evocation of the Edict of
Nantes.--Severe enactments against the Protestants.--Flight of the
Protestants.--Numbers of the emigrants.--Scenes of suffering.--Louis
alarmed.--Historical accounts of the emigration.--Multiplied
outrages.--Reactions.--Secret assemblies.--Rage of the Jesuits.--New
measures of the court.--Remonstrances of honorable
Catholics.--Intrigues of the king.--Madame de Montespan to be
removed.--Banishment of Madame de Montespan.--Parterre of
Versailles.--A successful mission.--Egotism and heartlessness of the
king.--Singular interview.--The king defends Madame de Maintenon's
character.--Scene of frenzy and despair.--Madame de Maintenon and
Madame de Montespan.

It is the undisputed testimony of all the contemporaries of Madame de
Maintenon that she possessed a character of rare excellence. Her
personal attractions, sound judgment, instinctive delicacy of
perception, and conversational brilliance, gave her a certain
supremacy wherever she appeared. The fidelity with which she fulfilled
her duties, her high religious principles, and the bold, yet tender
remonstrances with which she endeavored to reclaim the king from his
unworthy life, excited first his astonishment, and then his profound
admiration.

Every day the king, at three o'clock, proceeded to the apartments of
Madame de Maintenon, and, taking a seat in an arm-chair, sat in a
reclining posture, sometimes silently watching the progress of her
tapestry-work, and again engaged in quiet conversation. Occasionally
some of Racine's tragedies were read. The king took a listless
pleasure in drawing out Madame de Maintenon to remark upon the merits
or defects of the production.

"In truth, a weariness of existence was rapidly growing upon Louis
XIV. He had outlived his loves, his griefs, and almost his ambition.
All he wanted was repose. And this he found in the society of an
accomplished, judicious, and unassuming woman, who, although he
occasionally transacted business in her presence with Louvois, never
presumed to proffer an opinion save when he appealed to her judgment,
and even then tendered it with reluctance and reserve."[R]

[Footnote R: Louis XIV. and the Court of France, by Miss Pardoe, vol.
ii., p. 339.]

Upon the death of the queen the dauphiness was raised to the first
rank at court. Still she was gloomy and reserved. No allurements could
draw her from her retirement. Madame de Maintenon was a very decided
Roman Catholic, and was ve