Memoirs of Louis XIV, vol 7 | Page 8

and whose husband he amused by
making verses. He hired all the houses on one side of a street near Saint
Sulpice, furnished them, and pierced the connecting walls, in order to
be able thus to reach the place of rendezvous without being suspected.
Jealous and cruel to his mistresses, he had, amongst others, the
Marquise de Richelieu; whom I name, because she is not worth the
trouble of being silent upon. He was hopelessly smitten and spent
millions upon her and to learn her movements. He knew that the Comte
de Roucy shared her favours (it was for her that sagacious Count
proposed to put straw before the house in order to guarantee her against
the sound of the church bells, of which she complained). M. le Prince
reproached her for favouring the Count. She defended herself; but he
watched her so closely, that he brought home the offence to her without
her being able to deny it. The fear of losing a lover so rich as was M. le
Prince furnished her on the spot with an excellent suggestion for
putting him at ease. She proposed to make an appointment at her own
house with the Comte de Roucy, M. le Prince's people to lie in wait,
and when the Count appeared, to make away with him. Instead of the
success she expected from a proposition so humane and ingenious, M.
le Prince was so horror- struck, that he warned the Comte de Roucy,
and never saw the Marquise de Richelieu again all his life.
The most surprising thing was, that with so much ability, penetration,
activity, and valour, as had M. le Prince, with the desire to be as great a
warrior as the Great Conde, his father, he could never succeed in
understanding even the first elements of the military art. Instructed as
he was by his father, he never acquired the least aptitude in war. It was

a profession was not born for, and for which he could not qualify
himself by study. During the last fifteen or twenty years of his life, he
was accused of something more than fierceness and ferocity.
Wanderings were noticed in his conduct, which were not exhibited in
his own house alone. Entering one morning into the apartment of the
Marechale de Noailles (she herself has related this to me) as her bed
was being made, and there being only the counterpane to put on, he
stopped short at the door, crying with transport, "Oh, the nice bed, the
nice bed!" took a spring, leaped upon the bed, rolled himself upon it
seven or eight times, then descended and made his excuses to the
Marechale, saying that her bed was so clean and so well-made, that he
could not hinder himself from jumping upon it; and this, although there
had never been anything between them; and when the Marechale, who
all her life had been above suspicion, was at an age at which she could
not give birth to any. Her servants remained stupefied, and she as much
as they. She got out of the difficulty by laughing and treating it as a
joke. It was whispered that there were times when M. le Prince
believed himself a dog, or some other beast, whose manners he
imitated; and I have known people very worthy of faith who have
assured me they have seen him at the going to bed of the King suddenly
throw his head into the air several times running, and open his mouth
quite wide, like a dog while barking, yet without making a noise. It is
certain, that for a long time nobody saw him except a single valet, who
had control over him, and who did not annoy him.
In the latter part of his life he attended in a ridiculously minute manner
to his diet and its results, and entered into discussions which drove his
doctors to despair. Fever and gout at last attacked him, and he
augmented them by the course he pursued. Finot, our physician and his,
at times knew not what to do with him. What embarrassed Finot most,
as he related to us more than once, was that M. le Prince would eat
nothing, for the simple reason, as he alleged, that he was dead, and that
dead men did not eat! It was necessary, however, that he should take
something, or he would have really died. Finot, and another doctor who
attended him, determined to agree with him that he was dead, but to
maintain that dead men sometimes eat. They offered to produce dead
men of this kind; and, in point of fact, led to M. le Prince some persons

unknown to him, who pretended to be dead, but who ate nevertheless.
This trick succeeded, but he would never