Belle Rose: A Romance of the Cloak and Sword — page 103: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE DREAMS OF A SUMMER DAY. 91 passion; and like the antique goddess, she appeared to the charmed eyes resplendent with life, youth, and love. Madame de Chateaufort passed for one of the most influ- ential women belonging to the court of the young king; her husband, governor of one of the provinces in the south of France, complacently left her at Paris, where he could hope everything from his wife’s credit. In return for this influence, Monsieur de Chateaufort accorded to the duchess, his wife, a liberty which she made full use of. There was between them a sort of tacit compromise whose clauses were loyally executed. ‘T’o him titles, honor, dignities; to her luxury, pleasures, independence. At the epoch of which we speak, such associations as these, con- secrated by the sacrament of marriage, were tolerated, perhaps even authorized in morals, and no one thought of speaking ill of their consequences. Those who made Madame de Chateaufort’s conduct the subject of their conversations did not think of blaming her; young people cultivated her acquaintance because they were flattered to know her, others on account of their ambition At the time Madame de Chateaufort met Belle-Rose, the rumor of her amour with Monsieur de Villebrais began to spread at court. The refined ones were astonished and sought the cause of it; the old lords, who had made war under Madame de Chevreuse and Madame de Longueville, did not worry themselves about a small thing like that. ‘‘It is, because it is,’’ said they. ‘‘Does any one know why the wind blows?’’ But that which no one doubted was that the reign of Monsieur de Villebrais had seen its last hour; from its dawn to its twilight, this amour had only been a flash. The noble pride, the calm and reflective audacity of Belle- Rose, had surprised Madame de Chateaufort; his youth, his good looks, had touched her. Under the dress of a soldier, she had just recognized the language and senti- ments of a gentleman; never had so much isolation and resolution appeared under the grave and charming figure of a young man. _ Belle-Rose had revealed himself to Madame de Chateaufort in the midst of circumstances which were attached to an epoch of her life which she _ could never forget; he had shown himself filled, at the _ game time, with hardihood and noble confidence; he had _ saved her life and had offered her his own in exchange; _ around his youth shone the aureole of a mysterious love. _ Isit surprising that curiosity, astonishment, interest, a thousand confused and inexplicable sensations, had de- GOmMmiGcodoo S ( “3