[In famous and unusual causes, princes, ambassadors, and keys of honour came and occupied the lanterns, that is to say, elegant and well furnished tribunes, from which all that passed in the grand hall of the Parliament could be seen.]

The Jesuits, for perseverance and tenacity, can be compared with spiders who repair, or start again every instant at a damaged or broken thread.  When these good fathers knew that their petition had not triumphed offhand, they struck out for some new road to reach the generous heart of the monarch.  Having learnt that an alderman, full of enthusiasm, had just proposed in full assembly at the Hotel de Ville to raise a triumphal monument to the Peacemaker of Europe, and to proclaim him Louis the Great at a most brilliant fete, the Jesuit Fathers cleverly took the initiative, and whilst the Hotel de Ville was deliberating to obtain his Majesty’s consent, the College of Clermont, in the Rue Saint Jacques, brought out its annual thesis, and dedicated it to the King,—­Louis the Great (Ludovico Magno).

On the following day the masons raised scaffolding before the great door of the college, erased the original inscription—­which consisted of the words:  “College of Clermont”—­to substitute for it, in letters of gold:  “Royal College of Louis the Great.”  These items of news reached Versailles one after the other.  The King received them with visible satisfaction, and if only Pere de la Chaise had known how to profit at the time by the emotion and sentiment of the prince, he would have carried off the tall pyramid as an eagle does a sparrow.  The confessor, a man of great circumspection, dared not force his penitent’s hand; he was tactful with him in all things, and the society had the trouble of its famous cajolery without gaining anything more at the game than compliments and gold pieces in sufficient plenty.

Some days afterwards the monarch, of his own accord and without any incentive, remembered the offensive and mortifying pyramid; but Madame de Maintenon reminded him that it was desirable to wait, for scoffers would not be wanting to say that this demolition was one of the essential conditions of the bargain.

The King relished this advice.  At the Court one must make haste to obtain anything; but to be forgotten, a few minutes’ delay is sufficient.

[This pyramid was taken down two or three years before the Revolution by the wish of Louis XVI., after having stood for two hundred years.—­Editor’s Note.]

CHAPTER XLIII.

Little Opportune.—­M. and Madame Bontems.—­The Young Moor Weaned.—­The Good Cure.—­The Blessed Virgin.—­Opportune at the Augustinians of Meaux.—­Bossuet Director.—­Mademoiselle Albanier and Leontine.—­Flight of Opportune.—­Her Threats of Suicide.—­Visit of the Marquise.—­Prudence of the Court.

The poor Queen had had several daughters, all divinely well made and pretty as little Cupids.  They kept in good health up to their third or fourth year; they went no further.  It was as though a fate was over these charming creatures; so that the King and Queen trembled whenever the accoucheurs announced a daughter instead of a son.