



Produced by David Widger





          MEMOIRS OF LOUIS XIV AND HIS COURT AND OF THE REGENCY

                        BY THE DUKE OF SAINT-SIMON




VOLUME 4.




CHAPTER XXV

Canaples, brother of the Marechal de Crequi, wished to marry Mademoiselle
de Vivonne who was no longer young, but was distinguished by talent,
virtue and high birth; she had not a penny.  The Cardinal de Coislin,
thinking Canaples too old to marry, told him so.  Canaples said he wanted
to have children.  "Children!" exclaimed the Cardinal.  "But she is so
virtuous!"  Everybody burst out laughing; and the more willingly, as the
Cardinal, very pure in his manners, was still more so in his language.
His saying was verified by the event: the marriage proved sterile.

The Duc de Coislin died about this time.  I have related in its proper
place an adventure that happened to him and his brother, the Chevalier de
Coislin: now I will say something more of the Duke.  He was a very little
man, of much humour and virtue, but of a politeness that was unendurable,
and that passed all bounds, though not incompatible with dignity.  He had
been lieutenant-general in the army.  Upon one occasion, after a battle
in which he had taken part, one of the Rhingraves who had been made
prisoner, fell to his lot.  The Duc de Coislin wished to give up to the
other his bed, which consisted indeed of but a mattress.  They
complimented each other so much, the one pressing, the other refusing,
that in the end they both slept upon the ground, leaving the mattress
between them.  The Rhingrave in due time came to Paris and called on the
Duc de Coislin.  When he was going, there was such a profusion of
compliments, and the Duke insisted so much on seeing him out, that the
Rhingrave, as a last resource, ran out of the room, and double locked the
door outside.  M. de Coislin was not thus to be outdone.  His apartments
were only a