me of to-day? Is your young heart capable of
it? I believed you to be a model of gratitude and goodness."

"Madame," replied the young Princess, weeping, "deign to pardon this
imprudence of mine and to reconcile me with the King, whom I love so
much."

"I have not the credit which you assume me to have," replied the lady in
waiting, coldly. "Except for the extreme kindness of the King you would
not be where you are, and you take it ill that I should be where I am! I
have neither desired nor solicited the arduous rank that I occupy; I need
resignation and obedience to support such a burden." Madame de Maintenon
resumed her work. The Princess, not daring to interrupt her silence,
made the bow that was expected of her and withdrew.

The Marquis de Louvois, when he read what his own son-in-law dared to
write of the monarch, grew pale and swooned away with grief. He cast
himself several times before the feet of his master, asking now the
punishment and now the pardon of a criminal and a madman.

"I believed myself to be loved by your family," cried the King. "What
must I do, then, to be loved? And, great God! with what a set I am
surrounded!"

All these things transpired. Soon we saw the father of the audacious De
Liancourt arrive like a man bereft of his wits. He ran to precipitate
himself at the feet of the King.

"M. de La Rochefoucauld," said the prince to him, "I was ignorant, until
this day, that I was lacking in what is called martial prowess; but I
shall at least have, on this occasion, the courage to despise the
slanderous slights of these presumptuous youths. Do not talk to me of
the submissions and regrets of your two sons, who are unworthy of you;
let them live as far away from me as possible; they do not deserve to
approach an honest man, such as their King."

The Prince de Turenne, son of the Duc de Bouillon, and Prince Eugene of
Savoy, third or fourth son of the Comtesse de Soissons (Olympe Mancini),
had accompanied their cousins De Conti on this knightly expedition; all
these gentlemen returned at the conclusion of the war, except Prince
Eugene, a violent enemy of the King.

[The Prince de Turenne was in bad odour at Court ever since he had
separated Monseigneur from his young wife by exaggerating that Princess's
small failings.--MADAME DE MONTESPAN'S NOTE.]

This young Prince of the second branch, seeing his mother's disgrace
since the great affair of the poison, hated me mortally. He