wife, Anne de
Tournon, by whom he had one son, Claude de la Guiche, and one daughter,
who married the Marquis de Bouille. His wife dying, he married again
with Suzanne des Epaules, who had also been previously married, being the
widow of the Count de Longaunay, by whom she had Suzanne de Longaunay.

The marshal and his wife, Suzanne des Epauies, for the mutual benefit of
their children by first nuptials, determined to marry them, thus sealing
their own union with a double tie. Claude de Guiche, the marshal's son,
married Suzanne de Longaunay.

This alliance was much to the distaste of the Marchioness de Bouille, the
marshal's daughter, who found herself separated from her stepmother, and
married to a man who, it was said, gave her great cause for complaint,
the greatest being his threescore years and ten.

The contract of marriage between Claude de la Guiche and Suzanne de
Longaunay was executed at Rouen on the 17th of February 1619; but the
tender age of the bridegroom, who was then but eighteen, was the cause of
his taking a tour in Italy, whence he returned after two years. The
marriage was a very happy one but for one circumstance--it produced no
issue. The countess could not endure a barrenness which threatened the
end of a great name, the extinction of a noble race. She made vows,
pilgrimages; she consulted doctors and quacks; but to no purpose.

The Marshal de Saint-Geran died on the Loth of December 1632, having the
mortification of having seen no descending issue from the marriage of his
son. The latter, now Count de Saint-Geran, succeeded his father in the
government of the Bourbonnais, and was named Chevalier of the King's
Orders.

Meanwhile the Marchioness de Bouille quarrelled with her old husband the
marquis, separated from him after a scandalous divorce, and came to live
at the chateau of Saint-Geran, quite at ease as to her brother's
marriage, seeing that in default of heirs all his property would revert
to her.

Such was the state of affairs when the Marquis de Saint-Maixent arrived
at the chateau. He was young, handsome, very cunning, and very
successful with women; he even made a conquest of the dowager Countess de
Saint-Geran, who lived there with her children. He soon plainly saw that
he might easily enter into the most intimate relations with the
Marchioness de Bouille.

The Marquis de Saint-Maixent's own fortune was much impaired by his
extravagance and by the exactions of the law,