PEERLESS HORTENSE MANCINI.

Otaki Mail, 9 November 1923, Page 4

PEERLESS HORTENSE MANCINI.

LOVELIEST CHILD IN ITALY. ' , Of all he'women who have captivated the Courts of Europe and twisted kings round their little finger there has been no one more remarkable than Hortense. Mancini, She was the niece of Cardinal Mazarin, Richelieu’s crafty successor, one of the live lovely daughters reputed to be the loveliest children of Italy, brought up in a home of genteel poverty and raised to riches and affluence by their scheming uncles. His design was to secure by their beauty supplemented l>y- his gold, such’splendid alliances us should make his position as the most powerful Minister in Europe impregnable. Bjit Cardinal had scarcely calculated the price lie would have to pay lor realising his. ambition, for the girls a quintet of madcaps—defied his authority and shocked him by their escapades. Rut he iiad no difficulty in finding the high-placed husbands Cor them. The loveliest aiid most alluring of the five, Hortense. even ns a child of ten, was a past-mistress of courtliness and coquetry. She had legions of lovers. Armande do la Porto, only son of France’s greatest Marshal, became so infatuated with the little witch that he vowed he would spend the rest of Ills iif c in a monastery, if he could nol will her for his wife.” "If I may. only marry her,” he declared, “I shall be quite content to die three' months later.” But the love-sick boy received short shrift at the hands of the Cardinal, who declared "I would rathei give Hortense to a lackey than allow this young imbecile to marry her.”

A PEERLESS REALTY. From a.ll parts of Europe desirable levers flocked to look on such peerless beauty, and if possible,- to win i- ior their own. Pedro 11. came VO lay the C 1 own of Portugal at I lor tense's feet, only to find his vows and his queen---dom politely declined. Charles 11., of England, then an ex'la from .his throne, brought, the baliery of his fascinations to bear on her; but, ww.atevet Hortense might have had 1o say to him, Mazarin frowned on his suit, •and penniless? King and the “most splendid lover in Europe” was sent empty away. But Mazarin left her marriage too late, for his sun was setting, and sne. actually married the despised Armando de la. Porte, who was created Rue \de Mazarin by the King at. the Car- ' dinal's dying request. “In an adjoining room,” says Hortense, “my sisters looked at one a.nV other; and for all regret, observed, j ‘God be thanked he has gone!’ And, to J tell the truth, I was scarcely more | grieved!” Such was the gratitude that. 1 crowned Mabzarin’s ambitious designs | for his nieces! With his bride the new Due secured a fortune of a hundred million francs, in addition to the Palais Mazarin, with its priceless contents; while $ she received from her husband a

great cabinet, wherein, among other rich gifts there were ten thousand pistoles in gold’.’- —-a present of which Hortense thought so little that she left the cabinet open for all who would to help themselves; and when the coins did not go as rapidly as she wished, she flung them in handfuls out. of the palais wirdo\vs. HER UNHAPPY MARRIAGE. I But Hortense bad not been many I days a wife before she would have I gladly given all her gold for her | lost, freedom: for her husband was ' quick to reveal his true character, > .that of a bigoted, madly jealous man, i with ■eccciitricites bordering on insan- | ity. So puritanical was he that one t of his first acts'was to deface every 1 picture and to destroy with a hammer every statue in the Palais Mazarin that Offended bis sense of decency. Eventually’ /die fled for refuge to the Convent or Hie Filles de Saint Marie. But no convent walls could long ! confine Il’ortcnse’s bold spirit, olte esjf caped. attired in man’s clothes, and J fared in the world on horseback, ac--1 companies by a maid, similarly disj guised, and--Mil equerry, one CoubcrII ville, whose handsome face and conrta ly graces had- made- <lO little impression on her. Crossing the Alps, after an adventurous journey, she came to Milan, .where she found her sister Marie, and her husband, Prince Colonna, awaiting her. But Hortense had not travelled so far to spend her time with her relatives. '-‘She wished to escape from ties and convenliom?. to enjoy life in ~ her own way; and this h-t proceeded to do to the scandal ot J-b- c good people of Milan. Not conterif >.y;fh setting* tongues wagging Cy jmr remtions with her equerry, she edit Sff spell over a. wide range of lovers, who flocked to pay fionj.agc to the most beautiful woman in Europe. By this time.her sister Marie, driven to desperation by the cruelties of her husband, determ ned to fly. She per-

suadod Hortense to accompany her. After an exhausting tramp they wove taken out to sea, and after nine perilous days, during which they narrowly escaped shipwreck and capture by Turkish pirates, they reached Marseilles; But there was ,no possibility of reaching Paris, and Ho-lenso left her sister and sought refuge at the Court of Savoy, where the w:.a assured of a welcome from her former lover. Charles Emanuel, who had neai’y became her husband. J-Ie installed her in one of his pal ices, and combined the regal hospitality due to a queen with the attention due from a. lover. AS .France and Paly .v'ere closed to her. her eyes turned to" England, where her exile-lover Charles was now seated on his restorcl throne, and would vfitless she was very much mistaken, he' pleased to see again the woman whd had made such a conquest of his heart. BACK TO THE 01/D LOVE. ThsTMerry Monarch,” though many a fair woman liad since caught him in her toils, had never forgotten the !o\ely Italian girl who had played such havoc with his peace of mind in the days when his crowd seemed almost us remote Com him as Ihc stars. Compared with her. Castiemaine, with her opulent; charms, the baby-faced. Quodr on ail le, and all tht* other worn l -?!! who had caught, but could not hold, His vagrant fancy were ns water unto wine. The Cardinal's niece still remained vivid in his memory as the most desirable woman on earth, and when she came to him more distract - inglv beautiful than ever, invested with the halo of romance, and with the appeal to his chivalry, he received her as a queen returning to the empire of his heart. He provided her with the most sumptuous apartments in St. James’s Palace installed her as the chief of his Sultanas, and granted her a pension of £4,000 a year; while Eouis XTV., eager to ingratiate himself with Charles's •new favourite compelled her husband, the Hue. to allow her f 50,000 a year, and to return to her the. jewels, laees, ad pthor grecioug belongings .o f, which

he- robbed Her. She was the | idol not only of Charles but of all • his courtiers. A CHEAT GAMBLER. For political power she cared not a. . straw. She was content to drink long' .and deep of the cup of pleasure and license which fortune now held so seductively to her lips. Her sprightly wit and intelligence won the homage of the cleverest men in Knglad, as her beauty turned the heads of every galTant. Cut it was by no means all ::] ash- d of i;!>. She denied herself no indulgence that money could purchase; slu revelled in the feverish delights of the gaming-table. With Charles's death Hortense's day o; uutniidom naturally came to an end. She resumed her life of senual inliidgciicc under two more kings. When i - !us ... w death looming near she at \ In e i Til red from the scenes of her splendour to spend a few months in p ••mi.chPP and preparation l’or the end. Here, one summer day in 1699. she closed her eyes on the world.