n of Raoul Boismonard du Guesclin, a minor, probably then very
young. He apparently resided in Paris, and may have seen the sunset
glories of the court of Louis the Great. At all events, not long after the
death of the Grand Monarch the youthful Du Guesclin accompanied the
equally youthful Louis XV. on that journey to Lorraine which was
terminated so abruptly at Metz by the almost fatal illness of the king.
Later, he was in personal attendance on his royal friend during Marshal
Saxe's splendid campaign, and at Fontenoy proved himself a worthy
descendant of his ancestor, the great constable of France. The idle life
of a luxurious court, growing more and more effeminate in the long years
of peace that followed Fontenoy, seems to have ill suited this scion of
the Courance family, ever in history a race of soldiers, men of high
spirit and stirring temper. With many other gentlemen of France he
espoused as a volunteer the cause of Maria Theresa. It is probable that
most of his active life was passed in the Austrian service, as he won
distinguished honors and was a chief of cavalry in the Seven Years' War.
Home interests were not neglected, however, as the Courance estates were
improved under his management, while the neighboring domains were drifting
to ruin. It appears also that during his last campaigns he adopted into
his military family the younger son of an old Courance neighbor, Henri
d'Armagnac de Foix, a cadet of the house of Pontoise.

After the Peace of Hubertsburg the count returned to France, entrusted, it
is supposed, with a mission respecting a matrimonial alliance between
France and Austria, which was afterward accomplished in the marriage of
the archduchess Marie Antoinette and the dauphin. Louis XV. received the
companion of his youth with great cordiality and honor. At a court
audience the sovereign distinguished the soldier by removing the royal
sword and scarf and with his own hands hanging the splendid guerdon over
the shoulders of his subject and friend.

Leaving his protege, D'Armagnac de Foix, in charge of affairs in Paris,
the count hastened to Courance, where his neighbors hailed his arrival
with every demonstration of welcome. Fetes, hunting-parties, excursions,
balls and banquets were given for his entertainment, and all the families
of the Loiret joined in lionizing the brilliant _chef d'escadron_, heroes
being a rarity in France during those piping times of peace.

Among these old and new frien