[394] Some commentators think this refers to the Duke de Bouillon, because his name means also “beef-tea,” and because he wished to add to his family name, La Tour, that of dʼAuvergne, but the name was illustrious. A modern commentator, M. Hémardinquer, rightly thinks it might apply to the ministers of Louis XIV., who all were descended from citizens, and took for their titles Marquis de Louvois, de Seignelay, de Barbézieux, Count de Maurepas, de Maillebois, etc., all of which titles might be considered “not pretty” as names.
[395] This points to M. de Clermont-Tonnerre, bishop of Noyon, who always boasted of his lineage, and thought himself a wit because he had been elected a member of the French Academy by the desire of the king.
[396] By the princes of Lorraine are probably meant the Guises, whose family name was de Lorraine; they were, however, princes de Joinville. The Rohans were one of the oldest families in Brittany; the Châtillons, of whom the Admiral de Coligny was one, were related to the Montmorencys, who date from the tenth century, and had been chiefly rendered famous in history by the connétable de Montmorency (1492-1567), the rival of the Duke de Guise.
[397] The Oriflamme was the banner of the Abbey of Saint-Denis, and only brought out by order of the king the moment the battle began.
[398] Demoiselle was originally the appellation given to any married or unmarried lady of noble birth, but in La Bruyèreʼs time it was generally applied to ladies of plebeian origin. In several legal contracts our authorʼs mother is called demoiselle veuve.
[399] There was no public lottery in France before the year 1700, but the king often had one drawn, and not seldom gave permission to hospitals and other public institutions also to have them drawn.
[400] The king usually allowed the holders of certain offices to appoint their successors, or to hold such posts conjointly. But they had to pay heavily for such survivances, as they were called, to the royal tax-gatherers and to the original holders. (See also page [130], note 254.)
[401] The original has tout lʼappartement. The rooms where the courtiers danced attendance at Versailles were called thus.
[402] Some commentators imagine this refers to the Marshal de Luxembourg, who in 1675 was appointed to succeed the Prince de Condé as commander-in-chief of the army—an appointment which gave general satisfaction—and four years later fell into disgrace and was exiled. The hero who “appears deformed when compared to his portraits,” seems also to refer to the Marshal, who was humpbacked. However, many other and earlier authors have made similar remarks about favourites of fortune fallen from their high estate.