Aug. 26. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



157 



LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 96, 1854. 

 MEMOIRS or GEAMMONT : THE COUNT DE MATTA, 



(^Continued from p. 139.) 



Matta eagerly embraced the party of the Fronde. 

 Cardinal de Retz mentions him as accompanying 

 the Marquis de Noirmoutier and others to the 

 Hotel de Ville on January 11, 1648-9, to the 

 apartments of the Duchess de Longueville, which 

 were full of ladies. The duchess, who was the 

 sister of the Princes of Conde and Conti, was the 

 soul of the party at that time. She had just had 

 a child, whom, in compliment to the City and 

 Parliament, she had baptized as Charles Paris. 

 He was afterwards killed through his own mis- 

 conduct at the celebrated passage of the Rhine. 

 The cardinal narrates that " the mixture of the 

 ladies' blue scarfs, the men in armour, the fiddlers 

 within the hall and the trumpets without, made 

 up a spectacle which is oftener found in romances 

 than anywhere else." On January 18 the cardi- 

 nal informs us that he and the Dukes of Beau- 

 fort and Bouillon, Matta, and others signed a 

 document whereby they engaged to stand by each 

 other. 



In 1649 Madame de Motteville relates that, in 

 the demand sent to the Court and Cardinal Maza- 

 rin by the Prince of Conti, who was then the leader 

 of the party, — 



" Monsieur the Count de Matha demanded the pajonent 

 of his pension of 1200 crowns, of which he had received 

 nothing for six years ; that the letter sent to Monsieur 

 de Fontrailles should be revoked, and a brevet of Mare- 

 chal de Camp should be given to Monsieur de Crenaa." 



In the same year we find Matta, in company 

 with the Duke de Brissac, Fontrailles, and some 

 other Frondeurs, after making a great banquet 

 with the Count de Termes, sallying out intoxi- 

 cated and scouring the streets, committing a 

 thousand extravagances. Meeting two of the 

 king's servants, they forgot the respect they owed 

 his Majesty, and abused and beat them shame- 

 fully, and told them to take that to their master, 

 to the queen, and to Cardinal Mazarin. By the 

 advice of the cardinal, the queen regent took no 

 notice of this outrage, owing to the bad state of 

 the royal affairs in Paris ; so the authors went un- 

 punished. 



The Duchess de Kemours, in writing of the 

 principal actors in the Fronde, says, — 



" Matta ranged himself on the side of the Parliament ; 

 but he did not make much of a figure there. I have not 

 even heard sa}' that he acted otherwise than as General of 

 the Posts which belonged to Nouveau, his brother-in- 

 law." 



Another author informs us that Nouveau wanted 

 the appointment of Secretary of State. 



During the conferences at Ruel, in March, 

 1649, for an accommodation with the Court, when 

 each of the Frondeurs tried to make the best 

 terms for himself. Cardinal de Retz writes, — 



" I found the Duke de Brissac to be the only man that 

 did not come in at that time with his pretensions ; but 

 Matha, a man of little brains, having persuaded him that 

 he was wronging himself, put him upon retrieving that 

 false step by demanding afterwards a post which you shall 

 in due time hear of." 



After the amnesty the cardinal still kept a little 

 party together, and thus writes of them : 



"Among those who remained united with me were 

 Messrs. de Brissac, de Vitri, de Matha, and de Fontrailles, 

 but the benefit 1 received by it was mixed with great in- 

 convenience. These nobles were prodigiously debauched, 

 and the public licentiousness giving them still a free 

 scope, they every day fell into excesses, that grew at last 

 scandalous. One day, after they had dined together at 

 Coulon's, they met as they came back a funeral proces- 

 sion, which they charged, sword in hand, shouting out to 

 the crucifix, * Here's the enemy ! ' Another time they fell 

 in a rude manner on one of the king's footmen. In their 

 drunken songs God Almighty himself was not always 

 spared. This behaviour of theirs was an occasion of 

 trouble to me." 



On the conclusion of the war of the Fronde we 

 lose sight of Matta for some years : he had most 

 probably to retire to his estates, like others of his 

 party, including even Gaston, Duke of Orleans, 

 the king's uncle, and his daughter the " Grande 

 Mademoiselle." Matta does not appear to have 

 followed the Prince of Conde in his retreat 

 amongst the Spaniards. We find Mademoiselle 

 relating that, after one of her visits to her father 

 at Orleans, on her return to St. Fargeau, she 

 found " the company of the province augmented 

 by Monsieur de Mathas, his wife, and sister. Ma- 

 demoiselle de Bourdeille. As he had been in the 

 interest of monsieur the prince (of Conde), he was 

 very glad to remove himself from Guienne, where 

 had been all the disorder, to dwell on an estate in 

 Nivernois called St. Amand, which is but three 

 leagues from St. Fargeau." This had been the 

 estate of his brother Francis, who was styled the 

 Seigneur de St. Amand. " He is," continues 

 Mademoiselle, " a man who has wit, very pleasant 

 in conversation, and who games. His sister also 

 is a very nice girl. They did not stir from St. 

 Fargeau." This must have been in the years 

 1653 or 1654. On January 1, 1655, Madlle re- 

 cords a sad accident which occurred during a visit 

 of Monsieur and Madame de Mathas, who were 

 going to Paris. Monsieur de la Boulenerie fell 

 into the fosse and broke his neck. A year or 

 two afterwards Madlle, then at Corbeil, writes, — 



" Monsieur de Matta came also. I believe the inclin- 

 ation he had for Madame de Frontenac (one of her ladies 

 of honour) gave no displeasure there. I believe she 

 thought him a very good sort of man, as he is, and did 

 not care to disguise that his conversation was agreeable 

 to her. I remember she was all day talking to him at a 



