At these words, the governess made me a sign to lower my voice, and said to me, with an accent of candour and good faith, which it is impossible for me to forget:  “I confided to you at the time that puerility of society, just as the Marechale and the Marshal (without believing it) related it to all France.  But this prognostication need not alarm you, madame,” she added; “a King like ours is incapable of such an extravagance, and if he were to determine on it, it would not have my countenance nor approval.

“I do not think that thus far I have passed due limits; the granddaughter of a great noble, of a first gentleman of the chamber, I have been able to become a lady in waiting without offending the eyes; but the lady in waiting will never be Queen, and I give you my permission to insult me publicly when I am.”

Such was this conversation, to which I have not added a word.  We shall see soon how Madame de Maintenon kept her word to me, and if I am not right in owing her a grudge for this promise with a double meaning, with which it was her caprice to decoy me by her shuffling.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

Birth of the Duc d’Anjou.—­The Present to the Mother.—­The Casket of Patience.—­Departure of the King for the Army.—­The King Turns a Deaf Ear.—­How That Concerns Madame de Maintenon.—­The Prisoner of the Bastille.—­The Danger of Caricatures.—­The Administrative Thermometer.—­Actors Who Can neither Be Applauded nor Hissed.—­Relapse of the Prisoner.—­Scarron’s Will.—­A Fine Subject for Engraving.—­Madame de Maintenon’s Opinion upon the Jesuits.—­The Audience of the Green Salon.—­Portions from the Refectory.—­Madame de Maintenon’s Presence of Mind.—­I Will Make You Schoolmaster.

Madame la Dauphine, greatly pleased with her new position, in that she represented the person of the Queen, had already given birth to M. le Duc de Bourgogne; she now brought into the world a second son, who was at once entitled Duc d’Anjou.  The King, to thank her for this gift, made her a present of an oriental casket, which could only be opened by a secret spring, and that not before one had essayed it for half an hour.  Madame la Dauphine found in it a superb set of pearls and four thousand new louis d’or.  As she had no generosity in her heart, she bestowed no bounties on her entourage.  The King this year made an expedition to Flanders.  Before getting into his carriage he came and passed half an hour or forty minutes with me, and asked me if I should not go and pass the time of his absence at the Petit-Bourg.

“At Petit-Bourg and at Bourbon,” I answered, “unless you allow me to accompany you.”  He feigned not to have heard me, and said:  “Lauzun, who, eleven or twelve years ago, refused the baton of a marshal of France, asks to accompany me into Flanders as aide-de-camp.  Purge his mind of such ideas, and give him to understand that his part is played out with me.”