UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO 
 
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 Social Sciences & Humanities Library 
 
 University of California, San Diego 
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 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
 SAN DIEGO
 
 2>A 
 
 h 7 
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE.
 
 ■'U^f-ey o 
 
 M^u.- ^/.'^.^
 
 THE 
 
 Court of Charles ll. 
 
 1649-1734 
 
 BY 
 
 H. FORNERON 
 
 With a Preface by 
 
 Mrs. G. M. CRAWFORD 
 IVif/i Portraits^ Facsimile Letter^ etc. 
 
 LONDON 
 SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO. LTD. 
 PATERNOSTER SQUARE 
 1897
 
 First Edition— Sept., 1886 ; Second Edition— Sept., 1887 ; 
 
 Third Edition— Feb., 1888 ; Fourth Edition— Oct., 1891 ; 
 
 Fifth Edition— March, 1897.
 
 PREFACE BY MRS G. M CRAWFORD. 
 
 On the stormy 3rd of September, 1658, the 
 soul of that master man Cromwell, which had 
 so often undergone gloomy eclipses, lay in 
 deep darkness. The throes of death were on 
 the Protector, and black presentiments took 
 hold of his mind. One of the causes of his 
 anguish was leaving behind him an unfin- 
 ished work. This, to a man of his genius and 
 disposition, was like leaving in hard times an 
 infant child to buffet alone with the troubles 
 of life. Limp and gritless, Richard Cromwell 
 was no meet guardian for such a ward as the 
 young Commonwealth of England ; and which 
 of the Major- Generals could better assume the 
 office ? In the broken phrases the Protector 
 uttered, he showed a foreboding of the deca- 
 dence into which his nation was to fall, and of 
 the moral crisis through which, like a drunken 
 Bacchante, she was to reel and stagger with
 
 vi PREFACE BY MRS. G. M. CRAWFORD. 
 
 a merry monarch at her head, and a crew of 
 greedy and sensual nobles — arrant knaves and 
 rascals for the most part — at his heels. 
 
 Cromwell, it being no use to take thought 
 for the morrow and the days after, did what it 
 was best under the circumstances to do. He 
 ended by leaving the whole matter for his dis- 
 quietude to God. Oppressed with the feeling 
 that he was a " miserable worm " and " a poor, 
 foolish creature," he took his stand on the 
 Covenant of Grace, and in his quaint Puritan 
 speech, supplicated on behalf of the people 
 he had led, for higher guidance. He was an 
 affectionate kinsman, and his heart habitually 
 went out to his children. But on that stormy 
 September day, which brought back memories 
 of his greatest victories, and placed him face 
 to face with death, he was so absorbed in 
 patriotic anxiousness that, said one who 
 watched beside him, " He forgot to entreat 
 God for his own family." 
 
 " However, Lord," cried the dying hero, 
 " Thou do dispose of me, do good for Thy 
 people. Give them consistency of judgment, 
 and go to deliver them with the work of refor- 
 mation."
 
 PREFACE BY MRS. G. M. CRAWFORD. vii 
 
 " With the work of reformation ! " Think 
 of that, all honest Britons, whether Tory or 
 Primrose Leaguer, for this book is not intended 
 to point a moral for the teaching of the dis- 
 honest, they being unteachable. 
 
 If God's mill grinds fine, the grinding pro- 
 cess is — when men and women do not keep up 
 a good supply of grist — so slow as to be im- 
 perceptible, unless we look to the work it does 
 in the long course of generations. Cromwell's 
 prayer was answered, but in a way that neither 
 he himsielf nor those around him could have 
 looked forward to. The tale this volume fur- 
 nishes, of a French harlot's progress at White- 
 hall, and of the solid anchorage (^19,000 a 
 year for ever!) which a supine nation allowed 
 to her offspring, would not on the first blush 
 seem to justify this view. What would any old 
 Ironside have thought of the power of a good 
 man's prayer, were Harvey, at the time of the 
 Rye- House Plot convictions and executions, 
 to have told him what he overheard Cromwell 
 utter when the shadow of death was upon him ? 
 It would not have occurred to him that the 
 slow grinding mill was orrindinof at all. Nor 
 was it, in a general way in England, where the
 
 viii PREFACE BY MRS. G. M. CRAWFORD. 
 
 supply of çrist was too miserably stinted for t?ie 
 millstones not to grind each other out, if they 
 did long and strong spells of work. Here and 
 there, there was a soul in touch with Heaven. 
 But persecution was the lot of such. One 
 of them, the tinker Bunyan, escaped from a 
 jail-bird's noisome sufferings by a flight into 
 Dreamland. He dreamed day-dreams, in which 
 the vulgar facts of life — the heart-wringings 
 that sprang from inability to protect his dear 
 blind litde child — the slips, the falls, and the 
 hindrances to moral growth, were transmuted 
 into the circumstances of an epic poem. We 
 find in his Dream counterparts of Louise de 
 Keroualle and her Court of Whitehall rivals, 
 h Madam Bubble, Mrs. Lechery, Mrs. Bats- 
 eyes, and Mrs. Filth. Fashion travelled slowly 
 in those times — but it travelled. The titled 
 demi-reps who formed the cortege of the Merry 
 Monarch had, we may rest assured, their copy- 
 ists in the low-lying social strata which the 
 tinker was only able to observe. 
 
 Among the phenomena of nervous diseases 
 there are none more curious than susceptibility to 
 ** suo-ofestion " and anesthesia or transfer of vital 
 force from one member of the body to another.
 
 PREFACE BY MRS. G. M. CRAWFORD. ix 
 
 In the one case a human being can be directed 
 by the expressed — or, what is more noteworthy, 
 the verbally unuttered— will of a strong-minded 
 person in full health. Hypnotic patients of 
 Doctor Charcot have afforded instances of this 
 strange susceptibility. In the lives of nations 
 we often see collective maladies similar to those 
 which trouble individuals. England, after 
 Cromwell's death, was like a machine going at 
 full speed, when it loses the fly-wheel. She fell 
 into a state of nervous unbalancement and then 
 moral inertia. There were times when, acting 
 under — as it is shown by the author of " Louise 
 de Keroualle," — the " suggestions " of a French 
 faction, secretly organized in London to work 
 her ruin, she was as one demented. This 
 faction, was managed dexterously by French 
 ambassadors, and through Louise de Keroualle 
 it held the Crown. Indeed, all the disposing 
 and directing powers of the nation were exer- 
 cised according to orders or suggestions from 
 Versailles. England had no more volition of her 
 own than an hypnotic patient of Doctor Charcot. 
 Her condition was closely watched and reported 
 on by the agents of Louis to that monarch, and 
 worked upon for the furtherance of a great
 
 X PREFACE BY MRS. G. M. CRAWFORD. 
 
 political scheme, which was a feasible one. This 
 plan of policy broke down chiefly because the 
 legitimate offspring of the Grand Monarch had 
 all bad constitutions, and died early. In con- 
 sequence, the French crown passed, at the begin- 
 ning of the eighteenth century, to a child of no 
 natural political ability and of vicious instincts, 
 who was placed under the tutelage of a volup- 
 tuary. England had under Charles become so 
 deranged in mind as to justify a French diplo- 
 matist writing to his King that if a thing was 
 irrational and absurd, it was the more certain for 
 that reason to succeed amouQ- the EnMish. Yet 
 there was no lack of cleverness, and fine talents 
 cropped up in literature and science. But these 
 various gifts and capacities did not make for the 
 general weal. The aristocracy were profligate 
 and knavish, and, according to their degree, 
 their leading men as much the pensioners of 
 Louis as their monarch. In their orgies, 
 they kept their eyes v.'ell fixed on the main 
 chances of their class. Their wits were success- 
 fully employed in throwing off the military 
 burdens with which their broad estates were 
 charged, and shifting them to the shoulders of 
 mercantile lacklands. So far as the middle and
 
 PREFACE BY MRS. G. M. CRAWFORD. xi 
 
 lower middle class went, there was a clear case 
 of anesthesia, as shown in the transfer of re- 
 forming power and self-governing will to New 
 England. 
 
 When Louise de Keroualle was above the 
 crowned Queen at Whitehall, that New Eng- 
 land territory was the sparsely colonized fringe 
 of the wildest and biofaest wilderness in the 
 world. Its colonists were " the people," to 
 whom by early associations and Puritan breed- 
 ing Cromwell belonged and gave his last 
 thouo;hts. God's mill was then orindino- fast 
 and fine among them, because the supply of 
 grist was plentiful. But New England was 
 out of the sight and mind of old England, 
 which was supine and inert, when she was 
 not either carousing, attacked with nervous 
 convulsions, or a prey to wild panics, got up by 
 agents of the Prince of Orange and limbs of 
 the French faction. These scares are known 
 to us as the Papist and the Rye- House Plots. 
 Hitherto their causes have remained in semi- 
 obscurity. In " Louise de Keroualle " they are 
 brought into a light, full and clear to fierceness. 
 
 It has been a subject of anxiety to the 
 translator, whether he should tone down what
 
 xii PREFACE BY MRS. G. M. CRAWFORD. 
 
 might appear to many well-meaning persons 
 the too crisp scandals of the Court of White- 
 hall, which fill so large a place in the letters 
 of French ambassadors to their kins: and his 
 secretary for foreign affairs. Happily he has 
 been induced not to Bowdlerize. This book is 
 for the information of men and women who like 
 to see the facts of history divested of con- 
 ventional forms, and allowed to speak for them- 
 selves, in their own way. So the letter and the 
 spirit are adhered to of the documents to which 
 we owe this new vista on the wildly dissipated 
 court of Charles IL Nothing is watered; nor 
 would morality be served by a watering process. 
 There are great lessons to be deduced from the 
 piquant gossip in which this volume abounds. 
 They would miss their mark were the trans- 
 lator to have toned them down. M. Forneron's 
 book came out in Paris a few years ago, when 
 the Duke of Richmond was in the enjoyment 
 of an hereditary annuity of ^19,000 a year. 
 The last edition of the Financial Reform 
 Almanac states that his pension has been 
 commuted by a sum of nearly half a million 
 sterling. It is to be supposed that this 
 arrangement was hastened forward and quietly
 
 PREFACE BY MRS. G. M. CRAWFORD. xiii 
 
 got through because the pubHcation of " Louise 
 de Keroualle " was expected in England, and a 
 foretaste of it given in the House of Commons 
 in a question put by Mr. Labouchere. Nobody 
 who has any share in bringing this book before 
 the Enghsh pubHc harbours any sort of grudge 
 against the ducal family of Richmond. At the 
 same time, it is hard to conceive anything 
 more monstrous than the commutation of the 
 pension originally granted to Louise de 
 Keroualle. Its enormity must come home to 
 all who read in this volume the story of her 
 aims and efforts. We have to go back three 
 thousand years, to the Valley of Sorek, to find 
 a wanton who was a match for her in cold- 
 blooded astuteness. There is a good deal to 
 be forgiven to a Magdalen who loves much, 
 even though she has loved often. But the 
 woman who plans betrayal while bewitching 
 with her caresses, deserves outlawry. This was 
 what Louise de Keroualle did. 
 
 However, there was a sound spot in her. 
 Though gorged with English money (and 
 indeed Irish money too), and always expectant 
 of, and hungering for more, her allegiance to 
 her own king was never shaken. She was born.
 
 xiv PREFACE BY MRS. G. M. CRAWFORD, 
 
 lived, and died a Frenchwoman. Under all 
 circumstances, and in every case, she was a 
 leal and intelligent agent of Louis the Four- 
 teenth in London ; and she won every wage 
 he paid her, by consciously trying to bring 
 England into subjection to France. She all 
 but succeeded. Unfortunately for her and 
 the King of France, the means they took de- 
 feated their object. Charles's vices being over- 
 stimulated and overdone, he died before his 
 time, and then a new chapter of history was 
 opened. Had he lived a few years more, the 
 work of reformation on which Cromwell set his 
 heart, and which after his time went on so well 
 across the Atlantic, must have been nipped in 
 the bud. It is in general idle to speculate 
 upon " what might have been." But it is easy 
 to say what, under given circumstances, could 
 not have been. Thus, if Louise de Keroualle 
 had remained effective queen at Whitehall 
 for a few years more, that Greater Britain, 
 wherein the Irish Celt has full play for his 
 tumultuous activities and the Anglo-Saxon all 
 the personal liberty he wants, must have fallen 
 into the limbo of the could-not-have-beens. 
 It was a part of the French scheme to edge
 
 PREFACE BY MRS. G. M. CRAWFORD. xv 
 
 England out of North America. Seeing that 
 France held Canada and the Mississippi Valley, 
 was herself a great naval power, the greatest 
 existing military power, and had her hand on 
 Holland, the design was essentially practicable. 
 Its success must have relegated the Boston 
 Harbour tea fight to the could-not-have-beens ; 
 and we know that out of that event arose, not 
 only a fresh order of things in the New World, 
 but in the Old World too. It was the people 
 with whom Cromwell was in his last hour in 
 heart and thought, who settled around Boston 
 Harbour. The changes to which the tea fray 
 led in Europe brought about the suppression — 
 and without commutation ! — of the ducal fief of 
 Aubigny in France, which was granted to Louise 
 de Keroualle and her heirs, for her secret ser- 
 vices in England.' But the perpetual wages 
 which the Merry Monarch granted her out of 
 
 1 I am told, but have as yet been unable to obtain 
 documentary evidence, that the late Duke, in the reign of 
 Charles X., put in, as disestablished lord of Aubigny, a claim 
 for a slice of the ;^ 10,000,000 sterling indemnity voted to 
 the émigrés ot the French aristocracy by " la Chambre in- 
 trouvable."
 
 XVI PREFACE BY MRS. G. M. CRAWFORP 
 
 his lackland subjects' pockets, for the means 
 she took to render these services to her own 
 king, continue to gild the ducal coronet of 
 Richmond. 
 
 I wish it were otherwise, for the sake of the 
 readers who like to see, in novels and at the 
 close of the play, vice well whipped and vir- 
 tue triumphant. But history evolves itself in- 
 dependently of our likings or dislikings ; and 
 all that historians should do is to record, to 
 seek for missing links, to connect them, when 
 found, with the rest of the chain, and to leave 
 their narrative to point its own moral.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 ENGLAND AND THE POLICY OF LOUIS XIV. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Indebtedness of France to Louise de Keroualle. — 
 French ingratitude for services rendered by her at 
 the Court of Whitehall. — Pedigree of Louise. — 
 Her early life. — Adventures at the French court. 
 — Libels and lampoons. — Ambitious policy of 
 Louis the Fourteenth. — England the main ob- 
 stacle to its accomplishment. — Charles H. his 
 disposition and vices. — Henrietta Maria, her 
 intrigues and secret marriage. — Catherine of 
 Braganza, her ugliness and incapacity to become 
 a useful tool of France. — Her bridal humiliations. 
 — Her displeasure at Lady Castlemaine's supre- 
 macy at Whitehall. — The beautiful Lady Castle- 
 maine. — Her truculence and triumph over the 
 Queen. — Presents sent her by the King of France. 
 — Inconstancy of Charles II. — The lovely and 
 vacuous Miss Stuart. — Nelly Gwynn, her thea- 
 trical career, jests, and frolics.— Arlington and 
 Buckingham, their foreign intrigues. — Sir Sam- 
 uel Morland, his life and adventures. — French 
 noblemen at Whitehall. — French diplomatists, 
 diplomatic wires and wire pullers. — Manoeuvres 
 to hold Charles. — The Italian astrologer, his 
 erroneous forecasts of the Newmarket races and 
 ois recall to France i 
 
 xvii Ij
 
 sriii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 MADAME HENRIETTE. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Buckingham's suspicions of Henriette, Duchess of 
 Orleans and Princess of England. — Influence of 
 the Duchess with Charles H. — Her intervention 
 in the French intrigues at Whitehall advised by 
 Colbert. — The Countess of Shrewsbury's relations 
 with Buckingham and complicity in Killegrew's 
 murder. — Charles's greed for French gold. — He 
 proposes a secret league to Louis XIV. — Its un- 
 English purport. — Holland to be sacrificed. — 
 Hitch on the French side about Hamburg. — Hen- 
 rietta's dexterity. — Her visit to England decided 
 upon. — Choice by her of Louise de Keroualle to 
 attend her there. — Meeting of Charles and Hen- 
 riette. — Betrayal of England by her King. — Louis, 
 at Dunkirk, watches the progress of négocia- 
 tions at Dover. — Henriette returns to France. — 
 Her sudden death, and suspicion that she was 
 poisoned. — Louise de Keroualle sent to London 
 to console and manage Charles. — His susceptibility 
 to her charms. — Lady Castlemaine's jealousy. — 
 The Royal bastards. — Louise's adroitness. — 
 Public suspicions of her and the Cabal. — Her 
 close game and afiected coyness. . . 47 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 ACCESSION OF LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 Louise pursues her close game. — She remains coy. — 
 Uneasiness thereat of the French Embassy. — 
 Fury of the Duchess of Cleveland. — The King's
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 fancy for Louise. — Her soft graces and refine- 
 ment. — Lady Arlington's plot to break down her 
 supposed scruples. — Euston Hall. — The King 
 goes to Euston from Newmarket. — Louise fetched 
 to meet him. — Mock marriage of Charles and the 
 French beauty at Euston Hall. — France, through 
 her ambassador, congratulates the pseudo bride, 
 and turns her new position to diplomatic account. 
 — Charles declares war on Holland. — Louis con- 
 quers Flanders. — Attempts to make Charles 
 declare himself a Catholic. — The Duke of York. 
 — Intrigues to bring him to propose for the 
 Duchess of Guise 64 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 THE RIVALS. 
 
 The Dangers which beset Louise. — The Queen's 
 bad health. — The French favourite aims at the 
 Crown. — Catherine's Doctors and their prognos- 
 tics. — A Royal divorce mooted. — The King's new 
 amours. — Their cost to the nation. — The Duchess 
 ofCleveland's four sons. — The three rival beauties. 
 — English taste for boisterous fun. — The Queen's 
 jollifications. — Her Majesty's adventure at Saffron 
 Walden fair. — Actresses under Charles II. — Mary 
 Davies. — Louise holding ground against Court 
 and people. — Her tact. — Refuses to urge the 
 Conversion of Charles. — Her match-making 
 scheme for the Duke of York. — His uxorious- 
 ness. — He stands out for a pretty wife. — A 
 princess of Wurtemburg offered. — Louise gets 
 her set aside. — The Duke of York marries 
 Mary Beatrice of Este. — Louise enters the
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 peerage as Baroness of Peterfield, Countess 
 of Farnham, Duchess of Pendennis, and 
 Duchess of Portsmouth. She aspires to a French 
 Duchy. — Obstacles to her ambition. — Charles II. 
 solicits for her the Ducal fief of Aubigny which 
 she desires. — Its Royal Stuart associations. — 
 French nobles at Whitehall. — Duras created Earl 
 of Feversham. — The Frenchmen of Buckingham's 
 set. — Saint Evremond. — The Marquis de Sessac. 
 — His gambling gains. — Buckijigham a secret 
 service agent of France. — His plan to buy M.P.'s 
 for Louis. — De Ruvigny's mission, his honour- 
 able life. — His Protestantism and relationship to 
 the Russells. — His secret mission to London. — 
 Is instructed to purchase King and Parliament. 
 — France stretches her Frontiers. — Louis feels 
 England slipping from him. — Alarm given to 
 France by the Comte D'Estrades. — Tide of 
 public hatred turning against Roman Catholicism 
 and France. — Charles is given a bribe of eight 
 millions of francs, — Buckingham curries popular 
 favour, reforms his life and goes to church. — 
 Peace with Holland . . . . . .79 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH'S FIRST CHECK. 
 
 Plain Speech the rule at the polished Court of Ver- 
 sailles. — Prudish niceness unknown there. — The 
 sins of Charles and Louise find them out — 
 Ruvigny's letters about Charles. — Louise seeks 
 a cure at Tunbridge Wells. — Derision of the 
 Marchioness of Worcester. — The Household
 
 CO NT h NTS. 
 
 guard escorts Louise from the Wells to Windsor. 
 — The King's doctor treats her. — Henriette her 
 sister comes to England and marries Lord Pem- 
 broke. — Louise still solicits a French Duchy, — 
 Nell Gwynn derides her for her oft vaunted high 
 connections. — Versailles finds matter for amuse- 
 ment in her progress at Whitehall. — Madame de 
 Sévigné's jests.— Her sketch of Nell Gwynn. — 
 Queen Catherine's card table. — Hierarchy of the 
 King's Seraglio. — Louise's son created Duke of 
 Richmond. — Maternal tricks to secure him pre- 
 cedence over the King's other progeny. — Their 
 success. — The Dukes of Grafton and St. Albans. — 
 A Scotch Countess named governess to Louise's 
 son. — Pensions and emoluments granted to the 
 Duchesses of the Seraglio and to their heirs. — 
 The fair favourites fleece the exchequer. — The 
 French favourite's passion for gaming. — Her 
 sumptuous lodgings a cause of envy. — The con- 
 tempt in which the EngUsh held her. — Advent 
 of the Duchess Mazarin ..... 107 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 THE DUCHESS MAZARIN. 
 
 Close of a great era. — The Congress of Nimeguen. 
 — Danby gained for Louis by Louise. — French 
 subsidy of two millions of francs for Charles. 
 — Parliament prorogued for fifteen months. — 
 Charles's old passion for the Duchess Mazarin 
 revived. — Her story, domestic misery, fanatical 
 husband, imprisonments in convents, flight to 
 Italy, subsequent adventures and Roman style of
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 beauty. — Triumphant reception at Whitehall. — 
 She is welcomed by English rivals of Louise. — 
 Struggle between the three Duchesses. — The 
 Duchess of Cleveland retires to France. — Louise's 
 new cares. — Her jealousy and altered looks. — 
 Pecuniary troubles. — The Duchess of York's 
 friendship for the Duchess Mazarin. — Monetary 
 straits of the latter. — De Ruvigny unable to 
 manage Charles and the Seraglio. — He is super- 
 seded by Courtin. . . . . .123 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 COURTIN. 
 
 Courtin's career. — His honourable name. — His rela- 
 tions in London with the Duchess Mazarin. — 
 Asks her husband to increase her allowance, and 
 advises Louis XIV. to make him do so. — Liaison 
 of the Duchess with the Abbé St. Real. — The 
 Duchess of Portsmouth tries the Bath waters, 
 and halts at Windsor on her way b.ack to 
 London. — Her dinner to the Comte and Com- 
 tesse de Ruvigny, and dejected manner. — Lou- 
 vois. — Laughter at her lachrymosity. — Courtin 
 hides her decline in Royal favour from the other 
 ambassadors. — He advises her to conceal mortifi- 
 cation. — Passes his evenings at the Duchess 
 Mazarin's. — The Countess of Sussex. — Beauteous 
 and well-bred Mrs. Middleton, — A moonlight 
 walk in St. James's Park. — A fete given to the 
 Court belles at the French Embassy. — Card 
 parties at Madame Mazarin's. — Her library, 
 bright wit, companions, and care to preserve
 
 CONJENTS. 
 
 appearances. — Courtin on Englishwomen's feet, 
 and their smart shoes, stockings, and garters. — 
 His gossip about Charles II. and his Court. — 
 The romping games of Lady Sussex and the 
 Duchess Mazarin. — John Churchill. — Louis the 
 Fourteenth declines to give him a regiment. — 
 His attachment to Miss Jennings, and refusal to 
 marry an ugly heiress. — Is discredited in France 
 for having plundered the Duchess of Cleveland. 
 — Further decline of the Duchess of Portsmouth's 
 influence. — Suppers at Nell Gwynn's. — Charles's 
 nocturnal visits to the Duchess Mazarin. — His 
 day visits to the Duchess of Portsmouth. — Haste 
 of Louis XIV. to work whatever power remains 
 to Louise. — He forces the Prince of Orange to 
 raise the siege of Maastricht. — Sullen hatred of 
 the English people to France. — Charles's auto- 
 graph receipts for French bribes.^The opposi- 
 tion in the Commons. — Courtin told to ascertain 
 what members are purchasable. — Importuned 
 for bribes by Lord Berkshire. — Knavery of that 
 nobleman. — English lords and commoners will- 
 ing to pocket French money, but afraid to keep 
 to their bargains with France. — The Duke and 
 Duchess of Lauderdale. — The canny prudence 
 of the Duchess, and her fear of compromising 
 her husband. — Presents of French wines to in- 
 corruptible Englishmen. — Their liking for cham- 
 pagne. — A dinner at the Duchess of Ports- 
 mouth's. — Courtin patches up a peace between 
 the ladies of the Seraglio. — Lady Hervey and 
 Nell Gwynn at the Duchess of Mazarin's. — Nell 
 bids for the post of agent to King Louis. — She
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 shows her petticoats to the company. — Lady 
 Hervey's mental gifts and vices. — Parallel be- 
 tween the belles of Versailles and the beauties of 
 Whitehall. — The Duchess of Mazarin's style of 
 living. — Chififinch. — War between Parliament and 
 Palace. — Union of all the ladies deemed neces- 
 sary by the French party. — Outcry against the 
 French intrigues at Court. — Louis takes Valen- 
 ciennes, St. Omer, and Cambray. — French bribes 
 paid to Charles in 1677. — Welsh flannel worn by 
 the King. — The Duchess of Portsmouth regains 
 her looks at Bath. • — - Lord Ibrickan. — Courtin 
 retires from diplomacy. — Barrillon succeeds him 139 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 BARRILLON. 
 
 Barrillon's qualifications for his mission to London. — 
 His professional unscrupulousness. — His friend- 
 ship with Madame de Sévigné. — He enters into 
 close relations with corrupt English politicians. 
 — Meets with a check. — The Prince of Orange 
 visits London. — He wins the Princess Mary. — 
 Their marriage. — National joy. — Dangerous ill- 
 ness of the Duchess of Portsmouth. — Her 
 struggles with new rivals. — Disgrace of the 
 Duchess of Cleveland. — The King's passion 
 abates for the Duchess Mazarin. — Louise regains 
 influence. — The Marquise de Courcelles. — Her 
 set on Charles. — Her adventures. — Romping 
 games at the Duchess of York's. — Cabal there 
 against the Duchess of Portsmouth. — The Duke 
 of York's duplicity. — Louise plays into Barrillon's
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 hand. — She persuades Charles that he is devoted 
 to him. — Her courtiers. — Sunderland. — The 
 Countess of Sunderland's animosity to the French 
 jade. — Louise as an Exchequer horse-leech. — 
 Her traffic in Royal pardons. — Her profits in 
 the sale of convicts to West India planters. — A 
 London mercer's bill for finery supplied her. — 
 Male attire the fashion for ladies. — The lump sums 
 and annuities paid to the King's concubines, and 
 to purveyors to his Seraglio. — Barrillon's account 
 books. — The political men in his pay. — Austere 
 Puritans corrupted. — Sir John Baber, Poole, 
 Littleton. — Fifteen thousand guineas for Mon- 
 tagu. — His sudden pretended change of front. — 
 Denounces Danby as having, when talking 
 loudest against France, been its agent. — Double 
 games of Montagu, Danby, and Barrillon. — 
 Barrillon's mission to keep England divided. — 
 Danby deserts France. — He concludes a treaty 
 with Holland and makes up the breach between 
 King and Commons. — Energetic campaign of 
 Louis in Flanders. — Ghent, Ypres, and Mons 
 fall into his hands. — Holland crippled. — Anti- 
 Catholic frenzy of England. — Shaftesbury profits 
 by the fury of the nation, to ruin Danby and 
 humiliate Charles. — The Popish Plot. — Cole- 
 man's knavery and trial. — Gates' perjuries. — 
 Terror of Charles and his ladies. — The Duchess 
 of Portsmouth wants to retire to France. — The 
 Duke of York leaves England. — Strafford tried 
 and executed. — Shaftesbury's preponderance. — 
 He discards the Prince of Grange to set up 
 Monmouth as heir to the Crown. — The King's
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 embarrassment. — He sends for Barrillon, ex- 
 presses fear of a republic, and conjures Louis 
 to make England dependent on him. — Mon- 
 mouth's fabulous maternal pedigree. — English 
 taste for romantic improbability. — Louis stops 
 the subsidies to Charles. — No serious services, no 
 more money. — Louis advances 500,000 francs to 
 prevent Parliament meeting. — The Duchess of 
 Portsmouth pleads, at the French Embassy for 
 Charles to be kept supplied. — His secret meetings 
 with Barrillon revealed by Lady Sunderland. — 
 Louise's dexterity. — She courts Monmouth, and 
 is lampooned. — Charles attacked with fever. — 
 Political effects of his illness. — Monmouth sent 
 from London. — France secretly stirs up a quarrel 
 between Charles and the Country Party. — Mon- 
 mouth comes back. — His intimacy with Nell 
 Gwynn. — Nell sets up to head the Protestant 
 party. — Parliament demands the banishment of 
 Louise de Keroualle. — He<r trial and execution 
 agitated for. — Parliament prorogued . . -193 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SUNDERLAND AND SHAFTESBURY. 
 
 English hatred to France grows hotter. — It threatens 
 the Duchess of Portsmouth. — The King finds a 
 new and noble mistress. — Politic game of the 
 Duchess. — She tries to keep friends and avoid 
 exasperating foes. — Allies herself with Sunder- 
 land. — They play Monmouth against the Prince 
 of Orange and the Duke of York. — Louise de- 
 clares for the Prince of Orange. — The seeming
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 sincerity of this declaration ruffles Barrillon. — 
 He ceases to deem her services important. — Her 
 further campaign of corruption. — Lady Hervey's 
 rapacity. — French bribes for Nonconformist 
 ministers. — Lords and members of the House of 
 Commons proposed for bribery by Barrillon. — 
 Barrillon's political indifference. — His plan of 
 setting all English parties by the ears. — His 
 relations with Sidney. — His relations with Presby- 
 terians and popular preachers. — Nell Gwynn's 
 eldest son dies. — The Duchess of Portsmouth 
 rears the daughter of Mary Davis. — The Duchess 
 suffers the King to show attention to the Queen. 
 — Parliament meets.— Bill to exclude, the Duke 
 of York. — Barrillon's secret efforts against the 
 Prince of Orange. — Montagu, Herbert, Sidney, 
 Hampden, Baber, and Lady Hervey, usefuUest 
 aUies of Barrillon. — France finds it cheaper to 
 bribe the Opposition than the King. — Louise de 
 Keroualle urges Charles to prorogue indefinitely. 
 — Her ignorance of Barrillon's relations with 
 RepetNieans and Nonconformists. — Her astonish- 
 3ient at being thwarted by Barrillon. — He prefers 
 bribery to intrigue. — Her consummate address. — 
 She makes for the Duke of York's friendship. — 
 She gets a percentage on Irish taxes. — Webs of 
 intrigue woven round Charles. — His utter sub- 
 jection to Louis. — Parliament indefinitely pro- 
 rogued. — Louise recovers mental serenity. — Her 
 portrait by Gascar. — Count Koenigsmarck prose- 
 cuted for murder. — Louis intervenes to stop 
 prosecution. — The Koenigsmarck scandal. — The 
 heiress of the Earl of Northumberland. — The
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 girl-wife and widow of Lord Ogle. — Her abduc- 
 tion and marriage with Thynne. — Thynne's 
 assassination. — Her third marriage at fifteen with 
 the Duke of Somerset. — Apparent accomplish- 
 ment of Louis the Fourteenth's scheme. — Louise 
 de Keroualle becomes the direct link between 
 him and Charles. — She keeps England in subjec- 
 tion to France. — She longs to revisit Versailles . 234 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 RETURN TO FRANCE. 
 
 Charles goes to Newmarket and Louise visits France. 
 — She draws her pension in advance. — The 
 letters of recommendation that she takes to 
 Louis XIV. — By his command she is received as 
 a sovereign. — Her visit to the Capucines in 
 the Rue St. Honoré. — The Duke of York's 
 French investments. — The Duchess of Ports- 
 mouth triumphs in France. — Her success there 
 dazzles the English. — She returns to London. — 
 Her undisputed power there.— She takes offence 
 at the Dutch minister. — He humbles himself 
 before her. — The Queen deferential towards her. 
 — The Duchess Mazarin accepts Louise de 
 Keroualle's supremacy. — Gallants and courtiers 
 of the Duchess Mazarin. — Her nephew, Prince 
 Eugene, of Savoy. —She captivates him, — Her 
 daughters. — One of them elopes from a convent. 
 The fugitive's adventures and marriage. — The 
 gloom and sadness of the Duchess Mazarin. — 
 She kills care in drink and gambling. — Her 
 antique vices. — How she lived at Newmarket. — 
 Her court of ladies ..... 253
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 END OF THE REIGN 
 
 Louise de Keroualle's love affair with the Grand Prior 
 of France. — Love makes her imprudent. — 
 Charles takes umbrage, but puts up with his 
 rival. — Louise receives fresh tokens of regard 
 from Louis. — Charles jealous but unnerved. — Bar- 
 rillon comes to his aid. — The Grand Prior has to 
 leave England. — Louise fears her new lover's 
 indiscreet tongue. — Louis orders him to keep 
 silence. — The Grand Prior recalled to Versailles. 
 — Charles's French annuity of ;^6o,ooo. — 
 Rochester and Louise alone know of it. — They 
 both direct the whole Royal family. — Louise is 
 consulted about the proposed match of Princess 
 Anne and Prince George of Demark. — She sends 
 her miniature to the King of Denmark. — She 
 receives ambassadors in state. — She settles inter- 
 national broils. — She represents France at the 
 marriage of the Princess Anne. — Indignation of 
 the old Ironsides. — Charles in their eyes " the 
 Man of Sin." — Marks of God's displeasure at his 
 profligacy. — The Rye House Plot. — Executions 
 of Sidney and Lord Grey. — Charles pities Lord 
 Grey's children. — Louise hardens his heart 
 against them. — She obtains their father's confis- 
 cated estate for herself and Rochester.- — Sub- 
 jection to her of Rochester and Godolphin. — 
 Barrillon chafes at her yoke. — Louis goes on 
 supporting her. — Charles's distress. — He grants 
 her fresh privileges. — Her French Duchy to 
 revert to her son. — Her scandalous luxury. —
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Her sumptuous rooms at Whitehall. — A sugges- 
 tive haberdasher's bill. — The spoils Louise's 
 sister took to France. — Voluptuousness of the 
 Court. — The Breton favourite is the Government 
 of England. — Louis on the point of complete 
 success. — The death of Charles IL — Confusion 
 of the courtiers. — Louise alone shows presence 
 of mind.— She comes out as a good Catholic. — 
 James IL promises her his friendship. — His 
 base motives. — The young Duke of Richmond 
 ceases to be Grand Equerry. — Louise aims at 
 securing ;^i 9,000 a year. — James grants her 
 ;^3,ooo a year. — ;^2,ooo a year granted to the 
 Duke of Richmond. — Louise claims ;^3o,ooo a 
 year out of the Irish taxes. — She misses this 
 mark. — What she can take to France. — James 
 visits her. — She leaves England . . , . 264 
 
 CHAPTER XI L 
 
 IN RETIREMENT. 
 
 Those whom the Duchess of Portsmouth survived. — 
 Her sister's private marriage. — The Duke of 
 Richmond. — He openly enters the Catholic 
 Church. — His subsequent relapse into Protes- 
 tantism.— His debauchery. — Louise visits Eng- 
 land. — Courtin prevents Louis XIV. from exiling 
 her. — Her obligatory relations with England. — 
 Her niece marries Judge Jeffrey's son. — Louise 
 is suspected in France of being a spy of England, 
 She and her son pay court to William III — 
 Her English annuity suspended. — Her furniture 
 destroyed in the fire at Whitehall. — The Duke
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 of Richmond becomes an Orangist. — He cuts his 
 French connections. — Louis transfers his pen- 
 sion to Louise. — Her portraits. — Her pecuniary 
 troubles. — Her creditors. — French orders of 
 Council to stay their executions. — Louise's appe- 
 tite for French public money. — Her claims on 
 the French Crown. — Impoverishment of the 
 French Exchequer. — Louise's begging petitions to 
 the Regent. — Their success. — Death of Louise's 
 sister and son. — Louise devotes herself to piety 
 and charity. — Her death and burial. — Her ne- 
 glected tomb. — Her French duchy and château. 
 — Her descendants. — England pays for the 
 services rendered to ungrateful France . . 292 
 
 Letters of the Duchess of Portsmouth . . • , 309
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ENGLAND AND THE POLICY OF LOUIS XIV, 
 
 Louise de Keroualle was the pretty Breton 
 who became, at the court of Charles II., the 
 pivot on which the ambitious and wide-reaching 
 pohcy of Louis XIV. turned. To her, more than 
 to any statesman, France is indebted for French 
 Flanders, the Franche Comté, her twice secular 
 possession of Alsace, her old ownership of the 
 valley of the Mississippi and Canada, and her 
 lately revived claim on Madagascar. One 
 owes the sacrifice of everything save honour to 
 one's country; but Louise abandoned fair fame, 
 and — although her posterity still fatten on her 
 ill-gotten gains at the expense of the country 
 on which she saddled them — her memory rots 
 in England. Englishmen go on paying the 
 
 B
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 tribute she extracted from them, without look- 
 ing into its origin. But can they ever pardon 
 her for having during fifteen years held Great 
 Britain in her delicate little hand, and manipu- 
 lated its king and statesmen as dexterously as 
 she mio^ht have done her fan ? She made that 
 country a tool of Louis XIV.'s policy, and en- 
 abled him, by the fineness of her diplomatic art, 
 to consolidate the geographical unity of France. 
 The French nation has forg^otten this Acrnes 
 Sorel, who undertook to seduce, get round, and 
 hold a monarch whom she never loved, and 
 who, when she undertook to make his conquest, 
 was prematurely old from profligacy. She is so 
 utterly fallen into oblivion, that her countrymen 
 do not know how to write her name.^ The 
 same forgetfulness extends to the name of her 
 family estate. Even Louise de Perrencour de 
 Keroualle's descendants suffer the Pee7'ao-e,^ that 
 
 ^ The English call her Querouailles, and the French 
 genealogists Kéroual. Colbert de Croissy wrote her name 
 Queroul ; in the charter of donation to her of the lands of 
 Aubigny, it is Kéroël. I write Keroualle, after old family 
 papers in the Archives Nationales, J. 152 ] 6. {Author^ s 
 Noie.) 
 
 3 Burke : Dictionary of the Peerage, under the heading 
 of " Richmond." gives as the root of the ducal house of
 
 ENGLAND AND THE POLICY OF LOUIS XIV. 3 
 
 Golden Book of the English nobility, to state 
 that they are descended from the daughter 
 of a certain Guillaume de Penencourt. Yet 
 these Perrencours were not a family to be 
 denied, even by such high-placed descendants 
 as the Dukes of Richmond. The following is 
 a sketch of their ancestry. 
 
 François de Penhoët married Jeanne, Lady 
 of Keroualle de Penancoët, on loth May, 1330. 
 The Penhoets were one of the great families 
 of the bishopric of Léon, of whom it was 
 said, " The Penhoëts for antiquity, the Ker- 
 mans for riches, and the De Kergournadecs 
 for chivalry." The children of this marriage, 
 took the maternal name, with its coat of arms. 
 One of their descendants, Guillamue de Penan- 
 cour, married, in 1645, Marie de Plœuc de 
 Timeur, daughter of Marie de Rieux ; and 
 one of their children was Louise, Duchess of 
 Pendennis and Portsmouth, in England, and 
 of Aubigny, in France.^ 
 
 Richmond, "Louise Renee de Perrencourt " ; under the 
 heading of " Aubigny " [Jorcign titles), he puts " Louise 
 Renée de Penencourt de Quenouaille, Duchess of Ports- 
 mouth in England, daughter of Guillaume de Penencourt." 
 ^ Bibliothèque Nationale, Cabinet des Titres, No. 50,417. 
 {Author's Note,)
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE 
 
 It does not count for much in our time to be 
 a De Rieux, or to have a forefather so renowned 
 for bravery in the r4th century, as the fair 
 Louise was for her cold-blooded gallantries in 
 the 1 7th century ; but these facts of race and 
 blazon explain the circumstances of her youth, 
 and enable us to understand how she was able 
 to become a maid of honour to Henrietta of 
 England, Duchess of Orleans. They also set 
 at naught the ridiculous stories of the adven- 
 tures in which, according to some lampoonists 
 and pamphleteers, her early years were spent. 
 
 The most widely known of the libellous 
 fictions published in England against her, is 
 The Secret History of the Duchess of Ports- 
 ■mouth. An Ensflish edition and two French 
 ones, as well as a large number of manuscript 
 copies,^ of this factum were circulated. Accord- 
 ing to it. Mademoiselle de Keroualle fled from 
 the house of an aunt livino- in Paris, disguised as 
 a page, and accompanied the Due de Beaufort 
 
 1 I have in my possession one of these manuscripts ; but 
 I have not been able to find at the Bibliothèque Nationale 
 either the English edition of 1690 of llie Secret History of 
 the Duchess of Portsmouth, the French editions of 1690, or 
 the Mémoires Secrets de la Duchesse de Fortsfiwuth, by 
 Jacques Lacombe, 2 vols., i2mo; Paris, 1805. [Author's Note.')
 
 ENGLAND AND THE POLICY OF LOUIS XIV. s 
 
 in the expedition to Candia, which lasted from 
 5th June until loth October, 1669. Now 
 during that time she was under the eyes of 
 the whole Court, servino^ as maid of honour 
 to Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans. The 
 calumny must have originated in the part 
 taken by Louise's brother Sebastien in the 
 unfortunate Beaufort expedition. He died on 
 his return from Candia, a few days after he 
 landed in Provence/ The mourning into 
 which his family were thrown was distorted 
 by the libeller into a burlesque fiction. Most 
 of the episodes of Louise's life were malig- 
 nantly twisted in the same way. The so- 
 called biographer knew enough about her 
 early life to give an air of truth to his cruel 
 inventions.^ 
 
 It was in the year in which Sebastien died 
 in the Due de Beaufort's service that Louise 
 
 1 Of the three children, only the daughters, Louise and 
 Henriette, survived. 
 
 2 There were many other pubhcations of this kind : 
 Memoirs of the Court of England, by the Countess Dunois, 
 1 708 ; The Secret History of the Reigns of King Charles II. 
 and James II., s.l. 1690. There is a French translation 
 of the latter, Cologne, 1690, and also a refutation. The 
 Blatant Beast MuzzVd, s.l., 1691. {Atithor's Note.)
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 made the acquaintance of the Comte de 
 Sault. 
 
 This orentleman was son of the Due de 
 Lesdiguières, and was chief victor in the 
 famous jousts which were held in 1662, under 
 the windows of Tuileries, and gave their 
 name to the Place de Carrousel. Father 
 Anselmo tells us that he passed for being in 
 love with a maid of honour of Henrietta of 
 England/ or Madame Henriette, as she was 
 called in France. Thirteen years later a haughty 
 English nobleman insultingly reminded Louise 
 de Keroualle ^ of this early attachment. 
 
 However innocent may have been the flirta- 
 tions, in a dissipated court, of a girl of rank 
 who was poor, and impatient to find a husband, 
 it is certain that the fair fame of the Bretonne 
 was tarnished. Madame de Séviené and Lou- 
 vois speak slightingly and pitilessly of her 
 relations with De Sault. Saint Simon ^ charges 
 her parents with having aimed at throwing her 
 in the king's way, in the hope that he might 
 
 ^ PÈRE Anselme. 
 
 2 MS. Affaires Etrangères, Angleterre, tome cxiv., fol. 
 iig, du 6 A0Û1, 1674. 
 ■^ Hachette : Ecrits inédits de Saint Simon, t. iv., p. 485.
 
 ENGLAND AND THE POLICY OF LOUIS XIV. 7 
 
 cast her his pocket-handkerchief, and to further 
 this mode of obtaining a settlement for her, got 
 her into the household of his sister-in-law, who 
 was then suspected of being his mistress. Un- 
 fortunately for Mademoiselle de Keroualle, 
 Louise de la Vallière was also a maid of 
 honour to that princess ; and the king fell in 
 love with her soft eyes, which only spoke of 
 tender, devoted love. If this Louise had little 
 cleverness, " she was gentle, good-natured, and 
 obliging, and made herself liked at court." 
 Without believing the calumnious pamphlets, it 
 may be supposed that, whether owing to impru- 
 dent talk or to ambitious avowals, Louise passed 
 for aspiring to the situation of king's favourite. 
 
 Before Louis XIV. tried what might be 
 effected through women, in preserving the 
 alliance, or at least the neutrality, of England, 
 he had had recourse to means which were 
 aot sanctioned by diplomatic usage. 
 
 The great French statesmen who preceded 
 him never risked an important foreign enter- 
 prise without first securing an ally. Richelieu 
 entered into an understanding with Gustavus 
 Adolphus, and Mazarin with Cromwell. Union 
 with Great Britain was all the more necessary
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 during- the youth of Louis XIV., because the 
 frontiers of his kingdom tended to advance 
 into Flanders, a country hnked with England 
 by the proximity of their coasts and by trade 
 relations, which had gone on for several hun- 
 dred years. 
 
 It would be unjust to suppose that the only 
 sentiment which alienated Engrland from France 
 in the i yth century, was jealousy at seeing 
 the extension of French influence and com- 
 merce in Flanders. The Protestant passions 
 of the people, and the Liberal ideas of the 
 aristocracy, inevitably placed England in con- 
 flict with an absolute, and a Catholic kins'. 
 Political interests became intertwined with re- 
 ligious feeling to such a point, that public 
 opinion in England was led into reversing 
 against the Court the foreign policy of Crom- 
 well by supporting Spain, the most ardent foe 
 of the Reformation, against Louis XIV. 
 
 Whilst the posterity of Philip II. was falling 
 into decrepitude, and slowly dying out at the 
 Escurial, each of the powers watched for an 
 opportunity to snatch a part of its heritage. 
 Louis wanted to seize on all Flanders. He 
 saw that, to be able to strike his blow at an
 
 ENGLAND AND THE POLICY OF LOUIS XIV. 9 
 
 opportune moment, the agreement of England 
 was necessary. Now, towards the close of 
 Charles II.'s reign, the hatred in which the 
 English held Louis was not doubtful. There 
 was no reliance to be placed in the unstable- 
 minded British monarch. And yet it was on 
 Charles II. that the entire efforts of French 
 diplomacy were of necessity concentrated. He 
 was the only possible ally. With his con- 
 nivance in the projects of the Court of Ver- 
 sailles, the animosity of England — the nation 
 — would not matter. His complicity was the 
 one condition of success. Without it, every 
 chance must be given up of preponderance in 
 Europe, and of the happy execution of a grand 
 scheme of colonial aggrandisement. France 
 might, if she held Charles, do as she pleased, 
 not only in Flanders, but, with the aid of the 
 Jesuits, all the world over. The diplomatists 
 of Louis XIV., seeing what frontier extension, 
 and indeed wide-world .expansion, was to be 
 obtained, came to the conclusion that all scru- 
 ples should be laid aside. 
 
 But there never was a harder man to hold 
 than Charles II., whose will was singularly 
 unsteadv, and whose mind was the most ver-
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 satile, bright, shifty, and frivolous of any prince 
 in Europe. When young, he was vokiptuous, 
 loquacious, easy to captivate, and charitable 
 towards intriguers of every sort, because he 
 held a low opinion of human nature, and felt 
 that he set an example himself of lax morals 
 and had mire-ward procliviti-es. He put on 
 with smiling grace a show of elegance, affected 
 sensibility, and made prodigality pass for the 
 outcome of generous impulse. In many respects 
 he was like Henri III., he being profuse, a con- 
 noisseur of art, easy going with those around 
 him, insincere, without respect for his engage- 
 ments, incurably apt to confound knavery with 
 statecraft, and so fond of lapdogs as to turn 
 his apartments into a disgusting kennel. They 
 bred about on his sofas, and even in his bed. 
 In the bottom of his heart he was a Catholic, 
 at the time when he became head of the An- 
 glican Church, He understood the power of 
 quinine to check ague and other fevers ; dab- 
 bled in alchemy and vivisection, gave a fillip 
 to the study of natural philosophy, was free 
 from prejudices, devoid of principle, and was 
 an amiable epicurean, so entirely without back- 
 bone that he went so far in cowardly meanness
 
 ENGLAND AND THE POLICY OF LOUIS XIV. ii 
 
 as to deny his own father.^ This degrading 
 denial took place when Charles I. was hemmed 
 in by fanatical Scotch Puritans. It was given 
 the specious name of "The Prince of Wales's 
 Declaration." In it he "humbled himself 
 before Almighty God because of the com- 
 placency with which his father had hearkened 
 unto evil counsels, because of his opposition 
 to the Covenant, and likewise because of the 
 blood of the Lord's people which he had shed. 
 The Prince of Wales also confessed his own 
 manifold sins and the sins of his father's house." 
 He was wholly devoid of moral sense, and never 
 rose to a perception of the social use of honour. 
 
 Such was the man whom it was the task of 
 French diplomacy to hold. His mother her- 
 self, it was remembered at Versailles, could exert 
 no durable authority over his vacillating will 
 and versatile spirit. In appearing to yield, he 
 was always ready to slide away. He was only 
 a liar under pressure, but he was as slippery as 
 an eel, and as fond of the mud. 
 
 Henrietta Maria, daughter of Henri IV., had 
 ruled her husband, Charles I. Miss Strickland 
 and some of Vandyke's portraits make her out 
 1 Walker: Historical Discourses, p. 170.
 
 12 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 a beauty. She probably had when young the 
 comehness of youth ; but after the Restoration 
 she was a Httle, vulgar-looking, and very com- 
 monplace woman. As a child, she was the 
 most petted member of her family ; and the 
 person on whom she doubtless unconsciously 
 modelled herself, was her mother's arrogant and 
 domineering foster-sister, favourite, and general 
 directress, Léonore de Galigai, wife of Concini, 
 Maréchal d'Ancre, also a favourite of Marie 
 de Medici, and suspected, with too good reason, 
 of having plotted the assassination of Henri I V.^ 
 Henrietta Maria behaved on the throne like a 
 spoiled child and shrew. She does not seem 
 to have had any plan of conduct or principle of 
 government, beyond doing just as she pleased, 
 and imposing on her husband the notion which 
 happened to be uppermost in her mind. He 
 was uxorious, and obeyed her. The beginning 
 
 ^ The Grand Duke of Florence, father of Marie de 
 Medici, said to his daughter, when she was setting out as a 
 proxy-married bride for France : *' Above all things, make 
 haste to have an heir." He sent with her three gallants 
 whom Henr}' IV. tolerated. They were Virginio and Paolo 
 Orsini, and Concini, afterwards the Mare'chal d'Ancre, whose 
 assassination by De Luynes released Louis XIII. from the 
 thraldom in which his mother's favourite held him.
 
 ENGLAND AND THE POLICY OF LOUIS XIV. 13 
 
 of his misfortunes was his acquiescence in her 
 order, to go to the House of Commons, and 
 bring her " by the ears " the five members who 
 stood out against his exorbitant prerogatives. 
 She called them " those five crop -headed 
 rogues." 
 
 The tragedies in which this queen was in- 
 volved, her terrible reverses of fortune, and 
 the oratorical genius of Bossuet, who preached 
 her funeral sermon, surrounded her, in the 
 eyes of those who did not study her life, with 
 the nimbus of a martyr. Her contemporaries 
 judged her severely, and wasted but small 
 sympathy on her. She was held in slight 
 esteem at the Court of France, when she re- 
 turned to Paris a widow and a proscript. Her 
 apologists, past and present, have tried to ex- 
 plain away the sarcasms of those Englishmen 
 of her time and circle who noticed her fondness 
 for Lord Jermyn and submission to him, her 
 fear of grivins: him offence, his meddlings and 
 overbearing interference in all her concerns, and 
 his masterful tone in speaking to her.^ They 
 
 1 Sir John Rkresby : Memoirs, p. 4. "Lord Jermyn had 
 the queen greatly in awe of him, and indeed it was obvious 
 that he had uncommon interest in her and her concerns ;
 
 14 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 have tried to disprove that she had a daughter, 
 the issue of a secret marriage with him. How- 
 ever, he and she were inseparable, and she 
 braved pubHc opinion in going, accompanied 
 with him, to pay visits of ceremony.-^ Colbert 
 de Croissy^ and her nephew Louis XIV. him- 
 self^ are crushino- witnesses against her. The 
 
 but that he . . . had children by her I did not then 
 believe, though the thing was certainly so." Her own son, 
 James IL, did not dare in terms to contradict this fact, 
 so evident was it to his contemporaries. In his reply {The 
 Blatant Beast MuzzPd) to the pamphleteers, he replied 
 mildly and in a proiiitiating tone to those who charged his 
 mother with being the mistress and then the wife of Lord 
 Jermyn, whilst he refuted with passionate virulence all the 
 other attacks on his family. He merely said in reply to 
 the former accusations, " They must pardon me if I don't 
 believe them." 
 
 ^ Evelyn : Diary, Aug. 14, 1662. Hamilton, always so 
 well informed, speaks of this union. See the anonymous 
 author of the curious Relation d^ Angleterre, which is in 
 Les Cinq Cents de Colbert, tome iv. p. 78 : "Le Comte de St. 
 Jermyn est toujours attaché à ses interests." {Translatai^ s 
 Note.) 
 
 - MS. Affaires Eirangh-es, Angleterre, tome xciii., fol. 
 181, du 28 Nov., 1668. 
 
 3 Colber de Croissy was a brother of the great minister 
 Colbert, and for some time ambassador of Louis XIV. to 
 Whitehall. He was sent on other embassies. In nego- 
 tiating with men, he sliowed great ability ; but he did nol 
 understand how to utilize women. On his recall from 
 England he was named Secretary for Foreign .Affairs.
 
 ENGLAND AND THE POLICY OF LOUIS XIV. 15 
 
 former, in writing from London to Versailles 
 just after the formation of the Cabal, says : 
 " The Duke of Buckingham takes for granted 
 the necessity of an impossible thing, when he 
 speaks of a secret imparted to the queen- 
 dowager of Enoland not comino^ to Lord St. 
 Albans' (Jermyns) knowledge. It would be 
 the sheerest self-deception to hope that this 
 mio-ht be done." 
 
 In counting, therefore, on Henrietta Maria, 
 the Court of Versailles would have had to 
 reckon on St. Albans. Those who had hoped 
 otherwise were nursing an illusion. The king 
 of France therefore sought to find a wife for 
 Charles soon after the Restoration had been 
 effected. It being useless to try and hold him 
 by means of the queen-dowager, he tried to 
 influence him through a queen-consort. 
 
 Spain being an adversary of France, it was 
 among her most bitter foes that Louis sought 
 a wife for the restored monarch. He chose a 
 Portuguese princess, in doing which he made a 
 blunder. The Portuguese then, like the Moors, 
 kept their women in ignorance and seclusion. 
 Instead of a princess used to the intrigues and 
 complexities of Court life, and able to domineer
 
 l6 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 a rakish husband, Charles II. was mated to a 
 swarthy dwarf of twenty-four, who, when she 
 arrived in England, had never in her life 
 spoken to a man, even during the voyage. 
 Her sedentary habits had made her obese ; 
 and this defect was thrown into relief by her 
 curious mode of dressing. She was of a squat 
 figure and a brown complexion ; her teeth 
 were so badly set as to be a deformity.^ "There 
 really is nothing in her face to inspire positive 
 disgust," said Charles mournfully, after the first 
 interview.^ He was mightily pleased, when the 
 wedding ceremony was over, that she was too 
 tired after her voyage not to wish to be left 
 entirely alone.' The Portuguese ladies who 
 came with her were not seductive,* and wore 
 monstrous hoops, which followed the waddling 
 
 1 According to Lord Dartmouth, " her fore teeth stood 
 out so as to shorten her upper lip." Evelyn makes the 
 same remark : " Her teeth wrongeth her mouth by sticking 
 out too far." These defects are artistically slurred over by 
 Sir Peter Lely. 
 
 2 Letter of Clarendon, cited by Miss Strickland, viii., 
 p. 304. 
 
 s The king to Clarendon, May 21, 1662, published from 
 the MS. of the British Museum by Fellowes {Historical 
 Sketches). 
 
 * Evelyn : Diary ^ May 30, 1662,
 
 ^^ZyyôUy/l^.^^,-
 
 ENGLAND AND THE POLICY OF LOUIS XIV. 17 
 
 movement of their gait. These farthingales 
 were called by them gardes-infantes. Their 
 headgears were as funny, to English and 
 French eyes, as their skirts ; and the skins of 
 all were of a deep olive. Charles wished for 
 more pleasing objects. Instead of retaining 
 them in his wife's service, he drew up a list 
 of bedchamber ladies, at the head of which he 
 placed the Countess of Castlemaine. 
 
 Ignorant as the new queen was, she uttered 
 a cry of protest when she heard of this bed- 
 chamber nomination. 
 
 Lady Castlemaine had, as Mrs. Palmer, en- 
 gaged in an amorous intrigue with Charles soon 
 after the Restoration.^ He, the Duke of York, 
 and young sparks in their suites made up to 
 her to infuriate her husband and enjoy the 
 game of making him justly jealous. The Duke 
 of York, to keep his mind from absorbing the 
 heretical Anglican service which he had to 
 attend at the Chapel Royal, used to draw aside 
 the curtains of the royal pew to ogle Mrs. 
 Palmer, who performed her devotions in the 
 one next to it She appears, however, to have 
 soon dropped the heir presumptive, to become 
 
 1 Pepys : Diary, 13th July, 1660. 
 
 C
 
 l8 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 publicly the king's favourite. At the time of 
 the formation of the Cabal, she was in all the 
 pride of her beauty, which was splendidly 
 attractive. If her nose was slightly turned up,'^ 
 it gave her a sauciness that was piquant. Her 
 figure was tall, and of a rich, harmonious out- 
 line. The eyes and hair were dark, and her 
 skin glowed with health and life. Her lips 
 were cherry red, and her bust, — which, in the 
 fashion of the day, her loose and falling upper 
 garments and thin smocks did not hide, — was 
 white as snow. The eyes, if not large, were 
 lively and bright. They spared none of their 
 artillery to conquer, and promised everything 
 to retain the captive. Nor did the lady dis- 
 appoint the hopes she thus excited. There 
 must have been something very taking in her 
 appearance, which enabled her to face the 
 London populace in its den. Lady Castle- 
 maine was fond ol going to see the puppets at 
 St. Bartholomew's fair. The common people, 
 hearing that she was there, collected round the 
 show to hoot " the kinsf's miss." But the siofht 
 of her lovely face disarmed them, and she was 
 allowed to go quietly to her carriage, and ride off. 
 1 Relation d'Angleterre. Cinq Cents de Colbert^ t. v., p. 478.
 
 ENGLAND AND THE POLICY OF LOUIS XIV. 19 
 
 Lady Castlemaine did not long hold her 
 ground against Louise de Keroualle, when 
 that charming French beauty entered the arena 
 against her ; but she had an easy triumph over 
 Queen Catherine, who pricked ^ her name from 
 the king's list of bedchamber women, and 
 who, when she saw her husband lead the beau- 
 tiful mistress in to her by the hand, was seized 
 with convulsions and got black in the face. 
 This was taken as an affront by Lady Castle- 
 maine, who meant to lie in at Hampton Court, 
 and demanded an apology. Charles thought 
 the queen should humble herself before the 
 favourite, and wrote to say so to the Chancellor 
 Clarendon, who was trying to make peace 
 between the royal couple. The mistress flared 
 up at his daring to meddle in the matter, and 
 put the king on to resent his interference. 
 " Nobody," he wrote to Clarendon, " shall pre- 
 sume to meddle in the affairs of the Countess 
 of Castlemaine. Whoever dares to do so, will 
 have cause to repent it to the last moment of 
 his life. Nothing will shake the resolution I 
 have taken with regard to her ; and I shall 
 consent to be miserable in this world and the 
 I See Clarendon, Fellowes, Miss Strickland.
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 next, if I yield in my decision, which is, that 
 she continue a bedchamber lady to the queen. 
 I shall, to the last hour of my life, regard any 
 one who opposes me in this as my enemy ; and 
 whosoever shows himself hostile to the Countess 
 will, I swear by my honour, earn my undying 
 displeasure." 
 
 The queen remained inflexible for some 
 weeks, and was open in her anger. She then 
 let herself be coaxed round. The citizens of 
 London were treated to the sight of wife and 
 concubine driving through the streets, in grand 
 array, in the same carriage,^ along with young 
 Crofts,^ the son of a former mistress, and the 
 darling of the queen, the queen- dowager, and 
 of Lady Castlemaine. 
 
 After yielding, Catherine made up her mind 
 to struggle no more, and to lead an easy life by 
 shutting her eyes to her husband's vices. She 
 put up with the companionship of his favourite, 
 and even showed a greater liking for her than 
 for any other lady at court. The English 
 esteemed the queen a good wife, who bore 
 
 1 Pepys : Diary, 7th September, 1662. 
 * Afterwards Duke of Monmouth.
 
 ENGLAND AND THE POLICY OF LOUIS XIV. 21 
 
 herself meekly when her patience was most 
 severely tried. 
 
 Catherine was avenged on her husband by 
 the shrewish temper of her rival. Charles was 
 constantly the object of Lady Castlemaine's 
 truculent abuse. He often returned from her 
 house overpowered by it. Every one knew 
 she played him false. If he dared show 
 jealousy, he was soon reduced to beg pardon 
 on his knees, and swear that he would never 
 again harbour insulting suspicions about her con- 
 duct.^ When he caught her in John Churchill's 
 arms, he only showed his resentment by saying 
 to the young man that, as he had become 
 her lover to escape from starving, he forgave 
 him.^ 
 
 Lady Castlemaine was ready to accept over- 
 tures from France, and to support the policy 
 of Louis XIV., as Colbert de Croissy soon 
 informed him. 
 
 " The king," wrote in answer Secretary 
 
 ^ Pepys : Diary, 7th August, 1667. 
 
 2 MS. Affaires Etrangères, Angleterre, tome cxxxvii., fol. 
 400. Relation de la Cour d^ Angleterre. See also, on this 
 subject, the letter of the ambassador Courtin to the minister 
 Louvois, ibid., tome cxx., C, fol. 206, Nov. 16, 1676.
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE 
 
 Lionne/ " thinks well of your efforts to obtain 
 the help of the Countess of Castlemaine, and 
 read with interest of her point-blank way of 
 telling you how King Charles^ had confided to 
 her that Lord Arlino-ton would not hear of an 
 alliance with France. His majesty hopes that 
 you will profit by this good beginning, and he 
 authorizes you, if you judge well, to let her 
 know that you have reported what she said to 
 his majesty, who charges you to ofier her his 
 warmest thanks. In this order of ideas, the 
 king has directed your brother, the Treasurer, 
 to send her a handsome present, which you can 
 give her as if from yourself Ladies are fond 
 of such keepsakes, whatever may be their 
 breeding or disposition ; and a nice little 
 present can in any case do no harm." 
 
 Lionne ^ renewed his instructions a few days 
 later in these terms : " His majesty attaches 
 great importance to all you can say about Lady 
 
 1 In all the diplomatic French despatches the kifig is 
 Louis XIV. To every other king the name of the country 
 over which he reigns is added. It is however impossible 
 to cling to this formula in all the extracts from official 
 papers. 
 
 " MS. Araires Etrangères, 3 Avril, 1667. 
 
 8 April 20, 1669,
 
 ENGLAND AND THE POLICY OF LOUIS XIV. 23 
 
 Castlemaine. You can, if you think fit, agree 
 with your brother touching the present the 
 king intends to make this lady. . . . His 
 majesty warmly approves your idea of getting 
 her to put into the King of England's head 
 that the Presbyterians and Nonconformists are 
 ill affected towards monarchy." ^ 
 
 But Madam Castlemaine was not the kind 
 of secret service agent the king of France 
 wanted. Not that she was insensible to nice 
 little presents, or that she was not in constant 
 need of money. Her hatred of every curb to 
 her luxurious caprices, and her prodigality, 
 drew her into expenses which astonished the 
 Court. Whitehall wondered at the fineness 
 of her cambric shifts ; at her smocks and 
 linen petticoats frilled with the richest lace, and 
 at her costly furniture and plate. But an 
 ambassador could not rely on her support, 
 because she gave herself up completely to the 
 passion of the moment, whether it was an 
 amorous one or arose from ardent rivalry with 
 some other lady of the Court. Her quarrels 
 with the beauties of easy virtue who sur- 
 rounded Charles H. were as much (\î not more) 
 
 ^ April 23, 1669.
 
 24 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 the object of deep concern to the King of 
 France, as the miHtary evolutions of Turenne 
 and Condé. A war with England depended 
 on the humour of an actress or a bedchamber 
 woman. The Treasurer, Colbert, wrote in these 
 terms to his brother, the Marquis Colbert de 
 Croissy,^ to London : " I think it would please 
 the king if you were to send M. de Lionne 
 gossiping letters about everything that happens 
 in the private life of the king of England, and 
 in what is known as the inner circle of his 
 Court." " As you have not," returned M. de 
 Croissy,^ " thought amiss that I should keep 
 you informed about the squabbles of these 
 ladies, which are often as much a cause of deep 
 concern to the Kino- of England as the most 
 serious business, I shall continue to write about 
 them." ** I have," wrote Louis XIV. himself 
 to M. Colbert de Croissy,^ " heard read with 
 great pleasure the curious details you have 
 written to M. de Lionne about the intrigues 
 of the English Court, and the broils of the 
 ladies who are the chief personages there." 
 
 1 MS. Affaires Etratigcres, 20 Janvier, 1669. 
 
 2 Jbid., 31 Janvier, 1669. 
 ^ Ibid., 9 Février, 1669.
 
 ENGLAND AND THE POLICY OF LOUIS XIV. 25 
 
 " I shall take more pains than ever," replied 
 Colbert/ to ascertain what goes on among the 
 ladies, since you do not think it beneath you 
 to show an interest in their quarrels, and the 
 king himself deigns to wish for information in 
 those little affairs, on which great events so 
 often hinge." Colbert de Croissy thinks well 
 to make a fresh present to Madam Castlemaine. 
 He says,^ " I have given away all that I 
 brought from France, not excepting the skirts 
 and smocks made up for my wife, and I have 
 not money enough to go on at this rate. Nor 
 do I see the use of going to much expense, in 
 satisfying the greed of the women here for 
 rich keepsakes. The king often says,^ that the 
 only woman who has really a hold on him, 
 is his sister, the Duchess of Orleans. If hand- 
 some gifts are lavished on Madam Castlemaine, 
 his majesty may think that, in spite of his 
 assertions to the contrary, we fancy that she 
 rules him, and take it in bad part. I should 
 therefore advise giving her only such trifling 
 tokens as a pair of French gloves, ribands, a 
 
 1 MS. Affaires Etrangères, 14 Jan., 1669. 
 
 2 Jlnd., 7 Février, 1669. 
 * Ibid., 14 Février, 1669.
 
 26 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 Parisian undress gown, or some little object of 
 
 finery." ^ 
 
 A graver matter than bedizenments for 
 
 Madam Castlemaine was dealt with, at this 
 
 juncture, in the correspondence of M. Colbert 
 
 de Croissy. He was struck with the sadness 
 
 of the King of England's manner, his constant 
 
 depression, and his aversion to chat about 
 
 European affairs, which used to be one of his 
 
 favourite topics.^ " The gloom which the 
 
 king's face and manner betray has been such, 
 
 that it was impossible not to feel there was 
 
 some great cause for it. After seeking on all 
 
 sides for a reason, I discovered that it sprang 
 
 from an amour with a young girl in Madam 
 
 Castlemaine's household, whose grace and 
 
 beauty made, when she served the king, the 
 
 impression that might be expected on a prince 
 
 who is fond of change. As she thought it her 
 
 duty not to stand out against his desire, her 
 
 mistress was so vexed, that she turned her into 
 
 the street at midnight. But this amour does 
 
 not prevent Madam Castlemaine from being as 
 
 powerful as ever." 
 
 1 This present was sent by the minister Colbert, on I\Iay 
 8, 1669. 
 
 - Colbert de Croissy à Lionne, 28 Février. 1669.
 
 ENGLAND AND THE POLICY OF LOUIS XIV. 27 
 
 Barbara Villiers had already been the victim 
 of her fancy to be surrounded by the hand- 
 somest damsels she could find. The most adu- 
 lated beauties were glad to be in her train. The 
 proud Lady Sandwich humbly spoke of Barbara 
 as her Queen of Beauty.^ Madam Castlemaine 
 had also among her maids of honour Frances 
 Stuart, known as the beautiful Miss Stuart, 
 whom she often kept to sleep in her rooms 
 at Whitehall, and slightingly spoke of as her 
 little Stuart.^ The king, who seldom failed to 
 visit Barbara before she got up in the morning, 
 saw Miss Stuart in the bed beside her. It was 
 not possible to unite greater beauty and more 
 dulness than were to be found in this young 
 belle. All her features were of perfect 
 regularity. She was of an erect carriage, and 
 above the common height, We still are able 
 to judge of the Grecian regularity of her visage, 
 and of the outlines of her figure, which would 
 have been faultless, were her waist less high 
 and her carriage less stiffs Miss Stuart served 
 
 1 Pepys, July 26, 1662. 
 
 - Pepys, March 23, 1663; Hamilton: Mémoires de 
 Graiiwnt. 
 
 2 Relatmi d'Ajigkterre, MS. Bibi. Nat., Fonds Colbert, 
 478.
 
 28 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 as a model for the Britannia which is on the 
 copper coins of England. The engraver, 
 Philip de Rothier/ reproduced her on the 
 public medals struck by the English mint in 
 his day ; and all his successors have copied her 
 effigy. The face and form of Miss Stuart are 
 therefore the most widely known of any beauty 
 that ever lived. " She had," ^ said a diploma- 
 tic despatch, "a leg so admirably shaped that 
 an ambassador, on arriving in England and 
 calling on her, begged her as a favour to let 
 him see almost up to her knee, so as to be able 
 to write to his master to confirm what he had 
 heard about the perfection of her calf and 
 ankle. ^ Miss Stuart was not rapacious. She 
 was satisfied with a pension of ^700 a year, 
 which Charles granted her, and only asked him 
 for ^6000 worth of jewels when she was 
 
 ^ The three brothers Rothier were French, and were em- 
 ployed to design medals at the English mint, from 1661. See 
 Redington's Calendar of Treasury Papers ^ preface, p. 1 6. The 
 two youngest, Joseph and Philip, took the direction of the 
 Paris and Brussels mints ; John, the eldest, remained alone 
 in England. He lost his right hand in 1689, and was 
 replaced by his son James. 
 
 2 Relation d' Angleterre, MS. Affaires Etrangères^ tome 
 cxxxvii., fol. 400. 
 
 3 Ibid.
 
 ENGLAND AND THE POLICY OF LOUIS XIV. 29 
 
 engaged to be married to the Duke of Rich- 
 mond, whom she persuaded that, notwithstand- 
 ing her four years' intimacy with the king and 
 Lady Castlemaine, she was as virtuous as no 
 matter what pure English girl.^ She went on 
 receivinof the kingf's visits after her marriaofe. 
 But he only called on her at night, and un- 
 attended by his gentlemen, or by an escort, 
 " Sometimes he stole down the river stairs at 
 Somerset House, and sculled himself in a punt 
 to Richmond House, landing beneath a low 
 wall which he climbed over." The French 
 ambassador was not so unaccustomed to the 
 manners of the Court of Enofland as to think 
 that a middle-aged king who acted thus was a 
 disgrace to monarchy. The lovely Stuart was 
 destined to be arrayed among the enemies of 
 Louise Keroualle, pitted with smallpox and 
 blind of an eye.^ 
 
 In the Cytherean anarchy which preceded 
 the reign of Louise Keroualle, the woman in 
 whom she was to find her most formidable 
 rival began to fix attention. She was an 
 orange girl of such a finely-wrought physique 
 
 1 Pepys, April, 1667. 
 
 2 She was a widow in 1672, and died in 1702.
 
 30 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 that professional vice, to which she was reared, 
 and every sort of hardship could not spoil her 
 body nor depress her spirits. This wench was 
 witty and pretty, had a comic genius, grace, 
 brass, mirth ; and, albeit goodnatured, her 
 tongue was cutting. Her figure was so 
 elegantly feminine that she could wear man's 
 clothes with advantaofe. She had risen from the 
 pit of the King's Theatre, in which she sold 
 oranges, to the stage, and drew all the Court 
 in the "Vagaries of Flora," in which she was 
 the goddess of flowers ; in the " Maiden 
 Queen," in which she was " Florimell," a gay 
 young spark ; and in Dryden's " Conquest of 
 Grenada," in which she played the part of 
 " Queen Almahide " in a jauntily-set broad- 
 brimmed hat. Her name was Gwynn, and she 
 was a powerful stimulant to the over-raked 
 Court. Originally, she was, it was said, a 
 dancing-girl in a show. Nell Gwynn had 
 simultaneously for lovers the Earl of Dorset, 
 whom she called her "Charles I."; Hart, the 
 actor, who was her "Charles H." ; and the 
 king, who was her " Old Rowley." In her com- 
 pany, whatever moral soundness had remained 
 to Charles soon died out. His will got emas-
 
 ENGLAND AND THE POLICY OF LOUIS XIV. 31 
 
 culated from his own vices and pleasurable 
 contact with the vices of all nations. Italian 
 eunuchs came to sing- to him in his gfreen 
 chamber. The wife of his valet, Chaffinch, 
 fetched him from theatres Nelly Gwynn, Peg 
 Hughes, and other actresses. His inseparable 
 boon companion in his life of sensuality, was 
 one of the most happily-gifted, and yet most 
 despicable, men of the period — the Duke of 
 Buckingham. 
 
 Buckingham was as skilled in seducing a 
 woman as in gaining a popular assembly. He 
 was married to a niece of Cromwell, but never 
 troubled his head about her, unless to wish for 
 her death. Prompt to undertake no matter 
 what, and incapable to realize any of his 
 schemes, he was credulous with charlatans, 
 open to great thoughts, servile, insolent, and 
 the slave of each whim that held his fancy. 
 Out of hatred to his rival, Arlington, who was 
 bribed by Spain, he threw himself entirely on 
 the French side. 
 
 Arlington and Buckingham thought alike on 
 one point only. They were both afraid of the 
 return of Clarendon, whom their Cabal had 
 exiled. " Arlington is fond of luxury and
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 amusement," ^ wrote M. de Croissy. " If he 
 were in less close relations with Spain, he 
 would have to live savingly. He has the mark 
 of a sword-cut across his nose, which, as it 
 does not heal, he covers with a bit of lozenge- 
 shaped sticking-plaister. So far from being a 
 disfigurement, it gives him an air of manly 
 seriousness foreign to his nature." ^ The Mar- 
 quis de Ruvigny informed the Court of Ver- 
 sailles that " Arlington would sell his soul to 
 the devil to worst an enemy." ^ 
 
 Each of these English noblemen had an 
 agent who secretly took charge of his interests at 
 the French Court. Buckingham's agent was one 
 Leyton, a sharp, vulgar, and grasping London 
 tradesman. Williamson, who served Arlington, 
 was disinterested and close-mouthed. Louis 
 XIV. was not ignorant of their political rela- 
 tions, and thus spoke of them in an autograph 
 letter to Colbert de Croissy : ^ " Leyton for 
 Buckingham, and Williamson for Arlington his 
 
 1 Relation d^ Angleterre. AIS. Bibl. Nat., Fonds Colbert, 478. 
 
 2 Ruvigny à Pomponne. MS. Aff. Etr., Angleterre, tome 
 cxvii. fol. 57, Nov. 4, 1675. 
 
 3 Le Roi à Colbert de Croissy. Ibid., tome xciii. fol. 
 164, Nov. 7, 1668. 
 
 * Ibid
 
 ENGLAND AND THE POLICY OF LOUIS XIV. 33 
 
 master, try to make you believe they can soon 
 brinof about a close union between me and the 
 King of England, provided you play into their 
 hands and no longer try to get the Chancellor 
 recalled from exile. Arlino'ton does not act 
 towards me in a way to make me desire the 
 continuance of his influence. You are to 
 make both one and the other think the re- 
 call of the said Chancellor possible, and even 
 probable, if I support him. If they engage to 
 effect the union between me and their king, 
 you can give all the sureties they ask, that I 
 will make use of any means they suggest to 
 block every road by which Clarendon can go 
 back. But I see very well that I shall make 
 no real progress so long as I have not gained 
 the Duke and Arlington by forwarding their 
 separate interests. If each has a strong motive 
 for helping me, they will both, however they 
 may detest each other, plot for a common ob- 
 ject. Hints may be held out to Ley ton and 
 Williamson, that they are to receive some 
 gifts from me, I prefer that it should be in 
 money. When they have received payment 
 of this kind, I shall in a degree have the ad- 
 vantage of them ; and it seems to me, that 
 
 D
 
 34 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 when they are thus in my power, you can 
 without danger use plain speech with them. 
 Let me know what sums should be offered to 
 the two agents, as well as to the Duke and to 
 Lord Arlington. The affair is so important 
 that I am willing to make any sacrifice of 
 money, provided that payment of the gross 
 amount is stayed, until after the blow is struck." 
 
 Leyton did not stand out for a high price. 
 He was bought for four hundred pistoles. 
 "But," said Louis in another autograph letter,^ 
 " do not stop at that, if more is wanted. 
 Seeing how irresolute the King of England 
 is, do not neglect to gain Arlington. I would 
 willingly spend on him twenty thousand gold 
 pieces. You must take care not to frighten 
 the king by letting him feel that I am seeking 
 to draw him into a war with Holland." 
 
 Williamson " remained incorruptible. Ley- 
 ton, on the contrar)-, came to France to pay 
 his court to Louis. " I have treated him 
 {régalé) to a ring worth four hundred pistoles," ^ 
 
 1 MS. Aff. Etr., Angleterre, Le Roi à Colbert, Nov. 24, 
 166S. 
 
 2 Letter of Nov. 28, 1668. 
 
 3 Le Roi au Colbert, Dec. 12, 1668. This was an extra 
 present.
 
 ENGLAND AND THE POLICY OF LOUIS XIV. 35 
 
 wrote that sovereign, "and admitted him to 
 converse twice with me." Some months later 
 he was granted a French pension of three 
 hundred jacobus ' and the promise of a hand- 
 some present. " We know," remarked the 
 French ambassador in a despatch to Lionne, 
 " what a knave he is.^ Nevertheless, he is 
 active, pushing, and intriguing : and as he has 
 the ear of the kino-, rubs shoulders with the 
 highest men at Court, and is a leading member 
 of the Merchant Taylors' Company and of the 
 Corporation of the City of London, I believe 
 he can keep us well informed." So his Most 
 Christian Majesty went on granting him au- 
 diences and treating him as a person of rare 
 distinction. 
 
 Louis did not wholly trust to the two great 
 members of the Cabal. He worked many 
 other secret springs with which Charles was 
 surrounded. He had notoriously with him 
 the famous Samuel Morland, and found an 
 agent in every Frenchman settled in London. 
 
 Lionne was instructed by Colbert de Croissy 
 never to mention Morland's name, but to speak 
 
 1 Lettre du 27 Mars, 1669, tome xciv., fol. 287. 
 ' Lettre du 25 Fév., 1669, iùid., tome xciV.
 
 36 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 of him as "our secret manager."^ Morland 
 was a scholar and scientist, who ruined himself 
 in trying to work his inventions, and then re- 
 sorted to fraudulent expedients to get out of 
 trouble. One of his inventions was the parent 
 of the steam engine. He constructed hydraulic 
 wheels, curiously combined. When secretary 
 to Thurlow, the chief minister of Cromwell, he 
 got hold of State secrets, and with so much art 
 and secresy delivered them to the banished 
 Stuarts, that the Englishmen who shared their 
 exile were astounded when he was one of the 
 first to present himself to Charles II. on his 
 restoration, and to be knighted by him. He 
 was overwhelmed with places and pensions, 
 and being unable to ask for more at Whitehall, 
 he intrigued for the King of France. His 
 wife, Susan de Milleville, was French. He 
 sold his pensions and privileges to build a 
 château in France, and the château to pursue 
 his scientific and industrial experiments. When 
 a widower, and ruined, he was harassed by 
 creditors. An adventure then befell him more 
 incredible than any that was ever invented by 
 
 1 Lionne à Colbert, 26 Août, 1668, tome xciii., fol. 94.
 
 ENGLAND AND THE POLICY OF LOUIS XIV. zi 
 
 an author of the romances of his day.^ A man 
 whom in the heyday of prosperity he had 
 saved from hunger came to propose to him a 
 marriaore which would reHeve him from his 
 embarrassments. " A lady, virtuous, pious, of 
 an amiable disposition, having an estate of 
 ^500 a year, ^4,000 in gold, and furniture, 
 plate, and jewels," was prepared to take him 
 for her husband. He married her, and a 
 fortnight later discovered that she had not a 
 shilling, was a coachman's daughter, and would 
 in a few months give the king another subject. 
 Morland brought a suit in the Ecclesiastical 
 Court to set aside the marriage, but lost it. 
 His creditors pursuing him, he did not dare to 
 quit the lodging where he was hiding. On the 
 advice of a Nonconformist minister, he was going 
 to be reconciled to his wife, when he heard 
 that durino- the suit she lived with Sir Gilbert 
 Gerrard. So he attacked her for adultery, ob- 
 tained a divorce, and married a third time.^ 
 
 ^ See Defoe's Moll of Flanders and Smollett's Roderick 
 Random. There are letters of Morland, in his Appendix 
 to Pepys' Diary. 
 
 2 A quay in Paris is still called after Morland, in whose 
 fertile brain the idea first originated of raising water to the 
 royal gardens at Marly by means of the great hydraulic 
 wheel on the Seine.
 
 38 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 Real life was reflected in the plays and 
 novels which show that in England, under 
 the reign of Charles II., depravity was uni- 
 versal. It is only just to condemn the profli- 
 gacy of the Court, but it would be ridiculous 
 to ignore it. Indeed, to understand the history 
 of European politics in the second half of the 
 seventeenth century, it is necessary to discard 
 all prudery, and to unveil the private lives of 
 Charles and his courtiers. These dishonoured 
 dead will teach no useful lesson if we do not 
 study the vices and the passions to which they 
 were the slaves when living. It is not the 
 business of the historian to evoke unsubstantial 
 phantoms on a fancifully-decorated stage, but 
 to raise bodies from the grave, make them 
 again the temples of the souls which have 
 Hown from them, place them in the surround- 
 ings in which they lived, and analyse their 
 hidden motives, good, bad, and indifferent. 
 
 The French in London, by the propriety of 
 their manners, contrasted with the English. 
 Notable among them was Saint Evremont, a 
 general of distinction, who had learned the 
 art of war under the great Condé, and who is 
 only, now, remembered as an elegant writer and
 
 ENGLAND AND THE POLICY OF LOUIS XIV. 39 
 
 an epicurean wit. He was disgraced after the 
 battle of the Pyrenees, and retired to London, 
 where his tact, the dignity of his Hfe, and the 
 charm of his mind and conversation assured 
 him an important place. He devoted all his 
 advantages to the consolidation of the French 
 alliance, and to the procuring of valuable in- 
 formation for the ambassadors of Louis XIV. 
 His company was sought for by men of in- 
 tellect, birth, and position.^ The venerable 
 Marquis de Rouvigny, father-in-law of Lord 
 William Russell, and head of the French 
 Protestants in England, passed several months 
 in London every year, and was universally 
 respected. Louis XIV., observing the esteem 
 in which he was held, eventually utilized him 
 in his diplomacy. The most noisy of these 
 Frenchmen, and, thanks to the chef d'œuvre 
 of Hamilton, the most celebrated, was the 
 Chevalier de Gramont. 
 
 The French in London were nearly all con- 
 nected with the Court. The few tradespeople 
 had also a special influence, by which Louis 
 knew how to profit. A Paris milliner,^ Madame 
 
 ^ Saint Simon. Evelyn. 
 
 ^ Evelyn : Diary ^ March i, 1667.
 
 40 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 Desborde, governed Queen Catherine. She 
 decided with sovereign authority in all that 
 related to petticoats, smocks, laces, stomachers, 
 fans, frills, furbelows, and other French baga- 
 telles for ladies' wear. The wine merchant to 
 the king was a M. de Pontac,^ of Château 
 Pontac and Château O'Brien, in the Gironde, 
 a Gascon whose high spirits and voluble tongue 
 amused the silent English, while the wine de- 
 canter, at after-dinner bouts, was being passed 
 round the table. 
 
 But these diplomatic threads, which were 
 woven into a web by such a powerful will, 
 rotted as time flew on, Charles was always 
 promising to join with France against Europe, 
 and was always ready to join with Holland 
 against France. Every month that sped weak- 
 ened the secret springs which Louis directed, 
 and new combinations had to be resorted to. 
 In the first nine years of his reign Charles II. 
 had twice abandoned Louis XIV.^ There was 
 nothing in the situation of England to impose 
 rn him a French alliance. On the contrary, 
 
 ^ Evelyn: Diary, July 13, 1683. 
 
 * See Mignon : Négociations relatives à la Succession 
 d'Espagne; and Camtllk Rousset : Histoire de Louvois.
 
 ENGLAND AND THE POLICY OF LOUIS XIV. 41 
 
 the interests of his people and a care for his 
 popularity should have made him resist Louis's 
 attempts to seize on the mouths of the Scheldt 
 and Rhine. His chansfino- humour and his 
 duty both drew him from the French king, 
 who, to soften the animosity of the English 
 and give a sop to their traders, devised a sham 
 treaty which would lead them to hopf /or many 
 commercial advantages. Colbert de Croissy, 
 the Intendant of Paris, was charged, in July, 
 1668, to negotiate this instrument, the basis of 
 which was drawn up in the king's handwriting. 
 " The negotiations confided to you are the 
 most important of all Europe,"^ said the minis- 
 ter Colbert, in a memorandum addressed to 
 his brother the ambassador.^ " The treaty of 
 commerce is only to throw dust in the eyes 
 of the trading class in England ; and you are 
 to make it drag under all the pretexts which 
 
 ^ MS. Affaires Etrangères, 14 Septembre, 1668. 
 
 2 From October i, 1668, the French who went to Eng- 
 land affected a deep interest in horse-racing, and were re- 
 ported to know nothing about it. The brilliant de Gramont 
 had no eye for a good horse, if we can believe Algernon 
 Sydney. " He's such a proud ass that he neither knows 
 what's good and won't believe any one else." See, also, 
 Algernon Sydney's letters to Henry Saville.
 
 42 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 may suggest themselves to you. It should 
 also afford you pretexts and occasions to 
 strengthen political ties, and widen your rela- 
 tions with political men." When Charles II. 
 went to Newmarket, Lionne wrote to Colbert 
 de Croissy : ^ " Were I in your place, I should 
 also set out in tzvo 07' three days^ so as to have 
 an excuse * for settling all when you come 
 back ; ' but I should never go away, finding 
 always some pretext for staying, such as a cold 
 or an attack of illness in the house." 
 
 After long searching for an agent who might 
 be able to hold the volatile Charles, Louis, in 
 1668, at length thought he had found the man 
 he wanted. It was at the time that Charles 
 usually went to Newmarket. The King of 
 France noticed this passage in one of his 
 ambassador's gossipping letters : " The King of 
 England, who is so inconstant in most things, 
 shows in one respect fixity of application. 
 Come what may, he spends daily a part of his 
 
 1 Lionne à Colbert, 23 Février, 1669. 
 
 2 The italics are in the original. As the secretaries of 
 Louis Quatorze were clear in their instructions, and assumed 
 intelligent attention on the part of their agents, they only 
 underlined when there was not time for the latter to give 
 mature consideration to despatches. {Translator's Note.)
 
 ENGLAND AND THE POLICY OF LOUIS XIV. 43 
 
 time in a laboratory making- chemical experi- 
 ments." Since the attempt to govern him 
 through Madam Castlemaine had not suc- 
 ceeded, why not try to manage him through 
 the laboratory for which he clearly had a 
 passion ? At this juncture Louis had at his 
 call an Italian monk, named Pregnani, who 
 dazzled the Electress of Bavaria with his know- 
 ledge of judicial astrology. After taking him 
 from his convent she recommended him to the 
 King of France, whom she asked to get him 
 made an abbé.^ " He understands," wrote her 
 Serene Highness, " how to blow a bellows and 
 use crucibles according to the rules of alchemy, 
 has infinite cleverness, marvellous suppleness 
 and dexterity in attaining his ends." But how 
 bringf Preefnani into the Court circle without 
 exciting suspicion? The vehicle chosen was the 
 Duke of Monmouth, the eldest of the King's 
 bastards, who was weak-minded and credulous, 
 and the best-beloved son of his Royal sire. At 
 a supper where he met different members of the 
 French embassy, his curiosity was adroitly ex- 
 cited by tales of the wonderful transmutations 
 Pregnani could operate, and the horoscopes 
 
 ^ Lionne à Colbert^ 23 Février, 1669.
 
 44 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 he cast. Monmouth secretly wished to know 
 whether the heavenly bodies favoured his pre- 
 tensions to the Crown of England. He invited 
 Pregnani to London. The abbé hastened there. 
 He went at night to see Colbert de Croissy; for 
 Louis XIV,, whose sense of what he owed to 
 the dignity of the crown he wore never failed 
 him, in the midst of the lowest intriorues, was 
 half-ashamed to be in any degree represented 
 by a charlatan, and wished the mission to re- 
 main secret. The abbé Pres^nani followed the 
 Court to Newmarket.^ The means which he 
 made use of to arouse the interest of the king 
 and fix his attention, were very droll. The 
 Duke of Monmouth beinsf in love with a çirl of 
 some beauty, to whom he thought the king, his 
 father, and his uncle, the Duke of York, were 
 both making advances, had the curiosity to ask 
 the abbé which of the three would obtain her 
 the first. The soothsayer, without having seen 
 her, described her face, her humour and in- 
 clinations, and said what her past was and 
 what her future would be. He was so circum- 
 stantial that the king was informed of the 
 matter by the duke, and wished to have his 
 1 Colbert à Lionne^ i8 Mars, i66g.
 
 ENGLAND AND THE POLICY OF LOUIS XIV. 4-- 
 
 own horoscope drawn. The abbé was com- 
 manded to meet the king's desire by fetching 
 his astrologfical books to Newmarket. " Such, 
 Monsieur, is the beginning of the business. If 
 it ends well, I shall apprise you ; and I believe 
 I shall have queer things to tell you of before 
 long." 
 
 The cunning Italian ^ was able, without re- 
 ferring to his books, to read the disposition of 
 Charles ; but he was careful to hide his game, 
 and took nobody, unless Colbert de Croissy, 
 into his confidence. 
 
 "He (the abbé) does not think much of the 
 King of England's mind, which he says is 
 prone to busy itself with amusing trifles, to 
 the exclusion of what is serious. He has an 
 unconquerable aversion to sustained effort, and 
 recoils from every sort of business. The abbé, 
 however, hopes that he will be able to over- 
 come his taste for mental trifling, and to bring 
 him to take a good resolution by forecasting in 
 his horoscope impending disasters. I wish I 
 could be confident on this point, because the 
 king said to me, on arriving from Newmarket, 
 that the abbe's predictions about the races 
 
 ^ Colbert à Lion/ie, i Avril, 1669.
 
 46 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 there were wrong in every single case ; and 
 that his errors had caused great loss to the 
 Duke of Monmouth's servants, who regulated 
 their bets according to his forecasts. Certain 
 gain had been promised to them all. The 
 King of England has since puzzled the abbé 
 about his misleading prognostics ; but as his 
 majesty's curiosity is great, perhaps he will 
 resort in private to what he affects to laugh 
 at in public." 
 
 This unfortunate application of sorcery to 
 horse-racing caused the disgrace of the pre- 
 sumptuous abbé at Versailles. Lionne some 
 days later wrote : ^ " As to the Pregnani, since 
 he has been unable to gain ground with the 
 king by his astrology and chemical tricks, it 
 is not probable that he can be of future use to 
 us. Take means to send him back to France, 
 where we can have him under finger and 
 thumb. To prevent him refusing to leave 
 England, where he might get in our way, 
 affect to send him with a confidential message 
 to Versailles." 
 
 ^ Liotme à Colbert de Croissy, 4 Mai\ 1669.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 MADAME HENRIETTE. 
 
 The Duke of Buckingham alone suspected 
 that an intrigue was hidden beneath the as- 
 trologer's predictions. But he was far from 
 supposing that Louis XIV., Colbert, and 
 Lionne were mixed up with a low cunning 
 charlatan. What he thought was, that Hen- 
 rietta, or Henriette, Duchess of Orleans, was 
 afraid her hold on Charles might relax because 
 of her enforced absence from England, and 
 sought to maintain it by the agency of the 
 Italian priest. As Buckingham set up to be 
 her lover, and to govern the king vicariously 
 for her, he was angry at the fancied substi- 
 tution for him of the abbé. " She sends," he 
 complained to Leyton,^ " a humbugging as- 
 trologer, who flatters himself that I am his 
 dupe in love and politics, and who makes me a 
 
 1 Colbert's despatch to Louis XIV. on March 14, 1669, 
 giving an account of a conversation with Leyton.
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 lauo-hinor-stock for Monmouth and Hamilton," 
 "He shows ail the fury," added Colbert de 
 Croissy, " of a too enterprising gallant, who 
 is vexed at finding himself an object of mirth. 
 Perhaps the best thing to du would be to 
 send over Madame^ herself, to keep alive her 
 brother's tenderness, and heal the wounded 
 vanity of Buckingham, which may breed hatred 
 where love was." The ambassador knew that 
 the French Court had been reflecting on 
 the expediency of bringing the influence of 
 Madame Henriette to bear upon her brother. 
 One of the Frenchmen who was most often 
 at the Court of Charles, the Marquis de Flam- 
 merens, some months previously had spoken 
 to Colbert about charofinof the Duchess of 
 Orleans with a mission to England.^ 
 
 Madame Henriette, youngest sister of Charles 
 n. and wife of the French king's only brother, 
 had the charming liveliness of her grandfather, 
 
 ^ The king's brother was, at the Court of Versailles, 
 given the title of " Monsieur," without any other qualifica- 
 tion, when he was spoken of or spoken to. His wife was 
 " Madame." She was sometimes familiarly called Madame 
 Henriette, to distinguish her from the widow of Gaston, 
 Due d'Orléans, her aunt-in-law. ( Translator's Note.) 
 
 2 MS. Aff. Etr. Angleterre, vol. xciii., fol. 174.
 
 MADAME HENRIETTE. 49 
 
 Henri IV, She was slender, white-skinned, 
 and delicate and small. The two kings were 
 equally fond of her. But her influence with 
 both was the cause of bitter and violent 
 jealousies, and her intervention would only be 
 too patent so as perhaps to defeat its object. 
 Apart from the suspicions of Buckingham, who 
 kept Henriette informed, through his confidant 
 Leyton,^ with what went on in England, there 
 was Lady Castlemaine to be humoured. That 
 self-willed beauty hated "foreign meddlers." 
 ** The Countess of Castlemaine," wrote Colbert 
 de Croissy to Louis, " has given me in my 
 wife's presence a piece of her mind on many 
 subjects, into which I propose to go for your 
 Majesty's information. This lady having said 
 that she had had a letter from Madame, who 
 advised her strongly to make up her quarrel 
 with Buckingham, and that she was puzzled 
 to think why Madame was so anxious for a 
 reconciliation, my wife observed that imion 
 with France depended on the agreement of 
 all the favourites with each other." ^ 
 
 1 Colbert to Lionne, relating conversations with Leyton, 
 Feb. 13 and March 9, 1669. 
 
 2 Despatch of Colbert to Lionne, May 13, 1669. 
 
 E
 
 50 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 Happily for France, Buckingham and Lady 
 Castlemaine had each their cares and troubles, 
 and did not, after Pregnani was shipped back 
 to France, dare to show themselves exacting. 
 Buckingham was dominated by the Countess 
 of Shrewsbury, a woman of a violent temper, 
 who had just got into a dangerous scrape. 
 
 " Infuriated against Killegrew," writes Col- 
 bert de Croissy,^ " because he boasted that 
 she had denied him no favour, she nursed her 
 anger against him until she could wreak ven- 
 geance. She was able to do this yesterday. 
 Killegrew had arranged to visit her at her 
 house, which is six miles from London. He 
 went alone in a coach, and on the way fell 
 asleep. He was awoke by the thrust of a 
 sword which pierced his neck, and came out 
 at the shoulder. Before he could cry out, he 
 was flung from the vehicle, and stabbed in 
 three other places by varlets of the Countess. 
 The lady herself looked on from her own 
 coach and six, in which she was with her three 
 daughters, and cried out to the assassins to 
 ' kill the villain.' Nor did she drive off unti( 
 he was thought dead. He was but badly 
 ^ Colbert to Lionne, May 20, 1669.
 
 MADAME HENRIETTE. 51 
 
 wounded, and has sworn informations. You 
 may fancy the noise the attempt to murder 
 him causes, and the worry and anxiety of the 
 Duke of Buckingham, who is still passionately 
 in love with this virago, whose husband he 
 killed in a duel for having resisted her brow- 
 beatings." 
 
 As to Lady Castlemaine, she was not in such 
 a humour as the French ambassador, to laugh 
 at the " buffooneries " of Nell Gwynn,^ or at 
 the pleasure the king took in them. The 
 orange girl had the charm of novelty ; and if 
 her tongue was coarse, her wit was glancing 
 and her laughter was gay and stimulating to 
 the over- raked Charles. He could not help 
 yawning when he was with Lady Castlemaine ; 
 but his spirits rose in the company of the 
 jocular Nell. 
 
 Charles suddenly made up his mind to have 
 an interview with his sister. He told Colbert 
 de Croissy^ that he passionately desired to see 
 and converse with her. " I was greatly sur- 
 prised," adds the ambassador, " at the intima- 
 tion and I lose no time in sending you an ex- 
 
 ^ Colbert to Lionne, Nov. 17, 1669, and Jan. 26 Ï670. 
 2 Colbert to Louis XIV., Jan. 2, 1670.
 
 52 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 press to say that this is a case, if ever there was 
 one, in which the iron should be hammered while 
 it is hot." The conditions which the King of 
 England hoped by his sister's advocacy to bring 
 Louis to adopt, show more greed for money 
 than statescraft. They were as follows : — 
 
 " The league between the King of Great 
 Britain and the Most Christian King, shall be 
 so durable that nothing in the world shall 
 henceforth divide their majesties. The King 
 of Great Britain being convinced of the truth 
 of the Catholic religion, and resolved to declare 
 himself a Catholic, and to be reconciled to the 
 Church of Rome, believes that, for the fulfil- 
 ment of this design, the aid of the Most 
 Christian King will be needed."^ 
 
 This was written in 1669, more than fifteen 
 years previous to the death of Charles II. ; 
 and during these fifteen years a prince so con- 
 vinced and resolved simulated the Protestant 
 faith, remained the protector of the Episcopal 
 Anglican Church, took part in its services and 
 ceremonies, and went on appointing bishops. 
 
 Charles also agreed to connive at the seiz- 
 ure by Louis XIV. of any countries which it 
 1 MS. Aff. Etr. Angleterre^ tome xcv., fol. 235.
 
 MADAME HENRIETTE, 53 
 
 might suit him to annex to his monarchy, 
 whether to the detriment of Spain or the 
 United Provinces. But, in return, Louis en- 
 gaged to pay him ;^ 200,000 sterling, plus the 
 cost of any English troops engaged in helping 
 him. This cost was to be rated at a minimum 
 of £'^ ids. a day per soldier, and ;^8oo,ooo a 
 month while the campaign lasted. The King 
 of France was to cede to England, out of the 
 common conquests, the Isle of Minorca and 
 the port of Ostend, and all the countries and 
 strongholds in America under Spanish rule. 
 The king's nephew, the Prince of Orange, was 
 to receive compensation for his losses, but in 
 what form was not stipulated. As the Senate 
 and Republic of Hamburg were bound by ties 
 of interest with the United Provinces, war was 
 to be declared on them." 
 
 These crude and incoherent proposals came 
 suddenly on Louis, who had been long study- 
 ing how to carry out the well elaborated 
 schemes of Mazarin, by securing the inaction of 
 England. "The most odious of the clauses," 
 observed Colbert de Croissy,^ ** is the one bind- 
 ing us to attack Hamburg, without any given 
 ^ Colbert to the King of France, Dec. 19, 1669.
 
 54 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE 
 
 motive or plausible excuse. To do so would 
 be to foolishly bring down on our backs the 
 Hanseatic towns and the princes of the German 
 Empire." ^ 
 
 It was high time for Madame Henriette to 
 come forward and negotiate. She began by 
 writing to her brother^ that Louis XIV. was 
 shocked at the demand to attack Hamburg, 
 which had never given any one cause for com- 
 plaint ; and she insisted that Arlington should 
 be forced to modify the proposed basis for ne- 
 gotiation. Arlington at bottom was a Roman 
 Catholic, and would not like Charles to have 
 haggled about the sum of money that he was 
 to pocket as a premium for going over to 
 Rome. " The King of England," he notified 
 to Louis, " will not hear of the sums which 
 your Majesty agrees to let him have, in con- 
 sideration of his change of religion, being made 
 payable in Paris.^ I think, I own, it very hard 
 
 ^ Colbert wanted to bring the Hanse towns as share- 
 holders, into his two great organizations for establishing a 
 French Colonial Empire ; viz.^ the chartered Company of the 
 East, or East India Company, and the chartered Company 
 of the West, or American Company. (Translator's Note.) 
 
 ^ Colbert to the King of France, Jan. 29, 1670. 
 
 ^ Ibid., May 15, 1670.
 
 MADAME HENRIETTE. 55 
 
 on your Majesty, that the money promised for 
 a declaration of Catholicity should be trans- 
 ported at your Majesty's expense to London." 
 Arlino^ton seems to have been disinterested for 
 the time and Court in which he lived. His 
 wife had begged Madame Colbert ^ " to send 
 her from Paris enough of the finest Venice 
 brocatelle to make hangings for an anteroom, 
 and covers for twelve chairs ; bed curtains in 
 green damask, and covering of the same stuff 
 for a sofa a set of chairs and fauteuils in another 
 chamber. "If the king thinks it for the good 
 of his service to make this present, it would, I 
 fancy, much gratify the lady." The stuff and 
 furniture were sent from Paris ; but Lady 
 Arlington frequently, in the course of a few 
 months, offered to pay for them. 
 
 Little by little, difficulties began to vanish 
 under the dexterous manipulation of Madame 
 Henriette. She got a draft treaty prepared, 
 which left the King of France full liberty to 
 conquer in the North, and bound Charles to 
 
 1 Colbert to the King of France, February 24, 1670. 
 Madame Colbert was a daughter of a bourgeois of Lyons, 
 who made a fortune in the manufacture of French half- 
 farthings, or Hards. She was mother of the Marquis Colbert 
 de Torcy.
 
 56 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 declare himself a Roman Catholic, in return for 
 a subvention payable in London. To over- 
 come every remaining difficulty, the Duchess of 
 Orleans set out for England, after arranging 
 to meet Charles at Dover. 
 
 Madame Henriette had the happy thought, 
 in choosing the maids of honour who were 
 to attend her to England, to select Louise de 
 Keroualle. It is hardly probable that she 
 designed increasing her own power over her 
 brother by taking with her this young girl, 
 whose baby face, melancholy eyes, and languid 
 walk did not indicate an adroit diplomatic 
 agent/ But it is certain that Louise was pre- 
 sent at the interviews between Charles and his 
 sister, and made a deep impression on him. 
 He was tired of the furious temper of his 
 dark Castlemaine, and of the vulgarity of Nell 
 Gwynn. The conversation of the Breton 
 blonde, who appeared sad and gentle, interested 
 him. She had also the charming freshness of 
 twenty, and the high delicate breeding which 
 
 ^ A mistake. A languid manner, when not arising from 
 ill health, often goes with falsity, and gains time for deliber- 
 ation. Frankness is direct, and does not loiter. {Tra7is 
 lator's Note.')
 
 MADAME HENRIETTE. 57 
 
 distinguished the Court of Louis XIV. before 
 that monarch's illegitimate children grew up. 
 
 Whether to prolong the enjoyment of spend- 
 ing quiet evenings with his sister, or to keep 
 the pretty Louise some time longer in England, 
 Charles insisted on Madame Henriette delay- 
 ing her return to France. This treaty, he 
 argued, is an affair of the highest importance, 
 and should be discussed maturely. My sub- 
 jects hate the French. The pains they are 
 now at to create a great trade, and to become 
 a maritime power will sharpen their jealousy.^ 
 The King of France wants to hold all the 
 great ports of the Continent, and bring under 
 his sway a maritime people which have been 
 the main rivals of England on sea and in the 
 colonial trade. I must therefore be very wary, 
 and not show my hand too soon. Madame 
 Henriette did not easily obtain a prolonged 
 leave of absence at Dover. She had a hus- 
 band whom she always treated as an infe- 
 rior being, which his effeminacy and base, false 
 nature justified her in doing. He was jealous 
 of her, and saw with umbrage the importance 
 
 ^ See Mignet's Négociations relatives à la Succession 
 d Espagne, tome iii., p. 50.
 
 58 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 she was obtaining by the pohtical part she 
 played in England. Louis XIV., who was at 
 Dunkirk, watching anxiously the progress of 
 the negotiations, had to command his brother 
 not to be an obstacle to the conclusion of a 
 State affair of the greatest importance. He 
 wrote to Colbert de Croissy : ^ 
 
 " I send you this to inform you that my 
 brother has consented to let Madame remain 
 ten or twelve days longer at Dover. You can 
 exaggerate to King Charles the efforts we 
 make, and points we stretch to be agreeable 
 to him. Let him feel how much obliged he 
 should be to us, so that when we make de- 
 mands, he will be in a humour to yield." 
 
 A month later, Madame Henriette died. It 
 was rumoured that she was poisoned.^ The 
 Court of England appeared to believe that she 
 was. The diplomatic web she had helped to 
 weave seemed ravelled. 
 
 ^ The original autograph letter is in the archives of the 
 Ministry for Foreign Affairs, English section, vol. xcvii., folio 
 257, May 31, 1670. 
 
 ^ Littré seemed to have estabHshed that she died a natu- 
 ral death. He drew this conclusion from the medical report 
 on her post mortem examination. M. Lair has, however, 
 taken up the old theory, that her death was caused by poison.
 
 MADAME HENRIETTE. 59 
 
 ''Must we aôa?idon the great affair ? " asked 
 Colbert de Croissy of Lionne. "It is to be 
 feared ^ that the grief of the King of England, 
 which is deeper than can be imagined, and the 
 malevolent talk and rumours of our enemies, 
 will spoil everything." 
 
 The enemies of France were not the only 
 ones to attack her. Buckingham turned against 
 the French alliance. Colbert de Croissy 
 informed Lionne that, had it been possible, 
 Buckingham would have picked a quarrel with 
 France, if only to win popularity.^ 
 
 Louis despatched Marshal de Bellefonds to 
 present his official condolence to Charles on 
 his sister's death. The Marshal was a very 
 fine gentleman, had bland manners, and was 
 skilled in smoothing down angles. 
 
 " When do they intend to let the Chevalier 
 de Lorraine back to Court ? " asked the King 
 of England, with a rudeness foreign to his 
 manners and disposition. 
 
 " I replied," said the Marshal, " that I did 
 
 ^ Colbert to Lionne, July 2, 1670. 
 
 ^ Original autograph letter of Marshal Bellefonds to the 
 King of France. Afr. Etr. Angleterre, tome xcviii., fol. 35, 
 du 10 Juillet, 1670.
 
 6o LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 not know ; that it was not easy to divine 
 the thoughts of your Majesty on such a trifling 
 subject ; and that none of your servants would 
 take the liberty of conversing about it, unless 
 your Majesty first broached the matter." 
 
 It was feared that Charles and his Court had 
 slipped from the grasp of Louis. A last re- 
 source was to be tried. Louise de Keroualle, 
 whom Charles in his interview with de Belle- 
 fonds associated, with apparent tenderness, 
 with the memory of his sister, was packed off 
 in all haste to Calais, to be at his beck and call. 
 Apprised of this attention, Charles sent a yacht 
 to take her across to Dover. He wept, and 
 fell into a sentimental mood on meeting her, 
 and named her maid of honour to his patient 
 wife. Her presence assuaged his grief. Re- 
 lations with France grew less ticklish. 
 
 But man walketh in a vain show, truly! In 
 the funeral oration in honour of Madame 
 Henriette, Bossuet said : " The worthy link 
 which bound the two greatest monarchs of the 
 earth was broken, but now is soldered up 
 aeain.-^ Their noble desires win confidence of 
 
 ' Bossuet : Oraison Funcbre de Mada??ie.
 
 MADAME HENRIETTE. 6i 
 
 their peoples, and virtue henceforth shall be 
 the only mediator between them." ^ 
 
 It was not hard to regain Buckingham. 
 The French ambassador apprised Lionne that 
 in obtaining a pension for the Countess of 
 Shrewsbury, he would make the Duke his 
 obedient servant. The pension was fixed at 
 10,000 livres, and faithfully paid. Colbert de 
 Croissy was not slow to perceive the spell 
 in which Louise de Keroualle held Charles, 
 and the advantages to be obtained therefrom. 
 
 " The king is always finding opportunities 
 to talk with this beauty in the queen's room. 
 But he has not, contrary to what is reported, 
 gone yet to chat with her in her own room,^ 
 contrary to what has been said here." 
 
 Lady Castlemaine prepared to make war on 
 the French charmer. She demanded the title 
 of Duchess of Cleveland, and looked for sup- 
 port to the Spanish faction.^ She made believe 
 that she still reigned over the king, by getting 
 royal favours heaped upon herself. Her 
 patent of duchess was scarcely made out, when 
 she exacted for her eldest son the title of 
 
 ^ Colbert to Lionne, August 28 and Sept. 10, 1670. 
 2 Ibid., Dec. 15, 1670.
 
 62 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 Marquis of Southampton, and for the second 
 that of Earl of Northumberland. 
 
 " In a few years," cried a malcontent, " Eng- 
 land will be so happy as to see a House of 
 Peers extracted out of the blood Royal." 
 
 These evidences of victory caused sharper 
 rivalry. Louise de Keroualle began seriously 
 to study her game, and to play it with no light 
 purpose at the balls given in December, 1670, 
 at Whitehall. " The fashion of masquerading, 
 introduced this winter," wrote Colbert de 
 Croissy, " is a source of great diversion to 
 persons of quality." The treaty of Madame 
 was defended by Louise, who had not yet sa- 
 crificed honour to her country. On the other 
 hand, public feeling weighed on the statesmen 
 of the Cabal. The English people had a true 
 instinct of their maritime future, and of the 
 great hidden danger that faced it. They cried 
 out for the king to support Protestant Holland, 
 and even Catholic Spain,^ against the King of 
 
 1 In this, popular feeling was wiser than Cromwell, great 
 statesman though he was, had shown himself, twelve years 
 earlier, in allowing Mazarin to circumvent him and to lead 
 him into prostrating the naval power of Spain, which, in the 
 Protector's time, had almost fallen into a decrepit state. 
 (^Translatâtes Note.)
 
 MADAME HENRIETTE. 63 
 
 France. It had an uneasy feeling that a great 
 conspiracy was being hatched, but was ignorant 
 of its nature. The brooding suspicions came 
 to a head, when England got into a state of 
 frenzy about the Popish Plot. 
 
 Louise was not sure of her empire, and 
 found herself an object of ill-will to the Eng- 
 lish. Her only chance, she saw, was in the 
 discomfiture of the Duchess of Cleveland, to 
 bring about which she seemed inclined to yield 
 to Charles, and yet, when pressed too closely, 
 slipped away from him. In the close game of 
 the masquerading winter, her affected coyness 
 was ill-understood by her ally, the French am- 
 bassador, who, not venturing to believe in her 
 full success, and fearing a return of the vindic- 
 tive Duchess of Cleveland, wrote to Louis, " I 
 think it safe, while undermining that lady, to 
 keep her on our side by appearing to be with 
 her."^ 
 
 1 Colbert to the King of France, Dec. 12, 1670.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ACCESSION OF LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 " I NOW also saw that famous beauty, but in 
 my opinion of a childish simple baby face, 
 Mademoiselle Querouaille, maid of honour to 
 Madame, and now to be so to the Queen," 
 Evelyn jotted in his Diary. The baby face 
 was a deceptive one ; and the simplicity was 
 a mask for transcendent art in finessingr. 
 " How long," asked Louis XIV., Louvois, 
 Lionne Colbert, and the Court of Louis XIV., 
 " will the resistance of this childish-looking girl 
 be carried on ? " 
 
 Meanwhile, the Court of Whitehall noted the 
 furious tantrums of the Duchess of Cleveland, 
 and other signs of her disgrace. " The influ- 
 ence of the Duchess," reported the French 
 ambassador,^ " visibly wanes. The trouble and 
 expense which the Conde Molina has been 
 at to get her round to the Spanish side, have 
 been thrown away. While she loses favour, 
 
 1 Colbert to Louvois, Sept, 21, 1671. 
 64
 
 ACCESSION OF LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 65 
 
 the King of England's fancy for Mademoiselle 
 de Keroualle grows stronger. The attacks of 
 nausea she had yesterday, when dining with 
 me, makes me hope I shall find in her a useful 
 ally as long as my embassy lasts." ^ 
 
 This attack of nausea was a cause of de- 
 light to the Court of France. " The King 
 was greatly pleased," wrote Louvois, " to hear 
 in what manner Mademoiselle Keroualle suf- 
 fered when dining the other day at the French 
 embassy. There was nothing in her conduct 
 since she left France, to lead us to expect 
 that such a piece of good fortune was going 
 so soon to befall her. His Majesty is anxious 
 to be informed of what may grow out of this 
 situation, and of the terms on which she and 
 the King have come to stand mutually."^ 
 But the rejoicing was premature, and the 
 sickness recorded in the diplomatic paper had 
 not the cause suspected. Louise continued 
 to blow hot and cold at King Charles. She 
 seemed to make light of the great interests 
 which her coyness might damage. Her re- 
 
 ^ Colbert to Louvois, Sept. 21, 1671. 
 ^ Louvois to Colbert de Croissy, in original autograph, 
 Sept. 29, 167 1, Aff. Etr., Angleterre, tome cii., fol. 283. 
 
 F
 
 66 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 sistance alarmed the Court of Versailles. 
 Doubtless, Charles found pleasure in her 
 society only. But he was not a man to suffer 
 a prude long to reiçn over him. Was it not 
 to be feared, that he would console himself 
 for her reserve, with some other beauty ? 
 
 " It is certain that the King- of Eno-land 
 shows a warm passion for Mademoiselle 
 Keroualle ; and perhaps you may have heard 
 from other sources, what a finely furnished 
 set of lodgings have been given to her at 
 Whitehall. His Majesty goes to her rooms 
 at nine o'clock every morning, never stays 
 there for less than an hour, and often re- 
 mains until eleven o'clock. He returns after 
 dinner, and shares at her card-table in all 
 her stakes and losses, never letting her want 
 for anything. All the ministers, therefore, 
 seek her friendship. Milord Arlington said to 
 me quite recently, that he was much pleased 
 at this new attachment of the king ; and that 
 although His Majesty never communicated 
 state affairs to ladies, still, as they could when- 
 ever they pleased, render ill-services to states- 
 men, and defeat their plans, it was well for 
 the king's good servants that his majesty
 
 ACCESSION OF LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 67 
 
 should have a fancy for Mademoiselle Kerou- 
 alle, who was not of an evil disposition, and 
 was a lady. It was better to have dealings 
 with her than with lewd and bouncing orange- 
 girls and actresses, of whom no man of quality 
 could take the measure. She was no terma- 
 gant or scold ; and when the king was with 
 her, persons of breeding could, without loss 
 of dignity, go to her rooms, and pay him 
 and her their court. Milord Arlington told 
 me to advise Mademoiselle Keroualle to cul- 
 tivate the king's good graces, and to so man- 
 age, that he should only find at her lodgings 
 enjoyment, peace, and quietness. He added 
 that, if Lady Arlington took his advice, she 
 would urge the new favourite either to yield 
 unreservedly to the King, or to retire to a 
 French convent. In his opinion, I should 
 also advise her in this sense. I answered 
 jocularly, that I was not such a fool, or so 
 ungrateful to the king, as to tell her to pre- 
 fer religion to his good graces ; that I was 
 persuaded she did not await my advice, but 
 that, nevertheless, I should not spare it upon 
 her, to show how both I and Milord appre- 
 ciated her influence, and in what esteem he
 
 68 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 held her. I believe I can assure you that 
 she has so got round King Charles as to be 
 of the greatest service to our sovereign and 
 master, if she only does her duty." ^ 
 
 The Countess of Arlington ended by fol- 
 lowing her husband's advice, and concerted 
 with Colbert de Croissy how to bring about 
 the complete surrender of the young French 
 beauty. 
 
 This ambassador had held a high place in 
 the French Judicature as Président à Mortier. 
 " He was a safe and sagacious mediocrity, 
 who, by dint of application and plain com- 
 mon sense, made up for what he spoiled by 
 the coarse manners and self-sufficient dispo- 
 sition of his family." He did not think 
 the tradition of judicial dignity anywise in- 
 compatible with ministering to the vicious 
 fancies of Charles, as the ensuing despatch 
 to Lionne shows. 
 
 " The king did me yesterday the honour 
 to sup at the Embassy, where he proved to 
 me, by indulging in a gay and unfettered de- 
 bauch, that he does not mistrust me."^ Charles 
 
 ^ Colbert to Louvois, Oct. 8, 167 1, tome ci., fol. 167. 
 2 January 15, 167 1.
 
 ACCESSION OF LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 69 
 
 was therefore brought, without difficulty, to 
 accept an invitation from the Countess of 
 Adington, to take Louise Keroualle to her 
 ladyship's seat at Euston, so that he might 
 escape there from his Court, which he had 
 brought to Newmarket, and triumph over 
 her remaining scruples. 
 
 " I am going," the ambassador informed 
 Louis, " to the Arlingtons' place at Euston ; 
 and as the kino-'s inclination for Mademoiselle 
 Keroualle, who is to go there with me, is 
 rising, I foresee that he will often run across 
 from Newmarket to see her."^ 
 
 The plot was approved of by Louis ; but, to 
 save his dignity, when it was a little bruited 
 he affected to treat it as a good practical joke. 
 " His Majesty was vastly amused," Louvois 
 was instructed to say,^ " with all that was in 
 your letter about Mile, de Keroualle, and will 
 have pleasure in hearing of the progress she 
 makes in the King's favour. He even jested 
 on the subject, and says that there must either 
 be small love for the mistress or great confi- 
 
 1 October 8, 167 1. 
 
 ~ Oct. 20, 167 1. Original autograph, Affaires Etra/igcres 
 Angleterre, tome cii., fol. 290.
 
 70 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 dence felt in you, to suffer you to go to Euston 
 in such jolly company.' 
 
 Lady Arlington was a Dutchwoman. Her 
 maiden name was De Brederode, and her grand- 
 father was the illegitimate son of Prince Henry 
 Frederick of Orange. She was fond of lux- 
 urious living and sumptuous surroundings, and 
 had been forced by the necessities arising from 
 these tastes, to promise in marriage her only 
 child, — one of the most lovely girls that ever 
 bloomed on English soil, — to the son of the 
 Duchess of Cleveland. She insured herself 
 against the loss of patronage which the dis- 
 grace of that mistress would entail, by making 
 her own seat, near Newmarket, the theatre of 
 the French favourite's grand triumph. 
 
 Euston is an immense house, built in brick, 
 with two wings and four pavilions. A balus- 
 trade crowns the mansion, and is ornamented 
 at equal distances with alternate vases and 
 statues. There was there, in 1672, a picture 
 gallery and billiard room ; a chapel, an 
 orangery, and a conservatory adorned with 
 busts of the Csesars in alabaster. The apart- 
 ments of each guest were so well isolated, that 
 he, or she, miq;ht cut oft" all communication
 
 ACCESSION OF LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 71 
 
 with the rest of the house, and enjoy an inde- 
 pendent estabHshment. The king's apartments 
 were painted in fresco. All the others were 
 elegantly furnished. There were numerous 
 bath rooms, a pharmacy ; and in the poultry 
 yard coops for fattening fowl. The stables 
 contained thirty horses, and the park a thou- 
 sand deer. No member of the aristocracy 
 had so many coaches in his mews as Lord 
 Arlington. Besides the French party, Lady 
 Arlinsfton had invited the Countess of Sun- 
 derland and a large number of members of the 
 Court. The king, who was at Newmarket, 
 came every other day, and often slept at 
 Euston in the month of October. 
 
 "The king," wrote Colbert,^ "comes here 
 for his repasts ; and after eating he passes 
 several hours with Mile. Keroualle. He has 
 already paid her three visits ; and he invited 
 us yesterday to Newmarket, to see the races. 
 We went, and were charmingly entertained, 
 and he seemed more than ever solicitous to 
 please Mile. Keroualle. Those small atten- 
 tions which denote a great passion were lavished 
 on her ; and as she showed by her expressions 
 ^ Colbert to Louvois, Oct. 22, 1671,
 
 72 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 of gratitude that she was not insensible to the 
 kindness of a great king, we hope she will so 
 behave that the attachment will be durable and 
 exclude every other." 
 
 It may be, that the Countesses of Arlington 
 and Sunderland, under the pretext of killing 
 the tedium of October evenings in a country 
 house, got up a burlesque wedding in which 
 Louise de Keroualle was the bride and the kingf 
 the bridegroom, with all the immodest cere- 
 monies which marked, in the good old times, 
 the retirement of the former into her nuptial 
 chamber. 
 
 " The events of that night were the talk of 
 the whole Court, and the subject of the pam- 
 phlets of the day." These pamphlets, in their 
 sharp precision and directness, bear the stamp 
 of truth. They give in broken English the 
 coy exclamations of Louise, " Me no bad 
 woman. If me taut me was one bad woman, 
 me would cut mine own trote." ^ A guest of 
 
 ^ See Evelyn, Oct. 9, 1671 ; and The Secret History of 
 the Reigns of Charles II. and James II. See also The 
 Blatant Beast. The English puritans braved modesty when 
 they wanted to defend decency against licence. Their de- 
 scriptions of " the nights at Euston " are too strong for mo- 
 dern taste to bear. The Royal Wanton, and Andrew Marvel's
 
 ACCESSION OF LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. ^l 
 
 the Arlingtons, Evelyn, declares that he never 
 saw at Euston a fête such as is described by 
 the pamphleteers. But he adds, that he was 
 only admitted twice to the king's table ; and 
 he states that Louise remained in her undress 
 for a whole day, whilst every one was trying 
 to amuse and pet her. At any rate, she had 
 a son exactly nine months after the mock 
 marriage at Euston,^ and Louis XIV. on being 
 informed of what took place there, ordered 
 his ambassador to present his congratulations 
 to Mile, de Keroualle. " I have made that 
 young lady joyful," replied Colbert de Croissy, 
 " in assuring her of the pleasure with which 
 his majesty learned" of her brilliant conquest. 
 There is every prospect that she will hold long 
 what she has conquered." 
 
 The French ladies at Paris and Versailles 
 viewed the intrigfue in another licrht. Mme. 
 de Sévigné wrote to her daughter,^ " Don't 
 you like to hear that little Keroualle, whose 
 star was divined before she left, has followed 
 
 lampoons show how English feeHng was in revolt against the 
 French mistress of Charles. 
 
 ^ Colbert to Louvois, Nov. 2, 1671. 
 
 2 March 30, 1672.
 
 74 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 it faithfully. The King of England, on seeing 
 her, straightway fell in love, and she did not 
 frown at him when he declared his passion. 
 The upshot is, that she is in an interesting 
 state. Is it not all astonishing ! Castlemaine 
 is in disgrace. England, truly, is a droll 
 country ! " 
 
 Yet in that "droll country" Milton had, four 
 years earlier, published his Paradise Lost, and 
 Newton in that very year his TJieory of Light. 
 
 Louis at once tried to turn Louise's situation 
 to diplomatic account. Three advantages, he 
 believed, might be derived from the favour she 
 enjoyed : (i) an alliance against Holland ; (2) 
 a profession by Charles of the Catholic faith ; 
 (3) a match between the king's brother, the 
 Duke of York, and a princess chosen by Louis. 
 
 The alliance was soon concluded. In the 
 face of the interests, the prejudices, and the 
 religious feelings of the English, Charles de- 
 clared war against Holland in March, 1672, in 
 the sixth month of Louise's pregnancy. On 
 the 28th of April of the same year, Louis set 
 out from St. Germain en Laye on his con- 
 quering tour in Flanders. 
 
 The profession by Charles of the Catholic
 
 ACCESSION OF LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 75 
 
 faith was not so easy to obtain. He began 
 by objecting that the Pope was too old to 
 bring to a happy conclusion a step of such im- 
 portance/ and that the English Catholics were 
 too weak in numbers, and had too few strong 
 brains among them, to give him good support. 
 Louise and his wife's confessor, Father Patrick, 
 tried to screw his courage up,^ because the 
 Catholic religion could only be set up again, 
 they argued, through a close union between 
 the Most Christian King and Charles. Father 
 Patrick kept Colbert de Croissy well informed 
 about the king's objections, and everything else 
 that he thought worth reporting. Charles and 
 Arlington more than hinted that it would be 
 gratifying to them were Louis to grant the 
 diplomatic priest an abbey, with a salary of 
 four or five thousand livres. This wish was 
 strongly dwelt upon in despatches of Col- 
 bert de Croissy, who said that Father Patrick 
 had so brought round Charles that he sent 
 word to the Queen of Spain that he was de- 
 termined to become a Catholic. ^^ 
 
 ^ Colbert to Lionne, tome c, fol. 82. 
 
 - Ibid., March i, 1672. 
 
 ^ Colbert to Pomponne, March 14, 1672. The Queen
 
 76 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 Charles's brother had no sort of hesitation 
 to profess his rehgion. His wife had just died 
 in the CathoHc faith, and expressing all the 
 sentiments which a recent conversion miofht 
 be expected to prompt. His son followed her 
 to the grave a few days later. The Duke of 
 York asked the king's leave to remarry, taking 
 a Catholic wife, and declaring openly his faith. 
 All the belles of the court bedizened themselves 
 in their precious stones and other finery, to 
 make a conquest of the heir presumptive to 
 the throne. The beauty and wealth of the 
 widowed Duchess of Northumberland made 
 her a redoubtable competitor. Lady Fal- 
 mouth, another widow, was then spoken of.^ 
 " But," said Colbert, " I doubt whether this 
 Prince's passion for her is so great as to lead 
 him to marry her. He would rather take a 
 French princess, to whom his majesty might 
 give a dowry." ^ 
 
 of Spain, placed between her conscience and her poUtical 
 interest, coldly said : " Me haveis ahgrado ftiucho cofi la 
 httena neuva de la piadosa ùttefuion del rey vuestro amo. 
 Yo ayiidare cumpliviie7ito de todas mis fuercas." 
 
 1 Colbert to the King of France, April 13, 1671. Lady 
 Falmouth received immense sums and secret subventions 
 from Charles. - Sept. 29, 1671.
 
 ACCESSION OF LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 77 
 
 '' If the Dake of York," answered Louvois, 
 "wants a wife who is almost certain to bear 
 him children, he can't do better than take 
 Madame de Guise,^ who laid in thrice in two 
 years, and whose birth, wealth, and hopes of 
 fecundity should make up for her want of 
 beauty." 
 
 The Duke of York, meanwhile, sought to 
 console himself for the loss of his wife by 
 giving up Arabella Churchill, and becoming 
 intimate with Miss Sedley, who passed for 
 being a prude.^ Colbert was therefore puzzled 
 to think how he could draw the Duke into 
 wishing for a marriage between himself and 
 Madame de Guise. He promised Lionne to 
 neglect no opportunity to bring about a match 
 
 1 Elizabeth d'Orléans, second daughter of Gaston, 
 brother of Louis XIII., married in 1667 to Louis Joseph, 
 sixth Due de Guise, a widow in July, 167 1 ; died in 1696. 
 The desirability of a match between the Duke of York and 
 la Grande Mademoiselle was never once discussed, although 
 that Princess said she was asked to marry him. 
 
 2 Miss Sedley had the gift of wit. On coming to the 
 throne, James created her Countess of Dorchester, and 
 when he was dethroned by his daughter Mary, Sir Charles 
 Sedley, who voted for the Prince and Princess of Orange, 
 said : " James made my daughter a Countess, and I now 
 make his daughter a Queen."
 
 78 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 with that lady, who, being the second daughter 
 of Gaston, Due d'Orléans, was a niece of 
 Henrietta Maria, and a first cousin of the Duke 
 of York. On the 23rd of January, 1673, he 
 wrote, " I shall neglect no means to ensure 
 success in this affair, and I hope to triumph 
 over every difficulty through the queen's con- 
 fessor and the new mistresr-.''
 
 CHAPTER TV. 
 
 THE RIVALS. 
 
 Coi.BERT DE Croissy ignored none of the dan- 
 gers which beset Louise de Keroualle, who 
 was hated and attacked by such old favourites 
 as the Duchesses of Cleveland and Richmond, 
 and the fresher theatrical ones like Nell Gwynn." 
 In his despatch of December 24th he wrote 
 to Louvois : " The king is going to sup and 
 dance at Lord Arlington's, and I am to be of 
 the party. So also is the Duchess of Rich- 
 mond. Her great talent is dancing. Made- 
 moiselle de Keroualle may be taken in by all 
 these parties, and all the more so because she 
 does not keep her head sober, since she has 
 got the notion into it that it is possible she may 
 yet be Queen of England. She talks from 
 morning till night of the Queen's ailments as 
 if they were mortal." 
 
 The tongues of every one else, it must be 
 owned, ran on the same topic, and each de- 
 
 79
 
 8o LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 manded the other when Catherine might be 
 expected to die. 
 
 " M. Frazer, the king's physician, has ob- 
 tained the kino^'s leave to examine into the 
 queen's malady, and has found it to be con- 
 sumption, which will end her life in two or 
 three months, or, at latest, in a year. I hear 
 it said, that the king was resolved the momenl 
 God takes this princess to Himself, not to let 
 a month pass without satisfying the prayers of 
 his subjects. He would choose for his wife 
 some young and beautiful person of high birth 
 capable of bearing him children. The doctors 
 all talk thus to ingratiate themselves with the 
 king."^ 
 
 Catherine, though reputed so feeble and dis- 
 eased, had a long life before her. She died 
 thirty-two years later. But the theologians 
 came to the help of the doctors, when it was 
 found the latter had excited false hopes. The 
 death of the queen, they said, was not necessary 
 for the king's happiness. He was, as Luther 
 taught in a parallel case, free to take a second 
 wife while the first was living.^ 
 
 ^ Colbert to Louvois, Feb. 20, 1673. 
 
 ~ This was the opinion of Gilbert Barnet, the theologian
 
 c 
 
 aAJZéy9t/?^ey cr
 
 THE RIVALS. 8l 
 
 But as Charles had no fixity of aim, he 
 was led by his pleasures from the idea of a 
 second marriage. Without meaning to afflict 
 the queen, or vex any of his mistresses, he was 
 drawn into fresh amours. In eight months he 
 gave Lady Falmouth seven thousand pounds, 
 and the Duchess of Cleveland more than forty 
 thousand. 
 
 The duchess held the king by her four 
 children, of three of whom he thought himself 
 the father. She hectored him into acknow- 
 ledging himself the parent of the fourth, which 
 she did not deny to be a son of Henry Jermyn, 
 brother of the Queen Dowager's domestic ty- 
 rant, and husband, in fact if not in name. Henry 
 himself stood in a similar relation to the Prin- 
 cess Dowager of Orange, born Princess Royal 
 of England. The Duchess of Cleveland, not- 
 withstanding her undisguised passion for him, 
 remained virtual sovereign, not only at the 
 court festivities, but in the queen's bed- 
 chamber. Louise de Keroualle was unable 
 
 and historian of William of Orange. His famous treatises : 
 Solution of two Cases of Conscience, and The other Devo7-ce, and 
 what Scripture allows in those Cases, have not been re- 
 printed in the collection of his works, but are to be fouTid 
 in John Mackey's Court of Great Britain. 
 
 G
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE 
 
 to dislodge her from that position until her 
 Grace had to retire to France to escape from 
 her creditors. The two rivals were, therefore, 
 at the time of Catherine's great illness, face to 
 face. Barbara was a furious scold, and ab- 
 sorbed in amours which could not be termed 
 secret, inasmuch as they were the town talk. 
 Louise was tender, languishing, reticent, and de- 
 voted to French interests, or rather to her own 
 interests, which were bound up in those of 
 France. One impudently played the wanton 
 with other men, and the other sold Charles. 
 Barbara scolded, laughed, and swore ; Louise 
 pretended to love and languish. Of all the 
 favourites, the only one the English liked was 
 Nelly Gwynn, the gay, piquant orange-girl and 
 actress. Sparks about the Court, and statesmen, 
 took liberties with her, which she sometimes re- 
 sented in a way that would, were it not for her 
 feminine charm and good temper, have been 
 thought too rough and ready. Colbert de Croissy 
 informed Pomponne ^ that Buckingham, having 
 one morning entered the reserved apartment 
 of the king to talk with him about state affairs, 
 found Nell there, she still having the good 
 ^ Colbert to Pomponne, Jan. 23, 1672.
 
 THE RIVALS, 83 
 
 fortune to please Charles. The duke pressed 
 her hard to grant him the favours she accorded 
 to his master ; and as he rumpled her collar in 
 trying to snatch kisses, she boxed his ears. At 
 least so she said, and those who heard, believed 
 her. Her adventures were the town talk, and 
 amused rather than shocked the g-ood folks of 
 London. It is clear that she was an impudent 
 jade, with irrepressible spirits and romping 
 ways. But the English, under the merry 
 monarch, liked boisterous gaiety and coarse 
 fun. Clarendon's popularity was due to his 
 jollity, frank bluntness, hilarious sensuality, and 
 complete absence of pretension. He let him- 
 self be ruined by buffoons and mistresses, and 
 had a joyous disposition of a purely English 
 type, which prevented him taking any pleasure 
 in French fashions and ceremonious festivity. 
 Sympathy with high animal spirits was general 
 at Whitehall in the time of Charles H. Even 
 the poor queen herself was drawn into the 
 torrent of jollification. She did not think it 
 beneath her dignity to disguise herself as a 
 country-woman to mingle in the popular sports 
 at fairs and markets and around Maypoles. 
 When a visitor of the Countess of Suffolk at
 
 84 LOUISh DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 Audley End, she in such a disguise started 
 off on a pillion behind old Sir Bernard Gas- 
 coigne.^ The beautiful Frances Stuart, Duchess 
 of Richmond, was in attendance, dressed as a 
 farmer's wife, and also on a pillion behind Mr. 
 Roper. In these travesties they went to the 
 fair of Saffron Walden, The real country 
 folks, taking them for play-actors, mobbed 
 them so roughly that they had to get on horse- 
 back and gallop off. A band of well-mounted 
 yeomen rode after them, giving them chase 
 to Audley End, where the porters, when the 
 fugitives dashed into the park, shut the gates 
 in the faces of their pursuers. 
 
 Successful actresses, in the reign of Charles, 
 lived in great luxury. Nell Gwynn's bed was 
 adorned with ornaments in carved and repoussé 
 silver.^ She was, in the Royal favour, the suc- 
 
 1 A Florentine gentleman, brought into England by Mary 
 de Medici when Queen Dowager of France and mother-in- 
 law of Charles I. Sir Bernard Gascoigne had served in 
 the Royal army in the Civil War. 
 
 2 See the documents that have been preserved at Mal- 
 vern Wells, at Mr. Francis Hopkinson's. Nell made the 
 Treasury pay for her boxes at the theatres to which she 
 went as a spectator. She saw the "Tempest" four times 
 at the cost of the country; and "Macbeth," "Hamlet,"
 
 THE RIVALS. 85 
 
 cesser of Mary, or Moll Davies, whom the 
 king got Sir Francis Ratcliffe to marry, after 
 she had given birth to a daughter, christened 
 Mary Tudor, to point out that she was of the 
 blood royal/ Moll was Welsh, like Nell ; and 
 so were the Tudors. In turn, Nell Gwynn 
 was supplanted by a comic actress, named 
 Knight. But she was never wholly abandoned 
 by the king, whose last words were : " Don't 
 let poor Nelly starve." She was popular to 
 the end. 
 
 The most hated of all the favourites was 
 Louise de Keroualle, who was thought sly and 
 intriguing, and was regarded as the incarna- 
 tion of the French king's policy, and the worst 
 enemy of England. Court and people were 
 of one mind about her ; and it must be owned 
 that popular instinct roughly, but truly, divined 
 the part she was playing, and the danger there 
 
 and "Lear," once between September, 1674, and June, 
 1675. See also the Commission on Historical Ma?iuscripts, 
 vol. iii., p. 266 ; and Pennant's Account of London. 
 
 ' This girl was, on growing up, provided with a dowry 
 from the Exchequer, and given in marriage to the Earl of 
 Derwentwater. Her son was the Catholic earl who was 
 implicated m the Jacobite rising against George I., and 
 executed, Feb. 24, 1716.
 
 86 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 was, through her toils, of an arrest of the 
 national evolution. It was into her ear, chiefly, 
 that Charles poured his complaints of the 
 rude and restive behaviour of his Parliaments. 
 " The King of England," wrote Colbert de 
 Croissy, on March 9, 1673, "hides his chagrin 
 as well as he can. But I see that he has 
 plenty of it ; and, if I can believe Mademoiselle 
 de Keroualle, he told her yesterday that there 
 was no course open to him but to dissolve 
 Parliament. Although such a step would be 
 of the most vital importance to your Majesty's 
 interests, I have not yet ventured to try and 
 obtain from Arlington confirmation of what 
 the new favourite told me." 
 
 Louise was very adroit and careful in feeling 
 her way, and keeping within her depth. She 
 abstained from urging anything which might 
 lead to civil war. Seeing it would be fatal to 
 her influence, and to her matrimonial hopes, 
 to force Charles into making a profession of 
 Roman Catholicism, she got the ambassador, 
 Colbert, to inform Louis that, if the King of 
 England once declared himself a Catholic, 
 every one would forsake him. The part of 
 the nation which alone had backbone and
 
 THE RIVALS. 87 
 
 Stubborn will, was anti- Popish. The Duke of 
 York, by his rash zeal, had made a public 
 reconciliation of his brother with the Church 
 of Rome impossible. There was but a single 
 course to follow. It was by slow degrees to 
 habituate the English to a revival of Catholic 
 ideas, rites, and ceremonies. 
 
 On the subject of the Duke of York's 
 second marriage, Louise stood apart from the 
 French embassy. She wanted that prince to 
 marry a daughter of the Duke d'Elbœuf, and 
 not the widow of the Duke de Guise, whom 
 Louvois proposed. 
 
 The diplomacy of Louis XIV. had been, 
 up to this juncture, under the direction of 
 Lionne, a man of superior parts, and the 
 greatest of Mazarin's disciples. He died pre- 
 maturely at the end of 1671. Arnauld de 
 Pomponne, his successor, was remarkable for 
 his native rectitude, his good judgment, and 
 the exquisite keenness of his perceptions. He 
 weighed and did everything with maturity, and 
 yet did not procrastinate needlessly. He was 
 modest and moderate ; of beautiful simplicity 
 of life and manners ; had a gentle address ; 
 and was, in conversation, instructive and of
 
 88 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 penetrating sweetness and courtesy. But he 
 had not enough of weight or self-assertion to 
 resist Louvois' overbearing temper, was not 
 laborious, and preferred rather to let complex 
 situations work out their own solutions, than 
 to solve difficulties or grapple with them as 
 they arose. Louvois enjoyed tugs of war ; 
 Pomponne shrank from them. 
 
 It was easy to see from the first that the 
 Duke of York would stand out against a match 
 between himself and Madame de Guise. An 
 unfavourable account of her, given by Madame 
 Henriette, his sister, who disliked her, had 
 left such a strong impression on his mind that 
 he would not listen to anything to her ad- 
 vantage. He said he did not want to be the 
 husband of more than one wife, which was a 
 good reason for insisting on beauty. Charles 
 was at the trouble of explaining to the French 
 ambassador, that his brother had two great 
 weaknesses — one was touchino^ relioion, and 
 the other touching marriage. The first had 
 done him a deal of mischief, and he feared the 
 other would have more baleful consequences. 
 Since the death of the Duchess of York, he 
 was agog for making a fool of himself a second
 
 THE RIVALS. 89 
 
 time. To prevent him marrying for love alone, 
 all the princesses and great ladies who passed 
 for being devoted to French interests had been 
 proposed, one by one, to him, because it was 
 certain that, with his uxorious and narrowly 
 virtuous disposition, he would be governed by 
 his wife. 
 
 But Colbert de Croissy, goaded by Louvois, 
 continued to thwart the Duke of York, who 
 was bent on a love-match, in trying to force 
 him to marry the Duchess de Guise. This 
 was the more ill-judged, because the French 
 court ran the risk of losing all power over 
 him, and throwing him into the arms of some 
 German princess. Louise de Keroualle saw 
 the danger from the beginning, and started 
 the idea of a match with another French lady. 
 She herself insisted, in an interview with Col- 
 bert, on the folly of trying to impose a mature 
 and by no means attractive widow on the 
 Duke, who had set his heart upon a saintly 
 life with a young beauty of virginal attractions. 
 
 " Mile, de Keroualle," reported Colbert, in 
 a despatch dated July 24, 1673, "has had the 
 address to get the Princess of Wurtemburg 
 excluded from the list of candidates for matri-
 
 90 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 mony with the Duke of York. But she has 
 shown such ardour in trying to obtain a pre- 
 ference for Mile. d'Elbœuf, that nobody will 
 now listen to the praises of Madame de Guise. 
 Yesterday Mile, de Keroualle took me aside 
 in the queen's chamber, to whisper to me 
 that the duke would have preferred Mile. 
 d'Elbœuf, even had I been colder in speaking 
 of her. She beo-o-ed me as a o-reat favour not 
 to let it transpire here that it would be dis- 
 agreeable to your Majesty were that young 
 lady chosen. 
 
 Thus, the maid of honour who filled an in- 
 significant place in the household of the 
 Duchess of Orleans, was now able to patron- 
 ize the proud ladies of the house of Lorraine. 
 The Duchess d'Elbœuf was a daughter of 
 the Duke de Bouillon and sister of Turenne. 
 In suffering Louise to be the patroness of 
 her daughters, she made the world see what 
 a great personage "la petite Keroualle" had 
 become. 
 
 Henceforth, the Court of France would 
 have to treat with deference the Breton 
 favourite who took under her protection the 
 Princesses of Lorraine.
 
 THE RIVALS. 91 
 
 The d'Elbœufs were poor. But Louise 
 reckoned on their beauty, and had their por- 
 traits hung up in her room, to accustom the 
 Duke of York to their charms. The only- 
 fault he found with them was their great 
 youth. 
 
 Colbert was annoyed at this stratagem. He 
 informed Arnauld de Pomponne that Mlle, de 
 Keroualle had obtained from the Duchess 
 d'Elbœuf portraits of her daughters, and had 
 done her best to lure the Duke of York into 
 proposing for one of them. She did this, he 
 represented, both out of friendship for their 
 mother, with whom she had kept up a regular 
 correspondence, and to show what power she 
 enjoyed. 
 
 M. Colbert de Croissy thought he had 
 destroyed the web she was weaving round the 
 heir presumptive ; but he found he was mis- 
 taken. However, he hoped it was not too late 
 to defeat her plan. 
 
 Colbert de Croissy thus drifted into enmity 
 with Louise. He behaved towards her with 
 his characteristic rudeness, and turned Arling- 
 ton against her. Both threw in her face the 
 stratagems to which they had stooped, in
 
 92 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 order to unite her and the king in an amorous 
 liaison. " ArHngton," de Pomponne was in- 
 formed, " neither hkes nor esteems Mile, de 
 Keroualle, and reproaches her with having as 
 soon forgotten the obligations he conferred on 
 her, as any of the good dinners she has eaten." 
 
 The French ambassador was defeated in 
 this conflict. Louise, it is true, had to give 
 up her protégées} who became nuns of the 
 Visitation, and to accept Mary Beatrice of 
 Modena, whom James decided to marry. She 
 next applied her skill to bringing to a happy 
 issue an affair of great importance to herself. 
 
 At the end of 1672 Mile, de Keroualle, 
 through the French Embassy and de Pom- 
 ponne,^ petitioned the King of France for 
 leave to become an English subject, and " so 
 
 1 Louis the Fourteenth was formally against the Elbœuf 
 match. " I have reasons," he said, " which would make 
 such a marriage disagreeable to me, and I therefore hope 
 you will adroitly apply yourself to cause hitches so that it 
 will never take place " (the king to Colbert, April 1 2, 
 1673). The Duchess d'Elbœuf — née Elisabeth de la Tour 
 — was married in 1656, and died in 1688. Françoise 
 Marie, whom Louise de Keroualle wished to be married to 
 the Duke of York, and Marie Eléonore, the two daughters 
 of the duchess, became sisters of the Visitation. 
 
 - Colbert to Pomponne, Jan. 30, 1673.
 
 THE RIVALS. 
 
 93 
 
 benefit by the gifts and honours which King 
 Charles wanted to lavish on her." Soon after, 
 she received the titles of Baroness of Peters- 
 field, Countess of Farnham, and Duchess of 
 Pendennis, a title which — nobody knows why — 
 was immediately changed to that of Duchess 
 of Portsmouth. The promise was given that 
 in a few days she was to be a lady of the 
 bedchamber,^ and thus rank as high as any of 
 the older mistresses who were duchesses. 
 Her elevation gave umbrage both to Court 
 and town ; and she and her strawberry leaves 
 were made the subject of ribald lampoons. 
 But much as she prized an English ducal 
 coronet, she would have valued more a stool, 
 or tabouret, of duchess in the presence-chamber 
 at the Court of Versailles, where she had 
 played such a humble part but a few years 
 before. 
 
 The tabouret was the highest object of a 
 Frenchwoman's ambition in the seventeenth 
 century. Not until Marie d'Arquien, the wife 
 of John Sobieski, had become Queen of 
 Poland, did she cease from striving to obtain 
 a tabouret at the Court of the Louvre. " To 
 Ï Colbert to Pomponne, Aug. 7, 1O73.
 
 94 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 think," cried her husband,^ " how she longs 
 for that miserable stool, on which nobody can 
 sit at ease ! " When she was queen, she kept 
 soliciting the title of French duke for her 
 father, and by her importunities forced Louis 
 XIV. to say, through his ambassador at 
 Warsaw,^ that he regretted to be obliged to 
 express his just repugnance to grant the Mar- 
 quis d'Arquien a dignity which he had so 
 little merited, and that he was astonished at 
 the Queen of Poland continuing to ask it for 
 him. 
 
 But if the King of Poland was not an 
 important factor in the policy of Louis, the 
 King of England was such a necessary ally 
 that his favourite was to be regarded as having 
 merited no matter what high dignity. The 
 first step to the taboiu'et would be to obtain 
 the ducal fief of Aubigny. The negotiations 
 on this matter were soon got through. 
 
 In July, 1673, Charles spoke to Colbert of 
 " his desire that Mile, de Keroualle should 
 be granted the fief, not only for her life, but 
 
 1 Letter of John Sobieski to his wife, May 11, 1668. 
 
 2 The Bishop of Beauvais to the Marquis de Vitry, Dec. 
 10, 1680.
 
 THE RIVALS. 95 
 
 that she might be able to transmit it to her 
 son.^ He would take care that it should not 
 pass from her posterity of Stuart blood. Col- 
 bert, who was in the thick of the strugfo-le 
 against the Elbœuf ladies, was astounded at 
 this intimation, and exasperated at the im- 
 pudence of Louise, in demanding a French 
 Crown land. But he felt obliged to commu- 
 nicate what Charles said to him to De Pom- 
 ponne, and did so in the following terms : " I 
 own I find her on all occasions so ill-disposed 
 for the service of the king^ and showing- such 
 ill-humour against France (whether because 
 she feels herself despised there, or whether from 
 an effect of caprice), that I really think she 
 deserves no favour of his Majesty. But as the 
 King of England shows her much love, and 
 so visibly likes to please her, his Majesty can 
 judge whether it is best not to treat her accord- 
 ing to her merits. An attention paid to her 
 will be taken by the King of England as one 
 paid to himself I have, however, told him 
 upon what conditions alone the fief could be 
 granted, and what he asks is just the con- 
 trary." 
 
 * Colbert to Pomponne, July 17, 1673.
 
 96 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 The estate of Aubigny-sur- Nièvre, in Berri, 
 had been raised to a ducal fief in 1422, by 
 Charles VII., in favour of John Stuart, who 
 served under that king. It was to return to 
 the Crown at the death of the last male heir, 
 who was the Duke of Richmond, husband of 
 the lovely Frances Stuart. This nobleman 
 had just died. Were Aubigny given to the 
 Duchess of Portsmouth, it would be detached 
 afresh from the Crown domain, and go into the 
 possession of her son, who was a year old, and 
 not yet recognised by Charles. Arlington told 
 Colbert that the king, whose fatherhood was 
 multiple, shrank from owning he had another 
 child, ^ and had remarked to the Attorney- 
 General, when he was drawing up the patents 
 of nobility for Louise and for her children, that 
 the boy in existence could not inherit them. 
 Nevertheless Colbert himself hit on a solution. 
 He proposed a donation of Aubigny in favour 
 of the Duchess of Portsmouth, with reversion 
 to any natural child of the king, whom he 
 should appoint to succeed her. In this way 
 she would not become a French duchess, and 
 would simply receive a ducal estate. 
 
 1 Colbert to Pomponne, August 29, 1673.
 
 THE RIVALS. 97 
 
 Colbert's suggestion was in part adopted.' 
 But while he was thus obliged to help a woman 
 of whom he had become an enemy to rise in 
 the world, he had to struggle against the influ- 
 ence which the French living in London had 
 gained. He did not know how to make use 
 of them ; and as they got in his way, he and 
 they soon became mutually disagreeable. At 
 a time when England and France were com- 
 bined against Holland, the military Frenchmen 
 at the Court of Whitehall were thouo-ht more 
 of than their diplomatic countrymen. Count 
 d'Estrées, who commanded the French fleet, 
 had won the hearts of English sailors. Charles 
 went on board his flag-ship,^ accompanied by 
 Comte Canaples, to whom he had given a 
 pension of 2000 crowns. 
 
 This Canaples had obtained leave to serve 
 in the English army. He was a brother of 
 Marshal de Créquy, and was always an ailing 
 and imbecile courtier. At the age of seventy- 
 
 1 The patent of grant is dated December, 1673, and is to 
 be found in the archives Des Affaires Etrangères, Angleterre, 
 tome cviii., fol. 234 ; the patent of erection into a duchy is 
 dated January 1684. It is in the National Archives, reg. o, 
 I, 28, fol. 18. 
 
 2 BussY Rabutin : Correspondence t.. ii., p. 257. 
 
 H
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE 
 
 six, after he returned to live in France, he 
 married a daughter of Marshal de Vivenne, 
 and astonished all who knew him by his tardily 
 recovered health. " Canaples, who," Madame 
 de Sévigné wrote to her daughter, " had been 
 cut, hacked, and carved up again by the 
 doctors," survived his four brothers and died 
 of old ao^e. 
 
 Charles preferred to this valetudinarian a 
 nephew of de Turenne, Louis Duras, whom he 
 created Earl of Feversham, and made his boon 
 companion. Feversham took such a part in 
 his amusements that Colbert warned de Pom- 
 ponne to keep well with him, because his help 
 could not be dispensed with. His good fortune 
 caused a run of French noblemen on the Court 
 of Whitehall. It became the fashion in Paris 
 to visit London. The Frenchmen of Bucking- 
 ham's set were of as much importance in the 
 eyes of Louis as of Charles. Since Parliament 
 had grown sullen, Buckingham won popularity 
 by forming a party in the House of Commons 
 to defend the Anglican Church and the Pro- 
 testant States of Europe. He was too clever 
 to like his new position thus gained, and often 
 went back to his French friends. Saint Evre-
 
 THE RIVALS. 99 
 
 mond did Colbert a service in bringing round 
 the Duke of Buckingham to him, and aided 
 him with much wit and address in keeping 
 them friends. The wit of Saint Evremond 
 was kept bright by the gift of a snuff-box, with 
 the portrait of the King of France on the hd, 
 worth twenty-eight thousand livres tournois. 
 To prevent Arhngton feehng envious, another 
 snuff-box, to which a diamond ring was added, 
 was sent him.^ Buckingham was revolving in 
 his head a financial scheme of the greatest con- 
 sequence, and, encouraged by Louis's bounty 
 and amiable condescension, he had his project 
 submitted to that monarch by the Marquis de 
 Sessac. 
 
 The Marquis de Sessac had most of the 
 faults of the Chevalier de Gramont, without 
 his charming wit. He was, like him, rash, 
 presumptuous, and meddling. After he was 
 banished from the Court of France, he took 
 refuge in London, where he attempted, as did 
 Gramont, to make a fortune in gambling. De 
 Sessac had large coffers, which were often 
 suddenly filled with gold, and as frequently 
 
 1 MiGNET : ^Négociations de la Succession d'Espagne, t. iv., 
 p. 48.
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 emptied in a single night. The Duke of 
 Buckingham struck up a friendship with him, 
 and offered to sell himself and his party to 
 the King of France for a respectable sum. 
 The operation was to be effected unknown to 
 the French embassy, Buckingham having still 
 in him a little of that hypocrisy which is a 
 tribute to virtue. But Colbert de Croissy 
 could not be kept long in ignorance of this 
 bargain, which he was unable to approve. 
 "Votes are only," he wrote,^ "to be obtained 
 by parading hatred of France. Let us enter- 
 tain no illusion on that score. It must not 
 be imaofined that with two hundred thousand 
 crowns we can bring so great a body to follow 
 a course which reason should alone dictate. 
 As Monsieur de Sessac takes pleasure in big 
 talk about himself, and in giving himself im- 
 portance, one risks, in drawing close to his 
 friend Buckingham, to offend Arlington," 
 
 De Sessac went secretly to Marshal de Bell- 
 fonds, at Versailles,^ to announce to him that 
 he was charged to submit to Louis an affair 
 
 ^ Colbert to King Louis, Nov. 27, 1673. 
 ^ In October, 1673. See instructions to De Ruvigny, 
 Aff. Etr. Afigleterre, tome ex., fol. 127.
 
 THE RIVALS. loi 
 
 of the highest importance for the State, but 
 that he could only communicate it to the king. 
 He refused to see De Pomponne, the Secretary 
 on Foreign Affairs. At length a royal audi- 
 ence was granted him, and he handed Buck- 
 ingham's letter to the king. The duke, in that 
 paper, said he was ready for everything. But 
 it was essential that he should gain some mem- 
 bers of Parliament, and it would be necessary 
 for the Kinof of France to create a fund in 
 London to provide for the expense of buying 
 members of the House of Commons. The 
 opposition of Parliament to the Court pre- 
 sented such dangers, that Louis judged well 
 to enter into the relations with Buckingham, 
 and sent to England, as secret negotiator, the 
 Count de Ruvigny, whom he intended should 
 a few weeks later supersede Colbert. The 
 choice of De Ruvigny was a good one. He 
 was a soldier, elderly, respected, and the recog- 
 nised chief of the Reformed Church of F" ranee, 
 Several marriages had united his family and 
 that of the Russells, who were all-powerful 
 with the English Protestants. His son^ was 
 
 1 After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, he was 
 naturalized Enghsh, and became Lord Galloway ; and,
 
 I02 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 born in England, Ruvigny was of high birth, 
 but of simple bearing, sagacious, honourable, 
 honest, and singularly clever. He reconciled 
 exceptional uprightness with the greatest 
 shrewdness and fertility of resource and social 
 tact. 
 
 Ruvigny was instructed to concert with 
 Colbert and the Marquis de Sessac.^ He was 
 kept in the dark about the interviews the 
 latter had with the King of France. One of 
 the orders he was given was, to deceive Buck- 
 ingham in making him believe that Charles 
 knew nothing of his scheme. But Louis 
 judged well, while Buckingham was to think 
 that close secresy was being observed, to in- 
 form that monarch of what had been negfotiated 
 through De Sessac. The knavery to which Louis 
 resorted was so multiple and shameful, that 
 Ruvigny was to read over and over his instruc- 
 tions, and to make 2. précis of them, to show he 
 understood them, but to be allowed no copy. 
 Louis " thoucrht it too dangerous to let them 
 be taken away to England in writing. His 
 
 in the War of the Spanish Succession, commanded tlie 
 English army which was sent to operate in Portugal. 
 1 Tome ex., fol. 127, Nov. 4, 1673.
 
 THE RIVALS. 103 
 
 Majesty wished them only to be well-impressed 
 on Ruvigny's mind, which could be done by 
 reading them many times attentively." 
 
 Thus, in the winter which separated the two 
 great campaigns of 1673 and 1674, Louis sought 
 to buy the King of England and the Parliament ; 
 the king by the subventions of the secret 
 treaty, and the gift of the estate of Aubigny 
 to the Duchess of Portsmouth ; and the Par- 
 liament through Buckingham. Ruvigny said 
 of it, that it was "a filthy traffic."^ 
 
 All Europe had turned against France in 1673, 
 even to the Prussians of Brandenburg, who had 
 backed out of an alliance with the Dutch the 
 moment they were attacked.^ Spain overcame 
 her horror of Protestantism in siding with 
 Holland. Far up in the North, Louis had 
 taken Maestricht,^ and he was silently preparing 
 to seize on the Franche Comté and the Pala- 
 tinate. His frontiers were beinof widened, and 
 his armies increased. Suddenly, at this decisive 
 
 ^ Ruvigny expressed, in a letter to King Louis, dated 
 Nov, 27, 1673, disgust at being an agent in such dirty 
 affairs, and seemed to doubt of their eventual success 
 because of their immorality. 
 
 ^ See Rousset's Histoire de Louvois, t. ii., p. 5. 
 
 •'' June 29, 1673.
 
 I04 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 crisis in his affairs, he felt Ensfland bes^innino- 
 to shp from his hands. 
 
 The alarm was given by Comte d'Estrades, 
 who wrote from London with a clearness of 
 insight that was truly marvellous •} " The 
 English do not think themselves bound by 
 treaties. If they are once leagued with Spain, 
 the Empire, and Holland, nobody of our gen- 
 eration will see the end of this war." 
 
 Up to this period of the reign of Charles, 
 the national passions of England had been 
 spending themselves against Roman Catholi- 
 cism ; the Lord Treasurer Clifford and the 
 Duke of York had to resiofn their offices. 
 When nothing more could be done against 
 the Roman Catholics, the whole tide of hatred 
 flowed against France. 
 
 On the day^ on which Ruvigny succeeded 
 Colbert as ambassador, Charles was paid his 
 bribe of eight millions of livres^ and he let 
 the regiments which this money was to keep 
 up be disbanded. Buckingham, who wanted to 
 
 1 See Rousset's Histoire de Louvois, t. ii., p. 278. 
 
 2 Jan. II, 1674. 
 
 3 MiGNET : Négociations relatives à la Succession d'Es- 
 pagne, t. vi., p. 254.
 
 THE RIVALS. 105 
 
 sell his sovereign at a high price, was, of all 
 the political men of the day, the hardest used 
 by Parliament. Lady Shrewsbury, his Roman 
 Catholic or " Popish " mistress, was thrown in 
 his face ; and his Canaanitish vices, his debts, 
 and his dishonesty were all the subject of acri- 
 monious attacks. He bent beneath the blast ; 
 and, with the suppleness of a man who has 
 more wit than stoutness of heart or firmness 
 of character, veered round and changed his 
 way of living. He broke with the faithful 
 Countess of Shrewsbury, who retired to a con- 
 vent at Dunkirk,^ made up his quarrel with his 
 wife, and adopted the Biblical phraseology and 
 nasal twang of the Puritans. The Protestant 
 De Ruvigny reported the sudden conversion,^ 
 which was shown in regular attendance at the 
 services of the Episcopal Church with his wife, 
 in his methodic attention to his expenses, in the 
 
 1 Ruvigny to Pomponne, Jan. 29, 1674. Her son, 
 Charles Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, became, on the con- 
 trary, the idol of the people, because of his manly beauty 
 and Anglican fanaticism. He was created a duke by 
 William lU., and led the coup d'Etat, when Queen Anne 
 was dying, which secured the throne to the House of 
 Hanover. 
 
 - Idein^ Sept. 10, 1674.
 
 io6 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 payment of debts, and in the order established 
 in his household, all of which made him popu- 
 lar.^ Charles followed Buckingham in yielding 
 to popular pressure, and concluded a peace 
 with Holland. But he did not yet break with 
 France, and even left Kinor Louis the English 
 regiments which were in his pay, abroad. 
 Still, the situation was most critical. The best 
 agent of the French policy in England, Louise 
 de Keroualle, had been in a single day reduced 
 to impotency. 
 
 1 Ruvigny to Pomponne, Feb. i6. 167.1
 
 CHAPTER v.. 
 
 THE DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH'S FIRST 
 CHECK. 
 
 In the spring of 1674, just when another 
 French campaign was begun, and a few weeks 
 before the battle of Seneffe, Charles got tired 
 of his French shackles. The cause was well 
 known to his Court ; and the austere De Ru- 
 vigny said what it was in plain terms. Plain, 
 graphic words were not held vulgar at the 
 Court of Versailles. Madame de Séviené and 
 the Marshal de Richelieu never muffled up 
 disagreeable things in weak or vague expres- 
 sions, and were as free from prudish niceness 
 as Molière or Voltaire. It was permissible in 
 good society in the 1 7th century to quote 
 texually what the Protestant Ruvigny wrote 
 to the Jansenist de Pomponne, in a letter 
 which was to be read by Louis the Four- 
 teenth, whose Court was the most polished 
 and literary in Europe.
 
 io8 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 " I have a thing to tell you/ Monsieur, for 
 the kinof's information, which should remain 
 secret as long as it pleases his majesty to keep 
 it so, because if it gets out it might be a source 
 of unseemly raillery. Whilst the king^ was 
 winning provinces, the King of England was 
 catching a malady which he has been at the 
 trouble of communicating to the Duchess of 
 Portsmouth, That prince is nearly cured ; but 
 to all appearance the lady will not so soon 
 be rid of the virus. She has been, however, 
 in a degree consoled for such a troublesome 
 present by one more suitable to her charms 
 — a pearl necklace, worth four thousand 
 jacobus, and a diamond worth six thousand, 
 which have so rejoiced her that I should not 
 wonder if, for the price, she were not willing 
 to risk another attack of the disease." 
 
 The presents, which came from Louis, must 
 have been useful at a moment when the clerks 
 of the Exchequer refused to pay the favourites' 
 bills.^ But the forced separation from the 
 
 ^ May 14, 1674, fol. 201. 
 
 ~ Ruvigny invariably spoke of Louis as " the King," and 
 of Charles as " the King of England." 
 
 ^ In a letter of Sir H. Stubbs to Lord Kent, dated Sept. 
 28, 1673, and preserved in Lord Shaftesbury's library at
 
 DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH'S FIRST CHECK. loy 
 
 king, which the prolonged bad heakh of the 
 Duchess of Portsmouth occasioned, aroused 
 competition, and spurred on all the rivals to 
 abuse, and try to supersede her. The doctors 
 said she ought to go to Tunbridge^ for 
 the waters. She hired a house there, but on 
 her arrival found the Marchioness of Wor- 
 cester settled in it for the season. The 
 Duchess reminded the intruder that the law 
 was against her, and what duty she owed to a 
 lady who was a degree above her in the peer- 
 age. Thereupon the Marchioness replied, that 
 the titles women earned by prostitution, had 
 no effect upon persons of quality and sense. 
 She derided the Duchess about her former 
 gallantries with De Sault, and Hamilton, To 
 compensate Louise for this public humiliation, 
 Charles sent a detachment of the Household 
 Guards to escort her in pomp to Windsor, 
 where he placed her under the treatment of 
 his physician Crimp. 
 
 Long after a cure was effected, she was 
 
 St. Giles, he says : " Neither Madam Kerwell's, nor the 
 Duchess of Cleveland's, nor Nell Gwynn's warrants will be 
 accepted." 
 
 ^ Diplomatic note of August i6, 1674, vol. cxiv., fol. 
 119.
 
 no LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 ashamed of the accident, and for years after 
 was in the habit of gently reminding the guilty 
 Charles of the injury and disgrace he had in- 
 flicted on her. She made him blush for him- 
 self before the different confidential agents 
 whom Louis afterwards sent to England. One 
 of Ruvigny's successors describes a scene in 
 which she raked up the scandal to confound 
 Charles : " I tell you privately, and in the 
 hope that it will not travel further, how three 
 days ago the Duchess of Portsmouth in my 
 presence attacked the king about his infideli- 
 ties. She did not hide from me what she had 
 suffered two years ago from his misconduct with 
 trulls ; and he himself then described to me 
 how his head doctor had prescribed for her."^ 
 
 The Duchess of Portsmouth found some 
 consolation in the arrival of her sister, whom 
 she turned into a means of securing herself 
 EnMish allies. Henriette de Keroualle ar- 
 
 o 
 
 rived in London in May, 1674. Ruvigny 
 reported to his Court that she was a young 
 girl of not more than ordinary attractions ; ^ 
 that she crossed the sea alone with the gentle- 
 
 'i Courtin to Louvois, Dec. 27, 1674. 
 2 Ruvigny to Pomponne, May 12, 1674.
 
 DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH'S FIRST CHECK, in 
 
 man who was sent in a yacht to fetch her from 
 Brest, and that on landing she was given a pen- 
 sion of six hundred pounds sterhng a year. She 
 was not lonof in findinof a noble husband, the 
 Earl of Pembroke, who was, Ruvigny also re- 
 ported to the Court of Versailles, more ill, and 
 from the same disease, than Charles had been, 
 but who thought himself cured. ^ The king, 
 besides the pension, gave the bride a marriage 
 portion. 
 
 Louis did not abandon Louise. She had 
 the address to be reserved in askino- him for 
 
 o 
 
 favours, and went on feeling her way. 
 
 Her main desire was, to obtain the tabouret, 
 to which the ducal fief of Aubigny would give 
 her a right. But she contrived, with the finest 
 art, to put on Ruvigny to prepare the way 
 for future claims on the generosity of Louis.^ 
 ** I write," he said, " to your Majesty at the 
 prayer of the Duchess of Portsmouth, who is 
 uneasy about a blunder of the Marquis de 
 
 1 Letter, dated Westminster, Dec. ig, 1674, in the 
 possession of Mr. T. Stamford Raffles, 13, Abercromby 
 Street, Liverpool : " Her sister was on Thursday married to 
 the Earl of Pembroke, he being pretty well recovered from 
 his * * * . The king pays the wedding portion." 
 
 " Ruvigny to Pomponne, March 15, 1674.
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 Dangeau.^ which places her in a wrong light. 
 She had besought him, Sire, to convey to you 
 how much she takes to heart the interests of 
 your service ; with what zeal she looks after 
 them, and what a passionate desire she has to 
 earn your Majesty's confidence. But instead 
 of that she has been informed by the marquis 
 himself that he merely solicited for her the 
 promise of a tabouret, when she would go back 
 to France. She tells me that there is so little 
 chance of this, that she has ceased to hope for 
 it ; but that, being in a position still to serve 
 your Majesty, what she would most wish would 
 be to persuade you of the heartfelt passion 
 with which she is moved to accomplish your be- 
 hests. I pressed her to write herself to express 
 these sentiments, but she answered that she 
 could not dare to do so, because of the pro- 
 found respect that she entertained for her 
 sovereign and master." " 
 
 When she thought the time was ripe for 
 making her demand, she still appeared held 
 back by modesty, and always preferred speak- 
 
 1 Dangeau had come to London to fight a duel with 
 Lord Peterborough. 
 
 - Ruvigny to Pomponne, Oct. 24, 1675.
 
 DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH'S FIRST CHECK. 113 
 
 ing through Charles or the ambassador. Fif- 
 teen months after she had expressed through 
 the latter her passionate zeal for the French 
 King's service, the King of England ^ said to 
 Ruvigny that it would give him much satisfac- 
 tion if Louis would be pleased to bestow the 
 first abbey vacant on an aunt of the Duchess 
 of Portsmouth, Dame Suzanne de Plœuc de 
 Timeur, a professed nun in the Abbey of 
 Lajois at Hennebon, in the Bishopric of 
 Vannes, In conveying this begging message, 
 the ambassador thought it would be politic to 
 accede to it at once, and with a good grace. 
 
 In the same despatch,^ he said that, at the 
 request of the Duchess of Portsmouth, the King 
 of England charged him to recommend to the 
 king her relative, M. Calloet, for the post of 
 Syndic of the States of Brittany. Louis, who 
 did not like this meddling in affairs of his 
 internal administration, inflicted a reproof in 
 making no allusion to M. de Calloet in any of 
 his despatches, but sent by return of post, and 
 silently, a pair of pendant diamond earrings to 
 the favourite. She received them with a show 
 
 1 Ruvigny to Poni])onne, Jan 21, 1674, 
 
 2 Ideiii^ Oct. 24, 1675, 
 
 I
 
 114 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 of the deepest respect and gratitude, and re- 
 newed her assurances of zeal for her master's 
 interests. 
 
 Sometimes her diplomatic tact failed her, and 
 she brought ridicule upon herself by parading 
 her love for France. To make believe that 
 she was a near relative of the De Rohans,^ she 
 went into deep mourning when the Chevalier 
 de Rohan died. This exposed her to the gibes 
 of Nelly Gwynn. Nell's fun was not the most 
 delicate ; and, judging from some of the few 
 witticisms of hers which have come down to 
 us, one wonders how a prince of refined taste 
 could have relished them.^ One day Charles, 
 at her house, complained of want of money. 
 On hearing him, Nell offered, with a loud 
 laugh, to get it by treating the Parliament to 
 
 1 Letter in the Stamford Raffles collection, dated Dec. 
 19, 1674 : "She is in deep mourning for the Chevalier de 
 Rohan, as being forsoothe of kin to that family." 
 
 - The French hold punning and playing upon words in con- 
 tempt, and also any sort of witticism that is rudely personal. 
 Nell's tnot showed cleverness and an intelligent perception of 
 the state of parties. She meant, that, to please Parliament, 
 the king should sacrifice his French miss (the ragout), Lau- 
 derdale (the Scotch collops), and Sunderland, whose face 
 resembled a calf's, and who was said to be in the ideas of 
 the late king. {^Translatot^s Note.)
 
 DUCHESS OF PORTSMOU'IH'S FIRST CHECK. 115 
 
 a French ragout, Scotch collops, and a calf's 
 head. By which she meant that he was to 
 throw over the Duchess of Portsmouth, Lauder- 
 dale, Sunderland, and every one who wished 
 him to revive the policy of the late king his 
 father, the anniversary of whose execution was 
 called by the Puritans " Calves' Head day." 
 Charles laughed, and was well pleased at the 
 joke, and thought it a shrewd one. He was 
 used to her Covent Garden mode of speech ; 
 and she was not a woman to watch her words 
 to please him. 
 
 The Court of Versailles watched with amuse- 
 ment the French harlot's progress at White- 
 hall. Madame de Sévigné records some of 
 the echoes of what was said there about her. 
 " Keroualle," she wrote,^ " saw well her way, 
 and has made everything she wished for come 
 to pass. She wanted to be the mistress of the 
 King of England ; and behold, he now shares 
 her couch before the eyes of the whole Court. 
 She wanted to be rich ; and she is heaping 
 up treasures, and making herself feared and 
 courted. But she did not foresee that a low 
 actress was to cross her path, and to bewitch 
 ' Sept. II, 1675 ; t. iv., p. 128.
 
 ii6 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 the king. She is powerless to detach him from 
 this comedian. He divides his money, his 
 time, and his health between the pair. The 
 low actress is as proud as the Duchess of Ports- 
 mouth, whom she jeers at, mimics, and makes 
 game of. She braves her to her face, and 
 often takes the king away from her, and boasts 
 that she is the best loved of the two. She is 
 young, of madcap gaiety, bold, brazen, de- 
 bauched, and ready witted. She sings, dances, 
 and frankly makes love her business. Since 
 Keroualle has become a favourite, Gwynn in- 
 sists upon the king owning her son as his.^ 
 This is how she argues : ' That hoity-toity 
 French duchess sets up to be of grand quality. 
 Every one of rank in France is her cousin. 
 The moment some grand lord or lady over 
 there dies, she orders a suit of deep mourning. 
 Well, if she's of such high station, why is she 
 such a jade ^. She ought to be ashamed of 
 herself! If I were reared to be a lady, I am 
 sure I should blush for myself. But it's my 
 trade to be a doxy, and I was never anything 
 
 1 Charles Beauclerc, the son of Nelly, was born before 
 the arrival of Louise. He was recognised by Charles, and 
 created Duke of St Albans.
 
 DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH'S FIRST CHECK. 117 
 
 else. The king keeps me ; ever since he has 
 done so, I have been true to him. He has had 
 a son by me, and I'm going to make him own 
 the brat, for he is as fond of me as of his 
 French miss.' This creature holds her own in 
 an extraordinary manner, and embarrasses and 
 disconcerts the new-fledged duchess." 
 
 The degrading subjection in which Charles 
 was to the actress was a just judgment on him 
 for the humiliations which he inflicted on the 
 queen. Poor Catherine of Portugal had but 
 one consolation, her card-table. The game of 
 basset was her only amusement.^ In the even- 
 inor she never left her circle, if the king- did 
 not offer her his hand to lead her to her cham- 
 ber.^ She was often ailing, and was subject 
 to nervous headaches, so severe as to puzzle 
 the doctors,'^ who so often purged her, that the 
 cure was more perilous than the disease. 
 
 The hierarchy in the king's seraglio was 
 
 ' The Duke of York to the Countess of Lichfield, in a 
 letter in the possession of Viscount Dillon at Dytchley. 
 
 2 Ruvigny to King Louis, August 30, 1674. The ac- 
 counts of the queen, kept from 1679 to 1703 hy Sir R. 
 Be'lings, are in the possession of Lord Arundel at Wardour 
 Castle. 
 
 ^ Riivigny to Pomponne, March 28, 1675.
 
 ii8 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 manifested when the children came to be pro- 
 vided for. 
 
 The title of Duke of Richmond was ren- 
 dered vacant by the death, in 1672, of the 
 beautiful Miss Stuart's husband. The Duchess 
 of Portsmouth, who had obtained the fief of 
 Aubigny, asked it for her son Charles. But 
 she was opposed by the Duchess of Cleveland, 
 who wanted the title of Duke of Grafton for 
 her eldest son, and insisted that he should have 
 the precedence of the brat of a French hussy, 
 and that her other son should stand next his 
 brother in the peerage. Charles, who still 
 feared the termagant tongue and temper of her 
 grace of Cleveland, tried to turn the difficulty 
 by making the two sets of bastards dukes 
 simultaneously. But precedence depended on 
 the patent that was first signed. The Duchess 
 of Portsmouth, who was more sly and clever 
 than her rivals, got the Lord Treasurer to 
 receive her attorney at midnight, just as he 
 was stepping into his coach to go to Bath, and 
 affix the seal to the patents of the Duke of 
 Richmond. Next morning the lawyer of the 
 Duchess of Cleveland waited on him, but was 
 told that his lordship had gone to take the
 
 DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH'S FIRST CHECK. 119 
 
 waters at Bath. As to the son of Nelly, he 
 was just then only given a pension of four 
 thousand pounds sterling a year. The Duchy 
 of St. Albans was granted later. 
 
 Charles, the new Duke of Richmond,^ was 
 given a Scotchwoman of high quality, the 
 Countess Mareschal, for his governess. She 
 was accorded a salary of two hundred a year. 
 Her youthful pupil was the root of the existing 
 ducal family of Richmond. Besides the grants 
 to their sons, the two duchesses were each 
 given annual pensions of ;î^ 10,000, reversible 
 to their heirs ; that of the Duchess of Ports- 
 mouth was to be paid out of the wine licences ; 
 Cleveland preferred, as the more secure from 
 
 1 Charles (167 2-1 7 23) was a low rake, and slid, with a 
 facility which showed him to be his father's son, from Pro- 
 testantism to Catholicism and back. He shifted with equal 
 facility his allegiance from Louis Fourteenth and James 
 Second to William Third. He was the first duke of the 
 actual stock of Richmond, and father of Charles, the second 
 Duke {1701-50), whose son Charles (1735-1806) was one 
 of the leading members of the Whig cabinets of the reign 
 of George Third, and uncle of that Charles (1764-1819) 
 who died of a mad dog's bite in Canada. It will thus be 
 seen that the present Duke of Richmond is by no means 
 a remote descendant of "the French hussy" who sold 
 Charles IL, her lover, to Louis XIV. {Translator's Note.)
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 parliamentary meddling, a lien on the excise. 
 Both mistresses, having noted a diminution of 
 vitality in Charles, only thought of fleecing the 
 exchequer and investing their hoards in France, 
 where they would be outside the range of Eng- 
 lish popular tempests. But the Duchess of 
 Portsmouth, who was fond of gambling, lost 
 heavily at the queen's card table, and spent 
 large sums in luxurious furniture. The luxury 
 of her rooms at Whitehall excited general envy 
 at Court ; and they were visited by crowds of 
 people, who wanted to feast their eyes on the 
 massy plate, tapestries, and objects of vertu 
 they contained. 
 
 Louise wished her sister to live also in 
 sumptuous style, and teased the Earl of Pem- 
 broke to give her, when she lay in, a present 
 suitable to his wife's high rank. But he re- 
 sented the interference, and threatened to rid 
 himself of the countess by sending her packing 
 to Whitehall, to Louise's lodgings. All the 
 titles, grants, and luxury did not efface the 
 stigmas that were on the Keroualle sisters. 
 The foul name which Madame de Sévigné 
 called the Duchess of Portsmouth in French, 
 had an equivalent in every English mouth.
 
 DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH'S FIRST CHECK. 121 
 
 When the Count and Countess de Keroualle 
 visited London to see their daughters, they did 
 not stay with either of them, but at Sir Richard 
 Browne's, whom they had known in France as 
 an émigré when Cromwell was at Whitehall. 
 Count de Keroualle made a good impression. 
 He had a military air and Breton frankness. 
 H is wife still preserved remains of great beauty, 
 and showed a lively mind. They were said 
 never to have derived any profit from the 
 situation of Louise. 
 
 When they were in London, another stranger 
 arrived there, whose advent was a cause of 
 sore anxiety to the Duchess of Portsmouth. 
 She felt that a struggle for power was im- 
 minent, from the moment when the news was 
 brought to town, that the greatest beauty in 
 Europe, the splendid Duchess Mazarin, — 
 
 " Mazarin, des amours 
 Déesse tutélaire," ' 
 
 as La Fontaine qualified her, — had landed at 
 Torbay. This lady soon after made her ad- 
 vent in London, furious against the Court 
 of Versailles, and decked out to conquer. 
 
 ' La Fontaine : Le Renard anglais.
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 Ruvigny was not less uneasy than Louise de 
 Keroualle, and sent agents to find out whether 
 the charms for which the new comer was 
 famous, were well preserved. A valet of de 
 Gramont had witnessed her arrival.^ She had 
 embarked in Holland, and was driven by 
 stress of weather down the Channel to Tor- 
 bay, whence she rode up to town attired as a 
 gentleman of fashion. She had with her, also 
 on horseback, two women, five men-servants, 
 and a little blackamoor who ate at her table. 
 Arlington and Montagu, who both hated the 
 Duchess of Portsmouth, concerted how to use 
 to her destruction, the powers of the Duchess 
 Mazarin to fascinate and seduce. 
 
 ' Ruvigny to Pomponne, Jan. 2, 1070.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE DUCHESS MAZARIN. 
 
 The year 1675 closed a great historical era. 
 The captains and statesmen who in the pre- 
 ceding years had played the chief parts : Condé, 
 Turenne, and Montecuculli ; and Lionne, Jean 
 de Witt, and Arlington, were dead, or had 
 retired. Louis XIV, suffered a Congress to 
 meet at Nimeguen^ and brought within his 
 orbit the new minister of Charles, the Earl of 
 Danby. 
 
 Thomas Osborne, Earl of Danby, was, ac- 
 cording to Ruvigny's estimate, more afraid of 
 Charles than of Charles's master. But he was 
 so well ensnared in the toils of the Duchess of 
 Portsmouth, and so carefully compromised by 
 Charles,^ in the secret negotiations with Ver- 
 
 1 The members of the Congress were named ; but the 
 Congress itself did not meet until the middle of 1676. 
 
 2 Mignet: Négociations relatives à la Succession d'Es- 
 pagne, tome iv. pp. 354-399-
 
 124 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 sailles/ that, owing to his struggle against the 
 House of Commons, he found himself, against 
 his will, acting with the French party. Ru- 
 vigny spoke incessantly to his Government of 
 the Commons as " the great obstacle ; " and he 
 repeated this every time he found the king, 
 Louise, and Danby together. Charles was at 
 length, on the i6th of February, 1676, enabled 
 by a French subsidy of two millions and a half 
 of livres tournois, to prorogue for fifteen months. 
 He had thus, as he thought, made sure of a 
 period of quietness, when the Duchess Mazarin 
 arrived, and he was again plunged by her ad- 
 vent into all kinds of embarrassments. 
 
 Hortense IMancini, then thirty years old, had, 
 at the time Charles was a refugee in France, 
 captivated him by her beauty. " The destiny " 
 which, she said, " has rendered me the most 
 unhappy of my sex, began by dangling a crown 
 before my eyes.^ It was notorious that the 
 
 ^ Ruvigny to Pomponne, August i, 1675. 
 
 - It has never been well established whether Les Mémoires 
 de la Duchesse Mazarin were by her or St. Real, and in any 
 case they should be mistrusted. But what they say about 
 Charles II.'s attachment when he was in exile, and the ofter 
 of marriage that he made to her uncle for her, is confirmed
 
 THE DUCHESS MAZARIN. 125 
 
 King- of England passionately loved me, and 
 wanted me to be his wife." Her precocious 
 charms inspired the poets who furnished themes 
 for ballets; and when, in 1661, she made her 
 appearance at Fontainebleau in the ballet of 
 the Seasons as a Muse, one of them wrote : — 
 
 " Nulle Muse jamais 
 N'eut l'esprit et le sein formés de si bonne heure." 
 
 She was given in marriage to the son of Mar- 
 shal de Meilleraye, who received from the 
 Cardinal the title of Due Mazarin^ and a dowry 
 of twenty-eight millions of francs. The fancies 
 and the manias of her husband amused the 
 Court of France for nearly sixty years. He 
 was a man of the brightest wit, was well read, 
 and good company. His manners were graci- 
 ous, affable, and polite. But excess of religious 
 
 by Madame de Motteville, Mile, de Montpensier, La ReIatio7i 
 du Fonds Colbert^ No. 4782 by Riordan de Muscry. 
 
 1 The nobiliary prefix de was not in the ducal patent 
 made out for the husband of Hortense Manchini. When a 
 clerk of the patent office wrote "M. le Duc de Mazarin,' 
 Cardinal Mazarin ran his pen through it. He said, that the 
 de would imply a fief of Mazarin, and that he (the Cardinal) 
 in whose honour the ducal standing was granted by the king 
 to M. de Meilleraye, was originally but a mean varlet who 
 had not a patch of ground anywhere, and whose parents 
 owed their graves to their commune.
 
 126 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 devotion spoiled his natural gifts ; and he be- 
 came the prey of monks, bigots, and hypocrites, 
 who profited by his weakness to draw upon his 
 millions. He mutilated the finest statues, and 
 bedaubed the rarest pictures, forbade the wo- 
 men and wenches on his estates to milk cows 
 — an employment which he feared might sug- 
 grest bad thouQ^hts. 
 
 The Due Mazarin wanted to pull out the 
 front teeth of his daughters, who inherited their 
 mother's gift of beauty, to prevent coquettish 
 feeling arising in them. In his letters he only 
 spoke of monks and missionaries^ who were 
 pouring out spiritual blessings ; of designs for 
 church ornaments,^ of frequently-recurring in- 
 terventions of Providence in his own personal 
 affairs, and of small miracles. From conscien- 
 tious scruples, he threw up governorships of 
 provinces and the post of Grand Commander 
 of Artillery. His extravagant actions were 
 innumerable. Though of the brightest intel- 
 lect, he was a mono-maniac ; and his peculiar 
 
 1 The Due Mazarin was probably the original of Orgon 
 in Tartuffe. The kind of piety into which he threw himself 
 is ridiculed in that masterpiece of wit, good sense, and 
 satire. [Iranslator's Note.) 
 
 - See Mémoires de Mlle, de Montpeiisier, tome iv., p. 69.
 
 THE DUCHESS MAZARIN. 127 
 
 madness was his wife's best justification. In 
 the full bloom of matronly loveliness, and 
 surrounded with young children of whom she 
 was justly proud, he, for her soul's health, 
 immured her in a kind of aristocratic Mag- 
 dalens' Asylum, the convent of Les Filles 
 de Sainte Marie, in the Rue Saint-Antoine. 
 The young Duchess became, in her conven- 
 tual gaol, the friend of another court lady, 
 the Marquise de Courcelles, who was also 
 there as an enforced penitent. They both 
 quarrelled with the nuns for refusing them 
 water to wash their feet. In their remon- 
 strance they put forward that they were not 
 in the nunnery to observe its rules. Both 
 escaped. The Duchess and her maid Nanon 
 went to Italy, dressed as men, and escorted 
 by the Chevalier de Rohan and a gentleman 
 named Courbeville. The latter so completely 
 and openly governed her as to scandalize 
 Italians of her rank. She returned to France, 
 where her husband succeeded in getting 
 her confined in the Abbey of Lys, near 
 Melun. But the king, whose playmate she 
 was in girlhood, sent a constable with eight 
 dragoons, to force the convent door and set
 
 128 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE 
 
 the Duchess at liberty.^ She re-entered Paris 
 triumphantly in the coach of the Treasurer 
 Colbert, and then retired to Provence. The 
 Duchess Mazarin^ was one of those Roman 
 beauties in whom there is no doll-prettiness, 
 and in whom unaided nature triumphs over all 
 the arts of the coquette. Painters could not say 
 what was the colour of her eyes. They were 
 neither blue, nor grey, nor yet black, nor brown, 
 nor hazel. Nor were they languishing or pas- 
 sionate, as if either demanding to be loved or 
 expressing love. They simply looked as if she 
 had ever basked in love's sunshine. If her 
 mouth was not large, it was not a small one, 
 and was visibly the fit organ for intelligent 
 speech and amiable words. All her motions 
 were charming, in their easy grace and dignity. 
 Her complexion was softly toned, and yet 
 warm and fresh. It was so harmonious, that, 
 though dark, she seemed of beautiful fairness. 
 Her jet-black hair rose in strong waves above 
 her forehead, as if proud to clothe and adorn 
 her splendid head. She never used scents. 
 
 1 DeSévigné, du 12 Août, 1689. — Saint Real; Mémoires^ 
 tome vi., p. 94. De Sévigné, du 6 Février, 1671. 
 
 2 Saint Real, tome v., p. 79.
 
 THE DUCHESS MAZARIN. 129 
 
 At Aix in Provence, the Duchess joined her 
 sister, the Connétable de Colonna, who was of 
 as dazzling beauty as herself. Madame de 
 Grignan met them there, and described them 
 to her mother as divine, and looking like fine 
 pictures. All the ladies were furiously jealous 
 of them, and called them mad-caps, who ought 
 to be locked up, to keep them out of mischief. 
 Madame Scudéry was for whipping them ; 
 and the Countess de Soissons and Duchess de 
 Bouillon wanted them to be placed in a lunatic 
 asylum.^ The town talk at Aix was, that they 
 had come there disguised as men because they 
 
 1 These two ladies were the sisters of the runaway 
 Duchess and Connétable. Cardinal Mazarin had five nieces, 
 the daughters of his sister Mancini. They were Laura, 
 Duchess of Mercour ; Olympia, Countess of Soissons ; 
 Maria, Connétable de Colonna; Hortense, Duchess Mazarin; 
 and Mariana, Duchess de Bouillon. Louis XIV. was suc- 
 cessively enamoured of Olympia and Maria, to the latter of 
 whom he promised marriage, and who was passionately 
 attached to him. In obedience to the commands of his 
 mother, and for state reasons pressed upon him by Cardinal 
 Mazarin, he married his first cousin, the Infanta Maria 
 Theresa, in right of whom he claimed Flanders. The 
 Mancini sisters were said to be equally beautiful ; they 
 had all a noble style of beauty, and yet they did not 
 resemble each other.
 
 I30 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 had made an assignation with the Chevaher de 
 Lorraine and the Comte de Marsan. 
 
 Be this as it may, their giddy behaviour soon 
 turned the aristocracy of Aix against them, 
 and they had to quit the town suddenly to 
 escape réclusion in a convent. The Duchess 
 Mazarin got away to Savoy, where she spent 
 three years with César Vicard, a gallant who 
 passed himself off as the Abbé de St. Real, 
 although he was not tonsured, and had no 
 benefice. He was a young man of sparkling 
 conversation, was violently in love with the 
 Duchess, and was of such utter and refined 
 depravity of habits, that Louvois, who was 
 a connoisseur in such things, was horror- 
 stricken when he read his letters, which had 
 been seized and brought to him. They had 
 the effervescence of hot animal spirits, and 
 showed their author to be steeped in the in- 
 famous vices which then prevailed in Italy.^ 
 
 The Duchess Mazarin was followed to 
 England by the so-called Abbé. She went 
 to London in the secret hope of reviving the 
 old flame which Charles II. had entertained for 
 
 ^ Louvois to Courtin, Jan. 3, 1677 ; Affaires Etrangères, 
 
 Angleterre, tome cxxiii.
 
 THE DUCHESS MAZARIN. 
 
 her. Of the fourteen years which had rolled 
 over her since her marriage, she had spent 
 seven with her husband and her four children. 
 The rest of the time had been passed in con- 
 vents, on highways, dressed as a man, and in 
 the small courts of Italy, whose lazy tranquillity 
 she disturbed by her adventures. She picked 
 up new vices there, but remained youthful- 
 looking and fresh. Ruvigny, annoyed at the 
 wonderful preservation of her charms, wrote, 
 '* She is to all appearance a finely-developed 
 young girl. I never saw any one who so well 
 defies the power of time and vice to disfigure. 
 At the age of fifty she will have the satisfaction 
 of thinking, when she looks at her mirror, that 
 she is as lovely as she ever was in her life." 
 
 She was received in London as a triumphant 
 goddess. The Duke of York gave in her hon- 
 our a rout, at which, through Sunderland, the 
 king presented her his compliments. Every 
 one at Court looked forward to a considerable 
 change there. A lady of her fame and loveli- 
 ness was sure to carry all before her, and to 
 do something extraordinary. De Gramont, 
 who from the first set up to be her social 
 pilot, was enraptured with her. He had not
 
 132 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 seen her since she was a bride, and found her 
 altered, but he thought for the better; and 
 told the French ambassador that all the 
 mistresses were eclipsed by her. She entered 
 the Court as Armida entered the camp of 
 Godfrey.^ Every tongue ran upon her. The 
 men spoke of her to express admiration, and 
 the women to exhale their jealous uneasiness, 
 
 Nell Gwynn celebrated the triumph of the 
 Duchess by going into the deepest mourning^ 
 — for, she said, the eclipsed Duchess of Ports- 
 mouth and her dead hopes. The Duchess of 
 Cleveland retired to the country. All the 
 English rivals played into the hands of the 
 new-comer, to get rid the sooner of Keroualle, 
 whose art and diplomacy theretofore had de- 
 feated their attacks. They accepted Mazarin 
 as their avenging champion She was at least 
 above-board, and every one knew where to 
 have her. Waller's poem of " The Three 
 Duchesses " is a satire on this struggle. 
 
 Ruvigny ^ next warned Pomponne that the 
 Duchess of Cleveland had taken it into her 
 
 ^ Ruvigny to Pomponne, Jan. 20, 1676. 
 ^ Ruvigny to King Louis, July 2, 1676. 
 ^ Ruvigny to Pomponne, Feb. 3, 1676.
 
 THE DUCHESS MAZARIN. 133 
 
 head to visit France, with the two young dukes 
 her sons ; and he proposed that she should be 
 exempted from custom-house duties of every 
 sort at Calais. She was taking many horses 
 and two carriages. The customs franchise 
 was granted, but in terms which offended the 
 irascible Duchess, who showed the official 
 passport to Charles, and ordered him to com- 
 plain ^ because she and her sons (who were of 
 the " royal blood ") were not styled " cousins " 
 of Louis. He not obeying, she tore up the 
 document, and said she preferred paying any 
 amount of duty, sooner than put up with a 
 snub. She embarked with Gramont. ^ But 
 the French ambassador had taken care to 
 warn the custom-house officers to ask no 
 money and overwhelm her with their civilities, 
 for that such was the king's good pleasure. 
 
 The Duchess of Portsmouth stood in need 
 of French support, and was quick to ask it. 
 She was ill and faded. Another pregnancy 
 ended in a premature birth. ^ Jealousy so 
 gnawed her that she was sadly altered, Ru- 
 
 ^ Ruvigny to Pomponne, March 19, 1676. 
 
 2 Ibid. 
 
 ^ Courtin to King Louis, June 8, 1676.
 
 134 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 vigny confessed. He remarked, that at the 
 yearly visit of the Court to Newmarket, no 
 lodging was accorded to her by the king, 
 and that she had to hire a house herself in 
 a neighbouring village. This prevented 
 Charles from seeing her as often as she 
 wished. Her money affairs were in disorder, 
 her steward having robbed her of twelve 
 thousand pounds and pawned her jewels, 
 which she had entrusted to him, for an equally 
 large sum. 
 
 The pecuniary troubles of the Duchess 
 Mazarin were still g^reater. This rival was 
 forced, in opening her campaign, to hang out 
 the flag of distress. Charles, whom her love- 
 liness overcame, was melted by the tale of the 
 straits to which she was reduced. With his 
 own hand, he wrote to Louis, asking him to 
 force M. Mazarin to make his wife a suitable 
 allowance ; and he charged Ruvigny to say 
 that he would be deeply sensible to this favour, 
 without which it would be impossible for the 
 lady to live.^ Indeed, he made the affair a 
 personal one, and protested that he could not 
 
 ^ Ruvigny to Pomponne, April i6, 1676; and Ruvigny 
 to King Louis, Jan. 30, 1676.
 
 THE DUCHESS MAZARIN. 135 
 
 say how deeply obliged he would be were it 
 promptly arranged. Louis was averse always 
 to meddle in family matters, and as he respected 
 the Due Mazarin, he did not think he could 
 equitably force him to put his wife in a position 
 in which she could more publicly dishonour 
 him at the Court of England. He, himself, 
 wrote to the Duchess to explain why he did 
 not accede to the wish of Charles.^ Ruvigny 
 handed her the letter, and bore testimony to 
 the great displeasure she showed on reading 
 it, at finding herself abandoned in a Court 
 where money was so necessary. Charles, 
 meanwhile, had given her secretly an order on 
 the keeper of his privy purse for a thousand 
 gold jacobus. A second attack ^ against the 
 husband of the fair fugitive was prepared. 
 Ruvigny thought it " dangerous to vex a 
 woman whose star was in the ascendant, 
 whose importance was fast rising." Every 
 one helped her in the campaign on which she 
 at once entered against the Duchess of Ports- 
 mouth. The young Princess of Modena, whom 
 the Duke of York had lately married, was 
 
 ^ Ruvigny to Pomponne, Feb. 27, 1676. 
 ' Ibid., March 5, 1679.
 
 136 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 among the first to side with Hortense Mancini, 
 whom she kept whole days beside her bed, to 
 which the royal lady, being in an interesting 
 situation, was confined. The king went often 
 to the bedroom of his sister-in-law, without 
 appearing to expect to find there the Duchess 
 Mazarin, but on purpose to meet her. She 
 was very natural ^ and open, and did not resort 
 to trick or artifice.^ It was proposed to give 
 her the suite of rooms of the Duke of York 
 at Whitehall when he moved to St. James's 
 Palace. 
 
 The honourable and honest De Ruvigny was 
 sorely embarrassed by these women's quarrels. 
 He lost his way in the labyrinth of intrigues, 
 and owned he had done so. "Sire,"^ he cried in 
 his distress, " I have just learned that there's 
 certain and secret intelligence between the 
 Kinof of Eno^land and the Duchess Mazarin. 
 She carries on her intrigue very quietly with 
 him. Those who hoped to share in the 
 triumph, have not yet had the opportunity they 
 expect2d." He then urged the expediency of 
 
 ^ Ruvigny to Pomponne, Jan. 20, 1676. 
 
 2 Ibid., Jan. 27 and 30, 1676. 
 
 ^ Ruvigny to the king, March 12, 1676.
 
 THE DUCHESS MAZARIN. \yj 
 
 obtaining a larger pension for her from her 
 husband. Charles and the Duke of York ^ had 
 been pressing him to represent to Louis their 
 sentiments of old affection, and of pity for 
 Madame Mazarin. Nothing- would aive them 
 more pleasure than for their good offices on 
 her behalf to be well received at Versailles, 
 They were pained at the refusal of their first 
 intervention, and they hoped to be more for- 
 tunate a second time. 
 
 "Charles," remarked the ambassador, "shows 
 a deepening interest in the lady ; and it may 
 be, that her state of distress will intensify the 
 passion which now, clearly, overmasters him." 
 
 Ruvigny was not the person to manage 
 feminine and effeminate souls, Louis sent to 
 reinforce the old Protestant in London, — with 
 the mission to supersede him in a few weeks, — 
 the most wily and refined of his courtiers, and 
 one who, although a favourite of the great king, 
 had always behaved with modesty. The new 
 envoy belonged to the judicature, and had been 
 the intendant of a province under Louvois, and 
 was so highly valued by the king that he was 
 at liberty to appear before him without a court 
 ' Ruvigny to King Louis, March i6, 1676.
 
 138 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 mantle, and with a cane and councillor's ruffles. 
 His name was Courtin, and he was the only 
 man of his profession who was invited to 
 ]\Iarly.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 COURT IN. 
 
 Honoré Courtin, Seigneur de Chanteroine,^ 
 was councillor of the Parliament of Rouen 
 at the age of fourteen. When governor of 
 Picardy, he did not venture to reject an 
 application from the Duke de Chaulnes to 
 exempt several villages on his estate from 
 the payment of the taille impost. But on 
 finding that because of this exemption the 
 
 1 Born in 1622 ; died in 1703. Married to Salome de 
 Beauvers. He came to serve as French ambassador at the 
 Court of Whitehall in May 1676; was author oi the Joiirtial 
 des Entrevues da7is VIsle des Faisans, describing the inter- 
 views between Louis XIV. and Philip IV. and Mazarin and 
 the Conde de Huro, which was published in 1665 as a sequel 
 to V Histoire de la Paix des Pyrénées, de Gualdo Priorato. 
 See also Madame de Sévigné's Letters, Capmas, Series II., 
 p. 359; and M. Boisdelisle's notice in his edition of St. 
 Simon, tome iii. pp. 279-286. Honoré Courtin, a Norman, 
 should not be confounded witli Antoine Courtin, an 
 Auvergnat, who was also in the judicature and an ambas- 
 sador, and who alone is mentioned in La Biographie Mo)ieri. 
 
 '39
 
 I40 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 Other villages of the circumscription were 
 weighed down with taxes, he paid, to relieve 
 them, forty thousand livres of his own into 
 the treasury, and resigned his high and lucra- 
 tive post. He had an amiable and a cheerful 
 disposition,^ a good judgment, ripeness of mind, 
 a graceful manner, and a bright, delicate wit. 
 Courtin, albeit of diminutive stature, was gal- 
 lant in his attentions to ladies, had the air 
 and speech of one who had mixed in the 
 best society, and yet without affecting to be 
 above his rank of councillor. Althouo-h re- 
 ticent, he was perfectly sincere ; and he had 
 the clean hands of a man of unimpeachable 
 honour.^ 
 
 Before setting out for London, where he had 
 previously been on a diplomatic mission, it 
 occurred to him to obtain information about 
 the town and the Court, from a maid of honour 
 of the Queen of England, who was staying at 
 a convent in the Faubourg St. Germain. He 
 had dined with her at De Gourville's ; and he 
 
 ^ Gourville's Mémoires, p. 543 ; Mignet's Négociations, 
 tome iii., p. 347, and t. iv. p. 141 ; Rousset's Histoire de 
 Louvois, t. i. p. 465. 
 
 - Saint Simon.
 
 COURTIN. 141 
 
 had heard that she left the Court of Whitehall 
 because she one day, when in the Maids of 
 Honours' waiting-room, gave birth to a child/ 
 He also went to see Duke Mazarin,^ who pro- 
 posed terms certain not to be accepted. They 
 were, *' the retirement of his wife to the Abbey 
 of Montmartre." Courtin, therefore, placed him- 
 self on the lady's side when he went to London, 
 and endeavoured to produce on the mind of 
 Louis ^ an impression favourable to her. He 
 mentioned to him, in a letter, how he had seen 
 Madame Mazarin at high mass in the chapel 
 of the Portuguese ambassador ; but he could 
 not help noticing that she betrayed disgust at 
 the length of the service. He studied her ; he 
 drew the Abbé de St. Real into talking about 
 her ; and the upshot was, uneasiness at her 
 growing influence. The King of France was 
 earnestly advised by him ^ to use his authority 
 
 1 Courtin to Louvois, between May and December, 1665. 
 This was not the young lady whose child, born in the 
 queen's circle, died soon after birth, and was dissected by 
 Charles, who made ribald jests about his supposed pater- 
 nity of his anatomical subject. 
 
 2 Courtin to King Louis, June 8, 1676. 
 
 3 Ibid., May 25, 1679. 
 ^ Ibid., June 8, 1676.
 
 142 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 in forcing her husband to grant the pension 
 which she demanded. St. Real had let out 
 that she thought Louis disliked her, and would 
 not be sorry for him to know that it behoved 
 him not to have her against him, since she 
 would, if he went on showingf himself aeainst 
 her, use her influence in a way that might not 
 please him. 
 
 Had she really influence ? Courtin sounded 
 Charles himself on that delicate point ; and the 
 King of England told him that he had a real 
 friendship for her, but that he would not suffer 
 any cabal to draw him into a closer relation 
 with her. However, he said, she was a great 
 beauty, and that he found no pleasure equal 
 to that of conversing with her. He also 
 showed that he liked to talk about her and 
 to hear her praised, whereas he appeared in- 
 different to the Duchess of Portsmouth, who 
 had grown delicate, was somewhat changed, 
 and had only enemies in England. It was to 
 be foreseen that the king would yield to the 
 new temptress, in which case the French am- 
 bassador would have uphill work, as he would 
 at the same time have to combat both minister 
 and mistress. Courtin did not see that it
 
 COURTIN. 143 
 
 mattered to Louis whether the Duchess Ma- 
 zarin refused conjugal rights to her husband ; 
 but that it greatly mattered if the duke went 
 on refusing her the fifty thousand livres ^ which 
 she claimed for her necessary expenses, because 
 she might help to keep England from joining 
 with the enemies of his majesty. The English 
 hated the French more than ever. Courtin 
 related how a London crowd were going to 
 throw a Venetian into the Thames because 
 they took him for a Frenchman. At any 
 price, the Duchess Mazarin should be gained, 
 or got out of England. A benefice or an 
 abbey might be promised to S. Réal.^ It 
 would be a miracle if the King of England 
 did not fall under the empire of the Duchess, 
 because the whole Court was making a set 
 upon him in her behalf 
 
 The situation was so dangerous that the 
 reserved Courtin tried to act on the husband 
 by a letter, which was insolently satirical. The 
 lady, he said, was afraid she might find réclu- 
 sion at Montmartre irksome ; and she did not 
 feel her strength equal to the severe rules of 
 
 ^ These were the only conditions she stipulated for. 
 - Courtin to Pomponne, June 8, 1676.
 
 144 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 a convent. From a jocular, he went on to a 
 menacing tone. The Duchess took her stand 
 on the conditions which she proposed when 
 Madame de Montespan was at the trouble of 
 endeavouring to make up the breach between 
 her and her husband. She remained deter- 
 mined not to grant him the privileges marriage 
 justifies. But she would be satisfied with a 
 yearly pension of fifty thousand livres if her 
 laces, jewels, and precious furniture were given 
 back to her, and if the idea of locking her up 
 in a convent were for ever abandoned. It was 
 not reasonable to suppose that she would con- 
 sent to such a captivity, she having charming 
 lodgings in St. James's Palace, and handsome 
 furniture belonging to the Crown of England. 
 St. James's was the palace of the Duke of 
 York, who was married to a young Italian 
 princess — an enthusiastic ally of the Duchess 
 Mazarin, who had made up her mind not to 
 reside at Whitehall, where the king lived. She 
 did this from a sense of dignity. If she chose, 
 she would not want for anything, because there 
 were persons at Court who would be glad to 
 aid her in whatever way she wished. 
 
 The purblind Duke Mazarin did not see the
 
 
 77{>&à 
 
 'uc^u^'-^ ^ ., / toc^n Û/-/-'' ^ 
 
 /_.
 
 COURTIN. 145 
 
 irony of Courtin, and wrote to him an unctuous 
 letter of eight pages.^ He argued like a theo- 
 logian. The reasons he gave might have told 
 before a conclave of Doctors of Divinity, but 
 they were thrown away on an emancipated 
 beauty, who was breathing with delight the 
 corrupt atmosphere of Whitehall. The hus- 
 band sent epistle on epistle ; and the ambas- 
 sador continued to treat him as a poor fool. 
 He wrote to Pomponne, that he had had 
 another letter from M. Mazarin which mig-ht 
 be used as a sermon. 
 
 The Abbé S. Real was more pliable^ than 
 his mistress. He was eaten up with jealousy, 
 and would be glad to take her from the temp- 
 tations of London,^ He was still very amorous, 
 and promised the ambassador his best services. 
 At this juncture St. Real suddenly started for 
 Paris. Louvois wrote in October to know the 
 reason of this.^ He could not imagine why a 
 man so violently enamoured as he by all ac- 
 
 ' Courtin to Pomponne, June 22, 1676. 
 2 Ibid., July 16, 1676. 
 2 Ibid., June 22, 1676. 
 
 * Louvois to Courtin, Oct. 21, 1676. Affaires Etrangères, 
 Angleterre, tome cxx., C, fol. 177. 
 
 L
 
 146 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 counts was, should quit in this sudden way the 
 object of his love. 
 
 The ambassador had heard, Courtin replied, 
 three weeks before St. Real's departure, that 
 he meant to go.^ He was in the position of 
 an unhappy lover, and was wont to sit with a 
 grief-stricken aspect by himself, in the chimney 
 nook of the chamber nearest to the card-room. 
 It was to be surmised that the desire shown 
 by many to keep up the Duchess Mazarin in 
 commodious lodgings, impelled him to take a 
 sudden and violent resolution of which he would 
 probably repent before he got to Dover. The 
 Duchess bore his absence with Roman fortitude, 
 and perhaps thought it a deliverance. Louvois, 
 who had read many of S. Real's letters, which 
 had been seized in the post-office, opined that 
 his room must be more grateful to her than his 
 company.^ 
 
 The Duchess of Portsmouth, who had been 
 absent forty days from town, to take the waters 
 of Bath,^ was assailed on her return by the 
 
 1 Courtin to Louvois, Jan. 3, 1677. 
 - Louvois to Courtin, Jan. 3, 1677. 
 
 •" Slie was there from May 25 to July 4. The waters of 
 Bath then began to be the fashion, they being thought
 
 COUR TIN. 147 
 
 Strong- jests of Nell Gwynn. The latter armed 
 herself in every possible way, to shelter her- 
 self from the resentment Louise might be ex- 
 pected to harbour because of the visits Nell 
 received from the king in her absence. On 
 her way from Bath, the Duchess of Portsmouth 
 halted at Windsor, to dine with Charles. But 
 not being offered a room in the Castle, she had 
 to go on in the evening, to sleep in London.^ 
 Although still thin and worn, she looked better 
 than when she went to take the waters, and 
 thought herself so restored that she might hope 
 soon to pick up flesh. Three days after, she 
 entertained the Count and Countess de Ruvigny 
 
 more recuperative and purifying to the blood than those of 
 Tunbridge Wells, of which Hamilton had written a charming 
 discription twelve years previously. To judge from what 
 he said, Tunbridge Pantiles resembled a scene in a comic 
 opera ; and English village maids and matrons dressed as 
 tastefully then as Swiss or Breton peasant women still do. 
 He was as much struck as other French gentlemen of his 
 day with the neat feet and dainty shoes and stockings which 
 English women of all classes wore in the time of Charles II. 
 English ladies' feet have now a reputation for being clum- 
 sily shod ; and the shoes and stockings of lower-order women 
 are of a piece with the rest of their cheap tawdry or slattern 
 dress. {Trafisla/or's Note.) 
 
 1 Courtin to King Louis, July 6, 1676.
 
 148 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 at dinner. The musicians of Louis XIV.'s 
 chamber, who were on a tour in England, 
 played during the repast, and Charles came to 
 hear them. The singers were Giles, Laforest, 
 Godenesche ; and Lambert,^ the father-in-law 
 of Lulli, accompanied them at the spinnet. The 
 hostess asked them to sing, " Mate me con no 
 mirar, mas no me mate con zelos,"^ and Charles 
 took in good part the laughter caused by her 
 request. He continued to give to Louise, in 
 public, tokens of friendship and regard ; but 
 he only saw her in company, and the former 
 intimacy was not renewed. The Duchess 
 Mazarin pleased him more, and he betrayed his 
 passion for her by his efforts to make the 
 Duchess of Portsmouth fancy he was not hot 
 foot after the former. To add to her mis- 
 fortunes, Louise hurt her eye, which remained 
 black and swollen for many days. The sparks 
 of the Court quizzed her about the accident, and 
 made wretched puns about the ambition shown 
 
 1 It was of him that Borlean spoke. Lambert was 
 Director of Chamber Music to Louis XIV., and obtained a 
 copyright in 1658 for the publication of his compositions. — 
 Archives Nat. X., 8650. His daughter married Lulli. 
 
 2 "Make me die of grief, but not of jealousy."
 
 COURTIN. 149 
 
 in the blackening- of her eye to transform her- 
 self from a blonde, into a brunette like Madame 
 Mazarin.^ 
 
 The French game seemed to be up. Courtin 
 and Louvois began to neglect Louise, who, after 
 a reign of six years, was apparently about to 
 suffer a final defeat. She, who was so plucky and 
 fertile in resources, began to lose courage ; and 
 despair was creeping on her.^ Courtin wrote to 
 Louis to communicate to him a scene that took 
 place in her lodging. He went to visit her 
 at Whitehall, and found her weeping. She 
 opened her heart to him in the presence of her 
 two French maids, who stood with downcast 
 eyes close to the wall, as if glued to it. Tears 
 flowed from their mistress's eyes ; sighs and 
 sobs interrupted her speech. M. Courtin stayed 
 with her until midnight, trying to soothe her 
 wounded spirit, and to persuade her to hide her 
 chagrin, and appear not to mind the king's 
 altered humour. Louvois made fun of her 
 pangs, and coarsely wrote,^ that the scene of 
 
 1 Courtin to King Louis, July 9, 1676; Courtin to 
 Pomponne, July 16, 1676; Ibid., August 3, 1676. 
 
 2 Courtin to Louvois, August 6, 1676. 
 
 •^ Louvois' rough irony was proverliial ; and his coarse, 
 arrogant, and overbearing temper made him precipitate
 
 ISO LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 la Signora adolorata had vastly amused his 
 majesty, and that the ambassador must have 
 been the first to laugh at it. 
 
 But it was no laughing matter for Louis. 
 If Europe thought the disgrace of Louise 
 imminent, the French plenipotentiaries at 
 Nimeguen would have met with unyielding 
 opposition. It was necessary to keep the 
 foreign envoys there in the belief that the 
 Duchess of Portsmouth was still on the pin- 
 nacle of royal favour, and so able to support 
 the policy of France. Courtin wrote to Colbert 
 de Croissy and Count d'Avaux, who repre- 
 sented Louis at the Congress, tnat the Duchess 
 had returned from Bath in better health than 
 when she set out ; that the king went to meet 
 her at Windsor and preserved for her the same 
 feelines.^ Some weeks later, Courtin informed 
 them that the king was frequently at the 
 Duchess of Portsmouth's, where there were 
 card tables for three different games — hombre, 
 
 France into that war with the German Empire in which the 
 Palatinate was ravaged. The letter cited above was dated 
 August 19, 1676 and is in the records of the Affaires 
 Etrangères, Angleterre, tome cxx., A., fol. 260. 
 ^ July 7, 1676.
 
 COURT IN. 151 
 
 basset, and thirty-and-forty ; and that he pro- 
 mised to attend her Sunday routs at which she 
 dispensed the most charming hospitality. 
 
 While throwing dust in the eyes of the other 
 powers, Courtin sought to make friends with 
 the Duchess Mazarin. 
 
 A daughter of the king and Duchess of Cleve- 
 land who had been married, almost in childhood, 
 to the Earl of Sussex, formed a tender attach- 
 ment for the beautiful fugitive, whom Charles 
 arranged to meet at his daughter's apartments. 
 When he was there, nobody was suffered to 
 enter the room where he was. An exception 
 was not even made for the French musicians.^ 
 The chambers of Lady Sussex were those 
 occupied by her mother when she was in fa- 
 vour, and were above the king's cabinet. He 
 could ascend to them by a private stair, without 
 being seen. Madame Mazarin was always 
 running in from St. James's Palace to Lady 
 Sussex's, and her tctes-à-tete with Charles were 
 prolonged far into the night. The French am- 
 bassador ingratiated himself with the Countess, 
 and ascertained from her about the, to all 
 
 ^ Courtin to Pomponne, July 20, 1676
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 appearance, casual meetings in her rooms of 
 the king and her dear friend the Duchess. 
 
 Moved by a less political design, Courtin 
 sought to win the friendship of Mrs. Middleton. 
 
 Mrs. Middleton was " that famous, that 
 incomparable beauty," who commanded Gra- 
 mont's admiration when she made her dchit at 
 Court, and was as much admired twenty-five 
 years later. She was " the belle " of White- 
 hall, and was formed like a fine statue, was 
 fair haired, fresh complexioned, and had a soft, 
 healthy, milk-white skin. There was some- 
 thing in her manners, and in her carefully 
 chosen diction, that was too nice for the taste 
 of the day. Nor was her indolent languor 
 to the taste of all the gallants of the Court. 
 She painted in oils with talent. Gramont 
 lost his heart on her without obtaining hers 
 in return. Courtin received her at the French 
 embassy, as a sovereign by right of beauty. 
 " If I were younger, or, by not following your 
 example, less wise," he informed Pomponne,^ 
 " I should be able to lead a pleasant life over 
 here. Madame Mazarin came to dine with 
 me to-day, in company with Lady Sussex. I 
 ^ July 2, 1676.
 
 COURTIN. 153 
 
 had near me at table Mrs. Middleton, who is, 
 without doubt, the EngHsh Queen of Beauty, 
 I took them all in the evening to hear the 
 French musicians ; and then I went to walk 
 with them by moonlight in St. James's Park. 
 There we met the unfortunate Portuguese 
 ambassador, who is dying for the love of 
 Madame Mazarin." 
 
 The ball of dissipation rolled merrily on. 
 Festivity reigned. The only serious man at 
 Whitehall was the French ambassador. He 
 sought, in keeping pace with the amusements of 
 the Court, the means of furthering a great scheme 
 of policy which would have reduced England, 
 the theatre of these junketings, to the position 
 of a satellite of the French Monarchy. 
 
 The Duchess of Portsmouth,^ actinof on 
 Courtin's advice, dried her tears, affected indif- 
 ference to her check, assumed a light-hearted 
 manner, and kept in the stream of dissipation. 
 
 " She has just given our Embassy a splendid 
 dinner, to which Mrs. Middleton, the Prince of 
 Monaco, Sunderland, Sessac, and our people 
 were all invited, reported Courtin.^ " The King 
 
 ' Coiirtiii to Pomponne, Sept. 21, 1676. 
 2 Ibid.
 
 154 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 of England, who had dined with the queen, 
 dropped in when we were at table ; and I have 
 as good as engaged him to come soon and dine 
 with me. He has also been pleased to say that 
 he will dine next Sunday, with the same com- 
 pany, at the Duchess of Portsmouth's ; and, to 
 be in good appetite, he promises not to sup the 
 evening before. The Prince of Monaco cannot 
 complain that every one is not on the alert to 
 find pastimes for him. I had him to dinner 
 early in the week, with the Duchess de Mazarin, 
 and her dear friend, Lady Sussex ; and a few 
 days previously he came also to dinner, to meet 
 the Duchess of Portsmouth and Mrs. Middleton. 
 The latter is, of all the English beauties, the one 
 I have most pleasure in seeing. But what a 
 number of watch-dogs surround her! " 
 
 Some days later, when writing to Louvois 
 about the balance of funds which remained 
 after the De Sessac mission, Courtin said : ^ 
 
 " I should be very glad if you could let me 
 employ this sum in adding a chapel to the 
 buildings of the Embassy, in which prayers 
 would be often oftered up for you, and in pay- 
 ing the expenses of a fete which I gave the 
 1 Sept. 24, 1676.
 
 COURT IN. 155 
 
 Other evening to the Duchess Mazarin, Lady 
 Sussex, and Mrs. Hamilton's sister, Miss Jen- 
 nings,^ who is the most beautiful of all the 
 Duchess of York's maids of honour, and whom 
 the Duke of York is always ogling. I have 
 arranged to sfive a little ball to amuse these 
 ladies. There is a Secretary of State,^ whom 
 I knew when I was at Cologne, who means to 
 dance for six hours without resting, in the 
 country dances. Gallants, and young ladies of 
 
 1 In the reign of Charles II. it was pohte to style a young 
 unmarried lady, who was not a professional beauty, 
 " Mrs." Courtin styles the untitled spinster at Court 
 Mistress, and the married lady of every rank Madame. To 
 prevent confusion, I adopt the modern fashion. {Trans-' 
 iator's Note.) 
 
 2 This was evidently Sir Joseph Williamson (1623-1701) 
 who behaved so badly to Arlington, and became Secretary 
 of State when that nobleman retired into private life. Of 
 the other two plenipotentiaries to the Congress of Cologne, 
 Sunderland was not a dancer ; and Sir Lioline Jenkins was 
 not a Secretary of State, but Judge of the Prerogative Court 
 and Member for Oxford. Williamson was a Catholic, and 
 persecuted as such. He followed James II. to France, 
 where his descendants now rank with the Fitzjameses, Mac- 
 Mahons, and Dillons, as descendants of " Earl Oillamson," 
 and bear as such the title of Count. Their births, deaths, 
 and marriages are treated as fashionable events by " le High 
 Life" Boulevard journals. {Translatot^s Note.)
 
 156 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 condition and note are to be asked ; and frolic- 
 some damsels will not be able to say that I do 
 not know how to treat them handsomely. The 
 outer door is to be well shut. I am to play at 
 hombre with the Duchess Mazarin. We both 
 shall leave the young madcaps to skip and 
 dance away to their hearts' content. Don't tell 
 this to M. de Pomponne, or let him know any- 
 thing about it. He would say that I do not 
 grow wiser as I grow old. But one must be a 
 man of pleasure to get on here ; otherwise it is 
 useless to come to England. I can, however, 
 assure you that although I must handle pitch, 
 I am resolved not to be defiled like the other 
 foreign ministers (and among them M. Vanbeu- 
 ninghen, the Dutch minister), who all keep 
 mistresses. M. Vanbeuninghen^ is as much 
 enamoured as you were, when you used to go 
 to Chelles. I amoroinofto call on Mrs. Middle- 
 ton, whom I more than ever regard as the most 
 beautiful and amiable woman at Court. I would 
 give her all your money, if she would listen to 
 overtures from me. But she is not mercenary, 
 and once refused a purse containing fifteen 
 hundred gold angels, which Gramont offered 
 1 Ambas'^ador of Holland, who was for peace.
 
 COURT IN. 157 
 
 her. Do not, therefore, fear that she will get 
 hold of the balance of the Sessac fund." 
 
 " The balance you mention," wrote Louvois,^ 
 " cannot have the pious use to which you would 
 apply it. We have other things to do, besides 
 building Embassy chapels. However, make 
 use of it until M. Demetz pays you your salary. 
 What you say of the ball you have promised to 
 give, makes me wish to be of the company, 
 although I should not think of dancing down 
 the Secretary of State ; and I do not know a 
 single rule of hombre. All I should do would 
 be to feast my eyes on Madame Mazarin, and 
 that I should never stop doing. There is much 
 good now said here about her, which I find 
 hard to believe. You may well imagine that 
 it is not of her beauty the talk is, since she is 
 assuredly the finest woman alive. But it is 
 said that her tongue and disposition, are not so 
 charming as her person. If you were insensible 
 to her, and therefore more free from bias, I 
 should ask you to inform me on these points. 
 I remember having seen M. de Vanbeuninghen 
 at St. Germain with rouge and patches, which 
 the courtesanes of Chatou and Passy had plas- 
 ^ Oct. I, 1676.
 
 158 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 tered on his cheeks. I don't know whether his 
 London mistress ever sends him to Whitehall 
 so beautified. I have so often heard of the 
 charms of Mrs. Middleton from de Gramont, 
 that I should be glad to have her portrait." 
 
 Courtin either did not understand that the 
 drift of this letter was to cajole the Duchess 
 Mazarin by repeating the flattery it contained, 
 or did not see the possibility of getting her 
 over to the French side. He evinced the 
 greatest anxiety to show that he was not sub- 
 jugated by her. It was not he who was her 
 slave, but the Prince of Monaco,^ who was 
 always in her company. Courtin supplicated 
 Louvois not to repeat in society the rumour 
 that he was in love with her, because people 
 would say he had avowed it in his despatches, 
 and he would be a subject of raillery. So far, 
 she had not in the least turned his head, and 
 yet there was not a day in which he did not 
 spend several hours in reading in her card-room. 
 He often remained thus occupied until midnight. 
 Her house was an agreeable one, and provided 
 with every commodity. H ombre was always 
 
 ' Courtin to Louvois, Oct. 29, 1676. — Autograph minute 
 of Louvois, tome cxx., fol. 186.
 
 COURTIN. 159 
 
 going on. Courtin sometimes watched the 
 play, but more often sat in an easy chair, 
 beside the fire, reading a book. S. Real had 
 got together a good library for the Duchess. 
 The ambassador found in it Appian, and 
 the Annals of Tacitus, translated by M. 
 d'Ablancourt. The Duchess's conduct towards 
 the ambassador was free from impropriety, of 
 which he was very glad. But he could see 
 that, although she was civil to him, she had 
 somethinof in her mind aQ^ainst him, and was 
 not frank in her dealings with him. He had 
 already informed M. de Pomponne of her 
 annoyance at the intervention of King Charles 
 and the Duke of York in her favour, having 
 had no effect at Versailles. He was half in- 
 clined to suspect that she had been sent to 
 London on some intrigue against France. 
 The Duchess of Portsmouth told the French 
 ambassador that she and King Charles had 
 come to some secret understanding. Perhaps 
 this was a jealous fancy ; but it was sincerely 
 entertained by her. Courtin complained that 
 his warnings had been neglected as idle, and 
 that his Government haggled about the supple- 
 mental pension of eight thousand crowns, which
 
 i6o LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 King Charles asked for Madame Mazarin. He 
 hoped there would be no cause to repent of this; 
 but he knew that the lady was deeply mortified, 
 and that opportunities would arise to enable 
 her to take her revenge. The ambassador 
 entreated Louvois not to treat this as a laugh- 
 ing matter ; and, to induce him not to do so, 
 mentioned that the Duchess Mazarin always 
 spoke of him in a friendly manner, and was a 
 woman of very amiable manners. If Louvois 
 had seen her dancing the furlano, to the music 
 of a oruitar which she thrummed herself, he 
 would have been captivated by her. She had 
 a lady friend of remarkable prettiness always 
 at her side, whose society he would also have 
 enjoyed. Her sallies, and her brightness of 
 fancy and wealth of imagination, which never 
 flagged till midnight, — when the card parties 
 of the Duchess broke up, — would have kept 
 the most tired man from feeling sleepy.^ The 
 ambassador hoped to be allowed to enjoy this 
 pleasant society, without being set down as a 
 lover of the Duchess. He had sometimes to 
 leave it to go and sup with Mrs. Middleton, 
 who often came to dine with the Duchess of 
 ^ Courtin does not name this a}?iie.
 
 COURT IN. 16 1 
 
 Portsmouth at his house, or to spend the 
 evening with Lady Sussex, at whose rooms, as 
 the secret reports to Louvois, Pomponne, and 
 Louis XIV. so often mentioned, kept assigna- 
 tions with the Duchess Mazarin. 
 
 In a letter dated November 2, 1676, there is 
 an account of Mrs. Middleton's supper. Courtin 
 began by giving a detailed description, from 
 which he effaced the words ; " They wanted to 
 represent after midnight the Newmarket races 
 with the two ladies." He then enters into a 
 curious disquisition on ladies' feet, ankles, shoes, 
 and stockings, which shows that he was not of 
 the priggish school of diplomacy, and thought 
 trifling things worth noting : " I can't endure 
 Paris stockings, or the shoes furnished to our 
 ladies by Madame Desbordes. There is 
 nothino- neater than the feet and ankles of the 
 English ladies, in their well- fitting shoes and 
 silk stockings. They wear their skirts short ; 
 and I often see lees so well turned that a 
 sculptor would like to mould them. Green silk 
 stockings are modish. The garter, of which 
 glimpses are often afforded, is below the knee, 
 and in black velvet, with diamond buckles. 
 Those who have no silk stockings to wear, 
 
 M
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 show a white skin, smooth as satin. Engh'sh 
 women prefer being stockingless to wearing 
 clumsy and disfiguring hosiery." Lou vois pro- 
 tested that he never thouoht of lauehine at the 
 expense of the Duchess Mazarin/ as the am- 
 bassador had suspected. On the contrary, he 
 had the greatest regard for her, and always 
 counted her a woman of absolutely peerless 
 beauty. 
 
 " The Duchess of Portsmouth," ^ continued 
 Courtin, "has the king often at her rooms, 
 which are the place where he's seen most 
 publicly. But I have ascertained beyond doubt 
 that he passes nights much less often with her 
 than with Nell Gwynn ; and, if I can believe 
 those who are most about with him, his relations 
 with the Duchess of Portsmouth have subsided 
 into a virtuous friendship. As to the Duchess 
 Mazarin, I know he thinks her the finest woman 
 that he ever saw in his life. Although I go 
 every day to her chambers at St. James's 
 palace, I can see that she hides all that she 
 can from me. I am greatly deceived, if she 
 is not intricruinor for some of our enemies 
 against us here. 
 
 ' Nov. 2, 1676. 2 Nov. 12, 1676.
 
 COURTIN. 163 
 
 "In general terms I have advised her, that 
 if she wanted to let out, she should do it with- 
 out causing a scandal, and in a way not to be 
 remarked much, even in London. She finds 
 amusement, she says, in the most innocent 
 diversions. Every evening I witness scenes 
 at her rooms, so astounding that a description 
 of them could not fail to set even a ereat 
 minister like you laughing. As to Mrs. Middle- 
 ton, I still hold to the opinion that she's the 
 sweetest woman I ever came across, in any 
 foreign country. She's beautiful, has the air 
 of high breeding, is full of talent, and yet 
 modest and unassuming. Were I no older 
 than you, I should be madly in love with her. 
 But I am forty-nine, and the thick air of 
 London depresses me.^ Madame Mazarin, 
 after piously attending mass on Sunday, dined 
 \\4th me, and played the rest of the afternoon 
 in my withdrawing-room, at battledore and 
 shuttlecock, with Lady Sussex, She charged 
 me with her compliments for you. I men- 
 tioned to Mrs. Middleton your wish to have 
 her portrait, and she answered that she was 
 infinitely obliged to you." 
 
 1 Nov. 2T,, 1676.
 
 1 64 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 Far from thinking this Court gossip beneath 
 his attention, the great minister Louvois testi- 
 fied to the great pleasure which it afforded 
 him, and hoped that he should be kept in- 
 formed of what the London ladies were 
 doinof. 
 
 He was soon informed of the hubbub caused 
 at Whitehall, by the Earl of Sussex trying to 
 force his wife to go and live in the country. 
 She was the inseparable companion of the 
 Duchess Mazarin ; and the Duchess of Cleve- 
 land had taken it into her head to break up 
 the intimacy. The husband's aunt and mother 
 formed the same design. Though young, the 
 husband was of a morose humour. The 
 Duchess of Portsmouth mortally hated the 
 Countess of Sussex, because she thought she 
 directed the intriofue between the king- and 
 the Duchess Mazarin. But Charles was re- 
 solved that his new lady-love should not be 
 deprived of the companionship of his romping 
 daughter. The Countess of Sussex was hardly 
 more than a child, and only thought of skip- 
 ping and dancing, and indulging in games of 
 romps from morning till night ; and she was 
 passionately attached to the Duchess Mazarin,
 
 COURTIN 165 
 
 who appeared in her young eyes a heroine 
 of romance, 
 
 Louvois was enchanted to read about these 
 quarrels and intrigues, and encouraged Cour- 
 tin not to neglect them in writing to him and 
 the King of France/ The statesmen in the 
 employment of Louis the Fourteenth were 
 remarkable for their application and thorough- 
 ness. But they were, with the exception of 
 Colbert, free from pomposity, and were above 
 trying to gain prestige by solemn pedantry. 
 However, while they so closely observed the 
 Court, they remained in ignorance of the vital 
 forces and the resources of England. It may 
 be said for them, that a study of the national 
 spirit and energies was not what most con- 
 cerned them. They had to busy themselves 
 chiefly with the present. To hold England 
 back, through the Court, while the French 
 were Conquering on the mouths of the Scheldt 
 and Rhine, in Flanders and the Netherlands, 
 was all they wanted. However, it would have 
 been wise to have tried to understand, if only 
 with the design of preventing their hostility, 
 the men and the forces that were coming up. 
 ^ Dec. 17, 1676.
 
 i66 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 In Churchill, the future Duke of Marlborough, 
 Courtin and Louvois did not discern more 
 than a selfish, cool-headed libertine. Churchill 
 asked a regiment of Louis XIV. If he had 
 been accepted, perhaps he would have de- 
 veloped, like his nephew Berwick, into an 
 illustrious French general, and that the reign 
 of the great king would. not have had a sombre 
 ending. 
 
 When Churchill asked for the French 
 regiment, a correspondence was opened about 
 him.^ Louvois already knew him, and also 
 much about him that was not to his credit. 
 He had a reputation in London which was 
 not to his advantage, and had traded, in the 
 debauched Court circles in which he mixed, on 
 his fine figure and handsome face. That sort 
 of vice was frequent at the Courts of the Valois 
 kings, where pretty fellows of high birth and 
 light purses received money and jewels, and 
 sometimes estates, from women of wealth and 
 quality. Queen Elizabeth was also generous 
 to the beaux with whom she diverted herself 
 But the male professional beauty was not a 
 plant of English growth, and was never well 
 ' Courtin to Louvois. Nov. i6, 1676.
 
 COURTIN. 167 
 
 naturalized in England. It is possible that 
 John Churchill, in seeking a regiment in 
 France, wanted to break with the titled demi- 
 reps to whom he owed what money he pos- 
 sessed and what advancement he had obtained, 
 and desired to lead a virtuous life abroad. He 
 had then formed a pure attachment for Sarah 
 Jennings, the leading belle of the Duchess of 
 York's household. At a ball given by that 
 princess, the lovely Jennings left a dance in 
 which she was engaged, to sit down to 
 weep.^ Churchill had told her he was me- 
 naced with consumption, and ordered by his 
 doctor to go to live in France. She believed 
 him, although he was in perfect health. His 
 father and mother were tormenting him to 
 marry an heiress, ugly to deformity ; and he 
 and Sarah Jennings loved each other. Cour- 
 tin informed Louvois that the beau Churchill 
 had pillaged the Duchess of Cleveland ; and 
 that, in one way or another, he had got out 
 of her so much money, that she was obliged 
 to go to France to economize and gain time 
 from her creditors. When the handsome 
 gallant had robbed her, he deserted her. 
 
 ' Courtin, Dec. 7, 1676.
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 Possibly, if he and she had met in France, 
 they might have been reconciled, and, as he 
 was cool-headed, insinuatino- and intrio-uincr, 
 he might have become a valuable instrument 
 of France. Louvois drily objected, that Mr. 
 Churchill was " too fond of pleasure, to dis- 
 charge well the duties of colonel in the army 
 of the King of France." He had been pro- 
 posed for the command of the Royal-English 
 regiment, which was in the pay of Louis. But 
 Louvois said he would give " more satisfaction 
 to a rich and faded mistress, than to a monarch 
 who did not want to have dishonourable, and 
 dishonoured, carpet knights in his armies." 
 
 Towards the end of 1076, the influence of 
 Louise de Keroualle fell to a low point. 
 Courtin pitied Charles, who wanted to be well 
 with every one^ — a hard problem to solve, 
 surrounded, as he was, by jealous women. He 
 had to face the anger of the Duchess of 
 Portsmouth for drinking twice in twenty-four 
 hours, to the health of Nell Gwynn, with 
 whom he still often supped, and who still made 
 the Duchess of Portsmouth the butt for her 
 tickling sarcasms. The rakes of the town met 
 
 ^ Courtin to Louvois, Dec. 17, 1676.
 
 COURT IN. 169 
 
 the king at her supper- table, and said freely 
 before him whatever came uppermost in their 
 heads. As for the Duchess Mazarin, the 
 Court of Versailles was informed by the watch- 
 ful ambassador that Charles went regularly 
 through the going-to-bed ceremony at White- 
 hall ; and when his gentlemen and servants had 
 left his chamber, he got up, dressed, stole off 
 to St. James's Palace, where he arrived after 
 the Duchess's card-parties were over, and did 
 not return to his palace until after five in the 
 morning. It was evident, then, that he did not 
 spend his nights in the lodging of the Duchess 
 of Portsmouth. He went to see her often in 
 the daytime, when he knew she had company 
 with her ; but that was all. 
 
 Louis had made haste to profit by what 
 influence remained to the Duchess of Ports- 
 mouth, and took Condé, Bouchain, Aire, and 
 Philipsburg. He forced the Prince of Orange 
 to raise the siege of Maestricht, to the great 
 apparent joy of Charles, who cried that that 
 little upsetting gentleman, wanted a whipping 
 to tame his ambition.^ The irresistible cam- 
 paign of 1677 was prepared. France, bounded 
 I Coiirtin to King Louis, Sept. 3, 1676.
 
 I70 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 by the sea to the west and north-west, by high 
 mountains to the south-west and south-east, and 
 by the Mediterranean to the south, could only 
 extend her frontiers to the north and north- 
 east.^ The Italian wars were mere showy ones, 
 as the French statesmen began to see in the 
 sixteenth century. Coligny affirmed, with a 
 menace in his eye, that "any one who tried 
 to prevent a war in Flanders was not a good 
 Frenchman, and had a Spanish cross stamped 
 on his heart." The English statesmen, from 
 the time of Queen Elizabeth, understood 
 that France was bound by the fatalities of 
 her geographical position to bear down on 
 Flanders ; and as they feared to have a long 
 coast-line to guard, not only in the Channel, 
 but on the German Ocean, into which the 
 Thames flowed, they came to look upon the 
 French as their born enemies. The soldier, 
 the sailor, and the civilian, but particularly in 
 the middle and lower classes, were imbued 
 with hatred for France." Courtin often warned 
 his Government of this deep-rooted animosity, 
 
 1 Due d'AuDiFFRET Pasquier: Elo;;e du Maicchal de 
 Benvick. 
 
 ~ Feb. 15, 1677.
 
 COURT IN. 171 
 
 which, he said, could not be explained by any 
 freak of fashion, because the Court and courtiers 
 followed the modes of Paris, and the wits of 
 Whitehall took for models the wits of Ver- 
 sailles. Yet they sought pretences for de- 
 claring openly their aversion for the French. 
 The king was not only held in French bond- 
 age by the Duchess of Portsmouth, but by his 
 personal obligations of an unavowable kind to 
 the King of France, and by his hopes of future 
 pecuniary aids. 
 
 In the records of the French Foreign Office 
 there is a paper written by him, in a firm and 
 flowing hand, in which there is no trace of 
 the nervous agitation which shame might 
 cause. It runs thus : — 
 
 " I have received from his most Christian Majesty, by the 
 hands of M. Courtin, the sum of a hundred thousand 
 crowns, French money, for the second quarter, ending on 
 the last day of June, and to be deducted from the four 
 hundred thousand crowns payable at the end of this year. 
 
 "Given at Whitehall, September 25, 1676. 
 
 "Charles R." 
 
 This paper bears the royal seal. There are 
 two other signed and sealed receipts of the 
 same year, dated October ist and Dec. 31st.
 
 172 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 No formality was left out in delivering them/ 
 Charles was not conscious of his ignominy. 
 The four hundred thousand crowns were the 
 price of a prorogation of Parliament, which 
 did not meet in 1676. As he was paid, so 
 he served the King of France. But the day 
 of reckoning was coming round. Parliament 
 was to meet on February 25, 1677, and this 
 caused uneasiness at Versailles, many weeks 
 before the event took place. Courtin was 
 told to neglect no symptom, and to try and 
 see what members of the Opposition were 
 purchasable. He had a very hard card to 
 play, and hid his serious designs under gay 
 attentions to the mistresses and the other 
 ladies about them. He was importuned by 
 the Earl of Berkshire,^ who had two years 
 previously come begging to De Ruvigny, and 
 complaining that he had lost by his zeal for 
 France a pension he received from Spain.' 
 
 1 Aff. Etr. Angleterre, tome cxxi., fol. 213, 216, 307. 
 
 " His name in the foreign archives is spelt Barchis, 
 Bacsha, Barkshe, and Barker. But, as Courtin says this 
 Earl is of the noble house of Howard, he must be the eldest 
 son of Thomas Howard, who in 1625 was created Earl of 
 Berkshire. 
 
 ■^ Ruvigny to Kin:; Louis. March 25, 1674.
 
 COURTJN. 173 
 
 Ruvigny, thinking he might be useful, lent 
 him out of his own pocket five hundred 
 Jacobus, which he did not expect to receive 
 again. But he assured Louis that a thousand 
 gold pieces would not have been too much, 
 because at the Court of England, those who 
 did not give high pay were badly served. 
 The Kina of France ordered the thousand 
 pieces to be given, ^ But they less stimulated 
 the zeal than the cupidity of Lord Berkshire, 
 who wrote to Courtin ' to know whether he 
 wished to use him as a secret service aeent. 
 Courtin, being the soul of probity, recoiled 
 from dealings with Berkshire, who, albeit a 
 scion of the noble house of Howard, was a 
 low knave. He at first merely thanked him; 
 but, as the meeting of Parliament was drawing- 
 near, resigned himself to ask if the king would 
 authorize him to let the earl have another 
 thousand Jacobus. '^ Then he promised, then 
 he temporized, and at last gave a quarter in 
 advance, to make sure of a speech against any 
 
 1 These five hundred gold pieces are mentioned in Aff. 
 Etr., tome cxii., fol. 199. 
 
 2 Courtin to Pomponne, August, 1676. 
 
 ^ Courtin to King Louis, Dec. 21, 1676.
 
 174 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 anti- French resolution that mi^ht be moved in 
 the House of Lords. There was no lack of 
 men in the House of Commons who would 
 have received money without any sort of scruple 
 from the French Embassy. But it would have 
 been a vain expense to bribe them, because 
 they would not keep any bargain made for the 
 advantage of Louis. The wîîble House of 
 Commons hated France, and was determined 
 that she should not seize on the Netherlands.^ 
 
 Courtin's repugnance to dirty-handed English 
 noblemen was not taken in good part at 
 Versailles. He was drily reminded that 
 nothing would be thought dirty there, which 
 enabled the king to possess the Rhine and 
 Flanders ; and he was commanded to enter into 
 relations with Coleman, a Secretary of State, 
 and favourite of the Duke of York, who was 
 to be bought for three hundred Jacobus." But 
 he found it hard to gain the Duke of Lauder- 
 dale, and was instructed to see what he could 
 do through the Duchess. The king of France 
 thought it worth his while to write with his 
 own hand on this subject. 
 
 1 Courtin to Pomponne, March 8, 1677. 
 2/^/V., Dec. 28, 1676.
 
 COURT IN. 175 
 
 Coiirtin replied to Louvois that he owned 
 that the Duchess of Lauderdale ruled her lord. 
 But the Duke having always spoken against 
 men high in the service of the State accepting 
 presents, and his worst enemies admitting that 
 his hands were clean, it was hard to find a 
 way to bribe him. His wife, a cautious woman 
 evidently, was very anxious that he should stand 
 well in the eyes of Parliament, and timorously 
 afraid that he might lose its good opinion. It 
 was not therefore certain that she would listen 
 to proposals from the French embassy ; and 
 if overtures were made and rejected, th2 matter 
 would oret noised, and the Parliament would 
 be more dogged than ever in a policy of re- 
 sistance to France. Nevertheless, as she was 
 extravagant in spending money, and liked to 
 have every nice thing she saw, Courtin thought 
 that Louis might send her a gift of elegant 
 jewellery, to accept which, the ambassador 
 would try to lead her without saying anything 
 that, if repeated, might do mischief.^ 
 
 With Charles there was no need for beating 
 about the bush. It was best to go straight 
 to business with him, and tell him that it 
 ^ Courtin to Pomponne, Jan. 14, 1677,
 
 176 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 depended on himself whether his secret pen- 
 sion was, or was not to be continued. But 
 the statesmen and politicians around him had 
 not got to his degree of easy cynicism. The 
 opposition of those who were above taking 
 money, or ashamed to take it, might be soft- 
 ened by presents of champagne and French 
 liqueurs. It was astonishing, Pomponne was 
 informed, how five or six dozen bottles of that 
 wine, sent at the right moment, softened stiff 
 members of Parliament, because they were in 
 the habit of dining with each other on quitting 
 the House of Commons. All the cabals were 
 formed at these dinners. 
 
 Courtin was incurably averse to dishonour- 
 able men. He liked better to gossip about 
 the immoral ladies, and related how, at a 
 dinner at the Duchess of Portsmouth's, in 
 company with the beauteous Lady Beauclerc, 
 the king entered as the entremets was being 
 served. He coughed a good deal, and, to 
 cure him, the ambassador sent for a bottle 
 of new Canary, which the four emptied, the 
 ladies takinor their full share. Courtin made 
 himself useful to Charles in getting, not only 
 the two French Duchesses to live in eood in-
 
 COUR TIN. lyy 
 
 telligence, but the ladies who espoused their 
 quarrels and detested each other. His letters 
 about them are still entertaining, and throw a 
 curious light on the manners and the morals 
 of the English Court, which must have caused 
 them to be read with a deep and amusing 
 interest by the king and ministers for whose 
 eyes they were meant. In one of them the 
 writer relates a diverting scene at which he 
 was present, in the rooms of the Duchess 
 Mazarin. Who should enter but Louise de 
 Keroualle, to pay a visit of ceremony ; and, 
 almost at the same moment. Lady Harvey, 
 who hated her worse than any other woman 
 in England. Her ladyship had with her a 
 certain " Miss Nelly," an actress. The come- 
 dian had come with Lady Harvey to thank 
 the Duchess Mazarin for the compliments she 
 sent her on the occasion of her son being 
 recognised by King Charles, and given the 
 title of Earl of Brentford. All the thanks 
 and little return speeches passed with gay 
 animation and the utmost civility and good 
 taste ; and not a word was dropped to betray 
 the low origin of the actress. But when the 
 Duchess of Portsmouth left, Lady Harvey's
 
 178 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 fair friend, who was of the bold, laughing 
 sort, turned round to De Courtin and asked 
 why it was that the King of France did not 
 send presents to her, instead of to the weeping 
 willow who had just gone out ? She vowed 
 that he would have more profit in doing so, 
 because the King of England was her constant 
 nocturnal companion, and liked her far the 
 best The other ladies had heard of the lux- 
 urious fineness of Miss Nelly's under-clothing, 
 and asked if they could judge of it for them- 
 selves. Without more ado she let them raise 
 each petticoat, one by one, and before all in 
 the room examine them on her. " I never in 
 my life,' said Courtin, " saw such thorough 
 cleanliness, neatness, and sumptuosity. I should 
 speak of other things that we all were shown 
 if M. de Lionne were still Foreign Secretary. 
 But with you I must be grave and proper; 
 and so. Monsieur, I end my letter." 
 
 " Miss Nelly," mother of the Earl of Brent- 
 ford, was Nell Gwynn ; and Lady Harvey, with 
 whom she paid the visit, had just formed a 
 tender friendship for the Duchess Mazarin. 
 She hated the Duchess of Portsmouth, and her 
 hatred was more dangerous than Nell's jests.
 
 COURTIN. 179 
 
 Lady Harvey was that sister of Montagu, 
 ambassador of Charles II. to Louis XIV., and 
 was celebrated as a wit^ among the witty cour- 
 tiers of the great king. It was of her La 
 Fontaine said, in the fable of Le Renard 
 Anglais : — 
 
 " Le bon cœur chez vous, compagnon du bon sens, 
 Avec cent qualités trop long à déduire. 
 Une noblesse d'âme, un talent pour conduire 
 
 Et les affaires et les gens, 
 Une humeur franche et libre et le don d'etre amie 
 Malgré Jupiter même et les temps orageux. 
 
 Her animosity towards the Duchess of 
 Cleveland had probably the same cause as 
 her hatred for the Duchess of Portsmouth 
 and her sudden intimacy with the Duchess 
 Mazarin. 
 
 Her contemporaries spoke undisguisedly of 
 her vices ; and she was brought, by a satirical 
 dramatic author, upon the stage under the 
 name of Sempronia? The actress who per- 
 
 ^ Courtin to Pomponne, July 20, 1676. He often 
 speaks of the brilliant play of her wit in his despatches, 
 and of the bold, gay character of her mind. 
 
 ^ Colbert thus gives this threatrical event. " The ways 
 and doings of Lady Harvey have been given undisguisedly 
 {au naturel) under the name of Scupronia, and with great
 
 i8o LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 formed the part before an applauding house 
 was imprisoned ; but when, owing to the 
 Duchess of Castlemaine's intervention, she 
 was released, the king went to see her in 
 the libellous character, which the Duchess of 
 Portsmouth said was only so, because the 
 greater the truth the greater the libel. Colbert 
 de Croissy's letters on this subject have points 
 of resemblance with the Satires of Juvenal 
 on the vices of the patrician ladies of Rome. 
 St. Evremond interpreted, in a letter to Lady 
 Harvey herself, his enthusiasm for Madame 
 Mazarin, according to the light thrown on her 
 manners and her morals in Sempronia} 
 
 These scandals continued, in 1677, to be 
 treated as State affairs by the Court of Ver- 
 sailles, which was not insensible to their 
 hilarious side. The Foreign Affairs records 
 of that year are full of diverting scenes, in 
 which the British Sultan, his concubines, cour- 
 
 applause. Hence the imprisonment of the actress, and her 
 release by Lady Castlemaine's favour." Louis XIV. an- 
 swered, " I read with much amusement the curious circum- 
 stances which you wrote to the Sieur de Lionne, and 
 which he communicated to me yesterday." — Aff. Etr., tome 
 xciii., fol. 234, Feb. 9, 1669. 
 1 Œuvres, t. iii. p. 10.
 
 COUR TIN. i8i 
 
 tiers, and the ambassadors accredited to him, 
 are the actors. They are described so vividly, 
 that, although more than two centuries have 
 elapsed since they were described, they seem 
 no mere dry bones, when the dusty records in 
 question are made to give up their secrets. 
 The kinof's mistresses at Versailles were ladies 
 of high social tone and intellectual acquire- 
 ments. One of them was renowned for the 
 attic salt of her mots. Another could suit her 
 conversation to the pure and elevated tastes 
 of Fénelon and Racine, and eventually became 
 the mother-abbess of the Court. They all had 
 intellect enough, when tired of pleasure, to 
 devote their minds to serious things ; and they 
 listened with genuine pleasure to the Advent 
 and Lenten services of Massillon and Bour- 
 daloue. Ninon de Lenclos, who spirited away 
 from Madame de Sévigné her husband, and, 
 later in life, seduced her son, formed a library 
 which, — she having in the eighteenth century 
 bequeathed it to Voltaire, — served as a revolu- 
 tionary explosive to the world. But, with the 
 exception of Mrs. Middleton, the good and 
 charming Countess of Sunderland, and the 
 shrewish Sarah Jennings, whose virtue turned
 
 1 82 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 to vinegar, the ladies of quality at the Court 
 of Charles II. were frivolous and vul^rar demi- 
 reps. They had, however, the quality of per- 
 fect frankness. One always knew where to 
 have them, and they were as transparent as 
 water. It was therefore impossible to carry on 
 with any of them a long-sustained diplomatic 
 intrigue. Whatever was in their minds they 
 blurted out, often to the confusion of those 
 French diplomatists, who, when new to them, 
 began by trusting them somewhat. In this 
 respect they were at a disadvantage with 
 Louise de Keroualle, who never said anything 
 she did not want to say, and whose reticence, 
 discretion, and secrecy gave her, — until the 
 advent of Madame Mazarin, — the upper hand. 
 This lady, if her life was openly scandalous, 
 had the subtle penetration and diplomatic 
 genius of the Italian ; and her English rivals, 
 feeling this, forgot their rivalry while they were 
 trying to detach the king from his French 
 favourite, and destroy her influence. Courtin 
 mana^red to remain on orood terms with the 
 two Duchesses and the English petticoat-party 
 that was behind one of them. His despatches 
 teem with anecdotes illustrative of the difficulty
 
 COURTIN. 183 
 
 he had in not offending any one. The am- 
 bassador had to enter into their amusements 
 without once forgetting that he represented the 
 greatest king in Europe. His gallant and 
 gracious manners, his wit, and probably his 
 broken English, whenever he ventured to talk 
 in that language, greatly helped his address. 
 Even his small stature was an advantage to 
 him at Whitehall and St. James's. The nobly 
 born and ennobled jades there treated him as 
 a charming toy. Meeting him at the theatre, 
 he wrote to Louvois, Lady Harvey and Mrs. 
 Middleton proposed to go and sup three days 
 later at his house, each accompanied by zme 
 de ses amies. Mrs. Middleton talked of this 
 intended invasion on the French embassy at 
 the Duchess of Portsmouth's, and Lady Harvey 
 at the Duchess Mazarin's. The two duchesses 
 vowed they should join the invaders. Lady 
 Beauclerc was of the party, although she and 
 Lady Harvey were at daggers drawn and 
 could not endure each other. The Duchess 
 Mazarin had always refused to break bread 
 with Louise de Keroualle, or to eat at the 
 same table with her. But Courtin managed 
 to keep all the rivals who were under his roof
 
 i84 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 from breaking the peace, and they enjoyed 
 themselves immensely together. He playfully 
 locked up together in couples in the same 
 rooms the ladies whom he thought the most 
 violently antagonistic ; and when he delivered 
 the Duchesses of Portsmouth and Mazarin 
 from this species of imprisonment, they came 
 out hand-in-hand, laughing heartily, and went 
 dancing and jumping down stairs. 
 
 This attempt to bring about a reconciliation 
 showed the power of the Duchess Mazarin. 
 As formerly Queen Catherine resigned herself 
 to put up with the power of the Duchess of 
 Cleveland, so the Duchess of Portsmouth 
 learned to stand Nell Gwynn and the other 
 street and stage harlots. She also had to bear 
 the reiofn of Hortense Mazarin. This rei^n 
 was no longer a matter of doubt. Hortense's 
 spouse announced her accession to the French, 
 who thought the news of such a rapid victory 
 too marvellous to be true.^ The discarded 
 lover, St. Real, talked of Charles like an ag- 
 grieved husband to his friends. Courtin was 
 instructed to find out to what extent the reports 
 on the subject were true, and brought his legal 
 
 ^ Mdlle. Scudéry's letter to Bussy, July T4th, 167S
 
 COURTIN. 185 
 
 acumen to bear in analysing the presumptions 
 which supported the town talk. 
 
 He began by summarizing conversations 
 with Louise de Keroualle, who had felt, sus- 
 pected, and thea acquired the certainty, that 
 Madame Mazarin secretly abandoned herself to 
 Charles — not for either love or ambition, but 
 simply because she did not know what in the 
 world else to do for money. If she were sure 
 of not being thrust into a convent, or forced 
 to live with her Tartuffe-ridden husband, she 
 might be easily induced to go back to Paris. 
 She was extravagant in her expenditure, and 
 had the liveries of her men-servants covered 
 with gold lace. The nine different suits for 
 her two porters, six valets, and a page, cost, 
 with the cravats, two thousand six hundred 
 livres. Her table was excellent ; and the two 
 thousand crowns which she had from her hus- 
 band went but a short way to cover her ordi- 
 nary expenses. She had gained in beauty^ 
 since she came to Ensfland. Her success there 
 had lighted up her visage with the most charm- 
 ing expression, and she had picked up flesh just 
 
 ^ Courtin to Louvois. See coi)ies of Louvi^is' corres- 
 pondence at the Depot de la Guerre, tome dxxxv. fol. 183.
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 to the rîght extent. The table that she kept 
 was excellent, and in short her housekeeping 
 expenses alone far exceeded the two thousand 
 crowns that her husband allowed her. If she 
 fed according- to the appetite^ which God had 
 given her, said Courtin, she would eat twice 
 as much as her annuity could buy for her. If 
 her husband knew how good her health and 
 appetite were, he would surely feel the cruelty of 
 not augmenting her pension. It was a puzzle 
 to Courtin to think how she could pay her way 
 if Charles did not serve as her banker. She 
 was as intimate with him as he could wish a 
 woman of her beauty to be. The friendly 
 neutrality of Charles being of the utmost con- 
 sequence to France, Courtin was unable to 
 think why it was that this mistress was neglec- 
 ted by his Court ^ She had been with the King 
 of England on the fourth of March from three 
 to seven in the evening, in one of the reserved 
 rooms next to his suite, into which Charles and 
 Chiffinch were the only men who entered. 
 They each had a master key which fitted all 
 the locks to this Cytherean temple. 
 
 1 Courtin to Louvois, iol. 256, Jan. 21, 1677. 
 
 2 Courtin to Pomponne, March 25, [677.
 
 COUKTIN. 187 
 
 As Charles liked a gay quiet life, and showed 
 that domestic storms did not suit his epicurean 
 temper, the rivals ended by forming an har- 
 monious group around him. Louise pushed 
 the spirit of conciliation so far as to ask the 
 Duchess Mazarin to dinner^ and then took her 
 to the Mall in her coach, to the astonishment of 
 all the fine folks of London, who were not less 
 wonderstruck when Lady Harvey appeared in 
 the same company. 
 
 In a degree, this general peace in the sera- 
 glio was due to Courtin. War between the 
 Palace and the Parliament had waxed so hot, 
 that the union of all the ladies was deemed 
 necessary to keep the indolent monarch in a 
 combative mood. When the Commons assem- 
 bled,^ on February 25th, it began by informing 
 the King that it would vote all the funds he 
 wanted, if he lost no time in declaring war on 
 France. 
 
 " They will vote anything against us in the 
 House of Commons," wrote Courtin ; " and they 
 say, that they are ready to sell their shirts off 
 
 ' Courtin to Lou vols, March 25, 1677. Dossiers de la 
 Guerre, tome dxxxvi., fol. 617. 
 
 ^ See Mignet's Négociations, t. iv., p. 431.
 
 1 88 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 their backs, to keep the Netherlands from 
 being seized upon by us. These are the very 
 words they make use of : ^ The hubbub in 
 ParHament against us is loud and wild, and 
 will not soon be abated. We fatten, it seems 
 to me, on English curses." 
 
 Charles and Louis replied to the Commons 
 each in his own manner — Charles, by pro- 
 roguing whenever the Lower House menaced ; 
 and Louis, by conquering. The first proroga- 
 tion was from April 24 to May 31, and then 
 from June 7 to July 26. But intermittent 
 sessions growing dangerous, there was a further 
 prorogation to the 13th of December, 1677. 
 
 Louis's answer was a sudden attack on 
 Valenciennes; and M. Louvois wrote a boast- 
 ful letter to London, for the benefit of the 
 English, describing the campaign of 1677 ; 
 the victory of Mont Cassel; and the sieges 
 of St. Omer and Cambray. " Make haste to 
 conquer what you can," said Courtin in answer, 
 "for it will be impossible for the King of 
 England, unless he chooses to face utter ruin, 
 not to enter into the leaorue arainst us." 
 
 Louis did make haste, and neglected no 
 1 Rousett, t. ii., p. 309.
 
 COUR TIN. 189 
 
 means for securing the silence of the leading 
 members of the House of Commons in debates 
 on foreign affairs. Bribes were as^ain resorted 
 to. The short session of February cost him 
 ^2,950, and that of June ^550 only. Charles 
 drew at the French Embassy ^40,526 between 
 March ist and September 6th, 1677; and then 
 signed a treaty in which he engaged to remain 
 neutral in return for an annual subvention of 
 ;^8o,ooo. He congratulated Louis on the 
 severe chastisement he had inflicted on Charles's 
 own nephew, whose father and mother had 
 sheltered him in exile, the Prince of Orange, 
 before Charleroy.^ 
 
 It was not Courtin who transacted these 
 money affairs, but Barrillon, who came to Lon- 
 don at the beginning of May, 1677. Louis 
 saw the necessity of having an unscrupulous 
 ambassador in England, and took Courtin at 
 his word, when he complained of suffering from 
 the heavy air of London, and of the injury to 
 his affairs which a prolonged sojourn at such 
 an expensive Court as that of Whitehall oc- 
 casioned. He owed, he believed, his life to 
 advice given him by Charles, to wear under- 
 
 1 Dossiers de la Guerre, tome dxxxvii.
 
 igo LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 shirts of flannel, "a plain sort of woollen stuff 
 woven in the cottages of Wales. They could," 
 the king told me, " be washed just as linen 
 shirts, and nothing could be more warm, com- 
 fortable, or hygienic." But when Courtin found 
 that Barrillon was coming to supersede him. he 
 repented of his complaints, and tried to show 
 that he preferred the agreeable society of the 
 Court ladies in London, to the profession of law 
 in France. In a post scriptum to a despatch 
 to Pomponne,^ he said : " Since I had the 
 honour to address to you the above, the Duchess 
 Mazarin has been here to call on me, with the 
 Duchess of Cleveland's eldest daughter, her 
 most intimate friend, who is as fond as she is 
 of amusing herself with dogs and white spar- 
 rows. The former lady begged me to offer 
 you a thousand compliments in her name. 
 The Duchess of Portsmouth has returned from 
 takinsf the waters in sounder health. She is 
 now in good case. Her skin has grown again 
 so fair and fresh that I cannot imagine how 
 King Charles, palled as he is with beauty, will 
 be long in her company without becoming once 
 
 ^ Courtin to Pomponne, tome cxx., fol. 271, autograph 
 post scriptum.
 
 COURT/N. 191 
 
 more her slave. She has often with her 
 Catherine Stuart, sister of the Duchess of 
 Richmond, who married Lord Ibrickan, and is 
 one of the most pleasant women here/ Her 
 husband sticks to her like her shadow, and is 
 ready to shoot or stab any one who looks at 
 her. He once tried to kill her in a fit of 
 jealousy. I have never been in a country in 
 which women are so prone to backbite each 
 other as in England." 
 
 At each prorogation Courtin vainly tried to 
 show what an advantage he had obtained.^ 
 He at length came to understand that, although 
 he had not displeased Louis, he must retire 
 before Barrillon. Ere he quitted London he 
 presented his successor to the Duchess of 
 Portsmouth,^ and reminded the King of France 
 of her oft-expressed wish that he should grant 
 an abbey to her aunt, Madame de Tymeur.^ 
 If Louis granted this favour, he might greatly 
 
 ' Lord Ibrickan's family name was O'Brien. Catherine 
 Stuart after his death married Joseph Williamson, his Secre- 
 tary. 
 
 2 Dossiers de la Guerre, tome dxxxviii. 
 
 3 Courtin to Pomponne, Sept. 9, 1677. 
 * Ibid., tome cxxiii., fol. 164.
 
 192 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE, 
 
 facilitate Barrillon's mission. There was no- 
 thing- so essential to the success of French 
 diplomacy in London, as to be able to see the 
 Duchess of Portsmouth every day, and at no 
 matter what hour. Courtin had really spent 
 all his fortune in the service of his kin»-, in 
 London. The following year his daughter, 
 Charlotte Courtin, a tall, handsome woman, of 
 distinguished air and brilliant intellect, married 
 without any dowry a Norman of low birth, 
 named Rocques. But he was very rich, meri- 
 torious, and clever ; and was authorized to call 
 himself De Varangeville, and named ambas- 
 sador to Venice. This lady had two daughters 
 who became the wives of Maisons, the Prési- 
 dent de Mortier, of the Royal Court of Paris, 
 and of Marshal de Villars. Courtin enjoyed 
 the esteem of Louis to the end of his life. He 
 attended twice a week the king's supper ; and 
 from the moment he entered, all the king's 
 conversation was addressed to him until his 
 majesty rose from table. Nevertheless he 
 always remained a simple Councillor of State.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 BARRILLON. 
 
 Paul Barrillon d'Amoncourt/ Marquis de 
 Branges, had as much cleverness as Courtin, 
 as delicate taste and tact, and as much address 
 in making his way with ladies. He under- 
 stood, besides, how to employ money ; and he 
 was master in the art of corrupting men, and 
 of hiding his contempt for those whom he cor- 
 rupted. He kept up towards them a fair and 
 smiling face, and brought about their ruin with- 
 out any compunction. He resembled those 
 ambassadors of Philip II. who showered dou- 
 bloons on the Catholic conspirators, affected 
 interest in the democracy of the League, saw 
 their heads fall without a shudder; and when 
 
 1 Barrillon was of a legal family. His father was the 
 famous President Barrillon who died a prisoner at Pignerol 
 in 1645. One of his brothers was Bishop of Luçon ; the 
 other, Barrillon de Morangis, was a Councillor of State. 
 The private papers of Barrillon are still in the hands of his 
 direct descendants. 
 
 193 Q
 
 194 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 the game was lost, prepared coolly for a new 
 one. Cynical, when he was recruiting traitors, 
 Barrillon spoke of their scoundrelism with 
 politeness, and was dry and indifferent when 
 he announced their disgraces or their deaths. 
 He remained haughty and unmoved, in the foul 
 sink of iniquity in which his lot was cast in 
 London. His judgments of his English con- 
 temporaries are cold, and his opinions of them 
 rather charitable than otherwise. He only 
 betrays his true feelings, in his indifference to 
 their misfortunes. Nevertheless, he was a 
 pleasant companion and a steady friend. He 
 never stirred, when he was in Paris, from the 
 chimney corner of Madame de Sévigné, to 
 whom he was so attached that he said to her, 
 " Those who like you better than I do, love you 
 far too well." He had also a strong affection 
 for La Fontaine, and had an exquisite feeling 
 for the beauties of his Fables. That poet 
 addressed to him some charmingf verses, the 
 occasion, of which was Barrillon's mission to 
 Engfland. 
 
 There never was such a great diplomatic 
 school as the one formed by Mazarin and 
 Lionne. Their pupils were sufficiently numer-
 
 BARRILLON. 195 
 
 ous for each to specialize his talents, and to be 
 brought forward as soon as he was wanted. 
 Thus, according to the requirements of the 
 hour, Colbert de Croissy, the austere Ruvigny, 
 and the honourable and polished Courtin were 
 sent to London. When they had taken all 
 soundings, and given faithful pictures of the 
 men and women who had influence at Court 
 and in the House of Commons, the unscrupu- 
 lous Barrillon was sent to enter into close 
 relation with corrupt politicians, and to bribe 
 them. 
 
 Barrillon began with a check. He had 
 hardly taken possession of the French em- 
 bassy, when the Prince of Orange arrived in 
 London. 
 
 William of Nassau, the nephew of Charles, 
 and great-grandson of Henry IV. and Admiral 
 Coligny, was the bitter enemy of Louis XIV. 
 His life passed in a mortal struggle against that 
 king. William was, by reason of his bad lungs, 
 always at death's door, and because of the 
 weakness of his army, always being beaten. 
 But neither ill-health nor defeat wore him out ; 
 and he ended by bringing all Europe into a 
 coalition against France, by bringing out great
 
 196 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 generals, by uniting the Pope and Protestants, 
 and by driving against France all the military 
 and moral forces of the civilized world. He 
 had taken the sudden resolution to go to Eng- 
 land, and make a desperate effort to detach 
 Charles from the French alliance, by asking the 
 Princess Mary, daughter of the Duke of York 
 and presumptive heiress to the throne, in mar- 
 riage. The English people were wild with joy, 
 when they learned of the proposed union be- 
 tween the champion of the Reformation and 
 their possible sovereign. Bonfires were lighted 
 in the most remote villages, when the news 
 arrived. Neither Charles nor his brother dared 
 to struggle against the patriotic and religious 
 impulse of the whole nation. The marriage 
 was suddenly decided upon. Barrillon, feeling 
 that opposition was useless,^ asked Pomponne 
 whether it would not be good policy to accept 
 the inevitable with a good grace, and compli- 
 ment the Prince of Orange on the success of 
 his suit, on meeting him in the rooms of the 
 Queen or the Duchess of Portsmouth, where he 
 was to be found every day. 
 
 The Duchess of Portsmouth felt, with Barril- 
 
 1 Barrillon to Pomponne, Nov. i, 1677.
 
 BARRILLON. 197 
 
 Ion, that the Dutch Prince was on the top of 
 such a high and strong wave of public favour, 
 as to render quite vain any opposition she 
 could give to the match. She appeared at the 
 festivities given in honour of the Prince and 
 Princess. But they had hardly sailed for Hol- 
 land than she fell dangerously ill.^ Charles 
 continued to visit her, and gave audiences to 
 Barrillon in her room.^ For six weeks she 
 was confined to her bed.^ If her illness dis- 
 turbed the statesmen at Versailles, it set the 
 prudes there smiling. Madame de Scudéry^ 
 in retailing the gossip of the Court and town 
 to Bussy de Rabutin, Madame de Sévigné's 
 cousin, told him how Kéroualle had, crucifix in 
 hand, been preaching in her bed to the King of 
 England to forsake his mistresses and lead a 
 virtuous life. She was at the last extremity, 
 when a slight change for the better took place, 
 and she got up, had herself dressed, and 
 dragged herself to her Sedan chair, to be car- 
 
 1 Barrillon to Pomponne, Dec. 13, 1677. 
 
 2 Ibid., Dec. 16, 1677. 
 
 •^ She took to her bed before Dec. 11, 1677, ^"d was still 
 confined to it on Jan. 20, 1678. 
 
 * Letter to Bussy Rabutin. May 27, 1678, t. iv., p. 114. 
 It took a long time in those days for news to travel.
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 ried to the French play, where she had heard 
 the king was to be with Madame Mazarin. 
 The players had come to London for a short 
 time, and Charles attended all their representa- 
 tions. He was sitting as close as he possibly 
 could to the Duchess Mazarin^ when the 
 Breton came to place herself beside him. She 
 not only wanted to show herself along with 
 her great rival, but to assert her power, and 
 her determination to hold her own against all 
 those who wanted to take her place. She 
 knew she was regarded as a cast off, and that 
 Miss Fraser, daughter of the king's head phy- 
 sician, Mrs. Elliot, and two others, wanted to 
 succeed her. Lastly, she had to defend and 
 help her brother-in-law, Lord Pembroke, who, 
 in one of those orgies into which young Eng- 
 lish rakes of high family plunged so often 
 in the reign of Charles, had killed a watch- 
 man. The Earl was tried by his peers, and 
 only found guilty of manslaughter, to absolve 
 him from the penalty of which, the exercise 
 of the king's prerogative of mercy was re- 
 quired.^ 
 
 ^ Barrillon to Pomponne, Jan. 20, 1678. 
 2 Ibid., Jan. 13, 1678.
 
 BARRILLON. 199 
 
 The Struggle between the two chief rivals 
 became less sharp. 
 
 The Duchess of Cleveland fell into final 
 disgrace at about this time. She was not able 
 to keep within the bounds of external decency, 
 and her behaviour was a cause of scandal even 
 at Whitehall. Finding herself shunned, she 
 returned to London under the pretext of put- 
 ting a stop to the too great intimacy between 
 her daughter, the Countess of Suffolk, and the 
 Duchess Mazarin, and to break the matrimonial 
 eneaeement into which her son, the Duke of 
 Grafton, had entered with Arlington's daughter.^ 
 But the letters addressed to her by the Che- 
 valier de Chastillon, the lover whom she had 
 left behind her in quitting France, were inter- 
 cepted in France and shown to Charles, who, 
 wishing to get rid of her, took them in bad part.^ 
 Chastillon was a captain in the Due d'Orleans' 
 guard, penniless, without sense or wit, and 
 professionally handsome. He lived on his 
 good looks,^ nearly every night got implicated 
 in some low brawl, and had a mania ^ for in- 
 
 1 Barrillon to Pomponne, Nov. 22, 1677. 
 
 ^ Scudery to Bussy, July 14, 1678. 
 
 8 Saint-Simon. * De Sévigné.
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 dulging in ill-natured practical jokes. The 
 Duchess of Cleveland was not allowed to have 
 her son with her, and had to hasten back to 
 France/ where Charles, — he fearing she thirsted 
 for vengeance, — placed a close watch upon her 
 movements. 
 
 As to the Duchess Mazarin, she had ceased 
 to be as dangerous as the Duchess of Ports- 
 mouth imagined, since the king's lust was no 
 longer stimulated by resistance. Not only did 
 the former Duchess make peace with Louise, 
 but she took care to keep off from the king 
 all aspirants to the rank of favourite, not ex- 
 cepting her own bosom friend, the Marquise 
 de Courcelles, 7iée Sidonie de Lénoncourt. 
 This French lady was, in her fifteenth year, 
 given in marriage to the Marquis de Cour- 
 celles, who perceived, almost immediately after 
 their nuptials, that Louvois was her lover, and 
 ran the greatest risks to obtain meetings with 
 her. The bride was locked up by her husband 
 in the convent where she met the Duchess 
 Mazarin in the quality of a prisoner. Both 
 captives escaped. When the Marquise was 
 running away, she chanced to fall in with the 
 ' Barrillon to Pomponne, Jan. 30, 1678.
 
 BARRILLON. 
 
 Marquis du Boulay/ cousin of the Chancellor 
 Silléry. To see her was to adore her ; and he 
 became her protector and took her to Geneva. 
 Boulay was as jealous as her husband. " My 
 poor Boulay," she wrote,^ " I am dreadfully 
 afraid of losing patience ! The pleasure of re- 
 maining innocent does not make up for the pain 
 of being continually browbeaten and insulted." 
 If she knew how to analyse her sentiments 
 with light grace, she was also skilled in the 
 art of depicting her charms. " I am tall," she 
 wrote of herself, "and my eyes are anything 
 but small. But I never open them completely, 
 which gives them a soft and tender expres- 
 sion. I have a beautifully moulded bust, divine 
 hands, fairly good arms — that is to say, arms 
 that are rather thin ; but I have a compensa- 
 tion for this misfortune in the pleasure I find 
 in knowing that my legs are perfect and beat 
 those of any other woman in existence." 
 Madame de Courcelles hoped to effect a con- 
 quest of Charles when she left Du Boulay, to 
 make her way to England, which was then, 
 
 1 François Bruslani du Boulay, cousin of the Chancellor 
 Silléry, and younger brother of the Marquis de Broussin. 
 
 2 Marquise de Courcelles : Aiénioires, p. 125.
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 De Courtin said, the refuge of all the ladies 
 who had quarrelled with their husbands. But 
 the Duchess Mazarin did not believe in the 
 perfect sincerity of her conventual fellow- 
 prisoner, when assured that she merely came 
 to London to have the happiness of seeing 
 the Duchess often. The Marquis de Courcelles 
 dying, Madame Mazarin persuaded the lovely 
 Sidonie to sfo back to France, and there she 
 met with a young captain, whom she married. 
 She lived miserably with him, and soon died. 
 
 But Mesdames Harvey and Middleton were 
 in no humour to put up with the Duchess of 
 Portsmouth, and were indefatigable in goading 
 on the Duchess Mazarin against her. They 
 went so far as to conjure her to get the king 
 " to honour Mrs. Middleton's daughter with 
 his attentions.^ The Duchess of Portsmouth 
 had caused access to the king's cabinet to be 
 refused to Mrs. Middleton, " who went there 
 with Miss Middleton, intent on pleasing his 
 majesty," a design which, in the eyes of Louise, 
 was nothing short of criminal. Meanwhile 
 the Duchess Mazarin paid assiduous court to 
 the Duchess of York, to whose rooms she 
 1 Barrillon to Pomponne, July 25, 1678.
 
 BARRILLON. 203 
 
 went every day to play at romping games. 
 Lady Hyde, the governess of the Princess 
 Anne/ was also intimate with the French 
 Duchess. A cabal against Louise de Keroualle 
 was thus formed. The Duke of York spoke 
 fair to her, but in the bottom of his heart 
 disliked her. She knew this well. Notwith- 
 standing, she kept her head so well above water, 
 after the Orange marriage, as to be respect- 
 fully used by the whole Court. The king was 
 regular in his visits ; and he spoke to her of 
 everything that was on his mind, and received 
 all her insinuations. The Lord Treasurer 
 Danby made use of her to attain his ends ; 
 and she aided the French Embassy, by making 
 Charles think that Barrillon was devoted to 
 him. Secretly, she deplored the danger of a 
 war between Enofland and France. The 
 highest courtiers, Sunderland amongst others, 
 were still her fast friends. But the lovely 
 Countess of Sunderland, who had formerly, 
 at the mock marriage at Euston, undressed 
 the insignificant Breton girl In the king's 
 chamber, and cut up his and her garters, was 
 seized with the most implacable hatred for 
 ' Barrillon to Pomponne.
 
 204 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 her, and spoke of her as " that abominable 
 harlot and cheat." 
 
 Unfortunately, political influence was not the 
 sole object of these feuds. Money was a 
 constant cause of bickering. The Exchequer 
 archives still show the preponderance of Louise 
 as a horseleech. The paymaster's clerk ^ set 
 down in reverential verbiage the sums paid 
 her. Her regular pension was ^12,000 ster- 
 ling a year, which was swollen up by supple- 
 ments to ^40,000 a year. In the year 1681 
 " the French slut " drew from the Treasury 
 ^136,668. She had a business man, one 
 Taylor, who invested for her and gave receipts 
 in her name. One of her hangers-on, a certain 
 Timothy Hall, trafficked for her profit, in royal 
 pardons granted to rich convicts. Poor ones 
 were sold to West India planters. 
 
 One of the treasury clerks made an entry in 
 two columns on the same page of the sums 
 paid to " Madam Carwell, now Dutchesse of 
 Portsmouth," and to " Nelly Gwynn."- From 
 June 3 to December 30, 1676, the Duchess was 
 paid by this clerk ^8,773, and Nell ^2,862 ; 
 
 ^ John Yonge Akermann : Moneys received a7id paid fo? . 
 ^ MS. British Museum addal. 28,094^. fol. 54.
 
 BARRILLON. 
 
 in 1677 the Duchess ^27,300, and Gwynn only 
 ;^5,250. But the Duchess grasped and gnawed 
 in many other directions, and was always eating 
 into secret funds, whereas Nell was satisfied with 
 her regular pension. A tradesman's account^ 
 of bills she ran up at his shop shows that if 
 she clutched at money with one hand, she flung 
 it away with her other like a modern French 
 de?7zi'7no7idai7te. This bill contains the follow- 
 ing entries : 
 
 " Madame Carwell, now Dutchess of Portsmouth, 
 
 Dr. to W. Watts : — 
 
 " A coat of pigeon-breast and silver brocade ; breeches à 
 la rhingrave with canons." A coat faced with white taffety 
 and lined with camlet ; breeches also faced at pockets and 
 knees with taffeta; breeches having at the thigh slashed 
 seams, to show red and silver lace, canons ide7n, idem with 
 deep frill of point lace. A coat enriched with plain satin 
 and watered ribbons and red and silver cord with red, silver, 
 and point lace at the cuffs. A linen collar embroidered 
 over with needle open-work ; silk pockets of chamois leather 
 for coat and breeches. Six dozen buttons of red and silver 
 cloth ; eight ells of taffeta for lining sleeves and breeches. 
 A pair of silk stockings. A belt and embroidered pair of 
 garters. A black beaver hat laced with red and silver." 
 
 1 List of assets furnished by the executors of W. Watts, 
 mercer to the Duchess of Portsmouth, 
 
 2 Cations were the frills worn at the knees. One still 
 sees them at the Théâtre Français, in Molière's Précieuses 
 Ridicules and other plays.
 
 2o6 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 Nell Gwynn had had such success on the 
 stage in " Florimel," and other masculine 
 characters, that men's clothes, which in the 
 seventeenth century were bright in colour and 
 very dressy, became the rage among the ladies 
 at Whitehall. They did not want the pretext of 
 a masquerade to don them there. The honest 
 W. Watts charged " Madam Carwell " twice for 
 the same taffety lining for her coat and inex- 
 pressibles, which must have eclipsed in spruce 
 elegance the stage habiliments of Nelly. 
 
 The heavy pensions and emoluments, as it 
 has been shown, were for Louise, and the small 
 ones for Nell. Below these charmers there 
 was a mob of rampant harlots, bastards, pimps 
 and bawds, who all figure in the Treasury 
 account books. Mistress Chiffinch, for showing 
 ladies of easy virtue up the back stairs to the 
 king's assignation rooms at Whitehall, had a 
 pension of ^1,200 a year. Catherine Crofts 
 had one of ^1,500. Frances Stuart, the stupid, 
 but it cannot be said very mercenary, beauty, 
 who married the Duke of Richmond, put up 
 with ^150 a year. The pretty Bulkely had 
 ^400 a year. A crowd of lesser concubines 
 were only given sums of ^50 each.
 
 BARRILLON. 207 
 
 It was French money ^ that Charles scattered 
 with such a loose hand ; and England was to 
 pay for it in the arrest of national evolution and 
 development. The valet de chambre, Chiffinch, 
 went to receive the instalments of subsidies 
 at the French Embassy ; and his wife, a seam- 
 stress by trade, gave the occasional mistresses 
 their allowances. But the cash-box was opened 
 for many others. All Barrillon's account-books 
 have been preserved at the Ministry for Foreign 
 Affairs. One learns in them, at what prices 
 English patriots sold themselves, and under the 
 stress of what temptation austere Puritans be- 
 trayed their principles. Algernon Sidney is still 
 in English eyes surrounded with the nimbus of 
 a pure-souled martyr. He received ^500 for 
 each parliamentary session, from the King of 
 France.^ The friends of Government did not 
 stay empty-handed. Lord Berkshire was 
 given ^1,000, and Coleman £z^o. He was 
 also entrusted with ^700 to buy members of 
 
 ^ Not so. The Treasury clerks who paid Louise de 
 Keroualle the vast sums already mentioned, never fingered 
 a stiver of French money. {Tt-atislator's Note.) 
 
 2 See Aff. Etr. Angleterre., tome cxxx., fol. 68 ; tome 
 cxxxi., fol. 146, for 1678.
 
 2o8 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 the House of Commons, as his receipts and 
 memoranda show. One Scott, a knight, 
 according to his receipt, had ^200 for the 
 same kind of work. Barrillon gave into the 
 hands of different persons of note, for the in- 
 formation they communicated to him, one 
 hundred and eight pounds six and eightpence. 
 He furthermore spent four hundred pounds in 
 obtaining secret reports from officers of the 
 army, treasury clerks, and secretaries of state. 
 
 Before the year 1678 had expired, Barrillon 
 found it expedient to renew his largesses. He 
 was frightened at the drain on the French 
 exchequer ; and yet he did not dare, from a 
 fear of compromising a long-laid scheme of 
 policy, to put a stop to it. No bribe was care- 
 lessly given. Sir John Baber^ was engaged 
 by him to sound Littleton, and bring him and 
 Poole into close relations with the French 
 Embassy. Poole was one of the leaders of 
 the Puritan party, and distinguished himself by 
 
 ^ This Baber constantly appears in the secret service 
 accounts of Barrillon, who attached great importance to his 
 information. He was doubtless the person whose reserve 
 and reticence Pepys eulogizes in the Diary, March 14, 
 1660.

 
 BARRILLON. 209 
 
 his virulence asfainst the honest Strafford. 
 Littleton received a bribe, direct from Barrillon. 
 It would be difficult, the latter reported to his 
 Government, to find two men who had more 
 credit for patriotism and austere virtue in the 
 House of Commons. It was impossible to with- 
 hold from Montaofu fifteen hundred ofuineas for 
 which he asked to bribe obscure country mem- 
 bers, whose votes would tell at a division. 
 
 This intervention of Montagu was an odd 
 complication of the ties which bound Louis 
 XIV. to Charles. 
 
 Montagu was the brother of Lady Harvey, 
 and had long been ambassador in France. All 
 the political men regarded him as belonging 
 to the French party, when he suddenly de- 
 nounced the Treasurer Danby as having been 
 for man\- months enoao^ed in secret negfotia- 
 tions with the Court of Versailles, and that, at 
 a time when frightened by the strong tide of 
 Opposition, he talked in public the loudest 
 against France, and prepared with much noise 
 a treaty of alliance between England and the 
 Netherlands. 
 
 Thus, Louis, abandoned by Charles, and be- 
 trayed by Danby, at the moment that he was 
 
 p
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 about to enter upon a new campaign in 
 Flanders, found himself obliged, at no matter 
 what price, to paralyse the action of England 
 for at least another summer. He struck out a 
 course with quick decision ; and did not hesi- 
 tate, in paying Charles to adjourn or pro- 
 rogue Parliament, to employ Montagu to attack 
 Dan by, whom he was also bribing. He entered 
 into the game of each of his adversaries, and 
 supplied them with money, on the condition 
 that they were not to make up and unite 
 against France, but to prolong agitation, and 
 reduce England to the condition of an impo- 
 tent State. By his orders, his worst enemies 
 in Parliament were encouraged by Montagu. 
 Barrillon was delighted at this double intrigue ; 
 and, while he egged on the King of England 
 against the Opposition, he seconded the Russells, 
 Lord Holies, ^ and Buckingham in opposing 
 Charles. Louis, in an autograph letter, in- 
 structed him to make use of the king's authority 
 
 ^ Barrillon was mistaken in his estimate of Holies, who 
 was second son of the Earl of Clare, was created Baron 
 Denzil in 1661, sent as ambassador to France in 1663, as 
 plenipotentiary to the Hague in 1662, and who died in 1680, 
 before he could receive a splendid gift Lous XIV. intended 
 sendinsr him.
 
 BARRILLON. 
 
 and friendly feeling against the House of Com- 
 mons, and of the Parliament to prevent effect 
 beinof o-iven to resolutions which Charles mig-ht 
 be brought to take against him. 
 
 Danby's treaty with Holland reconciled 
 Charles and his Parliament ; but party divisions 
 were sufficiently prolonged to enable Louis to 
 strike a decisive blow in his campaign of 1678. 
 He went to war early in that year. On March 
 1 2th, Ghent fell irito his hands. Ypres yielded 
 a few days later, and Mons was invested. The 
 Dutch plenipotentiaries hastened to sign the 
 peace of Nimeguen. Spain followed their 
 example in the next month, and the German 
 Empire gave in at the beginning of winter. 
 Louis issued triumphantly from his struggle 
 with coalesced Europe. This triumph of 
 France was due to the long neutrality of 
 England. The English people beheld with 
 rage the crippling of Protestant Holland by 
 a Catholic power. They were carried away 
 against the Catholics by one of those frenzies 
 of contagious hatred which sometimes take 
 hold of a nation like an epidemic. When a 
 nation is possessed by a fit of such fury, there 
 is always a statesman ready to pander to it.
 
 LOUISE DE KERO L'ALLE. 
 
 Shaftesbury, in this instance, came forward to 
 throw fuel on the raginof fire. 
 
 Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury, had in 
 his youth fought for Charles I. against the 
 Parliament ; and turned round to serve the 
 Parliament, when he saw it was the strongest. 
 He flattered the Republicans, by celebrating 
 the fall of the Malignants ; and was " the 
 loudest bagpipe of the noisy crew." When 
 monarchy was restored, he cast off the sanc- 
 timonious mask, and, to please Charles, pos- 
 tured as a libertine. He played each part so 
 well, as to be successively lauded as a patriot 
 and a God-fearing man by the Puritans, and 
 to deserve being called by Charles " the most 
 vicious doe in Eno^land." A dauo-hter of the 
 Protector Cromwell, whom he courted, refused 
 to marry him. He was incapable either of 
 piety or libertinage, because a born sceptic and 
 of a feeble constitution. He had in youth the 
 body of an old man, was ghastly, wrinkled, and 
 his hands shook from palsy. When a minister 
 of Charles, he courted the Opposition, and 
 prepared to avenge himself, not only on Danby, 
 whose head he wanted, but on Charles himself, 
 whom he longed to humiliate.
 
 BARRILLON. 213 
 
 Shaftesbury was never so humble and ob- 
 sequious as when he was meditating vengeance. 
 He wrote to the king, that all he wanted was 
 " to lye at his feet, and make publicly, in the 
 House of Lords, any acknowledgment and 
 submission that his Majesty demanded." But 
 while he cringed, he was suborning the crew of 
 false witnesses who were gathered together by 
 Titus Oates. That monster announced that 
 the English Catholics had hatched a plot for 
 the assassination of the king and all the Pro- 
 testants. The people, who were in a state of 
 frenzied anger at the impunity granted to 
 Louis, swallowed Oates' fable with a credulity 
 which had no parallel in history. They wanted 
 victims to satisfy their rage ; and nobody sus- 
 pected of sympathizing with the Papists was in 
 safety. 
 
 The first victim was the knave Coleman,^ 
 the Secretary of State, whose receipts figure 
 in Barrillon's accounts. The French ambas- 
 sador wrote coolly to Versailles : " Coleman has 
 sent me word to be in no wise uneasy, because 
 nobody can find in his papers a scrap of 
 writing to testify to his transactions with me." 
 ^ Affaires Etrangères, tome cxxxi. fol. 53,
 
 214 LOUISE DE KERO L'ALLE. 
 
 We now know that Coleman was a traitor to 
 his country. But those who accused him and 
 those who found him guilty had nothing to go 
 upon. He was charged with not having shown 
 horror at the Papist Plot, and with having ne- 
 glected to keep minutes of the letters that he 
 wrote. " Don't be afraid," said the Lord Chief 
 Justice to him. " There will be no condemna- 
 tion if your crimes are not brought home to 
 you. We shall not act towards you as you 
 wanted to act towards us, in trying to murder 
 us." Thus, the judge held him morally guilty 
 before his counsel spoke of the crime invented 
 by the perjured informer. It is worth noting 
 that the English people, who are imbued with 
 the notion of fair play, are the most respectful 
 of law, and the most scrupulously observant 
 of legal forms, have produced the greatest 
 number of servile judges, and in their State 
 trials shown the most revolting examples of 
 juridical iniquity. English history, from the 
 time of the Tudors to the reign of George III., 
 is a narrative of juridical murders. Coleman 
 w^as accused of having- incited the Jesuits of 
 St. Omer to assassinate the king, in return for 
 the payment of 30,000 masses. Gates swore
 
 BARRILLON. 215 
 
 that he had learned of this bargain at St. 
 Omer, and the Lord Chief Justice praised him 
 for his couraofe in Q^ivino- evidence to this effect. 
 He also swore that Coleman was to pay the 
 Irish /■200,ooo to rise in rebellion. The 
 miserable wretch had sold himself to Barrillon 
 for ^200 ! The king was to have been either 
 poisoned, poignarded, or shot. Titus Gates, 
 who pretended he had seen Coleman in a 
 Jesuit conclave, was unable to identify him. 
 But the jury were indifferent to this point. 
 The scene described had taken place by candle 
 light, which, every one knew, dimmed the sight. 
 In cross-examination he was asked why he had 
 not been so circumstantial in his early deposi- 
 tions ? The answer was, that he gave them 
 standing, and that being on one's legs impairs 
 the memory. The Lord Chief Justice adopted 
 this explanation. Coleman wanted to establish 
 the Catholic religion, by assassinating the king 
 and placing the Duke of York, his friend and 
 patron, on the throne. This could only be 
 done by assassinating Charles. Therefore he 
 planned the assassination. In virtue of this 
 reasoning, the judge summed up against the 
 prisoner, the jury found liim guilty, and he was
 
 2i6 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 sentenced to be disembowelled, and his intes- 
 tines burned before his eyes. 
 
 This example terrified Charles. His ladies 
 ceased from quarrelling, and gathered round 
 him in dismay. Oates denounced the Duchess 
 Mazarin as the accomplice of all the plots 
 against the Protestant religion. The Duchess 
 of Portsmouth, who had a Catholic chaplain in 
 her household,^ felt that at any instant she 
 might become the mark for popular fury. She 
 saw that Charles was ready to bend to the 
 storm, and that if it burst over her head it 
 would be idle to hope for his protection. She 
 told Barrillon that she could not help remem- 
 bering how, three hundred years before," Alice 
 Perrers, the mistress of Edward III,, was 
 obliged to appear before Parliament and swear 
 that she would never again see that king. 
 England was a country of precedents. Perhaps 
 she thought her wisest plan would be to return 
 to France. " Madame de Portsmouth," wrote 
 Barrillon to Louis on Dec. i, 1678, "has had 
 another conversation with me.^ She is not 
 
 1 Courtin to Pomponne, March 25, 1677. 
 
 2 In 1376. 
 
 ^ Barrillon to King LouLs, Dec. i, 167S.
 
 BARRILLON. 217 
 
 sure that she can stay in England. There are 
 many persons who are minded to name her in 
 Parliament, as conspiring against the Protestant 
 religion for the King of France. She thinks it 
 would not be a great misfortune to be obliged 
 to retire to France, especially since your Majesty 
 has assured her, through Lord Sunderland, of 
 your kind protection. Her presence here, she 
 is afraid, must embarrass King Charles, and she 
 would prefer to get away while he preserves 
 some kind feeling for her, than, by staying 
 longer, to expose herself to the rage of a whole 
 nation. Her position would be sad indeed, if, 
 after she lost the king's favour, she was assailed 
 by Parliament and people." 
 
 The queen herself was in danger during this 
 hurricane, and clung to the Duchess of Ports- 
 mouth. 
 
 The Duke of York left Ensfland. Charles 
 did not dare to keep his band of French 
 musicians at Whitehall, because they were 
 Papists, and sent word to Barrillon through 
 Louise, to beg that he would shelter the poor 
 fellows at the Embassy. The King of England 
 finally cowered down to the lowest depth of 
 abasement, and abandoned every one whom he
 
 2i8 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 was in honour bound to protect. He had not 
 even the courage to defend his wife, who, as a 
 CathoHc, was set upon by the Shaftesbury crew. 
 The Hbertine in difficult circumstances rarely 
 preserves dignity. The habit of enjoyment 
 lowers every energy. Love of pleasure de- 
 stroys courage. One sees in a full strong light, 
 in Charles, a common enough character, that of 
 a man of happy endowments who sinks down 
 into a life of slothful ease and luxury, regards 
 every difficulty with dread, loses all self-respect, 
 and, although naturally goodnatured, becomes 
 capable of no matter what bad action, from 
 sheer indolence and cowardice. He got the 
 better of the jealous rages of his mistresses by 
 yielding to them. This habit was brought into 
 his policy ; and when the people demanded the 
 heads of Popish plotters, he let them have them, 
 in order to enjoy quietly his epicurean pleasures. 
 He not only sacrificed innocent and estimable 
 persons, but became their persecutor ; and he 
 even crave his countenance to the false wit- 
 nesses. Nobody knew better than Charles 
 what the Catholics wanted. He was a Catholic 
 himself. He was more guilty than any of the 
 suborners, false witnesses, and intriguers, be-
 
 BARRILLON. 219 
 
 cause he not only was chief magistrate, but 
 because, with the money paid for his promise to 
 declare himself a Catholic, he was paying Titus 
 Oates and his band of fellow perjurers. He let 
 them sleep beside him, and surrounded them 
 with his guards ; he saw to the preparation of 
 their meals ; recruited, with the money he had 
 received from Louis, subordinate informers, and 
 paid limbs of law who were employed to dog 
 Papists and hunt them down. In the bottom 
 of the money-chest, which the mistresses had 
 nearly emptied, he found ^10 a week for Titus 
 Oates, whom he boarded and lodged in his 
 palace of Whitehall. The weekly allowance 
 of ^10 was augmented to ^12. Charles paid 
 for the maintenance of false witnesses in town, 
 he paid spies engaged in discovering Popish 
 plots. The Protestants did not force him to do 
 this. On the contrary, he hid his hand when 
 it made these payments. It was all done out 
 of the secret fund, with money that he obtained 
 from abroad for his seraglio. One Millicent 
 Hanson obtained "^10 for seeking out priests." 
 One Massai got £10 for tracking and arresting 
 a priest. Dangerfield and Oates, besides their 
 stipends, were allowed for expenses and time
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 lost in going to depose ; for discovering Papists 
 hidden at Court, and for informing where Jesuits 
 had property concealed. They also received 
 handsome presents. 
 
 Among the victims of this shameful panic,^ 
 was the most respected member of the House 
 of Lords, and the most odiously condemned of 
 all the alleged plotters — the Earl of Strafford. 
 Charles II., who knew his moral worth, in- 
 curred the same reproach for weakness as his 
 father earned in desertinof the first Lord Straf- 
 ford. He was guilty, besides, of having paid 
 out of his pleasure fund the perjurers who 
 swore away the second Earl's life. He gave 
 Charles Clare, " for finding witnesses and bring- 
 ing them into court, ^loo." 
 
 The Duchess of Portsmouth did not descend 
 with the king so low as to court Titus Gates. 
 
 1 The popular instinct was right. All that M. Fornenon 
 has brought to light shows that the panic was well founded. 
 But it took a wrong direction — the king being the arch 
 plotter, not so much to destroy Protestantism, as. for the 
 gratification of his shameful vices, to reduce England to the 
 rank of a satellite of France, which then, to obtain the co- 
 operation of the Jesuits in Louisiana, Indo-China, and in 
 the Spanish Colonies, became more Catholic almost than 
 the Pope. {Tmnslator's Noie.)
 
 BARRILLON. 221 
 
 But she judged well to make peace with 
 Shaftesbury, and helped him to re-enter the 
 Cabinet. Shaftesbury then became the prepon- 
 derant minister. Buckingham ^ was discredited 
 in the eyes of every party, and was harassed 
 into his grave by his creditors. Danby was 
 a prisoner in the Tower. Sunderland entirely 
 depended on the support of Louise Keroualle. 
 But this ofreat rise in the tide of his fortune 
 turned Shaftesbury's head. He thought him- 
 self able to get rid once and for ever of the 
 real chief of his party, — a man as ailing and 
 ambitious as himself,— the Prince of Orange. 
 
 Some other heir to the throne was essential 
 to the perpetuation of Shaftesbury's power. He 
 wanted a docile tool, and made the blunder 
 of setting up as a Pretender the Duke of Mon- 
 mouth, the eldest of the king's bastards, six 
 of whom were dukes, and brought forward as 
 his sons when he touched for the evil. 
 
 Monmouth had many natural gifts ; but he 
 had been adulated from his cradle, spoiled by 
 his father, caressed by the mistresses of Charles 
 and of the Duke of York, and corrupted by the 
 atmosphere and examples amid which he was 
 ^ Tlie Zimri of Dryden's Absalom and AchitopJiel.
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 reared and thrown by all the circumstances of 
 his earlv manhood into libertinage and nerve- 
 less poltroonery. He was a poor chief to offer 
 to the Protestants during their effervescence. 
 Charles certainly was fond of him ; but he had 
 not sunk so low as to wish him to be accepted 
 as his heir. 
 
 The king-, in his embarrassment, sent word 
 by the Duchess of Portsmouth, that he would 
 be glad to have some talk with Barrillon at 
 Whitehall, as soon as the company she usually 
 received there in the evening had retired. 
 When the ambassador went, Charles told him 
 that the King of France might, if he chose, 
 preserve to him his crown, and attach him for 
 the rest of his life to his interests. It was not 
 a time for compliments and empty words, but 
 for rapid action. The King of France would 
 have to decide whether England was to remain 
 a monarchy or become a republic. Things had 
 come to such a pass that his majesty would 
 have to make up his mind to support Royalty. 
 Unless he did so, nothing could prevent the 
 Parliament from absolutely disposing of ques- 
 tions of peace, war, and alliances. Finally, 
 Charles urged Barrillon to repeat all that he
 
 BARRILLON. 223 
 
 said to his sovereig"n, and to conjure the King 
 of France, in his name, to help a course which 
 for the rest of his Hfe would make England 
 dependent upon him, and attach the Crown 
 indissolubly to his interests. 
 
 Barrillon profited by the opportunity to tax 
 Charles with paltering conduct ; and with some 
 sharpness reproached him with the Princess 
 Mary's Dutch marriage. He reminded him 
 that, notwithstanding the heavy pecuniary 
 sacrifices which the King of France had made, 
 he had always reason to complain that English 
 neutrality was insecure. 
 
 Charles asked for the favour of another 
 conversation, an account of which, along with 
 that of the one just cited, is given on July 
 13, 1676, in the Foreign Affairs archives. 
 The King of England owned that the re- 
 proaches of Barrillon were well founded, and 
 yet not quite just. How was it possible to 
 resist the Duke of York and the Lord 
 Treasurer, who wanted to fish for popularity 
 in crying out against France ? Secretly he 
 stood out against them as far as he could ; 
 but there were resistless fatalities that draeeed 
 him on. Charles admitted that he erred in
 
 224 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 not foreseeing what the Dutch match would 
 lead to. But his bitter experience would be 
 a guarantee of his future conduct ; and the 
 King of France might credit him when he 
 declared that, in future, nothing in the world 
 would detach him from his interests. He 
 saw with pain and deep grief the shedding of 
 innocent blood. But if he had stood between 
 the accused Catholics and the national fury, 
 he would have risked everything. 
 
 Meanwhile, young Monmouth, — and particu- 
 larly in the evenings after supper, when excited 
 by wine, — claimed through his mother, Lucy 
 Walters,^ descent from Edward IV. and the 
 
 1 Charles, who seems to have had a taste for Celtic beauty 
 had among his concubines a Breton (Louise de Kerouaile), 
 two Welsh women (Lucy AValters, or Barlow, and Nell 
 Gwynn), and an Irish woman (Peg Hughes). Lucy Walters, 
 Monmouth's mother, was, — in 1649, when she was with him 
 at St. Germains en Laye, where Evelyn first saw her, — a 
 beautiful, brown, bold, and insipid creature. She was the 
 daughter of Richard Walters, of Haverfordwest in Wales, 
 a gentleman of little means, and she came to London to 
 seek her fortune. Algernon Sidney, when a colonel in 
 Cromwell's army, meant to have her, and gave her fifty 
 broad pieces (as he told the Duke of York), but missed 
 his bargain, he having been hastily sent away with his 
 regiment. She fell into the hands of his brother, Colonel 
 Robert Sidney, from whom Charles H. got her in his
 
 BARRILLOA. 225 
 
 rights of the House of Plantagenet. This, 
 Barrillon thoiiQ^ht, micrht be reo^arded at Ver- 
 sailles as chimerical. But chimeras were less 
 ridiculous in England than elsewhere.^ There 
 was a general taste for romantic improbability, 
 which would serve the ends of an impostor ; 
 and the common people liked the fables they 
 saw played in the theatres, about mysterious 
 marriages being cleared up, and true heirs in 
 the end, coming by their own. 
 
 Louis stopped supplies, and drily wrote, that 
 until a positive engagement was made that 
 Parliament would not be again convoked, no 
 further subsidy would be given. Charles 
 accepted his humiliation, and, at the Duchess 
 of Portsmouth's rooms, told Barrillon that he 
 had resolved to follow the course proposed by 
 Louis, and not to let Parliament assemble until 
 
 wanderings. The world had cause to doubt whether Mon- 
 mouth was a Stuart or a Sidney. He had tlie countenance, 
 complexion, stature, and even the wart on the face of 
 Robert Sidney. However, the king owned him. Lucy 
 Wahers called herself Mrs. Barlow. She led such a loose 
 life during the campaign of Charles, ending in his escape 
 at Worcester, that he would have nothing more to do with 
 her ; and she became a woman of the town in Paris, where 
 she died miserably. {Translator's Note.) 
 
 1 Barrillon to King Louis, July 6, and July 13, 1679. 
 
 Q
 
 226 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 the King of France judged that it might be 
 convoked without inconvenience to him. The 
 ambassador recriminated on the sovereign, and 
 asked him how he could reasonably hope that 
 the French Exchequer could afford to sub- 
 sidize Charles with unstinted generosity, if he 
 played into the hands of the enemies of the 
 King of France, and by doing so helped Euro- 
 pean coalitions to make war upon him. The 
 last war he sustained against Spain, Holland, 
 and the Empire, was a wasting one. If 
 Charles had an intelligent perception of his 
 own interest, he would try to spare France 
 every kind of military expense. But instead of 
 that, the last war had been begun by the King 
 of England. He made peace certainly with 
 reluctance, and under the constraint of the 
 House of Commons, which forced him to make 
 it on a separate footing, and to leave France 
 single-handed to fight Europe. This misfor- 
 tune drained the French exchequer. It was 
 no longer possible to give heavy subsidies un- 
 less for serious services. Formerly they had 
 been given out of brotherly friendship, and this 
 might have been continued had Charles proved 
 staunch in cleaving- to the French alliance,
 
 BARRILLON. 227 
 
 and enabled Louis to dispose rapidly of his 
 enemies. However, as Louis did not wish to 
 see Charles distressed for want of money, he 
 would give him a proof of his desire to see 
 him free from pecuniary embarrassments and 
 his authority restored. To this end he had 
 ordered Barrillon to offer him an advance of 
 ^20,000 if he would engage not to convoke 
 Parliament before the month of March. 
 
 Charles expressed great surprise at the offer 
 of so inconsiderable a sum, and spoke warmly 
 about the alternative which was imposed on him 
 of either being reduced to dependence on Louis 
 or of letting the House ot Commons act accord- 
 ing to its impetuous hatred or caprice. He 
 got the Duchess of Portsmouth to plead for 
 him, and submitted to her in everything. She 
 had the skill to direct the Government through 
 the medium of Sunderland. What little energy 
 remained to Charles he showed in defending 
 her. Two young courtiers, Jarret and Dunquot,^ 
 set her little blackamoor drunk, and gave him 
 money to tell them things derogatory to the 
 ladies, and in particular to the one most 
 
 ^ Probably Duncomb. English names are sometimes 
 mis-spelt by Louis's ambassadors, {lyauslator's Note.)
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 honoured by the attentions of the King of 
 England. When the slanderous tittle-tattle 
 which they based on what they heard from the 
 blackamoor came to the king's ears, he forbade 
 them to appear at Court. A cause of fresh 
 and deep annoyance to him was, to find that 
 his secret conferences with Barrillon were re- 
 vealed by Sunderland's wife, who feared her 
 husband might be compromised by his rela- 
 tions with France. She vowed to every one 
 that she was in a state of constant hostility 
 to the Duchess of Portsmouth, and that that 
 " designing jade " brought about interviews be- 
 tween the king and Barrillon. gave the latter 
 his cue, and that he repeated what she told 
 him like a prating starling. The Countess 
 protested, that all she asked was to extricate 
 her husband from dangerous intrigues.^ At 
 the same time, Algernon Sidney ^ beheld with 
 irritation the favour which the Frenchwoman 
 
 1 Henry Sidney's Diary of the Times of Charles II., ed. 
 1843, vol. I, p. 232, the Countess of Sunderland to H. 
 Sidney, Jan. 13, 1676. 
 
 " Algernon Sidney's Letters to H. Saville i?i the Year 1679. 
 London: 1742. See letters from Feb. 20 to April 28, 
 1679. I do not know what value is to be attached to these 
 letters on the score of authenticity.
 
 BARRILLON. 229 
 
 enjoyed, and the want of energy of the House 
 of Commons, which, when her name was men- 
 tioned in a debate, did not seize the opportunity 
 to attack her. To prevent herself being attacked, 
 she adroitly looked for support in Monmouth. 
 There was in her following a confidential 
 servant, one Mistress Wall,^ who cried on the 
 house-tops about Louise's passion for him, and 
 of her disinterested tenderness in trying to 
 further his pretensions. This Mistress Wall 
 was given, as a recompense, the privilege of 
 furnishing body-linen to the queen, and 
 promised the secret function of Mistress Chif- 
 finch whenever she might die.^ These tricks 
 came out, and were made a theme for satirical 
 lampoons. The pamphleteers published " inter- 
 cepted letters " from Madam Carwell to the 
 Duke of Monmouth. They taxed their in- 
 genuity to place her, to the nation, in the 
 most odious light, by holding her up as the 
 sheet-anchor of the Catholics and of France. 
 She was made to say to Monmouth, "All 
 these English hate me, but that does not 
 trouble me, since the king tells me everything, 
 and my friends alone have influence." 
 
 ^ Henry Sidney's Diary, vol. i., p. 170, Nov. 17, 1679. 
 - Ibid., vol. ii., p. 22, April 2, 1680.
 
 230 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 The Duchess renewed her instances with the 
 French ambassador on behalf of Charles. 
 
 " I saw yesterday," wrote Barrillon,^ "Madame 
 de Portsmouth, from whom the King of Eng- 
 land keeps nothing hidden. She came to tell 
 me that if your Majesty would give him four 
 millions of livres a year for three years, he 
 would enter into any engagement your Majesty 
 might propose. But without this sum he could 
 not avoid assembling Parliament. The king 
 himself told me later in the day, that he was 
 mortified to be reduced to driving a bargain 
 with your Majesty." 
 
 While these negotiations were going on, the 
 hopes of Monmouth and Shaftesbury were 
 raised. But Charles was taken with a malig- 
 nant fever, and seemed on the verge of the 
 grave, when his doctors gave him up and 
 allowed him to take the Chevalier Talbot's 
 quinine specific, which was then a novelty 
 and known as Jesuits' bark.^ This illness 
 
 ' This letter should be regarded as of doubtful authenti 
 city. It is not in any of the French State records, and is 
 only found in the MS. of the British Museum. 
 
 ~ The disease, according to Evelyn, was ague; and .quinine, 
 or quinquina, had been brought into vogue, not by Talbot, 
 but by Tudor, the king's apothecary. The physicians would
 
 BARRILLON. 231 
 
 brought about Shaftesbury's and Sunderland's 
 disgrace. The Duchess of Portsmouth and 
 the Duke of York united to get Monmouth 
 sent from London. He was saved from 
 exile by Louis, who feared such a stretch of 
 authority would give rise to a situation that 
 would force Charles to make concessions to 
 Parliament. He also pointed out to Barrillon 
 that the, for him, cheapest manner of proceed- 
 ing, was to foment quarrels between the king 
 and Opposition, by giving subventions only to 
 members of both Houses ; and he continued 
 his largesses to the Country party. 
 
 To this end Barrillon paid Algernon Sidney^ 
 
 not, out of envy of Tudor, give it to Charles, until the king 
 secretly obtained the opinion of Dr. Short, in whom he had 
 confidence because he was reputed (falsely) a Papist, and 
 was told that it was the only thing that could save him. 
 {Translator's Note.) 
 
 1 It is due to the memory of Sidney, to say that his Re- 
 publicanism was thought sincere by the different agents of 
 Louis, and that they classed him among the political English- 
 men of his time who were not bereft of moral sense. There 
 is no direct evidence in the French records to show under 
 what pretext or through what agency the French Embassy 
 got round Sidney, and induced liim to be a pensioner of 
 Louis. But from much in them the inference may be drawn 
 that he thought any stick good enough to beat down such
 
 232 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 the 500 guineas that he wanted ; to Baber, the 
 Presbyterian leader in the Commons, 500 
 guineas ; to Littleton, 500 guineas ; to Powels, 
 500 guineas ; to Herbert, ^ 500 guineas ; and 
 " to maintain Bulstrode in his employment at 
 Brussels," 400 guineas. 
 
 Notwithstanding these gratifications, Parlia- 
 ment continued unmanageable. Monmouth 
 came back triumphantly to London. Barrillon 
 informed Louis that an event had just taken 
 place " which would have appeared most ex- 
 traordinary in any other country."^ It was 
 the return of Monmouth, " who every night," 
 Barrillon added, " sups with Nelly, the courte- 
 san who has borne the king two children, and 
 whom he daily visits." Nelly set up to place 
 
 a vile thing as the EngHsh throne had become ; and made 
 up his mind to accept aids which Barrillon artfully led him 
 to hope for. Sidney spent a good deal of money in trying 
 to get up a Republican movement. {Translator's Note.) 
 
 ^ Probably the Herbert who became Lord Herbert of 
 Cherbury in 1678, and was grandson of Herbert the author. 
 He married Catherine, daughter of the Earl of Bradford. 
 The other Herbert was William, Earl of Powis, Marquis of 
 Montgomery, who, being a Catholic, could have no influence. 
 Herbert Earl of Pembroke, Louise Keroualle's brother-in 
 law, was never in the House of Commons. 
 
 " Barrillon to Louis, Dec. 14, 1679.
 
 BARRILLON. 233 
 
 herself at the head of the Protestants, which 
 did not prevent her subsequently from going 
 over to the Catholic Church. •* Parliament 
 demanded the removal from Court of the 
 Duchess of Portsmouth and Sunderland, against 
 whom the heads of an impeachment were drawn 
 up. It was proposed to execute them both, 
 with Danby and the Catholics who were in the 
 Tower. 
 
 Charles at last resolved to prorogue Parlia- 
 ment. As the treaty of which this step was a 
 condition remained a secret, it was attributed 
 to " Madam Carwell." She, it was said, feeling 
 herself exposed to an impeachment, made the 
 king prorogue for a long period. She was 
 alarmed at the rumours to this effect, and fell 
 ill from sheer fright. She spoke of dismissing 
 all her Catholic servants, and prepared to re- 
 tire, herself, to France. 
 
 ' Letters in the Verney collection at Claydon House.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SUNDERLAND AND SHAFTESBURY. 
 
 The sudden blow which Charles struck de- 
 ferred the danger in which Louise stood, with- 
 out suppressing it. Popular hatred of France 
 ran higher than ever ; and the judges were as 
 abject in pandering to the animosity of the 
 nation, as they had been servile to the Govern- 
 ment. The Duchess of Portsmouth, by boldly 
 standing up in this crisis for the French alliance, 
 became the object of general hatred, and was 
 not sure that the king would persevere in 
 defending her, or of the sincerity of the Duke 
 of York when he sought to unite with her. 
 The king had again found another mistress, 
 who was the daughter of a nobleman. i His 
 brother sought to make his peace with the 
 Protestants, and offered as a holocaust the 
 
 1 Thought to be the daughter of Rochester, who, in 16S3, 
 married Lord Ossorv.
 
 SUNDERLAND AND SHAFTESBURY. 235 
 
 Duchess of Portsmouth,^ She had therefore to 
 manœuvre with extreme dexterity in keeping 
 all her friends, and in not exasperating her 
 enemies. She entered into the closest union 
 with Sunderland. In this she scandalized his 
 beautiful wife, who wrote : " So damned a jade 
 as this would sell us without hesitation for 500 
 guineas." Louise and Sunderland drew to- 
 wards them, and brought into their orbit the 
 supple, adventurous, and clever Godolphin, 
 who was coquetting with the Prince of Orange. 
 The latter was becoming uneasy at the preten- 
 sions of Monmouth. The efforts of the Duchess 
 of Portsmouth and Sunderland in 1680 were 
 directed towards keeping alive the uneasiness 
 of the Prince of Orange, husband to the pre- 
 sumptive heiress to the throne ; not letting the 
 Duke of York, whom they knew to be cold 
 and selfish, play them false, and avoiding to 
 stir the bile of Shaftesbury, or to wound Mon- 
 mouth's vanity. The Frenchwoman took the 
 audacious course of declaring openly for the 
 Prince and Princess of Orange ; and was so 
 explicit in declaring she preferred English to 
 
 ^ Barrillon to Louis : " I believe each wishes to save 
 himself at the cost of the other."
 
 236 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE 
 
 French interests as to seriously alarm Barrillon 
 and make him lose his temper, which was 
 further tried on his hearing- that she sought to 
 be on good terms with the arch-enemy of 
 France. But she re-assured him somewhat, by 
 coming privily to tell him that the king at 
 bottom was what he always had been, and 
 that he wished to preserve the friendship and 
 alliance of the King of France.^ The French 
 ambassador, however, could extract nothing 
 from her regarding the conclusion of the treaty. 
 Barrillon did not attach at this time much 
 importance to the services of the Duchess. He 
 knew that public opinion had risen against her 
 with a violence which he thought irresistible. 
 He overheard tipsy bloods in the theatre^ 
 speak in abusive terms of her and Lord Sun- 
 derland ; and on the same day the Duke of 
 Monmouth's health was drunk by the wild 
 young men about town, in all the taverns and 
 coffee-houses.^ Barrillon thought he might by 
 
 ' Barrillon to King Louis, to whom, after Pomponne's 
 disgrace in 1679, he addressed most of his letters. 
 
 - Barrillon to King Louis, Jan. 15, 1680. 
 
 •^ May 20, 1680. It was in this letter Barrillon said of 
 the future Duke of Marlborough : " He is wholly inexpe- 
 rienced in public busmess."
 
 SUNDERLAND AND SHAFTESBURY. 237 
 
 his efforts create a cross current of opinion 
 which would take from the tumultuous force 
 of the one that was growing up, and that he 
 might get the better of intriguers by corruption. 
 He moreover thought it of the highest im- 
 portance to retain Montagu by his sister, Lady 
 Harvey, who had power over his mind, and 
 who could render many useful services. She 
 might be secured by a nice present ; and the 
 snuff-box intended for Lord Holies, not having 
 been given to him, might go to the lady. If 
 his Majesty thought it too considerable, a sum 
 of less value than it represented would do as 
 well, for she was not above taking money. 
 Her rapacity might be stimulated by insinu- 
 ating that she might expect further gifts from 
 France. As her aid could be most valuable, 
 Barrillon was anxious to secure it. He also, 
 he said in the despatch on this subject, had 
 gained two Nonconformist preachers.^ His 
 aim was to form a solid group of agents from 
 the different parties, and to use alike Republi- 
 cans and courtiers. To well understand this 
 policy, his "list of persons to whom gratuities 
 may be offered " " should be read. 
 
 1 July I, 1680. 2 July 24, 16S0.
 
 238 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 In the letter which accompanied that docu- 
 ment he says : " The Duke of Monmouth is 
 now more considerable than anybody else. He 
 might perhaps not relish being offered money ; 
 but I think that, under the pretext of enabhng 
 him to withstand the machinations of courtiers, 
 a sum might be offered for him to dispose of 
 as he tho2is:Jit well. In grainino- him, all his 
 partisans would be gained as well, and he would 
 be placed in a situation in which he could never 
 more be reconciled w^ith the Court, or the 
 Prince of Orange. However, it should be made 
 clear to him that he was to prevent Parliament 
 voting the king any money, because, if his 
 majesty Charles II. does not feel his depend- 
 ence, he will give us the slip. I think the 
 Duke should be offered ^^4,000. This would 
 be more efficacious than if we spent twice as 
 much in bribing the Parliament. Shaftesbury 
 directs all the attacks against the Court, and is 
 at the head of the malcontents. If money is 
 given him, and he thinks he has France behind 
 him, he will be more daring. ^4,000 is the 
 least that could be offered to him. The mem- 
 bers of the House of Commons who might be 
 usefully bought are : Algernon Sidney, for
 
 SUNDERLAND AND SHAFTESBURY. 239 
 
 500 guineas down, with the promise of 500 
 guineas more ; Powels, i ,000 guineas ; Herbert, 
 1,000 guineas ; Baber, 1,000 guineas. All the 
 other members named in the annexed list were 
 tested in the Danby affair, and were very use- 
 ful. Baber is not in Parliament, but he mixes 
 a good deal with Parliamentary men and with 
 the Presbyterians, and he has their confidence. 
 He is a man from whom I have much profit, 
 and it is to him that I owe my intimacy with 
 Lord Holies. There are other members of the 
 House of Commons who could be made, ac- 
 cording to opportunities and conjunctures, to 
 serve our ends. Vindington,^ who has been 
 Solicitor-General ; Colonel Titus, Burnet, Ber- 
 nard, and Eslon and Papillon, who are all 
 merchants of the City of London, and highly 
 respected Presbyterians ; Player, treasurer of 
 the Corporation of London ; Sacheverell,^ and 
 Harley, the ex-governor of Dunkirk. It is 
 
 ' Probably Sir T. Widdrington, who was Speaker under 
 Cromwell, but very old in 1680. 
 
 - Not the preacher who obtained for himself prominence 
 in Anne's time, but an M.P. who was rabid against the 
 second Earl of Strafford. Player was the City Chamberlain, 
 and the " railing Rabsheka " of Dryden's Absalom and 
 Achitophel.
 
 240 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 hard to say what mi^^ht be offered to each of 
 them. But there might be a fund of 20.000 
 crowns placed at my disposal, which could be 
 employed according to the utility and facility 
 that there would be in graininor them. It is 
 indispensable to begin with a payment of 1,000 
 guineas to Montagu, who is industrious, capable 
 of continuous application, and enjoys the entire 
 confidence of the Duke of Monmouth. This 
 money ought to be remitted to him before the 
 end of September, when I promised that he 
 was to have it." Louis XIV. wrote in pencil 
 on the margin of the letter : " M. Colbert will 
 give an order for 4,000 pistoles. Instruct 
 M. Colbert to have a letter of change sent to 
 M. Barrillon for 100,000 francs." 
 
 Barrillon insisted that, in his judgment, France 
 should not have a secret bias for any party,^ but 
 set them all on, one against the other, and keep 
 them at daggers drawn. Thus the King of 
 
 1 It is to be gathered from the correspondence between 
 him and the Court of Versailles, that he was reproached 
 with having encouraged Sidney to appeal to his old Iron- 
 side comrades against Monarchy. The warmth with which 
 he insists that the King of France should be indifferent as 
 to means, Republican or other, in a degree clears Sidney's 
 memory. {Tra/tslatof^s Note.)
 
 SUNDERLAND AND SHAFTESBURY. 241 
 
 France, who was destined to revoke the Edict 
 of Nantes, was led to support the Presbyteri- 
 ans, because the Prince of Orange, whom he 
 hated, was drawing close to Charles. His 
 ambassador only thought of preventing these 
 sectarians falling into pits dug for them by the 
 Court ; and with this object made the acquaint- 
 ance of their chief orators. He so eained 
 Powels ^ that he was able to write : " This 
 person is entirely with me, and will follow all 
 my instructions. I have taken the same steps 
 to bring Herbert into my hand. Nobody made 
 himself so useful in the Danby affair. He 
 stayed a whole day when the impeachment 
 debate was going on,^ and only allowed those 
 whom he thought favourable to the Court to 
 go out, and prevented the others leaving, almost 
 by force." He is a strong, vehement, hot-tem- 
 pered, and selfish fellow. I have much inter- 
 course with Sidney. He is greatly opposed 
 
 1 Poule. 2 Oct. 4, 1680. 
 
 ■^ The English historians never seem to have suspected 
 the real cause of Danby's impeachment. They regard it as 
 due to political rivalry or patriotic indignation. It was 
 simply owing to the rancour of Louis, and to all the money 
 he spent in hunting down Danby, whose fall, he thought, 
 would serve as a warning; to Charles. {Translator'' s Note.)
 
 242 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 to the Court, But I have reason to fear that 
 Sunderland, who is his nephew, is getting 
 round him for the Prince of Orange. I know 
 that Sidney has a strong leaning towards the 
 Republic. Baber continues to work the Pres- 
 byterians. It is through him that I have 
 gained two popular preachers, who can insinu- 
 ate things which it would never do to say 
 openly. I know they have spoken in the 
 pulpit of a matter which would not count any 
 where else, unless here, but which in England 
 is no trifle. It is, that the Prince of Orange 
 hunts on Sundays." 
 
 The Duchess of Portsmouth had no cause, 
 at this time, to be afraid of Nell Gwynn, whose 
 eldest son ^ had just died. She had recruited 
 to her side another actress, Mary Davis, whose 
 daughter she was bringing up under her own 
 eyes, with the intention of giving her in mar- 
 riaee to Sunderland's son. She even suffered 
 the queen to receive some little marital atten- 
 
 1 James Beauclerc, died in 1680 ; die second son, Charles, 
 born May 8, 1670, was created Duke of St. Albans on 
 Jan. 10, 1684. and married, in 1694, Diana de Vere, the 
 last of the Oxford de Veres. He was the ancestor of the 
 present Duke of St. Albans.
 
 SUNDERLAND AND SHAFTESBURY. 243 
 
 tions from her indolent husband. He went to 
 inform Catherine of what had taken place at 
 a debate in the House of Lords/ and, as a 
 mark of extraordinary kindness, sat for some 
 time in her chamber after dinner, and then took 
 a long nap there — a thing he was only in the 
 habit of doing in the rooms of the Duchess 
 of Portsmouth. 
 
 The apoplectic Charles had allowed Parlia- 
 ment to be convoked at the end of 1680, when 
 it discussed a bill to exclude his brother from 
 the throne. Barrillon redoubled his efforts to 
 destroy the chances of the Prince of Orange.^ 
 He was obliged to go to work through agents. 
 To have treated directly with him, would have 
 been to expose life and fortune. Montagu 
 and his sister, Herbert, Algernon Sidney, and 
 Baber were his best auxiliaries. Mrs. Harvey 
 was bold and enterprising, and was intimate 
 with numerous courtiers and members of 
 Parliament. She recruited Hampden^ and 
 Haber — both men of weight in the Opposition. 
 Algernon Sidney, Barrillon reported as a man 
 of great views and designs, which all made 
 
 ^ Nov 28, 1680. ' Dec. 5, 1680. 
 
 ■^ Son of the patriot who stood out against Charles I.
 
 244 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 for the establishment of a Repubhc. He be- 
 longed to the party of the Independents and 
 other sectarians who carried all before them 
 in the anti- Popish disorders. They were not 
 strong in Parliament, but were powerful in the 
 City ; and it was owing to Sidney's manage- 
 ment that Bethel ^ was elected Sheriff The 
 services that Sidney rendered were not ap- 
 parent, because he had to deal with obscure 
 and hidden men. Herbert was a friend of 
 Montagu, and vigilant, active, pushing, and 
 wanted to make his fortune in obtaining pay- 
 ments for services rendered to France. He 
 often brought information of great value to 
 the French Embass}-. Baber was a link be- 
 tween Barrillon and the Presbyterians. Louis 
 instructed Barrillon to persevere in keeping- 
 England weak by internal divisions. He was 
 to prevent, at any cost, the reconciliation of 
 the Court and Parliament. It is probable that 
 the King of France found it cheaper to bribe 
 members than to go on bribing Charles. The 
 expense of doing the former, for the session 
 which ended on January i6, i68t, was not so 
 
 Slingsby Bethell, Sheriff" of London in 1680, and the 
 Shiniei of Absalom and Achithophel.
 
 SUNDERLAND AND SHAFTESBURY. 245 
 
 heavy as the smallest subsidy to the king. 
 Hampden and Herbert received 1,000 guineas 
 each ; Haber, Titus, Hermstrand, Baber, Hill, 
 Boscowen, and Algernon Sidney, 500 guineas 
 each ; Bennett, Hodam, Hicdal, Frankland, 
 Tompton, Harvey, Garowan, Sache verell,Tolen, 
 and Bide, 300 guineas each ; one Ducros, resid- 
 ing in Holstein, and a friend of Lord Sandwich, 
 150 guineas, " for furnishing good information " ; 
 one Le Pin, a clerk of Sunderland, 150 guineas, 
 " who sometimes gave valuable hints ; " to 
 Baron de Witt, a Spanish agent, 100 guineas, 
 also "for hints and news;" and 1,000 guineas 
 to Montagu.^ 
 
 Louis was workino- to oblige Charles to 
 indefinitely prorogue Parliament. He knew to 
 what degree he was unnerved by pleasure, 
 and how lazy his mind had become. Louis 
 also feared a reconciliation at his expense. He 
 stirred up, therefore, the king against the 
 Commons, and egged on the Commons to 
 aggress upon the king. As the force of Oppo- 
 sition lay in the most intolerant Protestant 
 
 ' See Les Etats de Barrillon, inserted in Affaires Etran- 
 gères^ Angleterre, tome cxl. fol. 338, and tome cxlii. fol. i 70, 
 from Dec. 5 to Feb. 13, 1681.
 
 246 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 sects, he subventioned the preachers who led 
 these fanatical bodies to attack the Crown. 
 
 The Duchess of Portsmouth was not in the 
 secret of this Presbyterian and Republican 
 policy, which was begun when Louis was com- 
 mencing to persecute his own Protestant sub- 
 ects. She imagined she was pleasing him 
 when she intrigued to restore the authority of 
 Charles, and was astonished to find herself 
 often thwarted by Barrillon. To find out how 
 things really stood between the French Em- 
 bassy and Versailles, she pretended to him that 
 she had been sent a warning from France, 
 that Louis was not satisfied with her conduct, 
 and that yet, as the ambassador well knew, she 
 had done her utmost to restore good intelli- 
 gence between the kings of France and Eng- 
 land.^ But Barrillon, while Lcknowledging that 
 the French favourite was holding her own and 
 was not shaken by the downfall of her ally, 
 Sunderland, preferred acting without her and 
 winning his way by the sheer force of money. 
 She, however, aftected to ignore his change of 
 tactics, continued to tell him everything,^ and 
 did not appear to suspect the too great sim- 
 1 Feb. 27, 16S1 - August 28, 16S1.
 
 SUNDERLAND AND SHAFTESBURY. 247 
 
 plicity with which he opened his mind to Lord 
 Montao-u. He eave to this nobleman a second 
 bribe of 2,ODO guineas, and was soon after, 
 under a ckimsy pretext, asked for a third/ In- 
 deed, in a vague ekicubration, liaving a cock- 
 and-bull flavour, Montagu told the ambassador 
 of Louis that he would soon be able to ren- 
 der his Majesty the King of France services 
 of not less importance than those he discharged 
 when the interests of that sovereign demanded 
 the impeachment of Danby. But he could 
 bind himself to do nothing more, if full and 
 entire payment were not guaranteed. What 
 his proposed services were, he refused to say, 
 because, if he disclosed them prematurely, he 
 would risk to seem frivolous in the eyes of 
 the King of France. Nevertheless, they were 
 of a nature to place England in a situation 
 which would long prevent her injuring France. 
 On finding that she was no longer utilized 
 as a secret service agent, Louise de Keroualle 
 struck up a friendship with the Duke of York. 
 She had a percentage on the Irish taxes, and 
 got the grant, in virtue of which she derived 
 this income, confirmed. She also leant with 
 1 Sept. 22, 1681.
 
 248 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 one arm on the king, and with the other on the 
 Duke of York, his brother. Meanwhile Barril- 
 lon and the Prince of Orange ^ worked, each 
 on his own behalf, the House of Commons. 
 Shaftesbury and Monmouth fancied they could 
 trust in their partisans, and the Republicans 
 hoped to deceive their corruptor. 
 
 Finding himself unable to deal with the com- 
 plicated web of intrigue woven around him, 
 Charles II. submitted himself without reserve 
 to Louis XIV. He prorogued Parliament in- 
 definitely, and turned into his own coffers by 
 his docility all the French money that came 
 into England and which would, if he had not 
 obeyed, have gone on losing itself in a number 
 of pockets. The calm his submission produced, 
 was sudden and complete. The Duchess of 
 Portsmouth soon recovered her serenity of spirit. 
 
 It was during this lull that she summoned 
 
 ^ To understand to what extent English patriots were 
 corrupted by the Prince of Orange, see Barrillon to the 
 king, July 7, 1681 : "The Earl of Arran (Duke of Hamil- 
 ton's son) has not yet accepted the 500 guineas which 
 your Majesty permitted me to otter him, because he wished 
 first decently to decline offers made him by the Prince of 
 Orange." Perhaps he wanted to see whether he could not 
 get more out of the Prince.
 
 SUNDERLAND AND SHAFTESBURY. 249 
 
 to London Henri Gascar,^ a French painter. 
 Another French artist, Ramboury, was author- 
 ized by Louis XIV. to go and execute at 
 Windsor^ paintings which his Britannic Majesty 
 wished him to do. No mark of confidence and 
 satisfaction was spared by the King of France, 
 who was already preparing the campaign in 
 which he meant to take Courtray and Luxem- 
 bourg, and who wrote, by the hand of his 
 secretary Rose (who was authorized to imitate 
 his writing, so that it would pass for his auto- 
 graph), to proffer a request which, in the place 
 of Charles, he would have never granted. It 
 was to ask the King of England to exert his 
 authority to put a stop to the prosecution of 
 Count Kœnigsmarck.^ This affair throws a 
 
 1 Gascar, born in Paris in 1635, died in Rome in 1701, 
 There are two portraits by him extant of the Duchess of 
 Portsmouth. One represents her with a Portuguese head- 
 dress ; the other, wliich has been engraved, shows her 
 defending against a cupid a bird that is in her lap. Gascar 
 painted also Henriette de Keroualle. The oldest portrait 
 of the Duchess is by Anthony Cooper. It must have been 
 done soon after she first arrived in England, Cooper having 
 died in 1670. There are also portraits by Kncller and 
 by Lely. Gascar's is at Hampton, and Mignard's at Ken- 
 sington. - Oct. 26, 1681. 
 
 ' Barrillon to Colbert de Croissy, Nov. 24, 1670.
 
 250 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 Strong- light upon English manners in the reign 
 of Charles II. 
 
 Lady Elizabeth Percy, daughter of the last 
 Earl of Northuniberland, had been married at 
 the age of twelve to Lord Ogle, and was a 
 widow in the following year. Her husband was 
 hardly in the grave when she was abducted. 
 She had set sail for Holland with Lady Tem- 
 ple, and Sidney had escorted her to a yacht 
 which he had obtained for her. The old 
 Countess of Northumberland and the youth- 
 ful widow's guardian, a Mr. Bret, forced her 
 to marry Mr. Thomas Thynne,^ of Longleat, 
 who had an estate worth ^10,000 a year. But 
 he was in no haste, lor a cogent reason, to 
 consummate the marriage. Lady Ogle was 
 told the legal consequences of this ; and as 
 she knew she had been deceived and sold, 
 she availed herself of them to try to get the 
 marriage declared null, or at least to escape 
 from Thynne. Miss Trevor appeared at her 
 side when she went to give evidence, and 
 swore that she and Thynne were solemnly 
 engaged. But three months later, Thynne^ 
 
 1 The Issachar of Dryden's Absalom atid Achithophel. 
 
 2 Barrillon to the King, Affaires Etrangères, Angleterre^ 
 tome cxlvi., fol. 34 ^
 
 SUNDERLAND AND SHAFTESBURY. 251 
 
 being in London, was, when riding along 
 Pall Mall, at seven in the evening, attacked by- 
 three armed men. One of them fired at him 
 six musket-balls, which entered his body and 
 killed him. Count de Kœnigsmarck was one 
 of the murderers. He had aspired to marry 
 Lady Ogle,^ and wanted to be avenged on 
 Thynne for snatching her up. The Count 
 was the lover of Sophia Dorothea, Electress 
 of fianover, and aunt of the second wife of 
 the Due d'Orléans, née Princess Palatine, with 
 whom the Electress kept up an affectionate 
 correspondence. This fact explains why the 
 King of France interfered to save an assassin, 
 whom it was, once that monarch interfered 
 on his behalf, impossible to hang. The pro- 
 secution was so managed by the Attorney- 
 General that, though he was notoriously guilty, 
 no proof of guilt was produced, and he was 
 acquitted. The heiress who, at the age of 
 fourteen, was twice widowed, married the Duke 
 of Somerset when she was scarcely fifteen. 
 
 1 Swift, in doggerel verse, accused her of complicity in 
 Thynne's murder. She avenged herself by, on her knees, 
 imploring Queen Anne not to give him a bishopric. 
 That dull but amiable monarch said, a good man could not 
 have such a bitter enemy, and refused the see to Swift. 
 {Translator's Note.)
 
 252 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE 
 
 The dream of Louis was accomplished. He 
 held England in the web he had woven round 
 her. Charles became more and more attached 
 to his even-tempered mistress, who had 
 weathered out with him the storm of the 
 Popish Plot. She was sure henceforth of exer- 
 cising undisputed authority, and was no longer 
 obliged to conceal that she headed the French 
 party and was the connecting link between the 
 kino-s of France and Eno^land. She had such 
 confidence in her force, that she did not fear to 
 absent herself from Charles for several months. 
 It had been her dearest wish to return to the 
 French Court, the scene of her early humili- 
 ations, to shine there as the favourite of the 
 Kine of Eneland. She desired to tell Louis 
 by word of mouth all she had done to reduce 
 the British nation to be the satellite of France, 
 and to a state of durable subjection. The 
 period of her visit to France was one of 
 splendid triumph and gratified pride. She 
 triumphed in the most brilliant Court in the 
 world, and among those satirical French ladies 
 who had known her poor, humble, and blown 
 upon.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 RETURN TO FRANCE. 
 
 Charles and the Duchess of Portsmouth se- 
 parated from each other for some months at 
 the beginning of March, 16S2, the king going 
 to Newmarket, and the Duchess to her native 
 country. But before she set out she was care- 
 ful to draw in advance the quarter of her pen- 
 sion which was to fall due at the end of the 
 month, ^ She moreover provided herself with 
 letters from the King of England and Barrillon, 
 one of which asked and the other advised Louis 
 to grant her the favour enjoyed by the Duchess 
 of Cleveland at Versailles, namely the right to 
 sit on a taboiwet when she went to pay her 
 respects to the queen." She also wished for 
 more solid favours ; and Charles did not shrink 
 from speaking about them to Barrillon.^ 
 
 •^ Money for secret services, fol. 68. 
 
 2 March 5, 1682. 
 
 3 Barrillon to King Louis, March 16, 1682.
 
 2 54 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 "He has charged me to suppHcate your 
 Majesty to accord to her your protection, for 
 the arrangement of her private affairs in France. 
 I turned the conversation to another subject, 
 when he spoke about her wish that your Ma- 
 jesty should withdraw the domain of Aubigny 
 from the Crown to give it to her. But I made 
 him hope that your Majesty would give her 
 other marks of kindness. The truth about her 
 is, that she has shown great, constant, and in- 
 telligent zeal for your Majesty's interests, and 
 given me numberless useful hints and pieces of 
 information. She believes that the King of 
 England wishes to further your Majesty's in- 
 terests. The enemies of the Duchess of Ports- 
 mouth give out that she is going to France to 
 settle there." 
 
 The Duchess embarked at Greenwich on 
 board a yacht, that was fitted up purposely for 
 her, and landed at Dieppe.^ She was received 
 as a sovereign at the French Court and invited 
 to all the fetes at St. Cloud. ^ She wrote to 
 
 1 Barrillon said, at Diep])e ; Godolphin said, at Calais. 
 See Godolphin to Bulstrode, in a letter preserved at Keele 
 Hall by the Rev. W. Sneyd. 
 
 ~ See correspondence of Preston, the English ambassaiiur 
 to Louis XIV., which is at Netherby Hall.
 
 RETURN TO FRANCE. 255 
 
 inform Charles of her triumphal reception, and 
 he hastened to address to Louis " his best 
 thanks for the kindness he had shown to the 
 Duchess of Portsmouth." 
 
 " There has never been a parallel for the 
 treatment she meets with," St. Simon bears 
 witness. " When, on a high holiday, she went 
 to visit the Capucines in the Rue St. Honoré, 
 the poor monks, who were told beforehand of 
 her intention, came out processionally to re- 
 ceive her, with cross, holy-water, and incense. 
 They received her just as if she had been the 
 queen, and threw her all in a heap, she not 
 expecting so much honour." ^ On the 29th of 
 April she left St. Cloud for Aubigny, where 
 she spent some days, because she was to take 
 the waters of Bourbon in the middle of May. 
 At that watering-place she met her sister the 
 Countess of Pembroke, stayed with her about 
 three weeks, and then traversed Paris again, 
 towards the middle of June,^ probably to revisit 
 Brittany. She showed herself at Court a month 
 later, and busied herself with investing the 
 
 1 Ecrits inédits de St. Simon, t. iv. p. 485. 
 ^ See the Preston correspondence, at Netherby Hall and 
 at Keele Hall.
 
 256 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 fortune which she had amassed in England. 
 It was usual at the Ensflish Court to invest 
 money in foreign securities. The Duke of 
 York trusted for this purpose ^160,000 to 
 Father Gaufre, a French Jesuit,^ on learning of 
 whose death he was much concerned. Barrillon 
 had advised him to lodge the money in la 
 Chambre des Emprunts, in the name of the 
 honest Courtin. 
 
 The victorious progress of Louise Keroualle 
 in France had its reflex action in London, when 
 she reappeared there at the end of July, 1682. 
 " She has never been previously," Barrillon 
 wrote to Louis, ^ " treated here as a person of 
 high quality and great consequence. She and 
 the Duke of York are very intimate."^ He 
 spoke some months later of " the homage paid 
 her by Louis XIV. being like sunshine, gilding 
 and glorifying an insignificant object." It 
 dazzled the Court of England ; and the dazed 
 eyes there no longer saw her imperfections. 
 Her power became incontestable, and her cool- 
 ness of head and intriguing dexterousness 
 seem to have been favourably judged by the 
 
 1 Barrillon to Colbert, May 14. 16S2. 
 
 " July 27, 16S2. '^ Oct. 18, 16S2.
 
 RETURN TO FRANCE. 257 
 
 political men in France, for Louis himself sent 
 her word that he had the fullest confidence in 
 her judgment, and that no blunder could be 
 committed so long as she was his medium. He 
 thought it was due to her tact and discernment 
 to consult her on everything relating to the 
 Court, and that there was to be no suspicious 
 hanging back from any step that she recom- 
 mended. It became dangerous to cross the 
 path of the woman who was to be henceforth 
 the link between two kings of great nations. 
 The Dutch minister, Vanbeunengen, learned to 
 his cost how ill-advised he was to stand in 
 her way. He thought well to call attention 
 to her familiarity with Barrillon,^ whose access 
 to her at all hours showed a confidence and 
 a close intimacy which could hardly fail to 
 give umbrage to the King of England's allies. 
 Louise took offence at his remark, and com- 
 plained to the king of his want of respect for 
 her. Vaubeunengen offered formally to beg 
 her pardon, and to give her any explanation 
 that would show how far he was from wishing 
 to offend a lady for whom his Britannic Majesty 
 showed such great regard. He was even will- 
 ^ Oct. 20, 1682.
 
 2s8 LOUISE DE KEROUALLt.. 
 
 ing to go to the rooms of the Duchess at 
 Whitehall and to apologise there. 
 
 The queen herself obliged her ladies to be 
 deferential towards the favourite. One of 
 Catherine's maids of honour, Philis Temple/ 
 had the boldness to speak ill of the Duchess 
 before Lady Conway, who meanly and hum- 
 bly ran off to denounce her. The Duchess, 
 who had the gift of tears, wept and complained 
 to the queen, who deprived Miss Temple of a 
 quarter's salary. 
 
 The Duchess Mazarin was too observant to 
 remain unconscious of the meridian heiofht to 
 which Louise's star had mounted, and descended 
 with a good grace to a secondary rank in the 
 seraglio. She sought a compensation in a 
 gay life with persons of easy morals. There 
 were only two things which disturbed her 
 epicurean serenity. Her income was not 
 equal to her expenses ; and, her husband having 
 withdrawn her pension, she depended entirely 
 on Charles's generosity. The King of England 
 preferring that M. Mazarin should join in 
 the expense of maintaining the lady, the King 
 
 ^ Letter in Sir H. Vcrney's possession at Claydon House, 
 dated, Oct. 23, 1682
 
 RETURN TO FRANCE. 2S9 
 
 of France was again pressed to make him give 
 her an annuity. Charles supplicated Barrillon^ 
 to tell his master what an obligation he would 
 confer on him, if he exerted his authority in 
 behalf of the Duchess Mazarin, who had not 
 received any remittance for two years from 
 France. She almost simultaneously assured the 
 ambassador that she had not craved the good 
 offices of Charles, because she placed all her 
 hopes in the bounty and protection of Louis. 
 
 The other cause of trouble to the Duchess 
 Mazarin, were the importunities of her gallants. 
 She so wonderfully retained the charms with 
 which she was gifted, that her situation of king's 
 mistress did not inspire awe, or prevent her 
 from being the object of the most romantic 
 and passionate adoration. After the Prince of 
 Monaco, who had come to spend two days in 
 London, and remained two years, absorbed in 
 her worship — after the Portuguese Vascon- 
 cellos,^ who did not see that the blindness 
 of his love made him an object of ridicule — 
 after Montagu, who neglected for her sake the 
 
 1 Feb. 9, 1682. 
 
 2 Dom Luis de Vasoncellos y Souza, who had been in 
 London from 1667.
 
 26o LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 political intrigues on the success of which he 
 staked his head — there appeared among her 
 worshippers a Swedish hero, and a young 
 Frenchman, her own sisters son, who was 
 destined to humble the pride of Louis. 
 
 The Chevalier de Soissons, better known as 
 Prince Eugene de Savoy- Carignan, came to 
 London and fell in love with his aunt. Baron 
 de Bainer, son of one of the generals of Gusta- 
 vus Adolphus, was also captivated by her. 
 They had both attracted attention by their 
 hectoring airs and the great length of their 
 swords, which dragged on the pavement as 
 they strode along. They grew jealous of each 
 other, and fought a duel in which Bainer was 
 killed. The combat amused the Court of Ver- 
 sailles,^ where lords and ladies wondered at the 
 eyes of a grandmother doing such execution. 
 Madame Mazarin, when Prince Eugène killed 
 de Bainer, was the mother of a son and three 
 grown-up daughters. The second daughter 
 was Abbess of Lys ; the youngest had married 
 the Marquis de Bellefonts in 1681 ; and the 
 eldest, whom the father wanted, in spite of her 
 aversion to a religious life, to take the veil, got 
 1 De Sèvignè, Nov. 26, 1684.
 
 RETURN TO FRANCE. 261 
 
 the Marquis de Richelieu to run away with her 
 from the Convent of Ste. Marie of Chaillot, 
 and was still running about Switzerland and 
 elsewhere, while the young lady's father was 
 consulting monks and other Churchmen at 
 Grenoble, la Trappe, and Angers, as to whether 
 he should consent to the marriage of the 
 fugitives. Both families were for letting them 
 get married. But the Duke Mazarin went on 
 asking theological consultations ; and the run- 
 away couple would have been obliged to go on 
 as lover and mistress, if the king had not inter- 
 fered.^ At the end of two years the scrupu- 
 lously pious father was forced to give his 
 consent to marriage, but showed his reluctance 
 by refusing to give a dowry of more than 
 ioo,ooof The king signed a pardon — the first 
 ever granted for the abduction of a novice from 
 her convent.^ But the habits of wild liberty 
 contracted when she was an outlaw prevented 
 M. de Richelieu's wife from settlingf down 
 quietly. Her husband, forgetting how he had 
 taught her to use scaling-ladders, confined her in 
 
 ijan. 1683. 
 
 ^Dangeau, Sept. 5, and Oct. 17, 1684.
 
 262 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE 
 
 the English nunnery in the Faubourg St. 
 Jacques, from which she got away, by chmbing 
 over the wall/ 
 
 The mother was mortified at her daughter's 
 adventures and at Prince Eugene's duel. She 
 talked of embracing a conventual life, and of her 
 salutary sadness and disgust with everything. 
 Saint Evremond, in elegantly turned stanzas, 
 painted her black melancholy, from which she 
 eventually found a solace in drink. Mean- 
 while the passion for gambling took posses- 
 sion of her, and was a caus'^ of chagrin to her 
 poetic adorer, who speaks of 1682, as the year 
 in which the preponderance of the Duchess of 
 Portsmouth became definitive, and her rival's 
 love for basset got to an incurable height. She 
 passed her nights at the card-table, where she 
 held the bank, and forgot Maurice her buffoon, 
 Chop her dog, Pussy her cat, and Pretty her 
 parrot. Of Roman origin, she was accused of 
 ancient Roman vices, which she mixed up with 
 modern French and English modes of sinning. 
 In the daytime, she searched for Oriental 
 curiosities in the ships that had freshly arrived 
 from India. At Newmarket, she was up and 
 1 Dangeau, April i, 1703
 
 RETURN TO FRANCE. 263 
 
 out on horseback, at five in the morning. On 
 racing days there were the excitements of bet- 
 ting, and of being jostled in the crowd which 
 rushed to see the horses on the course. In 
 the evening thurc was the thea':re and Shak- 
 speare's plays, which, as well as the English 
 drama of the period, Saint Evremond thought 
 tedious. After the play came the oyster sup- 
 per, and then basset. Madame Mazarin had 
 at Newmarket her regular court of ladies. 
 Besides Lady Harvey, she was watched 
 with admiration by Mademoiselle Beverweert- 
 Nassau,^ whom she called Lotte, and employed 
 to serve at her toilette. The other fair 
 followers were Mesdemoiselles de Bragelone, 
 Grenier, and de la Rocheguilliem, the novelist. 
 This group of women did not attempt to cross 
 the path of Louise de Keroualle after her 
 return from France. Her power was thence- 
 forth undisputed and indisputable. 
 
 1 Daughter of Prince Louis of Nassau, the Dutch am- 
 bassador to Whitehall,
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 END OF THE REIGN 
 
 The Duchess of Portsmouth also held gam- 
 
 blinof tables and a bank in her rooms. But the 
 
 excitement of cards did not entirely absorb her. 
 
 She played at the more dangerous pastime — 
 
 amorous intrigue with Philippe de Vendôme, 
 
 Grand Prior of France. 
 
 This French nobleman was grandson of 
 
 Henri IV. and la Belle Gabrielle, and son of 
 
 the Duke de Vendôme and Laura Mancini, 
 
 sister of the Duchess Mazarin. He came to 
 
 London in 1683, when he was twenty-eight, 
 
 had a bright wit, was singularly handsome, but 
 
 did not pass for being brave. He slipped out 
 
 of a duel about the Duchess de Ludre with 
 
 M. de Vivonne by riding off to the country, 
 
 and slid out of the army on the eve of the 
 
 battle in which Turenne was killed. This 
 
 descendant of Henri IV. was received and 
 
 retained in London by the Duchess of Ports- 
 
 264
 
 END OF THE REIGN. 265 
 
 mouth with a tenderness so undisguised as to 
 excite the raillery of the whole Court. 
 
 The watchful and crafty Barrillon did not 
 like this.^ He saw that the king took um- 
 brage at Louise's fondness for the Grand Prior, 
 and that now and then he showed himself 
 suspicious and ill-humoured about him. But 
 these fits did not last long. Prudence should 
 have made the Duchess of Portsmouth order 
 the Grand Prior to return to France. But she 
 was so happy to have him with her that none 
 of her friends had the courage to tell her what 
 she ought to do. To advise her to separate 
 from de Vendôme would have displeased her. 
 Sunderland feared that the king's suspicions 
 would become angry convictions, and bring on 
 a rupture. Nevertheless, although she did not 
 banish the Grand Prior, she continued to find 
 favour in the eyes of Charles.^ The leading 
 ministers kept in close intimacy with her. 
 Her enemies were alert to do her mischief, but 
 she was no less so to defeat their malignity. 
 Sunderland, in spite of the fears he expressed 
 to Barrillon, took care to be on orood terms 
 
 1 Barrillon to Louis, June 17, 16S3. 
 
 2 Ibid., June 28, 1683.
 
 266 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 with M. de Vendôme, whom he asked to dine 
 at his house. The suspicions that Louise was 
 playing the wanton with her countryman, did 
 not prevent Louis from keeping up with her 
 an autograph correspondence, and charging 
 Tilladet, his Lieutenant-General and Captain 
 of his Cent Suisses, when he sent him on a 
 mission to Charles, " to remain in constant 
 relations with Madame de Portsmouth."^ 
 
 That envoy informed the King of France^ 
 that, on reaching London, he called on the 
 favourite, and informed her that he had been 
 ordered to tell her in what high regard his 
 Majesty held her, and to assure her that he 
 desired to give her proofs of his friendship in 
 all sorts of occasions. She received the mes- 
 sage with signs of the deepest respect, and 
 prayed the Lieutenant-General to say to his 
 Majesty how unfortunate she esteemed herself 
 in not having been so far able to prove to him 
 her gratitude, and how sorry she was that his 
 Majesty had been objiged to content himself 
 with good intentions only. 
 
 1 July 29, 1683, tome cl., fol. 124. 
 
 2 Autograph letter of Tilladet to Louis, Affaires Etran- 
 gères, Angleterre, tome cl., fol. 163.
 
 END OF THE REIGN. 267 
 
 Charles beheld, with no unmoved counte- 
 nance, the Grand Prior's visits. Not that he 
 dared voluntarily to show his displeasure. His 
 will was flaccid, and he was too conscious of 
 that limp state which throws worn-out epi- 
 cureans under the domination of their mis- 
 tresses. He, however, tried by peaceable 
 means to get rid of Vendome's odious presence. 
 
 To this end he asked Barrillon, through 
 Sunderland, to forbid the Grand Prior to visit 
 the Duchess of Portsmouth, in whose rooms 
 the grandson of Henri IV. and the Beautiful 
 Gabrielle did not appear for four or five days.^ 
 But this absence made her irresistibly attrac- 
 tive to him, and he renewed his attentions. 
 The king, finding this out, thought it a reason 
 for expelling the Grand Prior from England. 
 Barrillon undertook to break to him Charles's 
 intention in the gentlest way possible, and 
 thought to make him go away quietly. But 
 M. de Vendôme declared he would only leave 
 when the king himself ordered him by word of 
 mouth to go, and requested the ambassador to 
 demand for him an audience. Barrillon, to 
 prevent a storm, obtained, after much suppli- 
 1 Barrillon to Louis, Nov. 21, 1683.
 
 268 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 cation, leave for the Grand Prior to speak to 
 his Majesty in his chamber. There he at- 
 tempted to justify himself; but the king declined 
 to hold conversation on the subject, and would 
 not rescind his decision. The Grand Prior did 
 not make any preparations for leaving, wanted 
 Barrillon to refuse to intimate to him the order 
 to quit England, and, although menaced with 
 the displeasure of Louis, refused to tear him- 
 self from Whitehall. 
 
 Charles sent for the French Ambassador, 
 who prayed him not to impose on him the 
 harsh necessity of telling the Grand Prior that 
 he must quit the country. After letting the 
 matter drag some days. Lieutenant Griffin, of 
 the Household Guard, intimated to M. de 
 Vendôme that if he did not leave in two days 
 he had orders to arrest him and put him on 
 board a packet which was to sail for Calais. 
 The distracted lover still held out. He offered 
 to go to the country, or to go to France, pro- 
 vided he were allowed to come back to Eng- 
 land. At the secret entreaty of Louise, who 
 wanted to avoid a scandal, Barrillon com- 
 municated these proposals to Charles. But he 
 remained firm to the message he had sent by
 
 END OF THE REIGN. 269 
 
 Griffin ; and so the Grand Prior sailed at the 
 end of November for Holland. 
 
 The friends of the Duchess of Portsmouth 
 breathed again freely, and she found relief in 
 the absence of the fancy lover. She had been 
 in terror lest the Grand Prior should think she 
 was playing a double game, and show the 
 letters he had received from her. He was as 
 much stimulated by ambition as love to stick to 
 her, he hoping to derive great advantages and 
 consideration from a liaison with her. Up to 
 the moment that the ship in which he sailed 
 left her moorings, the Duchess of Portsmouth 
 was in dread of a public scene. 
 
 Louis XIV., of whose foreign policy the 
 Duchess was still a necessary agent, helped 
 her through this scrape. He ordered the 
 Due de Vendôme to write to the Grand 
 Prior to inform him that he was free to return 
 to the Court of France, where he would meet 
 with a better reception than his bad conduct in 
 England had given him a right to expect. 
 
 The Grand Monarch himself instructed Bar- 
 rillon to let Madame de Portsmouth know how 
 he had sent Croissy to warn her lover, that if 
 ever he said a word to her disadvantage, he
 
 270 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 would incur his resentment.^ He spoke to the 
 same effect to the Due de Vendôme, so that 
 the lady might feel assured she would not be 
 in France an object of raillery or slander. 
 Indeed, Louis expressed his will so clearly, 
 that the Grand Prior never opened his lips 
 about his Whitehall adventure, which was kept 
 so dark that the Due d'Orleans, who obtained 
 some inkling of it, either from the king his 
 uncle or the De Vendômes, fancied the object of 
 the Grand Prior's passion was one of Charles's 
 minor concubines. He would not have paid 
 any attention to the matter if he had not been 
 amused at the audacity of a foreigner in brav- 
 ing a king in his own State and at his own 
 Court. 
 
 The Duchess of Portsmouth, in her relations 
 with the Grand Prior, had formed such a low 
 opinion of him that, notwithstanding the threats 
 of Louis, she feared an ill use might be made 
 of her letters. What strengthened her uneasi- 
 ness was, his persistence in remaining at the 
 Hague, and saying he would return to London. 
 An order, at her instance, was sent to him from 
 
 ^ Dec. 21, 1683. The Duke of Vendôme was eldest 
 brother of the Grand Prior.
 
 END OF THE REIGN. 271 
 
 Versailles, to proceed there forthwith ; and the 
 French ambassador was instructed, that if he 
 showed himself in England, King Charles was 
 to be encouraged to use his authority in having 
 him arrested and expelled,^ so that the Duchess 
 of Portsmouth was to be exposed to no further 
 annoyance. In due time the Grand Prior ap- 
 peared at Versailles, and thus ended noiselessly 
 an affair which had been a cause of deep anx- 
 iety to Louise de Keroualle.^ 
 
 Charles, during this period of his reign, 
 received ^60,000 a year from Louis. The 
 receipts were signed by Rochester, who alone, 
 with the Duchess of Portsmouth, was in the 
 secret of this transaction. He was a brother of 
 the Duke of York's first wife. The Duke of 
 Rochester and Louise were on the best under- 
 standing with each other, and they three direc- 
 ted all the affairs of the Royal family. When 
 the Duke of York was looking for a match for 
 his second daughter, the Princess Anne, he 
 consulted the Duchess of Portsmouth on the 
 choice of a husband. She was charged to 
 ascertain the opinion of Louis Quatorze on 
 Prince George of Denmark, and to send the 
 
 1 Feb. 14, 1684. 2 Jan, 1684; Feb. 18, 1684.
 
 272 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 likeness of the Princess to Copenhagen.^ The 
 King of Denmark reph'ed by sending his minia- 
 ture set in brilliants to the Duchess.^ In Lon- 
 don the gift was estimated at 1,500 guineas. 
 When the ambassadors of Morocco came to 
 London, it was not the Queen or Duchess 
 of York, but the Duchess of Portsmouth, 
 who entertained them. She received them, 
 surrounded by all the mistresses who were 
 admitted to the Court. These dames, — the 
 accomplished Evelyn spoke of them as 
 " cattle," — were as splendid as flowered tabby 
 dresses, point lace, and jewels could make 
 them. They blazed in diamonds. Chocolate 
 was served to them all. When Louis Quatorze 
 ordered the Marquis de Preuilly ^ to sail up the 
 Channel without deigning to send a notification 
 to Charles, it was she who undertook to show 
 the king that this was not to be taken as a sign 
 of want of respect or friendliness, and that his 
 best course was to make believe it was con- 
 certed between the two sovereigns. Otherwise 
 those who wanted to detach him from France 
 
 ^ Barrillon to Colbert. 
 
 * Affaires Etrangères, Angleterre, tome cxlix., fol. 401. 
 
 ^ Barrillon to King Louis, June 21, 1683.

 
 END OF THE REIGN. 273 
 
 would see in it an opportunity to weigh upon 
 his determination to lean on that country. 
 Barrillon, who was so adroit and crafty, treated 
 her as a colleague. When the Princess Anne 
 was married, she asked him whether the Court 
 of Versailles would not send a special envoy 
 to the weddinof ? He answered : You and I will 
 suffice to pay all the compliments, and it would 
 be a mistake for persons in our situation to ask 
 for a special Embassy to be sent." 
 
 The good understanding between the two 
 monarchs was heightened by a favourable turn 
 in public opinion, which was brought about by a 
 blundering plot. Some old Ironsides of Crom- 
 well, and fanatical preachers, burning with shame 
 and indignation at the debauchery of king and 
 Court, and the conternpt in which England was 
 held abroad, conspired together to assassinate 
 Charles, who, they discovered, was the Man of 
 Sin and the Son of Perdition. The iniquities 
 of him and his Court were rotting the fibres of 
 the nation, and bringing God's displeasure upon 
 it, as shown in severe winters, prolonged east 
 winds, the great fire, the plague, small-pox, and 
 the disrespect into which the name of England 
 had fallen. That there was a plot, is estab- 
 
 T
 
 274 LOUISE DE KERO L'ALLE 
 
 lished. But the naines of the plotters are not 
 so well known. The Court had the adroitness 
 to implicate the principal members of the Op- 
 position ; and the judges, with their habitual 
 servility, summed up against them. Shaftesbury 
 disappeared from the political scene, and Al- 
 gernon Sidney was beheaded. The arrest of 
 Monmouth relieved the partisans of the French 
 alliance from a strong rallying-point for its 
 adversaries. Charles had turned against his 
 eldest son, and spoke cynically about him.^ 
 Lord Grey had been among those tried, at- 
 tainted, and condemned to death. After his 
 execution the King's heart melted, and he 
 wanted to restore his confiscated estates to 
 the children of the unfortunate nobleman. But 
 the intervention of the Duchess of Portsmouth 
 prevented the desired act of restitution ; and 
 she was able to obtain for herself and her friend 
 Rochester^ a grant of all that had belonged 
 to Lord Grey. Rochester and Godolphin were 
 in utter subjection to the Duchess, who judged 
 well to apprise the latter of the secret treaty 
 with France, and of the different subsidies which 
 
 ' Barrillon to Louis, July 12, 1683. 
 
 - Ibid., Affaires Etrangci es., Atigletcrre, tome clvi. fol. 30.
 
 END OF THE REIGN. 275 
 
 Charles had received from Louis XIV, She 
 ventured to do herself the honour to write to 
 the King of France to answer for the intentions 
 and conduct of Godolphin as she would for 
 her own. 
 
 Barrillon sometimes grew restive under her 
 yoke. But neither Charles nor Louis XIV. 
 showed impatience under it. One day Charles 
 called aside the French ambassador,^ and told 
 him that the Duchess of Portsmouth and her 
 son, the Duke of Richmond, were the persons 
 above all others in the world whom he loved 
 the most, and would be deeply obliged to the 
 King of France if he agreed to reconvert the 
 estate of Aubigny into a duchy for her, with 
 the reversion to her son and his future issue. 
 " Is not this outstepping all bounds } " wrote 
 Barrillon.^ " As an English duchess, she has 
 by courtesy the same honours in France as a 
 French duchess. But that does not satisfy 
 her. She must have them in virtue of letters 
 patent, and as a rigki sit on a tabouret when- 
 ever she may go to pay her respects to the 
 queen at Versailles." Louis did not regard 
 the application in the same light. Barrillon 
 
 ' Barrillon to Louis, Jan. 14, 1684. ^ Jan. 21, 16S4.
 
 276 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 was informed by return of post that the letters 
 patent to revive the Duchy of Aubigny were 
 being made out.^ This news was received 
 with the utmost gladness at Whitehall. When 
 Barrillon brought it to Charles there, he was 
 delighted, and ran across the room to tell it 
 to the Duchess of Portsmouth, who was over- 
 joyed ; and when it got out, she received the 
 congratulations of the whole Court. From 
 that hour she held so completely England in 
 her hands, that she was the real sovereio^n. 
 When she fell ill, in November, 1684, public 
 business came to a full stop.^ The king was 
 never out of her room. Inquiries were made 
 constantly about her state by the different 
 ambassadors ; and Barrillon was constantly 
 askings how she was, in the name of the Kingf 
 of France. Her malady was an opportunity 
 for him to grant her fresh privileges. She was 
 uneasy^ lest her son, he being a foreigner, 
 should not be able to inherit the money she 
 had invested in France. Without delay, Louis 
 
 1 The King to Barrillon, Jan. 21, 1684. The letters 
 patent are in Les Archives Nationales, tome xxviii. fol. 150. 
 ~ Barrillon to Louis, Nov. 15, 1684. 
 •'' Barrillon, Nov. 30, 1684.
 
 END OF THE REIGN. 277 
 
 issued letters of naturalization in favour of his 
 very dear and well-beloved cousin Prince 
 Charles Lennox, Duke of Richmond, who, 
 as well as his mother, was to enjoy all the 
 privileges, franchises, and liberties to which 
 gentlemen were entitled in the kingdom of 
 France.^ 
 
 The riches heaped up in the apartments of 
 the Duchess at Whitehall, scandalized the 
 English. She was always building and pulling 
 down her rooms at extravagant expense. On 
 rising in the morning she received in her loose 
 undress gown, surrounded by young girls ; and 
 sitting before her toilet mirror she gave 
 audiences to courtiers. She had that gift of 
 nature to Bretons of both sexes — a splendid 
 head of hair, which a maid combed out when 
 she was receiving visitors. Her sanctuary was 
 reached by galleries and saloons hung with 
 exquisite French stuffs, and with Gobelins 
 tapestries, then newly invented, representing 
 the twelve palaces of the great king. Inlaid 
 cabinets, tables, desks, and buffets, Japan 
 screens, finely carved timepieces, massive 
 
 ^ Registered Jan. 22, 1685. See Aff. Etr. Angleterre, 
 tome cli., fol. 230.
 
 278 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE 
 
 pieces of silver in profusion, ornaments and 
 rare pictures, at first delighted and dazzled, 
 and then surfeited the eye. This magnifi- 
 cence stirred the bile not only of Puritans, 
 but of men of the world who still retained 
 some honest feeling. They reflected that it 
 was not only the wages of a wanton, but of a 
 traitress, who, whenever her Royal paramour 
 embraced her, compassed how she might 
 bring him and the country he ruled into utter 
 servitude to France. The queen's rooms 
 seemed plain, compared to those of " Madam 
 Carwell," whose wardrobe was as fine as her 
 other belongings. The bills run up by her 
 sister, the Countess of Pembroke, whose luxury 
 was on an inferior scale, give some idea of the 
 style in which Court beauties at Whitehall 
 dressed. They were incurred in part for 
 gloves, ribbons, and other haberdashery fur- 
 nished by one Lesgu, a shopkeeper of Paris, 
 and Jaquillon Laurent, his wife, and are in the 
 French national archives. In the last three 
 months of 16S2 this couple sold to Lady Pem- 
 broke " twenty eight pairs of openwork white 
 gloves, with orange and amber scent, and 
 one pair of gloves costing thirty- three livres.
 
 END OF THE REIGN. 279 
 
 trimmed with ribbon, gold and silver at the 
 arms, and herring-boned in gold and silver 
 on the back of the hand ; seventy pairs of 
 gloves embroidered and fastened at the arm, 
 opening with strings and bows of point de 
 diamant ribbons ; twenty sashes and fringed 
 ends, in various embroideries and brocades." 
 The Earl of Pembroke dying, the gloves are 
 no longer perfumed with orange and amber, 
 but violet and hyacinth. All the fans are 
 mournino- ones ; and Qfold clocks are worked 
 on black silk stockings, which are fastened 
 up with feuille morte and silver garters. The 
 fontanges in golden crape are falling cravats. 
 They were called after a favourite of Louis 
 XIV,, who enjoyed his admiration for nine 
 months, and died giving birth to the fruit of 
 the amour. At the end of the twelve months' 
 mourninor flame-coloured bows of ribbon are 
 placed over the button-holes of some of the 
 gloves. On others there are flame and silver, 
 or orold and blue. Some of the orloves are to 
 match with a rose-coloured tablier, or front 
 breadth of the skirt, surrounded with " silver 
 clouds." When the Countess quitted her all- 
 powerful sister, to live permanently in France,
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 several ships were chartered to transport the 
 booty she was taking with her from England. 
 One bill of lading speaks of chests filled with 
 silk moiré, with Indian stuffs flowered with 
 silver, with Welsh flannel, with cabinets, guéri- 
 dons, lookinof-gflass frames. And such small 
 haberdashery as a hundred pounds weight of 
 pins and needles ; a hundred pounds of best 
 wax tapers, and several chests of dip candles, 
 with five pounds of iris-root scent. Another 
 bill of lading mentions : Seventeen dozen 
 gloves, thirteen pairs of silk stockings, thirty 
 pounds of Moka coffee, four bales of soap, a 
 chest of chocolate, a large chestful of Greek 
 currants, wax candles, a large chestful of spices, 
 including cloves, mace, ginger, nutmeg, and 
 cinnamon. In the bill of lading of the ship in 
 which the lady herself sailed, we find a pearl 
 necklace worth twenty thousand francs ; ear- 
 ring drops and clasps, idem, a miniature of 
 King- Charles set in brilliants, a basin and ewer 
 in carved silver, worth respectively 12,000, 
 20,000, and 4,000 livres ; several dozens of 
 massy silver plates and dishes, with salvers, 
 bowls, candlesticks, snuffers and snuft" trays, 
 goblets, chocolate mugs, spirits of wine heaters,
 
 END OF THE REIGN. 281 
 
 dish covers, dish heaters. The Countess's bed 
 is of crimson Genoa velvet, hung" in brocade, 
 with a white ground to the red pattern, and 
 satin lininofs for the curtains, head-board, and 
 canopy. The coverlet is of needlework point. 
 The other bedchamber furniture is composed 
 of a grand cabinet in old Chinese laquer : a 
 Chinese incense-burner in old silver ; twenty 
 rare and precious tapestries ; a very rich and 
 grotesque screen ; many teapots ; Chinese and 
 Japanese curiosities ; much other household 
 furniture ; coaches, ' chaises, Sedan chairs ; a 
 whole set of kitchen utensils, with pewter 
 platters for the servants' hall. 
 
 Voluptuousness reigned at Whitehall, where, 
 listeninof to the French melodies of Francois 
 Duperrier, or to erotic songs sung by children, 
 the sleepy Charles was to be seen in the grand 
 gallery, reclining between his three favourites, 
 who were in the full bloom of womanhood. 
 He was decrepit and aged although but fifty- 
 two. The ladies with whom he toyed and 
 chatted were dazzlingly fresh and magnificently 
 attired ; and gold (lowed with a soft chink on 
 the basset tables, whicli were lighted up with 
 wax candles. It was in the Whitehall gallery
 
 282 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 that he passed his evenings with the Duchesses 
 of Portsmouth and Mazarin, in the winter of 
 1684-85. There had been premonitory signs 
 of a break-down of constitution, and a more 
 than ordinary aversion to mental effort. His 
 Breton mistress more than ever spared him 
 the trouble of transacting State business, by 
 managing it all with Barrillon and the corrupt 
 intriguers who at last accepted her as queen 
 in all but name. She held the reins of such 
 government as there was ; and the King of 
 France no longer felt that Great Britain was 
 an obstacle to his ambitious plans. He was to 
 strike another blow in the end of March, which 
 would give him solid supremacy, not only in 
 Europe, but in Asia, Africa, and America, It 
 seemed that in a few months more Holland was 
 to be a French province, and all the Dutch 
 colonies to pass under the dominion of Louis. 
 But the work of a single statesman, however 
 industrious, politic, and powerful, is always 
 fragile, and at the mercy of an accident On 
 the evening of February 12, 16S5, Charles, in 
 rising to withdraw from the grand gallery and 
 its dissipations, suddenly lost consciousness, and 
 fell. His face was contorted, and he s^ave no
 
 END OF THE REIGN. 283 
 
 sien of recognition to tlie courtiers who pressed 
 around him. Bhsters were clapped on his head, 
 his arms, and his legs. He was cupped between 
 the shoulders, bled, and emetics were poured 
 down his throat ; but nothing roused him from 
 his torpor, and he remained still unconscious 
 until one o'clock on the next day. A hot 
 warming-pan was then placed on his head, and 
 his jugular vein was opened. He was again 
 bled at four o'clock in the other arm, and the 
 blood flowed abundantly. 
 
 Nobody was prepared for the catastrophe, 
 and great were the tumult and confusion. The 
 Portuguese queen was clamorous in her 
 distress ; and the courtiers were fussy and 
 officious. The Duke of York coolly summoned 
 the leading statesmen who were not his open 
 enemies, to prepare to assert his rights to the 
 Crown. Servants ran hither and thither, not 
 knowing what to do, and having no one to 
 direct them. As for the French, they were in 
 consternation. The only person who showed 
 any head, or heart, was Louise de Keroualle, 
 who at once sent for Barrillon. 
 
 " I found her," he said, in the account he 
 transmitted to Versailles of this blow of destiny.
 
 284 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 " in great grief. But instead of bemoaning her 
 own sad and altered position, and her impend- 
 ing fall, she took me into a little room and 
 said : " Monsieur l'Ambassadeur, I am now 
 going to tell you a secret, although its public 
 revelation would cost me my head. The King 
 of England is in the bottom of his heart a 
 Catholic, and there he is, surrounded with 
 Protestant Bishops ! There is nobody to tell 
 him of his state or speak to him of God. I 
 cannot decently enter his room. Besides, the 
 queen is now there constantly. The Duke of 
 York is too busy with his own affairs to trouble 
 himself about the king's conscience. Go and 
 tell him that I have conjured you to warn him 
 that the end is approaching, and that it is his 
 duty to save without loss of time, his brother's 
 soul. 
 
 The motives of Louise probably were mixed. 
 Bretons are religious Catholics ; and then, in 
 showing that she was anxious for Charles to die 
 in the arms of the Church of Rome, it may be 
 supposed that she hoped to win the esteem and 
 kind regard of the Duke of York, to whom the 
 Crown was on the point of devolving. Be this 
 as it may, Barrillon hastened to the queen. A
 
 END OF THE REIGN. 285 
 
 priest was discovered who had found favour in 
 the eyes of Protestant Royalists for the sword- 
 cuts he had inflicted on Roundheads in the civil 
 war. He was taken to Chaffinch, the minister 
 of the king's amorous affairs, and introduced by 
 a back stair and secret corridor to the bedside 
 of the dying monarch. He took for granted 
 everything the Church required of the king, 
 and gave absohition. On the fifth day of his 
 illness, Charles died. An hour after his 
 decease, his brother, now James H., went to 
 see the Duchess of Portsmouth, and assured 
 her that she might trust in his friendship. He 
 had in doing so but one simple object in view 
 — to gfet Louis XIV. to continue the subven- 
 tion that he paid the late king. The Duchess 
 also placed her hopes in Louis, who, in answer 
 to a prayer transmitted by the medium of 
 Barrillon, that she might hope to be honoured 
 by his protection, wrote that it would be con- 
 tinued to her. This promise was the only 
 bright spot in her overclouded prospects. She 
 had sore need to ask for his assistance, which he 
 was prompt in giving. " I have learned with 
 surprise," he wrote to ^ his ambassador, " that 
 
 1 March 2, 1685
 
 286 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 the new King of England had deprived the 
 Duke of Richmond of the office of grand 
 equerry, notwithstanding the manner in which 
 the late king recommended this son of his to 
 his brother." As Louis held the purse, James 
 humbled himself before Barrillon, and multi- 
 plied his visits to the Duchess of Portsmouth. 
 He openly declared^ that what was said in 
 Holland about her would only have the effect 
 of making him pay her greater attention and 
 oro more often to see her. It is true, added 
 Barrillon, that he has been twice to her rooms 
 within the last few days, and has given her 
 numerous marks of confidence and esteem. 
 I am happy to find that she is beginning to 
 think her prospects less dark. She has ac- 
 cepted the reasons put forward by King James 
 for not leaving the place of grand equerry to 
 a boy of thirteen, who cannot fill it for many 
 years. In thus yielding, she hopes to be well 
 used in the settlement of other affairs of major 
 importance. She is now trying to get herself 
 confirmed in the income of ^19,000 allowed 
 her by King Charles. Lord Rochester is well 
 disposed towards her. She has pressed me 
 1 Barrillon to Louis, March 8, 16S5.
 
 END OF THE REIGN. 287 
 
 to let your Majesty know that a mark of your 
 esteem would be, in the present conjuncture, 
 of decisive importance to her, and that she 
 would thereby secure incomparably better 
 treatment, I have told her that I am com- 
 manded to render her every good office in 
 my power, and that I have even defended 
 her interests warmly in speaking to the king ; 
 that your Majesty has given her and the Duke 
 of Richmond the highest dignity that you can 
 confer ; and that her past services would be 
 remembered, even though your Majesty had 
 never promised in writing not to forget them. 
 I can see that she does not, apart from your 
 Majesty's protection, hope for much more from 
 France, than for a sum of money to pay her 
 debts and to buy a dwelling-house in Paris. 
 The King of England has told me that he had 
 obtained the promise of the Duchess of Ports- 
 mouth not to rear her son a Protestant, al- 
 though he must be classed as one, and that 
 if she keeps it he will do everything in his 
 power for him. 
 
 The power of the purse was the uppermost 
 one at this juncture. James and Louise were 
 hungering and manœuvring to obtain French
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 money. She knew herself to be held in horror 
 by the English, and that the pensions which 
 remained to her, and her share of the revenue 
 duties, could not be paid for a long time. 
 
 " It is generally rumoured," said Barrillon, 
 " that the Duchess of Portsmouth and Lord 
 Sunderland were the principal agents in bring- 
 ing your Majesty and the late King of England 
 into a close understanding. This is why they are 
 both hated by the whole country. The Duchess 
 apprehends attacks on her in the next Parlia- 
 ment, and she wishes therefore to hasten away 
 from Enorland before it has time to meet, and 
 to retire to France. She is not satisfied with 
 the treatment she has met with, and makes 
 no great secret of her discontent.^ His Bri- 
 tannic Majesty allows her a pension of three 
 thousand guineas for herself, and two thousand 
 for the Duke of Richmond. She sent him 
 word to give all the five thousand to her son, 
 because she would not trouble him on her 
 own account. She has, besides, two thousand 
 a year from a part of the confiscated estate 
 of Lord Grey, which, however, is to belong 
 to the Duke of Richmond when he is of age. 
 1 Barrillon to Louis, August 13, 16S5.
 
 END OF THE REIGN. 289 
 
 She claims the right to go on drawing from 
 twenty-five thousand to thirty thousand pounds 
 a year from the Irish taxes ; but she has not 
 yet been able to get herself confirmed in 
 the enjoyment of this income, which was 
 granted her by the late king. The disgust 
 so caused, along with the withdrawal from 
 her son of the post of grand equerry, has pro- 
 voked her into using plain speech ; and she 
 complains that the services rendered in obtain- 
 ing money for the expenses of the Crown of 
 England from your Majesty have been for- 
 gotten." 
 
 Whether James was too ungrateful or the 
 Duchess too greedy, it is hard at this distance 
 of time to say. But each had a well-accentu- 
 ated vice. The Duchess returned to France 
 with an English estate worth ;^5,ooo a year, 
 exclusive of the money she had invested in 
 France, or of her furniture, her jewels, her 
 ;^2,ooo a year during Richmond's minority 
 out of the confiscated Grey lands, or the 
 250,000 francs in gold that she drew the in- 
 stant Charles had drawn his last breath. The 
 poor Breton soldier's daughter, the humble maid 
 of honour of Madame Henriette, assuredly was 
 
 u
 
 290 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 not to be pitied. When the day of her de- 
 parture was fixed, she had the pleasure of 
 receiving a visit from the new king, who told 
 her he would befriend her and her son. 
 He allowed her to keep her rooms at White- 
 hall, spoke kindly to her son, and exhorted 
 him to embrace the true religfion. This she 
 wished him to do ; and she hoped that the 
 King of France would, later, find occasion 
 to complete the work of conversion begun by 
 King James, Her adroit mode of thus flat- 
 tering both monarchs, rendered her interesting 
 to them. She embarked in August, 1685, and 
 on landing proceeded to Versailles. 
 
 When she quitted the English shore, England 
 issued from its fifteen years of degrading and 
 dangerous moral torpor and servitude to 
 France. Not that James's palm itched less 
 for Tournois livres than that of Charles. But 
 his narrow and fanatical mind and his base 
 spirit brought his reign to a speedy close, and 
 afforded the opportunity to the arch-adversary 
 of Louis XIV. to ascend the throne of Enoland. 
 The disasters which his diplomatists had ap- 
 prehended, and which Louise de Keroualle had 
 skilfully averted, overwhelmed France.
 
 END OF THE REIGN. 291 
 
 The diplomatic strategy which so marvel- 
 lously succeeded for fifteen years in paralyzing 
 England, and placing its government in a 
 foreign woman's hands, does not seem to have 
 been often repeated. Villars, however, boasted 
 of having been its imitator. Remarking ^ that 
 the Elector of Bavaria was brought into 
 the orbit of the Court of Vienna by the 
 Countess Von Kaunitz, he egged on that 
 prince to draw the young Countess Von Wilin, 
 a lady of the Empress, to Munich. She came, 
 but she was so stupid that the Marquis de 
 Villars soon found she would not help him 
 to break the chain in which the Countess Von 
 Kaunitz had bound the Elector. A young 
 Italian named Canossa took her place. This 
 enchantress had studied gallantry in Venice, 
 and was more beautiful than she had need to 
 be with her great cleverness and experience. 
 
 1 Mémoires of Comte de Vogué, published in 1687. See 
 analogous intrigues in the i8th century, in Le Secret du Roi, 
 par le Duc de Broglie, tome i., p. 368, and Louis XV. et la 
 Czarine Elisabeth^ by Albert Vandal, p. 62.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 IN RETIREMENT. 
 
 The Duchess of Portsmouth had still fifty long 
 years of life before her. She survived Charles 
 half a century ; and, after outliving most of 
 her contemporaries, died in the reign of Louis 
 XV., amid a generation who knew her not, 
 and whose eyes were turned towards other 
 horizons than those on which the courtiers of 
 Louis XIV. gazed. Monmouth was the first to 
 go down for ever. He plotted against James 
 II., and was coldly beheaded. His widow 
 married Lord Cornwallis. James II., dethroned 
 by his daughter, found a refuge at St. -Germain 
 en Laye. The Duchess of Cleveland, grown 
 old, and continuing irascible and a gambler, 
 became a widow in 1705, and married a second 
 time, in her sixty-fifth year. Beau Fielding, 
 who played false to her and ruined her. She 
 died in 1709. Her son, the Duke of Grafton,^ 
 
 ^ Henry, Dake of Grafton, born in 1663. created duke in 
 
 2Qa
 
 IN RETIREMENT. 293 
 
 was allowed to keep her pension, which has 
 been handed down to his posterity. He was 
 killed in fighting for King James against 
 Marlborough, his mother's paramour, at the 
 siege of Cork. Nell Gwynn for a short time 
 was outlawed by her creditors. But James, 
 who had promised Charles not to let her starve, 
 paid her debts, often made her presents, cleared 
 off the mortgage on her residence of Bestwood 
 Park, and paid for her funeral and grave. She 
 was buried, in 1687, in St. Martin's-in-the- 
 Fields. Her son, Charles Beauclerc, was the 
 ancestor of the present Duke of St. Alban's. 
 
 The blood of Charles H. runs in the veins 
 of many peers of the realm of Great Britain.^ 
 
 1675, with, — for a youth with a bar sinister on his arms, — the 
 strange motto of: "^/ decus et pretium recti." Married 
 Lady Isabella Bennet, Arlington's daughter. 
 
 ^ Of the children whom Charles II. owned, the following 
 grew up : James, Duke of Monmouth and Buccleugh, son 
 of Lucy Walters ; Mary, daughter of Lucy Walters ; Charlotte 
 Boyle Fitzroy, daughter of Viscountess Shannon ; Charles 
 FitzCharles and a girl, children of Catherine Peg ; Henry 
 Fitzroy, Duke of Grafton ; George, Earl of Northumberland, 
 and Charlotte Fitzroy, Countess of Sussex, the children 
 of the Duchess of Cleveland ; the two Beauclercs, sons of 
 Nell Gwynn ; the Duke of Richmond, son of Louise 
 de Keroualle ; Mary Tudor, daughter of Moll Davis, and
 
 294 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 The Duchess Mazarin shed floods of tears for 
 that monarch, to the astonishment of Saint 
 Evremond, who compared her to Artemisia, 
 and wondered why she troubled her head more 
 about him than for any of her other lovers. 
 She survived him fourteen years, and died in 
 1699 without ever having quitted England. 
 Bacchus consoled her as she descended towards 
 the grave. Her husband claimed her corpse, 
 and was overjoyed to obtain it. He took it 
 about with him for a year, from one estate to 
 another, and gave it temporary sepulture at 
 Notre Dame de Liesse, where the country folks 
 treated it as the remains of a saint, and touched 
 the coffin with their chaplets. He ended by 
 placing it in the same tomb with her famous 
 uncle in le College de Quatre Nations, now the 
 Palace of the Institute. The Duchess trans- 
 mitted her sovereign charms to her five grand- 
 daughters the De Mailly-Nesles, who, with the 
 Mancini blood, received the power to captivate 
 kinofs. The eldest was declared the mistress 
 
 married to the Earl of Derwentwater ; and Bénédicte Fitzroy, 
 Prioress of the Hôtel Dieu de St. Nicolas at Pontoise. 
 There was another Bénédicte, who was said to be an early 
 fruit of the amour of Henrietta jNIaria and Lord Jermyn.
 
 IN RETIREMENT. 295 
 
 of Louis XV. in 1 735, some months after Louise 
 de Keroualle's death, and was a little later 
 cut out by the second, who was eclipsed by 
 the third, who had in turn to make way for 
 the fifth/ Barrillon become the inseoarable 
 friend of Madame de Sévigné, and died, rich, 
 fat, and old, in 1691. 
 
 The Duchess of Portsmouth had the morti- 
 fication, on arriving in France, to find her sister 
 in an interesting state, and forced to own that 
 she had privately married the Marquis de 
 Thois, governor of Blois.^ The young Duke 
 of Richmond entered the Catholic Church, but 
 was not for that the less corrupt and vicious. 
 He relapsed to Anglican Protestantism, or 
 rather lived and died a godless life, and was to 
 its end plunged in drunkenness and debauchery. 
 From being one of the handsomest young men 
 in Eneland he became the most hideous old rake. 
 
 The Duchess of Portsmouth went back to 
 England a year after she left it. Whether this 
 journey appeared suspicious to Louis XIV., or 
 
 1 The five granddaughters of Madame Mazarin were the 
 Duchesses de Mailly-Nesles, de Vintimille, de Lauraguis, 
 de Flavacount, and de la Toumelle. 
 
 * See Dangeau, t. i., Feb. 5, 1685.
 
 296 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 whether, as Saint Simon avers/ she dared to 
 talk too freely of Madame de Maintenon, an 
 order was given to Lou vois to draw up a lettre 
 de cachet for her exile. The minute of this 
 letter was on Louvois' desk when Courtin 
 entered his cabinet. He took up the paper, 
 and on reading it protested. No doubt she 
 had been in fault, but even so, it would be a 
 mistake to go further than to warn her. To 
 exile her after the services she rendered, would 
 be to dishonour the kinof. Louis, to whom 
 Courtin defended her, burned the lettre de 
 cachet, and admitted the Duchess to a long 
 conversation, from which she issued greatly 
 satisfied.^ 
 
 Her interests obliged her to be in constant 
 relations with England. In July, 1688, she 
 made up a match between her niece, the 
 daughter of the Earl and Countess of Pembroke, 
 and the son of Jeffreys, the hanging judge. 
 Her correspondence with English kinsfolk and 
 friends was often denounced ; and the denuncia- 
 
 1 Saint Simon's notes on Dangeau. 
 
 2 Dangeau and Saint Simon differ in some points on this 
 interview ; and Saint Simon is not in full agreement with 
 himself, in the Papiers Iticdiis recently published by Hachette.
 
 IN RETIREMENT. 297 
 
 tions obliged her to make humiliating explana- 
 tions. On January ist, 1689, the young Duke 
 of Richmond presented himself at the king's 
 coucher, to speak in favour of his mother. 
 Louis told him that he knew both of them too 
 well to have suspected them for a moment. 
 However, to draw certain revenues, they were 
 obliged to pay their court to William of Orange. 
 The Duchess of Portsmouth got Henry Sidney, 
 Algernon's brother, to remind him of the 
 evenings he spent at her rooms at Whitehall, 
 and how she intrigued for him, against Mon- 
 mouth. But the Revolution of 1688 had upset 
 many of the fortunes granted out of the reve- 
 nue by Charles H. Even her income out of 
 the Post Office returns, which the Duchess of 
 Portsmouth thought so sure, was suspended. 
 She was informed simultaneously that none of 
 her English pensions would be paid until further 
 orders ; that her apartments at Whitehall, with 
 all her sumptuous furniture, had been burned ; 
 and that her father was dying. The Duke of 
 Richmond absconded from her to England, with 
 out letting her know where he was going. She 
 sent word to Louis, that she could not doubt of 
 her son's folly ; and that, believing he had gone
 
 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 over to the Prince of Orange, she was ready to 
 die of despair. 
 
 This despair was all the more real, because 
 Louis had granted the young scamp a pension 
 of twenty thousand livres — which, in a degree, 
 consoled his mother for the loss of her Eng- 
 lish emoluments. But Avhilst misfortunes were 
 crowdings on her, the Kino; of France did not 
 abandon her. He transferred to her a part of 
 the pension which her son had abandoned. 
 
 From this time she devoted herself to the 
 management of her estate of Aubigny, and 
 exerted for the benefit of her serfs what in- 
 fluence remained to her. Owing to the per- 
 sistent patronage of Louis, her position in 
 France remained a good one. The collections 
 of portrait engravings of the principal Court 
 ladies ^ always included the likeness of the 
 
 ^ Five engravings of the series, executed at this period, 
 represent the Duchess of Portsmouth as Venus, and her son 
 as Cupid, against whose arrows a Sphinx protects her, Chez 
 Marridie, Rue St. Jacques ; in a loose undress on a couch, 
 Chez Barry, Graveur, Rue St. Jacqiies ; an imitation of the 
 preceding, R. B. del., chez N. Bonnart, Rue St. Jacques ; 
 toying with a glove and perroquet, Chez H. Bonnart, au Coq ; 
 with a cane (the mostcliarming of any), in which the Duchess's 
 back is shown, with her head turned round, Chez Trouvain, 
 Rue St. Jacques, 1695.
 
 IN RETIREMENT. 299 
 
 Duchess of Portsmouth. But her income fell 
 off rapidly. William of Orange grudged her 
 the smallest sum. In 1697 she obtained leave 
 to go to London, and Louis spoke with much 
 kindness on the subject.^ William, who divined 
 the object of her journey, and had no wish to 
 let her fill her purse with guineas, sent her word 
 that he would prevent her landing. 
 
 So, she was oblio^ed to face her creditors. 
 Procurators' pens ran on slips of parchment, 
 which bailiffs served on her ; and her chattels 
 were on the point of being seized and sold. 
 Louis again saved her. By a decree signed in 
 Council, he ordered her creditors to desist from 
 pursuing her for a year. When that period 
 elapsed, there were fresh writs, followed by fresh 
 petitions to the king to intervene, " The state 
 of the Duchess of Portsmouth's affairs," it was 
 set forth in an order of Council, " does not allow 
 her at present to discharge the debts that she 
 has contracted, for which cause, her creditors 
 harassing and pursuing her, she is obliged to 
 have recourse to his Majesty's authority, and 
 humbly to supplicate him in his good pleasure 
 to stay these pursuits ; and whereas, in con- 
 1 Dangeau, t. iv. p. 207.
 
 300 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 sideration of the said Duchess's petition, his 
 Majesty in Council has prorogued and prorogues 
 for a full year, ending September 9th, 1700, 
 the effect of the writs obtained by such creditors, 
 or any which may be within that time taken 
 out ; and his Majesty forbids all the creditors of 
 the said Duchess during that period to make 
 any seizure of her furniture, equipages, or other 
 chattels belonging to her, under pain of nullity 
 of proceedings, the payment of all costs and 
 damages." 
 
 Year after year the petition was renewed, 
 and always received with favour. To protect 
 this woman in the enjoyment of her ill-gotten 
 gains, Louis suspended the course of justice, 
 ruined tradesmen who sold in good faith, and 
 shook the security of commercial transactions. 
 She had only to write to him, that the present 
 state of her affairs did not allow her to pay her 
 debts, and the sovereiofn's hand was stretched 
 out to drive away her creditors. There were 
 identical orders of Council in 1699, in 1700, on 
 Oct. 5, 1 701, on Oct. 2, 1702, and 1703, and 
 on Dec 10, 1704, and Dec. 30, 1705.^ In 
 
 1 Archives Nationales de France, E. 191 7 ; E. 1924- E. 
 C929; E. 1933.
 
 IN RETIREMENT. 301 
 
 1 706 the unfortunate tradesmen were able to 
 find protectors, and began to defend them- 
 selves before the Council from abuses of the 
 royal authority. The Sieurs Galpin, Pillet, and 
 Lefevre presented balances coming to a total 
 of 130,926 livres, 16 sols. The Duchess had 
 put them off by paying an instalment on a total 
 of 160,000 livres, recoverable in eight years 
 on the rents of Aubigny, in the proportion of 
 20,000 livres annually. The order of Council 
 did not deign to look into this contract. It 
 only took cognisance of the distressed lady's 
 prayer. The wars between France and Eng- 
 land having, she represented in 1706, with- 
 drawn from her during fourteen years a pension 
 of 150,000 livres, accorded her by the late 
 King Charles, she was, to keep up her rank, 
 obliged to borrow money, and often to live on 
 credit." "But," pleaded the creditors, "it 
 cannot have been the intention of his Majesty 
 to place the said lady in the enjoyment of an 
 income which she has assigned them." ^ The 
 Council decided that the creditors to whom the 
 rents of Aubigny were conveyed, in the propor- 
 
 ^ Archives Nat., E. 1934, du 20 Juin 1703.
 
 302 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 tion of 20,000 livres a year for eight years, were 
 not to be meddled with ; but that the others, 
 who claimed as large a sum, were to get no- 
 thing. This order of Council, as inconsistent 
 with French law as with natural justice, was 
 made " in order to ensure facilities to the said 
 Duchess for the payment of her debts." There 
 was another similar order ^ranted for two 
 years, ^ beginning on April 28, 1710. 
 
 The gratitude of Louis for the services ren- 
 dered such a long time previously only died 
 with him. The Duchess was not only pro- 
 tected against her creditors, but against the 
 States of Brittany and the administration of 
 the Crown Domain. 
 
 The Duchess had, in the beo-innino- of the 
 last century, the rare piece of good fortune to 
 be "evicted for reasons of public utility." The 
 poor manor house of her father, overlooking 
 the port of Brest, was comprised in the evic- 
 tions which the creation of arsenals, rope- 
 walks, and naval stores would necessitate. 
 But Louis XIV. had decided that the price 
 of the properties situated at Brest, in the 
 borough of the Recouvrance, was to be paid 
 ' Arch. N'at.^ E. 1937; E. 1952, fol. 57.
 
 IN RETIREMENT. 303 
 
 for, on the eviction of the owners, by the 
 States of Brittany. They tried not to pay, 
 and then contested the valuations. The 
 Duchess of Portsmouth, whose paternal manor 
 was in the borough of the Recouvrance, ap- 
 plied to the Comptroller-general of Finances, 
 and obtained an order of the Council granting 
 her 56,122 livres, payable by the Exchequer of 
 the States of Brittany. Only the half of it was 
 paid, and a new order was petitioned for and 
 obtained.^ The treasurer of Brittany was 
 commanded to pay it on the king's authority, 
 which covered his responsibility, and not to be 
 impeded by anything which the States might 
 have determined. But this functionary had 
 not faith in the validity of the command he 
 received. He fell back on the petitions of 
 other landowners near Brest, who stood out 
 against any one claimant being paid in full 
 while the other creditors were only partially 
 satisfied. This difficulty was settled by a 
 further order to pay every one in full. 
 
 The Duchess had a sharp appetite for public 
 
 1 For all the proceedings in this affair see Archives 
 Nationales^ Feb. 26, 1704, E. 741; 242; July 6, 1704, 
 E. 1927 ; July 1, 1704, E. 746.
 
 304 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 money. When the governor of the province 
 in which Aubigny was situated offered for sale 
 the functions of surveyors and valuators of 
 land, with liberty to sit as royal notaries, she 
 entered a protest, and claimed the exclusive 
 right, in virtue of her seigneurial privileges, to 
 sell these functions/ The Council, to which she 
 appealed, ruled in her favour.'- But if she was 
 so keen in defending any old usage that helped 
 to swell her income, she was equally ready to 
 evade all seigneurial obligations. The Château 
 of Aubigny fell out of repair. She pleaded 
 that it was for the Crown to keep it up, inas- 
 much as it was an appanage which, in the 
 event of her posterity becoming extinct, would 
 revert to the Royal Domain. She could not, 
 therefore, be bound to make any great and 
 necessary repair. Now, the roof was falling 
 in, the chapel had gone to ruin, and the forests 
 had to be replanted. The plea was accepted. 
 
 Towards the close of the Great Kino^'s 
 reign the Exchequer was impoverished, and 
 the Duchess's allowances fell into arrear. She 
 
 •'• Arch. Nat., July i, 1704, E. 746. 
 
 2 Arret du 20 Janvier, 1707, Arch. Nat.., E. 776
 
 IN RETIREMENT. 30$ 
 
 again applied, and not in vain, to the Comp- 
 troller-general. 
 
 After the death of Louis XIV., begging 
 supplications were sent up to the Regent, who 
 augmented her pension from 1 2,000 to 20,000 
 and then to 24,000 livres} She was then 
 wholly converted — a penitent, in debt, and ob- 
 liged to live entirely in the country. The ser- 
 vices she rendered to the French cause when 
 she was the all-powerful mistress of Charles, 
 were still remembered. However, she had 
 learned by hard experience not to trust to 
 pensions. When she saw the financial crash 
 of the Regency coming on, she proposed that 
 her pension should be commuted into a go- 
 vernment debenture, and prevailed upon the 
 Reeent to sign the followinaf order. 
 
 " M. Pierre Gruyn, the keeper of the Royal Treasury, is 
 hereby ordered to pay in ready money to Madame Louise 
 Rene'e de Penancoat de Keroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth 
 and Aubigny, the sum of 600,000 livres, which have been 
 accorded to her by the king, to be employed in buying a 
 life-annuity, payable out of his Majesty's Exchequer, and 
 to replace the pension of 24,000 livres which was partially 
 granted her by the late king and partially by his present 
 
 ^ Dangeau, June 20, 1718, t. xvii., p. 329. 
 
 X
 
 3o6 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 Majesty, in consideration of the great services she has ren- 
 dered France, and to enable her to support her rank and 
 dignity. Signed on 28th October, 1721. — 
 
 Philippe d'Orléans." ^ 
 
 The Duchess of Portsmouth's son, the Duke 
 of Richmond, died in 1723. Two years later 
 her sister Henriette, Countess of Pembroke and 
 Marquise de Thois, felt that her end was near,^ 
 and had a notary fetched to her house in the 
 Rue de Varennes, on May 12, 1725. There 
 "seated in an arm-chair in a ground-floor room, 
 looking on the garden of the said hotel, she 
 dictated her will, and died on May 24. Louise 
 survived her nine years, and in that time never 
 quitted Aubigny.^ She there founded a con- 
 vent of hospital nuns, who equally divided their 
 time between the education of the young and 
 the care of the sick. She also spent freely 
 in decorating churches. In October, 1734, she 
 went to Paris to consult a doctor, and died on 
 November 14, at the age of eighty-five. She 
 was buried in the church of the Barefooted 
 Carmelites, where there was a chapel of the 
 
 1 MS. Bibl. Nat., t. 50417. 
 
 2 Arc/!. Arat.,t. 152 ; 6. 
 
 ' Mercji7-e de France, Nov. 1734, p. 2533.
 
 IN RETIREMENT. 307 
 
 Des Rieiix, who still were proud of being of 
 her kindred. Louise's English descendants, 
 who lived in England on the wages of her 
 double iniquity, neglected body and tomb, but 
 made haste to enter into possession of the 
 fief of Aubigny. Its Château, in the reign of 
 Louis XVL, was lent to the Duchess of Lein- 
 ster by her brother, the Duke of Richmond. 
 That lady was then the wife of M, Ogilby. 
 She took with her to Aubigny her son, Lord 
 Edward Fitzgerald, who spent some years 
 there in his boyhood, in ignorance of the story 
 of how it came into his relative's hands. 
 Aubigny was taken from the Richmond family, 
 when fiefs were abolished by the Revolution. 
 But the pension the grasping Duchess of 
 Portsmouth extracted from the unpatriotic 
 Charles IL, and which was sequestrated by 
 William of Orange, was restored to her son ; 
 and the British Parliament, which thinks 
 £1,200 a year enough to relieve the distressed 
 families of authors, artists, scientists, and 
 other benefactors of their country, continues 
 to pay the Duke of Richmond ^19,000 a 
 year in virtue of the secret services rendered 
 to Louis XIV. by his ancestress Louise de
 
 3o8 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 Keroualle. While thus Great Britain heaps 
 weahh on her descendants, France has suffered 
 her memory to fall into oblivion, and still owes 
 her the statue which she so well earned, for 
 enabling the most brilliant of her monarchs 
 to conquer Flanders, Alsace, and le Franche 
 Comté, and to bring Holland for a short time 
 within his grasp.
 
 fitters of thj 
 DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH.
 
 In giving the following letters, the Translator 
 thought better not to attempt a translation, 
 because all that shows a total absence of educa- 
 tion in them is untranslatable. " Le style, cest 
 r homme ;" and, perhaps in a greater degree, le 
 style, cest la femme. Louise de Keroualle has 
 no style whatever. She spells like a serving- 
 wench who has taken to gallantry, and, apt to 
 write love letters, is not mistress of her pen, 
 and shows in the inability to say plainly what 
 she wants to express, a disposition lacking 
 frankness. Although orthography was not 
 fixed in her time, there was a current mode 
 of spelling among men and women of good 
 breeding. Well-bred women, in the seven- 
 teenth century, were well read and were ad- 
 mirable letter-writers. Nobody knew better 
 how to say just what she wanted, without
 
 312 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 surplusage or baldness, than Madame de Main- 
 tenon. And who was ever more skilled in 
 using elegant language for the purpose of 
 saying nothing, when she had to write a good 
 deal and appear effusive ? This is shown in 
 her letters to the Princesse des Ursins, when 
 that diplomatic lady was directing Philip V. and 
 his wife, or later, trying to inveigle that king 
 into making her his second wife. Madame 
 de Sévigné was so spontaneous and frank that 
 one can almost see the workings of her heart 
 and brain in her letters. Madame de Montes- 
 pan gave the clear, sharp stamp of a coin to 
 the ideas that circulated around her. The 
 Princesse des Ursins and the Comtesse 
 d'Aulnoy were at the court of Madrid what 
 Lady Wortley Montague long after was at 
 Stamboul. These women were prepared by 
 severe mental drill in youth to be the bright 
 and unconscious chroniclers of their time ; and 
 belonged to sets priding themselves on scholarly 
 taste, which then took a tinge from Spain 
 and a strong colour from Italy. Madame de 
 Sévigné was at home in the Italian poets, 
 which she read in their own tongue, and in 
 the Latin authors ; and she was at once a
 
 LETTERS OF DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH. 313 
 
 bookish, a brilliantly sociable, and a business 
 woman. She called ignorance, by which she 
 meant non -acquaintance with the standard 
 books, ancient and modern, of her time, an 
 " ugly beast." The library of Hortense Man- 
 cini, Duchess Mazarin, was, when she was a 
 refugee in London, one of the subjects of table 
 talk at Whitehall and St. James's. Ninon 
 d'Enclos, the enchantress of three generations, 
 divined in her old age the part Voltaire was 
 likely to play in the world, and gave the first 
 impetus to his literary career by leaving him 
 her books. 
 
 The brilliant French women of Louise de 
 Keroualle's time, save Mdlle. de la Valliere, 
 were maîtresses femmes — a term for which 
 strong-minded women is not quite an equiva- 
 lent. They were women of initiative and of 
 genius, which is always an independent thing, 
 and bears trammels uneasily. Madame de 
 Sévigné's genius was governed by her mater- 
 nal passion, and strengthened by good sense. 
 Mesdames de Montespan and de Maintenon 
 were, in the bottom of their hearts, merely 
 ambitious of cfoverninc^ the ablest and most 
 self-willed monarch of their time ; and they
 
 314 LOUISE DE KERO L'ALLE. 
 
 succeeded — one by her wit and her imperious 
 temper, and the other by her strength and 
 coolness of head, and her reposeful, simple, 
 elegant conversation, and her craft. 
 
 A little later, two of the illegitimate daugh- 
 ters of Louis the Fourteenth turned out to 
 be the most accomplished rhyming lampoonists 
 that ever used the French tonofue for a ribald 
 and malignant use. They possessed the spirit 
 and the form of the chanson in a no less 
 degree than Déranger. But they polluted all 
 they touched, graceful and light as their muse 
 was, for they went in the way of the old 
 Princess Palatine in grossness, and had a 
 pruriency of feeling for which their origin 
 accounted. Their grand position was, I may 
 here remark, due to the example set by Charles 
 II. and its action on the court of Versailles. 
 Those accounts given by French ambassadors 
 for the private reading of their King, of the 
 goings on in the seraglio at Whitehall, and of the 
 English king's prodigality in giving pensions 
 and duchies to the children bred therein, doubt- 
 less helped to break down that respect for what 
 was seemly, which Evelyn and other English- 
 men so much noticed in Louis the Fourteenth,
 
 LETTERS OF DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH. 315 
 
 and contrasted with the disregard for decency 
 of the merry monarch in saddhng his ladies 
 and their offspring on the nation. May not 
 the desire that Louis so often showed, to hear 
 all about the corruptions of the English 
 court and the shamelessness of Charles in 
 giving dukeries to these children, have arisen 
 from a secret wish to find in his bad example 
 a pretext for legitimizing and enriching the 
 offspring of Mademoiselle de la Vallière and 
 Madame de Montespan ? The existence of the 
 sons and daughters of both ladies was kept 
 long a mystery. Madame de Maintenon took 
 charge as governess of the Montespan lot, 
 which were hidden away at Issy. Evelyn, 
 when in France, noticed the care taken to keep 
 them out of sight. It was only when the mind 
 of Louis was saturated with letters about 
 Whitehall that he thoucrht of leo-itimizino- and 
 heaping appanages on his illegitimate sons and 
 securino- the most brilliant matches in France 
 for the daughters. To do him justice, he did 
 not seek so much to enrich them at the cost of 
 the country as at the cost of his elderly and 
 eccentric cousin la Grande Mademoiselle, or 
 rather, at that of M. de Lauzun, a Gascon who
 
 3i6 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 made fascinating the fair the business of his 
 life, and had infatuated the princess in ques- 
 tion. The evil communications of the French 
 ambassadors in London corrupted, there is 
 room to believe, the good manners of their 
 master. 
 
 The mission to which nature called Louise 
 de Keroualle, was to be a conscious tool ; and 
 her main ambition, to be la courtesane la mieux 
 ejitreteuue en Eîcrope. She had much subtlety 
 and social tact, but little or none of that sym- 
 pathy for ideas which made some of the most 
 brilliant Frenchwomen of her day revel in the 
 lofty ethics of Corneille, and quit cards and 
 other dissipations to hear Bossuet discourse on 
 " la vie cachée en Dieu^ or Bourdaloue exert 
 his penetrating eloquence in teaching those 
 whom he exhorted to strengthen themselves 
 for a higher life by prayer. The big sprawling 
 handwriting of the woman is as full of signifi- 
 cance as her spelling. A facsimile of the 
 former is eiven in this volume. It is that of a 
 child who has hardly got beyond writing m's 
 and n's in large copy-book characters. This 
 is to some extent a sign of an inactive mind 
 and a poor heart. An affectionate woman must
 
 LETTERS OF DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH. 317 
 
 have scribbled often and at length to friends 
 and relatives whom she left behind in quitting 
 her home-country. She would have packed a 
 deal into small space, letter-paper and postage 
 between France and England being very dear, 
 and the opportunities for sending letters from 
 one country to another being rare and irregular. 
 Use would have made her mistress of her pen. 
 The fact of Louise de Keroualle beinof in a 
 foreign and a hostile country, the tongue of 
 which she never mastered, oug-ht to have been 
 a stimulus to the epistolary faculty. We must 
 conclude that this gift was altogether wanting 
 in her, and that she was one of those character- 
 less women whom Pope best liked. An inde- 
 pendent and an active intellect would have 
 been in her way. It was her business to take 
 cues from the French Embassy, and she did 
 this with docility, and, because of her lazy 
 brain, sans trop de zèle. This laziness is shown 
 in her handwriting. The pen snails along la- 
 boriously because the thoughts shape them- 
 selves slowly. Wealth and luxury were the 
 grand objects of her life. She wanted them 
 both for herself and her son, and certainly suc- 
 ceeded well in getting them. It is not to the
 
 3i8 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 credit of England that this woman, whose cour- 
 tesan-level of mind would have withheld her 
 from attaining distinction at Versailles, directed 
 the policy of Charles II. for so many years. 
 
 G. M. C
 
 TO HENRY SIDNEY. 
 Letter published in the diary of Henry Sidney, vol. ii., p. 307. 
 
 Paris, 8 mars 1689. 
 Je sais toutes les bontés avec lesquelles vous avez 
 parlé de moi, Monsieur, dont je vous suis infiniment 
 obligée. Vous savez combien toute ma vie j'ai été 
 dans vos intérêts de vous et de vos amis. De mon 
 côté je ne suis point changée, et l'on ne peut prendre 
 plus de part à tout ce qui vous regarde que je fais. 
 Que mon absence ne me nuise donc non plus auprès 
 de vous, et veuillez, en ce qui dépendra de vous, de 
 bonne foi protéger mes intérêts. Vous savez qu'ils 
 sont si attachés à ceux du duc de Richmond que l'on 
 ne les peut séparer. Je ne doute point que le souvenir 
 que vous avez de qui il a l'honneur d'être fils, ne 
 vous porte davantage à nous continuer votre amitié 
 que je souhaite trésfort et pour l'un et pour l'autre. 
 Vous voulez bien que je vous supplie d'avoir un peu 
 de bonté pour M. Hornby qui est celui qui vous 
 rendra cette lettre. Il est tout à fait dans mes in- 
 térêts et de mes amis. Ce me scroit un grand plaisir 
 
 319
 
 320 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 si je pouvois autant compter sur vous. Il est sûr, 
 mon cher oncle, que vous ne pouvez jamais être des 
 amis de qui que ce soit qui soit plus des vôtres, ni 
 qui vous honore plus parfaitement que 
 
 L., duchesse DE PORTSMOUTH. 
 
 II. 
 
 TO THE COMTE DE PONTCHARTRAIN. 
 
 Letter preserved in the National Archives, G', contrôle géné- 
 ral des finances, and published in the Mîcsée des Archives, 
 n° 897. p. 540. Original autograph document. 
 
 Paris, 4 octobre 1692. 
 L'extresme misère dais abistans et dais paysant à 
 I'antour d'Aubignie, qui est ma duché, me fait. Mon- 
 sieur, avec instence vous conjurer d'avoyr pitiés du 
 malheureux estât où il sont réduyt, tams par la grande 
 charge de taille et des ustensille qu'ils ont tous les 
 ans, que par le malheur qu'ils ont eu d'une grelle qui 
 les a tous grellé st'anné. Ils sont sy accablé et sy 
 peu annestat de payer qu'ils abandonnent et la ville 
 et la taire. C'est ce qui fait. Monsieur, que j'ose vous 
 conjurer par pitiés d'an avoyr pour eux, et de vouloyr 
 mander à M. de Ceraucour, intandant de Bourge, de 
 les vouloir exsanter de jens de guerre st'anné, et de 
 vouloyr leur diminuer la taille, estent apsollumant 
 une taire ruynée, sy vous n'avés ste bontés-là pour 
 moy. Monsieur, ne me la refussé pas, estent une 
 vrais charisté, et la misère y estent au délias de ce
 
 LETTERS OF DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH. 321 
 
 que vous pouvés vous ymaginer. Pardonés moy 
 mais fréquantes inportunistés, vous m'avés permis de 
 conter sur vos bontés esssentiellement : ainsy, Mon- 
 sieur, ge m'adresse à vous avec confiance. 
 
 L., duchesse DE Portsmouth. 
 
 III. 
 
 TO CHAMILLART. 
 
 Letter preserved in the British Museum, Ms. Add'»' 18675, f° 74- 
 Original autograph document. 
 
 De Paris, ce 2 d'avril 1701. 
 Sachant et connessant, Monsieur, lais anbarras 
 d'afaire que vous avez, je n'ë ossê tous se tems cy 
 vous trop presser et vous conjurer de vouloyr pancer 
 à moy comme vous m'avés fait la grasse de me le 
 promestre. O nom de Dieu, Monsieur, ayés assês de 
 bonté pour moy et de pitié pour ma triste sirconstance 
 pour vouloyr m'accorder le payeumant dais quinsse 
 mille franc que vous m'avés dist que le Roy ordonest 
 que je touchasse à pressant, et acordés moy l'expé- 
 dission de mon arrest pour le surplus ; que je me flate, 
 Monsieur, que vous ne me forés le tord de mettre cy 
 bas mais interais que M. Pelltier les a réduyts ; que 
 je vous aye donc la sansible obligassion, Monsieur, 
 que je ne perde poinst moytié par moytié, de con- 
 sidérer qu'estens sur les estais que je seré ancore bien 
 du tems sans toucher mon arjent. Ainsi, Monsieur, 
 ayés l'umanisté d'antrer dans mon malheureux estât 
 
 Y
 
 322 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 et que la liquidassion que vous voullés bien avoyr la 
 
 bonté de faire soyt en ma faveur et la plus avanta- 
 
 geusse qu'il vous sera possible ; car de vostre bonté 
 
 an sesy despand tous le bonneur et l'arengemant de 
 
 mais afaire ; je charge mon homme d'afaire d'avoyr 
 
 l'honneur de vous présenter sette lestre. Vous ores 
 
 la bonté de luy ordonner lais pas que vous treverés 
 
 bien que je fasse auprais de vous pour la terminesson 
 
 de sette afaire ycy ; donnés luy donc, s'il vous plest, 
 
 vos ordres avec autems de bonté que vous m'avés 
 
 permis d'espérer que vous oriés pour moy. J'osse 
 
 vous an conjurer très-instammant, Monsieur, et de 
 
 vouloyr bien croyre que vous n'an pouvés avoyr pour 
 
 personne qui estoyt plus vesristablement sansible ny 
 
 qui vous estimme et honnore cy parfaitement que 
 
 moy. 
 
 L., duchesse DE PORSTMOUT. 
 
 IV. 
 TO CHAMILLARD. 
 
 National Archives, G., 7. Original autograph document > 
 
 De Paris, ce 5 daoust 1702. 
 
 Permestez moy, Monsieur, dosser ancore vous de- 
 mander une grasse qui est seullement de me vouloir 
 faire mestre sur la feuille de distribution ; vous nan 
 pesrez pa plus tot sy vous ne le vouliez, mais si vous 
 
 ' This letter, and the eleven following, were discovered by 
 M. A. de Boislisle.
 
 LETTERS OF DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH. 323 
 
 me vouliez bien faire ce plesir la je trêve le moien 
 de macosmoder avec mais jens dafaire, sy vous me 
 donnez ceste marque de bonté. Ne me la refifusé 
 pas, Monsieur, je vous an conjure, car par là vous me 
 donerez le moien de sortir davec dais arabe qui me 
 tiranisse de toute manière. Soufré donc, Monsieur, 
 que je vous conjure de me donner ce secours et de 
 vouloir bien vous donner la penne de me faire savoir 
 sy vous orez ceste bonté pour moy. Je natems que 
 sella pour partir disy et finir et sortir absoHument 
 dafaire, sy je suis assé heureuse pour que vous veillez 
 bien me donner ce secours que je vous demande 
 instamment avec la justisse, Monsieur, de me croyre 
 la personne du monde qui vous estime, ayme et 
 honore le plus parfaistement. 
 
 L., duchesse de Portsmouth. 
 
 V. 
 
 TO DESMARETS. 
 
 Letter preserved in the National Archives, G., 7, 543. Orijjinal 
 autograph docur^iitiC. 
 
 De Paris, ce 20 mars 170?^. 
 
 Ne pouvant avoyr l'honneur de vous voir. Mon- 
 sieur, par le grand abattement qui me reste d'une 
 violente fiesvre et une etresipelle que je eu dans la 
 taite et sur tout le visage, je prant la liberté de vous
 
 324 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 escrire sais lignes pour vous suplier devouloir bien 
 vous resouvenir de la promesse que vous avez eu la 
 bonté de me faire auprès de M. Nicolle, qui anagist 
 le plus mal du monde avec moy car, depuis castre 
 moy, je ne pas pus parvenir a tirer un soult de luy 
 pour ma subsistance. Il a ma belle tapisserie dont 
 il se sert et qu'il gaste toute, et je me trêve pis que je 
 nettais avec Thévening, car au moins me payés til 
 rêguUiêsrement tout lay moy ; mais tapisserie ne 
 servoient poingt et estet fort soigneusement conservé ; 
 je ne luy donné que huit pour cent, jendonne dix à 
 icelluy cy, il touche mon revenu et il ne me payen 
 poingt et me lesse manquer de tout ; enfin s'yl ne luy 
 parest pas que vous macordyé une forte protection, je 
 n'en vienderé jamais about. Ne me la refussé pas, 
 Monsieur, je vous ansupli, et donnez-vous la penne de 
 luy parller comme luy marquant voullant estre obeys. 
 Josse espérer cet ésantiel servisse de vous. Monsieur, 
 et que vous serez persuadé que personne dans le 
 monde ne vous peut estimer et honorer sy parfaite- 
 ment que moy. 
 
 L., duchesse DE PORTSMOUTH. 
 
 Je prie Monsieur de de ce doner la 
 
 penne de vous rendre cette lettre, et de vous dire ce 
 dont je lé chargé ; soutenez-moi, je vous ansuplie.
 
 LETTERS OF DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH. 325 
 
 VI. 
 
 To DESMARETS. 
 
 Letter preserved in the National Archives, C, 7, 543. Original 
 autograph signed document.* 
 
 De Paris, ce 12 avril 1708, 
 Ma santé ne me permettant pas encore d'aller à 
 Versailles, Monsieur, je vous envoy le sieur Pinson 
 pour vous porter un mémoyre ; il vous expliquera, sy 
 vous vouliez bien macorder le plésir de luy doner un 
 mosmant dodyance, la conséquance que ce mest de 
 macorder la grasse que je vous demande ; je lieux de 
 me flater de vos bontés et desperer de vous tous lais 
 secours qui sont a vostre pouvoyr ; seiluy cy est 
 antiesremant, acordèlle moy donc, Monsieur, je vous 
 an conjure, la pronte expédission mest importente, et 
 vous le connesterez parce quil aura l'honneur de vous 
 dire. Josse espérer que vous macorderez cette 
 marque de Tinterait que vous me foite l'honneur de 
 prendre an môy comme à la personne du monde qui 
 sertennemant vous honore, ayme et estime le plus 
 parfaitement. 
 
 L., duchesse de Portsmouth. 
 
 * Some of the letters of Louise de Keroualle in the National 
 Archives are unsi'med.
 
 326 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE, 
 
 VII. 
 
 TO DESMARETS. 
 
 Letter preserved in the National Archives, G., 543, Original 
 document with the note, " Par le sieur de Lonchant." 
 
 De Paris, ce 9 juillet 1708. 
 Comme vous m'avez permis de conter sur vos 
 bontés, Monsieur, josse prandre la liberté de les 
 inplorer non an chosse qui vous peuvent estre a 
 charge, car sait ce que je visteré toujours, mai-s comme 
 vous mavez fait l'honneur de me dire dans le cos- 
 mancement que vous avez esté controlleur général ^, 
 que vous ne trouvesriez pas movais que je vous 
 présantasse* autems dafaire que on man donnerest qui 
 parussent rêsonnable, je mosse flater que vous avez 
 assé de bontés pour moy pour aymer autems et 
 j'espère mieux me faire du bien de cette manière cà 
 des personnes indisférente ; vous connaisse mais 
 besoings et le malheureux estât ou je suis et de quelle 
 conséquance me peut estre un secour comme selluy 
 sy qui ne fait tort a personne et qui notte rien dais 
 coffre du Roy ; ne me reffusé donc poingt vostre 
 protection. Vous m'aviez paru sy rempli de bonté, 
 d'amitié et de bonne vollonté pour moy devent destre 
 
 ' Desmarets only became contrôleur ge'néral in the month of 
 Febri'arv this year.
 
 LETTERS OF DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH. 2,2-i 
 
 dans le poste ou vous este, que josse me promestre, 
 Monsieur, que dans dais chosse comme celle-cy vous 
 me voudrez bien proqurer tous lais secour à ma 
 môvesse situassion qui despenderont de vous. Vous 
 vouliez donc bien me permettre de vous faire souvenir 
 par ce mémoyre, que je joingt à ma lettre, des deux 
 affaires que jus l'honneur de vous présenter la surveille 
 de vostre despart. La personne qui a l'honneur de 
 vous présanter ma lettre est le sieur de Longchant 
 qui me les a donné et qui est un homme fort indus- 
 trieux dans sait chosse là ; anfin, Monsieur, josse 
 espérer que je trevesré an vous dans dais chose qui ne 
 vous seront pas plus anbarrassante ny plus disficille 
 que selle sy, une vraie protection et un veristable et 
 essantielle ami, et que vous me feré la justisse destre 
 fortement persuadé que personne ne vous ayme, ne 
 vous estime et honore sy parfaitement que je le fais 
 véritablement. 
 
 L., duchesse DE PORTSMOUTH. 
 
 Permettez-moi de vous suplier de vous souvenir de 
 me faire mestre sur Testât de distribussion pour ma 
 pansion eschue depuis le commancement de juin.
 
 328 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 VIII. 
 TO DESMARETS. 
 
 Letter preserved in the National Archives, G, 7, 543. Original 
 autograph document. 
 
 De Paris, ce 18 juillet 1708. 
 J'osse espérer, Monsieur, que la grasse que vous 
 avez bien voullu accorder à monsieur le marquis de 
 Thoye a7t parllant mi sieur Volland pour luy, ne seras 
 pas retraite par vous conivie vionsietir le Diarquis de 
 Vallance ce le promest et quil la fait entandre au sieur 
 Voilant an hiy demandant six ou- sept jour pour an- 
 ployer sait sollicitassion auprais de vous. Je me flatte, 
 Monsieur, quelle noront nulle lieux et que vous orez 
 la bonté de nous continuer vostre protection, monsieur 
 de Thoye ayant toute lais sûretés à donner au sieur 
 Volland. Ne me refusez donc poingt ceste marque 
 de bonté et de consideration que josse vous dire, 
 Monsieur, que je mériste pas lais santimants d'amitiés 
 et destime que je pour vous comme pour un des plus 
 honneste homme du monde et qui a le plus de mérite 
 et que j'onnore le plus parlaitement. 
 
 L., duchesse DE PORTSMOUTH. 
 
 Permettez-moy ancore. Monsieur, d'osser vous 
 suplier de vous voulloyr souvenir de moy pour ma 
 pansion qui est escliue depuis le cosmancement du 
 moy passé.
 
 LETTERS OF DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH. 329 
 IX. 
 
 TO DESMARETS. 
 National Archives, G, 7, 543. Original autograph document. 
 
 De Paris, ce 8 daoust 1708. 
 La maniesre obligente avec laquelle vous me fiste 
 la grasse, Monsieur, dantrer dans mes interais quant 
 jus l'honneur de vous parller de ceste grande afaire 
 des billiey de monoye manhardy de vous importuner 
 de sais ligne-sy, pour vous représenter quelle doyt 
 parestre a un homme aussy escléré que vous, sy 
 aventajeuse pour le servisse du Roy quelle mériste 
 que vous y donniez toute vostre atantion, afin de la 
 conclure insesemmant et que ceux qui l'entreprennent 
 puisse travailler à s'arenger là dessu. Ainsy j'espère, 
 Monsieur, que vous leur manderez insesamment de 
 vous aller trever a Fonteneblaux. Monsieur Nicollas 
 man a entretenue à fond et dans mon peux de juge- 
 ment, je trêve qui la possède sy bien que rien ne 
 peut manquer de leur part a l'exéqution. Il m'a 
 paru quil a fait de sérieuse réflecsion sur tous lais 
 événemens et quil ne craing auqun inconvénient pour 
 vous ny pour eux. Je ne voye an luy qu'un très 
 grand selle pour vostre service et une franchise qui 
 lobligerest d'abandonner lafaire, syl nestet persuadé 
 que vous y orez de grands avcntages et baucoup
 
 330 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 donneur dedans et dehor du royaume, et cy je nestais 
 pas persuadé je ne prandrais pas, Monsieur, cette 
 liberté. Sertennement personne ne s'interessant plus 
 vivement anvous que moy, sait ce qui me poite à 
 vous marquer quil faudra que vous mandiez monsieur 
 Nicolla et un associé et puis retenir Nicolla tout seul 
 pour vous instruyre a fon et vous mestre en estât 
 toute lafaire pour la conclure ; je de nouvaux de luy 
 sa parole quil fera pour moy tout au monde ce que 
 vous voudrez. Mais ne croyez pas s'il vous plest, 
 Monsieur, que sy je nanvissajest pas la chose glo- 
 rieusse et utille pour vous, que Tinterais que il peux 
 avoyr me fit vous représenter la chose sy vivement, 
 ne trevez donc poingt movais, Monsieur, la liberté 
 que je prand et soyez persuadé de mon atachement 
 et de ma saingsere amitié pour vous, personne ne 
 pouvant vous considérer avec une plus parfaite estime 
 et vous honorer plus infisnisment que je le fais. 
 
 L., duchesse DE PORTSMOUTH. 
 
 Trevez bon que je vous supli aussy de vous resou- 
 venir de ma pansion et d'ordonner que je soye payé.
 
 LETTERS OF DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH. 331 
 X. 
 
 TO DESMARETS. 
 
 National Archives, G, 7, 543. Original autograph document. 
 
 De Paris, ce 14 aoust 1708. 
 Je resoy, Monsieur, dans le mosmant la lettre que 
 vous m'avez fait l'honneur de mescrire ; je charge mon- 
 sieur Niscolla davoyr Ihonneur de vous rendre selle 
 ycy, qui san retourne a Fontenneblaux pour attendre 
 vos hordre contems t-t croyant estre sûr et an estât de 
 lever toute lais difficultés que vous pouvez trevez dans 
 stafaire, sy vous vouliez bien luy faire la grasse de luy 
 an parler. Ne refusez pas je vous pris la liberté que 
 j'osse prandre dantrer dans stafaire comme présumant 
 de vous exsiter et persuader contre vostre propre 
 jugement et vos grandes lumières ny maime par un 
 esprit davisdisté et d'interais desrésonnable, car je ne 
 la souette quantems quelle vous pouras estre agréable 
 et utille. An ce cas là jeanresantiré un sansible plaisir 
 puisque vous pourez estre mon bien faiteur sans qu'il 
 vous an coûte rien dauqune manière que quelque 
 parolle. Ainsy quant josse vous suplier de voulloir 
 aprofondir la chosse avec le sieur Nicollas, se nest que 
 pour que vous an ayez un parfait esclcrcissement et 
 lesprit satisfait làdessus pour vous desterminer comme 
 vous le jugerez le plus apropos. Il serest resté pour 
 atamdre vos hordres et vostre tems sans quil avcst
 
 332 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 ysy eune a faire de conséquance. Aujourdhuy je 
 vous suis infiniment obligé, Monsieur, de la bonté que 
 vous me faite espérer que vous hordonnerez le paye- 
 ment de ma pansion ; soyez persuadé, je vous suplie, 
 de mon parfait atachement pour vous et que personne 
 ne se peut intéresser avec plus d'amitié à tousse qui 
 vous regarde, ny vous estimer et honnorer plus par- 
 faitement que moy. 
 
 L., duchesse DE PORTSMOUTH. 
 
 XI. 
 
 TO DESMARETS. 
 
 National Archives, G, 7, 543. Original autograph document. 
 
 De Paris, ce 16 octobre 1708. 
 Je viens d'aprandre. Monsieur, que quelque hun de 
 messieurs les intendant de fisnance avest antrepris 
 doptenir de vous pour un ostre compaigny que celle 
 de monsieur Voilant et sais assossiés dont vous tre- 
 vesrez les noms syj oings, lafaire de latribustion de la 
 noblesse. Josse espérer, Monsieur, que vous n'avez 
 pas oublier que je vous la propossé saine ou six jours 
 aprais que vous fuste nomé controlleur général et que 
 vous me fiste l'honneur de m'assurer que vous ne la 
 feriez que pour moi et vous la renvoyatte à monsieur 
 Couturier que vous an avez chargé pour vous an faire 
 souvenir. Sait un bien que vous me ferez, Monsieur,
 
 LETTERS OF DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH. 333 
 
 et dont je mosse flater que vous aymerez mieux que je 
 profitte que quelques amis de messieurs lais intendant 
 de fisnance. Comme vous mavez fait la grasse de me 
 donner vostre parolle, je suis persuadé que vous orez 
 la bonté de me la tenir et de voulloyr préférer la 
 compaigny du sieur Voilant à tout offre et de leur 
 permettre de vous faire leur soumission. Lextresme 
 craincte, Monsieur, de vous importuner a fait que je 
 ne pas ossé trop souvent vous an parller pour vous an 
 rafréchir la mémoyre non plus que de l'afaire de la 
 banque, mourant toujours de peur de vous estre trop 
 incosmode ; cependant, Monsieur, se sont dais plésir 
 et dais grasse quil faut que vous fassiez à quelquun ; 
 vous savez la cruelle situation de mais afaire, par sais 
 deux que je eu l'honneur de vous proposer vous me 
 proqurez un repaux esternel et vous devennez serten- 
 nemant mon bienfaiteur et hor destat de vous devoyr 
 à la venir trop importuner. Accordez moy donc, 
 Monsieur, sais deux grasse et ansella une marque de 
 vos bontés et de vostre amitié et de vouloyr bien me 
 faire savoir le tems a peu prais que vous trevesrez a 
 propos de les fisnir pour que je prenne lais mesure 
 nécessaire pour la surette de ce que les uns et les 
 ostres mont ofert tant pour la faire de la banque que 
 pour selle de la noblesse ; je natems que vostre des- 
 sision pour manaller à ma campaigne, mettent de 
 conséquance de ne poingt quiter que je nay eu mais 
 sûretés pour proficter du bien et de lavantage que 
 josse espérer que vous voudrez bien me faire et me
 
 334 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 proqurer dont je vous orez une esternelle obligassion, 
 car, Monsieur, sertennement vous ne ferez jamais de 
 plésir ny de bien à personne qui lais ressante avec 
 une plus parfaitte reconnessance ny qui vous estime, 
 ayme vesristablement, Monsieur, et honore plus par- 
 faitement que moy. 
 
 L., duchesse de Portsmouth. 
 
 The foil Giving is the list mentioned in the letter : 
 
 Monseigneur aura la bonté de se souvenir de la 
 proposition de l'attribution de noblesse aux commis- 
 saires ordinaire des guerres, à ceux de la marine, 
 galleres et artillerie dont Sa Grandeur a chargé M. 
 Le Cousturier pour la travailler avec les proposant 
 qui sont : Rolland, Lantage, Accauit, Caquet, Voilant, 
 Montmarqué, Durbec, Vanneile, Mérite, La Bussière, 
 Saint- Léon, Imbert JSiicolas, Làcombe, Le Vasseur. 
 
 xn. 
 
 TO DESxMARETS. 
 
 National Archives, G, 7, 543. Original autograph document 
 
 De Paris, ce 25 janvier 1709. 
 
 La bonté que vous avez eu. Monsieur, de me pro- 
 
 mestre quan fessant Va/aire consentant la noblesse dais 
 
 8 cosniissere vous agrériez la conipaignie que jorais 
 
 rho7incur de vons prcsanter, dont le sieur Volland est
 
 LETTERS OF DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH. 335 
 
 à la taite et qui a esté travaillé par le sieur de la 
 Combe, me fait espérer, Monsieur, que vous voudrez 
 bien vous an souvenir, ce qui fait que je prand la 
 liberté de vous inportuner de sais ligne sait que je 
 me suis lessé dire que monsieur Poultier voullest vous 
 an parler pour loptenir pour un otre compaigny ; 
 mais je tems de foy an vous, cas moings que ce ne 
 soyt pas un oubli, je mosse assé flater de vostre 
 amitié, pour me persuader que vous voudrez bien 
 man continuer lais marque et ne rien changer asse 
 que vous mavez faist l'honneur de me promettre. 
 Je vous ansuplie très instamment et vous demande 
 la justisse, Monsieur, de croyre que personne ne peut 
 avoyr plus de recosnessence et de sansibillité de vos 
 bontés ny ne vous peut estimer, considérer et honorer 
 plus parfaitement que 
 
 L., duchesse UE PORTSMOUTH. 
 
 Je vous envoyé si joingt. Monsieur, les noms de ce 
 qui compose la compaigny : Rolland, Lantage, Acco, 
 Oiseau, Vanelle, Le Vasseur, Caquet.
 
 336 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 TO DESMARETS. 
 
 National Archives, G, 7, 543. Original autograph letter. 
 
 De Paris, ce 24 juillet 1709. 
 L'estat ou je me trêve, Monsieur, me forsse a 
 prandre la liberté de vous importuner de sais lignes 
 pour vous demander an grasse très instenmant de 
 vouloyr bien mordonner le payement de ma pansion. 
 Si vous trevez la disfisqulté de me faire donner 
 quelque espesse qui me ferest pour tems fort grand 
 plésir, au moings accordez-moy la marque de pro- 
 tection et d'amitié de lordonner an billais de monoye. 
 Ne me refussé pas. Monsieur, je vous suplis, ce 
 secour essentiel ; je natems que ceste marque de 
 vostre considérassion et damitié pour partir pour la 
 province. Josse, Monsieur, me flater que vostre bon 
 cœur et vostre pitié pour moy vous portera à ma- 
 corder mon instente priesre comme à la personne du 
 monde qui y sera la plus sansible et quy vous ayme, 
 estime et honore. Monsieur, plus parfaitement que je 
 ne le puis exprimer. 
 
 L., duchesse DE Portsmouth. 
 
 Oserés je espérer un mot de réponse de vous ? 
 Quelle boyt je vous conjure favorable.
 
 LETTERS OF DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH. 337 
 
 XIV. 
 TO DESMARETS. 
 
 National Archives, G, 7, 543. Original autograph document. 
 Noted with these words : A. M. de Vaiiboiirg. 
 
 Daubigny, ce 5 octobre 1709. 
 Je ne sais, Monsieur, sy vous avez la bonté de 
 remarquer par mon sillance la craingte que je et que 
 je vous ay toujour marquer de vous estre importune. 
 Tems que je pus, je suyvis ansella mon goust et la 
 veritable considération que je pour vous ; mais an 
 veristé, Monsieur, je me trêve dans un sy rigoureux 
 estât, que je me trêve forcé d'implorer vostre secours 
 et vostre amitié. Jestay venue isy contems dy trever 
 quelque douseur et quelque essance ; mais la misère 
 y est sy afreuse que l'on ne sorest tirer un soult car 
 Ion a pas seullement de coy acheter du graing pour 
 semer, et sy vous navez pitié de moy, mais taire ne 
 seront pas ancemancé, car, sy je ne lais fait pas faire 
 moy maime, lay fermier sont hors d'estat et cassy 
 tous à la mandiscité ; trevez donc bon. Monsieur, que 
 je vous supli instamment de me donner une marque 
 de distingtion et de bonté partiquUiesre, an me fessant 
 hordonner le payeumant de ma pansion, ce seras une 
 obligassion esternelle que je vous orez, car je suis o 
 non plus. Ne me refussé pas, Monsieur, je vous an 
 suplie, et laissé vous toucher aux besoings d'une amie 
 
 Z
 
 338 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 qui vous honore autems que je fais. Trevez ancore 
 bon, Monsieur, de resevoyr un plasset de ma part 
 qun homme à moy ora l'honneur de vous presanter 
 sur le sujest de mais boys. Ce plaset vous instruyra ; 
 ayez, syl vous plest, atantion. Que je trêve donc, 
 Monsieur, en vous, un essentiel ami dans mes vrais 
 besoings, josse me le promestre et man flater et que 
 vous serez bien persuadé que personne ne peut estre 
 avec une plus parfaite estime. Monsieur, vostre très 
 umble et très obéissante servante que je la suis. 
 
 L., duchesse DE PORTSMOUTH. 
 XV. 
 
 TO DESMARETS. 
 National Archives, G, 7, 543. Original autograph document. 
 
 Daubigni, ce 27 novembre, 1709. 
 J'us l'honneur, il y a deux mois, de vous faire pre- 
 santer un plasset, Monsieur, par lequel je demandais 
 qu'il vois plut ordonner que lais vente dais boys de 
 mon duché Daubigny fussent remise a l'année pro- 
 chenne dans lespérance que j'avais quelle serest porté 
 à un plus hault pris que stannée, et nayant poingt este 
 statué sur ce plassait. Ion a exéqusté laroit du con- 
 seil qui an hordonnait la vente. Lay boys furent 
 vandus le saine du présent moy pour la somme de 
 dix-huit cent livres, et mestent par moy maime fait 
 informé, Ion ma raporté qu'ils estet porté a leur juste
 
 LETTERS OF DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH. 339 
 
 valleur terns par raport à leur caslité cà leur situas- 
 sion, estant esloingné de neuf lieux dais rivière. 
 Cependant comme monsieur Tliiton grand mestre ma 
 fait voyr lordre que vous luy avez envoyé le quinsse 
 novambre pour la remise de l'adjudication, josse vous 
 suplier de vouloyr bien luy ordonner quil nanpesche 
 poingt l'adjudicataire de jouir puisque sait une chose 
 conforme et que le retar me serest très préjudissiable ; 
 josse ancosre, Monsieur, vous conjurer davoir pitié de 
 ma triste situassion qui est plus rigoureuse que vous 
 ne pouvez vous l'imaginer. Je suis très persuadé que 
 le Roy qui nignore pas depuis fort longtems mon 
 malheureux estât, que si vous aviez la bonté de le 
 luy ancosre représanter an bon et véritable amie, que 
 ny luy, ny vous, ne pouvez pas trever auqun desren- 
 gemant pour dix mille franc de plus ou de moings 
 dans lais afaire. Dautant que sait la senile grasse et 
 le seul bienfait dont il mest jamais honoré et mayant 
 fait l'honneur de masurer quant je pris la liberté de 
 luy andemander dautre qu'il ne le pouvcst pas, mais 
 qu'il me ferest payer réguUiesrement et préférable- 
 ment. Onon de dieu, Monsieur, veillez antrer avec 
 un cœur umaing et tandre dans mon rigoureux be- 
 soing. Josse espérer ceste marque de vostre amitié 
 et de vostre bonté comme la justisse. Monsieur, destre 
 persuadé que de toute lais personne qui ont toujour 
 fait profession destre de vos amis il ny en a auqune 
 qui vous aime et honore aussy parfaitement que moy. 
 
 L., duchesse DE PORTSMOUTH.
 
 340 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 TO DESMARETS. 
 
 Letter preserved in the British Museum, Ms. Add*' 18675, 
 f" 75. Original autograph document. 
 
 De Paris, ce 22 septembre 171 1. 
 Comme vous aviés eu la bonté, Moniseur, de m'as- 
 surer que vous donneriés ordre de me faire resevoyr 
 une anné de la pansion dont le Roy m'onore, je esté 
 au trésor royal chê M. Groing et chez M. de Tur- 
 menis ; il m'ont assuré que vous n'an aviés donné 
 auqun à ma faveur, et comme je ne doute poingt que 
 vostre intansion ne soyt de me faire resevoyr les neuf 
 mille, et temsde livre que vous m'avez fait la grasse de 
 me promestre, et que comme vous avés l'esprit auqupé 
 de chose très-importente vous pouvés avoyr oublié de 
 pancer à moy, trêves bon ste lestre pour vous an faire 
 souvenir et pour vous suplier instanmant de vouloyr 
 bien anvoyer vos hordre possitive pour que je puisse 
 profister de vostre promesse, an ayant, je vous assure. 
 Monsieur, un bessoings infisnis. Ayés donc cette 
 bonté pour moy, je vous an conjure instanmant, 
 comme de m'accorder la justisse d'estre bien per- 
 suadé. Monsieur, que personne ne vous estime, con- 
 sidère et honore plus parfaitement que moy. 
 
 L., duchesse DE PoRTSMOUT.
 
 LETTERS OF DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH. 341 
 
 Treves bon, Monsieur, que dans cette mesme lestre 
 j'ose vous suplier, sy sella ne vous ayt pas désagré- 
 able, de vouloyr bien an ma recosmandassion accorder 
 au sieur de Mongela, fils enné du sieur Grimaux, un 
 des fermiers généraux, une souferme dais ayde, soyt 
 dans le Lionnays ou de Chaslon an Champaigne ou 
 dans le Bourbonnay. Se sont dais jens très solvable 
 et qui peyront bien, et qui sont persuadés que vous 
 m'onorés d'un peux de bonté et d'amitié, et qui ont 
 crus que vous leur acorderiés par raport à moy plus 
 tot cette faveur là que par d'autre voye. Comme je 
 leurs ay obligassion, je ne pas refussê de vous an faire 
 ma trèsumble priesre; ne le trêves pas movais, je vous 
 an suplis, Monsieur. Et permestés moy de vous de- 
 mander an grasse un most de réponce, et s'yl ce peut 
 qu'elle me soyt favorable an tout. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 TO DESMARETS. 
 
 National Archives, G, 7, 543. Original autograph document.' 
 
 De Paris, ce 2 février 1713. 
 Je suis bien mortifié, Monsieur, de me trever 
 obligé par la cruelle situation de mais affaire et mon 
 malheureux estât de vous inportuncr sy souvant pour 
 
 • This letter and the following one were discovered by M. de 
 Boislisle.
 
 342 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 vous conjurer davoyr la bonté de me faire au moing 
 payer une année de pansion sur selle qui me sont 
 dus. Accordez moy donc, Monsieur, sette marque 
 de bonté et d'amitié de vouloyr bien antrer dans 
 mon extresme besoing et de me faire mestre sur 
 Testât de distribution de dimanche et avec un ordre 
 positif d'estre payé et sanrien qui ne me fasse pas 
 languir. An véristé, Monsieur, ma considération 
 pour vous et mon atachement à vous honorer depuis 
 le moment que je eu l'honneur de vous cosnestre, 
 meryterest un peux de protection et de secours dun 
 ceur aussy bien fait et aussy juste que le vostre ; ne 
 me refussé donc pas, Monsieur, la grasse et la justisse 
 que je vous demande instammant, non plus que la 
 justice destre très fortement persuadé que vous ne 
 lacorderez à personne qui vous souette plus de bon- 
 heur, qui vous honore plus parfaitement, ny qui soyt 
 plus vesristablement, Monsieur, vostre très umble et 
 très obéissante servente que moy. 
 
 L duchesse DE Portsmouth.
 
 LETTERS OF DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH. 343 
 XVIII. 
 
 TO DESMARETS. 
 
 National Archives, G, 7, 543. Original autograph document. 
 
 De Paris, ce 9 mars 17 13. 
 Je resge toujours, Monsieur, assé malheureuse pour 
 que vous ne veillez jamais antrer avec un peux de 
 bonté et dumanisté dans ma cruelle sytuassion et 
 dans mais extresme besoings. Je vous avourez, 
 Monsieur, que la sirconstance ou je me trêve me 
 mest au desespoyr, et se qui maflige an caure le plus 
 griesvement, sait de cecasprais mestre ossé flater d'un 
 peux de part dans l'honneur de vostre amitié je la 
 doulleur de nan pas resevoyr la moindre petite 
 marque ny de ne vous trever jamais dispossé a entrer 
 dans aucune considérassion pour moy ny de soulager 
 mon malheureux estât et mais extresme bessoing, 
 mestent dus troys années de la pension dont le Roy 
 ma honoré. An véristé, Monsieur, par lestime et la 
 considération que je toujour eu pour vous depuis 
 que je l'avantage de vous cosnestre, je mestais cru 
 androyt despérer une marque de vos bontés et de 
 vostre justice. Je vous la demande. Monsieur, avec 
 toute lais instance qun très présant besoing le peut 
 exsiger et que vous veilliez bien au moings mor- 
 donner une année. Vous nie laviez fait espérer de-
 
 344 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 vant le voyage de Fonteneblaux : ne me refussé pa 
 Monsieur, je vous ansuplie, et veillez vous souvenir 
 que je suis une dais personne du monde qui ayt ou- 
 jour plus pris de part a vos avantages que qui que 
 se soyt. Ainsi, Monsieur, par umanité, sy je ne le 
 puis optenir de vostre amitié, compastissé à ma triste 
 conjoncture an ma cordant la grasse que je vous 
 demande ysy et la justisse an maime tems de me 
 croyre avec toute la considération possyble vostr 
 très umble et très obéissante servente. 
 
 L., duchesse DE PORTSMOUTH. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 TO THE CONTROLEUR GENERAL OF FINANCE.^ 
 
 Signed letter ; collection of M. de Barberey. 
 
 A Aubigny, le lo décembre 1731. 
 Permettez-moi, Monsieur, de vous prier cette 
 année, comme j'ay fait l'année dernière, de m'estre 
 favorable auprès de M: le Cardinal dans la demande 
 que je luy fait de la grattiffication annuelle qu'il m'a 
 jusqu'à présent fait accorder par Sa Majesté, et d'une 
 petite augmentation, si cela est possible. Vous trou- 
 verez cy-joint. Monsieur, la copie du mémoire que 
 j'ay fait présenter à M. le Cardinal ; comme il vous 
 
 ' Philibert Orry was contrôleur ge'néral from March 1730 to 
 December 1745.
 
 LETTERS OF DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH. 345 
 
 sera apparemment renvoyé, je vous prie de voulloir 
 bien l'appuyer de votre crédit auprès de Son Emi- 
 nence, et de l'engager à m'accorder ma demande. 
 Je me flatte par l'amitié que vous m'avez témoignée 
 que vous voudrez bien me rendre service en cette 
 occasion, et que vous êtes bien persuadé de l'estime 
 et de la considération avec laquelle je suis, Monsieur, 
 votre très-humble et très-obéissante servante. 
 
 L., duchesse DE PORTSMOUTH. 
 
 On the margin is written in a handwriting re- 
 sembling Orry's : "Bon pour 5,000. Répondre en 
 conformité à madame de Portsmouth." The copy 
 of the following memorial and of the petition to the 
 King are appended to Letter XIX. : 
 
 To Monseigneur the Cardinal de Fleiiry. 
 Monseigneur, 
 
 Vous avez eu la bonté de faire donner à la 
 duchesse de Portsmouth en l'année 1726 une ordon- 
 nance de grattiffication extraordinaire de dix mil 
 livres ; en 1727 une de six mil livres, et les années 
 suivantes cinq mil livres seulement. Et cela en 
 considération des services importants qu'elle a rendus 
 autrefois à l'Etat et à cause de la perte qu'elle a 
 fait de presque tout son bien dans le papier ; la 
 réduction qu'elle a souffert sur quelques rentes 
 viagères qu'elle avoit, et dont jusqu'à présent elle 
 
 A A
 
 346 LOUISE DE KEROUALLE. 
 
 n'a pu obtenir le rétablissement, ayant encore rendu 
 sa situation plus fâcheuse. 
 
 Elle supplie très-humblement Votre Eminence de 
 voulloir bien luy accorder pour la présente année 
 1731 une ordonnance de cette grattiffication un peu 
 plus forte que celle de l'année précédente et la pro- 
 portionner à ses besoins et à son âge de plus de 
 quatre-vingt-deux ans. 
 
 Note subjoined : 
 
 Madame la duchesse de Portsmouth 
 
 Supplie Sa Majesté de lui continuer la même grâce 
 qu'elle a la bonté de luy accorder depuis plusieurs 
 années, en luy faisant donner une gratification pour 
 la présente année. La réduction qu'elle a soufferte 
 sur quelques rentes viagères qu'elle avoit, et dont 
 elle n'a point demandé le rétablissement, ayant rendu 
 sa situation encore plus fâcheuse. 
 
 Sa Majesté luy a accordé : 
 
 En 1726 10,000 liv. 
 
 En 1727 6,000 — 
 
 En 1728, 1729 et 1730 . . SjOOO — 
 
 FINIS.