“At twelve,” she proceeds to say, “what is called the Chamber is held, and there every one who does not belong to the common people may enter.  I put on my rouge and wash my hands before all the world; the men go out, and the women remain; and then I dress myself in their presence.  Then comes mass.  If the king is at Versailles, I go to mass with him, my husband, and my aunts; if he is not there, I go alone with the dauphin, but always at the same hour.  After mass we two dine by ourselves in the presence of all the world; but dinner is over by half-past one, as we both eat very fast.  From the dinner-table I go to the dauphin’s apartments, and if he has business, I return to my own rooms, where I read, write, or work; for I am making a waistcoat for the king, which gets on but slowly, though, I trust, with God’s grace, it will be finished before many years are over.  At three o’clock I go again to visit my aunts, and the king comes to them at the same hour.  At four the abbe[4] comes to me, and at five I have every day either my harpsichord-master or my singing-master till six.  At half-past six I go almost every day to my aunts, except when I go out walking.  And you must understand that when I go to visit my aunts, my husband almost always goes with me.  At seven we play cards till nine o’clock; but when the weather is fine I go out walking, and then there is no play in my apartments, but it is held at my aunts’.  At nine we sup; and when the king is not there, my aunts come to sup with us; but when the king is there, we go after supper to their rooms, waiting there for the king, who usually comes about a quarter to eleven; and I lie down on a grand sofa and go to sleep till he comes.  But when he is not there, we go to bed at eleven o’clock.”

The play-table which is alluded to in these letters was one of the most curious and mischievous institutions of the court.  Gambling had been one of its established vices ever since the time of Henry iv., whose enormous losses at play had formed the subject of Sully’s most incessant remonstrances.  And from the beginning of the reign of Louis xiv., a gaming-table had formed a regular part of the evening’s amusement.  It was the one thing which was allowed to break down the barrier of etiquette.  On all other occasions, the rules which regulated who might and who might not be admitted to the royal presence were as precise and strict as in many cases they were unreasonable and unintelligible.  But at the gaming-table every one who could make the slightest pretensions to gentle birth was allowed to present himself and stake his money; [5] and the leveling influence of play was almost as fully exemplified in the king’s palace as in the ordinary gaming-houses, since, though the presence of royalty so far acted as a restraint on the gamblers as to prevent any open explosion, accusations of foul play and dishonest tricks were as rife as in the most vulgar company.