He bought, at the entrance to the village of Saint Cyr, in close proximity to Versailles, a large old chateau, belonging to M. Seguier; and on the site of this chateau, which he pulled down, the royal house of Saint Cyr was speedily erected.  I will not go into the nature and aim of a foundation which is known nowadays through the whole of Europe.  I will content myself with observing that if Madame de Maintenon conceived the first idea of it, it is the great benefactions of the monarch and the profound recognition of the nobility which have given stability and renown to this house.

Madame de Maintenon received much praise and incense as the foundress of this community.  It has been quite easy for her to found so vast an establishment with the treasures of France, since she herself had remained poor, by her own confession, and had neither to sell nor encumber Maintenon, her sole property.

In founding my community of Saint Joseph, I was neither seconded nor aided by anybody.  Saint Joseph springs entirely from myself, from good intentions, without noise or display.  Saint Joseph is one of my good actions, and although it makes no great noise in the world, I would rather have founded it than Saint Cyr, where the most exalted houses procure admission for their children with false certificates of poverty.

The buildings of Saint Cyr, in spite of all the sums they have absorbed, have no external nobility or grandeur.  The foundress put upon it the seal of her parsimony, or, rather, of her general timidity.  She is like Moliere’s Harpagon, who would like to do great things for little money.

[Here Madame de Montespan forgets what she has just said, that Saint-Cyr cost “immense sums,”—­an ordinary effect of passion.—­Ed. Note]

The only beauty about the house is in the laundry and gardens.  All the rest reminds you of a convent of Capuchins.  The chapel has not even necessary and indispensable dignity; it is a long, narrow barn, without arches, pillars, or decorations.  The King, having wished to know beforehand what revenue would be needed for a community of four hundred persons, consulted M. de Louvois.  That minister, accustomed to calculate open-handedly, put in an estimate of five hundred thousand livres a year.  The foundress presented hers, which came to no more than twenty-five thousand crowns.  His Majesty adopted a middle course, and assigned a revenue of three hundred thousand livres to his Royal House of Saint Cyr.

The foundress, foreseeing the financial embarrassments which have supervened later, conceived the idea of making the clergy (who are childless) support the education of these three hundred and fifty young ladies.  In consequence, she cast her eyes upon the rich abbey of Saint Denis, then vacant, and suggested it to the King, as being almost sufficient to provide for the new establishment.

This idea astonished the prince.  He found it, at first, audacious, not to say perilous; but, on further reflection, considering that the monks of Saint Denis live under the rule of a prior, and never see their abbot, who is almost always a great noble and a man of the world, his Majesty consented to suppress the said abbey in order to provide for the children.