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Thus Françoise d'Aubigné was thrown once more on a cold world, with nothing between her and starvation but Scarron's small pension, which the Queen-mother continued to his widow, and compelled to seek a cheap refuge within convent walls. She had however good-looks which might stand her in good stead. She was tall, with an imposing figure and a natural dignity of carriage.
Marriage with this joyous and learned cripple appeared to her the greatest and most unlooked-for good fortune; and folks who were, perhaps, more in want of a wife than he, persuaded him to marry her, and thus raise this charming unfortunate from her misery. The marriage being brought about, the new spouse pleased the company which went to Scarron's house.
Françoise left the convent, and joined her mother only in time to see her sink in sorrow to the grave. She was thus left, at fourteen years of age, in utter destitution, dependent upon charity for support. Beauty and intelligence of Françoise Françoise d'Aubigné and the poet Scarron. Scarron's proposal of marriage. Marriage of Françoise d'Aubigné. Becomes a governess. Elevation of Madame Scarron.
Marriage with this joyous and learned cripple appeared to her the greatest and most unlooked-for good fortune; and folks who were, perhaps, more in want of a wife than he, persuaded him to marry her, and thus raise this charming unfortunate from her misery. The marriage being brought about, the new spouse pleased the company which went to Scarron's house.
Between Marly and Ruel, two mounted police officers, in pursuit of a nun who had escaped from a convent, bethought themselves of looking inside Madame Scarron's carriage. Such inquisitiveness surprised her, and she put on her mask, and drew down the blinds.
Madame de Maintenon, for a brief time in her first youth a Calvinist, cherished always in the bottom of her heart a good share of those suspicions that Calvin's doctrine is careful to inspire against the Jesuits. On the other hand, she retained amongst the Parliament a large number of friends whom she had known formerly at M. Scarron's, the son of a counsellor of the chamber.
And she thus translated to dizzy heights kept a head as cool and a demeanour as modest as when she was "Scarron's widow," the convent protégée. For power and splendour she cared no whit. Her ambition now, as always, was to be loved for herself, to "play a beautiful part in the world," and to deserve the respect of all good men.
Tucked in corners, too, were books in that quaint pocket edition of the Bibliothèque Nationale: Rabelais, in five volumes, Beaumarchais' Memoirs, Rousseau, Scarron's Travesty of Virgil and that extraordinary work of genius, The Maxims of La Rochefoucauld.
Between Marly and Ruel, two mounted police officers, in pursuit of a nun who had escaped from a convent, bethought themselves of looking inside Madame Scarron's carriage. Such inquisitiveness surprised her, and she put on her mask, and drew down the blinds.
Madame Scarron's domestics included two nurses, a waiting-maid, a physician, a courier, two footmen, a coachman, a postilion, and two cooks. Being provided with an excellent coach, she came to Saint Germain every week, to bring me my son, or else news of his welfare. Her habitually sad expression somewhat pained the King.
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