ANNE MARIE LOUISE D'ORLEANS, Duchess de Montpensier, whom history distinguishes by the epithet of _La Grande Mademoiselle_, after telling us in her memoirs, at least twenty times, in order to make herself better known, that she was fond of glory, adds--"The Bourbons are folks very much addicted to trifles, with very little solidity about them; perhaps I myself as well as the rest may inherit the same qualities from father and mother."[6] With this hint, whoever scans her portrait may readily read the character her features reveal:--a mind false to the service of a noble and generous heart; an honest but frivolous mind, too often swayed, by a bombastic heroism; a _precieuse_ of the Hotel Rambouillet, whom Nicolas Poilly very happily painted as Pallas, with her helmet proudly perched upon the summit of her fair tresses; an amazon, who bordered upon the adventuress, and, notwithstanding, remained the princess; in short, a personage at whom one cannot help laughing heartily, nor at the same time help admiring. [6] The daughter of Gaston d'Orleans and the charming Marie de Bourbon, she was born in 1627, the same year as Bossuet and Mad. de Sevigne. Her mother died five days after her birth. Passing by the subject of her numerous matrimonial projects, we hasten on to the commencement of her political--and perhaps we may add her military[7]--career, when, in January, 1652, a treaty had been concluded between _Monsieur_ her father, Conde, and the Duke de Lorraine, the Duchess d'Orleans had signed in her brother's name, and the Count de Fiesque in the name of Conde. On her part, Mademoiselle, somewhat fantastic but loyal and courageous, had joined her mother-in-law, and declared for the Fronde, partly through her liking for _eclat_ and the notoriety of parading at the head of the troops, with her two ladies of honour, the Countesses of Fiesque and Frontenac, transformed into aides-de-camp; partly by the secret hope that by Mazarin's defeat and her father's triumph she might succeed in espousing the young King, and so exchange the helmet of the Fronde for the crown of France. [7] Her father, writing to her companions in arms the Countesses of Fiesque and Frontenac shortly after their entrance into Orleans, complimented them upon their courage, and addressed his letter to _the Countesses Adjutant-Generals in the Army of my Daughter against Mazarin_.