Page:Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin.djvu/134

120 We have recounted this quarrel in detail elsewhere, and both ladies are known to the reader. Let us only observe that the Duchess de Montbazon, by her marriage with the father of Madame de Chevreuse, found herself the mother-in-law of Marie de Rohan, although younger than she, that the Duke de Beaufort was publicly a sort of attending cavalier to her, that the Duke de Guise paid her a very welcome court, and that she was thus allied on all sides to the Importants. Among her numerous lovers, she had counted the Duke de Longueville, whom she would gladly have retained, but who had just escaped her by espousing Mademoiselle de Bourbon. This marriage had greatly irritated the vain and selfish duchess; she detested Madame de Longueville, and blindly seized the first occasion which presented itself of carrying trouble into this new household. One evening, in her salon of the Rue de Béthizy or the Rue Barbette, she picked up one or two letters in a woman's hand which some imprudent person had just let fall. With these she amused the whole company. The meaning of these letters was but too clear, and efforts were made to discover the author. The Duchess de Montbazon dared to attribute them to Madame de Longueville. This scandalous rumor spread rapidly, and the indignation of the hôtel de Condé may be imagined. Madame the Princess loudly demanded justice of the queen; and a reparation was exacted and agreed upon. The Duchess de Montbazon, forced to consent, apologized, but with a bad grace. A few days after, the queen having gone with Madame the Princess to the garden of Renard to a collation given her by Madame de Chevreuse, she found Madame de Montbazon there, and, when she entreated her to find some pretext for retiring in order to avoid a rencontre with Madame the Princess, the insolent duchess refused to obey. This offence, offered to the queen herself, could not remain unpunished, and the next day Madame de Montbazon