FOOTNOTES:
[96] Madame de Pailly was the daughter of Captain de Malvieu, of the Swiss guards; her family came from Berne, but her father’s rank keeping him in France, she had been brought up there, and while still very young had married M. de Pailly, a Swiss officer, also in the French service. Her husband took his pension and returned to Lausanne; Madame de Pailly often went to see him there, but she continued to reside in Paris, and was, in fact, completely separated from him after the year 1762. For more details see Memoirs of Mirabeau, by Lucas de Montigny; The Comtesse de Rochefort and her Friends, by Louis de Loménie.
[97] The Princesse de Luxembourg, born de Bethisy, was a sister of the Princesse de Rohan-Montauban, mother of the Comtesse de Brionne.
[98] The Marquis was ill, and very much taken up trying to obtain an order for the imprisonment of his son at the Bastille.
[99] The Abbé Baudeau, who thoroughly understood the Bishop’s character, having been attached to his service in 1772, during his first stay in Paris.
[100] Prince Frédéric de Salm.
[101] Prince Massalski, Grand General of Lithuania.
[102] The beauty of the Comtesse de Brionne was famous. The Duchesse de Villeray, in sending her a netting needle, addressed to her the following lines:—
“L’emblême frappe ici vos yeux.
Si les grâces, l’amour et l’amitié parfaite
Peuvent jamais former des nœuds,
Vous devez tenir la navette.”
An emblem here meets your gaze, If grace, love, and perfect friendship Can ever be knit together, Then you must hold the shuttle.
[103] Prince Marie-Joseph de Lorraine, Duc d’Elbœuf, Prince de Vaudemont, was the son of Charles-Louis de Lorraine, Comte de Brionne, Grand Equerry of France, and of Julia-Constance de Rohan. He emigrated with his brother, the Prince de Lambesc, and they entered into the service of Austria. Their rank of Princes of Lorraine gave them special favour in the Emperor’s eyes, and they both attained the rank of field-marshal. It was to the Prince de Lambesc that the young Princesse de Montmorency was betrothed.
[104] Time effectually overcame it. He married in 1812 the Countess Colloredo, a widow, beautiful in spite of her forty years, witty and ill-natured. He separated from her at the end of two years.
[105] On the occasion of his proposed marriage with Mademoiselle de Montmorency.
[106] Frédéric-Jean Othon, hereditary Prince of Salm-Kybourg; his mother was a Princesse de Horn. He was born on 11th May 1746, and died on the scaffold in 1794.
[107] This hotel is actually the palace of the Legion of Honour; it was built by the architect Rousseau.
[108] The letters of the Marquis de Mirabeau and those of Madame de Pailly on the subject of Hélène’s marriage are numerous, and are amongst the sequestrated papers. Letter T, Portfolio de Ligne 1-4 of the National Archives. We only give extracts from them.
[109] In the same year the Duc d’Elbœuf consoled himself by marrying, on 30th December 1778, Mademoiselle de Montmorency-Lagny.
[110] Henriette-Eugénie de Bethisy de Mézières, widow of the High and Mighty Lord Claude-Hyacinthe-Ferdinand Lamoral, Prince de Ligne and of the Holy Empire.
[111] This lady was no other than the Marquise de Mesnard, separated from her husband, the Marquis de Marigny, brother to Madame de Pompadour. She inhabited in 1778 a magnificent apartment in the Abbaye-aux-Bois, where she received the most brilliant society. She was on intimate terms with the Prince-Cardinal Louis de Rohan, and with the Princesse de Salm, mother of Prince Frédéric.