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14 - Women of Versailles- the Court of Louis XIV by Arthur-Leon Imbert de Saint-Amand · Women of Versailles- the Court of Louis XIV

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  Speaker 1: Section fourteen of Women of Versailles The Court of Louis
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  Speaker 1: the fourteenth by Artur Leon Ambert de Saint Ament, translated
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  Speaker 1: by Elizabeth Gilbert Martin. This librovox recording is in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. Read by Pamel and Agami, Chapter eleven, The
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  Speaker 1: Duchess of or Leon, Part One. One of the causes
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  Speaker 1: which made Madame de Maintaillan profer Saint Cyr to Versailles
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  Speaker 1: was that she believed herself to be loved at Saint Cyr,
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  Speaker 1: while at Versailles she felt the shafts of malevolence and
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  Speaker 1: hatred pierce her through an apparent deference and obsequious protestations
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  Speaker 1: of devotion and respect. Certain persons who saw her continually
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  Speaker 1: and manifested the greatest regard for her, detested her cordially,
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  Speaker 1: and her profound knowledge of the human heart made her
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  Speaker 1: always aware of it. Chief among these secrets antipathies existing
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  Speaker 1: in a latent condition against Madame de mantineand must be reckoned.
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  Speaker 1: The violent and relentless enmity of the Prince's palatine, the
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  Speaker 1: second wife of the Duke of Orleon. The accusations brought
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  Speaker 1: against the wife of Louis the fourteenth by this implacable
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  Speaker 1: German woman, are so exaggerated and unlikely that on the
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  Speaker 1: whole they redound to the credit of her at whom
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  Speaker 1: they were aimed. The Amsterdam libels, the Protestant pamphlets never
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  Speaker 1: invented such enormities. They are a torrent of insults, an
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  Speaker 1: orgy of hatred, the slang of Billingsgate in the finest
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  Speaker 1: palace of the world. They are columnies which stop at nothing.
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  Speaker 1: If one were to believe the Prince's palatine, this nasty
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  Speaker 1: old thing, this wicked devil, this filthy, shriveled up old Mantenon,
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  Speaker 1: would be a go between a procurus, a poisoner alocusta.
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  Speaker 1: The woman who gave herself up to such furious diatribes
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  Speaker 1: in her correspondence is assuredly one of the most singular
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  Speaker 1: figures in the feminine gallery of Versailles. Her physique, her mind,
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  Speaker 1: her style, her character all bear a stamp that is unique,
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  Speaker 1: resembling no one else and contrasting strongly with all who
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  Speaker 1: surrounded her. She serves as a kind of set off
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  Speaker 1: to the fine and delicate beauties of her time. To
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  Speaker 1: our mind, no woman has shown herself more fully in
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  Speaker 1: her letters than the Prince's palatine. She is all there,
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  Speaker 1: with her defects in her qualities, her curious mixture of
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  Speaker 1: austere morals and cynical language, the haughty ways of a
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  Speaker 1: great lady, and the expressions of a woman of the people,
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  Speaker 1: her pretended disdain for human grandeurs, and her fierce passion
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  Speaker 1: for the prerogatives of her rank. This is the princess
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  Speaker 1: whose portrait has been so truthfully painted by San Simon
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  Speaker 1: Frank and upright good and beneficent, grand in all her manners,
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  Speaker 1: and little to the last degree in all that concerns
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  Speaker 1: what she thinks her due. A woman of masculine bearing,
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  Speaker 1: not coquettish, not desirous to please, honest in her morals,
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  Speaker 1: but shameless in her speech, somewhat rigid at marshal in
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  Speaker 1: her character, and tastes loving dogs horses in the chase,
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  Speaker 1: hard to herself her own doctor in case she is
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  Speaker 1: a trifle indisposed able to walk two full leagues. It
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  Speaker 1: is not poetical, sentimental dreamy Germany, which her very original
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  Speaker 1: type represents so exactly, but Germany, under its rustic, almost
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  Speaker 1: savage aspects, it energy and rudeness, its antiquated prejudices, its
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  Speaker 1: amologam of simplicity and arrogance, of credulity and pride. The
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  Speaker 1: letters of the Princess Palatine lose much of their savor
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  Speaker 1: when translated into French. It is only in German that
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  Speaker 1: they have that smack of terror, that impulsiveness, that tone
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  Speaker 1: now cynical, now burlesque, which is their chief merit. Exaggerated
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  Speaker 1: and passionate as they are, they are worth consulting even
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  Speaker 1: after the memoirs of the Duc de Saint Semon. Doubtless
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  Speaker 1: Madame has none of the genius of this French tacitus,
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  Speaker 1: but there is more than one analogy in their styles
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  Speaker 1: and their destinies. They are both of them essentially doubtful witnesses,
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  Speaker 1: for each was biased and could not judge impartially in
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  Speaker 1: cases which nearly concerned their spites and prejudices. But neither
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  Speaker 1: of them even sought to hide his or her partiality. Hence,
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  Speaker 1: nothing is easier than to find the truth which underlies
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  Speaker 1: their falsehoods. If she has not the genius of Saint Simon,
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  Speaker 1: Madame has his wrath and indignation and his hatreds Like him,
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  Speaker 1: she is obliged to receive her enemies well, to put
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  Speaker 1: continual constraint on herself, to live with the bastards whom
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  Speaker 1: she execrates, to salute the Morganatic queen, whom she has
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  Speaker 1: a horror of. She is an honest woman, as he
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  Speaker 1: is an honest man. She loves right, justice and truth
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  Speaker 1: as he does. Like him, she writes in secret and
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  Speaker 1: consoles herself for a perpetual constraint by exaggerating the liberty
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  Speaker 1: of style. Like him, she wrecks her vengeance by means
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  Speaker 1: of pen and ink. It is from her curious letters
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  Speaker 1: that we shall try to describe her character. Daughter of
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  Speaker 1: the Elector Palatine Charles Lewis and of the Princess Charlotte
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  Speaker 1: of Hesse Cassel, the second wife of the Duke of Orleon,
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  Speaker 1: was born at the castle of Heidelberg. As the child,
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  Speaker 1: she preferred guns to dolls, and thus displayed already the
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  Speaker 1: masculine aspects of her character. She was nineteen years old
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  Speaker 1: when her marriage with the brother of Louis the fourteenth
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  Speaker 1: was decided on she set out for France in sixteen
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  Speaker 1: seventy one. Three bishops were sent to the frontier to
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  Speaker 1: instruct her in the Catholic religion, which was henceforth to
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  Speaker 1: be her own. The three prelates began their work at
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  Speaker 1: mess and terminated it on their arrival at Versailles. The Princess,
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  Speaker 1: who possibly regretted her Protestantism somewhat, said that she had
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  Speaker 1: never found her instructors in perfect accord with each other,
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  Speaker 1: and that she had taken a little of their doctrines
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  Speaker 1: from all three. The new Duchess of Orleon was the
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  Speaker 1: opposite in all respects of her over whom Bassuet had
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  Speaker 1: preached so touching a funeral sermon. The court, which had
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  Speaker 1: admired the very type of elegance and beauty in the
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  Speaker 1: first Madame, found in the second that of rudeness and ugliness.
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  Speaker 1: The one was as coquettish as the other was lacking
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  Speaker 1: in the wish to please the Princess. Palatine took a
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  Speaker 1: sort of delight in exaggerating what she thought of her
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  Speaker 1: own physique. I have big, hanging cheeks and a large face,
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  Speaker 1: she wrote. Moreover, my figure is very small, short, and thick.
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  Speaker 1: Some total. I am an ugly little creature. If I
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  Speaker 1: had not a good heart, no one would put up
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  Speaker 1: with me anywhere To know whether my eyes display intelligence,
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  Speaker 1: it would be necessary to examine them with a microscope
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  Speaker 1: or with glasses, Otherwise it would be difficult to judge.
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  Speaker 1: Probably no such villainous hands as mine could be found
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  Speaker 1: anywhere on earth. The King remarked as much to me,
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  Speaker 1: and made me laugh heartily. For never having been able
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  Speaker 1: to flatter myself conscientiously on having anything pretty about me,
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  Speaker 1: I have adopted the plan of being the first to
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  Speaker 1: laugh at my ugliness, and it has succeeded very well.
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  Speaker 1: If the Princess Palatine did not dazzle the court, the court,
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  Speaker 1: on the other hand, did not dazzle her. Versay in
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  Speaker 1: its splendors, left her unmoved. I like better, she wrote,
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  Speaker 1: to see trees and fields than the finest palaces. I
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  Speaker 1: like a kitchen garden better than gardens adorned with statues
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  Speaker 1: and fountains. A streamlet pleases me more than sumptuous cascades.
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  Speaker 1: In a word, all that is natural is infinitely more
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  Speaker 1: to my taste than works of art and magnificence. They
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  Speaker 1: please own at the first glance, and as soon as
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  Speaker 1: one is accustomed to them, they create fatigue, and one
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  Speaker 1: cares about them no longer. What Madame loved and regretted
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  Speaker 1: was her German Rhine the hills, where as a child
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  Speaker 1: she had seen the sun rise and had eaten bread
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  Speaker 1: and cherries. The youthful nobility of France, in spite of
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  Speaker 1: its elegance, luxury and animation, had no attraction for her.
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  Speaker 1: All the young people in general said she are horribly
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  Speaker 1: debauched and addicted to every vice, not excepting lying in deceit.
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  Speaker 1: They consider it a shame to pique themselves on being
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  Speaker 1: men of honor. They do nothing but drink, wallow in debauchery,
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  Speaker 1: and talk obscenely. You can easily judge from this what
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  Speaker 1: great pleasure honest people must enjoy here. But I am
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  Speaker 1: afraid that if I carry my details concerning the court
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  Speaker 1: any farther, I shall call as you the same disgust
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  Speaker 1: that I often experience myself, and that this disgust may
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  Speaker 1: end by becoming a contagious disease. Madame's husband was not
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  Speaker 1: a consolation to her, because criticizing him with legitimate severity,
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  Speaker 1: she did not profess more than a moderate esteem and
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  Speaker 1: affection for him. She never forgave him for surrounding himself
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  Speaker 1: with manicic used of having assassinated his first wife, the
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  Speaker 1: beautiful and poetic Henrietta of England, and showing the greatest
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  Speaker 1: contempt for the Chevalier de Lorraine. She did not feel
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  Speaker 1: in safety herself. She suffered from the character of her husband, feeble, timid,
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  Speaker 1: governed by favorites and often misled by them, annoying and
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  Speaker 1: incapable of keeping any secret, suspicious, mistrustful, sowing discords in
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  Speaker 1: his court for the sake of confusion, to find out something,
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  Speaker 1: and often also to amaze himself. For the Prince's palatine
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  Speaker 1: religion was an insufficient solace for the annoyances and vexations
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  Speaker 1: of which she was incessantly the victim. Born in the
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  Speaker 1: Protestant religion, she did not well comprehend the mystic and
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  Speaker 1: sacred joys of Catholic worship. Although she was not a
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  Speaker 1: free thinker, she made occasional reflections and waggeries which seemed
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  Speaker 1: to forebode the philosophers of the following century. She remained
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  Speaker 1: a good practical Christian, but she did not consider all
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  Speaker 1: priests to be in the odor of sanctity. She had
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  Speaker 1: a horror of mixing religion with politics, and the revocation
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  Speaker 1: of the Edict of nant, which was admired by the clergy,
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  Speaker 1: shocked all her sentiments and instincts. I must confess. She
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  Speaker 1: wrote that when I hear the eulogies that are given
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  Speaker 1: the Great Man from the pulpit for having persecuted the reformed,
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  Speaker 1: it always annoys me. I cannot endure to hear people
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  Speaker 1: praise what is bad. It is inconceivable. She wrote again,
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  Speaker 1: how simple the Great Man is in matters of religion,
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  Speaker 1: because he is not so in other things. That comes
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  Speaker 1: from his never having studied religious things, never having read
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  Speaker 1: the Bible, and honestly believing what has told him on
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  Speaker 1: this subject. The grandeur of Bassuet's ideas, the majesty of
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  Speaker 1: a policy derived from the scriptures, had few attractions. For
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  Speaker 1: Madame I cannot endure, wrote she. Kings who imagine they
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  Speaker 1: please God by praying, It was not for that He
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  Speaker 1: placed them on the throne to do good, exercise right
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  Speaker 1: and justice. Restrain the clergy, and make them keep to
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  Speaker 1: their prayers without meddling in other things. That is what
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  Speaker 1: ought to be the true devotion of kings. Let a
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  Speaker 1: king say his prayers morning and night. That is sufficient
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  Speaker 1: for the rest. He ought to think of making his
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  Speaker 1: subjects as happy as he can. Whatever bore the slightest
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  Speaker 1: resemblance to religious persecution aroused an energetic protest in the
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  Speaker 1: Princess Palatine. She found it deplorable that no one could
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  Speaker 1: make Louis the fourteenth understand that religion was instituted rather
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  Speaker 1: to preserve union among men, than to make them torment
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  Speaker 1: and persecute each other. King James, she added, said that
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  Speaker 1: our Lord Jesus Christ had certainly been seen beating men
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  Speaker 1: to drive them from the temple, but he was nowhere
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  Speaker 1: found maltreating them to make them enter it. End of
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  Speaker 1: Section fourteen.