his Rivals could not have Servants nor Secrets but what he knew otherwise the best Man in the World It was twelve years since he began to love the Countess of Fiesque a Woman as extraordinary as he was a Man that is to say as singular in Merits as he was in ill Qualities but as of those twelve years she had been banished five from Mademoiselle d' Orleans Gaston's of France's Daughter a Princess whom Fortune persecuted because she had Vertue and could not reduce her great Courage to the basenesses that the Court demands During their absence the Chevalier had tied himself to a very regular Constancy and tho the Countess was very lovely he merited some excuse for his Lightness being he had never received any favour from her He had however caused several to be jealous Rouville was one of those who were so As he was one day reproaching the Countess that she loved the Chevalier that fair One told him that he was mad to believe she could love the greatest Cheat in the World This is a pleasant reason Madam which you alledge I know you are a greater Cheat than he and yet I cannot forbear loving you Tho the Chevalier was in love with all Women the Countess however had that power over him that what engagement soever he had elsewhere so soon as he knew that any One visited her oftner that ordinary he quitted all to return to her And he was in the Right for the Countess was a lovely Woman she had blew and sparkling Eyes a handsome Nose an agreable Mouth of a fine Colour and white and smooth Skin the forme of her Face was long and never any One but she in the world was embelished with a long Chin her hair was brown and she was ever Gallantly drest but her finery proceeded rather from Art than the magnificence of her Clothes her Will was free and naturall her Humour cannot be described for it was with the Modesty of her Sex of the Humour of all the World People by much thinking of what they have to do think usually better at the end than at the beginning The contrary happened usually to the Countess her Reflections spoyled her first Motions I know not if the Confidence she had in her Merit made her careless of seeking Lovers for she took no pains at all to have them And indeed when any One of himself made his addresses to her she neither affected Rigour to be rid of him nor Kindness to retain him he left of his Courtship if he pleased if he pleased he continued it and what course soever he took he did not subsist to her cost So that the Chevalier as I have said had not visited her in five years time and during that absence that he might not lose time he had had a thousand Mistresses amongst others Victoria Manciri Duchess of Mercoeur and three dayes after her Death Madam de Villars and it was for this reason that Benserade who was in love with her made this Sonnet upon the Chevalier Can you rejoice after the Mortall stroak That kill'd the loveliest Object e're was seen A real Lovers heart would have been broke In the same Tomb he would have buryed been A Heart so Charm'd can it new flames receive I is an unheard of infidelity When a fair Mistress's death you ought to grieve You turn Gallant and at new Game would fly For this unworthy weakness you will smart You love have fail'd love will fail your heart And you 're already fall'n into the Snare I. know the Beauty who does you decoy I love her and that all I may declare What gives you ease alas does me destray The Countess returning some time after to Paris the Chevalier not being tyed to Madam Villars by any favours quitted her to return to the Countess but as he was never long in the same state and being tyred with her he made his addresses to Madam d' Olonne at the same time that Marsillac entred into an engagement with her and tho the Chevalier was less Modest than Marsillac with the Ladies he was not however the more pressing on the contrary provided he might toy with 'em have it said in the world that he was in love find some People of easie belief to flatter his vanity put a Rival in pain be better received than he he was not at all fond of a surrender One thing he did that made it more difficult for him to perswade than it was for another was that he never spoke seriously Insomuch that a Woman must needs flatter her self extreamely to beleive he was in love with her I have already said that never any Gallant that was not beloved was more incommode than he he had ever two or three Lacquies without Liveries whom he called his Bloodhounds whom he caused to dog and observe his Rivals and his Mistresses Madam d' Olonne being in pain One day how she should go to an Assignation she had made with Marsillac without being discovered by the Chevalier resolved for her pleasure to go hooded up with her Chamber Maid and to Pass the River in a Boat after having given orders to her servants to go wait for her at Fauxbourgs Saint Germain the first Man who gave her his hand to help her into the Boat was the Chevaliers Bloodhound before whom without knowing him she had been merry with her Chamber Maid for that she had deceived the Chevalier and talked of what they were going to do that day this Blood-hound went immediately to acquaint his Master who strangly surprised Madam d' Olonne the next day when he acquainted her with the perticulars of her Rendevouz of the Evening before An honest welbred Man having convicted his Mistress of loving another than himself withdraws immediately and without noise particularly if she had not made him any promise but the Chevalier was not of that humour when he could not procure being beloved he would rather chose to have been stabbed than leave his Mistress and Rival in repose Now Madam d' Olonne having reckoned for nothing the Assiduities that the Chevalier had payed her for three Months together and turned into Raillery all that he had told her of his Passion and the more for that she was perswaded that he had as great an one for the Countess as he could have for her she hated him as the Devil Then this Lover fancying that a Letter would do his buisness much better than all he had done or said thitherto in that Opinion he writ to her in these termes IS it possible my Goddess that you should be ignorant of the love that your fair Eyes my Suns have kindled in my heart Tho it be useless to have recourse with you to those Declarations which we are forced to have with mortal Beauties and that mental Prayers ought to suffice you I have told you athousand times that I loved you yet you laugh and make me no answer Is this a good or an ill sign
of it the reproaches and noise he would make would occasion more vexation to the Cocquet Mistress than all those managements could have procured her Pleasure There are Cocquets who fancy they have so ill a repute in the World that they dare not be cruel and rigorous to any man for fear it should pass for a Sacrifice to some other and never think that it would be better for their Honour that they were convicted of Sacrifice This is Madam the Course the Coquets take I must let you see that of honest Mistresses As for them they are either satisfied with their Lovers or they are not If they are not they endeavour to reduce them to their Devoir by a tender and civil Carriage If this cannot absolutely be they break off without noise upon a pretext of Devotion or the Jealousie of a Husband after having got from them if they can their Letters and all that could Convict them And above all things they so contrive it that their Lovers do not fancy they abandom them for others If they are satisfied with their Lovers they love them with all their hearts they are continually telling it them and they write them the kindest Letters they can But as this does not prove their love because Coquets say as much or more every day their Actions and their Carriage does sufficiently justifie the meaning of their Hearts because there is only that insallible We can indeed say We love tho we do not but we cannot seem kind to any one long without having an affection for him An honest Mistress is more afraid of giving Jealousie to her Gallant than of Death and when she sees him alarmed with any Suspicion that the obstinacy of his Rival might give him she does not content herself with the testimony of her Conscience she redoubles her Cares and Caresses for him and her rigours for the other she does not defer the extreamest Severity till another time fancying she could never be soon enough rid of an importunate Person She knows that as many Moments as she defers the chacing away this Rival she should give as many stabs in his Heart she is in love with She knows that as soon as her Lover begins to have Suspicious the least care she should take to remove them would preserve in him the esteem and love he has for her whereas if she neglected to satisfie and cure him he would come again to have so little Confidence in her that she should not be able to recover his good Opinion tho she even offered him to lose her Reputation for his sake She knows that a Lover would ever believe that it would be the fear she was in of him had forced those Sacrifices from her that at another time he would have took for great Marks of love She knows that in the Woman a Man confides in all is excused and that nothing is pardoned in her that is distrusted She knows that at length a Man comes to be fatigued with the trouble a Mistress gives him and the reproaches that he has made her after having pardoned her a thousand considerable Faults that he breaks off upon a Trifle the measures being plain and he not able to suffer any longer so much vexation There are Women who love their Gallants extreamly and yet make them jealous by their ill carriage and this proceeds from their slattering themselves too much with the assurance they have of their good Intentions and for that they do not sufficiently quash the hopes of those men who make Court to them or who only seem to love them by their Cares and their Assiduities and they are ignorant that the Civilities of a Woman one loves are such Favours as all Lovers flatter themselves with sometimes because they have Merit or often because they think they have so Sometimes because they have no good Opinion of the Persons they make their Addresses to and who fancy that the resistance that they make is only to set a greater value upon themselves Insomuch that if a Woman who has never given occasion to be talked of is still very jealous of her Reputation she ought to take care as I have already said not to entertain in any manner the hopes of all that has the Air of a Lover and if it is a Woman who has not thitherto been careful enough of her Carriage but designs to be so for the future which is your case Madam it is requisite that she be more rude than another and especially that she be impartial in her Severity for the least favour she shall let herself loose to does more reingage a Lover than a thousand Refusals does disgust him An honest Mistress has so much sincerity for her Lover that rather than fail to tell him things of consequence she tells him even what are trifles Well knowing that if he came to be informed by other means of certain indifferent things that are rendred Criminal at their being told again it would have the worst effect imaginable She keeps no Measures with him in point of Confidence she tells him not only her own secrets but even those she knew before or what she learns elsewhere every day She calls those people ridiculous Who say that being Mistress of anothers Secrets we ought not to tell it our Lovers She answers to that that if they still love us they will never say any thing of it And if they happen to abandon us we should have much more to lose than our Friends secret but she fancies we ought never to consider them as such as will one day leave off loving us and that otherwise we should be Fools to grant them Favours In a word her Maxim is That who gives her heart has nothing more to manage she knows that there are only two Encounters that can dispence her from telling all to her Lover the one if he was indiscreet and the other if he had any Gallantry before hers For it would be imprudence in her to speak to him in that case at least without he pressed her extreamly and then it would be he himself that occasioned his own Vexation Finally an honest Mistress believes that what justifies her Love even with the most severe Men is when she is deeply smitten when she takes pleasure in making it appear to her Lover when she surprizes him by a thousand little favours that he did not expect when she has no reserve for him when she applies herself to procure him esteem amongst all People and that in a word she makes of her Passion the greatest business of her Life Without this Madam she holds Love for a Debauche and that it is a Brutal Commerce and a Trade by which ruined Women subsist Mademoiselle de Cornuelle having left off speaking Good God! said Madam d' Olonne what fine things have you now said but how difficult are they to be put in practice I even find therein some injustice for in a word since we even deceive
agreed upon loving one another as they were upon certain Conditions People came in which obliged the Count de Guiche to go out a Moment after Madam d' Olonne having disingaged herself from her Company as soon as she was able took Coach being desirous to discover if the Countess de Fiesque took no Interest any longer in the Count de Guiche She went to her and after some Conversations upon other subjects she asked her advice in the Designes she told her the Count de Guiche had for her The Countess told her that she was only to consult her Heart in such Occasions My heart does not say to me much in favour of the Count replyed Madam d' Olonne and my Reason tells me a thousand things against him He is a Spark I can never love In saying these words she took leave of the Countess without waiting for her Answer On the other side the Count de Guiche being returned to his House he met with Vinevil who waited for him with great impatience to know what posture his Affairs were in the Count de Guiche told him something coldly that he believed all was broaken off considering how Madam d' Olonne treated him and Vinevil desiring to know the particulars of the Conversation the Count de Guiche not being willing to discover what passed changed discourse every moment this gave some suspicions to Vineuil who was cunning and in love with Madam d' Olonne and only concerned himself in the affairs of the Count de Guiche that he might prevail with his Mistress by the things he should have learnt He went away seeing he could not make any discovery and was for three days in mortal disquiets not being able to learn the certainty of what he suspected and what he would know He went to Fiesque's House with the Countenance of a disgraced Favourite since he saw he had no longer any share in the Count de Guiche's confidenc he said nothing of it to that fair One not to discredit himself in showing his Misfortune At three days end he went to the Count de Guiche's House What have I done my Lord said he to him that obliges you to treat me thus I easily perceive that you hide from me your intrigue with Madam de OOlonne learn me the reason of it or if you have none continue to tell me what you know as you used to do I ask your pardon my poor Vinevil said the Count de Guiche to him but Madam d' Olonne upon granting me enjoyment exacted from me not to speak thereof to you nor to Fiesque much less then to any others because she said that you are malicious and Fiesque jealous How indiscreet soever a person is there is no Intrigue but what 's kept secret in the beginning if there be no need of a Confident This I have had experience of in this Occasion for I am naturally enough inclined to tell an amourous adventure And yet I have been three dayes without acquainting you with this tho you know all my secrets but have patience my Dear I am going to tell you all that passed between Madam d' Olonne and me and by the exactest Relation in the World in some manner requite the offence done to the friendship I have for you You know then that the first Visit made her after having written to her the Letter you have seen I did not sind in her looks any aversion or kindness and the Company that was at her house hindred me from having any further information All that I could remarke was that she observed me from time to time but returning thither the day after and having found her alone I represented my love to her so well and so eagerly pressed her to make returns to it that she Confessed she loved me and promised to give me marks thereof upon Condition I have newly told you You know very well that I would promise her all in those moments we heard a noise insomuch that Madam d' Olonne bid me come again the next day dressed in Womens Cloathes and as one who brought her Lace to fell whereupon being returned to my House I found you there and you might easily perceive by the cold reception I made you that all the World importuned me at that time and particularly you my Dear whom I was more jealous of than any one you likewise perceived it and it was that which made you suspect I did not tell you all when you was gone I gave order that my Porter should say I was not at home and prepared my self for my Mascarade of the Morrow All the pleasure that imagination can give beforehand I had for four and twenty hours together The four or five last hours were more tedious than all the others at length that which I expected with so much impatience being come I caused my self to be carryed to Madam d' Olonne's House I found her in a Cornet upon her Bed in a Rose Colour Undress I cannot express to you my Dear how beautifull she was that day all that can be said comes short of the Charms she had her Neck was half uncovered she had more Hair loose than usual and all in rings and curles her Eyes were more sparkling than the Stars Love and the colour of her Face animated her Complexion with the finest Vermillion in the World Well my Dear said she to me are not you full of acknowledgment that I spare you the pains of sighing a long time do you find that I make you pay too dear for the Favours you receive Tell me my Dear added she but you are mute Ah! Madam answered I her I should be insensible were I in cold Blood seeing you in this posture But may I assure my self said she that you have forgotten little Beauvais and the Countess of Fiesque yes said I to her Madam you may and how should I remember others added I since you may perceive I haue almost forgot my self I only fear replyed she the future for for the present my Dear I am much mistaken if I suffer you to think of any Body besides myself And in finishing these words she took me about the Neck and pressing me you know how with her Arms she pulled me upon her Both of us lying in manner we kissed ill one another a thousand times But not willing to stop there and this seeking for something more solid but on my part in vain We ought to know our selves and what we are fit for For my part I perceive I am no Womans man It was impossible for me to come off with Honour what effect soever my fancy made and the Idea and the presence of the most beautifull Object in the World What 's the matter said she to me My Lord What ales you What is it that puts you in so sad a Condition Is it my Person that disgusts you or do you only bring me the leavings of an other This Discourse made me so ashamed and out of
that if the Prince had had a mind to have taken all the Precautions necessary to hinder the Duke of Nemours from fighting he might have prevented the Duel One thing more which made appear that there was more of Glory than of Love in the Prince's Heart was that a moment after the death of his Rival he hardly loved Madam de Chastillon any longer and contented himself with keeping measures of Civility with her to make use of her upon occasion and when he should think convenient And indeed at that time the Cardinal thinking that she governed the Prince sent the Great Provost of France to her to offer her from him an hundred thousand Crowns ready Money and the Place of Superintendant of the future Queens Family in case she would oblige the Prince to grant the Articles he desired and abandon the Count d' Oignon the Duke of Rochefoucault and President Viole During the Negotiation of the Grand Provost an Officer of the Guards called Mouchette negotiated likewise on the Queens part with Madam de Chastillon but she seeing that she could not perswade the Prince to do the things that the Count desired sent the Queen word that she counselled her to grant the Prince all that he should desire of her and that afterwards her Majesty would know well enough how to deal with a Subject who taking advantage of the disorder of the Affairs of his Master had forced from her shameful Conditions and such as were prejudicial to her Authority At that time the Abbot Foucquett having been taken by the Enemies was brought to the Palace of Condé he had a very sharp Conversation with the Prince but on the morrow things began to cool and some days after the Treaty of Peace was renewed with him As he was a Prisoner upon parol and that he went every where he had a mind to he made some Visits to Madam de Chastillon believing that nothing could be done with the Prince but by her interposition and it was in those Visits that he fell in love with her Vinevil governed then Madam de Chastillon pretty peaceably Cambiac was retired since that the Prince was in love and that the Duke of Nemours was dead and this had very much diminished the Prince's Passion insomuch that some days after having been constrained to retire into Flanders by the accommodation of Paris he was upon the point of departing without taking leave of Madam de Chastillon and when at length he went to see her he was but a moment with her The King being returned to Paris the Abbot Foucquett fancied that if Madam de Chastillon stayed there he should have Rivals upon his back who might be preferred before him insomuch that he perswaded the Cardinal to send her away saying that she would every day set on foot a thousand Intrigues against the Interests of the Court which she could not do elsewhere and this obliged the Cardinal to send her to Marlou The Abbot Foucquett went thither as often as he could but there were in her neighbourhood two men who made her yet more frequent Visits The one was my Lord Crofts an Englishman who had hired a House near Marlou where he usually kept his Equipage and where he came to ly sometimes and the other was Digby Earl of Bristol Governour of the Isle of Man These two Noble men fell in love with the Dutchess Crofts was a peacable Man and addicted to Pleasures and Bristol was haughtly brave and full of ambition When that Cambiac had seen the Prince go out of France he had made his applications to Madam de Chastillon insomuch that he stayed with her at Marlou and as he was not so much afraid of the Abbot Foucquet or of Bristol as of the Prince he freely told Madam de Chastillon his Sentiments of her carriage with all her Lovers She not being willing to be contradicted in her new designs and particularly by a Party concerned took his Remonstrances very ill insomuch that things growing daily worse and worse between them Cambiac at length retired grumbling and as a Man that ought to be seared Sometime after he wrote a Letter without a Name and with a forged Hand in which he gave her notice of the ill they talked of her in the World She suspected however that this Letter came from him because he sent her word of things that no body but she could know of At length Madam de Chastillon learning from several parts that Cambiac railed against her she desired madam Pisieux whom she was very well acquainted with and who had a power over him to withdraw some Letters of Consequence that he had of hers which Madam de Pisieux promised her to do and at the same time sent word to Cambiac to come to her at her House at Marins near Pontoise It is to be observed that since that Cambiac was gone from Madam de Chastillon she had made a thousand Complaints against him to my Lord Digby This Lover who only thought of pleasing his Mistress and who ruined himself in expences for her sake did not stick at promising her a Vengance that should cost him nothing and wherein he would find his particular interest He took the time that Cambiac being at Marine was one day on Horseback to go abroad and having seized him with five or six Troopers he sent him to Marlou Madam de Chastillon knowing that Lovers that had been well treated ought never to be offended by halves was much perplexed at the manner that Cambiac was now used and perceived that no Body would be suspected but her she was very ill satisfied with Digby and would have sooner pardoned him the Death of Cambiac than the seizing him after this manner But in short not being able to undo what was done I am extreamly grieved said she to him at what has now happened to you I perceive that the Impertinent who has done you this Affront would make you suspect me by sending you to my House but you shall see by the resentment I shall have of it that I have no share in this Voilence In the mean time Sir if you have a mind to stay here you are Master if you think fit to return to Marine you shall have my Coach you need only Command it I know Madam answered Cambiac to her coolly what I ought to think of all this I give you thanks for the offers you make me I shall return on Horseback if you think fit God who will defend me from the attempts of the wicked will have care of me to the end And having spoke these words he went away in a pett and returned alone to Marine He was no sooner arrived there than that he and Madam de Pisieux wrote these two Letters to one of their Friends at Paris A Letter from Cambiac to Monsieur de Brienne YOu will be much surprized when you shall have learnt the adventure that has happened to me but to tell you the occasion of it
While that Digby began to fall in love with Madam de Chastillon my Lord Crofts who in the time the Disorders of England had followed Charles into France had taken a House in the Neighbourhood of Marlou and leisure conveniency and the insinuating ways of Madam de Chastillon had inflamed this Lord's heart with love but as he was of a milder disposition than the Earl his Passion had not made such progress as the Earl of Bristol's Things were in these terms when that the Abbot Foucquett seeing that his Affairs did not advance with Madam de Chastillon made use of this Stratagem to hastem them He had learnt that Ricoux Brother in Law to one of Madam de Chastillon's Women was concealed in Paris where he had Correspondence with them for the Prince's Interests he sent so many People in quest of Ricoux that he was taken and carried to the Bastille The Abbot Foucquett having caused him to be examined he accused Madam de Chastillon of several things and amongst others of having promised him ten thousand Crowns to kill the Cardinal and said that she had already given him two thousand beforehand upon that account The Abbot Foucquett suppressed these Informations and caused others to be given by which Ricoux still confessed that he was at Paris with design to kill the Cardinal but did not accuse the Duchess of having any hand in this Conspiracy And all that he said against her was That she kept Correspondence with the Prince and received a Pension of Four thousand Crowns from the Spaniards He shewed these last Informations to the Cardinal and the first to Madam de Chastillon by which having as may be imagined extreamly terrified her He told her he would save her if out of acknowledgment she would give him the least marks of Love Madam de Chastillon who feared death more then all things did not stick to satisfie the Abbot Foucquett but resisted just as long as was necessary to make him value this last Favour The Abbot Foucquett his whole thoughts were now how to love his Mistress and to that end he caused her to leave Marlou one night and carried her into Normandy where he made her change her Abode every day disguised sometimes like a Gentleman sometimes like a Religious and sometimes like a Fryer This lasted six Weeks during which the Abbot Foucquet went and came from Court to the place where Madam de Chastillon was At length he procured her an Amnesty when Ricoux had been Executed and caused her to return to Marlou where she was not long in repose for she cast her Eyes upon the Mareshal d' Hocquincourt as well for the Advantages she might draw from him by the Posts he held upon the Somme as to free her from the tyranny of the Abbot Foucquett who began to become insupportable to her Charles Marshal d' Hocquincourt had black sparkling Eyes a handsome Nose a little Forehead a long Visage and black frized Hair and his Shape was very fine He had but little Wit and yet was cunning by being very distrustful he was brave and ever in love and his Valour served him instead of Wit and good Carriage amongst the Ladies Madam de Chastillon knowing him by Reputation fancied that he was a proper Person to commit the Follies she had occasion for Monsieur de Vignacourt a Gentleman of Picardy her Neighbour was the Person she employed to him Whereupon the Marshal having agreed with Vignacourt that at his going to Command the Army of Catalonia he would see her as he passed thorow Marlou as if Chance had occasioned this Interview The thing hapned as it had been projected and Madam de Chastillon took Horse to go to Conduct the Marshal two Leagues from Marlou On the way she related to him the sad Circumstances of her Fortune desired him to be her Protectour flattered him with the Title of the Refuge of the Afflicted and the Resource of the Miserable In short she so inspired him with Generosity that he promised to serve her with and against all and even gave her his Table-Book in which he gave order to the Governours of Towns and Places to receive her and hers as often as she had occasion This Interview was discovered by the Abbot Foucquett who seeing the Marshal d' Hocquincourt upon the point of returning to Court judging his and Madam de Chastillon's Neighbourhood dangerous for his and the Courts Interests perswaded the Cardinal to remove her to the Frontiers of Picardy and caused an Order to be sent her to go to her Dutchy As Madam de Chastillon was on her Journey she met with the Marshal d' Hocqiuncourt at Montarquis with whom she renewed the Measures she had taken six Months before and after having mutually given one another he positively words to protect her against the Court and she hopes to grant him one day marks of her Passion They parted The Marshal went to find out the King and she to her Dutchy where she passed the Winter during which the Marshal d' Hocquincourt and the Abbot Foucquett who being the most difficult Patron to be satisfied impatiently supported the Interviews that passed between the Marshal d' Hocquincourt and Madam de Chastillon and the Commerce she kept with him To excuse herself she told him that the Marshal used his endeavours with the Cardinal that she might have Bordeaux again who was taken from her and to obtain of him for herself leave to return to Court She added That she could have wished she might not have been indebted for those Favours to any other than himself but that she was willing to spare his Credit for Affairs of greater moment What perswaded the Abbot Foucquett that the Intrigue between the Marshal did only concern the Court was that in the Spring she returned through his Intercession first to Marlou afterwards to Paris and Bordeaux with her During the Mareshal's Campaign in Catalonia the King of England whom the misfortunes of his Family obliged to stay in France and who had found the Dutchess much to his mind saw her at Marlou in the little Journeys he made to my Lord Crofts's his House and this Commerce had inspired this Prince with so much love for her that he resolved to marry her Crofts perswading his Master to satisfie her at any rate upon the promises that Madam de Chastillon had given this Lord that he should enjoy her in case he would contribute to the making her Queen And indeed she had been so if God who took care of the Fortune and Reputation of that King had not amused Madam de Chastillon with a foolish hope which made her fail of so fair an Occasion Charles King of England had great black Eyes his Eye-brows were thick and met together was of a brown Complexion a handsome Nose a long Visage his Hair was black and curled he was tall and finely shaped he had an austere Presence and yet loft and civil more in good than in ill Fortune
is so perswaded that one cannot be an honest welbred man without being in love that I despair of ever seeing you satisfied if you do not learn to be beloved by others than himself but let not this allarm you Madam as I have begun to serve you I will never abandon you in the Condition you are in You know that jealousie has some times more virtue to reclaim a heart than Charms and Merit I advise you to make your Husband jealous my fair Cosin and to that end I offer my self I have so much love for you as to act over my former part of your Agent to him and to sacrifice my self likewise to render you happy and if he must needs escape you love me my Cosin and I will help you to take your revenge on him by loving you as long as I live The Page I gave this Letter to carrying it to Madam de Sevigny found her asleep and as he waited till she was awake Sevigney arrived from the Country He having known from the Page whom I had not given instructions therein not foreseeing that the Husband was to return so suddenly having known I say that he had a Letter to deliver from me to his Wife asked him for it without suspecting any thing and having read it at the same time he bid him be gone and that there was no Answer to be made to it You may judge how I received him I was upon the point of killing him seeing the danger he had exposed my Cosin to and I slept not an hour that Night Sevigny for his part was no more at case than I and on the Morrow after the great reproaches he made his Wife he forbid her to see one she sent me word of it and that with a little patience all this would be shortly reconciled Six Months after Sevigny was killed in a Duel by the Chevalier d' Albert his Wife seemed inconsolable for his death the reasons she had to hate him being known by all the World they fancied that her grief was only feigned For my part who had more familiarity with her than others I did not wait so long as they to speak to her of agreeable things and presently after I made love to her but without Ceremonies and as if I had never done nothing else She made me one of her Oracle answers which Women make usually in the beginning that my Passion was so much at rest that it made me appear but little favourable and perhaps it might be so I know not Tho Madam de Sevigny had no intention to love it is impossible to have more Complaisance for her than I had in that Encounter However as I was her near Relation on the most honourable side she made me a thousand proffers to be her Friend and for my part finding in her a sort of Wit which diverted me I was not sorry to be so I saw her almost every day I wrote to her I made love to her after a raillying way I fell out with my nearest Relations to serve with my Credit and Estate those persons she recommended to me In short if she had occasion for all I have in the World I should have thought my self extreamly obliged to her if she would have given me an occasion of assisting her As my Friendship was pretty like love Madam de Sevigny was very well satisfied as long as I did not love elsewhere but Chance as I shall tell you in the Sequel having made me fall in love with Madam de Preey my Cosin she did not show me so much affection as she had done when she thought that I loved nothing but her From time to time we had little quarrels which indeed were made up but which left in my heart and I believe in here such seeds of Division for the first occasion we should both have and which were even capable to imbitter indifferent things In short an occasion being offered wherein I had need of Madam de Sevigny and wherein without her assistance I was in danger of losing my Fortune this ungrateful Woman abandoned me and did me in Friendship the greatest infidelity in the World This my Dear made me fall out with her and far from sacrificing her to Madam de Monglas as was reported This Lady whom I had long been in love with hindred me from having all the resentment which such an ingratitude deserved Bussy having done speaking Vivonne told him all that was said of the Count de Lude and of Madam de Sevigny Was he ever much in her favour Before I answer to that replyed Bussy it is necessary I give you an account of this Count de Lude He has a little ugly Face a great head of Hair a fine Shape he was not born to be sat but the fear of being incommode and disagreable makes him take such extraordinary care to be lean that at length he has effected his design his fine Shape has indeed cost him something of his health he has spoiled his stomack in the Summer by the Dyets he has taken and the Vinegar he has made use of He is active on Horseback he dances and fences well which is brave he fought very well with Vardes and they do him injury when they suspect his Valour the ground of this slander is that all the Sparks of his Circumstances having ingaged themselves in the War he would needs make one Campaign as a Voluntier but the reason of this was that he is idle and loves his pleasures In a word he has Courage and no Ambition he has a soft Wit he is pleasing with Women he has ever been well used by them but does not love them long the reasons that he is so happy in their savours are besides the reputation he has of being secret his good Meen and his being well provided for love Engagements but that which makes him so successful every where is that he cries when he will and nothing perswades Women so much that we are in love as tears However whether some mischance has hapned to him in his intrigues or that these who Envy say that it is his sault they have no Children he does not much dishonour the Women he has to do with Madam de Sevigny is one of those for whom he has had a love but his passion ending then when that fair one begun to make returnes to it Thus Cross accidents have saved her their passions could never meet And as he has ever visited her since tho without applications it has occasioned the report that he has had to do with her And tho it is not true there is great likehood it was so He has however been the weakside of Madam de Savigny and the Man for whom she has had the most inclination notwithstanding the jeasts she had made of it this puts me in mind of a Song she made wherein she causes Madam de Sourdis who was with Child to speak after this manner That you have both I
LOVES EMPIRE Or The AMOURS Of the FRENCH COURT LONDON Printed for Dorman Newman at the Kings Arms in the Poultry 1682. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF THANET c. My LORD THE present Times being pestered with nothing but Narrative and Narrative Evidence upon Evidence one to strengthen and another to invalidate the Truth of a Plot The Papists Libelling the Presbyterians and the Presbyterians zealously Answering them and both disturbing the Publick Peace Insomuch that Mr. Stationer hath now nothing to Entertain his Customer with but some rare Pamphlet which he is ready to commend as excellently penned and learnedly handled St. Austin 's City of God The Practice of Piety The Whole Duty of Man c. are grown even mouldy upon their Shelves and none but the Advising C and Intelligent V the former furnishing us with News from the Pope and the latter with strange Stories of Things which never were can merit their Favour or be vouchsaft an Acceptance And therefore for me to intrude into his Shop and desire a Place in his Classes under the Notion of a Lover is look't upon as the Superlative Degree of Boldness and Impudence and I am immediately commanded to Retire or if I persist Intreating I am thrust out of Doors and called an Idle Fellow a Toâ—y an Enemy to the Good Old Cause and I know not what Forgetting that Love ought at this time especially to have the greatest Empire in Mens Hearts to Vnite the Dissentingly Reformed to the Truly Reformed Opinion and thus like Ephraim and Manasseh both would agree against Judah the Papists And now my Lord being likely to be kept in Silence and Obscurity and uncapable to appear abroad without a PROTECTION I made bold to enter into your Lordships Presence and casting my self at your Feet humbly implore your Honourable Patronage Your Lordship will perchance be apt to ask me if this be a Time to talk of Love To which I believe I need not study for an Answer when the high Station your Lordship has in the World gives you the affrighting Prospect how little room Love takes up now among Men Nay 't is almost forgot and therefore to give them this Memento of it will not altogether be inseasonable My Lord the Stage whereon Our Gallants acted their several Parts was France and having met with a General Acceptance and Favour in their French I ventured to Equipp them in our English Garb. I hope they may give your Lordship some agreable Diversion when your vacant Hours from more serious Affairs shall permit you Your Lordships Favour and Incouragement is the sole Azyle to which I shall have Recourse with which if I am honoured I shall not value the severe Scrutinies of of the nice Critick nor the Opprobrious Censure of the Sedate Phanatick whilst I think it my Duty to write my self My Lord Your Lordships most humble and devoted Servant R. H. Loves Empire Or The GALLANTRIES Of the FRENCH COURT NOtwithstanding that in the Reign of Lewis the Fourteenth the War had continued above Twenty years yet it did not hinder Love from causing some Amourous Intrigues but as the Court was only filled with old insensible Gentlemen and young Sparks bred up in Armies and whom that Profession had rendred Brutal most of the Ladies were become less modest than formerly and seeing they should have languished in Idleness if they had not made Advances or at least if they had been Cruel a great many grew tender hearted and some very Confident Of this last Tribe was Madam d' Olonne She had a round Face a pretty Nose a little Mouth fine sparkling Eyes and delicate Features yet smiling which embelishes most people had in her a quite contrary effect her Hair was a bright brown her Complexion admirable her Neck Hands and Arms were well made her shape was not to be commended nor would she have been thought Charming had it not been for her Face This much her Flatterers say That when she first appeared at Court she had a handsome Body which is the usual plea of those who would excuse Women who are too Corpulent However this Lady was too sincere in this case to leave people in an Errour for every one that had a mind might be informed of the contrary and it was not her fault she did not undeceive all the World Madam d' Olonne had a quick and pleasant Wit when she was free yet she was something false inconstant bold malicious loved pleasures even to Debauch and there was excess in her least Divertisements Her Beauty rather than her Estate which was but small obliged the Count d' Olonne to endeavour the making her his Wife Which he quickly effected for being a Person of Quality and having a great Estate he was agreeably received by Madam de la Louppe her Mother and had not the leisure to sigh for Charms which for two years had inflamed the desires of all the Court This Match being consummated those Lovers withdrew who pretended to Marriage and others came who only aimed at being beloved One of the first who offered himself was Beuvron whom the Neighbourhood of Madam d' Olonne gave the more conveniency of seeing and by this means loved her a pretty while without being discovered and I fancy this Amour would have still been concealed if Beuvron had never had Rivals But the Duke of Candale being fallen in love with Madam d' Olonne quickly perceived what had thitherto remained concealed for want of interessed People Not but that d' Olonne loved his Wife extreamly but Husbands are stupid and so are never Lovers and the jealousie of these is much more piercing than that of the others So that the Duke of Candale saw things that d' Olonne did not and never has seen for he is still ignorant that Beuvron has had an Intrigue with his Wife Beuvron had black Eys a handsom Nose a little Mouth a long Face very black long and thick Hair a fine Shape and Wit enough He was not one of those who talk all in Company but was a Man of good sense and honour tho he had naturally an aversion for War so that being fallen in love with Madam d' Olonne he sought for an opportunity to discover to her his Passion Their Neighbourhood at Paris gave him occasions enough but her Inconstancy made him apprehend an Intrigue with her At length happening one day to meet with her without other Company If I only designed Madam said he to her to let you know that I love you words would be altogether unnecessary my cares and my looks have told you sufficiently what effect your Charms have had upon me But Madam as I expect you should one day make returns to my flames it is requisite that I discover 'em and assure you at the same time that whether you love me or not I am resolved to be your Votary as long as I live Beuvron having ceased speaking Sir answered Madam d' Olonne This is not
the first time I perceived you loved me and tho you did not acquaint me with it I did not fail to think my self obliged to you for all you have done for me since the first moment you saw me and this ought to be my Excuse when I confess I love you Therefore do not esteem me the less having long understood your sighs and tho I should be something blamed for my little resistance it would be a mark of the force of your merit rather than of my easiness It is easie to imagine that after this Confession it was not long before the Lady delivered up her Fort to her Gallant This Intrigue lasted four or five Months without disturbance to either Party but at length the Beauty of Madam d' Olonne was too much talked of and that Conquest promised too much Glory in appearance to him who should make it for Beuvron to be at rest The Duke of Candale who was the handsomest man of the Court fancied that nothing was wanting to his Reputation but the being beloved by the most beautiful Woman of the Kingdom Wherefore he took a Resolution at the Army three Months after the Campaigne to be in love with her assoon he should see her and made appear by a great Passion he had afterwards for her that Love is not always the work of Heaven and of Fortune The Duke of Candale had blew Eyes a handsome Nose irregular Features a great and disagreeable Mouth but very fine Teeth light yellowish Hair both long and thick his Shape was admirable and he dressed so well that the greatest Sparks endeavoured to imitate him he had the air of a Person of great Quality he held one of the first Ranks in France was Duke and Peer Governour of Burgundy joyntly with his Father and sole Governour of Auvergne and Colonel General of the French Infantry His Genius was mean but in his first Amours falling into the hands of a Lady who had an infinite deal of Wit and as they had loved one another extreamly she had taken so much care to polish him and he to please that fair One that Art had surpassed Nature and he was a much better bred man than a thousand others who have more sense than he Insomuch that being returned from Catalonia where he had commanded the Army under the Prince of Conty he begun by a thousand eagernesses to acquaint Madam d' Olonne with the love he had for her thinking she had never had an Amourous Intrigue But seeing she made no returns to his Passion he resolved to acquaint her with it after such a manner as that she might not seem to be ignorant of it but as he had a kind of bashful respect for all Women he chose rather to write than speak to Madam d' Olonne and his Letter was in these terms I Am grieved Madam that all Delarations of Love are alike and that there is sometimes so much differences in Sentiments I am very sensible that I love you more than all the World is used to love and yet I cannot express it otherwise then is done by all the World Wherefore do not take notice of my words that are weak and may be deceitful but be pleased to make reflexion on my Conduct towards you and if you find that to continue it with the same force I must needs be deeply struck yield to these testimonies and be assured that since I love you so much not being beloved by you I shall adore you when you oblige me to have acknowledgment Madam d' Olonne having read this Letter made this Answer IF any thing hinders you from being believed when you talk of Love it is not that it is importunate but that you tell it too well Great Passions are usually more disordered and me thinks you write like a very witty Man who is not in love but would fain be thought so and since it seems so to me who am infinitely desirous that what you say were true judge what People would imagine to whom your Passion should be indifferent they would presently think you had a mind to railly For my part I 'le never make a rash judgment but will accept the Offer you make me and am willing to judge by your Conduct of the Sentiments you have for me This Letter which grateful People would have thought very kind did not seem so to the Duke of Candale As he was very vain he had expected less intricate Favours and this obliged him not to press Madam d' Olonne so much as she was willing he should have done and made her a hard task in spight of her self and the thing had lasted a long time if the Fair One had not gained upon her Modesty to make him so many advances that he fancyed he might make an attack without being exposed to a Repulse The business being done he quickly perceived Beuvron's Commerce Usually a Pretender looks only before him but a Lover well treated looks on the right and on the left and is not long without discovering his Rival Hereupon the Duke complaines His Mistress calls him Caprichious and Tyrant and takes him up so roundly that he asks her pardon for his suspicions and fancies himself too happy in having appeased her This Calm did not long continue Beuvron for his part reproached her to as little purpose as the Duke did and seeing he could not destroy his Rival himself he caused notice to be given under hand to Olonne that his Wife entertained the Duke of Candale for her Galant D' Olonne forbids her to see him that is to say redoubled the Passion of those two Lovers who having the more desire to see one another since it was forbidden found a thousand more convenient oppurtunities than those they had before However Beuvron remaining Master of the field of Battails the Duke of Candale renewed his Complaints against him and used all his endeavours to have him Cashiered but all to no purpose Madam d' Olonne told him that she perceived he only considered his own Interest and that he cared not if he ruined her since that if she should forbid Beuvron to see her her husband and all the world would not doubt but that she made that sacrifice to him Madam d' Olonne did not love Beuvron so much as she did the Duke yet she was not willing however to lose him and as well because One and One make Two as that because Cocquetts fancy they can retaine their Galants better by a little Jealousy than a great Tranquility In the mean time Paget a man pretty well stricken in years meanly born but very rich fell in love with Madam d' Olonne and having discovered that she loved the sport he fancyed that his Money would serve him instead of Merit and founded his greatest hopes upon the sum he resolved to offer her He had access enough to her house to have spoke to her himself if he had durst but he had not the boldness to begin
made a great Noise they had both of them Enemies but the Fortune of the One and the Beauty of the Other made-a great many envy them tho all the world would have served them they would have destroyed all by their Imprudence and all the world would have done them hurt They made Assignations every where without having taken any measures with any Body They saw One another often in a house that the Duke of Candale kept in the name of a Country Lady whom Madam d' Olonne pretended to visit most commonly by night at her own House all these Rendevouzes did not take up all the time of this perfidious One for when the Duke left her she went to the conquest of some new Lover or at least to reassume Beuvron by a thousand kindnesses for the fears the Duke gave him The Winter passed thus without the Duke of Candales suspecting the least ill in all she did and he left her to return to the Army as well satisfied as he had ever been he had not been there two Months but that he learnt news which troubled his joy His particular friends who took strict notice of his Mistresses Conduct did not dare to say any thing to him as long as they found him prepossessed by that faithless One but something very extraordinary having happened since his absence and not fearing a sight of her should destroy the impressions they would give him they altogether hazarded without making appear any design or concert to acquaint him with her behaviour Whereupon they each of them singly sent him word that Ieannin was deeply engaged with Madam d' Olonne that his assiduities gave cause to believe not only a design but a happy success and in a word that tho she were not culpable he ought not to be satisfied with her seeing she was suspected by all People But while these News are going to put the Duke of Candale in a rage it is fit I should speak of the birth progress and ends Jeannin's Passion Jeannin de Castille was well shaped had a pleasing Countenance was very spruce but had little Wit his Quality and Profession were the same that Pagets and was very rich as well as he He was handsome enough to have it believed that in case he had worn a Sword his Merit alone might have procured him the Ladies Favours but his Profession and his Riches made it suspected that all the Women he had had Intrigues with were interessed insomuch that when he was seen to be in love with Madam d' Olonne it was not doubted but that he would be beloved for his Money The King after having passed the Summers upon the Frontiers usually returned to Paris in the Winters and all the Divertisements of the World possessed his Mind by turns Billiards Tennis Hunting Plays and Dancing had each their times with him At that time Lotteries were so much the mode that every one had them some of Money others of Jewels and Moveables Madam d' Olonne resolved to have One of Money but whereas in the most part of them all the Cash was employed they had received and that Fortune shared it in this which was of Ten thousand Crowns there was not Five employed and those Five too were distributed according as Madam d' Olonne thought fit Jeannin was present when she made the first Proposals of the Lottery and as she asked a Sum of every one according to their Abilities and that she told him he was to give an Hundred pound he made Answer That he was willingly and moreover promised her to procure amongst his Friends wherewith to make it up a Thousand Presently after all the Company being gone except Jeannin I know not Madam said he to her whether you are yet acquainted with my Passion for I have loved you a long time and my sighs already mount to a very great sum but after having given my self entirely to you I must needs ask the confirmation of my Bail which I beseech you to sign Madam and observe that besides the Hundred pound you taxed me I give you Nine hundred more for the having your Affection for what I said of my Friends was only to deceive the People that were here when I spoke to you of this Affair I confess Sir answered Madam d' Olonne I never thought you in love till now not but that I have observed by certain Meenes in you what made me suspect some things but I am so disgusted with those kind of ways and sighs and languishings are in my mind so poor a Galantry and such feeble Testimonies of love that if you had not taken a more gentile Course with me you had lost your pains all your life time Now as for Acknowledgment you may believe that People are not far from loving when we are well assured of being beloved There need no more to make Jeannin believe that he was at the Critical Minute He cast himself at Madam d' Olonne's feet and as he would have made use of that Action of Humility for a pretext to higher Enterprizes No said she you are mistaken Sir In what Country have you heard say that Women make Advances When you shall have given me reall marks of a great Passion I shall not be ungrateful Jeannin seeing that with her Money was to be delivered before the Commodity told her That he had two Hundred broad Pieces and that he would give them her if she pleased She consented and having received them If you think fit Madam said he to her to grant me some favour upon the account of this Money you will extreamly oblige me or if you will stay till you have received the whole Sum give me a Note under your Hand of the value received She chose rather to kiss than write and a Moment after Jeannin went away assuring her that he would bring the rest on the morrow which he did not fail to do and the Moment was no sooner counted then that she kept her word with him with all the Honour that can be expected in such a Treaty Tho Jeannin came in through the same Door that Paget did she used him much better whether she hoped to draw greater Advantages from him at length or that he had some concealed Merit that served him instead of Liberality she did not ask him new Proofs of Love for the giving him new Favours The Thousand pounds made her love him three Months together that is to say treated him as if she had loved him In the mean time the Duke of Candale having received Advice of his Mistresses new Intrigues he wrote her this Letter THo you would justifie your self to me of all the things you are Accused of I can no longer love you tho all that is said of you was done only out of Malice All Lovers are usually overjoyed to hear their Mistresses named as for me I tremble as soon as I hear or read your Name I ever fancy in these Occasions that I shall learn
her and had likewise invented a very harsh Answer that he said she made him that he might not think it strange he was so long without receiving Favours Whereupon this Governour to serve his Pupil spoke thus to Madam d' Olonne I know very well Madam that nothing is so free as Love and that if the heart is not touched by inclination the mind will never be much perswaded by words but I must however tell you that when a Person is young and unmarried I do not comprehend why a young amorous Gentleman is refused who is as well provided or I am much mistaken as any man about Court it is poor Marsillac I speak of Madam since he is desperately in love with you why are you ungrateful Or if you find you cannot love him why do you amuse him Love him or dismiss him I know not since when answered Madam d' Olonne that Men pretend we should love them without their having made it their Request for I have heard say it was they who formerly made Court I know very well that in these latter days they treat Gallantry after a strange manner but I knew not that they had reduced it to the point of requiring that Women should be their Votaries How answered Sillery has not Marsillac declared he loved you No Sir said she to him it is you who first tell it me Not but that his Assiduities have made me suspect he had some design but till we are spoke to we do not understand the rest Ah Madam replied Sillery you are not then so much in fault as I thought Marillac 's Youth renders him fearful but the same Youth makes Women excuse several things Persons of his Age are seldome faulty and men but Twenty years old always meet with Compassion I grant replied Madam d' Olonne that the Bashfulness of a young Man raises Pity and never Anger but I likewise pretend he should be respectful Do you call respect Madam said Sillery to her the not daring to say we are in love It is all meer folly I say in regard of a Woman who would not make Returns For in that Case the Gallant would not lose his time and would quickly know what he was to trust to But this respect which you require Madam is only of advantage to you with those you have no inclination for for if the Man you are inclined to love should have too much of it you would be very much perplexed As he had done speaking Company came in whereupon he took his leave and went to seek out Marsillac to whom having made a thousand Reproaches for his Timidity he made him promise that before that day was at an end he would make an amorous Declaration to his Mistress He likewise told him part of the things it was requisite he should say which Marsillac had forgot within a Moment after and having encouraged him as much as he could he saw him set out for this great Expedition However Marsillac was under strange disquiets sometimes he thought his Coach went too fast sometimes he wished he might not find Madam d' Olonne at home or that he might find some body with her In a word he feared the same things that a brisk Man would have desired with all his heart However he was so unhappy as to meet with his Mistress and to find her alone He came up to her with so disordered a Countenance that if Sillery had not already acquainted her with his Love she would have discovered it by seeing him only that time This Disorder helped to perswade her more then all he or the Eloquence of his Friend could have said to her And it is for this reason that Fools are more happy than the Wise in Love The first thing that Marsillac did after being seated was putting on his Hat so little was he himself an instant after perceiving his folly he took off his Hat and Gloves then put on one again and all this without saying a Word What 's the matter Sir said Madam d' Olonne you seem to be concerned at something Do not you Divine it Madam said Marsillac No said she I do not comprehend it How should I understand what you do not tell me being hardly able to conceive what I am told I shall tell you then what it is replied Marsillac simpering I am in love with you But why so much Ceremony said she for so small a thing I do not see there is so much difficulty in loving there appearing much more in loving well Ah Madam I find it much harder to tell it than to do it I find none at all in loving you and I should find it so difficult to cease loving you that I should never be able to forbear tho you should order it me a thousand times I Sir replied Madam d' Olonne blushing I have nothing to Command you Any other than Marsillac would have understood the cunning way that Madam d' Olonne made use of to permit him to love her But his Wit was gone a Wool-gathering and all Delicacy upon him was lost How Madam said he to her do you not esteem me enough to honour me with your Commands Well said she to him should you be glad I ordered you not to love me any longer No Madam replied he bluntly What would you be at then said Madam d' Olonne Love you as long as I live said he Well said she love me as long as you please and hope This had been sufficient for a more pressing Gallant than Marsillac to have pretended to enjoyment immediately and yet notwithstanding all that Madam d' Olonne could do he made her wait two Months and at length when they came to the point she was forced to make all the Advances The establishing this new Commerce did not make her break that she had with Beuvron The last Lover was ever the most beloved but he was not so much in her Favour as to drive away Beuvron who was a second Husband to her A little before the Repture of Jeannin with Madam d' Olonne the Chevalier of Grammont was fallen in love with her and he being a very extraordinary Person it is fit I give a Description of him The Chevalier had brisk Eyes a handsome Nose a pretty Mouth a dimple in his Chin and I know not what of sine in his Phisiognomy his Shape had been comely had he not stooped his Wit was delicate and gallant However his Meen and his Accent gave a Grace to what he said that became nothing in the Mouth of another A mark of this is that he writ the worst of any Body and he writ as he spoke Though it be superfluous to say that a Rival is incommode the Chevalier was to that point that it would have been better for a poor Woman to be troubled with four others then he alone He was so sprightly that he hardly ever slept he was liberal to Profusion and by that means his Mistress and
so much displeased as I am I fear he will force me to pardon him through your Intercession Manicamp went and sought every where for the Countess and having at length found her at Play at Madam de Bonnelle's I bring good luck Madam to People I approach said he to her and having placed himself by her he neatly slipt his Friends Letter into her Pocket and went away The Countess withdrawing some time after to her own House having left off Play in taking out her Handkerchief she sound the Count de Guiche's Letter sealed and without Superscription if she had thought what it was she would not have opened it but for fear she should be obliged not to break it open she was not willing to spend thoughts upon it and opened it immediately without the least reflexion All the Countesse's vivacity could not make her imagine what the Count de Guiche meant by his being dissatisfied with Manicamp insomuch that she ordered one of her Servants to go tell him he should come and see her on the Morrow being resolved to rattle him for the Letter he had given her from the Count de Guiche and to forbid him to charge himself with any more for the future As he entred the Chamber the next day her Curiosity made her forget her Anger Well said she tell me your quarrel with your Friend It is Madam said he to her that as I was bringing you a Letter two days ago I lost it and he is enraged against me and I know not what to say to him for I am in the fault The Countess fearing this lost Letter might be found by some one who might make a Story of it to make the publick Sport Go said she to him go seek it every where and do not return till you have brought it me back Manicamp went away immediately and returned in the Evening to tell her that he could not find it that the Count de Guiche would no longer see him and that he came to beseech her to reconcile them I will said she tho you do not deserve it And I shall go to morrow to Mademoiselle bid your Friend be there I have no more Commerce with him said Manicamp to her and nothing can appease him but a Letter from you I write to the Count de Guiche replyed the Countess you are a pleasant Man to make such a Proposal Tho we are fallen out Madam answered Manicamp I cannot forbear telling you still that he deserves that favour Do not think of him in this Occasion give this Letter to the Friendship you have for me and I promise that when it has done the business I will return it into your hands The Countess having made him engage his word he would bring back her Letter she writ to him the day following in these terms THe intention of these Lines are only to ask Manicamp 's pardon and if it is necessary to say anything more to oblige you to grant it me give credit to what he shall acquaint you with from me he is so much my Friend that I cannot refuse anything that may be useful to him The Count of Guiche having received this Letter sound it too hard to restore it he fancied he should get quit by disavowing Manicamp and in the mean time he encharged him with this Answer I Could infinitely desire you were as much inclined to grant me what I should desire of you as it was casie for me to grant pardon to the Criminal I avow to you that with such a Recommendation it was impossible to refuse any thing If I was so happy as to be able to give you proofs thereof by something more difficult you would know that you did me an injustice when you doubted of the truth of my Sentiments They are I assure you as passionate as so lovely a Person as you are can inspire and shall ever be as middest as you can desire them Notwithstanding all what our Governours say I conjure you to follow the advice of the Criminal for tho he is something careless his zeal for our Service deserves to be Commended That advice was to be very distrustful of the Chevalier who did all he could to traverse his Nephew and to make him appear indiscreet and unfaithful to the Countess After that Manicamp told her that the Letter she had written to the Count de Guiche had so transported him with joy that it was impossible to get it from him but that she should not be in pain for that it would be as safe in his Friends hands as in the fire and moreover that he had never seen a Man so much in love as the Count was and that he would certainly love her as long as he lived But interrupted the Countess what is the meaning of so many Visits that your Friend makes to Madam d' Olonne Does he go to desire her to intercede with me for him He does not visit her at all Madam answered Manicamp that is to say he has been there but once or twice but I discover the Chivaliers Malice in what you tell me and I am certain the Count de Guiche will know this Knavish trick to be of this Vnkles stamp But Madam hear my Friend before you Condemn him I am of your Opinion said she to him and indeed Manicamp guessed right For the Chevalier had told the Countess that the Count de Guiche was in love with Madam d' Olonne that she only served for a Pretext and a thousand other things of that Nature that appeared to her so likely that though she distrusted the Chevalier in what concerned the Count de Guiche she could not forbear giving Credit to him in this Encounter The next day a Lady of her Acquaintance being come to press her to go into the Country she let herself be perswaded And really fancying the Count de Guiche false she would not come to any Explication with him and not to break off all she thought it convenient to prepossess Guitand by a false Confidence for fear he should learn by other means the truth of all Wherefore she sent him a Copy of the Count de Guiche's last Letter and after that her Friend and she went out of Town The Chevalier who had an Eye upon all the Countesses Actions and had bribed all her Servants had the Pacquet she sent to Guitand two hours after it was made up He took a Copy of the Count de Guiche's Letter and cast the Pacquet into the Fire Two days after having learnt that the Countess was gone he wrote to her this Letter IF you had had as much desire to informe your self of things you seemed to doubt of as I had by a thousand true reasons to take from you all manner of Scruples you would not have undertaken so long a Journey or at least you would have been sorry to have appeared so good a Friend I would not forbid your having a kindness but I should extreamly desire to have
some part in the Application and I avow to you that if I was happy enough to compas it by the same means I should endeavour to render my self worthy of it by my Conduct While this Letter was a carrying to the Countess the Chevalier went to seek out his Nephew with whom he found Manicamp After a Prologue of Raillery upon the good Fortunes of the Count de Guiche in General Faith my poor Friends said he to them I confess you are younger and genteeler than I am and I shall never dispute with you a Mistress I have not been a long time acquainted with But however you must yield the Countess to me and all those I have any Engagement with The Vanity Women take in a great number of Galants may oblige them to give you some hopes There are few who at the first onset will stifle the Vows of their Adorers But sooner or later they return to reason and it is then that the new Comer passes his time very ill and that the old Gallant jointly with his Mistress cry Farewel you Gentlemen Serenaders You promised me Count de Guiche never to torment me more as to what concerns the Countess you have broke your word and committed an infidelity that has done you no good For the Countess has given me all the Letters you wrote to her I 'le snow you the Originals when you will In the mean time here is a Copy of the last Letter you sent her and saying that he took out a Letter of the Count de Guiche's and having read it Well! my Dears said he to them you 'l hunt upon my grounds again will you While the Chevalier was speaking the Count de Guiche and Manicamp looked amazedly upon one another not being able to comprehend that the Countess had so basely deceived them At length Manicamp broak silence and addressing himself to the Count You are treated said he to him as you deserved but since the Countess has not had any Consideration for us added he turning towards the Chevalier we are not obliged to have any for her We easily perceived we have been Sacrificed but there was a time Chevalier that you was so too We have indeed great reason to complain of her but you have none at all to be satisfied with her When we some times rejoyced and were merry at your Costs the Countess went halves with us at the least The truth is said the Count de Guiche that you would not have reason to be satisfied with the Countesses preference in your Favours if you knew the esteem she has of you and this makes me draw infallible Consequences that she is deeply engaged with you since after all the things she has told me she only betrays me to give you satisfaction Thereupon being all three really reconciled and having given one another a thousand Assurances of Friendship for the future they parted The Count de Guiche and Manicamp shut themselves up to make a Letter of reproaches in Manicamps Name to the Countess to which the poor Countess being innocent made answer that he and his Friend had been taken for Cullies and that the Chevalier was cunninger than they that she could not tell by what means he had got the Letter he had showed them but that they One day should clearly see that she had not made a Sacrifice of them This Letter not finding Manicamp any longer at Paris he being gone out the day before with the Count de Guiche to follow the King in his Progress to Lyons he did not receive it till he arrived at Court and thought neither the more nor the less advantageously of the Countess during all these passages Marsillac's Intrigue with Madam d' Olonne jogged on that Lover seeing her with the greatest conveniency imaginable by night at her House and by day at Mademoiselle de Cornuelle's a lovely Creature and of a great deal of Wit Madam d' Olonne had by her Bed-side a Closet in a corner of which she had caused a trap Door to be made which went into another Closet underneath wherein Marsillac entred when it was night a Foot-Carpet concealed the Trapdoor and a Table covered it Thus Marsillac passing the Night with Madam d' Olonne according to the common report did not lose his time This lasted till she went to the Waters in which time Marsillac who wrote to her a thousand Letters that are not mentioned here because they are not worth the pains wrote this Amourous Ticket to her one day before bidding her Adieu I never felt so lively a Grief as that I am sensible of at present my Dear because I never yet parted from you since we have been in love with one another Nothing but absence and that too the first absence of what a person infinitely loves can reduce one into the lamentable Condition I am in If any thing could lessen my trouble my Dear it would be the belief that you would suffer as much as I do Do not take it ill that I wish you in pain since it is a mark of your love Farewel my Dear be well assured that I love you and that I shall love you ever for if you are once really perswaded of this truth it is impossible but that you must love me as long as you live Her Answer was COmfort your self my Dear If my Grief gives you case it is as great as you could desire it I cannot explaine it better than by telling you that I suffer as much as I love you If you doubt it my Dear come to me but come early that I may be a long time with you and that I may in some manner recompence my self for the absence I am going to suffer Farewell my Dear be assured of my passion it is at least as great as yours Marsillac did not fail to be at the Assignation much sooner than ordinary In accosting his Mistress he flung himself upon her Bed and was thus a long time melting into tears and all his words were interrupted by sobs Madam d' Olonne for her part appeared no less concerned but as she was desirous to receive other Marks of Love from her Galant than those of Grief How my Dear said she to him you sent me word a little while a go that my Grief would case yours and yet the affliction you see me in does not render you the more capable of Comfort At these words Marsillac redoubled his sighs without making her an answer the dulness of his Soul had caused the same effect in his Body and I fancy that this Lover deplored at that time more the absence of his Vigour than that of his Mistress However as young People recover easily and he being of a good complexion he began to come to himself and recovered his strength in a little time Insomuch that Madam d' Olonne could hardly discover he had been so lately ill After he had given her so many testimonies of his good health she recommended to him to
have care of it above all things and told him that he should judge thereby of the Love he had for her Thereupon they made a thousand Protestations of loving one another all their life-time they agreed of the means of writing and then took leave the one to go to Court the other to the Wells Prince Marsillac went the next day to take his leave of Mademoiselle Cornuelle his good Friend he desired her to perswade his Mistress to be more circumspect in her Carriage than she had yet been Rely upon me for that said this young Lady to him she must be very incorrigible if I do not keep her within bounds Two dayes after Mademoiselle Cornuelle went to Madam d' Olonnes and having prayed her to order her Porter to say she was gone out I am too much your friend Madam said she to her not to speake franckly to you in all that concerns your Carriage and your Reputation you are beautyfull young you are of Quality you have Riches and will you have infinitely Charmed a Prince who loves you extreamly All this ought to 〈◊〉 you happy however you 〈◊〉 not so you know what Reports run of you we have talked of them sometimes together and this being so you are mad you are not 〈◊〉 I do not pretend to consider your weakenesses I am a Woman as well as you and I know by my self the want of our Sex Your Manners are insupportable you love pleasures Madam and I allow them but you take delight to set People a talking and it is that I condemn you for Can you not leave off your Extravagances it is impossible but that you must be in a Rage when you hear of the Reputation you have in the world and Men conceal the love they have for you more out of Shame than Modesty Well my Dear said Madam d' Olonne do you here any thing new does the World renew its Satyr's against me No Madam said Mademoiselle it does only continue them because you still continue to give it new matters I know not what I must do then replyed Madam d' Olonne all the Prudence that one can have in love I fancyed I had and that since I have been concerned in loving I never fruitlesly delayed nor spun out any Intrigue well knowing that the greatest Noise is usually made before the business is agreed on and when Lovers act not in Concert together Pret hee tell me exactly my Dear added she what I must do to love well and entertain a Gallantry that shall do me no injury in the world tho it should be suspected For I am resolved to do my Devoir in the future with the utmost Regularity There are so many things to say upon that point said Mademoiselle Cornuelle that I should never have don if I would neglect nothing however I shall tell you the principal as succinctly as possible First you must know Madam that there are three sorts of Women who make love The Debauchées the Cocquets and the honest Mistresses Tho the first are abominable they certainly deserve more compassion than hatred because they are hurryed away by the force of their Temper and that almost an impossible application is required to reforme Nature however if in any encounter we ought to conquer our selves it is in that wherein no less is concerned than our honours or lives As for Cocquets the number being much greater I shall enlarge more upon that point The difference between Debauchées and them is that in the Ill the former commit there is at least sincerity and in what the Cocquets do there is Treachery The Cocquets tell us to excuse themselves when they give ear to the Courtship of all Comers that how honest soever a Woman is she never hates a person who tells her he loves her But one may answer them that distinctions are to be made either that Lover addresses himself to a Woman who will be either honest for her self or for a Lover allow that she cannot hate a Man for the Sentiments he had for her yet this will not hinder her from being carefull of not having so much Complaisance for him as for another who had never declared any thing to her for fear she should thereby entertain his hopes and that at length it might make a noise and be injurious to the reputation she would preserve If the Woman be prepossessed that the Man declares love to her she will have the same precautions as the other to hinder it from continuing but if he persists I maintain that she shall hate him as much as she shall love her true Gallant it being natural to hate the Enemies of the person we love because love will not allow love to be importunate and because that a Lover well treated may suspect that a Passion that continues in his Rival is atleast nourished by some hopes an honest Mistress considers his Rival as her mortal Enemy who maks her run the risque of losing her Lover whom she loves more than her life This being plain you must likewise know that there are several sorts of Cocquets some take a pride in being beloved by a great many People without ever loving any of them and do not perceive that it is the advances themselves make which invite men and which retain them rather than merit Besides as it is not possible they should dispose their Favours so equally but that some one will seem better treated than others and there being some who will not content themselves with equality but pretend to preference This gives jealousy to the Malecontents and makes them say in quitting them all nay more than they know There are other Cocquets who manage several Lovers that they may save the real one in the multitude and cause it to be said they have no amorous Intrigue since they treat equally all those who visit them but the best luck that can happen to them is to have the truth discovered or at least it is better than by believing they love no Body every one sancies they love All. There are others who by managing several Gallants would fain perswade that if they should love any one of them they should hazard the vexing him In the mean time they vex and lose him by these means For to imagine that it is in the absence of their true Lover that they make love he will know nothing of it or if it is in his presence by acting in concert together he will easily see that is nothing since he is taken for a Witness of what is done or at all hazards if he is troubled their Caressing him and their Promises to do so no more will oblige him to be satisfied All this is very subject to caution a Lover is not long deceived and if he does not discover it to day he will discover it to Morrow And crying 't is well adieu my Dear I find no longer pleasure here And tho his Passion should be so strong that he could not get rid
our Husbands whom the Laws have made our Masters why should our Gallants come off at a better rate They whom nothing obliges us to love but the choice we make and whom we take to serve us as long and as little as we please I did not say answered Mademoiselle de Cornuelle that we ought not to abandon our Gallants when they displease us either by their own defects or our weariness but I have shown you the nice manner by which you ought to disengage your self from them not to give them any reason to cry out upon you in the world For in a word Madam since they have imposed that tyranny upon the Honour of Ladies not to love what they find lovely we must comply with Custome and conceal our selves at least when we will love Well! my Dear said Madam d' Olonne to her I am going to act wonders I am fully resolved of it but withal I ground the greatest hopes of my Conduct upon avoiding Occasions Whether it be by avoiding or resistance said Mademoiselle de Cornuelle it is no matter provided your Lover be satisfied with you and thereupon having exhorted her to remain firm in her good Intentions she took her leave During Madam d' Olonne's separation from Marsillac they wrote to one another very often but as there was nothing therein remarkable I shall not mention their Letters which spoke of their love and of their impatience to see one another again but in a very common manner Madam d' Olonne was the first who returned to Paris the Count de Guiche during the Progress to Lyons perswaded Monsieur the King's Brother with whom he was much in favour to have a Gallantry at his return to Paris with Madam d' Olonne and had offered himself to serve him in it and to procure him content in a short time This Prince had promised the Count de Guiche to make the necessary Paces to engage that Cocquet insomuch that in the Conversations he had with Madam d' Olonne he only spoke to her of the love that Prince had for her He told her that he had declared it to him more than an hundred times upon the Journey and that she would certainly see him sigh assoon as he was returned A Woman who had Citizens and Gentlemen her Gallants some handsome others ugly might well love a comely Prince Madam a' Olonne received the Count de Guiche's Proposition with an unexpressible joy and it was so great that she did not so much as make those Excuses which Coquets make in such like Encounters Another would have said that she would not love any one but less a Prince than any man soever because he would not have so much application Madam d' Olonne who was the most natural Woman in the World and the most passionate kept no bounds of Modesty but answered the Count de Guiche That she esteemed herself more than she had yet done since she pleased so great and so rational a Prince When the Court was returned to Paris the Duke of Orleans did not answer the eagernesses the Count had prepared Madam d' Olonne for who delivered herself all entirely All this produced nothing and made her but the more know how indifferent she was to that Prince The Count de Guiche seeing that the Duke of Orleans did not bite at the Hook changed his Design and was desirous at least that the Services he would have rendred to Madam d' Olonne should be of some advantage to him Whereupon he resolved to act the part of a Lover himself and being the Commerce he had had with her upon the Amours of the Duke of Orleans had made him very familiar he did not balance to write to her this Letter WE have laboured hitherto in vain Madam the Queen haters you and the Duke of Orleans apprehends displeasing her I have reason to be in despair Madam but you can comfort me if you please and I do Conjure you to do it since the natural sharpness of the Mother and the weakness of the Son have ruined our Projects other Measures are to be taken Let us love one another Madam it is already done on my part and I easily perceive that had the Duke of Orleans loved you I should quickly have fallen out with him because I should not have been able to have resisted the inclination I have for you I do not question but that at first you will be shocked at the difference but lay aside your Ambition and you will not find your self so miserable as you imagine I am certain that when Spight shall have cast you into my Arms Love will there retain you Let People say what they will against Women there is sometimes more imprudence than malice in their Conduct Most of them no longer think when they are courted that they ought never to love In the mean time they proceed further than they imagine they do things sometimes thinking they shall be always Cruel which they extreamly repent of when they are become more Humane The same thing happened to Madam d' Olonne she was stung to the quick that she had failed of the Prince's Heart after having reckoned it amongst her Conquests in seeking some one to apply herself to for the amusing her grief she found nothing more likely to believe than that the Count de Guiche for his own Interest had hindred him from loving her Insomuch that as well to revenge herself of him as to reassure Marsillac whom this Intrigue had alarmed she sacrificed to him the Count de Guiche's Letter without considering that Love would perhaps oblige her to do the same with those of Marsillac and he whom Madam d' Olonne gave a thousand Favours to made the use of them that is common when one is satisfied with his Mistress he rendred her a thousand thanks for her Sincerity and contented himself with triumphing over his Rivals without showing any indiscreet Pride In the mean time the Count de Guiche not knowing the Destiny of his Letter went the day after to Madam d' Olonne's House but so much Company was there that day that he could not speak to her about business at that time He only observed that she had eyed him very much and from her House he went to acquaint Fiesque with the state of his Affairs who since his return from Lyons he had made his Consident he went likewise to tell the same to Vinevil and they both judged by the weakness of the Lady and the Gentleness of the Spark that his pursuit would neither be long nor in vain And the truth is Madam d' Olonne had found the Count de Guiche so handsome and so much to her mind that she repented the Sacrifice she had newly made to Marsillac The day after the Count de Guiche returned to her House and having found her alone he spoke to her of his Passion the fair One was pleased and received that Declaration the most agreably imaginable but after having
Countenance my Dear that it quite deprived me of the forces I had left I beg of you Madam said I to her not to ruine a wretch with reproaches Certainly I am bewitched In stead of giving me an answer she called her Chamber-Maid Prethee tell me Quentine how do I look to day am not I very ugly Do not deceive your Lady there is something about me that does not sit well Quentine not daring to answer seeing her in that rage Madam d' Olonne snatching alooking-Glass from her she held in her hands After having made all the gestures she used to do when she designed to Charm any one to judge if my insufficiency proceeded from her fault or mine She got up and shaked her Petticoat that was something ruffled and went in a fury into her Closet that stood by her Bed-side For my part I was like a Condemned Man I asked my self if all that had passed was not a Dream with all the reflections that one can make in such an Encounter I went to Manicamps House where having related to him all my adventure I am mightly obliged to you my Dear said he to me for certainly it was for the love of me that you were so insensible near so pretty a Woman Tho perhaps you may be the Cause of it said I to him I did it not to oblige you I love you extreamely and I do confess it but with all that I had forgot you in that occasion I do not Comprehend so extraordinary an Obligation by quitting the habit of a Man I had quitted you before but that part is dead in me by which I have been hitherto a kind of Chancellour As I had done speaking one of my Servants brought me a Letter from Madam d' Olonne that one of hers had given him here it is in my Pocket in saying that the Count read this Letter to Vinevil IF I was a lover of Venereal pleasures I should lament my having been disappointed but far from complaining I am obliged to your insufficiency it is the cause that in the expectation of delights you were not able to give me I enjoyed others by imagination that lasted much longer than those you could have been capable of furnishing tho you had been as well provided as an other Man I send at present to know how you do and if you were able to get a foot to your Lodgings It is not without reason that I make this inquiry for I never saw a Man under such sad Circumstances as you were when I left you I Counsel you to settle your Affairs with more natural heat than you had when I saw you for you cannot live much longer Really my Lord you raise my pity and what outrage soever I have received from you I shall not forbear giving you good advice Avoid Manicamp if you are wise you may recover your health if you leave off seeking him for some time it is certainly from him that your impotence proceeds for my part neither my Glass nor my looks belying me I do not fear being either accused or reproached I had no sooner made an end of reading this Letter than that I made her this answer I Confess Madam I have had failings in my lifetime for I am a man and still young but I never had a worse than that last Night It is not to be excused Madam and tho your sentence be never so severe it can be but what I have deserved I have killed I have betrayed I have committed sacriledge for all these Crimes you need only seek out punishments if you please my Death I will bring you my sword if you only condemn me to be whipt I will come naked to you in my shirt Remember Madam that I failed in Power not in Will I was like a Brave soldier who finds himself without Arms when he should engage I should be extreamly puzzel'd Madam to tell you from whence this prov'd perhaps it happend ' to me as it does to those whose stomack is gone when they expect to eat most perhaps the force of Imagination consumed the force of Nature See what it is Madam to be so Charming An Ordinary Beauty who should not have troubled the Course of nature would have been better entertained Adieu Madam I have nothing more to say to you but that perhaps you would pardon me what is past if you would give me the opportunity of doing better herafter to which purpose I only demand till to morrow at the same hour as yesterday After having sent by one of my Footmen these fair promises to Madam d' Olonne's Lacquis who waited for an answer at my House I went home and not doubting but that my offers would be kindly received I resolved to take all imaginable Care of my self I bathed and was rubbed with Essences I eat new laid Eggs and Artichoaks and then drunk some Wine I walked a while in my Chamber and then went to Bed without Manicamp My Head was so full of the design of repairing my fault that I shun'd my Friends as I would have done the Plague I got up the next day brisk both in Body and mind I dined betimes and eat what was Provocative but as little as I had done at Supper and having spent the Afternoon in preparing my little Equipages of Love I went to Madam d' Olonne's House at the same hour as the time before I found her upon the same Bed which made me immediately apprehend that it portended me some ill Fortune but in a word having encouraged my self as much as I could I cast my self at her Knees She was half undrest and held a Fan she played with So soon as she saw me she blusht a little without doubt remembring the late affront she had received and Quentine being retired I placed my self by her upon the Bed The first thing she did was to put her Fan before her Eyes and that having rendred her as bold as if there had been a Wall between us both Ah! Well said she to me poor Paralitick are you come here a compleat Man to day Ah! Madam answered I to her let us talk no more of what is past And thereupon thundering into her Arms I kissed her a thousand times and begged she would let me see her naked after a little resistance that she made to augment my Desires and to affect Modesty which becomes a Woman so well rather than out of any distrust she had of her self she let me see all I had a mind to I saw a curious white plump and the best proportioned Body in the world After that I fell again to embracing her we already made a noise with smacking and Bussing our hands already clasped in one another expressed the utmost tendernesses of love already the mixture of our loves had made the union of our Bodies when she perceived the sad pickle I was in It was then that seeing I continued to outrage her she thought of nothing but vengeance she called me
any hopes Besides you have lately married a beloved Lover and it is a difficult Enterprize to remove him out of your heart and to put my self in his place However I love you Madam and tho you should not to be ungrateful make use of that reason against me I confess that it is my Star and not my Choice that obliges me to love you Madam de Chastillon never had had so much joy as this Discourse gave her Monsieur de Nemours appeared to her so lovely that if it had been the Custom for Women to have made Declarations of Love first she would not have deferred it so long as her Gallant did But the fear of not seeming modest enough perplexed her so extreamly that she was sometime without knowing what Answer to make At length forcing herself to speak for the concealing the disorder that her silence made appear You are in the right my Lord said she to him with all imaginable postures to believe that I love my Husband very much but give me leave to tell you that you do your self wrong in being so Modest as you are And if I was in a Condition to acknowledge the kindness you have for me you would see that others esteem you more than you do your self Ah! Madam replyed the Duke of Nemours it is in your power Madam and only in yours to make me the most happy and most esteemed Man in France He had hardly finished these words then that the Countess of Maure came into the Chamber before whom it was requisite to change Conversation tho these two Lovers did not change their thoughts Their distraction and disorder made the Countess of Maure judge that their Intrigue was much more advanced than it really was and for this reason she was preparing to make a very short Visit when the Duke of Nemours prevented her The amorous and discreet Prince well knowing that he acted but an ill part before such a sharp-sighted Woman as the Countess of Maure was went out and being got home he wrote this Letter to his Mistress I Leave you Madam that I may be more with you then I was the Countess of Maure observed me and I durst not look upon you and she being cunning I was even afraid that my Affection would discover me for in short Madam it is so well known that People must eye you when they are in the same place that those that do not are suspected of some Design If I do not see you at present Madam at least it is not perceived that I am in love and I have the liberty of acquainting you only with it How happy should I be Madam were I able to perswade you to the point it is and how unjust would you be in that case Madam if you had not some kindness for me Madam de Chastillon was very much perplexed at the receipt of this Letter she knew not whether she had best be cruel or kind Kindness might gain the heart of her Lover and Severity his esteem and both might disgust him At length she resolved to do what was most difficult as being most honest And notwithstanding all that her heart inspired her with she chose rather to follow the counsel of her Reason Wherefore she made the Duke no Answer and as he came on the Morrow into her Chamber Are you come again my Lord said she to him to commit some new Offence because my humour and looks are easie and soft you think there is no more to do than falling on And if your esteem is only to be purchased by rudeness set that value on it as to constrain my self for some time Yes my Lord I shall be angry and I perceive I must be so with you These last words were as a Thunder-clap fallen upon this poor Lover tears came into his Eyes and his tears spoke much better for him than all he could have said After having been a moment without speaking I am infinitely grieved Madam answered he her to see you thus in anger and I wish I was dead since I have displeased you You shall see Madam that in the Vengeance I am resolved to take of the offence you have received that your interests are much more dear to me than my own I am going so far from you Madam that my Love shall no longer importune you This is not what I require of you interrupted that fair One you may still stay here without displeasing me Cannot you see me without telling me you love me or at least without writing me it No no Madam replyed he it is absolutely impossible Well then my Lord I consent that you see me replyed Madam de Chastillon but observe well all that I do for you Ah! Madam interrupted the Duke throwing himself at her feet if I have adored you when you were so cruel judge what I shall do when you are kind Yes Madam be pleased to guess at it for it is impossible for me to express the sense I have of it This Conversation did not end as it began Madam de Chastillon dispensed herself from keeping all the rigour she had promised herself and if the Duke of Nemours had not great Favours at least he had hopes of being beloved In confidence of this he was no sooner got home then that he wrote this Letter to his Mistress AFter having told me Madam that you consented I should see you since it was impossible for me to see you without telling you that I love you or at least without writing it I ought to write to you in confidence that my Letter will not be ill received However I tremble Madam and Love that is never without fears of displeasing makes me imagine that you may have changed your mind within these three hours Do me the favour Madam to inform me by two Lines If you knew with what ardour I desire it and with what transports of joy I shall receive it you would not judge me unworthy of this Grace Madam de Chastillon had no sooner received this Letter then that she made this Answer WHy should I have changed my Mind my Lord but my God how pressing you are Are not you satisfied with knowing your power and must you needs triumph likewise over anothers weakness The Duke of Nemours received this Letter with such a joy as put him almost out of himself he kissed it a thousand times not being able to forbear reading of it In the mean time the Passion of these two Lovers augmented every day and Madam de Chastillon who had already yielded up her heart no longer defended the rest but only to render it the more considerable by the difficulty In short the time of taking the Waters being passed they were to part and tho they both returned to Paris they both imagined they should not see one another again with so much Conveniency as they had done at Bourbon In the view of these Difficulties their Farewel was very moving The Duke of Nemours assured
not resist her but yielded through the weakness of the Flesh rather than the inclination of the heart The Duke of Rochefoucault who had been for three years the beloved Gallant of Madam de Longueville saw the Infidelity of his Mistress with all the rage that can be had in such like Occasions But she being full of a great Passion for the Duke of Nemours was not at all careful to please her ancient Lover The first time that she saw the Duke of Nemours in private she asked him in the most passionate moment of the Assignation what had passed between him and Madam de Chastillon The Duke having answered her that he had not had any Favour Ah! I am undone said she to him since in the Posture we are in at present you have the power to conceal the truth This Commerce did not last long and the Duke of Nemours not being able to force himself to pretend love where he had none and you may imagine that the Princess who was nasty and had an ill smell with her could not conceal her ill Qualities from a Man who was infinitely in love elsewhere These Disgusts did likewise further the Journey that the Duke of Nemours was to make into Flanders to bring a Succour of Strangers to the Princes Party But the real cause of his impatience was to see Madam de Chastillon again whom he ever loved more than his life whereupon he passed through Paris where he saw her again and put her into that wretched Condition that may be called the Shipwrack of Widows When she perceived her misfortune she sought for the means to be freed from it Des Fougerets a famous Physician undertook this Cure and while he had her in hand the Prince of Condé returned from Guyenne to Paris and brought la Rochefoucault with him The Prince had lively Eyes a Hawks and sharp Nose hollow lean Cheeks a long Face and the Physiognomy of an Eagle frizled Hair his Teeth were ill set and nasty a careless Aire had but little care of his Person but was well shaped his Wit had a great deal of flame but was not exact he laughed much and disagreably his Genius was admirable for War and particularly for Battails On the day of Battail he was mild to Friends and fierce to Enemies He had an unparallel'd neatness of Wit force of Judgment and easiness of Expression he was Roguishly inclined but had Faith and Probity in great Occasions He was naturally insolent and without regard but Adversity had taught him how to live This Prince finding himself disposed to fall in love with the Dutchess La Rochefoucault helped still to inflame him by the great desire he had of being revenged on the Duke of Nemours Rochfoucault perswaded him to give her the Propriety of Marlou which she had only the usu-fruit of telling him that Madam de Chastillon was younger than he and that this Present would only injure his Posterity and that a Lordship of two thousand pounds a year more or less would neither render him richer nor poorer When the Prince fell in love with Madam de Chastillon she was in the hands of Des Fougorests who made use of Vomits to free her of those ill Circumstances The Prince who was continually at her Bed-side asked her what her Sickness was she told him that she believed she was poysoned This Lover being extreamly grieved to see his Mistress in danger of her life told the Apothecary who served her that he would cause him to be hanged This poor man not daring to justifie himself went and told Bordeaux who was married to Ricoux that if he was pressed too much he would tell all In short the Remedies had the effect that they had promised themselves And shortly after this Cure the Prince having given her Marlou Madam de Chastillon was not ungrateful but she only gave him the usu-fruit of what the Duke of Nemours had the Propriety However Rochefoucault took full Vengeance of the Duke of Nemours and gave him displeasures by so much the more cutting that he had not the power to cure himself of his Passion as Rochefoucault had done of that he had had for Madam de Longueville Besides Rochefoucault Vinevil was likewise the Prince's Confident who in serving him with his Mistress endeavoured likewise to be beloved himself Vinevil was the President d' Ardiers Brother of a pretty good Family in Paris had a pleasing Face much Learning and was a well-bred man His Humour was pleasant and Satyrical tho very fearful this had often brought him into trouble he was undertaking with Women and that made him almost always successful he had had an Intrigue with Madam de Montbazon Madam de Movy and likewise with the Princess of Wittembergh And this last Gallantry had so embroiled him with the late Duke of Chastillon that without the Prince's protection he would have suffered some Violences and Chastillons hatred for him had sufficiently disposed his Wife to love him But let us leave Vinevil for sometime and return to the Duke of Nemours His Jealousie so transported him that having one day found the Prince at Madam de Chastillon's whispering with her he all scratched his hands without perceiving what he did and it was one of his Servants who made him take notice of the Condition he had put himself in At length not being able to suffer the Prince's Visits to his Mistress he desired her to go for some time to her Country House She loving him extreamly and not thinking that a short absence would cool the Prince's Passion granted him his request and likewise promised him to turn off Bordeaux who had quitted his Interests for to be for those of his Rival Madam de Chastillon was not long in the Country and at her Return the Duke of Nemours was jealous to that degree that he was twenty times upon the point of causing the Prince to draw and he would at length have been overcome with this Temptation had it not been for the Duel he fought with his Brother in Law in which he lost his Life Madam de Chastillon who of twenty Lovers she had favoured in her life time had never loved any so much as the Duke of Nemours was really grieved for his death One of her Friends who brought her the News of it told her at the same time that it was requisite that she should get out of one of Monsieur de Nemours his Valet de Chamber 's hands a Cabinet full of her Letters She sent for him and upon the promise she made him of giving him five hundred Crowns she got the Cabinet from him but the poor Fellow could never get any of the Money As for the Prince what obligation soever he had to the Duke of Nemours jealousie had so disunited them that he was very glad of his death Glory as well as Love had caused so much Emulation between them that they could not bear with one another and this is so true
le Camus and Manchini this last Cardinals Nephew and the other one of the Kings Almoners and having passed there three or four days if not in a great Devotion at least in very innocent Pleasures the Count of Guiche and Manicamp being weary of Paris went to him As soon as the Abbot le Camus saw them knowing them to be very dissolute he perswaded Manchini to return to Paris and that the next day for that the World would say there had passed strange things amongst them And Manchini that very evening declaring this design Manicamp and the Count de Guiche proposed to Vivonne to desire Bussy to come and pass two or three days without them telling him that he was very capable to fill the place of the other two Vivonne having given his Consent wrote a Letter to Bussy in all their names that he was desired to quit for some time the hurry of the World to come to them that they might with the less distraction give them selves up together to the thoughts of Eternity But before I pass further it is fit I describe Vivonne and Bussy The first had great blew Eyes even with his Head whose Balls were often half hid under his Eyelids and contrary to his intention made him look languishingly he had a handsome Nose a little and full Mouth a fine Complexion a fine great and fair head of Hair He was indeed something too fat he had a quick Wit and a good Fancy but he studyed too much how to be pleasant he loved to speak Equivoques and words with a double sence and that he might be the more admired he often made them at home and started them in the Companies where he came as if they had been fresh thoughts he was quickly engaged in Friendship with people without any discretion But whether he found them persons of Merit or no he as suddenly abandoned them What made his inclination last longest was flattery but it was to no purpose for a person to be extraordinary if he did not admire him he would have had no great esteem for him As he fancyed that a signe of a good will was a niceness for all works he found nothing to his mind of all he saw and usually he judged of Books without knowledg and reason In short he was so blinded with his own merit that he saw none in any Body else and to speak like himself he had both a great deal of sufficiency and a great deal of insufficiency he was Bold in War and fearfull in Love And yet if any body would have believed him he had his will of all the Women he had attempted but the truth is he had been denied by certain Ladies who till then had never refused any Man Roger de Rabutin Count of Bussy Major General of the light Horse had great sweet Eyes a handsome Mouth a something hawkish Nose an open Face and a happy Phisiognomy fair clear light Hair His Wit had delicacy and force Gaity and Mirth he talked well he writ exactly and agreably he was of a soft disposition But those whom his Merit had caused to envy him had netled him insomuch that he willingly made merry with people he did not love He was a good and regular Friend he was brave without ostentation he loved Pleasures more than Fortune but he loved Glory more than Pleasures He was Gallant with all Ladies and very civill and the familiarity he had with his best Friends never made him wanting in the respect he owed them This kind of behaviour made it thought that he had a passion for them and it is certain that he had ever some sence of love in all the great intrigues he had had he had been long in the Wars and had done good service but as in this Age it was not sufficient to be of a good Family to have Wit Courage and have done great Services to procure Honours with all these Qualities he was got but half way of his fortune he had not the baseness to flatter those people whom Mazarine the Soveraign Dispensour of Favours put Confidence in or had not been in a Condition to force them from him by making him afraid as most of the Marshals of his time had done Now Bussy having this Letter from Vivonne took Hors immediately and went to his House he found his friends very much disposed to mirth and he not being usually a Disturber of Feasts ordered it so that their joy was altogether Compleat and accosting them I am very glad my Friends said he to find you disengaged from the World as you are a particular Grace from God is necessary to work out our salvation In the hurreis of Courts Ambition Envy Buckbiting Love and a thousand other Passions do usually engage the best People in Crimes which they are encapable of in such Retreats as this let us save our selves then together my friends and as to be pleasing to God it is neither necessary to weep nor to dye of Hunger let us be merry my Friends and make good Chear This Sentiment being generally approved of they prepared themselves for Hunting in the afternoon and gave order to have Consorts of Instruments for the next day After having hunted four or five hours these Gentlemen having got themselves a great stomach eat as heartily as is imaginable supper being ended which had lasted three hours during which the Company had been in that Mirth which alwaies accompanies a good Conscience caused Horses to be brought to walk in the Park where these four Friends finding themselves at liberty to encourage themselves to have the more contempt for the World they proposed to rail against all human kind but a moment after Reflection made Bussy say that they ought to except their true Friends from that general proscription this advice having been approved of by them all Every one demanded of the rest of the assembly Quarter for what he loved This being done and the the signal given for the contempt of things here below these good souls begun a Canticle You may judge that having took this Course all was comprehended in the Canticle except those four Gentlemens Friends but as the Number were but small the Canticle was great and sharp insomuch that should nothing be forgot it would make a Volume Part of the Night being spent in these rural Pleasures they resolved to go to rest Wherefore they left one another very much satisfied to see the progress they had begun to make in Devotion Vivonne and Bussy being got up earlier the next morning than the others went into Manicamps Chamber but not having found him and thinking he was gone a Walking in the Park they went into the Count de Guiches Chambers with whom they found him in Bed You see My Friends said Manicamp to them that I endeavour to make good use of the things you spoke of yesterday touching the Contempt of the world I have already Won my self to despise the half and I hope
to no purpose rely on your good Offices to me And thereupon Madam de Monglas having caused Ink and Paper to be brought I wrote this Letter SInce considering the course I take the Passion I have for your Mistress neither offends my honour nor the friendship I owe you I may well without shame acquaint you with it and on the contrary I should dishonour my self by concealing it from you Know then that I have not been able to see Madam de Monglas any longer without loving her and that sending for me to day to know the reason of a Retreat I told her she had Charmed me but that I might not do any thing that was contrary to my duty I would see her no more I thought my self obliged to give you notice hereof that you might take other measures as to her and that you might see by the misfortune that has hapned to me of becoming your Rival that I am not unworthy of your friendship nor your esteem Having read this Letter to Mad. de Monglas Well Madam said I to her is this fair dealing Ah my Lord replyed she nothing can be more handsome but tho I believe you have the best Soul in the world it would be very difficult for you having a hand in your Rivals Intrigues finding a thousand reasons to do one another ill Offices and thinking to take advantages of our fallings out that you should resist considering the passion you have for me the temptation of breeding quarrels between us And as you are a witty man you would not find it difficult so to order your business as that one of us might seem to be faulty and to lay upon one of us or upon Fortune the mischance you only were the cause of though your Friend should leave off loving me through his own Inconstancy after what I know of you I should ever believe if you concern your self in our Intrigue that it was by your Artifices So that you have great reason my Lord not to see me any more and tho I should lose infinitely thereby I cannot forbear commending that Action After some other Discourses upon this Subject I went away to dispatch the Letter I had written to Feuillade and ten days after I received this Answer YOu have done your Devoir my Dear and I am going to do mine I have more confidence in you than you your self wherefore I desire you to continue your Visits to Madam de Monglas and to serve me with her When persons are so nice upon interest as you seem to me they are certainly incapable of treachery but tho the Merit of Mad. de Monglas shall have so blinded you thay you should be no longer able to retire I should willingly excuse you upon the necessities there are of loving her when we know her perfectly With this Letter there was the following one inclosed for Madam de Monglas I Am not at all surprized Madam to learn that you have charmed my Friend my wonder would be the greater if a wel-bred Man who daily sees and converses with you should defend his heart against so much Merit He sends me word that he will see you no more for fear he should yield to the inclination he has for you and for my part I desire him not to retire upon the assurance I have that he has more force than he imagins and tho he should not be able to resist any longer you would not give your heart to a Traytor having refused it to the most faithful Lover in the world As soon as I had received these two Letters I went to carry them to Madam de Monglas but not to injure my friends whose Mistress was very Nice I efforced all the end of the Letter he wrote to me from that part where he tells me that tho the Merit of Madam de Monglas should have so blinded me that I should not be in a Condition to retire upon the necessity there was of loving her When she was well acquainted with I was afraid she would think as well as I that that part was very gallant but not very passionate You are in the right answered the Count de Guiche and not only that part but both the Letters seem to me well written but show the person indifferent The sequel replyed Bussy will not undeceive you You must know then continued he that Madam de Monglas seeing this scratching asked me what it was I told her that evillade spoke to me of an affair of Consequence which Concerned me Since he is desirous said she to me that you continue your Visits to me I give you my Consent but my Lord it is upon Condition you never speak to me of the sentiments you have for me I will not since you are so pleased replied I Not but that I ought to speak of it without being suspected by you for tho I love you more than I do my life if to a knowledge my love you should despise that of my friend in ceasing to esteem you I should likewise cease loving you The reason why I love you Madam is I assure you not for that you are beautifull but because you are also no Cocquet I beleive you my Lord said she to me but since you neither desire nor pretend nothing love me no longer for what is a love without desires and hopes I pretended to Nothing said I to her but I hope and I desire And what can you desire replied she I desire replied I that la Feuillade should leave off loving you and that it should be indifferent to you And in case that should be said she should you think to be the more happy I know not if I should be so Madam said I to her but at least I should be nearer happiness than I am And thereupon I made this Song Since only loving you I find Does so much pain procure Me thinks you should be something kind And moan what I endure My Rivall does all to me disclose And me his Confident has chose What gave me some Comfort in the Prospect of all the pains that an Amour without hopes is attended with is that I was upon the Point of having the charge of Major General of the Horse and that this Charge obliging me to go suddainly to the Army honour would Cure me of an unfortunate passion Some days before my departure I was willing to do divert the trouble I had through the violence I used upon my self to Conceal my passion and for that end I gave Madam de Savigny a very fine and extraordinary treat which you will certeinly be well pleased to have the description of First sigure to your self in the Gardon of the Temple which you know a Wood wherein two Allyes cross in the place they meet there was a great Oval of Trees on whose Branches a hundred Christal Candlesticks were tyed on one side of this Oval was a magnificent Theater raised whose Decoration well deserved to be so lighted as it
was and the lustre of a thousand Wax Candles which the leaves of the Trees hindred from spreading rendred so bright a light in that part that the Sun could not have given more and for the same reason all about was so obscure that your Eys were of no use The Calmest Night imaginable as soon as the Play was begun it was found very pleasant After this Divertisement four and twenty Violins having played a Consort played likewise Brawls Courants and Country Dances the Company was not so great as it was well chosen some danced others looked upon the Dancers and others whose Intrigues were more forward walked with their Mistresses in the Allyes where they sported without seeing one another This lasted till day and as if Heaven had acted in Concert with me the morning began to appear when the light went out This Feat succeeded so well that Letters were sent to all places of the particulars of it and it is still talked of with admiration some fantied that Madam de Sevigny was in that Occasion only the Pretext of Madam de Precy but the truth was I gave that Treat to Madam de Monglas without daring to tell her so and I believe that she suspected without letting me know her thoughts In the mean time I toyed with her before people I was ever saying to her a thousand kind things in a drolling way and I made this Song to Sarabrand Tune which you have certainly heard Sung All those who see you do you adore But tho your Eyes do all things that me It is requir'd you should deplore And of your Coyness your self disarm Designs upon your heart I laid To lose my own I thought was fine But fair Besiza I me afraid Your heart is harder much than mine You may judge that having these Sentiments for Madam de Monglas my Addresses to Madam de Precy were not very extraordinary I lived with her with the greatest case imaginable and my little eagerness suted extreamly well with her lukewarmness However when she begun to suspect that I was in love with Madam de Monglas her Passion for me begun to be inflamed I thereupon admired the Caprichio's of Ladies they are vexed to lose a Lover tho they are not willing to love them but notwithstanding all this what Madam de Precy did was not so surprizing as the Actions of Madam d' Le Isle I had made love to the first and it was not strange that she took some interest therein but for Madam d' Olonne whom I had never shown any thing but a Friendship to I cannot sufficiently wonder at the course she took which was thus So soon as she suspected my Passion for Madam de Monglas she used all manner of Artififices to be perfectly informed of it she told me sometimes after a drolling way that I was in love with her sometimes she spoke well of her and because I feared she would thereby discover the secret of my heart I was sufficiently reserved in my Commendations at other times she would speak ill of her and for my part being willing to acquaint Madam de Monglas that she was not to rely upon the Friendship of Madam de' L' Isle having found her in a thousand other Occasions betraying Madam de Monglas I let her talk and gave her a very favourable Audience to make her believe I took pleasure in it At length not being able one Evening to suffer the Rage she was in against her I gave Madam de Monglas notice of it which â—casioned their falling out and in the Sequel this faiâ— One had all the reasons imaginable to believe I had a real Passion for her The End