I had not my mother to shield me,
and nobody had anything to do, so it was the universal fashion; and
M. de Lamont thought proper to pursue me. I knew he was dissipated
and good-for-nothing, and I showed the coldest indifference; but that
only gave him the opportunity of talking of my cruelty, and he even
persuaded Mademoiselle to assure me that he was in earnest.
'No doubt,' said I, 'he would like to meddle with the administration
of Nid de Merle. I have no doubt he is in earnest about that!'
But there was no escape, as we lived, from being beset. We had all
to attend the Queen to the Litanies at the chapel. She used to
remain in her little orator praying long after they were finished,
Mademoiselle with her, and, by her own account, generally asleep. I
am ashamed to say how much chatter, and how many petits soins, went
on among those waiting outside. I used to kneel, as I heard people
say, like a grim statue over my chair, with my rosary hanging from my
hands, for if I did but hear a rustle and turn my head, there stood
M. de Lamont with a bonbonniere, or an offer to shield me from the
draught, and I could hear a tittering behind me.
Yet there was enough to make us grave. In a fight with the Frondeurs
for Charenton, M. de Chatillon, one of the handsomest and gayest of
our cavaliers, was killed. He was the grandson of the Admiral de
Coligny, and was said to have been converted to the Church by the
miracle of the ducks returning regularly to the pond where the saint
had bound them to come.
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