CHAPTER X
Enviable position of Bassompierre at the Court of France—The Connétable de Montmorency offers him the hand of his beautiful daughter Charlotte, the greatest heiress in France—The marriage-articles are drawn up—The consent of Henri IV is obtained—The Duc de Bouillon, whom Bassompierre has offended, endeavours to persuade the King to withdraw his sanction and to marry Mlle. de Montmorency to the Prince de Condé (Monsieur le Prince)—Henri IV falls madly in love with the young lady—Singular conversation between the King and Bassompierre, in which his Majesty orders the latter to renounce his pretensions to Mlle. de Montmorency’s hand—Astonishment and mortification of Bassompierre, who, however, yields with a good grace—Bassompierre falls ill of chagrin and remains for two days “without sleeping, eating or drinking”—He is persuaded by his friend Praslin to return to the Louvre—Mlle. de Montmorency is betrothed to the Prince de Condé—Bassompierre falls ill of tertian fever, but rises from his sick-bed to fight a duel with a Gascon gentleman—The combatants are separated by friends of the latter—Serious illness of Bassompierre.
Bassompierre had now fairly established his claim to be regarded as “the most amiable and elegant gentleman of the Court,” and his position was in every way an enviable one. He was idolised by the ladies to a degree that no gallant has ever been either before or since his time, with the possible exception of the too-celebrated Maréchal de Richelieu, in the days of Louis XV;[57] liked and admired by the men, who looked upon him as “the glass of fashion and the mould of form;” so great a favourite of the King that his Majesty grumbled whenever he absented himself from Court, and there seemed no rank or office, however high, to which he might not ultimately aspire; and, though not wealthy, as wealth was accounted in those days at the Court of France, enabled, thanks to his extraordinary good fortune at play, to vie with the greatest in the land in luxury and extravagance. “It would have been well,” says a writer of the time, Tallemant des Réaux, “if there had always been at the Court someone like him; he did the honours and received and entertained foreigners. I used to remark that he was at the Court what Bon Accueil was in the romance of la Rose. People everywhere used to call a man a Bassompierre, if he excelled in good looks and the elegance of his appearance and manners.”
But Bassompierre possessed more solid claims to the universal popularity which he enjoyed than these. He was not only an adept at all manly exercises, but a good musician, a sound classical scholar, and a master of four languages: French, German, Spanish, and Italian. Despite his follies, his innumerable gallantries, his gambling, and his prodigality, he possessed a vein of sound common-sense, which caused him to be consulted frequently by those who were in pecuniary or other embarrassments; and he was a kindly, good-natured man, who held aloof from the intrigues of the Court, never spoke ill of anyone, and was always ready to do a service to a friend who needed it. And he was now about to receive the most flattering tribute to his better qualities possible to imagine—one, indeed, which he could not have hoped for even in his fondest dreams—namely, the offer of a bride who was at once the most beautiful girl at the Court, the greatest heiress in France, and, with a single exception,[58] the young lady of the highest rank in the land after the daughters of the Princes of the Blood.
One day, in October, 1608, the old Connétable de Montmorency, with whom Bassompierre had always been a great favourite, invited him to dine with him on the morrow, at the same time impressing upon him the importance of not failing to be there, which was no doubt a very necessary precaution, in view of the frequency with which that young gentleman’s love-affairs and gambling-parties must have necessitated the breaking of other social engagements. On his arrival at Montmorency’s hôtel, he found that the Duc d’Epernon, the Marquis de Roquelaure, Zamet, and a maître des requêtes named La Cave, had also been invited, all four being intimate friends of both the Constable and himself; and from their presence he divined that some important matter which must concern him very closely was in the wind.
After dinner, Montmorency conducted his guests into his chamber, where they were joined by Du Tillet-Girard, his confidential secretary, and his physician Rancin, the latter of whom the Constable directed to station himself at the door and on no account to allow their privacy to be interrupted. Then, in a solemn speech, the old nobleman proceeded to inform them of the reason which had led him to invite them there that day.
Having, he said, arrived at the close of life, he had deemed it his duty to look around him for a man to whom he might give his youngest daughter in marriage—one who might be agreeable both to himself and to her; and, although he might choose amongst all the princes in France, he preferred his daughter’s happiness to her elevation, and to see her, during the rest of his days, living in joy and contentment. For which reason, the esteem which he had so long entertained for the person and family of M. de Bassompierre had decided him to offer him what others of far higher rank would most gladly accept. And he had wished to do this in the presence of his best friends, who were likewise M. de Bassompierre’s, and to tell him that, having loved him as dearly as if he were his son, he desired to make him so by marrying him to his daughter, being assured that she would be happy with him, knowing as he did his good qualities; and that M. de Bassompierre, on his part, would hold himself honoured in marrying the daughter and grand-daughter of Constables of France; while he (Montmorency) would be happy the rest of his days if he saw them both living happily and contentedly together. He added that it was his intention to give his daughter a dowry of 100,000 crowns, while she would receive another 50,000 on the death of his younger brother;[59] and if nothing prevented M. de Bassompierre from accepting the offer which he now made him, he would instruct Du Tillet-Girard to draw up, in conjunction with whatever person he might choose to appoint, the marriage-articles.
“There were tears of joy in his eyes when he finished speaking,” writes Bassompierre, “and, as for me, I was so overcome by an honour as unhoped for as it was dear to me, that words failed me to express what I felt. At length, I told him that this honour so great and so unexpected which he, in his generosity, designed for me deprived me of the power of speech; that I could only marvel at my good fortune; that it was above all my expectations, as it was above my deserts; that it could only be repaid by very humble service and infinite submission; that my life would be too short to requite it, and that I could only offer him entire devotion to his will; that it was not a husband whom he would give his daughter, but a being by whom she would be incessantly adored like a goddess and respected like a queen, and that he had not chosen a son-in-law so much as a domestic servant of his House, whose every action would be guided by his intentions and wishes alone; and that if anything abated the excess of my joy, it was the apprehension that Mlle. de Montmorency, who could choose from all the marriageable princes in France, might regret renouncing the quality of princess, of which she ought with reason to be assured, to occupy that of a simple lady; and that I would prefer to die and lose the honour which Monsieur le Connétable designed for me than occasion her the least regret or discontent. And upon that, as I occupied a rather low seat close to his own, I placed a knee to the ground, and, taking his hand, kissed it, while he held me in a long embrace. After which, he told me not to entertain any fear of that, as, before speaking to me, he had consulted his daughter, and found her perfectly disposed to fulfil all the wishes of her father, and particularly in that which was not disagreeable to her.
“MM. d’Épernon and de Roquelaure approved the choice which the Constable had made of my person, and said more kind things concerning me than I merited; as did also Zamet, La Cave, and Du Tillet-Girard; and they then all embraced me, praising the Constable’s choice and felicitating me on my good fortune. After this, the Constable told them that it was not opportune to reveal this affair, and that he entrusted it to their discretion until the time came to divulge it; because he was not just then in the good graces of the King, since he had refused his consent to the marriage which the King had desired to bring about between M. de Montmorency[60] and Mlle. de Verneuil,[61] his daughter. This they promised him, and I likewise.
“The Constable requested me to come to him again in the evening, when Madame d’Angoulême, his sister-in-law[62] would be there, saying that he intended to speak before her