Mazarin.  Hortense had been educated, after the age of six, in France.  She was Italian in her accomplishments, in her reckless, wild disposition, opposed to that of the French, who are generally calculating and wary, even in their vices:  she was Italian in the style of her surpassing beauty, and French to the core in her principles.  Hortense, at the age of thirteen, had been married to Armand Duc de Meilleraye and Mayenne, who had fallen so desperately in love with this beautiful child, that he declared ’if he did not marry her he should die in three months.’  Cardinal Mazarin, although he had destined his niece Mary to this alliance, gave his consent on condition that the duke should take the name of Mazarin.  The cardinal died a year after this marriage, leaving his niece Hortense the enormous fortune of L1,625,000; yet she died in the greatest difficulties, and her corpse was seized by her creditors.

The Duc de Mayenne proved to be a fanatic, who used to waken his wife in the dead of the night to hear his visions; who forbade his child to be nursed on fast-days; and who believed himself to be inspired.  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.  She was only twenty-eight when, after various adventures, she came in all her unimpaired beauty to England.  Charles was captivated by her charms, and, touched by her misfortunes, he settled on her a pension of L4,000 a year, and gave her rooms in St. James’s.  Waller sang her praise:—­

    ’When through the world fair Mazarine had run,
     Bright as her fellow-traveller, the sun: 
     Hither at length the Roman eagle flies,
     As the last triumph of her conquering eyes.’