Female Biography; Or, Memoirs of Illustrious and Celebrated Women, of All Ages and Countries Volume 1

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1803 edition. Excerpt: ... attachment to her. Having returned by the way of Poitou, she visited her relations, by whom she was received with the respect due to her preent situation. These civilities she repaid without any assumption; and regained the friendship of the family of Villette, who, since her conversion to the church of Rome, had" declined ta correspond with her. She paid during this tour the arrears of a pension which she owed to the Ursuline convent at Niort: she also discoveredwhat she had before been unacquainted with, that she was descended from one of the best families of the country. On her return from another journey to Bayneres, in 1678, she passed through Cognac, of which count d'Aubigne, her brother, was intrusted with the government. He signalised his zeal on this occasion by the reception he gave to the duke de Maine, the only action of his life in which he afforded to his sister any satisfaction: by his profligate and imprudent temper, d'Aubigne disgraced his family, and afforded to madame de Maintenon a perpetual subject of disquietude. In the course of the same year, without consulting his sister, who could have procured for him a more advantageous connection, he chose fox himself a wife, in the daughter of Pietre, th king's attorney at Paris. In the letter addressed to him on this occasion by madame de Maintenon, -which abounds with good counsel, a picture is exhibited of the manners of the times. Her good advice, a case by no means uncommon, was wholly thrown away; count d'Aubigne and his wife agreed so ill, that madame de Maintepon was obliged to separate them. She afterwards prevailed on her brother to retire into a religious house, where a number. of gentlemen, under the direction of some priests, had formed a community: his...