RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 OF A 
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 
 VOL. L 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 T. C. NEWBY, 72, MORTIMER ST., CAVENDISH 9. 
 1846.
 

 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Renee-Charlolte-Victoire de Froulay de 
 Tesse, Marchioness de Crequy, de Hey- 
 mont, de Canaples, etc., was one of the most 
 remarkable women of her day ; distinguished 
 for the superiority of her character, her origi- 
 nality of mini, and the unaffected charm of 
 her manners. We may easily form an opinion 
 of this by the manner ia \vlrch she is spoken of 
 in the Memoirs of her contemporaries. 
 
 Madame de Crequy, h-n'in^ nearly attained 
 the age of a hundred, died in Paris, where 
 she had had the courage to brave the dangers 
 of the Revolution, and to resist the solicitations 
 of the emigrant party. She resided in the Hue 
 de Grenelle St. Germain, in an Hotel, the life- 
 rent of which she had purchased from the 
 Marquis de Feuquieres. It will be seen in the 
 course of her Memoirs, that the Marchioness 
 enjoyed a deplorable state of health, especially 
 
 VOL. I. B 
 
 2203121
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 for the last forty years of her life ; and on these 
 grounds she often congratulated herself upon 
 the good bargain that she had made ; for she 
 had been seventy years in possession of it 
 at the time of her death. 
 
 The celebrated Princess des Ursins wrote 
 from Rome, in 1722, to her Niece, the Duchess 
 de la Tremoille, saying, "The young Marchio- 
 ness de Crequy appears to me to be the person 
 most worthy of remark here, inasmuch as she 
 bears all the semblance of high birth, is a 
 woman of honourable feelings, thoroughly ori- 
 ginal in her ideas, and irreproachable in her 
 conduct. 
 
 Jean Jacques Rousseau remarked that she 
 was " le catholicisme en cornette, et la haute no- 
 blesse en deshabille" 
 
 Were we to quote from the authority of 
 those who have lived nearer our own times we 
 might mention the interest which the fame and 
 name of Madame de Cre*quy excited in Napo- 
 leon, and the esteem with which he regarded 
 her ; also the high opinion entertained for her 
 by the Abbe" Delille, as expressed in a letter 
 addressed to the Vicomte de Vintirnille, dated 
 1788. 
 
 " I am perfectly astounded at Madame de
 
 PREFACE. 3 
 
 " Crequy ; I never met with, and never could 
 " have imagined a more gifted mind. Her 
 " judgment is sound and conscientious, and her 
 " powers of penetration must make her a for- 
 " midable person in the eyes of knaves and 
 " fools ; I can now account for the reputation 
 " she has gained for sarcasm and severity. She 
 " possesses, in a pre-eminent degree, a talent 
 " which appears to have belonged to past ages 
 " and to be now extinct that of conversing 
 " without being either tedious or precipitate." 
 These Memoirs were intended by the Au- 
 thoress for the instruction of her grandson, 
 the young Tancrede-Adrian-Raoul de Cre"quy, 
 who died, however, long before his grand- 
 mother, but to whom she addresses herself in 
 the early part of the work. 
 
 B 3
 
 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 OF A 
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Birth of the Authoress A Convenient Register 
 Her Father's Family The Convent Interview 
 with her Brother A Benedictine Abbess The 
 Baronne de Montmorency The Refractory Nuns 
 Triumphant Her Companions Antiquarian Re- 
 searches A Hint for Political Economists Monu- 
 mental Records A Quasi Felony. 
 
 WERE I not reluctant to preface the recollec- 
 tions of an eventful and not unimportant 
 life by a somewhat absurd declaration, I 
 should commence by telling you that I do 
 not know when I was born ! and, improbable
 
 6 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 as the assertion seems, it is nevertheless per- 
 fectly true. 
 
 My mother died in giving me birth, when 
 my father was at the head of his regi- 
 ment of Royal-Comtois on the frontiers of 
 Germany: thus you may readily imagine 
 that in the midst of the distress which en- 
 sued at the Chateau de Montflaux there were 
 many other affairs to attend to besides that 
 of entering my name on the books of the 
 Parish vestry, where, forty years afterwards, 
 as it happened, there existed no longer a 
 register of any kind ! The reason was this, 
 the vicar had been in the habit of writing the 
 names of those he baptised on a loose sheet 
 and when any one applied to him for the 
 record of a birth, he sometimes gave the 
 original for the sake of saving trouble and 
 stamped paper. 
 
 I conclude that my mother's chaplain had 
 had the precaution to baptise me, but as he 
 died the following year, no one knew anything 
 about it ; consequently when I was sent at 
 the age of seven or eight to my aunt the
 
 PREXCH MARCHIONESS. 7 
 
 coadjutrice of the Convent of Cordylon, she 
 took care that the ceremony should be regu- 
 larly performed according to my station. It 
 had been considered proper that our cousin 
 the Princesse des Ursins should be my God- 
 mother, and that is the extent of my know- 
 ledge on the subject 
 
 I must not however omit to tell you that 
 the old Steward of our estates in Maine, died 
 of a stroke of paralysis a few days before my 
 birth ; also that my father, having been 
 detained prisoner during seventeen months 
 without receiving any tidings of his family, 
 friends, or men of business, only heard of the 
 death of my poor mother on his landing at 
 the Chateau de Versailles, where his uncle, 
 Marshal de Tesse, met him and quietly ad- 
 vised him to put himself into mourning ! 
 
 It was afterwards calculated, as nearly 
 as possible that I must have been born 
 either towards the latter part of the year 
 1699, or in the course of the following year, 
 or else, early in 1701 ; at all events it was a 
 matter of small importance in the eyes of
 
 8 RECOLLECTIONS OP A 
 
 my father, because, as he said to me, the 
 Notoriete publique and the possession d'etat 
 were quite sufficient ; for, after all, I was 
 but a daughter 1 
 
 Of my early childhood, all that I remem- 
 ber is, that I inhabited a tower in the Cha- 
 teau de Montflaux where I was exceedingly 
 cold in winter and exceedingly hot in sum- 
 mer. I had two female servants and a one- 
 eyed laquais to take charge of, and attend 
 on me, and such was my terror of that man 
 that he was forbidden to enter my apart- 
 ments. My father's Steward proposed sub- 
 stituting a mulatto in his place, and I really 
 believe he must have wished to throw me 
 into convulsions and kill me for the benefit 
 of my brother! Instead of that however, 
 (to show you that " I'homme propose et Dieu 
 dispose") I became myself in after times his 
 heiress. 
 
 At this period, my family consisted of my 
 father's only sister (the Nun of Cordylon) 
 and her four brothers. These were, the 
 Bishop of Mans, a worthy and pious prelate,
 
 FRENCH MARCHI05ES3. 9 
 
 who had refused to forsake the see of Mans 
 to become Archbishop and Archicomte of 
 Lyons, with "an income of more than a hun- 
 dred thousand crowns a year. 
 
 Next, the Commandeur*, who afterwards 
 became bailli de Froulay, a brave and dis- 
 tinguished naval officer. It was said that he 
 could never return to Malta under penalty 
 of being decapitated for having insulted the 
 Grand Master, Don Raymond de Perellos, by 
 snatching from him the keys of St. Sepulcre 
 which this high and mighty personage wore 
 suspended from his official girdle according 
 to custom. The successor of Don Raymond, 
 Don Manuel de Vilhena, also a Castilian, 
 followed up the insult with unappeased ven- 
 geance, even to the Court of France but 
 H. M. Christian Majesty left the Knights of 
 Malta to fight it out amongst themselves, and 
 would never proceed against the Comman- 
 deur de Froulay, v/ho, in spite of his offence, 
 was afterwards presented to one of the best 
 
 * Commandery of the Knights of Malta. 
 B 5
 
 10 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 livings of his order, and one of the wealthiest 
 attainable by those of his nation. 
 
 Then came the Abbe-Commendataire of 
 Notre Dame de Vallemonts, who was Almoner 
 to the King and nothing else. 
 
 Next to him, another Abbe de Froulay 
 Count de Lyons who died young, of whom I 
 know little, beyond that he could not endure 
 the fish called burt. He said one day to my 
 Grandmother in a tone of the utmost disgust 
 and aversion, 
 
 " I can only assure you that if there were 
 no living creatures in existence save myself 
 and a burt, the world would very soon come 
 to an end !" 
 
 My aunt the Coadjutrice was the youngest 
 of the family, and besides being the most 
 amiable and gifted of her sex, she was a 
 strict and pious Nun of the order of St. 
 Benoit. To continue, there was my father, 
 who thought of no one but my brother, the 
 Marquis de Montflaux, and lastly we had 
 the happiness of possessing the Dowager 
 Marchioness de Froulay, my grandfather's
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 11 
 
 second wife, of whom I shall often have oc- 
 casion to speak. She lived in Paris and I 
 only became acquainted with her at the time 
 of my marriage. 
 
 I need not here mention the elder branch 
 of our house, because M. le Marechal and 
 Mme. la Marechale de Tesse rarely quitted 
 Versailles, unless for the purpose of present- 
 ing themselves at the Court of Fontainebleau. 
 
 Without reckoning two Demoiselles de 
 Froulay, our Cousins d la mode de Bretagne? 
 who married (I never could tell why) two 
 Messieurs de Breteuil, and of whom I shall 
 take some future notice, we had also two 
 great-grand-uncles, high dignitaries of the 
 Church of Malta, who never left their lordly 
 livings. One of them though, grand-prior 
 of the order, died in Paris, at the age of 
 103 ; I am not sure that it was not 104, 
 for he also had no baptismal register ! It 
 was not even known whether he was born 
 at Marseilles or at^ Montgeron, near Paris ; 
 it was one or the other, but which, he nei* 
 ther knew nor cared !
 
 12 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 
 
 My ancestors used to exclaim 
 
 " The idea of the Notoriete publique and 
 the Possession d'etat ! what have we to da 
 with baptismal records 1 do they take us- 
 for peasants V 
 
 Between the age of seven and nine years 
 I was conveyed in a litter to the Abbey to 
 which my aunt now belonged, where at first 
 I felt rather out of my element, on account 
 of being unable to speak or understand any 
 language but the dialect of the province of 
 Maine. 
 
 I had then never seen my father, and the 
 first time my brother and I met he must 
 have been at least eighteen. To this day I 
 can neither imagine who had brought him 
 up, nor where he had lived during all those 
 years. 
 
 My father used to laugh and tell me, in 
 answer to my questioning, that I was very 
 inquisitive, and that it concerned no one but 
 the Bishop of Mans, under whose superin- 
 tendence the education of the young noble- 
 man had been perfected.
 
 PKEXCH MARCHIOXESS. 13 
 
 At last, my brother visited the Abbey of 
 Montivilliers, where I saw him arrive in 
 great state, with a numerous retinue and 
 superbly dressed. 
 
 He was a fine looking young man, with 
 much confidence of manner, and in feature 
 the very image of that handsome statue of 
 the Pastor de Couston on the Terrace de la 
 Seine near the entrance of the Tuileries. 
 One would have declared that the sculptor 
 had had the gift of foresight and really in- 
 tended it for him ! 
 
 And so I had actually a brother ! a hand- 
 some delightful brother ! oh ! the rapture of 
 seeing him ! I gazed upon him with my 
 eyes full of tears, and when he embraced 
 me I was indeed happy ! 
 
 I remember he asked me how old I was 
 and upon my answering, innocently, that I 
 did not know, he gravely told me that it 
 was wrong to laugh at an elder brother ! 
 
 The Marquis remained a week at the Ab- 
 bey to assist at the solemn installation of 
 my aunt, who had quitted her Convent at
 
 14 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 Cordylon, in the diocese of Bayeux, to 
 succeed the Princess Maria de Gonzague as 
 head of the high and influential Church of 
 Montivilliers. which reckons no less than 
 one hundred and twenty eight seignorial 
 steeples subject to her jurisdiction, and over 
 which she exercises her feudal power. 
 
 Next to the Princesse de Guemenee and 
 the Abbess of Frontevrauld, the Abbess of 
 Montivilliers is undoubtedly the greatest 
 lady in France. 
 
 Our uncle, the Bishop of Mans, came to 
 consecrate his sister, and I also performed a 
 part at the holy ceremony by carrying, on a 
 violet satin cushion, the missal of Madame. 
 
 Before we parted, my brother gave me a 
 proof his kind-heartedness, by assuring me, 
 with an air of mingled good -nature and 
 decision, that if I did not wish to become a 
 Benedictine, he would allow no one to com- 
 pel me. 
 
 " Alas !" was my answer ; " am I then 
 required to be a Bernardine 1 I should die 
 of grief! There is no Order equal to St-
 
 FEEJS T CH MARCHIONESS. 15, 
 
 Benoit ; and I never wish to join any society 
 but that of Citeaux." 
 
 " But that is not the point in question/' 
 he replied. " I thought perhaps you might 
 like just as well to be married." 
 
 This supposition on his part appeared to 
 me rather irrational, yet it was constantly 
 recurring to my mind perhaps for that 
 very reason. 
 
 I believe that some of my family, in the 
 life-time of my brother, desired nothing 
 better than that I should take the veil, but 
 my aunt the Abbess, and my uncle the 
 Bishop, were not people to sanction or 
 countenance any sort of compulsion in a 
 matter of conscience, particularly on that 
 subject. Monsieur du Mans always investi- 
 gated the motives of every novice about to 
 take the veil in the Convents within his 
 diocese, in order to prevent the admission 
 of poor young girls who might have been 
 intimidated by their families, or otherwise 
 improperly induced ; on one ocasion in par- 
 ticular, my aunt was instrumental in pre-
 
 . 16 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 vailing on a very pretty novice to quit the 
 cloister, and gave her, moreover, a portion 
 enabling her to marry a Chevau-Uger, be- 
 cause she knew they were devotedly at- 
 tached to each other. 
 
 She was one of our relations, Mademoi- 
 selle de Charette. The young officer and 
 his novice were a nephew and niece of the 
 Baronne de Montmorency, who had insisted 
 on condemning the poor girl to a cloister 
 and who finally disinherited her for marry- 
 ing her cousin, because he was only a younger 
 son of the De Clisson family. 
 
 This just and charitable Baroness was a 
 Jansenist,"* an agitator, and an intimate 
 friend of the famous Deacon Paris, whom 
 she assisted in all his pious undertakings, 
 and with whom she was constantly employed 
 in weaving coarse cloth and trimming 
 
 * A sect of the Roman Catholics in France who 
 followed the opinion of Jansenius, Bishop of Yprea 
 in 1635, in relation to grace and predestination. 
 
 (Note of Translator)
 
 FREJfCH MARCHIONESS. 17 
 
 wooden shoes with sheep's skin until her 
 hands were as rough, red, and horny, as 
 those of a mechanic. 
 
 Madame de Montivilliers had to examine 
 into the ecclesiastical department, as well as 
 to arrange the temporal affairs of this Con- 
 vent ; for it had been without an Abbess for 
 many years, owing to the refusal of the Nuns 
 to receive a certain Lady Hornet de Boisville 
 in that capacity. 
 
 There were several reasons for this ; the 
 principal one of which was, that the family 
 of this Hornet de Boisville had been too 
 recently ennobled. The Court was not in- 
 clined to exert its power against resistance 
 in a case of Conventual discipline, particu- 
 larly in opposition to the high-born Nuns, 
 whose privileges had been thus assailed ; 
 therefore they had recourse to the law. The 
 case was accordingly tried before the Parlia- 
 ment of Rouen ; and there the Crown lost 
 its suit against the Benedictines. 
 
 My aunt had also to repress several abuses 
 that had crept into the interior of the Con-
 
 18 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 vent, besides being obliged to maintain the in- 
 dependence of her Monastic authority, and 
 the feudal rights of her jurisdiction ; of which 
 duties she acquitted herself both diligently 
 and conscientiously. 
 
 As Madame de Montivilliers would not 
 undertake the fatigue and responsiblity of 
 " pensionnaires" she admitted none but her 
 relations into the Abbey ; thus, my only 
 companions were the two sisters of the Due 
 d'Harcourt, one of whom married Comte 
 Clery-Crequy, and the other became Visitan- 
 dine, at Caen. 
 
 The eldest, Mademoiselle de Beuvron, was 
 amiable and pretty ; and I only hope her 
 husband was not treating her as she deserved 
 when he caused her to be imprisoned by a 
 lettre de cachet. 
 
 The youngest, Mademoiselle de Chatelle- 
 rault, was not nearly so excellent, nor so 
 agreeable as her sister. When I heard, some 
 time afterwards, that she had died in the 
 odour of sanctity, I was surprised ; and I 
 had no inclination to ask for any relic of her!
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 19 
 
 Besides these young ladies, there was a 
 brood of demoiselles d'Houdetot at the 
 Abbey, who were always dressed in serge of 
 the same kind and colour, and walked in a 
 row, according to their height and age, like 
 the pipes of an organ ; but as they were 
 proud creatures, although educated there on 
 charity, and above all as they were stupid 
 to a degree, they were rarely admitted into 
 the little court of Madame, consequently 
 I knew little of them. 
 
 Mademoiselle de Chatellerault used to call 
 them " the works of La Mere Gigogne, in 
 seven Volumes I" and the Abbess heard that 
 they regularly spent three hours every day 
 in counting each other's freckles ! 
 
 My aunt was anxious that I should be 
 well instructed in religion, and she made 
 me study sacred and profane history with 
 great care, and common theology also' 
 thinking it might be useful at that time in 
 guarding me against the new errors of Jan- 
 senism. Geography I learnt of course, and 
 mythology, as well as French and foreign
 
 20 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 genealogies, heraldry, Italian, and the best 
 literature of the day. I wished to acquire 
 Latin, as my aunt and all the dignitaries 
 of her society understood it well, but not- 
 withstanding my reputation of being clever* 
 I must own I never got beyond a third-class 
 scholar. 
 
 My great ambition was to know how to 
 read old manuscripts ; I was in the habit of 
 spending two or three hours every day in a 
 large room in the Abbey where ancient 
 deeds were kept, and there I once decy- 
 phered two old Charters, by which means 
 a law-suit was gained by Mesdames de 
 Montivilliers which had been pending be- 
 tween them and the Bishop of Coutances for 
 upwards of 130 years. In short, I was 
 always poring over huge old books, and 
 when I could obtain nothing better, I read 
 dictionaries and Church Anthems. 
 
 I remember, in the Chapel where the 
 Abbesses were interred, there were two 
 magnificent lamps, one of which was of the 
 most beautiful gold workmanship in the
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 21 
 
 gothic style, enriched with precious stones 
 set in gold also. This was kept constantly 
 burning , whilst the other, in chased silver, 
 was rarely lighted. 
 
 As I never could rest without knowing, 
 or enquiring into the reason of everything, 
 I discovered that the gothic lamp was esta- 
 blished about the year 1200, and that having 
 been dotee (or endowed) in corn, the ex- 
 pence of keeping it burning all the year 
 round was thus defrayed ; whilst the other, 
 which had not been established until 1550, 
 could only be lighted during four months 
 out of the twelve on account of its having 
 been dotee en numeraire, or by a payment 
 of money. 
 
 Surely this fact might furnish material 
 for an excellent chapter on political econo- 
 my ! I always forgot to speak to M. Turgot 
 about it. 
 
 I was in the habit of frequently visiting this 
 sepulchral Chapel to pray and muse amongst 
 the tombs, monuments, and epitaphs of the 
 pious, and noble predecessors of my aunt.
 
 22 RECOLLECTIONS OP A 
 
 I often spent whole hours there, towards the 
 close of the day, without feeling either 
 afraid or uncomfortable, for it seemed to me 
 whilst I stood amongst those silent Abbesses 
 of Montivilliers, as though I were surrounded 
 by a family circle ; and here let me remark 
 that I had never any fear of the dead, pro- 
 vided they were only women, and provided 
 also, I had no cause to suspect them of any 
 want of piety during their lives. 
 
 That Catholics should put faith in the 
 visible apparition, or auricular communi- 
 cation of the dead, to whom God has given 
 permission to make themselves manifest in 
 order to obtain our prayers, is perfectly rea- 
 sonable, inasmuch as we believe in purgatory, 
 as also in the efficacy of indulgences springing 
 from the supererogatory merits of saints, and 
 the suffrages of the Universal Church ; but 
 for Protestants who believe in predestina- 
 tion either to salvation, or to the pains of 
 Hell, irrespectively of prayers and good 
 works for them to have belief in ghosts, 
 would appear a delusion, an absurdity 1 not-
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 23 
 
 withstanding which, I have remarked, that 
 they are much more possessed with ideas of 
 visions, revelations, ghosts and apparitions, 
 than we are. Since the prayers of their 
 co-religionists are of no avail to the dead 
 Protestants, why should living Protestants 
 suppose that God would allow their dead to 
 appear to those who never pray for them ? 
 God would not suspend the order of things 
 which he himself has established, except in 
 some particular instance of mercy for his 
 elect, therefore the Huguenots who think 
 they see visions, are more to blame than some 
 Catholics who are over-credulous, that is to 
 say, that they have dared to attribute to 
 God acts of puerility, and unreasonableness 
 of the most eccentric kind. God has created 
 us in his own image. Verily we do the like 
 by him in our hearts. 
 
 " You are a strange girl," said the Abbess 
 to me one day, " how can you remain so late 
 in our vaults without fear ?" 
 
 " But, aunt, why should I be afraid of 
 sainted spirits \ What could the Abbesses
 
 24 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 do to me unless indeed they gave me their 
 blessing 1 If there were Knights, or Esquires, 
 or Monks there, whom I had never seen or 
 known, then I should really be dreadfully 
 frightened ; but I never believed the story 
 the tall d'Houdetot told me, of having re- 
 ceived a violent blow from the crosier of " 
 
 " Of whom pray T 
 
 " Why of Madame de Gonzague 
 
 one day on approaching her Monument " 
 
 " That is another of Mademoiselle d'Hou- 
 detot's absurdities!" exclaimed my aunt, "as 
 it happens, that statue has no crosier in its 
 hand ! Possibly it was a breviary instead, 
 which it would have served Mile. d'Houdetot 
 perfectly right to have had thrown at her head ! 
 but observe I beg, the irreverence and want 
 of skill exhibited in her invention ! observe 
 also the utter falsehood! in future re- 
 member I forbid you to listen to her stories 
 or to hold any conversation with her ! " 
 
 In an isolated spot in the Chapel there 
 was a tomb of black marble, raised by three 
 steps, on which was a beautiful recumbent
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 25 
 
 figure (attributed in the obituary of the 
 convent to the famous sculptor Jean Gou- 
 geon) representing a young Abbess of Monti- 
 villiers, of the family of Montgomery. I 
 saw by her epitaph that she had died at the 
 age of nineteen that she had been " un- 
 happy, and persecuted by those who knew 
 the kindness of her heart, and whom she 
 had overwhelmed with favours ; PRAT FOR 
 HER ENEMIES" was the petition expressed in 
 the last line of the inscription. 
 
 Round the fourth finger of the right hand, 
 which hung drooping over the edge of the 
 monument, the sculptor had introduced, by 
 means of an incision in the marble, the 
 signet of an Abbess, which this young Nun 
 had worn in her lifetime, and in which, ac- 
 cording to the ritual, was set, a violet stone. 
 Her pectoral cross was similarly ornamented 
 and appeared as if falling from a violet rib- 
 bon, represented by an incrustation of thin 
 plates of feldspath, exquisitely inlaid.
 
 26 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 Her own golden crosier was held in the 
 uplifted hands of a veiled figure, behind and 
 above the head of the recumbent statue, 
 over which all the winding acanthus leaves, 
 carved roses, and gold settings, formed the 
 most grand yet graceful kind of canopy im- 
 aginable. 
 
 The face, hands, arms, and the uncovered 
 feet, were all of white marble, whilst the 
 long veil, choir robes, and ample sleeves were 
 in beautiful black marble ; I never saw dra- 
 peries so broadly and yet so lightly executed. 
 
 I remember also that her head rested on a 
 pillow of imperial (or violet coloured) por- 
 phyry, encircled by an ornamental binding, 
 chased and gilt, to imitate an arabesque 
 border, with gold tassels. Nothing, in fact, 
 could be more perfect both in composition 
 and execution than this beautiful monument 
 of the time ol the Valois. 
 
 For that statue, and the person whom it 
 represented, I had a stronger predilection
 
 FRENCH MARCHIOXE3S. 27 
 
 than for any of her entombed sisters, and 
 when there was no one to see me, I never 
 left the chapel without kissing her hand. 
 
 With the performance of this act, how- 
 ever, I always mingled many scruples of 
 conscience, for, when I did not consider my- 
 self in a " state of grace/' (though at that 
 period, Heaven be praised ! my offences could 
 have been but very venial faults !) I never 
 ventured to press my lips on the beautiful 
 marble hand, but confined myself to merely 
 kissing the ring of Madame, as the lay- 
 sisters and clercs-minores would have done. 
 
 One evening, I fancied I felt it move be- 
 neath my lips (the ring, not the hand 
 thank goodness !) and thinking it was not 
 sufficiently, secure I took hold of it by the 
 setting of the amethyst to satisfy myself. 
 
 In an instant the ring was off, and resting 
 in my hand ! 
 
 I magine what my feelings were, when I 
 then heard, on the same side of the chapel, 
 
 the sound of approaching feet ! 
 c 3
 
 28 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 Fortunately it was only an old Nun who 
 came slowly along to kneel and say a prayer 
 at the tomb of another Abbess, Madame de 
 Hautemer, (a high Norman family now ex- 
 tinct) who had died in the odour of sanctity ; 
 but to avoid an explanation which might 
 have involved me in some trouble, I carried 
 away the ring and have never restored it ! 
 
 My aunt, to whom I confessed my sin and 
 confided my reverence for the defunct, began 
 by insisting on the restitution of the signet, 
 telling me at the same time that it was a 
 kind of theft, but I reasoned so well on the 
 worship of relics which, after all, are but 
 fragments for distribution, bearing no more 
 personal reference to saints in Paradise than 
 any other piece of stone or metal in short 
 my logic was BO convincing and so affecting, 
 that Madame de Froulay ended by allowing 
 me to keep the ring of Madame de Montgo- 
 mery, on condition that it was replaced by 
 one exactly similar, the expence of which 
 (in order to act as uprightly as possible) was
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 29 
 
 to be defrayed from my own pocket money. 
 Notwithstanding, this indulgent and ex- 
 cellent aunt had the kindness so to increase 
 my little allowance that I neither felt the 
 loss myself, nor did my poor people suffer 
 by it. 
 
 When the new ring arrived from Rouen, 
 where it had been blessed by the Archbishop 
 at the request of Madame de Montivilliers 
 (in order that it might be the medium of 
 thoss indulgences in which the Church of 
 Rome believes,) she took care that it should 
 be affixed to the marble finger in her own 
 presence, and for ever, as she believed, and 
 we also. 
 
 The entrance grating of the chapel was 
 then closed and without any unnecessary or 
 imprudent explanation, my aunt desired me 
 to go there no more, for fear I should take 
 cold!
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Dispersion of the Holy Vessels The Authoress's 
 Pious Horror of Commerce- -The Norman Pea- 
 santry Sorcery and Suicide The Beggar Mde. 
 d'Houdetot-* ADiscovery Nocturnal Procession 
 Curiosity Punished The Trial An Unbroken 
 Spirit Mile, des Houlieres Mme. de Montes- 
 pan An Eccentric Character His objections to 
 Ladies' Maids The Wild Beast of G^vaudan A 
 Tenth Muse. 
 
 IN the treasury and sacristy of the Abbey 
 there were numbers of holy vases, reliquaries 
 dyptiques * and manuscripts of the middle 
 ages also a collection of wonderfully curi- 
 ous and valuable altar decorations. 
 
 On learning, with grief, that all these had 
 been annihilated in the time of the Revolu- 
 tion, I was surprised to find that the COUD try 
 
 * A Church Register.
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 31 
 
 people had taken the greatest care not to 
 injure or destroy the least thing ; after hav- 
 ing secured them from the revolutionary 
 authorities they had divided the treasures 
 amongst themselves ; they then made them 
 up in packages and sent them to the Spanish 
 and Portuguese Colonies, where the whole 
 cargo sold remarkably well. 
 
 In no other province of France was such 
 an arrangement ever thought of, and almost 
 every where else they destroyed all they 
 could find, so that neither proprietor nor 
 plunderer reaped any profit. 
 
 The English did precisely the same at the 
 period of their attempted religious reforma- 
 tion. With regard to images and different 
 objects of our worship, tiiey only destroyed 
 those which they could not remove ; the 
 rest were conveyed to France, Spain, Italy, 
 and other Catholic countries, where they 
 opened Bazaars for the sale of Crucifixes and 
 all sorts of Church ornaments ! They had 
 even the prudence to preserve and bring us
 
 32 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 all the " Dateries-bullaires," and " Authen- 
 tiqites" of Rome relating to relics, and sold 
 them to us in the diocese of Mans ! (Chalices 
 and monstrances * they were not allowed to 
 expose for sale nor the patena, and holy 
 pyxes so says my old Corroset.) 
 
 I never could endure in the Normans that 
 spirit of calculation and love of gain which 
 appears to influence their every action ! The 
 Normans, to the rest of the French, are ex- 
 actly what the English are to the rest of 
 Europe. They may say what they please of 
 the advantages of traffic and the benefit of 
 commerce, but in my opinion it comprises 
 all that is most sordid and despicable. 
 
 Pillage and destruction from violence and 
 blind ignorance I should prefer a hundred 
 times over, to sacrilege and preservation 
 from motives of trade and mercantile profit. 
 
 * Monstrance (Ostensior) the vessel in which the 
 Consecrated Wafer, or Host, is placed, while the 
 congregration is blessed with it. Pyx (Ciboire) is 
 the vessel in which the Wafer is kept before Con- 
 secration. (Translator's Note.)
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 33 
 
 I always told that good M. Turgot that 
 Joseph sold by his Brethren was the first 
 instance of a commercial transaction, and a 
 pattern for every one that succeeded it ! 
 
 I have never yet forgotten the cunning, 
 obstinate and subtle character of the pea- 
 sants of Normandy ; their very accent, so 
 drawling and so sly, seems to tell of their 
 quarrelsome, deceitful disposition. 
 
 They are governed by the strangest laws ! 
 If, for example, a peasant in the neighbour- 
 hood wishes to cheat you out of a hedge, he 
 will come in the ni^ht with two witnesses 
 
 vJ 
 
 (which are easily obtained in Normandy) 
 and cut a tree from it on your side of the 
 boundary. He will bury or carry it away, or 
 by some means, conceal it, and then go to 
 law with you, declaring, that the hedge is not 
 yours but his ! His witnesses will be ready 
 to swear that he cut, or caused to be cut, 
 wood from that hedge, at such and such a 
 time ; and if, either from negligence, or igno- 
 rance of the act, you have not taken him up for 
 c 5
 
 34 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 theft before the expiration of a year, you 
 may rest assured you will lose your cause, 
 and the hedge will be proved his property ! 
 
 With such laws, and in a rich and fertile 
 country, how can it be expected that the 
 peasants will become otherwise than thieves, 
 or at all events cheats 1 
 
 I remember, in one of my country walks 
 with Mesdemoisellesd'Harcourt telling a little 
 Norman girl, about six or seven years of age, 
 to go and look for a handkerchief that I had 
 forgotten, and left in her father's cottage. 
 He was a cattle-feeder, and we had been 
 there to drink milk. 
 
 " Mam'zelle," was the child's answer, " you 
 will find it difficult to prove you left it there 
 perhaps ?" 
 
 " I have witnesses !" I exclaimed, trium- 
 phantly ; but the little wretch was clever 
 enough to insinuate that possibly the testi- 
 mony of Mesdemoiselles d'Harcourt might 
 not hold good in law, because they did not 
 appear to befilles majeures, or of age I
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 35 
 
 Another time my aunt summoned before 
 iier an old shepherd whom every one accused 
 -of witchcraft, and in the present case, of 
 having bewitched all the sheep belonging to 
 a vassal of the Abbey. 
 
 " Unfortunate man," said my aunt, " is it 
 possible that you caD have so far forsaken 
 God, the angels, and the saints, as to com- 
 mit sorcery T 
 
 " Ma fine Madame P he replied, " I help, 
 myself on by it whenever I can !" 
 
 " Then," returned the Abbess, " I see 
 that if you are not in reality a sorcerer, it 
 is not for want of the will I I shall there- 
 fore condemn you, by virtue of my legal 
 jurisdiction, to eight days imprisonment ; if, 
 after that, you continue in your wickedness 
 I shall send you before the Parliament of 
 Rouen, where they sentence all who are 
 guilty of such mal-practices to be burnt * 
 moreover, to be burnt alive mark iny 
 words !" 
 
 ' You shall uot have the trouble," was
 
 36 RECOLLECTIONS Of A 
 
 his answer, '* I have lived mj time," and the 
 next morning we heard that he had strangled 
 himself in his cell. 
 
 We were in consequence obliged to draw 
 up a deposition, and for five days and nights 
 did that dreadful corpse remain in the prison 
 of the Abbey, to our infinite horror. 
 
 The case was not removed to the tribunal 
 of Rouen, of course, but according to the 
 sentence pronounced in the Abbatial Court, 
 the body was placed on a sort of hurdle 
 composed of leafless branches, side by side 
 with that of a dead dog. It was then drag- 
 ged by an ass, (the feet of the man being 
 tied to the tail of the animal) to the gibbet 
 belonging to the Abbey, under which, the 
 executioners' people buried it with that of 
 the dog. 
 
 Thus were suicides dealt with under the 
 jurisdiction of Montivilliers, but as there 
 existed about that time some slight feeling 
 of hostility against the exercise of ecclesias- 
 tical authority, the cavillers and sceptics of
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 37 
 
 Cotentin, insisted that the witch of Mon- 
 tivilliers, ought not to hare been dragged on 
 a hurdle as a suicide it was doing him an 
 injury, and an injustice they said, for un- 
 doubtedly it was the Devil who had wrung 
 his neck. 
 
 The vergers and porters, who lived out- 
 side the Convent walls, had given a poor 
 beggar permission to sleep every night under 
 an arch in the large high vault which led 
 into the first court of the Abbey. 
 
 This miserable man had neither arms nor 
 legs ; a poor unknown woman, young, and 
 almost pretty, came every morning, they 
 said, with a kind of wheel- barrow to fetch 
 him, and place him at the side of the high 
 road where he begged of the passers-by, 
 Bread, soup and cider, were given to him 
 from the Abbey, but he rarely consumed 
 them. 
 
 It happened that two murders had been 
 committed on that very high road ; the Ab-
 
 38 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 boss's Court had used every exertion to dis- 
 cover the perpetrator but in vain no trace 
 could be found, and consternation spread 
 far and wide ; monitory letters were issued, 
 processions took place, and public prayers 
 were demanded at the Abbey. 
 
 There are no cowards equal to the Nor- 
 man peasants when robbers are in question 
 nothing will ever induce them to expose 
 themselves in the pursuit of them, or to in- 
 cur their resentment. 
 
 " They are like a legion of devils ! we 
 dare not irritate them ; our orchards are in 
 the open air, and our families sleep out of 
 doors ;" was the burden of the peasant's 
 song, in answer to every summons from the 
 Seneschal of Monti villiers, and not one could 
 be prevailed on to keep watch or to act as 
 patrol during the night. 
 
 In the mean time my aunt received a 
 letter from the Procureur-general of Nor- 
 mandy* warning her to be on her guard,
 
 FREXCH MARCHIONESS. 39 
 
 and telling her of the discovery of a plot 
 directed against the treasure- chest in the 
 sacristy of the Convent. 
 
 L'intendant of Rouen sent a brigade of 
 mounted patrol for our protection, which 
 proved very unfortunate for Mademoiselle 
 d'Houdetot, for she fell desperately in love 
 with the brigadier, and was in consequence 
 sent home to her relations, where she re- 
 ceived, as we were afterwards told, some 
 " coups de crosse" in reality. 
 
 One autumn evening, after ten o'clock had 
 struck, this beggar without arms or legs, 
 whom I have mentioned to you, was still 
 absent from his archway, and it was con- 
 jectured that the woman who took charge of 
 him had neglected to bring him back to his 
 accustomed place. 
 
 The gate-keepers were good-natured 
 enough to wait for him until half-past ten, 
 upon which the sceur-celleriere sent for the 
 keys in order to carry them as usual to the
 
 40 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 Prioress, who always slept with them under 
 her pillow, 
 
 Instead, however, of the keys of the Abbey 
 which she expected, they b. ought her a 
 piece of startling intelligence. A rich and 
 able-bodied farmer had just been attacked on 
 the high road ; with his cudgel he had 
 felled one of the assassins, whom the mounted 
 patrol had now brought, with his accomplice, 
 to the gates of the court. 
 
 They demanded that the cells of the 
 prison should be opened for the admittance 
 of the two culprits, and they also asked per- 
 mission for the farmer to pass the remainder 
 of the night in the interior of the first court, 
 lest he should again fall into the hands of 
 the robbers. 
 
 The Prioress declared that it was too 
 late, so they then awoke the Abbess, who 
 immediately ordered all the gates specified 
 by the Brigadier, beyond the claustral limits, 
 to be opened, but the old Benedictine argued
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 41 
 
 so obstinately upon the " rules" and " sta- 
 tutes" that my aunt was obliged to go and 
 take possession of the keys herself, since the 
 old lady was determined not to give them 
 up. 
 
 As an Abbess of Monti villiers is not 
 strictly confined to the precincts of the 
 Nunnery, my aunt, who was the most per- 
 fectly charitable and courageous woman in 
 the world, considered it her duty to proceed 
 even as far as the first court, attended how- 
 ever by a suitable retinue. 
 
 She was preceded by a cross-bearer be- 
 tween two acolytes, each carrying a wax 
 taper ; twelve assistantes followed her with 
 lowered veils and hands crossed upon their 
 breasts ; and all the lay-sisters of the 
 convent in their large grey hoods were 
 grouped around their respective superiors, 
 bearing long, lighted torches in those beauti- 
 ful gothic lanterns of painted glass which are 
 used in night-processions round the cloisters,
 
 42 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 and on which are stained the Arras of the 
 Royal Abbeys. 
 
 In the first place Madame deMontivilliers 
 caused the prison gates to be oponed, which 
 no one but herself would have dared to have 
 done in defiance of the Prioress. She then 
 admitted the farmer into the court and had 
 cordials administered to him ; the surgeon 
 next examined the person who had been 
 wounded, and discovered him to be a man 
 in woman's clothes ; after which we were 
 told by the farmer that the other criminal 
 was no less than the wretched beggar who 
 had been nightly sheltered under the porch 
 of the Abbey, and who was then before our 
 eyes on a hand-barrow, waiting the time when 
 he should be thrown into the dungeon he so 
 well deserved. 
 
 His trunk was that of a giant deprived of 
 all limbs except a stump, the remains of an 
 arm ; and his head seemed to me enormous. 
 He was covered with wounds and cakes of
 
 FRENCH MARCIIIOKSS. 43 
 
 mud, with whicfr his ragged hair and beard 
 were also matted. The tatters that were on 
 him were soaked in the same ; and there, in 
 the midst of Nuns, and holy torches gleam- 
 ing through their ancient painted lanterns, 
 glared the eyes of this murderer ! eyes of a 
 greenish hue more sinister, more villauous 
 than could be imagined even in the most 
 frightful nightmare. 
 
 When all the arrangements for general 
 safety were completed with judgment, me- 
 thod, prudence, and presence of luind, 
 Madame de Montivilliers raised her veil, and 
 the whole assembly fell on their knees to 
 receive her blessing. 
 
 As I had introduced myself by stealth 
 that night amongst the Nuns in attendance 
 on Madame, I was made to do penance for 
 three days, that is 1 was banished from the 
 Abbatial to a distant cell, where my only 
 companion was a sceur econome, as deaf as 
 a post, whose whole and continual conversa- 
 tion, was upon the different modes of pre-
 
 44 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 serving eggs, and drying french-beans. Three 
 times four-and-twenty hours did I remain 
 without hearing any news of our robbers ! 
 and never was there a more ingenious pen- 
 ance devised for an impatient and inquisitive 
 little girl than this ! My aunt was exceed- 
 ingly diverted at having invented it. 
 
 In the recess where the cripple was in the 
 habit of sleeping, they discovered several 
 blades of knives and daggers, as well as a 
 rouleau of sixty louis d'or which he had 
 hidden beneath bundles of sticks. Amongst 
 his rags, a fillagree reliquary was found, be- 
 longing to Mademoiselle de Beuvron ; an 
 Agnus-Dei ; two wafers, and a pair of gold 
 scissars, with a great quantity of hair of 
 every possible shade and colour, which gave 
 rise to a suspicion that some person in the 
 interior of the Convent must have been in 
 league with him, for, since the arrival of 
 my aunt, all the Nuns, Novices, and pen- 
 sionaires had had their hair cut according to 
 certain regulations ; this was afterwards sold
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 45 
 
 by the lay-sisters at the fair at Guibray 
 for the benefit of the Brotherhood of St. 
 Rosaire : at all events we unanimously agreed 
 that he had procured it in order, by some 
 means or other, to bewitch us ! 
 
 The two wafers were immediately burnt 
 for fear they should have been consecrated, 
 thus securing them from all risk of profa- 
 nation. 
 
 The facts elicited by the trial were these ; 
 that at ten o'clock on the evening of the 
 fourth of November 1712, this beggar placed 
 under a tree by the side of the high road, 
 had, in piteous and imploring accents, begged 
 of the farmer who was returning from the 
 Fair at Caen ; that the cripple had more- 
 over particularly requested the farmer to 
 come close to him in order that the piece or 
 pieces of money which he might bestow 
 should fall into the hat at his feet. It was 
 discovered afterwards, (for it was scarcely 
 visible), that this beggar handled a long 
 pole, by means of what remained of his arm*
 
 46 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 and held it close to his body. At the top 
 of the pole was a heavy weight composed of 
 planks of wood, hidden in the branches of 
 the tree, and this he had brought down with 
 great violence on the head of the farmer. 
 At that moment the young man in woman's 
 clothes appeared, and began by stabbing the 
 farmer's horse in two places ; these blows 
 however were so well returned that the man 
 died before they reached the Abbey ; the 
 farmer then galloped on to Montivilliers to 
 summon the patrol, who placed the two as- 
 sassins on the same truck, and brought us 
 their precious prize in the middle of the 
 night ! as the Church published monitory 
 letters, the peasants deposed that they had 
 known of several horrible acts committed by 
 those two wretches, one of whom, it appeared, 
 was father to him who was disguised as a 
 woman. 
 
 The trial was removed to a higher court, 
 by which many cases of theft and murder 
 were discovered, and it ended by the cul-
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS, 47 
 
 prit being condemned to be broken on the 
 wheel ! 
 
 It was observed that this man had the 
 accent and expressions peculiar to Lorraine, 
 but as they could neither ascertain his name 
 nor his birthplace, he was executed on the 
 scene of his last crime. 
 
 Whilst undergoing his sentence at Monti- 
 villiers, he bit off the two first joints of the 
 executioner's finger, grinding them between 
 his teeth like a wild beast, and then swal- 
 lowing them. 
 
 We were told that he was so powerfully 
 made that the executioner had the greatest 
 difficulty in breaking his breast-bone, and 
 that to the last moment of his life, the 
 miserable sufferer abused the man whom he 
 had bitten, reproaching him at the same 
 time for his inexperience and want of skill, 
 declaring that it was not the first time he 
 had been broken alive on the wheel ! 
 
 All this time every inmate of the Abbey 
 was at prayers, imploring God's mercy on
 
 48 RECOLLECTIONS OP A 
 
 his soul ; and this was the last we heard on 
 the subject of the two criminals. 
 
 From these sad scenes of crime and pun- 
 ishment, our minds were agreeably diverted 
 by the arrival of Mademoiselle des Houlieres, 
 my aunt having offered her a home in the 
 Abbey, and prepared a commodious apart- 
 ment for her there. 
 
 She came to us, I remember, at a moment 
 when she was full of boundless admiration 
 and tenderness for Madame de Montespan, 
 having seen her expire a short time previ- 
 ously in a state of the most edifying repent- 
 ance and devotion. 
 
 I was utterly unconscious for my part, 
 that Mme. de Montespan, our relative, had 
 any particular sin to repent of ; and when 
 it appeared from the conversations of Mile. 
 Houlieres with my aunt, that our cousin was 
 mother to one of the King's sons, M. le Due 
 de Maine, it was beyond my comprehension ; 
 I saw clearly that I was to ask no questions, 
 for they touched on the subject as though
 
 FRENCH MABCniONESS. 49 
 
 they were treading on hot coals thus, my 
 vexation at being unable to solve the mys- 
 tery, was very great. 
 
 Mile, des Houlieres arrived, at Montivilliers, 
 from your province, where she had been 
 spending some time with the unhappy Chate- 
 laine de Canaples (wife of Adrian Hugues 
 de Crequy, Sire de Canaples, &c.), and as 
 she had witnessed all the eccentricities of 
 your poor uncle, she could hardly refrain 
 from talking of them before us. (How little 
 we then thought that I should marry a De 
 Crequy !) 
 
 Only imagine ; at the Chateau de Canaples, 
 regular hours for meals were prohibited ; 
 you might take breakfast, luncheon or re- 
 freshment whenever you pleased, (provided 
 you did not call it dinner or supper,) in a 
 sort of refectory where the side-board was 
 laid out, sometimes well, sometimes ill, with 
 otter pasties made at Wrolland, and Bear 
 hams from the possessions of M. de Cana- 
 ples in Canada. 
 
 He could not endure jack-spits he called
 
 50 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 them the invention of tradesmen and finan- 
 ciers, therefore all the meat in his house was 
 roasted after the fashion of the thirteenth 
 Century, i.e. by means of a revolving wheel 
 with open spokes, in which was imprisoned 
 a large dog, who struggled in it like a fury, 
 and always ended by going mad. 
 
 You have no idea of the consumption of 
 dogs that took place in that kitchen. 
 
 The poor Countess had no one to wait on 
 her but laquais or heiduques, (Hungarian foot 
 soldiers), consequently she was obliged to 
 dress and undress herself. 
 
 Her husband had dismissed all the women 
 servants, because he declared that it was 
 ladies' maids who gave the dogs fleas ! In 
 short there was no end to the account Mile, 
 des Houlieres gave of the whims of this 
 man. 
 
 It was during her stay at Canaples, that 
 the wild beast of Gevaudan, which had been 
 tracked in blood on its road to Marvejols, 
 and vainly pursued for four months, took up 
 its quarters in the old Cemetery of Freschin,
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 51 
 
 where it made the most disgusting havoc. 
 M. de Buffon, some time afterwards, came 
 to the conclusion that it was an Africaii 
 Hyaena, escaped from a travelling menagerie, 
 which was at Montpellier about that period, 
 but from the description of Mile, des Hou- 
 lieres, who had seen it, I am convinced it 
 must have been a lynx. 
 
 This horrible animal at last devoured the 
 two children of your uncle's huntsman, upon 
 which, the former determined to watch for 
 it in the Cemetery of Freschin, where the 
 creature took refuge every night, gaining en- 
 trance by springing over the walls. 
 
 It is well known that it was this very 
 Count de Canaples, who killed it with a 
 spit ! 
 
 He was anxious that Mile, des Houlieres, 
 who was the tenth Muse of her day, should 
 compose him a pastorale on the subject, 
 * and I also wish," said he "that it should 
 be to the air of 
 
 " Mon aimable boscagdre 
 Que faia-tu dans ces vallons ?"
 
 52 RECOLLFCTKttS OP A 
 
 Whereupon Mile, des Houlieres set herself 
 to write the following famous song, consist- 
 ing of two verses of eight syllables ! " When 
 you have repeated them over, and over again 
 to the end of each stanza," said she merrily, 
 fi you will be just as well pleased, and just 
 as far advanced as though the lines were 
 properly finished now listen, mes reverendes 
 meres !" 
 
 1 Elle a tant mang6 de monde 
 
 ' La bte du Gevaudan ! 
 
 ' Elle a tant mang de monde 
 
 ' La bete du Ge>audanJ 
 
 ' Elle a tant mange" de monde ! . 
 
 And then she recommenced, I know not how 
 many times, always to the same air of I'aim- 
 able boscagere, and until she chose to end 
 the song. (You will perhaps remember in 
 reading this, that Mile. Dupont your nurse 
 always sang this lament to you as a lullaby, 
 and sang it also in exactly the same manner.) 
 Know then, my child, that this popular 
 song was sister to the Nymphs of Thrace,
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 53 
 
 and the composition of a Daughter of 
 Memory ! 
 
 Mile, des Houlieres was good-humoured, 
 and candid enough to declare that these 
 two absurd lines had gained more public 
 approbation and success, than any of her 
 most witty, clever, or elaborate poetry.
 
 54 RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Practical jokes Fatal results Princesse de Conty 
 Affectionate Greeting A Scene Royal Privi- 
 leges Pilgrimage to St. Michael's Mount Dis- 
 graceful Cowardice of the English State Priaon 
 The English no Claims to Norman Names In- 
 famous Conduct of a Duke of Somerset. 
 
 Ay event took place about this period, not 
 far from Montivilliers, the recital of which 
 may perhaps be of service to you, if only to 
 warn you against certain amusements some- 
 times practised in the country amongst people 
 of bad taste I mean those kind of pastimes 
 which consist in playing tricks and indulging 
 in practical jokes. 
 
 Monsieur Martainville, a young lawyer of
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS, 55 
 
 the Judicial Court of Normandy, (newly 
 married) had assembled a party of about 
 twenty people to spend the vacation at his 
 chateau, and amongst the number were 
 several officers from the neighbouring garrison. 
 
 They bored holes in the walls and ceil- 
 ings, through which they passed packthread, 
 and fastened it to the curtains and counter- 
 panes ; they dug holes in the ground be- 
 neath the grass, in order that the cavaliers, 
 and their steeds should fall in headlong 
 (which must have been a very pleasant joke 
 for the cavaliers themselves !) They put 
 salt in your coffee, spice in your snuff, colo- 
 quintida juice on the edge of the drinking 
 cups, Burgundy pitch in your shirts, and 
 chopped horse-hair in your sheets ; I leave 
 you to guess if there were not frogs' and 
 crawfish in every bed in the castle ! 
 
 These jokes are essentially provincial, and 
 I am told they are the first ideas that enter 
 the heads of country wits ! It is impossible 
 to visit newly married people, without find- 
 ing oneself welcomed and assailed by all
 
 56 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 sorts of rude tricks and impertinent vul- 
 garities. 
 
 Le Martainville, and bis bride were ex- 
 pecting at this time, a visit from the widow 
 of Vintendant of Alen9on, Mme. Herault de 
 Sechelles, who was travelling by easy stages 
 to Bareges for the benefit of the waters, and 
 whom they had invited to rest a few days at 
 Martainville. 
 
 You must know that she was just reco- 
 vering from an inflammation on the chest : 
 that she had an income of sixty thousand 
 livres, and that the Martainvilles were her 
 principal heirs. She was also a very particu- 
 lar old lady, sensitive and nervous to a 
 degree; one of those genuine Intendantes, 
 in fact, who are worshipped by the society of 
 a small town, and who never take the trouble 
 even to pick up their cards at r&versis ; 
 whence it was, that the Cardinal de Fleury 
 used always to say to the young King, when 
 he played, and made the same omission from 
 thoughtlessness; "Madame I'intendante, it is 
 your turn to take up the cards."
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 57 
 
 " Let us beg of you" exclaimed the Mar- 
 tainvilles to all their flight of wild birds, " to 
 play no practical jokes during the stay of our 
 Aunt De Sechelles ! pray be very grave and 
 quiet, Messieurs, Mesdames, and do not 
 forget that we are her next heirs." 
 
 They had turned out, I know not what 
 presidente, to prepare the best room in the 
 house for the illustrious invalid. 
 
 In the apartment intended for her use 
 they placed all their most luxurious furni- 
 ture, all their choicest ornaments, and the 
 most beautiful Dresden china that they 
 possessed. 
 
 They also took care to have a fine pullet, 
 <m gros sel t stewed pigeons, a forge monde, 
 and quails, aux laitues, kept constantly hot 
 and ready-dressed, in a bain-marie ; 
 besides fresh eggs in cold water, and Alicant 
 wine in hot water in short, for upwards of 
 a week the kitchen and whole establishment 
 of the Martainvilles were under arms : and 
 still Madame I'intendante did not arrive.
 
 58 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 The family began to grow uneasy, and the 
 guests impatient. 
 
 I must tell you, that the master of the 
 chateau had never seen this aunt of his wife ; 
 and that since the age of five or six, the 
 latter had never seen her old relative, and 
 this fact appeared to them a capital oppor- 
 tunity for playing off a hoax. 
 
 Amongst the facetious circle, was a little 
 M. de Clermont d'Amboise (who, by the 
 way, would have been very happy, in after 
 times to have married me) but the gratitude I 
 owe him must not prevent my remarking to 
 you, that he was an odious little, yellow, 
 mean-looking man. 
 
 It was arranged that he should be dis- 
 guised as an old lady ; another officer was 
 to be dressed as a lady's maid, and every pre- 
 caution was taken to conceal their prepara- 
 tions. 
 
 The scheme, however, which ought only 
 to have been known to two or three people, 
 was betrayed by a lady's maid to a young
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 59 
 
 puppy of the party ; the consequence was, 
 ruse against ruse was devised, and it wasdeter- 
 mined that the impostors should be themselves 
 imposed upon ; in the mean time, whilst 
 the second party were lying in wait to 
 receive and torment the first after the most 
 approved fashion, the real intendante ar- 
 rived! whereupon, they rushed down upon 
 her like an avalanche, tore off her flounced 
 dress, her high collar, her cap, her wig, and 
 in short, ill treated her so cruelly that it is 
 shocking to think of ! 
 
 The unfortunate creature was so terrified 
 that she could neither scream nor utter a 
 syllable, but the few words she heard re- 
 vealed treachery without end ! 
 
 " Vilaine autruche ! ennuyeuse intendante ! 
 vielle tante a succession ! are you going to 
 drink the waters to keep your heirs longer in 
 suspense t you shall have mineral waters 
 here ! and shower-baths into the bargain !" 
 
 And forthwith pails of water were thrown 
 over her in the midst of the most fearful 
 tumult : after about a quarter of an hour of
 
 60 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 similar ill-usage (she, having fallen under 
 the attack, lay extended on the floor of the 
 hall) they observed that she gave no signs 
 of life lights were then brought, and in- 
 stead of recognising little De Clermont, they 
 discovered that the poor woman was nearly 
 dead ! 
 
 Every one now fled from the chateau ex- 
 cept her relations, who were in the greatest 
 despair, for she could not look on them 
 without exhibiting signs of the utmost terror 
 and dislike. 
 
 She died the third day, and as she had 
 made no will, her fortune of course descended 
 to the Martainvilles this compromised them 
 in the eyes of the public and their fellow- 
 lawyers to such a degree, that a legal in- 
 quiry into the shameful joke took place, arid 
 M. de Martainville found himself obliged in 
 the end, to retire from his profession. 
 
 As he was a man of the highest honour, 
 and his wife a model of delicacy and good 
 feeling, they both positively refused to 
 touch any of the property of Mme. de Sechelles,
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 61 
 
 but left it to the disposal of the collateral 
 branches of their family. 
 
 They sold, sometime afterwards, their 
 beautiful manor of Martainville, and even 
 changed their name, taking that of their 
 barony, of De Francheville, which the family 
 bear to this day. 
 
 Madame de Maintenon has said that good 
 taste always means good sense, and that is 
 the moral of my story. 
 
 About this period my aunt received a 
 visit which, although it might be considered 
 as an honour, was one with which she would 
 willingly have dispensed, because of the 
 irritable temper and habitual incivility of 
 the Princess de Oonty. 
 
 Her Serene Highness had been ordered sea 
 baths, in consequence of having been bitten 
 by one of her cats, which was suspected of 
 hydrophobia. 
 
 On her return to Versailles, she came to 
 spend the feast of Pentecost at Montivilliers ; 
 and I remember when she kissed me on the 
 forehead, that she said " Bon jour coitsine"
 
 62 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 with the same manner and tone of voice in 
 which any one else would have exclaimed 
 " The devil take you." 
 
 I recollect also the scene she made during 
 high mass, when the" officiating priest pre- 
 sented the chalice-cover for her to kiss 
 "Allans done !" she cried, rudely pushing 
 away the sacred cup which the priest held in 
 his hand, "attons done ! comme vous? comme 
 vous f" she repeated sharply, at which words 
 our poor chaplain stood perfectly aghast. 
 
 The Abbess, who was seated in great state 
 in her stall, was also visibly distressed, and 
 as the scene took place at the rails of the 
 altar, which separated the chancel of the 
 choir from the nuns, (by which means the 
 princess was on our side of the grating, and 
 the priest on the other) my aunt made me a 
 sign to approach and kneel at her feet, 
 and, after a hurried explanation, I was sent 
 to tell the priest in Latin, through the 
 grating, what my aunt had said to me, which 
 was, that princes and princesses of the blood 
 royal of St. Louis were privileged to kiss the
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 63 
 
 chalice-cover in the inside, like the priests, 
 and not on the outside like the faithful in 
 general. 
 
 Our poor almoner was so stupified by this 
 extraordinary interruption in the middle of 
 the holy service of the mass, that he could not 
 understand what I said, so I was obliged to 
 repeat it in French. He then presented the 
 inside of the chalice, and when it had been 
 hastily kissed by the old princess she turned 
 towards me and said aloud 
 
 " Herd, ma petite chattel" 
 
 If you can find any moral in this story, 
 so much the better ! 
 
 I had better take this opportunity of tell- 
 ing you of another privilege belonging to 
 their most Christian Majesties when they 
 receive the holy sacrament. 
 
 The officiating priest presents, on a large 
 patena, as many consecrated wafers as there 
 have been Kings of France since Clovis, and 
 the King selects, and points out one parti- 
 cular wafer by touching it with the tip of 
 his finger.
 
 64 RECOLLECTIONS OP A 
 
 Another custom from time immemorial is, 
 to burn fire only in the censer with which 
 homage is done to a King of France but to 
 the queen, or any other member of the royal 
 family, perfume is put in. 
 
 It appears that the former of these two 
 customs dates from the time of Louis le 
 Debonnaire, whom it was supposed was to 
 have been poisoned by a holy wafer ; as for 
 the latter, it is generally attributed to the 
 aversion Phillippe le Bel had to the smell 
 and smoke of incense, which always made 
 him faint 
 
 But you must now hear the account of our 
 pilgrimage to St. Michael's Mount. 
 
 The Abbess of Montivilliers, by virtue of 
 her office, had an obligation to fulfil in exe- 
 cution of a vow made by one of her prede- 
 cessors, Agnes of Normandy, aunt of Wil- 
 liam the Conqueror, and this consisted in 
 once visiting the Church of St. Michael's 
 Mount in periculo maris. 
 
 This Abbey of St. Michael was of the 
 same order, and congregation as that of Mon-
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 65 
 
 tivilliers. The two monasteries had each 
 been richly endowed by the ancestors of this 
 Princess Agnes, particularly by William 
 Longue-Epee, Duke of Normandy. 
 
 The Abbot of St. Michael, and the Abbess 
 of Montivilliers were perpetual proto-custodes 
 of the order of St. Michael, and to this day 
 they possess the same collars which their pre- 
 decessors received from Louis XI ; the Abbot, 
 moreover, is conseiller-ne to the Abbey of 
 Montivilliers, the latter having the arms of 
 that brotherhood quartered with her own, in 
 token of alliance, a circumstance which 
 gave rise to a constant series of innocent 
 jests, whilst at the same time, it made a sort 
 of fraternal union between the two Abbeys, 
 each being termed by the other " insigne et 
 venerable sceur" 
 
 An old coach was patched up for our 
 journey in which the defunct Abbess Madame 
 de Gonzague, had made the same pilgrimage, 
 which, in her case, lasted an immense time, 
 for she took advantage of the opportunity 
 of going on to Paris to see her aunt the Pala-
 
 66 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 tine,"* and to visit another aunt, the Queen 
 Dowager of Poland,! who lived at Cracow. 
 
 She had imagined that her journey to Po- 
 land would have been but an affair of twelve 
 or fifteen days, but as she would only sleep 
 in Benedictine Convents, and journeyed from 
 one to another starting from her own old 
 Gunnery of Notre Dame de Montinartre, she 
 was four months going, and four months 
 returning ! The best of it was, that nothing 
 would induce her to remain more than eight- 
 and-forty hours with her aunt when she got 
 there, because she said she had business of 
 importance at Montivilliers. 
 
 All these Princesses of the House of Nevers 
 were strange beings. 
 
 * Anne de Gonzague de Mantone de Montferrat de 
 Cleves et de Nevers, wife of Edward de Baviere, 
 Prince Palatin of the Rhine, died in 1684. She 
 was celebrated for her wit, and her intrigues in the 
 time of la Fronde. 
 
 t Louise-Marie de Gonzague, daughter of Charles 
 de Gonzague, Due de Nevers, and afterwards Due de 
 Mantone. She married in 1645 Ladislas Jagellon 
 King of Poland, and secondly in 1 649 King Jean- 
 Casimir Jagellon, Brother of her first husband.
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 67 
 
 She afterwards told her Nuns at Montivil- 
 liers, that whilst partaking of the hospitality 
 of a Convent in the Austrian States, she met 
 there two merry Princess-Abbesses, who took 
 her to the theatre, an act not prohibited in 
 that Country. It so happened that two Xor- 
 man Nuns who attended her as acolytes, and 
 who had never seen anything more imposing 
 than the High Altar on the occasion of the 
 F&e Dieu were so utterly overcome by their 
 feelings on witnessing the glory of the opera 
 that on entering the Box, they immediately 
 fell on their knees. 
 
 One of these good old ladies was still living 
 during my residence at Monti villiers. I re- 
 collect that she was of the House of Mathan, 
 one of the most ancient, and noble families 
 of the Duchy of Normandy. 
 
 Of all that she had seen in her travels, 
 that which had made the strongest impres- 
 sion on her was the fact of her having obser- 
 ved on the sign of an Inn, a coat of arms 
 very similar to her own ; in time she became 
 resigned to this indignity, but it was not
 
 68 RECOLLECTIONS Of A 
 
 without much difficulty that she was enabled 
 to lay at the foot of the cross, so great a 
 mortification. 
 
 On arriving at the lands of the Barony of 
 Genest, which belong to the Monks of St. 
 Michael, we found an envoy sent from these 
 reverend Fathers to wait upon their " insigne 
 et venerable sccur" of Monti villiers, to whom 
 he did not fail to point out certain forms > 
 which he considered indispensable to the re- 
 gularity of her pilgrimage. 
 
 From this point the Lady Abbess, and 
 her two assistantes were to preserve a rigid 
 silence (anything but agreeable to me), and 
 as soon as we reached the shore beyond a 
 little town called Pontorson, and at that 
 part of the coast nearest St. Michael's Mount, 
 my aunt alighted from her great coach in 
 order to finish the remainder of the journey 
 on foot. 
 
 We walked I think for nearly an hour over 
 a firm and sandy beach, covered with shells, 
 having on the right, the green and woody 
 coast of Normandy, on the left the sea of
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS, 69 
 
 Brittany, serene and blue as the sky ; and 
 before us, an immense pyramidal rock, the 
 base of which is surrounded by high em- 
 battled walls, with turrets abutting there- 
 from. 
 
 The flanks of the wall were studded with 
 little gothic edifices intermingled with pines, 
 fig-trees, ivy and oaks the summit is 
 crowned by a mass of buildings, strongly 
 built, and the whole surmounted by an im- 
 posing looking basilisk with its bell and 
 pointed belfry. 
 
 The pinnacle is so richly wrought, yet so 
 light withal, that it is matchless, and on the 
 apex stands the great gilt figure of the 
 Archangel Michael, which turns on a pivot 
 according to the direction of the wind. 
 
 They told us that the evolutions of this 
 figure, whose flaming sword seems to defy 
 the lightning and scatter > the thunderbolts, 
 were something extraordinary during the 
 storms of this tempestuous climate. They 
 next showed us a M.S. of a prophecy of the 
 Abbot Richard de Toustain who predicted
 
 70 RECOLLICTIONS OF A 
 
 the ruin of his Abbey when this same statue 
 should be overthrown.* 
 
 I left the good sisters to their litanies 
 whilst I picked up shells, and little stones 
 radiant with a thousand bright colours ; I 
 learnt, long after that, that these were frag- 
 ments of porphyry, jaspar, ^Egyptian ser- 
 pentine, agate, and other oriental materials 
 which had been deposited on these shores of 
 Armorica by the violence of the waves. 
 
 At the foot of the ramparts we were shown 
 two great cannons embedded in the sand, 
 formed of bars of iron bound round by iron 
 hoops ; these, it was said, had been dis- 
 gracefully abandoned by the English in their 
 last attempt upon St. Michael's Mount. 
 
 It is to be observed, to the honor of the 
 order of St. Benoit, that these enemies of 
 France have always failed in the same under- 
 taking, which is w easily explained by the 
 
 * This statue, which dated from the 12th Century 
 and which had been erected by the Abbe Rainulfe, 
 de Villedieu, was dashed to atoms by lightning in 
 the year 1788.
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 71 
 
 courage and fidelity of the besieged when 
 the strand is dry, for at high water it is ab- 
 solutely impossible to approach the Mount. 
 
 Not far from the convent where we lodged, 
 was the state prison, which contained only 
 two prisoners, one of whom was the Chevalier 
 d' 0., who was there on suspicion of having 
 killed his niece by stabbing her with a sword. 
 (He was said to be half mad, but the Prior 
 charitably remarked that, " that was unfair 
 towards the other half!}" 
 
 I think I recollect that the other captive 
 was a Canon of Bayeux, who could not keep 
 his hands from coining ; it was a sort of 
 mania a ruling passion with him. I re- 
 member too, quite well, the place where the 
 Dutch gazetier was confined, but I never 
 could understand how Mile, de Sillery * 
 could have the face to publish, forty years 
 afterwards, that it was an iron cage, and that 
 
 * The Comtesse de Genlis, then Mademoiselle de 
 Sillery.
 
 72 RECOLLECTIONS OP A 
 
 it had been destroyed by his pupil, the Due 
 de Chartres.f 
 
 It was a large room, of which the floor 
 above was supported by rafters, and I do 
 not see how the Due de Chartres could de- 
 stroy the room without bringing that floor 
 about his ears. It was quite right and 
 proper to sound the praises of a French 
 prince, but at the same time truth only 
 should be spoken. 
 
 Mile de Sillery had no scruples on this 
 score, because she had to do with readers 
 who had nothing to say in reply, from the 
 fact of people knowing no more of the 
 Abbey of St. Michael than they did of the 
 Church of Bron-les-Bourg at Bresse, or the 
 royal chateau of Chambord, which are 
 
 t Louis Philippe D'Orleans, eleventh of the name 
 Due D'Orleans, de Valois, de Chartres and de Mont 
 pensier, premier prince of the blood royal and Peer 
 of France. He was then Due de Chartres now 
 Lieutenant General of the Kingdom under the title 
 of King of the French. 28th September 1833. 
 (Note of the French Editor.)
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 73 
 
 nevertheless three of the greatest curiosities 
 in the kingdom ; St. Michael's Mount defies 
 description. 
 
 Twenty years afterwards I revisited it 
 with M. de Crequy your grandfather, when 
 he was Inspector General of the coasts of 
 Brittany and Normandy. 
 
 The Abbey Church is a fine edifice of the 
 12th century. The High Altar, which is 
 raised above the shrine of St. Paternus, 
 Bishop ol Avranches, is entirely covered with 
 massive silver, as well as the tabernacle and 
 steps, which support a fine enamelled figure 
 of the Destroying Angel. 
 
 Benvenuto Cellini never produced any- 
 thing more brilliant, or more poetically 
 fantastic and delicately chiselled than the 
 body of the dragon, which is uncoiled and 
 struggling beneath the feet of the arch- 
 angel. 
 
 At the spring of the roof about the choir, 
 you see emblazoned coats of arms, with the 
 names of those Norman gentlemen who 
 
 E
 
 74 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 fought with William the Conqueror in the 
 years 1066 and 1067. 
 
 Jt is easy to prove, that of these ancient 
 families, none now exist in England. They 
 made mysterious mention to us there, of a 
 singular piece of corruption attempted by a 
 Duke of Somerset, with the design of adding 
 to those names, that of Seymour or St. 
 Maur, which he asserted had been the 
 primitive patronymic of his family, and 
 which he wished to see figure amongst the 
 companions of William the Conqueror in 
 order to make good his pretensions. 
 
 Such a proposal as this was received as it 
 deserved to be, and you may imagine that 
 the expences incurred by the Seymours in 
 this embassy to St. Michael's Mount were not 
 inconsiderable. 
 
 None but the grandson of an upstartr 
 pedant, such as the preceptor of Edward the 
 Sixth, could imagine that a false inscription 
 could be bought for money, from a Catholic 
 clergy, from French gentlemen, in a church 
 and within the sanctuary of a Royal Abbey !
 
 FKEXCH MARCHIONESS. 75 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A lucky misfortune Death of the Authoress's 
 Brother Court mourning Journey to Paris 
 The Comte de Froulay Hotel de Breteuil Its 
 inmates Their peculiarities The lovely Emilie 
 Voltaire Nebuchadnezzar and Prince Cherry 
 The Commandeur Lady Laura de Breteuil A 
 rarity, a British Peeress with good manners ! 
 Aversion of the Authoress to the Prince of Orange 
 Another De Breteuil. 
 
 MISFORTUNES are not unfrequently produc- 
 tive of happiness in the end, for in conse- 
 quence of the loss of my brother, I married 
 M. de Crequy, with whom I passed thirty 
 years of cloudless and unequalled bliss. 
 Had I not become a great heiress, this mar- 
 E 3
 
 76 RECOLLKCTIONS OF A 
 
 riage would certainly never have taken 
 
 <J / 
 
 place, for all your paternal estates were 
 encumbered with mortgages ; your grand- 
 father would have been obliged to have 
 formed some mere mercenary match, a cir- 
 cumstance unprecedented in your family, 
 and the idea of which might probably have 
 determined him not to marry at all. 
 
 To return to my brother, he died of 
 sinall-pox whilst with the army of the 
 Marechal de Villars, where he commanded 
 my father's old regiment, the Royal Com- 
 tois. His death occurred I think, at the 
 commencement of the year 1713, and my 
 Aunt de Montivilliers, out of consideration 
 for my youth and knowing the love I bore 
 my brother, prepared me gradually for the 
 sad news. 
 
 She continued this caution for four or 
 five months, and the effect to me was as 
 though I were witnessing his slow decline 
 in some protracted illness ; I wore freep 
 mourning all the time without guessing at 
 the real state of the case, because at the
 
 FRENCH MARC!iIO-VSS. It 
 
 same period we were wearing parent's 
 mourning for the Marechale de Tesse, her 
 husband being- the head of our house. 
 
 All people of rank assume parent's 
 mourning on the death of the head of their 
 family, although they might have been but 
 20th cousins ; it was a kind of deference 
 which bore high testimony to the dignity 
 of descent, and a display of Salic law which 
 parvenus dared not ape. That is the rea- 
 son I have always regretted and disapproved 
 of this custom not being as general and as 
 rigorously observed as it used to be. 
 
 It is pretty well known that it was the 
 Duchesse de Berry, daughter of the Regent., 
 who shortened the duration of all possible 
 mournings to one half, but I can assure you 
 that with the exception of the Courtiers of 
 the Palais Royal, and the intimates of the 
 Luxembourg, where this unworthy princess 
 resided, no one would adopt so impertinent 
 an innovation ; it is also to be remarked, 
 that since her introduction amongst the 
 Colombats, neither the nobility of Artois
 
 78 RECOLLECTION'S OP A 
 
 of Britany, of Burgundy, Languedoc, nor 
 Dauphiny, have ever chosen to conform to 
 this whim of the Duchesse de Berry. 
 
 Towards the end of November 1713, my 
 aunt told me with an air of mystery which 
 set me thinking, that I was going to pass 
 the winter at Paris, but that I should re- 
 turn to the Abbey as soon as I had made 
 the acquaintance of my grand-mother de 
 Froulay. 
 
 I cried a great deal at the separation 
 that was the least of the evils and I set 
 off with my maid in a chaise de poste, 
 driven by two postillions which my father 
 had dispatched from Paris to bring me. We 
 arrived after six days travelling, and I 
 alighted at the Hotel de Froulay, Hue St. 
 Dominique, where I beheld my father for 
 the first time, but he received me as though 
 we had only parted the day before. 
 
 His personal appearance was most pre- 
 possessing, and his manners easy and 
 elegant ; he told me that he should take 
 me to live with my aunt, the Baronne de
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 79 
 
 Breteuil, because the Marquise de Froulay 
 my grand-mother, passed the greater part 
 of her time on the road between Paris and 
 Versailles ; he added that she would be 
 good enough to present me in certain houses, 
 and concluded by enjoining me to be most 
 careful how I behaved before the De Bre- 
 teuils, as the family were exceedingly par- 
 ticular on all points relating to etiquette. 
 
 My father ordered me a panade aux con- 
 fitures, and we then started for the Hotel 
 de Breteuil, which faced, and still faces, 
 the garden of the Tuileries, a situation 
 which struck me as so enchanting that I 
 burst out into exclamations of pleasure, 
 eliciting thereby the remark, that I was 
 " as natural as it was possible to be I" 
 
 This pretty house contains only, as you 
 know, from seven to eight rooms on each 
 floor, but they are all decorated and gilt 
 with wondrous richness ; and the apartments 
 allotted to the different members of the 
 Breteuil family in the following manner ; 
 
 The Marquise de Breteuil-Sainte-Croix
 
 80 RECOLLECTIONS OP A 
 
 occupied the ground floor, of which she re- 
 served two or three rooms for her mother, 
 the Marechale de Thomond, who was lady 
 in waiting to the Queen of England, and 
 eldest sister of the Marechale de Berwyck.* 
 The mother and daughter had magnificent 
 apartments in the new chateau of St. Ger- 
 mains ; and those which they had at the 
 Hotel de Breteuil were considered only as a 
 sort of roost for them in Paris. 
 
 My Aunt, the Baronne de Breteuil-Preuilly, 
 inhabited the first story of the Hotel with 
 her husband, whose library engrossed three 
 rooms ; the second was occupied only by the 
 
 * Wife of James Fitz-James, Duke of Berwick 
 who was a natural son of the Duke of York, after- 
 wards James the Second, by Arabella Churchill, 
 sister of the Duke of Marlborough, born 1670. He 
 became a French subject by naturalization. He had 
 commanded the armies of three of the most powerful 
 Monarchs of Europe, viz., the Kings of France, Spain, 
 and England ; and was invested with the first dig- 
 nities of those kingdoms. He was killed at the 
 siege of Phillipsbourg, in 1734. The Marshall had 
 married, first, a daughter of the house of Clanricarde, 
 of the house of Burke, in Ireland ; and, secondly, a 
 lady of the name of Bulkeley, by whom he had the 
 first Marshal Fitz-James. V-ide Biographic Unir 
 verselle. (Translator's
 
 FRENCH MARC I1IO.N ESS. 81 
 
 Countess dowager de Breteuil-Charmeuax, 
 my other aunt, who was eldest sister of the 
 Baronne, and a de Froulay by birth, as well 
 as her sister and myself. She would never 
 share her fine rooms with any one, and 
 thought the De Breteuils did not do half 
 
 enough for her. 
 
 The third floor was tenanted by the Com- 
 
 mandeur de Breteuil-Chantecler, and he re- 
 ceived the Bishop of Rennes (Messire Auguste 
 de Breteuil-Conty) whenever that worthy 
 prelate fancied he had business in Paris, 
 which was pretty often. 
 
 Last of all, the five children of my aunt 
 occupied the fourth story ; and my cousin, 
 Emilie, who became afterwards, Marquise du 
 Chatelet, was obliged to give up her room 
 facing the Tuileries, to me. They banished 
 her, in consequence, to three little rooms, 
 opening upon the cul-de-sac Dauphin, for 
 which (be it said, en oassant) she never 
 forgave me. 
 
 You perceive that I was now transplanted 
 into the midst of the de Breteuil family ; 
 E 5
 
 82 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 and whenever the advice of my father oc- 
 curred to my mind, I felt as if I were in a 
 bed of thorns : however, I so carefully ob- 
 served every point of etiquette, that, in time, 
 habit became a second nature to me, and I 
 insensibly acquired the good custom of never 
 making remarks about people of inferior 
 rank, without first looking round as one 
 would do in the presence of red-heads and 
 hunchbacks. 
 
 M. de Breteuil was an old robin who *poke 
 of nothing but his father, the Controller- 
 geneial, to whom one had always to say 
 " Monseigneur" this, and " Monseigneur" that, 
 in fact, he never opened his mouth but a 
 " Monseigneur" was sure to drop out of it. 
 
 The elder of my aunts, Marie Therese de 
 Froulay, was an arrogant old dowager, proud, 
 exacting, and self-sufficient, to a degree. 
 Although she affected sovereign contempt for 
 the pomp which surrounded us at the Hotel 
 de Breteuil, it did not prevent her from 
 never stirring except in a coach-and-six, 
 with a yeoman-pricker and four lacqueys in
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. S3 
 
 state liveries. The Baron used to say, that 
 the equipage of his sister-in-law was like a 
 pageant on a fete day ; nevertheless, to the 
 36000 frs., which he had to pay her for 
 dowry and jointure, he regularly added 
 24,000 as a present from himself. 
 
 She had seven lady's maids, of whom one 
 or two sat up with her all night, to protect 
 her from ghosts and apparitions ; of all the 
 cowards I ever knew she was certainly the 
 greatest. Nothing would induce her to re- 
 main alone in her sister's dressing room, 
 because there was a tiger's skin on the floor, 
 of which she stood in mortal terror. 
 
 All the said Countess de Breteuil ate for 
 breakfast and dinner was a panade d'orgeat, 
 and she never supped at home, consequently 
 she had more money than she knew what to 
 do with ; but this was no consolation to her 
 whilst she could not pay her Court at Ver- 
 sailles, and so, in the i^rty -third year of her 
 age she ended by marrying the old Marquis 
 de la Vieuville, thereby gaining the entree,
 
 84 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 as he had once been gentleman of the cham- 
 ber to'the late Queen Marie Therese. 
 
 This, she told me, decided her at once> 
 but I fancy the 100,000 ecus a year of the 
 old Marquis had also their weight in the 
 scale. She was, without exception, the 
 coldest-hearted, and the vainest woman I 
 ever encountered, without a single idea in 
 her whole head. 
 
 My cousin Einilie, (wiio was then called 
 Mile, de Preuilly, and not Mile, de Breteuil, 
 in order to distinguish her from her cousin- 
 gernian, since become Mme. de Clermout- 
 Tonnerre) was my junior by three or four 
 months, but she was at least five or six 
 inches taller than myself. Her friend Vol- 
 taire published her birth in 1706, to make 
 her out four years younger, but she was in 
 reality born on the seventeenth of December 
 1702, a fact easily proved by referring to 
 the vestry of St. Roch. 
 
 She was a Colossus iii every respect 
 wonderfully strong, and prodigiously awk- 
 ward. Her hands, and feet were of the most 
 formidable dimensions, and her skin like a
 
 FBE. V CH MARCHIONESS. 85 
 
 nutmeg-grater ; in short the lovely Erailie 
 was coarseness personified, and because Vol- 
 taire had assurance enough to speak of her 
 beauty, she thought it necessary to rave of 
 algebra, and geometry. 
 
 The most unbearable part of her charac- 
 ter was her pedantry, and she was always 
 pluming herself on her superiority of intel- 
 lect, whilst, on the contrary, her memory 
 was most defective, and her mind one 
 hodge-podge of confused ideas. 
 
 For instance, she asked us one night 
 with the half innocent, half thoughtful air 
 she generally assumed, " which we believed 
 most ? that Nebuchadnezzar was changed 
 into a bull, or that Prince Cherry was 
 metamorphosed into a bird T 
 
 " Neither one nor the other," answered 
 her mother. 
 
 " But I saw it in the bible." 
 
 " You never saw anything of the kind/' 
 said my aunt, who lost no opportunity of 
 openly reproving her ; "go and find the
 
 86 
 
 RECOLLECMO-XS OF A 
 
 bible where you made such interesting dis- 
 coveries." 
 
 " The same hour was the thing fulfilled 
 " upon Nebuchadnezzar, and he was driven 
 " from rnen, and did eat grass as oxen, and 
 " his body was wet with the dew of Hea- 
 " ven, till his hairs were grown like eagle's 
 " feathers, and his nails like bird's claws." 
 
 " Where do you read that he was changed 
 into a beast of the field ? He went mad 
 without doubt, but there is no mention of 
 his turning into a bull ; such an idea is 
 only worthy of a scullery-maid !" 
 
 That was the way the learned Emilie 
 studied, and such was the use she made 
 of her knowledge. 
 
 I can understand how Voltaire might 
 have had a fancy for passing her off as a 
 savante, but how M. Clairaut, who was a 
 grave and austere man, could be equally 
 complaisant, surpasses my comprehension. 
 
 We always thought she must have bribed 
 him, and we never heard of the genius and
 
 FKENCH MARCHIONESS. 87 
 
 profound learning of Madame du Chatelet 
 without bursting into fits of laughter, 
 which used greatlv to annov Voltaire. 
 
 o i/ i/ 
 
 Of the Comraandeur de Breteuil, and the 
 Bishop of Rennes, grand master of the royal 
 chapel, I shall have little to tell you, except 
 that the latter was nothing but a mitred 
 goose. It pleased the other to be always in a 
 state of profound melancholy, but he was 
 mild in his manners, and indulgent to his 
 dependants, excepting only his pursebearer, 
 whose duties he rigorously supervised. 
 
 He was a sort of enigma to his family, 
 and friends, and whenever he left the Hotel 
 de Breteuil on foot they ran to the windows 
 to see him pass by, for every one regarded 
 him with unaccountable curiosity, not un- 
 mixed with awe. 
 
 Tiie Commaiideur had a casket full of papers 
 which, on the eighteenth of April 1714, he 
 addressed to the King Louis the fourteenth ; 
 he accompanied the valet who had charge 
 of them, to Versailles, but returned to 
 Paris by himself, and on the twentieth of the
 
 88 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 same month was found dead in his bed. The 
 night before he had burnt a great number 
 of letters, as well as a portrait of Monsieur 
 the King's brother, the ashes of which were 
 found in his fire place. 
 
 When Madame (Henrietta of England) died, 
 rumours of all kinds were afloat ; much was 
 also said on the decease of the Commandeur 
 de Breteuil, and of the circumstances which 
 preceded it, but the probability is, he died 
 a natural death. 
 
 I remember Mme. de Maintenon wrote a 
 very pretty note on the melancholy occasion. 
 
 Lady Laura de Breteuil, otherwise called 
 the Marquise de Sainte Croix, was a British 
 peeress, perfectly polished in her manners, 
 although of high birth ; two things of rare 
 occurrence in that country ; but there was 
 something constrained about her, and she- 
 seemed always ill at ease, and continually 
 wishing to thrust upon us her pretensions 
 to the royal tribe of the O'Bryens, and the 
 Princes of Thomond, whose heiress she 
 was.
 
 FRENCH MARCHIOXESS. 89 
 
 Her father, who became a Marshal of 
 France, and her mother, who was control- 
 ler of the household to the English Court 
 at St. Germains, were two red-hot Jacobites, 
 and both remarkably bad-tempered emi- 
 grants. 
 
 Once in her life, the Marechale de Tho- 
 mond told me an amusing anecdote : At the 
 moment she was about to embark in the 
 suite of the unfortunate Queen of England, 
 (Marie de Modena), she promised an old 
 aunt whom she left in Ireland, a certain 
 Lady Stuart, to write her all the news 
 about her cousin, King James, and to de- 
 tail the manner in which the Stuarts were 
 received at Versailles. * 
 
 She however contented herself with 
 merely sending her a leaf out of her prayer 
 
 * Louis the Fourteenth did not fail to receive his 
 guests in a very splendid manner ; the Palace of 
 St. Germains, magnificently fitted up, was assigned 
 to James and his Queen, with 50,000 crowns by 
 way of outfit, and a further monthly allowance of 
 50,000 francs. Vide Close's Memoirs of Prince 
 Charles Stuart.
 
 90 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 book : containing the beginning of the 
 Psalm, " The Lord said unto my Lord, sit 
 thou on my right hand, until I make thine 
 enemies my footstool." 
 
 Nothing could be more applicable than 
 the beginning of this verse would to God 
 that its conclusion were realized as far as 
 that abominable stadtholder William were 
 concerned ! Ever since I was an infaut, I 
 have held him in execration, and felt for 
 him a patriotic hatred which will never be 
 effaced . 
 
 I know not whether I have dreamt it, 
 but my impression is, that the Marechal de 
 Thomond and his wife, who were then always 
 called Lord and Lady O'Bryen de Clare,* 
 had another daughter married to the Due 
 de Praslin. 
 
 Before I have done with the De Breteuils 
 and their relations, I have yet to tell you 
 
 * Lord Clare raised and commanded a regiment of 
 the Irish Brigade in the service of France. He fell 
 mortally wounded at the Battle of Ramillies. 
 (Translator's Note.) Vide, Military History of 
 the Irish Nation, by the late Mathew 0' Conor *((. 
 Dublin; 1845.
 
 FRSKCH MARCI1IOXESS. 91 
 
 of another member of the family, the most 
 sensible, the best informed, the most affection- 
 ate of them all. I never knew so loveable 
 and interesting a woman, and therefore I 
 have reserved her to the last, for a bonne- 
 louche as it were. 
 
 Gabrielle Anne de Froulay, Baroune de 
 Breteuil and de Preuilly was renowned for 
 her great beauty. She was one of those 
 striking sort of persons that one sees but 
 once, and that, with the impression that 
 one shall never see their like again. Her 
 complexion was perfectly extraordinary, so 
 natural and so fresh ; her hair was coal 
 black, her eyebrows dark, and her eyes the 
 deepest grey, but soft in expression and full 
 of intelligence. 
 
 She was naturally serious, and I do not 
 think any one ever saw her smile except out 
 of complaisance, or from tenderness when 
 she beheld her children, who were the sweet- 
 est creatures possible, (always excepting the 
 awkward Emilie). 
 
 My dear good aunt was very superstitious
 
 92 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 on the score of pressentimens, and when her 
 children were the object of them, any op- 
 position to the steps which she might think 
 it necessary, in consequence, to take, would 
 excite her anger until, mild and submissive 
 as she generally was, she would denounce 
 her husband as the incarnation of all that 
 was despotic. 
 
 " Do you think, sir, that the mother of 
 your children has less natural instinct and 
 foresight than the mother of your chickens \ 
 is it necessary for you to have spied the 
 hawk before the hen is permitted to alarm 
 herself about the safety of her brood 1" 
 
 The earnestness of her manner if not the 
 justice of the comparison, used to act like 
 magic, and her husband would reply in the 
 most resigned manner, 
 
 " Pray go, madame, go and establish your- 
 self close to the college of La Fleche, since 
 you have been warned in a dream that your 
 son is about to be seized with convulsions/' 
 
 For this once, however, my aunt had 
 made a good guess, and eight days after-
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 93 
 
 wards we saw her return with her second 
 son, whom she had snatched from college, 
 and from the jaws of death, by making him 
 swallow draughts of lettuce juice, the first 
 time such a remedy was ever heard of for 
 convulsions. 
 
 The little cousin of whom I am now 
 speaking, was the father of the Baron de 
 Breteuil, the present Home Minister. His 
 only daughter married the Comte Goyon de 
 Matlgnori, and the issue of their marriage 
 was also an only daughter, married to the 
 eldest son of the Due de Montmorency. 
 
 Should we have the misfortune to lose you, 
 Madame de Montmorency will become my 
 heiress, a piece of good fortune to which I 
 do not devoutly desire she should attain !'" 
 
 * The grandson and the son of the Author died 
 before the Baron de Breteuil, the grandfather of 
 Madame la Duchesse de Montmorency, who conse- 
 quently, in the year 1833 inherited all the posses- 
 sions of Madame de Cre'quy, in which year occurred 
 also, the death of Madame de Matignon, her 
 mother. .(Note of French Editor.)
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Useful Manual ! M. de Fontenelle Amusing scene 
 at La Fontaine's death Marquis de Dangeau 
 Duke de St. Simon Jean Baptiste Rousseau 
 Milord George Keith D'Athry, Marischal of 
 Scotland Confessions The Dowager Marquise 
 de Froulay MarSchal de Tess6 St. Cyr Louis 
 the Fourteenth Madame de Maintenon The 
 Chapel Messieurs les Anglais no right to " God 
 save the King !" 
 
 MY aunt found me tolerably well-informed, 
 but her experience taught her, that life in a 
 Convent was scarcely the school for the 
 world. 
 
 You will see that Madame de Breteuil 
 was a most scientifically-polished person ;
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 95 
 
 much to my surprise, for she only quitted 
 the Convent of St. Madeleine-en-Dunois to 
 marry a husband whose rank and profes- 
 sion did not admit of his breathing the 
 courtly air of Versailles. 
 
 She began by making me read " La Civi- 
 lite puerile et honnete," a book published 
 years ago at Poitiers, and full of fooleries. 
 
 For instance, it enjoined one to be care- 
 ful not to spit in one's neighbour's pocket ;' 
 that at dinner it is not correct to blow one's 
 IIOSP on the table napkin ; neither ought 
 the hair to be combed in church, but above 
 all, one was to guard against making the 
 sign of the cross behind the back, because 
 it was an act of incivility to the Holy 
 Sacrament! " You must know," said she, 
 " that the dandies of the time of the late 
 King Louis XIII, wore their hair long, and 
 were in the habit of carrying combs in their 
 pockets, a custom which old people have not 
 yet abandoned, and as to using table-napkins 
 as pocket-handkerchiefs, it is much to be
 
 96 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 wished that certain provincial gentlemen, 
 beginning with the Count and Chevalier de 
 Montesquiou would take this advice into 
 consideration, for he does not even spare the 
 table cloth !" 
 
 In other respects her instructions were 
 perfectly devoid of frivolity, and without 
 any pretension to pedantry, consequently I 
 listened to her with pleasure and confidence. 
 
 I have now survived this wise and excel- 
 lent woman seventy-five years, and never 
 have I had reason to alter my opinion of 
 anything she taught rae. 
 
 The domestic circle at the Hotel deBreteuil, 
 comprised at the utmost, twenty intimates, 
 who had covers laid for them at the supper 
 table every day according to the fashion of 
 the times, and the hospitality of that rich 
 and liberal house. 
 
 To give you a complete idea of the extent 
 of the establishment, it is sufficient to men- 
 tion that in Paris alone, my aunt and uncle 
 had forty-four servants. Monsieur de Fonte-
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 97 
 
 nelle* used to sup there regularly every 
 Thursday ; he was then about forty-five 
 years of age but no one would have taken 
 him for more than six-and-thirty. He was 
 a handsome man of five*feet eight, with fine 
 regular features ; his address pleasing, and 
 his manners gentle and agreeable. He had 
 withal, a gay and open expression of counte- 
 nance, and though he had contracted a habit 
 of stooping, still was he most graceful in all 
 his movements ; in fact he was a person 
 quite out of the common way. 
 
 Fontenelle was benevolence and charity 
 ifself ; he gave away about a quarter of his 
 income every year to the poor of the parish, 
 ind I cannot understand how he could ever 
 have been accused of egotism and want of 
 ieeling. 
 
 * Bernard le Borier, Ecuyer, Sieur de Fontenelle, 
 perpetual Secretary of the Academic Royale des Sci- 
 ences, died in Paris in 1757 aged one hundred all but 
 three months. He was the nephew of Pierre Cor- 
 neille, and distantly related to Mile. Scudery. (Note 
 by the Author.)
 
 98 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 I have heard him speak of that ridiculous 
 story of the asparagus dressed in oil* but 
 as having happened to some doctor of the 
 Sorbonne, whilst Voltaire, forty or fifty years 
 afterwards, was spiteful enough to republish 
 it, making Fontenelle the hero. 
 
 " How can they accuse you of want of 
 feeling my dear and good Fontenelle ?" said 
 my aunt one day. 
 
 * Fontenelle, it seems, had a great liking for this 
 vegetable, and preferred it dressed with oil. One 
 day a certain bon-vivant Abbe with whom he was 
 extremely intimate, came unexpectedly to dinner ; 
 the Abbi was very fond of asparagus also, but liked 
 his dressed with butter. Fontenelle said that for 
 such a friend there was no sacrifice of which he did 
 not feel himself capable, and that he should have 
 half the dish of asparagus which he had just ordered 
 for himself, and that half, moreover, should be done 
 with butter. While they were conversing away 
 very lovingly and waiting for dinner, the poor Abbe 
 falls suddenly down in a fit of apoplexy, upon which 
 Fontenelle instantly springs up, scampers down to 
 the kitchen with incredible agility, and bawls out 
 to his cook with eagerness : " The whole with oil ! 
 the whole with oil, as at first !" Review of Gri- 
 mms Correspondence. Edinburgh Review for Sep- 
 tember 1814.
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 99 
 
 " Because," he replied with a smile, " I 
 am not yet dead !" 
 
 He held strawberries in high estimation, 
 and had great reliance on their sanatory 
 qualities. He was attacked regularly every 
 year of his life with fever, " but" he would 
 exclaim " if I can only last till the straw- 
 berries come in!" This he was fortunate 
 enough to do ninety-nine times, and he at- 
 tributed his longevity entirely to the use of 
 strawberries ! 
 
 I could tell you a thousand amusing stories 
 of Fonteneile, but they have been already 
 related, and I shall always endeavour to 
 write only of what you could not read else- 
 where. 
 
 I will merely relate to you one more 
 anecdote, often repeated by Voltaire, and 
 also told by Fonteneile, (an authority which 
 has a different kind of weight with me to 
 Voltaire's) ; La Fontaine was very ill, and 
 had just received the last sacraments ; he 
 asked his old friend, Madame Cornuel (of 
 whom Madame de Sevigne speaks) if it 
 F 3
 
 100 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 would not be quite the proper thing for him 
 to be carried on a truck in his shirt and 
 barefooted, with a rope round his neck, to 
 the gate of Notre-Dame, where he would be 
 supposed to be making an " amende honor- 
 able" for all he had written and said ! 
 
 " Only," he continued, " you must find 
 some one to hold up my taper, for I should 
 never have strength to carry it, and 1 should 
 much like to employ one of those smart 
 lacqueys of our neighbour the President de 
 Nicolay." 
 
 " Hold your tongue and die quietly, my 
 good man," was all the answer he got from 
 old Cornuel ; " you have always been a 
 great goose." 
 
 " That is very true," replied La Fontaine, 
 " and it is very lucky for me, as I hope 
 that God will take pity on me on that ac- 
 count ; mind you tell every one that I sin- 
 ned from folly and not wickedness that 
 would sound much better ; would it not T 
 
 " I wish you would let me alone, and die 
 in peace !" exclaimed the other.
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 101 
 
 The Chevalier de la Sabliere told Fonte- 
 nelle, that La Fontaine's confessor and all 
 who were present, ended by laughing out- 
 right, and the last words of the good man 
 were these : " Je vois bien queje suis devenu 
 plus bete que le bon Dieu riest saint, et c'est 
 beaucoup dire en verite !" 
 
 The Marquis de Dangeau used to come 
 and sleep sometimes at the Hotel de Breteuil, 
 but he was always wrapt in such impenetrable 
 folds of decorum, that I am really at a loss 
 what to tell you about him, except that, 
 to me, he was the most annoying person in 
 the world, and I was always in alarm lest I 
 should say or do something of which he 
 would disapprove. 
 
 It was said at the time that he was 
 writing his memoirs, and when at last they 
 appeared, they did not strike me as being 
 either more interesting or less insignificant 
 than their author. 
 
 The old Due de St. Simon, who used only to 
 pay us visits, and never supped from home 
 lest he should have to entertain in return,
 
 102 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 was also fabricating memoirs. I say fabri- 
 cating, because I have heard him protest in 
 my presence, more than a hundred times, 
 that none of the circumstances therein de- 
 tailed, ever happened to him ! You may 
 therefore judge of the estimation in which 
 I held his veracity. He was a miserable, 
 sick creature, dried up with envy, devoured 
 by vain ambition and always harping upon 
 his ducal coronet. Jean Baptiste Rousseau 
 used to compare his eyes to " two coals set 
 in an omelette/' and trifling as the simile 
 seems, it is not the less true. 
 
 Jean Baptiste Rousseau, who had the face 
 of a Silenus, and the figure of a rustic, 
 came sometimes to dine at the Hotel de 
 Breteuil, but not to sup, as that would not 
 have been de convenance. We were en- 
 chanted with his odes, and my uncle allowed 
 him a pension of 600 livres, which our 
 cousins continued to him in Flanders after 
 his exile and lawsuit, in which Saurin be- 
 haved most unworthily.
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 103 
 
 Milord Marechal, * why should I not speak 
 to you of Milord Marechal ? since every 
 one who tells you of the affection with 
 which he inspired me, will also be obliged 
 to allow that we conducted ourselves with 
 perfect propriety towards each other. Milord 
 Marechal (I shall never be able to write 
 that name without emotion !) was, when I 
 
 George, Ninth, Earl of Keith ; he was at- 
 tainted for the part he took in the Rebellion of 
 1715, and obliged to leave his native country ; the 
 Author of these Memoirs has not overdrawn his 
 picture, all cotemporary writers agreeing that he 
 was a most interesting character. Rousseau, in his 
 "Confessions," (Vol. in, Livre xii.^ speaks of him in 
 the most affectionate terms. Lord Mahon, in his 
 " History of Europe," publishes a curious letter 
 from Lord Keith to Prince James, reproaching the 
 Pretender, apparently, with justice. He writes, 
 
 " My health and my heart are broke by age and 
 " crosses. I resolve to retire from the world and 
 "from all affairs? 
 
 He withdrew to the Court of Prussia, and was 
 honoured with the friendship of the King, who con- 
 ferred upon him the insignia of the Black Eagle, 
 sent him Ambassador to France, and afterwards ap- 
 pointed him Governor of Neufchatel. He was 
 descended from that Sir John Keith (third son of 
 William Earl Marischal) who preserved the Regalia 
 of Scotland from falling into the hands of Oliver
 
 104 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 saw him at my uncle's, a handsome Scotch- 
 man, twenty-four years of age, intelligent, 
 sensible and grave. He came from England 
 on a mission from the English Jacobites to 
 the refugees, and he had political audiences 
 at the Hotel de Breteuil, where he used to 
 meet his uncles the Dukes of Perth * and 
 Melfort. 
 
 If you wish to have an idea of his per- 
 sonal appearance, you must look at that 
 
 Cromwell by depositing it underground in the 
 church of King-Kenneth, (commonly called Kineff) 
 for which services, and his great loyalty to King 
 Charles the Second, Sir John was, at the Restora- 
 tion, created Knight Marischal. An ancestor of 
 this family had, for his services, been created Heri- 
 table Great Marischal of Scotland by Malcolm the 
 Second. In 1380, Sir Edward Keith, the Sixteenth 
 Marischal, was created Lord Keith, and in 1455, 
 William, the Fourth Lord was by James the Second, 
 created Earl Marischal. (Translators Note.) 
 
 * The Duke of Perth was a son of the Lord John. 
 Drummond who played so conspicuous a part in the 
 insurrection of 1715. He is described as being of 
 a " very delicate constitution, but bold as a lion in 
 the field." He made his escape after the Battle of 
 Culloden, but died before he came in sight of the 
 French coast. He was the Sixth Earl and the Third 
 jjominal Duke of his family. (Translator's Note.)
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 105 
 
 charming portrait of the handsome Caylus, 
 the favorite of Henry the third, which you 
 inherited from the Gonnetable de Lesdigui- 
 eres , and which is among our pictures in a 
 gilt frame encrusted with amethysts. (Be 
 it said in speaking of this picture, that Henry 
 the third had forgotten it in his oratory at 
 Chenonceaux, and it was Queen Louise de 
 Vaudemont, who presented it to the Con- 
 vstable.) 
 
 The young Lord fell in love with your 
 grandmother,, then a young girl, and not de- 
 void, (according to other people) of attrac- 
 tions. We began by looking at one another 
 first with curiosity, then with interest, and 
 at last with emotion. Next, we used to 
 listen to the conversation of each other 
 without being able to answer a word, and 
 then neither could speak at all in the pre- 
 sence of the other owing to our voices at 
 first trembling and then failing us altogether ; 
 so to make a long story short, he one day 
 said to me, apropos to nothing, " If I dared
 
 106 RECOLLECTIONS OP A 
 
 to fall in love with you, would you ever for- 
 give me T 
 
 " I should be enchanted I" said I, and we 
 relapsed into our usual formal silence, be- 
 stowing as many looks as we could upon one 
 another and our eyes beaming with radiant 
 happiness. 
 
 In this manner did we spend six weeks or 
 two months, looking without speaking, each 
 day bringing increased delight. My aunt 
 permitted him to give me some lessons in 
 Spanish, not English, for in fact, at that 
 time no one thought of learning English, nor 
 any other northern language. The people 
 of the north learnt French, but the French 
 learnt only Italian or Castillian. 
 
 Milord Georges spoke Spanish and Italian 
 quite as well as French, that is to say, 
 perfectly. He came once, and sat upon a 
 bench behind mine, for a young lady in my 
 day was never installed in a chair with a 
 back, much less in an arm chair. As the 
 lessons which he gave me never took place
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 107 
 
 except in the Hotel de Breteuil, under the 
 eye of my aunt, and in the presence of 
 numerous spectators, there was no reason 
 why my cousin Emilie should, take oifenee; 
 and yet this was always the case ! 
 
 Milord Georges had translated into French 
 for me (after the English fashion, in blank 
 verse, that is to say, without rhyme, but not 
 without reason) a charming stanza that his 
 father had written for him, and which I often 
 in my thoughts apply to you ; 
 
 " When first thy wak'ning eyes beheld the light 
 Thou wert in tears, whilst those around thee s:niled, 
 
 So live, that when thy spirit takes its flight 
 Thine be the smiles and theirs the tears my child !"* 
 
 He related to me one evening with great 
 glee, the adventures of some Dutch heiress, 
 
 " Quand vos yeux en naissant, s'ouvraient a la. 
 
 lumiere 
 " Chacun vous souriait, mon fils, et nous 
 
 pleuriez 
 " Vivez si bien, qu'un jour a votre dernidre 
 
 heure 
 " Chacun verse des pleura et qu'on vous voie 
 
 sourire."
 
 108 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 who had eloped with an English Orange man ; 
 her parents had put in the London papers, 
 that if she would not return, at least to send 
 back the key of the tea-caddy, which she 
 had carried away with her ! 
 
 This set me off laughing, upon which Mile, 
 de Preuilly fancied we were making game 
 of her, when I am sure she was not even in 
 our thoughts. Emilie uttered thereon some 
 remarks and this decided the young lord to 
 make a proposal of marriage for me, which was 
 immediately submitted to my father, my grand- 
 mother (of whom I have lately spoken), and 
 my Aunt De Breteuil-Charmeaux, the coward, 
 who shrieked at the idea, because the 
 Marischal of Scotland must be a Protestant ! 
 
 I had never thought of that ! The dis- 
 covery burst upon me so suddenly and so 
 grievously, that I cannot even now dwell on 
 it without shuddering, and without having a 
 bitter recollection of what I suffered. We 
 ascertained, however, that he was a Calva- 
 nist, and he said so himself ; and heaven is 
 my witness, that from that moment I did
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 109 
 
 not hesitate. 1 refused the hand of milord 
 Marechai ; and two days afterwards he set 
 off to return to his own country; from 
 whence he wrote to my aunt to say, that 
 jriefand despair would lead him to acts 
 which would bring him to the scaffold. 
 
 There, my dear child, is the history of 
 the only predilection I ever had in my life 
 for any one except M. de Crequy, to whom I 
 was honest enough to talk of it without 
 reserve. 
 
 When we met again after a lapse of many 
 years, we made a discovery which equally 
 surprised and affected us both. We had 
 never ceased thinking of one another ; our 
 hearts had been so devotedly attached, that 
 they remained replete with sentiments which 
 at first made us melancholy, but were after- 
 wards a source of the highest gratification. 
 
 There is a world of difference between the 
 love which has endured throughout a life- 
 time, and that which burnt fiercely in our 
 youth, and there paused. In the latter case, 
 Time has not laid bare defects, nor taught
 
 110 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 the bitter lesson of mutual failings ; a de- 
 lusion has existed on both sides which ex- 
 perience has not destroyed, and delighting 
 in the idea of each other's perfections, that 
 thought has seemed to smile on both with 
 unspeakable sweetness till, when we meet in 
 a grey old age, feelings so tender, so pure 
 and so solemn arise, that they can be com- 
 pared to no other sentiments or impressions 
 of which our nature is capable. 
 
 This visit of the Marischal of Scotland 
 took place in the presence of Madame de 
 Nevers, and it moved her to the depths of 
 her soul. You were born then my dear 
 grandson ! and the Marechal was seventy 
 years of age. 
 
 "Listen," said he "listen to the only 
 French verses I ever composed, and perhaps 
 to the only reproaches that were ever ad- 
 dressed to you!" 
 
 " Un trait, lance" par caprice 
 M'atteignit dans mon printemps ; 
 J'en porte la cicatrice 
 Encor sous mes cheveux blancs.
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. Ill 
 
 Craignca les maux qu'amour cause, 
 Et plaignez un insense" 
 Qui n'a point cueilli la rose 
 Et que 1'epine a blesse."* 
 
 From those proud eyes, two or three tears 
 
 trickled down his venerable cheeks 
 
 " Are you going again immediately to join 
 the king ]" said I, " shall we be separated 
 for ever ? will you never be converted to 
 the true faith T 
 
 " I am des votres after, as before, death " 
 said he with beautiful simplicity. " Ihave 
 ever loved you too well not to embrace your 
 religion what religion can equal that which 
 gives us strength to make self-sacrifices'?... 
 In fact, I have become a Catholic, and I am 
 Catholic in spirit and in truth." 
 
 This announcement from so noble an old 
 
 * " In life's first spring, a random shaft 
 
 Struck me, and still I bear 
 The scar of that capricious wound 
 
 Beneath my whitened hair ; 
 Do thou, then, fear the paths of love, 
 
 And, shunning, learn to mourn, 
 For him who would have culPd the rose, 
 
 But only found the thorn."
 
 112 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 man has been the joy and comfort of the 
 rest of my life ! 
 
 Milord George Keith d'Athry was heredi- 
 tary Marischal, and premier Earl, a Peer of 
 Scotland, Knight of the Garter and Grand 
 Cross of the Black Eagle. One sees every- 
 where in print, according to d'Alembert,* 
 that he was born in 1685, but lie told me 
 often that he was born the third of Decem- 
 ber 1686. He terminated his earthly career 
 in 1778 at the Court of Prussia in the en 
 joyment of the intimacy of the King, and 
 the Memory of Milord-Marechal will always 
 be held by me in reverence and affection. 
 
 It is high time that I should now come to 
 my grandmother de Froulay, who was kept 
 continually going backwards and forwards 
 
 * John le Rond d'Alembert received his first edu- 
 cation in the college of Les Quatre Nations, among 
 the Jansenists. He was secretary to the French 
 Academy, and was a most subtle agent in that 
 hostility against Christianity, carried on by Voltaire, 
 Diderot and others, who assisted in the Ency- 
 clopcedia. (Translator's Note.)
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 113 
 
 on the high road from Paris to Versailles, 
 and from Versailles to Paris because Madame 
 la Ohanceliere was ill at Versailles, and the 
 Abbe de St. Genevieve was ill at Paris, so 
 that for nine or ten days after my arrival we 
 had been unable to find her at home for the 
 purpose of concerting measures for my pre- 
 sentation at Court. 
 
 " Mademoiselle de Froulay !" she ex- 
 claimed as soon as she saw me, " is it possible 
 that you announced your arrival to me \ I 
 am quite shocked and miserable about it !" 
 
 She then made me a remarkably low curt- 
 sey without asking me to sit down, as the 
 Duchesse d'Usez, was waiting for her at the 
 foot of the stairs to hear tidings of their 
 Genovefain. 
 
 He recovered, but the Ghanceliere de 
 Pont-Chartrain died, which was a great relief 
 to my grandmother. 
 
 She was attired after the fashion of the 
 time of La Fronde in a high cap with five 
 rows of starched frills ; she had on, an open 
 robe over an old under-dress of silver tissue'
 
 114 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 on which were embroidered in relief, all the 
 animals that were ever in the Ark ; one 
 would have said it had been the Duchesse de 
 Longueville, and I could not take my eyes 
 off her.* 
 
 Two days afterwards she came to the Hotel 
 de Breteuil to return my visit, and also to 
 arrange about taking me to Versailles as it 
 was deemed indispensible that I should pay 
 my respects to the Marechal de Tesse. 
 
 He scarcely ever came to Paris, and bad 
 already evinced a desire to see me, by ex- 
 pressing surprise that I had not yet been in- 
 troduced to him, our salic chieftain. 
 
 It was agreed that we should go to Ver- 
 
 * My grandfather and grandmother died before I 
 was born, therefore when I speak of " my grand- 
 mother," I allude to Julie Tere'se Grimaldi, of the 
 family of the Princes of Salerno and Monaco, Dow- 
 ager Marquise de Froulay. I acquired the habit of 
 calling her my grandmother although she was only 
 the second wife of my grandfather, Philippe Charles, 
 Marquis de Froulay, de Montflaux et de Gatines- 
 les-sept-Tours. She was otherwise nearly related to 
 me, being the niece of the Marechal de Tessa", the 
 .head of our family. (Note by tlie Author.)
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 115 
 
 sallies as soon as we could get my father to 
 escort us, to whom my aunt de Brctcuil very 
 properly wished previously to communicate 
 our movements ; but my father happened to 
 be at Versailles at the time, and only paid 
 flying visits to Paris without stopping ; con- 
 sequently the plan was not put into exe- 
 cution for several days afterwards. 
 
 The Marechal de Tesse appeared to me to 
 be deeply afflicted at the loss of his wife, 
 and spoke of her with tears in his eyes. 
 
 His rooms were part of the suite of apart- 
 ments belonging to the Dauphiness (Duchesse 
 de Bourgogne,) to whom he had been Grand 
 Ecuyer. 
 
 The defunct Lady-Marechale was a near 
 relation of Madame de Maintenon, their 
 mothers being both Demoiselles de Villette, 
 and moreover my grandmother was the god- 
 daughter of Louis XIV, and Marie Mancini ; 
 my great uncle and my grandmother were in 
 consequence treated by this Prince and 
 Madame de Maintenon with unusual conde- 
 scension. 
 
 The Marechal told us that he was certain
 
 116 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 the latter personage would not disapprove of 
 the liberty he was about to take in showing 
 me Saint-Cyr, where Madame de akmtenon 
 had gone that morning to spend the day, 
 and where Madame de Froulay always had 
 the private entree. 
 
 We dined, and then went to see the 
 chapel, where we offered up a short prayer. 
 I did not venture to hope that the rest of 
 the Palace would be shown to me, as that 
 would not have been the thing besides, I 
 felt, myself, that 1 was making my appear- 
 ance there for the first time as an astonished 
 country-bumpkin. 
 
 We went down the steps of the orangery, 
 and then entered the Marechal's carriage 
 which conveyed us to St. Cyr. We had not 
 started more than seven or eight minutes 
 when the carriage suddenly stopped, the two 
 livery servants rushed to open the door, and 
 hastily let down the steps. 
 
 " It is the King," said my uncle, and he 
 assisted us to alight without hurrying, for
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 117 
 
 his people were sufficiently well-trained to 
 afford us ample time. 
 
 The King's carriage was escorted by only 
 three musqueteers in undress, and the same 
 number of light-horse. There were eight 
 horses to his carriage as usual ; there were 
 two pages in front, and four behind ; and 
 the liveries of France were still azure, instead 
 of the present horrible dark blue. 
 
 (It is Louis XV we have to thank for this 
 sad innovation,) 
 
 The King was alone at the back of his 
 carriage ;' but as soon as he perceived us the 
 cortege stopped, as it were by enchantment. 
 
 His Majesty lowered the window on his 
 left, on which side we stood, and made us a 
 most affable bow. 
 
 " So that is the King I that great King !" 
 I exclaimed with tears in rny eyes. 
 
 " Yes, and you may add that good, that 
 unfortunate King !" replied the Marechal 
 in a melancholy tone. 
 
 As soon as we arrived at Saint Cyr, we 
 walked in the first place through a large
 
 118 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 building, appropriated to the Lords in Wait- 
 ing, and the Pages of His Majesty, who was 
 at this moment walking in the gardens of the 
 Convent with the Bishop of Chartres and 
 some other Lords whom I did not see. 
 
 Madame de Maintenon was sitting in a 
 lofty room wainscoated with oak, without 
 any paint, and the furniture nothing but 
 varnished leather. Before each seat was a 
 square piece of tapestry for the feet, for so 
 little furniture was there, that there was not 
 even a carpet on the floor. 
 
 Madame de Maintenon made me approach 
 (lose to her, that she might kiss my forehead ; 
 she looked at me with her most intelligent 
 and gentle eyes, and then began immediately 
 to converse with her neighbour I then went 
 and sat by my grandmother, who told me it 
 was the Duchesse de Maine. 
 
 " The daughter-in-law of Madame de 
 Mcntesptm '?" I enquired in a half whisper, 
 but loud enough for the Marechal de Tesse to 
 hear. 
 
 " Good gracious !" exclaimed my uncle in
 
 FRENCH MABCHIONESS. 119 
 
 my ear, and in an agony of anxiety, " how 
 can you talk of such things here T 
 
 As for my Grandmother, she seemed struck 
 dumb with confusion. 
 
 " Well !" said I to myself " there is evi- 
 dently some mystery as to the parentage of 
 this Due de Maine, which I shall never solve, 
 so I shall think no more about it." 
 
 Madame la Duchesse de Maine was neither 
 quite hump-backed nor quite a fool, and yet 
 there was something about her figure and 
 mind, which one might call " un tour 
 d'epaule" She was badly dressed for her 
 age too ; she wore a robe, over which ran a 
 trellise-work of vine leaves in black velvet 
 on a gold ground, and a profusion of gold 
 beads composed her necklace, bracelets, 
 clasps, and girdle, and also decorated her 
 hair. 
 
 Old Dangeau, Mesdames de Noailles, de 
 Moutchevreuil, and de Caylus who were old 
 enough to all intents and purposes, comprised 
 the rest of the company. 
 
 , At last a bell rang ; Madame de Mainte-
 
 120 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 non made us a low curtsey, and we followed 
 her to the church, where they were going to 
 give the " salut." I observed on our way, 
 that she was handsomely but quietly dressed 
 in a rich material, brocaded in feuille-morte 
 and silver. She wore a high cap, and her 
 mantilla was one piece of point lace lined 
 with violet. 
 
 At each door the Duchesse de Maine and 
 Madame de Maintenon exchanged polite 
 little offers of precedence, always ending in 
 the latter passing first, after pretending to 
 hesitate and refuse for half a second or so. 
 It is impossible to imagine any manoeuvring 
 more skilful than that which they displayed 
 on this occasion ! 
 
 Scarcely had we entered the pew which 
 was called the Bishop's, when we saw the 
 King appear in the Royal pew, which is 
 opposite the altar. He came in with his 
 head covered ; he wore a little three-cornered 
 hat richly laced, which he took off, first to 
 bow to the altar, then to a gilt grating, be- 
 hind which was Madame de Maintenon,
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 12l 
 
 and lastly to the Duchesse de Maine and the 
 rest of us, for our pew happened to be in a 
 line with that of his Majesty, without regard 
 to our difference in rank. 
 
 The whole of the King's suite, as well as 
 the ladies and gentlemen with the Princess 
 his daughter-in-law, did not come into the 
 chapel of St. Cyr, at all events if they were 
 there, we did not see them. 
 
 That which made the most lasting im- 
 pression upon me, was the sound of the 
 beautiful voices of the young girls who, un- 
 expectedly to me, burst forth in unison and 
 chaunted an Anthem, or rather, a national 
 and religious hymn, the words by Madame 
 de Brinon, and the music by the celebrated 
 Lully. 
 
 . The words, which I obtained a long time 
 afterwards, were as follows : 
 
 " Grand Dieu, sauvez le roi 
 Grand Dieu, vengez le roi 
 
 Vive le Roi ! 
 Que, toujours glorieux, 
 Louis, victorieux 
 Voie ses ennemis 
 
 Toujours soumis ! 
 
 G
 
 122 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 Grand Dieu, sauvez le roi 
 Grand Dieu, vengez la roi 
 Vive la Eoi !" 
 
 Even should you have sufficient curiosity, 
 you need give yourself but little trouble as 
 to procuring the music, since a German of 
 the name of Handel, carried it away with 
 him to Paris, and there, with an eye to his 
 own interest, presented it as a homage to 
 King George of Hanover. Messieurs les 
 Anglais ended by adopting it as their own, 
 and producing it as one of their National 
 Airs !* 
 
 * It is not only the statement of Madame de 
 Crgquy of the remarkable effrontery of the German 
 composer, that has set critics at work as to the ori- 
 gin of " God save the King !" Two English news- 
 papers have already spoken of it in the same terms. 
 The " Gazette de France" also has pointed out 
 several documents which bear upon it, and lastly, 
 the French Journal La Mode, in the number for 
 the Thirty-first of July, 1831, contains an article 
 which it might not be useless to extract here : 
 
 " Letters from Edinburg mention that the M.S. 
 Memoirs of the Duchess of Perth were to be sold in 
 London for 3000J sterling. They are replete with 
 interesting details of the Court of Louis the Four- 
 teenth, as well as of that of King James during the
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 123 
 
 On our return from St. Cyr, they took me 
 to call upon Madame la Chanceliere who was 
 dying ; nevertheless she had a gathering of 
 all the Court at her bedside, where she had 
 the politeness to invite my grandmother and 
 myself also to be seated. 
 
 residence of their Britannic Majesties at the Cha- 
 teau of St. Germain-en- Lay e. Her Grace, in giv- 
 ing an account of the establishment at St. Cyr, 
 bears witness to a fact not unknown in France, but 
 the authenticity of which depended on the old nuns 
 of that house, namely that the words and air of 
 " God save the King" were of French origin ; 
 
 " Lorsque le roy tres-chretien entroit dans la 
 chapelle, tout le chosur desdites demoiselles nobles 
 y chantoist a chaque foys les parolles suyvantes et 
 sur un tres-bel ayr du sieur de Lully : 
 
 " Grand Dieu, sauvey le Roy." 
 
 (&c. &c. as before.) 
 
 The tradition handed down at St. Cyr was, that 
 the composer, Handel, during his visit to the 
 Superior of this Royal House, had requested and 
 obtained permission to copy the air and words of 
 this Gallic invocation, which he immediately after- 
 wards offered to George the First as his own com- 
 position, &c." 
 
 A declaration, signed by four nuns of St. Cyr, 
 fully confirms this assertion of the Author. (Note 
 of the French Editor.)
 
 124 RECOLLECTIONS OP A 
 
 * " God save the King " 
 
 The aspirants to the nationality of *his Anthem 
 have been numerous. France, Germany, and Den- 
 mark, have successively claimed it as their own, and 
 great difficulty has long hung over the history or 
 origin of it in our own country, some maintaining 
 that it was composed by a Dr. Rogers in the time 
 of Henry the Eighth and prior to the Reformation ; 
 others again attributing it with some plausibility to 
 Henry Carey, a natural son of George Saville, 
 Marquis of Halifax, who died in 1743, aged 80. 
 Scotland has urged her rights of paternity, declaring 
 that it was taken from a book published in Aberdeen 
 in 1682. The following is extracted from the 
 Morning Post, November the Second, 1814, 
 
 " The late Dr. Burney was asked by the late 
 Duke of Gloucester, whether he believed that 
 "God save the King!" was composed by Carey? 
 The Doctor replied that he knew the words were 
 not written for any King George, and that the 
 earliest copy with which we are acquainted began, 
 " God save great James our King !" Thence arises 
 a question j which King James? The Jacobites 
 asserted that it was composed in honor of the House 
 of Stuart for James the Second, and sung at his 
 Roman Catholic Chapel ; but against that plea it 
 may be urged that it would be unusual to that form 
 of worship to have any vocal music sung to English
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 125 
 
 words, and moreover, in that case, " confound 
 their politics, frustrate their knavish tricks," would 
 apply to the Protestants, which renders it improbable 
 that it would have been sung as a National Anthem ; 
 still less can it be supposed that it has reference to 
 James the Second after the abdication, for the 
 words would not apply to him at all. 
 
 It can be proved from the Ancient Kecords of 
 the Merchant Tailors' Company that it was written 
 in honour of James the First, the music composed 
 by Dr. John Bull and the words by Ben Johnson* 
 at the particular request of the Merchant Tailors' 
 Company on the occasion of a sumptuous entertain- 
 ment given by them to that monarch on Thursday 
 July the Sixteenth 1607, to congratulate him on 
 his escape from the " Powder Plot." There is also 
 positive proof in the same archives that Dr. John 
 Bull was rewarded by that company for the music 
 which he had composed, and in " Ward's Lives of 
 the Professors of Gresham College," published in 
 London, 1740, we read, " there is extant, a large 
 number and variety of Dr. Bull's pieces in manu- 
 script, &c." and then follows a catalogue of his 
 compositions, and at folio 56 is " God save the 
 King !" 
 
 * In the Merchant Tailors' books his name is spelt thus.
 
 126 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 Here, then, is an undeniable claim for Dr. Bull 
 to the authorship of the tune of " God save the 
 King." It must be the same tune that is sung at the 
 present time, because it has never yet appeared 
 that there were two of a similar description, at 
 least this must be admitted until another is pro- 
 duced. 
 
 Another material circumstance is, that Dr. Bull 
 could not have composed that tune for any other 
 king, because he lived only in James the First's 
 reign. Bull died in 1622, King James in 1625. 
 Handel was born 1684, and died 1759. 
 
 To those who are curious on this subject, a peru- 
 sal of a valuable work of considerable research is 
 recommended, entitled "An account of the Nation- 
 al Anthem," by Richard Clark, from which the 
 foregoing remarks have been compiled." 

 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 127 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 M. d' Argenson Cartouche in Paris Cardinal de 
 GeVres Robbery and loss of bis pie ! Madame 
 de Beauffremont Impudence of Cartouche 
 Charlotte of Bavaria Introduction of Sauer- 
 Kraut into France Death of the Duke de Berry 
 Death of Louis the Fourteenth Avoidance of 
 Milord and Milady Stairs Parliament and the 
 young King An unaccountable story Burying 
 alive Dissection extraordinary. 
 
 t Although the public placed the 
 
 t Sixty or Eighty pages are here missing, which 
 must have been the commencement of the chapter, 
 and evidently contained the recollections of a whole
 
 128 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 most complete reliance on the energy and 
 ability of M. d'Argenson, as the best possible 
 Lieutenant-general of Police, still that did 
 not prevent there being very considerable 
 apprehension when the facts of the impudent 
 robbery at the Palais-Cardinal,* and the ap- 
 pearance of Cartouche in the midst of Paris, 
 became known. 
 
 Many families who had not the resource of 
 being able to take refuge at Versailles, 
 thought of starting for their country houses, 
 although it was in the middle of winter ; 
 
 year. It was already known that Cartouche had 
 appeared two or three times in Paris before he was 
 taken, and his trial lasted not less than nineteen 
 months. Many pages will be found wanting in the 
 course of these memoirs, but it is not supposed that 
 the sheets of the M.S. have been lost j it is more 
 probable they have been destroyed from conscien- 
 tious scruples, or out of respect for the feelings of 
 the Orleans family. 
 
 * The Palais Cardinal was a handsome building 
 forming part of the Hotel de Soubise, where the 
 state papers are now kept. It was intended for a 
 habitation for the Cardinals, the Bishop-princes of 
 Strasburg, and other prelates of the house of Rohan. 
 (Author's Note.}
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 129 
 
 but it was soon known that Cartouche's 
 band lay in ambush in the outskirts of Paris, 
 and that he himself at the head of a gang of 
 forty or fifty men had had the audacity to 
 plunder the Cardinal de Ge , res on his way 
 to Bruges. 
 
 Upon examination, however, it turned out 
 that in reality they had only taken from 
 him the cross he wore on his breast, his 
 pontifical ring, ten louis which were in his 
 purse, a cock-robin pie, which he was taking 
 to his diocese, and two flasks of Tokay, 
 which he had won from my uncle at picquet ! 
 
 I must tell you that the Cardinal de 
 Gevies was a great glutton ; but he had 
 his scruples ! 
 
 He never would play for money, for fear 
 of losing what he called, (and which was in 
 all truth and justice) his poor people's money. 
 
 He would buy neither old wine nor new, 
 but he never had the slightest objection to 
 win it at cards ; so that he would play 
 
 picquet for a pint of hot-house peas, or a 
 G 5
 
 130 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 bottle of Schiraz, which might cost from 
 twelve to fifteen louis. 
 
 If he had the misfortune to lose, he got 
 out of the difficulty by paying his losses 
 with a number of copies of his " Charges and 
 pastoral instructions" of which he always 
 brought fifty copies or so, beautifully bound, 
 and with gilt edges, whenever he came to 
 Paris. 
 
 This was an arranged thing in his family, 
 and in society in general, which every one 
 put up with, because he was known to be 
 the most charitable, sincere, amiable, and 
 the most greedy of prelates ! 
 
 The robbers would not take anything 
 from the Abbe Cerutti, the Cardinal's secre- 
 tary, as they said he was too good-looking a 
 fellow to be robbed ; that it was a matter 
 of conscience, and they had not the courage 
 to do it. 
 
 " Since you evince so much regard for 
 him" said his Eminence, " you ought to leave 
 him half of the cock-robin pie, and a bottle 
 of this Hungarian wine."
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 131 
 
 " So we will, by all means," replied Car- 
 touche, " if he will come and partake of it 
 with us, he has only to say so," 
 
 To this, however, the Abbe Cerutti would 
 on no account agree ; and a scene of regrets, 
 reproaches, and recriminations followed, of 
 which it made one die of laughing to hear. 
 
 The Cardinal de Gevres told us he would 
 never travel again with this young Abbe, to 
 avoid giving cause for scandal as one of the 
 robbers had insinuated that he might be a 
 young lady in disguise ! 
 
 " Temeraire et malheureux ignorant!" ex- 
 claimed the holy prelate to him, " do you 
 not know that that would be sacrilegious V 
 
 Cartouche struck the man a tremendous 
 blow on the face which knocked him down, 
 saying at the same time " Let that teach 
 you to be respectful to Nos Seigneurs du 
 derge /" 
 
 I can assure you that society in those 
 days was far more interesting and amusing 
 than it is at the present time, for one was 
 continually meeting with originals, male and
 
 132 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 female, and as far as I was concerned I was 
 surrounded by oddities. 
 
 Madame la Princesse de Conty told us 
 one day that the Marquise de Beauffremont* 
 distributed pass-tickets to be shown to the 
 robbers at night, and that people were 
 much surprised at the influence she had 
 over Cartouche, but the secret of his hand- 
 some behaviour towards Madame de Beauffre- 
 mont is as follows : 
 
 One morning she returned home at two 
 o'clock, and when her maids had undressed 
 
 * HelSne de Courtenay, of the line of the Em- 
 perors of the East. She was the last of this house, 
 which descended from King Louis le Gros and Queen 
 Adelais of Savoy. 
 
 The genealogy of the soi-disant Courtenays of 
 England is a badly contrived fable, as are all those 
 pretensions to French origin upon which they wish 
 to pride themselves in that country. Walpole used 
 to tell me that with the exception of Lords Neville 
 and Harcourt, there was not in the British Peerage 
 one family, in reality of French origin, and con- 
 temporary with William the Conqueror. I have al- 
 ready named to you the absurd pretensions (as it 
 appears to me) of the Seymours. (Authors Note.)
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS, 133 
 
 her, she dismissed them that she might sit 
 at her ease by her fireside and write. She 
 was writing a Journal which has not been 
 found amongst her papers, and in truth this 
 is to be regretted, since her talents were 
 unrivalled. 
 
 However, it happened that night that she 
 suddenly heard, first of all, a suppressed 
 noise in the chimney next, clouds of soot 
 descended, then, swallows' nests and brick 
 and mortar came rattling down helter- 
 skelter, and last of all, a man appeared, 
 armed to the teeth. 
 
 As he had sent the burning log of wood 
 and the embers into the middle of the room, 
 the first thing he did was, to take the tongs, 
 and methodically replace them all in the 
 grate, at the same time jerking away with 
 his feet some burning pieces to avoid crush- 
 ing them upon the carpet ; then, turning 
 towards the Marquise, he made her a low 
 bow. 
 
 " May I take the liberty Madame of en-
 
 134 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 quiring, whom I have the honour of ad- 
 dressing V* 
 
 " Sir, I am Mme. de Beauffremont, but I 
 do not know you at all ; you do not look 
 like a thief, and as you appear to have great 
 regard for my furniture, I cannot guess why 
 you enter my room in this manner in the 
 dead of the night 1 ?" 
 
 " Madame, it was not my intention to do 
 so ; would you have the goodness to accom- 
 pany me to the door of your Hotel 1" he 
 continued drawing a pistol from his waist, 
 and taking up a lighted candle. 
 
 "But sir " 
 
 * Madame, will you be so obliging as to 
 make haste," he interrupted, cocking his 
 pistol, " we will go down together, and you 
 will order the porter to pull the string, and 
 let me out." 
 
 " Pray speak lower sir," said the unfortu- 
 nate woman trembling with fright, "pray 
 speak lower, the Marquis de Beauffremont 
 might hear you."
 
 FKENCH MARCHIONESS. 135 
 
 'Put on your mantle Madame, and do 
 not stand in your dressing-gown for it is 
 uncommonly cold \" 
 
 Well ! at last it was all arranged accord- 
 ing to his satisfaction, and Madame de Beauf- 
 fremont was so overcome that she was obliged 
 to sit down for a moment in the porter's 
 lodge as soon as this desperate character had 
 passed beyond the door. 
 
 She then heard a knocking at the window 
 of the lodge which faced the street. 
 
 " Mister Porter," said the same voice, " I 
 am Cartouche! do you hear? I am Car- 
 touche ; I have walked one or two leagues 
 to-night on the roofs, because the officers 
 were in pursuit of me do not go and suppose 
 therefore that it was an affair of gallantry, 
 and that I am a lover of Mine, de Beauf- 
 fremont ; I shall have something more to do 
 with you, and the day after to-morrow you 
 will hear from me by the petite-paste" 
 
 Mme. de Beauffremont went upstairs 
 immediately, and awoke her husband who 
 maintained that she had had the night-mare
 
 136 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 and that it was only a horrible dream ; but 
 two or three days afterwards she received a 
 most respectful, and well-expressed letter of 
 thanks, and apologies, in which was enclosed 
 a safe-conduct for Mme. de Beauffremont* 
 authorizing her to include in it, her family. 
 
 The letter had been preceded by a small 
 box, containing a beautiful diamond, unset, 
 which was valued at Madame Lempereue's 
 at 2000 ecus. 
 
 This sum was placed by the Marquis de 
 Beauflremont, in the hands of the treasurer 
 of Notre Dame, for the benefit of the sick 
 of the Hotel Dieu. Thus you see that every 
 one concerned in this affair, acquitted them- 
 selves to perfection. 
 
 Madame de Maintenon again admitted me 
 upon another occasion, into her apartments at 
 the chateau de Versailles. 
 
 She made very honourable mention to me 
 of the high estimation in which she held our 
 family ; and when the hour was about to 
 strike at which the King was expected, my 
 grandmother rose to take leave of Madame
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 137 
 
 (she was always addressed in the third person) 
 and to conduct me to the grand, ecurie where 
 I was to partake of a collation with my cou- 
 sin's of Lorraine. 
 
 " Do not move, Marquise" was all that 
 Mme. de Maintenon said ; and thus she dis- 
 creetly avoided any question as to my 
 remaining in a room where his Majesty could 
 not fail to take notice of me. 
 
 The King arrived very soon afterwards, 
 without any further announcement than 
 the folding-doors being thrown open, and the 
 entrance of a gentleman of the household, 
 who, preceding his Majesty by three or four 
 minutes, made a profound obeisance to 
 Madame de Maintenon without speaking, 
 just as they announced dinner to the King 
 and Queen. 
 
 His Majesty had several steps to take on 
 entering the room, and he appeared to walk 
 with pain ; nevertheless, he made a very 
 graceful bow to Madame de Maintenon. 
 
 " Here" she said, " is a young lady whom I 
 have taken the liberty of detaining, in order
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 that I might present her to the King ; it is 
 hardly necessary for me to mention her 
 name." 
 
 "I conclude then," replied his Majesty 
 " that she owes her presence here to my 
 god-daughter ; there is a sort of spiritual 
 parentage between Mademoiselle and myself, 
 but we are also related in another way," he 
 added ; and all this time he was looking at 
 me as though he would say " you may think 
 yourself fortunate." 
 
 " I request the King's permission for you 
 to kiss his hand," said my grandmother, with 
 an air of proud humility, totally free from 
 servility or obsequiousness ; and his Majesty 
 extended it as though he offered it for me to 
 kiss with the palm underneath instead of 
 which, he immediately closed it on taking 
 hold of mine and deigned to raise it to his 
 lips. * 
 
 *Here, on this very day Septide of the 3rd decade 
 of the month Vendemiaire, in the year XI of the 
 French Republic, I add these lines on my return
 
 FKENCH MARCHIONESS. 139 
 
 Nanon, the important and celebrated 
 Nanon, came and whispered something in 
 her mistress's ear, and thereupon Madame,""" 
 the widow of Monsieur, the King's brother, 
 made her appearance. Mme. de Mainte- 
 non caused an arm-chair to be placed for 
 her (having first risen to salute her), but 
 Madame awaited it on the spot where she 
 stood, looking as cold and cutting as the 
 north-wind, and without making any sort of 
 return for the civility. This Princess was 
 dressed up something like an Amazon, in 
 a man's cloth doublet, laced at all the seams ; 
 
 from the Tuileries, where General Bonaparte has 
 kissed my hand. I could not help recollecting that 
 I have received exactly the same politeness from 
 King Louis-le-Grand, and from the first Consul of 
 the Republic, with an interval of 95 years between 
 the two circumstances ! Bonaparte sent word that 
 he wished to see me, and has since promised that 
 our forests which were sequestrated, shall be restored 
 to us. Should strength and time be allowed me, I 
 will write, or rather dictate, an account of this ex- 
 traordinary interview. (Note by the Author.) 
 
 t Charlotte of Bavaria, mother of the Regent, 
 died in 1722.
 
 140 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 her wig was similar to that of his Majesty, 
 and her hat exactly the same as his, which 
 hat was not taken off, nor even raised 
 whilst she was bowing to us, a ceremony she 
 got through with considerable ease. 
 
 It is as well to add that this horrible 
 Princess, had her feet in boots, and a whip 
 in her hand ; she was badly formed, badly 
 set up, and evilly-disposed towards every- 
 thing and everybody. 
 
 Madame de Froulay asked the King to 
 allow her to present me to Madame, when 
 she made me a bow a la cavaliere, and 
 began questioning me about the health of 
 the grand prior de Froulay, about whom I 
 knew exactly nothing ! so that I remained 
 mute, with my mouth open, and Madame 
 maintained to her dying day that I was 
 "plus b&e qu'une carpe !" 
 
 I must tell you that this Mother of the 
 Regent lived on soup a la bidrre and salt 
 beef ; she continually partook of a certain 
 ragout made of fermented cabbage, which 
 she had sent to her from the Palatinate and
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 141 
 
 whenever it was served, the whole quarter 
 of the palace which she inhabited was per- 
 fectly unbearable from the smell of this 
 noxious vegetable. 
 
 She called it " schaucraout" and as she 
 wished to make every one who dined with 
 her taste it, those who escaped had the best 
 of it! 
 
 To make amends for my loss of Madame's 
 delicacies, to which I had not the pretension 
 to aspire, I went and partook of cream and 
 fruits with Mesdemoiselles de Lorraine, whom 
 my uncle the Grand Ecuyer had invited to 
 see some dancing dogs dressed up as different 
 characters, which he had provided for their 
 especial amusement. 
 
 These two young Princesses, the prettiest 
 creatures in the world, were then Miles de 
 Joinville and de Guise, since which, one 
 became Duchesse de Bouillon, and the other 
 was Marechal de Richelieu's first wife. You 
 will see hereafter that she had an only 
 daughter, Mme. d'Egmont, who fully in- 
 herited all the virtues of her mother.
 
 142 RECOLLECTIONS OF A. 
 
 It was a few days after my return from 
 Versailles that we heard of the death of the 
 Due de Berry, for whom we wore mourning 
 the established time, which was more than 
 his wife did. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 The King was completely overwhelmed by 
 this dreadful discovery, and every circum- 
 stance confirms the belief, that owing to it 
 he resolved to keep the father of this Princess, 
 as well as all the Orleans family, separate 
 from the person of his successor, and from 
 all share in the government during the 
 minority of the Dauphin, who was then 
 only four years of age. 
 
 After the death of this last of his grand- 
 sons, the King's health visibly declined. 
 For seven or eight months his weakness 
 daily encreased, and on the 1st of Sep- 
 tember in the following year, he yielded up 
 his spirit full of that hope and repentance 
 with which he had been animated for the
 
 FKENCH MAKCHIONESS. 143 
 
 last thirty-five years of his life, a period 
 which he had spent in continued piety and 
 in the practice of every virtue. 
 
 Vir primo imperil optimis principibus, 
 et ultimo mediis comparandus. 
 
 You are already aware that I saw a great 
 deal of Mesdemoiselles de Lorraine. We 
 were resolutely determined to attend the 
 opening of Parliament by the young King 
 in person, and the President exerted him- 
 self to the utmost to gratify our wishes, but 
 without success, as the Regent had ordered 
 two places to be reserved for Milord and 
 Milady Stairs.* We were such Jacobites 
 that we could not endure the sight of these 
 Orangists, and we refused to be in their 
 company, so they placed us at the embra- 
 sure of a window, close to the lit de justice* 
 
 * The Earl of Stair, Ambassador Extraordinary 
 to the Court of France. (Translator's Note.) 
 
 * Lit de justice. (Bed of justice.) The seat or 
 throne on which the King of France used to sit 
 when personally present in Parliament. As the de- 
 bates were enough to send His Majesty to sleep, it
 
 144 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 and there we stood under the guardianship 
 of two officers of parliament who watched 
 us as closely as the duennas of Calderon 
 or of Lope de Vega would have done. 
 
 All that I witnessed at that first sitting 
 of the House of Peers in the new reign has 
 often afforded me food for meditation. 
 
 The young King was carried by the Grand- 
 Ecuyer from his carriage to the door of the 
 House of Parliament, and there the Due de 
 Trismes, performing the duties of Grand- 
 Chamberlain, received him in his arms, and 
 carried him to the throne, at the foot of which 
 sat one of his aunts, that is, Madame de 
 Ventadour, His Majesty's preceptress. 
 
 She was a person admirably adapted for 
 that situation, as she was by nature prodigi- 
 
 was right that he should be provided with a bed 
 when listening to the speeches. Louis the Sixteenth 
 was the last French Sovereign who assembled a Bed 
 of Justice, which led to the Revolution; so that the 
 saying, " as you make your bed, so you must lie !" 
 was very pertinent to the case of that unfortunate 
 Monarch. Punch. October 1845.
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 145 
 
 ously formal, wonderfully grave, and a most 
 determined disposition. 
 
 The King was dressed in a little plaited 
 jacket of violet-coloured cloth with hanging 
 sleeves ; he had on his head a little cap only, 
 of violet-coloured crape* which seemed to be 
 lined with cloth of gold, and he had leading 
 strings which hung down behind to the bottom 
 of his dress. This however, was only to mark 
 his youth, for he was known to be able to 
 walk alone, and could run quite well. I 
 must tell you that his Majesty's leading- 
 strings, which were crossed on his shoulders, 
 were of cloth of gold, and not of the same 
 material as his dress. 
 
 I believe Madame de Ventadour had de- 
 cided that leading-strings ought to form a 
 part of a King's dress as long as it was 
 possible to continue them. 
 
 From his blue collar was suspended the 
 
 * It is probably known to most people that violet 
 colour is the mourning worn by the Kings of France. 
 {Authors Note.) 
 H
 
 146 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 Cross of St. Louis, and of the Holy Ghost, 
 and his beautiful brown hair, which curled 
 naturally, fell in flowing ringlets on his 
 shoulders. His beauty was most dazzling, 
 and every one who has seen him will tell 
 you that his portrait could not be flattered. 
 
 The royal child began by listening quietly, 
 if not attentively to all the harangues, and 
 studied speeches, the taking of oaths, and all 
 the routine business, but we perceived that 
 he kept his head turned to the left side and 
 appeared to be continually watching Cardinal 
 de Noailles, without ever having given a 
 glance at all the Presidents and Councillors 
 of whom he knew no more than of the Arch- 
 bishop of Paris. 
 
 At length the old Marechal de Villeroy, 
 began to make signs to the little King with 
 his great head and eyes, in order to induce 
 him to look on the other side and straight 
 before him, but his Majesty would not at- 
 tend to them, and at last got out of all 
 patience. 
 
 " Laissez moi! Laissez moi!" were the
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 147 
 
 first words uttered by King Louis XV, from 
 the throne ! But it was not only the little 
 voice of the King we heard we there recog- 
 nized our great fundamental law, and the 
 high maxims of hereditary Monarchy. 
 
 But it is now time to leave the Palais de 
 Justice, and to return to the saloons of 
 Paris ; listen whilst I tell you a story which 
 involves an unfathomable mystery. 
 
 The Comtesse de Saulx,'" Tavannes, and 
 Busanc^ois had always passed for a very 
 strange person. Her habits were wild, and 
 her pursuits occult and mysterious. She was 
 not suspected of having any liaison certainly, 
 but she formed no friendships, and was 
 neither in communication with her own 
 relations, nor those of her husband. 
 
 She lived almost always in an old and 
 gloomy Chateau, called Lux, close to Saulx-le- 
 Duc, in Burgundy, which Chateau is the 
 centre of a baronv which descended from the 
 
 * Marie- Catherine d'Aguesseau, sister of the Chan- 
 cellor of that name. 
 
 H 3
 
 148 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 head of her family. Mme. de Saulx disap- 
 peared sometimes from home without the 
 knowledge of any of her establishment ; no 
 one having seen her go out, and no one 
 being able to imagine what had become of 
 her ! Then, after an absence, and a pro- 
 found silence of seven or eight days, they 
 would hear her ring the bell of her room, 
 and would find her there just as if nothing 
 had happened, always in the same clothes 
 which she wore on the day that she dis- 
 appeared. 
 
 The Prince de Conde, governor of the 
 province, and M. Bouchet, intendant of 
 Burgundy, used to say, that the most in- 
 quisitive and prying of the country could 
 never see anything, nor account iu any way 
 for all they heard. 
 
 One Saturday night the Comtesse de 
 Saulx retired to her room and sent her 
 maids to bed, saying, that she should not 
 undress then, but would see about it later. 
 They heard her draw the bolts of her door, 
 and, as they retired, the two maids discussed
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 149 
 
 this circumstance, because their mistress 
 hardly ever read or wrote ; and, moreover, 
 there was neither a book nor writing mate- 
 rials in her bedroom. 
 
 "Can you understand what Madame is 
 going to do, shut up in that old turret, all by 
 herself F 
 
 "God knows! and may He watch over 
 her !'* 
 
 I ought to tell you, that this room was in 
 one of the turrets of the Chateau. It was 
 lighted by one solitary window, closely and 
 strongly barred ; and the vent of the chim- 
 ney, according to ancient custom, was also 
 barred with a double cross of iron. 
 
 This same room was without any closets ; 
 it was without egress or opening of any 
 other kind than the barred window, the 
 barred chimney and the door, which this 
 extraordinary person had taken the precau- 
 tion to bolt. Lastly, the only apartment 
 which led to this, was a large chamber, 
 where an old Demoiselle d'Aguesseau slept ; 
 to whom her niece afforded protection, be-
 
 150 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 cause she was a sort of idiot, and, perhaps, 
 also, because she could pay handsomely for 
 her board 1 
 
 That is a plan of the locality, and now 
 for the state of affairs. 
 
 The next morning, at seven o'clock, they 
 entered, as usual, this large room, where 
 Mile. d'Aguesseau slept, and which as I endeav- 
 oured to explain above, was a sort of passage- 
 room, or ante-chamber. They found Jier 
 lying on the floor in her night-clothes, sense- 
 less, and having in her right hand tight hold 
 of the bell-rope, which she had pulled down. 
 
 All that they could elicit from her when 
 she came to her senses (and they were never 
 very strong at the best of times) was, that 
 she had been very much frightened, and 
 that she could remember nothing more. 
 
 They then began to tap gently at her 
 niece's door, after which they knocked vio- 
 lently for a long time, but still there was no 
 answer. 
 
 They sent for the cure, the bailli-seigneu- 
 rial, and the chief persons of the neighbour-
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 151 
 
 hood ; who consulted, and, at last, determined 
 upon breaking down the door, but not until 
 having legally verified that the said door was 
 bolted from within, whilst the key was in 
 the lock outside the room, on the side where 
 stood those who signed the proces-verbaL 
 
 The Comtesse de Saulx was never seen 
 again. Nothing was disarranged in her room, 
 and the bed was not even turned down. 
 Two wax-candles, which the maid had 
 brought the night before, and placed on a 
 little table near an arm-chair, had been 
 blown out in the middle of the night ; for 
 they calculated that they could not have 
 burnt more than two hours and a half. 
 One of her slippers, which I have seen at her 
 son's (it was of green velvet with a red heel) 
 was lying on the floor near the arm-chair ; 
 and that was all they ever found belonging 
 to her. 
 
 It was known that her son, the Cardinal 
 de Tavannes, had hastened to the spot, in 
 order to institute a legal enquiry ; but it 
 was generally supposed that the procureur-
 
 152 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 general of Burgundy gave him to understand 
 that the honour of his house might be com- 
 promised thereby ; and certain it is, that 
 the Cardinal suddenly abandoned his inten- 
 tion, and hastened back to his diocese of 
 Chalons. (He wa not Archbishop of Rouen 
 at that time.) 
 
 Some spoke of sorcery, and illicit dealings 
 with the Bohemians ; others mentioned the 
 Deacon Paris, and the Chevalier de Foliard ; 
 and many discussed vampirism, which, how- 
 ever, would not have helped to explain the 
 mystery of how a tall woman of five feet 
 four inches could evaporate and leave no 
 trace behind ! 
 
 It was on the lips of every one for a long 
 time, and for this good reason, that no one 
 knew what to say about it. The Chancelier 
 d'Aguesseau has told me a hundred times 
 that he knew no more of it than I did, and 
 that it was perfectly incomprehensible. 
 
 Apropos to these ancient Counts, now be- 
 come Dues de Saulx, and more especially 
 apropos to stories about doors, I must tell
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 153 
 
 you of a cousin of mine, Marie-Casimire de 
 Froulay-Tesse, who was married to Charles 
 Gaspard de Saulx-Tavannes, grandson to the 
 mysterious lady above-mentioned. Marie- 
 Casimire was buried in the vaults of the 
 Holy Chapel of Saulx-le-Duc, on the 18th 
 of August, 1753, two or three days after 
 her decease. Eighteen months afterwards 
 they had to re-open these vaults, in order to 
 deposit therein the body of the Chevalier de/ 
 Tavannes, her husband's uncle. 
 
 They were surprised at first, and then 
 terrified at finding that there was an unac- 
 countable resistance from within, when they 
 attempted to open the door. By dint of 
 force and perseverance, however, they suc- 
 ceeded, at length, in turning it upon its 
 stone hinges ; they then heard an appalling 
 noise of bones rolling down the steps from 
 
 the door to the bottom of the vault ; of those 
 
 
 
 who had the courage to descend, the first 
 entangled his feet in a handkerchief ; and 
 when they proceeded to place the body of 
 
 M. de Tavannes beside that of his niece, they 
 H 5
 
 154 RECOLLECTIOIsS OF A 
 
 found that the coffin of this ill-fated young wo- 
 man had fallen onthe ground, and was broken ! 
 
 They then discovered to their utter horror, 
 that she had been buried alive ! that she 
 had had sufficient strength to burst the two 
 coffin-lids, and that she had come forth and 
 died of hunger at the entrance of the se- 
 pulchre, from whence her pitiable voice 
 could not reach those who were weeping for 
 her! 
 
 She was adored by her husband, her 
 children, and her brothers ; and particularly 
 so by the Marechale de Luxembourg, who 
 has repeatedly spoken of her to me with tears 
 in her eyes. 
 
 There is no saying how many unfortunate 
 people have been buried before they were 
 dead ! the famous Boerhaave told my father 
 that he had to combat in opinion all the 
 Hague, with regard to a certain grand pension- 
 naire, by nameVan Nollier, whom they wished 
 to put underground, but who lived, thanks 
 to Boerhaave, thirteen or fifteen years after 
 that.
 
 . 
 
 FRBIsCH MARCHIONESS. 155 
 
 You had an instance of this in your 
 family. The lady of the Connetable de 
 Lesdiguieres uttered an awful shriek, and 
 raised herself up when they commenced 
 opening her, in order to embalm her ; she 
 seized the surgeon's knife with her hands, 
 and cut her fingers nearly to the bone ; but 
 the poor woman then fell back insensible 
 and died, beyond mistake, two days after- 
 wards. 
 
 When the wife of that accursed Baron de 
 Lohesme was exhumed, whom he had buried 
 two days before in the cemetery of St. Medard, 
 they found that she had knocked the skin off 
 her elbows and knees in her coffin ! In fact, 
 burials, and particularly dissections, do not 
 meet with the attention they deserve, when, 
 as you will allow, they merit the very greatest. 
 
 I have met, occasionally, a certain Mar- 
 quis de Gomes, de Peres, de Cortes, y otros, 
 y otros, y otros, with forty names of grand- 
 mothers, and four pages of these y otros, (which 
 answer to our et caetera) who used always to 
 be present at the dissection of his relatives
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 when he was in Portugal ; and this said 
 Marquis made them continue the operation 
 of opening one of his uncles, regardless of 
 the cries and entreaties of the patient, who 
 had revived ; " but' said he, " he had good 
 reasons for the act" since on it depended his 
 becoming heir to the Comte d'Abrantes. 
 
 My uncle de Tesse always said that these 
 Portuguese, but especially the nobles, were 
 creatures of another world and that in com- 
 paring them with the Spaniards, these lat- 
 ter would be found models of perfection 
 and modesty !
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 157 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Jacobites Milord Walsh Dukedoms of th 
 Earls of Perth and Melfort Chevalier de St. 
 Georges A question of marriage Suitors In- 
 terview and choice An awkward mistake 
 Eclaircissement M. de Crdquy Visit to the 
 Hotel de Lesdiguie'res The Duchess Margaret 
 Ermine An expensive wig The marriage of the 
 Authoress The Cross-Palatine Death of the 
 Duchess. 
 
 THE connection of the Breteuil family with 
 the Marechal Comte de Thomond, who was 
 then only Viscount de Clare, brought us 
 into frequent intercourse with the Jacobite 
 refugees, and especially with those about the 
 court of St. Germain, for whom the Hotel de 
 Breteuil was the rendez-vous in Paris.
 
 158 KECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 Their meetings took place in the drawing- 
 room of the Marquise (on the ground-floor) 
 and all relating to them, that reached us up 
 stairs used to interest us warmly, but we 
 were somewhat reserved before Madame du 
 Chatelet, who was on the side of the Duke of 
 Hanover, without, as a matter of course, 
 being able to assign any reasonable motive 
 for it ; perhaps it was the natural conse- 
 quence of her great abilities !" 
 
 I always thought that the wish of attract- 
 ing the attention of Milord Georges Keith, 
 and in the end, the wish of driving him mad, 
 as she childishly termed it, had a great deal 
 to do with her partizanship for the House of 
 Hanover, but the Marechal d'Ecosse showed 
 his utter disregard of her by letting her 
 speak on without listening, so it always 
 ended by the beautiful Emilie being driven 
 mad herself ! 
 
 Amongst those refugees who were dis- 
 tinguished for their fidelity to the King their 
 master, and for their generous devotion and
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 159 
 
 personal sacrifices was Milord Walsh.* He 
 
 
 
 was the son of that brave officer in the 
 English Royal Navy who, after the battle of 
 
 * Lord Mahon, (Vol. iii page 550) tells us he 
 was acquainted at Baden with a Count Walsh whom 
 he understood to be the descendant and representa- 
 tive of that gentleman. The following is Charles's 
 letter, dated " 1'ancre dans le baie de Longhaylort, 
 2d Aout V. S. " Sire, j'ai re'gu des services si im- 
 portans de M. Antoine Walsh qu' il n'y a rien que 
 je ne me croie oblig& de faire pour lui en temoigner 
 mon agre'ment. Ainsi je lui ai promis d' employer 
 tout mon credit aupres de V. M. pour lui obtenir le 
 titre, de Comte d'Irelande. II est issu d'une fort bonne 
 famille, tres en 6tat de soutenir la dignite de ce 
 nouveau titre, et n'a pas besoin d' autre chose. C'est la 
 premiere grace que je vous demande depuis mon ar- 
 rivee dans ce pays. J' espere bien que ce ne sera 
 pas la derniere, mais en tout cas, je vous supplie de 
 me 1'accorder. Je la regardrai comme une obliga- 
 tion particuliere accordee a votre tres obeissant fils, 
 Charles P." 
 
 The title of Earl had however been already con- 
 ferred on Walsh's father by James the Second. 
 Charles's request was not simply that Walsh should 
 be made an Irish Earl, but that he should have the 
 title of Earl of Ireland. 
 
 According to the " Jacobite Memoirs," edited by 
 Robert Chambers, Charles knighted Walsh imme- 
 diately after his landing, paid him 2000 as an in- 
 demnity and presented him with a sword, on the 
 blade of which Charles had had engraved the 
 words " Gratitude Fidelitate." (Translators Note.) 
 Vide Kloses Memoirs of Prince Charles Stuart.
 
 160 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 the Boyne received all the Court of England 
 on board his ship and brought them to a 
 French port. 
 
 To recruit his fortune, which he had sacri- 
 ficed in Irejand, where of course all his 
 property had been confiscated, Milord Walsh 
 had established at Nantes a bureau dar- 
 mateur, or, as they would call it in the 
 present day, a maison de commerce. From 
 this, he realized considerable profits and it 
 was one of the principal resources of his 
 party. He was the guardian angel of the 
 Pretender whom he assisted " consilio manu- 
 que" * 
 
 It does not enter into my plan to relate 
 to you the ill-fated expedition of the 
 
 * James the Second conferred the title of " Lord '' 
 upon Captain Walsh as a reward for his services, 
 at the same time that H. B. M. raised the Earls of 
 Perth and Melfort to the dignity of Dukes at St. 
 Germains. The Walsh's were proved to be an old 
 and noble family of Ireland. These Milords and 
 Messieurs Walsh ended by settling in France, and 
 one of them, whom Louis the Fifteenth made Comte 
 of the estates of Serrant, is now Colonel-proprietor 
 of a regiment of his name in the Irish Brigade. 
 
 (Authors
 
 FRENCH MABCIIIONESS. 161 
 
 Chevalier de St. Georges to Scotland, f 
 A few months afterwards he retired to the 
 Raman States, where he passed the re- 
 mainder of his life, and there I had the 
 honour of paying my court to him in the 
 year 1721. 
 
 My Father, in conjunction with the Mar- 
 quis de Breteuil, arranged the preliminaries 
 of the Prince's marriage with the grand- 
 daughter of the great Sobieski. We shall 
 find them again at Rome, and you will see 
 how nearly the Princess Marie-Casimire 
 Sobieski, sister of the Pretender, became the 
 wife of the Due de Crequy before she 
 married your great-uncle the Due de Bouil- 
 lon. 
 
 One day my grandmother de Froulay 
 said to me, 
 
 " Mon petit cceur, there appears to be 
 some idea of arranging a marriage for you," 
 
 t " The Pope lent a kind of religious consecration 
 to the enterprise, bestowing on the young Prince 
 the title of " Chevalier de St. Georges." Vide 
 Jesse's History of Pretenders. (Translator's Note.)
 
 162 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 and then she suddenly turned the conver- 
 sation without having looked at me. I felt 
 myself getting red, so I was grateful for 
 the delicate attention. 
 
 The- next day my father came to see me. 
 
 " My child," said he, " a proposal of 
 marriage has been made for you which seems 
 to me to be in every respect suitable ; I 
 beg you to listen to what your aunt will say 
 to you on the subject." 
 
 That is every word my father uttered 
 respecting it ! 
 
 My aunt (the Baroness) asked me two 
 days afterwards if I had never remarked 
 the Marquis de Laval-Boisdauphin. 
 
 " He would have no objection to marry 
 you," she said with an air of the most per- 
 fect indifference in his cause. 
 
 " I should be inconsolable !" was my 
 answer. 
 
 " I cannot find fault with you for that," 
 she replied, " therefore you may rely on my 
 not naming it to you again ; but you have 
 another suitor whom you have never seen
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 163 
 
 your grandmother thought you might meet 
 without any embarrassment in a parlour at 
 the Abbaye de Panthemont. It is a young 
 man of very high birth ; he has become the 
 head of his family, and for further informa- 
 tion you have only to open the history of the 
 great officers of the Crown, to learn who the 
 De Crequys are." 
 
 " Oh, my dear annt, I know all about this 
 grand genealogy ! It is a name that is like 
 the sound of a clarion to my ears a glorious 
 family, and, if I recollect rightly, the only 
 one of all Europe which is mentioned in a 
 record of Charlemagne. From it have sprung 
 Cardinals and Marshals ! there have been 
 Dukes of Crequy, Lesdiguieres, De Retz and 
 de Beaupreau ; Princes of Montlaur, de 
 Blanchefort and de Poix but how is it that 
 this one is not a Duke "?" 
 
 " Apparently, because they do not seem to 
 care about it ; since the late creations every 
 one allows that titles are worth nothing." 
 
 The divine Emilie here entered unex- 
 pectedly to see her mother, who raised her 
 finger to her lips and we were silent. " Ma
 
 164 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 toute belle," said my grandmother to me 
 " put on your new dress de dauphine a bou- 
 quets to-morrow, and be ready by eleven 
 o'clock precisely ; I should wish you also to 
 place pompons in your hair, so I am going 
 to send you some dark purple and dark 
 green ; we will pay a visit to Mesdames de 
 Panthemont, to whom I promised to take 
 you when I was able. Bon soir, ma reine !" 
 
 " Will you take me also, my dear aunt ?" 
 
 It was Mile, de Preuilly who made the 
 request, and my grandmother hesitated for 
 the space of a minute. 
 
 " Most assuredly ma charmante. I have 
 no objection/' she then answered, and her 
 air of annoyance gave me matter for re- 
 flection on the important and mysterious 
 intention of this visit. 
 
 The Dowager Marchioness always thought 
 it proper to adhere to old customs ; her first 
 marriage interview with my grandfather took 
 place through the grating at Belle-chasse. 
 It was therefore befitting, it was indispensible, 
 in her eyes, to treat with Monsieur de Crequy 
 as though I had not yet quitted my convent
 
 FRESCH MARCHIONESS. 165 
 
 Here we were then at Panthemont, in the 
 middle of the cloister, by virtue of the per- 
 mission of Cardinal de Noailles, and we be- 
 gan by paying visits to the lady Abbess, the 
 coadjutrice, the Prioress, and to Madame 
 Guy on, who was there by a lettre de cachet. 
 
 The Prioress was Mme. de Crequy Les- 
 diguieres. It had been arranged that her 
 cousin (Monsieur de Crequy) should ask 
 to see her in the parlour, whilst the Duchesse 
 de Valentinois, who lived opposite the 
 Abbey, should call upon us there at the 
 same time. 
 
 When we entered, we found the Marquis 
 holding a conference with his Nun at the 
 other end of the same grating ; he merely 
 made us a low bow. His appearance was 
 very noble, and he looked towards us several 
 times, but with so perfectly unconcerned an 
 air that Mile, de Preuilly suspected nothing. 
 
 One glance was sufficient to satisfy me 
 and my decision was made. He only waited, 
 according to custom, until we were gone, 
 but it so happened that my intended had 
 mistaken Mile, de Preuilly for Mile, de
 
 166 RECOLLECTIONS OP A 
 
 Froulay taking me, in fact, for my cousin 
 Emilie. This damped his ardour and delayed 
 the negotiations, so much so, that it became 
 doubtful whether the marriage would take 
 place- at all. 
 
 I was very much grieved ; (why should I 
 not allow this to my grandson, since I so 
 frequently avowed it to his grandfather 1) 
 
 " I would rather marry Mile, de Breteuil," 
 said he to M. de Laon ; " her cousin looks 
 like nothing but a tomboy ! I must beg of 
 you to name this to M. de Rennes in con- 
 fidence, that he may report it to the Baron 
 de Breteuil. I am quite aware what I lose 
 in point of fortune, and nobility for my 
 children, but I must have it in my power to 
 love my wife thoroughly ! Mile, de Breteuil 
 is charming, and Mile, de Froulay I cannot 
 endure !" 
 
 (We have often, since, laughed heartily 
 at this.) 
 
 M. 1'eveque-duc de Laon could not under- 
 stand it, but the Baronne de Breteuil saw 
 through the mistake immediately, and ex-
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 167 
 
 plained it to him in a proper and satisfactory 
 manner. 
 
 " But you will allow that it was all M. de 
 Crequy's fault \" my grandmother used to 
 say, and these words she was in the habit of 
 repeating for fifteen years to the end of her 
 life in fact and M. de Crequy never dis- 
 agreed with her. 
 
 When I first began writing to you, I fancied 
 that I could not refrain from telling you every 
 circumstance relating to M. de Crequy ; I 
 am become old and withered, but my heart 
 is not so my child ! behold how it still bounds 
 when I think of your grandsire, to whom I 
 am indebted for so many years of peaceful 
 happiness ; but my tears blind me when I 
 recall him to my thoughts to produce him 
 before you, endowed as he then was, with all 
 the charms of youth. 
 
 I had not the good fortune to die first, 
 and my grief is renewed to that extent that 
 I can no longer speak of him to you more- 
 over the portrait I should draw of him would 
 never satisfy me, and I might incur the charge
 
 168 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 of partiality ; you will learn to know your 
 grandfather in reading the memoirs of his 
 widow. The facts will speak for themselves 
 more eloquently than I have done. 
 
 After seven or eight months of talking, 
 conferences, and other preliminaries, which 
 my relations thought were positively neces- 
 sary, it was decided that we should go and 
 pay a visit to the Duchesse de Lesdiguieres, 
 inasmuch as she was the Dowager and prin- 
 cipal survivor of the eldest branch of the 
 house of De Crequy. 
 
 Marguerite de Gondi, Duchesse de Crequy- 
 Lesdiguieres was Duchesse de Retz, and de 
 Beaupreau. Since the death of her amiable 
 son, and that of the Archbishop of Paris, 
 M. Harlay, this famous Duchess had never 
 gone beyond the grounds of her grand palace : 
 the Chapel is still open to the public, and 
 the gardens were of immense extent ; the 
 timber-yards of the arsenal occupy at pre- 
 sent the greatest part. 
 
 One room for instance, of this more than 
 regal abode, had hangings of cloth of gold
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 169 
 
 worked in arabesques of mother-of-pearl and 
 coral, so you may form an idea of the rest 
 of the furniture. To tell you here of the 
 valuable pictures and the rich draperies, the 
 vases and the girandoles of rock-crystal 
 the quantity of Buhl, antique bronzes, rare 
 marbles, jewels of inestimable value and 
 profusion of trinkets, would be, to copy 
 some old memorial of the Louvre or catalogue 
 of the Vatican. 
 
 I must tell you that refreshments were 
 served to us on gold-enamelled plates bordered 
 with fine pearls, split, as we see them set 
 round watches or in the medallions of collars. 
 
 The Marechal de Richelieu always said 
 that the Due de Lesdiguieres was the last 
 Grand Seigneur that would be seen in 
 France. He never went to Court without a 
 retinue of sixty gentlemen he never refused 
 a poor person, and never gave a beggar less 
 than a pistole! 
 
 This beautiful Duchess had retained her 
 beauty unimpaired, and I never saw any other 
 person so distinguished by nature in person, 
 i
 
 170 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 grace, and physiognomy, added to the most 
 elegant simplicity of manner. There re- 
 mained in all her movements an air of pre- 
 occupation and restraint over her feelings, 
 with a sort of nonchaloir and graceful apathy 
 towards all that surrounded her. One could 
 see that the great business of her life had 
 not been to shine with outward display or to 
 dazzle indifferent eyes you could perceive 
 no trace, no spark of vain pretension in the 
 midst of such an array of splendour. 
 
 But she had been born in magnificence 
 she had lived in it and it having thus become 
 habitual, it now failed to attract her notice. 
 Since the death of the only two beings 
 whom she loved, the world had become v less 
 than nothing to her, though that did not 
 check the current of her benevolence, nor 
 prevent her keeping up the polished forms of 
 society. 
 
 She preceded us as far as a sort of throne- 
 room filled with ecuyers, pages, and other 
 gentlemen belonging to her, all dressed in 
 handsome mourning, as well as their mistress,
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. . 171 
 
 on account of the King's death ; for the in- 
 novations of the Duchesse de Berry had not 
 penetrated the gilded and emblazoned grat- 
 ings of the Hotel de Lesdiguieres. 
 
 In her own apartments she was waited on 
 by young ladies, who were in great numbers, 
 and who had been, for the most part, former 
 pensionnaires of St. Cyr. When we had 
 seated ourselves in her room, M. de Grequy 
 made me a little sign with his eyes to look 
 at the portrait of a young man, who ap- 
 peared to me to be the handsomest in the 
 world ; and this picture, the chef-d'oeuvre 
 of Mignard, was the only one in the room. 
 
 As my eyes reverted to the Duchesse de 
 Lesdiguieres, she smiled upon me with an 
 air of mournful resignation. The mother's 
 feelings had been awakened and I under- 
 stood them.* 
 
 I remember that the carpet in this beauti- 
 
 * This picture is no longer in existence. It was 
 destroyed when Conflans was pillaged and ransacked 
 in July, 1830. (Note of French Editor.) 
 
 I 3
 
 172 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 ful room was of grey velvet bordered with 
 gold fringe, but that part which was then 
 called "tapis-de-milieu," was made of real 
 ermine, and, valuing it at what a ducal 
 mantle costs, my uncle de Breteuil estimated 
 its worth at ninety thousand livres. 
 
 Apropos of ermine, let me tell you that 
 the animal becomes very scarce, so it will be 
 well for you to be provident of the material. 
 An ermine mantle never costs us less than 
 five or six hundred louis ; the creature itself 
 is very small, therefore you must take care to 
 write to our Ambassador at Constantinople 
 that he may give his orders in Armenia several 
 years before a coronation of our kings. The 
 coronation of Louis XV was delayed three or 
 four years in consequence of the Due de 
 Bourbon, his prime minister, having neglected 
 this precaution. 
 
 In former times, the requirements of 
 fashion were not a whit less expensive than 
 certain obligations of rank and ceremony. I 
 have heard Mme. de Coulanges say that in 
 Burgundy she had expended more than eight
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 173 
 
 thousand francs in one year alone, to furnish 
 light hair for the Due de Berry ! and every 
 one knew that the Regent used to pay one 
 hundred and fifty louis for each of his wigs. 
 
 On Thursday, in Easter week we were 
 married with great pomp in the Chapel of 
 the Hotel de Lesdiguieres, by the Cardinal 
 de Rohan- Soubise, to whom the Cardinal de 
 Gevres-Luxembourg insisted on acting as as- 
 sistant, which was considered an unpre- 
 cedented honour. 
 
 As a great distinction we had been allowed 
 to have the Cross-Palatine at our wedding. 
 My grandmother had been engaged a fort- 
 night beforehand in soliciting the Cardinal 
 de Noailles to lend it to us, because she said 
 it was sure to bring us luck, and this the 
 Cardinal did not deny ; but the conscientious 
 scruples of the Prelate ran counter to his 
 kinder feelings, and he was divided between 
 obliging us, and acting up to the letter of his 
 duty. 
 
 " But/' said my grandmother to him, 
 " is it possible to do enough for Monsieur
 
 174 RECOLLECTIONS Of A 
 
 de Crequy, the last of his family 1" and 
 that decided his Eminence to send us the 
 Cross-Palatine, accompanied by six Canons 
 of Notre Dame, who were not to lose sight 
 of it. 
 
 They arrived at the chapel to the noise 
 of drums with an escort of forty grenadiers 
 of the Gardes-franpaises ; the troops all pre- 
 sented arms as the Cross was carried past 
 under a canopy from the Archbishop's 
 palace to the Hotel de Lesdiguieres, and 
 the people followed in procession. The 
 Ley den Gazette was full of it for more 
 than three months, and for an account of 
 the rest of the ceremonies and fetes at our 
 wedding, you must consult the supplement of 
 the " Mercure de France." * 
 
 * The Cross-Palatine was left as a legacy to the 
 Church of Notre Dame by the Cardinal de Riche- 
 lieu, who had caused all the sanctuaries of Europe 
 to be opened to form this reliquiary. It was made 
 of gold, in the shape of a Latin Cross and magnifi- 
 cently ornamented with precious stones. It disap- 
 peared during the Revolution of July. (Note by 
 French Editor.}
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 175 
 
 We went and established ourselves under 
 the chaperonage of my grandmother at the 
 Hotel de Crequy-Canaples, rue de Grenelle, 
 where the Duchesse Marguerite had paid me 
 the compliment of herself arranging our 
 apartments. The hangings and the furni- 
 ture were of cloth of gold covered with 
 vine-leaves in crimson velvet ; but that 
 was a small portion only of her wedding 
 present, for she had placed in my jewel-case 
 diamonds worth about a hundred thousand 
 ecus. All the family jewels were delivered 
 to us at her death, which took place unex- 
 pectedly two months afterwards of dropsy. 
 
 It was eleven years since she had left 
 her apartment when she quitted it for her 
 grave, in the fifty- second year, only, of 
 
 her age. 
 
 M. de Crequy accompanied the funeral as 
 
 far as Blanchefort, where she had wished to 
 be buried in the same chapel with her son 
 and Francois de Blanchefort, of blessed 
 memory. My feelings for the Duchess were
 
 176 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 what M. de Crequy called " un attrait mi- 
 sericordieux ?' your grandfather had a strong 
 and sincere affection for her, and I have 
 always regretted that our acquaintance was 
 not of longer duration.
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 177 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Duchess de Berry, daughter of the Regent Her 
 treatment of the Clergy Sacraments refused 
 Her death Her surviving sisters Gardens of 
 the Luxembourg A fine lady Comte de Horn 
 Origin of the Regent's animosity towards him 
 The Horn family Melancholy story The 
 Count in trouble Exertions of his friends 
 Petition of his noble relatives. 
 
 THE next two years of ray life glided by in 
 all the charm of serenity, the consequence 
 of a mind at ease ; our happiness would 
 have been complete but for the abominable 
 misgovernment of the Regency and the 
 dreadful enormities of the Duchesse de 
 Berry. It was really quite humiliating for
 
 178 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 the Royal Family of France, and made all 
 respectable people miserable. 
 
 This horrible woman was the plague-spot 
 of our existence. She had burnt up her 
 inside by the abuse of strong liquors till 
 at last she fell ill, and when her danger be- 
 came manifest, the Cure of St. Sulpice, (the 
 famous Languet de Gerzy) presented himself 
 at the Luxembourg to ofier his services in 
 fulfilment of his duties as pastor. 
 
 Madame de M gave him an im- 
 pertinent answer ; she said that she should 
 not announce him to the Duchesse de Berry, 
 as she was quite sure that Princess would 
 not receive him ; he could gain nothing 
 more from this creature, and he then sor- 
 rowfully declared that he should be obliged 
 to forbid the administration of the sacra- 
 ment to the sick person, after which the 
 good Cure made his way towards the Palais- 
 Royal, when the Duke of Orleans admitted 
 him instantly to his cabinet. 
 
 After half an hour's painful conference, 
 one of the Prince's carriages was seen to
 
 FHENCH MARCHIONESS. 179 
 
 leave the Orleans' stables in the direction of 
 the Archbishop's palace to fetch the Cardinal 
 de Noailles, whom the Regent begged to 
 come to the Palais Royal without delay. 
 The Cardinal arrived in his own carriage, be- 
 cause the Orleans' arms were on the other, 
 and this gave sovereign displeasure to M. de 
 Segur, Master of the robes to H. R. H. who 
 was the bearer of the message. 
 
 The interview lasted a long time ; all the 
 ministers, councillors and courtiers of the 
 Palais-Royal awaited the result in a gallery 
 adjoining the Cabinet of the Prince ; at 
 length the door opens the Cardinal crosses 
 the threshold and then, before every one 
 assembled, and close to the Regent, who 
 seemed in a s^ate of consternation, he ad- 
 dressed to the Abbe de Gerzy the following 
 sentence word for word. 
 
 " M. le Cure, in virtue of my authority 
 as Archbishop of Paris, a ad as your ecclesi- 
 astical superior, I forbid you to administer, 
 to cause to be administered, or to allow to 
 be administered to the Duchesse de Berry,
 
 180 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 the sacraments of the church, unless the 
 Comte de Riom, and the Vicomtesse de 
 
 M shall have quitted the Luxembourg, 
 
 and shall have been dismissed by order of 
 that Princess." 
 
 But all this time the Duchesse was dying, 
 and imperiously demanded to receive the 
 unctions with the holy Viaticum ; their re- 
 fusal maddened her to desperation she 
 broke or tore everything that came within 
 her reach ! she bit her hands and her pages, 
 guards, and even her footmen at the other 
 end of her apartments, heard her screams 
 and imprecations of frantic rage and fury. 
 
 The wretched Duke of Orleans, who ido- 
 lized her alas ! and who feared that they 
 might deny her a Christian burial, and such 
 an one as became a Princess, sent off M. de 
 Segur to the Archbishop's palace, and to the 
 Presbytery of St. Sulpice to request the 
 Cardinal and M. de Gerzy to coine to the 
 Luxembourg where the Regent awaited them 
 with terror on his countenance and in his 
 inmost soul.
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 181 
 
 When the three arrived and met, they 
 were all positively and pertinaciously refused 
 admittance by the Princess I She would not 
 even see her father, who remained transfixed 
 at the door of her room, and shed tears when 
 he heard her call out that it was cowardly 
 and infamous of him to annoy her, for the 
 sake of pleasing some bigots, whom she was 
 going to order to be thrown out of the 
 windows! The Regent returned home in 
 despair. 
 
 Youth and a strong constitution retarded 
 the death of the Duchesse de Berry however, 
 for five or six weeks. As she felt assured 
 she would never be permitted to marry M. 
 de Riom secretly, she knew that she risked 
 nothing by insisting on it with her father 
 and at last the Regent became enraged ! 
 He sent off his daughter's favorite and their 
 confidant ; the one to the frontiers of Spain 
 to Marshal Berwick's army, and the other 
 with permission to return to her home, and 
 get herself buffetted by her husband, which 
 was sure to happen, for no convent would
 
 182 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 receive Madame de M . Not that she 
 
 could not afford to pay handsomely for her 
 maintenance, for she had amassed at the 
 expense of the Duchesse de Berry, and by 
 collusion with M. de Riom, an income of 
 about 80,000 livres, levied on different pro- 
 vincial estates, on the clergy of France, and 
 on the Hotel de Ville. 
 
 To ensure their gains, no hungry dogs, nor 
 devouring wolves could be more greedy in 
 quest of prey, than they were. 
 
 Marie-Louise d'Orleans died on the 22nd 
 of July 1719, at the Pavilion de la Muette, 
 and I believe, all things considered, that the 
 Regent thought himself fortunate when the 
 Monks of St. Denys did not refuse her in- 
 terment in the royal vaults. 
 
 Of the four daughters who remained to 
 the Due d'Orleans, one became Duchesse de 
 Modena ; another was Queen of Spain and 
 became a widow almost as soon as married. 
 Her habits were so depraved that she was 
 sent back at last as a worthless and wicked 
 mad-cap, which in fact she was.
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 183 
 
 Next came the Abbess de Chelles, and 
 then Mile, de Beaujolais who died of a 
 broken heart. I have not thought it neces- 
 sary to mention here the Princesse de Conty 
 because she was in leading-strings at the 
 time of her eldest sister's decease. 
 
 Immediately after the death of the 
 Duchesse de Berry, the gardens of the Lux- 
 embourg were re-opened for the enjoyment 
 of the public at Paris, this Princess having 
 had the gates walled up, and there one fine 
 afternoon M. de Crequy took me with my 
 grandmother and Miles, de Breteuil. 
 
 We obtained chairs from the gate-keepers, 
 having asked them to bring us jome, and 
 when we were seated we saw a handsome 
 person approaching, elegantly attired in deep 
 mourning, with a dress trimmed with black 
 feathers, and rows of jet mixed with bronzed 
 steel, which had a most rich and brilliant 
 appearance. She was surrounded by a 
 swarm of gallants, abbes, musqueteers, and 
 pages, but marching before them all was a 
 young and handsome German Prince whose
 
 184 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 hand she held. (You will soon hear the 
 sad and remarkable adventure of this ill- 
 fated stranger, whose name was Comte 
 Antoine de Horn.) 
 
 The servant who carried the train of this 
 fine lady was in a crimson and silver livery, 
 and she came and installed herself with all 
 her young flutterers, close by our side, on 
 velvet chairs and benches fringed with gold, 
 which a gar f on rouge of the house of 
 Orleans kept for her. She walked past us 
 without bowing, my grandmother and M. de 
 Crequy appearing not to notice her, but this 
 did not prevent my cousins and myself staring 
 at her with all our might. 
 
 " Pray tell me who she is !" said I to 
 M. de Crequy, 
 
 " It is a woman of rank," replied he 
 coldly and aloud," whose name one does 
 not dare to mention before her relations I" 
 
 There was a dead silence, and then the 
 fine lady said to one of her young people 
 who had just whispered something in her 
 ear,
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 185 
 
 " I really think that is Monsieur Pain- 
 tendre !" 
 
 These words she uttered smiling ironi- 
 cally, and impertinently looking M. de 
 . Crequy full in the face. Now I must tell 
 you that this M. Paintendre was an ecuyer 
 of the Due de Chartres. and was actually 
 something like my husband, a resemblance 
 of which that person was very vain, whilst 
 your grandfather's annoyance was so great, 
 it was amusing to witness it. Thus, the 
 malicious woman had touched a tender chord 
 in a vulnerable part. 
 
 " Eh ! bonjour Marquis de Crequy ! 
 bonjour mon cousin !" exclaimed this Comte 
 Antoine in a very off-hand manner. The 
 Marquis bowed without answering ; and 
 Madame de Froulay said to me with a dis- 
 dainful toss of her head ; 
 
 " It is your Aunt de Parabere ! let us 
 change our places !" 
 
 I have never met her any where else, save 
 once in the vestry of Notre Dame, to be
 
 186 RECOLLECTIONS OP A 
 
 present at a strange ceremony, which I will 
 tell vo u of further on. 
 
 
 
 The Marquise de Parabere Marie-Made- 
 leine-Olympe-Henriette, du Cosquaer des dues 
 de la Vieuville, had made herself so notorious 
 during the regency, that her husband's family 
 refused to bear the same name, Her old 
 husband, Cesar de Baudean, Marquise de 
 Parabere, left her a widow in 1716. 
 
 I have already mentioned to you that my 
 Aunt de Breteuil had married M. de la 
 Vieuville, who was the father of this Mar- 
 quise ; but her conduct so completely ban- 
 ished her from good society, that my aunt 
 
 never even returned her bows. 
 
 " Officers of the guards and light-horse 
 
 that is quite ridiculous enough! and 
 
 counsellors 1 one can even imagine that, 
 
 but laquais or Princes of the blood ! it is 
 too unpardonable I" exclaimed the Duchess 
 de la Ferte to us once. 
 
 There was a story told of the Regent 
 having surprised her shut up in a room with
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 187 
 
 this same Comte de Horn. " Sortez Mon- 
 sieur !" said he. in a disdainful tone. 
 
 " Our ancestors would have said " Sortons" 
 replied the lover, with incredible assurance, 
 and from that moment his destruction was 
 determined on. * 
 
 The Princes de Horn and d'Overique, 
 Sovereign-Counts of Haute-Kerke, and here- 
 ditary grand-huntsmen of the empire, were 
 undoubtedly one of the most ancient and 
 influential families of European nobility. 
 
 In 1 720 the house of Horn comprised the 
 reigning Prince Maximilian-Emmanuel, at 
 that time about four-and- twenty years of 
 age ; a sister, a chanoinesse at the Abbey de 
 Thorn, and the grand-forestier of Flanders 
 and Artois who, in a fit of insanity, had 
 killed his wife Agnes de Crequy. It is as 
 
 * Voltaire repeated to me one day a similar an- 
 swer of which he had just heard, only it was said 
 to have been made by the Comte de Chabot to the 
 Prince de Conty " My dear Voltaire," I replied, 
 " there was once an old Jew whose name was Solo- 
 mon, who said, ' There is nothing new under the 
 sun !" (Author's Note.)
 
 188 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 well to add here that the mother of these 
 young people was a Princesse de Ligne ; her 
 father had been deranged, and her brother 
 in confinement from the same cause. Their 
 last grandmothers were the des Croiiy, 
 d'Egmont, Crequy and Montmorency ; Prin- 
 cesses of Bavaria, Lorraine, Gonzague, Luxem- 
 bourg and Nassau ; the beauty of their 
 quarterings was unequalled. 
 
 The Prince de Horn was a remarkably 
 well-conducted young man, and lived in a 
 manner suitable to his rank in the low 
 countries, residing entirely in his Comte de 
 Baussigny. 
 
 The Comte de Horn began by entering the 
 Austrian service ; he was reproached with 
 having been wanting in respect to Prince 
 Louis of Baden, general of the armies of 
 the empire, to whose brother he had also 
 given some cause of dissatisfaction and by 
 the latter he was placed under arrest in his 
 old castle of Wert in the pays de Horn. 
 The grandson of the famous Jean de Wert 
 was the governor of this fortress, and his
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 189 
 
 ill-treatment so exasperated his young pri- 
 soner that he fell into a state of continual 
 fury and complete aberration of intellect ; 
 he was confined in the same cell in which 
 Jean de Horn, stadtholder of Guelders had 
 imprisoned his father, and this furnished 
 Rembrandt with the subject of that admir- 
 able picture which Madame had brought 
 from Germany, and which is now to be seen 
 in the Orleans' collection. 
 
 After six months of rigorous captivity, he 
 found means to escape from the Castle of 
 Wert after having knocked down two of his 
 goalers with a bottle ; he committed all sorts 
 of extraordinary acts, and finally presented 
 himself before his brother at Baussigny look- 
 ing like a spectre. 
 
 The Prince de Horn, from whom the 
 governor of Wert had concealed everything 
 relating to the state of the young Count, 
 and the ill-treatment of which he had been 
 the object, welcomed the unfortunate youth 
 with the tenderest compassion ; he placed 
 him in his own private apartments, and three
 
 190 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 servants sat up and watched him carefully 
 day and night. The eldest brother instantly 
 dismissed the stadtholder of Wert whose 
 brutal conduct had brought on the Counts 
 illness, and when the stadtholder heard this 
 he incited the peasants for five or six leagues 
 round to revolt that he might still maintain 
 his government. For this he was put under 
 the ban of the empire, and he died shut up 
 in the castle of Ilorn-op-zee. Had it not 
 been for his grandfather's memory he would 
 have been hanged a hundred times over. 
 
 The Princess de Salm-Kirbourg, was a 
 relation of yours and my intimate friend ; 
 she was the eldest daughter of this same 
 Prince de Horn, and from her I received 
 these particulars, with most of those which 
 follow. 
 
 Kindness and gentle treatment, proper 
 regimen, and especially the marks of affection 
 he received from his brother, produced the 
 most beneficial results on Count Antoine ; 
 he ended by recovering his reason, but the 
 least contradiction irritated him ; violence
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 191 
 
 was always lurking in his constitution, and 
 therefore his family never ceased to treat 
 him with the most soothing and assiduous 
 attention. 
 
 It was in this state of mind that he escaped 
 from the Low-Countries, and came to Paris 
 where he had to arrange money matters re- 
 lating to his share of the property of the 
 Princess d'Epinay. 
 
 He lost no time in calling on your grand- 
 father, who received him very politely 
 but he would not introduce him to 
 me because he had not brought any letters 
 from his elder brother. Our brothers and 
 our husbands were very fond of him ; they 
 gave him the prettiest suppers in the world 
 in their apartments, and took him to their 
 boxes at all the theatres, but we never met 
 him except at church, where he regularly 
 repaired to see us come out, and to have 
 people he did not know pointed out and 
 named to him. 
 
 It was impossible for us not to remark 
 him amongst the crowd that lined our pas . 
 sage, on account of his appearance. He was
 
 192 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 perfectly handsome although somewhat pale ; 
 his eyes were bright as fire, so much so that 
 we could hardly bear the glare of them. It 
 was known that there was a full understand- 
 ing between himself and Mesdames de Para- 
 bere and de Lussan, de Plenoeuf and de 
 Prie, and this gave rise to much charitable 
 and disinterested regret, which used highly 
 to amuse Monsieur de Crequy. 
 
 As this fine handsome young man some- 
 times disguised himself when he went out 
 at night, the press-gangs for the Mississipi * 
 had already seized him several times to send 
 him off towards Havre- de-Grace ; one would 
 have said that they laid in wait for him in 
 particular, and as he had once been ill- 
 treated at the depot, or wherever these 
 
 * The following passage from Lord Mahon's " His- 
 tory of England from the peace of Utrecht," may 
 be found explanatory of this sentence : " John 
 Law, a Scotch adventurer, had some years before 
 been allowed to establish a public bank in that city, 
 (Paris) and his project succeeding, he engrafted 
 another upon it of an " Indian Company," to have 
 the sole privilege of trade with the Mississipi." 
 Vol ii Chap. xi. (Translator's Note.)
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 193 
 
 press-gangs met, your grandfather went and 
 complained to the former garde-des-sceaux, 
 who, although he had retired from office, 
 had just as much influence and authority as 
 ever. M. d' Argenson's answer was myster- 
 ious. 
 
 " Do not you interfere, except it be to 
 make him leave Paris ; I know nothing, and 
 I can do nothing ; but if he do not go, he 
 is lost. I can say no more/' 
 
 It was Passion week I shall never forget 
 it ! when they came and informed M. de 
 Crequy that the Count Antoine had been for 
 the last four-and-twenty hours in the con- 
 ciergerie of the Palace, and that he would 
 probably be brought before La Tournelle on 
 a charge of murder. 
 
 We were informed that the accusation 
 set forth, that the Cornte de Horn had 
 stabbed, in the Rue Quincampoix a stock- 
 jobber and broker of Law's bank ;"" he was 
 
 * John Law was the son of a goldsmith in Edin- 
 burgh ; he was obliged to fly from Great Britain 
 K
 
 194 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 a Jew and a money-lender in short, we 
 could make nothing at all of the story. 
 
 Your grandfather, who had been pondering 
 over the words of M. Argenson, now hastened 
 to assemble at the Hotel de Crequy all the 
 relations and friends of the house of Horn ; 
 a deputation of them waited on the chief- 
 president de Mesmes, when it was ascertained 
 beyond a doubt that the Jew was dead and 
 that the Comte de Horn had confessed to 
 having stabbed him with a knife. 
 
 Great excitement prevailed, and it was 
 debated whether they should not first of all 
 communicate everything to the Regent, but 
 this plan was not adopted. It was decided 
 that they ought to begin by petitioning the 
 magistrates, taking care to make them ac- 
 quainted with the extraction, malady, and 
 
 and took refuge in france ; he gained the confidence 
 of the Duke of Orleans and instituted a bank, 
 founded on excellent principles of self-aggrandise- 
 ment. He afterwards became Comptroller-General, 
 was deservedly detested, dismissed, and died in 
 poverty at Venice. (Translator's Note.)
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 195 
 
 character, of the Cointe de Horn, as well as 
 the melancholy occurrences of his former 
 life. 
 
 The evening before his trial we presented 
 ourselves in a body as relatives of the accused 
 to the number of fifty seven persons of con- 
 siderable distinction, in the long corridor 
 of the palace which led to the court of justice 
 called La Tournelk, and this we did that 
 we might bow to the judges as they passed. 
 
 I felt very sad ; every one else entertained 
 sanguine hopes, with the exception of Mme. 
 de Beauffremont, and she also was gifted 
 with second sight (as they call it in Scot- 
 land) therefore we both had presentiments 
 of coming ill, with an awful sickness at 
 heart. 
 
 The result of the examination was, that 
 the Comte de Horn had entrusted eighty- 
 eight thousand livres in bank-notes, to this 
 usurer, who denied having received them, 
 and after behaving brutally to his noble and 
 fiery creditor, even gave him a blow on the 
 
 face. This scene took place in a room at a 
 M 3
 
 196 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 tavern, which the Count had entered to seek 
 this stockjobber, and there, in a transport of 
 rage, he seized a kitchen knife which was on 
 the table and wounded the man slightly in 
 the shoulder. A Piedmontese, whose name 
 was the Chevalier de Milhe, brother to one 
 of the Princesse de Carignan's ecuyers, then 
 despatched the Jew with a poniard, after 
 which he possessed himself of his pocket- 
 book, having begged the Comte de Horn in 
 vain, to take charge of it, that they might 
 divide the contents, and thus repay them- 
 selves in proportion, as each had lost 
 through the roguery of the money-lender. 
 
 Such is the whole story, as it was proved 
 in evidence at the examination. I know 
 that our version of it differed from that of the 
 Regent and the Abbe Dubois ; but you will 
 allow that that is no reason why it should 
 be less accurate or less true. The Comte de 
 Horn had certainly rendered himself liable 
 to punishment, and De Milhe was well de- 
 serving of death ; but this did not prevent 
 M. Law and M. Dubois, the natural pro-
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 197 
 
 tectors of the stock-jobbers and sharpers of 
 the Rue Quincampoix (the head quarters of 
 the system) from making use of the most 
 singularly odious means of obtaining from 
 La Tournelle, an iniquitous, execrable, and 
 atrocious sentence ! They made no allowance 
 for the sums of money of which this unfortu- 
 nate stranger had been robbed, nor for the 
 provocation of a blow in the face ; they never 
 considered that he was scarcely recovered 
 from a fit of temporary derangement, and 
 that the blow he had inflicted was too 
 slight to have caused death ; lastly, that he 
 had never, until then, seen or known this 
 Piedmontese murderer, and that he had reso- 
 lute^ly refused, not only to open but, even 
 to touch the pocket-book. 
 
 To be broken on the wheel ! I cannot 
 
 think of it, even at the present moment 
 without horror of the Regent ! 
 
 As soon as the sentence was pronounced 
 we put on mourning and assembled in the 
 same numbers and in the same place as on 
 the preceding day. They consulted for
 
 198 RECOLLECTIONS OP A 
 
 about an hour . 
 
 (a blank of twenty pages) 
 
 we took up our position in the salle des 
 gardes and had the following petition pre- 
 sented to the Regent, the prayer of which 
 was, to obtain at least a commutation of the 
 ignominious punishment of the wheel, for 
 that of imprisonment for life ; 
 
 The following is a copy of our 
 
 petition, with a list of those who were 
 allowed to sign it as relatives of the house 
 of Horn. It was in every respect embarras- 
 sing for us, not less on account of the rejec- 
 tion or admission of signatures than in the 
 difficulty of drawing up a petition in the 
 name of a foreign Prince. 
 
 Your grandfather was besieged with re- 
 quests (made from" motives of vanity) to be 
 allowed to be enrolled among the number of 
 relations, all of which he prudently referred
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 199 
 
 to the decision of the Prince de Ligne. 
 (The Marechal de Villaroy was inconsolable 
 at not being included in the convocations at 
 the Hotel de Crequy!) 
 
 PETITION OF THE RELATIONS OF THE PRINCE 
 DR HORN AND THE COMTE DE HORN TO THE 
 REGENT. 
 
 "Monseigneur, 
 
 " The faithful subjects of His 
 "Majesty, whose names are here subscribed, 
 " have the honor humbly to set forth to 
 " your Royal Highness : 
 
 FIRSTLY, 
 
 " That Count Amboise de Horn, grand- 
 " forestier of Flanders and Artois, has been 
 
 *' deprived of reason and liberty for seventeen 
 "years ! It is well known that in a fit of 
 " madness he caused the death of Madame 
 " Agnes-Brigitte de Crequy, his wife, yet the 
 " sovereign-courts of Flanders and Brabant 
 " did not consider himself amenable to any
 
 200 - RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 " other law save that of interdiction. It 
 "appears by affidavits herewith enclosed, 
 " firstly, that the said seigneui -comte obsti- 
 " nately refused, whilst at the Chateau de 
 " Loozen, to partake of any nourishment but 
 " raw flesh ; secondly, that he reserved his 
 " daily ration of wine until it amounted to 
 " a quantity sufficient to intoxicate him ; 
 " 3rdly, that he wounded himself on the 
 " 4th day of April 1712 by means of an 
 " iron hook which he attempted to drive 
 " into his neck, and that he lost a great 
 " quantity of blood, by which his life was 
 " endangered ; 4thly. that having found 
 " means to escape from the aforesaid Chateau 
 " de Loozen, he met on the road two Capucin 
 " monks of Ruremonde, aud that he made a 
 " most furious attack upon them declaring 
 " that they must renounce their God. He 
 " was armed . with two brace of loaded 
 " pistols, which he had taken from some 
 ' of the travellers. One of the monks, 
 ' mortally terrified at the unfortunate Count's 
 " violence, was weak enough to pronounce
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 201 
 
 " some words of apostacy which his fears 
 " supplied, whereupon the Count blew out 
 " his brains, telling him that he was a 
 '* wretched apostate whom it was right to 
 " send to the Devil. The other monk who 
 " had remained firm was shot all the same 
 " with another pistol, the madman saying 
 " that he would make him a martyr to his 
 " fate, and send him straight to Paradise. 
 
 SECONDLY, 
 
 " That Prince Ferdinand de Ligne and 
 " d'Amblise, Major-General in the Imperial 
 " army, is under the guardianship of the 
 " Prince his brother, as having been legally 
 " declared of unsound mind since the year 
 " 1717. 
 
 THIRDLY, 
 
 " That the father of the late Princesse de 
 " Horn and d'Overique had lost the use of 
 " his reason for about three years before 
 " his death.
 
 202 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 FOURTHLY, 
 
 " That Count Antoine Joseph de Horn 
 " and du Saint Empire, is the legitimate 
 " younger son of Philip the Fifth, and of his 
 " wife Antoinette Princesse de Ligue, in 
 " regular descent to the reigning Prince of 
 *' Horn and d'Overique, Sovereign Count of 
 " Baussigny, of Hautekerke and de Bailleul, 
 " Stadtholder of Guelders, and Prince and 
 " hereditary grand huntsman of the first 
 " class, &c. ; that he has been attacked by 
 " a malady recognized by the Brabant doctors 
 "as well as by the judicial authorities of 
 " the Austrian Low Countries, as bearing 
 " all the features of mental aberration, as 
 " it appears by the documents annexed to 
 " this prayer of the petitioners. 
 
 FIFTHLY, 
 
 " That if the undersigned forbear enter- 
 " ing upon any discussion of the ground of 
 " the charges, or the formality of the arrest 
 " of the said Count Antoine, it is entirely from 
 " feelings of deference, without any regard
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 203 
 
 " to the trial, and they reserve to themselves 
 " all reasonable means for obtaining justice 
 " for their aforesaid relation. 
 
 " For these reasons, May it please your 
 " Royal Highness to obtain from the King, 
 " our Sovereign Lord" (all the rest of the 
 Petition is in the customary phraseology 
 which I have not copied, but I have men- 
 tioned all the substance of it.) " We are, 
 " with respect, your Royal Highness' very 
 " humble and most obedient servants, 
 
 Claude, Prince de Ligne. 
 
 Jean de Croy, Due de Havre. 
 
 Anne-Leon de Montmorency. 
 
 Joseph de Mailly, Marquis d'Harcourt. 
 
 Louis, Sire et Marquis de Crequy. , 
 
 Procope, comte d'Egmont, Due de Guel- 
 dres et de Cleves. 
 
 t L'Archeveque et Prince D'Embrun. 
 
 Joseph de Lorraine, Prince de Guise. 
 
 Charles, Due de la Tremouille and Prince 
 de Tarente. 
 
 Charles de Lorraine, Prince de Montlaur, 
 
 f L'Archeveque Due de Rheims.
 
 204 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 Charles de Lorraine, Sire de Pons, 
 
 Guy Charbot, Cointe de Jarnac. 
 
 Charles Roger, Prince de Courtenay. 
 
 Aniie de la Tremouille, Comte de Taille- 
 bourg. 
 
 Rene de Froulay, Marechal comte de 
 Tesse. 
 
 f Le Cardinal de Genres-Luxembourg. 
 
 Antoine de la Tremouille, Due de Noir- 
 monstier. 
 
 Louis de Rohan, Prince de Soubise et 
 d'Epinoy. 
 
 Antoine-Nompar de Caumont, Due de 
 Lauzun. 
 
 Louis de Beauffremont, Marquis et Comte 
 de Listenois. 
 
 Ernmanuel-Theodose de la Tour d' Auver- 
 gne, Due de Bouillon, d' Albret et de Cha- 
 teau-Thierry. 
 
 Hugues de Crequy, Vidame de Tournay. 
 
 t Armand-Gastron, Cardinal de Rohan. 
 
 f Henri de la Tour d' Auvergne, Abbe- 
 general de Cisteaux. 
 
 Louis de Mailly, Marquis de Nesle.
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 205 
 
 Henri Nompar de Caumont, Due de la 
 Force. 
 
 Louis de Rouge, Marquis du Plessis-Bel- 
 liere. 
 
 t Fran9ois de Lorraine, Eveque et comte 
 de Bayeux. 
 
 H. de Gontaut-Biron. (for my father, who 
 was ill.) 
 
 Charles de Rohan, Prince de Guemenee. 
 
 Louis de Bourbon, Comte de Busset. 
 
 Emmanuel de Baviere. 
 
 Louis, Due de Rohan-Chabot. 
 
 Paul de Montmorency, Due de Chastillon. 
 
 Just de Wassenaer, Burggrave de Leyde. 
 
 Claire-Eugenie de Horn, Comtesse de 
 Montmorency-Logny. 
 
 Marie de Crequy, Princesse de Croy. 
 
 Charlotte de Savoy. 
 
 Eleonore de Nassau, Landgrave de Hesse. 
 
 Henriette de Durfort-Duras, Comtesse d'- 
 Egmont. 
 
 Victoire de Froulay, Marquise de Crequy. 
 
 Charlotte de Lorraine d' Armagnac. 
 
 Genevieve de Bretagne, Princesse de 
 Courtenay.
 
 206 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 Marie-Therese de Montmorency, Comtesse 
 de Dreux de Nancre. 
 
 Helene de Courtenay, Marquise de Beau- 
 ffremont. 
 
 Marie de Gouffier, Comtesse de Bourbon- 
 Busset. 
 
 t Blanche de Lusignan, Abbesse de St. 
 Pierre. 
 
 Charlotte de Mailly, Princesse de Nassau. 
 
 Marie Sobieska, Duchess de Bouillon, d'- 
 Albret, &c. 
 
 Francoise de Noailles, Princesse de Lor- 
 raine. 
 
 Marie de Crequy, Comtesse de Jarnac. 
 
 Marguerite de Ligne et d' Aremberg, 
 Marquise Douairiere de Berg-op-Zoom. 
 
 Elizabeth de Gonzague, Duchesse de' 
 Mirande. 
 
 La Princess Olympic de Gonzague. 
 
 Marie de Champagne, Comtesse de Choi- 
 seul. 
 
 Anne du Guesclin, Douairiere de Goyon. 
 
 It had been decided that every one should 
 sign this petition as they arrived at M. de 
 Crequy's, without regard to the rights or
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 207 
 
 pretensions of precedence, and when it be- 
 came known that the list was composed of 
 all the most ancient and illustrious names, 
 a considerable number of people were much 
 annoyed at not finding their own included 
 therein ; sulky looks and angry words with- 
 out end, and even quarrels ensued in con- 
 sequence, for, fifty years after this, the 
 DucheSse de Mazarin was still complaining 
 of an affront which she said Her father had 
 received from M. de Crequy, I could not 
 imagine what this could be, until at last I 
 discovered that it was on account of this 
 very petition !
 
 208 RECOLLECTIONS OP A 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Interview with the Regent A promise of allevia- 
 tion of punishment Last confession of the ac- 
 cused The Bourreau Letter from the Duke de 
 St. Simon to the Duke d' Havr6 Dishonorable 
 conduct of the Regent The Place de Gre"ve 
 Note from the Duke d' Havrfe The Regent offers 
 the confiscated property of the Comte de Horn to 
 his brother Rejected by the latter More acts 
 of the " good Regent." 
 
 WE were shown into the council chamber 
 by order of the Regent, the chief officers 
 of his household doing the honours in 
 silence, and there, in ten minutes, His Roy- 
 al Highness sent to inform us that he 
 awaited the deputation in his cabinet. 
 Those 'whom it was agreed beforehand 
 should present the petition, were, the Car-
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 209 
 
 dinal de Rohan, the Duke d' Havre, the 
 Prince de Ligne and your grandfather. 
 
 The deepest anxiety was depicted on the 
 countenances of all ; you might see by the 
 gathering together of some of the women 
 of our party that they were arranging them- 
 selves in attitudes of prayer, and I remem- 
 ber that that good Princesse d' Armagnac 
 began to count her beads. 
 
 The Duke of Orleans commenced by tell- 
 ing our gentlemen that those who could ask 
 pardon for the criminal (that is the word he 
 used) showed more interest in the House of 
 Horn than loyalty to the King. M. de Cre- 
 quy besought him to deign to read our pe- 
 tition. 
 
 " Granting the possibility of his being 
 mad," replied the Regent, " you will be 
 obliged to allow that he is a dangerous 
 madman, and that as such, it is right and 
 prudent to get rid of him." 
 
 " But Monseigneur," rejoined the Prince 
 de Ligne, sharply, " a Prince of your blood 
 might possibly become deranged ; would
 
 210 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 you have him broken on the wheel if he 
 committed any acts of madness ?" 
 
 The Cardinal interposed between them, 
 and prayed His Royal Highness to take into 
 consideration that the ignominy of the pun- 
 ishment would attach itself, not only to the 
 person of the condemned and the house of 
 Horn, but would be a blot on the escutch- 
 eons of ail the princely families and others, 
 wherever a quartering of this sullied name 
 should be found ; this would cause a marked 
 prejudice against the high nobility of France 
 and the Empire, excluding their members 
 from entering noble chapters, princely abbeys, 
 sovereign bishops, Teutonic commandries and 
 even the order of Malta, where, besides being 
 unable to substantiate their claims, all these 
 families would be debarred from their ad- 
 vantages down to the fourth generation ! 
 
 " Monseigneur !" exclaimed the Prince de 
 Ligne, " I have, in my genealogy, four escut- 
 cheons of Horn, and consequently four an- 
 cestors in that house ! I must then be 
 obliged to scratch them out and efface them
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 211 
 
 for ever ! there will be blanks and blots in 
 our pedigree ; there is not a single sovereign 
 family in existence who will not be injured 
 by your Royal Highness' severity, and all the 
 world knows that in the thirty-two quarter- 
 ings of your mother will be found the shield 
 of Horn !" 
 
 Your grandfather here threw himself into 
 the breach, whilst the Regent answered 
 mildly, 
 
 " Then, gentlemen, I shall partake in 
 your disgrace." 
 
 (It is not true that he said, " When I have 
 bad blood I get rid of it.) 
 
 When they saw that there was no chance 
 of pardon, they were obliged to fall back 
 upon the hope of obtaining a commutation of 
 the punishment, and as soon as it became 
 a question whether Count de Horn should 
 be beheaded or put to death upon the wheel, 
 the Cardinal de Rohan withdrew from the 
 discussion. 
 
 On his return to the room in which he 
 had left us, we were fearful that some point
 
 212 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 was being argued in which the Cardinal as a 
 clergyman could not participate, and from 
 this we augured most inauspiciously. M. de 
 Crequy also would not solicit for anything 
 more than imprisonment for life ! he re- 
 joined us a quarter of an hour after the 
 Cardinal, looking awfully pale, and in this 
 state we remained until nearly midnight, 
 without speaking. It was Saturday the 
 eve of Palm Sunday. 
 
 It was agreed and decided on after great 
 trouble and difficulty, between the Duke of 
 Orleans and the Duke d'Havre, (who was 
 constantly interrupted by his cousin De 
 Ligne) that His Royal Highness should sign 
 and seal an order of commutation, which 
 should be forwarded to the Procureur-gene- 
 ral on the Monday, March 25th, by five 
 o'clock in the morning. According to this 
 promise and the Prince's word of honour, a 
 scaffold was to be erected within the precincts 
 of the Prison, and there Count de Horn was 
 to be beheaded on the morning of the same
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 213 
 
 day, immediately after that he had received 
 absolution. 
 
 The Regent bowed to us as he passed out 
 of his cabinet, and embraced old Madame 
 de Goyon whom he had known from his 
 infancy, calling her also his good aunt. He 
 condescended to say that he was charmed to 
 see me at the Palais-Royal, which was scarce- 
 ly apropos, as he saw me there for the first 
 time, and furthermore he conducted the 
 ladies to the door of the second room him- 
 self, though he took care to show that it was 
 on account of the presence of the Duchesse 
 de Bouillon, and in honour of the King of 
 Poland, Jean Sobieski. 
 
 If the favor which had been promised to 
 us, afforded any one any consolation, it was 
 only the Prince de Ligne, who was far more 
 engrossed by the honors of his heraldic bear- 
 ings than by the death of his nephew. 
 
 This unfortunate young man, would allow 
 no one to visit him in prison except the 
 Bishop de Bayeux and M. de Crequy. He 
 had just received the communion, when
 
 214 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 your Grandfather entered the prison chapel ; 
 Count Antoine still knelt before the holy 
 table where they were concluding a mass for 
 the dead, celebrated at his own request. 
 (This is not in the canon-law, nor is it al- 
 lowed to be used in the Low-Countries.) He 
 said to M. de Crequy, 
 
 " Cousin, with the body of Jesus Christ 
 
 on my lips, I solemnly protest my innocence 
 
 as far as relates to the intention of murder." 
 
 He would not demean himself by touching 
 
 on the infamous supposition of theft. 
 
 He detailed the whole affair with clear- 
 ness, simplicity, resignation and courage, 
 and he added moreover that what he could 
 not understand was, that after having par- 
 taken of the prison-fare before proceeding to 
 his examinations, he always felt a sort of 
 giddiness and incoherence, with a quickening 
 of the pulse. 
 
 " They must have been sensible of this in 
 my replies," said he, " and it is not my 
 judges who will have to answer before God 
 for my conviction !"
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 215 
 
 He made these two gentlemen promise 
 that they would go and see his brother and 
 bear witness to him that he died protesting 
 his innocence, and a good Christian ; in 
 other respects he said he was not sorry to 
 die, and these words he repeated five or six 
 times before his two cousins, though without 
 assigning any reason for them. 
 
 There was something fearfully mysterious 
 in the fate of this young man, and one could 
 almost fancy that his countenance bore the 
 impress of his destiny. 
 
 M. de Crequy went and found the exe- 
 cutioner of Paris who lived at la Villette 
 that he might recommend the sufferer of the 
 morrow to his especial care. 
 
 " Do not give him unnecessary pain," said 
 he, " bare his neck only, and remember to 
 provide a coffin in which I can have his body 
 deposited until it can be sent to his family." 
 
 The executioner promised to take all pos- 
 sible care, and when your grandfather offered 
 him a rouleau of one hundred Louis, he 
 said he never accepted anything.
 
 216 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 " I am paid by the King, to discharge the 
 duties of my office/' replied this man of 
 justice. 
 
 " And in truth my good fellow," said 
 M. de Crequy, " it is no ordinary call- 
 ing, that of putting to death one of God's 
 creatures !" 
 
 The executioner told my husband that he 
 had refused exactly the same sum two"* days 
 previously, offered for the same purpose in 
 favor of the same person. 
 
 M. de Crequy returned home in a state of 
 indescribable affliction ; he retired imme- 
 diately to bed, and when I entered his 
 room to wish him good-night, I found him 
 ruminating over a letter which had been 
 forwarded to him by the Due u' Havre, the 
 latter having received it from the Due de 
 St, Simon, who was intimate with the Re- 
 gent. 
 
 The following is a copy of the letter the 
 original of which I have always preserved. 
 
 Letter from the Due de St. Simon to the 
 Due d' Havre.
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 217 
 
 " My dear Duke, 
 
 I am just setting off 
 
 for la Ferte according to my custom during 
 Easter. I did not fail to represent to the 
 Duke of Orleans how utterly different were 
 the effects of different punishments in Ger- 
 many and in the Low-Countries, as also the 
 grievous injury inflicted on a house so nobly 
 and powerfully allied. I despaired of sav- 
 ing his life, in consequence of the machin- 
 ations of those two men who are, as you are 
 aware, such partisans of the Stock Exchange 
 and such warm defenders of the brokers, 
 without which their credit would certainly 
 fall to the ground. I have earnestly soli- 
 cited (and I flatter myself I have had the 
 happiness of obtaining) the commutation of 
 the ignominious punishment of the wheel, 
 to that of decapitation, which is in no 
 country regarded as a brand of infamy, and 
 this will leave the illustrious House of Horn 
 power to provide for the proper establish- 
 ment of descendants, should there be any. 
 The Duke of Orleans admitted that I was
 
 218 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 quite right ; his word was passed for the 
 commuting of the sentence and I am bound 
 to believe it as a thing placed beyond doubt ; 
 I even took the precaution of informing 
 him as I withdrew, that I was going to 
 leave the next day, and I conjured him not 
 to allow his word to pass into oblivion, see- 
 ing that he would be assailed by two men 
 who are clamorous for the wheel, and were 
 capable of falsifying to the Regent the con- 
 sequences to be expected from this horrible 
 execution. He faithfully promised me to 
 be firm, and that which inspires me with 
 still greater confidence in his resolution is, 
 that he himself gave me a number of good 
 reasons why he should maintain it reasons 
 which had not even occurred to myself. I 
 can assure you he spoke as a man of high 
 birth and feeling, otherwise I should have 
 thought it necessary to defer my departure. 
 You know how much I am beholden to 
 
 you, my dear Duke 
 
 St. Simon."
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 219 
 
 Imagine what must have been our feel- 
 ings, and picture to yourself, if you can, our 
 utter astonishment, deep dejection, and in- 
 dignation against the Regent, when we learnt 
 on Tuesday the 26th of March at 10 o'clock 
 in the morning, that Count de Horn had 
 been exposed on. the wheel in the Place de 
 Oreve, from half past six in the morning on 
 the same scaffold with the Piedmontese de 
 Millie ! and that he had been subjected to 
 the torture before being executed ! 
 
 Your grandfather dressed himself in his 
 uniform of a general officer with his ribbon 
 on his coat he ordered six servants to at- 
 tend in their state liveries he had two 
 carriages harnessed with six horses each, and 
 set off for the Place de Greve ; there he 
 found that, amongst others, he had been 
 anticipated by M M. de Havre, de Rohan, 
 de Ligne and de Croiiy. 
 
 The Count Antoine was already dead, and 
 indeed there was some reason to believe 
 that the executioner, out of charity, had 
 L 3
 
 220 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 given him his death blow (on his breast) at 
 eight o'clock in the morning. 
 
 At five o'clock in the afternoon, that is 
 to say as soon as the juge-commissaire had 
 quitted his post at the Hotel de Ville, these 
 gentlemen had the mutilated remains of 
 their relation removed and. even assisted in 
 the office with their own hands. No one 
 except M. de Crequy had taken the precau- 
 tion of bringing a carriage ; they had the 
 shapeless masses placed in one of ours, 
 which happened to be that bearing my 
 arms. My husband and I had agreed that 
 the corpse should be brought to our house, 
 and I had already prepared a lower room in 
 which an altar was to be erected, when 
 Mme. de Montrnorency-Loguy sent to say 
 that she claimed the melancholy privilege 
 herself, begging us to remember that she 
 was born Comtesse de Horn. 
 
 (a blank of two pages in the manuscript.)
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 221 
 
 since the return of 
 
 M. de St. Simon whom M. d' Havre an- 
 swered by the following note : 
 
 " My dear Duke, 
 
 I can fully under- 
 stand the regrets which you have been 
 obliging enough to express to me, and I re- 
 ceive them with gratitude. I know not 
 whether it be true that the Marquise de 
 Parabere obtained from the executioner that 
 act of charity which is attributed to her, 
 but this I know, that the Count de Horn's 
 death is the result of the false policy, mer- 
 cenary nature, inconstancy, and perhaps 
 jealousy of the Duke of Orleans. 
 
 You know my feelings of especial 
 regard for you 
 
 Croy d' Havre." 
 
 If a collection were made of all that was 
 written against the Duke of Orleans on this 
 occasion, a hundred volumes could be filled. 
 The Regent was not slow in repenting, and
 
 222 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 when he saw himself the object of animad- 
 version to all Europe, he bethought him of 
 restoring to the Prince de Horn the confis- 
 cated property of Count Antoine, whom, in 
 violation of his word of honour, he had 
 allowed to be broken alive upon the wheel ! 
 
 The following is the reply of the Prince 
 to his Royal Highness, as it was reported to 
 us by M. de Crequy on his return from his, 
 sad pilgrimage to the Low Countries, with 
 Prince Fran9ois, (Bishop of Bayeux.) 
 " Monseigneur. 
 
 " The object of this letter 
 " is not to reproach you with the death of 
 " my brother, although the rights of my rank 
 " and nation have thus been violated in 
 " your Royal Highness' person, but to thank 
 " you for restoring his property to me, which 
 " I beg to refuse. In accepting any favour at 
 " your hands I should be acting infamously 
 " and in strange opposition to him. 
 
 " I hope that God and the King of France 
 " will one day treat your Royal Highness and 
 " family with more justice than you have
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 223 
 
 " shown towards my unfortunate brother, and 
 " I remain with every good intention for your 
 '' Royal Highness's service, 
 
 Emmanuel, Prince de Horn." 
 
 That which was not the less extraordinary 
 part of all this was, that the conduct of the 
 Duke of Orleans appeared so revolting and 
 became the object of such general and well- 
 directed indignation, that public opinion 
 espoused the quarrel of his victim, and the 
 honour and estimation in which his family 
 had been held, remained unimpaired. 
 
 His brother's daughters have married 
 Princes of the empire, and every time that 
 the quarterings of the Horn family have been 
 presented for inspection as aspiring to grand 
 chapters or even electoral benefices, such as 
 the Archbishoprics of Mayence, Cologne, 
 and Treves, no one has even thought fit to 
 insinuate, or to offer in opposition, that they 
 might be branded with infamy by virtue of 
 the Germanic laws or the custom of Bra-
 
 224 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 bant,"* ce ban Regent, qui gdta tout en 
 France," (as Monsieur de Voltaire used ironi- 
 cally to say to us, who in fact is nothing 
 more than a philosophic hypocrite and a 
 flatterer in disguise ;) " this good "Regent," 
 let him then be called, failed not to restore 
 to favour the Duke and Duchesse de Maine 
 (of whom he was always afraid) whilst at the 
 same time he persecuted, and condemned to 
 death twenty three Breton gentlemen who 
 had plotted in concert with the Duke and 
 Duchess, (but of whom he was not afraid !) 
 Their names however have been since re-in- 
 stated, and I have remarked that all those 
 judgemnts which were pronounced by com- 
 missaires under the Regency, have been 
 afterwards reversed. 
 
 * It is to be remarked that Madame de Cr6quy 
 has made us look upon the character and career of 
 the Comte de Horn in quite a new light. There is 
 a curious document in the " pieces justificatives " 
 to these memoirs which fully confirms the greater 
 part of the facts advanced by her, and this docu- 
 ment may be relied on as official. (Note of French 
 Editor.)
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 225 
 
 I have no doubt but that the Prince de 
 Horn would have obtained the same justice, 
 but then he must have recognized the juris- 
 diction of the Parliament of Paris, which, 
 in his position, was impossible.
 
 226 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Duela Fatality attending the admirers of Madame 
 de Parabere Marechale de Luxembourg, after- 
 wards Duchess de Boufflers Mare'chale de Mire- 
 poix afterwards Princess de Lixim Reflections 
 on dress Family pride A she-knight of St. 
 Michael Tuft-hunting Comtesse de Vertus A 
 Quid pro quo, showing that politeness is some- 
 times rewarded Mademoiselle Quinault's armorial 
 bearings Madame du Deffand, at that time 
 Mademoiselle de Vichy An invalid with a tail J 
 The aspirations of a dog-fancier. 
 
 THE rage for duels was so much encouraged 
 by the incompetency and neglect of the 
 Duke of Orleans that one heard of nothing 
 but young men killed or wounded, and every 
 family was in a state of either anxiety or 
 affliction.
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 227 
 
 In our own, we had to lament the loss of 
 the Chevalier de Breteuil, one of the most 
 amiable persons possible, who was killed by 
 a brother officer in his regiment of guards. 
 He was the younger brother of the Bishop 
 of Rennes, and the Marquis de Breteuil- 
 Fontenoy (whom we shall some day see 
 Minister of War) and was one of the most 
 famed admirers of Madame de Parabere ; it 
 is impossible to say how many she had not 
 lost either in some most tragical manner or 
 by a violent death. Many young officers 
 fell in duels, two Breton gentlemen lost their 
 heads, a Knight of Malta was drowned dur- 
 ing his pilgrimage, and a page of honour 
 assassinated in a hackney-coach ; there were 
 Abbes knocked down at her door, a coun- 
 sellor who poisoned himself with mushrooms, 
 and a youth thrown out of window, but 
 above all, the poor unfortunate Antoine de 
 Horn. 
 
 It was said that Madame de Parabere 
 brought misfortune upon her admirers, but 
 in certain cases, people were apt to attribute
 
 228 RECOLLECTIONS OP A 
 
 to jealousy that which more fairly belonged 
 to the " inflwnza perniciosa," or the com- 
 mon course of events. 
 
 Another most scandalous duel was that 
 between the Prince de Lixin, and the Mar- 
 quis de Ligueville, his wife's uncle. The 
 latter was killed by M. de Lixin, and M. de 
 Lixin was killed by the Due de Richelieu, as 
 I shall inform you further on. 
 
 The Princesse de Lixin, (nee Beauveau de 
 Craon) became afterwards Marechale Duchesse 
 de Mirepoix and I shall often have occasion 
 to make mention of her. 
 It was at this period if I mistake not, 
 that is, at the close of the year 1721, that 
 we made the acquaintance of our young and 
 pretty cousin De Villeroy, who quitted her 
 Convent to marry the Due de Bouffiers. She 
 became a widow after that, and married the 
 Due de Luxembourg, and of her, also, I 
 shall have plenty to say. 
 
 The Princesse de Lixin always conducted 
 herself in the most exemplary manner ; but 
 as Marechale de Mirepoix, she used to sup at
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 229 
 
 Madame du Barry's, and thereby forfeited the 
 friendships and intimacies of her youth. 
 She was more naturally elegant and distin- 
 guished looking than anyone I ever knew, 
 but of all women the most alive to her own 
 interests as far as regarded profit and plea- 
 sure. Her thirst for money (and a great deal 
 of it too) reigned supreme, for she would 
 have played away the revenues of ten king- 
 doms at passe-dix and vingt-et-un. Her only 
 passion indeed was that of gaming. 
 
 But having mentioned the Duchesse de 
 Boufflers to you, I ought also to make you 
 acquainted with her as Duchesse de Luxem- 
 bourg, when she was in all her glory. I may 
 as well do so now as at any other time, an- 
 ticipating, for the present, my story, which I 
 shall again pursue in chronological order, 
 from the time of my father's embassy, and 
 our journey, to Italy. 
 
 There were in Paris, three old people, 
 contemporaries, who were for a long time 
 held in pretty nearly the same estimation, 
 though the social existence of each was
 
 230 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 widely different. The first of these was the 
 Marechale de Luxembourg, and it was im- 
 possible to conceive any one possessed of 
 more good taste, good sense, and perfect 
 amiability. Her appearance was distin- 
 guished ; late in life she had turned pious, 
 because nothing sits so well as devotion on 
 a woman approaching her sixtieth year, and 
 she continued truly so without any effort. 
 
 The Marechale had certainly her failings, 
 but the only point which appeared really 
 reprehensible in her character was a conti- 
 nual and excessive infatuation about the 
 grandeur and (to speak plainly) the pretended 
 superiority of the house of Montmorency.'* 
 
 Surely the Maillys the La Tour d'Au- 
 vergnes, the Clermont-Tonnerres, aiid especi- 
 ally the Rohans, were at least as good as 
 the Montmorencys ! It is true that Mu- 
 thieu de Montmorency married the widow of 
 
 * Her late husband was Francois de Morency, 
 Due de Piney-Luxembourg.
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 231 
 
 Louis-le-gros, but then we all know the rea- 
 son of that ! he was young and good-looking, 
 and the Queen was an old fool ! 
 
 Her house, her furniture, her table, her 
 numerous livery servants, carriages, chapel, 
 and state-room, in short, everything about 
 her was of extraordinary magnificence. She 
 had for her own use a work-box in solid gold, 
 and her collection of snuff-boxes was the 
 most splendid and curious in the world. 
 Amidst all this gilding, amidst the great 
 portraits of Constables, the lions of Luxem- 
 bourg and the eaglets of Montmorency, it 
 was somewhat startling at first to see a little 
 woman simply attired in brown taffetas, 
 without jewels, trimmings or furbelows of 
 any kind ; but on a nearer inspection her 
 countenance was so animated and good-tem- 
 pered, her features so noble and regular, her 
 carriage so modest, and yet one might say so 
 royal ; and, lastly, her conversation was so 
 cleverly varied, polished, and yet acute, that 
 you listened and looked upon her with un- 
 utterable pleasure.
 
 232 RECOLLECTIONS OP A 
 
 The dress of old people of that day pos- 
 sessed one great advantage for them, and 
 that was, it bore no resemblance to the 
 attire of the young ; so that there was no 
 chance of comparisons arising between the 
 two, which could not but prove unfavourable 
 to the dowagers. Old women were then 
 distinct; set apart, as it were, as being no 
 more objects for dress than for gallantry. I 
 quite pity those of my age, when I see them 
 decked out in gay caps, deceptive kerchiefs, 
 and all their costume of the most juvenile 
 description ! for hence it happens that in an 
 involuntary comparison with their grand- 
 children, they only become objects of disgust 
 themselves. 
 
 I have no doubt but that the disrespect, 
 or rather the impertinence of the young peo- 
 ple of the present day towards the old arises 
 in a great measure, from their foolish mode 
 
 of dressing. 
 
 It would be impossible to describe the 
 
 Marechele de Luxembourg better than Mme. 
 de Flahaut has done in one of her pretty
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 233 
 
 romances, for which, in my eyes, she deserves 
 infinite credit, as she was never in the society 
 of the Marechale, nor ever likely to be ! 
 
 It was said of old, that men of good so- 
 ciety sometimes lost their polish and refine- 
 ment after having been associated for a long 
 time with women of an inferior grade, and 
 that these same women often acquired the 
 polite usages of the world and contrived to 
 pick up good taste and manners from the 
 crumbs that fell in the company of their 
 superiors, which proves at least that good 
 taste is not thrown away on all the world ; 
 but it was likewise said that this was but 
 the ornamental varnish that on examina- 
 tion you might detect the colours of the old 
 picture appearing beneath the new colour- 
 ing that on the least provocation for in- 
 stance, there would be an explosion of 
 words, a deluge of gestures, and sometimes 
 revengeful acts which betrayed the innate 
 vulgarity. 
 
 I have had no opportunity of personally 
 testing the truth of these observations, but
 
 234 RECOLLECTKttS OF A 
 
 with respect to finding the perfection of 
 good manners sometimes equally shared by 
 the high-born and those of a lower grade, 
 it appears to me a very natural transition 
 to pass from the Marechale-Duchesse de 
 Luxembourg to Mademoiselle Quinault, on 
 whom my grandmother (not less of a fine 
 lady than Madame de Luxembourg) took me 
 one day to call, evincing a tone of regard 
 and ceremonious politeness which came na- 
 turally from her, and which it would be 
 very difficult to feign in the present day. 
 
 There is a long paragraph for you ! I 
 began to think it would never end and my 
 pen is quite out of breath ! 
 
 But, apropos to the Montmorencys, I 
 have not told you all I have to say about 
 them, and whilst I am on the subject I 
 may as well relate one more anecdote con- 
 cerning them, lest I forget it. 
 
 The Vicomtesse de L... thought proper 
 one day to ape her defunct cousin of Lux- 
 embourg, and so she wrote the following 
 note to the Marechal de Segur who was at
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 235 
 
 that time Minister of War and had refused 
 to entrust the command of a regiment to 
 the son of the Vicomtesse : 
 
 " I know not Mouseigneur, whether you 
 " have read the history of our family, but 
 " you would there see that formerly it was, 
 " apparently, easier for a Montmoreiicy to 
 " wear the Constable's sword, than to obtain 
 ' in the present day the epaulettes of a 
 " Colonel !" 
 
 The reply of the Marechal de Segur was 
 very apropos he said that he had read the 
 history of France and that he concluded the 
 M, M. de Montmorency had always been 
 treated according to their deserts ! 
 
 Mademoiselle Quinault was an old maid 
 who lived on a pension from the privy -purse, 
 and she was descended from the famous 
 Quinault, Poet and Actor. It was generally 
 known that she also had made her debut at 
 the opera, but by common consent no one 
 was to recollect that circumstance or to feel
 
 236 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 certain about it, consequently if ever the 
 scent lay in that quarter the hounds were 
 to be whipped off. 
 
 It was allowed that she had been I'amie 
 intime of the Due de Nevers, who was Man- 
 cini, nephew to the Cardinal Mazarin and 
 father of the present old Due de Nivronais, 
 so you see Mile. Quinault was no chicken ! 
 They said she had once been very pretty 
 but her great superiority consisted in her 
 knowledge of the world and her incompar- 
 able tact. Mile. Quinault did not care for 
 money, but her ruling passion was for " grand 
 acquaintance." She had played her cards 
 so skilfully aud her batteries had been so 
 well directed that, besides placing herself 
 permanently in good society, she had also 
 attained to a perfect equality with the 
 loftiest and most unapproachable heights in 
 the world of fashion. 
 
 It was not known how she made her way, 
 but certain it is, she obtained the collar 
 and order of St. Michel with a considerable 
 pension, and she had superb apartments at
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 237 
 
 the Louvre, overlooking the garden on the 
 side of the Seine. 
 
 Thus, she was always rising higher and 
 higher, from the old Due de Severs, to the 
 Comtesse de Toulouse and the Due de Pen- 
 thievre who were eminently the possessors 
 of all the cardinal virtues ; who distilled 
 dignity as it were, and who, as authorities 
 on conventional proprieties, were considered 
 perfect oracles ; in short, all the most pow- 
 erful and illustrious at Court, and the most 
 important in the city arrived in turn most 
 reverentially to pay their respects in the 
 drawing-room of Mile. Quinault, who had 
 the good sense never to pay visits, for, as 
 she humbly informed you, she never took 
 the liberty of calling on any one. The 
 celebrated Madame D'Epinay had great dif- 
 ficulty in finding among her acquaintance 
 some one who possessed a sufficient footing 
 to present her to Mile. Quinault. 
 
 We found then, Mile. Quinault, com- 
 fortably established under the royal roof ; 
 she was dressed in black and white damask,
 
 238 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 because the Court was in half mourning, 
 and wore a large hoop. Her manners and 
 appearance were as good as they could be, 
 but she was not rouged, as we all were, 
 consequently she disarmed the ridicule to 
 which such an assumption might have given 
 rise. 
 
 I have already mentioned that Mile. 
 Quinault was decorated with the order of 
 St. Michael ; it was bestowed upon her on 
 account of a magnificent anthem which she 
 composed for the Queen's chapel, and I 
 should think that she was the first woman 
 to whom the black ribbon was ever given. 
 On our entrance, we found her seated side- 
 by-side with the Due de Penthievre, who 
 was, as you are aware, the grandson of Louis 
 the Fourteenth. There were also present, 
 the Dowager Duchesse de Bouillon, the 
 Princesse de Soubise, and her sister the 
 Landgravine of Hesse, Mile, de Vertus, the 
 Vidame de Vasse, the grand prior of Au- 
 vergne, the Comte d'Estaing in fact all 
 Madame du Defand's great people.
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 239 
 
 Mademoiselle de Vertus was an old Prin- 
 cess of the house of Britany, and, I think, 
 the last of her family. There had existed 
 some bad feeling between our families arising 
 out of a law-suit which she sustained 
 against us with the Marquis de la Grange, 
 her nephew, and the most mischievous liti- 
 gant that ever lived. That is all I know 
 about it ; but whatever it was, as we had 
 quarrelled, I had never seen Mile de Vertus, 
 no more than Mile Quinault, and in mistak- 
 ing one for the other, a capital game ol 
 cross-purposes arose. 
 
 In the first place I commenced a fire of 
 conversation with Mile, de Vertus, next to 
 whom I found myself seated ; I made her all 
 sorts of pretty little speeches, and she seemed 
 touched and surprised by my politeness, for 
 she was an excellent and religious woman. 
 All this time my grandmother, who con- 
 versed with the lady of the black ribbon, 
 whom I mistook for some Chanoinesse of 
 Remiremont, kept watching me with the 
 greatest uneasiness, and told me afterwards,
 
 240 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 as we were leaving, that she had made up 
 her mind that I had suddenly gone mad ! 
 
 Mile. de. Vertus, finding me so well dis- 
 posed towards her, imagined that I deserved 
 some proof of her recollection ; we were 
 connected, and they told me she expected 
 me to pay her a visit, but in four or five 
 months she died, after having been obliging 
 enough to append a codicil to her will, by 
 which means a sum of forty-thousand francs 
 in good louis d'ors, fell into my little exche- 
 quer, and all for mistaking Mademoiselle 
 Anne de Bretagne, Comtesse de Vertus and 
 a Peeress of France, for Mile. Quinault, 
 chevaUdre de I'ordre du Roi ! 
 
 Imagine the congratulations that were 
 showered upon me for having been so pro- 
 vident and so good a relation, quite una- 
 wares ! and as we should endeavour to draw 
 a moral from everything, we may say that 
 in the olden times politeness sometimes 
 earned its own reward ! 
 
 Touching unexpected presents, unusual 
 acts of generosity and Mile. Quinault, I
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 241 
 
 must tell you that long after this, the Mare- 
 chale de Mirepoix who accepted everything 
 and never gave aught in return, showed me 
 notwithstanding, a beautiful seal which she 
 had ordered for this lady, and which she 
 was going to send her as a New Year's gift. 
 
 " What !" said I, " a seal with arms 
 upon it for Mile. Quinault T 
 
 " And why not mon cceur f" replied the 
 Marechale with imperturbable gravity " is 
 not Mile. Quinault a person of rank ? her 
 grandfather was ennobled by the late King ; 
 you see every day in the streets, arms with 
 the coronets of Counts and Barons which 
 are not a bit better than hers ; moreover 
 the President d' Hazier de Serigny had these 
 emblazoned for me from his register." 
 
 " And how about the opera T said I. 
 
 " Oh ! the opera say nothing about that 
 or they will call you malicious ; besides, 
 singing at the opera does not derogate from 
 one's nobility ! M. le Moine," she added with 
 a smile, " M. le Moine, ecuyer, Sieur de 
 Ghasse, and first singer at the Royal Acade 
 
 M
 
 242 RECOLLECTIONS OP A 
 
 my, of Music, is cousin-german to Monsieur 
 de Vaudreuil." 
 
 To conclude properly, the biography, pane- 
 gyric, and apotheosis of Mile. Quinault, I 
 t-hould add, that Princes of the blood sent 
 their great officers and carriages to her 
 funeral which was splendid, and the armorial 
 bearings presented by the Marechale de Mire- 
 poix were displayed everywhere. 
 
 It remains to me only to speak to you of 
 the Marquise de Deffand who was no longer 
 young when I met her in the world, but her 
 importance was so firmly established, and 
 she was treated with such consideration, 
 that some people were utterly confounded 
 by it, and amongst these were the Marechal 
 d'Estrees, and the Duchesse d'Harcourt in 
 particular ; they appeared to know a great 
 deal more than they chose to say, and I 
 always thought they held their tongues from 
 regard for the relations and friends of this 
 blind old sinner. The following anecdote is 
 wholly unknown to her biographers and even 
 to her enemies ; I had it from the Baron de
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 243 
 
 Breteuil who was in the King's household at 
 the time, and he had it himself from the 
 late Lieutenant of Police. 
 
 Mademoiselle de Vichy de Champron was 
 u boarder at the Convent of the Madeleine 
 de Traisnel, in the Faubourg St. Antoine ; 
 she was perfectly beautiful, and at that period 
 was not more than sixteen years of age. 
 
 M. d'Argenson, the garde des sceaux was 
 acquainted with the superior of this house 
 whose name, (I happen to recollect it exactly) 
 was Madame de Veni d'Arbouze. A visit 
 from Monsieur le garde-des-sceaux was quite 
 an event as he never called on any one ; he 
 never went out of a foot's pace in the streets 
 but seated in an arm chair alone at the back 
 of his great coach, he was escorted by his 
 archers, and followed by another carriage 
 containing the casket in which the seals of 
 France were kept, and further, by three 
 counsellors Chaaffecire who kept as close to 
 him as his shadow or his Cross of the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 The superior received him in the parlour. 
 M 3
 
 244 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 " I have not time to stay," said he bow- 
 ing, " but you have here the daughter of the 
 Comte de Champron I" 
 
 " Oui Monseigneur" 
 
 " I recommend you then to send her back 
 to her parents secretly, as quietly and as 
 quickly as possible ; I wished to say this to 
 yourself alone adieu Madame." 
 
 M. d'Argenson had organized the Paris 
 police himself, and this was the way their 
 system was carried on in those days. 
 
 The Nun was thrown into the greatest 
 state of alarm and nervousness ; her anxiety 
 came stronger upon her in the middle of 
 the night, and she visited the cell of the 
 pensionnaire ; she found it empty and she 
 remained in it until the return of the young 
 lady, which was about four or five o'clock in 
 the morning. It is not known what com- 
 munication took place between them, but 
 the superior wrote the following day to the 
 Comte de Champron giving him to understand 
 that his daughter could no longer remain at 
 the Madeleine de Traisnel.
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 245 
 
 The father arrived from the Bourbonnais 
 in all possible haste but he had scarcely 
 alighted from his carriage before the Regent 
 sent to tell him to repair to the Palais Royal, 
 where the Prince wished to speak with him 
 instantly, and this was, to propose to him to 
 start forthwith for the army of Catalonia 
 with the rank of Brigadier, whereas M. de 
 Champron had never served higher than as a 
 Colonel. 
 
 The unfortunate father guessed the truth, 
 and left the Regent's presence without deign- 
 ing to reply, and as he feared some violence, 
 he carried off his daughter so rapidly that 
 all the rest of the intrigue was knocked on 
 the head. 
 
 And where do you suppose he placed her 
 for safety 1 At the chancetterie! with M. 
 le garde-des-sceaux in the Place Vendome 
 where she remained under lock and key for 
 above six months, and only left it to marry 
 the Marquis du Deffand who was an officer 
 in the garde-du-corps of the Duchesse de 
 Berry.
 
 246 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 We never appeared to suspect anything, 
 but we thought we observed that whenever 
 the Regent's name was mentioned Madame 
 du Deffand seemed very uncomfortable and 
 became suddenly dumb. 
 
 My aunt de Lesdiguieres had another 
 story about her which proves the cold- 
 blooded nature of her character. My aunt 
 went and called upon her in company with 
 Madame de Bourbon-Busset, expecting to 
 find her more or less depressed as M. de 
 Pont-de-Vesle was dying, and for the last 
 twelve or fifteen years he had lived in the 
 enjoyment of her best of graces. 
 
 After the first compliments had been ex- 
 changed, Madame de Bourbon-Busset asked 
 her (with a long face of tender interest) the 
 news of the dear invalid. 
 
 Eh, mon Dieu ! I was thinking about 
 
 it," exclaimed the old Marquise quickly, 
 
 " but I have only one man-servant here just 
 
 at present, so I was going to send one of my 
 
 maids to ask after him." 
 
 " Madame," replied the other, " it rains
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 247 
 
 torrents. I beg of you to let her go in 
 my carriage." 
 
 " You are excessively kind, and I thank 
 you a thousand times," said the Marquise 
 looking highly delighted. " Mam'selle," 
 (speaking to a maid who had answered the 
 bell) " you are to go and inquire after our 
 little invalid ; the Comtesse de Bourbon- 
 Busset allows you to go in her carriage on 
 account of the rain, but you are by no 
 means to trouble her footmen to accompany 
 you ! I am very grateful and quite touched 
 by the interest you take in my favouril/e," 
 she continued ; " he is very good, and so 
 clever, so amusing, so gentle and caressing ; 
 I suppose you know that Mme. du Chatelet 
 procured him for me ?" 
 
 The two friends looked at each other, 
 not daring to reply to a communication so 
 confidential and ill-timed ! They talked 
 about other things and at last the carriage 
 returned. 
 . " Well ; how did you find him 1"
 
 248 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 " As well as he could possibly be, ma- 
 dame." 
 
 " Would he eat anything to-day V 
 
 " He wanted to amuse himself by gnawing 
 an old shoe, but M. Lyounais would not let 
 him." 
 
 " Well !" exclaimed my aunt, " that was 
 an extraordinary fancy for an invalid !" 
 
 " In short, is he able to walk now 1" 
 asked the Marquise. 
 
 " I am unable to answer that, madame, 
 because he was lying doubled up, but I saw 
 that he knew me quite well to-day, for he 
 wagged his tail !" 
 
 " Monsieur de Pont de Vesle f" cried the 
 visiters. 
 
 K Allons done !" said Mme. du Deffand ; 
 we are talking about my little dog ; but, 
 by the bye," she added, addressing her ser- 
 vant in a dry sharp voice, " do not forget 
 to send and inquire after the Chevalier de 
 Pont de Vesle." 
 
 As you are not obliged to know who M. 
 Lyounais was, I tell you that he was a Doc-
 
 FKENCH MARCHIONESS. 24 & 
 
 tor who lived on the Place de Greve and 
 who had made sixty thousand livres a year, 
 by taking care of sick cats and dogs who 
 were boarded with him. When they talked 
 of putting up for sale the seigneurial estate 
 and ruins of the old Chateau of Courtenay, 
 I set about (to shame the heirs of this im- 
 perial family) that Lyounais was about to 
 become the purchaser, and that his son 
 would bear the name ; which, by the way 
 would have been a difficult thing to prevent, 
 for according to custom in seigneurial matters 
 in the vicomie of Paris all plebeians might 
 acquire and hold, feudal lands, 
 
 It would have been a bad joke certainly 
 for the cause of it was not generally under- 
 stood, but the report spread all over Ver- 
 sailles, and so dreadfully alarmed the Cardinal 
 de Fleury that he immediately despatched 
 M. de Fourqueux to Paris to purchase the 
 estate, together with the seigneurie of Cour- 
 tenay, purposing to reunite them to the 
 crown. 
 
 Instead, however, of becoming the pos- 
 M 5
 
 250 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 sessor of the Lordship of Courtenay, Monsieur 
 Lyounais contented himself with the noble 
 estate of Pontgibault, which had descended 
 through my aunt de la Trernoille, the last 
 member of the ancient house of Lafayette ; 
 but you must not confound this with the 
 family of that philosophical and republican 
 Marquis who has been waging war in America.
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 251 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 A disastrous year Rejoicings on the King's rtf- 
 co very A loss, Cartouche's death ! His favorite 
 book and meritorious end An adventure, a friend 
 in need A mal-apropos salute to the King of 
 Cyprus An old idiot in spite of her teeth I A 
 mitred fool Gallican Joe Millers. 
 
 You have not yet heard all I have to say 
 about that unlucky year, 1721 ; against 
 which I have always had a spite, on account 
 of the tragical end of poor Comte Antoine, 
 and for other disasters which I must content 
 myself by disposing of summarily. 
 
 First of all, there was the King's illness.
 
 252 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 which kept us in a state of the most painful 
 anxiety for upwards of a fortnight ; then 
 the bankruptcy and flight of Law, whom 
 there was much difficulty in protecting from 
 the fury of the populace, and the misery and 
 the general ruin produced by the downfall 
 of his system ; next, the plague at Marseilles, 
 and, not least, a fire which destroyed the 
 whole of my village of Gastines, which cost 
 us a hundred and twenty thousand livres, as 
 much in what we disbursed in charity, as for 
 the loss of our seigneurial rights and revenues, 
 which M. de Crequy remitted for three 
 years ;* lastly, the Regent put a slight upon 
 M. de Crequy by favouring M. de Belisle : 
 who was not at that time either a Marshal 
 of France, a Duke, or a Peer ; and he was 
 very angry at this. Your grandfather car- 
 ried the insult with a high hand; he wrote 
 
 * The peasants of Gastines were horribly un- 
 grateful to us ; we had their Tillage rebuilt, and the 
 first thing they did at the commencement of the 
 revolution, wag to set fire to our Chateau ! 
 
 1795. (Aut/ior's Note.)
 
 PSEXCH MAKCHIONESS. 25,9 
 
 to the King, then sitting in council, saying 
 that he could no longer continue to serve 
 him with honor ; he also wrote four lines to 
 the Regent, noways complaining, but merely 
 tendering his resignation of the general-direc- 
 torship of the infantry ; and then we set oif 
 for Venice, where my father was ambassador 
 extraordinary. 
 
 Before leaving Paris I should have liked to 
 have told you of the universal depression which 
 lasted during the King's illness, as well as of 
 the rejoicings which took place on his reco- 
 very ; but all the cotemporary writers have 
 anticipated me in the description, sol shall 
 only mention that the municipal bodies, the 
 City of Paris, and the Marechal de Villeroy, 
 His Majesty's Governor, bore all the expenses 
 of the Te Deum, and the civil rejoicings, for 
 the Regent and his son never undrew their 
 purse-strings. 
 
 The Tuileries were magnificently illumi- 
 nated with coloured lamps which hung from 
 tree to tree in garlands of fleurs-de-tys ; all 
 the avenues were embellished with tall yew-
 
 254 RECOLLECTIONS OP A 
 
 trees trimmed in the form of fleurs-de-lys, 
 and the fire works, which were discharged 
 every quarter of an hour, bore the same 
 shape. 
 
 No display, more regal or more national 
 was ever beheld ; the Tuileries, the sur- 
 rounding streets, and even the roofs of the 
 houses were filled and covered with crowds 
 of people, and their joy was so frantic, that 
 at last it made the little King giddy, and he 
 rushed to take refuge in a corner of the 
 Salle-des-gardes, where he seated himself on 
 a bench by us, saying he could bear it no 
 longer ; it was only about a quarter of an 
 hour afterwards, that the Marechal de Ville- 
 roy came and said to him " Mon Maitre, 
 will you shew yourself again to your good 
 people, who love you so well, and who are 
 waiting for you." 
 
 That, I can assure you, is all that the 
 Marshal said, and the King immediately 
 returned to the balcony, without requiring 
 any more pressing, M. de Villeroy always 
 appeared to me the vainest, the most unrea-
 
 FREXCH MARCHIONESS.' 255 
 
 sonable, and the most bombastic of courtiers ; 
 but upon that occasion I can certify that he 
 never uttered one of those arrogant and 
 stupid expressions which M. de St. Simon 
 has so kindly attributed to him. 
 
 About this time, 1721, the friends of 
 Cartouche had to deplore his death ; but I 
 cannot say that it was a loss which I felt 
 very acutely. He had undergone torture, 
 both ordinary and extraordinary, with won- 
 derful endurance, and had never divulged 
 the name of any one of his accomplices : but 
 the cure of St. Sulphice, whose attendance 
 he had solicited had not neglected to point out 
 to him, that one of the first obligations of a 
 Christian was, to speak the truth, when so 
 ordered by the judge, that judge being ap- 
 pointed by the legitimate sovereign. 
 
 Religion obtained from this malefactor 
 what the most dreadful sufferings could not 
 extort ; he named all his accomplices, amidst 
 torrents of tears, and that effort was so 
 super-human, painful, and meritorious, that
 
 256 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 he will assuredly reap the benefit of it in 
 a world to come. 
 
 This extraordinary man, Cartouche, had 
 had some books of his choice brought to 
 him in prison, and M. d'Aguesseau told us 
 that the one whch he read over and over 
 again with renewed pleasure, was entitled 
 " The Deacon Agapet on the duties of an 
 Emperor."* We had the curiosity to make 
 ourselves acquainted with this work of 
 Cartouche's selection, and Madame de Beauf- 
 fremont and 1 found it was a silly and most 
 tiresome book of the middle ages, the weary- 
 ing translator of which is a Carmelite called 
 Jean Cartigny. You will find the very 
 volume in my library, and upon almost all 
 the margins you will see sums, and little 
 men drawn with a pen and signatures of 
 Cartouche's. We could not comprehend 
 what pleasure such a man " could take in 
 reading such a work. 
 
 * " Le diacre Agapet, touchant lea devoirs d'un 
 Empereur."
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 257 
 
 The only adventure we had in crossing 
 France, on our way to Italy by Monaco, 
 occurred to us as we were walking on the 
 Quay at Toulon ; they were leading a coiner 
 to the gallows, who stopped short to look at 
 M. de Crequy, exclaiming that he knew of 
 something very important for the King's 
 service, which he would only reveal to my 
 husband, who had had the command there 
 for a long time and was, without any meta- 
 phor, idolized. 
 
 M. de Crequy was at first a little surpri- 
 sed, but immediately whispered to me that 
 though he did not believe a word of it, he 
 could not refuse to listen. The crowd was 
 accordingly kept at a distance, whilst I 
 maintained tight hold of your grandfather's 
 arm, that I might not be left alone in the 
 middle of that copper-coloured, ragged, 
 howling and garlic-smelling population, for 
 the principal officers of the port who compo- 
 sed our escort, had been separated from us 
 in the confusion. 
 
 " You do not recollect Thierry, Monseig-
 
 258 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 neur *? Thierry, who was your armourer 1 
 is it possible that you have forgotten 
 Thierry V 
 
 " What do you want of me r i" answered 
 your grandfather. 
 
 " Monseigneur, pray have the charity to 
 write to the King, that you have found poor 
 Thierry here in a cruel state of trouble 
 that is all I have to say to you, but do not 
 refuse me that service I beg of you, Mon- 
 seigneur !" 
 
 My husband kept his countenance won- 
 derfully, and said in a solemn manner to 
 the Prevost. 
 
 " I must request you sir, not to allow that 
 man to be executed until you shall have 
 heard from me." 
 
 That very night he wrote off to M. de 
 Maurepas, who expressed himself quite di- 
 verted at the idea of granting us the pa*rdon 
 of that poor coiner ! I always pity coiners 
 who are put to death ; it is a law which 
 one would say had originated with jobbers of 
 the revenue and griping traffickers rather
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 259 
 
 than with noble councillors and Christian 
 magistrates. 
 
 We passed eight days at Monaco with 
 our fair cousin de Valentinois, who treated 
 us sumptuously, and saluted us with a salvo 
 of thirteen guns from her fortress. When 
 M. de Crequy enquired the reason of this 
 and asked her jokingly why she received us 
 in her metropolis with such civility, she 
 said : 
 
 " Never you mind, Louis-le-Debonnaire ! 
 was not my grandmother's grandmother one 
 of your family *? if you say another word 
 about it, I shall have you saluted when you 
 leave, with twenty-one guns, as I salute my 
 neighbour, the Duke of Savoy, King of Cy- 
 prus and Jerusalem !" 
 
 I should here inform you that the late 
 Duke of Savoy was desperately in love 
 with her, and he often arrived at Monaco 
 without drums or trumpets that he might 
 give her an agreeable surprise ; Mme. de 
 Valentinois, who was very fond of her 
 young husband, and who most assuredly
 
 260 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 did not at all like their neighbour of Cyprus 
 and Jerusalem, (he being seventy years of 
 age and humpbacked,) discovered nothing 
 more effectual to put a stop to his amorous 
 and gallant surprises, than to have salutes 
 fired from all the batteries of the fort of 
 Monaco as soon as he passed the frontiers of 
 the principality. 
 
 This noble and powerful heiress of the 
 ancient Princes of Carignano, Salerno and 
 Monaco, was the last daughter of the sover- 
 eign house of Grimaldi. She had allied 
 herself with the grandson of the Marechal 
 de Goyon-Matignon. 
 
 My uncle de Tesse always used to say 
 that there were three sorts of people, 
 whites, blacks and Princes ! and as far as 
 relationship was concerned Louis the Four- 
 teenth was like the greater part of the no- 
 bility, or even a country gentleman, for he 
 loved his relations and evinced for the 
 Harcourts and the Crequys a goodness which 
 sometimes amounted even to tenderness. 
 He always took cognizance of their affairs,
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 261 
 
 and of their children, and even informed 
 himself of the economy of their houses ; 
 but where the King displayed most anxiety 
 for his relations, was when there was a pro- 
 bability of their forming some bad match ; 
 all the world knew that he gave 400,000 
 ecus to the Marquis de Chabannes-Curton to 
 free his estates and prevent the necessity of 
 his marrying the only daughter of Colleteau, 
 a rich merchant of Rouen. 
 
 Instead of carrying into effect this dis- 
 graceful shop-alliance, Henri de Chabannes, 
 Marquis de Curton, liberated his Comte of 
 Rochefort in Auvergne from debt, and the 
 following year married Mademoiselle de 
 Montlezun who was extremely handsome. 
 She died of the small-pox, and in 1 709 he 
 married Catherine d' Escorailles, the widow 
 of our cousin Sebastien de Rosmadec, Mar- 
 quis- de Molac and Guebriant. In 1748 she 
 was a ridiculous old creature who hid and 
 shut herself up when she ate lest it should 
 be discovered that she had no teeth. She 
 died choked by a half ball of ivory which
 
 262 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 she used to keep in her mouth to fill out 
 and give a roundness to her right cheek, or 
 perhaps the left, for I do not recollect which 
 side of her jaw was the worst. 
 
 However, it was always in one or the 
 other, and she died chirping like Punch, on 
 account of the piece of ivory which she had 
 in her throat. The priest, whom they had 
 sent for to hear her confess, thought she 
 was laughing at him ; her servants did not 
 know what to say, and if the Vidame de 
 Vasse had not arrived, this wreched woman 
 would have died without receiving absolu- 
 tion. 
 
 When the Abbe de Matignon arrived at 
 his uncle's, at Lisieux, they hastened to 
 show him the Cathedral, telling him that the 
 
 English had built it. 
 
 " I saw at once," said he, in a tone of dis- 
 gust, " that it was not made here !" 
 
 The first thing be did upon taking up his 
 abode in the Bishop's palace, at Lisieux, was 
 to have straw littered thickly under his win-
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 263 
 
 dows and all over that part of the great court 
 which at all abutted on his own apartment. 
 
 " That is the way they manage in Paris" 
 said he to his uncle, " to keep away noise 1 " 
 
 " But you are not ill ! and there is no 
 great noise of carriages to be afraid of at 
 Lisieux." 
 
 " Very true, Monseigneur, but it appears 
 you do not take into consideration the noise 
 of the church bells ! I detest the sound of 
 bells, and will neglect no means of deaden- 
 ing the noise of them !" 
 
 Some time afterwards, he said to my 
 Grandmother, De Froulay ; 
 
 " There is M. de Lisieux just dead, thank 
 God ! You might as well tell Madame de 
 Maintenon to make them give me the blue 
 ribbon which my uncle had !" 
 
 " How old are you V said she to him. 
 
 " Ah dear me ! I am only thirty-two ; 
 that is one year less than the statutes exact ; 
 but you can say to Mme. de Maintenon that 
 / ought to be thirty-three, because my mo- 
 ther had a miscarriage the year before my
 
 264 RECOLLECTIOSS OF A 
 
 birth I have always computed," he pur- 
 sued, looking quite satisfied with himself as 
 an experimental calculator, " that that 
 threw me back one year !" 
 
 When his sister-in-law the Princess of 
 Monaco was brought to bed of her first child 
 who was the Marquis de Baux, he hastened 
 to announce the good news to his brother 
 who was with the army, but he had 
 neglected to inform himself of the sex of 
 the new-born infant, and you will see how 
 he got out of that difficulty. 
 
 (M. de Crequy happened to be at the same 
 time with the army of Flanders, where 
 the Oomte de Thorigny was serving under 
 him, and he took a copy of this curious 
 letter which I faithfully transcribe for your 
 benefit : ) 
 
 * " I am at present at Torigny where I 
 
 * " Je suys de present a Torigny venu pour lea 
 cousches de vostre chaire femme, quy a failly de 
 mourir et quy vient d'estre heureuxement de'lifree 
 d'un gros enfant, quy fait des crys de chouhette en 
 colesre, au point que j'en suys si joyeux et si troub!6
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 265 
 
 <c came for the confinement of your dear wife ; 
 " she was very near dying, but has just been 
 " safely delivered of a fine child, who screeches 
 " like an owl in a rage, to such an extent that 
 " I am too happy and bewildered to be able, as 
 " yet, to tell you whether I am an uncle or an 
 " aunt Adieu ; I remain with many compli- 
 " ments, your brother," 
 
 " f Leon, Bishop & Count," 
 
 of Lisieux." 
 
 " Why ?" asked he one day of the maid 
 who looks after his poultry yard, " why have 
 you not wit enough to sell my chickens at 
 four pistoles each as they do parrots, which 
 are not half the size ?" 
 
 " Do you not see Monseigneur, that your 
 chickens cannot talk as parrots do." 
 
 " Well, even if they cannot," he replied 
 in a rage, " they do not think the less 
 
 " que je ne vous saurais dire encore, si je suis son" 
 " oncle ou sa tante. Adieu seyey Monsieur mon fre're" 
 " et bien des compliments, 
 
 t Leon, Evesque et 
 
 Comte de Lisieux,"
 
 266 RECOLLECTIONS OP A 
 
 on that account !" and the saving became 
 proverbial. 
 
 The Duchess de Brissac declared to us on 
 her Oath that she actually received from him 
 whilst he was staying at Gace with their 
 cousin De Matignon, the original of that 
 absurd letter which is now to be seen in 
 every one's budget of jokes : 
 
 " Madame, 
 
 " Being a ware of your predilection for red- 
 " partridges I send you six, of which three 
 " are grey, and one is a wood-cock ; you will 
 " find this letter at the bottom of the basket." 
 In other respects he had all the inclina- 
 tion to become a flatterer and a courtier, 
 but when he attempted that line, his folly 
 was the more conspicuous, witness his inter- 
 view with Mademoiselle de Sens. 
 
 He was commissioned, I never knew why 
 or wherefore, to break the tidings of the 
 death of the Count de Charolois (Louis-Hen- 
 ri de Bourbon-Conde) who was an abandoned 
 creature, to the Princess. Mademoiselle de 
 Sens saw him arrive in his Bishop's dress,
 
 FREXCII MARCHIONESS. 267 
 
 and knowing nothing further, began to 
 question him as to whether her poor brother 
 
 had had time to settle his rnind as to 
 
 .. ,-...She intended to allude to certain testa- 
 mentary acts, but he understood her to mean 
 the affairs of another state, and interrupting 
 her in the blandest tone, he said : 
 
 " Alas ! Mademoiselle, I know that he 
 was an abominable character ; that he killed 
 his own sister with a hunting knife, and 
 that he used to fire upon the country people 
 at Chantilly just as if they had been hares, 
 to say nothing of the number of workmen 
 he used to bring down from the roofs, making 
 them roll over and over into the court-yard 
 of the Palais de Bourbon, but the Divine 
 Mercy is very great Mademoiselle, and God 
 ought to think twice before he passes judg- 
 ment upon a Prince of the blood !" * 
 
 * " Monseigneur," said Louis the Fifteenth to 
 this Prince one day in the presence of all at his levee, 
 " I forgive you this once, but I swear solemnly as a 
 man of honour, that I would grant letters of free and 
 entire pardon to any one who should kill you !" 
 
 (Authors Note.)
 
 268 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 I will spare you the infliction of a host of 
 stories which I could relate about M. de 
 Matignon, but I must tell you one more 
 which I had from the Marechal de Tesse and 
 which I believe to be original. 
 
 My uncle was passing a few days in the 
 autumn at Thury at the Duchess d'Harcourt's, 
 and the coadjutor of Lisieux happened to 
 be there at the same time. 
 
 They were amusing themselves by discuss- 
 ing an old rogue in the neighbourhood who 
 passed there for a very great man, because 
 he regularly wore court mournings whenever 
 there were any, and occasionally expended 
 some of his savings in the ready-furnished 
 houses, and Cafe's of the Capital. He used 
 to tell his boon-companions that the King 
 (Louis XIV) always treated him with un- 
 paralleled distinction, and seeing him once 
 rushing from Paris to Versailles, the perspira- 
 tion dropping off him, and covered with dust 
 he had the goodness to receive him with open 
 arms. 
 
 " Eh, good day, friend Gaudreville ! it is
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 269 
 
 a thousand years since we saw you ! How 
 do you do V 
 
 " Why sire, pretty well, thank you, if 
 it were not for the fatigue of the journey." 
 
 " I dare say you would not be sorry to 
 refresh yourself with a little of my Macon 
 wine 1" 
 
 " Faith ! that is an offer not to be re- 
 fused !" 
 
 Here the old Squire was interrupted by 
 an ecuyer of the Marechai de Tesse wh'o 
 happened to be one of the hunting party 
 and who could not refrain from bursting 
 into a fit of laughter. 
 
 " Well 1" observed a country gentleman, 
 one of the good-natured audience, " is the 
 King's wine not the best that can be found V 
 
 " But," replied Gaudreville, looking to- 
 wards the ecuyer with a discontented air, 
 " I did not drink any of it." 
 
 " How was that T 
 
 11 Why you see," he pursued, sacrificing 
 a part of his story to preserve the rest, and 
 gaining fresh courage, " they always used
 
 270 EECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 to come and inform the King, that the 
 Queen had gone to vespers and had taken 
 the cellar key with her !" 
 
 The coadjutor thereupon observed with a 
 knowing look : 
 
 " What a fool ! he might have seen that 
 this was but an excuse of the Queen's, who 
 did not wish him to have the wine at all !" 
 
 I think I may take upon myself to say 
 that so gross a piece of stupidity never be- 
 fore escaped the lips of a grand seigneur !
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 27l 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 An Ambassador extraordinary Expediency Death 
 of the Pope A d'Este A wonderful telescope 
 Extraordinary instance of two monks " taking a 
 sight," proving " a glass too much !" The Jaco- 
 bite conrt at Rome French superiority A Con- 
 clave Adventure of a Conclavist. 
 
 MY father had refused to be anything in 
 Italy except Ambassador extraordinary, but 
 whatever talents he might have fancied he 
 possessed for negotiation, he very much pre- 
 ferred Paris life to a continued residence in 
 any foreign country. 
 
 Since the death of the King, it appeared 
 to be the general opinion that France would 
 consult her own interests the most by mak-
 
 272 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 ing common cause with England ; my father 
 could not adopt this idea as a principle, but 
 he approved of it for the time being, on 
 account of the establishment of the bank 
 of Ostende, whither the Emperor Charles VI 
 had undertaken to draw into his own nets, 
 all the commercial advantages of other states 
 and of the maritime powers in particular. 
 
 It was requisite to concert measures with 
 the republic of Venice, where M. de Fre- 
 mont, the ordinary resident minister of 
 France, was suspected of being favorably 
 disposed towards the Imperialists ; such 
 were the apparent objects of this embassy 
 of the Count de Froulay. But as the 
 Pope's health was daily declining it was easy 
 to foresee an approaching conclave, and my 
 father had then a mission to go to Rome to 
 advance the interests of France, by carrying 
 thither the veto of this crown and that of 
 Spain against the Cardinals Charles, Colonna, 
 Pic de la Mirandola, and Zondodari, who 
 were downright Imperialists, Prretorians un-
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 273 
 
 der their purple, Cassarians, and regular 
 Ghibellines of the XHIth century. 
 
 On our arrival at Milan, early in the 
 month of March, we learnt there the death 
 of the Pope, and the departure of the 
 Count de Froulay for Rome, where we arri- 
 ved after having stayed eight days at the 
 Court of Modena. M. de Crequy would 
 insist upon proffering this politeness to the 
 eldest of the House of d' Est, a relation of 
 his, who gave us a profusion of fetes in 
 church, festivals at Court, balls at the thea- 
 tre, and parties in the country. 
 
 The Duke of Modena (Renard d' Est, 
 third of the name) had been a Cardinal 
 before he married the sister of the first 
 Duke of Hanover, whom he had survived 
 some years ; this Princess was the eldest 
 sister of the Empress Amelia of Brunswick, 
 wife of Joseph the First. 
 
 Prince Fran9ois of Modena was quite 
 shocked because his wife, (who, as I have 
 before informed you, was a daughter of the 
 Regent, and received us very ungraciously)
 
 274 RECOLLECTION OF A 
 
 would sometimes wear Persian silks, and he 
 asked me if it were possible that they were 
 worn in Paris. I was obliged to allow that 
 many young women had adopted this sort of 
 material for morning dresses in the dead 
 season, but never in the spring, nor for the 
 evening ; and still less for Court. 
 
 The Princess of Modena was the first 
 woman of rank whom I ever saw wear these 
 dresses of coloured silk, which, as well as 
 those of muslin and lawn, always appeared 
 to me to look wretchedly mean. 
 
 We were told such things of this Prin- 
 cess, that it is impossible to repeat them ; 
 all that 1 can possibly say is, that the late 
 Duchess de Berry and the Queen of Spain, 
 were prodigies of innocence and purity, in 
 comparison to their sister of Modena ! 
 
 At that time everybody in Upper Italy 
 was talking of Ferracino, the celebrated 
 Ferracino, who could not read, and yet had 
 just set up a telescope of his own invention 
 on the tower of Mirandola. 
 
 It was a wonderful instrument, the pro-
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 275 
 
 portions of which were calculated to enable 
 one to observe, not only the spots on the 
 sun or anything on the moon's surface, but 
 to distinguish with perfect clearness all that 
 passed within four or five miles of Mi- 
 randola. I have seen it directed upon a 
 house in the little village of Strolla ; it was 
 a tavern, and you might easily make out 
 the sign, which was the figure of a Nun, 
 with this inscription : 
 
 " Alia beata Giulia Fakonieri" 
 
 At the very moment, a veteran was 
 counting his beads, seated on a stone bench 
 at the Inn door, and by his side was a 
 child weaving a basket of rushes ; we could 
 perceive by the alternate motion of their 
 lips that the little fellow was responding to 
 the rosary with the invalided soldier, who 
 wore the remains of a yellow uniform and 
 had a wooden leg ; I see them now ! 
 
 We were credibly informed that the dis- 
 tance between Mirandola and Strolla is, as 
 the crow flies, very nearly four geographical 
 miles of twenty-five to a degree.
 
 276 RECOLLECTIONS OP A 
 
 About three weeks after our arrival in 
 the States of Modena, two monks in their 
 novitiate, belonging to the Capucin Convent, 
 happened to mount to the observatory that 
 they might look through this same telescope, 
 and one of them made the instrument to 
 bear upon a little wood of evergreen oaks, 
 in the midst of which another Capucin Con- 
 vent was situated, far off in the country, 
 where the monk had commenced his studies, 
 and in which he felt a strong interest. 
 
 Scarcely had he applied his eye to the 
 glass before he uttered a fearful cry and im- 
 mediately whispered something to his com- 
 panion, who gazed without uttering a word ; 
 they then both rushed down hastily, after 
 taking the precaution of turning the tele- 
 scope, telling Ferracino that if he were rash 
 enough to look at what they had had the 
 misfortune to see, he would commit a mor- 
 tal sin ; Ferracino paid no regard to this 
 caution but all that he could perceive was, a 
 tall Capucin emerging from the oak wood,
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 277 
 
 and making his way towards Mirandola, 
 keeping the high road of the Secchia. 
 
 However, the two young monks went and 
 revealed to the guardian father of their com- 
 munity, what they had seen with the tele- 
 scope ; he, on his part, departed forthwith 
 to the Ducal Palace, where he forced his 
 way through the guards, saying that he 
 wished to speak with His Highness as soon 
 as possible ; they answered him that His 
 Highness was taking his siesta, upon which 
 the Capucin tore his beard, exclaiming that 
 the honor of the Order of St. Francis was 
 concerned ; it was the Duke of Modena 
 himself who told us all this. 
 
 " But why do you not go and see what 
 this superior of the Franciscans has to say to 
 me 1" said he to the gentlemen of his cham- 
 ber. They returned and said that he would 
 explain himself to no one but the Duke in 
 person. 
 
 What the two novices saw, and what could 
 not have been seen except by means of a tele- 
 scope, or by the fowls of the air, was, the
 
 278 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 murder of a Capucin, whose body the 
 murderer dragged to a ravine, after having 
 stripped it of the gown. He then clothed 
 himself in the garments of the deceased and 
 came out of the wood in the direction of the 
 city, where the Duke of Modena had arrived 
 two days before, to assist at the solem- 
 nities of the festival of some patron-saint or 
 other. 
 
 What the guardian-father wanted was, 
 that the Duke of Modena should send some 
 soldiers into his Convent, men of courage 
 and resolution, and not such cowards as the 
 sbirri were, (who, moreover were almost 
 always in league with the brigands.) This 
 was, in order that they might seize the mur- 
 derer, who was sure to seek an asylum with 
 the monks of St. Francis on the strength of 
 his Franciscan habit, and still further, be- 
 cause he could not be harboured in any other 
 house in the town. 
 
 The two novices had observed everything 
 with remarkable atteption ; they could not 
 be mistaken in the person, seeing that the
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 279 
 
 monk's habit was much too short for the 
 robber ; he was furthermore without beard, 
 and if they removed the cowl with which 
 he had concealed his head, it would be found 
 that he had long hair, black and curly ; fi- 
 nally as he could not get his feet into the dead 
 man's sandals, indubitably he would arrive 
 with shoes, if not with bare feet, all of which 
 proved perfectly correct. 
 
 In consequence of the report of the novices, 
 and the request of their superior, the Duke 
 wrote to the Commandeur Hercule d'Est, 
 who was governor of Mirandola, and na- 
 tural brother of His Highness. Soldiers 
 were stationed within the cloister, and the 
 murderer was arrested there ; he proved to 
 be a Chief of Piedmontese brigands, and 
 was hanged two days before our arrival, with 
 his head downwards, after having first had 
 his hand cut off. 
 
 The Chevalier de St. Georges whom the 
 Holy Father received in the States of the 
 Church with royal honours, and who, since 
 his journey to France, had married the
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 grand-daughter oi the King of Poland, Jean 
 Sobieski, was living handsomely but quietly 
 at Rome, whither all the Jacobites flocked 
 to keep up his hopes, or at least to pay 
 homage to the noble exile, their lawful and 
 their only sovereign, according to their con- 
 science and their laws of their country. 
 
 Queen Marie Clementine was handsome, 
 amiable and accomplished ; she possessed 
 good taste, a good disposition, and con- 
 siderable attraction for the French nobility, 
 among whom her sister made some grand 
 matches, for after the death of the Duke de 
 Crequy-Blanchefort, she married in succes- 
 sion (that is the proper term) the Duke de 
 Bouillon-Turenne, and the Prince de Tu- 
 renne, his brother's heir. 
 
 The English Court was established on a 
 very good footing in the Borgia Palace, 
 which the Queen Dowager Maria of Modena 
 had purchased for her son from the Cardinal 
 Howard of Norfolk, and they had placed 
 over the door the arms of England, 
 Scotland and Ireland, with those of France
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 2S1 
 
 in the first quarter ; I never could hold my 
 tongue on this subject, and I cannot imagine 
 how " les Rots tres-chretiens" could ever 
 tolerate such an absurdity.* 
 
 * The English Government and the royal family 
 removed the fleur-de-lys from the British shield 
 during the reign of George the Third, according to 
 a particular stipulation which Buonaparte had in- 
 serted in the treaty of Amiens. Bearing date 
 from the same treaty, we may mention, that the 
 Kings of England no longer assume the title of 
 King of France, which they persisted in doing ever 
 since Henry the Sixth usurped the crown of France. 
 
 (Note of French Editor.} 
 
 * The arms of France were first quartered in the 
 English shield by Edward the Third, who assumed 
 the title of King of France, in right of his mother 
 Isabel, daughter of Philip the Fourth King of 
 France, and they were not discontinued in the 
 British shield until the union of Ireland 1801. 
 George th.9 Third was the last English sovereign 
 who was crowned King of France. The question 
 of this title formed no part of the articles in the 
 treaty of Amiens ; but in the negotiations for a 
 treaty at Lisle under Lord Malmesbury, the French 
 Commissioners appointed by the Directory, 1797, 
 insisted that the King of Great Britain should 
 henceforward desist from assuming the title of King 
 of France, but those proposals were declined on the 
 part of England, and the conference was broken 
 
 off. (Translator's Note.)
 
 282 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 The motto of the British shield is in 
 French, as are also, I am informed, the in- 
 scriptions which designate the names and 
 titles of the Knights of the Garter, and of 
 the Bath, in the Chapels of Windsor and 
 "Westminster, as are also the oaths contained 
 in the statutes of these orders, and the for- 
 mal messages of the Crown to the English 
 parliament. It appears that everything 
 you see or hear at the Court of England 
 bears the impress of the Normans or An- 
 gevins, branded with the indelible traces of 
 the Conquest. 
 
 It is perhaps worthy of note that the 
 French cast off their old customs, whilst 
 almost all the aulic customs of Europe owe 
 their origin to French usages. In a pro- 
 clamation of Henry the Third, the gentle- 
 men of his Chamber are enjoined " not to 
 neglect to wear henceforth their golden keys 
 at the back of their doublet, according to 
 the ordinance of the Court," and at the 
 present time we see that all the gentlemen 
 of the Chamber or Chamberlains, wear gold
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 285 
 
 keys, except those of the King of France. 
 The ceremonial of the Holy Empire, the 
 regulation of the Couit of Austria, and the 
 etiquette of the Palace of Madrid are all 
 evidently derived from the " loy des hon- 
 neurs de la cour de Bourgogne ;' ; but among 
 no people in any country, is the original so 
 lost sight of, and the imitation so apparent, 
 as in England. 
 
 All the English antiquaries agree in deny- 
 ing this, and the obstinacy with which they 
 do so is supremely ridiculous ; they cannot 
 deny that the oaths, the statutes and the 
 mottos of the Royal Orders, as well as the 
 principal forms of the Crown of England 
 and of the Chancery, are purely nothing 
 more than French sentences. The Chan- 
 cellor of England is moreover obliged, twice 
 a year, to pronounce publicly and judicially, 
 (if not judiciously), " Le roi remercie son 
 bon peuple de son benevolence"* 
 
 Royal Assent. The right of saying yes, whichis
 
 284 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 In fact all their coins and inscriptions, 
 their temples and the palaces of their Kings, 
 their tombs, and the British shield* down to 
 the very coin of the realm, all are covered 
 with emblems, gothic phrases and French 
 legends. English subjects cannot even ad- 
 dress their sovereign without making use of 
 French, and calling him " sir ;" they say 
 
 sometimes dictated by the fear of saying otherwise. 
 The Royal Assent is usually given by commission, 
 and the clerk of the Parliament is compelled to re- 
 peat some Norman-French ; but as some of tho^e 
 clerks have, on economical principles, attempted to 
 acquire French without a master, they often make 
 a sad mess of it. Cromwell, the Protector, who 
 tried to protect the King's English, did away with 
 the custom of assenting to a Bill in French ; but at 
 the restoration, the old barbarous method was re- 
 stored, and prevails at the present moment." 
 
 Punch, Oct. 1845. 
 
 * The origin of some of these Gallic inscriptions, 
 if recalled, would not afford much food for French 
 vanity for instance The motto of " Dieu et mon 
 droit" was adopted by Richard the First, in conse- 
 quence of his having defeated the French at Gisors, 
 A.D. 1198, those words having formed the English 
 Monarch's parole on that day. Translators Note.
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 285 
 
 " madam" to their Queen 'and not " milady." 
 I should fancy that that must be exceedingly 
 mortifying to English pride, but what I find 
 richer than all is, that His Majesty of Eng- 
 land still touches for King's evil, in virtue 
 of his being King of France ! 
 
 I refrain from any remarks on his title 
 of " dejender of the faith." 
 
 Queen Marie Clementine had succeeded to 
 a share in the royal inheritance of the 
 Sobieski, exclusive of some fine estates in 
 Poland and three millions of Roman crowns, 
 a state bed, and three rubies of inestimable 
 value. This splendid bed was a trophy 
 from the battle of Vienna, and the material of 
 which it was made, was taken from that part 
 of the fortification where the standard of 
 Mahomet with the Alcoran upon it, was 
 placed for security. It was a brocade from 
 Smyrna of cloth of gold, upon which 
 Islamite verses were written with turquoises 
 and fine pearls. 
 
 This magnificent piece of workmanship 
 was a present from the immediate nobility
 
 288 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 of the Cardinal-electors, were merely alcoves 
 adjoining the cell of their conclavist. * 
 
 Apropos of conclavists, I must tell you 
 that the Cardinal de Gevres had one who 
 was called the Abbe de Beaumont ; I shall 
 often have occasion to speak of him, and 
 during a protracted period, as he died Arch- 
 bishop of Paris in 1781. He was at that 
 time a handsome young man of eighteen or 
 twenty years of age, of angelic modesty, but 
 with the devil's own appetite ! He was curi- 
 ous about antiquities, and was always making 
 excursions in the campagna of Rome. 
 
 The Cardinal had another French Abbe 
 as train-bearer, with whom little De Beau- 
 mont used to make archaeological expeditions 
 or pilgrimages beyond the walls, and upon 
 one occasion they were obliged to sleep in a 
 public house, being overtaken by a violent 
 storm. The train-bearer went off at once 
 
 * The person in attendance on, and shut up with 
 a Cardinal during the conclave. ('translator's 
 Note.)
 
 FRENCH MARCHIONESS. 289 
 
 to bed without any supper, which would not 
 exactly have suited the conclavist, so as 
 soon as the latter had finished his repast, 
 they gave him a little lamp and told him 
 that he must go and sleep with his com- 
 panion, for they had no other bed to offer 
 him. 
 
 " The little door on the right, at the end 
 of the long passage of the ground floor on 
 the left there are two steps to ascend 
 you cannot go wrong..." and there he 
 placed himself by the side of his companion. 
 
 I must tell you that this room had for- 
 merly been used as a kitchen, and there was 
 a fire of juniper branches kept up on the 
 hearth for the purpose of drying and smok- 
 ing sundry flitches of bacon. 
 
 The Abbe de Beaumont had not been in 
 bed more than five or six minutes, when he 
 saw the door open and a pretty young girl 
 came in with a tallish lad ; they went and 
 knelt very properly at the two corners of 
 the chimney piece and began to recite the 
 litanies of the saints ; the youth had im-
 
 290 RECOLLECTIONS OF A 
 
 perceptibly approached the young girl on 
 his knees, and when he was quite close to 
 her, he was just going to kiss her, when she 
 bounded to the other end of the room ex- 
 claiming. 
 
 " You are a regular Turk ! in the pres- 
 ence of a dead boby V 
 
 The Abbe de Beaumont then perceived 
 that he had an icy cold leg by the side of 
 his own, and he made a movement to turn 
 himself round and look his neighbour in the 
 face... It was a corpse !... 
 
 You may think how he got out of bed, 
 and imagine the terror of the poor girl. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 T. C. NBWBY, Printer, 72, Mortimer Street, Cavendish S<j.
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 A 000 131 577 9