Arvède Barine - La Grande Mademoiselle, 1627-1652

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FROM A STEEL ENGRAVING

LA GRANDE MADEMOISELLE

FROM A STEEL ENGRAVING

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LA GRANDE
MADEMOISELLE

1627-1652

BY

ARVDE BARINE

AUTHORISED ENGLISH VERSION BY

HELEN E. MEYER

1902

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
NEW YORK AND LONDON

The Knickerbocker Press

1902

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Copyright, 1902

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

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Published, November, 1902

The Knickerbocker Press, New York

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PREFACE

La Grande Mademoiselle was one of the most original persons of her epoch, though it cannot be said that she was ever of the first order. Hers was but a small genius; there was nothing extraordinary in her character; and she had too little influence over events to have made it worth while to devote a whole volume to her historymuch less to prepare for her a second chroniclehad she not been an adventurous and picturesque princess, a proud, erect figure standing in the front rank of the important personages whom Emerson called "representative."

Mademoiselle's agitated existence was a marvellous commentary on the profound transformation accomplished in the mind of France toward the close of the seventeenth century,a transformation whose natural reaction changed the being of France.

I have tried to depict this change, whose traces are often hidden by the rapid progress of historical events, because it was neither the most salient feature of the closing century nor the result of a revolution.

Essential, of the spirit, it passed in the depths of the eager souls of the people of those tormented days. Such changes are analogous to the changes in the light of the earthly seasons. From day to day, marking dates which vary with the advancing years, the intense light of summer gives place to the wan light of autumn. So the landscape is perpetually renewed by the recurring influences of natural revolution; in like manner, the moral atmosphere of France was changed and recharged with the principles of life in the new birth; and when the long civil labour of the Fronde was ended, the nation's mind had received a new and opposite impulsion, the casual daily event wore a new aspect, the sons viewed things in a light unknown to their fathers, and even to the fathers the appearance of things had changed. Their thoughts, their feelings, their whole moral being had changed.

It is the gradual progress of this transformation that I have attempted to show the reader. I know that my enterprise is ambitious; it would have been beyond my strength had I had nothing to refer to but the Archives and the various collections of personal memoirs. But two great poets have been my guides, Corneille and Racine, both faithful interpreters of the thoughts and the feelings of their contemporaries; and they have made clear the contrast between the two distinct social epochsbetween the old and the new bodies, so different, yet so closely connected.

When the Christian pessimism of Racine hadin the words of Jules Lematresucceeded the stoical optimism of Corneille, all the conditions evolving their diverse lines of thought had changed.

The nature of La Grande Mademoiselle was exemplified in the moral revolution which gave us Phdre thirty-four years (the space of a generation) after the apparition of Pauline.

In the first part of her life,the part depicted in this volume,Mademoiselle was as true a type of the heroines of Corneille as any of her contemporaries. Not one of the great ladies of her world had a more ungovernable thirst for grandeur; not one of them cherished more superb scorn for the baser passions, among which Mademoiselle classed the tender sentiment of love. But, like all the others, she was forced to renounce her ideals; and not in her callow youth, when such a thing would have been natural, but when she was growing old, was she carried away by the torrent of the new thought, whose echoes we have caught through Racine.

The limited but intimately detailed and somewhat sentimental history of Mademoiselle is the history of France when Louis XIII. was old, and when young LouisLouis XIV.was a minor, living the happiest years of all his life.

If I seem presumptuous, let my intention be my excuse for so long soliciting the attention of my reader in favour of La Grande Mademoiselle.

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ERRATA.

Page , ninth line from top, read de Lormes for de Lorme.

Page , fifth line from bottom, dele hypnotic.

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CONTENTS

PAGE

I. Gaston d'OrlansHis MarriageHis CharacterII. Birth of MademoiselleIII. The Tuileries in 1627The Retinue of a PrincessIV. Contemporary Opinions of EducationThe Education of BoysV. The Education of GirlsVI. Mademoiselle's ChildhoodDivisions of the Royal Family

I. Anne of Austria and RichelieuBirth of Louis XIV.II. L'Astre and its InfluenceIII. Transformation of the Public MannersThe Creation of the SalonThe Htel de Rambouillet and Men of Letters

I. The Earliest Influences of the TheatreII. Mademoiselle and the School of CorneilleIII. Marriage ProjectsIV. The Cinq-Mars AffairClose of the Reign

I. The RegencyThe Romance of Anne of Austria and MazarinGaston's Second WifeII. Mademoiselle's New Marriage ProjectsIII. Mademoiselle Would Be a Carmelite NunThe Catholic Renaissance under Louis XIII. and the RegencyIV. Women Enter PoliticsThe Rivalry of the Two Junior Branches of the House of FranceContinuation of the Royal Romance

I. The Beginning of TroubleParis and the Parisians in 1648II. The Parliamentary FrondeMademoiselle Would Be Queen of FranceIII. The Fronde of the Princes and the Union of the FrondesProjects for an Alliance with CondIV. La Grande Mademoiselle's Heroic PeriodThe Capture of OrleansThe Combat in the Faubourg Saint AntoineThe End of the FrondeExile

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ILLUSTRATIONS

page

La Grande Mademoiselle Frontispiece

From a steel engraving.

Marie de Mdicis

From a steel engraving.

The Chteau of Versailles from the Terrace

After the painting by J. Rigaud.

The Tuileries from the Seine in the 16th Century

From a contemporary print.

Madame de Svign

From an engraving of the painting by Muntz.

Cardinal Richelieu

The Abbey of St. Germain Des-pres in the 16th Century

From an old print.

Louis XIII., King of France and of Navarre

From an old print.

Corneille

From an engraving of the painting by Lebrun.

Racine

From a steel engraving.

The Htel de Richelieu in the 17th Century

From a contemporary print.

A Game of Chance in the 17th Century

From an engraving by Sbastien Leclerc.

Marquis de Cinq-Mars

Anne of Austria

View of the Louvre from the Seine in the 17th Century

From an old print.

Henriette, Duchesse d'Orlans

From a steel engraving.

St. Vincent De Paul

From a steel engraving.

Duchesse de Chevreuse

Cardinal Mazarin

Mademoiselle de Montpensier

From a steel engraving.

The Tower of Nesle

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