called the Arsenal, formerly the residence of Sully, the minister of
Henry IV., contained suites of apartments which were granted to
persons who had influence enough to obtain them. The Duc de Lude,
grand master of artillery, had them at his disposal, and gave one of
them to Madame de Frontenac. Here she made her abode with her friend;
and here at last she died, at the age of seventy-five. The annalist
Saint-Simon, who knew the court and all belonging to it better than
any other man of his time, says of her: "She had been beautiful and
gay, and was always in the best society, where she was greatly in
request. Like her husband, she had little property and abundant wit.
She and Mademoiselle d'Outrelaise, whom she took to live with her,
gave the tone to the best company of Paris and the court, though they
never went thither. They were called _Les Divines_. In fact, they
demanded incense like goddesses; and it was lavished upon them all
their lives."

Mademoiselle d'Outrelaise died long before the countess, who retained
in old age the rare social gifts which to the last made her apartments
a resort of the highest society of that brilliant epoch. It was in her
power to be very useful to her absent husband, who often needed her
support, and who seems to have often received it.

She was childless. Her son, Francois Louis, was killed, some say in
battle, and others in a duel, at an early age. Her husband died nine
years before her; and the old countess left what little she had to her
friend Beringhen, the king's master of the horse. [Footnote: On
Frontenac and his family, see Appendix A.]


[1] Note of M. Brunet, in _Correspondance de la Duchesse d'Orleans_,