speaking and acting, whose greatest beauty was attributable to
delicacy of thought and correctness of reasoning. She appeared
constrained, and the keen raillery exercised by herself and her
courtiers often fell upon those who, while rendering her their homage,
felt, to their mortification, that honest sincerity, which ought to be
observed in polite society, was apparently banished from hers. The
virtues and qualities of the most excellent creatures are mingled with
things opposed to them: all men partake of this clay from which they
derive their origin, and God alone is perfect.... In short it may be
said that at this time all greatness, all glory, and all gallantry were
concentrated in the family of Bourbon, of which the Prince de Conde was
the illustrious head, and that fortune was not considered a desirable
thing if it did not emanate from their hands."

But, unhappily, frivolous pastimes, of a nature both innocent and
dangerous, now wholly engrossed Madame de Longueville. She was
surrounded by all the prosperities and all the felicities of this life.
Everything conspired in her favour, or rather against her--the triumphs
of mind as well as those of beauty, the continually increasing glory of
her paternal house, the intoxication of her vanity, the secret
promptings of her heart. The trial was too much for her, and she
succumbed to it. In the enchanted circle in which she moved, more than
one adorer attracted her attention; and one of them succeeded in winning
her affections, according to all appearances, at the close of 1647, or
at the commencement of 1648. She was then about twenty-nine.

Francois, Prince de Marsillac, without being very handsome, was well
formed and very agreeable. As De Retz says, he was not a warrior,
although he was a very good soldier. What distinguished him especially
was his wit. Of this he possessed an infinite fund, of the finest and
most delicate. His conversation was gentle, easy, insinuating; and his
manners were at once the most natural and most polished. He had a lofty
air. In him vanity supplied the place of ambition. At an early age he
showed a fondness for distinction and for intrigues. Profoundly selfish,
and having succeeded in acquiring a knowledge of himself, and in
reducing to theory his nature, his character, and his tastes, he set out
with very contrary appearances, and those chivalrous manners affected by
the _Importants_. One of his first connections, as we have seen, was