The Memoirs of Madame de Montespan, vol 7 | Page 9

who yesterday insulted me so unjustly," I
said then to this villain who was ready for death, "he has done a
virtuous act, but one which I condemn. I condemn it because of the law
of the Prince, which is formal, and because of the dire peril into which
he has run; for that my heart could almost praise and thank him. I was
ignorant of his offence; I am ignorant of his place of refuge. Whoever
you may be,--the agent of a family in mourning, or of a magistrate who
forgets what is due to me,--leave my house before my wrath is
rekindled. Depart, and never forget what one gains by putting on the
livery of deceit in order to surprise and betray innocence."
My people conducted this unworthy man to the outer gate, and refused
to satisfy some prayers which he addressed to them to be released from
his disagreeable bonds. The public, with its usual inconsequence,
followed the monk with hooting, without troubling as to whether it
were abusing a vile spy or a man of worth.
We waited for a whole month without receiving any news of our guard.
At last he wrote to me from the island of Jersey, where he had been cast
by a storm. I despatched the son of my intendant, who knew him
perfectly; I sent him a letter of recommendation to his Majesty the King
of England, who had preserved me in his affections, and to those
matters of pure obligation, which I could not refrain from without
cruelty, I added a present of a hundred thousand livres, which was
enough to furnish an honourable condition for my noble and generous
cavalier in the land of exile.
The humour of my heart is of the kind which finishes by forgetting an
injury and almost an outrage; but a service loyally rendered is graven
upon it in uneffaceable characters, and when (at the solicitation of the
King of England) our monarch shall have pardoned M. de Monclar, I

will search all through Paris to find him a rich and lovely heiress, and
will dower him myself, as his noble conduct and my heart demand.
I admire great souls as much as I loathe ingratitude and villainy.

CHAPTER XL
.
Parallel between the Diamond and the Sun.--Taste of the Marquise for
Precious Stones.--The King's Collection of Medals.--The Crown of
Agrippina.--The Duchess of York.--Disappointment of the Marquise.--
To Lend Is Not to Give.--The Crown Well Guarded.--Fright of the
Marquise. --The Thief Recognised.--The Marquise Lets Him
Hang.--The Difference between Cromwell and a
Trunkmaker.--Delicate Restitutions.--The Bourbons of Madame de
Montespan.
The diamond is, beyond contradiction, the most beautiful creation of
the hands of God, in the order of inanimate objects. This precious stone,
as durable as the sun, and far more accessible than that, shines with the
same fire, unites all its rays and colours in a single facet, and lavishes
its charms, by night and day, in every clime, at all seasons; whilst the
sun appears only when it so pleases; sometimes shining, sometimes
misty, and shows itself off with innumerable pretensions.
From my tenderest childhood, I was notable amongst all my brothers
and sisters for my distinct fondness for precious stones and diamonds. I
have made a collection of them worthy of the Princes of Asia; and if
my whole fortune were to fail me to-day, my pearls and diamonds,
being left to me, would still give me opulence. The King, by a strange
accident, shares this taste with me. He has in his third closet two huge
pedestals, veneered in rosewood, and divided within, like cabinets of
coins, into several layers. It is there that he has conveyed, one by one,
all the finest diamonds of the Crown. He consecrates to their
examination, their study, and their homage, the brief moments that his
affairs leave him. And when, by his ambassadors, he comes to discover
some new apparition of this kind in Asia or Europe, he does all that is
possible to distance his competitors.
When he loved me with a tender love, I had only to wish and I obtained
instantly all that could please me, in rare pearls, in superfine brilliants,

sapphires, emeralds, and rubies. One day, his Majesty allowed me to
carry home the famous crown of Agrippina, executed with admirable
art, and formed of eight sprays of large brilliants handsomely mounted.
This precious object occupied me for several days in succession, and
the more I examined the workmanship, the more I marvelled at its
lightness and excellence, which was so great that our jewellers,
compared with those of Nero and Agrippina, were as artisans and
workmen.
The King, having never spoken to me again of this ornament, I
persuaded myself that he had made me a present of it,--a