Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/731

Rh of the celebrated Madame de Rambouillet, whose hotel, as the rendezvous of wit, learning, and politeness, was celebrated all over Europe. A sort of romantic adoration was paid to the mother and four daughters, whose minds were highly cultivated, and who presided in this scene of elegance and innocent gaiety.

The beautiful Julia, after a long courtship, married the Duke de Montausier, in 1745. She survived him, and became governess to the Dauphin, and lady of honour to the queen of Lewis XIV.

Burnet observes, that she lived the longest, on the most public scene, and made the greatest figure in all the revolutions of these kingdoms for above fifty years, of any woman of that age. That she employed it all in doing good to others, in which she laid out her time, her interest, and her estate, with the greatest zeal, and the most success, that he had ever known. She was indefatigable, as well as dexterous in it; and as her great understanding, and the vast esteem she was in, made all persons in their turns of fortune, desire and value her; so she gave herself a clear title to employ her interest with them, for the service of others, because she never made use of it to any end or design of