The cairn

Chapter 7: Anecdote of Cardinal d’Estrées.

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About This Book

A compact miscellany of short essays, anecdotes, prayers, poems, and biographical sketches that collects reflections on grief, maternal love, benevolence, virtue, taste, and historical episodes. The pieces alternate personal memories, moral aphorisms, humorous and touching anecdotes, and brief portraits of public figures, often framed as letters, epitaphs, or short narratives. Recurring themes include the effects of sorrow and joy, domestic affection, charity, the vicissitudes of fortune, and the consolations of faith and art. The tone moves between intimate recollection and light moralizing, presenting varied, self-contained vignettes meant to instruct, console, and amuse.

Anecdote of Cardinal d’Estrées.

“Cæsar bishop of Laon and Cardinal d’Estrées, son of the first Marshall of France of that name, was employed in various negotiations with the Princes of Italy; but is now more remembered for his courtier-like reply to Louis XIV. That Monarch one day at dinner complained of having lost all his teeth. ‘And who is there, Sire, that has any teeth?’ said the Cardinal (Sire, qui est-ce qui a des dents?). What made the flattery the more ludicrously gross was, that the Cardinal, though an old man, had remarkably fine teeth and showed them very much whenever he opened his mouth.”