The glory of war
fired his early zeal, and for sixteen years he followed the pursuit of
arms. Then literature claimed him as her slave. His first book, _Les
amours du Palais Royal_, excited the displeasure of King Louis XIV., and
prepared the way for his downfall. In his _Histoire amoureuse des Gaules_
(Paris, 1665, 1 vol., in-12) he satirised the lax manners of the French
Court during the minority of the King, and had the courage to narrate the
intrigue which Louis carried on with La Valliere. He spares few of the
ladies of the Court, and lashes them all with his satire, amongst others
Mesdames d'Olonne and de Chatillon. Unhappily for the Count, he showed the
book, when it was yet in MS., to the Marchioness de Beaume, his intimate
friend. But the best of friends sometimes quarrel, and unfortunately the
Count and the good lady quarrelled while yet the MS. was in her
possession. A grand opportunity for revenge thus presented itself. She
showed to the ladies of the Court the severe verses which the Count had
written; and his victims were so enraged that they carried their
complaints to the King, who had already felt the weight of the author's
blows in some verses beginning:--
"Que Deodatus est heureux
De baiser ce bec amoureux,
Qui, d'une oreille a l'autre va.
Alleluia," etc.
This aroused the anger of the self-willed monarch, who ordered the author
to be sent to the Bastille, and then to be banished from the kingdom for
ever.
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