Delorme Marion

Delorme, Marion, the daughter of a respectable bourgeois at Blois, was born about 1612, though some doubt exists on both these points. She grew up beautiful and clever, but her moral character left much to be desired, and whilst a mere girl she became the mistress of the poet Desbarreaux. She next transferred her affections to Cinq Mars, and among his successors were the Duke of Buckingham and perhaps Louis XIII. himself. Her drawing-room in Paris divided with that of Ninon de l'Enclos the reputation of being the rendezvous of all the wits, politicians, and intriguers of the day. She mixed herself up in the affairs of the Fronde, and after the arrest of Conde would probably have been consigned to prison had not sudden death cut short her career in 1650. The story that her decease was a mere pretence, that she lived for many years in England, returned to Paris, married Lebrun, and expired poverty-stricken and obscure in 1806, cannot be regarded as trustworthy. Her strange adventures supplied Victor Hugo with a plot for one of his most famous dramas.