THE WOMAN WHO BEWITCHED A KING.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 284, 15 June 1917, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE WOMAN WHO BEWITCHED A KING.

A TRADESMAN \S WIFE WHO BECAME A QI'EEN. When Madame tie Ch-ateaurouXj the loveliest ol the tlnee Do Xesle sisters who had in turn enslaved Louis XV. heart, >\as .so tragically snatched from his arms, he vowed that "Death Jiould le lr.s next br.de." He had no longer the lu'.st desire to 11\c in a world that had treated liini with Midi • ruelty. One alter another his passi;.n> had turned to dust and d'sllusioii, and in the \cry hour when the hit- -I and most 11.■ aull nl object ol hin affection had downed his wooing with a b!is- he had never before known, -he had been suddenly taken 1 rem h:in d\ ng in an agony lie was powciie-s to ajsauge. Ho had long grown w.ary u hi, Queen, tl: 0 unhappy Mar'e Lcckiiiuka, who -pent her days -hut up in her apartment - pray'ng, fast'ng, or dii u.ssing religu.n and death with the more f,ei lous-m ndeJ oi her lades, while working at her embroidery frame, and who, oil the rare occasion-, when they met, made him wretched with her siithand tears and mute reproaches.

LOVE CAME AGAIN. Even the dissipations in \vh : h he had once found distract ion no longer hrougiit him temporary oblivion, and he fell nioro :md more deeply into the gloom that- had alway- shadowed his life. But though le little dreamt it. love '.viisl once more to enter his life and flood it with a glory (the words are his own) such as he had.never dared to dream of, and it came to him in the gu'.-o of the most beautiful and -eductivo woman in all his k'ngdom. Wlide Madame de Chateaiironx was st'll reigning tiie uncrowned Queen of France and Louis' heart, the beauty and charms cf Madame d'Et ; olrs had taken Paris by storm. Never had living eyes looked on so fair a vision of feminine loveliness as the young bride who had come to captivate and dazzle the '-apital. From Court to cabaret every tongue waxed eloquent over her charm-—''the glory of her hair, her ravishing teetn, and the intoxicating smile which stamped upon Ik r cheeks bewitching d'mplos." The exquisite modelling of her figure, her queenly grace, the perfection of ncr little hands and feet, and the marvellous animation of her face, "which displayed in turn a moved or imperious tenderness, noble seriousness or wanton, graces." were at once the inspiration and despair of pet and painter. ( HARMING A KING. And to these physical attractions she added a divine voice, a lvre -kill in iiius'c, dancing, and horsemanship, a brillant wit, and a genius for acting which was the envy of the queens of the stage. Such was tins paragon of all perfections, who luid given her hand 'to a wealthy and bourgco's business man, and had come to Paris to turn all heads by her witcheries.

As a child Madame had been told by a fortune-teller that one day she would reign in a palace, the uncrowned wife of a king, and, elated by the tr'mnpn of Iter beauty, she determined that it should not bo her fault if the prophecy were unfulfilled.

Thus it was that, whenever Louis went a-huuting, Madame was there, her beauty decked in the most seductive gowns, fluttering her fan and practising her coquetries under the very eyes' of the king. "Sho passer; and re-pa."-ses," a chronicler of the times tells us, "Hi the midst of tho horses, dogs, and royal escort like some light and alluring Diana, now clad in azure, in rae- oloured phaeton; now in an azure-coloured phaeton, clad m rose."

THE CHALLENGE. But Loms, though lie feasted his evre 011 the entrancing vision, had then no thought for any other uioman, however fair, than Madame de Chateauroux, who had his heart in her keeping, and it was a year or more later, when the light of his life had been extinguished and lie was left in abysmal gloom, that iH-c'dcnt once more brought the "beautiful unknown" across his path.

At a, great masked ball in the Hotel de Yille, Louis, who had been persuaded to attend it much against h's will, was attracted by a -"harming mask, "who tormented him by a thousand provorations and pretty savings." At the king's entreaty the 1; dy tonseutid to.l unmask. and the handkerchief which Madame d'Etiobs dropped, as though by acc'dcnt, was picked up by Louis to the accompaniment of a murmur among the company, 'The handkerchief ha? been thrown!'" From that moment of revelation Louis was undone. He had at last d'.'covered the anodyne for his woes, a new incentive to life and love. The ashes of passion, which he had thought dead, burst again into flame, fired by a beauty such as had never lief ore been his, and he knew no peace until lie had summoned the lady of the domino to Versailles and heard from her bps tho avowal that she had long loved him 111 secret, and that her heart was his. In such dramatic fa-Iron did the tradesman's wife m o tho prophecy of her childhood come true. She was from the bourgeois splendours of her home to the ino-t brilliant Court in Europe, as its Que en, w'th tho King of France as her shadow and .-lave. Madame de Chateauroux was forgotten : hi- mood of gloom and desI air had given pi.ice to an intoxicating joy in life such a- lie hj: <1 never known. Ho knew no happiness out of sight of the wenian "for whose Mii'les," he dedaled. "he vould barter all tho crown- ol the world." And when he was called away to war, he sent he r daily letters of the imst passionate, idolatrous devotion, and declared that it was onlv her answering letters, in a similar stra : n i f tenden e-- md p :;s*:on, lliat kept him alive.

SMII.KD AT INTRIGITv That .she lia«l many rnetnies :it Court v.lui s.lenud i'-i" tbi-' downfall of the (.'i-ivtif." " ilu» I'U'c Wiirgooiso." as ti:cv cdiMvolv ilulil'i-il her. gave hor no moment's iinoivn>'-. '] he king was her wro&t slave. and. h v tlio exnvNe ot .ln-r aJlin'oinonii . »hi' had won powerful ehnmp'on- :it Couvt as "u'l- - and t'e I'll"' •' ■ ! S ''° t i smile at il.tl iiriu'-s ;in-J insults. As for l,ctii-. la' «•« in the i-ovenih hoa\on hi lri])|>;!i.--. Madame sang to lnjii. plaved to Inn, kept h in Mi a , ij. ; ,l - i>i langht •!• v it',i hor droll otorie* :mi.| mi Mi i i< I io- <'t la i oneinvs: .she kept |,i„i, tin:, in a hurra-mio . i' movement t'rcin i n<- ]ik';v to another, aiul provided him v% 11ii a coii-tant .sueoess'oji ot c!ivcn-i-'iir ulii. h i-. It Inn no m< int'iit or U'Onl for i'TOI-<I'II I Jiv hor wish ''.o !.i: lt tor hor a M.mp-ti,oiis!y-oi|iii|.ivi! th."■it:-.;, ,n which >i.o lilayo i n hlllulio 1 luh's tor his delight— Galatoa; Venus in a eo-tumo of silver

and l;Ii:o; a Cm'an prince in armour or goid: u gauze with waving plumesa peasant maid; an Ea.stt'rn lady in a do.innn of '.herry-coluured satin,~lx>rdcreU with ormiue, with a petticoat of blue satin embroidered with gold, and m all she was equally ravishing, dazzling the eyes and charming the senses. All that ponij) and splendour and gold could give was iicrs. She received tho homage of a queen; while .-he was seated Uio greatest courtiers must stand, ai d a dul e wa- ] ro. d to hear her tra'n. Castles and places and farspreading lands vere lavished on her by he. - infatuated lover. Thirty-six million livrc.s lie squandered 111 ministering to her vanity and pleasure.

THE LAST BREATH. .Ill'* •'i' a lew years the "gri.-ette v. ielded the sceptic of lier oeauty. Then at last the day ol her Splendour and power came to it- close, when, with her dung bieath. -he said to the cure, who wa- leaving the mum. "One moment. Mon-ieur le Cure, we w ill go together."' A moment later the nio-*t. amazing woman who has ever held a king m thrall by the magic oi her charms drew her last breath.

Once more Lou s was left disconsolate and the irmy of it all!—before Madame s body was cold his .iiieen was writing to tu President Henault. However, there i.s jio more question hero of that which is 110 more, than it she had never existed. Such i.s the world! '