Volume I Part 20 (1/2)
On the following day the morning was occupied by the courtiers in tilting at the ring, the prizes being distributed by the Queen and the d.u.c.h.ess of Mantua; and at dusk the whole of the royal party proceeded to the wide plain which lies to the east of Fontainebleau, in the centre of which the Due de Sully had caused a castellated building to be erected, which was filled with rockets and other artificial fireworks, and which was besieged, stormed, and taken by an army of satyrs and savages. This spectacle greatly delighted the Court, while not the least interesting feature of the exhibition was presented by the immense concourse of people (estimated at upwards of twelve thousand) who had collected to witness the magnificent pyrotechnic display, and who rent the air with their acclamations of loyalty.[352]
All further rejoicings were, however, rendered unseasonable by the rapid increase of the plague, which having declared itself with great virulence at Fontainebleau, induced the hasty departure of the Court; and the ill.u.s.trious guests having taken leave of the King and Queen laden with rich presents, their Majesties, with a limited retinue, repaired for a time to Montargis.
These baptismal festivities had not, meanwhile, been without alloy to the dissipated monarch. Despite the fascination of the wily Marquise, and the charms of the Comtesse de Moret, Henry was by no means insensible to the attractions of the many beautiful women who followed in the suite of the Queen at the august ceremony just described; and, among others, he especially honoured with his notice the d.u.c.h.esses de Montpensier[353] and de Nevers.
In neither case, however, was he destined to be successful, both these ladies possessing too much self-respect to accord any attention to his illicit gallantries; and this failure, especially with the latter, of whom he had become seriously enamoured, only tended to re-engage him with Madame de Verneuil. Throughout all the period occupied by the christening festivities, Madame de Nevers[354] had been the object of his special pursuit; but so carefully did she avoid all occasions of private conversation, that the King, unaccustomed to so decided a resistance, became irritated to a degree which induced her to escape from the Court as soon as the found it practicable; and accordingly, on the very day after the festivities, she left Fontainebleau without any previous intimation of such a design, resisting all the efforts made by the sovereign to detain her. Nor did she yield to his subsequent endeavours for her recall, but on the appointment of her husband during the following year to the emba.s.sy at Rome, she accompanied him thither; and several months elapsed ere she reappeared in France, where her duty having compelled her to pay her respects to the Queen on her return, Henry was so little master of himself as to display his mortification by inquiring who she was, and on her name being announced, to exclaim loud enough for her to hear his reply: ”Ha! Madame la d.u.c.h.esse de Nevers! She is terribly altered.”
The shaft fell harmless. The lady evinced the most perfect composure under the royal criticism, and having fulfilled her duties as a subject towards her sovereigns, she once more withdrew from the Court, and terminated her life as she had commenced it, without scandal or reproach.[355]
FOOTNOTES:
[312] Mamanga was the name given in playfulness by the Dauphin to Madame de Montglat.
[313] Madame de Drou was the governess of the infant Princess.
[314] Mademoiselle de Piolant, femme-de-chambre to the royal children.
[315] Sully, _Mem_. vol. vi. pp. 151-161.
[316] Ba.s.sompierre, _Mem_. p. 45.
[317] Madame Christine de France, who subsequently became d.u.c.h.ess of Savoy.
[318] L'Etoile, vol. iii. p. 36;
[319] _Memoires_, p. 46.
[320] Charles Emmanuel de Lorraine, Comte de Sommerive, second son of the Duc de Mayenne, who restored the city of Laon to the King in 1594, and died at Naples in 1609.
[321] Charles de Gonzaga de Cleves, Duc de Nevers, was the son of Louis de Gonzaga, Prince of Mantua, Duc de Nevers, and Governor of Champagne (who died in 1601, and to whose t.i.tle he succeeded), and of Henriette de Cleves, d.u.c.h.esse de Nevers et de Rethel.
[322] _Mercure Francais_, 1606, pp. 100, 101.
[323] Richelieu, _La Mere et le Fils_, vol. i. p. 14.
[324] _Mercure Francais_, 1606, p. 102.
[325] _Mercure Francais,_ 1606, p. 106.
[326] L'Etoile, vol. iii. p. 358.
[327] Mezeray, vol. x. p. 282.
[328] Dreux du Radier, vol. vi. pp. 102, 103.
[329] Henri de Bourbon, Due de Montpensier, Governor of Normandy, peer of France, Prince of La Roche-sur-Yon, Dauphin d'Auvergne, etc., was born in Touraine in 1573. During the lifetime of his father he bore the t.i.tle of Prince de Dombes. The King confided to him the command of the army which he despatched to Brittany against the Due de Mercoeur. He subsequently became Governor of Normandy, and reduced that revolted province, which still held out for the League, to obedience. He was present at the memorable siege of Amiens in 1597, where he led the vanguard of the army, and accompanied Henry on his expedition against Savoy and Brescia. He was a knight of all the King's Orders, and presided at the a.s.sembly of the n.o.bles of Rouen. He died in Paris, of lingering consumption, in 1608.
[330] The Baron de la Chataigneraie was an officer of the Queen's guard.
[331] Richelieu, _La Mere et le Fils_ vol. i. p. 18. _Mercure Francais_ 1606, p. 107. L'Etoile, vol. iii. p. 370 _note_.
[332] _Mercure Francais_, 1606, p. 107.