After
six years of wretchedness poor Hortense petitioned for a separation and
a division of property. She quitted her husband's home and took refuge
first in a nunnery, where she showed her unbelief, or her irreverence,
by mixing ink with holy-water, that the poor nuns might black their
faces when they crossed themselves; or, in concert with Madame de
Courcelles, another handsome married woman, she used to walk through the
dormitories in the dead of night, with a number of little dogs barking
at their heels; then she filled two great chests that were over the
dormitories with water, which ran over, and, penetrating through the
chinks of the floor, wet the holy sisters in their beds. At length all
this sorry gaiety was stopped by a decree that Hortense was to return to
the Palais Mazarin; and to remain there until the suit for a separation
should be decided. That the result should be favourable was doubtful:
therefore, one fine night in June, 1667, Hortense escaped. She dressed
herself in male attire, and, attended by a female servant, managed to
get through the gate at Paris, and to enter a carriage. Then she fled to
Switzerland; and, had not her flight been shared by the Chevalier de
Rohan, one of the handsomest men in France, one could hardly have blamed
an escape from a half-lunatic husband.
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