Chapter 65

Chapter LXV:
The Lottery.

By eight o'clock in the evening, every one had assembled in the queen-
mother's apartments. Anne of Austria, in full dress, beautiful still,
from former loveliness, and from all the resources coquetry can command
at the hands of clever assistants, concealed, or rather pretended to
conceal, from the crowd of courtiers who surrounded her, and who still
admired her, thanks to the combination of circumstances which we have
indicated in the preceding chapter, the ravages, which were already
visible, of the acute suffering to which she finally yielded a few years
later. Madame, almost as great a coquette as Anne of Austria, and the
queen, simple and natural as usual, were seated beside her, each
contending for her good graces. The ladies of honor, united in a body,
in order to resist with greater effect, and consequently with more
success, the witty and lively conversations which the young men held
about them, were enabled, like a battalion formed in a square, to offer
each other the means of attack and defense which were thus at their
command. Montalais, learned in that species of warfare which consists of
sustained skirmishing, protected the whole line by a sort of rolling fire
she directed against the enemy. Saint-Aignan, in utter despair at the
rigor, which became almost insulting from the very fact of her persisting
in it, Mademoiselle de Tonnay-Charente displayed, tried to turn his back
upon her; but, overcome by the irresistible brilliancy of her eyes, he,
every moment, returned to consecrate his defeat by new submissions, to
which Mademoiselle de Tonnay-Charente did not fail to reply by fresh acts
of impertinence. Saint-Aignan did not know which way to turn. La
Valliere had about her, not exactly a court, but sprinklings of
courtiers. Saint-Aignan, hoping by this maneuver to attract Athenais's
attention towards him, approached the young girl, and saluted her with a
respect that induced some to believe that he wished to balance Athenais
by Louise. But these were persons who had neither been witnesses of the
scene during the shower, nor had heard it spoken of. As the majority was
already informed, and well informed, too, on the matter, the acknowledged
favor with which she was regarded had attracted to her side some of the
most astute, as well as the least sensible, members of the court. The
former, because they said with Montaigne, "How do I know?" and the
latter, who said with Rabelais, "Perhaps." The greatest number had
followed in the wake of the latter, just as in hunting five or six of the
best hounds alone follow the scent of the animal hunted, whilst the
remainder of the pack follow only the scent of the hounds. The two
queens and Madame examined with particular attention