[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.
III
The de Ligne family—Prince Charles—War in Bavaria—Engagement at Pösig—The Prince de Ligne’s letter to his son—The Treaty of Teschen.
The De Ligne family was one of the most illustrious in Flanders. Its head, Charles-Joseph, Prince de Ligne, Prince of the Holy Empire, Lord Paramount of Fagnolles, and Lord of the Manors of Beaudour, Bel Œil, Valincourt and other territories, Marquis of Roubaix and Dormans, Baron of Fauquenberghe, Baron of Wershin, Knight of the Golden Fleece, Grandee of Spain of the first class, first ber of Flanders, Peer, Seneschal and Marshal of Hainault, was General in the Austrian army, Captain of the Trabans, Colonel and owner of a regiment of Walloon infantry, and chamberlain to their Imperial Majesties.[112]