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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Memoirs of Louis XIV., Volume 2
+by Duc de Saint-Simon
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Memoirs of Louis XIV., Volume 2
+       And His Court and of The Regency
+
+Author: Duc de Saint-Simon
+
+Release Date: December 3, 2004 [EBook #3861]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MEMOIRS OF LOUIS XIV., ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+          MEMOIRS OF LOUIS XIV AND HIS COURT AND OF THE REGENCY
+
+                        BY THE DUKE OF SAINT-SIMON
+
+
+
+
+VOLUME 2.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+To return now to the date from which I started.  On the 6th of August,
+1695, Harlay, Arch-bishop of Paris, died of epilepsy at Conflans.  He was
+a prelate of profound knowledge and ability, very amiable, and of most
+gallant manners.  For some time past he had lost favour with the King and
+with Madame de Maintenon, for opposing the declaration of her marriage--
+of which marriage he had been one of the three witnesses.  The clergy,
+who perceived his fall, and to whom envy is not unfamiliar, took pleasure
+in revenging themselves upon M. de Paris, for the domination, although
+gentle and kindly, he had exercised.  Unaccustomed to this decay of his
+power, all the graces of his mind and body withered.  He could find no
+resource but to shut himself up with his dear friend the Duchesse de
+Lesdiguieres, whom he saw every day of his life, either at her own house
+or at Conflans, where he had laid out a delicious garden, kept so
+strictly clean, that as the two walked, gardeners followed at a distance,
+and effaced their footprints with rakes.  The vapours seized the
+Archbishop, and turned themselves into slight attacks of epilepsy.  He
+felt this, but prohibited his servants to send for help, when they should
+see him attacked; and he was only too well obeyed.  The Duchesse de
+Lesdiguieres never slept at Conflans, but she went there every afternoon,
+and was always alone with him.  On the 6th of August, he passed the
+morning, as usual, until dinner-time; his steward came there to him, and
+found him in his cabinet, fallen back upon a sofa; he was dead.  The
+celebrated Jesuit-Father Gaillard preached his funeral sermon, and
+carefully eluded pointing the moral of the event.  The King and Madame de
+Maintenon were much relieved by the loss of M. de Paris.  Various places
+he had held were at once distributed.  His archbishopric and his
+nomination to the cardinalship required more discussion.  The King learnt
+the news of the death of M. de Paris on the 6th.  On the 8th, in going as
+usual to his cabinet, he went straight up to the Bishop of Orleans, led
+him to the Cardinals de Bouillon and de Fursternberg, and said to them:-
+"Gentlemen, I think you will thank me for giving you an associate like M.
+d'Orleans, to whom I give my nomination to the cardinalship."  At this
+word the Bishop, who little expected such a scene, fell at the King's
+feet and embraced his knees.  He was a man whose face spoke at once of
+the virtue and benignity he possessed.  In youth he was so pious, that
+young and old were afraid to say afoul word in his presence.  Although
+very rich, he appropriated scarcely any of his wealth to himself, but
+gave it away for good works.  The modesty and the simplicity with which
+M. d'Orleans sustained his nomination, increased the universal esteem in
+which he was held.
+
+The archbishopric of Paris was given to a brother of the Duc de Noailles-
+the Bishop of Chalons-sur-Marne--M. de Noailles thus reaping the fruit of
+his wise sacrifice to M. de Vendome, before related.  M. de Chalons was
+of singular goodness and modesty.  He did not wish for this preferment,
+and seeing from far the prospect of its being given to him, hastened to
+declare himself against the Jesuits, in the expectation that Pere la
+Chaise, who was of them, and who was always consulted upon these
+occasions, might oppose him.  But it happened, perhaps for the first
+time, that Madame de Maintenon, who felt restrained by the Jesuits, did
+not consult Pere la Chaise, and the preferment was made without his
+knowledge, and without that of M. de Chalons.  The affront was a violent
+one, and the Jesuits never forgave the new Archbishop: he was, however,
+so little anxious for the office, that it was only after repeated orders
+he could be made to accept it.
+
+The Bishop of Langres also died about this time.  He was a true
+gentleman, much liked, and called "the good Langres."  There was nothing
+bad about him, except his manners; he was not made for a bishop--gambled
+very much, and staked high.  M. de Vendome and others won largely at
+billiards of him, two or three times.  He said no word, but, on returning
+to Langres, did nothing but practise billiards in secret for six months.
+When next in Paris, he was again asked to play, and his adversaries, who
+thought him as unskilful as before, expected an easy victory but, to
+their astonishment, he gained almost every game, won back much more than
+he had lost, and then laughed in the faces of his companions.
+
+I paid about this time, my first journey to Marly, and a singular scene
+happened there.  The King at dinner, setting aside his usual gravity,
+laughed and joked very much with Madame la Duchesse, eating olives with
+her in sport, and thereby causing her to drink more than usual--which he
+also pretended to do.  Upon rising from the table the King, seeing the
+Princesse de Conti look extremely serious, said, dryly, that her gravity
+did not accommodate itself to their drunkenness.  The Princess, piqued,
+allowed the King to pass without saying anything; and then, turning to
+Madame de Chatillon, said, in the midst of the noise, whilst everybody
+was washing his mouth, "that she would rather be grave than be a wine-
+sack" (alluding to some bouts a little prolonged that her sister had
+recently had).
+
+The saying was heard by the Duchesse de Chartres, who replied, loud
+enough to be heard, in her slow and trembling voice, that she preferred
+to be a "winesack" rather than a "rag-sack" (sac d guenilles) by which
+she alluded to the Clermont and La Choin adventure I have related before.
+
+This remark was so cruel that it met with no reply; it spread through
+Marly, and thence to Paris; and Madame la Duchesse, who had the art of
+writing witty songs, made one upon this theme.  The Princesse de Conti
+was in despair, for she had not the same weapon at her disposal.
+Monsieur tried to reconcile them gave them a dinner at Meudon--but they
+returned from it as they went.
+
+The end of the year was stormy at Marly.  One evening, after the King had
+gone to bed, and while Monseigneur was playing in the saloon, the
+Duchesse de Chartres and Madame la Duchesse (who were bound together by
+their mutual aversion to the Princesse de Conti) sat down to a supper in
+the chamber of the first-named.  Monseigneur, upon retiring late to his
+own room, found them smoking with pipes, which they had sent for from the
+Swiss Guards!  Knowing what would happen if the smell were discovered, he
+made them leave off, but the smoke had betrayed them.  The King next day
+severely scolded them, at which the Princesse de Conti triumphed.
+Nevertheless, these broils multiplied, and the King at last grew so weary
+of them that one evening he called the Princesses before him, and
+threatened that if they did not improve he would banish them all from the
+Court.  The measure had its effect; calm and decorum returned, and
+supplied the place of friendship.
+
+There were many marriages this winter, and amongst them one very strange
+--a marriage of love, between a brother of Feuquiere's, who had never
+done much, and the daughter of the celebrated Mignard, first painter of
+his time.  This daughter was still so beautiful, that Bloin, chief valet
+of the King, had kept her for some time, with the knowledge of every one,
+and used his influence to make the King sign the marriage-contract.
+
+There are in all Courts persons who, without wit and without
+distinguished birth, without patrons, or service rendered, pierce into
+the intimacy of the most brilliant, and succeed at last, I know not how,
+in forcing the world to look upon them as somebody.  Such a person was
+Cavoye.  Rising from nothing, he became Grand Marechal des Logis in the
+royal household: he arrived at that office by a perfect romance.  He was
+one of the best made men in France, and was much in favour with the
+ladies.  He first appeared at the Court at a time when much duelling was
+taking place, in spite of the edicts.  Cavoye, brave and skilful,
+acquired so much reputation m this particular, that the name of "Brave
+Cavoye" has stuck to him ever since.  An ugly but very good creature,
+Mademoiselle de Coetlogon, one of the Queen's waiting-women, fill in love
+with him, even to madness.  She made all the advances; but Cavoye treated
+her so cruelly, nay, sometimes so brutally, that (wonderful to say)
+everybody pitied her, and the King at last interfered, and commanded him
+to be more humane.  Cavoye went to the army; the poor Coetlogon was in
+tears until his return.  In the winter, for being second in a duel, he
+was sent to the Bastille.  Then the grief of Coetlogon knew no bounds:
+she threw aside all ornaments, and clad herself as meanly as possible;
+she begged the King to grant Cavoye his liberty, and, upon the King's
+refusing, quarrelled with him violently, and when in return he laughed at
+her, became so furious, that she would have used her nails, had he not
+been too wise to expose himself to them.  Then she refused to attend to
+her duties, would not serve the King, saying, that he did not deserve it,
+and grew so yellow and ill, that at last she was allowed to visit her
+lover at the Bastille.  When he was liberated, her joy was extreme, she
+decked herself out anon, but it was with difficulty that she consented to
+be reconciled to the King.
+
+Cavoye had many times been promised an appointment, but had never
+received one such as he wished.  The office of Grand Marechal des Logis
+had just become vacant: the King offered it to Cavoye, but on condition
+that he should marry Mademoiselle Coetlogon.  Cavoye sniffed a little
+longer, but was obliged to submit to this condition at last.  They were
+married, and she has still the same admiration for him, and it is
+sometimes fine fun to see the caresses she gives him before all the
+world, and the constrained gravity with which he receives them.  The
+history of Cavoye would fill a volume, but this I have selected suffices
+for its singularity, which assuredly is without example.
+
+About this time the King of England thought matters were ripe for an
+attempt to reinstate himself upon the throne.  The Duke of Berwick had
+been secretly into England, where he narrowly escaped being arrested,
+and upon his report these hopes were built.  Great preparations were
+made, but they came to nothing, as was always the case with the projects
+of this unhappy prince.
+
+Madame de Guise died at this time.  Her father was the brother of Louis
+XIII., and she, humpbacked and deformed to excess, had married the last
+Duc de Guise, rather than not marry at all.  During all their lives, she
+compelled him to pay her all the deference due to her rank.  At table he
+stood while she unfolded her napkin and seated herself, and did not sit
+until she told him to do so, and then at the end of the table.  This form
+was observed every day of their lives.  She was equally severe in such
+matters of etiquette with all the rest of the world.  She would keep her
+diocesan, the Bishop of Seez, standing for entire hours, while she was
+seated in her arm-chair and never once offered him a seat even in the
+corner.  She was in other things an entirely good and sensible woman.
+Not until after her death was it discovered that she had been afflicted
+for a long time with a cancer, which appeared as though about to burst.
+God spared her this pain.
+
+We lost, in the month of March, Madame de Miramion, aged sixty-six.  She
+was a bourgeoise, married, and in the same year became a widow very rich,
+young, and beautiful.  Bussy Rabutin, so known by his 'Histoire Amoureuse
+des Gaules', and by the profound disgrace it drew upon him, and still
+more by the vanity of his mind and the baseness of his heart, wished
+absolutely to marry her, and actually carried her off to a chateau.  Upon
+arriving at the place, she pronounced before everybody assembled there a
+vow of chastity, and then dared Bussy to do his worst.  He, strangely
+discomfited by this action, at once set her at liberty, and tried to
+accommodate the affair.  From that moment she devoted herself entirely,
+to works of piety, and was much esteemed by the King.  She was the first
+woman of her condition who wrote above her door, "Hotel de Nesmond."
+Everybody cried out, and was scandalised, but the writing remained, and
+became the example and the father of those of all kinds which little by
+little have inundated Paris.
+
+Madame de Sevigne, so amiable and of such excellent company, died some
+time after at Grignan, at the house of her daughter, her idol, but who
+merited little to be so.  I was very intimate with the young Marquis de
+Grignan, her grandson.  This woman, by her natural graces, the sweetness
+of her wit, communicated these qualities to those who had them not; she
+was besides extremely good, and knew thoroughly many things without ever
+wishing to appear as though she knew anything.
+
+Father Seraphin preached during Lent this year at the Court.  His
+sermons, in which he often repeated twice running the same phrase, were
+much in vogue.  It was from him that came the saying, "Without God there
+is no wit."  The King was much pleased with him, and reproached M. de
+Vendome and M. de la Rochefoucauld because they never went to hear his
+sermons.  M. de Vendome replied off-hand, that he did not care to go to
+hear a man who said whatever he pleased without allowing anybody to reply
+to him, and made the King smile by this sally.  But M. de la
+Rochefoucauld treated the matter in another manner he said that he could
+not induce himself to go like the merest hanger-on about the Court, and
+beg a seat of the officer who distributed them, and then betake himself
+early to church in order to have a good one, and wait about in order to
+put himself where it might please that officer to place him.  Whereupon
+the King immediately gave him a fourth seat behind him, by the side of
+the Grand Chamberlain, so that everywhere he is thus placed.
+M. d'Orleans had been in the habit of seating himself there (although his
+right place was on the prie-Dieu), and little by little had accustomed
+himself to consider it as his proper place.  When he found himself driven
+away, he made a great ado, and, not daring to complain to the King,
+quarrelled with M. de la Rochefoucauld, who, until then, had been one of
+his particular friends.  The affair soon made a great stir; the friends
+of both parties mixed themselves up in it.  The King tried in vain to
+make M. d'Orleans listen to reason; the prelate was inflexible, and when
+he found he could gain nothing by clamour and complaint, he retired in
+high dudgeon into his diocese: he remained there some time, and upon his
+return resumed his complaints with more determination than ever; he fell
+at the feet of the King, protesting that he would rather die than see his
+office degraded.  M. de la Rochefoucauld entreated the King to be allowed
+to surrender the seat in favour of M. d'Orleans.  But the King would not
+change his decision; he said that if the matter were to be decided
+between M. d'Orleans and a lackey,  he would give the seat to the lackey
+rather than to M. d'Orleans.  Upon this the prelate returned to his
+diocese, which he would have been wiser never to have quitted in order to
+obtain a place which did not belong to him.
+
+As the King really esteemed M. d'Orleans, he determined to appease his
+anger; and to put an end to this dispute he gave therefore the bishopric
+of Metz to the nephew of M. d'Orleans; and by this means a reconciliation
+was established.  M. d'Orleans and M. de la Rochefoucauld joined hands
+again, and the King looked on delighted.
+
+The public lost soon after a man illustrious by his genius, by his style,
+and by his knowledge of men, I mean La Bruyere, who died of apoplexy at
+Versailles, after having surpassed Theophrastus in his own manner, and
+after painting, in the new characters, the men of our days in a manner
+inimitable.  He was besides a very honest man, of excellent breeding,
+simple, very disinterested, and without anything of the pedant.  I had
+sufficiently known him to regret his death, and the works that might have
+been hoped from him.
+
+The command of the armies was distributed in the same manner as before,
+with the exception that M. de Choiseul had the army of the Rhine in place
+of M. de Lorges.  Every one set out to take the field.  The Duc de la
+Feuillade in passing by Metz, to join the army in Germany, called upon
+his uncle, who was very rich and in his second childhood.  La Feuillade
+thought fit to make sure of his uncle's money beforehand, demanded the
+key of the cabinet and of the coffers, broke them open upon being refused
+by the servants, and took away thirty thousand crowns in gold, and many
+jewels, leaving untouched the silver.  The King, who for a long time had
+been much discontented with La Feuillade for his debauches and his
+negligence, spoke very strongly and very openly upon this strange
+forestalling of inheritance.  It was only with great difficulty he could
+be persuaded not to strip La Feuillade of his rank.
+
+Our campaign was undistinguished by any striking event.  From June to
+September of this year (1696), we did little but subsist and observe,
+after which we recrossed the Rhine at Philipsburg, where our rear guard
+was slightly inconvenienced by the enemy.  In Italy there was more
+movement.  The King sought to bring about peace by dividing the forces of
+his enemies, and secretly entered into a treaty with Savoy.  The
+conditions were, that every place belonging to Savoy which had been taken
+by our troops should be restored, and that a marriage should take place
+between Monseigneur the Duc de Bourgogne and the daughter of the Duke of
+Savoy, when she became twelve years of age.  In the mean time she was to
+be sent to the Court of France, and preparations were at once made there
+to provide her with a suitable establishment.
+
+The King was ill with an anthrax in the throat.  The eyes of all Europe
+were turned towards him, for his malady was not without danger;
+nevertheless in his bed he affected to attend to affairs as usual; and he
+arranged there with Madame de Maintenon, who scarcely ever quitted his
+side, the household of the Savoy Princess.  The persons selected for the
+offices in that household were either entirely devoted to Madame de
+Maintenon, or possessed of so little wit that she had nothing to fear
+from them.  A selection which excited much envy and great surprise was
+that of the Duchesse de Lude to be lady of honour.  The day before she
+was appointed, Monsieur had mentioned her name in sport to the King.
+"Yes," said the King, "she would be the best woman in the world to teach
+the Princess to put rouge and patches on her cheek;" and then, being
+more devout than usual, he said other things as bitter and marking strong
+aversion on his part to the Duchess.  In fact, she was no favourite of
+his nor of Madame de Maintenon; and this was so well understood that the
+surprise of Monsieur and of everybody else was great, upon finding, the
+day after this discourse, that she had been appointed to the place.
+
+The cause of this was soon learnt.  The Duchesse de Lude coveted much to
+be made lady of honour to the Princess, but knew she had but little
+chance, so many others more in favour than herself being in the field.
+Madame de Maintenon had an old servant named Nanon, who had been with her
+from the time of her early days of misery, and who had such influence
+with her, that this servant was made much of by everybody at Court, even
+by the ministers and the daughters of the King.  The Duchesse de Lude had
+also an old servant who was on good terms with the other.  The affair
+therefore was not difficult.  The Duchesse de Lude sent twenty thousand
+crowns to Nanon, and on the very evening of the day on which the King had
+spoken to Monsieur, she had the place.  Thus it is!  A Nanon sells the
+most important and the most brilliant offices, and a Duchess of high
+birth is silly enough to buy herself into servitude!
+
+This appointment excited much envy.  The Marechal de Rochefort, who had
+expected to be named, made a great ado.  Madame de Maintenon, who
+despised her, was piqued, and said that she should have had it but for
+the conduct of her daughter.  This was a mere artifice; but the daughter
+was, in truth, no sample of purity.  She had acted in such a manner with
+Blansac that he was sent for from the army to marry her, and on the very
+night of their wedding she gave birth to a daughter.  She was full of
+wit, vivacity, intrigue, and sweetness; yet most wicked, false, and
+artificial, and all this with a simplicity of manner, that imposed even
+upon those who knew her best.  More than gallant while her face lasted,
+she afterwards was easier of access, and at last ruined herself for the
+meanest valets.  Yet, notwithstanding her vices, she was the prettiest
+flower of the Court bunch, and had her chamber always full of the best
+company: she was also much sought after by the three daughters of the
+King.  Driven away from the Court, she was after much supplication
+recalled, and pleased the King so much that Madame de Maintenon, in fear
+of her, sent her away again.  But to go back again to the household of
+the Princess of Savoy.
+
+Dangeau was made chevalier d'honneur.  He owed his success to his good
+looks, to the court he paid to the King's mistresses, to his skilfulness
+at play, and to a lucky stroke of fortune.  The King had oftentimes been
+importuned to give him a lodging, and one day, joking with him upon his
+fancy of versifying; proposed to him some very hard rhymes, and promised
+him a lodging if he filled them up upon the spot.  Dangeau accepted,
+thought but for a moment, performed the task, and thus gained his
+lodging.  He was an old friend of Madame de Maintenon, and it was to her
+he was indebted for his post of chevalier d'honneur in the new household.
+
+Madame d'O was appointed lady of the palace.  Her father, named
+Guilleragues, a gluttonous Gascon, had been one of the intimate friends
+of Madame Scarron, who, as Madame de Maintenon, did not forget her old
+acquaintance, but procured him the embassy to Constantinople.  Dying
+there, he left an only daughter, who, on the voyage home to France,
+gained the heart of Villers, lieutenant of the vessel, and became his
+wife in Asia-Minor, near the ruins of Troy.  Villers claimed to be of the
+house of d'O; hence the name his wife bore.
+
+Established at the Court, the newly-married couple quickly worked
+themselves into the favour of Madame de Maintenon, both being very clever
+in intrigue.  M. d'O was made governor of the Comte de Toulouse, and soon
+gained his entire confidence.  Madame d'O, too, infinitely pleased the,
+young Count, just then entering upon manhood, by her gallantry, her wit,
+and the facilities she allowed him.  Both, in consequence, grew in great
+esteem with the King.  Had they been attendants upon Princes of the
+blood, he would assuredly have slighted them.  But he always showed great
+indulgence to those who served his illegitimate children.  Hence the
+appointment of Madame d'O to be lady of the palace.
+
+The household of the Princess of Savoy being completed, the members of it
+were sent to the Pont Beauvosin to meet their young mistress.  She
+arrived early on the 16th of October, slept at the Pont Beauvosin that
+night, and on the morrow parted with her Italian attendants without
+shedding a single tear.  On the 4th of November she arrived at Montargis,
+and was received by the King, Monseigneur, and Monsieur.  The King handed
+her down from her coach, and conducted her to the apartment he had
+prepared for her.  Her respectful and flattering manners pleased him
+highly.  Her cajoleries, too, soon bewitched Madame de Maintenon, whom
+she never addressed except as "Aunt;" whom she treated with a respect,
+and yet with a freedom, that ravished everybody.  She became the doll of
+Madame de Maintenon and the King, pleased them infinitely by her
+insinuating spirit, and took greater liberties with them than the
+children of the King had ever dared to attempt.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+Meanwhile our campaign upon the Rhine proceeded, and the enemy, having
+had all their grand projects of victory defeated by the firmness and the
+capacity of the Marechal de Choiseul, retired into winter-quarters, and
+we prepared to do the same.  The month of October was almost over when
+Madame de Saint-Simon lost M. Fremont, father of the Marechal de Lorges.
+She had happily given birth to a daughter on the 8th of September.  I was
+desirous accordingly to go to Paris, and having obtained permission from
+the Marechal de Choiseul, who had treated me throughout the campaign with
+much politeness and attention, I set out. Upon arriving at Paris I found
+the Court at Fontainebleau.  I had arrived from the army a little before
+the rest, and did not wish that the King should know it without seeing
+me, lest he might think I had returned in secret.  I hastened at once
+therefore to Fontainebleau, where the King received me with his usual
+goodness,-saying, nevertheless, that I had returned a little too early,
+but that it was of no consequence.
+
+I had not long left his presence when I learned a report that made my
+face burn again.  It was affirmed that when the King remarked upon my
+arriving a little early, I had replied that I preferred arriving at once
+to see him, as my sole mistress, than to remain some days in Paris, as
+did the other young men with their mistresses.  I went at once to the
+King, who had a numerous company around him; and I openly denied what had
+been reported, offering a reward for the discovery of the knave who had
+thus calumniated me, in order that I might give him a sound thrashing.
+All day I sought to discover the scoundrel.  My speech to the King and my
+choler were the topic of the day, and I was blamed for having spoken so
+loudly and in such terms.  But of two evils I had chosen the least,--a
+reprimand from the King, or a few days in the Bastille; and I had avoided
+the greatest, which was to allow myself to be believed an infamous
+libeller of our young men, in order to basely and miserably curry favour
+at the Court.  The course I took succeeded.  The King said nothing of the
+matter, and I went upon a little journey I wished particularly to take,
+for reasons I will now relate.
+
+I had, as I have already mentioned, conceived a strong attachment and
+admiration for M. de La Trappe.  I wished to secure a portrait of him,
+but such was his modesty and humility that I feared to ask him to allow
+himself to be painted.  I went therefore to Rigault, then the first
+portrait-painter in Europe.  In consideration of a sum of a thousand
+crowns, and all his expenses paid, he agreed to accompany me to La
+Trappe, and to make a portrait of him from memory.  The whole affair was
+to be kept a profound secret, and only one copy of the picture was to be
+made, and that for the artist himself.
+
+My plan being fully arranged, I and Rigault set out.  As soon as we
+arrived at our journey's end, I sought M. de La Trappe, and begged to be
+allowed to introduce to him a friend of mine, an officer, who much wished
+to see him: I added, that my friend was a stammerer, and that therefore
+he would be importuned merely with looks and not words.  M. de La Trappe
+smiled with goodness, thought the officer curious about little, and
+consented to see him.  The interview took place.  Rigault excusing
+himself on the ground of his infirmity, did little during three-quarters
+of an hour but keep his eyes upon M. de La Trappe, and at the end went
+into a room where materials were already provided for him, and covered
+his canvas with the images and the ideas he had filled himself with.
+On the morrow the same thing was repeated, although M. de La Trappe,
+thinking that a man whom he knew not, and who could take no part in
+conversation, had sufficiently seen him, agreed to the interview only out
+of complaisance to me.  Another sitting was needed in order to finish the
+work; but it was with great difficulty M. de La Trappe could be persuaded
+to consent to it.  When the third and last interview was at an end, M. de
+La Trappe testified to me his surprise at having been so much and so long
+looked at by a species of mute.  I made the best excuses I could, and
+hastened to turn the conversation.
+
+The portrait was at length finished, and was a most perfect likeness of
+my venerable friend.  Rigault admitted to me that he had worked so hard
+to produce it from memory, that for several months afterwards he had been
+unable to do anything to his other portraits.  Notwithstanding the
+thousand crowns I had paid him, he broke the engagement he had made by
+showing the portrait before giving it up to me.  Then, solicited for
+copies, he made several, gaining thereby, according to his own admission,
+more than twenty-five thousand francs, and thus gave publicity to the
+affair.
+
+I was very much annoyed at this, and with the noise it made in the world;
+and I wrote to M. de La Trappe, relating the deception I had practised
+upon him, and sued for pardon.  He was pained to excess, hurt, and
+afflicted; nevertheless he showed no anger.  He wrote in return to me,
+and said, I was not ignorant that a Roman Emperor had said, "I love
+treason but not traitors;" but that, as for himself, he felt on the
+contrary that he loved the traitor but could only hate his treason.
+I made presents of three copies of the picture to the monastery of La
+Trappe.  On the back of the original I described the circumstance under
+which the portrait had been taken, in order to show that M. de La Trappe
+had not consented to it, and I pointed out that for some years he had
+been unable to use his right hand, to acknowledge thus the error which
+had been made in representing him as writing.
+
+The King, about this time, set on foot negotiations for peace in Holland,
+sending there two plenipotentiaries, Courtin and Harlay, and
+acknowledging one of his agents, Caillieres, who had been for some little
+time secretly in that country.
+
+The year finished with the disgrace of Madame de Saint Geran.  She was on
+the best of terms with the Princesses, and as much a lover of good cheer
+as Madame de Chartres and Madame la Duchesse.  This latter had in the
+park of Versailles a little house that she called the "Desert."  There
+she had received very doubtful company, giving such gay repasts that the
+King, informed of her doings, was angry, and forbade her to continue
+these parties or to receive certain guests.  Madame de Saint Geran was
+then in the first year of her mourning, so that the King did not think it
+necessary to include her among the interdicted; but he intimated that he
+did not approve of her.  In spite of this, Madame la Duchesse invited her
+to an early supper at the Desert a short time after, and the meal was
+prolonged so far into the night, and with so much gaiety, that it came to
+the ears of the King.  He was in great anger, and learning that Madame de
+Saint Geran had been of the party, sentenced her to be banished twenty
+leagues from the Court.  Like a clever woman, she retired into a convent
+at Rouen, saying that as she had been unfortunate enough to displease the
+King, a convent was the only place for her; and this was much approved.
+
+At the commencement of the next year (1697) the eldest son of the Comte
+d'Auvergne completed his dishonour by a duel he fought with the Chevalier
+de Caylus, on account of a tavern broil, and a dispute about some
+wenches.  Caylus, who had fought well, fled from the kingdom; the other,
+who had used his sword like a poltroon, and had run away dismayed into
+the streets, was disinherited by his father, sent out of the country, and
+returned no more.  He was in every respect a wretch, who, on account of
+his disgraceful adventures, was forced to allow himself to be
+disinherited and to take the cross of Malta; he was hanged in effigy at
+the Greve, to the great regret of his family, not on account of the
+sentence, but because, in spite of every entreaty, he had been proceeded
+against like the most obscure gentleman.  The exile of Caylus afterwards
+made his fortune.
+
+We had another instance, about this time, of the perfidy of Harlay.  He
+had been entrusted with a valuable deposit by Ruvigny, a Huguenot
+officer, who, quitting France, had entered the service of the Prince of
+Orange, and who was, with the exception of Marshal Schomberg, the only
+Huguenot to whom the King offered the permission of remaining at Court
+with full liberty to practise his religion in secret.  This, Ruvigny,
+like Marshal Schomberg, refused.  He was, nevertheless, allowed to retain
+the property he possessed in France; but after his death his son, not
+showing himself at all grateful for this favour, the King at last
+confiscated the property, and publicly testified his anger.  This was the
+moment that Harlay seized to tell the King of the deposit he had.  As a
+recompense the King gave it to him as confiscated, and this hypocrite of
+justice, of virtue, of disinterestedness, and of rigorism was not ashamed
+to appropriate it to himself, and to close his ears and his eyes to the
+noise this perfidy excited.
+
+M. de Monaco, who had obtained for himself the title of foreign prince by
+the marriage of his son with the Duchesse de Valentinois, daughter of M.
+le Grand, and who enjoyed, as it were, the sovereignty of a rock--beyond
+whose narrow limits anybody might spit, so to speak, whilst standing in
+the middle--soon found, and his son still more so, that they had bought
+the title very dearly.  The Duchess was charming, gallant, and was
+spoiled by the homage of the Court, in a house open night and day, and to
+which her beauty attracted all that was young and brilliant.  Her
+husband, with much intelligence, was diffident; his face and figure had
+acquired for him the name of Goliath; he suffered for a long time the
+haughtiness and the disdain of his wife and her family.  At last he and
+his father grew tired and took away Madame de Valentinois to Monaco.  She
+grieved, and her parents also, as though she had been carried off to the
+Indies.  After two years of absence and repentance, she promised marvels,
+and was allowed to return to Paris.  I know not who counselled her, but,
+without changing her conduct, she thought only how to prevent a return to
+Monaco; and to insure herself against this, she accused her father-in-law
+of having made vile proposals to her, and of attempting to take her by
+force.  This charge made a most scandalous uproar, but was believed by
+nobody.  M. de Monaco was no longer young; he was a very honest man, and
+had always passed for such; besides, he was almost blind in both eyes,
+and had a huge pointed belly, which absolutely excited fear, it jutted
+out so far!
+
+After some time, as Madame de Valentinois still continued to swim in the
+pleasures of the Court under the shelter of her family, her husband
+redemanded her; and though he was laughed at at first, she was at last
+given up to him.
+
+A marriage took place at this time between the son of Pontchartrain and
+the daughter of the Comte de Roye.  The Comte de Roye was a Huguenot,
+and, at the revocation of the edict of Nantes, had taken refuge, with his
+wife, in Denmark, where he had been made grand marshal and commander of
+all the troops.  One day, as the Comte de Roye was dining with his wife
+and daughter at the King's table, the Comtesse de Roye asked her daughter
+if she did not think the Queen of Denmark and Madame Panache resembled
+each other like two drops of water?  Although she spoke in French and in
+a low tone, the Queen both heard and understood her, and inquired at once
+who was Madame Panache.  The Countess in her surprise replied, that she
+was a very amiable woman at the French Court.  The Queen, who had noticed
+the surprise of the Countess, was not satisfied with this reply.  She
+wrote to the Danish minister at Paris, desiring to be informed of every
+particular respecting Madame Panache, her face, her age, her condition,
+and upon what footing she was at the French Court.  The minister, all
+astonished that the Queen should have heard of Madame Panache, wrote word
+that she was a little and very old creature, with lips and eyes so
+disfigured that they were painful to look upon; a species of beggar who
+had obtained a footing at Court from being half-witted, who was now at
+the supper of the King, now at the dinner of Monseigneur, or at other
+places, where everybody amused themselves by tormenting her: She in turn
+abused the company at these parties, in order to cause diversion, but
+sometimes rated them very seriously and with strong words, which
+delighted still more those princes and princesses, who emptied into her
+pockets meat and ragouts, the sauces of which ran all down her
+petticoats: at these parties some gave her a pistole or a crown, and
+others a filip or a smack in the face, which put her in a fury, because
+with her bleared eyes not being able to see the end of her nose, she
+could not tell who had struck her;--she was, in a word, the pastime of
+the Court!
+
+Upon learning this, the Queen of Denmark was so piqued, that she could no
+longer suffer the Comtesse de Roye near her; she complained to the King:
+he was much offended that foreigners, whom he had loaded with favour,
+should so repay him.  The Comte de Roye was unable to stand up against
+the storm, and withdrew to England, where he died a few years after.
+
+The King at this time drove away the company of Italian actors, and would
+not permit another in its place.  So long as the Italians had simply
+allowed their stage to overflow with filth or impiety they only caused
+laughter; but they set about playing a piece called "The False Prude," in
+which Madame de Maintenon was easily recognised.  Everybody ran to see
+the piece; but after three or four representations, given consecutively
+on account of the gain it brought, the Italians received orders to close
+their theatre and to quit the realm in a month.  This affair made a great
+noise; and if the comedians lost an establishment by their boldness and
+folly, they who drove them away gained nothing--such was the licence with
+which this ridiculous event was spoken of!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+The disposition of the armies was the same this year as last, except that
+the Princes did not serve.  Towards the end of May I joined the army of
+the Rhine, under the Marechal de Choiseul, as before.  We made some
+skilful manoeuvres, but did little in the way of fighting.  For sixteen
+days we encamped at Nieder-buhl, where we obtained a good supply of
+forage.  At the end of that time the Marechal de Choiseul determined to
+change his position.  Our army was so placed, that the enemy could see
+almost all of it quite distinctly; yet, nevertheless, we succeeded in
+decamping so quickly, that we disappeared from under their very eyes in
+open daylight, and in a moment as it were.  Such of the Imperial Generals
+as were out riding ran from all parts to the banks of the Murg, to see
+our retreat, but it was so promptly executed that there was no time for
+them, to attempt to hinder us.  When the Prince of Baden was told of our
+departure he could not credit it. He had seen us so lately, quietly
+resting in our position, that it seemed impossible to him we had left it
+in such a short space of time.  When his own eyes assured him of the
+fact, he was filled with such astonishment and admiration, that he asked
+those around him if they had ever seen such a retreat, adding, that he
+could not have believed, until then, that an army so numerous and so
+considerable should have been able to disappear thus in an instant.
+This honourable and bold retreat was attended by a sad accident.  One of
+our officers, named Blansac, while leading a column of infantry through
+the wood, was overtaken by night.  A small party of his men heard some
+cavalry near them.  The cavalry belonged to the enemy, and had lost their
+way.  Instead of replying when challenged, they said to each other in
+German, "Let us run for it."  Nothing more was wanting to draw upon them
+a discharge from the small body of our men, by whom they had been heard.
+To this they replied with their pistols.  Immediately, and without
+orders, the whole column of infantry fired in that direction, and, before
+Blansac could inquire the cause, fired again.  Fortunately he was not
+wounded; but five unhappy captains were killed, and some subalterns
+wounded.
+
+Our campaign was brought to an end by the peace of Ryswick.  The first
+news of that event arrived at Fontainebleau on the 22nd of September.
+Celi, son of Harlay, had been despatched with the intelligence; but he
+did not arrive until five o'clock in the morning of the 26th of
+September.  He had amused himself by the way with a young girl who had
+struck his fancy, and with some wine that he equally relished.  He had
+committed all the absurdities and impertinences which might be expected
+of a debauched, hare-brained young fellow, completely spoiled by his
+father, and he crowned all by this fine delay.
+
+A little time before the signing of peace, the Prince de Conti, having
+been elected King of Poland, set out to take possession of his throne.
+The King, ravished with joy to see himself delivered from a Prince whom
+he disliked, could not hide his satisfaction--his eagerness--to get rid
+of a Prince whose only faults were that he had no bastard blood in his
+veins, and that he was so much liked by all the nation that they wished
+him at the head of the army, and murmured at the little favour he
+received, as compared with that showered down upon the illegitimate
+children.
+
+The King made all haste to treat the Prince to royal honours.  After an
+interview in the cabinet of Madame de Maintenon, he presented him to a
+number of ladies, saying, "I bring you a king."  The Prince was all along
+doubtful of the validity of his election, and begged that the Princess
+might not be treated as a queen, until he should have been crowned.
+He received two millions in cash from the King, and other assistances.
+Samuel Bernard undertook to make the necessary payments in Poland.  The
+Prince started by way of Dunkerque, and went to that place at such speed,
+that an ill-closed chest opened, and two thousand Louis were scattered on
+the road, a portion only of which was brought back to the Hotel Conti.
+The celebrated Jean Bart pledged himself to take him safely, despite the
+enemy's fleet; and kept his word.  The convoy was of five frigates.  The
+Chevalier de Sillery, before starting, married Mademoiselle Bigot, rich
+and witty, with whom he had been living for some time.  Meanwhile the
+best news arrived from our ambassador, the Abbe de Polignac, to the King;
+but all answers were intercepted at Dantzic by the retired Queen of
+Poland, who sent on only the envelopes!  However, the Prince de Conti
+passed up the Sound; and the King and Queen of Denmark watched them from
+the windows of the Chateau de Cronenbourg.  Jean Bart, against custom,
+ordered a salute to be fired.  It was returned; and as some light vessels
+passing near the frigates said that the King and Queen were looking on,
+the Prince ordered another salvo.
+
+There was, however, another claimant to the throne of Poland; I mean the
+Elector of Saxony, who had also been elected, and who had many partisans;
+so many, indeed, that when the Prince de Conti arrived at Dantzic, he
+found himself almost entirely unsupported.  The people even refused
+provision to his frigates.  However, the Prince's partisans at length
+arrived to salute him.  The Bishop of Plosko gave him a grand repast,
+near the Abbey of Oliva.  Marege, a Gascon gentleman of the Prince's
+suite, was present, but had been ill.  There was drinking in the Polish
+fashion, and he tried to be let off.  The Prince pleaded for him; but
+these Poles, who, in order to make themselves understood, spoke Latin--
+and very bad Latin indeed--would not accept such an excuse, and forcing
+him to drink, howled furiously 'Bibat et Moriatur!  Marege, who was very
+jocular and yet very choleric; used to tell this story in the same
+spirit, and made everyone who heard it laugh.
+
+However, the party of the Prince de Conti made no way, and at length he
+was fain to make his way back to France with all speed.  The King
+received him very graciously, although at heart exceeding sorry to see
+him again.  A short time after, the Elector of Saxony mounted the throne
+of Poland without opposition, and was publicly recognised by the King,
+towards the commencement of August.
+
+By the above-mentioned peace of Ryswick, the King acknowledged the Prince
+of Orange as King of England.  It was, however, a bitter draught for him
+to swallow, and for these reasons: Some years before, the King had
+offered his illegitimate daughter, the Princesse de Conti, in marriage to
+the Prince of Orange, believing he did that Prince great honour by the
+proposal.  The Prince did not think in the same manner, and flatly
+refused; saying, that the House of Orange was accustomed to marry the
+legitimate daughters of great kings, and not their bastards.  These words
+sank so deeply into the heart of the King, that he never forgot them; and
+often, against even his most palpable interest, showed how firmly the
+indignation he felt at them had taken possession of his mind: Since then,
+the Prince of Orange had done all in his power to efface the effect his
+words had made, but every attempt was rejected with disdain.  The King's
+ministers in Holland had orders to do all they could to thwart the
+projects of the Prince of Orange, to excite people against him, to
+protect openly those opposed to him, and to be in no way niggard of money
+in order to secure the election of magistrates unfavourable to him.  The
+Prince never ceased, until the breaking-out of this war, to use every
+effort to appease the anger of the King.  At last, growing tired, and
+hoping soon to make his invasion into England, he said publicly, that he
+had uselessly laboured all his life to gain the favours of the King, but
+that he hoped to be more fortunate in meriting his esteem.  It may be
+imagined, therefore, what a triumph it was for him when he forced the
+King to recognise him as monarch of England, and what that recognition
+cost the King.
+
+M. le Duc presided this year over the Assembly of the States of Burgundy,
+in place of his father M. le Prince, who did not wish to go there.  The
+Duke gave on that occasion a striking example of the friendship of
+princes, and a fine lesson to those who seek it.  Santeuil, Canon of
+Saint Victor, and the greatest Latin poet who has appeared for many
+centuries, accompanied him.  Santeuil was an excellent fellow, full of
+wit and of life, and of pleasantries, which rendered him an admirable
+boon-companion.  Fond of wine and of good cheer, he was not debauched;
+and with a disposition and talents so little fitted for the cloister,
+was nevertheless, at bottom, as good a churchman as with such a character
+he could be.  He was a great favourite with all the house of Conde, and
+was invited to their parties, where his witticisms, his verses, and his
+pleasantries had afforded infinite amusement for many years.
+
+M. le Duc wished to take him to Dijon.  Santeuil tried to excuse himself,
+but without effect; he was obliged to go, and was established at the
+house of the Duke while the States were held.  Every evening there was a
+supper, and Santeuil was always the life of the company.  One evening M.
+le Duc diverted himself by forcing Santeuil to drink champagne, and
+passing from pleasantry to pleasantry, thought it would be a good joke to
+empty his snuff-box, full of Spanish snuff, into a large glass of wine,
+and to make Santeuil drink it, in order to see what would happen.  It was
+not long before he was enlightened upon this point.  Santeuil was seized
+with vomiting and with fever, and in twice twenty-four hours the unhappy
+man died-suffering the tortures of the damned, but with sentiments of
+extreme penitence, in which he received the sacrament, and edified a
+company little disposed towards edification, but who detested such a
+cruel joke.
+
+In consequence of the peace just concluded at Ryswick, many fresh
+arrangements were made about this time in our embassies abroad.  This
+allusion to our foreign appointments brings to my mind an anecdote which
+deserves to be remembered.  When M. de Vendome took Barcelona, the
+Montjoui (which is as it were its citadel) was commanded by the Prince of
+Darmstadt.  He was of the house of Hesse, and had gone into Spain to seek
+employment; he was a relative of the Queen of Spain, and, being a very
+well-made man, had not, it was said, displeased her.  It was said also,
+and by people whose word was not without weight, that the same council of
+Vienna, which for reasons of state had made no scruple of poisoning the
+late Queen of Spain (daughter of Monsieur), because she had no children,
+and because she had, also, too much ascendancy over the heart of her
+husband; it was said, I say, that this same council had no scruples upon
+another point.  After poisoning the first Queen, it had remarried the
+King of Spain to a sister of the Empress.  She was tall, majestic, not
+without beauty and capacity, and, guided by the ministers of the Emperor,
+soon acquired much influence over the King her husband.  So far all was
+well, but the most important thing was wanting--she had no children.  The
+council had hoped some from this second marriage, because it had lured
+itself into the belief that previously the fault rested with the late
+Queen.  After some years, this same council, being no longer able to
+disguise the fact that the King could have no children, sent the Prince
+of Darmstadt into Spain, for the purpose of establishing himself there,
+and of ingratiating himself into the favour of the Queen to such an
+extent that this defect might be remedied.  The Prince of Darmstadt was
+well received; he obtained command in the army; defended, as I have said,
+Barcelona; and obtained a good footing at the Court.  But the object for
+which he had been more especially sent he could not accomplish.  I will
+not say whether the Queen was inaccessible from her own fault or that of
+others.  Nor will I say, although I have been assured, but I believe by
+persons without good knowledge of the subject, that naturally it was
+impossible for her to become a mother.  I will simply say that the Prince
+of Darmstadt was on the best terms with the King and the Queen, and had
+opportunities very rare in that country, without any fruit which could
+put the succession of the monarchy in safety against the different
+pretensions afloat, or reassure on that head the politic council of
+Vienna.
+
+But to return to France.
+
+Madame de Maintenon, despite the height to which her insignificance had
+risen, had yet her troubles.  Her brother, who was called the Comte
+d'Aubigne, was of but little worth, yet always spoke as though no man
+were his equal, complained that he had not been made Marechal of France
+--sometimes said that he had taken his baton in money, and constantly
+bullied Madame de Maintenon because she did not make him a duke and a
+peer.  He spent his time running after girls in the Tuileries, always had
+several on his hands, and lived and spent his money with their families
+and friends of the same kidney.  He was just fit for a strait-waistcoat,
+but comical, full of wit and unexpected repartees.  A good, humorous
+fellow, and honest-polite, and not too impertinent on account of his
+sister's fortune.  Yet it was a pleasure to hear him talk of the time of
+Scarron and the Hotel d'Albret, and of the gallantries and adventures of
+his sister, which he contrasted with her present position and devotion.
+He would talk in this manner, not before one or two, but in a
+compromising manner, quite openly in the Tuileries gardens, or in the
+galleries of Versailles, before everybody, and would often drolly speak
+of the King as "the brother-in-law."  I have frequently heard him talk in
+this manner; above all, when he came (more often than was desired) to
+dine with my father and mother, who were much embarrassed with him; at
+which I used to laugh in my sleeve.
+
+A brother like this was a great annoyance to Madame de Maintenon.  His
+wife, an obscure creature, more obscure, if possible, than her birth;
+--foolish to the last degree, and of humble mien, was almost equally so.
+Madame de Maintenon determined to rid herself of both.  She persuaded her
+brother to enter a society that had been established by a M. Doyen, at
+St. Sulpice, for decayed gentlemen.  His wife at the same time was
+induced to retire into another community, where, however, she did not
+fail to say to her companions that her fate was very hard, and that she
+wished to be free.  As for d'Aubigne he concealed from nobody that his
+sister was putting a joke on him by trying to persuade him that he was
+devout, declared that he was pestered by priests, and that he should give
+up the ghost in M. Doyen's house.  He could not stand it long, and went
+back to his girls and to the Tuileries, and wherever he could; but they
+caught him again, and placed him under the guardianship of one of the
+stupidest priests of St. Sulpice, who followed him everywhere like his
+shadow, and made him miserable.  The fellow's name was Madot: he was good
+for no other employment, but gained his pay in this one by an assiduity
+of which perhaps no one else would have been capable.  The only child of
+this Comte d'Aubigne was a daughter, taken care of by Madame de
+Maintenon, and educated under her eyes as though her own child.
+
+Towards the end of the year, and not long after my return from the army,
+the King fixed the day for the marriage of the Duc de Bourgogne to the
+young Princesse de Savoy.  He announced that on that occasion he should
+be glad to see a magnificent Court; and he himself, who for a long time
+had worn only the most simple habits, ordered the most superb.  This was
+enough; no one thought of consulting his purse or his state; everyone
+tried to surpass his neighbour in richness and invention.  Gold and
+silver scarcely sufficed: the shops of the dealers were emptied in a few
+days; in a word luxury the most unbridled reigned over Court and city,
+for the fete had a huge crowd of spectators.  Things went to such a
+point, that the King almost repented of what he had said, and remarked,
+that he could not understand how husbands could be such fools as to ruin
+themselves by dresses for their wives; he might have added, by dresses
+for themselves.  But the impulse had been given; there was now no time to
+remedy it, and I believe the King at heart was glad; for it pleased him
+during the fetes to look at all the dresses.  He loved passionately all
+kinds of sumptuosity at his Court; and he who should have held only to
+what had been said, as to the folly of expense, would have grown little
+in favour.  There was no means, therefore, of being wise among so many
+fools.  Several dresses were necessary.  Those for Madame Saint-Simon and
+myself cost us twenty thousand francs.  Workmen were wanting to make up
+so many rich habits.  Madame la Duchesse actually sent her people to take
+some by force who were working at the Duc de Rohan's!  The King heard of
+it, did not like it, and had the workmen sent back immediately to the
+Hotel de Rohan, although the Duc de Rohan was one of the men he liked the
+least in all France.  The King did another thing, which showed that he
+desired everybody to be magnificent: he himself chose the design for the
+embroidery of the Princess.  The embroiderer said he would leave all his
+other designs for that.  The King would not permit this, but caused him
+to finish the work he had in hand, and to set himself afterwards at the
+other; adding, that if it was not ready in time, the Princess could do
+without it.
+
+The marriage was fixed for Saturday, the 7th of December; and, to avoid
+disputes and difficulties, the King suppressed all ceremonies.  The day
+arrived.  At an early hour all the Court went to Monseigneur the Duc de
+Bourgogne, who went afterwards to the Princess.  A little before mid-day
+the procession started from the salon, and proceeded to the chapel.
+
+Cardinal de Coislin performed the marriage service.
+
+As soon as the ceremony was finished, a courier, ready at the door of the
+chapel, started for Turin.  The day passed wearily.  The King and Queen
+of England came about seven o'clock in the evening, and some time
+afterwards supper was served.  Upon rising from the table, the Princess
+was shown to her bed, none but ladies being allowed to remain in the
+chamber.  Her chemise was given her by the Queen of England through the
+Duchesse de Lude.  The Duc de Bourgogne undressed in another room, in the
+midst of all the Court, and seated upon a folding-chair.  The King of
+England gave him his shirt, which was presented by the Duc de
+Beauvilliers.  As soon as the Duchesse de Bourgogne was in bed, the Duc
+de Bourgogne entered, and placed himself at her side, in the presence of
+all the Court.  Immediately afterwards everybody went away from the
+nuptial chamber, except Monseigneur, the ladies of the Princess, and the
+Duc de Beauvilliers, who remained at the pillow by the side of his pupil,
+with the Duchesse de Lude on the other side.  Monseigneur stopped a
+quarter of an hour talking with the newly-married couple, then he made
+his son get up, after having told him to kiss the Princess, in spite of
+the opposition of the Duchesse de Lude.  As it proved, too, her
+opposition was not wrong.  The King said he did not wish that his
+grandson should kiss the end of the Princess's finger until they were
+completely on the footing of man and wife.  Monsieur le Duc de Bourgogne
+after this re-dressed himself in the ante-chamber, and went to his own
+bed as usual.  The little Duc de Berry, spirited and resolute, did not
+approve of the docility of his brother, and declared that he would have
+remained in bed.  The young couple were not, indeed, allowed to live
+together as man and wife until nearly two years afterwards.  The first
+night that this privilege was granted them, the King repaired to their
+chamber hoping to surprise them as they went to bed; but he found the
+doors closed, and would not allow them to be opened.  The marriage-fetes
+spread over several days.  On the Sunday there was an assembly in the
+apartments of the new Duchesse de Bourgogne.  It was magnificent by the
+prodigious number of ladies seated in a circle, or standing behind the
+stools, gentlemen in turn behind them, and the dresses of all beautiful.
+It commenced at six o'clock.  The King came at the end, and led all the
+ladies into the saloon near the chapel, where was a fine collation, and
+the music.  At nine o'clock he conducted Monsieur and Madame la Duchesse
+de Bourgogne to the apartment of the latter, and all was finished for the
+day.  The Princess continued to live just as before, and the ladies had
+strict orders never to leave her alone with her husband.
+
+On the Wednesday there was a grand ball in the gallery, superbly
+ornamented for the occasion.  There was such a crowd, and such disorder,
+that even the King was inconvenienced, and Monsieur was pushed and
+knocked about in the crush.  How other people fared may be imagined.  No
+place was kept--strength or chance decided everything--people squeezed in
+where they could.  This spoiled all the fete.  About nine o'clock
+refreshments were handed round, and at half-past ten supper was served.
+Only the Princesses of the blood and the royal family were admitted to
+it.  On the following Sunday there was another ball, but this time
+matters were so arranged that no crowding or inconvenience occurred.  The
+ball commenced at seven o'clock and was admirable; everybody appeared in
+dresses that had not previously been seen.  The King found that of Madame
+de Saint-Simon much to his taste, and gave it the palm over all the
+others.
+
+Madame de Maintenon did not appear at these balls, at least only for half
+an hour at each.  On the following Tuesday all the Court went at four
+o'clock in the afternoon to Trianon, where all gambled until the arrival
+of the King and Queen of England.  The King took them into the theatre,
+where Destouches's opera of Isse was very well performed.  The opera
+being finished, everybody went his way, and thus these marriage-fetes
+were brought to an end.
+
+Tesse had married his eldest daughter to La Varenne last year, and now
+married his second daughter to Maulevrier, son of a brother of Colbert.
+This mention of La Varenne brings to my recollection a very pleasant
+anecdote of his ancestor, the La Varenne so known in all the memoirs of
+the time as having risen from the position of scullion to that of cook,
+and then to that of cloak-bearer to Henry IV., whom he served in his
+pleasures, and afterwards in his state-affairs.  At the death of the
+King, La Varenne retired, very old and very rich, into the country.
+Birds were much in vogue at that time, and he often amused himself with
+falconry.  One day a magpie perched on one of his trees, and neither
+sticks nor stones could dislodge it.  La Varenne and a number of
+sportsmen gathered around the tree and tried to drive away the magpie.
+Importuned with all this noise, the bird at last began to cry repeatedly
+with all its might, "Pandar!  Pandar!"
+
+Now La Varenne had gained all he possessed by that trade.  Hearing the
+magpie repeat again and again the same word, he took it into his head
+that by a miracle, like the observation Balaam's ass made to his master,
+the bird was reproaching him for his sins.  He was so troubled that he
+could not help showing it; then, more and more agitated, he told the
+cause of his disturbance to the company, who laughed at him in the first
+place, but, upon finding that he was growing really ill, they endeavoured
+to convince him that the magpie belonged to a neighbouring village, where
+it had learned the word.  It was all in vain: La Varenne was so ill that
+he was obliged to be carried home; fever seized him and in four days he
+died.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+Here perhaps is the place to speak of Charles IV., Duc de Lorraine, so
+well known by his genius, and the extremities to which he was urged.  He
+was married in 1621 to the Duchesse Nicole, his cousin-german, but after
+a time ceased to live with her.  Being at Brussels he fell in love with
+Madame de Cantecroix, a widow.  He bribed a courier to bring him news of
+the death of the Duchesse Nicole; he circulated the report throughout the
+town, wore mourning, and fourteen days afterwards, in April, 1637,
+married Madame de Cantecroix.  In a short time it was discovered that the
+Duchesse Nicole was full of life and health, and had not even been ill.
+Madame de Cantecroix made believe that she had been duped, but still
+lived with the Duke.  They continued to repute the Duchesse Nicole as
+dead, and lived together in the face of the world as though effectually
+married, although there had never been any question either before or
+since of dissolving the first marriage.  The Duc Charles had by this fine
+marriage a daughter and then a son, both perfectly illegitimate, and
+universally regarded as such.  Of these the daughter married Comte de
+Lislebonne, by whom she had four children.  The son, educated under his
+father's eye as legitimate, was called Prince de Vaudemont, and by that
+name has ever since been known.  He entered the service of Spain,
+distinguished himself in the army, obtained the support of the Prince of
+Orange, and ultimately rose to the very highest influence and prosperity.
+People were astonished this year, that while the Princess of Savoy was at
+Fontainebleau, just before her marriage, she was taken several times by
+Madame de Maintenon to a little unknown convent at Moret, where there was
+nothing to amuse her, and no nuns who were known.  Madame de Maintenon
+often went there, and Monseigneur with his children sometimes; the late
+Queen used to go also.  This awakened much curiosity and gave rise to
+many reports.  It seems that in this convent there was a woman of colour,
+a Moorish woman, who had been placed there very young by Bontems, valet
+of the King.  She received the utmost care and attention, but never was
+shown to anybody.  When the late Queen or Madame de Maintenon went, they
+did not always see her, but always watched over her welfare.  She was
+treated with more consideration than people the most distinguished; and
+herself made much of the care that was taken of her, and the mystery by
+which she was surrounded.  Although she lived regularly, it was easy to
+see she was not too contented with her position.  Hearing Monseigneur
+hunt in the forest one day, she forgot herself so far as to exclaim,
+"My brother is hunting!"  It was pretended that she was a daughter of the
+King and Queen, but that she had been hidden away on account of her
+colour; and the report was spread that the Queen had had a miscarriage.
+Many people believed this story; but whether it was true or not has
+remained an enigma.
+
+The year 1698 commenced by a reconciliation between the Jesuits and the
+Archbishop of Rheims.  That prelate upon the occasion of an ordinance had
+expressed himself upon matters of doctrine and morality in a manner that
+displeased the Jesuits.  They acted towards him in their usual manner, by
+writing an attack upon him, which appeared without any author's name.
+But the Archbishop complained to the King, and altogether stood his
+ground so firmly, that in the end the Jesuits were glad to give way,
+disavow the book, and arrange the reconciliation which took place.
+
+The Czar, Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia, had at this time already
+commenced his voyages; he was in Holland, learning ship-building.
+Although incognito, he wished to be recognised, but after his own
+fashion; and was annoyed that, being so near to England, no embassy was
+sent to him from that country, which he wished to ally himself with for
+commercial reasons.
+
+At last an embassy arrived; he delayed for some time to give it an
+audience, but in the end fixed the day and hour at which he would see it.
+The reception, however, was to take place on board a large Dutch vessel
+that he was going to examine.  There were two ambassadors; they thought
+the meeting-place rather an odd one, but were obliged to go there.  When
+they arrived on board the Czar sent word that he was in the "top," and
+that it was there he would see them.  The ambassadors, whose feet were
+unaccustomed to rope-ladders, tried to excuse themselves from mounting;
+but it was all in vain.  The Czar would receive them in the "top" or not
+at all.  At last they were compelled to ascend, and the meeting took
+place on that narrow place high up in the air.  The Czar received them
+there with as much majesty as though he had been upon his throne,
+listened to their harangue, replied very graciously, and then laughed at
+the fear painted upon their faces, and good-humouredly gave them to
+understand that he had punished them thus for arriving so late.
+
+After this the Czar passed into England, curious to see and learn as much
+as possible; and, having well fulfilled his views, repaired into Holland.
+He wished to visit France, but the King civilly declined to receive him.
+He went, therefore, much mortified, to Vienna instead.  Three weeks after
+his arrival he was informed of a conspiracy that had been formed against
+him in Moscow.  He hastened there at once, and found that it was headed
+by his own sister; he put her in prison, and hanged her most guilty
+accomplices to the bars of his windows, as many each day as the bars
+would hold.  I have related at once all that regards the Czar for this
+year, in order not to leap without ceasing from one matter to another; I
+shall do this, and for the same reason, with that which follows.
+
+The King of England was, as I have before said, at the height of
+satisfaction at having been recognised by the King (Louis XIV.), and at
+finding himself secure upon the throne.  But a usurper is never tranquil
+and content.  William was annoyed by the residence of the legitimate King
+and his family at Saint Germains.  It was too close to the King (of
+France), and too near England to leave him without disquietude.  He had
+tried hard at Ryswick to obtain the dismissal of James II.  from the
+realm, or at least from the Court of France, but without effect.
+Afterwards he sent the Duke of St. Albans to our King openly, in order to
+compliment him upon the marriage of the Duc de Bourgogne, but in reality
+to obtain the dismissal.
+
+The Duke of St. Albans meeting with no success, the Duke of Portland was
+sent to succeed him.  The Duke of Portland came over with a numerous and
+superb suite; he kept up a magnificent table, and had horses, liveries,
+furniture, and dresses of the most tasteful and costly kind.  He was on
+his way when a fire destroyed Whitehall, the largest and ugliest palace
+in Europe, and which has not since been rebuilt; so that the kings are
+lodged, and very badly, at St. James's Palace.
+
+Portland had his first audience of the King on the 4th of February, and
+remained four months in France.  His politeness, his courtly and gallant
+manners, and the good cheer he gave, charmed everybody, and made him
+universally popular.  It became the fashion to give fetes in his honour;
+and the astonishing fact is, that the King, who at heart was more
+offended than ever with William of Orange, treated this ambassador with
+the most marked distinction.  One evening he even gave Portland his
+bedroom candlestick, a favour only accorded to the most considerable
+persons, and always regarded as a special mark of the King's bounty.
+
+Notwithstanding all these attentions, Portland was as unsuccessful as his
+predecessor.  The King had firmly resolved to continue his protection to
+James II., and nothing could shake this determination.  Portland was
+warned from the first, that if he attempted to speak to the King upon the
+point, his labour would be thrown away; he wisely therefore kept silence,
+and went home again without in any way having fulfilled the mission upon
+which he had been sent.
+
+We had another distinguished foreigner arrive in France about this time,
+--I mean, the Prince of Parma, respecting whom I remember a pleasing
+adventure.  At Fontainebleau more great dancing-parties are given than
+elsewhere, and Cardinal d'Estrees wished to give one there in honour of
+this Prince.  I and many others were invited to the banquet; but the
+Prince himself, for whom the invitation was specially provided, was
+forgotten.  The Cardinal had given invitations right and left, but by
+some omission the Prince had not had one sent to him.  On the morning of
+the dinner this discovery was made.  The Prince was at once sent to, but
+he was engaged, and for several days.  The dinner therefore took place
+without him; the Cardinal was much laughed at for his absence of mind.
+He was often similarly forgetful.
+
+The Bishop of Poitiers died at the commencement of this year, and his
+bishopric was given at Easter to the Abbe de Caudelet.  The Abbe was a
+very good man, but made himself an enemy, who circulated the blackest
+calumnies against him.  Amongst other impostures it was said that the
+Abbe had gambled all Good Friday; the truth being, that in the evening,
+after all the services were over, he went to see the Marechale de Crequi,
+who prevailed upon him to amuse her for an hour by playing at piquet.
+But the calumny had such effect, that the bishopric of Poitiers was taken
+from him, and he retired into Brittany, where he passed the rest of his
+life in solitude and piety.  His brother in the meantime fully proved to
+Pere de la Chaise the falsehood of this accusation; and he, who was
+upright and good, did all he could to bestow some other living upon the
+Abbe, in recompense for that he had been stripped of.  But the King would
+not consent, although often importuned, and even reproached for his
+cruelty.
+
+It was known, too, who was the author of the calumny.  It was the Abbe de
+la Chatre, who for a long time had been chaplain to the King, and who was
+enraged against everyone who was made bishop before him.  He was a man
+not wanting in intelligence, but bitter, disagreeable, punctilious; very
+ignorant, because he would never study, and so destitute of morality,
+that I saw him say mass in the chapel on Ash Wednesday, after having
+passed a night, masked at a ball, where he said and did the most filthy
+things, as seen and heard by M. de La Vrilliere, before whom he unmasked,
+and who related this to me: half an hour after, I met the Abbe de la
+Chatre, dressed and going to the altar.  Other adventures had already
+deprived him of all chance of being made bishop by the King.
+
+The old Villars died at this time.  I have already mentioned him as
+having been made chevalier d'honneur to the Duchesse de Chartres at her
+marriage.  I mention him now, because I omitted to say before the origin
+of his name of Orondat, by which he was generally known, and which did
+not displease him.  This is the circumstance that gave rise to it.
+Madame de Choisy, a lady of the fashionable world, went one day to see
+the Comtesse de Fiesque, and found there a large company.  The Countess
+had a young girl living with her, whose name was Mademoiselle
+d'Outrelaise, but who was called the Divine.  Madame de Choisy, wishing
+to go into the bedroom, said she would go there, and see the Divine.
+Mounting rapidly, she found in the chamber a young and very pretty girl,
+Mademoiselle Bellefonds, and a man, who escaped immediately upon seeing
+her.  The face of this man being perfectly well made, so struck her,
+that, upon coming down again, she said it could only be that of Orondat.
+Now that romances are happily no longer read, it is necessary to say that
+Orondat is a character in Cyrus, celebrated by his figure and his good
+looks, and who charmed all the heroines of that romance, which was then
+much in vogue.  The greater part of the company knew that Villars was
+upstairs to see Mademoiselle de Bellefonds, with whom he was much in
+love, and whom he soon afterwards married.  Everybody therefore smiled at
+this adventure of Orondat, and the name clung ever afterwards to Villars.
+
+The Prince de Conti lost, before this time, his son, Prince la Roche-sur-
+Yon, who was only four years old.  The King wore mourning for him,
+although it was the custom not to do so for children under seven years of
+age.  But the King had already departed from this custom for one of the
+children of M. du Maine, and he dared not afterwards act differently
+towards the children of a prince of the blood.  Just at the end of
+September, M. du Maine lost another child, his only son.  The King wept
+very much, and, although the child was considerably under seven years of
+age, wore mourning for it.  The marriage of Mademoiselle to M. de
+Lorraine was then just upon the point of taking place; and Monsieur
+(father of Mademoiselle) begged that this mourning might be laid aside
+when the marriage was celebrated.  The King agreed, but Madame la
+Duchesse and the Princesse de Conti believed it apparently beneath them
+to render this respect to Monsieur, and refused to comply.  The King
+commanded them to do so, but they pushed the matter so far as to say that
+they had no other clothes.  Upon this, the King ordered them to send and
+get some directly.  They were obliged to obey, and admit themselves
+vanquished; but they did so not without great vexation.  M. de Cambrai's
+affairs still continued to make a great stir among the prelates and at
+the Court.  Madame Guyon was transferred from the Vincennes to the
+Bastille, and it was believed she would remain there all her life.  The
+Ducs de Chevreuse and Beauvilliers lost all favour with M. de Maintenon,
+and narrowly escaped losing the favour of the King.  An attempt was in
+fact made, which Madame de Maintenon strongly supported, to get them
+disgraced; and, but for the Archbishop of Paris, this would have taken
+place.  But this prelate, thoroughly upright and conscientious,
+counselled the King against such a step, to the great vexation of his
+relations, who were the chief plotters in the conspiracy to overthrow the
+two Dukes.  As for M. de Cambrai's book 'Les Maxinies des Saints', it was
+as little liked as ever, and underwent rather a strong criticism at this
+time from M. de La Trappe, which did not do much to improve its
+reputation.  At the commencement of the dispute M. de Meaux had sent a
+copy of 'Les Maximes des Saints' to M. de La Trappe, asking as a friend
+for his opinion of the work.  M. de La Trappe read it, and was much
+scandalized.  The more he studied it, the more this sentiment penetrated
+him.  At last, after having well examined the book, he sent his opinion
+to M. de Meaux, believing it would be considered as private, and not be
+shown to anybody.  He did not measure his words, therefore, but wrote
+openly, that if M. de Cambrai was right he might burn the Evangelists,
+and complain of Jesus Christ, who could have come into the world only to
+deceive us.  The frightful force of this phrase was so terrifying, that
+M. de Meaux thought it worthy of being shown to Madame de Maintenon; and
+she, seeking only to crush M. de Cambrai with all the authorities
+possible, would insist upon this opinion of M. de La Trappe being
+printed.
+
+It may be imagined what triumphing there was on the one side, and what
+piercing cries on the other.  The friends of M. de Cambrai complained
+most bitterly that M. de La Trappe had mixed himself up in the matter,
+and had passed such a violent and cruel sentence upon a book then under
+the consideration of the Pope.  M. de La Trappe on his side was much
+afflicted that his letter had been published.  He wrote to M. de Meaux
+protesting against this breach of confidence; and said that, although he
+had only expressed what he really thought, he should have been careful to
+use more measured language, had he supposed his letter would have seen
+the light.  He said all he could to heal the wounds his words had caused,
+but M. de Cambrai and his friends never forgave him for having written
+them.
+
+This circumstance caused much discussion, and M. de La Trappe, to whom I
+was passionately attached, was frequently spoken of in a manner that
+caused me much annoyance.  Riding out one day in a coach with some of my
+friends, the conversation took this turn.  I listened in silence for some
+time, and then, feeling no longer able to support the discourse, desired
+to be set down, so that my friends might talk at their ease, without pain
+to me.  They tried to retain me, but I insisted and carried my point.
+Another time, Charost, one of my friends, spoke so disdainfully of M. de
+La Trappe, and I replied to him with such warmth, that on the instant he
+was seized with a fit, tottered, stammered, his throat swelled, his eyes
+seemed starting from his head, and his tongue from his mouth.  Madame de
+Saint-Simon and the other ladies who were present flew to his assistance;
+one unfastened his cravat and his shirt-collar, another threw a jug of
+water over him and made him drink something; but as for me, I was struck
+motionless at the sudden change brought about by an excess of anger and
+infatuation.  Charost was soon restored, and when he left I was taken to
+task by the ladies.  In reply I simply smiled.  I gained this by the
+occurrence, that Charost never committed himself again upon the subject
+of M. de La Trappe.
+
+Before quitting this theme, I will relate an anecdote which has found
+belief.  It has been said, that when M. de La Trappe was the Abbe de
+Rance he was much in love with the beautiful Madame de Montbazon, and
+that he was well treated by her.  On one occasion after leaving her, in
+perfect health, in order to go into the country, he learnt that she had
+fallen ill.  He hastened back, entered hurriedly into her chamber, and
+the first sight he saw there was her head, that the surgeons, in opening
+her, had separated from her body.  It was the first intimation he had had
+that she was dead, and the surprise and horror of the sight so converted
+him that immediately afterwards he retired from the world.  There is
+nothing true in all this except the foundation upon which the fiction
+arose.  I have frankly asked M. de La Trappe upon this matter, and from
+him I have learned that he was one of the friends of Madame de Montbazon,
+but that so far from being ignorant of the time of her death, he was by
+her side at the time, administered the sacrament to her, and had never
+quitted her during the few days she was ill.  The truth is, her sudden
+death so touched him, that it made him carry out his intention of
+retiring from the world--an intention, however, he had formed for many
+years.
+
+The affair of M. de Cambrai was not finally settled until the
+commencement of the following year, 1699, but went on making more noise
+day by day.  At the date I have named the verdict from Rome arrived
+Twenty-three propositions of the 'Maximes des Saints' were declared rash,
+dangerous, erroneous--'in globo'--and the Pope excommunicated those who
+read the book or kept it in their houses.  The King was much pleased with
+this condemnation, and openly expressed his satisfaction.  Madame de
+Maintenon appeared at the summit of joy.  As for M. de Cambrai, he learnt
+his fate in a moment which would have overwhelmed a man with less
+resources in himself.  He was on the point of mounting into the pulpit:
+he was by no means troubled; put aside the sermon he had prepared, and,
+without delaying a moment, took for subject the submission due to the
+Church; he treated this theme in a powerful and touching manner;
+announced the condemnation of his book; retracted the opinions he had
+professed; and concluded his sermon by a perfect acquiescence and
+submission to the judgment the Pope had just pronounced.  Two days
+afterwards he published his retraction, condemned his book, prohibited
+the reading of it, acquiesced and submitted himself anew to his
+condemnation, and in the clearest terms took away from himself all means
+of returning to his opinions.  A submission so prompt, so clear, so
+perfect, was generally admired, although there were not wanting censors
+who wished he had shown less readiness in giving way.  His friends
+believed the submission would be so flattering to the Pope, that M. de
+Cambrai might rely upon advancement to a cardinalship, and steps were
+taken, but without any good result, to bring about that event.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+About this time the King caused Charnace to be arrested in a province to
+which he had been banished.  He was accused of many wicked things, and;
+amongst others, of coining.  Charnace was a lad of spirit, who had been
+page to the King and officer in the body-guard.  Having retired to his
+own house, he often played off many a prank.  One of these I will
+mention, as being full of wit and very laughable.
+
+He had a very long and perfectly beautiful avenue before his house in
+Anjou, but in the midst of it were the cottage and garden of a peasant;
+and neither Charnace, nor his father before him, could prevail upon him
+to remove, although they offered him large sums.  Charnace at last
+determined to gain his point by stratagem.  The peasant was a tailor,
+and lived all alone, without wife or child.  One day Charnace sent for
+him, said he wanted a Court suit in all haste, and, agreeing to lodge and
+feed him, stipulated that he should not leave the house until it was
+done.  The tailor agreed, and set himself to the work.  While he was thus
+occupied, Charnace had the dimensions of his house and garden taken with
+the utmost exactitude; made a plan of the interior, showing the precise
+position of the furniture and the utensils; and, when all was done,
+pulled down the house and removed it a short distance off.
+
+Then it was arranged as before with a similar looking garden, and at the
+same time the spot on which it had previously stood was smoothed and
+levelled.  All this was done before the suit was finished.  The work
+being at length over on both sides, Charnace amused the tailor until it
+was quite dark, paid him, and dismissed him content.  The man went on his
+way down the avenue; but, finding the distance longer than usual, looked
+about, and perceived he had gone too far.  Returning, he searched
+diligently for his house, but without being able to find it.  The night
+passed in this exercise.  When the day came, he rubbed his eyes, thinking
+they might have been in fault; but as he found them as clear as usual,
+began to believe that the devil had carried away his house, garden and
+all.  By dint of wandering to and fro, and casting his eyes in every
+direction, he saw at last a house which was as like to his as are two
+drops of water to each other.  Curiosity tempted him to go and examine
+it.  He did so, and became convinced it was his own.  He entered, found
+everything inside as he had left it, and then became quite persuaded he
+had been tricked by a sorcerer.  The day was not, however, very far
+advanced before he learned the truth through the banter of his
+neighbours.  In fury he talked of going to law, or demanding justice, but
+was laughed at everywhere.  The King when he heard of it laughed also;
+and Charnace had his avenue free.  If he had never done anything worse
+than this, he would have preserved his reputation and his liberty.
+
+A strange scene happened at Meudon after supper one evening, towards the
+end of July.  The Prince de Conti and the Grand Prieur were playing, and
+a dispute arose respecting the game.  The Grand Prieur, inflated by pride
+on account of the favours the King had showered upon him, and rendered
+audacious by being placed almost on a level with the Princes of the
+blood, used words which would have been too strong even towards an equal.
+The Prince de Conti answered by a repartee, in which the other's honesty
+at play and his courage in war--both, in truth, little to boast about--
+were attacked.  Upon this the Grand Prieur flew into a passion, flung
+away the cards, and demanded satisfaction, sword in hand.  The Prince de
+Conti, with a smile of contempt, reminded him that he was wanting in
+respect, and at the same time said he could have the satisfaction he
+asked for whenever he pleased.  The arrival of Monseigneur, in his
+dressing-gown, put an end to the fray.  He ordered the Marquis de
+Gesvres, who was one of the courtiers present, to report the whole affair
+to the King, and that every one should go to bed.  On the morrow the King
+was informed of what had taken place, and immediately ordered the Grand
+Prieur to go to the Bastille.  He was obliged to obey, and remained in
+confinement several days.  The affair made a great stir at Court.  The
+Princes of the blood took a very high tone, and the illegitimates were
+much embarrassed.  At last, on the 7th of August, the affair was finally
+accommodated through the intercession of Monseigneur.  The Grand Prieur
+demanded pardon of the Prince de Conti in the presence of his brother, M.
+de Vendome, who was obliged to swallow this bitter draught, although
+against his will, in order to appease the Princes of the blood, who were
+extremely excited.
+
+Nearly at the same time, that is to say, on the 29th of May, in the
+morning Madame de Saint-Simon was happily delivered of a child.  God did
+us the grace to give us a son.  He bore, as I had, the name of Vidame of
+Chartres.  I do not know why people have the fancy for these odd names,
+but they seduce in all nations, and they who feel the triviality of them,
+imitate them.  It is true that the titles of Count and Marquis have
+fallen into the dust because of the quantity of people without wealth,
+and even without land, who usurp them; and that they have become so
+worthless, that people of quality who are Marquises or Counts (if they
+will permit me to say it) are silly enough to be annoyed if those titles
+are given to them in conversation.  It is certain, however, that these
+titles emanated from landed creations, and that in their origin they had
+functions attached to them, which, they have since outlived.  The
+vidames, on the contrary, were only principal officers of certain
+bishops, with authority to lead all the rest of their seigneurs' vassals
+to the field, either to fight against other lords, or in the armies that
+our kings used to assemble to combat their enemies before the creation of
+a standing army put an end to the employment of vassals (there being no
+further need for them), and to all the power and authority of the
+seigneurs.  There is thus no comparison between the title of vidame,
+which only marks a vassal, and the titles which by fief emanate from the
+King.  Yet because the few Vidames who have been known were illustrious,
+the name has appeared grand, and for this reason was given to me, and
+afterwards by me to my son:
+
+Some little time before this, the King resolved to show all Europe, which
+believed his resources exhausted by a long war, that in the midst of
+profound peace, he was as fully prepared as ever for arms.  He wished at
+the same time, to present a superb spectacle to Madame de Maintenon,
+under pretext of teaching the young Duc de Bourgogne his first lesson in
+war.  He gave all the necessary orders, therefore, for forming a camp at
+Compiegne, to be commanded by the Marechal de Boufflers under the young
+Duke.  On Thursday, the 28th of August, all the Court set out for the
+camp.  Sixty thousand men were assembled there.  The King, as at the
+marriage of the Duc de Bourgogne, had announced that he counted upon
+seeing the troops look their best.  The consequence of this was to excite
+the army to an emulation that was repented of afterwards.  Not only were
+the troops in such beautiful order that it was impossible to give the
+palm to any one corps, but their commanders added the finery and
+magnificence of the Court to the majestic and warlike beauty of the men,
+of the arms, and of the horses; and the officers exhausted their means in
+uniforms which would have graced a fete.
+
+Colonels, and even simple captains, kept open table; but the Marechal de
+Boufflers outstripped everybody by his expenditure, by his magnificence,
+and his good taste.  Never was seen a spectacle so transcendent--so
+dazzling--and (it must be said) so terrifying.  At all hours, day or
+night, the Marechal's table was open to every comer--whether officer,
+courtier, or spectator.  All were welcomed and invited, with the utmost
+civility and attention, to partake of the good things provided.  There
+was every kind of hot and cold liquors; everything which can be the most
+widely and the most splendidly comprehended under the term refreshment:
+French and foreign wines, and the rarest liqueurs in the utmost
+abundance.  Measures were so well taken that quantities of game and
+venison arrived from all sides; and the seas of Normandy, of Holland, of
+England, of Brittany, even the Mediterranean, furnished all they
+contained--the most unheard-of, extraordinary, and most exquisite--at a
+given day and hour with inimitable order, and by a prodigious number of
+horsemen and little express carriages.  Even the water was fetched from
+Sainte Reine, from the Seine, and from sources the most esteemed; and it
+is impossible to imagine anything of any kind which was not at once ready
+for the obscurest as for the most distinguished visitor, the guest most
+expected, and the guest not expected at all.  Wooden houses and
+magnificent tents stretched all around, in number sufficient to form a
+camp of themselves, and were furnished in the most superb manner, like
+the houses in Paris.  Kitchens and rooms for every purpose were there,
+and the whole was marked by an order and cleanliness that excited
+surprise and admiration.  The King, wishing that the magnificence of this
+camp should be seen by the ambassadors, invited them there, and prepared
+lodgings for them.  But the ambassadors claimed a silly distinction,
+which the King would not grant, and they refused his invitation.  This
+distinction I call silly because it brings no advantage with it of any
+kind.  I am ignorant of its origin, but this is what it consists in.
+When, as upon such an occasion as this, lodgings are allotted to the
+Court, the quartermaster writes in chalk, "for Monsieur Such-a-one," upon
+those intended for Princes of the blood, cardinals, and foreign princes;
+but for none other.  The King would not allow the "for" to be written
+upon the lodgings of the ambassadors; and the ambassadors, therefore,
+kept away.  The King was much piqued at this, and I heard him say at
+supper, that if he treated them as they deserved, he should only allow
+them to come to Court at audience times, as was the custom everywhere
+else.
+
+The King arrived at the camp on Saturday, the 30th of August, and went
+with the Duc and Duchesse de Bourgogne and others to the quarters of
+Marechal de Boufflers, where a magnificent collation was served up to
+them--so magnificent that when the King returned, he said it would be
+useless for the Duc de Bourgogne to attempt anything so splendid; and
+that whenever he went to the camp he ought to dine with Marechal de
+Bouffiers.  In effect, the King himself soon after dined there, and led
+to the Marechal's table the King of England, who was passing three or
+four days in the camp.
+
+On these occasions the King pressed Marechal de Boufflers to be seated.
+He would never comply, but waited upon the King while the Duc de
+Grammont, his brother-in-law, waited upon Monseigneur.
+
+The King amused himself much in pointing out the disposition of the
+troops to the ladies of the Court, and in the evening showed them a grand
+review.
+
+A very pleasant adventure happened at this review to Count Tesse, colonel
+of dragoons.  Two days previously M. de Lauzun, in the course of chit-
+chat, asked him how he intended to dress at the review; and persuaded him
+that, it being the custom, he must appear at the head of his troops in a
+grey hat, or that he would assuredly displease the King.  Tesse, grateful
+for this information, and ashamed of his ignorance, thanked M. de Lauzun,
+and sent off for a hat in all haste to Paris.  The King, as M. de Lauzun
+well knew, had an aversion to grey, and nobody had worn it for several
+years.  When, therefore, on the day of the review he saw Tesse in a hat
+of that colour, with a black feather, and a huge cockade dangling and
+flaunting above, he called to him, and asked him why he wore it.  Tesse
+replied that it was the privilege of the colonel-general to wear that day
+a grey hat.  "A grey hat," replied the King; "where the devil did you
+learn that?"
+
+"From M. de, Lauzun, Sire, for whom you created the charge," said Tesse,
+all embarrassment.  On the instant, the good Lauzun vanished, bursting
+with laughter, and the King assured Tesse that M. de Lauzun had merely
+been joking with him.  I never saw a man so confounded as Tesse at this.
+He remained with downcast eyes, looking at his hat, with a sadness and
+confusion that rendered the scene perfect.  He was obliged to treat the
+matter as a joke, but was for a long time much tormented about it, and
+much ashamed of it.
+
+Nearly every day the Princes dined with Marechal de Boufflers, whose
+splendour and abundance knew no end.  Everybody who visited him, even the
+humblest, was served with liberality and attention.  All the villages and
+farms for four leagues round Compiegne were filled with people, French,
+and foreigners, yet there was no disorder.  The gentlemen and valets at
+the Marechal's quarters were of themselves quite a world, each more
+polite than his neighbour, and all incessantly engaged from five o'clock
+in the morning until ten and eleven o'clock at night, doing the honours
+to various guests.  I return in spite of myself to the Marechal's
+liberality; because, who ever saw it, cannot forget, or ever cease to be
+in a state of astonishment and admiration at its abundance and
+sumptuousness, or at the order, never deranged for a moment at a single
+point, that prevailed.
+
+The King wished to show the Court all the manoeuvres of war; the siege of
+Compiegne was therefore undertaken, according to due form, with lines,
+trenches, batteries, mines, &c.  On Saturday, the 13th of September, the
+assault took place.  To witness it, the King, Madame de Maintenon, all
+the ladies of the Court, and a number of gentlemen, stationed themselves
+upon an old rampart, from which the plain and all the disposition of the
+troops could be seen.  I was in the half circle very close to the King.
+It was the most beautiful sight that can be imagined, to see all that
+army, and the prodigious number of spectators on horse and foot, and that
+game of attack and defence so cleverly conducted.
+
+But a spectacle of another sort, that I could paint forty years hence as
+well as to-day, so strongly did it strike me, was that which from the
+summit of this rampart the King gave to all his army, and to the
+innumerable crowd of spectators of all kinds in the plain below.  Madame
+de Maintenon faced the plain and the troops in her sedan-chair-alone,
+between its three windows drawn up-her porters having retired to a
+distance.  On the left pole in front sat Madame la Duchesse de Bourgogne;
+and on the same side in a semicircle, standing, were Madame la Duchesse,
+Madame la Princesse de Conti, and all the ladies, and behind them again,
+many men.  At the right window was the King, standing, and a little in
+the rear, a semicircle of the most distinguished men of the Court.  The
+King was nearly always uncovered; and every now and then stooped to speak
+to Madame de Maintenon, and explain to her what she saw, and the reason
+of each movement.  Each time that he did so she was obliging enough to
+open the window four or five inches, but never half way; for I noticed
+particularly, and I admit that I was more attentive to this spectacle
+than to that of the troops.  Sometimes she opened of her own accord to
+ask some question of him, but generally it was he who, without waiting
+for her, stooped down to instruct her of what was passing; and sometimes,
+if she did not notice him, he tapped at the glass to make her open it.
+He never spoke, save to her, except when he gave a few brief orders, or
+just answered Madame la Duchesse de Bourgogne, who wanted to make him
+speak, and with whom Madame de Maintenon carried on a conversation by
+signs, without opening the front window, through which the young Princess
+screamed to her from time to time.  I watched the countenance of every
+one carefully; all expressed surprise tempered with prudence and shame,
+that was, as it were, ashamed of itself: every one behind the chair and
+in the semicircle watched this scene more than what was going on in the
+army.  The King often put his hat on the top of the chair in order to get
+his head in to speak; and this continual exercise tired his loins very
+much.  Monseigneur was on horseback in the plain with the young Princes.
+It was about five o'clock in the afternoon, and the weather was as
+brilliant as could be desired.
+
+Opposite the sedan-chair was an opening with some steps cut through the
+wall, and communicating with the plain below.  It had been made for the
+purpose of fetching orders from the King, should they be necessary.  The
+case happened.  Crenan, who commanded, sent Conillac, an officer in one
+of the defending regiments, to ask for some instructions from the King.
+Conillac had been stationed at the foot of the rampart, where what was
+passing above could not be seen.  He mounted the steps; and as soon as
+his head and shoulders were at the top, caught sight of the chair, the
+King, and all the assembled company.  He was not prepared for such a
+scene, and it struck him with such astonishment, that he stopped short,
+with mouth and eyes wide open-surprise painted upon every feature.  I see
+him now as distinctly as I did then.  The King, as well as all the rest
+of the company, remarked the agitation of Conillac, and said to him with
+emotion, "Well, Conillac! come up."  Conillac remained motionless, and
+the King continued, "Come up.  What is the matter?" Conillac, thus
+addressed, finished his ascent, and came towards the King with slow and
+trembling steps, rolling his eyes from right to left like one deranged.
+Then he stammered something, but in a tone so low that it could not be
+heard.  "What do you say?" cried the King.  "Speak up."  But Conillac was
+unable; and the King, finding he could get nothing out of him, told him
+to go away.  He did not need to be told twice, but disappeared at once.
+As soon as he was gone, the King, looking round, said, "I don't know what
+is the matter with Conillac.  He has lost his wits; he did not remember
+what he had to say to me."  No one answered.
+
+Towards the moment of the capitulation, Madame de Maintenon apparently
+asked permission to go away, for the King cried, "The chairmen of
+Madame!"  They came and took her away; in less than a quarter of an hour
+afterwards the King retired also, and nearly everybody else.  There was
+much interchange of glances, nudging with elbows, and then whisperings in
+the ear.  Everybody was full of what had taken place on the ramparts
+between the King and Madame de Maintenon.  Even the soldiers asked what
+meant that sedan-chair and the King every moment stooping to put his head
+inside of it.  It became necessary gently to silence these questions of
+the troops.  What effect this sight had upon foreigners present, and what
+they said of it, may be imagined.  All over Europe it was as much talked
+of as the camp of Compiegne itself, with all its pomp and prodigious
+splendour.
+
+The last act of this great drama was a sham fight.  The execution was
+perfect; but the commander, Rose, who was supposed to be beaten, would
+not yield.  Marechal de Boufflers sent and told him more than once that
+it was time.  Rose flew into a passion, and would not obey.  The King
+laughed much at this, and said, "Rose does not like to be beaten."  At
+last he himself sent the order for retreat.  Rose was forced then to
+comply; but he did it with a very bad grace, and abused the bearer of the
+order.
+
+The King left the camp on Monday the 22d of September, much pleased with
+the troops.  He gave, in parting, six hundred francs to each cavalry
+captain, and three hundred francs to each captain of infantry.  He gave
+as much to the majors of all the regiments, and distributed some favours
+to his household.  To Marechal de Boufflers he presented one hundred
+thousand francs.  All these gifts together amounted to something: but
+separately were as mere drops of water.  There was not a single regiment
+that was not ruined, officers and men, for several years.  As for
+Marechal de Boufflers, I leave it to be imagined what a hundred thousand
+francs were to him whose magnificence astounded all Europe, described as
+it was by foreigners who were witnesses of it, and who day after day
+could scarcely believe their own eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+Here I will relate an adventure, which shows that, however wise and
+enlightened a man may be, he is never infallible.  M. de La Trappe had
+selected from amongst his brethren one who was to be his successor.  The
+name of this monk was D. Francois Gervaise.  He had been in the monastery
+for some years, had lived regularly during that time, and had gained the
+confidence of M. de La Trappe.  As soon, however, as he received this
+appointment, his manners began to change.  He acted as though he were
+already master, brought disorder and ill-feeling into the monastery, and
+sorely grieved M. de La Trapp; who, however, looked upon this affliction
+as the work of Heaven, and meekly resigned him self to it.  At last,
+Francois Gervaise was by the merest chance detected openly, under
+circumstances which blasted his character for ever.  His companion in
+guilt was brought before M. de La Trappe, to leave no doubt upon the
+matter.  D. Francois Gervaise, utterly prostrated, resigned his office,
+and left La Trappe. Yet, even after this, he had the hardihood to show
+himself in the world, and to try and work himself into the favour of Pere
+la Chaise.  A discovery that was made, effectually stopped short his
+hopes in this direction.  A letter of his was found, written to a nun
+with whom he had been intimate, whom he loved, and by whom he was
+passionately loved.  It was a tissue of filthiness and stark indecency,
+enough to make the most abandoned tremble.  The pleasures, the regrets,
+the desires, the hopes of this precious pair, were all expressed in the
+boldest language, and with the utmost licence.  I believe that so many
+abominations are not uttered in several days, even in the worst places.
+For this offence Gervaise might have been confined in a dungeon all his
+life, but he was allowed to go at large.  He wandered from monastery to
+monastery for five or six years, and always caused so much disorder
+wherever he stopped, that at last the superiors thought it best to let
+him live as he liked in a curacy of his brother's.  He never ceased
+troubling La Trappe, to which he wished to return; so that at last I
+obtained a 'lettre de cachet', which prohibited him from approaching
+within thirty leagues of the abbey, and within twenty of Paris.  It was I
+who made known to him that his abominations had been discovered.  He was
+in no way disturbed, declared he was glad to be free, and assured me with
+the hypocrisy which never left him, that in his solitude he was going to
+occupy himself in studying the Holy Scriptures.
+
+Bonnceil, introducer of the ambassadors, being dead, Breteuil obtained
+his post.  Breteuil was not without intellect, but aped courtly manners,
+called himself Baron de Breteuil, and was much tormented and laughed at
+by his friends.  One day, dining at the house of Madame de Pontchartrain,
+and, speaking very authoritatively, Madame de Pontchartrain disputed with
+him, and, to test his knowledge, offered to make a bet that he did not
+know who wrote the Lord's Prayer.  He defended himself as well as he was
+able, and succeeded in leaving the table without being called upon to
+decide the point.  Caumartin, who saw his embarrassment, ran to him, and
+kindly whispered in his ear that Moses was the author of the Lord's
+Prayer.  Thus strengthened, Breteuil returned to the attack, brought,
+while taking coffee, the conversation back again to the bet; and, after
+reproaching Madame de Pontchartrain for supposing him ignorant upon such
+a point, and declaring he was ashamed of being obliged to say such a
+trivial thing, pronounced emphatically that it was Moses who had written
+the Lord's Prayer.  The burst of laughter that, of course, followed this,
+overwhelmed him with confusion.  Poor Breteuil was for a long time at
+loggerheads with his friend, and the Lord's Prayer became a standing
+reproach to him.
+
+He had a friend, the Marquis de Gesvres, who, upon some points, was not
+much better informed.  Talking one day in the cabinet of the King, and
+admiring in the tone of a connoisseur some fine paintings of the
+Crucifixion by the first masters, he remarked that they were all by one
+hand.
+
+He was laughed at, and the different painters were named, as recognized
+by their style.
+
+"Not at all," said the Marquis, "the painter is called INRI; do you not
+see his name upon all the pictures?"  What followed after such gross
+stupidity and ignorance may be imagined.
+
+At the end of this year the King resolved to undertake three grand
+projects, which ought to have been carried out long before: the chapel of
+Versailles, the Church of the Invalides, and the altar of Notre-Dame de
+Paris.  This last was a vow of Louis XIII., made when, he no longer was
+able to accomplish it, and which he had left to his successor, who had
+been more than fifty years without thinking of it.
+
+On the 6th of January, upon the reception of the ambassadors at the house
+of the Duchesse de Bourogogne, an adventure happened which I will here
+relate.  M. de Lorraine belonged to a family which had been noted for its
+pretensions, and for the disputes of precedency in which it engaged.  He
+was as prone to this absurdity as the rest, and on this occasion incited
+the Princesse d'Harcourt, one of his relations, to act in a manner that
+scandalised all the Court.  Entering the room in which the ambassadors
+were to be received and where a large number of ladies were already
+collected, she glided behind the Duchesse de Rohan, and told her to pass
+to the left.  The Duchesse de Rohan, much surprised, replied that she was
+very well placed already.  Whereupon, the Princesse d'Harcourt, who was
+tall and strong, made no further ado, but with her two arms seized the
+Duchesse de Rohan, turned her round, and sat down in her place.  All the
+ladies were strangely scandalised at this, but none dared say a word, not
+even Madame de Lude, lady in waiting on the Duchesse de Bourgogne, who,
+for her part also, felt the insolence of the act, but dared not speak,
+being so young.  As for the Duchesse de Rohan, feeling that opposition
+must lead to fisticuffs, she curtseyed to the Duchess, and quietly
+retired to another place.  A few minutes after this, Madame de Saint-
+Simon, who was then with child, feeling herself unwell, and tired of
+standing, seated herself upon the first cushion she could find.  It so
+happened, that in the position she thus occupied, she had taken
+precedence of Madame d'Armagnac by two degrees.  Madame d'Armagnac,,
+perceiving it, spoke to her upon the subject.  Madame de Saint-Simon, who
+had only placed herself there for a moment, did not reply, but went
+elsewhere.
+
+As soon as I learnt of the first adventure, I thought it important that
+such an insult should not be borne, and I went and conferred with M. de
+la Rochefoucauld upon the subject, at the same time that Marechal de
+Boufflers spoke of it to M. de Noailles.  I called upon other of my
+friends, and the opinion was that the Duc de Rohan should complain to the
+King on the morrow of the treatment his wife had received.
+
+In the evening while I was at the King's supper, I was sent for by Madame
+de Saint-Simon, who informed me that the Lorraines, afraid of the
+complaints that would probably be addressed to the King upon what had
+taken place between the Princesse d'Harcourt and the Duchesse de Rohan,
+had availed themselves of what happened between Madame de Saint-Simon and
+Madame d'Armagnac, in order to be the first to complain, so that one
+might balance the other.  Here was a specimen of the artifice of these
+gentlemen, which much enraged me.  On the instant I determined to lose no
+time in speaking to the King; and that very evening I related what had
+occurred, in so far as Madame de Saint-Simon was concerned, but made no
+allusion to M. de Rohan's affair, thinking it best to leave that to be
+settled by itself on the morrow.  The King replied to me very graciously,
+and I retired, after assuring him that all I had said was true from
+beginning to end.
+
+The next day the Duc de Rohan made his complaint.  The King, who had
+already been fully informed of the matter, received him well, praised the
+respect and moderation of Madame de Rohan, declared Madame d'Harcourt to
+have been very impertinent, and said some very hard words upon the
+Lorraines.
+
+I found afterwards, that Madame de Maintenon, who much favoured Madame
+d'Harcourt, had all the trouble in the world to persuade the King not to
+exclude her from the next journey to Marly.  She received a severe
+reprimand from the King, a good scolding from Madame de Maintenon, and
+was compelled publicly to ask pardon of the Duchesse de Rohan.  This she
+did; but with a crawling baseness equal to her previous audacity.  Such
+was the end of this strange history.
+
+There appeared at this time a book entitled "Probleme," but without name
+of author, and directed against M. de Paris, declaring that he had
+uttered sentiments favourable to the Jansenists being at Chalons, and
+unfavourable being at Paris.  The book came from the Jesuits, who could
+not pardon M. de Paris for having become archbishop without their
+assistance.  It was condemned and burnt by decree of the Parliament, and
+the Jesuits had to swallow all the shame of it.  The author was soon
+after discovered.  He was named Boileau; not the friend of Bontems, who
+so often preached before the King, and still less the celebrated poet and
+author of the 'Flagellants', but a doctor of much wit and learning whom
+M. de Paris had taken into his favour and treated like a brother.  Who
+would have believed that "Probleme" could spring from such a man?  M. de
+Paris was much hurt; but instead of imprisoning Boileau for the rest of
+his days, as he might have done, he acted the part of a great bishop, and
+gave him a good canonical of Saint Honore, which became vacant a few days
+afterwards.  Boileau, who was quite without means, completed his
+dishonour by accepting it.
+
+The honest people of the Court regretted a cynic who died at this time,
+I mean the Chevalier de Coislin.  He was a most extraordinary man, very
+splenetic, and very difficult to deal with.  He rarely left Versailles,
+and never went to see the king.  I have seen him get out of the way not
+to meet him.  He lived with Cardinal Coislin, his brother.  If anybody
+displeased him, he would go and sulk in his own room; and if, whilst at
+table, any one came whom he did not like, he would throw away his plate,
+go off to sulk, or to finish his dinner all alone.  One circumstance will
+paint him completely.  Being on a journey once with his brothers, the Duc
+de Coislin and the Cardinal de Coislin, the party rested for the night at
+the house of a vivacious and very pretty bourgeoise.  The Duc de Coislin
+was an exceedingly polite man, and bestowed amiable compliments and
+civilities upon their hostess, much to the disgust of the Chevalier.  At
+parting, the Duke renewed the politeness he had displayed so abundantly
+the previous evening, and delayed the others by his long-winded
+flatteries.  When, at last, they left the house, and were two or three
+leagues away from it, the Chevalier de Coislin said, that, in spite of
+all this politeness, he had reason to believe that their pretty hostess
+would not long be pleased with the Duke.  The Duke, disturbed, asked his
+reason for thinking so.  "Do you wish to learn it?" said the Chevalier;
+"well, then, you must know that, disgusted by your compliments, I went up
+into the bedroom in which you slept, and made a filthy mess on the floor,
+which the landlady will no doubt attribute to you, despite all your fine
+speeches."
+
+At this there was loud laughter, but the Duke was in fury, and wished to
+return in order to clear up his character.  Although it rained hard, they
+had all the pains in the world to hinder him, and still more to bring
+about a reconciliation.  Nothing was more pleasant than to hear the
+brothers relate this adventure each in his own way.
+
+Two cruel effects of gambling were noticed at this time.  Reineville, a
+lieutenant of the body-guard, a general officer distinguished in war,
+very well treated by the King, and much esteemed by the captain of the
+Guards, suddenly disappeared, and could not be found anywhere, although
+the utmost care was taken to search for him.   He loved gaming.  He had
+lost what he could not pay.  He was a man of honour, and could not
+sustain his misfortune.  Twelve or fifteen years afterwards he was
+recognised among the Bavarian troops, in which he was serving in order to
+gain his bread and to live unknown.  The other case was still worse.
+Permillac, a man of much intelligence and talent, had lost more than he
+possessed, and blew his brains out one morning in bed.  He was much liked
+throughout the army; had taken a friendship for me, and I for him.
+Everybody pitied him, and I much regretted him.
+
+Nearly at the same time we lost the celebrated Racine, so known by his
+beautiful plays.  No one possessed a greater talent or a more agreeable
+mien.  There was nothing of the poet in his manners: he had the air of a
+well-bred and modest man, and at last that of a good man.  He had
+friends, the most illustrious, at the Court as well as among men of
+letters.  I leave it to the latter to speak of him in a better way than I
+can.  He wrote, for the amusement of the King and Madame de Maintenon,
+and to exercise the young ladies of Saint Cyr, two dramatic masterpieces,
+Esther and Athalie.  They were very difficult to write, because there
+could be no love in them, and because they are sacred tragedies, in
+which, from respect to the Holy Scriptures, it was necessary rigidly to
+keep to the historical truth.  They were several times played at Saint
+Cyr before a select Court.  Racine was charged with the history of the
+King, conjointly with Despreaux, his friend.  This employment, the pieces
+I have just spoken of, and his friends, gained for Racine some special
+favours: It sometimes happened that the King had no ministers with him,
+as on Fridays, and, above all, when the bad weather of winter rendered
+the sittings very long; then he would send for Racine to amuse him and
+Madame de Maintenon.  Unfortunately the poet was oftentimes very absent.
+It happened one evening that, talking with Racine upon the theatre, the
+King asked why comedy was so much out of fashion.  Racine gave several
+reasons, and concluded by naming the principal,--namely, that for want of
+new pieces the comedians gave old ones, and, amongst others, those of
+Scarron, which were worth nothing, and which found no favour with
+anybody.  At this the poor widow blushed, not for the reputation of the
+cripple attacked, but at hearing his name uttered in presence of his
+successor!  The King was also embarrassed, and the unhappy Racine, by the
+silence which followed, felt what a slip he had made.  He remained the
+most confounded of the three, without daring to raise his eyes or to open
+his mouth.  This silence did not terminate for several moments, so heavy
+and profound was the surprise.  The end was that the King sent away
+Racine, saying he was going to work.  The poet never afterwards recovered
+his position.  Neither the King nor Madame de Maintenon ever spoke to him
+again, or even looked at him; and he conceived so much sorrow at this,
+that he fell into a languor, and died two years afterwards.  At his
+death, Valincourt was chosen to work in his place with Despreaux upon the
+history of the King.
+
+The King, who had just paid the heavy gaming and tradesmen's debts of
+Madame la Duchesse, paid also those of Monseigneur, which amounted to
+fifty thousand francs, undertook the payment of the buildings at Meudon,
+and, in lieu of fifteen hundred pistoles a month which he had allowed
+Monseigneur, gave him fifty thousand crowns.  M. de la Rochefoucauld,
+always necessitous and pitiful in the midst of riches, a prey to his
+servants, obtained an increase of forty-two thousand francs a-year upon
+the salary he received as Grand Veneur, although it was but a short time
+since the King had paid his debts.  The King gave also, but in secret,
+twenty thousand francs a-year to M. de Chartres, who had spent so much in
+journeys and building that he feared he should be unable to pay his
+debts.  He had asked for an abbey; but as he had already one, the King
+did not like to give him another, lest it should be thought too much.
+
+M. de Vendome began at last to think about his health, which his
+debauches had thrown into a very bad state.  He took public leave of the
+King and of all the Court before going away, to put himself in the hands
+of the doctors.  It was the first and only example of such impudence.
+From this time he lost ground.  The King said, at parting, that he hoped
+he would come back in such a state that people might kiss him without
+danger!  His going in triumph, where another would have gone in shame and
+secrecy, was startling and disgusting.  He was nearly three months under
+the most skilful treatment-and returned to the Court with half his nose,
+his teeth out, and a physiognomy entirely changed, almost idiotic.  The
+King was so much struck by this change, that he recommended the courtiers
+not to appear to notice it, for fear of afflicting M. de Vendome.  That
+was taking much interest in him assuredly.  As, moreover, he had departed
+in triumph upon this medical expedition, so he returned triumphant by the
+reception of the King, which was imitated by all the Court.  He remained
+only a few days, and then, his mirror telling sad tales, went away to
+Anet, to see if nose and teeth would come back to him with his hair.
+
+A strange adventure, which happened at this time, terrified everybody,
+and gave rise to many surmises.  Savary was found assassinated in his
+house at Paris he kept only a valet and a maid-servant, and they were
+discovered murdered at the same time, quite dressed, like their master,
+and in different parts of the house.  It appeared by writings found
+there, that the crime was one of revenge: it was supposed to have been
+committed in broad daylight.  Savary was a citizen of Paris, very rich,
+without occupation, and lived like an epicurean.  He had some friends of
+the highest rank, and gave parties, of all kinds of pleasure, at his
+house, politics sometimes being discussed.  The cause of this
+assassination was never known; but so much of it was found out, that no
+one dared to search for more.  Few doubted but that the deed had been
+done by a very ugly little man, but of a blood so highly respected, that
+all forms were dispensed with, in the fear lest it should be brought home
+to him; and, after the first excitement, everybody ceased to speak of
+this tragic history.
+
+On the night between the 3rd and 4th of June, a daring robbery was
+effected at the grand stables of Versailles.  All the horse-cloths and
+trappings, worth at least fifty thousand crowns, were carried off, and so
+cleverly and with such speed, although the night was short, that no
+traces of them could ever afterwards be found.  This theft reminds me of
+another which took place a little before the commencement of these
+memoirs.  The grand apartment at Versailles, that is to say, from the
+gallery to the tribune, was hung with crimson velvet, trimmed and fringed
+with gold.  One fine morning the fringe and trimmings were all found to
+have been cut away.  This appeared extraordinary in a place so frequented
+all day, so well closed at night, and so well guarded at all times.
+Bontems, the King's valet, was in despair, and did his utmost to discover
+the thieves, but without success.
+
+Five or six days afterwards, I was at the King's supper, with nobody but
+Daqum, chief physician, between the King and me, and nobody at all
+between one and the table.  Suddenly I perceived a large black form in
+the air, but before I could tell what it was, it fell upon the end of the
+King's table just before the cover which had been laid for Monseigneur
+and Madame.  By the noise it made in falling, and the weight of the thing
+itself, it seemed as though the table must be broken.  The plates jumped
+up, but none were upset, and the thing, as luck would have it, did not
+fall upon any of them, but simply upon the cloth.  The King moved his
+head half round, and without being moved in any way said, "I think that
+is my fringe!"
+
+It was indeed a bundle, larger than a flat-brimmed priest's hat, about
+two feet in height, and shaped like a pyramid.  It had come from behind
+me, from towards the middle door of the two ante-chambers, and a piece of
+fringe getting loose in the air, had fallen upon the King's wig, from
+which it was removed by Livry, a gentleman-in-waiting.  Livry also opened
+the bundle, and saw that it did indeed contain the fringes all twisted
+up, and everybody saw likewise.  A murmur was heard.  Livry wishing to
+take away the bundle found a paper attached to it.  He took the paper and
+left the bundle.  The King stretched out his hand and said, "Let us see."
+Livry, and with reason, would not give up the paper, but stepped back,
+read it, and then passed it to Daquin, in whose hands I read it.  The
+writing, counterfeited and long like that of a woman, was in these
+words:--" Take back your fringes, Bontems; they are not worth the trouble
+of keeping--my compliments to the King."
+
+The paper was rolled up, not folded: the King wished to take it from
+Daquin, who, after much hesitation, allowed him to read it, but did not
+let it out of his hands.  "Well, that is very insolent!" said the King,
+but in quite a placid unmoved tone--as it were, an historical tone.
+Afterwards he ordered the bundle to be taken away.  Livry found it so
+heavy that he could scarcely lift it from the table, and gave it to an
+attendant who presented himself.  The King spoke no more of this matter,
+nobody else dared to do so; and the supper finished as though nothing had
+happened.
+
+Besides the excess of insolence and impudence of this act, it was so
+perilous as to be scarcely understood.  How could any one, without being
+seconded by accomplices, throw a bundle of this weight and volume in the
+midst of a crowd such as was always present at the supper of the King, so
+dense that it could with difficulty be passed through?  How, in spite of
+a circle of accomplices, could a movement of the arms necessary for such
+a throw escape all eyes?  The Duc de Gesvres was in waiting.  Neither he
+nor anybody else thought of closing the doors until the King had left the
+table.  It may be guessed whether the guilty parties remained until then,
+having had more than three-quarters of an hour to escape, and every issue
+being free.  Only one person was discovered, who was not known, but he
+proved to be a very honest man, and was dismissed after a short
+detention.  Nothing has since been discovered respecting this theft or
+its bold restitution.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+On the 12th August, Madame de Saint-Simon was happily delivered of a
+second son, who bore the name of Marquis de Ruffec.  A singular event
+which happened soon after, made all the world marvel.
+
+There arrived at Versailles a farrier, from the little town of Salon, in
+Provence, who asked to see the King in private.  In spite of the rebuffs
+he met with, he persisted in his request, so that at last it got to the
+ears of the King.  The King sent word that he was not accustomed to grant
+such audiences to whoever liked to ask for them.  Thereupon the farrier
+declared that if he was allowed to see the King he would tell him things
+so secret and so unknown to everybody else that he would be persuaded of
+their importance, demanding, if the King would not see him, to be sent to
+a minister of state.  Upon this the King allowed him to have an interview
+with one of his secretaries, Barbezieux.  But Barbezieux was not a
+minister of state, and to the great surprise of everybody, the farrier,
+who had only just arrived from the country, and who had never before left
+it or his trade, replied, that not being a minister of state he would not
+speak with him.  Upon this he was allowed to see Pomponne, and converse
+with him; and this is the story he told:
+
+He said, that returning home late one evening he found himself surrounded
+by a great light, close against a tree and near Salon.  A woman clad in
+white--but altogether in a royal manner, and beautiful, fair, and very
+dazzling--called him by his name, commanded him to listen to her, and
+spake to him more than half-an-hour.  She told him she was the Queen,
+who had been the wife of the King; to whom she ordered him to go and say
+what she had communicated; assuring him that God would assist him through
+all the journey, and that upon a secret thing he should say, the King,
+who alone knew that secret, would recognise the truth of all he uttered.
+She said that in case he could not see the King he was to speak with a
+minister of state, telling him certain things, but reserving certain
+others for the King alone.  She told him, moreover, to set out at once,
+assuring him he would be punished with death if he neglected to acquit
+himself of his commission.  The farrier promised to obey her in
+everything, and the queen then disappeared.  He found himself in darkness
+near the tree.  He lay down and passed the night there, scarcely knowing
+whether he was awake or asleep.  In the morning he went home, persuaded
+that what he had seen was a mere delusion and folly, and said nothing
+about it to a living soul.
+
+Two days afterwards he was passing by the same place when the same vision
+appeared to him, and he was addressed in the same terms.  Fresh threats
+of punishment were uttered if he did not comply, and he was ordered to go
+at once to the Intendant of the province, who would assuredly furnish him
+with money, after saying what he had seen.  This time the farrier was
+convinced there was no delusion in the matter; but, halting between his
+fears and doubts, knew not what to do, told no one what had passed,
+and was in great perplexity.  He remained thus eight days, and at last
+had resolved not to make the journey; when, passing by the same spot,
+he saw and heard the same vision, which bestowed upon him so many
+dreadful menaces that he no longer thought of anything but setting out
+immediately.  In two days from that time he presented himself, at Aix,
+to the Intendant of the province, who, without a moment's hesitation,
+urged him to pursue his journey, and gave him sufficient money to travel
+by a public conveyance.  Nothing more of the story was ever known.
+
+The farrier had three interviews with M. de Pomponne, each of two hours'
+length.  M. de Pomponne rendered, in private, an account of these to the
+King, who desired him to speak more fully upon the point in a council
+composed of the Ducs de Beauvilliers, Pontchartrain, Torcy, and Pomponne
+himself; Monseigneur to be excluded.  This council sat very long, perhaps
+because other things were spoken of.  Be that as it may, the King after
+this wished to converse with the farrier, and did so in his cabinet.  Two
+days afterwards he saw the man again; at each time was nearly an hour
+with him, and was careful that no one was within hearing.
+
+The day after the first interview, as the King was descending the
+staircase, to go a-hunting, M. de Duras, who was in waiting, and who was
+upon such a footing that he said almost what he liked, began to speak of
+this farrier with contempt, and, quoting the bad proverb, said, "The man
+was mad, or the King was not noble."  At this the King stopped, and,
+turning round, a thing he scarcely ever did in walking, replied, "If that
+be so, I am not noble, for I have discoursed with him long, he has spoken
+to me with much good sense, and I assure you he is far from being mad."
+
+These last words were pronounced with a sustained gravity which greatly
+surprised those near, and which in the midst of deep silence opened all
+eyes and ears.  After the second interview the King felt persuaded that
+one circumstance had been related to him by the farrier, which he alone
+knew, and which had happened more than twenty years before.  It was that
+he had seen a phantom in the forest of Saint Germains.  Of this phantom
+he had never breathed a syllable to anybody.
+
+The King on several other occasions spoke favourably of the farrier;
+moreover, he paid all the expenses the man had been put to, gave him a
+gratuity, sent him back free, and wrote to the Intendant of the province
+to take particular care of him, and never to let him want for anything
+all his life.
+
+The most surprising thing of all this is, that none of the ministers
+could be induced to speak a word upon the occurrence.  Their most
+intimate friends continually questioned them, but without being able to
+draw forth a syllable.  The ministers either affected to laugh at the
+matter or answered evasively.  This was the case whenever I questioned
+M. de Beauvilliers or M. de Pontchartrain, and I knew from their most
+intimate friends that nothing more could ever be obtained from M. de
+Pomponne or M. de Torcy.  As for the farrier himself, he was equally
+reserved.  He was a simple, honest, and modest man, about fifty years of
+age.  Whenever addressed upon this subject, he cut short all discourse by
+saying, "I am not allowed to speak," and nothing more could be extracted
+from him.  When he returned to his home he conducted himself just as
+before, gave himself no airs, and never boasted of the interview he had
+had with the King and his ministers.  He went back to his trade, and
+worked at it as usual.
+
+Such is the singular story which filled everybody with astonishment, but
+which nobody could understand.  It is true that some people persuaded
+themselves, and tried to persuade others, that the whole affair was a
+clever trick, of which the simple farrier had been the dupe.  They said
+that a certain Madame Arnoul, who passed for a witch, and who, having
+known Madame de Maintenon when she was Madame Scarron, still kept up a
+secret intimacy with her, had caused the three visions to appear to the
+farrier, in order to oblige the King to declare Madame de Maintenon
+queen.  But the truth of the matter was never known.
+
+The King bestowed at this time some more distinctions on his illegitimate
+children.  M. du Maine, as grand-master of the artillery, had to be
+received at the Chambre des Comptes; and his place ought to have been,
+according to custom, immediately above that of the senior member.  But
+the King wished him to be put between the first and second presidents;
+and this was done.  The King accorded also to the Princesse de Conti that
+her two ladies of honour should be allowed to sit at the Duchesse de
+Bourgogne's table.  It was a privilege that no lady of honour to a
+Princess of the blood had ever been allowed.  But the King gave these
+distinctions to the ladies of his illegitimate children, and refused it
+to those of the Princesses of the blood.
+
+In thus according honours, the King seemed to merit some new ones
+himself.  But nothing fresh could be thought of.  What had been done
+therefore at his statue in the Place des Victoires, was done over again
+in the Place Vendome on the 13th August, after midday.  Another statue
+which had been erected there was uncovered.  The Duc de Gesvres, Governor
+of Paris, was in attendance on horseback, at the head of the city troops,
+and made turns, and reverences, and other ceremonies, imitated from those
+in use at the consecration of the Roman Emperors.  There were, it is
+true, no incense and no victims: something more in harmony with the title
+of Christian King was necessary.  In the evening, there was upon the
+river a fine illumination, which Monsieur and Madame went to see.
+
+A difficulty arose soon after this with Denmark.  The Prince Royal had
+become King, and announced the circumstance to our King, but would not
+receive the reply sent him because he was not styled in it "Majesty."
+We had never accorded to the Kings of Denmark this title, and they had
+always been contented with that of "Serenity."  The King in his turn
+would not wear mourning for the King of Denmark, just dead, although he
+always did so for any crowned head, whether related to him or not.  This
+state of things lasted some months; until, in the end, the new King of
+Denmark gave way, received the reply as it had been first sent, and our
+King wore mourning as if the time for it had not long since passed.
+
+Boucherat, chancellor and keeper of the seals, died on the 2nd of
+September.  Harlay, as I have previously said, had been promised this
+appointment when it became vacant.  But the part he had taken in our case
+with M. de Luxembourg had made him so lose ground, that the appointment
+was not given to him.  M. de la Rochefoucauld, above all, had undermined
+him in the favour of the King; and none of us had lost an opportunity of
+assisting in this work.  Our joy, therefore, was extreme when we saw all
+Harlay's hopes frustrated, and we did not fail to let it burst forth.
+The vexation that Harlay conceived was so great, that he became
+absolutely intractable, and often cried out with a bitterness he could
+not contain, that he should be left to die in the dust of the palace.
+His weakness was such, that he could not prevent himself six weeks after
+from complaining to the King at Fontainebleau, where he was playing the
+valet with his accustomed suppleness and deceit.  The King put him off
+with fine speeches, and by appointing him to take part in a commission
+then sitting for the purpose of bringing about a reduction in the price
+of corn in Paris and the suburbs, where it had become very dear.  Harlay
+made a semblance of being contented, but remained not the less annoyed.
+His health and his head were at last so much attacked that he was forced
+to quit his post: he then fell into contempt after having excited so much
+hatred.  The chancellorship was given to Pontchartrain, and the office of
+comptroller-general, which became vacant at the same time, was given to
+Chamillart; a very honest man, who owed his first advancement to his
+skill at billiards, of which game the King was formerly very fond.
+It was while Chamillart was accustomed to play billiards with the King,
+at least three times a week, that an incident happened which ought not to
+be forgotten.  Chamillart was Counsellor of the Parliament at that time.
+He had just reported on a case that had been submitted to him.
+The losing party came to him, and complained that he had omitted to bring
+forward a document that had been given into his hands, and that would
+assuredly have turned the verdict.  Chamillart searched for the document,
+found it, and saw that the complainer was right.  He said so, and added,
+--"I do not know how the document escaped me, but it decides in your
+favour.  You claimed twenty thousand francs, and it is my fault you did
+not get them.  Come to-morrow, and I will pay you."  Chamillart, although
+then by no means rich, scraped together all the money he had, borrowing
+the rest, and paid the man as he had promised, only demanding that the
+matter should be kept a secret.  But after this, feeling that billiards
+three times a week interfered with his legal duties, he surrendered part
+of them, and thus left himself more free for other charges he was obliged
+to attend to.
+
+The Comtesse de Fiesque died very aged, while the Court was at
+Fontainebleau this year.  She had passed her life with the most frivolous
+of the great world.  Two incidents amongst a thousand will characterise
+her.  She was very straitened in means, because she had frittered away
+all her substance, or allowed herself to be pillaged by her business
+people.  When those beautiful mirrors were first introduced she obtained
+one, although they were then very dear and very rare.  "Ah, Countess!"
+said her friends, "where did you find that?"
+
+"Oh!" replied she, "I had a miserable piece of land, which only yielded
+me corn; I have sold it, and I have this mirror instead.  Is not this
+excellent?  Who would hesitate between corn and this beautiful mirror?"
+
+On another occasion she harangued with her son, who was as poor as a rat,
+for the purpose of persuading him to make a good match and thus enrich
+himself.  Her son, who had no desire to marry, allowed her to talk on,
+and pretended to listen to her reasons: She was delighted--entered into a
+description of the wife she destined for him, painting her as young,
+rich, an only child, beautiful, well-educated, and with parents who would
+be delighted to agree to the marriage.  When she had finished, he pressed
+her for the name of this charming and desirable person.  The Countess
+said she was the daughter of Jacquier, a man well known to everybody,
+and who had been a contractor of provisions to the armies of M. de
+Turenne.  Upon this, her son burst out into a hearty laugh, and she in
+anger demanded why he did so and what he found so ridiculous in the
+match.
+
+The truth was, Jacquier had no children, as the Countess soon remembered.
+At which she said it was a great pity, since no marriage would have
+better suited all parties.  She was full of such oddities, which she
+persisted in for some time with anger, but at which she was the first to
+laugh.  People said of her that she had never been more than eighteen
+years old.  The memoirs of Mademoiselle paint her well.  She lived with
+Mademoiselle, and passed all her life in quarrels about trifles.
+
+It was immediately after leaving Fontainebleau that the marriage between
+the Duc and Duchesse de Bourgogne was consummated.  It was upon this
+occasion that the King named four gentlemen to wait upon the Duke,--
+four who in truth could not have been more badly chosen.  One of them,
+Gamaches, was a gossip; who never knew what he was doing or saying--
+who knew nothing of the world, or the Court, or of war, although he had
+always been in the army.  D'O was another; but of him I have spoken.
+Cheverny was the third, and Saumery the fourth.  Saumery had been raised
+out of obscurity by M. de Beauvilliers.  Never was man so intriguing, so
+truckling, so mean, so boastful, so ambitious, so intent upon fortune,
+and all this without disguise, without veil, without shame!  Saumery had
+been wounded, and no man ever made so much of such a mishap.  I used to
+say of him that he limped audaciously, and it was true.  He would speak
+of personages the most distinguished, whose ante-chambers even he had
+scarcely seen, as though he spoke of his equals or of his particular
+friends.  He related what he had heard, and was not ashamed to say before
+people who at least had common sense, "Poor Mons. Turenne said to me,"
+M. de Turenne never having probably heard of his existence.  With
+Monsieur in full he honoured nobody.  It was Mons. de Beauvilliers, Mons.
+de Chevreuse, and so on; except with those whose names he clipped off
+short, as he frequently would even with Princes of the blood.  I have
+heard him say many times, "the Princesse de Conti," in speaking of the
+daughter of the King; and "the Prince de Conti," in speaking of Monsieur
+her brother-in-law!  As for the chief nobles of the Court, it was rare
+for him to give them the Monsieur or the Mons.  It was Marechal
+d'Humieres, and so on with the others.  Fatuity and insolence were united
+in him, and by dint of mounting a hundred staircases a day, and bowing
+and scraping everywhere, he had gained the ear of I know not how many
+people.  His wife was a tall creature, as impertinent as he, who wore the
+breeches, and before whom he dared not breathe.  Her effrontery blushed
+at nothing, and after many gallantries she had linked herself on to M. de
+Duras, whom she governed, and of whom she was publicly and absolutely the
+mistress, living at his expense.  Children, friends, servants, all were
+at her mercy; even Madame de Duras herself when she came, which was but
+seldom, from the country.
+
+Such were the people whom the King placed near M. le Duc de Bourgogne.
+
+The Duc de Gesvres, a malicious old man, a cruel husband and unnatural
+father, sadly annoyed Marechal de Villeroy towards the end of this year,
+having previously treated me very scurvily for some advice I gave him
+respecting the ceremonies to be observed at the reception by the King of
+M. de Lorraine as Duc de Bar.  M. de Gesvres and M. de Villeroy had both
+had fathers who made large fortunes and who became secretaries of state.
+One morning M. de Gesvres was waiting for the King, with a number of
+other courtiers, when M. de Villeroy arrived, with all that noise and
+those airs he had long assumed, and which his favour and his appointments
+rendered more superb.  I know not whether this annoyed De Gesvres, more
+than usual, but as soon as the other had placed himself, he said,
+"Monsieur le Marechal, it must be admitted that you and I are very
+lucky."  The Marechal, surprised at a remark which seemed to be suggested
+by nothing, assented with a modest air, and, shaking his head and his
+wig, began to talk to some one else.  But M. de Gesvres had not commenced
+without a purpose.  He went on, addressed M. de Villeroy point-blank,
+admiring their mutual good fortune, but when he came to speak of the
+father of each, "Let us go no further," said he, "for what did our
+fathers spring from?  From tradesmen; even tradesmen they were
+themselves.  Yours was the son of a dealer in fresh fish at the markets,
+and mine of a pedlar, or, perhaps, worse.  Gentlemen," said he,
+addressing the company, "have we not reason to think our fortune
+prodigious--the Marechal and I?"  The Marechal would have liked to
+strangle M. de Gesvres, or to see him dead--but what can be done with a
+man who, in order to say something cutting to you, says it to himself
+first?  Everybody was silent, and all eyes were lowered.  Many, however,
+were not sorry to see M. de Villeroy so pleasantly humiliated.  The King
+came and put an end to the scene, which was the talk of the Court for
+several days.
+
+Omissions must be repaired as soon as they are perceived.  Other matters
+have carried me away.  At the commencement of April, Ticquet, Counsellor
+at the Parliament, was assassinated in his own house; and if he did not
+die, it was not the fault of his porter, or of the soldier who had
+attempted to kill him, and who left him for dead, disturbed by a noise
+they heard.  This councillor, who was a very poor man, had complained to
+the King, the preceding year, of the conduct of his wife with
+Montgeorges, captain in the Guards, and much esteemed.  The King
+prohibited Montgeorges from seeing the wife of the councillor again.
+
+Such having been the case, when the crime was attempted, suspicion fell
+upon Montgeorges and the wife of Ticquet, a beautiful, gallant, and bold
+woman, who took a very high tone in the matter.  She was advised to fly,
+and one of my friends offered to assist her to do so, maintaining that in
+all such cases it is safer to be far off than close at hand.  The woman
+would listen to no such advice, and in a few days she was no longer able.
+The porter and the soldier were arrested and tortured, and Madame
+Ticquet, who was foolish enough to allow herself to be arrested, also
+underwent the same examination, and avowed all.  She was condemned to
+lose her head, and her accomplice to be broken on the wheel.  Montgeorges
+managed so well, that he was not legally criminated.  When Ticquet heard
+the sentence, he came with all his family to the King, and sued for
+mercy.  But the King would not listen to him, and the execution took
+place on Wednesday, the 17th of June, after mid-day, at the Greve.  All
+the windows of the Hotel de Ville, and of the houses in the Place de
+Greve, in the streets that lead to it from the Conciergerie of the palace
+where Madame Ticquet was confined, were filled with spectators, men and
+women, many of title and distinction.  There were even friends of both
+sexes of this unhappy woman, who felt no shame or horror in going there.
+In the streets the crowd was so great that it could not be passed
+through.  In general, pity was felt for the culprit; people hoped she
+would be pardoned, and it was because they hoped so, that they went to
+see her die.  But such is the world; so unreasoning, and so little in
+accord with itself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+The year 1700 commenced by a reform.  The King declared that he would no
+longer bear the expense of the changes that the courtiers introduced into
+their apartments.  It had cost him more than sixty thousand francs since
+the Court left Fontainebleau.  It is believed that Madame de Mailly was
+the cause of this determination of the King; for during the last two or
+three years she had made changes in her apartments every year.
+
+A difficulty occurred at this time which much mortified the King.  Little
+by little he had taken all the ambassadors to visit Messieurs du Maine
+and de Toulouse, as though they were Princes of the blood.  The nuncio,
+Cavallerini, visited them thus, but upon his return to Rome was so taken
+to task for it, that his successor, Delfini, did not dare to imitate him.
+The cardinals considered that they had lowered themselves, since
+Richelieu and Mazarm, by treating even the Princes of the blood on terms
+of equality, and giving them their hand, which had not been customary m
+the time of the two first ministers just named.  To do so to the
+illegitimate offspring of the King, and on occasions of ceremony,
+appeared to them monstrous.  Negotiations were carried on for a month,
+but Delfini would not bend, and although in every other respect he had
+afforded great satisfaction during his nunciature, no farewell audience
+was given to him; nor even a secret audience.  He was deprived of the
+gift of a silver vessel worth eighteen hundred francs, that it was
+customary to present to the cardinal nuncios at their departure: and he
+went away without saying adieu to anybody.
+
+Some time before, M. de Monaco had been sent as ambassador to Rome.  He
+claimed to be addressed by the title of "Highness," and persisted in it
+with so much obstinacy that he isolated, himself from almost everybody,
+and brought the affairs of his embassy nearly to a standstill by the
+fetters he imposed upon them in the most necessary transactions.  Tired
+at last of the resistance he met with, he determined to refuse the title
+of "Excellence," although it might fairly belong to them, to all who
+refused to address him as "Highness."  This finished his affair; for
+after that determination no one would see him, and the business of the
+embassy suffered even more than before.  It is difficult to comprehend
+why the King permitted such a man to remain as his representative at a
+foreign Court.
+
+Madame de Navailles died on the 14th of February: Her mother, Madame de
+Neuillant, who became a widow, was avarice itself.  I cannot say by what
+accident or chance it was that Madame de Maintenon in returning young and
+poor from America, where she had lost her father and mother, fell in
+landing at Rochelle into the hands of Madame de Neuillant, who lived in
+Poitou.  Madame de Neuillant took home Madame de Maintenon, but could not
+resolve to feed her without making her do something in return.  Madame de
+Maintenon was charged therefore with the key of the granary, had to
+measure out the corn and to see that it was given to the horses.  It was
+Madame de Neuillant who brought Madame de Maintenon to Paris, and to get
+rid of her married her to Scarron, and then retired into Poitou.
+
+Madame de Navailles was the eldest daughter of this Madame de Neuillant,
+and it was her husband, M. de Navailles, who, serving under M. le Prince
+in Flanders, received from that General a strong reprimand for his
+ignorance.  M. le Prince wanted to find the exact position of a little
+brook which his maps did not mark.  To assist him in the search, M. de
+Navailles brought a map of the world!  On another occasion, visiting
+M. Colbert, at Sceaux, the only thing M. de Navailles could find to
+praise was the endive of the kitchen garden: and when on the occasion of
+the Huguenots the difficulty of changing religion was spoken of, he
+declared that if God had been good enough to make him a Turk, he should
+have remained so.
+
+Madame de Navailles had been lady of honour to the Queen-mother, and lost
+that place by a strange adventure.
+
+She was a woman of spirit and of virtue, and the young ladies of honour
+were put under her charge.  The King was at this time young and gallant.
+So long as he held aloof from the chamber of the young ladies, Madame de
+Navailles meddled not, but she kept her eye fixed upon all that she
+controlled.  She soon perceived that the King was beginning to amuse
+himself, and immediately after she found that a door had secretly been
+made into the chamber of the young ladies; that this door communicated
+with a staircase by which the King mounted into the room at night, and
+was hidden during the day by the back of a bed placed against it.  Upon
+this Madame de Navailles held counsel with her husband.  On one side was
+virtue and honour, on the other, the King's anger, disgrace, and exile.
+The husband and wife did not long hesitate.  Madame de Navailles at once
+took her measures, and so well, that in a few hours one evening the door
+was entirely closed up.  During the same night the King, thinking to
+enter as usual by the little staircase, was much surprised to no longer
+find a door.  He groped, he searched, he could not comprehend the
+disappearance of the door, or by what means it had become wall again.
+Anger seized him; he doubted not that the door had been closed by Madame
+de Navailles and her husband.  He soon found that such was the case, and
+on the instant stripped them of almost all their offices, and exiled them
+from the Court.  The exile was not long; the Queen-mother on her death-
+bed implored him to receive back Monsieur and Madame de Navailles, and he
+could not refuse.  They returned, and M. de Navailles nine years
+afterwards was made Marechal of France.  After this Madame de Navailles
+rarely appeared at the Court.  Madame de Maintenon could not refuse her
+distinctions and special favours, but they were accorded rarely and by
+moments.  The King always remembered his door; Madame de Maintenon always
+remembered the hay and barley of Madame de Neuillant, and neither years
+nor devotion could deaden the bitterness of the recollection.
+
+From just before Candlemas-day to Easter of this year, nothing was heard
+of but balls and pleasures of the Court.  The King gave at Versailles and
+at Marly several masquerades, by which he was much amused, under pretext
+of amusing the Duchesse de Bourgogne.  At one of these balls at Marly a
+ridiculous scene occurred.  Dancers were wanting and Madame de Luxembourg
+on account of this obtained an invitation, but with great difficulty, for
+she lived in such a fashion that no woman would see her.  Monsieur de
+Luxembourg was perhaps the only person in France who was ignorant of
+Madame de Luxembourg's conduct.  He lived with his wife on apparently
+good terms and as though he had not the slightest mistrust of her.  On
+this occasion, because of the want of dancers, the King made older people
+dance than was customary, and among others M. de Luxembourg.  Everybody
+was compelled to be masked.  M. de Luxembourg spoke on this subject to
+M. le Prince, who, malicious as any monkey, determined to divert all the
+Court and himself at the Duke's expense.  He invited M. de Luxembourg to
+supper, and after that meal was over, masked him according to his fancy.
+
+Soon after my arrival at the ball, I saw a figure strangely clad in long
+flowing muslin, and with a headdress on which was fixed the horns of a
+stag, so high that they became entangled in the chandelier.  Of course
+everybody was much astonished at so strange a sight, and all thought that
+that mask must be very sure of his wife to deck himself so.  Suddenly the
+mask turned round and showed us M. de Luxembourg.  The burst of laughter
+at this was scandalous.  Good M. de Luxembourg, who never was very
+remarkable for wit, benignly took all this laughter as having been
+excited simply by the singularity of his costume, and to the questions
+addressed him, replied quite simply that his dress had been arranged by
+M. le Prince; then, turning to the right and to the left, he admired
+himself and strutted with pleasure at having been masked by M. le Prince.
+In a moment more the ladies arrived, and the King immediately after them.
+The laughter commenced anew as loudly as ever, and M. de Luxembourg
+presented himself to the company with a confidence that was ravishing.
+His wife had heard nothing of this masquerading, and when she saw it,
+lost countenance, brazen as she was.  Everybody stared at her and her
+husband, and seemed dying of laughter.  M. le Prince looked at the scene
+from behind the King, and inwardly laughed at his malicious trick.  This
+amusement lasted throughout all the ball, and the King, self-contained as
+he usually was, laughed also; people were never tired of admiring an
+invention so, cruelly ridiculous, and spoke of it for several days.
+
+No evening passed on which there was not a ball.  The chancellor's wife
+gave one which was a fete the most gallant and the most magnificent
+possible.  There were different rooms for the fancy-dress ball, for the
+masqueraders, for a superb collation, for shops of all countries,
+Chinese, Japanese, &c., where many singular and beautiful things were
+sold, but no money taken; they were presents for the Duchesse de
+Bourgogne and the ladies.  Everybody was especially diverted at this
+entertainment, which did not finish until eight o'clock in the morning.
+Madame de Saint-Simon and I passed the last three weeks of this time
+without ever seeing the day.  Certain dancers were only allowed to leave
+off dancing at the same time as the Duchesse de Bourgogne.  One morning,
+at Marty, wishing to escape too early, the Duchess caused me to be
+forbidden to pass the doors of the salon; several of us had the same
+fate.  I was delighted when Ash Wednesday arrived; and I remained a day
+or two dead beat, and Madame de Saint-Simon could not get over Shrove
+Tuesday.
+
+La Bourlie, brother of Guiscard, after having quitted the service, had
+retired to his estate near Cevennes, where he led a life of much licence.
+About this time a robbery was committed in his house; he suspected one of
+the servants, and on his own authority put the man to the torture.  This
+circumstance could not remain so secret but that complaints spread
+abroad.  The offence was a capital one.  La Bourlie fled from the realm,
+and did many strange things until his death, which was still more
+strange; but of which it is not yet time to speak.
+
+Madame la Duchesse, whose heavy tradesmen's debts the King had paid not
+long since, had not dared to speak of her gambling debts, also very
+heavy.  They increased, and, entirely unable to pay them, she found
+herself in the greatest embarrassment.  She feared, above all things,
+lest M. le Prince or M. le Duc should hear of this.  In this extremity
+she addressed herself to Madame de Maintenon, laying bare the state of
+her finances, without the slightest disguise.  Madame de Maintenon had
+pity on her situation, and arranged that the King should pay her debts,
+abstain from scolding her, and keep her secret.  Thus, in a few weeks,
+Madame la Duchesse found herself free of debts, without anybody whom she
+feared having known even of their existence.
+
+Langlee was entrusted with the payment and arrangement of these debts.
+He was a singular kind of man at the Court, and deserves a word.  Born of
+obscure parents, who had enriched themselves, he had early been
+introduced into the great world, and had devoted himself to play, gaining
+an immense fortune; but without being accused of the least unfairness.
+With but little or no wit, but much knowledge of the world, he had
+succeeded in securing many friends, and in making his way at the Court.
+He joined in all the King's parties, at the time of his mistresses.
+Similarity of tastes attached Langlee to Monsieur, but he never lost
+sight of the King.  At all the fetes Langlee was present, he took part in
+the journeys, he was invited to Marly, was intimate with all the King's
+mistresses; then with all the daughters of the King, with whom indeed he
+was so familiar that he often spoke to them with the utmost freedom.  He
+had become such a master of fashions and of fetes that none of the latter
+were given, even by Princes of the blood, except under his directions;
+and no houses were bought, built, furnished, or ornamented, without his
+taste being consulted.  There were no marriages of which the dresses and
+the presents were not chosen, or at least approved, by him.  He was on
+intimate terms with the most distinguished people of the Court; and often
+took improper advantage of his position.  To the daughters of the King
+and to a number of female friends he said horribly filthy things, and
+that too in their own houses, at St. Cloud or at Marly.  He was often
+made a confidant in matters of gallantry, and continued to be made so all
+his life.  For he was a sure man, had nothing disagreeable about him, was
+obliging, always ready to serve others with his purse or his influence,
+and was on bad terms with no one.
+
+While everybody, during all this winter, was at balls and amusements,
+the beautiful Madame de Soubise--for she was so still--employed herself
+with more serious matters.  She had just bought, very cheap, the immense
+Hotel de Guise, that the King assisted her to pay for.  Assisted also by
+the King, she took steps to make her bastard son canon of Strasbourg;
+intrigued so well that his birth was made to pass muster, although among
+Germans there is a great horror of illegitimacy, and he was received into
+the chapter.  This point gained, she laid her plans for carrying out
+another, and a higher one, nothing less than that of making her son
+Archbishop of Strasbourg.
+
+But there was an obstacle, in the way.  This obstacle was the Abbe
+d'Auvergne (nephew of Cardinal de Bouillon), who had the highest position
+in the chapter, that of Grand Prevot, had been there much longer than the
+Abbe de Soubise, was older, and of more consequence.  His reputation,
+however, was against him; his habits were publicly known to be those of
+the Greeks, whilst his intellect resembled theirs in no way.  By his
+stupidity he published his bad conduct, his perfect ignorance, his
+dissipation, his ambition; and to sustain himself he had only a low,
+stinking, continual vanity, which drew upon him as much disdain as did
+his habits, alienated him from all the world, and constantly subjected
+him to ridicule.
+
+The Abbe de Soubise had, on the contrary, everything smiling in his
+favour, even his exterior, which showed that he was born of the tenderest
+amours.  Upon the farms of the Sorbonne he had much distinguished
+himself.  He had been made Prior of Sorbonne, and had shone conspicuously
+in that position, gaining eulogies of the most flattering kind from
+everybody, and highly pleasing the King.  After this, he entered the
+seminary of Saint Magloire, then much in vogue, and gained the good
+graces of the Archbishop of Paris, by whom that seminary was favoured.
+On every side the Abbe de Soubise was regarded, either as a marvel of
+learning, or a miracle of piety and purity of manners.  He had made
+himself loved everywhere, and his gentleness, his politeness, his
+intelligence, his graces, and his talent for securing friends, confirmed
+more and more the reputation he had established.
+
+The Abbe d'Auvergne had a relative, the Cardinal de Furstenberg, who also
+had two nephews, canons of Strasbourg, and in a position to become
+claimants to the bishopric.  Madame de Soubise rightly thought that her
+first step must be to gain over the Cardinal to her side.  There was a
+channel through which this could be done which at once suggested itself
+to her mind.  Cardinal Furstenberg, it was said, had been much enamoured
+of the Comtesse de La Marck, and had married her to one of his nephews,
+in order that he might thus see her more easily.  It was also said that
+he had been well treated, and it is certain that nothing was so striking
+as the resemblance, feature for feature, of the Comte de La Marck to
+Cardinal de Furstenberg.  If the Count was not the son of the Cardinal he
+was nothing to him.  The attachment of Cardinal Furstenberg for the
+Comtesse de La Marck did not abate when she became by her marriage
+Comtesse de Furstenberg; indeed he could not exist without her; she lived
+and reigned in his house.  Her son, the Comte de La Marck, lived there
+also, and her dominion over the Cardinal was so public, that whoever had
+affairs with him spoke to the Countess, if he wished to succeed.  She had
+been very beautiful, and at fifty-two years of age, still showed it,
+although tall, stout, and coarse featured as a Swiss guard in woman's
+clothes.  She was, moreover, bold, audacious, talking loudly and always
+with authority; was polished, however, and of good manners when she
+pleased.  Being the most imperious woman in the world, the Cardinal was
+fairly tied to her apron-strings, and scarcely dared to breathe in her
+presence.  In dress and finery she spent like a prodigal, played every
+night, and lost large sums, oftentimes staking her jewels and her various
+ornaments.  She was a woman who loved herself alone, who wished for
+everything, and who refused herself nothing, not even, it was said,
+certain gallantries which the poor Cardinal was obliged to pay for, as
+for everything else.  Her extravagance was such, that she was obliged to
+pass six or seven months of the year in the country, in order to have
+enough to spend in Paris during the remainder of the year.
+
+It was to the Comtesse de Furstenberg, therefore, that Madame de Soubise
+addressed herself in order to gain over the support of Cardinal de
+Furstenberg, in behalf of her son.  Rumour said, and it was never
+contradicted, that Madame de Soubise paid much money to the Cardinal
+through the Countess, in order to carry this point.  It is certain that
+in addition to the prodigious pensions the Cardinal drew from the King,
+he touched at this time a gratification of forty thousand crowns, that it
+was pretended had been long promised him.
+
+Madame de Soubise having thus assured herself of the Countess and the
+Cardinal (and they having been privately thanked by the King), she caused
+an order to be sent to Cardinal de Bouillon, who was then at Rome,
+requesting him to ask the Pope in the name of the King, for a bull
+summoning the Chapter of Strasbourg to meet and elect a coadjutor and a
+declaration of the eligibility of the Abbe de Soubise.
+
+But here a new obstacle arose in the path of Madame de Soubise.  Cardinal
+de Bouillon, a man of excessive pride and pretension, who upon reaching
+Rome claimed to be addressed as "Most Eminent Highness," and obtaining
+this title from nobody except his servants, set himself at loggerheads
+with all the city--Cardinal de Bouillon, I say, was himself canon of
+Strasbourg, and uncle of the Abbe d'Auvergne.  So anxious was the
+Cardinal to secure the advancement of the Abbe d'Auvergne, that he had
+already made a daring and fraudulent attempt to procure for him a
+cardinalship.  But the false representations which he made in order to
+carry his point, having been seen through, his attempt came to nothing,
+and he himself lost all favour with the King for his deceit.  He,
+however; hoped to make the Abbe d'Auvergne bishop of Strasbourg, and was
+overpowered, therefore, when he saw this magnificent prey about to escape
+him.  The news came upon him like a thunderbolt.  It was bad enough to
+see his hopes trampled under foot; it was insupportable to be obliged to
+aid in crushing them.  Vexation so transported and blinded him, that he
+forgot the relative positions of himself and of Madame de Soubise, and
+imagined that he should be able to make the King break a resolution he
+had taken, and an engagement he had entered into.  He sent therefore, as
+though he had been a great man, a letter to the King, telling him that he
+had not thought sufficiently upon this matter, and raising scruples
+against it.  At the same time he despatched a letter to the canons of
+Strasbourg, full of gall and compliments, trying to persuade them that
+the Abbe de Soubise was too young for the honour intended him, and
+plainly intimating that the Cardinal de Furstenberg had been gained over
+by a heavy bribe paid to the Comtesse de Furstenberg.  These letters.
+made a terrible uproar.
+
+I was at the palace on Tuesday, March 30th, and after supper I saw Madame
+de Soubise arrive, leading the Comtesse de Furstenberg, both of whom
+posted themselves at the door of the King's cabinet.  It was not that
+Madame de Soubise had not the privilege of entering if she pleased, but
+she preferred making her complaint as public as the charges made against
+her by Cardinal de Bouillon had become.  I approached in order to witness
+the scene.  Madame de Soubise appeared scarcely able to contain herself,
+and the Countess seemed furious.  As the King passed, they stopped him.
+Madame de Soubise said two words in a low tone.  The Countess in a louder
+strain demanded justice against the Cardinal de Bouillon, who, she said,
+not content in his pride and ambition with disregarding the orders of the
+King, had calumniated her and Cardinal de Furstenberg in the most
+atrocious manner, and had not even spared Madame de Soubise herself.  The
+King replied to her with much politeness, assured her she should be
+contented, and passed on.
+
+Madame de Soubise was so much the more piqued because Cardinal de
+Bouillon had acquainted the King with the simony she had committed,
+and assuredly if he had not been ignorant of this he would never have
+supported her in the affair.  She hastened therefore to secure the
+success of her son, and was so well served by the whispered authority of
+the King, and the money she had spent, that the Abbe de Soubise was
+elected by unanimity Coadjutor of Strasbourg.
+
+As for the Cardinal de Bouillon, foiled in all his attempts to prevent
+the election, he wrote a second letter to the King, more foolish than the
+first.  This filled the cup to overflowing.  For reply, he received
+orders, by a courier, to quit Rome immediately and to retire to Cluni or
+to Tournus, at his choice, until further orders.  This order appeared so
+cruel to him that he could not make up his mind to obey.  He was
+underdoyen of the sacred college.  Cibo, the doyen, was no longer able to
+leave his bed.  To become doyen, it was necessary to be in Rome when the
+appointment became vacant.  Cardinal de Bouillon wrote therefore to the
+King, begging to be allowed to stay a short time, in order to pray the
+Pope to set aside this rule, and give him permission to succeed to the
+doyenship, even although absent from Rome when it became vacant.  He knew
+he should not obtain this permission, but he asked for it in order to
+gain time, hoping that in the meanwhile Cardinal Cibo might die, or even
+the Pope himself, whose health had been threatened with ruin for some
+time.  This request of the Cardinal de Bouillon was refused.  There
+seemed nothing for him but to comply with the orders he had received.
+But he had evaded them so long that he thought he might continue to do
+so.  He wrote to Pere la Chaise, begging him to ask the King for
+permission to remain at Rome until the death of Cardinal Cibo, adding
+that he would wait for a reply at Caprarole, a magnificent house of the
+Duke of Parma, at eight leagues from Rome.  He addressed himself to Pere
+la Chaise, because M. de Torcy, to whom he had previously written, had
+been forbidden to open his letters, and had sent him word to that effect.
+Having, too, been always on the best of terms with the Jesuits, he hoped
+for good assistance from Pere la Chaise.  But he found this door closed
+like that of M. de Torcy.  Pere la Chaise wrote to Cardinal de Bouillon
+that he too was prohibited from opening his letters.  At the same time a
+new order was sent to the Cardinal to set out immediately.  Just after he
+had read it Cardinal Cibo died, and the Cardinal de Bouillon hastened at
+once to Rome to secure the doyenship, writing to the King to say that he
+had done so, that he would depart in twenty-four hours, and expressing a
+hope that this delay would not be refused him.  This was laughing at the
+King and his orders, and becoming doyen in spite of him.  The King,
+therefore, displayed his anger immediately he learnt this last act of
+disobedience.  He sent word immediately to M. de Monaco to command the
+Cardinal de Bouillon to surrender his charge of grand chaplain, to give
+up his cordon bleu, and to take down the arms of France from the door of
+his palace; M. de Monaco was also ordered to prohibit all French people
+in Rome from seeing Cardinal de Bouillon, or from having any
+communication with him.  M. de Monaco, who hated the Cardinal, hastened
+willingly to obey these instructions.  The Cardinal appeared overwhelmed,
+but he did not even then give in.  He pretended that his charge of grand
+chaplain was a crown office, of which he could not be dispossessed,
+without resigning.  The King, out of all patience with a disobedience so
+stubborn and so marked, ordered, by a decree in council, on the 12th
+September, the seizure of all the Cardinal's estates, laical and
+ecclesiastical, the latter to be confiscated to the state, the former to
+be divided into three portions, and applied to various uses.  The same
+day the charge of grand chaplain was given to Cardinal Coislin, and that
+of chief chaplain to the Bishop of Metz.  The despair of the Cardinal
+de Bouillon, on hearing of this decree, was extreme.  Pride had hitherto
+hindered him from believing that matters would be pushed so far against
+him.  He sent in his resignation only when it was no longer needed of
+him.  His order he would not give up.  M. de Monaco warned him that,
+in case of refusal, he had orders to snatch it from his neck.  Upon this
+the Cardinal saw the folly of holding out against the orders of the King.
+He quitted then the marks of the order, but he was pitiful enough to wear
+a narrow blue ribbon, with a cross of gold attached, under his cassock,
+and tried from time to time to show a little of the blue.  A short time
+afterwards, to make the best of a bad bargain, he tried to persuade
+himself and others, that no cardinal was at liberty to wear the orders of
+any prince.  But it was rather late in the day to think of this, after
+having worn the order of the King for thirty years, as grand chaplain;
+and everybody thought so, and laughed at the idea.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+Chateauneuf, Secretary of State, died about this time.  He had asked that
+his son, La Vrilliere, might be allowed to succeed him, and was much
+vexed that the King refused this favour.  The news of Chateauneuf's death
+was brought to La Vrilliere by a courier, at five o'clock in the morning.
+He did not lose his wits at the news, but at once sent and woke up the
+Princesse d'Harcourt, and begged her to come and see him instantly.
+Opening his purse, he prayed her to go and see Madame de Maintenon as
+soon as she got up, and propose his marriage with Mademoiselle de Mailly,
+whom he would take without dowry, if the King gave him his father's
+appointments.  The Princesse d'Harcourt, whose habit it was to accept any
+sum, from a crown upwards, willingly undertook this strange business.
+She went upon her errand immediately, and then repaired to Madame de
+Mailly, who without property, and burdened with a troop of children--sons
+and daughters, was in no way averse to the marriage.
+
+The King, upon getting up, was duly made acquainted with La Vrilliere's
+proposal, and at once agreed to it.  There was only one person opposed to
+the marriage, and that was Mademoiselle de Mailly.  She was not quite
+twelve years of age.  She burst out a-crying, and declared she was very
+unhappy, that she would not mind marrying a poor man, if necessary,
+provided he was a gentleman, but that to marry a paltry bourgeois, in
+order to make his fortune, was odious to her.  She was furious against
+her mother and against Madame de Maintenon.  She could not be kept quiet
+or appeased, or hindered from making grimaces at La Vrilliere and all his
+family, who came to see her and her mother.
+
+They felt it; but the bargain was made, and was too good to be broken.
+They thought Mademoiselle de Mailly's annoyance would pass with her
+youth--but they were mistaken.  Mademoiselle de Mailly always was sore at
+having been made Madame de la Vrilliere, and people often observed it.
+
+At the marriage of Monseigneur the Duc de Bourgogne, the King had offered
+to augment considerably his monthly income.  The young Prince, who found
+it sufficient, replied with thanks, and said that if money failed him at
+any time he would take the liberty, of asking the King for more.  Finding
+himself short just now, he was as good as his word.  The King praised him
+highly, and told him to ask whenever he wanted money, not through a third
+person, but direct, as he had done in this instance.  The King, moreover,
+told the Duc de Bourgogne to play without fear, for it was of no
+consequence how much such persons as he might lose.  The King was pleased
+with confidence, but liked not less to see himself feared; and when timid
+people who spoke to him discovered themselves, and grew embarrassed in
+their discourse, nothing better made their court, or advanced their
+interests.
+
+The Archbishop of Rheims presided this year over the assembly of the
+clergy, which was held every five years.  It took place on this occasion
+at Saint Germains, although the King of England occupied the chateau.  M.
+de Rheims kept open table there, and had some champagne that was much
+vaunted.  The King of England, who drank scarcely any other wine, heard
+of this and asked for some.  The Archbishop sent him six bottles.  Some
+time after, the King of England, who had much relished the wine, sent and
+asked for more.  The Archbishop, more sparing of his wine than of his
+money, bluntly sent word that his wine was not mad, and did not run
+through the streets; and sent none.  However accustomed people might be
+to the rudeness of the Archbishop, this appeared so strange that it was
+much spoken of: but that was all.
+
+M. de Vendome took another public leave of the King, the Princes, and the
+Princesses, in order to place himself again under the doctor's hands.
+He perceived at last that he was not cured, and that it would be long
+before he was; so went to Anet to try and recover his health, but without
+success better than before.  He brought back a face upon which his state
+was still more plainly printed than at first.  Madame d'Uzes, only
+daughter of the Prince de Monaco, died of this disease.  She was a woman
+of merit--very virtuous and unhappy--who merited a better fate.
+M. d'Uzes was an obscure man, who frequented the lowest society, and
+suffered less from its effects than his wife, who was much pitied and
+regretted.  Her children perished of the same disease, and she left none
+behind her.--[Syphilis.  D.W.]
+
+Soon after this the King ordered the Comtes d'Uzes and d'Albert to go to
+the Conciergerie for having fought a duel against the Comtes de Rontzau,
+a Dane, and Schwartzenberg, an Austrian.  Uzes gave himself up, but the
+Comte d'Albert did not do so for a long Time, and was broken for his
+disobedience.  He had been on more than good terms with Madame de
+Luxembourg--the Comte de Rontzau also: hence the quarrel; the cause of
+which was known by everybody, and made a great stir.  Everybody knew it,
+at least, except M. de Luxembourg, and said nothing, but was glad of it;
+and yet in every direction he asked the reason; but, as may be imagined,
+could find nobody to tell him, so that he went over and over again to M.
+le Prince de Conti, his most intimate friend, praying him for information
+upon the subject.  M. de Conti related to me that on one occasion, coming
+from Meudon, he was so solicited by M. de Luxembourg on this account,
+that he was completely embarrassed, and never suffered to such an extent
+in all his life.  He contrived to put off M. de Luxembourg, and said
+nothing, but was glad indeed to get away from him at the end of the
+journey.
+
+Le Notre died about this time, after having been eighty-eight years in
+perfect health, and with all his faculties and good taste to the very
+last.  He was illustrious, as having been the first designer of those
+beautiful gardens which adorn France, and which, indeed, have so
+surpassed the gardens of Italy, that the most famous masters of that
+country come here to admire and learn.  Le Notre had a probity, an
+exactitude, and an uprightness which made him esteemed and loved by
+everybody.  He never forgot his position, and was always perfectly
+disinterested.  He worked for private people as for the King, and with
+the same application--seeking only to aid nature, and to attain the
+beautiful by the shortest road.  He was of a charming simplicity and
+truthfulness.  The Pope, upon one occasion, begged the King to lend him
+Le Notre for some months.  On entering the Pope's chamber, instead of
+going down upon his knees, Le Notre ran to the Holy Father, clasped him
+round the neck, kissed him on the two cheeks, and said--"Good morning,
+Reverend Father; how well you look, and how glad I am to see you in such
+good health."
+
+The Pope, who was Clement X., Altieri, burst out laughing with all his
+might.  He was delighted with this odd salutation, and showed his
+friendship towards the gardener in a thousand ways.  Upon Le Notre's
+return, the King led him into the gardens of Versailles, and showed him
+what had been done in his absence.  About the Colonnade he said nothing.
+The King pressed him to give his opinion thereupon.
+
+"Why, sire," said Le Notre, "what can I say?  Of a mason you have made a
+gardener, and he has given you a sample of his trade."
+
+The King kept silence and everybody laughed; and it was true that this
+morsel of architecture, which was anything but a fountain, and yet which
+was intended to be one, was much out of place in a garden.  A month
+before Le Notre's death, the King, who liked to see him and to make him
+talk, led him into the gardens, and on account of his great age, placed
+him in a wheeled chair, by the side of his own.  Upon this Le Notre said,
+"Ah, my poor father, if you were living and could see a simple gardener
+like me, your son, wheeled along in a chair by the side of the greatest
+King in the world, nothing would be wanting to my joy!"
+
+Le Notre was Overseer of the Public Buildings, and lodged at the
+Tuileries, the garden of which (his design), together with the Palace,
+being under his charge.  All that he did is still much superior to
+everything that has been done since, whatever care may have been taken to
+imitate and follow him as closely as possible.  He used to say of flower-
+beds that they were only good for nurses, who, not being able to quit the
+children, walked on them with their eyes, and admired them from the
+second floor.  He excelled, nevertheless, in flowerbeds, as in everything
+concerning gardens; but he made little account of them, and he was right,
+for they are the spots upon which people never walk.
+
+The King of England (William III.) lost the Duke of Gloucester, heir-
+presumptive to the crown.  He was eleven years of age, and was the only
+son of the Princess of Denmark, sister of the defunct Queen Mary, wife of
+William.  His preceptor was Doctor Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, who was
+in the secret of the invasion, and who passed into England with the
+Prince of Orange at the Revolution, of which Revolution he has left a
+very fraudulent history, and many other works of as little truth and good
+faith.  The underpreceptor was the famous Vassor, author of the "History
+of Louis XIII.,"  which would be read with more pleasure if there were
+less spite against the Catholic religion, and less passion against the
+King.  With those exceptions it is excellent and true.  Vassor must have
+been singularly well informed of the anecdotes that he relates, and which
+escape almost all historians.  I have found there, for instance, the Day
+of the Dupes related precisely as my father has related it to me, and
+several other curious things not less exact.  This author has made such a
+stir that it is worth while to say something about him.  He was a priest
+of the Oratory, and in much estimation as a man whose manners were
+without reproach.  After a time, however, he was found to have disclosed
+a secret that had been entrusted to him, and to have acted the spy on
+behalf of the Jesuits.  The proofs of his treason were found upon his
+table, and were so conclusive that there was nothing for him but to leave
+the Oratory.  He did so, and being deserted by his Jesuit employers,
+threw himself into La Trappe.  But he did not enter the place in a proper
+spirit, and in a few days withdrew.  After this he went to the Abbey of
+Perseigne, hired a lodging there, and remained several months.  But he
+was continually at loggerheads with the monks.  Their garden was separate
+from his only by a thick hedge; their fowls could jump over it.  He laid
+the blame upon the monks, and one day caught as many of their fowls as he
+could; cut off their beaks and their spurs with a cleaver, and threw them
+back again over the hedge.  This was cruelty so marked that I could not
+refrain from relating it.
+
+Vassor did not long remain in this retreat, but returned to Paris, and
+still being unable to gain a living, passed into Holland, from rage and
+hunger became a Protestant, and set himself to work to live by his pen.
+His knowledge, talent, and intelligence procured him many friends, and
+his reputation reached England, into which country he passed, hoping to
+gain there more fortune than in Holland.  Burnet received him with open
+arms, and obtained for him the post of under-preceptor to the Duke of
+Gloucester.  It would have been difficult to have found two instructors
+so opposed to the Catholics and to France, or so well suited to the King
+as teachers of his successor.
+
+Among so many things which paved the way for the greatest events, a very
+strange one happened, which from its singularity merits a short recital.
+For many years the Comtesse de Verrue lived at Turin, mistress, publicly,
+of M. de Savoie.  The Comtesse de Verrue was daughter of the Duc de
+Luynes, and had been married in Piedmont, when she was only fourteen
+years of age, to the Comte de Verrue, young, handsome, rich, and honest;
+whose mother was lady of honour to Madame de Savoie.
+
+M. de Savoie often met the Comtesse de Verrue, and soon found her much to
+his taste.  She saw this, and said so to her husband and her mother-in-
+law.  They praised her, but took no further notice of the matter.  M. de
+Savoie redoubled his attentions, and, contrary to his usual custom, gave
+fetes, which the Comtesse de Verrue felt were for her.  She did all she
+could not to attend them, but her mother-in-law quarrelled with her, said
+she wished to play the important, and that it was her vanity which gave
+her these ideas.  Her husband, more gentle, desired her to attend these
+fetes, saying that even if M. de Savoie were really in love with her, it
+would not do to fail in anything towards him.  Soon after M. de Savoie
+spoke to the Comtesse de Verrue.  She told her husband and her mother-in-
+law, and used every entreaty in order to prevail upon them to let her go
+and pass some time in the country.  They would not listen to her, and
+seeing no other course open, she feigned to be ill, and had herself sent
+to the waters of Bourbon.  She wrote to her father, the Duc de Luynes, to
+meet her there, and set out under the charge of the Abbe de Verrue; uncle
+of her husband.  As soon as the Duc de Luynes arrived at Bourbon, and
+became acquainted with the danger which threatened his daughter; he
+conferred with the Abbe as to the best course to adopt, and agreed with
+him that the Countess should remain away from Turin some time, in order
+that M. de Savoie might get cured of his passion.  M. de Luynes little
+thought that he had conferred with a wolf who wished to carry off his
+lamb.  The Abbe de Verrue, it seems, was himself violently in love with
+the Countess, and directly her father had gone declared the state of his
+heart.  Finding himself only repulsed, the miserable old man turned his
+love into hate; ill-treated the Countess, and upon her return to Turin,
+lost no opportunity of injuring her in the eyes of her husband and her
+mother-in-law.
+
+The Comtesse de Verrue suffered this for some time, but at last her
+virtue yielded to the bad treatment she received.  She listened to M. de
+Savoie, and delivered herself up to him in order to free herself from
+persecution.  Is not this a real romance?  But it happened in our own
+time, under the eyes and to the knowledge of everybody.
+
+When the truth became known, the Verrues were in despair, although they
+had only themselves to blame for what had happened.  Soon the new
+mistress ruled all the Court of Savoy, whose sovereign was at her feet as
+before a goddess.  She disposed of the favours of her lover, and was
+feared and courted by the ministry.  Her haughtiness made her hated; she
+was poisoned; M. de Savoie gave her a subtle antidote, which fortunately
+cured her, and without injury to her beauty.  Her reign still lasted.
+After a while she had the small-pox.  M. de Savoie tended her during this
+illness, as though he had been a nurse; and although her face suffered a
+little by it, he loved her not the less.  But he loved her after his own
+fashion.  He kept her shut up from view, and at last she grew so tired of
+her restraint that she determined to fly.  She conferred with her
+brother, the Chevalier de Luynes, who served with much distinction in the
+navy, and together they arranged the matter.
+
+They seized an opportunity when M. de Savoie had gone on a tour to
+Chambery, and departed furtively.  Crossing our frontier, they arrived m
+Paris, where the Comtesse de Verrue, who had grown very rich, took a
+house, and by degrees succeeded in getting people to come and see her,
+though, at first, owing to the scandal of her life, this was difficult.
+In the end, her opulence gained her a large number of friends, and she
+availed herself so well of her opportunities, that she became of much
+importance, and influenced strongly the government.  But that time goes
+beyond my memoirs.  She left in Turin a son and a daughter, both
+recognised by M. de Savoie, after the manner of our King.  He loved
+passionately these, illegitimate children, and married the daughter to
+the Prince de Carignan.
+
+Mademoiselle de Conde died at Paris on October 24th, after a long
+illness, from a disease in the chest, which consumed her less than the
+torments she experienced without end from M. le Prince, her father, whose
+continual caprices were the plague of all those over whom he could
+exercise them.  Almost all the children of M. le Prince were little
+bigger than dwarfs, which caused M. le Prince, who was tall, to say in
+pleasantry, that if his race went on always thus diminishing it would
+come to nothing.  People attributed the cause to a dwarf that Madame la
+Princesse had had for a long time near her.
+
+At the funeral of Mademoiselle de Conde, a very indecorous incident
+happened.  My mother, who was invited to take part in the ceremony, went
+to the Hotel de Conde, in a coach and six horses, to join Mademoiselle
+d'Enghien.  When the procession was about to start the Duchesse de
+Chatillon tried to take precedence of my mother.  But my mother called
+upon Mademoiselle d'Enghien to prevent this, or else to allow her to
+return.  Madame de Chatillon persisted in her attempt, saying that
+relationship decided the question of precedence on these occasions, and
+that she was a nearer relative to the deceased than my mother.  My
+mother, in a cold but haughty tone, replied that she could pardon this
+mistake on account of the youth and ignorance of Madame de Chatillon; but
+that in all such cases it was rank and not relationship which decided the
+point.  The dispute was at last put to an end by Madame de Chatillon
+giving way.  But when the procession started an attempt was made by her
+coachman to drive before the coach of my mother, and one of the company
+had to descend and decide the dispute.  On the morrow M. le Prince sent
+to apologise to my mother for the occurrence that had taken place, and
+came himself shortly afterwards full of compliments and excuses.  I never
+could understand what induced Madame de Chatillon to take this fancy into
+her head; but she was much ashamed of it afterwards, and made many
+excuses to my mother.
+
+I experienced, shortly after this, at Fontainebleau, one of the greatest
+afflictions I had ever endured.  I mean the loss of M. de La Trappe,
+These Memoirs are too profane to treat slightly of a life so sublimely
+holy, and of a death so glorious and precious before God.  I will content
+myself with saying here that praises of M. de La Trappe were so much the
+more great and prolonged because the King eulogised him in public; that
+he wished to see narrations of his death; and that he spoke more than
+once of it to his grandsons by way of instruction.  In every part of
+Europe this great loss was severely felt.  The Church wept for him, and
+the world even rendered him justice.  His death, so happy for him and so
+sad for his friends, happened on the 26th of October, towards half-past
+twelve, in the arms of his bishop, and in presence of his community, at
+the age of nearly seventy-seven years, and after nearly forty years of
+the most prodigious penance.  I cannot omit, however, the most touching
+and the most honourable mark of his friendship.  Lying upon the ground,
+on straw and ashes, in order to die like all the brethren of La Trappe,
+he deigned, of his own accord, to recollect me, and charged the Abbe La
+Trappe to send word to me, on his part, that as he was quite sure of my
+affection for him, he reckoned that I should not doubt of his tenderness
+for me.  I check myself at this point; everything I could add would be
+too much out of place here.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+But with a crawling baseness equal to her previous audacity
+He limped audaciously
+Height to which her insignificance had risen
+His death, so happy for him and so sad for his friends
+His habits were publicly known to be those of the Greeks
+In order to say something cutting to you, says it to himself
+Madame de Maintenon in returning young and poor from America
+No means, therefore, of being wise among so many fools
+Omissions must be repaired as soon as they are perceived
+Pope excommunicated those who read the book or kept it
+She lose her head, and her accomplice to be broken on the wheel
+The clergy, to whom envy is not unfamiliar
+The porter and the soldier were arrested and tortured
+Whitehall, the largest and ugliest palace in Europe
+World; so unreasoning, and so little in accord with itself
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Memoirs of Louis XIV., Volume 2
+by Duc de Saint-Simon
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+The Project Gutenberg Memoirs Louis XIV., His Court and The Regency, v2
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+Title: The Memoirs of Louis XIV., His Court and The Regency, v2
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+
+          MEMOIRS OF LOUIS XIV AND HIS COURT AND OF THE REGENCY
+
+                        BY THE DUKE OF SAINT-SIMON
+
+
+                                VOLUME 2.
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+Death of Archbishop Harlay.--Scene at Conflans.--"The Good Langres."--
+A Scene at Marly.--Princesses Smoke Pipes!--Fortunes of Cavoye.--
+Mademoiselle de Coetlogon.--Madame de Guise.--Madame de Miramion.--Madame
+de Sevigne.--Father Seraphin.--An Angry Bishop.--Death of La Bruyere.--
+Burglary by a Duke.--Proposed Marriage of the Duc de Bourgogne.--The
+Duchesse de Lude.--A Dangerous Lady.--Madame d'O.--Arrival of the
+Duchesse de Bourgogne.
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+My Return to Fontainebleau.--A Calumny at Court.--Portrait of M. de La
+Trappe.--A False Painter.--Fast Living at the "Desert."--Comte
+d'Auvergne.--Perfidy of Harlay.--M. de Monaco.--Madame Panache.--The
+Italian Actor and the "False Prude".
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+A Scientific Retreat.--The Peace of Ryswick.--Prince of Conti King of
+Poland.--His Voyage and Reception.--King of England Acknowledged.--Duc de
+Conde in Burgundy.--Strange Death of Santeuil.--Duties of the Prince of
+Darmstadt in Spain.--Madame de Maintenon's Brother.--Extravagant Dresses.
+Marriage of the Duc de Bourgogne.--The Bedding of the Princesse.--Grand
+Balls.--A Scandalous Bird.
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+An Odd Marriage.--Black Daughter of the King.--Travels of Peter the
+Great.--Magnificent English Ambassador.--The Prince of Parma.--
+A Dissolute Abbe.--Orondat.--Dispute about Mourning.--M. de Cambrai's
+Book Condemned by M. de La Trappe.--Anecdote of the Head of Madame de
+Montbazon.--Condemnation of Fenelon by the Pope.--His Submission.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+Charnace.--An Odd Ejectment.--A Squabble at Cards.--Birth of My Son.--
+The Camp at Compiegne.--Splendour of Marechal Boufflers.--Pique of the
+Ambassadors.--Tesse's Grey Hat.--A Sham Siege.--A Singular Scene.--
+The King and Madame de Maintenon.--An Astonished Officer.--
+Breaking-up of the Camp.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+Gervaise Monk of La Trappe.----His Disgusting Profligacy.--The Author of
+the Lord's Prayer.--A Struggle for Precedence.--Madame de Saint-Simon.--
+The End of the Quarrel.--Death of the Chevalier de Coislin.--A Ludicrous
+Incident.--Death of Racine.--The King and the Poet.--King Pays Debts of
+Courtiers.--Impudence of M. de Vendome.--A Mysterious Murder.--
+Extraordinary Theft.
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+The Farrier of Salon.--Apparition of a Queen.--The Farrier Comes to
+Versailles.--Revelations to the Queen.--Supposed Explanation.--
+New Distinctions to the Bastards.--New Statue of the King.--
+Disappointment of Harlay.--Honesty of Chamillart.--The Comtesse de
+Fiesque.--Daughter of Jacquier.--Impudence of Saumery.--Amusing Scene.--
+Attempted Murder.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+Reform at Court.--Cardinal Delfini.--Pride of M. de Monaco.--Early Life
+of Madame de Maintenon.--Madame de Navailles.--Balls at Marly.--An Odd
+Mask.--Great Dancing--Fortunes of Langlee.--His Coarseness.--The Abbe de
+Soubise.--Intrigues for His Promotion.--Disgrace and Obstinacy of
+Cardinal de Bouillon.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+A Marriage Bargain.--Mademoiselle de Mailly.--James II.--Begging
+Champagne.--A Duel.--Death of Le Notre.--His Character.--History of
+Vassor.--Comtesse de Verrue and Her Romance with M. de Savoie.--A Race of
+Dwarfs.--An Indecorous Incident.--Death of M. de La Trappe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+To return now to the date from which I started.  On the 6th of August,
+1695, Harlay, Arch-bishop of Paris, died of epilepsy at Conflans.  He was
+a prelate of profound knowledge and ability, very amiable, and of most
+gallant manners.  For some time past he had lost favour with the King and
+with Madame de Maintenon, for opposing the declaration of her marriage--
+of which marriage he had been one of the three witnesses.  The clergy,
+who perceived his fall, and to whom envy is not unfamiliar, took pleasure
+in revenging themselves upon M. de Paris, for the domination, although
+gentle and kindly, he had exercised.  Unaccustomed to this decay of his
+power, all the graces of his mind and body withered.  He could find no
+resource but to shut himself up with his dear friend the Duchesse de
+Lesdiguieres, whom he saw every day of his life, either at her own house
+or at Conflans, where he had laid out a delicious garden, kept so
+strictly clean, that as the two walked, gardeners followed at a distance,
+and effaced their footprints with rakes.  The vapours seized the
+Archbishop, and turned themselves into slight attacks of epilepsy.  He
+felt this, but prohibited his servants to send for help, when they should
+see him attacked; and he was only too well obeyed.  The Duchesse de
+Lesdiguieres never slept at Conflans, but she went there every afternoon,
+and was always alone with him.  On the 6th of August, he passed the
+morning, as usual, until dinner-time; his steward came there to him, and
+found him in his cabinet, fallen back upon a sofa; he was dead.  The
+celebrated Jesuit-Father Gaillard preached his funeral sermon, and
+carefully eluded pointing the moral of the event.  The King and Madame de
+Maintenon were much relieved by the loss of M. de Paris.  Various places
+he had held were at once distributed.  His archbishopric and his
+nomination to the cardinalship required more discussion.  The King learnt
+the news of the death of M. de Paris on the 6th.  On the 8th, in going as
+usual to his cabinet, he went straight up to the Bishop of Orleans, led
+him to the Cardinals de Bouillon and de Fursternberg, and said to them:-
+"Gentlemen, I think you will thank me for giving you an associate like M.
+d'Orleans, to whom I give my nomination to the cardinalship."  At this
+word the Bishop, who little expected such a scene, fell at the King's
+feet and embraced his knees.  He was a man whose face spoke at once of
+the virtue and benignity he possessed.  In youth he was so pious, that
+young and old were afraid to say afoul word in his presence.  Although
+very rich, he appropriated scarcely any of his wealth to himself, but
+gave it away for good works.  The modesty and the simplicity with which
+M. d'Orleans sustained his nomination, increased the universal esteem in
+which he was held.
+
+The archbishopric of Paris was given to a brother of the Duc de Noailles-
+the Bishop of Chalons-sur-Marne--M. de Noailles thus reaping the fruit of
+his wise sacrifice to M. de Vendome, before related.  M. de Chalons was
+of singular goodness and modesty.  He did not wish for this preferment,
+and seeing from far the prospect of its being given to him, hastened to
+declare himself against the Jesuits, in the expectation that Pere la
+Chaise, who was of them, and who was always consulted upon these
+occasions, might oppose him.  But it happened, perhaps for the first
+time, that Madame de Maintenon, who felt restrained by the Jesuits, did
+not consult Pere la Chaise, and the preferment was made without his
+knowledge, and without that of M. de Chalons.  The affront was a violent
+one, and the Jesuits never forgave the new Archbishop: he was, however,
+so little anxious for the office, that it was only after repeated orders
+he could be made to accept it.
+
+The Bishop of Langres also died about this time.  He was a true
+gentleman, much liked, and called "the good Langres."  There was nothing
+bad about him, except his manners; he was not made for a bishop--gambled
+very much, and staked high.  M. de Vendome and others won largely at
+billiards of him, two or three times.  He said no word, but, on returning
+to Langres, did nothing but practise billiards in secret for six months.
+When next in Paris, he was again asked to play, and his adversaries, who
+thought him as unskilful as before, expected an easy victory but, to
+their astonishment, he gained almost every game, won back much more than
+he had lost, and then laughed in the faces of his companions.
+
+I paid about this time, my first journey to Marly, and a singular scene
+happened there.  The King at dinner, setting aside his usual gravity,
+laughed and joked very much with Madame la Duchesse, eating olives with
+her in sport, and thereby causing her to drink more than usual--which he
+also pretended to do.  Upon rising from the table the King, seeing the
+Princesse de Conti look extremely serious, said, dryly, that her gravity
+did not accommodate itself to their drunkenness.  The Princess, piqued,
+allowed the King to pass without saying anything; and then, turning to
+Madame de Chatillon, said, in the midst of the noise, whilst everybody
+was washing his mouth, "that she would rather be grave than be a wine-
+sack" (alluding to some bouts a little prolonged that her sister had
+recently had).
+
+The saying was heard by the Duchesse de Chartres, who replied, loud
+enough to be heard, in her slow and trembling voice, that she preferred
+to be a "winesack" rather than a "rag-sack" (sac d guenilles) by which
+she alluded to the Clermont and La Choin adventure I have related before.
+
+This remark was so cruel that it met with no reply; it spread through
+Marly, and thence to Paris; and Madame la Duchesse, who had the art of
+writing witty songs, made one upon this theme.  The Princesse de Conti
+was in despair, for she had not the same weapon at her disposal.
+Monsieur tried to reconcile them gave them a dinner at Meudon--but they
+returned from it as they went.
+
+The end of the year was stormy at Marly.  One evening, after the King had
+gone to bed, and while Monseigneur was playing in the saloon, the
+Duchesse de Chartres and Madame la Duchesse (who were bound together by
+their mutual aversion to the Princesse de Conti) sat down to a supper in
+the chamber of the first-named.  Monseigneur, upon retiring late to his
+own room, found them smoking with pipes, which they had sent for from the
+Swiss Guards!  Knowing what would happen if the smell were discovered, he
+made them leave off, but the smoke had betrayed them.  The King next day
+severely scolded them, at which the Princesse de Conti triumphed.
+Nevertheless, these broils multiplied, and the King at last grew so weary
+of them that one evening he called the Princesses before him, and
+threatened that if they did not improve he would banish them all from the
+Court.  The measure had its effect; calm and decorum returned, and
+supplied the place of friendship.
+
+There were many marriages this winter, and amongst them one very strange
+--a marriage of love, between a brother of Feuquiere's, who had never
+done much, and the daughter of the celebrated Mignard, first painter of
+his time.  This daughter was still so beautiful, that Bloin, chief valet
+of the King, had kept her for some time, with the knowledge of every one,
+and used his influence to make the King sign the marriage-contract.
+
+There are in all Courts persons who, without wit and without
+distinguished birth, without patrons, or service rendered, pierce into
+the intimacy of the most brilliant, and succeed at last, I know not how,
+in forcing the world to look upon them as somebody.  Such a person was
+Cavoye.  Rising from nothing, he became Grand Marechal des Logis in the
+royal household: he arrived at that office by a perfect romance.  He was
+one of the best made men in France, and was much in favour with the
+ladies.  He first appeared at the Court at a time when much duelling was
+taking place, in spite of the edicts.  Cavoye, brave and skilful,
+acquired so much reputation m this particular, that the name of "Brave
+Cavoye" has stuck to him ever since.  An ugly but very good creature,
+Mademoiselle de Coetlogon, one of the Queen's waiting-women, fill in love
+with him, even to madness.  She made all the advances; but Cavoye treated
+her so cruelly, nay, sometimes so brutally, that (wonderful to say)
+everybody pitied her, and the King at last interfered, and commanded him
+to be more humane.  Cavoye went to the army; the poor Coetlogon was in
+tears until his return.  In the winter, for being second in a duel, he
+was sent to the Bastille.  Then the grief of Coetlogon knew no bounds:
+she threw aside all ornaments, and clad herself as meanly as possible;
+she begged the King to grant Cavoye his liberty, and, upon the King's
+refusing, quarrelled with him violently, and when in return he laughed at
+her, became so furious, that she would have used her nails, had he not
+been too wise to expose himself to them.  Then she refused to attend to
+her duties, would not serve the King, saying, that he did not deserve it,
+and grew so yellow and ill, that at last she was allowed to visit her
+lover at the Bastille.  When he was liberated, her joy was extreme, she
+decked herself out anon, but it was with difficulty that she consented to
+be reconciled to the King.
+
+Cavoye had many times been promised an appointment, but had never
+received one such as he wished.  The office of Grand Marechal des Logis
+had just become vacant: the King offered it to Cavoye, but on condition
+that he should marry Mademoiselle Coetlogon.  Cavoye sniffed a little
+longer, but was obliged to submit to this condition at last.  They were
+married, and she has still the same admiration for him, and it is
+sometimes fine fun to see the caresses she gives him before all the
+world, and the constrained gravity with which he receives them.  The
+history of Cavoye would fill a volume, but this I have selected suffices
+for its singularity, which assuredly is without example.
+
+About this time the King of England thought matters were ripe for an
+attempt to reinstate himself upon the throne.  The Duke of Berwick had
+been secretly into England, where he narrowly escaped being arrested,
+and upon his report these hopes were built.  Great preparations were
+made, but they came to nothing, as was always the case with the projects
+of this unhappy prince.
+
+Madame de Guise died at this time.  Her father was the brother of Louis
+XIII., and she, humpbacked and deformed to excess, had married the last
+Duc de Guise, rather than not marry at all.  During all their lives, she
+compelled him to pay her all the deference due to her rank.  At table he
+stood while she unfolded her napkin and seated herself, and did not sit
+until she told him to do so, and then at the end of the table.  This form
+was observed every day of their lives.  She was equally severe in such
+matters of etiquette with all the rest of the world.  She would keep her
+diocesan, the Bishop of Seez, standing for entire hours, while she was
+seated in her arm-chair and never once offered him a seat even in the
+corner.  She was in other things an entirely good and sensible woman.
+Not until after her death was it discovered that she had been afflicted
+for a long time with a cancer, which appeared as though about to burst.
+God spared her this pain.
+
+We lost, in the month of March, Madame de Miramion, aged sixty-six.  She
+was a bourgeoise, married, and in the same year became a widow very rich,
+young, and beautiful.  Bussy Rabutin, so known by his 'Histoire Amoureuse
+des Gaules', and by the profound disgrace it drew upon him, and still
+more by the vanity of his mind and the baseness of his heart, wished
+absolutely to marry her, and actually carried her off to a chateau.  Upon
+arriving at the place, she pronounced before everybody assembled there a
+vow of chastity, and then dared Bussy to do his worst.  He, strangely
+discomfited by this action, at once set her at liberty, and tried to
+accommodate the affair.  From that moment she devoted herself entirely,
+to works of piety, and was much esteemed by the King.  She was the first
+woman of her condition who wrote above her door, "Hotel de Nesmond."
+Everybody cried out, and was scandalised, but the writing remained, and
+became the example and the father of those of all kinds which little by
+little have inundated Paris.
+
+Madame de Sevigne, so amiable and of such excellent company, died some
+time after at Grignan, at the house of her daughter, her idol, but who
+merited little to be so.  I was very intimate with the young Marquis de
+Grignan, her grandson.  This woman, by her natural graces, the sweetness
+of her wit, communicated these qualities to those who had them not; she
+was besides extremely good, and knew thoroughly many things without ever
+wishing to appear as though she knew anything.
+
+Father Seraphin preached during Lent this year at the Court.  His
+sermons, in which he often repeated twice running the same phrase, were
+much in vogue.  It was from him that came the saying, "Without God there
+is no wit."  The King was much pleased with him, and reproached M. de
+Vendome and M. de la Rochefoucauld because they never went to hear his
+sermons.  M. de Vendome replied off-hand, that he did not care to go to
+hear a man who said whatever he pleased without allowing anybody to reply
+to him, and made the King smile by this sally.  But M. de la
+Rochefoucauld treated the matter in another manner he said that he could
+not induce himself to go like the merest hanger-on about the Court, and
+beg a seat of the officer who distributed them, and then betake himself
+early to church in order to have a good one, and wait about in order to
+put himself where it might please that officer to place him.  Whereupon
+the King immediately gave him a fourth seat behind him, by the side of
+the Grand Chamberlain, so that everywhere he is thus placed.
+M. d'Orleans had been in the habit of seating himself there (although his
+right place was on the prie-Dieu), and little by little had accustomed
+himself to consider it as his proper place.  When he found himself driven
+away, he made a great ado, and, not daring to complain to the King,
+quarrelled with M. de la Rochefoucauld, who, until then, had been one of
+his particular friends.  The affair soon made a great stir; the friends
+of both parties mixed themselves up in it.  The King tried in vain to
+make M. d'Orleans listen to reason; the prelate was inflexible, and when
+he found he could gain nothing by clamour and complaint, he retired in
+high dudgeon into his diocese: he remained there some time, and upon his
+return resumed his complaints with more determination than ever; he fell
+at the feet of the King, protesting that he would rather die than see his
+office degraded.  M. de la Rochefoucauld entreated the King to be allowed
+to surrender the seat in favour of M. d'Orleans.  But the King would not
+change his decision; he said that if the matter were to be decided
+between M. d'Orleans and a lackey,  he would give the seat to the lackey
+rather than to M. d'Orleans.  Upon this the prelate returned to his
+diocese, which he would have been wiser never to have quitted in order to
+obtain a place which did not belong to him.
+
+As the King really esteemed M. d'Orleans, he determined to appease his
+anger; and to put an end to this dispute he gave therefore the bishopric
+of Metz to the nephew of M. d'Orleans; and by this means a reconciliation
+was established.  M. d'Orleans and M. de la Rochefoucauld joined hands
+again, and the King looked on delighted.
+
+The public lost soon after a man illustrious by his genius, by his style,
+and by his knowledge of men, I mean La Bruyere, who died of apoplexy at
+Versailles, after having surpassed Theophrastus in his own manner, and
+after painting, in the new characters, the men of our days in a manner
+inimitable.  He was besides a very honest man, of excellent breeding,
+simple, very disinterested, and without anything of the pedant.  I had
+sufficiently known him to regret his death, and the works that might have
+been hoped from him.
+
+The command of the armies was distributed in the same manner as before,
+with the exception that M. de Choiseul had the army of the Rhine in place
+of M. de Lorges.  Every one set out to take the field.  The Duc de la
+Feuillade in passing by Metz, to join the army in Germany, called upon
+his uncle, who was very rich and in his second childhood.  La Feuillade
+thought fit to make sure of his uncle's money beforehand, demanded the
+key of the cabinet and of the coffers, broke them open upon being refused
+by the servants, and took away thirty thousand crowns in gold, and many
+jewels, leaving untouched the silver.  The King, who for a long time had
+been much discontented with La Feuillade for his debauches and his
+negligence, spoke very strongly and very openly upon this strange
+forestalling of inheritance.  It was only with great difficulty he could
+be persuaded not to strip La Feuillade of his rank.
+
+Our campaign was undistinguished by any striking event.  From June to
+September of this year (1696), we did little but subsist and observe,
+after which we recrossed the Rhine at Philipsburg, where our rear guard
+was slightly inconvenienced by the enemy.  In Italy there was more
+movement.  The King sought to bring about peace by dividing the forces of
+his enemies, and secretly entered into a treaty with Savoy.  The
+conditions were, that every place belonging to Savoy which had been taken
+by our troops should be restored, and that a marriage should take place
+between Monseigneur the Duc de Bourgogne and the daughter of the Duke of
+Savoy, when she became twelve years of age.  In the mean time she was to
+be sent to the Court of France, and preparations were at once made there
+to provide her with a suitable establishment.
+
+The King was ill with an anthrax in the throat.  The eyes of all Europe
+were turned towards him, for his malady was not without danger;
+nevertheless in his bed he affected to attend to affairs as usual; and he
+arranged there with Madame de Maintenon, who scarcely ever quitted his
+side, the household of the Savoy Princess.  The persons selected for the
+offices in that household were either entirely devoted to Madame de
+Maintenon, or possessed of so little wit that she had nothing to fear
+from them.  A selection which excited much envy and great surprise was
+that of the Duchesse de Lude to be lady of honour.  The day before she
+was appointed, Monsieur had mentioned her name in sport to the King.
+"Yes," said the King, "she would be the best woman in the world to teach
+the Princess to put rouge and patches on her cheek;" and then, being
+more devout than usual, he said other things as bitter and marking strong
+aversion on his part to the Duchess.  In fact, she was no favourite of
+his nor of Madame de Maintenon; and this was so well understood that the
+surprise of Monsieur and of everybody else was great, upon finding, the
+day after this discourse, that she had been appointed to the place.
+
+The cause of this was soon learnt.  The Duchesse de Lude coveted much to
+be made lady of honour to the Princess, but knew she had but little
+chance, so many others more in favour than herself being in the field.
+Madame de Maintenon had an old servant named Nanon, who had been with her
+from the time of her early days of misery, and who had such influence
+with her, that this servant was made much of by everybody at Court, even
+by the ministers and the daughters of the King.  The Duchesse de Lude had
+also an old servant who was on good terms with the other.  The affair
+therefore was not difficult.  The Duchesse de Lude sent twenty thousand
+crowns to Nanon, and on the very evening of the day on which the King had
+spoken to Monsieur, she had the place.  Thus it is!  A Nanon sells the
+most important and the most brilliant offices, and a Duchess of high
+birth is silly enough to buy herself into servitude!
+
+This appointment excited much envy.  The Marechal de Rochefort, who had
+expected to be named, made a great ado.  Madame de Maintenon, who
+despised her, was piqued, and said that she should have had it but for
+the conduct of her daughter.  This was a mere artifice; but the daughter
+was, in truth, no sample of purity.  She had acted in such a manner with
+Blansac that he was sent for from the army to marry her, and on the very
+night of their wedding she gave birth to a daughter.  She was full of
+wit, vivacity, intrigue, and sweetness; yet most wicked, false, and
+artificial, and all this with a simplicity of manner, that imposed even
+upon those who knew her best.  More than gallant while her face lasted,
+she afterwards was easier of access, and at last ruined herself for the
+meanest valets.  Yet, notwithstanding her vices, she was the prettiest
+flower of the Court bunch, and had her chamber always full of the best
+company: she was also much sought after by the three daughters of the
+King.  Driven away from the Court, she was after much supplication
+recalled, and pleased the King so much that Madame de Maintenon, in fear
+of her, sent her away again.  But to go back again to the household of
+the Princess of Savoy.
+
+Dangeau was made chevalier d'honneur.  He owed his success to his good
+looks, to the court he paid to the King's mistresses, to his skilfulness
+at play, and to a lucky stroke of fortune.  The King had oftentimes been
+importuned to give him a lodging, and one day, joking with him upon his
+fancy of versifying; proposed to him some very hard rhymes, and promised
+him a lodging if he filled them up upon the spot.  Dangeau accepted,
+thought but for a moment, performed the task, and thus gained his
+lodging.  He was an old friend of Madame de Maintenon, and it was to her
+he was indebted for his post of chevalier d'honneur in the new household.
+
+Madame d'O was appointed lady of the palace.  Her father, named
+Guilleragues, a gluttonous Gascon, had been one of the intimate friends
+of Madame Scarron, who, as Madame de Maintenon, did not forget her old
+acquaintance, but procured him the embassy to Constantinople.  Dying
+there, he left an only daughter, who, on the voyage home to France,
+gained the heart of Villers, lieutenant of the vessel, and became his
+wife in Asia-Minor, near the ruins of Troy.  Villers claimed to be of the
+house of d'O; hence the name his wife bore.
+
+Established at the Court, the newly-married couple quickly worked
+themselves into the favour of Madame de Maintenon, both being very clever
+in intrigue.  M. d'O was made governor of the Comte de Toulouse, and soon
+gained his entire confidence.  Madame d'O, too, infinitely pleased the,
+young Count, just then entering upon manhood, by her gallantry, her wit,
+and the facilities she allowed him.  Both, in consequence, grew in great
+esteem with the King.  Had they been attendants upon Princes of the
+blood, he would assuredly have slighted them.  But he always showed great
+indulgence to those who served his illegitimate children.  Hence the
+appointment of Madame d'O to be lady of the palace.
+
+The household of the Princess of Savoy being completed, the members of it
+were sent to the Pont Beauvosin to meet their young mistress.  She
+arrived early on the 16th of October, slept at the Pont Beauvosin that
+night, and on the morrow parted with her Italian attendants without
+shedding a single tear.  On the 4th of November she arrived at Montargis,
+and was received by the King, Monseigneur, and Monsieur.  The King handed
+her down from her coach, and conducted her to the apartment he had
+prepared for her.  Her respectful and flattering manners pleased him
+highly.  Her cajoleries, too, soon bewitched Madame de Maintenon, whom
+she never addressed except as "Aunt;" whom she treated with a respect,
+and yet with a freedom, that ravished everybody.  She became the doll of
+Madame de Maintenon and the King, pleased them infinitely by her
+insinuating spirit, and took greater liberties with them than the
+children of the King had ever dared to attempt.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+Meanwhile our campaign upon the Rhine proceeded, and the enemy, having
+had all their grand projects of victory defeated by the firmness and the
+capacity of the Marechal de Choiseul, retired into winter-quarters, and
+we prepared to do the same.  The month of October was almost over when
+Madame de Saint-Simon lost M. Fremont, father of the Marechal de Lorges.
+She had happily given birth to a daughter on the 8th of September.  I was
+desirous accordingly to go to Paris, and having obtained permission from
+the Marechal de Choiseul, who had treated me throughout the campaign with
+much politeness and attention, I set out. Upon arriving at Paris I found
+the Court at Fontainebleau.  I had arrived from the army a little before
+the rest, and did not wish that the King should know it without seeing
+me, lest he might think I had returned in secret.  I hastened at once
+therefore to Fontainebleau, where the King received me with his usual
+goodness,-saying, nevertheless, that I had returned a little too early,
+but that it was of no consequence.
+
+I had not long left his presence when I learned a report that made my
+face burn again.  It was affirmed that when the King remarked upon my
+arriving a little early, I had replied that I preferred arriving at once
+to see him, as my sole mistress, than to remain some days in Paris, as
+did the other young men with their mistresses.  I went at once to the
+King, who had a numerous company around him; and I openly denied what had
+been reported, offering a reward for the discovery of the knave who had
+thus calumniated me, in order that I might give him a sound thrashing.
+All day I sought to discover the scoundrel.  My speech to the King and my
+choler were the topic of the day, and I was blamed for having spoken so
+loudly and in such terms.  But of two evils I had chosen the least,--a
+reprimand from the King, or a few days in the Bastille; and I had avoided
+the greatest, which was to allow myself to be believed an infamous
+libeller of our young men, in order to basely and miserably curry favour
+at the Court.  The course I took succeeded.  The King said nothing of the
+matter, and I went upon a little journey I wished particularly to take,
+for reasons I will now relate.
+
+I had, as I have already mentioned, conceived a strong attachment and
+admiration for M. de La Trappe.  I wished to secure a portrait of him,
+but such was his modesty and humility that I feared to ask him to allow
+himself to be painted.  I went therefore to Rigault, then the first
+portrait-painter in Europe.  In consideration of a sum of a thousand
+crowns, and all his expenses paid, he agreed to accompany me to La
+Trappe, and to make a portrait of him from memory.  The whole affair was
+to be kept a profound secret, and only one copy of the picture was to be
+made, and that for the artist himself.
+
+My plan being fully arranged, I and Rigault set out.  As soon as we
+arrived at our journey's end, I sought M. de La Trappe, and begged to be
+allowed to introduce to him a friend of mine, an officer, who much wished
+to see him: I added, that my friend was a stammerer, and that therefore
+he would be importuned merely with looks and not words.  M. de La Trappe
+smiled with goodness, thought the officer curious about little, and
+consented to see him.  The interview took place.  Rigault excusing
+himself on the ground of his infirmity, did little during three-quarters
+of an hour but keep his eyes upon M. de La Trappe, and at the end went
+into a room where materials were already provided for him, and covered
+his canvas with the images and the ideas he had filled himself with.
+On the morrow the same thing was repeated, although M. de La Trappe,
+thinking that a man whom he knew not, and who could take no part in
+conversation, had sufficiently seen him, agreed to the interview only out
+of complaisance to me.  Another sitting was needed in order to finish the
+work; but it was with great difficulty M. de La Trappe could be persuaded
+to consent to it.  When the third and last interview was at an end, M. de
+La Trappe testified to me his surprise at having been so much and so long
+looked at by a species of mute.  I made the best excuses I could, and
+hastened to turn the conversation.
+
+The portrait was at length finished, and was a most perfect likeness of
+my venerable friend.  Rigault admitted to me that he had worked so hard
+to produce it from memory, that for several months afterwards he had been
+unable to do anything to his other portraits.  Notwithstanding the
+thousand crowns I had paid him, he broke the engagement he had made by
+showing the portrait before giving it up to me.  Then, solicited for
+copies, he made several, gaining thereby, according to his own admission,
+more than twenty-five thousand francs, and thus gave publicity to the
+affair.
+
+I was very much annoyed at this, and with the noise it made in the world;
+and I wrote to M. de La Trappe, relating the deception I had practised
+upon him, and sued for pardon.  He was pained to excess, hurt, and
+afflicted; nevertheless he showed no anger.  He wrote in return to me,
+and said, I was not ignorant that a Roman Emperor had said, "I love
+treason but not traitors;" but that, as for himself, he felt on the
+contrary that he loved the traitor but could only hate his treason.
+I made presents of three copies of the picture to the monastery of La
+Trappe.  On the back of the original I described the circumstance under
+which the portrait had been taken, in order to show that M. de La Trappe
+had not consented to it, and I pointed out that for some years he had
+been unable to use his right hand, to acknowledge thus the error which
+had been made in representing him as writing.
+
+The King, about this time, set on foot negotiations for peace in Holland,
+sending there two plenipotentiaries, Courtin and Harlay, and
+acknowledging one of his agents, Caillieres, who had been for some little
+time secretly in that country.
+
+The year finished with the disgrace of Madame de Saint Geran.  She was on
+the best of terms with the Princesses, and as much a lover of good cheer
+as Madame de Chartres and Madame la Duchesse.  This latter had in the
+park of Versailles a little house that she called the "Desert."  There
+she had received very doubtful company, giving such gay repasts that the
+King, informed of her doings, was angry, and forbade her to continue
+these parties or to receive certain guests.  Madame de Saint Geran was
+then in the first year of her mourning, so that the King did not think it
+necessary to include her among the interdicted; but he intimated that he
+did not approve of her.  In spite of this, Madame la Duchesse invited her
+to an early supper at the Desert a short time after, and the meal was
+prolonged so far into the night, and with so much gaiety, that it came to
+the ears of the King.  He was in great anger, and learning that Madame de
+Saint Geran had been of the party, sentenced her to be banished twenty
+leagues from the Court.  Like a clever woman, she retired into a convent
+at Rouen, saying that as she had been unfortunate enough to displease the
+King, a convent was the only place for her; and this was much approved.
+
+At the commencement of the next year (1697) the eldest son of the Comte
+d'Auvergne completed his dishonour by a duel he fought with the Chevalier
+de Caylus, on account of a tavern broil, and a dispute about some
+wenches.  Caylus, who had fought well, fled from the kingdom; the other,
+who had used his sword like a poltroon, and had run away dismayed into
+the streets, was disinherited by his father, sent out of the country, and
+returned no more.  He was in every respect a wretch, who, on account of
+his disgraceful adventures, was forced to allow himself to be
+disinherited and to take the cross of Malta; he was hanged in effigy at
+the Greve, to the great regret of his family, not on account of the
+sentence, but because, in spite of every entreaty, he had been proceeded
+against like the most obscure gentleman.  The exile of Caylus afterwards
+made his fortune.
+
+We had another instance, about this time, of the perfidy of Harlay.  He
+had been entrusted with a valuable deposit by Ruvigny, a Huguenot
+officer, who, quitting France, had entered the service of the Prince of
+Orange, and who was, with the exception of Marshal Schomberg, the only
+Huguenot to whom the King offered the permission of remaining at Court
+with full liberty to practise his religion in secret.  This, Ruvigny,
+like Marshal Schomberg, refused.  He was, nevertheless, allowed to retain
+the property he possessed in France; but after his death his son, not
+showing himself at all grateful for this favour, the King at last
+confiscated the property, and publicly testified his anger.  This was the
+moment that Harlay seized to tell the King of the deposit he had.  As a
+recompense the King gave it to him as confiscated, and this hypocrite of
+justice, of virtue, of disinterestedness, and of rigorism was not ashamed
+to appropriate it to himself, and to close his ears and his eyes to the
+noise this perfidy excited.
+
+M. de Monaco, who had obtained for himself the title of foreign prince by
+the marriage of his son with the Duchesse de Valentinois, daughter of M.
+le Grand, and who enjoyed, as it were, the sovereignty of a rock--beyond
+whose narrow limits anybody might spit, so to speak, whilst standing in
+the middle--soon found, and his son still more so, that they had bought
+the title very dearly.  The Duchess was charming, gallant, and was
+spoiled by the homage of the Court, in a house open night and day, and to
+which her beauty attracted all that was young and brilliant.  Her
+husband, with much intelligence, was diffident; his face and figure had
+acquired for him the name of Goliath; he suffered for a long time the
+haughtiness and the disdain of his wife and her family.  At last he and
+his father grew tired and took away Madame de Valentinois to Monaco.  She
+grieved, and her parents also, as though she had been carried off to the
+Indies.  After two years of absence and repentance, she promised marvels,
+and was allowed to return to Paris.  I know not who counselled her, but,
+without changing her conduct, she thought only how to prevent a return to
+Monaco; and to insure herself against this, she accused her father-in-law
+of having made vile proposals to her, and of attempting to take her by
+force.  This charge made a most scandalous uproar, but was believed by
+nobody.  M. de Monaco was no longer young; he was a very honest man, and
+had always passed for such; besides, he was almost blind in both eyes,
+and had a huge pointed belly, which absolutely excited fear, it jutted
+out so far!
+
+After some time, as Madame de Valentinois still continued to swim in the
+pleasures of the Court under the shelter of her family, her husband
+redemanded her; and though he was laughed at at first, she was at last
+given up to him.
+
+A marriage took place at this time between the son of Pontchartrain and
+the daughter of the Comte de Roye.  The Comte de Roye was a Huguenot,
+and, at the revocation of the edict of Nantes, had taken refuge, with his
+wife, in Denmark, where he had been made grand marshal and commander of
+all the troops.  One day, as the Comte de Roye was dining with his wife
+and daughter at the King's table, the Comtesse de Roye asked her daughter
+if she did not think the Queen of Denmark and Madame Panache resembled
+each other like two drops of water?  Although she spoke in French and in
+a low tone, the Queen both heard and understood her, and inquired at once
+who was Madame Panache.  The Countess in her surprise replied, that she
+was a very amiable woman at the French Court.  The Queen, who had noticed
+the surprise of the Countess, was not satisfied with this reply.  She
+wrote to the Danish minister at Paris, desiring to be informed of every
+particular respecting Madame Panache, her face, her age, her condition,
+and upon what footing she was at the French Court.  The minister, all
+astonished that the Queen should have heard of Madame Panache, wrote word
+that she was a little and very old creature, with lips and eyes so
+disfigured that they were painful to look upon; a species of beggar who
+had obtained a footing at Court from being half-witted, who was now at
+the supper of the King, now at the dinner of Monseigneur, or at other
+places, where everybody amused themselves by tormenting her: She in turn
+abused the company at these parties, in order to cause diversion, but
+sometimes rated them very seriously and with strong words, which
+delighted still more those princes and princesses, who emptied into her
+pockets meat and ragouts, the sauces of which ran all down her
+petticoats: at these parties some gave her a pistole or a crown, and
+others a filip or a smack in the face, which put her in a fury, because
+with her bleared eyes not being able to see the end of her nose, she
+could not tell who had struck her;--she was, in a word, the pastime of
+the Court!
+
+Upon learning this, the Queen of Denmark was so piqued, that she could no
+longer suffer the Comtesse de Roye near her; she complained to the King:
+he was much offended that foreigners, whom he had loaded with favour,
+should so repay him.  The Comte de Roye was unable to stand up against
+the storm, and withdrew to England, where he died a few years after.
+
+The King at this time drove away the company of Italian actors, and would
+not permit another in its place.  So long as the Italians had simply
+allowed their stage to overflow with filth or impiety they only caused
+laughter; but they set about playing a piece called "The False Prude," in
+which Madame de Maintenon was easily recognised.  Everybody ran to see
+the piece; but after three or four representations, given consecutively
+on account of the gain it brought, the Italians received orders to close
+their theatre and to quit the realm in a month.  This affair made a great
+noise; and if the comedians lost an establishment by their boldness and
+folly, they who drove them away gained nothing--such was the licence with
+which this ridiculous event was spoken of!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+The disposition of the armies was the same this year as last, except that
+the Princes did not serve.  Towards the end of May I joined the army of
+the Rhine, under the Marechal de Choiseul, as before.  We made some
+skilful manoeuvres, but did little in the way of fighting.  For sixteen
+days we encamped at Nieder-buhl, where we obtained a good supply of
+forage.  At the end of that time the Marechal de Choiseul determined to
+change his position.  Our army was so placed, that the enemy could see
+almost all of it quite distinctly; yet, nevertheless, we succeeded in
+decamping so quickly, that we disappeared from under their very eyes in
+open daylight, and in a moment as it were.  Such of the Imperial Generals
+as were out riding ran from all parts to the banks of the Murg, to see
+our retreat, but it was so promptly executed that there was no time for
+them, to attempt to hinder us.  When the Prince of Baden was told of our
+departure he could not credit it. He had seen us so lately, quietly
+resting in our position, that it seemed impossible to him we had left it
+in such a short space of time.  When his own eyes assured him of the
+fact, he was filled with such astonishment and admiration, that he asked
+those around him if they had ever seen such a retreat, adding, that he
+could not have believed, until then, that an army so numerous and so
+considerable should have been able to disappear thus in an instant.
+This honourable and bold retreat was attended by a sad accident.  One of
+our officers, named Blansac, while leading a column of infantry through
+the wood, was overtaken by night.  A small party of his men heard some
+cavalry near them.  The cavalry belonged to the enemy, and had lost their
+way.  Instead of replying when challenged, they said to each other in
+German, "Let us run for it."  Nothing more was wanting to draw upon them
+a discharge from the small body of our men, by whom they had been heard.
+To this they replied with their pistols.  Immediately, and without
+orders, the whole column of infantry fired in that direction, and, before
+Blansac could inquire the cause, fired again.  Fortunately he was not
+wounded; but five unhappy captains were killed, and some subalterns
+wounded.
+
+Our campaign was brought to an end by the peace of Ryswick.  The first
+news of that event arrived at Fontainebleau on the 22nd of September.
+Celi, son of Harlay, had been despatched with the intelligence; but he
+did not arrive until five o'clock in the morning of the 26th of
+September.  He had amused himself by the way with a young girl who had
+struck his fancy, and with some wine that he equally relished.  He had
+committed all the absurdities and impertinences which might be expected
+of a debauched, hare-brained young fellow, completely spoiled by his
+father, and he crowned all by this fine delay.
+
+A little time before the signing of peace, the Prince de Conti, having
+been elected King of Poland, set out to take possession of his throne.
+The King, ravished with joy to see himself delivered from a Prince whom
+he disliked, could not hide his satisfaction--his eagerness--to get rid
+of a Prince whose only faults were that he had no bastard blood in his
+veins, and that he was so much liked by all the nation that they wished
+him at the head of the army, and murmured at the little favour he
+received, as compared with that showered down upon the illegitimate
+children.
+
+The King made all haste to treat the Prince to royal honours.  After an
+interview in the cabinet of Madame de Maintenon, he presented him to a
+number of ladies, saying, "I bring you a king."  The Prince was all along
+doubtful of the validity of his election, and begged that the Princess
+might not be treated as a queen, until he should have been crowned.
+He received two millions in cash from the King, and other assistances.
+Samuel Bernard undertook to make the necessary payments in Poland.  The
+Prince started by way of Dunkerque, and went to that place at such speed,
+that an ill-closed chest opened, and two thousand Louis were scattered on
+the road, a portion only of which was brought back to the Hotel Conti.
+The celebrated Jean Bart pledged himself to take him safely, despite the
+enemy's fleet; and kept his word.  The convoy was of five frigates.  The
+Chevalier de Sillery, before starting, married Mademoiselle Bigot, rich
+and witty, with whom he had been living for some time.  Meanwhile the
+best news arrived from our ambassador, the Abbe de Polignac, to the King;
+but all answers were intercepted at Dantzic by the retired Queen of
+Poland, who sent on only the envelopes!  However, the Prince de Conti
+passed up the Sound; and the King and Queen of Denmark watched them from
+the windows of the Chateau de Cronenbourg.  Jean Bart, against custom,
+ordered a salute to be fired.  It was returned; and as some light vessels
+passing near the frigates said that the King and Queen were looking on,
+the Prince ordered another salvo.
+
+There was, however, another claimant to the throne of Poland; I mean the
+Elector of Saxony, who had also been elected, and who had many partisans;
+so many, indeed, that when the Prince de Conti arrived at Dantzic, he
+found himself almost entirely unsupported.  The people even refused
+provision to his frigates.  However, the Prince's partisans at length
+arrived to salute him.  The Bishop of Plosko gave him a grand repast,
+near the Abbey of Oliva.  Marege, a Gascon gentleman of the Prince's
+suite, was present, but had been ill.  There was drinking in the Polish
+fashion, and he tried to be let off.  The Prince pleaded for him; but
+these Poles, who, in order to make themselves understood, spoke Latin--
+and very bad Latin indeed--would not accept such an excuse, and forcing
+him to drink, howled furiously 'Bibat et Moriatur!  Marege, who was very
+jocular and yet very choleric; used to tell this story in the same
+spirit, and made everyone who heard it laugh.
+
+However, the party of the Prince de Conti made no way, and at length he
+was fain to make his way back to France with all speed.  The King
+received him very graciously, although at heart exceeding sorry to see
+him again.  A short time after, the Elector of Saxony mounted the throne
+of Poland without opposition, and was publicly recognised by the King,
+towards the commencement of August.
+
+By the above-mentioned peace of Ryswick, the King acknowledged the Prince
+of Orange as King of England.  It was, however, a bitter draught for him
+to swallow, and for these reasons: Some years before, the King had
+offered his illegitimate daughter, the Princesse de Conti, in marriage to
+the Prince of Orange, believing he did that Prince great honour by the
+proposal.  The Prince did not think in the same manner, and flatly
+refused; saying, that the House of Orange was accustomed to marry the
+legitimate daughters of great kings, and not their bastards.  These words
+sank so deeply into the heart of the King, that he never forgot them; and
+often, against even his most palpable interest, showed how firmly the
+indignation he felt at them had taken possession of his mind: Since then,
+the Prince of Orange had done all in his power to efface the effect his
+words had made, but every attempt was rejected with disdain.  The King's
+ministers in Holland had orders to do all they could to thwart the
+projects of the Prince of Orange, to excite people against him, to
+protect openly those opposed to him, and to be in no way niggard of money
+in order to secure the election of magistrates unfavourable to him.  The
+Prince never ceased, until the breaking-out of this war, to use every
+effort to appease the anger of the King.  At last, growing tired, and
+hoping soon to make his invasion into England, he said publicly, that he
+had uselessly laboured all his life to gain the favours of the King, but
+that he hoped to be more fortunate in meriting his esteem.  It may be
+imagined, therefore, what a triumph it was for him when he forced the
+King to recognise him as monarch of England, and what that recognition
+cost the King.
+
+M. le Duc presided this year over the Assembly of the States of Burgundy,
+in place of his father M. le Prince, who did not wish to go there.  The
+Duke gave on that occasion a striking example of the friendship of
+princes, and a fine lesson to those who seek it.  Santeuil, Canon of
+Saint Victor, and the greatest Latin poet who has appeared for many
+centuries, accompanied him.  Santeuil was an excellent fellow, full of
+wit and of life, and of pleasantries, which rendered him an admirable
+boon-companion.  Fond of wine and of good cheer, he was not debauched;
+and with a disposition and talents so little fitted for the cloister,
+was nevertheless, at bottom, as good a churchman as with such a character
+he could be.  He was a great favourite with all the house of Conde, and
+was invited to their parties, where his witticisms, his verses, and his
+pleasantries had afforded infinite amusement for many years.
+
+M. le Duc wished to take him to Dijon.  Santeuil tried to excuse himself,
+but without effect; he was obliged to go, and was established at the
+house of the Duke while the States were held.  Every evening there was a
+supper, and Santeuil was always the life of the company.  One evening M.
+le Duc diverted himself by forcing Santeuil to drink champagne, and
+passing from pleasantry to pleasantry, thought it would be a good joke to
+empty his snuff-box, full of Spanish snuff, into a large glass of wine,
+and to make Santeuil drink it, in order to see what would happen.  It was
+not long before he was enlightened upon this point.  Santeuil was seized
+with vomiting and with fever, and in twice twenty-four hours the unhappy
+man died-suffering the tortures of the damned, but with sentiments of
+extreme penitence, in which he received the sacrament, and edified a
+company little disposed towards edification, but who detested such a
+cruel joke.
+
+In consequence of the peace just concluded at Ryswick, many fresh
+arrangements were made about this time in our embassies abroad.  This
+allusion to our foreign appointments brings to my mind an anecdote which
+deserves to be remembered.  When M. de Vendome took Barcelona, the
+Montjoui (which is as it were its citadel) was commanded by the Prince of
+Darmstadt.  He was of the house of Hesse, and had gone into Spain to seek
+employment; he was a relative of the Queen of Spain, and, being a very
+well-made man, had not, it was said, displeased her.  It was said also,
+and by people whose word was not without weight, that the same council of
+Vienna, which for reasons of state had made no scruple of poisoning the
+late Queen of Spain (daughter of Monsieur), because she had no children,
+and because she had, also, too much ascendancy over the heart of her
+husband; it was said, I say, that this same council had no scruples upon
+another point.  After poisoning the first Queen, it had remarried the
+King of Spain to a sister of the Empress.  She was tall, majestic, not
+without beauty and capacity, and, guided by the ministers of the Emperor,
+soon acquired much influence over the King her husband.  So far all was
+well, but the most important thing was wanting--she had no children.  The
+council had hoped some from this second marriage, because it had lured
+itself into the belief that previously the fault rested with the late
+Queen.  After some years, this same council, being no longer able to
+disguise the fact that the King could have no children, sent the Prince
+of Darmstadt into Spain, for the purpose of establishing himself there,
+and of ingratiating himself into the favour of the Queen to such an
+extent that this defect might be remedied.  The Prince of Darmstadt was
+well received; he obtained command in the army; defended, as I have said,
+Barcelona; and obtained a good footing at the Court.  But the object for
+which he had been more especially sent he could not accomplish.  I will
+not say whether the Queen was inaccessible from her own fault or that of
+others.  Nor will I say, although I have been assured, but I believe by
+persons without good knowledge of the subject, that naturally it was
+impossible for her to become a mother.  I will simply say that the Prince
+of Darmstadt was on the best terms with the King and the Queen, and had
+opportunities very rare in that country, without any fruit which could
+put the succession of the monarchy in safety against the different
+pretensions afloat, or reassure on that head the politic council of
+Vienna.
+
+But to return to France.
+
+Madame de Maintenon, despite the height to which her insignificance had
+risen, had yet her troubles.  Her brother, who was called the Comte
+d'Aubigne, was of but little worth, yet always spoke as though no man
+were his equal, complained that he had not been made Marechal of France
+--sometimes said that he had taken his baton in money, and constantly
+bullied Madame de Maintenon because she did not make him a duke and a
+peer.  He spent his time running after girls in the Tuileries, always had
+several on his hands, and lived and spent his money with their families
+and friends of the same kidney.  He was just fit for a strait-waistcoat,
+but comical, full of wit and unexpected repartees.  A good, humorous
+fellow, and honest-polite, and not too impertinent on account of his
+sister's fortune.  Yet it was a pleasure to hear him talk of the time of
+Scarron and the Hotel d'Albret, and of the gallantries and adventures of
+his sister, which he contrasted with her present position and devotion.
+He would talk in this manner, not before one or two, but in a
+compromising manner, quite openly in the Tuileries gardens, or in the
+galleries of Versailles, before everybody, and would often drolly speak
+of the King as "the brother-in-law."  I have frequently heard him talk in
+this manner; above all, when he came (more often than was desired) to
+dine with my father and mother, who were much embarrassed with him; at
+which I used to laugh in my sleeve.
+
+A brother like this was a great annoyance to Madame de Maintenon.  His
+wife, an obscure creature, more obscure, if possible, than her birth;
+--foolish to the last degree, and of humble mien, was almost equally so.
+Madame de Maintenon determined to rid herself of both.  She persuaded her
+brother to enter a society that had been established by a M. Doyen, at
+St. Sulpice, for decayed gentlemen.  His wife at the same time was
+induced to retire into another community, where, however, she did not
+fail to say to her companions that her fate was very hard, and that she
+wished to be free.  As for d'Aubigne he concealed from nobody that his
+sister was putting a joke on him by trying to persuade him that he was
+devout, declared that he was pestered by priests, and that he should give
+up the ghost in M. Doyen's house.  He could not stand it long, and went
+back to his girls and to the Tuileries, and wherever he could; but they
+caught him again, and placed him under the guardianship of one of the
+stupidest priests of St. Sulpice, who followed him everywhere like his
+shadow, and made him miserable.  The fellow's name was Madot: he was good
+for no other employment, but gained his pay in this one by an assiduity
+of which perhaps no one else would have been capable.  The only child of
+this Comte d'Aubigne was a daughter, taken care of by Madame de
+Maintenon, and educated under her eyes as though her own child.
+
+Towards the end of the year, and not long after my return from the army,
+the King fixed the day for the marriage of the Duc de Bourgogne to the
+young Princesse de Savoy.  He announced that on that occasion he should
+be glad to see a magnificent Court; and he himself, who for a long time
+had worn only the most simple habits, ordered the most superb.  This was
+enough; no one thought of consulting his purse or his state; everyone
+tried to surpass his neighbour in richness and invention.  Gold and
+silver scarcely sufficed: the shops of the dealers were emptied in a few
+days; in a word luxury the most unbridled reigned over Court and city,
+for the fete had a huge crowd of spectators.  Things went to such a
+point, that the King almost repented of what he had said, and remarked,
+that he could not understand how husbands could be such fools as to ruin
+themselves by dresses for their wives; he might have added, by dresses
+for themselves.  But the impulse had been given; there was now no time to
+remedy it, and I believe the King at heart was glad; for it pleased him
+during the fetes to look at all the dresses.  He loved passionately all
+kinds of sumptuosity at his Court; and he who should have held only to
+what had been said, as to the folly of expense, would have grown little
+in favour.  There was no means, therefore, of being wise among so many
+fools.  Several dresses were necessary.  Those for Madame Saint-Simon and
+myself cost us twenty thousand francs.  Workmen were wanting to make up
+so many rich habits.  Madame la Duchesse actually sent her people to take
+some by force who were working at the Duc de Rohan's!  The King heard of
+it, did not like it, and had the workmen sent back immediately to the
+Hotel de Rohan, although the Duc de Rohan was one of the men he liked the
+least in all France.  The King did another thing, which showed that he
+desired everybody to be magnificent: he himself chose the design for the
+embroidery of the Princess.  The embroiderer said he would leave all his
+other designs for that.  The King would not permit this, but caused him
+to finish the work he had in hand, and to set himself afterwards at the
+other; adding, that if it was not ready in time, the Princess could do
+without it.
+
+The marriage was fixed for Saturday, the 7th of December; and, to avoid
+disputes and difficulties, the King suppressed all ceremonies.  The day
+arrived.  At an early hour all the Court went to Monseigneur the Duc de
+Bourgogne, who went afterwards to the Princess.  A little before mid-day
+the procession started from the salon, and proceeded to the chapel.
+
+Cardinal de Coislin performed the marriage service.
+
+As soon as the ceremony was finished, a courier, ready at the door of the
+chapel, started for Turin.  The day passed wearily.  The King and Queen
+of England came about seven o'clock in the evening, and some time
+afterwards supper was served.  Upon rising from the table, the Princess
+was shown to her bed, none but ladies being allowed to remain in the
+chamber.  Her chemise was given her by the Queen of England through the
+Duchesse de Lude.  The Duc de Bourgogne undressed in another room, in the
+midst of all the Court, and seated upon a folding-chair.  The King of
+England gave him his shirt, which was presented by the Duc de
+Beauvilliers.  As soon as the Duchesse de Bourgogne was in bed, the Duc
+de Bourgogne entered, and placed himself at her side, in the presence of
+all the Court.  Immediately afterwards everybody went away from the
+nuptial chamber, except Monseigneur, the ladies of the Princess, and the
+Duc de Beauvilliers, who remained at the pillow by the side of his pupil,
+with the Duchesse de Lude on the other side.  Monseigneur stopped a
+quarter of an hour talking with the newly-married couple, then he made
+his son get up, after having told him to kiss the Princess, in spite of
+the opposition of the Duchesse de Lude.  As it proved, too, her
+opposition was not wrong.  The King said he did not wish that his
+grandson should kiss the end of the Princess's finger until they were
+completely on the footing of man and wife.  Monsieur le Duc de Bourgogne
+after this re-dressed himself in the ante-chamber, and went to his own
+bed as usual.  The little Duc de Berry, spirited and resolute, did not
+approve of the docility of his brother, and declared that he would have
+remained in bed.  The young couple were not, indeed, allowed to live
+together as man and wife until nearly two years afterwards.  The first
+night that this privilege was granted them, the King repaired to their
+chamber hoping to surprise them as they went to bed; but he found the
+doors closed, and would not allow them to be opened.  The marriage-fetes
+spread over several days.  On the Sunday there was an assembly in the
+apartments of the new Duchesse de Bourgogne.  It was magnificent by the
+prodigious number of ladies seated in a circle, or standing behind the
+stools, gentlemen in turn behind them, and the dresses of all beautiful.
+It commenced at six o'clock.  The King came at the end, and led all the
+ladies into the saloon near the chapel, where was a fine collation, and
+the music.  At nine o'clock he conducted Monsieur and Madame la Duchesse
+de Bourgogne to the apartment of the latter, and all was finished for the
+day.  The Princess continued to live just as before, and the ladies had
+strict orders never to leave her alone with her husband.
+
+On the Wednesday there was a grand ball in the gallery, superbly
+ornamented for the occasion.  There was such a crowd, and such disorder,
+that even the King was inconvenienced, and Monsieur was pushed and
+knocked about in the crush.  How other people fared may be imagined.  No
+place was kept--strength or chance decided everything--people squeezed in
+where they could.  This spoiled all the fete.  About nine o'clock
+refreshments were handed round, and at half-past ten supper was served.
+Only the Princesses of the blood and the royal family were admitted to
+it.  On the following Sunday there was another ball, but this time
+matters were so arranged that no crowding or inconvenience occurred.  The
+ball commenced at seven o'clock and was admirable; everybody appeared in
+dresses that had not previously been seen.  The King found that of Madame
+de Saint-Simon much to his taste, and gave it the palm over all the
+others.
+
+Madame de Maintenon did not appear at these balls, at least only for half
+an hour at each.  On the following Tuesday all the Court went at four
+o'clock in the afternoon to Trianon, where all gambled until the arrival
+of the King and Queen of England.  The King took them into the theatre,
+where Destouches's opera of Isse was very well performed.  The opera
+being finished, everybody went his way, and thus these marriage-fetes
+were brought to an end.
+
+Tesse had married his eldest daughter to La Varenne last year, and now
+married his second daughter to Maulevrier, son of a brother of Colbert.
+This mention of La Varenne brings to my recollection a very pleasant
+anecdote of his ancestor, the La Varenne so known in all the memoirs of
+the time as having risen from the position of scullion to that of cook,
+and then to that of cloak-bearer to Henry IV., whom he served in his
+pleasures, and afterwards in his state-affairs.  At the death of the
+King, La Varenne retired, very old and very rich, into the country.
+Birds were much in vogue at that time, and he often amused himself with
+falconry.  One day a magpie perched on one of his trees, and neither
+sticks nor stones could dislodge it.  La Varenne and a number of
+sportsmen gathered around the tree and tried to drive away the magpie.
+Importuned with all this noise, the bird at last began to cry repeatedly
+with all its might, "Pandar!  Pandar!"
+
+Now La Varenne had gained all he possessed by that trade.  Hearing the
+magpie repeat again and again the same word, he took it into his head
+that by a miracle, like the observation Balaam's ass made to his master,
+the bird was reproaching him for his sins.  He was so troubled that he
+could not help showing it; then, more and more agitated, he told the
+cause of his disturbance to the company, who laughed at him in the first
+place, but, upon finding that he was growing really ill, they endeavoured
+to convince him that the magpie belonged to a neighbouring village, where
+it had learned the word.  It was all in vain: La Varenne was so ill that
+he was obliged to be carried home; fever seized him and in four days he
+died.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+Here perhaps is the place to speak of Charles IV., Duc de Lorraine, so
+well known by his genius, and the extremities to which he was urged.  He
+was married in 1621 to the Duchesse Nicole, his cousin-german, but after
+a time ceased to live with her.  Being at Brussels he fell in love with
+Madame de Cantecroix, a widow.  He bribed a courier to bring him news of
+the death of the Duchesse Nicole; he circulated the report throughout the
+town, wore mourning, and fourteen days afterwards, in April, 1637,
+married Madame de Cantecroix.  In a short time it was discovered that the
+Duchesse Nicole was full of life and health, and had not even been ill.
+Madame de Cantecroix made believe that she had been duped, but still
+lived with the Duke.  They continued to repute the Duchesse Nicole as
+dead, and lived together in the face of the world as though effectually
+married, although there had never been any question either before or
+since of dissolving the first marriage.  The Duc Charles had by this fine
+marriage a daughter and then a son, both perfectly illegitimate, and
+universally regarded as such.  Of these the daughter married Comte de
+Lislebonne, by whom she had four children.  The son, educated under his
+father's eye as legitimate, was called Prince de Vaudemont, and by that
+name has ever since been known.  He entered the service of Spain,
+distinguished himself in the army, obtained the support of the Prince of
+Orange, and ultimately rose to the very highest influence and prosperity.
+People were astonished this year, that while the Princess of Savoy was at
+Fontainebleau, just before her marriage, she was taken several times by
+Madame de Maintenon to a little unknown convent at Moret, where there was
+nothing to amuse her, and no nuns who were known.  Madame de Maintenon
+often went there, and Monseigneur with his children sometimes; the late
+Queen used to go also.  This awakened much curiosity and gave rise to
+many reports.  It seems that in this convent there was a woman of colour,
+a Moorish woman, who had been placed there very young by Bontems, valet
+of the King.  She received the utmost care and attention, but never was
+shown to anybody.  When the late Queen or Madame de Maintenon went, they
+did not always see her, but always watched over her welfare.  She was
+treated with more consideration than people the most distinguished; and
+herself made much of the care that was taken of her, and the mystery by
+which she was surrounded.  Although she lived regularly, it was easy to
+see she was not too contented with her position.  Hearing Monseigneur
+hunt in the forest one day, she forgot herself so far as to exclaim,
+"My brother is hunting!"  It was pretended that she was a daughter of the
+King and Queen, but that she had been hidden away on account of her
+colour; and the report was spread that the Queen had had a miscarriage.
+Many people believed this story; but whether it was true or not has
+remained an enigma.
+
+The year 1698 commenced by a reconciliation between the Jesuits and the
+Archbishop of Rheims.  That prelate upon the occasion of an ordinance had
+expressed himself upon matters of doctrine and morality in a manner that
+displeased the Jesuits.  They acted towards him in their usual manner, by
+writing an attack upon him, which appeared without any author's name.
+But the Archbishop complained to the King, and altogether stood his
+ground so firmly, that in the end the Jesuits were glad to give way,
+disavow the book, and arrange the reconciliation which took place.
+
+The Czar, Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia, had at this time already
+commenced his voyages; he was in Holland, learning ship-building.
+Although incognito, he wished to be recognised, but after his own
+fashion; and was annoyed that, being so near to England, no embassy was
+sent to him from that country, which he wished to ally himself with for
+commercial reasons.
+
+At last an embassy arrived; he delayed for some time to give it an
+audience, but in the end fixed the day and hour at which he would see it.
+The reception, however, was to take place on board a large Dutch vessel
+that he was going to examine.  There were two ambassadors; they thought
+the meeting-place rather an odd one, but were obliged to go there.  When
+they arrived on board the Czar sent word that he was in the "top," and
+that it was there he would see them.  The ambassadors, whose feet were
+unaccustomed to rope-ladders, tried to excuse themselves from mounting;
+but it was all in vain.  The Czar would receive them in the "top" or not
+at all.  At last they were compelled to ascend, and the meeting took
+place on that narrow place high up in the air.  The Czar received them
+there with as much majesty as though he had been upon his throne,
+listened to their harangue, replied very graciously, and then laughed at
+the fear painted upon their faces, and good-humouredly gave them to
+understand that he had punished them thus for arriving so late.
+
+After this the Czar passed into England, curious to see and learn as much
+as possible; and, having well fulfilled his views, repaired into Holland.
+He wished to visit France, but the King civilly declined to receive him.
+He went, therefore, much mortified, to Vienna instead.  Three weeks after
+his arrival he was informed of a conspiracy that had been formed against
+him in Moscow.  He hastened there at once, and found that it was headed
+by his own sister; he put her in prison, and hanged her most guilty
+accomplices to the bars of his windows, as many each day as the bars
+would hold.  I have related at once all that regards the Czar for this
+year, in order not to leap without ceasing from one matter to another; I
+shall do this, and for the same reason, with that which follows.
+
+The King of England was, as I have before said, at the height of
+satisfaction at having been recognised by the King (Louis XIV.), and at
+finding himself secure upon the throne.  But a usurper is never tranquil
+and content.  William was annoyed by the residence of the legitimate King
+and his family at Saint Germains.  It was too close to the King (of
+France), and too near England to leave him without disquietude.  He had
+tried hard at Ryswick to obtain the dismissal of James II.  from the
+realm, or at least from the Court of France, but without effect.
+Afterwards he sent the Duke of St. Albans to our King openly, in order to
+compliment him upon the marriage of the Duc de Bourgogne, but in reality
+to obtain the dismissal.
+
+The Duke of St. Albans meeting with no success, the Duke of Portland was
+sent to succeed him.  The Duke of Portland came over with a numerous and
+superb suite; he kept up a magnificent table, and had horses, liveries,
+furniture, and dresses of the most tasteful and costly kind.  He was on
+his way when a fire destroyed Whitehall, the largest and ugliest palace
+in Europe, and which has not since been rebuilt; so that the kings are
+lodged, and very badly, at St. James's Palace.
+
+Portland had his first audience of the King on the 4th of February, and
+remained four months in France.  His politeness, his courtly and gallant
+manners, and the good cheer he gave, charmed everybody, and made him
+universally popular.  It became the fashion to give fetes in his honour;
+and the astonishing fact is, that the King, who at heart was more
+offended than ever with William of Orange, treated this ambassador with
+the most marked distinction.  One evening he even gave Portland his
+bedroom candlestick, a favour only accorded to the most considerable
+persons, and always regarded as a special mark of the King's bounty.
+
+Notwithstanding all these attentions, Portland was as unsuccessful as his
+predecessor.  The King had firmly resolved to continue his protection to
+James II., and nothing could shake this determination.  Portland was
+warned from the first, that if he attempted to speak to the King upon the
+point, his labour would be thrown away; he wisely therefore kept silence,
+and went home again without in any way having fulfilled the mission upon
+which he had been sent.
+
+We had another distinguished foreigner arrive in France about this time,
+--I mean, the Prince of Parma, respecting whom I remember a pleasing
+adventure.  At Fontainebleau more great dancing-parties are given than
+elsewhere, and Cardinal d'Estrees wished to give one there in honour of
+this Prince.  I and many others were invited to the banquet; but the
+Prince himself, for whom the invitation was specially provided, was
+forgotten.  The Cardinal had given invitations right and left, but by
+some omission the Prince had not had one sent to him.  On the morning of
+the dinner this discovery was made.  The Prince was at once sent to, but
+he was engaged, and for several days.  The dinner therefore took place
+without him; the Cardinal was much laughed at for his absence of mind.
+He was often similarly forgetful.
+
+The Bishop of Poitiers died at the commencement of this year, and his
+bishopric was given at Easter to the Abbe de Caudelet.  The Abbe was a
+very good man, but made himself an enemy, who circulated the blackest
+calumnies against him.  Amongst other impostures it was said that the
+Abbe had gambled all Good Friday; the truth being, that in the evening,
+after all the services were over, he went to see the Marechale de Crequi,
+who prevailed upon him to amuse her for an hour by playing at piquet.
+But the calumny had such effect, that the bishopric of Poitiers was taken
+from him, and he retired into Brittany, where he passed the rest of his
+life in solitude and piety.  His brother in the meantime fully proved to
+Pere de la Chaise the falsehood of this accusation; and he, who was
+upright and good, did all he could to bestow some other living upon the
+Abbe, in recompense for that he had been stripped of.  But the King would
+not consent, although often importuned, and even reproached for his
+cruelty.
+
+It was known, too, who was the author of the calumny.  It was the Abbe de
+la Chatre, who for a long time had been chaplain to the King, and who was
+enraged against everyone who was made bishop before him.  He was a man
+not wanting in intelligence, but bitter, disagreeable, punctilious; very
+ignorant, because he would never study, and so destitute of morality,
+that I saw him say mass in the chapel on Ash Wednesday, after having
+passed a night, masked at a ball, where he said and did the most filthy
+things, as seen and heard by M. de La Vrilliere, before whom he unmasked,
+and who related this to me: half an hour after, I met the Abbe de la
+Chatre, dressed and going to the altar.  Other adventures had already
+deprived him of all chance of being made bishop by the King.
+
+The old Villars died at this time.  I have already mentioned him as
+having been made chevalier d'honneur to the Duchesse de Chartres at her
+marriage.  I mention him now, because I omitted to say before the origin
+of his name of Orondat, by which he was generally known, and which did
+not displease him.  This is the circumstance that gave rise to it.
+Madame de Choisy, a lady of the fashionable world, went one day to see
+the Comtesse de Fiesque, and found there a large company.  The Countess
+had a young girl living with her, whose name was Mademoiselle
+d'Outrelaise, but who was called the Divine.  Madame de Choisy, wishing
+to go into the bedroom, said she would go there, and see the Divine.
+Mounting rapidly, she found in the chamber a young and very pretty girl,
+Mademoiselle Bellefonds, and a man, who escaped immediately upon seeing
+her.  The face of this man being perfectly well made, so struck her,
+that, upon coming down again, she said it could only be that of Orondat.
+Now that romances are happily no longer read, it is necessary to say that
+Orondat is a character in Cyrus, celebrated by his figure and his good
+looks, and who charmed all the heroines of that romance, which was then
+much in vogue.  The greater part of the company knew that Villars was
+upstairs to see Mademoiselle de Bellefonds, with whom he was much in
+love, and whom he soon afterwards married.  Everybody therefore smiled at
+this adventure of Orondat, and the name clung ever afterwards to Villars.
+
+The Prince de Conti lost, before this time, his son, Prince la Roche-sur-
+Yon, who was only four years old.  The King wore mourning for him,
+although it was the custom not to do so for children under seven years of
+age.  But the King had already departed from this custom for one of the
+children of M. du Maine, and he dared not afterwards act differently
+towards the children of a prince of the blood.  Just at the end of
+September, M. du Maine lost another child, his only son.  The King wept
+very much, and, although the child was considerably under seven years of
+age, wore mourning for it.  The marriage of Mademoiselle to M. de
+Lorraine was then just upon the point of taking place; and Monsieur
+(father of Mademoiselle) begged that this mourning might be laid aside
+when the marriage was celebrated.  The King agreed, but Madame la
+Duchesse and the Princesse de Conti believed it apparently beneath them
+to render this respect to Monsieur, and refused to comply.  The King
+commanded them to do so, but they pushed the matter so far as to say that
+they had no other clothes.  Upon this, the King ordered them to send and
+get some directly.  They were obliged to obey, and admit themselves
+vanquished; but they did so not without great vexation.  M. de Cambrai's
+affairs still continued to make a great stir among the prelates and at
+the Court.  Madame Guyon was transferred from the Vincennes to the
+Bastille, and it was believed she would remain there all her life.  The
+Ducs de Chevreuse and Beauvilliers lost all favour with M. de Maintenon,
+and narrowly escaped losing the favour of the King.  An attempt was in
+fact made, which Madame de Maintenon strongly supported, to get them
+disgraced; and, but for the Archbishop of Paris, this would have taken
+place.  But this prelate, thoroughly upright and conscientious,
+counselled the King against such a step, to the great vexation of his
+relations, who were the chief plotters in the conspiracy to overthrow the
+two Dukes.  As for M. de Cambrai's book 'Les Maxinies des Saints', it was
+as little liked as ever, and underwent rather a strong criticism at this
+time from M. de La Trappe, which did not do much to improve its
+reputation.  At the commencement of the dispute M. de Meaux had sent a
+copy of 'Les Maximes des Saints' to M. de La Trappe, asking as a friend
+for his opinion of the work.  M. de La Trappe read it, and was much
+scandalized.  The more he studied it, the more this sentiment penetrated
+him.  At last, after having well examined the book, he sent his opinion
+to M. de Meaux, believing it would be considered as private, and not be
+shown to anybody.  He did not measure his words, therefore, but wrote
+openly, that if M. de Cambrai was right he might burn the Evangelists,
+and complain of Jesus Christ, who could have come into the world only to
+deceive us.  The frightful force of this phrase was so terrifying, that
+M. de Meaux thought it worthy of being shown to Madame de Maintenon; and
+she, seeking only to crush M. de Cambrai with all the authorities
+possible, would insist upon this opinion of M. de La Trappe being
+printed.
+
+It may be imagined what triumphing there was on the one side, and what
+piercing cries on the other.  The friends of M. de Cambrai complained
+most bitterly that M. de La Trappe had mixed himself up in the matter,
+and had passed such a violent and cruel sentence upon a book then under
+the consideration of the Pope.  M. de La Trappe on his side was much
+afflicted that his letter had been published.  He wrote to M. de Meaux
+protesting against this breach of confidence; and said that, although he
+had only expressed what he really thought, he should have been careful to
+use more measured language, had he supposed his letter would have seen
+the light.  He said all he could to heal the wounds his words had caused,
+but M. de Cambrai and his friends never forgave him for having written
+them.
+
+This circumstance caused much discussion, and M. de La Trappe, to whom I
+was passionately attached, was frequently spoken of in a manner that
+caused me much annoyance.  Riding out one day in a coach with some of my
+friends, the conversation took this turn.  I listened in silence for some
+time, and then, feeling no longer able to support the discourse, desired
+to be set down, so that my friends might talk at their ease, without pain
+to me.  They tried to retain me, but I insisted and carried my point.
+Another time, Charost, one of my friends, spoke so disdainfully of M. de
+La Trappe, and I replied to him with such warmth, that on the instant he
+was seized with a fit, tottered, stammered, his throat swelled, his eyes
+seemed starting from his head, and his tongue from his mouth.  Madame de
+Saint-Simon and the other ladies who were present flew to his assistance;
+one unfastened his cravat and his shirt-collar, another threw a jug of
+water over him and made him drink something; but as for me, I was struck
+motionless at the sudden change brought about by an excess of anger and
+infatuation.  Charost was soon restored, and when he left I was taken to
+task by the ladies.  In reply I simply smiled.  I gained this by the
+occurrence, that Charost never committed himself again upon the subject
+of M. de La Trappe.
+
+Before quitting this theme, I will relate an anecdote which has found
+belief.  It has been said, that when M. de La Trappe was the Abbe de
+Rance he was much in love with the beautiful Madame de Montbazon, and
+that he was well treated by her.  On one occasion after leaving her, in
+perfect health, in order to go into the country, he learnt that she had
+fallen ill.  He hastened back, entered hurriedly into her chamber, and
+the first sight he saw there was her head, that the surgeons, in opening
+her, had separated from her body.  It was the first intimation he had had
+that she was dead, and the surprise and horror of the sight so converted
+him that immediately afterwards he retired from the world.  There is
+nothing true in all this except the foundation upon which the fiction
+arose.  I have frankly asked M. de La Trappe upon this matter, and from
+him I have learned that he was one of the friends of Madame de Montbazon,
+but that so far from being ignorant of the time of her death, he was by
+her side at the time, administered the sacrament to her, and had never
+quitted her during the few days she was ill.  The truth is, her sudden
+death so touched him, that it made him carry out his intention of
+retiring from the world--an intention, however, he had formed for many
+years.
+
+The affair of M. de Cambrai was not finally settled until the
+commencement of the following year, 1699, but went on making more noise
+day by day.  At the date I have named the verdict from Rome arrived
+Twenty-three propositions of the 'Maximes des Saints' were declared rash,
+dangerous, erroneous--'in globo'--and the Pope excommunicated those who
+read the book or kept it in their houses.  The King was much pleased with
+this condemnation, and openly expressed his satisfaction.  Madame de
+Maintenon appeared at the summit of joy.  As for M. de Cambrai, he learnt
+his fate in a moment which would have overwhelmed a man with less
+resources in himself.  He was on the point of mounting into the pulpit:
+he was by no means troubled; put aside the sermon he had prepared, and,
+without delaying a moment, took for subject the submission due to the
+Church; he treated this theme in a powerful and touching manner;
+announced the condemnation of his book; retracted the opinions he had
+professed; and concluded his sermon by a perfect acquiescence and
+submission to the judgment the Pope had just pronounced.  Two days
+afterwards he published his retraction, condemned his book, prohibited
+the reading of it, acquiesced and submitted himself anew to his
+condemnation, and in the clearest terms took away from himself all means
+of returning to his opinions.  A submission so prompt, so clear, so
+perfect, was generally admired, although there were not wanting censors
+who wished he had shown less readiness in giving way.  His friends
+believed the submission would be so flattering to the Pope, that M. de
+Cambrai might rely upon advancement to a cardinalship, and steps were
+taken, but without any good result, to bring about that event.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+About this time the King caused Charnace to be arrested in a province to
+which he had been banished.  He was accused of many wicked things, and;
+amongst others, of coining.  Charnace was a lad of spirit, who had been
+page to the King and officer in the body-guard.  Having retired to his
+own house, he often played off many a prank.  One of these I will
+mention, as being full of wit and very laughable.
+
+He had a very long and perfectly beautiful avenue before his house in
+Anjou, but in the midst of it were the cottage and garden of a peasant;
+and neither Charnace, nor his father before him, could prevail upon him
+to remove, although they offered him large sums.  Charnace at last
+determined to gain his point by stratagem.  The peasant was a tailor,
+and lived all alone, without wife or child.  One day Charnace sent for
+him, said he wanted a Court suit in all haste, and, agreeing to lodge and
+feed him, stipulated that he should not leave the house until it was
+done.  The tailor agreed, and set himself to the work.  While he was thus
+occupied, Charnace had the dimensions of his house and garden taken with
+the utmost exactitude; made a plan of the interior, showing the precise
+position of the furniture and the utensils; and, when all was done,
+pulled down the house and removed it a short distance off.
+
+Then it was arranged as before with a similar looking garden, and at the
+same time the spot on which it had previously stood was smoothed and
+levelled.  All this was done before the suit was finished.  The work
+being at length over on both sides, Charnace amused the tailor until it
+was quite dark, paid him, and dismissed him content.  The man went on his
+way down the avenue; but, finding the distance longer than usual, looked
+about, and perceived he had gone too far.  Returning, he searched
+diligently for his house, but without being able to find it.  The night
+passed in this exercise.  When the day came, he rubbed his eyes, thinking
+they might have been in fault; but as he found them as clear as usual,
+began to believe that the devil had carried away his house, garden and
+all.  By dint of wandering to and fro, and casting his eyes in every
+direction, he saw at last a house which was as like to his as are two
+drops of water to each other.  Curiosity tempted him to go and examine
+it.  He did so, and became convinced it was his own.  He entered, found
+everything inside as he had left it, and then became quite persuaded he
+had been tricked by a sorcerer.  The day was not, however, very far
+advanced before he learned the truth through the banter of his
+neighbours.  In fury he talked of going to law, or demanding justice, but
+was laughed at everywhere.  The King when he heard of it laughed also;
+and Charnace had his avenue free.  If he had never done anything worse
+than this, he would have preserved his reputation and his liberty.
+
+A strange scene happened at Meudon after supper one evening, towards the
+end of July.  The Prince de Conti and the Grand Prieur were playing, and
+a dispute arose respecting the game.  The Grand Prieur, inflated by pride
+on account of the favours the King had showered upon him, and rendered
+audacious by being placed almost on a level with the Princes of the
+blood, used words which would have been too strong even towards an equal.
+The Prince de Conti answered by a repartee, in which the other's honesty
+at play and his courage in war--both, in truth, little to boast about--
+were attacked.  Upon this the Grand Prieur flew into a passion, flung
+away the cards, and demanded satisfaction, sword in hand.  The Prince de
+Conti, with a smile of contempt, reminded him that he was wanting in
+respect, and at the same time said he could have the satisfaction he
+asked for whenever he pleased.  The arrival of Monseigneur, in his
+dressing-gown, put an end to the fray.  He ordered the Marquis de
+Gesvres, who was one of the courtiers present, to report the whole affair
+to the King, and that every one should go to bed.  On the morrow the King
+was informed of what had taken place, and immediately ordered the Grand
+Prieur to go to the Bastille.  He was obliged to obey, and remained in
+confinement several days.  The affair made a great stir at Court.  The
+Princes of the blood took a very high tone, and the illegitimates were
+much embarrassed.  At last, on the 7th of August, the affair was finally
+accommodated through the intercession of Monseigneur.  The Grand Prieur
+demanded pardon of the Prince de Conti in the presence of his brother, M.
+de Vendome, who was obliged to swallow this bitter draught, although
+against his will, in order to appease the Princes of the blood, who were
+extremely excited.
+
+Nearly at the same time, that is to say, on the 29th of May, in the
+morning Madame de Saint-Simon was happily delivered of a child.  God did
+us the grace to give us a son.  He bore, as I had, the name of Vidame of
+Chartres.  I do not know why people have the fancy for these odd names,
+but they seduce in all nations, and they who feel the triviality of them,
+imitate them.  It is true that the titles of Count and Marquis have
+fallen into the dust because of the quantity of people without wealth,
+and even without land, who usurp them; and that they have become so
+worthless, that people of quality who are Marquises or Counts (if they
+will permit me to say it) are silly enough to be annoyed if those titles
+are given to them in conversation.  It is certain, however, that these
+titles emanated from landed creations, and that in their origin they had
+functions attached to them, which, they have since outlived.  The
+vidames, on the contrary, were only principal officers of certain
+bishops, with authority to lead all the rest of their seigneurs' vassals
+to the field, either to fight against other lords, or in the armies that
+our kings used to assemble to combat their enemies before the creation of
+a standing army put an end to the employment of vassals (there being no
+further need for them), and to all the power and authority of the
+seigneurs.  There is thus no comparison between the title of vidame,
+which only marks a vassal, and the titles which by fief emanate from the
+King.  Yet because the few Vidames who have been known were illustrious,
+the name has appeared grand, and for this reason was given to me, and
+afterwards by me to my son:
+
+Some little time before this, the King resolved to show all Europe, which
+believed his resources exhausted by a long war, that in the midst of
+profound peace, he was as fully prepared as ever for arms.  He wished at
+the same time, to present a superb spectacle to Madame de Maintenon,
+under pretext of teaching the young Duc de Bourgogne his first lesson in
+war.  He gave all the necessary orders, therefore, for forming a camp at
+Compiegne, to be commanded by the Marechal de Boufflers under the young
+Duke.  On Thursday, the 28th of August, all the Court set out for the
+camp.  Sixty thousand men were assembled there.  The King, as at the
+marriage of the Duc de Bourgogne, had announced that he counted upon
+seeing the troops look their best.  The consequence of this was to excite
+the army to an emulation that was repented of afterwards.  Not only were
+the troops in such beautiful order that it was impossible to give the
+palm to any one corps, but their commanders added the finery and
+magnificence of the Court to the majestic and warlike beauty of the men,
+of the arms, and of the horses; and the officers exhausted their means in
+uniforms which would have graced a fete.
+
+Colonels, and even simple captains, kept open table; but the Marechal de
+Boufflers outstripped everybody by his expenditure, by his magnificence,
+and his good taste.  Never was seen a spectacle so transcendent--so
+dazzling--and (it must be said) so terrifying.  At all hours, day or
+night, the Marechal's table was open to every comer--whether officer,
+courtier, or spectator.  All were welcomed and invited, with the utmost
+civility and attention, to partake of the good things provided.  There
+was every kind of hot and cold liquors; everything which can be the most
+widely and the most splendidly comprehended under the term refreshment:
+French and foreign wines, and the rarest liqueurs in the utmost
+abundance.  Measures were so well taken that quantities of game and
+venison arrived from all sides; and the seas of Normandy, of Holland, of
+England, of Brittany, even the Mediterranean, furnished all they
+contained--the most unheard-of, extraordinary, and most exquisite--at a
+given day and hour with inimitable order, and by a prodigious number of
+horsemen and little express carriages.  Even the water was fetched from
+Sainte Reine, from the Seine, and from sources the most esteemed; and it
+is impossible to imagine anything of any kind which was not at once ready
+for the obscurest as for the most distinguished visitor, the guest most
+expected, and the guest not expected at all.  Wooden houses and
+magnificent tents stretched all around, in number sufficient to form a
+camp of themselves, and were furnished in the most superb manner, like
+the houses in Paris.  Kitchens and rooms for every purpose were there,
+and the whole was marked by an order and cleanliness that excited
+surprise and admiration.  The King, wishing that the magnificence of this
+camp should be seen by the ambassadors, invited them there, and prepared
+lodgings for them.  But the ambassadors claimed a silly distinction,
+which the King would not grant, and they refused his invitation.  This
+distinction I call silly because it brings no advantage with it of any
+kind.  I am ignorant of its origin, but this is what it consists in.
+When, as upon such an occasion as this, lodgings are allotted to the
+Court, the quartermaster writes in chalk, "for Monsieur Such-a-one," upon
+those intended for Princes of the blood, cardinals, and foreign princes;
+but for none other.  The King would not allow the "for" to be written
+upon the lodgings of the ambassadors; and the ambassadors, therefore,
+kept away.  The King was much piqued at this, and I heard him say at
+supper, that if he treated them as they deserved, he should only allow
+them to come to Court at audience times, as was the custom everywhere
+else.
+
+The King arrived at the camp on Saturday, the 30th of August, and went
+with the Duc and Duchesse de Bourgogne and others to the quarters of
+Marechal de Boufflers, where a magnificent collation was served up to
+them--so magnificent that when the King returned, he said it would be
+useless for the Duc de Bourgogne to attempt anything so splendid; and
+that whenever he went to the camp he ought to dine with Marechal de
+Bouffiers.  In effect, the King himself soon after dined there, and led
+to the Marechal's table the King of England, who was passing three or
+four days in the camp.
+
+On these occasions the King pressed Marechal de Boufflers to be seated.
+He would never comply, but waited upon the King while the Duc de
+Grammont, his brother-in-law, waited upon Monseigneur.
+
+The King amused himself much in pointing out the disposition of the
+troops to the ladies of the Court, and in the evening showed them a grand
+review.
+
+A very pleasant adventure happened at this review to Count Tesse, colonel
+of dragoons.  Two days previously M. de Lauzun, in the course of chit-
+chat, asked him how he intended to dress at the review; and persuaded him
+that, it being the custom, he must appear at the head of his troops in a
+grey hat, or that he would assuredly displease the King.  Tesse, grateful
+for this information, and ashamed of his ignorance, thanked M. de Lauzun,
+and sent off for a hat in all haste to Paris.  The King, as M. de Lauzun
+well knew, had an aversion to grey, and nobody had worn it for several
+years.  When, therefore, on the day of the review he saw Tesse in a hat
+of that colour, with a black feather, and a huge cockade dangling and
+flaunting above, he called to him, and asked him why he wore it.  Tesse
+replied that it was the privilege of the colonel-general to wear that day
+a grey hat.  "A grey hat," replied the King; "where the devil did you
+learn that?"
+
+"From M. de, Lauzun, Sire, for whom you created the charge," said Tesse,
+all embarrassment.  On the instant, the good Lauzun vanished, bursting
+with laughter, and the King assured Tesse that M. de Lauzun had merely
+been joking with him.  I never saw a man so confounded as Tesse at this.
+He remained with downcast eyes, looking at his hat, with a sadness and
+confusion that rendered the scene perfect.  He was obliged to treat the
+matter as a joke, but was for a long time much tormented about it, and
+much ashamed of it.
+
+Nearly every day the Princes dined with Marechal de Boufflers, whose
+splendour and abundance knew no end.  Everybody who visited him, even the
+humblest, was served with liberality and attention.  All the villages and
+farms for four leagues round Compiegne were filled with people, French,
+and foreigners, yet there was no disorder.  The gentlemen and valets at
+the Marechal's quarters were of themselves quite a world, each more
+polite than his neighbour, and all incessantly engaged from five o'clock
+in the morning until ten and eleven o'clock at night, doing the honours
+to various guests.  I return in spite of myself to the Marechal's
+liberality; because, who ever saw it, cannot forget, or ever cease to be
+in a state of astonishment and admiration at its abundance and
+sumptuousness, or at the order, never deranged for a moment at a single
+point, that prevailed.
+
+The King wished to show the Court all the manoeuvres of war; the siege of
+Compiegne was therefore undertaken, according to due form, with lines,
+trenches, batteries, mines, &c.  On Saturday, the 13th of September, the
+assault took place.  To witness it, the King, Madame de Maintenon, all
+the ladies of the Court, and a number of gentlemen, stationed themselves
+upon an old rampart, from which the plain and all the disposition of the
+troops could be seen.  I was in the half circle very close to the King.
+It was the most beautiful sight that can be imagined, to see all that
+army, and the prodigious number of spectators on horse and foot, and that
+game of attack and defence so cleverly conducted.
+
+But a spectacle of another sort, that I could paint forty years hence as
+well as to-day, so strongly did it strike me, was that which from the
+summit of this rampart the King gave to all his army, and to the
+innumerable crowd of spectators of all kinds in the plain below.  Madame
+de Maintenon faced the plain and the troops in her sedan-chair-alone,
+between its three windows drawn up-her porters having retired to a
+distance.  On the left pole in front sat Madame la Duchesse de Bourgogne;
+and on the same side in a semicircle, standing, were Madame la Duchesse,
+Madame la Princesse de Conti, and all the ladies, and behind them again,
+many men.  At the right window was the King, standing, and a little in
+the rear, a semicircle of the most distinguished men of the Court.  The
+King was nearly always uncovered; and every now and then stooped to speak
+to Madame de Maintenon, and explain to her what she saw, and the reason
+of each movement.  Each time that he did so she was obliging enough to
+open the window four or five inches, but never half way; for I noticed
+particularly, and I admit that I was more attentive to this spectacle
+than to that of the troops.  Sometimes she opened of her own accord to
+ask some question of him, but generally it was he who, without waiting
+for her, stooped down to instruct her of what was passing; and sometimes,
+if she did not notice him, he tapped at the glass to make her open it.
+He never spoke, save to her, except when he gave a few brief orders, or
+just answered Madame la Duchesse de Bourgogne, who wanted to make him
+speak, and with whom Madame de Maintenon carried on a conversation by
+signs, without opening the front window, through which the young Princess
+screamed to her from time to time.  I watched the countenance of every
+one carefully; all expressed surprise tempered with prudence and shame,
+that was, as it were, ashamed of itself: every one behind the chair and
+in the semicircle watched this scene more than what was going on in the
+army.  The King often put his hat on the top of the chair in order to get
+his head in to speak; and this continual exercise tired his loins very
+much.  Monseigneur was on horseback in the plain with the young Princes.
+It was about five o'clock in the afternoon, and the weather was as
+brilliant as could be desired.
+
+Opposite the sedan-chair was an opening with some steps cut through the
+wall, and communicating with the plain below.  It had been made for the
+purpose of fetching orders from the King, should they be necessary.  The
+case happened.  Crenan, who commanded, sent Conillac, an officer in one
+of the defending regiments, to ask for some instructions from the King.
+Conillac had been stationed at the foot of the rampart, where what was
+passing above could not be seen.  He mounted the steps; and as soon as
+his head and shoulders were at the top, caught sight of the chair, the
+King, and all the assembled company.  He was not prepared for such a
+scene, and it struck him with such astonishment, that he stopped short,
+with mouth and eyes wide open-surprise painted upon every feature.  I see
+him now as distinctly as I did then.  The King, as well as all the rest
+of the company, remarked the agitation of Conillac, and said to him with
+emotion, "Well, Conillac! come up."  Conillac remained motionless, and
+the King continued, "Come up.  What is the matter?" Conillac, thus
+addressed, finished his ascent, and came towards the King with slow and
+trembling steps, rolling his eyes from right to left like one deranged.
+Then he stammered something, but in a tone so low that it could not be
+heard.  "What do you say?" cried the King.  "Speak up."  But Conillac was
+unable; and the King, finding he could get nothing out of him, told him
+to go away.  He did not need to be told twice, but disappeared at once.
+As soon as he was gone, the King, looking round, said, "I don't know what
+is the matter with Conillac.  He has lost his wits; he did not remember
+what he had to say to me."  No one answered.
+
+Towards the moment of the capitulation, Madame de Maintenon apparently
+asked permission to go away, for the King cried, "The chairmen of
+Madame!"  They came and took her away; in less than a quarter of an hour
+afterwards the King retired also, and nearly everybody else.  There was
+much interchange of glances, nudging with elbows, and then whisperings in
+the ear.  Everybody was full of what had taken place on the ramparts
+between the King and Madame de Maintenon.  Even the soldiers asked what
+meant that sedan-chair and the King every moment stooping to put his head
+inside of it.  It became necessary gently to silence these questions of
+the troops.  What effect this sight had upon foreigners present, and what
+they said of it, may be imagined.  All over Europe it was as much talked
+of as the camp of Compiegne itself, with all its pomp and prodigious
+splendour.
+
+The last act of this great drama was a sham fight.  The execution was
+perfect; but the commander, Rose, who was supposed to be beaten, would
+not yield.  Marechal de Boufflers sent and told him more than once that
+it was time.  Rose flew into a passion, and would not obey.  The King
+laughed much at this, and said, "Rose does not like to be beaten."  At
+last he himself sent the order for retreat.  Rose was forced then to
+comply; but he did it with a very bad grace, and abused the bearer of the
+order.
+
+The King left the camp on Monday the 22d of September, much pleased with
+the troops.  He gave, in parting, six hundred francs to each cavalry
+captain, and three hundred francs to each captain of infantry.  He gave
+as much to the majors of all the regiments, and distributed some favours
+to his household.  To Marechal de Boufflers he presented one hundred
+thousand francs.  All these gifts together amounted to something: but
+separately were as mere drops of water.  There was not a single regiment
+that was not ruined, officers and men, for several years.  As for
+Marechal de Boufflers, I leave it to be imagined what a hundred thousand
+francs were to him whose magnificence astounded all Europe, described as
+it was by foreigners who were witnesses of it, and who day after day
+could scarcely believe their own eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+Here I will relate an adventure, which shows that, however wise and
+enlightened a man may be, he is never infallible.  M. de La Trappe had
+selected from amongst his brethren one who was to be his successor.  The
+name of this monk was D. Francois Gervaise.  He had been in the monastery
+for some years, had lived regularly during that time, and had gained the
+confidence of M. de La Trappe.  As soon, however, as he received this
+appointment, his manners began to change.  He acted as though he were
+already master, brought disorder and ill-feeling into the monastery, and
+sorely grieved M. de La Trapp; who, however, looked upon this affliction
+as the work of Heaven, and meekly resigned him self to it.  At last,
+Francois Gervaise was by the merest chance detected openly, under
+circumstances which blasted his character for ever.  His companion in
+guilt was brought before M. de La Trappe, to leave no doubt upon the
+matter.  D. Francois Gervaise, utterly prostrated, resigned his office,
+and left La Trappe. Yet, even after this, he had the hardihood to show
+himself in the world, and to try and work himself into the favour of Pere
+la Chaise.  A discovery that was made, effectually stopped short his
+hopes in this direction.  A letter of his was found, written to a nun
+with whom he had been intimate, whom he loved, and by whom he was
+passionately loved.  It was a tissue of filthiness and stark indecency,
+enough to make the most abandoned tremble.  The pleasures, the regrets,
+the desires, the hopes of this precious pair, were all expressed in the
+boldest language, and with the utmost licence.  I believe that so many
+abominations are not uttered in several days, even in the worst places.
+For this offence Gervaise might have been confined in a dungeon all his
+life, but he was allowed to go at large.  He wandered from monastery to
+monastery for five or six years, and always caused so much disorder
+wherever he stopped, that at last the superiors thought it best to let
+him live as he liked in a curacy of his brother's.  He never ceased
+troubling La Trappe, to which he wished to return; so that at last I
+obtained a 'lettre de cachet', which prohibited him from approaching
+within thirty leagues of the abbey, and within twenty of Paris.  It was I
+who made known to him that his abominations had been discovered.  He was
+in no way disturbed, declared he was glad to be free, and assured me with
+the hypocrisy which never left him, that in his solitude he was going to
+occupy himself in studying the Holy Scriptures.
+
+Bonnceil, introducer of the ambassadors, being dead, Breteuil obtained
+his post.  Breteuil was not without intellect, but aped courtly manners,
+called himself Baron de Breteuil, and was much tormented and laughed at
+by his friends.  One day, dining at the house of Madame de Pontchartrain,
+and, speaking very authoritatively, Madame de Pontchartrain disputed with
+him, and, to test his knowledge, offered to make a bet that he did not
+know who wrote the Lord's Prayer.  He defended himself as well as he was
+able, and succeeded in leaving the table without being called upon to
+decide the point.  Caumartin, who saw his embarrassment, ran to him, and
+kindly whispered in his ear that Moses was the author of the Lord's
+Prayer.  Thus strengthened, Breteuil returned to the attack, brought,
+while taking coffee, the conversation back again to the bet; and, after
+reproaching Madame de Pontchartrain for supposing him ignorant upon such
+a point, and declaring he was ashamed of being obliged to say such a
+trivial thing, pronounced emphatically that it was Moses who had written
+the Lord's Prayer.  The burst of laughter that, of course, followed this,
+overwhelmed him with confusion.  Poor Breteuil was for a long time at
+loggerheads with his friend, and the Lord's Prayer became a standing
+reproach to him.
+
+He had a friend, the Marquis de Gesvres, who, upon some points, was not
+much better informed.  Talking one day in the cabinet of the King, and
+admiring in the tone of a connoisseur some fine paintings of the
+Crucifixion by the first masters, he remarked that they were all by one
+hand.
+
+He was laughed at, and the different painters were named, as recognized
+by their style.
+
+"Not at all," said the Marquis, "the painter is called INRI; do you not
+see his name upon all the pictures?"  What followed after such gross
+stupidity and ignorance may be imagined.
+
+At the end of this year the King resolved to undertake three grand
+projects, which ought to have been carried out long before: the chapel of
+Versailles, the Church of the Invalides, and the altar of Notre-Dame de
+Paris.  This last was a vow of Louis XIII., made when, he no longer was
+able to accomplish it, and which he had left to his successor, who had
+been more than fifty years without thinking of it.
+
+On the 6th of January, upon the reception of the ambassadors at the house
+of the Duchesse de Bourogogne, an adventure happened which I will here
+relate.  M. de Lorraine belonged to a family which had been noted for its
+pretensions, and for the disputes of precedency in which it engaged.  He
+was as prone to this absurdity as the rest, and on this occasion incited
+the Princesse d'Harcourt, one of his relations, to act in a manner that
+scandalised all the Court.  Entering the room in which the ambassadors
+were to be received and where a large number of ladies were already
+collected, she glided behind the Duchesse de Rohan, and told her to pass
+to the left.  The Duchesse de Rohan, much surprised, replied that she was
+very well placed already.  Whereupon, the Princesse d'Harcourt, who was
+tall and strong, made no further ado, but with her two arms seized the
+Duchesse de Rohan, turned her round, and sat down in her place.  All the
+ladies were strangely scandalised at this, but none dared say a word, not
+even Madame de Lude, lady in waiting on the Duchesse de Bourgogne, who,
+for her part also, felt the insolence of the act, but dared not speak,
+being so young.  As for the Duchesse de Rohan, feeling that opposition
+must lead to fisticuffs, she curtseyed to the Duchess, and quietly
+retired to another place.  A few minutes after this, Madame de Saint-
+Simon, who was then with child, feeling herself unwell, and tired of
+standing, seated herself upon the first cushion she could find.  It so
+happened, that in the position she thus occupied, she had taken
+precedence of Madame d'Armagnac by two degrees.  Madame d'Armagnac,,
+perceiving it, spoke to her upon the subject.  Madame de Saint-Simon, who
+had only placed herself there for a moment, did not reply, but went
+elsewhere.
+
+As soon as I learnt of the first adventure, I thought it important that
+such an insult should not be borne, and I went and conferred with M. de
+la Rochefoucauld upon the subject, at the same time that Marechal de
+Boufflers spoke of it to M. de Noailles.  I called upon other of my
+friends, and the opinion was that the Duc de Rohan should complain to the
+King on the morrow of the treatment his wife had received.
+
+In the evening while I was at the King's supper, I was sent for by Madame
+de Saint-Simon, who informed me that the Lorraines, afraid of the
+complaints that would probably be addressed to the King upon what had
+taken place between the Princesse d'Harcourt and the Duchesse de Rohan,
+had availed themselves of what happened between Madame de Saint-Simon and
+Madame d'Armagnac, in order to be the first to complain, so that one
+might balance the other.  Here was a specimen of the artifice of these
+gentlemen, which much enraged me.  On the instant I determined to lose no
+time in speaking to the King; and that very evening I related what had
+occurred, in so far as Madame de Saint-Simon was concerned, but made no
+allusion to M. de Rohan's affair, thinking it best to leave that to be
+settled by itself on the morrow.  The King replied to me very graciously,
+and I retired, after assuring him that all I had said was true from
+beginning to end.
+
+The next day the Duc de Rohan made his complaint.  The King, who had
+already been fully informed of the matter, received him well, praised the
+respect and moderation of Madame de Rohan, declared Madame d'Harcourt to
+have been very impertinent, and said some very hard words upon the
+Lorraines.
+
+I found afterwards, that Madame de Maintenon, who much favoured Madame
+d'Harcourt, had all the trouble in the world to persuade the King not to
+exclude her from the next journey to Marly.  She received a severe
+reprimand from the King, a good scolding from Madame de Maintenon, and
+was compelled publicly to ask pardon of the Duchesse de Rohan.  This she
+did; but with a crawling baseness equal to her previous audacity.  Such
+was the end of this strange history.
+
+There appeared at this time a book entitled "Probleme," but without name
+of author, and directed against M. de Paris, declaring that he had
+uttered sentiments favourable to the Jansenists being at Chalons, and
+unfavourable being at Paris.  The book came from the Jesuits, who could
+not pardon M. de Paris for having become archbishop without their
+assistance.  It was condemned and burnt by decree of the Parliament, and
+the Jesuits had to swallow all the shame of it.  The author was soon
+after discovered.  He was named Boileau; not the friend of Bontems, who
+so often preached before the King, and still less the celebrated poet and
+author of the 'Flagellants', but a doctor of much wit and learning whom
+M. de Paris had taken into his favour and treated like a brother.  Who
+would have believed that "Probleme" could spring from such a man?  M. de
+Paris was much hurt; but instead of imprisoning Boileau for the rest of
+his days, as he might have done, he acted the part of a great bishop, and
+gave him a good canonical of Saint Honore, which became vacant a few days
+afterwards.  Boileau, who was quite without means, completed his
+dishonour by accepting it.
+
+The honest people of the Court regretted a cynic who died at this time,
+I mean the Chevalier de Coislin.  He was a most extraordinary man, very
+splenetic, and very difficult to deal with.  He rarely left Versailles,
+and never went to see the king.  I have seen him get out of the way not
+to meet him.  He lived with Cardinal Coislin, his brother.  If anybody
+displeased him, he would go and sulk in his own room; and if, whilst at
+table, any one came whom he did not like, he would throw away his plate,
+go off to sulk, or to finish his dinner all alone.  One circumstance will
+paint him completely.  Being on a journey once with his brothers, the Duc
+de Coislin and the Cardinal de Coislin, the party rested for the night at
+the house of a vivacious and very pretty bourgeoise.  The Duc de Coislin
+was an exceedingly polite man, and bestowed amiable compliments and
+civilities upon their hostess, much to the disgust of the Chevalier.  At
+parting, the Duke renewed the politeness he had displayed so abundantly
+the previous evening, and delayed the others by his long-winded
+flatteries.  When, at last, they left the house, and were two or three
+leagues away from it, the Chevalier de Coislin said, that, in spite of
+all this politeness, he had reason to believe that their pretty hostess
+would not long be pleased with the Duke.  The Duke, disturbed, asked his
+reason for thinking so.  "Do you wish to learn it?" said the Chevalier;
+"well, then, you must know that, disgusted by your compliments, I went up
+into the bedroom in which you slept, and made a filthy mess on the floor,
+which the landlady will no doubt attribute to you, despite all your fine
+speeches."
+
+At this there was loud laughter, but the Duke was in fury, and wished to
+return in order to clear up his character.  Although it rained hard, they
+had all the pains in the world to hinder him, and still more to bring
+about a reconciliation.  Nothing was more pleasant than to hear the
+brothers relate this adventure each in his own way.
+
+Two cruel effects of gambling were noticed at this time.  Reineville, a
+lieutenant of the body-guard, a general officer distinguished in war,
+very well treated by the King, and much esteemed by the captain of the
+Guards, suddenly disappeared, and could not be found anywhere, although
+the utmost care was taken to search for him.   He loved gaming.  He had
+lost what he could not pay.  He was a man of honour, and could not
+sustain his misfortune.  Twelve or fifteen years afterwards he was
+recognised among the Bavarian troops, in which he was serving in order to
+gain his bread and to live unknown.  The other case was still worse.
+Permillac, a man of much intelligence and talent, had lost more than he
+possessed, and blew his brains out one morning in bed.  He was much liked
+throughout the army; had taken a friendship for me, and I for him.
+Everybody pitied him, and I much regretted him.
+
+Nearly at the same time we lost the celebrated Racine, so known by his
+beautiful plays.  No one possessed a greater talent or a more agreeable
+mien.  There was nothing of the poet in his manners: he had the air of a
+well-bred and modest man, and at last that of a good man.  He had
+friends, the most illustrious, at the Court as well as among men of
+letters.  I leave it to the latter to speak of him in a better way than I
+can.  He wrote, for the amusement of the King and Madame de Maintenon,
+and to exercise the young ladies of Saint Cyr, two dramatic masterpieces,
+Esther and Athalie.  They were very difficult to write, because there
+could be no love in them, and because they are sacred tragedies, in
+which, from respect to the Holy Scriptures, it was necessary rigidly to
+keep to the historical truth.  They were several times played at Saint
+Cyr before a select Court.  Racine was charged with the history of the
+King, conjointly with Despreaux, his friend.  This employment, the pieces
+I have just spoken of, and his friends, gained for Racine some special
+favours: It sometimes happened that the King had no ministers with him,
+as on Fridays, and, above all, when the bad weather of winter rendered
+the sittings very long; then he would send for Racine to amuse him and
+Madame de Maintenon.  Unfortunately the poet was oftentimes very absent.
+It happened one evening that, talking with Racine upon the theatre, the
+King asked why comedy was so much out of fashion.  Racine gave several
+reasons, and concluded by naming the principal,--namely, that for want of
+new pieces the comedians gave old ones, and, amongst others, those of
+Scarron, which were worth nothing, and which found no favour with
+anybody.  At this the poor widow blushed, not for the reputation of the
+cripple attacked, but at hearing his name uttered in presence of his
+successor!  The King was also embarrassed, and the unhappy Racine, by the
+silence which followed, felt what a slip he had made.  He remained the
+most confounded of the three, without daring to raise his eyes or to open
+his mouth.  This silence did not terminate for several moments, so heavy
+and profound was the surprise.  The end was that the King sent away
+Racine, saying he was going to work.  The poet never afterwards recovered
+his position.  Neither the King nor Madame de Maintenon ever spoke to him
+again, or even looked at him; and he conceived so much sorrow at this,
+that he fell into a languor, and died two years afterwards.  At his
+death, Valincourt was chosen to work in his place with Despreaux upon the
+history of the King.
+
+The King, who had just paid the heavy gaming and tradesmen's debts of
+Madame la Duchesse, paid also those of Monseigneur, which amounted to
+fifty thousand francs, undertook the payment of the buildings at Meudon,
+and, in lieu of fifteen hundred pistoles a month which he had allowed
+Monseigneur, gave him fifty thousand crowns.  M. de la Rochefoucauld,
+always necessitous and pitiful in the midst of riches, a prey to his
+servants, obtained an increase of forty-two thousand francs a-year upon
+the salary he received as Grand Veneur, although it was but a short time
+since the King had paid his debts.  The King gave also, but in secret,
+twenty thousand francs a-year to M. de Chartres, who had spent so much in
+journeys and building that he feared he should be unable to pay his
+debts.  He had asked for an abbey; but as he had already one, the King
+did not like to give him another, lest it should be thought too much.
+
+M. de Vendome began at last to think about his health, which his
+debauches had thrown into a very bad state.  He took public leave of the
+King and of all the Court before going away, to put himself in the hands
+of the doctors.  It was the first and only example of such impudence.
+From this time he lost ground.  The King said, at parting, that he hoped
+he would come back in such a state that people might kiss him without
+danger!  His going in triumph, where another would have gone in shame and
+secrecy, was startling and disgusting.  He was nearly three months under
+the most skilful treatment-and returned to the Court with half his nose,
+his teeth out, and a physiognomy entirely changed, almost idiotic.  The
+King was so much struck by this change, that he recommended the courtiers
+not to appear to notice it, for fear of afflicting M. de Vendome.  That
+was taking much interest in him assuredly.  As, moreover, he had departed
+in triumph upon this medical expedition, so he returned triumphant by the
+reception of the King, which was imitated by all the Court.  He remained
+only a few days, and then, his mirror telling sad tales, went away to
+Anet, to see if nose and teeth would come back to him with his hair.
+
+A strange adventure, which happened at this time, terrified everybody,
+and gave rise to many surmises.  Savary was found assassinated in his
+house at Paris he kept only a valet and a maid-servant, and they were
+discovered murdered at the same time, quite dressed, like their master,
+and in different parts of the house.  It appeared by writings found
+there, that the crime was one of revenge: it was supposed to have been
+committed in broad daylight.  Savary was a citizen of Paris, very rich,
+without occupation, and lived like an epicurean.  He had some friends of
+the highest rank, and gave parties, of all kinds of pleasure, at his
+house, politics sometimes being discussed.  The cause of this
+assassination was never known; but so much of it was found out, that no
+one dared to search for more.  Few doubted but that the deed had been
+done by a very ugly little man, but of a blood so highly respected, that
+all forms were dispensed with, in the fear lest it should be brought home
+to him; and, after the first excitement, everybody ceased to speak of
+this tragic history.
+
+On the night between the 3rd and 4th of June, a daring robbery was
+effected at the grand stables of Versailles.  All the horse-cloths and
+trappings, worth at least fifty thousand crowns, were carried off, and so
+cleverly and with such speed, although the night was short, that no
+traces of them could ever afterwards be found.  This theft reminds me of
+another which took place a little before the commencement of these
+memoirs.  The grand apartment at Versailles, that is to say, from the
+gallery to the tribune, was hung with crimson velvet, trimmed and fringed
+with gold.  One fine morning the fringe and trimmings were all found to
+have been cut away.  This appeared extraordinary in a place so frequented
+all day, so well closed at night, and so well guarded at all times.
+Bontems, the King's valet, was in despair, and did his utmost to discover
+the thieves, but without success.
+
+Five or six days afterwards, I was at the King's supper, with nobody but
+Daqum, chief physician, between the King and me, and nobody at all
+between one and the table.  Suddenly I perceived a large black form in
+the air, but before I could tell what it was, it fell upon the end of the
+King's table just before the cover which had been laid for Monseigneur
+and Madame.  By the noise it made in falling, and the weight of the thing
+itself, it seemed as though the table must be broken.  The plates jumped
+up, but none were upset, and the thing, as luck would have it, did not
+fall upon any of them, but simply upon the cloth.  The King moved his
+head half round, and without being moved in any way said, "I think that
+is my fringe!"
+
+It was indeed a bundle, larger than a flat-brimmed priest's hat, about
+two feet in height, and shaped like a pyramid.  It had come from behind
+me, from towards the middle door of the two ante-chambers, and a piece of
+fringe getting loose in the air, had fallen upon the King's wig, from
+which it was removed by Livry, a gentleman-in-waiting.  Livry also opened
+the bundle, and saw that it did indeed contain the fringes all twisted
+up, and everybody saw likewise.  A murmur was heard.  Livry wishing to
+take away the bundle found a paper attached to it.  He took the paper and
+left the bundle.  The King stretched out his hand and said, "Let us see."
+Livry, and with reason, would not give up the paper, but stepped back,
+read it, and then passed it to Daquin, in whose hands I read it.  The
+writing, counterfeited and long like that of a woman, was in these
+words:--" Take back your fringes, Bontems; they are not worth the trouble
+of keeping--my compliments to the King."
+
+The paper was rolled up, not folded: the King wished to take it from
+Daquin, who, after much hesitation, allowed him to read it, but did not
+let it out of his hands.  "Well, that is very insolent!" said the King,
+but in quite a placid unmoved tone--as it were, an historical tone.
+Afterwards he ordered the bundle to be taken away.  Livry found it so
+heavy that he could scarcely lift it from the table, and gave it to an
+attendant who presented himself.  The King spoke no more of this matter,
+nobody else dared to do so; and the supper finished as though nothing had
+happened.
+
+Besides the excess of insolence and impudence of this act, it was so
+perilous as to be scarcely understood.  How could any one, without being
+seconded by accomplices, throw a bundle of this weight and volume in the
+midst of a crowd such as was always present at the supper of the King, so
+dense that it could with difficulty be passed through?  How, in spite of
+a circle of accomplices, could a movement of the arms necessary for such
+a throw escape all eyes?  The Duc de Gesvres was in waiting.  Neither he
+nor anybody else thought of closing the doors until the King had left the
+table.  It may be guessed whether the guilty parties remained until then,
+having had more than three-quarters of an hour to escape, and every issue
+being free.  Only one person was discovered, who was not known, but he
+proved to be a very honest man, and was dismissed after a short
+detention.  Nothing has since been discovered respecting this theft or
+its bold restitution.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+On the 12th August, Madame de Saint-Simon was happily delivered of a
+second son, who bore the name of Marquis de Ruffec.  A singular event
+which happened soon after, made all the world marvel.
+
+There arrived at Versailles a farrier, from the little town of Salon, in
+Provence, who asked to see the King in private.  In spite of the rebuffs
+he met with, he persisted in his request, so that at last it got to the
+ears of the King.  The King sent word that he was not accustomed to grant
+such audiences to whoever liked to ask for them.  Thereupon the farrier
+declared that if he was allowed to see the King he would tell him things
+so secret and so unknown to everybody else that he would be persuaded of
+their importance, demanding, if the King would not see him, to be sent to
+a minister of state.  Upon this the King allowed him to have an interview
+with one of his secretaries, Barbezieux.  But Barbezieux was not a
+minister of state, and to the great surprise of everybody, the farrier,
+who had only just arrived from the country, and who had never before left
+it or his trade, replied, that not being a minister of state he would not
+speak with him.  Upon this he was allowed to see Pomponne, and converse
+with him; and this is the story he told:
+
+He said, that returning home late one evening he found himself surrounded
+by a great light, close against a tree and near Salon.  A woman clad in
+white--but altogether in a royal manner, and beautiful, fair, and very
+dazzling--called him by his name, commanded him to listen to her, and
+spake to him more than half-an-hour.  She told him she was the Queen,
+who had been the wife of the King; to whom she ordered him to go and say
+what she had communicated; assuring him that God would assist him through
+all the journey, and that upon a secret thing he should say, the King,
+who alone knew that secret, would recognise the truth of all he uttered.
+She said that in case he could not see the King he was to speak with a
+minister of state, telling him certain things, but reserving certain
+others for the King alone.  She told him, moreover, to set out at once,
+assuring him he would be punished with death if he neglected to acquit
+himself of his commission.  The farrier promised to obey her in
+everything, and the queen then disappeared.  He found himself in darkness
+near the tree.  He lay down and passed the night there, scarcely knowing
+whether he was awake or asleep.  In the morning he went home, persuaded
+that what he had seen was a mere delusion and folly, and said nothing
+about it to a living soul.
+
+Two days afterwards he was passing by the same place when the same vision
+appeared to him, and he was addressed in the same terms.  Fresh threats
+of punishment were uttered if he did not comply, and he was ordered to go
+at once to the Intendant of the province, who would assuredly furnish him
+with money, after saying what he had seen.  This time the farrier was
+convinced there was no delusion in the matter; but, halting between his
+fears and doubts, knew not what to do, told no one what had passed,
+and was in great perplexity.  He remained thus eight days, and at last
+had resolved not to make the journey; when, passing by the same spot,
+he saw and heard the same vision, which bestowed upon him so many
+dreadful menaces that he no longer thought of anything but setting out
+immediately.  In two days from that time he presented himself, at Aix,
+to the Intendant of the province, who, without a moment's hesitation,
+urged him to pursue his journey, and gave him sufficient money to travel
+by a public conveyance.  Nothing more of the story was ever known.
+
+The farrier had three interviews with M. de Pomponne, each of two hours'
+length.  M. de Pomponne rendered, in private, an account of these to the
+King, who desired him to speak more fully upon the point in a council
+composed of the Ducs de Beauvilliers, Pontchartrain, Torcy, and Pomponne
+himself; Monseigneur to be excluded.  This council sat very long, perhaps
+because other things were spoken of.  Be that as it may, the King after
+this wished to converse with the farrier, and did so in his cabinet.  Two
+days afterwards he saw the man again; at each time was nearly an hour
+with him, and was careful that no one was within hearing.
+
+The day after the first interview, as the King was descending the
+staircase, to go a-hunting, M. de Duras, who was in waiting, and who was
+upon such a footing that he said almost what he liked, began to speak of
+this farrier with contempt, and, quoting the bad proverb, said, "The man
+was mad, or the King was not noble."  At this the King stopped, and,
+turning round, a thing he scarcely ever did in walking, replied, "If that
+be so, I am not noble, for I have discoursed with him long, he has spoken
+to me with much good sense, and I assure you he is far from being mad."
+
+These last words were pronounced with a sustained gravity which greatly
+surprised those near, and which in the midst of deep silence opened all
+eyes and ears.  After the second interview the King felt persuaded that
+one circumstance had been related to him by the farrier, which he alone
+knew, and which had happened more than twenty years before.  It was that
+he had seen a phantom in the forest of Saint Germains.  Of this phantom
+he had never breathed a syllable to anybody.
+
+The King on several other occasions spoke favourably of the farrier;
+moreover, he paid all the expenses the man had been put to, gave him a
+gratuity, sent him back free, and wrote to the Intendant of the province
+to take particular care of him, and never to let him want for anything
+all his life.
+
+The most surprising thing of all this is, that none of the ministers
+could be induced to speak a word upon the occurrence.  Their most
+intimate friends continually questioned them, but without being able to
+draw forth a syllable.  The ministers either affected to laugh at the
+matter or answered evasively.  This was the case whenever I questioned
+M. de Beauvilliers or M. de Pontchartrain, and I knew from their most
+intimate friends that nothing more could ever be obtained from M. de
+Pomponne or M. de Torcy.  As for the farrier himself, he was equally
+reserved.  He was a simple, honest, and modest man, about fifty years of
+age.  Whenever addressed upon this subject, he cut short all discourse by
+saying, "I am not allowed to speak," and nothing more could be extracted
+from him.  When he returned to his home he conducted himself just as
+before, gave himself no airs, and never boasted of the interview he had
+had with the King and his ministers.  He went back to his trade, and
+worked at it as usual.
+
+Such is the singular story which filled everybody with astonishment, but
+which nobody could understand.  It is true that some people persuaded
+themselves, and tried to persuade others, that the whole affair was a
+clever trick, of which the simple farrier had been the dupe.  They said
+that a certain Madame Arnoul, who passed for a witch, and who, having
+known Madame de Maintenon when she was Madame Scarron, still kept up a
+secret intimacy with her, had caused the three visions to appear to the
+farrier, in order to oblige the King to declare Madame de Maintenon
+queen.  But the truth of the matter was never known.
+
+The King bestowed at this time some more distinctions on his illegitimate
+children.  M. du Maine, as grand-master of the artillery, had to be
+received at the Chambre des Comptes; and his place ought to have been,
+according to custom, immediately above that of the senior member.  But
+the King wished him to be put between the first and second presidents;
+and this was done.  The King accorded also to the Princesse de Conti that
+her two ladies of honour should be allowed to sit at the Duchesse de
+Bourgogne's table.  It was a privilege that no lady of honour to a
+Princess of the blood had ever been allowed.  But the King gave these
+distinctions to the ladies of his illegitimate children, and refused it
+to those of the Princesses of the blood.
+
+In thus according honours, the King seemed to merit some new ones
+himself.  But nothing fresh could be thought of.  What had been done
+therefore at his statue in the Place des Victoires, was done over again
+in the Place Vendome on the 13th August, after midday.  Another statue
+which had been erected there was uncovered.  The Duc de Gesvres, Governor
+of Paris, was in attendance on horseback, at the head of the city troops,
+and made turns, and reverences, and other ceremonies, imitated from those
+in use at the consecration of the Roman Emperors.  There were, it is
+true, no incense and no victims: something more in harmony with the title
+of Christian King was necessary.  In the evening, there was upon the
+river a fine illumination, which Monsieur and Madame went to see.
+
+A difficulty arose soon after this with Denmark.  The Prince Royal had
+become King, and announced the circumstance to our King, but would not
+receive the reply sent him because he was not styled in it "Majesty."
+We had never accorded to the Kings of Denmark this title, and they had
+always been contented with that of "Serenity."  The King in his turn
+would not wear mourning for the King of Denmark, just dead, although he
+always did so for any crowned head, whether related to him or not.  This
+state of things lasted some months; until, in the end, the new King of
+Denmark gave way, received the reply as it had been first sent, and our
+King wore mourning as if the time for it had not long since passed.
+
+Boucherat, chancellor and keeper of the seals, died on the 2nd of
+September.  Harlay, as I have previously said, had been promised this
+appointment when it became vacant.  But the part he had taken in our case
+with M. de Luxembourg had made him so lose ground, that the appointment
+was not given to him.  M. de la Rochefoucauld, above all, had undermined
+him in the favour of the King; and none of us had lost an opportunity of
+assisting in this work.  Our joy, therefore, was extreme when we saw all
+Harlay's hopes frustrated, and we did not fail to let it burst forth.
+The vexation that Harlay conceived was so great, that he became
+absolutely intractable, and often cried out with a bitterness he could
+not contain, that he should be left to die in the dust of the palace.
+His weakness was such, that he could not prevent himself six weeks after
+from complaining to the King at Fontainebleau, where he was playing the
+valet with his accustomed suppleness and deceit.  The King put him off
+with fine speeches, and by appointing him to take part in a commission
+then sitting for the purpose of bringing about a reduction in the price
+of corn in Paris and the suburbs, where it had become very dear.  Harlay
+made a semblance of being contented, but remained not the less annoyed.
+His health and his head were at last so much attacked that he was forced
+to quit his post: he then fell into contempt after having excited so much
+hatred.  The chancellorship was given to Pontchartrain, and the office of
+comptroller-general, which became vacant at the same time, was given to
+Chamillart; a very honest man, who owed his first advancement to his
+skill at billiards, of which game the King was formerly very fond.
+It was while Chamillart was accustomed to play billiards with the King,
+at least three times a week, that an incident happened which ought not to
+be forgotten.  Chamillart was Counsellor of the Parliament at that time.
+He had just reported on a case that had been submitted to him.
+The losing party came to him, and complained that he had omitted to bring
+forward a document that had been given into his hands, and that would
+assuredly have turned the verdict.  Chamillart searched for the document,
+found it, and saw that the complainer was right.  He said so, and added,
+--"I do not know how the document escaped me, but it decides in your
+favour.  You claimed twenty thousand francs, and it is my fault you did
+not get them.  Come to-morrow, and I will pay you."  Chamillart, although
+then by no means rich, scraped together all the money he had, borrowing
+the rest, and paid the man as he had promised, only demanding that the
+matter should be kept a secret.  But after this, feeling that billiards
+three times a week interfered with his legal duties, he surrendered part
+of them, and thus left himself more free for other charges he was obliged
+to attend to.
+
+The Comtesse de Fiesque died very aged, while the Court was at
+Fontainebleau this year.  She had passed her life with the most frivolous
+of the great world.  Two incidents amongst a thousand will characterise
+her.  She was very straitened in means, because she had frittered away
+all her substance, or allowed herself to be pillaged by her business
+people.  When those beautiful mirrors were first introduced she obtained
+one, although they were then very dear and very rare.  "Ah, Countess!"
+said her friends, "where did you find that?"
+
+"Oh!" replied she, "I had a miserable piece of land, which only yielded
+me corn; I have sold it, and I have this mirror instead.  Is not this
+excellent?  Who would hesitate between corn and this beautiful mirror?"
+
+On another occasion she harangued with her son, who was as poor as a rat,
+for the purpose of persuading him to make a good match and thus enrich
+himself.  Her son, who had no desire to marry, allowed her to talk on,
+and pretended to listen to her reasons: She was delighted--entered into a
+description of the wife she destined for him, painting her as young,
+rich, an only child, beautiful, well-educated, and with parents who would
+be delighted to agree to the marriage.  When she had finished, he pressed
+her for the name of this charming and desirable person.  The Countess
+said she was the daughter of Jacquier, a man well known to everybody,
+and who had been a contractor of provisions to the armies of M. de
+Turenne.  Upon this, her son burst out into a hearty laugh, and she in
+anger demanded why he did so and what he found so ridiculous in the
+match.
+
+The truth was, Jacquier had no children, as the Countess soon remembered.
+At which she said it was a great pity, since no marriage would have
+better suited all parties.  She was full of such oddities, which she
+persisted in for some time with anger, but at which she was the first to
+laugh.  People said of her that she had never been more than eighteen
+years old.  The memoirs of Mademoiselle paint her well.  She lived with
+Mademoiselle, and passed all her life in quarrels about trifles.
+
+It was immediately after leaving Fontainebleau that the marriage between
+the Duc and Duchesse de Bourgogne was consummated.  It was upon this
+occasion that the King named four gentlemen to wait upon the Duke,--
+four who in truth could not have been more badly chosen.  One of them,
+Gamaches, was a gossip; who never knew what he was doing or saying--
+who knew nothing of the world, or the Court, or of war, although he had
+always been in the army.  D'O was another; but of him I have spoken.
+Cheverny was the third, and Saumery the fourth.  Saumery had been raised
+out of obscurity by M. de Beauvilliers.  Never was man so intriguing, so
+truckling, so mean, so boastful, so ambitious, so intent upon fortune,
+and all this without disguise, without veil, without shame!  Saumery had
+been wounded, and no man ever made so much of such a mishap.  I used to
+say of him that he limped audaciously, and it was true.  He would speak
+of personages the most distinguished, whose ante-chambers even he had
+scarcely seen, as though he spoke of his equals or of his particular
+friends.  He related what he had heard, and was not ashamed to say before
+people who at least had common sense, "Poor Mons. Turenne said to me,"
+M. de Turenne never having probably heard of his existence.  With
+Monsieur in full he honoured nobody.  It was Mons. de Beauvilliers, Mons.
+de Chevreuse, and so on; except with those whose names he clipped off
+short, as he frequently would even with Princes of the blood.  I have
+heard him say many times, "the Princesse de Conti," in speaking of the
+daughter of the King; and "the Prince de Conti," in speaking of Monsieur
+her brother-in-law!  As for the chief nobles of the Court, it was rare
+for him to give them the Monsieur or the Mons.  It was Marechal
+d'Humieres, and so on with the others.  Fatuity and insolence were united
+in him, and by dint of mounting a hundred staircases a day, and bowing
+and scraping everywhere, he had gained the ear of I know not how many
+people.  His wife was a tall creature, as impertinent as he, who wore the
+breeches, and before whom he dared not breathe.  Her effrontery blushed
+at nothing, and after many gallantries she had linked herself on to M. de
+Duras, whom she governed, and of whom she was publicly and absolutely the
+mistress, living at his expense.  Children, friends, servants, all were
+at her mercy; even Madame de Duras herself when she came, which was but
+seldom, from the country.
+
+Such were the people whom the King placed near M. le Duc de Bourgogne.
+
+The Duc de Gesvres, a malicious old man, a cruel husband and unnatural
+father, sadly annoyed Marechal de Villeroy towards the end of this year,
+having previously treated me very scurvily for some advice I gave him
+respecting the ceremonies to be observed at the reception by the King of
+M. de Lorraine as Duc de Bar.  M. de Gesvres and M. de Villeroy had both
+had fathers who made large fortunes and who became secretaries of state.
+One morning M. de Gesvres was waiting for the King, with a number of
+other courtiers, when M. de Villeroy arrived, with all that noise and
+those airs he had long assumed, and which his favour and his appointments
+rendered more superb.  I know not whether this annoyed De Gesvres, more
+than usual, but as soon as the other had placed himself, he said,
+"Monsieur le Marechal, it must be admitted that you and I are very
+lucky."  The Marechal, surprised at a remark which seemed to be suggested
+by nothing, assented with a modest air, and, shaking his head and his
+wig, began to talk to some one else.  But M. de Gesvres had not commenced
+without a purpose.  He went on, addressed M. de Villeroy point-blank,
+admiring their mutual good fortune, but when he came to speak of the
+father of each, "Let us go no further," said he, "for what did our
+fathers spring from?  From tradesmen; even tradesmen they were
+themselves.  Yours was the son of a dealer in fresh fish at the markets,
+and mine of a pedlar, or, perhaps, worse.  Gentlemen," said he,
+addressing the company, "have we not reason to think our fortune
+prodigious--the Marechal and I?"  The Marechal would have liked to
+strangle M. de Gesvres, or to see him dead--but what can be done with a
+man who, in order to say something cutting to you, says it to himself
+first?  Everybody was silent, and all eyes were lowered.  Many, however,
+were not sorry to see M. de Villeroy so pleasantly humiliated.  The King
+came and put an end to the scene, which was the talk of the Court for
+several days.
+
+Omissions must be repaired as soon as they are perceived.  Other matters
+have carried me away.  At the commencement of April, Ticquet, Counsellor
+at the Parliament, was assassinated in his own house; and if he did not
+die, it was not the fault of his porter, or of the soldier who had
+attempted to kill him, and who left him for dead, disturbed by a noise
+they heard.  This councillor, who was a very poor man, had complained to
+the King, the preceding year, of the conduct of his wife with
+Montgeorges, captain in the Guards, and much esteemed.  The King
+prohibited Montgeorges from seeing the wife of the councillor again.
+
+Such having been the case, when the crime was attempted, suspicion fell
+upon Montgeorges and the wife of Ticquet, a beautiful, gallant, and bold
+woman, who took a very high tone in the matter.  She was advised to fly,
+and one of my friends offered to assist her to do so, maintaining that in
+all such cases it is safer to be far off than close at hand.  The woman
+would listen to no such advice, and in a few days she was no longer able.
+The porter and the soldier were arrested and tortured, and Madame
+Ticquet, who was foolish enough to allow herself to be arrested, also
+underwent the same examination, and avowed all.  She was condemned to
+lose her head, and her accomplice to be broken on the wheel.  Montgeorges
+managed so well, that he was not legally criminated.  When Ticquet heard
+the sentence, he came with all his family to the King, and sued for
+mercy.  But the King would not listen to him, and the execution took
+place on Wednesday, the 17th of June, after mid-day, at the Greve.  All
+the windows of the Hotel de Ville, and of the houses in the Place de
+Greve, in the streets that lead to it from the Conciergerie of the palace
+where Madame Ticquet was confined, were filled with spectators, men and
+women, many of title and distinction.  There were even friends of both
+sexes of this unhappy woman, who felt no shame or horror in going there.
+In the streets the crowd was so great that it could not be passed
+through.  In general, pity was felt for the culprit; people hoped she
+would be pardoned, and it was because they hoped so, that they went to
+see her die.  But such is the world; so unreasoning, and so little in
+accord with itself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+The year 1700 commenced by a reform.  The King declared that he would no
+longer bear the expense of the changes that the courtiers introduced into
+their apartments.  It had cost him more than sixty thousand francs since
+the Court left Fontainebleau.  It is believed that Madame de Mailly was
+the cause of this determination of the King; for during the last two or
+three years she had made changes in her apartments every year.
+
+A difficulty occurred at this time which much mortified the King.  Little
+by little he had taken all the ambassadors to visit Messieurs du Maine
+and de Toulouse, as though they were Princes of the blood.  The nuncio,
+Cavallerini, visited them thus, but upon his return to Rome was so taken
+to task for it, that his successor, Delfini, did not dare to imitate him.
+The cardinals considered that they had lowered themselves, since
+Richelieu and Mazarm, by treating even the Princes of the blood on terms
+of equality, and giving them their hand, which had not been customary m
+the time of the two first ministers just named.  To do so to the
+illegitimate offspring of the King, and on occasions of ceremony,
+appeared to them monstrous.  Negotiations were carried on for a month,
+but Delfini would not bend, and although in every other respect he had
+afforded great satisfaction during his nunciature, no farewell audience
+was given to him; nor even a secret audience.  He was deprived of the
+gift of a silver vessel worth eighteen hundred francs, that it was
+customary to present to the cardinal nuncios at their departure: and he
+went away without saying adieu to anybody.
+
+Some time before, M. de Monaco had been sent as ambassador to Rome.  He
+claimed to be addressed by the title of "Highness," and persisted in it
+with so much obstinacy that he isolated, himself from almost everybody,
+and brought the affairs of his embassy nearly to a standstill by the
+fetters he imposed upon them in the most necessary transactions.  Tired
+at last of the resistance he met with, he determined to refuse the title
+of "Excellence," although it might fairly belong to them, to all who
+refused to address him as "Highness."  This finished his affair; for
+after that determination no one would see him, and the business of the
+embassy suffered even more than before.  It is difficult to comprehend
+why the King permitted such a man to remain as his representative at a
+foreign Court.
+
+Madame de Navailles died on the 14th of February: Her mother, Madame de
+Neuillant, who became a widow, was avarice itself.  I cannot say by what
+accident or chance it was that Madame de Maintenon in returning young and
+poor from America, where she had lost her father and mother, fell in
+landing at Rochelle into the hands of Madame de Neuillant, who lived in
+Poitou.  Madame de Neuillant took home Madame de Maintenon, but could not
+resolve to feed her without making her do something in return.  Madame de
+Maintenon was charged therefore with the key of the granary, had to
+measure out the corn and to see that it was given to the horses.  It was
+Madame de Neuillant who brought Madame de Maintenon to Paris, and to get
+rid of her married her to Scarron, and then retired into Poitou.
+
+Madame de Navailles was the eldest daughter of this Madame de Neuillant,
+and it was her husband, M. de Navailles, who, serving under M. le Prince
+in Flanders, received from that General a strong reprimand for his
+ignorance.  M. le Prince wanted to find the exact position of a little
+brook which his maps did not mark.  To assist him in the search, M. de
+Navailles brought a map of the world!  On another occasion, visiting
+M. Colbert, at Sceaux, the only thing M. de Navailles could find to
+praise was the endive of the kitchen garden: and when on the occasion of
+the Huguenots the difficulty of changing religion was spoken of, he
+declared that if God had been good enough to make him a Turk, he should
+have remained so.
+
+Madame de Navailles had been lady of honour to the Queen-mother, and lost
+that place by a strange adventure.
+
+She was a woman of spirit and of virtue, and the young ladies of honour
+were put under her charge.  The King was at this time young and gallant.
+So long as he held aloof from the chamber of the young ladies, Madame de
+Navailles meddled not, but she kept her eye fixed upon all that she
+controlled.  She soon perceived that the King was beginning to amuse
+himself, and immediately after she found that a door had secretly been
+made into the chamber of the young ladies; that this door communicated
+with a staircase by which the King mounted into the room at night, and
+was hidden during the day by the back of a bed placed against it.  Upon
+this Madame de Navailles held counsel with her husband.  On one side was
+virtue and honour, on the other, the King's anger, disgrace, and exile.
+The husband and wife did not long hesitate.  Madame de Navailles at once
+took her measures, and so well, that in a few hours one evening the door
+was entirely closed up.  During the same night the King, thinking to
+enter as usual by the little staircase, was much surprised to no longer
+find a door.  He groped, he searched, he could not comprehend the
+disappearance of the door, or by what means it had become wall again.
+Anger seized him; he doubted not that the door had been closed by Madame
+de Navailles and her husband.  He soon found that such was the case, and
+on the instant stripped them of almost all their offices, and exiled them
+from the Court.  The exile was not long; the Queen-mother on her death-
+bed implored him to receive back Monsieur and Madame de Navailles, and he
+could not refuse.  They returned, and M. de Navailles nine years
+afterwards was made Marechal of France.  After this Madame de Navailles
+rarely appeared at the Court.  Madame de Maintenon could not refuse her
+distinctions and special favours, but they were accorded rarely and by
+moments.  The King always remembered his door; Madame de Maintenon always
+remembered the hay and barley of Madame de Neuillant, and neither years
+nor devotion could deaden the bitterness of the recollection.
+
+From just before Candlemas-day to Easter of this year, nothing was heard
+of but balls and pleasures of the Court.  The King gave at Versailles and
+at Marly several masquerades, by which he was much amused, under pretext
+of amusing the Duchesse de Bourgogne.  At one of these balls at Marly a
+ridiculous scene occurred.  Dancers were wanting and Madame de Luxembourg
+on account of this obtained an invitation, but with great difficulty, for
+she lived in such a fashion that no woman would see her.  Monsieur de
+Luxembourg was perhaps the only person in France who was ignorant of
+Madame de Luxembourg's conduct.  He lived with his wife on apparently
+good terms and as though he had not the slightest mistrust of her.  On
+this occasion, because of the want of dancers, the King made older people
+dance than was customary, and among others M. de Luxembourg.  Everybody
+was compelled to be masked.  M. de Luxembourg spoke on this subject to
+M. le Prince, who, malicious as any monkey, determined to divert all the
+Court and himself at the Duke's expense.  He invited M. de Luxembourg to
+supper, and after that meal was over, masked him according to his fancy.
+
+Soon after my arrival at the ball, I saw a figure strangely clad in long
+flowing muslin, and with a headdress on which was fixed the horns of a
+stag, so high that they became entangled in the chandelier.  Of course
+everybody was much astonished at so strange a sight, and all thought that
+that mask must be very sure of his wife to deck himself so.  Suddenly the
+mask turned round and showed us M. de Luxembourg.  The burst of laughter
+at this was scandalous.  Good M. de Luxembourg, who never was very
+remarkable for wit, benignly took all this laughter as having been
+excited simply by the singularity of his costume, and to the questions
+addressed him, replied quite simply that his dress had been arranged by
+M. le Prince; then, turning to the right and to the left, he admired
+himself and strutted with pleasure at having been masked by M. le Prince.
+In a moment more the ladies arrived, and the King immediately after them.
+The laughter commenced anew as loudly as ever, and M. de Luxembourg
+presented himself to the company with a confidence that was ravishing.
+His wife had heard nothing of this masquerading, and when she saw it,
+lost countenance, brazen as she was.  Everybody stared at her and her
+husband, and seemed dying of laughter.  M. le Prince looked at the scene
+from behind the King, and inwardly laughed at his malicious trick.  This
+amusement lasted throughout all the ball, and the King, self-contained as
+he usually was, laughed also; people were never tired of admiring an
+invention so, cruelly ridiculous, and spoke of it for several days.
+
+No evening passed on which there was not a ball.  The chancellor's wife
+gave one which was a fete the most gallant and the most magnificent
+possible.  There were different rooms for the fancy-dress ball, for the
+masqueraders, for a superb collation, for shops of all countries,
+Chinese, Japanese, &c., where many singular and beautiful things were
+sold, but no money taken; they were presents for the Duchesse de
+Bourgogne and the ladies.  Everybody was especially diverted at this
+entertainment, which did not finish until eight o'clock in the morning.
+Madame de Saint-Simon and I passed the last three weeks of this time
+without ever seeing the day.  Certain dancers were only allowed to leave
+off dancing at the same time as the Duchesse de Bourgogne.  One morning,
+at Marty, wishing to escape too early, the Duchess caused me to be
+forbidden to pass the doors of the salon; several of us had the same
+fate.  I was delighted when Ash Wednesday arrived; and I remained a day
+or two dead beat, and Madame de Saint-Simon could not get over Shrove
+Tuesday.
+
+La Bourlie, brother of Guiscard, after having quitted the service, had
+retired to his estate near Cevennes, where he led a life of much licence.
+About this time a robbery was committed in his house; he suspected one of
+the servants, and on his own authority put the man to the torture.  This
+circumstance could not remain so secret but that complaints spread
+abroad.  The offence was a capital one.  La Bourlie fled from the realm,
+and did many strange things until his death, which was still more
+strange; but of which it is not yet time to speak.
+
+Madame la Duchesse, whose heavy tradesmen's debts the King had paid not
+long since, had not dared to speak of her gambling debts, also very
+heavy.  They increased, and, entirely unable to pay them, she found
+herself in the greatest embarrassment.  She feared, above all things,
+lest M. le Prince or M. le Duc should hear of this.  In this extremity
+she addressed herself to Madame de Maintenon, laying bare the state of
+her finances, without the slightest disguise.  Madame de Maintenon had
+pity on her situation, and arranged that the King should pay her debts,
+abstain from scolding her, and keep her secret.  Thus, in a few weeks,
+Madame la Duchesse found herself free of debts, without anybody whom she
+feared having known even of their existence.
+
+Langlee was entrusted with the payment and arrangement of these debts.
+He was a singular kind of man at the Court, and deserves a word.  Born of
+obscure parents, who had enriched themselves, he had early been
+introduced into the great world, and had devoted himself to play, gaining
+an immense fortune; but without being accused of the least unfairness.
+With but little or no wit, but much knowledge of the world, he had
+succeeded in securing many friends, and in making his way at the Court.
+He joined in all the King's parties, at the time of his mistresses.
+Similarity of tastes attached Langlee to Monsieur, but he never lost
+sight of the King.  At all the fetes Langlee was present, he took part in
+the journeys, he was invited to Marly, was intimate with all the King's
+mistresses; then with all the daughters of the King, with whom indeed he
+was so familiar that he often spoke to them with the utmost freedom.  He
+had become such a master of fashions and of fetes that none of the latter
+were given, even by Princes of the blood, except under his directions;
+and no houses were bought, built, furnished, or ornamented, without his
+taste being consulted.  There were no marriages of which the dresses and
+the presents were not chosen, or at least approved, by him.  He was on
+intimate terms with the most distinguished people of the Court; and often
+took improper advantage of his position.  To the daughters of the King
+and to a number of female friends he said horribly filthy things, and
+that too in their own houses, at St. Cloud or at Marly.  He was often
+made a confidant in matters of gallantry, and continued to be made so all
+his life.  For he was a sure man, had nothing disagreeable about him, was
+obliging, always ready to serve others with his purse or his influence,
+and was on bad terms with no one.
+
+While everybody, during all this winter, was at balls and amusements,
+the beautiful Madame de Soubise--for she was so still--employed herself
+with more serious matters.  She had just bought, very cheap, the immense
+Hotel de Guise, that the King assisted her to pay for.  Assisted also by
+the King, she took steps to make her bastard son canon of Strasbourg;
+intrigued so well that his birth was made to pass muster, although among
+Germans there is a great horror of illegitimacy, and he was received into
+the chapter.  This point gained, she laid her plans for carrying out
+another, and a higher one, nothing less than that of making her son
+Archbishop of Strasbourg.
+
+But there was an obstacle, in the way.  This obstacle was the Abbe
+d'Auvergne (nephew of Cardinal de Bouillon), who had the highest position
+in the chapter, that of Grand Prevot, had been there much longer than the
+Abbe de Soubise, was older, and of more consequence.  His reputation,
+however, was against him; his habits were publicly known to be those of
+the Greeks, whilst his intellect resembled theirs in no way.  By his
+stupidity he published his bad conduct, his perfect ignorance, his
+dissipation, his ambition; and to sustain himself he had only a low,
+stinking, continual vanity, which drew upon him as much disdain as did
+his habits, alienated him from all the world, and constantly subjected
+him to ridicule.
+
+The Abbe de Soubise had, on the contrary, everything smiling in his
+favour, even his exterior, which showed that he was born of the tenderest
+amours.  Upon the farms of the Sorbonne he had much distinguished
+himself.  He had been made Prior of Sorbonne, and had shone conspicuously
+in that position, gaining eulogies of the most flattering kind from
+everybody, and highly pleasing the King.  After this, he entered the
+seminary of Saint Magloire, then much in vogue, and gained the good
+graces of the Archbishop of Paris, by whom that seminary was favoured.
+On every side the Abbe de Soubise was regarded, either as a marvel of
+learning, or a miracle of piety and purity of manners.  He had made
+himself loved everywhere, and his gentleness, his politeness, his
+intelligence, his graces, and his talent for securing friends, confirmed
+more and more the reputation he had established.
+
+The Abbe d'Auvergne had a relative, the Cardinal de Furstenberg, who also
+had two nephews, canons of Strasbourg, and in a position to become
+claimants to the bishopric.  Madame de Soubise rightly thought that her
+first step must be to gain over the Cardinal to her side.  There was a
+channel through which this could be done which at once suggested itself
+to her mind.  Cardinal Furstenberg, it was said, had been much enamoured
+of the Comtesse de La Marck, and had married her to one of his nephews,
+in order that he might thus see her more easily.  It was also said that
+he had been well treated, and it is certain that nothing was so striking
+as the resemblance, feature for feature, of the Comte de La Marck to
+Cardinal de Furstenberg.  If the Count was not the son of the Cardinal he
+was nothing to him.  The attachment of Cardinal Furstenberg for the
+Comtesse de La Marck did not abate when she became by her marriage
+Comtesse de Furstenberg; indeed he could not exist without her; she lived
+and reigned in his house.  Her son, the Comte de La Marck, lived there
+also, and her dominion over the Cardinal was so public, that whoever had
+affairs with him spoke to the Countess, if he wished to succeed.  She had
+been very beautiful, and at fifty-two years of age, still showed it,
+although tall, stout, and coarse featured as a Swiss guard in woman's
+clothes.  She was, moreover, bold, audacious, talking loudly and always
+with authority; was polished, however, and of good manners when she
+pleased.  Being the most imperious woman in the world, the Cardinal was
+fairly tied to her apron-strings, and scarcely dared to breathe in her
+presence.  In dress and finery she spent like a prodigal, played every
+night, and lost large sums, oftentimes staking her jewels and her various
+ornaments.  She was a woman who loved herself alone, who wished for
+everything, and who refused herself nothing, not even, it was said,
+certain gallantries which the poor Cardinal was obliged to pay for, as
+for everything else.  Her extravagance was such, that she was obliged to
+pass six or seven months of the year in the country, in order to have
+enough to spend in Paris during the remainder of the year.
+
+It was to the Comtesse de Furstenberg, therefore, that Madame de Soubise
+addressed herself in order to gain over the support of Cardinal de
+Furstenberg, in behalf of her son.  Rumour said, and it was never
+contradicted, that Madame de Soubise paid much money to the Cardinal
+through the Countess, in order to carry this point.  It is certain that
+in addition to the prodigious pensions the Cardinal drew from the King,
+he touched at this time a gratification of forty thousand crowns, that it
+was pretended had been long promised him.
+
+Madame de Soubise having thus assured herself of the Countess and the
+Cardinal (and they having been privately thanked by the King), she caused
+an order to be sent to Cardinal de Bouillon, who was then at Rome,
+requesting him to ask the Pope in the name of the King, for a bull
+summoning the Chapter of Strasbourg to meet and elect a coadjutor and a
+declaration of the eligibility of the Abbe de Soubise.
+
+But here a new obstacle arose in the path of Madame de Soubise.  Cardinal
+de Bouillon, a man of excessive pride and pretension, who upon reaching
+Rome claimed to be addressed as "Most Eminent Highness," and obtaining
+this title from nobody except his servants, set himself at loggerheads
+with all the city--Cardinal de Bouillon, I say, was himself canon of
+Strasbourg, and uncle of the Abbe d'Auvergne.  So anxious was the
+Cardinal to secure the advancement of the Abbe d'Auvergne, that he had
+already made a daring and fraudulent attempt to procure for him a
+cardinalship.  But the false representations which he made in order to
+carry his point, having been seen through, his attempt came to nothing,
+and he himself lost all favour with the King for his deceit.  He,
+however; hoped to make the Abbe d'Auvergne bishop of Strasbourg, and was
+overpowered, therefore, when he saw this magnificent prey about to escape
+him.  The news came upon him like a thunderbolt.  It was bad enough to
+see his hopes trampled under foot; it was insupportable to be obliged to
+aid in crushing them.  Vexation so transported and blinded him, that he
+forgot the relative positions of himself and of Madame de Soubise, and
+imagined that he should be able to make the King break a resolution he
+had taken, and an engagement he had entered into.  He sent therefore, as
+though he had been a great man, a letter to the King, telling him that he
+had not thought sufficiently upon this matter, and raising scruples
+against it.  At the same time he despatched a letter to the canons of
+Strasbourg, full of gall and compliments, trying to persuade them that
+the Abbe de Soubise was too young for the honour intended him, and
+plainly intimating that the Cardinal de Furstenberg had been gained over
+by a heavy bribe paid to the Comtesse de Furstenberg.  These letters.
+made a terrible uproar.
+
+I was at the palace on Tuesday, March 30th, and after supper I saw Madame
+de Soubise arrive, leading the Comtesse de Furstenberg, both of whom
+posted themselves at the door of the King's cabinet.  It was not that
+Madame de Soubise had not the privilege of entering if she pleased, but
+she preferred making her complaint as public as the charges made against
+her by Cardinal de Bouillon had become.  I approached in order to witness
+the scene.  Madame de Soubise appeared scarcely able to contain herself,
+and the Countess seemed furious.  As the King passed, they stopped him.
+Madame de Soubise said two words in a low tone.  The Countess in a louder
+strain demanded justice against the Cardinal de Bouillon, who, she said,
+not content in his pride and ambition with disregarding the orders of the
+King, had calumniated her and Cardinal de Furstenberg in the most
+atrocious manner, and had not even spared Madame de Soubise herself.  The
+King replied to her with much politeness, assured her she should be
+contented, and passed on.
+
+Madame de Soubise was so much the more piqued because Cardinal de
+Bouillon had acquainted the King with the simony she had committed,
+and assuredly if he had not been ignorant of this he would never have
+supported her in the affair.  She hastened therefore to secure the
+success of her son, and was so well served by the whispered authority of
+the King, and the money she had spent, that the Abbe de Soubise was
+elected by unanimity Coadjutor of Strasbourg.
+
+As for the Cardinal de Bouillon, foiled in all his attempts to prevent
+the election, he wrote a second letter to the King, more foolish than the
+first.  This filled the cup to overflowing.  For reply, he received
+orders, by a courier, to quit Rome immediately and to retire to Cluni or
+to Tournus, at his choice, until further orders.  This order appeared so
+cruel to him that he could not make up his mind to obey.  He was
+underdoyen of the sacred college.  Cibo, the doyen, was no longer able to
+leave his bed.  To become doyen, it was necessary to be in Rome when the
+appointment became vacant.  Cardinal de Bouillon wrote therefore to the
+King, begging to be allowed to stay a short time, in order to pray the
+Pope to set aside this rule, and give him permission to succeed to the
+doyenship, even although absent from Rome when it became vacant.  He knew
+he should not obtain this permission, but he asked for it in order to
+gain time, hoping that in the meanwhile Cardinal Cibo might die, or even
+the Pope himself, whose health had been threatened with ruin for some
+time.  This request of the Cardinal de Bouillon was refused.  There
+seemed nothing for him but to comply with the orders he had received.
+But he had evaded them so long that he thought he might continue to do
+so.  He wrote to Pere la Chaise, begging him to ask the King for
+permission to remain at Rome until the death of Cardinal Cibo, adding
+that he would wait for a reply at Caprarole, a magnificent house of the
+Duke of Parma, at eight leagues from Rome.  He addressed himself to Pere
+la Chaise, because M. de Torcy, to whom he had previously written, had
+been forbidden to open his letters, and had sent him word to that effect.
+Having, too, been always on the best of terms with the Jesuits, he hoped
+for good assistance from Pere la Chaise.  But he found this door closed
+like that of M. de Torcy.  Pere la Chaise wrote to Cardinal de Bouillon
+that he too was prohibited from opening his letters.  At the same time a
+new order was sent to the Cardinal to set out immediately.  Just after he
+had read it Cardinal Cibo died, and the Cardinal de Bouillon hastened at
+once to Rome to secure the doyenship, writing to the King to say that he
+had done so, that he would depart in twenty-four hours, and expressing a
+hope that this delay would not be refused him.  This was laughing at the
+King and his orders, and becoming doyen in spite of him.  The King,
+therefore, displayed his anger immediately he learnt this last act of
+disobedience.  He sent word immediately to M. de Monaco to command the
+Cardinal de Bouillon to surrender his charge of grand chaplain, to give
+up his cordon bleu, and to take down the arms of France from the door of
+his palace; M. de Monaco was also ordered to prohibit all French people
+in Rome from seeing Cardinal de Bouillon, or from having any
+communication with him.  M. de Monaco, who hated the Cardinal, hastened
+willingly to obey these instructions.  The Cardinal appeared overwhelmed,
+but he did not even then give in.  He pretended that his charge of grand
+chaplain was a crown office, of which he could not be dispossessed,
+without resigning.  The King, out of all patience with a disobedience so
+stubborn and so marked, ordered, by a decree in council, on the 12th
+September, the seizure of all the Cardinal's estates, laical and
+ecclesiastical, the latter to be confiscated to the state, the former to
+be divided into three portions, and applied to various uses.  The same
+day the charge of grand chaplain was given to Cardinal Coislin, and that
+of chief chaplain to the Bishop of Metz.  The despair of the Cardinal
+de Bouillon, on hearing of this decree, was extreme.  Pride had hitherto
+hindered him from believing that matters would be pushed so far against
+him.  He sent in his resignation only when it was no longer needed of
+him.  His order he would not give up.  M. de Monaco warned him that,
+in case of refusal, he had orders to snatch it from his neck.  Upon this
+the Cardinal saw the folly of holding out against the orders of the King.
+He quitted then the marks of the order, but he was pitiful enough to wear
+a narrow blue ribbon, with a cross of gold attached, under his cassock,
+and tried from time to time to show a little of the blue.  A short time
+afterwards, to make the best of a bad bargain, he tried to persuade
+himself and others, that no cardinal was at liberty to wear the orders of
+any prince.  But it was rather late in the day to think of this, after
+having worn the order of the King for thirty years, as grand chaplain;
+and everybody thought so, and laughed at the idea.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+Chateauneuf, Secretary of State, died about this time.  He had asked that
+his son, La Vrilliere, might be allowed to succeed him, and was much
+vexed that the King refused this favour.  The news of Chateauneuf's death
+was brought to La Vrilliere by a courier, at five o'clock in the morning.
+He did not lose his wits at the news, but at once sent and woke up the
+Princesse d'Harcourt, and begged her to come and see him instantly.
+Opening his purse, he prayed her to go and see Madame de Maintenon as
+soon as she got up, and propose his marriage with Mademoiselle de Mailly,
+whom he would take without dowry, if the King gave him his father's
+appointments.  The Princesse d'Harcourt, whose habit it was to accept any
+sum, from a crown upwards, willingly undertook this strange business.
+She went upon her errand immediately, and then repaired to Madame de
+Mailly, who without property, and burdened with a troop of children--sons
+and daughters, was in no way averse to the marriage.
+
+The King, upon getting up, was duly made acquainted with La Vrilliere's
+proposal, and at once agreed to it.  There was only one person opposed to
+the marriage, and that was Mademoiselle de Mailly.  She was not quite
+twelve years of age.  She burst out a-crying, and declared she was very
+unhappy, that she would not mind marrying a poor man, if necessary,
+provided he was a gentleman, but that to marry a paltry bourgeois, in
+order to make his fortune, was odious to her.  She was furious against
+her mother and against Madame de Maintenon.  She could not be kept quiet
+or appeased, or hindered from making grimaces at La Vrilliere and all his
+family, who came to see her and her mother.
+
+They felt it; but the bargain was made, and was too good to be broken.
+They thought Mademoiselle de Mailly's annoyance would pass with her
+youth--but they were mistaken.  Mademoiselle de Mailly always was sore at
+having been made Madame de la Vrilliere, and people often observed it.
+
+At the marriage of Monseigneur the Duc de Bourgogne, the King had offered
+to augment considerably his monthly income.  The young Prince, who found
+it sufficient, replied with thanks, and said that if money failed him at
+any time he would take the liberty, of asking the King for more.  Finding
+himself short just now, he was as good as his word.  The King praised him
+highly, and told him to ask whenever he wanted money, not through a third
+person, but direct, as he had done in this instance.  The King, moreover,
+told the Duc de Bourgogne to play without fear, for it was of no
+consequence how much such persons as he might lose.  The King was pleased
+with confidence, but liked not less to see himself feared; and when timid
+people who spoke to him discovered themselves, and grew embarrassed in
+their discourse, nothing better made their court, or advanced their
+interests.
+
+The Archbishop of Rheims presided this year over the assembly of the
+clergy, which was held every five years.  It took place on this occasion
+at Saint Germains, although the King of England occupied the chateau.  M.
+de Rheims kept open table there, and had some champagne that was much
+vaunted.  The King of England, who drank scarcely any other wine, heard
+of this and asked for some.  The Archbishop sent him six bottles.  Some
+time after, the King of England, who had much relished the wine, sent and
+asked for more.  The Archbishop, more sparing of his wine than of his
+money, bluntly sent word that his wine was not mad, and did not run
+through the streets; and sent none.  However accustomed people might be
+to the rudeness of the Archbishop, this appeared so strange that it was
+much spoken of: but that was all.
+
+M. de Vendome took another public leave of the King, the Princes, and the
+Princesses, in order to place himself again under the doctor's hands.
+He perceived at last that he was not cured, and that it would be long
+before he was; so went to Anet to try and recover his health, but without
+success better than before.  He brought back a face upon which his state
+was still more plainly printed than at first.  Madame d'Uzes, only
+daughter of the Prince de Monaco, died of this disease.  She was a woman
+of merit--very virtuous and unhappy--who merited a better fate.
+M. d'Uzes was an obscure man, who frequented the lowest society, and
+suffered less from its effects than his wife, who was much pitied and
+regretted.  Her children perished of the same disease, and she left none
+behind her.--[Syphilis.  D.W.]
+
+Soon after this the King ordered the Comtes d'Uzes and d'Albert to go to
+the Conciergerie for having fought a duel against the Comtes de Rontzau,
+a Dane, and Schwartzenberg, an Austrian.  Uzes gave himself up, but the
+Comte d'Albert did not do so for a long Time, and was broken for his
+disobedience.  He had been on more than good terms with Madame de
+Luxembourg--the Comte de Rontzau also: hence the quarrel; the cause of
+which was known by everybody, and made a great stir.  Everybody knew it,
+at least, except M. de Luxembourg, and said nothing, but was glad of it;
+and yet in every direction he asked the reason; but, as may be imagined,
+could find nobody to tell him, so that he went over and over again to M.
+le Prince de Conti, his most intimate friend, praying him for information
+upon the subject.  M. de Conti related to me that on one occasion, coming
+from Meudon, he was so solicited by M. de Luxembourg on this account,
+that he was completely embarrassed, and never suffered to such an extent
+in all his life.  He contrived to put off M. de Luxembourg, and said
+nothing, but was glad indeed to get away from him at the end of the
+journey.
+
+Le Notre died about this time, after having been eighty-eight years in
+perfect health, and with all his faculties and good taste to the very
+last.  He was illustrious, as having been the first designer of those
+beautiful gardens which adorn France, and which, indeed, have so
+surpassed the gardens of Italy, that the most famous masters of that
+country come here to admire and learn.  Le Notre had a probity, an
+exactitude, and an uprightness which made him esteemed and loved by
+everybody.  He never forgot his position, and was always perfectly
+disinterested.  He worked for private people as for the King, and with
+the same application--seeking only to aid nature, and to attain the
+beautiful by the shortest road.  He was of a charming simplicity and
+truthfulness.  The Pope, upon one occasion, begged the King to lend him
+Le Notre for some months.  On entering the Pope's chamber, instead of
+going down upon his knees, Le Notre ran to the Holy Father, clasped him
+round the neck, kissed him on the two cheeks, and said--"Good morning,
+Reverend Father; how well you look, and how glad I am to see you in such
+good health."
+
+The Pope, who was Clement X., Altieri, burst out laughing with all his
+might.  He was delighted with this odd salutation, and showed his
+friendship towards the gardener in a thousand ways.  Upon Le Notre's
+return, the King led him into the gardens of Versailles, and showed him
+what had been done in his absence.  About the Colonnade he said nothing.
+The King pressed him to give his opinion thereupon.
+
+"Why, sire," said Le Notre, "what can I say?  Of a mason you have made a
+gardener, and he has given you a sample of his trade."
+
+The King kept silence and everybody laughed; and it was true that this
+morsel of architecture, which was anything but a fountain, and yet which
+was intended to be one, was much out of place in a garden.  A month
+before Le Notre's death, the King, who liked to see him and to make him
+talk, led him into the gardens, and on account of his great age, placed
+him in a wheeled chair, by the side of his own.  Upon this Le Notre said,
+"Ah, my poor father, if you were living and could see a simple gardener
+like me, your son, wheeled along in a chair by the side of the greatest
+King in the world, nothing would be wanting to my joy!"
+
+Le Notre was Overseer of the Public Buildings, and lodged at the
+Tuileries, the garden of which (his design), together with the Palace,
+being under his charge.  All that he did is still much superior to
+everything that has been done since, whatever care may have been taken to
+imitate and follow him as closely as possible.  He used to say of flower-
+beds that they were only good for nurses, who, not being able to quit the
+children, walked on them with their eyes, and admired them from the
+second floor.  He excelled, nevertheless, in flowerbeds, as in everything
+concerning gardens; but he made little account of them, and he was right,
+for they are the spots upon which people never walk.
+
+The King of England (William III.) lost the Duke of Gloucester, heir-
+presumptive to the crown.  He was eleven years of age, and was the only
+son of the Princess of Denmark, sister of the defunct Queen Mary, wife of
+William.  His preceptor was Doctor Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, who was
+in the secret of the invasion, and who passed into England with the
+Prince of Orange at the Revolution, of which Revolution he has left a
+very fraudulent history, and many other works of as little truth and good
+faith.  The underpreceptor was the famous Vassor, author of the "History
+of Louis XIII.,"  which would be read with more pleasure if there were
+less spite against the Catholic religion, and less passion against the
+King.  With those exceptions it is excellent and true.  Vassor must have
+been singularly well informed of the anecdotes that he relates, and which
+escape almost all historians.  I have found there, for instance, the Day
+of the Dupes related precisely as my father has related it to me, and
+several other curious things not less exact.  This author has made such a
+stir that it is worth while to say something about him.  He was a priest
+of the Oratory, and in much estimation as a man whose manners were
+without reproach.  After a time, however, he was found to have disclosed
+a secret that had been entrusted to him, and to have acted the spy on
+behalf of the Jesuits.  The proofs of his treason were found upon his
+table, and were so conclusive that there was nothing for him but to leave
+the Oratory.  He did so, and being deserted by his Jesuit employers,
+threw himself into La Trappe.  But he did not enter the place in a proper
+spirit, and in a few days withdrew.  After this he went to the Abbey of
+Perseigne, hired a lodging there, and remained several months.  But he
+was continually at loggerheads with the monks.  Their garden was separate
+from his only by a thick hedge; their fowls could jump over it.  He laid
+the blame upon the monks, and one day caught as many of their fowls as he
+could; cut off their beaks and their spurs with a cleaver, and threw them
+back again over the hedge.  This was cruelty so marked that I could not
+refrain from relating it.
+
+Vassor did not long remain in this retreat, but returned to Paris, and
+still being unable to gain a living, passed into Holland, from rage and
+hunger became a Protestant, and set himself to work to live by his pen.
+His knowledge, talent, and intelligence procured him many friends, and
+his reputation reached England, into which country he passed, hoping to
+gain there more fortune than in Holland.  Burnet received him with open
+arms, and obtained for him the post of under-preceptor to the Duke of
+Gloucester.  It would have been difficult to have found two instructors
+so opposed to the Catholics and to France, or so well suited to the King
+as teachers of his successor.
+
+Among so many things which paved the way for the greatest events, a very
+strange one happened, which from its singularity merits a short recital.
+For many years the Comtesse de Verrue lived at Turin, mistress, publicly,
+of M. de Savoie.  The Comtesse de Verrue was daughter of the Duc de
+Luynes, and had been married in Piedmont, when she was only fourteen
+years of age, to the Comte de Verrue, young, handsome, rich, and honest;
+whose mother was lady of honour to Madame de Savoie.
+
+M. de Savoie often met the Comtesse de Verrue, and soon found her much to
+his taste.  She saw this, and said so to her husband and her mother-in-
+law.  They praised her, but took no further notice of the matter.  M. de
+Savoie redoubled his attentions, and, contrary to his usual custom, gave
+fetes, which the Comtesse de Verrue felt were for her.  She did all she
+could not to attend them, but her mother-in-law quarrelled with her, said
+she wished to play the important, and that it was her vanity which gave
+her these ideas.  Her husband, more gentle, desired her to attend these
+fetes, saying that even if M. de Savoie were really in love with her, it
+would not do to fail in anything towards him.  Soon after M. de Savoie
+spoke to the Comtesse de Verrue.  She told her husband and her mother-in-
+law, and used every entreaty in order to prevail upon them to let her go
+and pass some time in the country.  They would not listen to her, and
+seeing no other course open, she feigned to be ill, and had herself sent
+to the waters of Bourbon.  She wrote to her father, the Duc de Luynes, to
+meet her there, and set out under the charge of the Abbe de Verrue; uncle
+of her husband.  As soon as the Duc de Luynes arrived at Bourbon, and
+became acquainted with the danger which threatened his daughter; he
+conferred with the Abbe as to the best course to adopt, and agreed with
+him that the Countess should remain away from Turin some time, in order
+that M. de Savoie might get cured of his passion.  M. de Luynes little
+thought that he had conferred with a wolf who wished to carry off his
+lamb.  The Abbe de Verrue, it seems, was himself violently in love with
+the Countess, and directly her father had gone declared the state of his
+heart.  Finding himself only repulsed, the miserable old man turned his
+love into hate; ill-treated the Countess, and upon her return to Turin,
+lost no opportunity of injuring her in the eyes of her husband and her
+mother-in-law.
+
+The Comtesse de Verrue suffered this for some time, but at last her
+virtue yielded to the bad treatment she received.  She listened to M. de
+Savoie, and delivered herself up to him in order to free herself from
+persecution.  Is not this a real romance?  But it happened in our own
+time, under the eyes and to the knowledge of everybody.
+
+When the truth became known, the Verrues were in despair, although they
+had only themselves to blame for what had happened.  Soon the new
+mistress ruled all the Court of Savoy, whose sovereign was at her feet as
+before a goddess.  She disposed of the favours of her lover, and was
+feared and courted by the ministry.  Her haughtiness made her hated; she
+was poisoned; M. de Savoie gave her a subtle antidote, which fortunately
+cured her, and without injury to her beauty.  Her reign still lasted.
+After a while she had the small-pox.  M. de Savoie tended her during this
+illness, as though he had been a nurse; and although her face suffered a
+little by it, he loved her not the less.  But he loved her after his own
+fashion.  He kept her shut up from view, and at last she grew so tired of
+her restraint that she determined to fly.  She conferred with her
+brother, the Chevalier de Luynes, who served with much distinction in the
+navy, and together they arranged the matter.
+
+They seized an opportunity when M. de Savoie had gone on a tour to
+Chambery, and departed furtively.  Crossing our frontier, they arrived m
+Paris, where the Comtesse de Verrue, who had grown very rich, took a
+house, and by degrees succeeded in getting people to come and see her,
+though, at first, owing to the scandal of her life, this was difficult.
+In the end, her opulence gained her a large number of friends, and she
+availed herself so well of her opportunities, that she became of much
+importance, and influenced strongly the government.  But that time goes
+beyond my memoirs.  She left in Turin a son and a daughter, both
+recognised by M. de Savoie, after the manner of our King.  He loved
+passionately these, illegitimate children, and married the daughter to
+the Prince de Carignan.
+
+Mademoiselle de Conde died at Paris on October 24th, after a long
+illness, from a disease in the chest, which consumed her less than the
+torments she experienced without end from M. le Prince, her father, whose
+continual caprices were the plague of all those over whom he could
+exercise them.  Almost all the children of M. le Prince were little
+bigger than dwarfs, which caused M. le Prince, who was tall, to say in
+pleasantry, that if his race went on always thus diminishing it would
+come to nothing.  People attributed the cause to a dwarf that Madame la
+Princesse had had for a long time near her.
+
+At the funeral of Mademoiselle de Conde, a very indecorous incident
+happened.  My mother, who was invited to take part in the ceremony, went
+to the Hotel de Conde, in a coach and six horses, to join Mademoiselle
+d'Enghien.  When the procession was about to start the Duchesse de
+Chatillon tried to take precedence of my mother.  But my mother called
+upon Mademoiselle d'Enghien to prevent this, or else to allow her to
+return.  Madame de Chatillon persisted in her attempt, saying that
+relationship decided the question of precedence on these occasions, and
+that she was a nearer relative to the deceased than my mother.  My
+mother, in a cold but haughty tone, replied that she could pardon this
+mistake on account of the youth and ignorance of Madame de Chatillon; but
+that in all such cases it was rank and not relationship which decided the
+point.  The dispute was at last put to an end by Madame de Chatillon
+giving way.  But when the procession started an attempt was made by her
+coachman to drive before the coach of my mother, and one of the company
+had to descend and decide the dispute.  On the morrow M. le Prince sent
+to apologise to my mother for the occurrence that had taken place, and
+came himself shortly afterwards full of compliments and excuses.  I never
+could understand what induced Madame de Chatillon to take this fancy into
+her head; but she was much ashamed of it afterwards, and made many
+excuses to my mother.
+
+I experienced, shortly after this, at Fontainebleau, one of the greatest
+afflictions I had ever endured.  I mean the loss of M. de La Trappe,
+These Memoirs are too profane to treat slightly of a life so sublimely
+holy, and of a death so glorious and precious before God.  I will content
+myself with saying here that praises of M. de La Trappe were so much the
+more great and prolonged because the King eulogised him in public; that
+he wished to see narrations of his death; and that he spoke more than
+once of it to his grandsons by way of instruction.  In every part of
+Europe this great loss was severely felt.  The Church wept for him, and
+the world even rendered him justice.  His death, so happy for him and so
+sad for his friends, happened on the 26th of October, towards half-past
+twelve, in the arms of his bishop, and in presence of his community, at
+the age of nearly seventy-seven years, and after nearly forty years of
+the most prodigious penance.  I cannot omit, however, the most touching
+and the most honourable mark of his friendship.  Lying upon the ground,
+on straw and ashes, in order to die like all the brethren of La Trappe,
+he deigned, of his own accord, to recollect me, and charged the Abbe La
+Trappe to send word to me, on his part, that as he was quite sure of my
+affection for him, he reckoned that I should not doubt of his tenderness
+for me.  I check myself at this point; everything I could add would be
+too much out of place here.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+But with a crawling baseness equal to her previous audacity
+He limped audaciously
+Height to which her insignificance had risen
+His death, so happy for him and so sad for his friends
+His habits were publicly known to be those of the Greeks
+In order to say something cutting to you, says it to himself
+Madame de Maintenon in returning young and poor from America
+No means, therefore, of being wise among so many fools
+Omissions must be repaired as soon as they are perceived
+Pope excommunicated those who read the book or kept it
+She lose her head, and her accomplice to be broken on the wheel
+The clergy, to whom envy is not unfamiliar
+The porter and the soldier were arrested and tortured
+Whitehall, the largest and ugliest palace in Europe
+World; so unreasoning, and so little in accord with itself
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Memoirs of Louis XIV. and The Regency,
+v2, by the Duc de Saint-Simon
+
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