. Five fair sisters : an Italian episode at the court of Louis XIV. that itwould go so far as to deprive me of all contentment,when my time is employed in anything else than inthinking of you.^ He knew the extent of his empire, did this astuteItalian, and he exulted in reminding his royal conquestof it. If you were nearer the sea [Mazarin], I believethat you would be more pleased. I trust that that willbe soon. It has frequently been claimed that the Queen andthe Cardinal were secretly m^arried. Such was thetradition preserved at the Palais-Royal, as the lettersof the Duchesse dOrl^ans, mother
. Five fair sisters : an Italian episode at the court of Louis XIV. that itwould go so far as to deprive me of all contentment,when my time is employed in anything else than inthinking of you.^ He knew the extent of his empire, did this astuteItalian, and he exulted in reminding his royal conquestof it. If you were nearer the sea [Mazarin], I believethat you would be more pleased. I trust that that willbe soon. It has frequently been claimed that the Queen andthe Cardinal were secretly m^arried. Such was thetradition preserved at the Palais-Royal, as the lettersof the Duchesse dOrl^ans, mother of the Regent,prove.^ The same charge, too, is to be found in manyof the pamphlets published during the Fronde, and hasbeen accepted by more than one historian of weight,who argue that a woman of Annes extravagant piety 1 For the rest of this letter, see p. 25 tn/ra. 2 The Queen-Mother, widow of Louis XIII, did more than loveCardinal Mazarin ; she married him.— Correspondance complete deMadame, Duchesse dOrleans, J)ui>/iee />ar G. Brunet, 1855, II, p. ir:>m an engiaMii? attei the painting by ]\Iignard CARDINAL MAZARIN FIVE FAIR SISTERS ii would have recoiled with horror from any connectionunsanctioned by Holy Church. Those who hold this view, of course, start with theassumption that Mazarin was only in minor Orders, andtherefore would have been free to marry had he been sodisposed. This was certainly the opinion of his con-temporaries, and the Abb6 de Laffmas, in a rhymingletter which he addressed to the Cardinal in 1649, says :— Vous etes un grand cardinal,Un homme de haute entieprise,Vingt fois abbe, homme de Icglise,Quoique ne soyez in sacris. . Aubery (Histoire de Cardinal Mazarin) and VictorCousin ( La Jeunesse de Mazarin) pronounce also forthe negative, as does M. Cheruel ( Histoire de Francependant la minorite de Louis XIV), On the otherhand, Amedee Rence, in his Nieces de Mazarin, andthat indefatigable unraveller of historical mysteriesM. Jules Loisele
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