wish relations with her step-mother, even
her haughty contempt for her half-sisters, but we cannot pardon her M.
de Lauzun. We are all well acquainted with that individual, with his
cunning and supercilious cast of countenance, servile or arrogant,
according to circumstances and interests, adroit in concealing a
merciless egotism, a revolting brutality, under the guise of a
theatrical liberality; brave so far as was necessary to be insolent with
impunity, intelligent no further than to the extent at which selfishness
blinds the judgment, and delighting in mischief when there was nothing
to dread from it. To all this may be added an incisive tone of voice,
and language keenly sarcastic or servilely obsequious, an insatiable and
inordinate sensuality, innumerable conquests among the fair sex, and
extraordinary adventures. At first sight, at a Court masquerade, in
1659, the bully made an impression upon the _precieuse_, and she noticed
him for his exquisite elegance during the marriage fetes of Louis XIV.
When she met him in the Queen's apartments, she remarked that he had
more wit than anyone else, and found a particular pleasure in talking
with him. The charm operated so effectually that the princess of
forty-three was at length fain to own that she passionately loved the
Gascon cadet, who was then in his thirty-eighth year. Determined as she
was naturally, that discovery overwhelmed her. "I resolved," she says,
"never to speak to M. Lauzun again save in hearing of a third person,
and I was anxious to avoid opportunities of seeing him in order to drive
him out of my head. I entered upon such a line of conduct; I only
exchanged a few trivial words with him. I found that I did not know what
I was saying, that I could not put three words of good sense together;
and the more I sought to shun him, the more desirous I was of seeing
him." At her wits' end, the poor Princess cast herself at the foot of
the altar, on one occasion when she took the sacrament, and ardently
besought Heaven to enlighten her as to the course she ought to pursue.
The inspiration is by no means difficult to anticipate. "Heaven's grace
determined me not to struggle longer to drive out of my mind that which
was so strongly established in it, but to marry M. de Lauzun."

Two things, however, were necessary to accomplish this: firstly, that M.
de Lauzun should thoroughly understand that he was beloved, and that he
would deign to espouse Mademoiselle's twenty