who has no lovers would have no charms for you, and if she has, she would be invaluable.  Do not all the places through which you have passed furnish me with a thousand examples?  Shall I mention your coup d’essai at Turin? the trick you played at Fontainebleau, where you robbed the Princess Palatine’s courier upon the highway? and for what purpose was this fine exploit, but to put you in possession of some proofs of her affection for another, in order to give her uneasiness and confusion by reproaches and menaces, which you had no right to use?

“Who but yourself ever took it into his head to place himself in ambush upon the stairs, to disturb a man in an intrigue, and to pull him back by the leg when he was half way up to his mistress’s chamber? yet did not you use your friend the Duke of Buckingham in this manner, when he was stealing at night to------although you were not in the least his rival?  How many spies did not you send out after d’Olonne?

[Mademoiselle de la Loupe, who is mentioned in De Retz’s Memoirs, vol. iii., p. 95.  She married the Count d’Olonne, and became famous for her gallantries, of which the Count de Bussi speaks so much, in his History of the Amours of the Gauls.  Her maiden name was Catherine Henrietta d’Angennes, and she was daughter to Charles d’Angennes, Lord of la Loupe, Baron of Amberville, by Mary du Raynier.  There is a long character of her by St. Evremond, in his works, vol. i., p. 17.  The same writer, mentioning the concern of some ladies for the death of the Duke of Candale, says, “But his true mistress (the Countess d’Olonne) made herself famous by the excess of her affliction, and had, in my opinion, been happy, if she had kept it on to the last.  One amour is creditable to a lady; and I know not whether it be not more advantageous to their reputation than never to have been in love.”—­St. Evremond’s works, vol. ii., p. 24.]

“How many tricks, frauds, and persecutions, did you not practise for the Countess de Fiesque, who perhaps might have been constant to you, if you had not yourself forced her to be otherwise?  But, to conclude, for the enumeration of your iniquities would be endless, give me leave to ask you, how you came here?  Are not we obliged to that same evil genius of yours, which rashly inspired you to intermeddle even in the gallantries of your prince?  Show some discretion then on this point here, I beseech you; all the beauties of the court are already engaged; and however docile the English may be with respect to their wives, they can by no means bear the inconstancy of their mistresses, nor patiently suffer the advantages of a rival:  suffer them therefore to remain in tranquillity, and do not gain their ill-will for no purpose.

“You certainly will meet with no success with such as are unmarried:  honourable views, and good landed property, are required here; and you possess as much of the one as the other.  Every country has its customs:  in Holland, unmarried ladies are of easy access, and of tender dispositions; but as soon as ever they are married, they become like so many Lucretias:  in France, the women are great coquettes before marriage, and still more so afterwards; but here it is a miracle if a young lady yields to any proposal but that of matrimony and I do not believe you yet so destitute of grace as to think of that.”