extent that at length it became necessary to transfer occasionally to
foreign courts those attractive creatures who, by antiphrasis doubtless,
were always called "maids of honour." It was in the household of his
sister-in-law, Henrietta of England, that Louis had first met the two
mistresses of his predilection; and when he wished to assure himself by
a new tie of his royal vassal on the other side of the channel, it was
still the domestic circle of the Duchess of Orleans which supplied him
with the diplomatist in petticoats he wanted.

When Mademoiselle Querouaille's mission to the Court of St. James's
became thoroughly understood, and her position as Duchess of Portsmouth
assured in it, her previous history was hunted up, the details of which
no one knew--not even the royal family of France, who had used her as an
instrument without caring to trouble itself about her origin. Madame de
Sevigne, in her letters to her daughter, speaks of the Duchess of
Portsmouth in a very disrespectful fashion, so much so as to reveal, if
not the certainty, at least the belief that the antecedents of the _maid
of honour_, as she says, were not the most honourable. In 1690, five
years after Charles's death, a pamphlet was published in London in which
the Duchess figures under the fictitious name of _Francelie_; Louis XIV.
designated as _Tirannides_, and our English king as _Prince des Iles_.
In the preface to the French translation of this pamphlet, which bears
the title of _Histoire secrete de la Duchesse de Portsmouth_, it is
stated that the author desired to give, by these changes of name, some
additional piquancy to the revelations contained in his book. According
to such chronicle, the father of Louise Querouaille was a wool merchant
of Paris. After having realised a moderate fortune in trade, he retired
into Brittany, his native country, with his two daughters; the youngest,
Louise, being amiable and pretty; the eldest, plain and ungraceful. The
dissimilarity of the two sisters, the one universally pleasing, the
other displeasing everybody, created such misunderstanding between them
that their father was obliged to separate them. He kept the plain
daughter at home, and placed the younger and pretty one as a boarder in
a neighbouring town to that in which he lived. Louise thereby acquired
accomplishments which enhanced her natural charms. She was sharp,
cunning, insinuating, and having gained the confidence and goodwill of
the lady t