The Ball

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Timeframe: Oct 18, 1695-Mar 01, 1696

The ball must have occurred some time between October 1695, her last appearance that year at the Paris Opera and the beginning of her time in Brussels. If Jean-Philippe van Aelbrouck is correct about her appearance in Armide in Brussels, then it could be no later than March 1697. if Rogers is correct that she was away from Paris for three years, then the ball should be as close to November 1695. If it was as late as March or April 1696, one might still round it up to "three years" ending in November 1698.

It is said that she went to a ball thrown by Monsieur, the Duc d'Orleans dressed as a chevalier, and romanced the women, culminating with a beautiful marquise, the belle of the ball, whom she propositioned on the dance floor. Three young men took umbrage and she agreed to meet them in the Rue St Thomas across the street from the Pallais. There she skewered them and returned to the ball reporting to Monsieur that their life's blood was ebbing an a surgeon should be sent. She confessed or bragged that it was she who laid them low. The King forgave her, perhaps because he had only forbidden the "men of Paris" from dueling, not the women. Still the families of her victims were out for revenge and she fled to Brussels.

It occurs to me that Saint Simon says of the Marquise de Florensac that she was perhaps the most beautiful woman in France, and all evidence is that she was la Maupin's last great love. Could she have been the little marquise of the Ball?

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