



Produced by David Widger





MEMOIRS OF MADAME LA MARQUISE DE MONTESPAN

Written by Herself


Being the Historic Memoirs of the Court of Louis XIV.




BOOK 4.


CHAPTER XLIX.

President de Nesmond.--Melladoro.--A Complacent Husband and His Love-sick
Wife.--Tragic Sequel.


President de Nesmond--upright, clear-headed magistrate as he was--was of
very great service to me at the Courts of Justice.  He always managed to
oblige me and look after my interests and my rights in any legal dispute
of mine, or when I had reason to fear annoyance on the part of my
husband.

I will here relate the grief that his young wife caused him, and it will
be seen that, by the side of this poor President, M. de Montespan might
count himself lucky.  Having long been a widower, he was in some measure
accustomed to this state, until love laid a snare for him just at the age
of sixty-five.

In the garden that lay below his windows--a garden owned by his
neighbour, a farmer--he saw Clorinde.  She was this yeoman's only
daughter.  He at once fell passionately in love with her, as David once
loved Bathsheba.

The President married Clorinde, who was very pleased to have a fine name
and a title.  But her husband soon saw--if not with surprise, at least
with pain--that his wife did not love him.  A young and handsome
Spaniard, belonging to the Spanish Legation, danced one day with
Clorinde; to her he seemed as radiant as the god of melody and song. She
lost her heart, and without further delay confessed to