A PRINCESS OF INTRIGUE.f
EXCEPTING the memoirs of the time, more rich in varied interest and character than those of any other period of French history, a modern writer finds the works of M. Victer Cousin his chief assistance in dealing with the earlier half of the seventeenth century. M. Cousin studied memoirs and correspondence, with the result that he was never happy otit of the society of the women of those days, and he fell deeply and specially in love with Madame de Longueville. Unluckily for ns, he did not complete his studies of that fascinating person, and some of the most interesting episodes of her romantic life are not described by him. Of course, he was biassed by favouritism, and there is much in his books which must be taken cum gran ; but on the whole his studies appear to be as ideally true as they are brilliant. Mr. Noel Williams, who is familiar with all the materials that make the history bf thocie times, would be the first to acknowledge that he owes a good deal to Victor Cousin.
Mr. Williams, however, skilled as he is in writing those historical and social biographies now so popular, is not in the habit of being carried away, like Cousin, by his subject ; and his realistic portrait of Madame de Longueville is not the work of an artist in love with his model. He does not idealise the great lady at all. His title, indeed, is rather cruel and rather unjust. Madame de Longueville, proud, passionate, ambitious, languid, lazy, was not personally a "Princess bf intrigue." It is true that Madame de Motteville, writing bf the year 1647, and describing the influence of Madame Se Longueville's beauty and brilliancy, says that her ruene "became the centre of all intrignes, and those she loved became at once the darlings of fortune." But this, to judge by all the rest of her life, does not stamp Madame de Longne- vile 418 an intriguing woman. At any rate, this phase only lasted a very few years, perhaps seven or eight, including those Wars of the Fronde which were rather a wild game than a serious political struggle for the grandees of France. The title of "Princess of intrigue" seems much -more applicable to a woman of crafty plots and tricks, such as Madame de Gonzague, Princess Palatine, than to the rash, generous, quickly repentant Duchesse de LonguevUle.
Mr. Williams's book is an interesting chronicle of a most romantic period, beginning with the early adventures of
• Notes on Scottish Sons. 10 Robert Bents. Edited by the labs lames 'C. Diet. Loudon: Henry Browde. [101. ed.] • A Princess oy'Iwtriyar: Anne firneviise de Bourbon, 1)uefisiirerianipteroilre, Aim isff Thom,. By H. Bail Williams. 2 vole. With Illustratiaim. London : Hutchinson and Co. [24s. net.1
Madame de Longueville's beautiful mother, Charlotte de 'Eontmorency, Princesse de Conde, beloved of Henry IV., and :Tiding with his heroine's death in the odour of Jansenist sanctity in the year 1679, after her influence at Court bad saved Port-Royal, but only for the time, from the jaws of its more orthodox enemies.
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