s thoughts that
they might become more meet for heaven--superseded by the orgies of a
wanton, who, with unabashed brow and unshrinking eye, carried her
intrigues into the very saloons of Marly."[Y]

[Footnote Y: Louis XIV. and the Court of France, vol. ii., p. 588.]

Madame de Maintenon resorted to every measure she could devise to
induce the king to appoint her favorite pupil, the Duke du Maine,
regent during the minority of the infant Duke of Anjou. The king was
greatly harassed. Old, infirm, world-weary, heart-stricken, and pulled
in opposite directions, by powers so strong, he knew not what to do.
At last he adopted a sort of compromise, which gave satisfaction to
neither party.

The king appointed a council of regency, of which the Duke of Orleans
was president. But the Duke du Maine was a member of the council, and
was also intrusted with the guardianship and education of the young
heir to the throne. This will was carefully concealed in a cavity
opened in the wall of a tower of the state apartment. The iron door of
this closet was protected by three keys, one of which was held by the
president of the chambers, one by the attorney general, and one by the
public registrar.

A royal edict forbade the closet to be opened until after the death of
the king, and then only in the presence of the assembled Parliament,
the princes, and the peers. The document had been extorted from the
king. It was not in accordance with his wishes. Indeed, it satisfied
no one. As he placed the papers in the hands of the president of the
chambers, he said to him, gloomily,

"Here is my will. The experience of my predecessors has taught me that
it may not be respected. But I have been tormented to frame it. I have
been allowed neither peace nor rest until I complied. Take it away.
Whatever may happen to it, I hope that I shall now be left in
quiet."[Z]

[Footnote Z: Memoires de St. Simon.]

The advanced age of the king and his many infirmities rendered even a
slight indisposition alarming. On the evening of the 3d of May, 1715,
the king, having supped with the Duchess de Berri, retired to bed
early, complaining of weariness and exhaustion. The rumor spread
rapidly that the king was dangerously sick. The foreign embassadors
promptly dispatched the news to their several courts.

The jealous king, who kept himself minutely informed of every thing
which transpired, was very indignant in view of this apparent
eagerness to hurry him to