The Spell of the Heart of France

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a brief dialogue which recurs to my me

ore the portrait of Diane de Poitiers as Diana of the Nether World, Frédéric "looked

at w

de Poi

de Poitiers, the mi

th a little, 'Ah

w nothing and did not understand, so to

s you ar

on the c

ng the vaguest of glances around

ings back

er countenance, however, an ef

e "yawns immoderately" while breathing this vague perfume, because she is unfamiliar with literature. Nevertheless, she instinctively feels and respects the melancholy and distinguished reveries of those who know the hi

equires, to set it in motion, the vision of old architecture and the suggestion of landscapes. It is also one of those which

the correspondence of Madame de Maintenon and run through a few letters of Madame de Sévigné. My memory is somewhat less untrained than that of Ro

brick. Some parts have been restored, others have preserved their aspect of ancientness.... But here, as everywhere else, time has performed its harmonizing work, and what the centuries have not yet finished, the soft October light succeeds in completing. Diversity of styles, discordances between different parts of the construction, bizarre and broken

is pure Le N?tre. But, on both sides of the canal, these stiff designs disappear and are replaced by vast meadows, fat and humid, sown with admirable clumps of trees; Le N?tre never passed here. Nature an

is work were decimated by terrible epidemics caused by the effluvia of the broken soil. It is said that ten thousand men there met their death and fifty million francs were wasted. War in 1688 interrupted these works, "which," says Saint-Simon, "have not since been resumed; there remain of them only shapeless monuments which will make eternal the memory of this cruel folly." And, in 1687, Racine, visiting at Maintenon, de

ury; the king's chamber, which contains some paintings of the seventeenth century; a charming portrait of Madame de Maintenon in

aining furniture of the seventeenth century; I know not if these are originals or copies.

ss, the air of youth; and without all these perfections it shows us a face and an expression surpassing all that one can describe; eyes full of animation, perfect grace, no finery and, with all this, no portrait surpasse

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mysterious marriage. This portrait, in truth, is one of the best works of Mignard. But, even without the witness of Madame d

urbons, flying from Rambouillet, came hither, "in the midst of the dismal column which was scarcely lighted b

o the children of Madame de Montespan. At this time the mission of the governess, at first secret, had become a sort of official charge. The illegitimate offspring had been acknowledged in 1673. Madame Scarron had then left the mysterious house in which sh

f property to which she could retire to lead the life of solitude and devotion, to which she then aspired. She finally obtained from Madame de Montespa

admirable that at my age I should attach myself to these things like a child? The house is very beautiful: a little too large for the way I propose to run it. It has very beau

aw her favor increase, the King detach himself from Madame de Monte-span, and all things work together to assure her victory, which was to be that of God. So it was necessary for her to abandon her project of living in retirement, and to remain at V

ers, Louis XIV had bidden farewell to the favorite in a glazed room, under the eyes of the whole court. But when the King returned the work of the bigots was in vain. Madame de Montespan regained her ascendancy. "What triumph at Versailles! What redoubled pride! What a solid establishment! What a Duchess of Valentinois! What a relish, even because of distractions and absence! What a retaking of possession!" (No one has expressed like Madame de Sévigné the dramatic aspect of these spectacles of the court.) After this dazzling reentry into favor, every one expected to see the position of Madame de Maintenon become less favorable. But she had patience and talent. Her moderation and good

only rare and brief visits to her chateau. It is true that Louis XIV had commissioned Le N?tre "to adjust this beautiful and ugly property." The domain had been increased by

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ial value, if we wish to become well acquainted with the characteristic morality of the seventeenth century. Observe, in fact, that this child was adulterous on both sides; that Madame de Montespan, abandoned, could only hate Madame de Maintenon, more in favor than ever; that, five years later, Madame de Maintenon was to marry Louis XIV

ed her life elsewhere, divided between the King and the House of St. Louis. When her niece married the Duke of Ayen

adame de Main-tenon. But, the more I think of it the less it seems to me that her heart was ever capable of becoming attached to the beauty of things. The "very beautiful surroundings" of Maintenon pleased her because this chateau was the proof of the King's favor, because, after the miseries of her childhood, after the years of trials and anxieties, she finally

e outshone the most beautiful women of the court.... Her first glance was imposing and seemed to conceal severity.... Her smile and her voice opened the cloud...." (This is better than all the Mignards.) Her conversation was delightful: Madame de Sévigné bears witness to it, and that at a time when her testimony cannot be questioned, since nothing could then cause her to foresee th

edly taught her nothing by telling her that her commonest robes fell into

accustomed to give such a brevet without good reasons. But, to refute the calumnies of Saint-Simon, nothing more

ion. The second sentiment was certainly much more important to her than the first. She has herself con

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nt-she is incapable of the weaknesses of which she has been accused. "I have a desire to please and to be well thought of, which puts me on my guard against all my passions." That is truth itself, and good psychology. But even more fine and more penetrating appears to me the remark once made about Madame de Maintenon by a woman of intellect: "This is what has passed through my mind... and has made me believe that all the evil they have said about her is quite false: it is that if she had had something to reproach herself about in regard to her morals, if she had had weaknesses of a certain kind, she would have had to fight less against vainglory. Humility would have been as natural to her

which he annotated when reading it. I find there this remark penciled upon a page: "Neither Jesuit, nor Jansenist, but Sulpician." It is impossible to give a better definition of the devotion of Madame de Maintenon. She had the reasonable piety which is the mark of Saint Sulpice. From her family and from her infancy she had preserved a sort of remnant of Calvinism: she did not l

nd her God seriously. She was charitable, as was enjoined by the religion which she practiced with a submissive heart. But we know neither a movement of

d ambitious, ever feel the charm of th