1672-1707.] LES DIVINES. 13 



them. The Due cle Lucie, grand master of artil- 

 lery, had them at his disposal, and gave one of 

 them to Madame de Frontenac. Here she made 

 her abode with her friend ; and here at last she 

 died, at the age of seventy-live. The annalist 

 Saint-Simon, who knew the court and all belonging 

 to it better than any other man of his time, says 

 of her : " She had been beautiful and gay, and was 

 always in the best society, where she was greatly 

 in request. Like her husband, she had little prop- 

 erty and abundant wit. She and Mademoiselle 

 d'Outrelaise, whom she took to live with her, gave 

 the tone to the best company of Paris and the 

 court, though they never went thither. They 

 were called Les Divines. In fact, they demanded 

 incense like goddesses ; and it was lavished upon 

 them all their lives." 



Mademoiselle d'Outrelaise died long before the 

 countess, who retained in old age the rare social 

 gifts which to the last made her apartments a 

 resort of the highest society of that brilliant epoch. 

 It was in her power to be very useful to her absent 

 husband, who often needed her support, and who 

 seems to have often received it. 



She was childless. Her son, Francois Louis, was 

 killed, some say in battle, and others in a duel, at 

 an early age. Her husband died nine years before 

 her ; and the old countess left what little she had 

 to her friend Beringhen, the king's master of the 

 horse. 1 



1 On Frontenac and his family, see Appendix A. 



