hip of Monseigneur for Madame la
Duchesse could serve her.

When I learned this adventure, I saw that it was necessary to attack
Monseigneur by piquing the King against Madame la Duchesse, and making
him fear the influence of that Princess on Monseigneur and through
Monseigneur on himself; that no opportunity should be lost to impress on
the King the fear of being governed and kept in pupilage by his children;
that it was equally important to frighten Madame de Maintenon, and show
her the danger she was in from the influence of Monseigneur. I worked on
the fears of the Duchesse de Bourgogne, by Madame de Villeroy and de
Levi; on the Duc de Bourgogne, by M. de Beauvilliers; on Madame de
Maintenon, by the Marechal de Boufflers; on the King himself, by the Pere
Tellier; and all these batteries succeeded.

In order not to hurry matters too much, I took a turn to La Ferme, and
then came back to Marly just as the King arrived. Here I had a little
alarm, which did not, however, discourage me. I learned, in fact, that
one day the Duchesse de Bourgogne, urged perhaps rather too much on the
subject of Mademoiselle by Madame d'O, and somewhat annoyed, had shown an
inclination for a foreign marriage. Would to God that such a marriage
could have been brought about! I should always have preferred it, but
there were many reasons to render it impossible.

On my arrival at Marly, I found everything in trouble there: the King so
chagrined that he could not hide it--although usually a master of himself
and of his face: the Court believing that some new disaster had happened
which would unwillingly be declared. Four or five days passed in this
way: at last it became known what was in the wind. The King, informed
that Paris and all the public were murmuring loudly about the expenses of
Marly--at a time when it was impossible to meet the most indispensable
claims of a necessary and unfortunate war--was more annoyed this time
than on any other occasion, although he had often received the same
warnings. Madame de Maintenon had the greatest difficulty to hinder him
from returning straight to Versailles. The upshot was that the King
declared with a sort of bitter joy, that he would no longer feed the
ladies at Marly; that for the future he would dine alone, simply, as at
Versailles; that he would sup every day at a table for sixteen with his
family, and that the spare places should be occupied by ladies invited in
the morning; that th