The very meat that he
ate, according to him, had a different taste on his board than on any
other. As for his silver plate, it was always of good workmanship; and
his dress was always of patterns invented by himself. When he had new
clothes, he paraded them like a child. One day he brought me some to
look at, and left them on my dressing-table. We were then at Chambord.
His Royal Highness came into the room, and must have thought it odd to
see breeches and doublets in such a place. Prefontaine and I laughed
about it a great deal. Frontenac took everybody who came to St.
Fargeau to see his stables; and all who wished to gain his good graces
were obliged to admire his horses, which were very indifferent. In
short, this is his way in every thing." [Footnote: _Memoires de
Mademoiselle de Montpensier_, II. 279; III. 10.]
Though not himself of the highest rank, his position at court was,
from the courtier point of view, an enviable one. The princess, after
her banishment had ended, more than once mentions incidentally that
she had met him in the cabinet of the queen. Her dislike of him became
intense, and her fondness for his wife changed at last to aversion.
She charges the countess with ingratitude. She discovered, or thought
that she discovered, that in her dispute with her father, and in
certain dissensions in her own household, Madame de Frontenac had
acted secretly in opposition to her interests and wishes.
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