too, perhaps all the more agreeable, and venturesome, as they thought.

The court of Turin was then presided over by the Duchess of Savoy,
_Madame Royale_, as she was called in France, the daughter of Henry IV.
of France, the sister of Henrietta Maria of England. She was a woman of
talent and spirit, worthy of her descent, and had certain other
qualities which constituted a point of resemblance between her and her
father; she was, like him, more fascinating than respectable.

The customs of Turin were rather Italian than French. At that time
every lady had her professed lover, who wore the liveries of his
mistress, bore her arms, and sometimes assumed her very name. The
office of the lover was, never to quit his lady in public, and never
to approach her in private: to be on all occasions her esquire. In the
tournament her chosen knight-cicisbeo came forth with his coat, his
housings, his very lance distinguished with the cyphers and colours of
her who had condescended to invest him with her preference. It was the
remnant of chivalry that authorized this custom; but of chivalry
demoralized--chivalry denuded of her purity, her respect, the chivalry
of corrupted Italy, not of that which, perhaps, fallaciously, we
assign to the earlier ages.

Grammont and Matta enlisted themselves at once in the service of two
beauties. Grammont chose for the queen of beauty, who was to 'rain
influence' upon him, Mademoiselle de St. Germain, who was in the very
bloom of youth. She was French, and, probably, an ancestress of that
all-accomplished Comte de St. Germain, whose exploits so dazzled
successive European courts, and the fullest account of whom, in all its
brilliant colours, yet tinged with mystery, is given in the Memoirs of
Maria Antoinette, by the Marquise d'Adhémar, her lady of the bed-chamber.