but as a holiday
excursion. Fortress after fortress fell into their hands. Soon the
banners of Louis floated proudly over the whole territory. The king
displayed his sagacity by granting promotion for services rendered
rather than to birth. This inspired the army with great ardor. He also
boldly entered the trenches under fire, and exposed himself to the
most imminent peril.

The opposite side of the king's character is displayed in the fact
that he accompanied the camp with all the ladies of his court,
eighteen in number. In each captured city, the king and court, in
magnificent banqueting-halls and gorgeous saloons, indulged in the
gayest revelry. Amidst the turmoil of the camp, these haughty men and
high-born dames surrounded themselves with the magnificence of the
Louvre and the Tuileries, and were served with every delicacy from
gold and silver plate.

The king, by the advice of his renowned minister of war, Marshal
Louvois, placed strong garrisons in the cities he had captured, while
the celebrated engineer, M. Vauban, was intrusted with enlarging and
strengthening the fortifications. From this victorious campaign Louis
XIV. returned to Paris, receiving adulation from the courtiers as if
he were more than mortal.

Madame de Montespan accompanied the court on this military pleasure
tour. She availed herself of every opportunity to attract the
attention of the king and ingratiate herself in his favor. She so far
succeeded in exciting the jealousy of the queen against Madame de la
Valliere, upon whom she was at the same time lavishing her most tender
caresses, that her majesty treated the sensitive and desponding
favorite with such rudeness that, with a crushed spirit, she decided
to leave the court and retire to Versailles, there to await the
conclusion of the campaign. The king, however, interposed to prevent
her departure, while at the same time he was daily treating her with
more marked neglect, as he turned his attention to the rival, now
rapidly gaining the ascendency. The unfortunate Louise was doomed to
daily martyrdom. She could not be blind to the fact that the king's
love was fast waning. Conscience tortured her, and she wept bitterly.
Before her there was opened only the vista of weary years of neglect
and remorse.

But the Marchioness of Montespan was mingling for herself a cup of
bitterness which she, in her turn, was to drain to its dregs. Her
noble husband wrote most imploring letters, beseechi