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THE MEMOIRS OF LOUIS XIV. AND THE REGENCY - V4
THE MEMOIRS OF LOUIS XIV. AND THE REGENCY - V4 ELIZABETH-CHARLOTTE [NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks or pointers at the end of
each file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before
making an entire meal of them. D.W.]
MEMOIRS OF THE COURT OF LOUIS XIV. AND OF THE REGENCY v4
Being the Secret Memoirs of the Mother of the Regent
MADAME ELIZABETH-CHARLOTTE OF BAVARIA DUCHESSE D'ORLEANS.
BOOK 4.
CONTENTS:
Victor Amadeus II.
The Grand Duchess Consort of Cosimo II. of Florence
The Duchesse de Lorraine Elizabeth-Charlotte d'Orleans
The Duc du Maine
The Duchesse du Maine
Louvois
Louis XV.
Anecdotes and Historical Particulars of Various Persons
Explanatory Notes
SECTION XXXV.
VICTOR AMADEUS KING OF SICILY.
It is said that the King of Sicily is always in ill humour and that he
is always quarrelling with his mistresses. He and Madame de Verrue have
quarrelled they say for whole days together. I wonder how the good
Queen can love him with such constancy; but she is a most virtuous person
and patience itself. Since the King had no mistresses he lives upon
better terms with her. Devotion has softened his heart and his temper.
Madame de Verrue is I dare say forty-eight years of age (1718). I
shared some of the profits of her theft by buying of her 160 medals of
gold the half of those which she stole from the King of Sicily. She had
also boxes filled with silver medals but they were all sold in England.
[The Comtesse de Verrue was married at the age of thirteen years.
Victor Amadeus then King of Sardinia fell in love with her. She
would have resisted and wrote to her mother and her husband who
were both absent. They only joked her about it. She then took that
step which all the world knows. At the age of eighteen being at a
dinner with a relation of her husband's she was poisoned. The
person she suspected was the same that was dining with her; he did
not quit her and wanted to have her blooded. Just at this time the
Spanish Ambassador at Piedmont sent her a counter-poison which had a
happy effect: she recovered but never would mention whom she
suspected. She got tired of the King and persuaded her brother
the Chevalier de Lugner to come and carry her off the King being
then upon a journey. The rendezvous was in a chapel about four
leagues distant from Turin. She had a little parrot with her. Her
brother arrived they set out together and after having proceeded
four leagues on her journey she remembered that she had forgotten
her parrot in the chapel. Without regarding the danger to which she
exposed her brother she insisted upon returning to look for her
parrot and did so. She died in Paris in the beginning of the reign
of Louis XV. She was fond of literary persons and collected about
her some of the best company of that day among whom her wit and
grace enabled her to cut a brilliant figure. She was the intimate
friend of the poet La Faye whom she advised in his compositions
and whose life she made delightful. Her fondness for the arts and
pleasure procured for her the appellation of 'Dame de Volupte' and
she wrote this epitaph upon herself:
"Ci git dans un pais profonde
Cette Dame de Volupte
Qui pour plus grande surete
Fit son Paradis dans ce monde."]
SECTION XXXVI.
THE GRAND DUCHESS WIFE OF COSMO II. OF FLORENCE.
The Grand Duchess has declared to me that from the day on which she set
out for Florence she thought of nothing but her return and the means of
executing this design as soon as she should be able.
No one could approve of her deserting her husband and the more
particularly as she speaks very well of him and describes the manner of
living at Florence as like a terrestrial paradise.
She does not think herself unfortunate for having travelled and looks
upon all the grandeur she enjoyed at Florence as not to be compared with
the unrestrained way of living in which she indulges here. She is very
amusing when she relates her own history in the course of which she by
no means flatters herself.
"Indeed cousin" I say to her often "you do not flatter yourself but
you really tell things which make against you."
"Ah no matter" she replies "I care not provided I never see the Grand
Duke again."
She cannot be accused of any amorous intrigue.
Her husband furnishes her with very little money; and at this moment
(April 1718) he owes her fifteen months of her pension. She is now
really in want of money to enable her to take the waters of Bourbon.
The Grand Duke who is very avaricious thinks she will die soon and
therefore holds back the payments that he may take advantage of that
event when it shall happen.
SECTION XXXVII.
THE DUCHESSE DE LORRAINE ELIZABETH-CHARLOTTE PHILIPPINE D'ORLEANS
CONSORT OF LEOPOLD JOSEPH-CHARLES DE LORRAINE.
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