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Louisa-Eleanora de Warrens was of the noble and ancient family of La
Tour de Pit, of Vevay, a city in the country of the Vaudois. She was
married very young to a M. de Warrens, of the house of Loys, eldest
son of M. de Villardin, of Lausanne: there were no children by this
marriage, which was far from being a happy one. Some domestic
uneasiness made Madam de Warrens take the resolution of crossing the
Lake, and throwing herself at the feet of Victor Amadeus, who was then
at Evian; thus abandoning her husband, family, and country by a
giddiness similar to mine, which precipitation she, too, has found
sufficient time and reason to lament.
The king, who was fond of appearing a zealous promoter of the
Catholic faith, took her under his protection, and complimented her
with a pension of fifteen hundred livres of Piedmont, which was a
considerable appointment for a prince who never had the character of
being generous; but finding his liberality made some conjecture he had
an affection for the lady, he sent her to Annecy, escorted by a
detachment of his guards, where, under the direction of Michael
Gabriel de Bernex, titular Bishop of Geneva, she abjured her former
religion at the Convent of the Visitation.
I came to Annecy just six years after this event; Madam de Warrens
was then eight-and-twenty, being born with the century. Her beauty,
consisting more in the expressive animation of the countenance than
a set of features, was in its meridian; her manner, soothing and
tender; an angelic smile played about her mouth, which was small and
delicate; she wore her hair (which was of an ash color, and uncommonly
beautiful) with an air of negligence that made her appear still more
interesting; she was short, and rather thick for her height, though by
no means disagreeably so; but there could not be a more lovely face, a
finer neck, or hands and arms more exquisitely formed.
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