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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Memoirs of Louis XIV., Volume 8
+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 8
+       And His Court and of The Regency
+
+Author: Duc de Saint-Simon
+
+Release Date: December 3, 2004 [EBook #3867]
+
+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 8.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LV
+
+Although, as we have just seen, matters were beginning to brighten a
+little in Spain, they remained as dull and overcast as ever in France.
+The impossibility of obtaining peace, and the exhaustion of the realm,
+threw, the King into the most cruel anguish, and Desmarets into the
+saddest embarrassment.  The paper of all kinds with which trade was
+inundated, and which had all more or less lost credit, made a chaos for
+which no remedy could be perceived.  State-bills, bank-bills, receiver-
+general's-bills, title-bills, utensil-bills, were the ruin of private
+people, who were forced by the King to take them in payment, and who lost
+half, two-thirds, and sometimes more, by the transaction.  This
+depreciation enriched the money people, at the expense of the public; and
+the circulation of money ceased, because there was no longer any money;
+because the King no longer paid anybody, but drew his revenues still; and
+because all the specie out of his control was locked up in the coffers of
+the possessors.
+
+The capitation tax was doubled and trebled, at the will of the Intendants
+of the Provinces; merchandise and all kinds of provision were taxed to
+the amount of four times their value; new taxes of all kinds and upon all
+sorts of things were exacted; all this crushed nobles and roturiers,
+lords and clergy, and yet did not bring enough to the King, who drew the
+blood of all his subjects, squeezed out their very marrow, without
+distinction, and who enriched an army of tax-gatherers and officials of
+all kinds, in whose hands the best part of what was collected remained.
+
+Desmarets, in whom the King had been forced to put all his confidence in
+finance matters, conceived the idea of establishing, in addition to so
+many taxes, that Royal Tithe upon all the property of each community and
+of each private person of the realm, that the Marechal de Vauban, on the
+one hand, and Boisguilbert on the other, had formerly proposed; but, as I
+have already described, as a simple and stile tax which would suffice for
+all, which would all enter the coffers of the King, and by means of which
+every other impost would be abolished.
+
+We have seen what success this proposition met with; how the fanciers
+trembled at it; how the ministers blushed at it, with what anathemas it
+was rejected, and to what extent these two excellent and skilful citizens
+were disgraced.  All this must be recollected here, since Desmarets, who
+had not lost sight of this system (not as relief and remedy--unpardonable
+crimes in the financial doctrine), now had recourse to it.
+
+He imparted his project to three friends, Councillors of State, who
+examined it well, and worked hard to see how to overcome the obstacles
+which arose in the way of its execution.  In the first place, it was
+necessary, in order to collect this tax, to draw from each person a clear
+statement of his wealth, of his debts, and so on.  It was necessary to
+demand sure proofs on these points so as not to be deceived.  Here was
+all the difficulty.  Nothing was thought of the desolation this extra
+impost must cause to a prodigious number of men, or of their despair upon
+finding themselves obliged to disclose their family secrets; to hate a
+lamp thrown, as it were, upon their most delicate parts; all these
+things, I say, went for nothing.  Less than a month sufficed these humane
+commissioners to render an account of this gentle project to the Cyclops
+who had charged them with it.  Desmarets thereupon proposed it to the
+King, who, accustomed as he was to the most ruinous imposts, could not
+avoid being terrified at this.  For a long while he had heard nothing
+talked of but the most extreme misery; this increase saddened him in a
+manner so evident, that his valets perceived it several days running, and
+were so disturbed at it, that Marechal (who related all this curious
+anecdote to me) made bold to speak to the King upon this sadness, fearing
+for his health.  The King avowed to him that he felt infinite trouble,
+and threw himself vaguely upon the state of affairs.  Eight or ten days.
+after (during which he continued to feel the same melancholy), the King
+regained his usual calmness, and called Marechal to explain the cause of
+his trouble.
+
+The King related to Marechal that the extremity of his affairs had forced
+him to put on furious imposts; that setting aside compassion, scruples
+had much tormented him for taking thus the wealth of his subjects; that
+at last he had unbosomed himself to the Pere Tellier, who had asked for a
+few days to think upon the matter, and that he had returned after having
+had a consultation with some of the most skilful doctors of the Sorbonne,
+who had decided that all the wealth of his subjects was his, and that
+when he took it he only took what belonged to him!  The King added, that
+this decision had taken away all his scruples, and had restored to him
+the calm and tranquillity he had lost.  Marechal was so astonished, so
+bewildered to hear, this recital, that he could not offer one word.
+Happily for him, the King quitted him almost immediately, and Marechal
+remained some time in the same place, scarcely knowing where he was.
+
+After the King had been thus satisfied by his confessor, no time was lost
+in establishing the tax.  On Tuesday, the 30th of September, Desmarets
+entered the Finance Council with the necessary edict in his bag.
+
+For some days everybody had known of this bombshell in the air, and had
+trembled with that remnant of hope which is founded only upon desire; all
+the Court as well as all Paris waited in a dejected sadness to see what
+would happen.  People whispered to each other, and even when the project
+was rendered public, no one dared to talk of it aloud.
+
+On the day above-named, the King brought forward this measure in the
+Council, by saying, that the impossibility of obtaining peace, and the
+extreme difficulty of sustaining the war, had caused Desmarets to look
+about in order to discover some means, which should appear good, of
+raising money; that he had pitched upon this tax; that he (the King),
+although sorry to adopt such a resource, approved it, and had no doubt
+the Council would do so likewise, when it was explained to them.
+Desmarets, in a pathetic discourse, then dwelt upon the reasons which had
+induced him to propose this tax, and afterwards read the edict through
+from beginning to end without interruption.
+
+No one spoke, moreover, when it was over, until the King asked
+D'Aguesseau his opinion.  D'Aguesseau replied, that it would be necessary
+for him to take home the edict and read it through very carefully before
+expressing an opinion.  The King said that D'Aguesseau was right--it
+would take a long time to examine the edict--but after all, examination
+was unnecessary, and would only be loss of time.  All remained silent
+again, except the Duc de Beauvilliers, who, seduced by the nephew of
+Colbert, whom he thought an oracle in finance, said a few words in favour
+of the project.
+
+Thus was settled this bloody business, and immediately after signed,
+sealed, and registered, among stifled sobs, and published amidst the most
+gentle but most piteous complaints.  The product of this tax was nothing
+like so much as had been imagined in this bureau of Cannibals; and the
+King did not pay a single farthing more to any one than he had previously
+done.  Thus all the fine relief expected by this tax ended in smoke.
+
+The Marechal de Vauban had died of grief at the ill-success of his task
+and his zeal, as I have related in its place.  Poor Boisguilbert, in the
+exile his zeal had brought him, was terribly afflicted, to find he had
+innocently given advice which he intended for the relief of the State,
+but which had been made use of in this frightful manner.  Every man,
+without exception, saw himself a prey to the tax-gatherers: reduced to
+calculate and discuss with them his own patrimony, to receive their
+signature and their protection under the most terrible pains; to show in
+public all the secrets of his family; to bring into the broad open
+daylight domestic turpitudes enveloped until then in the folds of
+precautions the wisest and the most multiplied.  Many had to convince the
+tax agents, but vainly, that although proprietors, they did not enjoy the
+tenth part of them property.  All Languedoc offered to give up its entire
+wealth, if allowed to enjoy, free from every impost, the tenth part of
+it.  The proposition not only was not listened to, but was reputed an
+insult and severely blamed.
+
+Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne spoke openly against this tax; and
+against the finance people, who lived upon the very marrow of the people;
+spoke with a just and holy anger that recalled the memory of Saint-Louis,
+of Louis XII., Father of the People, and of Louis the Just.  Monseigneur,
+too, moved by this indignation, so unusual, of his son, sided with him,
+and showed anger at so many exactions as injurious as barbarous, and at
+so many insignificant men so monstrously enriched with the nation's
+blood.  Both father and son infinitely surprised those who heard them,
+and made themselves looked upon, in some sort as resources from which
+something might hereafter be hoped for.  But the edict was issued, and
+though there might be some hope in the future, there was none in the
+present.  And no one knew who was to be the real successor of Louis XIV.,
+and how under the next government we were to be still more overwhelmed
+than under this one.
+
+One result of this tax was, that it enabled the King to augment all his
+infantry with five men per company.
+
+A tax was also levied upon the usurers, who had much gained by
+trafficking in the paper of the King, that is to say, had taken advantage
+of the need of those to whom the King gave this paper in payment.  These
+usurers are called 'agioteurs'.  Their mode was, ordinarily, to give, for
+example, according as the holder of paper was more or less pressed, three
+or four hundred francs (the greater part often in provisions), for a bill
+of a thousand francs!  This game was called 'agio'.  It was said that
+thirty millions were obtained from this tax.  Many people gained much by
+it; I know not if the King was the better treated.
+
+Soon after this the coin was re-coined, by which much profit was made for
+the King, and much wrong done to private people and to trade.  In all
+times it has, been regarded as a very great misfortune to meddle with
+corn and money.  Desmarets has accustomed us to tricks with the money;
+M. le Duc and Cardinal Fleury to interfere with corn and to fictitious
+famine.
+
+At the commencement of December, the King declared that he wished there
+should be, contrary to custom, plays and "apartments" at Versailles even
+when Monseigneur should be at Meudon.  He thought apparently he must keep
+his Court full of amusements, to hide, if it was possible, abroad and at
+home, the disorder and the extremity of affairs.  For the same reason,
+the carnival was opened early this season, and all through the winter
+there were many balls of all kinds at the Court, where the wives of the
+ministers gave very magnificent displays, like fetes, to Madame la
+Duchesse de Bourgogne and to all the Court.
+
+But Paris did not remain less wretched or the provinces less desolated.
+
+And thus I have arrived at the end of 1710.
+
+At the commencement of the following year, 1711, that is to say, a few
+days after the middle of March, a cruel misfortune happened to the
+Marechal de Boufflers.  His eldest son was fourteen years of age,
+handsome, well made, of much promise, and who succeeded marvellously at
+the Court, when his father presented him there to the King to thank his
+Majesty for the reversion of the government of Flow and of Lille.  He
+returned afterwards to the College of the Jesuits, where he was being
+educated.  I know not what youthful folly he was guilty of with the two
+sons of D'Argenson; but the Jesuits, wishing to show that they made no
+distinction of persons, whipped the little lad, because, to say the
+truth, they had nothing to fear from the Marechal de Boufflers; but they
+took good care to left the others off, although equally guilty, because
+they had to reckon with D'Argenson, lieutenant of the police, of much
+credit in book matters, Jansenism, and all sorts of things and affairs in
+which they were interested.
+
+Little Boufflers, who was full of courage, and who had done no more than
+the two Argensons, and with them, was seized with such despair, that he
+fell ill that same day.  He was carried to the Marechal's house, but it
+was impossible to save him.  The heart was seized, the blood diseased,
+the purples appeared; in four days all was over.  The state of the father
+and mother may be imagined!  The King, who was much touched by it, did
+not let them ask or wait for him.  He sent one of his gentlemen to
+testify to them the share he had in their loss, and announced that he
+would give to their remaining son 'what he had already given to the
+other.  As for the Jesuits, the universal cry against them was
+prodigious; but that was all.  This would be the place, now that I am
+speaking of the Jesuits, to speak of another affair in which they were
+concerned.  But I pass over, for the present, the dissensions that broke
+out at about this time, and that ultimately led to the famous Papal Bull
+Unigenitus, so fatal to the Church and to the State, so shameful far
+Rome, and so injurious to religion; and I proceed to speak of the great
+event of this year which led to others so memorable and so unexpected.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVI
+
+But in Order to understand the part I played in the event I have alluded
+to and the interest I took in it, it is necessary for me to relate some
+personal matters that occurred in the previous year. Du Mont was one of
+the confidants of Monseigneur; but also had never forgotten what his
+father owed to mine.  Some days after the commencement of the second
+voyage to Marly, subsequently to the marriage of the Duchesse de Berry,
+as I was coming back from the King's mass, the said Du Mont, in the crush
+at the door of the little salon of the chapel, took an opportunity when
+he was not perceived, to pull me by my coat, and when I turned round put
+a finger to his lips, and pointed towards the gardens which are at the
+bottom of the river, that is to say, of that superb cascade which the
+Cardinal Fleury has destroyed, and which faced the rear of the chateau.
+At the same time du Mont whispered in my car: "To the arbours!" That part
+of the garden was surrounded with arbours palisaded so as to conceal what
+was inside.  It was the least frequented place at Marly, leading to
+nothing; and in the afternoon even, and the evening, few people within
+them.
+
+Uneasy to know what Du Mont wished to communicate with so much mystery,
+I gently went towards the arbours where, without being seen, I looked
+through one of the openings until I saw him appear.  He slipped in by the
+corner of the chapel, and I went towards him.  As he joined me he begged
+me to return towards the river, so as to be still more out of the way;
+and then we set ourselves against the thickest palisades, as far as
+possible from all openings, so as to be still more concealed.  All this
+surprised and frightened me: I was still more so when I learned what was
+the matter.
+
+Du Mont then told me, on condition that I promised not to show that I
+knew it, and not to make use of my knowledge in any way without his
+consent, that two days after the marriage of the Duc de Berry, having
+entered towards the end of the morning the cabinet of Monseigneur, he
+found him alone, looking very serious.  He followed Monseigneur, through
+the gardens alone, until he entered by the window the apartments of the
+Princesse de Conti, who was also alone.  As he entered Monseigneur said
+with an air not natural to him, and very inflamed--as if by way of
+interrogation--that she "sat very quietly there."  This frightened her
+so, that she asked if there was any news from Flanders, and what had
+happened.  Monseigneur answered, in a tone of great annoyance, that there
+was no news except that the Duc de Saint-Simon had said, that now that
+the marriage of the Duc de Berry was brought about, it would be proper to
+drive away Madame la Duchesse and the Princesse de Conti, after which it
+would be easy to govern "the great imbecile," meaning himself.  This was
+why he thought she ought not to be so much at her ease.  Then, suddenly,
+as if lashing his sides to get into a greater rage, he spoke in a way
+such a speech would have deserved, added menaces, said that he would have
+the Duc de Bourgogne to fear me, to put me aside, and separate himself
+entirely from me.  This sort of soliloquy lasted a long time, and I was
+not told what the Princesse de Conti said to it; but from the silence of
+Du Mont, her annoyance at the marriage, I had brought about, and other
+reasons, it seems to me unlikely that she tried to soften Monseigneur.
+
+Du Mont begged me not, for a long time at least, to show that I knew what
+had taken place, and to behave with the utmost prudence.  Then he fled
+away by the path he had come by, fearing to be seen.  I remained walking
+up and down in the arbour all the time, reflecting on the wickedness of
+my enemies, and the gross credulity of Monseigneur.  Then I ran away, and
+escaped to Madame de Saint-Simon, who, as astonished and frightened as I,
+said not a word of the communication I had received.
+
+I never knew who had served me this ill-turn with Monseigneur, but I
+always suspected Mademoiselle de Lillebonne.  After a long time, having
+obtained with difficulty the consent of the timid Du Mont, I made Madame
+de Saint-Simon speak to the Duchesse de Bourgogne, who undertook to
+arrange the affair as well as it could be arranged.  The Duchesse spoke
+indeed to Monseigneur, and showed him how ridiculously he had been
+deceived, when he was persuaded that I could ever have entertained the
+ideas attributed to me.  Monseigneur admitted that he had been carried
+away by anger; and that there was no likelihood that I should have
+thought of anything so wicked and incredible.
+
+About this time the household of the Duc and Duchesse de Berry was
+constituted.  Racilly obtained the splendid appointment of first surgeon,
+and was worthy of it; but the Duchesse de Berry wept bitterly, because
+she did not consider him of high family enough.  She was not so delicate
+about La Haye, whose appointment she rapidly secured.  The fellow looked
+in the glass more complaisantly than ever.  He was well made, but stiff,
+and with a face not at all handsome, and looking as if it had been
+skinned.  He was happy in more ways than one, and was far more attached
+to his new mistress than to his master.  The King was very angry when he
+learned that the Duc de Berry had supplied himself with such an
+assistant.
+
+Meantime, I continued on very uneasy terms with Monseigneur, since I had
+learned his strange credulity with respect to me.  I began to feel my
+position very irksome, not to say painful, on this account.  Meudon I
+would not go to--for me it was a place infested with demons--yet by
+stopping away I ran great risks of losing the favour and consideration I
+enjoyed at Court.  Monseigneur was a man so easily imposed upon, as I had
+already experienced, and his intimate friends were so unscrupulous that
+there was no saying what might be invented on the one side and swallowed
+on the other, to my discredit.  Those friends, too, were, I knew, enraged
+against me for divers weighty reasons, and would stop at nothing, I was
+satisfied, to procure my downfall.  For want of better support I
+sustained myself with courage.  I said to myself, "We never experience
+all the evil or all the good that we have apparently the most reason to
+expect."  I hoped, therefore, against hope, terribly troubled it must be
+confessed on the score of Meudon.  At Easter, this year, I went away to
+La Ferme, far from the Court and the world, to solace myself as I could;
+but this thorn in my side was cruelly sharp!  At the moment the most
+unlooked-for it pleased God to deliver me from it.
+
+At La Ferme I had but few guests: M. de Saint-Louis, an old brigadier of
+cavalry, and a Normandy gentleman, who had been in my regiment, and who
+was much attached to me.  On Saturday, the 11th of the month, and the day
+before Quasimodo, I had been walking with them all the morning, and I had
+entered all-alone into my cabinet a little before dinner, when a courier
+sent by Madame de Saint-Simon, gave me a letter from her, in which I was
+informed that Monseigneur was ill!
+
+I learnt afterwards that this Prince, while on his way to Meudon for the
+Easter fetes, met at Chaville a priest, who was carrying Our Lord to a
+sick person.  Monseigneur, and Madame de Bourgogne, who was with him,
+knelt down to adore the Host, and then Monseigneur inquired what was the
+malady of the patient.  "The small-pox," he was told.  That disease was
+very prevalent just then.  Monseigneur had had it, but very lightly, and
+when young.  He feared it very much, and was struck with the answer he
+now received.  In the evening he said to Boudin, his chief doctor, "I
+should not be surprised if I were to have the small-pox."  The, day,
+however, passed over as usual.
+
+On the morrow, Thursday, the 9th, Monseigneur rose, and meant to go out
+wolf-hunting; but as he was dressing, such a fit of weakness seized him,
+that he fell into his chair.  Boudin made him get into bed again; but all
+the day his pulse was in an alarming state.  The King, only half informed
+by Fagon of what had taken place, believed there was nothing the matter,
+and went out walking at Marly after dinner, receiving news from time to
+time.  Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne and Madame de Bourgogne dined at
+Meudon, and they would not quit Monseigneur for one moment.  The Princess
+added to the strict duties of a daughter-in-law all that her gracefulness
+could suggest, and gave everything to Monseigneur with her own hand.  Her
+heart could not have been troubled by what her reason foresaw; but,
+nevertheless, her care and attention were extreme, without any airs of
+affectation or acting.  The Duc de Bourgogne, simple and holy as he was,
+and full of the idea of his duty, exaggerated his attention; and although
+there was a strong suspicion of the small-pox, neither quitted
+Monseigneur, except for the King's supper.
+
+The next day, Friday, the 10th, in reply to his express demands, the King
+was informed of the extremely dangerous state of Monseigneur.  He had
+said on the previous evening that he would go on the following morning to
+Meudon, and remain there during all the illness of Monseigneur whatever
+its nature might be.  He was now as good as his word.  Immediately after
+mass he set out for Meudon.  Before doing so, he forbade his children,
+and all who had not had the small-pox, to go there, which was suggested
+by a motive of kindness.  With Madame de Maintenon and a small suite, he
+had just taken up his abode in Meudon, when Madame de Saint-Simon sent me
+the letter of which I have just made mention.
+
+I will continue to speak of myself with the same truthfulness I speak of
+others, and with as much exactness as possible.  According to the terms
+on which I was with Monseigneur and his intimates, may be imagined the
+impression made upon me by this news.  I felt that one way or other, well
+or ill, the malady of Monseigneur would soon terminate.  I was quite at
+my ease at La Ferme.  I resolved therefore to wait there until I received
+fresh particulars.  I despatched a courier to Madame de Saint-Simon,
+requesting her to send me another the next day, and I passed the rest of
+this day, in an ebb and flow of feelings; the man and the Christian
+struggling against the man and the courtier, and in the midst of a crowd
+of vague fancies catching glimpses of the future, painted in the most
+agreeable colours.
+
+The courier I expected so impatiently arrived the next day, Sunday, after
+dinner.  The small-pox had declared itself, I learnt, and was going on as
+well as could be wished.  I believed Monseigneur saved, and wished to
+remain at my own house; nevertheless I took advice, as I have done all my
+life, and with great regret set out the next morning.  At La queue, about
+six leagues from Versailles, I met a financier of the name of La
+Fontaine, whom I knew well.  He was coming from Paris and Versailles, and
+came up to me as I changed horses.  Monseigneur, he said, was going on
+admirably; and he added details which convinced me he was out of all
+danger.  I arrived at Versailles, full of this opinion, which was
+confirmed by Madame de Saint-Simon and everybody I met, so that nobody
+any longer feared, except on account of the treacherous nature of this
+disease in a very fat man of fifty.
+
+The King held his Council, and worked in the evening with his ministers
+as usual.  He saw Monseigneur morning and evening, oftentimes in the
+afternoon, and always remained long by the bedside.  On the Monday I
+arrived he had dined early, and had driven to Marly, where the Duchesse
+de Bourgogne joined him.  He saw in passing on the outskirts of the
+garden of Versailles his grandchildren, who had come out to meet him, but
+he would not let them come near, and said, "good day" from a distance.
+The Duchesse de Bourgogne had had the small-pox, but no trace was left.
+
+The King only liked his own houses, and could not bear to be anywhere
+else.  This was why his visits to Meudon were few and short, and only
+made from complaisance.  Madame de Maintenon was still more out of her
+element there.  Although her chamber was everywhere a sanctuary, where
+only ladies entitled to the most extreme familiarity entered, she always
+wanted another retreat near at hand entirely inaccessible except to the
+Duchesse de Bourgogne alone, and that only for a few instants at a time.
+Thus she had Saint-Cyr for Versailles and for Marly; and at Marly also a
+particular retiring place; at Fontainebleau she had her town house.
+Seeing therefore that Monseigneur was getting on well, and that a long
+sojourn it Meudon would be necessary, the upholsterers of the King were
+ordered to furnish a house in the park which once belonged to the
+Chancellor le Tellier, but which Monseigneur had bought.
+
+When I arrived at Versailles, I wrote to M. de Beauvilliers at Meudon
+praying him to apprise the King that I had returned on account of the
+illness of Monseigneur, and that I would have gone to see him, but that,
+never having had the small-pox, I was included in the prohibition.  M. de
+Beauvilliers did as I asked, and sent word back to me that my return had
+been very well timed, and that the King still forbade me as well as
+Madame de Saint-Simon to go to Meudon.  This fresh prohibition did not
+distress me in the least.  I was informed of all that was passing there;
+and that satisfied me.
+
+There were yet contrasts at Meudon worth noticing.  Mademoiselle Choin
+never appeared while the King was with Monseigneur, but kept close in her
+loft.  When the coast was clear she came out, and took up her position at
+the sick man's bedside.  All sorts of compliments passed between her and
+Madame de Maintenon, yet the two ladies never met.  The King asked Madame
+de Maintenon if she had seen Mademoiselle Choin, and upon learning that
+she had not, was but ill-pleased.  Therefore Madame de Maintenon sent
+excuses and apologies to Mademoiselle Choin, and hoped she said to see
+her soon,--strange compliments from one chamber to another under the same
+roof.  They never saw each other afterwards.
+
+It should be observed, that Pere Tellier was also incognito at Meudon,
+and dwelt in a retired room from which he issued to see the King, but
+never approached the apartments of Monseigneur.
+
+Versailles presented another scene.  Monseigneur le Duc and Madame la
+Duchesse de Bourgogne held their Court openly there; and this Court
+resembled the first gleamings of the dawn.  All the Court assembled
+there; all Paris also; and as discretion and precaution were never French
+virtues, all Meudon came as well.  People were believed on their word
+when they declared that they had not entered the apartments of
+Monseigneur that day, and consequently could not bring the infection.
+When the Prince and Princess rose, when they weft to bed, when they dined
+and supped with the ladies,--all public conversations--all meals--all
+assembled--were opportunities of paying court to them.  The apartments
+could not contain the crowd.  The characteristic features of the room
+were many.  Couriers arrived every quarter of an hour, and reminded
+people of the illness of Monseigneur--he was going on as well as could be
+expected; confidence and hope were easily felt; but there was an extreme
+desire to please at the new Court.  The young Prince and the Princess
+exhibited majesty and gravity, mixed with gaiety; obligingly received
+all, continually spoke to every one; the crowd wore an air of
+complaisance; reciprocal satisfaction showed in every face; the Duc and
+Duchesse de Berry ware treated almost as nobody.  Thus five days fled
+away in increasing thought of future events--in preparation to be ready
+for whatever might happen.
+
+On Tuesday, the 14th of April, I went to see the chancellor, and asked
+for information upon the state of Monseigneur.  He assured me it was
+good, and repeated to me the words Fagon had spoken to him, "that things
+were going an according to their wishes, and beyond their hopes."  The
+Chancellor appeared to me very confident, and I had faith in him, so much
+the more, because he was on extremely good footing with Monseigneur.  The
+Prince, indeed, had so much recovered, that the fish-women came in a body
+the self-same day to congratulate him, as they did after his attack of
+indigestion.  They threw the themselves at the foot of his bed, which
+they kissed several times, and in their joy said they would go back to
+Paris and have a Te Deum sung.  But Monseigneur, who was not insensible
+to these marks of popular affection, told them it was not yet time,
+thanked them, and gave them a dinner and some money.
+
+As I was going home, I saw the Duchesse d'Orleans walking on a terrace.
+She called to me; but I pretended not to notice her, because La Montauban
+was with her, and hastened home, my mind filled with this news, and
+withdrew to my cabinet.  Almost immediately afterwards Madame la Duchesse
+d'Orleans joined me there.  We were bursting to speak to each other
+alone, upon a point on which our thoughts were alike.  She had left
+Meudon not an hour before, and she had the same tale to tell as the
+Chancellor.  Everybody was at ease there she said; and then she extolled
+the care and capacities of the doctors, exaggerating their success; and,
+to speak frankly and to our shame, she and I lamented together to see
+Monseigneur, in spite of his age and his fat, escape from so dangerous an
+illness.  She reflected seriously but wittily, that after an illness of
+this sort, apoplexy was not to be looked for; that an attack of
+indigestion was equally unlikely to arise, considering the care
+Monseigneur had taken not to over-gorge himself since his recent danger;
+and we concluded more than dolefully, that henceforth we must make up our
+minds that the Prince would live and reign for a long time.  In a word,
+we let ourselves loose in this rare conversation, although not without an
+occasional scruple of conscience which disturbed it.  Madame de Saint-
+Simon all devoutly tried what she could to put a drag upon our tongues,
+but the drag broke, so to speak, and we continued our free discourse,
+humanly speaking very reasonable on our parts, but which we felt,
+nevertheless, was not according to religion.  Thus two hours passed,
+seemingly very short.  Madame d'Orleans went away, and I repaired with
+Madame de Saint-Simon to receive a numerous company.
+
+While thus all was tranquillity at Versailles, and even at Meudon,
+everything had changed its aspect at the chateau.  The King had seen
+Monseigneur several times during the day; but in his after-dinner visit
+he was so much struck with the extraordinary swelling of the face and of
+the head, that he shortened his stay, and on leaving the chateau, shed
+tears.  He was reassured as much as possible, and after the council he
+took a walk in the garden.
+
+Nevertheless Monseigneur had already mistaken Madame la Princesse de
+Conti for some one else; and Boudin, the doctor, was alarmed.
+Monseigneur himself had been so from the first, and he admitted, that for
+a long time before being attacked, he had been very unwell, and so much
+on Good Friday, that he had been unable to read his prayer-book at
+chapel.
+
+Towards four o'clock he grew worse, so much so that Boudin proposed to
+Fagon to call in other doctors, more familiar with the disease than they
+were.  But Fagon flew into a rage at this, and would call in nobody.  He
+declared that it would be better to act for themselves, and to keep
+Monseigneur's state secret, although it was hourly growing worse, and
+towards seven o'clock was perceived by several valets and courtiers.  But
+nobody dared to open his mouth before Fagon, and the King was actually
+allowed to go to supper and to finish it without interruption, believing
+on the faith of Fagon that Monseigneur was going on well.
+
+While the King supped thus tranquilly, all those who were in the sick-
+chamber began to lose their wits.  Fagon and the others poured down
+physic on physic, without leaving time for any to work.  The Cure, who
+was accustomed to go and learn the news every evening, found, against all
+custom, the doors thrown wide open, and the valets in confusion.  He
+entered the chamber, and perceiving what was the matter, ran to the
+bedside, took the hand of Monseigneur, spoke to him of God, and seeing
+him full of consciousness, but scarcely able to speak, drew from him a
+sort of confession, of which nobody had hitherto thought, and suggested
+some acts of contrition.  The poor Prince repeated distinctly several
+words suggested to him, and confusedly answered others, struck his
+breast, squeezed the Cure's hand, appeared penetrated with the best
+sentiments, and received with a contrite and willing air the absolution
+of the Cure.
+
+As the King rose from the supper-table, he well-nigh fell backward when
+Fagon, coming forward, cried in great trouble that all was lost.  It may
+be imagined what terror seized all the company at this abrupt passage
+from perfect security to hopeless despair.  The King, scarcely master of
+himself, at once began to go towards the apartment of Monseigneur, and
+repelled very stiffly the indiscreet eagerness of some courtiers who
+wished to prevent him, saying that he would see his son again, and be
+quite certain that nothing could be done.  As he was about to enter the
+chamber, Madame la Princesse de Conti presented herself before him, and
+prevented him from going in.  She pushed him back with her hands, and
+said that henceforth he had only to think of himself.  Then the King,
+nearly fainting from a shock so complete and so sudden, fell upon a sofa
+that stood near.  He asked unceasingly for news of all who passed, but
+scarce anybody dared to reply to him.  He had sent for here Tellier, who
+went into Monseigneur's room; but it was no longer time.  It is true the
+Jesuit, perhaps to console the King, said that he gave him a well-founded
+absolution.  Madame de Maintenon hastened after the King, and sitting
+down beside him on the same sofa, tried to cry.  She endeavoured to lead
+away the King into the carriage already waiting for him in the
+courtyard, but he would not go, and sat thus outside the door until
+Monseigneur had expired.
+
+The agony, without consciousness, of Monseigneur lasted more than an hour
+after the King had come into the cabinet.  Madame la Duchesse and Madame
+la Princesse de Conti divided their cares between the dying man and the
+King, to whom they constantly came back; whilst the faculty confounded,
+the valets bewildered, the courtiers hurrying and murmuring, hustled
+against each other, and moved unceasingly to and fro, backwards and
+forwards, in the same narrow space.  At last the fatal moment arrived.
+Fagon came out, and allowed so much to be understood.
+
+The King, much afflicted, and very grieved that Monseigneur's confession
+had been so tardily made, abused Fagon a little; and went away led by
+Madame de Maintenon and the two Princesses.  He was somewhat struck by
+finding the vehicle of Monseigneur outside; and made a sign that he would
+have another coach, for that one made him suffer, and left the chateau.
+He was not, however, so much occupied with his grief that he could not
+call Pontchartrain to arrange the hour of the council on the next day.
+I will not comment on this coolness, and shall merely say it surprised
+extremely all present; and that if Pontchartrain had not said the council
+could be put off, no interruption to business would have taken place.
+The King got into his coach with difficulty, supported on both sides.
+Madame de Maintenon seated herself beside him.  A crowd of officers of
+Monseigneur lined both sides of the court on their knees, as he passed
+out, crying to him with strange howlings to have compassion on them, for
+they had lost all, and must die of hunger.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVII
+
+While Meudon was filled with horror, all was tranquil at Versailles,
+without the least suspicion.  We had supped.  The company some time after
+had retired, and I was talking with Madame de Saint-Simon, who had nearly
+finished undressing herself to go to bed, when a servant of Madame la
+Duchesse de Berry, who had formerly belonged to us, entered, all
+terrified.  He said that there must be some bad news from Meudon, since
+Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne had just whispered in the ear of M. le
+Duc de Berry, whose eyes had at once become red, that he left the table,
+and that all the company shortly after him rose with precipitation.  So
+sudden a change rendered my surprise extreme.  I ran in hot haste to
+Madame la Duchesse de Berry's.  Nobody was there.  Everybody had gone to
+Madame la Duchesse de Bourgogne.  I followed on with all speed.
+
+I found all Versailles assembled on arriving, all the ladies hastily
+dressed--the majority having been on the point of going to bed--all the
+doors open, and all in trouble.  I learnt that Monseigneur had received
+the extreme unction, that he was without consciousness and beyond hope,
+and that the King had sent word to Madame de Bourgogne that he was going
+to Marly, and that she was to meet him as he passed through the avenue
+between the two stables.
+
+The spectacle before me attracted all the attention I could bestow.  The
+two Princes and the two Princesses were in the little cabinet behind the
+bed.
+
+The bed toilette was as usual in the chamber of the Duchesse de
+Bourgogne, which was filled with all the Court in confusion.  She came
+and went from the cabinet to the chamber, waiting for the moment when she
+was to meet the King; and her demeanour, always distinguished by the same
+graces, was one of trouble and compassion, which the trouble and
+compassion of others induced them to take for grief.  Now and then, in
+passing, she said a few rare words.  All present were in truth expressive
+personages.  Whoever had eyes, without any knowledge of the Court, could
+see the interests of all interested painted on their faces, and the
+indifference of the indifferent; these tranquil, the former penetrated
+with grief, or gravely attentive to themselves to, hide their
+emancipation and their joy.
+
+For my part, my first care was to inform myself thoroughly of the state
+of affairs, fearing lest there might be too much alarm for too trifling a
+cause; then, recovering myself, I reflected upon the misery common to all
+men, and that I myself should find myself some day at the gates of death.
+Joy, nevertheless, found its way through the momentary reflections of
+religion and of humanity, by which I tried to master myself.  My own
+private deliverance seemed so great and so unhoped for, that it appeared
+to me that the State must gain everything by such a loss.  And with these
+thoughts I felt, in spite of myself, a lingering fear lest the sick man
+should recover, and was extremely ashamed of it.
+
+Wrapped up thus in myself, I did not fail, nevertheless, to cast
+clandestine looks upon each face, to see what was passing there.  I saw
+Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans arrive, but her countenance, majestic and
+constrained, said nothing.  She went into the little cabinet, whence she
+presently issued with the Duc d'Orleans, whose activity and turbulent air
+marked his emotion at the spectacle more than any other sentiment.  They
+went away, and I notice this expressly, on account of what happened
+afterwards in my presence.
+
+Soon afterwards I caught a distant glimpse of the Duc de Bourgogne, who
+seemed much moved and troubled; but the glance with which I probed him
+rapidly, revealed nothing tender, and told merely of a mind profoundly
+occupied with the bearings of what had taken place.
+
+Valets and chamber-women were already indiscreetly crying out; and their
+grief showed well that they were about to lose something!
+
+Towards half-past twelve we had news of the King, and immediately after
+Madame de Bourgogne came out of the little cabinet with the Duke, who
+seemed more touched than when I first saw him.  The Princess took her
+scarf and her coifs from the toilette, standing with a deliberate air,
+her eyes scarcely wet--a fact betrayed by inquisitive glances cast
+rapidly to the right and left--and, followed only by her ladies, went to
+her coach by the great staircase.
+
+I took the opportunity to go to the Duchesse d'Orleans, where I found
+many people.  Their presence made me very impatient; the Duchess, who was
+equally impatient, took a light and went in.  I whispered in the ear of
+the Duchesse de Villeroy, who thought as I thought of this event.  She
+nudged me, and said in a very low voice that I must contain myself.
+I was smothered with silence, amidst the complaints and the narrative
+surprises of these ladies; but at last M. le Duc d'Orleans appeared at
+the door of his cabinet, and beckoned me to come to him.
+
+I followed him into the cabinet, where we were alone.  What was my
+surprise, remembering the terms on which he was with Monseigneur, to see
+the tears streaming from his eyes.
+
+"Sir!" exclaimed I, rising: He understood me at once; and answered in a
+broken voice, really crying: "You are right to be surprised--I am
+surprised myself; but such a spectacle touches.  He was a man with whom I
+passed much of my life, and who treated me well when he was uninfluenced.
+I feel very well that my grief won't last long; in a few days I shall
+discover motives of joy; at present, blood, relationship, humanity,--all
+work; and my entrails are moved."  I praised his sentiments, but repeated
+my surprise.  He rose, thrust his head into a corner, and with his nose
+there, wept bitterly and sobbed, which if I had not seen I could not have
+believed.
+
+After a little silence, however, I exhorted him to calm himself.  I
+represented to him that, everybody knowing on what terms he had been with
+Monseigneur, he would be laughed at, as playing a part, if his eyes
+showed that he had been weeping.  He did what he could to remove the
+marks of his tears, and we then went back into the other room.
+
+The interview of the Duchesse de Bourgogne with the King had not been
+long.  She met him in the avenue between the two stables, got down, and
+went to the door of the carriage.  Madame de Maintenon cried out, "Where
+are you going?  We bear the plague about with us."  I do not know what
+the King said or did.  The Princess returned to her carriage, and came
+back to Versailles, bringing in reality the first news of the actual
+death of Monseigneur.
+
+Acting upon the advice of M. de Beauvilliers, all the company had gone
+into the salon.  The two Princes, Monseigneur de Bourgogne and M. de
+Berry, were there, seated on one sofa, their Princesses at their sides;
+all the rest of the company were scattered about in confusion, seated or
+standing, some of the ladies being on the floor, near the sofa.  There
+could be no doubt of what had happened.  It was plainly written on every
+face in the chamber and throughout the apartment.  Monseigneur was no
+more: it was known: it was spoken of: constraint with respect to him no
+longer existed.  Amidst the surprise, the confusion, and the movements
+that prevailed, the sentiments of all were painted to the life in looks
+and gestures.
+
+In the outside rooms were heard the constrained groans and sighs of the
+valets--grieving for the master they had lost as well as for the master
+that had succeeded.  Farther on began the crowd of courtiers of all
+kinds.  The greater number--that is to say the fools--pumped up sighs as
+well as they could, and with wandering but dry eyes, sung the praises of
+Monseigneur--insisting especially on his goodness.  They pitied the King
+for the loss of so good a son.  The keener began already to be uneasy
+about the health of the King; and admired themselves for preserving so
+much judgment amidst so much trouble, which could be perceived by the
+frequency of their repetitions.  Others, really afflicted--the
+discomfited cabal--wept bitterly, and kept themselves under with an
+effort as easy to notice as sobs.  The most strong-minded or the wisest,
+with eyes fixed on the ground, in corners, meditated on the consequences
+of such an event--and especially on their own interests.  Few words
+passed in conversation--here and there an exclamation wrung from grief
+was answered by some neighbouring grief--a word every quarter of an hour
+--sombre and haggard eyes--movements quite involuntary of the hands--
+immobility of all other parts of the body.  Those who already looked upon
+the event as favourable in vain exaggerated their gravity so as to make
+it resemble chagrin and severity; the veil over their faces was
+transparent and hid not a single feature.  They remained as motionless as
+those who grieved most, fearing opinion, curiosity, their own
+satisfaction, their every movement; but their eyes made up for their
+immobility.  Indeed they could not refrain from repeatedly changing their
+attitude like people ill at ease, sitting or standing, from avoiding each
+other too carefully, even from allowing their eyes to meet--nor repress a
+manifest air of liberty--nor conceal their increased liveliness--nor put
+out a sort of brilliancy which distinguished them in spite of themselves.
+
+The two Princes, and the two Princesses who sat by their sides, were more
+exposed to view than any other.  The Duc de Bourgogne wept with
+tenderness, sincerity, and gentleness, the tears of nature, of religion,
+and patience.  M. le Duc de Berry also sincerely shed abundance of tears,
+but bloody tears, so to speak, so great appeared their bitterness; and he
+uttered not only sobs, but cries, nay, even yells.  He was silent
+sometimes, but from suffocation, and then would burst out again with such
+a noise, such a trumpet sound of despair, that the majority present burst
+out also at these dolorous repetitions, either impelled by affliction or
+decorum.  He became so bad, in fact, that his people were forced to
+undress him then and there, put him to bed, and call in the doctor,
+Madame la Duchesse de Berry was beside herself, and we shall soon see
+why.  The most bitter despair was painted with horror on her face.  There
+was seen written, as it were, a sort of furious grief, based on interest,
+not affection; now and then came dry lulls deep and sullen, then a
+torrent of tears and involuntary gestures, yet restrained, which showed
+extreme bitterness of mind, fruit of the profound meditation that had
+preceded.  Often aroused by the cries of her husband, prompt to assist
+him, to support him, to embrace him, to give her smelling-bottle, her
+care for him was evident; but soon came another profound reverie--then a
+gush of tears assisted to suppress her cries.  As for Madame la Duchesse
+de Bourgogne she consoled her husband with less trouble than she had to
+appear herself in want of consolation.  Without attempting to play a
+part, it was evident that she did her best to acquit herself of a
+pressing duty of decorum.  But she found extreme difficulty in keeping up
+appearances.  When the Prince her brother-in-law howled, she blew her
+nose.  She had brought some tears along with her and kept them up with
+care; and these, combined with the art of the handkerchief, enabled her
+to redden her eyes, and make them swell, and smudge her face; but her
+glances often wandered on the sly to the countenances of all present.
+
+Madame arrived, in full dress she knew not why, and howling she knew not
+why, inundated everybody with her tears in embracing them, making the
+chateau echo with renewed cries, and furnished the odd spectacle of a
+Princess putting on her robes of ceremony in the dead of night to come
+and cry among a crowd of women with but little on except their night-
+dresses,--almost as masqueraders.
+
+In the gallery several ladies, Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans, Madame de
+Castries, and Madame de Saint-Simon among the rest, finding no one close
+by, drew near each other by the side of a tent-bedstead, and began to
+open their hearts to each other, which they did with the more freedom,
+inasmuch as they had but one sentiment in common upon what had occurred.
+In this gallery, and in the salon, there were always during the night
+several beds, in which, for security's sake, certain Swiss guards and
+servants slept.  These beds had been put in their usual place this
+evening before the bad news came from Meudon.  In the midst of the
+conversation of the ladies, Madame de Castries touched the bed, felt
+something move, and was much terrified.  A moment after they saw a sturdy
+arm, nearly naked, raise on a sudden the curtains, and thus show them a
+great brawny Swiss under the sheets, half awake, and wholly amazed.  The
+fellow was a long time in making out his position, fixing his eyes upon
+every face one after the other; but at last, not judging it advisable to
+get up in the midst of such a grand company, he reburied himself in his
+bed, and closed the curtains.  Apparently the good man had gone to bed
+before anything had transpired, and had slept so soundly ever since that
+he had not been aroused until then.  The saddest sights have often the
+most ridiculous contrasts.  This caused some of the ladies to laugh, and
+Madame d'Orleans to fear lest the conversation should have been
+overheard.  But after reflection, the sleep and the stupidity of the
+sleeper reassured her.
+
+I had some doubts yet as to the event that had taken place; for I did not
+like to abandon myself to belief, until the word was pronounced by some
+one in whom I could have faith.  By chance I met D'O, and I asked him.
+He answered me clearly that Monseigneur was no more.  Thus answered, I
+tried not to be glad.  I know not if I succeeded well, but at least it is
+certain, that neither joy nor sorrow blunted my curiosity, and that while
+taking due care to preserve all decorum, I did not consider myself in any
+way forced to play the doleful.  I no longer feared any fresh attack from
+the citadel of Meudon, nor any cruel charges from its implacable
+garrison.  I felt, therefore, under no constraint, and followed every
+face with my glances, and tried to scrutinise them unobserved.
+
+It must be admitted, that for him who is well acquainted with the
+privacies of a Court, the first sight of rare events of this nature, so
+interesting in so many different respects, is extremely satisfactory.
+Every countenance recalls the cares, the intrigues, the labours employed
+in the advancement of fortunes--in the overthrow of rivals: the
+relations, the coldness, the hatreds, the evil offices done, the baseness
+of all; hope, despair, rage, satisfaction, express themselves in the
+features.  See how all eyes wander to and fro examining what passes
+around--how some are astonished to find others more mean, or less mean
+than was expected!  Thus this spectacle produced a pleasure, which,
+hollow as it may be, is one of the greatest a Court can bestow.
+
+The turmoil in this vast apartment lasted about an hour, at the end of
+which M. de Beauvilliers thought it was high time to deliver the Princes
+of their company.  The rooms were cleared.  M. le Duc de Berry went away
+to his rooms, partly supported by his wife.  All through the night he
+asked, amid tears and cries, for news from Meudon; he would not
+understand the cause of the King's departure to Marly.  When at length
+the mournful curtain was drawn from before his eyes, the state he fell
+into cannot be described.  The night of Monseigneur and Madame de
+Bourgogne was more tranquil.  Some one having said to the Princess, that
+having--no real cause to be affected, it would be terrible to play a
+part, she replied, quite naturally, that without feigning, pity touched
+her and decorum controlled her; and indeed she kept herself within these
+bounds with truth and decency.  Their chamber, in which they invited
+several ladies to pass the night in armchairs, became immediately a
+palace of Morpheus.  All quietly fell asleep.  The curtains were left
+open, so that the Prince and Princess could be seen sleeping profoundly.
+They woke up once or twice for a moment.  In the morning the Duke and
+Duchess rose early, their tears quite dried up.  They shed no more for
+this cause, except on special and rare occasions.  The ladies who had
+watched and slept in their chamber, told their friends how tranquil the
+night had been.  But nobody was surprised, and as there was no longer a
+Monseigneur, nobody was scandalised.  Madame de Saint-Simon and I
+remained up two hours before going to bed, and then went there without
+feeling any want of rest.  In fact, I slept so little that at seven in
+the morning I was up; but it must be admitted that such restlessness is
+sweet, and such re-awakenings are savoury.
+
+Horror reigned at Meudon.  As soon as the King left, all the courtiers
+left also, crowding into the first carriages that came.  In an instant
+Meudon was empty.  Mademoiselle Choin remained alone in her garret, and
+unaware of what had taken place.  She learned it only by the cry raised.
+Nobody thought of telling her.  At last some friends went up to her,
+hurried her into a hired coach, and took her to Paris.  The dispersion
+was general.  One or two valets, at the most, remained near the body.
+La Villiere, to his praise be it said, was the only courtier who, not
+having abandoned Monseigneur during life, did not abandon him after his
+death.  He had some difficulty to find somebody to go in search of
+Capuchins to pray over the corpse.  The decomposition became so rapid and
+so great, that the opening of the windows was not enough; the Capuchins,
+La Vrilliere, and the valets, were compelled to pass the night outside.
+
+At Marly everybody had felt so confident that the King's return there was
+not dreamt of.  Nothing was ready, no keys of the rooms, no fires,
+scarcely an end of candle.  The King was more than an hour thus with
+Madame de Maintenon and other ladies in one of the ante-chambers.  The
+King retired into a corner, seated between Madame de Maintenon and two
+other ladies, and wept at long intervals.  At last the chamber of Madame
+de Maintenon was ready.  The King entered, remained there an hour, and
+then 'went to bed at nearly four o'clock in the morning.
+
+Monseigneur was rather tall than short; very fat, but without being
+bloated; with a very lofty and noble aspect without any harshness; and he
+would have had a very agreeable face if M. le Prince de Conti had not
+unfortunately broken his nose in playing while they were both young.  He
+was of a very beautiful fair complexion; he had a face everywhere covered
+with a healthy red, but without expression; the most beautiful legs in
+the world; his feet singularly small and delicate.  He wavered always in
+walking, and felt his way with his feet; he was always afraid of falling,
+and if the path was not perfectly even and straight, he called for
+assistance.  He was a good horseman, and looked well when mounted; but he
+was not a bold rider.  When hunting--they had persuaded him that he liked
+this amusement--a servant rode before him; if he lost sight of this
+servant he gave himself up for lost, slicked his pace to a gentle trot,
+and oftentimes waited under a tree for the hunting party, and returned to
+it slowly.  He was very fond of the table, but always without indecency.
+Ever since that great attack of indigestion, which was taken at first for
+apoplexy, he made but one real meal a day, and was content,--although a
+great eater, like the rest of the royal family.  Nearly all his portraits
+well resemble him.
+
+As for his character he had none; he was without enlightenment or
+knowledge of any kind, radically incapable of acquiring any; very idle,
+without imagination or productiveness; without taste, without choice,
+without discernment; neither seeing the weariness he caused others, nor
+that he was as a ball moving at hap-hazard by the impulsion of others;
+obstinate and little to excess in everything; amazingly credulous and
+accessible to prejudice, keeping himself, always, in the most pernicious
+hands, yet incapable of seeing his position or of changing it; absorbed
+in his fat and his ignorance; so that without any desire to do ill he
+would have made a pernicious King.
+
+His avariciousness, except in certain things, passed all belief.  He kept
+an account of his personal expenditure, and knew to a penny what his
+smallest and his largest expenses amounted to.  He spent large sums in
+building, in furniture, in jewels, and in hunting, which he made himself
+believe he was fond of.
+
+It is inconceivable the little he gave to La Choin, whom he so much
+loved.  It never exceeded four hundred Louis a quarter in gold, or
+sixteen hundred Louis a year, whatever the Louis might be worth.  He gave
+them to her with his own hand, without adding or subtracting a pistole,
+and, at the most, made her but one present a year, and that he looked at
+twice before giving.  It was said that they were married, and certain
+circumstances seemed to justify this rumour.  As for instance, during the
+illness of Monseigneur, the King, as I have said, asked Madame de
+Maintenon if she had seen Mademoiselle Choin, and upon receiving negative
+reply, was displeased.  Instead of driving her away from the chateau he
+inquired particularly after her!  This, to say the least, looked as
+though Mademoiselle Choin was Monseigneur's Maintenon--but the matter
+remained incomprehensible to the last.  Mademoiselle Choin threw no light
+upon it, although she spoke on many other things concerning Monseigneur.
+In the modest home at Paris, to which she had retired for the rest of her
+days.  The King gave her a pension of twelve thousand livres.
+
+Monseigneur was, I have said, ignorant to the last degree, and had a
+thorough aversion for learning; so that, according to his own admission,
+ever since he had been released from the hands of teachers he had never
+read anything except the article in the "Gazette de France," in which
+deaths and marriages are recorded.  His timidity, especially before the
+King, was equal to his ignorance, which indeed contributed not a little
+to cause it.  The King took advantage of it, and never treated him as a
+son, but as a subject.  He was the monarch always, never the father.
+Monseigneur had not the slightest influence with the King.  If he showed
+any preference for a person it was enough!  That person was sure to be
+kept back by the King.  The King was so anxious to show that Monseigneur
+could do nothing, that Monseigneur after a time did not even try.  He
+contented himself by complaining occasionally in monosyllables, and by
+hoping for better times.
+
+The body of Monseigneur so soon grew decomposed; that immediate burial
+was necessary.  At midnight on Wednesday he was carried, with but little
+ceremony, to Saint-Denis, and deposited in the royal vaults.  His funeral
+services were said at Saint-Denis on the 18th of the following June, and
+at Notre Dame on the 3rd of July.  As the procession passed through Paris
+nothing but cries, acclamations, and eulogiums of the defunct were heard.
+Monseigneur had, I know not how, much endeared himself to the common
+people of Paris, and this sentiment soon gained the provinces; so true it
+is, that in France it costs little to its Princes to make themselves
+almost adored!
+
+The King soon got over his affliction for the loss of this son of fifty.
+Never was a man so ready with tears, so backward with grief, or so
+promptly restored to his ordinary state.  The morning after the death of
+Monseigneur he rose late, called M. de Beauvilliers into his cabinet,
+shed some more tears, and then said that from that time Monseigneur le
+Duc de Bourgogne and Madame la Duchesse de Bourgogne were to enjoy the
+honours, the rank, and the name of Dauphin and of Dauphine.  Henceforth I
+shall call them by no other names.
+
+My joy at this change may be imagined.  In a few days all my causes of
+disquietude had been removed, and I saw a future opening before me full
+of light and promise.  Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne become Dauphin,
+heir to the throne of France; what favour might I not hope for?  I could
+not conceal or control my satisfaction.
+
+But alas!  it was soon followed by sad disappointment and grievous
+sorrow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVIII
+
+The death of Monseigneur, as we have seen, made a great change in the
+aspect of the Court and in the relative positions of its members.  But
+the two persons to whom I must chiefly direct attention are the Duchesse
+de Bourgogne and the Duchesse de Berry.  The former, on account of her
+husband's fall in the opinion of his father, had long been out of favour
+likewise.  Although Monseigneur had begun to treat her less well for a
+long time, and most harshly during the campaign of Lille, and above all
+after the expulsion of the Duc de Vendome from Marly and Meudon; yet
+after the marriage of the Duc de Berry his coldness had still further
+increased. The adroit Princess, it is true, had rowed against the current
+with a steadiness and grace capable of disarming even a well-founded
+resentment; but the persons who surrounded him looked upon the meeting of
+them as dangerous for their projects.  The Duc and Duchesse de Bourgogne
+were every day still further removed in comparative disgrace.
+
+Things even went so far that apropos of an engagement broken off, the
+Duchesse resolved to exert her power instead of her persuasion, and
+threatened the two Lillebonnes.  A sort of reconciliation was then
+patched up, but it was neither sincere nor apparently so.
+
+The cabal which laboured to destroy the Duc and Duchesse de Bourgogne was
+equally assiduous in augmenting the influence of the Duc de Berry, whose
+wife had at once been admitted without having asked into the sanctuary of
+the Parvulo.  The object was to disunite the two brothers and excite
+jealousy between then.  In this they did not succeed even in the
+slightest degree.  But they found a formidable ally in the Duchesse de
+Berry, who proved as full of wickedness and ambition as any among them.
+The Duc d'Orleans often called his Duchess Madame Lucifer, at which she
+used to smile with complacency.  He was right, for she would have been a
+prodigy of pride had she not, had a daughter who far surpassed her.  This
+is not yet the time to paint their portraits; but I must give a word or
+two of explanation on the Duchesse de Berry.
+
+That princess was a marvel of wit, of pride, of ingratitude and folly--
+nay, of debauchery and obstinacy.
+
+Scarcely had she been married a week when she began to exhibit herself in
+all these lights,--not too manifestly it is true, for one of the
+qualities of which she was most vain was her falsity and power of
+concealment, but sufficiently to make an impression on those around her.
+People soon perceived how annoyed she was to be the daughter of an
+illegitimate mother, and to have lived under her restraint however mild;
+how she despised the weakness of her father, the Duc d'Orleans, and how
+confident she was of her influence over him; and how she had hated all
+who had interfered in her marriage--merely because she could not bear to
+be under obligations to any one--a reason she was absurd enough publicly
+to avow and boast of.  Her conduct was now based on those motives.  This
+is an example of how in this world people work with their heads in a
+sack, and how human prudence and wisdom are sometimes confounded by
+successes which have been reasonably desired and which turn out to be
+detestable!  We had brought about this marriage to avoid a marriage with
+Mademoiselle de Bourbon and to cement the union of the two brothers.  We
+now discovered that there was little danger of Mademoiselle de Bourbon,
+and then instead of her we had a Fury who had no thought but how to ruin
+those who had established her, to injure her benefactors, to make her
+husband and her brother quarrel; and to put herself in the power of her
+enemies because they were the enemies of her natural friends.  It never
+occurred to her that the cabal would not be likely to abandon to her the
+fruit of so much labour and so many crimes.
+
+It may easily be imagined that she was neither gentle nor docile when
+Madame la Duchesse began to give her advice.  Certain that her father
+would support her, she played the stranger and the daughter of France
+with her mother.  Estrangement, however, soon came on.  She behaved
+differently in form, but in effect the same with the Duchesse de
+Bourgogne, who wished to guide her as a daughter, but who soon gave up
+the attempt.  The Duchesse de Berry's object could only be gained by
+bringing about disunion between the two brothers, and for this purpose
+she employed as a spring the passion of her husband for herself.
+
+The first night at Versailles after the death of Monseigneur was
+sleepless.  The Dauphin and Dauphine heard mass early next morning.
+I went to see them.  Few persons were present on account of the hour.
+The Princess wished to be at Marly at the King's waking.  Their eyes were
+wonderfully dry, but carefully managed; and it was easy to see they were
+more occupied with their new position than with the death of Monseigneur.
+A smile which they exchanged as they spoke, in whispers convinced me of
+this.  One of their first cares was to endeavour to increase their good
+relations with the Duc and Duchesse de Berry.  They were to see them
+before they were up.  The Duc de Berry showed himself very sensible to
+this act, and the Duchess was eloquent, clever, and full of tears.  But
+her heart was wrung by these advances of pure generosity.  The separation
+she had planned soon followed: and the two princesses felt relieved at no
+longer being obliged to dine together.
+
+Thus never was change greater or more marked than that brought about by
+the death of Monseigneur.  That prince had become the centre of all hope
+and of all fear, a formidable cabal had seized upon him, yet without
+awakening the jealousy of the King, before whom all trembled, but whose
+anxieties did not extend beyond his own lifetime, during which, and very
+reasonably, he feared nothing.
+
+Before I go any further, let me note a circumstance characteristic of the
+King.  Madame la Dauphine went every day to Marly to see him.  On the day
+after the death of Monseigneur she received, not without surprise, easily
+understood, a hint from Madame de Maintenon.  It was to the effect that
+she should dress herself with some little care, inasmuch as the
+negligence of her attire displeased the King!  The Princess did not think
+that dress ought to occupy her then; and even if she had thought so, she
+would have believed, and with good reason, that she was committing a
+grave fault against decorum, a fault which would have been less readily
+pardoned, since in every way she had gained too much by what had just
+occurred not to be very guarded in her behaviour.  On the next day she
+took more pains with her toilette; but what she did not being found
+sufficient, the day following she carried with her some things and
+dressed herself secretly in Madame de Maintenon's rooms; and resumed
+there her ordinary apparel before returning to Versailles.  Thus she
+avoided offence both to the King and to society.  The latter certainly
+would with difficulty have been persuaded that in this ill-timed
+adornment of her person, her own tastes went for nothing.  The Comtesse
+de Mailly, who invented the scheme, and Madame de Nogaret, who both liked
+Monseigneur, related this to me and were piqued by it.  From this fact
+and from the circumstance that all the ordinary pleasures and occupations
+were resumed immediately after the death of Monseigneur, the King passing
+his days without any constraint,--it may be assumed that if the royal
+grief was bitter its evidences were of a kind to promise that it would
+not be of long duration.
+
+M. le Dauphin, for, as I have said, it is by that title I shall now name
+Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne--M. le Dauphin, I say, soon gained all
+hearts.  In the first days of solitude following upon the death of
+Monseigneur, the King intimated to M. de Beauvilliers that he should not
+care to see the new Dauphin go very often to Meudon.  This was enough.
+M. le Dauphin at once declared that he would never set his foot in that
+palace, and that he would never quit the King.  He was as good as his
+word, and not one single visit did he ever afterwards pay to Meudon.  The
+King wished to give him fifty thousand livres a month, Monseigneur having
+had that sum.  M. le Dauphin would not accept them.  He had only six
+thousand livres per month.  He was satisfied with double that amount and
+would not receive more.  This disinterestedness much pleased the public.
+M. le Dauphin wished for nothing special on his account, and persisted in
+remaining in nearly everything as he was during the life of Monseigneur.
+These auguries of a prudent and measured reign, suggested the brightest
+of hopes.
+
+Aided by his adroit spouse, who already had full possession of the King's
+heart and of that of Madame de Maintenon, M. le Dauphin redoubled his
+attentions in order to possess them also.  These attentions, addressed to
+Madame de Maintenon, produced their fruit.  She was transported with
+pleasure at finding a Dauphin upon whom she could rely, instead of one
+whom she did not like, gave herself up to him accordingly, and by that
+means secured to him the King's favour.  The first fortnight made evident
+to everybody at Marly the extraordinary change that had come over the
+King with respect to the Dauphin.  His Majesty, generally severe beyond
+measure with his legitimate children, showed the most marked graciousness
+for this prince.  The effects of this, and of the change that had taken
+place in his state, were soon most clearly visible in the Dauphin.
+Instead of being timid and retiring, diffident in speech, and more fond
+of his study than of the salon, he became on a sudden easy and frank,
+showing himself in public on all occasions, conversing right and left in
+a gay, agreeable, and dignified manner; presiding, in fact, over the
+Salon of Marly, and over the groups gathered round him, like the divinity
+of a temple, who receives with goodness the homage to which he is
+accustomed, and recompenses the mortals who offer it with gentle regard.
+
+In a short time hunting became a less usual topic of conversation.
+History, and even science, were touched upon lightly, pleasantly, and
+discreetly, in a manner that charmed while it instructed.  The Dauphin
+spoke with an eloquent freedom that opened all eyes, ears and hearts.
+People sometimes, in gathering near him, were less anxious to make their
+court than to listen to his natural eloquence, and to draw from it
+delicious instruction.  It is astonishing with what rapidity he gained
+universal esteem and admiration.  The public joy could not keep silent.
+People asked each other if this was really the same man they had known as
+the Duc de Bourgogne, whether he was a vision or a reality?  One of M. le
+Dauphin's friends, to whom this question was addressed, gave a keen
+reply.  He answered, that the cause of all this surprise was, that
+previously the people did not, and would not, know this prince, who,
+nevertheless, to those who had known him, was the same now as he had ever
+been; and that this justice would be rendered to him when time had shown
+how much it was deserved.
+
+From the Court to Paris, and from Paris to the provinces, the reputation
+of the Dauphin flew on rapid wings.  However founded might be this
+prodigious success, we need not believe it was entirely due to the
+marvellous qualities of the young prince.  It was in a great measure a
+reaction against the hostile feeling towards him which had been excited
+by the cabal, whose efforts I have previously spoken of.  Now that people
+saw how unjust was this feeling, their astonishment added to their
+admiration.  Everybody was filled with a sentiment of joy at seeing the
+first dawn of a new state of things, which promised so much order and
+happiness after such a long confusion and so much obscurity.
+
+Gracious as the King showed himself to M. le Dauphin, and accustomed as
+the people grew to his graciousness, all the Court was strangely
+surprised at a fresh mark of favour that was bestowed one morning by his
+Majesty on this virtuous prince.  The King, after having been closeted
+alone with him for some time, ordered his ministers to work with the
+Dauphin whenever sent for, and, whether sent for or not, to make him
+acquainted with all public affairs; this command being given once for
+all.
+
+It is not easy to describe the prodigious movement caused at the Court by
+this order, so directly opposed to the tastes, to the disposition, to the
+maxims, to the usage of the King, who thus showed a confidence in the
+Dauphin which was nothing less than tacitly transferring to him a large
+part of the disposition of public affairs.  This was a thunderbolt for
+the ministers; who, accustomed to have almost everything their own way,
+to rule over everybody and browbeat everybody at will, to govern the
+state abroad and at home, in fact, fixing all punishments, all
+recompenses, and always sheltering themselves behind the royal authority
+"the King wills it so" being the phrase ever on their lips,--to these
+officers, I say, it was a thunderbolt which so bewildered them, that they
+could not hide their astonishment or their confusion.  The public joy at
+an order which reduced these ministers, or rather these kings, to the
+condition of subjects, which put a curb upon their power, and provided
+against the abuses they committed, was great indeed!  The ministers were
+compelled to bend their necks, though stiff as iron, to the yoke.  They
+all went, with a hang-dog look, to show the Dauphin a feigned joy and a
+forced obedience to the order they had received.
+
+Here, perhaps, I may as well speak of the situation in which I soon
+afterwards found myself with the Dauphin, the confidence as to the
+present and the future that I enjoyed with him, and the many
+deliberations we had upon public affairs.  The matter is curious and
+interesting, and need no longer be deferred.
+
+The Court being changed by the death of Monseigneur, I soon began indeed
+to think of changing my conduct with regard to the new Dauphin.  M. de
+Beauvilliers spoke to me about this matter first, but he judged, and I
+shared his opinion, that slandered as I had been on previous occasions,
+and remaining still, as it were, half in disgrace, I must approach the
+Dauphin only by slow degrees, and not endeavour to shelter myself under
+him until his authority with the King had become strong enough to afford
+me a safe asylum.  I believed, nevertheless, that it would be well to
+sound him immediately; and one evening, when he was but thinly
+accompanied, I joined him in the gardens at Marly and profited by his
+gracious welcome to say to him, on the sly, that many reasons, of which
+he was not ignorant, had necessarily kept me until then removed from him,
+but that now I hoped to be able to follow with less constraint my
+attachment and my inclination, and that I flattered myself this would be
+agreeable to him.  He replied in a low tone, that there were sometimes
+reasons which fettered people, but in our case such no longer existed;
+that he knew of my regard for him, and reckoned with pleasure that we
+should soon see each other more frequently than before.  I am writing the
+exact words of his reply, on account of the singular politeness of the
+concluding ones.  I regarded that reply as the successful result of a
+bait that had been taken as I wished.  Little by little I became more
+assiduous at his promenades, but without following them when the crowd or
+any dangerous people do so; and I spoke more freely.  I remained content
+with seeing the Dauphin in public, and I approached him in the Salon only
+when if I saw a good opportunity.
+
+Some days after, being in the Salon, I saw the Dauphin and the Dauphine
+enter together and converse.  I approached and heard their last words;
+they stimulated me to ask the prince what was in debate, not in a
+straightforward manner, but in a sort of respectful insinuating way which
+I already adopted.  He explained to me that he was going to Saint-Germain
+to pay an ordinary visit; that on this occasion there would be some
+change in the ceremonial; explained the matter, and enlarged with
+eagerness on the necessity of not abandoning legitimate rights.
+
+"How glad I am to see you think thus," I replied, "and how well you act
+in advocating these forms, the neglect of which tarnishes everything."
+
+He responded with warmth; and I seized the moment to say, that if he,
+whose rank was so great and so derided, was right to pay attention to
+these things, how such we dukes had reason to complain of our losses, and
+to try to sustain ourselves!  Thereupon he entered into the question so
+far as to become the advocate of our cause, and finished by saying that
+he regarded our restoration as an act of justice important to the state;
+that he knew I was well instructed in these things, and that I should
+give him pleasure by talking of them some day.  He rejoined at that,
+moment the Dauphine, and they set off for Saint-Germain.
+
+A few days after this the Dauphin sent for me.  I entered by the
+wardrobe, where a sure and trusty valet was in waiting; he conducted me
+to a cabinet in which the Dauphin was sitting alone.  Our conversation at
+once commenced.  For a full hour we talked upon the state of affairs, the
+Dauphin listening with much attention to all I said, and expressing
+himself with infinite modesty, sense, and judgment.  His view, I found,
+were almost entirely in harmony with mine.  He was sorry, and touchingly
+said so, for the ignorance of all things in which the King was kept by
+his ministers; he was anxious to see the power of those ministers
+restricted; he looked with dislike upon the incredible elevation of the
+illegitimate children; he wished to see the order to which I belonged
+restored to the position it deserved to occupy.
+
+It is difficult to express what I felt in quitting the Dauphin.  A
+magnificent and near future opened out before me.  I saw a prince, pious,
+just, debonnaire, enlightened, and seeking to become more so; with
+principles completely in accord with my own, and capacity to carry out
+those principles when the time for doing so arrived.  I relished
+deliciously a confident so precious and so full upon the most momentous
+matters and at a first interview.  I felt all the sweetness of this
+perspective, and of my deliverance from a servitude which, in spite of
+myself, I sometimes could not help showing myself impatient of.  I felt,
+too, that I now had an opportunity of elevating myself, and of
+contributing to those grand works, for the happiness and advantage of the
+state I so much wished to see accomplished.
+
+A few days after this I had another interview with the Dauphin.  I was
+introduced secretly as before, so that no one perceived either my coming
+or my departure.  The same subjects we had previously touched upon we now
+entered into again, and more amply than on the former occasion.  The
+Dauphin, in taking leave of me, gave me full permission to see him in
+private as often as I desired, though in public I was still to be
+circumspect.
+
+Indeed there was need of great circumspection in carrying on even private
+intercourse with the Dauphin.  From this time I continually saw him in
+his cabinet, talking with him in all liberty upon the various persons of
+the Court, and upon the various subjects relating to the state; but
+always with the same secrecy as at first.  This was absolutely necessary;
+as I have just said, I was still in a sort of half disgrace the King did
+not regard me with the eyes of favour; Madame de Maintenon was resolutely
+averse to me.  If they two had suspected my strict intimacy with the heir
+to the throne, I should have been assuredly lost.
+
+To show what need there was of precaution in my private interviews with
+the Dauphin, let me here recall an incident which one day occurred when
+we were closeted together, and which might have led to the greatest
+results.  The Prince lodged then in one of the four grand suites of
+apartments, on the same level as the Salon, the suite that was broken up
+during an illness of Madame la Princesse de Conti, to make way for a
+grand stair case, the narrow and crooked one in use annoying the King
+when he ascended it.  The chamber of the Dauphine was there; the bed had
+its foot towards the window; by the chimney was the door of the obscure
+wardrobe by which I entered; between the chimney and one of the two
+windows was a little portable bureau; in front of the ordinary entrance
+door of the chamber and behind the bureau was the door of one of the
+Dauphine's rooms; between the two windows was a chest of drawers which
+was used for papers only.
+
+There were always some moments of conversation before the Dauphin set
+himself down at his bureau, and ordered me to place myself opposite him.
+Having become more free with him, I took the liberty to say one day in
+these first moments of our discourse, that he would do well to bolt the
+door behind him, the door I mean of the Dauphine's chamber.  He said that
+the Dauphine would not come, it not being her hour.  I replied that I did
+not fear that princess herself, but the crowd that always accompanied
+her.  He was obstinate, and would not bolt the door.  I did not dare to
+press him more.  He sat down before his bureau, and ordered me to sit
+also.  Our deliberation was long; afterwards we sorted our papers.  Here
+let me say this--Every time I went to see the Dauphin I garnished all my
+pockets with papers, and I often smiled within myself passing through the
+Salon, at seeing there many people who at that moment were in my pockets,
+and who were far indeed from suspecting the important discussion that was
+going to take place.  To return: the Dauphin gave, me his papers to put
+in my pockets, and kept mine.  He locked up some in his cupboard, and
+instead of locking up the others in his bureau, kept them out, and began
+talking to me, his back to the chimney, his papers in one hand, his keys
+in the other.  I was standing at the bureau looking for some other
+papers, when on a sudden the door in front of me opened, and the Dauphine
+entered!
+
+The first appearance of all three--for, thank God!  she was alone--the
+astonishment, the countenance of all have never left my memory.  Our
+fixed eyes, our statue-like immobility, and our embarrassment were all
+alike, and lasted longer than a slow Pater-poster.  The Princess spoke
+first.  She said to the Prince in a very ill-assured voice, that she had
+not imagined him in such good company; smiling upon him and upon me.  I
+had scarce time to smile also and to lower my eyes, before the Dauphin
+replied.
+
+"Since you find me so," said he, smiling in turn, "leave me so."
+
+For an instant she looked on him, he and she both smiling at each other
+more; then she looked on me, still smiling with greater liberty than at
+first, made a pirouette, went away and closed the door, beyond the
+threshold of which she had not come.
+
+Never have I seen woman so astonished; never man so taken aback, as the
+Prince after the Dauphine's departure; and never man, to say truth, was
+so afraid as I was at first, though I quickly reassured myself when I
+found that our intruder was alone.  As soon as she had closed the door,
+"Well, Monsieur," said I to the Dauphin, "if you had drawn the bolt?"
+
+"You were right," he replied, "and I was wrong.  But no harm is done.
+She was alone fortunately, and I guarantee to you her secrecy."
+
+"I am not troubled," said I to him, (yet I was so mightily) "but it is a
+miracle she was alone.  With her suite you would have escaped with a
+scolding perhaps but for me, I should have been utterly lost."
+
+He admitted again he had, been wrong, and assure me more and more that
+our secret was safe.  The Dauphine had caught us, not only tete-a-tete--
+of which no one had the least suspicion--she had caught us in the fact,
+so to say, our crimes in out hands.  I felt that she would not expose the
+Dauphin, but I feared an after-revelation through some over-easy
+confidant.  Nevertheless our secret was so well kept if confided that it
+never transpired.  We finished, I to pocket, the Prince to lock up, the
+papers.  The rest of the conversation was short, and I withdrew by the
+wardrobe as usual.  M. de Beauvilliers, to whom I related this adventure
+shortly afterwards, grew pale at first, but recovered when I said the
+Dauphine was alone.  He blamed the imprudence of the Dauphin, but assured
+me my secret was safe.  Ever since that adventure the Dauphine often
+smiled upon me when we met, as if to remind me of it, and showed marked
+attention to me.
+
+No sooner did I feel myself pretty firmly established on this footing of
+delicious intimacy with the Dauphin than I conceived the desire to unite
+him with M. le Duc d'Orleans through the means of M. de Beauvilliers.  At
+the very outset, however, an obstacle arose in my path.
+
+I have already said, that the friendship of M. d'Orleans for his
+daughter, Madame la Duchesse de Berry, had given employment to the
+tongues of Satan, set in Motion by hatred and jealousy.  Evil reports
+even reached M. le Duc de Berry, who on his part, wishing to enjoy the
+society of his wife in full liberty, was importuned by the continual
+presence near her, of her father.  To ward off a quarrel between son-in-
+law and father-in-law, based upon so false and so odious a foundation,
+appeared to Madame de Saint-Simon and myself a pressing duty.
+
+I had already tried to divert M. le Duc d'Orleans from an assiduity which
+wearied M. le Duc de Berry; but I had not succeeded.  I believed it my
+duty then to return to the charge more hotly; and remembering my previous
+ill-success, I prefaced properly, and then said what I had to say.  M.
+d'Orleans was astonished; he cried out against the horror of such a vile
+imputation and the villainy that had carried it to M. le Duc de Berry.
+He thanked me for having warned him of it, a service few besides myself
+would have rendered him.  I left him to draw the proper and natural
+conclusion on the conduct he should pursue.  This conversation passed one
+day at Versailles about four o'clock in the afternoon.
+
+On the morrow Madame de Saint-Simon related to me, that returning home
+the previous evening, from the supper and the cabinet of the King with
+Madame la Duchesse de Berry, the Duchess had passed straight into the
+wardrobe and called her there; and then with a cold and angry air, said
+she was very much astonished that I wished to get up a quarrel between
+her and M. le Duc d'Orleans.  Madame Saint-Simon exhibited surprise, but
+Madame la Duchesse de Berry declared that nothing was so true; that I
+wished to estrange M. d'Orleans from her, but that I should not succeed;
+and immediately related all that I had just said to her father.  He had
+had the goodness to repeat it to her an hour afterwards!  Madame de
+Saint-Simon, still more surprised, listened attentively to the end, and
+replied that this horrible report was public, that she herself could see
+what consequences it would have, false and abominable as it might be, and
+feel whether it was not important that M. le Duc d'Orleans should be
+informed of it.  She added, that I had shown such proofs of my attachment
+for them and of my desire for their happiness, that I was above all
+suspicion.  Then she curtsied and leaving the Princess went to bed.  This
+scene appeared to me enormous.
+
+For some time after this I ceased entirely to see Duc d'Orleans and
+Madame la Duchesse de Berry.  They cajoled me with all sorts of excuses,
+apologies, and so forth, but I remained frozen.  They redoubled their
+excuses and their prayers.  Friendship, I dare not say compassion,
+seduced me, and I allowed myself to be led away.  In a word, we were
+reconciled.  I kept aloof, however, from Madame la Duchesse de Berry as
+much as possible, visiting her only for form's sake; and as long as she
+lived never changed in this respect.
+
+Being reconciled with M. d'Orleans, I again thought of my project of
+uniting him to the Dauphin through M. de Beauvilliers.  He had need of
+some support, for on all sides he was sadly out of favour.  His
+debauchery and his impiety, which he had quitted for a time after
+separating himself from Madame d'Argenton, his mistress, had now seized
+on him again as firmly as ever.  It seemed as though there were a wager
+between him and his daughter, Madame la Duchesse de Berry, which should
+cast most contempt on religion and good manners.
+
+The King was nothing ignorant of the conduct of his nephew.  He had been
+much shocked with the return to debauchery and low company.  The enemies
+of M. d'Orleans, foremost among whom was M. du Maine, had therefore
+everything in their favour.  As I have said, without some support M.
+d'Orleans seemed in danger of being utterly lost.
+
+It was no easy matter to persuade M. de Beauvilliers to, fall in with the
+plan I had concocted, and lend his aid to it.  But I worked him hard.  I
+dwelt upon the taste of the Dauphin for history, science, and the arts,
+and showed what a ripe knowledge of those subjects M. d'Orleans had, and
+what agreeable conversation thereon they both might enjoy together.  In
+brief I won over M. de Beauvilliers to my scheme.  M. D'Orleans, on his
+side, saw without difficulty the advantage to him of union with the
+Dauphin.  To bring it about I laid before him two conditions.  One, that
+when in the presence of the Prince he should suppress that detestable
+heroism of impiety he affected more than he felt, and allow no licentious
+expressions to escape him.  The second was to go less often into evil
+company at Paris, and if he must continue his debauchery, to do so at the
+least within closed doors, and avoid all public scandal.  He promised
+obedience, and was faithful to his promise.  The Dauphin perceived and
+approved the change; little by little the object of my desire was gained.
+
+As I have already said, it would be impossible for me to express all the
+joy I felt at my deliverance from the dangers I was threatened with
+during the lifetime of Monseigneur.  My respect, esteem, and admiration
+for the Dauphin grew more and more day by day, as I saw his noble
+qualities blossom out in richer luxuriance.  My hopes, too, took a
+brighter colour from the rising dawn of prosperity that was breaking
+around me.  Alas!  that I should be compelled to relate the cruel manner
+in which envious fortune took from me the cup of gladness just as I was
+raising it to my lips.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIX
+
+On Monday, the 18th of January, 1712, after a visit to Versailles, the
+King went to Marly.  I mark expressly this journey.  No sooner were we
+settled there than Boudin, chief doctor of the Dauphine, warned her to
+take care of herself, as he had received sure information that there was
+a plot to poison her and the Dauphin, to whom he made a similar
+communication.  Not content with this he repeated it with a terrified
+manner to everybody in the salon, and frightened all who listened to him.
+The King spoke to him about it in private.  Boudin declared that this
+information was good, and yet that he did not know whence it came; and he
+stuck to this contradiction.  For, if he did not know where the
+information came from how could he be assured it was trustworthy?
+
+The most singular thing is, that twenty-four hours after Boudin had
+uttered this warning, the Dauphin received a similar one from the King of
+Spain, vague, and without mentioning whence obtained, and yet also
+declared to be of good source.  In this only the Dauphin was named
+distinctly--the Dauphine obscurely and by implication--at least, so the
+Dauphin explained the matter, and I never heard that he said otherwise.
+People pretended to despise these stories of origin unknown, but they
+were struck by them nevertheless, and in the midst of the amusements and
+occupations of the Court, seriousness, silence, and consternation were
+spread.
+
+The King, as I have said, went to Marly on Monday, the 18th of January,
+1712.  The Dauphine came there early with a face very much swelled, and
+went to bed at once; yet she rose at seven o'clock in the evening because
+the King wished her to preside in the salon.  She played there, in
+morning-dress, with her head wrapped up, visited the King m the apartment
+of Madame de Maintenon just before his supper, and then again went to
+bed, where she supped.  On the morrow, the 19th, she rose only to play in
+the salon, and see the King, returning to her bed and supping there.  On
+the 20th, her swelling diminished, and she was better.  She was subject
+to this complaint, which was caused by her teeth.  She passed the
+following days as usual.  On Monday, the 1st of February, the Court
+returned to Versailles.
+
+On Friday, the 5th of February, the Duc de Noailles gave a very fine box
+full of excellent Spanish snuff to the Dauphine, who took some, and liked
+it.  This was towards the end of the morning.  Upon entering her cabinet
+(closed to everybody else), she put this box upon the table, and left it
+there.  Towards the evening she was seized with trembling fits of fever.
+She went to bed, and could not rise again even to go to the King's
+cabinet after the supper.  On Saturday, the 6th of February, the
+Dauphine, who had had fever all night, did not fail to rise at her
+ordinary hour, and to pass the day as usual; but in the evening the fever
+returned.  She was but middling all that night, a little worse the next
+day; but towards ten o'clock at night she was suddenly seized by a sharp
+pain under the temple.  It did not extend to the dimensions of a ten sous
+piece, but was so violent that she begged the King, who was coming to see
+her, not to enter.  This kind of madness of suffering lasted without
+intermission until Monday, the 8th, and was proof against tobacco chewed
+and smoked, a quantity of opium, and two bleedings in the arms.  Fever
+showed itself more then this pain was a little calmed; the Dauphine said
+she had suffered more than in child-birth.
+
+Such a violent illness filled the chamber with rumours concerning the
+snuff-box given to the Dauphine by the Duc de Noailles.  In going to bed
+the day she had received it and was seized by fever, she spoke of the
+snuff to her ladies, highly praising it and the box, which she told one
+of them to go and look for upon the table in the cabinet, where, as I
+have said, it had been left.  The box could not be found, although looked
+for high and low.  This disappearance had seemed very extraordinary from
+the first moment it became known.  Now, joined to the grave illness with
+which the Dauphine was so cruelly assailed, it aroused the most sombre
+suspicions.  Nothing, however, was breathed of these suspicions, beyond a
+very restricted circle; for the Princess took snuff with the knowledge of
+Madame de Maintenon, but without that of the King, who would have made a
+fine scene if he had discovered it.  This was what was feared, if the
+singular loss of the box became divulged.
+
+Let me here say, that although one of my friends, the Archbishop of
+Rheims, believed to his dying day that the Duc de Noailles had poisoned
+the Dauphine by means of this box of Spanish snuff, I never could induce
+myself to believe so too.  The Archbishop declared that in the manner of
+the Duc de Noailles, after quitting the chamber of the Princess, there
+was something which suggested both confusion and contentment.  He brought
+forward other proofs of guilt, but they made no impression upon me.  I
+endeavoured, on the contrary, to shake his belief, but my labour was in
+vain.  I entreated him, however, at least to maintain the most profound
+silence upon this horrible thought, and he did so.
+
+Those who afterwards knew the history of the box--and they were in good
+number--were as inaccessible to suspicion as I; and nobody thought of
+charging the Duc de Noailles with the offence it was said he had
+committed.  As for me, I believed in his guilt so little that our
+intimacy remained the same; and although that intimacy grew even up to
+the death of the King, we never spoke of this fatal snuff-box.
+
+During the night, from Monday to Tuesday, the 9th of February, the
+lethargy was great.  During the day the King approached the bed many
+times: the fever was strong, the awakenings were short; the head was
+confused, and some marks upon the skin gave tokens of measles, because
+they extended quickly, and because many people at Versailles and at Paris
+were known to be, at this time, attacked with that disease.  The night
+from Tuesday to Wednesday passed so much the more badly, because the hope
+of measles had already vanished.  The King came in the morning to see
+Madame la Dauphine, to whom an emetic had been given.  It operated well,
+but produced no relief.  The Dauphin, who scarcely ever left the bedside
+of his wife, was forced into the garden to take the air, of which he had
+much need; but his disquiet led him back immediately into the chamber.
+The malady increased towards the evening, and at eleven o'clock there was
+a considerable augmentation of fever.  The night was very bad.
+On Thursday, the 11th of February, at nine o'clock in the morning, the
+King entered the Dauphine's chamber, which Madame de Maintenon scarcely
+ever left, except when he was in her apartments.  The Princess was so ill
+that it was resolved to speak to her of receiving the sacrament.
+Prostrated though she was she was surprised at this.  She put some
+questions as to her state; replies as little terrifying as possible were
+given to her, and little by little she was warned against delay.
+Grateful for this advice, she said she would prepare herself.
+
+After some time, accidents being feared, Father la Rue, her (Jesuit)
+confessor, whom she had always appeared to like, approached her to exhort
+her not to delay confession.  She looked at him, replied that she
+understood him, and then remained silent.  Like a sensible man he saw
+what was the matter, and at once said that if she had any objection to
+confess to him to have no hesitation in admitting it.  Thereupon she
+indicated that she should like to have M. Bailly, priest of the mission
+of the parish of Versailles.  He was a man much esteemed, but not
+altogether free from the suspicion of Jansenism.  Bailly, as it happened,
+had gone to Paris.  This being told her, the Dauphine asked for Father
+Noel, who was instantly sent for.
+
+The excitement that this change of confessor made at a moment so critical
+may be imagined.  All the cruelty of the tyranny that the King never
+ceased to exercise over every member of his family was now apparent.
+They could not have a confessor not of his choosing!  What was his
+surprise and the surprise of all the Court, to find that in these last
+terrible moments of life the Dauphine wished to change her confessor,
+whose order even she repudiated!
+
+Meanwhile the Dauphin had given way.  He had hidden his own illness as
+long as he could, so as not to leave the pillow of his Dauphine.  Now the
+fever he had was too strong to be dissimulated; and the doctors, who
+wished to spare him the sight of the horrors they foresaw, forgot nothing
+to induce him to stay in his chamber, where, to sustain him, false news
+was, from time to time, brought him of the state of his spouse.
+
+The confession of the Dauphine was long.  Extreme unction was
+administered immediately afterwards; and the holy viaticum directly.
+An hour afterwards the Dauphine desired the prayers for the dying to be
+said.  They told her she was not yet in that state, and with words of
+consolation exhorted her to try and get to sleep.  Seven doctors of the
+Court and of Paris were sent for.  They consulted together in the
+presence of the King and Madame de Maintenon.  All with one voice were in
+favour of bleeding at the foot; and in case it did not have the effect
+desired, to give an emetic at the end of the night.  The bleeding was
+executed at seven o'clock in the evening.  The return of the fever came
+and was found less violent than the preceding.  The night was cruel.  The
+King came early next morning to see the Dauphine.  The emetic she took at
+about nine o'clock had little effect.  The day passed in symptoms each
+more sad than the other; consciousness only at rare intervals.  All at
+once towards evening, the whole chamber fell into dismay.  A number of
+people were allowed to enter although the King was there.  Just before
+she expired he left, mounted into his coach at the foot of the grand
+staircase, and with Madame de Maintenon and Madame de Caylus went away to
+Marly.  They were both in the most bitter grief, and had not the courage
+to go to the Dauphin.  Upon arriving at Marly the King supped in his own
+room; and passed a short time with M. d'Orleans and his natural children.
+M. le Duc de Berry, entirely occupied with his affliction, which was
+great and real, had remained at Versailles with Madame la Duchesse de
+Berry, who, transported with joy upon seeing herself delivered from a
+powerful rival, to whom, however, she owed all, made her face do duty for
+her heart.
+
+Monseigneur le Dauphin, ill and agitated by the most bitter grief, kept
+his chamber; but on Saturday morning the 13th, being pressed to go to
+Marly to avoid the horror of the noise overhead where the Dauphine was
+lying dead, he set out for that place at seven o'clock in the morning.
+Shortly after arriving he heard mass in the chapel, and thence was
+carried in a chair to the window of one of his rooms.  Madame de
+Maintenon came to see him there afterwards; the anguish of the interview
+was speedily too much for her, and she went away.  Early in the morning I
+went uninvited to see M. le Dauphin.  He showed me that he perceived this
+with an air of gentleness and of affection which penetrated me.  But I
+was terrified with his looks, constrained, fixed and with something wild
+about them, with the change in his face and with the marks there, livid
+rather than red, that I observed in good number and large; marks observed
+by the others also.  The Dauphin was standing.  In a few minutes he was
+apprised that the King had awaked.  The tears that he had restrained, now
+rolled from his eyes; he turned round at the news but said nothing,
+remaining stock still.  His three attendants proposed to him, once or
+twice, that he should go to the King.  He neither spoke nor stirred.  I
+approached and made signs to him to go, then softly spoke to the same
+effect.  Seeing that he still remained speechless and motionless, I made
+bold to take his arm, representing to him that sooner or later he must
+see the King, who expected him, and assuredly with the desire to see and
+embrace him; and pressing him in this manner, I took the liberty to
+gently push him.  He cast upon me a look that pierced my soul and went
+away: I followed him some few steps and then withdrew to recover breath;
+I never saw him again.  May I, by the mercy of God, see him eternally
+where God's goodness doubtless has placed him!
+
+The Dauphin reached the chamber of the King, full just then of company.
+As soon as, he appeared the King called him and embraced him tenderly
+again and again.  These first moments, so touching, passed in words
+broken by sobs and tears.
+
+Shortly afterwards the King looking at the Dauphin was terrified by the
+same things that had previously struck me with affright.  Everybody
+around was so, also the doctors more than the others.  The King ordered
+them to feel his pulse; that they found bad, so they said afterwards; for
+the time they contented themselves with saying it was not regular, and
+that the Dauphin would do wisely to go to bed.  The King embraced him
+again, recommended him very tenderly to take care of himself, and ordered
+him to go to bed.  He obeyed and rose no more!
+
+It was now late in the morning.  The King had passed a cruel night and
+had a bad headache; he saw at his dinner, the few courtiers who presented
+themselves, and after dinner went to the Dauphin.  The fever had
+augmented: the pulse was worse than before.  The King passed into the
+apartments of Madame de Maintenon, and the Dauphin was left with his
+attendants and his doctors.  He spent the day in prayers and holy
+reading.
+
+On the morrow, Sunday, the uneasiness felt on account of the Dauphin
+augmented.  He himself did not conceal his belief that he should never
+rise again, and that the plot Boudin had warned him of, had been
+executed.  He explained himself to this effect more than once, and always
+with a disdain of earthly grandeur and an incomparable submission and
+love of God.  It is impossible to describe the general consternation.  On
+Monday the 15th, the King was bled.  The Dauphin was no better than
+before.  The King and Madame de Maintenon saw him separately several
+times during the day, which was passed in prayers and reading.
+
+On Tuesday, the 16th, the Dauphin was worse.  He felt himself devoured by
+a consuming fire, which the external fever did not seem to justify; but
+the pulse was very extraordinary and exceedingly menacing.  This was a
+deceptive day.  The marks on the Dauphin's face extended over all the
+body.  They were regarded as the marks of measles.  Hope arose thereon,
+but the doctors and the most clear-sighted of the Court could not forget
+that these same marks had shown themselves on the body of the Dauphine; a
+fact unknown out of her chamber until after death.
+
+On Wednesday, the 17th, the malady considerably increased.  I had news at
+all moments of the Dauphin's state from Cheverny, an excellent apothecary
+of the King and of my family.  He hid nothing from us.  He had told us
+what he thought of the Dauphine's illness; he told us now what he thought
+of the Dauphin's.  I no longer hoped therefore, or rather I hoped to the
+end, against all hope.
+
+On Wednesday the pains increased.  They were like a devouring fire, but
+more violent than ever.  Very late into the evening the Dauphin sent to
+the King for permission to receive the communion early the next morning,
+without ceremony and without display, at the mass performed in his
+chamber.  Nobody heard of this, that evening; it was not known until the
+following morning.  I was in extreme desolation; I scarcely saw the King
+once a day.  I did nothing but go in quest of news several times a day,
+and to the house of M. de Chevreuse, where I was completely free.  M. de
+Chevreuse--always calm, always sanguine--endeavoured to prove to us by
+his medical reasonings that there was more reason to hope than to fear,
+but he did so with a tranquillity that roused my impatience.  I returned
+home to pass a cruel night.
+
+On Thursday morning, the 18th of February, I learned that the Dauphin,
+who had waited for midnight with impatience, had heard mass immediately
+after the communion, had passed two hours in devout communication with
+God, and that his reason then became embarrassed.  Madame de Saint-Simon
+told me afterwards that he had received extreme unction: in fine, that he
+died at half-past eight.  These memoirs are not written to describe my
+private sentiments.  But in reading them,--if, long after me, they shall
+ever appear, my state and that of Madame de Saint-Simon will only too
+keenly be felt.  I will content myself with saying, that the first days
+after the Dauphin's death scarcely appeared to us more than moments; that
+I wished to quit all, to withdraw from the Court and the world, and that
+I was only hindered by the wisdom, conduct, and power over me of Madame
+de Saint-Simon, who yet had much trouble to subdue my sorrowful desires.
+Let me say something now of the young prince and his spouse, whom we thus
+lost in such quick succession.
+
+Never did princess arrive amongst us so young with so much instruction,
+or with such capacity to profit by instruction.  Her skilful father, who
+thoroughly knew our Court, had painted it to her, and had made her
+acquainted with the only manner of making herself happy there.  From the
+first moment of her arrival she had acted upon his lessons.  Gentle,
+timid, but adroit, fearing to give the slightest pain to anybody, and
+though all lightness and vivacity, very capable of far-stretching views;
+constraint, even to annoyance, cost her nothing, though she felt all its
+weight.  Complacency was natural to her, flowed from her, and was
+exhibited towards every member of the Court.
+
+Regularly plain, with cheeks hanging, a forehead too prominent, a nose
+without meaning, thick biting lips, hair and eye-brows of dark chestnut,
+and well planted; the most speaking and most beautiful eyes in the world;
+few teeth, and those all rotten, about which she was the first to talk
+and jest; the most beautiful complexion and skin; not much bosom, but
+what there was admirable; the throat long, with the suspicion of a
+goitre, which did not ill become her; her head carried gallantly,
+majestically, gracefully; her mien noble; her smile most expressive; her
+figure long, round, slender, easy, perfectly-shaped; her walk that of a
+goddess upon the clouds: with such qualifications she pleased supremely.
+Grace accompanied her every step, and shone through her manners and her
+most ordinary conversation.  An air always simple and natural, often
+naive, but seasoned with wit-this with the ease peculiar to her, charmed
+all who approached her, and communicated itself to them.  She wished to
+please even the most useless and the most ordinary persons, and yet
+without making an effort to do so.  You were tempted to believe her
+wholly and solely devoted to those with whom she found herself.  Her
+gaiety--young, quick, and active--animated all; and her nymph-like
+lightness carried her everywhere, like a whirlwind which fills several
+places at once, and gives them movement and life.  She was the ornament
+of all diversions, the life and soul of all pleasure, and at balls
+ravished everybody by the justness and perfection of her dancing.  She
+could be amused by playing for small sums but liked high gambling better,
+and was an excellent, good-tempered, and bold gamester.
+
+She spared nothing, not even her health, to gain Madame de Maintenon, and
+through her the King.  Her suppleness towards them was without example,
+and never for a moment was at fault.  She accompanied it with all the
+discretion that her knowledge of them, acquired by study and experience,
+had given her, and could measure their dispositions to an inch.  In this
+way she had acquired a familiarity with them such as none of the King's
+children, not even the bastards, had approached.
+
+In public, serious, measured, with the King, and in timid decorum with
+Madame de Maintenon, whom she never addressed except as my aunt, thus
+prettily confounding friendship and rank.  In private, prattling,
+skipping, flying around them, now perched upon the sides of their arm-
+chairs, now playing upon their knees, she clasped them round the neck,
+embraced them, kissed them, caressed them, rumpled them, tickled them
+under the chin, tormented them, rummaged their tables, their papers,
+their letters, broke open the seals, and read the contents in spite of
+opposition, if she saw that her waggeries were likely to be received in
+good part.  When the King was with his ministers, when he received
+couriers, when the most important affairs were under discussion, she was
+present, and with such liberty, that, hearing the King and Madame de
+Maintenon speak one evening with affection of the Court of England, at
+the time when peace was hoped for from Queen Anne, "My aunt," she said,
+"you must admit that in England the queens govern better than the kings,
+and do you know why, my aunt?" asked she, running about and gambolling
+all the time, "because under kings it is women who govern, and men under
+queens."  The joke is that they both laughed, and said she was right.
+
+The King really could not do without her.  Everything went wrong with him
+if she was not by; even at his public supper, if she were away an
+additional cloud of seriousness and silence settled around him.  She took
+great care to see him every day upon arriving and departing; and if some
+ball in winter, or some pleasure party in summer, made her lose half the
+night, she  nevertheless adjusted things so well that she went and
+embraced the King the moment he was up, and amused him with a description
+of the fete.
+
+She was so far removed from the thoughts of death, that on Candlemas-day
+she talked with Madame de Saint-Simon of people who had died since she
+had been at Court, and of what she would herself do in old age, of the
+life she would lead, and of such like matters.  Alas!  it pleased God,
+for our misfortune, to dispose of her differently.
+
+With all her coquetry--and she was not wanting in it--never woman seemed
+to take less heed of her appearance; her toilette was finished in a
+moment, she cared nothing for finery except at balls and fetes; if she
+displayed a little at other times it was simply in order to please the
+king.  If the Court subsisted after her it was only to languish.  Never
+was princess so regretted, never one so worthy of it: regrets have not
+yet passed away, the involuntary and secret bitterness they caused still
+remain, with a frightful blank not yet filled up.
+
+Let me now turn to the Dauphin.
+
+The youth of this prince made every one tremble.  Stern and choleric to
+the last degree, and even against inanimate objects; impetuous with
+frenzy, incapable of suffering the slightest resistance even from the
+hours and the elements, without flying into a passion that threatened to
+destroy his body; obstinate to excess; passionately fond of all kind of
+voluptuousness, of women, with even a worse passion strongly developed at
+the same time; fond not less of wine, good living, hunting, music, and
+gaming, in which last he could not endure to be beaten; in fine,
+abandoned to every passion, and transported by every pleasure; oftentimes
+wild, naturally disposed towards cruelty; barbarous in raillery, and with
+an all-powerful capacity for ridicule.
+
+He looked down upon all men as from the sky, as atoms with whom he had
+nothing in common; even his brothers scarcely appeared connecting links
+between himself and human nature, although all had been educated together
+in perfect equality.  His sense and penetration shone through everything.
+His replies, even in anger, astonished everybody.  He amused himself with
+the most abstract knowledge.  The extent and vivacity of his intellect
+were prodigious, and rendered him incapable of applying himself to one
+study at a time.
+
+So much intelligence and of such a kind, joined to such vivacity,
+sensibility, and passion, rendered his education difficult.  But God, who
+is the master of all hearts, and whose divine spirit breathes where he
+wishes, worked a miracle on this prince between his eighteenth and
+twentieth years.  From this abyss he came out affable, gentle, humane,
+moderate, patient, modest, penitent, and humble; and austere, even more
+than harmonised with his position.  Devoted to his duties, feeling them
+to be immense, he thought only how to unite the duties of son and subject
+with those he saw to be destined for himself.  The shortness of each day
+was his only sorrow.  All his force, all his consolation, was in prayer
+and pious reading.  He clung with joy to the cross of his Saviour,
+repenting sincerely of his past pride.  The King, with his outside
+devotion, soon saw with secret displeasure his own life censured by that
+of a prince so young, who refused himself a new desk in order to give the
+money it would cost to the poor, and who did not care to accept some new
+gilding with which it was proposed to furnish his little room.
+Madame la Duchesse de Bourgogne, alarmed at so austere a spouse, left
+nothing undone in order to soften him.  Her charms, with which he was
+smitten, the cunning and the unbridled importunities of the young ladies
+of her suite, disguised in a hundred different forms--the attraction of
+parties and pleasures to which he was far from insensible, all were
+displayed every day..  But for a long time he behaved not like a prince
+but like a novice.  On one occasion he refused to be present at a ball on
+Twelfth Night, and in various ways made himself ridiculous at Court.
+In due time, however, he comprehended that the faithful performance of
+the duties proper to the state in which he had been placed, would be the
+conduct most agreeable to God.  The bark of the tree, little by little,
+grew softer without affecting the solidity of the trunk.  He applied
+himself to the studies which were necessary, in order to instruct himself
+in public affairs, and at the same time he lent himself more to the
+world, doing so with so much grace, with such a natural air, that
+everybody soon began to grow reconciled to him.
+
+The discernment of this prince was such, that, like the bee, he gathered
+the most perfect substance from the best and most beautiful flowers.  He
+tried to fathom men, to draw from them the instruction and the light that
+he could hope for.  He conferred sometimes, but rarely, with others
+besides his chosen few.  I was the only one, not of that number, who had
+complete access to him; with me he opened his heart upon the present and
+the future with confidence, with sageness, with discretion.  A volume
+would not describe sufficiently my private interviews with this prince,
+what love of good!  what forgetfulness of self!  what researches!  what
+fruit!  what purity of purpose!--May I say it?  what reflection of the
+divinity in that mind, candid, simple, strong, which as much as is
+possible here below had preserved the image of its maker!
+
+If you had business, and thought of opening it to him, say for a quarter
+of an hour or half an hour, he gave you oftentimes two hours or more,
+according as he found himself at liberty.  Yet he was without verbiage,
+compliments, prefaces, pleasantries, or other hindrances; went straight
+to the point, and allowed you to go also.
+
+His undue scruples of devotion diminished every day, as he found himself
+face to face with the world; above all, he was well cured of the
+inclination for piety in preference to talent, that is to say, for making
+a man ambassador, minister, or general, rather on account of his
+devotedness than of his capacity or experience.  He saw the danger of
+inducing hypocrisy by placing devotion too high as a qualification for
+employ.
+
+It was he who was not afraid to say publicly, in the Salon of Marly, that
+"a king is made for his subjects, and not the subjects for him;" a remark
+that, except under his own reign, which God did not permit, would have
+been the most frightful blasphemy.
+
+Great God!  what a spectacle you gave to us in him.  What tender but
+tranquil views he had!  What submission and love of God!  What a
+consciousness of his own nothingness, and of his sins!  What a
+magnificent idea of the infinite mercy!  What religious and humble fear!
+What tempered confidence!  What patience!
+
+What constant goodness for all who approached him!  France fell, in fine,
+under this last chastisement.  God showed to her a prince she merited
+not.  The earth was not worthy of him; he was ripe already for the
+blessed eternity!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LX
+
+The consternation at the event that had taken place was real and general;
+it penetrated to foreign lands and courts.  Whilst the people wept for
+him who thought only of their relief, and all France lamented a prince
+who only wished to reign in order to render it flourishing and happy,
+the sovereigns of Europe publicly lamented him whom they regarded as
+their example, and whose virtues were preparing him to be their
+arbitrator, and the peaceful and revered moderator of nations.  The Pope
+was so touched that he resolved of himself to set aside all rule and hold
+expressly a consistory; deplored there the infinite loss the church and
+all Christianity had sustained, and pronounced a complete eulogium of the
+prince who caused the just regrets of all Europe.
+
+On Saturday, the 13th, the corpse of the Dauphine was left in its bed
+with uncovered face, and opened the same evening at eleven in presence of
+all the faculty.  On the 15th it was placed in the grand cabinet, where
+masses were continually said.
+
+On Friday, the 19th, the corpse of Monseigneur le Dauphin was opened, a
+little more than twenty-four hours after his death, also in presence of
+all the faculty.  His heart was immediately carried to Versailles, and
+placed by the side of that of Madame la Dauphine.  Both were afterwards
+taken to the Val de Grace.  They arrived at midnight with a numerous
+cortege.  All was finished in two hours.  The corpse of Monseigneur le
+Dauphin was afterwards carried from Marly to Versailles, and placed by
+the side of Madame la Dauphine on the same estrade.
+
+On Tuesday, the 23rd February, the two bodies were taken from Versailles
+to Saint-Denis in the same chariot.  The procession began to enter Paris
+by the Porte Saint-Honore at two o'clock in the morning, and arrived
+between seven and eight o'clock in the morning at Saint-Denis.  There was
+great order in Paris, and no confusion.
+
+On Tuesday, the 8th March, Monseigneur le Duc de Bretagne, eldest son of
+Monsieur le Dauphin, who had succeeded to the name and rank of his
+father, being then only five years and some months old, and who had been
+seized with measles within a few days, expired, in spite of all the
+remedies given him.  His brother, M. le Duc d'Anjou, who still sucked,
+was taken ill at the same time, but thanks to the care of the Duchesse de
+Ventadour, whom in after life he never forgot, and who administered an
+antidote, escaped, and is now King.
+
+Thus three Dauphins died in less than a year, and father, mother, and
+eldest son in twenty-four days!  On Wednesday, the 9th of March, the
+corpse of the little Dauphin was opened at night, and without any
+ceremony his heart was taken to the Val de Grace, his body to Saint-
+Denis, and placed by the side of those of his father and mother.  M. le
+Duc d'Anjou, now, sole remaining child, succeeded to the title and to the
+rank of Dauphin.
+
+I have said that the bodies of the Dauphin and the Dauphine were opened
+in presence of all the faculty.  The report made upon the opening of the
+latter was not consolatory.  Only one of the doctors declared there were
+no signs of poison; the rest were of the opposite opinion.  When the body
+of the Dauphin was opened, everybody was terrified.  His viscera were
+all dissolved; his heart had no consistency; its substance flowed through
+the hands of those who tried to hold it; an intolerable odour, too,
+filled the apartment.  The majority of the doctors declared they saw in
+all this the effect of a very subtle and very violent poison, which had
+consumed all the interior of the body, like a burning fire.  As before,
+there was one of their number who held different views, but this was
+Marechal, who declared that to persuade the King of the existence of
+secret enemies of his family would be to kill him by degrees.
+
+This medical opinion that the cause of the Dauphin's and the Dauphine's
+death was poison, soon spread like wildfire over the Court and the city.
+Public indignation fell upon M. d'Orleans, who was at once pointed out as
+the poisoner.  The rapidity with which this rumour filled the Court,
+Paris, the provinces, the least frequented places, the most isolated
+monasteries, the most deserted solitudes, all foreign countries and all
+the peoples of Europe, recalled to me the efforts of the cabal, which had
+previously spread such black reports against the honour of him whom all
+the world now wept, and showed that the cabal, though dispersed, was not
+dissolved.
+
+In effect M. du Maine, now the head of the cabal, who had all to gain and
+nothing to lose by the death of the Dauphin and Dauphine, from both of
+whom he had studiously held aloof, and who thoroughly disliked M.
+d'Orleans, did all in his power to circulate this odious report.  He
+communicated it to Madame de Maintenon, by whom it reached the King.  In
+a short time all the Court, down to the meanest valets, publicly cried
+vengeance upon M. d'Orleans, with an air of the most unbridled
+indignation and of perfect security.
+
+M. d'Orleans, with respect to the two losses that afflicted the public,
+had an interest the most directly opposite to that of M. du Maine; he had
+everything to gain by the life of the Dauphin and Dauphine, and unless he
+had been a monster vomited forth from hell he could not have been guilty
+of the crime with which he was charged.  Nevertheless, the odious
+accusation flew from mouth to mouth, and took refuge in every breast.
+
+Let us compare the interest M. d'Orleans had in the life of the Dauphin
+with the interest M. du Maine had in his death, and then look about for
+the poisoner.  But this is not all.  Let us remember how M. le Duc
+d'Orleans was treated by Monseigneur, and yet what genuine grief he
+displayed at the death of that prince.  What a contrast was this conduct
+with that of M. du Maine at another time, who, after leaving the King
+(Louis XIV.) at the point of death, delivered over to an ignorant
+peasant, imitated that peasant so naturally and so pleasantly, that
+bursts of laughter extended to the gallery, and scandalized the passers-
+by.  This is a celebrated and very characteristic fact, which will find
+its proper place if I live long enough to carry these memoirs up to the
+death of the King.
+
+M. d'Orleans was, however, already in such bad odour, that people were
+ready to believe anything to his discredit.  They drank in this new
+report so rapidly, that on the 17th of February, as he went with Madame
+to give the holy water to the corpse of the Dauphine, the crowd of the
+people threw out all sorts of accusations against him, which both he and
+Madame very distinctly heard, without daring to show it, and were in
+trouble, embarrassment, and indignation, as may be imagined.  There was
+even ground for fearing worse from an excited and credulous populace when
+M. d'Orleans went alone to give the holy water to the corpse of the
+Dauphin.  For he had to endure on his passage atrocious insults from a
+populace which uttered aloud the most frightful observations, which
+pointed the finger at him with the coarsest epithets, and which believed
+it was doing him a favour in not falling upon him and tearing him to
+pieces!
+
+Similar circumstances took place at the funeral procession.  The streets
+resounded more with cries of indignation against M. d'Orleans and abuse
+of him than with grief.  Silent precautions were not forgotten in Paris
+in order to check the public fury, the boiling over of which was feared
+at different moments.  The people recompensed themselves by gestures,
+cries, and other atrocities, vomited against M. d'Orleans.  Near the
+Palais Royal, before which the procession passed, the increase of shouts,
+of cries, of abuse, was so great, that for some minutes everything was to
+be feared.
+
+It may be imagined what use M. du Maine contrived to make of the public
+folly, the rumours of the Paris cafes, the feeling of the salon of Marly,
+that of the Parliament, the reports that arrived from the provinces and
+foreign countries.  In a short time so overpowered was M. d'Orleans by
+the feeling against him everywhere exhibited, that acting upon very ill-
+judged advice he spoke to the King upon the subject, and begged to be
+allowed to surrender himself as a prisoner at the Bastille, until his
+character was cleared from stain.
+
+I was terribly annoyed when I heard that M. d'Orleans had taken this
+step, which could not possibly lead to good.  I had quite another sort of
+scheme in my head which I should have proposed to him had I known of his
+resolve.  Fortunately, however, the King was persuaded not to grant M.
+d'Orleans' request, out of which therefore nothing came.  The Duke
+meanwhile lived more abandoned by everybody than ever; if in the salon he
+approached a group of courtiers, each, without the least hesitation,
+turned to the right or to the left and went elsewhere, so that it was
+impossible for him to accost anybody except by surprise, and if he did
+so, he was left alone directly after with the most marked indecency.
+In a word, I was the only person, I say distinctly, the only person,
+who spoke to M. d'Orleans as before.  Whether in his own house or in the
+palace I conversed with him, seated myself by his side in a corner of the
+salon, where assuredly we had no third person to fear, and walked with
+him in the gardens under the very windows of the King and of Madame de
+Maintenon.
+
+Nevertheless, all my friends warned me that if I pursued this conduct so
+opposite to that in vogue, I should assuredly fall into disgrace.  I held
+firm.  I thought that when we did not believe our friends guilty we ought
+not to desert them, but, on the contrary, to draw closer to them, as by
+honour bound, give them the consolation due from us, and show thus to the
+world our hatred for calumny.  My friends insisted; gave me to understand
+that the King disapproved my conduct, that Madame de Maintenon was
+annoyed at it: they forgot nothing to awaken my fears.  But I was
+insensible to all they said to me, and did not omit seeing M. d'Orleans a
+single day; often stopping with him two and three hours at a time.
+
+A few weeks had passed over thus, when one morning M. de Beauvilliers
+called upon me, and urged me to plead business, and at once withdraw to
+La Ferme; intimating that if I did not do so of my own accord, I should
+be compelled by an order from the King.  He never explained himself more
+fully, but I have always remained persuaded that the King or Madame de
+Maintenon had sent him to me, and had told him that I should be banished
+if I did not banish myself.  Neither my absence nor my departure made any
+stir; nobody suspected anything.  I was carefully informed, without
+knowing by whom, when my exile was likely to end: and I returned, after a
+month or five weeks, straight to the Court, where I kept up the same
+intimacy with M. d'Orleans as before.
+
+But he was not yet at the end of his misfortunes.  The Princesse des
+Ursins had not forgiven him his pleasantry at her expense.  Chalais, one
+of her most useful agents, was despatched by her on a journey so
+mysterious that its obscurity has never been illuminated.  He was
+eighteen days on the road, unknown, concealing his name, and passing
+within two leagues of Chalais, where his father and mother lived, without
+giving them any signs of life, although all were on very good terms.  He
+loitered secretly in Poitou, and at last arrested there a Cordelier monk,
+of middle age, in the convent of Bressuire, who cried, "Ah! I am lost!"
+upon being caught.  Chalais conducted him to the prison of Poitiers,
+whence he despatched to Madrid an officer of dragoons he had brought with
+him, and who knew this Cordelier, whose name has never transpired,
+although it is certain he was really a Cordelier, and that he was
+returning from as journey in Italy and Germany that had extended as far
+as Vienna.  Chalais pushed on to Paris, and came to Marly on the 27th of
+April, a day on which the King had taken medicine.  After dinner he was
+taken by Torcy to the King, with whom he remained half an hour, delaying
+thus the Council of State for the same time, and then returned
+immediately to Paris.  So much trouble had not been taken for no purpose:
+and Chalais had not prostituted himself to play the part of prevot to a
+miserable monk without expecting good winnings from the game.
+Immediately afterwards the most dreadful rumours were everywhere in
+circulation against M. d'Orleans, who, it was said, had poisoned the
+Dauphin and Dauphine by means of this monk, who, nevertheless, was far
+enough away from our Prince and Princess at the time of their death.  In
+an instant Paris resounded with these horrors; the provinces were
+inundated with them, and immediately afterwards foreign countries--this
+too with an incredible rapidity, which plainly showed how well the plot
+had been prepared--and a publicity that reached the very caverns of the
+earth.  Madame des Ursins was not less served in Spain than M. du Maine
+and Madame de Maintenon in France.  The anger of the public was doubled.
+The Cordelier was brought, bound hand and foot, to the Bastille, and
+delivered up to D'Argenson, Lieutenant of Police.
+
+This D'Argenson rendered an account to the King of many things which
+Pontchartrain, as Secretary of State, considered to belong to his
+department.  Pontchartrain was vexed beyond measure at this, and could
+not see without despair his subaltern become a kind of minister more
+feared, more valued, more in consideration than he, and conduct himself
+always in such manner that he gained many powerful friends, and made but
+few enemies, and those of but little moment.  M. d'Orleans bowed before
+the storm that he could not avert; it could not increase the general
+desertion; he had accustomed himself to his solitude, and, as he had
+never heard this monk spoken of, had not the slightest fear on his
+account.  D'Argenson, who questioned the Cordelier several times, and
+carried his replies daily to the King, was sufficiently adroit to pay his
+court to M. d'Orleans, by telling him that the prisoner had uttered
+nothing which concerned him, and by representing the services he did M.
+d'Orleans with the King.  Like a sagacious man, D'Argenson saw the
+madness of popular anger devoid of all foundation, and which could not
+hinder M. d'Orleans from being a very considerable person in France,
+during a minority that--the age of the King showed to be pretty near.
+He took care, therefore, to avail himself of the mystery which surrounded
+his office, to ingratiate himself more and more with M. d'Orleans, whom
+he had always carefully though secretly served; and his conduct, as will
+be seen in due time, procured him a large fortune.
+
+But I have gone too far.  I must retrace my steps, to speak of things I
+have omitted to notice in their proper place.
+
+The two Dauphins and the Dauphine were interred at Saint-Denis, on
+Monday, the 18th of April.  The funeral oration was pronounced by Maboul,
+Bishop of Aleth, and pleased; M. de Metz, chief chaplain, officiated; the
+service commenced at about eleven o'clock.  As it was very long, it was
+thought well to have at hand a large vase of vinegar, in case anybody
+should be ill.  M. de Metz having taken the first oblation, and observing
+that very little wine was left for the second, asked for more.  This
+large vase of vinegar was supposed to be wine, and M. de Metz, who wished
+to strengthen himself, said, washing his fingers over the chalice, "fill
+right up."  He swallowed all at a draught, and did not perceive until the
+end that he had drunk vinegar; his grimace and his complaint caused some
+little laughter round him; and he often related this adventure, which
+much soured him.  On Monday, the 20th of May, the funeral service for the
+Dauphin and Dauphine was performed at Notre Dame.
+
+Let me here say, that before the Prince and his spouse were buried, that
+is to say, the 6th of April, the King gave orders for the recommencement
+of the usual play at Marly; and that M. le Duc de Berry and Madame la
+Duchesse de Berry presided in the salon at the public lansquenet and
+brelan; and the different gaming tables for all the Court.  In a short
+time the King dined in Madame de Maintenon's apartments once or twice a
+week, and had music there.  And all this, as I have remarked, with the
+corpse of the Dauphin and that of the Dauphine still above ground.
+
+The gap left by the death of the Dauphine could not, however, be easily
+filled up.  Some months after her loss, the King began to feel great
+ennui steal upon him in the hours when he had no work with his ministers.
+The few ladies admitted into the apartments of Madame de Maintenon when
+he was there, were unable to entertain him.  Music, frequently
+introduced, languished from that cause.  Detached scenes from the
+comedies of Moliere were thought of, and were played by the King's
+musicians, comedians for the nonce.  Madame de Maintenon introduced, too,
+the Marechal de Villeroy, to amuse the King by relating their youthful
+adventures.
+
+Evening amusements became more and more frequent in Madame de Maintenon's
+apartments, where, however, nothing could fill up the void left by the
+poor Dauphine.
+
+I have said little of the grief I felt at the loss of the prince whom
+everybody so deeply regretted.  As will be believed, it was bitter and
+profound.  The day of his death, I barricaded myself in my own house, and
+only left it for one instant in order to join the King at his promenade
+in the gardens.  The vexation I felt upon seeing him followed almost as
+usual, did not permit me to stop more than an instant.  All the rest of
+the stay at Versailles, I scarcely left my room, except to visit M. de
+Beauvilliers.  I will admit that, to reach M. de Beauvilliers' house, I
+made a circuit between the canal and the gardens of Versailles, so as to
+spare myself the sight of the chamber of death, which I had not force
+enough to approach.  I admit that I was weak.  I was sustained neither by
+the piety, superior to all things, of M. de Beauvilliers, nor by that of
+Madame de Saint-Simon, who nevertheless not the less suffered.  The truth
+is, I was in despair.  To those who know my position, this will appear
+less strange than my being able to support at all so complete a
+misfortune.  I experienced this sadness precisely at the same age as that
+of my father when he lost Louis XIII.; but he at least had enjoyed the
+results of favour, whilst I, 'Gustavi paululum mellis, et ecce morior.'
+Yet this was not all.
+
+In the casket of the Dauphin there were several papers he had asked me
+for.  I had drawn them up in all confidence; he had preserved them in the
+same manner.  There was one, very large, in my hand, which if seen by the
+King, would have robbed me of his favour for ever; ruined me without hope
+of return.  We do not think in time of such catastrophes.  The King knew
+my handwriting; he did not know my mode of thought, but might pretty well
+have guessed it.  I had sometimes supplied him with means to do so; my
+good friends of the Court had done the rest.  The King when he discovered
+my paper would also discover on what close terms of intimacy I had been
+with the Dauphin, of which he had no suspicion.  My anguish was then
+cruel, and there seemed every reason to believe that if my secret was
+found out, I should be disgraced and exiled during all the rest of the
+King's reign.
+
+What a contrast between the bright heaven I had so recently gazed upon
+and the abyss now yawning at my feet!  But so it is in the Court and the
+world!  I felt then the nothingness of even the most desirable future, by
+an inward sentiment, which, nevertheless, indicates how we cling to it.
+Fear on account of the contents of the casket had scarcely any power over
+me.  I was obliged to reflect in order to return to it from time to time.
+Regret for this incomparable Dauphin pierced my heart, and suspended all
+the faculties of my soul.  For a long time I wished to fly from the
+Court, so that I might never again see the deceitful face of the world;
+and it was some time before prudence and honour got the upper hand.
+
+It so happened that the, Duc de Beauvilliers himself was able to carry
+this casket to the King, who had the key of it.  M. de Beauvilliers in
+fact resolved not to trust it out of his own hands, but to wait until he
+was well enough to take it to the King, so that he might then try to hide
+my papers from view.  This task was difficult, for he did not know the
+position in the casket of these dangerous documents, and yet it was our
+only resource.  This terrible uncertainty lasted more than a fortnight.
+
+On Tuesday, the 1st of March, M. de Beauvilliers carried the casket to
+the King.  He came to me shortly after, and before sitting down,
+indicated by signs that there was no further occasion for fear.  He then
+related to me that he had found the casket full of a mass of documents,
+finance projects, reports from the provinces, papers of all kinds, that
+he had read some of them to the King on purpose to weary him, and had
+succeeded so well that the King soon was satisfied by hearing only the
+titles; and, at last, tired out by not finding anything important, said
+it was not worth while to read more, and that there was nothing to do but
+to throw everything into the fire.  The Duke assured me that he did not
+wait to be told twice, being all the more anxious to comply, because at
+the bottom of the casket he had seen some of my handwriting, which he had
+promptly covered up in taking other papers to read their titles to the
+King; and that immediately the word "fire" was uttered, he confusedly
+threw all the papers into the casket, and then emptied it near the fire,
+betweein the King and Madame de Maintenon, taking good care as he did so
+that my documents should not be seen,--even cautiously using the tongs in
+order to prevent any piece flying away, and not quitting the fireplace
+until he had seen every page consumed.  We embraced each other, in the
+relief we reciprocally felt, relief proportioned to the danger we had
+run.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+A king is made for his subjects, and not the subjects for him
+A lingering fear lest the sick man should recover
+Danger of inducing hypocrisy by placing devotion too high
+For want of better support I sustained myself with courage
+Interests of all interested painted on their faces
+Never was a man so ready with tears, so backward with grief
+Suspicion of a goitre, which did not ill become her
+The shortness of each day was his only sorrow
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Memoirs of Louis XIV., Volume 8
+by Duc de Saint-Simon
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+The Project Gutenberg Memoirs Louis XIV., His Court and The Regency, v8
+#8 in our series by The Duc de Saint-Simon
+#30 in our series Historic Court Memoirs
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+Title: The Memoirs of Louis XIV., His Court and The Regency, v8
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+Author: Duc de Saint-Simon
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+
+          MEMOIRS OF LOUIS XIV AND HIS COURT AND OF THE REGENCY
+
+                        BY THE DUKE OF SAINT-SIMON
+
+
+                                VOLUME 8.
+
+CHAPTER LV
+
+State of the Country.--New Taxes.--The King's Conscience Troubled.--
+Decision of the Sorbonne.--Debate in the Council.--Effect of the Royal
+Tithe.--Tax on Agioteurs.--Merriment at Court.--Death of a Son of
+Marechal Boufflers.--The Jesuits.
+
+
+CHAPTER LVI
+
+My Interview with Du Mont.--A Mysterious Communication. --Anger of
+Monseigneur against Me.--Household of the Duchesse de Berry.--Monseigneur
+Taken Ill of the Smallpox.--Effect of the News.--The King Goes to
+Meudon.--The Danger Diminishes.--Madame de Maintenon at Meudon.--The
+Court at Versailles.--Hopes and Fears.--The Danger Returns.--Death of
+Monseigneur.--Conduct of the King.
+
+
+CHAPTER LVII
+
+A Rumour Reaches Versailles.--Aspect of the Court.--Various Forms of
+Grief.--The Duc d'Orleans.--The News Confirmed at Versailles.--Behaviour
+of the Courtiers.--The Duc and Duchesse de Berry.--The Duc and Duchesse
+de Bourgogne.--Madame.--A Swiss Asleep.--Picture of a Court.--The Heir-
+Apparent's Night.--The King Returns to Marly.--Character of Monseigneur.
+--Effect of His Death.
+
+
+CHAPTER LVIII
+
+State of the Court at Death of Monseigneur.--Conduct of the Dauphin and
+the Dauphine.--The Duchesse de Berry.--My Interview with the Dauphin.--
+He is Reconciled with M. d'Orleans.
+
+
+CHAPTER LIX
+
+Warnings to the Dauphin and the Dauphine.--The Dauphine Sickens and
+Dies.--Illness of the Dauphin.--His Death.--Character and Manners of the
+Dauphine.--And of the Dauphin.
+
+
+CHAPTER LX
+
+Certainty of Poison.--The Supposed Criminal.--Excitement of the People
+against M. d'Orleans.--The Cabal.--My Danger and Escape.--The Dauphin's
+Casket.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LV
+
+Although, as we have just seen, matters were beginning to brighten a
+little in Spain, they remained as dull and overcast as ever in France.
+The impossibility of obtaining peace, and the exhaustion of the realm,
+threw, the King into the most cruel anguish, and Desmarets into the
+saddest embarrassment.  The paper of ail kinds with which trade was
+inundated, and which had all more or less lost credit, made a chaos for
+which no remedy could be perceived.  State-bills, bank-bills, receiver-
+general's-bills, title-bills, utensil-bills, were the ruin of private
+people, who were forced by the King to take them in payment, and who lost
+half, two-thirds, and sometimes more, by the transaction.  This
+depreciation enriched the money people, at the expense of the public; and
+the circulation of money ceased, because there was no longer any money;
+because the King no longer paid anybody, but drew his revenues still; and
+because all the specie out of his control was locked up in the coffers of
+the possessors.
+
+The capitation tax was doubled and trebled, at the will of the Intendants
+of the Provinces; merchandise and all kinds of provision were taxed to
+the amount of four times their value; new taxes of all kinds and upon all
+sorts of things were exacted; all this crushed nobles and roturiers,
+lords and clergy, and yet did not bring enough to the King, who drew the
+blood of all his subjects, squeezed out their very marrow, without
+distinction, and who enriched an army of tax-gatherers and officials of
+all kinds, in whose hands the best part of what was collected remained.
+
+Desmarets, in whom the King had been forced to put all his confidence in
+finance matters, conceived the idea of establishing, in addition to so
+many taxes, that Royal Tithe upon all the property of each community and
+of each private person of the realm, that the Marechal de Vauban, on the
+one hand, and Boisguilbert on the other, had formerly proposed; but, as I
+have already described, as a simple and stile tax which would suffice for
+all, which would all enter the coffers of the King, and by means of which
+every other impost would be abolished.
+
+We have seen what success this proposition met with; how the fanciers
+trembled at it; how the ministers blushed at it, with what anathemas it
+was rejected, and to what extent these two excellent and skilful citizens
+were disgraced.  All this must be recollected here, since Desmarets, who
+had not lost sight of this system (not as relief and remedy--unpardonable
+crimes in the financial doctrine), now had recourse to it.
+
+He imparted his project to three friends, Councillors of State, who
+examined it well, and worked hard to see how to overcome the obstacles
+which arose in the way of its execution.  In the first place, it was
+necessary, in order to collect this tax, to draw from each person a clear
+statement of his wealth, of his debts, and so on.  It was necessary to
+demand sure proofs on these points so as not to be deceived.  Here was
+all the difficulty.  Nothing was thought of the desolation this extra
+impost must cause to a prodigious number of men, or of their despair upon
+finding themselves obliged to disclose their family secrets; to hate a
+lamp thrown, as it were, upon their most delicate parts; all these
+things, I say, went for nothing.  Less than a month sufficed these humane
+commissioners to render an account of this gentle project to the Cyclops
+who had charged them with it.  Desmarets thereupon proposed it to the
+King, who, accustomed as he was to the most ruinous imposts, could not
+avoid being terrified at this.  For a long while he had heard nothing
+talked of but the most extreme misery; this increase saddened him in a
+manner so evident, that his valets perceived it several days running, and
+were so disturbed at it, that Marechal (who related all this curious
+anecdote to me) made bold to speak to the King upon this sadness, fearing
+for his health.  The King avowed to him that he felt infinite trouble,
+and threw himself vaguely upon the state of affairs.  Eight or ten days.
+after (during which he continued to feel the same melancholy), the King
+regained his usual calmness, and called Marechal to explain the cause of
+his trouble.
+
+The King related to Marechal that the extremity of his affairs had forced
+him to put on furious imposts; that setting aside compassion, scruples
+had much tormented him for taking thus the wealth of his subjects; that
+at last he had unbosomed himself to the Pere Tellier, who had asked for a
+few days to think upon the matter, and that he had returned after having
+had a consultation with some of the most skilful doctors of the Sorbonne,
+who had decided that all the wealth of his subjects was his, and that
+when he took it he only took what belonged to him!  The King added, that
+this decision had taken away all his scruples, and had restored to him
+the calm and tranquillity he had lost.  Marechal was so astonished, so
+bewildered to hear, this recital, that he could not offer one word.
+Happily for him, the King quitted him almost immediately, and Marechal
+remained some time in the same place, scarcely knowing where he was.
+
+After the King had been thus satisfied by his confessor, no time was lost
+in establishing the tax.  On Tuesday, the 30th of September, Desmarets
+entered the Finance Council with the necessary edict in his bag.
+
+For some days everybody had known of this bombshell in the air, and had
+trembled with that remnant of hope which is founded only upon desire; all
+the Court as well as all Paris waited in a dejected sadness to see what
+would happen.  People whispered to each other, and even when the project
+was rendered public, no one dared to talk of it aloud.
+
+On the day above-named, the King brought forward this measure in the
+Council, by saying, that the impossibility of obtaining peace, and the
+extreme difficulty of sustaining the war, had caused Desmarets to look
+about in order to discover some means, which should appear good, of
+raising money; that he had pitched upon this tax; that he (the King),
+although sorry to adopt such a resource, approved it, and had no doubt
+the Council would do so likewise, when it was explained to them.
+Desmarets, in a pathetic discourse, then dwelt upon the reasons which had
+induced him to propose this tax, and afterwards read the edict through
+from beginning to end without interruption.
+
+No one spoke, moreover, when it was over, until the King asked
+D'Aguesseau his opinion.  D'Aguesseau replied, that it would be necessary
+for him to take home the edict and read it through very carefully before
+expressing an opinion.  The King said that D'Aguesseau was right--it
+would take a long time to examine the edict--but after all, examination
+was unnecessary, and would only be loss of time.  All remained silent
+again, except the Duc de Beauvilliers, who, seduced by the nephew of
+Colbert, whom he thought an oracle in finance, said a few words in favour
+of the project.
+
+Thus was settled this bloody business, and immediately after signed,
+sealed, and registered, among stifled sobs, and published amidst the most
+gentle but most piteous complaints.  The product of this tax was nothing
+like so much as had been imagined in this bureau of Cannibals; and the
+King did not pay a single farthing more to any one than he had previously
+done.  Thus all the fine relief expected by this tax ended in smoke.
+
+The Marechal de Vauban had died of grief at the ill-success of his task
+and his zeal, as I have related in its place.  Poor Boisguilbert, in the
+exile his zeal had brought him, was terribly afflicted, to find he had
+innocently given advice which he intended for the relief of the State,
+but which had been made use of in this frightful manner.  Every man,
+without exception, saw himself a prey to the tax-gatherers: reduced to
+calculate and discuss with them his own patrimony, to receive their
+signature and their protection under the most terrible pains; to show in
+public all the secrets of his family; to bring into the broad open
+daylight domestic turpitudes enveloped until then in the folds of
+precautions the wisest and the most multiplied.  Many had to convince the
+tax agents, but vainly, that although proprietors, they did not enjoy the
+tenth part of them property.  All Languedoc offered to give up its entire
+wealth, if allowed to enjoy, free from every impost, the tenth part of
+it.  The proposition not only was not listened to, but was reputed an
+insult and severely blamed.
+
+Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne spoke openly against this tax; and
+against the finance people, who lived upon the very marrow of the people;
+spoke with a just and holy anger that recalled the memory of Saint-Louis,
+of Louis XII., Father of the People, and of Louis the Just.  Monseigneur,
+too, moved by this indignation, so unusual, of his son, sided with him,
+and showed anger at so many exactions as injurious as barbarous, and at
+so many insignificant men so monstrously enriched with the nation's
+blood.  Both father and son infinitely surprised those who heard them,
+and made themselves looked upon, in some sort as resources from which
+something might hereafter be hoped for.  But the edict was issued, and
+though there might be some hope in the future, there was none in the
+present.  And no one knew who was to be the real successor of Louis XIV.,
+and how under the next government we were to be still more overwhelmed
+than under this one.
+
+One result of this tax was, that it enabled the King to augment all his
+infantry with five men per company.
+
+A tax was also levied upon the usurers, who had much gained by
+trafficking in the paper of the King, that is to say, had taken advantage
+of the need of those to whom the King gave this paper in payment.  These
+usurers are called 'agioteurs'.  Their mode was, ordinarily, to give, for
+example, according as the holder of paper was more or less pressed, three
+or four hundred francs (the greater part often in provisions), for a bill
+of a thousand francs!  This game was called 'agio'.  It was said that
+thirty millions were obtained from this tax.  Many people gained much by
+it; I know not if the King was the better treated.
+
+Soon after this the coin was re-coined, by which much profit was made for
+the King, and much wrong done to private people and to trade.  In all
+times it has, been regarded as a very great misfortune to meddle with
+corn and money.  Desmarets has accustomed us to tricks with the money;
+M. le Duc and Cardinal Fleury to interfere with corn and to fictitious
+famine.
+
+At the commencement of December, the King declared that he wished there
+should be, contrary to custom, plays and "apartments" at Versailles even
+when Monseigneur should be at Meudon.  He thought apparently he must keep
+his Court full of amusements, to hide, if it was possible, abroad and at
+home, the disorder and the extremity of affairs.  For the same reason,
+the carnival was opened early this season, and all through the winter
+there were many balls of all kinds at the Court, where the wives of the
+ministers gave very magnificent displays, like fetes, to Madame la
+Duchesse de Bourgogne and to all the Court.
+
+But Paris did not remain less wretched or the provinces less desolated.
+
+And thus I have arrived at the end of 1710.
+
+At the commencement of the following year, 1711, that is to say, a few
+days after the middle of March, a cruel misfortune happened to the
+Marechal de Boufflers.  His eldest son was fourteen years of age,
+handsome, well made, of much promise, and who succeeded marvellously at
+the Court, when his father presented him there to the King to thank his
+Majesty for the reversion of the government of Flow and of Lille.  He
+returned afterwards to the College of the Jesuits, where he was being
+educated.  I know not what youthful folly he was guilty of with the two
+sons of D'Argenson; but the Jesuits, wishing to show that they made no
+distinction of persons, whipped the little lad, because, to say the
+truth, they had nothing to fear from the Marechal de Boufflers; but they
+took good care to left the others off, although equally guilty, because
+they had to reckon with D'Argenson, lieutenant of the police, of much
+credit in book matters, Jansenism, and all sorts of things and affairs in
+which they were interested.
+
+Little Boufflers, who was full of courage, and who had done no more than
+the two Argensons, and with them, was seized with such despair, that he
+fell ill that same day.  He was carried to the Marechal's house, but it
+was impossible to save him.  The heart was seized, the blood diseased,
+the purples appeared; in four days all was over.  The state of the father
+and mother may be imagined!  The King, who was much touched by it, did
+not let them ask or wait for him.  He sent one of his gentlemen to
+testify to them the share he had in their loss, and announced that he
+would give to their remaining son 'what he had already given to the
+other.  As for the Jesuits, the universal cry against them was
+prodigious; but that was all.  This would be the place, now that I am
+speaking of the Jesuits, to speak of another affair in which they were
+concerned.  But I pass over, for the present, the dissensions that broke
+out at about this time, and that ultimately led to the famous Papal Bull
+Unigenitus, so fatal to the Church and to the State, so shameful far
+Rome, and so injurious to religion; and I proceed to speak of the great
+event of this year which led to others so memorable and so unexpected.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVI
+
+But in Order to understand the part I played in the event I have alluded
+to and the interest I took in it, it is necessary for me to relate some
+personal matters that occurred in the previous year. Du Mont was one of
+the confidants of Monseigneur; but also had never forgotten what his
+father owed to mine.  Some days after the commencement of the second
+voyage to Marly, subsequently to the marriage of the Duchesse de Berry,
+as I was coming back from the King's mass, the said Du Mont, in the crush
+at the door of the little salon of the chapel, took an opportunity when
+he was not perceived, to pull me by my coat, and when I turned round put
+a finger to his lips, and pointed towards the gardens which are at the
+bottom of the river, that is to say, of that superb cascade which the
+Cardinal Fleury has destroyed, and which faced the rear of the chateau.
+At the same time du Mont whispered in my car: "To the arbours!" That part
+of the garden was surrounded with arbours palisaded so as to conceal what
+was inside.  It was the least frequented place at Marly, leading to
+nothing; and in the afternoon even, and the evening, few people within
+them.
+
+Uneasy to know what Du Mont wished to communicate with so much mystery,
+I gently went towards the arbours where, without being seen, I looked
+through one of the openings until I saw him appear.  He slipped in by the
+corner of the chapel, and I went towards him.  As he joined me he begged
+me to return towards the river, so as to be still more out of the way;
+and then we set ourselves against the thickest palisades, as far as
+possible from all openings, so as to be still more concealed.  All this
+surprised and frightened me: I was still more so when I learned what was
+the matter.
+
+Du Mont then told me, on condition that I promised not to show that I
+knew it, and not to make use of my knowledge in any way without his
+consent, that two days after the marriage of the Duc de Berry, having
+entered towards the end of the morning the cabinet of Monseigneur, he
+found him alone, looking very serious.  He followed Monseigneur, through
+the gardens alone, until he entered by the window the apartments of the
+Princesse de Conti, who was also alone.  As he entered Monseigneur said
+with an air not natural to him, and very inflamed--as if by way of
+interrogation--that she "sat very quietly there."  This frightened her
+so, that she asked if there was any news from Flanders, and what had
+happened.  Monseigneur answered, in a tone of great annoyance, that there
+was no news except that the Duc de Saint-Simon had said, that now that
+the marriage of the Duc de Berry was brought about, it would be proper to
+drive away Madame la Duchesse and the Princesse de Conti, after which it
+would be easy to govern "the great imbecile," meaning himself.  This was
+why he thought she ought not to be so much at her ease.  Then, suddenly,
+as if lashing his sides to get into a greater rage, he spoke in a way
+such a speech would have deserved, added menaces, said that he would have
+the Duc de Bourgogne to fear me, to put me aside, and separate himself
+entirely from me.  This sort of soliloquy lasted a long time, and I was
+not told what the Princesse de Conti said to it; but from the silence of
+Du Mont, her annoyance at the marriage, I had brought about, and other
+reasons, it seems to me unlikely that she tried to soften Monseigneur.
+
+Du Mont begged me not, for a long time at least, to show that I knew what
+had taken place, and to behave with the utmost prudence.  Then he fled
+away by the path he had come by, fearing to be seen.  I remained walking
+up and down in the arbour all the time, reflecting on the wickedness of
+my enemies, and the gross credulity of Monseigneur.  Then I ran away, and
+escaped to Madame de Saint-Simon, who, as astonished and frightened as I,
+said not a word of the communication I had received.
+
+I never knew who had served me this ill-turn with Monseigneur, but I
+always suspected Mademoiselle de Lillebonne.  After a long time, having
+obtained with difficulty the consent of the timid Du Mont, I made Madame
+de Saint-Simon speak to the Duchesse de Bourgogne, who undertook to
+arrange the affair as well as it could be arranged.  The Duchesse spoke
+indeed to Monseigneur, and showed him how ridiculously he had been
+deceived, when he was persuaded that I could ever have entertained the
+ideas attributed to me.  Monseigneur admitted that he had been carried
+away by anger; and that there was no likelihood that I should have
+thought of anything so wicked and incredible.
+
+About this time the household of the Duc and Duchesse de Berry was
+constituted.  Racilly obtained the splendid appointment of first surgeon,
+and was worthy of it; but the Duchesse de Berry wept bitterly, because
+she did not consider him of high family enough.  She was not so delicate
+about La Haye, whose appointment she rapidly secured.  The fellow looked
+in the glass more complaisantly than ever.  He was well made, but stiff,
+and with a face not at all handsome, and looking as if it had been
+skinned.  He was happy in more ways than one, and was far more attached
+to his new mistress than to his master.  The King was very angry when he
+learned that the Duc de Berry had supplied himself with such an
+assistant.
+
+Meantime, I continued on very uneasy terms with Monseigneur, since I had
+learned his strange credulity with respect to me.  I began to feel my
+position very irksome, not to say painful, on this account.  Meudon I
+would not go to--for me it was a place infested with demons--yet by
+stopping away I ran great risks of losing the favour and consideration I
+enjoyed at Court.  Monseigneur was a man so easily imposed upon, as I had
+already experienced, and his intimate friends were so unscrupulous that
+there was no saying what might be invented on the one side and swallowed
+on the other, to my discredit.  Those friends, too, were, I knew, enraged
+against me for divers weighty reasons, and would stop at nothing, I was
+satisfied, to procure my downfall.  For want of better support I
+sustained myself with courage.  I said to myself, "We never experience
+all the evil or all the good that we have apparently the most reason to
+expect."  I hoped, therefore, against hope, terribly troubled it must be
+confessed on the score of Meudon.  At Easter, this year, I went away to
+La Ferme, far from the Court and the world, to solace myself as I could;
+but this thorn in my side was cruelly sharp!  At the moment the most
+unlooked-for it pleased God to deliver me from it.
+
+At La Ferme I had but few guests: M. de Saint-Louis, an old brigadier of
+cavalry, and a Normandy gentleman, who had been in my regiment, and who
+was much attached to me.  On Saturday, the 11th of the month, and the day
+before Quasimodo, I had been walking with them all the morning, and I had
+entered all-alone into my cabinet a little before dinner, when a courier
+sent by Madame de Saint-Simon, gave me a letter from her, in which I was
+informed that Monseigneur was ill!
+
+I learnt afterwards that this Prince, while on his way to Meudon for the
+Easter fetes, met at Chaville a priest, who was carrying Our Lord to a
+sick person.  Monseigneur, and Madame de Bourgogne, who was with him,
+knelt down to adore the Host, and then Monseigneur inquired what was the
+malady of the patient.  "The small-pox," he was told.  That disease was
+very prevalent just then.  Monseigneur had had it, but very lightly, and
+when young.  He feared it very much, and was struck with the answer he
+now received.  In the evening he said to Boudin, his chief doctor, "I
+should not be surprised if I were to have the small-pox."  The, day,
+however, passed over as usual.
+
+On the morrow, Thursday, the 9th, Monseigneur rose, and meant to go out
+wolf-hunting; but as he was dressing, such a fit of weakness seized him,
+that he fell into his chair.  Boudin made him get into bed again; but all
+the day his pulse was in an alarming state.  The King, only half informed
+by Fagon of what had taken place, believed there was nothing the matter,
+and went out walking at Marly after dinner, receiving news from time to
+time.  Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne and Madame de Bourgogne dined at
+Meudon, and they would not quit Monseigneur for one moment.  The Princess
+added to the strict duties of a daughter-in-law all that her gracefulness
+could suggest, and gave everything to Monseigneur with her own hand.  Her
+heart could not have been troubled by what her reason foresaw; but,
+nevertheless, her care and attention were extreme, without any airs of
+affectation or acting.  The Duc de Bourgogne, simple and holy as he was,
+and full of the idea of his duty, exaggerated his attention; and although
+there was a strong suspicion of the small-pox, neither quitted
+Monseigneur, except for the King's supper.
+
+The next day, Friday, the 10th, in reply to his express demands, the King
+was informed of the extremely dangerous state of Monseigneur.  He had
+said on the previous evening that he would go on the following morning to
+Meudon, and remain there during all the illness of Monseigneur whatever
+its nature might be.  He was now as good as his word.  Immediately after
+mass he set out for Meudon.  Before doing so, he forbade his children,
+and all who had not had the small-pox, to go there, which was suggested
+by a motive of kindness.  With Madame de Maintenon and a small suite, he
+had just taken up his abode in Meudon, when Madame de Saint-Simon sent me
+the letter of which I have just made mention.
+
+I will continue to speak of myself with the same truthfulness I speak of
+others, and with as much exactness as possible.  According to the terms
+on which I was with Monseigneur and his intimates, may be imagined the
+impression made upon me by this news.  I felt that one way or other, well
+or ill, the malady of Monseigneur would soon terminate.  I was quite at
+my ease at La Ferme.  I resolved therefore to wait there until I received
+fresh particulars.  I despatched a courier to Madame de Saint-Simon,
+requesting her to send me another the next day, and I passed the rest of
+this day, in an ebb and flow of feelings; the man and the Christian
+struggling against the man and the courtier, and in the midst of a crowd
+of vague fancies catching glimpses of the future, painted in the most
+agreeable colours.
+
+The courier I expected so impatiently arrived the next day, Sunday, after
+dinner.  The small-pox had declared itself, I learnt, and was going on as
+well as could be wished.  I believed Monseigneur saved, and wished to
+remain at my own house; nevertheless I took advice, as I have done all my
+life, and with great regret set out the next morning.  At La queue, about
+six leagues from Versailles, I met a financier of the name of La
+Fontaine, whom I knew well.  He was coming from Paris and Versailles, and
+came up to me as I changed horses.  Monseigneur, he said, was going on
+admirably; and he added details which convinced me he was out of all
+danger.  I arrived at Versailles, full of this opinion, which was
+confirmed by Madame de Saint-Simon and everybody I met, so that nobody
+any longer feared, except on account of the treacherous nature of this
+disease in a very fat man of fifty.
+
+The King held his Council, and worked in the evening with his ministers
+as usual.  He saw Monseigneur morning and evening, oftentimes in the
+afternoon, and always remained long by the bedside.  On the Monday I
+arrived he had dined early, and had driven to Marly, where the Duchesse
+de Bourgogne joined him.  He saw in passing on the outskirts of the
+garden of Versailles his grandchildren, who had come out to meet him, but
+he would not let them come near, and said, "good day" from a distance.
+The Duchesse de Bourgogne had had the small-pox, but no trace was left.
+
+The King only liked his own houses, and could not bear to be anywhere
+else.  This was why his visits to Meudon were few and short, and only
+made from complaisance.  Madame de Maintenon was still more out of her
+element there.  Although her chamber was everywhere a sanctuary, where
+only ladies entitled to the most extreme familiarity entered, she always
+wanted another retreat near at hand entirely inaccessible except to the
+Duchesse de Bourgogne alone, and that only for a few instants at a time.
+Thus she had Saint-Cyr for Versailles and for Marly; and at Marly also a
+particular retiring place; at Fontainebleau she had her town house.
+Seeing therefore that Monseigneur was getting on well, and that a long
+sojourn it Meudon would be necessary, the upholsterers of the King were
+ordered to furnish a house in the park which once belonged to the
+Chancellor le Tellier, but which Monseigneur had bought.
+
+When I arrived at Versailles, I wrote to M. de Beauvilliers at Meudon
+praying him to apprise the King that I had returned on account of the
+illness of Monseigneur, and that I would have gone to see him, but that,
+never having had the small-pox, I was included in the prohibition.  M. de
+Beauvilliers did as I asked, and sent word back to me that my return had
+been very well timed, and that the King still forbade me as well as
+Madame de Saint-Simon to go to Meudon.  This fresh prohibition did not
+distress me in the least.  I was informed of all that was passing there;
+and that satisfied me.
+
+There were yet contrasts at Meudon worth noticing.  Mademoiselle Choin
+never appeared while the King was with Monseigneur, but kept close in her
+loft.  When the coast was clear she came out, and took up her position at
+the sick man's bedside.  All sorts of compliments passed between her and
+Madame de Maintenon, yet the two ladies never met.  The King asked Madame
+de Maintenon if she had seen Mademoiselle Choin, and upon learning that
+she had not, was but ill-pleased.  Therefore Madame de Maintenon sent
+excuses and apologies to Mademoiselle Choin, and hoped she said to see
+her soon,--strange compliments from one chamber to another under the same
+roof.  They never saw each other afterwards.
+
+It should be observed, that Pere Tellier was also incognito at Meudon,
+and dwelt in a retired room from which he issued to see the King, but
+never approached the apartments of Monseigneur.
+
+Versailles presented another scene.  Monseigneur le Duc and Madame la
+Duchesse de Bourgogne held their Court openly there; and this Court
+resembled the first gleamings of the dawn.  All the Court assembled
+there; all Paris also; and as discretion and precaution were never French
+virtues, all Meudon came as well.  People were believed on their word
+when they declared that they had not entered the apartments of
+Monseigneur that day, and consequently could not bring the infection.
+When the Prince and Princess rose, when they weft to bed, when they dined
+and supped with the ladies,--all public conversations--all meals--all
+assembled--were opportunities of paying court to them.  The apartments
+could not contain the crowd.  The characteristic features of the room
+were many.  Couriers arrived every quarter of an hour, and reminded
+people of the illness of Monseigneur--he was going on as well as could be
+expected; confidence and hope were easily felt; but there was an extreme
+desire to please at the new Court.  The young Prince and the Princess
+exhibited majesty and gravity, mixed with gaiety; obligingly received
+all, continually spoke to every one; the crowd wore an air of
+complaisance; reciprocal satisfaction showed in every face; the Duc and
+Duchesse de Berry ware treated almost as nobody.  Thus five days fled
+away in increasing thought of future events--in preparation to be ready
+for whatever might happen.
+
+On Tuesday, the 14th of April, I went to see the chancellor, and asked
+for information upon the state of Monseigneur.  He assured me it was
+good, and repeated to me the words Fagon had spoken to him, "that things
+were going an according to their wishes, and beyond their hopes."  The
+Chancellor appeared to me very confident, and I had faith in him, so much
+the more, because he was on extremely good footing with Monseigneur.  The
+Prince, indeed, had so much recovered, that the fish-women came in a body
+the self-same day to congratulate him, as they did after his attack of
+indigestion.  They threw the themselves at the foot of his bed, which
+they kissed several times, and in their joy said they would go back to
+Paris and have a Te Deum sung.  But Monseigneur, who was not insensible
+to these marks of popular affection, told them it was not yet time,
+thanked them, and gave them a dinner and some money.
+
+As I was going home, I saw the Duchesse d'Orleans walking on a terrace.
+She called to me; but I pretended not to notice her, because La Montauban
+was with her, and hastened home, my mind filled with this news, and
+withdrew to my cabinet.  Almost immediately afterwards Madame la Duchesse
+d'Orleans joined me there.  We were bursting to speak to each other
+alone, upon a point on which our thoughts were alike.  She had left
+Meudon not an hour before, and she had the same tale to tell as the
+Chancellor.  Everybody was at ease there she said; and then she extolled
+the care and capacities of the doctors, exaggerating their success; and,
+to speak frankly and to our shame, she and I lamented together to see
+Monseigneur, in spite of his age and his fat, escape from so dangerous an
+illness.  She reflected seriously but wittily, that after an illness of
+this sort, apoplexy was not to be looked for; that an attack of
+indigestion was equally unlikely to arise, considering the care
+Monseigneur had taken not to over-gorge himself since his recent danger;
+and we concluded more than dolefully, that henceforth we must make up our
+minds that the Prince would live and reign for a long time.  In a word,
+we let ourselves loose in this rare conversation, although not without an
+occasional scruple of conscience which disturbed it.  Madame de Saint-
+Simon all devoutly tried what she could to put a drag upon our tongues,
+but the drag broke, so to speak, and we continued our free discourse,
+humanly speaking very reasonable on our parts, but which we felt,
+nevertheless, was not according to religion.  Thus two hours passed,
+seemingly very short.  Madame d'Orleans went away, and I repaired with
+Madame de Saint-Simon to receive a numerous company.
+
+While thus all was tranquillity at Versailles, and even at Meudon,
+everything had changed its aspect at the chateau.  The King had seen
+Monseigneur several times during the day; but in his after-dinner visit
+he was so much struck with the extraordinary swelling of the face and of
+the head, that he shortened his stay, and on leaving the chateau, shed
+tears.  He was reassured as much as possible, and after the council he
+took a walk in the garden.
+
+Nevertheless Monseigneur had already mistaken Madame la Princesse de
+Conti for some one else; and Boudin, the doctor, was alarmed.
+Monseigneur himself had been so from the first, and he admitted, that for
+a long time before being attacked, he had been very unwell, and so much
+on Good Friday, that he had been unable to read his prayer-book at
+chapel.
+
+Towards four o'clock he grew worse, so much so that Boudin proposed to
+Fagon to call in other doctors, more familiar with the disease than they
+were.  But Fagon flew into a rage at this, and would call in nobody.  He
+declared that it would be better to act for themselves, and to keep
+Monseigneur's state secret, although it was hourly growing worse, and
+towards seven o'clock was perceived by several valets and courtiers.  But
+nobody dared to open his mouth before Fagon, and the King was actually
+allowed to go to supper and to finish it without interruption, believing
+on the faith of Fagon that Monseigneur was going on well.
+
+While the King supped thus tranquilly, all those who were in the sick-
+chamber began to lose their wits.  Fagon and the others poured down
+physic on physic, without leaving time for any to work.  The Cure, who
+was accustomed to go and learn the news every evening, found, against all
+custom, the doors thrown wide open, and the valets in confusion.  He
+entered the chamber, and perceiving what was the matter, ran to the
+bedside, took the hand of Monseigneur, spoke to him of God, and seeing
+him full of consciousness, but scarcely able to speak, drew from him a
+sort of confession, of which nobody had hitherto thought, and suggested
+some acts of contrition.  The poor Prince repeated distinctly several
+words suggested to him, and confusedly answered others, struck his
+breast, squeezed the Cure's hand, appeared penetrated with the best
+sentiments, and received with a contrite and willing air the absolution
+of the Cure.
+
+As the King rose from the supper-table, he well-nigh fell backward when
+Fagon, coming forward, cried in great trouble that all was lost.  It may
+be imagined what terror seized all the company at this abrupt passage
+from perfect security to hopeless despair.  The King, scarcely master of
+himself, at once began to go towards the apartment of Monseigneur, and
+repelled very stiffly the indiscreet eagerness of some courtiers who
+wished to prevent him, saying that he would see his son again, and be
+quite certain that nothing could be done.  As he was about to enter the
+chamber, Madame la Princesse de Conti presented herself before him, and
+prevented him from going in.  She pushed him back with her hands, and
+said that henceforth he had only to think of himself.  Then the King,
+nearly fainting from a shock so complete and so sudden, fell upon a sofa
+that stood near.  He asked unceasingly for news of all who passed, but
+scarce anybody dared to reply to him.  He had sent for here Tellier, who
+went into Monseigneur's room; but it was no longer time.  It is true the
+Jesuit, perhaps to console the King, said that he gave him a well-founded
+absolution.  Madame de Maintenon hastened after the King, and sitting
+down beside him on the same sofa, tried to cry.  She endeavoured to lead
+away the King into the carriage already waiting for him in the
+courtyard, but he would not go, and sat thus outside the door until
+Monseigneur had expired.
+
+The agony, without consciousness, of Monseigneur lasted more than an hour
+after the King had come into the cabinet.  Madame la Duchesse and Madame
+la Princesse de Conti divided their cares between the dying man and the
+King, to whom they constantly came back; whilst the faculty confounded,
+the valets bewildered, the courtiers hurrying and murmuring, hustled
+against each other, and moved unceasingly to and fro, backwards and
+forwards, in the same narrow space.  At last the fatal moment arrived.
+Fagon came out, and allowed so much to be understood.
+
+The King, much afflicted, and very grieved that Monseigneur's confession
+had been so tardily made, abused Fagon a little; and went away led by
+Madame de Maintenon and the two Princesses.  He was somewhat struck by
+finding the vehicle of Monseigneur outside; and made a sign that he would
+have another coach, for that one made him suffer, and left the chateau.
+He was not, however, so much occupied with his grief that he could not
+call Pontchartrain to arrange the hour of the council on the next day.
+I will not comment on this coolness, and shall merely say it surprised
+extremely all present; and that if Pontchartrain had not said the council
+could be put off, no interruption to business would have taken place.
+The King got into his coach with difficulty, supported on both sides.
+Madame de Maintenon seated herself beside him.  A crowd of officers of
+Monseigneur lined both sides of the court on their knees, as he passed
+out, crying to him with strange howlings to have compassion on them, for
+they had lost all, and must die of hunger.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVII
+
+While Meudon was filled with horror, all was tranquil at Versailles,
+without the least suspicion.  We had supped.  The company some time after
+had retired, and I was talking with Madame de Saint-Simon, who had nearly
+finished undressing herself to go to bed, when a servant of Madame la
+Duchesse de Berry, who had formerly belonged to us, entered, all
+terrified.  He said that there must be some bad news from Meudon, since
+Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne had just whispered in the ear of M. le
+Duc de Berry, whose eyes had at once become red, that he left the table,
+and that all the company shortly after him rose with precipitation.  So
+sudden a change rendered my surprise extreme.  I ran in hot haste to
+Madame la Duchesse de Berry's.  Nobody was there.  Everybody had gone to
+Madame la Duchesse de Bourgogne.  I followed on with all speed.
+
+I found all Versailles assembled on arriving, all the ladies hastily
+dressed--the majority having been on the point of going to bed--all the
+doors open, and all in trouble.  I learnt that Monseigneur had received
+the extreme unction, that he was without consciousness and beyond hope,
+and that the King had sent word to Madame de Bourgogne that he was going
+to Marly, and that she was to meet him as he passed through the avenue
+between the two stables.
+
+The spectacle before me attracted all the attention I could bestow.  The
+two Princes and the two Princesses were in the little cabinet behind the
+bed.
+
+The bed toilette was as usual in the chamber of the Duchesse de
+Bourgogne, which was filled with all the Court in confusion.  She came
+and went from the cabinet to the chamber, waiting for the moment when she
+was to meet the King; and her demeanour, always distinguished by the same
+graces, was one of trouble and compassion, which the trouble and
+compassion of others induced them to take for grief.  Now and then, in
+passing, she said a few rare words.  All present were in truth expressive
+personages.  Whoever had eyes, without any knowledge of the Court, could
+see the interests of all interested painted on their faces, and the
+indifference of the indifferent; these tranquil, the former penetrated
+with grief, or gravely attentive to themselves to, hide their
+emancipation and their joy.
+
+For my part, my first care was to inform myself thoroughly of the state
+of affairs, fearing lest there might be too much alarm for too trifling a
+cause; then, recovering myself, I reflected upon the misery common to all
+men, and that I myself should find myself some day at the gates of death.
+Joy, nevertheless, found its way through the momentary reflections of
+religion and of humanity, by which I tried to master myself.  My own
+private deliverance seemed so great and so unhoped for, that it appeared
+to me that the State must gain everything by such a loss.  And with these
+thoughts I felt, in spite of myself, a lingering fear lest the sick man
+should recover, and was extremely ashamed of it.
+
+Wrapped up thus in myself, I did not fail, nevertheless, to cast
+clandestine looks upon each face, to see what was passing there.  I saw
+Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans arrive, but her countenance, majestic and
+constrained, said nothing.  She went into the little cabinet, whence she
+presently issued with the Duc d'Orleans, whose activity and turbulent air
+marked his emotion at the spectacle more than any other sentiment.  They
+went away, and I notice this expressly, on account of what happened
+afterwards in my presence.
+
+Soon afterwards I caught a distant glimpse of the Duc de Bourgogne, who
+seemed much moved and troubled; but the glance with which I probed him
+rapidly, revealed nothing tender, and told merely of a mind profoundly
+occupied with the bearings of what had taken place.
+
+Valets and chamber-women were already indiscreetly crying out; and their
+grief showed well that they were about to lose something!
+
+Towards half-past twelve we had news of the King, and immediately after
+Madame de Bourgogne came out of the little cabinet with the Duke, who
+seemed more touched than when I first saw him.  The Princess took her
+scarf and her coifs from the toilette, standing with a deliberate air,
+her eyes scarcely wet--a fact betrayed by inquisitive glances cast
+rapidly to the right and left--and, followed only by her ladies, went to
+her coach by the great staircase.
+
+I took the opportunity to go to the Duchesse d'Orleans, where I found
+many people.  Their presence made me very impatient; the Duchess, who was
+equally impatient, took a light and went in.  I whispered in the ear of
+the Duchesse de Villeroy, who thought as I thought of this event.  She
+nudged me, and said in a very low voice that I must contain myself.
+I was smothered with silence, amidst the complaints and the narrative
+surprises of these ladies; but at last M. le Duc d'Orleans appeared at
+the door of his cabinet, and beckoned me to come to him.
+
+I followed him into the cabinet, where we were alone.  What was my
+surprise, remembering the terms on which he was with Monseigneur, to see
+the tears streaming from his eyes.
+
+"Sir!" exclaimed I, rising: He understood me at once; and answered in a
+broken voice, really crying: "You are right to be surprised--I am
+surprised myself; but such a spectacle touches.  He was a man with whom I
+passed much of my life, and who treated me well when he was uninfluenced.
+I feel very well that my grief won't last long; in a few days I shall
+discover motives of joy; at present, blood, relationship, humanity,--all
+work; and my entrails are moved."  I praised his sentiments, but repeated
+my surprise.  He rose, thrust his head into a corner, and with his nose
+there, wept bitterly and sobbed, which if I had not seen I could not have
+believed.
+
+After a little silence, however, I exhorted him to calm himself.  I
+represented to him that, everybody knowing on what terms he had been with
+Monseigneur, he would be laughed at, as playing a part, if his eyes
+showed that he had been weeping.  He did what he could to remove the
+marks of his tears, and we then went back into the other room.
+
+The interview of the Duchesse de Bourgogne with the King had not been
+long.  She met him in the avenue between the two stables, got down, and
+went to the door of the carriage.  Madame de Maintenon cried out, "Where
+are you going?  We bear the plague about with us."  I do not know what
+the King said or did.  The Princess returned to her carriage, and came
+back to Versailles, bringing in reality the first news of the actual
+death of Monseigneur.
+
+Acting upon the advice of M. de Beauvilliers, all the company had gone
+into the salon.  The two Princes, Monseigneur de Bourgogne and M. de
+Berry, were there, seated on one sofa, their Princesses at their sides;
+all the rest of the company were scattered about in confusion, seated or
+standing, some of the ladies being on the floor, near the sofa.  There
+could be no doubt of what had happened.  It was plainly written on every
+face in the chamber and throughout the apartment.  Monseigneur was no
+more: it was known: it was spoken of: constraint with respect to him no
+longer existed.  Amidst the surprise, the confusion, and the movements
+that prevailed, the sentiments of all were painted to the life in looks
+and gestures.
+
+In the outside rooms were heard the constrained groans and sighs of the
+valets--grieving for the master they had lost as well as for the master
+that had succeeded.  Farther on began the crowd of courtiers of all
+kinds.  The greater number--that is to say the fools--pumped up sighs as
+well as they could, and with wandering but dry eyes, sung the praises of
+Monseigneur--insisting especially on his goodness.  They pitied the King
+for the loss of so good a son.  The keener began already to be uneasy
+about the health of the King; and admired themselves for preserving so
+much judgment amidst so much trouble, which could be perceived by the
+frequency of their repetitions.  Others, really afflicted--the
+discomfited cabal--wept bitterly, and kept themselves under with an
+effort as easy to notice as sobs.  The most strong-minded or the wisest,
+with eyes fixed on the ground, in corners, meditated on the consequences
+of such an event--and especially on their own interests.  Few words
+passed in conversation--here and there an exclamation wrung from grief
+was answered by some neighbouring grief--a word every quarter of an hour
+--sombre and haggard eyes--movements quite involuntary of the hands--
+immobility of all other parts of the body.  Those who already looked upon
+the event as favourable in vain exaggerated their gravity so as to make
+it resemble chagrin and severity; the veil over their faces was
+transparent and hid not a single feature.  They remained as motionless as
+those who grieved most, fearing opinion, curiosity, their own
+satisfaction, their every movement; but their eyes made up for their
+immobility.  Indeed they could not refrain from repeatedly changing their
+attitude like people ill at ease, sitting or standing, from avoiding each
+other too carefully, even from allowing their eyes to meet--nor repress a
+manifest air of liberty--nor conceal their increased liveliness--nor put
+out a sort of brilliancy which distinguished them in spite of themselves.
+
+The two Princes, and the two Princesses who sat by their sides, were more
+exposed to view than any other.  The Duc de Bourgogne wept with
+tenderness, sincerity, and gentleness, the tears of nature, of religion,
+and patience.  M. le Duc de Berry also sincerely shed abundance of tears,
+but bloody tears, so to speak, so great appeared their bitterness; and he
+uttered not only sobs, but cries, nay, even yells.  He was silent
+sometimes, but from suffocation, and then would burst out again with such
+a noise, such a trumpet sound of despair, that the majority present burst
+out also at these dolorous repetitions, either impelled by affliction or
+decorum.  He became so bad, in fact, that his people were forced to
+undress him then and there, put him to bed, and call in the doctor,
+Madame la Duchesse de Berry was beside herself, and we shall soon see
+why.  The most bitter despair was painted with horror on her face.  There
+was seen written, as it were, a sort of furious grief, based on interest,
+not affection; now and then came dry lulls deep and sullen, then a
+torrent of tears and involuntary gestures, yet restrained, which showed
+extreme bitterness of mind, fruit of the profound meditation that had
+preceded.  Often aroused by the cries of her husband, prompt to assist
+him, to support him, to embrace him, to give her smelling-bottle, her
+care for him was evident; but soon came another profound reverie--then a
+gush of tears assisted to suppress her cries.  As for Madame la Duchesse
+de Bourgogne she consoled her husband with less trouble than she had to
+appear herself in want of consolation.  Without attempting to play a
+part, it was evident that she did her best to acquit herself of a
+pressing duty of decorum.  But she found extreme difficulty in keeping up
+appearances.  When the Prince her brother-in-law howled, she blew her
+nose.  She had brought some tears along with her and kept them up with
+care; and these, combined with the art of the handkerchief, enabled her
+to redden her eyes, and make them swell, and smudge her face; but her
+glances often wandered on the sly to the countenances of all present.
+
+Madame arrived, in full dress she knew not why, and howling she knew not
+why, inundated everybody with her tears in embracing them, making the
+chateau echo with renewed cries, and furnished the odd spectacle of a
+Princess putting on her robes of ceremony in the dead of night to come
+and cry among a crowd of women with but little on except their night-
+dresses,--almost as masqueraders.
+
+In the gallery several ladies, Madame la Duchesse d'Orleans, Madame de
+Castries, and Madame de Saint-Simon among the rest, finding no one close
+by, drew near each other by the side of a tent-bedstead, and began to
+open their hearts to each other, which they did with the more freedom,
+inasmuch as they had but one sentiment in common upon what had occurred.
+In this gallery, and in the salon, there were always during the night
+several beds, in which, for security's sake, certain Swiss guards and
+servants slept.  These beds had been put in their usual place this
+evening before the bad news carne from Meudon.  In the midst of the
+conversation of the ladies, Madame de Castries touched the bed, felt
+something move, and was much terrified.  A moment after they saw a sturdy
+arm, nearly naked, raise on a sudden the curtains, and thus show them a
+great brawny Swiss under the sheets, half awake, and wholly amazed.  The
+fellow was a long time in making out his position, fixing his eyes upon
+every face one after the other; but at last, not judging it advisable to
+get up in the midst of such a grand company, he reburied himself in his
+bed, and closed the curtains.  Apparently the good man had gone to bed
+before anything had transpired, and had slept so soundly ever since that
+he had not been aroused until then.  The saddest sights have often the
+most ridiculous contrasts.  This caused some of the ladies to laugh, and
+Madame d'Orleans to fear lest the conversation should have been
+overheard.  But after reflection, the sleep and the stupidity of the
+sleeper reassured her.
+
+I had some doubts yet as to the event that had taken place; for I did not
+like to abandon myself to belief, until the word was pronounced by some
+one in whom I could have faith.  By chance I met D'O, and I asked him.
+He answered me clearly that Monseigneur was no more.  Thus answered, I
+tried not to be glad.  I know not if I succeeded well, but at least it is
+certain, that neither joy nor sorrow blunted my curiosity, and that while
+taking due care to preserve all decorum, I did not consider myself in any
+way forced to play the doleful.  I no longer feared any fresh attack from
+the citadel of Meudon, nor any cruel charges from its implacable
+garrison.  I felt, therefore, under no constraint, and followed every
+face with my glances, and tried to scrutinise them unobserved.
+
+It must be admitted, that for him who is well acquainted with the
+privacies of a Court, the first sight of rare events of this nature, so
+interesting in so many different respects, is extremely satisfactory.
+Every countenance recalls the cares, the intrigues, the labours employed
+in the advancement of fortunes--in the overthrow of rivals: the
+relations, the coldness, the hatreds, the evil offices done, the baseness
+of all; hope, despair, rage, satisfaction, express themselves in the
+features.  See how all eyes wander to and fro examining what passes
+around--how some are astonished to find others more mean, or less mean
+than was expected!  Thus this spectacle produced a pleasure, which,
+hollow as it may be, is one of the greatest a Court can bestow.
+
+The turmoil in this vast apartment lasted about an hour, at the end of
+which M. de Beauvilliers thought it was high time to deliver the Princes
+of their company.  The rooms were cleared.  M. le Duc de Berry went away
+to his rooms, partly supported by his wife.  All through the night he
+asked, amid tears and cries, for news from Meudon; he would not
+understand the cause of the King's departure to Marly.  When at length
+the mournful curtain was drawn from before his eyes, the state he fell
+into cannot be described.  The night of Monseigneur and Madame de
+Bourgogne was more tranquil.  Some one having said to the Princess, that
+having--no real cause to be affected, it would be terrible to play a
+part, she replied, quite naturally, that without feigning, pity touched
+her and decorum controlled her; and indeed she kept herself within these
+bounds with truth and decency.  Their chamber, in which they invited
+several ladies to pass the night in armchairs, became immediately a
+palace of Morpheus.  All quietly fell asleep.  The curtains were left
+open, so that the Prince and Princess could be seen sleeping profoundly.
+They woke up once or twice for a moment.  In the morning the Duke and
+Duchess rose early, their tears quite dried up.  They shed no more for
+this cause, except on special and rare occasions.  The ladies who had
+watched and slept in their chamber, told their friends how tranquil the
+night had been.  But nobody was surprised, and as there was no longer a
+Monseigneur, nobody was scandalised.  Madame de Saint-Simon and I
+remained up two hours before going to bed, and then went there without
+feeling any want of rest.  In fact, I slept so little that at seven in
+the morning I was up; but it must be admitted that such restlessness is
+sweet, and such re-awakenings are savoury.
+
+Horror reigned at Meudon.  As soon as the King left, all the courtiers
+left also, crowding into the first carriages that came.  In an instant
+Meudon was empty.  Mademoiselle Choin remained alone in her garret, and
+unaware of what had taken place.  She learned it only by the cry raised.
+Nobody thought of telling her.  At last some friends went up to her,
+hurried her into a hired coach, and took her to Paris.  The dispersion
+was general.  One or two valets, at the most, remained near the body.
+La Villiere, to his praise be it said, was the only courtier who, not
+having abandoned Monseigneur during life, did not abandon him after his
+death.  He had some difficulty to find somebody to go in search of
+Capuchins to pray over the corpse.  The decomposition became so rapid and
+so great, that the opening of the windows was not enough; the Capuchins,
+La Vrilliere, and the valets, were compelled to pass the night outside.
+
+At Marly everybody had felt so confident that the King's return there was
+not dreamt of.  Nothing was ready, no keys of the rooms, no fires,
+scarcely an end of candle.  The King was more than an hour thus with
+Madame de Maintenon and other ladies in one of the ante-chambers.  The
+King retired into a corner, seated between Madame de Maintenon and two
+other ladies, and wept at long intervals.  At last the chamber of Madame
+de Maintenon was ready.  The King entered, remained there an hour, and
+then 'went to bed at nearly four o'clock in the morning.
+
+Monseigneur was rather tall than short; very fat, but without being
+bloated; with a very lofty and noble aspect without any harshness; and he
+would have had a very agreeable face if M. le Prince de Conti had not
+unfortunately broken his nose in playing while they were both young.  He
+was of a very beautiful fair complexion; he had a face everywhere covered
+with a healthy red, but without expression; the most beautiful legs in
+the world; his feet singularly small and delicate.  He wavered always in
+walking, and felt his way with his feet; he was always afraid of falling,
+and if the path was not perfectly even and straight, he called for
+assistance.  He was a good horseman, and looked well when mounted; but he
+was not a bold rider.  When hunting--they had persuaded him that he liked
+this amusement--a servant rode before him; if he lost sight of this
+servant he gave himself up for lost, slicked his pace to a gentle trot,
+and oftentimes waited under a tree for the hunting party, and returned to
+it slowly.  He was very fond of the table, but always without indecency.
+Ever since that great attack of indigestion, which was taken at first for
+apoplexy, he made but one real meal a day, and was content,--although a
+great eater, like the rest of the royal family.  Nearly all his portraits
+well resemble him.
+
+As for his character he had none; he was without enlightenment or
+knowledge of any kind, radically incapable of acquiring any; very idle,
+without imagination or productiveness; without taste, without choice,
+without discernment; neither seeing the weariness he caused others, nor
+that he was as a ball moving at hap-hazard by the impulsion of others;
+obstinate and little to excess in everything; amazingly credulous and
+accessible to prejudice, keeping himself, always, in the most pernicious
+hands, yet incapable of seeing his position or of changing it; absorbed
+in his fat and his ignorance; so that without any desire to do ill he
+would have made a pernicious King.
+
+His avariciousness, except in certain things, passed all belief.  He kept
+an account of his personal expenditure, and knew to a penny what his
+smallest and his largest expenses amounted to.  He spent large sums in
+building, in furniture, in jewels, and in hunting, which he made himself
+believe he was fond of.
+
+It is inconceivable the little he gave to La Choin, whom he so much
+loved.  It never exceeded four hundred Louis a quarter in gold, or
+sixteen hundred Louis a year, whatever the Louis might be worth.  He gave
+them to her with his own hand, without adding or subtracting a pistole,
+and, at the most, made her but one present a year, and that he looked at
+twice before giving.  It was said that they were married, and certain
+circumstances seemed to justify this rumour.  As for instance, during the
+illness of Monseigneur, the King, as I have said, asked Madame de
+Maintenon if she had seen Mademoiselle Choin, and upon receiving negative
+reply, was displeased.  Instead of driving her away from the chateau he
+inquired particularly after her!  This, to say the least, looked as
+though Mademoiselle Choin was Monseigneur's Maintenon--but the matter
+remained incomprehensible to the last.  Mademoiselle Choin threw no light
+upon it, although she spoke on many other things concerning Monseigneur.
+In the modest home at Paris, to which she had retired for the rest of her
+days.  The King gave her a pension of twelve thousand livres.
+
+Monseigneur was, I have said, ignorant to the last degree, and had a
+thorough aversion for learning; so that, according to his own admission,
+ever since he had been released from the hands of teachers he had never
+read anything except the article in the "Gazette de France," in which
+deaths and marriages are recorded.  His timidity, especially before the
+King, was equal to his ignorance, which indeed contributed not a little
+to cause it.  The King took advantage of it, and never treated him as a
+son, but as a subject.  He was the monarch always, never the father.
+Monseigneur had not the slightest influence with the King.  If he showed
+any preference for a person it was enough!  That person was sure to be
+kept back by the King.  The King was so anxious to show that Monseigneur
+could do nothing, that Monseigneur after a time did not even try.  He
+contented himself by complaining occasionally in monosyllables, and by
+hoping for better times.
+
+The body of Monseigneur so soon grew decomposed; that immediate burial
+was necessary.  At midnight on Wednesday he was carried, with but little
+ceremony, to Saint-Denis, and deposited in the royal vaults.  His funeral
+services were said at Saint-Denis on the 18th of the following June, and
+at Notre Dame on the 3rd of July.  As the procession passed through Paris
+nothing but cries, acclamations, and eulogiums of the defunct were heard.
+Monseigneur had, I know not how, much endeared himself to the common
+people of Paris, and this sentiment soon gained the provinces; so true it
+is, that in France it costs little to its Princes to make themselves
+almost adored!
+
+The King soon got over his affliction for the loss of this son of fifty.
+Never was a man so ready with tears, so backward with grief, or so
+promptly restored to his ordinary state.  The morning after the death of
+Monseigneur he rose late, called M. de Beauvilliers into his cabinet,
+shed some more tears, and then said that from that time Monseigneur le
+Duc de Bourgogne and Madame la Duchesse de Bourgogne were to enjoy the
+honours, the rank, and the name of Dauphin and of Dauphine.  Henceforth I
+shall call them by no other names.
+
+My joy at this change may be imagined.  In a few days all my causes of
+disquietude had been removed, and I saw a future opening before me full
+of light and promise.  Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne become Dauphin,
+heir to the throne of France; what favour might I not hope for?  I could
+not conceal or control my satisfaction.
+
+But alas!  it was soon followed by sad disappointment and grievous
+sorrow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVIII
+
+The death of Monseigneur, as we have seen, made a great change in the
+aspect of the Court and in the relative positions of its members.  But
+the two persons to whom I must chiefly direct attention are the Duchesse
+de Bourgogne and the Duchesse de Berry.  The former, on account of her
+husband's fall in the opinion of his father, had long been out of favour
+likewise.  Although Monseigneur had begun to treat her less well for a
+long time, and most harshly during the campaign of Lille, and above all
+after the expulsion of the Duc de Vendome from Marly and Meudon; yet
+after the marriage of the Duc de Berry his coldness had still further
+increased. The adroit Princess, it is true, had rowed against the current
+with a steadiness and grace capable of disarming even a well-founded
+resentment; but the persons who surrounded him looked upon the meeting of
+them as dangerous for their projects.  The Duc and Duchesse de Bourgogne
+were every day still further removed in comparative disgrace.
+
+Things even went so far that apropos of an engagement broken off, the
+Duchesse resolved to exert her power instead of her persuasion, and
+threatened the two Lillebonnes.  A sort of reconciliation was then
+patched up, but it was neither sincere nor apparently so.
+
+The cabal which laboured to destroy the Duc and Duchesse de Bourgogne was
+equally assiduous in augmenting the influence of the Duc de Berry, whose
+wife had at once been admitted without having asked into the sanctuary of
+the Parvulo.  The object was to disunite the two brothers and excite
+jealousy between then.  In this they did not succeed even in the
+slightest degree.  But they found a formidable ally in the Duchesse de
+Berry, who proved as full of wickedness and ambition as any among them.
+The Duc d'Orleans often called his Duchess Madame Lucifer, at which she
+used to smile with complacency.  He was right, for she would have been a
+prodigy of pride had she not, had a daughter who far surpassed her.  This
+is not yet the time to paint their portraits; but I must give a word or
+two of explanation on the Duchesse de Berry.
+
+That princess was a marvel of wit, of pride, of ingratitude and folly--
+nay, of debauchery and obstinacy.
+
+Scarcely had she been married a week when she began to exhibit herself in
+all these lights,--not too manifestly it is true, for one of the
+qualities of which she was most vain was her falsity and power of
+concealment, but sufficiently to make an impression on those around her.
+People soon perceived how annoyed she was to be the daughter of an
+illegitimate mother, and to have lived under her restraint however mild;
+how she despised the weakness of her father, the Duc d'Orleans, and how
+confident she was of her influence over him; and how she had hated all
+who had interfered in her marriage--merely because she could not bear to
+be under obligations to any one--a reason she was absurd enough publicly
+to avow and boast of.  Her conduct was now based on those motives.  This
+is an example of how in this world people work with their heads in a
+sack, and how human prudence and wisdom are sometimes confounded by
+successes which have been reasonably desired and which turn out to be
+detestable!  We had brought about this marriage to avoid a marriage with
+Mademoiselle de Bourbon and to cement the union of the two brothers.  We
+now discovered that there was little danger of Mademoiselle de Bourbon,
+and then instead of her we had a Fury who had no thought but how to ruin
+those who had established her, to injure her benefactors, to make her
+husband and her brother quarrel; and to put herself in the power of her
+enemies because they were the enemies of her natural friends.  It never
+occurred to her that the cabal would not be likely to abandon to her the
+fruit of so much labour and so many crimes.
+
+It may easily be imagined that she was neither gentle nor docile when
+Madame la Duchesse began to give her advice.  Certain that her father
+would support her, she played the stranger and the daughter of France
+with her mother.  Estrangement, however, soon came on.  She behaved
+differently in form, but in effect the same with the Duchesse de
+Bourgogne, who wished to guide her as a daughter, but who soon gave up
+the attempt.  The Duchesse de Berry's object could only be gained by
+bringing about disunion between the two brothers, and for this purpose
+she employed as a spring the passion of her husband for herself.
+
+The first night at Versailles after the death of Monseigneur was
+sleepless.  The Dauphin and Dauphine heard mass early next morning.
+I went to see them.  Few persons were present on account of the hour.
+The Princess wished to be at Marly at the King's waking.  Their eyes were
+wonderfully dry, but carefully managed; and it was easy to see they were
+more occupied with their new position than with the death of Monseigneur.
+A smile which they exchanged as they spoke, in whispers convinced me of
+this.  One of their first cares was to endeavour to increase their good
+relations with the Duc and Duchesse de Berry.  They were to see them
+before they were up.  The Duc de Berry showed himself very sensible to
+this act, and the Duchess was eloquent, clever, and full of tears.  But
+her heart was wrung by these advances of pure generosity.  The separation
+she had planned soon followed: and the two princesses felt relieved at no
+longer being obliged to dine together.
+
+Thus never was change greater or more marked than that brought about by
+the death of Monseigneur.  That prince had become the centre of all hope
+and of all fear, a formidable cabal had seized upon him, yet without
+awakening the jealousy of the King, before whom all trembled, but whose
+anxieties did not extend beyond his own lifetime, during which, and very
+reasonably, he feared nothing.
+
+Before I go any further, let me note a circumstance characteristic of the
+King.  Madame la Dauphine went every day to Marly to see him.  On the day
+after the death of Monseigneur she received, not without surprise, easily
+understood, a hint from Madame de Maintenon.  It was to the effect that
+she should dress herself with some little care, inasmuch as the
+negligence of her attire displeased the King!  The Princess did not think
+that dress ought to occupy her then; and even if she had thought so, she
+would have believed, and with good reason, that she was committing a
+grave fault against decorum, a fault which would have been less readily
+pardoned, since in every way she had gained too much by what had just
+occurred not to be very guarded in her behaviour.  On the next day she
+took more pains with her toilette; but what she did not being found
+sufficient, the day following she carried with her some things and
+dressed herself secretly in Madame de Maintenon's rooms; and resumed
+there her ordinary apparel before returning to Versailles.  Thus she
+avoided offence both to the King and to society.  The latter certainly
+would with difficulty have been persuaded that in this ill-timed
+adornment of her person, her own tastes went for nothing.  The Comtesse
+de Mailly, who invented the scheme, and Madame de Nogaret, who both liked
+Monseigneur, related this to me and were piqued by it.  From this fact
+and from the circumstance that all the ordinary pleasures and occupations
+were resumed immediately after the death of Monseigneur, the King passing
+his days without any constraint,--it may be assumed that if the royal
+grief was bitter its evidences were of a kind to promise that it would
+not be of long duration.
+
+M. le Dauphin, for, as I have said, it is by that title I shall now name
+Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne--M. le Dauphin, I say, soon gained all
+hearts.  In the first days of solitude following upon the death of
+Monseigneur, the King intimated to M. de Beauvilliers that he should not
+care to see the new Dauphin go very often to Meudon.  This was enough.
+M. le Dauphin at once declared that he would never set his foot in that
+palace, and that he would never quit the King.  He was as good as his
+word, and not one single visit did he ever afterwards pay to Meudon.  The
+King wished to give him fifty thousand livres a month, Monseigneur having
+had that sum.  M. le Dauphin would not accept them.  He had only six
+thousand livres per month.  He was satisfied with double that amount and
+would not receive more.  This disinterestedness much pleased the public.
+M. le Dauphin wished for nothing special on his account, and persisted in
+remaining in nearly everything as he was during the life of Monseigneur.
+These auguries of a prudent and measured reign, suggested the brightest
+of hopes.
+
+Aided by his adroit spouse, who already had full possession of the King's
+heart and of that of Madame de Maintenon, M. le Dauphin redoubled his
+attentions in order to possess them also.  These attentions, addressed to
+Madame de Maintenon, produced their fruit.  She was transported with
+pleasure at finding a Dauphin upon whom she could rely, instead of one
+whom she did not like, gave herself up to him accordingly, and by that
+means secured to him the King's favour.  The first fortnight made evident
+to everybody at Marly the extraordinary change that had come over the
+King with respect to the Dauphin.  His Majesty, generally severe beyond
+measure with his legitimate children, showed the most marked graciousness
+for this prince.  The effects of this, and of the change that had taken
+place in his state, were soon most clearly visible in the Dauphin.
+Instead of being timid and retiring, diffident in speech, and more fond
+of his study than of the salon, he became on a sudden easy and frank,
+showing himself in public on all occasions, conversing right and left in
+a gay, agreeable, and dignified manner; presiding, in fact, over the
+Salon of Marly, and over the groups gathered round him, like the divinity
+of a temple, who receives with goodness the homage to which he is
+accustomed, and recompenses the mortals who offer it with gentle regard.
+
+In a short time hunting became a less usual topic of conversation.
+History, and even science, were touched upon lightly, pleasantly, and
+discreetly, in a manner that charmed while it instructed.  The Dauphin
+spoke with an eloquent freedom that opened all eyes, ears and hearts.
+People sometimes, in gathering near him, were less anxious to make their
+court than to listen to his natural eloquence, and to draw from it
+delicious instruction.  It is astonishing with what rapidity he gained
+universal esteem and admiration.  The public joy could not keep silent.
+People asked each other if this was really the same man they had known as
+the Duc de Bourgogne, whether he was a vision or a reality?  One of M. le
+Dauphin's friends, to whom this question was addressed, gave a keen
+reply.  He answered, that the cause of all this surprise was, that
+previously the people did not, and would not, know this prince, who,
+nevertheless, to those who had known him, was the same now as he had ever
+been; and that this justice would be rendered to him when time had shown
+how much it was deserved.
+
+From the Court to Paris, and from Paris to the provinces, the reputation
+of the Dauphin flew on rapid wings.  However founded might be this
+prodigious success, we need not believe it was entirely due to the
+marvellous qualities of the young prince.  It was in a great measure a
+reaction against the hostile feeling towards him which had been excited
+by the cabal, whose efforts I have previously spoken of.  Now that people
+saw how unjust was this feeling, their astonishment added to their
+admiration.  Everybody was filled with a sentiment of joy at seeing the
+first dawn of a new state of things, which promised so much order and
+happiness after such a long confusion and so much obscurity.
+
+Gracious as the King showed himself to M. le Dauphin, and accustomed as
+the people grew to his graciousness, all the Court was strangely
+surprised at a fresh mark of favour that was bestowed one morning by his
+Majesty on this virtuous prince.  The King, after having been closeted
+alone with him for some time, ordered his ministers to work with the
+Dauphin whenever sent for, and, whether sent for or not, to make him
+acquainted with all public affairs; this command being given once for
+all.
+
+It is not easy to describe the prodigious movement caused at the Court by
+this order, so directly opposed to the tastes, to the disposition, to the
+maxims, to the usage of the King, who thus showed a confidence in the
+Dauphin which was nothing less than tacitly transferring to him a large
+part of the disposition of public affairs.  This was a thunderbolt for
+the ministers; who, accustomed to have almost everything their own way,
+to rule over everybody and browbeat everybody at will, to govern the
+state abroad and at home, in fact, fixing all punishments, all
+recompenses, and always sheltering themselves behind the royal authority
+"the King wills it so" being the phrase ever on their lips,--to these
+officers, I say, it was a thunderbolt which so bewildered them, that they
+could not hide their astonishment or their confusion.  The public joy at
+an order which reduced these ministers, or rather these kings, to the
+condition of subjects, which put a curb upon their power, and provided
+against the abuses they committed, was great indeed!  The ministers were
+compelled to bend their necks, though stiff as iron, to the yoke.  They
+all went, with a hang-dog look, to show the Dauphin a feigned joy and a
+forced obedience to the order they had received.
+
+Here, perhaps, I may as well speak of the situation in which I soon
+afterwards found myself with the Dauphin, the confidence as to the
+present and the future that I enjoyed with him, and the many
+deliberations we had upon public affairs.  The matter is curious and
+interesting, and need no longer be deferred.
+
+The Court being changed by the death of Monseigneur, I soon began indeed
+to think of changing my conduct with regard to the new Dauphin.  M. de
+Beauvilliers spoke to me about this matter first, but he judged, and I
+shared his opinion, that slandered as I had been on previous occasions,
+and remaining still, as it were, half in disgrace, I must approach the
+Dauphin only by slow degrees, and not endeavour to shelter myself under
+him until his authority with the King had become strong enough to afford
+me a safe asylum.  I believed, nevertheless, that it would be well to
+sound him immediately; and one evening, when he was but thinly
+accompanied, I joined him in the gardens at Marly and profited by his
+gracious welcome to say to him, on the sly, that many reasons, of which
+he was not ignorant, had necessarily kept me until then removed from him,
+but that now I hoped to be able to follow with less constraint my
+attachment and my inclination, and that I flattered myself this would be
+agreeable to him.  He replied in a low tone, that there were sometimes
+reasons which fettered people, but in our case such no longer existed;
+that he knew of my regard for him, and reckoned with pleasure that we
+should soon see each other more frequently than before.  I am writing the
+exact words of his reply, on account of the singular politeness of the
+concluding ones.  I regarded that reply as the successful result of a
+bait that had been taken as I wished.  Little by little I became more
+assiduous at his promenades, but without following them when the crowd or
+any dangerous people do so; and I spoke more freely.  I remained content
+with seeing the Dauphin in public, and I approached him in the Salon only
+when if I saw a good opportunity.
+
+Some days after, being in the Salon, I saw the Dauphin and the Dauphine
+enter together and converse.  I approached and heard their last words;
+they stimulated me to ask the prince what was in debate, not in a
+straightforward manner, but in a sort of respectful insinuating way which
+I already adopted.  He explained to me that he was going to Saint-Germain
+to pay an ordinary visit; that on this occasion there would be some
+change in the ceremonial; explained the matter, and enlarged with
+eagerness on the necessity of not abandoning legitimate rights.
+
+"How glad I am to see you think thus," I replied, "and how well you act
+in advocating these forms, the neglect of which tarnishes everything."
+
+He responded with warmth; and I seized the moment to say, that if he,
+whose rank was so great and so derided, was right to pay attention to
+these things, how such we dukes had reason to complain of our losses, and
+to try to sustain ourselves!  Thereupon he entered into the question so
+far as to become the advocate of our cause, and finished by saying that
+he regarded our restoration as an act of justice important to the state;
+that he knew I was well instructed in these things, and that I should
+give him pleasure by talking of them some day.  He rejoined at that,
+moment the Dauphine, and they set off for Saint-Germain.
+
+A few days after this the Dauphin sent for me.  I entered by the
+wardrobe, where a sure and trusty valet was in waiting; he conducted me
+to a cabinet in which the Dauphin was sitting alone.  Our conversation at
+once commenced.  For a full hour we talked upon the state of affairs, the
+Dauphin listening with much attention to all I said, and expressing
+himself with infinite modesty, sense, and judgment.  His view, I found,
+were almost entirely in harmony with mine.  He was sorry, and touchingly
+said so, for the ignorance of all things in which the King was kept by
+his ministers; he was anxious to see the power of those ministers
+restricted; he looked with dislike upon the incredible elevation of the
+illegitimate children; he wished to see the order to which I belonged
+restored to the position it deserved to occupy.
+
+It is difficult to express what I felt in quitting the Dauphin.  A
+magnificent and near future opened out before me.  I saw a prince, pious,
+just, debonnaire, enlightened, and seeking to become more so; with
+principles completely in accord with my own, and capacity to carry out
+those principles when the time for doing so arrived.  I relished
+deliciously a confident so precious and so full upon the most momentous
+matters and at a first interview.  I felt all the sweetness of this
+perspective, and of my deliverance from a servitude which, in spite of
+myself, I sometimes could not help showing myself impatient of.  I felt,
+too, that I now had an opportunity of elevating myself, and of
+contributing to those grand works, for the happiness and advantage of the
+state I so much wished to see accomplished.
+
+A few days after this I had another interview with the Dauphin.  I was
+introduced secretly as before, so that no one perceived either my coming
+or my departure.  The same subjects we had previously touched upon we now
+entered into again, and more amply than on the former occasion.  The
+Dauphin, in taking leave of me, gave me full permission to see him in
+private as often as I desired, though in public I was still to be
+circumspect.
+
+Indeed there was need of great circumspection in carrying on even private
+intercourse with the Dauphin.  From this time I continually saw him in
+his cabinet, talking with him in all liberty upon the various persons of
+the Court, and upon the various subjects relating to the state; but
+always with the same secrecy as at first.  This was absolutely necessary;
+as I have just said, I was still in a sort of half disgrace the King did
+not regard me with the eyes of favour; Madame de Maintenon was resolutely
+averse to me.  If they two had suspected my strict intimacy with the heir
+to the throne, I should have been assuredly lost.
+
+To show what need there was of precaution in my private interviews with
+the Dauphin, let me here recall an incident which one day occurred when
+we were closeted together, and which might have led to the greatest
+results.  The Prince lodged then in one of the four grand suites of
+apartments, on the same level as the Salon, the suite that was broken up
+during an illness of Madame la Princesse de Conti, to make way for a
+grand stair case, the narrow and crooked one in use annoying the King
+when he ascended it.  The chamber of the Dauphine was there; the bed had
+its foot towards the window; by the chimney was the door of the obscure
+wardrobe by which I entered; between the chimney and one of the two
+windows was a little portable bureau; in front of the ordinary entrance
+door of the chamber and behind the bureau was the door of one of the
+Dauphine's rooms; between the two windows was a chest of drawers which
+was used for papers only.
+
+There were always some moments of conversation before the Dauphin set
+himself down at his bureau, and ordered me to place myself opposite him.
+Having become more free with him, I took the liberty to say one day in
+these first moments of our discourse, that he would do well to bolt the
+door behind him, the door I mean of the Dauphine's chamber.  He said that
+the Dauphine would not come, it not being her hour.  I replied that I did
+not fear that princess herself, but the crowd that always accompanied
+her.  He was obstinate, and would not bolt the door.  I did not dare to
+press him more.  He sat down before his bureau, and ordered me to sit
+also.  Our deliberation was long; afterwards we sorted our papers.  Here
+let me say this--Every time I went to see the Dauphin I garnished all my
+pockets with papers, and I often smiled within myself passing through the
+Salon, at seeing there many people who at that moment were in my pockets,
+and who were far indeed from suspecting the important discussion that was
+going to take place.  To return: the Dauphin gave, me his papers to put
+in my pockets, and kept mine.  He locked up some in his cupboard, and
+instead of locking up the others in his bureau, kept them out, and began
+talking to me, his back to the chimney, his papers in one hand, his keys
+in the other.  I was standing at the bureau looking for some other
+papers, when on a sudden the door in front of me opened, and the Dauphine
+entered!
+
+The first appearance of all three--for, thank God!  she was alone--the
+astonishment, the countenance of all have never left my memory.  Our
+fixed eyes, our statue-like immobility, and our embarrassment were all
+alike, and lasted longer than a slow Pater-poster.  The Princess spoke
+first.  She said to the Prince in a very ill-assured voice, that she had
+not imagined him in such good company; smiling upon him and upon me.  I
+had scarce time to smile also and to lower my eyes, before the Dauphin
+replied.
+
+"Since you find me so," said he, smiling in turn, "leave me so."
+
+For an instant she looked on him, he and she both smiling at each other
+more; then she looked on me, still smiling with greater liberty than at
+first, made a pirouette, went away and closed the door, beyond the
+threshold of which she had not come.
+
+Never have I seen woman so astonished; never man so taken aback, as the
+Prince after the Dauphine's departure; and never man, to say truth, was
+so afraid as I was at first, though I quickly reassured myself when I
+found that our intruder was alone.  As soon as she had closed the door,
+"Well, Monsieur," said I to the Dauphin, "if you had drawn the bolt?"
+
+"You were right," he replied, "and I was wrong.  But no harm is done.
+She was alone fortunately, and I guarantee to you her secrecy."
+
+"I am not troubled," said I to him, (yet I was so mightily) "but it is a
+miracle she was alone.  With her suite you would have escaped with a
+scolding perhaps but for me, I should have been utterly lost."
+
+He admitted again he had, been wrong, and assure me more and more that
+our secret was safe.  The Dauphine had caught us, not only tete-a-tete--
+of which no one had the least suspicion--she had caught us in the fact,
+so to say, our crimes in out hands.  I felt that she would not expose the
+Dauphin, but I feared an after-revelation through some over-easy
+confidant.  Nevertheless our secret was so well kept if confided that it
+never transpired.  We finished, I to pocket, the Prince to lock up, the
+papers.  The rest of the conversation was short, and I withdrew by the
+wardrobe as usual.  M. de Beauvilliers, to whom I related this adventure
+shortly afterwards, grew pale at first, but recovered when I said the
+Dauphine was alone.  He blamed the imprudence of the Dauphin, but assured
+me my secret was safe.  Ever since that adventure the Dauphine often
+smiled upon me when we met, as if to remind me of it, and showed marked
+attention to me.
+
+No sooner did I feel myself pretty firmly established on this footing of
+delicious intimacy with the Dauphin than I conceived the desire to unite
+him with M. le Duc d'Orleans through the means of M. de Beauvilliers.  At
+the very outset, however, an obstacle arose in my path.
+
+I have already said, that the friendship of M. d'Orleans for his
+daughter, Madame la Duchesse de Berry, had given employment to the
+tongues of Satan, set in Motion by hatred and jealousy.  Evil reports
+even reached M. le Duc de Berry, who on his part, wishing to enjoy the
+society of his wife in full liberty, was importuned by the continual
+presence near her, of her father.  To ward off a quarrel between son-in-
+law and father-in-law, based upon so false and so odious a foundation,
+appeared to Madame de Saint-Simon and myself a pressing duty.
+
+I had already tried to divert M. le Duc d'Orleans from an assiduity which
+wearied M. le Duc de Berry; but I had not succeeded.  I believed it my
+duty then to return to the charge more hotly; and remembering my previous
+ill-success, I prefaced properly, and then said what I had to say.  M.
+d'Orleans was astonished; he cried out against the horror of such a vile
+imputation and the villainy that had carried it to M. le Duc de Berry.
+He thanked me for having warned him of it, a service few besides myself
+would have rendered him.  I left him to draw the proper and natural
+conclusion on the conduct he should pursue.  This conversation passed one
+day at Versailles about four o'clock in the afternoon.
+
+On the morrow Madame de Saint-Simon related to me, that returning home
+the previous evening, from the supper and the cabinet of the King with
+Madame la Duchesse de Berry, the Duchess had passed straight into the
+wardrobe and called her there; and then with a cold and angry air, said
+she was very much astonished that I wished to get up a quarrel between
+her and M. le Duc d'Orleans.  Madame Saint-Simon exhibited surprise, but
+Madame la Duchesse de Berry declared that nothing was so true; that I
+wished to estrange M. d'Orleans from her, but that I should not succeed;
+and immediately related all that I had just said to her father.  He had
+had the goodness to repeat it to her an hour afterwards!  Madame de
+Saint-Simon, still more surprised, listened attentively to the end, and
+replied that this horrible report was public, that she herself could see
+what consequences it would have, false and abominable as it might be, and
+feel whether it was not important that M. le Duc d'Orleans should be
+informed of it.  She added, that I had shown such proofs of my attachment
+for them and of my desire for their happiness, that I was above all
+suspicion.  Then she curtsied and leaving the Princess went to bed.  This
+scene appeared to me enormous.
+
+For some time after this I ceased entirely to see Duc d'Orleans and
+Madame la Duchesse de Berry.  They cajoled me with all sorts of excuses,
+apologies, and so forth, but I remained frozen.  They redoubled their
+excuses and their prayers.  Friendship, I dare not say compassion,
+seduced me, and I allowed myself to be led away.  In a word, we were
+reconciled.  I kept aloof, however, from Madame la Duchesse de Berry as
+much as possible, visiting her only for form's sake; and as long as she
+lived never changed in this respect.
+
+Being reconciled with M. d'Orleans, I again thought of my project of
+uniting him to the Dauphin through M. de Beauvilliers.  He had need of
+some support, for on all sides he was sadly out of favour.  His
+debauchery and his impiety, which he had quitted for a time after
+separating himself from Madame d'Argenton, his mistress, had now seized
+on him again as firmly as ever.  It seemed as though there were a wager
+between him and his daughter, Madame la Duchesse de Berry, which should
+cast most contempt on religion and good manners.
+
+The King was nothing ignorant of the conduct of his nephew.  He had been
+much shocked with the return to debauchery and low company.  The enemies
+of M. d'Orleans, foremost among whom was M. du Maine, had therefore
+everything in their favour.  As I have said, without some support M.
+d'Orleans seemed in danger of being utterly lost.
+
+It was no easy matter to persuade M. de Beauvilliers to, fall in with the
+plan I had concocted, and lend his aid to it.  But I worked him hard.  I
+dwelt upon the taste of the Dauphin for history, science, and the arts,
+and showed what a ripe knowledge of those subjects M. d'Orleans had, and
+what agreeable conversation thereon they both might enjoy together.  In
+brief I won over M. de Beauvilliers to my scheme.  M. D'Orleans, on his
+side, saw without difficulty the advantage to him of union with the
+Dauphin.  To bring it about I laid before him two conditions.  One, that
+when in the presence of the Prince he should suppress that detestable
+heroism of impiety he affected more than he felt, and allow no licentious
+expressions to escape him.  The second was to go less often into evil
+company at Paris, and if he must continue his debauchery, to do so at the
+least within closed doors, and avoid all public scandal.  He promised
+obedience, and was faithful to his promise.  The Dauphin perceived and
+approved the change; little by little the object of my desire was gained.
+
+As I have already said, it would be impossible for me to express all the
+joy I felt at my deliverance from the dangers I was threatened with
+during the lifetime of Monseigneur.  My respect, esteem, and admiration
+for the Dauphin grew more and more day by day, as I saw his noble
+qualities blossom out in richer luxuriance.  My hopes, too, took a
+brighter colour from the rising dawn of prosperity that was breaking
+around me.  Alas!  that I should be compelled to relate the cruel manner
+in which envious fortune took from me the cup of gladness just as I was
+raising it to my lips.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIX
+
+On Monday, the 18th of January, 1712, after a visit to Versailles, the
+King went to Marly.  I mark expressly this journey.  No sooner were we
+settled there than Boudin, chief doctor of the Dauphine, warned her to
+take care of herself, as he had received sure information that there was
+a plot to poison her and the Dauphin, to whom he made a similar
+communication.  Not content with this he repeated it with a terrified
+manner to everybody in the salon, and frightened all who listened to him.
+The King spoke to him about it in private.  Boudin declared that this
+information was good, and yet that he did not know whence it came; and he
+stuck to this contradiction.  For, if he did not know where the
+information came from how could he be assured it was trustworthy?
+
+The most singular thing is, that twenty-four hours after Boudin had
+uttered this warning, the Dauphin received a similar one from the King of
+Spain, vague, and without mentioning whence obtained, and yet also
+declared to be of good source.  In this only the Dauphin was named
+distinctly--the Dauphine obscurely and by implication--at least, so the
+Dauphin explained the matter, and I never heard that he said otherwise.
+People pretended to despise these stories of origin unknown, but they
+were struck by them nevertheless, and in the midst of the amusements and
+occupations of the Court, seriousness, silence, and consternation were
+spread.
+
+The King, as I have said, went to Marly on Monday, the 18th of January,
+1712.  The Dauphine came there early with a face very much swelled, and
+went to bed at once; yet she rose at seven o'clock in the evening because
+the King wished her to preside in the salon.  She played there, in
+morning-dress, with her head wrapped up, visited the King m the apartment
+of Madame de Maintenon just before his supper, and then again went to
+bed, where she supped.  On the morrow, the 19th, she rose only to play in
+the salon, and see the King, returning to her bed and supping there.  On
+the 20th, her swelling diminished, and she was better.  She was subject
+to this complaint, which was caused by her teeth.  She passed the
+following days as usual.  On Monday, the 1st of February, the Court
+returned to Versailles.
+
+On Friday, the 5th of February, the Duc de Noailles gave a very fine box
+full of excellent Spanish snuff to the Dauphine, who took some, and liked
+it.  This was towards the end of the morning.  Upon entering her cabinet
+(closed to everybody else), she put this box upon the table, and left it
+there.  Towards the evening she was seized with trembling fits of fever.
+She went to bed, and could not rise again even to go to the King's
+cabinet after the supper.  On Saturday, the 6th of February, the
+Dauphine, who had had fever all night, did not fail to rise at her
+ordinary hour, and to pass the day as usual; but in the evening the fever
+returned.  She was but middling all that night, a little worse the next
+day; but towards ten o'clock at night she was suddenly seized by a sharp
+pain under the temple.  It did not extend to the dimensions of a ten sous
+piece, but was so violent that she begged the King, who was coming to see
+her, not to enter.  This kind of madness of suffering lasted without
+intermission until Monday, the 8th, and was proof against tobacco chewed
+and smoked, a quantity of opium, and two bleedings in the arms.  Fever
+showed itself more then this pain was a little calmed; the Dauphine said
+she had suffered more than in child-birth.
+
+Such a violent illness filled the chamber with rumours concerning the
+snuff-box given to the Dauphine by the Duc de Noailles.  In going to bed
+the day she had received it and was seized by fever, she spoke of the
+snuff to her ladies, highly praising it and the box, which she told one
+of them to go and look for upon the table in the cabinet, where, as I
+have said, it had been left.  The box could not be found, although looked
+for high and low.  This disappearance had seemed very extraordinary from
+the first moment it became known.  Now, joined to the grave illness with
+which the Dauphine was so cruelly assailed, it aroused the most sombre
+suspicions.  Nothing, however, was breathed of these suspicions, beyond a
+very restricted circle; for the Princess took snuff with the knowledge of
+Madame de Maintenon, but without that of the King, who would have made a
+fine scene if he had discovered it.  This was what was feared, if the
+singular loss of the box became divulged.
+
+Let me here say, that although one of my friends, the Archbishop of
+Rheims, believed to his dying day that the Duc de Noailles had poisoned
+the Dauphine by means of this box of Spanish snuff, I never could induce
+myself to believe so too.  The Archbishop declared that in the manner of
+the Duc de Noailles, after quitting the chamber of the Princess, there
+was something which suggested both confusion and contentment.  He brought
+forward other proofs of guilt, but they made no impression upon me.  I
+endeavoured, on the contrary, to shake his belief, but my labour was in
+vain.  I entreated him, however, at least to maintain the most profound
+silence upon this horrible thought, and he did so.
+
+Those who afterwards knew the history of the box--and they were in good
+number--were as inaccessible to suspicion as I; and nobody thought of
+charging the Duc de Noailles with the offence it was said he had
+committed.  As for me, I believed in his guilt so little that our
+intimacy remained the same; and although that intimacy grew even up to
+the death of the King, we never spoke of this fatal snuff-box.
+
+During the night, from Monday to Tuesday, the 9th of February, the
+lethargy was great.  During the day the King approached the bed many
+times: the fever was strong, the awakenings were short; the head was
+confused, and some marks upon the skin gave tokens of measles, because
+they extended quickly, and because many people at Versailles and at Paris
+were known to be, at this time, attacked with that disease.  The night
+from Tuesday to Wednesday passed so much the more badly, because the hope
+of measles had already vanished.  The King came in the morning to see
+Madame la Dauphine, to whom an emetic had been given.  It operated well,
+but produced no relief.  The Dauphin, who scarcely ever left the bedside
+of his wife, was forced into the garden to take the air, of which he had
+much need; but his disquiet led him back immediately into the chamber.
+The malady increased towards the evening, and at eleven o'clock there was
+a considerable augmentation of fever.  The night was very bad.
+On Thursday, the 11th of February, at nine o'clock in the morning, the
+King entered the Dauphine's chamber, which Madame de Maintenon scarcely
+ever left, except when he was in her apartments.  The Princess was so ill
+that it was resolved to speak to her of receiving the sacrament.
+Prostrated though she was she was surprised at this.  She put some
+questions as to her state; replies as little terrifying as possible were
+given to her, and little by little she was warned against delay.
+Grateful for this advice, she said she would prepare herself.
+
+After some time, accidents being feared, Father la Rue, her (Jesuit)
+confessor, whom she had always appeared to like, approached her to exhort
+her not to delay confession.  She looked at him, replied that she
+understood him, and then remained silent.  Like a sensible man he saw
+what was the matter, and at once said that if she had any objection to
+confess to him to have no hesitation in admitting it.  Thereupon she
+indicated that she should like to have M. Bailly, priest of the mission
+of the parish of Versailles.  He was a man much esteemed, but not
+altogether free from the suspicion of Jansenism.  Bailly, as it happened,
+had gone to Paris.  This being told her, the Dauphine asked for Father
+Noel, who was instantly sent for.
+
+The excitement that this change of confessor made at a moment so critical
+may be imagined.  All the cruelty of the tyranny that the King never
+ceased to exercise over every member of his family was now apparent.
+They could not have a confessor not of his choosing!  What was his
+surprise and the surprise of all the Court, to find that in these last
+terrible moments of life the Dauphine wished to change her confessor,
+whose order even she repudiated!
+
+Meanwhile the Dauphin had given way.  He had hidden his own illness as
+long as he could, so as not to leave the pillow of his Dauphine.  Now the
+fever he had was too strong to be dissimulated; and the doctors, who
+wished to spare him the sight of the horrors they foresaw, forgot nothing
+to induce him to stay in his chamber, where, to sustain him, false news
+was, from time to time, brought him of the state of his spouse.
+
+The confession of the Dauphine was long.  Extreme unction was
+administered immediately afterwards; and the holy viaticum directly.
+An hour afterwards the Dauphine desired the prayers for the dying to be
+said.  They told her she was not yet in that state, and with words of
+consolation exhorted her to try and get to sleep.  Seven doctors of the
+Court and of Paris were sent for.  They consulted together in the
+presence of the King and Madame de Maintenon.  All with one voice were in
+favour of bleeding at the foot; and in case it did not have the effect
+desired, to give an emetic at the end of the night.  The bleeding was
+executed at seven o'clock in the evening.  The return of the fever came
+and was found less violent than the preceding.  The night was cruel.  The
+King came early next morning to see the Dauphine.  The emetic she took at
+about nine o'clock had little effect.  The day passed in symptoms each
+more sad than the other; consciousness only at rare intervals.  All at
+once towards evening, the whole chamber fell into dismay.  A number of
+people were allowed to enter although the King was there.  Just before
+she expired he left, mounted into his coach at the foot of the grand
+staircase, and with Madame de Maintenon and Madame de Caylus went away to
+Marly.  They were both in the most bitter grief, and had not the courage
+to go to the Dauphin.  Upon arriving at Marly the King supped in his own
+room; and passed a short time with M. d'Orleans and his natural children.
+M. le Duc de Berry, entirely occupied with his affliction, which was
+great and real, had remained at Versailles with Madame la Duchesse de
+Berry, who, transported with joy upon seeing herself delivered from a
+powerful rival, to whom, however, she owed all, made her face do duty for
+her heart.
+
+Monseigneur le Dauphin, ill and agitated by the most bitter grief, kept
+his chamber; but on Saturday morning the 13th, being pressed to go to
+Marly to avoid the horror of the noise overhead where the Dauphine was
+lying dead, he set out for that place at seven o'clock in the morning.
+Shortly after arriving he heard mass in the chapel, and thence was
+carried in a chair to the window of one of his rooms.  Madame de
+Maintenon came to see him there afterwards; the anguish of the interview
+was speedily too much for her, and she went away.  Early in the morning I
+went uninvited to see M. le Dauphin.  He showed me that he perceived this
+with an air of gentleness and of affection which penetrated me.  But I
+was terrified with his looks, constrained, fixed and with something wild
+about them, with the change in his face and with the marks there, livid
+rather than red, that I observed in good number and large; marks observed
+by the others also.  The Dauphin was standing.  In a few minutes he was
+apprised that the King had awaked.  The tears that he had restrained, now
+rolled from his eyes; he turned round at the news but said nothing,
+remaining stock still.  His three attendants proposed to him, once or
+twice, that he should go to the King.  He neither spoke nor stirred.  I
+approached and made signs to him to go, then softly spoke to the same
+effect.  Seeing that he still remained speechless and motionless, I made
+bold to take his arm, representing to him that sooner or later he must
+see the King, who expected him, and assuredly with the desire to see and
+embrace him; and pressing him in this manner, I took the liberty to
+gently push him.  He cast upon me a look that pierced my soul and went
+away: I followed him some few steps and then withdrew to recover breath;
+I never saw him again.  May I, by the mercy of God, see him eternally
+where God's goodness doubtless has placed him!
+
+The Dauphin reached the chamber of the King, full just then of company.
+As soon as, he appeared the King called him and embraced him tenderly
+again and again.  These first moments, so touching, passed in words
+broken by sobs and tears.
+
+Shortly afterwards the King looking at the Dauphin was terrified by the
+same things that had previously struck me with affright.  Everybody
+around was so, also the doctors more than the others.  The King ordered
+them to feel his pulse; that they found bad, so they said afterwards; for
+the time they contented themselves with saying it was not regular, and
+that the Dauphin would do wisely to go to bed.  The King embraced him
+again, recommended him very tenderly to take care of himself, and ordered
+him to go to bed.  He obeyed and rose no more!
+
+It was now late in the morning.  The King had passed a cruel night and
+had a bad headache; he saw at his dinner, the few courtiers who presented
+themselves, and after dinner went to the Dauphin.  The fever had
+augmented: the pulse was worse than before.  The King passed into the
+apartments of Madame de Maintenon, and the Dauphin was left with his
+attendants and his doctors.  He spent the day in prayers and holy
+reading.
+
+On the morrow, Sunday, the uneasiness felt on account of the Dauphin
+augmented.  He himself did not conceal his belief that he should never
+rise again, and that the plot Boudin had warned him of, had been
+executed.  He explained himself to this effect more than once, and always
+with a disdain of earthly grandeur and an incomparable submission and
+love of God.  It is impossible to describe the general consternation.  On
+Monday the 15th, the King was bled.  The Dauphin was no better than
+before.  The King and Madame de Maintenon saw him separately several
+times during the day, which was passed in prayers and reading.
+
+On Tuesday, the 16th, the Dauphin was worse.  He felt himself devoured by
+a consuming fire, which the external fever did not seem to justify; but
+the pulse was very extraordinary and exceedingly menacing.  This was a
+deceptive day.  The marks on the Dauphin's face extended over all the
+body.  They were regarded as the marks of measles.  Hope arose thereon,
+but the doctors and the most clear-sighted of the Court could not forget
+that these same marks had shown themselves on the body of the Dauphine; a
+fact unknown out of her chamber until after death.
+
+On Wednesday, the 17th, the malady considerably increased.  I had news at
+all moments of the Dauphin's state from Cheverny, an excellent apothecary
+of the King and of my family.  He hid nothing from us.  He had told us
+what he thought of the Dauphine's illness; he told us now what he thought
+of the Dauphin's.  I no longer hoped therefore, or rather I hoped to the
+end, against all hope.
+
+On Wednesday the pains increased.  They were like a devouring fire, but
+more violent than ever.  Very late into the evening the Dauphin sent to
+the King for permission to receive the communion early the next morning,
+without ceremony and without display, at the mass performed in his
+chamber.  Nobody heard of this, that evening; it was not known until the
+following morning.  I was in extreme desolation; I scarcely saw the King
+once a day.  I did nothing but go in quest of news several times a day,
+and to the house of M. de Chevreuse, where I was completely free.  M. de
+Chevreuse--always calm, always sanguine--endeavoured to prove to us by
+his medical reasonings that there was more reason to hope than to fear,
+but he did so with a tranquillity that roused my impatience.  I returned
+home to pass a cruel night.
+
+On Thursday morning, the 18th of February, I learned that the Dauphin,
+who had waited for midnight with impatience, had heard mass immediately
+after the communion, had passed two hours in devout communication with
+God, and that his reason then became embarrassed.  Madame de Saint-Simon
+told me afterwards that he had received extreme unction: in fine, that he
+died at half-past eight.  These memoirs are not written to describe my
+private sentiments.  But in reading them,--if, long after me, they shall
+ever appear, my state and that of Madame de Saint-Simon will only too
+keenly be felt.  I will content myself with saying, that the first days
+after the Dauphin's death scarcely appeared to us more than moments; that
+I wished to quit all, to withdraw from the Court and the world, and that
+I was only hindered by the wisdom, conduct, and power over me of Madame
+de Saint-Simon, who yet had much trouble to subdue my sorrowful desires.
+Let me say something now of the young prince and his spouse, whom we thus
+lost in such quick succession.
+
+Never did princess arrive amongst us so young with so much instruction,
+or with such capacity to profit by instruction.  Her skilful father, who
+thoroughly knew our Court, had painted it to her, and had made her
+acquainted with the only manner of making herself happy there.  From the
+first moment of her arrival she had acted upon his lessons.  Gentle,
+timid, but adroit, fearing to give the slightest pain to anybody, and
+though all lightness and vivacity, very capable of far-stretching views;
+constraint, even to annoyance, cost her nothing, though she felt all its
+weight.  Complacency was natural to her, flowed from her, and was
+exhibited towards every member of the Court.
+
+Regularly plain, with cheeks hanging, a forehead too prominent, a nose
+without meaning, thick biting lips, hair and eye-brows of dark chestnut,
+and well planted; the most speaking and most beautiful eyes in the world;
+few teeth, and those all rotten, about which she was the first to talk
+and jest; the most beautiful complexion and skin; not much bosom, but
+what there was admirable; the throat long, with the suspicion of a
+goitre, which did not ill become her; her head carried gallantly,
+majestically, gracefully; her mien noble; her smile most expressive; her
+figure long, round, slender, easy, perfectly-shaped; her walk that of a
+goddess upon the clouds: with such qualifications she pleased supremely.
+Grace accompanied her every step, and shone through her manners and her
+most ordinary conversation.  An air always simple and natural, often
+naive, but seasoned with wit-this with the ease peculiar to her, charmed
+all who approached her, and communicated itself to them.  She wished to
+please even the most useless and the most ordinary persons, and yet
+without making an effort to do so.  You were tempted to believe her
+wholly and solely devoted to those with whom she found herself.  Her
+gaiety--young, quick, and active--animated all; and her nymph-like
+lightness carried her everywhere, like a whirlwind which fills several
+places at once, and gives them movement and life.  She was the ornament
+of all diversions, the life and soul of all pleasure, and at balls
+ravished everybody by the justness and perfection of her dancing.  She
+could be amused by playing for small sums but liked high gambling better,
+and was an excellent, good-tempered, and bold gamester.
+
+She spared nothing, not even her health, to gain Madame de Maintenon, and
+through her the King.  Her suppleness towards them was without example,
+and never for a moment was at fault.  She accompanied it with all the
+discretion that her knowledge of them, acquired by study and experience,
+had given her, and could measure their dispositions to an inch.  In this
+way she had acquired a familiarity with them such as none of the King's
+children, not even the bastards, had approached.
+
+In public, serious, measured, with the King, and in timid decorum with
+Madame de Maintenon, whom she never addressed except as my aunt, thus
+prettily confounding friendship and rank.  In private, prattling,
+skipping, flying around them, now perched upon the sides of their arm-
+chairs, now playing upon their knees, she clasped them round the neck,
+embraced them, kissed them, caressed them, rumpled them, tickled them
+under the chin, tormented them, rummaged their tables, their papers,
+their letters, broke open the seals, and read the contents in spite of
+opposition, if she saw that her waggeries were likely to be received in
+good part.  When the King was with his ministers, when he received
+couriers, when the most important affairs were under discussion, she was
+present, and with such liberty, that, hearing the King and Madame de
+Maintenon speak one evening with affection of the Court of England, at
+the time when peace was hoped for from Queen Anne, "My aunt," she said,
+"you must admit that in England the queens govern better than the kings,
+and do you know why, my aunt?" asked she, running about and gambolling
+all the time, "because under kings it is women who govern, and men under
+queens."  The joke is that they both laughed, and said she was right.
+
+The King really could not do without her.  Everything went wrong with him
+if she was not by; even at his public supper, if she were away an
+additional cloud of seriousness and silence settled around him.  She took
+great care to see him every day upon arriving and departing; and if some
+ball in winter, or some pleasure party in summer, made her lose half the
+night, she  nevertheless adjusted things so well that she went and
+embraced the King the moment he was up, and amused him with a description
+of the fete.
+
+She was so far removed from the thoughts of death, that on Candlemas-day
+she talked with Madame de Saint-Simon of people who had died since she
+had been at Court, and of what she would herself do in old age, of the
+life she would lead, and of such like matters.  Alas!  it pleased God,
+for our misfortune, to dispose of her differently.
+
+With all her coquetry--and she was not wanting in it--never woman seemed
+to take less heed of her appearance; her toilette was finished in a
+moment, she cared nothing for finery except at balls and fetes; if she
+displayed a little at other times it was simply in order to please the
+king.  If the Court subsisted after her it was only to languish.  Never
+was princess so regretted, never one so worthy of it: regrets have not
+yet passed away, the involuntary and secret bitterness they caused still
+remain, with a frightful blank not yet filled up.
+
+Let me now turn to the Dauphin.
+
+The youth of this prince made every one tremble.  Stern and choleric to
+the last degree, and even against inanimate objects; impetuous with
+frenzy, incapable of suffering the slightest resistance even from the
+hours and the elements, without flying into a passion that threatened to
+destroy his body; obstinate to excess; passionately fond of all kind of
+voluptuousness, of women, with even a worse passion strongly developed at
+the same time; fond not less of wine, good living, hunting, music, and
+gaming, in which last he could not endure to be beaten; in fine,
+abandoned to every passion, and transported by every pleasure; oftentimes
+wild, naturally disposed towards cruelty; barbarous in raillery, and with
+an all-powerful capacity for ridicule.
+
+He looked down upon all men as from the sky, as atoms with whom he had
+nothing in common; even his brothers scarcely appeared connecting links
+between himself and human nature, although all had been educated together
+in perfect equality.  His sense and penetration shone through everything.
+His replies, even in anger, astonished everybody.  He amused himself with
+the most abstract knowledge.  The extent and vivacity of his intellect
+were prodigious, and rendered him incapable of applying himself to one
+study at a time.
+
+So much intelligence and of such a kind, joined to such vivacity,
+sensibility, and passion, rendered his education difficult.  But God, who
+is the master of all hearts, and whose divine spirit breathes where he
+wishes, worked a miracle on this prince between his eighteenth and
+twentieth years.  From this abyss he came out affable, gentle, humane,
+moderate, patient, modest, penitent, and humble; and austere, even more
+than harmonised with his position.  Devoted to his duties, feeling them
+to be immense, he thought only how to unite the duties of son and subject
+with those he saw to be destined for himself.  The shortness of each day
+was his only sorrow.  All his force, all his consolation, was in prayer
+and pious reading.  He clung with joy to the cross of his Saviour,
+repenting sincerely of his past pride.  The King, with his outside
+devotion, soon saw with secret displeasure his own life censured by that
+of a prince so young, who refused himself a new desk in order to give the
+money it would cost to the poor, and who did not care to accept some new
+gilding with which it was proposed to furnish his little room.
+Madame la Duchesse de Bourgogne, alarmed at so austere a spouse, left
+nothing undone in order to soften him.  Her charms, with which he was
+smitten, the cunning and the unbridled importunities of the young ladies
+of her suite, disguised in a hundred different forms--the attraction of
+parties and pleasures to which he was far from insensible, all were
+displayed every day..  But for a long time he behaved not like a prince
+but like a novice.  On one occasion he refused to be present at a ball on
+Twelfth Night, and in various ways made himself ridiculous at Court.
+In due time, however, he comprehended that the faithful performance of
+the duties proper to the state in which he had been placed, would be the
+conduct most agreeable to God.  The bark of the tree, little by little,
+grew softer without affecting the solidity of the trunk.  He applied
+himself to the studies which were necessary, in order to instruct himself
+in public affairs, and at the same time he lent himself more to the
+world, doing so with so much grace, with such a natural air, that
+everybody soon began to grow reconciled to him.
+
+The discernment of this prince was such, that, like the bee, he gathered
+the most perfect substance from the best and most beautiful flowers.  He
+tried to fathom men, to draw from them the instruction and the light that
+he could hope for.  He conferred sometimes, but rarely, with others
+besides his chosen few.  I was the only one, not of that number, who had
+complete access to him; with me he opened his heart upon the present and
+the future with confidence, with sageness, with discretion.  A volume
+would not describe sufficiently my private interviews with this prince,
+what love of good!  what forgetfulness of self!  what researches!  what
+fruit!  what purity of purpose!--May I say it?  what reflection of the
+divinity in that mind, candid, simple, strong, which as much as is
+possible here below had preserved the image of its maker!
+
+If you had business, and thought of opening it to him, say for a quarter
+of an hour or half an hour, he gave you oftentimes two hours or more,
+according as he found himself at liberty.  Yet he was without verbiage,
+compliments, prefaces, pleasantries, or other hindrances; went straight
+to the point, and allowed you to go also.
+
+His undue scruples of devotion diminished every day, as he found himself
+face to face with the world; above all, he was well cured of the
+inclination for piety in preference to talent, that is to say, for making
+a man ambassador, minister, or general, rather on account of his
+devotedness than of his capacity or experience.  He saw the danger of
+inducing hypocrisy by placing devotion too high as a qualification for
+employ.
+
+It was he who was not afraid to say publicly, in the Salon of Marly, that
+"a king is made for his subjects, and not the subjects for him;" a remark
+that, except under his own reign, which God did not permit, would have
+been the most frightful blasphemy.
+
+Great God!  what a spectacle you gave to us in him.  What tender but
+tranquil views he had!  What submission and love of God!  What a
+consciousness of his own nothingness, and of his sins!  What a
+magnificent idea of the infinite mercy!  What religious and humble fear!
+What tempered confidence!  What patience!
+
+What constant goodness for all who approached him!  France fell, in fine,
+under this last chastisement.  God showed to her a prince she merited
+not.  The earth was not worthy of him; he was ripe already for the
+blessed eternity!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LX
+
+The consternation at the event that had taken place was real and general;
+it penetrated to foreign lands and courts.  Whilst the people wept for
+him who thought only of their relief, and all France lamented a prince
+who only wished to reign in order to render it flourishing and happy,
+the sovereigns of Europe publicly lamented him whom they regarded as
+their example, and whose virtues were preparing him to be their
+arbitrator, and the peaceful and revered moderator of nations.  The Pope
+was so touched that he resolved of himself to set aside all rule and hold
+expressly a consistory; deplored there the infinite loss the church and
+all Christianity had sustained, and pronounced a complete eulogium of the
+prince who caused the just regrets of all Europe.
+
+On Saturday, the 13th, the corpse of the Dauphine was left in its bed
+with uncovered face, and opened the same evening at eleven in presence of
+all the faculty.  On the 15th it was placed in the grand cabinet, where
+masses were continually said.
+
+On Friday, the 19th, the corpse of Monseigneur le Dauphin was opened, a
+little more than twenty-four hours after his death, also in presence of
+all the faculty.  His heart was immediately carried to Versailles, and
+placed by the side of that of Madame la Dauphine.  Both were afterwards
+taken to the Val de Grace.  They arrived at midnight with a numerous
+cortege.  All was finished in two hours.  The corpse of Monseigneur le
+Dauphin was afterwards carried from Marly to Versailles, and placed by
+the side of Madame la Dauphine on the same estrade.
+
+On Tuesday, the 23rd February, the two bodies were taken from Versailles
+to Saint-Denis in the same chariot.  The procession began to enter Paris
+by the Porte Saint-Honore at two o'clock in the morning, and arrived
+between seven and eight o'clock in the morning at Saint-Denis.  There was
+great order in Paris, and no confusion.
+
+On Tuesday, the 8th March, Monseigneur le Duc de Bretagne, eldest son of
+Monsieur le Dauphin, who had succeeded to the name and rank of his
+father, being then only five years and some months old, and who had been
+seized with measles within a few days, expired, in spite of all the
+remedies given him.  His brother, M. le Duc d'Anjou, who still sucked,
+was taken ill at the same time, but thanks to the care of the Duchesse de
+Ventadour, whom in after life he never forgot, and who administered an
+antidote, escaped, and is now King.
+
+Thus three Dauphins died in less than a year, and father, mother, and
+eldest son in twenty-four days!  On Wednesday, the 9th of March, the
+corpse of the little Dauphin was opened at night, and without any
+ceremony his heart was taken to the Val de Grace, his body to Saint-
+Denis, and placed by the side of those of his father and mother.  M. le
+Duc d'Anjou, now, sole remaining child, succeeded to the title and to the
+rank of Dauphin.
+
+I have said that the bodies of the Dauphin and the Dauphine were opened
+in presence of all the faculty.  The report made upon the opening of the
+latter was not consolatory.  Only one of the doctors declared there were
+no signs of poison; the rest were of the opposite opinion.  When the body
+of the Dauphin was opened, everybody was terrified.  His viscera were
+all dissolved; his heart had no consistency; its substance flowed through
+the hands of those who tried to hold it; an intolerable odour, too,
+filled the apartment.  The majority of the doctors declared they saw in
+all this the effect of a very subtle and very violent poison, which had
+consumed all the interior of the body, like a burning fire.  As before,
+there was one of their number who held different views, but this was
+Marechal, who declared that to persuade the King of the existence of
+secret enemies of his family would be to kill him by degrees.
+
+This medical opinion that the cause of the Dauphin's and the Dauphine's
+death was poison, soon spread like wildfire over the Court and the city.
+Public indignation fell upon M. d'Orleans, who was at once pointed out as
+the poisoner.  The rapidity with which this rumour filled the Court,
+Paris, the provinces, the least frequented places, the most isolated
+monasteries, the most deserted solitudes, all foreign countries and all
+the peoples of Europe, recalled to me the efforts of the cabal, which had
+previously spread such black reports against the honour of him whom all
+the world now wept, and showed that the cabal, though dispersed, was not
+dissolved.
+
+In effect M. du Maine, now the head of the cabal, who had all to gain and
+nothing to lose by the death of the Dauphin and Dauphine, from both of
+whom he had studiously held aloof, and who thoroughly disliked M.
+d'Orleans, did all in his power to circulate this odious report.  He
+communicated it to Madame de Maintenon, by whom it reached the King.  In
+a short time all the Court, down to the meanest valets, publicly cried
+vengeance upon M. d'Orleans, with an air of the most unbridled
+indignation and of perfect security.
+
+M. d'Orleans, with respect to the two losses that afflicted the public,
+had an interest the most directly opposite to that of M. du Maine; he had
+everything to gain by the life of the Dauphin and Dauphine, and unless he
+had been a monster vomited forth from hell he could not have been guilty
+of the crime with which he was charged.  Nevertheless, the odious
+accusation flew from mouth to mouth, and took refuge in every breast.
+
+Let us compare the interest M. d'Orleans had in the life of the Dauphin
+with the interest M. du Maine had in his death, and then look about for
+the poisoner.  But this is not all.  Let us remember how M. le Duc
+d'Orleans was treated by Monseigneur, and yet what genuine grief he
+displayed at the death of that prince.  What a contrast was this conduct
+with that of M. du Maine at another time, who, after leaving the King
+(Louis XIV.) at the point of death, delivered over to an ignorant
+peasant, imitated that peasant so naturally and so pleasantly, that
+bursts of laughter extended to the gallery, and scandalized the passers-
+by.  This is a celebrated and very characteristic fact, which will find
+its proper place if I live long enough to carry these memoirs up to the
+death of the King.
+
+M. d'Orleans was, however, already in such bad odour, that people were
+ready to believe anything to his discredit.  They drank in this new
+report so rapidly, that on the 17th of February, as he went with Madame
+to give the holy water to the corpse of the Dauphine, the crowd of the
+people threw out all sorts of accusations against him, which both he and
+Madame very distinctly heard, without daring to show it, and were in
+trouble, embarrassment, and indignation, as may be imagined.  There was
+even ground for fearing worse from an excited and credulous populace when
+M. d'Orleans went alone to give the holy water to the corpse of the
+Dauphin.  For he had to endure on his passage atrocious insults from a
+populace which uttered aloud the most frightful observations, which
+pointed the finger at him with the coarsest epithets, and which believed
+it was doing him a favour in not falling upon him and tearing him to
+pieces!
+
+Similar circumstances took place at the funeral procession.  The streets
+resounded more with cries of indignation against M. d'Orleans and abuse
+of him than with grief.  Silent precautions were not forgotten in Paris
+in order to check the public fury, the boiling over of which was feared
+at different moments.  The people recompensed themselves by gestures,
+cries, and other atrocities, vomited against M. d'Orleans.  Near the
+Palais Royal, before which the procession passed, the increase of shouts,
+of cries, of abuse, was so great, that for some minutes everything was to
+be feared.
+
+It may be imagined what use M. du Maine contrived to make of the public
+folly, the rumours of the Paris cafes, the feeling of the salon of Marly,
+that of the Parliament, the reports that arrived from the provinces and
+foreign countries.  In a short time so overpowered was M. d'Orleans by
+the feeling against him everywhere exhibited, that acting upon very ill-
+judged advice he spoke to the King upon the subject, and begged to be
+allowed to surrender himself as a prisoner at the Bastille, until his
+character was cleared from stain.
+
+I was terribly annoyed when I heard that M. d'Orleans had taken this
+step, which could not possibly lead to good.  I had quite another sort of
+scheme in my head which I should have proposed to him had I known of his
+resolve.  Fortunately, however, the King was persuaded not to grant M.
+d'Orleans' request, out of which therefore nothing came.  The Duke
+meanwhile lived more abandoned by everybody than ever; if in the salon he
+approached a group of courtiers, each, without the least hesitation,
+turned to the right or to the left and went elsewhere, so that it was
+impossible for him to accost anybody except by surprise, and if he did
+so, he was left alone directly after with the most marked indecency.
+In a word, I was the only person, I say distinctly, the only person,
+who spoke to M. d'Orleans as before.  Whether in his own house or in the
+palace I conversed with him, seated myself by his side in a corner of the
+salon, where assuredly we had no third person to fear, and walked with
+him in the gardens under the very windows of the King and of Madame de
+Maintenon.
+
+Nevertheless, all my friends warned me that if I pursued this conduct so
+opposite to that in vogue, I should assuredly fall into disgrace.  I held
+firm.  I thought that when we did not believe our friends guilty we ought
+not to desert them, but, on the contrary, to draw closer to them, as by
+honour bound, give them the consolation due from us, and show thus to the
+world our hatred for calumny.  My friends insisted; gave me to understand
+that the King disapproved my conduct, that Madame de Maintenon was
+annoyed at it: they forgot nothing to awaken my fears.  But I was
+insensible to all they said to me, and did not omit seeing M. d'Orleans a
+single day; often stopping with him two and three hours at a time.
+
+A few weeks had passed over thus, when one morning M. de Beauvilliers
+called upon me, and urged me to plead business, and at once withdraw to
+La Ferme; intimating that if I did not do so of my own accord, I should
+be compelled by an order from the King.  He never explained himself more
+fully, but I have always remained persuaded that the King or Madame de
+Maintenon had sent him to me, and had told him that I should be banished
+if I did not banish myself.  Neither my absence nor my departure made any
+stir; nobody suspected anything.  I was carefully informed, without
+knowing by whom, when my exile was likely to end: and I returned, after a
+month or five weeks, straight to the Court, where I kept up the same
+intimacy with M. d'Orleans as before.
+
+But he was not yet at the end of his misfortunes.  The Princesse des
+Ursins had not forgiven him his pleasantry at her expense.  Chalais, one
+of her most useful agents, was despatched by her on a journey so
+mysterious that its obscurity has never been illuminated.  He was
+eighteen days on the road, unknown, concealing his name, and passing
+within two leagues of Chalais, where his father and mother lived, without
+giving them any signs of life, although all were on very good terms.  He
+loitered secretly in Poitou, and at last arrested there a Cordelier monk,
+of middle age, in the convent of Bressuire, who cried, "Ah! I am lost!"
+upon being caught.  Chalais conducted him to the prison of Poitiers,
+whence he despatched to Madrid an officer of dragoons he had brought with
+him, and who knew this Cordelier, whose name has never transpired,
+although it is certain he was really a Cordelier, and that he was
+returning from as journey in Italy and Germany that had extended as far
+as Vienna.  Chalais pushed on to Paris, and came to Marly on the 27th of
+April, a day on which the King had taken medicine.  After dinner he was
+taken by Torcy to the King, with whom he remained half an hour, delaying
+thus the Council of State for the same time, and then returned
+immediately to Paris.  So much trouble had not been taken for no purpose:
+and Chalais had not prostituted himself to play the part of prevot to a
+miserable monk without expecting good winnings from the game.
+Immediately afterwards the most dreadful rumours were everywhere in
+circulation against M. d'Orleans, who, it was said, had poisoned the
+Dauphin and Dauphine by means of this monk, who, nevertheless, was far
+enough away from our Prince and Princess at the time of their death.  In
+an instant Paris resounded with these horrors; the provinces were
+inundated with them, and immediately afterwards foreign countries--this
+too with an incredible rapidity, which plainly showed how well the plot
+had been prepared--and a publicity that reached the very caverns of the
+earth.  Madame des Ursins was not less served in Spain than M. du Maine
+and Madame de Maintenon in France.  The anger of the public was doubled.
+The Cordelier was brought, bound hand and foot, to the Bastille, and
+delivered up to D'Argenson, Lieutenant of Police.
+
+This D'Argenson rendered an account to the King of many things which
+Pontchartrain, as Secretary of State, considered to belong to his
+department.  Pontchartrain was vexed beyond measure at this, and could
+not see without despair his subaltern become a kind of minister more
+feared, more valued, more in consideration than he, and conduct himself
+always in such manner that he gained many powerful friends, and made but
+few enemies, and those of but little moment.  M. d'Orleans bowed before
+the storm that he could not avert; it could not increase the general
+desertion; he had accustomed himself to his solitude, and, as he had
+never heard this monk spoken of, had not the slightest fear on his
+account.  D'Argenson, who questioned the Cordelier several times, and
+carried his replies daily to the King, was sufficiently adroit to pay his
+court to M. d'Orleans, by telling him that the prisoner had uttered
+nothing which concerned him, and by representing the services he did M.
+d'Orleans with the King.  Like a sagacious man, D'Argenson saw the
+madness of popular anger devoid of all foundation, and which could not
+hinder M. d'Orleans from being a very considerable person in France,
+during a minority that--the age of the King showed to be pretty near.
+He took care, therefore, to avail himself of the mystery which surrounded
+his office, to ingratiate himself more and more with M. d'Orleans, whom
+he had always carefully though secretly served; and his conduct, as will
+be seen in due time, procured him a large fortune.
+
+But I have gone too far.  I must retrace my steps, to speak of things I
+have omitted to notice in their proper place.
+
+The two Dauphins and the Dauphine were interred at Saint-Denis, on
+Monday, the 18th of April.  The funeral oration was pronounced by Maboul,
+Bishop of Aleth, and pleased; M. de Metz, chief chaplain, officiated; the
+service commenced at about eleven o'clock.  As it was very long, it was
+thought well to have at hand a large vase of vinegar, in case anybody
+should be ill.  M. de Metz having taken the first oblation, and observing
+that very little wine was left for the second, asked for more.  This
+large vase of vinegar was supposed to be wine, and M. de Metz, who wished
+to strengthen himself, said, washing his fingers over the chalice, "fill
+right up."  He swallowed all at a draught, and did not perceive until the
+end that he had drunk vinegar; his grimace and his complaint caused some
+little laughter round him; and he often related this adventure, which
+much soured him.  On Monday, the 20th of May, the funeral service for the
+Dauphin and Dauphine was performed at Notre Dame.
+
+Let me here say, that before the Prince and his spouse were buried, that
+is to say, the 6th of April, the King gave orders for the recommencement
+of the usual play at Marly; and that M. le Duc de Berry and Madame la
+Duchesse de Berry presided in the salon at the public lansquenet and
+brelan; and the different gaming tables for all the Court.  In a short
+time the King dined in Madame de Maintenon's apartments once or twice a
+week, and had music there.  And all this, as I have remarked, with the
+corpse of the Dauphin and that of the Dauphine still above ground.
+
+The gap left by the death of the Dauphine could not, however, be easily
+filled up.  Some months after her loss, the King began to feel great
+ennui steal upon him in the hours when he had no work with his ministers.
+The few ladies admitted into the apartments of Madame de Maintenon when
+he was there, were unable to entertain him.  Music, frequently
+introduced, languished from that cause.  Detached scenes from the
+comedies of Moliere were thought of, and were played by the King's
+musicians, comedians for the nonce.  Madame de Maintenon introduced, too,
+the Marechal de Villeroy, to amuse the King by relating their youthful
+adventures.
+
+Evening amusements became more and more frequent in Madame de Maintenon's
+apartments, where, however, nothing could fill up the void left by the
+poor Dauphine.
+
+I have said little of the grief I felt at the loss of the prince whom
+everybody so deeply regretted.  As will be believed, it was bitter and
+profound.  The day of his death, I barricaded myself in my own house, and
+only left it for one instant in order to join the King at his promenade
+in the gardens.  The vexation I felt upon seeing him followed almost as
+usual, did not permit me to stop more than an instant.  All the rest of
+the stay at Versailles, I scarcely left my room, except to visit M. de
+Beauvilliers.  I will admit that, to reach M. de Beauvilliers' house, I
+made a circuit between the canal and the gardens of Versailles, so as to
+spare myself the sight of the chamber of death, which I had not force
+enough to approach.  I admit that I was weak.  I was sustained neither by
+the piety, superior to all things, of M. de Beauvilliers, nor by that of
+Madame de Saint-Simon, who nevertheless not the less suffered.  The truth
+is, I was in despair.  To those who know my position, this will appear
+less strange than my being able to support at all so complete a
+misfortune.  I experienced this sadness precisely at the same age as that
+of my father when he lost Louis XIII.; but he at least had enjoyed the
+results of favour, whilst I, 'Gustavi paululum mellis, et ecce morior.'
+Yet this was not all.
+
+In the casket of the Dauphin there were several papers he had asked me
+for.  I had drawn them up in all confidence; he had preserved them in the
+same manner.  There was one, very large, in my hand, which if seen by the
+King, would have robbed me of his favour for ever; ruined me without hope
+of return.  We do not think in time of such catastrophes.  The King knew
+my handwriting; he did not know my mode of thought, but might pretty well
+have guessed it.  I had sometimes supplied him with means to do so; my
+good friends of the Court had done the rest.  The King when he discovered
+my paper would also discover on what close terms of intimacy I had been
+with the Dauphin, of which he had no suspicion.  My anguish was then
+cruel, and there seemed every reason to believe that if my secret was
+found out, I should be disgraced and exiled during all the rest of the
+King's reign.
+
+What a contrast between the bright heaven I had so recently gazed upon
+and the abyss now yawning at my feet!  But so it is in the Court and the
+world!  I felt then the nothingness of even the most desirable future, by
+an inward sentiment, which, nevertheless, indicates how we cling to it.
+Fear on account of the contents of the casket had scarcely any power over
+me.  I was obliged to reflect in order to return to it from time to time.
+Regret for this incomparable Dauphin pierced my heart, and suspended all
+the faculties of my soul.  For a long time I wished to fly from the
+Court, so that I might never again see the deceitful face of the world;
+and it was some time before prudence and honour got the upper hand.
+
+It so happened that the, Duc de Beauvilliers himself was able to carry
+this casket to the King, who had the key of it.  M. de Beauvilliers in
+fact resolved not to trust it out of his own hands, but to wait until he
+was well enough to take it to the King, so that he might then try to hide
+my papers from view.  This task was difficult, for he did not know the
+position in the casket of these dangerous documents, and yet it was our
+only resource.  This terrible uncertainty lasted more than a fortnight.
+
+On Tuesday, the 1st of March, M. de Beauvilliers carried the casket to
+the King.  He came to me shortly after, and before sitting down,
+indicated by signs that there was no further occasion for fear.  He then
+related to me that he had found the casket full of a mass of documents,
+finance projects, reports from the provinces, papers of all kinds, that
+he had read some of them to the King on purpose to weary him, and had
+succeeded so well that the King soon was satisfied by hearing only the
+titles; and, at last, tired out by not finding anything important, said
+it was not worth while to read more, and that there was nothing to do but
+to throw everything into the fire.  The Duke assured me that he did not
+wait to be told twice, being all the more anxious to comply, because at
+the bottom of the casket he had seen some of my handwriting, which he had
+promptly covered up in taking other papers to read their titles to the
+King; and that immediately the word "fire" was uttered, he confusedly
+threw all the papers into the casket, and then emptied it near the fire,
+betweein the King and Madame de Maintenon, taking good care as he did so
+that my documents should not be seen,--even cautiously using the tongs in
+order to prevent any piece flying away, and not quitting the fireplace
+until he had seen every page consumed.  We embraced each other, in the
+relief we reciprocally felt, relief proportioned to the danger we had
+run.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+A king is made for his subjects, and not the subjects for him
+A lingering fear lest the sick man should recover
+Danger of inducing hypocrisy by placing devotion too high
+For want of better support I sustained myself with courage
+Interests of all interested painted on their faces
+Never was a man so ready with tears, so backward with grief
+Suspicion of a goitre, which did not ill become her
+The shortness of each day was his only sorrow
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext Memoirs of Louis XIV. and The Regency,
+v8, by the Duc de Saint-Simon
+
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