the satisfaction of her highest ambitions.  She fascinated and lured the King, playing the coquette to him, but evading him with a baffling assumption of virtue, yielding just enough to draw the Monarch on; then playing the part of a prude, until, finally, she became in the eyes of the fascinated Louis the most desired of women.  It was not long before Madame de Maintenon was so advanced in the King’s favor that the affair was the gossip of the Court, and Madame de Montespan was compelled to stand by, a silent and bitter witness of her own defeat.  It was a humiliating blow to Madame de Montespan to see the King with eyes only for Madame de Maintenon, saying witty and agreeable things to her, and ignoring his former favorite completely.  It was not long before Madame de Montespan received her dismissal and, trembling with rage, descended the great staircase of Versailles never again to mount it.  Madame de Maintenon was installed in special apartments at the head of the Marble Staircase, opposite the Hall of the King’s Guards, and a new spirit dominated the halls of the palace.  Under Madame de Montespan a “haughtiness in everything that reached to the clouds” had held the Court and attendants in fear, made the lives of all uneasy, and kept the atmosphere of the palace astir.  With the entrance of Madame de Maintenon into favor a quieter tone pervaded Versailles.  Madame was a woman of great intelligence and wit, and made all feel the gracious influence of her fine companionship.  There was nothing ascetic in her piety, but, on the other hand, frivolity, immorality, and unworthy intrigue had no place in her circle.  And all those that attended her held her in esteem and profound respect.  With all her incomparable grace, she was in mind and spirit more truly the queen than mistress.  She was older than the King and her influence was stronger on that account.  She had comprehended the situation at Versailles with characteristic shrewdness.  The King needed her.  The Court of France needed her—­and she needed both the King and the Court for the fulfillment of her supreme ambitions.  As one writer has ironically put it, “With her gracious bearing and her calm, even temper, she must have seemed to a king of forty-six, who had buried his queen and cast off his mistress, the ideal wife for his old age.  Then, too, she was pious and devout, she wished to withdraw the King from the world and give him to God; she had no ambitions (!), she desired to meddle in nothing, she was grateful when her husband took her into his confidence, but she longed only to save his soul.  It seemed almost too wonderful to be true.  It was not true.”

Madame de Maintenon was determined to be Queen of France, and she became so in soul as well as in fact.  During her latter years she ruled, and the King was content to follow her advice and do her will.  When the King was dying and she could gain no more at his hands, Madame de Maintenon effected a most satisfactory settlement for herself at St. Cyr, where she ended her days in piety and serene repose.