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"Presently, Molina." "Let us leave the queen alone," added the Spanish attendant. Madame de Motteville rose; large tears were rolling down the queen's pallid face; and Molina, having observed this sign of weakness, fixed her black vigilant eyes upon her. "Yes, yes," replied the queen. "Leave us, Motteville; go."
The old people got out at Motteville with their basket, their ducks and their umbrella, and they heard the woman say to her husband as they went away: "They are no good and are off to that cursed place, Paris."
Thus, in April, 1652, when he returned to Paris with Condé, and there found Madame de Châtillon, he entered at once into all her prejudices and all her designs, as he afterwards owned to Madame de Motteville: he placed at her service all that was in him of skill and ability, and descended to the indulgence of a revenge against Madame de Longueville wholly unworthy of an honourable man, and which after the lapse of two centuries is as revolting to every right-minded person as it was to his contemporaries.
Emily, less surprised by her aunt's moderation and mysterious silence, than by the accusation she had received, deeply considered the latter, and scarcely doubted, that it was Valancourt whom she had seen at night in the gardens of La Vallee, and that he had been observed there by Madame Cheron; who now passing from one painful topic only to revive another almost equally so, spoke of the situation of her niece's property, in the hands of M. Motteville.
He conducted himself with so much haughtiness and arrogance, that the young nobles who surrounded the soldier prince, when they wished to flatter him, spoke of Mazarin as his slave. Motteville, mém. t. xxxix. p. 4. Guy-Joly. The process went on nevertheless.
"This barbarous princess," says Madame de Motteville, "after so cruel an action as that, remained in her room laughing and chatting as easily as if she had done something of no consequence or very praiseworthy. The queen-mother, a perfect Christian, who had met with so many enemies whom she might have punished, but who had received from her nothing but marks of kindness, was scandalized by it.
There is a spice of flattery in this, for we must agree with Madame de Motteville and M. Cousin that the wit of the dazzling rival of Madame de Longueville was far from being as delicate and attractive as was her handsome person, though we cannot at the same time look upon Tallemant's phrase as a calumny.
Mad. de Motteville, vol. ii. p. 17. Such being the sordid motives of her wooer, the oft-repeated lines, therefore, which he wrote with his own hand behind a portrait of the Duchess must be construed with a considerable abatement of their poetic ardour: "Pour meriter son coeur, pour plaire
Again, it was remarked that the queen-mother, fixing a long and thoughtful gaze upon Buckingham, leaned towards Madame de Motteville as though to ask her, "Do you not see how much he resembles his father?" and finally it was remarked that Monsieur watched everybody, and seemed quite discontented.
In short, it is certain, and we have hereupon the irrefragable testimony of Madame de Motteville, that when the Queen had succeeded in gaining over Condé, she caused Madame de Chevreuse to be informed "that she desired that such marriage should not take place, because it had been concerted for objects inimical to the royal interests.
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