It was under such enviable conditions that the young daughters of a poor Roman baron grew up to girlhood—­the pets of the Queen and the Court, the playfellows of the King, and the acknowledged heiresses of their uncle’s millions; and of them all, not one had a keener eye to the future than Olympe of the long face, pointed chin, and dimples.  It was she who entered with the greatest zest into the romps and games of her playmate, Louis XIV., who surrounded him with the most delicate flatteries and attentions, and practised all her childish arts and coquetries to win his favour.  And she succeeded to such an extent that it was always the company of Olympe, and not of her more beautiful sisters, Hortense, Laure, or Marie, that Louis most sought.

Not that Olympe was always to remain the plain, unattractive child Madame de Motteville describes in 1647.  Each year, as it passed, added some touch of beauty, developed some latent charm, until at eighteen she was very fair to look upon.  “Her eyes now” says Madame de Motteville, “were full of fire, her complexion had become beautiful, her face less thin, her cheeks took dimples which gave her a fresh charm, and she had fine arms and beautiful hands.  She certainly seemed charming in the eyes of the King, and sufficiently pretty to indifferent spectators.”

That she had wooers in plenty, even before she was so far advanced in the teens, was inevitable; but her personal preferences counted for little in face of the Cardinal’s determination to find for her, as for all his nieces, a splendid alliance which should shed lustre on himself.  And thus it was that, without any consultation of her heart, Olympe’s hand was formally given to Prince Eugene de Savoie, Comte de Soissons, a man in whose veins flowed the Royal strains of Savoy and France.

It was a brilliant match indeed for the daughter of a petty Italian baron; and Mazarin saw that it was celebrated with becoming magnificence.  On the 20th February, 1657, we see a brilliant company repairing to the Queen’s apartments, “the Comte de Soissons escorting his betrothed, dressed in a gown of silver cloth, with a bouquet of pearls on her head, valued at more than 50,000 livres, and so many jewels that their splendour, joined to the natural eclat of her beauty, caused her to be admired by everyone.  Immediately afterwards, the nuptials were celebrated in the Queen’s chapel.  Then the illustrious pair, after dining with the Princesse de Carignan-Savoie, ascended to the apartments of his Eminence, the Cardinal, where they were entertained to a magnificent supper, at which the King and Monsieur did the company the honour of joining them.”

Then followed two days of regal receptions; a visit to Notre Dame to hear Mass, with the Queen herself as escort; and a stately journey to the Hotel de Soissons, where the Comtesse’s mother-in-law “testified to her, by her joy and the rich presents which she made her, how great was the satisfaction with which she regarded this marriage.”