Montpensier, Anne-Marie-Louise d'Orléans, duchesse de, 1627-1693
Saujon travelled to Germany to bring about the marriage. No one had
ever heard of a royal or a quasi-royal alliance negotiated by a private
individual, but Saujon boldly entered upon his mission. Incidentally
he revised Mademoiselle's despatches; adding and eliminating sentences
according to his own idea of the exigencies of the case. One of his
letters was intercepted and he was arrested and cast into prison. It
was rumoured that he had made an attempt to abduct the Princess so that
she might marry the Archduke Leopold.
At first Mademoiselle laughed at the rumours. She declared that people
knew her too well to think that she could do anything so ridiculous.
Mazarin cross-questioned Saujon,--and no one knew better than he how to
conduct an inquest,--but turn his victim as he might the Cardinal could
not wring from Saujon anything but the truth. Saujon insisted that
Mademoiselle had not known anything concerning the intercepted letter.
Anne of Austria, seconded by Monsieur, feigned to take the affair
seriously, and a violent scene ensued.
One evening (May 6, 1648, according to d'Ormesson) the Abbé de la
Rivière met Mademoiselle in the corridor of the Palais Royal, and
casually informed her that the Queen and Monsieur were angry. Almost at
the same instant Monsieur issued from the room adjoining the corridor
and ordered his daughter to enter the Queen's room.
Then [said Mademoiselle] I went into the Queen's gallery. Mlle.
de Guise, who was with me, would have followed me, but Monsieur
furiously shut the door in her face. Had not my mind been free from
all remorse I should have been frightened, but I knew that I was
innocent, and I advanced toward the Queen, who greeted me angrily.
She said to the Cardinal: "We must wait until her father comes; he
must hear it!" I went to the window, which was higher than the rest
of the gallery, and I listened with all the pride possible to one
who feels that her cause is just. When Monsieur arrived the Queen
said to me sharply: "Your father and I know all about your dealings
with Saujon. We know all your plans!" I answered that I did not
know to what plans she had reference, and that I was somewhat
curious to know what her Majesty meant.
Anne of Austria was angry, and her shrill falsetto conveyed an
impression of vulgarity. Mademoiselle, calmly contemptuous, on foot and
very erect, stood in the embrasure of the long window; Monsieur, who
dreaded his daughter's anger, had drawn close to the Queen; directly
behind Monsieur was Mazarin, visibly amused.
Mademoiselle listened to her accusers, and answered with a sneer that
she had nothing to do with it, that she was not interested in it, that
such a scheme was worthy of low people.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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