The Memoirs of Madame de Montespan, vol 1 | Page 6

could to make me accompany him on
this journey. He pointed out to me that it behoved no young wife to be
anywhere without her husband. I, for my part, represented to him all
that in my official capacity I owed to the Queen. And as at that time I
still loved him heartily (M. de Montespan, I mean), and was sincerely
attached to him, I advised him to sell off the whole of the newly
inherited estate to some worthy member of his own family, so that he
might remain with us in the vast arena wherein I desired and hoped to
achieve his rapid advance.
Never was there man more obstinate or more selfwilled than the
Marquis. Despite all my friendly persuasion, he was determined to go.
And when once settled at the other end of France, he launched out into
all sorts of agricultural schemes and enterprises, without even knowing
why he did so. He constructed roads, built windmills, bridged over a
large torrent, completed the pavilions of his castle, replanted coppices
and vineyards, and, besides all this, hunted the chamois, bears, and
boars of the Nebouzan and the Pyrenees. Four or five months after his
departure I received a letter from him of so singular a kind that I kept it
in spite of myself, and in the Memoirs it will not prove out of place. Far
better than any words of mine, it will depict the sort of mind, the logic,
and the curious character of the man who was my husband.
MONTESPAN,--May 15, 1667.
I count more than ever, madame, upon your journey to the Pyrenees. If
you love me, as all your letters assure me, you should promptly take a
good coach and come. We are possessed of considerable property here,
which of late years my family have much neglected. These domains
require my presence, and my presence requires yours. Enough is yours
of wit or of good sense to understand that.

The Court is, no doubt, a fine country,--finer than ever under the
present reign. The more magnificent the Court is, the more uneasy do I
become. Wealth and opulence are needed there; and to your family I
never figured as a Croesus. By dint of order and thrift, we shall ere long
have satisfactorily settled our affairs; and I promise you that our stay in
the Provinces shall last no longer than is necessary to achieve that
desirable result. Three, four, five,-- let us say, six years. Well, that is
not an eternity! By the time we come back we shall both of us still be
young. Come, then, my dearest Athenais, come, and make closer
acquaintance with these imposing Pyrenees, every ravine of which is a
landscape and every valley an Eden. To all these beauties, yours is
missing; you shall be here, like Dian, the goddess of these noble forests.
All our gentlefolk await you, admiring your picture on the
sweetmeat-box. They are minded to hold many pleasant festivals in
your honour; you may count upon having a veritable Court. Here it is
that you will meet the old Warnais nobility that followed Henri IV. and
placed the sceptre in his hand. Messieurs de Grammont and de Biron
are our neighbours; their grim castles dominate the whole district, so
that they seem like kings.
Our Chateau de Montespan will offer you something less severe; the
additions made for my mother twenty years ago are infinitely better
than anything that you will leave behind you in Paris. We have here the
finest fruits that ever grew in any earthly paradise. Our huge, luscious
peaches are composed of sugar, violets, carnations, amber, and
jessamine; strawberries and raspberries grow everywhere; and naught
may vie with the excellence of the water, the vegetables, and the milk.
You are fond of scenery and of sketching from nature; there are half a
dozen landscapes here for you that leave Claude Lorrain far behind. I
mean to take you to see a waterfall, twelve hundred and seventy feet in
height, neither more nor less. What are your fountains at Saint Germain
and Chambord compared with such marvellous things as these?
Now, madame, I am really tired of coaxing and flattering you, as I have
done in this letter and in preceding ones. Do you want me, or do you
not? Your position as Court lady, so you say, keeps you near the
monarch; ask, then, or let me ask, for leave of absence. After having
been for four consecutive years Lady of the Palace, consent to become
Lady of the Castle, since your duties towards your spouse require it.

The young King, favourite as he is with the ladies, will soon find ten
others to replace you. And I, dearest Athenais, find it hard even to think
of