[231] Françoise Bertaut, Dame de Motteville, was the daughter of Pierre Bertaut, Gentleman in ordinary of the Bedchamber, and of Louise Bessin de Mathonville, of the Spanish family of Saldaña. At the age of fifteen she married Nicolas Langlois, Seigneur de Motteville, a man already advanced in years, but with whom she lived happy until 1641, when she was left a widow with a very slender jointure. Two years subsequently, at the age of twenty-two, she entered the household of Anne of Austria, rather as a personal friend than as an official attendant; a post which she retained for many years with honour, her sweetness of disposition and total absence of ambition causing her to be respected by all parties. She was present at the death of her royal mistress, who, by a bequest of ten thousand crowns, enabled her to quit the Court, and to devote her whole attention to the revision of her well-known Memoirs. Intimately acquainted with Mesdames de la Fayette and de Sévigné, she for some time maintained a constant intercourse with both; but on the termination of her self-imposed task she retired to the convent of Ste. Marie de Chaillot, where she died on the 29th of December 1689. [232] Motteville, _Mém_, édition Petitot, vol. i. pp. 336, 337. [233] Motteville, _Mém_. vol. i. p. 337. [234] Mézeray, vol. xi. pp. iii, 112. Sismondi, vol. xxii. p. 365. [235] Matthieu, _Hist. des Derniers Troubles_, book iii. p. 577. [236] Bassompierre, _Mém_. pp. 113, 114. [237] The Maréchal d'Ancre had formed a large establishment by engaging in his service a number of impoverished French nobles, whose necessities had induced them to accept a thousand livres a year, and to submit to the insults which were heaped upon them by their low-born patron. [238] Bassompierre. _Mém_. p. 114. D'Estrées, _Mém_. p. 413. Richelieu, _Hist. de la Mère et du Fils_, vol. ii. p. 57. [239] Rohan, _Mém_. p. 141. [240] Le Vassor, vol. i. p. 514. [241] Sismondi, vol. xxii. p. 371, 372. D'Estrées, _Mém_. p. 412. Bassompierre, _Mém_. p. 114. Mézeray, vol. xi. pp. 113, 114. [242] Bassompierre, _Mém_. pp. 121, 122. [243] Richelieu, _Mém_. book vii. p. 333. Fontenay-Mareuil, pp. 338-358. [244] Richelieu, _Mém_. book vii. p. 326. [245] Sismondi, vol. xxii. p. 374. [246] Ponce de Lauzière, Marquis de Thémines, Sénéchal de Quercy, and subsequently Maréchal de France. [247] Bassompierre, _Mém_. p. 117. [248] Sismondi, vol. xxii. pp. 375, 376. [249] Le Vassor, vol. i. pp. 541, 542. _Mém. de la Régence de Marie de Medicis_. [250] On Twelfth-Night in France a bean is introduced into the cake, and the person selecting the slice in which it has been concealed is elected King for the evening. [251] Bassompierre, _Mém_. p. 117. [252] Rohan, _Mém_. p. 141. Fontenay-Mareuil, p. 350. D'Estrées, p. 414. Le Vassor, vol. i. pp. 542, 543. Brienne, _Mém_. vol. i. pp. 315, 316. [253] Manuscript Memoirs of the Cardinal de Richelieu in the archives of the Minister for Foreign Affairs.