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