ower to promote their
welfare; that he had already, by act of Parliament, conferred upon
them statute legitimacy, and had thus effaced the dishonor of their
birth. He apologized for not having her name mentioned in Parliament
as their mother, this being impracticable, since she was the wife of
another man.

With smiling complacency, as if he were communicating very gratifying
intelligence, he informed this crushed and discarded mother that,
since her children were now princes, they would, of course, reside at
court, and that she, their dishonored mother, might occasionally be
permitted to visit them--that he would issue an order to that effect.
And, finally, he coolly advised her to write to her husband, whom she
had abandoned eighteen years ago, soliciting a renewal of their
relationship, with the assurance that it was her intention to return
to the paths of virtue.

Almost gasping with indignation, the haughty marchioness succeeded in
restraining herself until the king had finished his harangue. She then
burst forth in a reply which astonished and even alarmed the king.

"I am amazed," said she, "at the indifference with which a monarch,
who boasts of his magnanimity, can throw from him a woman who has
sacrificed every thing to his pleasure. For two years your majesty, in
devotion to others, has been estranged from me, and yet never have I
publicly offered one word of expostulation. Why is it, then, that I am
now, after silently submitting for two years to this estrangement, to
be ignominiously banished from the court? Still, my position here has
become so hateful, through the perfidy and treachery of those by whom
I am compelled to associate, that I will willingly consent never again
to approach the person of the king upon condition that the odious
woman who has supplanted me[W] shall also be exiled."

[Footnote W: Madame de Maintenon.]

The proud monarch was enraged. Pale with anger, he replied, "The kings
of Europe have never yet ventured to dictate laws in my palace, nor
shall you, madame, subject me to yours. The lady whom I have too long
suffered you to offend is as nobly born as yourself. If you were
instrumental in opening the gates of the palace to her, you thus
introduced there gentleness, talent, and virtue. This lady, whom you
have upon every occasion slandered, has lost no opportunity to excuse
and justify you. She will remain near the court which her fathers
defended, and which her wise councils no