The Three Musketeers (Translated by Richard Pevear) - Alexandre Dumas [323]
74.Mme Guitaut…Mme de Guéménée: Mme de Guitaut was the wife of François de Guitaut, comte de Comminges (1581–1663), captain of the queen’s guards, who is mentioned a little further on. Mme de Sablé is Madeleine de Souvray (1599–1678). Married to Philippe-Emmanuel de Laval, marquis de Sablé, she was later a friend of Pascal, Mme de La Fayette, and La Rochefoucauld, whose maxims she helped to edit. Marie d’Avaugour de Bretagne, duchesse de Montbazon (d.1657), was the second wife of Hercule de Rohan, duc de Montbazon (1568–1654), master of the royal hunt, governor of the city of Paris and the Île de France, and father by his first wife of Mme de Chevreuse (see note 21). Anne de Rohan (1604–85) was married to her own cousin, Louis de Rohan, prince de Guéménée (1599–1677).
75.memoirs of the time: There was an abundance of gossip but a dearth of evidence about the amorous relations between Marie de Medicis and the cardinal. Richelieu had been her personal chaplain. After her wars with her son (1617–20), the queen mother returned to court, and in 1624 managed to have the cardinal made prime minister. However, by 1629 they had become bitter enemies. In 1630, on the so-called journée des Dupes (“day of the Dupes”), she and Anne d’Autriche, among others, tried unsuccessfully to engineer his fall.
76.Des Roches le Masle: That is, Michel le Masle, prior of Les Roches de Longpont, cantor and canon of Notre Dame de Paris. He was Richelieu’s secretary and established an annual prayer for the cardinal’s soul after his death.
77.M. de Laffemas…: Isaac de Laffemas (1584–1657), lawyer and magistrate in the Chambre de Justice, was known as “Richelieu’s executioner.” The phrase grand gibecier (“grand gibbeteer,” i.e., supplier of game [gibier] not for the table but for the noose [gibet]), is found in the memoirs of M. de La Porte (see note 48).
78.Your Majesty’s person: The story is borne out by a number of contemporary accounts, including the memoirs of La Rochefoucauld, but relates to the year 1637.
79.Mme de Motteville: Françoise Bertaut (1621–89), wife of Nicolas Langlois, sieur de Motteville, had been sent away from the court by Richelieu, but came back after his death and remained with Anne d’Autriche until the queen’s death in 1666. Her Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire d’Anne d’Autriche, épouse de Louis XIII roi de France (“Memoirs to contribute to the history of Anne d’Autriche, wife of Louis XIII, king of France”), first published in Amsterdam in 1723, and reprinted in 1823 and 1838, were an important source for Dumas.
80.no traces of their passage: See Proverbs 30:18–19: “Three things are too wonderful for me; four I do not understand: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a maiden” (Revised Standard Version).
81.ear of Dionysius: An artificial limestone cave carved out of a hillside in Syracuse (Sicily), possibly an old quarry, about seventy-five feet high and two hundred feet deep, tapered at the top, giving it excellent acoustics. The name, which was coined by the painter Caravaggio (1573–1610), may refer to local legend. Dionysius the Elder, tyrant of Syracuse from 405–367 b.c., kept prisoners there and eavesdropped on their conversations.
82.Bondy: The forest of Bondy, ten miles northeast of Paris, was known for harboring thieves and cutthroats.
83.Forges: Forges-les-Eaux, near Neufchâtel, northwest of Paris, was famous for its mineral waters and much in fashion in the seventeenth century.
84.St. Augustine: Twenty-one of the twenty-two books of The City of God, by St. Augustine of Hippo (a.d. 354–430), have a chapter eighteen.
85.St. John Golden-mouth: St. John Chrysostom (a.d. 347–407) was archbishop of Constantinople and one of the greatest theologians and fathers of the Church. His Greek surname, which means “Golden-mouth,” testifies to the eloquence of his sermons.
86.the comte de Wardes: In the pseudo Mémoires de M. d’Artagnan, Courtilz introduces