Chapter XVII: Letter VI: PARIS, Friday, April 1, 1671

I returned yesterday from St. Germain with Madame d’Arpajon. Every one at court inquired after you; among the rest, it will not be amiss, I think, to distinguish the queen, who accosted me, and asked how my daughter was after her affair upon the Rhône. I returned her majesty thanks for the honor she did you in remembering you. She then desired me to tell her in what manner you had like to have been lost; I accordingly gave her an account of your crossing the river in a storm of wind, and that a sudden gust had thrown you under an arch, within an inch of one of the piles, which if you had once touched, all the world could not have saved you. But, says the queen, “Was her husband with her?” “Yes, madam, and the coadjutor too.” “Really,” said she, “they were greatly to blame.” She gave two or three alasses! while I was talking to her, and said many obliging things of you. Afterward a number of ladies came in, and among the rest the young Duchess of Ventadour, very fine and very handsome; it was some time before they brought her the divine tabouret;[20] “Ah,” said I, turning to the grand master,[21] “why do they not give it to her, she has purchased it dearly enough?”[22] He was of my opinion. In the midst of a silence in the circle, the queen turned to me, and asked me who my granddaughter was like? “M. de Grignan, madam,” replied I. Upon which her majesty exclaimed, “Indeed! I am sorry for it;” and added, in a low tone of voice, “She had better have resembled her mother or grandmother.” So you see how much I am indebted to you in making my court. Marshal Bellefond made me promise to distinguish him from the crowd. I made your compliments to Monsieur and Madame Duras, and to Messieurs de Charôt and Montausier, and _tutti quanti_, not to forget the dauphin and mademoiselle, who both talked a great deal to me about you. I likewise saw Madame de Ludre; she accosted me with an excess of civility and kindness that surprised me, and talked in the most affectionate manner of you, when all on a sudden, as I was going to make her a suitable answer, I found she was not attending to me, and saw her fine eyes wandering round the room. I presently perceived it, and those who saw I took notice of it were pleased with me, and could not help laughing.

[20] The tabouret is a stool to sit on in the presence of the
queen, a privilege never enjoyed but by ladies of the first
quality.

[21] The Count de Lude, grand master of the artillery.

[22] Monsieur de Ventadour was not only very ugly and deformed,
but, at the same time, a great debauchee.

I have been extremely diverted with our hurly-burly headdresses; some of them looked as if you could have blown them off their shoulders. Ninon[23] said that La Choiseul was as like the flaunting hostess of an inn, as one drop of water to another; a most excellent simile! But that Ninon is a dangerous creature; if you only knew how she argues upon religion it would make you shudder. Her zeal to pervert the minds of young people is much the same as that of a certain gentleman of St. Germain, that we saw once at Livri. She says your brother has all the simplicity of the dove, that he is just like his mother; but that Madame de Grignan has all the fire of the family, and has more sense than to be so docile. A certain person would have taken your part, and put her out of conceit with you on that head, but she bid him hold his tongue, and told him that she knew more of the matter than he did. What a depravity of taste! Because she knows you to be handsome and witty, she must needs saddle you with the other qualification, without which, according to her rule, there is no being perfect. I am greatly concerned for the harm she does my son in this point; but do not take any notice of it to him. Madame de la Fayette and I use all our endeavors to disengage him from so dangerous an attachment. Besides her, he has a little actress,[24] and all the players of the town upon his hands, to whom he gives suppers; in short, he is perfectly infatuated. You know what a joke he makes of Mascaron. I fancy your Minim[25] would suit him. I never read any thing more diverting than what you wrote to me about that man; I read it to Monsieur de la Rochefoucault, who laughed heartily at it. He desires me to tell you, that there is a certain apostle who is running up and down after his rib, which he would fain appropriate to himself, as a part of his goods and chattels; but, unluckily for him, he is not clever at enterprise. I fancy Mellusina is fallen into some pit, we do not hear a single word about her. M. de la Rochefoucault says besides, that if he was only thirty years younger, he should certainly have a great inclination for M. de Grignan’s third rib.[26] That part of your letter, where you say he has already had two of his ribs broken, made him laugh heartily; we always wish for some oddity or other to divert you, but we very much doubt whether this has not turned out rather more to your satisfaction than ours. After all, we pity you extremely, in not having the word of God preached in a suitable manner. Ah, that Bourdaloüe! his sermon on the Passion was, they say, the most perfect thing of the kind that can be imagined; it was the same he preached last year, but revised and altered with the assistance of some of his friends, that it might be wholly inimitable; how can one love God, if one never hears him properly spoken of? you must really possess a greater portion of grace than others. We went the other day to hear the Abbé Montmort;[27] I never heard a prettier sermon for so young a beginner. I wish you had such a one in the room of your Minim. He made the sign of the cross, and gave out his text; he did not anathematize his audience, he did not load us with abuse; he told us not to be under any apprehensions concerning death, since it was the only passage we had to a glorious resurrection with Jesus Christ. We agreed with him in this, and every one went away contented. He has nothing offensive in his manner; he imitates Monsieur d’Agen without copying him; he has a modest confidence, is learned, and pious. In short, I was highly pleased with him.

[23] Ninon de l’Enclos, famous for her wit and free-thinking.

[24] La Champêlée.

[25] The priest who preached at Grignan.

[26] That is, to Mme. de Grignan, who was M. de Grignan’s third
wife.

[27] Afterward Bishop of Bayonne.