ch she is "fitted better than anyone
else to enjoy." No one understands so well the extent of her influence
and her credit as this devoted friend, who often quotes her to Mme.
de Grignan as a model. "Never did any one accomplish so much without
leaving her place," she says.

But there was one phase in the life of Mme. de La Fayette which was not
fully confided even to Mme. de Sevigne. It concerns a chapter of obscure
political history which it is needless to dwell upon here, but which
throws much light upon her capacity for managing intricate affairs. Her
connection with it was long involved in mystery, and was only unveiled
in a correspondence given to the world at a comparatively recent date.
It was in the salon of the Grande Mademoiselle that she was thrown into
frequent relations with the two daughters of Charles Amedee de Savoie,
Duc de Nemours, one of whom became Queen of Portugal, the other Duchesse
de Savoie and, later, Regent during the minority of her son. These
relations resulted in one of the ardent friendships which played so
important a part in her career. Her intercourse with the beautiful
but vain, intriguing, and imperious Duchesse de Savoie assumed the
proportion of a delicate diplomatic mission. "Her salon," says Lescure,
"was, for the affairs of Savoy, a center of information much
more important in the eyes of shrewd politicians than that of the
ambassador." She not only looked after the personal matters of Mme.
Royale, but was practically entrusted with the entire management of her
interests in Paris. From affairs of state and affairs of the heart to
the daintiest articles of the toilette her versatile talent is called
into requisition. Now it is a message to Louvois or the king, now a turn
to be adroitly given to public opinion, now the selection of a perfume
or a pair of gloves. "She watches everything, thinks of everything,
combines, visits, talks, writes, sends counsels, procures advice,
baffles intrigues, is always in the breach, and renders more service
by her single efforts than all the envoys avowed or secret whom
the Duchesse keeps in France." Nor is the value of these services
unrecognized. "Have I told you," wrote Mme. de Sevigne to her daughter,
"that Mme. de Savoie has sent a hundred ells of the finest velvet in the
world to Mme. de La Fayette, and a hundred ells of satin to line it,
and two days ago her portrait, surrounded with diamonds, which is worth
three hundred louis?"

The pra