y it is
so still, at least, nominally; witness the care with which the kings of
France give to their sons the simple title of count. It was in virtue of
this system that Francois I. crushed the splendid titles assumed by the
pompous Charles the Fifth, by signing his answer: "Francois, seigneur
de Vanves." Louis XI. did better still by marrying his daughter to
an untitled gentleman, Pierre de Beaujeu. The feudal system was so
thoroughly broken up by Louis XIV. that the title of duke became, during
his reign, the supreme honor of the aristocracy, and the most coveted.

Nevertheless there are two or three families in France in which the
principality, richly endowed in former times, takes precedence of
the duchy. The house of Cadignan, which possesses the title of Duc de
Maufrigneuse for its eldest sons, is one of these exceptional families.
Like the princes of the house of Rohan in earlier days, the princes of
Cadignan had the right to a throne in their own domain; they could have
pages and gentlemen in their service. This explanation is necessary,
as much to escape foolish critics who know nothing, as to record the
customs of a world which, we are told, is about to disappear, and which,
evidently, so many persons are assisting to push away without knowing
what it is.

The Cadignans bear: or, five lozenges sable appointed, placed fess-wise,
with the word "Memini" for motto, a crown with a cap of maintenance,
no supporters or mantle. In these days the great crowd of strangers
flocking to Paris, and the almost universal ignorance of the science of
heraldry, are beginning to bring the title of prince into fashion.
There are no real princes but those possessed of principalities, to whom
belongs the title of highness. The disdain shown by the French nobility
for the title of prince, and the reasons which caused Louis XIV. to give
supremacy to the title of duke, have prevented Frenchmen from claiming
the appellation of "highness" for the few princes who exist in France,
those of Napoleon excepted. This is why the princes of Cadignan hold an
inferior position, nominally, to the princes of the continent.

The members of the society called the faubourg Saint-Germain protected
the princess by a respectful silence due to her name, which is one
of those that all men honor, to her misfortunes, which they ceased to
discuss, and to her beauty, the only thing she saved of her departed
opulence. Society, of which she had once been the or