Here Seemed To Be At This Time An Assemblage Of All That Was To Be Found
Of Grand And Polite
In the whole christian world; but none appeared with
that splendor and magnificence as did Lewis de Bourbon, prince of
Conti:
he had in his train above fifty noblemen and gentlemen of the best
families in France, who had commissions under him in the army, and
seemed proud to be of his retinue, less for his being of the blood
royal, than for the many great and amiable qualities which adorned his
person. This great hero had been a candidate with Augustus, elector of
Saxony, for the crown of Poland; but the ill genius of that kingdom
would not suffer it to be governed by a prince whose virtues would
doubtless have rendered it as flourishing and happy as it has since that
unfortunate rejection been impoverished and miserable. Bigotted to a
family whose designs are plainly to render the crown hereditary, they
not only set aside that great prince, under the vain and common-place
pretence, that on electing him they might be too much under the
influence of France; but also afterward, as resolved to push all good
fortune from them with both hands, refused Stanislaus, a native of
Poland, a strict observer of its laws, and a man to whose courage,
virtue, and every eminent qualification even envy itself could make no
objection, and thereby rendered their country the seat of war and
theatre of the most terrible devastations of all kinds. But of this
infatuation of the Poles I shall have occasion hereafter to speak more
at large, and should not now have made any mention of it, had not the
presence of that hero, whom they first rejected, rendered it the general
subject of discourse at Venice. Numberless were the instances he gave of
a magnanimity and greatness of mind worthy of a more exalted throne than
that of Poland; but I shall only mention one, which, like the thumb of
Hercules, may serve to give a picture of him in miniature.
Having the good fortune one night to win a very great sum at a public
gaming, just as he sweep'd the stakes, a noble Venetian, who by some
casualties in life was reduced in his circumstances, could not help
crying out, heavens! how happy would such a chance have made me! these
words, which the extreme difficulties he was under forced from him,
without being sensible himself of what he said, were over-heard by the
prince, who turning hastily about, instead of putting the money into his
own pocket, presented it to him, saying, I am doubly indebted to chance,
sir, which has made me master of this; since it may be of service to
you, I beseech you therefore to accept it with the respects of a prince,
whose greatest pleasure in life is to oblige a worthy person.
It would take up too much time to expatiate on the grateful
acknowledgments made by the Venetian, or the admiration which the report
of this action being immediately spread, occasioned; but, added to
others of a little less conspicuous nature, it greatly served to
convince those who before were ignorant of it, how blind the Polanders
had been to their own interest.
Among the concourse of nobility and gentry, whom merely the love of
pleasure had drawn hither, and for that end were continually forming
parties, Melanthe never failed of making one either in one company or
other: Louisa, whom that lady still treated with her former kindness, or
rather with an increase of it, was also seldom absent, and when she was
so, the fault was wholly her own inclination: but in truth, that hurry
of incessant diversion, which at first had seemed so ravishing to her
young and unexperienced mind, began, by a more perfect acquaintance with
it, to grow tiresome to her, and she rather chose sometimes to retire
with a favourite book into her closet, than to go to the most elegant
entertainment.
It is certain, indeed, that her disposition was rather inclined to
serious than the contrary, and that, joined with the reflections which
her good understanding was perpetually presenting her with, on the
uncertainty of her birth, the precariousness of her dependance, and her
enforced quitting the only person from whom she could expect the means
of any solid establishment in the world, had rendered her sometimes
extremely thoughtful, even in the midst of those pleasures that are
ordinarily most enchanting to one of her sex and age. But as she never
was elated with the respect paid to her supposed condition, so she never
was mortified with the consciousness of her real one, to a behaviour
such as might have degraded the highest birth; neither appearing to
expect it, or be covetous of honours, nor meanly ashamed of accepting
them when offered. And while by this prudent management she secured
herself from any danger of being insulted whenever it should be known
who she was, she also gave no occasion for any one to make too deep an
enquiry into her descent or fortune.
But now the time was arrived when those deficiencies gave her more
anxiety than hitherto they had done; and love in one moment filled her
with those repinings at her fate, which neither vanity or ambition would
ever have had power to do.
Melanthe here, as at Vienna, received the visits of all whose birth,
fortune, or accomplishments, gave them a pretence; but there was none
who paid them so frequently, or which she encouraged with so much
pleasure as those of the count de Bellfleur, a French nobleman belonging
to the above-mentioned prince of Conti: she often told Louisa, when they
were alone, that there was something in the air and manner of behaviour
of this count, which had so perfect a resemblance with that of Henricus,
that tho' it reminded her of that once dear and perfidious man, she
could not help admiring and wishing a frequent sight of him.
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