The sun., 1914-09-27
N"ric dc Rohan. Duchess Of Che
yrruar and COusptrstOr.

Rourhon France was in one aspcct n
rcvel of feminism The reign Of Louis
XIII. and the regency of Anne of Aus.
tria make a chapter in history w,ll
written In the lives 4 tire cardinals
Roheliou and Masar!n The people. be-
ginning ~ pi" up materials for Miss
Martncau's Peasant and Prince" wore
pawns in the aristocrats' game: tho
pswns were undsyplayed. as Yet tho
ma tor pieces held tho hoard Louis
was moved hv tho French churchman.
Anne by the Italian. The cardinals
ruled France and manufactured national
fates. hut the cardinals were forced in
their manTuvrinE ny women. The
women of rhe French aristocracy were
to man" Conspirators, honnete
Shlanterie was popular and pretty
( Id a. but tho ladies were not 1verscrupu-
lous In their anours upon which turned
as never hefor" nor since 20 compre.
, henSiNely, the affairs Of state. AS H.
NOEL WILLIAMS. English writer up Of
French women who have had a gentle
hut guiding hand upon the wheel at
which nominal rulers have stood, pre-
sumably coming the course Of the ship
Of state, says in his 4 Fair Conspiydtor:
Marie ne Rohdn. Duchrssc dc ChcrrcuSr
tScribner) women have never taken
more active part IN public life than
they did IN France in the first half II
The seventeenth century, in the
"trouhlous' reign of the thirteenth
Louis and The mnohty of Lc Grand
Monarque.
rf!me Ministers recognized Their power
and pcrsecutod them by turns for love ~
their heauN yeuN men plunged into rash
snd foolish enterprises. which led them to
ruin. exile and even to the block. th"y
entered Into reasonable negotiations With
foreign Governments; they plotted re.
hsllions. planned assassinations and creates
more confusion than ever existed In Baby
ion"
MaZarn. scolding about them. named
three prime movers in these feminine
deVltries: the Duchcsse de Longueville
the Princess Palatine and the Duchessc
de Chevreuse. The last named lady,
celebrated by NJ. Dumas, is heroine not
only TO Mr., Williams but to NJ LOUIS
BArIFToL, whose The Duchcssc dc che
rrcuse: 4 Lite Of Intrigue and Adpcn-
turc ~ the Days Of Loms XIII CDodd
Mead and Company travcrscs the same
ground as the Englishmans book in "A
quite different spirit
Tho French author has theory to
work out. He believes that Victor
Cousin can he improved upon. that the
essence Of history Is to he got At
through the life stories of the propo-
nents In the drama. and that those sto-
ries are better approached by the meth
ods OF the novelist than by those of the
historian. He tries to write fact as
though II were fiction and succeeds, AS
likewise in making some OF his fiction
read like fact, The Englishman, taking
the lighter title. writes reasonably
IN the spirit ~ conventional history.
Weighing his sources" in respect Of
veracity and trustworthncss. whilc the
Frenchman, with the more objective
title and tho bait on his subhead hook,
follows contemporary authorities rather
indscrlminatcly. with perhaps a pref
erence for those who make the more
graphic contributions for a chronique
scandaleuse. And each book would he
greatly improved by preliminary
sketch Of tho real history ~ the age.
The siege NJ la Rochelle was something
more than an incident in the intrigue
or the court ladies; anh the first, the
constitutional, phase of the Frondc.
'the most costly and least necessary
civil wac in history" was a very diff
ferent matter from the second, the
quarrels OF the plotting nobility. The
life of Nine de- Chevreuso furnishes a