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TITLE: THE PRINCESS DE MONTPENSIER
AUTHOR: LAFAYETTE
EBOOK: E00620 (O'Briens Book Cellar)

The Princess de Montpensier

By Mme. de Lafayette.

Introduction. By Oliver.C.Colt.

This story was written by Madame de Lafayette and published
anonymously in 1662. It is set in a period almost 100 years
previously during the sanguinary wars of the counter-reformation,
when the Catholic rulers of Europe, with the encouragement of the
Papacy, were bent on extirpating the followers of the creeds of
Luther and Calvin. I am not qualified to embark on a historical
analysis, and shall do no more than say that many of the persons
who are involved in the tale actually existed, and the events
referred to actually took place. The weak and vicious King and
his malign and unscrupulous mother are real enough, as is a Duc
de Montpensier, a Prince of the Blood, who achieved some
notoriety for the cruelty with which he treated any Huguenots who
fell into his hands, and for the leadership he gave to the
assassins during the atrocious massacre of St. Bartholomew's day.
He was married and had progeny, but the woman to whom he was
married was not the heroine of this romance, who is a fictional
character, as is the Comte de Chabannes.

The Duc de Guise of the period whose father had been killed
fighting against the protestants, did marry the Princess de
Portein, but this was for political reasons and not to satisfy
the wishes of a Princess de Montpensier.

It will be noticed,I think, that women were traded in marriage
with little or no regard to their personal emotions, and no
doubt, as has been remarked by others, marriages without love
encouraged love outside marriage. Whatever the reality, the
literary conventions of the time seem to have dictated that we
should be treated only to ardent glances, fervent declarations,
swoonings and courtly gestures, we are not led even to the
bedroom door, let alone the amorous couch. I wonder, however, if
the reader might not think that this little tale written more
than three hundred years ago contains the elements of many of the
romantic novels and soap operas which have followed it.

At one level it is a cautionary tale about the consequences of
marital infidelity; at another it is a story of a woman betrayed,
treated as a pretty bauble for the gratification of men, and cast
aside when she has served her purpose, or a butterfly trapped in
a net woven by uncaring fate. Her end is rather too contrived for
modern taste, but, even today, characters who are about to be
written out of the plot in soap operas are sometimes smitten by
mysterious and fatal disorders of the brain.

The unfortunate Comte de Chabannes is the archtypical "decent
chap" The faithful but rejected swain who sacrifices himself for
the welfare of his beloved without expectation of reward. In the
hands of another writer, with some modification, he could  have
provided a happy ending in the "Mills and Boon" tradition.

This translation is not a schoolroom exercise, for although I
have not altered the story, I have altered the exact way in which
it is told in the original, with the aim of making it more
acceptable to the modern reader. All translation must involve
paraphrase, for what sounds well in one language may sound
ridiculous if translated literally into another, and it is for
the translator to decide how far this process may be carried.
Whether I have succeeded in my task, only the reader can say.

The Princess de Montpensier

By Madame de Lafayette

Translated by Oliver.C.Colt.

It was while the civil war of religion was tearing France apart
that the only daughter of the Marquis of Mezieres, a very
considerable heiress, both because of her wealth and the
illustrious house of Anjou from which she was descended, was
promised in marriage to the Duc de Maine, the younger brother of
the Duc de Guise.

The marriage was delayed because of the youth of this heiress,
but the elder of the brothers, the Duc de Guise, who saw much of
her, and who saw also the burgeoning of what was to become a
great beauty, fell in love with her and was loved in return. They
concealed their feelings with great care; the Duc de Guise, who
had not yet become as ambitious as he was to become later, wanted
desperately to marry her, but fear of angering his uncle, the
Cardinal de Lorraine, who had taken the place of his dead father,
prevented him from making any declaraton.

This was how the matter stood when the ruling house of Bourbon,
who could not bear to see any benefit accruing to that of de
Guise, decided to step in and reap the profit themselves by
marrying this heiress to the Prince de Montpensier.

This project was pursued with such vigour that the parents of
Mlle. de Mezieres, despite the promises given to the Cardinal de
Lorraine, resolved to give her in marriage to the young Prince.
The house of de Guise was much displeased at this, but the Duc
himself was overcome by grief, and regarded this as an
insupportable affront. In spite of warnings from his uncles, the
Cardinal and the Duc de Aumale--who did not wish to stand in the
way of something which they could not prevent--he expressed
himself with so much violence, even in the presence of the Prince
de Montpensier, that a mutual enmity arose between them which
lasted all their lives.

Mlle. de Mezieres, urged by her parents to marry the Prince,
realised that it was impossible for her to marry the Duc de
Guise, and that if she married his brother, the Duc de Maine, she
would be in the dangerous position of having as a brother-in-law
a man whom she wished was her husband; so she agreed finally to
marry the Prince and begged the Duc de Guise not to continue to
place any obstacle in the way.

The marriage having taken place, the Prince de Montpensier took
her off to his estate of Champigny, which was where Princes of
his family usually lived, in order to remove her from Paris,
where it seemed that an outbreak of fighting was imminent: this
great city being under threat of siege by a Huguenot army led by
the Prince de Conde, who had once more declared war on the King.

The Prince de Montpensier had, when a very young man, formed a
close friendship with the Comte de Chabannes, a man considerably
older than himself and of exemplary character. The Comte in turn
had been so much influenced by the esteem and friendship of the
Prince that he had broken off influential connections which he
had with the Prince de Condee and had declared for the Catholics;
a change of sides which, having no other foundation, was regarded
with suspicion: so much so that the Queen Mother, Catherine de
Medici, on the declaration of war by the Huguenots, proposed to
have him imprisoned. The Prince de Montpensier prevented this and
carried him away to Champigny when he went there with his wife.
The Comte being a very pleasant, amiable man soon gained the
approbation of the Princess and before long she regarded him with
as much friendship and confidence as did her husband. Chabannes,
for his part, observed with admiration the beauty, sense and
modesty of the young Princess, and used what influence he had to
instill in her thoughts and behaviour suited to her elevated
position; so that under his guidance she became one of the most
accomplished women of her time.

The Prince having gone back to the Court, where he was needed
owing to the continuation of the war, the Comte lived alone with
the Princess and continued to treat her with the respect due to
her rank and position. The Princess took him so far into her
confidence as to tell him of the feelings she had once had for
the Duc de Guise, but she intimated that there remained only
enough of this emotion to prevent her heart from straying
elsewhere and that this remnant, together with her wifely virtue
made it impossible for her to respond, except with a rebuff, to
any possible suitor.

The Comte who recognised her sincerity and who saw in her a
character wholly opposed to flirtation and gallantry, did not
doubt the truth of her words; but nevertheless he was unable to
resist all the charms which he saw daily so close to him. He fell
deeply in love with the Princess, in spite of the shame he felt
at allowing himself to be overcome by this illicit passion.
However although not master of his heart, he was master of his
actions; the change in his emotions did not show at all in his
behaviour, and no one suspected him. He took, for a whole year,
scrupulous care to hide his feelings from the Princess and
believed that he would always be able to do so.

Love, however, had the same effect on him as it does on everyone,
he longed to speak of it, and after all the struggles which are
usually made on such occasions, he dared to tell her of his
devotion. He had been prepared to weather the storm  of reproach
which this might arouse, but he was greeted with a calm and a
coolness which was a thousand times worse than the outburst which
he had expected. She did not take the trouble to be angry. She
pointed out in a few words the difference in their rank and ages,
she reminded him of what she had previously said about her
attitude to suitors and above all to the duty he owed to the
confidence and friendship of the Prince her husband. The Comte
was overwhelmed by shame and distress. She tried to console him
by assuring him that she would forget entirely what he had just
said to her and would always look on him as her best friend;
assurances which were small consolation to the Comte as one might
imagine. He felt the disdain which was implicit in all that the
Princess had said, and seeing her the next day with her customary
untroubled looks redoubled his misery.

The Princess continued to show him the same goodwill as before
and even discussed her former attachment to the Duc de Guise,
saying that she was pleased that his increasing fame showed that
he was worthy of the affection she had once had for him. These
demonstrations of confidence, which were once so dear to the
Comte, he now found insupportable, but he did not dare say as
much to the Princess, though he did sometimes remind her of what
he had so rashly confessed to her.

After an absence of two years, peace having been declared, the
Prince de Montpensier returned to his wife, his renown enhanced
by his behaviour at the siege of Paris and the battle of
St.Denis. He was surprised to find the beauty of the Princess
blooming in such perfection, and being of a naturally jealous
disposition he was a little put out of humour by the realisation

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