Part 39 (1/2)
Mademoiselle d'Aumale--that is to say, the pretty blonde--won M de Lauzun; but he, being bizarre in his tastes, and who only had a fancy for the brunette (the less char to refuse his consent
Maderief and pique, and, as a consequence of her despair, listened to the proposals of the King of Portugal, and consented to take a crown
The disgrace and i reached her ear, this princess gave hih she had two husbands alive Twice she had solicited his liberty, which was certainly not granted in answer to her prayers
When she learned of the release of the prisoner, she showed her joy publicly at it, in the ratulations upon it to Mademoiselle, apparently to annoy her, and, a few days afterwards, indited with her own hand the letter you are going to read, addressed to the King, which was variously criticised
TO HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF FRANCE
BROTHER:--Kings owe one another no account of their motives of action, especially when their authority falls heavily upon the officers of their own palace, till then invested with their confidence and overwhelrace of the Marquis de Lauzun can only appear inas it does frons So I confined ifted with all the talents, with bravery and ence He owed later the end of his suffering, not to e in his destiny, and I have charged my ambassador at your Court to expressyou to accept my thanks M de Lauzun, so they assure h still young, does not obtain e and of talent are innuentleman to s of my nobles, accustomed as they are to cherish all that is born in your illustrious Eive M de Lauzun a command worthy of him, worthy ofand essential services to my Crown and to yours Do not refuse me this favour, which does not at all idom of which you are the protector and the friend Accept, Sire, etc
I did not see the anshich was vouchsafed to this singular letter; the King did not judge me worthy to enjoy such confidence that he hadto me fored her to obtain the opinion of Made this ht the details of it to htened as to the falseness of Monsieur de Lauzun, entreated the King to give up this gentleive hi learnt the steps taken by the Queen of Portugal, whory, and said in twenty houses that he had not come out of one prison to throw himself into another
These were all the thanks the Queen got for her efforts; and, like Mademoiselle de Montpensier, she detested, with all her soul, the man she had loved with all her heart
The Marquis de Lauzun was one of the handso
CHAPTER XXV
The Nephews, the Nieces, the Cousins and the Brother of Mada's Debut--The Marshal's Silver Staff
The falected but despised her when she was poor and living on her pension of two thousand francs Since ht her into contact with the sun that gives life to all things, and this radiant star had shed on-her his own proper rays and light, all her relatives in the direct, oblique, and collateral line had remembered her, and one saw no one but them in her antechambers, in her chamber, and at Court
So; they were gentleouhuish therowers and herds Others, to be just, honoured the new position of the Marquise; and aallerie and the two sons of the Marquis de Villette, his cousin, gerne, who the priests of Saint Sulpice, she had herself presented to the King, who had discovered in him the air of an apostle, and then to Pere de la Chaise, who had hastened tofor him 'in petto' the cardinal's hat, if the favour of the lady in waiting washer lady relatives who had come from the provinces at the ruuished and exhibited with satisfaction the three Madehters of a Villette, if I araceful all three of theht to her Court, and more particularly attached to her person, a very pretty child, only daughter of the Marquis de Villette, and sister, consequently, of the Comte and of the Chevalier de Villette, whom I have previously arnished the armchairs and sofas of her chaitihter; and when the carriage of the Marquise came into the country for her drives, the whole of this pretty colony formed a train and court for her,--a proof of her credit
The Marquise had a brother, her elder by four or five years, to who from e heard her say, and to promoteher work from the very first This brother, as called Le Corace He even assumed, when he wished, an excellent manner; but this cavalier, his own master from his childhood, knew no other law but his own pleasures and desires
He had made people talk about him in his earliest youth; he awoke the same buzz of scandal now that he was fifty Mada to constrain hiet thee She had just discovered a very pretty heiress of very good fahter of aunable to undo what had been done, submitted to this unequal alliance; and as her sister-in-law, ennobled by her husband, was none the less a countess, she, too, was presented
The young person, aged fifteen at the most, was naturally very bashful
When she found herself in this vast hall, between a double row of persons of iot all the bows, all the elaborate courtesies,--in fine, all the difficult procedure of a for- her rehearse for twenty days past
The child lost her head, and burst into tears The King took compassion on her, and despatched the Couide or ained heart; she went through her pausing, her interrupted courtesies, to the end, and ca's chair, who s place in the gallery, Madame de Maintenon, in despair, her eyes full of tears, had to make an effort not to weep With that wit of which she is so proud, she should have been the first to laugh at this piece of childishness, which was not particularly new The embarrass desire to laugh It was noticed; it was held a crih to scold me for it