10 COUNT AND COUNTESS FRONTENAC. 1.1660-72. 



position at court was, from the courtier point of 

 view, an enviable one. The princess, after her 

 banishment had ended, more than once mentions 

 incidentally that she had met him in the cabinet 

 of the queen. Her dislike of him became intense, 

 and her fondness for his wife changed at last to 

 aversion. She charges the countess with inerrati- 

 tude. She discovered, or thought that she discov- 

 ered, that in her dispute with her father, and in 

 certain dissensions in her oavii household, Madame 

 cle Frontenac had acted secretly in opposition to 

 her interests and wishes. The imprudent lady of 

 honor received permission to leave her service. It 

 was a woful scene. " She saw me get into my 

 carriage," writes the princess, "and her distress 

 was greater than ever. Her tears flowed abun- 

 dantly: as for me, my fortitude was perfect, and I 

 looked on with composure while she cried. If any 

 thing could disturb my tranquillity, it was the recol- 

 lection of the time when she laughed while I was 

 crying." Mademoiselle de Montpensier had been 

 deeply offended, and apparently with reason. The 

 countess and her husband received an order never 

 again to appear in her presence ; but soon after, 

 when the princess was with the king and queen 

 at a comedy in the garden of the Louvre, Fron- 

 tenac, who had previously arrived, immediately 

 changed his position, and with his usual audacity 

 took a post so conspicuous that she could not help 

 seeing him. " I confess," she says, " I was so an- 

 gry that I could find no pleasure in the play ; but 

 I said nothing to the king and queen, fearing that 



