An account contained in the collection of “Celebrated Causes” decided in
the French Courts of Law, is given of a case in the reign of Louis the
Fourteenth, which made a very great noise. The case referred to is the
flagellation that was served by the Marchioness de Tresnel on the Dame
or Lady of Liancourt, a fact which by all means deserves a place in this
volume, as being in itself an extremely illustrious instance of
flagellation. Indeed, one advantage the author is proud of, which is,
that he has inserted nothing vulgar in this book, nothing but what is
worthy of taste and sentiment.
The story is as follows. The Lady of Liancourt was originally born of
parents in middling circumstances. Having had the good luck to marry a
rich merchant, she had address enough to prevail upon him to bequeath to
her at his death—which happened a few years after their marriage—the
bulk of his fortune; and being now a rich handsome widow, she married
the Sieur or Lord of Liancourt, a man of birth, whose fortune was
somewhat impaired by his former expensive way of living. The Lady of
Liancourt used to reside during the summer at the castle or estate of
her husband, near the town of Chaumont, and in the same neighbourhood
was situated the estate of the Marquis of Tresnel. The manner of living
of the Lady of Liancourt, together with the reputation of her wit and
beauty, excited the jealousy of the Marchioness of Tresnel, who, on
account of her birth, considered herself as being greatly superior to
the other; and a strong competition soon took place between the two
ladies, which became manifested in several places in a remarkable
manner, especially at church, where the Marchioness once went so far as
violently to push the other lady from her seat. The Lady of Liancourt,
on the other hand, was said to have written a copy of verses against the
Marchioness; and, in short, matters were carried to such lengths between
them, that the Marchioness resolved to damp at once the pretentions of
her rival, and for that purpose applied to that effectual mode of
correction which, as hath been seen in the course of this book, so many
great and celebrated personages have undergone, namely, a flagellation.
Having well laid her scheme in that respect, and resolved that her rival
should undergo the correction not by proxy, like King Henry the Fourth,
but in her own person,—the Marchioness, one day she knew the Lady of
Liancourt was to visit at a castle a few miles distant from her own, got
into her coach and six, accompanied by four men behind and three armed
servants on horseback; and care had been previously taken to lay in a
stock of good disciplines, which were placed in the coach-box. Having
arrived too late at the place on the highway at which she proposed to
meet her antagonist, the Marchioness alighted at the house of the Curate
of the parish in order to wait for her return, and stayed there under
some pretence, several hours, till at last a servant who had been on the
watch, came in haste and brought tidings that the Lady Liancourt’s coach
was in sight. The Marchioness thereupon got into her coach with the
utmost speed, and arrived just in time to throw herself across the way
and stop the other lady; when the servants, who had been properly
directed beforehand, without loss of time took the latter out of the
coach, immediately proceeding to execute the orders they had received;
and from the complaint afterwards preferred by the suffering lady, it
really seems that they endeavoured to discharge their duty in such a
manner as might convince their mistress of their zeal in serving her.
The affair soon made a great noise, and the King, who heard it,
immediately sent express orders to the husbands of the ladies to take no
share in the quarrel. The Lady of Liancourt applied to the ordinary
course of law and brought a criminal action against the Marchioness
before the Parliament of Paris; the consequence of which was that the
latter was condemned to ask her pardon in the open Court upon her knees,
and to pay her about two hundred pounds damages, besides being banished
from the whole extent of the jurisdiction of the Parliament. The
servants, who are generally very severely dealt with in France when they
suffer themselves to become the instruments of the violence of their
masters, were sent to the Galleys.