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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Memoirs of Louis XIV., Volume 6
+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 6
+       And His Court and of The Regency
+
+Author: Duc de Saint-Simon
+
+Release Date: December 3, 2004 [EBook #3865]
+
+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 6.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX
+
+I went this summer to Forges, to try, by means of the waters there, to
+get rid of a tertian fever that quinquina only suspended.  While there I
+heard of a new enterprise on the part of the Princes of the blood, who,
+in the discredit in which the King held them, profited without measure by
+his desire for the grandeur of the illegitimate children, to acquire new
+advantages which were suffered because the others shared them.  This was
+the case in question.
+
+After the elevation of the mass--at the King's communion--a folding-chair
+was pushed to the foot of the altar, was covered with a piece of stuff,
+and then with a large cloth, which hung down before and behind.  At the
+Pater the chaplain rose and whispered in the King's ear the names of all
+the Dukes who were in the chapel.  The King named two, always the oldest,
+to each of whom the chaplain advanced and made a reverence.  During the
+communion of the priest the King rose, and went and knelt down on the
+bare floor behind this folding seat, and took hold of the cloth; at the
+same time the two Dukes, the elder on the right, the other on the left,
+each took hold of a corner of the cloth; the two chaplains took hold of
+the other two corners of the same cloth, on the side of the altar, all
+four kneeling, and the captain of the guards also kneeling and behind the
+King.  The communion received and the oblation taken some moments
+afterwards, the King remained a little while in the same place, then
+returned to his own, followed by the two Dukes and the captain of the
+guards, who took theirs.  If a son of France happened to be there alone,
+he alone held the right corner of the cloth, and nobody the other; and
+when M. le Duc d'Orleans was there, and no son of France was present, M.
+le Duc d'Orleans held the cloth in like manner.  If a Prince of the blood
+were alone present, however, he held the cloth, but a Duke was called
+forward to assist him.  He was not privileged to act without the Duke.
+
+The Princes of the blood wanted to change this; they were envious of the
+distinction accorded to M. d'Orleans, and wished to put themselves on the
+same footing.  Accordingly, at the Assumption of this year, they managed
+so well that M. le Duc served alone at the altar at the King's communion,
+no Duke being called upon to come and join him.  The surprise at this was
+very great.  The Duc de la Force and the Marechal de Boufflers, who ought
+to have served, were both present.  I wrote to this last to say that such
+a thing had never happened before, and that it was contrary to all
+precedent.  I wrote, too, to M. d'Orleans, who was then in Spain,
+informing him of the circumstance.  When he returned he complained to the
+King.  But the King merely said that the Dukes ought to have presented
+themselves and taken hold of the cloth.  But how could they have done so,
+without being requested, as was customary, to come forward?  What would
+the king have thought of them if they had?  To conclude, nothing could be
+made of the matter, and it remained thus.  Never then, since that time,
+did I go to the communions of the King.
+
+An incident occurred at Marly about the same time, which made much stir.
+The ladies who were invited to Marly had the privilege of dining with the
+King.  Tables were placed for them, and they took up positions according
+to their rank.  The non-titled ladies had also their special place.  It
+so happened one day; that Madame de Torcy (an untitled lady) placed
+herself above the Duchesse de Duras, who arrived at table a moment after
+her.  Madame de Torcy offered to give up her place, but it was a little
+late, and the offer passed away in compliments.  The King entered, and
+put himself at table.  As soon as he sat down, he saw the place Madame de
+Torcy had taken, and fixed such a serious and surprised look upon her,
+that she again offered to give up her place to the Duchesse de Duras; but
+the offer was again declined.  All through the dinner the King scarcely
+ever took his eyes off Madame de Torcy, said hardly a word, and bore a
+look of anger that rendered everybody very attentive, and even troubled
+the Duchesse de Duras.
+
+Upon rising from the table, the King passed, according to custom, into
+the apartments of Madame de Maintenon, followed by the Princesses of the
+blood, who grouped themselves around him upon stools; the others who
+entered, kept at a distance.  Almost before he had seated himself in his
+chair, he said to Madame de Maintenon, that he had just been witness of
+an act of "incredible insolence" (that was the term he used) which had
+thrown him into such a rage that he had been unable to eat: that such an
+enterprise would have been insupportable in a woman of the highest
+quality; but coming, as it did, from a mere bourgeoise, it had so
+affected him, that ten times he had been upon the point of making her
+leave the table, and that he was only restrained by consideration for her
+husband.  After this outbreak he made a long discourse upon the genealogy
+of Madame de Torcy's family, and other matters; and then, to the
+astonishment of all present, grew as angry as ever against Madame de
+Torcy.  He went off then into a discourse upon the dignity of the Dukes,
+and in conclusion, he charged the Princesses to tell Madame de Torcy to
+what extent he had found her conduct impertinent.  The Princesses looked
+at each other, and not one seemed to like this commission; whereupon the
+King, growing more angry, said; that it must be undertaken however, and
+left the robes; The news of what had taken place, and of the King's
+choler, soon spread all over the Court.  It was believed, however, that
+all was over, and that no more would be heard of the matter.  Yet the
+very same evening the King broke out again with even more bitterness than
+before.  On the morrow, too, surprise was great indeed, when it was found
+that the King, immediately after dinner, could talk of nothing but this
+subject, and that, too, without any softening of tone.  At last he was
+assured that Madame de Torcy had been spoken to, and this appeased him a
+little.  Torcy was obliged to write him a letter, apologising for the
+fault of Madame de Torcy; and the King at this grew content.  It may be
+imagined what a sensation this adventure produced all through the Court.
+
+While upon the subject of the King, let me relate an anecdote of him,
+which should have found a place ere this.  When M. d'Orleans was about to
+start for Spain, he named the officers who were to be of his suite.
+Amongst others was Fontpertius.  At that name the King put on a serious
+look.
+
+"What! my nephew," he said.  "Fontpertius!  the son of a Jansenist--of
+that silly woman who ran everywhere after M. Arnould!  I do not wish that
+man to go with you."
+
+"By my faith, Sire," replied the Duc d'Orleans, "I know not what the
+mother has done; but as for the son, he is far enough from being a
+Jansenist, I'll answer for it; for he does not believe in God."
+
+"Is it possible, my nephew?"  said the King, softening.
+
+"Nothing more certain, Sire, I assure you."
+
+"Well, since it is so," said the King, "there is no harm: you can take
+him with you."
+
+This scene--for it can be called by no other name--took place in the
+morning.  After dinner M. d'Orleans repeated it to me, bursting with
+laughter, word for word, just as I have written it.  When we had both
+well laughed at this, we admired the profound instruction of a discreet
+and religious King, who considered it better not to believe in God than
+to be a Jansenist, and who thought there was less danger to his nephew
+from the impiety of an unbeliever than from the doctrines of a sectarian.
+M. d'Orleans could not contain himself while he told the story, and never
+spoke of it without laughing until the tears came into his eyes.  It ran
+all through the Court and all over the town, and the marvellous thing
+was, that the King was not angry at this.  It was a testimony of his
+attachment to the good doctrine which withdrew him further and further
+from Jansenism.  The majority of people laughed with all their heart.
+Others, more wise, felt rather disposed to weep than to laugh, in
+considering to what excess of blindness the King had reached.
+
+For a long time a most important project had knocked at every door,
+without being able to obtain a hearing anywhere.  The project was this:--
+Hough, an English gentleman full of talent and knowledge, and who, above
+all, knew profoundly the laws of his country, had filled various posts in
+England.  As first a minister by profession, and furious against King
+James; afterwards a Catholic and King James's spy, he had been delivered
+up to King William, who pardoned him.  He profited by this only to
+continue his services to James.  He was taken several times, and always
+escaped from the Tower of London and other prisons.  Being no longer able
+to dwell in England he came to France, where he occupied himself always
+with the same line of business, and was paid for that by the King (Louis
+XIV.) and by King James, the latter of whom he unceasingly sought to re-
+establish.  The union of Scotland with England appeared to him a
+favourable conjuncture, by the despair of that ancient kingdom at seeing
+itself reduced into a province under the yoke of the English.  The
+Jacobite party remained there; the vexation caused by this forced union
+had increased it, by the desire felt to break that union with the aid of
+a King that they would have reestablished.  Hough, who was aware of the
+fermentation going on, made several secret journeys to Scotland, and
+planned an invasion of that country; but, as I have said, for a long time
+could get no one to listen to him.
+
+The King, indeed, was so tired of such enterprises, that nobody dared to
+speak to him upon this.  All drew back.  No one liked to bell the cat.
+At last, however, Madame de Maintenon being gained over, the King was
+induced to listen to the project.  As soon as his consent was gained to
+it, another scheme was added to the first.  This was to profit by the
+disorder in which the Spanish Low Countries were thrown, and to make them
+revolt against the Imperialists at the very moment when the affair of
+Scotland would bewilder the allies, and deprive them of all support from
+England.  Bergheyck, a man well acquainted with the state of those
+countries, was consulted, and thought the scheme good.  He and the Duc de
+Vendome conferred upon it in presence of the King.
+
+After talking over various matters, the discussion fell, upon the Meuse,
+and its position with reference to Maastricht.  Vendome held that the
+Meuse flowed in a certain direction.  Bergheyck opposed him.  Vendome,
+indignant that a civilian should dare to dispute military movements with
+him, grew warm.  The other remained respectful and cool, but firm.
+Vendome laughed at Bergheyck, as at an ignorant fellow who did not know
+the position of places.  Bergheyck maintained his point.  Vendome grew
+more and more hot.  If he was right, what he proposed was easy enough; if
+wrong, it was impossible.  It was in vain that Vendome pretended to treat
+with disdain his opponent; Bergheyck was not to be put down, and the
+King, tired out at last with a discussion upon a simple question of fact,
+examined the maps.  He found at once that Bergheyck was right.  Any other
+than the King would have felt by this what manner of man was this general
+of his taste, of his heart, and of his confidence; any other than Vendome
+would have been confounded; but it was Bergheyck in reality who was so,
+to see the army in such hands and the blindness of the King for him!  He
+was immediately sent into Flanders to work up a revolt, and he did it so
+well, that success seemed certain, dependent, of course, upon success in
+Scotland.
+
+The preparations for the invasion of that country were at once commenced.
+Thirty vessels were armed at Dunkerque and in the neighbouring ports.
+The Chevalier de Forbin was chosen to command the squadron.  Four
+thousand men were brought from Flanders to Dunkerque; and it was given
+out that this movement was a mere change of garrison.  The secret of the
+expedition was well kept; but the misfortune was that things were done
+too slowly.  The fleet, which depended upon Pontchartrain, was not ready
+in time, and that which depended upon Chamillart, was still more
+behindhand.  The two ministers threw the fault upon each other; but the
+truth is, both were to blame.  Pontchartrain was more than accused of
+delaying matters from unwillingness; the other from powerlessness.
+
+Great care was taken that no movement should be seen at Saint Germain.
+The affair, however, began in time to get noised abroad.  A prodigious
+quantity of arms and clothing for the Scotch had been embarked; the
+movements by sea and land became only too visible upon the coast.  At
+last, on Wednesday, the 6th of March, the King of England set out from
+Saint Germain.  He was attended by the Duke of Perth, who had been his
+sub-preceptor; by the two Hamiltons, by Middleton, and a very few others.
+But his departure had been postponed too long.  At the moment when all
+were ready to start, people learned with surprise that the English fleet
+had appeared in sight, and was blockading Dunkerque.  Our troops, who
+were already on board ship, were at once landed.  The King of England
+cried out so loudly against this, and proposed so eagerly that an attempt
+should be made to pass the enemy at all risks, that a fleet was sent out
+to reconnoitre the enemy, and the troops were re-embarked.  But then a
+fresh mischance happened.  The Princess of England had had the measles,
+and was barely growing convalescent at the time of the departure of the
+King, her brother.  She had been prevented from seeing him, lest he
+should be attacked by the same complaint.  In spite of this precaution,
+however, it declared itself upon him at Dunkerque, just as the troops
+were re-embarked.  He was in despair, and wished to be wrapped up in
+blankets and carried on board.  The doctors said that it would kill him;
+and he was obliged to remain.  The worst of it was, that two of five
+Scotch deputies who had been hidden at Montrouge near Paris, had been
+sent into Scotland a fortnight before, to announce the immediate arrival
+of the King with arms and troops.  The movement which it was felt this
+announcement would create, increased the impatience for departure.  At
+last, on Saturday, the 19th of March, the King of England, half cured and
+very weak, determined to embark in spite of his physicians, and did so.
+The enemy's vessels hats retired; so, at six o'clock in the morning, our
+ships set sail with a good breeze, and in the midst of a mist, which hid
+them from view in about an hour.
+
+Forty-eight hours after the departure of our squadron, twenty-seven
+English ships of war appeared before Dunkerque.  But our fleet was away.
+The very first night it experienced a furious tempest.  The ship in which
+was the King of England took shelter afterwards behind the works of
+Ostend.  During the storm, another ship was separated from the squadron,
+and was obliged to take refuge on the coast of Picardy.  This vessel, a
+frigate, was commanded by Rambure, a lieutenant.  As, soon as he was able
+he sailed after the squadron that he believed already in Scotland.  He
+directed his course towards Edinburgh, and found no vessel during all the
+voyage.  As he approached the mouth of the river, he saw around him a
+number of barques and small vessels that he could not avoid, and that he
+determined in consequence to approach with as good a grace as possible.
+The masters of these ships' told him that the King was expected with
+impatience, but that they had no news of him, that they had come out to
+meet him, and that they would send pilots to Rambure, to conduct him up
+the river to Edinburgh, where all was hope and joy.  Rambure, equally
+surprised that the squadron which bore the King of England had not
+appeared, and by the publicity of his forthcoming arrival, went up
+towards Edinburgh more and more surrounded by barques, which addressed to
+him the same language.  A gentleman of the country passed from one of
+these barques upon the frigate.  He told Rambure that the principal
+noblemen of Scotland had resolved to act together, that these noblemen
+could count upon more than twenty thousand men ready to take up arms, and
+that all the towns awaited only the arrival of the King to proclaim him.
+
+More and more troubled that the squadron did not appear, Rambure, after a
+time, turned back and went in search of it.  As he approached the mouth
+of the river, which he had so lately entered, he heard a great noise of
+cannon out at sea, and a short time afterwards he saw many vessels of war
+there.  Approaching more and more, and quitting the river, he
+distinguished our squadron, chased by twenty-six large ships of war and a
+number of other vessels, all of which he soon lost sight of, so much was
+our squadron in advance.  He continued on his course in order to join
+them; but he could not do so until all had passed by the mouth of the
+river.  Then steering clear of the rear-guard of the English ships, he
+remarked that the English fleet was hotly chasing the ship of the King of
+England, which ran along the coast, however, amid the fire of cannon and
+oftentimes of musketry.  Rambure tried, for a long time, to profit by the
+lightness of his frigate to get ahead; but, always cut off by the enemy's
+vessels, and continually in danger of being taken, he returned to
+Dunkerque, where he immediately despatched to the Court this sad and
+disturbing news.  He was followed, five or six days after, by the King of
+England, who returned to Dunkerque on the 7th of April, with his vessels
+badly knocked about.
+
+It seems that the ship in which was the Prince, after experiencing the
+storm I have already alluded to, set sail again with its squadron, but
+twice got out of its reckoning within forty-eight hours; a fact not easy
+to understand in a voyage from Ostend to Edinburgh.  This circumstance
+gave time to the English to join them; thereupon the King held a council,
+and much time was lost in deliberations.  When the squadron drew near the
+river, the enemy was so close upon us, that to enter, without fighting
+either inside or out, seemed impossible.  In this emergency it was
+suggested that our ships should go on to Inverness, about eighteen or
+twenty leagues further off.  But this was objected to by Middleton and
+the Chevalier Forbin, who declared that the King of England was expected
+only at Edinburgh, and that it was useless to go elsewhere; and
+accordingly the project was given up, and the ships returned to France.
+
+This return, however, was not accomplished without some difficulty.  The
+enemy's fleet attacked the rear guard of ours, and after an obstinate
+combat, took two vessels of war and some other vessels.  Among the
+prisoners made by the English were the Marquis de Levi, Lord Griffin, and
+the two sons of Middleton; who all, after suffering some little bad
+treatment, were conducted to London.
+
+Lord Griffin was an old Englishman, who deserves a word of special
+mention.  A firm Protestant, but much attached to the King of England, he
+knew nothing of this expedition until after the King's departure.  He
+went immediately in quest of the Queen.  With English freedom he
+reproached her for the little confidence she had had in him, in spite of
+his services and his constant fidelity, and finished by assuring her that
+neither his age nor his religion would hinder him from serving the King
+to the last drop of his blood.  He spoke so feelingly that the Queen was
+ashamed.  After this he went to Versailles, asked M. de Toulouse for a
+hundred Louis and a horse, and without delay rode off to Dunkerque, where
+he embarked with the others.  In London he was condemned to death; but
+he showed so much firmness and such disdain of death, that his judges
+were too much ashamed to avow the execution to be carried out.  The Queen
+sent him one respite, then another, although he had never asked for
+either, and finally he was allowed to remain at liberty in London on
+parole.  He always received fresh respites, and lived in London as if it
+his own country, well received everywhere.  Being informed that these
+respites would never cease, he lived thus several years, and died very
+old, a natural death.  The other prisoners were equally well treated.  It
+was in this expedition that the King of England first assumed the title
+of the Chevalier de Saint George, and that his enemies gave him that of
+the Pretender; both of which have remained to him.  He showed much will
+and firmness, which he spoiled by a docility, the result of a bad
+education, austere and confined, that devotion, ill understood, together
+with the desire of maintaining him in fear and dependence, caused the
+Queen (who, with all her sanctity, always wished to dominate) to give
+him.  He asked to serve in the next campaign in Flanders, and wished to
+go there at once, or remain near Dunkerque.  Service was promised him,
+but he was made to return to Saint Germain.  Hough, who had been made a
+peer of Ireland before starting, preceded him with the journals of the
+voyage, and that of Forbin, to whom the King gave a thousand crowns
+pension and ten thousand as a recompense.
+
+The King of England arrived at Saint Germain on Friday, the 20th of
+April, and came with the Queen, the following Sunday, to Marly, where our
+King was.  The two Kings embraced each other several times, in the
+presence of the two Courts.  But the visit altogether was a sad one.  The
+Courts, which met in the garden, returned towards the Chateau, exchanging
+indifferent words in an indifferent way.
+
+Middleton was strongly suspected of having acquainted the English with
+our project.  They acted, at all events, as if they had been informed of
+everything, and wished to appear to know nothing.  They made a semblance
+of sending their fleet to escort a convoy to Portugal; they got in
+readiness the few troops they had in England and sent them towards
+Scotland; and the Queen, under various pretexts, detained in London,
+until the affair had failed, the Duke of Hamilton, the most powerful
+Scotch lord; and the life and soul of the expedition.  When all was over,
+she made no arrests, and wisely avoided throwing Scotland into despair.
+This conduct much augmented her authority in England, attached all hearts
+to her, and took away all desire of stirring again by taking away all
+hope of success.  Thus failed a project so well and so secretly conducted
+until the end, which was pitiable; and with this project failed that of
+the Low Countries, which was no longer thought of.
+
+The allies uttered loud cries against this attempt on the part of a power
+they believed at its last gasp, and which, while pretending to seek
+peace, thought of nothing less than the invasion of Great Britain.  The
+effect of our failure was to bind closer, and to irritate more and more
+this formidable alliance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL
+
+Brissac, Major of the Body-guards, died of age and ennui about this time,
+more than eighty years old, at his country-house, to which he had not
+long retired.  The King had made use of him to put the Guards upon that
+grand military footing they have reached.  He had acquired the confidence
+of the King by his inexorable exactitude, his honesty, and his aptitude.
+He was a sort of wild boar, who had all the appearance of a bad man,
+without being so in reality; but his manners were, it must be admitted,
+harsh and disagreeable.  The King, speaking one day of the majors of the
+troops, said that if they were good, they were sure to be hated.
+
+"If it is necessary to be perfectly hated in order to be a good major,"
+replied M. de Duras, who was behind the King with the baton, "behold,
+Sire, the best major in France!" and he took Brissac, all confusion, by
+the arm.  The King laughed, though he would have thought such a sally
+very bad in any other; but M. de Duras had put himself on such a free
+footing, that he stopped at nothing before the King, and often said the
+sharpest things.  This major had very robust health, and laughed at the
+doctors--very often, even before the King, at Fagon, whom nobody else
+would have dared to attack.  Fagon replied by disdain, often by anger,
+and with all his wit was embarrassed.  These short scenes were sometimes
+very amusing.
+
+Brissac, a few years before his retirement, served the Court ladies a
+nice turn.  All through the winter they attended evening prayers on
+Thursdays and Sundays, because the King went there; and, under the
+pretence of reading their prayer-books, had little tapers before them,
+which cast a light on their faces, and enabled the King to recognise them
+as he passed.  On the evenings when they knew he would not go, scarcely
+one of them went.  One evening, when the King was expected, all the
+ladies had arrived, and were in their places, and the guards were at
+their doors.  Suddenly, Brissac appeared in the King's place, lifted his
+baton, and cried aloud, "Guards of the King, withdraw, return to your
+quarters; the King is not coming this evening."  The guards withdrew; but
+after they had proceeded a short distance, were stopped by brigadiers
+posted for the purpose, and told to return in a few minutes.  What
+Brissac had said was a joke.  The ladies at once began to murmur one to
+another.  In a moment or two all the candles were put out, and the
+ladies, with but few exceptions, left the chapel.  Soon after the King
+arrived, and, much astonished to see so few ladies present, asked how it
+was that nobody was there.  At the conclusion of the prayers Brissac
+related what he had done, not without dwelling on the piety of the Court
+ladies.  The King and all who accompanied him laughed heartily.  The
+story soon spread, and these ladies would have strangled Brissac if they
+had been able.
+
+The Duchesse de Bourgogne being in the family way this spring, was much
+inconvenienced.  The King wished to go to Fontainebleau at the
+commencement of the fine season, contrary to his usual custom; and had
+declared this wish.  In the mean time he desired to pay visits to Marly.
+Madame de Bourgogne much amused him; he could not do without her, yet so
+much movement was not suitable to her state.  Madame de Maintenon was
+uneasy, and Fagon gently intimated his opinion.  This annoyed the King,
+accustomed to restrain himself for nothing, and spoiled by having seen
+his mistresses travel when big with child, or when just recovering from
+their confinement, and always in full dress.  The hints against going to
+Marly bothered him, but did not make him give them up.  All he would
+consent to was, that the journey should put off from the day after
+Quasimodo to the Wednesday of the following week; but nothing could make
+him delay his amusement, beyond that time, or induce him to allow the
+Princess to remain at Versailles.
+
+
+[Illustration: The King's Walk At Versailles--Painted by J. L. Jerome--484]
+
+
+On the following Saturday, as the King was taking a walk after mass, and
+amusing himself at the carp basin between the Chateau and the
+Perspective, we saw the Duchesse de Lude coming towards him on foot and
+all alone, which, as no lady was with the King, was a rarity in the
+morning.  We understood that she had something important to say to him,
+and when he was a short distance from her, we stopped so as to allow him
+to join her alone.  The interview was not long.  She went away again, and
+the King came back towards us and near the carps without saying a word.
+Each saw clearly what was in the wind, and nobody was eager to speak.  At
+last the King, when quite close to the basin, looked at the principal
+people around, and without addressing anybody, said, with an air of
+vexation, these few words:
+
+"The Duchesse de Bourgogne is hurt."
+
+M. de la Rochefoucauld at once uttered an exclamation.  M. de Bouillon,
+the Duc de Tresmes, and Marechal de Boufflers repeated in a, low tone the
+words I have named; and M. de la Rochefoucauld returning to the charge,
+declared emphatically that it was the greatest misfortune in the world,
+and that as she had already wounded herself on other occasions, she might
+never, perhaps, have any more children.
+
+"And if so," interrupted the King all on a sudden, with anger, "what is
+that to me?  Has she not already a son; and if he should die, is not the
+Duc de Berry old enough to marry and have one?  What matters it to the
+who succeeds me,--the one or the other?  Are the not all equally my
+grandchildren?"  And immediately, with impetuosity he added, "Thank God,
+she is wounded, since she was to be so; and I shall no longer be annoyed
+in my journeys and in everything I wish to do, by the representations of
+doctors, and the reasonings of matrons.  I shall go and come at my
+pleasure, and shall be left in peace."
+
+A silence so deep that an ant might be heard to walk, succeeded this
+strange outburst.  All eyes were lowered; no one hardly dared to breathe.
+All remained stupefied.  Even the domestics and the gardeners stood
+motionless.
+
+This silence lasted more than a quarter of an hour.  The King broke it as
+he leaned upon a balustrade to speak of a carp.  Nobody replied.  He
+addressed himself afterwards on the subject of these carps to domestics,
+who did not ordinarily join in the conversation.  Nothing but carps was
+spoken of with them.  All was languishing, and the King went away some
+time after.  As soon as we dared look at each other--out of his sight,
+our eyes met and told all.  Everybody there was for the moment the
+confidant of his neighbour.  We admired--we marvelled--we grieved, we
+shrugged our shoulders.  However distant may be that scene, it is always
+equally present to me.  M. de la Rochefoucauld was in a fury, and this
+time without being wrong.  The chief ecuyer was ready to faint with
+affright; I myself examined everybody with my eyes and ears, and was
+satisfied with myself for having long since thought that the King loved
+and cared for himself alone, and was himself his only object in life.
+
+This strange discourse sounded far and wide-much beyond Marly.
+
+Let me here relate another anecdote of the King--a trifle I was witness
+of.  It was on the 7th of May, of this year, and at Marly.  The King
+walking round the gardens, showing them to Bergheyck, and talking with
+him upon the approaching campaign in Flanders, stopped before one of the
+pavilions.  It was that occupied by Desmarets, who had recently succeeded
+Chamillart in the direction of the finances, and who was at work within
+with Samuel Bernard, the famous banker, the richest man in Europe, and
+whose money dealings were the largest.  The King observed to Desmarets
+that he was very glad to see him with M. Bernard; then immediately said
+to this latter:
+
+"You are just the man never to have seen Marly--come and see it now; I
+will give you up afterwards to Desmarets."
+
+Bernard followed, and while the walk lasted the King spoke only to
+Bergheyck and to Bernard, leading them everywhere, and showing them
+everything with the grace he so well knew how to employ when he desired
+to overwhelm.  I admired, and I was not the only one, this species of
+prostitution of the King, so niggard of his words, to a man of Bernard's
+degree.  I was not long in learning the cause of it, and I admired to see
+how low the greatest kings sometimes find themselves reduced.
+
+Our finances just then were exhausted.  Desmarets no longer knew of what
+wood to make a crutch.  He had been to Paris knocking at every door.  But
+the most exact engagements had been so often broken that he found nothing
+but excuses and closed doors.  Bernard, like the rest, would advance
+nothing.  Much was due to him.  In vain Desmarets represented to him the
+pressing necessity for money, and the enormous gains he had made out of
+the King.  Bernard remained unshakeable.  The King and the minister were
+cruelly embarrassed.  Desmarets said to the King that, after all was said
+and done, only Samuel Bernard could draw them out of the mess, because it
+was not doubtful that he had plenty of money everywhere; that the only
+thing needed was to vanquish his determination and the obstinacy--even
+insolence--he had shown; that he was a man crazy with vanity, and capable
+of opening his purse if the King deigned to flatter him.
+
+It was agreed, therefore, that Desmarets should invite Bernard to dinner
+--should walk with him--and that the King should come and disturb them as
+I have related.  Bernard was the dupe of this scheme; he returned from
+his walk with the King enchanted to such an extent that he said he would
+prefer ruining himself rather than leave in embarrassment a Prince who
+had just treated him so graciously, and whose eulogiums he uttered with
+enthusiasm!  Desmarets profited by this trick immediately, and drew much
+more from it than he had proposed to himself..
+
+The Prince de Leon had an adventure just about this time, which made much
+noise.  He was a great, ugly, idle, mischievous fellow, son of the Duc de
+Rohan, who had given him the title I have just named.  He had served in
+one campaign very indolently, and then quitted the army, under pretence
+of ill-health, to serve no more.  Glib in speech, and with the manners of
+the great world, he was full of caprices and fancies; although a great
+gambler and spendthrift, he was miserly, and cared only for himself.  He
+had been enamoured of Florence, an actress, whom M. d'Orleans had for a
+long time kept, and by whom he had children, one of whom is now
+Archbishop of Cambrai.  M. de Leon also had several children by this
+creature, and spent large sums upon her.  When he went in place of his
+father to open the States of Brittany, she accompanied him in a coach and
+six horses, with a ridiculous scandal.  His father was in agony lest he
+should marry her.  He offered to insure her five thousand francs a-year
+pension, and to take care of their children, if M. de Leon would quit
+her.  But M. de Leon would not hear of this, and his father accordingly
+complained to the King.  The King summoned M. de Leon into his cabinet;
+but the young man pleaded his cause so well there, that he gained pity
+rather than condemnation.  Nevertheless, La Florence was carried away
+from a pretty little house at the Ternes, near Paris, where M. de Leon
+kept her, and was put in a convent.  M. de Leon became furious; for some
+time he would neither see nor speak of his father or mother, and repulsed
+all idea of marriage.
+
+At last, however, no longer hoping to see his actress, he not only
+consented, but wished to marry.  His parents were delighted at this, and
+at once looked about for a wife for him.  Their choice, fell upon the
+eldest daughter of the Duc de Roquelaure, who, although humpbacked and
+extremely ugly, she was to be very rich some day, and was, in fact, a
+very good match.  The affair had been arranged and concluded up to a
+certain point, when all was broken off, in consequence of the haughty
+obstinacy with which the Duchesse de Roquelaure demanded a larger sum
+with M. de Leon than M. de Rohan chose to give.
+
+The young couple were in despair: M. de Leon, lest his father should
+always act in this way, as an excuse for giving him nothing; the young
+lady, because she, feared she should rot in a convent, through the
+avarice of her mother, and never marry.  She was more than twenty-four
+years, of age; he was more than eight-and-twenty.  She was in the convent
+of the Daughters of the Cross in the Faubourg Saint Antoine.
+
+As soon as M. de Leon learnt that the marriage was broken off, he
+hastened to the convent; and told all to Mademoiselle de Roquelaure;
+played the passionate, the despairing; said that if they waited for their
+parents' consent they would never marry; and that she would rot in her
+convent.  He proposed, therefore, that, in spite of their parents, they
+should marry and be their own guardians.  She agreed to this project; and
+he went away in order to execute it.
+
+One of the most intimate friends of Madame de Roquelaure was Madame de la
+Vieuville, and she was the only person (excepting Madame de Roquelaure
+herself) to whom the Superior of the convent had permission to confide
+Mademoiselle de Roquelaure.  Madame de la Vieuville often came to see
+Mademoiselle de Roquelaure to take her out, and sometimes sent for her.
+M. de Leon was made acquainted with this, and took his measures
+accordingly.  He procured a coach of the same size, shape, and fittings
+as that of Madame de la Vieuville, with her arms upon it, and with three
+servants in her livery; he counterfeited a letter in her handwriting and
+with her seal, and sent this coach with a lackey well instructed to carry
+the letter to the convent, on Tuesday morning, the 29th of May, at the
+hour Madame de la Vieuville was accustomed to send for her.
+
+Mademoiselle de Roquelaure, who had been let into the scheme, carried the
+letter to the Superior of the convent, and said Madame de la Vieuville
+had sent for her.  Had the Superior any message to send?
+
+The Superior, accustomed to these invitations; did not even look at the
+letter, but gave her consent at once.  Mademoiselle de Roquelaure,
+accompanied solely by her governess, left the convent immediately, and
+entered the coach, which drove off directly.  At the first turning it
+stopped, and the Prince de Leon, who had been in waiting, jumped-in.  The
+governess at this began to cry out with all her might; but at the very
+first sound M. de Leon thrust a handkerchief into her mouth and stifled
+the noise.  The coachman meanwhile lashed his horses, and the vehicle
+went off at full speed to Bruyeres near Menilmontant, the country-house
+of the Duc de Lorges, my brother-in-law, and friend of the Prince de
+Leon, and who, with the Comte de Rieux, awaited the runaway pair.
+
+An interdicted and wandering priest was in waiting, and as soon as they
+arrived married them.  My brother-in-law then led these nice young people
+into a fine chamber, where they were undressed, put to bed, and left
+alone for two or three hours.  A good meal was then given to them, after
+which the bride was put into the coach, with her attendant, who was in
+despair, and driven back to the convent.
+
+Mademoiselle de Roquelaure at once went deliberately to the Superior,
+told her all that happened, and then calmly went into her chamber, and
+wrote a fine letter to her mother, giving her an account of her marriage,
+and asking for pardon; the Superior of the convent, the attendants, and
+all the household being, meanwhile, in the utmost emotion at what had
+occurred.
+
+The rage of the Duchesse de Roquelaure at this incident may be imagined.
+In her first unreasoning fury, she went to Madame de la Vieuville, who,
+all in ignorance of what had happened, was utterly at a loss to
+understand her stormy and insulting reproaches.  At last Madame de
+Roquelaure saw that her friend was innocent of all connection with the
+matter; and turned the current of her wrath upon M. de Leon, against whom
+she felt the more indignant, inasmuch as he had treated her with much
+respect and attention since the rupture, and had thus, to some extent,
+gained her heart.  Against her daughter she was also indignant, not only
+for what she had done, but because she had exhibited much gaiety and
+freedom of spirit at the marriage repast, and had diverted the company by
+some songs.
+
+The Duc and Duchesse de Rohan were on their side equally furious,
+although less to be pitied, and made a strange uproar.  Their son,
+troubled to know how to extricate himself from this affair, had recourse
+to his aunt, Soubise, so as to assure himself of the King.  She sent him
+to Pontchartrain to see the chancellor.  M. de Leon saw him the day after
+this fine marriage, at five o'clock in the morning, as he was dressing.
+The chancellor advised him to do all he could to gain the pardon of his
+father and of Madame de Roquelaure.  But he had scarcely begun to speak,
+when Madame de Roquelaure sent word to say, that she was close at hand,
+and wished the chancellor to come and see her.  He did so, and she
+immediately poured out all her griefs to him, saying that she came not to
+ask, his advice, but to state her complaint as to a friend (they were
+very intimate), and as to the chief officer of justice to demand justice
+of him.  When he attempted to put in a word on behalf of M. de Leon, her
+fury burst out anew; she would not listen to his words, but drove off to
+Marly, where she had an interview with Madame de Maintenon, and by her
+was presented to the King.
+
+As soon as she was in his presence, she fell down on her knees before
+him, and demanded justice in its fullest extent against M. de Leon.  The
+King raised her with the gallantry of a prince to whom she had not been
+indifferent, and sought to console her; but as she still insisted upon
+justice, he asked her if she knew fully what she asked for, which was
+nothing less than the head of M. de Leon.  She redoubled her entreaties
+notwithstanding this information, so that the King at last promised her
+that she should have complete justice.  With that, and many compliments,
+he quitted her, and passed into his own rooms with a very serious air,
+and without stopping for anybody.
+
+The news of this interview, and of what had taken place, soon spread
+through the chamber.  Scarcely had people begun to pity Madame de
+Roquelaure, than some, by aversion for the grand imperial airs of this
+poor mother,--the majority, seized by mirth at the idea of a creature,
+well known to be very ugly and humpbacked, being carried off by such an
+ugly gallant,--burst out laughing, even to tears, and with an uproar
+completely scandalous.  Madame de Maintenon abandoned herself to mirth,
+like the rest, and corrected the others at last, by saying it was not
+very charitable, in a tone that could impose upon no one.
+
+Madame de Saint-Simon and I were at Paris.  We knew with all Paris of
+this affair, but were ignorant of the place of the marriage and the part
+M. de Lorges had had in it, when the third day after the adventure I was
+startled out of my sleep at five o'clock in the morning, and saw my
+curtains and my windows open at the same time, and Madame de Saint-Simon
+and her brother (M. de Lorges) before me.  They related to me all that
+had occurred, and then went away to consult with a skilful person what
+course to adopt, leaving me to dress.  I never saw a man so crestfallen
+as M. de Lorges.  He had confessed what he had done to a clever lawyer,
+who had much frightened him.  After quitting him, he had hastened to us
+to make us go and see Pontchartrain.  The most serious things are
+sometimes accompanied with the most ridiculous.  M. de Lorges upon
+arriving knocked at the door of a little room which preceded the chamber
+of Madame de Saint-Simon.  My daughter was rather unwell.  Madame de
+Saint-Simon thought she was worse, and supposing it was I who had
+knocked, ran and opened the door.  At the sight of her brother she ran
+back to her bed, to which he followed her, in order to relate his
+disaster.  She rang for the windows to be opened, in order that she might
+see better.  It so happened that she had taken the evening before a new
+servant, a country girl of sixteen, who slept in the little room.  M. de
+Lorges, in a hurry to be off, told this girl to make haste in opening the
+windows, and then to go away and close the door.  At this, the simple
+girl, all amazed, took her robe and her cotillon, and went upstairs to an
+old chambermaid, awoke her, and with much hesitation told her what had
+just happened, and that she had left by the bedside of Madame de Saint
+Simon a fine gentleman, very young, all powdered, curled, and decorated,
+who had driven her very quickly out of the chamber.  She was all of a
+tremble, and much astonished.  She soon learnt who he was.  The story was
+told to us, and in spite of our disquietude, much diverted us.
+
+We hurried away to the chancellor, and he advised the priest, the
+witnesses to the signatures of the marriage, and, in fact, all concerned,
+to keep out of the way, except M. de Lorges, who he assured us had
+nothing to fear.  We went afterwards to Chamillart, whom we found much
+displeased, but in little alarm.  The King had ordered an account to be
+drawn up of the whole affair.  Nevertheless, in spite of the uproar made
+on all sides, people began to see that the King would not abandon to
+public dishonour the daughter of Madame de Roquelaure, nor doom to the
+scaffold or to civil death in foreign countries the nephew of Madame de
+Soubise.
+
+Friends of M. and Madame de Roquelaure tried to arrange matters.  They
+represented that it would be better to accept the marriage as it was than
+to expose a daughter to cruel dishonour.  Strange enough, the Duc and
+Duchesse de Rohan were the most stormy.  They wished to drive a very hard
+bargain in the matter, and made proposals so out of the way, that nothing
+could have been arranged but for the King.  He did what he had never done
+before in all his life; he entered into all the details; he begged, then
+commanded as master; he had separate interviews with the parties
+concerned; and finally appointed the Duc d'Aumont and the chancellor to
+draw up the conditions of the marriage.
+
+As Madame de Rohan, even after this, still refused to give her consent,
+the King sent for her, and said that if she and her husband did not at
+once give in, he would make the marriage valid by his own sovereign
+authority.  Finally, after so much noise, anguish, and trouble, the
+contract was signed by the two families, assembled at the house of the
+Duchesse de Roquelaure.  The banns were published, and the marriage took
+place at the church of the Convent of the Cross, where Mademoiselle de
+Roquelaure had been confined since her beautiful marriage, guarded night
+and day by five or six nuns.  She entered the church by one door, Prince
+de Leon by another; not a compliment or a word passed between them; the
+curate said mass; married them; they mounted a coach, and drove off to
+the house of a friend some leagues from Paris.  They paid for their folly
+by a cruel indigence which lasted all their lives, neither of them having
+survived the Duc de Rohan, Monsieur de Roquelaure, or Madame de
+Roquelaure.  They left several children.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI
+
+The war this year proceeded much as before.  M. d'Orleans went to Spain
+again.  Before taking the field he stopped at Madrid to arrange matters.
+There he found nothing prepared, and every thing in disorder.  He was
+compelled to work day after day, for many hours, in order to obtain the
+most necessary supplies.  This is what accounted for a delay which was
+maliciously interpreted at Paris into love for the Queen.  M. le Duc was
+angry at the idleness in which he was kept; even Madame la Duchesse, who
+hated him, because she had formerly loved him too well, industriously
+circulated this report, which was believed at Court, in the city, even in
+foreign countries, everywhere, save in Spain, where the truth was too
+well known.  It was while he was thus engaged that he gave utterance to a
+pleasantry that made Madame de Maintenon and Madame des Ursins his two
+most bitter enemies for ever afterwards.
+
+One evening he was at table with several French and Spanish gentlemen,
+all occupied with his vexation against Madame des Ursins, who governed
+everything, and who had not thought of even the smallest thing for the
+campaign.  The supper and the wine somewhat affected M. d'Orleans.  Still
+full of his vexation, he took a glass, and, looking at the company, made
+an allusion in a toast to the two women, one the captain, the other the
+lieutenant, who governed France and Spain, and that in so coarse and yet
+humorous a manner, that it struck at once the imagination of the guests.
+
+No comment was made, but everybody burst out laughing, sense of drollery
+overcoming prudence, for it was well known that the she-captain was
+Madame de Maintenon, and the she-lieutenant Madame des Ursins.  The
+health was drunk, although the words were not repeated, and the scandal
+was strange.
+
+Half an hour at most after this, Madame des Ursins was informed of what
+had taken place.  She knew well who were meant by the toast, and was
+transported with rage.  She at once wrote an account of the circumstance
+to Madame de Maintenon, who, for her part, was quite as furious.  'Inde
+ira'.  They never pardoned M. d'Orleans, and we shall see how very nearly
+they succeeded in compassing his death.  Until then, Madame de Maintenon
+had neither liked nor disliked M. d'Orleans.  Madame des Ursins had
+omitted nothing in order to please him.  From that moment they swore the
+ruin of this prince.  All the rest of the King's life M. d'Orleans did
+not fail to find that Madame de Maintenon was an implacable and cruel
+enemy.  The sad state to which she succeeded in reducing him influenced
+him during all the rest of his life.  As for Madame des Ursins, he soon
+found a change in her manner.  She endeavoured that everything should
+fail that passed through his hands.  There are some wounds that can never
+be healed; and it must be admitted that the Duke's toast inflicted one
+especially of that sort.  He felt this; did not attempt any
+reconciliation; and followed his usual course.  I know not if he ever,
+repented of what he had said, whatever cause he may have had, so droll
+did it seem to him, but he has many times spoken of it since to me,
+laughing with all his might.  I saw all the sad results which might arise
+from his speech, and nevertheless, while reproaching M. d'Orleans, I
+could not help laughing myself, so well, so simply; and so wittily
+expressed was his ridicule of the government on this and the other side
+of the Pyrenees.
+
+At last, M. le Duc d'Orleans found means to enter upon his campaign, but
+was so ill-provided, that he never was supplied with more than a
+fortnight's subsistence in advance.  He obtained several small successes;
+but these were more than swallowed up by a fatal loss in another
+direction.  The island of Sardinia, which was then under the Spanish
+Crown, was lost through the misconduct of the viceroy, the Duke of
+Veragua, and taken possession of by the troops of the Archduke.  In the
+month of October, the island of Minorca also fell into the hands of the
+Archduke.  Port Mahon made but little resistance; so that with this
+conquest and Gibraltar, the English found themselves able to rule in the
+Mediterranean, to winter entire fleets there, and to blockade all the
+ports of Spain upon that sea.  Leaving Spain in this situation, let us
+turn to Flanders.
+
+Early in July, we took Ghent and Bruges by surprise, and the news of
+these successes was received with the most unbridled joy at
+Fontainebleau.  It appeared easy to profit by these two conquests,
+obtained without difficulty, by passing the Escaut, burning Oudenarde,
+closing the country to the enemies, and cutting them off from all
+supplies.  Ours were very abundant, and came by water, with a camp that
+could not be attacked.  M. de Vendome agreed to all this; and alleged
+nothing against it.  There was only one difficulty in the way; his
+idleness and unwillingness to move from quarters where he was
+comfortable.  He wished to enjoy those quarters as long as possible, and
+maintained, therefore, that these movements would be just as good if
+delayed.  Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne maintained on the contrary,
+with all the army--even the favourites of M. de Vendome--that it would be
+better to execute the operation at once, that there was no reason for
+delay, and that delay might prove disastrous.  He argued in vain.
+Vendome disliked fatigue and change of quarters.  They interfered with
+the daily life he was accustomed to lead, and which I have elsewhere
+described.  He would not move.
+
+Marlborough clearly seeing that M. de Vendome did not at once take
+advantage of his position, determined to put it out of his power to do
+so.  To reach Oudenarde, Marlborough had a journey to make of twenty-five
+leagues.  Vendome was so placed that he could have gained it in six
+leagues at the most.  Marlborough put himself in motion with so much
+diligence that he stole three forced marches before Vendome had the
+slightest suspicion or information of them.  The news reached him in
+time, but he treated it with contempt according to his custom, assuring
+himself that he should outstrip the enemy by setting out the next
+morning.  Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne pressed him to start that
+evening; such as dared represented to him the necessity and the
+importance of doing so.  All was vain--in spite of repeated information
+of the enemy's march.  The neglect was such that bridges had not been
+thought of for a little brook at the head of the camp, which it was
+necessary to cross.
+
+On the next day, Wednesday, the 11th of July, a party of our troops,
+under the command of Biron, which had been sent on in advance to the
+Escaut, discovered, after passing it as they could, for the bridges were
+not yet made, all the army of the enemy bending round towards them, the
+rear of their columns touching at Oudenarde, where they also had crossed.
+Biron at once despatched a messenger to the Princes and to M. de Vendome
+to inform them of this, and to ask for orders.  Vendome, annoyed by
+information so different to what he expected, maintained that it could
+not be true.  As he was disputing, an officer arrived from Biron to
+confirm the news; but this only irritated Vendome anew, and made him more
+obstinate.  A third messenger arrived, and then M. de Vendome, still
+affecting disbelief of the news sent him, flew in a passion, but
+nevertheless mounted his horse, saying that all this was the work of the
+devil, and that such diligence was impossible.  He sent orders to Biron
+to attack the enemy, promising to support him immediately.  He told the
+Princes, at the same time, to gently follow with the whole of the army,
+while he placed himself at the head of his columns, and pushed on briskly
+to Biron.
+
+Biron meanwhile placed his troops as well as he could, on ground very
+unequal and much cut up.  He wished to execute the order he had received,
+less from any hopes of success in a combat so vastly disproportioned than
+to secure himself from the blame of a general so ready to censure those
+who did not follow his instructions.  But he was advised so strongly not
+to take so hazardous a step, that he refrained.  Marechal Matignon, who
+arrived soon after, indeed specially prohibited him from acting.
+
+While this was passing, Biron heard sharp firing on his left, beyond the
+village.  He hastened there, and found an encounter of infantry going on.
+He sustained it as well as he could, whilst the enemy were gaining ground
+on the left, and, the ground being difficult (there was a ravine there),
+the enemy were kept at bay until M. de Vendome came up.  The troops he
+brought were all out of breath.  As soon as they arrived, they threw
+themselves amidst the hedges, nearly all in columns, and sustained thus
+the attacks of the enemies, and an engagement which every moment grew
+hotter, without having the means to arranging themselves in any order.
+The columns that arrived from time to time to the relief of these were as
+out of breath as the others; and were at once sharply charged by the
+enemies; who, being extended in lines and in order, knew well how to
+profit by our disorder.  The confusion was very great: the new-comers had
+no time to rally; there was a long interval between the platoons engaged
+and those meant to sustain them; the cavalry and the household troops
+were mixed up pell-mell with the infantry, which increased the disorder
+to such a point that our troops no longer recognised each other.  This
+enabled the enemy to fill up the ravine with fascines sufficient to
+enable them to pass it, and allowed the rear of their army to make a
+grand tour by our right to gain the head of the ravine, and take us in
+flank there.
+
+Towards this same right were the Princes, who for some time had been
+looking from a mill at so strange a combat, so disadvantageously
+commenced.  As soon as our troops saw pouring down upon them others much
+more numerous, they gave way towards their left with so much promptitude
+that the attendants of the Princes became mixed up with their masters,--
+and all were hurried away towards the thick of the fight, with a rapidity
+and confusion that were indecent.  The Princes showed themselves
+everywhere, and in places the most exposed, displaying much valour and
+coolness, encouraging the men, praising the officers, asking the
+principal officers what was to be done, and telling M. de Vendome what
+they thought.
+
+The inequality of the ground that the enemies found in advancing, after
+having driven in our right, enabled our them to rally and to resist.  But
+this resistance was of short duration.  Every one had been engaged in
+hand-to-hand combats; every one was worn out with lassitude and despair
+of success, and a confusion so general and so unheard-of.  The household
+troops owed their escape to the mistake of one of the enemy's officers,
+who carried an order to the red coats, thinking them his own men.  He was
+taken, and seeing that he was about to share the peril with our troops,
+warned them that they were going to be surrounded.  They retired in some
+disorder, and so avoided this.
+
+The disorder increased, however, every moment.  Nobody recognised his
+troop.  All were pell-mell, cavalry, infantry, dragoons; not a battalion,
+not a squadron together, and all in confusion, one upon the other.
+
+Night came.  We had lost much ground, one-half of the army had not
+finished arriving.  In this sad situation the Princes consulted with M.
+de Vendome as to what was to be done.  He, furious at being so terribly
+out of his reckoning, affronted everybody.  Monseigneur le Duc de
+Bourgogne wished to speak; but Vendome intoxicated with choler and
+authority; closed his mouth, by saying to him in an imperious voice
+before everybody, "That he came to the army only on condition of obeying
+him."  These enormous words, pronounced at a moment in which everybody
+felt so terribly the weight of the obedience rendered to his idleness and
+obstinacy, made everybody tremble with indignation.  The young Prince to
+whom they were addressed, hesitated, mastered himself, and kept silence.
+Vendome went on declaring that the battle was not lost--that it could be
+recommenced the next morning, when the rest of the army had arrived, and
+so on.  No one of consequence cared to reply.
+
+From every side soon came information, however, that the disorder was
+extreme.  Pursegur, Matignon, Sousternon, Cheladet, Purguyon, all brought
+the same news.  Vendome, seeing that it was useless to resist, all this
+testimony, and beside himself with rage, cried, "Oh, very well,
+gentlemen!  I see clearly what you wish.  We must retire, then;" and
+looking at Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne, he added, "I know you have
+long wished to do so, Monseigneur."
+
+These words, which could not fail to be taken in a double sense, were
+pronounced exactly as I relate them, and were emphasized in a manner to
+leave no doubt as to their signification.  Monseigneur le Duc de
+Bourgogne remained silent as before, and for some time the silence was
+unbroken.  At last, Pursegur interrupted it, by asking how the retreat
+was to be executed.  Each, then, spoke confusedly.  Vendome, in his turn,
+kept silence from vexation or embarrassment; then he said they must march
+to Ghent, without adding how, or anything else.
+
+The day had been very fatiguing; the retreat was long and perilous.  The
+Princes mounted their horses, and took the road to Ghent.  Vendome set
+out without giving any orders, or seeing to anything.  The general
+officers returned to their posts, and of themselves gave the order to
+retreat.  Yet so great was the confusion, that the Chevalier Rosel,
+lieutenant-general, at the head of a hundred squadrons, received no
+orders.  In the morning he found himself with his hundred squadrons,
+which had been utterly forgotten.  He at once commenced his march; but to
+retreat in full daylight was very difficult, as he soon found.  He had to
+sustain the attacks of the enemy during several hours of his march.
+
+Elsewhere, also, the difficulty of retreating was great.  Fighting went
+on at various points all night, and the enemy were on the alert.  Some of
+the troops of our right, while debating as to the means of retreat, found
+they were about to be surrounded by the enemy.  The Vidame of Amiens saw
+that not a moment was to be lost.  He cried to the light horse, of which
+he was captain, "Follow me," and pierced his way through a line of the
+enemy's cavalry.  He then found himself in front of a line of infantry,
+which fired upon him, but opened to give him passage.  At the same
+moment, the household troops and others, profiting by a movement so bold,
+followed the Vidame and his men, and all escaped together to Ghent, led
+on by the Vidame, to whose sense and courage the safety of these troops
+was owing.
+
+M. de Vendome arrived at Ghent, between seven and eight o'clock in the
+morning.  Even at this moment he did not forget his disgusting habits,
+and as soon as he set foot to ground.... in sight of all the troops as
+they came by,--then at once went to bed, without giving any orders, or
+seeing to anything, and remained more than thirty hours without rising,
+in order to repose himself after his fatigues.  He learnt that
+Monseigneur de Bourgogne and the army had pushed on to Lawendeghem; but
+he paid no attention to it, and continued to sup and to sleep at Ghent
+several days running, without attending to anything.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII
+
+As soon as Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne arrived at Lawendeghem, he
+wrote a short letter to the King, and referred him for details to M. de
+Vendome.  But at the same time he wrote to the Duchess, very clearly
+expressing to her where the fault lay.  M. de Vendome, on his side, wrote
+to the King, and tried to persuade him that the battle had not been
+disadvantageous to us.  A short time afterwards, he wrote again, telling
+the King that he could have beaten the enemies had he been sustained; and
+that, if, contrary to his advice, retreat had not been determined on, he
+would certainly have beaten them the next day.  For the details he
+referred to Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne.
+
+I had always feared that some ill-fortune would fall to the lot of
+Monseigneur, le Duc de Bourgogne if he served under M. de Vendome at the
+army.  When I first learned that he was going to Flanders with M. de
+Vendome, I expressed my apprehensions to M. de Beauvilliers, who treated
+them as unreasonable and ridiculous.  He soon had good cause to admit
+that I had not spoken without justice.  Our disasters at Oudenarde were
+very great.  We had many men and officers killed and wounded, four
+thousand men and seven hundred officers taken prisoners, and a prodigious
+quantity missing and dispersed.  All these losses were, as I have shown,
+entirely due to the laziness and inattention of M. de Vendome.  Yet the
+friends of that general--and he had many at the Court and in the army--
+actually had the audacity to lay the blame upon Monseigneur le Duc de
+Bourgogne.  This was what I had foreseen, viz., M. de Vendome, in case
+any misfortune occurred, would be sure to throw the burden of it upon
+Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne.
+
+Alberoni, who, as I have said, was one of M. de Vendome's creatures,
+published a deceitful and impudent letter, in which he endeavoured to
+prove that M. de Vendome had acted throughout like a good general, but
+that he had been thwarted by Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne.  This
+letter was distributed everywhere, and well served the purpose for which
+it was intended.  Another writer, Campistron---a poor, starving poet,
+ready to do anything to live--went further.  He wrote a letter, in which
+Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne was personally attacked in the tenderest
+points, and in which Marechal Matignon was said to merit a court-martial
+for having counselled retreat.  This letter, like the other, although
+circulated with more precaution, was shown even in the cafes and in the
+theatres; in the public places of gambling and debauchery; on the
+promenades, and amongst the news-vendors.  Copies of it were even shown
+in the provinces, and in foreign countries; but always with much
+circumspection.  Another letter soon afterwards appeared, apologising for
+M. de Vendome.  This was written by Comte d'Evreux, and was of much the
+same tone as the two others.
+
+A powerful cabal was in fact got up against Monseigneur de Bourgogne.
+Vaudeville, verses, atrocious songs against him, ran all over Paris and
+the provinces with a licence and a rapidity that no one checked; while at
+the Court, the libertines and the fashionables applauded; so that in six
+days it was thought disgraceful to speak with any measure of this Prince,
+even in his father's house.
+
+Madame de Bourgogne could not witness all this uproar against her
+husband, without feeling sensibly affected by it.  She had been made
+acquainted by Monseigneur de Bourgogne with the true state of the case.
+She saw her own happiness and reputation at stake.  Though very gentle,
+and still more timid, the grandeur of the occasion raised her above
+herself.  She was cruelly wounded by the insults of Vendome to her
+husband, and by all the atrocities and falsehoods his emissaries
+published.  She gained Madame de Maintenon, and the first result of this
+step was, that the King censured Chamillart for not speaking of the
+letters in circulation, and ordered him to write to Alberoni and D'Evreux
+(Campistron, strangely enough, was forgotten), commanding them to keep
+silence for the future.
+
+The cabal was amazed to see Madame de Maintenon on the side of Madame de
+Bourgogne, while M. du Maine (who was generally in accord with Madame de
+Maintenon) was for M. de Vendome.  They concluded that the King had been
+led away, but that if they held firm, his partiality for M. de Vendome,
+for M. du Maine, and for bastardy in general, would bring him round to
+them.  In point of fact, the King was led now one way, and now another,
+with a leaning always towards M. de Vendome.
+
+Soon after this, Chamillart, who was completely of the party of M. de
+Vendome, thought fit to write a letter to Monseigneur le Duc de
+Bourgogne, in which he counselled him to live on good terms with his
+general.  Madame de Bourgogne never forgave Chamillart this letter, and
+was always annoyed with her husband that he acted upon it.  His religious
+sentiments induced him to do so.  Vendome so profited by the advances
+made to him by the young Prince, that he audaciously brought Alberoni
+with him when he visited Monseigneur de Bourgogne.  This weakness of
+Monseigneur de Bourgogne lost him many friends, and made his enemies more
+bold than ever: Madame de Bourgogne, however, did not despair.  She wrote
+to her husband that for M. de Vendome she had more aversion and contempt
+than for any one else in the world, and that nothing would make her
+forget what he had done.  We shall see with what courage she knew how to
+keep her word.
+
+While the discussions upon the battle of Oudenarde were yet proceeding,
+a league was formed with France against the Emperor by all the states of
+Italy.  The King (Louis XIV.) accepted, however, too late, a project he
+himself ought to have proposed and executed.  He lost perhaps the most
+precious opportunity he had had during all his reign.  The step he at
+last took was so apparent that it alarmed the allies, and put them on
+their guard.  Except Flanders, they did nothing in any other spot, and
+turned all their attention to Italy.
+
+Let us return, however, to Flanders.
+
+Prince Eugene, with a large booty gathered in Artois and elsewhere, had
+fixed himself at Brussels.  He wished to bear off his spoils, which
+required more than five thousand waggons to carry it, and which consisted
+in great part of provisions, worth three million five hundred thousand
+francs, and set out with them to join the army of the Duke of
+Marlborough.  Our troops could not, of course, be in ignorance of this.
+M. de Vendome wished to attack the convoy with half his troops.  The
+project seemed good, and, in case of success, would have brought results
+equally honourable and useful.  Monseigneur de Bourgogne, however,
+opposed the attack, I know not why; and M. de Vendome, so obstinate until
+then, gave in to him in this case.  His object was to ruin the Prince
+utterly, for allowing such a good chance to escape, the blame resting
+entirely upon him.  Obstinacy and audacity had served M. de Vendome at
+Oudenarde: he expected no less a success now from his deference.
+
+Some anxiety was felt just about this time for Lille, which it was feared
+the enemy would lay siege to.  Boufflers went to command there, at his
+own request, end found the place very ill-garrisoned with raw troops,
+many of whom had never smelt powder.  M. de Vendome, however, laughed at
+the idea of the siege of Lille, as something mad and ridiculous.
+Nevertheless, the town was invested on the 12th of August, as the King
+duly learned on the 14th.  Even then, flattery did its work.  The friends
+of Vendome declared that such an enterprise was the best, thing that
+could happen to France, as the besiegers, inferior in numbers to our
+army, were sure to be miserably beaten.  M. de Vendome, in the mean time,
+did not budge from the post he had taken up near Ghent.  The King wrote
+to him to go with his army to the relief of Lille.  M. de Vendome still
+delayed; another courier was sent, with the same result.  At this, the
+King, losing temper, despatched another courier, with orders to
+Monseigneur de Bourgogne, to lead the army to Lille, if M. de Vendome
+refused to do so.  At this, M. de Vendome awoke from his lethargy.  He
+set out for Lille, but took the longest road, and dawdled as long as he
+could on the way, stopping five days at Mons Puenelle, amongst other
+places.
+
+The agitation, meanwhile, in Paris, was extreme.  The King demanded news
+of the siege from his courtiers, and could not understand why no couriers
+arrived.  It was generally expected that some decisive battle had been
+fought.  Each day increased the uneasiness.  The Princes and the
+principal noblemen of the Court were at the army.  Every one at
+Versailles feared for the safety of a relative or friend.  Prayers were
+offered everywhere.  Madame de Bourgogne passed whole nights in the
+chapel, when people thought her in bed, and drove her women to despair.
+Following her example, ladies who had husbands at the army stirred not
+from the churches.  Gaming, conversation ceased.  Fear was painted upon
+every face, and seen in every speech, without shame.  If a horse passed a
+little quickly, everybody ran without knowing where.  The apartments of
+Chamillart were crowded with lackeys, even into the street, sent by
+people desiring to be informed of the moment that a courier arrived; and
+this terror and uncertainty lasted nearly a month.  The provinces were
+even more troubled than Paris.  The King wrote to the Bishop, in order
+that they should offer up prayers in terms which suited with the danger
+of the time.  It may be judged what was the general impression and alarm.
+
+It is true, that in the midst of this trepidation, the partisans of M. de
+Vendome affected to pity that poor Prince Eugene, and to declare that he
+must inevitably fail in his undertaking; but these discourses did not
+impose upon me.  I knew what kind of enemies we had to deal with, and I
+foresaw the worst results from the idleness and inattention of M. de
+Vendome.  One evening, in the presence of Chamillart and five or six
+others, annoyed by the conversation which passed, I offered to bet four
+pistoles that there would be no general battle, and that Lille would be
+taken without being relieved.  This strange proposition excited much
+surprise, and caused many questions to be addressed to me.  I would
+explain nothing at all; but sustained my proposal in the English manner,
+and my bet was taken; Cani, who accepted it, thanking me for the present
+of four pistoles I was making him, as he said.  The stakes were placed in
+the hand of Chamillart.
+
+By the next day, the news of my bet had spread a frightful uproar.  The
+partisans of M. de Vendome, knowing I was no friend to them, took this
+opportunity to damage me in the eyes of the King.  They so far succeeded
+that I entirely lost favour with him, without however suspecting it, for
+more than two months.  All that I could do then, was to let the storm
+pass over my head and keep silent, so as not to make matters worse.
+Meanwhile, M. de Vendome continued the inactive policy he had hitherto
+followed.  In despite of reiterated advice from the King, he took no
+steps to attack the enemy.  Monseigneur de Bourgogne was for doing so,
+but Vendome would make no movement.  As before, too, he contrived to
+throw all the blame of his inactivity upon Monseigneur de Bourgogne.  He
+succeeded so well in making this believed, that his followers in the army
+cried out against the followers of Monseigneur de Bourgogne wherever they
+appeared.  Chamillart was sent by the King to report upon the state and
+position of our troops, and if a battle had taken place and proved
+unfavourable to us, to prevent such sad results as had taken place after
+Ramillies.  Chamillart came back on the 18th of September. No battle had
+been fought, but M. de Vendome felt sure, he said, of cutting off all
+supplies from the enemy, and thus compelling them to raise the siege.
+The King had need of these intervals of consolation and hope.  Master as
+he might be of his words and of his features, he profoundly felt the
+powerlessness to resist his enemies that he fell into day by day.  What I
+have related, about Samuel Bernard, the banker, to whom he almost did the
+honours of his gardens at Marly, in order to draw from him the assistance
+he had refused, is a great proof of this.  It was much remarked at
+Fontainebleau, just as Lille was invested, that, the city of Paris coming
+to harangue him on the occasion of the oath taken by Bignon, new Prevot
+des Marchand, he replied, not only with kindness, but that he made use of
+the term "gratitude for his good city," and that in doing so he lost
+countenance,--two things which during all his reign had never escaped
+him.  On the other hand, he sometimes had intervals of firmness which
+edificed less than they surprised.  When everybody at the Court was in
+the anxiety I have already described, he offended them by going out every
+day hunting or walking, so that they could not know, until after his
+return, the news which might arrive when he was out.
+
+As for Monseigneur, he seemed altogether exempt from anxiety.  After
+Ramillies, when everybody was waiting for the return of Chamillart, to
+learn the truth, Monseigneur went away to dine at Meudon, saying he
+should learn the news soon enough.  From this time he showed no more
+interest in what was passing.  When news was brought that Lille was
+invested, he turned on his heel before the letter announcing it had been
+read to the end.  The King called him back to hear the rest.  He returned
+and heard it.  The reading finished, he went away, without offering a
+word.  Entering the apartments of the Princesse de Conti, he found there
+Madame d'Espinoy, who had much property in Flanders, and who had wished
+to take a trip there.
+
+"Madame," said he, smiling, as he arrived, "how would you do just now to
+get to Lille?"  And at once made them acquainted with the investment.
+These things really wounded the Princesse de Conti.  Arriving at
+Fontainebleau one day, during the movements of the army, Monseigneur set
+to work reciting, for amusement, a long list of strange names of places
+in the forest.
+
+"Dear me, Monseigneur," cried she, "what a good memory you have.  What a
+pity it is loaded with such things only!"  If he felt the reproach, he
+did not profit by it.
+
+As for Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne, Monseigneur (his father) was ill-
+disposed towards him, and readily swallowed all that was said in his
+dispraise.  Monseigneur had no sympathy with the piety of his son; it
+constrained and bothered him.  The cabal well profited by this.  They
+succeeded to such an extent in alienating the father from the son, that
+it is only strict truth to say that no one dared to speak well of
+Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne in the presence of Monseigneur.  From
+this it may be imagined what was the licence and freedom of speech
+elsewhere against this Prince.  They reached such a point, indeed, that
+the King, not daring to complain publicly against the Prince de Conti,
+who hated Vendome, for speaking in favour of Monseigneur de Bourgogne,
+reprimanded him sharply in reality for having done so, but ostensibly
+because he had talked about the affairs of Flanders at his sister's.
+Madame de Bourgogne did all she could to turn the current that was
+setting in against her husband; and in this she was assisted by Madame de
+Maintenon, who was annoyed to the last degree to see that other people
+had more influence over the King than she had.
+
+The siege of Lille meanwhile continued, and at last it began to be seen
+that, instead of attempting to fight a grand battle, the wisest course
+would be to throw assistance into the place.  An attempt was made to do
+so, but it was now too late.
+
+The besieged, under the guidance of Marechal Boufflers, who watched over
+all, and attended to all, in a manner that gained him all hearts, made a
+gallant and determined resistance.  A volume would be necessary in order
+to relate all the marvels of capacity and valour displayed in this
+defence.  Our troops disputed the ground inch by inch.  They repulsed,
+three times running, the enemy from a mill, took it the third time, and
+burnt it.  They sustained an attack, in three places at once, of ten
+thousand men, from nine o'clock in the evening to three o'clock in the
+morning, without giving way.  They re-captured the sole traverse the
+enemy had been able to take from them.  They drove out the besiegers from
+the projecting angles of the counterscarp, which they had kept possession
+of for eight days.  They twice repulsed seven thousand men who attacked
+their covered way and an outwork; at the third attack they lost an angle
+of the outwork; but remained masters of all the rest.
+
+So many attacks and engagements terribly weakened the garrison.  On the
+28th of September some assistance was sent to the besieged by the daring
+of the Chevalier de Luxembourg.  It enabled them to sustain with vigour
+the fresh attacks that were directed against them, to repulse the enemy,
+and, by a grand sortie, to damage some of their works, and kill many of
+their men.  But all was in vain.  The enemy returned again and again to
+the attack.  Every attempt to cut off their supplies failed.  Finally, on
+the 23rd of October, a capitulation was signed.  The place had become
+untenable; three new breaches had been made on the 20th and 21st; powder
+and ammunition were failing; the provisions were almost all eaten up
+there was nothing for it but to give in.
+
+Marechal Boufflers obtained all he asked, and retired into the citadel
+with all the prisoners of war, after two months of resistance.  He
+offered discharge to all the soldiers who did not wish to enter the
+citadel.  But not one of the six thousand he had left to him accepted it.
+They were all ready for a new resistance, and when their chief appeared
+among them their joy burst out in the most flattering praises of him.  It
+was on Friday, the 26th of October, that they shut themselves up in the
+citadel.
+
+The enemy opened their trenches before the citadel on the 29th of
+October.  On the 7th of November they made a grand attack, but were
+repulsed with considerable loss.  But they did not flinch from their
+work, and Boufflers began to see that he could not long hold out.  By the
+commencement of December he had only twenty thousand pounds of powder
+left; very little of other munitions, and still less food.  In the town
+and the citadel they had eaten eight hundred horses.  Boufflers, as soon
+as the others were reduced to this food, had it served upon his own
+table, and ate of it like the rest.  The King, learning in what state
+these soldiers were, personally sent word to Boufflers to surrender, but
+the Marechal, even after he had received this order, delayed many days to
+obey it.
+
+At last, in want of the commonest necessaries, and able to protract his
+defence no longer, he beat a parley, signed a capitulation on the 9th of
+December, obtaining all he asked, and retired from Lille.  Prince Eugene,
+to whom he surrendered, treated him with much distinction and friendship,
+invited him to dinner several times,--overwhelmed him, in fact, with
+attention and civilities.  The Prince was glad indeed to have brought to
+a successful issue such a difficult siege.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII
+
+The position of Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne at the army continued to
+be equivocal.  He was constantly in collision with M. de Vendome.  The
+latter, after the loss of Lille, wished to defend the Escaut, without any
+regard to its extent of forty miles.  The Duc de Bourgogne, as far as he
+dared, took the part of Berwick, who maintained that the defence was
+impossible.  The King, hearing of all these disputes, actually sent
+Chamillart to the army to compose them; and it was a curious sight to
+behold this penman, this financier, acting as arbiter between generals on
+the most delicate operations of war.  Chamillart continued to admire
+Vendome, and treated the Duc de Bourgogne with little respect, both at
+the army, and, after his return, in conversation with the King.  His
+report was given in presence of Madame de Maintenon, who listened without
+daring to say a word, and repeated everything to the Duchesse de
+Bourgogne.  We may imagine what passed between them, and the anger of the
+Princess against the minister.  For the present, however, nothing could
+be done.  Berwick was soon afterwards almost disgraced.  As soon as he
+was gone, M. de Vendome wrote to the King, saying, that he was sure of
+preventing the enemy from passing the Escaut--that he answered for it on
+his head.  With such a guarantee from a man in such favour at Court, who
+could doubt?  Yet, shortly after, Marlborough crossed the Escaut in four
+places, and Vendome actually wrote to the King, begging him to remember
+that he had always declared the defence of the Escaut to be, impossible!
+
+The cabal made a great noise to cover this monstrous audacity, and
+endeavoured to renew the attack against the Duc de Bourgogne.  We shall
+see what success attended their efforts.  The army was at Soissons, near
+Tournai, in a profound tranquillity, the opium of which had gained the
+Duc de Bourgogne when news of the approach of the enemy was brought.
+M. de Vendome advanced in that direction, and sent word to the Duke, that
+he thought he ought to advance on the morrow with all his army.  The Duke
+was going to bed when he received the letter; and although it was too
+late to repulse the enemy, was much blamed for continuing to undress
+himself, and putting off action till the morrow.
+
+To this fault he added another.  He had eaten; it was very early; and it
+was no longer proper to march.  It was necessary to wait fresh orders
+from M. de Vendome.  Tournai was near.  The Duc de Bourgogne went there
+to have a game at tennis.  This sudden party of pleasure strongly
+scandalized the army, and raised all manner of unpleasant talk.
+Advantage was taken of the young Prince's imprudence to throw upon him
+the blame of what was caused by the negligence of M. de Vendome.
+
+A serious and disastrous action that took place during these operations
+was actually kept a secret from the King, until the Duc de la Tremoille,
+whose son was engaged there, let out the truth.  Annoyed that the King
+said nothing to him on the way in which his son had distinguished
+himself, he took the opportunity, whilst he was serving the King, to talk
+of the passage of the Escaut, and said that his son's regiment had much
+suffered.  "How, suffered?"  cried the King; "nothing has happened."
+Whereupon the Duke related all to him.  The King listened with the
+greatest attention, and questioned him, and admitted before everybody
+that he knew nothing of all this.  His surprise, and the surprise it
+occasioned, may be imagined.  It happened that when the King left table,
+Chamillart unexpectedly came into his cabinet.  He was soon asked about
+the action of the Escaut, and why it had not been reported.  The
+minister, embarrassed, said that it was a thing of no consequence.  The
+king continued to press him, mentioned details, and talked of the
+regiment of the Prince of Tarento.  Chamillart then admitted that what
+happened at the passage was so disagreeable, and the combat so
+disagreeable, but so little important, that Madame de Maintenon, to whom
+he had reported all, had thought it best not to trouble the King upon the
+matter, and it had accordingly been agreed not to trouble him.  Upon this
+singular answer the King stopped short in his questions, and said not a
+word more.
+
+The Escaut being forced, the citadel of Lille on the point of being
+taken, our army exhausted with fatigue was at last dispersed, to the
+scandal of everybody; for it was known that Ghent was about to be
+besieged.  The Princes received orders to return to Court, but they
+insisted on the propriety of remaining with the army.  M. de Vendome, who
+began to fear the effect of his rashness and insolence, tried to obtain
+permission to pass the winter with the army on the frontier.
+
+He was not listened to.  The Princes received orders most positively to
+return to Court, and accordingly set out.
+
+The Duchesse de Bourgogne was very anxious about the way in which the
+Duke was to be received, and eager to talk to him and explain how matters
+stood, before he saw the King or anybody else. I sent a message to him
+that he ought to contrive to arrive after midnight, in order to pass two
+or three hours with the Duchess, and perhaps see Madame de Maintenon
+early in the morning.  My message was not received; at any rate not
+followed.  The Duc de Bourgogne arrived on the 11th of December, a little
+after seven o'clock in the evening, just as Monseigneur had gone to the
+play, whither the Duchess had not gone, in order to wait for her husband.
+I know not why he alighted in the Cour des Princes, instead of the Great
+Court.  I was put then in the apartments of the Comtesse de Roncy, from
+which I could see all that passed.  I came down, and saw the Prince
+ascending the steps between the Ducs de Beauvilliers and De la
+Rocheguyon, who happened to be there.  He looked quite satisfied, was
+gay, and laughing, and spoke right and left.  I bowed to him.  He did me
+the honour to embrace me in a way that showed me he knew better what was
+going on than how to maintain his dignity.  He then talked only to me,
+and whispered that he knew what I had said.  A troop of courtiers met
+him.  In their midst he passed the Great Hall of the Guards, and instead
+of going to Madame de Maintenon's by the private door, though the nearest
+way, went to the great public entrance.  There was no one there but the
+King and Madame de Maintenon, with Pontchartrain; for I do not count the
+Duchesse de Bourgogne.  Pontchartrain noted well what passed at the
+interview, and related it all to me that very evening.
+
+As soon as in Madame de Maintenon's apartment was heard the rumour which
+usually precedes such an arrival, the King became sufficiently
+embarrassed to change countenance several times.  The Duchesse de
+Bourgogne appeared somewhat tremulous, and fluttered about the room to
+hide her trouble, pretending not to know exactly by which door the Prince
+would arrive.  Madame de Maintenon was thoughtful.  Suddenly all the
+doors flew open: the young Prince advanced towards the King, who, master
+of himself, more than any one ever was, lost at once all embarrassment,
+took two or three steps towards his grandson, embraced him with some
+demonstration of tenderness, spoke of his voyage, and then pointing to
+the Princess, said, with a smiling countenance: "Do you say nothing to
+her?" The Prince turned a moment towards her, and answered respectfully,
+as if he dared not turn away from the King, and did not move.  He then
+saluted Madame de Maintenon, who received him well.  Talk of travel,
+beds, roads, and so forth, lasted, all standing, some half-quarter of an
+hour; then the King said it would not be fair to deprive him any longer
+of the pleasure of being alone with Madame la Duchesse de Bourgogne, and
+that they would have time enough to see each other.  The Prince made a
+bow to the King, another to Madame de Maintenon, passed before the few
+ladies of the palace who had taken courage to put their heads into the
+room, entered the neighbouring cabinet, where he embraced the Duchess,
+saluted the ladies who were there, that is, kissed them; remained a few
+moments, and then went into his apartment, where he shut himself up with
+the Duchesse de Bourgogne.
+
+Their tete-a-tete lasted two hours and more: just towards the end, Madame
+d'O was let in; soon after the Marechal d'Estrees entered, and soon after
+that the Duchesse de Bourgogne came out with them, and returned into the
+great cabinet of Madame de Maintenon.  Monseigneur came there as usual,
+on returning from the comedy.  Madame la Duchesse de Bourgogne, troubled
+that the Duke did not hurry himself to come and salute his father, went
+to fetch him, and came back saying that he was putting on his powder; but
+observing that Monseigneur was little satisfied with this want of
+eagerness, sent again to hurry him.  Just then the Marechale d'Estrees,
+hair-brained and light, and free to say just what came into her head,
+began to attack Monseigneur for waiting so tranquilly for his son,
+instead of going himself to embrace him.  This random expression did not
+succeed.  Monseigneur replied stiffly that it was not for him to seek the
+Duc de Bourgogne; but the duty of the Duc de Bourgogne to seek him.  He
+came at last.  The reception was pretty good, but did not by any means
+equal that of the King.  Almost immediately the King rang, and everybody
+went to the supper-room.
+
+During the supper, M. le Duc de Berry arrived, and came to salute the
+King at table.  To greet him all hearts opened.  The King embraced him
+very tenderly.  Monseigneur only looked at him tenderly, not daring to
+embrace his (youngest) son in presence of the King.  All present courted
+him.  He remained standing near the King all the rest of the supper, and
+there was no talk save of post-horses, of roads, and such like trifles.
+The King spoke sufficiently at table to Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne;
+but to the Duc de Berry, he assumed a very different air.  Afterwards,
+there was a supper for the Duc de Berry in the apartments of the Duchesse
+de Bourgogne; but the conjugal impatience of the Duc de Bourgogne cut it
+rather too short.
+
+I expressed to the Duc de Beauvilliers, with my accustomed freedom, that
+the Duc de Bourgogne seemed to me very gay on returning from so sad a
+campaign.  He could not deny this, and made up his mind to give a hint on
+the subject.  Everybody indeed blamed so misplaced a gaiety.  Two or
+three days after his arrival the Duc de Bourgogne passed three hours with
+the King in the apartments of Madame de Maintenon.  I was afraid that,
+his piety would withhold him from letting out on the subject of M. de
+Vendome, but I heard that he spoke on that subject without restraint,
+impelled by the advice of the Duchesse de Bourgogne, and also by the Duc
+de Beauvilliers, who set his conscience at ease.  His account of the
+campaign, of affairs, of things, of advices, of proceedings, was
+complete.  Another, perhaps, less virtuous, might have used weightier
+terms; but at any rate everything was said with a completeness beyond all
+hope, if we consider who spoke and who listened.  The Duke concluded with
+an eager prayer to be given an army in the next campaign, and with the
+promise of the King to that effect.  Soon after an explanation took place
+with Monseigneur at Meudon, Mademoiselle Choin being present.  With the
+latter he spoke much more in private: she had taken his part with
+Monseigneur.  The Duchesse de Bourgogne had gained her over.  The
+connection of this girl with Madame de Maintenon was beginning to grow
+very close indeed.
+
+Gamaches had been to the army with the Duc do Bourgogne, and being a
+free-tongued man had often spoken out very sharply on the puerilities in
+which he indulged in company with the Duc de Berry, influenced by his
+example.  One day returning from mass, in company with the Duke on a
+critical day, when he would rather have seen him on horseback; he said
+aloud, "You will certainly win the kingdom of heaven; but as for the
+kingdom of the earth, Prince Eugene and Marlborough know how to seek it
+better than you."  What he said quite as publicly to the two Princes on
+their treatment of the King of England, was admirable.  That Prince
+(known as the Chevalier de Saint George) served incognito, with a modesty
+that the Princes took advantage of to treat him with the greatest
+indifference and contempt.  Towards the end of the campaign, Gamaches,
+exasperated with their conduct, exclaimed to them in the presence of
+everybody: "Is this a wager?  speak frankly; if so, you have won, there
+can be no doubt of that; but now, speak a little to the Chevalier de
+Saint George, and treat him more politely."  These sallies, however, were
+too public to produce any good effect.  They were suffered, but not
+attended to.
+
+The citadel of Lille capitulated as we have seen, with the consent of the
+King, who was obliged to acknowledge that the Marechal de Boufflers had
+done all he could, and that further defence was impossible.  Prince
+Eugene treated Boufflers with the greatest possible consideration.  The
+enemy at this time made no secret of their intention to invest Ghent,
+which made the dispersal of our army the more shameful; but necessity
+commanded, for no more provisions were to be got.
+
+M. de Vendome arrived at Versailles on the morning of December 15th, and
+saluted the King as he left table.  The King embraced him with a sort of
+enthusiasm that made his cabal triumph.  He monopolised all conversation
+during the dinner, but only trifles were talked of.  The King said he
+would talk to him next day at Madame de Maintenon's.  This delay, which
+was new to him, did not seem of good augury.  He went to pay his respects
+to M. de Bourgogne, who received him well in spite of all that had
+passed.  Then Vendome went to wait on Monseigneur at the Princesse de
+Coriti's: here he thought himself in his stronghold.  He was received
+excellently, and the conversation turned on nothings.  He wished to take
+advantage of this, and proposed a visit to Anet.  His surprise and that
+of those present were great at the uncertain reply of Monseigneur, who
+caused it to be understood, and rather stiffly too, that he would not go.
+Vendome appeared embarrassed, and abridged his visit.  I met him at the
+end of the gallery of the new wing, as I was coming from M. de
+Beauvilliers, turning towards the steps in the middle of the gallery.  He
+was alone, without torches or valets, with Alberoni, followed by a man I
+did not know.  I saw him by the light of my torches; we saluted each
+other politely, though we had not much acquaintance one with the other.
+He seemed chagrined, and was going to M. du Maine, his counsel and
+principal support.
+
+Next day he passed an hour with the King at Madame de Maintenon's.  He
+remained eight or ten days at Versailles or at Meudon, and never went to
+the Duchesse de Bourgogne's.  This was nothing new for him.  The mixture
+of grandeur and irregularity which he had long affected seemed to him to
+have freed him from the most indispensable duties.  His Abbe Alberoni
+showed himself at the King's mass in the character of a courtier with
+unparalleled effrontery.  At last they went to Anet.  Even before he went
+he perceived some diminution in his position, since he lowered himself so
+far as to invite people to come and see him, he, who in former years made
+it a favour to receive the most distinguished persons.  He soon perceived
+the falling-off in the number of his visitors.  Some excused themselves
+from going; others promised to go and did not.  Every one made a
+difficulty about a journey of fifteen leagues, which, the year before,
+was considered as easy and as necessary as that of Marly.  Vendome
+remained at Anet until the first voyage to Marly, when he came; and he
+always came to Marly and Meudon, never to Versailles, until the change of
+which I shall soon have occasion to speak.
+
+The Marechal de Boufflers returned to Court from his first but
+unsuccessful defence of Lille, and was received in a triumphant manner,
+and overwhelmed with honours and rewards.  This contrast with Vendome was
+remarkable: the one raised by force of trickery, heaping up mountains
+like the giants, leaning on vice, lies, audacity, on a cabal inimical to
+the state and its heirs, a factitious hero, made such by will in despite
+of truth;--the other, without cabal, with no support but virtue and
+modesty, was inundated with favours, and the applause of enemies was
+followed by the acclamations of the public, so that the nature of even
+courtiers changed, and they were happy in the recompenses showered upon
+him!
+
+Some days after the return of the Duc de Bourgogne Cheverny had an
+interview with him, on leaving which he told me what I cannot refrain
+from relating here, though it is necessarily with confusion that I write
+it.  He said that, speaking freely with him on what had been circulated
+during the campaign, the Prince observed that he knew how and with what
+vivacity I had expressed myself, and that he was informed of the manner
+in which the Prince de Conti had given his opinion, and added that with
+the approval of two such men, that of others might be dispensed with.
+Cheverny, a very truthful man, came full of this to tell it to me at
+once.  I was filled with confusion at being placed beside a man as
+superior to me in knowledge of war as he was in rank and birth; but I
+felt with gratitude how well M. de Beauvilliers had kept his word and
+spoken in my favour.
+
+The last evening of this year (1708) was very remarkable, because there
+had not yet been an example of any such thing.  The King having retired
+after supper to his cabinet with his family, as usual, Chamillart came
+without being sent for.  He whispered in the King's ear that he had a
+long despatch from the Marechal de Boufflers.  Immediately the King said
+good-night to Monseigneur and the Princesses, who went out with every one
+else; and the King actually worked for an hour with his minister before
+going to bed, so excited was he by the great project for retaking Lille!
+
+Since the fall of Lille, in fact, Chamillart, impressed with the
+importance of the place being in our possession, had laid out a plan by
+which he were to lay siege to it and recapture it.  One part of his plan
+was, that the King should conduct the siege in person.  Another was that,
+as money was so difficult to obtain, the ladies of the Court should not
+accompany the King, as their presence caused a large increase of expense
+for carriages, servants, and so on.  He confided his project to the King,
+under a strict promise that it would be kept secret from Madame de
+Maintenon.  He feared, and with reason, that if she heard of it she would
+object to being separated from the King for such a long time as would be
+necessary for the siege: Chamillart was warned that if he acted thus,
+hiding his plant from Madame de Maintenon, to whom he owed everything,
+she would assuredly ruin him, but he paid no attention to the warning.
+He felt all the danger he ran, but he was courageous; he loved the State,
+and, if I may say so, he loved the King as a mistress.  He followed his
+own counsels then, and made the King acquainted with his project.
+
+The King was at once delighted with it.  He entered into the details
+submitted to him by Chamillart with the liveliest interest, and promised
+to carry out all that was proposed.  He sent for Boufflers, who had
+returned from Lille, and having, as I have said, recompensed him for his
+brave defence of that place with a peerage and other marks of favour,
+despatched him privately into Flanders to make preparations for the
+siege.  The abandonment of Ghent by our troop, after a short and
+miserable defence, made him more than ever anxious to carry out this
+scheme.
+
+But the King had been so unused to keep a secret from Madame de
+Maintenon, that he felt himself constrained in attempting to do so now.
+He confided to her, therefore, the admirable plan of Chamillart.  She had
+the address to hide her surprise, and the strength to dissimulate
+perfectly her vexation; she praised the project; she appeared charmed
+with it; she entered into the details; she spoke of them to Chamillart;
+admired his zeal, his labour, his diligence, and, above all, his ability,
+in having conceived and rendered possible so fine and grand a project.
+
+From that moment, however, she forgot nothing in order to ensure its
+failure.  The first sight of it had made her tremble.  To be separated
+from the King during a long siege; to abandon him to a minister to whom
+he would be grateful for all the success of that siege; a minister, too,
+who, although her creature, had dared to submit this project to the King
+without informing her; who, moreover, had recently offended her by
+marrying his son into a family she considered inimical to her, and by
+supporting M. de Vendome against Monseigneur de Bourgogne!  These were
+considerations that determined her to bring about the failure of
+Chamillart's project and the disgrace of Chamillart himself.
+
+She employed her art so well, that after a time the project upon Lille
+did not appear so easy to the King as at first.  Soon after, it seemed
+difficult; then too hazardous and ruinous; so that at last it was
+abandoned, and Boufflers had orders to cease his preparations and return
+to France!  She succeeded thus in an affair she considered the most
+important she had undertaken during all her life.  Chamillart was much
+touched, but little surprised: As soon as he knew his secret had been
+confided to Madame de Maintenon he had feeble hope for it.  Now he began
+to fear for himself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+One of the reasons Madame de Maintenon had brought forward, which much
+assisted her in opposing the siege of Lille, was the excessive cold of
+this winter.  The winter was, in fact, terrible; the memory of man could
+find no parallel to it.  The frost came suddenly on Twelfth Night, and
+lasted nearly two months, beyond all recollection.  In four days the
+Seine and all the other rivers were frozen, and,--what had never been
+seen before,--the sea froze all along the coasts, so as to bear carts,
+even heavily laden, upon it.  Curious observers pretended that this cold
+surpassed what had ever been felt in Sweden and Denmark.  The tribunals
+were closed a considerable time.  The worst thing was, that it completely
+thawed for seven or eight days, and then froze again as rudely as before.
+This caused the complete destruction of all kinds of vegetation--even
+fruit-trees; and others of the most hardy kind, were destroyed.  The
+violence of the cold was such, that the strongest elixirs and the most
+spirituous liquors broke their bottles in cupboards of rooms with fires
+in them, and surrounded by chimneys, in several parts of the chateau of
+Versailles.  As I myself was one evening supping with the Duc de
+Villeroy, in his little bedroom, I saw bottles that had come from a well-
+heated kitchen, and that had been put on the chimney-piece of this bed-
+room (which was close to the kitchen), so frozen, that pieces of ice fell
+into our glasses as we poured out from them.  The second frost ruined
+everything.  There were no walnut-trees, no olive-trees, no apple-trees,
+no vines left, none worth speaking of, at least.  The other trees died in
+great numbers; the gardens perished, and all the grain in the earth.  It
+is impossible to imagine the desolation of this general ruin.  Everybody
+held tight his old grain.  The price of bread increased in proportion to
+the despair for the next harvest.  The most knowing resowed barley where
+there had been wheat, and were imitated by the majority.  They were the
+most successful, and saved all; but the police bethought themselves of
+prohibiting this, and repented too late!  Divers edicts were published
+respecting grain, researches were made and granaries filled;
+commissioners were appointed to scour the provinces, and all these steps
+contributed to increase the general dearness and poverty, and that, too,
+at a time when, as was afterwards proved, there was enough corn in the
+country to feed all France for two years, without a fresh ear being
+reaped.
+
+Many people believed that the finance gentlemen had clutched at this
+occasion to seize upon all the corn in the kingdom, by emissaries they
+sent about, in order to sell it at whatever price they wished for the
+profit of the King, not forgetting their own.  The fact that a large
+quantity of corn that the King had bought, and that had spoiled upon the
+Loire, was thrown into the water in consequence, did not shake this
+opinion, as the accident could not be hidden.  It is certain that the
+price of corn was equal in all the markets of the realm; that at Paris,
+commissioners fixed the price by force, and often obliged the vendors to
+raise it in spite of themselves; that when people cried out, "How long
+will this scarcity last?" some commissioners in a market, close to my
+house, near Saint Germain-des-Pres, replied openly, "As long as you
+please," moved by compassion and indignation, meaning thereby, as long as
+the people chose to submit to the regulation, according to which no corn
+entered Paris, except on an order of D'Argenson.  D'Argenson was the
+lieutenant of police.  The bakers were treated with the utmost rigour in
+order to keep up the price of bread all over France.  In the provinces,
+officers called intendents did what D'Argenson did at Paris.  On all the
+markets, the corn that was not sold at the hour fixed for closing was
+forcibly carried off; those who, from pity, sold their corn lower than
+the fixed rate were punished with cruelty!
+
+Marechal, the King's surgeon, had the courage and the probity to tell all
+these things to the King, and to state the sinister opinions it gave rise
+to among all classes, even the most enlightened.  The King appeared
+touched, was not offended with Marechal, but did nothing.
+
+In several places large stores of corn were collected; by the government
+authorities, but with the greatest possible secrecy.  Private people were
+expressly forbidden to do this, and informers were encouraged to; betray
+them.  A poor fellow, having bethought himself of informing against one
+of the stores alluded to above, was severely punished for his pains.  The
+Parliament assembled to debate upon these disorders.  It came to the
+resolution of submitting various proposals to the King, which it deemed
+likely to improve the condition of the country, and offered to send its
+Conseillers to examine into the conduct of the monopolists.  As soon as
+the King heard of this, he flew into a strange passion, and his first
+intention was to send a harsh message to the Parliament to attend to law
+trials, and not to mix with matters that did not concern it.  The
+chancellor did not dare to represent to, the King that what the
+Parliament wished to do belonged to its province, but calmed him by
+representing the respect and affection with which the Parliament regarded
+him, and that he was master either to accept or refuse its offers.  No
+reprimand was given, therefore, to the Parliament, but it was informed
+that the King prohibited it from meddling with the corn question.
+However accustomed the Parliament, as well as all the other public
+bodies, might be to humiliations, it was exceedingly vexed by this
+treatment, and obeyed with the greatest grief.  The public was,
+nevertheless, much affected by the conduct of the Parliament, and felt
+that if the Finance Ministry had been innocent in the matter, the King
+would have been pleased with what had taken place, which was in no
+respect an attack on the absolute and unbounded authority of which he was
+so vilely jealous.
+
+In the country a somewhat similar incident occurred.  The Parliament of
+Burgundy, seeing the province in the direst necessity, wrote to the
+Intendant, who did not bestir himself the least in the world.  In this
+pressing danger of a murderous famine, the members assembled to debate
+upon the course to adopt.  Nothing was said or done more than was
+necessary, and all with infinite discretion, yet the King was no sooner
+informed of it than he grew extremely irritated.  He sent a severe
+reprimand to this Parliament; prohibited it from meddling again in the
+matter; and ordered the President, who had conducted the assembly, to
+come at once to Court to explain his conduct.  He came, and but for the
+intervention of M. le Duc would have been deprived of his post,
+irreproachable as his conduct had been.  He received a sharp scolding
+from the King, and was then allowed to depart.  At the end of a few weeks
+he returned to Dijon, where it had been resolved to receive him in
+triumph; but, like a wise and experienced man, he shunned these
+attentions, arranging so that he arrived at Dijon at four o'clock in the
+morning.  The other Parliaments, with these examples before them, were
+afraid to act, and allowed the Intendants and their emissaries to have it
+all their own way.  It was at this time that those commissioners were
+appointed, to whom I have already alluded, who acted under the authority
+of the Intendants, and without dependence of any kind upon the
+Parliaments.  True, a court of appeal against their decisions was
+established, but it was a mere mockery.  The members who composed it did
+not set out to fulfil their duties until three months after having been
+appointed.
+
+Then, matters had been so arranged that they received no appeals, and
+found no cases to judge.  All this dark work remained, therefore, in the
+hands of D'Argenson and the Intendants, and it continued to be done with
+the same harshness as ever.
+
+Without passing a more definite judgment on those who invented and
+profited by this scheme, it may be said that there has scarcely been a
+century which has produced one more mysterious, more daring, better
+arranged, and resulting in an oppression so enduring, so sure, so cruel.
+The sums it produced were innumerable; and innumerable were the people
+who died literally of hunger, and those who perished afterwards of the
+maladies caused by the extremity of misery; innumerable also were the
+families who were ruined, whose ruin brought down a torrent of other
+ills.
+
+Despite all this, payments hitherto most strictly made began to cease.
+Those of the customs, those of the divers loans, the dividends upon the
+Hotel de Ville--in all times so sacred--all were suspended; these last
+alone continued, but with delays, then with retrenchments, which
+desolated nearly all the families of Paris and many others.  At the same
+time the taxes--increased, multiplied, and exacted with the most extreme
+rigour--completed the devastation of France.
+
+Everything rose incredibly in price, while nothing was left to buy with,
+even at the cheapest rate; and although--the majority of the cattle had
+perished for want of food, and by the misery of those who kept them, a
+new monopoly was established upon, horned beasts.  A great number of
+people who, in preceding years, used to relieve the poor, found,
+themselves so reduced as to be able to subsist only with great
+difficulty, and many of them received alms in secret.  It is impossible
+to say how many others laid siege to the hospitals, until then the ,
+shame and punishment of the poor; how many ruined hospitals revomited
+forth their inmates to the public charge--that is to say, sent them away
+to die actually of hunger; and how many decent families shut themselves
+up in garrets to die of want.
+
+It is impossible to say, moreover, how all this misery warmed up zeal and
+charity, or how immense were the alms distributed.  But want increasing
+each instant, an indiscreet and tyrannical charity imagined new taxes for
+the benefit of the poor.  They were imposed, and, added to so many
+others, vexed numbers of people, who were annoyed at being compelled to
+pay, who would have preferred giving voluntarily.  Thus, these new taxes,
+instead of helping the poor, really took away assistance from them, and
+left them worse off than before.  The strangest thing of all is, that
+these taxes in favour of the poor were, perpetuated and appropriated by
+the King, and are received by the financiers on his account to this day
+as a branch of the revenue, the name of them not having even been
+changed.  The same thing has happened with respect to the annual tax for
+keeping up the highways and thoroughfares of the kingdom.  The majority
+of the bridges were broken, and the high roads had become impracticable.
+Trade, which suffered by this, awakened attention.  The Intendant of
+Champagne determined to mend the roads by parties of men, whom he
+compelled to work for nothing, not even giving them bread.  He was
+imitated everywhere, and was made Counsellor of State.  The people died
+of hunger and misery at this work, while those who overlooked them made
+fortunes.  In the end the thing was found to be impracticable, and was
+abandoned, and so were the roads.  But the impost for making them and
+keeping them up did not in the least stop during this experiment or
+since, nor has it ceased to be appropriated as a branch of the King's
+revenue.
+
+But to return to the year 1709.  People never ceased wondering what had
+become of all the money of the realm.  Nobody could any longer pay,
+because nobody was paid: the country-people, overwhelmed with exactions
+and with valueless property, had become insolvent: trade no longer
+yielded anything--good faith and confidence were at an end.  Thus the
+King had no resources, except in terror and in his unlimited power,
+which, boundless as it was, failed also for want of having something to
+take and to exercise itself upon.  There was no more circulation, no
+means of re-establishing it.  All was perishing step by step; the realm
+was entirely exhausted; the troops, even, were not paid, although no one
+could imagine what was done with the millions that came into the King's
+coffers.  The unfed soldiers, disheartened too at being so badly
+commanded, were always unsuccessful; there was no capacity in generals or
+ministers; no appointment except by whim or intrigue; nothing was
+punished, nothing examined, nothing weighed: there was equal impotence to
+sustain the war and bring about peace: all suffered, yet none dared to
+put the hand to this arch, tottering as it was and ready to fall.
+
+This was the frightful state to which we were reduced, when envoys were
+sent into Holland to try and bring about peace.  The picture is exact,
+faithful, and not overcharged.  It was necessary to present it as it was,
+in order to explain the extremity to which we were reduced, the enormity
+of the concessions which the King made to obtain peace, and the visible
+miracle of Him who sets bounds to the seas, by which France was allowed
+to escape from the hands of Europe, resolved and ready to destroy her.
+
+Meanwhile the money was re-coined; and its increase to a third more than
+its intrinsic value, brought some profit to the King, but ruin to private
+people, and a disorder to trade which completed its annihilation.
+
+Samuel Bernard, the banker, overthrew all Lyons by his prodigious
+bankruptcy, which caused the most terrible results.  Desmarets assisted
+him as much as possible.  The discredit into which paper money had
+fallen, was the cause of his failure.  He had issued notes to the amount
+of twenty millions, and owed almost as much at Lyons.  Fourteen millions
+were given to him in assignats, in order to draw him out of his
+difficulties.  It is pretended that he found means to gain much by his
+bankruptcy, but this seems doubtful.
+
+The winter at length passed away.  In the spring so many disorders took
+place in the market of Paris, that more guards than usual were kept in
+the city.  At Saint Roch there was a disturbance, on account of a poor
+fellow who had fallen, and been trampled under foot; and the crowd, which
+was very large, was very insolent to D'Argenson, Lieutenant of Police,
+who had hastened there.  M. de la Rochefoucauld, who had retired from the
+Court to Chenil, on account of his loss of sight, received an atrocious
+letter against the King, in which it was plainly intimated that there
+were still Ravaillacs left in the world; and to this madness was added an
+eulogy of Brutus.  M. de la Rochefoucauld at once went in all haste to
+the King with this letter.  His sudden appearance showed that something
+important had occurred, and the object of his visit, of course, soon
+became known.  He was very ill received for coming so publicly on such an
+errand.  The Ducs de Beauvilliers and de Bouillon, it seems, had received
+similar letters, but had given them to the King privately.  The King for
+some days was much troubled, but after due reflection, he came to the
+conclusion that people who menace and warn have less intention of
+committing a crime than of causing alarm.
+
+What annoyed the King more was, the inundation of placards, the most
+daring and the most unmeasured, against his person, his conduct, and his
+government--placards, which for a long time were found pasted upon the
+gates of Paris, the churches, the public places; above all upon the
+statues; which during the night were insulted in various fashions, the
+marks being seen the next morning, and the inscriptions erased.  There
+were also, multitudes of verses and songs, in which nothing was spared.
+
+We were in this state until the 16th of May.  The procession of Saint
+Genevieve took place.  This procession never takes place except in times
+of the direst necessity; and then, only in virtue of orders from the
+King, the Parliament, or the Archbishop of Paris.  On the one hand, it
+was hoped that it would bring succour to the country; on the other, that
+it would amuse the people.
+
+It was shortly after this, when the news of the arrogant demands of the
+allies, and the vain attempts of the King to obtain an honourable peace
+became known, that the Duchesse de Grammont conceived the idea of
+offering her plate to the King, to replenish his impoverished exchequer,
+and to afford him means carry on the war.  She hoped that her example
+would be followed by all the Court, and that she alone would have the
+merit and the profit of suggesting the idea.  Unfortunately for this
+hope, the Duke, her husband, spoke of the project to Marechal Boufflers,
+who thought it so good, that he noised it abroad, and made such a stir,
+exhorting everybody to adopt it, that he passed for the inventor, and; no
+mention was made of the Duke or the old Duchesse de Grammont, the latter
+of whom was much enraged at this.
+
+The project made a great hubbub at the Court.  Nobody dared to refuse to
+offer his plate, yet each offered it with much regret.  Some had been
+keeping it as a last resource, which they; were very sorry to deprive
+themselves of; others feared the dirtiness of copper and earthenware;
+others again were annoyed at being obliged to imitate an ungrateful
+fashion, all the merit of which would go to the inventor.  It was in vain
+that Pontchartrain objected to the project, as one from which only
+trifling benefit could be derived, and which would do great injury to
+France by acting as a proclamation of its embarrassed state to all the
+world, at home and abroad.  The King would not listen to his reasonings,
+but declared himself willing to receive all the plate that was sent to
+him as a free-will offering.  He announced this; and two means were
+indicated at the same time, which all good citizens might follow.  One
+was, to send their plate to the King's goldsmith; the other, to send it
+to the Mint.  Those who made an unconditional gift of their plate, sent
+it to the former, who kept a register of the names and of the number of
+marks he received.  The King regularly looked over this list; at least at
+first, and promised in general terms to restore to everybody the weight
+of metal they gave when his affairs permitted--a promise nobody believed
+in or hoped to see executed.  Those who wished to be paid for their plate
+sent it to the Mint.  It was weighed on arrival; the names were written,
+the marks and the date; payment was made according as money could be
+found.  Many people were not sorry thus to sell, their plate without
+shame.  But the loss and the damage were inestimable in admirable
+ornaments of all kinds, with which much of the plate of the rich was
+embellished.  When an account came to be drawn up, it was found that not
+a hundred people were upon the list of Launay, the goldsmith; and the
+total product of the gift did not amount to three millions.  I confess
+that I was very late in sending any plate.  When I found that I was
+almost the only one of my rank using silver, I sent plate to the value of
+a thousand pistoles to the Mint, and locked up the rest.  All the great
+people turned to earthenware, exhausted the shops where it was sold, and
+set the trade in it on fire, while common folks continued to use their
+silver.  Even the King thought of using earthenware, having sent his gold
+vessels to the Mint, but afterwards decided upon plated metal and silver;
+the Princes and Princesses of the blood used crockery.
+
+Ere three months were over his head the King felt all the shame and the
+weakness of having consented to this surrendering of plate, and avowed
+that he repented of it.  The inundations of the Loire, which happened at
+the same time, and caused the utmost disorder, did not restore the Court
+or the public to good humour.  The losses they caused, and the damage
+they did, were very considerable, and ruined many private people, and
+desolated home trade.
+
+Summer came.  The dearness of all things, and of bread in particular,
+continued to cause frequent commotions all over the realm.  Although, as
+I have said, the guards of Paris were much increased, above all in the
+markets and the suspected places, they were unable to hinder disturbances
+from breaking out.  In many of these D'Argenson nearly lost his life.
+
+Monseigneur arriving and returning from the Opera, was assailed by the
+populace and by women in great numbers crying, "Bread!  Bread!" so that
+he was afraid, even in the midst of his guards, who did not dare to
+disperse the crowd for fear of worse happening.  He got away by throwing
+money to the people, and promising wonders; but as the wonders did not
+follow, he no longer dared to go to Paris.
+
+The King himself from his windows heard the people of Versailles crying
+aloud in the street.  The discourses they held were daring and continual
+in the streets and public places; they uttered complaints, sharp, and but
+little measured, against the government, and even against the King's
+person; and even exhorted each other no longer to be so enduring, saying
+that nothing worse could happen to them than what they suffered, dying as
+they were of starvation.
+
+To amuse the people, the idle and the poor were employed to level a
+rather large hillock which remained upon the Boulevard, between the
+Portes Saint Denis and Saint Martin; and for all salary, bad bread in
+small quantities was distributed to these workers.  If happened that on
+Tuesday morning, the 20th of August, there was no bread for a large
+number of these people.  A woman amongst others cried out at this, which
+excited the rest to do likewise.  The archers appointed to watch over
+these labourers, threatened the woman; she only cried the louder;
+thereupon the archers seized her and indiscreetly put her in an adjoining
+pillory.  In a moment all her companions ran to her aid, pulled down the
+pillory, and scoured the streets, pillaging the bakers and pastrycooks.
+One by one the shops closed.  The disorder increased and spread through
+the neighbouring streets; no harm was done anybody, but the cry was
+"Bread!  Bread!" and bread was seized everywhere.
+
+It so fell out that Marechal Boufflers, who little thought what was
+happening, was in the neighbourhood, calling upon his notary.  Surprised
+at the fright he saw everywhere, and learning, the cause, he wished of
+himself to appease it.  Accompanied by the Duc de Gramont, he directed
+himself towards the scene of the disturbance, although advised not to do
+so.  When he arrived at the top of the Rue Saint Denis, the crowd and the
+tumult made him judge that it would be best to alight from his coach.  He
+advanced, therefore, on foot with the Duc de Grammont among the furious
+and infinite crowd of people, of whom he asked the cause of this uproar,
+promised them bread, spoke his best with gentleness but firmness, and
+remonstrated with them.  He was listened to.  Cries, several times
+repeated, of "Vive M. le Marechal de Boufflers!" burst from the crowd.
+M. de Boufflers walked thus with M. de Grammont all along the Rue aux
+Ours and the neighbouring streets, into the very centre of the sedition,
+in fact.  The people begged him to represent their misery to the King,
+and to obtain for them some food.  He promised this, and upon his word
+being given all were appeased and all dispersed with thanks and fresh
+acclamations of "Vive M. le Marechal de Boufflers!" He did a real service
+that day.  D'Argenson had marched to the spot with troops; and had it not
+been for the Marechal, blood would have been spilt, and things might have
+gone very far.
+
+The Marechal had scarcely reached his own house in the Place Royale than
+he was informed that the sedition had broken out with even greater force
+in the Faubourg Saint Antoine.  He ran there immediately, with the Duc de
+Grammont, and appeased it as he had appeased the other.  He returned to
+his own home to eat a mouthful or two, and then set out for Versailles.
+Scarcely had he left the Place Royale than the people in the streets and
+the shopkeepers cried to him to have pity on them, and to get them some
+bread, always with "Vive M. le Marechal de Boufflers!" He was conducted
+thus as far as the quay of the Louvre.
+
+On arriving at Versailles he went straight to the King, told him what had
+occurred, and was much thanked.  He was even offered by the King the
+command of Paris,--troops, citizens, police, and all; but this he
+declined, Paris, as he said, having already a governor and proper
+officers to conduct its affairs.  He afterwards, however, willingly lent
+his aid to them in office, and the modesty with which he acted brought
+him new glory.
+
+Immediately after, the supply of bread was carefully looked to.  Paris
+was filled with patrols, perhaps with too many, but they succeeded so
+well that no fresh disturbances took place.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV
+
+After his return from the campaign, M. de Vendome continued to be paid
+like a general serving in winter, and to enjoy many other advantages.
+From all this, people inferred that he would serve during the following
+campaign; nobody dared to doubt as much, and the cabal derived new
+strength therefrom.  But their little triumph was not of long
+continuance.  M. de Vendome came to Versailles for the ceremony of the
+Order on Candlemas-Day.  He then learned that he was not to serve, and
+that he was no longer to receive general's pay.  The blow was violent,
+and he felt it to its fullest extent; but, with a prudence that equalled
+his former imprudence, he swallowed the pill without making a face,
+because he feared other more bitter ones, which he felt he had deserved.
+This it was that, for the first time in his life, made him moderate.  He
+did not affect to conceal what had taken place, but did not say whether
+it was in consequence of any request of his, or whether he was glad or
+sorry,--giving it out as an indifferent piece of news; and changed
+nothing but his language, the audacity of which he diminished as no
+longer suited to the times.  He sold his equipages.
+
+M. le Prince de Conti died February 22, aged not quite forty-five.  His
+face had been charming; even the defects of his body and mind had
+infinite graces.  His shoulders were too high; his head was a little on
+one side; his laugh would have seemed a bray in any one else; his mind
+was strangely absent.  He was gallant with the women, in love with many,
+well treated by several; he was even coquettish with men.  He endeavoured
+to please the cobbler, the lackey, the porter, as well as the Minister of
+State, the Grand Seigneur, the General, all so naturally that success was
+certain.  He was consequently the constant delight of every one, of the
+Court, the armies; the divinity of the people, the idol of the soldiers,
+the hero of the officers, the hope of whatever was most distinguished,
+the love of the Parliament, the friend of the learned, and often the
+admiration of the historian, of jurisconsults, of astronomers, and
+mathematicians, the most profound.  He was especially learned in
+genealogies, and knew their chimeras and their realities.  With him the
+useful and the polite, the agreeable and the deep, all was distinct and
+in its place.  He had friends, knew how to choose them, cultivate them,
+visit them, live with them, put himself on their level without
+haughtiness or baseness.  But this man, so amiable, so charming, so
+delicious, loved nothing.  He had and desired friends, as other people
+have and desire articles of furniture.  Although with much self-respect
+he was a humble courtier, and showed too much how greatly he was in want
+of support and assistance from all sides; he was avaricious, greedy of
+fortune, ardent and unjust.  The King could not bear him, and was grieved
+with the respect he was obliged to show him, and which he was careful
+never to trespass over by a single jot.  Certain intercepted letters had
+excited a hatred against him in Madame de Maintenon, and an indignation
+in the King which nothing could efface.  The riches, the talents, the
+agreeable qualities, the great reputation which this Prince had acquired,
+the general love of all, became crimes in him.  The contrast with M. du
+Maine excited daily irritation and jealousy.  The very purity of his
+blood was a reproach to him.  Even his friends were odious, and felt that
+this was so.  At last, however, various causes made him to be chosen, in
+the midst of a very marked disgrace, to command the army in Flanders.  He
+was delighted, and gave himself up to the most agreeable hopes.  But it
+was no longer time: he had sought to drown his sorrow at wearing out his
+life unoccupied in wine and other pleasures, for which his age and his
+already enfeebled body were no longer suited.  His health gave way.  He
+felt it soon.  The tardy return to favour which he had enjoyed made him
+regret life more.  He perished slowly, regretting to have been brought to
+death's door by disgrace, and the impossibility of being restored by the
+unexpected opening of a brilliant career.
+
+The Prince, against the custom of those of his rank, had been very well
+educated.  He was full of instruction.  The disorders of his life had
+clouded his knowledge but not extinguished it, and he often read to brush
+up his learning.  He chose M. de la Tour to prepare him, and help him to
+die well.  He was so attached to life that all his courage was required.
+For three months crowds of visitors filled his palace, and the people
+even collected in the place before it.  The churches echoed with prayers
+for his life.  The members of his family often went to pay for masses for
+him; and found that others had already done so.  All questions were about
+his health.  People stopped each other in the street to inquire; passers-
+by were called to by shopmen, anxious to know whether the Prince de Conti
+was to live or to die.  Amidst all this, Monseigneur never visited him;
+and, to the indignation of all Paris, passed along the quay near the
+Louvre going to the Opera, whilst the sacraments were being carried to
+the Prince on the other side.  He was compelled by public opinion to make
+a short visit after this.  The Prince died at last in his arm-chair,
+surrounded by a few worthy people.  Regrets were universal; but perhaps
+he gained by his disgrace.  His heart was firmer than his head.  He might
+have been timid at the head of an army or in the Council of the King if
+he had entered it.  The King was much relieved by his death; Madame de
+Maintenon also; M. le Duc much more; for M. du Maine it was a
+deliverance, and for M. de Vendome a consolation.  Monseigneur learned it
+at Meudon as he was going out to hunt, and showed no feeling of any kind.
+
+The death of M. le Prince de Conti seemed to the Duc de Vendome a
+considerable advantage, because he was thus delivered from a rival most
+embarrassing by the superiority of his birth, just when he was about to
+be placed in a high military position.  I have already mentioned
+Vendome's exclusion from command.  The fall of this Prince of the Proud
+had been begun we have now reached the second step, between which and the
+third there was a space of between two and three months; but as the third
+had no connection with any other event, I will relate it at once.
+
+Whatever reasons existed to induce the King to take from M. de Vendome
+the command of his armies, I know not if all the art and credit of Madame
+de Maintenon would not have been employed in vain, together with the
+intrigues of M. du Maine, without an adventure, which I must at once
+explain, to set before the reader's eyes the issue of the terrible
+struggle, pushed to such extremes, between Vendome, seconded by his
+formidable cabal, and the necessary, heir of the Crown, supported by his
+wife, the favourite of the King, and Madame de Maintenon, which last; to
+speak clearly, as all the Court saw, for thirty years governed him
+completely.
+
+When M. de Vendome returned from Flanders, he had a short interview with
+the King, in which he made many bitter complaints against Pursegur, one
+of his lieutenant-generals, whose sole offence was that he was much
+attached to M. de Bourgogne.  Pursegur was a great favourite with the
+King, and often, on account of the business of the infantry regiment, of
+which the thought himself the private colonel, had private interviews
+with him, and was held in high estimation for his capacity and virtue.
+He, in his turn, came back from Flanders, and had a private audience of
+the King.  The complaints that had been made against him by M. de Vendome
+were repeated to him by the King, who, however, did not mention from whom
+they came.  Pursegur defended himself so well, that the King in his
+surprise mentioned this latter fact.  At the name of Vendome, Pursegur
+lost all patience.  He described, to the King all the faults, the
+impertinences; the obstinacy, the insolence of M. de Vendome, with a
+precision and clearness which made his listener very attentive and very
+fruitful in questions.  Pursegur, seeing that he might go on, gave
+himself rein, unmasked M. de Vendome from top to toe, described his
+ordinary life at the army, the incapacity of his body, the incapacity of
+his judgment, the prejudice of his mind, the absurdity and crudity of his
+maxims, his utter ignorance of the art of war, and showed to
+demonstration, that it was only by a profusion of miracles France had not
+been ruined by him--lost a hundred times over.
+
+The conversation lasted more than two hours.  The' King, long since
+convinced of the capacity, fidelity, and truthfulness of Pursegur, at
+last opened his eyes to the truth respecting this Vendome, hidden with so
+much art until then, and regarded as a hero and the tutelary genius of
+France.  He was vexed and ashamed of his credulity, and from the date of
+this conversation Vendome fell at once from his favour.
+
+Pursegur, naturally humble, gentle, and modest, but truthful, and on this
+occasion piqued, went out into the gallery after his conversation, and
+made a general report of it to all, virtuously, braving Vendome and all
+his cabal.  This cabal trembled with rage; Vendome still more so.  They
+answered by miserable reasonings, which nobody cared for.  This was what
+led to the suppression of his pay, and his retirement to Anet, where he
+affected a philosophical indifference.
+
+Crestfallen as he was, he continued to sustain at Meudon and Marly the
+grand manners he had usurped at the time of his prosperity.  After having
+got over the first embarrassment, he put on again his haughty air, and
+ruled the roast.  To see him at Meudon you would have said he was
+certainly the master of the saloon, and by his free and easy manner to
+Monseigneur, and, when he dared, to the King, he would have been thought
+the principal person there.  Monseigneur de Bourgogne supported this--his
+piety made him do so--but Madame de Bourgogne was grievously offended,
+and watched her opportunity to get rid of M. de Vendome altogether.
+
+It came, the first journey the King made to Marly after Easter.  'Brelan'
+was then the fashion.  Monseigneur, playing at it one day with Madame de
+Bourgogne and others, and being in want of a fifth player, sent for M. de
+Vendome from the other end of the saloon, to come and join the party.
+That instant Madame de Bourgogne said modestly, but very intelligibly, to
+Monseigneur, that the presence of M. de Vendome at Marly was sufficiently
+painful to her, without having him at play with her, and that she begged
+he might be dispensed with.  Monseigneur, who had sent for Vendome
+without the slightest reflection, looked round the room, and sent for
+somebody else.  When Vendome arrived, his place was taken, and he had to
+suffer this annoyance before all the company.  It may be imagined to what
+an extent this superb gentleman was stung by the affront.  He served no
+longer; he commanded no longer; he was no longer the adored idol; he
+found himself in the paternal mansion of the Prince he had so cruelly
+offended, and the outraged wife of that Prince was more than a match for
+him.  He turned upon his heel, absented himself from the room as soon as
+he could, and retired to his own chamber, there to storm at his leisure.
+
+Other and more cruel annoyances were yet in store for him, however.
+Madame de Bourgogne reflected on what had just taken place.  The facility
+with which she had succeeded in one respect encouraged her, but she was a
+little troubled to know how the King would take what she had done, and
+accordingly, whilst playing, she resolved to push matters still further,
+both to ruin her guest utterly and to get out of her embarrassment; for,
+despite her extreme familiarity, she was easily embarrassed, being gentle
+and timid.  The 'brelan' over, she ran to Madame de Maintenon; told her
+what had just occurred; said that the presence of M. de Vendome at Marly
+was a continual insult to her; and begged her to solicit the King to
+forbid M. de Vendome to come there.  Madame de Maintenon, only too glad.
+to have an opportunity of revenging herself upon an enemy who had set her
+at defiance, and against whom all her batteries had at one time failed,
+consented to this request.  She spoke out to the King, who, completely
+weary of M. de Vendome, and troubled to have under his eyes a man whom he
+could not doubt was discontented, at once granted what was asked.  Before
+going to bed, he charged one of his valets to tell M. de Vendome the next
+morning, that henceforth he was to absent himself from Marly, his
+presence there being disagreeable to Madame de Bourgogne.
+
+It may be imagined into what an excess of despair M. de Vendome fell, at
+a message so unexpected, and which sapped the foundations of all his
+hopes.  He kept silent, however, for fear of making matters worse, did
+not venture attempting, to speak to the King, and hastily retired to
+Clichy to hide his rage and shame.  The news of his banishment from Marly
+soon spread abroad, and made so much stir, that to show it was not worth
+attention, he returned two days before the end of the visit, and stopped
+until the end in a continual shame and embarrassment.  He set out for
+Anet at the same time that the King set out for Versailles, and has never
+since put his foot in Marly.
+
+But another bitter draught was to be mixed for him.  Banished from Marly,
+he had yet the privilege of going to Meudon.  He did not fail to avail
+himself of this every time Monseigneur was there, and stopped as long as
+he stopped, although in the times of his splendour he had never stayed
+more than one or two days.  It was seldom that Monseigneur visited Meudon
+without Madame la Duchesse de Bourgogne going to see him.  And yet M. de
+Vendome never failed audaciously to present himself before her, as if to
+make her feel that at all events in Monseigneur's house he was a match
+for her.  Guided by former experience, the Princess gently suffered this
+in silence, and watched her opportunity.  It soon came.
+
+Two months afterwards it happened that, while Monseigneur was at Meudon,
+the King, Madame de Maintenon; and Madame de Bourgogne, came to dine with
+him.  Madame de Maintenon wished to talk with Mademoiselle Choin without
+sending for her to Versailles, and the King, as may be believed, was in
+the secret.  I mention this to account for the King's visit.
+M. de Vendome;: who was at Meudon as usual, was stupid enough to present
+himself at the coach door as the King and his companions descended.
+Madame de Bourgogne was much offended, constrained herself less than
+usual, and turned away her head with affectation, after a sort of sham
+salute.  He felt the sting, but had the folly to approach her again after
+dinner, while she was playing.  He experienced the same treatment, but
+this time in a still more marked manner.  Stung to the quick and out of
+countenance, he went up to his chamber, and did not descend until very
+late.  During this time Madame de Bourgogne spoke to Monseigneur of the
+conduct of M. de Vendorne, and the same evening she addressed herself to
+Madame de Maintenon, and openly complained to the King.  She represented
+to him how hard it was to her to be treated by Monseigneur with less
+respect than by the King: for while the latter had banished M. de Vendome
+from Marly, the former continued to grant him an asylum at Meudon.
+
+M. de Vendome, on his side, complained bitterly to Monseigneur of the
+strange persecution that he suffered everywhere from Madame de Bourgogne;
+but Monseigneur replied to him so coldly that he withdrew with tears in
+his eyes, determined, however, not to give up until he had obtained some
+sort of satisfaction.  He set his friends to work to speak to
+Monseigneur; all they could draw from him was, that M. de Vendome must
+avoid Madame de Bourgogne whenever she came to Meudon, and that it was
+the smallest respect he owed her until she was reconciled to him.  A
+reply so dry and so precise was cruelly felt; but M. de Vendome was not
+at the end of the chastisement he had more than merited.  The next day
+put an end to all discussion upon the matter.
+
+He was card-playing after dinner in a private cabinet, when D'Antin
+arrived from Versailles.  He approached the players, and asked what was
+the position of the game, with an eagerness which made M. de Vendome
+inquire the reason.  D'Antin said he had to render an account to him of
+the matter he had entrusted him with.
+
+"I!" exclaimed Vendome, with surprise, "I have entrusted you with
+nothing."
+
+"Pardon me," replied D'Antin; "you do not recollect, then, that I have an
+answer to make to you?"
+
+From this perseverance M. de Vendome comprehended that something was
+amiss, quitted his game, and went into an obscure wardrobe with D'Antin,
+who told him that he had been ordered by the King to beg Monseigneur not
+to invite M. de Vendome to Meudon any more; that his presence there was
+as unpleasant to Madame de Bourgogne as it had been at Marly.  Upon this,
+Vendome, transported with fury, vomited forth all that his rage inspired
+him with.  He spoke to Monseigneur in the evening, but was listened to as
+coldly as before.  Vendome passed the rest of his visit in a rage and
+embarrassment easy to conceive, and on the day Monseigneur returned to
+Versailles he hurried straight to Anet.
+
+But he was unable to remain quiet anywhere; so went off with his dogs,
+under pretence of going a hunting, to pass a month in his estate of La
+Ferme-Aleps, where he had no proper lodging and no society, and gave
+there free vent to his rage.  Thence he returned again to Anet, where he
+remained abandoned by every one.  Into this solitude, into this startling
+and public seclusion, incapable of sustaining a fall so complete, after a
+long habit of attaining everything, and doing everything he pleased, of
+being the idol of the world, of the Court, of the armies, of making his
+very vices adored, and his greatest faults admired, his defects
+commended, so that he dared to conceive the prodigious design of ruining
+and destroying the necessary heir of the Crown, though he had never
+received anything but evidences of tenderness from him, and triumphed
+over him for eight months with the most scandalous success; it was, I
+say, thus that this Colossus was overthrown by the breath of a prudent
+and courageous princess, who earned by this act merited applause.  All
+who were concerned with her, were charmed to see of what she was capable;
+and all who were opposed to her and her husband trembled.  The cabal, so
+formidable, so lofty, so accredited, so closely united to overthrow them,
+and reign, after the King, under Monseigneur in their place--these
+chiefs, male and female, so enterprising and audacious, fell now into
+mortal discouragement and fear.  It was a pleasure to see them work their
+way back with art and extreme humility, and turn round those of the
+opposite party who remained influential, and whom they had hitherto
+despised; and especially to see with what embarrassment, what fear, what
+terror, they began to crawl before the young Princess, and wretchedly
+court the Duc de Bourgogne and his friends, and bend to them in the most
+extraordinary manner.
+
+As for M. de Vendome, without any resource, save what he found in his
+vices and his valets, he did not refrain from bragging among them of the
+friendship of Monseigneur for him, of which he said he was well assured.
+Violence had been done to Monseigneur's feelings.  He was reduced to this
+misery of hoping that his words would be spread about by these valets,
+and would procure him some consideration from those who thought of the
+future.  But the present was insupportable to him.  To escape from it, he
+thought of serving in Spain, and wrote to Madame des Ursins asking
+employment.  The King was annoyed at this step, and flatly refused to let
+him go to Spain.  His intrigue, therefore, came to an end at once.
+
+Nobody gained more by the fall of M. de Vendome than Madame de Maintenon.
+Besides the joy she felt in overthrowing a man who, through M. du Maine,
+owed everything to her, and yet dared to resist her so long and
+successfully, she felt, also, that her credit became still more the
+terror of the Court; for no one doubted that what had occurred was a
+great example of her power.  We shall presently see how she furnished
+another, which startled no less.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+It is time now to retrace my steps to the point from which I have been
+led away in relating all the incidents which arose out of the terrible
+winter and the scarcity it caused.
+
+The Court at that time beheld the renewal of a ministry; which from the
+time it had lasted was worn down to its very roots, and which was on
+that account only the more agreeable to the King.  On the 20th of
+January, the Pere La Chaise, the confessor of the King, died at a very
+advanced age.  He was of good family, and his father would have been rich
+had he not had a dozen children.  Pere La Chaise succeeded in 1675 to
+Pere Ferrier as confessor of the King, and occupied that post thirty-two
+years.  The festival of Easter often caused him politic absences during
+the attachment of the King for Madame de Montespan.  On one occasion he
+sent in his place the Pere Deschamps, who bravely refused absolution.
+The Pere La Chaise was of mediocre mind but of good character, just,
+upright, sensible, prudent, gentle, and moderate, an enemy of informers,
+and of violence of every kind. He kept clear of many scandalous
+transactions, befriended the Archbishop of Cambrai as much as he could,
+refused to push the Port Royal des Champs to its destruction, and always
+had on his table a copy of the New Testament of Pere Quesnel, saying that
+he liked what was good wherever he found it.  When near his eightieth
+year, with his head and his health still good, he wished to retire, but
+the King would not hear of it.  Soon after, his faculties became worn
+out, and feeling this, he repeated his wish.  The Jesuits, who perceived
+his failing more than he did himself, and felt the diminution of his
+credit, exhorted him to make way for another who should have the grace
+and zeal of novelty.  For his part he sincerely desired repose, and he
+pressed the King to allow him to take it, but all in vain.  He was
+obliged to bear his burthen to the very end.  Even the infirmities and
+the decrepitude that afflicted could not deliver him.  Decaying legs,
+memory extinguished, judgment collapsed, all his faculties confused,
+strange inconveniences for a confessor--nothing could disgust the King,
+and he persisted in having this corpse brought to him and carrying on
+customary business with it.  At last, two days after a return from
+Versailles, he grew much weaker, received the sacrament, wrote with his
+own hand a long letter to the King, received a very rapid and hurried one
+in reply, and soon after died at five o'clock in the morning very
+peaceably.  His confessor asked him two things, whether he had acted
+according to his conscience, and whether he had thought of the interests
+and honour of the company of Jesuits; and to both these questions he
+answered satisfactorily.
+
+The news was brought to the King as he came out of his cabinet.  He
+received it like a Prince accustomed to losses, praised the Pere La
+Chaise for his goodness, and then said smilingly, before all the
+courtiers, and quite aloud, to the two fathers who had come to announce
+the death: "He was so good that I sometimes reproached him for it, and he
+used to reply to me: 'It is not I who am good; it is you who are hard.'"
+
+Truly the fathers and all the auditors were so surprised at this that
+they lowered their eyes.  The remark spread directly; nobody was able to
+blame the Pere La Chaise.  He was generally regretted, for he had done
+much good and never harm except in self-defence.  Marechal, first surgeon
+of the King, and possessed of his confidence, related once to me and
+Madame de Saint-Simon, a very important anecdote referring to this time.
+He said that the King, talking to him privately of the Pere La Chaise,
+and praising him for his attachment, related one of the great proofs he
+had given of it.  A few years before his death the Pere said that he felt
+getting old, and that the King might soon have to choose a new confessor;
+he begged that that confessor might be chosen from among the Jesuits,
+that he knew them well, that they were far from deserving all that had
+been said against them, but still--he knew them well--and that attachment
+for the King and desire for his safety induced him to conjure him to act
+as he requested; because the company contained many sorts of minds and
+characters which could not be answered for, and must not be reduced to
+despair, and that the King must not incur a risk--that in fact an unlucky
+blow is soon given, and had been given before then.  Marechal turned pale
+at this recital of the King, and concealed as well as he could the
+disorder it caused in him.  We must remember that Henry IV. recalled the
+Jesuits, and loaded them with gifts merely from fear of them.  The King
+was not superior to Henry IV.  He took care not to forget the
+communication of the Pere La Chaise, or expose himself to the vengeance
+of the company by choosing a confessor out of their limits.  He wanted to
+live, and to live in safety.  He requested the Ducs de Chevreuse and de
+Beauvilliers to make secret inquiries for a proper person.  They fell
+into a trap made, were dupes themselves, and the Church and State the
+victims.
+
+The Pere Tellier, in fact, was chosen as successor of Pere La Chaise, and
+a terrible successor he made.  Harsh, exact, laborious, enemy of all
+dissipation, of all amusement, of all society, incapable of associating
+even with his colleagues, he demanded no leniency for himself and
+accorded none to others.  His brain and his health were of iron; his
+conduct was so also; his nature was savage and cruel.  He was profoundly
+false, deceitful, hidden under a thousand folds; and when he could show
+himself and make himself feared, he yielded nothing, laughed at the most
+express promises when he no longer cared to keep to them, and pursued
+with fury those who had trusted to them.  He was the terror even of the
+Jesuits, and was so violent to them that they scarcely dared approach
+him.  His exterior kept faith with his interior.  He would have been
+terrible to meet in a dark lane.  His physiognomy was cloudy, false,
+terrible; his eyes were burning, evil, extremely squinting; his aspect
+struck all with dismay.  The whole aim of his life was to advance the
+interests of his Society; that was his god; his life had been absorbed in
+that study: surprisingly ignorant, insolent, impudent, impetuous, without
+measure and without discretion, all means were good that furthered his
+designs.
+
+The first time Pere Tellier saw the King in his cabinet, after having
+been presented to him, there was nobody but Bloin and Fagon in a corner.
+Fagon, bent double and leaning on his stick, watched the interview and
+studied the physiognomy of this new personage his duckings, and
+scrapings, and his words.  The King asked him if he were a relation of
+MM. le Tellier.  The good father humbled himself in the dust.  "I, Sire!"
+answered he, "a relative of MM. le Tellier!  I am very different from
+that.  I am a poor peasant of Lower Normandy, where my father was a
+farmer."  Fagon, who watched him in every movement, twisted himself up to
+look at Bloin, and said, pointing to the Jesuit: "Monsieur, what a cursed
+--------!"  Then shrugging his shoulders, he curved over his stick again.
+
+It turned out that he was not mistaken in his strange judgment of a
+confessor.  This Tellier made all the grimaces, not to say the
+hypocritical monkey-tricks of a man who was afraid of his place, and only
+took it out of, deference to his company.
+
+I have dwelt thus upon this new confessor, because from him have come the
+incredible tempests under, which the Church, the State, knowledge, and
+doctrine, and many good people of all kinds, are still groaning; and,
+because I had a more intimate acquaintance with this terrible personage
+than had any man at the Court.  He introduced himself to me in fact, to
+my surprise; and although I did all in my power to shun his acquaintance,
+I could not succeed.  He was too dangerous a man to be treated with
+anything but great prudence.
+
+During the autumn of this year, he gave a sample of his quality in the
+part he took in the destruction of the celebrated monastery of Port Royal
+des Champs.  I need not dwell at any great length upon the origin and
+progress of the two religious parties, the Jansenists and the Molinists;
+enough has been written on both sides to form a whole library.  It is
+enough for me to say that the Molinists were so called because they
+adopted the views expounded by, the Pere Molina in a book he wrote
+against the doctrines of St. Augustine and of the Church of Rome, upon
+the subject of spiritual grace.  The Pere Molina was a Jesuit, and it was
+by the Jesuits his book was brought forward and supported.  Finding,
+however, that the views it expounded met with general opposition, not
+only throughout France, but at Rome, they had recourse to their usual
+artifices on feeling themselves embarrassed, turned themselves into
+accusers instead of defendants, and invented a heresy that had neither
+author nor follower, which they attributed to Cornelius Jansenius, Bishop
+of Ypres.  Many and long were the discussions at Rome upon this ideal
+heresy, invented by the Jesuits solely for the purpose of weakening the
+adversaries of Molina.  To oppose his doctrines was to be a Jansenist.
+That in substance was what was meant by Jansenism.
+
+At the monastery of Port Royal des Champs, a number of holy and learned
+personages lived in retirement.  Some wrote, some gathered youths around
+them, and instructed them in science and piety.  The finest moral works,
+works which have thrown the most light upon the science and practice, of
+religion, and have been found so by everybody, issued from their hands.
+These men entered into the quarrel against Molinism.  This was enough to
+excite against them the hatred of the Jesuits and to determine that body
+to attempt their destruction.
+
+They were accused of Jansenism, and defended themselves perfectly; but at
+the same time they carried the war into the enemy's camp, especially by
+the ingenious "Provincial Letters" of the famous Pascal.
+
+The quarrel grew more hot between the Jesuits and Port Royal, and was
+telling against the former, when the Pere Tellier brought all his
+influence to bear, to change the current of success.  He was, as I have
+said, an ardent man, whose divinity was his Molinism, and the company to
+which he belonged.  Confessor to the King, he saw himself in a good
+position to exercise unlimited authority.  He saw that the King was very
+ignorant, and prejudiced upon all religious matters; that he was
+surrounded by people as ignorant and as prejudiced as himself, Madame de
+Maintenon, M. de Beauvilliers, M. de Chevreuse, and others, and he
+determined to take good advantage of this state of things.
+
+Step by step he gained over the King to his views, and convinced him that
+the destruction of the monastery of Port Royal des Champs was a duty
+which he owed to his conscience, and the cause of religion.  This point
+gained, the means to destroy the establishment were soon resolved on.
+
+There was another monastery called Port Royal, at Paws, in addition to
+the one in question.  It was now pretended that the latter had only been
+allowed to exist by tolerance, and that it was necessary one should cease
+to exist.  Of the two, it was alleged that it was better to preserve the
+one, at Paris.  A decree in council was, therefore, rendered, in virtue
+of which, on the night from the 28th to the 29th of October, the abbey of
+Port Royal des Champs was secretly invested by troops, and, on the next
+morning, the officer in command made all the inmates assemble, showed
+them a 'lettre de cachet', and, without giving them more than a quarter
+of an hour's warning, carried off everybody and everything.  He had
+brought with him many coaches, with an elderly woman in each; he put the
+nuns in these coaches, and sent them away to their destinations, which
+were different monasteries, at ten, twenty, thirty, forty, and even fifty
+leagues distant, each coach accompanied by mounted archers, just as
+public women are carried away from a house of ill-fame!  I pass in
+silence all the accompaniments of this scene, so touching and so
+strangely new.  There have been entire volumes written upon it.
+
+The treatment that these nuns received in their various prisons, in order
+to force them to sign a condemnation of themselves, is the matter of
+other volumes, which, in spite of the vigilance of the oppressors, were
+soon in everybody's hands; public indignation so burst out, that the
+Court and the Jesuits even were embarrassed with it.  But the Pere
+Tellier was not a man to stop half-way anywhere.  He finished this matter
+directly; decree followed decree, 'Lettres de cachet' followed 'lettres
+de cachet'.  The families who had relatives buried in the cemetery of
+Port Royal des Champs were ordered to exhume and carry them elsewhere.
+All the others were thrown into the cemetery of an adjoining parish, with
+the indecency that may: be imagined.  Afterwards, the house, the church,
+and all the buildings were razed to the ground, so that not one stone was
+left upon another.  All the materials were sold, the ground was ploughed
+up, and sown--not with salt, it is true, but that was all the favour it
+received!  The scandal at this reached even to Rome.  I have restricted
+myself to this simple and short recital of an expedition so military and
+so odious.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Compelled to pay, who would have preferred giving voluntarily
+Conjugal impatience of the Duc de Bourgogne
+Desmarets no longer knew of what wood to make a crutch
+He was so good that I sometimes reproached him for it
+Indiscreet and tyrannical charity
+Jesuits: all means were good that furthered his designs
+Said that if they were good, they were sure to be hated
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Memoirs of Louis XIV., Volume 6
+by Duc de Saint-Simon
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+The Project Gutenberg Memoirs Louis XIV., His Court and The Regency, v6
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+Title: The Memoirs of Louis XIV., His Court and The Regency, v6
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+
+          MEMOIRS OF LOUIS XIV AND HIS COURT AND OF THE REGENCY
+
+                        BY THE DUKE OF SAINT-SIMON
+
+
+                                VOLUME 6.
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX
+
+Precedence at the Communion Table.--The King Offended with Madame de
+Torcy.--The King's Religion.--Atheists and Jansenists.--Project against
+Scotland.--Preparations.--Failure.--The Chevalier de St. George.--His
+Return to Court.
+
+
+CHAPTER XL
+
+Death and Character of Brissac.--Brissac and the Court Ladies.--The
+Duchesse de Bourgogne.--Scene at the Carp Basin.--King's Selfishness.--
+The King Cuts Samuel Bernard's Purse.--A Vain Capitalist.--Story of Leon
+and Florence the Actress.--His Loves with Mademoiselle de Roquelaure.--
+Run--away Marriage.--Anger of Madame de Roquelaure.--A Furious Mother.--
+Opinions of the Court.--A Mistake.--Interference of the King.--
+Fate of the Couple .
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI
+
+The Duc d'Orleans in Spain.--Offends Madame des Ursins and Madame de
+Maintenon.--Laziness of M. de Vendome in Flanders.--Battle of Oudenarde.
+--Defeat and Disasters.--Difference of M. de Vendome and the Duc de
+Bourgogne.
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII
+
+Conflicting Reports.--Attacks on the Duc de Bourgogne.--The Duchesse de
+Bourgogne Acts against Vendome.--Weakness of the Duke.--Cunning of
+Vendome.--The Siege of Lille.--Anxiety for a Battle.--Its Delay.--Conduct
+of the King and Monseigneur.--A Picture of Royal Family Feeling.--Conduct
+of the Marechal de Boufflers.
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII
+
+Equivocal Position of the Duc de Bourgogne.--His Weak Conduct.--
+Concealment of a Battle from the King.--Return of the Duc de Bourgogne to
+Court.--Incidents of His Reception.--Monseigneur.--Reception of the Duc
+de Berry.--Behaviour of the Duc de Bourgogne.--Anecdotes of Gamaches.--
+Return of Vendome to Court.--His Star Begins to Wane.--Contrast of
+Boufflers and Vendome.--Chamillart's Project for Retaking Lille.--How It
+Was Defeated by Madame de Maintenon.
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV
+
+Tremendous Cold in France.--Winters of 1708-1709--Financiers and the
+Famine.--Interference of the Parliaments of Paris and Dijon.--Dreadful
+Oppression.--Misery of the People.--New Taxes.--Forced Labour.--General
+Ruin.--Increased Misfortunes.--Threatened Regicide.--Procession of Saint
+Genevieve.--Offerings of Plate to the King.--Discontent of the People.--
+A Bread Riot, How Appeased.
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV
+
+M. de Vendome out of Favour.--Death and Character of the Prince de
+Conti.--Fall of Vendome.--Pursegur's Interview with the King.--Madame de
+Bourgogne against Vendome.--Her Decided Conduct.--Vendome Excluded from
+Marly.--He Clings to Meudon.--From Which He is also Expelled.--His Final
+Disgrace and Abandonment.--Triumph of Madame de Maintenon.
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI
+
+Death of Pere La Chaise.--His Infirmities in Old Age.--Partiality of the
+King.--Character of Pere La Chaise.--The Jesuits.--Choice of a New
+Confessor.--Fagon's Opinion.--Destruction of Port Royal.--Jansenists and
+Molinists.--Pascal.--Violent Oppression of the Inhabitants of Port Royal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX
+
+I went this summer to Forges, to try, by means of the waters there, to
+get rid of a tertian fever that quinquina only suspended.  While there I
+heard of a new enterprise on the part of the Princes of the blood, who,
+in the discredit in which the King held them, profited without measure by
+his desire for the grandeur of the illegitimate children, to acquire new
+advantages which were suffered because the others shared them.  This was
+the case in question.
+
+After the elevation of the mass--at the King's communion--a folding-chair
+was pushed to the foot of the altar, was covered with a piece of stuff,
+and then with a large cloth, which hung down before and behind.  At the
+Pater the chaplain rose and whispered in the King's ear the names of all
+the Dukes who were in the chapel.  The King named two, always the oldest,
+to each of whom the chaplain advanced and made a reverence.  During the
+communion of the priest the King rose, and went and knelt down on the
+bare floor behind this folding seat, and took hold of the cloth; at the
+same time the two Dukes, the elder on the right, the other on the left,
+each took hold of a corner of the cloth; the two chaplains took hold of
+the other two corners of the same cloth, on the side of the altar, all
+four kneeling, and the captain of the guards also kneeling and behind the
+King.  The communion received and the oblation taken some moments
+afterwards, the King remained a little while in the same place, then
+returned to his own, followed by the two Dukes and the captain of the
+guards, who took theirs.  If a son of France happened to be there alone,
+he alone held the right corner of the cloth, and nobody the other; and
+when M. le Duc d'Orleans was there, and no son of France was present, M.
+le Duc d'Orleans held the cloth in like manner.  If a Prince of the blood
+were alone present, however, he held the cloth, but a Duke was called
+forward to assist him.  He was not privileged to act without the Duke.
+
+The Princes of the blood wanted to change this; they were envious of the
+distinction accorded to M. d'Orleans, and wished to put themselves on the
+same footing.  Accordingly, at the Assumption of this year, they managed
+so well that M. le Duc served alone at the altar at the King's communion,
+no Duke being called upon to come and join him.  The surprise at this was
+very great.  The Duc de la Force and the Marechal de Boufflers, who ought
+to have served, were both present.  I wrote to this last to say that such
+a thing had never happened before, and that it was contrary to all
+precedent.  I wrote, too, to M. d'Orleans, who was then in Spain,
+informing him of the circumstance.  When he returned he complained to the
+King.  But the King merely said that the Dukes ought to have presented
+themselves and taken hold of the cloth.  But how could they have done so,
+without being requested, as was customary, to come forward?  What would
+the king have thought of them if they had?  To conclude, nothing could be
+made of the matter, and it remained thus.  Never then, since that time,
+did I go to the communions of the King.
+
+An incident occurred at Marly about the same time, which made much stir.
+The ladies who were invited to Marly had the privilege of dining with the
+King.  Tables were placed for them, and they took up positions according
+to their rank.  The non-titled ladies had also their special place.  It
+so happened one day; that Madame de Torcy (an untitled lady) placed
+herself above the Duchesse de Duras, who arrived at table a moment after
+her.  Madame de Torcy offered to give up her place, but it was a little
+late, and the offer passed away in compliments.  The King entered, and
+put himself at table.  As soon as he sat down, he saw the place Madame de
+Torcy had taken, and fixed such a serious and surprised look upon her,
+that she again offered to give up her place to the Duchesse de Duras; but
+the offer was again declined.  All through the dinner the King scarcely
+ever took his eyes off Madame de Torcy, said hardly a word, and bore a
+look of anger that rendered everybody very attentive, and even troubled
+the Duchesse de Duras.
+
+Upon rising from the table, the King passed, according to custom, into
+the apartments of Madame de Maintenon, followed by the Princesses of the
+blood, who grouped themselves around him upon stools; the others who
+entered, kept at a distance.  Almost before he had seated himself in his
+chair, he said to Madame de Maintenon, that he had just been witness of
+an act of "incredible insolence" (that was the term he used) which had
+thrown him into such a rage that he had been unable to eat: that such an
+enterprise would have been insupportable in a woman of the highest
+quality; but coming, as it did, from a mere bourgeoise, it had so
+affected him, that ten times he had been upon the point of making her
+leave the table, and that he was only restrained by consideration for her
+husband.  After this outbreak he made a long discourse upon the genealogy
+of Madame de Torcy's family, and other matters; and then, to the
+astonishment of all present, grew as angry as ever against Madame de
+Torcy.  He went off then into a discourse upon the dignity of the Dukes,
+and in conclusion, he charged the Princesses to tell Madame de Torcy to
+what extent he had found her conduct impertinent.  The Princesses looked
+at each other, and not one seemed to like this commission; whereupon the
+King, growing more angry, said; that it must be undertaken however, and
+left the robes; The news of what had taken place, and of the King's
+choler, soon spread all over the Court.  It was believed, however, that
+all was over, and that no more would be heard of the matter.  Yet the
+very same evening the King broke out again with even more bitterness than
+before.  On the morrow, too, surprise was great indeed, when it was found
+that the King, immediately after dinner, could talk of nothing but this
+subject, and that, too, without any softening of tone.  At last he was
+assured that Madame de Torcy had been spoken to, and this appeased him a
+little.  Torcy was obliged to write him a letter, apologising for the
+fault of Madame de Torcy; and the King at this grew content.  It may be
+imagined what a sensation this adventure produced all through the Court.
+
+While upon the subject of the King, let me relate an anecdote of him,
+which should have found a place ere this.  When M. d'Orleans was about to
+start for Spain, he named the officers who were to be of his suite.
+Amongst others was Fontpertius.  At that name the King put on a serious
+look.
+
+"What! my nephew," he said.  "Fontpertius!  the son of a Jansenist--of
+that silly woman who ran everywhere after M. Arnould!  I do not wish that
+man to go with you."
+
+"By my faith, Sire," replied the Duc d'Orleans, "I know not what the
+mother has done; but as for the son, he is far enough from being a
+Jansenist, I'll answer for it; for he does not believe in God."
+
+"Is it possible, my nephew?"  said the King, softening.
+
+"Nothing more certain, Sire, I assure you."
+
+"Well, since it is so," said the King, "there is no harm: you can take
+him with you."
+
+This scene--for it can be called by no other name--took place in the
+morning.  After dinner M. d'Orleans repeated it to me, bursting with
+laughter, word for word, just as I have written it.  When we had both
+well laughed at this, we admired the profound instruction of a discreet
+and religious King, who considered it better not to believe in God than
+to be a Jansenist, and who thought there was less danger to his nephew
+from the impiety of an unbeliever than from the doctrines of a sectarian.
+M. d'Orleans could not contain himself while he told the story, and never
+spoke of it without laughing until the tears came into his eyes.  It ran
+all through the Court and all over the town, and the marvellous thing
+was, that the King was not angry at this.  It was a testimony of his
+attachment to the good doctrine which withdrew him further and further
+from Jansenism.  The majority of people laughed with all their heart.
+Others, more wise, felt rather disposed to weep than to laugh, in
+considering to what excess of blindness the King had reached.
+
+For a long time a most important project had knocked at every door,
+without being able to obtain a hearing anywhere.  The project was this:--
+Hough, an English gentleman full of talent and knowledge, and who, above
+all, knew profoundly the laws of his country, had filled various posts in
+England.  As first a minister by profession, and furious against King
+James; afterwards a Catholic and King James's spy, he had been delivered
+up to King William, who pardoned him.  He profited by this only to
+continue his services to James.  He was taken several times, and always
+escaped from the Tower of London and other prisons.  Being no longer able
+to dwell in England he came to France, where he occupied himself always
+with the same line of business, and was paid for that by the King (Louis
+XIV.) and by King James, the latter of whom he unceasingly sought to re-
+establish.  The union of Scotland with England appeared to him a
+favourable conjuncture, by the despair of that ancient kingdom at seeing
+itself reduced into a province under the yoke of the English.  The
+Jacobite party remained there; the vexation caused by this forced union
+had increased it, by the desire felt to break that union with the aid of
+a King that they would have reestablished.  Hough, who was aware of the
+fermentation going on, made several secret journeys to Scotland, and
+planned an invasion of that country; but, as I have said, for a long time
+could get no one to listen to him.
+
+The King, indeed, was so tired of such enterprises, that nobody dared to
+speak to him upon this.  All drew back.  No one liked to bell the cat.
+At last, however, Madame de Maintenon being gained over, the King was
+induced to listen to the project.  As soon as his consent was gained to
+it, another scheme was added to the first.  This was to profit by the
+disorder in which the Spanish Low Countries were thrown, and to make them
+revolt against the Imperialists at the very moment when the affair of
+Scotland would bewilder the allies, and deprive them of all support from
+England.  Bergheyck, a man well acquainted with the state of those
+countries, was consulted, and thought the scheme good.  He and the Duc de
+Vendome conferred upon it in presence of the King.
+
+After talking over various matters, the discussion fell, upon the Meuse,
+and its position with reference to Maastricht.  Vendome held that the
+Meuse flowed in a certain direction.  Bergheyck opposed him.  Vendome,
+indignant that a civilian should dare to dispute military movements with
+him, grew warm.  The other remained respectful and cool, but firm.
+Vendome laughed at Bergheyck, as at an ignorant fellow who did not know
+the position of places.  Bergheyck maintained his point.  Vendome grew
+more and more hot.  If he was right, what he proposed was easy enough; if
+wrong, it was impossible.  It was in vain that Vendome pretended to treat
+with disdain his opponent; Bergheyck was not to be put down, and the
+King, tired out at last with a discussion upon a simple question of fact,
+examined the maps.  He found at once that Bergheyck was right.  Any other
+than the King would have felt by this what manner of man was this general
+of his taste, of his heart, and of his confidence; any other than Vendome
+would have been confounded; but it was Bergheyck in reality who was so,
+to see the army in such hands and the blindness of the King for him!  He
+was immediately sent into Flanders to work up a revolt, and he did it so
+well, that success seemed certain, dependent, of course, upon success in
+Scotland.
+
+The preparations for the invasion of that country were at once commenced.
+Thirty vessels were armed at Dunkerque and in the neighbouring ports.
+The Chevalier de Forbin was chosen to command the squadron.  Four
+thousand men were brought from Flanders to Dunkerque; and it was given
+out that this movement was a mere change of garrison.  The secret of the
+expedition was well kept; but the misfortune was that things were done
+too slowly.  The fleet, which depended upon Pontchartrain, was not ready
+in time, and that which depended upon Chamillart, was still more
+behindhand.  The two ministers threw the fault upon each other; but the
+truth is, both were to blame.  Pontchartrain was more than accused of
+delaying matters from unwillingness; the other from powerlessness.
+
+Great care was taken that no movement should be seen at Saint Germain.
+The affair, however, began in time to get noised abroad.  A prodigious
+quantity of arms and clothing for the Scotch had been embarked; the
+movements by sea and land became only too visible upon the coast.  At
+last, on Wednesday, the 6th of March, the King of England set out from
+Saint Germain.  He was attended by the Duke of Perth, who had been his
+sub-preceptor; by the two Hamiltons, by Middleton, and a very few others.
+But his departure had been postponed too long.  At the moment when all
+were ready to start, people learned with surprise that the English fleet
+had appeared in sight, and was blockading Dunkerque.  Our troops, who
+were already on board ship, were at once landed.  The King of England
+cried out so loudly against this, and proposed so eagerly that an attempt
+should be made to pass the enemy at all risks, that a fleet was sent out
+to reconnoitre the enemy, and the troops were re-embarked.  But then a
+fresh mischance happened.  The Princess of England had had the measles,
+and was barely growing convalescent at the time of the departure of the
+King, her brother.  She had been prevented from seeing him, lest he
+should be attacked by the same complaint.  In spite of this precaution,
+however, it declared itself upon him at Dunkerque, just as the troops
+were re-embarked.  He was in despair, and wished to be wrapped up in
+blankets and carried on board.  The doctors said that it would kill him;
+and he was obliged to remain.  The worst of it was, that two of five
+Scotch deputies who had been hidden at Montrouge near Paris, had been
+sent into Scotland a fortnight before, to announce the immediate arrival
+of the King with arms and troops.  The movement which it was felt this
+announcement would create, increased the impatience for departure.  At
+last, on Saturday, the 19th of March, the King of England, half cured and
+very weak, determined to embark in spite of his physicians, and did so.
+The enemy's vessels hats retired; so, at six o'clock in the morning, our
+ships set sail with a good breeze, and in the midst of a mist, which hid
+them from view in about an hour.
+
+Forty-eight hours after the departure of our squadron, twenty-seven
+English ships of war appeared before Dunkerque.  But our fleet was away.
+The very first night it experienced a furious tempest.  The ship in which
+was the King of England took shelter afterwards behind the works of
+Ostend.  During the storm, another ship was separated from the squadron,
+and was obliged to take refuge on the coast of Picardy.  This vessel, a
+frigate, was commanded by Rambure, a lieutenant.  As, soon as he was able
+he sailed after the squadron that he believed already in Scotland.  He
+directed his course towards Edinburgh, and found no vessel during all the
+voyage.  As he approached the mouth of the river, he saw around him a
+number of barques and small vessels that he could not avoid, and that he
+determined in consequence to approach with as good a grace as possible.
+The masters of these ships' told him that the King was expected with
+impatience, but that they had no news of him, that they had come out to
+meet him, and that they would send pilots to Rambure, to conduct him up
+the river to Edinburgh, where all was hope and joy.  Rambure, equally
+surprised that the squadron which bore the King of England had not
+appeared, and by the publicity of his forthcoming arrival, went up
+towards Edinburgh more and more surrounded by barques, which addressed to
+him the same language.  A gentleman of the country passed from one of
+these barques upon the frigate.  He told Rambure that the principal
+noblemen of Scotland had resolved to act together, that these noblemen
+could count upon more than twenty thousand men ready to take up arms, and
+that all the towns awaited only the arrival of the King to proclaim him.
+
+More and more troubled that the squadron did not appear, Rambure, after a
+time, turned back and went in search of it.  As he approached the mouth
+of the river, which he had so lately entered, he heard a great noise of
+cannon out at sea, and a short time afterwards he saw many vessels of war
+there.  Approaching more and more, and quitting the river, he
+distinguished our squadron, chased by twenty-six large ships of war and a
+number of other vessels, all of which he soon lost sight of, so much was
+our squadron in advance.  He continued on his course in order to join
+them; but he could not do so until all had passed by the mouth of the
+river.  Then steering clear of the rear-guard of the English ships, he
+remarked that the English fleet was hotly chasing the ship of the King of
+England, which ran along the coast, however, amid the fire of cannon and
+oftentimes of musketry.  Rambure tried, for a long time, to profit by the
+lightness of his frigate to get ahead; but, always cut off by the enemy's
+vessels, and continually in danger of being taken, he returned to
+Dunkerque, where he immediately despatched to the Court this sad and
+disturbing news.  He was followed, five or six days after, by the King of
+England, who returned to Dunkerque on the 7th of April, with his vessels
+badly knocked about.
+
+It seems that the ship in which was the Prince, after experiencing the
+storm I have already alluded to, set sail again with its squadron, but
+twice got out of its reckoning within forty-eight hours; a fact not easy
+to understand in a voyage from Ostend to Edinburgh.  This circumstance
+gave time to the English to join them; thereupon the King held a council,
+and much time was lost in deliberations.  When the squadron drew near the
+river, the enemy was so close upon us, that to enter, without fighting
+either inside or out, seemed impossible.  In this emergency it was
+suggested that our ships should go on to Inverness, about eighteen or
+twenty leagues further off.  But this was objected to by Middleton and
+the Chevalier Forbin, who declared that the King of England was expected
+only at Edinburgh, and that it was useless to go elsewhere; and
+accordingly the project was given up, and the ships returned to France.
+
+This return, however, was not accomplished without some difficulty.  The
+enemy's fleet attacked the rear guard of ours, and after an obstinate
+combat, took two vessels of war and some other vessels.  Among the
+prisoners made by the English were the Marquis de Levi, Lord Griffin, and
+the two sons of Middleton; who all, after suffering some little bad
+treatment, were conducted to London.
+
+Lord Griffin was an old Englishman, who deserves a word of special
+mention.  A firm Protestant, but much attached to the King of England, he
+knew nothing of this expedition until after the King's departure.  He
+went immediately in quest of the Queen.  With English freedom he
+reproached her for the little confidence she had had in him, in spite of
+his services and his constant fidelity, and finished by assuring her that
+neither his age nor his religion would hinder him from serving the King
+to the last drop of his blood.  He spoke so feelingly that the Queen was
+ashamed.  After this he went to Versailles, asked M. de Toulouse for a
+hundred Louis and a horse, and without delay rode off to Dunkerque, where
+he embarked with the others.  In London he was condemned to death; but
+he showed so much firmness and such disdain of death, that his judges
+were too much ashamed to avow the execution to be carried out.  The Queen
+sent him one respite, then another, although he had never asked for
+either, and finally he was allowed to remain at liberty in London on
+parole.  He always received fresh respites, and lived in London as if it
+his own country, well received everywhere.  Being informed that these
+respites would never cease, he lived thus several years, and died very
+old, a natural death.  The other prisoners were equally well treated.  It
+was in this expedition that the King of England first assumed the title
+of the Chevalier de Saint George, and that his enemies gave him that of
+the Pretender; both of which have remained to him.  He showed much will
+and firmness, which he spoiled by a docility, the result of a bad
+education, austere and confined, that devotion, ill understood, together
+with the desire of maintaining him in fear and dependence, caused the
+Queen (who, with all her sanctity, always wished to dominate) to give
+him.  He asked to serve in the next campaign in Flanders, and wished to
+go there at once, or remain near Dunkerque.  Service was promised him,
+but he was made to return to Saint Germain.  Hough, who had been made a
+peer of Ireland before starting, preceded him with the journals of the
+voyage, and that of Forbin, to whom the King gave a thousand crowns
+pension and ten thousand as a recompense.
+
+The King of England arrived at Saint Germain on Friday, the 20th of
+April, and came with the Queen, the following Sunday, to Marly, where our
+King was.  The two Kings embraced each other several times, in the
+presence of the two Courts.  But the visit altogether was a sad one.  The
+Courts, which met in the garden, returned towards the Chateau, exchanging
+indifferent words in an indifferent way.
+
+Middleton was strongly suspected of having acquainted the English with
+our project.  They acted, at all events, as if they had been informed of
+everything, and wished to appear to know nothing.  They made a semblance
+of sending their fleet to escort a convoy to Portugal; they got in
+readiness the few troops they had in England and sent them towards
+Scotland; and the Queen, under various pretexts, detained in London,
+until the affair had failed, the Duke of Hamilton, the most powerful
+Scotch lord; and the life and soul of the expedition.  When all was over,
+she made no arrests, and wisely avoided throwing Scotland into despair.
+This conduct much augmented her authority in England, attached all hearts
+to her, and took away all desire of stirring again by taking away all
+hope of success.  Thus failed a project so well and so secretly conducted
+until the end, which was pitiable; and with this project failed that of
+the Low Countries, which was no longer thought of.
+
+The allies uttered loud cries against this attempt on the part of a power
+they believed at its last gasp, and which, while pretending to seek
+peace, thought of nothing less than the invasion of Great Britain.  The
+effect of our failure was to bind closer, and to irritate more and more
+this formidable alliance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL
+
+Brissac, Major of the Body-guards, died of age and ennui about this time,
+more than eighty years old, at his country-house, to which he had not
+long retired.  The King had made use of him to put the Guards upon that
+grand military footing they have reached.  He had acquired the confidence
+of the King by his inexorable exactitude, his honesty, and his aptitude.
+He was a sort of wild boar, who had all the appearance of a bad man,
+without being so in reality; but his manners were, it must be admitted,
+harsh and disagreeable.  The King, speaking one day of the majors of the
+troops, said that if they were good, they were sure to be hated.
+
+"If it is necessary to be perfectly hated in order to be a good major,"
+replied M. de Duras, who was behind the King with the baton, "behold,
+Sire, the best major in France!" and he took Brissac, all confusion, by
+the arm.  The King laughed, though he would have thought such a sally
+very bad in any other; but M. de Duras had put himself on such a free
+footing, that he stopped at nothing before the King, and often said the
+sharpest things.  This major had very robust health, and laughed at the
+doctors--very often, even before the King, at Fagon, whom nobody else
+would have dared to attack.  Fagon replied by disdain, often by anger,
+and with all his wit was embarrassed.  These short scenes were sometimes
+very amusing.
+
+Brissac, a few years before his retirement, served the Court ladies a
+nice turn.  All through the winter they attended evening prayers on
+Thursdays and Sundays, because the King went there; and, under the
+pretence of reading their prayer-books, had little tapers before them,
+which cast a light on their faces, and enabled the King to recognise them
+as he passed.  On the evenings when they knew he would not go, scarcely
+one of them went.  One evening, when the King was expected, all the
+ladies had arrived, and were in their places, and the guards were at
+their doors.  Suddenly, Brissac appeared in the King's place, lifted his
+baton, and cried aloud, "Guards of the King, withdraw, return to your
+quarters; the King is not coming this evening."  The guards withdrew; but
+after they had proceeded a short distance, were stopped by brigadiers
+posted for the purpose, and told to return in a few minutes.  What
+Brissac had said was a joke.  The ladies at once began to murmur one to
+another.  In a moment or two all the candles were put out, and the
+ladies, with but few exceptions, left the chapel.  Soon after the King
+arrived, and, much astonished to see so few ladies present, asked how it
+was that nobody was there.  At the conclusion of the prayers Brissac
+related what he had done, not without dwelling on the piety of the Court
+ladies.  The King and all who accompanied him laughed heartily.  The
+story soon spread, and these ladies would have strangled Brissac if they
+had been able.
+
+The Duchesse de Bourgogne being in the family way this spring, was much
+inconvenienced.  The King wished to go to Fontainebleau at the
+commencement of the fine season, contrary to his usual custom; and had
+declared this wish.  In the mean time he desired to pay visits to Marly.
+Madame de Bourgogne much amused him; he could not do without her, yet so
+much movement was not suitable to her state.  Madame de Maintenon was
+uneasy, and Fagon gently intimated his opinion.  This annoyed the King,
+accustomed to restrain himself for nothing, and spoiled by having seen
+his mistresses travel when big with child, or when just recovering from
+their confinement, and always in full dress.  The hints against going to
+Marly bothered him, but did not make him give them up.  All he would
+consent to was, that the journey should put off from the day after
+Quasimodo to the Wednesday of the following week; but nothing could make
+him delay his amusement, beyond that time, or induce him to allow the
+Princess to remain at Versailles.
+
+On the following Saturday, as the King was taking a walk after mass, and
+amusing himself at the carp basin between the Chateau and the
+Perspective, we saw the Duchesse de Lude coming towards him on foot and
+all alone, which, as no lady was with the King, was a rarity in the
+morning.  We understood that she had something important to say to him,
+and when he was a short distance from her, we stopped so as to allow him
+to join her alone.  The interview was not long.  She went away again, and
+the King came back towards us and near the carps without saying a word.
+Each saw clearly what was in the wind, and nobody was eager to speak.  At
+last the King, when quite close to the basin, looked at the principal
+people around, and without addressing anybody, said, with an air of
+vexation, these few words:
+
+"The Duchesse de Bourgogne is hurt."
+
+M. de la Rochefoucauld at once uttered an exclamation.  M. de Bouillon,
+the Duc de Tresmes, and Marechal de Boufflers repeated in a, low tone the
+words I have named; and M. de la Rochefoucauld returning to the charge,
+declared emphatically that it was the greatest misfortune in the world,
+and that as she had already wounded herself on other occasions, she might
+never, perhaps, have any more children.
+
+"And if so," interrupted the King all on a sudden, with anger, "what is
+that to me?  Has she not already a son; and if he should die, is not the
+Duc de Berry old enough to marry and have one?  What matters it to the
+who succeeds me,--the one or the other?  Are the not all equally my
+grandchildren?"  And immediately, with impetuosity he added, "Thank God,
+she is wounded, since she was to be so; and I shall no longer be annoyed
+in my journeys and in everything I wish to do, by the representations of
+doctors, and the reasonings of matrons.  I shall go and come at my
+pleasure, and shall be left in peace."
+
+A silence so deep that an ant might be heard to walk, succeeded this
+strange outburst.  All eyes were lowered; no one hardly dared to breathe.
+All remained stupefied.  Even the domestics and the gardeners stood
+motionless.
+
+This silence lasted more than a quarter of an hour.  The King broke it as
+he leaned upon a balustrade to speak of a carp.  Nobody replied.  He
+addressed himself afterwards on the subject of these carps to domestics,
+who did not ordinarily join in the conversation.  Nothing but carps was
+spoken of with them.  All was languishing, and the King went away some
+time after.  As soon as we dared look at each other--out of his sight,
+our eyes met and told all.  Everybody there was for the moment the
+confidant of his neighbour.  We admired--we marvelled--we grieved, we
+shrugged our shoulders.  However distant may be that scene, it is always
+equally present to me.  M. de la Rochefoucauld was in a fury, and this
+time without being wrong.  The chief ecuyer was ready to faint with
+affright; I myself examined everybody with my eyes and ears, and was
+satisfied with myself for having long since thought that the King loved
+and cared for himself alone, and was himself his only object in life.
+
+This strange discourse sounded far and wide-much beyond Marly.
+
+Let me here relate another anecdote of the King--a trifle I was witness
+of.  It was on the 7th of May, of this year, and at Marly.  The King
+walking round the gardens, showing them to Bergheyck, and talking with
+him upon the approaching campaign in Flanders, stopped before one of the
+pavilions.  It was that occupied by Desmarets, who had recently succeeded
+Chamillart in the direction of the finances, and who was at work within
+with Samuel Bernard, the famous banker, the richest man in Europe, and
+whose money dealings were the largest.  The King observed to Desmarets
+that he was very glad to see him with M. Bernard; then immediately said
+to this latter:
+
+"You are just the man never to have seen Marly--come and see it now; I
+will give you up afterwards to Desmarets."
+
+Bernard followed, and while the walk lasted the King spoke only to
+Bergheyck and to Bernard, leading them everywhere, and showing them
+everything with the grace he so well knew how to employ when he desired
+to overwhelm.  I admired, and I was not the only one, this species of
+prostitution of the King, so niggard of his words, to a man of Bernard's
+degree.  I was not long in learning the cause of it, and I admired to see
+how low the greatest kings sometimes find themselves reduced.
+
+Our finances just then were exhausted.  Desmarets no longer knew of what
+wood to make a crutch.  He had been to Paris knocking at every door.  But
+the most exact engagements had been so often broken that he found nothing
+but excuses and closed doors.  Bernard, like the rest, would advance
+nothing.  Much was due to him.  In vain Desmarets represented to him the
+pressing necessity for money, and the enormous gains he had made out of
+the King.  Bernard remained unshakeable.  The King and the minister were
+cruelly embarrassed.  Desmarets said to the King that, after all was said
+and done, only Samuel Bernard could draw them out of the mess, because it
+was not doubtful that he had plenty of money everywhere; that the only
+thing needed was to vanquish his determination and the obstinacy--even
+insolence--he had shown; that he was a man crazy with vanity, and capable
+of opening his purse if the King deigned to flatter him.
+
+It was agreed, therefore, that Desmarets should invite Bernard to dinner
+--should walk with him--and that the King should come and disturb them as
+I have related.  Bernard was the dupe of this scheme; he returned from
+his walk with the King enchanted to such an extent that he said he would
+prefer ruining himself rather than leave in embarrassment a Prince who
+had just treated him so graciously, and whose eulogiums he uttered with
+enthusiasm!  Desmarets profited by this trick immediately, and drew much
+more from it than he had proposed to himself..
+
+The Prince de Leon had an adventure just about this time, which made much
+noise.  He was a great, ugly, idle, mischievous fellow, son of the Duc de
+Rohan, who had given him the title I have just named.  He had served in
+one campaign very indolently, and then quitted the army, under pretence
+of ill-health, to serve no more.  Glib in speech, and with the manners of
+the great world, he was full of caprices and fancies; although a great
+gambler and spendthrift, he was miserly, and cared only for himself.  He
+had been enamoured of Florence, an actress, whom M. d'Orleans had for a
+long time kept, and by whom he had children, one of whom is now
+Archbishop of Cambrai.  M. de Leon also had several children by this
+creature, and spent large sums upon her.  When he went in place of his
+father to open the States of Brittany, she accompanied him in a coach and
+six horses, with a ridiculous scandal.  His father was in agony lest he
+should marry her.  He offered to insure her five thousand francs a-year
+pension, and to take care of their children, if M. de Leon would quit
+her.  But M. de Leon would not hear of this, and his father accordingly
+complained to the King.  The King summoned M. de Leon into his cabinet;
+but the young man pleaded his cause so well there, that he gained pity
+rather than condemnation.  Nevertheless, La Florence was carried away
+from a pretty little house at the Ternes, near Paris, where M. de Leon
+kept her, and was put in a convent.  M. de Leon became furious; for some
+time he would neither see nor speak of his father or mother, and repulsed
+all idea of marriage.
+
+At last, however, no longer hoping to see his actress, he not only
+consented, but wished to marry.  His parents were delighted at this, and
+at once looked about for a wife for him.  Their choice, fell upon the
+eldest daughter of the Duc de Roquelaure, who, although humpbacked and
+extremely ugly, she was to be very rich some day, and was, in fact, a
+very good match.  The affair had been arranged and concluded up to a
+certain point, when all was broken off, in consequence of the haughty
+obstinacy with which the Duchesse de Roquelaure demanded a larger sum
+with M. de Leon than M. de Rohan chose to give.
+
+The young couple were in despair: M. de Leon, lest his father should
+always act in this way, as an excuse for giving him nothing; the young
+lady, because she, feared she should rot in a convent, through the
+avarice of her mother, and never marry.  She was more than twenty-four
+years, of age; he was more than eight-and-twenty.  She was in the convent
+of the Daughters of the Cross in the Faubourg Saint Antoine.
+
+As soon as M. de Leon learnt that the marriage was broken off, he
+hastened to the convent; and told all to Mademoiselle de Roquelaure;
+played the passionate, the despairing; said that if they waited for their
+parents' consent they would never marry; and that she would rot in her
+convent.  He proposed, therefore, that, in spite of their parents, they
+should marry and be their own guardians.  She agreed to this project; and
+he went away in order to execute it.
+
+One of the most intimate friends of Madame de Roquelaure was Madame de la
+Vieuville, and she was the only person (excepting Madame de Roquelaure
+herself) to whom the Superior of the convent had permission to confide
+Mademoiselle de Roquelaure.  Madame de la Vieuville often came to see
+Mademoiselle de Roquelaure to take her out, and sometimes sent for her.
+M. de Leon was made acquainted with this, and took his measures
+accordingly.  He procured a coach of the same size, shape, and fittings
+as that of Madame de la Vieuville, with her arms upon it, and with three
+servants in her livery; he counterfeited a letter in her handwriting and
+with her seal, and sent this coach with a lackey well instructed to carry
+the letter to the convent, on Tuesday morning, the 29th of May, at the
+hour Madame de la Vieuville was accustomed to send for her.
+
+Mademoiselle de Roquelaure, who had been let into the scheme, carried the
+letter to the Superior of the convent, and said Madame de la Vieuville
+had sent for her.  Had the Superior any message to send?
+
+The Superior, accustomed to these invitations; did not even look at the
+letter, but gave her consent at once.  Mademoiselle de Roquelaure,
+accompanied solely by her governess, left the convent immediately, and
+entered the coach, which drove off directly.  At the first turning it
+stopped, and the Prince de Leon, who had been in waiting, jumped-in.  The
+governess at this began to cry out with all her might; but at the very
+first sound M. de Leon thrust a handkerchief into her mouth and stifled
+the noise.  The coachman meanwhile lashed his horses, and the vehicle
+went off at full speed to Bruyeres near Menilmontant, the country-house
+of the Duc de Lorges, my brother-in-law, and friend of the Prince de
+Leon, and who, with the Comte de Rieux, awaited the runaway pair.
+
+An interdicted and wandering priest was in waiting, and as soon as they
+arrived married them.  My brother-in-law then led these nice young people
+into a fine chamber, where they were undressed, put to bed, and left
+alone for two or three hours.  A good meal was then given to them, after
+which the bride was put into the coach, with her attendant, who was in
+despair, and driven back to the convent.
+
+Mademoiselle de Roquelaure at once went deliberately to the Superior,
+told her all that happened, and then calmly went into her chamber, and
+wrote a fine letter to her mother, giving her an account of her marriage,
+and asking for pardon; the Superior of the convent, the attendants, and
+all the household being, meanwhile, in the utmost emotion at what had
+occurred.
+
+The rage of the Duchesse de Roquelaure at this incident may be imagined.
+In her first unreasoning fury, she went to Madame de la Vieuville, who,
+all in ignorance of what had happened, was utterly at a loss to
+understand her stormy and insulting reproaches.  At last Madame de
+Roquelaure saw that her friend was innocent of all connection with the
+matter; and turned the current of her wrath upon M. de Leon, against whom
+she felt the more indignant, inasmuch as he had treated her with much
+respect and attention since the rupture, and had thus, to some extent,
+gained her heart.  Against her daughter she was also indignant, not only
+for what she had done, but because she had exhibited much gaiety and
+freedom of spirit at the marriage repast, and had diverted the company by
+some songs.
+
+The Duc and Duchesse de Rohan were on their side equally furious,
+although less to be pitied, and made a strange uproar.  Their son,
+troubled to know how to extricate himself from this affair, had recourse
+to his aunt, Soubise, so as to assure himself of the King.  She sent him
+to Pontchartrain to see the chancellor.  M. de Leon saw him the day after
+this fine marriage, at five o'clock in the morning, as he was dressing.
+The chancellor advised him to do all he could to gain the pardon of his
+father and of Madame de Roquelaure.  But he had scarcely begun to speak,
+when Madame de Roquelaure sent word to say, that she was close at hand,
+and wished the chancellor to come and see her.  He did so, and she
+immediately poured out all her griefs to him, saying that she came not to
+ask, his advice, but to state her complaint as to a friend (they were
+very intimate), and as to the chief officer of justice to demand justice
+of him.  When he attempted to put in a word on behalf of M. de Leon, her
+fury burst out anew; she would not listen to his words, but drove off to
+Marly, where she had an interview with Madame de Maintenon, and by her
+was presented to the King.
+
+As soon as she was in his presence, she fell down on her knees before
+him, and demanded justice in its fullest extent against M. de Leon.  The
+King raised her with the gallantry of a prince to whom she had not been
+indifferent, and sought to console her; but as she still insisted upon
+justice, he asked her if she knew fully what she asked for, which was
+nothing less than the head of M. de Leon.  She redoubled her entreaties
+notwithstanding this information, so that the King at last promised her
+that she should have complete justice.  With that, and many compliments,
+he quitted her, and passed into his own rooms with a very serious air,
+and without stopping for anybody.
+
+The news of this interview, and of what had taken place, soon spread
+through the chamber.  Scarcely had people begun to pity Madame de
+Roquelaure, than some, by aversion for the grand imperial airs of this
+poor mother,--the majority, seized by mirth at the idea of a creature,
+well known to be very ugly and humpbacked, being carried off by such an
+ugly gallant,--burst out laughing, even to tears, and with an uproar
+completely scandalous.  Madame de Maintenon abandoned herself to mirth,
+like the rest, and corrected the others at last, by saying it was not
+very charitable, in a tone that could impose upon no one.
+
+Madame de Saint-Simon and I were at Paris.  We knew with all Paris of
+this affair, but were ignorant of the place of the marriage and the part
+M. de Lorges had had in it, when the third day after the adventure I was
+startled out of my sleep at five o'clock in the morning, and saw my
+curtains and my windows open at the same time, and Madame de Saint-Simon
+and her brother (M. de Lorges) before me.  They related to me all that
+had occurred, and then went away to consult with a skilful person what
+course to adopt, leaving me to dress.  I never saw a man so crestfallen
+as M. de Lorges.  He had confessed what he had done to a clever lawyer,
+who had much frightened him.  After quitting him, he had hastened to us
+to make us go and see Pontchartrain.  The most serious things are
+sometimes accompanied with the most ridiculous.  M. de Lorges upon
+arriving knocked at the door of a little room which preceded the chamber
+of Madame de Saint-Simon.  My daughter was rather unwell.  Madame de
+Saint-Simon thought she was worse, and supposing it was I who had
+knocked, ran and opened the door.  At the sight of her brother she ran
+back to her bed, to which he followed her, in order to relate his
+disaster.  She rang for the windows to be opened, in order that she might
+see better.  It so happened that she had taken the evening before a new
+servant, a country girl of sixteen, who slept in the little room.  M. de
+Lorges, in a hurry to be off, told this girl to make haste in opening the
+windows, and then to go away and close the door.  At this, the simple
+girl, all amazed, took her robe and her cotillon, and went upstairs to an
+old chambermaid, awoke her, and with much hesitation told her what had
+just happened, and that she had left by the bedside of Madame de Saint
+Simon a fine gentleman, very young, all powdered, curled, and decorated,
+who had driven her very quickly out of the chamber.  She was all of a
+tremble, and much astonished.  She soon learnt who he was.  The story was
+told to us, and in spite of our disquietude, much diverted us.
+
+We hurried away to the chancellor, and he advised the priest, the
+witnesses to the signatures of the marriage, and, in fact, all concerned,
+to keep out of the way, except M. de Lorges, who he assured us had
+nothing to fear.  We went afterwards to Chamillart, whom we found much
+displeased, but in little alarm.  The King had ordered an account to be
+drawn up of the whole affair.  Nevertheless, in spite of the uproar made
+on all sides, people began to see that the King would not abandon to
+public dishonour the daughter of Madame de Roquelaure, nor doom to the
+scaffold or to civil death in foreign countries the nephew of Madame de
+Soubise.
+
+Friends of M. and Madame de Roquelaure tried to arrange matters.  They
+represented that it would be better to accept the marriage as it was than
+to expose a daughter to cruel dishonour.  Strange enough, the Duc and
+Duchesse de Rohan were the most stormy.  They wished to drive a very hard
+bargain in the matter, and made proposals so out of the way, that nothing
+could have been arranged but for the King.  He did what he had never done
+before in all his life; he entered into all the details; he begged, then
+commanded as master; he had separate interviews with the parties
+concerned; and finally appointed the Duc d'Aumont and the chancellor to
+draw up the conditions of the marriage.
+
+As Madame de Rohan, even after this, still refused to give her consent,
+the King sent for her, and said that if she and her husband did not at
+once give in, he would make the marriage valid by his own sovereign
+authority.  Finally, after so much noise, anguish, and trouble, the
+contract was signed by the two families, assembled at the house of the
+Duchesse de Roquelaure.  The banns were published, and the marriage took
+place at the church of the Convent of the Cross, where Mademoiselle de
+Roquelaure had been confined since her beautiful marriage, guarded night
+and day by five or six nuns.  She entered the church by one door, Prince
+de Leon by another; not a compliment or a word passed between them; the
+curate said mass; married them; they mounted a coach, and drove off to
+the house of a friend some leagues from Paris.  They paid for their folly
+by a cruel indigence which lasted all their lives, neither of them having
+survived the Duc de Rohan, Monsieur de Roquelaure, or Madame de
+Roquelaure.  They left several children.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI
+
+The war this year proceeded much as before.  M. d'Orleans went to Spain
+again.  Before taking the field he stopped at Madrid to arrange matters.
+There he found nothing prepared, and every thing in disorder.  He was
+compelled to work day after day, for many hours, in order to obtain the
+most necessary supplies.  This is what accounted for a delay which was
+maliciously interpreted at Paris into love for the Queen.  M. le Duc was
+angry at the idleness in which he was kept; even Madame la Duchesse, who
+hated him, because she had formerly loved him too well, industriously
+circulated this report, which was believed at Court, in the city, even in
+foreign countries, everywhere, save in Spain, where the truth was too
+well known.  It was while he was thus engaged that he gave utterance to a
+pleasantry that made Madame de Maintenon and Madame des Ursins his two
+most bitter enemies for ever afterwards.
+
+One evening he was at table with several French and Spanish gentlemen,
+all occupied with his vexation against Madame des Ursins, who governed
+everything, and who had not thought of even the smallest thing for the
+campaign.  The supper and the wine somewhat affected M. d'Orleans.  Still
+full of his vexation, he took a glass, and, looking at the company, made
+an allusion in a toast to the two women, one the captain, the other the
+lieutenant, who governed France and Spain, and that in so coarse and yet
+humorous a manner, that it struck at once the imagination of the guests.
+
+No comment was made, but everybody burst out laughing, sense of drollery
+overcoming prudence, for it was well known that the she-captain was
+Madame de Maintenon, and the she-lieutenant Madame des Ursins.  The
+health was drunk, although the words were not repeated, and the scandal
+was strange.
+
+Half an hour at most after this, Madame des Ursins was informed of what
+had taken place.  She knew well who were meant by the toast, and was
+transported with rage.  She at once wrote an account of the circumstance
+to Madame de Maintenon, who, for her part, was quite as furious.  'Inde
+ira'.  They never pardoned M. d'Orleans, and we shall see how very nearly
+they succeeded in compassing his death.  Until then, Madame de Maintenon
+had neither liked nor disliked M. d'Orleans.  Madame des Ursins had
+omitted nothing in order to please him.  From that moment they swore the
+ruin of this prince.  All the rest of the King's life M. d'Orleans did
+not fail to find that Madame de Maintenon was an implacable and cruel
+enemy.  The sad state to which she succeeded in reducing him influenced
+him during all the rest of his life.  As for Madame des Ursins, he soon
+found a change in her manner.  She endeavoured that everything should
+fail that passed through his hands.  There are some wounds that can never
+be healed; and it must be admitted that the Duke's toast inflicted one
+especially of that sort.  He felt this; did not attempt any
+reconciliation; and followed his usual course.  I know not if he ever,
+repented of what he had said, whatever cause he may have had, so droll
+did it seem to him, but he has many times spoken of it since to me,
+laughing with all his might.  I saw all the sad results which might arise
+from his speech, and nevertheless, while reproaching M. d'Orleans, I
+could not help laughing myself, so well, so simply; and so wittily
+expressed was his ridicule of the government on this and the other side
+of the Pyrenees.
+
+At last, M. le Duc d'Orleans found means to enter upon his campaign, but
+was so ill-provided, that he never was supplied with more than a
+fortnight's subsistence in advance.  He obtained several small successes;
+but these were more than swallowed up by a fatal loss in another
+direction.  The island of Sardinia, which was then under the Spanish
+Crown, was lost through the misconduct of the viceroy, the Duke of
+Veragua, and taken possession of by the troops of the Archduke.  In the
+month of October, the island of Minorca also fell into the hands of the
+Archduke.  Port Mahon made but little resistance; so that with this
+conquest and Gibraltar, the English found themselves able to rule in the
+Mediterranean, to winter entire fleets there, and to blockade all the
+ports of Spain upon that sea.  Leaving Spain in this situation, let us
+turn to Flanders.
+
+Early in July, we took Ghent and Bruges by surprise, and the news of
+these successes was received with the most unbridled joy at
+Fontainebleau.  It appeared easy to profit by these two conquests,
+obtained without difficulty, by passing the Escaut, burning Oudenarde,
+closing the country to the enemies, and cutting them off from all
+supplies.  Ours were very abundant, and came by water, with a camp that
+could not be attacked.  M. de Vendome agreed to all this; and alleged
+nothing against it.  There was only one difficulty in the way; his
+idleness and unwillingness to move from quarters where he was
+comfortable.  He wished to enjoy those quarters as long as possible, and
+maintained, therefore, that these movements would be just as good if
+delayed.  Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne maintained on the contrary,
+with all the army--even the favourites of M. de Vendome--that it would be
+better to execute the operation at once, that there was no reason for
+delay, and that delay might prove disastrous.  He argued in vain.
+Vendome disliked fatigue and change of quarters.  They interfered with
+the daily life he was accustomed to lead, and which I have elsewhere
+described.  He would not move.
+
+Marlborough clearly seeing that M. de Vendome did not at once take
+advantage of his position, determined to put it out of his power to do
+so.  To reach Oudenarde, Marlborough had a journey to make of twenty-five
+leagues.  Vendome was so placed that he could have gained it in six
+leagues at the most.  Marlborough put himself in motion with so much
+diligence that he stole three forced marches before Vendome had the
+slightest suspicion or information of them.  The news reached him in
+time, but he treated it with contempt according to his custom, assuring
+himself that he should outstrip the enemy by setting out the next
+morning.  Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne pressed him to start that
+evening; such as dared represented to him the necessity and the
+importance of doing so.  All was vain--in spite of repeated information
+of the enemy's march.  The neglect was such that bridges had not been
+thought of for a little brook at the head of the camp, which it was
+necessary to cross.
+
+On the next day, Wednesday, the 11th of July, a party of our troops,
+under the command of Biron, which had been sent on in advance to the
+Escaut, discovered, after passing it as they could, for the bridges were
+not yet made, all the army of the enemy bending round towards them, the
+rear of their columns touching at Oudenarde, where they also had crossed.
+Biron at once despatched a messenger to the Princes and to M. de Vendome
+to inform them of this, and to ask for orders.  Vendome, annoyed by
+information so different to what he expected, maintained that it could
+not be true.  As he was disputing, an officer arrived from Biron to
+confirm the news; but this only irritated Vendome anew, and made him more
+obstinate.  A third messenger arrived, and then M. de Vendome, still
+affecting disbelief of the news sent him, flew in a passion, but
+nevertheless mounted his horse, saying that all this was the work of the
+devil, and that such diligence was impossible.  He sent orders to Biron
+to attack the enemy, promising to support him immediately.  He told the
+Princes, at the same time, to gently follow with the whole of the army,
+while he placed himself at the head of his columns, and pushed on briskly
+to Biron.
+
+Biron meanwhile placed his troops as well as he could, on ground very
+unequal and much cut up.  He wished to execute the order he had received,
+less from any hopes of success in a combat so vastly disproportioned than
+to secure himself from the blame of a general so ready to censure those
+who did not follow his instructions.  But he was advised so strongly not
+to take so hazardous a step, that he refrained.  Marechal Matignon, who
+arrived soon after, indeed specially prohibited him from acting.
+
+While this was passing, Biron heard sharp firing on his left, beyond the
+village.  He hastened there, and found an encounter of infantry going on.
+He sustained it as well as he could, whilst the enemy were gaining ground
+on the left, and, the ground being difficult (there was a ravine there),
+the enemy were kept at bay until M. de Vendome came up.  The troops he
+brought were all out of breath.  As soon as they arrived, they threw
+themselves amidst the hedges, nearly all in columns, and sustained thus
+the attacks of the enemies, and an engagement which every moment grew
+hotter, without having the means to arranging themselves in any order.
+The columns that arrived from time to time to the relief of these were as
+out of breath as the others; and were at once sharply charged by the
+enemies; who, being extended in lines and in order, knew well how to
+profit by our disorder.  The confusion was very great: the new-comers had
+no time to rally; there was a long interval between the platoons engaged
+and those meant to sustain them; the cavalry and the household troops
+were mixed up pell-mell with the infantry, which increased the disorder
+to such a point that our troops no longer recognised each other.  This
+enabled the enemy to fill up the ravine with fascines sufficient to
+enable them to pass it, and allowed the rear of their army to make a
+grand tour by our right to gain the head of the ravine, and take us in
+flank there.
+
+Towards this same right were the Princes, who for some time had been
+looking from a mill at so strange a combat, so disadvantageously
+commenced.  As soon as our troops saw pouring down upon them others much
+more numerous, they gave way towards their left with so much promptitude
+that the attendants of the Princes became mixed up with their masters,--
+and all were hurried away towards the thick of the fight, with a rapidity
+and confusion that were indecent.  The Princes showed themselves
+everywhere, and in places the most exposed, displaying much valour and
+coolness, encouraging the men, praising the officers, asking the
+principal officers what was to be done, and telling M. de Vendome what
+they thought.
+
+The inequality of the ground that the enemies found in advancing, after
+having driven in our right, enabled our them to rally and to resist.  But
+this resistance was of short duration.  Every one had been engaged in
+hand-to-hand combats; every one was worn out with lassitude and despair
+of success, and a confusion so general and so unheard-of.  The household
+troops owed their escape to the mistake of one of the enemy's officers,
+who carried an order to the red coats, thinking them his own men.  He was
+taken, and seeing that he was about to share the peril with our troops,
+warned them that they were going to be surrounded.  They retired in some
+disorder, and so avoided this.
+
+The disorder increased, however, every moment.  Nobody recognised his
+troop.  All were pell-mell, cavalry, infantry, dragoons; not a battalion,
+not a squadron together, and all in confusion, one upon the other.
+
+Night came.  We had lost much ground, one-half of the army had not
+finished arriving.  In this sad situation the Princes consulted with M.
+de Vendome as to what was to be done.  He, furious at being so terribly
+out of his reckoning, affronted everybody.  Monseigneur le Duc de
+Bourgogne wished to speak; but Vendome intoxicated with choler and
+authority; closed his mouth, by saying to him in an imperious voice
+before everybody, "That he came to the army only on condition of obeying
+him."  These enormous words, pronounced at a moment in which everybody
+felt so terribly the weight of the obedience rendered to his idleness and
+obstinacy, made everybody tremble with indignation.  The young Prince to
+whom they were addressed, hesitated, mastered himself, and kept silence.
+Vendome went on declaring that the battle was not lost--that it could be
+recommenced the next morning, when the rest of the army had arrived, and
+so on.  No one of consequence cared to reply.
+
+From every side soon came information, however, that the disorder was
+extreme.  Pursegur, Matignon, Sousternon, Cheladet, Purguyon, all brought
+the same news.  Vendome, seeing that it was useless to resist, all this
+testimony, and beside himself with rage, cried, "Oh, very well,
+gentlemen!  I see clearly what you wish.  We must retire, then;" and
+looking at Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne, he added, "I know you have
+long wished to do so, Monseigneur."
+
+These words, which could not fail to be taken in a double sense, were
+pronounced exactly as I relate them, and were emphasized in a manner to
+leave no doubt as to their signification.  Monseigneur le Duc de
+Bourgogne remained silent as before, and for some time the silence was
+unbroken.  At last, Pursegur interrupted it, by asking how the retreat
+was to be executed.  Each, then, spoke confusedly.  Vendome, in his turn,
+kept silence from vexation or embarrassment; then he said they must march
+to Ghent, without adding how, or anything else.
+
+The day had been very fatiguing; the retreat was long and perilous.  The
+Princes mounted their horses, and took the road to Ghent.  Vendome set
+out without giving any orders, or seeing to anything.  The general
+officers returned to their posts, and of themselves gave the order to
+retreat.  Yet so great was the confusion, that the Chevalier Rosel,
+lieutenant-general, at the head of a hundred squadrons, received no
+orders.  In the morning he found himself with his hundred squadrons,
+which had been utterly forgotten.  He at once commenced his march; but to
+retreat in full daylight was very difficult, as he soon found.  He had to
+sustain the attacks of the enemy during several hours of his march.
+
+Elsewhere, also, the difficulty of retreating was great.  Fighting went
+on at various points all night, and the enemy were on the alert.  Some of
+the troops of our right, while debating as to the means of retreat, found
+they were about to be surrounded by the enemy.  The Vidame of Amiens saw
+that not a moment was to be lost.  He cried to the light horse, of which
+he was captain, "Follow me," and pierced his way through a line of the
+enemy's cavalry.  He then found himself in front of a line of infantry,
+which fired upon him, but opened to give him passage.  At the same
+moment, the household troops and others, profiting by a movement so bold,
+followed the Vidame and his men, and all escaped together to Ghent, led
+on by the Vidame, to whose sense and courage the safety of these troops
+was owing.
+
+M. de Vendome arrived at Ghent, between seven and eight o'clock in the
+morning.  Even at this moment he did not forget his disgusting habits,
+and as soon as he set foot to ground.... in sight of all the troops as
+they came by,--then at once went to bed, without giving any orders, or
+seeing to anything, and remained more than thirty hours without rising,
+in order to repose himself after his fatigues.  He learnt that
+Monseigneur de Bourgogne and the army had pushed on to Lawendeghem; but
+he paid no attention to it, and continued to sup and to sleep at Ghent
+several days running, without attending to anything.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII
+
+As soon as Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne arrived at Lawendeghem, he
+wrote a short letter to the King, and referred him for details to M. de
+Vendome.  But at the same time he wrote to the Duchess, very clearly
+expressing to her where the fault lay.  M. de Vendome, on his side, wrote
+to the King, and tried to persuade him that the battle had not been
+disadvantageous to us.  A short time afterwards, he wrote again, telling
+the King that he could have beaten the enemies had he been sustained; and
+that, if, contrary to his advice, retreat had not been determined on, he
+would certainly have beaten them the next day.  For the details he
+referred to Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne.
+
+I had always feared that some ill-fortune would fall to the lot of
+Monseigneur, le Duc de Bourgogne if he served under M. de Vendome at the
+army.  When I first learned that he was going to Flanders with M. de
+Vendome, I expressed my apprehensions to M. de Beauvilliers, who treated
+them as unreasonable and ridiculous.  He soon had good cause to admit
+that I had not spoken without justice.  Our disasters at Oudenarde were
+very great.  We had many men and officers killed and wounded, four
+thousand men and seven hundred officers taken prisoners, and a prodigious
+quantity missing and dispersed.  All these losses were, as I have shown,
+entirely due to the laziness and inattention of M. de Vendome.  Yet the
+friends of that general--and he had many at the Court and in the army--
+actually had the audacity to lay the blame upon Monseigneur le Duc de
+Bourgogne.  This was what I had foreseen, viz., M. de Vendome, in case
+any misfortune occurred, would be sure to throw the burden of it upon
+Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne.
+
+Alberoni, who, as I have said, was one of M. de Vendome's creatures,
+published a deceitful and impudent letter, in which he endeavoured to
+prove that M. de Vendome had acted throughout like a good general, but
+that he had been thwarted by Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne.  This
+letter was distributed everywhere, and well served the purpose for which
+it was intended.  Another writer, Campistron---a poor, starving poet,
+ready to do anything to live--went further.  He wrote a letter, in which
+Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne was personally attacked in the tenderest
+points, and in which Marechal Matignon was said to merit a court-martial
+for having counselled retreat.  This letter, like the other, although
+circulated with more precaution, was shown even in the cafes and in the
+theatres; in the public places of gambling and debauchery; on the
+promenades, and amongst the news-vendors.  Copies of it were even shown
+in the provinces, and in foreign countries; but always with much
+circumspection.  Another letter soon afterwards appeared, apologising for
+M. de Vendome.  This was written by Comte d'Evreux, and was of much the
+same tone as the two others.
+
+A powerful cabal was in fact got up against Monseigneur de Bourgogne.
+Vaudeville, verses, atrocious songs against him, ran all over Paris and
+the provinces with a licence and a rapidity that no one checked; while at
+the Court, the libertines and the fashionables applauded; so that in six
+days it was thought disgraceful to speak with any measure of this Prince,
+even in his father's house.
+
+Madame de Bourgogne could not witness all this uproar against her
+husband, without feeling sensibly affected by it.  She had been made
+acquainted by Monseigneur de Bourgogne with the true state of the case.
+She saw her own happiness and reputation at stake.  Though very gentle,
+and still more timid, the grandeur of the occasion raised her above
+herself.  She was cruelly wounded by the insults of Vendome to her
+husband, and by all the atrocities and falsehoods his emissaries
+published.  She gained Madame de Maintenon, and the first result of this
+step was, that the King censured Chamillart for not speaking of the
+letters in circulation, and ordered him to write to Alberoni and D'Evreux
+(Campistron, strangely enough, was forgotten), commanding them to keep
+silence for the future.
+
+The cabal was amazed to see Madame de Maintenon on the side of Madame de
+Bourgogne, while M. du Maine (who was generally in accord with Madame de
+Maintenon) was for M. de Vendome.  They concluded that the King had been
+led away, but that if they held firm, his partiality for M. de Vendome,
+for M. du Maine, and for bastardy in general, would bring him round to
+them.  In point of fact, the King was led now one way, and now another,
+with a leaning always towards M. de Vendome.
+
+Soon after this, Chamillart, who was completely of the party of M. de
+Vendome, thought fit to write a letter to Monseigneur le Duc de
+Bourgogne, in which he counselled him to live on good terms with his
+general.  Madame de Bourgogne never forgave Chamillart this letter, and
+was always annoyed with her husband that he acted upon it.  His religious
+sentiments induced him to do so.  Vendome so profited by the advances
+made to him by the young Prince, that he audaciously brought Alberoni
+with him when he visited Monseigneur de Bourgogne.  This weakness of
+Monseigneur de Bourgogne lost him many friends, and made his enemies more
+bold than ever: Madame de Bourgogne, however, did not despair.  She wrote
+to her husband that for M. de Vendome she had more aversion and contempt
+than for any one else in the world, and that nothing would make her
+forget what he had done.  We shall see with what courage she knew how to
+keep her word.
+
+While the discussions upon the battle of Oudenarde were yet proceeding,
+a league was formed with France against the Emperor by all the states of
+Italy.  The King (Louis XIV.) accepted, however, too late, a project he
+himself ought to have proposed and executed.  He lost perhaps the most
+precious opportunity he had had during all his reign.  The step he at
+last took was so apparent that it alarmed the allies, and put them on
+their guard.  Except Flanders, they did nothing in any other spot, and
+turned all their attention to Italy.
+
+Let us return, however, to Flanders.
+
+Prince Eugene, with a large booty gathered in Artois and elsewhere, had
+fixed himself at Brussels.  He wished to bear off his spoils, which
+required more than five thousand waggons to carry it, and which consisted
+in great part of provisions, worth three million five hundred thousand
+francs, and set out with them to join the army of the Duke of
+Marlborough.  Our troops could not, of course, be in ignorance of this.
+M. de Vendome wished to attack the convoy with half his troops.  The
+project seemed good, and, in case of success, would have brought results
+equally honourable and useful.  Monseigneur de Bourgogne, however,
+opposed the attack, I know not why; and M. de Vendome, so obstinate until
+then, gave in to him in this case.  His object was to ruin the Prince
+utterly, for allowing such a good chance to escape, the blame resting
+entirely upon him.  Obstinacy and audacity had served M. de Vendome at
+Oudenarde: he expected no less a success now from his deference.
+
+Some anxiety was felt just about this time for Lille, which it was feared
+the enemy would lay siege to.  Boufflers went to command there, at his
+own request, end found the place very ill-garrisoned with raw troops,
+many of whom had never smelt powder.  M. de Vendome, however, laughed at
+the idea of the siege of Lille, as something mad and ridiculous.
+Nevertheless, the town was invested on the 12th of August, as the King
+duly learned on the 14th.  Even then, flattery did its work.  The friends
+of Vendome declared that such an enterprise was the best, thing that
+could happen to France, as the besiegers, inferior in numbers to our
+army, were sure to be miserably beaten.  M. de Vendome, in the mean time,
+did not budge from the post he had taken up near Ghent.  The King wrote
+to him to go with his army to the relief of Lille.  M. de Vendome still
+delayed; another courier was sent, with the same result.  At this, the
+King, losing temper, despatched another courier, with orders to
+Monseigneur de Bourgogne, to lead the army to Lille, if M. de Vendome
+refused to do so.  At this, M. de Vendome awoke from his lethargy.  He
+set out for Lille, but took the longest road, and dawdled as long as he
+could on the way, stopping five days at Mons Puenelle, amongst other
+places.
+
+The agitation, meanwhile, in Paris, was extreme.  The King demanded news
+of the siege from his courtiers, and could not understand why no couriers
+arrived.  It was generally expected that some decisive battle had been
+fought.  Each day increased the uneasiness.  The Princes and the
+principal noblemen of the Court were at the army.  Every one at
+Versailles feared for the safety of a relative or friend.  Prayers were
+offered everywhere.  Madame de Bourgogne passed whole nights in the
+chapel, when people thought her in bed, and drove her women to despair.
+Following her example, ladies who had husbands at the army stirred not
+from the churches.  Gaming, conversation ceased.  Fear was painted upon
+every face, and seen in every speech, without shame.  If a horse passed a
+little quickly, everybody ran without knowing where.  The apartments of
+Chamillart were crowded with lackeys, even into the street, sent by
+people desiring to be informed of the moment that a courier arrived; and
+this terror and uncertainty lasted nearly a month.  The provinces were
+even more troubled than Paris.  The King wrote to the Bishop, in order
+that they should offer up prayers in terms which suited with the danger
+of the time.  It may be judged what was the general impression and alarm.
+
+It is true, that in the midst of this trepidation, the partisans of M. de
+Vendome affected to pity that poor Prince Eugene, and to declare that he
+must inevitably fail in his undertaking; but these discourses did not
+impose upon me.  I knew what kind of enemies we had to deal with, and I
+foresaw the worst results from the idleness and inattention of M. de
+Vendome.  One evening, in the presence of Chamillart and five or six
+others, annoyed by the conversation which passed, I offered to bet four
+pistoles that there would be no general battle, and that Lille would be
+taken without being relieved.  This strange proposition excited much
+surprise, and caused many questions to be addressed to me.  I would
+explain nothing at all; but sustained my proposal in the English manner,
+and my bet was taken; Cani, who accepted it, thanking me for the present
+of four pistoles I was making him, as he said.  The stakes were placed in
+the hand of Chamillart.
+
+By the next day, the news of my bet had spread a frightful uproar.  The
+partisans of M. de Vendome, knowing I was no friend to them, took this
+opportunity to damage me in the eyes of the King.  They so far succeeded
+that I entirely lost favour with him, without however suspecting it, for
+more than two months.  All that I could do then, was to let the storm
+pass over my head and keep silent, so as not to make matters worse.
+Meanwhile, M. de Vendome continued the inactive policy he had hitherto
+followed.  In despite of reiterated advice from the King, he took no
+steps to attack the enemy.  Monseigneur de Bourgogne was for doing so,
+but Vendome would make no movement.  As before, too, he contrived to
+throw all the blame of his inactivity upon Monseigneur de Bourgogne.  He
+succeeded so well in making this believed, that his followers in the army
+cried out against the followers of Monseigneur de Bourgogne wherever they
+appeared.  Chamillart was sent by the King to report upon the state and
+position of our troops, and if a battle had taken place and proved
+unfavourable to us, to prevent such sad results as had taken place after
+Ramillies.  Chamillart came back on the 18th of September. No battle had
+been fought, but M. de Vendome felt sure, he said, of cutting off all
+supplies from the enemy, and thus compelling them to raise the siege.
+The King had need of these intervals of consolation and hope.  Master as
+he might be of his words and of his features, he profoundly felt the
+powerlessness to resist his enemies that he fell into day by day.  What I
+have related, about Samuel Bernard, the banker, to whom he almost did the
+honours of his gardens at Marly, in order to draw from him the assistance
+he had refused, is a great proof of this.  It was much remarked at
+Fontainebleau, just as Lille was invested, that, the city of Paris coming
+to harangue him on the occasion of the oath taken by Bignon, new Prevot
+des Marchand, he replied, not only with kindness, but that he made use of
+the term "gratitude for his good city," and that in doing so he lost
+countenance,--two things which during all his reign had never escaped
+him.  On the other hand, he sometimes had intervals of firmness which
+edificed less than they surprised.  When everybody at the Court was in
+the anxiety I have already described, he offended them by going out every
+day hunting or walking, so that they could not know, until after his
+return, the news which might arrive when he was out.
+
+As for Monseigneur, he seemed altogether exempt from anxiety.  After
+Ramillies, when everybody was waiting for the return of Chamillart, to
+learn the truth, Monseigneur went away to dine at Meudon, saying he
+should learn the news soon enough.  From this time he showed no more
+interest in what was passing.  When news was brought that Lille was
+invested, he turned on his heel before the letter announcing it had been
+read to the end.  The King called him back to hear the rest.  He returned
+and heard it.  The reading finished, he went away, without offering a
+word.  Entering the apartments of the Princesse de Conti, he found there
+Madame d'Espinoy, who had much property in Flanders, and who had wished
+to take a trip there.
+
+"Madame," said he, smiling, as he arrived, "how would you do just now to
+get to Lille?"  And at once made them acquainted with the investment.
+These things really wounded the Princesse de Conti.  Arriving at
+Fontainebleau one day, during the movements of the army, Monseigneur set
+to work reciting, for amusement, a long list of strange names of places
+in the forest.
+
+"Dear me, Monseigneur," cried she, "what a good memory you have.  What a
+pity it is loaded with such things only!"  If he felt the reproach, he
+did not profit by it.
+
+As for Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne, Monseigneur (his father) was ill-
+disposed towards him, and readily swallowed all that was said in his
+dispraise.  Monseigneur had no sympathy with the piety of his son; it
+constrained and bothered him.  The cabal well profited by this.  They
+succeeded to such an extent in alienating the father from the son, that
+it is only strict truth to say that no one dared to speak well of
+Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne in the presence of Monseigneur.  From
+this it may be imagined what was the licence and freedom of speech
+elsewhere against this Prince.  They reached such a point, indeed, that
+the King, not daring to complain publicly against the Prince de Conti,
+who hated Vendome, for speaking in favour of Monseigneur de Bourgogne,
+reprimanded him sharply in reality for having done so, but ostensibly
+because he had talked about the affairs of Flanders at his sister's.
+Madame de Bourgogne did all she could to turn the current that was
+setting in against her husband; and in this she was assisted by Madame de
+Maintenon, who was annoyed to the last degree to see that other people
+had more influence over the King than she had.
+
+The siege of Lille meanwhile continued, and at last it began to be seen
+that, instead of attempting to fight a grand battle, the wisest course
+would be to throw assistance into the place.  An attempt was made to do
+so, but it was now too late.
+
+The besieged, under the guidance of Marechal Boufflers, who watched over
+all, and attended to all, in a manner that gained him all hearts, made a
+gallant and determined resistance.  A volume would be necessary in order
+to relate all the marvels of capacity and valour displayed in this
+defence.  Our troops disputed the ground inch by inch.  They repulsed,
+three times running, the enemy from a mill, took it the third time, and
+burnt it.  They sustained an attack, in three places at once, of ten
+thousand men, from nine o'clock in the evening to three o'clock in the
+morning, without giving way.  They re-captured the sole traverse the
+enemy had been able to take from them.  They drove out the besiegers from
+the projecting angles of the counterscarp, which they had kept possession
+of for eight days.  They twice repulsed seven thousand men who attacked
+their covered way and an outwork; at the third attack they lost an angle
+of the outwork; but remained masters of all the rest.
+
+So many attacks and engagements terribly weakened the garrison.  On the
+28th of September some assistance was sent to the besieged by the daring
+of the Chevalier de Luxembourg.  It enabled them to sustain with vigour
+the fresh attacks that were directed against them, to repulse the enemy,
+and, by a grand sortie, to damage some of their works, and kill many of
+their men.  But all was in vain.  The enemy returned again and again to
+the attack.  Every attempt to cut off their supplies failed.  Finally, on
+the 23rd of October, a capitulation was signed.  The place had become
+untenable; three new breaches had been made on the 20th and 21st; powder
+and ammunition were failing; the provisions were almost all eaten up
+there was nothing for it but to give in.
+
+Marechal Boufflers obtained all he asked, and retired into the citadel
+with all the prisoners of war, after two months of resistance.  He
+offered discharge to all the soldiers who did not wish to enter the
+citadel.  But not one of the six thousand he had left to him accepted it.
+They were all ready for a new resistance, and when their chief appeared
+among them their joy burst out in the most flattering praises of him.  It
+was on Friday, the 26th of October, that they shut themselves up in the
+citadel.
+
+The enemy opened their trenches before the citadel on the 29th of
+October.  On the 7th of November they made a grand attack, but were
+repulsed with considerable loss.  But they did not flinch from their
+work, and Boufflers began to see that he could not long hold out.  By the
+commencement of December he had only twenty thousand pounds of powder
+left; very little of other munitions, and still less food.  In the town
+and the citadel they had eaten eight hundred horses.  Boufflers, as soon
+as the others were reduced to this food, had it served upon his own
+table, and ate of it like the rest.  The King, learning in what state
+these soldiers were, personally sent word to Boufflers to surrender, but
+the Marechal, even after he had received this order, delayed many days to
+obey it.
+
+At last, in want of the commonest necessaries, and able to protract his
+defence no longer, he beat a parley, signed a capitulation on the 9th of
+December, obtaining all he asked, and retired from Lille.  Prince Eugene,
+to whom he surrendered, treated him with much distinction and friendship,
+invited him to dinner several times,--overwhelmed him, in fact, with
+attention and civilities.  The Prince was glad indeed to have brought to
+a successful issue such a difficult siege.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII
+
+The position of Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne at the army continued to
+be equivocal.  He was constantly in collision with M. de Vendome.  The
+latter, after the loss of Lille, wished to defend the Escaut, without any
+regard to its extent of forty miles.  The Duc de Bourgogne, as far as he
+dared, took the part of Berwick, who maintained that the defence was
+impossible.  The King, hearing of all these disputes, actually sent
+Chamillart to the army to compose them; and it was a curious sight to
+behold this penman, this financier, acting as arbiter between generals on
+the most delicate operations of war.  Chamillart continued to admire
+Vendome, and treated the Duc de Bourgogne with little respect, both at
+the army, and, after his return, in conversation with the King.  His
+report was given in presence of Madame de Maintenon, who listened without
+daring to say a word, and repeated everything to the Duchesse de
+Bourgogne.  We may imagine what passed between them, and the anger of the
+Princess against the minister.  For the present, however, nothing could
+be done.  Berwick was soon afterwards almost disgraced.  As soon as he
+was gone, M. de Vendome wrote to the King, saying, that he was sure of
+preventing the enemy from passing the Escaut--that he answered for it on
+his head.  With such a guarantee from a man in such favour at Court, who
+could doubt?  Yet, shortly after, Marlborough crossed the Escaut in four
+places, and Vendome actually wrote to the King, begging him to remember
+that he had always declared the defence of the Escaut to be, impossible!
+
+The cabal made a great noise to cover this monstrous audacity, and
+endeavoured to renew the attack against the Duc de Bourgogne.  We shall
+see what success attended their efforts.  The army was at Soissons, near
+Tournai, in a profound tranquillity, the opium of which had gained the
+Duc de Bourgogne when news of the approach of the enemy was brought.
+M. de Vendome advanced in that direction, and sent word to the Duke, that
+he thought he ought to advance on the morrow with all his army.  The Duke
+was going to bed when he received the letter; and although it was too
+late to repulse the enemy, was much blamed for continuing to undress
+himself, and putting off action till the morrow.
+
+To this fault he added another.  He had eaten; it was very early; and it
+was no longer proper to march.  It was necessary to wait fresh orders
+from M. de Vendome.  Tournai was near.  The Duc de Bourgogne went there
+to have a game at tennis.  This sudden party of pleasure strongly
+scandalized the army, and raised all manner of unpleasant talk.
+Advantage was taken of the young Prince's imprudence to throw upon him
+the blame of what was caused by the negligence of M. de Vendome.
+
+A serious and disastrous action that took place during these operations
+was actually kept a secret from the King, until the Duc de la Tremoille,
+whose son was engaged there, let out the truth.  Annoyed that the King
+said nothing to him on the way in which his son had distinguished
+himself, he took the opportunity, whilst he was serving the King, to talk
+of the passage of the Escaut, and said that his son's regiment had much
+suffered.  "How, suffered?"  cried the King; "nothing has happened."
+Whereupon the Duke related all to him.  The King listened with the
+greatest attention, and questioned him, and admitted before everybody
+that he knew nothing of all this.  His surprise, and the surprise it
+occasioned, may be imagined.  It happened that when the King left table,
+Chamillart unexpectedly came into his cabinet.  He was soon asked about
+the action of the Escaut, and why it had not been reported.  The
+minister, embarrassed, said that it was a thing of no consequence.  The
+king continued to press him, mentioned details, and talked of the
+regiment of the Prince of Tarento.  Chamillart then admitted that what
+happened at the passage was so disagreeable, and the combat so
+disagreeable, but so little important, that Madame de Maintenon, to whom
+he had reported all, had thought it best not to trouble the King upon the
+matter, and it had accordingly been agreed not to trouble him.  Upon this
+singular answer the King stopped short in his questions, and said not a
+word more.
+
+The Escaut being forced, the citadel of Lille on the point of being
+taken, our army exhausted with fatigue was at last dispersed, to the
+scandal of everybody; for it was known that Ghent was about to be
+besieged.  The Princes received orders to return to Court, but they
+insisted on the propriety of remaining with the army.  M. de Vendome, who
+began to fear the effect of his rashness and insolence, tried to obtain
+permission to pass the winter with the army on the frontier.
+
+He was not listened to.  The Princes received orders most positively to
+return to Court, and accordingly set out.
+
+The Duchesse de Bourgogne was very anxious about the way in which the
+Duke was to be received, and eager to talk to him and explain how matters
+stood, before he saw the King or anybody else. I sent a message to him
+that he ought to contrive to arrive after midnight, in order to pass two
+or three hours with the Duchess, and perhaps see Madame de Maintenon
+early in the morning.  My message was not received; at any rate not
+followed.  The Duc de Bourgogne arrived on the 11th of December, a little
+after seven o'clock in the evening, just as Monseigneur had gone to the
+play, whither the Duchess had not gone, in order to wait for her husband.
+I know not why he alighted in the Cour des Princes, instead of the Great
+Court.  I was put then in the apartments of the Comtesse de Roncy, from
+which I could see all that passed.  I came down, and saw the Prince
+ascending the steps between the Ducs de Beauvilliers and De la
+Rocheguyon, who happened to be there.  He looked quite satisfied, was
+gay, and laughing, and spoke right and left.  I bowed to him.  He did me
+the honour to embrace me in a way that showed me he knew better what was
+going on than how to maintain his dignity.  He then talked only to me,
+and whispered that he knew what I had said.  A troop of courtiers met
+him.  In their midst he passed the Great Hall of the Guards, and instead
+of going to Madame de Maintenon's by the private door, though the nearest
+way, went to the great public entrance.  There was no one there but the
+King and Madame de Maintenon, with Pontchartrain; for I do not count the
+Duchesse de Bourgogne.  Pontchartrain noted well what passed at the
+interview, and related it all to me that very evening.
+
+As soon as in Madame de Maintenon's apartment was heard the rumour which
+usually precedes such an arrival, the King became sufficiently
+embarrassed to change countenance several times.  The Duchesse de
+Bourgogne appeared somewhat tremulous, and fluttered about the room to
+hide her trouble, pretending not to know exactly by which door the Prince
+would arrive.  Madame de Maintenon was thoughtful.  Suddenly all the
+doors flew open: the young Prince advanced towards the King, who, master
+of himself, more than any one ever was, lost at once all embarrassment,
+took two or three steps towards his grandson, embraced him with some
+demonstration of tenderness, spoke of his voyage, and then pointing to
+the Princess, said, with a smiling countenance: "Do you say nothing to
+her?" The Prince turned a moment towards her, and answered respectfully,
+as if he dared not turn away from the King, and did not move.  He then
+saluted Madame de Maintenon, who received him well.  Talk of travel,
+beds, roads, and so forth, lasted, all standing, some half-quarter of an
+hour; then the King said it would not be fair to deprive him any longer
+of the pleasure of being alone with Madame la Duchesse de Bourgogne, and
+that they would have time enough to see each other.  The Prince made a
+bow to the King, another to Madame de Maintenon, passed before the few
+ladies of the palace who had taken courage to put their heads into the
+room, entered the neighbouring cabinet, where he embraced the Duchess,
+saluted the ladies who were there, that is, kissed them; remained a few
+moments, and then went into his apartment, where he shut himself up with
+the Duchesse de Bourgogne.
+
+Their tete-a-tete lasted two hours and more: just towards the end, Madame
+d'O was let in; soon after the Marechal d'Estrees entered, and soon after
+that the Duchesse de Bourgogne came out with them, and returned into the
+great cabinet of Madame de Maintenon.  Monseigneur came there as usual,
+on returning from the comedy.  Madame la Duchesse de Bourgogne, troubled
+that the Duke did not hurry himself to come and salute his father, went
+to fetch him, and came back saying that he was putting on his powder; but
+observing that Monseigneur was little satisfied with this want of
+eagerness, sent again to hurry him.  Just then the Marechale d'Estrees,
+hair-brained and light, and free to say just what came into her head,
+began to attack Monseigneur for waiting so tranquilly for his son,
+instead of going himself to embrace him.  This random expression did not
+succeed.  Monseigneur replied stiffly that it was not for him to seek the
+Duc de Bourgogne; but the duty of the Duc de Bourgogne to seek him.  He
+came at last.  The reception was pretty good, but did not by any means
+equal that of the King.  Almost immediately the King rang, and everybody
+went to the supper-room.
+
+During the supper, M. le Duc de Berry arrived, and came to salute the
+King at table.  To greet him all hearts opened.  The King embraced him
+very tenderly.  Monseigneur only looked at him tenderly, not daring to
+embrace his (youngest) son in presence of the King.  All present courted
+him.  He remained standing near the King all the rest of the supper, and
+there was no talk save of post-horses, of roads, and such like trifles.
+The King spoke sufficiently at table to Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne;
+but to the Duc de Berry, he assumed a very different air.  Afterwards,
+there was a supper for the Duc de Berry in the apartments of the Duchesse
+de Bourgogne; but the conjugal impatience of the Duc de Bourgogne cut it
+rather too short.
+
+I expressed to the Duc de Beauvilliers, with my accustomed freedom, that
+the Duc de Bourgogne seemed to me very gay on returning from so sad a
+campaign.  He could not deny this, and made up his mind to give a hint on
+the subject.  Everybody indeed blamed so misplaced a gaiety.  Two or
+three days after his arrival the Duc de Bourgogne passed three hours with
+the King in the apartments of Madame de Maintenon.  I was afraid that,
+his piety would withhold him from letting out on the subject of M. de
+Vendome, but I heard that he spoke on that subject without restraint,
+impelled by the advice of the Duchesse de Bourgogne, and also by the Duc
+de Beauvilliers, who set his conscience at ease.  His account of the
+campaign, of affairs, of things, of advices, of proceedings, was
+complete.  Another, perhaps, less virtuous, might have used weightier
+terms; but at any rate everything was said with a completeness beyond all
+hope, if we consider who spoke and who listened.  The Duke concluded with
+an eager prayer to be given an army in the next campaign, and with the
+promise of the King to that effect.  Soon after an explanation took place
+with Monseigneur at Meudon, Mademoiselle Choin being present.  With the
+latter he spoke much more in private: she had taken his part with
+Monseigneur.  The Duchesse de Bourgogne had gained her over.  The
+connection of this girl with Madame de Maintenon was beginning to grow
+very close indeed.
+
+Gamaches had been to the army with the Duc do Bourgogne, and being a
+free-tongued man had often spoken out very sharply on the puerilities in
+which he indulged in company with the Duc de Berry, influenced by his
+example.  One day returning from mass, in company with the Duke on a
+critical day, when he would rather have seen him on horseback; he said
+aloud, "You will certainly win the kingdom of heaven; but as for the
+kingdom of the earth, Prince Eugene and Marlborough know how to seek it
+better than you."  What he said quite as publicly to the two Princes on
+their treatment of the King of England, was admirable.  That Prince
+(known as the Chevalier de Saint George) served incognito, with a modesty
+that the Princes took advantage of to treat him with the greatest
+indifference and contempt.  Towards the end of the campaign, Gamaches,
+exasperated with their conduct, exclaimed to them in the presence of
+everybody: "Is this a wager?  speak frankly; if so, you have won, there
+can be no doubt of that; but now, speak a little to the Chevalier de
+Saint George, and treat him more politely."  These sallies, however, were
+too public to produce any good effect.  They were suffered, but not
+attended to.
+
+The citadel of Lille capitulated as we have seen, with the consent of the
+King, who was obliged to acknowledge that the Marechal de Boufflers had
+done all he could, and that further defence was impossible.  Prince
+Eugene treated Boufflers with the greatest possible consideration.  The
+enemy at this time made no secret of their intention to invest Ghent,
+which made the dispersal of our army the more shameful; but necessity
+commanded, for no more provisions were to be got.
+
+M. de Vendome arrived at Versailles on the morning of December 15th, and
+saluted the King as he left table.  The King embraced him with a sort of
+enthusiasm that made his cabal triumph.  He monopolised all conversation
+during the dinner, but only trifles were talked of.  The King said he
+would talk to him next day at Madame de Maintenon's.  This delay, which
+was new to him, did not seem of good augury.  He went to pay his respects
+to M. de Bourgogne, who received him well in spite of all that had
+passed.  Then Vendome went to wait on Monseigneur at the Princesse de
+Coriti's: here he thought himself in his stronghold.  He was received
+excellently, and the conversation turned on nothings.  He wished to take
+advantage of this, and proposed a visit to Anet.  His surprise and that
+of those present were great at the uncertain reply of Monseigneur, who
+caused it to be understood, and rather stiffly too, that he would not go.
+Vendome appeared embarrassed, and abridged his visit.  I met him at the
+end of the gallery of the new wing, as I was coming from M. de
+Beauvilliers, turning towards the steps in the middle of the gallery.  He
+was alone, without torches or valets, with Alberoni, followed by a man I
+did not know.  I saw him by the light of my torches; we saluted each
+other politely, though we had not much acquaintance one with the other.
+He seemed chagrined, and was going to M. du Maine, his counsel and
+principal support.
+
+Next day he passed an hour with the King at Madame de Maintenon's.  He
+remained eight or ten days at Versailles or at Meudon, and never went to
+the Duchesse de Bourgogne's.  This was nothing new for him.  The mixture
+of grandeur and irregularity which he had long affected seemed to him to
+have freed him from the most indispensable duties.  His Abbe Alberoni
+showed himself at the King's mass in the character of a courtier with
+unparalleled effrontery.  At last they went to Anet.  Even before he went
+he perceived some diminution in his position, since he lowered himself so
+far as to invite people to come and see him, he, who in former years made
+it a favour to receive the most distinguished persons.  He soon perceived
+the falling-off in the number of his visitors.  Some excused themselves
+from going; others promised to go and did not.  Every one made a
+difficulty about a journey of fifteen leagues, which, the year before,
+was considered as easy and as necessary as that of Marly.  Vendome
+remained at Anet until the first voyage to Marly, when he came; and he
+always came to Marly and Meudon, never to Versailles, until the change of
+which I shall soon have occasion to speak.
+
+The Marechal de Boufflers returned to Court from his first but
+unsuccessful defence of Lille, and was received in a triumphant manner,
+and overwhelmed with honours and rewards.  This contrast with Vendome was
+remarkable: the one raised by force of trickery, heaping up mountains
+like the giants, leaning on vice, lies, audacity, on a cabal inimical to
+the state and its heirs, a factitious hero, made such by will in despite
+of truth;--the other, without cabal, with no support but virtue and
+modesty, was inundated with favours, and the applause of enemies was
+followed by the acclamations of the public, so that the nature of even
+courtiers changed, and they were happy in the recompenses showered upon
+him!
+
+Some days after the return of the Duc de Bourgogne Cheverny had an
+interview with him, on leaving which he told me what I cannot refrain
+from relating here, though it is necessarily with confusion that I write
+it.  He said that, speaking freely with him on what had been circulated
+during the campaign, the Prince observed that he knew how and with what
+vivacity I had expressed myself, and that he was informed of the manner
+in which the Prince de Conti had given his opinion, and added that with
+the approval of two such men, that of others might be dispensed with.
+Cheverny, a very truthful man, came full of this to tell it to me at
+once.  I was filled with confusion at being placed beside a man as
+superior to me in knowledge of war as he was in rank and birth; but I
+felt with gratitude how well M. de Beauvilliers had kept his word and
+spoken in my favour.
+
+The last evening of this year (1708) was very remarkable, because there
+had not yet been an example of any such thing.  The King having retired
+after supper to his cabinet with his family, as usual, Chamillart came
+without being sent for.  He whispered in the King's ear that he had a
+long despatch from the Marechal de Boufflers.  Immediately the King said
+good-night to Monseigneur and the Princesses, who went out with every one
+else; and the King actually worked for an hour with his minister before
+going to bed, so excited was he by the great project for retaking Lille!
+
+Since the fall of Lille, in fact, Chamillart, impressed with the
+importance of the place being in our possession, had laid out a plan by
+which he were to lay siege to it and recapture it.  One part of his plan
+was, that the King should conduct the siege in person.  Another was that,
+as money was so difficult to obtain, the ladies of the Court should not
+accompany the King, as their presence caused a large increase of expense
+for carriages, servants, and so on.  He confided his project to the King,
+under a strict promise that it would be kept secret from Madame de
+Maintenon.  He feared, and with reason, that if she heard of it she would
+object to being separated from the King for such a long time as would be
+necessary for the siege: Chamillart was warned that if he acted thus,
+hiding his plant from Madame de Maintenon, to whom he owed everything,
+she would assuredly ruin him, but he paid no attention to the warning.
+He felt all the danger he ran, but he was courageous; he loved the State,
+and, if I may say so, he loved the King as a mistress.  He followed his
+own counsels then, and made the King acquainted with his project.
+
+The King was at once delighted with it.  He entered into the details
+submitted to him by Chamillart with the liveliest interest, and promised
+to carry out all that was proposed.  He sent for Boufflers, who had
+returned from Lille, and having, as I have said, recompensed him for his
+brave defence of that place with a peerage and other marks of favour,
+despatched him privately into Flanders to make preparations for the
+siege.  The abandonment of Ghent by our troop, after a short and
+miserable defence, made him more than ever anxious to carry out this
+scheme.
+
+But the King had been so unused to keep a secret from Madame de
+Maintenon, that he felt himself constrained in attempting to do so now.
+He confided to her, therefore, the admirable plan of Chamillart.  She had
+the address to hide her surprise, and the strength to dissimulate
+perfectly her vexation; she praised the project; she appeared charmed
+with it; she entered into the details; she spoke of them to Chamillart;
+admired his zeal, his labour, his diligence, and, above all, his ability,
+in having conceived and rendered possible so fine and grand a project.
+
+From that moment, however, she forgot nothing in order to ensure its
+failure.  The first sight of it had made her tremble.  To be separated
+from the King during a long siege; to abandon him to a minister to whom
+he would be grateful for all the success of that siege; a minister, too,
+who, although her creature, had dared to submit this project to the King
+without informing her; who, moreover, had recently offended her by
+marrying his son into a family she considered inimical to her, and by
+supporting M. de Vendome against Monseigneur de Bourgogne!  These were
+considerations that determined her to bring about the failure of
+Chamillart's project and the disgrace of Chamillart himself.
+
+She employed her art so well, that after a time the project upon Lille
+did not appear so easy to the King as at first.  Soon after, it seemed
+difficult; then too hazardous and ruinous; so that at last it was
+abandoned, and Boufflers had orders to cease his preparations and return
+to France!  She succeeded thus in an affair she considered the most
+important she had undertaken during all her life.  Chamillart was much
+touched, but little surprised: As soon as he knew his secret had been
+confided to Madame de Maintenon he had feeble hope for it.  Now he began
+to fear for himself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+One of the reasons Madame de Maintenon had brought forward, which much
+assisted her in opposing the siege of Lille, was the excessive cold of
+this winter.  The winter was, in fact, terrible; the memory of man could
+find no parallel to it.  The frost came suddenly on Twelfth Night, and
+lasted nearly two months, beyond all recollection.  In four days the
+Seine and all the other rivers were frozen, and,--what had never been
+seen before,--the sea froze all along the coasts, so as to bear carts,
+even heavily laden, upon it.  Curious observers pretended that this cold
+surpassed what had ever been felt in Sweden and Denmark.  The tribunals
+were closed a considerable time.  The worst thing was, that it completely
+thawed for seven or eight days, and then froze again as rudely as before.
+This caused the complete destruction of all kinds of vegetation--even
+fruit-trees; and others of the most hardy kind, were destroyed.  The
+violence of the cold was such, that the strongest elixirs and the most
+spirituous liquors broke their bottles in cupboards of rooms with fires
+in them, and surrounded by chimneys, in several parts of the chateau of
+Versailles.  As I myself was one evening supping with the Duc de
+Villeroy, in his little bedroom, I saw bottles that had come from a well-
+heated kitchen, and that had been put on the chimney-piece of this bed-
+room (which was close to the kitchen), so frozen, that pieces of ice fell
+into our glasses as we poured out from them.  The second frost ruined
+everything.  There were no walnut-trees, no olive-trees, no apple-trees,
+no vines left, none worth speaking of, at least.  The other trees died in
+great numbers; the gardens perished, and all the grain in the earth.  It
+is impossible to imagine the desolation of this general ruin.  Everybody
+held tight his old grain.  The price of bread increased in proportion to
+the despair for the next harvest.  The most knowing resowed barley where
+there had been wheat, and were imitated by the majority.  They were the
+most successful, and saved all; but the police bethought themselves of
+prohibiting this, and repented too late!  Divers edicts were published
+respecting grain, researches were made and granaries filled;
+commissioners were appointed to scour the provinces, and all these steps
+contributed to increase the general dearness and poverty, and that, too,
+at a time when, as was afterwards proved, there was enough corn in the
+country to feed all France for two years, without a fresh ear being
+reaped.
+
+Many people believed that the finance gentlemen had clutched at this
+occasion to seize upon all the corn in the kingdom, by emissaries they
+sent about, in order to sell it at whatever price they wished for the
+profit of the King, not forgetting their own.  The fact that a large
+quantity of corn that the King had bought, and that had spoiled upon the
+Loire, was thrown into the water in consequence, did not shake this
+opinion, as the accident could not be hidden.  It is certain that the
+price of corn was equal in all the markets of the realm; that at Paris,
+commissioners fixed the price by force, and often obliged the vendors to
+raise it in spite of themselves; that when people cried out, "How long
+will this scarcity last?" some commissioners in a market, close to my
+house, near Saint Germain-des-Pres, replied openly, "As long as you
+please," moved by compassion and indignation, meaning thereby, as long as
+the people chose to submit to the regulation, according to which no corn
+entered Paris, except on an order of D'Argenson.  D'Argenson was the
+lieutenant of police.  The bakers were treated with the utmost rigour in
+order to keep up the price of bread all over France.  In the provinces,
+officers called intendents did what D'Argenson did at Paris.  On all the
+markets, the corn that was not sold at the hour fixed for closing was
+forcibly carried off; those who, from pity, sold their corn lower than
+the fixed rate were punished with cruelty!
+
+Marechal, the King's surgeon, had the courage and the probity to tell all
+these things to the King, and to state the sinister opinions it gave rise
+to among all classes, even the most enlightened.  The King appeared
+touched, was not offended with Marechal, but did nothing.
+
+In several places large stores of corn were collected; by the government
+authorities, but with the greatest possible secrecy.  Private people were
+expressly forbidden to do this, and informers were encouraged to; betray
+them.  A poor fellow, having bethought himself of informing against one
+of the stores alluded to above, was severely punished for his pains.  The
+Parliament assembled to debate upon these disorders.  It came to the
+resolution of submitting various proposals to the King, which it deemed
+likely to improve the condition of the country, and offered to send its
+Conseillers to examine into the conduct of the monopolists.  As soon as
+the King heard of this, he flew into a strange passion, and his first
+intention was to send a harsh message to the Parliament to attend to law
+trials, and not to mix with matters that did not concern it.  The
+chancellor did not dare to represent to, the King that what the
+Parliament wished to do belonged to its province, but calmed him by
+representing the respect and affection with which the Parliament regarded
+him, and that he was master either to accept or refuse its offers.  No
+reprimand was given, therefore, to the Parliament, but it was informed
+that the King prohibited it from meddling with the corn question.
+However accustomed the Parliament, as well as all the other public
+bodies, might be to humiliations, it was exceedingly vexed by this
+treatment, and obeyed with the greatest grief.  The public was,
+nevertheless, much affected by the conduct of the Parliament, and felt
+that if the Finance Ministry had been innocent in the matter, the King
+would have been pleased with what had taken place, which was in no
+respect an attack on the absolute and unbounded authority of which he was
+so vilely jealous.
+
+In the country a somewhat similar incident occurred.  The Parliament of
+Burgundy, seeing the province in the direst necessity, wrote to the
+Intendant, who did not bestir himself the least in the world.  In this
+pressing danger of a murderous famine, the members assembled to debate
+upon the course to adopt.  Nothing was said or done more than was
+necessary, and all with infinite discretion, yet the King was no sooner
+informed of it than he grew extremely irritated.  He sent a severe
+reprimand to this Parliament; prohibited it from meddling again in the
+matter; and ordered the President, who had conducted the assembly, to
+come at once to Court to explain his conduct.  He came, and but for the
+intervention of M. le Duc would have been deprived of his post,
+irreproachable as his conduct had been.  He received a sharp scolding
+from the King, and was then allowed to depart.  At the end of a few weeks
+he returned to Dijon, where it had been resolved to receive him in
+triumph; but, like a wise and experienced man, he shunned these
+attentions, arranging so that he arrived at Dijon at four o'clock in the
+morning.  The other Parliaments, with these examples before them, were
+afraid to act, and allowed the Intendants and their emissaries to have it
+all their own way.  It was at this time that those commissioners were
+appointed, to whom I have already alluded, who acted under the authority
+of the Intendants, and without dependence of any kind upon the
+Parliaments.  True, a court of appeal against their decisions was
+established, but it was a mere mockery.  The members who composed it did
+not set out to fulfil their duties until three months after having been
+appointed.
+
+Then, matters had been so arranged that they received no appeals, and
+found no cases to judge.  All this dark work remained, therefore, in the
+hands of D'Argenson and the Intendants, and it continued to be done with
+the same harshness as ever.
+
+Without passing a more definite judgment on those who invented and
+profited by this scheme, it may be said that there has scarcely been a
+century which has produced one more mysterious, more daring, better
+arranged, and resulting in an oppression so enduring, so sure, so cruel.
+The sums it produced were innumerable; and innumerable were the people
+who died literally of hunger, and those who perished afterwards of the
+maladies caused by the extremity of misery; innumerable also were the
+families who were ruined, whose ruin brought down a torrent of other
+ills.
+
+Despite all this, payments hitherto most strictly made began to cease.
+Those of the customs, those of the divers loans, the dividends upon the
+Hotel de Ville--in all times so sacred--all were suspended; these last
+alone continued, but with delays, then with retrenchments, which
+desolated nearly all the families of Paris and many others.  At the same
+time the taxes--increased, multiplied, and exacted with the most extreme
+rigour--completed the devastation of France.
+
+Everything rose incredibly in price, while nothing was left to buy with,
+even at the cheapest rate; and although--the majority of the cattle had
+perished for want of food, and by the misery of those who kept them, a
+new monopoly was established upon, horned beasts.  A great number of
+people who, in preceding years, used to relieve the poor, found,
+themselves so reduced as to be able to subsist only with great
+difficulty, and many of them received alms in secret.  It is impossible
+to say how many others laid siege to the hospitals, until then the ,
+shame and punishment of the poor; how many ruined hospitals revomited
+forth their inmates to the public charge--that is to say, sent them away
+to die actually of hunger; and how many decent families shut themselves
+up in garrets to die of want.
+
+It is impossible to say, moreover, how all this misery warmed up zeal and
+charity, or how immense were the alms distributed.  But want increasing
+each instant, an indiscreet and tyrannical charity imagined new taxes for
+the benefit of the poor.  They were imposed, and, added to so many
+others, vexed numbers of people, who were annoyed at being compelled to
+pay, who would have preferred giving voluntarily.  Thus, these new taxes,
+instead of helping the poor, really took away assistance from them, and
+left them worse off than before.  The strangest thing of all is, that
+these taxes in favour of the poor were, perpetuated and appropriated by
+the King, and are received by the financiers on his account to this day
+as a branch of the revenue, the name of them not having even been
+changed.  The same thing has happened with respect to the annual tax for
+keeping up the highways and thoroughfares of the kingdom.  The majority
+of the bridges were broken, and the high roads had become impracticable.
+Trade, which suffered by this, awakened attention.  The Intendant of
+Champagne determined to mend the roads by parties of men, whom he
+compelled to work for nothing, not even giving them bread.  He was
+imitated everywhere, and was made Counsellor of State.  The people died
+of hunger and misery at this work, while those who overlooked them made
+fortunes.  In the end the thing was found to be impracticable, and was
+abandoned, and so were the roads.  But the impost for making them and
+keeping them up did not in the least stop during this experiment or
+since, nor has it ceased to be appropriated as a branch of the King's
+revenue.
+
+But to return to the year 1709.  People never ceased wondering what had
+become of all the money of the realm.  Nobody could any longer pay,
+because nobody was paid: the country-people, overwhelmed with exactions
+and with valueless property, had become insolvent: trade no longer
+yielded anything--good faith and confidence were at an end.  Thus the
+King had no resources, except in terror and in his unlimited power,
+which, boundless as it was, failed also for want of having something to
+take and to exercise itself upon.  There was no more circulation, no
+means of re-establishing it.  All was perishing step by step; the realm
+was entirely exhausted; the troops, even, were not paid, although no one
+could imagine what was done with the millions that came into the King's
+coffers.  The unfed soldiers, disheartened too at being so badly
+commanded, were always unsuccessful; there was no capacity in generals or
+ministers; no appointment except by whim or intrigue; nothing was
+punished, nothing examined, nothing weighed: there was equal impotence to
+sustain the war and bring about peace: all suffered, yet none dared to
+put the hand to this arch, tottering as it was and ready to fall.
+
+This was the frightful state to which we were reduced, when envoys were
+sent into Holland to try and bring about peace.  The picture is exact,
+faithful, and not overcharged.  It was necessary to present it as it was,
+in order to explain the extremity to which we were reduced, the enormity
+of the concessions which the King made to obtain peace, and the visible
+miracle of Him who sets bounds to the seas, by which France was allowed
+to escape from the hands of Europe, resolved and ready to destroy her.
+
+Meanwhile the money was re-coined; and its increase to a third more than
+its intrinsic value, brought some profit to the King, but ruin to private
+people, and a disorder to trade which completed its annihilation.
+
+Samuel Bernard, the banker, overthrew all Lyons by his prodigious
+bankruptcy, which caused the most terrible results.  Desmarets assisted
+him as much as possible.  The discredit into which paper money had
+fallen, was the cause of his failure.  He had issued notes to the amount
+of twenty millions, and owed almost as much at Lyons.  Fourteen millions
+were given to him in assignats, in order to draw him out of his
+difficulties.  It is pretended that he found means to gain much by his
+bankruptcy, but this seems doubtful.
+
+The winter at length passed away.  In the spring so many disorders took
+place in the market of Paris, that more guards than usual were kept in
+the city.  At Saint Roch there was a disturbance, on account of a poor
+fellow who had fallen, and been trampled under foot; and the crowd, which
+was very large, was very insolent to D'Argenson, Lieutenant of Police,
+who had hastened there.  M. de la Rochefoucauld, who had retired from the
+Court to Chenil, on account of his loss of sight, received an atrocious
+letter against the King, in which it was plainly intimated that there
+were still Ravaillacs left in the world; and to this madness was added an
+eulogy of Brutus.  M. de la Rochefoucauld at once went in all haste to
+the King with this letter.  His sudden appearance showed that something
+important had occurred, and the object of his visit, of course, soon
+became known.  He was very ill received for coming so publicly on such an
+errand.  The Ducs de Beauvilliers and de Bouillon, it seems, had received
+similar letters, but had given them to the King privately.  The King for
+some days was much troubled, but after due reflection, he came to the
+conclusion that people who menace and warn have less intention of
+committing a crime than of causing alarm.
+
+What annoyed the King more was, the inundation of placards, the most
+daring and the most unmeasured, against his person, his conduct, and his
+government--placards, which for a long time were found pasted upon the
+gates of Paris, the churches, the public places; above all upon the
+statues; which during the night were insulted in various fashions, the
+marks being seen the next morning, and the inscriptions erased.  There
+were also, multitudes of verses and songs, in which nothing was spared.
+
+We were in this state until the 16th of May.  The procession of Saint
+Genevieve took place.  This procession never takes place except in times
+of the direst necessity; and then, only in virtue of orders from the
+King, the Parliament, or the Archbishop of Paris.  On the one hand, it
+was hoped that it would bring succour to the country; on the other, that
+it would amuse the people.
+
+It was shortly after this, when the news of the arrogant demands of the
+allies, and the vain attempts of the King to obtain an honourable peace
+became known, that the Duchesse de Grammont conceived the idea of
+offering her plate to the King, to replenish his impoverished exchequer,
+and to afford him means carry on the war.  She hoped that her example
+would be followed by all the Court, and that she alone would have the
+merit and the profit of suggesting the idea.  Unfortunately for this
+hope, the Duke, her husband, spoke of the project to Marechal Boufflers,
+who thought it so good, that he noised it abroad, and made such a stir,
+exhorting everybody to adopt it, that he passed for the inventor, and; no
+mention was made of the Duke or the old Duchesse de Grammont, the latter
+of whom was much enraged at this.
+
+The project made a great hubbub at the Court.  Nobody dared to refuse to
+offer his plate, yet each offered it with much regret.  Some had been
+keeping it as a last resource, which they; were very sorry to deprive
+themselves of; others feared the dirtiness of copper and earthenware;
+others again were annoyed at being obliged to imitate an ungrateful
+fashion, all the merit of which would go to the inventor.  It was in vain
+that Pontchartrain objected to the project, as one from which only
+trifling benefit could be derived, and which would do great injury to
+France by acting as a proclamation of its embarrassed state to all the
+world, at home and abroad.  The King would not listen to his reasonings,
+but declared himself willing to receive all the plate that was sent to
+him as a free-will offering.  He announced this; and two means were
+indicated at the same time, which all good citizens might follow.  One
+was, to send their plate to the King's goldsmith; the other, to send it
+to the Mint.  Those who made an unconditional gift of their plate, sent
+it to the former, who kept a register of the names and of the number of
+marks he received.  The King regularly looked over this list; at least at
+first, and promised in general terms to restore to everybody the weight
+of metal they gave when his affairs permitted--a promise nobody believed
+in or hoped to see executed.  Those who wished to be paid for their plate
+sent it to the Mint.  It was weighed on arrival; the names were written,
+the marks and the date; payment was made according as money could be
+found.  Many people were not sorry thus to sell, their plate without
+shame.  But the loss and the damage were inestimable in admirable
+ornaments of all kinds, with which much of the plate of the rich was
+embellished.  When an account came to be drawn up, it was found that not
+a hundred people were upon the list of Launay, the goldsmith; and the
+total product of the gift did not amount to three millions.  I confess
+that I was very late in sending any plate.  When I found that I was
+almost the only one of my rank using silver, I sent plate to the value of
+a thousand pistoles to the Mint, and locked up the rest.  All the great
+people turned to earthenware, exhausted the shops where it was sold, and
+set the trade in it on fire, while common folks continued to use their
+silver.  Even the King thought of using earthenware, having sent his gold
+vessels to the Mint, but afterwards decided upon plated metal and silver;
+the Princes and Princesses of the blood used crockery.
+
+Ere three months were over his head the King felt all the shame and the
+weakness of having consented to this surrendering of plate, and avowed
+that he repented of it.  The inundations of the Loire, which happened at
+the same time, and caused the utmost disorder, did not restore the Court
+or the public to good humour.  The losses they caused, and the damage
+they did, were very considerable, and ruined many private people, and
+desolated home trade.
+
+Summer came.  The dearness of all things, and of bread in particular,
+continued to cause frequent commotions all over the realm.  Although, as
+I have said, the guards of Paris were much increased, above all in the
+markets and the suspected places, they were unable to hinder disturbances
+from breaking out.  In many of these D'Argenson nearly lost his life.
+
+Monseigneur arriving and returning from the Opera, was assailed by the
+populace and by women in great numbers crying, "Bread!  Bread!" so that
+he was afraid, even in the midst of his guards, who did not dare to
+disperse the crowd for fear of worse happening.  He got away by throwing
+money to the people, and promising wonders; but as the wonders did not
+follow, he no longer dared to go to Paris.
+
+The King himself from his windows heard the people of Versailles crying
+aloud in the street.  The discourses they held were daring and continual
+in the streets and public places; they uttered complaints, sharp, and but
+little measured, against the government, and even against the King's
+person; and even exhorted each other no longer to be so enduring, saying
+that nothing worse could happen to them than what they suffered, dying as
+they were of starvation.
+
+To amuse the people, the idle and the poor were employed to level a
+rather large hillock which remained upon the Boulevard, between the
+Portes Saint Denis and Saint Martin; and for all salary, bad bread in
+small quantities was distributed to these workers.  If happened that on
+Tuesday morning, the 20th of August, there was no bread for a large
+number of these people.  A woman amongst others cried out at this, which
+excited the rest to do likewise.  The archers appointed to watch over
+these labourers, threatened the woman; she only cried the louder;
+thereupon the archers seized her and indiscreetly put her in an adjoining
+pillory.  In a moment all her companions ran to her aid, pulled down the
+pillory, and scoured the streets, pillaging the bakers and pastrycooks.
+One by one the shops closed.  The disorder increased and spread through
+the neighbouring streets; no harm was done anybody, but the cry was
+"Bread!  Bread!" and bread was seized everywhere.
+
+It so fell out that Marechal Boufflers, who little thought what was
+happening, was in the neighbourhood, calling upon his notary.  Surprised
+at the fright he saw everywhere, and learning, the cause, he wished of
+himself to appease it.  Accompanied by the Duc de Gramont, he directed
+himself towards the scene of the disturbance, although advised not to do
+so.  When he arrived at the top of the Rue Saint Denis, the crowd and the
+tumult made him judge that it would be best to alight from his coach.  He
+advanced, therefore, on foot with the Duc de Grammont among the furious
+and infinite crowd of people, of whom he asked the cause of this uproar,
+promised them bread, spoke his best with gentleness but firmness, and
+remonstrated with them.  He was listened to.  Cries, several times
+repeated, of "Vive M. le Marechal de Boufflers!" burst from the crowd.
+M. de Boufflers walked thus with M. de Grammont all along the Rue aux
+Ours and the neighbouring streets, into the very centre of the sedition,
+in fact.  The people begged him to represent their misery to the King,
+and to obtain for them some food.  He promised this, and upon his word
+being given all were appeased and all dispersed with thanks and fresh
+acclamations of "Vive M. le Marechal de Boufflers!" He did a real service
+that day.  D'Argenson had marched to the spot with troops; and had it not
+been for the Marechal, blood would have been spilt, and things might have
+gone very far.
+
+The Marechal had scarcely reached his own house in the Place Royale than
+he was informed that the sedition had broken out with even greater force
+in the Faubourg Saint Antoine.  He ran there immediately, with the Duc de
+Grammont, and appeased it as he had appeased the other.  He returned to
+his own home to eat a mouthful or two, and then set out for Versailles.
+Scarcely had he left the Place Royale than the people in the streets and
+the shopkeepers cried to him to have pity on them, and to get them some
+bread, always with "Vive M. le Marechal de Boufflers!" He was conducted
+thus as far as the quay of the Louvre.
+
+On arriving at Versailles he went straight to the King, told him what had
+occurred, and was much thanked.  He was even offered by the King the
+command of Paris,--troops, citizens, police, and all; but this he
+declined, Paris, as he said, having already a governor and proper
+officers to conduct its affairs.  He afterwards, however, willingly lent
+his aid to them in office, and the modesty with which he acted brought
+him new glory.
+
+Immediately after, the supply of bread was carefully looked to.  Paris
+was filled with patrols, perhaps with too many, but they succeeded so
+well that no fresh disturbances took place.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV
+
+After his return from the campaign, M. de Vendome continued to be paid
+like a general serving in winter, and to enjoy many other advantages.
+From all this, people inferred that he would serve during the following
+campaign; nobody dared to doubt as much, and the cabal derived new
+strength therefrom.  But their little triumph was not of long
+continuance.  M. de Vendome came to Versailles for the ceremony of the
+Order on Candlemas-Day.  He then learned that he was not to serve, and
+that he was no longer to receive general's pay.  The blow was violent,
+and he felt it to its fullest extent; but, with a prudence that equalled
+his former imprudence, he swallowed the pill without making a face,
+because he feared other more bitter ones, which he felt he had deserved.
+This it was that, for the first time in his life, made him moderate.  He
+did not affect to conceal what had taken place, but did not say whether
+it was in consequence of any request of his, or whether he was glad or
+sorry,--giving it out as an indifferent piece of news; and changed
+nothing but his language, the audacity of which he diminished as no
+longer suited to the times.  He sold his equipages.
+
+M. le Prince de Conti died February 22, aged not quite forty-five.  His
+face had been charming; even the defects of his body and mind had
+infinite graces.  His shoulders were too high; his head was a little on
+one side; his laugh would have seemed a bray in any one else; his mind
+was strangely absent.  He was gallant with the women, in love with many,
+well treated by several; he was even coquettish with men.  He endeavoured
+to please the cobbler, the lackey, the porter, as well as the Minister of
+State, the Grand Seigneur, the General, all so naturally that success was
+certain.  He was consequently the constant delight of every one, of the
+Court, the armies; the divinity of the people, the idol of the soldiers,
+the hero of the officers, the hope of whatever was most distinguished,
+the love of the Parliament, the friend of the learned, and often the
+admiration of the historian, of jurisconsults, of astronomers, and
+mathematicians, the most profound.  He was especially learned in
+genealogies, and knew their chimeras and their realities.  With him the
+useful and the polite, the agreeable and the deep, all was distinct and
+in its place.  He had friends, knew how to choose them, cultivate them,
+visit them, live with them, put himself on their level without
+haughtiness or baseness.  But this man, so amiable, so charming, so
+delicious, loved nothing.  He had and desired friends, as other people
+have and desire articles of furniture.  Although with much self-respect
+he was a humble courtier, and showed too much how greatly he was in want
+of support and assistance from all sides; he was avaricious, greedy of
+fortune, ardent and unjust.  The King could not bear him, and was grieved
+with the respect he was obliged to show him, and which he was careful
+never to trespass over by a single jot.  Certain intercepted letters had
+excited a hatred against him in Madame de Maintenon, and an indignation
+in the King which nothing could efface.  The riches, the talents, the
+agreeable qualities, the great reputation which this Prince had acquired,
+the general love of all, became crimes in him.  The contrast with M. du
+Maine excited daily irritation and jealousy.  The very purity of his
+blood was a reproach to him.  Even his friends were odious, and felt that
+this was so.  At last, however, various causes made him to be chosen, in
+the midst of a very marked disgrace, to command the army in Flanders.  He
+was delighted, and gave himself up to the most agreeable hopes.  But it
+was no longer time: he had sought to drown his sorrow at wearing out his
+life unoccupied in wine and other pleasures, for which his age and his
+already enfeebled body were no longer suited.  His health gave way.  He
+felt it soon.  The tardy return to favour which he had enjoyed made him
+regret life more.  He perished slowly, regretting to have been brought to
+death's door by disgrace, and the impossibility of being restored by the
+unexpected opening of a brilliant career.
+
+The Prince, against the custom of those of his rank, had been very well
+educated.  He was full of instruction.  The disorders of his life had
+clouded his knowledge but not extinguished it, and he often read to brush
+up his learning.  He chose M. de la Tour to prepare him, and help him to
+die well.  He was so attached to life that all his courage was required.
+For three months crowds of visitors filled his palace, and the people
+even collected in the place before it.  The churches echoed with prayers
+for his life.  The members of his family often went to pay for masses for
+him; and found that others had already done so.  All questions were about
+his health.  People stopped each other in the street to inquire; passers-
+by were called to by shopmen, anxious to know whether the Prince de Conti
+was to live or to die.  Amidst all this, Monseigneur never visited him;
+and, to the indignation of all Paris, passed along the quay near the
+Louvre going to the Opera, whilst the sacraments were being carried to
+the Prince on the other side.  He was compelled by public opinion to make
+a short visit after this.  The Prince died at last in his arm-chair,
+surrounded by a few worthy people.  Regrets were universal; but perhaps
+he gained by his disgrace.  His heart was firmer than his head.  He might
+have been timid at the head of an army or in the Council of the King if
+he had entered it.  The King was much relieved by his death; Madame de
+Maintenon also; M. le Duc much more; for M. du Maine it was a
+deliverance, and for M. de Vendome a consolation.  Monseigneur learned it
+at Meudon as he was going out to hunt, and showed no feeling of any kind.
+
+The death of M. le Prince de Conti seemed to the Duc de Vendome a
+considerable advantage, because he was thus delivered from a rival most
+embarrassing by the superiority of his birth, just when he was about to
+be placed in a high military position.  I have already mentioned
+Vendome's exclusion from command.  The fall of this Prince of the Proud
+had been begun we have now reached the second step, between which and the
+third there was a space of between two and three months; but as the third
+had no connection with any other event, I will relate it at once.
+
+Whatever reasons existed to induce the King to take from M. de Vendome
+the command of his armies, I know not if all the art and credit of Madame
+de Maintenon would not have been employed in vain, together with the
+intrigues of M. du Maine, without an adventure, which I must at once
+explain, to set before the reader's eyes the issue of the terrible
+struggle, pushed to such extremes, between Vendome, seconded by his
+formidable cabal, and the necessary, heir of the Crown, supported by his
+wife, the favourite of the King, and Madame de Maintenon, which last; to
+speak clearly, as all the Court saw, for thirty years governed him
+completely.
+
+When M. de Vendome returned from Flanders, he had a short interview with
+the King, in which he made many bitter complaints against Pursegur, one
+of his lieutenant-generals, whose sole offence was that he was much
+attached to M. de Bourgogne.  Pursegur was a great favourite with the
+King, and often, on account of the business of the infantry regiment, of
+which the thought himself the private colonel, had private interviews
+with him, and was held in high estimation for his capacity and virtue.
+He, in his turn, came back from Flanders, and had a private audience of
+the King.  The complaints that had been made against him by M. de Vendome
+were repeated to him by the King, who, however, did not mention from whom
+they came.  Pursegur defended himself so well, that the King in his
+surprise mentioned this latter fact.  At the name of Vendome, Pursegur
+lost all patience.  He described, to the King all the faults, the
+impertinences; the obstinacy, the insolence of M. de Vendome, with a
+precision and clearness which made his listener very attentive and very
+fruitful in questions.  Pursegur, seeing that he might go on, gave
+himself rein, unmasked M. de Vendome from top to toe, described his
+ordinary life at the army, the incapacity of his body, the incapacity of
+his judgment, the prejudice of his mind, the absurdity and crudity of his
+maxims, his utter ignorance of the art of war, and showed to
+demonstration, that it was only by a profusion of miracles France had not
+been ruined by him--lost a hundred times over.
+
+The conversation lasted more than two hours.  The' King, long since
+convinced of the capacity, fidelity, and truthfulness of Pursegur, at
+last opened his eyes to the truth respecting this Vendome, hidden with so
+much art until then, and regarded as a hero and the tutelary genius of
+France.  He was vexed and ashamed of his credulity, and from the date of
+this conversation Vendome fell at once from his favour.
+
+Pursegur, naturally humble, gentle, and modest, but truthful, and on this
+occasion piqued, went out into the gallery after his conversation, and
+made a general report of it to all, virtuously, braving Vendome and all
+his cabal.  This cabal trembled with rage; Vendome still more so.  They
+answered by miserable reasonings, which nobody cared for.  This was what
+led to the suppression of his pay, and his retirement to Anet, where he
+affected a philosophical indifference.
+
+Crestfallen as he was, he continued to sustain at Meudon and Marly the
+grand manners he had usurped at the time of his prosperity.  After having
+got over the first embarrassment, he put on again his haughty air, and
+ruled the roast.  To see him at Meudon you would have said he was
+certainly the master of the saloon, and by his free and easy manner to
+Monseigneur, and, when he dared, to the King, he would have been thought
+the principal person there.  Monseigneur de Bourgogne supported this--his
+piety made him do so--but Madame de Bourgogne was grievously offended,
+and watched her opportunity to get rid of M. de Vendome altogether.
+
+It came, the first journey the King made to Marly after Easter.  'Brelan'
+was then the fashion.  Monseigneur, playing at it one day with Madame de
+Bourgogne and others, and being in want of a fifth player, sent for M. de
+Vendome from the other end of the saloon, to come and join the party.
+That instant Madame de Bourgogne said modestly, but very intelligibly, to
+Monseigneur, that the presence of M. de Vendome at Marly was sufficiently
+painful to her, without having him at play with her, and that she begged
+he might be dispensed with.  Monseigneur, who had sent for Vendome
+without the slightest reflection, looked round the room, and sent for
+somebody else.  When Vendome arrived, his place was taken, and he had to
+suffer this annoyance before all the company.  It may be imagined to what
+an extent this superb gentleman was stung by the affront.  He served no
+longer; he commanded no longer; he was no longer the adored idol; he
+found himself in the paternal mansion of the Prince he had so cruelly
+offended, and the outraged wife of that Prince was more than a match for
+him.  He turned upon his heel, absented himself from the room as soon as
+he could, and retired to his own chamber, there to storm at his leisure.
+
+Other and more cruel annoyances were yet in store for him, however.
+Madame de Bourgogne reflected on what had just taken place.  The facility
+with which she had succeeded in one respect encouraged her, but she was a
+little troubled to know how the King would take what she had done, and
+accordingly, whilst playing, she resolved to push matters still further,
+both to ruin her guest utterly and to get out of her embarrassment; for,
+despite her extreme familiarity, she was easily embarrassed, being gentle
+and timid.  The 'brelan' over, she ran to Madame de Maintenon; told her
+what had just occurred; said that the presence of M. de Vendome at Marly
+was a continual insult to her; and begged her to solicit the King to
+forbid M. de Vendome to come there.  Madame de Maintenon, only too glad.
+to have an opportunity of revenging herself upon an enemy who had set her
+at defiance, and against whom all her batteries had at one time failed,
+consented to this request.  She spoke out to the King, who, completely
+weary of M. de Vendome, and troubled to have under his eyes a man whom he
+could not doubt was discontented, at once granted what was asked.  Before
+going to bed, he charged one of his valets to tell M. de Vendome the next
+morning, that henceforth he was to absent himself from Marly, his
+presence there being disagreeable to Madame de Bourgogne.
+
+It may be imagined into what an excess of despair M. de Vendome fell, at
+a message so unexpected, and which sapped the foundations of all his
+hopes.  He kept silent, however, for fear of making matters worse, did
+not venture attempting, to speak to the King, and hastily retired to
+Clichy to hide his rage and shame.  The news of his banishment from Marly
+soon spread abroad, and made so much stir, that to show it was not worth
+attention, he returned two days before the end of the visit, and stopped
+until the end in a continual shame and embarrassment.  He set out for
+Anet at the same time that the King set out for Versailles, and has never
+since put his foot in Marly.
+
+But another bitter draught was to be mixed for him.  Banished from Marly,
+he had yet the privilege of going to Meudon.  He did not fail to avail
+himself of this every time Monseigneur was there, and stopped as long as
+he stopped, although in the times of his splendour he had never stayed
+more than one or two days.  It was seldom that Monseigneur visited Meudon
+without Madame la Duchesse de Bourgogne going to see him.  And yet M. de
+Vendome never failed audaciously to present himself before her, as if to
+make her feel that at all events in Monseigneur's house he was a match
+for her.  Guided by former experience, the Princess gently suffered this
+in silence, and watched her opportunity.  It soon came.
+
+Two months afterwards it happened that, while Monseigneur was at Meudon,
+the King, Madame de Maintenon; and Madame de Bourgogne, came to dine with
+him.  Madame de Maintenon wished to talk with Mademoiselle Choin without
+sending for her to Versailles, and the King, as may be believed, was in
+the secret.  I mention this to account for the King's visit.
+M. de Vendome;: who was at Meudon as usual, was stupid enough to present
+himself at the coach door as the King and his companions descended.
+Madame de Bourgogne was much offended, constrained herself less than
+usual, and turned away her head with affectation, after a sort of sham
+salute.  He felt the sting, but had the folly to approach her again after
+dinner, while she was playing.  He experienced the same treatment, but
+this time in a still more marked manner.  Stung to the quick and out of
+countenance, he went up to his chamber, and did not descend until very
+late.  During this time Madame de Bourgogne spoke to Monseigneur of the
+conduct of M. de Vendorne, and the same evening she addressed herself to
+Madame de Maintenon, and openly complained to the King.  She represented
+to him how hard it was to her to be treated by Monseigneur with less
+respect than by the King: for while the latter had banished M. de Vendome
+from Marly, the former continued to grant him an asylum at Meudon.
+
+M. de Vendome, on his side, complained bitterly to Monseigneur of the
+strange persecution that he suffered everywhere from Madame de Bourgogne;
+but Monseigneur replied to him so coldly that he withdrew with tears in
+his eyes, determined, however, not to give up until he had obtained some
+sort of satisfaction.  He set his friends to work to speak to
+Monseigneur; all they could draw from him was, that M. de Vendome must
+avoid Madame de Bourgogne whenever she came to Meudon, and that it was
+the smallest respect he owed her until she was reconciled to him.  A
+reply so dry and so precise was cruelly felt; but M. de Vendome was not
+at the end of the chastisement he had more than merited.  The next day
+put an end to all discussion upon the matter.
+
+He was card-playing after dinner in a private cabinet, when D'Antin
+arrived from Versailles.  He approached the players, and asked what was
+the position of the game, with an eagerness which made M. de Vendome
+inquire the reason.  D'Antin said he had to render an account to him of
+the matter he had entrusted him with.
+
+"I!" exclaimed Vendome, with surprise, "I have entrusted you with
+nothing."
+
+"Pardon me," replied D'Antin; "you do not recollect, then, that I have an
+answer to make to you?"
+
+From this perseverance M. de Vendome comprehended that something was
+amiss, quitted his game, and went into an obscure wardrobe with D'Antin,
+who told him that he had been ordered by the King to beg Monseigneur not
+to invite M. de Vendome to Meudon any more; that his presence there was
+as unpleasant to Madame de Bourgogne as it had been at Marly.  Upon this,
+Vendome, transported with fury, vomited forth all that his rage inspired
+him with.  He spoke to Monseigneur in the evening, but was listened to as
+coldly as before.  Vendome passed the rest of his visit in a rage and
+embarrassment easy to conceive, and on the day Monseigneur returned to
+Versailles he hurried straight to Anet.
+
+But he was unable to remain quiet anywhere; so went off with his dogs,
+under pretence of going a hunting, to pass a month in his estate of La
+Ferme-Aleps, where he had no proper lodging and no society, and gave
+there free vent to his rage.  Thence he returned again to Anet, where he
+remained abandoned by every one.  Into this solitude, into this startling
+and public seclusion, incapable of sustaining a fall so complete, after a
+long habit of attaining everything, and doing everything he pleased, of
+being the idol of the world, of the Court, of the armies, of making his
+very vices adored, and his greatest faults admired, his defects
+commended, so that he dared to conceive the prodigious design of ruining
+and destroying the necessary heir of the Crown, though he had never
+received anything but evidences of tenderness from him, and triumphed
+over him for eight months with the most scandalous success; it was, I
+say, thus that this Colossus was overthrown by the breath of a prudent
+and courageous princess, who earned by this act merited applause.  All
+who were concerned with her, were charmed to see of what she was capable;
+and all who were opposed to her and her husband trembled.  The cabal, so
+formidable, so lofty, so accredited, so closely united to overthrow them,
+and reign, after the King, under Monseigneur in their place--these
+chiefs, male and female, so enterprising and audacious, fell now into
+mortal discouragement and fear.  It was a pleasure to see them work their
+way back with art and extreme humility, and turn round those of the
+opposite party who remained influential, and whom they had hitherto
+despised; and especially to see with what embarrassment, what fear, what
+terror, they began to crawl before the young Princess, and wretchedly
+court the Duc de Bourgogne and his friends, and bend to them in the most
+extraordinary manner.
+
+As for M. de Vendome, without any resource, save what he found in his
+vices and his valets, he did not refrain from bragging among them of the
+friendship of Monseigneur for him, of which he said he was well assured.
+Violence had been done to Monseigneur's feelings.  He was reduced to this
+misery of hoping that his words would be spread about by these valets,
+and would procure him some consideration from those who thought of the
+future.  But the present was insupportable to him.  To escape from it, he
+thought of serving in Spain, and wrote to Madame des Ursins asking
+employment.  The King was annoyed at this step, and flatly refused to let
+him go to Spain.  His intrigue, therefore, came to an end at once.
+
+Nobody gained more by the fall of M. de Vendome than Madame de Maintenon.
+Besides the joy she felt in overthrowing a man who, through M. du Maine,
+owed everything to her, and yet dared to resist her so long and
+successfully, she felt, also, that her credit became still more the
+terror of the Court; for no one doubted that what had occurred was a
+great example of her power.  We shall presently see how she furnished
+another, which startled no less.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+It is time now to retrace my steps to the point from which I have been
+led away in relating all the incidents which arose out of the terrible
+winter and the scarcity it caused.
+
+The Court at that time beheld the renewal of a ministry; which from the
+time it had lasted was worn down to its very roots, and which was on
+that account only the more agreeable to the King.  On the 20th of
+January, the Pere La Chaise, the confessor of the King, died at a very
+advanced age.  He was of good family, and his father would have been rich
+had he not had a dozen children.  Pere La Chaise succeeded in 1675 to
+Pere Ferrier as confessor of the King, and occupied that post thirty-two
+years.  The festival of Easter often caused him politic absences during
+the attachment of the King for Madame de Montespan.  On one occasion he
+sent in his place the Pere Deschamps, who bravely refused absolution.
+The Pere La Chaise was of mediocre mind but of good character, just,
+upright, sensible, prudent, gentle, and moderate, an enemy of informers,
+and of violence of every kind. He kept clear of many scandalous
+transactions, befriended the Archbishop of Cambrai as much as he could,
+refused to push the Port Royal des Champs to its destruction, and always
+had on his table a copy of the New Testament of Pere Quesnel, saying that
+he liked what was good wherever he found it.  When near his eightieth
+year, with his head and his health still good, he wished to retire, but
+the King would not hear of it.  Soon after, his faculties became worn
+out, and feeling this, he repeated his wish.  The Jesuits, who perceived
+his failing more than he did himself, and felt the diminution of his
+credit, exhorted him to make way for another who should have the grace
+and zeal of novelty.  For his part he sincerely desired repose, and he
+pressed the King to allow him to take it, but all in vain.  He was
+obliged to bear his burthen to the very end.  Even the infirmities and
+the decrepitude that afflicted could not deliver him.  Decaying legs,
+memory extinguished, judgment collapsed, all his faculties confused,
+strange inconveniences for a confessor--nothing could disgust the King,
+and he persisted in having this corpse brought to him and carrying on
+customary business with it.  At last, two days after a return from
+Versailles, he grew much weaker, received the sacrament, wrote with his
+own hand a long letter to the King, received a very rapid and hurried one
+in reply, and soon after died at five o'clock in the morning very
+peaceably.  His confessor asked him two things, whether he had acted
+according to his conscience, and whether he had thought of the interests
+and honour of the company of Jesuits; and to both these questions he
+answered satisfactorily.
+
+The news was brought to the King as he came out of his cabinet.  He
+received it like a Prince accustomed to losses, praised the Pere La
+Chaise for his goodness, and then said smilingly, before all the
+courtiers, and quite aloud, to the two fathers who had come to announce
+the death: "He was so good that I sometimes reproached him for it, and he
+used to reply to me: 'It is not I who am good; it is you who are hard.'"
+
+Truly the fathers and all the auditors were so surprised at this that
+they lowered their eyes.  The remark spread directly; nobody was able to
+blame the Pere La Chaise.  He was generally regretted, for he had done
+much good and never harm except in self-defence.  Marechal, first surgeon
+of the King, and possessed of his confidence, related once to me and
+Madame de Saint-Simon, a very important anecdote referring to this time.
+He said that the King, talking to him privately of the Pere La Chaise,
+and praising him for his attachment, related one of the great proofs he
+had given of it.  A few years before his death the Pere said that he felt
+getting old, and that the King might soon have to choose a new confessor;
+he begged that that confessor might be chosen from among the Jesuits,
+that he knew them well, that they were far from deserving all that had
+been said against them, but still--he knew them well--and that attachment
+for the King and desire for his safety induced him to conjure him to act
+as he requested; because the company contained many sorts of minds and
+characters which could not be answered for, and must not be reduced to
+despair, and that the King must not incur a risk--that in fact an unlucky
+blow is soon given, and had been given before then.  Marechal turned pale
+at this recital of the King, and concealed as well as he could the
+disorder it caused in him.  We must remember that Henry IV. recalled the
+Jesuits, and loaded them with gifts merely from fear of them.  The King
+was not superior to Henry IV.  He took care not to forget the
+communication of the Pere La Chaise, or expose himself to the vengeance
+of the company by choosing a confessor out of their limits.  He wanted to
+live, and to live in safety.  He requested the Ducs de Chevreuse and de
+Beauvilliers to make secret inquiries for a proper person.  They fell
+into a trap made, were dupes themselves, and the Church and State the
+victims.
+
+The Pere Tellier, in fact, was chosen as successor of Pere La Chaise, and
+a terrible successor he made.  Harsh, exact, laborious, enemy of all
+dissipation, of all amusement, of all society, incapable of associating
+even with his colleagues, he demanded no leniency for himself and
+accorded none to others.  His brain and his health were of iron; his
+conduct was so also; his nature was savage and cruel.  He was profoundly
+false, deceitful, hidden under a thousand folds; and when he could show
+himself and make himself feared, he yielded nothing, laughed at the most
+express promises when he no longer cared to keep to them, and pursued
+with fury those who had trusted to them.  He was the terror even of the
+Jesuits, and was so violent to them that they scarcely dared approach
+him.  His exterior kept faith with his interior.  He would have been
+terrible to meet in a dark lane.  His physiognomy was cloudy, false,
+terrible; his eyes were burning, evil, extremely squinting; his aspect
+struck all with dismay.  The whole aim of his life was to advance the
+interests of his Society; that was his god; his life had been absorbed in
+that study: surprisingly ignorant, insolent, impudent, impetuous, without
+measure and without discretion, all means were good that furthered his
+designs.
+
+The first time Pere Tellier saw the King in his cabinet, after having
+been presented to him, there was nobody but Bloin and Fagon in a corner.
+Fagon, bent double and leaning on his stick, watched the interview and
+studied the physiognomy of this new personage his duckings, and
+scrapings, and his words.  The King asked him if he were a relation of
+MM. le Tellier.  The good father humbled himself in the dust.  "I, Sire!"
+answered he, "a relative of MM. le Tellier!  I am very different from
+that.  I am a poor peasant of Lower Normandy, where my father was a
+farmer."  Fagon, who watched him in every movement, twisted himself up to
+look at Bloin, and said, pointing to the Jesuit: "Monsieur, what a cursed
+--------!"  Then shrugging his shoulders, he curved over his stick again.
+
+It turned out that he was not mistaken in his strange judgment of a
+confessor.  This Tellier made all the grimaces, not to say the
+hypocritical monkey-tricks of a man who was afraid of his place, and only
+took it out of, deference to his company.
+
+I have dwelt thus upon this new confessor, because from him have come the
+incredible tempests under, which the Church, the State, knowledge, and
+doctrine, and many good people of all kinds, are still groaning; and,
+because I had a more intimate acquaintance with this terrible personage
+than had any man at the Court.  He introduced himself to me in fact, to
+my surprise; and although I did all in my power to shun his acquaintance,
+I could not succeed.  He was too dangerous a man to be treated with
+anything but great prudence.
+
+During the autumn of this year, he gave a sample of his quality in the
+part he took in the destruction of the celebrated monastery of Port Royal
+des Champs.  I need not dwell at any great length upon the origin and
+progress of the two religious parties, the Jansenists and the Molinists;
+enough has been written on both sides to form a whole library.  It is
+enough for me to say that the Molinists were so called because they
+adopted the views expounded by, the Pere Molina in a book he wrote
+against the doctrines of St. Augustine and of the Church of Rome, upon
+the subject of spiritual grace.  The Pere Molina was a Jesuit, and it was
+by the Jesuits his book was brought forward and supported.  Finding,
+however, that the views it expounded met with general opposition, not
+only throughout France, but at Rome, they had recourse to their usual
+artifices on feeling themselves embarrassed, turned themselves into
+accusers instead of defendants, and invented a heresy that had neither
+author nor follower, which they attributed to Cornelius Jansenius, Bishop
+of Ypres.  Many and long were the discussions at Rome upon this ideal
+heresy, invented by the Jesuits solely for the purpose of weakening the
+adversaries of Molina.  To oppose his doctrines was to be a Jansenist.
+That in substance was what was meant by Jansenism.
+
+At the monastery of Port Royal des Champs, a number of holy and learned
+personages lived in retirement.  Some wrote, some gathered youths around
+them, and instructed them in science and piety.  The finest moral works,
+works which have thrown the most light upon the science and practice, of
+religion, and have been found so by everybody, issued from their hands.
+These men entered into the quarrel against Molinism.  This was enough to
+excite against them the hatred of the Jesuits and to determine that body
+to attempt their destruction.
+
+They were accused of Jansenism, and defended themselves perfectly; but at
+the same time they carried the war into the enemy's camp, especially by
+the ingenious "Provincial Letters" of the famous Pascal.
+
+The quarrel grew more hot between the Jesuits and Port Royal, and was
+telling against the former, when the Pere Tellier brought all his
+influence to bear, to change the current of success.  He was, as I have
+said, an ardent man, whose divinity was his Molinism, and the company to
+which he belonged.  Confessor to the King, he saw himself in a good
+position to exercise unlimited authority.  He saw that the King was very
+ignorant, and prejudiced upon all religious matters; that he was
+surrounded by people as ignorant and as prejudiced as himself, Madame de
+Maintenon, M. de Beauvilliers, M. de Chevreuse, and others, and he
+determined to take good advantage of this state of things.
+
+Step by step he gained over the King to his views, and convinced him that
+the destruction of the monastery of Port Royal des Champs was a duty
+which he owed to his conscience, and the cause of religion.  This point
+gained, the means to destroy the establishment were soon resolved on.
+
+There was another monastery called Port Royal, at Paws, in addition to
+the one in question.  It was now pretended that the latter had only been
+allowed to exist by tolerance, and that it was necessary one should cease
+to exist.  Of the two, it was alleged that it was better to preserve the
+one, at Paris.  A decree in council was, therefore, rendered, in virtue
+of which, on the night from the 28th to the 29th of October, the abbey of
+Port Royal des Champs was secretly invested by troops, and, on the next
+morning, the officer in command made all the inmates assemble, showed
+them a 'lettre de cachet', and, without giving them more than a quarter
+of an hour's warning, carried off everybody and everything.  He had
+brought with him many coaches, with an elderly woman in each; he put the
+nuns in these coaches, and sent them away to their destinations, which
+were different monasteries, at ten, twenty, thirty, forty, and even fifty
+leagues distant, each coach accompanied by mounted archers, just as
+public women are carried away from a house of ill-fame!  I pass in
+silence all the accompaniments of this scene, so touching and so
+strangely new.  There have been entire volumes written upon it.
+
+The treatment that these nuns received in their various prisons, in order
+to force them to sign a condemnation of themselves, is the matter of
+other volumes, which, in spite of the vigilance of the oppressors, were
+soon in everybody's hands; public indignation so burst out, that the
+Court and the Jesuits even were embarrassed with it.  But the Pere
+Tellier was not a man to stop half-way anywhere.  He finished this matter
+directly; decree followed decree, 'Lettres de cachet' followed 'lettres
+de cachet'.  The families who had relatives buried in the cemetery of
+Port Royal des Champs were ordered to exhume and carry them elsewhere.
+All the others were thrown into the cemetery of an adjoining parish, with
+the indecency that may: be imagined.  Afterwards, the house, the church,
+and all the buildings were razed to the ground, so that not one stone was
+left upon another.  All the materials were sold, the ground was ploughed
+up, and sown--not with salt, it is true, but that was all the favour it
+received!  The scandal at this reached even to Rome.  I have restricted
+myself to this simple and short recital of an expedition so military and
+so odious.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Compelled to pay, who would have preferred giving voluntarily
+Conjugal impatience of the Duc de Bourgogne
+Desmarets no longer knew of what wood to make a crutch
+He was so good that I sometimes reproached him for it
+Indiscreet and tyrannical charity
+Jesuits: all means were good that furthered his designs
+Said that if they were good, they were sure to be hated
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext Memoirs of Louis XIV. and The Regency,
+v6, by the Duc de Saint-Simon
+
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