The refusal of Mlle. de Vermandois was probably a relief to Monsieur le Duc, who was aware that the bitterness and jealousy aroused by the elevation of his sister would go far to outweigh the advantages which he would gain from his close connexion with the King. At the same time, it threatened to prolong a situation the dangers of which had been brought home to him very forcibly by the recent serious illness of his young Sovereign.
It was at this moment that he received, from the Empress Catherine of Russia, an offer which contributed indirectly to give to the great affair of the marriage of Louis XV. the most unexpected dénoûment. Catherine proposed that her daughter Elizabeth should wed the King of France, and that Monsieur le Duc himself should marry Marie Leczinska—with whom she was no doubt aware that he had already opened matrimonial negotiations—and become the Russian candidate for the throne of Poland, in succession to Augustus III.
This gave Madame de Prie an opening of which she was not slow to take advantage. The Russian alliance, she declared, to Monsieur le Duc, was quite out of the question, for the Princess Elizabeth was reported to be a true child of her mother, and would be certain to acquire a great influence over the young King, which would, of course, be directed by Catherine. But let the prince resign his own pretensions to the hand of Marie Leczinska in favour of his Sovereign, and not only would he escape a marriage which only a sense of the duty he owed his family was impelling him to contract, but he would secure a Queen who would owe everything to him, who had no support either in France or abroad, and whose character promised obedience and docility.
The name of Marie Leczinska had already been erased from the list of marriageable princesses, on the ground that she belonged to a poor and dispossessed family; but, urged on by his mistress and Pâris-Duverney, Monsieur le Duc immediately proceeded to advocate her claims. His proposal met with the most violent opposition from the Duc d’Orléans, who presented himself before Louis XV., with tears coursing down his cheeks, and endeavoured to persuade him from a marriage contrary, he declared, to the wishes of the nation; while the King of Sardinia, his Majesty’s grandfather, indignant at not having been consulted, addressed the most reproachful letters to the young monarch concerning the mésalliance which he was about to commit. But Fleury, a word from whom would have had more weight with Louis XV. than the expostulations of all the kings and princes in Europe, excused himself from expressing an opinion, and on 27 May, 1725, his Majesty announced publicly, after dinner, his approaching marriage with Marie Leczinska.
It was a great triumph for Monsieur le Duc and his mistress. At one blow, so to speak, they had got rid of the Infanta and the dreaded influence of Philip V.; affianced the King to a princess who might before a year had elapsed bear him a son to stand between the Duc d’Orléans and the throne, and secured a Queen of France from whose influence they had nothing to fear and everything to hope.
The exiles of Weissembourg were not allowed to remain in doubt as to whom they were indebted for their amazing good fortune, and they displayed a gratitude proportioned to their joy. “In his correspondence with the Maréchal de Bourg,” writes M. Thirion, “the dethroned King returned constantly to the gratitude which he, his wife, and his daughter had vowed to the Marquise de Prie, to the admiration which she had inspired in them, to the affection which they all three bore her, to the respectful gratitude which they professed for Monsieur le Duc. It was to Madame de Prie that they addressed themselves, when they desired to know what they were expected to do, of this or that custom of the Court. And the day when, in a scene which has remained celebrated, the ex-King of Poland threw himself on his knees to return thanks to Heaven for having called his daughter to such high destinies, he thought still of the favourite. He mentioned her in his thanksgivings.”
But great triumphs, whether military or political, are seldom cheaply obtained, and in the present instance the cost was very considerable. Spain had been exasperated to the last degree by the almost brutal repudiation of the Infanta and had thrown herself into the arms of Austria; the Orléans were furious at being outwitted and at the treatment to which Monsieur le Duc’s action had exposed their relatives in Spain, and were more than ever determined to compass his disgrace; while a great part both of the Court and the nation was indignant at the selection of a princess without alliance, without fortune, and without credit.
However, when all things were taken into account, the Prime Minister and his favourite felt that they had good cause for rejoicing, and they awaited with impatience the coming of Marie Leczinska and the consummation of their hopes.
On 15 August, 1725, the Duc d’Orléans, in the name of the King of France, espoused Marie Leczinska, at Strasbourg. For obvious reasons, the duty could not have been an altogether pleasant one for his Royal Highness to perform, nor was it rendered any the more agreeable by the fact that his enemy, Madame de Prie, in her capacity as one of the twelve dames du palais of the Queen of France, was a witness of his discomfiture. The favourite might have aspired to the more exalted post of dame d’atours (mistress of the robes), but this she had prudently decided to forgo, lest she should be accused of wishing to dominate her Majesty too ostensibly. But the successful candidate, the Comtesse de Mailly, mother-in-law of the future mistress of Louis XV., was her selection, as were all the ladies-in-waiting.
Two days later, Marie Leczinska set out to join the King, who had just established himself at Fontainebleau. It was remarked that both at Strasbourg and during the journey her Majesty showed an extreme graciousness towards Madame de Prie, and conversed with her longer and more frequently than with any of her colleagues. At Moret, the Queen was met by Louis XV., accompanied by all the Princesses. Marie descended from her coach, and was preparing to kneel on a cushion hastily thrown, but the King prevented her, kissed her on both cheeks, “with a vivacity which astonished those who were aware of his timidity where women were concerned,” and did not conceal his pleasure. On 5 September, the marriage was celebrated, in the chapel at Fontainebleau, with the utmost magnificence, and the next day Monsieur le Duc wrote to Stanislaus Leczinski that his Majesty’s attitude towards his wife “had surpassed his hopes, and, if possible, his desires,” adding certain intimate details, upon which, however, we dare not venture.