the Queen-Mother "gave me many marks of
friendship and confidence; she assured me several times that her
honour was involved in my being pleased with her, and that nothing in
the kingdom was large enough to reward me for what I had done in her
service." That sounds very well, but what it really illustrates is the
extraordinary violence of aristocratic frivolity, the fierce levity
and insatiable frenzied vanity of the noble families. The aims of La
Rochefoucauld, in support of which he was ready to sacrifice his
country, were of a class that must seem to us now petty in the
extreme. He wanted the _tabouret_, the footstool, for his duchess, in
other words the right to be seated in presence of the members of the
royal family. He wanted the privilege of driving into the courtyard of
the Louvre without having to descend from his coach outside and walk
in. He demanded these honours because they were already possessed by
the families of Rohan and of Bouillon. It is extraordinary to consider
what powerful effects such trumpery causes could have, but it is a
fact that the desolating and cruel wars of the Fronde largely depended
upon jealousies of the _carrosse_ and the _tabouret_.
Pages:
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37