A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 6 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 664 pages of information about A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 6.

A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 6 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 664 pages of information about A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 6.
devising means of pleasing the king; Madame de Montespan had pictures painted in miniature of all the towns he had taken in Holland; they were made into a book which was worth four thousand pistoles, and of which Racine and Boileau wrote the text; people of tact, like M. de Langlee, paid court to the master through those whom he loved.  “M. de Langlee has given Madame de Montespan a dress of the most divine material ever imagined; the fairies did this work in secret, no living soul had any notion of it; and it seemed good to present it as mysteriously as it had been fashioned.  Madame de Montespan’s dressmaker brought her the dress she had ordered of him; he had made the body a ridiculous fit; there was shrieking and scolding as you may suppose.  The dressmaker said, all in a tremble, ’As time presses, madame, see if this other dress that I have here might not suit you for lack of anything else.’  ’Ah! what material!  Does it come from heaven?  There is none such on earth.’  The body is tried on; it is a picture.  The king comes in.  The dressmaker says, ’Madame, it is made for you.’  Everybody sees that it is a piece of gallantry; but on whose part?  ‘It is Langl4e,’ says the king; ‘it is Langlee.’  ‘Of course,’ says Madame de Montespan, ’none but he could have devised such a device; it is Langlee, it is Langlee.’  Everybody repeats, ‘it is Langlee;’ the echoes are agreed and say, ‘it is Langlee;’ and as for me, my child, I tell you, to be in the fashion, ‘it is Langlle.’ "

[Illustration:  Bed-chamber Etiquette——­15]

All the style of living at court was in accordance with the magnificence of the king and his courtiers; Colbert was beside himself at the sums the queen lavished on play.  Madame de Montespan lost and won back four millions, in one night at bassette; Mdlle. de Fontanges gave away twenty thousand crowns’ worth of New Year’s gifts; the king had just accomplished the dauphin’s marriage.  “He made immense presents on this occasion; there is certainly no need to despair,” said Madame de Sevigne, “though one does not happen to be his valet; it may happen that, whilst paying one’s court, one will find one’s self underneath what he showers around.  One thing is certain, and that is, that away from him all services go for nothing; it used to be the contrary.”  All the court were of the same opinion as Madame de Sevigne.

A new power was beginning to appear on the horizon, with such modesty and backwardness that none could as yet discern it, least of all could the king.  Madame de Montespan had looked out for some one to take care of and educate her children.  She had thought of Madame Scarron; she considered her clever; she was so herself, “in that unique style which was peculiar to the Mortemarts,” said the Duke of St. Simon; she was fond of conversation; Madame Scarron had a reputation of being rather a blue-stocking; this the king did not like; Madame de Montespan had her way; Madame Scarron took charge of the children

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A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 6 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.