DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61669#0045
THE HISTORY OF THE PICTURE
the time of his second marriage, to Anne Louise de Broglie, which took
place in 1669, he was indeed in Paris, but at a different address, if not
at a mere lodging;1 and the marriage contract specially designates the
Chateau of Milhars in Languedoc as the “ ordinary habitation ” of the
bridegroom.2 Milhars had been magnificently rebuilt by his father,
Charles de Cazillac ; and hither the Marquis de Cessac now brought
his young bride.3 It was, perhaps, a rash experiment from the point of
view of domestic felicity. He was now over seventy years of age, while
she was about four-and-twenty. At the end of two years, unable to
accustom herself to the seclusion of the country, after the gay life of the
capital, she left the poor old man in dudgeon, and returned with her
mother to Paris. M. de Cessac made her an allowance, and henceforth
they lived separated. His daughter, Madame de Blaigny, now came
to live at Milhars, and remained, though apparently without much
cordiality on either side, with her father until his death, which took
place in 1679.
What meanwhile became of the picture, when the Marquis de
Cessac left Paris to take up his abode in the country ?
The houses he owned in the capital seem to have been bought and
sold as mere speculations, having no element of permanence. It is
impossible to imagine the great family picture wandering from pillar to
1 In 1661 M. de Cessac signed a deed in the house “on pend pour enseigne le
Croissant,” Rue de Bourbon (Toulouse, Arch, de la Hte. Garonne). In 1669, the date
of his marriage with Anne Louise de Broglie, he was in the Rue des Boucheries, Faubourg
St. Germain. The marriage contract reveals that he possessed at this time, in all, three
houses in Paris ; the other two being situated in the Rue des “ Viels ” Augustins. He had
therefore parted with the “ logis ” in the Rue du Four. The contract confers on him the
power to sell, or exchange, in like manner, the three houses now in question. Subsequent
legal deeds show a series of further changes.
2 Archives du Var, B 197 (quoted by M. Dardenne).
3 Milhars is situated in the Department of Tarn, on a rocky height commanding the
junction of the small river Cerou with the Aveyron. For all the facts relating to the
history of the Chateau, and for many of those which concern its occupants, the writer is
indebted to M. Henri Dardenne, of Carcassonne, Tresorier-General of the Department of
Aude. This gentleman, who is the author of an interesting (unpublished) history of
Milhars and its successive owners, based on original documents, most kindly placed his
manuscript at the writer’s disposal.
23
the time of his second marriage, to Anne Louise de Broglie, which took
place in 1669, he was indeed in Paris, but at a different address, if not
at a mere lodging;1 and the marriage contract specially designates the
Chateau of Milhars in Languedoc as the “ ordinary habitation ” of the
bridegroom.2 Milhars had been magnificently rebuilt by his father,
Charles de Cazillac ; and hither the Marquis de Cessac now brought
his young bride.3 It was, perhaps, a rash experiment from the point of
view of domestic felicity. He was now over seventy years of age, while
she was about four-and-twenty. At the end of two years, unable to
accustom herself to the seclusion of the country, after the gay life of the
capital, she left the poor old man in dudgeon, and returned with her
mother to Paris. M. de Cessac made her an allowance, and henceforth
they lived separated. His daughter, Madame de Blaigny, now came
to live at Milhars, and remained, though apparently without much
cordiality on either side, with her father until his death, which took
place in 1679.
What meanwhile became of the picture, when the Marquis de
Cessac left Paris to take up his abode in the country ?
The houses he owned in the capital seem to have been bought and
sold as mere speculations, having no element of permanence. It is
impossible to imagine the great family picture wandering from pillar to
1 In 1661 M. de Cessac signed a deed in the house “on pend pour enseigne le
Croissant,” Rue de Bourbon (Toulouse, Arch, de la Hte. Garonne). In 1669, the date
of his marriage with Anne Louise de Broglie, he was in the Rue des Boucheries, Faubourg
St. Germain. The marriage contract reveals that he possessed at this time, in all, three
houses in Paris ; the other two being situated in the Rue des “ Viels ” Augustins. He had
therefore parted with the “ logis ” in the Rue du Four. The contract confers on him the
power to sell, or exchange, in like manner, the three houses now in question. Subsequent
legal deeds show a series of further changes.
2 Archives du Var, B 197 (quoted by M. Dardenne).
3 Milhars is situated in the Department of Tarn, on a rocky height commanding the
junction of the small river Cerou with the Aveyron. For all the facts relating to the
history of the Chateau, and for many of those which concern its occupants, the writer is
indebted to M. Henri Dardenne, of Carcassonne, Tresorier-General of the Department of
Aude. This gentleman, who is the author of an interesting (unpublished) history of
Milhars and its successive owners, based on original documents, most kindly placed his
manuscript at the writer’s disposal.
23