Of these nymphs, two--Isabelle de Boutteville and Marthe du Vigean--were destined to figure very prominently in the life of the Great Condé. They presented a singular contrast. Isabelle de Boutteville, who, under the name of the Duchesse de Châtillon, was to achieve celebrity as the most finished coquette of her time, was an imperious young beauty, who already appreciated to the full the power of her own attractions. Insatiable for admiration, she disdained no conquests, encouraging and rebuffing by turns the troop of adorers who gathered about her, and rehearsing thus early with the Duc d’Enghien and the younger of the two boys who were to bear the title of Duc de Nemours the part she was one day to play with them on another stage. None of the young beauties of Chantilly, with the exception of Mlle. de Bourbon, inspired the poets who foregathered there to celebrate their charms and deplore their coldness more often than she. Among a multitude of verses of more or less merit, composed in her honour, may be mentioned those of the poet Charpy, wherein he draws an ingenious comparison between the destruction wrought by the sword of his father, the notorious duellist, and the havoc created by the _beaux yeux_ of Isabelle: “Quand je vois de rapport de votre père à vous, Divinité mortelle, adorable Sylvie! Il tenait dans ses mains et la mort et la vie: Vos yeux se sont acquis les mêmes sur nous.” Marthe du Vigean was a very different kind of girl. Modest and gentle, she hardly seemed to be aware of the admiration which she aroused: “Sans savoir ce que c’est qu’amour Ses beaux yeux le mettent au jour, Et partout elle le fait naître Sans le connoître,” wrote Voiture. Unfortunately, no portrait of her, either painted or engraved, has been preserved, nor have we any detailed description of her among the writings of her contemporaries which can supply its place. But her beauty would appear to have been of a peculiarly appealing type, the reflection of a character gentle, pure and unselfish. In love, it is said, people are most frequently attracted by those who least resemble them. However that may be, the haughty, vain, egotistical young Duc d’Enghien, for a moment subjugated by the more dazzling charms of Isabelle de Boutteville, to whose yoke he will return in years to come, speedily transferred his affections to this gentle, retiring maiden, for whom he conceived the one great and pure passion of his stormy life. The girl reciprocated his affections, and loved him with an intensity of devotion which never wavered for a moment to her life’s end. To her, this young prince, with his eagle glance and his fiery courage, was a veritable hero of romance, a seventeenth-century Bayard, “_sans peur et sans reproche_.”