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20 - 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 twenty of Women of Versailles. The Court of Louis
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  Speaker 1: the fourteenth by Artur Leon Ambert de Saint Aman, translated
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  Speaker 1: by Elizabeth Gilbert Martin. This LibriVox recording is in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. Read by Pamel and A. Gami, Chapter fifteen,
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  Speaker 1: The Daughters of Louis the fourteenth. The Princesses was the
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  Speaker 1: title by which the three legitimated daughters of Louis the fourteenth,
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  Speaker 1: one by Mademoiselle de la Valliere and the other two
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  Speaker 1: by Madame de Montespon, were known at court. The first
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  Speaker 1: of them, born in sixteen sixty six, married Prince Louis
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  Speaker 1: armonte Comteis, The second, born in sixteen seventy three, married
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  Speaker 1: the Duc de Bourbon. The third, born in sixteen seventy seven,
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  Speaker 1: married the Duc de Chartres, who became the Duke of
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  Speaker 1: Orleons and Regent of France. The process of contie was
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  Speaker 1: more beautiful than Mademoiselle de la Valliere. The duchesses of
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  Speaker 1: Bourbon and Chartes had the wit and pride of Madame
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  Speaker 1: de Montespon. The three princesses, who were as proud of
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  Speaker 1: their birth as if they had been legitimate daughters had
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  Speaker 1: a great place in the heart of Louis the fourteenth.
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  Speaker 1: The courts surrounded them with homage, and although they did
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  Speaker 1: not play an important political role, yet they must figure
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  Speaker 1: in the gallery of women of their silles. The birth
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  Speaker 1: of the future Princess of Contie was veiled in mystery.
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  Speaker 1: Mademoiselle de la Valliere had concealed her pregnancy the very
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  Speaker 1: night before her delivery. She made her appearance in the
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  Speaker 1: royal apartment in presence of the whole court, in a
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  Speaker 1: splendid ball dress and with uncovered head. A year later,
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  Speaker 1: her daughter was legitimated by letters patent char as sign
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  Speaker 1: of the times concerning his favorite. Louis the fourteenth said,
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  Speaker 1: in naming her Duchess, although her modesty has frequently opposed
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  Speaker 1: our desire to raise her sooner to a rank proportionate
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  Speaker 1: to our esteem and her good qualities, Yet the affection
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  Speaker 1: we have for her and justice do not permit us
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  Speaker 1: to defer any longer our acknowledgment of merits so well
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  Speaker 1: known to us, nor longer to refuse to nature the
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  Speaker 1: effects of our tenderness for Marie Anne, our natural daughter.
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  Speaker 1: The child was called Mademoiselle de Blois, In sixteen seventy four,
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  Speaker 1: the year when the Duchesse de la Valliere retired to
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  Speaker 1: a carmelite convent, Madame de Savignier wrote, Mademoiselle de Blois
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  Speaker 1: is a masterpiece. The King and everyone else is enchanted
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  Speaker 1: with her. She is a prodigy of attractiveness and grace.
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  Speaker 1: She has charmed the court by her beauty from her
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  Speaker 1: earliest infancy. People pretend that the Emperor of Morocco fell
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  Speaker 1: madly in love with her at the sight of her portrait.
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  Speaker 1: She was fifteen years old when in January sixteen eighty
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  Speaker 1: she married Louis Armand de Bourbon, Prince de Conti, nephew
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  Speaker 1: of the Great Conde, who like all his family, testified
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  Speaker 1: the most lively joy on occasion of this marriage. The
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  Speaker 1: young married couples seemed delighted with each other. Their love
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  Speaker 1: is like a romance, wrote Madame de Savignier, and the
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  Speaker 1: King is amused by their inclination. The courtiers went to
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  Speaker 1: the carmelite convent of the Rue Saint Jacques to pay
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  Speaker 1: their compliments to the former Duchesse de la Valliere, now
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  Speaker 1: Sister Louise of Mercy, who perfectly conciliated her style in
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  Speaker 1: her black veil, her maternal tenderness with that of a
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  Speaker 1: spouse of Jesus Christ. In this mystic asylum were, according
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  Speaker 1: to bass Usuway's expression, one is straightened on all sides,
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  Speaker 1: so as to respire no longer except toward heaven. The
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  Speaker 1: pious carmelite, showing yourself for the last time, seemed the
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  Speaker 1: very image of repentance and sanctity. Madame de Savignier thus
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  Speaker 1: describes to her daughter the emotion produced by such an angel.
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  Speaker 1: To my eyes, she still possessed all the charms we
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  Speaker 1: saw of old. Her eyes and glances were the same. Austerity,
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  Speaker 1: poor nourishment, and curtailed sleep have neither hollowed nor weakened them.
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  Speaker 1: That strange habit detracts nothing from her grace or good appearance.
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  Speaker 1: She said many kind things to me, and spoke of
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  Speaker 1: you so well and appropriately. All she said being so
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  Speaker 1: perfectly suitable to her that I think nothing could be better. Truly,
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  Speaker 1: that habit and that retreat are a great dignity for her.
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  Speaker 1: While the saintly Carmelite was expiating in the cloister the
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  Speaker 1: birth of the Princess de Conti, the young Princess was
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  Speaker 1: dazzling the court by her beauty, grace, and spirit. Like
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  Speaker 1: nearly all remarkably beautiful women, she was coquettish. Her husband
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  Speaker 1: managed her badly. He surrounded her with the most fashionable
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  Speaker 1: young people at the court, which naturally gave occasion for scandal.
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  Speaker 1: In sixteen eighty five she had the smallpox, and the
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  Speaker 1: Prince de Conti, having shut himself up with her, took
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  Speaker 1: the disease and died of it. Suddenly, what a death
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  Speaker 1: was that of the Prince de Conti, After having escaped
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  Speaker 1: all the infinite perils of war in Hungary, he has
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  Speaker 1: just died here of a malady which he scarcely had.
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  Speaker 1: He is the son of a saintly man and a
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  Speaker 1: saintly woman, and in consequence of wrongly directed thought, he
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  Speaker 1: has played the fool and debauchi and died without confession. Footnote.
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  Speaker 1: Madame de Savigner, a widow at twenty and easily consolable,
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  Speaker 1: The young princess continued to be the ornament of Versailles. Monseigneur,
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  Speaker 1: as the Dauphin was styled, was continually in her apartments.
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  Speaker 1: Versailles became rejuvenated in this little haunt of pleasure there
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  Speaker 1: was nothing but promenades, rendezvous, love letters, serenades, and all
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  Speaker 1: that was found delightful in the good old times. It
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  Speaker 1: was there that Monseigneur became acquainted with Mademoiselle Choin, who
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  Speaker 1: is made of honor to the Princess. According to Madame
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  Speaker 1: de Caelouse, this young lady's mind was not calculated to
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  Speaker 1: shine anywhere except in an ante chamber, and was capable
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  Speaker 1: of nothing better than describing what she had seen. And
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  Speaker 1: yet she adds in her souvenir, this same Mademoiselle Choin
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  Speaker 1: carried off from the most beautiful princess in the world,
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  Speaker 1: the heart of Monsieur Clermont. At that time an officer
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  Speaker 1: of the guards. Monseigneur had a particularly good opinion of him,
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  Speaker 1: and had introduced him to the Comtesse de Comtie, whom
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  Speaker 1: he made such love too, that he inspired her with
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  Speaker 1: a rather lively inclination. The King, having been informed of
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  Speaker 1: this intrigue by means of letters intercepted at the post office,
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  Speaker 1: sent for his daughter, and showed her not only though
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  Speaker 1: she had written to Clermont, but those which the latter
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  Speaker 1: had addressed to Mademoiselle Choin. The princess thought she would die,
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  Speaker 1: says Saint Simon. She threw herself at the King's feet,
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  Speaker 1: bathed them with her tears, and could hardly articulate. There
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  Speaker 1: was nothing but sobs, pardons, despairs, rages, and entreaties for
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  Speaker 1: justice and vengeance. She was speedily heard. Clermont and Madeimeemoiselle
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  Speaker 1: Choin had to leave the court and resign their appointments,
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  Speaker 1: but Mademoiselle Choin remained the favorite of Monseigneur. This happened
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  Speaker 1: in sixteen ninety four. The Princess de Conti resumed her
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  Speaker 1: accustomed dissipations and amusements, pleasure parties, balls, hunts, cards, collations
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  Speaker 1: at the Trianon or the menagerie, night promenades in the gardens. Meanwhile,
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  Speaker 1: Sister Louise of Mercy was redoubling her austerities. Her natural
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  Speaker 1: delicacy had suffered infinitely from the real severity of her
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  Speaker 1: corporal and spiritual penitence, as well as from that of
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  Speaker 1: a very sensitive heart, which she concealed as well as
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  Speaker 1: she could. She died with every mark of great sanctity,
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  Speaker 1: in the midst of the nuns to whom her gentleness
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  Speaker 1: and virtues had given delight. The Princess de Contie, notified
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  Speaker 1: too late, only reached the karmelike convent of the Rue
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  Speaker 1: Saint Jacques in time to see her mother breathe her last.
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  Speaker 1: At first she seemed very much afflicted, but San Simon
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  Speaker 1: says she was quickly consoled. The whole court paid her
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  Speaker 1: visits of condolence. The children of Madame de Montespon, who
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  Speaker 1: had lost their mother three years before, were greatly mortified
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  Speaker 1: by these public visits, seeing that in a parallel case
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  Speaker 1: they had not dared to receive any such They were
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  Speaker 1: still more so, add San Simon, when they saw Madame
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  Speaker 1: the Prancess de Conti, contrary to all custom, drape her
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  Speaker 1: apartment in mourning for a simple nun, although she was
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  Speaker 1: her mother. They who had none, and who for that
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  Speaker 1: reason had not dared even to wear the least sign
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  Speaker 1: of mourning on the death of Madame de Montespon. Between
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  Speaker 1: the situation of the Prancess de Conti and that of
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  Speaker 1: the two other legitimated daughters of Louis the fourteenth, there
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  Speaker 1: existed this difference. The first were designated in her letters
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  Speaker 1: of legitimation as the daughter of Mademoiselle de la Valliere,
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  Speaker 1: while in those of the other two, their mother's name
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  Speaker 1: was not mentioned. This is why Saint Simon, distinguishing between
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  Speaker 1: the simple and the double adultery, says that the Princess
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  Speaker 1: de Comtis had named and recognized mother, while the Duchesses
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  Speaker 1: of Bourbon and of Chartre had not. The Duchess of Bourbon,
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  Speaker 1: who was at first called Mademoiselle de Nantes, had been
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  Speaker 1: legitimated in the year of her birth by letters patent,
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  Speaker 1: in which Louis the fourteenth, without naming the mother, had
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  Speaker 1: contented himself by alleging the tenderness which nature gave him
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  Speaker 1: for his children, and many other reasons which considerably increased
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  Speaker 1: these sentiments in him. The young princess was still a
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  Speaker 1: little girl when she married in sixteen eighty five, the
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  Speaker 1: Duc de Bourbon, grandson of the Great Conde. It was
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  Speaker 1: a ridiculous thing, says the Marquis de Souche, to see
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  Speaker 1: these two marionettes Mary, for the Duc de Bourbon was
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  Speaker 1: excessively small. It was feared he would remain a dwarf,
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  Speaker 1: and they were obliged to wait until July before Mademoiselle
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  Speaker 1: de Nantes would be twelve years old. Madame de Caelous
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  Speaker 1: says that the Great Conde and his son neglected no
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  Speaker 1: means of testifying their joy, as they had omitted nothing
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  Speaker 1: to bring about this marriage. As she grew up, the
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  Speaker 1: Duchess became very pretty. San Simond praises her figure formed
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  Speaker 1: by the tenderest loves and her mind made to enjoy
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  Speaker 1: them to her liking, but without being dominated by them.
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  Speaker 1: But he represents her at the same time as egoistic, deceitful,
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  Speaker 1: and setir miracle. She was, he says, the siren of
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  Speaker 1: the poets. She had all their charms and all their perils.
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  Speaker 1: She loved pleasure, luxury and extravagance. Thanks to Madame de Mantineau,
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  Speaker 1: she obtained in seventeen hundred the payment of her debts
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  Speaker 1: by the king, who kept her secret from her father
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  Speaker 1: in law and her husband. If Saint Simon and Madame
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  Speaker 1: de Caylus were to be believed, her conduct was not exemplary.
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  Speaker 1: She may have been the mistress of the second Prince
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  Speaker 1: de Conti, he who had been elected king of Poland
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  Speaker 1: in sixteen ninety seven after having fought valiantly at Florus, Steinkerk, Nea,
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  Speaker 1: Vinda and in Hungary, but who was unable to take
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  Speaker 1: possession of his crown. The Prince de Conti, says Madame
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  Speaker 1: de Caelouse, opened his eyes to the charms of Madame
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  Speaker 1: the Duchess by dint of being told not to look
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  Speaker 1: at her. He loved her passionately, and if on her
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  Speaker 1: part she loved anything, it was certainly him. Whatever may
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  Speaker 1: have happened, since this affair was conducted with such admirable
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  Speaker 1: prudence that they never gave any one any hold over them.
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  Speaker 1: According to San Simon, the Prince de Comtie was perfectly
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  Speaker 1: happy with Madame the Duchesse, although Monsieur the Duke was
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  Speaker 1: very singular and strangely jealous. The Duke died on Shrove
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  Speaker 1: Tuesday in the year seventeen o nine. Madame the Duchess,
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  Speaker 1: although surrounded by finery, masquerading habits, and a crowd of
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  Speaker 1: invited guests, lost none of her presence of mind. With
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  Speaker 1: her tearful ways, she extorted from the King, though against
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  Speaker 1: his will and tardily enough, an income of thirty thousand livres.
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  Speaker 1: Then her tears dried up and her good humor returned.
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  Speaker 1: She received everybody in state. She was on her bed
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  Speaker 1: in a widow's gown bordered and lined with ermine. The
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  Speaker 1: Prince de Contie died almost at the same time as
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  Speaker 1: the Duke. Madame the Duchess, says Saint Simon, was the
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  Speaker 1: only one to whom he had not been in constant.
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  Speaker 1: He would have paid her the homage of his grandeur,
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  Speaker 1: and she would have shown by his luster, what disheartening
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  Speaker 1: memories with no consolation but Laseille junior footnote Laseilles was
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  Speaker 1: a brigadier of infantry. According to Saint Simon, he became
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  Speaker 1: openly the master of Madame the Duchess and the director
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  Speaker 1: of her affairs. Back to main text. For want of
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  Speaker 1: a better she became inordinately attached to him, and the
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  Speaker 1: attachment has lasted four thirty years. She was not made
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  Speaker 1: for tears. She wanted to forget her troubles, and to
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  Speaker 1: do so plunged first into amusements and then into pleasures,
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  Speaker 1: even to the mo most extreme indelicacies. Considering her age
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  Speaker 1: and condition, she tried to drown her vexations in them,
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  Speaker 1: and she succeeded. San Simon's exaggerations are to be suspected. However,
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  Speaker 1: he is always malevolent and often unjust. The suspicions of
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  Speaker 1: the ruthless Duke and Pierre constantly hover over the private
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  Speaker 1: lives of two of the daughters of Louis the fourteenth,
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  Speaker 1: but he spares the third one at all events, and
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  Speaker 1: though he accuses her of an almost satanic pride, he
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  Speaker 1: insinuates nothing against the purity of her morals. This princess
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  Speaker 1: was at first styled Mademoiselle de Blois, the same name
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  Speaker 1: as the daughter of Mademoiselle de la Valliere. She was
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  Speaker 1: fourteen when she was married in sixteen ninety two to
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  Speaker 1: the Duc de Chartre, son of Monsieur, Duke of Orleon.
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  Speaker 1: Sain Simon has described the exasperation of the young prince's
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  Speaker 1: mother at seeing her son espouse a bastard. She strode
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  Speaker 1: up and down, handkerchief in hand and weeping, unrestrainedly, talking
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  Speaker 1: rather loud, gesticulating and reminding one of Ceres. After the
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  Speaker 1: abduction of Proserpine people generally going to await the breaking
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  Speaker 1: up the council and the king's mass in the gallery,
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  Speaker 1: Madame went there. Her son approached her, as he did
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  Speaker 1: every day, to kiss her hand. At that moment Madame
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  Speaker 1: gave him so resounding a slap that it could be
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  Speaker 1: heard several paces off, and which in presence of the
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  Speaker 1: whole court, covered the poor prince with confusion, and filled
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  Speaker 1: the very numerous spectators, of whom I was one, with
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  Speaker 1: prodigious astonishment. Let us note in passing that in a
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  Speaker 1: letter to the Rheingrave Louise Madame says that a rumor
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  Speaker 1: is in circulation that she had slapped her son in
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  Speaker 1: the face, but that it is absolutely false. The marriage
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  Speaker 1: was celebrated with great pomp. Louis the fourteenth was gratified
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  Speaker 1: to find the great lords and ladies rivaling each other
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  Speaker 1: in magnificence. There was a great ball at Versailles, where
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  Speaker 1: the Duke of Burgundy danced for the first time, and
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  Speaker 1: it was the King of England who gave the bridegroom
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  Speaker 1: his shirt. Reader's note the exile James the Second. A
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  Speaker 1: month later, March nineteenth, sixteen ninety two, the Duc de
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  Speaker 1: men the eldest of the children of Louis the fourteenth,
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  Speaker 1: by Madame de Montespont, married Mademoiselle de Charrolet, daughter of
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  Speaker 1: the Prince and granddaughter of the Great Conde. The legitimized
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  Speaker 1: thus found themselves established in the court of Versailles, which
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  Speaker 1: they could not have left without sadness, for it was
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  Speaker 1: the most brilliant and most envied abode in Europe. Louis
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  Speaker 1: the fourteenth, who had originally said, concerning the offspring of adultery,
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  Speaker 1: these persons must never marry, caused them to make me
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  Speaker 1: magnificent marriages curious thing. The Duchess of Sharp naively fancied
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  Speaker 1: that she had honored the king's nephew by marrying him.
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  Speaker 1: Madame wrote on this head, my son's wife thinks she
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  Speaker 1: did him a great honor in marrying him. She says,
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  Speaker 1: he is only the nephew of the king, while she
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  Speaker 1: is his daughter. This is to forget that one is
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  Speaker 1: also the son of his mother. Never would she comprehend that.
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  Speaker 1: Duclose says that people jocosely compared her to Minerva, who,
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  Speaker 1: recognizing no mother, prided herself on being the daughter of Jupiter.
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  Speaker 1: Haughty as she was, this princess was timidity itself. In
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  Speaker 1: presence of Louis the fourteenth, the king could make her
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  Speaker 1: faint with a single severe look, and Madame de Maintenon too.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps at all events she trembled before her and about
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  Speaker 1: the most ordinary things, and in public. She never replied
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  Speaker 1: to them without stammering and looking frightened, I say replied,
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  Speaker 1: for to address the king first was beyond her strength.
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  Speaker 1: The Duchesse de chart was none the less a woman
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  Speaker 1: of great intelligence, having a natural eloquence, a justness of expression,
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  Speaker 1: and affluency and singularity in the choice of terms, which
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  Speaker 1: always surprised one, together with that manner peculiar to Madame
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  Speaker 1: de Montespon and her sisters, and which was transmitted to
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  Speaker 1: none but those intimate with her, or to those whom
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  Speaker 1: she had brought up. In spite of all her intelligence,
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  Speaker 1: the Duchess was unable either to gain the attachment of
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  Speaker 1: her husband or to give a good education to her daughter,
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  Speaker 1: who married in seventeen ten. The Duc de Berrys, third
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  Speaker 1: son of the Grand dauphin Saint Simon, whose tongue is
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  Speaker 1: always envenomed, has ill treated no woman in his memoirs
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  Speaker 1: so much as this poor Duchesse de Berrie, who a
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  Speaker 1: widow at seventeen, died at twenty four. If one must
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  Speaker 1: believe the spiteful Duke in Pierre, she was a bad wife,
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  Speaker 1: a bad daughter, and a bad Christian. She got drunk,
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  Speaker 1: she mocked at religion, and she wanted Lais, her husband's equerry,
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  Speaker 1: to elope with her. She was a prodigy of art, pride,
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  Speaker 1: and gratitude and folly, and also of debauchery and stubbornness.
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  Speaker 1: The duchess was very wrong, without any doubt, but we
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  Speaker 1: incline to think that Saint Simon exaggerates. Possibly she was
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  Speaker 1: neither better nor worse than many women of her time.
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  Speaker 1: It is certain at any rate that she grieved her mother,
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  Speaker 1: Already much tormented by the rivalries and dissensions of the court.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: The three daughters of Louis the fourteenth were not always
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  Speaker 1: on good terms with each other. There was a time
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  Speaker 1: when their quarrels multiplied to such a degree that the
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  Speaker 1: king threatened if they continued to in turn all three
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  Speaker 1: of them in their country houses. The menace was effectual,
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  Speaker 1: and thenceforward they disputed on the sly. Louis the fourteenth
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  Speaker 1: loved his daughters greatly in spite of their defects. He
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  Speaker 1: was at the same time a just king and an
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  Speaker 1: affectionate father. He showed a real tenderness, a solicitude, and
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  Speaker 1: a devotion in his treatment of them, which never altered
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  Speaker 1: when they were ill. He was grieved and troubled, he
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  Speaker 1: would rise several times in the night to go and
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  Speaker 1: visit them. Madame de cay Loose relates that the Duchess
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  Speaker 1: of Bourbon, having been seized with smallpox at Fontainebleau, Louis
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  Speaker 1: the fourteenth was absolutely determined to go to see her.
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  Speaker 1: The Prince the Great Conde stood at the door to
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  Speaker 1: prevent him from entering. There, a great struggle took place
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  Speaker 1: between paternal love and the zeal of a courtier, a
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  Speaker 1: struggle very glorious for Madame the Duchess. Louis the fourteenth
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  Speaker 1: was the stronger and went in in spite of the
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: resistance of the Great Conde. Thus behaved this king, who
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: can only be treated as an egotist by those who
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: know him badly or who do not know him at all.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: End of Section twenty