LOVES EMPIRE Or The AMOURS Of the FRENCH COURT LONDON Printed for Dorman Newman at the Kings Arms in the Poultry 1682. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF THANET c. My LORD THE present Times being pestered with nothing but Narrative and Narrative Evidence upon Evidence one to strengthen and another to invalidate the Truth of a Plot The Papists Libelling the Presbyterians and the Presbyterians zealously Answering them and both disturbing the Publick Peace Insomuch that Mr. Stationer hath now nothing to Entertain his Customer with but some rare Pamphlet which he is ready to commend as excellently penned and learnedly handled St. Austin 's City of God The Practice of Piety The Whole Duty of Man c. are grown even mouldy upon their Shelves and none but the Advising C and Intelligent V the former furnishing us with News from the Pope and the latter with strange Stories of Things which never were can merit their Favour or be vouchsaft an Acceptance And therefore for me to intrude into his Shop and desire a Place in his Classes under the Notion of a Lover is look't upon as the Superlative Degree of Boldness and Impudence and I am immediately commanded to Retire or if I persist Intreating I am thrust out of Doors and called an Idle Fellow a Toâ—y an Enemy to the Good Old Cause and I know not what Forgetting that Love ought at this time especially to have the greatest Empire in Mens Hearts to Vnite the Dissentingly Reformed to the Truly Reformed Opinion and thus like Ephraim and Manasseh both would agree against Judah the Papists And now my Lord being likely to be kept in Silence and Obscurity and uncapable to appear abroad without a PROTECTION I made bold to enter into your Lordships Presence and casting my self at your Feet humbly implore your Honourable Patronage Your Lordship will perchance be apt to ask me if this be a Time to talk of Love To which I believe I need not study for an Answer when the high Station your Lordship has in the World gives you the affrighting Prospect how little room Love takes up now among Men Nay 't is almost forgot and therefore to give them this Memento of it will not altogether be inseasonable My Lord the Stage whereon Our Gallants acted their several Parts was France and having met with a General Acceptance and Favour in their French I ventured to Equipp them in our English Garb. I hope they may give your Lordship some agreable Diversion when your vacant Hours from more serious Affairs shall permit you Your Lordships Favour and Incouragement is the sole Azyle to which I shall have Recourse with which if I am honoured I shall not value the severe Scrutinies of of the nice Critick nor the Opprobrious Censure of the Sedate Phanatick whilst I think it my Duty to write my self My Lord Your Lordships most humble and devoted Servant R. H. Loves Empire Or The GALLANTRIES Of the FRENCH COURT NOtwithstanding that in the Reign of Lewis the Fourteenth the War had continued above Twenty years yet it did not hinder Love from causing some Amourous Intrigues but as the Court was only filled with old insensible Gentlemen and young Sparks bred up in Armies and whom that Profession had rendred Brutal most of the Ladies were become less modest than formerly and seeing they should have languished in Idleness if they had not made Advances or at least if they had been Cruel a great many grew tender hearted and some very Confident Of this last Tribe was Madam d' Olonne She had a round Face a pretty Nose a little Mouth fine sparkling Eyes and delicate Features yet smiling which embelishes most people had in her a quite contrary effect her Hair was a bright brown her Complexion admirable her Neck Hands and Arms were well made her shape was not to be commended nor would she have been thought Charming had it not been for her Face This much her Flatterers say That when she first appeared at Court she had a handsome Body which is the usual plea of those who would excuse Women who are too Corpulent However this Lady was too sincere in this case to leave people in an Errour for every one that had a mind might be informed of the contrary and it was not her fault she did not undeceive all the World Madam d' Olonne had a quick and pleasant Wit when she was free yet she was something false inconstant bold malicious loved pleasures even to Debauch and there was excess in her least Divertisements Her Beauty rather than her Estate which was but small obliged the Count d' Olonne to endeavour the making her his Wife Which he quickly effected for being a Person of Quality and having a great Estate he was agreeably received by Madam de la Louppe her Mother and had not the leisure to sigh for Charms which for two years had inflamed the desires of all the Court This Match being consummated those Lovers withdrew who pretended to Marriage and others came who only aimed at being beloved One of the first who offered himself was Beuvron whom the Neighbourhood of Madam d' Olonne gave the more conveniency of seeing and by this means loved her a pretty while without being discovered and I fancy this Amour would have still been concealed if Beuvron had never had Rivals But the Duke of Candale being fallen in love with Madam d' Olonne quickly perceived what had thitherto remained concealed for want of interessed People Not but that d' Olonne loved his Wife extreamly but Husbands are stupid and so are never Lovers and the jealousie of these is much more piercing than that of the others So that the Duke of Candale saw things that d' Olonne did not and never has seen for he is still ignorant that Beuvron has had an Intrigue with his Wife Beuvron had black Eys a handsom Nose a little Mouth a long Face very black long and thick Hair a fine Shape and Wit enough He was not one of those who talk all in Company but was a Man of good sense and honour tho he had naturally an aversion for War so that being fallen in love with Madam d' Olonne he sought for an opportunity to discover to her his Passion Their Neighbourhood at Paris gave him occasions enough but her Inconstancy made him apprehend an Intrigue with her At length happening one day to meet with her without other Company If I only designed Madam said he to her to let you know that I love you words would be altogether unnecessary my cares and my looks have told you sufficiently what effect your Charms have had upon me But Madam as I expect you should one day make returns to my flames it is requisite that I discover 'em and assure you at the same time that whether you love me or not I am resolved to be your Votary as long as I live Beuvron having ceased speaking Sir answered Madam d' Olonne This is not
He was brave that is to say that he had the Courage of a Souldier and the Soul of a Prince He was a great Wit and loved Pleasures but yet he loved his Duty more In short he was one of the greatest Kings in the World But however tho Nature had gifted him with admirable Advantages Adversity that had been his Governour was the principal Cause of his extraordinary Merit The Prince at his leaving of France had shown as I have already said very little consideration for Madam de Chastillon but having known the value that the Spaniards set on her by the Pension they had given her and the Credit that she had at the Court of France by the means of the Abbot Foucquett was reinflamed for her And his Passion was so violent that he wrote to her the most passionate Letters in the World and amongst others this was intercepted that he wrote to her in Cyphers THo all your Charms should not oblige me to love you my dear Cosin the pains that you take for me and the persecutions you suffer for being in my Interests and the hazards wherein this exposes you would oblige me to love you as long as I live Iudge then what all this together can do upon a heart which is neither insensible nor ungrateful but judge likewise of the alarms that I am continually in for you The example of Ricoux makes me tremble and when that I consider that what I have most dear in the World is in the hands of my Enemies I am in disquiets that never give me rest In the name of God my poorest Dear do not longer hazard your self as you do I should choose rather never to return into France than be the cause of your having the least apprehension It is for me to expose my self and by a War put my Affairs in such a posture as that they may treat with me and then my dear Cosin you may aid me with your Intercession and in the mean time as events are doubtful in War I have one sure way to pass my life with you and yet engage our Interests to one another more than they have hitherto been Do not believe that the Princess is an invincible obstacle to this people break through much greater when they are as much in love as I am In this part my dear Cosin I give no bounds to my Imagination nor to your Hopes You may push them as far as you please Farewel The hopes that Madam de Chastillon had upon this Letter of marrying the Prince made her think of refusing the offers of the King of England hereupon she consulted one of her female Friends in Bordeaux's presence She whose Husband was with the Prince told her Mistress that she was mad once to think of marrying a shaddow of a King a Wretch who had not wherewith to live and who in making her to be laughed at would ruin her in a little time that if it was possible contrary to all appearances in the World that he should one day recover his Throne she might very well believe that being weary of her he would be divorced from her upon the pretext of the inequality of Condition Her Friend told her on the contrary that her madness was to marry the Prince who was married and whose Wife was in health that persons of the Quality of the King of England might be sometimes under ill Fortune but that they could never be in that extream necessity so common to private Persons That it was fine for a Lady to live a Queen tho she should live unhappy and that she ought never to refuse an honourable Title tho she was only to bear it upon her Grave As for you Mademoiselle turning towards Bordeaux you have reason to talk as you do to her Grace considering only your own interest but for my part who only consider her Graces I tell her what I ought to say Madam de Chastillon gave them thanks for the kindness they showed her and told them that she would take time to think of their Reasons before she came to a Resolution She was not willing to give a more positive Answer before her Friend in an Affair she was ashamed she should choose what was contrary to her advice In the mean time there came Notice from several parts to the King of England of the Life of Madam Chastillon and of her present Conduct with the Abbot Foucquett Never any Man that had the least sense of Honour did lose his Reason so much as in the beginning of his Passion to marry a Woman without Honour The King of England went from the Neighbourhood of Marlou as soon as He had learnt all these news and would not hazard by seeing Madam de Chastillon a Conflict that might be doubtfull between his sences and his Reason Madam de Chastillon was not then sensible of the loss she had the desires and hopes she had of marrying the Prince rendered all other things indifferent to her Madam de Chastillon being returned from her Dutchy to Marlou in the beginning of the Spring through the intercession of the Marshall d' Hocquincourt and sometime after to Paris he did not find her ungratefull for this favour This little service and the promises he gave her of killing the Cardinal and putting his Places into the Princes hands touched Madam de Chastillons Heart to that point that she granted enjoyment to the Marschal The Summer passed in this manner during which the Abbot Foucquett who perceived this Commerce was often under strange disquiets and he had done at that time what he did afterwards if Lovers did not love to deceive themselves when they are either to quit or condemn their Mistresses The Winter after the Duke of Candale at his return from Catalonia seemed to be in love with Madam de Chastillon The Abbot Foucquett allarum'd at so dangerous a Rivall caused Boligneux to desire him to cease his persuit The Duke of Candale being at that time really in love with Madam d' Olonne and had only engaged himself with Madam de Chastillon to make her serve for a pretext easily granted the Abbot Foucquett's Request But as with this Mistress Lovers were as an Hydra of whom one head was no sooner cut off but that an other sprung up in the room la Feuillade took the place of the Duke of Candale The Abbot Foucquett who knew it immediately spoke himself pretty sharply of it to la Fuillade who whether that he fancyed that his Rivall being beloved he should not succeed in his Enterprize or whether that his blooming Passion left him all his Prudence he did not judge it Convenient to incurr the hatred of so violent a Man wherefore he did not persevere in that Amour The Marquess de Cozuvres had not so much Complaisance as Feuillade had he continued to see Madam de Chastillon maugre the Abbot Foucquett but as he had neither Fortune nor Merit enough to touch her Heart she only made a
Conquest of him and only kept him in play to inflame the Abbot Foucquett and oblige him to renew his Presents and let him know that she had Persons of Quality on her side who would not suffer her to be misused Wherefore the Abbot was forced to bear with this Rivall but he vented his Choler upon poor Vinevil who was one of the first Lovers of Madam de Chastillon beloved a Man of good Sense and whose Wit was to be feared The Abbot Foucquett gave the Cardinal to understand that it was dangerous to leave him at Paris insomuch that the Cardinal seeing only through the Abbots Eyes sent an order to Vinevil to go to Tours till further order and he not being suffered to take his leave of Madam de Chastillon wrote her this Letter on the last of October 1651. HOw desirous soever you seem to be that I should make you a Visit I fancyed that the little pleasure you took in the last I should do much better to abstain since that indeed your coldness deprives me of the joy that I received at other times in seeing you for the truth is I am perswaded that I ought not to pretend to any share in your Favour nor your Confidence the engagement you are under does not permit you to consider any thing besides and that you are necessitated to be wanting in what you owe by essential obligations I am likewise of Opinion that you would take it more kindly to forget you altogether than to remember you on this occasion and that you willingly approve of my abandoning your person and your Interest And yet Madam I do not pretend that you should lose me quite because I am very sure you will be very glad to find me again one time or other tho you despise me at present I will serve my self as much as the knowledg of the present Circumstances you are under will suffer preand the Friendship I have promised you which makes me that I cannot dissemble that all human kind talk most disadvantageausly of your Conduct and that you are become the perpetual Theme of all the Conversations of the time They describe your Engagement to be the most pittyful and abject that a person of your Quality was ever Concerned in and your friend is said to exercise over you a tyrannical Empire and more especially that he causes all to be discarded that come near you and that he even threatens those whom he is told are his Rivals as he has done Feuillade and I pass over in silence several particulars of his private Visits which are sufficiently known Do but consider Madam of the prejudice that your Reputation receives from this Commerce and make reflection upon what you are and upon what he is who has deprived you of your Honour for the Credit and Consideration he procures you are not very honorable and they are false lights which reflect upon you rather to offend you than to give you a lustre Ah! Madam if the poor deceased had but the least sence they would scratch their way out of their Graves and come and approach you with so shamefull a dependance but I do not believe that you are concerned for the memory of them fear the living who sooner or later will be informed of your Conduct and will doubtless behave themselves accordingly I do not represent all these things to you out of a motive of jealousie for I assure you I am not infected with a Passion so afflicting and so useless as that If I was transported with love for you I should vent my self in Invectives which would do you irreparable Injuries and I should revenge my self of the wrongs you do me with so much Ingratitude If I had no love for you I should railly as well as others but in what concerns you I keep my self in a Mediocrity which gives me a mute grief for the blindness of your Conduct which at length will bring you into the worst of troubles if you have not a care and let your self be governed by your prudence without expecting events To morrow I shall go towards Tourraine wherefore I take my leave of you Madam If you take kindly the advice I give you I shall continue to love you if ill I shall endeavour to get rid of a Principle that is the cause of it In the mean time I doe not demaund any good Offices for my Concerns but only that you would hinder ill ones from being done me and you will oblige me in so doing Notwithstanding Vinevil's Banishment The Abbot Foucquett was no more at ease than he was before Madam de Chastillon making him mad every moment but that which disquieted him most was the Intrigue between her and the Marshall d' Hocquincourt This had rendred her so haughty that she had often treated the Abbot Foucquett as if she had not known him During these passages the Marshal de Hocquincourt finding himself pressed by Madam de Chastillon to perform the promises he had made her which not being willing to do he gave notice to the Cardinal of all that he had promised Madam de Chastillon by one of his Gentlemen who seemed to betray him and at the same time caused the same notice to be given to the Abbot Foucquett by Madam Calvoisin the Governour of Roye's Wife This peice of Cunning had the effect that the Marshall had promised himself the Cardidinal was alarum'd and to break of so dangerous an Intrigue caused the Marshal d' Hocquincourt to be treated with The Abbot Foucquett for his part having had the information from Calvoisin desired the Cardinal that he would cause Madam de Chastillon to be took into Custody and put in such a place where she might not have any Correspondence till that he should think fit to restore her to her liberty The Cardinal having given his consent the Abbot Foucquett caused Madam de Chastillon to be seized on at Marlou and conducted with one of her Women to Paris where he caused her to be brought in by Night and lodged her at one de Vaux's House in Poitow-stret On the morrow after her arrival the Abbot Foucquett took a Note under her hand by order from the Cardinal and directed to the Marshal d' Hocquincourt by which she desired him to come to an accomodation with the King and not to think any longer of the Prince or of her because it might endanger his Life as some days before she was taken she had agreed with the Marshal that in case they hapned to be taken into custody and that Letters were exacted from them contrary to the measures they had taken together they should give no Credit to them if they were not written with a double C. Which she did not do in this Letter but she did in an other which she wrote at the same time to the Marshal by which she let him know that he should remain firm in the first resolution that he had taken of serving the Prince and