Henri II: His Court and Times by H Noel Williams

Author:H Noel Williams
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Linda Ellis
Published: 2015-01-22T00:00:00+00:00

The King inquired who had been the intermediary between his brother and Philip. "Madame d'Étampes and the Comtesse Arenberg,"04 replied Saint-André, "who, under the pretext of the marriage, maintained a correspondence and were, so to speak, the bankers of these two princes." And he promised that that very day he would show the King the cypher which they had employed in this correspondence, and which he had obtained from one of the late duke's secretaries named Clairefontaine. He added that Orléans had promised to make Madame d'Étampes, who had made a will in his favour, Governess of the Netherlands, in the event of his marrying the Infanta. "If," observed he, laughing, "M. d'Orléans were still alive, the Duc d'Étampes would not now be holding his wife a prisoner, and you, Sire, would not have taken from her those diamonds worth 50,000 écus, so celebrated all over France, since the Emperor's daughter would be wearing them."

"By these and similar arguments," writes Carloix, who has probably drawn upon his imagination a little freely in recording the above conversation, though its substance is no doubt true enough, "Saint-André and Vieilleville, who were called two fingers of his hand, consoled their master and dissipated his grief so effectually that he resumed his place and looked without flinching at the three effigies as they passed by. But when that of the Duc d'Orléans, which was the first, passed, he was unable to refrain from observing, as if in disdain, 'See, there is the nonentity who leads the advance-guard of my felicity!' making allusion to the three cars, which represented the advance- and rear-guard of a battle."

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