Madame D’Enghien, heiress of Estouteville.

Madame the Princess of Conde.

Madame de Nevers.

Madame de Guise.

Madame Diane de Poitiers [the King’s favourite].

Mesdames, the Duchesses d’Aumale and de Bouillon, and their daughters.

Madame de Montpensier.[1]

[Footnote 1:  The author here continues with a long catalogue of names including some one hundred and fifty other ladies of the Court, belonging to various noble houses of France.]

But why name any others?  No, for my memory could not supply them all.  Indeed, there are so many other ladies and maidens that I beg of them to excuse me if I pass them by with a stroke of the pen.  Not that I do not hold and esteem them highly, but I should dream over them and devote myself to them too much.  I will say, to conclude this, that in all this company I can name none who might be found fault with, for beauty abounded everywhere, and all was majesty, gentleness and grace.  Lucky was the man who might be touched with the love of such fair ones, and very lucky he who could escape it.  I swear to you that I have named none who were not very beautiful, agreeable and accomplished, and so endowed as to fire the whole world with passion.  Indeed, some of them in their zenith did set fire to a good part of it, including those of us gentlemen of the Court who approached too close to the flames.  Also to many were they sweet, amiable, favourable, and courteous.  I allude now to certain ones of whom I wish to relate good stories in this book before I have ended it, and of others who are not included.  But all will be told so quietly and without scandal that none can take offence, for the curtain of silence will cover their names; so that if any of them should happen to read stories of themselves they will not be displeased.  For although the pleasures of love cannot last forever, on account of too many hindrances, accidents and changes, the memories of past joys delight us none the less.

Now, in order to give proper consideration to them, it would be necessary to see for oneself all this lovely array of dames and demoiselles, creatures more divine than human; it would be necessary to represent them in their entrances into Paris and other cities, or at the holy and splendid nuptials of the royal family—­such as those of the Dauphin, King Charles, King Henry III, the King of Spain, Madame de Lorraine, the Queen of Navarre, as well as other grand weddings of princes and princesses, such as that of M. de Joyeuse, which would have surpassed them all if the Queen of Navarre had been present.  Nor must we forget the interview at Bayonne, the Polish embassy, and an infinite number of similar spectacles which I should never be able to finish counting, where could be seen an array of these ladies, each seemingly more beautiful than the rest, and some more handsomely apparelled than others, since at such festivities, in addition to their own wealth, the King or the Queen gave them splendid liveries of different kinds.