Madame la Princesse de Rohan-Soubise had wished to supplant me at that time, and I was aware of her constant desire to obtain a fine post at Court.  She loved the King, who had shown her his favours in more than one circumstance; but, as she had a place neither in his esteem nor in his affection, I did not fear her.  I despatched to her, very adroitly, a person of her acquaintance, who spoke to her of the new household of a Dauphine, and gave her the idea of soliciting for herself the place of lady in waiting, destined for Madame de Maintenon.

The Princesse de Soubise put herself immediately amongst the candidates.  She wrote to the King, her friend, a pressing and affectionate letter, to which he did not even reply.  She wrote one next in a more majestic and appropriate style.  It was notified to her that she was forbidden to reappear at Court.

The prince had resolutely taken his course.  He wished to put Madame de Maintenon in evidence, and what he has once decided he abandons never.

I was soon aware that costumes of an unheard-of magnificence were being executed for the Marquise.  Gold, silver, precious stones abounded.  I was offered a secret view of her robe of ceremony, with a long mantle train.  I saw this extraordinarily rich garment, and was sorry in advance for the young stranger, whose lady in waiting could not fail to eclipse her in everything.

I then put some questions to myself,—­asked myself severely if my disapproval sprang from natural haughtiness, which would have been possible, and even excusable, or whether, mingled with all that, was some little agitation of jealousy and emulation.

I collected together a crowd of slight and scattered circumstances; and in this union of several small facts, at first neglected and almost unperceived, I distinguished on the part of the King a gradual and increasing attachment for the governess, and at the same time a negligence in regard to me,—­a coldness, a cooling-down, at least, and that sort of familiarity, close parent of weariness, which comes to sight in the midst of courtesies and attentions the most satisfying and the most frequent.

The King, in the old days, never glanced towards my clock till as late as possible, and always at the last moment, at the last extremity.  Now he cast his eyes on it a score of times in half an hour.  He contradicted me about trifles.  He explained to me ingeniously the faults, or alleged faults, of my temper and character.  If it was a question of Madame de Maintenon, she was of a birth equal and almost superior to the rest of the Court.  He forgot himself so far as to quote before me the subtilty of her answers or the delight of her most intimate conversation.  Did he wish to describe a noble carriage, an attitude at once easy and distinguished, it was Madame de Maintenon’s.  She possessed this, she possessed that, she possessed everything.

Soon there was not the slightest doubt left to me; and I knew, as did the whole Court, that he openly visited the Marquise, and was glad to pass some moments there.