[286] See preceding chapter.

[287] The Treaty of Munster secured to France the sovereignty of the three bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, of which it had been for a long time possessed; the sovereignty of Pignerol, which gave it the entry of Italy; the sovereignty of all Alsace, upper and lower, with that of Brissac and of Landau; in short, the right of garrison in the fortress of Philipsbourg.

[288] Gazette of May 6, 1645. Died, April 30, about 2 o’clock in the morning, at the hôtel de Longueville, the Countess de Dunois, daughter, by the second marriage, of the Duke de Longueville, aged fourteen months. All the court having testified much regret at the death of this young princess, whose body, having been embalmed and placed in a lead coffin, was carried, on the second of this month (of May), to the great convent of the Carmelites, where the Duchess de Longueville, her mother, wished it to be interred near the tomb of the Mother Madeleine de Saint-Joseph; the pages and valets of the Duke and Duchess de Longueville, each with a flambeau of white wax, surrounding the hearse, followed by great numbers of others. It was presented at the door of the church, laid out upon white serge, with two breadths of white satin, charged with the scutcheons of Bourbon and Longueville, by the curate of Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois to the Bishop d’Utique, coadjutor of Montauban, assisted by several ecclesiastics and fathers of the Oratoire de Saint-Magloire, who received it in the name of this monastery; and, having placed it under a canopy of silver-cloth ornamented with the same armorial bearings, covered with a pall of the same stuff bordered with ermine, and with a ducal crown of gold covered with a veil of gauze, after the usual benedictions and incensing, the nuns, to the number of sixty, came in a procession to the door of the monastery to receive the body, which was carried to the grave made in the cloister, and buried by the same bishop, with the ceremonies of the order of the Carmelites, whose garb this little princess wore.

[289] Mémoires, vol. i., p. 182.

[290] We shall limit ourselves to citing the following: Histoire de la prison et de la liberté de M. le Prince, 1651.—Recueil des Maximes veritables pour l’Institution du Roi contre la pernicieuse politique du Cardinal Mazarin, 1652, burned by the hand of the executioner,—Statuts et Reglements des petits icoles de grammaire de la ville de Paris, 1672,—Traité historique des Ecoles Episcopales, 1678.—Voyage fait à Munster en Westphalie et autres lieux voisins, 1670.

[291] See chapter ii.

[292] Les Epistres en vers et autres œuvres poétiques de M. de Bois-Robert Metel, Conseiller d’Estat ordinaire, abbé de Châtillon-sur-Seine, Paris, 1659, in-8ᵒ, p. 11: To Monsieur Esprit: he entertains him with the beauties of Madame the Duchess de Longueville, and with the favorable reception which he received from her on his departure.

[293] Letters and Mémoires of M. de Turenne, by Grimoard, in-fol., 1782, vol. i., 1646, July 20: “My dear Sister—I wrote to you from the vicinity of Cologne, four or five days since, and yesterday passed the Rhine to Wesel. Madame de Longueville arrived the same day, and intends visiting the army to-day. From this place we shall travel with her a day or two. I confess to you that nothing in the world is more astonishing. M. de Longueville has come to meet her at Wesel. She is not at all changed, nor is Mademoiselle de Longueville....”

[294] From the 21st of August to the 12th of September. See the Voyage of Claude Joly.

[295] Library of the Arsenal, Manuscripts of Conrart, in-4ᵒ, vol. x.

[296] D’Avaux, born in 1595, was fifty-two years old in 1647.

[297] Jean Adler Salvius, one of the Swedish plenipotentiaries; Jean Vulteius, one of the envoys of the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel; Jacques Lampadius, envoy of the Duke de Lunebürg Grubenhagen. See Father Bougeant.

[298] In default of the subject and of the date, choice may be made between the different letters written by Voiture to the Duke d’Enghien, about this period, and which will be found in the works of Voiture, vol. ii., of the edition of 1745.

[299] Voiture, vol. i., pp. 368, 369, 371, 374.

[300] In-folio, Rotterdam, 1697. This portrait has been reduced and engraved anew by Odieuvre.

[301] Madame de Longueville seems in this somewhat fatigued. She was at this time in a delicate situation.

[302] Villefore, part 1st, p. 75.

[303] There are three very good portraits in-fol. by Daret, by Rousselet, and by M. de Lasne, all of this year, 1647. In all of them, Armand de Bourbon has a fine face, and already shows the marks of some high ecclesiastical dignitary. Daret supports his medallion by little angels, who are playing with the hat of the future cardinal—a charming composition, after the design of Lesueur. In Rousselet, Fame bears the medallion of the young prince, Religion presents him with a mitre, War carries a suit of armor, Politics a crown, and Philosophy the sun of intelligence and the mysterious serpent. This was truly the image of the uncertain destiny of the Prince de Conti.

[304] Madame de Motteville, vol. ii., p. 17.

[305] Les Devoirs des grands, par Monseigneur le Prince de Conti, avec son Testament, Paris, 1667.—Traité de la Comédie et des Spectacles selon la tradition de l’Eglise, 1667.—Lettres du Prince de Conti, ou l’accord du libre-arbitre avec la grace de Jésus-Christ, Cologne, 1689.

[306] Mémoires, vol. ii., pp. 14-20.

[307] Mémoires de Littérature, vol. i., pp. 116-184.

[308] Œuvres de Benserade, 1697, vol. i., p. 174.

[309] Œuvres de Balzac, in-folio, vol. ii., pp. 580-594.

[310] Œuvres diverses, edit. de 1740, Amsterdam, pp. 162-165.

[311] Les Œuvres galantes de Madame la Comtesse de B., imprimé à Leyde et se vend à Paris, in-18ᵒ, 1666.

[312] Œuvres galantes, etc., p. 17.

[313] This letter is printed among those of Madame de Brégy, with many little errors, which we correct without indicating them.

[314] Œuvres de Benserade, vol. i., p. 97, and Œuvres de Madame de Brégy, p. 98.

[315] The last line of each of the couplets of this commentary recalls successively and in their order the lines of the sonnet of Benserade. It is not in the works of Sarrazin of 1654, nor in his Œuvres Nouvelles; it will be found in the 1st vol. of Benserade, p. 175.

[316] During his youth, Madame de Longueville paid much attention to Esprit, in order, probably, to please Madame de Sablé, his avowed protectress. She took him with her to Munster. Here she testified for him the greatest regard. In an unpublished letter, of October 13, 1646, she recommends him to Mazarin for a benefice. Mazarin does not seem to have been much pleased with him. He writes to Servien, March 22, 1647, with seeming discontent, that Esprit solicits from Munster “to be of the house of Monsieur.” Mélanges de Clérambault, vol. cxxx.

[317] Library of the Arsenal, Manuscripts of Conrart, in-4ᵒ, vol. ii., p. 13.

[318] The final opinion of the Prince de Conti.

[319] We have no knowledge of the Abbé de Croisy. We are inclined to believe that the copy of Conrart is here defective; and we propose to read the Abbé de Cerisy, Habert, of the French Academy—a wit then of some reputation, and author of works now forgotten; among others, Poésies Chrétiennes et diverses, dedicated to the Prince de Conti. He died in 1654, at the age of forty-four years.

[320] This allusion to the assemblies of the nobility fixes the date of this letter, placing it more than a year after the epoch with which we are occupied, that is, at the close of 1649, when the nobility rose against the new brevets. But, although written at the close of 1649, this little affair shows faithfully the manner in which Madame de Longueville passed her life in 1648. It is surprising that, in the great collection of pieces relating to the two sonnets (Mélanges de Littérature, etc.), not a single date is given. Our conjecture in regard to the letter of Esprit, is confirmed by the following note, found in vol. xi., in-fol., of the papers of Conrart, p. 1118 “In the month of December, 1649, all the court was divided in regard to the two sonnets of Voiture and Benserade. Every one took sides and declared in favor of him who was most admired. Of the two parties formed upon this subject, those of the first were called Uranias, and Madame de Longueville was their chief; those of the second were called Jobelins, and M. the Prince de Conti was at their head. M. the Prince (Condé) being urged to say of which he would be, would never explain himself otherwise than by declaring both to be very fine.”

[321] Collection Petitot, vol. li., p. 353.

[322] Collection Petitot, vol. li., p. 393.

[323] Collection Petitot, vol. li., p. 455.

[324] Mémoires, p. 18, etc.

[325] Mémoires, vol. ii., p. 15.

[326] Mémoires, vol. i, p. 219.

[327] Condé gained the battle of Senef, in 1674, with 45,000 men against 65,000, commanded by the Prince of Orange. Had it not been for the cowardice of the Swiss infantry, who refused to fight, he would have destroyed the entire army of the enemy.

[328] Mémoires, p. 19, etc. Villefore has followed Madame de Nemours.

[329] History of Turenne, by Ramsay, vol. ii., Mémoires de Turenne, p. lix., and the letters of Queen Anne, Preuves, p. viii., etc.

[330] Philippe de La Mothe Houdancourt, Duke de Cardonne, Viceroy of Catalonia, the husband of the beautiful De Toussy, who, upon strong suspicions, was arrested in 1647, and for whom M. de Longueville interceded from Munster.

[331] Father Lelong speaks of this portrait, by Poilly, in-fol.; we have sought for it in vain. It is probable that Father Lelong has referred to Madame de Longueville the fine portrait by Nicolas Poilly, the more or less authentic inscription of which is: Mademoiselle de Montpensier, with the equivocal arms, at once of the Orleans and of the Condés. We think, however, that it is Mademoiselle much embellished.

[332] The war movement of Paris, in this first Fronde, is well depicted in these couplets of an unpublished song of the Recueil de Maurepas, vol. ii., p. 43: Blocus de Paris pendant le Carnaval de 1649:

[333] Le premier Courrier Français traduit fidèlement en vers burlesques, 1649, p. 11.

[334] Eléonore-Catherine-Fébronie de Bergues, whose merit equalled her beauty: she married in 1634, and died in 1657.

[335] Vol. 1st, p. 221.

[336] Le quatrième Courrier, etc., p. 3:

[337] Charles de Paris, Count de Saint-Paul, was at first destined for the Church. There is a charming portrait of him, by Nanteuil, after Ferdinand, which represents him, at the age of eleven years, in 1660, with an abbé’s cross, and this inscription upon the border: Messire Charles Paris d’Orléans, Count de Saint-Paul, Abbé de St.-Remi de Reims, etc. It is impossible to find a more graceful creature.

[338] Notwithstanding her sacrifices, democratic suspicions did not spare her. The Recueil de Maurepas, vol. ii, p. 417, contains a song under this title: Les Honni soit-il de ce temps-ci, in which Madame de Longueville has also her couplet:

Another couplet from a Mazarin song, same volume, p. 255:

The collection of historical songs of the Arsenal, have a few other pieces more difficult to cite.

[339] See chapter ii., versos of Condé on the Count de Maure.

[340] Retz, vol. 1st, p. 247: “The President de Mesmes, a man of capacity, uncle of him whom you now see....” This certainly means Henri de Mesmes, second of the name, eldest son of Jean Jacques de Mesmes, M. de Roissy, brother of Claude de Mesmes, M. d’Avaux, the skilful diplomatist of whom we have before spoken, brother also of Jean Antoine de Mesmes, whose eldest son was Jean Jacques de Mesmes, third of the name, successively counsellor to the parliament, president, grand-master of ceremonies, one of the forty of the French Academy, who died in 1678. His uncle, Henri de Mesmes, here spoken of, was president of the parliament from 1627 until his death, in 1650. We have excellent portraits of these four De Mesmes.

[341] He was thirty-nine years of age, and left but one son, born after the death of his father, and taken off quite young in 1650. The following is the manner in which Le Courrier François relates, in its fifth number, the death of Châtillon:

The collections of Mazarinades for the year 1649, contain an Agreeable and true narrative of what happened before the taking of the king in the city of Paris, where the author puts in the mouth of the dying Châtillon a discourse against Mazarin. We have again: 1st, The Regrets of Madame de Chastillon on the death of her dear husband; 2d, The Adieux made by M. de Chastillon, before dying, to his mother and his wife; 3d, The Apparition of the spirit of M. de Chastillon to the Prince de Condé, etc.

[342] See Madame de Motteville, vol. iii., p. 215. She confirmed the declaration of February of the same year, and those of May and of October, 1648.

[343] Vol. iii., p. 232, etc.

[344] Vol. iii., p. 263.

[345] Vol. iii., p. 209.

[346] Portrait of La Rochefoucauld in Retz. Vol. i., p. 217.