The King immediately sent for him and said “How is this, nephew?  I understand you think of employing a Jansenist in your service.”

“Oh, no!” replied my son, laughing, “I can assure your Majesty that he is not a Jansenist, and I even doubt whether he believes in the existence of a God.”

“Oh, well, then!” said the King, “if that be the case, and you are sure that he is no Jansenist, you may take him.”

It is impossible for a man to be more ignorant of religion than the King was.  I cannot understand how his mother, the Queen, could have brought him up with so little knowledge on this subject.  He believed all that the priests said to him, as if it came from God Himself.  That old Maintenon and Pere la Chaise had persuaded him that all the sins he had committed with Madame de Montespan would be pardoned if he persecuted and extirpated the professors of the reformed religion, and that this was the only path to heaven.  The poor King believed it fervently, for he had never seen a Bible in his life; and immediately after this the persecution commenced.  He knew no more of religion than what his confessors chose to tell him, and they had made him believe that it was not lawful to investigate in matters of religion, but that the reason should be prostrated in order to gain heaven.  He was, however, earnest enough himself, and it was not his fault that hypocrisy reigned at Court.  The old Maintenon had forced people to assume it.

It was formerly the custom to swear horridly on all occasions; the King detested this practice, and soon abolished it.

He was very capable of gratitude, but neither his children nor his grandchildren were.  He could not bear to be made to wait for anything.

He said that by means of chains of gold he could obtain anything he wished from the ministers at Vienna.

He could not forgive the French ladies for affecting English fashions.  He used often to joke about it, and particularly in the conversation which he addressed to me, expecting that I would take it up and tease the Princesses.  To amuse him, I sometimes said whatever came into my head, without the least ceremony, and often made him laugh heartily.

Reversi was the only game at which the King played, and which he liked.

When he did not like openly to reprove any person, he would address himself to me; for he knew that I never restrained myself in conversation, and that amused him infinitely.  At table, he was almost obliged to talk to me, for the others scarcely said a word.  In the cabinet, after supper, there were none but the Duchess—­[Anne of Bavaria, wife of Henri-Jules, Duc de Bourbon, son of the great Conde; she bore the title of Madame la Princesse after his death.]—­and I who spoke to him.  I do not know whether the Dauphine used to converse with the King in the cabinets, for while she was alive I was never permitted to enter them, thanks to Madame