We know also, from the same source, that the beauty asked for money to pay her debts, and did not pay them. Here is the end of the note: "Mademoiselle du Fouilloux has assured me that, of all the money that you have given her, she has not paid a halfpenny. She has gambled it all away." We must do justice to Foucquet, and to Fouilloux; they were very reasonable. Fouilloux's one thought was to have her own establishment, and she had her eye on an honest man, something of a simpleton, but of good family, whom she had watched by the Superintendent's police.
In those days the Queen's ladies-in-waiting were flattered in song. Fouilloux had verses addressed to her:
Foilloux sans songer à plaire Plaît pourtant infiniment Par un air libre et charmant. C'est un dessein téméraire Que d'attaquer sa rigueur. Si j'eusse été sans affaires La belle aurait eu mon cœur.[59]
Toute la Cour est éprise De ces attraits glorieux Dont vous enchantez les yeux, Menneville; ma franchise S'y devrait bien engager; Mais mon cœur est place prise Et vous n'y sauriez loger.
This Menneville, celebrated in such bad verse, was, with Fouilloux, the prettiest woman at Court. On this matter we have the testimony of Jean Racine, who, banished to the depths of the provinces, wrote to his friend La Fontaine, citing Fouilloux and Menneville as examples of beauty. "I cannot refrain from saying a word as to the beauties of this province.... There is not a village maiden, nor a cobbler's wife, who might not vie in beauty with the Fouilloux and the Mennevilles.... All the women here are dazzling, and they deck themselves out in a manner which is to them the most natural fashion in the world, and as for the attractions of their person,
_Colors vents, corpus solidum et sued plenum._"[60]
Of the two, Menneville is thought to have been the more beautiful. A song says of her:
Cachez-vous, filles de la reine, Petites, Car Menneville est de retour, M'amour.
She sold herself to the Superintendent. As she did not equal Fouilloux in her genius for intrigue, Foucquet used her more kindly. While this lady-in-waiting was yielding to the suit of the seigneur of Vaux, she was trying to force the Duc de Damville to marry her, as he had promised. Like Fouilloux, she begged the Superintendent to help her to get settled. He did so with a good grace, and sent the fair lady fifteen thousand crowns, which ought to have decided Damville. The latter hesitated. An accident decided for him: he died.