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Ch. 11: The Duchess of Orléans, Pt. 1 · Women of Versailles: The Court of Louis XIV

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