d such frightful hands that she avows
herself that there were none uglier to be found in the world, and that
it was the only thing about her to which Louis XIV. could never become
accustomed. But Louis XIV. had chosen her, not to increase the beauties
of his court, but to extend his influence beyond the Rhine.

By the marriage of his brother with the princess palatine, Louis XIV.,
who had already acquired some chance of inheritance in Spain, by
marrying Maria Theresa, and by Philippe the First's marriage with the
Princess Henriette, only sister of Charles II., would acquire new rights
over Bavaria, and probably in the Palatinate. He calculated, and
calculated rightly, that her brother, who was delicate, would probably
die young, and without children.

Madame, instead of being treated at her husband's death according to her
marriage contract, and forced to retire into a convent, or into the old
castle of Montargis, was, in spite of Madame de Maintenon's hatred,
maintained by Louis XIV. in all the titles and honors which she enjoyed
during her husband's lifetime, although the king had not forgotten the
blow which she gave to the young Duc de Chartres at Versailles, when he
announced his marriage with Mademoiselle de Blois. The proud princess,
with her thirty-two quarterings, thought it a humiliation that her son
should marry a woman whom the royal legitimation could not prevent from
being the fruit of a double adultery, and at the first moment, unable to
command her feelings, she revenged herself by this maternal correction,
rather exaggerated, when a young man of eighteen was the object, for the
affront offered to the honor of her ancestors.

As the young Duc de Chartres had himself only consented unwillingly to
this marriage, he easily understood his mother's dislike to it, though
he would have preferred, doubtless, that she should have shown it in a
rather less Teutonic manner. The result was, that when Monsieur died,
and the Duc de Chartres became Duc d'Orleans, his mother, who might have
feared that the blow at Versailles had left some disagreeable
reminiscence in the mind of the new master of the Palais Royal, found,
on the contrary, a more respectful son than ever. This respect
increased, and as regent he gave his mother a position equal to that of
his wife. When Madame de Berry, his much-loved daughter, asked her
father for a company of guards, he granted it, but ordered at the same
time that a similar company s