Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/815

Rh without friends or money, and deprived of every means of support, by the unfortunate death of the lady abbess.

At length, through the recommendations of the Abbé de Vertot and M. Brunel, she was appointed to be waiting maid to the Duchess du Maine, a princess of the blood royal. But finding herself unable to discharge the servile duties of that office, she was again reduced to extreme poverty; and perhaps would never have experienced a better fate, but for the following accident.

A young girl, named Tetard, by the persuasions of her mother, counterfeited being possessed. All Paris went to see her, and nothing else was talked of but this pretended demoniac. It was on this occasion that Mademoiselle de Launai wrote a letter to M. Fontenelle, which contained such good sense, such shrewd observations, and was written in so elegant a stile, that Fontenelle shewed it to many persons of the first condition, among whom was the Duchess du Maine; who, recollecting that the writer of it had served her in the capacity of a waiting-maid, immediately sent for her, and lamented that she had not been acquainted with her extraordinary merit before. The duchess, who was a patron of genius, was delighted to have near her a woman of spirit and taste. She gave magnificent fetes at Sceaux (a seat of the Duchess); Mademoiselle de Launai planned them in future, and thus had a field to exert her taste and genius in, and even her literary talents, as she wrote verses for some of the theatrical pieces, by which she gained great applause; and by her modesty, prudence and judgment, soon acquired the esteem and confidence of the duchess, and was admired and respected by the whole court. But at length, being involved in the troubles and disgrace of her mistress, under the regency of the Duke of Orleans, she was confined two