I have sometimes had five or six
_valets-de-chambre_, without a single footman in livery except my
chaplain.'
'How!' cried the Queen, laughing, 'a chaplain in livery? surely he was
not a priest.'
'_Pardon_, Madame, a priest, and the best dancer in the world of the
Biscayan gig.'
'Chevalier,' said the king, 'tell us the history of your chaplain
Poussatin.'
Then De Grammont related how, when he was with the great Conde, after
the campaign of Catalonia, he had seen among a company of Catalans, a
priest in a little black jacket, skipping and frisking: how Conde was
charmed, and how they recognized in him a Frenchman, and how he offered
himself to De Grammont for his chaplain. De Grammont had not much need,
he said, for a chaplain in his house, but he took the priest, who had
afterwards the honour of dancing before Anne of Austria, in Paris.
Suitor after suitor interfered with De Grammont's at last honourable
address to La Belle Hamilton. At length an incident occurred which had
very nearly separated them for ever. Philibert de Grammont was recalled
to Paris by Louis XIV. He forgot, Frenchman-like, all his engagements to
Miss Hamilton, and hurried off. He had reached Dover, when her two
brothers rode up after him.
Pages:
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177