Richelieu. Mazarin's house is now the Treasury.]

I brought good luck, and we often talked about it afterwards with the
King, regarding it as a sort of prediction or horoscope.




CHAPTER IX.

Marriage of Monsieur, the King's Brother.--His Hope of Mounting a
Throne.--His High-heeled Shoes.--His Dead Child.--Saint Denis.


Monsieur would seem to have been created in order to set off his brother,
the King, and to give him the advantage of such relief. He is small in
stature and in character, being ceaselessly busied about trifles,
details, nothings. To his toilet and his mirror, he devotes far more
time than a pretty woman; he covers himself with scents, with laces, with
diamonds.

He is passionately fond of fetes, large assemblies, and spectacular
displays. It was in order to figure as the hero of some such
entertainment that he suddenly resolved to get married.

Mademoiselle--the Grande Mademoiselle--Mademoiselle d'Eu, Mademoiselle de
Dombes, Mademoiselle de Montpensier, Mademoiselle de Saint-Fargeau,
Mademoiselle de la Roche-sur-Yon, Mademoiselle d'Orleans--had come into
the world twelve or thirteen years before he had, and they could not
abide each other. Despite such trifling differences, however, he