Little by little she began to exercise a great influence over the mind of the King when he was becoming wearied of the railleries of his exacting favorite, and when some of the delusions of life were beginning to be dispelled.  He then found great solace and enjoyment in the society of Madame Scarron, whom he enriched, enabling her to purchase the estate of Maintenon and to assume its name.  She soothed his temper, softened his resentments, and directed his attention to a new field of thought and reflection.  She was just the opposite of Montespan in almost everything.  The former won by the solid attainments of the mind; the latter by her sensual charms.  The one talked on literature, art, and religious subjects; the other on fetes, balls, reviews, and the glories of the court and its innumerable scandals.  Maintenon reminded the King of his duties without sermonizing or moralizing, but with the insidious flattery of a devout worshipper of his genius and power; Montespan directed his mind to pleasures which had lost their charm.  Maintenon was always amiable and sympathetic; Montespan provoked the King by her resentments, her imperious exactions, her ungovernable fits of temper, her haughty sarcasm.  Maintenon was calm, modest, self-possessed, judicious, wise; Montespan was passionate, extravagant, unreasonable.  Maintenon always appealed to the higher nature of the King; Montespan to the lower.  The one was a sincere friend, dissuading from folly; the other an exacting lover, demanding perpetually new favors, to the injury of the kingdom and the subversion of the King’s dignity of character.  The former ruled through the reason; the latter through the passions.  Maintenon was irreproachable in her morals, preserved her self-respect, and tolerated no improper advances, having no great temptations to subdue, steadily adhering to that policy which she knew would in time make her society indispensable; Montespan was content to be simply mistress, with no forecast of the future, and with but little regard to the interests or honor of her lord.  Maintenon became more attractive every day from the variety of her intellectual gifts and her unwearied efforts to please and instruct; Montespan, although a bright woman, amidst the glories of a dazzling court, at last wearied, disgusted and repelled.  And yet the woman who gradually supplanted Madame de Montespan by superior radiance of mind and soul openly remained her friend, through all her waning influence, and pretended to come to her rescue.

The friendship of the King for Madame de Maintenon began as early as 1672; and during the twelve years she was the governess of Montespan’s children she remained discreet and dignified.  “I dismiss him,” said she, “always despairing, never repulsed.”  What a transcendent actress!  What astonishing tact!  What shrewdness blended with self-control!  She conformed herself to his tastes and notions.  At the supper-tables of her palsied husband she had been gay, unstilted, and simple; but with the King she became formal, prudish, ceremonious, fond of etiquette, and pharisaical in her religious life.  She discreetly ruled her royal lover in the name of virtue and piety.  In 1675 the King created her Marquise de Maintenon.