The
imprudent lady of honor received permission to leave her service. It
was a woeful scene. "She saw me get into my carriage," writes the
princess, "and her distress was greater than ever. Her tears flowed
abundantly: as for me, my fortitude was perfect, and I looked on with
composure while she cried. If any thing could disturb my tranquility,
it was the recollection of the time when she laughed while I was
crying." Mademoiselle de Montpensier had been deeply offended, and
apparently with reason. The countess and her husband received an order
never again to appear in her presence; but soon after, when the
princess was with the king and queen at a comedy in the garden of the
Louvre, Frontenac, who had previously arrived, immediately changed his
position, and with his usual audacity took a post so conspicuous that
she could not help seeing him. "I confess," she says, "I was so angry
that I could find no pleasure in the play; but I said nothing to the
king and queen, fearing that they would not take such a view of the
matter as I wished." [Footnote: _Memoires de Mademoiselle de
Montpensier_, III. 270.]
With the close of her relations with "La Grande Mademoiselle," Madame
de Frontenac is lost to sight for a while. In 1669, a Venetian embassy
came to France to beg for aid against the Turks, who for more than two
years had attacked Candia in overwhelming force.
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