rld
flock to visit her, so wholly forsaken as she had previously been, and
she concluded that, being carried out of her normal condition, she
thought too much of herself.

Then came humiliations the most cutting, and the deepest grief. Twice
was she attacked by dangerous illness, from which it was asserted she
could not recover. And each time that report was welcomed at Court as
the joyous announcement of a marriage or a succession. Everybody busied
themselves with finding another wife for the Prince; and some thought
once more of Mademoiselle: "that rumour reached my ears," says she, "and
I mused upon it." Unfortunately for her, the poor Princess recovered,
and Mademoiselle had to wait for Lauzun. In another place she remarks
somewhat spitefully, "Madame la Princesse arrived in better health than
_could have been anticipated; no one could have imagined that she would
so soon recover_."

At length a tragic event, the consequences of which exhibit in a
sinister light the perseverance of ill-feeling that had always been
shown towards her in the family of which she had become a member, came
to add itself to that almost unbroken chain of tribulations, outrages,
and troubles amid which no sort of calamity seemed wanting. Two officers
of her household took it into their heads to quarrel and draw swords
upon each other. The Princess (she was then in her forty-third
year--1671) placed herself between the angry combatants with the
intention of separating them, and by so doing received a stab in her
side. The individual who inflicted the wound was brought to trial. As
for her,

"When she was cured, the Prince had her conducted to Chateauroux,
one of his country-houses. She has been there kept for a long time
imprisoned, and at present permission is only given her to walk in
the court-yard, always strictly watched by the people whom the
Prince always keeps about her. _The Duke is accused of having
suggested to the Prince the treatment to which his mother is
subjected: he was very glad_, it is said, to find a pretext for
putting her in a place where she would _spend less_ than in
society."[9]

[9] Memoires of Mademoiselle de Montpensier, 4th part.

Was it the hereditary avarice of the house of Conde which thus revealed
itself in the odious sentiment of that unworthy son? Poor woman! Her
only crime was that of being too liberal. She had, it is true, foolishly
placed her dia