DUCHESSE DE CHEVREUSE.
Mademoiselle de Hautefort only replies with sobs. The idea of departing overcame her.
"Some gentlemen of our acquaintance will attend us."
"How like the Duchess! She cannot exist without lovers," mutters Madame de Noailles, to herself. Meanwhile she attended the two ladies to the head of the staircase, with great apparent affection, kissing them on both cheeks. She watched their departure from a window and waved her hand to them, affecting to weep.
"What a relief they are gone!" she exclaims, taking out her watch. "Ma foi, how long they have stayed! It is time for me to dress for the Queen's circle. Now they are gone, there is no one in my way at Court. I am sure of favour—perhaps of confidence. Her Majesty must unbosom herself to some one; why not to me? In half an hour I must be at the palace," and she rang and ordered her coach.
The Duchesse de Chevreuse was never again called to the side of Anne of Austria. Her hatred of Cardinal Mazarin forbade it. She became one of the principal leaders of that "Ladies' Battle," the Fronde.
Nor was Mademoiselle de Hautefort ever forgiven her bluntness on the Queen's very equivocal behaviour. As Marèchale de Schomberg, however, she reappeared at Court, but found Anne of Austria lost to her for ever.
The Duchesse de Noailles wore dresses cut in accordance with her Majesty's taste. Although she never became the Queen's confidante, for many years she held a high station at Court.