Unendurable, too, was the sight of her to her unnatural mother, and she importuned her husband until he consented that the girl should leave the house and be placed in a convent, while awaiting the appearance on the scene of an eligible suitor. Several gentlemen who answered more or less to this description speedily presented themselves, and, after some hesitation, M. de Pléneuf decided in favour of the Marquis de Prie. The marquis was twenty-five years older than Agnès and, though he was the possessor of large estates, they were either so unproductive or so heavily mortgaged that they brought him in next to nothing. But he was a member of a very ancient House, connected with several of the most illustrious families in France, was governor of Bourbon-Lancy, colonel of the cavalry regiment which bore his name, held the rank of brigadier-general in the Army, and, finally, was one of the godfathers of the heir to the throne. This last honour, which he owed to his good fortune in happening to be with his aunt the Duchesse de Ventadour, _gouvernante_ to the Duc d’Anjou, in Louis XIV.’s cabinet, at the moment when the infant prince was brought thither for his Majesty’s inspection, seems to have had great weight with M. de Pléneuf, who was intoxicated with the idea of an alliance with the godfather of his future King. As for the marquis, it is probable that M. de Pléneuf’s money-bags constituted a far more potent attraction for him than the _beaux yeux_ of his lovely daughter. He was not only poor, but ambitious, and, now that the approach of peace threatened to put an end to his hopes of military distinction, he had decided to embark upon a diplomatic career, and aspired to an embassy, for which, of course, the possession of a long purse was an indispensable qualification. The preliminaries were soon concluded, and on 27 December, 1713, Agnès Berthelot de Pléneuf became the Marquise de Prie. Taken to Versailles by the Duchesse de Ventadour, to be presented to Louis XIV., she astonished all the Court by her dazzling beauty and her precocious airs of a woman of the world; and even those who had been inclined to condemn M. de Prie for having contracted a _mésalliance_ were obliged to admit that he had married a wife of whom any man might be proud. Almost immediately after his marriage, the marquis was nominated Ambassador to the King of Sardinia, and set out for Turin, whither, after a short interval, his wife followed him.