ontalais's apartment, as
Saint-Aignan had passed for having wished to force Mademoiselle de
Tonnay-Charente's door. Madame was inflexible; in the first place,
because if Malicorne had, in fact, wished to enter her apartment at
night through the window, and by the means of the ladder, in order to
see Montalais, it was a punishable offense on Malicorne's part, and he
must be punished accordingly; and, in the second place, if Malicorne,
instead of acting in his own name, had acted as an intermediary between
La Valliere and a person whose name need not be mentioned, his crime was
in that case even greater, since love, which is an excuse for
everything, did not exist in the present case as an excuse for him.
Madame therefore made the greatest possible disturbance about the
matter, and obtained his dismissal from Monsieur's household, without
reflecting, poor blind creature, that both Malicorne and Montalais held
her fast in their clutches in consequence of her visit to De Guiche, and
in a variety of other ways equally delicate. Montalais, who was
perfectly furious, wished to revenge herself immediately, but Malicorne
pointed out to her that the king's countenance would repay them for all
the disgraces in the world, and that it was a great thing to have to
suffer on his majesty's account.

Malicorne was perfectly right, and, therefore, although Montalais had
the spirit of ten women in her, he succeeded in bringing her round to
his own opinion. And we must not omit to state that the king helped them
to console themselves, for, in the first place, he presented Malicorne
with fifty thousand francs as a compensation for the post he had lost,
and, in the next place, he gave him an appointment in his own household,
delighted to have an opportunity of revenging himself in such a manner
upon Madame for all she had made him and La Valliere suffer. But as he
no longer had Malicorne to steal his pocket-handkerchiefs and to measure
ladders for him, the poor lover was in a terrible state. There seemed to
be no hope, therefore, of ever getting near La Valliere again, so long
as she should remain at the Palais Royal. All the dignities and all the
money in the world could not remedy that. Fortunately, however,
Malicorne was on the look-out, and this he did so successfully that he
met Montalais, who, to do her justice, it must be admitted, did her best
to meet Malicorne. "What do you do during the night in Madame's
apartment," he asked the yo