less stoutly for one thing, he was not the man to change horses while crossing the stream; and, for another, he honestly believed that Chigi, with all his faults, was the best candidate in the field.

When Sachetti withdrew from the contest, one after another some twelve of the minor candidates were balloted for; but it was soon evident that none of them had any chance of success. Then, even the most dull-witted of the cardinals began to realise that his one hope of ever returning to the outside world lay in electing Chigi. But to elect Chigi, in defiance of France, was a risk, all parties agreed. Cardinal Sachetti was therefore persuaded to make a personal appeal to Mazarin to induce him to withdraw the veto he had placed on the popular cardinal's election. To this the French Minister consented the more easily as he had received a hint that, whatever he might do, the election would be made. The very day his answer arrived in the Vatican, the leaders of the various parties met together; and, after a certain amount of bartering, no doubt, agreed to elect Chigi on the morrow. De Retz, who was sent to announce this decision to the future pope, found him in his bed, for it was nine o'clock at night. Within an hour, however, his cell was crowded, and all the cardinals-excepting Rossetti and Grimaldi-were assuring him that it was for his own elevation they had been longing and striving during the whole eighty days the conclave had lasted. Nothing could be more edifying than the humility with which Chigi received these demonstrations of affection and respect. He burst into tears as he listened, and exclaimed, 'Pardonnez à un homme qui a toujours aimé ses proches avec tendresse et qui s'en voit séparé pour jamais.' During the ceremonies that followed he lavished marks of gratitude and favour on the man to whom, as he knew, he owed in a great measure his election. Signor Cardinal de Retz, ecce opus manuum tuarum,' he cried, embracing him tenderly the while, when, at the Adoration in St. Peter's, de Retz knelt before him to kiss his foot. That day, when the Cardinal returned home, 120 carriages accompanied him; for all Rome believed that it was he who, as the new pope's chosen friend, would rule supreme in the Vatican.

6

The gratitude of Alexander the Seventh, however, if lively was short-lived he objected to those around him having more brains than he had himself; and, before many months had passed, Paul de Retz found himself thrust aside to make way for some mere nonentity. Whereupon he straightway shook the dust of Rome from off his feet and started for the Netherlands, where he wandered about from place to place, sorely harried and worried by Mazarin's agents, but making friends none the less wherever he went. He once spent some weeks in London at the Court of Charles the Second, who conceived for him a great affection, and fain would have induced him to stay with him as âme damnée. De Retz,

however, declined the invitation, and for a reason his enemies could never quite understand. As a Frenchman and a royal favourite, no matter what he might say or do, the English people would, he knew, hate him; and life would not be worth living, he felt, if whenever he stirred abroad he had to encounter unfriendly glances. He therefore betook himself again to Holland, where he had none too pleasant a time, as he was at the end of his resources and his friends were, as he complains, waxing niggardly. When in 1661 his old enemy Mazarin died, he went back to France and met with quite a kindly welcome from Louis the Fourteenth, who, in return for the surrender of the archbishopric of Paris, gave him several rich abbacies. The Cardinal did not stay long in Versailles, however, for he had lost his taste for court life, and was too weary and worn to take up politics again. He therefore retired to an estate he had at Commercy, and passed the rest of his days there, much loved and reverenced by his neighbours.

EDITH SELLERS.

SOME FACTS ABOUT

MADEMOISELLE DE LESPINASSE

WHATEVER be the defects of this age in which we live it cannot be charged with any lack of generosity to the merits of former generations. The almost daily rescue from oblivion of long-forgotten characters and careers forms a prominent feature of the time, and there is perhaps no more conspicuous example of this sort than that furnished by Julie de Lespinasse. In her lifetime a social power of great importance, and afterwards endowed with posthumous literary fame, she has for many years been lost sight of by all but a small band of devoted admirers, her own countrymen almost exclusively. Now the wheel is come full circle, and, thanks to Mrs. Humphry Ward, she is once more, in England this time, in the forefront of public attention. Yet even now the amount of information diffused concerning her bears no proportion to the interest which she excites. Two factors only in her career are matter of universal knowledge-her connection with Madame du Deffand and her disastrous passion for Guibert. Much zealous research has been undertaken in the hope of filling up the imperfect outline thus obtained, and it has been rewarded by a considerable degree of success, though large gaping intervals still remain to stimulate our curiosity.

Little has been discovered regarding the earlier periods of her life. It is well known that she always looked back upon her childhood as a time of happiness, and spoke with deep affection and even reverence of her mother, the only parent she had ever known. This lady, Françoise d'Albon, an heiress of ancient lineage, was married at sixteen, as M. Eugène Asse informs us, to a cousin bearing the same name. The marriage proved unhappy, and after the birth of two children the young couple separated by mutual consent and without the formality of a divorce. Julie de Lespinasse (a surname borrowed from one of the Albon estates) came into the world after this rupture, and though never explicitly recognised as a daughter was brought up in company with the two legitimate children, who were also left in their mother's care. Her parentage on the father's side has always, in spite of many conjectures, remained unknown to

the world, and perhaps to the girl herself. As there had been no divorce, Julie's claim to legitimacy and a share in the family property might, in law, have been made good; and, according to Guibert, some such project was entertained by Madame d'Albon, when death cut short the execution of it. There is no doubt that Mademoiselle de Lespinasse, in her own opinion and that of her friends, made a real sacrifice of a perfectly valid claim when, on taking up her abode with Madame du Deffand, she promised that lady to abandon all title to the Albon estate. Regard for her mother's memory was supposed, and probably with truth, to have influenced her in this renunciation.

On the death of Madame d'Albon Julie, at the age of sixteen, was left with no better provision than an annuity of 121.; but this miserable pittance was supplemented by a large additional sum which her mother, when dying, secretly bestowed upon her. Of this she was shamefully robbed by her legitimate brother, Camille d'Albon, to whom, with childlike confidence in his honour and affection, she had entrusted it. As the only resource open to her she now accepted the position of nursery governess to the children of her sister, who had been married to the Marquis de Vichy, Madame du Deffand's brother, and in that capacity passed four years, which were probably the most miserable of her life. She was always fond of children, and we hear that she showed much devotion to her pupils, and that they in return entertained a strong affection for her. But her relations with the heads of the household were extremely unhappy, and the monotony of a French country house was also a serious trial to a person of her eminently social disposition. She determined at all costs to escape, and by an appeal to her brother, who seems to have claimed the rights, while exercising none of the duties, of a guardian she succeeded in carrying out her purpose of entering a convent as a boarder. In spite of the violent scenes which she says were daily occurrences in her life with M. and Madame de Vichy the parting was affectionate. The whole household, father, mother, children, and servants, were, says Madame du Deffand, dissolved in tears, and a promise, never redeemed, was exacted that she should visit them every summer.

After eighteen months uncomfortably spent in a convent at Lyon, where she could not afford a bedroom to herself, and was obliged to be in every evening by six, she entered upon her engagement with Madame du Deffand, for which negotiations had been begun before she quitted the De Vichys. As the circumstances of this arrangement (which lasted ten, and not, as in the novel, three years) are fairly well known we shall not dwell upon them at any great length. One or two points, however, seem to deserve more attention than they have yet received. In the first place, Mademoiselle de Lespinasse would appear to have enjoyed an amount of liberty truly remarkable in that age and that country for an un

married woman under thirty. Madame du Deffand had originally intended to install her young companion, during her own occasional absences from Paris, as an inside boarder in the Convent of St. Joseph, on the outskirts of which she herself resided, in company with other ladies and gentlemen who had by no means renounced the world. Her motive for this arrangement was ostensibly propriety, but really the fear that Julie, if left to herself, might depart from her promise regarding the disputed inheritance. For the same reason, and under the same pretence of solicitude, she had determined never to allow the girl to go out except in the company of friends or servants of her own. But these restrictions cannot have been permanently enforced. We have two letters written by the companion to her patroness, then absent at Montmorency, seven years after their engagement began, and while they were still on good terms. She here speaks of returning from a supper party at one in the morning, and mentions numerous dinners and visits. If at this time she really occupied her destined lodging within the cloister she must plainly have been exempted from all the ordinary regulations, such as the six o'clock rule.

The all-important question of finances may also be dealt with here. It is not clear whether Julie received any salary from Madame du Deffand. In one of that lady's letters, written before Mademoiselle de Lespinasse became an inmate of her house, a passage occurs which has been variously interpreted as requiring Monsieur d'Albon to settle upon his sister the sum of 16l. yearly, and as undertaking to do so herself. No fact is more clearly established than that Monsieur d'Albon never bestowed a penny upon the playfellow of his childhood, but if Madame du Deffand made the promise she may have fulfilled it. In the same year that Julie de Lespinasse came to Paris we find a contract drawn up by which the Duke of Orleans pledges himself to pay her a life annuity of 692 francs (about 281.) So far as we know she had no acquaintaince with the Duke, whose part in the transaction was probably that of a banker, the annuity being paid as interest on a principal placed in his hands by a third person, possibly Madame du Deffand, who in that case was liberal beyond her first intentions. Four years later a second bond is executed binding the King to pay Mademoiselle de Lespinasse an annuity of 600 francs (241.), and after four years more we have a similar undertaking for 2,000 francs (801.) yearly, the meaning no doubt being that the principal sums were in each case invested for her benefit in what we should now call Government securities, while the real donors remained anonymous. The young lady's income is thus brought up to 1447., and a few months after her rupture with Madame du Deffand it was further increased by another 80l. paid to her by Monsieur Laborde, a well known financier of that day, in consideration of 20,000 francs placed in his hands by the annuitant herself. It is