248 



have lost. We have already seen the poor king hiding behind the cur- 

 tains of the door to overhear the conversation of the queen with the 

 Ambassadress of France ; or sitting alone, talking to himself, and utter- 

 ing aloud a thousand maledictions on the French. We have him here 

 retiring to rest at seven o'clock, taking his solitary supper in bed, with 

 the doors of his chamber locked, and allowing the queen to knock seve- 

 ral times before he would admit her. But the character of the queen 

 is very different. The shadows are laid on certainly with a Eembrandt 

 vigour and depth, unillumined, however, even by that one gleam of 

 atoning light by which we penetrate the mysterious darkness of that 

 great master's grouping. The small virtues she possesed are left in im- 

 penetrable shade, while her smaller defects are exaggerated by having 

 the historian's lantern turned exclusively on them. We have fortunately 

 the sunlight of Madame de Yillars to flood the entire picture, and as it 

 will be found totally to change its effect. The old offence of looking 

 out of the windows is again brought against the poor queen by the friend 

 of Scarron and a courtier of Versailles ; and the crime of a poor French 

 princess keeping her mother-tongue alive (for she knew no other lan- 

 guage), by addressing a few words of French to French people, is pro- 

 nounced unpardonable by the ambassador of France. One is surprised 

 he does not mention that the queen occasionally laughed — a breach of 

 etiquette noticed by his lively marchioness. Elle a le teint admirable," 

 says Madame de Yillars, de beaux yeux ; la bouche tres-agreable quand 

 elle rit. Que c'est une belle chose de rire en Espagne !" Almost 

 every statement in this bill of indictment is contradicted by the unim- 

 peachable evidence of Madame de Yillars. A few extracts are given from 

 her letters in the notes. I leave the task of reconciling these extracts with 

 the statements in the text to those who can still believe that the ''Me- 

 moires de la Cour d'Espagne, depuis I'annee 1679, jusqu' en 1681," at 

 least in their integrity, were written by the Marquis de Yillars. 



Cette estoit la disposition de la Cour d'Espagne au mois de May 

 de I'annee 1681. Le Roy depuis six mois estoit entre dans sa vingtieme 

 annee aussi pen avance d'Esprit et de connoisance, que s'il eust encore 

 este enfant ; il n'avoit pas meme la force d'avoir des passions. Les plai- 

 sirs et les exercises luy estoient indifferents ; s'il alloit a la chasse, c' estoit 

 seul et presque toujours en carrosse; son aversion pour les dames alloit 

 jusqu' a dire que si quelqu'un luy parloit jamais d'une Maitresse il le 

 poignarderoit." 



Presque toute sa vie passoit dans le palais sans occupation, sans 

 plaisirs, sans conversation, melee seulement de certaines devotions d'habi- 

 tude moins semblables a la piete qu' a la superstition, etpeu differentes 

 du reste de son oisivete, il n'avoit d'ordinaire pres de luy que le gentil- 

 homme de sa chambre qui estoit de jour quelque valet de chambre, et 

 deux nains avec lesquels il jouoit, et souvent pour rien, il ne les quit- 

 toit que pour passer de temps en temps dans I'appartement de la Eejnie, 



* " Lettres de Madame de Villars," p. 28. 



