nhappy
woman. No efforts on the part of the court could draw her from the
silence and gloom of her retirement. Madame de Maintenon and the
king's confessor, Pere la Chaise, were co-operating in the endeavor to
lure the king from his life of guilty indulgence into the paths of
virtue. Fortunately, at this time the monarch was attacked by severe
and painful illness. Death was to him truly the king of terrors. He
was easily influenced to withdraw from his criminal relations with
one whom he had for some time been regarding with repugnance. Madame
de Maintenon was deputed to inform Madame de Montespan of the king's
determination never again to regard her in any other light than that
of a friend.

It was a very painful and embarrassing commission for Madame de
Maintenon to fulfill. But the will of the king was law. She discharged
the duty with great delicacy and kindness. Deeply mortified as was the
discarded favorite, she was not entirely unprepared for the
announcement. She had for some time been painfully aware of her waning
influence, and had been preparing for herself a retreat where she
could still enjoy opulence, rank, and power.

In pursuit of this object, she had determined to erect and endow a
convent. The sisterhood, appointed by her and entirely dependent upon
her liberality, would treat her with the deference due to a queen. The
king had lavished such enormous sums upon her that she had large
wealth at her disposal. She had already selected a spot for the
convent in the Faubourg St. Germain, and had commenced rearing the
edifice. It so happened that the corner-stone was laid at the very
moment in which the unhappy Duchess de Fontanges was breathing her
last. Madame de Montespan had no idea of taking the veil herself. The
glooms of the cloister had for her no attractions. Her only object was
to rear a miniature kingdom, where she, having lost the potent charms
of youth and beauty, could still enjoy an undisputed reign.

The marchioness already owned a dwelling, luxuriously furnished, which
the king had presented her, in the Rue St. Andre des Arcs. Her wealth
was so great that, in addition to the convent, she also planned
erecting for herself a magnificent hotel, in imitation of the palace
of the Tuileries. The estimated expense was equal to the sum of one
million five hundred thousand dollars at the present day.

The workmen upon the convent were urged to the most energetic labor,
and the building was soon c