HENRIETTA ANNE, DUCHESS OF ORLEANS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2471, 24 July 1901, Page 72

HENRIETTA ANNE, DUCHESS OF ORLEANS.

(Maby E. Httllah, in the Girls' Own Paper Extra Summer Part.) daughter of our Soveraigne Lord, King Charles, and our gracious Queen Mary," was born at Exeter on June 16, 1644, and baptised ia the Cathedral without state or ceremony. The name "Anne" was added later in compliment to Anne of Austria, Queen Regent of France. ... At nine years o'd Henrietta appeared at a State ball, at 10 she danced in a ballet -royal dressed as a peasant. Even at this early age matrimonial alliances were proposed for her. Anne of Austria wished her to become the bride of her son Louis XIV, but the young King, who was Borne years older than his little English cousin, declared openely that "he did not like little girls."' The King's only brother, however, Philippe de France ("Monsieur) early lost his heart to the Princess of England, and in the year 1660 — the year of the restoration of the royal family — he proposed for her hand. Monsieur, now created the Duke of Orleans by the King, was 20 years old : he was a handsome, weak-minded, frivolous individual, whose principal occupation was in the contemplation of his fine clothes and the arrangement of festivities. For a short time he was devoted to his beautiful bride, then he became jealous of her popularity and neglected her ; indeed, as he said Limself, he ceased to love Henrietta a fortnight after their marriage. At first things went fairly well. The young Duchess (('Madame") was now in the first flush of her beauty and triumph. From contemporaries we learn that she hd a fair complexion, blue eyes, regular features, rather of the Stuart tj-pe — and a graceful figure. Shf was brilliantly clever, sweet-tempered, and possessed the royal gift of tact to perfection ; she charmed everyone with whom ehe spoke. The Court led a life of gaiety. ' The King was sincerely attached to his lively sister-in-law, and misled no opportunity of showing her attention, There was balls, fetes, b?l-masques, ballet", in which Louis and Henrietta tool; principal parts. We hear of riding parties &t Fontainebleau, boating on the Seine, a stag•hunt by torchlight, "to please m idame. ' Henrietta's first child was born at tl.-e Palais Royal, 1662. The appearance of this little girl was a great disappointment to her parents* who bad ardently desired A son and

heir, and the young mother is reported to have said, "Then throw her into the river!" In after years Madame wrote to her brother, Charles 11, describing the beauty and goodness of this little daughter, Marie Louise, hinting that she very much resembled her uncle. Upon which the King replied, "I never thought my face wa.s so much as intended for a beauty." The friendship between Charles and Henrietta was very deep, and we find the cynical, heartless monarch writing in such terms as these to his sister: "1 assure you there is nothing I love so well as my dearest Minettc — and signing himself, "Truly and passionately yours, C. R." In the meantime Louis trusted so completely to Madame's sagacity that he employed her as ambassadress, and at last all important communications addressed to Charles passed through her hands. With the years came troubles : the young Queen of France, Marie Therese, became jealous of the King's attentions to Madame ; the Queen Regent ceased to notice her ; Monsieur was jealous of the King, of the great nobles, of the Dukes of Monmouth and Buckingham, of Henrietta's growing influence. In that atmosphere of Court gossip and intrigue it was hard to avoid the breath of scandal ; nevertheless, Madame was loved and respected by the most brilliant and intellectual men and women in France. The great soldiers, Conde and Turenne ; Bossuet, La Rochefoucauld, Racine, Moliere, Boileau, La Fontaine, Madame de Sevigne, were all welcome to her home at St. Cloud. Her friend Cornac, Bishop of Valence, paid her a touching tribute -when he wrote : 'She %as the mobt human creature in the world." The Court intrigues were rapidly growing more serious. With inexhaustible patience, Henrietta strove to live in peace wini her husband ; but he had now given himself up into the hands of a new favourite — Cardinal of Lorraine. This personage took the greatest liberties, and even dared to suggest that his master should obtain a separation from Madame. Finally, at the instigation of Charles 11, Louis paced Lorraine in the Chateau d'lf, and afterwards condemned him to exile. Mon«ieur, in a violent rage, retired from Court with his wife, and only consented to return when the King sent "him minister Colbert to fetch him. His wrath broke out again on learning that Henrietta was to be sent on a diplomatic mission to England, and that King Charles had not included him in the invitation. He accompanied the travelling party to XJQiirJi-.iv. and behaved in such a was as to scandalise Queen Marie Therese. He insulted Henrietta, and declared that an astrologer had foretold that he should have several wives, and that Madame would not live long. We must pass over the details of the secret treaty — 'o disastrous to England — signed at Dover by Charles under Henrietta's influence. It was her last v^sit to England. She bade farewell to her beloved brother in tears ; the scene at parting, was so pitiful to behold that a bystander declared he ha*d not thought these royalties could love each other so well. Madame, broken in health, retired to St. Cloud, where on June 30, 1670, in her twenty-sixth year, she was seized Vi T ith a mortal illness. After drinking a glass of iced chicory-water she called out, "I must be poisoned," and fell down in great agony. Three doctors were hastily summoned, but the patient never rallied. She declared from the first that there was no hope. The King and Queen arrived weeping ; the palace was crowded with visitors. Henrietta said good-bye to them all. Her husband was standing by, bewildered and distressed. To him she said, "Kiss me, Sire, for the last time." Feuillet.^ a Jansenist canon, was brought to her side, and even his stern heart was softened by her humility. Montagu, the English Ambassador, asked her if she had been poisoned. Feuillet forbade her to ' accuse any one. She said eagerly in English to Montagu. "Don't let the King know!" Almost her last thought, was to save hei brother from pain. As the end drew near Bossuet arrived, to Henrietta's great joy. "Madame," asked the bishop, "you believe in God, you hope in God, you love God?" "With all my heart," she said ; and so parsed away, with 'good courage, full of faith and hope.