In a few moments she had prostrated
herself, speechless, at the King's feet. Awe, confusion, shyness, love,
and sorrow sent the blood coursing faster and faster through her veins;
her cheeks glowed, her eyes sparkled with the bright tear-drops, which
now and again fell from her silken lashes down to her beautiful lily
breast. The King was moved by the wonderful beauty of the girl. He
raised her gently, and stooped down as if about to kiss her hand, which
he had taken in his; but he let the hand go, and gazed at her with
tears in his eyes, evincing deep emotion. Madame de Maintenon whispered
to Mademoiselle Scuderi: "Is she not exactly like La Valliere, the
little thing? The King is sunk in the sweetest souvenirs: you have
gained the day." Though she spoke softly, the King seemed to hear. A
blush came to his cheek; he scanned Madame de Maintenon with a glance,
and then said, gently and kindly: "I am quite sure that you, my dear
child, think your lover is innocent; but we must hear what the Chambre
Ardente has to say." A gentle wave of his hand dismissed Madelon,
bathed in tears. Mademoiselle Scuderi saw, to her alarm, that the
resemblance to La Valliere, advantageous as it had seemed to be at
first, had nevertheless changed the King's intention as soon as Madame
de Maintenon had spoken of it. Perhaps he felt himself somewhat
ungently reminded that he was going to sacrifice strict justice to
beauty; or he may have been like a dreamer who, when loudly addressed
by his name, finds that the beautiful magic visions by which he thought
he was surrounded vanish away. Perhaps he no longer saw his La Valliere
before him, but thought only of S[oe]ur Louise de la Misericorde--La
Valliere's cloister name among the Carmelite nuns--paining him with her
piety and repentance. There was nothing for it now but to patiently
wait for the King's decision.

Meanwhile Count Miossen's statement before the Chambre Ardente had
become known; and, as often happens, popular opinion soon flew from one
extreme to the other, so that the person whom it had stigmatized as the
most atrocious of murderers, and would fain have torn in pieces before
he reached the scaffold, was now bewailed as the innocent victim of a
barbarous sacrifice. His old neighbours only now remembered his
admirable character and behaviour, his love for Madelon, and the
faithfulness and devotion of soul and body with which he had served his
master. Crowds of people, in threatening t