Gourville, John Herauld De

, a French politician, was born at Rochefoucauld in 1625, and was taken by the celebrated duke of that name into his service as valet de chambre, from which situation he rose to be his confidential friend. He was also equally honoured by the great Conde, and was employed by the superintendant Fouquet, in public business, and was involved in his disgrace. But such was the value put upon his political talents and integrity, that he was at one time proposed to the king as successor to. Colbert in the ministry. He died in 1705, leaving “Memoirs of his Life from 1642 to 1698,” 2 vols. 12mo, written with frankness and simplicity and containing very | lively characters of the ministers and principal persons of his time, of which, it is said, Voltaire made much use in his “Siecle de Louis XIV.”

It was on Gourville that Boileau was said to have written an epitaph, in which he described him as speaking well, though he knew little; as being a gentleman in manners, although of low birth; and as caressing all the world, although he loved nobody. He proved himself, however, the most sincere of all Fouquet’s friends; not only lending inadame de Fouquet upwards of 100,000 livres for her support, but settling the same sum on her son. ¹