand-daughter of Frederick of 
 Arragon, King of Naples, who in 1521 married Francois 
 1 Memoirs, 19. See ante, 184, n. 2.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 199 
 
 de La Tremoille. 1 This right, maintained for over a 
 hundred years, and discussed lengthily during the 
 negotiations which preceded the Treaties of Westphalia, 
 Nymwegen, Ryswick and Utrecht, was asserted for the 
 last time in 1748. 
 
 After Marie Charlotte's wedding the Prince and 
 Princesse de Tarente accompanied the bride and bride- 
 groom to Germany. Then, leaving his wife at Hesse 
 Cassel, the Prince went to Holland. So warm a welcome 
 did he receive from his old friends at the Hague that a 
 visit of three weeks was prolonged into a residence of 
 three years, during which La Tremoille engaged in a war 
 between the United Provinces and the Bishop of Munster, 
 and received the governorship of the fortress of Bois- 
 le-Duc. 
 
 His mother's death in 1665 brought him back to 
 France. Marie de La Tour's striking personality had 
 impressed itself strongly on the inhabitants of Thouars, 
 whir.' she died and was buried. In a history of the town, 2 
 we read that for many a year the inhabitants had trembled 
 iv the terrible duchess, not because she was unjust, 
 
 1 Frederick of Arragon, King of Naples, who ascended the 
 throne la [496. 
 
 Charlotte m. le Comtc de Laval. 
 
 I 
 Anne de Laval m. (151 1) Francois de la Tremoille. 
 
 Louis de La Tremoille, 
 1st Due de Thouars. 
 
 I laude, Due de Thouars. 
 
 I 
 Henri, Due dc Thouars. 
 
 I 
 rlea Henry, Prince dc Tarente. 
 
 Introduction to " Memoires de Charles de La Tremoille, Trince 
 de rarente," and " Les La rrtmoilles pendant cinq Siecles," v., 202, 103. 
 ,J Berthre de Bournisseaux, " Histoire de la Villc de Thouars depuia 
 I'An 739 jnsqu'en 1815 ..." (Niort, 182.J).
 
 200 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 but because they knew that to the uttermost farthing, 
 with unbending severity, she would always extort from 
 her husband's vassals the payment of every feudal due, 
 alike in labour, in coin, and in kind. At the time when 
 Thouars Castle was in building, the artisans and labourers 
 were so oppressed by her exactions that for long after- 
 wards they cursed her name and her memory. Genera- 
 tions later, at the time of the Revolution, when the mob 
 broke into the chateau, hers was the only portrait which 
 was desecrated: While the picture of the tyrannical 
 Marie was covered with filth, those of her kinsfolk, many 
 of them, were carried off by the townspeople to be hung 
 in their houses as objects of veneration. Owing to her 
 Protestant faith, which she had held firmly to the end, 
 Marie's Catholic husband would not allow her to be buried 
 with the other La Tremoilles in the consecrated Catholic 
 church of Notre Dame. At the southern corner, therefore, 
 of the main wing of the chateau a vault was prepared, and 
 there the remains of Marie de La Tour d'Auvergne rest in 
 peace, having escaped the fury of the Revolutionaries, 
 who, leaving this Protestant grave unharmed, spent their 
 wrath on the desecration of the tombs in the neighbouring 
 chapel. Now and again, however, the ravages of time 
 have threatened to accomplish that which revolutionary 
 anger spared ; the eastern wall of the vault has more than 
 once needed reparation, and when cracks appear in it 
 the Thouarese say that it is because Marie de La Tour 
 wants fresh air. 
 
 After his mother's death, the Prince de Tarente with 
 his wife and three children left Holland to take up his 
 residence at Thouars with the old Duke Henry, who was 
 now bedridden with gout. And there, occupied in 
 administering his estates, and in occasionally presiding
 
 . rVlaric (h- hi 
 
 our . ). 7 uu&rcrnc 
 
 'Ut he. la CJrcmoillc St t)c CTouaKi . r<
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 201 
 
 over the meetings of Breton deputies, Charles de La 
 Tremoille passed the last seven years of his life. The 
 differences which had always divided the Prince and 
 Princess were increased when, in 1670, Tarente reverted 
 to his father's faith, and was admitted by the Bishop of 
 Angers into the Catholic Church. 
 
 Madame de Tarente remained the staunchest of 
 Protestants, and took her husband's change of religion in 
 the most tragic manner. Her example was followed by 
 her daughter Charlotte Amelie, who relates in her Memoirs 
 how by her father's apostasy the household at Thouars 
 became divided against itself. Nothing indicates more 
 clearly the bitterness of religious strife in those days than 
 the story of how the Prince's eldest son was separated 
 from his mother and sister, and conveyed away to Angers, 
 where six weeks' virtual imprisonment and the society 
 of monks and priests reduced him to embracing his 
 father's religion. 
 
 Fearing that her daughter too would be forced into 
 the Catholic Church, Madame de Tarente obtained from 
 her kinswoman, the Queen of Denmark, an invitation for 
 Charlotte Amelie to become lady-in-waiting at the Danish 
 court. Then, its acceptance having been forbidden by 
 the Prince de Tarente, who was devotedly attached to his 
 daughter, the Princess surreptitiously obtained a pass- 
 port from Louis XIV., and during her husband's absence 
 at Paris set forth for Denmark. 
 
 Meanwhile the King chanced to remark casually to 
 Tarente that he heard his daughter was going to Den- 
 mark. ' No," replied the Prince, " I have refused my 
 consent." 'But I," said Louis, "have signed her 
 passport." Forthwith, Tarente left the court and 
 started for Thouars, Imping to be in time to prevent hi^
 
 202 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 daughter's departure. At Blois he fell in with the 
 travellers. There was a terrible scene between husband 
 and wife, at which Charlotte Amelie was present. But 
 Madame de Tarente won the day and carried off her 
 daughter to Denmark. 
 
 In high dudgeon the ladies parted from the Prince, whom 
 they were never to see again, for, before the travellers 
 arrived at Copenhagen, news reached them of La Tre- 
 moille's sudden death at Thouars on September 14th, 
 1672. 
 
 Four of the Prince de Tarente's children survived him : 
 two daughters, Charlotte Amelie the eldest, whose 
 adventures at the Danish court are related in the next 
 chapter ; Marie Sylvie Brabantine, who, born in 1666, 
 died at Paris in 1693, apparently unmarried ; a third 
 daughter, Henriette, born in 1662, died in 1665 ; and two 
 sons, Charles Belgique Hollande, who succeeded his father 
 as Due de La Tremoille, and Frederic Guillaume, who, 
 having entered the Church and become Abbe de Sainte 
 Croix, later exchanged the ecclesiastical state for the 
 army. 1 
 
 1 See post, 260, and n., also Anselme, " Histoire Gdnealogique," IV., 
 173. Bournisseaux, " Histoire de la Ville de Thouars," 202, says he 
 remained in the Church, becoming Cardinal and Archbishop of Cambrai.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 203 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 1 
 
 LA BONNE TARENTE AND HER DAUGHTER, AS THEY APPEAR 
 IN THE LETTERS OF MADAME DE SEVIGNE 
 
 Our friends across the Channel, we know, have a 
 faculty for seeing the ludicrous side of things in general, 
 and of their foreign neighbours in particular. Many an 
 English character stands impaled on French satire for as 
 long as the French language shall last, and Germans have 
 suffered even more from the brilliance of Gallic wit and 
 the malice of Gallic raillery. 
 
 But there is no malice, although some raillery and 
 much wit, in the portrait which Madame de Sevigne in 
 her famous letters draws of her German friend, Charles 
 de La Tremoille's widow, the Princesse de Tarente, or 
 la bonne Tarente as the letter-writer generally calls her. 
 
 After the Prince's death, Madame de Tarente used to 
 reside during the summer in the La Tremoille chateau of 
 Vitre. There she found herself but two miles from the 
 Marquise de Sevigne's country seat of Les Rochers. The 
 Princess and the Marchioness rapidly struck up a friend- 
 ship. Both Madame de Tan rite's royal connections and 
 her travels in Europe deeply impressed Srvigne. ' La 
 limine Tarente is related to all the royalties in Europe," she 
 wrote. And on one of the rare occasions when she found 
 the Princess out of mourning, " I am pleased to see that the 
 health of Europe is good," exclaimed the Marchioness. 
 
 1 This chapter appeared in Tht Englishwoman, and it is a plea anl 
 duty to thank the Editor, Miss Goodman, f or her kindness in pi rmitting 
 
 its reproduction.
 
 204 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 In the eyes of Sevigne, who had never been out of 
 France, Tarente's two visits to Denmark, and frequent 
 sojournings in Holland, constituted her a great traveller. 
 " That's what I call travelling," wrote the Marquise, 
 and she took it in all seriousness when her friend 
 asserted that she was never so well as when going round 
 the world. 
 
 Some journeys, short but formidable in those days of 
 bad provincial roads, the Princess and the Marchioness 
 undertook in company. Together they visited their 
 country neighbours, and even went so far as the capital 
 of their province, Rennes. In one remote country house 
 they were surprised to find the most elegant repast they 
 had partaken of for a long while : turtles and quails, 
 peaches and pears as fine as those of the Hotel de Ram- 
 bouillet at Paris, led them to reflect that money, even in 
 the heart of the provinces, can procure anything. 
 
 It was on one of the hottest days in August that the 
 two ladies made what was nothing more or less than a 
 triumphant entry into Rennes. This ceremony Madame 
 de Sevigne describes in one of her liveliest letters. She tells 
 how they were met a short distance out of the town by a 
 company of guards, then by the Governor of the Province 
 with two Presidents of provincial parlements and eight 
 other dignitaries. " We stopped," writes the Marchioness, 
 " we kissed, we perspired, we talked, not knowing what 
 we said, we advanced in a six-horsed coach, followed by 
 five such coaches and by six others drawn by four horses. 
 We listened to trumpets, to drums, and to people who 
 were all determined to shout out something . . . then, 
 alighting at the Governor's house, we were received by 
 his wife and four dames and four damsels of quality. We 
 all kissed, men as well as women ! How odd it was !
 
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 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 205 
 
 But the Princess set the example and I followed with 
 amiable alacrity. In the end, so intense was the heat, 
 and so copiously were we perspiring, that our cheeks 
 stuck together in perfect union. Extricating ourselves 
 with difficulty, we returned to our coach, so dishevelled as 
 to be quite unrecognisable." 
 
 Once established in the country for the summer, it was 
 seldom that the two friends could be induced to quit their 
 peaceful parks and linden groves. There for some years, 
 from 1675 until 1685, they were accustomed to spend 
 July, August, and September, exchanging ceremonious 
 visits or dropping in unexpectedly and vying with one 
 another in the preparation of elaborate fricassees or simple 
 al fresco luncheons. Sauntering along those garden walks 
 of Les Rochers, which, still redolent of the atmosphere of 
 the Hotel de Rambouillet, even to-day bear the names 
 given them by the PrScieuse Marquise, "the Temperament 
 of my Mother," " the Honour of my Daughter," " the 
 Infinite," " the Echo," " the Solitary," these two high- 
 born dames exchanged many a confidence and told many 
 a tale on all manner of topics, ranging from drugs and dogs 
 to daughters. 
 
 The talk fell on dogs one day when Sevigne whistled to 
 a neighbour's spaniel who crossed their path. " What ! 
 you know how to call a dog ! " exclaimed her companion, 
 marvelling at the variety of her friend's accomplishments. 
 " I will send you one of the prettiest in the world." " No, 
 thank you," replied the Marquise, " I have decided not 
 to be led into any such kind of attachment." 
 
 Her protests were vain, however. For a day or two 
 later there arrived at Les Rochers a servant carrying " a 
 little dog's house, delicately perfumed and extremely 
 beautiful." In it was a lovely little creature, " such ears,
 
 206 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 such a silky coat, such sweet breath, as tiny as a sylphid, 
 as fair as a fairy." 
 
 " Never was I more surprised or embarrassed," writes 
 the Marquise. " I wanted to send him away, but could 
 not find it in my heart to do so. And so he stays, sleeping 
 in his little house in my maid's room, and eating nothing 
 but bread. His name is Fidele. He is so pretty, such a 
 dear, such pretty little ways, such perfect behaviour. I 
 am resolved not to love him, but he begins to grow fond 
 of me, and I fear lest I may succumb. But if I did, how 
 could I ever face Marphise [her little dog in Paris] ? 
 For I have aspired to that perfection of never loving but 
 one dog in defiance of M. de la Rochefoucauld's maxim 
 that there may be many women who have never had a 
 love affair, but very few who have had only one. The 
 thought of Marphise obsesses me. I can't imagine what 
 to say to her or how to excuse myself. This is the kind of 
 thing that makes one untruthful. All I could do would 
 be to tell her how the entanglement arose. It is just one 
 of those embarrassments which I had made up my mind 
 to avoid. What a striking example of human weakness is 
 this disaster which has befallen me at Vitre ! " 
 
 The gift of a lap-dog was only one of the many kind- 
 nesses which la bonne Tarente pressed upon her somewhat 
 reluctant friend. The Princess was one of those practical 
 housewives, who have a remedy for every disease and 
 every accident, and who, when accidents and diseases do 
 not exist, insist on inventing them. She loved to relate 
 the wonderful cures effected by her wonderful medicines. 
 " She tells me she has studied physic in Germany," wrote 
 the Marchioness, " but I think it must have been after the 
 manner of the Medecin malgre lui." And, indeed, Tarente 
 was inclined to hold with Moliere's " doctor, against his 
 will," that physic is as necessary in health as in sickness.
 
 < HARL01 I I ami i.n i»i i, a i REMOILL1 . 
 
 PRINCESS 0] \l.l I NBURG 
 
 From ■ miniature at Middachten, belonging to Count Bentini k 
 
 i botographed by Mrs. Aubrey Le Blond
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 207 
 
 But Sevigne did not agree with her. " I am quite ready 
 to take her nostrums when I am ill ; but why should I 
 when I am well ? " she protested. 
 
 When illness came, however, she was not so very docile 
 a patient. Medicinal tea-drinking was then the vogue, 
 and the Princess's family was much addicted to it. Her 
 nephew, the Landgraf, so she said, took forty cups every 
 day, but Sevigne did not believe her. The Princess 
 herself took twelve. Yet when she prescribed one modest 
 little cup for the Marquise, her friend turned from it with 
 horror, declaring it would make her sick. 
 
 The Princess's passion for medicaments as well 
 as her Teutonic wit (" she did not lack wit of a kind," 
 wrote Sevigne), were fully compensated for by the fact 
 that she too had a daughter, Charlotte Amelie, whom at 
 the close of the last chapter we left arriving with her 
 mother at the court of Denmark. 
 
 Before her journey to Denmark, numerous husbands, 
 among them two future kings of England, William of 
 Orange and James, Duke of York, had been proposed for 
 Charlotte Amelie. But at Copenhagen she herself 
 conquered two illustrious hearts : George of Denmark, the 
 King's brother, a handsome gallant prince, and Griffen- 
 fcld, the King's minister, a wine merchant's son who had 
 risen rapidly to be the ablest diplomat in Europe, and one 
 of the wisest statesmen Denmark has ever produced, both 
 fell in love with her. 
 
 The rival claims of those two suitors were discussed at 
 length in the linden groves of Les Rochers and in Madame 
 de Sevigne's letters to her daughter. All Griffenfeld's 
 recommendations were eclipsed by his not being a gentle- 
 man born. " The mere thought of it is enough to make 
 one faint," wrote the Marchioness, and Charlotte Amelie
 
 208 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 shared her opinion, defying the King and Queen, who had 
 determined that she should marry the minister. 
 
 To the Prince, on the other hand, Mdlle. de La Tremoille 
 was ready to give her heart. But for him the King and 
 Queen had more ambitious designs, and eventually, in 
 1687, they married him to the Princess Anne, afterwards 
 Queen of England. 
 
 Thus disappointed, Charlotte Amelie wept and entreated 
 the King and Queen to send her back to France. But her 
 royal cousins refused ; and the distressed maiden was 
 reduced to pouring out her woes to her mother in 
 voluminous letters, which were shown to Sevigne, and 
 commented on unfavourably by that mistress of the 
 epistolary art. Writing to her daughter, the Marquise 
 described them as " in no style whatever, my dear, and 
 filled with dear mamas and other childish epithets, 
 although she is twenty." 
 
 A war between Denmark and Sweden soon carried 
 Mademoiselle's two suitors to the front. The minister, 
 whom she was never to see again, took a dignified leave 
 of his lady, entreating her to grant him her esteem 
 if not her love. 
 
 A year later, falsely accused by his enemies at court of 
 plotting against the King, this eminent statesman, in spite 
 of the excellent reforms he had accomplished in Denmark, 
 was tried and condemned to death. Conducted to the 
 scaffold, he was about to lay his head upon the block, 
 when a messenger arrived to commute the death sentence 
 into one of banishment. Some years later Griff enfeld 
 died in exile. 
 
 Mdlle. de La Tremoille was not long in recovering 
 from her attachment to the Prince. Her ambition, so she 
 confided to a friend, was now to be the widow of a Dutch-
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 209 
 
 man with a castle. Some time after, a gentleman came to 
 her saying that a friend of his was a Dutchman, and had a 
 castle, and that he was so deeply in love with Made- 
 moiselle, that if she married him, he would be sure to die 
 of happiness in six months. Then he declared himself to 
 be the friend, and Charlotte Amelie married him forthwith 
 without waiting for the permission of her family. 
 
 La bonne Tarenic was furious, and flew to her neighbour 
 for consolation. But Sevigne took Charlotte Amelie's 
 part, maintaining that she had done quite right to marry 
 this Count Anthony of Altenburg (Ochtensilbourg she 
 called him with her mania for distorting German names), 
 who, although of somewhat equivocal origin, was a cousin 
 of the King of Denmark, and the richest nobleman, and 
 the most perfect gentleman in the world. 
 
 The romantic story of Count Anthony's birth has 
 formed the subject for several novels. His father, Count 
 Anthony Gunther, had in early years contracted a secret 
 marriage with a noble Hungarian lady, Elizabeth von 
 Ungnad, of great beauty and many accomplishments. 
 But the Count's mother had planned for her son a still 
 greater alliance, and, through one of her courtiers, 
 succeeded in gaining possession of the marriage contract 
 and committing it to the flames. The lady Elizabeth, in 
 despair at the destruction of her marriage lines, fled to a 
 friend at whose castle she gave birth to the son who was 
 to become Charlotte Amelie's husband. Count Gunther 
 married a princess of Holstcin, while Elizabeth was 
 subsequently united to a nobleman of Friesland. In 
 later years Count Gunther, repenting of the injury he had 
 done his son, obtained the Emperor's permission to 
 restore him to all his legitimate rights. Anthony eventu- 
 ally succeeded his father as Count of Altenburg, and took 
 
 c.r. p
 
 210 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 his seat in the Imperial Diet, a privilege only accorded to 
 the members of reigning houses. 
 
 Charlotte Amelie, by marrying Anthony, had therefore 
 made for herself a very brilliant match. " Yet," wrote 
 Madame de Sevigne, " all Germany groans at the insult 
 inflicted on the escutcheon of la bonne Tarente . . . who 
 is very angry." But after a while the Princess was 
 somewhat pacified, especially when there arrived letters 
 telling of her daughter's wealth and happiness, and of 
 the grand state she kept in her husband's dominions on 
 the banks of the Weser, where she was entertaining the 
 King and Queen of Denmark with all their court. 
 
 But alas ! Count Anthony was in too great a hurry to 
 keep the promise he had made when first urging his suit. 
 Then he had undertaken to make his wife a widow six 
 months after their marriage. He anticipated his engage- 
 ment by eight weeks. Four months after her wedding 
 the Countess of Altenburg had realised part of her 
 ambition : she was the widow of a Dutchman, but not 
 unhappily with a castle. 
 
 For Count Anthony's daughter by a previous marriage 
 claimed all his dominions and all his property for her 
 husband, and persisted in the claim even when some 
 months later the widowed Countess gave birth to a son. 
 
 Beset by eveiy kind of persecution, Charlotte Amelie 
 took her child to Vienna to plead his cause at the Imperial 
 Court. There she arrived travel-stained and weary, 
 poverty stricken and in old-fashioned clothes, for it was 
 only by selling her service of plate that she had succeeded 
 in collecting enough money for the journey. The 
 Viennese ladies-in-waiting laughed at her quaint appear- 
 ance. But the Empress exclaimed : " That lady is the 
 descendant of Kings, and it is rather for me to do her
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 211 
 
 homage than for her to seek me." The Empress befriended 
 her, and the infant Count was restored to his father's 
 dominions. Charlotte Amelie's son lived to have a 
 daughter, Charlotte Sophie, 1 whose hand, after being 
 solicited by six princes of reigning German houses, was 
 eventually bestowed on Count Bentinck, the second son 
 of William III/s trusted friend, the Earl of Portland. 
 
 To Charlotte Amelie's misfortunes after her husband's 
 death, Madame de Sevignc's letters make no allusion. 
 For this part of her story we are indebted to her own 
 Memoirs, the original MS. of which is preserved in the 
 Grand Ducal Library at Oldenburg.' 2 
 
 Five years after Charlotte Amelie's marriage the inter- 
 course between her mother and the Marchioness came to 
 an end. Then by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 
 in 1685, the Princess de Tarente was driven from France. 
 Previous to that year she had been free to exercise her 
 own religion, " to work out her own damnation in perfect 
 liberty," as her quizzical Catholic neighbour was pleased 
 to word it, " and to indulge in as many fasts and retreats 
 as we who possess the reality." But in 1685, the good 
 Tarente returned to her Fatherland, to Frankfort, where 
 she died of smallpox in 1692. Years after they had 
 parted, Madame de S6vigne* looked back tenderly on their 
 friendship. Writing to her daughter in 1689, she refers 
 to a story whirl, reminds her of the talcs told by " the 
 good Princcsse de Tarente." 
 
 her Life and Times, l>v Mi Aubrey Lc Blond, in two 
 volumes, published by I Int. binson, phi. 
 1 .ind note _•. 
 
 P 2
 
 212 
 
 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
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 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 213 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 "A LIEUTENANT OF MADAME DE MAINTENON," LA PRINCESSE 
 DES URSINS. l642(?) — 1722 
 
 Since the fifteenth century, we have been following 
 exclusively the fortunes of the eldest, the Thouars branch 
 of the La Tremoille family. We must now go back a 
 hundred years to the time when from Francois de La 
 Tremoille's younger sons, Georges and Claude, there 
 sprang the houses of Olonne and Noirmoustier. The 
 Counts of Olonne, endowed later with the marquisate of 
 Rohan, continued until 1708. Perhaps the best known 
 among them was Count Louis, who was the friend cf 
 Saint Evremond, with whom lie corresponded on the 
 relative merits of Burgundy and Champagne. 1 
 
 The house of Noirmoustier, endured but a few years 
 longer than that of Olonne. It died out in 1733- Its 
 barons rose to be marquises in the sixteenth, and dukes in 
 the seventeenth century. And it was towards the end of 
 its existence, that this branch of the family produced one 
 of the most notable of all the La Tremoilli 3, Marie Anne 
 de Talleyrand, Princesse de Chalais, later Princesse des 
 Ursins. 
 
 The La Tremoille tree had already borne two women 
 famous in war; it now brought forth one, Madame des 
 Ursins, who was no less renowned in diplomacy. Had 
 she lived in our time she might have been described as a 
 
 1 TaUemant des Reaux, " Historiettea," ed. Alonmerque, II. \~->.
 
 214 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 " militant," for even Sainte-Beuve, although he relegates 
 her to the second rank among stateswomen, admits that 
 she was equal to upsetting at least ten governments. 
 
 Three clever women, Francoise d'Aubigne, Marquise de 
 Maintenon, Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, and 
 Marie Anne de La Tremoille, Princesse des Ursins, in the 
 late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, played 
 important parts in European politics. But of the three, 
 we may safely assert our La Tremoille Princess to have 
 been the cleverest. The numerous volumes of her 
 correspondence, which for more than a hundred years 
 have been appearing, all prove the significance of her 
 action during that critical period of European history 
 extending from the Treaty of Ryswick, in 1698, until the 
 death of Louis XIV. in 1715. There is no doubt that at 
 this time her diplomacy contributed to introduce the 
 Bourbons into Spain, and to establish them firmly on the 
 Spanish throne. 1 
 
 Marie Anne de La Tremoille was born about 1642, the 
 precise year is uncertain. Her great grandmother, the 
 famous or infamous Madame de Sauves, figures in the 
 Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois as one of the most 
 attractive and one of the most unscrupulous members of 
 Henry III.'s dissolute Court. Charlotte de Semblancay, 
 Madame de Sauves, who, for her second husband, married 
 Francois de La Tremoille, Marquis de Noirmoustier, must 
 have been extremely beautiful ; a veritable Circe Mar- 
 guerite calls her. And not unnaturally all the courtiers 
 
 1 On La Princesse des Ursins a whole library has been written. The 
 works chiefly consulted for this Chapter are : the Due de LaTremoille's 
 " Madame des Ursins et la Succession en Espagne (six vols.) ; Geoffroy, 
 " Lettres Inedites de la Princesse des Ursins," (1859) ; and " Lettres 
 Inedites de Madame de Maintenon et de Madame des Ursins " (1826) ; 
 Francois Combes " La Princesse des Ursins" (1S5S) ; and St. Beuve's 
 essay in the " Causeries du Lundi," V., 319 et seq.
 
 
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 4 
 
 FRANCOIS DE LA TRFMOILLF, MARQUIS DF NOIRMOUSTIEF 
 From a drawing by Benjamin Foulon
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 215 
 
 were in love with her, but especially the two royal princes, 
 Marguerite's brother, Francois, Duke of Alencon, and her 
 husband, Henry of Navarre. Indeed, Marguerite would 
 have us believe that it was Charlotte who first caused a 
 coolness between herself and her husband. 
 
 Her gift for intrigue, Madame de Sauves apparently 
 bequeathed to her grandson, La Princesse des Ursins' 
 father, Louis de La Tremoille, who exercised it in another 
 direction. Like his cousin, Henry Charles, Louis de La 
 Tremoille was an eminent Frondeur ; and as such he is 
 frequently mentioned in the brilliant Memoirs of his 
 friend, the Cardinal de Retz. So skilfully did Louis 
 succeed in steering the barque of his fortune over the 
 shoals and quicksands of this civil war that, escaping 
 disgrace and imprisonment, he succeeded in 1650, in 
 securing a dukedom, although, on account of his participa- 
 tion in the Fronde, he could not obtain its registration. 
 So the title of Duke of Noirmoustier remained merely 
 honorary until 1707. 
 
 Louis married Renee Julie Aubry, who belonged to one 
 of those leading legal families known in France as la 
 noblesse de robe ; and on his death, in 1666, he left six 
 children: a son Ant nine Francois, styled the Duke of 
 Royan and Noirmoustier ; a second son, Joseph Emmanuel, 
 who entered the Church and became a Cardinal; another 
 son Robert who died young ; and three daughters, Marie 
 Anne, who became the famous Princesse des Ursins ; 
 Yolande Julie, Marquise de Royan ; and Louise Ang&ique, 
 Duchesse de Lanti. 1 While plentifully endowed with 
 brains, this generation of the younger La TrenioilKs was 
 curiously afflicted with physical infirmity, for the Duke. 
 after an attack of small-pox became blind, Robert was 
 1 There were other children who died before their father.
 
 2i6 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 dumb, the Cardinal a hunchback, and the Princesse des 
 Ursins all her life a sufferer from defective sight. 
 
 The adventurous career of Marie Anne de La Tremoille 
 began young. When she was only about one and twenty 
 her husband, Adrien Blaise de Talleyrand, 1 Prince de 
 Chalais, killed his adversary in a duel, and was obliged to 
 flee from France. 2 His young wife followed him, and for 
 a while they lived in Spain. 
 
 During the four years of her married life in Paris, la 
 Princesse de Chalais had made her debut in the society 
 of the Salons. The first glory of the greatest, the 
 Hotel de Rambouillet , had by that time faded, but other 
 Salons had succeeded it, and the most distinguished was 
 the Hotel d'Albret, which was the Salon frequented by 
 La Princesse de Chalais and her husband. Here our 
 Princess used to meet a woman who was eventually to 
 exert a powerful influence over her career, Francoise 
 d'Aubigne, then the poverty-stricken widow of the poet 
 Scarron, but later the famous Madame de Maintenon. 
 In after days when both these great ladies had attained 
 to the height of their fortune they used to talk together of 
 these early experiences. And the Princess would tell 
 how as a young wife at the H6tel d'Albret, she was piqued 
 to see the bourgeoise Madame Scarron, who was but a few 
 years her senior, 3 surrounded by great wits and statesmen 
 deferentially hanging on to this young nobody's words 
 while she, a Princess, was left to chatter with the 
 younger members of the company. Then Madame de 
 Maintenon, would retort that, after all, her lot in those 
 days was not so greatly to be envied for often did she 
 
 1 Of the same family as the great diplomatist l'Abbe Talleyrand. 
 
 2 The date of this duel is variously stated, but it probably took 
 place between 1663 and 1666. 
 
 s She was born in 1635.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 217 
 
 long to escape from the high seriousness of her elders, 
 and to join in the noisy prattle of those of her own age. 1 
 
 After some years residence in Spain, the Prince and 
 Princess de Chalais proceeded to Rome, and thence they 
 decided to go to Venice. The Prince went on before his 
 wife ; but, at the village of Maestro not far from Venice, 
 he was taken suddenly ill and died in the year 1670. 
 
 It was at Rome that Marie Anne received the news of 
 her husband's death, and at Rome she continued to 
 reside, although there was now nothing to prevent her 
 returning to France. But in the Holy City she had 
 already made many influential friends, among whom was 
 Cesar d'Estrees, Bishop of Laon, the representative of 
 Louis XIV. at the papal court, and soon" to be made a 
 Cardinal. 
 
 As was frequently the custom of widows in those days, 
 the Princess for some years after her husband's death 
 resided in a convent. But her retirement did not prevent 
 her from visiting the chief salons of Roman society, 
 where she seems to have been greatly admired. Although 
 not exactly a beauty, she was extremely attractive, with 
 an animated expressive countenance, beautiful blue eyes, 
 a charming mouth, and a very line figure. Moreover, 
 her manners were ingratiating, her voice melodious, and 
 her conversation highly entertaining. Dulness and 
 melancholy she could not abide, and she sympathised 
 with her sister the Duchesse de Lanti, whose first require- 
 ment when engaging a gardener was that he should look 
 gay and be cheerful. 
 
 Brilliant as a diamond, the Princess had something of 
 the hardness of that jewel. Yet to her first husband she 
 
 1 Madame de Cavlus, "Souvenirs" (Mich, e1 Poujoulat, 183^, 
 Ser. III. Vol. VIII.", 47S. 
 ■ 1674.
 
 2i8 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 must have been really attached, or she would not have 
 committed what the worldly Madame de Sevigne de- 
 scribed as "the madness" of following him into exile; 
 and her efforts to make the fortunes of her relatives 
 would indicate that she was not devoid of ordinary 
 family affection. But that she lacked any true tender- 
 ness of heart may be seen in various passages of her 
 letters : for example, where she marvels at her sister's 
 grief at the death of her little girl, because " after all she 
 was not her only child," or where on the death of a baby 
 of two, she writes to the parent : ' It can cause you no 
 great sorrow for at that age you could not know whether 
 the infant would bring you joy or sadness." Had the 
 Princess herself been a mother, perhaps she might have 
 written differently. But, as we shall see, ambition, not 
 love, was her devouring passion. 
 
 And this lofty ambition she was soon in a position to 
 gratify. For through the Cardinal d'Estrees, she received 
 a proposal of marriage from the first noble in Rome, 1 
 Flavio, Duke of Bracciano, a grandee of Spain and the 
 head of the Roman house of Orsini. Ever since the 
 twelfth century, when leaving their native town of 
 Spoleto, 2 the Orsini had settled in Rome, they had been 
 eminent for their number, their valour, their wealth, and 
 the strength of their towers. The honours of the Senate, 
 of the Sacred College, and even of the Papacy 3 had been 
 theirs ; they had furnished with queens, France, Naples 
 and Navarre ; and during their prolonged rivalry with the 
 Colonna, one large district of Rome extending along the 
 
 1 " Le premier laique de Rome," St. Simon calls him (" Memoires," 
 ed. Regnier, V., 41). 
 
 2 Their remoter origin may have been French and they may have 
 been allied to the famous fifteenth century family of Ursins. 
 
 8 No less than six times.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 219 
 
 left bank of the Tiber, from the Ponte St. Angelo to the 
 Ponte de 'Quattro Capi, was little more than an Orsini 
 fortified, camp. 
 
 As we shall see, to identify Louis XIV. with her personal 
 fortunes was ever a part of the Princess's policy, and so it 
 was not until she had obtained permission from " the 
 Great King," that Marie Anne de La Tremoille, then 
 about thirty, consented to wed this middle-aged widower 
 of fifty-five. 1 
 
 Hitherto the Princess had been merely a leader of 
 society. But now as the first citizenness of Rome, and 
 as mistress of a leading Roman Salon, she began to serve 
 a political apprenticeship which was to fit her for a 
 greater career. It was in Rome that she acquired that 
 knowledge of men's hearts which rendered her one of the 
 most eminent diplomatists of her day." And indeed, 
 it is difficult to imagine any city or any circle better fitted 
 for such a training. Rome the centre of the European 
 western world, with its pathetic ruins of so many civilisa- 
 tions, with its relics of so many political systems, with its 
 magnificent monuments, the scattered fragments of which 
 surpass the most eloquent description, can never fail to 
 fire even the most sluggish imagination. 
 
 The Rome of the Duchess of Bracciano was beginning 
 to be Rome as we know it. For several decades the city 
 had been enjoying comparative peace. Freed from 
 foreign invaders by the retirement of the French from 
 [taly and from intestine strife by the cessation of the 
 feuds between the greal families, Roman nobles had had 
 leisure for the beautification <»i their city and especially 
 
 1 The Duke of Bracciano was born in 1620, his second marriage took 
 place in 1675. 
 
 La pet onne du monde la plus . u<-, St. Simon calls 
 
 her, adding et qui avail j < > vie a Rome.
 
 220 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 of their private palaces. In 1675, the great artistic 
 genius of the age, the Michael Angelo of the century, 
 Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini, at once sculptor, painter and 
 architect, was adorning with his monuments the squares, 
 the palaces and the churches of Rome. Our Duchess 
 must have gazed with wonder on the great works of his 
 hand, on the grand colonnade before St. Peter's, on the 
 Barberini palace, on the dolphins of the ingenious Barberini 
 fountain in the square, and on the elephant bearing its 
 ancient obelisk in front of Santa Maria sopra Minerva. 
 But nowhere did the great artist more lavishly display 
 his gifts than in the fountains which adorn the Piazza 
 Navona, where the Duchess now came to live. 
 
 From very ancient times the Piazza Navona, the Circus 
 Agonalis 1 of imperial Rome, had been the bustling centre 
 of civic life. And now, in 1675, its importance had by no 
 means dwindled. Here, as from time immemorial, was 
 still transacted the business of those lotteries which even 
 to-day figure large in an Italian's life. Here on high 
 holidays, the square was flooded for the celebration of 
 those famous Naumachia, which in the following century 
 were to entertain the exiled Stuarts. Here in the balcony 
 of the Orsini palace, 2 many a scene of pomp and splendour 
 was to be enacted for the benefit of the Roman populace. 
 This great mansion stood at the southern angle of the 
 square on the site now occupied by the Palazzo Braschi. 
 Close at hand was the mutilated statue of Patroclus, on 
 which for years the Romans had been wont to hang 
 satirical remarks about their fellow citizens. Owing to 
 the skill of the tailor Pasquino in composing these gibes, 
 the statue was named after him, the lampoons themselves 
 
 1 Agona became Nagona, hence the modern Navona. 
 
 2 Later, in the eighteenth century, the Orsini resided, as they do 
 now, in part of the Theatre of Marcellus.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 221 
 
 christened Pasquinadi, and the name of the sartorial wit 
 extended to the neighbouring palace, so that the Palace 
 of the Orsini became the Palazzo Pasquino. 
 
 A circumstance which seems to be strangely discordant 
 with the high dignity of the Orsini family appears in one 
 of the Princess's letters where we find that the outer 
 rooms of the palace, probably those giving on the square, 
 were let to some thirty shopkeepers. Moreover, these 
 tenants were not even of good reputation, for years later, 
 after the Duke's death, and as the result of police investi- 
 gations, one shop was discovered to be a smugglers' den, 
 and another a nest of gamblers. Yet they and the 
 Duchess depended for their water-supply on the self-same 
 fountain, that in the palace court-yard ; Bernini's foun- 
 tains in the square were apparently only for show. And 
 we can well imagine the tradesmen's wives, bearing bronze 
 pitchers poised skilfully on their heads, eternally gossip- 
 ing round the fountain in the court-yard. 
 
 Notwithstanding its shop frontage, the Palazzo Pasquino 
 was one of the most princely residences in Rome, filled 
 with costly and countless tapestries, pictures, statues and 
 all manner of artistic treasures. And here the brilliant 
 Duchess, in all the maturity of her dazzling charms, opened 
 a salon which became a second Hotel de Rambouillet. To 
 the Pasquino Palace for some seventeen years flocked all 
 that was most distinguished in Rome, — Cardinals, princes, 
 ambassadors, and great ladies, attracted by the wit and 
 the charm of Madame la Duchesse and of her sister, 
 Louise Angeliquc whom she had married to an Italian 
 nobleman, the Duke of Lanti. The comedies and 
 concerts given by the I >u< hess oi Bracciano at the Palazzo 
 Pasquino were the great events of Roman society, talked 
 of and written about for months beforehand. In a letter
 
 222 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 to the Duchess of Lanti in 1685, the Princess mentions as 
 one of her visitors a Mr. Talbot. This may have been the 
 famous Dick Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnel, 1 a veritable Don 
 Juan and a bigoted Roman Catholic, who was sus- 
 pected of attempting to murder Cromwell and of 
 being implicated in the Popish Plot. For the latter 
 offence he was in exile between 1679 and 1685, and 
 may very likely have visited the Duchess of Bracciano 
 in Rome. 
 
 In the gay salon of the Palazzo Pasquino there was one 
 person who was not happy. The master of the house felt 
 himself overshadowed by his brilliant and imposing wife, 
 who was also his intellectual superior. Moreover, the 
 elaborate costly entertainments the Duchess devised 
 tended to increase the financial embarassments from 
 which for some years the Duke had been suffering ; for 
 his estates though vast were heavily mortgaged. These 
 causes probably led to an estrangement between husband 
 and wife which, by the year 1685, had become so serious, 
 that the Duchess was glad to leave her husband and to 
 visit France. 
 
 Between that date and 1698, when the Duke died, his 
 wife spent long periods in her native land. She wrote 
 frequently to her friends in Italy from Paris, Versailles, 
 Fontainebleau, Vichy, and also from St. Germain, whither 
 she had gone to be present at the confinement of her 
 friend, the exiled Queen of England. During these 
 visits our Duchess was careful to cultivate court friend- 
 ships, renewing her acquaintance with Francoise 
 d'Aubigne, now Marquise de Maintenon and wife of 
 Louis XIV., ingratiating herself with Le Grand Monarque 
 himself, and with his minister of foreign affairs, le Marquis 
 
 1 See "Dictionary of National Biography," under Talbot, Richard.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 223 
 
 de Torcy, and impressing all these personages with her 
 ability and her desire to serve France. 
 
 One of her most valuable friends at the French court 
 was La Marechale de Noailles, who, despite her large 
 family of twenty-one children, was ever ready to further 
 her friend's fortunes at the French court. Adrien 
 Maurice, the eldest of the twenty-one, had married 
 Madame de Maintenon's favourite niece, Mademoiselle 
 d'Aubigne. So Madame de Noailles was a powerful 
 person at Versailles ; and while she did her best for the 
 Princess, Madame des Ursins in return tried to marry off 
 some of the Marechalc's daughters. ' If only you will 
 get me this appointment in Spain," she wrote, " at 
 Madrid I can find husbands for a dozen of your girls." 
 
 Returning to Rome, the Princess there followed the 
 same policy of self-advancement which she had pursued 
 in France. Thus she succeeded in gaining a footing at the 
 papal court, where the Pope, Innocent XII., declared her 
 advice to be better than that of many cardinals, and at the 
 Spanish embassy, where Cardinal Portocarrero, Bishop 
 of Toledo, became her intimate friend. It is impossible 
 to exaggerate the importance of these friendships, which 
 were later to exercise a powerful influence not only on the 
 Princess's personal career, but on the course of European 
 politics. 1 For at Rome and elsewhere, these friendships 
 were to prove very useful to the cause of France. 
 
 It was Portocarrero who, shortly before the Duke's 
 death, effected a reconciliation between the Princess and 
 her husband, so that Bracciano when he died left his 
 widow .-ill his vast domains which, however, were 
 heavily burdened with debt. Moreover, on her husband's 
 decease, Marie Anne found herself involved in a law suit 
 
 1 Sec post, 228.
 
 224 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 with a rich Roman noble, Don Livio Odescalchi, who 
 contested the succession contending that the Duke had 
 adopted him as his son and heir. The legal proceedings 
 continued for some years, during which the Duchess, as 
 was her wont with those who opposed her, wrote numerous 
 letters to her friends which were most damaging to her 
 adversary, whom she did not hesitate to describe as 
 ce crasseux de prince. In the end, and partly through 
 the intervention of Louis XIV., Don Livio purchased 
 Orsini's country estates and the title of Duke of Bracciano 
 for 2,000,000 livres, while leaving to the Duchess the 
 Palazzo Pasquino with its furniture and the right to style 
 herself Princess Orsini, or, as she was more commonly 
 called " Princesse des Ursins." 
 
 After her husband's death the Princess's relations with 
 the French court became closer, and her salon more 
 political. Now, almost equally with the Ambassador, 
 she was regarded as the representative of France in Rome. 
 In 1699, Louis XIV. granted her a pension. And about 
 the same time she was permitted to affix the arms of 
 France to the gates of her palace, a privilege which the 
 King had withdrawn from Bracciano on account of his 
 having taken the Pope's part in a dispute about the 
 status of the French ambassador in Rome. 
 
 Of the restoration of the French arms to her palace 
 wall, Madame des Ursins made a great public event. No 
 pomp or pageantry was omitted. The occasion was a 
 high day and a holiday in Rome. In the morning a vast 
 throng assembled in the piazza to listen in silence while 
 the praises of Le Grand Monarque were read in the palace 
 balcony. In the evening the halls of the Palazzo Pasquino 
 were crowded with a distinguished company of great 
 Roman ladies, ambassadors, cardinals and cavallieri,
 
 MARIE ANNE DE LA TREMOILLE, PKINCESSE DES URSINS
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 225 
 
 before whom artistes from the Pope's own chapel per- 
 formed a cantata specially composed and representing 
 three majestic personages, Glory, Religion and the Tiber. 
 
 The French Ambassador, the Prince of Monaco, who 
 was an intimate friend of Madame des Ursins, did not 
 neglect to send "the Great King" a detailed account 
 of all these proceedings. 
 
 With Monaco's predecessor at Rome, the Cardinal de 
 Bouillon, Madame des Ursins had been on anything but 
 amicable terms, for she had a faculty for making enemies 
 as well as friends. Complaints of " this little man who is 
 craftier than you could possibly imagine," fill pages of the 
 Princess's letters to la Marechale. Involved in this 
 quarrel with the Cardinal was the Princess's brother, the 
 Abbe de Noirmoustiers, whom she had brought to Rome 
 and raised to an influential position only, as she com- 
 plained, that he might side with " her implacable enemy " 
 against her. 
 
 According to the Duke of Berwick, 1 James II. 's natural 
 son, who visited the Princess in Rome, the quarrel turned on 
 the most trivial questions, mere matters of etiquette : the 
 Cardinal felt slighted because, at the time of Bracciano's 
 death, he had been left to dine alone in an ante-chamber 
 ol the Palazzo Pasquino, and had not, as etiquette 
 required, been invited to the Duchess's room, there to 
 partake of his repast at the foot of her bed. On her pari . 
 the Duchess was furious because the Cardinal had denied 
 her what she claimed as the special privilege ol the * )rsini 
 family, the right to hang her palace with purple, the 
 mourning colour of kings and cardinals. We suspect, 
 however, that the true cause of the quarrel lay deeper 
 
 1 " Memoirrs du Mar&hal de Berwick/' ed. Mich, et Poujoulat, 
 
 Ser. III. Vol. V., 345. 
 
 C.K. Q
 
 226 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 than these querulous quibblings, and that it sprang from 
 a very natural jealousy between the accredited ambassador 
 of France and the highly trusted but unofficial agent of 
 the French King. A similar coolness arose when the 
 Princess went to Spain, and in both cases she obtained 
 the recall of her enemy. 
 
 Bouillon's successor, the Prince of Monaco, profiting 
 from his predecessor's experience, was careful not to 
 openly oppose this all-powerful lady ; at the same time, 
 determining not to be under her thumb, he declined her 
 repeated invitation to reside in her palace ; and he adroitly 
 urged as his reason just that consideration which such a 
 queen of intriguers would most readily appreciate, viz. : 
 that a public association with the Ambassador might 
 weaken the indirect influence which it was important for 
 her to exercise in favour of France. 
 
 A time was now approaching when Madame des Ursins 
 was to need the help of every friend and the employment 
 of every influence, whether secret or avowed. For in the 
 crisis to which Europe, in the last years of the century, 
 was rapidly hastening, the Princess perceived a field for 
 the employment of her diplomatic gifts far wider than any 
 upon which she had entered hitherto. And here in our 
 personal history we must pause for a moment to take a 
 bird's-eye view of the condition of Europe in 1698 and 
 1699. 
 
 In those years the great Spanish Empire upon which the 
 sun never set, that vast assemblage of states built up 
 throughout a hundred years by an accumulation of 
 inheritances, was threatened with dissolution. The child- 
 less weakling who now sat upon the throne of Charles V. 
 and Philip II. was swiftly sinking into his grave, while 
 some half-dozen great princes of Europe with covetous
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 227 
 
 eyes were watching his decline, eager to pounce on his 
 possessions. The Duke of Savoy, the Duke of Orleans, 
 the King of Portugal, the Electoral Prince of Bavaria, the 
 Emperor Leopold and Louis XIV. all considered they had 
 a right to don the crown about to fall from the feeble 
 head of King Charles II. of Spain. 
 
 But outside this group of claimants there was a power 
 which had already asserted its strength in Europe and was 
 prepared, if need were, to do so again. The power or twin 
 powers of Holland and England, now united under one 
 ruler, William, Stadtholder of Holland and King of 
 England, were determined to prevent any one European 
 prince from entering into the undivided inheritance of 
 Philip II. These maritime powers, as they were called in 
 the diplomatic parlance of the day, negotiated the two 
 partition treaties of 1698 and 1700. By the first the 
 Spanish dominions were divided between Louis' son, the 
 Dauphin, the Emperor's son, the Archduke Charles, and 
 the Electoral Prince of Bavaria, whose share included the 
 kingdom of Spain. Only a few months after the signing 
 of tin-, treaty by France, England and Holland, the death 
 of the Electoral Prince rendered another treaty necessary. 
 Therefore, at the Hague in March, 1700, the three Powers 
 executed another partition of the Spanish dominions 
 between the two remaining princes, the Dauphin and the 
 Archdukr ( harles, to the latter being assigned the crown 
 
 But while the three northern powers were thus carving 
 up the Spanish dominions, the Spaniards themselves 
 
 had their <>\vn views as to the late of their kingdom and 
 its dependencies; and one idea they held most strongly: 
 they were determined that never should the monarchy 
 of Philip II. be dismembered, and that whosoever, 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 whether Habsburg or Bourbon, succeeded to a part, 
 must necessarily succeed to the whole. 
 
 Simultaneously therefore with the negotiations at the 
 Hague were proceeding others at Madrid. These were 
 carried on by the French and the Austrian Ambassadors 
 in the interests, on the one hand, of the Bourbon, and on 
 the other of the Habsburg claimant. Each ambassador 
 was endeavouring to persuade Charles II. to make a will 
 bequeathing the whole of his dominions to the claim- 
 ant he (the ambassador) supported — in the case of 
 Comte d'Harcourt, the French Ambassador, it was the 
 Dauphin or one of his sons ; in the case of Comte 
 d'Harrach, the Austrian Ambassador, it was the Archduke 
 Charles. 
 
 Louis XIV. therefore was conducting two sets of 
 negotiations in contrary directions ; while at the Hague 
 he was promising the maritime powers that the Spanish 
 dominions should not pass into one hand, at Madrid he 
 was straining every effort to obtain the whole inheritance 
 for a member of his family. And in the end it was the 
 French Ambassador at Madrid who won the day. In 
 addition to his own brains, which were some of the 
 sharpest, Comte d'Harcourt was able to employ in the 
 French interest the influence of Portocarrero, who had 
 now returned to Madrid from Rome, where La Princesse 
 des Ursins had won him for the French cause. At length 
 the scale was finally turned in favour of France, by a 
 letter received by Charles II. from the Pope, Innocent XII. 
 He, too, Madame des Ursins had won for France, and now 
 he wrote advising the King to leave his dominions to the 
 grandson of Louis XIV. Charles II., who was a devoted 
 son of Mother Church, obeyed the Pope's behest, and on 
 October 2nd, 1700, made a will leaving to Philip, Duke of
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 229 
 
 Anjou, the Dauphin's second son, the monarchy of Spain 
 with all its dependencies. 
 
 A month later, on November 1st, Charles died. There 
 were few who knew the contents of the King's will. The 
 French Ambassador himself was ignorant of the success 
 of his intrigues. 
 
 The announcement of a decision which was of such vast 
 importance not only for Spain but for the whole of western 
 Europe attracted to the palace a curious crowd. The 
 will was opened in the Council Chamber of the late King, 
 in the presence of his Junta or Cabinet. What happened 
 outside has been graphically described by St. Simon. 1 
 ' All the rooms adjoining the Council Chamber, where the 
 will was being read," he writes, " were crowded almost to 
 suffocation. The foreign ambassadors were conspicuous 
 as they pushed eagerly forward, each anxious to be the 
 first to inform his court of the choice made by the King. 
 Blecourt 8 was there, for he was as ignorant as they re- 
 specting the secret. Count d'Harrach, the Emperor's 
 ambassador, was standing just in front of the door of the 
 Council Chamber. He bore himself triumphantly, for he 
 relied upon the will's being in favour of the Archduke, 
 and his hopes for his own future were high. At last the 
 door opened for a moment and there appeared the Duke 
 of Abrantes, a man greatly feared for his malicious wit. 
 He had slipped out of the Council Chamber as soon as the 
 reading of the will was over for the enjoyment of dis- 
 closing the great secret. Instantly he was beset by the 
 crowd. lie gazed calmly upon them, but maintained 
 a solemn silence. Blecourt approached. The Duke 
 regarded him vacantly, and then, turning away his head, 
 
 1 In his " MCmoircs," ed, Regnier, VII., zm —znz. 
 
 3 The French Ambassador who had succeeded Harcourt.
 
 2 3 o FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 appeared to be searching for some other person. This 
 action surprised Blecourt, and was interpreted by all as 
 auguring ill for France. Suddenly the Duke seemed to 
 become aware of the presence of Count d'Harrach. A 
 joyful expression illumined his countenance, and throwing 
 himself into his arms, he exclaimed aloud in Spanish, 
 ' Senor, it is with great pleasure ' — here he made a 
 pause and again embraced him, ' Yes, Sehor, it is with 
 heartfelt joy that from henceforth ' — here he made a 
 second pause. ' It is indeed with infinite satisfaction 
 that I now part from you and take a final leave of the 
 august house of Austria.' Count d'Harrach's astonish- 
 ment and indignation deprived him of all power of 
 utterance. He stood quite still for a moment, and then 
 left the room, fuming with rage and disappointment." 
 
 In London and Amsterdam, in Vienna and Rome, where 
 no one knew of Louis' intrigues at Madrid, the great 
 question was whether the French King, in defiance of the 
 Partition Treaty, would accept for his grandson the 
 bequest of Charles II. Madame des Ursins, who had so 
 effectually seconded Harcourt's scheming, can have had 
 no doubt as to the result of that conference, which Louis, 
 as soon as the contents of the will were communicated to 
 him, made a point of holding with his ministers. And 
 there can have been no surprise in that astute lady's mind 
 when shortly afterwards she heard that Louis had sum- 
 moned his grandson in order to declare to him his decision 
 in the presence of the whole court. " Sir," said Louis, 
 pompously addressing the young Prince, " the King of 
 Spain has made you King ; the grandees invite you ; the 
 people long for you, and I consent ; to be a good Spaniard 
 will henceforth be your first duty ; but remember that 
 you were born a Frenchman." On November 24th
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 231 
 
 Philip V. was proclaimed King of Spain ; and a few days 
 later, on December 4th, the new King, then a youth of 
 seventeen, set forth for his dominions, his grandfather 
 bidding him farewell in majestic words which have 
 become famous : " Go, henceforth the Pyrenees have 
 ceased to exist." 
 
 At first it seemed as if Europe would quietly acquiesce 
 in the accession of a Bourbon to the throne of Spain. 
 Europe was tired of war, and especially England, which 
 hitherto had borne the brunt of the great struggle against 
 Louis XIV. In England, William, who would willingly 
 have reopened the conflict, was becoming more and more 
 unpopular, and the Tories, who were then the peace party, 
 were in the ascendant. Had not Louis himself committed 
 an extraordinary blunder there might have been no war 
 of the Spanish succession. On September 6th, 1701, the 
 exiled King, James II., died at St. Germain, and straight- 
 way, Louis, violating a clause in the Treaty of Ryswick 
 which pledged him to withdraw all support from the 
 exiled Stuarts, recognised his son James as King of 
 England. Instantly English apathy vanished. Whigs and 
 Tories joined in condemning the action of the French court. 
 From London and from every corner of the realm resounded 
 a cry for war. Assured of England's help, Holland and 
 Austria took up arms ; the Archduke Charles having 
 formally laid claim to the Spanish monarchy on 
 May 15th, 1702, a declaration of war was published 
 simultaneously by England, Holland and the Empire. 
 
 In the direction of this war and indeed in the course of 
 European history for the next fourteen years Madame 
 des Ursins was to play a prominent part. On hearing 
 that the Great Monarch had accepted King Charles's 
 bequest for his grandson, the Princess had written con-
 
 232 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 gratulating Louis on the " great event," which, as she put 
 it, " seemed to have happened expressly in order to raise 
 His Majesty's glory far above the imagination of man- 
 kind." At the same time in a letter to Torcy she rejoiced 
 over the accomplishment of that affair, which for fear of the 
 misfortunes it might give rise to had caused all Europe to 
 tremble, but was now by the merit of the King alone, the 
 sovereign arbiter, arranged for the peace of Christendom. 
 " What glory, O my God," she concluded, " but also 
 what moderation ! " 
 
 In the accomplishment of this great affair Madame des 
 Ursins was not slow to discern a way to her own advance- 
 ment, and in what manner with admirable lucidity she 
 explained in a letter to la Marechale. Philip must be 
 provided with a wife, wrote this wily intriguante, and as 
 Philip himself was but a youth his wife also must be 
 young. She would require therefore an accomplished 
 woman of the world to direct her, one preferably who 
 should be devoted to French interests and willing to 
 exercise French influence at Madrid ; but who was so 
 fitted to occupy such a post as the writer of this letter ? 
 Had she not effectively proved her skill in diplomacy and 
 her devotion to the interests of France ? Was she not 
 also the widow of a grandee of Spain, and peculiarly fitted 
 for life at the Spanish court by her knowledge of the 
 language and her earlier residence in the country ? 
 
 As to the bride who should be chosen for the young 
 King, Madame des Ursins also had her views. 
 
 And she suggested Marie Louise, second daughter of 
 Victor Amadeus, Duke of Savoy, sister to the graceful 
 and popular Marie Adelaide, the wife of the Duke of 
 Burgundy, the Dauphin's eldest son. 
 
 The letter containing all these proposals la Marechale
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 233 
 
 showed to Madame de Maintenon, who doubtless com- 
 municated its contents to the King. And Louis seriously 
 considered them. The eminent success of the Duke of 
 Burgundy's marriage with Marie Adelaide, who was a 
 great favourite at court, inclined the King to select 
 another bride from that family. Moreover, as Victor 
 Amadeus was aspirant to the crown of Spain, the alliance 
 would have the advantage of uniting two claims. And 
 so Madame des Ursins' advice was adopted ; and the 
 King decided to marry his grandson to the Savoyard 
 Princess, and to make Madame des Ursins her chief 
 lady-in-waiting or Camercra Major. 
 
 Early in May, 1701, the news of her prospective appoint- 
 ment reached Madame des Ursins. On June 20th she 
 received from His Catholic Majesty, King Philip V., the 
 official announcement that she had been appointed 
 Camercra Major and had been chosen to accompany his 
 bride to Madrid. But she had already begun her prepara- 
 tions for departure, and had ordered her travelling coach 
 and the liveries for her servants. 
 
 On September nth Philip married Marie Louise 1 by 
 
 proxy at Turin. The bride was but a child of thirteen, 
 
 very young to be sent abroad in such troubled times and 
 
 into such a disturbed country. Nevertheless, only a few 
 
 days after the wedding, accompanied by her confessor and 
 
 a suite of Italian ladies and gentlemen, she set forth for 
 
 her husband's kingdom. Al Villa franca, a port of Savoy, 
 
 not far from Nice, the Queen met Madame des Ursins, and 
 
 the first impression which this great lady made upon the 
 
 royal bride appears to have been favourable. From 
 
 Villafranca the company proceeded by sea to Antibcs. 
 
 1 By her mother, Anne d'Orl6ans, daughter of Henrietta Maria of 
 England, anil the Duke oi I Irleans, Marie Louise was the great-grand- 
 daughter oi our King Charles I.
 
 234 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 There they were detained by contrary winds, which 
 pursued them so furiously when they continued their 
 voyage that the Queen, who was a bad sailor, suffered 
 greatly. Therefore, at the instance of Madame des 
 Ursins, Louis gave them permission to continue their 
 journey by land. At Figueras, on the Spanish frontier, 
 the Camerera Major insisted on the return to Savoy of 
 the Queen's Italian suite. Thereby she completely lost 
 her little mistress's favour ; and it was weeks before she 
 could win it back again. The Duchess of Burgundy, the 
 Queen's sister, on her way to France, had submitted 
 without a murmur ; but the Queen was furious at thus 
 being left with strangers, and she took a dislike to Madame 
 des Ursins, which it took all the Camerera Major's tact 
 to overcome. 
 
 It was at Figueras, too, that the King met his bride. 
 And not unnaturally he found her in a very bad temper, 
 which considerably marred the completion of the wedding 
 ceremonies. At least, such is the story which St. Simon 
 says was told by the Marquis de Louville, who as the 
 young King's adviser had accompanied him to Spain. 
 
 That Philip, who had no reason for sharing his wife's 
 dislike of her Camerera Major, soon became attached to 
 Madame des Ursins, we may learn from an amusing letter 
 in which the latter described her new duties. 
 
 " How Madame de Maintenon would laugh," she 
 writes, " if she knew all the petty offices I have to perform. 
 Tell her, I entreat you, that it is I who have the honour to 
 present the King with his dressing-gown when he goes 
 to bed, and to give him his slippers when he rises. This I 
 might not object to ; but every evening when the King 
 enters the Queen's chamber, the Count of Beneventum 
 entrusts me with his Majesty's sword . . . and with a
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 235 
 
 lamp which I generally upset over my clothes. Really, 
 it is too ridiculous. The King would never get up if I 
 did not draw his curtains ; and it would be sacrilege for 
 any one else to enter the room when the King and Queen 
 are in bed. The other day the lamp went out because I 
 had spilt half the oil ; I did not know where the windows 
 were, having reached the place the previous night when 
 they were closed ; I thought I should have broken my 
 nose against the wall, and for a quarter of an hour there 
 were the King of Spain and I knocking up against the 
 furniture feeling for the shutters." 1 
 
 This meticulous ceremonial was a part of that elaborate 
 etiquette which rendered the Spanish court the dullest 
 place in the world. The wife of a previous French 
 Ambassador at Madrid had described the gloom of 
 existence there as so crushing that on entering the Queen's 
 chamber one seemed to feel it, to see it, and to touch it. 
 This gloom Madame des Ursins set herself to dissipate by 
 employing all the ingenuity which she had formerly 
 displayed in her Roman salon, in organising concerts, 
 balls and comedies for the amusement of the royal couple. 
 Italian music was then beginning to be the vogue, and it 
 was the Princess who first introduced it into Spain. The 
 chief amusements of Philip's predecessors seem to have 
 been hunting and the watching of those terrible autos- 
 da-fe, relics of mediaeval barbarism which the Spanish 
 Inquisition still retained. " Charles II.," writes Macaulay, 
 " enjoyed with the delight of a true Spaniard two delight- 
 ful spectacles, a horse with its bowels gored out, and a 
 Jew writhing in the fire." It was Madame des Ursins, 
 who, from the time of her arrival in Spain, openly 
 
 1 Written from Barcelona to Madame deNoailles on December z 2th, 
 1701. See " Lettrea [oddites dc la Princesse des Ursins" (Geoffroy, 
 i«59), p. M4-
 
 236 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 condemned these hideous scenes and prevailed upon 
 Philip V. to discontinue them. 
 
 The King's confidence the Camerera Major won rapidly 
 and completely, but with the Queen it was different. 
 And Marie Louise was long in forgetting how the Princess 
 had parted her from her countrywomen and left her to 
 strangers. One is not surprised, therefore, at the note 
 of sadness in the letters which during the first weeks of 
 her married life the little Queen wrote to her grand- 
 mother, the Dowager Duchess of Savoy. Of " the 
 lounging, moping boy " who was her husband, Marie 
 Louise writes, " I wish the King would talk more " ; then 
 in another letter, " Hunting is the King's favourite amuse- 
 ment ; he goes out every day. I sometimes visit convents, 
 which are ugly, or go into the garden. To-day, because it 
 is Sunday, the King will come with us." 
 
 Madame des Ursins had to exercise all her tact and 
 charm before she could gain the affection of the home- 
 sick Queen. " The King is a charming Prince whose 
 confidence I hope to win. Would to God the Queen 
 resembled him," she wrote. But the Queen's affection 
 was all the more durable for not being lightly given. 
 After a time Marie Louise yielded to the Princess's 
 attractions, and, once having forgotten her grievance, 
 became her devoted and lifelong friend. 
 
 Spain under Philip V. may be compared to the house- 
 hold of Themistocles, for while in the latter it was the wife 
 who ruled Themistocles, and the baby who ruled the wife, 
 and therefore the baby who ruled the house, so in Spain it 
 was the Queen who ruled Philip V., Madame des Ursins 
 who ruled the Queen, and therefore Madame des Ursins 
 who ruled Spain. According to Louville, Philip V. was a 
 prince " who does not reign, and who never will." On the
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 237 
 
 whole, the influence exerted by Madame des Ursins was 
 for the good of the country. The Princess was resolved 
 to render her royal pupil not only happy, but useful. 
 And her design in this respect was soon seconded by 
 fortune. For, but a few months after his marriage, King 
 Philip left Barcelona to conduct the war in Italy, and the 
 Queen was appointed regent during his absence. The 
 Princess contrived that the Queen's office should be no 
 sinecure. Immediately she carried her off to Sarra- 
 gossa. There, always with her Camcrcra Major at her 
 elbow, the Queen presided over the meeting of the 
 Estates of Castile, much to the chagrin of the deputies, 
 who demurred to the presidency of a woman. Then 
 Marie Louise was taken to Madrid, where her indefatigable 
 gouvcmante insisted on her being present at the meetings 
 of the Council or Junta, always well chaperoned by the 
 Princess, who had no right whatever to be there, but who 
 eagerly seized on this opportunity to penetrate into the 
 secret mysteries of Spanish government. During those 
 interminable discussions, which lasted usually for six 
 hours, while the little Queen was permitted to amuse 
 herself with needlework, her lady-in-waiting listened 
 eagerly, losing not a word, and carefully reproducing these 
 debates in her letters to Louis XIV. 
 
 Those were troubled times for Spain, for in September, 
 1702, while the King was still absent, the English fleet 
 under the Duke of Ormond entered the harbour of Cadiz 
 and landed an army. The landing of English soldiers, 
 however, was not altogether a misfortune for the Spanish 
 government. The barbarity and greed of the invaders 
 so roused the Spanish national spirit that the peasants to 
 a man volunteered to fight in defence of their country, 
 while nobles and farmers, and even poor folk, gave all
 
 238 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 that they had to repulse the foreigner. Madame des 
 Ursins took care that in this crisis the Queen should 
 appear as the organiser of defence, and it was to her that 
 the parish priests brought the savings of their parishioners. 
 One came bearing 120 pistoles. " My flock are ashamed 
 to send you so little," he said, " but they beg you to 
 believe that in this purse there are a hundred and twenty 
 hearts faithful even to the death." The Queen gave her 
 own jewels for the payment of soldiers. She herself 
 offered to go to the coast. 
 
 By this time all misunderstanding between Madame 
 and her royal pupil had vanished, and when, early in 
 1703, King Philip returned to Spain he found them in 
 perfect accord. He himself, during his absence, had so 
 pined for his wife that on his return he fell more passion- 
 ately in love with her than ever and more completely 
 under her influence. 
 
 But that Spain should be governed by two women was 
 the last thing desired by the two Cardinals, the Princess's 
 two old friends, Portocarrero and Estrees, who with her 
 help had been chiefly instrumental in bringing the 
 Bourbons into Spain. It was not in order to make 
 Madame des Ursins the arbiter of Spanish destinies that 
 they had raised Philip V. to the throne. Cardinal 
 d'Estrees was now French Ambassador at Madrid. Porto- 
 carrero was the president of the Junta. But they both 
 speedily became such formidable rivals that Madame des 
 Ursins began to scheme against them. By representa- 
 tions to Versailles she obtained Estrees' recall ; Porto- 
 carrero she persuaded to accept military office, and thus, 
 according to a Spanish law, to effect his own exclusion 
 from the Junta. Even then, however, the Princess's 
 triumph was by no means secure ; for the Cardinal
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 239 
 
 d'Estrees was succeeded by his nephew, the Abbe 
 d'Estrees, who, although he was apparently content to 
 be Madame's subordinate, was all the while working 
 secretly against her and complaining of her conduct in 
 the despatches he sent to France. 
 
 Beginning to suspect this treachery, the Princess 
 intercepted one of the Abbe's despatches, wherein she 
 found her suspicions fully justified ; for in this document 
 the Ambassador descanted at length on the scandalous 
 relations which were said to exist between Madame and 
 her secretary d'Aubigne, whom she had brought from 
 Italy. How much truth there was in these allegations it 
 is impossible to tell, neither can we be certain as to what 
 happened to this despatch after the Princess had read it ; 
 for two conflicting stories are told as to its fate, one by 
 the Duke of Berwick, who was at that time commanding 
 the French troops in Spain, and the other by that malicious 
 raconteur St. Simon. 
 
 St. Simon's story, though probably false, is too 
 amusing not to be repeated here. He tells how Madame 
 des Ursins, having read with comparative calm a long 
 list of accusations against her and her secretary, came to a 
 statement that they were married. This was too great an 
 insult to the pride of a high-born dame ; the charge that 
 d'Aubigne was her lover she might endure, but that she 
 had married the son of a Paris attorney was too much. 
 In her indignation she took up her pen and wrote in the 
 margin: " .Married! certainly not!" 1 Then, oblivious 
 of this tell-tale comment, she sealed up the despatch to 
 look as if it had never been opened and forwarded it to 
 France. Louis, as was his custom, had the ambassador's 
 letter opened and read before his Council, and great was 
 
 1 Pour marl's non.
 
 240 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 the merriment at the reading of the Princess's impetuous 
 marginal denial of the Abbe's accusation. Such conduct, 
 however, was beyond a joke, and anger soon succeeded 
 mirth in the breasts of the King and his counsellors. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to point out the improbability of 
 St. Simon's story. Madame des Ursins was no fool to 
 commit such a blunder, neither did she ever allow herself 
 to be carried away by indignation. For what most likely 
 happened we must turn to the Duke of Berwick's Memoirs, 
 where he relates, that, having taken a copy of the letter, 
 the Princess added to the original her contravention of the 
 Ambassador's slander, and with complaints of his perfidy 
 forwarded the packet to the King. 
 
 Whatever the details may have been, it was this incident 
 which caused Madame des Ursins' fall, and closed the first 
 period of her rule in Spain. For some time there had been 
 two parties at the court of France, the Princess's friends, 
 notably La Marechale de Noailles and the former Spanish 
 Ambassador, Comte d'Harcourt, who through Madame de 
 Maintenon, besieged the Monarch's ears with praises of 
 the Princess ; and her enemies, the chief of whom was 
 Cardinal d'Estrees, who were equally untiring in their 
 complaints against her. For some time Louis had been 
 inclined to agree with the latter ; and the intercepted 
 despatch decided him. In May, 1704, Madame des 
 Ursins was recalled. " At length, Madame," she wrote 
 to la Marechale, " falsehood has conquered truth, and 
 although I may say that never did anyone serve the King 
 with greater zeal and with greater honesty, yet I am 
 treated as a criminal who has betrayed the state while 
 my accusers glory." 
 
 The Princess's mission in Spain now appeared an utter 
 failure. Her enemies must have thought that the
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 241 
 
 diplomatic career of this elderly woman of over sixty was 
 at an end and that nothing remained for her but to with- 
 draw quietly to Rome. Madame des Ursins, however, 
 was not one to be vanquished by adversity : it was in 
 times of mischance that her gifts best displayed them- 
 selves ; and she never appeared more brilliant than when 
 in a few months she converted this humiliating defeat 
 into a glorious victory. 
 
 Her method was first of all to gain time : she was in no 
 hurry to obey Louis' command and to leave the Spanish 
 capital. When at length she did comply it was only to 
 withdraw to Alcala, about twenty miles from Madrid, and 
 there she lingered for five weeks before leisurely pursuing 
 her journey to Bayonne. Then, instead of making for 
 Rome, as her enemies hoped and expected, she went to 
 Toulouse and waited. 
 
 Meanwhile in Madrid, since her departure, things had 
 been going from bad to worse : the King and Queen were 
 disconsolate at the Princess's recall ; the Spaniards, too, 
 with whom she was very popular, mourned her absence, 
 and none of these circumstances escaped the knowledge 
 of Louis XIV., who, at the same time, was constantly 
 hearing of the injustice of her treatment from Madame de 
 M;iintenon and Comte d'Harcourt. Finally, in December, 
 1704, the Princess obtained just what she wanted — a 
 summons to appear at Versailles ; and now she did not 
 delay, but straightway obeyed the King's command. 
 Before the end of January, despite the severity of the 
 weather, she had travelled north and reached Paris. 
 
 At the French court she carried everything before her. 
 During her previous visits she can have known little of the 
 King. During her three years' residence in Spain, Louis 
 had shown respect for her judgment, and on one 
 
 c.R. R
 
 242 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 occasion 1 he even countermanded an order at her 
 request. 
 
 But any esteem in which Louis may have previously 
 held Madame des Ursins was far beneath that he now 
 formed of her. Now she captivated him by her grace and 
 her ability. For hours she remained closeted with the 
 King and with Madame de Maintenon discussing the 
 affairs of Spain. In public the King paid her almost as 
 much deference as if she had been a Queen. At one of the 
 court balls she was seen carrying in her arms a little 
 spaniel, a privilege accorded to no other lady at court, 
 and the King actually caressed it during one of the dances. 
 Sainte-Beuve paints a charming picture 2 of the delightful 
 intercourse enjoyed by these three eminent personages, 
 the great King, Madame de Maintenon and Madame des 
 Ursins. With the last as a third " even the King's inter- 
 course with Madame de Maintenon assumed a new fresh- 
 ness. But of the three," Sainte-Beuve ventures to say, 
 " it was Madame des Ursins who most powerfully 
 dominated the situation, who was the most detached 
 from her part and yet who played it the best." 
 
 From the moment of the Princess's arrival at Versailles 
 her return to Spain had been a foregone conclusion ; but 
 her cause was greatly strengthened by the communica- 
 tions which the King was receiving from the Due de 
 Gramont, then French Ambassador at Madrid. These 
 despatches convinced Louis of Philip's incapacity to 
 govern on his own account, of the Queen's devotion to 
 Madame des Ursins and of her indignation at the disgrace 
 of her Camerera Major, which had struck a serious blow 
 
 1 When he had revoked his instructions to the Spanish Government 
 to confiscate the treasure of other nations brought in Spanish galleons 
 into Vigo Bay. 
 
 2 " Causeries du Lundi," ed. 1852, V., 331
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 243 
 
 at French influence at Madrid. Thus Louis was driven 
 to the conclusion that Madame's return to power was the 
 only possible way of restoring amicable relations between 
 the two countries ; and apparently when she had been 
 but a few weeks at Versailles the King requested her to 
 return to Spain. But now she was on her dignity. Now 
 it was her turn to hang back. Now she must have some- 
 thing better than her former equivocal position at Madrid ; 
 now the King must not only extend her powers, he must 
 definitely recognise them. And so, at Marly, in an 
 interview between that imposing trio, the Great King, 
 the Great Marchioness and the Great Princess, a document 
 was drawn up and committed to the care of Madame de 
 Maintenon. In this document Louis undertook to 
 increase the Princess's pension, to communicate in future 
 with her direct and not by the intermediary of any 
 ambassador, to pay no heed to any calumnies against her, 
 to relieve her of the duties of Camcrcra Major, which 
 restricted her independence, to appoint as ambassador 
 one of her friends, Amelot, Marquis de Gournay, and 
 finally to contrive that she should be consulted as to the 
 appointment of Spanish ministers. 
 
 Such measures practically placed the government of 
 Spain in the hands of the Princcsse des Ursins, and 
 constituted her the acknowledged agent of France at 
 Madrid. Her triumph was supreme, she had now surely 
 attained the height of her ambition. And yet, if we may 
 believe St. Simon — and in this matter there is no reason 
 to doubt him — this ambitious woman was not satisfied, she 
 ,1 pircd to a position still loftier. From January till June 
 she lingered at the French court. Madame de Maintenon 
 could nol understand why. She had conquered, she had 
 triumphed brilliantly, why did she not set out to enjoy 
 
 r 2
 
 244 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 the fruits of her victory ? " There is something I cannot 
 understand about Madame des Ursins," wrote the 
 Marchioness, " she can't be induced to depart." St. 
 Simon suggests, and with no improbability, that the 
 feeble health of Madame de Maintenon and the impression 
 which the Princess had obviously made upon the King had 
 so inflated her ambition that she hoped in the event of 
 the Marchioness's demise to become Queen of France, for 
 we may be sure that she would never have consented to 
 a morganatic marriage with the King. But Madame de 
 Maintenon recovered, the Princess's dream vanished ; 
 and, on June 29th, 1705, we find her at Amboise, en route 
 for Spain. 
 
 Her journey to Madrid was a triumphal progress. 
 " Spain receives me," she wrote, " with every conceivable 
 honour and demonstration of joy." Wherever she 
 passed, dances, games, bull fights, fireworks and the 
 discharge of cannon greeted her return. A few miles 
 from Madrid, the French Ambassador came out to meet 
 her. After he had entertained her at a superb banquet, 
 the King and Queen themselves arrived with the whole 
 court. Then in pomp and magnificence they escorted her 
 into the capital, which, amidst the applause of the people, 
 she entered on August 3rd. 
 
 It is during the time of her second rule in Spain, between 
 1705 and 1714, that Madame des Ursins appears to the 
 greatest advantage. She returned to find the country a 
 prey to two evils, civil war and foreign invasion. A strong 
 party led by the Admiral of Castile had gone over to the 
 Austrian Archduke Charles, who called himself King- 
 Charles III., and who was then commanding the army 
 sent by the allies to drive the Bourbons from the Spanish 
 throne. Meanwhile an English fleet cruising off the coast
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 245 
 
 supported the land forces and constantly threatened the 
 harbours of Spain with pillage and desolation. In the face 
 of these disasters nothing but the fortitude, the hopeful- 
 ness, the resource and the energy of Madame des Ursins 
 could have preserved the throne of Spain for the house of 
 Bourbon. 
 
 Madame de Maintenon, blissfully ignorant of the 
 Princess's dream of succeeding her, was now her intimate 
 friend and her most regular correspondent. In her letters 
 she marvels at the cheerfulness with which the Princess 
 breasted this sea of troubles. ' My temperament is my 
 best friend," 1 Madame des Ursins wrote. "Among the 
 many gifts I have received from God is the gift of cheer- 
 fulness, which enables me to despair of nothing. I am 
 firmly persuaded that with courage, with diligence and 
 with firmness one may overcome the greatest difficulties, 
 provided always that those who act desire the public 
 good." 2 And throughout those dark days " the public 
 good " that Madame des Ursins desired seems to have 
 been that of Spain, for whose sake she even dared to differ 
 from "the Great King." 
 
 On reaching Madrid in the summer of 1705, she found 
 that the allies were rapidly conquering Catalonia and 
 besieging its chief city Barcelona, which fell into their 
 hands on October 9th. The Princess's letters at this 
 time to Chamillard, Minister of War and Finance, to 
 Madame de Maintenon and to La Marechale de Noailles 
 are full of entreaties for help. After the loss of Barcelona 
 she wrote : 'If only at the beginning of the war France 
 had sent us two or three thousand men through Roussillon, 
 we should now be as well as we arc badly off. That the 
 
 1 See Geoffroy, " Lcttres Incdites de Madame de .Maintenon et de 
 Madame des Ursins," p. 259. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 256.
 
 246 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 succour did not come was not my fault, for I wrote to 
 your court that it was absolutely necessary." x 
 
 In spite of the Princess's admirable efforts the prospects 
 of the Bourbons in Spain grew steadily darker until, in 
 1706, the approach of the allies drove the King and Queen 
 from the capital. " We departed without the barest 
 necessities," wrote Madame des Ursins. 2 " At first the 
 Queen was without a bed. Fortunately the Chevalier de 
 Bragelonne, who commanded our French escort, had a new 
 one, which came in very useful. But other things were 
 not so easily supplied, for (on the first day) Her Majesty 
 had only two eggs for supper, and much the same fare on 
 the morrow." 3 
 
 While the King joined the army, the Queen with 
 Madame des Ursins, one lady-in-waiting and a maid was 
 left at Burgos ; and thence with her accustomed gaiety 
 the Princess sent Madame de Maintenon an amusing 
 description of their quarters. " My apartment," she wrote, 
 " consists of only one room some twelve or thirteen feet 
 square. A large window, which refuses to shut, occupies 
 nearly the whole of one wall ; a low door leads into the 
 Queen's chamber, and a smaller one into a winding passage 
 which I never dare enter, although there are two or three 
 lamps burning in it, because it is so badly paved that I 
 should break my neck. I can't say that the walls are 
 white, because they are very dirty. My travelling bed is 
 my only piece of furniture, save for a folding chair and a 
 deal table which serves for my toilet, and on which I write 
 and eat my dessert from the Queen's table. 
 
 ' At all this Her Majesty does nothing but laugh, and I 
 join her." 
 
 1 Geoffroy, op. cit., p. 207. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 249. 
 8 Ibid., p. 249.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 247 
 
 One is glad to find that such astounding equanimity in 
 misfortune did not remain unrewarded ; after a few 
 weeks' occupation of the capital the allies retreated, and 
 the King and Queen with Madame des Ursins returned 
 to Madrid. 
 
 Some months earlier, on December Sth, 1705, the 
 Princess had written at great length l to Chamillard on 
 the conduct of the war, and in this letter she had entreated 
 that her old friend, the Duke of Berwick, who in the 
 previous year had been recalled to France, should be sent 
 back to Spain to command the King's army. Her request 
 had been granted. " This great devil of an Englishman," 
 as Berwick was called in Spain, realised all Madame des 
 Ursins' hopes, and it was Berwick's advance which had 
 driven the allies out of Madrid. Now the Princess made 
 superb efforts to efficiently equip his army. In the 
 province of Burgos she raised 8,000 pistoles, in another 
 15,000, and in wealthy Andalusia still more. Money, 
 food and clothing poured into Berwick's camp ; and, as 
 King Philip admitted in a graceful letter to the Princess, 
 it was owing to her energy and resource that he was now 
 able to feed, to clothe and to pay his soldiers. 
 
 Madame des Ursins' noble exertions received their 
 recompense when, at Almanza, 2 on April 25th, 1707, 
 Marshal Berwick inflicted a crushing defeat on the allies. 
 
 This victory for a time completely restored the fortunes 
 of King Philip V. ; and by the end of the year the only 
 part of Spain held by the allies was the northern province 
 of Catalonia. The news of the battle was received with 
 
 1 The letter occupies eight pages (213—221) of Geoffroy' 
 - The only batt Le i< orded in whi< b an Engli b g( aeral at the head 
 of a I'm in ii army defeated an English army commanded by a French- 
 man. '1 In' l.n.'li-lnnan was, of (.urn < , Uerwick, the In in li man, Henri 
 
 1I1 Ruvigny, Lord Galway.
 
 248 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 great rejoicing both in France and at Madrid. Madame 
 des Ursins herself had the joy of announcing it to the 
 King and Queen. Madame de Maintenon, in one of her 
 liveliest letters, related how the news reached the French 
 court. 1 " You know, Marly," she writes, " and my apart- 
 ments there ; the King was alone in my little room ; and 
 I in my boudoir, which serves as a passage, was sitting 
 down to table, when an officer of the guards announced at 
 the King's door, M. de Chamillard. The King replied, 
 ' What, is it he ? ' for naturally he was not expected. I, 
 very much astonished, threw down my napkin, as M. de 
 Chamillard, crying ' It is good news ! ' went straight in to 
 the King . . . and, as you may imagine, Madame, I went 
 in also. Then I heard of the defeat of the enemy's army 
 and returned to my supper in high spirits." 
 
 The year 1707 was one of rejoicing at the court of 
 Spain, for on August 25th a prince was born to the King 
 and Queen. We are amused to find Madame des Ursins 
 taking credit to herself for this auspicious event. The 
 Spaniards, she writes, would have blamed her had their 
 Queen not born an heir. For months the Princess had 
 been on the tip-toe of eager expectation. Long letters 
 on the subject had passed between the two childless old 
 ladies who then controlled the courts of Versailles and 
 Madrid, Madame des Ursins asking for advice as to the 
 selection of nurses for the royal infant, Madame de 
 Maintenon counselling Madame des Ursins to study a 
 graceful attitude for rocking the cradle. 
 
 Meanwhile, although fortune was favouring the 
 Bourbons in Spain, in Italy and the north the military 
 gifts of Prince Eugene and the Duke of Marlborough were 
 
 1 " Lcttres Inedites de Madame de Maintenon et de la Princesse 
 des Ursins," I., 120.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 249 
 
 driving Louis XIV. to despair. He was beginning to 
 feel the task of maintaining his grandson on the throne of 
 Spain to be an intolerable burden. The terrible disasters 
 of 1709, the defeat of Malplaquet, and a severe winter 
 followed by plague and famine, confirmed Louis in this 
 idea, in which he was supported by Madame de Maintenon, 
 who desired peace at any price. On this point she had 
 long and bitter discussions with Madame des Ursins, who 
 would never for a moment entertain the idea of abandon- 
 ing Spain to the Austrians, not even when in September, 
 1710, the court was again driven from Madrid. In that 
 year, as in 1707, the allies were unable to hold the capital 
 for long, and by December the King and Queen were back 
 again in their capital. Meanwhile the skilful operations of 
 VendAme caused the enemy to retreat northwards, until 
 once again they were confined within the mountainous 
 strongholds of Catalonia. 
 
 This advantage gained by the French in Spain doubtless 
 influenced those negotiations for peace which were now 
 being carried on by the warring Powers. Events in the 
 Peninsula, added to the death of the Emperor Joseph, 
 which, leaving the Archduke Charles the most likely 
 successor to the Imperial throne, rendered his rule in 
 Spain an even greater threat than that of Philip V. 
 to the balance of power in Europe, completely altered 
 Louis XIV. 's position. The King now looked for con- 
 cessions in return for any sacrifices he might make. 
 From this time the abandonment of Spain to the Austrian 
 house became out of the question, and Madame des 
 Ursins' mind was set at rest. 
 
 But no sooner was she relieved from anxiety on behalf 
 of her adopted land and her beloved sovereign than her 
 inveterate ambition returned, and she began to scheme
 
 250 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 on her own account. As a part of the settlement which 
 the European Powers were then negotiating, King Philip 
 proposed that on Madame des Ursins and her heirs in full 
 sovereignty should be settled the Duchy of Limburg in 
 the Low Countries. That the King of Spain should wish 
 to bestow on his faithful friend and wise counsellor some 
 acknowledgment of the valuable services she had rendered 
 to him and to his kingdom was only just ; but that when 
 this proposal met with opposition Madame des Ursins 
 should have so far insisted on her claims as to drag out 
 the negotiations and to postpone the peace, of which 
 Europe, and Spain specially, stood so greatly in need, 
 seems strangely discordant with the patriotism she had 
 shown earlier in the war ; and her old friend the minister, 
 Torcy, did not hesitate to denounce her for this action. 
 While England and Holland were not indisposed to accede 
 to the Princess's demand and to insert the grant of 
 sovereignty in the Peace of Utrecht, the Emperor would 
 not hear of the dismemberment of the Netherlands. And 
 finally, Louis XIV. had to intervene, and to insist on his 
 grandson's commuting the sovereignty of Limburg into 
 a money pa3 ? ment in order that a European settlement 
 might be arrived at. 
 
 Even then, after she had been omitted from the Treaty, 
 Madame des Ursins, with her invincible hopefulness, 
 refused to abandon the idea of one day ruling in her own 
 right. Before the Peace of Utrecht she had persuaded 
 King Philip to issue a decree calling upon the grandees 
 to address her as " your highness." Her overweening 
 ambition at this time made her the laughing-stock of 
 Europe and appealed to the humour of Lord Bolingbroke, 
 who, during the negotiations, wrote her a letter, 1 in which 
 
 1 See his " Letters and Correspondence " ed. Parke, 1798 III., 345-
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 251 
 
 he " your highnessed " her at every line, thinking, as he 
 explained to a friend, that in the absence of means for the 
 gratification of her avarice it might be prudent for England 
 to flatter her vanity. 
 
 Meanwhile the Princess insisted on assuming sovereign 
 state ; on her journeys she was escorted by a detachment 
 of the King's guard. She believed that one day Limburg 
 would be hers, and when that day should come, she had 
 resolved to exchange it for a part of Touraine. So 
 absurdly sanguine had she become in her old age that she 
 secretly despatched her secretary d'Aubigne to purchase 
 property near Amboise, and there to construct a vast 
 edifice which was nothing more or less than a royal 
 palace. 1 
 
 But while she was building these airy castles in Spain, 
 and a more substantial one on the Loire, a turn in the 
 wheel of fortune caused the former to vanish like a 
 morning mist, while the latter remained only to be known 
 as the Princess's folly. For on February 14th, 1714, the 
 thread, from which the Princess's vast influence depended, 
 snapped, and Marie Louise, Queen of Spain, died. 
 
 For a time this reverse seems only to have inflated the 
 Princess's already overweening ambition, and at first she, 
 an old lady of over seventy, seems to have conceived the 
 extraordinary design of marrying the King of Spain, who 
 was forty years her junior. Louis XIV. and Madame de 
 Maintenon, knowing her strength of will and the King's 
 weakness, greatly feared that she would achieve her 
 object. And it appears to have been their opposition 
 which brought the Princess to her senses. Thru, as if in 
 order to prove to them that she had never intended to do 
 anything so absurd, she hurriedly and without waiting to 
 
 1 The chateau of Chanteloup.
 
 252 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 hear from Versailles, arranged to marry Philip to a 
 Princess of Parma, Elizabeth Farnese. As far as she 
 herself was concerned, Madame des Ursins could not 
 possibly have made a more unfortunate choice. In 
 Elizabeth she met her match. This princess was born 
 for sovereignty. Frederick the Great said of her, that she 
 possessed all the pride of a Spartan, the obstinacy of an 
 Englishwoman, the vivacity of a Frenchwoman, and the 
 craft of an Italian. When she came into Spain, one thing 
 she had determined — that she would not be ruled by the 
 old lady who had so long dominated her predecessor. 
 
 The marriage was to take place in December at Guada- 
 laxara, where on the 22nd King Philip arrived, accompanied 
 by Madame des Ursins. There the Princess left the King 
 to await his bride, while she pushed on to meet Elizabeth 
 at a neighbouring village where she was to spend the 
 night. In elaborate court dress, Madame des Ursins was 
 ushered into the Queen's presence, but only to receive an 
 icy reception. In the course of conversation the royal 
 bride took exception to her visitor's dress and to her 
 manners. The Princess, who considered that both were 
 perfectly correct, attempted to justify herself. Where- 
 upon the Queen flew into a temper and commanded " this 
 mad woman," as she called her, to leave her presence. 
 When Madame des Ursins hesitated, Elizabeth, seizing 
 her by the shoulders, pushed her out of the room, at the 
 same time calling for the lieutenant of the guards and the 
 equerry. The first she commanded to arrest Madame des 
 Ursins, the second to prepare a six-horsed carriage, and 
 in it to drive the Princess post haste to the frontier. 
 When the lieutenant represented that the power of 
 arresting a personage of such high rank as the Princess 
 belonged to the King alone, the Queen retorted, what was
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 253 
 
 perfectly true, that she had in her possession a royal order 
 commanding the lieutenant to obey her in everything. 
 
 Madame des Ursins, therefore, was helpless. Without 
 allowing her time to pack up anything or to take any food 
 with her, or even to change her court dress, the Queen had 
 her and her maid unceremoniously bundled into a coach 
 and driven out of Spain. It was seven o'clock on 
 Christmas eve when she started. The night was so 
 bitterly cold that before morning the coachman's hand 
 was frozen off. It is astonishing that at her age the 
 Princess should have been able to survive such a terrible 
 ordeal. At Bayonne she halted in her enforced flight, and 
 wrote to Louis XIV. of the gross indignity to which she 
 had been subjected. To Philip V. she knew but too well 
 it would be useless to appeal, for she realised that as he 
 had been completely dominated by his first wife, so he 
 would be by the second. To her great consolation the 
 Princess received a letter written with the Great King's 
 own hand, condoling with her in her misfortune, and 
 inviting her to come to Paris. That long journey from 
 Bayonne to Paris, which once before she had taken in 
 mid-winter, she now made for the second and last 
 time. Arriving in Paris in the middle of February, 1715, 
 she took up her abode with her brother, the Duke of Noir- 
 moustiers, and waited for a summons to the royal presence. 
 
 But that summons was long delayed. At the French 
 court powerful influences were working against her. 
 Louis XIV. and Madame dc Maintenon, since the rumour 
 of her design to marry Philip V., were somewhat afraid 
 of her ambition. Moreover, even Louis' influence was 
 waning ; the Great King was ill, his long reign was draw- 
 ing to a close, the star of the future Regent, the Duke of 
 Orleans, was in the ascendant, and the Duke and his
 
 254 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 mother, the erratic Princess Palatine, were Madame des 
 Ursins' bitter enemies. So the Princess waited and 
 waited. When at length the summons to Versailles 
 reached her and she went to lay her grievances before the 
 King, her audience was a terrible disappointment. It 
 lasted but half an hour, followed by an hour with Madame 
 de Maintenon and a dinner with Torcy, the Minister of 
 Foreign Affairs. Not even invited to stay the night, the 
 Princess returned to Paris the same day, depressed to 
 think how different was this cold reception from that 
 brilliant triumph which had greeted her at Versailles at 
 the time of her first fall from power. 
 
 The Princess was advised to retire to Italy. But before 
 leaving Paris, she requested and obtained one partinginter- 
 view with the King. Then Louis and Madame de Maintenon 
 received her at Marly as coldly and as briefly as before ; 
 and there she took her last leave of the King and of his wife. 
 
 By slow stages, hoping still for some turn of fortune 
 in her favour, and still uncertain as to the place of her 
 retirement, Madame des Ursins made her way south. At 
 Lyons the news of the King's death and of the Regency of 
 the Duke of Orleans reached her. From that moment 
 any desire she might have had to remain in France was 
 extinguished. To Madame de Maintenon she wrote con- 
 gratulating her on finding a retreat at St. Cyr ; " as for 
 me," she added, " I know not where to go and die." 
 Rome of all places would most naturally attract her ; but 
 she feared the reception she might meet with from the 
 Pope, and perhaps she hesitated to return in disgrace to a 
 city where she had once been so powerful and so popular. 
 So, for a while, she resided at Genoa, until, through his 
 ambassador, Philip V., who, despite his second wife's 
 domination, still nourished a certain kindness for his old
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 255 
 
 friend, informed her that the Pope would receive her 
 kindly. In 171S, therefore, after seventeen years' absence, 
 Madame des Ursins returned to Rome. It was as King 
 Philip had promised, the Pope, and not only the Pope, 
 but his court and his cardinals received her with all 
 possible respect and honour. One of those cardinals was 
 her own brother, raised some years earlier to that dignity 
 by his sister's influence, and now, by the same means, 
 Ambassador of France at the papal court. 
 
 The Palazzo Pasquino had some time before passed out 
 of Madame des Ursins' possession. But the house she now 
 occupied, although probably less pretentious, was comfort- 
 able and commodious enough for the French Ambassador, 
 the Abbe de Tencin, to wish to live in it after her death. 1 
 
 At Rome the Princess met another exile, James, 
 Chevalier de St. Georges, the Old Pretender, whom a 
 clause in the Treaty of Utrecht had banished from French 
 dominions. She had known the Prince as a boy, and, as 
 we have seen, been an intimate friend of his mother. 
 The year after Madame des Ursins' arrival James married 
 Clementine, daughter of the famous Jean Sobicski. 
 With the Stuart bride the Princess became intimately 
 associated, and in the court of the exiled Stuarts she 
 played in miniature the same part which in earlier years 
 she had acted on a grander and a more extensive stage. 
 
 Retaining almost to the end her powers of body and of 
 mind, she died in September, 1722, after three days' 
 illness, during which she was visited by the Princess 
 Sobieski. While leaving all her possessions outside Italy 
 to her brother, the Duke of Nbirmoustiers, and her Orsini 
 property to her nephew, the Duke of Lanti, she beque.it lied 
 a gold snuff-box set with diamonds to the Pretender, and 
 1 " Madame des Ursins et la Succession d'Kspagnc," VI., 351.
 
 256 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 a gilded toilet-set that had once belonged to the Queen of 
 Spain to the Princess Sobieski. 
 
 Sainte-Beuve at the end of his second causerie on the 
 Princess admits that he had intended to represent Madame 
 des Ursins as an example of the undesirable female 
 politician. But Sainte-Beuve, like Balaam, having gone 
 forth to curse, remained to bless. Captivated by her 
 charms, even through the pallid medium of books, he was 
 compelled to recognise her usefulness. And indeed with 
 that charm which captivated Sainte-Beuve, and without 
 which no woman politician can achieve success, Madame 
 des Ursins was bountifully endowed. It was a charm of 
 manner and also of appearance as the portrait illustrating 
 this chapter must testify. 
 
 The Princess's brother, the Cardinal de La Tremoille, 
 had two years earlier preceded her to the grave. No one 
 could have been less ecclesiastically minded than this 
 little hunchback Cardinal, who as a wit and a libertine 
 was the complete type of an eighteenth century abbe. 
 As we have seen, he owed much to his sister, with whom 
 nevertheless he was constantly quarrelling. His house- 
 hold was the most disorderly in Rome, and although the 
 beneficiary of many high ecclesiastical offices and vast 
 church lands, he died a bankrupt. 
 
 A very different person was Madame des Ursins' elder 
 brother, the Duke of Noirmoustiers. Notwithstanding 
 his blindness, he was a man of wide interests and high 
 culture, esteemed by a large circle of friends, who on 
 matters of art or of affairs bowed to his opinion as to that 
 of an oracle. The Duke died some years after his famous 
 sister, at the age of eighty. His second wife lived on 
 until 1733. And with her death this branch of the La 
 Tremoille family became extinct.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 257 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 THE PRINCESSE DE TALMOND, PRINCE CHARLIE'S EGERIA, 
 AND OTHER LA TR^MOILLES OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 We have now reached the period of La Tremoille 
 decline. While with Duke Henry and Duchess Marie the 
 house attained the apogee of its grandeur, with the Fronde 
 and the dissipation of the family fortune by the Prince 
 de Tarente there set in a steady diminution of wealth and 
 of authority, which ended in the debacle of the Revolution. 
 Throughout the eighteenth century, as we have seen, 1 the 
 Dukes, unable to keep up the double state of an establish- 
 ment in the west and a hotel at Paris, were content to 
 abandon their country seats for the capital. The Prince 
 de Tarente's son, Duke Charles Belgique, lived almost 
 entirely at Paris, in a house on the Ouai Malaquais, where 
 he died in 1709. 
 
 Notwithstanding a goodlier array of titles than had 
 been borne by any of his ancestors,' 2 Duke Charles, at once 
 duke, prince, count, baron, viscount, marquis, peer of 
 France and &rs1 gentleman of the bedchamber, was much 
 less powerful than the mere Seigneurs of La Tremoille in 
 the twelfth century. For we find him compelled through 
 poverty to relinquish the grand state of a great feudal 
 
 1 I'r-t.i. B, ]> VII. 
 
 * Du< deLs rremoille.de Thouai and de Loudun, Prince de Tarente 
 and de Talmond, I omte dc Laval, de Montfort, l< » nines, de fonvelle 
 and de Taillebourg, Baron de\ itre, deMauleon.de Burieandde 1 'idonne, 
 N i' be de Rennes, de Bai and de Rlarsille, Marquis d'Espinay. 
 
 C.R. S
 
 258 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 suzerain, living in the midst of numerous vassals, who 
 would expect to be entertained in princely fashion after 
 the manner of the La Tremoilles of yore. 
 
 For this woeful deplenishment of the family exchequer, 
 the Prince de Tarente must not be held solely responsible. 
 It had been largely drawn upon by the Prince's parents 
 for the erection on the bank of the Thouet of their mag- 
 nificent chateau, which, converted into a state prison, 
 stands to-day as the expression of that pride which pro- 
 verbially heralds a fall. But there was yet another event 
 which helped to empty the La Tremoille purse, and with 
 that neither the Duke, the Duchess nor the Prince had 
 anything to do. Louis XVI. 's Revocation of the Edict 
 of Nantes, by driving from France the Protestant tanners 
 of Thouars, the most industrious and the most prosperous 
 of its inhabitants, while inflicting an irretrievable disaster 
 on the town and the province, considerably curtailed 
 the La Tremoille income. 
 
 Of the four Dukes of Thouars and La Tremoille from 
 the Prince de Tarente down to the Revolution there is 
 little to tell. Neither of them possessed any very striking 
 personality. Three, Charles Belgique (1655— 1709), 
 Charles Louis Bretagne 1 (1685 — 1719), and Jean Bretagne 
 i 1 737 — ~ L 79 2 )> were soldiers. But Charles Belgique was 
 compelled by ill-health to retire early from the army. 
 Charles Louis Bretagne and Jean Bretagne were field 
 marshals, in which capacity the former commanded at 
 Oudenarde and Malplaquet. Both Charles Belgique and 
 Charles Louis were first Gentlemen of the Bedchamber to 
 Louis XIV., an office which the latter continued to hold 
 under Louis XIV. 's successor. Charles Armand Rene 
 
 1 The name of Bretagne was given to him because the Breton Estates, 
 of which his father was President, stood as his godfather.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 259 
 
 (1708 — 1741) made a new departure in the history of his 
 line. Hitherto the La Tremoilles, had distinguished them- 
 selves rather in the sphere of action than in that of 
 thought. But Armand Rene must have added to the 
 ability of a man of action — he was a brilliant soldier — 
 some intellectual qualifications, for we find that on March 
 6th, 1738, he was received as a member of the French 
 Academy, a new honour for a La Tremoille, but one which 
 was to be renewed in the following century ; then the 
 late Duke, by his careful arrangement and publication 
 of the family records, won a seat among the Immortals. 
 
 Throughout the century, despite their diminished 
 wealth, the La Tremoilles pursued their ancient policy of 
 mating only in the noblest houses of the da}'. Charles 
 Belgique married Madeleine dc Crequy, 1 daughter of 
 Charles de Crequy, Prince de Poix ; Charles Louis took 
 to wife Marie Madeleine, only daughter of Rene Armand 
 Metier de La Fayette ; Charles Armand Rene followed 
 the example of his ancestor Duke Henry and married 
 into the house of Bouillon, his wife Marie Hortense 
 was the daughter of the Duke Emmanuel Theodore de 
 La Tour d'Auvergne. Jean Bretagne was twice married : 
 first in 1751 to Marie Genevieve de Durfort, who died 
 without children in 1762 ; and afterwards to Marie 
 Maximilienne de Salm-Kerbourg, daughter of a German 
 Prince and Princess, who died in 1790, two years before 
 her husband, leaving four sons. 
 
 Considering the noble zeal shown by these sons, during 
 the Revolution period, in risking and forfeiting their lives 
 in defence of the French monarchy, had not the Princes 
 de Salm proved more prolific than the wives of earlier 
 eighteenth century La Tremoilles, the line would have 
 
 1 She died two years before hex husband, 171 7. 
 
 S 2
 
 260 FROM THE* CRUSADES 
 
 -. 
 
 become extinct, for both Charles Louis Bretagne and his 
 successor Charles Armand Rene had only one son. 
 
 It is, however, to the younger La Tremoille branch, to 
 the wife of a Prince de Talmond, that in this century we 
 must look for that vein of romantic adventure which 
 never fails to enliven the history of this house. 
 
 The Prince de Tarente's second son, 1 Frederic Guillaume, 
 bore the title of Prince de Talmond and bequeathed it to 
 his son, Anne Charles Frederic. It is the story of this 
 Prince's consort that is the subject of this chapter. 
 
 Now, but not for the first time, we shall find the 
 destinies of La Tremoilles touching those of the house 
 of Stuart. We have already seen Charlotte de La 
 Tremoille entertaining her cousin, Prince Rupert, at 
 Lathom House, the Prince de Tarente receiving the 
 Garter from the exiled Charles II., the Princesse des Ursins 
 staying with Mary of Modena at St. Germain, and later, 
 in the days of her adversity, dominating the court of the 
 elder Pretender at Rome. Now La Tremoilles and Stuarts 
 were to be associated in a romantic connection which to 
 neither house was to bring honour or prosperity. 
 
 1 Henry Charles, Prince de Tarente. 
 
 Charles Belgique Hollande, Frederic Guillaume, Prince de Talmond, 
 Due de La Tremoille. 1668 — 1739, 
 
 took orders and became Abb^ of 
 Charroux and Canon of Strasbourg, 
 1689 ; left Church for army and became 
 Lieutenant-General in 1710; married 
 Antoinette de Bouillon in 1 707, by whom 
 he had several children. The eldest = 
 
 I 
 Anne Charles Fr^ddric, Prince de 
 Talmond, Brigadier of Cavalry, 1743 ; 
 created Duke of Chatellerault, 1749 ; 
 died 1759. Married, 1730, Marie Louise 
 Jablonowski, first cousin of King 
 Stanislas of Poland. 
 
 I 
 Louis Stanislas, Duke of Chatellerault.
 
 MAD] i] LA F Wi in. DU< III »] in i. \ I REMOILLE AND 
 
 III i: SON, ARMANI) Kl • I >i I \ i REMOIL1 I 
 
 1 i ■" ■' 1 1' i"". attributed to fervas, belonging to Mr. Aldenburg Bentini k, 
 I'liotographcil by Mrs, Aubrey Le Hiond
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 261 
 
 The Prince de Tarente's grandson, besides being a 
 brilliant general, was a gallant courtier, in high favour 
 with King Louis XV. And it was at Louis' court at 
 Chambord, in 1730, that for his sins the Prince de Talmond 
 met and married one of the most attractive and capricious 
 women of her time, a Polish Princess, Marie Jablonowski, 
 first cousin to Stanislas, the exiled King of Poland, with 
 whose daughter, Queen Marie Leczsinki, she had come 
 to France. But more important than either of those 
 relationships and fraught with more serious consequences 
 was Princess Marie's cousinship to Prince Charles 
 Edward Stuart, through his mother, Princess Sobieski. 
 
 Some years after her marriage we find the Princesse de 
 Talmond in Paris, in the fashionable philosophical circles 
 of that day, the friend of Montesquieu, of Voltaire and of 
 that most brilliant of eighteenth century, Salonnieres 
 Madame du Deffand. 
 
 In this same circle, possibly introduced into it by his 
 beautiful cousin, moved Prince Charles Edward during 
 the years of defeat and despair which followed CuLloden. 
 Of the Princess, Voltaire wrote that she was endowed with 
 
 ' Le gout qu'on ne trouve qu'en France 
 Et l'esprit de tons les pays." l 
 
 Madame du Deffand, who never indulged in undiluted 
 praise, draws a less flattering portrait of her. 
 
 Madame de Talmond," she writes, " has beauty and 
 wit and vivacity ; that turn for pleasantry which is our 
 national inheritance seems natural to her. . . . But her 
 wit deals only with pleasant frivolities ; her ideas are the 
 children of her memory rather than of her imagination. 
 French in everything else, she is original in her vanity. 
 
 1 Quoted by Andrew Lang, " Life of Prince Charles Edward Stu;irt," 
 (1903). p. 343-
 
 262 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 Ours is more sociable, inspires the desire to please, and 
 suggests the means. Hers is truly Sarmatian, artless and 
 indolent ; she cannot bring herself to flatter those whose 
 admiration she covets. . . . She thinks herself perfect, says 
 so, and expects to be believed. At this price alone does 
 she yield a semblance of friendship ; semblance, I say, 
 for her affections are concentrated on herself. She is as 
 jealous as she is vain, and so capricious as to make her at 
 once the most unhappy and the most absurd of women. 
 She never knows what she wants, what she fears, whom she 
 loves, or whom she hates. There is nothing natural in her 
 expression ; with her chin in the air she poses eternally 
 as tender or disdainful, absent or haughty ; all is affecta- 
 tion. . . . She is feared and hated by all who live in her 
 society. Yet she has truth, courage and honesty, and is 
 such a mixture of good and evil that no steadfast opinion 
 about her can be entertained. She pleases, she provokes ; 
 we love, hate, seek, and avoid her. It is as if she com- 
 municated to others the eccentricity of her own caprice." 
 
 This description, while obviously not charitable, is 
 stamped with that keen discernment of character for 
 which the writer was famous ; indeed, it is in perfect 
 accord with what we know of Madame de Talmond's 
 behaviour towards Prince Charles. To the story of their 
 relations as told by Argenson in his " Memoirs," the late 
 Mr. Andrew Lang, in his two volumes entitled " Pickle 
 the Spy " and the life of " Prince Charles Edward," has 
 added details derived chiefly from the Stuart papers at 
 Windsor and from some Additional MSS. in the British 
 Museum. In the course of unravelling the mysterious 
 skein of the Prince's career during the years which 
 followed Culloden, Mr. Lang has revealed the important 
 part played by Madame de Talmond in this chapter of her 
 royal cousin's life.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 263 
 
 As the defeated hero of the great '45, the bonnie Prince 
 naturally appealed to feminine imagination. " In Paris, 
 the year after Cullodcn," writes Argenson, " women were 
 literally pulling caps for Charles." In a manuscript play 
 by the minister * he represents " Madame de Talmond and 
 another noble lady fighting like fish-fags over the object 
 of their admiration." But it was Madame de Talmond 
 who, despite some ten years' seniority to the Prince, 
 conquered in the end, and ruled her victim with fire and 
 fury. " She was certainly his Egeria, probably his 
 mistress," writes Mr. Lang. She, with other distinguished 
 friends, was invited by Charles to a gorgeous supper at 
 Paris in 1748, for which the Prince ordered a new service 
 of plate worth 100,000 francs, and insisted on the gold- 
 smith's preferring his order to the King's. In the opinion 
 of the Old Pretender, Madame de Talmond, during these 
 desperate years, was encouraging his son in every kind 
 of folly. It was she who was held responsible for his 
 indifference to religion, for she was accused with having 
 infected him with her free-thinking principles. And 
 indeed it seems probable that when in this same year 
 Louis XV., by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, promised to 
 expel Charles from his dominions, the Princess encouraged 
 him to defy the French monarch and refuse to go. 
 
 At that time Charles was daily visiting Madame de 
 Talmond in her hotel. Her husband not unnaturally 
 objected and complained to the King that every day the 
 Prince entered his gardens uninvited, and walked beneath 
 his windows. Acting on the King's advice apparently, 
 the Prince de Talmond instructed his footmen to refuse 
 Charles admission. Therefore, one day when the Prince 
 
 1 Entitled " La Prison du Prim e Charles Bdouard Stuart." Published 
 later by the Dm d Broglie, in " La Revue d'Histoire Diplomatique/' 
 No. 4, Paris, 1891,
 
 264 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 arrived as usual at two o'clock in the afternoon, he was 
 told that no one was at home. Frying into a fury, Charles 
 declared it to be a lie. But it was perfectly true, for 
 Madame de Talmond had gone to the Queen. She 
 explained to her lover when they met that after all she 
 must obey her husband, and that if even the King wished 
 to enter her house against her husband's will, he would 
 be refused admission. Such defiance, however, only pro- 
 voked Charles further. At eleven o'clock that night he re- 
 turned, and, finding all doors closed against him, declared 
 that he would force an entrance. It was only with the 
 greatest difficulty that his companion, Bulkeley, a 
 brother-in-law of Marshal Berwick, and also a friend of 
 Montesquieu, dissuaded him from so violent and un- 
 dignified an enterprise. 
 
 This incident was but the first in that series of quarrels 
 between the Prince and Madame de Talmond which 
 continued throughout their liaison. 
 
 A few days later, as he was coming out of the opera, 
 Charles was arrested and confined in the chateau of 
 Vincennes. At the same time one of the Prince's servants 
 was arrested also. Thereupon his mistress wrote curtly 
 to Maurepas : " Sir, the King's laurels are in full flower, 
 and the imprisonment of nvy lacquey cannot add to their 
 glory. I pray you release him." Maurepas' reply to this 
 letter was the banishment of the Princess herself ; she 
 was bidden retire to Lorraine, where she joined her 
 exiled cousin Stanislas. Charles, after a few days' im- 
 prisonment in the fortress of Vincennes, was conducted 
 out of Paris, where he never appeared openly again. 
 Probably he went for a short time to Avignon. But for 
 the next few months his movements mystified all the 
 ministers of Europe, who hazarded many a wild guess
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 265 
 
 as to his whereabouts. Mr. Lang, with the help of the 
 Stuart papers at Windsor, has traced him to Lorraine, 
 where on April 3rd, 1719, he was residing at Luneville, in 
 the house of Stanislas' physician, and drawing up a plan 
 for his return to Paris. 1 
 
 Apparently he was successful, for in June Mr. Lang 
 finds him in the French capital. Grimm, the Paris 
 correspondent of the Empress Catherine the Great, states 
 that in this city he was in hiding for the next three years. 
 More probably he merely visited it, in disguise, at frequent 
 intervals. 
 
 It is fairly certain that during these visits his place of 
 concealment was the famous convent of St. Joseph, in the 
 Rue St. Dominique in the Faubourg St. Germain. Madame 
 de Montespan, Louis XIV. 's famous mistress, had founded 
 this convent when her reign at court was over. Attached 
 to it were rooms in which ladies of rank might make a 
 retreat or permanently occupy chambers. Such a suite of 
 rooms belonged to Madame de Talmond. In another 
 Madame du Deffand had established her famous salon, 
 receiving, in her yellow moire drawing-room, decorated 
 with flame-coloured rosettes, the greatest wits of the age. 
 Into this yellow salon, in the early hours of the evening, 
 Madame du Deffand's romantic young companion, Mdlle. 
 de Lcspinasse, used to descend to meet a few of the 
 choicest spirits, and furtively skim the cream of the con- 
 versation before her aged employer appeared. Here, too, 
 lived a lady of Jacobite sympathies, Madame de Vasse. 
 She, also, had a gifted young companion, Mdlle. Ferrand, 
 of whom we shall hear more hereafter. 
 
 In Madame de Talmond's apartment was a small 
 dressing-room which could be approached by a secrel 
 
 1 " Pickle the Spy," p. 71.
 
 266 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 staircase. And here, during his fugitive visits to Paris, 
 Charles was concealed. In this retreat, and in Madame 
 du Deffand's rooms, he may have conferred with his 
 supporters. Bulkeley, we know, attended that lady's 
 famous Monday evenings, and Montesquieu, another 
 habitue, had pronounced Jacobite sympathies. Charles 
 seldom ventured out of doors, although once, in 1751, 
 he was recognised at a masked ball at the opera 
 house. 
 
 This was no life for an adventurous high-spirited 
 Prince. The society of philosophers and fair females 
 might be all very well as a recreation, but when Charles 
 saw no one else day or night he grew morbid and cantan- 
 kerous, while the weakness which was ultimately to prove 
 his ruin began to grow upon him. 
 
 Madame de Talmond, for her part, had been ready to 
 do anything for herbonnie Prince, when, glorified by the 
 romance of a desperate attempt valiantly hazarded and 
 bravely lost, he had appeared in Paris. But when the 
 months dragged on, and her heroic Prince Charming sank 
 into a mere hunted fugitive, she began to grow tired of 
 him. Of this there is evidence in many of the Windsor 
 notes : scribblings of violent wrath or of passionate 
 affection hastily penned in reply to the remonstrances of 
 Madame de Talmond, who is addressed as L. P. D. T., or 
 as Madame de Bauregor (Beauregard). In one of these, 
 with mock ceremony, Charles writes : — 
 
 " We undertake in every point to carry out the will and 
 the arrangements of our faithful friend and ally, L. P. D. T. ; 
 and to withdraw at such hours as may please the said P., 
 either of the day or night, from her estates, in testimony 
 whereof we sign. — C." * 
 
 1 Nous nous prometons de suivre en tout les volontes et les arrange- 
 mens de notre ndele amie et alliee, L. P. D. T. ; nous retirer aux heures
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 267 
 
 In another he complains of his lady's persistence in 
 maintaining even in the most palpable matters that black 
 is white, and white black, and refusing to acknowledge 
 herself in the wrong even when she felt that she was. 
 Such charges surely, from the beginning of time, in every 
 lover's quarrel have been levelled by the man against the 
 woman. And whether they arise from innate feminine 
 perversity or from masculine inability to adopt the 
 feminine point of view, who would venture to say ? 
 
 In this same letter, written on March 28th, 1750, 
 Charles continues in an aggrieved tone. 
 
 ' If you don't wish to help me, then it is useless for me 
 to tell you of my concerns ; if you do wish to protect me, 
 then don't make my life unhappier than it already is. 
 If you want to part from me, then tell me so in good 
 French or Latin." x 
 
 Notwithstanding their disputes, Madame de Talmond 
 continued to influence the Prince. And it was probably 
 by her advice that in the autumn of 1750 Charles indulged 
 in the forlorn hope of a secret expedition to England. 
 Before he left Paris, he committed to the Princess's care 
 letters to be given to Louis XV. in the event of Charles's 
 death, and a document marked, " Credentials given ye 
 1st September, 1750, to ye P. T." (Princesse de Talmond), 
 a king the King to regard " Madame La P. de T. ma cherc 
 
 qu'il lui < onviendra a la dittc P., soit du jour, soit de nuit, soit de ses 
 d joy dc quoi nous signon i, C." Quoted by A. Lang, " Tickle 
 the Spy,' pp. 92 93. 
 
 1 'March 2>s, 1750. A Madame Bauregor, Si vous voules me 
 servire, ii ae faut pas me soutcnirc toujoura que Blan (blanc) esl noir, 
 lea plus palpable : et jamais Avouer que vous aves tort 
 meme quanl voua Le Bantes. Si vous ae voules pas me aervire, ii est 
 Inutile que je v<>u^ parle <!<• ce qui me regarde : si vous voules me 
 protege, ii ii'- 1. nit pas me rendre La Vie plus malheureuse qu'il n'est. 
 Si VOUS voules m'abandoner il faut me lc dire en bon Francois ou 
 Latin.'' (hinted by A. Lang (ibid., p. 95).
 
 268 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 cousine," as the Prince's representative. On the eve of 
 starting Charles commanded from Le Brun a miniature of 
 himself with all the Orders, which Mr. Lang suggests may 
 have been a parting gift to Madame de Talmond. 
 
 Apparently no plans had been made for an organised 
 rising in the Prince's support. Charles probably went 
 over partly to see how matters stood, and partly to escape 
 from the boredom of a tedious solitude in hiding, broken 
 only by daily quarrels and reconciliations with Madame de 
 Talmond. 
 
 In London, however, Charles ventured to stay but a 
 few weeks, just time enough to become a member of the 
 Church of England, to hold a secret conference with his 
 supporters in Pall Mall, to inspect the defences of the 
 Tower, to alarm a Jacobite lady by appearing unex- 
 pectedly at her party, and to drink tea with a Jacobite 
 gentleman, whose servant detected a resemblance between 
 his master's visitor and the busts of the Prince which were 
 being sold in Red Lyon Square. Nevertheless, despite 
 the lady's alarm and the servant's discernment, the 
 English Government, searching every town in Europe for 
 the Young Pretender, never dreamt of his being at their 
 very doors. By the end of September he was back again 
 in Paris. 
 
 Their short separation had rendered the lovers more 
 congenial to one another ; and among the Stuart papers 
 of this period are numerous tiny notes, easily concealed, 
 and doubtless, says Mr. Lang, " passed to the lady 
 furtively," in which Charles protests his passionate 
 adoration. 
 
 But this billing and cooing did not last long. The 
 Prince soon began to suspect Madame de Talmond of 
 betraying him politically, while the Princess was ever
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 269 
 
 haunted by suspicion of another kind of treachery. 
 Their quarrels grew more and more violent, frequently 
 culminating in blows, until the other inmates of St. 
 Joseph could endure such scenes no longer, and Madame 
 de Vasse insisted on the pair leaving the convent. On 
 the eve of starting for Lorraine, Madame de Talmond 
 wrote to Charles doubtfully : "If you are to me that 
 which you ought to be, then I embrace you tenderly." 
 
 Her suspicions increased when she found that Charles 
 was corresponding with another fair resident at St. Joseph, 
 with the highly gifted and philosophical Mdlle. Ferrand. 1 
 To this learned lady the Prince, always a voracious reader, 
 used to write asking for all manner of books, from works 
 on philosophy to the popular novels of the day : " Clarissa 
 Harlowe," 'Joseph Andrews," and 'Tom Jones," in 
 French as well as English. But not only with his literary 
 commissions did the Prince charge his erudite correspon- 
 dent : she was requested to procure for him such homely 
 articles as a razor-case with four razors, a shaving-mirror, 
 and a strong pocket-book with a lock. There is no reason 
 to believe, however, that Mdlle. Ferrand in her short 
 life — for she died when quite young, in 1752 — ever became 
 more than a friend to the Prince, although Madame de 
 Talmond persuaded herself of the contrary. And it was 
 chiefly the Princess's jealousy of Mdlle. Ferrand that 
 caused her to leave the Prince late in 1750. After this 
 rupture, in Charles's letters to Mdlle. Ferrand, the once 
 adored cousin figures as " la vicillc tante " or " la vicillc 
 fcmmc." And matters were not improved when the 
 Prince's correspondent showed one of these letters to 
 the lady in question. But such indiscretions were 
 
 1 Mr. Lang in " Tickle the Spy " claims to have identified her with 
 a Mdlle. Luu of Charles's correspondence.
 
 270 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 necessarily rare, for the ladies, as may be imagined, were 
 not often on speaking terms. Their intercourse was 
 generally carried on in a series of dignified notes, many 
 of which, copied in the Prince's own handwriting, are 
 preserved among the Stuart papers. 
 
 The " last words " between Charles and Madame de 
 Talmond were exchanged in the summer of 1751. Mdlle. 
 Ferrand died in the autumn of the following year. By 
 that time Charles had returned to his former mistress, 
 Miss Walkinshaw. 
 
 As far as can be ascertained, Charles and the Princess 
 never met again. Years afterwards, in 1765, Madame de 
 Talmond was in Rome. And then Cardinal York wrote 
 to his brother : — 
 
 " She (the Princess) always speaks of your Royal 
 Highness with the greatest regard and respect, and really 
 seems to be sincerely attached to you. She complains 
 that she never can hear of you, and thinks she deserves a 
 share in your remembrance." 
 
 The Princess had then been six years a widow. Her 
 much-tried husband before his death had persuaded her 
 to renounce her philosophical opinions and return to the 
 Catholic Church. She was now extremely devout. 
 
 In the following year she was at Paris occupying 
 " charitable apartments " in the Luxembourg. And it 
 was there that Horace Walpole visited her. 
 
 With the affectation of a man of the world, Walpole, 
 writing to his friend Gray, would have him believe that it 
 was something of a bore to be obliged to visit this middle- 
 aged Princess. But in reality he must have been curious 
 to see the fair shrew about whose quarrels with her 
 princely lover he must frequently have heard from
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 271 
 
 his " old blind one," as he called his friend Madame 
 du Deffand. 
 
 " I have been sent for about like an African prince or a 
 learned canary-bird," he writes, " and was, in particular, 
 carried by force to the Princess of Talmond, the Queen's 
 cousin, who lives in a charitable apartment in the Luxem- 
 bourg, and was sitting on a small bed hung with saints and 
 Sobieskis, in a corner of one of those vast chambers, 1 lit 
 by two blinking tapers." 
 
 When after stumbling over a dog, a cat, a footstool, 
 and other things, Walpole reached her presence, she had 
 not a syllable to say to him. But the spirit of earlier 
 days, when for her men had existed only to receive her 
 commands, soon returned, and before her visitor left she 
 had so far recovered her conversational powers as to beg 
 him to send her a lap-dog. 
 
 Not long afterwards, Walpole, writing to George 
 Montagu, relates how one morning the Princess sent him 
 a picture of two pug dogs and a black and white greyhound 
 wretchedly painted. At first Walpole could not conceive 
 what he was to do with " this daub," but in an accompany- 
 ing note the Princess warned him not to hope to keep it. 
 It was only to imprint on his memory the size and features 
 and spots of " Diana," her departed greyhound, in order 
 that he might get her exactly such another. " Don't you 
 think my memory will return well stored," asked the 
 cavalier, " if it is littered with defunct lap-dogs ? She is 
 so devout that I did not dare send her word that I am not 
 possessed of a twig of Jacob's broom, with which he 
 streaked cattle as he pleased." 
 
 This for some time appeared to be our last glimpse of 
 
 1 Horace Walpole, " Letti 1 ." ed, Cunningham, IV., 47J, 490 ; and 
 " Lettrcs de la Marquise du Deftand a Horace Walpole," ed. Paget 
 Toynbcc, 1912, 11., 505, QOte.
 
 272 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 the Princesse de Talmond. But in the recently published 
 letters of Madame du Deffand to Horace Walpole * we 
 find that brilliant and malicious lady giving an inimitable 
 description of the Princess's death-bed scene. 
 
 In a letter dated December 29th, 1773, Madame du 
 Deffand writes : — 
 
 " I may tell you that this letter will not be long. For 
 the news I have to announce is not sufficiently interesting 
 to require me to sacrifice my hope of sleep. That hope 
 will be vain perhaps. I have long lost the habit of 
 sleeping. But Madame de Talmond has lost the habit 
 of living. So she has surpassed me. She died on the 25th 
 of this month like a veritable heroine of romance. 
 
 " On the eve of her death she had her doctors, her con- 
 fessor and her steward round her bed. To her doctors she 
 said : ' Gentlemen, you have killed me, but it was accord- 
 ing to your rules and your principles ;' to her confessor : 
 ' You have done your duty by inspiring me with great 
 terror ' ; to her steward : ' You are here at the request 
 of my servants, who wish me to make my will. You are 
 all playing your parts well, but you will agree that I also 
 am not playing mine badly.' 
 
 " Then she confessed, received the Communion, and 
 added a codicil to her will which she had made some time 
 before. Madame Adelaide 2 she created her sole legatee. 
 Her jewels she bequeathed to Madame Adelaide and her 
 sisters, 3 her watch and her porcelain to M. de Maurepas, 
 and small legacies to old friends with whom she had 
 quarrelled, and who had figured in her former will which 
 she had not revoked. For her burial," concluded 
 Madame du Deffand, " the Princess had prepared a gown 
 of blue and silver and a beautiful lace cap ; but the Arch- 
 bishop, disapproving of such display, commanded that 
 gown and cap should be sold for the benefit of the poor." 
 
 1 Ed. cit., 1912, II., 564— 565. 
 
 2 Louis XV. 's eldest daughter. 
 
 3 A touies mesdames.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 273 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE FAMILY DURING THE REVOLUTION. 
 I764— 1839. 
 
 One can hardly imagine irony more grim than that 
 with which, on the verge of the Revolution, the pastoral 
 pictures of the French nobility represent France as a land 
 where it is always afternoon. In these pictures, the 
 inhabitants of France seem to have no other care than to 
 play at being peasants and peasantesses, and to follow the 
 example set by their fascinating Queen, who, in white 
 cambric frock, straw hat and muslin fichu, superintends 
 the milking of cows in her hamcau at Versailles. 
 
 Then, as now, the simple life was all the fashion. To the 
 rumbling thunder of the Revolution these fine folk in 
 their mock simplicity turned a deaf ear. If ever an echo 
 of its rolling broke in upon their complacence they drowned 
 it by tuning up their violins for villagers to dance to. 
 
 Such thoughts are suggested by an interesting La 
 Tremoille group which represents the Ducal family 
 some ten years before the outbreak of the Revolution. 1 
 Here the Duke and Duchess, Jean Bretagne 2 and Marie de 
 Salm, seated upon a rock, in a garden, with a rivulet 
 flowing at their feet, arc surrounded by their four sons, 
 boys of some ten or twelve summers, all busily engaged 
 in various rural pursuits. 
 
 1 Reproduced in " Souvenirs de la Revolution," published by Duke 
 Louis Charles, 1901. 
 a 1737— 1792. 
 
 C.R. T
 
 274 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 The Prince Talmond, 1 who was to die a brave death in 
 La Vendee, is placidly watering plants ; while his twin 
 brother, Charles Auguste, 2 whose own head was to fall 
 beneath the guillotine, here, armed with garden shears, 
 is apparently intent on himself decapitating innocent 
 flowers. The other two brothers, eldest and youngest of 
 the family, the Prince de Tarente 3 and the Prince de La 
 Tremoille, 4 both destined to wander through Europe 
 serving in foreign armies against their S mis-culottes 
 countrymen, now, equipped one with gun the other with 
 fishing rod, figure as the sportsmen of this family picture. 
 
 Real country life played no part in the upbringing of 
 these four brothers. The La Tremoilles had long ago 
 forsaken their country castles for residence in Paris. 
 There Duke Jean occupied a hotel in the Palais Royal, 
 which was then the most fashionable quarter. 
 
 With the shifting of the centre of fashion from the left 
 to the right bank of the Seine, the La Tremoilles had 
 abandoned their beautiful mansion, 5 one of the finest 
 gems of fifteenth century architecture, which the great 
 Louis de La Tremoille had, in 1490, built near the 
 Luxembourg. 
 
 Then, as now, however, the intellectual centre con- 
 tinued on the left bank, and it was at the college of Plessis, 
 incorporated by Cardinal Richelieu's will with the 
 Sorbonne, that Duke Jean's sons were educated. After a 
 
 1 Antoine Philippe de La Tremoille, 1765 — 1794. 
 
 2 He became Dean of Strasbourg, and was executed in June, 1794. 
 8 Charles Bretagne, later Due de La Tremoille, 1764 — 1839. 
 
 * Louis Stanislas Kotzka, 1768 — 1837. 
 
 6 See Viollet-le-Duc, " Dictionnaire Raisonne de l'Architecture Fran- 
 caise," 1858 — 1868, VI., 282 — 284. Its chief entrance was in the 
 Rue des Bourdonnais, but its garden extended to the Rue Tirechappe. 
 In 1840 the hotel was still standing. Then Viollet-le-Duc, in collabora- 
 tion with the Commissioners of Historical Monuments, endeavoured in 
 vain to save it from destruction. All he could do was to procure the 
 preservation in the Musee des Beaux Arts of a few of its fragments.
 
 Y - - ' 
 • .L ' 
 
 
 Its ._ --w-. — - ~ ** f T "i"- 1 
 
 . *'. 
 
 .- 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 -V' fc!; 
 
 '<], 
 
 
 FACADE OF THE HOTEL DE LA TREMOILLE AT PARIS
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 275 
 
 few years at college three of the princes, Charles Bretagne, 
 Antoine Philippe and Louis Stanislas, entered the army. 
 Charles Auguste took orders and became eventually Dean 
 of Strasbourg. 
 
 The eldest son, Charles, Prince de Tarente, was married 
 young, when a mere boy, at the age of sixteen, to a great 
 heiress, Emmannuelle, the Duchesse de Chatillon's second 
 daughter, who was a year and a half her husband's senior. 
 In the Prince's extremely frank Recollections, 1 written 
 after the turmoil of the Revolution had subsided, he 
 admits that at the time of their marriage, his bride's only 
 attraction was her expectation of an income of 200,000 
 francs. For, as a girl of seventeen, Emmannuelle, who 
 was later to develop into a handsome woman, was nothing 
 but a shy gawky miss. From so unalluring a wife, 
 Emmannuelle's boy bridegroom did not grieve to find 
 himself compelled to part immediately after the nuptial 
 ceremony by a summons to join his regiment in Normandy. 
 
 Their military duties left the La Tremoille princes 
 ample time for the pursuit of pleasure, which they eagerly 
 followed, not along those rural paths which their family 
 portrait might suggest, but amidst the gaieties and 
 dissipations of towns and watering-places, where the 
 playthings they most affected were not garden shears or 
 watering-pots or pruning hooks so much as race-horses, 
 cards and the wiles of fair women. 
 
 Brave soldiers they all were, but voluptuaries too. 
 The Prince de Tarente in his Recollections does not hesi- 
 tate to confess as much. There he admits that at nineteen 
 he lost a fortune in one bout of card-playing which lasted 
 twenty-four continuous hours, and thai to pay his 
 
 1 Published by his son, Duke 1 oui Charles, in " I. 1 a Trcmoilles 
 
 Eendant cinq. Siecles," Vol. V. 1 from them also the Dime 
 
 as included in " Lcs Souvenirs de La Princcsse de Tarente." 
 
 T 2
 
 276 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 gambling debts his mother persuaded the Duke, his 
 father, to mortgage lands near Thouars. 
 
 After this disaster the Prince de Tarente vowed to 
 abjure cards, and to the letter of his resolution he 
 vigorously adhered for the rest of his days. But other 
 games of chance as well as amours, horse-racing, and at 
 least two duels contributed to his adventurous career an 
 equal excitement. 
 
 This gay life, doubtless the typical existence of many a 
 young French noble of that time, the Prince frankly 
 describes in his Souvenirs : — 
 
 " For two summers," he writes, " I visited the Spa of 
 Plombieres, where I ran my horses against the English, 
 among others the Duke of Bedford. 1 My losses were 
 about equal to my gains. But the dash I was cutting 
 attracted the attention of a lady, who was then the rage, 
 rather for her wit than her beauty, for her face was 
 merely fresh and animated. With my philosophical 
 (sic) ideas as to the fairness of women I should have 
 preferred a pretty, fresh grisette to a princess devoid of 
 those real attractions ; so I began by chaffing the assiduous 
 courtiers of this queen of fashion. She, piqued by my 
 behaviour, swore to attach me to her train. She 
 succeeded. Nevertheless I remained heart-whole, and 
 my flattered pride was the only tie which for four or 
 five years bound me to her." 
 
 The Prince de Tarente was the most dissipated of the 
 three brothers. But Antoine, the La Vendee hero, was 
 almost as much addicted to pleasure. At twenty -five he 
 was already afflicted with the family's tendency to 
 corpulence, and with so much more than a tendency to the 
 family gout that at times during the La Vendee campaigns 
 
 1 This was Fox's famous friend, and Burke's bite noir, ruthlessly 
 satirised in the " Anti- Jacobin."
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 277 
 
 he was disabled from going into action. This weakness, 
 however, did not prevent him from playing a heroic part 
 during the La Vendee struggle. Yet war did not absorb 
 him so deeply but that he found time during its progress 
 for more than one amorous intrigue. 
 
 Prince Louis de La Tremoille, the youngest of the three 
 brothers, served the royal cause as a soldier in La Vendee 
 and as a diplomat at various European courts. Yet he, 
 too, was capable of controlling his royalist ardour in order 
 for a while to pursue his own interest. For some years 
 during the Revolution period he became a fortune-hunter, 
 and we shall find him dancing attendance on his aged 
 kinswoman Sophie, Countess Bentinck, 1 in the vain hope 
 that she would make him her heir. 
 
 It was probably soon after the famous Ouatorze Juillet 
 that Duke Jean and his Duchess committed what the 
 Republicans described as " the crime of emigration," and 
 sought refuge in Savoy, turning their backs upon a land 
 which, in their opinion, hordes of barbarians were striving 
 
 1 Table showing the relationship of Sophie, Countess Bentinck, to 
 the La Tremoilles : — 
 
 Charles Henry, Prince de Tarente, d. 1670. 
 
 Charles Hollande, Charlotte Amelie, 
 
 Due de La Tremoille. Comtesse d Altenburg. 
 
 I I 
 
 Charles Bretagne, Anthony, Comte d'Altenburg. 
 Due de La Tremoille. 
 
 I 
 
 1 \ 1 1 t 1 . 1 Rene, Sophie, tn. Count Bentinck, 
 
 Dm de La rremoille. 2nd son of the 1st Earl oi 
 
 Jean 1 1 •■■ 1 gne, 
 Due de La Tremoille. 
 J 
 
 I I 
 
 ChaiLs Br.-tagrir, Luiis, Prince de 
 
 DucdcLi I; imoille. La 1 1 < n •■ >i 1 lo. 
 
 P01 tland.
 
 278 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 to convert " into a savage country peopled by a few 
 tribes of cannibals." But the La Tremoilles had a 
 further inducement for their flight, in the fact that the 
 Duchess was suffering from consumption, of which she 
 died at Nice in 1790. 
 
 Round their beloved mother's death-bed gathered her 
 four sons, coming, three of them from France, and the 
 eldest, Charles Bretagne, from Turin, which was then the 
 headquarters of the royal princes. After the funeral of 
 the Duchess, leaving their father with his youngest son in 
 Savoy, where two years later, in May, 1792, the Duke 
 died at Chambery, the La Tremoille brothers dispersed, 
 never, all four of them, to meet again. Two, as we have 
 seen, were to perish during the Revolution ; two, after 
 many adventures in various countries of Europe, returned 
 with ruined fortunes and disappointed hopes, to settle in 
 their native land. 
 
 A few months after Duke Jean's death, the Revolution 
 Government, seized the La Tremoille estates, by virtue 
 of two laws passed by the Legislative Assembly decree- 
 ing the confiscation of emigrants' property. In vain did 
 the family represent that Duke Jean was not an emigre, 
 having left France on account of his wife's health ; the 
 Revolutionaries continued to hold those vast domains in 
 the west, accumulated in La Tremoille hands throughout 
 five centuries. Seven years later by the Directory's 
 order we find the Thouars lands being sold by auction 
 for the State's benefit. 
 
 At the time of her mother-in-law's death, the Prince de 
 Tarente's wife, Emmannuelle de Chatillon, was in Paris. 
 In 1785 she had become lady-in-waiting to Marie 
 Antoinette ; and with the beautiful Queen whom she 
 adored, she remained through all the crises of the
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 279 
 
 Revolution until that fatal day when V Autrichicnne was 
 imprisoned in the Temple. 
 
 So, while her husband had been flaunting fashion at 
 race-courses and spas, the Princesse de Tarente had 
 remained in the heart of things at Paris. She had now 
 grown into a beautiful, clever woman. And La Tremoille 
 in describing his dissipations at Plombieres boasts of his 
 conjugal fidelity : — 
 
 " All this while," he writes, " I did not neglect my 
 wife. Her only failing was that she did not bear 
 me children. However, in the winter of 17SS — 9, she 
 gave birth to a daughter, whom we called Caroline. I 
 learnt her death in the beginning of 1791, at Turin, that 
 earliest nest of the emigrants, where I had joined the 
 Comte d'Artois." 
 
 Emmannuelle de Chatillon can never have laboured 
 under any illusion with regard to her husband. From 
 her wedding day, when he left her at the church door, 
 until the end of her life, she seems to have regarded him as 
 a wayward child. Her affection for the Queen was her 
 great passion ; and when the Prince de Tarente wrote 
 asking his wife to join him abroad, she refused to forsake 
 her mistress. 
 
 The Princess as well as her husband has left us her 
 recollections. In the thrilling pages of this, one of 
 the most interesting of Revolution records, the writer, 
 with graphic pen, describes the most stirring events of 
 those stirring times, from the terrible October days 
 when the Baker, the Baker's wife and the Baker's boy 
 were brought by a howling mob from Versailles to Paris, 
 all through the confinement of that Baker's family in the 
 ruileries, until the fatal morning of August 10th, 1792,
 
 28o FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 when they walked into the lion's mouth and took refuge 
 with the Assembly. 
 
 From a window in the Palace, on that sad morning, the 
 Princess watched her beloved Queen, with her husband, 
 children and sister-in-law, walk across the gardens to the 
 Monastery of the Feuillants, there to throw themselves on 
 the mercy of the Convention. Madame de Tarente then 
 little thought that she was gazing on her adored sovereign 
 for the last time : she expected the royal family to 
 return in an hour or so. But very soon after their 
 departure the sound of firing was heard, and the noise of 
 the mob breaking into the Palace. The Princess with 
 other ladies of the Queen's suite locked themselves in one 
 of the royal apartments. There, like persons frightened 
 by a thunderstorm, they drew down the blinds, closed the 
 shutters and lit all the candles, hoping thus to shut out 
 the hideous yells of the mob, the noise of firing, and the 
 sight of the grim scenes which were being enacted in the 
 Palace gardens. But the infuriated horde soon broke 
 through all the bolts and bars which these defenceless 
 women had erected against them. In the midst of the 
 panic and confusion which ensued one of the invaders, his 
 dark heart illuminated by a flash of pity, cried, " don't 
 hurt the women." Madame de Tarente immediately 
 seized her opportunity, and entreating mercy, obtained 
 protection for herself, for a young girl who had been com- 
 mitted to her charge, and for an elderly lady. Their 
 deliverer, conducting them through the desolated Palace, 
 past the dead bodies of the King's retainers, brought them 
 out by a side door on to the quay near the Pont Royal. 
 There he left them to contend alone with new adventures. 
 Making their way along the lower path by the riverside, 
 the fugitives attracted the attention of loiterers on the
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 281 
 
 opposite bank : they were fired upon and then seized by 
 a group of Revolutionaries. Dragged in the bi oiling 
 August sun across the Place Louis Ouinze, 1 these unhappy 
 women were taken to a committee of the Section sitting 
 in the Rue Neuve-des-Capucins. There, in a member of 
 the committee they were fortunate in finding a protector. 
 Dismissing the angry mob with the promise that the 
 captives should be brought to justice, he welcomed the 
 ladies kindly and, after their pursuers had dispersed, sent 
 them well guarded to the house of Madame de Tarente's 
 grandmother, the Duchesse de la Valliere. 
 
 In her grandmother's house for some days the Princess 
 remained in concealment, longing to join her Queen in the 
 Temple prison, and filled with envy when the young 
 companion of her escape, Pauline de Tourzel, was sum- 
 moned to her Sovereign's side. 
 
 It was not the Temple but the Abbaye prison that 
 awaited Madame de Tarente. Her hiding place was dis- 
 covered, and to the Abbaye, after trial by one of the 
 Revolution committees, she was taken on August 27th. 
 Her entrance into that grim abode she has vividly de- 
 scribed in her Recollections. Dragged through what 
 appeared like a narrow slit in the wall, as the prison door 
 banged behind her, its noise resounded to the depths of her 
 heart. 
 
 ' At the sound of the shooting of the bolts," she 
 writ ' I felt myself tut off from the whole world. It 
 was ten o'clock in the evening. A horrible smell of gin 
 made me feel siek. With morbid curiosity I gazed around 
 me, but could see nothing." 
 
 For eight days Madame de Tarente remained in the 
 Abbaye. On September 2nd began the terrible prison 
 1 Now Pla< i- <lc lu Concord.'.
 
 282 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 massacres. All the hideous scenes of those two black 
 days and nights the Princess paints in striking colours. 
 She herself only narrowly escaped sharing the horrible 
 fate of the Princesse de Lamballe. By a marvellous piece 
 of good fortune, Madame de Tarente's sufferings had from 
 the first inspired pity in the heart of a certain M. Chancey, 
 a member of the committee which had tried her. Now 
 for the second time she owed her deliverance to a Revo- 
 lutionary. And it was through M. Chancey's efforts, 
 seconded by what can only be described as wonderful good 
 luck, that the Princess escaped with her life. 
 
 Into the gory hands of the murderous mob pressing 
 round the prison gates like hungry beasts of prey, Madame 
 de Tarente was delivered, not as a victim to be slaughtered, 
 but as a captive wrongly accused, whose innocence had 
 now been established. " A triumph for Madame," cried 
 her saviour. Two hundred voices echoed, " A triumph 
 for Madame." And almost fainting, but clutching 
 tightly in her hand the dirty, crumpled, mud-bespattered 
 scrap of paper, which was the charter of her liberty, the 
 Princess was raised shoulder high and carried through the 
 crowd, who a.-> warmly applauded her escape as but a few 
 moments before they had welcomed the dying groans of 
 their victims. Entering a carriage waiting at the end of 
 the street, Madame de Tarente was driven to the house of 
 her mother, the Duchesse de Chatillon, in the Rue du Bac. 
 
 But there the Queen's ci-devant lady-in-waiting was by 
 no means safe from Republican hatred ; and so, yielding 
 to her friends' entreaties, she consented to emigrate. At 
 six o'clock in the morning, on September 13th, accon> 
 panied by her brother-in-law, Antoine Philippe, Prince de 
 Talmond, she passed through the garden gate of the 
 Duchess's house and walked down to the Pont Royal,
 
 MARIE ANTOINETTE AFTER mi' KING'S Dl VTH 
 Prom a portrait drawn In the Temple and presented to the Princesse dc Tarente
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 283 
 
 where she entered a cab, a curious kind of a vehicle, so it 
 seemed to her, for an aristocrat to drive in. By this 
 plebeian mode of conveyance she reached Amiens. 
 Thence the bourgeois cab returned to Paris, while its 
 occupants in a phaeton continued their way as far as 
 Boulogne. 
 
 There, having been warned that Revolutionary agents 
 were observing their movements, it was deemed dangerous 
 to wait for the packet which should start for England on 
 the morrow. So, at midnight, crouching in the hold of a 
 dirty little boat, to which she had been carried by a still 
 dirtier sailor, Madame de Tarente watched the dark blue 
 sky, the glittering stars and the receding shores of France. 
 
 The land of her birth she was never to see again, except 
 once, years later, when for a brief space, before starting 
 for a distant land, she returned to visit her little daughter's 
 grave. 
 
 In this hazardous voyage the Princess was still accom- 
 panied by her faithful brother-in-law, Talmond, who 
 but a few months later was to give his life for the King in 
 La Vendee. This was Talmond's second visit to England 
 that year. During the Revolution period the La Tremoille 
 brothers were constantly crossing the Channel to visit 
 their friends among the English aristocracy, and to solicit 
 aid from the English Government for the royal cause in 
 France. 
 
 Among the La Tremoilles' friends in England was the 
 Marquis of Queensberry, the famous " old Q." He now 
 placed at the Princess's disposal his beautiful villa at 
 Richmond, where, during her live years' residence 1 in 
 England, Madame de Tarente dwelt, in company with 
 
 1 IJ.jJ- :
 
 284 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 that fair lady of disputed parentage, Maria Fagniani 
 afterwards Countess of Yarmouth. 1 
 
 It was at Richmond that the Princess wrote her 
 Recollections. And it was there that she was rejoined by 
 her husband. The Prince de Tarente, or Due de La 
 Tremoille,' 2 as he now by courtesy might be called, his 
 father having died in this year, was then living with other 
 French nobles in a house at Bedford. After a series of 
 disasters resulting from what he has himself described as 
 " his natural frivolity and thoughtlessness," his estate had 
 been considerably reduced, and, when his wife arrived in 
 England, the Duke was in great financial embarrassment. 
 
 The story of his life since his mother's death in 1790 
 is the record of constant wanderings through Europe in 
 search of pleasure, or in the performance of some diplo- 
 matic mission — driving in a cabriolet from Turin to 
 Rome, and from Rome to Mantua, riding post-haste, 
 almost incessantly, so he says, for four days and five 
 nights from Mantua to Nice. Then there followed a gay 
 winter in London, where the Prince of Wales regarded 
 him as a leader of fashion, admiring his shoe-buckles and 
 borrowing his valet. In the spring, in the midst of a ball, 
 where he was " dancing with a fair one who was by no 
 means deaf to his gallant propositions," the news of the 
 French Republic's declaration of war summoned him 
 back to the Continent. 
 
 Joining the Comte d'Artois, to whom he became aide- 
 de-camp, La Tremoille soon found himself at Coblentz, 
 where he was bored to death by the constant bickerings of 
 the royalist leaders, and by the seriousness of the emigre 
 women. 
 
 1 Both "Q." and George Selwyn claimed to be her father. 
 
 2 All titles of nobility had been abolished by the National Assembly 
 in the early days of the Revolution.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 285 
 
 "The ladies here freeze me," he wrote to the Duchesse 
 de Piennes in England. ' For the five days I have been 
 here I have not been able to say a single word to them . . . 
 I can't endure women who want to direct empires and who 
 think of anything save their own and others' pleasure." 
 
 Over the campaign of 1792 the Prince in his Recollec- 
 tions passes lightly, forbearing to mention that at his own 
 expense he raised and equipped a company of hussars. 
 
 At the close of the campaign, when the army went into 
 winter quarters, he obtained permission to go to Vienna, 
 where he hoped to obtain an imperial fief to compensate 
 for his lost French estates. 
 
 The gaieties of his life in London during the previous 
 winter and of a visit to the waters of Spa in the spring, 
 combined with the expenses of the war, had drained his 
 purse. And in order to recover his fortunes, La Tremoille 
 listened readily to an adventurer, one Comte Armand, 
 whom he met on the road to Vienna, and who boasted 
 that he was possessed of an infallible tip for winning huge 
 sums at rouge et noir. Count Armand attached himself 
 to the Duke, and soon became his evil genius. It was at 
 the Count's suggestion that, in order to obtain money for 
 his hazardous play, La Tremoille borrowed from the 
 confiding Due de Richelieu, then at Vienna, a valuable 
 family heirloom, in the shape of a sword set with diamonds. 
 The only bankers likely to offer an adequate sum on the 
 security of the sword were to be found in London. Conse- 
 quently La Tremoille, with his sword and his bad angel, 
 without waiting for the Emperor's reply to his request, 
 set out to drive across Europe. 
 
 It was late autumn ; the weather was abominable, and 
 the roads worse; moreover, in order to avoid falling in 
 with the Republican army, the Duke and his companion
 
 286 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 were compelled to follow circuitous routes and by-ways, 
 on one of which their carriage was overturned. In the 
 end, however, they reached Ostend in safety, and there 
 embarked for London. At the Court of St. James's, La 
 Tremoille received a hearty welcome. With the money 
 raised on the sword he was able to buy horses and set up a 
 large establishment. The Prince of Wales carried him off 
 to Basingstoke ; the Duke of Bedford, with whom we 
 found him consorting at Plombieres, invited him to hunt 
 at Woburn Abbey. Armand meanwhile was left in 
 London to stake what remained of the borrowed capital 
 at rouge et noir. 
 
 In such gay society, while his wife was in the Abbaye 
 prison, and his Sovereign was being tried for his life, the 
 Duke passed the autumn and winter of 1792 — 3. 
 
 " Our amusements," he writes, " were hardly decorous, 
 for with the Prince of Wales the order of the day was to 
 drink without ceasing, so that when bedtime came I could 
 not stand upon my legs." 
 
 From such conviviality in the country La Tremoille was 
 summoned back to London by the news that Count 
 Armand's infallible tip had failed, that luck was turning 
 against him, and that the money raised on the sword was 
 vanishing rapidly. The Duke returned to London to find 
 himself once again reduced to poverty. He sold up his 
 establishment, which, he writes, had become a refuge for 
 French adventurers of both sexes, " a veritable den of 
 thieves," and went down to Bedford to join his friends, 
 the Duke and Duchess of Piennes. Thence he went over 
 to Richmond to visit his wife. 
 
 The meeting between the Duke and Duchess can hardly 
 have been a very pleasant one. While Madame de 
 Tarente had been loyally serving her King and Queen,
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 287 
 
 enduring imprisonment and risking death for their sakes, 
 her husband had been absorbed in the pursuit of pleasure. 
 Madame de Tarente was scandalised by his follies ; but 
 while reproaching him bitterly, she generously placed 
 her fortune at his disposal. His wife's financial help, 
 however, the Prince refused ; " she needed all her 
 resources for herself," he writes. 
 
 Soon afterwards came the news of the execution of 
 Louis XVI., which was followed by England's declaration 
 of war against the French Republic. For service in this 
 war several new cavalry regiments were raised ; and over 
 one of them La Tremoille would have received the 
 command, had it not been for what the Duke himself 
 describes as his own stupid blunder. It happened in the 
 following manner. As he was passing by Mrs. Fitz- 
 herbert's house in London, the Prince of Wales came to 
 the window and called out : " My dear Prince, I have 
 some good news for you ; I appoint you colonel of a 
 regiment of light cavalry we are about to raise ; you are 
 to enter our service." To this announcement La Tre- 
 moille answered : " I am truly sensible of the amiability 
 of your Royal Highness, but, having taken service with 
 Monseigneur, le Prince de Condc, I cannot accept your 
 Highness's offer without his permission." No sooner 
 were the words out of his mouth than La Tremoille 
 realised their awkwardness ; for the Prince turned pale 
 with anger and said : " If that is so, then consider my 
 propc-.tl as if it had never been made, and I wish you 
 good luck." 
 
 From that day all relations between the Duke and the 
 Prince of Wales ceased. For La Tremoille's character 
 this breach with his royal friend was by no means 
 disastrous, for it converted him from a mere pleasure-
 
 288 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 seeking man of fashion into an energetic, courageous 
 soldier, righting with loyalty and devotion in his Sovereign's 
 cause. 
 
 Immediately after his quarrel with the Prince La 
 Tremoille left England for the Continent. But, although 
 he had thus thoughtlessly represented himself as engaged 
 to the Prince de Conde, he knew full well that in Conde's 
 army he would not be likely to find employment. For 
 the royalist princes, especially the Comte d'Artois, could 
 not forgive him for forsaking them and going to England 
 after the campaign of 1792. 
 
 Nevertheless, disembarking at Ostend, the Duke, 
 accompanied by his brother, Prince Louis, proceeded to 
 join Conde's army on the Rhine. On the way he passed 
 through Brussels, where he borrowed money from his 
 mother's relatives on the security of her estate. But on 
 his arrival at Bingen, then the headquarters of the emigres, 
 La Tremoille found himself regarded as a deserter because 
 of his winter spent in England. 
 
 He, therefore, resolved to return to Vienna and investi- 
 gate the progress made by his demand for an imperial 
 fief which the Emperor had referred to the Aulic Council. 
 At Vienna he found that the Council, before granting his 
 request, would require the production of a capital sum 
 which far exceeded his means. 
 
 The next chapter of his adventures may best be related 
 in the Duke's own words. 
 
 " I became intimate," he writes, " with the amiable 
 Marquis del Gallo, Neapolitan ambassador at the court of 
 Vienna, who offered me the rank of colonel aide-de-camp 
 to his sovereign with a salary of 8,000 to 10,000 francs. 
 I accepted, forgetting that I was thus tacitly renouncing 
 my family's claim to the kingdom of Naples. The
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 289 
 
 recognition of my title, Prince of Taranto, 1 was refused 
 and I was treated as a grandee of Spain. True I was 
 addressed as Excellency, but then German princelets were 
 called your Highness, while I was only Signor Principe 
 like the grandson of any fishmonger rich enough to buy 
 the title." 
 
 Having accepted Gallo's offer, La Tremoille apparently 
 went to Naples. For he goes on to relate his dealings 
 with the famous Englishman who was at that time 
 governing the Neapolitan kingdom. 
 
 " In my first interview with General Acton,' 2 the 
 favourite minister of Queen Caroline and more powerful 
 than King Ferdinand," he writes, ' I realised that in 
 order to please him I must become the chief of his sbirri, 
 see everything, hear everything, then report everything. 
 If I would consent, then I should be colonel of a 
 Macedonian (or an Albanian) regiment in garrison at 
 Naples, a horde of scoundrels always hatching revo- 
 lutionary plots which had to be discovered. But I had 
 no wish to serve as chief of police to this hard-featured, 
 tyrannical-looking, atrabilious satrap. After dinner I 
 gave him to understand that the Marquis del Gallo had 
 spoken to me of the rank of a colonel aide-de-camp to the 
 King, with the command of an auxiliary corps in Lom- 
 bardy. The next day the King and Queen most 
 graciously received me. Two days later I had my com- 
 mission and set out for Lombardy, there to join five 
 cavalry regiments, commanded by Cuto. This old general 
 
 1 Henceforth until its formal recognition by Louis XVIII. in 1S19, 
 the titl Prince of! aranto " seems to have been in abeyant e. After 
 
 Wagram, Napoleon created e.rnnal Maedonald I >i ike of Taranto. 
 
 1 fohn V ton (1736—1811), son of a London goldsmith and a 
 Fren< b ladj oi B< ai con, where A.< ton was born Having entered the 
 Tuscan navy, A< ton inguished himseli in thai servi< e thai he was 
 
 entrusted with th< n oi the Neapolitan naval forces He 
 
 then b» 1 ommandei in I hid oi the Neapolitan army and Prime 
 
 Mttnister. He deb ted the French, and his influence ovei Queen 
 Caroline, whose lover b id to have been, was disastrous for the 
 
 kingdom of Naples. 
 
 C.R. U
 
 290 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 treated me with the coldest and most casual politeness. 
 He wrongly regarded me as General Acton's spy, and 
 seemed determined to prove me as useless as the fifth 
 wheel of a cart. He gave me nothing to do and every day 
 when I asked him for orders, he would reply : " Nothing 
 at all ; niente a fatto." I sat at his table with his two 
 aides-de-camp ; but it was far from good, for he was a 
 veritable skinflint." 
 
 To his great relief, after a short time with this old 
 curmudgeon, La Tremoille was ordered to join Radetzky, 
 chief staff officer and aide-de-camp to Beaulieu, who in 
 1796 was appointed commander-in-chief of the Austrian 
 army in North Italy. In Radetzky 's service there was 
 no lack of employment. La Tremoille's knowledge of 
 German and Italian rendered him invaluable as corre- 
 spondent of the army, while his quickness of perception 
 and the alertness of movement he had cultivated in the 
 hunting field enabled him to do first-rate work as a scout. 
 
 In that memorable retreat of Beaulieu's forces pursued 
 by Buonaparte across the plain of Lombardy, La Tremoille 
 commanded in the rearguard. He was present at the 
 Battle of Lodi. That action, though it lasted but twenty 
 minutes, involved, writes the Duke, the most terrible 
 slaughter he had ever seen. 
 
 During the following day and two nights Radetzky kept 
 La Tremoille busy reconnoitring. For the whole of the 
 day after Lodi, from four o'clock in the morning until 
 darkness fell, he had not a moment in which to take food. 
 
 ' On the second night," he writes, " Radetzky entrusted 
 me with the delicate and difficult task of reconnoitring 
 along the Adigio and of distinguishing between our friends 
 and our foes. . . . The troops were so close together that 
 in the darkness it was difficult to tell whether the fires in
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 291 
 
 the bivouacs belonged to the French or to the Austrians. 
 We were surrounded by them. One attracted my atten- 
 tion. It was a little off the road leading up to the Gam- 
 barani Bridge. This was no joke, and it was imperative 
 to discover to which side it belonged. I had only taken 
 my orderly with me. Him I left to look after my horse. 
 Then, crawling on my stomach, noiselessly through the 
 vines, I came to within fifteen feet of a French bivouac 
 fire. They had two or three wounded with them. They 
 were swearing and cursing the Austrians, whom they said 
 they would like to throw into the Adigio. And in truth 
 they were on the point of doing it. Yet we were still in a 
 position to cross the river." 
 
 Then the Duke relates how this passage was effected in 
 the darkness, how the wheels of carts and gun-carriages 
 were bound round with straw, and how, thanks to German 
 taciturnity, a column of 9,000 to 10,000 men with all their 
 artillery and baggage wagons passed 300 paces from the 
 enemy's main body without being heard. 
 
 La Tremoille was uncertain whether, during this 
 campaign, he ever actually saw Buonaparte. There was 
 a general on horseback on the Bridge at Lodi who may 
 have been he. But he was enveloped in smoke, and the 
 Prince, from portraits he saw afterwards, thought it more 
 likely to have been Augereau. 
 
 The crossing of the Adigio closed the campaign of 1796. 
 His Neapolitan cavalry, under the command of a brave 
 Spaniard, Marshal Ruitz, La Tremoille sent into winter 
 quarters in the Tyrol, while he himself visited Lausanne, 
 Turin and Venice. Count Radetzky, highly pleased with 
 his services, had mentioned him in the most flattering 
 manner in the reports he had sent to Vienna. 
 
 It was about this time that the Duchcssc dc La 
 Tremoille, whom her husband had left in England, was 
 
 U 2
 
 292 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 invited by the Czar and Czarina to become lady-in-waiting 
 at the court of St. Petersburg. 
 
 Paul I. and his wife, Maria Feodorovna, before their 
 accession to the throne of all the Russias, had visited 
 Paris incognito as the Comte and Comtesse du Nord. 
 And there at the house of her grandmother, the Duchesse 
 de la Valliere, Madame de Tarente had made their 
 acquaintance. She now accepted their invitation, and set 
 sail for Cronstadt on board a Russian frigate which they 
 had sent for her. In Russia, suffering much, as long as he 
 lived, from the vagaries of the eccentric Czar Paul, 1 the 
 Duchess continued to reside until her death in 1814. 
 That her husband did not join her there was not his fault ; 
 for from his wife's correspondence 2 we learn that he more 
 than once proposed coming to St. Petersburg. But after 
 his unfortunate experience in England no doubt the 
 Duchess dreaded for him an idle life of pleasure among the 
 French emigres who had thronged to the Russian capital. 
 And she was doubtless right. For the Duke's voluptuous- 
 ness and frivolity must there have led him into follies as 
 wild as those he had committed in England and elsewhere. 
 It was also more in accordance with the traditions of 
 his house that he should remain in Italy fighting against 
 the enemies of his King. 
 
 Unhappily, however, through the campaign of 1797, as 
 the result of a disagreement between Austria and Naples, 
 there was nothing for La Tremoille to do but vegetate at 
 Naples. This he detested. Naples did not possess the 
 attractions of London or Vienna. Moreover, he was 
 surrounded by enemies, for Queen Caroline, Sir John 
 
 1 Fortunately he died in 1801. For an interesting account of his 
 reign, see K. Waliszewski, " Le Fils de la Grande Catherine " (1912). 
 
 2 Published with her " Souvenirs " by Duke Louis Charles de La 
 Tremoille.
 
 I.MMANUELI.I hi CHATILLON, PRINCESSE DE TARENTE 
 AND DUCHESSE DE LA fREMOILLE
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 293 
 
 Acton and the notorious Lady Hamilton, who was then 
 very powerful at Naples, all disliked the French. The 
 Neapolitan officers, too, were jealous of this French Duke, 
 and accused him of treachery in the previous campaign. 
 
 The King, however, remained his friend ; and in the 
 following year La Tremoille received a command in 
 General Mack's army, first under the Prince of Hesse 
 Philipstal, whom he disliked for having worsted him in 
 love, and then under a personal friend, the Chevalier de 
 Saxe. In the neighbourhood of Rome there was a good 
 deal of fighting with the French. At Civita Castellana, 
 Saxe received a bullet in the stomach, whereupon his 
 troops, crying " the general is dead," turned and fled in 
 disorder. There was a general rout, and the soldiers fired 
 upon their officers when they attempted to rally them. 
 
 In the place of Saxe, who was unable to travel, La 
 Tremoille was summoned to Rome to report on this 
 disaster to Acton and King Ferdinand. The Duke him- 
 self was suffering from an attack of fever and was almost 
 delirious. Although the King and his minister received 
 him kindly, La Tremoille a few days later read in the 
 newspaper that he was accused of treason and held 
 responsible for the rout at Civita Castellana. Considering 
 the number of enemies he seems to have made at the 
 Neapolitan court no one can be astonished at this charge 
 being brought against him. No accusation could have 
 been more serious. On a similar charge Great Britain 
 only a few decades earlier had tried and condemned to 
 death a distinguished admiral. From so uncivilised a 
 power as Naples then was La Tremoille could expect no 
 better treatment. 
 
 The circulation of so terrible a report filled the Duke's 
 relatives with horror. His only surviving brother,
 
 294 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 Prince Louis de La Tremoille, was then living with 
 Countess Bentinck at Hamburg. And in a letter to her 
 grand-daughter in London the Countess writes 1 : 
 
 ' We have had a very unpleasant time here the last 
 three or four weeks. . . . The Italian newspapers, copied 
 by those of the Empire, told us cruel, humiliating news of 
 the Due de La Tremoille, Prince de Tarente . . . whose 
 brother, Prince Louis de La Tremoille, was, and still is, 
 staying with me. The Duke is a general in the King of 
 Naples' service, and was commanding the advance guard 
 at the Battle of Calvi. 2 The papers said that the chief 
 cause of the loss of this decisive battle was the treachery 
 and cowardice of the Duke. You can imagine that this 
 was enough to strike us to the soul with horror. Two 
 brothers 3 have already died like heroes in God's cause and 
 the King's, and the one who is here has sacrificed himself 
 for the last seven or eight years, and has given up such 
 small means as were left him, has lost his health and has 
 risked his life at least twenty times. He was absolutely 
 petrified with horror. In fact, I heard he would not be 
 able to survive the frightful idea of seeing the head of his 
 house covered with shame." 
 
 Later in this same letter, the Countess relates how the 
 cloud of their sorrow lifted in an unexpected manner. 
 
 " In spite of the enormous difficulty," she continued, 
 " which the court of Vienna itself experiences in obtaining 
 news from those Italian places, we were so fortunate as to 
 receive two letters (one from a general officer of first rank 
 and in the same service) which not only completely efface 
 
 1 On February 19th, 1799. The original letter is in the possession of 
 Mr. Aldenburg Bentinck at Indio, in Devonshire. It is quoted by 
 Mrs. Aubrey Le Blond in her " Life of Sophie, Countess Bentinck," 
 II., 210 — 211. 
 
 2 Presumably the same as Civita Castellana. 
 
 s Antoine Philippe, Prince de Talmond, condemned to death by the 
 revolutionary court-martial and executed. Charles Auguste, Dean of 
 Strasbourg, guillotined at Paris.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 295 
 
 that black calumny, but tell us that, far from being want- 
 ing in courage and fidelity to his sovereign and benefactor, 
 the Duke de La Tremoille in resisting those traitors who 
 wished to give themselves up to the French did everything 
 that the greatest zeal and valour could inspire, and nearly 
 fell a victim himself, but escaped as by a miracle from the 
 rage of those regiments who had been corrupted and 
 seduced by the French. Neither he nor his colleague, the 
 brave Chevalier de Saxe, could avoid their malicious and 
 infernal slanders, the falsehood of which is now publicly 
 proclaimed, and the King, his master, is informed of and 
 touched by his fidelity, his innocence and his misfortune. 
 We were transported with joy at the news, which gave new 
 life to our amiable young Prince, who has made himself 
 loved and esteemed by everyone and whose state was 
 pitiable. I entreat you to tell all this to the Duke of 
 Portland ; the Prince also urgently desires it, considering 
 his esteem one of the greatest treasures in the world and 
 knowing his brother's honour safe in the eyes of the 
 majority when the Duke himself pronounces it to be above 
 reproach." 
 
 Unhappily, this rejoicing was premature. The evil 
 reports continued ; and five months after she wrote this 
 letter, the Countess enters in her diary : ' The Prince de 
 La Tremoille left to-day, having given me terrible news 
 last night at midnight." l 
 
 The " terrible news "' to which the Countess referred 
 concerned doubtless the doings of the Duke since the first 
 appearance of that fatal slander. In a furious letter to 
 Acton, in which he wrote that to be a private soldier in 
 La Vend6e was better than being general under such a 
 minister, he resigned his commission. Then, dismissing 
 his aide-de-camp and his servants, accompanied only by 
 one Hungarian soldier, he left Rome, and by way of 
 
 1 On July . 1 tli, 1799. See Mrs. Aubrey tic Blond, Op. cil. II., 233,
 
 2g6 from the crusades 
 
 Orbitello went to Florence. There his cousin, the Marquise 
 de Grollier, and an old friend, the Bailli de Crussol, a 
 former captain under the Comte d'Artois, afraid to receive 
 one labouring under so terrible an accusation, sent him to 
 the Vanini inn, where he was betrayed into the hands of 
 the Neapolitan Minister, who had him arrested. 
 
 After a brief confinement in the citadel of Leghorn, 
 La Tremoille was taken to Palermo, whither the 
 Neapolitan court had fled from the Revolution in Naples. 
 In Sicily, writes the Duke in his Souvenirs, the King and 
 Queen were inclined to be indulgent and to recommend 
 him to the court of Denmark. But the malice of the 
 " atrabilious satrap " still pursued him. The only con- 
 dition on which Acton would liberate him was that he 
 should make good his bravado and become a soldier in 
 La Vendee. With this object the Duke was permitted to 
 embark at Trieste, from which port he travelled to 
 Hamburg, en route for England, whence he was to cross the 
 Channel into Normandy. At Hamburg La Tremoille met 
 his brother Louis, who arranged his passage to England in 
 company with General Frotte, who was likewise on his way 
 to Normandy. Prince Louis, although convinced of his 
 brother's innocence, had no belief in his judgment. He 
 was always dreading that the Duke would perpetrate 
 some new folly. To the life his eldest brother had 
 previously led in England Louis referred as to a time when 
 he " was completely crazy, with his diamonds, and his 
 swords and his fatal dreams, when it was a pity for his 
 reputation and his own good that England had no lettres 
 de cachet or petites maisons." 
 
 Now at length the Duke's misfortunes seem to have 
 sobered him. And the rest of his life was comparatively 
 uneventful. After two months' guerilla warfare in
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 297 
 
 Normandy, during which his only adventure was to 
 receive several musket shots in his clothes, he left the 
 west when Buonaparte was attempting its pacification and 
 went to Paris. There for two years he remained hiding in 
 the house of a Swiss friend. Then, in 1803, as major- 
 general he entered the service of the Grand Duke of 
 Baden. 
 
 Among Prince Louis' correspondence has been dis- 
 covered an anonymous document, but apparently written 
 by a Neapolitan officer, confessing that the Duke had 
 been treated with gross injustice. " We annoyed him in 
 every possible way," it runs, " because we were shocked 
 to see a foreigner colonel of a regiment in which the first 
 families in the kingdom in vain solicited a sub- 
 lieutenancy." Then testifying to the Duke's charm of 
 manner, the writer continues : " But he vanquished us 
 by his personality. He proved to us that he knew more 
 than we did, and we would now always gladly serve under 
 his orders." 
 
 Louis de La Tremoille, hoping that the Countess would 
 make him her heir, continued at Hamburg until her death 
 in 1801. But, although for years he had practically ruled 
 her household, he had been unable to ingratiate himself 
 sufficiently for her to bequeath him her property. ' Her 
 arrogance was inconceivable, her disposition of iron, and 
 her heart of stone," wrote the Duke, and at her death his 
 brother found himself homeless and with " nothing more 
 than the emigrant's little bundle," with which he had 
 arrived. Then he wenl to Paris in search of a rich wife, 
 and in 1803 married Genevieve Adelaide, Comtesse de 
 Langeron. 
 
 There for a time we must leave him in order to trace 
 the more tragic career of his twin brothers, the Prince de
 
 298 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 Talmond and the Abbe de La Tremoille. The Prince we 
 left in England, whither in the autumn of 1792 he had 
 conducted his sister-in-law, the Princesse de Tarente, after 
 her miraculous escape from the September massacres. 
 After establishing Madame de Tarente at Richmond, Tal- 
 mond probably spent the winter in this country ; for, while 
 the royalist armies were in winter quarters, he could best 
 serve their cause by endeavouring to procure from our 
 government help for the royalist rising in Western France. 
 
 Moreover, during his visit to England in the spring, 
 Talmond's possession of a wife and son in France had not 
 prevented him from following his eldest brother's example 
 and falling a victim to the charms of an English gentle- 
 woman. Her name is usually not mentioned. One 
 authority x only refers to Talmond's mysterious mistress 
 as " Lady Brighton." 
 
 It was doubtless in January, 1793, that news of his 
 King's execution tore the Prince from the pursuit of 
 pleasure to fight for the cause in which he was to perish. 
 The parting of the lovers was sad and solemn. In the true 
 romantic manner they broke a ring in two halves, and, each 
 taking one, exchanged a promise that whenever either 
 sent the other a fragment of this ring the receiver should 
 take it as a peremptory summons to the sender's presence. 
 
 Then Talmond, quitting our shores for ever, passed 
 secretly over to France and in disguise appeared on his 
 hereditary dominions in Maine. 
 
 But to effectively disguise himself was difficult for this 
 handsome, striking, well-built Prince of twenty -five. He 
 was soon recognised and imprisoned at Angers. His 
 captors intended to take him to Paris for trial. But their 
 
 1 Crdtineau Joly, " Histoire desG£n£raux et Chefs Vendeens " (1838), 
 225, who describes Lady Brighton as Talmond's fiancee.
 
 WIOINE PHILIPPE PRINCE DE TALMOND
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 299 
 
 delay in the accomplishment of this design permitted the 
 Abbe de La Tremoille, who was in the capital, to intercede 
 with the Convention on his twin brother's behalf. All 
 that the Abbe could obtain, however, was a promise of the 
 Prince's liberation in exchange for an undertaking to leave 
 Western France. Of such a desertion Talmond was 
 incapable. Consequently he remained a prisoner. And 
 orders were given for his conveyance from Angers to 
 Laval. On the road, by bribing his guards, Talmond 
 contrived to escape and to make his way into La Vendee, 
 to Chatillon, where a royalist council was then sitting. 
 
 The commander of the royalist forces, La Rouerie, had 
 recently died ; and possibly Talmond may have hoped 
 to succeed him. But, although his good looks and his 
 brave, generous and genial disposition won him popu- 
 larity with the rank and file, the nobles commanding in 
 the royalist army regarded him with jealousy and sus- 
 picion. These gentlemen, many of them, had been among 
 the 1,700 vassals who during I'ancicn regime had owed 
 allegiance to the Dukes of La Tremoille. And now they 
 hesitated to take any step which might tend to restore 
 the dominance of that family in Western France. It was 
 impossible, however, to avoid giving Talmond some com- 
 mand. And the son of an Angevin cobbler who had just 
 been appointed general of cavalry resigned in favour of 
 the Prince, in whose regiment he consented to serve as a 
 lieutenant. 
 
 Henceforth, whenever the hereditary gout permitted 
 him to go into action, Talmond distinguished himself by 
 dashing courage and unflinching fortitude. More than 
 once his invincible ardour converted what would have 
 been a disastrous defeat into a glorious victory. 
 
 Yet all the heroism of the royalist troops was powerless
 
 300 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 against the able commanders and the revolutionary zeal 
 of the Sans-culottes. Defeat followed defeat, while La 
 Vendee was wasted with fire and sword, and the houses of 
 the loyal peasants burnt to ashes. Their occupants, 
 homeless wanderers, whom no hardships could alienate 
 from their devotion to the Crown, with their old men, 
 their women and their children, attached themselves to 
 the army for protection and followed it in its march. 
 
 In a once fertile country transformed by hostile armies 
 into a veritable desert, to feed this swelling multitude 
 became increasingly difficult. And certain of the generals, 
 among whom Talmond was one, proposed that the army 
 with its throng of dependants should cross the Loire, into 
 the less wasted province of Maine, where it was hoped a 
 more effectual resistance might be organised. 
 
 On this question there was a heated debate in the coun- 
 cil of war. Talmond, impetuous, sanguine and totally 
 lacking in sound judgment, eagerly supported the pro- 
 posal to cross into Maine, where in his ancestral dominions 
 of Laval he expected to do great things for the royal cause. 
 The general in chief, the Comte de La Rochejaquelein, 1 on 
 the other hand, strongly opposed this project. Not only did 
 it involve the abandonment of La Vendee to the Revolu- 
 tionaries, but it entailed the enormously difficult enterprise 
 of conveying across a broad river a whole army encumbered 
 by hundreds of wounded, by thousands of old men, women 
 and children, and by cart-loads of such household goods 
 as they had succeeded in rescuing from the hands of the 
 spoiler. In the council of war, however, La Roche- 
 jaquelein was outvoted. The passage was resolved upon, 
 
 1 Two La Rochejaquelein brothers distinguished themselves in the 
 La Vendee wars : the Comte Henri, who, after Lescure's death, was 
 elected Commander-in-chief, and the Marquis Louis, who held a 
 subordinate command.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 301 
 
 and to Talmond was confided the task of procuring means 
 of transport. 
 
 To provide sufficient boats for so vast a multitude was 
 naturally impossible. Utter confusion reigned, panic pre- 
 vailed, and the crossing of the river was a veritable sauve 
 qui peut. Madame de La Rochejaquelein, who, with her 
 dying husband, the wounded M. de Lescure, 1 was following 
 the army, having watched the crossing from a hill near the 
 river, has thus graphically described it in her Memoirs 2 : 
 
 " The heights of St. Florent form a kind of semi-circle, 
 from the foot of which a great level plain stretches down 
 to the Loire, which is very wide at this place. Eighty 
 thousand people crowded into this valley : soldiers, 
 women, children, old men and wounded, all pell-mell, 
 fleeing from fire and murder. Behind them they could see 
 the smoke of their villages which the Republicans were 
 burning. Nothing was to be heard save groans, cries and 
 sobs. In this confused mass everyone was trying to find 
 his relatives, his friends, his defenders. An unknown 
 destiny awaited these people on the opposite bank. 
 Nevertheless they were as eager to reach it as if they were 
 certain of finding there the end of all their sorrows. A 
 score of old leaky boats were incessantly crossing the river 
 bearing crowds of fugitives to the opposite bank. Others 
 tried to cross on horseback, while those left behind 
 stretched out their arms to their comrades already landed, 
 entreating them to come to their rescue. Far away on the 
 other side of the river one could dimly discern and faintly 
 hear another great multitude. A little island in the 
 middle was covered with people. Many of us compared 
 all this disorder and despair, this terrible uncertainty as 
 to the future, this surging crowd, this valley with a river 
 to cross, to the pictures of the terrible Day of Judgment." 
 
 1 She married Louis Marquis de La Ro< b.< jaquelein after the death 
 of I -■ cure, whi' h took pla< e soon after the < rossing ol the Loire. 
 
 a Ed. 1822, 248.
 
 302 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 In a boat, rowed by a poor priest who was worn out 
 with eight hours at the oar, Madame de La Roche jaquelein 
 and her friends were taken across. When they landed, 
 there on the bank, seated on the grass, were crowds of 
 Vendeans waiting for their friends to come over. 
 
 That the whole army with its vast throng of followers 
 was eventually conveyed over the river speaks well for the 
 Prince de Talmond's organisation. Once on the opposite 
 bank, again at Talmond's suggestion, the Vendeans 
 marched towards Laval. The town was held by the 
 Republicans. But the Prince was confident of being able 
 to capture it and to raise the country. 
 
 This march of the Vendean host was a marvellous 
 sight. The vanguard of soldiers with a few cannon was 
 followed by a disorderly crowd, women carrying their 
 infants, old men supported by their sons, wounded barely 
 able to drag themselves along, and with them artillery and 
 carts and baggage wagons all mingled together and block- 
 ing the road so that sometimes it was impossible to 
 advance. After halting for a few hours at Chateau 
 Gonthier, the Vendeans approached Laval, where the first 
 of Talmond's anticipations was fulfilled, for the 15,000 
 Republican defenders of the town fled before the royalist 
 advance. But in the second of his calculations the Prince 
 was disappointed : the surrounding country did not, as 
 he had expected, take up arms for the royal cause. Only 
 a few thousand peasants came in, young men from remote 
 Breton villages, looking like savages with their long hair 
 and goat-skin coats, as, waving sticks from which floated 
 white handkerchiefs, they entered the town crying vive 
 le roi I 
 
 During the nine days that the Vendeans stayed at Laval 
 more than one Republican attack was successfully
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 303 
 
 repulsed ; and in these actions, which inflicted great loss 
 on the enemy, Talmond was one of those who most 
 brilliantly distinguished himself. 
 
 Meanwhile, however, serious dissensions had broken out 
 among the generals ; the royalist commanders held con- 
 flicting opinions as to their next move. Some were for 
 returning across the Loire, others for attacking Nantes. 
 Talmond, feeling sure of Brittany, proposed the wildly 
 impracticable project of a march on Paris. This sugges- 
 tion was wisely combatted by M. de La Roche jaquelein, 
 who urged that these western peasants would never be 
 persuaded to go so far from home, and that with winter 
 approaching — it was then the beginning of November — 
 the march across France of so heterogeneous a multitude 
 would inevitably be attended with disaster. 
 
 Eventually, when on November 2nd, the Vendeans left 
 Laval, the next object of their attack was uncertain. 
 They marched, however, in a north-westerly direction and 
 made their first important halt at Fougeres, that Breton 
 town which three centuries earlier the Great Louis de La 
 Tremoille had captured from turbulent nobles in rebellion 
 against the King. 1 
 
 At Fougeres the royalist generals came to an under-? 
 standing. Ever since the winter of 1792, when the nobles 
 of the west had first formed a league for the support of the 
 monarchy, they had been imploring help from England. 
 It was to enforce this demand that in the following spring 
 the Prince <\r Talmond had first visited England. Nothing 
 very definite had been promised, but the French royalists 
 lived in hope; and now it was resolved to lead the 
 Vend<, 111- down to the sea shore, there to capture some 
 port which might serve as a basis of communication with 
 
 1 See ante, 60.
 
 304 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 England, and as a dwelling-place for those thousands of 
 women and children who encumbered the army. The 
 port decided upon was Granville, on the Breton coast, not 
 far from St. Malo. 
 
 By way of Dol and Avranches the Vendeans proceeded. 
 At Avranches all the non-combatants were left behind, 
 while the army, some 30,000 strong, continued to Gran- 
 ville. There, although at first the enthusiasm and valour 
 of the besiegers won the day and carried the suburbs, 
 finding that no adequate preparations had been made for 
 an attack, the Vendeans were discouraged. The cannon 
 on the ramparts drove them back, and although they 
 continued before the town for thirty-six hours, they were 
 ultimately forced to retreat and return to Avranches. 
 
 On the night before the attack on Granville a romantic 
 incident had happened to the Prince de Talmond. It will 
 be remembered that on the eve of his final departure from 
 England, the Prince had broken a ring and exchanged a 
 solemn promise with a mysterious lady. On this night, 
 there was brought to him at Avranches in a sealed packet, 
 presented by two English sailors, the lady's half of the 
 ring with a reminder of his promise and an announcement 
 that an English ship lay off the Breton coast ready to 
 convey the Prince to England. Talmond was on the horns 
 of a dilemma. To at once keep faith with his lady and his 
 King was impossible, to one or the other he must break 
 his word : he chose to prove false to the lady ; and in 
 prophetic words he wrote to her : "I have promised to 
 defend the cause in which I have drawn my sword. I 
 believe it to be right. To forsake my comrades-in-arms 
 would be to break my word. Till death I shall share their 
 labours and their dangers." While refusing to himself 
 embark on the English vessel, Talmond determined to
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 305 
 
 send on board three ladies who were with the army and 
 who were anxious to reach Jersey. Two of them, Madame 
 de Cuissard and Madame de Fay, were wives of emigrants, 
 but it was for the safety of the third, Mdlle. Sidonie, 
 Madame de Fay's fascinating sister-in-law, that Talmond 
 was most concerned. Indeed, we suspect that Mdlle. 
 Sidonie's attractions, in obscuring those of her English 
 predecessor, had considerably facilitated the Prince's 
 choice between loyalty to his King and faithfulness to his 
 mistress. 
 
 Before the Prince could carry out his project, however, 
 the attack on Granville intervened, and it was not until 
 the night after Granville that Talmond and his fair friends 
 could set out for the coast. Shortly before daybreak, they 
 left Avranches accompanied by another officer, ten horse- 
 men and a priest. But on arriving at the seaside they 
 found that, owing to the lowness of the tide, the English 
 ship could not put into shore, and that in order to embark 
 it would be necessary for the ladies to ride some distance 
 on horseback through the water. 
 
 This they were afraid to do ; and, hearing of the 
 approach of Republican soldiers the party turned round 
 forthwith and rode back to Avranches, having been 
 absent no longer than three hours. 1 
 
 But, during that short time, much had happened. An 
 
 ex-gamekeeper, Stofflet, who commanded the Angevin 
 
 and Poitevili part of the army, informed of Talmond's 
 
 mysterious disappearance, rushed to the conclusion that 
 
 1 Miiw de La Rochejaquelein's " Mfemoires," ed. eit., 301 — 303; 
 Cr6tmeau Joly, " Histoire des Generaux el Chefs Venddens " (1838), 
 225 6; tin- 1 . 1 1 ■ dist, Catholii and inclined to Eavoui Talmond. 
 
 Other authorities (see I aassin, " L:i \ endee Patriote," [II., in, and 
 nob I mond intended to desert the army, thai tie offered 
 
 a fisherman 100 louis-d'or and two oi bis besl horses to carry him to 
 Jersey, ami that ins brother officer, BeauvoUiers, took with him the 
 royalist war-cli 
 
 C.R. X
 
 306 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 he had deserted ; immediately he despatched a body of 
 troops to bring him back, and seized the horses and all the 
 other possessions which the Prince had left at Avranches. 
 When Talmond returned, without even having met the 
 soldiers sent in his pursuit, he was naturally furious to 
 find that so slanderous an interpretation had been put 
 upon his absence. Nevertheless he magnanimously 
 forgave Stofflet, realising, doubtless, that it was defeat 
 and disappointment that had rendered the general so 
 absurdly suspicious. 
 
 Indeed the desperate straits to which their failure to 
 take Granville had reduced the royalist leaders were 
 enough to account for any error in judgment. The 
 generals were at their wit's end to know what to do with 
 these thousands of poor ruined folk whom they had led 
 far from their native province, in the hope of finding some 
 new home north of the Loire. The Vendeans themselves 
 were clamouring to be conducted back across the river ; 
 and the generals, at the end of their own resources, 
 resolved to accede to this demand. 
 
 During the month which elapsed between the defeat of 
 Granville on November 14th, and the arrival of the 
 Vendeans at the Loire on December 15th, the two principal 
 events were the battles of Dol and Le Mans, in both of 
 which Talmond played a prominent part. 
 
 Their sorrowful retreat southwards the Vendeans sus- 
 pended for a few days in order to rest in the little town of 
 Dol. There at midnight they were attacked by a formid- 
 able republican force and at first utterly routed. As 
 day dawned, however, the Prince de Talmond was able 
 to turn what threatened to be a crushing defeat into a com- 
 plete victory. All through those hours of desperate fight- 
 ing in the darkness, through the panic and confusion in
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 307 
 
 the narrow streets of Dol, away to the right of their main 
 body the Vendeans had heard continuous firing. This 
 proceeded from a cannon which the Prince de Talmond 
 was discharging. The gunners having abandoned it, the 
 Prince and two brother officers themselves served it 
 steadily all through the night. Luckily the morning mist 
 which came up at daybreak enabled Talmond to deceive 
 the enemy as to the strength of his forces. In reality, he 
 had no more than 400 men ; but, inspired by their 
 leader's valour, these 400 made such gallant stand that 
 their fleeing comrades, inspired by their resistance, rallied ; 
 and through Talmond's courage the tide of battle turned. 
 
 1 This battle did great credit to M. de Talmond. 
 M. de La Rochejaquelein and all the army delighted to 
 assure Talmond repeatedly that we owed him our salva- 
 tion," writes Madame de La Rochejaquelein in her 
 Memoirs, and she was no friend to the Prince. 1 
 
 But at Le Mans, Talmond's heroism, though again 
 signally displayed, was powerless to avert the Vendean 
 defeat before the walls of that town. 
 
 Then followed an unsuccessful attempt to recross the 
 Loire, and the separation of the commander-in-chief from 
 his army. La Rochejaquelein, having crossed to the 
 southern bank in order to take possession of some boats, 
 was attacked by the Sans-Culottcs, and compelled to take 
 refuge in the woods. 
 
 After this disaster the Vendean forces began to break 
 up. Those who were able returned singly or in groups to 
 their homes across the river. Of the troops that remained 
 together, after the loss of La Rochejaquelein, it was 
 necessary to elect a commander. The Prince de Talmond 
 
 1 P. j 1 7. 
 
 x 2
 
 3 o8 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 expected to be chosen. And when he found himself passed 
 over for a mere country gentleman, he resolved to leave 
 the Vendean army in order to raise a force of his own. 
 
 Despite past disappointments, his hopes still centred 
 in Laval. And he was making his way thither, when he 
 fell in with a party of Republicans, who took him prisoner. 
 There was nothing to indicate the prisoner's rank, and the 
 Prince would probably have been liberated had not the 
 daughter of an innkeeper, whom Talmond had assisted 
 during the crossing of the Loire, recognised him, and cried, 
 " Why, it is the Prince de Talmond ! " 
 
 Taken before the Republican general, Beaufort, the 
 Prince proudly acknowledged his identity. " Yes," he 
 said, " I am the Prince de Talmond. Sixty-eight battles 
 in six months fought against the Republic have made me 
 familiar with death. A La Tremoille, son of the lords of 
 Laval and Vitre, myself a Prince, I was bound to serve 
 my King. By knowing how to die, I shall prove that I 
 was worthy to defend the throne." 
 
 The Sans-Culottes were highly elated by their capture 
 of this " sovereign of Maine and Normandy," as they 
 described Talmond, this " Capet of the brigands, worthy 
 to figure on the same stage as his dead confrere." 
 
 Pending the decision as to the place of his trial and 
 execution, the Prince was imprisoned at Rennes. The 
 winter dampness and cold of his Breton prison, intensify- 
 ing the twinges of hereditary gout, reduced this brave 
 soldier, who had never flinched before danger in the field 
 or hardship on the march, to appeal to the pity of his 
 captors. To the Republican general, Rossignol, Talmond 
 wrote from Rennes the following pathetic, but dignified, 
 letter 1 : " Citizen General, the enemy whom fate has 
 
 1 See " Chartier de Thouars," 378.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 309 
 
 delivered into your hands appeals to your justice and 
 humanity to deal with him a little less rudely than to 
 confine him where he is at present, in a room without a 
 fire, where he is dying of cold and damp. Whenever he 
 wishes to procure anything for himself, he is met with a 
 refusal which he is told is the General's order. He finds it 
 hard to believe that such orders come from you, and that 
 after having fought against him bravely and loyally, you 
 can take pleasure in thus torturing him in his last moments. 
 This very day he has been refused fish, in the fear, 
 apparently, that he might endeavour to choke himself. 
 Be assured, General, that such a design is far from enter- 
 ing his head, and that, after having so often braved death, 
 he knows how to await it with perfect composure. Be 
 assured also that he will not try to escape, and that in 
 this respect you may place more reliance on his brigand's 
 word than on all the sentinels in the world. Be so kind 
 therefore as to order him a fire and such food as he can eat 
 and you may always count on the gratitude of one, who, 
 after being your enemy, hopes, at least, to merit your 
 esteem." 
 
 During his cross-examination by the Republican 
 general, Rossignol, at Rennes, Talmond was questioned 
 as to his communications with England. His replies 
 were so characteristic of his brave loyalty to the cause 
 for which he was about to die, that they demand full 
 quotation here : 
 
 ' Did you not," asked General Rossignol, the President 
 of the court, ' carry on a correspondence with England, 
 who promised, at some time not specified, to send you 
 men, victuals and ammunition and especially to collabo- 
 rate with you in an attack on Granville ? " 
 
 Talmond. " Yes."
 
 310 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 Rossignol. " Then why did this attack fail ? " 
 
 T almond. " Reports dishonouring certain of the 
 leaders had been circulated in the royal army, which on 
 that account failed to charge with its accustomed ardour. 
 Moreover the English broke their word and physical and 
 local causes prevented them from disembarking." * 
 
 Rossignol. " If England broke her word to you then 
 you must owe her ministers a grudge, and being quit of 
 any obligation to them, there can be no reason why, 
 before you die, you should not serve your country by 
 revealing the plots laid against her." 
 
 T almond. " I am resolved to go to the grave bearing 
 with me the esteem of all parties. You cannot have 
 hoped that I should dishonour myself by such baseness. 
 Whether they were friendly or hostile, we and the foreign 
 powers served the same cause." 
 
 A Poitevin emigre, who met Madame de Tarente in 
 England, spoke truly when he said that her brother-in-law 
 had replied to his accusers like a god. That same noble 
 loyalty, high courage, and proud dignity which inspired 
 these words the Prince de Talmond displayed to the end. 
 
 Meanwhile the unhealthy condition of the Rennes 
 prison had caused the outbreak of an epidemic, to which 
 Talmond, exhausted by cold, hunger and illness rapidly 
 succumbed. It was because the serious state of his health 
 threatened to deprive them of their victim, that the 
 Revolution authorities, denying the Prince's request to be 
 tried at Paris, hurried him before the Revolution court- 
 martial at Vitre. 
 
 On the way thither the Prince became so ill that he was 
 thought to be dying. At his trial the acute sore throat, 
 which was one of the worst symptoms of the Rennes 
 epidemic, hardly left him any voice with which to reply to 
 
 1 This answer is vague, but thus is it reproduced by Chassin in 
 *' La Vendee Patriote, III.," 545.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 311 
 
 his accusers. But such words as he was able to utter 
 were bravely spoken. To the charge of treason Talmond 
 replied : ' Only if I had done otherwise than I have 
 should I have deserved to be called a traitor." 
 
 From the moment of his arrest the Prince must have 
 known that he was foredoomed. The Vitre court con- 
 demned him, " as one of the infernal horde of the brigands 
 of La Vendee," to suffer the confiscation of all his property 
 by the state, if that had not already been done, and to be 
 delivered into the hands of the " Avenger of the People " 
 — for with this proud title they styled the executioner — 
 within four hours to be put to death on the public square 
 of Laval. 
 
 The brevity of the interval between the pronounce- 
 ment of the sentence and its execution was due, no 
 doubt, to the judge's fear lest a natural death should 
 rob them of their valuable victim and avert so striking 
 an example of popular vengeance as the capital 
 punishment of this great noble in the very heart of 
 his own domains. 
 
 It was on January 27th, three weeks after his arrest, 
 that Talmond was conveyed to Laval, that town which 
 he had so sanguinely hoped to make the centre of a royalist 
 revival. 
 
 On the way the miserable horses, commandeered by the 
 Sans-Culottes to draw their prisoner's conveyance, broke 
 down ; and the condemned Prince must needs wait by 
 the roadside until others had been procured. 
 
 Arrived at the place of execution, the " Avenger of the 
 [', ople " seemed to hesitate to exact retribution from his 
 princely prey. Whereupon Talmond adjured him not to 
 delay, saying, " I have done my duty, now it is for you to 
 do yours."
 
 312 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 The Prince, by his wife Henriette d'Argouges, left one 
 son, Leopold, a boy of seven, who at the time of his father's 
 death was with his mother in Switzerland. 
 
 When he grew up Prince Leopold was forced to serve 
 in Napoleon's army, and by his display of hereditary 
 courage won the Emperor's praise in the Russian 
 campaign. In 1814, the Prince de Talmond joined his 
 King, Louis XVIIL, in London. Thence, having been 
 appointed colonel of a French regiment of dragoons, he 
 returned with his sovereign to Paris. A year later, on 
 November 7th, 1815, he died. Leopold, in 1812, had 
 married Felicie de Durfort Duras, by whom he had no 
 children. 
 
 Prince Antoine's widow, Henriette d'Argouges, in 1819, 
 married Auguste de La Roche jaquelein, younger brother 
 of the famous La Vendee general. 
 
 Six months after his twin brother's execution, the Abbe 
 de La Tremoille, in a similar manner, suffered death at 
 Paris. 1 
 
 The story of his accusation and trial in the Salle de 
 l'Egalite of the Palais de Justice, by the Revolution 
 Tribunal, throws a strong light on the proceedings of the 
 Revolutionists during those last days of the Reign of 
 Terror. That was a time when no proofs of the guilt of the 
 accused were demanded. " There never are any proofs," 
 says the leader of the jury in " Les Dieux ont Soif." 2 In 
 those days men judged with the heart not with the reason, 
 and they always condemned ; for their hearts told them 
 that it was only by the removal of every possible enemy 
 that the Republic could endure. 
 
 Thus it came about that the Abbe de La Tremoille and 
 
 1 On June 15th, 1794. 
 
 2 Anatole France, 191 1.
 
 TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 313 
 
 forty other accused, all completely unknown to one 
 another, were thunderstruck to find themselves hurried 
 before the Revolution Tribunal, and embraced in the 
 common charge of conspiring the death of Robespierre. It 
 was not these innocent royalists, but the Republicans them- 
 selves who, but a month later, were to plot the tyrant's 
 death. Had only La Tremoille's trial been postponed a 
 few weeks, he with hundreds of other prisoners might 
 have profited from the Incorruptible's sudden execution. 
 
 At the Abbe's trial no attempt whatever was made to 
 establish the formal charge under which he laboured. 
 The cross-examination turned chiefly on the intercourse 
 between La Tremoille and his late brother Talmond, when 
 the latter was passing through Paris on his way to La 
 Vendee. 1 
 
 " You did not speak the truth when you said you had 
 only once seen your brother." 
 
 " I don't pretend to say I only saw him once," was the 
 reply. " I saw him five or six times at the Opera ; and 
 then I told him he was a great fool and that he would be 
 arrested." 
 
 It was not however on the charge of complicity with his 
 brother, but with these forty persons, none of whom he 
 had ever seen before, that the Abbe was condemned and 
 harried to the scaffold, where he perished beneath the 
 guillotine on June 15th, 1794. 
 
 In the following year Prince Louis de La Tremoille took 
 his brother's place in La Vendee, and for a while served 
 under the Comtc dc Puisaye. 
 
 After the Quiberon disaster, La Tremoille strongly 
 advocated peace and helped to negotiate it. Prince 
 
 •See Wallon, " Histoire du Tribunal Revolutionnaire dc Paris," 
 cd., [88l, IV., 198 — 200.
 
 314 FROM THE CRUSADES 
 
 Louis' campaign in La Vendee followed by the Duke's 
 three months' service there in 1798 closed for a while the 
 La Tremoilles' participation in the warfare of the Revolu- 
 tion period. Louis continued to act as the trusted agent 
 of Louis XVIIL, both in Paris and other European cities. 
 During the Hundred Days he was sent to the west of 
 France to see if he could raise that region against 
 Napoleon. But his efforts met with complete failure, and 
 he was glad to accept from Napoleon's general, Foy, a 
 passport into England. 
 
 On the restoration of the monarchy after Waterloo, the 
 La Tremoilles were reinstated in all the honours and 
 emoluments which their ancestors had enjoyed. 
 
 Prince Louis' first wife, the Countess of Langeron, 
 having died, he married, in 1834, Augusta Murray, 
 Countess of Dunmore. Three years later he died at 
 Aix-la-Chapelle. Though the least interesting, he was 
 probably the most level-headed of the four brothers. 
 
 Meanwhile, the head of the house likewise had been 
 twice a widower ; Emmannuelle de Chatillon, as we have 
 seen, died at St. Petersburg in 1814 ; three years after, 
 the Duke married Marie Virginie, Comtesse de Saint- 
 Didier, who, after having borne him two daughters, 1 died 
 in 1829 ; in the following year La Tremoille took to him- 
 self a third wife, Josephine-Eugenie- Valentine Walsh, 
 Comtesse de Serrant. 
 
 The Comtesse de Serrant, who belonged to the famous 
 Irish Jacobite family of Walsh, was a great heiress. 
 Through her marriage with the Duke there came into the 
 possession of the La Tremoilles the magnificent chateau 
 of Serrant, near Angers, which is at present the favourite 
 family abode. The Comtesse de Serrant was the mother 
 
 1 One became Princesse de Salm, the other Baroness of Wykerslooth.
 
 316 FROM THE CRUSADES TO THE REVOLUTION 
 
 Archambauld de Talleyrand Perigord, I owed the hand 
 of Mdlle. Valentine de Serrant, that ravishing and angelic 
 being to whom I am indebted for so much happiness. 
 Here I must close, being incapable of adequately 
 depicting that angel of goodness whom I shall adore 
 until I draw my last breath."
 
 INDEX 
 
 Abbaye, prison, 281, 286 
 
 Abbeville, 80 
 
 Abrantes, Duke of, 229 
 
 Acton, Sir John, 289 & n. 2 , 290, 
 
 293. 295. 296 
 Adelaide, Princess of France, 272 
 Adigio, R., 290, 291 
 Afryke, town of, 6 sqq. 
 Agadingor, 8 
 Agen, 78 
 
 Agincourt, Battle of, 16, 23 
 Agnadello, Battle of, 78 
 Aigueperse, 24 
 Aix-la-Chapelle, 
 
 death of Prince Louis de La 
 
 Tremoille at, 314 
 Treaty of, 263 
 Albany, Duke of, 88 
 Albret, 
 
 Charles d', marries Marie de 
 Sully, Dame de La Tre- 
 moille, 15 
 Charlotte d', 69 & «., 70, 83 
 I [dtel d', 216 
 
 Louise d', Duchcsse de Valen- 
 tinois, second wife of Louis 
 II., Comte de La Tremoille, 
 83,84 
 Alcala, 241 
 Alencon, 
 
 I rancoi 1 Due d", 215 
 
 |' .111 Due d' p 31, 32 & «., 34, 
 
 35. 39 
 Alexander, Emperor, 13 
 Alexander VI., Pope, 62, 63, 67, 
 
 69, 76 
 Alice (in " Peveril of the Peak "), 
 
 122 
 Almanza, Battle of, 247 
 
 Alps, the, 62, 66, 71, 75, 76, 80, 88 
 Altenburg, 
 
 Anthony, Count of, 209, 210, 
 277 
 
 Charlotte Amelie, Countess of. 
 See La Tremoille. 
 
 Gunther, Count of, 209 
 Alviano, General, 81 
 Amboise, 251 
 
 Georges d', 76 
 
 La Tremoille estates of, 55, 56 
 
 Marguerite d'. See Mar- 
 guerite. 
 
 Mme. des Ursins at, 244 
 Amiens, 195, 283 
 Ancre, Mardchal d'. See Concini, 
 Andalusia, 247 
 Angelo, Michael, 220 
 Angers, 97, 98, 201, 298, 299, 314 
 Angouleme, 
 
 Charles of, 83 n. l 
 
 Francis of. See Francis I., 
 King of France. 
 
 Joan of, 83 n. l 
 
 John of, 83 n. • 
 Angoumois, 60 
 Anjou, 
 
 Charles d', 38 
 
 Marie d', 61 
 
 province of, 38, 60 
 
 Yolande d'. See Yolande. 
 Anne of Austria, 1x9 
 
 d'Egmont, 109 n. 
 
 of Saxony, no n. 
 
 Queen of England, 208 
 Antibes, 233 
 Antwerp, 109 n. * 
 Apennines, the, 63, 64 
 Ardres, 87
 
 3i8 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Argenson, 262, 263 
 
 Argouges, Henriette de, Princesse 
 
 de Talmond, 312 
 Armagnac, 
 
 Bernard, Count of, 17, 21 
 faction of, 21, 24, 25 
 Armand, Count, 285, 286 
 Arragon, 
 
 Charlotte of, 199 n. 1 
 
 Ferdinand of, 63 
 
 Frederick of, 87, 155 n., 198, 
 
 199 n. 1 
 house of, vi. 
 Arras, 5, 6, 13 
 Artois, 
 
 Charles, Comte d', 279, 284, 
 
 288, 296 
 Robert, Comte d', 2, 12 
 Arundel House, 179 
 Asturias, the Prince of, 119 
 Atholl, John, Marquis of, 166, 167 
 Aubigne" 
 
 Agrippad', 99, ioo, 106, 113 
 d', Secretary of La Princesse 
 
 des Ursins, 239 
 
 Francoise d', Marquise de 
 
 Maintenon, 214, 216, 222, 
 
 223, 233, 234, 241, 242, 243, 
 
 244, 245, 249, 251, 253, 254 
 
 Aubigny, d', 62 n. 
 
 Aubry, Renee Julie, Duchesse de 
 
 Noirmoustier, 215 
 Auch. See Jean de La Tremoille, 
 
 Archbishop of, 78 
 Augereau, General, 291 
 Aunis, 90 
 Auron, R., 28 
 Auvergne, 
 
 Jeanne d'. See Jeanne. 
 Marie d', 24 
 province, 24, 57, 58 
 Auxerre, 33, 197 
 Ave Maria, convent of, 121 
 Avignon, 87, 264 
 Avranches, 304, 305, 306 
 Azala, daughter of the King of 
 Tunis, 9 
 
 Babylon, 140 
 
 Bac, Rue de, 63, 282 
 
 Baden, Grand Duke of, 297 
 
 Baggerley, the Rev. Humphrey, 
 
 161 
 Bais, 257 n. 2 
 Bajazet (surnamed Ildemin), 11, 
 
 12, 13 
 Balkans, the, 11 
 Barberini Palace, 220 
 Barbette, Hotel de, 22 
 Barcelona, 235, 236, 245 
 Barege, 181 
 Barrois, George de Craon's estates 
 
 in, 49 
 Barthelemy, Edouard, xi. 
 Baschi, Perron de, 62 n. 2 
 Basingstoke, 286 
 Bastille, the, 85, 120 
 Bavaria, Electoral Prince of, 
 
 227 
 Bayard, 51 ». 
 Bayonne, 241, 253 
 Beauce, 20 
 Beaujeu, Anne de, 56, 57, 59, 
 
 60 
 Beaulieu, General, 290 
 
 knight of, 29 
 Beaumaris, 165 
 Beaune, wine of, 19 
 Beauvolliers, 305 n. 
 Bedford, 
 
 Francis, Duke of, 276 & n., 
 
 286 
 John, Duke of, 33, 34 
 town of, 284, 286 
 Bellin, the Comte de, 116 
 Benaize, R., 1 
 Beneventum, Count of, 234 
 Benjamin, Sieur, 176 
 Bentinck, 
 
 Charlotte Sophie, Countess, 
 211 & n. l , 277 & n. 1 , 294 
 & n. l , 295, 297 
 Count, 211 
 Bernard, Count of Armagnac. 
 
 See Armagnac.
 
 INDEX 
 
 319 
 
 Bernini, Giovanni Lorenzo, 220, 
 
 221 
 Berrie, principality, 55 n. l 
 Berry, 
 
 appanage of Jeanne de France, 
 70 
 
 duchy, 75 n. 2 
 
 forests of, 53 
 
 Jean, Duke of, 23 
 
 La Tremoille lands in, 38, 43_ 
 
 Berwick, 
 
 Duke of, 225, 239, 240, 247 
 
 & «., 264 
 town, 169 
 Bethune, Maximilien de, Marquis 
 de Rosny, Due de Sully, 112, 
 116, 118, 179 
 Bidan, 62 
 Billard, Jean, 86 
 Bingen, 288 
 Birch, General, 163 
 Blecourt, French Ambassador at 
 
 Madrid, 229, 230 
 Blois, 39, 69 n., 105 n. 2 
 Bliicher, General, 81 
 Bohemia, 70, 128 
 
 1 lizabeth, Queen of. See 
 Stuart, Elizabeth. 
 Bois-le-Duc, 199 
 Bolingbrokc, Lord, 250, 251 
 Bolton-le-Moors, 148, 149, 161 
 Bommiers, chateau, 43, 51, 52, 53, 
 
 55. 68 
 1 lordeaux, 119 
 M. de, 168 
 Borgia, Cacsarc, 69 & u., 83 
 
 Pope. See Alexander VI. 
 Born, Bertrand de, 24 
 I 'uichct, Jean, xi., 52, 55, 58, 59, 
 6l, 74 n., 77, 78 >i. ', Si n., 82, 91 1 
 Bouillon, 
 
 Antoinette de, 260 n. > 
 Cardinal de, 225, m> 
 Elisabeth, Duchcssc dc. See 
 
 Nassau. 
 Emmanuel Theodore, 259 
 
 Godefroi, Due de, 2 
 
 Henri, Due de, 112 & n. 6 t 
 
 113 
 
 Marie Hortense de. See La 
 
 Tremoille. 
 Boulogne, 283 
 county of, 24 
 
 Jeanne, Countess of La Tre- 
 moille, 23, 24, 25 
 siege of, 60 
 Treaty of, 92 n. l 
 Bourbon, 
 
 Charlotte de, third wife of 
 
 William the Silent, 109 & 
 
 n. s 
 Constable of France, 81, 87, 
 
 88, 89 
 Gabrielle de, Countess of La 
 
 Tremoille. See Gabrielle. 
 Henri I., Prince de Cond6, 95 
 
 sqq. 
 Henri II., Prince de Cond6, 92, 
 
 101, 103, 114 sqq. 
 John I., 23 
 Louis, Due de Montpensier, 
 
 130 n. 
 Louis II., Due de, 6 sqq. 
 Louis Joseph, Prince de 
 
 Cond6, 287, 288 
 Louis, " the Great Conde," as 
 
 Due d'Enghien, 121 & n., 
 
 176 
 as Prince dc Conde, 184, 1S5, 
 
 187, sqq., 194, 197 
 Marie de, 130 n. 
 the family of, 87 
 the house of, in Spain, 214, 
 
 244, 245, 246, 248 
 Bourdonnais, Rue de, 274 
 Bourges, 25, 28 
 Bournisseaux, 
 
 1 tei thre de, 93 
 Mme. dc, 56 
 Brabant, Duchess of, 10 
 I tracciano, 
 
 Duchess of. See Talleyrand 
 
 Marie Anne de.
 
 320 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Bracciano — continued. 
 
 Flavio, Duke of, second hus- 
 band of La Princesse des 
 Ursins, 218, 219 & n. 1 , 
 221 sqq. 
 Livio Odescalchi, Duke of, 224 
 Bradlaugh, Regicide, 171 
 Brandenbourg, Frederick William, 
 
 Elector of, 182, 183, 196 
 Brandon, 
 
 Charles, Duke of Suffolk, 
 
 130 n. 
 Eleanor, 130 n. 
 Mary, Duchess of. See Mary. 
 Brantome, 104 
 Braschi, Palazzo, 220 
 Brighton, Lady, 298 
 Brill, 177, 178 
 Brittany, 173, 197 
 
 Anne, Duchess of, 68 sqq. 
 Barons' War in, 59 
 duchy and province, 76 n. 1 , 303 
 estates of, 185 
 Francis, Duke of, 40 
 John, Duke of, 32, 37 
 marches of, 60 
 Broceliande, 133 & n. 
 Brouage, 95, 97 
 Bruges, 26, 27 
 Brussels, 44, 118 
 Bueil, Jean de, 37, 38 
 Bulkeley, friend of Prince Charles 
 
 Edward, 264, 266 
 Burgos, 246, 247 
 Burgundy, 
 
 Duchess of, 4 
 
 duchy and province of, 79 
 
 Dukes of, 
 
 Charles the Rash, 44, 45, 47 
 
 & »., 48, 54 
 John the Fearless, 11, 12, 
 
 17 sqq. 
 Philip the Bold, 4, 5, 6, 11 
 
 13. 14. 17 
 Philip the Good, 25, 26, 27^ 
 
 33. 34- 36, 3 8 > 44 
 faction of, 17, 18, 21, 24, 36 
 
 Georges de Craon conquers, 
 
 54 
 governs, 48 
 La Tremoille defends against 
 
 the Emperor, 88 
 La Tremoille lands in, 3, 4 n- 
 Louis II. de La Tremoille. 
 Governor of, 77 
 Burie, 257 n. 2 
 Burke, Edmund, 276 n. 1 
 Butchers, Corporation of. See 
 Cabochiens. 
 
 Caboche, Jean, 18 
 
 Cabochiens, faction of, 18 sqq. 
 
 Caesar, Julius, 66 
 
 Calais, 23 
 
 Capua, 63 
 
 Caroline, Queen of Naples, 289 & 
 
 n. 2, 292, 296 
 Carrara, quarries of, 64 
 Cartagena, Alvaro di, 90 
 Carthage, 6, 66 
 Castile, 
 
 Admiral of, 244 
 Isabella of, 63 
 the estates of, 237 
 Catalonia, 245, 247, 249 
 
 Catherine, Empress of Russia, 
 
 265 
 Cecil, 
 
 Anne, 130 n. 
 
 William, Lord Burleigh, 130 n. 
 Chalais, 
 
 Adrien Blaise, Prince de. See 
 
 Talleyrand. 
 Marie Anne, Princesse de. 
 See Talleyrand. 
 Chambery, 278 
 Chambord, 261 
 Chamillard, French War Minister, 
 
 245, 247, 248 
 Champagne, 
 
 Georges de Craon, Governor 
 
 of, 46, 47 
 the Prince de Tarente's cam- 
 paign in, 191
 
 INDEX 
 
 321 
 
 Champnol-les-Dijon, 4 
 Chancey, Monsieur, 282 
 Chandieu. See Zamariel. 
 Chanteloup, chateau, 251 
 Chantilly, 117 
 Charenton, 187, 188 
 Charles VI., King of France, 3, 4, 6, 
 10, 11, 13, 17, 19, 22, 25 n. 
 as crowned King, 25 n., 33 
 
 sqq. 
 as Dauphin, 17 n., 25 & «., 
 sqq. 
 Charles VIII., King of France, 
 as Dauphin, 47, 53, 54 
 as King, 56 sqq. 
 Charles IX., King of France, 56 n. • 
 Charles I., King of England, 130, 
 131, 136, 137, 148, 150, 151, 153, 
 154, 156, 159 »., 171, 177 sqq., 
 
 233 «• 
 Charles II., King of England, 
 
 after Restoration, 165, 170, 
 
 171 
 as nominal King, 160, 174, 
 
 192, 194, 260 
 as Prince of Wales, 153, 182 
 Charles \ '., Emperor, 
 as Emperor, 91 
 as King of Spain, 84, 22G 
 Charles II., King of Spain, 227 
 
 sqq. 
 Charles, Archduke of Austria, 227, 
 
 228, 231. 244, 249 
 Charles, Earl of Derby. See 
 
 I (erby. 
 Charles Gustavus, King of Swe- 
 
 den, 193, [96 
 ( barles, I'rince dc Talmond. See 
 
 Imond. 
 Chariot te 1 Irabantine de Na 
 Duchi de Thouars. See 
 
 .in. 
 
 Cbai lotted 1 toui bon, William the 
 Silent's v. ife. St e I loorbon, 
 
 Charlotte <i La I remoille, Prin- 
 te de Condi*. See La Tru- 
 moille. 
 
 C.R. 
 
 Charlotte de La Tremoille, Coun- 
 tess of Derby. See La Tre- 
 moille. 
 Charpaignes, Gouges de, 24 
 Charroux, Abbe of. See Talmond, 
 
 Frederic Guillaume, Prince de. 
 Chartres, 
 
 Regnault de, Archbishop of 
 
 Reims, 33 
 town of, 107 n. 1 
 Chateau-Gonthier, 302 
 Chatelet, prison, 18 
 Chatellerault, 107 sqq. 
 
 Dukes of. See Talmond, 
 Princes of. 
 Chatillon, 
 
 Duchess of, 275, 282 
 Emmanuelle de. See Tarente, 
 
 Princesse de. 
 town of, 299 
 Chatillons, the, 124 
 Chelsea, 154 
 
 Chenonceaux, chateau, vi. 
 Chester, 131, 135, 148, 162 n. * 
 Chevreuse, Duchesse de, 185 
 Chinon, 31, 37, 38, 44 
 Chissenhall, Captain, 1 j 1 
 Christian, William, 123, 164, 171 
 Churchill, Sarah, Duchess of Marl- 
 borough, 214 
 Civita Castellana, Battle of, 393, 
 
 394 n - a 
 Claude, Queen of France, 52 
 
 Clement VII., Pope, 10 
 
 Clermont, Bishop of. Sec Char- 
 
 pai i« . < '.<>;!: - de. 
 ( lifford, Earl of Cumberland, 
 
 1 ;<> n. 
 
 Clisson, Olivier de, Constable of 
 
 l ranee, 10, 11 
 ( oblentz, 28 ( 
 Coe1 1 w. 
 
 Charles de, - s ; n. ' 
 
 Louise 'l'-. See Lo 1 
 Coligny, 
 
 Admiral, x., no, m >i. J 
 
 Louise dc. St < Louise.
 
 322 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Colonna, 
 
 house of, 2 1 8, 219 
 Prospero, 80 
 
 Commines, Philippe de, 44, 55 n. 2 
 
 Compiegne, 
 
 Charles VII. enters, 34 
 Joan of Arc taken at, 36 
 negotiates with Burgundy, 34, 
 
 35 
 Prince de Tarente arrested at, 
 
 195 
 Concini, Marechal d'Ancre, 119, 
 
 120 & n. 1 
 Conde, 
 
 Charlotte de La Tremoille, 
 Princesse de. See La Tre- 
 moille. 
 Hotel de, 118, 187 & n. 
 house of, vi., 121 
 Princes of. See Bourbon. 
 Rue de, 118, 187 n. 
 Constantinople, siege of, 12 
 Conti, Prince de, 102 
 Copenhagen, 202, 207 
 Corisande (" La Belle "), 103 
 Coudray, tower of, 37 
 Courtenay, Sir Peter, 4 
 Coutras, Battle of, 100, 105 
 Crane, Sir Richard, 149 
 Craon, 
 
 chateau, 14, 49 
 
 Georges, Seigneur de. See 
 
 La Tremoille. 
 house of, 14 n. 
 Crecy, Battle of, 3 
 Creneaux, Hotel de, 85 
 Crepy-en-Valois, skirmish at, 34 
 Crequy, 
 
 Charles de, Prince de Poix, 
 
 259 
 Madeleine de, Duchesse de 
 La Tremoille. See La Tre- 
 moille. 
 Cromwell, Oliver, 158, 171, 173, 
 
 192, 222 
 Cronstadt, 292 
 Crusades, v., 1, 2, 6, 10, 14 
 
 Crussol, the Bailli de, 296 
 Cuissard, Mme. de, 305 
 Culloden, Battle of, 261, 262, 263 
 Cuto, General, 289 
 
 Danube, R., 12 
 
 Dauphine, 29 
 
 Delft, 126 
 
 Denmark, George, Prince of, 207, 
 
 208 
 Derby, Countesses of, 
 
 Charlotte de La Tremoille. 
 
 See La Tremoille. 
 Helen de Rupa, as Lady 
 Strange, 159 
 Derby, Earls of, 
 
 Charles Stanley, as Lord Strange, 
 
 134 
 
 marries Mdlle. Rupa, 159 
 negotiates with the Par- 
 liament, 159, 160 
 runs away from home, 
 151 sqq. 
 as Earl of Derby, 
 
 after the Restoration sits 
 
 in House of Lords, 
 
 169 
 
 in disgrace at court 
 
 through execution of 
 
 William Christian, 171 
 
 inherits La Tremoille 
 
 temperament, 169 
 quarrels with his mother, 
 
 167, 168 
 taken prisoner at Nant- 
 wich, 168 
 James Stanley, 
 
 as Earl of Derby, 136 sqq., 177 
 as Lord Strange, 113, 129 
 sqq. 
 William Stanley, 129, 130 & n., 
 
 135 
 Dieppe, 176 
 Dijon, 14, 77, 79 
 Dol, 304, 306, 307 
 Dole, Seigneur de Craon defeated 
 at, 49
 
 INDEX 
 
 323 
 
 Dorchester, Marquis of. See 
 Pierrepoint, Henry. 
 
 Duckenfield, General, 163 
 
 Du Deffand, Mme., 261, 262, 265, 
 271, 272 
 
 Dunbar, 159 
 
 Dun-le-Roi Chateau, 28 
 
 Dunmore, Augusta Murray, Coun- 
 tess of, Princesse de La Tre- 
 moille, 314 
 
 Durfort Duras, Felicie de, Prin- 
 cesse de Talmond, 312 
 
 Edinburgh, 158 
 
 Edward IV., King of England, 60 
 Egeria, Prince Charlie's. See Tal- 
 mond, Marie Jablonowski, Prin- 
 cesse de. 
 Elizabeth of France, daughter of 
 Henry IV., 119 
 Queen of England, 95 
 Queen of Spain. See Farnese. 
 Ely Bishop of, 85 
 Enghien, Due de. See Bourbon, 
 
 Louis de. 
 Escolles, castle, 58 
 Espinay, 257 
 
 Estaples, Treaty of, Go n. 
 Este, Beatrice de, 74 
 Estrees, 
 
 Abbe d', 239, 240 
 C6sar, Cardinal d', 217, 218, 
 238, 239 
 Etampes, 69, 187 
 Eugene, Prince, 248 
 
 Fairfax, Sir Thomas, 142, 143, 
 
 145, 154, 156 
 Farmer, Captain, 139 
 Farnese, Elizabeth, Princess of 
 
 Parma, Queen of Spain, 252 
 Fay, Mme. de, 305 
 Ferdinand, King ul Naples, 289, 
 
 293. 2 '''' 
 1 < 1 rand, Mdllc, 269, 270 
 FeuittantS, monastery of, 280 
 Fig u eras, 234 
 
 Fitzherbert, Mrs., 287 
 Flanders, 5, 6 
 Florence, 62, 64, 296 
 Fontainebleau, 117 
 Fontaine-Francaise, Battle of, 
 
 106 
 Fornova, Battle of, 66, 76 
 Fougeres, 60, 70, 303 
 Fox, Charles James, 276 
 Foy, General, 314 
 Franche, Comte, 46 
 Francis I., King of France, 52, 80 
 
 sqq. 
 Frankfort, 211 
 Frederick the Great, 252 
 
 Elector Palatine, 129, 137 n. 
 Froissart, xi., 6, 9 
 Fronde, the, v., vi., 173, 184 sqq., 
 
 215 
 
 Frott6, General, 296 
 
 Gabrielle de Bourbon, Countess 
 de La Tremoille, 52, 57, 58, 59, 
 69 «., 82, 83, 84, 90, 94 
 Gallo, Marquis del, 288, 289 
 Gambarani Bridge, 291 
 Garigliano, R., 77 n. 
 Gencay, chateau, 28, 30 
 Geneva, 13, 93 
 Genevieve, Adelaide. See Lange- 
 
 ron, Countess of. 
 Genevre, Mont, 62 
 Genoa, Gulf of, 63 
 
 town of, 64, 78, 254 
 George, Prince of Denmark. See 
 
 Denmark. 
 George, Prince of Wales, 284, 286, 
 
 287 
 Georges, first Count of La Tre- 
 moille. See La Tremoille. 
 
 de La. Tremoille, Seigneur 
 de Craon. See La Tre- 
 moille. 
 de La Tremoille, Seigneur de 
 Jonvelle. See La Tre- 
 moille. 
 Gerard, 1 1 1 n. ■ 
 
 Y 2
 
 324 
 
 INDEX 
 
 G6vaudan, 36 
 
 Giac, Pierre de, 27, 28, 38 
 
 Gille de Rais, 16, 17, 25 
 
 Gondi, Hotel de, 118 
 
 Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, 76, 
 
 77 
 Gonzague, Anne de (known as "La 
 
 Palatine "), 185 
 Gonzala, 77 
 
 Gournay, Amelot, Marquis de, 243 
 Gramont, Due de, 242 
 Grandson, Battle of, 46 
 Granville, 304, 305, 306, 309 
 Gravesend, 178 
 Gressart, Perrinet, 26, 27 
 Greve, Place de, 188 
 Griffenfeld, suitor of Charlotte 
 Amelie de La Tremoille, 207, 
 208 
 Grimm, 265 
 
 Grollier, Marquise de, 296 
 Guadalaxara, 252 
 Guenaud, Radegonde, 3 
 Guernsey, 98, 99, 104 
 Guines, 257 
 Guise, 105 n. 2 
 Guisnes, Captain of, 85 
 Guyenne, 
 
 Duchesse de, 28 
 
 Duke of (Dauphin Louis), 17 
 & n., 19, 20, 21, 22, 28 
 
 Hotel de, 20 
 
 province, 76, 186 
 
 Hague, the, 124, 125, 126, 128, 
 
 129, 130, 134, 149, 177. J 93. 199. 
 
 227, 228 
 Halsall, Edward, 141 
 Hamburg, 294, 296, 297 
 Hamilton, Lady, 293 
 Hampton Court, 154 
 Hanau Muntzenburg, Countess of, 
 
 183 & n 1 184 
 Hannibal, 66 
 Harcourt, Comte d', 228 sqq., 240, 
 
 241 
 Harrach, Comte d', 228, 229, 230 
 
 Henri de Bourbon, Prince de 
 
 Conde. See Bourbon. 
 Henri III., King of France, 94, 
 
 96 & «., 101, 104, 105 & n. 2 , 
 
 214 
 
 Henri IV., a descendant of Marie 
 de Sully, 15 
 
 as King of France, centralises 
 the French Government, 38. 
 105, 107, & n. l , 109, 186 
 sqq. 
 as King of Navarre, 95, 96, 
 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 105, 
 
 215 
 Henrietta Maria, 
 
 as Duchess of Orleans, 233 n. 
 as Queen Dowager, 171 
 Queen of England, 130, 131, 
 
 135. 137. !53. 155, 173 
 Stanley. See Stanley. 
 Henry II., King of England, 56 
 Henry V., King of England, 16, 23, 
 
 25 
 Henry VI., King of England, 34 
 Henry VII., King of England, 60, 
 
 7°. 131 
 Henry VIII. , King of England, 
 
 84 
 Hericourt, Battle of, 46 
 Hesse Cassel, Emilie, Princess of, 
 as Princesse de Tarente, 183, 
 
 193, 194, 199, 201, 202 
 as the friend of Mme. de 
 
 Sevigne, 203 — 211 
 house of, vi. 
 
 William V., Landgraf, 183 
 his son, Landgraf, 196 
 Hesse Philipstal, Prince of, 293 
 Holland, Colonel, 147 
 Hungary, 70 
 Hutchinson, Colonel, 141 
 
 Ile Bouchard, 
 
 Catherine de 1', Countess of 
 
 Tonnerre, 27, 28, 43, 44 
 Chateau de 1', 43, 44, 90 
 domain of, 132
 
 INDEX 
 
 325 
 
 He de Rhe, 55 n. ' 
 
 Innocent XII., Pope, 223, 228 
 
 Ireton, Lieutenant-General, 156, 
 171 
 
 Isabelle, 
 
 Queen of England, 11 
 Queen of France, 22, 23 
 
 Issoudun, chateau, 27 
 
 Ivry, Battle of, 106 
 
 Jacqueville, Helion de, 20 
 James I., King of England, 120, 
 
 179 
 James II., King of England, 
 as Duke of York, 170, 207 
 as King in exile, 225, 231 
 James Stanley. See Derby, Earls 
 
 of. 
 James the Old Pretender, 231, 255, 
 
 260, 263 
 Jean, Dauphin, died 1416..17W. 
 Jeanne, Queen of France, 67 — 70 
 Jeanne d'Auvergne, 
 
 wife of Georges, Comte de La 
 Tremoille, 23, 24, 25, 27, 
 
 49 
 Jeremiah, 140 
 Jersey, 305 n. 
 Jerusalem, 
 
 Jeanne II., Queen of, 10 
 Yolandc, Queen of. See 
 Yolande. 
 Joan of Arc, 
 
 ri lations with Georges de La 
 
 Tremoille, 31 — ," 
 relieves Orl< an 1, 186 
 
 I ranee from the Eng- 
 lish, 26, 30 
 |m]hi the [♦"earless. Sec lUirgundy, 
 
 I hikes of. 
 [on on, 1 ten, 135 
 Jonvelle, spur <!<•, 3 j, ^7 n. 
 le, 257 a • 
 
 ( .< li 1 ..i Tr6moille, 
 
 neur de. s • I a Tre- 
 moille Geoi fes. 
 Joseph, Emperor, - \g 
 
 Jouarre, 109 n. s 
 Joyeuse, Due de, 100 
 Julius II., Pope, 78 
 
 Kingston, Lord, 136 
 Kirkcudbright, 159 
 Knowsley, 135, 154, 156, 158, 165, 
 168, 169, 171 
 
 Labe, Louise, 114 n. 2 
 La Brosse, Jacques de, 89 
 La Charite, 26, 35 
 La Fayette, 
 
 Gilbert de, 25 
 
 Marie Madeleine de. See La 
 Tremoille. 
 
 Rene Armand Mottier de, 259 
 La Garnache, chateau, 105 
 La Grange, Jean de, 64 
 Lamballe, la Princesse de, 2S2 
 Lambert, General, 169 
 Lang, Andrew, 262, 263, 265 sqq . 
 Langeron, Genevieve Adelaide, 
 Countess of, wife of Prince 
 Louis de La Tremoille, 297, 314 
 Languedoc, 193 
 Lannoy, Charles de, 88 
 Lanti, 
 
 Louise Angelique, Duchesse 
 de, 212, 215, 217, 221 
 
 the Duke of, 255 
 Laon, Bishop of, later Cardinal 
 
 d'Estrees. See Estrees. 
 La Roche-dn-Mayne, 52 n. ' 
 La Rochefoucauld, 206 
 La Kochejaquelein, 
 
 Auguste de, 312 
 
 Henri, Comte de, 300 & >i. • , 
 
 Louis, Marquis de, 300 & »., 
 
 3°7 
 
 Mmc. dc, 301 & »., 302, 305 »., 
 
 La R01 belle, 36, 98, 99, 109, 1 l.| 
 
 Lathom, the Lady of. See La 
 [remoille, Charlotte, Countess 
 of Derby.
 
 326 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Lathom House, 131, 135, 137 sqq., 
 
 156, 164, 169, 170, 260 
 La Tour d'Auvergne, Marie de, 
 Duchesse de La Tremoille. See 
 La Tremoille. 
 La Tour-Landry, Antoinette de, 
 
 212 
 La Tremoille, 
 
 duchy of Thouars and La Tre- 
 moille, • 
 creation of, 93 
 
 its descent to females in 
 default of heirs male, 2, 93 
 family of, 
 
 archives of, viii. sqq. 
 biography of a La Tremoille, 
 
 xi. 
 decline, vi., vii. 
 earliest known history of, 
 
 ix. & n. 
 height of their wealth and 
 
 influence, vi. 
 most recent biography of a 
 
 La Tremoille, xi. 
 Paris mansion of (Hotel des 
 Creneaux), 85 & n. 2 , 274 
 & n. 5 
 persistent dominance of, vi. 
 seizure of lands by Revolu- 
 tion Government, viii., 278 
 the La Tremoille women, 2 
 their role in French history, v. 
 market town of, 1, 257 
 spelling of name of, v. & n. 
 Seigneurs de, 1, 257 
 Guillaume II., 2 
 Guy I., 2 
 Guy V., 3 
 Guy VI., 3, 17 
 
 Ambassador in England, 3 
 dies at Rhodes, 14 
 dominions of, 3 
 fights against the English, 3 
 fights in the Crusades, 6 — 10 
 marries Marie de Sully, 3 
 other warlike expeditions, 
 11 — 14 
 
 refuses to be constable, 1 1 
 taken prisoner at Nicopolis, 
 
 13 
 tilts with Peter de Courte- 
 
 nay, 4 
 
 with Philip of Burgundy 
 prepares to invade Eng- 
 land, 5, 6 
 Pierre, 1 
 
 Thibaud or Imbaud, 2 
 Counts of, 
 
 Georges, First Count, 
 
 appropriates the King's 
 taxes, 22 
 
 attempts to seize his wife's 
 lands, 25 
 
 becomes Dauphin's chief 
 favourite, 29 
 
 character of, 16, 17 
 
 created Count, 33 
 
 death at Sully, 41 
 
 does not bequeath moral 
 defects to descendants, 
 except, perhaps, Cathe- 
 rine de Medicis, 42, 43 n. 
 
 fights against the English, 
 21 
 
 friendship with the Dau- 
 phin, 17, 19 
 
 goes on an embassy to 
 Bruges, 27 
 
 his fall from power, 37 — 40 
 
 imprisons Gouges de Char- 
 paignes, 24 
 
 joins Dauphin after Treaty 
 of Troyes, 25 
 
 joins Queen Isabelle's court, 
 22, 23 
 
 liberated, 23 
 
 marries Jeanne d'Auvergne, 
 
 23 
 ill-treats her, 24 
 her death, 24 
 murders Pierre de Giac, 27 
 
 28 
 obesity of, 37, 42, 48, 54, 
 
 59
 
 INDEX 
 
 327 
 
 La Tr6moille — continued. 
 Counts of — continued. 
 
 Georges, First Count — con- 
 tinued. 
 quarrels with Constable 
 
 Richemont, 29 
 quarrels with the Butchers, 
 
 20 
 relations with Joan of Arc, 
 
 31—36 
 
 rules as Councillor-Cham- 
 berlain, 26, 29, 30, 32, 
 66 n. 
 
 schemes to marry Catherine 
 de l'lie Bouchard, 27 
 
 taken by Perrinet Gressart, 
 26 
 
 taken prisoner at Agin- 
 court, 23 
 Louis I., Second Count, 42, 
 
 43. 49, 50. 5 1 - 53. 55 
 Louis II., Third Count, 
 
 a witness to Louis XII. 's 
 
 contract with Anne of 
 
 Brittany, 69 
 Anne's dislike of him, 70, 
 
 71. 75 
 
 appointed King's Chamber- 
 lain, 60 
 
 Battle of Marignano and 
 death of his only son, 81, 
 82 
 
 betrothes his niece to Mont- 
 morency, 84 
 
 biography by Bouchet, xi., 
 
 52 
 builds mansion in Paris, 
 and there entertains 
 English ambassadors, 85 
 (S: h., 86, 274 A: n. » 
 ■ turcs Ludovico Sforza, 
 
 73- 75 
 
 commands against re- 
 in llious nobles in Bril 
 tany, 60, 303 
 
 delivers Paris from the 
 English, 87 
 
 dies at the Battle of Pavia, 
 
 89 
 
 embassy to the Pope, 61, 62 
 endows churches at 
 
 Thouars, 57 
 escorts Mary Tudor at 
 
 Abbeville, 80 
 established in possession of 
 lands and offices by 
 Louis XII., 66 
 established in possession of 
 lands and offices by 
 Francis I., 80 
 father's death, 55 
 first Italian campaign, 62 — 
 
 66 
 fourth, fifth and sixth 
 
 Italian campaigns, 78 
 funeral progress through 
 Italy and France, burial 
 at Thouars, 90 
 Governor of Burgundy, 77 
 guards French coast against 
 
 the English, 76 
 last Italian campaign, 88 — 
 
 90 
 lieutenant-general in Eng- 
 lish wars, 60 
 marries Gabrielle de Bour- 
 bon, 57, 58 
 marries grandson to Anne 
 
 de Laval, 87 
 negotiates Louis XII. 's 
 divorce from Jeanne de 
 France, 67 — 68 
 obtains restoration of for- 
 feited estates, 50, 56 
 on Gabrielle's death, 
 marries Louise d'Albrct, 
 
 69 & >!., 83 84 
 
 on the Field of the Cloth of 
 
 Gold, 86 
 pageatLouisXI.'scourt, s 1 
 returns to France ill, 76, 77 
 romam >•, 55 
 runs away from home, 52, 
 
 53. 176
 
 328 
 
 INDEX 
 
 La Tremoille — continued. 
 Counts of — continued. 
 
 Louis II., Third Count — con- 
 tinued. 
 second Italian campaign, 
 
 72—75 
 seventh Italian campaign, 
 
 80—82 
 third Italian compaign, 76 
 treats with the Swiss in 
 
 Burgundy, 79 & n. 
 victory of Novara, 80 
 youth at Bommiers, 513 — 5 
 Francis, fourth Count, 80, 82, 
 83 n. \ 86, 87, 89, 90, 91, 
 92, 155 n. 2 , 198, 212, 213 
 Dukes of Thouars, also styled 
 Dukes of La Tremoille, 
 vii., 1 
 Louis III., first Duke, 91 sqq., 
 
 130 n., 199 n. l , 212 
 Claude, second Duke, 92, 122, 
 
 130 n., 137 n., 176 n. 3 , 
 
 199 n. 1 
 at Battle of Coutras, 100, 
 
 105 
 at Battles of Ivy, Fontaine- 
 
 Francaise, sieges of Paris 
 
 and Rouen, 106 
 becomes a Protestant, 99 
 birth, 93 
 classifies family archives, 
 
 viii. 
 financial difficulties, 1 1 1 
 flees to Guernsey, 98 
 happiness of married life, 
 
 no, 112 
 illness and death, 113 
 joins Protestants, 95 
 marries Charlotte of Nassau, 
 
 109, no 
 one of the twelve peers of 
 
 France, 107 
 power, vi. 
 presides over negotiations 
 
 for the Edict of Nantes, 
 
 107 — 109 
 
 quarrels with Henry of 
 
 Navarre, 99, 100 
 relations with his sister 
 
 Charlotte, 102 — 104 
 serves in Catholic army, 94 
 services rendered to the Pro- 
 testant cause, 104, 105 
 upbringing, 94 
 will, 113, 114 
 Henry, third Duke, viii., 186, 
 
 199 n. l , 257 
 abjures Protestantism, 114, 
 
 132, 174 & n. 
 bedridden with gout, 200 
 birth, 112 & n. 3 
 character, 125 
 claims kingdom of Naples, 
 
 155 & n. 2 
 corresponds with his aunt 
 
 Charlotte, 121 
 financial embarrassments, 
 
 neglects to pay his sister's 
 
 dowry, 132, 133 
 life as a country gentleman, 
 
 173 
 marries Marie de La Tour 
 
 d'Auvergne, 128 
 renounces his dukedom and 
 peerage in favour of his 
 son, 175, 195 & n. 
 travels, 125 & n., 126 
 writes to Henrietta Maria 
 on Oliver Cromwell's 
 death, 173 & n., 174 
 Henry Charles, fourth Duke. 
 
 See Tarente, Prince de. 
 Charles Belgique Hollande, 
 fifth Duke, 193, 257, 258, 
 259 & n., 260, 277 
 Charles Louis Bretagne, sixth 
 Duke, viii., ix., x., 258 sqq., 
 277 n. 
 Charles Armand Rene, seventh 
 
 Duke, 260, 277 n. 
 Jean Bretagne, eighth Duke, 
 258.273, 274, 277 &n., 278, 
 ■284.
 
 INDEX 
 
 329 
 
 La Tremoille — continued. 
 
 Dukes of Thouars — continued. 
 Charles Bretagne, ninth Duke, 
 as Due de La Tremoille, 
 financial embarrass- 
 
 ments, diplomatic mis- 
 sions, visits to England, 
 284—287 
 as Prince de Tarente, 274 
 & n. 8 , 275, 276, 277 n., 
 278, 279, 284, 285 
 his recollections, 275, 276, 
 285, 288, 290, 291, 296, 
 316 
 in Neapolitan army, and 
 relations with Sir John 
 Acton, 288, 296 
 in Normandy and La Ven- 
 dee, 297, 314 
 marriages, 275, 314, 315, 
 316 
 Louis Charles, tenth Duke, 
 viii., x., xi., xii., 57 »., 315 & 
 n. * 
 Duchesses of, 
 
 Charlotte Brabantine, wife of 
 Duke Claude. See Nassau. 
 Kmilic of 1 [esse Cassel, wife of 
 Duke Henri Charles. See 
 Hesse Cassel. 
 Kinmanucllc de Chatillon, 
 I wife of Duke Charles 
 Bretagne. See Tarente, 
 Princesse de. 
 Jeanne de Montmorency, wife 
 of Duke Louis. See Mont- 
 morency. 
 Josephine 1 ugenie Valen- 
 tine Walsh, third wife of 
 I in!,' Charles 1 tretagne. 
 See Walsh. 
 Madi leine de Crequy, wife of 
 
 I hike < hai li 1 Belj iqui 
 M.ti iedi 1 .1 1 "in d Air, ei -ne, 
 wife "i I hike I tenry, viii. & 
 »., ;6, 1 1 1 1,1 1 . ,. 157 
 sqq., 165, 167, [68, 1 1 . 1 1 
 
 177, 186, 196 197, 199, 200 
 
 257 
 Marie Genevieve de Durfort, 
 
 first wife of Duke Jean 
 
 Bretagne, 259 
 
 Marie Hortense de Bouillon, 
 
 wife of Duke Charles Ar- 
 
 mand Rene, 259 
 
 Marie Madeleine de La 
 
 Fayette, wife of Duke 
 
 Charles Louis Bretagne, 259 
 
 Marie Maximilienne de Salm- 
 
 Kerbourg, second wife of 
 
 Duke Jean Bretagne, 259, 
 
 273, 276 sqq., 288 
 
 Anne Charles Frederic de. See 
 
 Talmond, Prince de. 
 
 Armand de, 174 
 
 Caroline de, 279 
 
 Charles Augustc, Abbe de, and 
 
 Dean of Strasbourg, viii., 
 
 274 & n. a , 275, 298, 299, 312, 
 
 313 
 Charlotte Amelie or Emilie de, 
 Countess of Altenburg, 184 & 
 n. -, 193 & n. l , 198, 201, 202, 
 207 sqq., 277 
 Charlotte de, Princesse de 
 
 Conde, 92 
 biography of, xi. 
 birth, 93 
 
 1 banges of religion, 99, 1 1 1 
 imprisoned on charge of 
 
 murdering Conde, 100 — 103 
 last years, death and burial, 
 
 121 
 leader of a faction in Paris, 
 
 118— 120 
 nun 1 1.1 ;e, 99 
 quarrels with her son's tutor 
 
 and with Sully, 115, 1 i<> 
 wooed by the Prince de Conde, 
 
 i ii.n lotto de, Countess of I >ei by 
 (" the Ladj ol Lathom "), 
 a< t r . . t i on the outbreak of 
 civil war, 130, 137
 
 330 
 
 INDEX 
 
 La Tremoille — continued 
 
 Charlotte de, Countess of Derby 
 — continued. 
 
 at Knowsley during the Com- 
 monwealth, 165 
 
 betrayal by Christian and 
 return to England, 164, 165 
 
 biographies of and literary 
 allusions to, xi. & n. 2 , 122 & 
 n., 126 «., 164 
 
 birth, descent and upbringing, 
 113, 123 — 126, 127, 130 n. 
 
 careers of her younger sons, 
 167 
 
 correspondence with her 
 sister-in-law, 128, 129, 151, 
 155. 157 sqq., 165—167, 
 168, 196 
 
 death at Knowsley, 171 
 
 defends Lathom House, 98, 
 122, 142 — 148 
 
 early married life in England, 
 130—132 
 
 hears of her husband's execu- 
 tion, 161, 164 n. 
 
 her will and burial, 171, 172 
 
 holds out in Isle of Man 
 against the Parliament, 163 
 
 in London after the Restora- 
 tion, 169 — 171 
 
 in Scotland, 159 
 
 life at court, 135 
 
 life in the Isle of Man, 151 — 
 
 165 
 
 marriages of her daughters, 
 
 166 
 
 motherhood, 134, 135 
 
 negotiates with parliamen- 
 tarian envoys, 141 
 
 petitions Parliament on her 
 husband's behalf, 153 — 156 
 
 prepares for the siege of 
 Lathom House, 138, 139 
 
 quarrels with her eldest son, 
 
 I5 2 . *53. !67. !6 8 
 receives Rupert at Lathom, 
 149, 150, 260 
 
 receives the Prince de Tarente 
 
 in London, 177 
 sends her son Edmund to 
 
 France, 167, 171 
 suitors and marriage to Lord 
 
 Strange, 128, 129, 130 
 visits Charles I. at Hampton 
 
 Court, 154 
 visits Holland, 134 
 writes to Prince Rupert, 137, 
 
 143. 144 
 Elizabeth de, Duke Claude's 
 
 daughter, 113, 125 
 Elizabeth de, Duke Henry's 
 
 daughter, 174 
 Frederic de, Comte de Laval, 
 
 113, 126, 133, 134, 153 Sen., 155 
 Frederic Guillaume de, Abbe 
 
 de Sainte-Croix, later lieu- 
 tenant-general, 202 & n., 260 
 
 & n. l 
 Georges de, Seigneur de Craon, 
 
 42 sqq. 
 Georges de, Seigneur de Jon- 
 
 velle, 52, 84 
 Guillaume de, brother of 
 
 Seigneur Guy, 6, 7, 8, 11 
 Henriette de, 202 
 Jacqueline de, 84 
 Jacques de, 52 
 Jean de, Archbishop of Auch 
 
 and cardinal, 52, 78, 82 
 Joseph Emmanuel de, Abbe de 
 
 Noirmoustier and cardinal, 
 
 216, 225, 255, 256 
 Louis Maurice, Comte de Laval, 
 
 174 
 Louis Stanislas Kotzka, Prince 
 
 de, 274 & n. 4 , 275, 277 & n. l , 
 
 288, 294 sqq., 313, 314 
 Marie Anne de, Princesse des 
 
 Ursins. See Talleyrand, 
 
 Marie Anne de. 
 Marie Charlotte, 174 & nn. 2 & 3 , 
 
 193. J 98 
 Marie Sylvie Brabantine, 202 
 Robert, 212, 215
 
 INDEX 
 
 33i 
 
 Lausanne, 291 
 Laval, 
 
 Anne de, wife of Francis, 
 Comte de La Tremoille, 87, 
 
 l 55 «■ 2 . 198. 199 »■ l 
 chateau of, vi., viii., 299, 308, 
 
 Counts of, 257 and passim 
 
 estates of, 155, 300, 302, 303 
 
 Frederic, Count of. See La 
 Tremoille. 
 
 Louis Maurice, Count of. See 
 La Tremoille. 
 Lavallee, Pean de, 43, 44 
 La Vendee, viii., 276, 277, 283, 295, 
 
 299. 300, 312, 313, 314 
 Lear, King, 175 
 Le Brun, 268 
 Leghorn, 296 
 Legoix, family of, 18 
 Le Mans, Battle of, 306, 307 
 Leopold, Emperor, 227 
 Le Sage, 180 
 
 Lescure, Commander of Royalists 
 in La Vendee, 300 n., 301 & n. 1 
 Lespinasse, Mdlle. de, 265 
 Les Rochers, 203, 205, 207 
 Leyden, 126, 149 
 Liege, 17. 45, 175 
 Limburg, 250, 251 
 Linieres, chateau, 68 
 Liris, R., 62 
 Liverpool, 158 
 Loches, chateau, 75 n. 
 Lodi, 
 
 battle, 290, 291 
 
 town, 88, 89 
 Loire, R., 25, 30, 251 
 
 crossing and recrossing of, by 
 the Royalist rebels in 1793, 
 300—302, 303, 306, 307 
 
 Joan of Arc's victories on, 31, 
 
 <-. 35 
 Longueville, 
 
 Due de, 1 71 
 
 Duchesse de, 121, 185 & n. > 
 L'Orme, Thilibcrt de, 133 
 
 Lorraine, 
 
 Duke of, Rene II. See Rene. 
 
 province, 46, 47, 264, 265, 269 
 
 the maid of, 30 
 Loudun, 90, 119, 257 
 Louis VII., King of France, 2 
 Louis IX., St., King of France, 2, 6 
 Louis XL, King of France, 38 
 
 as Dauphin, 39, 40, 67 
 
 as King, 44 sqq., 53 sqq., 
 66 n., 67 
 Louis XII., King of France, 
 
 as Due d'Orleans, 59, 60, 66, 
 67, 80, 79 
 
 as King, 61 «., 67 sqq. 
 Louis XIII., King of France, 119, 
 
 173 
 Louis XIV., King of France, 38, 
 
 173. 195. 197. !98, 214, 219, 222, 
 
 224, 225, 227, 228, 230 sqq., 237, 
 
 239 sqq., 248 sqq., 253, 254, 
 
 258 
 Louis XV., King of France, 261, 
 
 263, 264, 267 
 Louis XVI., King of France, 279, 
 
 286, 287 
 Louis XVIII. , King of France, 
 
 289 n. i, 312, 314 
 Louis, Dauphin, died 1415. Sec 
 
 Guyenne, Due de. 
 Louis de La Tremoille. See La 
 
 Tremoille. 
 Louis, Due d'Orleans. See Or- 
 leans. 
 Louise de Coetivy, mother of 
 
 Francis. Comte de La Trdmoillc, 
 
 82, 83 n. ' 
 Louise de Coligny, x. & u. *, 106 
 
 &«. s , no & n. ', in & mi. ' & a , 
 
 112, 113, 123, 124 
 Louise Julienne, William the 
 
 Silcnt's daughter, 137 n. 
 Louise of Savoy, 52, 83 n. l , 84 
 Louvillc, Marquis of, 234, 236 
 Luci. See Fcrrand, Mdlle. 
 Ludc, the Count of, 92 
 Luncville, 265
 
 332 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Luxembourg, 187, 188, 190, 270, 
 
 271, 274 
 Lyons, 74, 75, 90, 114 & n. 2 , 254 
 Lys-Saint-Georges, castle of, 75 
 
 Macaulay, 235 
 
 Mack, General, 293 
 
 Maestro, 217 
 
 Maine, 298, 300 
 
 Maine-et-Loire, x. 
 
 Maintenon, Mme. de. See 
 Aubigne, Francoise de. 
 
 Malaquais, Quai, 257 
 
 Malo, Andrea di, 90 
 
 Malplaquet, Battle of, 249, 258 
 
 Man, the Isle of, 129, 137, 138, 143, 
 150, 151, 156 sqq., 163, 164, 165, 
 168 
 
 Manchester, 136, 138, 140, 147 
 
 Mansourah, Battle of, 2 — 12 
 
 Mantua, 284. See Gonzaga, Mar- 
 quis of. 
 
 Marans, 55 n. l , 105 
 
 Marcellus, theatre of, 220 
 
 Marchegay, Paul, x. 
 
 Marguerite d'Amboise, Comtesse 
 de La Tremoille, 49 
 
 Marguerite de Valois. See Valois. 
 
 Maria Fagniani, Comtess of Yar- 
 mouth, 284 
 
 Maria Feodorovna, Empress of 
 Russia, 292 
 
 Marie Adelaide, Duchess of Bur- 
 gundy, 232, 233, 234 
 
 Marie Antoinette, 273, 278 — 
 281 
 
 Marie de Cleves, 95 
 
 Marie Jablonowski. See Talmond, 
 Princesse de. 
 
 Marie de La Tour d'Auvergne. 
 See La Tremoille, Duchess of. 
 
 Marie de Montauban, wife of 
 Georges de Craon, 49 
 
 Marie de Sully. See Sully. 
 
 Marie Leczinski, Queen of France, 
 261, 271 
 
 Marie Louise, Queen of Spain, 232 
 sqq., 237, 241, 242, 244, 246, 248, 
 251, 252 
 
 Marignano, Battle of, 81 
 
 Marlborough, Duke of, 248 
 
 Marlet, Leon, xi., 122 & »., 126 n. 
 
 Marly, chateau, vi., 243, 248, 254 
 
 Marsille, 257 n. 2 
 
 Marston Moor, Battle of, 139 »., 
 
 150 
 Martindale Castle, 122 
 Mary of Burgundy, daughter of 
 
 Charles the Rash, 47 n. 
 Mary Stuart, Princess of Orange, 
 
 177, 192, 194 
 Mary Tudor, Queen of France, 80 
 
 130 n., 131 
 Mathelyn, 14 
 Mauleon, 55 n. 1 , 257 n. 2 
 Maurepas, 264, 272 
 Maurice, 
 
 Elector of Saxony, no n. 
 of Nassau. See Nassau. 
 Maximilian, Emperor, 
 
 as Archduke of Austria, 47 n., 
 
 59 
 as Emperor, 71 
 Maximilien de Bethune, Marquis 
 
 de Rosny. See Bethune. 
 Mayenne, 
 
 Duke of, 105 
 
 Georges de Craon's estates in, 
 
 49 
 Mayerne, Sir Theodore Turquet de, 
 
 159 & n. 
 Mazarin, Cardinal, vi., 184 sqq., 
 
 190, 192, 194 sqq. 
 Medicis, Catherine de, 105 n. l , 
 
 116, 133 
 descent from Georges de La 
 Tremoille, 42, 43 n. 
 Medicis, Marie de, in, 116, 118, 
 
 119, 128 
 Melle, 
 
 bishopric of, 26 n. 
 fortress of, 93 
 Melun, 22
 
 INDEX 
 
 333 
 
 Mercoeur, Duke of, 95 
 
 Meun, castle, 28 
 
 Michelet, 8o, 86 
 
 Milan, 61, 71, 78, 79, 81, 119 
 
 duchy of, 61, 63, 70, 71, 88 
 
 duke of, 61, 70 
 Mirabello, 
 
 chateau, 88 
 
 park, 89 
 Miranda, Francisco di, 90 
 Modena, Queen of England, in 
 
 exile, 222, 260 
 Moliere, 206 
 Molyneux, Lord, 137 
 Monaco, Prince of, Ambassador at 
 
 Rome, 225, 226 
 Monk, General, 169 
 Montagu, George, 271 
 Montaigne, 127 n. 
 Montargis, 37 
 Montauban, 109 
 Mont Cenis, 79 
 Montegu, chateau, 80 
 Montereau, 27 ». ', 121 
 Montespan, Mme. de, 265 
 Montesquieu, 261, 264, 266 
 Moiitfort, 257 n. - 
 Montmorency, 
 
 Anne de, 84, 93, 130 n. 
 
 Charlotte de, Princesse de 
 Cond6, 117, 118 
 
 Henry de, Marechal Damville, 
 
 117 71. ■ 
 
 house of, vi. 
 
 J'anne de, Duchcsse de La 
 h'moille, 93, 94, 96 sqq., 
 1 * 1 ; & »., 11'), 130 >i. 
 Montpellier, 100, 109 
 Montpensier, 
 
 Anne de, " the Croat Made- 
 moiselle," 185 & n. a , 186, 
 187, 188 
 cast!'' of, 57, 58 
 Counts of, 57, <> 1 
 Dukes of . Sec Bourbon. 
 Monti. K>r, 1 bateau, 37 
 Morat, Battle of. \6 
 
 Morel, Mme. de, 114 n. 
 
 Moret, 117 
 
 Mortara, 72 
 
 Moussy, Regnaud de, 82 
 
 Munster, 
 
 Bishop, 199 
 
 Council, 155 
 Musgrave, Sir Philip, 1G4, 165 
 
 Nancy, Battle of, 45, 47, 48 
 Nantes, 59, 60, 70, 303 
 
 Edict of, 107, 108, 109 
 pacification of, 104 
 revocation of Edict, 94, 211, 
 258 
 Nantwich, Battle of, 16S 
 Naples, 2, 62, 63, 70, 288, 289, 296 
 Bay of, 62 
 crown of claimed by, 
 
 Charles VIII., King of 
 France, and his successor, 
 61, 155 n. a 
 Dukes of La Tremoille and 
 Princes of Tarente, 155 
 & n. 2 , 198, 288 
 Kings of, 61, 87, 289, 293, 296 
 Queens of, 10, 289, 292, 296 
 state of, 75, 76, 79 
 Napoleon, ix., 5, 90, 91, 289 n. ', 
 
 297. 312, 314 
 Nassau, 
 
 Charlotte Brabantine, 
 Duchesse de La Tremoille, 
 x. & n. 3 , 109 sqq., 121 sqq., 
 i28sqq., 133, 137 n., 176 >i.' A 
 Frederick Henry, Prince of 
 Orange, 176 A: w. 8 , 177, 180 
 182, 183 
 1 [enry, Count of, 1 70 
 house of, vi. 
 Louisa Henrietta of, 177, 181, 
 
 182, 183 
 Maurice, Prince of Orai; 
 [IO, ij.5 
 
 William 11.. Prince of Orange, 
 
 177. l 7*, iSu
 
 334 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Nassau — continued. 
 
 William III. .Prince of Orange. 
 See William III., King of 
 England. 
 Navona, Piazza, 220 & n. l 
 Neufchatel, lake of, 46 
 Neuve-des-Capucins, Rue, 281 
 Nevers, Comte de. See John the 
 
 Fearless, Duke of Burgundy. 
 Newcastle, 153 
 Nice, 278 
 
 Nicopolis, Battle of, 12, 13, 14 
 Noailles, 
 
 Adrien Maurice de, 223 
 La Marechale de, 223, 225, 
 240 
 Noirmoustier, 
 
 Abbe de. See La Tremoille, 
 
 Joseph Emmanuel. 
 Antoine Francois, Due de, 
 
 212, 215, 253, 255, 256 
 Claude, Baron de, 212, 213 
 Francois, Marquis de, 212, 
 
 214 
 Louis, Due de, 197, 212, 213 
 Louis, Marquis de, 212 
 Novara, 72, 73, 75, 78, 80 
 
 Odescalchi, Don Livio, 224 
 
 Oldenburg, 211 
 
 Oldenzeel, no 
 
 Olonne, Georges, Comte d', 212, 
 
 213 
 Olyferne, Duke of, 8 
 Orange, 
 
 Maurice, Prince of. See 
 Nassau. 
 
 William the Silent, Prince 
 of. See William. 
 
 William VII., Prince of, 49 
 Orbitello, 296 
 Orleans, 
 
 Anne d', 233 
 
 Charles, Due d', 16, 19, 21, 
 
 23 
 family of, 67 
 
 Gaston, Ducd', 185, 186, 188, 
 
 189, 190 
 Joan of Arc's relief of, 31, 186 
 Philippe, Due d', 227, 253, 
 
 254 
 
 siege of, 30 
 
 " the Great Mademoiselle " 
 at, 186 
 
 town of, 22 
 Ormond, Duke of, 237 
 Ormskirk, 172 
 Orpe, Miss, 133, 134, 154 
 Orsini, 
 
 estates of, 224, 255 
 
 palace of, 220, 221 
 
 the house of. 218 n. 2 , 219, 221 
 Orsova, 12 
 Ostend, 286, 288 
 Oudenarde, Battle of, 258 
 
 Palatine, La. See Gonzague 
 Anne de. 
 Charlotte Elisabeth, Prin- 
 cesse de, 254 
 Pallavicini, the, 13 
 Palermo, 296 
 Paris, 
 
 besieged by Huguenots, 106 
 besieged by Joan of Arc, 34 
 taken by Charles VII., 38 
 threatened by the English 
 and defended by La Tre- 
 moille, 87 
 Parma, 
 
 Duke of, 105, 106 
 
 Princess of. See Farnese, 
 
 Elizabeth, 
 town of, 63 
 Pasquino, 
 
 palace, 221, 222, 224, 225, 
 
 255 
 the tailor, 220 
 
 Pathay, Battle of, 32 
 Patroclus, 220 
 
 Paul I., Emperor of Russia, 292 
 & n.
 
 INDEX 
 
 335 
 
 Pavia, 
 
 Battle of, 89, 90 
 campaign of, 88 
 siege of, 88, 89 
 town of, 62, 88, 90 
 Peel Castle, 164 
 Peronne, Louis XI. taken prisoner 
 
 at, 45 
 Pescara, General, 88 
 " Peveril of the Peak," xi., 122, 
 
 164 
 Philip II., King of Spain, 95, 226, 
 
 227 
 Philip III., King of Spain, 119 
 Philip IV., King of Spain, 228, 
 229, 233 sqq., 241, 249, 244, 246 
 sqq. 
 Philip the Bold. See Burgundy, 
 
 Dukes of. 
 Piacenza, 63 
 Pibrac, 126, 136 
 Picard, 120 «. 
 Picquigny, Treaty of, 45 
 Piennes, 
 
 Due de, 286 
 Duchesse de, 285, 286 
 Pierre Fort, fortress, 46 
 Pierrepont, Henry, Marquis of 
 
 Dorchester, 166 
 Pisa, 63 
 
 Pisani, Marquis de, 114, 115, 116 
 Plessis, College of, 274 
 Plessis-du-Parc, 48 
 Plessis-les-Tours, 48 n., 56 
 I'kssis-Mornay, M. du, 99, 113 
 Plombieres, 279 
 Poggibonsi, 63 
 Poitiers, 
 
 Battle, 3 
 
 Bishop. See La Tremoille, 
 
 Jean, 
 town, xi., 59, 82, 91, 101 n. -, 
 105 
 Poitou, xii., 1, 3, 26, 28, 39, 40, 
 55 n. '. 60, 91, 93, 95, 107, 108, 
 185, 195. 197 
 Pontarlier, 46 
 
 Portland, 
 
 Duke of, 295 
 
 Earl of, 211 
 Portocarrero, Cardinal, 223, 228 
 
 238 
 Portugal, 70 
 Praguerie, the, 39 & n. 
 Puisaye, Comte de, 313 
 Pyrenees, 231 
 
 Treaty of, 197 
 
 Queensberry, the Marquis of, 
 
 283, 284 n. > 
 Quiberon, 313 
 
 Radetzky, General, 290, 291 
 
 Radzivill, 180 & n. 
 
 Rais, Gille de, 16, 17, 25 
 
 Rambouillet, 
 
 Hotel de, 204, 205, 216, 221 
 Marquise de, 114, 11G 
 Salon de, 114 & n. 2 
 
 Reaux, Tallemant des, 115 & n. 3 , 
 
 133 
 
 Regnault. See Chartres, Re- 
 nault de, Archbishop of Reims. 
 Reims, 13 
 
 Charles VII. crowned at, 
 
 25 «•- 33 
 Ren6 II., Duke of Lorraine, 46, 
 
 47. 48 
 Rennes, 204, 257 n. 2 , 308, 309, 310 
 Retz, Cardinal de, 187, 215 
 Rhimbergue, 180 
 Rhodes, 
 
 Grand Prior of, 14 
 
 Seigneur Guy dies at, 14 
 Richard II., King of England, 11 
 Richelieu, 
 
 Cardinal, vi., 114, 132, 274 
 
 Due de, 285 
 Richemont, Count of, 23, 27 & n. 
 
 28, 29, 32 & n. ', 37, 38, 39 
 Rii hmond, 283, 286, 298 
 Rigby, Colonel, 139, 145. M°. M7» 
 
 148, 156 
 Robespierre, 313
 
 336 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Rocroy, 191 
 Rohan, 
 
 house of, 185 
 Mdlle. de, 181 
 Rome, 62, 63, 76, 78 
 
 Duke Charles Bretagne de La 
 
 Tremoille at, 284, 293, 295 
 
 La Princesse de Talmond at, 
 
 270 
 La Princesse des Ursins re- 
 sides at, 217—233, 255— 
 256 
 Rosny, Marquis de. See Bethune, 
 
 Maximilien. 
 Rossignol, General, 308, 309, 310 
 Rouen, 36, 106 
 Rouhet, 94 
 Roussillon, 245 
 Royan, Yolande Julie, Marquise 
 
 de, 212, 215 
 Ruitz, Marshal, 291 
 Rupa, Helen de. See Derby, 
 
 Countess of. 
 Rupert, Prince, 137 & n., 143, 144, 
 
 148, 149, 150, 181, 260 
 Rushen, Castle of, 157, 161, 164 
 Rutter, the Rev. Mr., 147, 152, 163 
 Ruvigny, Henri de, Lord Galway, 
 
 247 n. 2 
 Ryswick, Treaty of, 199, 214, 123 
 
 St. Angelo, Bridge of, 219 
 St. Antoine, 
 
 Battle of the Gate of, 186, 
 187, 190 
 
 Gate, 197 
 
 Rue, 20 
 St. Aubin-du-Cormier, Battle of, 
 
 60, 66, 74 
 St. Bartholomew, massacre, now., 
 
 in n. 2 
 St. Cloud, 187, 188 
 St. Cyr, 254 
 St. Denis, 
 
 cathedral, 3 
 
 fair, 23 
 
 faubourg, 187 
 
 St. Didier, Marie Virginie, Com- 
 tesse de, second wife of Duke 
 Charles Bretagne de La Tre- 
 moille, 314 
 
 St. Dominique, Rue, 265 
 
 St. Florent, 301 
 
 St. Germain, 114, 115, 117, 222 
 231, 260, 265 
 
 St. Honore, Gate, Joan of Arc at, 
 
 . 34 
 
 St. Jacques Tower, 18, 21 
 
 St. James's Palace, Court, 131 
 286 
 
 St. Jean d'Angely, 101, 102, 103 
 & n. 
 
 St. John's, Prior of, 85 
 
 St. Joseph, Convent of, 265, 267 
 
 St. Laon de Cursay, 57 
 
 St. Malo, 98, 304 
 
 St. Maur-les-Fosses, 116 
 
 St. Medard, chapel, the La Tre- 
 moille burying place, 57 
 
 Saint Paul, Hotel de, 13 
 
 St. Peter's at Rome, n, 220 
 
 St. Petersburg, 292, 314 
 
 St. Pierre le Moustier, 35 
 
 St. Simon, 229 & n. l , 234, 239, 
 
 2 4°> 2 43- 2 44 
 St. Yon, family of, 18 
 Sainte-Beuve, 214, 242, 256 
 Sainte-Croix, the Abbe de. See 
 
 La Tremoille, Frederic Guil- 
 
 laume. 
 Sainte-Marthe, 
 Louis de, viii. 
 Pierre Scevole de, ix. 
 Scevole de, viii. 
 Sainte Menehould, 119 
 Saintes, 101 
 Saintonge, 55 n. 1 , 60, 91, 101 n. 2 , 
 
 186 
 Salm, Princesse de, 314 n. 
 San Giovanni, fort, 62, 65 
 Sand, Georges, 121 
 Saracens, the, 2, 7, 8, 9 
 Sarragossa, 237 
 Sarzana, 63, 64
 
 INDEX 
 
 337 
 
 Sauves, Charlotte de Semblancay, 
 Mme. de, wife of Francois de 
 Noirmoustier, 214, 215 
 Savoie, Madeleine de, 130 
 Savonarola, 63 
 Savoy, 277, 278 
 
 Dowager Duchess of, 236 
 Victor Amadeus, Duke of, 
 227, 232, 233 
 Saxe, the Chevalier de, 293, 295 
 Saxe Weimar, Bernard of, Duke of 
 
 Jena, 174, 198 
 Scarron, Mme. See Aubign6, 
 
 Francoise de. 
 Schomberg, Gaspard de, 108 
 Scone, 160 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter, xi., 122, 164 
 Sedan, 126 
 
 Selwyn, George, 284 n. 
 Serrant, 
 
 chateau, x., 314 
 
 Louis Charles, Due de La 
 
 Tremoille, buried at, 57 
 Valentine, Comtesse de. See 
 Walsh. 
 Sesia, R., 72 
 Scvigne, Mme. de, x. & n. 2 , 183, 
 
 203 sqq., 218 
 Sforza, Ludovico (II Moro), 61 
 as Duke of Milan, 63, 71 sqq., 
 
 78 
 Shrewsbury, 168 
 Sicily, 
 
 King of, 70 
 I _>ueen of, 30 
 Sidonie, Mdlle., 305 
 Sienna, 63 
 
 ismund, King of Hungary, 11,1a 
 Sobieski, 
 
 Clementine, wife of the Old 
 
 Pretender, 255, 256, 261 
 house of, vi., 271 
 Jean, 255 
 Soissons, Comte de, 102 
 Sohns, Emilie of, Prince 1 1 of 
 
 Orange, 183, IQ3 
 Somerset House, 179 
 
 C.R. 
 
 Somme, R., 45 
 
 Sophie, Countess Bentinck. See 
 
 Bentinck. 
 Sorbonne, the, 274 
 Sorel, Agnes, 38 
 Spa, 192, 285 
 Spar, Baron, 193 
 Spoleto, 218 
 Stanislas, King of Poland, 260 n. l , 
 
 264, 265 
 Stanleys, the, vi., 130 
 
 Amelia, 134 «., 154, 158, 159, 
 
 162 ». l , 166, 167 
 Catherine, 134 & n., 154, 158, 
 
 159, 162 11. l , 166 
 Charlotte, 134 & n. ' 
 Earls of Derby. See Derby. 
 Edward, 134 »., 162, 167, 169, 
 
 171 
 Henrietta Maria, 134 n., 161, 
 
 162, 166 
 Henry Frederic, 134 n. 
 James, 134 n. 
 Papers, 134 «., 152 & n. 
 William, 134 w., 162, 167, 169, 
 170 
 Stenay, 191 
 Stockport, 148 
 Stofflet, 305, 306 
 Strafford, Earl of, 156, 166 
 Strange. See Derby, Earls of, and 
 La Tremoille, Charlotte, Lady 
 Strange. 
 Strasbourg. See La Tremoille, 
 Frederic Guillaume, Canon of, 
 and Charles Augustc, Dean of. 
 Stuart, 
 
 Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, 
 129 & n., 137 »., 1 49, 180, 
 194 
 Prince Charles Edward, 261 
 sqq. 
 Sully, chateau, 3, 22, 24, 32, 35, 41, 
 112 
 Comte de, 6, 8, 9 
 Due de. Sec Bethunc, Maxi- 
 milien.
 
 338 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Sully — continued. 
 
 Marie de, Dame de La Tre- 
 moille, 3, 14, 15, 17 
 Susa, pass of, 79 
 Switzerland, 70 
 Swiss Cantons, 46 
 
 mercenaries, 64, 65, 71, 72, 
 73, 79, 81 
 
 Tabouret, honour of occupying, 
 accorded to La Tremoille prin- 
 cesses, 2, in, 198 
 Taillebourg, castle, 95, 97, 98, 99, 
 186 
 Counts of, 
 
 Charles Belgique, 257 n. a 
 Charles de Coetivy, 83 n. 1 
 Talbot, Richard, Earl of Tyr- 
 
 connel, 222 
 Talleyrand, 
 
 Adrien Blaise de, Prince de 
 
 Chalais, first husband of La 
 
 Princesse des Ursins, 216 
 
 Marie Anne de, Princesse des 
 
 Ursins, 
 
 authorities for the life of, 214 
 
 n. 
 builds chateau on the Loire, 
 
 251 
 character of her relations with 
 
 the King and Queen oE 
 
 Spain, 234, 235, 236, 238 
 
 coldly received by Louis XIV., 
 leaves France, resides at 
 Genoa, 254 
 
 conducts Marie Louise to 
 Spain, 233, 234 
 
 contributes to the establish- 
 ment of the Bourbons on 
 the Spanish throne, 214, 
 228, 230, 231, 238 
 
 correspondence of, xi. 
 
 corresponds with, 
 
 Lord Bolingbroke, 250, 251 
 Mme. de Maintenon, 245, 
 
 246, 2.:) 8 
 
 Mme. de Noailles, 223, 225, 
 232, 234, 245 
 descent, parentage and birth, 
 
 212, 214, 215 
 
 driven from Spain by the new 
 Queen, Elizabeth, 251 — 253 
 
 early married life in Paris, 216 
 
 end of her first period of power 
 and residence at Versailles, 
 240 — 244 
 
 endeavours to obtain inclu- 
 sion in the Treaty of 
 Utrecht, 250 — 251 
 
 events leading to her fall, 238, 
 240 
 
 excites the jealousy of minis- 
 ters and ambassadors at 
 Madrid, 238 
 
 her boundless ambition, 218, 
 250, 251 
 
 her policy saves Spain for 
 the Bourbons, 245 
 
 her Roman Salon, 219, 221, 
 222 
 
 importance of, in her family 
 and in European history, 
 
 213, 214, 223, 226, 231 
 
 is present at State councils, 
 
 237 
 
 lawsuit with her second hus- 
 band's heir, 224 
 
 lives in Italy, moves in 
 Roman society, 217 
 
 marriages, 216, 218, 219 
 
 relations with the French 
 ambassadors at Rome, 225, 
 226 
 
 return to Spain, 244 
 
 returns to Rome, figures at 
 the court of the Old Pre- 
 tender, dies at Rome, her 
 will, 255, 256, 260 
 
 schemes to marry the King of 
 Spain to Marie Louise of 
 Savoy, and to get herself 
 appointed Camerara Major, 
 232, 233
 
 INDEX 
 
 339 
 
 Talleyrand — continued. 
 Marie Anne de — continued. 
 unofficial representative of 
 France at Rome, 223, 224 
 visits France, 222, 223, 260 
 Perigord, Archambauld de, 316 
 the Abb6, 216 n. l 
 Talmond, 
 castle of, 105 
 estates of, 49, 55 n. 1 
 Princes of, 
 
 Anne Charles Frederic, 260 & 
 
 n. l , 261, 263, 264, 270 
 Antoine Philippe, 298, 313 
 at college, 274 
 commands in Royalist 
 
 army, 299 
 distinguished at battles of 
 Dol and Le Mans, 306, 
 
 307 
 
 distinguished in defence of 
 
 Laval, 302, 303 
 
 enters the army, 275 
 
 expedition to the coast, 
 305 & »., 306 
 
 fondness for pleasure, 276 
 
 imprisonment and escape > 
 298 — 299 
 
 imprisonment, trial and 
 death, 308 — 311 
 
 in family group, 274 & n. 
 
 joins the Royalists in the 
 West, 298 — 308 
 
 leaves the Vendean army, 
 308 
 
 organises the crossing of 
 the Loire, 300, 302 
 
 parts from his mistress, 
 Lady Brighton, 298 
 
 receives mysterious mes- 
 sage from, 304 
 
 visits England, 282, 283, 
 298, 303, and escorts 
 ister-in-law to Rich- 
 mond, 282, 283, 298 
 Charles, 59, 78, 80, 81, 82, 
 
 83 n. ' 
 
 Francis. See La Tremoille 
 
 Count of. 
 Frederic Guillaume, 260 & n. ' . 
 Leopold, 312 
 
 Louis Stanislas, Duke of 
 Chatellerault, 260 n. ' 
 Princesses of, 
 
 Felicie. See Durfort Duras- 
 Henriette. See Argouges. 
 Marie Jablonowski, 257 — 272 
 death and testament de- 
 scribed by Mme. du 
 Deffand, 272 
 liaison with Prince Charles 
 
 Edward, 261 — 270 
 marries Prince de Talmond, 
 
 261 
 visited by Horace Walpole, 
 271 
 Taranto or Tarente, 
 Princes of, 257 n. 
 
 claim the crown of Naples, 2, 
 
 87, 198, 199, 288, 289 Sen. 
 Henry Charles, Due de La 
 Tremoille, but better 
 known as le Prince de 
 Tarente, 174, 199, 203, 
 215, 257, 258, 260 & n. >, 
 261, 277 n. 
 arrest, imprisonment and 
 
 release, 195, 196 
 at the Court of the Nether- 
 lands, 177 
 becomes Due de La Tre- 
 moille during his father's 
 lifetime, 175, 195 
 birth and upbringing, 175, 
 
 176 
 commands in the Thirty 
 
 Years' War, 180, 181 
 death at Thouars, 202 
 1 Qgages in the Fronde, 184 
 
 family controvi rsi< 
 
 qucnt on his return to 
 the Catholic Church, 201, 
 202
 
 340 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Taranto or Tarente — continued. 
 Princes of — continued. 
 
 Henry Charles, Due de La 
 
 Tremoille — continued. 
 fights in the Battle of the 
 
 Porte St. Antoine, 188— 
 
 190 
 first affair of honour, 179 
 friendship with the Due 
 
 d'Enghien, later " the 
 
 Great Conde," 176, 184, 
 
 187 
 granted the presidency of 
 
 the Breton estates, 198 
 invested with the Order of 
 
 the Garter by Charles II., 
 
 192, 195, 260 
 marries Emilie of Hesse 
 
 Cassel, 183, 184 
 Memoires, 175 & n., 179, 
 
 182, 184, 189, 190 
 negotiates with Cromwell, 
 
 192, 193 
 proposals of marriage, 181 
 received by the King and 
 
 Queen at Toulouse, 197 
 residence in Holland, 192 — 
 
 194 
 resides at Thouars, 200 
 resigns his command, 192 
 returns to France, 194 
 runs away from home, 176 
 second affair of honour, 180 
 shipwreck, 178 
 summoned to France by 
 
 his mother's death, 199 
 visit to Hesse Cassel and 
 
 third residence in Hol- 
 land, 199 
 visits London, 151, 177, 
 
 178, 179 
 title confirmed by Louis XIV., 
 
 198 
 Emmanuelle de Chatillon, 
 Princess of, 
 emigrates to England, 283. 
 
 298 
 
 escapes from the September 
 
 massacres, 282 
 escapes from the Tuileries on 
 the 10th of August, 1792, 
 280, 281 
 her Souvenirs, 275, 279, 284 
 in the Abbaye prison, 281 
 life in Russia, and death at 
 
 St. Petersburg, 291, 292 
 lives at Richmond, 283, 284 
 marries Charles Bretagne, 
 Prince de Tarente, 275 & n., 
 310 
 meets her husband in Eng- 
 land, 286, 287 
 with Marie Antoinette during 
 the Revolution, 279 — 281 
 Taro, R., 65 
 
 Teligny, Charles de, now., 111 n. 2 
 Tencin, the Abbe de, 255 
 Themistocles, 236 
 Thibert, family of, 18 
 Thou, President de, 108 
 Tiber, R., 219 
 Tirechappe, Rue, 274 
 Toledo, Bishop of. See Porto- 
 
 carrero, Cardinal. 
 Tongres, Battle of, 17 
 Tonnerre, Countess of. See He 
 
 Bouchard, Catherine de V. 
 Torcy, Marquis de, 223, 232, 250, 
 
 254 
 Toulouse, 197, 241 
 Touraine, 38, 44, 56, 75 n. 2 , 251 
 Tournon, Rue de, 187 
 Tours, 105 
 
 Tourzel, Pauline de, 281 
 Trieste, 296 
 Trivulzio, 70, 71, 72, 78, 79 n. l , 
 
 80, 81 
 Troyes, 
 
 town of, 33, 69, 197 
 Treaty of, 25 
 Tuileries, palace, 133, 187, 279, 280 
 Tunis, King of, 9 
 Turenne, General, 153, 187, 188, 190 
 Turin, 233, 278, 279, 291
 
 INDEX 
 
 341 
 
 Tyburn, 171 
 Tynemouth, 137 
 Tyrol, 291 
 
 Un t guad, Elizabeth von, 209 
 Ursins, La Princesse de. See 
 
 Talleyrand, Marie Anne de. 
 Utrecht, Treaty of, 199, 250, 255 
 
 Valentinois, 
 
 lands of, 69 
 
 Louise d'Albret, Duchesse de. 
 See Albret. 
 Valery, 121 
 
 Valliere, la Duchesse de, 281, 292 
 Valois, 
 
 Francis, Duke of. See Fran- 
 cis I., King of France. 
 
 Marguerite de, divorced wife 
 of Henry IV., 116, 214, 215 
 Vannes, 37 
 
 Vasse, Mme. de, 265, 269 
 Vcndome, 
 
 Count of, 23 
 
 Duke of, 249 
 Venice, 
 
 city of, 113, 126, 217, 291 
 
 state of, 63, 70 
 Verdun, 46 
 Vere, 
 
 Earl of Oxford, 130 n. 
 
 Elizabeth, 11 n. 
 Vernet, Camus de, 29 
 Versailles, 222, 223, 238, 241, 242, 
 
 243, 248, 252, 254, 273 
 Vichy, 222 
 
 Vienna, 210, 285, 288, 291, 294 
 Vigevano, 71 
 Vigo Bay, 242 n. 
 Villafranca, 233 
 Vincennes, 21, 22, 23, 120, 264 
 Visconti, 
 
 1 &li .1 i, I )ukc of Milan, 10 
 
 Galcazzo, Duke of Milan, 6l, 
 
 63 »■■ 75 
 Valentine, <<i & n. 
 
 Vitr6, 203, 206, 257 n. 2 , 308, 
 
 310 
 Voltaire, 261 
 
 Wagram, Battle of, 289 n. 1 
 
 Walkinshaw, Miss, 270 
 
 Walpole, Horace, 130 n., 270, 271, 
 
 272 
 Walsh, 
 
 family of, 314 
 
 Josephine Eugenie Valentine, 
 Comtesse de Serrant and 
 Duchesse de La Tremoille, 
 x., 314, 315, 316 
 Warrington, 136 
 Waterloo, Battle of, 81, 314 
 Wentworth, William, 166 
 Weser, R., 210 
 Westphalia, Treaty of, 199 
 Whitehall, 178, 179 
 Wigan, 140, 161 
 William III., King of England, 
 as King of England, 227, 231 
 as Prince of Orange, 207, 211 
 William the Silent, Prince of 
 Orange, x., 95, 109, in n. 2 , 
 112 n. 5 , 123, 130 n., 137 »., 
 176 n. 8 , 183 
 Wilson, Andrew, 64 
 Windsor, 262, 265, 266 
 Witt, Mme. de, xi., 122 & n., 126 w. 
 Woburn Abbey, 286 
 Wolsey, Cardinal, 78 
 Worcester, Battle of, 161 
 Wotton, Sir Henry, 129 n. 
 Wykcrslooth, Baroness of, 314 11. 
 
 Yarmouth, Countess of. Sec 
 
 Maria Fagniani. 
 Ynlande of Arragon, Duchess of 
 
 Anjou, 30, 37, \8 
 York, 
 
 Cardinal, 270 
 city, 136, 137. I l'» 
 James, Duke of. Sec James 
 11., King oi 1 Qgland. 
 
 I /AMAKIkl , \2<>, IJ7 
 
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