A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Aïssé, Demois
AISSE, DEMOIS,
Was born in Circassia, 1689, and was purchased by the count de Ferriol, the French ambassador at Constantinople, when four years of age, for 1500 livres. The seller declared her to be a Circassian Princess. She was of great beauty. The count took her with him to France, and had her taught all the accomplishments of the day. She sacrificed her innocence to her benefactor, but she resisted the splendid offers of the duke of Orleans. Of her numerous suitors she favoured only the chevalier Aidy, who had taken the vows at Malta. Aidy wished to obtain a release from them, but his mistress herself opposed the attempt. The fruit of this love was a daughter, born in England. Aïssé became afterwards a prey to the bitterest remorse; she tried in vain to resist her passion, and sank under the struggle between her love and her conscience. She died in 1727, at the age of thirty-eight. Her letters were published, first with notes by Voltaire, and afterwards, in 1806, with the letters of Mesdames de Viliars, Lafayette, and de Tencin. They are written in a pleasant fluent strain, and contain many anecdotes of the prominent persons of her time.