One night, while de Retz was languishing in an upper chamber of the Mercœur tower of this prison of his, a boat lay moored beneath in the shadow, and de Retz contrived that the guard and sentry of the castle should all be furnished with ample means for a carouse. It was tempting, and not one declined the generosity of his good-natured Eminence. The revellers grew sleepy and dazed; too entirely so to do more than gaze lacklustrely up at their prisoner’s red cloak and hat, blowing about in the evening breeze upon the upper walls of the battlements which he was permitted to pace for exercise. De Retz, meanwhile, who had slipped out of his vesture, and hung it there, was dropping rapidly down by a rope moored fast to the stanchions of his loophole casement in the Tour de Mercœur, into the boat which was then sped away to the shore by the oars of one of his trusty waiting friends, of whom he had scores; and in this way gained the spot upon the banks where a horse was waiting ready saddled. Springing up, de Retz bounded away on his steed, which in very short time flung him, and his shoulder was dislocated; but, the pain notwithstanding, he mounted again, and then reaching the shelter of the Château de Beaupréau, he made his way through Spain to Rome and perfect safety, until by resigning his archbishopric, which through the death of his uncle had become his, he was reconciled to the governing powers of France and returned to Paris.
Of the two most prominent leaders in the long civil contention, Condé retired to Spain, and Mademoiselle de Montpensier wandered about from château to château in Normandy, forbidden to come to Paris for several years. All idea of her marriage with Louis XIV. was extinguished on the day she fired upon the royal troops. “Very good!” exclaimed Mazarin then, “she has killed her husband.”
Ninon de Lenclos.
Deveria delt
Tavernier sculpt
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Something less than a year later a little daughter was born to Ninon. There was so much doubt concerning its paternity, that the Comte de Fiesque and the Abbé d’Effiat had no choice but to make a throw of the dice for the rightful claim on it, and de Fiesque being the winner, subsequently had the child educated and reared at his own cost, insisting on this in despite of Ninon wishing to keep it under her own care. But towards herself the attachment of the count rapidly cooled. To bring him back to her feet, she conceived the ruse of cutting off her hair, the real locks, for these having grown again. There was, however, something in this of the virtue of necessity; as it was again threatening to become scanty—and sending them by a servant to the count, it exercised its intended effect; as he regarded it as a touching sacrifice, and Fiesque was again at her feet, penitent, and tender as ever. But Ninon, thus triumphing, dismissed him from the old position, and relegated him to the ranks only of friendship. Once more the hair of Ninon began to grow luxuriantly, and she devised a fashion of arranging it that was so charming, as to find the sincere flattery of imitation—“Se coiffer à la Ninon”—became the rage.
The wife of de Fiesque wrote Ninon a terrible letter of reproach for her intrigue with the count. It would seem to have been prompted simply by revenge, as the lady made no pretence of affection for her husband; but the fear of entailing injury to the child, strongly influenced Ninon to desire to have it in her own care. The count, however, had left the country for Spain, and she had difficulty in discovering with whom the poor babe had been placed. She was, moreover, moving at that time in one of her whirling rounds of gaiety, and of a thoughtless folly, that at a later day brought its sincere regrets; and she abandoned the search, and followed on by the old ways, bestowing her smiles chiefly on the Comte de Miossens, who had been distinguishing himself greatly under Maurice of Orange.
An old friend, Monsieur de Gourville—who, as a warm partisan of the Duc de Condé and the Duchesse de Longueville, had remained away from Paris for a long time—returned one day somewhat unexpectedly, and Ninon, naturally looking for a visit from him, waited, but in vain. At last she wrote him a little note to ascertain why he so long delayed his coming, and so much the more since he had entrusted to her keeping a large sum of money in gold in a bag, having at the same time placed as much more with the Grand Penitentiary. This individual had now, he told de Gourville, given it all to the poor; as he supposed that had been as de Gourville had intended, but it had not been the intention. The money had been deposited in trust, said de Gourville, who added he should have liked to strangle the Grand Penitentiary.