Part 19 (1/2)
Next day, he wandered about in great pain, gloony, and talked in a hopeless, desolate way about our dear one He told lory nor ambition nor voluptuous pleasures could ever allure hi to his soul
He assured ion alone prevented hi, and that he was determined to shut himself up in La Trappe or in soht to dissuade hirief and consternation to his relatives He pretended to yield to ht he left hoth he came back Luckily, the Trappist Abbe de Ranch wished to take away froland, so as to break it in pieces before his eyes So indignant was the Count that he was upon the point of giving the herust froree, to assuage his grief Life's daily occupations, the excitements of society, the continual care shoards him by his relatives, youth, above all, and Time, the irresistible healer, at last served to soothe a sorrohich, had it lasted longer, would have been more disastrous in its results
The Comte de Guiche consented to htly attached, and who is quite content with hiood qualities and all his actions
CHAPTER XLIV
Mexica--Philippa--Molina--The Queen's Jester
Inhad eous h the Infanta he had rights with regard to Flanders; she also provided hiether with Mexico and Peru But fro could not have contracted a more miserable alliance The Infanta, almost wholly uneducated, had not even such intellectual resources as a position such as hers certainly required, where personal risk was perpetual, where authority had to bemanners, and respect for power ensured by elevation of tone and sentiment, which checks the indiscreet, and imbues everybody with the spirit of consideration and reverence
Maria Theresa, though a king's daughter, made no more effect at Court than if she had been a , in fact, by his considerateness, splendour, and glory, served to support her dignity
He hoped and even desired that she should be held in honour, partly for her own sake, in a great ument or narration where force of intellect was needed, she always seemed bewildered, and he soon interrupted her either by finishi+ng the tale hiood-naturedly and withoffence, was pleased to be under such an obligation to him From such a wife this prince could not look to have sons of re short of a ns of intelligence which the most ordinary commonplace children usually display When the Queen heard courtiers repeat soin, or the Duc du Maine, she reddened with jealousy, and reoes into ecstasies about those children, while Monsieur le Dauphin is never even ht with her from Spain that Donna Silvia Molina, of whoot complete control over her character
Instead of tranquillising her, and so ht to beco, and above all, 's amours She ferreted out all the secret details, all the petty circuerous material troubled the mind and destroyed the repose of her ed
La Molina, enriched and alrief of Maria Theresa, who for several days after her departure could neither eat nor sleep
At the saot rid of that little she-dwarf, named Mexica, in whose insufferable talk and insufferable presence the Queen took delight But the sly little wretch escaped during the journey, and ain, hidden in sohted to see her again; she pampered her secretly in her private cabinet with the ut up every moment that she could spare
One day, by way of a short cut, the King was passing through the Queen's closet, when he heard the sound of coughing in one of the cupboards
Turning back, he flung it open, where, huddled up in great confusion, he found Mexica
”What!” cried his Majesty; ”so you are back again? When and how did you come?”
In a feeble voice Mexica answered, ”Sire, please don't send me away froain about Madahed at this speech, and then cahed heartily, too, and such a treaty of peace seemed to contain queer compensation clauses: Madame de Montespan and Mexica were mutually bound over to support each other; the spectacle was vastly droll, I vow
Besides her little dwarf, the Queen had a fool named Tricominy This quaint person was permitted to utter everywhere and to everybody in incoherent fashi+on the pseudo hoh his head
One day he went up to the grande Mademoiselle de Montpensier, and said to her before everybody, ”Since you are so anxious to get married, marry me; then that will be a man-fool and a woe behind the Queen's chair
Another time, to M Letellier, Louvois's brother and Archbishop of Rheineur, do let me ascend the pulpit in your Cathedral, and I will preach modesty and humanity to you” When the little Duc d'Anjou, that pretty, char child, died of suppressed ood father that he is, eeping for the little fellow, for he pro just as if princes had not got to die like anybody else M d'Anjou was no better made than I am, nor of better stuff”
Tricominy was dismissed, because it was plain that his madness took a soh for his place
The Queen had still a Spanish girl named Philippa, to who attachment Born in the Escurial Palace, Philippa had been found one night in a pretty cradle at the base of one of the pillars The palace guards inforht it up, since it had been foisted upon hi to Saint Jean de Luz to , he ed theirl, the Infanta recognised a sister She knew she was an illegiti Philip and one of the palace ladies