sia, "were low enough for one to get in with ease. Madame
de Venelle was so used to her trade of watching us, that she rose even
in her sleep to see what we were doing. One night, as my sister lay
asleep with her mouth open, Madame de Venelle, after her accustomed
manner, coming, asleep as she was, to grope in the dark, happened to
thrust her finger into her mouth so far that my sister, starting out
of her sleep, made her teeth almost meet in her finger. Judge you the
amazement they both were in to find themselves in this posture when they
were thoroughly awake. My sister was in a grievous fret. The story
was told the king the next day, and the court had the divertisement of
laughing at it."

Whilst the great minister's nieces were yet extremely young, Louis XIV.
fell passionately in love with the elder, Maria, and his marriage with
her was frustrated only by the united endeavours of the queen mother and
the cardinal. A proposal to raise Hortensia to the nominal dignity of
queen was soon after made on behalf of Charles II., who sought her as
his bride. But he being at the time an exile, banished from his kingdom,
and with little hope of regaining his throne, the offer was rejected by
Cardinal Mazarine as unworthy of his favourite niece.

His eminence was, however, anxious to see her married, and accordingly
sought amongst the nobility of France a husband suitable to her merits
and equal to her condition, she being not only a beautiful woman but,
through his bounty, the richest heiress in Christendom. It happened
the cardinal's choice settled upon one who had fallen in love with
Hortensia, and who had declared, with amorous enthusiasm, that if he had
but the happiness of being married to her, it would not grieve him to
die three months afterwards.

The young noble was Armand Charles de la Porte, Duke de Meilleraye, who
had the sole recommendation of being one of the richest peers of France.
On condition that he and his heirs should assume the name of Mazarine
and arms of that house, the cardinal consented to his becoming the
husband of his niece. And the great minister's days rapidly approaching
their end, the ceremony was performed which made Hortensia, then at
the age of thirteen, Duchess of Mazarine. A few months later the great
cardinal expired, leaving her the sum of one million six hundred and
twenty-five thousand pounds sterling. Alas that she should have died in
poverty, and that her body should have been seize