Scott on Zélide: Portrait of Zélide by Geoffrey Scott

Unhappy Mademoiselle de Tuyll! After so many letters, after so much self-scrutiny and analysis, after ‘combats with monsters’ and visits to bishops, she was twenty-eight; and still at Zuylen the cattle browsed on, the windmills slowly turned, the barges drifted by; and still she endured the ‘privation péniblè of her unmarried state.

But all this time there had been other strings to her formidable bow. The King of Prussia, for example, had heard tell of this enchantress. A Dutch gentleman at his court, Belle said, ‘used to send His Majesty to sleep with the story of my charms.’ The King ‘liked this story as well as another,’ and desired to see Mademoiselle de Tuyll at the Prussian court. Monsieur le Comte d’Anhalt was to wed the paragon and bring her to Potsdam. The mother, sister, and friends of the Count were full of this desirable project; the Count himself, if not precisely full, was at any rate favourably disposed.

The circumstances of this proposal were eminently flattering. The Anhalts, it was said, were to receive back their princely rank; the King took a lively interest in Belle; he had seen her portrait, and advised her to give up reading Fénelon. The Count was on the point of starting for Utrecht. He was always about to start. He remained in Germany; the trepidation which Belle never failed to inspire, even at a distance, kept him rooted to the spot. Mademoiselle de Tuyll observed the process of his collapse with an amused detachment. The Count d’Anhalt served very well as a pawn in her matrimonial diplomacy; she threatened her parents with him when they were too obdurate against Bellegarde; she used him as an excuse in order to discourage the ardour of a love-sick cousin; and with complete indifference she watched him gradually vanish over the horizon.

She had, near at hand, a more eloquent admirer, who provided for her – and for us – a richer fund of comedy.

TWO (#ulink_aedbc5d9-6984-5c4c-8a62-c91b5b48115b)