Albans.
After a reign of five years in the court of the merry monarch,
her Grace of Portsmouth was destined to encounter a far more
formidable rival than Nell Gwynn, in the person of the Duchess of
Mazarine. This lady, on her arrival in England in 1675,
possessed most of the charms which had rendered her notable in
youth. To the attraction they lent was added an interest arising
from her personal history, in which King Charles had once
figured, and to which fate had subsequently added many pages of
romance.
Hortensia Mancini, afterwards Duchess of Mazarine, was descendant
of a noble Roman family, and niece of the great Julius Mazarine,
cardinal of the church, and prime minister of France. Her
parents dying whilst she, her sister and brother were young, they
had been reared under the care of his eminence. According to the
memoirs of the duchess, the cardinal's peace must have frequently
been put to flight by his charges, whose conduct, he declared,
exhibited neither piety nor honour. Mindful of this, he placed
his nieces under the immediate supervision of Madame de Venelle,
who was directed to have the closest guard over them. A story
related by the duchess shows in what manner this lady's duty was
carried out, and what unexpected results attended it on one
occasion.
When the court visited Lyons, in the year 1658, the cardinal's
nieces and their governess lodged in a commodious mansion in one
of the public squares. "Our chamber windows, which opened
towards the market-place," writes Hortensia, "were low enough for
one to get in with ease.
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