de Motteville, was the daughter of Pierre
Bertaut, Gentleman in ordinary of the Bedchamber, and of Louise Bessin
de Mathonville, of the Spanish family of Saldana. At the age of fifteen
she married Nicolas Langlois, Seigneur de Motteville, a man already
advanced in years, but with whom she lived happy until 1641, when she
was left a widow with a very slender jointure. Two years subsequently,
at the age of twenty-two, she entered the household of Anne of Austria,
rather as a personal friend than as an official attendant; a post which
she retained for many years with honour, her sweetness of disposition
and total absence of ambition causing her to be respected by all
parties. She was present at the death of her royal mistress, who, by a
bequest of ten thousand crowns, enabled her to quit the Court, and to
devote her whole attention to the revision of her well-known Memoirs.
Intimately acquainted with Mesdames de la Fayette and de Sevigne, she
for some time maintained a constant intercourse with both; but on the
termination of her self-imposed task she retired to the convent of Ste.
Marie de Chaillot, where she died on the 29th of December 1689.

[232] Motteville, _Mem_, edition Petitot, vol. i. pp. 336, 337.

[233] Motteville, _Mem_. vol. i. p. 337.

[234] Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. iii, 112. Sismondi, vol. xxii. p. 365.

[235] Matthieu, _Hist. des Derniers Troubles_, book iii. p. 577.

[236] Bassompierre, _Mem_. pp. 113, 114.

[237] The Marechal d'Ancre had formed a large establishment by engaging
in his service a number of impoverished French nobles, whose necessities
had induced them to accept a thousand livres a year, and to submit to
the insults which were heaped upon them by their low-born patron.

[238] Bassompierre. _Mem_. p. 114. D'Estrees, _Mem_. p. 413. Richelieu,
_Hist. de la Mere et du Fils_, vol. ii. p. 57.

[239] Rohan, _Mem_. p. 141.

[240] Le Vassor, vol. i. p. 514.

[241] Sismondi, vol. xxii. p. 371, 372. D'Estrees, _Mem_. p. 412.
Bassompierre, _Mem_. p. 114. Mezeray, vol. xi. pp. 113, 114.

[242] Bassompierre, _Mem_. pp. 121, 122.

[243] Richelieu, _Mem_. book vii. p. 333. Fontenay-Mareuil, pp.
338-358.

[244] Richelieu, _Mem_. book vii. p. 326.

[245] Sismondi, vol. xxii. p. 374.

[246] Ponce de Lauziere, Marquis de Themines, Senechal de Quercy, and
subsequently Marechal de France.

[247] Bassompierre, _Mem_. p. 117.

[248] Sismondi, vol. xxii. pp. 375, 376.

[249] Le Vassor, vol. i. pp