The Kings' Mistresses by Elizabeth Goldsmith

Author:Elizabeth Goldsmith [Goldsmith, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Published: 2012-03-05T08:00:00+00:00

. . . Please believe that I would never forgive myself if by caprice or by carelessness I had cleared the path for my sister to distance herself from you. Terror, or what I think was panic, based on counsel indiscreetly given and repeated many times, were the only counselors of this disappearance. My only part was keeping the secret. I believed that it would be a violation of good faith and intimacy to reveal it, and although in my own mind I give no credence to the subject that caused our departure, I did not want to oppose it, out of scruple and delicacy of friendship, preferring to risk my repose, my pleasure, and my wealth (the King wants to withdraw my pension for having followed her) rather than see her leave alone. I did not follow her to Lys, not finding security there. I retired to Chambéry, having for all company only the trees of a garden of the castle. They seem more agreeable than a forced religion. I wait patiently for Monsieur Mazarin to be reasonable enough to draw me away, by granting me some very just conditions of which I would make very good use.3

In letters to Paris, Hortense turned to repairing any further damage she had done to her reputation at court. Working against her, of course, were the gazettes and private letters that were now freely circulating and inventing anecdotes about the runaway sisters. Even her other sisters, Olympe and Marianne, were restrained in their expressions of support. They busied themselves with visiting Marie in Lys and with writing condolence letters to their two abandoned brothers-in-law, holding out the hope of reconciliation. Soon after Hortense had left Rome, Louis had ceded to the demands of her husband that all monies sent to his wife be administered through him—a disaster for Hortense. She wrote in September to Louis from Chambéry, pleading with him to reverse his decision: “I beseech you, Sire, do not reduce me to the extremity of not knowing which way to turn. It is a matter of indifference to you that M. Mazarin have 24,000 additional livres of income, but to give that to me would prevent me from being the most unhappy woman in the world.”4

Astonishingly, Louis agreed, and a grateful Hortense continued for a time to adhere to a new life of prudence and solitude. When in the spring of 1673 Marie came to Chambéry to see her, Hortense disappeared for two days in the country. Marie, hurt, understood that her sister was no longer willing to risk sharing the same path with her: “her affection had given way to circumspection and politic caution, and she hid from me for fear of being drawn into supporting my intentions.”5 But as the weather warmed and spring air penetrated the cold stone walls of the duke’s castle, Hortense began to tire of her retired life and started to welcome the local nobility who had been soliciting her company. She began to accept

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