Manicamp

Also known as: De Manicamp / M. Manicamp / M. de Manicamp / Monsieur Manicamp · Family: Orleans · Role: poor gentleman and companion of the Comte de Guiche · First appears: Chapter 3

Manicamp, also called De Manicamp or Monsieur Manicamp, is a poor gentleman of the Orleans faction and De Guiche’s companion since boyhood, “a poor gentleman, vassal-born, of the house of Gramont.” In chapter 3 he is a friend of Malicorne, though Malicorne observes that “my friend Manicamp does nothing for nothing.” In chapters 4–6, Manicamp helps Malicorne obtain a place in Monsieur’s household for five hundred pistoles, signing the recommendation after receiving half the payment, and arranges the brevet of maid of honor that Monsieur grants to Montalais; he also secures an appointment for Mademoiselle de la Baume le Blanc de la Vallière. De Guiche supplies him with money for clothes and equipment, including a hundred pistoles to prepare for Madame’s arrival, while Manicamp sends Malicorne to obtain De Guiche’s letter.

In chapter 13, De Wardes takes Manicamp with him because Manicamp’s equable, dreamy disposition counterbalances his own; by chapter 19, De Wardes names Manicamp and De Guiche among his friends. Manicamp is also connected with Buckingham and Raoul, and in chapter 30 he and Malicorne are being beaten at cards by Montalais and Mademoiselle de Tonnay-Charente. By chapters 48–49, De Guiche has secured Montalais’s appointment and advanced Malicorne through Manicamp’s requests, while Manicamp tells Montalais that he helped attach her to Madame’s household. He meets her clandestinely at Fontainebleau, where Saint-Aignan discovers them; Montalais responds with marked coquetry to his dangerous indiscretion.

That night, Manicamp and Malicorne are refused lodging at the Beau Paon and later turned out of the hotel. In chapter 55, Manicamp, as one of Monsieur’s gentlemen in waiting, undertakes to make excuses for another; in chapter 56, Malicorne is raised to master of the apartments through Manicamp and De Guiche. He later remains at the château with Monsieur and Chevalier de Lorraine, being less intimate with Monsieur than Chevalier de Lorraine.