"If, by your advice, Sir," said he, "I engage in this chimerical
undertaking for your Majesty's service, I must entreat your Majesty to
keep the affair secret, till the success of it shall justify me to the
public; I would not be thought guilty of the intolerable vanity, to
think that a Queen, who has never seen me, would marry me for love."
The King promised to let nobody into the design but the Constable,
secrecy being necessary, he knew, to the success of it. The Count de
Randan advised the Duke to go to England under pretence of travelling;
but the Duke disapproving this proposal, sent Mr. Lignerol, a sprightly
young gentleman, his favourite, to sound the Queen's inclinations, and
to endeavour to make some steps towards advancing that affair: in the
meantime, he paid a visit to the Duke of Savoy, who was then at
Brussels with the King of Spain.
The death of Queen Mary brought great
obstructions to the Treaty; the Congress broke up at the end of
November, and the King returned to Paris.
There appeared at this time a lady at Court, who drew the eyes of the
whole world; and one may imagine she was a perfect beauty, to gain
admiration in a place where there were so many fine women; she was of
the same family with the Viscount of Chartres, and one of the greatest
heiresses of France, her father died young, and left her to the
guardianship of Madam de Chartres his wife, whose wealth, virtue, and
merit were uncommon. After the loss of her husband she retired from
Court, and lived many years in the country; during this retreat, her
chief care was bestowed in the education of her daughter; but she did
not make it her business to cultivate her wit and beauty only, she took
care also to inculcate virtue into her tender mind, and to make it
amiable to her.
The generality of mothers imagine, that it is
sufficient to forbear talking of gallantries before young people, to
prevent their engaging in them; but Madam de Chartres was of a
different opinion, she often entertained her daughter with descriptions
of love; she showed her what there was agreeable in it, that she might
the more easily persuade her wherein it was dangerous; she related to
her the insincerity, the faithlessness, and want of candour in men, and
the domestic misfortunes that flow from engagements with them; on the
other hand she made her sensible, what tranquillity attends the life of
a virtuous woman, and what lustre modesty gives to a person who
possesses birth and beauty; at the same time she informed her, how
difficult it was to preserve this virtue, except by an extreme distrust
of one's self, and by a constant attachment to the only thing which
constitutes a woman's happiness, to love and to be loved by her husband.