amour secret, gallantry, intrigue. Note amour

iiu(sc. in the sing., hwtfcm. in the plural.

20. Hortense Mancini (1646-99), who married at fiftecn years of âge Armand, second Duc de la Meilleraie (son of Richelieu's illustrious cousin, who, on marrying ilazarin's nièce, took the title of Duc Mazarin). The Duchesse de Mazarin is chieily knowii as having, after abandoning her husband, found in London a crowd of adniirers, ineluding Charles IL Slie was the fourtli of Cardinal Mazarin's five nièces, ail remarkable for their beauty, wit, grâce, and most of them notorious for their licentiousness. The author is evidently confounding Hortense with

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lier elder sister Marie (1639-1714), wliom Louis XIV. in liis youth thought of marrying, after having already paid some attention to lier elder sister Olympe (1687-1708), mother of the celebrated Prince Eugène ; the other two sisters were Laure, the eldest, who married the Duc de Mercœur, and died in 1657, aged twenty-two; and Marie Anne, the youngest, who married the Duc de Bouillon (1649- 1714), and was the first patroness of La Fontaine, and the detractor of Racine.

16. 21. votre auguste aïeul, Louis XIV. (see preceding note).

Observe the plural of aïeul = grandfather, aïeuls ; f. aïeule, aïeules ; and the other plural aïeux = ancestors, forefathers.