There had been a time in which this fashion of ignoring rank would have excited the indignation of Mademoiselle; but this time was far distant, farther than she herself realised. In 1667 she had cried very loud because her second sister, Mademoiselle d'Alencon, had made a _mesalliance_ in marrying a simple seigneur, the Duc de Guise, and she had looked very gloomily at the pair. The time had passed for such pride, as the poor woman was herself ready for a worse _mesalliance_. Her patience was at an end. Her agitation while Louis XIV. was attempting marriage negotiations with the Duc de Savoie must not be forgotten. No prince had thought of her since this affront. She was considered too old. She would not confess this to be the case, but she felt it, and a tempest gathered in the depths of her heart. The storm burst in 1669. It is impossible to say in what measure nature alone was responsible, and what was due to the atmosphere of moral disorder and voluptuousness which Mademoiselle was now inhaling at the Court in the frequent companionship of the favourite. One thing is certain, the Grande Mademoiselle did not try to struggle against the passion which seized her; her attitude was rather that of a person who sought its sway. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 163: The Mlles. de Nemours were daughters of Elisabeth de Vendome, sister of the Duc de Beaufort, and of Henri de Savoie, Duc de Nemours, who was killed in a duel by his brother-in-law (July 30, 1652). The younger sister married Alphonse VI. June 28, 1666.] [Footnote 164: Claude Le Pelletier, then President of Inquests. After, he was Minister of State and Controller-General of Finances.] [Footnote 165: Mlle. d'Alencon, the second of the half-sisters of Mademoiselle.] [Footnote 166: _Archives de Chantilly._] [Footnote 167: _[OE]uvres de Louis XIV. Lettres particulieres_, Paris, 1806.] [Footnote 168: _L'ambassadeur de la Fuente au roi d'Espagne_; Paris, January 27, 1664. (_Archives de la Bastile._) The Princesse de Savoie refused by Louis XIV; had decided to marry the Duc de Parma.] [Footnote 169: _Memoires de Mme. de Motteville._] [Footnote 170: The Archbishop of Embrun to Father Brienne; Turin Aug. 1, 1659.] [Footnote 171: La Fontaine: _La Fille_, fable, published for the first time in the edition 1679.] [Footnote 172: Marie-Jeanne-Baptiste de Nemours married Charles Emmanuel II., May 11, 1665.] [Footnote 173: And not Madame Henriette, as has been said in error.] [Footnote 174: Bethleem was a suburb of Clamecy.] [Footnote 175: Mme. de La Fayette, _Histoire de Madame Henriette_.] [Footnote 176: _Memoires de Mme. de Motteville._] [Footnote 177: See Raoul Allier, _La Cabale des Devots_.] [Footnote 178: Lenten sermons for the year 1662.] [Footnote 179: Letter of March 29, 1680.] [Footnote 180: _Archives de la Bastille_, by Francois Ravaisson, vols. iv., v., and vi., _passim_.] [Footnote 181: See the review of the play in _Moliere_ of the _Grands Ecrivains de la France_ (Hachette).]