The Golden Calf and Aaron were there, but where was the angry Moses?

CHAPTER V

Ninon and Count de Coligny

It was impossible for a maiden trained in the philosophy of Epicurus, and surrounded by a brilliant society who assiduously followed its precepts to avoid being caught in the meshes of the same net spread for other women.  Beloved and even idolized on all sides, as an object that could be worshiped without incurring the displeasure of Richelieu, who preferred his courtiers to amuse themselves with women and gallantries rather than meddle with state affairs, and being disposed both through inclination and training to accept the situation, Ninon felt the sentiments of the tender passion, but philosophically waited for a worthy object.

That object appeared in the person of the young Gaspard, Count de Coligny, afterwards Duc de Chatillon, who paid her assiduous court.  The result was that Ninon conceived a violent passion for the Count, which she could not resist, in fact did not care to resist, and she therefore yielded to the young man of distinguished family, charming manners, and a physically perfect specimen of manhood.

It is alleged by Voltaire and repeated by Cardinal de Retz, that the early bloom of Ninon’s charms was enjoyed by Richelieu, but if this be true, it is more than likely that Ninon submitted through policy and not from any affection for the great Cardinal.  It is certain, however, that the great statesman’s attention had been called to her growing influence among the French nobility, and that he desired to control her actions if not to possess her charms.  She was a tool that he imagined he could utilize to keep his rebellious nobles in his leash.  Abbe Raconis, Ninon’s uncle, and the Abbe Boisrobert, her friend, who stood close to the Cardinal, had suggested to His Eminence that the charms of the new beauty could be used to advantage in state affairs, and he accordingly sent for her at first through curiosity, but when he had seen her he hoped to control her for his personal benefit.

Although occupied in vast projects which his great genius and activity always conducted to a happy issue, the great man had not renounced the affections of his human nature, nor his intellectual gratifications.  He aimed at everything, and did not consider anything beneath his dignity.  Every day saw him engaged in cultivating a taste for literature and art, and some moments of every day were set apart for social gallantries.  When it came to the art of pleasing and attracting women, we have the word of Cardinal de Retz for it, that he was not always successful.  Perhaps it is only inferior minds who possess the art and the genius of seduction.