portrait. That portrait still exists, and gives a perfect notion of the
beauty which it represents; but as the portrait is far from our readers'
eyes, we will content ourselves by repeating, in its own original words,
the one given in 1667 by the author of a pamphlet published at Rouen
under the following title: True and Principal Circumstances of the
Deplorable Death of Madame the Marquise de Ganges:

[Note: It is from this pamphlet, and from the Account of the Death of
Madame the Marquise de Ganges, formerly Marquise de Castellane, that we
have borrowed the principal circumstances of this tragic story. To these
documents we must add--that we may not be constantly referring our
readers to original sources--the Celebrated Trials by Guyot de Pitaval,
the Life of Marie de Rossan, and the Lettres galantes of Madame
Desnoyers.]

"Her complexion, which was of a dazzling whiteness, was illumined by not
too brilliant a red, and art itself could not have arranged more
skilfully the gradations by which this red joined and merged into the
whiteness of the complexion. The brilliance of her face was heightened
by the decided blackness of her hair, growing, as though drawn by a
painter of the finest taste, around a well proportioned brow; her large,
well opened eyes were of the same hue as her hair, and shone with a soft
and piercing flame that rendered it impossible to gaze upon her steadily;
the smallness, the shape, the turn of her mouth, and, the beauty of her
teeth were incomparable; the position and the regular proportion of her
nose added to her beauty such an air of dignity, as inspired a respect
for her equal to the love that might be inspired by her beauty; the
rounded contour of her face, produced by a becoming plumpness, exhibited
all the vigour and freshness of health; to complete her charms, her
glances, the movements of her lips and of her head, appeared to be guided