CHARLES STUART.
Louise de Montpensier—only daughter of Gaston, Duc d'Orléans, second
son of Henry IV. and of Marie de Bourbon-Montpensier—was, as has been
said, the greatest heiress in Europe. Her girlhood was passed with Anne
of Austria. When Louis XIV. was born the Queen called her _ma fille_.
When Mademoiselle romped with the boy-king, she addressed him as _mon
mari_.
In spite of the long nose of the Bourbons, _la Grande Mademoiselle_,
as she was called, was fairly good looking. She was tall and shapely,
with regular features, a good skin, finely cut blue eyes, pencilled
eyebrows, a large, though well-formed mouth, and good teeth. Flowing
ringlets of light hair framed her face and fell over her rounded
shoulders. She had, moreover, an unmistakable air of command.
Her character may be best described in negatives. She was not a
heroine, although circumstances made her appear one. She understood
politics, but had little capacity for a ruler. She had no fortitude,
although possessing a certain elevation of character that lifted her
above commonplace. She was selfish and cold-hearted, yet capable of
warm attachments. She was ostentatious in the use of her great wealth,
but not charitable. She was blinded by conceit, yet was not wanting in
shrewdness and judgment. She was haughty, yet loved to condescend to
the populace. She was excessively ridiculous, yet affected extreme
dignity. Whatever advantages she possessed were but too well known to
herself. Of her faults—and they were many—she was entirely ignorant.
Placed between two parties, the Queen and the Fronde, she was courted
by both, and grew headstrong and ambitious in consequence. Although
she ardently desired to marry her cousin Louis XIV., she went out of
her way to offend, nay, even to outrage him. Yet unconscious of all
her follies, to the day of her death she firmly believed she was by
wealth, position, and genius raised upon a pedestal which all Europe
contemplated with admiring curiosity. Every crowned bachelor within the
civilised world, according to her, sought her hand in marriage.
After the defeat at Worcester, Charles Stuart escaped to the Continent.
His mother had already fled to France. Poor Henrietta Maria (wrinkled,
and prematurely old, with tear-furrowed cheeks, and dull, hollow eyes,
her fragrant curls, so often painted by Vandyke, grown grey, her
royal carriage bowed by the weight of adversity) lived with her young
daughter Henriette, afterwards Duchesse d'Orléans, sister-in-law of
Louis XIV., at the Louvre, in right of her birth as _Fille de France_.
For a time this Queen of Shadows, the relict of a defunct monarchy,
bore the splendour of her former state. But one by one her ladies in
waiting, grooms of the chamber, maids of honour, footmen, chamberlains,
and pages disappeared. At last she grew too poor even to procure
sufficient fuel to keep out the winter cold. Though living in a palace,
she was glad, with the young princess her daughter, to lie in bed for
the sake of warmth.
Mademoiselle patronised this afflicted relative, and frequently visited
her. But she does not appear to have ministered to her necessities.
Henrietta was resigned, even humble to the exalted princess, her niece;
and dwelt often on the personal charms of her eldest son, Charles
Stuart.
She painted him with a brush dipped in the roseate colours of a
mother's fancy. He was, she said, brave, gallant, handsome, witty,
accomplished. He had splendid black hair, a rich complexion, as of
one much exposed to battles and an adventurous life, and the bearing
of a Paladin. He would be certain to crush his enemies, and sit upon
his father's throne, she told her niece. But the wily heiress, while
she listened to the eager gossip of the broken-hearted Queen, was
preoccupied by a matrimonial intrigue carried on by a certain Abbé de
la Rivière, to make her Empress of Germany.
"I perfectly understood my aunt's drift," she says; "but I liked the
Emperor better."
When Charles Stuart, having escaped almost by a miracle from England,
arrived at Fontainebleau, where the Court was staying, he was presented
to Mademoiselle by his mother. Charles saluted her as a cousin and
a friend, saluted her in dumb show, however, for he could speak no
French. The exiled Queen, therefore (already grasping in anticipation
the revenues of the principalities, dukedoms, forests, and castles of
her wealthy niece), set herself to act interpreter.
Charles Stuart had a melting eye and a manly presence. He dallied with
his cousin, sat beside her when she played, led her to her coach, held
the flambeau while she adjusted her dress, was again found at her
door—having run on in front—to assist her to descend, and generally
ogled, languished, gazed, and sighed, to the very utmost of his power.
But a dumb lover is dull, and love-making by proxy never answers. _La
Grande Mademoiselle_, already in imagination invested with the diadem
of an Empress, did not fancy a prince who was only an exile, and who
could not even plead his own cause. She looked on him as a bore—indeed,
worse than a bore, an object of pity.
The Queen of England tried hard to melt her heart. She even coaxed
her; with her own hands she decked her soft hair with jewels for
her Majesty's ballet. She flattered her into a belief that she was
as beautiful as Venus. She declared that Charles Stuart's heart was
breaking, that his health suffered, that he would die. No mother ever
served a son better than did this poor distracted lady. But there was
her son, with his swarthy, hard face, as strong and hale as an oak
sapling, his wanton black eye wandering over the belles of the French
Court,—a living contradiction to all she said! At last, Charles Stuart,
who cared less for the well-filled purse and boundless dominions of his
cousin than his mother, who knew what it was to be pinched with cold
and hunger, grew impatient, and insisted on an answer. He sent Lord St.
Germains to Mademoiselle to say that he was so passionately in love
with her, he could no longer bear suspense. Mademoiselle replied with
the discretion of a maiden, and the judgment of an heiress, conscious
that she was dealing with a royal fortune-hunter—
"The Prince of Wales did her great honour, but as she understood that
he required much pecuniary assistance to recover the Crown of England,
his birthright, she feared she might find herself overwhelmed with
expenses incompatible with the wants of a person of her exalted rank.
That she must, in consequence, make sacrifices and adopt resolutions
difficult to contemplate. That she might risk the loss of her entire
possessions on the chance of Charles's re-conquering his kingdom;
and that, having been educated in splendour as one of the greatest
princesses in the world, the prospect alarmed her."
Yet there must have been some charm about the hard-featured, stalwart
youth that attracted her; she would not say, "No." In order to throw
down a bait, she hinted that she desired him to change his religion.
"Impossible, madame," was the reply of Lord St. Germains. "A king of
England cannot change his religion. He would exclude himself for ever
from the throne!"
Again, however, Charles was permitted to approach her, and to make a
last attempt. She relished a little mild flirtation with an exiled
King, although she vastly preferred marriage with an Emperor.
Nevertheless, she curled her hair in honour of the occasion, a thing
not usual with her.
"Ah, look at her!" said the Queen-Regent, when she appeared in the
evening: "it is easy to see she is expecting a lover. See!—how she is
decked out!"
Mademoiselle blushed, but was too discreet to commit herself by a
single word.
When Charles Stuart entered the Queen's saloon he looked provokingly
well. His mother, nervously alive to every trifle, felt this. A
man with such a constitution was not adapted to play the part of a
despairing lover. When questioned by the Queen about his affairs in
England, he replied that he knew nothing. Mademoiselle instantly formed
a bad opinion of him. She turned to her lady in waiting, Madame de
Fiesque, and whispered—
"He is too much of a Bourbon for me. Quite engrossed by trifles" (_the
race has not changed_). "He can talk about dogs and horses and the
chase to her Majesty, but he has nothing to say about the revolution in
England."
Later in the evening, at the royal table, Mademoiselle was shocked at
Charles's coarse appetite. He despised ortolans and Italian pastry,
and threw himself upon a joint of beef. Not satisfied with that, he
ended by a shoulder of mutton. "A despairing lover ought not to have
such a monstrous appetite, or he should satisfy the cravings of hunger
beforehand," thought Mademoiselle. He stared fixedly at her, with his
big black eyes shaded by heavy eyebrows, while he was shovelling huge
pieces of meat down his throat, but he never spoke. Truly this was not
a fashion of pushing his suit with a fastidious princess who desired to
be an empress!
Mademoiselle yawned, looked at him under her eyelids, shrugged her
shapely shoulders, and called her lady in waiting to her side to
amuse her. Thus passed the precious moments which were to decide the
momentous question—would she, or would she not?
At length, having gorged in a prodigious manner, Charles Stuart rose.
He made Mademoiselle a formal bow, and opened his mouth to speak for
the first time. "I hope," he said, in very bad French, "my Lord St.
Germains has explained to your highness the sentiments with which you
have inspired me. I am, madame, your very humble servant."
Mademoiselle rose to her feet, made him a formal curtsey, and replied,
"Sir, I am your very humble servant."
So ended this wooing; but poor Henrietta Maria, figuratively rending
her clothes and sprinkling ashes on her head at such a conclusion,
could not let Mademoiselle off without one Parthian shot. "I see,"
said she, "my son is too poor and too unfortunate for you, my niece.
It is quite possible, however, that a king of eighteen may be better
worth having than an elderly emperor with four children." This little
ebullition of spite is pardonable in an unfortunate Queen whose heart
was broken. Let it not lie heavy on her memory!
Meanwhile, the struggle between the Queen-Regent and her ministers
on one side, and the parliament and Gondi on the other, had become
more and more envenomed. At length the Queen-Regent, under advice of
Mazarin, resolved by a _coup d'état_ to restore the royal authority.
It is Twelfth-night. Anne of Austria is spending the evening in her
closet, watching the King and his brother, the Duc d'Anjou—both dressed
in character—struggle on the floor over the remains of the cake from
which they had dug the "bean" and the "ring." Louis XIV. is a handsome
boy, docile yet spirited; Philip of Anjou is puny, peevish, and
cowardly.
Anne of Austria leans against the back of a chair, and watches the two
boys. Her ladies watch her. There is a strange rumour that her Majesty
is to leave Paris that very night. To look into her placid face, such
an idea seems absurd. By-and-by, Mazarin and some of the princes of the
blood come in to ask her pleasure for the morrow. They do not remain,
as there is a supper at the Maréchal de Grammont's in honour of the
day. When they are gone, the Queen turns to Madame de la Trémouille.
"I shall go to-morrow to the Val de Grâce. Give orders that everything
may be ready for me. Call Beringhen; it is time for his Majesty and the
Duke to go to bed."
The King at once comes forward to bid his mother good night. The Duke
begins to cry.
"What is it, my son?" says the Queen.
"I want, Madame, to go with you to the Val de Grâce to-morrow—do let
me!" and he kneels and kisses her hand.
"If I go, my son, I promise to take you. Now, good night, Philip," and
she raises him in her arms, and kisses him; "do not keep his Majesty
waiting."
She retires early. Those ladies who do not sleep at the Palais Royal
leave, and the gates are closed.
At three o'clock in the morning, Mademoiselle de Montpensier, at the
Palace of the Luxembourg, is awakened by a violent knocking. She rouses
her women, and orders them to see who is there. It is a messenger from
the Queen.
"Let him enter," says Mademoiselle, speaking from her bed. It is well
to say that Mademoiselle was entirely concealed by heavy curtains, and
that the bed stood in a deep alcove.
"The Captain of the Queen's Guard awaits your highness's pleasure,"
calls out Monsieur de Comminges, from the door.
"What has brought you here at this time of night, Comminges?" asks
Mademoiselle from her bed.
"Your Highness, the Court is leaving Paris secretly. Her Majesty
commands your attendance. Here is a letter which will explain the
Queen's wishes.
"Monsieur de Comminges," replies Mademoiselle,—who at that time
had not conceived the possibility of being one of the _à la mode_
leaders of the Fronde, and pointing the guns of the Bastille against
her cousin, the King—putting the letter under her pillow, "the
commands of her Majesty are sufficient for me. I need no letter to
enforce them. Retire, Monsieur le Capitaine, into the anteroom. I
will rise instantly, and accompany you. But tell me, Monsieur de
Comminges,"—calling after him—"where are we to go to?"
"To Saint-Germain en Laye, your highness."
In a short time Mademoiselle is ready. Without waiting for her women,
or what she calls her "equipage" (which she desired to have sent after
her), she goes out into the night accompanied by Monsieur de Comminges,
whose coach waits without. It was pitch dark, but with the help of a
flambeau they traverse the unpaved and ill-lit streets, and reach the
garden entrance of the Palais Royal without accident. There they find
another coach drawn up under some trees. Within sits Anne of Austria;
the two princes are each in a corner—Louis XIV. very sleepy and cross,
the Duc d'Anjou crying. Mademoiselle is instantly transferred into the
royal coach.
"Are you frightened, my cousin?" asks the Queen, speaking out of the
darkness to Mademoiselle.
"Not in the least, Madame," is her reply. "I will follow your Majesty
anywhere," and she takes her place opposite to her in the coach.
It is a long and weary drive to Saint-Germain. When they arrive it
is breakfast time. But the Queen commands every creature, including
her children, into the chapel to hear mass. As soon as they had time
to look round, they find the palace (a dreary, gaunt edifice at all
times) cold and wretched beyond description in a dark January morning.
The rooms are entirely empty—Mazarin having made no provision for the
Queen's arrival, out of fear, perhaps, that her flight might become
known. There are neither beds, furniture, nor linen. There is not a
servant or attendant of any kind but such as have accompanied them.
When it is night the Queen lies down to rest on a little camp bedstead.
The King and his brother fare no better. Mademoiselle is accommodated
with a straw mattress in a magnificent saloon on the third floor. There
were plenty of mirrors and much gilding, and the windows were lofty,
and commanded an extensive view, but there is not a single pane of
glass in one of them! No one has a change of linen. What was worn by
night was washed by day. The Queen laughs at everything. She says—"It
is an escapade which will at most last three days; when the citizens
find that the Court has left the Palais Royal they will speedily come
to their senses."